‘Leviathan’ contains enormous amount of natural gas

Last Wednesday, results from electrical log tests of the offshore Leviathan field northwest of the port of Haifa confirmed a natural gas reserve containing 16 trillion feet of gas. This makes it, the largest of its kind discovered in the world in the last decade, with the potential to make Israel a natural gas exporting nation. The worth of the finding is estimated to exceed $45 billion, and will further strengthen the already booming Israeli economy which has increased its gross domestic product with 4.5 percent from a year ago. Uzi Landau, Minister of National Infrastructure called the discovery “the most important piece of energy news since the founding of the state” and added that the greatest earnings for the discovery would be felt by the citizens of Israel.

Israel’s Leviathan Gas Find Will Have Widespread Repercussions for World Power

Susan Kraemer | December 31st, 2010

The gigantic $45 billion Leviathan gas find tosses out Israel’s previous relationship with the world. The biggest deep-water gas find in a decade has enough reserves to supply Israel’s gas needs for 100 years.

Oil and gas exploration that might benefit Israel has long been stymied by political fears. Because of worries about antagonizing current relationships with Arab partners, Big Oil had till now avoided the possibility of any political blow-back from finding any potential oil and gas in Israel.

So it took a relatively minor company, Noble Energy, to make the Leviathan gas discovery off the shores of Israel.

For years, only small Israeli oil and gas explorers like Riato and an Israeli energy firm, Delek Group, had persisted in trying to find fossil energy for Israel, according to the Wall Street Journal. Delek Group finally succeeded in enticing Houston-based Noble Energy to start exploring off the coast of Israel after the small independent company pioneered off-shore exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.

Because of the urgency of gaining energy independence, situated as it is in the midst of unfriendly neighbors, Israel had passed a very easygoing oil and gas deal back in 1952, with some of the world’s best perks for energy companies, including low royalties and corporate taxes on exploration. But this summer, the Israeli government started considering changing the law, to boost the government’s take of any gas find.

As it became clearer this year that the Tamar, and then the Leviathan gas finds could wind up being very large, Israel’s Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz proposed changing the terms, not just for future finds, but even retroactively, on these previously granted exploration leases. These would abolish tax breaks for energy firms and impose steep tax increases of 20% to 60% on windfall profits.

This would completely change the financial picture for energy companies who are operating on the previous basis. Noble Energy and Israeli oil executives fought back, even enlisting the US State Department and then former President Bill Clinton to lobby hard to keep the law the same.

“Your country can’t just tax a US business retroactively because they feel like it,” Clinton told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July, after Noble Energy announced its first tentative findings, according to the Wall Street Journal report.

With the prospect of actual energy independence looming now for Israel, with the Leviathan gas find confirmed this week, how Israel handles the relationship between its government and its gas bonanza – will change its history. We have both extremes, from Nigeria, with no laws impeding the oil industry, to Norway, which is the only comparable democracy that has virtually nationalized its oil from the North Sea to benefit its people rather than oil tycoons.

But whatever the government does, the Leviathan gas find has already changed Israel’s relationships with other regions, and not just the great oil and gas powers of the Arab world.

Obviously its own natural gas fired electricity is a natural to power the electric vehicles being developed by local entrepreneur Shah Agassi, to replace the gasoline-powered vehicles that enrich its Arab neighbors.

But currently, electricity fueled by imported Russian coal supplies 71% of Israel’s electricity.

Not only could the nation now substitute for these risky foreign coal supplies by switching to natural gas, (since coal plants are fairly easily converted to burn natural gas, as US utilities have found) but by doing so, Israel can now easily and economically swap almost three quarters of its current electricity portfolio to one with less than half the carbon cost.

So this changes Israel’s relationship with a Northern nation which has been unafraid to bully Europe – when it was in dire need of Russian energy supplies – using its energy hegemony. Now Israel no longer needs Russian coal. With this find, it is not just energy independent, itself.

But customers from throughout Asia are now wooing the formerly friendless nation, desperate for the last drops of fossil fuels.

Read more on natural gas in Israel:
Leviathan Gas Discovery Could be The Mother of All Resource Curses
No More Gas Exploration in Israel?
Gas Discovery Will Not Change Israel’s World Standing
Beating the Nationalist Drum and Israel’s Oil Interests
Hezbollah Interferes With Israel’s Mediterranean Energy Business
UN To Mediate A Natural Gas “Standoff” Between Israel and Lebanon Gas Fields Dispute

Presbyterians Against Israel

El Wall Street Journal publica en Ingles un articulo muy interesante sobre la Iglesia Presbiteriana en USA y su falta de apoyo a Israel.

Ir a Articulo

Nos preguntabamos como Israel detendria a Iran

Mystery Surrounds Cyber Missile That Crippled Iran's Nuclear Weapons Ambitions

By Ed Barnes

Published November 26, 2010

| FoxNews.com

AP

An aerial view of Iran's nuclear facility in Natanz.

In the 20th century, this would have been a job for James Bond.

The mission: Infiltrate the highly advanced, securely guarded enemy headquarters where scientists in the clutches of an evil master are secretly building a weapon that can destroy the world. Then render that weapon harmless and escape undetected.

But in the 21st century, Bond doesn't get the call. Instead, the job is handled by a suave and very sophisticated secret computer worm, a jumble of code called Stuxnet, which in the last year has not only crippled Iran's nuclear program but has caused a major rethinking of computer security around the globe.

Intelligence agencies, computer security companies and the nuclear industry have been trying to analyze the worm since it was discovered in June by a Belarus-based company that was doing business in Iran. And what they've all found, says Sean McGurk, the Homeland Security Department's acting director of national cyber security and communications integration, is a “game changer.”

The construction of the worm was so advanced, it was “like the arrival of an F-35 into a World War I battlefield,” says Ralph Langner, the computer expert who was the first to sound the alarm about Stuxnet. Others have called it the first “weaponized” computer virus.

Simply put, Stuxnet is an incredibly advanced, undetectable computer worm that took years to construct and was designed to jump from computer to computer until it found the specific, protected control system that it aimed to destroy: Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.

The target was seemingly impenetrable; for security reasons, it lay several stories underground and was not connected to the World Wide Web. And that meant Stuxnet had to act as sort of a computer cruise missile: As it made its passage through a set of unconnected computers, it had to grow and adapt to security measures and other changes until it reached one that could bring it into the nuclear facility.

When it ultimately found its target, it would have to secretly manipulate it until it was so compromised it ceased normal functions.

And finally, after the job was done, the worm would have to destroy itself without leaving a trace.

That is what we are learning happened at Iran's nuclear facilities -- both at Natanz, which houses the centrifuge arrays used for processing uranium into nuclear fuel, and, to a lesser extent, at Bushehr, Iran's nuclear power plant.

At Natanz, for almost 17 months, Stuxnet quietly worked its way into the system and targeted a specific component -- the frequency converters made by the German equipment manufacturer Siemens that regulated the speed of the spinning centrifuges used to create nuclear fuel. The worm then took control of the speed at which the centrifuges spun, making them turn so fast in a quick burst that they would be damaged but not destroyed. And at the same time, the worm masked that change in speed from being discovered at the centrifuges' control panel.

At Bushehr, meanwhile, a second secret set of codes, which Langner called “digital warheads,” targeted the Russian-built power plant's massive steam turbine.

Here's how it worked, according to experts who have examined the worm:

--The nuclear facility in Iran runs an “air gap” security system, meaning it has no connections to the Web, making it secure from outside penetration. Stuxnet was designed and sent into the area around Iran's Natanz nuclear power plant -- just how may never be known -- to infect a number of computers on the assumption that someone working in the plant would take work home on a flash drive, acquire the worm and then bring it back to the plant.

--Once the worm was inside the plant, the next step was to get the computer system there to trust it and allow it into the system. That was accomplished because the worm contained a “digital certificate” stolen from JMicron, a large company in an industrial park in Taiwan. (When the worm was later discovered it quickly replaced the original digital certificate with another certificate, also stolen from another company, Realtek, a few doors down in the same industrial park in Taiwan.)

--Once allowed entry, the worm contained four “Zero Day” elements in its first target, the Windows 7 operating system that controlled the overall operation of the plant. Zero Day elements are rare and extremely valuable vulnerabilities in a computer system that can be exploited only once. Two of the vulnerabilities were known, but the other two had never been discovered. Experts say no hacker would waste Zero Days in that manner.

--After penetrating the Windows 7 operating system, the code then targeted the “frequency converters” that ran the centrifuges. To do that it used specifications from the manufacturers of the converters. One was Vacon, a Finnish Company, and the other Fararo Paya, an Iranian company. What surprises experts at this step is that the Iranian company was so secret that not even the IAEA knew about it.

--The worm also knew that the complex control system that ran the centrifuges was built by Siemens, the German manufacturer, and -- remarkably -- how that system worked as well and how to mask its activities from it.

--Masking itself from the plant's security and other systems, the worm then ordered the centrifuges to rotate extremely fast, and then to slow down precipitously. This damaged the converter, the centrifuges and the bearings, and it corrupted the uranium in the tubes. It also left Iranian nuclear engineers wondering what was wrong, as computer checks showed no malfunctions in the operating system.

Estimates are that this went on for more than a year, leaving the Iranian program in chaos. And as it did, the worm grew and adapted throughout the system. As new worms entered the system, they would meet and adapt and become increasingly sophisticated.

During this time the worms reported back to two servers that had to be run by intelligence agencies, one in Denmark and one in Malaysia. The servers monitored the worms and were shut down once the worm had infiltrated Natanz. Efforts to find those servers since then have yielded no results.

This went on until June of last year, when a Belarusan company working on the Iranian power plant in Beshehr discovered it in one of its machines. It quickly put out a notice on a Web network monitored by computer security experts around the world. Ordinarily these experts would immediately begin tracing the worm and dissecting it, looking for clues about its origin and other details.

But that didn’t happen, because within minutes all the alert sites came under attack and were inoperative for 24 hours.

“I had to use e-mail to send notices but I couldn’t reach everyone. Whoever made the worm had a full day to eliminate all traces of the worm that might lead us them,” Eric Byres, a computer security expert who has examined the Stuxnet. “No hacker could have done that.”

Experts, including inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, say that, despite Iran's claims to the contrary, the worm was successful in its goal: causing confusion among Iran’s nuclear engineers and disabling their nuclear program.

Because of the secrecy surrounding the Iranian program, no one can be certain of the full extent of the damage. But sources inside Iran and elsewhere say that the Iranian centrifuge program has been operating far below its capacity and that the uranium enrichment program had “stagnated” during the time the worm penetrated the underground facility. Only 4,000 of the 9,000 centrifuges Iran was known to have were put into use. Some suspect that is because of the critical need to replace ones that were damaged.

And the limited number of those in use dwindled to an estimated 3,700 as problems engulfed their operation. IAEA inspectors say the sabotage better explains the slowness of the program, which they had earlier attributed to poor equipment manufacturing and management problems. As Iranians struggled with the setbacks, they began searching for signs of sabotage. From inside Iran there have been unconfirmed reports that the head of the plant was fired shortly after the worm wended its way into the system and began creating technical problems, and that some scientists who were suspected of espionage disappeared or were executed. And counter intelligence agents began monitoring all communications between scientists at the site, creating a climate of fear and paranoia.

Iran has adamantly stated that its nuclear program has not been hit by the bug. But in doing so it has backhandedly confirmed that its nuclear facilities were compromised. When Hamid Alipour, head of the nation’s Information Technology Company, announced in September that 30,000 Iranian computers had been hit by the worm but the nuclear facilities were safe, he added that among those hit were the personal computers of the scientists at the nuclear facilities. Experts say that Natanz and Bushehr could not have escaped the worm if it was in their engineers’ computers.

“We brought it into our lab to study it and even with precautions it spread everywhere at incredible speed,” Byres said.

“The worm was designed not to destroy the plants but to make them ineffective. By changing the rotation speeds, the bearings quickly wear out and the equipment has to be replaced and repaired. The speed changes also impact the quality of the uranium processed in the centrifuges creating technical problems that make the plant ineffective,” he explained.

In other words the worm was designed to allow the Iranian program to continue but never succeed, and never to know why.

One additional impact that can be attributed to the worm, according to David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Studies, is that “the lives of the scientists working in the facility have become a living hell because of counter-intelligence agents brought into the plant” to battle the breach. Ironically, even after its discovery, the worm has succeeded in slowing down Iran's reputed effort to build an atomic weapon. And Langer says that the efforts by the Iranians to cleanse Stuxnet from their system “will probably take another year to complete,” and during that time the plant will not be able to function anywhere normally.

But as the extent of the worm’s capabilities is being understood, its genius and complexity has created another perplexing question: Who did it?

Speculation on the worm’s origin initially focused on hackers or even companies trying to disrupt competitors. But as engineers tore apart the virus they learned not only the depth of the code, its complex targeting mechanism, (despite infecting more than 100,000 computers it has only done damage at Natanz,) the enormous amount of work that went into it—Microsoft estimated that it consumed 10,000 man days of labor-- and about what the worm knew, the clues narrowed the number of players that have the capabilities to create it to a handful.

“This is what nation-states build, if their only other option would be to go to war,” Joseph Wouk, an Israeli security expert wrote.

Byers is more certain. “It is a military weapon,” he said.

And much of what the worm “knew” could only have come from a consortium of Western intelligence agencies, experts who have examined the code now believe.

Originally, all eyes turned toward Israel’s intelligence agencies. Engineers examining the worm found “clues” that hinted at Israel’s involvement. In one case they found the word “Myrtus” embedded in the code and argued that it was a reference to Esther, the biblical figure who saved the ancient Jewish state from the Persians. But computer experts say "Myrtus" is more likely a common reference to “My RTUS,” or remote terminal units.

Langer argues that no single Western intelligence agency had the skills to pull this off alone. The most likely answer, he says, is that a consortium of intelligence agencies worked together to build the cyber bomb. And he says the most likely confederates are the United States, because it has the technical skills to make the virus, Germany, because reverse-engineering Siemen’s product would have taken years without it, and Russia, because of its familiarity with both the Iranian nuclear plant and Siemen’s systems.

There is one clue that was left in the code that may tell us all we need to know.

Embedded in different section of the code is another common computer language reference, but this one is misspelled. Instead of saying “DEADFOOT,” a term stolen from pilots meaning a failed engine, this one reads “DEADFOO7.”

Yes, OO7 has returned -- as a computer worm.

Stuxnet. Shaken, not stirred.

Petra

Prepared by God?

Petra Treasury-carved out of solid rock around the time of Christ

One of the new seven wonders of the world, Petra is incredibly fascinating - a place like no other. Located in southern Jordan, near the western border with Israel, Petra today is an empty city.

Though it's hard to reach, due to the rugged and almost impassable mountains of western Jordan, still almost a million tourists trek there each year from all over the world to see the jaw-dropping scenery.

The following is a brief outline of the case for Petra as the place to which the Jews will flee in the middle of the coming seven year tribulation period.

The time period when we believe Petra will stand tall in fulfillment of Bible prophecy is the last 3 1/2 years of the tribulation, the length of days described in Daniel 12:11.

After the Rapture, the seven year tribulation will begin with a peace treaty, orchestrated by a new world leader, between Israel and ten nations in Europe and the Middle East (Dan 9:27). The ten nations will include five nations from Europe, the western leg of Daniel's image in Daniel 2, and five nations (toes) from the eastern leg of the image. (10 toes in Dan 2:41, 10 Kings in Rev 17:12)

Israel's promised peace, specifically agreed to be a seven year period (Dan 9:24a), will come to a screeching halt after 3 1/2 years (Dan 9:24b). Jesus describes it as the the worst day in the history of the Jews-past, present and future.

"...a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, or ever shall." Matt 24:21

Therefore, the worst Jewish holocaust is still in the future! Calling it a holocaust might be an understatement. The horror of this one day is so bad it's actually hard to comprehend. Imagine, if you can, a single day when 2/3rds of all Jews will die at the hand of the double-crossing Antichrist! (Zech 13:8)

Backing up to the beginning of the Tribulation, in the wake of the post-Rapture world crisis, a fast-rising and boastful world leader promises peace to Israel (Rev 6:2, Dan 9:27, Dan 7:8). This peace offer will include the right to rebuild their long lost but beloved Temple (Rev 11:1,2), which would allow the Jews to return to animal sacrifices for the first time in almost 2000 years. Israel accepts the ungodly peace offer, against the warnings of the Torah, and ultimately pays dearly for it (Mat 24:21).

This takes place at a time when all the Jews in the world will have been forced to squeeze back into Israel, which is not very large, roughly the size of New Jersey. With 15 million Jews in the world today, that's 10 million Jews murdered in one day- certainly qualifying as the worst day in the history of the Jews!!

Also in the first half of the Tribulation, 144,000 Jewish evangelists will proclaim the good news of Jesus' shed blood for sins (Rev 7:4; 14:6). Some Jews will listen, some won't, and millions will die in one day.

But the focus of this article is not the 2/3s who die, but rather, the 1/3 who escape, having heeded the warnings the 144,000 Jewish evangelists pointing to God's Word.

To keep it simple, the following is a time-line
of events for the middle seven days
in the heart of the seven year tribulation:

> The Antichrist, having had enough of the two
witnesses, tries to kill them. But instead, the
two witnesses kill the Antichrist. Rev 11:5

> The world mourns the death of the world
leader for three days. Rev 13:3

> Satan is thrown to the earth from heaven.
Satan, being a spirit, needs a body and
takes up residence in the body of
the dead world leader. Rev 12:9

> The world leader appears to rise from the
dead after being dead for three days.
He has only one eye and one arm. Zech 11:17

> The risen world leader (Satan) kills the
two witnesses. The world rejoices. Rev 11:10

> The two dead witnesses rise up,
visibly alive, into the sky. Rev 11:11, 12

> The Antichrist goes to the Jewish
Temple, halts the sacrifices, stands
in the Holy Place and claims to be
the Biblically prophesied Messiah.
Dan 11:31 Matthew 24:15

This is the literal fulfillment* of the famous "watch for the abomination of desolation" prophecies of the most important event in the future for the Jews. It is a sign to them to run as though their life depended on it-because it will!

Dan. 11:31 "Forces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice. And they will set up the abomination of desolation."

Matt. 24:15-18 "Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will."

Only 1/3 of the Jews will escape the murderous hand of the antichrist. They flee with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Those who are not hunted down (the last to get out of town) will eventually congregate in Edom, present day southern Jordan, in the area of Biblical Bozrah.

Petra is dotted with tens of thousands of caves carved into miles of walls and canyons of Petra!

It is here in the area of Bozrah that God has prepared a place for the surviving Jews to be protected from the anti-christ's murderous hand.

"And the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she might be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days." Rev 12:6

"Enter the rock and hide in the dust.... The proud look of man will be abased, and the loftiness of man will be humbled....."
Is 2:10-11

"And men will go into caves of the rocks, and into holes of the ground"
Is. 2:19

"...In order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs"
Is. 2:21

Petra has enough places to house 5 million people when fully excavated

For 3 1/2 years, the Jews will live in fear of the antichrist, but will be provided for and protected by God. They will have been stripped of all their earthly possessions...no cell phones, cars, faxes, Internet, or money. God will provide them with food and water (Rev 12:6). They will loose their pride (Is 2:11). With all the distractions out of the way, the Jewish people, chosen by God for His purposes, will reacquaint themselves with their Maker.

After 3 1/2 years, at the end of the Tribulation, their Messiah will present Himself to them there.

"Who is this who comes from Edom, with garments of glowing colors from Bozrah, this One who is majestic in His apparel, marching in the greatness of His strength? 'It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.'"
Is 63:1

"...they (Israel) will look on Me whom they have pierced;" Zech 12:10

"And one will say to him, 'What are these wounds between your arms?' Then he will say, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends." Zech. 13:6

The Petra Connection
2000 years ago, a civilization called the Nabateans, sprung up in south Edom, in the area called Bozrah. History doesn't know for sure where they came from, or what caused them to disappear seemingly almost overnight. But they lived there for about 300-400 years continually building and expanding a city called that today we call Petra ("rock").

Petra's entrance, the Siq- one mile long, 100-300 foot walls, 10-20 wide.

Petra has only one entrance that is a mile long, roughly 10 to 20 feet wide, with towering cliffs above reaching as high as 300 feet. The long winding entrance, called the siq, opens up into open spaces and canyons large enough to hold 5 million people, when fully excavated.

All throughout Petra, the Nabateans carved into the miles of soft sandstone walls. They carved houses, stables, meeting rooms, caves, tombs and more. The amount of digging, and the beautiful stone edifices still there today are mind-boggling.

My my, what a coincidence that in the middle of Edom, in the middle of Bozrah, is a place just waiting to be used by God. A place He prepared 2000 years ago! Just as the Bible predicted.

Smoking the Mideast Peace Pipe in Washington

By Bill Salus

As Hurricane Earl barrels down on the East Coast reminding Americans God’s foreign policy of Genesis 12:3 is still effectually intact, smoke signals are hovering over 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Several Mideast leaders have converged upon Washington to discuss the prospects of "Direct Talks" for peace. President Obama, who pollsters suggest may be losing Democratic control of the House and possibly the Senate come November, 2010, wants a signed peace – pact between Israel and the Palestinians.

Although this peace – pact concept hints of the biblical false covenant prophesied in Daniel 9:27, it presents different time tables that dismiss it from having prophetic implications. However, this round of peace talks may prove to be prophetically critical. Rumors of war in the Middle East have risen to an unprecedented level. One wrong move could send potent missiles flying in multiple directions.

President Obama has invited a cast of moderate leaders to encourage “Direct Talks” toward Middle East Peace. They include Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, former Prime Minister Tony Blair of the UK, King Abdullah II of Jordan, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, and President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas. Together they plan to construct a one to ten - year path to Mideast peace.

Although this is an interesting crew of leaders, what’s intriguing is the fact that Israel’s more threatening enemies aren’t participating. The leadership of Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Hamas, who have bonafide war pacts in place against Israel, are still up to their wartime antics back in the Holy Land. In fact Hamas, the democratically elected leadership of the Palestinians since January, 2006, has vowed to disrupt direct peace talks.

The primary prohibitive obstacles to this round of peace talks are:

1. they don’t include Israel’s primary enemies, Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Lebanon and Hamas,
2. they won’t sufficiently address the religious ramifications of Jerusalem’s sovereignty,
3. they won’t resolve the resettlement crisis of the Palestinian Refugees,
4. they will require the forfeiture of Promised Land presently under Israeli control, a pivotal matter Israel will likely oppose, and
5. they don’t integrate the prophetic word of God.

The Bible prophetically addresses all of the above. Regarding Israel’s primary enemies, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Hamas, these nations and / or terrorist turned political organizations are involved in the end time wars of Ezekiel 38 & 39, Isaiah 17:1, and Psalm 83. Iran comes against Israel in Ezekiel 38, Syria is involved in Isaiah 17:1, and Syria, Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Hamas confederate against Israel in Psalm 83. At some point soon these wars will occur nullifying any present peace proposals attempting to further the Mideast peace process along.

Regarding Jerusalem, most Bible translations reference Jerusalem at least 764 times and in most cases promote it as the holy city of Israel. Daniel 9:24-27 calls it the holy city of the Jewish people and predicts a third Jewish Temple will someday be constructed there. That day appears to be near. Presently, temple instruments are being constructed, priests are being prepared, and blueprints are being drafted toward this end.

The Palestinian Refugee crisis exists in breach of God’s Roadmap Plan of Jeremiah 12:14-17. This plan required resettlement of the Arabs occupying Israel at the time of the worldwide regathering of the Jews in 1948 to present back into the ancient homelands of their ancestors. At the time the land was called Palestine and the Arabs dwelling there became refugees as the result of the Arab – Israeli War of Independence. Presently, there are millions of these refugees caught in the geopolitical crossfire between Israel and the bordering Arab States. Israel seeks their resettlement into the Arab States and the Arab States press for the refugee’s right to return into Israel proper.

The Promised Land matter dates back 4,000 years ago to Genesis 15:18. Land between the Nile River of Egypt and the Euphrates River of Iraq and Syria was promised to the Israeli patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. According to the Bible this is Jewish land. Additionally, scriptures in Jeremiah 49:1-2, Obadiah 1:19-20, and Isaiah 19:16-18 declare that Israel will capture portions of these lands that are presently possessed by Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Hamas, and the Palestinians. All of these are grouped together in the Arab confederacy of Psalm 83:6-8.

Most importantly, the prophetic word of God is not being considered amongst all the parties assembling in Washington. Apart from the slight possibility that Benjamin Netanyahu might have some basic biblical awareness of the prophetic brevity of the matter, it is highly doubtful that any of the other leaders, including Barack Obama and Tony Blair, have any wisdom regarding God’s foreign policy of Genesis 12:3 or any of the other biblical precepts above.

Genesis 12:3 teaches that Israel is to be blessed rather than cursed. It promises benevolence to the parties that bless Israel. Conversely, cursings await those who oppose or oppress biblical Israel. Forcing Israel to trade Promised Land inclusive of Jerusalem, for a prospective peace with the Palestinians, can in no way be construed as blessing the Jewish State. It proposes the shrinkage, rather than expansion, of the coming greater Israel foretold to come in the Bible. However, this does not rule out the possibility that a Mideast peace accord might be achieved, but it will be short lived. God has plans for those countries surrounding Israel who seek to eliminate (curse) the Jews, homestead the Holy Land, and control Jerusalem, and He will carry it out according to his timetable.

Ezekiel 28:24-26 declares that Mideast peace is achieved through a series of judgments forthcoming upon Israel’s neighboring enemies. These judgments employ military rather than political means to resolve the present conflict. I write about how these judgments are executed through the might of today’s Israeli Defense Forces in my book Isralestine, The Ancient Blueprints of the Future Middle East.

Taking all the above into consideration, the present political attempts to craft a lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians are most likely doomed to fail. One has to wonder what the dignitaries are smoking in their peace pipe that causes them to think they can negotiate around Israel's primary enemies listed above. Thus, the Washington meeting will probably prove to be nothing more than a smoke screen. Mideast matters are rooted deep into the ideologies of Zionism and Palestinianism and there is no quick one to ten - year fix likely to resolve the present Arab – Israeli conflict.

Y Usted, como refutaria a este "gran" cientifico?

God did not create the universe, says Hawking

AFP/File – God no longer has any place in theories on the creation of the Universe due to a series of developments …

• Slideshow:Physicist Stephen Hawking

By Michael Holden Michael Holden – Thu Sep 2, 9:08 am ET

LONDON (Reuters) – God did not create the universe and the "Big Bang" was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics, the eminent British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking argues in a new book.

In "The Grand Design," co-authored with U.S. physicist Leonard Mlodinow, Hawking says a new series of theories made a creator of the universe redundant, according to the Times newspaper which published extracts on Thursday.

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist," Hawking writes.

"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."

Hawking, 68, who won global recognition with his 1988 book "A Brief History of Time," an account of the origins of the universe, is renowned for his work on black holes, cosmology and quantum gravity.

Since 1974, the scientist has worked on marrying the two cornerstones of modern physics -- Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, which concerns gravity and large-scale phenomena, and quantum theory, which covers subatomic particles.

His latest comments suggest he has broken away from previous views he has expressed on religion. Previously, he wrote that the laws of physics meant it was simply not necessary to believe that God had intervened in the Big Bang.

He wrote in A Brief History ... "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason -- for then we should know the mind of God."

In his latest book, he said the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting another star other than the Sun helped deconstruct the view of the father of physics Isaac Newton that the universe could not have arisen out of chaos but was created by God.

"That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions -- the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass, far less remarkable, and far less compelling evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings," he writes.

Hawking, who is only able to speak through a computer-generated voice synthesizer, has a neuro muscular dystrophy that has progressed over the years and left him almost completely paralyzed.

He began suffering the disease in his early 20s but went on to establish himself as one of the world's leading scientific authorities, and has also made guest appearances in "Star Trek" and the cartoons "Futurama" and "The Simpsons."

Last year he announced he was stepping down as Cambridge University's Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a position once held by Newton and one he had held since 1979.

"The Grand Design" is due to go on sale next week.