World Council of Churches wants EU sanctions on Israel if Annexation goes ahead….
12 June 2020
Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, apostate general
secretary of the World Council of Churches
Umbrella Christian group urges bloc to end trade agreement with Jewish state if it extends sovereignty over parts of West Bank, says move ‘cannot lead to justice or to peace’…...
The World Council of Churches is asking European diplomats to punish Israel with sanctions if it annexes West Bank lands.
The request has triggered a heated debate in Christian circles.
The call to punish Israel came last month in a letter to EU foreign ministers from the Geneva headquarters of the council, an umbrella body established in 1948 that now has 350 member churches with about 500,000 followers among them.
The Roman Catholic Church is not a member. Often an observer.
If Israel annexes land, the letter said, “the EU must surely suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement,” a reference to a 1995 contract that promotes trade between the bloc and the Jewish state.
In addition, the EU should apply sanctions on Israel “at least commensurate with those adopted by the EU in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea.”
The EU has blacklisted hundreds of Russian individuals and firms over alleged involvement in the Crimea annexation from 2014, subjecting them to entry bans and freezing of EU properties.
“The unilateral annexation of yet more of the territory that remains to Palestinians cannot lead to justice or to peace, but only to greater injustice,” the church body wrote.
Lord have mercy upon this ignorant and apostate body.
Vatican Cautions – Threatens Israel over West Bank Annexation Plan……….
VATICAN CITY — The Holy [?] See is concerned about an Israeli plan to unilaterally annex a large portion of land in the West Bank, said a Vatican statement.
"The Holy See is following the situation closely and expresses concern about any future actions that could further compromise dialogue," said the statement.
The Vatican statement said, "The Holy See reiterates that respect for international law and the relevant United Nations resolutions is an indispensable element for the two peoples to live side by side in two states, within the borders internationally recognised before 1967."
The Vatican also expressed "its hope that Israelis and Palestinians will be soon able to find once again the possibility for directly negotiating an agreement, with the help of the international community, so that peace may finally reign in the Holy Land, so beloved by Jews and Christians and Muslims."
Israel needs no enemies when spoken to by the successive popes of Rome.
Israeli Missile Attack on Damascus ‘Kills 7 Fighters’………..
13 June 2020
13 June 2020
A poster of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in the Old City
of Damascus.
Israel launched a missile attack on military targets near Damascus on Thursday night,[pictured below] killing three Syrian and four Iranian fighters, a war monitor said.
The strikes on the airport area in Syria’s capital had killed at least three Syrian soldiers and four members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights [SOHR} said.
A report by Syrian state news agency Sana said missiles were intercepted over Damascus but made no mention of casualties or the source of the attack.
Israel does not usually comment on strikes in Syria.
The Britain-based Observatory, which monitors Syria’s civil war through a network of sources inside the country, said the attack targeted Iran-backed militias near the capital.
It said some missiles hit their intended targets, which included a weapons depot near the airport.
Israel has repeatedly bombed Iranian-backed militia targets in Syria, saying its goal was to end Tehran’s military presence in the country.
Earlier this month, Israeli air strikes killed 23 Syrian and foreign fighters in Syria.
Is Assad About to Fall?
12 June 2020
12 June 2020
While the world wasn’t watching, Syria has edged toward collapse, and the dictator is in his weakest position ever.
“We promised to keep things peaceful … but if you want bullets, you shall have them.”
That was the wording of a message issued to Bashar Assad by the Druze community in Syria’s southern Suwayda province mid-week after three days of intensifying protests.
Since then, its opposition to the Assad regime has only heated up, despite a pro-regime counter-protest on Tuesday last, in which local state employees were threatened by secret police should they not participate.
Demonstrators took to the streets against Assad again on Wednesday and Thursday, some bearing flags of the Syrian revolution.
Addressing Assad directly, protesters chanted “curse your soul, we are coming for you,” and expressed their solidarity with the 3 million-strong opposition community in Idlib, the last holdout of the armed rebellion against Assad.
As remarkable as they are, the protests unfolding in Suwayda are merely a symptom of a far greater crisis striking at the heart of the Assad regime and its prospects for survival.
Assad’s decision to sack his prime minister, Imad Khamis, [pictured below] on Thursday was a clear indication that economic collapse and newly vocal opposition posed a real challenge to his legitimacy.
For some time, it has become commonplace to declare Assad the victor of the war in Syria—a dictator who managed to survive nearly a decade of rebellion and civil war by brutally suppressing dissent and exploiting the support of Russia and Iran to keep his grip on a burning country.
But that has never been an accurate way to see Syria.
Assad may have crushed the opposition to his dictatorial rule in 60% of the country, but in 2020, every single root cause of the 2011 uprising is not just still in place, but has worsened.
Challenges to the regime’s prosperity, credibility or survival remain in place in every corner of the country.
For the first time in nearly a decade, the millions of Syrians who outwardly support Assad or who have remained quietly loyal to his rule have begun to share whispers of their own exasperation.
For most, life in 2020 is a great deal worse than life at the peak of nationwide armed conflict in 2014-15.
In holding on to power, Assad has effectively—and purposely—destroyed his own nation and economy.
Syria could now easily take a truly unprecedented turn for the worse, crashing into a debilitating crisis that tears every fibre of the country apart and, as hard as it is to imagine in 2020, leaving even greater levels of destitution, famine, and worsening criminality and predatory behaviour.
In this scenario, loyalist unity would dissolve altogether, leaving in its wake a Somalia-type failed state that’s both a human-rights disaster and a breeding ground for dangerous extremists and regional instability.
The situation in Syria is already of grave concern to Russia, which along with Iran is the primary source of Assad’s external support.
In Moscow, rhetoric critical of Assad—both in public and private—has never been more acute.
In recent months, Syria’s economy has collapsed, resulting in hyperinflation, mass business closures, widespread food shortages and increasing unemployment.
At this point, it’s important to note that Syria’s economic crisis is not the consequence of the wide spectrum of sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe.
With his long list of war crimes, including more than 350 chemical weapons attacks, Assad has degraded international norms like no other actor in modern history.
The world’s muffled response to Assad’s record-setting list of war crimes, as well as the 700,000 dead and nearly 12 million displaced, appears to have inspired an era of international isolationism in which dictators are likely to thrive.
The most significant sanctions regime ever imposed on Syria—the Caesar Act—will come into force today, forbidding any economic engagement with the Assad regime by any actor worldwide, ally or foe.
As any Bible believing Christian knows, Damascus, arguably the world's oldest inhabited city, is prophetically slated for destruction such as it has never experienced in the past.
Exactly what triggers this disaster is so far unknown – but just looking at the destruction there already it won't take too much more violence to totally destroy the place.
It appears to be initiated by Israel – and she herself is greatly harmed by what occurs - and for that reason Psalm 83 could also be speaking of this conflagration?
Considering the current leadership crisis and the geopolitical situation surrounding her borders, this event is probably not all that distant now?
While the world's attention has been averted to other pressing matters, Syria and the whole region continues its slide toward a wider regional war and it is conceivable that the flashpoint may well be the destruction of the city where Assad currently resides?
“The burden concerning Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. And behold at evening time trouble; and before the morning he is no more. This is the portion of them that plunder us, and the lot of them that rob us”. Isaiah 17; 1&14
Turkey’s Military Build-up……….
13 June 2020
13 June 2020
Over 4,000 vehicles arrive in Syria since the ceasefire, as 60 new vehicles enter “de-escalation zone”
SOHR sources say that a large Turkish military column entered this evening via Kafr Loussen Crossing with the Iskenderun region, north of Idlib, consisting of 60 vehicles loaded with military vehicles equipped with heavy machine guns, concrete blocks and logistical materials, heading towards Turkish posts in the “Putin-Erdogan” area.
The number of military vehicles entering Syrian territory since the start of the new ceasefire has reached 4,045 in addition to thousands of Turkish soldiers.
From February 2 to date, the number of Trucks and military vehicles that arrived in the “de-escalation zone” rose to more than 7,380.
This vast array of materiel arrived in Syrian territory, carrying tanks, personnel carriers, armoured vehicles and mobile bulletproof guard booths and military radars.
Some 10,500 Turkish soldiers deployed in Idlib and Aleppo during this period.
Meanwhile, the Turkish military continued their build-up inside the Idlib Governorate, as their forces were entering north-western Syria on Thursday from the Kafr Loussen crossing.
The Turkish authorities revealed earlier this week that they were building up their forces in the Idlib Governorate for a potential conflict with the Syrian Arab Army.
The Turkish authorities said they will not yield another inch to the Syrian Army and they will confront them if they attempt to seize any more territory inside the Idlib Governorate and other areas.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said that if the US and Turkish military did not leave the country, Damascus would be able to use force.
Turkey’s Actions will Lead to War with Egypt and Greece.....
June 13, 2020
June 13, 2020
Abdel-Latif Darwish, a professor of economics and crisis management in Egypt, said that Egypt’s agreement with Greece on the demarcation of maritime borders represents a strong blow to the agreement between Turkish President Recep Erdogan [pictured above] and the Libyan Government of National Accord.
Darwish said, during a call with the Egypt’s Channel 10, that Europe and the major countries should put pressure on Turkey to stop the attempt to impose Turkish influence in the Arab region and the Mediterranean waters region.”
He commented on the signing of the maritime border demarcation agreement between Italy and Greece, saying: “Greece has achieved great success in striking Erdogan’s dreams of seizing the eastern Mediterranean gas.”
The Italian agency, “Nova”, announced on Wednesday that the Greek Foreign Minister, Nikos Dendias, will visit Egypt on June 18 to resume negotiations with the Egyptian authorities on the agreement to demarcate the maritime borders between the two countries.
Don Stewart's BREAKING NEWS Friday 12 June 2020
Israel Report
Editor; Mike Claydon
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