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Almost six years after the Second Lebanon War, special Israeli units are preparing to take part in mass incursions into Lebanon if another round of fighting with Hezbollah breaks out. Just as important, they are being trained to heed the legal implications. Officers say the Israel Air Force would destroy targets like training bases and rocket-launching pads within a few days, based on the intelligence gathered by the Israel Defense Forces. But this would not be enough, so a ground offensive would be necessary. Published 00:51 08.04.12 Latest update 00:51 08.04.12 Special IDF units preparing for mass Lebanon incursion if...

Almost six years after the Second Lebanon War, special Israeli units are preparing to take part in mass incursions into Lebanon if another round of fighting with Hezbollah breaks out. Just as important, they are being trained to heed the legal implications. Officers say the Israel Air Force would destroy targets like training bases and rocket-launching pads within a few days, based on the intelligence gathered by the Israel Defense Forces. But this would not be enough, so a ground offensive would be necessary.

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Hallel - Songs of Praise Psalm 110 1. The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. 2. The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. 4. The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for...

The Obama administration has cited new intelligence reports in arguing against a preemptive military strike by Israel against Iranian nuclear facilities. The expanded espionage effort has confirmed the consensus view expressed by the U.S. intelligence community in a controversial estimate released publicly in 2007. That estimate concluded that while Iran remains resolutely committed to assembling key building blocks for a nuclear weapons program, particularly enriched uranium, the nation’s leaders have opted for now against taking the crucial final step: designing a nuclear warhead. “It isn’t the absence of evidence, it’s the evidence of an absence,” said one former intelligence official...

Opposition leader Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) told the The New York Times that he would "respond to 100% of the territorial demands of the Palestinians" if elected Prime Minister. “I intend to replace Netanyahu,” Mr. Mofaz, 63, said. “I will not join his government.” Mofaz said that he believed Israel should keep the main settlement blocs, but that he would give the Palestinian Authority as much land from sovereign Israeli ground as he kept from Judea and Samaria. He added that he believes it is possible to reach an agreement on the borders and security within one year. When asked about...

Despite the ongoing internal unrest, Syria is continuing to upgrade its military capabilities and recently declared a number of new surface-to-air missile systems (SAMs) operational. Over the past year, Syria has received a number of SA- 17 batteries from Russia under a deal signed several years ago. Two batteries are already reportedly operational and deployed along Syria’s border with Lebanon. A third is undergoing training. As a result, the IDF has modified the way it flies in the North and particularly when conducting missions over Lebanon, where it continues to fly to gather intelligence on Hezbollah activities.

Hamas terror boss Fathi Hamad is a notable figure. Hamad is both the director of Hamas's al-Aksa television station and the terror group's "minister" of the interior and national security. His double portfolio is a clear expression of the much ignored fact that for terrorists, propaganda is inseparable from violence. Hamad's key posts make him a man worth listening to. His statements necessarily indicate Hamas's general direction. On March 23, Hamad was interviewed by Egypt's Al Hekma television station. The interview was translated by MEMRI. Hamad made two central points. First, he claimed that the Palestinian war against Israel is...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Book Of Exodus Chapter 20 12. “ Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you. 13. “You shall not murder. 14. “You shall not commit adultery. 15. “You shall not steal. 16. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Leaders of Russia’s political opposition groups have banded together to urge Congress to end Cold War-era trade restrictions against Russia. The restrictions, known as the Jackson-Vanik amendment, were originally crafted to pressure the Soviet Union to allow the emigration of Russian Jews, and have remained in force since. But if left in place when Russia officially joins the World Trade Organization, the law could lead to higher tariffs on American companies operating in Russia. There are also pragmatic reasons to repeal Jackson-Vanik. According to the New York Times, Russia's opposition leaders have argued that leaving the amendment in place would...

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz on Thursday declared a change in army police whereby any firing at Israel's south will be met with an attack on Hamas, regardless of the group behind the fire. Similarly, any firing from Lebanon will result in an attack on Hezbollah, and any terror attack by Iran's emissaries overseas will prompt a response against Tehran. Speaking at a conference in the Gelilot base, Gantz discussed the many threats Israel faces. "The IDF is Israel's sharpened sword and protector," he noted. He also addressed the firing of rockets at Eilat on Wednesday night.

Media Matters For America's Jew-Hater-In-Chief is out! I believe he was pushed. His promise to stop using the Anti-Semitic term Israel-firster made at the beginning of March did not take the pressure off, himself or that of MMFA. But I will do so without using the term "Israel Firster." The term was coined in 1960 by the late Abram Leon Sachar, founding President of Brandeis University, and a renowned Jewish historian (his son Howard Morley Sachar remains the greatest historian of contemporary Jewry) and was first used by the elder Sachar in a speech he delivered that year to a...

U.S. President Barack Obama has recently passed a message to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Washington Post reported on Friday, which signaled that the United States would agree to an Iranian civilian nuclear program if they proved they were not developing a nuclear bomb. According to David Ignatius, the Washington Post's senior columnist specializing in intelligence matters, Obama passed Khamenei the message through Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who visited Tehran this week.

President Barack Obama sent a verbal message to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei by way of Turkey, stating for the first time that the United States would accept a civilian nuclear program in the Islamic Republic if there is a guarantee it will never be used militarily, the Washington Post reported. Obama, in a statement relayed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week, said that if Iran proved it was not building a nuclear weapon, then Washington would let Iran develop a peaceful nuclear program. "It's a strange message to send," a critical Bret Stephens, the Wall Street...

The Obama administration appears to be conducting an organized campaign of public pressure to stop Israel from attacking Iran's well-developed nuclear-weapons program. So intense is this effort, and so determined is President Obama to succeed, that administration officials are now leaking highly sensitive information about Israel's intentions and capabilities into the news media. ------ Indeed, the only conclusion to be drawn from Mr. Obama's actions and rhetoric is that he fears an Israeli military strike more than he fears Iran achieving nuclear-weapons capability.

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Book Of Exodus Chapter 1 The Ten Commandments 1. And God spoke all these words, saying: 2. “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3. “You shall have no other gods before Me. 4. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5. you shall not bow down to them nor serve them....

Russian Defense Ministry sources told the semiofficial news agency Interfax that action plans are being finalized to react to an armed conflict involving Iran and its nuclear program. The General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces “calculates” that military action against Iran will commence “in the summer” of 2012. Since Israel does not have sufficient assets to defeat Iranian defenses, the Russian military considers US military involvement inevitable (Interfax, March 30). Bits of information have been appearing, indicating the essence of Russian military action. Last December it was disclosed that families of servicemen from the Russian base in Armenia have...

A federal court in New Jersey today has scheduled its first hearing for April 16th on a lawsuit against Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein’s International Fellowship of Christians & Jews, the New Israel Fund and several Israeli officials. The lawsuit seeks over $26 million from each Defendant, “for gross violations of human rights and torture arising out of an institutionalized discriminatory policy of disengaging and separating fathers from their minor children”. The three Israeli fathers who filed the lawsuit say Eckstein deceives Evangelical Christians by using their donations to support radical feminists in their anti-father crusade to break up the Israeli family....

WASHINGTON — Passover and Easter — intrinsically linked in the Jewish and Christian traditions — are being celebrated this weekend. For observant Jews, Passover commemorates the Hebrews' liberation from slavery under Egypt's Pharaoh. For faithful Christians, Easter is a celebration of Jesus' resurrection from the grave and the fulfillment of a new covenant between God and man. Biblical passages in Exodus 12, Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24 and John 20 describe these historical events and the reasons for festivities among people of faith. But this year, these holidays are a time of extraordinary anxiety for Christians and Jews...

A federal court in New Jersey today has scheduled its first hearing for April 16th on a lawsuit against Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein’s International Fellowship of Christians & Jews, the New Israel Fund and several Israeli officials. The lawsuit seeks over $26 million from each Defendant, “for gross violations of human rights and torture arising out of an institutionalized discriminatory policy of disengaging and separating fathers from their minor children”. The three Israeli fathers who filed the lawsuit say Eckstein deceives Evangelical Christians by using their donations to support radical feminists in their anti-father crusade to break up the Israeli family....

Israel's concerns that its historic peace treaty with Egypt could be in peril amid the political upheaval in Cairo have intensified with the announcement by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood it will contest presidential elections next month. Amos Gilad, a top aide to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and a former Israeli liaison with Cairo, said Tuesday he was apprehensive that the Muslim Brotherhood, which already dominates Parliament, could suspend or abrogate the 33-year-old peace pact. The treaty, the first between Israel and its Arab adversaries, has been the linchpin of U.S. policy in the Middle East since it was sealed...