Is America "Going Broke?"

(From Gary Bauer)

 

America is going broke.  The national debt now exceeds $12 trillion and is growing at rates unmatched since WWII.  We've amassed massive unfunded promises to guarantee future entitlement benefits, which, added to liabilities like debt, total nearly $57 trillion.  If Congress does not address this issue, it won't be long before every penny of the federal budget will be used just to pay for interest on the debt and entitlement spending. 

There would be no money for critical priorities like national defense, homeland security and medical research.  The dollar would lose its status as the primary international reserve currency, meaning that everything that is traded internationally, such as food and oil, would increase in price.  Deficits choke the investment needed to create jobs.   And our biggest bankers – countries like China and Saudi Arabia – are hardly friends.

Leaders of both political parties have been reluctant to acknowledge the severity of this issue and to take the necessary action to curtail spending.  Congress' paralysis comes at great cost to our children and grandchildren.  Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) has an idea to address our growing fiscal crisis that deserves consideration. 

The Securing America's Future Economy Commission Act (SAFE – H.R. 1557) would establish a bipartisan commission to look at all federal spending -- constitutionally mandated expenditures, entitlement programs, tax policy, and more.  The Commission, modeled after the federal base closing process, would hold public meetings across the country to hear from the American people and then develop a series of recommendations to improve the nation's financial health.  Then Congress would be required to vote up or down on the panel's proposals. 

Congress has shown itself to be incapable of tackling overspending, and it will take a mechanism with teeth to ensure action. SAFE has more than 100 co-sponsors, yet the congressional leadership has failed to bring this critical measure to the floor for a vote.  Click here to see if your representative is co-sponsoring the SAFE Act. Then call Congress at 202-224-3121 and urge the leadership to act in the best interest of the country. 
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When 18 year old Peter Torjesen"heard the call to evangelize China, he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

"All Flesh Shall See Together"

"And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.  For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
(Isaiah. 40:5, NIV)

You will notice the phrase, "all mankind together will see it."  But the word, "it," is not in the Hebrew text.  "The glory of the LORD" is not an "it."  "The glory of the LORD" is a Person.

A very good friend of ours lost her mother a few days ago.  Another friend lost her father a few weeks before.  Jacob called it, "the way of all the earth."  The day after Christmas 40 years ago, we noticed
that something was wrong with our oldest son, Stephen.  You know what happened.  By the following June, he had left this life------ and us.   

People often point out that the reason so many people are depressed during the Christmas Season is that some have fond memories of Christmas only in some distant past.  For others, they are only depressing memories.  This need not be for you and me!  You and I are People of King Jesus, "The Glory of the LORD," the Only One Who conquered sin, death, and the grave. 
               "Up from the grave He arose    
               With a mighty triumph or'e his      foes
               He arose a Victor from the dark Domain
               And he lives forever with His Saints to reign"

Have a "Merry Christmas!"  The Bible teaches us that our time here is just a "holding area," a "waiting room," if you will.  Skeptics and cynics, rail all you like.  This is not some "great escape" mentality.  This is the Great "Reality Show!"  Whatever the current blindness of humanity, the Day is coming, says the Lord, when, "the glory of the LORD will be revealed" in a way unimaginable.  "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And thus we shall always be with the Lord."

The "God-Breathed" Word tells us that, "....the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."  If you cannot "get into the Christmas spirit," forget that and get into Jesus Christ, Father's "glory" and "grace" and "truth."  This is not some empty exhortation.  It a promise universal.  "All mankind together will see...the glory of the One and Only...."

Father, in Jesus' Name, I rejoice today that "all mankind together will see"--------------------  whatever they may do with that.  Amen.
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News, Commentary @:          www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com

Eighteen year old Norwegian, Peter Torjesen, "when he heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

"The State's Role"

"And you shall teach...and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do." (Exodus 18:20)

---------- Because if you don't someone else will!

A German judge wrote in a recent case involving parents who were teaching their children from their home (home-schoolers), "We recognize in our German basic law about philosophical and religious conviction and that parents have rights, but the basic law also includes that it is the state's role to educate all children."  This is the view of the statist.  A dictionary defines statism as, "A political viewpoint 'that sovereignty is vested not in the people but in the national state, and that all individuals and associations exist only to enhance the power, the prestige, and the well-being of the state.'" 

With all his pride, bravado, and impudent rejection of Jesus Christ and the reign of Christ's Kingdom, man is basically a lonely, frightened creature in the universe.  Historically man has yielded to statism because man needs someone to show him "the way."  Increasingly and globally, statism, in one form or the other, is ruling in the hearts of mankind. 

Our text, indeed, all of the Bible, AKA, the Word of God, "became flesh and dwelt among us" in Jesus Christ; and The Word of God commanded the Church to, "....make disciples of all the nations,.. teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you."  Anyone and anything the Church fails to teach---------------------------- the state will gladly take up the slack.

Father, in Jesus' Name, forgive me for not living and teaching "all things that [You] have commanded."  Amen.
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Prophetic News Updated Daily:     www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com

Eighteen year old Norwegian, Peter Torjesen, "when he heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

Some Advent Thoughts

"For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder."  (Isaiah 9:6a)

The American President spoke last night of Islam as, "one of the world's great religions."  It is not.  It is one of the world's great deceptions.  The government will not be upon Mohammed's shoulder.  It "will be upon" Jesus Christ, "upon His shoulder."

Most people interpret our text to be fulfilled some time in the distant future.  How convenient.  Keep the reign of Jesus Christ out of our daily lives, and we can all just go on living with our convenient, feel good religion, all the while running our own lives, our political thinking dominated by the Democrats and Republicans, CNN, MSNBC, Beck,  Limbaugh, rather than the Rule of King Jesus and His "Constitution," the "God-Breathed" Word.  The Bible says that from the time Jesus Christ is revealed in the earth, "the government will be upon His shoulder--not postponed until the Millennium, or after the Rapture, or some other keep-God-out-of-control future.  His reign is now.

In 1962 and 1963, the United States of America, a nation founded upon Judeo/Christian tradition, or another way to put it, a nation founded upon the Old and New Testaments, or another way to put it, a nation founded upon the Bible, decided to reject that foundation and take the prayer of Jesus and the Words of Jesus out of the state school system.  Up to that point, there was at least some demonstration in American life that the reign of Jesus Christ was now, not after we all die.

Most of the revival talk today just means bigger and more gyrating congregations, endless meetings, keeping the Kingdom confined to our parochial ideologies, rather than social and political transformation.  Jesus did not say that the Reign of God is delayed. He said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!"--- here, everywhere, now.  Barnes says that there is simply no time restriction implied in this phrase.  I say, The King is here; His Kingdom is here, and, "Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end...."  I pray for, work for, and proclaim no less.

Father, in Jesus' Name, for me, Your reign is NOW!  May my life reflect that.  Amen.
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www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com

Eighteen year old Norwegian, Peter Torjesen, "when he heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

Just Countermandering the Obama/Clinton Lies and Deception

Freeze of Jewish Construction in Judea and Samaria: Peace or Appeasement Enhancer?
Yoram Ettinger - Nov 26, 2009
Straight from the Jerusalem Cloakroom #230

Freeze of Jewish construction in Judea & Samaria is based on a series of erroneous assumptions:

1. A Freeze will not soften - but will intensify - President Obama's criticism of "settlements" in particular and Israeli policy in general. For instance, Prime Minister Netanyahu's June 14, 2009 Two-State-Solution-speech triggered exacerbated pressure by Obama. Moreover, Netanyahu's willingness to exchange hundreds of Palestinian terrorists for Gilad Shalit was followed by US pressure to release more terrorists.

2. A Freeze will not moderate - but will wet the appetite of - the PLO (Abu Mazen) or Hamas (Haniye'); it will radicalize their demands and fuel their terrorism. Former Prime Minister Barak's sweeping concessions, offered to Arafat and Abu Mazen in October 2000, were greeted by the PLO-engineered Second Intifada'. Furthermore, Prime Minister Olmert's unprecedented offer of concessions (including the return of some 1948 refugees) was rebuffed by Abu Mazen.

3. A Freeze re-entrenches the misperception of Jewish presence in Judea & Samaria as a/the obstacle to peace. It diverts attention and resources from the crucial threat to peace: Abu Mazen-engineered hate education - the manufacturing line of terrorists - and Arab rejection of the existence - and not just the size - of the Jewish State.

4. A Freeze and the adherence to Presidential dictate will not transform the White House position on Iran-related matters. Besides, a Freeze and the adherence to Presidential dictate do not constitute a prerequisite to maintaining constructive strategic relations with the USA (e.g. supply of critical military systems and crucial strategic cooperation). In fact, a Freeze and a serial submission to Presidential pressure - just like any other form of retreat - erode Israel's strategic posture in Washington and in the Middle East. Such an attitude ignores the role and power of Congress - especially when it comes to the Jewish State - at the dire expense of Israel's national security.

Is Jewish construction in Judea & Samaria an/the obstacle to peace?

1. In September 2005, Israel uprooted 25 Jewish communities from Gaza and Samaria. Gaza became Judenrein. It paved the road to the meteoric rise of Hamas, and induced more smuggling, manufacturing and launching of missiles at Jewish communities in Southern Israel.

2. President Obama defines Jewish presence in Judea & Samaria as a root cause of Arab hostility toward the Israel. However, Jewish communities were established in Judea and Samaria after the wars of 1967, 1956 and 1948, after the 1949-1967 campaign of Arab terrorism, after the 1964 establishment of the PLO, after the 1929 slaughter of the Hebron Jewish community and the 1929 expulsion of the Gaza Jewish community, after the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s slaughter of the Jewish community of Gush Etzion, etc.

3. President Obama considers the 300,000 Jews (17%), who reside among Judea and Samaria's 1.5 million Arabs, an obstacle to peace. Why would he, then, view the 1.4 million Arabs (20%), who reside among pre-1967 Israel's 6 million Jews, as an example of peaceful coexistence?!

4. Obama urges the uprooting of Jewish communities from Judea and Samaria, in order to supposedly advance peace and human rights. Would he, therefore, urge the uprooting of Arab communities from pre-1967 Israel?!

5. Since Obama tolerates Arab opposition to Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria would he tolerate Jewish opposition to Arab presence in pre-1967 Israel?! While any attempt by Jews to reside in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas would trigger a lynching attempt, Arabs have peacefully resided within pre-1967 Israel. Doesn't such a reality highlight the nature of Arab intentions and the real obstacle to peace?!

6. Obama pressures Israel to freeze Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria, in order to avoid unilateral creation of facts on the ground. Shouldn't Obama demand a similar freeze of Arab construction in Judea and Samaria, which is 30 times larger than Jewish construction?! Doesn't the absence of a balanced approach, by Obama, prejudge of the outcome of negotiation?!

7. The 1950-67 Jordanian occupation of Judea and Samaria was recognized only by Britain and Pakistan. The most recent internationally-recognized sovereign over Judea and Samaria was the League of Nations-authorized 1922 British Mandate, which defined Judea and Samaria as part of the Jewish National Home, the cradle of Jewish history. Article 6 of the Mandate indicates the right of Jews to settle in Judea and Samaria. Judge Stephen M. Schwebel, former President of the International Court of Justice, determined that Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria was rooted in self-defense and therefore did not constitute "occupation." Eugene Rostow, former Dean of Yale Law School and former Undersecretary of State and co-author of UN Security Council Resolution 242, asserted that 242 entitled Jews to settle in Judea and Samaria. The Oslo Accord and its derivatives do not prohibit "settlements." Moreover, Israel has constrained construction to state-owned - and not private - land, avoiding expulsion of Arabs landowners.

Freeze of Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria is not a peace-enhancer; it is an appeasement-enhancer
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Eighteen year old Norwegian, Peter Torjesen, "when he heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

"Blessed is the Man Who...Is in the Law of the Lord"

"Blessed is the man who...in His law...meditates day and night."  (From Psalm 1)

I heard a discussion recently about the evangelical church in the South during slavery.  One of the persons spoke of the Christian theology of grace and works as it was adapted to justify entrepreneurial slavery.
The acculturation of the "Faith of Jesus" has been a deep concern of mine, both in my own life and the life of the modern Church.  It is a daily wrestling match with, "the mighty powers in this dark world."

On this first day of December, I find myself back to one of the Psalms I have committed to memory, and, quite frankly, I think it is, "Psalm One," because it sets a pattern for the life of the Covenant person, the Believer, the Follower of Jesus Christ.  The pattern here is twofold.  (1). The "Blessed...man...meditates day and night" in the "God-Breathed" Word.  (2).  Only the person who "walks.., stands," and "sits" in, "the law of the LORD," can be delivered from acculturated Christianity, e.g., justifying slavery, marital infidelity, homosexuality, voting for the "ungodly.., sinners," and "the scornful," in short, any whose loyalty is to their background, their race, ethnicity, gender, or culture.

It is a great battle in which the Follower of Jesus Christ has always been involved, the battle to have the Covenant of Jesus Christ, the very Life of the Word of God, written "in our minds and on our hearts," to have Jesus Christ ruling and reigning in our total being, total life, as Paul said, "that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him."  Nothing, most importantly, "no me," can rule or reign in me-- not my race, my gender, my culture, my life's preferences.  "Jesus Christ is Lord," means nothing less than, Jesus Christ rules and reigns.  Only as I walk in this life style can anyone say of me, "Blessed" is that "man."

Father, in Jesus' Name, I only want what You define as, "Blessed."  Amen.
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Prophetic News:                    www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com
Devotional Archive:               apfdevotionals.blogspot.com


Eighteen year old Norwegian, Peter Torjesen, "when he heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

Trying to Appease "the Unappeasable Obama...."

Column One: Bibi's bad week
Caroline Glick - Nov 27, 2009
The Jerusalem Post

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu weakened Israel this week. And he did so for no good reason.

Thursday's headlines told the tale. The day after Netanyahu bowed to US pressure and announced a total freeze on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria for ten months, Yediot Aharonot reported that the Obama administration now wants Israel to release a thousand Fatah terrorists from prison.

The Americans also want Israel to allow US-trained, terror supporting Fatah paramilitary forces to deploy in areas that are currently under Israeli military control. Moreover, the Americans are demanding that Israel surrender land in the strategically crucial Jordan Valley to Fatah.

And these are just American preconditions for starting negotiations with the Palestinians. According to Yediot, if those talks ever begin, the White House will demand that Israel accept a Palestinian state in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and Gaza and agree to ethnically cleanse all the areas of Jews.

So far from winning American support or at least causing the White House to ease its bullying, US President Barack Obama sees Netanyahu's decision to implement a militarily irrational, bigoted policy of prohibiting Jews from building in Israel's heartland as a drop in the bucket.

THE TRUTH is that Israel should not be in the business of negotiating the right of Israeli cities and villages to exist and prosper. The notion that it is acceptable to demand that Jews not be permitted to live in Judea and Samaria - or anywhere else in the world - is not a notion that Israel should countenance.

That being said, putting the so-called "settlements" genie back in the bottle is a tall order. After all, Israel agreed to place it on the table in the 1993 Oslo agreements and made its willingness to dry outJewish communities explicit with its acceptance of the so-called road map in 2004. To take Israeli communities off the agenda it would be necessary to repudiate these deals.

Given what it will take to remove Jewish communities from the negotiations chopping block, it makes sense that Netanyahu has not moved in that direction since taking office. But willingness to discuss
these communities is not the same as giving them away for nothing. In discussing the dispositions of these towns and villages, at a minimum Netanyahu should have taken advantage of the fact that the Americans, the Europeans and the Arabs all consider the so-called "settlements" to be the most important obstacle to peace.

Netanyahu should have capitalized on US Congressman and Obama ally Robert Wexler's statement from last July that in exchange for freezing Jewish construction, Israel would gain normalized relations
with all Arab League member states. Were Israel to see 20 Arab embassies opening inexchange for a temporary freeze in Jewish construction, one could say that Netanyahu's massive concession was justified.

But Netanyahu decided to give away this high card - Israel's ace of spades as it were - for free. Actually, he paid for it.

The Arabs rejected Wexler's offer in July. And five seconds after Netanyahu announced the freeze the Palestinians proclaimed his unprecedented prohibition onJewish building worthless. But then unlike Netanyahu, the Palestinians are playing their cards wisely. Why should they accept his move as sufficient when they know the Americans will demand still more concessions from him?

And sure enough, moments after Netanyahu's speech, former senator George Mitchell stood before the cameras in Washington and said that his move is too little to impress the likes of Mitchell and Obama.

MANY COMMENTATORS claim that Netanyahu's announcement Wednesday night was his way of balancing his desire to release 450 Hamas murderers from prison inexchange for hostage Gilad Schalit with an equal concession to Fatah. That is, the freeze was required, it is argued, because without a move of this magnitude, the terrorists-for-hostage deal would destroy Fatah completely.

This view is the quintessence of the notion that two wrongs make a right.

In an interview with Channel 2 Wednesday night, Defense Minister Ehud Barak admitted that in negotiating Schalit's release, Netanyahu has gone well beyond former prime minister Ehud Olmert's offers to Hamas. With Netanyahu and Likud in the opposition loudly proclaiming the truth that any deal with Hamas will imperil untold numbers of Israelis, Olmert didn't dare accept Hamas's demand that Israel release its most brutal mass murderers from its prisons. But now that Netanyahu and Likud are in the driver's seat, they are only too happy to accept what was previously unacceptable.

By Thursday, it appeared that the Iranians and the Syrians had placed the proposed swap on the back burner. But even if the deal presently being discussed doesn't go through, Netanyahu's moves on the issue to date have already weakened the country considerably.

Simply by agreeing to negotiate with Hamas, Netanyahu conferred legitimacy not only on the terror group, but on the act of taking hostages. After all, until Hamas had Schalit, no government in Israel was willing to cut a deal with it. But today, in the interest of making a deal, Israel has allowed Hamas commanders - including Schalit's captor Ahmad Jabari - safe passage to Egypt where they are feted by senior Egyptian officials and meet with other senior terrorists. In so doing Israel has effectively accepted them as legitimate leaders.

Netanyahu's willingness to release murderers from prison also signs the death warrants of countless Israelis. The Schalit-obsessed local media insists that politicians who claim they oppose the deal must be willing to look Schalit's parents in the eyes and tell them that they will not "do what it takes" to bring Gilad home. But Schalit's parents and the 450-terrorists-for-one-hostage-swap champions in the media and in the Knesset need to be asked whether they will be willing to look the families of the next IDF hostages in the eye after they are abducted due to Israel's decision to spring murderers from prison inexchange for Schalit. So too, they should ask themselves what they will say to the families of the Israelis who will be murdered because of this deal.

Unfortunately, our foolish media elites and their lackeys in the government are incapable of recognizing that the deal with Hamas doesn't pit the Schalit family against the families of the Israelis that these prisoners already murdered. It places Noam and Aviva Schalit against the families of the still unidentified Israelis who will be murdered by these imprisoned terrorists in the future if they are allowed to see the light of day.

Even if the current negotiations end in failure, Netanyahu this week made clear that he is willing to conduct a massive release of terrorists in exchange for Israeli hostages. The message has been received by our enemies and they will make us pay for it with interest.

FINALLY, NETANYAHU'S willingness to spring terrorists from prison in exchange for Schalit weakens Israel's deterrent posture. This week The Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF has commissioned a study to figure out how to tell who has won in an inconclusive war against terrorists. It seems a shame that there is apparently such a dearth of common sense in the General Staff that the IDF needs someone from the outside to explain the facts of life to its generals.

Those facts, for instance, indicate that when you fight a war against a terrorist group that serves as a proxy for enemy regimes, and in the aftermath of the war the terror group takes over the government of its own country and its state sponsors build nuclear arsenals unhindered by your government and the international community as a whole, while your own generals and soldiers are threatened with indictments by UN war crimes tribunals, the terrorists have won and you have lost.

By the same token, apparently it is unclear to IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi - who said this week that he cannot wait to greet Gilad at home - that by offering to release hundreds of terrorists for a hostage soldier, he is telling all the thousands of IDF troops who risk their lives every day to arrest terrorists and fight them that they are risking their lives for nothing.

Why bother staging a middle-of-the-night raid in Nablus where your men are liable to be killed in order to arrest a terrorist if he's just going to be released from prison within a year or two in exchange for another soldier? In fact, why have an army at all? Perhaps we'd all be better off if we just paid our enemies protection money until they are ready to deliver the coup de grace.

BUT THEN, perhaps that's what Israel is doing today. On Tuesday Barak noted that whereas on the eve of the 2006 war Hizbullah had an arsenal of 14,000 rockets, today it has an arsenal of 50,000 rockets. His remarks might have been perceived as a warning that Israel is gearing up to take preemptive action against Hizbullah. But that perception would be wrong, unless what one had in mind was preemptive capitulation.

On Thursday it was reported that Israel is ready to transfer control over the northern half of Ghajar - the border town that is officially half in Israel and half in Lebanon - to UNIFIL forces. These would be the same UN forces that have done nothing to prevent Hizbullah from rearming and taking over the Lebanese government. These would be the same Italian-commanded UN forces that former Italian president Francesco Cossiga claims cut a deal with Hizbullah according to which UNIFIL turns a blind eye to Hizbullah's activities and in exchange, Hizbullah doesn't kill UNIFIL forces.

Since the 2006 war, the UN and the US have been bullying Israel to give up the northern half of Ghajar. Their pressure has come despite their sure knowledge that the moment IDF forces withdraw from the northern half of the town, it will again become a smuggling capital for drugs, terrorists, Hizbullah spies and ordnance. Barak and Netanyahu apparently are of the opinion that despite - or worse, perhaps due to - the growing dangers emanating from Hizbullah-controlled Lebanon, it is better for Israel to seek to curry favor with the UN and the US than to take the steps necessary to defend the country from Hizbullah.

This is the depressing message that Netanyahu and his merry band of ministers have communicated to the world this week. In the hopes of appeasing the unappeasable Obama administration, the government has adopted Obama's anti-Semitic policies against Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. To win points with the imbecilic, unaccountable and irresponsible local media, Netanyahu has jeopardized the lives of untold numbers of Israelis by expressing his willingness to free hundreds of terrorist murderers from prison. And to placate the pro-Hizbullah UN, Israel has decided it is willing to further strengthen Hizbullah.

The mind reels at the thought of what next week may bring.