Middle East

An Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas began Thursday, ushered in by a barrage of dozens of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel the day before. To think that this cease-fire is anything more, on Hamas’s part, than a chance to catch its breath would be blind ignorance of the history and nature of this terrorist group.

The European Union announced a significant upgrade in its relations with Israel on Monday during the annual EU-Israel Association Council Meeting in Luxembourg. A statement put out by the Foreign Ministry said the agreement “will usher in a new era in Israeli-European relations.” The Jerusalem Postreports that Israeli-EU relations will be upgraded in three areas: increased diplomatic cooperation; Israel’s participation in European plans and agencies; and examination of possible Israeli integration into the European single market. Israel’s apparent warming relationship with Europe is prophesied in the Bible—along with the outcome of it. In Jerusalem in Prophecy, editor in chief Gerald Flurry explains how it appears the Jews will eventually invite a German-led European force into their country as peacekeepers, which will lead to a massive double cross. Read Brad Macdonald’s May 15 column “Can Israel Trust Germany?” for more.

From the other side of the Atlantic, the vibes are not so good. On her latest visit to Jerusalem, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reprimanded Israel Sunday for undermining Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations by constructing houses on “disputed” land. Her comments directed at the Palestinians were apparently mild in comparison. America’s weakening support for Israel does not bode well for the Jewish state.

Meanwhile, Israel is experiencing its fourth consecutive year of drought, with last winter’s rainfall only 65 percent of the long-term average and the water level in the Sea of Galilee dropping close to the danger line. The government has reacted with an emergency plan to spend an additional 120 million shekels (us$37 million) on improving water conservation and 915 million shekels (us$282 million) on improving water recycling for agricultural usage. It is also calling for more desalination plants to be built. Ironically, it is during this current water crisis that the Olmert administration has put both the West Bank and the Golan Heights on the negotiating table—two primary sources for Israel’s water.

Iran has withdrawn around $75 billion from European banks in order to protect the assets from European threats to impose new sanctions over Tehran’s controversial nuclear ambitions, an Iranian weekly reported. “Part of Iran’s assets in European banks have been converted to gold and shares and another part has been transferred to Asian banks,” Mohsen Talaie, deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs, was quoted as saying. By repeatedly threatening to sanction Iran, Europe is not deterring Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but rather giving the Iranians time to move their economic assets elsewhere.

Afghan and nato troops launched a large-scale offensive in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday to flush out Taliban fighters. The push into the Arghandab district came three days after a highly coordinated Taliban attack on Kandahar’s prison allowed 400 Taliban militants to escape. Afghan officials claim the Arghandab operation has been successful, with the insurgents being driven from the area. nato personnel, however, say the insurgents chose not to fight.

A draft report by a former top UN arms inspector says the Pakistani-based smuggling ring led by A.Q. Khan possessed detailed blueprints for advanced nuclear weapons, the Washington Postreported Sunday. These plans, the report states, could have been shared with any number of countries or rogue groups—including Iran. The blueprints, found in 2006, provide instructions to build a more sophisticated nuclear weapon than the plans that were already known to have been given to Libya—and these plans are for a bomb that can be delivered by ballistic missile.

Europe

After forcefully ejecting four protestors and defeating a motion to delay voting until October, the British House of Lords ratified the Lisbon Treaty on Wednesday. Before noon the next day, Queen Elizabeth ii gave the treaty her royal assent. Remarkably, a YouGov poll indicated that only 14 percent of the British people supported such a ratification. Nevertheless, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown traveled to Brussels Thursday afternoon in time to be congratulated by European Commissioner Jose Manuel Barroso for pushing the treaty through to law. Britain has rejected the will of its people and signed away a large chunk of its sovereignty to a forming European superstate.

At Thursday’s meeting in Brussels, EU leaders gathered to discuss how to respond to Irish voters’ rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. “Ireland has a responsibility to contribute to finding a solution. When governments sign a treaty they assume a responsibility to have it ratified,” said Barroso. Germany and France issued a joint statement that the treaty ratification process is to continue in other nations while a solution to the Ireland conundrum is worked out. This disregard for Ireland’s original decision and these attempts to sidestep the wishes of the Irish show just how undemocratic the European Union has become.

Despite the Lisbon setback, the European Union is not dialing down its political reach. The European Parliament is still passing laws on a federal superstate level. On Wednesday, the European Parliament met in Strasbourg, France, to vote on a controversial new law that would establish a common EU policy for expelling illegal immigrants from the continent-wide bloc. This new law stipulates what standards and procedures EU nations have to apply when deporting illegal immigrants from Europe’s borderless Schengen Zone. Lisbon or no Lisbon, the EU will remain on its path toward federal superstate status and continue passing trans-continental legislation.

As Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and his Western-leaning allies work to tear Ukraine away from Russia’s influence and integrate it into the EU, they may be looking to the Vatican for help. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone recently told Vatican Radio that the Vatican could conduct research jointly with Ukrainian authorities into the circumstances of the Holodomor. Yushchenko believes that the Holodomor was a starvation campaign created by the Russians in the 1930s as a means of curbing Ukrainian nationalism. He asked Bertone back in May for help from the secret Vatican archives in probing the records of this famine. This help may give Yushchenko enough “dirt” on the Russians to help him in his campaign for nato and EU membership. During Bertone’s last visit to Ukraine, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and International Integration Hryhoriy Nemyria spoke on behalf of all Europhile Ukrainians saying, “We highly appreciate Vatican’s support of the European vocation of our state.”

Asia

India’s ruling United Progressive Alliance (upa) appears to be headed for a showdown with the Communist Party of India (cpm) over a proposed nuclear energy deal with the United States. This proposed deal, which is supported by the upa government, would give U.S. approval for shipments of nuclear fuel and technology into India in exchange for Indian permission to have international observers oversee India’s nuclear program. The Communists object to this deal, saying it could undermine the independent foreign policy of India and prohibit the testing of atomic weapons in the future. The Indian government was scheduled to meet with its Communist opponents on this issue on Wednesday, but has now delayed the meeting until next week. This standoff could result in early elections if the cpm withdraws its support from the upa government. The Communists aren’t opposed to the nuclear treaty because of its nuclear component, but because of its U.S. component. If a solution is not quickly found, India may have to scrap its cooperation plans with the U.S. and look for nuclear materials and technology elsewhere—perhaps China.

As the European Union and Russia compete for influence over the natural resource wealth of Central Asia, Russia has resorted to the formation of military alliances in order to secure its stake in the region. A report released Monday by Radio Free Europe revealed that the Russia State Duma has ratified an agreement with Tajikistan on the mutual use of military forces. This military expansion into Central Asia could be Russia’s primary means of countering European economic interest in the region. Uzbek President Islam Karimov recently suggested that the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Eurasian Economic Community should merge to create a “powerful union capable of becoming a counterbalance to nato and the EU.”

In North Korea, Kim Jong Il met with visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on Wednesday to highlight the warm ties between the two neighboring countries. The North Korean leader reiterated that his country is always ready to join hands with China to further advance friendly and cooperative mutual relationships. China is North Korea’s most important ally, biggest trade partner, and main source of food, arms and fuel.

South America, Africa

The United States has identified two Venezuelans, one of whom serves as a diplomat, as supporters of Hezbollah and subsequently frozen their assets. Two Venezuelan travel agencies were also blacklisted for facilitating the travel of Hezbollah members. Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury’s sanctions arm, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, said, “It is extremely troubling to see the government of Venezuela employing and providing safe harbor to Hezbollah facilitators and fundraisers.” These actions follow an annual report from the U.S. State Department saying that Venezuela has deepened ties to Iran and Cuba, both state sponsors of terrorism. One specific concern is a weekly flight from Tehran to Venezuela with a stop in Damascus that is not controlled by immigration or customs.

Militants have stepped up their attacks on Nigerian oil output, shutting down the main oil field for Royal Shell, which produces 200,000 barrels a day, a full 10 percent of Nigeria’s total output. They also kidnapped the captain of a U.S. oil supply vessel after the strike. This particular attack demonstrated the militants’ ability to reach any of Nigeria’s facilities: The Bonga oil platform is 75 miles off the coast of the Niger Delta, the furthest out of any attack to date. “The location for today’s attack was deliberately chosen to remove any notion that offshore oil exploration is far from our reach,” the rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta warned in an e-mail. “Oil and gas tankers are also warned to avoid Nigerian waters.” Output has already been reduced by at least 20 percent in recent years because of militant attacks, not including this attack. The militants have staged this attack just previous to a summit in Nigeria aimed at discussing energy in the region. While these militants make it their mission to run off foreign investment in the Nigerian energy sector, the amount of foreign investment—and even exploitation—in Africa is only going to increase. For more information, read “The Resource War” from the January 2002 Trumpet.

Anglo-America

American banks repossessed twice the number of homes in May (73,000) as they did a year ago from borrowers trapped in mortgages they could not afford. The Washington-based Mortgage Bankers Association reports that 2.47 percent of all U.S. homes were in some stage of foreclosure during the first quarter of this year, 2½ times higher than the average for the past 30 years. It is estimated that foreclosures may account for nearly a third of national home sales this year. These figures are causing some to worry that a negative feedback loop will develop in the United States housing market, where increasing repossession rates would drive housing prices down, and declining house values would trap consumers in mortgages they cannot afford. This would serve to increase repossession rates even further, and the cycle would continue. In the end, the housing market would become an increasingly heavy anchor on the economy in general.

In London, the British government has made a decision on what to do with Abu Qatada. Qatada is known as Osama bin Laden’s ambassador to Europe; a radical Islamic cleric who entered Britain illegally in 1993 and claimed asylum for himself and his family there. He has since provided “religious” and “spiritual” advice to Islamic terrorist organizations around the world, including Islamic Jihad in Egypt and groups in Algeria, Iraq, Indonesia, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco. Qatada is all but an official part of al Qaeda’s command structure. He has issued a number of influential fatwas (Islamic death warrants), and videos of his sermons were found at the residence of one of the September 11 hijacker ringleaders. The decision from London: Release Qatada on bail. The British courts have decided Qatada cannot be held because he has not committed an act of terror on British soil, and cannot be deported to his native Jordan because he might face torture there. Qatada is now under house arrest in West London, funded by tens of thousands of taxpayer pounds.

A terribly bittersweet headline made its way across news outlets in Australia and the U.S. late this week as an international investigation cracked the oldest and most sophisticated known online pedophile ring in existence on Tuesday. It is now emerging that 22 ringleaders and hundreds of pedophile customers produced and shared tens of thousands of pictures and movies, some of them made-to-order, of children being raped and abused. A Queensland law enforcement task force led the charge, but as the dragnet closed in, agents were afraid the captor of one 9-year-old rape victim—who was abused over the course of years, sometimes at knifepoint in a series of videos that was becoming a “collector’s item” for the pedophiles—would kill her. Thanks to advanced investigation techniques and cooperation with the fbi and other agencies, the Queensland squad helped identify and arrest the rapist, a married tennis coach with two children living in Atlanta, Georgia—and rescue the girl; 70 other children have been rescued worldwide. Before it was broken, the ring protected its years-old hive of pedophilia with advanced encryption, multiple stages of passwords, codenames, and other electronic disguise. One member of the group boasted online, “[T]his [is] the greatest group of pedos to ever gather in one place. I’m honored just to be a part of it.” If you ever wonder why the nations of biblical Israel seem to be on the decline on the world scene, this heart-wrenching news should serve as a clue.