Mideast Crisis: By David Dolan

[TomT]

Re: Mideast Crisis: By David Dolan

I could be wrong (no rare event), but can't satellite technology "see" and record where missiles come from? Don't they leave a heat trail? If so, ???

I'd just like to see the location of these infernal rocket launches against Israel ..... ummmm .... cease to exist. Can it be that every single rocket is from a new location?

This is a part of what I talking/posting about yesterday about the US "supporting" Israel more. Am I merely seeing too many movies with high tech baloney? There has got to be numerous US and Israeli satellites parked over the ME, I would think, seeing just about everything.

Now, I have NO doubt they are doing their best to stop Hizbollah, but it seems the rockets not only keep coming unabated, but with increasing frequency. What gives?

Issachar

That seems to be totally true for larger missiles the size of scuds, etc (which are not in use at this time)

The size of rockets being used with a 40k range are of a relatively smaller size and the distance travelled that the IDF (using Patriot battery radars) is only able to provide a one minute warning to incoming.

Likewise the firing of this rockets is of such a small signature it would be hard to detect at all....

As to movement, everything I have seen and read seems to indicate exactly that - i.e. the terrorists move from location to location with these easily truck transported rockets to avoid being pinpointed a second or third time in the same spot - and of course they are hiding and firing from literally hundreds of positions that sit right in the middle of various small villages...

[Andy]

Re: Mideast Crisis: By David Dolan

Today's Report

JULY 24, 6:00 PM

Shalom from Jerusalem,

It seems apparent today that Israeli forces are slowing winning their intense thirteen day battle with the extremist Shiite Muslim Hizbullah militia. However the cost of that victory is growing substantially, with the Israeli military death and wounded toll increasing virtually every hour. As of 5:30 PM, around 70 rockets have landed on Israeli cities or towns after more than 90 struck Israel on Sunday, killing an Arab carpentry worker and a Jewish motorist in Haifa, and wounding many others. A home in Kiryat Shmona did take a direct hit this afternoon, and other rockets landed in Tiberius, in areas around Haifa, in Safed and in several other locations.

Analysts say today’s slightly less intense rocket barrage is largely because of non-stop Israeli air action over the past 48 hours to take out Shiite rocket launchers near the coastal Lebanese town of Tyre (it should be noted that no air strikes have been reported inside of the town since the start of the conflict), and stepped up IDF ground operations further east that have Hizbullah paramilitary forces on the run.

Still, IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz warned that the Hizbullah rocket threat—even against Tel Aviv and the international airport—has not yet ended. In fact, he revealed that Israel now has concrete photographic evidence that Hizbullah does indeed possess unknown numbers of Iranian-supplied longer range missiles that can strike Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and possibly even Beersheva in the northern Negev desert. He added that such weapons would probably be saved until the final stages of the current conflict, since the larger rocket launchers needed to lob such missiles into the sky will be more easily spotted and destroyed by the IDF. So the darkest days of Israel’s latest war in terms of the number and depth of targets hit could still lie ahead.

GROUND FIGHTING INTENSIFIES

After taking control of the strategic border town of Maron a-Ras last evening after four days of heavy fighting, large numbers of Israeli soldiers poured across the border to pursue fleeing Hizbullah militiamen. Ten IDF soldiers were wounded in yesterday’s fighting, while at least that number of Hizbullah fighters were reportedly slain. The Iranian and Syrian-backed group claimed that their clear defeat was in fact a victory, issuing a statement that said: "An army that fights with excellent forces and tanks, with the assistance of an air force, that cannot go into a village directly on the border except after a battle that has continued for days with great losses against a number of opposition fighters, is a failed and defeated army.”

The Israeli ground operation going on today, led by elite Golani Brigade fighters, is designed to capture the strategic town of Bint Jibail—the main Shiite stronghold in southern Lebanon, located northeast of Maron a-Ras. Bint Jibail, which I visited in 1982, is where Shiite men from most portions of southern Lebanon gather every year to literally whip themselves into a bloody fury in the name of Allah. It is a known Hizbullah stronghold, and its capture is considered essential to crushing Shiite resistance in the south. Still it is filled with Hizbullah fighters, and its capture is expected to come only after very intense fighting. Unconfirmed, but probably reliable foreign press reports speak of heavy Israeli casualties in today’s battle, which many consider to be Hizbullah’s last major stand in southern Lebanon. Ground operations further west along the coast into the town of Tyre have not yet been sanctioned by the Israeli cabinet.

Meanwhile the Israeli military casualty toll jumped further this afternoon when a helicopter crashed after it became entangled in electric power lines near the Lebanese border. Israeli spokesman strongly denied Hizbullah claims that it had shot down the helicopter. Unconfirmed reports say two IDF pilots were killed in the tragic accident—the second involving air force helicopters in recent days.

RICE DROPS BY

As Israel’s attempts to neutralize the radical Shiite force gather pace, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the region. She surprised most analysts by heading straight to Beirut first—which may be part of the reason Israeli air strikes were largely curtailed in Shiite portions of the city today. After meeting there with Sunni Muslim Prime Minister Fuad Seniora and other Lebanese officials, she is scheduled to fly to Israel to meet here in Jerusalem this evening with senior government officials.

Rice publicly hailed Seniora for what she termed his “courage and steadfastness” in the current conflict, despite the fact that he has constantly condemned America’s main Middle East ally for supposedly destroying his country. The senior US diplomat later cancelled a scheduled news conference in the Lebanese capital for unannounced reasons.

Concerning Seniora’s repeated claims that Israel is “wrecking” Lebanon, my Lebanese contacts tell me that despite IDF air strikes on general Lebanese infrastructure that is affecting everyone, especially upon public roads and bridges and the international airport, most of the IDF targets are clear Hizbullah centers of activity, even if sometimes located in Shiite civilian areas. They say daily life in mainly Maronite Catholic East Beirut and other Christian, Sunni Muslim and Druze areas goes on with little fear of deadly rockets suddenly crashing down in those areas, unlike in every portion of northern and central Israel, including Arab villages and towns.

Meanwhile former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s comatose condition is deteriorating still further, meaning a state funeral may be looming on the horizon which would normally bring dozens of world leaders to Jerusalem. Nobody knows who might come if the veteran Israeli warrior and politician passes away during the current conflict. I will be giving a live war update this evening, at midnight local time, on the Moody Broadcasting Network’s “Prime Time America” program. If you have no MBN affiliate radio station in your area, you can listen then via their web site, www.mbn.org The interview will begin at exactly 5:00 PM EST, or 2:00 PM in the west in North America, which is 21:00 GMT. I will be doing additional TV and radio interviews later this week, including one to New Zealand, and will pass on specific information about them in future updates.

************************************************** ************************************************** **************************
DAVID DOLAN is a Jerusalem-based author and journalist who has lived in Israel since 1980. His new DVD, titled “FOR ZIONS’S SAKE—REPORTING FROM THE LAND OF THE BIBLE,” is now available on both PAL and NTCS versions. Details are posted at his web site, www.ddolan.com
• HOLY WAR FOR THE PROMISED LAND (Broadman & Holman), his latest book, is an overview of the history of the Israel and of the bitter Arab-Israeli conflict that rages there, plus some autobiographical details about the author’s experiences living in the land since 1980. It especially examines the important role that militant Islam plays in the conflict.
•
• ISRAEL IN CRISIS: WHAT LIES AHEAD? (Baker/Revell), which examines the political and biblical prospects for a regional attack upon Israel, settlement in the disputed territories, and related topics, is also available for purchase, along with an updated edition of his end-time novel, THE END OF DAYS (21st Century Press).
You may order these books at a special discount price by visiting his web site at www.ddolan.com, or by phoning 888-890-6938 in North America, or by e mail at: resources@yourisraelconnection.org
TO RECEIVE THESE FREE ISRAEL UPDATES DIRECTLY, FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS BELOW. YOU WILL ONLY RECEIVE DAVID DOLAN'S UPDATE AND ANALYSIS INFORMATION FROM THIS ADDRESS. THE LIST WILL NOT BE TRADED OR SOLD.

TO SUBSCRIBE (or to unsubscribe), GO TO his web site, www.ddolan.com or to: http://www.ddolan.com/subscribe.asp

[Andy]

Re: Mideast Crisis: By David Dolan

Tuesday, 7/25/2006 - wow, at first glance, this is GOOD!

JULY 25, 6:30 PM

Shalom from Jerusalem,

Below is my latest commentary for the World Net Daily web site, to be published this week. It naturally concerns the current Mideast crisis, focusing especially on how American policy toward Iran over the years has contributed to the crisis. Some readers in particular may not like my comments as to how the war in Iraq has affected the situation, but it has been my consistent position regarding that controversial issue since before the battle began in March 2003. I warned then in a WND commentary that the situation there would probably end up closely resembling what Israel encountered in Lebanon in the 1990s, as has sadly been exactly the case.

In today war news, as visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was meeting with Israeli officials in Jerusalem—calling for a “sustainable ceasefire,” in other words not necessarily an immediate one—a 15 year old Druze girl was sadly slain when Hizbullah rockets crashed down on a mixed Arab-Druze village in the Galilee region. The rocket made a direct hit on her family home in the village of Marar, located next door to the community mosque. Several other residents of the mixed Arab Muslim, Druze and Arab Christian village were wounded in the strike. (By the way, the Haifa worker that was killed in a rocket strike on a Haifa carpentry shop on Sunday was actually not an Arab as initially reported in the Israeli media, but an Armenian Christian).

In Haifa, an elderly Jewish man suffered a heart attack and died this afternoon as he was rushing to a bomb shelter while sirens sounded yet again in the port city, signalling a second wave of Syrian and Iranian-provided rocket strikes today (16 rockets landed earlier, most in open spaces next to apartment buildings and a hospital in what Mayor Yonah Yahav called a “miraculous” development). However one apartment building did sustain heavy damage in a direct strike, and another rocket struck next to a city bus. Overall some 50 people had sustained wounds by early evening as dozens of Hizbullah rockets rained down once again all across northern Israel. Overnight, a longer-range Iranian-made rocket was fired at Israel, but thankfully landed harmlessly in the sea.

Israeli military officials announced that they had taken out a number of Hizbullah rocket launchers in air strikes around the Lebanese port city of Tyre this afternoon. Air force jets were also in action for the first time in two days around the Lebanese capital, Beirut. This came as IDF Intelligence Chief Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the situation in the region is "explosive.” He added that although intelligence officials do not believe that either Syria or Iran wants to become directly involved in the conflict, Syria has placed its military forces on “the highest state of alert.” He warned that Hizbullah leaders are “trying to instigate, to force, another front for Israel with Syria.” Yadin said Iran provides around $100 million in direct aid to Hizbullah each year, and opined that it is probable both Iran and Syria have urged that longer-range rockets that can strike Tel Aviv be mostly held in abeyance until the final phase of the conflict, in order to drag it out as long as possible.

Meanwhile army officials said they were certain that Iranian personnel had joined the two day fight for control over the south Lebanese Shiite town of Bint Jabail. They said the Iranians were spotted commanding the Lebanese militiamen. An army spokesman said the IDF was now in basic control of Bint Jabail, although he admitted that dozens of Hizbullah fighters are still thought to be holed up in buildings in the town of some 20,000 residents, who had mostly fled north before the fighting began. He added that an estimated 40 to 50 Hizbullah fighters had lost their lives in the intense battle. Two Israeli soldiers were also killed, along with two air force pilots killed in a mysterious helicopter crash on the edge of the battle.

I will be interviewed on radio programs this week in both the UK and New Zealand, along with frequent updates on the US Moody radio network. The interview in New Zealand can be heard on the nationwide Rhema radio network at around 11:10 AM on Wednesday morning. The UK interview will air throughout Europe on UBC Europe (Satellite/NTL Cable channel 0125) on Thursday at 6:15 AM and 11:00 PM UK time, and will also be repeated on Sunday at 1:00 PM.

THE ROARING IRANIAN RAT
By David Dolan

Ultimate responsibility for the intense fighting between Israeli and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon can be directly traced to several American presidents, especially to one Democrat who has been busy building houses ever since he left the Big Bungalow on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Fearing an East-West clash of apocalyptic proportions, Lyndon Johnson thought it best to confront the powerful Soviet Union and China in an indirect manner. He would inflate John F. Kennedy’s mini-war against Soviet and Chinese-backed fighters in relatively insignificant Viet Nam into a major conflict. His successor, Richard Nixon, further fanned the flames before finally agreeing to a ceasefire in January 1973. After the Communist north violated it, Nixon rushed to pull remaining war weary US forces out of the southern half of the divided Southeast Asian country, climaxing with a humiliating final retreat in April 1975. As expected, South Viet Nam was then completely overran by Communist fighters, who subsequently proved uninterested in conquering their neighbors as part of the dreaded “domino” disaster that had long been forecast if America did not decisively win the costly war.

Tired of overseas adventures, a majority of American voters were then ready to scale back their country’s international policeman role. This led to Jimmy Carter’s election as Commander in Chief in 1976 after running on a fairly pacifist platform.

During the latter years of his watch, a turban bound mullah named Ruhollah Khomeini took over a Middle East country called Iran. His January 1979 Shiite Islamic Revolution was met with shocked surprise in Washington, which was then obsessed with Soviet designs on nearby Afghanistan. After all, the radical Muslims were our allies against the red superpower giant that was preparing to end all life on planet earth in some insane nuclear showdown—not!!

The Muslim fundamentalist leader was fit as a fiddle to move to Tehran and take over the reigns of power. This was largely because Carter had naively allowed him to come to America the previous October to receive first class medical attention.

After ousting the pro-West Shah, the Shiite Ayatollah repaid Carter’s kindness by sanctioning the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran. Over 50 Americans, mostly government diplomats and employees, were taken captive in the November 1979 action, being held hostage for over one year. Operating in the still strong shadow of the Viet Nam fiasco, Carter refused to see the seizure for what it was—a clear act of war—and ordered relatively feeble (and definitely ineffective) military measures to free the hostages, who were only released when Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president in January 1981.

Flagging American resolve to take on its declared enemies when actually necessary was thankfully reversed during the Reagan years. But the tall ex-actor also contributed to the current Mideast crisis. Fearing an atomic showdown with Moscow, he ordered Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to cancel his Defense Minister’s rational plan to fully oust Syrian occupation forces from all of Lebanon in 1982. Thus Ariel Sharon’s prescient goal to free Lebanon from Syrian (and thus Iranian) domination was thwarted, which opened the door for Khomeini to establish an enduring alliance with Syria that rapidly led to the formation of the extremist Lebanese Hezbollah militia.

The Shiite force quickly proved to be a faithful Iranian-Syrian anti-American puppet when its operatives destroyed US Marines barracks in Beirut in October 1983—the deadliest terrorist atrocity against American servicemen to this day. But this clear act of war was also basically ignored by Soviet-obsessed White House personnel, who simply ordered a humiliating retreat from the battle zone. Hezbollah-Iran-Syria had won, and this fact would set the tone for their later “victory” over war weary Israeli forces that were rushed from the Land of the Cedars in a virtual summer re-run of the US flight from Saigon.

The May 2000 Israeli getaway left its faithful Maronite-run South Lebanese Army allies dazed and confused, and in instant mortal danger from advancing Hezbollah forces. This guaranteed that no Lebanese Christian groups would ever fully ally themselves again with the Jewish-run state.

Meanwhile Iran had succeeded in crushing the US-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian “land for peace” process. It began supplying weapons and training to Hamas and Islamic Jihad Palestinian terrorists—mainly via Hezbollah channels—soon after the 1993 Oslo peace accord was signed on the White House lawn by Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin. Emulating Hezbollah’s mushrooming suicide attacks against IDF soldiers in Lebanon, Hamas launched its first deadly bus bombing in April 1994, followed by a flood of such wicked assaults in early 1996. Two months later, Hezbollah let loose with a massive rocket blitz upon northern Israel, leading to the election of Binyamin Netanyahu in May, and the total collapse of the peace process four years later.

And so we come to today. Israel has been forced to re-enter Lebanon and the Gaza Strip with its relatively big guns blazing, leading to inevitable Arab and international condemnation. Its unilateral pullouts from both places—demanded by Lebanese and Palestinian leaders—have been tragically reversed amid a flood of blood. All this as Iran’s outrageous “president,” under orders from Chief Dictator Ayatollah Khameini, repeatedly vows to wipe Israel off of the Middle East map, probably with nuclear weapons.

Is the current White House occupant finally ready to admit that the insidious theocratic Iranian regime has long ago declared war to the death not only against its main Mideast ally Israel, but also against America? Stay tuned. I’m not overly optimistic that the gravity of Iran’s threat to Western interests is fully understood yet in Washington’s halls of power, given that so much time, money and military lives have been spent going after a regional mouse named Saddam, followed by hopeless attempts to bring enduring “democracy” (how about simple stability?) to his basket case, internally divided country. All of that has only served to divert vital attention from the far more dangerous Regional Rat lurking right next door—Iran—and its supplicant surrogates Syria and Hezbollah.



************************************************** ************************************************** **************************

DAVID DOLAN is a Jerusalem-based author and journalist who has lived in Israel since 1980. His new DVD, titled “FOR ZIONS’S SAKE—REPORTING FROM THE LAND OF THE BIBLE,” is now available on both PAL and NTCS versions. Details are posted at his web site, www.ddolan.com

HOLY WAR FOR THE PROMISED LAND (Broadman & Holman), his latest book, is an overview of the history of the Israel and of the bitter Arab-Israeli conflict that rages there, plus some autobiographical details about the author’s experiences living in the land since 1980. It especially examines the important role that militant Islam plays in the conflict.

ISRAEL IN CRISIS: WHAT LIES AHEAD? (Baker/Revell), which examines the political and biblical prospects for a regional attack upon Israel, settlement in the disputed territories, and related topics, is also available for purchase, along with an updated edition of his end-time novel, THE END OF DAYS (21st Century Press).
You may order these books at a special discount price by visiting his web site at www.ddolan.com, or by phoning 888-890-6938 in North America, or by e mail at: resources@yourisraelconnection.org

TO RECEIVE THESE FREE ISRAEL UPDATES DIRECTLY, FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS BELOW. YOU WILL ONLY RECEIVE DAVID DOLAN'S UPDATE AND ANALYSIS INFORMATION FROM THIS ADDRESS. THE LIST WILL NOT BE TRADED OR SOLD.

TO SUBSCRIBE (or to unsubscribe), GO TO his web site, www.ddolan.com or to: http://www.ddolan.com/subscribe.asp

[Glorify Him]

Re: Mideast Crisis: By David Dolan

Boy, he sure lays out the history in the region well. IMHO he is accurate regarding Iran. Sadly, I doubt that the US has the resolve or capability (being stretched in Afghanistan and Iraq), to take on the insane and mho demonicly inspired leadership of Iran. To me, it is pretty much a given that they will get nukes, if they don't already have some suitcase size by now.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter what we in the US, or any other country do. God has his timetable--and functions on that, not ours.

[beeleever]

Re: Mideast Crisis: By David Dolan

I believe it does matter what the US does.
I believe it matters prophetically and even spiritually.
I also believe our prayers ---individually matter tremendously.
Just another day closer to heaven anyway you look at it!

[Andy]

Re: Mideast Crisis: By David Dolan

Wednesday's update

WEDNESDAY JULY 26, 6:00 PM

Shalom from Jerusalem,

Dozens of Hizbullah rockets bombarded many parts of northern Israel this afternoon, including Tiberius and Haifa, wounding over 30 people by 5:30 PM, one critically. This came after Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened again last night to rain longer range rockets upon Tel Aviv, which has been placed under a major security alert this afternoon after intelligence information was received that a terror attack was about to be launched in the area.

The latest rocket blitz came on a day that has turned out to be the deadliest for Israeli military forces since Hizbullah suddenly lobbed rockets into northern Israel exactly two weeks ago today to cover an unprovoked cross border raid designed to kidnap IDF soldiers. The deaths came on the first day of the Hebrew month of Av, when Jews traditionally mourn the destruction of the first and second temples in ancient times, and other catastrophes that have befallen the Jewish people over the centuries. At least nine IDF soldiers were reportedly killed in today’s fighting, and over two dozen others wounded. This came during intense close quarter combat in the south Lebanese Shiite town of Bint Jabail, located some three miles north of Israel’s border with Lebanon. I noted yesterday that while Israel said it had secured overall control of the strategic town, hundreds of heavily armed Hizbullah militiamen were believed to be hiding inside buildings nearly empty of civilian residents. The sheltered fighters suddenly emerged at dawn to engage IDF troops surrounding the town, with horrific results. The army said some of the heaviest fire came from inside a mosque near the edge of town.

The severe combat broke out as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert indicated that Israel would establish a two kilometer border buffer zone all along the international border in order to prevent future Hizbullah infiltrations into Israeli territory, and to push rocket launchers a bit further back from civilian targets in Israel. Olmert outlined the plan in a closed-door meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, reportedly telling legislators that, "We want a two-kilometer space from the border in which it will not be possible to fire rockets toward soldiers and civilian houses, and in which there will not be contact with military border patrols." Just how long Israel might control the new buffer security zone was not spelled out. Olmert is thought to want some sort of international force to take over the area as quickly as possible so as not to give Hizbullah and its regional backers an excuse to continue rocket and ground attacks from Lebanese territory.

Such a force was apparently discussed at an international summit in Rome today, but no concrete decisions were apparently taken, nor was there a unified call for an immediate ceasefire. Israeli officals were said to be dismayed by comments made after the summit by Lebanese Prime Minister Siniora. He began by blasting Israel for supposedly “destroying his country” in order to “bring it to its knees” (he said two days ago that an Israeli air strike on a mosque in Sidon that was filled with Hizbullah weapons was “worse than anything that happened in all of World War Two”!!). Later the Sunni politician lectured Israeli officials on the need to make peace with the Palestinians and all regional Arab countries—as if it was not Hizbullah and its Syrian and Iranian masters who successfully destroyed the “land for peace” Oslo peace process that was meant to do just that, mainly via the economic and weapons aid they have given since the early 1990s to their Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist comrades.

UN DEATHS

Meanwhile Israeli officials were busy dealing with the heavy political fallout from what they all insited was an accidental shelling last evening of a UN outpost in El Khiyam, not far from the main south Lebanese Maronite Christian town of Marjayoun. Four UN “peacekeeping” soldiers were killed in the incident—from Canada, China, Finland and Austria. Officials were dismayed when UN Secretary General Kofi Annan angrily declared that the IDF had “apparently deliberatly targeted” the outpost. Some government leaders privately termed the comment anti-Semitic, dredging up the old canard of evil Jews wantonly killing Gentiles in order to drink or cook with their blood. They said it was absurd to suggest that professionally trained IDF army commanders—in the middle of an intense conflict that has already drawn widespread condemnations of Israel for supposedly using excessive and disproportunate force—had deliberately given an order to slaughter UN soldiers from countries that Israel has close diplomatic and business ties with.

PM Olmert phoned Annan this morning to offer his condolences for the tragic deaths, and to assure him that the shelling was not at all intentional. He said he would order an immediate investigation into the incident, adding that the results would be quickly forwarded to UN officials. Demonstrating again his apparent disdain for Israel, Annan insisted on a joint investigation. Israeli officials noted that Hizbullah often used the ground right around such UN outposts during the 1980 and 90s to shoot rockets at IDF forces, knowing that understandably intimidated UN personell would not dare to stop them. In fact, UN commanders filed complaints several times over such activity, which was seemingly also going on again during yesterday’s heavy artillery and rocket exchanges in the area.

Indeed, the UN’s own chief humanitarian officer, Jan Egeland, admitted on Monday after visiting Beirut that Hizbullah fighters were deliberately stationing themselves among Lebanese Shiite civilians to reduce their own militia casualties, knowing Israel is reluctant to strike such areas. The radical Shiite group would presumably care even less if non-Muslim infidels are killed by IDF fire in the fighting, especially knowing it would bring world wrath upon the Jewish State. Egeland said Hizbullah “must stop this cowardly blending among women and children," adding that he had “heard they are proud because they have lost very few fighters, and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men."

Israel’s two Chief Rabbis have called for intensive prayer on behalf of the soldiers who have crossed into Hizbullah’s heartland territory in Lebanon. Large crowds gathered last night at the Western Wall in Jerusalem to recite psalms and cry out to the Almighty for His mercy and protection at this dangerous time. Similar gatherings are planned for this evening, and indeed for every evening that the conflict continues.

************************************************** ************************************************** **************************

DAVID DOLAN is a Jerusalem-based author and journalist who has lived in Israel since 1980. His new DVD, titled “FOR ZIONS’S SAKE—REPORTING FROM THE LAND OF THE BIBLE,” is now available on both PAL and NTCS versions. Details are posted at his web site, www.ddolan.com

HOLY WAR FOR THE PROMISED LAND (Broadman & Holman), his latest book, is an overview of the history of the Israel and of the bitter Arab-Israeli conflict that rages there, plus some autobiographical details about the author’s experiences living in the land since 1980. It especially examines the important role that militant Islam plays in the conflict.

ISRAEL IN CRISIS: WHAT LIES AHEAD? (Baker/Revell), which examines the political and biblical prospects for a regional attack upon Israel, settlement in the disputed territories, and related topics, is also available for purchase, along with an updated edition of his end-time novel, THE END OF DAYS (21st Century Press).
You may order these books at a special discount price by visiting his web site at www.ddolan.com, or by phoning 888-890-6938 in North America, or by e mail at: resources@yourisraelconnection.org

TO RECEIVE THESE FREE ISRAEL UPDATES DIRECTLY, FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS BELOW. YOU WILL ONLY RECEIVE DAVID DOLAN'S UPDATE AND ANALYSIS INFORMATION FROM THIS ADDRESS. THE LIST WILL NOT BE TRADED OR SOLD.

TO SUBSCRIBE (or to unsubscribe), GO TO his web site, www.ddolan.com or to: http://www.ddolan.com/subscribe.asp

[Glorify Him]

Re: Mideast Crisis: By David Dolan

Boy, I love the image of the Rabbis calling for intense prayer, and people going to the Western Wall. It is such a special place.

[Andy]

Re: Mideast Crisis: By David Dolan

Thursday's report

JULY 27, 6:30 PM

Shalom from Jerusalem,

Late reports say that Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has revealed that kidnapped 19 year old Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, abducted by Hamas terrorists next to the Gaza Strip one month ago, may soon be released. However Israeli officials say they have no knowledge of this. The reports came just after a Hizbullah rocket set a chemical-filled factory ablaze in the northern Galilee town of Kiryat Shmona late this afternoon, sending the chemicals up in smoke. However no casualties were reported in the attack. The town of nearly 20,000 is nearly empty of its residents, who earlier fled to safer locations further south. Two homes also took direct hits in today’s rocket strikes. Despite the Hizbullah assaults, Israeli officials noted a drop in the number of rockets flying across the international border today, although over 10 Israeli civilian communities were struck, wounding around a dozen people by 6:00 PM. Over 150 rockets crashed down yesterday—the heaviest barrage yet in the two week war. Israeli officials say that 19 people, including several children, have perished so far in the daily rocket assaults, while over 1,300 civilians have been wounded, around 100 of them seriously (some have lost limbs and eyesight in the strikes, due mainly to the thousands of ball bearings that Hizbullah wickedly packs into the 80 pound warheads to increase civilian casualties). Another 600 people have been treated for shock.

Today’s relatively lighter rocket barrage was thought to be at least partially the result of the targeted destruction late yesterday of a ten story apartment building in the coastal town of Tyre, where Hizbullah’s southern commander was believed to operate his headquarters. No Hizbullah rocket firings were reported from the area for the first time in over two weeks, giving hard hit Haifa its quietest day this week. Despite hysterical Arab and foreign media reports claiming that a war crime had been committed in the Israeli air strike, which leveled the building, local officials admitted today that the 40 apartments were empty of their occupants (apparently they knew who lived amongst them), and only the building janitor was killed.

Meanwhile the Israeli inner security cabinet—meeting in a special emergency session for several hours today at military headquarters in Tel Aviv—decided not to authorize an army plan to launch a land incursion into the Tyre area, a major Hizbullah stronghold. Cabinet ministers, who include a number of ex-army generals, agreed with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that ground forces would only operate relatively close to the international border for the time being. However the cabinet did decide to authorize the calling up of more reserve soldiers to give serving troops a break from the recent heavy action. This came as army leaders said they needed a few more weeks to neutralize the Hizbullah threat.

VALE OF TEARS

Hundreds of Israelis are attending funerals around this small country today for the nine soldiers killed in yesterday’s fierce combat, eight of them in the Shiite town of Bint Jabail. The dead included an immigrant from Ethiopia. Over 20 soldiers remain hospitalized following the intense fighting, most of them in very serious condition. Fighting continued again today in the Bint Jabail area. The Air Force also struck a Lebanese army base north of Beirut that was believed to be sending radar information about Israeli warships and jets to Hizbullah militia leaders. This came amid media reports that some Shiite members of the regular Lebanese army are feeding intelligence information to Hizbullah, along with Syria.

In other developments, UN officers in southern Lebanon admitted today that Hizbullah fighters have been shooting at Israeli positions from ground next to UN outposts, in an apparent attempt to draw return Israeli fire. This came as a Kuwaiti media outlet claimed that Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah had fled Lebanon in an armored vehicle in order to meet with Iranian and Syrian leaders in Damascus. Several reports in the Lebanese media today claimed that Nasrallah now desires an immediate ceasefire, apparently realizing that his militiamen are getting pummeled by superior Israeli forces. Israeli press reports said yesterday that the Shiite Sheik was holed up in the basement of the Iranian embassy in Beirut, certain that Israel would not dare strike the complex.

Al Qaida jumped into the fray today as Al Jazeera television broadcast a tape from Osama Bin Laden’s chief deputy, Iman Zawahiri, calling for stepped up Muslim terror strikes against Israeli targets to support Palestinian Hamas and Hizbullah forces. He also called for a stepped up jihad holy war against Israel and the West until Islam reigns supreme from “Spain to Iraq.” Israel Radio also reported today that Al Qaida-backed Palestinian terror cells located in south Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee neighborhoods have joined the fighting, and may have also fired some rockets into Israel, as they claimed to do several months ago. This came as IDF forces stepped up their military campaign overnight to locate kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in the Gaza Strip, killing a large number of Palestinian fighters and, sadly, also some nearby women and children. As noted above, media reports in the past few minutes claim that PA leader Mahmoud Abbas will soon announce that the abducted soldier will soon be released.

IRISH BOG AND PSALM 83

The announcement in Ireland this week that an ancient book, dated to 800-1000 AD, was discovered last week by a construction worker digging in a bog has been gladly received here in Israel, especially by Orthodox Jewish leaders. The fact that it was opened to a page containing Psalm 83—which Israel’s two Chief Rabbis urged be recited just one day before the discovery was announced as part of worldwide spiritual campaign to support IDF troops in Lebanon—is being seen as a sign from On High by many people. I am quoted in a story about this published today on the front page mast of the World Net Daily web site, which also carries my latest commentary on its editorial page. Here is a portion of that article:



TROUBLE IN THE HOLY LAND
'Psalm in a bog' linked to Israel's current war
Some say Scripture find in Ireland has meaning with present conflict

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted: July 26, 2006
By Joe Kovacs
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

The "miraculous" find of an ancient psalms in an Irish bog has some wondering if there's any special modern relevance, since the discovery dealt with the enemies of Israel attempting to destroy the nation. The bog find was heralded by the Irish museum on Tuesday, one day after a call for global prayer on behalf of Israel. Psalm 83 was one of the three psalms recited at various locations worldwide on Tuesday at the request of the governing council of Israel's Chief Rabbinate.

In his book, “Israel in Crisis,” author David Dolan dedicates an entire chapter to Psalm 83. "I detail who the protagonists are in the psalm, and then go on to talk about when it might be fulfilled," he told WND.

If you are interested in reading my thoughts on that important and seemingly timely psalm, you can get acquire a copy of Israel in Crisis, published by Baker/Revell, via my web site, www.ddolan.com and also by calling the North American toll free number listed below.

I will be discussing this interesting topic during a live television interview from my central Jerusalem home tomorrow morning, North American time. The Harvest program, broadcast on the LeSea network, can be viewed live on line at 9:00 AM EST, which is an early 6:00 AM on the west coast, or 13:00 GMT. It can be seen at their web site, www.lesea.com The interview will be broadcast later on the METV Harvest program here in Israel, probably sometime next week.

************************************************** ************************************************** **************************

DAVID DOLAN is a Jerusalem-based author and journalist who has lived in Israel since 1980. His new DVD, titled “FOR ZIONS’S SAKE—REPORTING FROM THE LAND OF THE BIBLE,” is now available on both PAL and NTCS versions. Details are posted at his web site, www.ddolan.com

HOLY WAR FOR THE PROMISED LAND (Broadman & Holman), his latest book, is an overview of the history of the Israel and of the bitter Arab-Israeli conflict that rages there, plus some autobiographical details about the author’s experiences living in the land since 1980. It especially examines the important role that militant Islam plays in the conflict.

ISRAEL IN CRISIS: WHAT LIES AHEAD? (Baker/Revell), which examines the political and biblical prospects for a regional attack upon Israel, settlement in the disputed territories, and related topics, is also available for purchase, along with an updated edition of his end-time novel, THE END OF DAYS (21st Century Press).
You may order these books at a special discount price by visiting his web site at www.ddolan.com, or by phoning 888-890-6938 toll free in North America, or by e mail at: resources@yourisraelconnection.org

TO RECEIVE THESE FREE ISRAEL UPDATES DIRECTLY, FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS BELOW. YOU WILL ONLY RECEIVE DAVID DOLAN'S UPDATE AND ANALYSIS INFORMATION FROM THIS ADDRESS. THE LIST WILL NOT BE TRADED OR SOLD.

TO SUBSCRIBE (or to unsubscribe), GO TO his web site, www.ddolan.com or to: http://www.ddolan.com/subscribe.asp

[TomT]

Re: Mideast Crisis: By David Dolan

FYI - As just posted on the other news thread Hamas deny that Gilad Shalit is about to be let go - and the Israeli gov't state that they have no clue as to what Abbas is talking about...

[Andy]

Re: Mideast Crisis: By David Dolan

Friday's update

JULY 28, 6:00 PM

Shalom from Jerusalem,

A Hizbullah announcement in the past hour revealed that several Iranian rockets, with a longer range than the Katyushas fired so far, were launched at Israeli civilian targets this afternoon. Moments ago an IDF spokeswoman announced that five rockets carrying 100 kilograms of explosives—probably the Zelzal rocket—landed around the Jezreel Valley town of Afula, the furthest south any Hizbullah rocket has landed so far. The town, situated next to a kibbutz that I lived on in early 1982, is located southeast of Haifa and Nazareth. Miraculously, no civilian casualties were reported. The Zelzal is believed to have a range of around 120 miles, placing all of greater Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in danger. The Hizbullah announcement identified the rockets as the Kybar-1. The ominous attack upon Afula came as the Israeli public was preparing for the weekly Sabbath, which begins at sundown.

Earlier in the day, some 70 rockets landed in various Israeli communities, partially destroying a private home on an upper Galilee kibbutz and another house in the central Galilee town of Ma’alot. Twelve Israeli civilians were wounded in those rocket hits. More than 100 Katyushas came crashing down on Thursday, and over 150 the day before. Alarms were sounded in Haifa during the day, but rockets fired at Israel’s third largest city landed in the nearby sea. Israeli officials believe the reduced number of Katyusha rocket launchings so far today is at least partly the result of their successful effort to destroy Hizbullah’s southern rocket command center early Wednesday, which was cynically located on the top floor of a civilian apartment building in the coastal town of Tyre. However media reports say rockets were fired from near the port town in the past few hours for the first time in two days—probably the longer-range rockets that struck around Afula.

Meanwhile intense ground combat continued in the Bint Jabail area today as elite IDF units searched for Hizbullah hideouts in the hills of southern Lebanon. Israeli air strikes were also launched at the Shiite town of Nabitiya further north—another major Hizbullah stronghold—and also at targets in the Bekaa Valley. This came as the IDF officially estimated that more than 200 Hizbullah militiamen have been killed in the 17 day conflict. Late reports say an Israeli mortar shell landed near a convoy of journalists that was traveling south of Tyre this afternoon, wounding three people. An IDF spokesman said the convoy was not cleared in advance with the army.

SYRIAN ATTACK ON TEL AVIV?

The latest Hizbullah missile strikes came as Israeli officials announced late yesterday that both Patriot and Arrow anti-missile systems are now being deployed in the Tel Aviv area. (It's about time!! (Andy)) Analysts say this is a concrete indication that they believe Hizbullah will attempt to strike Israel’s population heartland with Iranian-made Zelzal missiles. However the highly sophisticated Arrow system, developed with substantial American economic assistance, is mainly designed to shoot down ballistic missiles that are not in Hizbullah’s known arsenal, but are deployed in large numbers by both Syria and Iran. Some analysts said this is a clear indication that the government either fears or expects the current conflict to widen into a larger Middle East war.

The front page of Israel’s largest circulation newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, features a bold headline today that declares “EMERGENCY MILITARY ALERT IN SYRIA: PATRIOT ROCKETS DEPLOY IN SHARON (Tel Aviv area).” The article below states that yesterday’s 12 member inner Security Cabinet decision to authorize the calling up of three reserve divisions—over 30,000 men—has more to do with a potential clash with Syria than any expanded ground operation against Hizbullah. Army officials made clear late yesterday that only senior reserve division commanders are actually being drafted into the army at present, with their subordinate fighters placed on standby alert for further orders if and when IDF officers deem it necessary to actually deploy them.

Meanwhile veteran Lebanese Druze leader Walid Junblatt—a onetime ally of Syria who last year spearheaded the effort to have Syrian occupation forces removed from his country—said that Iran is using the current conflict to test its weapon systems against Israel, and to assess the IDF’s fighting capabilities. Junblatt noted that the laser-guided Iranian Silkworm C-802 missile that heavily damaged an Israeli naval vessel off the coast of Beirut two weeks ago, killing four sailors, was such a test. He said he also fears that the Baathist regime in Damascus might use the current crisis to reassert its once dominant position in Lebanon. He charged the Syrian police state with triggering the current conflict, via its Hizbullah surrogate, in order to “continue to hold Lebanon hostage.”

Police officials say a 59 year old Israeli civilian doctor was kidnapped and murdered by Palestinian terrorists this week north of Jerusalem. His blood-soaked body, discovered in the trunk of a car, was buried this afternoon. On the southern front, IDF forces pulled out of portions of the Gaza Strip this morning after heavy clashes with Hamas militants there over the past few days, which left over 20 Palestinian fighters and several non-combatants dead, including a 75 year old woman. Soon after the pullout was completed, Palestinian Kassam rockets were once again launched at Israeli civilian targets. One rocket landed just outside a kindergarten on a kibbutz near the city of Ashkelon, wounding two eight year old Israeli children playing nearby. Meanwhile Hamas leaders have rebuffed comments made by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday that captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit may soon be set free.

Here in Jerusalem, scores of Palestinian young men clashed with reinforced police forces in the Old City. Police used stun grenades to disperse the large crowd. The Palestinians were protesting Israeli restrictions imposed on Friday prayers on the Temple Mount. Police commanders decided to ban all males between the ages of 18 and 40 from the site after word came yesterday that a major demonstration was being planned on the mount by Muslim activists. The clash came just two days after Al Qaida called for stepped up “jihad attacks” upon Israel.



************************************************** ************************************************** **************************

DAVID DOLAN is a Jerusalem-based author and journalist who has lived in Israel since 1980. His new DVD, titled “FOR ZIONS’S SAKE—REPORTING FROM THE LAND OF THE BIBLE,” is now available on both PAL and NTCS versions. Details are posted at his web site, www.ddolan.com

HOLY WAR FOR THE PROMISED LAND (Broadman & Holman), his latest book, is an overview of the history of the Israel and of the bitter Arab-Israeli conflict that rages there, plus some autobiographical details about the author’s experiences living in the land since 1980. It especially examines the important role that militant Islam plays in the conflict.

ISRAEL IN CRISIS: WHAT LIES AHEAD? (Baker/Revell), which examines the political and biblical prospects for a regional attack upon Israel, settlement in the disputed territories, and related topics, is also available for purchase, along with an updated edition of his end-time novel, THE END OF DAYS (21st Century Press).
You may order these books at a special discount price by visiting his web site at www.ddolan.com, or by phoning 888-890-6938 toll free in North America, or by e mail at: resources@yourisraelconnection.org

TO RECEIVE THESE FREE ISRAEL UPDATES DIRECTLY, FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS BELOW. YOU WILL ONLY RECEIVE DAVID DOLAN'S UPDATE AND ANALYSIS INFORMATION FROM THIS ADDRESS. THE LIST WILL NOT BE TRADED OR SOLD.

TO SUBSCRIBE (or to unsubscribe), GO TO his web site, www.ddolan.com or to: http://www.ddolan.com/subscribe.asp

[VickiV]

Re: Mideast Crisis: By David Dolan

I really look forward to reading this updates!! Thanks!

[Andy]

Re: Mideast Crisis: By David Dolan

Sunday's Update

SUNDAY JULY 30, 2:00 PM

The prospect that a full-scale Muslim-Israeli Mideast conflict will soon break out seemed to increase dramatically today after a powerful Israeli bomb landed overnight right next to a four story building in a Shiite village in southern Lebanon. The blast caused the building to collapse upon scores of Lebanese civilians, including many children, who were reportedly instantly killed. The attack was labeled a “deliberate massacre of our innocent martyrs” by Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Seniora, who furiously called for his regional “Muslim brethren to stand united in the face of the Israeli war criminals”—an apparent call for military intervention.

Speaking on Israel radio in the past few hours, several Israeli analysts say the Sunni politician is apparently hoping, along with Hizbullah Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, that Syria might open up a second warfront on the disputed Golan Heights, which Israel cannot claim it has evacuated in fulfillment of longstanding UN demands (the issue was nearly resolved during US-brokered Syrian-Israeli peace talks in the 1990’s, which collapsed when the Hizbullah-backed Palestinian Hamas group succeeded in crushing the peace process via a series of deadly terror attacks upon Israelis that began in 1994).

Al Jazeera and other Arab media outlets have been carrying similar calls for Muslim military intervention today, possibly giving the Syrian-Iranian axis the excuse it seems to be seeking to jump directly into the deepening conflict. Ironically PM Seniora’s visceral war cry came just one day after another senior Lebanese politician, Walid Junblatt, warned in a newspaper interview published in Beirut that Sheik Nasrallah was “another Hitler” who was “dragging Lebanon to the same destructive fate” that befell Nazi-ruled Germany at the end of WWII.

QANA AGAIN

When it became clear early this morning that the targeted building in the village of Qana housed dozens of Lebanese civilians in its basement, Israeli government and military officials expressed immediate sorrow and condolences over the tragic deaths. They made clear that the Air Force had no idea that the building housed civilians in its basement. But they also noted that Hizbullah militiamen have been launching dozens of Katyusha rockets from Qana at eastern Galilee towns for over one week in an obvious attempt to kill and maim Israeli civilian men, women and children—firing their rockets and then running for cover in nearby buildings, including the one that collapsed, in order to avoid IDF return strikes aimed at destroying the rocket launchers. They added that Hizbullah forces had launched five powerful rockets at the town of Afula Friday evening carrying warheads some five times more explosive than those carried on Katyusha rockets that have themselves managed to kill19 Israelis, and wounded hundreds of others, so far. (One Katyusha landed directly on the Nahariya hospital Friday afternoon, collapsing part of the roof, but did not kill anyone since the patients had already been moved to lower floors). That the extremely deadly Syrian-built rockets which struck Afula did not kill scores of people in the town—landing right next to occupied buildings in most cases—was regarded as nothing short of miraculous. Israeli officials also pointed out that the army had been warning non-Hizbullah residents of south Lebanese villages to leave for over one week, and cannot be held responsible for the reported fact that the vile militia group has forcibly prevented some non-combatant residents of Qana from fleeing north, as they have done in other Shiite villages and towns.

With angry anti-Israel and anti-US demonstrations now taking place in Beirut (as they surely will in Damascus, Tehran and probably all around the world), the Lebanese government said that American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was not welcome to come to their capital city, as had been scheduled for later today. The American diplomat later announced that she would stay put for the time being here in Jerusalem to continue attempts to put together “an enduring ceasefire.” This indicated that the US government had not immediately altered its support for Israel’s difficult attempt to neutralize the longstanding Hizbullah threat to rain rockets down upon northern and central Israeli civilian centers.

However international pressure upon the US and UK to join the growing anti-Israel bandwagon was certainly bound to increase after the large Lebanese civilian death toll was announced. Rice noted that she “wanted a ceasefire yesterday, but it has to be one that will last.” She also pointed out that an Israeli rocket had mistakenly struck a UN outpost near Qana in 1996 that killed some 100 Lebanese civilians taking shelter there, demonstrating that the Israeli-Hizbullah conflict has been going on for many years, and so needed a “lasting solution at this time.” (That rocket strike also sparked an international outcry that contributed to Binyamin Netanyahu’s narrow election victory over the dovish Shimon Peres one month later. Peres was acting Premier at the time of the IDF shelling, which followed a heavy Hizbullah rocket barrage upon northern Israel in April of that year).

DARK DAYS
As the regional furor grows over the Qana disaster, fierce ground clashes were again reported today at several other locations near the Lebanese border with Israel. Meanwhile over 80 Hizbullah rockets were fired into Israel by mid-day, after more than 100 crashed down on Saturday. Israeli officials are reportedly concerned that Hizbullah will use the “Qana massacre” as an excuse to unleash its longer-range Zelzal missiles against the Tel Aviv region. Indeed, Hizbullah TV has just warned that it will retaliate for the Qana attack, claiming that it’s “stones can strike all portions of Israel.” However analysts say that Sheik Nasrallah, who is believed to be hiding inside the Iranian embassy in Beirut, will probably wait a few days to unleash his largest guns in order to maximize the political capital he has apparently earned inside Lebanon and around the Muslim world for his successful policy of deliberately waging his jihad war against “the Zionist entity” from south Lebanese civilian centers.

We are only four days away from the darkest day on the annual Hebrew calendar, the fast of Tisha b’Av, which begins at sundown on Wednesday. It marks various disasters that have befallen the Jewish people on that very date, including the Babylonian and Roman destructions of the ancient Jewish temples and the expulsion of Spain’s large Jewish community in 1492, ordered on that date. It seems to many of us here in Israel that this week could prove pivotal in determining whether or not we are heading toward a full-scale regional war, which could easily result in hundreds of thousands of causalities since both Syria and Iran, along with Israel, possess non-conventional chemical, biological and—at least in Israel’s case, but also quite possibly with her declared adversaries as well—nuclear warheads. To say the least, your urgent prayers are greatly appreciated.



************************************************** ************************************************** **************************

DAVID DOLAN is a Jerusalem-based author and journalist who has lived in Israel since 1980. His new DVD, titled “FOR ZIONS’S SAKE—REPORTING FROM THE LAND OF THE BIBLE,” is now available on both PAL and NTCS versions. Details are posted at his web site, www.ddolan.com

HOLY WAR FOR THE PROMISED LAND (Broadman & Holman), his latest book, is an overview of the history of the Israel and of the bitter Arab-Israeli conflict that rages there, plus some autobiographical details about the author’s experiences living in the land since 1980. It especially examines the important role that militant Islam plays in the conflict.

ISRAEL IN CRISIS: WHAT LIES AHEAD? (Baker/Revell), which examines the political and biblical prospects for a regional attack upon Israel, settlement in the disputed territories, and related topics, is also available for purchase, along with an updated edition of his end-time novel, THE END OF DAYS (21st Century Press).
You may order these books at a special discount price by visiting his web site at www.ddolan.com, or by phoning 888-890-6938 toll free in North America, or by e mail at: resources@yourisraelconnection.org

TO RECEIVE THESE FREE ISRAEL UPDATES DIRECTLY, FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS BELOW. YOU WILL ONLY RECEIVE DAVID DOLAN'S UPDATE AND ANALYSIS INFORMATION FROM THIS ADDRESS. THE LIST WILL NOT BE TRADED OR SOLD.

TO SUBSCRIBE (or to unsubscribe), GO TO his web site, www.ddolan.com or to: http://www.ddolan.com/subscribe.asp

[Andy]

Re: Mideast Crisis: By David Dolan

Monday...part 1

MONDAY JULY 31, 8:00 PM



Shalom from Jerusalem,



The political and diplomatic fallout continues today from Israel’s air strike in the south Lebanese town of Qana yesterday, which killed over 50 non-combatants residents, many of them children. The tragic action prompted visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to urge Israeli leaders to halt all air strikes in Lebanon for a period of time to allow aid convoys to bring fresh supplies into south Lebanon, and for remaining civilians to flee the battle zone. After declaring a conditional 48 hour time out, there have nevertheless been a few Air Force strikes today, mainly to support IDF troops engaged in heavy fighting with Hizbullah militiamen in the border town of Kfar Kila, northeast of Kiryat Shmona. An Israeli Merkava (Chariot) tank was hit and partially destroyed by a Hizbullah anti-tank rocket there this morning. The crew escaped injury, but several other soldiers were wounded in the clashes.

Meanwhile Hizbullah lobbed several mortar shells into the northern Galilee region today, but very few if any Katyusha rockets for the first time in 20 days. That followed the heaviest barrage of the war so far on Sunday when over 140 rockets fell all over northern Israel, causing damage in many locations, but miraculously only relatively light casualties. A senior government source told Israeli reporters this afternoon that the IDF has destroyed around two-thirds of Hizbullah’s long-range rocket capability, saying the Iranian-Syrian backed group has very few operative rocket launchers left intact, even though it still possesses a large stockpile of rockets. He denied a Hizbullah claim to have struck an Israeli ship with a lazar-guided missile earlier today.

Despite the relative lull in the action, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has just made it clear during a speech that the war will go on until Israel achieves more of its goal of neutralizing Hizbullah’s fighting ability. He also issued another apology to the citizens of Lebanon over yesterday’s bombing in Qana, which Syrian dictator Bashar Assad labeled as “state terrorism.” Defense Minister Amir Peretz also stated earlier today that no ceasefire had been agreed to by the government. He told a special emergency Knesset session—under heavy heckling by Arab lawmakers—that the war would not end until the Hizbullah rocket threat to Israeli civilian centers was brought to a complete end.

In fact, Peretz pledged that the IDF will be ordered to “expand and strengthen” its military activities in the coming days. The Defense Minister also vowed to conduct a full and fair investigation into Sunday’s Qana bombing. Israeli newspapers criticized the government for withholding drone pictures showing Hizbullah rockets being fired from the town until the main local TV newscasts went on the air at 8:00 PM last night—long after the IDF bombing sparked a furor in the Arab world. The army said today that the attack was actually not a mistake, since the Air Force had solid information that Hizbullah fighters were storing weapons in the building, which has so far not been confirmed by other sources nor disproved. Whether local civilians in the town knew this or not is also unclear. In New York, the United Nations postponed a scheduled meeting that is scheduled to discuss the establishment of some sort of international peacekeeping border force, “until there is more political clarity” on the way to proceed, as one UN official put it.

Below is my monthly news and analysis report, written primarily for several international branches of the group Christian Friends of Israel. It contains background information on the current conflict, including the fact that the large-scale IDF military operation currently underway was originally planned for over three years ago. Why it was delayed then, and again in early 2005, is spelled out. I hope it helps you to better understand the latest crisis currently engulfing the turbulent Middle East. I will be giving a news update on the conflict today on the Moody Broadcasting Network, at exactly 5:00 EST in North American, 2:00 PST, which is 21:00 GMT. The broadcast can be accessed live via their web site, www.mbn.org Additional war updates will probably be given later this week.





ISRAEL-HIZBULLAH WAR ROCKS MIDDLE EAST

By David Dolan

The long and bitter Arab-Muslim conflict with Israel entered a new phase in mid-July when Lebanese Hizbullah militiamen emulated their Palestinian Hamas allies in launching an audacious cross border raid into sovereign Israeli territory in order to kidnap IDF soldiers. The radical Shiite Muslim group did this knowing full well that Israel would probably respond forcefully to the abductions, which violate international law, as they did in the Gaza Strip when a soldier was taken hostage in late June. In fact, Israeli officials suspect that the two illegal actions were directly ordered by non-Arab Iran—which supplies weapons and financial assistance to both extremist groups—in an attempt to spark a major conflict that would divert world attention from Tehran’s ominous nuclear program. This suspicion was reinforced when various security agencies revealed that Iran had signed a secret mutual defense pact with Syria in mid-June.

If deflecting international attention from its nuclear program was the Iranian regime’s goal, it worked, at least temporarily. World leaders at the G8 summit in Russia spent most of their time discussing the latest Muslim-Israeli crisis instead of Iran’s refusal to heed EU and American calls to immediately halt its uranium enrichment program. With Al Jazeera and other Arab television networks running frequent, highly charged reports maintaining that Israel was deliberately massacring hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians in response to the twin terrorist kidnappings, worldwide Islamic wrath against the planet’s only Jewish state quickly reached a new fever pitch—which Israeli analysts warned could lead to a much wider conflict in the coming weeks. Such a possibility was thought to be behind the Israeli Security Cabinet’s July 27th decision to call up three reserve army divisions (which my security sources tell me is well over the 30,000 men reported in the international media), and to deploy Patriot and Arrow anti-missile systems around Tel Aviv.

Within days of the July 12th abductions of two IDF soldiers and the slaying of seven others by Hizbullah fire, government leaders around the globe were already rebuking Israel for its supposedly “disproportionate” military response to the unprovoked cross border raid, even though most also condemned Hizbullah for its sudden incursion that sparked the crisis. The harshest reprimands naturally came from regional Muslim leaders, especially Lebanese Sunni Prime Minister Fuad Seniora who maintained that Israel was “destroying” his country. Israeli leaders denied the hyperbolic contention, noting that Seniora realized that most Air Force strikes were directed at Hizbullah targets in Shiite dominated areas, especially in the southern suburbs of Beirut and in the Hizbullah-controlled Bekaa Valley east of the capital city, along of course with heavy bombing of Hizbullah strongholds in south Lebanon from where the Iranian-Syrian puppet force was blitzing Israeli civilian communities with daily rocket bombardments.

Israeli officials noted that while over 100,000 south Lebanese residents had left their homes after Israel warned them to flee in order to pursue Hizbullah fighters in the area, at least as many Israelis had also evacuated their homes as Katyusha rockets continued to pound the north of the country, where over one million Israelis live. They added that Lebanese residents of mainly Christian East Beirut and mainly Sunni West Beirut were carrying on their daily lives with few noticeable disruptions, although all could certainly hear the disturbing sounds of Israeli bombs hitting suspected Hizbullah targets in the city’s mainly Shiite southern suburbs.

Adequate food and other essential supplies were reaching Beirut, said Israeli officials, despite the bombing of the nearby international airport and the partial IDF naval blockade—designed to stop Syria and Iran from shipping more rockets and other weapons to their Hizbullah surrogate force by air, and from the Syrian port of Latikia north of Lebanon. Israeli jets actually left one runway operational for smaller aircraft, to allow aid relief to be flown into the country. The highway to Damascus was heavily bombed, but then again they noted that most Lebanese citizens rarely use that highway, if at all. They admitted that the action disrupted commerce on the road, which runs through the Hizbullah-ruled Bekaa Valley, but also the ground transport of weapons from Syria, not to mention hundreds of Iranian jihadist “volunteers” who were said to be on their way to fight with their Shiite brethren.


TRAGEDY IN QANA


Israeli government and military leaders did acknowledge the sad fact that scores of Lebanese civilians, including women and children, were being unintentionally wounded or killed in the daily Air Force bombings, just as hundreds of Israeli civilians had been killed or wounded by Hizbullah fire which was deliberately directed at them. Officials were horrified to learn that one air strike on July 30th had left a large crater right next to an apartment building in the southern Shiite village of Qana, which later collapsed upon over 50 Lebanese civilians taking shelter in its lower floors, many of them children.

Part 2 to follow

[Andy]

Re: Mideast Crisis: By David Dolan

Monday, 7/31/2006 - Part 2

The IDF said it had no idea that the building contained any civilians, adding that they were targeting Hizbullah fighters that had been launching dozens of Katyusha rockets from the village at Israeli Galilee civilian centers (rockets that had killed 19 Israeli civilians and left hundreds more injured, many critically, by that date). Photographic evidence of this fact was later shown on Israel television, with the army noting that Hizbullah militia forces often store their rockets in civilian homes, and then rush to the same homes for cover after firing them off toward Israeli civilian centers. They noted that nearly all of the 2,000 plus rockets shot into northern Israel since mid July had been cynically fired from built up Lebanese civilian areas.

Despite the tragic news, Israeli officials noted that Hizbullah leaders seemed to be deliberately trying to increase the number of Lebanese civilian casualties to spur regional Arab anger at Israel, as the PLO did when it occupied south Lebanon in the early 1980s. They pointed out that the United Nation’s chief humanitarian watchdog, Jan Egeland, had rebuked Hizbullah militiamen on July 24th for “cowardly blending in among women and children" in a deliberate attempt to discourage Israeli strikes upon themselves. In other words, the Shiite fighters understand that Israel is extremely reluctant to hit known civilian positions even if it has hard intelligence that Hizbullah fighters are operating from them. Egeland, who had earlier rebuked Israel for using “excessive force” in its campaign to weaken the Lebanese militia and push it back from the border area, added with disgust that he had heard that Hizbullah leaders “are proud because they have lost very few fighters, and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men."

Yielding to pressure from visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for a quick pause in Air Force bombings, Israeli leaders announced a 48 hour suspension of their air activity over Lebanon the evening of the Qana tragedy, but added they would strike any rocket launching sites that continued to bombard Israelis towns. Less than 12 hours after the suspension began, Hizbullah opened fire again at the besieged town of Kiryat Shmona, largely empty of its 18,000 Jewish citizens for over two weeks. Analysts said the move signaled that the radical group and its Syrian and Iranian paymasters were not yet ready for a final end of hostilities. Israeli officials also made clear that the two day time out—partially designed to allow any remaining Lebanese civilians to evacuate the border area—did not spell an end to their campaign to neutralize Hizbullah’s grave rocket threat.


EXCESSIVE FORCE?

Many of Israel’s closest allies joined the international protest chorus over the scale of Israel’s response to Hizbullah’s mid-July cross-border provocation. Yet Israeli officials did not even attempt to hide the fact that the latest kidnappings and rockets barrages were simply the final straw after a series of such illegal actions by the extremist militia that is backed by two large regional countries with combined populations nearly 15 times the size of Israel’s. They well recall that Hizbullah expressed its immediate support for the new Palestinian attrition war launched in September 2000 by kidnapping and killing IDF soldiers and an Israeli businessman in early October of that year—a mere five months after then Prime Minister Ehud Barak fulfilled UN demands for a complete military pullout from Lebanon. Subsequent periodic Hizbullah rocket strikes upon Israeli communities and military positions left more soldiers and civilians dead, including a teenage boy slain in a rocket strike east of Nahariya two years ago.

Growing concern over Hizbullah’s constant acquisition of Iranian and Syrian-supplied Katyusha rockets, not to mention various longer-range missiles and untold quantities of anti-tank, anti-aircraft and anti-ship rockets and other potent weapons, has been documented in these monthly updates ever since the May 2000 IDF evacuation of positions that were first captured in the 1978 Israeli “Litani” operation to push PLO fighters from south Lebanon. Military analysts say that Hizbullah had actually become one of the largest military forces in the region, with an arsenal larger than that of many area countries.

I had the privilege to lead a CFI tour to the Galilee region in May 2001—exactly one year after Israel evacuated its security buffer zone. While visiting a small military base next to the international border, the local IDF commander quietly warned me to be careful what I said since Hizbullah fighters within eyesight of the base monitored outdoor conversations with sophisticated long-range microphones. Then he whispered to me to casually gaze into a nearby grove of pine trees, where he said I would be able to see the tips of Katyusha rockets pointing ominously toward an Israeli kibbutz located down the hill from the base. Indeed, I could clearly see the weapons he mentioned, but I diplomatically did not point this out to my tour group.


MERELY A QUESTION OF WHEN


That Israeli leaders could not forever allow a burgeoning, jihad-crazed militia to openly operate right along their northern border was a given, especially since the rogue force is largely controlled by a radical Shiite regime in Tehran vowing to completely wipe Israel off of the regional map. As this reporter has made clear in public meetings around the world over the past several years, the only question was when the government would act.

As I noted in my talks, Israeli security sources had informed me that the original plan was to deal with the growing Hizbullah threat while US and UK forces were spearheading a multi-national attempt to remove Saddam Hussein from power in nearby Iraq. I was told that then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had received White House approval for the planned operation. However, both American and Israeli officials underestimated the depth of support that the Iraqi dictator enjoyed on the Palestinian street, and thus the intensely angry response they would display against the American-led invasion. It was decided in both Washington and Jerusalem that the time was not ripe for a push against Hizbullah, lest Israel find itself fighting a two-front war in Lebanon and in the Palestinian zones (as it has ended up doing anyway in the current conflict!).

There were two core reasons that Sharon wanted to take on the Shiite militia in March 2003. The first was quite practical. The Israeli public was then fully prepared for possible Iraqi Scud strikes against civilian centers, meaning they were also prepared for the anticipated Hizbullah rocket blitz that we are currently enduring. Bomb shelters had been unlocked and cleaned out, gas masks refreshed and distributed, emergency services placed on full alert, Patriot missile batteries with their early warning radar systems set up near major population centers, etc. The second reason was that it was determined that both Syria and Iran would be preoccupied with the situation in Iraq, which is located smack dab between them, and therefore slow to come to Hizbullah’s aid, if at all. Still, in the event, both Sharon and George W. Bush agreed it was not the ideal time to add more fuel to the burgeoning Mideast fire.

I was told that the second timeframe for a pre-planned, well laid out operation to denude the increasingly potent Hizbullah militia was early 2005. Ariel Sharon would simply wait for the next Hizbullah provocation (the jihadist fighters had long before proved that they simply could not stand to go very long without launching some unprovoked assault) to let lose his world renowned IDF forces, especially his excellent Air Force. However, the veteran right-wing politician had failed to anticipate the depth of passionate internal division that his unilateral Gaza withdrawal plan—unveiled in early 2004—would generate in his own country. With talk of possible civil war reverberating throughout the small Jewish state, the decorated former general decided it was not the optimum time to launch a major operation that could easily escalate into a full war with Syria.

The third window of opportunity was determined to be soon after Israeli national elections this year. As the current conflict demonstrates, that plan has indeed been put into effect. This certainly does not mean that Israeli officials somehow invited Hizbullah agents to infiltrate across the border to capture and slaughter IDF soldiers on July 12th, but only that they were ready with a major “clean-out plan” when the next inevitable unprovoked Hizbullah attack took place, as it did on that day. In fact, my sources say IDF generals were fully ready to take on the threatening militia when it opened fire on Israeli positions as PM Olmert was preparing to meet with President Bush at the White House in May, but the Premier decided to desist at that time so as not to embarrass his sympathetic host.


SYRIA AND IRAN


The prospects that Syria and or/Iran might become directly involved in the raging Israel-Hizbullah conflict seemed to grow as the fighting continued into a third week. This was especially the case after Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Seniora called for regional Muslim powers to “stand united with Lebanon in the face of the Israeli war criminals.” His virtual war cry came in the wake of the July 30th civilian deaths in Qana, which sparked rage throughout Lebanon and the entire Muslim world. The fuming Lebanese Sunni Muslim leader charged that Israel had “deliberately massacred our innocent martyrs” before hailing Sheik Nasrallah as a great Lebanese patriot.

Israeli government and army officials countered again that the IDF had no idea civilians were huddled in the building, which they repeated was being used by nearby Hizbullah rocket launchers as cover against return Israeli fire. They noted that the disaster in Qana came just two days after Hizbullah lobbed five longer-range rockets at Israeli civilian centers for the first time, striking the Jezreel Valley town of Afula nearly 40 miles south of Lebanon. Experts said the warheads were five times more explosive than the Katyushas fired up until then. That the rockets all landed right next to occupied apartment buildings and in nearby fields, and therefore did not kill anyone, was nothing short of miraculous, they added. The Shiite group labeled the Syrian-built rockets as the “Kybar-1” which refers to an early Islamic battle against the Jews of Arabia that was personally authorized by Muhammad. Hizbullah leaders stated again that even more potent rockets that can strike Tel Aviv remain in their deadly arsenal.

Israeli analysts had been warning well before the civilian slayings in Qana that Hassan Nasrallah was attempting to draw Syria directly into the conflict. With many leaders around the world criticizing him for launching his unprovoked cross border raid more than six years after IDF forces left south Lebanon, the Shiite Sheik was said to be hoping that his Syrian Alawite patrons would open up a second war front on the Golan Heights, which the world unanimously considers occupied Syrian territory. Street pressure on regional Muslim leaders to “do something” to thwart the Israeli campaign in Lebanon seemed to grow precipitously both inside Syria and around the Middle East in the wake of the Qana tragedy. Possibly indicating that he is considering direct intervention, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad strongly condemned the Israeli action as “state terrorism.” Israeli security analysts said that the mullahs who run Iran have been putting pressure on their Syrian ally to jump into the fray.

With most residents of Israel now under threat of Hizbullah rocket attack, and with most Lebanese leaders now at least publicly backing the radical Shiite cleric who has kidnapped their country, it does appear that an even more intense Mideast war may be on the horizon. It is good to recall the many promises of ultimate victory over evil that the God of Israel long ago issued to His Chosen People, which caused King David to proclaim his full confidence in His powerful heavenly Father: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread? When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. Though a host encamp against, me, my heart will not fear. Though war arise against me, in spite of this I shall be confident.” (Psalm 27, 1-3).

Please note that in this email Mr. Dolan did not include the standard footer - I did not omit it.

[Andy]

Re: Mideast Crisis: By David Dolan

Tuesday Report

TUESDAY AUGUST 1, 6:00 PM

Shalom from Jerusalem,

Israeli military commanders were given government permission late last night to widen their operations in southern Lebanon, with the goal to drive all Hizbullah ground forces and rocket launchers north of the Litani River. They hope to achieve this goal before Friday, when growing international diplomatic pressure to end the fighting is expected to reach a climax. Yasser Arafat’s PLO fighters were driven out of the same area—some 15 to 18 miles north of the Israeli border on average, and about 25 miles wide—in just a few hours in 1982, but they were not as heavily armed or well trained as the Iranian-backed Lebanese fighters.

To help accomplish the goal, up to 15,000 reserve soldiers received their call-up notices early today. Thousands more remain on alert to be drafted into the army on a moment’s notice. It is not clear if the IDF will enter the main town in the zone, the ancient port of Tyre, which is a major Hizbullah stronghold. Analysts say any attempt to do so would probably involve protracted fighting, unless Hizbullah commanders order a retreat in the face of overwhelming Israeli firepower. Many analysts say capturing the town is the only way to insure that Israel’s former “Security Zone” is emptied of Hizbullah rocket launchers.

Foreign news reports say three IDF soldiers were killed this morning when a Hizbullah anti-tank rocket struck their armored vehicle during intense fighting in the village of Ayta a-Shabn, near the town of Zarit. The IDF has so far not announced the reported deaths, but has admitted that some soldiers were wounded in the fighting. Israeli army commanders said at least 20 Hizbullah fighters have been killed in heavy clashes taking place in the central and western sections of south Lebanon over the past 24 hours, supported by constant Israeli artillery fire from across the border.

The IDF said it took total control today over the town of Taibeh, near to where the Litani River bends north. The town is located close to the main Maronite Catholic town in the south, Marjayoun, which is due north of Israel’s northernmost town, Metulla. Hizbullah TV admitted that fierce clashes were taking place in that town, and in several other portions of southern Lebanon. The Shiite militia lobbed several Katyusha rockets into Israeli territory by 5:00 PM, far less than on Sunday. IDF spokesmen say they believe they have destroyed most of the militia group’s rocket launchers, but admit that Hizbullah still probably has up to 9,000 rockets in its large arsenal, including some that could strike Tel Aviv. Home Front Command officials have warned over one million Israelis to stay close to their bomb shelters despite today’s relatively light rocket barrage. Meanwhile a total closure was quietly imposed overnight in Judea and Samaria, barring all Palestinians, apart from special cases, from entering Israel. Analysts said this was designed to lessen the chances of Palestinian terrorist attacks being launched inside of Israel while fighting rages in the north.

SYRIA ON FULL ALERT

With full ground combat now going on in many locations, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad announced today that his military forces have been placed on the highest state of alert. He said Syria could not stand by while “Israeli aggression destroys our brotherly neighbor of Lebanon.” This came as Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz warned that the IDF would fire at any vehicle carrying arms from Syria into Lebanon, as it did overnight. Another Air Force strike was reported near the border today, along with the bombing of several Hizbullah positions in the Bekaa Valley just west of Syria. Despite the action, Peretz added that Israel has no intention to enter a war with the Syrians, who possess a substantial air force, a large army and thousands of Scud ballistic missiles and chemical capability. Various media reports say Iranian missile batteries have recently been set up in central Syria which can strike most portions of Israel as well.

Military analysts here in Jerusalem continue to suspect that both Hizbullah and Iranian leaders are putting intense pressure on the Assad regime to open another war front on the stragtgic Golan Heights, captured from Syria during the 1967 Six Day war. Such concerns were intensified when Iran’s foreign minister flew to Beirut yesterday to hold “urgent talks” with his Lebanese counterpart. Afterwards he told a press confernce that the Islamic regime ruling Iran was offering its “full support to Lebanon’s efforts to confront the criminal Zionist agressors.”

TECHNICAL NOTE

I wish to thank again the many folks who have written to express appreciation for these daily war updates, which are now being read by tens of thousands of people around the world, including some government and media leaders. However, Israel has suffered a partial breakdown in its internet services since the beginning of the conflict three weeks ago, due to the extra heavy e mail traffic in and out of the country and multipled overseas visits to Israeli news sites every hour. Therefore I have not been able to update my own web site for several days, nor have I been able to read any of the mail that has come into my e mail list address since the middle of last week. So please forgive me if you have written and had no response.

My internet supplier, Israel’s largest, is located in Haifa. Repeated phone calls to see what might be done to rectify the situation have been met with a recorded notice that the provider is under tremendous extra pressure due to the sitution in the north, and will try to answer as quickly as possible. So far I have not succeeded in getting through. This is just one more tiny aspect of the war that is not apparent to most people around the globe.

Speaking of the situation in the rocket-blitzed north, I had to scratch my head while listening to an interview on Britain’s Sky lunchtime news on Monday. The interviewer asked a representative of the Oxfam charity what the needs were in southern Lebanon. After a very full and graphic description of the terrible suffering that many civilians are sadly enduring there, she was asked if the group was doing anything to aid Israeli civilians suffering under daily Hizbullah rocket fire just south of the international border.

The Oxfam representative totally ignored the question, launching instead into an impassioned description of current Palestinian suffering in the Gaza Strip! But the fact is that fully one-forth of Israel’s population has been directly affected by the conflict, if not as severely in most cases as Lebanese civilians living in the main battle zone. Still, to reside in a crowded bomb shelter for three weeks in the summer heat, to have normal life turned totally upside down, with most regular business and recreational activity suspended, to be ready to rush to a bomb shelter at a moment’s notice—none of that is easy to live with, especially for the thousands of children from families not able to evacuate the affected areas for financial or other reasons. I know exactly how it feels, since I lived under the very same conditions during 1981 and 1982.



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DAVID DOLAN is a Jerusalem-based author and journalist who has lived in Israel since 1980. His new DVD, titled “FOR ZIONS’S SAKE—REPORTING FROM THE LAND OF THE BIBLE,” is now available on both PAL and NTCS versions. Details are posted at his web site, www.ddolan.com

HOLY WAR FOR THE PROMISED LAND (Broadman & Holman), his latest book, is an overview of the history of the Israel and of the bitter Arab-Israeli conflict that rages there, plus some autobiographical details about the author’s experiences living in the land since 1980. It especially examines the important role that militant Islam plays in the conflict.

ISRAEL IN CRISIS: WHAT LIES AHEAD? (Baker/Revell), which examines the political and biblical prospects for a regional attack upon Israel, settlement in the disputed territories, and related topics, is also available for purchase, along with an updated edition of his end-time novel, THE END OF DAYS (21st Century Press).
You may order these books at a special discount price by visiting his web site at www.ddolan.com, or by phoning 888-890-6938 toll free in North America, or by e mail at: resources@yourisraelconnection.org

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