December 10, 2010
Dear Pastors:
These lines are being written to you from California as I prepare for my return trip to OKC from having been out here because of the visit of Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon to Southern California.
I wanted to give you "part" of an interview Moshe did some months ago before he had become Vice Prime Minister, dealing with the Iranian-Ishmaelite-Hezbollah-Hamas-Terrorist War, then we shall look at some current news about Russia!
First, part of that Interview:
REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Moshe Yaalon:
I [became] the Chief-of-Staff of the IDF in July 2002. [I had progressed] from the level of soldier to section commander, platoon leader, company commander, [battalion] commander, and so forth. In the past year I spent part of the time in Israel and nine months in Washington as a Distinguished Military Fellow in the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. I came back and I have joined the Shalem Center as a Distinguished Fellow to deal with strategy in all fields, in security as well as governing and education and also the things which I consider very important for the security and for the future of the State of Israel. Here I am. Interviewer:
What have you learned most from the soldiers you worked with? Moshe Yaalon:
There are many things I learned as a soldier and as a commander but basically I would say that for Israel, the only natural resource that we have is the people, human resources. We are lacking land in Israel. Without oil, gold, or other natural resources we have succeeded in developing a very prosperous economy. We enjoy the state of the art in science and technology and this is the case of the military. When it comes to the military we enjoy the combination of the state of the art in technology and more importantly, of very good soldiers and officers with a very good spirit, highly motivated, highly educated, committed, [and] devoted to the Jewish people and to the State of Israel. This is our main advantage when it comes to war, either the conventional type [of] warfare like we faced in the past, in the Six Day War, in the Yom Kippur War, and this is the case when we had to fight Palestinian terrorism. Interviewer:
What do you believe is going to happen in the near future with Hezbollah and Israel?
Moshe Yaalon:
In the end Hezbollah was defeated in the battlefield and suffered many casualties, hundreds of casualties. Most of the medium- and long-range rockets have been destroyed.
Their facilities, headquarters, command posts, economic facilities in Lebanon have been destroyed. We are talking about over 4,000 Hezbollah targets [that] have been hit by the Israeli air force and the ground force and they have to recover, and probably they will try to recover and to be rearmed by Syria and Iran. As long as they are not rearmed successfully, I believe we will not provoke aggression. And now it is up to the international community as well as the Lebanese government to implement the resolution. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 calls [for] the disarmament of Hezbollah. This is the challenge for the near future: not to allow Hezbollah to be rearmed but to be disarmed, and of course not to allow the Iranian Revolutionary Guard presence in Lebanon like the Syrian presence. Actually Bashar Assad was forced by the Lebanese to pull out his troops from Lebanon without even a single shot. Now it’s up to the Lebanese to decide whether they want to suffer from this kind of phenomenon. Hezbollah is a state within a state provoking these kind of attacks and paying the price like the Lebanese paid in the last war from this provocation, and this is a challenge for the near future. We should understand that Israel fought the war against Hezbollah but Hezbollah is the proxy. This is the situation in the Gaza Strip too. We fought against Hamas. We are fighting even today against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Fatah terrorists in the Gaza Strip, but today they are supported by Syria and Iran. And actually, Iran is the mastermind of those attacks; Syria is the facilitator.
Syria and Iran supplied the weapons to Hezbollah and to the jihadists in Iraq.
To my mind—this is my observation—this is part of World War III—World War III, which is the war between the radical Islamists, which we should call them, [and] the West. That is what we’re facing today and this war is not just against the State of Israel. This war is against the West. Actually Ahmadinejad is leading today the camp of radical Islam and although he doesn’t share all the views with al-Qa’ida and the Muslim Brotherhood, they share the same views [on] defeat[ing] the Western cultures, and the way [they want] to do that based on their beliefs, based on their strategy: Israel should be wiped off the map because Israel is a state of "infidels," as they call it, like the United States—but we are only the "Minor Satan," the United States is the "Big Satan"—and both countries should be destroyed.
Unfortunately, to my mind, the West is sleeping and especially in Europe not even talking about the United Nations’ behavior in the last conflict. Sponsors like Iran and Syria challenge the international world order and they deny accountability. Syria and Iran supplied the rockets to Hezbollah. They encouraged and pushed Hezbollah to attack Israel—as well as [encouraging] Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Unfortunately the international community and especially the United Nations prefers to ignore the international world order and to allow them to get away without paying a price for being war regimes.
This war is not just against Israel. This war is against the West.
When it comes to the rules of war, we keep to our moral values based on the international order. We try to do our utmost to avoid civilian casualties—what we call collateral damage—when we have to defend ourselves and to hit the Hezbollah rockets. But when Hezbollah positions its rockets in family houses, it’s a unique phenomenon that [the] Israel Defense Forces had to deal with. There are family houses in the Lebanese villages: houses with living rooms, kitchens, children’s rooms—and in the additional room is a rocket launcher. We had to hit it, and unfortunately even the secretary-general of the United Nations preferred to condemn us for hitting civilian houses, instead of criticizing and condemning Hezbollah and its sponsors for violating all the rules of war, of keeping the international order. The world should wake up by all means, not just regarding the rules of war. I’m talking about the fact that Iran is on the way to acquir[ing] military nuclear capabilities, violating all the understandings and international agreements, and without paying a price.
How can Israel and other nations deal with the growing problem of Syria and Iran?
Moshe Yaalon:
The outcome of the last conflict in Lebanon should be first of all political and economic sanctions imposed on Syria and Iran. We have hard evidence that both of them supplied the weapons to Hezbollah, as well as supplying the weapons and allowing the mujahideen (jihadists) to open up a front against the coalition troops [in Iraq]. U.S. troops and British troops and others are killed by Iranians, Iranian weaponry systems, and Iranian explosives, and mujahideen [were] allowed by Bashar Assad to be deployed in Iraq. It’s a pity that the international community did not agree and is not unified to come out with a resolution to impose sanctions. Without using political and economic sanctions, in the end we’ll face the military option either against Syria or against Iran; and it’s clear otherwise we are ready to surrender to this kind of behavior, this kind of policy to defeat the West.
Then, the News from Russia:
US diplomats were astonished to hear a new tune from their Russian interlocutors when they met privately in advance of the world power negotiations with Iran which opened in Geneva Monday, Dec. 6.
For five years, Moscow had persisted in denying there was any proof that Iran was running a secret military nuclear program or that the ayatollahs were surreptitiously building the infrastructure for the manufacture of nuclear bombs and warheads. The Kremlin always insisted Iran lacked long-range ballistic missiles and had no plans for producing any projectiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
Even in July, when they were persuaded by the US to vote for international sanctions, it was only for the sake of a quid pro quo. Moscow extracted from Washington an undertaking not to interfere with the inauguration on Aug. 28 of the nuclear reactor Russia had installed at Bushehr in southern Iran as well as a guarantee to prevent any interference by Israel.
The Obama administration was required further to obtain a direct commitment from Israel guaranteeing the reactor immunity from attack.
Moscow's reward for this self-restraint was a pledge to hold back S-300 missile interceptors from Tehran and Damascus, notwithstanding a signed contract for its supply to guard Iran's nuclear sites from missile or air attack.
Even when the horse-trading was at its most intense, the Russians refused to credit the mounting layers of intelligence in American and Israeli hands attesting to Iran's burgeoning arms and missile programs.
But then, in early November, the Russians suddenly changed their tune. Washington and Moscow sources report that a surprising new message came through their diplomatic channels, notably in Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's off-the-record video conferences with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The Russians were now saying that they had come to the conclusion that nothing could stop a big country like Iran - with a population of 70 million and rich oil and gas resources and the high technological ability to run nuclear reactors, uranium enrichment processing and produce nuclear fuel rods – from acquiring a nuclear bomb. Once it had decided on this course, it was bound to succeed.
This surprise flip flop finally brought Moscow around to the conclusion, reached long ago by Washington, Paris, Berlin and Jerusalem, that Iran was well on the way to its goal of a nuclear weapon or warhead.
Our military sources add that, even so, Moscow still refuses to believe Iran is capable of producing a ballistic missile sophisticated enough to carry a nuclear warhead. Its experts insist that Iranian missile production has never managed to get past Scud technology, a reference to the World War II Russian surface missile of that name.
Trust us, say the Russians to the Americans: We designed the Scuds and we spent decades upgrading them before moving on to more advanced weaponry. So no one can pick up faster on the weaknesses betrayed by a military machine which is not up to mastering any missile technology beyond the outdated Scuds.
The Russian experts recently confirmed this diagnosis with the discovery that the missiles Iran used to boost its first miniature spacecraft Safir (Messenger) 1 and 2 and Kavoshgar (Explorer) 1 in 2008 and 2009, consisted of three stages, the first two of which were old Scuds.
Having changed its mind about Iran's nuclear motives, the Kremlin was suddenly ready to turn the screw in earnest when it became clear that UN, US and European sanctions lacked the punch for curbing Iran's drive for a bomb.
According to our sources, the Russians offered to work with the Americans on a penalty painful and costly enough to daunt Iran from going all the way to a bomb. The Iranians must be convinced, they explained, that their potential strategic benefit from joining the world's nuclear club was not worth having their economy go into meltdown.
At first, Russian diplomats refused to explain what they were talking about. In the third week of November, they unveiled a plan which consisted very simply and brutally of an international naval and air blockade against Iran to choke off its oil and gas exports to world markets.
The plan's success depended on three key steps:
The blockade must be watertight and impossible for Iran's friends, including China, Venezuela, Syria and Turkey, to breach.
Washington and Moscow must cooperate in steps to avert a global energy crisis.
The two powers must guarantee a steady fuel supply to countries dependent on Iranian oil like Japan and major importers like China in case of shortages on the international market.
The Americans could hardly believe their ears when they heard this proposal. The Russians had fought tooth and nail against any proposed embargo - even a partial one - on selling Iran oil products and especially refined oil.
They had also been up in arms against any damage to Iran's energy industry, financially or otherwise. Now, all of the sudden, Moscow was proposing the ultimate punishment, more radical than any US President Barack Obama had ever contemplated
After Moscow's cat was out of the bag, the White House put a team to work on the motives underlying the Kremlin's radical change of face. It was instructed to explore three alternative hypotheses:
One
, the Kremlin had truly come to believe in Iran's drive for a nuclear bomb and felt compelled to protect its military and energy interests by cutting down the potential threat a nuclear-armed Iran would pose to Russia and the Central Asian nations which Moscow regards as it strategic hinterland.
Two
, The rise of Chinese influence and its expanded investments in Iran's energy industry are the cause of deep concern to the Russians and they will go a long way to thwart it.
Three
, Iran is only second to Russia as the world's top holder of gas reserves (971 trillion cubic feet -Tcf compared with Russia's 1,680 Tcf). Moscow may suspect the Obama administration of opting for diplomacy – not just to curb Iran's nuclear aspirations but as the long way round toward hauling US-Iranian relations back to level they attained between the 1950s and mid-1970s, when American influence reigned supreme in Tehran. The Russians fear America also aims at eventually challenging Russia's primacy as the sole natural gas supplier for Central and West Europe by supporting the projected Nabucco gas pipeline from Erzurum in Turkey to Baumgarten an der March in Austria and so diversifying gas suppliers and delivery routes to Europe.
Iranian intelligence proved itself on the mark in the way Tehran responded to the first round of its resumed negotiations with six world powers ((US, Russia, UK, France, China and Germany) which ended in Geneva on Tuesday, Dec. 7. It came typically in the form of an ultimatum for round two to proceed, spelled out by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "If you come to the negotiations by cancelling all the nasty things and wrong decisions you have adopted – lift resolutions, sanctions and some other restrictions that you have created, then the talks will definitely be fruitful."
Moscow sensed in this warning a challenge: For the negotiations to continue, the Russian blockade proposal ("other restrictions") must be scrapped along with sanctions. The Russians got their first taste of the tough bargaining tactics Tehran routinely employs against the United States.
Before going forward, the Obama administration must determine which of the three hypotheses about the motives behind Moscow's volte face is the correct one – genuine concern about a nuclear-armed Iran or a tactical move to preserve its oil and gas empire.
All this news, Moshe Ya’alon’s Interview, his opinions about Iran and its Terrorist Proxies — Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc., — and this most recent News from Russia, who figures in heavily in the Bible Equations of the Coming Battle of Armageddon tells us all that the coming of our MESSIAH, JESUS, OR AS THE JEWS CALL HIM, JESHUA, my SAVIOUR, whom General Shimon Erem quoted from Eph 2:14 [For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;] this past Monday evening, HE is certainly coming soon.
Jim Vineyard
Yedidim of Israel
Friday, December 10, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Letter to Pastors
December 8, 2010
Dear Pastors:
The last three or four days have been "man killers" on an old man with bad health who doesn’t sleep much at night. But, PRAISE THE LORD, what a blessing it was to see my good friend and "brother" (as he calls me) the Vice Prime Minister of Israel, Moshe "Boogie" Ya’alon. He was right on target at the reception before the services on Monday evening, and then in the services, and again, with the Independent Baptist Pastors at the Luncheon on Tuesday.
And, what a blessing it was to get to meet and get to know Major General (retired) Shimon Erem. Pastor Jim Taliferro of McKinney, Texas as the General "What do you know about Mr. Netanyahu." The General answered by saying, "Bibi was in my unit and under my command when we ambushed X number of Syrians on such and such a date." So, General Erem at one time commanded the man who is now the Prime Minister of Israel.
Our problem, my Brethren, is that we do not take seriously our "mandate" from the Lord to, as Bible Believers, first, to Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem, and then to, secondly, collectively use our voices as "information disseminators" for the cause of the Everlastingly Covenanted People and the EVERLASTINGLY COVENANTED LAND which "belongs only to the JEWS." ISRAEL BELONGS TO THE JEWS.
Pull out your Bible and look at Joel 3:2, "I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land." (The word "parted" means "divided" and the word "plead" means Judge.) The United States of America is going to fall under the Judgment of God Almighty unless the "Righteous" (You and I who have experienced the miracle of the New Birth) lift our voices up to stop the "land for peace" nonsense which has gone on in so many Presidential Administrations, all the way from Johnson, through Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and now the "obamessiah."
Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem, and previously given away Gaza and the Shomron, all 5 areas, belong to the Jews.
Eze. 35:1, "Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy against it,
3 And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate. [Always, in the Holy bible Mt. Seir refers to the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Ishmaelites, the Esauites!]
4 I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
5 Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end:
6 Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.
7 Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth.
8 And I will fill his mountains with his slain men: in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in all thy rivers, shall they fall that are slain with the sword.
9 I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
(Now, be very careful that you see what these Ishmaelites said!)
10 Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there:
Now, look over in the next chapter to verse 5. Eze. 36:5, "Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed (notice this carefully) my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.
The Ishmaelites have been presumptuous to believe that "HIS LAND" could be turned into "their possession" with the joy of all their heart and despiteful minds! And, from the time of the creation of the "so-called" Palestinian people back yonder in the 1964, this is what they have been doing!
And, we as American Christians have sat upon our backsides believing that "everything is going to be well," "believing that all this will sort out O.K." not doing anything, not lifting up our voices in protest, to our President, to our duly elected US Congresspersons, our US Senators, and today we find ourselves under a "Muslim President."
Therefore, my friend, after having preached this morning to the Student Body of Pacific Baptist College, while waiting in a few minutes to leave, where I shall be preaching tonight to the good people of Gethsemane Baptist Church, I humbly beseech you to do something about lifting up your voices in protest to those elected to represent you in our National Government Bodies!
Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions and Nuclear Works are still a "threat" to the free people of the entire world, the JEWS BEING UNDER existential threat initially, but, then, we in the west also under threat from the same.
Iran continues to stir the pot in all those Middle East Conflicts - Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel proper (the West Bank, being, in my opinion, a part of Israel however!)
We simply must cause our voices to be heard regarding all this. YES, it may be in the eternal plan of ALMIGHTY GOD to come down the pike at us, as it is now coming! However, we don’t know that!
Therefore, WE MUST LIFT UP OUR COLLECTIVE voices and let our politicians know that AMERICA CANNOT PROSPER doing the wrong type things concerning the nation of Israel.
If American Christians continue to "keep our voices silent," if we allow our elected officials to continue to give away "Everlasting Covenanted land," which is a type of persecution of the Jews, WHAT ARE WE DOING? I shall tell you! We are DIGGING OUR OWN GRAVES!
Every time you find a person blessing and helping a Jew in ancient times — take for example — what happened at Jericho— the city was destroyed, but the scarlet woman with all her household was saved, and why? Because she gave succor and protection to the spies of Israel!
Go yonder to the land of Egypt, which some of you like to start tours to the Holy Land, where, for 400 years, the Jews were ground down by cruel, heartless, conscienceless taskmasters. Go and look upon those splendid rows of Pyramids and the Sphinx, as I have done.
I don’t know if it's still there, but yonder in Central Park, New York, there used to be that "obelisk" that was taken from the ancient city of Memphis, a few miles out of present Cairo, Egypt — and look at that obelisk with those hieroglyphics on the four sides.
That obelisk tells we Born Again Americans that the people who persecuted the Jew, that their glory is buried in the sands of the banks of the Nile, while THE JEW LIVES ON!
Come with me to the Ruins of Babylon, where your Muslim tour companies try to get you to start your tours to Israel, where they dug up the cuneiform records, where they have excavated the history of old Nebuchadnezzar—what does it mean—that this people—this government—this empire—those that took the Everlasting Covenanted People into captivity and stole their golden and silver vessels from God’s Temple and rank out of them as they held them in their blasphemous hands at the midnight hour—THAT NATION WENT DOWN INTO DEFEAT and their city was so utterly destroyed that it is a place for bats and owls and for satyrs to dance.
And yet, the EVERLASTINGLY COVENANTED PEOPLE, the JEW, he lives on!
Go yonder with me on some moonlight night and look through the open windows of the old Coliseum at Rome, see the half broken walls, and listen to those strange voices from the dead past—WHAT DOES IT MEAN—Rome, that mighty power that oppressed and persecuted the JEWS, ROME WENT DOWN IN DEFEAT.
And yet, the EVERLASTINGLY COVENANTED PEOPLE, the JEW, he lives on!
Call to mind the conquerors of that EVERLASTINGLY COVENANTED LAND—Where are they? Thotmes, Nebuchadnezzar, Sennacherib, Cambyses, Alexander, Pompey, Caesar, Augustus, Titus, Hadrian, Omar, Saladin, Tamerland, Napoleon—ALL GONE—government and empires — gone— BUT THE JEW remains the same unchangeable race that he was when GOD GAVE THE COVENANT to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and King David.
Go to the land of Russia—the land of night, mystery and bloodshed! For 300 years the Romanoff Dynasty persecuted the Jews and sent them into cold Siberia to die as "vermin" in exile. Who knows how many JEWS perished in those years of Romanoff persecution. Those years when Evangelist D.L. Moody, Evangelist William Blackstone, and Presbyterian Businessman Homer Spafford, were trying to get the Romanoff’s and Europe to let the Jews be "restored" to "their Land" in Palestine.
From 1917, when the Bolsheviks took over that country, until 1941, 15 to 16 million people perished, many, too, again, Jews. That land, where, from 1941 to 1945 over 30 million people perished, millions of that number being JEWS.
Let me tell you what has happened to that country. GOD ALMIGHTY SAID, "I WILL CURSE HIM THAT CURSETH THEE [to Abraham.]" That's what happened to that Country.
The very same thing, my brethren, can happen to this country, if we who are truly Born again by accepting SHILOH, IMMANUEL, JESHUA, the LORD, the SAVIOUR, as our PERSONAL SAVIOUR, do not lift our voices up in collective protest to our nationally elected officials.
We cannot continue to let this travesty of injustice to the JEWS to continue by believing that since we are AMERICANS, we can give away some of the EVERLASTINGLY COVENANTED LAND.
JIM VINEYARD
YEDIDIM OF ISRAEL
www.yedidimofisrael.com
PS If I’ve been a bit too tough on you, my wife would say, "He forgot to take his medicine!"
Dear Pastors:
The last three or four days have been "man killers" on an old man with bad health who doesn’t sleep much at night. But, PRAISE THE LORD, what a blessing it was to see my good friend and "brother" (as he calls me) the Vice Prime Minister of Israel, Moshe "Boogie" Ya’alon. He was right on target at the reception before the services on Monday evening, and then in the services, and again, with the Independent Baptist Pastors at the Luncheon on Tuesday.
And, what a blessing it was to get to meet and get to know Major General (retired) Shimon Erem. Pastor Jim Taliferro of McKinney, Texas as the General "What do you know about Mr. Netanyahu." The General answered by saying, "Bibi was in my unit and under my command when we ambushed X number of Syrians on such and such a date." So, General Erem at one time commanded the man who is now the Prime Minister of Israel.
Our problem, my Brethren, is that we do not take seriously our "mandate" from the Lord to, as Bible Believers, first, to Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem, and then to, secondly, collectively use our voices as "information disseminators" for the cause of the Everlastingly Covenanted People and the EVERLASTINGLY COVENANTED LAND which "belongs only to the JEWS." ISRAEL BELONGS TO THE JEWS.
Pull out your Bible and look at Joel 3:2, "I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land." (The word "parted" means "divided" and the word "plead" means Judge.) The United States of America is going to fall under the Judgment of God Almighty unless the "Righteous" (You and I who have experienced the miracle of the New Birth) lift our voices up to stop the "land for peace" nonsense which has gone on in so many Presidential Administrations, all the way from Johnson, through Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and now the "obamessiah."
Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem, and previously given away Gaza and the Shomron, all 5 areas, belong to the Jews.
Eze. 35:1, "Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy against it,
3 And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate. [Always, in the Holy bible Mt. Seir refers to the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Ishmaelites, the Esauites!]
4 I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
5 Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end:
6 Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.
7 Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth.
8 And I will fill his mountains with his slain men: in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in all thy rivers, shall they fall that are slain with the sword.
9 I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
(Now, be very careful that you see what these Ishmaelites said!)
10 Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there:
Now, look over in the next chapter to verse 5. Eze. 36:5, "Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed (notice this carefully) my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.
The Ishmaelites have been presumptuous to believe that "HIS LAND" could be turned into "their possession" with the joy of all their heart and despiteful minds! And, from the time of the creation of the "so-called" Palestinian people back yonder in the 1964, this is what they have been doing!
And, we as American Christians have sat upon our backsides believing that "everything is going to be well," "believing that all this will sort out O.K." not doing anything, not lifting up our voices in protest, to our President, to our duly elected US Congresspersons, our US Senators, and today we find ourselves under a "Muslim President."
Therefore, my friend, after having preached this morning to the Student Body of Pacific Baptist College, while waiting in a few minutes to leave, where I shall be preaching tonight to the good people of Gethsemane Baptist Church, I humbly beseech you to do something about lifting up your voices in protest to those elected to represent you in our National Government Bodies!
Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions and Nuclear Works are still a "threat" to the free people of the entire world, the JEWS BEING UNDER existential threat initially, but, then, we in the west also under threat from the same.
Iran continues to stir the pot in all those Middle East Conflicts - Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel proper (the West Bank, being, in my opinion, a part of Israel however!)
We simply must cause our voices to be heard regarding all this. YES, it may be in the eternal plan of ALMIGHTY GOD to come down the pike at us, as it is now coming! However, we don’t know that!
Therefore, WE MUST LIFT UP OUR COLLECTIVE voices and let our politicians know that AMERICA CANNOT PROSPER doing the wrong type things concerning the nation of Israel.
If American Christians continue to "keep our voices silent," if we allow our elected officials to continue to give away "Everlasting Covenanted land," which is a type of persecution of the Jews, WHAT ARE WE DOING? I shall tell you! We are DIGGING OUR OWN GRAVES!
Every time you find a person blessing and helping a Jew in ancient times — take for example — what happened at Jericho— the city was destroyed, but the scarlet woman with all her household was saved, and why? Because she gave succor and protection to the spies of Israel!
Go yonder to the land of Egypt, which some of you like to start tours to the Holy Land, where, for 400 years, the Jews were ground down by cruel, heartless, conscienceless taskmasters. Go and look upon those splendid rows of Pyramids and the Sphinx, as I have done.
I don’t know if it's still there, but yonder in Central Park, New York, there used to be that "obelisk" that was taken from the ancient city of Memphis, a few miles out of present Cairo, Egypt — and look at that obelisk with those hieroglyphics on the four sides.
That obelisk tells we Born Again Americans that the people who persecuted the Jew, that their glory is buried in the sands of the banks of the Nile, while THE JEW LIVES ON!
Come with me to the Ruins of Babylon, where your Muslim tour companies try to get you to start your tours to Israel, where they dug up the cuneiform records, where they have excavated the history of old Nebuchadnezzar—what does it mean—that this people—this government—this empire—those that took the Everlasting Covenanted People into captivity and stole their golden and silver vessels from God’s Temple and rank out of them as they held them in their blasphemous hands at the midnight hour—THAT NATION WENT DOWN INTO DEFEAT and their city was so utterly destroyed that it is a place for bats and owls and for satyrs to dance.
And yet, the EVERLASTINGLY COVENANTED PEOPLE, the JEW, he lives on!
Go yonder with me on some moonlight night and look through the open windows of the old Coliseum at Rome, see the half broken walls, and listen to those strange voices from the dead past—WHAT DOES IT MEAN—Rome, that mighty power that oppressed and persecuted the JEWS, ROME WENT DOWN IN DEFEAT.
And yet, the EVERLASTINGLY COVENANTED PEOPLE, the JEW, he lives on!
Call to mind the conquerors of that EVERLASTINGLY COVENANTED LAND—Where are they? Thotmes, Nebuchadnezzar, Sennacherib, Cambyses, Alexander, Pompey, Caesar, Augustus, Titus, Hadrian, Omar, Saladin, Tamerland, Napoleon—ALL GONE—government and empires — gone— BUT THE JEW remains the same unchangeable race that he was when GOD GAVE THE COVENANT to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and King David.
Go to the land of Russia—the land of night, mystery and bloodshed! For 300 years the Romanoff Dynasty persecuted the Jews and sent them into cold Siberia to die as "vermin" in exile. Who knows how many JEWS perished in those years of Romanoff persecution. Those years when Evangelist D.L. Moody, Evangelist William Blackstone, and Presbyterian Businessman Homer Spafford, were trying to get the Romanoff’s and Europe to let the Jews be "restored" to "their Land" in Palestine.
From 1917, when the Bolsheviks took over that country, until 1941, 15 to 16 million people perished, many, too, again, Jews. That land, where, from 1941 to 1945 over 30 million people perished, millions of that number being JEWS.
Let me tell you what has happened to that country. GOD ALMIGHTY SAID, "I WILL CURSE HIM THAT CURSETH THEE [to Abraham.]" That's what happened to that Country.
The very same thing, my brethren, can happen to this country, if we who are truly Born again by accepting SHILOH, IMMANUEL, JESHUA, the LORD, the SAVIOUR, as our PERSONAL SAVIOUR, do not lift our voices up in collective protest to our nationally elected officials.
We cannot continue to let this travesty of injustice to the JEWS to continue by believing that since we are AMERICANS, we can give away some of the EVERLASTINGLY COVENANTED LAND.
JIM VINEYARD
YEDIDIM OF ISRAEL
www.yedidimofisrael.com
PS If I’ve been a bit too tough on you, my wife would say, "He forgot to take his medicine!"
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Letter to Pastors
December 5, 2010
Dear Pastors:
From Southern California [Ontario] this ole man writes to you this Sunday morning. In a few hours Dr. Ezekiel Salazar will have someone pick me up and I will speak in his English Church at 9 AM, and then in his Spanish Church at 11:30 AM and again in the evening service to a "COMBINED SERVICE." Brother Salazar moved Montecito Baptist Church from LA 7 years ago, and, in Ontario, is doing the very same thing he did in LA. Zeek is being mightily used of the Lord.
Tomorrow evening, the Lord willing, I shall go to an interdenominational church somewhere in Anaheim to meet Vice Prime Minister Moshe "Boogie" Ya’alon at a reception prior to his speaking in that church tomorrow evening. Then, Tuesday, I have the privilege of being part of a Pastor’s Luncheon [Independent Baptist] hosting Boogie in a Hotel in LA.
Yesterday afternoon, one of Brother Salazar’s Associates, John, had picked me up to take me out for a combined lunch and supper. We were sitting in the restaurant awaiting our orders to come and John was asking me questions about American History and the History of the Jews. He teaches history in Brother Salazar’s school.
I pulled out my I-phone to google up the exact names of a couple of books and realized that I had missed a call from G.M., an IDF officer, whom I shall just refer to with his initials. You may remember that GM was commanding the Reshef Battalion [Paladin 155s] near Kiryat Shemona on August 4, 2010, when Major General Udi Adam sent his aide to get me as he wanted to meet me. We drove to the Reshef Battalion location.
When I rode up in the Major General’s Humvee and stepped out of it, the Executive officer of the Reshef Battalion, a Captain Ephraim, thought "that ole bald headed man is SOMEBODY." Now, to be truthful, I know that I am a nobody, and the more that I realize that, then the more that I see the LORD GOD OF THE HEBREWS using me. I told John yesterday, "If someone thinks you are somebody, you must just take that to your heart, and never to your head, for, if it goes there, your britches will get too big for you."
Ephraim told me that Major GM and Udi [Major General Adam] would not be there for a couple of hours, and asked what I would like to do in the interim. So I said, "I would like to shoot a couple of rounds in your next mission at Hizballah." Ephrain retorted, "We can’t do that. Its against regulations." My comeback was, "Let this aide call the General, and let's get that squared away. I didn’t come over here, not to get my licks in on Hizballah." "Oh," Ephraim exclaimed, "We won’t bother the General."
I then told him to give me their best gun crew, for I didn’t want to shoot with turkeys. He introduced me then to a Gun Commander named David, then a Sgt. David is now a Lt. in the IDF. David and his gun crew showed me what I would have to do to stay alive while they were shooting the first 6 rounds. The barrel of that Paladin ejects 39 inches back into the Canon. It shoots a 97.4 lb projectile.
Well, they got a mission, and up into that Canon this ole man hopped. [You preachers say, "Brother Vineyard, you are crazy." Thats what GM thought when he laid eyes on me a couple of hours later. Katyusha rockets are falling hither and yon, and that ole bald headed preacher was right there amongst all that when he did not have to be.] It was 98 degrees outside, and I suppose every time that Canon shot, the temperature inside rose about 3 degrees. Time the mission of 10 rounds was over, I was about to have a Heart Attack.
David’s gun crew shot 6 rounds. They gave me the lanyard and # 7 was my practice round. # 8 was the round I’d marked "To Hizballah from Jim Vineyard." The Jewish Canoncokers got a real buzz out of me writing on one of their rounds. Then, they shot rounds 9 and 10. I had to get out of the Canon as soon as they stopped for I was in trouble physically. I sat on a pop cooler and poured a liter of cold water over my head as I drank another liter of cold water.
After I had recovered, Ephraim asked, "What would you like to do now?" I asked, "How long has it been since your Machine Gunners have practiced." He replied, "Too long." I told him, "Get them together, and lets go over to that bluff over there and I shall teach them something about shooting the Fabrique Nationale .308 Machine Gun." They were rounded up by a Lt. And we went over to this bluff, and I showed those Gunners and Assistant Gunners some tips of the trade of the "ole guys."
When we came back from shooting the Machine Guns, Ephraim tells me, "The General is to be interviewed here at out gun position by two Israeli TV crews and he doesn’t want them seeing you. He would like to have you to stay behind GM’s Armored Personnel Carrier while the interview is going on, and when the TV crews leave, he wants you to come and meet him.
David’s gun crew had asked me not to say anything to their commander about shooting their cannon at Hizballah. I had agreed not to say anything.
So, when the TV crews leave, or at least we thought they had, they motioned me out to meet Major General Udi Adam. I did. He thanked me profusely for feeding his soldiers. He then asked, "Have you done anything else interesting today." I had forgotten my promise to Sgt. David’s gun crew, as I was very tired and not thinking.
So, I says, "Yes General, I did. See that cannon down there, [and I pointed at David’s gun.] I crawled in that sapsucker and pulled the lanyard twice, shooting two rounds at Hizballah." GM’s throat was jumping up and down. General Adam looks very seriously at me. Then, he grabs me, pats me on the back and says something like, "As the British say, good show ole chap."
Pulling that lanyard twice and sending those two 97.4 lb rounds at Hizballah has opened up a lot of doors for this ole man relative to the Israeli Defense Forces.
In early 2008 I was over in Israel and GM and his wife, a Medical Doctor, asked if it would be inappropriate, them being Jews, to ask we Christians to pray that she could get pregnant and have a baby boy. I told them "Absolutely not. We will pray for you to have a baby." I have a picture of GM holding that newborn baby, which I took while I was over there during Operation Cast Lead, their Dec. ‘08 - Jan. ‘09 War against Hamas in Gaza.
We saw GM and his wife back in June while we were there with the Givati Family Celebration in honor of their 197 KIA’s, helping those families adjust to the loss of their sons in combat against the Ishmaelites.
She asked me to pray that they would have a baby girl. So, she had asked GM to call me and tell me the news that she is now pregnant and they will find out in January whether it is a girl or boy.
And GM told me that he had been promoted to being a Brigade Commander a few days ago from being a Battalion Commander.
We talked about the February Football trip. I told him I was going to discuss that trip with Boogie either tomorrow night or Tuesday. [Some time ago GM and his wife had asked what the affectionate name was, which my family called me when I was a wee small lad. I had told them, "Jimbo."] So, GM says, "You don’t have to bother Boogie about that. Tell him GM will take care of all the details for you."
GM having been Yoav Golant’s aid, and Yoav going from being Southern Division Commander to being Chief of Staff come January 1st, I am sure Boogie will remember GM. It’s a small world when God allows you to be a blessing to the Jews.
Preachers, there are only two choices. There is not a third. You state, "The Jews had their chance. It’s the Church age now." You show your ignorance of the Bible by going there. You need read, and heed, Romans 9, 10, 11, which if you just will rightly divide the Word of Truth, it will square you away in those areas.
The LORD WILLING, tomorrow night I will get to see my friend, Vice Prime Minister Moshe "Boogie" Ya’alon, and his very sharp PA, Anat Tal. I sure am looking forward to that visit.
I remains, sincerely and gratefully, your dutiful friend and obedient servant,
JIM VINEYARD
YEDIDIM OF ISRAEL
www.yedidimofisrael.com
Dear Pastors:
From Southern California [Ontario] this ole man writes to you this Sunday morning. In a few hours Dr. Ezekiel Salazar will have someone pick me up and I will speak in his English Church at 9 AM, and then in his Spanish Church at 11:30 AM and again in the evening service to a "COMBINED SERVICE." Brother Salazar moved Montecito Baptist Church from LA 7 years ago, and, in Ontario, is doing the very same thing he did in LA. Zeek is being mightily used of the Lord.
Tomorrow evening, the Lord willing, I shall go to an interdenominational church somewhere in Anaheim to meet Vice Prime Minister Moshe "Boogie" Ya’alon at a reception prior to his speaking in that church tomorrow evening. Then, Tuesday, I have the privilege of being part of a Pastor’s Luncheon [Independent Baptist] hosting Boogie in a Hotel in LA.
Yesterday afternoon, one of Brother Salazar’s Associates, John, had picked me up to take me out for a combined lunch and supper. We were sitting in the restaurant awaiting our orders to come and John was asking me questions about American History and the History of the Jews. He teaches history in Brother Salazar’s school.
I pulled out my I-phone to google up the exact names of a couple of books and realized that I had missed a call from G.M., an IDF officer, whom I shall just refer to with his initials. You may remember that GM was commanding the Reshef Battalion [Paladin 155s] near Kiryat Shemona on August 4, 2010, when Major General Udi Adam sent his aide to get me as he wanted to meet me. We drove to the Reshef Battalion location.
When I rode up in the Major General’s Humvee and stepped out of it, the Executive officer of the Reshef Battalion, a Captain Ephraim, thought "that ole bald headed man is SOMEBODY." Now, to be truthful, I know that I am a nobody, and the more that I realize that, then the more that I see the LORD GOD OF THE HEBREWS using me. I told John yesterday, "If someone thinks you are somebody, you must just take that to your heart, and never to your head, for, if it goes there, your britches will get too big for you."
Ephraim told me that Major GM and Udi [Major General Adam] would not be there for a couple of hours, and asked what I would like to do in the interim. So I said, "I would like to shoot a couple of rounds in your next mission at Hizballah." Ephrain retorted, "We can’t do that. Its against regulations." My comeback was, "Let this aide call the General, and let's get that squared away. I didn’t come over here, not to get my licks in on Hizballah." "Oh," Ephraim exclaimed, "We won’t bother the General."
I then told him to give me their best gun crew, for I didn’t want to shoot with turkeys. He introduced me then to a Gun Commander named David, then a Sgt. David is now a Lt. in the IDF. David and his gun crew showed me what I would have to do to stay alive while they were shooting the first 6 rounds. The barrel of that Paladin ejects 39 inches back into the Canon. It shoots a 97.4 lb projectile.
Well, they got a mission, and up into that Canon this ole man hopped. [You preachers say, "Brother Vineyard, you are crazy." Thats what GM thought when he laid eyes on me a couple of hours later. Katyusha rockets are falling hither and yon, and that ole bald headed preacher was right there amongst all that when he did not have to be.] It was 98 degrees outside, and I suppose every time that Canon shot, the temperature inside rose about 3 degrees. Time the mission of 10 rounds was over, I was about to have a Heart Attack.
David’s gun crew shot 6 rounds. They gave me the lanyard and # 7 was my practice round. # 8 was the round I’d marked "To Hizballah from Jim Vineyard." The Jewish Canoncokers got a real buzz out of me writing on one of their rounds. Then, they shot rounds 9 and 10. I had to get out of the Canon as soon as they stopped for I was in trouble physically. I sat on a pop cooler and poured a liter of cold water over my head as I drank another liter of cold water.
After I had recovered, Ephraim asked, "What would you like to do now?" I asked, "How long has it been since your Machine Gunners have practiced." He replied, "Too long." I told him, "Get them together, and lets go over to that bluff over there and I shall teach them something about shooting the Fabrique Nationale .308 Machine Gun." They were rounded up by a Lt. And we went over to this bluff, and I showed those Gunners and Assistant Gunners some tips of the trade of the "ole guys."
When we came back from shooting the Machine Guns, Ephraim tells me, "The General is to be interviewed here at out gun position by two Israeli TV crews and he doesn’t want them seeing you. He would like to have you to stay behind GM’s Armored Personnel Carrier while the interview is going on, and when the TV crews leave, he wants you to come and meet him.
David’s gun crew had asked me not to say anything to their commander about shooting their cannon at Hizballah. I had agreed not to say anything.
So, when the TV crews leave, or at least we thought they had, they motioned me out to meet Major General Udi Adam. I did. He thanked me profusely for feeding his soldiers. He then asked, "Have you done anything else interesting today." I had forgotten my promise to Sgt. David’s gun crew, as I was very tired and not thinking.
So, I says, "Yes General, I did. See that cannon down there, [and I pointed at David’s gun.] I crawled in that sapsucker and pulled the lanyard twice, shooting two rounds at Hizballah." GM’s throat was jumping up and down. General Adam looks very seriously at me. Then, he grabs me, pats me on the back and says something like, "As the British say, good show ole chap."
Pulling that lanyard twice and sending those two 97.4 lb rounds at Hizballah has opened up a lot of doors for this ole man relative to the Israeli Defense Forces.
In early 2008 I was over in Israel and GM and his wife, a Medical Doctor, asked if it would be inappropriate, them being Jews, to ask we Christians to pray that she could get pregnant and have a baby boy. I told them "Absolutely not. We will pray for you to have a baby." I have a picture of GM holding that newborn baby, which I took while I was over there during Operation Cast Lead, their Dec. ‘08 - Jan. ‘09 War against Hamas in Gaza.
We saw GM and his wife back in June while we were there with the Givati Family Celebration in honor of their 197 KIA’s, helping those families adjust to the loss of their sons in combat against the Ishmaelites.
She asked me to pray that they would have a baby girl. So, she had asked GM to call me and tell me the news that she is now pregnant and they will find out in January whether it is a girl or boy.
And GM told me that he had been promoted to being a Brigade Commander a few days ago from being a Battalion Commander.
We talked about the February Football trip. I told him I was going to discuss that trip with Boogie either tomorrow night or Tuesday. [Some time ago GM and his wife had asked what the affectionate name was, which my family called me when I was a wee small lad. I had told them, "Jimbo."] So, GM says, "You don’t have to bother Boogie about that. Tell him GM will take care of all the details for you."
GM having been Yoav Golant’s aid, and Yoav going from being Southern Division Commander to being Chief of Staff come January 1st, I am sure Boogie will remember GM. It’s a small world when God allows you to be a blessing to the Jews.
Preachers, there are only two choices. There is not a third. You state, "The Jews had their chance. It’s the Church age now." You show your ignorance of the Bible by going there. You need read, and heed, Romans 9, 10, 11, which if you just will rightly divide the Word of Truth, it will square you away in those areas.
The LORD WILLING, tomorrow night I will get to see my friend, Vice Prime Minister Moshe "Boogie" Ya’alon, and his very sharp PA, Anat Tal. I sure am looking forward to that visit.
I remains, sincerely and gratefully, your dutiful friend and obedient servant,
JIM VINEYARD
YEDIDIM OF ISRAEL
www.yedidimofisrael.com
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Letter to Pastors
December 4, 2010
Dear Pastors:
After looking at Israel and its revamping of the Mossad, lets now focus on Iran, as a result of what Israel is doing!
On Wednesday, December 1, Tehran directly accused Washington of responsibility for the attacks Monday, Nov. 29, in the heart of Tehran on two of its top nuclear scientists, Prof. Majid Shahriari, who was killed, and Prof. Freydoun Abbasi, who was critically injured.
Since then, the heads of Iran's government, military and intelligence have been meeting non-stop to determine how America is to be punished.
According to one proposal, rather than hitting out at a US Middle East target or Israel, the more effective reprisal would be to simply finish building a nuclear bomb forthwith.
Iranian sources report that this option had at least at three advocates at the high-powered conference, Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) commander Gen. Ali Jafary, Al Qods chief Gen. Qassem Suleimany, and Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi.
They objected to a military response on three grounds:
1. It would not stop the covert war the US and Israel are waging with mounting intensity in the last three months, of which more details in this article, and might even spur it on.
2. The IRGC and Al Qods have their hands full engineering Hizballah's takeover of Beirut and other strategic areas of Lebanon, an operation that would represent part of Iran's punishment for the assassination of its scientists.
3. They are certain Iran can build up its first stock of 19.5 percent enriched uranium in no more than 8 to 10 weeks – enough for a short leap to weapons-grade material and the manufacture of its first nuclear weapon. Our intelligence sources quote all three as maintaining that this achievement would be fitting punishment for the attack on the two scientists.
The marathon meetings continue as I prepare to fly to California!
Tehran sees US covert-psychological war entering second round!
The Director of Iran's Atomic Energy Commission, Ali Akbar Salehi, was given the job of holding the United States responsible for the attacks.
He will represent his government at the resumed nuclear negotiations with the Six Powers on Dec. 6. Using the opportunity of Shahriari's funeral, he accused the West of carrying out the assassination to bring Iran to heel ahead of those talks.
"These wicked people wanted to show their hideous side which demonstrates their carrot and stick policy in the run-up to the new nuclear talks," he said.
Tehran has clearly taken the attacks on the two scientists as an ultimatum from Washington: If you behave rationally i.e. according to the American – or, as Salehi put it "the Western" – dictate, your nuclear scientists will be safe and the strength massed around your shores - the USS Truman, the USS Lincoln and the French Charles de Gaulle and their strike forces – will withdraw.
But persist in irrational conduct and you will endure more possible assassinations, harsher sanctions and irreparable harm at the hands of "Western" agents already at large in your country.
Tehran believes it is undergoing the second round of a disastrous United States covert intelligence campaign, Iranian sources report.
Stuxnet marches on the heels of the Shehab-3 store's destruction!
It began on September 22 with a bomb attack on an Iranian military parade in the northwestern Iranian city of Mahabad, which killed at least 12 soldiers and wounded 70.
Then, on October 7, gunmen shot at Iranian security forces near Sanandaj in Iranian Kurdistan. At least 5 Iranians died in that attack.
The next day, on October 8, the Baluchi Liberation Front Jundallah claimed to have snatched Amir Hossein Shirani from his place of work at one of Iran's secret nuclear facilities in Isfahan and transferred him to the group's headquarters in Baluchistan.
This week, Sunday, November 28, the day before the two scientists were hit in Tehran, Shirani appeared on the Saudi television station Al Arabiya with a full report on Iran's plans to produce nuclear weapons.
The top officials closeted behind closed doors in Tehran see that appearance as a connecting link between the two rounds of clandestine assaults and evidence of an elaborate, large-scale covert organization at work inside the country.
They believe that only a major intelligence power like the American CIA commands the unlimited manpower and financial resources for a campaign on this scale.
Add to this the mysterious explosions occurring on Oct. 12 at the Revolutionary Guards' biggest and most secret missile store at Khorramabad in southwestern Iran, destroying a major part of their Shihab 3 ballistic missile stock.
To this day, Iranian investigators have not discovered how it happened and postulate the cause as being a missile released by an American or Israeli drone.
Since that episode was not followed by any more such attacks, the Iranians decided to grit their teeth and shut up.
Now, the Iranians say, "Washington has gone too far!"
But then, two weeks later, in early November, the Stuxnet virus was on the march again and managed to disable a large number of centrifuges at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility.
Friday, Nov. 26, a passenger who boarded a Damascus-bound Air Iran flight at Tehran tried to hijack the plane.
That incident too was initially blacked out by Iranian authorities.
It later emerged that Iranian marshals aboard the plane subdued the attacker in a struggle.
Intelligence Minister Moslehi tied the incident to spy networks and claimed the hijacker admitted he wanted to direct the flight to "occupied Palestine."
Then came WikiLeaks and its disclosures of US diplomats reports that Iran was held in fear and loathing by Arab rulers.
Then came the deaths of the two scientists, the last straw in what Tehran perceives to be a well-laid American covert, cyber and psychological war.
As far as Iran's rulers are concerned, Washington has gone too far, Iranian sources report, and they are resolved to exact punishment and draw the line against any further hostile acts.
Retaliation may come in the form of a direct attack on an American Middle East target or on Israel – or both.
Wednesday, Dec. 1, the Kuwaiti Al-Rai newspaper quoted an Iranian source as reporting that Hizballah has finished its preparations for war with Israel: its weapons stores are full and underground tunnels dug for catching Israeli troops unawares.
Other military sources confirm this report.
Hizballah's war preparations are known to have been going on for two months.
On the other hand, it may be a red herring to distract attention from Iran's plans to strike somewhere else.
Obama administration officials say that Julian Assange, 39, editor-in-chief of the WikiLeaks organization, must be hunted down and prosecuted - or at least restraints clamped down on the website providing front-page fodder worldwide.
But US Attorney General Eric Holder acknowledged Monday, November 29, the day after the site began dumping 250,000 US diplomatic cables, that although the US believes crimes have been committed, the investigation is complicated by the fact that key individuals are outside the US and its legal jurisdiction.
So Assange, an Australian, whose whereabouts are unknown, may get away with never standing trial in America – depending on Washington's determination to go after him.
Interpol has issued a Red Notice requesting information about his whereabouts, and the Swedish police want him on two rape charges against which he has appealed claiming they are an attempt to damage his credibility.
But he may yet defy the long arm of American justice, like the ex-CIA whistleblower, Philip Burnett Franklin Agee, nearly half a century before him.
Agee was the object of a relentless agency pursuit in the 1960s after he started telling the world that his Roman Catholic conscience had compelled him to reveal what he had seen during his service, especially in Mexico and Greece.
In 1975, while in London, where he was lionized by the Left, he managed to publish his book "Inside the Company." It was eventually translated into 27 languages.
In 1978 and 1979, Agee published a two-volume work: "Dirty Work: The CIA in Western Europe" and "Dirty Work: The CIA in Africa," which blew the covers of 2,000 CIA personnel.
His US passport was revoked in 1979. After obtaining citizenship in Germany and in various South American and Central American countries under pro-Communist regimes, Agee finally settled in Cuba, where he died in 2008.
The CIA never managed to lay hands on him.
Now, we see that Diplomacy has lost its cachet and diplomats no longer make policy!
The damage the former CIA insider caused US intelligence and its worldwide reputation was inestimably greater than the harm the outsider Assange has caused as a rogue element on the loose.
While avidly sensationalized by the media across the world, with high-profile editorial production teams picking out the juicy bits, WikiLeaks' third release of classified US files was by and large shrugged off by political, diplomatic and intelligence insiders as containing very little new material, although it gained weight by being sourced directly to official US documents.
The horrified protestations by some distinguished officials and academic scholars that international diplomacy will never be the same fell pretty flat too.
For years now, since top leaders have been able to communicate directly through hot lines and jet diplomacy, diplomats have lost their cachet as behind-the-scenes policy-makers and holders of state secrets.
In the 21st century, even foreign ministers have dropped down their government's power chains. Less than a handful of distinguished officials, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, and, more recently, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu, are exceptions that prove the rule.
The post of British Foreign Secretary currently held by William Hague is a special case by virtue of his responsibility for the British spy agency MI6. Its every operation is subject to his personal approval and signature.
Without this prerogative, the British foreign secretary' would hold no more than a junior position in policy-making like his counterparts in Berlin, Paris, Rome and Jerusalem.
But, in Iran, we see that Ahmadinejad is leery of leaks' credibility!
Today's diplomats find themselves reduced to two functions as gatherers of information or bureaucrats.
In their first capacity they may be borderline spies, although at some point in their past careers they may have been the real article.
Their assignment by US Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton to collect the credit card numbers, email addresses and fax numbers of political and military personalities in the countries where they serve does not make them full-blown spies. It only attests to the decline of their calling without demonstrating their intelligence skills.
As bureaucrats, their work is largely confined to technicalities.
That is precisely the point. The fact that the diplomatic files tossed to the media, though refreshingly blunt and entertaining, are small beer insofar as they determine US administration policies, is the feature which intelligence circles from Moscow to Caracas, and Beijing find the most intriguing.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predictably pointed to the disclosures as "worthless" and an American attempt to harm its enemies rather than itself.
The leaked calls from Arab leaders to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities he dismissed as "mischief" and a "Satanic plot" which would have no impact on his country's "friendly" relations with regional states.
Ahmadinejad denied they were leaks at all, insisting they were deliberately orchestrated by the US government for "political" reasons and "psychological warfare" – meaning that Julian Assange was working for Washington.
The trove is geared to vilifying Iran. Who by?
While Ahmadinejad in shooting the Islamic Republic's propaganda line goes too far as usual, ME sources gathered from political and intelligence circles in Asia and Europe at least four questions common to most about the flood of revelations still incoming – unless it is assumed that Assange tossed into cyberspace every file that came to hand without checking its content or making selections:
1. How did Iran come to be the party injured most by the WikiLeaks documents - and not the US?
If the earth shook anywhere this week it was in Persian Gulf and Middle East capitals, where Arab rulers' extreme antipathy for Iran and its revolutionary Shiite regime was displayed for all the world to see.
Saudi King Abdullah was documented as urging the US to carry out a preemptive strike on the Iranian nuclear facilities; Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called Iran the overriding threat to its own and the region's security.
He warned that if Tehran acquired a nuclear weapon, Egypt would have no choice but to follow suit.
Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thaniof Qatar, regarded as Tehran's closest ally and diplomatic partner after Syrian President Bashar Assad, sang a different tune in private: He is quoted as asking the commanders of the big US Al Udeid Air Base, the largest outside America, how he could seize Iran's Persian Gulf oil and gas fields straight after an US strike against the Islamic Republic.
According to the WikiLeaks files, Washington pays no rent for the base and had 60 percent of the cost of improvements covered by the Emir, but has not obtained his permission to use the facility for "kinetic operations" against Iran.
Cutting Iran down to size - from Mid East superpower to regional menace!
Much of the trove depicts Iran in quite different colors from its self-image as a rising Middle East superpower, but rather as the menace perceived by the Arab world, one which is uniting the region's majority Sunni Muslims against its Shiites.
On the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon, Iran has the failure of its revolutionary religious and political ideology to take root in the Sunni world shoved down its throat.
2. Even though the WikiLeaks cables record Ahmadinejad as saying confidentially: 'We managed to beat the Americans in Iraq, but the last battle between us (and the Americans) will take place on Iranian soil," they intimate that an attack on Iran faces a single obstacle, namely the United States.
Both President George W. Bush and Barack Obama have gone to extreme lengths to hold Israel back from an attack and fended off collective Arab pressure for an American offensive to destroy Iran's nuclear program.
Another question asked in Beijing, Moscow, Berlin and also Tehran, is why the Wikileaks release began Sunday, November 28, just one week before the start of the resumption of world power nuclear talks with Tehran.
The Russians, Chinese, Germans and Iranians are asking themselves if the timing wasn't meant to intimate to Iran that it faces two hard choices: Either knuckle under to the international limitation on uranium enrichment to a harmless measure of purity and freeze its military nuclear program, or Washington will remove the restraints holding Israel back from striking Iran and be more receptive to Arab demands for an American attack.
Leaks don't put the Saudis off their drive for attack on Iran!
The Saudis also showed some skepticism about WikiLeaks credibility in the longish story they ran in the semi-official Arab News of Tuesday, Nov. 30 on the changeover of directors of Israel's external spy agency under the caption: Mossad insider succeeds embattled spy agency chief.
Saudi experts were astonished to find this report when never before had any Saudi publication published a word about military or intelligence appointments in Israel.
However, to show they were not embarrassed or put off by the WikiLeaks disclosure of their demand of the US to attack Iran, Saudi rulers chose to indicate that, notwithstanding Washington's refusal, they still favored intelligence cooperation with Israel for setting up such an attack.
They ran this unusual item as a signal to the incoming Mossad Director Tamir Pardo that, as far as Riyadh was concerned, things must go on as before.
It fits into the background of the ongoing intelligence cooperation established in more than a year of meetings, mostly in the Jordanian capital of Amman, between the outgoing Mossad Director Meir Dagan and Saudi Intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz, revealed largely as a result of past disclosures.
No discreditable American secrets betrayed!
3. Once again, timing raises questions. For instance, was it just coincidence that the publication occurred on the second night of Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri's visit to Tehran as he was about to be received by Iranian leader supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Monday, November 29)?
That meeting fatefully sealed Hariri's surrender to Tehran's demand for the Lebanese national army to acquiesce to "cooperation" with Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps.
One of the US diplomatic cables released that day cited the Lebanese prime minister as being in favor of an attack on Iran. Tuesday, when he arrived in Paris from Tehran to meet President Nicolas Sarkozy, he made haste to issue a muddled and feeble denial of this leak, finding himself boxed into becoming the first statesman in the world to comment on the classified material swamping the media.
4. And a final question piquing the curiosity of all the intelligence analysts poring through the mountains of US cables: How can it be that in the hundreds of files so far examined not a single one betrays any significant military, intelligence or political secrets or anything really discreditable about the Americans or the governments covered in US diplomatic correspondence with Washington?
No one seriously believe that such omissions are fortuitous.
Now, preachers, all that is food for thought as we look for the COMING of MESSIAH, the one some of my Jewish friends call YESHUA. The Lord Willing, we shall be able to befriend some of our Hebrew friends from the Israeli Government this upcoming week in California. I wish you could be there with us to meet my friend, who says I "am like his big brother."
JIM VINEYARD
YEDIDIM OF ISRAEL
Dear Pastors:
After looking at Israel and its revamping of the Mossad, lets now focus on Iran, as a result of what Israel is doing!
On Wednesday, December 1, Tehran directly accused Washington of responsibility for the attacks Monday, Nov. 29, in the heart of Tehran on two of its top nuclear scientists, Prof. Majid Shahriari, who was killed, and Prof. Freydoun Abbasi, who was critically injured.
Since then, the heads of Iran's government, military and intelligence have been meeting non-stop to determine how America is to be punished.
According to one proposal, rather than hitting out at a US Middle East target or Israel, the more effective reprisal would be to simply finish building a nuclear bomb forthwith.
Iranian sources report that this option had at least at three advocates at the high-powered conference, Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) commander Gen. Ali Jafary, Al Qods chief Gen. Qassem Suleimany, and Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi.
They objected to a military response on three grounds:
1. It would not stop the covert war the US and Israel are waging with mounting intensity in the last three months, of which more details in this article, and might even spur it on.
2. The IRGC and Al Qods have their hands full engineering Hizballah's takeover of Beirut and other strategic areas of Lebanon, an operation that would represent part of Iran's punishment for the assassination of its scientists.
3. They are certain Iran can build up its first stock of 19.5 percent enriched uranium in no more than 8 to 10 weeks – enough for a short leap to weapons-grade material and the manufacture of its first nuclear weapon. Our intelligence sources quote all three as maintaining that this achievement would be fitting punishment for the attack on the two scientists.
The marathon meetings continue as I prepare to fly to California!
Tehran sees US covert-psychological war entering second round!
The Director of Iran's Atomic Energy Commission, Ali Akbar Salehi, was given the job of holding the United States responsible for the attacks.
He will represent his government at the resumed nuclear negotiations with the Six Powers on Dec. 6. Using the opportunity of Shahriari's funeral, he accused the West of carrying out the assassination to bring Iran to heel ahead of those talks.
"These wicked people wanted to show their hideous side which demonstrates their carrot and stick policy in the run-up to the new nuclear talks," he said.
Tehran has clearly taken the attacks on the two scientists as an ultimatum from Washington: If you behave rationally i.e. according to the American – or, as Salehi put it "the Western" – dictate, your nuclear scientists will be safe and the strength massed around your shores - the USS Truman, the USS Lincoln and the French Charles de Gaulle and their strike forces – will withdraw.
But persist in irrational conduct and you will endure more possible assassinations, harsher sanctions and irreparable harm at the hands of "Western" agents already at large in your country.
Tehran believes it is undergoing the second round of a disastrous United States covert intelligence campaign, Iranian sources report.
Stuxnet marches on the heels of the Shehab-3 store's destruction!
It began on September 22 with a bomb attack on an Iranian military parade in the northwestern Iranian city of Mahabad, which killed at least 12 soldiers and wounded 70.
Then, on October 7, gunmen shot at Iranian security forces near Sanandaj in Iranian Kurdistan. At least 5 Iranians died in that attack.
The next day, on October 8, the Baluchi Liberation Front Jundallah claimed to have snatched Amir Hossein Shirani from his place of work at one of Iran's secret nuclear facilities in Isfahan and transferred him to the group's headquarters in Baluchistan.
This week, Sunday, November 28, the day before the two scientists were hit in Tehran, Shirani appeared on the Saudi television station Al Arabiya with a full report on Iran's plans to produce nuclear weapons.
The top officials closeted behind closed doors in Tehran see that appearance as a connecting link between the two rounds of clandestine assaults and evidence of an elaborate, large-scale covert organization at work inside the country.
They believe that only a major intelligence power like the American CIA commands the unlimited manpower and financial resources for a campaign on this scale.
Add to this the mysterious explosions occurring on Oct. 12 at the Revolutionary Guards' biggest and most secret missile store at Khorramabad in southwestern Iran, destroying a major part of their Shihab 3 ballistic missile stock.
To this day, Iranian investigators have not discovered how it happened and postulate the cause as being a missile released by an American or Israeli drone.
Since that episode was not followed by any more such attacks, the Iranians decided to grit their teeth and shut up.
Now, the Iranians say, "Washington has gone too far!"
But then, two weeks later, in early November, the Stuxnet virus was on the march again and managed to disable a large number of centrifuges at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility.
Friday, Nov. 26, a passenger who boarded a Damascus-bound Air Iran flight at Tehran tried to hijack the plane.
That incident too was initially blacked out by Iranian authorities.
It later emerged that Iranian marshals aboard the plane subdued the attacker in a struggle.
Intelligence Minister Moslehi tied the incident to spy networks and claimed the hijacker admitted he wanted to direct the flight to "occupied Palestine."
Then came WikiLeaks and its disclosures of US diplomats reports that Iran was held in fear and loathing by Arab rulers.
Then came the deaths of the two scientists, the last straw in what Tehran perceives to be a well-laid American covert, cyber and psychological war.
As far as Iran's rulers are concerned, Washington has gone too far, Iranian sources report, and they are resolved to exact punishment and draw the line against any further hostile acts.
Retaliation may come in the form of a direct attack on an American Middle East target or on Israel – or both.
Wednesday, Dec. 1, the Kuwaiti Al-Rai newspaper quoted an Iranian source as reporting that Hizballah has finished its preparations for war with Israel: its weapons stores are full and underground tunnels dug for catching Israeli troops unawares.
Other military sources confirm this report.
Hizballah's war preparations are known to have been going on for two months.
On the other hand, it may be a red herring to distract attention from Iran's plans to strike somewhere else.
Obama administration officials say that Julian Assange, 39, editor-in-chief of the WikiLeaks organization, must be hunted down and prosecuted - or at least restraints clamped down on the website providing front-page fodder worldwide.
But US Attorney General Eric Holder acknowledged Monday, November 29, the day after the site began dumping 250,000 US diplomatic cables, that although the US believes crimes have been committed, the investigation is complicated by the fact that key individuals are outside the US and its legal jurisdiction.
So Assange, an Australian, whose whereabouts are unknown, may get away with never standing trial in America – depending on Washington's determination to go after him.
Interpol has issued a Red Notice requesting information about his whereabouts, and the Swedish police want him on two rape charges against which he has appealed claiming they are an attempt to damage his credibility.
But he may yet defy the long arm of American justice, like the ex-CIA whistleblower, Philip Burnett Franklin Agee, nearly half a century before him.
Agee was the object of a relentless agency pursuit in the 1960s after he started telling the world that his Roman Catholic conscience had compelled him to reveal what he had seen during his service, especially in Mexico and Greece.
In 1975, while in London, where he was lionized by the Left, he managed to publish his book "Inside the Company." It was eventually translated into 27 languages.
In 1978 and 1979, Agee published a two-volume work: "Dirty Work: The CIA in Western Europe" and "Dirty Work: The CIA in Africa," which blew the covers of 2,000 CIA personnel.
His US passport was revoked in 1979. After obtaining citizenship in Germany and in various South American and Central American countries under pro-Communist regimes, Agee finally settled in Cuba, where he died in 2008.
The CIA never managed to lay hands on him.
Now, we see that Diplomacy has lost its cachet and diplomats no longer make policy!
The damage the former CIA insider caused US intelligence and its worldwide reputation was inestimably greater than the harm the outsider Assange has caused as a rogue element on the loose.
While avidly sensationalized by the media across the world, with high-profile editorial production teams picking out the juicy bits, WikiLeaks' third release of classified US files was by and large shrugged off by political, diplomatic and intelligence insiders as containing very little new material, although it gained weight by being sourced directly to official US documents.
The horrified protestations by some distinguished officials and academic scholars that international diplomacy will never be the same fell pretty flat too.
For years now, since top leaders have been able to communicate directly through hot lines and jet diplomacy, diplomats have lost their cachet as behind-the-scenes policy-makers and holders of state secrets.
In the 21st century, even foreign ministers have dropped down their government's power chains. Less than a handful of distinguished officials, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, and, more recently, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu, are exceptions that prove the rule.
The post of British Foreign Secretary currently held by William Hague is a special case by virtue of his responsibility for the British spy agency MI6. Its every operation is subject to his personal approval and signature.
Without this prerogative, the British foreign secretary' would hold no more than a junior position in policy-making like his counterparts in Berlin, Paris, Rome and Jerusalem.
But, in Iran, we see that Ahmadinejad is leery of leaks' credibility!
Today's diplomats find themselves reduced to two functions as gatherers of information or bureaucrats.
In their first capacity they may be borderline spies, although at some point in their past careers they may have been the real article.
Their assignment by US Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton to collect the credit card numbers, email addresses and fax numbers of political and military personalities in the countries where they serve does not make them full-blown spies. It only attests to the decline of their calling without demonstrating their intelligence skills.
As bureaucrats, their work is largely confined to technicalities.
That is precisely the point. The fact that the diplomatic files tossed to the media, though refreshingly blunt and entertaining, are small beer insofar as they determine US administration policies, is the feature which intelligence circles from Moscow to Caracas, and Beijing find the most intriguing.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predictably pointed to the disclosures as "worthless" and an American attempt to harm its enemies rather than itself.
The leaked calls from Arab leaders to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities he dismissed as "mischief" and a "Satanic plot" which would have no impact on his country's "friendly" relations with regional states.
Ahmadinejad denied they were leaks at all, insisting they were deliberately orchestrated by the US government for "political" reasons and "psychological warfare" – meaning that Julian Assange was working for Washington.
The trove is geared to vilifying Iran. Who by?
While Ahmadinejad in shooting the Islamic Republic's propaganda line goes too far as usual, ME sources gathered from political and intelligence circles in Asia and Europe at least four questions common to most about the flood of revelations still incoming – unless it is assumed that Assange tossed into cyberspace every file that came to hand without checking its content or making selections:
1. How did Iran come to be the party injured most by the WikiLeaks documents - and not the US?
If the earth shook anywhere this week it was in Persian Gulf and Middle East capitals, where Arab rulers' extreme antipathy for Iran and its revolutionary Shiite regime was displayed for all the world to see.
Saudi King Abdullah was documented as urging the US to carry out a preemptive strike on the Iranian nuclear facilities; Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called Iran the overriding threat to its own and the region's security.
He warned that if Tehran acquired a nuclear weapon, Egypt would have no choice but to follow suit.
Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thaniof Qatar, regarded as Tehran's closest ally and diplomatic partner after Syrian President Bashar Assad, sang a different tune in private: He is quoted as asking the commanders of the big US Al Udeid Air Base, the largest outside America, how he could seize Iran's Persian Gulf oil and gas fields straight after an US strike against the Islamic Republic.
According to the WikiLeaks files, Washington pays no rent for the base and had 60 percent of the cost of improvements covered by the Emir, but has not obtained his permission to use the facility for "kinetic operations" against Iran.
Cutting Iran down to size - from Mid East superpower to regional menace!
Much of the trove depicts Iran in quite different colors from its self-image as a rising Middle East superpower, but rather as the menace perceived by the Arab world, one which is uniting the region's majority Sunni Muslims against its Shiites.
On the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon, Iran has the failure of its revolutionary religious and political ideology to take root in the Sunni world shoved down its throat.
2. Even though the WikiLeaks cables record Ahmadinejad as saying confidentially: 'We managed to beat the Americans in Iraq, but the last battle between us (and the Americans) will take place on Iranian soil," they intimate that an attack on Iran faces a single obstacle, namely the United States.
Both President George W. Bush and Barack Obama have gone to extreme lengths to hold Israel back from an attack and fended off collective Arab pressure for an American offensive to destroy Iran's nuclear program.
Another question asked in Beijing, Moscow, Berlin and also Tehran, is why the Wikileaks release began Sunday, November 28, just one week before the start of the resumption of world power nuclear talks with Tehran.
The Russians, Chinese, Germans and Iranians are asking themselves if the timing wasn't meant to intimate to Iran that it faces two hard choices: Either knuckle under to the international limitation on uranium enrichment to a harmless measure of purity and freeze its military nuclear program, or Washington will remove the restraints holding Israel back from striking Iran and be more receptive to Arab demands for an American attack.
Leaks don't put the Saudis off their drive for attack on Iran!
The Saudis also showed some skepticism about WikiLeaks credibility in the longish story they ran in the semi-official Arab News of Tuesday, Nov. 30 on the changeover of directors of Israel's external spy agency under the caption: Mossad insider succeeds embattled spy agency chief.
Saudi experts were astonished to find this report when never before had any Saudi publication published a word about military or intelligence appointments in Israel.
However, to show they were not embarrassed or put off by the WikiLeaks disclosure of their demand of the US to attack Iran, Saudi rulers chose to indicate that, notwithstanding Washington's refusal, they still favored intelligence cooperation with Israel for setting up such an attack.
They ran this unusual item as a signal to the incoming Mossad Director Tamir Pardo that, as far as Riyadh was concerned, things must go on as before.
It fits into the background of the ongoing intelligence cooperation established in more than a year of meetings, mostly in the Jordanian capital of Amman, between the outgoing Mossad Director Meir Dagan and Saudi Intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz, revealed largely as a result of past disclosures.
No discreditable American secrets betrayed!
3. Once again, timing raises questions. For instance, was it just coincidence that the publication occurred on the second night of Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri's visit to Tehran as he was about to be received by Iranian leader supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Monday, November 29)?
That meeting fatefully sealed Hariri's surrender to Tehran's demand for the Lebanese national army to acquiesce to "cooperation" with Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps.
One of the US diplomatic cables released that day cited the Lebanese prime minister as being in favor of an attack on Iran. Tuesday, when he arrived in Paris from Tehran to meet President Nicolas Sarkozy, he made haste to issue a muddled and feeble denial of this leak, finding himself boxed into becoming the first statesman in the world to comment on the classified material swamping the media.
4. And a final question piquing the curiosity of all the intelligence analysts poring through the mountains of US cables: How can it be that in the hundreds of files so far examined not a single one betrays any significant military, intelligence or political secrets or anything really discreditable about the Americans or the governments covered in US diplomatic correspondence with Washington?
No one seriously believe that such omissions are fortuitous.
Now, preachers, all that is food for thought as we look for the COMING of MESSIAH, the one some of my Jewish friends call YESHUA. The Lord Willing, we shall be able to befriend some of our Hebrew friends from the Israeli Government this upcoming week in California. I wish you could be there with us to meet my friend, who says I "am like his big brother."
JIM VINEYARD
YEDIDIM OF ISRAEL
Friday, December 3, 2010
Letter to Pastors
December 3, 2010
Dear Pastors:
I am preparing to leave for California, where I shall be able to see our son John, his wife Dawn, and their two boys, Brad and Zach. Dawn’s Dad, Dr. Max Price is there working with Jim Crall in Dr. Stewart McBirney’s Church in Glendale, California, and so will be able to see him too.
I am preaching all day Sunday for Dr. Ezekiel Salazar in the LA area and then will be with Vice Prime Minister Moshe "Boogie" Ya’alon, my friend, on Monday night, Tuesday noon, and Tuesday night. David Sloan and his mother will be there with us.
From the Middle East I have gathered the below and thought you’d find it interesting.
First, his week's appointment of Tamir Pardo, 57, as Director of Mossad, Israel's external espionage service, coupled with Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi's assumption of the post of Director of Israeli military intelligence- IMI has put in place two important pieces of the sweeping reform which Israel's intelligence-espionage-clandestine system is quietly undergoing.
Israel's three cloak-and-dagger agencies are in the process of being reoriented on operations rather than intelligence-gathering and analysis, intelligence sources report.
Furthermore, the Mossad is to be recognized as the senior clandestine agency tasked with covert operations, including those conducted by Israel Defense Forces-IDF combat units.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are directing this radical rearrangement of the national military and intelligence order, conducting the system's first shakeup since the 2006 Hizballah-Israel war.
In the summer of that year, the Israeli armored columns advancing into southern Lebanon up to the northern banks of the Litani River were unable to smash Hizballah's military strength.
To redress the imbalance, IDF commandos struck deep behind enemy lines twice.
The first raid on August 2, 2006 aimed at seizing Hizballah command centers around the ancient city of Baalbek, about 130 Km (80 miles) north of Israel, and knock them over.
It failed because Hizballah, forewarned by the sound of the helicopter engines ferrying the Israeli troops in, were given enough time to evacuate.
Four days later, on August 5, 2006, Israeli commandos raided the Mediterranean port town of Tyre, 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of Israel, killing 27 Hizballah and Iranian Revolutionary Guard operatives, including senior commanders. [You may remember that this ole man was able to feed 2 or 3 of these guys on August 6, that evening, near Nahariya. MK Arieh Eldad said "JAV could stop the war to feed the hungry soldiers."
But, on that second time, the commandos took their lesson from the first raid and approached their target noiselessly by sea under cover of dark.
Tamir Pardo picked as covert operations master-planner!Both these operations behind Hizballah lines were supervised by Tamir Pardo, then head of the Mossad's operations branch.
It was the first time that a Mossad officer had ever been given command of an IDF special operations unit for a covert mission inside enemy territory.
This method was not applied in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009, because of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's objections.
That campaign too like the Lebanon war ended unresolved and without a clear victory for either side.
But, intelligence sources report that Olmert's successor as prime minister recalled those two raids in Lebanon.
He and the defense minister carefully studied the transformation of the American Central Intelligence Agency and its revised methods of operation in the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan into a fighting force for covert warfare under a civilian DCI as supreme commander, currently Leon Panetta.
They also took to heart US objections to using the IDF for attacking Iran's nuclear facilities.
All these factors combined to make Netanyahu, Barak and national military and intelligence chiefs realize that a drastic overhaul had become necessary for the Mossad, Military Intelligence and the Shin Bet domestic security agency and a sweeping redistribution of their tasks.
This process would have a profound impact on the IDF as well.
Four major changes are in the making therefore, according to intelligence and military sources:
Intel chiefs relieved of policy briefing, strategic analyses!1. From now on, all heads of military and intelligence organizations will be required to have background experience in field combat operations on the tactical or strategic level to qualify for appointment.
This proviso will apply to the Chief of Staff, Mossad Director, Military Intelligence Chief and Shin Bet Director.
All of them will need to be proven "field animals" – in military parlance, rather than specialists in political analysis and military strategy as heretofore.
Netanyahu and his advisers no longer want to hear intelligence and military officers offering opinions and judgments in the realms of decision-making and statecraft.
This ruling will apply to the sort of briefings to cabinet and other closed forums heard recently, in which the Mossad and IMI Directors informed policy-makers the time was right for negotiations with Syrian President Bashar Assad, in one case, and the need to retrieve ties with Ankara at all costs and ignore Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan's implacable hostility - in another.
From now on, elected policy-makers alone will be responsible for diplomacy and strategic planning and judgments.
All they want to hear from the generals and spymasters is recommendations on such matters as covert operations for halting Iran's nuclear progress and the flow of North Korean rockets to Iran, and from Iran and Syria to Hizballah.
In the event of war, they will first demand plans for Mossad and IMI special operations behind enemy lines for sabotage, and only in their wake, dispatch the armored and armored infantry columns to breach them.
To enforce homeland security, special Shin Bet commando units will be deployed deep inside Palestinian territory and Israeli Arab population centers while the IDF commando units are fighting on the front.
Only field combat experts need apply for top jobs!
These directions are strongly blazed by the latest military and intelligence appointments.
Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, a field operations tactician of the first rank with little interest in politics and policy-making has just been appointed Israel's next Chief of Staff after Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi.
Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh, even more of a "field animal" has been chosen as his deputy. His strengths lie in his ability to focus totally on preparing the armed forces for war and skills in setting up surgical field operations.
Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, the new Military Intelligence chief is another field operations man who hails from the Paratroops Brigade's special commando unit and command off the Gaza front.
Kochavi has no previous experience in the intelligence trade. While managing the IMI Corps' several departments, he is expected to concentrate on expanding undercover combat units and enhancing their operational capabilities, for which he is amply qualified.
Tamir Pardo will perform similar functions in the Mossad.
Netanyahu has not yet selected the next Shin Bet Director to follow Yuval Diskin, who retires after three decades of clandestine activity and management.
Intelligence sources report that all three candidates are insiders of the organization who came up through the ranks and are active field operations men.
2. Of the three services, the Mossad faces the most radical change in its character, structure and methods of operation.
The drawing-up of strategic assessment studies, developing policy guidelines and generating ties with governments which have no formal relations with Israel will be transferred to the National Security Council headed now by Dr. Uzi Arad, a former Mossad officer himself.
Mossad and its chief promoted to command of all covert operations!While the Mossad's glory days of running networks in the US, Russia, China and Europe recede into the distant past, it emerges from its traditional chrysalis as Israel's primary covert military force, whose intelligence-gathering duties are limited to operational needs.
3. ME intelligence sources report that, after obtaining the defense minister's acquiescence, the prime minister has assigned Tamir Pardo additional high office as head of the Committee of Israeli Intelligence Directors, a body still in formation.
This position is equivalent to America's Director of National Intelligence-DNI and places him at the top of the national intelligence pyramid.
In this role and as architect of the Mossad's reshaping into the national covert special combat force, he rises in rank as the equal of IDF Chief of Staff.
4. This wholesale reform will no doubt be reflected in the national defense budget, Israel's largest, and necessitate a fundamental redistribution of appropriations between the military and intelligence.
Military sources predict the transfer of large slices of the cake from the military to the clandestine agencies arising from shifts in manpower and combat and logistical resources.
It will have to be decided, for example, whether the new covert combat force is to be equipped with autonomous air, naval and logistical arms or draw on IDF support in these fields.
It may also be decided to furnish the intelligence force with a UAV arm like the CIA.
After looking at Israel today, tomorrow, I shall write you how these events have taken hold over in Iran.
JIM VINEYARD
YEDIDIM OF ISRAEL
www.yedidimofisrael.com
Dear Pastors:
I am preparing to leave for California, where I shall be able to see our son John, his wife Dawn, and their two boys, Brad and Zach. Dawn’s Dad, Dr. Max Price is there working with Jim Crall in Dr. Stewart McBirney’s Church in Glendale, California, and so will be able to see him too.
I am preaching all day Sunday for Dr. Ezekiel Salazar in the LA area and then will be with Vice Prime Minister Moshe "Boogie" Ya’alon, my friend, on Monday night, Tuesday noon, and Tuesday night. David Sloan and his mother will be there with us.
From the Middle East I have gathered the below and thought you’d find it interesting.
First, his week's appointment of Tamir Pardo, 57, as Director of Mossad, Israel's external espionage service, coupled with Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi's assumption of the post of Director of Israeli military intelligence- IMI has put in place two important pieces of the sweeping reform which Israel's intelligence-espionage-clandestine system is quietly undergoing.
Israel's three cloak-and-dagger agencies are in the process of being reoriented on operations rather than intelligence-gathering and analysis, intelligence sources report.
Furthermore, the Mossad is to be recognized as the senior clandestine agency tasked with covert operations, including those conducted by Israel Defense Forces-IDF combat units.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are directing this radical rearrangement of the national military and intelligence order, conducting the system's first shakeup since the 2006 Hizballah-Israel war.
In the summer of that year, the Israeli armored columns advancing into southern Lebanon up to the northern banks of the Litani River were unable to smash Hizballah's military strength.
To redress the imbalance, IDF commandos struck deep behind enemy lines twice.
The first raid on August 2, 2006 aimed at seizing Hizballah command centers around the ancient city of Baalbek, about 130 Km (80 miles) north of Israel, and knock them over.
It failed because Hizballah, forewarned by the sound of the helicopter engines ferrying the Israeli troops in, were given enough time to evacuate.
Four days later, on August 5, 2006, Israeli commandos raided the Mediterranean port town of Tyre, 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of Israel, killing 27 Hizballah and Iranian Revolutionary Guard operatives, including senior commanders. [You may remember that this ole man was able to feed 2 or 3 of these guys on August 6, that evening, near Nahariya. MK Arieh Eldad said "JAV could stop the war to feed the hungry soldiers."
But, on that second time, the commandos took their lesson from the first raid and approached their target noiselessly by sea under cover of dark.
Tamir Pardo picked as covert operations master-planner!Both these operations behind Hizballah lines were supervised by Tamir Pardo, then head of the Mossad's operations branch.
It was the first time that a Mossad officer had ever been given command of an IDF special operations unit for a covert mission inside enemy territory.
This method was not applied in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009, because of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's objections.
That campaign too like the Lebanon war ended unresolved and without a clear victory for either side.
But, intelligence sources report that Olmert's successor as prime minister recalled those two raids in Lebanon.
He and the defense minister carefully studied the transformation of the American Central Intelligence Agency and its revised methods of operation in the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan into a fighting force for covert warfare under a civilian DCI as supreme commander, currently Leon Panetta.
They also took to heart US objections to using the IDF for attacking Iran's nuclear facilities.
All these factors combined to make Netanyahu, Barak and national military and intelligence chiefs realize that a drastic overhaul had become necessary for the Mossad, Military Intelligence and the Shin Bet domestic security agency and a sweeping redistribution of their tasks.
This process would have a profound impact on the IDF as well.
Four major changes are in the making therefore, according to intelligence and military sources:
Intel chiefs relieved of policy briefing, strategic analyses!1. From now on, all heads of military and intelligence organizations will be required to have background experience in field combat operations on the tactical or strategic level to qualify for appointment.
This proviso will apply to the Chief of Staff, Mossad Director, Military Intelligence Chief and Shin Bet Director.
All of them will need to be proven "field animals" – in military parlance, rather than specialists in political analysis and military strategy as heretofore.
Netanyahu and his advisers no longer want to hear intelligence and military officers offering opinions and judgments in the realms of decision-making and statecraft.
This ruling will apply to the sort of briefings to cabinet and other closed forums heard recently, in which the Mossad and IMI Directors informed policy-makers the time was right for negotiations with Syrian President Bashar Assad, in one case, and the need to retrieve ties with Ankara at all costs and ignore Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan's implacable hostility - in another.
From now on, elected policy-makers alone will be responsible for diplomacy and strategic planning and judgments.
All they want to hear from the generals and spymasters is recommendations on such matters as covert operations for halting Iran's nuclear progress and the flow of North Korean rockets to Iran, and from Iran and Syria to Hizballah.
In the event of war, they will first demand plans for Mossad and IMI special operations behind enemy lines for sabotage, and only in their wake, dispatch the armored and armored infantry columns to breach them.
To enforce homeland security, special Shin Bet commando units will be deployed deep inside Palestinian territory and Israeli Arab population centers while the IDF commando units are fighting on the front.
Only field combat experts need apply for top jobs!
These directions are strongly blazed by the latest military and intelligence appointments.
Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, a field operations tactician of the first rank with little interest in politics and policy-making has just been appointed Israel's next Chief of Staff after Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi.
Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh, even more of a "field animal" has been chosen as his deputy. His strengths lie in his ability to focus totally on preparing the armed forces for war and skills in setting up surgical field operations.
Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, the new Military Intelligence chief is another field operations man who hails from the Paratroops Brigade's special commando unit and command off the Gaza front.
Kochavi has no previous experience in the intelligence trade. While managing the IMI Corps' several departments, he is expected to concentrate on expanding undercover combat units and enhancing their operational capabilities, for which he is amply qualified.
Tamir Pardo will perform similar functions in the Mossad.
Netanyahu has not yet selected the next Shin Bet Director to follow Yuval Diskin, who retires after three decades of clandestine activity and management.
Intelligence sources report that all three candidates are insiders of the organization who came up through the ranks and are active field operations men.
2. Of the three services, the Mossad faces the most radical change in its character, structure and methods of operation.
The drawing-up of strategic assessment studies, developing policy guidelines and generating ties with governments which have no formal relations with Israel will be transferred to the National Security Council headed now by Dr. Uzi Arad, a former Mossad officer himself.
Mossad and its chief promoted to command of all covert operations!While the Mossad's glory days of running networks in the US, Russia, China and Europe recede into the distant past, it emerges from its traditional chrysalis as Israel's primary covert military force, whose intelligence-gathering duties are limited to operational needs.
3. ME intelligence sources report that, after obtaining the defense minister's acquiescence, the prime minister has assigned Tamir Pardo additional high office as head of the Committee of Israeli Intelligence Directors, a body still in formation.
This position is equivalent to America's Director of National Intelligence-DNI and places him at the top of the national intelligence pyramid.
In this role and as architect of the Mossad's reshaping into the national covert special combat force, he rises in rank as the equal of IDF Chief of Staff.
4. This wholesale reform will no doubt be reflected in the national defense budget, Israel's largest, and necessitate a fundamental redistribution of appropriations between the military and intelligence.
Military sources predict the transfer of large slices of the cake from the military to the clandestine agencies arising from shifts in manpower and combat and logistical resources.
It will have to be decided, for example, whether the new covert combat force is to be equipped with autonomous air, naval and logistical arms or draw on IDF support in these fields.
It may also be decided to furnish the intelligence force with a UAV arm like the CIA.
After looking at Israel today, tomorrow, I shall write you how these events have taken hold over in Iran.
JIM VINEYARD
YEDIDIM OF ISRAEL
www.yedidimofisrael.com
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