Erev Rav: Securing Amalekite Exile

Get Ready To Live With Amalek; Heil Bibi! (Where Zionism Went Wrong)

[ Erev Rav Seeking Eternal Galus China - Tumat Ain Sof]

Bloomberg.com:

Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said deepening trade ties with China could pay off by helping leaders of the world’s second-biggest economy better understand the Jewish state’s policies toward Iran and Syria.

“China is a growing economic power,” Steinitz said today in an interview in Beijing, where he traveled to sign a $300 million financial protocol aimed at boosting trade. “We do hope that if we are able to improve economic ties and connections between Israel and China, it will help us also to explain our positions with regard to the Iranian nuclear threat, with regard to the events in Syria.”

While Israeli exports to China have more than doubled over the last two years, the level is “not enough yet,” Steinitz, 53, said. “It’s far from being enough.”

His push for greater economic ties comes as China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, refuses to support international sanctions over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program. Israel says Iran intends to build atomic weapons and hasn’t ruled out military strikes to prevent it, escalating tensions in a region that holds 54 percent of global oil reserves.

Iran, which says its enrichment of uranium is only for civilian energy purposes, last week refused to let United Nations experts investigate a suspected nuclear-related military base. The risk of a military conflict was highlighted the same day when an Iranian general said his nation would consider pre- emptive action if it is threatened.

Steinitz, a member of the Likud Party, said he leaves diplomatic discussions mainly to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman.

China’s UN Veto

The Chinese government joined Russia this month in vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution supported by the U.S. and Israel calling on Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to cede power over his crackdown on protests that have killed thousands. China opposes trade restrictions against Iran and said sanctions on its oil exports aren’t “constructive,” state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Jan. 26, citing comments from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Israel and China established full diplomatic relations in 1992. Israel is seeking to boost sales to fast-growing economies such as China and India as Europe struggles with a debt crisis and global trade slows. Exports account for about 40 percent of Israel’s gross domestic product.

Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer in October 2010 said the global economy’s “center of gravity” is moving to Asia and that the region will dominate growth in the future. In an interview last week, Fischer said “it’s too early to tell” if the worst of the international economic crisis is over.

Israeli Exports

Israeli exports to China include electrical equipment, precious stones, fertilizers and medical equipment. Chinese exports to Israel include machinery, chemicals, apparel and furniture.

The protocol Steinitz is signing will help exporters of Israeli water technology for agriculture, Israel’s Finance Ministry said in an e-mailed statement on Feb. 27.

Steinitz visited China in May 2010 with Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan to help promote economic ties. Erdan said at the time that Israeli companies have “endless” possibilities to sell technology to China, specifically in the areas of water recycling, desalination and solar power.

Galus China is the dream of an Elitist Rule to turn Judaism into Pax Judaica,

( a period in history marked by the absence of major wars, usually imposed by a predominant nation)

and turning the Land of Israel into the ultimate Socialist Kibbutz-Run State.

The premise is Erev Rav rule from Zion, using Egyptian slavery tactics of the Israeli captives and Jewish leftovers while filling the World with the Tumah of the Orient - making unprecedented levels of Amalek in the World.

-The worst type of Erev Rav are Amalek Proper - "Gra"

Pax Judaica would begin following World War 3 - In Torah terms this is the fall of Armilos, Gog V' Magog, and the advent of Moshiach. (Thank God)

The threat is real, but Galus China / Erev Rav Rule won't happen: as it is an eternal exile, their preparations are also eternal; By the [theoretical] time of Dominion, the World will disintegrate by the seams...and we will welcome the Geulah Shleimah.

Does the World fall apart and stop to take in Shabbos first in 5772?

(Thus averting Amalekite Hell)

We don't need a Kibbutz...

We need the Beis Hamikdash!

Read more »

Making Of The Nuclear Amalek

ENERGY In our little Matrix of Society called Olam HaZeh.


"Man is a Small World; The World is a Big Man."


God has and gives you your number!

[...As They try to find and call God's Number]

 ...Better luck and making more sense to find "Pi."


SmartPlanet.com

You could call it the high-energy physics version of racing to meet a deadline.

CERN, the renown Swiss research lab, plans to shut down its famous $9 billion underground Large Hadron Collider for maintenance next year. Unfortunately, the physicists who are searching for the elusive Higgs boson at the Geneva facility need the device to help them in their hunt.

17-mile drive: The LHC runs under Geneva in a 17-mile long loop.

To increase their chances of spotting the enigmatic subatomic particle before the bosses take away their toy, they’re cranking up the “beam energy” at the collider to 4 trillion electronvolts (TeV). It’s part of “a strategy to optimise LHC running to deliver the maximum possible amount of data in 2012 before the LHC goes into a long shutdown,” a recent CERN press release states.

The Higgs boson, postulated by Emeritus Professor Peter Higgs of the University of Edinburgh, is believed to give mass to matter. Physicists have described it as the capstone to Standard Model of physics, which explains electromagnetism and strong and weak nuclear forces. CERN said last December that it’s close to discovering it. But researchers say that the LHC experiment could also conclude that the Higgs particle does not exist, which would be equally valuable as CERN approaches put up or shut up time on Higgs.

And darn it if CERN doesn’t think that the extra jolt will get them there this year.

“By the time the LHC goes into its first long stop at the end of this year, we will either know that a Higgs particle exists, or have ruled out the existence of a Standard Model Higgs,” says Sergio Bertolucci, CERN’s research director. “Either would be a major advance in our exploration of nature, bringing us closer to understanding how the fundamental particles acquire their mass, and marking the beginning of a new chapter in particle physics.”

Not that they were pussyfooting around before. They’ve been operating at 3.5 trillion electronvolts. An electronvolt, by the way, is a unit of energy, and is not the same thing as a volt, which is a unit of electric potential. But still, we’re talking some serious power consumption.

“When we started operating the LHC for physics in 2010, we chose the lowest safe beam energy consistent with the physics we wanted to,” says Steve Myers, CERN’s director for accelerators and technology. “Two good years of operational experience with beam and many additional measurements made during 2011 give us the confidence to safely move up a notch and thereby extend the physics reach of the experiments before we go into the LHC’s first long shutdown.”.

The LHC will power down in November.

If by some chance 4 trillion electronvolts doesn’t do the trick, then the Higgs scientists can look forward to an even greater boost. When the LHC re-opens in late 2014, it will operate at at 7 trillion electronvolts, or double its 2010 and 2011 level.

I know what the eco warriors are thinking: At all these trillions of electronovolts, how green is the hunt for Higgs? Tree huggers can rest assure that CERN is doing its part to cut its environmental impact. As we reported here last October, CERN and other labs have been comparing notes on how to save energy on large machines like particle colliders, wind tunnels, cryogenics gear and fusion tokamaks.

We have yet to hear back on any of their plans. But for starters, the two-year shutdown might make a difference in the electric bill.

Why is every sector of the World running a mad dash to finish 2012 with a [Big]bang?
How am I supposed to be a 2012 skeptic when all I see is 2012 material?

-Every source of Wisdom points to 5772 as our year; Don't discredit North Korea from joining the party...if the Geulah works Achishena (with haste), it will happen before our very eyes.

Hell in Hebrew is written like, "Seoul."
And any country (I consider Korea one evil entity: Rosh Amalek of the East: Galus China) that learns Talmud, is in God's Plan.

Korea learns Talmud.

Will the Collider hit the Global Haywire button this year?

Read more »

Prophecy Being Fulfilled!

The Brewing War Of The End As Told In The Talmud:

Persia vs. Edom

Yoma 10a:R. Joshua b. Levi in the name of Rabbi said: Rome is designed to fall into the hand of Persia, as it was said: Therefore hear ye the counsel of the Lord, that He hath taken against Edom; and His purposes that He hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: surely the least of the flock shall drag them away, surely their habitation shall be appalled to them. Rabbah b. ‘Ullah demurred to this: What intimation is there that ‘the last of the flock’ refers to Persia? [Presumably] because Scripture reads: The ram which thou sawest having two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia. But say [perhaps] it is Greece, for it is written, And the rough he-goat is the king of Greece? — When R. Habiba b. Surmaki came up, he reported this interpretation before a certain scholar. The latter said: One who does not understand the meaning of the passage asks a question against Rabbi. What does, indeed, ‘the least of the flock’ mean? The youngest of his brethren, for R. Joseph learnt that Tiras is Persia.

Rabbah b. Bar Hana in the name of R. Johanan, on the authority of R. Judah b. Ila'i, said: Rome is designed to fall into the hands of Persia, that may be concluded by inference a minori ad majus: If in the case of the first Sanctuary, which the sons of Shem [Solomon] built and the Chaldeans destroyed, the Chaldeans fell into the hands of the Persians, then how much more should this be so with the second Sanctuary, which the Persians built and the Romans destroyed, that the Romans should fall into the hands of the Persians. Rab said: Persia will fall into the hands of Rome. Thereupon R. Kahana and R. Assi asked of Rab: [Shall] the builders fall into the hands of the destroyers? — He said to them: Yes, it is the decree of the King. Others say: He replied to them: They too are guilty for they destroyed the synagogues. It has also been taught in accord with the above, Persia will fall into the hands of Rome, first because they destroyed the synagogues, and then because it is the King's decree that the builders fall into the hands of the destroyers. Rab also said: The son of David will not come until the wicked kingdom of Rome will have spread [its sway] over the whole world for nine months, as it is said: Therefore will He give them up, until the time that she who travaileth hath brought forth; then the residue of his brethren shall return with the children of Israel.

This is looking like a/the definite scenario!

The Hill:

When President Obama sits down face-to-face with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week to discuss Iran, he will be staring down the greatest challenge on Israel he’s faced during his presidency.

It is the first time Obama has met Netanyahu since last spring, when the Israeli leader appeared to lecture the president on his country’s history in front of cameras at the White House.

Whatever tensions exist could be exacerbated by the looming crisis that provides a backdrop for the election-year meeting.

Israel believes time is running out for a military strike against Iran that would prevent the Islamic republic from developing nuclear weapons, something Israel sees as an existential threat.
Administration officials acknowledge the Iranian nuclear issue is coming to a head, but U.S. officials have cautioned Israel against a strike that would threaten stability in the Middle East and the global economy.

It’s possible the Obama-Netanyahu meeting next week could determine both countries’ course of actions for Iran.

“The relationship between and Obama and Netanyahu is going to be tested like never before,” said David Makovsky, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “It doesn’t have to happen on March 5… but if they don't see eye-to-eye, the prospect of Israel going off on its own dramatically increases.”

Iran has been defiant in the face of economic sanctions, threatening a pre-emptive strike against countries that would attack, moving uranium operations underground and not allowing nuclear inspectors access to a military site.

Both Israel and the United States have said they want stiff economic sanctions imposed on Iran to convince the country not to pursue nuclear weapons.

But the two countries view the threat of a nuclear Iran differently, and Israel has less capability than the United States militarily, analysts say, giving the Israelis a shorter potential window to intervene.

“Israel sees this as a very stabilizing significant event, and Israel also lacks the capacity to be able to deal with it in an effective way with diplomacy or economic measures,” Gen. Wesley Clark, a former Democratic presidential candidate, told The Hill.

“The United States sees it as part of a broader counter-proliferation strategy. Certainly it’s well aware of regional risks imposed by Iran… It also has other tools for dealing with it. So, some differences in perspective are inevitable.”

An Israeli strike against Iran has the potential to upend Obama’s presidency — and his reelection campaign.

Iran presents both a real world and political conundrum for Obama, who must balance the threat of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon against the upheaval in the oil market and larger economy that could be a repercussion of a military strike.

“No one’s naïve about what the consequences would be,” said one administration official. “Are we well aware of what would be at stake if a strike occurred? Absolutely.”

A potential Israeli attack risks undermining the U.S. argument for sanctions and pushing Iran to expedite its nuclear production, analysts say.

Senior administration officials maintain the relationship with Israel is “rock solid” and coordination between the two countries is as good as it’s ever been.

And while Obama and Netanyahu do not have a good relationship, one source who has been active in U.S.-Israel relations said personal tensions won’t necessarily harm their ability to work together on Iran.

“It’s not FDR and Churchill,” said the source. “But it doesn’t need to be. The fact that they can disagree is a strength of the relationship.

“Nobody wants a fight here,” the source added. “A fight is in nobody’s interest.”

Obama’s potential Republican opponents have hammered the president on both Iran and Israel.

Mitt Romney said at Wednesday’s presidential debate that Iran would obtain nuclear weapons if Obama is reelected.

“We must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” Romney said. “If they do, the world changes. America will be at risk. And some day, nuclear weaponry will be used. If I am president, that will not happen. If we reelect Barack Obama, it will happen.”

Republicans have also been critical of Obama’s stance toward Israeli negotiations with the Palestinians, after the president called for the 1967 borders to be the starting point for peace negotiations. That led to the chilly meeting between Obama and Netanyahu at the White House last year.

Yehuda Ben Meir, a former Knesset member and senior research fellow at the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies, said that relations between Netanyahu and Obama seem to have improved in recent months, particularly when Obama rallied against the Palestinian statehood bid at the UN last year.

Ben Meir said public opinion in Israel is virtually split on whether Israel should attack Iran.

Administration officials stressed that even if Israel goes its own way on Iran, the United States will still support Israel.

“At the end of the day, there’s no closer ally than Israel,” the administration official said. “We’re never going to abandon Israel, that’s unwavering.”

                      5772 - The Year Of Prophecy

Read more »

Don't Look Now, But We're Probably There

The Planning is a foregone conclusion by now...for now its just a test of cunning, patience, and timing; Objective: how, when, where, etc. the winners will pick up the pieces, and glue them back together into a conglomerate operative entity that will govern the World without the luxory of being able to openly call it a NWO.

The World calls it WW3...I call it the fate, destiny, and free will choice of the ruling power called the Erev Rav...Pax Judaica.
(...the 3 largest ruling powers the World ever saw: British - American - Amalek; WW1 - WW2 - WW3)

Haaretz.com:

(By Doron Rosenblum)

None of the people who, correctly, fear an Israeli attack on Iran and the war that would follow have considered the fact that "the next war" is already here. It has been entrenched in our consciousness and that of our leaders so deeply and for so long that most of the tension concerns its timing, not its probability. What was it that Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz was quoted as saying this week? "The operation is always ready, the orders are always there, and if necessary we can carry it out." He was referring to a war in southern Israel, admittedly, but it's the intention that counts, being mentally prepared for the fact that "the next war" will indeed come - whether by necessity or by choice; if not from the east, then from the south, and if not from the south then from the north.

There are civilizations where the word "war" is uttered with fear and trembling, where it is seen as a total human catastrophe. But not in Israel, where "the next war" goes to sleep with us at night and drinks coffee with us in the morning. Its actualization is almost a mere technicality of how, when and how much.

We have experienced a few brief bursts of awareness during which "the next war" was absent for a few historic moments. There have been times when it was even replaced by a spark of hope for that illusory thing, so despised today, called "peace." But we recovered quickly from these stumbles, thanks to the combined efforts of both parties to the conflict. And when the day was won by the idea that the conflict cannot be solved, only managed, the "next war" resumed its natural role as a permanent fixture in our lives. With little sadness and even an occasional sigh of relief, the fact that we are a war that has a country sank in.

Many good people are once again trusting to the next war - dangerous, insane but "worthwhile" because it will "eliminate the Iranian threat," after which the land will be undisturbed for 40 years. They must be reminded not only of the sad consequences of the previous wars of choice, aimed at "eliminating" putative existential threats, but also of what all Israelis are nearly born knowing: that an "existential threat" of one kind or another has always hung over our heads, whether genuine or existing only in our own, or our leaders', tortured, Holocaust-traumatized consciousness: Ahmed Shukairy of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the "Egyptian despot" Gamal Abdel Nasser; Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and anthrax; PLO chairman Yasser Arafat and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah; and now, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the apocalypse. Each of them, in turn, like Hitler; each of them, in every generation, rose up to destroy us. Each of them, in turn, was justification for war.

But before plunging "out of necessity" into the next war we should ask: What if there were no Tehran? And were the "Iranian threat" somehow eliminated, would another not spring up immediately to take its place, at least in our consciousness? Also: What did we do prior to the "Iranian threat" besides worrying about the future?

Preventive wars are sometimes necessary - as the Bible says, "If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first." But as the current Israeli government demonstrates, the very fact of being permanently psychologically prepared for the next war and of accepting the absence of any chance to make peace can themselves blind and atrophy all alternative thinking and all diplomatic skills. Like the native inhabitants of America who did not see the Spanish ships approaching because they had no word for "ship," Israel may no longer be capable of identifying diplomatic options and nonmilitary measures even when they are being blasted into its ears by so many sirens.

May the point of it all be an entrance for Moshiach; a stage to step onto.

in 5772...the Year of Chesed (72).
We Need It.

Read more »

Purim and Soul Mazal

Adar is the Month of Mazal - Put Your Soul Into It!


Help Spread The Light Of Torah Into The ZMan Geulah!

Jewish and Noahide Names!
(Converts and Babies Too)
   

                                                  5772!

Read more »

Chanuka 2.0 - Haredi IDF Taskforce

Bechina Moshiach Ben Yosef?


Reuters:

(Reuters) - Israel's top court struck down on Tuesday a law designed to encourage ultra-Orthodox Jews to join the military and the workforce, saying it had backfired by "entrenching" their blanket draft exemptions and protracted seminary studies.

The ruling was welcomed by Israel's secular majority but could set off rifts in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conservative coalition government, which includes powerful religious Jewish parties.

The 2002 "Service Deferral Law" offered the ultra-Orthodox, who make up 10 percent of the population and are often welfare dependant, a choice, upon reaching draft-age, between studying in seminaries or working. The latter option entailed first enlisting in the military, with the possibility of serving in technology units where soldiers can learn a trade.

But by a vote of 6-to-3, the Supreme Court declared that the law, which was subject to review, was unconstitutional and ordered it not be renewed after it Expires in August.

"As time passed it became clear that the law had not realized the objectives that lie at its foundations, and that it in fact entrenched, for the most part, the arrangement of service deferral that had existed prior to its enactment," the court said in a summary of the ruling, citing the low military enlistment of ultra-Orthodox candidates.

"The law was enacted with a hope that it would ignite a societal process which would lead to a situation in which, even without imposing any duty, ultra-Orthodox people would wish to serve, or to perform civil service. However, the hope that accompanied the law was dashed."

The black-coated, ascetic ultra-Orthodox were a fringe sector when Israel's founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, exempted them from the armed forces, which championed the mixing of men and women and whose commanders were mostly secular.

GOD, GUNS, GENDER

But the growing cultural and electoral clout of the ultra-Orthodox, many of whom question the authority of the Jewish state, has spread calls among other Israelis for a fairer distribution of national burdens.

Conscription is a core issue, given Israel's constant war footing in a combustible Middle East and the military's traditional role as melting pot for socially disparate Jews.

Sectarian tensions have been stoked by the occasionally aggressive gender segregation practiced by ultra-Orthodox in public places. Some pious mores have taken root within the armed forces, such as ultra-Orthodox soldiers requesting, in the name of sexual propriety, to stay away from compulsory events where women singers perform.

Netanyahu said after the ruling that the Service Deferral Law -- which is also known as the "Tal Law" -- could not continue in its current form and that the government would prepare a new law to "bring a more just change to the burden on all sectors of Israeli society."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman proposed providing perks for Israelis who enroll in national service, whether as conscripts or -- in the case of the ultra-0rthodox or Arabs, who are also exempt -- as volunteers.

But there were protests among religious coalition partners.

"I dispute that the Supreme Court has authority to decide what is and is not constitutional," Israel Eichler, a lawmaker with the United Torah Judaism party, said in a radio interview. "They are people who were not elected by the public but were political appointees."

Shas, another party run by rabbis in the coalition, said in a statement that its leader, Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai, was to confer with Netanyahu about the ruling.

Political sources said that the religious ministers were planning to lobby the Supreme Court to back a new arrangement that would replicate, at least in part, the expiring law.

(Writing by Dan Williams)

Read more »

Israel: The Great Gas Giant

Is Israel on its way to becomming the next ruling power in the World?

It's Mazal would indicate yes. Israeli attitude would express likewise.

The Moshiach / Erev Rav dynamic looks to have its path paved.

Pax Britannica

Pax Americana

Pax Judaica (Erev Rav-icana)

Notice the obvious similarities between the Great British Empire and that of Israeli Erev Rav reality. (size, goals, "location", etc.)

Nasdaq:

A large pocket of offshore natural gas could shift Eastern Mediterranean geopolitics on its head. As the threat of war looms between Israel and Iran, the newly found gas could add extra friction between the two countries.
Last year, Houston-based Noble Energy discovered vast tracts of natural gas off the coast of Israel and Cyprus. It had been exploring for 13 years.
So far, the find has been a bonanza, especially for energy poor Israel. Noble has found 35 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas. By September, this offshore find could yield as much as 100 million cubic feet of gas a day.
"It is a great advantage for Israel," Dilshod Achilov, assistant professor of political science at East Tennessee State University, said in an interview.
Investors have taken notice: the Tel Aviv 100 Index has gained more than 4 percent so far this year. Shares of Noble Energy have nearly doubled over the past year and are trading around their 52-week high of $105.
Meanwhile, the price of a barrel of oil was $105.95 Wednesday as fears of conflict in the Middle East continued.
For the first time since its founding in 1948, Israel could become self-sufficient in energy and even an exporter. Israelis for years joked that God made a mistake leaving them contemporary Israel as a "promised land" when it was surrounded by oil-rich neighbors like Saudi Arabia.
But now, Israel's government is debating whether or not to set export quotas, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. The country of 7 million is also considering setting up a sovereign wealth fund for its citizens.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in his repeated denunciations of Israel has never mentioned this potential competition. Instead, he's focused on Iran's plans to develop nuclear energy, which Israel fears would lead to atomic weapons to threaten its security.
Possible Pipeline to Greece
Jerusalem expects to have an oversupply of natural gas which Israel could use to forge international agreements within the Mediterranean and with energy giants like China and Russia, Haaretz said. Israel now enjoys excellent relations with both countries.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Cyprus last week to talk about energy. He met with Cyprus's ethnically Greek President. The island nation is planning to build a natural gas treatment plant that would be jointly operated by Noble Energy and Israel's Delek Group.
Last year, Netanyahu flew to Greece for discussions about possible construction of an undersea pipeline. Now that the Athens government has fallen as a result of the euro zone crisis, the status of any tentative deal reached with former Prime Minister George Papandreou remains unclear.
Delek, the Tel Aviv-listed vehicle of Isaac Tshuva, 64, a Libyan-born immigrant to Israel who made his first pile in real estate and later bought New York's Plaza Hotel, is Israel's biggest energy company. Delek has energy investments worldwide. Its prominence has received attention.
"The new findings do not only shift the geo-strategic balance in the region, but also send a major strategic blow to Tehran," said East Tennessee's Achilov.
How?
Iran has the world's largest known natural gas reserves, second only to Russia. As of January 2011, the country was said to have 1,046 tcf of gas, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated.
Iran now exports just a small fraction of that natural gas to Turkey and Armenia via pipeline. If these countries start importing natural gas from Israel, or decide to get in on the gas play themselves, Iran's natural gas exports could become irrelevant.
Israel enjoys excellent trade ties with both Turkey and Armenia.
Huge Undersea Gas Potential
The U.S. Geological Survey in March 2010 published its assessment of the Levant Basin - the region offshore Israel, Lebanon and Cyprus - and determined there is a 95 percent chance at least 50,000 billion cubic feet of natural gas could yet be discovered. The USGS estimates there could be as many as 227,430 billion cubic feet of natural gas and 483 million barrels of oil offshore.
"In bigger context, this may instigate a large-scale regional competition to search for oil and gas in the Eastern Mediterranean as Lebanon, Cyprus, Syria and Turkey, may launch their own search missions," Achilov said. "Iran's proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, will probably act fast within the Lebanese government to push hard to seek its share of the pie."
Lebanon has technically been at war with Israel since 1948. So in the wake of the Israeli finds, the country could stake a claim to some of the Israel strike. The Israeli gas finds could very well extend into Lebanese territory, but so far Noble Energy has not entered the area for exploration.
Meanwhile, Iran would be shut out of the new gas bonanza. After years of successive sanctions, Tehran hasn't been able to fully develop most of its natural gas resources.
Israel, which imported 40 percent of its energy from Egypt in 2008 and continues to obtain it despite last year's fall of longtime ally President Hosni Mubarak, will become energy independent, East Tennessee's Achilov predicted.
Israel could also sell its new gas to Iran's traditional customers, especially in Asia, like Japan and South Korea, which enjoy excellent relations with the Jewish state.
Still, as with anything in the Middle East, there are wrinkles.
Potential Obstacle to Development
First, history teaches the Eastern Mediterranean is historically earthquake prone. Noble Energy, Delek and other offshore drillers may have to install extra precautions. Israel's very active environmental movement might sue to enjoin drilling on these grounds.
Next, Israel's neighbors in the Levant Basin, Lebanon and the Palestine Authority, might challenge Israel's rights and demand their own share.
Achilov warned that Israel might risk possible conflict with Lebanon.
"In terms of energy politics, Israel will probably compete with Iran indirectly. To be more precise, Israel will have to compete with the Hezbollah-dominated Lebanese government," Achilov said.
One reason is that Israel discovered gas close to the Lebanese border, triggering conflict over undersea rights. "A possible conflict between Israel or Hezbollah should not be discounted in the near future," the energy expert said.
Indeed, Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war in 2006, which saw Hezbollah's rockets fall into Haifa and other cities as Israel Army units invaded parts of southern Lebanon. The Israel gas search had begun before that conflict.
But in general, Achilov said he is unsure that Iran could respond in any direct fashion to stop Israel from exporting natural gas.
In the end, it all comes back to this: good neighbors promote good business.
Israel could be just the alternative needed for other regional exporters to become more agreeable to Western powers, said William Martel, associate professor of International Security Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Western powers could be more enticed to purchase natural gas and oil from a democratic Israel, Martel said, potentially being the catalyst needed for certain regimes in the region to change their tone, or lose business.
"I can only imagine that the competitive pressures will be exacerbated in the region," Martel said.
An energy exporting Israel could actually have a stabilizing effect on the region. That's because customers would buy from a democratic supplier rather than an aggressive or totalitarian regime, the Tufts expert said.
Of course, all bets are off should there be war between Israel and Iran, Martel said.
"If this nuclear issue gets resolved," said Martel, "[The natural gas in years to come] will increase Israel's regional geo-political footprint."

Where will the pieces fall in 5772 after it all comes down?
Pax Judaica vs. Pax Moshiachana: Marketing and Propaganda vs. Light of Torah to the World.

Read more »

Guard Your Eyes! Amalek: A False Light

Eyes: The Window to the Soul

Guarding your eyes is one of Torah's "Biggest Deals."

To even be obligated in Shema, one can not be blind.

Are people going spiritually blind today with all of the artifical light - leading to even greater "eye insanities" with the likes of [looking at] Smartphones, etc?

With such emphasis of Tikkun Within the Eyes, is this a sign that we are in the End of Days? If everyone is going "blind," then it is our responsibility to strengthen our eyes, guard our eyes, and find our way back to Torah, its yoke, and its Light.

There is so much opposition for the eyes today - is this one of our final tests?
It seems Amalek wants our eyes glued to everything but Torah [again, smartphones, movies, texting, etc].

This article is just one glimpse of eye conditions of today; it is being realized that this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of medical conditions stemming from eye conditions.
(one example of another eye condition is the inability to metabolize light in the retina - leading to a problem with Circadian Clock issues as well)

It is understood in Torah, that everyone must fix their eyes, thus begging the question to one's self, "what is 'my issue' with 'my eyes?'"
The two remaining questions are: why the eyes and what do we learn from correcting our eyes?

Eyes are major, which is evident today more than ever, for Amalek is going specifically for the eyes when you pinpoint the the point of attack.

The New York Times:


The aging eye filters out blue light, affecting circadian rhythm and health in older adults.

THE INVESTIGATORS

Dr. Martin Mainster and Dr. Patricia Turner, University of Kansas School of Medicine.

For decades, scientists have looked for explanations as to why certain conditions occur with age, among them memory loss, slower reaction time, insomnia and even depression. They have scrupulously investigated such suspects as high cholesterol, obesity, heart disease and an inactive lifestyle.

Now a fascinating body of research supports a largely unrecognized culprit: the aging of the eye.

The gradual yellowing of the lens and the narrowing of the pupil that occur with age disturb the body’s circadian rhythm, contributing to a range of health problems, these studies suggest. As the eyes age, less and less sunlight gets through the lens to reach key cells in the retina that regulate the body’s circadian rhythm, its internal clock.

“We believe the effect is huge and that it’s just beginning to be recognized as a problem,” said Dr. Patricia Turner, an ophthalmologist in Leawood, Kan., who with her husband, Dr. Martin Mainster, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Kansas Medical School, has written extensively about the effects of the aging eye on health.

Circadian rhythms are the cyclical hormonal and physiological processes that rally the body in the morning to tackle the day’s demands and slow it down at night, allowing the body to rest and repair. This internal clock relies on light to function properly, and studies have found that people whose circadian rhythms are out of sync, like shift workers, are at greater risk for a number of ailments, including insomnia, heart disease and cancer.

“Evolution has built this beautiful timekeeping mechanism, but the clock is not absolutely perfect and needs to be nudged every day,” said Dr. David Berson, whose lab at Brown University studies how the eye communicates with the brain.

So-called photoreceptive cells in the retina absorb sunlight and transmit messages to a part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (S.C.N.), which governs the internal clock. The S.C.N. adjusts the body to the environment by initiating the release of the hormone melatonin in the evening and cortisol in the morning.

Melatonin is thought to have many health-promoting functions, and studies have shown that people with low melatonin secretion, a marker for a dysfunctional S.C.N., have a higher incidence of many illnesses, including cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

It was not until 2002 that the eye’s role in synchronizing the circadian rhythm became clear. It was always believed that the well-known rods and cones, which provide conscious vision, were the eye’s only photoreceptors. But Dr. Berson’s team discovered that cells in the inner retina, called retinal ganglion cells, also had photoreceptors and that these cells communicated more directly with the brain.

These vital cells, it turns out, are especially responsive to the blue part of the light spectrum. Among other implications, that discovery has raised questions about our exposure to energy-efficient light bulbs and electronic gadgets, which largely emit blue light.

But blue light also is the part of the spectrum filtered by the eye’s aging lens. In a study published in The British Journal of Ophthalmology, Dr. Mainster and Dr. Turner estimated that by age 45, the photoreceptors of the average adult receive just 50 percent of the light needed to fully stimulate the circadian system. By age 55, it dips to 37 percent, and by age 75, to a mere 17 percent.

“Anything that affects the intensity of light or the wavelength can have important consequences for the synchronization of the circadian rhythm, and that can have effects on all types of physiological processes,” Dr. Berson said.

Several studies, most in European countries, have shown that the effects are not just theoretical. One study, published in the journal Experimental Gerontology, compared how quickly exposure to bright light suppresses melatonin in women in their 20s versus in women in their 50s. The amount of blue light that significantly suppressed melatonin in the younger women had absolutely no effect on melatonin in the older women. “What that shows us is that the same amount of light that makes a young person sit up in the morning, feel awake, have better memory retention and be in a better mood has no effect on older people,” Dr. Turner said.

Another study, published in The Journal of Biological Rhythms, found that after exposure to blue light, younger subjects had increased alertness, decreased sleepiness and improved mood, whereas older subjects felt none of these effects.

Researchers in Sweden studied patients who had cataract surgery to remove their clouded lenses and implant clear intraocular lenses. They found that the incidence of insomnia and daytime sleepiness was significantly reduced. Another study found improved reaction time after cataract surgery.

“We believe that it will eventually be shown that cataract surgery results in higher levels of melatonin, and those people will be less likely to have health problems like cancer and heart disease,” Dr. Turner said.

That is why Dr. Mainster and Dr. Turner question a practice common in cataract surgery. About one-third of the intraocular lenses implanted worldwide are blue-blocking lenses, intended to reduce the risk of macular degeneration by limiting exposure to potentially damaging light.

But there is no good evidence showing that people who have cataract surgery are at greater risk of macular degeneration. And evidence of the body’s need for blue light is increasing, some experts say.

“You can always wear sunglasses if you’re in a brilliant environment that’s uncomfortable. You can remove those sunglasses for optimal circadian function, but you can’t take out the filters if they’re permanently implanted in your eyes,” Dr. Mainster said.

Because of these light-filtering changes, Dr. Mainster and Dr. Turner believe that with age, people should make an effort to expose themselves to bright sunlight or bright indoor lighting when they cannot get outdoors. Older adults are at particular risk, because they spend more time indoors.

“In modern society, most of the time we live in a controlled environment under artificial lights, which are 1,000 to 10,000 times dimmer than sunlight and the wrong part of the spectrum,” Dr. Turner said.

In their own offices, Dr. Mainster and Dr. Turner have installed skylights and extra fluorescent lights to help offset the aging of their own eyes.

What are we looking at Today?
What is 5772 Showing us?
Will we see Light come from Darkness?

Read more »

The Rains Will Come In Their Time

The Kinneret is 13 feet away from being fixed after a record January!

Haaretz.com:



The month of January saw the highest number of rainy days in one month on record in Israel, according figures from the Israel Meteorological Service.

Rain fell on 29 out of 31 days in January, defined by the Meteorological Service as registering at least 0.1 millimeters of rainfall.

After a careful comparison of January statistics from measuring stations across Israel, the Meteorological Service found that in most of the northern part of the country there were at least 26 days of rainfall, compared to the previous record of 25 in January 1947.

In Nahariyya, and in the Galilee region, there were 29 rainy days. This is higher than past records. January 1969 saw 24 days of rainfall, as did February 1992. These years saw some of the highest levels of rainfall since records began.

Measuring stations in Nahariyya and the Galilee registered a new record in the number of rainy days in a row, with rain falling for 27 days in a row, from January 5 to 31. The former record was held by the Druze village of Yarka, where rain fell for 23 days in a row in February and March 1987.

According to Dr Amos Porat of the Meteorological Service, there was 250-250 milimeters of rainfall in the north of Israel, 1.5 to 2 times greater than the multi-year average for rainfall in January.

This was despite the fact that in the central region rainfall was close to the multi-year average, and rainfall in the Negev region was lower than usual for the time of year.

“These figures are interesting in a statistical sense,” said Porat. “But we should not conclude anything regarding climate trends from them.”

The rains have raised the water-level of the Kinneret by 55 centimeters in January. Currently it stands at - 213.11 centimeters, which is 11 centimeters below the Kinneret’s red line.

February has been the rainiest month in recent years, and this year it is likely that , for the first time in almost a decade, February rainfall levels will bring the total rainfall for 2012 above the multi-year average. An dry February, however, would change the balance and lead to a disappointing winter in terms of the precipitation balance.

Read more »

Storming the Temple Mount! The Final Intifada

This is an Intifada ready to happen - of Crusade proportions? Some Right-Winger is dying to make this thing ignite; and only now its not Ariel Sharon.

The Zohar says in the final wars, the arena and players involved will be Jerusalem and Yishmael.

With everyone looking to Iran or Syria to start WW3, or even North Korea, maybe its some radical from the Shtachim?

Muslim Propaganda?

The Muslim News:

Dozens of Palestinian residents foiled, on Sunday morning, an attempt by dozens of fundamentalist Israeli settlers to break into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.

Local sources reported that the settlers gathered near the Al-Magharba Bridge, that leads to the Al-Magharba Gate, west of the Al-Aqsa mosque, while dozens of Israeli policemen were deployed in the area.

The police allowed the settlers through and prevented all Palestinians, aged 45 of under, from entering the area while on their way to pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque, an issue that led to clashes between the Palestinians, and the Israeli soldiers and settlers. Initial Israeli reports stated that three soldiers were mildly wounded.

It is worth mentioning that a number of extremist settler groups recently called for attacking the Al-Aqsa mosque on Sunday “in order to maintain Jewish sovereignty on the temple”, according to the settlers.

The Al-Quds Media Center reported that some extremist settler groups, including extremist members of the “Trustees of the Temple”, called on their followers to break into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order “to affirm the Jewish control and sovereignty on the mosque” a first step towards “rebuilding the temple”.

Last week, Israeli policemen prevented dozens of settlers from entering the mosque area, especially due to the fact that dozens of Palestinians gathered at the mosque to stop any potential attack.

Meanwhile, Hamas spokesperson, Fawzi Barhoum, stated that the settlers are trying to wage a religious war against the Muslims and the Palestinians, and called for a massive revolution to protect Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Palestine amidst ongoing attacks by the settlers, and repeated calls for breaking into the mosque.

All Roads of War Lead to Jerusalem In The End
 [This would be the straightest path]

Read more »

The Yetzer HaRa Let Loose

Oddly, I can relate to this; and not just because I grew up watching "Saved By The Bell."

Do we really need anything more?

Ynet News:

Rabbis of the extreme Eda Haredit faction have waged war against a new technological enemy: Smartphones in general, and Apple products in particular.

Pashkevilim (religious ads) published in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods last weekend, claim the iPod, iPad, Blackberry and iPhone may deteriorate children's education to "bottomless pits".

According to the ads, the rabbis are lashing out at the devices as they allow people to connect to the Internet, which they believe contains "a great amount of destruction".

An Eda Haredit source told Ynet's local portal, Mynet, that the new battle was launched due to the smartphones' growing popularity in the haredi sector.

"We have a problem," he admits. "The different iPhones are no longer just phones, but computers for all intents and purposes, and some of the people have become accustomed to buying them.

"Therefore, we decided to issue ads against their possession, call on the public to avoid using them and warn against the spiritual danger they conceal," he explained.

This isn't the first time Eda Haredit leaders rise up against technological innovations. In the past, they have called on their public not to purchase MP4 and other portable media players.

Faction members even launched an all-out war against stores selling the "forbidden" devices within the Mea Shearim neighborhood.

Israel's Kosher Phone -  Keeping People Sane In 5772

The Last Mishna in Sotah: [speaking of the End of Days]

-Men of deeds enfeebled. Men of arm, and tongue prevail

-Nobody examines, and nobody intercedes

-Scholars= School teachers

School teachers= Synagogue attendants

Synagogue attendants= Common people

Common people= Increasingly enfeebled

-Insolence will increase

-Expensiveness will soar

-Vine will yield fruit, but the wine will be costly

-The Government will turn to heresy

-There will be no rebuke

-The House of Meeting will serve immorality

-Galilee will be destroyed. Gavlan desolate

-The frontier people will wander from city to city, and will not be pitied

-Wisdom of scholars will denigrate

-Those who fear sin will be despised

-The truth will be absent

-Young men will humble elders

-Elders will rise before youngsters

-A mans enemies will be the members of his household

-The face of the generation will be the face of a dog

-A son will not be ashamed before his father

Sounds like 5772, No?

Read more »

The Biblical Cyprus [...not just Biblical Gas]

Netanyahu is an Israeli
Netanyahu went to Cyprus
Cyprus is Israeli?

Click Here To Read About Cyprus and Biblical Israel!

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s historic trip Thursday to Cyprus – the first by an Israeli prime minister – is being presented by many as a direct result of Israel’s deteriorating relations with Turkey.

Seeking to avoid offending Turkey – which invaded the northern half of Cyprus in 1974 and is hostile to the Greek-allied south – Israel was traditionally wary of cultivating relations with Nicosia. However, Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic AKP party has gradually but steadily moved away from Kemal Ataturk’s secularist policies and Western orientation toward an alignment with Arab neighbors and the terrorist organization Hamas, seemingly as part of an anachronistic obsession with reinstating the old Ottoman Empire.

Israel, in response, began to strengthen its relations with Cyprus and Greece and reconsider its position on the Armenian and Kurdish national movements. This explanation is only partially correct. While the deterioration of relations with Turkey was undoubtedly a catalyst, warming relations with Cyprus are part of a larger reorientation of Israeli foreign policy. Even before May 2010’s Mavi Marmara fiasco, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman had launched a concerted effort to reengage with numerous countries that had fallen out of close relations with Jerusalem.

If since the 1993 Oslo Accords inordinate diplomatic effort was concentrated on the Washington-Ramallah track, under Liberman the Foreign Ministry began to focus more energies on cultivating closer ties with Balkan countries such as Bulgaria, Bosnia and Greece – not principally as a counter-weight to the weakening ties with Ankara, but as a wider change in foreign policy strategy. More effort is also being made to strengthen ties with Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, China and India.

Our fast-developing relations with Cyprus are also fostered by mutual fossil energy interests. The Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority, the country’s national energy company and two Israeli firms – Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration – hold shares in Texas-based Noble Energy, an oil and gas exploration firm. Noble has been leading exploration and exploitation of oil and gas reserves under the Mediterranean Sea in areas delineated in a December 2010 agreement between Jerusalem and Nicosia as part of the two countries’ Exclusive Economic Zones. Tamar, the world’s largest gas find in 2009, and Leviathan, an even bigger gas field, will supply all our domestic needs and provide significant export revenues as well.

Further consolidating the ties between Cypress and Israel has been Turkish belligerence. Ankara, in the name of the Turkish-occupied northern half of Cypress, and Lebanon, backed by the Shi’ite terrorist organization Hezbollah, have laid unjustified claims to the oil and gas findings. On November 23, for instance, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz claimed that Israeli and Cyprian gas and oil explorations in the eastern Mediterranean were illegal and questioned the Exclusive Economic Zones demarcated by the two countries. In September 2011, Erdogan said that Turkey “will take appropriate steps” and “prevent unilateral exploitation by Israel of natural resources of the eastern Mediterranean.”

In mid-September, Turkey sent three naval ships to “protect” a Norwegian boat hired by the Turkish government to conduct gas explorations in the territorial waters of the Republic of Cyprus. And on December 21, 2011, Turkish warships demonstratively shelled the strip of water dividing the Israeli Leviathan and Cyprian Bloc 12 gas fields.

Israel and Cyprus cannot simply cave in to Turkish bullying. Indeed, neither seems to be doing so. Cypriot President Demetris Christofias said Thursday during a press conference with Netanyahu: “I call upon the international community, and especially the European Union, to send a strong message to Turkey that it must stop violating and start respecting international law, especially if it looks forward to becoming a member of the European family.”

And while Netanyahu was silent on Turkish aggression during his Cyprus visit, Israel has deployed drones and unmanned marine vehicles, equipped with night vision devices, radars and multiple launch systems, to protect its drilling platforms. And the cancellation on December 22 of the $90 million sale to the Turkish Air Force of Elbit’s hi-tech surveillance system was interpreted by some as timed to send a signal to Ankara to stop its campaign of harassment in and around Israel’s gas fields.

Under the circumstances it is important that Israel continue to develop strong ties with both Cyprus and Greece. Netanyahu’s unprecedented visit to Cyprus is a integral part of that endeavor.

Cyprus may very well be part of Biblical Israel, and all of a sudden, in the End of Days, it is more relevant than ever!

Netanyahu is securing relations that may very well be the return of Biblical Israel and the beginning of the Lost Tribes return!

(Cyprus is believed to be of Shevet Dan)

Are the Lost Tribes coming back, now that Biblical Israel is coming back to the map?

One of the main tasks of Moshiach Ben Yosef, is returning the borders to Israel.

Now perhaps, more than ever, the missing pieces are coming back together!

Zohar - 5772, the year Moshiach Ben Yosef - Melech HaMoshiach will be revealed - now one step closer! (Israel's Borders coming into focus!)

Read more »

The Secret Iranian Weapon

National Geographic News:

In Iran's confrontation with the West over its nuclear program, the Islamic Republic has one undisputed weapon: The ability to block the most important oil transit choke point in the world.

Although military strategists and diplomatic experts have worried about Iran's capability to throw the global economy into chaos for more than three decades, there has been little progress in developing alternative petroleum routes to defuse the power of Iran's threat to block the Strait of Hormuz.

Tensions increased last week after Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak issued a blunt warning that time was running out for stopping Iran's nuclear program. Iran has claimed that its uranium enrichment facilities are for peaceful energy purposes, not for weaponry. After a visit by United Nations inspectors, and plans for a return visit later this month, Iran's state-run news agency termed the talks "positive and constructive." But Israel signaled that the U.N. diplomatic efforts and an oil embargo led by the United States and Europe were not progressing quickly enough to defuse Iran's nuclear threat. If Iran moved its nuclear facilities into underground Bunkers, Barak said, it could be "too late" to destroy them. Barak's comment raises the fear that Israel might mount a unilateral air strike.

An Artery at Risk

There are hundreds of choke points that constrain the flow of oil around the world, from the Strait of Malacca in the east to the Panama Canal in the west. But none matches the importance of the Strait of Hormuz. In 2011, an average 16 million barrels of oil per day, or 20 percent of the oil traded worldwide, moved by tanker through the 173-mile (280-kilometer) waterway between Iran and Oman that links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the seas beyond.

The strait's narrowest point is 31 miles (50 kilometers) wide, but navigation is even more constrained. Tankers must move on either an outbound or an inbound shipping lane, each of them 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) wide, separated by a buffer zone of the same width. In 2011, about 14 outbound crude oil tankers passed through the conduit daily, with about 77 percent of the cargo headed toward Asia and the Pacific.

A look at history underscores the economic risk that a Hormuz closure represents. The largest oil market disruption ever occurred in August 1990, when Iraq's invasion of Kuwait took 4.3 million barrels per day of oil off the market—about 6.5 percent of world supply. That stoppage caused world oil prices to double (from about $20 to $40 per barrel). But a blockade of Hormuz would cut off nearly four times as much oil as the Kuwait crisis did, disrupting a share of the oil market three times greater. And this unprecedented throttling of supply would come at a time when oil is more than $100 per barrel and the world economy is weak.

In testimony before the U.S. Senate last week, Richard Jones, the career U.S. diplomat who is now deputy executive director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency downplayed the disruption Iran could cause to oil markets. He said the Hormuz threat to some degree had "already been priced into the market," meaning it is one of the reasons that oil prices already have been so high. "The likelihood of a prolonged stoppage for Hormuz transits is seen as being fairly low," he said.

The Asymmetric Threat

The decade-long Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s marked Iran's last attempt to sabotage shipping through Hormuz. A U.S. guided missile frigate, the U.S.S. Samuel B. Roberts, nearly sank after hitting an Iranian mine in April 1988, prompting President Ronald Reagan to order a massive and decisive retaliatory attack. Although Iran's naval forces are still seen as outmatched by the U.S. Navy, the Islamic Republic has invested heavily since then in weaponry of "asymmetric warfare." As detailed in a 2008 report by the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, Iran's strategy is built on mobile coastal missile batteries, modern anti-ship missiles mounted on fast-attack craft, midget submarines, modern naval mines, and drone aerial vehicles, and the ability to conceal and deploy its artillery amid the numerous coves, inlets, and islands along its 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) of Gulf coastline.

Experts at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies last month released an analysis of the threat to the Strait of Hormuz, including a scenario in which Israel executes a major air strike. The analysts envisioned Iran using its submarines to plant smart bombs in the strait and near the Gulf of Oman. They suggested that oil tankers might also be attacked by honing torpedoes. Such a confrontation, the CSIS analysts said, would likely trigger a limited naval and air war by the United States to open the strait. But it would cause shipping to halt for as much as a week, and the risk premiums and tanker costs for oil shipping would be doubled for two to three weeks more.

Choking oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz also would disable one of the global oil market's most important safety valves. Nearly all of the world's spare capacity to produce oil—about 3.5 million barrels per day—is in Saudi Arabia. The kingdom's implicit pledge to keep oil flowing has been seen as an important lever keeping oil markets in check during the Libyan crisis last year, and the Iraq War of the past decade. Saudi Arabia's ability to make up for any shortfalls in the world oil market would be cut off, since 75 percent of its oil is exported through the Persian Gulf.

Saudi Arabia also can export oil through the 745-mile (1,198-kilometer) east-west Petroline pipeline from Abqaiq to the Red Sea, which is seen as the chief alternative for oil flow in case of a Hormuz closure. But the Petroline has a capacity to handle only 5 million barrels per day of oil, less than a third of what now flows through the Strait of Hormuz.

A novel proposal for beefing up that capacity is to use chemicals known as drag reduction agents (DRAs) to allow the oil to flow more freely through the pipeline. Economist Dagobert Brito at the James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston, who first proposed such action a decade ago, has estimated that DRAs, plus an upgrade including pumps, impellers, and turbines, could boost the capacity to transport oil by pipeline to the Red Sea to 11 million barrels per day. When he first conducted the analysis, based on the technology of 2000, Brito said he estimated the cost of such upgrades would total about $600 million. Although costs likely have increased since then, he said, there have also been improvements in drag reduction agents that could boost capacity improvement even further.

"You couldn't get enough oil out this way for the long term," said Brito in an interview. "But it would buy time. You wouldn't face as much pressure to act quickly."

But because the Petroline runs through Saudi Arabia, it would be up to the kingdom to weigh such an investment. And the benefits may not outweigh the costs, at least in the short term, since a closure of the Strait of Hormuz would ratchet up the price that Saudi Arabia could command for each barrel of oil it exports through the Red Sea.

The other major alternative to Hormuz is a $3.29 billion, 230-mile (370-kilometer) pipeline that has been under construction for years through the United Arab Emirates. The UAE's oil minister said last month that the nation has nearly completed building the conduit from Habshan near Abu Dhabi's onshore crude production complex to an offshore oil terminal in the emirate of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman. But the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline's capacity would be 1.5 million barrels per day, or less than one-tenth of the current flow through the Strait of Hormuz. And the project, which has faced repeated delays, will not be operational until May or June.

In fact, some analysts see May or June as a likely timeline for an Israeli attack on Iran, based in part on Barak's signal that his nation would not be able to devote resources to an annual U.S.-Israel military exercise this spring.

That would leave little time to forge any alternative oil routes out of the world's most important petroleum basin, despite three decades of concern over the vulnerability of the Strait of Hormuz. "I'm not a prophet or anything," said Brito, "but there's a danger. And we'd be much better off if we had more alternatives than we do at this point."

Read about The Strait of Hormuz in Torah Literature regarding Gog V' Magog!

Hashem has a Secret Weapon too: The Jewish People

If Chanuka was the beginning of The Jewish weapon

The Geulah Shleimah will be 2.0

The gateway to Peace

Shabbat 5772

Read more »