PRAYER OVER HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION

From a Morning Prayer Letter

PRAYER OVER HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION

Father, In Jesus' Most Holy and Precious Name, we humbly ask that You
step in and intervene at this most critical juncture in our nation's
history. Father, it was YOU who gave our Founding Fathers the wisdom
and guidance to assert that our nation would be one nation under GOD,
 with liberty and justice for all. Our nation's founding documents
 state that it is from YOU that we receive the inalienable rights of
 life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness NOT our federal government.

 Father, please stop this health care legislation dead in its tracks.
 Please frustrate the plotting of the shrewd who seek to alter our
 nation into a socialist democracy so that their hands cannot perform
 their enterprise or attain success. (Job 5:12-13). Expose to the light
 of day the plans of the crafty. Allow confusion and chaos to reign in
 their meetings this weekend and into next week so that no path to
 reconciliation may be achieved. Please allow division and rivalry to
 thwart the plans of those who seek to override the will of the
 citizens of the United States so that this entire endeavor fails in
 utter futility. Please awaken our citizenry to what is at stake.

 Father, we also humbly ask that you will bring good out of this
 terrible situation. Please graciously use this whole experience to
 draw people to Yourself. In Jesus' name we pray for revival to spread
 across our land and to heal our nation so that we once again seek our
 liberty from You and not from a government of men.

 Thank you for graciously hearing our prayers on behalf of our nation
 and our fellow citizens.

 In Jesus' Most Holy Name We Pray. Amen.


 ...please agree in prayer, and pass on
  

Israel is empowering al Qaeda, Petraeus warns

by Paul Woodward on March 16, 2010

As erupting violence in Jerusalem suggests a third intifada may soon take hold, the CENTCOM commander Gen David Petraeus, testifying before the US Senate Armed Services Committee today, gave a grave warning about the wider impact of a conflict that has been the epicenter of Middle East hostilities ever since the creation of Israel.
In issuing his warning, Petraeus — arguably the most influential even if not the highest ranking member of the US military — was reiterating a statement he made almost a year ago. The only difference between what he said in April 2009 and what he said today, was that he now acknowledges al Qaeda is being strengthened by the conflict.
He  now says:

The enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests in the AOR [CENTCOM's area of responsibility]. Israeli-Palestinian tensions often flare into violence and large-scale armed confrontations. The conflict foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel. Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples in the AOR and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda and other militant groups exploit that anger to mobilize support. The conflict also gives Iran influence in the Arab world through its clients, Lebanese Hizballah and Hamas.

If such a statement was being made outside the American political arena, it could be regarded as a rather bland expression of what has long been utterly obvious. Yet from the lips of a celebrated general, regarded by many as a potential future president, these words come as a bombshell.
Neoconservatives and the Israel lobby have worked hard and long to obscure the deeply corrosive regional impact of a conflict that successive Israeli leaders have either been unwilling or seemingly incapable of resolving. Others, who earlier said what Petraeus now says, have either been dismissed as poorly informed or worse, branded as anti-Israeli or by insinuation, anti-Semitic.
No such charge will stick to Petraeus. Indeed, if the Israel lobby was so foolhardy as to try and go after an American general who sometimes gets treated like a latterday Eisenhower, the lobby will be at dire risk of being visited by its own greatest fear: being branded as anti-American.
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Gaza rocket kills Thai farm worker in Israel

MATTI FRIEDMAN - 3/18/2010 2:26:59 PM

Palestinian militants fired a rocket at Israel from the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing a Thai farm worker, Israeli medics said, in the first death from such an attack since the Gaza offensive last year.

Magen David Adom, Israel's emergency service, said the man was about 30 years old and was working in an agricultural community just north of Gaza.

Tens of thousands of foreign laborers work in construction, agriculture and other menial jobs in Israel. In many cases, these foreign workers have replaced Palestinian laborers from Gaza, who are no longer allowed to enter Israel.

A small Islamist faction calling itself Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack. Similar hardline groups, which are inspired by al-Qaida's radical ideology and see Gaza's Hamas rulers as too moderate, have been responsible for most of the attacks since the Gaza war ended in January 2009.

A second group, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, also later claimed responsibility.

Thursday's attack came on the same day as a visit to Gaza by Europe's top diplomat, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who had just crossed into the territory when the rocket was fired.

"I condemn any kind of violence. We have got to find a peaceful solution to the issues and problems," she said. Ashton is the most senior international official to visit Gaza in more than a year.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned the attack.

"All such acts of terror and violence against civilians are totally unacceptable and contrary to international law," he said in a statement.

In a statement e-mailed to reporters in Gaza, the Ansar al-Sunna faction said the attack was a response to Israel's "Judaization" of Islamic holy places in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the West Bank.

Israel's military said it was the third rocket fired from Gaza in a 12-hour stretch. There was no immediate Israeli retaliation.

Thousands of crude rockets launched from Gaza at Israel over a seven-year period sparked the Israeli military's three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip. The brief war devastated the Palestinian territory, killing 1,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians. Thirteen Israelis were killed.

Rocket attacks and border ambushes have dropped dramatically since the war. Hamas itself has largely refrained from carrying out attacks since last year's war and ordered rival groups to maintain the calm.

Thursday's dual claims of responsibility, which could not be independently verified, came from Hamas rivals.

Ashton was touring Gaza to get a firsthand look at the hardships caused by the war and by a punishing Israeli-Egyptian border blockade that has been in place since Hamas' violent take over of Gaza in 2007.

Thousands of homes were razed or damaged during Israel's offensive, but reconstruction is on hold because building supplies cannot reach Gaza.

The West also shuns Gaza's Islamic militant rulers as terrorists, while Hamas refuses to renounce violence and recognize Israel to win acceptance.

Ashton did not meet with Hamas officials.

Last year, the international community pledged some $4.5 billion for Gaza's reconstruction, but little has been spent because of the blockade, aid officials say.

In Abed Rabbo, a neighborhood close to the border with Israel that was one of the hardest-hit areas in the war, men leading donkey carts full of rubble from destroyed buildings watched Ashton's convoy pass.

"What we have been saying to the Israelis for a long time is that we need to allow aid into this region, to be able to support the economy to grow for people," she told reporters.

With the standoff continuing, Gaza's 1.5 million people become increasingly dependent on foreign aid. Europe spends some euro500 million ($688 million) a year _ or half its annual aid to the Palestinians _ to help keep Gaza afloat.

After her Gaza visit, Ashton is to attend a major Mideast meeting of the so-called Quartet of Mideast mediators _ the United States, the United Nations, Europe and Russia _ in Moscow on Friday.

The Quartet was to have given its blessing to indirect negotiations between Israelis and the moderate Palestinian government in the West Bank. Talks were put off after Israel announced new housing for Jews in east Jerusalem, setting of a diplomatic crisis with the U.S.