Learn what will happen during the tribulation period from beginning to end
Your comments and questions are always welcome. To send comments and questions please click here to go to our main page. January 9th, 2002 (CBS) The Bush administration has concluded the Palestinian Authority and the Fatah faction of the PLO were involved in an abortive scheme to smuggle in 50 tons of weapons, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday. "We had some pretty extensive briefings with an Israeli intelligence team today and feel the case is very compelling that senior Palestinian Authority figures and Fatah people were involved with this shipment," a senior U.S. official told Reuters. While not saying Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat initiated the shipment, he said it was apparent that arranging for the shipment involved "decisions and actions of such a nature that one would assume they would have to have been made at the highest level." Arafat also heads the Palestine Liberation Organization's Fatah faction. A senior Israeli security official said Arafat was deeply involved in the operation, and he made that case to the administration on Wednesday. Based on the Israeli briefings, the Bush administration believes Arafat may have been in a position to know about at least some aspects of the operation, the official said. He offered no evidence. Israeli naval commandos seized the ship in the Red Sea last Thursday and confiscated 50 tons of rockets, C4 and TNT explosives, anti-tank weapons and other arms Israel said were supplied by Iran. A senior Israeli security official said Wednesday members of Hezbollah, a guerrilla group that is fighting a low-level cross-border conflict with Israel from Lebanon, loaded the weapons, with an estimated value of $10 million, at Kish, an island off the Iranian coast, Dec. 11. The official, who also spoke only on condition of anonymity, said two senior Palestinian officials involved in finance and naval activities played leading roles, along with a top Hezbollah official. He said the plot was hatched last June and continued through a series of diplomatic efforts by the United States to establish a lasting cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians. Initially, the State Department withheld a judgment on Israel's allegations, then gradually credited some of the evidence. Wednesday's presentation by Israeli intelligence officials to the administration produced the U.S. judgment that members of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah were involved. (www.cbs.com) Arafat is on the international hot seat once again, and I believe that he will once and for all have to come to terms with Israel at some point in the near future. Something we should keep in mind as we come toward peace and signs of stability in the Middle East; a ceasefire is not peace. Until the antichrist comes on the scene and signs a seven-year peace plan with Israel, the tribulation period will not begin. What am I saying? Even if Palestine and Israel do decide to peacefully co-exist, the rest of the Arab world will still be a threat. This future peace plan will have to satisfy the whole Arab world to be of any lasting value. I believe that some very deep concessions will have to be made by both sides, which may include splitting Jerusalem down the middle. Of course, in return, one of the major Arab concessions will be to allow the Jewish temple to be rebuilt right next to the Dome of the Rock. Pastor Malone