Israel's Elections 3-28-06 (Clearly explained by Chuck Misler)

Tuesday, March 28, Israelis headed to the polls to choose their newest Prime Minister.

As I write this, there is just one hour left before polls close. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to win, and a low voter turnout demonstrates that few Israelis anticipate any other outcome. Yet, a great deal is at stake in this election as the three candidates have very different ideas about matters vital to Israeli security.

The Labour Party leader, Amir Peretz is willing to offer huge concessions to the Palestinians for peace, but under Arafat that approach failed, and seems even more likely to fail under the leadership of the terrorist group Hamas.

The Likud Party leader, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will offer no concessions, and will not even consider withdrawing from the West Bank unless the Palestinian government makes great strides in disarming the terrorists and putting a stop to the violence.

In the center stands Ehud Olmert, the leader of the new Kadima Party. Olmert is planning to unilaterally withdraw from the West Bank and hopes to draw the borders of Israel with or without the cooperation of the Palestinians.

The new Prime Minister will make decisions regarding how to work with Hamas, what to do about Israeli settlements in the West Bank and what Israel's future borders will look like. This election is actually a big deal.

Had he kept his health, Ariel Sharon was expected to have easily won at the polls Tuesday night. Sharon was always a strong leader and capable statesman, able to accomplish his goals in the face of intense opposition. His stroke in January put an end to that. Still, his newly established Kadima Party is leading the polls. Sharon created Kadima in late 2005 to break away from the more conservative members of Likud. His party quickly grew strong as it drew into its fold other moderate Likud MKs and conservative Labour MKs.

Ehud Olmert has been acting in Sharon's place since the Prime Minister suffered his stroke, and as Kadima Party leader will strive to accomplish the efforts Sharon started. However, Olmert is not as experienced or respected as Sharon, and does not have Sharon's personal popularity. His views and agenda may parallel Sharon's, but he may not have the ability to get things pushed through. Still, his plans for Israel's future are bold, and still cause concern for many both on the left and on the right.

Ehud Olmert has not completely given up on the U.S.-backed Road Map to Peace. But, with Hamas at the helm of Palestinian government, there seems little hope for any peace plans to work. Hamas does not even recognize the right of Israel to exist as a nation.

Olmert is not willing - as Labour Party candidate Amir Peretz has been - to offer the Palestinians all of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the name of Peace. In fact, Olmert does want to keep parts of East Jerusalem and the largest Jewish settlements in the West Bank. However, he is willing to unilaterally withdraw from portions of the West Bank, if and when peace talks fail, and to make decisions about the border of Israel without Hamas' input.

Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu has been unwilling to offer the Palestinians any concessions until their leadership puts a halt to violence and disarms terrorists. Now that the terrorist group Hamas is the leadership, he is pushing for stronger sanctions.

Under Olmert, Israel has frozen the transfer of tax rebates to the Palestinian Authority, but this response has been "weak" according to Netanyahu. Olmert is willing to try to work with Hamas if there is a possibility, although he does not have high expectations.

All three candidates are willing to form a Palestinian State; the Palestinians multiply faster than the Jews and could take over Israel by a simple vote in a few decades if there is no official separation between Israel and a state of Palestine. However, each candidate offers a different position on how such a state should be created:

Peretz will push to involve the Palestinian Leadership in the process. Netanyahu will insist the Palestinian Leadership start taking responsibility for peace before allowing Israel to compromise its security by giving away land. Olmert will reject both these policies. He will push to form a Palestinian State by unilaterally withdrawing from parts of the West Bank and by drawing Israel's borders - regardless of what Hamas and the Palestinians do.

The Palestinians will no doubt reject the decisions Olmert makes, because they want more land than Olmert will give. (They want it all.) Many of the settlers living in the West Bank will also reject his decisions, because they believe God has given them and their descendants the land of Israel as a possession forever.

Regardless of what Israeli politicians do, in the end, God will decide what happens to the Land, this Land that has had His thumb print on it for 5000 years.

[...Today, after the election results were published, a solar eclipse occurred in Israel. Traditionally an eclipse of the moon foretells disaster for the Goyim, and a solar eclipse foretells disaster for Judah...]

What rank pagan superstitious nonsense.

Will there be great "signs in the heavens" just prior to The Return Of Jesus Christ?
http://www.keyway.ca/htm2002/signheav.htm

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken." Matthew 24:29

"The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the lord." Acts 2:20

Will there be great "signs in the heavens" just prior to The Return Of Jesus Christ? http://www.keyway.ca/htm2002/signheav.htm
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken." Matthew 24:29
"The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the lord." Acts 2:20

8 posted on 03/29/2006 10:14:02 AM MST by Jo Nuvark

Amen and amen!
There are so many Pagans who claim to to be Christians;
but are completely ignorant of the Holy Word of G-d.

b'shem Y'shua

FYI (a few minutes with google)

The Talmud (Succah 29a) refers to eclipses of the sun and the moon as unfavorable periods for the world. It further states that solar eclipses occur for four different reasons: 1) If a Torah scholar is buried without being adequately eulogized; 2) If a betrothed girl is raped and nobody responds to her cries; 3) Homosexuality, and 4) Two brothers being killed at the same time.

The question is clear: Many ancient peoples believed that eclipses were unpredictable events. But we know that they follow a set pattern and can be calculated in advance. Did the Talmudic Sages not know this? How can eclipses be a punishment for sins if they occur at predictable times? Two basic approaches are taken to explain the Talmud.

The first approach states that the Talmud certainly knew that eclipses are physical and predictable events. Rabbi Yaakov Ettlinger (Aruch LeNer ad loc.) notes that the Talmud clearly understood solar eclipses to be caused by the moon obscuring the sun, as is clear from the parable that it uses. He also points out that the Talmud uses the seemingly superfluous wording, "at the time when the sun is eclipsed, it is an unfavorable period," when it could have simply said "when the sun is eclipsed." The word z’man, "time," is related to the word "zamen," prepared. (Every time it appears in Tanach, it is written only in reference to pre-appointed times.) Thus, the usage of this word shows that eclipses were known to be pre-arranged and predictable events. However, this does not present a contradiction to their being portenders of sin. Rabbi Ettlinger and the Iyun Yaakov explain that during eclipses, G-d exacts retribution for certain sins. Certain periods are set aside for Divine justice to be meted out, and these are indicated in the physical universe by eclipses.

http://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/247/Q1/

What does the Talmud say about red moons:

It was taught: R. Meir said, Whenever the luminaries are in eclipse, it is a bad omen for Israel since they are inured to blows. This may be compared to a school teacher who comes to school with a strap in his hand. Who becomes apprehensive? He who is accustomed to be daily punished. Our Rabbis taught, When the sun is in eclipse it is a bad omen for idolaters; when Lavanah (Moon) is in eclipse, it is a bad omen for Israel, since Israel reckons by Lavanah (Moon) and idolaters by the sun. If it is in eclipse in the east, it is a bad omen for those who dwell in the east; if in the west, it is a bad omen for those who dwell in the west; if in the midst of heaven it is bad omen for the whole world. If its face is red as blood, [it is a sign that] the sword is coming to the world; if it is like sack-cloth, the arrows of famine are coming to the world; if it resembles both, the sword and the arrows of famine are coming to the world. If the eclipse is at sunset calamity will tarry in its coming; if at dawn, it hastens on its way: but some say the order is to be reversed. And there is no nation which is smitten that its G-ds are not smitten together with it, as it is said, And against all the G-ds of Egypt I will execute judgments. But when Israel fulfill the will of the Omnipresent, they need have no fear of all these [omens] as it is said, Thus saith the L-RD,' Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the nations are dismayed at them, the idolaters will be dismayed, but Israel will not be dismayed. Talmud - Mas. Sukkah 29a

The eclipse of the moon and stars is caused by four kinds of sin:

(1) forgery,

(2) false witness,

(3) breeding small cattle in Palestine (for they spoil the land), and

(4) cutting down fruit-trees (Suk. 29a).

http://www.betemunah.org/celestal.html

Interesting particularly the connection between homosexuality and solar eclipses. I am sure some of the rabbis will be talking about that in connection with the Israeli gay rights issues.

Didn't know this stuff until you mentioned it and I went looking...

Solar and Lunar Eclipses this year
Wednesday Mar 29th has a solar eclipse
and at evening is the the beginning of
the Jewish religious new year;
it appears to be a day for which we do not know the day nor hour,
as the day begins when three stars are visible in the sky.
It is the first of Nissan.
The fifteen of the Nissan however is Pesach.
The day Y'shua broke bread and drank the
third cup of Pesach, the cup of Redemption
and asked that he be remembered as the Passover Lamb of G-d
whose blood was shed for the sins of all mankind.
The day following the Shabbat following Pesach
is the feast of First Fruits,
the morning the L-rd Y'shua rose from the grave
and offered Himself as the best of mankind, the first fruits.
This year Roman Catholics celebrate
Apr 13th as Holy Thursday.
the Sunday following they celebrate "Easter" Sunday.
Later this year forty day before Yom Kippur,
begins a period of repentance marked
by the daily blowing of the shofar( Trumpet ).
this day there will be a Lunar Eclipse.
On the feast of Trumpets( the first day of Tishri )
following a long series of trumpet soundings,
the final trump is sounded.

b'shem Y'shua

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.