Tuesday, April 29, 2008

PA: Olmert Ready to Give Up Temple Mount

Curt Here....

According to the news link below it appears that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is ready to give up control of the Temple Mount and will also allow all religions freedom of worship on the Mount. This is amazing and highly prophetic news if it turns out to be true.

To show you what I mean, let's look at a verse in Revelation.

Revelation 11:1-2

1. Then there was given me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, "Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it.

2. "Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months.

From this passage it is clear that for 42 months (3 1/2 years) that part of the Temple Mount (the court) will be given over to the gentiles. If the above news article turns out to be true, then it appears that part of the Temple Mount will be given over to the gentiles in the near future for other forms of worship just as prophesied in the book of Revelation.

From the scriptures I find the time of 42 months to be very interesting as this is exact amount of time that the AC will reign. Here is some scripture to review.

Daniel 7:25

25. `He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.

Time, times and half a time equals 3 1/2 years. One more verse.

Revelation 13:5

5. There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him.

I am of the opinion that the 42 months that the gentiles are given access to a portion of the Temple Mount is the same time frame that the AC reigns.

If so, we are getting close.

Curt

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(IsraelNN.com) Palestinian Authority officials quoted Saturday in the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had agreed in principal to allow Arab or Muslim authorities to control the Temple Mount. Olmert had asked to keep the Old City of Jerusalem along with the Mount of Olives and the neighborhood of Mei Shiloach (Silwan), they said, but was willing to split control in a manner that would allow all religions freedom of worship.

The sources said negotiations between Olmert and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas had failed, as Olmert’s offers did not come close to meeting Abbas’s expectations. Olmert wants to keep 15 percent of Judea and Samaria, including part of the Jordan River Valley, they said, and is unwilling to allow hundreds of thousands of foreign Arabs to settle in Israel. Abbas, on the other hand, says he will allow Israel to keep a maximum of two percent of Judea and Samaria, and insists that at least 100,000 foreign Arabs be granted Israeli citizenship in the next decade.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/145511

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Javier Solana In His Own Words

Curt Here...

It is not often that you come across an article that sums up the reason that many of us prophecy watchers are so closely watching Javier Solana. What is even better is the fact that most of the article is in his own words.

The article listed below is a question and answer by the Jerusalem Post with Javier Solana. Check it out as it lists Javier's rise to power along with a current listing of Job names and descriptions.

Javier, is very clear that the way to ensure a peaceful solution between the Palestinians and the Israelis is through economic channels. This is exactly why the Barcelona Process and later the ENP were negotiated. To achieve peace through trade.

This should get every one's attention as I believe it to be a very significant article.

I have bolded the questions from the Jerusalem Post for easier viewing and I have red lined some of Solana's more significant responses.

Curt

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Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, is the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the Secretary-General of both the Council of the European Union (EU) and the Western European Union (WEU). He was named Secretary General of the 10 permanent members of the Western European Union in November 1999. Solana is a physicist who later became a politician, serving as a minister in Spain for 13 years under Felipe González before serving as Secretary General of NATO from 1995 to 1999.

Since October 1999, Javier Solana has served as the EU's High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy. In 2004, Solana had been designated to become the EU's Minister for Foreign Affairs for when the European Constitution was to come into force in 2009, but it was not ratified and his position has been renamed under the Treaty of Lisbon.

Here are Solana's e-mail responses to questions sent to him by this columnist:

The EU (in its early version as a common market) came about as an attempt to bring a halt to hostilities among European countries, especially France and Germany. How relevant is this experience for the current Middle East situation, and what role could the EU play in facilitating similar developments?

It is true that the driving force behind European integration from its very beginning was a clear desire of the then European leaders to overcome old differences and assure a peaceful development of Europe for future generations of our continent. This idea of peace is still very much relevant today - but not only for us, Europeans - it represents a condition sine qua non for the development and a successful future of all the peoples of the Middle Eastern region.

As The High Representative of the European Union for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, both in my EU capacity and within the framework of the international Quartet, I strongly and consistently keep advocating a comprehensive and peaceful solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict in general and Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular. It is indeed a strategic priority for the European Union. I continue to be convinced that despite all difficulties we can achieve the goals set most recently at the Annapolis meeting and the Paris donors' conference organized at the end of 2007.

How could the EU help Israeli and Arab companies pursue business joint ventures through the auspices of the European Union?

Any effort, any initiative to promote economic cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians and conducive to building trust between them is to be supported. But we cannot forget that peace and security are fundamental for economic development and in order to create the conditions for such initiatives to be viable. I think that it is evident to everybody that economic normalization goes hand-in-hand with desirable normalization of political relations.

The EU will continue relentlessly to help Israelis and Palestinians in finding a lasting solution to their conflict - through political and diplomatic efforts but also through economic cooperation.
Within this context, I recognize the crucial role that Arab states play in support of the Middle East peace process and I stress in this respect the importance of the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002.

We also hope very much that the access and movement agreement will be implemented without delay since this will allow Palestinians to rebuild their economy and be an important step on the path of normalization. Overcoming old antagonisms and resolving current disputes is necessary to confront the new challenges we are all facing today.

Do you believe there is interest from Arab business sectors in different countries to strengthen economic ties with Israel?

I strongly believe that not only the business community, but all people in the Middle East are tired of a decades-long Israeli-Arab conflict, and deserve to have normal relations including, of course, ever stronger and mutually profitable economic relations.

Do you as EU High Representative see it as part of your agenda to promote a Free Trade Area or other economic cooperation between Israel and its Arab neighbors?
It was our own European experience which led us to launching the Barcelona process in 1995 and offering our Mediterranean partners, including Israel, a much needed multilateral approach. The European Neighborhood Policy was designed later to develop the Barcelona process and assists us further in this effort. I can just confirm that Israel plays a very important role in this Partnership, where our main objective is to create a common area of peace, stability and prosperity, including the creation of a Free Trade Area by 2010.

The EU could afford to concentrate on first economic matters and then deeper integration thanks to the defense umbrella provided by the US during the cold war. Could the EU play a similar role today for the Middle East?

In my view, any historical comparison or simplification is very risky. The situation in Europe after the Second World War was very complex and definitely influenced by the antagonism of the two major superpowers. Today we are trying to build a new world, where a multilateral approach to our common problems and challenges would be predominant.

It is absolutely clear that Europe should play a significant role in this process and match its major economic potential with an adequate political role. We can witness that the European Union is taking this responsibility seriously, for instance through our many European Security and Defense Policy missions, of which the first two operate in the Middle East.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208870473869&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Monday, April 14, 2008

Riots, Instability Spread as Food Prices Skyrocket

Curt Here.....

This is a very interesting article about the alarming rise in the price of food and how it is effecting the poorest countries and how it will soon effect all of us. In my humble opinion this is all a precursor to how bad it is going to get during the Great Tribulation.

If you read further in the article there is also a very interesting back and forth about who and what is to blame for rise in the cost of food. I find it very interesting that the environmental ethanol crowd is blaming the high cost of oil for our lack of food supply, rather than the fact that millions of acres that have previously been used for wheat and other agricultural products are now being raised for corn (ethanol).

The blame game will continue, and the world supply of wheat and rice will continue to decline.

Curt

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Riots from Haiti to Bangladesh to Egypt over the soaring costs of basic foods have brought the issue to a boiling point and catapulted it to the forefront of the world's attention, the head of an agency focused on global development said Monday.

"This is the world's big story," said Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute.

"The finance ministers were in shock, almost in panic this weekend," he said on CNN's "American Morning," in a reference to top economic officials who gathered in Washington. "There are riots all over the world in the poor countries ... and, of course, our own poor are feeling it in the United States."

World Bank President Robert Zoellick has said the surging costs could mean "seven lost years" in the fight against worldwide poverty.

"While many are worrying about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs, and it is getting more and more difficult every day," Zoellick said late last week in a speech opening meetings with finance ministers.

"The international community must fill the at least $500 million food gap identified by the U.N.'s World Food Programme to meet emergency needs," he said. "Governments should be able to come up with this assistance and come up with it now."

The White House announced Monday evening that an estimated $200 million in emergency food aid would be made available through the U.S. Agency for International Development.

"This additional food aid will address the impact of rising commodity prices on U.S. emergency food aid programs, and be used to meet unanticipated food aid needs in Africa and elsewhere," the White House said in a news release.

"In just two months," Zoellick said in his speech, "rice prices have skyrocketed to near historical levels, rising by around 75 percent globally and more in some markets, with more likely to come. In Bangladesh, a 2-kilogram bag of rice ... now consumes about half of the daily income of a poor family."

The price of wheat has jumped 120 percent in the past year, he said -- meaning that the price of a loaf of bread has more than doubled in places where the poor spend as much as 75 percent of their income on food.

"This is not just about meals forgone today or about increasing social unrest. This is about lost learning potential for children and adults in the future, stunted intellectual and physical growth," Zoellick said.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, also spoke at the joint IMF-World Bank spring meeting.

"If food prices go on as they are today, then the consequences on the population in a large set of countries ... will be terrible," he said.

He added that "disruptions may occur in the economic environment ... so that at the end of the day most governments, having done well during the last five or 10 years, will see what they have done totally destroyed, and their legitimacy facing the population destroyed also."

In Haiti, the prime minister was kicked out of office Saturday, and hospital beds are filled with wounded following riots sparked by food prices.

The World Bank announced a $10 million grant from the United States for Haiti to help the government assist poor families.

In Egypt, rioters have burned cars and destroyed windows of numerous buildings as police in riot gear have tried to quell protests.

Images from Bangladesh and Mozambique tell a similar story.

In the United States and other Western nations, more and more poor families are feeling the pinch. In recent days, presidential candidates have paid increasing attention to the cost of food, often citing it on the stump.

The issue is also fueling a rising debate over how much the rising prices can be blamed on ethanol production. The basic argument is that because ethanol comes from corn, the push to replace some traditional fuels with ethanol has created a new demand for corn that has thrown off world food prices.

Jean Ziegler, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, has called using food crops to create ethanol "a crime against humanity."

"We've been putting our food into the gas tank -- this corn-to-ethanol subsidy which our government is doing really makes little sense," said Columbia University's Sachs.

Former President Clinton, at a campaign stop for his wife in Pennsylvania over the weekend, said, "Corn is the single most inefficient way to produce ethanol because it uses a lot of energy and because it drives up the price of food."

Some environmental groups reject the focus on ethanol in examining food prices.

"The contrived food vs. fuel debate has reared its ugly head once again," the Renewable Fuels Association says on its Web site, adding that "numerous statistical analyses have demonstrated that the price of oil -- not corn prices or ethanol production -- has the greatest impact on consumer food prices because it is integral to virtually every phase of food production, from processing to packaging to transportation."

Analysts agree the cost of fuel is among the reasons for the skyrocketing prices.
Another major reason is rising demand, particularly in places in the midst of a population boom, such as China and India.

Also, said Sachs, "climate shocks" are damaging food supply in parts of the world. "You add it all together: Demand is soaring, supply has been cut back, food has been diverted into the gas tank. It's added up to a price explosion."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/04/14/world.food.crisis/index.html#cnnSTCText

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Report: Olmert to Divide J'lem, Accept Arab Influx

Curt Here...

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but I post today bringing some very interesting news. According to article listed below, over the next six months Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are expected to finalize an agreement which includes the following:

1) Divide Jerusalem
2) Allow Palestinian Immigrants into Israeli Land
3) Israel will withdrawal from Land back to the 1948 original Armistice Line.

This means that all land that was captured during the six day war of 1967 will be returned to the various Arab Nations. Sadly, President George Bush seems to pushing Israel in this direction along with EU.

Some will naturally think that this could be the "Covenant With Many" as described in Daniel 9:27, but if you have been following my blog or the few others that I have listed on my favorites than you will know that this so called "agreement" is probably part of existing deal that is already in place. You see the European Neighborhood Policy requires peace with your neighbors in order to participate and receive funding and trading incentives with the EU. With regularly scheduled reviews from the EU into each countries individual ENP Action plans, the EU continues to put more and more pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to come to peace with each other, and if they don't they could lose their right to participate in the ENP. This is what I believe is happening and the reason the push for peace continues.

I think if you follow and study Biblical Prophecy at all then you know that Jerusalem will someday be divided, but it is very sad to be watching it happen. The good news is that this is all part of God's plan and it means we are one step closer to our Lord's return.

Keep looking up.

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IsraelNN.com) Over the next six months Israeli and PA negotiators are expected to finalize an agreement that will include dividing Jerusalem, flooding Israel with Palestinian immigrants and an Israeli withdrawal to the 1948 Armistice Line.

According to a report issued by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Prime Minister Olmert has indicated Israel's willingness to be "flexible" in meeting Arab demands, and US President George W. Bush will pressure PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to do the same during meetings next month. Israel will reportedly withdraw most military and civilians to the 1967 border, with the exception of large settlement blocks near pre-1967 Israel.

Israel is also expected to meet Arab demands to "make up" territories in Judea and Samaria that remain under Israeli control by transferring lands from pre-1967 Israel to PA control. But the PA has refused to accept Arab-populated regions of pre-1967 Israel as part of the deal.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/144324