U.S., U.K. urge Israel not to attack Iran nukes

The U.S. and Britain on Sunday urged Israel not to attack Iran’s nuclear program as the White House’s national security adviser arrived in the region, reflecting growing international jitters that the Israelis are poised to strike.

In their warnings, both the chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague said an Israeli attack on Iran would have grave consequences for the entire region and urged Israel to give international sanctions against Tehran more time to work. Dempsey said an Israeli attack is “not prudent,” and Hague said it would not be “a wise thing.” It was not known whether their messages were coordinated.

Both Israel and the West believe Iran is trying to develop a nuclear bomb — a charge Tehran denies. But differences have emerged in how to respond to the perceived threat. Israel has welcomed the sanctions. But it has pointedly refused to rule out military action and in recent weeks sent signals that its patience is running thin. Israel believes a nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat to its very existence, citing Iran's support for Arab militant groups, its sophisticated arsenal of missiles capable of reaching Israel and its leaders' calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

There is precedent for Israeli action. In 1981, the Israeli air force destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor. And in 2007, Israeli warplanes are believed to have destroyed a target that foreign experts think was an unfinished nuclear reactor in Syria.

Experts, however, have questioned how much an Israeli operation would accomplish. With Iran's nuclear installations scattered and buried deep underground, it is believed that an Iranian strike would set back, but not destroy, Iran's nuclear program.

There are also concerns Iran could fire missiles at Israel, get its local proxies Hezbollah and Hamas to launch rockets into the Jewish state, and cause global oil prices to spike by striking targets in the Gulf.

Read more: FoxNews

Auschwitzportret Chopin ontdekt

Auschwitzportret Chopin Mieczyslaw Koscielniak

In Polen is een portret van Frédéric Chopin ontdekt dat ooit in een muziekzaal van het concentratiekamp Auschwitz hing. Het werk maakte deel uit van een serie portretten van componisten die de Duitsers door de gevangen schilder Mieczyslaw Koscielniak lieten maken.

De waterverfschilderijen hingen in het oefenzaaltje van het orkest van Auschwitz, dat speelde als er nieuwe treinen arriveerden. De ruimte werd iets opgevrolijkt met de portretten, omdat SS'ers er soms ook gasten naar muziek lieten luisteren.

Tot nu toe werd aangenomen dat alle werken verloren waren gegaan bij de ontruiming van het kamp, begin 1945. Een Poolse hoogleraar las in een boek over de werken en realiseerde dat een van de schilderijen bij hem thuis hing. De initialen MK en datum 1943 gaven de doorslag.

Het portret is blijkbaar na de oorlog in handen gekomen van een rechter die de oorlogsmisdaden in het kamp onderzocht. De hoogleraar kreeg het later van zijn secretaresse cadeau.
Stiekem tekenen

De zoon van Koscielniak is verbaasd dat de Duitsers een portret wilden hebben van een Poolse componist. "Mijn vader heeft nooit verteld dat hij Chopin heeft geschilderd. We wisten alleen dat de nazi's hem bevolen hadden Duitstalige componisten te schilderen. Mozart, Wagner, Beethoven. Ik weet niet hoe het mijn vader is gelukt deze ertussen te krijgen."

In het museum van het concentratiekamp zijn veel tekeningen te zien die Koscielniak stiekem maakte van het leven in het kamp en die hij naar buiten wist te smokkelen. Hijzelf wist het kamp te overleven en stierf in 1993.

Bron: NosNieuws

Snow at the Kotel, Jerusalem

Snow at the Kotel, febr. 2004.

Britisch Soldiers at the Kotel, 1921.

Muslims stone Christians on Temple Mount

A mob of some 50 Palestinian Muslims stoned a group of Christian tourists atop Jerusalem's Temple Mount on Sunday morning. Three of the Israeli police officers who acted to protect the Christian group were wounded by the stone-throwers.

Police arrested 11 Palestinians, several of them minors, for their role in the attack.

The attack is believed to have been instigated by the former Muslim mufti of Jerusalem, Ekrama Sabri, who told Palestinian media over the weekend that Jewish groups were planning to break into the mosques that occupy the holy compound and desecrate them.

Sabri urged all local Muslims to protect the mosques from "the Israeli conspiracy against the city and its holy places."

Muslim religious figures regularly claim that Israel is plotting to destroy the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque to pave the way for the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, which the Muslims now insist never previously existed.

Because of the constant threat of Muslim violence, and despite the fact that the Temple Mount is the most holy place on earth to Jews and many Christians, the Israeli police comply with Muslim demands for harsh restrictions on non-Muslim visitors to the site.

For instance, Jews and Christians are forbidden to carry Bibles atop the Temple Mount or to utter even silent prayers within its walls. Jews and Christians are regularly detained for violating these conditions.

Source: IsraelToday

Why Christians Should Support Israel

Mike Evans states the many reasons, some being the following:

1. Because God Does!
2. Because when we support Israel, we are preparing for our Lord’s coming!
3. Because God’s Word is true.
4. Because God says He will bless those who bless Israel and Curse those who curse Israel. (Gen12:3)
5. Because God hates Anti-Semitism!
6. Because God says we are to comfort Israel (Isaiah 40: 1-2).
7. Because God says His gifts and calls to Israel have not been revoked.
8. Because God Almighty has preserved Israel!
9. Because God says He would raise up intercessors!
10. Because God says Israel is precious to Him, and He wrote His name in Jerusalem.

Explore in detail each reason above and understand why God has commanded blessings upon those who would bless and pray for the Jewish people.

Read more: jerusalemprayerteam.org

Iran warships enter Mediterranean as tensions with Israel grow

Two Iranian vessels passed through the Suez Canal last February, soon after Egypt's uprising, for the first time since the 1979 revolution Photo: REUTERS.

Iran's warships entered the Mediterranean on Saturday to show its 'might' to regional countries, as a high-level American official arrived in Israel.

Iran sent two of its warships into the Mediterranean on Saturday as tensions with Israel worsened and a senior American official arrived in Tel Aviv.

State television presenters in Tehran were triumphant after Iranian ships passed through the Suez Canal for only the second time since the Islamic revolution in 1979.

Reports said they had docked in Tartus, the main port for Iran’s embattled ally regime Syria which has been convulsed by an uprising for almost a year.

Israel immediately put its navy on alert.

The deployment raised tensions with Israel at a dangerous time, with speculation growing that air strikes are being prepared against Iran’s nuclear programme before it reaches a point where it cannot be stopped.

Dan Fayutkin, an Israeli Defence Force officer and expert in military strategy, said that the movement of Iranian vessels into the Mediterranean risked starting a war.

“Any military move made now by either Israel or Iran would be hostile,” he said.

Source/Read More: The Telegraph

Read/see our: Iran's naval warships enter Suez Canal first time in 3 decades

Spotprent Ineke van Gent (GroenLinks)

Zie ook: Spotprent Alexander Pechtold

Joden en Christenen hatende Islamitische baardmuzelman toch naar Nederland

De Brits-Palestijnse sjeik Haitham al-Haddad is van plan om vrijdag naar Nederland te komen, ondanks dat de Amsterdamse Vrije Universiteit een symposium afzegde waar hij zou spreken.

Een meerderheid in de Tweede Kamer riep minister Opstelten gisteren op om al-Haddad de toegang tot Nederland te weigeren vanwege zijn antisemitische uitspraken uit het verleden. Al-Haddad zou Joden de “vijanden van God en de afstammelingen van apen en varkens” hebben genoemd, en hebben gesteld dat het “noodzakelijk is om joden en christenen te haten”. Hij ontkent dat die uitspraken van hem zijn, zo meldt persbureau Novum.

Al-Haddad, die in Londen woont, weerspreekt niet dat hij voorstander is van invoering van de strenge islamitische wetten van de sharia inclusief lijfstraffen, zoals steniging, voor overspel. Tegenover de NOS nuanceert hij wel dat dat wat hem betreft niet voor westerse landen zou moeten gelden.

Hij zegt begrip te hebben voor mensen die zijn denkbeelden radicaal vinden en wil graag met ze in discussie gaan. Al-Haddad vindt het teleurstellend dat de VU zijn uitnodiging voor het debat heeft ingetrokken na de ophef over zijn komst.

Het Centrum Documentatie en Informatie Israël, dat zich in Nederland bezighoudt met de bestrijding van antisemitisme, riep de VU en de islamitische studentenvereniging dinsdag in een brief op al-Haddad geen podium te geven. “Een extremist die zulke haatzaaiende uitspraken doet, kan niet de aangewezen persoon zijn om de meningen van onze toekomstige wetenschappers te vormen”, aldus het CIDI.

Bron: nrc.nl

Rapport CIDI: Overzicht van de haatzaaiende uitspraken van sjeik Al-Haddad

Omstreden shariageleerde aangekomen in Nederland

Lees: Nieuw feit over de islam in Nederland

En Jezus zei: "Wacht u voor de valse profeten [o.a. islam/shariageleerden], die in schapevacht tot u komen, maar van binnen zijn zij roofgierige wolven." (Mattheus 7:15)

Ons Commentaar: Minister Opstelten van de liberale VVD is verantwoordelijk voor het binnenhalen van het Islamitische Trojaanse Paard van Koran-haat, antisemitisme en misleiding, dat Europa wil opslokken en onder de Islam en de Sharia [zal] brengen En dat allemaal onder het mom (en zwakke en onterechte argument) van ´vrijheid´ van meningsuiting! ERUIT DEZE WOLVEN IN SCHAAPSKLEDING DIE DE VALSE GODSDIENST VAN ISLAM KOMEN VERSPREIDEN!.

No More Israël

Ahmadinejad loads nuclear fuel rods into reactor

Photo By Ho New / Reuters

Iranian president loads 20% enriched rods to show "Iranian scientists' achievement"; country set to unveil new generation of home-made uranium enrichment centrifuges.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad loaded nuclear fuel rods into the Tehran Research Reactor on Wednesday, state TV reported.

"The president loaded 20 percent enriched rods into the Tehran Reactor... it is a sign of Iranian scientists' achievements," said state TV, which broadcast the ceremony live.

The country is also set to unveil a new generation of its domestically made uranium enrichment centrifuges. "The fourth generation of domestically made centrifuges have higher speed and production capacity... it will be unveiled on Wednesday," state TV said.

The moves appeared designed to show that increased sanctions are failing to halt Iran's technical progress and to strengthen its hand in any renewed negotiations with the major powers.

Diplomats believe Iran has in the past overstated its nuclear achievements to gain leverage in its standoff with Western powers, which suspect Iran is seeking to develop the means to make atom bombs, a charge the country denies.

Source: JerusalemPost