04 May 2010 , 18:22
Brig. Gen. Yossi Beiditz briefed the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. According to Beiditz, the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah is not considered the smuggling of weapons to Lebanon - it is an official and organized transfer.
Arnon Ben-Dror
The head of the Research Department in the Intelligence Directorate, Brig. Gen. Yossi Beiditz, met on Tuesday (May 4) with the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Israeli Parliament, and discussed publicized reports that have been issued recently about the transfer of scud missiles from Syria to Hezbollah.
"Syria plays a significant role in the ever-growing rocket arsenal in the hands of Hezbollah," said Brig. Gen. Beiditz. "The transfer of weapons to Hezbollah occurs consistently from Syria and is organized by the Syrian and Iranian regimes. Therefore this is not considered the smuggling of weapons to Lebanon- it is an official and organized transfer."
The head of the Research Department confirmed that long-range missiles have been recently transferred from Syria to Hezbollah, and said that "this is just the tip of the iceberg," and that "already today Hezbollah has in its hands an arsenal of thousands of every type and range of rockets, including long-range and more efficient solid-fuel missiles."
According to Beiditz, "the long ranges of the missiles in the hands of Hezbollah enable them to place their launchers deep inside of Lebanon, and they cover ranges that are much longer than what we have seen in the past. Hezbollah in 2006 was different from Hezbollah in 2010 from the standpoint of their military capabilities which has developed more."
He continued to say that "Syria continues to march on two different paths without being forced on the international arena to choose between them. On one side Syria is improving her relations with the West, with the Arab states, and with Turkey, and is returning to a role of influence within Lebanon. At the same time, Syria is deepening her strategic and operational cooperation with Iran, Hezbollah and the Palestinian terror organizations."
Iran has overcome technological obstacles in creating a nuclear bomb
Brig. Gen. Beiditz also covered Iran's nuclear program. "The Iranians continue to promote their nuclear program and they are accumulating abilities that enable them to attack with nuclear weapons at any moment they decide to," he said. "From this moment, everything depends on their decision. If in the past arriving at nuclear capabilities was dependent on overcoming technological obstacles, today, in Iran, it is dependent on their decision alone to bring about the creation of a nuclear bomb."
Brig. Gen. Beiditz also spoke about the travel warnings to Sinai which were publicized recently by the Counter Terrorism Bureau. "On the eve of Passover there was an actual warning related to the activities of Bedouins in Sinai where they were supposed to kidnap Israelis spending time there, and transfer them to the military wing of Hamas. There was a plan of cooperation between them. The publicity deterred the groups, but there is still the possibility that Bedouins acting as subcontractors will kidnap Israelis and transfer them over to Hamas."
source:"Hezbollah's scuds are only the tip of the iceberg"
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Is the church dying in America's Bible Belt?
The once vibrant Christian South is beginning to become a "boneyard of religious history", warns one US pastor.
There may be a church on every street corner but many of them are dying, if not dead already, said Tyler Jones, lead pastor at Vintage21 Church, in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Jones has joined several pastors this week to sound the alarm on the decline of the church in the South – a decline that he believes is happening faster than anywhere in the country.
And the decline, they say, isn't due to the external changes in the South, such as urbanisation and intellectual and cultural growth. Rather, the problems are within the church.
In the South, the people are not unreached but wrongly reached, Jones said at "Advance10: Contextualising the Gospel in the New South", a three-day conference that kicked off on Monday.
Churches have failed to understand the Gospel and how it applies to people's lives in a rapidly changing culture, he noted. Christian faith in the South exists primarily in name alone, he stated.
Though a majority of residents in the South claim to be Christian, many are being taught "quaint moralism over the Gospel", the Raleigh pastor lamented.
And "moralism is the greatest form of self worship", he warned. "It robs us of our need for God."
Jerome Gay, lead pastor of Vision International Church in Raleigh, also views moralism as a pervasive problem in the churches.
"Too long within the South, Christianity has been presented as a list of don'ts. Don't go to the club, don't join the frat, don't do this, don't do that," he pointed out.
The result is an increase in the "culture of the dechurched – people that have been burned by church, experienced a ton of church hurt".
"And they don't actually know Christ because they haven't been presented with the God of the Bible. They've been presented with a list of do's and don'ts."
The conference is being put on by a cooperative movement called Advance the Church, which seeks to "assist local churches in planting healthy, Gospel-centred churches and revive the boneyard of dead or dying churches – beginning in the context of the urban south".
Pastors in the South recognise the need for churches to get serious about their mission, respond to the changing culture without watering down the Gospel, and radically reorient their very existence to not only reach the unreached but also those who grew up in the pews.
David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama, said there was a definite question among many churches as to what the Gospel was and that there was a great need for clarity on the Gospel.
"I think there's a real comfortability level that the Gospel is almost assumed when the reality is a lot of people who [grew] up in the church need to hear the Gospel truly as it's presented biblically and need to be saved and are being saved," said Platt.
According to missiologist Ed Stetzer, the biggest challenge in the churches is that they have made it acceptable for people to do nothing and call themselves Christ followers. He contended that sitting next to someone on Sunday did not guarantee biblical community.
source: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/is.the.church.dying.in.americas.bible.belt/25802.htm
There may be a church on every street corner but many of them are dying, if not dead already, said Tyler Jones, lead pastor at Vintage21 Church, in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Jones has joined several pastors this week to sound the alarm on the decline of the church in the South – a decline that he believes is happening faster than anywhere in the country.
And the decline, they say, isn't due to the external changes in the South, such as urbanisation and intellectual and cultural growth. Rather, the problems are within the church.
In the South, the people are not unreached but wrongly reached, Jones said at "Advance10: Contextualising the Gospel in the New South", a three-day conference that kicked off on Monday.
Churches have failed to understand the Gospel and how it applies to people's lives in a rapidly changing culture, he noted. Christian faith in the South exists primarily in name alone, he stated.
Though a majority of residents in the South claim to be Christian, many are being taught "quaint moralism over the Gospel", the Raleigh pastor lamented.
And "moralism is the greatest form of self worship", he warned. "It robs us of our need for God."
Jerome Gay, lead pastor of Vision International Church in Raleigh, also views moralism as a pervasive problem in the churches.
"Too long within the South, Christianity has been presented as a list of don'ts. Don't go to the club, don't join the frat, don't do this, don't do that," he pointed out.
The result is an increase in the "culture of the dechurched – people that have been burned by church, experienced a ton of church hurt".
"And they don't actually know Christ because they haven't been presented with the God of the Bible. They've been presented with a list of do's and don'ts."
The conference is being put on by a cooperative movement called Advance the Church, which seeks to "assist local churches in planting healthy, Gospel-centred churches and revive the boneyard of dead or dying churches – beginning in the context of the urban south".
Pastors in the South recognise the need for churches to get serious about their mission, respond to the changing culture without watering down the Gospel, and radically reorient their very existence to not only reach the unreached but also those who grew up in the pews.
David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama, said there was a definite question among many churches as to what the Gospel was and that there was a great need for clarity on the Gospel.
"I think there's a real comfortability level that the Gospel is almost assumed when the reality is a lot of people who [grew] up in the church need to hear the Gospel truly as it's presented biblically and need to be saved and are being saved," said Platt.
According to missiologist Ed Stetzer, the biggest challenge in the churches is that they have made it acceptable for people to do nothing and call themselves Christ followers. He contended that sitting next to someone on Sunday did not guarantee biblical community.
source: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/is.the.church.dying.in.americas.bible.belt/25802.htm
Christian man dies, three injured after attack in India
by Staff
April 30, 2010
(christiansunite.com) - A 25-year-old Christian man was killed and three other believers were severely injured following an attack by militant Hindus on a prayer meeting in Saliya, Betul district, Madhya Pradesh on April 17.
Between 15 and 30 assailants disrupted the meeting attended by more than 400 Christians and began to destroy Bibles and other property. They then accused the believers of forcible conversion and attacked them with sticks and iron rods.
The Christians fled the scene, running outside into the darkness of the night. Amit Gilbert, a Master of Divinity student, fell into an open well, hit his head on the well's outer wall and drowned.
One of the injured Christians sustained a fractured spine and remained in serious condition at last report. (Sources: Global Council of Indian Christians, Union of Catholic Asian News)
source:http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion09278.shtml
April 30, 2010
(christiansunite.com) - A 25-year-old Christian man was killed and three other believers were severely injured following an attack by militant Hindus on a prayer meeting in Saliya, Betul district, Madhya Pradesh on April 17.
Between 15 and 30 assailants disrupted the meeting attended by more than 400 Christians and began to destroy Bibles and other property. They then accused the believers of forcible conversion and attacked them with sticks and iron rods.
The Christians fled the scene, running outside into the darkness of the night. Amit Gilbert, a Master of Divinity student, fell into an open well, hit his head on the well's outer wall and drowned.
One of the injured Christians sustained a fractured spine and remained in serious condition at last report. (Sources: Global Council of Indian Christians, Union of Catholic Asian News)
source:http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion09278.shtml
Pastor and wife killed in northern Nigeria
by Staff
April 29, 2010
(christiansunite.com) - Suspected Islamists abducted and killed a pastor and his wife in Boto village, Bauchi state in northern Nigeria on April 13.
Pastor Ishaku Kadah (48) and his wife Selina (45) were abducted from the headquarters of their church, which was also their home. Their burned bodies were discovered hours later.
Police have reportedly arrested two suspects and have launched a man-hunt for several other accomplices involved in the murder. Pastor Ishaku's church previously came under attack in late January by Islamic extremists who set fire to the building mere days after Christians displaced by violence in Plateau state had taken refuge on the premises.
source:http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion09274.shtml
April 29, 2010
(christiansunite.com) - Suspected Islamists abducted and killed a pastor and his wife in Boto village, Bauchi state in northern Nigeria on April 13.
Pastor Ishaku Kadah (48) and his wife Selina (45) were abducted from the headquarters of their church, which was also their home. Their burned bodies were discovered hours later.
Police have reportedly arrested two suspects and have launched a man-hunt for several other accomplices involved in the murder. Pastor Ishaku's church previously came under attack in late January by Islamic extremists who set fire to the building mere days after Christians displaced by violence in Plateau state had taken refuge on the premises.
source:http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion09274.shtml
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