A cell of more than 10 terrorists is currently in the Sinai with plans to carry
out an attack against Israel along its border with Egypt, Home Front Defense
Minister Matan Vinai said on Tuesday.
"Islamic Jihad is trying for a long time to perpetrate the attacks from the
Sinai and the of Id al-Fitr is a good time for attacks," Vilnai said during a
visit to an Elbit Systems factory in Sderot in reference to the Muslim holiday
which begins on Tuesday.
Vilnai said that the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) were working
in close cooperation to thwart the attack and that Israel was also coordinating
with Egypt.
- The Jerusalem Post
The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoon Abbasi
announced that the country is willing to further develop its cooperation with
Russia in building more nuclear power plants. Tehran has offered a proposal to
Moscow on the building of new nuclear plants using Iranian-made nuclear fuel.
Referring to the 'step by step' proposal of Russia to settle the standoff
between Iran and the West, he said any nuclear proposal either step by step or
all at once must guarantee Iran's nuclear rights.
- Fars News Agency
Ye worked for eight months on one boat. He was never paid for his work and
forbidden to keep any cash of his own. Compared to Burma, whose government is
often damned as repressive, he felt Thailand was even more like a prison. Once a
worker boards a fishing boat, he said, there was often no escape.
Finally, however, Ye was able to escape. He said he could never forgive the
captain. He wanted all Burmese thinking of coming to Thailand to hear his story,
so they could be spared the same fate.
Sanda, a Christian Chin woman, was trafficked by a Mon couple to work at a
construction site in Thailand, only to find herself working without pay in the
fishing industry and sexually enslaved.
"There is no law here," Sanda said. She does not want any more Burmese people to
come to the Kingdom and suffer as she has.
- The Nation
Sixteen men and women were severely beaten in a police attack against indigenous
minority Christians in the central highlands of Vietnam this July. The youngest
victim was a 13-year-old girl. Vietnam has a long-standing practice of
harassing and arresting Christians who are unaffiliated with the
government-sanctioned religious bodies in the nation.
According to Scott Johnson, with the Montagnard Foundation, "The Vietnamese
government has targeted indigenous Degar Montagnards for simply being members of
Christian house churches in a long running policy designed to eliminate
independent Christian house churches. Hundreds of Degar Montagnards remain in
prison today, and in custody many prisoners are brutally tortured and even
killed."
- International Christian Concern
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The Palestinian Authority has prepared a chair for their intended seat at the
United Nations – a blue chair embroidered with the words "Palestine's
Right." The blue chair will be taken on an international tour as an effort
to convince the world's countries that they should vote to recognize a
Palestinian state this fall, regardless of what agreements the Palestinian
Authority does or does not make with Israel.
An opinion piece in The Sydney Morning Herald on August 29 offers some
carefully worded pro-Palestinian propaganda. Sonja Karkar writes:
"Israel's own unilateral move in declaring statehood after the UN's intention to partition historic Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state cannot be avoided. It underscores that Palestine was never a land without a people and that Israel's existence was imposed on Palestinians, robbing them of their homes and land and destroying their proud and millenniums-old society."
There have indeed been people in the Holy Land for millennia – a wide
variety of people. Jews, Arabs, Syrians, nomadic herders have all had
communities in the land for centuries. A variety of different powers, from the
Romans to the Ottoman Turks, have controlled this part of the Middle East during
the last two thousand years, but there has never been a Palestinian state run by
"Palestinians."
There have been many societies in the Holy Land throughout the centuries, proud
and otherwise. The people now called Palestinians sit on lands that prior to the
Six Day War in 1967 were controlled by Egypt or Jordan. Karkar's portrayal of a
single Palestinian people with a long proud history doesn't fit with the facts.
Now, after 44 years of butting heads and a perpetual impasse, the Palestinian
Authority wants to circumvent negotiations with Israel. It seeks an end run
around certain moves necessary to keep peace with the Jewish state –
things like rejecting terrorism and recognizing the State of
Israel. The PA is instead pushing to create a Palestinian state via
an upcoming United Nations General Assembly vote in late September. A Security
Council vote would be more binding, but the United States can veto decisions at
the Security Council.
Disaster's In The Air:
Some people expect a UN vote for a Palestinian state to settle the issue. That's
not only naïve, but dangerous. Not only will there be no peace, but Israel
anticipates immediate attacks on settlers in the West Bank if the vote goes
through. The settlers are certain to fight back, causing the West Bank to
explode in bloodshed. Israel security forces working in settlements are being
armed with riot gear in advance of the September 20th debate on the issue.
Headed For Defeat?
Ron Prosor, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, told the Foreign Ministry
last week that Israel simply does not have the support to oppose the General
Assembly resolution. The Palestinians have the diplomatic upper hand, and they
only need a majority of votes – just 51 percent – to gain
recognition.
Besides encouraging violence however, the General Assembly's vote
will almost certainly fail to create a peaceable two-state
solution. Israel will not give up its settlers or East Jerusalem just to please
the United Nations. Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza will not suddenly affirm the
existence of Israel and treat their neighbor with respect. When Israel moved
settlers out of Gaza in 2005, the immediate result was an increase in rocket
attacks over the border onto Israel. Without any true cooperation or peace
agreements, the result of a Palestinian state created by vote is unrest and
destruction.
Both Israel and the United States have urged the Palestinian Authority to return
to the negotiating table. Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has said
the PA would agree once again to negotiate if Israel stops building settlements
and uses the 1967 borders as the basis for negotiations. Neither of these things
are likely to happen.
US President Barack Obama recognizes that "initiatives through the UN will
not bring about the two-state solution and enduring peace, which both the
parties and the US seek." The US will
discourage the declaration of a Palestinian state, but the General
Assembly can still vote however it chooses.
When the Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation threatened DeSoto
County schools with legal action unless they stopped leading prayer before high
school sports games, the parents and students of DeSoto County took over. Prayer
may no longer be offered from the PA system before football games, but fans in
the stands have started saying the Lord's Prayer themselves.
It started when the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) discovered that
schools in DeSoto County, Mississippi sponsored prayer before sporting events,
having prayer led from the loudspeaker. The organization contacted the DeSoto
County school district in mid-August, informing its leadership that legal action
would be taken if the school-sponsored pre-game prayers did not stop. DeSoto
Superintendent Milton Kuykendall received a letter saying, "We ask that the
school district commence an immediate investigation into the complaints alleged
and take immediate action to stop any and all prayer occurring before any
athletic events and graduation ceremonies."
The school district stopped the prayers coming from the PA system, but it did
not stop "any and all prayer" because the residents of DeSoto County
wanted to keep praying, and they have a right to.
Rioters in London used online networking three weeks ago to join up and rampage
across the city on a path of fiery destruction. Not a good thing. On the other
hand, the population of DeSoto County used online networking to meet up and
recite the Lord's Prayer together before football games. A DeSoto County 4
Prayer group quickly organized and parents and students wore t-shirts with the
Lord's Prayer on the back. They went on prayer walks at the school before
classes, and they prayed loudly in unison from the stands before the games
started. The guy behind the PA system might have been forbidden
to lead the pre-game prayer, but the people at the ball field said it anyway.
The FFRF may not have realized it would be setting a fire, and some
residents see the whole ordeal as a blessing in disguise. "All they've done
is increased the awareness, as Christians, of what we need to do to step it up
and bring revival to DeSoto County," said parent Ronnie Pollard.
In the famous 1962 case of Abington School District v. Schempp, the US
Supreme Court ruled that public schools could not lead students
to pray. In the case of Santa Fe Independent School Dist. v. Doe (1999),
the Supreme Court ruled that even student-led, student initiated prayer
violated the 1st Amendment if it was authorized by the school. School-led prayer
has been under constant attack since.
Students' freedoms of religion and speech do not end, however, when they
walk onto school property. The people in the stands are free to pray – and
pray out loud – as long as it's their idea and the school isn’t
either encouraging or discouraging it.
"It should be a person's Constitutional right to pray if they want to
pray," says resident Gary Frazier. "I think people from Wisconsin
ought to mind their own business."
A Bad Taste:
Since beginning their assault on school-sponsored prayer in DeSoto
County, the FFRF has reported receiving plenty of non-fan mail. Superintendent
Kuykendall made a statement last week accusing the FFRF of seeking to make
millions of dollars off the lawsuit it had threatened to bring against
the county.
"We get a lot of crank mail and abuse from religious blogs," Gaylor
said. "It's incredibly depraved, horrible language and grotesque sexual
imagery, and we can put up with that but we won't put up with a public official
trying to defame us." The FFRF has sought a retraction from
Kuykendall.
Those who have written "depraved" letters should be
ashamed. If we claim to follow Christ, we should represent Him
well by looking like Him and acting like Him, including in the way we
approach those with whom we disagree. We need to honor Christ in all we
do.
Sweet Victory:
At the same time, the people of DeSoto are excellent to pray out loud
in the stands to honor God before games, and we should take their
efforts to heart. They should be commended for their show of unity in
standing up for religious freedom in America. Parent Leigh
Harris expressed the heart of many: "It just brought tears
to my eyes to see all those people together saying the Lord's Prayer."
The views and opinions expressed in these articles, enews and linked websites are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views held by Koinonia House. Koinonia House is providing this information as a resource to individuals who are interested in current news and events that may have an impact on Christian Life and Biblical trends. Koinonia House is not responsible for any information contained in these articles that may be inaccurate, or does not present an unbiased or complete perspective. Koinonia House disavows any obligation to correct or update the information contained in these articles.
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