I thought this might be of interest to some on this list.

Phil.


Text of forwarded message follows:


>Shalom from America,
>
>I am currently in the middle of my US speaking tour. It has been great
>seeing some of you along the way so far, and I hope to see others as I
>journey to Colorado, the Chicago area, Albany New York and southern Florida
>before returning to Israel in early December. My full schedule can be found
>on my website, www.ddolan.com
>
>I apologize that you did not get the October news report when it was first
>sent out early last week (and a couple times since then) for technical
>reasons.  It is posted below.  It covers important news from Israel and the
>Middle East during October. It features the continuing tensions between
>Israel and Syria amid growing reports that
>the White House is preparing to launch military action against Iran's
>nuclear program. Stay tuned for more interesting developments ahead!
>
>
>ISRAEL DESTROYS SYRIAN REACTOR
>
>Reverberations from Israel 's September air strike against a Syrian nuclear
>facility continued to rocket around the tumultuous Middle East during
>October, with Israeli armed forces on full alert in case Damascus orders a
>delayed military response. Meanwhile a partial lifting of media censorship
>finally allowed the publication in Israel of the fact that a daring
>operation had indeed been carried out, which analysts say has at least
>partially restored Israel 's deterrence credibility--severely eroded during
>the 2006 inconclusive conflict with Lebanese Hizbullah militia forces.
>
>While Israeli leaders kept one eye glued on the tense northern border,
>American diplomatic efforts to resolve the long and bitter
>Israeli-Palestinian conflict continued apace. Negotiations reached aserious
>snag when the Palestinians demanded that Israel agree to iron out full
>details of a finalstatus peace accord before a planned international
>conference is held later this year outside Washington D.C.
>
>Fresh revelations of just how far Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appears to be
>willing to go in order to sign a final treaty with Palestinian Authority
>leader Mahmoud Abbas rocked the Israeli political establishment during the
>month. Several members of Olmert's own Kadima party again threatened to
>bolt
>his coalition if the unpopular Premier actually agrees to abandon portions
>of Jerusalem to Palestinian control, as media reports indicated he is now
>fully prepared to do.
>
>NUCLEAR SYRIA
>
>Senior Bush administration officials confirmed widespread media reports
>that
>Israeli jets had bombed and apparently destroyed a Syrian nuclear-linked
>target in the country's eastern desert in the early hours of September 6.
>The Washington Post was among several newspapers that quoted unnamed White
>House and Defense Department officials saying the target was no less than a
>nuclear reactor under construction there. The American ABC network reported
>that a mole operating in the area had taken secret detailed photographs of
>the inside of the targeted building site, confirming that it was a reactor
>being constructed along the lines necessary to provide enough material to
>eventually produce a nuclear bomb.
>
>A Syrian official stationed at United Nations headquarters in New York
>later
>confirmed for the first time that the target was indeed some sort of
>nuclear
>facility under construction. Earlier, Syrian leaders, including Dictator
>Bashar Assad, had claimed that the targeted structure was either an
>agricultural building or an abandoned army base. Speaking before the UN's
>Disarmament Commission, the Syrian diplomat termed the daring Israeli
>operation "an act of aggression."
>
>The Post report said that U.S. leaders had known about the construction
>activity for some time, but had not shared that information immediately
>with
>their Israeli counterparts. It added that the Damascus-based Assad regime
>is
>seemingly now scrambling to erase all evidence on the ground that a nuclear
>reactor was being built in the dry eastern desert, not far from the border
>with Iraq .
>
>American officials quoted in the report said the intensive efforts to clean
>up the site are probably designed to make it impossible for international
>inspectors to confirm that an atomic reactor was actually under
>construction, and whether or not it was being built with nuclear weapons
>ultimately in mind. The report said air surveillance pictures taken by
>American and Israeli spy satellites and jets had revealed that the site was
>probably a small but significant nuclear reactor.
>
>Experts said the reactor had similar features to several others located in
>North Korea . They added that the isolated Communist regime had probably
>sold architectural plans for the nuclear facility to Syria, with North
>Korean engineers overseeing the actual construction process, as several
>international media outlets reported in September. Some reports said North
>Korean experts were killed in the dramatic air strike. Other reports
>claimed
>that Russian weapons advisors had been killed when Israeli Air Force pilots
>also bombed recently delivered Russian anti-aircraft missile batteries that
>were locking onto their jets.
>
>WARNING TO IRAN ?
>
>American officials told the Washington Post that the White House had agreed
>with Israeli leaders that urgent military action was called for to halt the
>nuclear construction process. The State Department's reported contention
>that the issue should first be raised with the United Nation's
>International
>Atomic Energy Agency before an air operation was launched was overruled by
>the White House, which was said to concur with Israeli officials that such
>a
>move would only give diplomatic cover for the Syrian regime to continue
>rapid construction activity, as limited UN sanctions have apparently done
>for Iran.
>
>As before, Israeli officials refused to confirm or deny the American news
>reports, even though strict military censorship upon the Israeli media and
>foreign journalists stationed in the country was partially lifted in late
>September. That at least permitted full publication for the first time of
>the widely known fact that a major air operation had been successfully
>carried out by highly trained Israeli Air Force pilots earlier in the
>month.
>Israeli officials again indicated that the censorship restrictions were
>basically enacted in order to lessen the chances that humiliated Syrian
>leaders would order a retribution military operation, if not launch an
>all-out war.
>
>Pointing out that the Syrians are already known to possess a small nuclear
>reactor for supposedly research purposes only, the Post article said
>Israeli
>and American officials believed that the bombed facility was more clearly
>designed to produce weapon'sgrade material. It added that U.S. government
>leaders remain divided as to whether or not the reactor posed an imminent
>threat to Israel , or to American forces stationed in the region.
>
>NIPPED IN THE BUD
>
>A Syrian nuclear reactor that could potentially help produce future atomic
>weapons to be used against the small Jewish state was obviously not
>something that the Israeli government was willing to suffer very long.
>Still
>most Israeli security analysts believe that the daring IAF attack was also
>carried out soon after Israel confirmed that the building project had a
>nuclear connection in order to send a loud and clear warning to Syria's
>main
>regional ally, Iran: Your own
>openly declared nuclear program may be subjected to Israeli military action
>if it is not soon halted voluntarily.
>
>Analysts noted that the air strike against Syria 's nascent reactor came
>just days before Iranian leader Mahmoud Amadinajed was scheduled to speak
>at
>United Nation's headquarters in New York , where he again defiantly
>declared
>that his rogue regime will not bow to growing international pressure and
>sanctions to halt its controversial "nuclear energy" program. Several weeks
>later, Iranian Brigadier General Mahmoud Chaharbaghi, who commands the
>country's elite
>Revolutionary Guard forces, claimed that his country "has 11,000 rockets
>and
>heavy cannons aimed at enemy forces" in the region, apparently meaning
>American and Israeli targets.
>
>Israeli media reports said that PM Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak
>(who personally planned and oversaw the successful bombing operation) hope
>that the bold Israeli Air Force action will help persuade Shiite extremists
>ruling Tehran to shut down or at least freeze their nuclear program, which
>all Israeli officials strongly contend is largely designed for military
>purposes, and not to increase electricity supplies as Ahmadinejad and other
>Iranian officials contend.
>
>Speculation that some sort of military strike against Iran 's nuclear sites
>could be imminent grew after Barak warned the Israeli public in late
>October
>to prepare materials to seal off security rooms designed to withstand a
>potential chemical or biological weapons attack. Such "sealed rooms" were
>standard fare in Israel the first week of the war in Iraq in March 2003,
>and
>even more so during Saddam's Scud missile blitz in early 1991.
>
>For the first time since the 2006 war, Lebanese gunners fired upon Israeli
>military jets flying over south Lebanon on October 24 without causing any
>damage. The action heightened concerns that some sort of Hizbullah attack
>against Israel could be pending, probably aided by Syria . The incident
>came
>just hours before the UN released a formal report stating that the Lebanese
>Shiite militia had not only fully rearmed following its war with Israel
>last
>year, but has actually "increased the capacity" it had at the beginning of
>that conflict. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon termed the report "deeply
>disconcerting." The UN openly stated that most of Hizbullah's new weapons
>flow is coming via Syria , financed largely by Iran .
>
>OLMERT VISITS THE KREMLIN
>
>Prime Minister Olmert made a lightning trip to Moscow in mid-October to
>hold
>urgent talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had just returned
>from a state visit to Iran . Senior Israeli leaders were upset when the
>increasingly autocratic Putin stated his opposition to slapping further UN
>economic sanctions on Tehran , contending that there is "no need" for them
>since there is no evidence that Iran possesses, or intends to produce,
>nuclear weapons. The Russian leader added that he would oppose any
>international military action to curb Iran 's nuclear program, which
>Iranian
>leaders insist is strictly for energy purposes. Most Western leaders have
>stated directly or indirectly that they believe the Shiite state is mainly
>enriching uranium in order to produce
>nuclear bombs.
>
>In his public remarks, Olmert did not directly blast the statements made by
>Putin while visiting Iran. However the PM did state that Russia could "help
>stabilize the Middle East by giving due weight to Israel 's security
>interests." In other words, Russia 's actions of late--especially its
>military anti-tank and aircraft missile sales to Syria , and material
>support for Iran 's nuclear program--are helping to produce further
>instability in the region, which can only lead to more violence and
>conflict
>ahead.
>
>An Israeli Defense Ministry official accompanying Olmert in Moscow told
>reporters that there has been a "significant retreat in Russian support for
>continuing diplomatic activity to impose sanctions on Iran via the UN
>Security Council." The international body is scheduled to discuss the issue
>again in November.
>
>Meanwhile Israeli military analysts reported that the Olmert government is
>increasingly considering a unilateral military option for dealing with the
>existential threat that Iranian nuclear bombs would pose to the small state
>of Israel . Some opined that the air strike on Syria's nuclear reactor was
>partially meant to send a strong signal that similar action against Iran
>may
>be pending, even if all agree it would be a far more difficult undertaking
>than the September operation against the new Syrian reactor was--targeting
>several dozen positions instead of just
>one, all located much further away from Israel's borders.
>
>Senior American officials said again during October that the world' current
>superpower would not allow Iran to possess such deadly weapons. During a
>press conference mid-month, President George Bush repeated earlier
>statements that everything possible would be done to halt the program
>diplomatically, but if that fails, "all options" would be on the table.
>Vice
>President Dick Cheney echoed the Commander-in-Chief later in the month,
>saying in a speech before the Washington Institute for Near East Studies
>that the Iranian regime "continues to practice delay and deceit in an
>obvious effort to buy time." He said Iranian leaders were openly pursuing
>technology that would allow them to build nuclear weapons, adding that "our
>country and the entire international community cannot stand by as a
>terror-supporting state fulfills its grandest ambitions." Secretary of
>State
>Condoleezza Rice supported this position during the month, saying that the
>Shiite Iranian regime was "simply lying" when it maintains that its uranium
>enrichment program is for peaceful purposes only.
>
>RICE RETURNS AMID NEGOTIATING STALEMATE
>
>Americas senior diplomat returned to the turbulent Middle East yet again
>during October, obstensively to further along the recently revived
>Israeli-Palestinian peace process. This came as puzzled Israeli analysts
>noted yet again that the current realities do not at all give any
>indication
>that a final peace treaty is even remotely achievable in the current
>political climate. They note that the Israeli scene is dominated by an
>Israeli premier whose popularity ratings remain at record lows. On the
>other
>side, the Palestinians are ruled by a weak PLO leader who lost control over
>one-third of his people and territory to the radical Islamic Hamas movement
>last June. Some analysts speculated again that the Secretary of State's
>frequent visits to the region this year probably have more to do with
>preparing the diplomatic ground for an American military assault on Iran's
>nuclear program than with the sludge-filled Israeli-Palestinian peace
>process.
>
>State Department officials traveling with Rice told reporters at the end of
>her latest Mideast tour--which as usual included stops in key U.S. allies
>in
>the Gulf region--that Olmert and Abbas had agreed to issue a "joint
>declaration" at a planned peace conference to be held in the United States
>later this year. They said the declaration would "address all core issues
>and point to certain avenues to be pursued through negotiations."
>
>Proving once more how difficult it will be to reach a final peace accord in
>the near future, Palestinian officials publicly disputed the claim that
>they
>would be satisfied by such a declaration at this time. Instead, they
>threatened again to boycott the announced Israeli-Palestinian peace
>conference currently planned to be held near Washington DC in either late
>November or early December.
>
>Abbas and company basically demand a complete and final detailed settlement
>of all outstanding issues dividing the two sides before the conference gets
>underway, a position that Israel strongly rejects. "We won't go to the
>conference unless we reach an agreement beforehand with Israel on the final
>status issues and a clear timetable for implementation of any agreement
>between the two parties" said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on
>Oct 23.
>
>The following day, Defense Minister Barak indicated that he was planning to
>implement the cabinet's earlier authorization to cut off fuel, electricity
>and other supplies to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Barak's reported decision
>came after a heavy barrage of Palestinian Kassam rockets were launched into
>Israeli communities the third week of October.
>
>OLMERT CAN'T DO IT
>
>Palestinian leaders are upset with Ehud Olmert's continuing refusal to
>commit to a final peace process timetable at the planned international
>parley. PLO leaders want the conference to focus on producing a fixed
>timetable that would spell out exactly how much Israeli-held disputed
>territory would be transferred to Palestinian control and when, along with
>precisely when full independent statehood would be granted.
>
>Aware of how shaky his government coalition is, and how extremely unpopular
>a total surrender of most portions of Judea and Samaria is with a large
>majority of the Israeli electorate, PM Olmert insists that a more general
>peace conference goal is more appropriate, or at least realistic, at this
>stage. Instead of a detailing a final accord, he wants both sides to
>recommit to fully implement the Road Map peace plan put forward by the
>White
>House in 2003. In its first phase, it calls for a total Israeli settlement
>expansion freeze and a complete halt to all Palestinian terror attacks,
>followed later on by negotiations for a final status peace accord. Just
>after her latest trip to Jerusalem , Rice confirmed that the American
>government fully supports Olmert's insistence that both sides pledge to
>carry out the first phase of the Road Map plan before final status issues
>are resolved.
>
>Speaking before a Congressional committee in Washington late in the month,
>the Secretary of State warned the so-called "two-state solution" might
>collapse as an option if the current peace push does not bear fruit. She
>said the international conference to be held in Annapolis , Maryland before
>the end of this year "is needed to give hope to moderate Palestinian
>leaders" and provide them with "a horizon they can show to their people
>that
>indeed there is a possible two state solution." Rice added that the Bush
>administration will ask Congress to provide more than $400 million in
>financial aid to the Palestinian Authority headed by Abbas. She blamed Iran
>for fanning the flames of conflict in the region, especially by providing
>what she termed "troubling new support" for Hamas militants working to
>destroy Israel .
>
>Revelations by Deputy Premier Haim Ramon that Olmert is prepared to cede
>control to the PA over mostly Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem continued to
>shake the Israeli political establishment during October, even though he
>also implied this could be part of a deal to cement Israeli control over
>three large settlement blocks located north and south of Israel's capital
>city. Opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu blasted the proposal on several
>occasions, saying any portion of Jerusalem abandoned to PA control would
>most likely become part of the capital of an Islamic fundamentalist
>Palestinian state that would threaten Israel 's very existence. Olmert;s
>office continued to deny that the Premier is effectively prepared to
>re-divide the holy city, which came under full Israeli control when the
>area
>was captured from Jordan in 1967.
>
>Meanwhile the Palestinian daily Al Quds newspaper published in London
>reported in early October that Olmert had reached an understanding with
>Abbas to transfer control to Jordan over the most important real estate
>located in Jerusalem, if not in the entire world--the hallowed Temple
>Mount.
>The paper said some 90,000 Arab residents of eastern Jerusalem would
>receive
>Jordanian citizenship as part of the deal. The story came as former Tourism
>Minister Benny Elon resurrected a plan that was once the staple of the
>nationalist Likud party, which Netanyahu now heads. He called for all
>Palestinians living in Jordan 's former West Bank to be granted full
>Jordanian citizenship, with Israel gaining official sovereignty over those
>portions of the area where Israeli Jews reside today. The plan was
>immediately rejected by Israeli government leaders and was strongly
>denounced by the Palestinians.
>
>FEAR NO EVIL
>
>Palestinian terrorists brutally murdered the head of the Gaza Strip Bible
>Society in early October. Rami Ayyad, 31, was the father of two children,
>with a third on the way. His mutilated body, which had been repeatedly
>stabbed and his skull crushed, was found in Gaza City, where he ran a
>Christian bookshop that had come under earlier attack from Muslim radicals.
>They vow to drive out or kill all Arab Christians who refuse to immediately
>convert to Islam.
>
>Later in the month, arsonists set a church on fire in Jerusalem , but did
>little damage. The original Narkiss Street Baptist Church building was
>destroyed in a raging fire in the early 1980s by suspected Orthodox Jewish
>arsonists. Fire officials said the recent blaze was set in three locations
>by arsonists who broke into the Christian facility during the night of
>October 23. The church premises are currently used by several
>congregations,
>including one large Messianic group that meets there on Saturday evenings.
>
>With violence of all kinds gripping the troubled Middle East and indeed the
>entire world, it is so good to proclaim that "The Lord reigns, He is
>clothed
>with majesty! The Lord has clothed and girded Himself with strength; indeed
>the world is firmly established, it will not be moved." (Psalm 93:1)
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------
>---------------
>
>DAVID DOLAN is a Jerusalem-based author and journalist who has lived and
>worked in Israel since 1980.
>
>· 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 popular
>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 toll free 888-890-6938 in North
>America, or by e mail at: [log in to unmask]
>
>DOLAN'S NEW DVD, "FOR ZION'S SAKE" is now available for purchase. Click the
>title under "BOOKSTORE" for more details.
>
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