Pax Judaica - The Putin Spiral

The bear has awoken from his slumber [pun intended; Russia is often depicted as a bear] and it seems now that 2012 issues are again in full bloom by us here and now in 2014. Can I say that somehow the stage seems more [sur]real in our current location? Logic dictates that this game can't be played much longer, so one must assume there is "bang" to this firecracker, or the whole ensemble was one big dud; a political joke where not many spectators would have even caught the punchline.

Somehow I still think there is more drama to be played out from this World scene, one of Syria, Russia, America, Israel, Gog Magog [more like it, should it culminate within prophetic terms]? - Which brings us into prophetic boundary set up by King David himself:

In Tehillim, many of the Psalms speak of exile, Gog Magog, the coming of the Messiah, etc. all from a unique lens of the Psalmist. There is a penetrating theme in these Psalms, and it isn't necessarily a frequency of Armageddon, rather one of Hashem judging the World, and as such with Noahide laws being the tool with what to judge.

We may may not be gazing at drumbeats of war at all, really, rather this may be [under terms of mazal - a spiritual reality that we just aren't fully aware of in the physical realm; what we see, really isn't - and there actually is an "IS"] a unique tribunal, one that is indigenous to a true End of Days, one that is heavily prophesied [and misunderstood; taken out of context] and only serves to glorify God. One could surmise, that if there is a peaceful resolution, nations [already have] will fall, judgment will be at the forefront of all paradigm shift, and Hashem will be realized as the true judge, while Noah and his enter entourage will consummate as the scepter grasped by the hand of God.

We may be closer than we think, yet at the same time, man may be utterly confused. In any rate, "that's not what I was told" - will be the mantra of all outcomes led by God. This is simply God's story, we are along for the ride as spectators, and as King David says, one day there will be a show, and through that show the Nations will see the hand of God. There was a season for the Creation of Israel, and there will be a season for the [final] Creation of the World.



American Thinker:





In a column analyzing Russia’s recent threat to rethink its position on Iran, Walter Russell Mead and his staff at The American Interest postulated, “Linking the Ukraine crisis with the Iran negotiation is an American nightmare; it might just be a Russian dream come true.” Mead is on to something; however, he stops short in his analysis. Russia’s threat could also be quite helpful to Israel.

Obama entered into the Iran negotiations in order to avoid a military confrontation, as well as to constrain the “true barrier” to peace in the region – Israel. His hope was to bide time, notwithstanding that Iran’s centrifuges would continue to spin, bringing its nuclear capability to the brink or to fruition.

If Iran does in fact go nuclear on Obama’s watch, so be it; he will proceed to sell containment to the American public for the little time left in his term. The carnival salesmen in the White House are quite talented at selling the American people a bill of goods – just look at ObamaCare. While Russia invades a European country and threatens all-out war, the administration spends $52 million of taxpayer funds in just three months on advertising this debacle. One can only imagine what they will spend to convince Americans that a nuclear Iran poses no threat to our national security.

Alas, since reality has yet to penetrate the White House bubble, Obama has likely never lost sleep thinking about Iran’s nuclear capabilities (his Baracketology, next vacation, and golf game, perhaps, but national security, not so much) – that is, until Vladimir Putin stepped into the picture. Obama's failure to realize that he is now unmasked as a fool on the world stage does not mean that the rest of the world’s leaders have not noticed. It is not a coincidence that just six months after Putin manipulated Obama out of bombing Syria despite its having crossed Obama’s disingenuous red line, Putin took to annexing Crimea from Ukraine. And Putin did so despite a U.S. promise to protect Ukraine. As one Ukranian parliamentarian stated, "[e]veryone believed that for good or bad the United States would be the world's policeman. Now that function is being abandoned by President Obama, and because of that Russia invaded Crimea."

So Mead is correct that linking Ukraine with Iran is good policy for Russia while thrusting Obama into a nightmarish situation. It will cause Obama to quake in his mom-jeans and further diminish American power. Obama has already stated that he will not act militarily in response to the Ukrainian situation. What are his choices if Russia acts on its threat and allies with Iran? Cancel Putin’s Netflix account?

But linking Ukraine and Iran just might be an Israeli dream come true as well. Mead stated, “The Obama strategy has always been a risky one; if Russia shifts into active cooperation with Iran, it is hard to see how the White House can keep hope alive.” True enough. But if Russia moves into Iran’s camp, Israel has the perfect excuse to move ahead with a military strike on Iran’s nuclear installations and will likely have the support of the entire Western world (in addition to America’s Mideast allies like Saudi Arabia), all of which will be relieved that at least someone is standing up to the bad guys.

Middle East and foreign policy experts have vacillated for years analyzing Israel’s capability to conduct a successful unilateral military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, guessing when it might proceed, and wondering whether the United States is holding Israel back from doing so. Some ask why U.S. support is a necessary prerequisite to an Israeli strike that is in Israel's own national security interests. One need only look at a map of the region and the fact that the country, the size of the state of New Jersey and only nine miles wide at its narrowest point, is surrounded by 21 Arab nations, the vast majority of whom are adversaries, to understand Israel’s need for supportive friends.

When the most powerful nation on earth, the one that provides Israel with the most support both militarily and diplomatically, orders its ally not to attack another country, Israel is left with little choice but to listen. That is why Obama, Kerry, Clinton, and Panetta have been able to publicly abuse Israel with little backlash. But it is also why the administration’s threats of international isolation and abandonment have left Israel with little choice but to loudly proclaim her legal right to take all measures necessary in order to ensure the safety and security of her people – to defend herself, by herself.

And there are many signs that Israel is prepared to do so. In the sixth year of Obama’s administration, Israelis know full well that the American president who promised, “The United States will always have Israel’s back when it comes to Israel’s security” has no intention of actually following through on that assurance. The U.S. may have been “shocked” (just shocked!) at the statements of Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon this week when he opined that Israel must “behave as though we have nobody to look out for us but ourselves,” in part because:

... [w]e had thought the ones who should lead the campaign against Iran is the United States. But at some stage the United States entered into negotiations with them, and unhappily, when it comes to negotiating at a Persian baazar, the Iranians were better.

But Ya’alon was certainly speaking truth to power. And speaking of power, let us turn to a real superpower. Not the type that we reminisce about from the pre-Obama glory days of the Pax Americana that kept stability in the world, but the superpower that presents itself in the form of a democratic dynamo – the economic and military powerhouse known as Israel. As reported in the Times of Israel this week:

Israel’s security forces have the capability to carry out military operations in virtually every part of the globe, including Iran, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said Wednesday, adding that Israel had already conducted dozens of covert operations in foreign and enemy countries….

The TV report asserted that Gantz’s comments represented a first “definitive” acknowledgment that Israel is capable of military intervention in Iran and constituted a hint from the chief of General Staff that this kind of activity was already happening.

And according to a report in Ha’aretz, despite the ongoing talks with Iran and P5+1, Netanyahu and Ya’alon have ordered the IDF to begin preparations for a possible 2014 Iranian strike, earmarking at least $2.89 billion for the operation. (As an aside, think about that dollar amount in the context of the $52 billion that Obama has spent on three months of ObamaCare advertising and try not to throw something at the television the next time you see him joking around with Jimmy Fallon, Ellen DeGeneres, Zach Galifianakis, Kobe Bryant, and the rest of his adoring entourage.)

Many Israel-supporters had hoped that Netanyahu would attack Iran prior to Obama’s 2012 victory, believing that Obama would have been forced to support Israel for fear of reprisal from the electorate if he failed to do so. That is why now, when the world’s good guys are shirking their responsibilities and shrinking in stature in the face of ever more powerful bad guys enabled by the U.S. president, is the time for Israel to act.

Putin has given Netanyahu the gift of a second window. In the lead-up to the 2014 midterm elections, in which Obama must keep the Senate in control of the Democrats, Obama would have no choice but to stand behind Israel if she attacks Iran. If Russia stands with Iran, Obama will be forced to stand with Israel or lose the American people to the Republican Party. He cannot risk that happening. And Netanyahu cannot afford not to act on that knowledge.

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Welcome to Pax Judaica

Read carefully what this guy is saying; Israel is the only power [aligned with America, i.e. not Russia or China] that is willing, able, and has [done] struck down "evil regimes" in recent memory. This by definition is the foundation for the Pax Judaica model.

Note the unfolding: Pax UK - Pax Americana - and Pax Judaica.


Jpost.com:

The agreement reached between the US and Russia for the destruction of chemical weapons in the possession of the Assad regime is fraught with difficulty and danger and, in the best case scenario, would likely end up with a token show of disarmament, Col. Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

Speaking to the Post by phone, Kemp, who also served in the UK’s Joint Intelligence Committee and Cabinet Office Briefing Room, said: “I think it’s extremely difficult to do something like this during an active conflict, during a war. I think it’ll take a very large amount of time, with a significant amount of military protection, so that the inspectors can be as safe as they can be. That aspect will present huge challenges. Which country, first of all, will provide the scientists who will take these risks and the military forces to back them up? It’s a very dangerous situation.”

Kemp observed that there is a wide variety of factions in Syria, including regime forces and jihadists, meaning that it would be difficult to send weapons inspectors to the country.

“Secondly, to get verification in this kind of situation, I would say, is impossible,” he stated. “It would be very easy for President Assad to hide or remove out of the country significant quantities of chemical weapons.

Crisis in Syria - full JPost.com coverage

What we might end up seeing is a token show of disarmament. I don’t think it is realistically feasible.”

In turn, it would end up harming regional – and global – security, the former military commander warned.

Assad’s position would be strengthened by a more positive international stance towards him, “combined with very active Russian support and American collusion with that support,” Kemp said. Iran’s position, too, would be strengthened significantly, he continued, as the value of American deterrence “appears to be degraded as a result of this, and Iran’s own position is obviously strengthened by what will be its closer relations with Russia.”

This spells bad news from Israel’s perspective, Kemp said, adding nonetheless that “Israel appears to be the only reliable power in the region. America’s power and American deterrence is reduced. Israel remains the one reliable power that the world can count on to intervene if the situation gets too dangerous.”

He noted the three times that Israel, according to foreign media reports, intervened in Syria to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons, and the alleged 2007 Israeli air strike on Syria’s nuclear project.

“It’s that sort of action we need to be prepared to do,” Kemp said. “If Israel hadn’t struck Syria’s nuclear project, the situation now could be very different. We could be trying to deal with nuclear-armed Syria, which would be an impossibility. Israel is showing itself to be the only reliable power.”

The UK and the US have, over the past few weeks, “demonstrated their complete lack of resolve to do the right thing when it’s needed. It’s all very well speaking and posturing, but when the chips are down and it’s time to put their money where their mouth is, both the UK and US have shown there’s no will,” he said, pointing to a negative effect on world security.

Public opinion in the UK and US is too focused on what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan, “particularly, Iraq,” he added. “Many people are not able to look at this situation as a different situation to Iraq.”

In the UK, a wide part of public opinion is influenced by a fear of militant Islam and the desire to pursue short-term, low-risk goals, at the expense of ignoring wider risks, Kemp said.

This means Israel has rulership in its Land. From Erev Rav yes, and they shall yield to God in the end, but in this point in history, only Israel has the God given ability to be Pax Judaica [Pax anything] in this dor. The Geulah begins on this premise; all we can do is live each day with emunah that this is indeed it, the alternative would be an evil unheard of. The pieces are there, we are to read the mazal of each moment - the mazal being the kabbalistic perfection coming into our world which goes 100% in- face of "non-Jewish" mazal.

For context of Israel today and the imprecations  for the Church, read what the Pope has to say about Israel.

Pope Francis has praised Jews for keeping their faith despite the Holocaust and other “terrible trials” throughout history, and reaffirmed Judaism as the “holy root” of Christianity. In a letter, published on the front page of La Repubblica Italian newspaper, the Pope writes that "since Vatican Council II, we have rediscovered that the Jewish people are still for us the holy root from which Jesus germinated". 

As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio had celebrated Rosh Hashana in local synagogues, he had voiced solidarity with Jewish victims of Iranian terrorism and co-written a book with a rabbi, Avraham Skorka. He attended a commemoration of Kristallnacht, the wave of Nazi attacks against Jews in November 1938. But as this new letter shows, one of the grave dangers in the Vatican's dialogue with Judaism is the Church's attempt to drive a wedge between the “good” and docile Jews of the Diaspora and the “bad” and arrogant Jews of Israel. Pope Francis has never addressed the Israelis in his messages, nor has he openly defended the Jewish State since he was elected by the college of the cardinals. It seems that there is no room for stubborn, faithful Zionists in the Pope's lenient smile.

 In his speeches, Jewish national aspirations are ignored, if not denigrated. The definitive proof is in Washington. It seems that there is no room for stubborn, faithful Zionists in the Pope's lenient smile. While the Pope was distributing that letter, in a new event co-sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic University of America was hosting a special conference about “religious freedom and human rights issues in the Holy Land”. 

The speakers included Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop emeritus of Washington, D.C., Jessica Montell, executive director of B’Tselem anti-Israel group, and Mustafa Barghouti, the prominent member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Cardinal McCarrick said that “the expansion of Israeli settlements into occupied territories provokes violence”, in a self-evident justification of Arab terrorism. Montell, who accepted money from BDS, added that “settlement expansion is a primary source of human rights violations for Palestinians” and that “human rights violations are inherent to a prolonged military occupation”. "When you live under occupation, you come to accept things you shouldn't accept,” Lubna Alzaroo, a Muslim graduate of Bethlehem University and Fullbright scholar studying at the University of Washington, said at the D.C. event of the Catholic Church. Among the organizations invited by the Catholic bishops there was also the Society of St. Yves, which charges "Israeli colonization, occupation and apartheid" and works for "the Palestinian refugees’ rights to return to their homes and places of origin". 

The Society of St. Yves shares also the "Nakba” ideology, the “catastrophe”, as the Arabs call the date of the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. While the Pope was penning his letter about Jesus, the US' highest Catholic political body was giving a platform to the boycotters of Israel, it was calling for the indefensible-for-Israel partition of the holy land and it was exculpating the Palestinian Arab for their jihad. 

 The Vatican, as always happened in the past, will be silent during the next "terrible trials" for the Jewish people, if they occur, should it be Iranian nuclear or Arab terrorism. When Pope Francis was elected, a media outlet asked me to comment. 

My reply was: "I hope the next Pope will avoid the ecumenical mistakes of his predecessors, he will address the challenge of political Islam and understand the Jewish revolution of returning to the land after Auschwitz. Otherwise, any Jewish-Catholic dialogue will be empty, or worse, it will be a show for hypocrites". 

 Was I right to be skeptical?

Torah says Hashem takes over in the End of Days. Couple that with our old friend "novelty" - Things are seeming ever novel, no?

last moments of '73 anyone?

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Cowboys and Indians In The Middle East

There will be a straw that breaks the [Yishmael's] camel's back. This thing is getting more and more tense by the moment; Iron Dome is now in Tzfat.



USAToday.com:

Israel launched a rare airstrike inside Syria, U.S. officials said Wednesday, targeting a convoy believed to contain anti-aircraft weapons bound for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. The attack adds a potentially flammable new element to tensions already heightened by Syria's civil war.

It was the latest salvo in Israel's long-running effort to disrupt the Shiite militia's quest to build an arsenal capable of defending against Israel's air force and spreading destruction inside the Jewish state.

Regional security officials said the strike, which occurred overnight Tuesday, targeted a site near the Lebanese border, while a Syrian army statement said it destroyed a military research center northwest of the capital, Damascus. They appeared to be referring to the same incident.

U.S. officials said the target was a truck convoy that Israel believed was carrying sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the operation.

Regional officials said the shipment included sophisticated Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles, which if acquired by Hezbollah would be "game-changing," enabling the militants to shoot down Israeli jets, helicopters and surveillance drones. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

In a statement, the Syrian military denied the existence of any such shipment and said a scientific research facility outside Damascus was hit by the Israeli warplanes.

The Israeli military declined to comment. However, many in Israel worry that as Syrian President Bashar Assad loses power, he could strike back by transferring chemical or advanced weapons to Hezbollah, which is neighboring Lebanon's most powerful military force and is committed to Israel's destruction.

The airstrike follows decades of enmity between Israel and allies Syria and Hezbollah, which consider the Jewish state their mortal enemy. The situation has been further complicated by the civil war raging in Syria between the Assad regime and rebel brigades seeking his ouster.

The war has sapped Assad's power and threatens to deprive Hezbollah of a key supporter, in addition to its land corridor to Iran. The two countries provide Hezbollah with the bulk of its funding and arms.

A Syrian military statement read aloud on state TV Wednesday said low-flying Israeli jets crossed into Syria over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and bombed a military research center in the area of Jamraya, northwest of Damascus.

The strike destroyed the center and damaged a nearby building, killing two workers and wounding five others, the statement said.

The military denied the existence of any convoy bound for Lebanon, saying the center was responsible for "raising the level of resistance and self-defense" of Syria's military.

"This proves that Israel is the instigator, beneficiary and sometimes executor of the terrorist acts targeting Syria and its people," the statement said.

Israel and Hezbollah fought an inconclusive 34-day war in 2006 that left 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis dead.

While the border has been largely quiet since, the struggle has taken other forms. Hezbollah has accused Israel of assassinating a top commander, and Israel blamed Hezbollah and Iran for a July 2012 attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria. In October, Hezbollah launched an Iranian-made reconnaissance drone over Israel, using the incident to brag about its expanding capabilities.

Israeli officials believe that Hezbollah's arsenal has markedly improved since 2006, now boasting tens of thousands of rockets and missiles and the ability to strike almost anywhere inside Israel.

Israel suspects that Damascus obtained a battery of SA-17s from Russia after an alleged Israeli airstrike in 2007 that destroyed an unfinished Syrian nuclear reactor.

Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of the dangers of Syria's "deadly weapons," saying the country is "increasingly coming apart."

The same day, Israel moved a battery of its new "Iron Dome" rocket defense system to the northern city of Haifa, which was battered by Hezbollah rocket fire in the 2006 war. The Israeli army called that move "routine."

Syria, however, cast the airstrike in a different light, linked to the country's civil war, which it blames on terrorists carrying out an international conspiracy.

Despite its icy relations with Assad, Israel has remained on the sidelines of efforts to topple him, while keeping up defenses against possible attacks.

Israeli defense officials have carefully monitored Syria's chemical weapons, fearing Assad could deploy them or lose control of them to extremist fighters among the rebels.

President Barack Obama has called the use of chemical weapons a "red line" that if crossed could prompt direct U.S. intervention, though U.S. officials have said Syria's stockpiles still appear to be under government control.

The strike was Israel's first inside Syria since September 2007, when warplanes destroyed a site that the U.N. nuclear watchdog deemed likely to be a nuclear reactor. Syria denied the claim, saying the building was a non-nuclear military site.

Syria allowed international inspectors to visit the bombed site in 2008, but it has refused to allow nuclear inspectors new access. This has heightened suspicions that Syria has something to hide, along with its decision to level the destroyed structure and build on its site.

In 2006, Israeli warplanes flew over Assad's palace in a show of force after Syrian-backed militants captured an Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip.

And in 2003, Israeli warplanes attacked a suspected militant training camp just north of the Syrian capital, in response to an Islamic Jihad suicide bombing in the city of Haifa that killed 21 Israelis.

Syria vowed to retaliate for both attacks but never did.

In Lebanon, which borders both Israel and Syria, the military and the U.N. agency tasked with monitoring the border with Israel said Israeli warplanes have sharply increased their activity in the past week.

Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace are not uncommon, and it was unclear if the recent activity was related to the strike in Syria.

Syria's primary conflict with Israel is over the Golan Heights, which Israeli occupied in the 1967 war. Syria demands the area back as part of any peace deal. Despite the hostility, Syria has kept the border quiet since the 1973 Mideast war and has never retaliated for Israeli attacks.

In May 2011, only two months after the uprising against Assad started, hundreds of Palestinians overran the tightly controlled Syria-Israeli frontier in a move widely thought to have been facilitated by the Assad regime to divert the world's gaze from his growing troubles at home.

 This exercise is one shot from going Global.

YnetNews:

Russia said on Thursday it was very concerned about reports of an Israeli attack in Syria and that any such action, if confirmed, would amount to unacceptable military interference in the war-ravaged country.

The remarks were issued as Hezbollah called on the international community to condemn the alleged strike.

"If this information is confirmed, then we are dealing with unprovoked attacks on targets on the territory of a sovereign country, which blatantly violates the UN Charter and is unacceptable, no matter the motives to justify it," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Sources told Reuters on Wednesday that Israeli warplanes had bombed a convoy near Syria's border with Lebanon, apparently targeting weapons destined for Hezbollah in what some called a warning to Damascus not to arm Israel's Lebanese enemy.

Syrian state television accused Israel of bombing a military research center at Jamraya, between Damascus and the nearby border. Syrian rebels disputed that, saying their forces had attacked the site.

Russia has been trying to shield Syrian President Bashar Assad from international pressure to end the civil war against opposition forces that has ravaged the country over 22 months and killed an estimated 60,000 people. Moscow has repeatedly spoken against any foreign interference in Syria, especially military action.

'Attack typical of Israel's criminal ways' Meanwhile, the Hezbollah terror organization released a statement condemning the "Israeli attacks on the scientific research center in Syria." The statement said that "the attack is in line with Israel's aggressive and criminal ways and was made in accordance to a policy which attempts to prevent any Arab or Muslim force to develop its military and technological capabilities."

In its statement the Shiite terror organization claimed that "the attack exposes the background to what has been going on in Syria for years, and the criminal intention to destroy Syria and its army, and undermine its central role on the resistance front."

It also said: "The attack requires wide-scale condemnation from the international community and the Arab and Muslim states."

Nevertheless, it also claimed that "we are accustomed to the international community swallowing its tongue and remaining silent, not condemning or taking a stand when Israel is the aggressor."

Hassan Nasrallah's organization also expressed solidarity with the Syrian people, the Syrian leadership and the Syrian army.

They said, in an implied message to the rebel forces, that "some elements should be aware of the severity of the attack against Syria."

"This aggression should lead to a re-examination of their stance and to adopt political dialogue as the only basis to a solution meant to end the shedding of Syrian blood, in order to keep Syria and protect its role in the fight against the enemies."

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Putin: On Gog Like Productions

I'm thinking the following mishigus: [as it has always seemed Putin in a Gog type]

Israel wants to hit Iran, and Obama plays funny about it.

Is Putin running the whole show behind the curtains? Working with Peres and Obama while essentially handcuffing Bibi.

The Gog Magog War seems to be mutating along Putin's lines.
[That would explain the strange politics]


JPost.com:

Russia warned Israel and the West on Wednesday against any military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities but suggested Tehran should be quicker to cooperate over inspections of its nuclear sites.

Speaking at his annual news conference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov mixed words of caution over isolating Iran or attacking it with a gentle nudge to Tehran over the inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"Attempts to prepare and implement strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and on its infrastructure as a whole are a very, very dangerous idea. We hope these ideas will not come to fruition," Lavrov said.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has hinted strongly at possible military action to stop Iran from developing an atomic bomb. In an election victory speech on Wednesday, he said preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons would be the main challenge for a new government.

Referring to talks in which the IAEA has been trying to negotiate an agreement for inspectors to gain access to sites, officials and documents, Lavrov said: "The Iranians have said they want this document to be agreed in full. We think our Iranian colleagues could do this a little bit faster."

Speaking of separate negotiations between Iran and six world powers that are trying to ensure it does not pursue a nuclear weapons program, Lavrov said he was confident a new round of talks would be held but said a venue had not yet been agreed.

Iran denies it is trying to develop a nuclear arsenal and says its nuclear program has only peaceful purposes.

Tehran has suggested Cairo as the venue for the next round of talks with P5+1, ISNA reported.

Follow @RabbiKSoulMazal

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Higgs: Doubt It -or- Pushing Geulah?

Higgs? Maybe. Geulah? Probably even more now than ever.

In the year 5500-5600 the wellsprings of Heaven and Earth were opened to the extent of influence of today.

Will the Higgs [aka scientists "finding" God before Kabbalists] push the Geulah envelope? i.e. if gashmius is opened up now - is spirituality sure to follow...Mincha Gedola


Reuters.com:

Scientists at Europe's CERN research center have found a new subatomic particle, a basic building block of the universe, which appears to be the boson imagined and named half a century ago by theoretical physicist Peter Higgs. "We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature," CERN director general Rolf Heuer told a gathering of scientists and the world's media near Geneva on Wednesday.

"The discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson opens the way to more detailed studies, requiring larger statistics, which will pin down the new particle's properties, and is likely to shed light on other mysteries of our universe." Two independent studies of data produced by smashing proton particles together at CERN's Large Hadron Collider produced a convergent near-certainty on the existence of the new particle. It is unclear that it is exactly the boson Higgs foresaw, which by bestowing mass on other matter helps explain the way the universe was ordered after the chaos of Big Bang.

But addressing scientists assembled in the CERN auditorium, Heuer posed them a question: "As a layman, I would say I think we have it. Would you agree?" A roar of applause said they did. For some, there was no doubt the Higgs boson is found: "It's the Higgs," said Jim Al-Khalili of Surrey University, a British physicist and popular broadcaster. "The announcement from CERN is even more definitive and clear-cut than most of us expected. "Nobel prizes all round." Higgs, now 83, from Edinburgh University was among six theorists who in the early 1960s proposed the existence of a mechanism by which matter in the universe gained mass.

Higgs himself argued that if there were an invisible field responsible for the process, it must be made up of particles. He and some of the others were at CERN to welcome news of what, to the embarrassment of many scientists, some commentators have labelled the "God particle", for its role in turning the Big Bang into an ordered universe. Clearly overwhelmed, his eyes welling up, Higgs told the symposium of fellow researchers: "It is an incredible thing that it has happened in my lifetime." Scientists see confirmation of his theory as accelerating investigations into the still unexplained "dark matter" they believe pervades the universe and into the possibility of a fourth or more dimensions, or of parallel universes. It may help in resolving contradictions between their model of how the world works at the subatomic level and Einstein's theory of gravity. END OF AN ERA "It is very satisfying," Higgs told Reuters.

"For me personally it's just the confirmation of something I did 48 years ago," he said of the achievement of the thousands who labored on the practical experimental work which had, finally, confirmed what he and others had described with mathematics. "I had no expectation that I would still be alive when it happened," he said of the speed with which they found evidence. "For physics, in one way, it is the end of an era in that it completes the Standard Model," he said of the basic theory physicists currently use to describe what they understand so far of a cosmos built from 12 fundamental particles and four forces. CERN's Large Hadron Collider is the world's biggest and most powerful particle accelerator.

Two beams of protons are fired in opposite directions around the 27-km (17-mile) looped pipe built under the Swiss-French border before smashing into each other. The collisions, which mimic the moments just after the Big Bang, throw off debris signals picked up by a vast complex of detectors and the data is examined by banks of computers. The two separate CERN teams worked independently through that data, hunting for tiny divergences which might betray the existence of the new boson, a class of particle that includes the photon, associated with light. The class is named in honor of Albert Einstein's Indian collaborator Satyendra Nath Bose. Both teams found strong signals of the new particle at around 125 to 126 gigaelectron volts (GeV) - a unit of mass-energy.

That makes it some 130-140 times heavier than a proton. Scientists struggling to explain the theory have likened Higgs particles to a throng of paparazzi photographers; the greater the "celebrity" of a passing particle, the more the Higgs bosons get in its way and slow it down, imparting it mass; but a particle such as a photon of light is of no interest to the paparazzi and passes through easily - a photon has no mass. Presenting the results, Joe Incandela at CERN showed off two peaks on a graph of debris hitting the detectors, which he said revealed the hitherto unseen presence of the enigmatic particle. "That is what we are sure is the Higgs," a CERN scientist said. LESS THAN ONE IN A MILLION "It's a boson!" headlined Britain's Science and Technology Facilities Council in a statement on the role its researchers had played in the delivery of the "dramatic 5 sigma signal" for the existence of the long-sought particle.

Five sigma, a measure of probability reflecting a less than one in a million chance of a fluke in the data, is a widely accepted standard for scientists to agree the particle exists. "The fact that both our teams have independently come to the same results is very powerful," Oliver Buchmueller, a senior physicist on one of the research teams, told Reuters. "We know it is a new boson. But we still have to prove definitively that it is the one that Higgs predicted." "If I were a betting man, I would bet that it is the Higgs. But we can't say that definitely yet. It is very much a smoking duck that walks and quacks like the Higgs. But we now have to open it up and look inside before we can say that it is indeed the Higgs." Al-Khalili said the researchers' caution was extreme: "Cutting through all the jargon about sigmas and decay channels, the bottom line is that CERN have indeed discovered the Higgs boson," he said.

"In my view, if it looks like the Higgs, smells like the Higgs and is exactly what we expected from the Higgs, then it's the Higgs." UNIVERSAL THEORY The Higgs theory explains how particles clumped together to form stars, planets and life itself. Without the Higgs boson, the universe would have remained a formless soup of particles shooting around at the speed of light, the theory goes. It is the last undiscovered piece of the Standard Model that describes the fundamental make-up of the universe.

The model is for physicists what the theory of evolution is for biologists. What scientists do not yet know from the latest findings is whether the particle they have discovered is the Higgs boson as exactly described by the Standard Model. It could be a variant of the Higgs idea or an entirely new subatomic particle that could force a rethink on the fundamental structure of matter. The last two possibilities are, in scientific terms, even more exciting. Packed audiences of particle physicists, journalists, students and even politicians filled conference rooms in Geneva, London and a major physics conference in Melbourne, Australia, to hear the announcement.

Despite the excitement, physicists cautioned that there was still much to learn: "We have closed one chapter and opened another," said Peter Knight of Britain's Institute of Physics. Paul Nurse, president of Britain's science academy The Royal Society, said: "This is a big day for science and for human achievement ... Today moves us a step closer to a fuller understanding of the very stuff of which the universe is made." Higgs himself called it a great achievement for CERN's collider. Without it, his ideas would remain just a paper theory and he conceded that he personally was never cut out for laboratory experimentation: "I certainly did some lab work as a schoolboy in Bristol," he told Reuters. "I was incompetent."

Higgs 2012 = Geulah 5773?

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All Hail President Gog!

The Great Israeli - Russian Highway is being paved: It seems the bond is greater than people thought between the Soviets and the Israelites. (intended)

Would one one million Russians be wrong? (or not be used properly - by either side!?!) Advantage: Putin! [in Bibi's court of course; = Friendship! - and why not?]


Asiatimes.com:

The two-day state visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Israel next week will raise eyebrows. Plainly put, it comes a little too early in his presidency - he took over the office as recently as May 7 - but underscores the Russian leader's sense of priority regarding Russia-Israel relations. Its timing comes at a juncture when the two countries are apparently far apart with regard to critical issues of regional security in the Middle East - Syria and Iran - and it seems improbable that the hiatus could be bridged easily anytime soon. Yet, Putin is returning to Israel for a second visit after a gap of seven years, and he is after all a transactional, results-oriented politician. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would know for sure that Putin can be trusted to bargain hard to get the best results for Russia in any given situation, but he could also be a valuable partner, especially if United States President Barack Obama gets re-elected for a second term in the White House. The motivations on both sides - Moscow and Tel Aviv - are complex and although their priorities may vary, it stands to reason that Russia and Israel are also drawn together in a realization that a partnership between them could be beneficial and in their mutual interest by augmenting their leverage in more than one direction - and may even be a factor of regional stability in the Middle East.

What is often forgotten is that Putin always had a warm feeling toward Israel and is on record as saying as recently as the end of last year, "Israel is, in fact, a special state to us. It is practically Russian-speaking. Israel is one of the few foreign countries that can be called Russian-speaking. It's obvious that more than half of the population speaks Russian." The ostensible reason for his state visit next week is to inaugurate a memorial at Netanya to the Red Army's victory over Nazi Germany. The memorial itself has come up as a result of Netanyahu's state visit to Moscow in 2010, when he agreed with Putin (then prime minister) that Israel should commemorate the Red Army's sacrifices. Netanyahu said at that time, "The memorial will express the great appreciation that we feel for the Russian people. Many Jewish Red Army veterans currently live among us, here in Israel. The memorial on the shores of Netanya will also symbolize their contribution and heroism." Putin is also, in a manner of speaking, undertaking a "private" visit to Israel. Paradoxically, while the US is considered Israel's close ally, Obama himself isn't a terribly popular figure in Israel; on the other hand, while Israel harbors misgivings bordering on disquiet about many of Russia's policies in the Middle East and considers them at times to be unfriendly and unhelpful, the high level of Putin's personal popularity among the Israelis should be a cause for envy for Obama. The point is, the million strong Russian-speaking Jewish emigrants from the territories of the former Soviet Union have integrated well into Israeli society and hold important positions in Israel's national life.

They constitute a humanitarian, cultural and economic bridge between Israel and Russia. Having said that, politics is a big divider and the main template of Putin's forthcoming visit is going to be over Syria and Iran. Briefly put, Israel and Russia find themselves in opposite camps over both those countries. Russia is opposed to foreign intervention in Syria, while the Israeli hand keeps popping up apparently fomenting violence there - the latest reports mention Israeli aircraft ferrying weapons to Kurdistan in northern Iraq (which were procured by Qatar for the use of the Syrian rebels). For its part, Israel resents Russia's military cooperation with the Syrian regime. Prima facie, it may seem there is no meeting point on Syria. But then, Russia and Israel would also have a convergence of interests in the overall stability of what is Israel's northern neighbor. Russia would apparently have more by way of shared concern with Israel than the US would have in regard of the rise of Islamism in the Middle East. While in the short-term Israel might regard a regime change in Syria as a gratifying development, it cannot but remain concerned that there could be a domino effect of any Muslim Brotherhood triumphed there. (Interestingly, Putin is heading for Jordan after his visit to Israel.)

This brings up a core aspect of Russia's "intransigence" with regard to the Syrian situation. While Western commentators look at Syria being a "client state" of Russia, they blithely overlook Russia's fear that ascendancy of radical Islam in Syria can easily spread to its extended neighborhood in Central Asia and the North Caucasus. Of course, Russia will never allow itself to frontally articulate these Manichean fears (lest it is pushed into an existential struggle vis-a-vis militant Islam), and the nearest it could come would be such as when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey wrote in an article titled "On the Right Side of History" in the Huffington Post last week: The Arab revolutions clearly show a willingness to go back to the roots of civilization that reveals itself in broad public support for the parties and movements acting under the flag of Islam. ... Such a situation is further proof that the simple (if not simplistic) binary construction of the Cold War period, described in the paradigms of East-West, capitalism-socialism, North-South, is being replaced by a multidimensional geopolitical reality. ... In practical terms, Lavrov explained, what it amounts to in the Syrian situation could have grave implications for both Russia and Israel: What seems to prevail ... are attempts to bring about regime change in Damascus as an element of a larger regional geopolitical game.

These schemes are undoubtedly targeting Iran, since a large group of States, including the USA and NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] countries, Israel, Turkey and some States of the region appear to be interested in weakening that country's regional positions. An attempt to cut the Gordian knot of long-standing problems is doomed to failure. ... Irrespective of the situation concerning Iran, however, it is evident that fueling intra-Syrian strife may trigger processes that would affect the situation in the vast territory surrounding Syria in the most negative way, having a devastating impact on both regional and international security. Risk factors include loss of control over [the] Syrian-Israeli border, a worsening of the situation in Lebanon and other countries in the region, weapons falling into the "wrong hands", including those terrorist organizations, and perhaps the most dangerous of all, an aggravation of inter-faith tensions and contradictions inside the Islamic world."

Whether Putin succeeds or not in nudging Netanyahu's thought processes in the above direction, he can be expected to give it his best shot. The high probability is that Putin may not succeed in this mission. His "meaningful" conversation with Obama on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Mexico on Monday would have brought home that the US and its allies are already so far gone into the business of forcing a regime change in Syria that there is no easy turning back at this point. Again, the prospect of a "weakening" of Syria on the Middle Eastern chessboard in itself becomes a heady thought for Israel in the prevailing circumstances, and it may put a blinker on it from pondering what lies beyond, despite being so obviously challenged already by the victories of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and elsewhere in its Arab neighborhood. Ironically it may be an easier task for Putin to persuade Netanyahu to give negotiations a chance to resolve the Iran issue. Russian diplomacy worked hard in recent weeks to see that the P5+1 [the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany] talks with Iran in Moscow on Monday didn't end up in a catastrophic failure. Talks between Iran and the P5+1 on Iran's nuclear program were suspended due to what European Union foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton said were "significant gaps between ... the two positions."

An "expert-level meeting" would be held on July 3 in Istanbul, Ashton said, with a high-level meeting to follow at an unspecified date, depending on the progress of the expert-level meeting, RFE reported. If the talks finally ended on a hopeful tone on Tuesday, much of the credit would go to the behind-the-scenes Russian (and Chinese) effort. The fact that the talks are going into a third round - in Beijing or Astana - is itself a breakthrough. Beyond that, to quote the chief Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili, the Moscow talks were "more serious, more real and beyond a mere statement of positions". Jalili is on record as saying that "Iran has no problem with transparency" - hinting that it is open to international verification - and is prepared to prove its peaceful program "technically, legally and politically". But he said, Iran's "right to access peaceful nuclear energy, particularly uranium enrichment and nuclear fuel production cycle should be recognized." It is unlikely Putin would get into detailed negotiations, but he could lend a big hand to restrain Israel from taking any precipitate action in the critical weeks ahead. Of course, the most fascinating part of the visit might come if Putin and Netanyahu get around to exchanging notes on how they weigh the prospects of their countries' relations with the US in the event of Obama securing a second term. If the body language of the Putin-Obama meeting at Mexico on Monday was anything to go by, the two leaders are at some distance away from striking the chord of a friendship. Netanyahu of course has been a victim of Obama's "tough love" and often seemed uncomfortable with the experience .

2nd Time is the charm!
-Gog and Armilos!
[At least a Bechina?]

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Gog Luvva! (Maybe?)

Putin coming to Israel: Ok, think Zohar, Gog, and the famed 3 visits upon which will terminate with a burial and Moshiach ben David!
[Putin does seem like a candidate for our elected Nasi: Gog]

Jpost:

Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning to make his first official visit to Israel since 2005, although the exact date for the visit has not yet been determined, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. News of Putin's expected visit came as Russia was the center of controversy for its continued support of Syrian President Bashar Assad, despite his brutal crackdown on dissenters. In addition, Russia has been seen as an impediment to harsher international action against Iran for its continued pursuit of nuclear technology. Putin has warned of the dire consequences of a potential Israeli or US attack on the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities. Related: Putin warns against 'catastrophic' attack on Iran Putin: We support 'peaceful' Iranian nuke program Foreign Minster Avigdor Liberman met with Putin in Moscow in December amid reports that Russia had delivered Yaknot cruise missiles to Syria, despite US and Israeli lobbying against the move. According to a communiqué put out by Liberman’s office following the December meeting, he told Putin that Israel and Russia had different positions on a range of issues, from the diplomatic process with the Palestinians to current developments in the region, but that he hoped Israel’s position on matters such as Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas would get a hearing in Moscow. Regarding the Palestinian issue, Liberman said Russia’s support for unilateral Palestinian moves does not bring an agreement closer or improve relations between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel’s position is that the type of support Russia has articulated for the PA’s moves at the UN only increase the Palestinians’ belief that they can get the world to impose a solution on Israel, thus making it more difficult to lure them to return to the negotiating table. With that, Liberman said ties between the countries are “very positive” 20 years after the renewal of diplomatic relations between them, and that this was manifest in an ongoing political dialogue, in economic and cultural ties and in keeping alive the memory of the Holocaust. Liberman extended an invitation to Putin from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who was last in Moscow in early 2010. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev had planned to visit Israel in January 2011, but had to suffice with meeting Palestinian Authority officials in Jericho, where he arrived for a few hours from Jordan, because a Foreign Ministry work dispute prevented a full state visit to Jerusalem.

On the flip side: don't forget about my Putin secret ties with Russian Elect/KGB/Mob of Israel concept. He is either very in with Israel, or so in, he is Gog..one of the two.

It's all in the connections...is this the beginning of the Gilui of the Bias Moshiach?

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