“Update, Monday, January 31, 2005.”
If you are new to the Updates list, welcome! I hope this is helpful.
Please read the articles below, which deserve our prayer.
Today, please take a look at my son Lael’s article, which is appearing
on the web site,
www.answersingenesis.org. It is
on the harmful effects of evolutionary theory on American education.
Lael is 17.
Please pray for authorities in Jordan and in Kuwait, who are on the hunt
for al-Qaeda groups planning imminent harm to their countries and
leaders.
Please thank the Lord for a relatively successful vote in Iraq. Please
pray for the Prime Min. Allawi, and the National Security Advisor George
Sada who are friends of freedom to the best of my knowledge. They
weren’t up for election, but need favor to stay in power overall, and to
continue to encourage freedom of religion in their country. Please pray
for the Bible believers in Iraq and for enlarging of freedom of worship
and the gospel, which is under attack.
Please pray that Prime Min. Sharon in Israel will stop the suicidal
disengagement plan, contrary to those who voted him in. He seems to want
to do everything to keep the new Prime Minister of the Palestinian
Authority, Mr. Abbas, looking good to his people. (For example he is
planning on releasing a variety of terrorists; see below). However, Mr.
Abbas’ party (Fatah) was soundly defeated in the elections in Gaza last
week, by Hamas (a hard-core terror group). So how much power does Abbas
have, and how practical is it to kow-tow to him and get out of Gaza,
release prisoners, and who knows what else Mr. Sharon is doing? Any way
we must pray for wisdom for Mr. Sharon, as well as physical protection,
and especially his salvation.
Right now, Mr. Abbas is making his first foreign trip, as P.M., and is
in Moscow! Let us pray that no bad plans be hatched up there, and that
any plan or alliance against Israel, America and our allies will not
prosper.
Last Update, I mentioned that Russia was planning to send several
advanced late-model missiles to Syria, threatening Israel and American
forces in Iraq. We prayed against this, and the worst type was not sold
(shoulder-held anti-aircraft missiles). But the other types were
contracted to be sold. Let us continue praying that these advanced newer
weapons will not fall into the hands of Syria as planned, and also that
they not be passed on to any paramilitary terror group like Hezbollah or
Hamas.
Thanks for praying, thanks for caring,
David
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From: ICEJ News [mailto:media@icej.org]
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 6:27 AM
To: Weinberger, David
Subject: Monday 31 January
News & Analysis from the
International Christian Embassy Jerusalem
Monday 31 January 2005
"You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call
to you." Psalm 86: 5
In Brief
1. Israel to hand over five cities by Wednesday
2. Hamas victories could delay parliamentary ballot
3. 150,000 rally against disengagement
4. PA leadership in 'envelope' reform
5. Syrian government imposes 'terror' tax on employees
6. Tourism takes 40% hike in 2004
Headlines
1. ABBAS TO DEMAND 8000 PRISONERS FREED
Convicted killers among Palestinians held
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is expected to ask Ariel Sharon to
release as many as 8,000 jailed Palestinians including virtually all
prisoners held by Israel for plotting and carrying out terrorist
atrocities in the past four years when the two leaders meet for their
first face-to-face summit since Abbas' election next week. (More
follows...)
2. UN REBUKES LEBANESE BORDER CLAIMS
Security Council deems Israel in compliance with pullout obligations
The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously rebuked Beirut by
declaring that the disputed Shabaa Farms area was not part of Lebanon,
Reuters reports from New York. (More follows...)
3. ISRAEL BOWS TO US ON EAST JERUSALEM LAND
Civil Rights lawyers condemn archaic property laws
Israel has promised the United States that it will re-examine a secret
decision made last summer to formally confiscate East Jerusalem property
owned by Palestinian residents of the territories cut off by the
separation fence as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice prepared to
express her strong objections to the proposal in talks with senior aides
to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington on Monday. (More
follows...)
In Brief
1. Israel to hand over five cities by Wednesday
The transfer of some five cities to Palestinian Authority security
control is expected to take place within days, Defense Minister Shaul
Mofaz said Sunday, according to The Jerusalem Post. PA security
officials said the plan was to deploy in Ramallah, Tulkarm, Kalkilya,
Jericho and Bethlehem - on Wednesday. However, the heavy influence of
Hizb'Allah and Iranian backed terror groups in Nablus, Jenin and Hebron
will delay the transfer of those areas. Speaking to Israel Radio, Mofaz
said he hoped that no IDF presence would remain in the PA controlled
areas by the end of the year.
2. Hamas victories could delay parliamentary ballot
Senior officials from the PLO's dominant Fatah faction are seeking to
put off parliamentary elections in the Palestinian Authority in June
following the sweeping Hamas victories in municipal ballots held across
the Gaza Strip on Thursday. Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said the results
showed that at least 65% of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip support
his movement. "This means that the people believe in the armed
resistance as the only option," he said. At least 10 people were
wounded, meanwhile, some seriously, in an armed confrontation Saturday
between Hamas and Fatah supporters in the central Gaza Strip, that
erupted when hundreds of Hamas supporters took to the streets to
celebrate the movement's victory.
3. 150,000 rally against Disengagement
Buoyed by a Sunday rally which saw one of the largest demonstration ever
staged in Jerusalem, opponents of the Prime Minister's disengagement
plan prepared for a second day of protest Monday with plans to circle
the Knesset seven times alluding to the Biblical account of the fall of
Jericho. As many as 150,000 people took part in Sunday's demonstration
dressed in the signature orange colors of the anti-disengagement
campaign, demanding the pullout plan be put to a national referendum.
4. PA leadership in 'envelope' reform
Members of the numerous, disparate Palestinian security forces who for
years received their salaries in cash-stuffed envelopes, have noticed a
dramatic change since Yasser Arafat's death, Ha'aretz reports. The
envelopes have stopped and with them discretionary payments that were
dependant purely on the proximity of the recipient to Arafat's inner
circle. Furthermore since the Palestinian Authority elections on January
9, Ramallah is abuzz with rumors of an approaching wave of dismissals or
retirements of dozens of Arafat cronies, many of who occupied fictitious
posts, in non-existent ministries.
5. Syrian government imposes 'terror' tax on employees
Western diplomatic sources said that in Syria's northern province of
Aleppo, authorities began in December to deduct $1 from the monthly
salary of each government employee to help Palestinian terror groups
based in Damascus, according to the Middle East Newsline.
6. Tourism takes 40% hike in 2004
1.5 million tourists visited Israel in 2004, 41% more than in 2003 but
still 38% fewer than in the record year of 2000, the Central Bureau of
Statistics has reported, according to the Globes financial daily.
American visitors were up by 378,000, almost 40% on 2003, while tourists
from Canada, France, Britain and Germany rose by a similar percentage.
News Stories
1. ABBAS TO DEMAND 8000 PRISONERS FREED
Convicted killers among Palestinians held
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is expected to ask Ariel Sharon to
release as many as 8,000 jailed Palestinians including virtually all
prisoners held by Israel for plotting and carrying out terrorist
atrocities in the past four years when the two leaders meet for their
first face-to-face summit since Abbas' election next week.
According to a report in the London-based Asharq al-Awsat, Abbas
indicated that he would also push for a withdrawal of IDF forces to the
lines held prior to the launching of the Palestinian intifada in
September 2000.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to visit Israel and the
territories next Sunday, two days before the February 9 talks.
The Americans seek to establish a mechanism supervised by the CIA to
sustain the emerging security cooperation between Israel and the PA.
2. UN REBUKES LEBANESE BORDER CLAIMS
Security Council deems Israel in compliance with pullout obligations
The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously rebuked Beirut by
declaring that the disputed Shabaa Farms area was not part of Lebanon,
Reuters reports from New York.
Its resolution said the "continually asserted position" by Beirut was
"not compatible" with past council resolutions or reports by
Secretary-General Annan.
Anne Patterson, the U.S. acting ambassador, told the council that the
biggest impediment to peacekeeping was "the continued specter of armed
militias in southern Lebanon, coupled with the Lebanese government's
unwillingness to assert its sole and effective control over all its
territory."
The determination totally negates the pretext that Hizb'Allah has been
using for continuing its terror attacks against Israel, senior Israeli
security sources told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
3. ISRAEL BOWS TO US ON EAST JERUSALEM LAND
Civil Rights lawyers condemn archaic property laws
Israel has promised the United States that it will re-examine a secret
decision made last summer to formally confiscate East Jerusalem property
owned by Palestinian residents of the territories cut off by the
separation fence as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice prepared to
express her strong objections to the proposal in talks with senior aides
to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington on Monday.
The Israeli climb-down came as the Association for Civil Rights in
Israel (ACRI) on Sunday called the application of Israel's 45-year-old
Absentee Property Law, "a severe and disproportionate injury to the
right of ownership, freedom of occupation and the right to live in
dignity of the property owners," in a letter sent by ACRI legal adviser
Dan Yakir to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz.
According to Yakir, the 1950 law was passed during a different period of
history and is no longer appropriate, "both in terms of the
constitutional regime currently in effect in Israel and the external
circumstances that applied then and now."
It is thought that the initial purpose of the decision, made in secret
by the cabinet last year, and exposed last week by Haaretz, was to
enable the building of Jewish neighborhoods in the disputed,
Arab-dominated sector of the city annexed by Israel since 1967.
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This bulletin was written and compiled by Michael Hines.
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