Thursday - April 8, 2004

Friday - April 9, 2004

Police restrain Palestinians attempting to storm Temple Mount

By Haaretz Service and Itim

A group of Palestinian youths attempted to storm the Temple Mount compound during Muslim prayers in Jerusalem on Friday, but was repelled by police who had been deployed in large numbers on fears of violence.

Thousands of police officers had been deployed in the streets of East Jerusalem, with the intention of preventing public order disturbances after prayers end, Army Radio said.

The security forces remain on high level throughout the country, due to fears of a terrorist attack during the Pesach holiday, which ends Monday, and in the wake of the assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin last month.

The territories will remain under complete closure until after Independence Day on April 26.

In a separate incident, three Israel Defense Forces soldiers were lightly wounded during clashes with anti-fence protesters near the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday.

Israel Defense Forces soldiers arrested seven Palestinians across the West Bank overnight Thursday, the Itim news agency reported.

The arrests were made based on information obtained by a wanted Palestinian from the West Bank city of Ramallah, who was previously arrested while in possession of a hand gun and a rifle.

Also overnight Thursday, Palestinians fired two anti-tank missiles and directed gunfire at an IDF post close to the settlement of Kfar Darom, in the central Gaza Strip, Itim said. The troops returned fire.

Who controls the Temple Mount controls Israel. It is clear the Islamic, Arab, Palestinians of Israel are under Jewish control/ They kick and shove, but for the most part live a better life then their Moslem brothers. The more they willingly submit; The better living conditions , and life in general becomes. It is resistance to Jewish sovereignty that causes all the conflict. The Bible remains true. It is true for the United States which often interferes too much, but remains the only real friend among the gentiles that Israel has. The US is the envy of the world, and certainly blessed of God. The Palestinians who submit are the envy of the Moslem world succeeding where abject poverty, and totalitarianism holds back their brothers. The Islamic fanatics have done well with their propaganda spewed out to willing ears that turn this truth into a lie, but it remains true that the seed of Abraham is a blessing to the gentiles.

The Temple Mount more then any other single place on earth determines sovereignty over the Holy Land. The God of the Bible identifies this one place as belonging personally to Him for His House! The ultimate sovereign has said one final Jewish Temple will be built on this place! It will be the center of Kingdom age government, religion, and culture all merged under the sovereignty of a singe eternally perfect King.  The Bible will not be complete until this final predicted age comes to pass. Oh, that men would read Isaiah 2:1-5 on bended knee. Oh, that all who are resisting the God of Jacob turn in submission. His plan is perfect. His plan will ultimately come to pass in the Holy Land, at Jerusalem, and from the Temple Mount.

A perfect King will rule! He shall judge among the nations. Are you submitted to His sovereignty? He will rule from the LORD's House to be built on the Temple Mount. It is to Judah, Jerusalem, and Zion that those who submit will travel. It will be from there that true Biblical righteousness will be taught. A new form of perfect Biblical Judaism will again sprinkle blood on the altar of the last Jewish Temple. It will be in remembrance of Calvary. This coming Kingdom is destine to be as victorious as the first resurrection. It is only for those who have come to this Biblical Christ with all their heart, all their soul, and all their might. Have you come to this eternal Jewish Christ for your salvation? Easter is the perfect time to surrender. Won't you come? Won't you join in heavenly rejoicing with the throngs who will come to Zion in the last days?

Read This Place About the Temple Mount

Pope John Paul hears Good Friday confessions

Taxing Holy Week for frail pontiff

 

 

Greek-Orthodox Priests are followed by a crowd of worshippers as they enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City during the Orthodox Easter Good Friday procession.

 

VATICAN - Pope John Paul II heard confessions from 11 Catholics on Good Friday in St. Peter’s Basilica, keeping up a tradition in a Holy Week marked by security concerns in tourist-filled Rome.

Pilgrims in Jerusalem traced Jesus’ path to crucifixion, while in the Philippines devotees were nailed to crosses as penance for their sins.

At the Vatican, the frail 83-year-old pontiff was wheeled into the basilica by aides and into a mahogany confessional booth near the main altar. He spent about an hour there, hearing the confessions of five men and six women of various nationalities.

In a taxing Holy Week schedule, John Paul, dressed in red vestments, presided over a late afternoon service in the basilica. The service commemorated the passion and death of Christ.

In the evening, the pope was to be in Rome’s ancient Colosseum for the day’s major event, a procession symbolizing Christ’s path to his crucifixion.

John Paul no longer carries a wooden cross during the procession because he has difficulty walking. He will deliver a blessing at the end.

The pope will also preside over an Easter vigil Mass on Saturday, celebrate Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square and deliver his Easter message and blessing.

Pilgrims and tourists passed through metal detectors to enter the basilica, one of a number of security measures taken in Rome.

Italian officials said security has been increased at the Vatican, monuments, churches and train stations for the holidays, calling the steps “routine” and stressing there have been no specific threats. Via della Conciliazione, the broad avenue leading to St. Peter’s Square, is closed to overnight traffic during the Easter period — a measure also enforced over Christmas.

In Jerusalem, pilgrims from every strain of Christianity crowded the streets of the Old City, retracing Jesus’ path to crucifixion.

Groups from Russia, Poland, Greece, the Philippines and Ethiopia followed the stations of the cross along the cobblestone Via Dolorosa, or Way of Sorrows, the route tradition says Christ took from his trial to his burial.

Celebrations around the world
This year, Easter Week is marked at the same time by both Orthodox and Western Christians, which generally follow different calendars.

Police and local shopkeepers said turnout was larger than any since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in September 2000, despite threats by the militant Islamic group Hamas to exact revenge for Israel’s March 22 assassination of its founder. The threats have led to heightened security around holy sites.

Some of the faithful in Jerusalem worn crowns of thorns and carried crosses through the Old City.

But in the Philippines, devotees in the farming town of San Pedro Cutud were nailed to wooden crosses in a re-enactment of the crucifixion. Some said they were nervous about doing it after watching bloody scenes in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.”

The Lenten ritual, opposed by religious leaders in the Philippines, attracts droves of foreign and local tourists each year to San Pedro Cutud, about 45 miles north of the capital, Manilla.

“I got a little nervous because what happened to him was too much,” said Romelito Vergara, a 37-year-old jobless man, who viewed Mel Gibson’s film before lining up to be nailed to one of three wooden crosses erected on a dirt hill. He said it was his 10th crucifixion.

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, the British government announced it is planning an intensive three-day summit in London designed to break the deadlock in the peace process. Friday was the sixth anniversary of the troubled Good Friday peace accord.

 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

"Mr. Sharon, You Have No Mandate!"
17:12 Apr 11, '04 / 20 Nisan 5764

When Prime Minister Ariel Sharon leaves for Washington, D.C. on Monday night at the close of the Passover holiday, domestic opposition will give him an angry send-off. Protests today and tomorrow will be held under the slogan, "You Have No Mandate."

In the U.S., Mr. Sharon will be working towards obtaining a White House declaration of support for his controversial "disengagement" plan, which calls for a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and the expulsion of its 8,000-strong Jewish community.

A protest organized by the Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) Council is scheduled for tomorrow night at 10 PM, the planned hour of Prime Minister Sharon's departure. The demonstrators will stand with "You Have No Mandate" signs all along Route 1, from Jerusalem to Ben-Gurion International Airport. In tandem, Gush Katif residents will demonstrate outside Prime Minister Sharon's Shikmim Farm in the Negev.

The protesters will be pressing the theme that Sharon "Has No Mandate" to "surrender to terrorism and to uproot Jews from their homes." They will also decry any plan "to carry out a transfer of tens of thousands of Jews who settled the land by law and as emissaries of the government of Israel." To retreat from Gaza, the disengagement opponents will note, is to "grant a prize to terrorism and to ignore the warnings of the Chief of Staff, the head of the Shabak, IDF Intelligence, IDF generals and security establishment heads, who say clearly that running away from Gush Katif will increase terrorism."

Today at noon residents of Gush Katif and supporters held a protest outside Sharon's farm. The mayor of the nearby city of Sderot was among the public officials in attendance, calling upon Sharon to abandon his plan to eradicate the Jewish presence in Gaza. Sderot has suffered a series of rocket attacks by Gaza-based terrorists in the past three years, and is slated to become a bona fide border town if the IDF retreats from Gaza.

From the other side of the political spectrum, ultra left-wing opposition Knesset Member Zahava Gal'on is calling upon Prime Minister Sharon to address the parliament following his return from Washington. Gal-On explained that it is only fitting that the Prime Minister present and explain whatever understandings and agreements he reached with the US administration. By detailing the events to the Knesset, MK Gal'on added, Mr. Sharon can enlist additional support among legislators.

One issue certain to be raised in Washington is the cost of "disengagement" from Gaza and four Jewish communities in the northern Shomron. According to government officials, a withdrawal from Gaza and several Jewish communities of Samaria and Judea will cost about $1 billion. As reported earlier, the Americans have intimated that some economic aid may be forthcoming, depending on the implementation of the Prime Minister's plans for withdrawal from Gaza.

Ariel Sharon has his own plan for solving the Middle East War by evacuating the Jews from Yesha (Judah, Samaria, and Gaza). George Bush has his own plan for solving the Middle East War by giving Yesha to the Palestinians. Yasser Arafat has his own plan to torture the Jews forever as long as they remain in the Holy Land. All these plans plus any others are doomed. The only plan that has a real mandate is found in the Bible. It is the plan of God to bring in the next dispensation of the Kingdom age. The omnipotent God of the Bible has brought the Jews back to the Holy Land this third miraculous time with purpose. All the manipulating by the secular Jewish government, the gentile superpower, and especially the heathen, Islamic, Arab, Palestinians will never get past the drawing boards. Greater powers are at work in the Holy Land that see men as worms, and nations as dust. Only one plan has the mandate from God to succeed. It centers with the building of the last Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount. All plans that exclude this critical event will never have a mandate from the God of the Bible.

God is doing one thing with the Holy Land while the world wants to go a different direction. The more God presses the Jews of the Holy Land; The greater are the opposing plans to stop Him. This world does not want the return of the LORD Jesus Christ to be during this generation. They feel unprepared for righteousness to rule. It is sad that the time has all but run out! Hearts seem no more ready for true righteousness then they were when the only righteous King came the first time. This time He is not coming to suffer, but to conquer. He has a name that He did not use the first time. It is called the LORD of hosts! It is His warrior name as He will come to battle sin, and Satan Himself. At His first coming, He paid with His righteousness the wages of sin (death) for all mankind. It was paid through His sacrificial blood at Calvary. This time His righteousness will defeat sin at the very core by establishing a living Holy Kingdom. Satan will be bound, and righteousness will reign. It is a better plan then the mind of man can conceive, and will be the only plan that will determine the future of the Holy Land, Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount.

It is far better to come to the King of glory today. When the title of LORD of hosts is prominent there will be no quarter for defiant sin. Judgment and death will be the wake of the LORD of hosts as He establishes the coming Kingdom. The rules for the coming Kingdom are already published. The conditions for entrance into the last Jewish Temple are clear!

Are you qualified to partake of the coming Kingdom? What is the source of your righteousness? How clean are your hands? How pure is your heart? Has the God of your salvation answered these insurmountable restrictions? It is to the LORD of hosts that you must pass inspection for Biblical purity and righteousness! This is the generation of Jacob being prepared for the LORD of hosts. The time has all but run out!

PM Sharon: Only Five Yesha Areas to Remain Israeli
11:57 Apr 13, '04 / 22 Nisan 5764
 

 ...Sharon attended the traditional post-Passover Mimouna celebration, choosing the east-of-Jerusalem city of Maaleh Adumim as his venue. In between the music and rich un-matzah-like foods, Sharon presented his vision of the future of Judea and Samaria - which includes no more than five blocs of Jewish presence. The five areas that are to remain Jewish are Ariel and satellite communities such as Kedumim and Emanuel; Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem; Kiryat Arba/Hevron, south of Gush Etzion; Givat Ze'ev, north of Jerusalem; and Maaleh Adumim.

Everything else, presumably - including such areas as Kiryat Sefer; Beit El-Ofrah; Dolev-Talmon; the southern Hevron Hills; Elon Moreh; and more - is to be abandoned, according to the Sharon vision.

Even the five blocs that Sharon says we should keep are not guaranteed, however, according to the Prime Minister. "Only an Israeli diplomatic initiative" - such as the retreat from Gaza - "will enable us to maintain our presence in these large settlement blocs," Sharon said last night.

Sources in Yesha (Judea and Samaria) reacted with cynicism to Sharon's words. "As those who have heard in the past from Sharon that Gush Katif will forever remain Israeli," said Gush Katif spokesman Eran Sternberg, "it is clear that the people of Maaleh Adumim - which Sharon now promises will always remain in our hands - must now start to worry. Sharon's 'forever' and 'always' are generally a matter of a year or two, it appears. But the residents of Gush Katif promise to struggle together with those of Maaleh Adumim in order to guarantee its future."

Sharon will meet in Washington tonight and tomorrow with U.S. President George Bush and his National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, finalizing details of the disengagement plan and what the U.S. will give Israeli in return. Bush has already made a statement in support of the withdrawal, saying that an "evacuation of occupied territories is always a good thing." He emphasized, however, that the retreat is not in place of the