This first article comes from Front Page Magazine, and represents a major development. We can easily see how Israel is increasingly surrounded by her enemies exactly as foretold by the prophet Zechariah:




Islamic State at Israel’s Gate





Jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) are carrying on the rocket war against Israeli civilians from where Hamas left off. Following several rocket attacks in the last several weeks for which the Islamic State has taken credit, rockets launched from Gaza Thursday night exploded in the Ashkelon area.

Israel is still holding Hamas responsible for the attacks as the governing authority in Gaza.

“The IDF understands that Hamas wants quiet and is making an effort to prevent the shooting, but the State of Israel still sees Hamas as responsible for what happens in Gaza,” said Sami Turgeman, head of IDF’s Southern Command.

The Israeli military responded with measured attacks on Hamas facilities, while at the same time trying to avoid setting off a wider war at this time.  But Israel’s hand is being forced by the Islamic State, which is evidently working assiduously to supplant Hamas as the authoritative Islamic power in Gaza. The Gaza branch calls itself the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade. It is cooperating with another ISIS-affiliated group operating in the Sinai Peninsula, which calls itself Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis.

According to a June 8th report, “Islamic State operatives in the Gaza Strip have been helping themselves to Hamas rockets in recent weeks after furtively penetrating the factory teams operating the group’s production and assembly lines… The jihadis then secretly passed the stolen rockets to their squads for launching against Israel.”

“The terror infrastructure Hamas built over many years in Sinai has been taken over by ISIS, and its control of the Gaza Strip is slipping, as yet more radical and violent organizations eat away at its authority and seize control of the rocket offensive against Israel.”

The Islamic State is also trying to position itself to challenge Israel from the north. Israeli TV Channel 2 reported last week that the Islamic State is moving forces in the direction of the Golan Heights and the Israeli border.

Moreover, ISIS is developing an increasing presence within Israel itself. Recruits, influenced by ISIS’s slick social media promotions, are attracted to ISIS’s self-declared purer Islamic ideology. Hamas is apparently too “moderate” for these jihadists’ tastes.

“Dozens of Israeli Arabs and Palestinians have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join insurgent groups.” Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency said in a statement released last January 4th. Israel had announced that it managed to crack one Islamic State cell on its soil and arrested its alleged members. An Israeli security official described the cell as “just the tip of the iceberg.”

Last July, the Islamic State previewed its intentions in a statement that it issued regarding jihad against Israel:


As for the massacres taking place in Gaza against the Muslim men, women and children, then the Islamic State will do everything within its means to continue striking down every apostate who stands as an obstacle on its paths towards Palestine. It is only [a] matter of time and patience before it (Islamic State) reaches Palestine to fight the barbaric Jews and kill those of them hiding behind the gharqad trees – the trees of the Jews.


Arutz Sheva reported that a spokesperson for the Islamic State, Nidal Nuseiri, urged patience as the Islamic State wanted first to consolidate its control over Arab Muslim lands, but “reaffirmed that conquering ‘Bayt el-Maqdis’ (Jerusalem) and destroying the State of Israel is central to the group’s jihad.” Thanks to President Obama’s dithering, the Islamic State is well on its way to achieving such consolidation in Iraq and Syria, while spreading to Libya.

At least three questions arise from the emergence of ISIS as a direct threat to Israel. Will Israeli military and security forces, either on their own or in concert with Jordan and Egypt, take on ISIS directly, including going after ISIS’s command and control centers with far more firepower than the Obama administration has used thus far?

All this is happening while the Obama administration, by the president’s own admission, has no clear strategy to defeat ISIS. At the same time, President Obama’s “strategy” to deal with Iran is to make concession after concession in order to secure any nuclear deal he can, including the possibility of providing Iran with relief from sanctions that were imposed for non-nuclear related reasons such as Iran’s support for terrorist activities.

In short, Israel is facing Iran-backed Hamas from the south, Iran-backed Hezbollah from the north, and an expanding Islamic State presence north and south of Israel and within Israel itself. And that is before Iran gets its hands on a nuclear bomb and the Islamic State has enough radioactive material to build its own weapons of mass destruction.








The Ministry of Health and Welfare Thursday sealed off two hospitals for the first time in the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) to prevent the kind of mass infections that came out of Pyeongtaek St. Mary’s Hospital and Samsung Medical Center.

Mediheal Medical Center in Seoul and Changwon SK Hospital in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, have been sealed off from the world. Patients and staff can’t leave and no one can enter or visit the facilities.

Each of the staff gave care to patients who were considered highly infectious. 

The government is also considering sealing off more hospitals visited by Patient No. 90, who was also infected at Samsung Medical Center by Patient No. 14. Patient No. 90, who began to exhibit symptoms from June 3, visited two hospitals in Okcheon, North Chungcheong, and died at the intensive care unit of Eulji University Hospital in Daejeon on Wednesday. About 30 patients in its intensive care unit are being isolated as a precaution.

The Health Ministry also announced a detailed plan for “safe hospitals” on Thursday after Health Minister Moon Hyung-pyo had a discussion with the Korea Medical Association, Korean Hospital Association and directors of major hospitals. Safe hospitals are medical facilities that completely separate respiratory disease patients from other patients.

“Designating safe hospitals aims to treat MERS patients separately and minimize MERS infections at the same time,” Moon said. 





Bird flu might have found its way to Arizona.
The Department of Agriculture is investigating the state's first potential cases of avian influenza.
The birds in question -- 13 quail and chickens and about 40 quail and partridge eggs -- were shipped from Iowa, which is one of several states where bird flu has been confirmed. It was first detected there in April and has affected more than 30.7 million birds so far. Iowa has the most reported bird flu detections -- 74, as of this writing -- and the largest number of affected birds in the U.S.
According to the Department of Agriculture birds at the Iowa facility became sick a short time after the Arizona-bound shipment left the site. The initial test results were positive for H5 avian influenza.
The Iowa birds and eggs went to properties in Pinal, Mohave, Santa Cruz and Yavapai counties. Those facilities are under quarantine. The birds will be tested for bird flu, but the result could take up to six months.









A Russian fighter jet, flying at high speed, came within 10 feet of a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the Black Sea late last month, several U.S. officials told CNN Thursday.
The Russian jet flew alongside the U.S. plane at the same altitude, broke off, and then shadowed the plane before leaving the area in the May 30 incident, the officials said. The U.S. aircraft took no evasive measures, and no other details were immediately available. Military officials could not say whether a diplomatic protest had been filed.
The close call comes weeks after another incident between the U.S. and Russia over the skies of Europe, when a U.S. RC-135U flying a routine route in international airspace was intercepted by a Russian SU-27 Flanker in what authorities called an "unsafe and unprofessional manner."
And earlier this month, the U.S. Navy took the unusual step of releasing video of Russian Su-24 aircraft flying past the right side of the guided missile destroyer USS Ross in the Black Sea.
The video was distributed to make clear that the airplanes and ship had a routine encounter, contrary to Russian reports. It shows a warplane approaching from the distance and then quickly zooming past the American vessel.



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