The 17th of Tammuz is the beginning of 21 days of sorrow

Koenig's Eye View from the White House, has a good understanding of what this means...

Today is the 17th of Tammuz:
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia coming to the White House
this afternoon to meet with Obama on God's covenant land

Obama's afternoon schedule:
Meeting on the largest oil spill in U.S. history
and a meeting with the largest oil producer in the world

12:00 PM - Obama receives a briefing on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill
1:05 PM - Obama has a working lunch with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
2:10 PM - Obama holds a meeting with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia


Thomas W. Lippman: Most important subject on the Obama-Abdullah
agenda is Israel and the Palestinians two-state solution:

From Thomas W. Lippman who the adjunct senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of several books, "Inside the Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership with Saudi Arabia."

According to American officials, the most important subject on the agenda is the faltering effort to forge a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians based on the two-state solution. Obama has repeatedly stated a commitment to that objective -- most recently after a meeting earlier this month with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas -- and for a while after the Cairo speech the Saudis believed he would actually make something happen. They no longer believe, because in their view Obama backed down in the face of Israeli intransigence on his demand for a complete halt in settlement activity in the occupied territories.

They still prefer Obama to his predecessor, but their impatience and disillusionment were readily apparent in conversations with officials and analysts in Riyadh third month. The dissatisfaction was reflected in a stinging speech delivered to an audience of diplomats and journalists by Prince Turki Al Faisal, former ambassador to the United States, who said the United States has forfeited the "moral high ground" in the Middle East through "negligence, ignorance and arrogance."

The 17th of Tammuz is the beginning of 21 days of sorrow

The fast days of 17 Tammuz and 9 Av, and the time between them, commemorate the tragic process of the destruction of the two Holy Temples in Jerusalem. The fast of the 17th of Tammuz, the day of the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem, marks the beginning of the "Three Weeks." The Three Weeks is a period of mourning over these destructions, and the fast of the 9th of Av commemorates the day of the actual destruction by fire of the Holy Temple.The Three Weeks, for the year 5770/ 2009-2010, begin on June 29, 2010 (17th of Tammuz), and continue through July 20, 2010 (9th of Av). (http://www.torah.org/learning/yomtov/3weeks)

Alex to Become a Hurricane Before Hitting Texas or Mexico Tropical Storm Alex is expected to strengthen into a hurricane as it tracks northwestward across the western Gulf of Mexico over the next few days. The storm has a good chance of reaching Category 2 status by Wednesday due to favorably light winds in the upper atmosphere and a path over warm waters.

This will make Alex the first June hurricane since Allison in 1995.





http://www.watch.org/

Destruction of First Temple Commemorated with Day of Fasting
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/138323