Israeli Roulette on The 9th of Av - Will hundreds join the Temple Mount Faithful Thursday fanning the flames of hell while Christians egg them on?

The Mughrabi Gate ramp in the foreground, Dome of the Rock in background; overlooking Jewish security gates to the Wall

This week the Jerusalem Post published a report about how the Temple Mount Faithful are planning their annual attempt to ascend the Temple Mount to pray on the 9th of Av. The stated goal of the march (this year) is to be a statement to President Obama, “Get your hands off Jerusalem and the land of Israel.” It’s a message most Israel-supporting Christians agree with 100% - this writer included, however I do not support the march nor the group leading it.

This is an annual Tisha B’Av attempt by the Temple Mount Faithful although historically only dozens are attracted to participate. This year TMF leader Gershon Salomon is hoping for hundreds to join in the march to the mount on the date of the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem. The 9th of Av has become a date of dread in the Jewish community as many calamities for the Jewish people are believed to have occurred on this date throughout history.
The Wall where Jewish prayers are made

Christians need to know what they don’t know about the attempts of several primarily religious groups who seek to establish their unwelcome presence on the mount where the Dome on the Rock sits. The number one thing we need to know is that we have formed an unholy alliance that endangers the real work of the Lord in Israel, if we are funding and encouraging these groups and this article attempts to explain why.

Firstly, the Temple Mount Faithful routinely disregards the welfare of the Israeli public in its annual Tisha B’Av attempt to ascend the Temple Mount. On this and other Jewish holidays they try to make their way onto the Muslim-held Temple Mount and are thwarted by the Israeli police and security services. These attempts are much to the dismay of most Israelis who fear the group will trigger an Islamic ‘Holy War’ that will bring the wrath of Arab states down on the Jewish State in defense of the Dome of the Rock.

Unfortunately, Christians just don’t get it that this mission of Gershon’s is not a good thing for Israel and certainly not something they should be encouraging or funding. As Israeli journalist and Temple Mount expert, Nadav Shragai in a 2008 book review of Motti Inbari’s Jewish Fundamentalism and the Temple Mount wrote:

“Nearly 2,000 years have passed since the fire that the Romans set to the Temple walls died down, and still the embers are glowing. A tiny spark is enough to ignite them. Inbari's research focuses on those who would like to blow on the embers and make them burn again; those to whom the Temple is not just a word mentioned in Jewish prayers, but a reality toward which one must strive."

Inbari, a researcher at Brandeis University explored the various Temple Mount movements from the Haredi to the national-religious believers and also shedding light on how Israel-supporting Christians link into these movements. For the latter, most Christians who support Israel are completely out of their depth in understanding the issues surrounding the current status of the Temple Mount and the dangers a group like the Temple Mount Faithful poses.

There is a crazy, ill-informed devotion to Gershon Salomon’s Temple Mount Faithful among the Israel-supporting Christian community. So even before I hit the “Talkbacks” link on the Jpost article (Hundreds planning Temple Mount ascent), I knew reader comments would reflect the misunderstanding of situation that prevails with most Israel-supporting Christians.

As expected the “talkbacks” overflowed with Christians encouraging and applauding the news. Salomon Gershon, after all, as the head of the Temple Mount Faithful, is one of the most celebrated Israeli guests on many of the largest Christian television networks. The hosts of these networks and Christian prophecy teachers thrill to hear the charismatic Gershon regale with details of the preparations for the rebuilding of the Temple Mount.

The Christian thinking is that prophecy says a third Temple will be rebuilt where the Anti-Christ will seat himself as “God” before the second coming of the Lord. So, anything that points to the rebuilding of the Temple is considered a good sign that Jesus is coming soon. No thought is really given to the impact on Israelis – not even for the believing brothers and sisters in Israel.

Across from the security gate entrance to the Wall

For Israeli citizens, if the Temple Mount Faithful and their followers are ever successful in getting past the Old City police up onto the mount where the Dome of the Rock now sits, the aftermath is going to be very painful for Israelis. Too many Christians – just like the religious who continually try to “ascend” the Mount – do not care one whit about the hell that would be unleashed against Israelis in the aftermath by Islamic outrage.

Is it really such a difficult concept to grasp that the existence of the Dome of the Rock on the place where we know prophetic events will unfold – for bad and then for good – is a situation that is best left to God to resolve?

When God wants the Dome cleared, He will clear it Himself. However the Temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem, if it comes because the Temple Mount Faithful have successfully ascended the mount, it will be an extremely costly, bloody victory that will not be to the glory of the Lord Yeshua/Jesus.

Christians need to think through what they are supporting. For one thing, we need to awaken to the fact that the Lord is in the midst of building a living temple in Israel – the indigenous believers who are the Body of Messiah/Christ. Instead of focusing on the rebuilding of the Tribulation Temple, Christians should be focused on the building of the temple that is made without hands – the Living Temple in Israel.

Come on, believers! Wake up and smell the coffee burning on this one!

Can I just say it like it is? All of the focus over the years of the Christian TV network hosts who have doted on Salomon Gershon and the preparations of the Temple Mount Faithful is pure selfishness – it has certainly not been for love for Israel! Real Christian love for Israel expresses itself in a love for the people of Israel – and no, not just the rabbis and the religious legislators, but the average citizens of Israel AND the Body of Messiah/Christ in Israel.

The indigenous Body of Messiah - Arab and Jew - pray together at an annual picnic

If we say we love Israel and then support these groups threatening the national security of the citizens of Israel, then how real is our love? Isn’t it more that we just love our understanding of prophecy – that the Tribulation Temple has to be rebuilt before Jesus returns? And truly it does, but isn’t it true that we don’t really care what the ramifications will be to the people of Israel? Don’t we just want our ears tickled about the preparations for a Temple and the safety of Israelis be damned? That's pretty much the attitude of the religious Jewish groups many of us are misguidedly supporting. They aren't worried about the "sinners" of Israel as Yeshua/Jesus is.

Honestly? One would be hard pressed to find indigenous believers in Israel who back the efforts of the Temple Mount Faithful and similar groups. It is one thing to know that this is the mountain that the Lord has chosen to place His name and be worshipped on, it is another thing to support Jewish religious extremists setting out to tip the fragile Israeli-Arab balance by a purely symbolic attempt to ascend the Temple Mount. If they ever made it, they could not hold it, but many would die or be wounded in the process.

God has never needed any kind of “arm of the flesh” help to fulfill His prophetic will. We can “help” God but when we do it inevitably turns out badly. (Isn’t this how the tug of war with Ishmael originated? Sarah trying to give God a little help fulfilling a prophetic heir to Abraham – a child of promise obtained through the works of the flesh?)

God doesn’t need any help clearing the Dome of the Rock from the Temple Mount when the time for that comes. Human beings don’t even have to be involved – or, at least not purposefully involved. The Dome of the Rock could crumble tomorrow from an earthquake, or it could implode on itself by the foundations having been undermined by the many excavations. According to Sacred-Destinations.com,

“…complaints have been voiced by Israelis about Muslim construction and excavation on and underneath the Temple Mount, and by Muslims about Israeli excavations. Some claim that this will lead to the destabilization of the retaining walls of the Temple Mount, of which the Western Wall is one, and/or the al-Aqsa Mosque, and allege that one side is doing so deliberately to cause the collapse of the sacred sites of the other. Since the Waqf is granted almost full autonomy on the Islamic holy sites, Israeli archaeologists have been prevented from inspecting the area; they have, however, conducted several excavations under and around the Temple Mount."

If the Dome of the Rock is destined for destruction as scripture indicates, let it come naturally – the result of a natural disaster such as an earthquake, or through destabilizing of the competing excavations – an ‘act of God’, not the purposeful act of men.

The Symbolic Attempts are Political Talking Points


In recent past, there was much controversy stirred up as Ariel Sharon paid a visit to the Temple Mount in September 2000 a few months before his election as Israel’s Prime Minister. Sharon’s mission was to declare that the complex would remain under perpetual Israeli control. Palestinian riots broke out the next day as passions were enflamed over the issue of who ultimately rules the Temple Mount.

Then in 2005, a dubious Jerusalem source used by World Net Daily, again stirred emotions when he reported in March 2005 that 10,000 Jews to ascent Temple Mount to “spark Israeli dialogue about reclaiming the holy site from its Muslim custodians.” The leader of this group is a follower of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, a religious extremist whose political party was banned in Israel and likened to a KKK-style hate group. The organizer of this group was associated with Belz Hassid Yosef Elboim, ultra-Orthodox leader of the Movement for the Establishment of the Holy Temple.

In 2005 emotions were also running high during the period due to the impending Gaza pull out known as the Disengagement. Several groups – with Christian support – were getting in on the action hoping to make a statement about Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount.

In May 2005 Israeli police and the Shin Bet security service also arrested five Israeli Jews identified with the Bratslav Hasidic movement on suspicion of a planned attack on the Temple mount. One of the five was reported to say their goal was “to create a third intifada and a war with the Arab countries that would stop disengagement.”

A former Shin Bet Director, writing in the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, May 20, Carmi Gilloon said that an attack on the Temple Mount site “can be a disaster for the existence of the State of Israel, and can bring total war between the Muslim world, Israel, and maybe against Jewish targets abroad.”

It is a tragedy how Christians have been duped into supporting fanatic religious groups in Israel that threaten the safety of every Israeli citizen with ‘messianic’ delusions – even while skipping over the existence of the true Messianic movement in Israel, the indigenous Body of Messiah/Christ. So deep is the deception, however, among Israel-supporting Christians that most will not even listen to the facts that would expose them truth. ‘Don’t tell me about Israeli Jewish believers and don’t tell me the facts about those whose obsessive focus is taking the Temple Mount by force.’
"...because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." Pray the scales would fall off the eyes of every Christian whose heart has so far refused the truth of these matters.

While Israel may from time to time play an Israeli form of Russian Roulette with the political statements these groups make, not many Israelis would like to see any of these groups successfully ascend the Mount. The resulting Arab backlash would be far too grave and costly in spilt blood.

The Temple Mount really is dear to the Jewish heart but some things in life are better left in the hands of God to work out. This is one of those. Christians need to understand it and cease from being part of the danger to the State of Israel.

If only Christians had ears to hear and eyes to see through the fog of Jewish complexities at work here. If only Israel-supporting Christians would drop the obsessive thinking that any good will come from supporting Jewish religious extremists in a quest for the Temple Mount. If only Christians really “loved” Israel unconditionally enough to value the life of Israelis over religious domination of the Temple Mount.

The current timing may be good to stir a little Temple Mount controversy in Israel, what with the new diplomatic reality of the Obama presidency. Yet it is not worth playing Israeli Roulette, or letting Christians sit in the darkness of their illusions yet another year about what it would really mean if hundreds of Jews and Christians really did barge their way onto the mount.

Time to wake up, Christian world, and see who and what you are really supporting.

RETRO: The Current U.S. - Israeli Standoff

In May I posted some comments on this blog as the first face to face meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu was taking place in Washington, D.C. The post was titled A Pharaoh who did not know Joseph.

Here's the recap: "Don't be fooled by the cordial face of the meetings between Netanyahu and Obama earlier this week. The main issues have already been clearly defined: an intent to carve up Jerusalem and an insistence on stopping all Israel building in the disputed areas."


"Above is a photo I took in 2007 of Har Homa, which is a development just on the east entrance to Jerusalem coming from the Dead Sea. The last time Benjamin Netanyahu was Prime Minister, Har Homa was the battle ground, Arafat was the Palestinian head and Clinton was the man who wanted more than anything to deliver a final peace negotiation in the conflict.

"It didn't happen but there was intense international pressure applied to Israel the whole time. Expect more of the same now that there is not a President who understands Israel's rights."

That last comment, of course, was for all the Israel-supporting believers who were non-stop complainers throughout the Bush administration about Bush not doing enough for Israel. Israelis knew Bush was one of the presidents who most favored their situation. It was a no-brainer that the Obama administration was not going to be anywhere near as empathetic to Israel's plight.

Today I ran across this corroborating viewpoint from Makor Rishon editor Amnon Lord in a Jerusalem Post Op-Ed titled Obama's calculations were wrong:

"Instead, Obama chose to embark on a collision course. Among Netanyahu's advisers there are some who believe that those who set Obama on this course are close advisers like Rahm Emanuel who think they understand Israeli society and politics and who have detested Netanyahu from the time they served in the Clinton administration. Whatever the reason, this confrontation apparently started from day one of Netanyahu tenure: when he visited the White House for the first time a month and a half after taking office, he already encountered a chilly reception."

The average American citizen sees only the headlines about how some European leaders or the U.N. head has chimed in with Obama to "demand" Israel stop all construction. What they don't see is the history behind such demands, like those Clinton also made and failed to see any results from.

With Obama slipping mightily in the polls as the American people come to grips with the truth that the emperor has no clothes, the president might consider choosing his battles with Israel a little better than this. Rahm Emanuel is not serving him well if he is advising playing hard ball over the Shepherd Hotel construction project.

Obama administration demands are doomed to failure on this because, guess what? Obama is not the ruler of the world. He cannot demand anything of Israel and it was presumptuous to have assumed that he could. The President is the new kid on the block of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. A little humility, please, Mr. President. A little less style and a lot more substance required at your pay grade.

Is Israel Protecting the Rights of ALL It's Citizens?

Here’s the Good News & the Bad News

The good news is that over the July 4th weekend the Jerusalem Post ran two honest reports by journalist Larry Derfner about the on-going persecution of believers in the Negev Desert region by the ultra-Orthodox. Praise God for Derfner’s, 'Watch out, missionaries!'

Religion can certainly get ugly and it has been this ugly many times over the past 5 and half years in Arad.

Lura and Eddie Beckford of Arad. Eddie has been under house arrest for over a year - seemingly the court's only 'solution' to the ongoing ultra-Orthodox harassment and persecution against the couple.

The bad news is that while the news article about Eddie and Lura Beckford, Christians in Arad was prominent in the online English JPost weekend magazine, Derfner’s article about the court case against the Chief Rabbi of Beer Sheva and anti-missionary activist organization Yad L’Achim by the Messianic Jewish congregation in Beer Sheva article was buried.

With an obscure title (‘Within the Law’) and Lord knows where they hid this article in the lineup of article choices – both editorial decisions not the decision of the journalist who wrote it – this article probably not seen by many English speakers at all. In fact, I have been informed that there has been NO HEBREW language coverage of this story at all!

The Jerusalem Post editors would like their English speaking Christian readers to see they are reporting on mistreatment of Christians in Israel, but they don’t want you seeing the mistreatment of our spiritual brothers and sisters, the Messianic Jews.

Heaven forbid, they don’t want the story to waft out into the Israeli public who would actually be concerned about things like injustice against Israeli Jews for their religious faith!


Howard Bass sitting outside of hospital room of Purim basket-terror bomb victim, Ami Ortiz, with dad David. The attempted murder of the Ortiz family in Ariel has not even seen an arrest in the case for almost a year and a half, despite surveillance footage of the religious perpetrator placing the shrapnel loaded package at the door. Howard Bass' Beer Sheva Congregation was the target of a religious mob invasion in December 2005. The mob was stirred by false accusations of child baptisms.

I suspect that Howard Bass’ Op-Ed, A nation under law? was also obscured in the Jerusalem Post online edition, based on the unbelievable fact that there are only 14 talkbacks attached to this major story (a trial that brings the Chief Rabbi of Beer Sheva to court for fomenting a riot against the Messianic congregation).

In contrast, talkbacks for the article on the Supreme Court declaring that the kosher certification that was pulled from Pnina Pie based on the owner’s faith in Yeshua/Jesus is not legal is registering a whopping 196 comments. Court declares Jew for Jesus ‘kosher’ There is no way this story is more controversial than the Bass Op-Ed, which means it did not see much light.

One footnote on the Derfner article on the Beer Sheva trial story about the testimony of Yad L’Achim’s Alex Artrovsky – a fact brought to my attention by Howard Bass: “Artrovsky, is not telling the truth when he says he was not at Deri's consultation with Deri the day before the riot. Deri's own affidavit says that he was!”

(Deri is the chief rabbi of Beer Sheva, and brother to Aryeh Deri, a Shas religious party politician who was imprisoned for various corruption charges. Pray that the judge presiding over this case is just and allows the truth to come to light. )

On the morning of Jul 7, as I would begin editing this Weekly Summary down into the key prayer points for Arrows of Zion, a Caspari Media Review has come in with yet another development:

The anti-missionary activists Yad L’Achim have made false accusations against the wife of Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon that Ann Ayalon is a “convert who is actively engaged in preaching Christianity.” This was reported on the popular Hebrew TV news show “Fact” (Uvda) and is further indication of the stepped up level of inflaming the public and criminalizing Jews who believe in Yeshua/Jesus in Israeli public opinion.

Anyone who reads the Israeli newspapers online can see that the ultra-Orthodox are feeling quite 'empowered' lately rioting against many issues like parking lot openings in Jerusalem on Shabbat, or the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox mother for starving her son. The riots have been ugly and covered extensively by the Israeli media and therein lies the problem. It is the same ugliness rioting in the streets that has been rioting against the believers in the Negev Desert, but the media exposure is certainly different!

If the media is not reporting the offenses of the ultra-Orthodox against Messianic Jews in Hebrew, what does that tell you? They don't want the public to know. If the Israeli newspapers are willing to publish stories about this ultra-Orthodox persecution against Christians in Israel - in English - what does that tell you? They want you to believe they are telling you everything...only they aren't because they are not telling you about the persecution of JEWISH believers in Yeshua/Jesus that is ongoing.

Ami before the blast.
When 15-year old Ami Ortiz found the Purim basket the housekeeper had brought into the family apartment and placed on the kitchen table, he was expecting candies and treats. Instead Ami was blown to bits and it is a miracle the boy survived. Doctors did not expect he would.
Bomb blast, Ami's blood on the floor where a medical passer-by saved him from dying at the scene. This healing has been nothing short of miraculous but it is an ugly story that must be told - not only to Christians but also to Israelis. Ami's story is one that Christians must sit up and take notice of and one that Israelis would sit up and take notice of if they knew ultra-Orthodox violence has crossed this line.

The perpetrators of violence against Yeshua's inhertitance in Israel must be held accountable...or their violence will continue to escalate in all Israeli society.

Shame on the Arad, Israel police who stand by as if nothing is going on

Ultra-orthodox station themselves next door to Eddie and Lura Beckford in Arad as part of a backlash from the honest article written by Jerusalem Post journalist, Larry Derfner about the 5-year persecution of believers in Arad by the religious.

Read up on what this couple and others in Arad have been going through - plus many other videos.

Important Lebanon Win

The all important vote in the government has gone in a most praiseworthy direction: Lebanon Votes Democracy. The vote of the Lebanese people was NOT with the terror group Hezballah. Praise God!

Hezballah is a terror group, backed by the Shia Muslim leaders of Iran and aided by next door neighbor Syria, which74% Sunni Muslim. (Syria also shelters the exiled top leaders of the Hamas terrorist group, Meshaal and Marzouk.)

When politicians talk about Iraq having upset the "balance of power" in the Middle East they are talking about the Shia Muslim nations versus the Sunni Muslim nations. [See my break down of those nations here.]

Yet Shia Iran and Sunni Syria are invested in the Hezballah terror group because Hezballah's main reason for being is to a northern attack front on Israel. Yes, Hezballah seeks to gain political power in Lebanon and had been making great inroads, but that is not the top priority. The terrorist opposition to Israel is the origin of birth of this terror group and its over ridding mission.

Israel had enough of Hezballah firing rockets for months and months indiscriminately into its northern cities and countryside in July of 2006, when Hezballah crossed its border and killed three Israeli soldiers and kidnapped two others. Prime Minister Olmert moved the Israeli Defense Forces to attack Hezballah inside Lebanon.

My point for the background brief is to say that there was much hand wringing over the action Israel took against Hezballah in Lebanon. Now the citizens of Israel were literally shell-shocked by dealing with the rockets that were coming down on their city streets, in their forests, in the countryside, so they were not hand wringing until AFTER the conflict ended and much damage had been done to the Hezballah infrastructure in Lebanon. That's when all the second-guessing set in.

Everyone said and everyone was worried that Lebanon would become even more radicalized by the Israeli war on Hezballah, that it would only serve to turn the pro-Western citizens into Hezballah supporting terrorist sympathizers.

This election ends that argument.

The proof that Israel did the right thing in the 2006 halting of Hezballah attacks on Israel's northern countryside is proven two-fold:

# 1. Now in the elections of 2006, Nasrallah and the bully terror leaders of Hezballah did not get the vote of citizens to take over the Lebanese government.

# 2. Guess what: the Israeli action halted rocket attacks terrorizing their citizens in the north.

The nay-sayers complained that Hezballah just rebuilt their infrastructure and gained even more popularity, but it sure didn't get them elected and it sure hasn't resulted in the cities of northern Israel being under the constant stress of an unpredictable rain of rocket fire.

Sometimes it just pays to stand up and fight against evil, and not be passive hoping to not make it worse.


Once again, the position that President George Bush took with Israel - that Israel must be allowed to defend itself - has been proven the correct stance.

I have heard a couple of prophets now make mention of how everyone thinks that Obama is chin-up confident, and that is the face he is keeping in public although in private he is very afraid that there will be a terror attack on his watch and he will be blamed. This word has borne witness to me.

This may be why Obama has been making such obeisant moves and statements towards the Muslims - trying to pacify so as to avoid terror attacks he will be blamed for.

Even in the eight or so hours between when I wrote this and when I posted it here, the Saudi King has come out with several demand statement about what Obama must do to tighten the screws on Israel in order to please the Arab nations. Obama thought his charm offensive would work on the Arabs like it did on the Americans. Think again.

This is exactly the wrong strategy for America to take. President Bush did have it right, and will be vindicated in the long run for having taken the courageous moral stand that he did in relation to terror and in the backing he gave our democratic and moral ally, Israel.

Declaring the word of the Lord from the Acco Sea Wall near the Lebanon border

Pray for Barack Obama to awaken to the truth and his need for fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit to lead him in all his decisions. Some people do not believe Obama is a Christian; I do, but I don't believe he is a Christian who has tasted of the heavenly gift, and has become a partaker of the Holy Spirit, and has tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. Pray that he will, and it will burst into his life quickly for the sake of the United States of America.

The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: He turns it whichever He wills. Pro 21:1

Will be believe with our natural eyes from what we see, or will we believe with the eyes of faith that even at this time, it is possible for God to change the course and direction of Barack Obama like the course of a river?

5 decry jail terms in Holy Land case

Jason Trahan's initial coverage of the sentencing in the Holy Land Foundation trial was page 1 online yesterday before the court broke for lunch. After that, to find his updates I had to do a key word search of "Holy Land Foundation" on the Dallas Morning News site because editors chose to bury the coverage.

Same with his final report filed, 5 decry jail terms in Holy Land case
By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News 12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, May 28, 2009

Maybe they are burying the story out of fear of being sued again by the supporters of the HLF 5, including fellow named co-conspirators, CAIR - the Council of American Islamic Relations.

As the successful prosecutor in the first World Trade Center bombing, Andrew McCarthy recently wrote, "Radical Islam’s apologists abuse courts to shut down criticism," Combating Libel Lawfare

Fear of lawsuit would make sense. I did a cruise of all the Google news stories covering the sentencing yesterday of the HLF 5 and one thing is for sure: they are counting on doing a hard public relations drive with an eye toward the appeal process to chalk these convictions up to a miscarriage of justice. As one who sat through both trials, I can tell you that the evidence was overwhelming. There is no miscarriage of justice here.

The only problem is that with few exceptions both trials were only attended by Hamas and Holy Land Foundation supporters. The public only knows what they are told, and with the exception of Jason Trahan's coverage and a handful of expert watchdog counter-terrorism sites, most of the commentators on this trial are selling fantasies of innocence to the public.

It was pretty amazing to me that there was more interest shown from overseas news outlets than of U.S. news sources. Even the outlets that conservatives count on are low balling the coverage, not only of the second trial but also the powerful statement sent by federal court Judge Solis yesterday. This should not be. When we have victories in the war on terrorism, we should be shouting it from the roof tops and making sure the public understands the convictions were solid and the sentencing just.

Even a Palestinian news source out of Bethlehem, Ma'an News Net, clearly identified the HLF 5 with Hamas most tip-top leaders, Khalid Mash'al and Musa Abu Marzouk. "Mufid Abdulqader, 49, the half brother of exiled Hamas leader Khalid Mash’al" and "Mohammad El-Mezain, 55, a relative of Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouq."

The Palestinian news agency wrote that Abdulqader was, "sentenced to 20 years in prison for aiding the group that the US deems a 'terrorist' organization." This is also why the five could stand up in court yesterday claiming innocence, because they do not even regard Hamas as a "terrorist" organization. They are pure in their own eyes, although tell that to the little children who have been blasted out of this life by Hamas suicide bombers while their strollers were parked outside of neighborhood Pizza parlors.

US District Judge Jorge Solis nailed it when he told the condemned yesterday, "Your function in life was raising money to support Hamas."

"You stated it was to help people, but the motive was to support Hamas," the judge said. "You state that you are innocent, but the evidence shows the opposite."

The evidence in the courtroom was overwhelming and clear, but that does not mean that lies will not prevail in the court of public opinion. That is why it is so disconcerting that there is barely any discussion of the victory of this trial in the current news cycle.

We are losing a perfect opportunity to educate the public in the facts with this trial victory. We are fools if we let it pass us by.

These five men can stand up with great conviction claiming that they are innocent because for a long time the world legitimized their terrorist acts against Israel as the war tactic of the weak. That is over.

Now that the reality of terrorist acts has been felt and faced in the American mind, the public is not so quick to give a pass to any who try to sell their innocence with the claim that terrorism is a legitimate ‘war’ tactic. Terrorists aren’t “freedom fighters” they are mass murderers.

Any who, like these five, have dedicated their lives to facilitating terrorists have made it possible for horrific terror strikes against men, women and children DESERVE to be recognized and shamed as cogs in the terror network that they are. It is time that public voices like Bob Ray Sanders, the Dallas Peace Center and the ACLU QUIT serving the interests of the terror networks by making so much noise about the “innocence” of Hamas terror network operatives like these five.

It is pure hypocrisy to say enhanced interrogation techniques are "torture," yet legitimatize terrorist acts by Hamas, Hezballah and other terror networks. The U.S. public should quit giving the benefit of the doubt to anyone who claims that terrorist acts are in any way legitimate. Terrorism is mass murder, not just another tactic of war.

Those who facilitate terrorism – including those who speak out for them trying to convince the public they are just victims of political witch hunting – deserve to be shamed and shunned by the good people of this land from shore to shore.

Sentences handed down in Holy Land Foundation 5 Trial

Holy Land Foundation defendant sentenced to 65 years


Graphic by http://www.heartlight.org

The Judge has rendered the first sentence against the Holy Land Foundation Five this morning. Shukri Abu Bakr got 65 years. The sentencings are expected to take most of the day.

Breaking News on the Cover of the Dallas Morning News online site:
Holy Land Foundation defendant sentenced to 65 years
by Jason Trahan

“I did it because I cared, not at the behest of Hamas,” Shukri Abu Baker, 50, of Garland, told the judge during a long address to the court where he explained why he founded what was once the nation’s largest Muslim charity organization.

U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis, after cutting him off over the objections of his defense attorney, told the convicted man, “You didn’t tell the whole story. Palestinians were in a desperate situation, but that doesn’t justify supporting Hamas.”

Read the full story and updates online

I wrote this at 7:45 AM today: This day marks the end of a particular watch for me that has lasted since 1993 when I learned that our government knew Hamas was fund raising in the U.S. The most intense times for me were in the pre-9/11 summer & after the attacks in Sept of 2001, when we began actively encouraging the local Dallas newspapers not to wither under the protests over their investigations into the Holy Land Foundation.

Finally in 2007 the first trial of the HLF5 began in Dallas. It ended in a mistrial and was retried in federal court here in Dallas in 2008. Guilty verdicts were handed down all five defendants and much evidence of the deep tentacles of the Hamas terror organization were revealed in court evidence. Prayer teams pushed through this outcome.

Today, no matter how Judge Solis sentences each of the five, it is a victory that we had a part in and a day many experts believed in their hearts they were never going to see. Thank God that these men were held to account, may all their appeals before human courts be denied.

Donna Diorio