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Major US Shift in Israeli support is by Politicians, not the Public!

May 8, 2007

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Support among the legal citizens of the United States for Israel is still very strong, but the Democrats, and at times the Republicans, seem determined to NOT follow the desires of its electorate on certain issues like illegal immigration. I believe politici ans, over the next two ye

ars, are likely to cause even the US public to take a nosedive in its support for the State of Israel.

The fear of many Americans of a really major war in the Middle East, and the price of great loss of American lives on foreign soil is making, what I suspect is the last generation, to draw into an antiwar shell, which they consider the safest path for America. At present, this nosedive of public support for Israel has not occurred, but the recent “no foreign war policy” advocated by the democratically controlled Congress, will eventually produce it.

I am NOT saying the desire to logistically supply Israel with all the weaponry she needs to fight a war will nosedive – It may even grow. But once our troops are pulled out of Iraq, it will take an act of Congress to get them back, and pardon my English, but Hell will freeze over before that happens.

The Political mess and maze of confusion in “what do we do next,” in Congress and in the Knesset, shows no signs of clearing up.

However, at the same time, Syria, Iran, Hamas, and Hizbullah, are not as confused as to what to do next.

Please forgive me if I seem too blasted critical – I assure you I probably couldn’t do any better. One of the greatest things about believing that the Bible is the inspired word of God is in knowing how all this mess is going to turn out no matter what action is taken by anyone. None of this mess, and the terrible conflict the Scriptures say will come out of it, bother me in the least because I have rest in the great promise of the Messiah.

Matthew 11:28 – Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

II Thessalonians 1:7-10 – And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, [8] In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: [9] Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; [10] When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.

Zechariah 14:8,9 – And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. [9] And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one.

Romans 2:28,29 – For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: [29] But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

John 5:39-41 – Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. [40] And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. [41] I receive not honour from men.

John 5:24 – Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

The unstable situation in the political structure of Israel’s Knesset is not likely to get much better for some time, and I believe the same is true in our own Congress. The US Secretary of State’s cancellation of her trip to Israel was tied

to the political situation.

Condoleezza Rice cancels visit to Israel

THE JERUSALEM POST

May 7, 2007

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has cancelled a trip to Israel planned for next week due to the unstable political situation in Israel, the Foreign Ministry confirmed late Monday night.

Rice w as scheduled to meet with Isr

aeli and Palestinian leaders following a stop-off in Moscow.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday that the cancellation would not get in the way of US efforts to move forward with Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

“It’s a change in plans, yes,” McCormack admitted, but added that the US would “continue efforts to advance the Israeli-Palestinian track.”

“The political situation in Israel has become a bit more complex in the near term,” said McCormack.

Tension has risen between government officials following the release of the Winograd’s interim report into the Second Lebanon War. Many government officials have called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to step down.

On Thursday, 150,000 people participated in a mass demonstration at Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square in an attempt to get Olmert and his government

to resign.

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Political Turmoil in Washington and Jerusalem is shifting Policies!

May 7, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

If, in the seventies, anyone had ever told me we would one day shift our foreign policy to a sort of “yes, we are your friend, and we have all these peace plans to straighten out your mess, but when the going gets tough, we wish you the best of luck,” then I would have laughed in their face.

I AM NOT LAUGHING ANYMORE!

The turbulent eruption of Islamic fanaticism in the midst of the world’s strategic oil reserves, and its worldwide spread, has created not only political turmoil in Muslim capitals, but in Jerusalem and Washington. I do not believe I have never seen such political turmoil and confusion between the membership of the political parties in the Israel Knesset and in the American Congress.

The world situation is headed toward a fulfillment of a great deal of end time prophecy, and the situation in Jerusalem and Washington is going to show even greater shifts in policy. We are not far away from the end of the Age of the Gentiles, and nothing will stop the fulfillment of the following Scriptures.

Revelation 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
Daniel 7:24,25 – And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. [25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

Zechariah 13:8,9 – And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord,

two parts therein

shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. [9] And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.

Romans 11:25,26 – For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. [26] And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

Daniel 7:26,27 – But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. [27] And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.

Zechariah 14:8,9 – And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. [9] And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one.

The only advice I can offer to our Congress and President, both for now, and until this final Age of the Gentiles ends, whether or not it is controlled by a democrat or republican administration, is contained in the following two Scriptures. DO NOT ABANDON ISRAEL.

Genesis 12:1-3 – Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: [2] And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: [3] And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Zechariah 2:8-13 –For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me

unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. [9] For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me. [10] Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. [11] And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee,

and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee.

[12] And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again.

[13] Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.

Barry Rubin and Caroline Glick are two of the finest writers on Middle East politics, as it relates to past, present, and future events in that area.

Her article, in our last blog, and his, which follows, provides the reader a good analysis of the Middle East present and future scenario.

The Region: Bipartisan betrayal

Barry Rubin, THE JERUSALEM POST

May 6, 2007

In politics it’s not just what you do; it’s also how others react to it. That does not mean one should not act because of how it will be perceived elsewhere, only that that factor should certainly be taken into consideration.

Last month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and several other Democrats visited Syria. They spoke respectfully of that country’s government but made not one public statement condemning Syria’s sponsorship of terrorists in Iraq, Lebanon and Israel; nor did they take any strong position – as far as is known, either publicly or privately – in defense of Syrian dissidents.

The visit stirred a great deal of attention, but the TV cameras turned off once the visitors departed and did not notice what happened next.

My new book, “The Truth About Syria”, explains how the regime’s nature makes its radicalism, intransigence and support for terrorism inevitable. Basically, since the regime cannot offer either freedom or material betterment in order to survive, it must provide demagoguery and extremism.

To give its people, the majority of whom are Sunni Muslims suspicious of their Alawite, non-Muslim rulers, some reason to support its regime Syria needs to portray itself as Islamist, and as the great champion against the West and Israel.

Without these pillars it would crumble.

The country’s rulers understand this fact very well. The Iran-Syria alliance is not some mistake on the part of either party, from which they can be won away, but a profound expression of their strategy and interests.

AT THE SAME time as Syria is a terrific case study of how Arab dictatorships work – and why they stay in power – it is also a wonderful example of how the West usually lets them get away with behavior which would not be tolerated elsewhere in the world. After all, fighting terrorism is a central pillar of Western policy. Yet Syria is world champion in the terrorism league and the main emphasis heard today in Western debate is how Damascus must be engaged, trusted and offered concessions.

Indeed, the Pelosi visit convinced the Syrian regime and people that President Bashar Assad is on the right track and need make no concessions regarding his adventurous policy. Many Syrians agree with what one Damascus resident told an American reporter: Visits and calls for rapprochement with Syria prove that Bashar “was right not to make concessions.”

Muhammad Mamoun Homsi, a leading Syrian democratic dissident, was sentenced to five years imprisonment in 2001. Released on condition that he shut up, Homsi left the country. He urged Pelosi not to go to Syria.

By the way, while Pelosi was in Damascus, the Syrian government froze Homsi’s personal assets. And once the delegation left, the regime began a wave of arrests. Anwar al-Bunni was quickly given five years in jail.

Bunni and five other imprisoned dissidents – including the well-known journalist Michel Kilo, and Kamal Labwani, arrested on returning to Syria from a White House visit – smuggled out a letter urging, “The detainees should feel that they are not alone… and that there is hope for a peaceful resolution of the crisis of freedoms and human rights in Syria.” But they, and the authorities roughing them up, know they are alone.

YET THIS is no partisan issue. The ide a of eng

aging Syria was launched by a Republican, James Baker, in the Iraq study group report. Now it is being taken up by his protege Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who met recently with the Syrian foreign minister at a conference on Iraq. She similarly undermined the US-initiated boycott of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority by meeting that government’s (non-Hamas) finance minister who is trying to raise funds to finance the Hamas regime.

In practical terms, these meetings don’t amount to much. But in impact they are a disaster. How can the US expect Europeans to hold the line when it does not do so? What is the message sent to the brave Lebanese government and those who risk their lives by opposing Hizbullah’s efforts to dominate the country and by maintaining Lebanon’s independence from Syria and Iran?

Answer: Give up. You can expect no Western help. Or, in William Shakespeare’s phrase, “Despair and die.”

THIS DOES NOT mean that the old strategy of democracy promotion was right. Realpolitik is necessary. The West needs to engage less radical Arab states as allies in the battle against the Iran-Syria-Hizbullah-Ham

as alliance. Still, that does not mean it is right to abandon the liberal dissidents to appease the less extremist regimes and, at the same time, undermine these governments in order to suck up to the radicals.

The saddest story stemming from selling out the Arab democrats is an interview with the Atlas Shrugs blog by the remarkable Egyptian blogger who calls himself “Sandmonkey,” where he announced that he will no longer write because the police are closing in on him.

The US government, he explains, has dropped pressure on Egypt “because the American public is not interested in reforming the Middle East because of what’s going on in Iraq.” So now the Egyptian government is expanding repression.

“People that were vocal before are censoring themselves big time.” The regime is arresting non-violent dissidents as terrorists and suing other critics for “defaming Egypt’s reputation.”

No wonder a reader of the Beirut to Beltway blog wrote, in reacting to the Winograd report that harshly criticized Israeli leaders over their conduct of the 2005 war against Hizbullah, “God is smiling on the Israelis when he gives them discernment to get rid of their buffoons, while we are saddled with ours forever.”

The writer is director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center at IDC Herzliya.

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Summary – We Will Leave Israel holding the Bag!

May 7, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

I am a secular synoptic analyst, but also a believer that the Old and New Testament prophecies are God breathed. Therefore, I do not exceed the boundaries placed upon me by biblical prophecies.

The Scriptures did not indicate that any other nation would save Israel from being driven into the Negev Wilderness and remaining there for three and one half years. Therefore I was bound by that premise which must be true. But I was able to conclude biblically that the United States would help Israel, but would not get involved in a land war to defend her. I made those conclusions from the Scriptures. Oddly enough, as I have been able to observe the interactions between the United States and Israel while a part of the NSA, and afterwards by information from numerous sources for the last 36 years, I could see the secular side of me was reaching the same conclusion as an analyst that I had reached in the late sixties and early seventies from the Scriptures. We will not fight alongside Israel on the ground in a Middle East War. Assist her – Yes! Deliver her – No! What politicians consider to be in our NATIONAL INTEREST will cause them to let Islamic forces drive Israel out of that section of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, and she will remain for three and one-half years in the Negev from Beersheba to Elat.

I have always believed we should have let Israel decide what was the best path to take in the Middle East, and then followed her lead, giving her assistance as she requested it.

And I certainly wish we would fight alongside her in a fully committed ground war, ho

wever, I have never believed we would commit to a full scale, all-out, defense of Israel.

I agree with the article written by Caroline Glick, and I fear we are going to bail out on Israel, draw within a protective shell built by poll following politicians, and stand by protesting when she is overrun by an Islamic Jihad hoard. Stupid is as stupid does! We will pay a price if we do leave Israel holding the bag! I believe God will hold us accountable as a nation for failing to do so.

Deuteronomy 32:9,10 – For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. [10] He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.

Psalm 17:8 – Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,

Genesis 12:1-3 – Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: [2] And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: [3] And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

The article written by Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post is right on target.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article

Column One: The fruits of Hizbullah’s victory

Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST

May 4, 2007

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice strikes an eerie resemblance to her predecessor Madeleine Albright these days. Rice’s visit to Egypt, where she jumped at the chance to meet with her Syrian counterpart and spoke dreamily of her desire to meet with an Iranian official with direct ties to Iran’s dictator Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called to mind Albright’s boogie-woogie with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il in the waning days of the Clinton administration.

In Sharm e-Sheikh, Rice is clearly looking for a way to forge a US surrender of Iraq to its nemeses Iran and Syria. So it is that American commanders in Iraq are barred from noting publicly that the Iranian and Syrian governments are directing the war and killing their soldiers.

Rice’s embrace of surrender extends to her position on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Rice and her State Department colleagues oppose both striking Iran’s nuclear installations and providing assistance to regime opponents inside Iran who seek to overthrow the regime in order to prevent the mullahs from acquiring nuclear weapons. All they want to do is negotiate with the ayatollahs. They have no other policy.

So too, in recent months the US has embraced the Palestinians. Although the speaker of the Palestinian legislature Ahmad Bahar just made a televised appeal to Allah to kill every Jew and American on earth, Rice insists on transferring $59 million in US taxpayer money to the Palestinian security forces. So too, last week the State Department dictated a list of security concessions that Israel must make to the Palestinians over the next eight months regardless of whether the Palestinians themselves cease their attacks on Israel, or for that matter, regardless of whether the Palestinians maintain their commitment to annihilating the Israel and the US.

Rice’s shepherding of the US to strategic defeat against

the jihadists in the Middle East extends to Africa as well. In Somalia, the US now supports the unity government in spite of the fact that the Al-Qaida-backed Islamic Courts Union is a member of the government.

So too, Rice’s embrace of failure extends to Asia where she accepted a nuclear armed North Korea and even agreed to give Pyongyang money.

Rice’s uncontested control of US foreign policy is one of the ancillary results of the Second Lebanon War last summer.

Israel was not the only loser in that war. Its stalwart allies in Washington, who battled Rice and her State Department colleagues in support of an Israeli victory, also lost. Those supporters, commonly referred to as the neoconservatives, were led by their chief, President George W.

Bush.

The Second Lebanon War placed the true nature of

the global jihad in stark relief. By waging a proxy war with Israel through Hizbullah and the Palestinians simultaneously, Iran and Syria demonstrated clearly that the war against Israel is not a unique war, but rather a key battleground of the global jihad whose forces are fighting the US and its allies in Iraq, Afghanistan and throughout the world. More than any war before, the Second Lebanon War demonstrated Israel’s vital importance as a US ally. And Israel’s decision not to fight that war to victory played a key role in the neoconservatives’ defeat by Rice and the Washington establishment.

Today, Israel is immersed in a political maelstrom in the aftermath of Monday’s publication of the interim report of the Winograd Committee’s investigation of the war. Although it is impossible to know at this juncture how things will pan out, the identities and goals of the competing forces are already clear.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will not leave office voluntarily, and his party and most of his coalition partners will back him in his fight to retain control of the government.

The Labor Party, and the Left in general are trying to reenact their political maneuvers in the wake of the collapse of the peace process at the Camp David Summit in 2000. Those maneuvers kept the Left in power with its peace narrative intact.

As is the case today, in 2000 the public demanded an accounting by the government after its leftist ideology brought about a collapse of the peace process and the onset of the Palestinian terror war. Rather than respect the public’s demand, the Left joined forces with then Likud chairman Ariel Sharon to block general elections. Together they placed all the blame for the failure of the Camp David summit on Ehud Barak, and formed a new unity government led jointly by Shimon Peres and Sharon.

Today, as then, the Left seeks to place all the blame for its ideological failure in Lebanon and Gaza on Olmert and to replace him with his deputy Shimon Peres. MK Ami Ayalon, the frontrunner to become the next Labor party chief, stated this outright on Tuesday.

As was the case in 2000, so too today, the Right, led by Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu, is having a hard time figuring out how to force the Knesset to do the people’s bidding and call new elections. Today, as then, the Right does not have the votes in Knesset to win a no-confidence vote against the government that would foment new elections.

The Winograd Report is not the cause of the current storm. The current storm is a direct continuation of the public protests which erupted immediately after last summer’s war ended so abysmally. It was the formation of the Winograd Committee that suspended those protests. And it was the completion of its interim report that
unleashed them again this week.

The Winograd Report’s devastating critique of Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and former IDF chief of General Staff Dan Halutz for their incompetent management of the war is not particularly interesting. In pointing out their failures, the commission’s members did not tell us anything we didn’t know eight months ago.

Indeed, far from clarifying matters, the report’s concentration on the personal failures of the three men serves mainly to strengthen the Left’s push to place all the blame for the war’s dismal outcome on the personal incompetence of Israel’s leaders. This it does by deliberately ignoring the ideological and cognitive failure of the government and the Israeli establishment as a whole. It was this failure that led to the war and to its dismal outcome. In so constructing their inquiry, the Winograd Committee protected the narrative of the Israeli Left from public scrutiny and rejection.

At first glance the report reads like an ideological indictment. The commission wrote that a great portion of the blame for the lack of preparedness of both the government and the IDF was rooted in the belief that “the era of big wars had ended.” Yet that belief did not stand on its own. It is rooted in the Left’s peace ideology.

This ideology maintains that even if a country is forced to fight a war, the aim of the war is

to remain at the starting gate and give the enemy what it wants, not to defeat it. The belief that the era of wars is over stems directly from the Left’s ideological commitment to the belief that everyone is a potential negotiating partner.

The report demonstrates that from the outset of

the war, it was this view that informed the decisions of both the government and the IDF.

The report relates a notable exchange between Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Halutz during the cabinet meeting on July 12 when the decision to go to war was made. Livni asked Halutz, “What is victory?”
Halutz responded, “There is no victory here….What we need to do is to respond with a sufficiently strong reaction that will call the international forces to get involved and to intervene at the proper intervention points in order to place pressure on the right forces.” Livni testified before the commission that the next day the Foreign Ministry began preparing position papers setting out the government’s preferred end state: foreign forces on the border separating the IDF from an undefeated Hizbullah.

The Winograd Committee members’ adherence to the Left’s worldview comes across clearly in their praise for UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which set out the conditions for the cease-fire.

The report maintains, “Resolution 1701 and the processes that fostered it reflect some important achievements for Israel. Hizbullah isn’t sitting on the border, and its ability to initiate attacks on soldiers or northern communities has been significantly downgraded. It is possible that the decision, and the processes that engendered it, can provide an opening to positive regional developments.” By claiming 1701 an achievement, the Winograd Committee pulled the rug out from under the entire rationale of their criticism of the war. After all, the aim of war is to improve a state’s position vis-a-vis its enemy.

If Israel achieved this goal towards Hizbullah through Resolution 1701, then the rest of the report’s critique of Olmert, Peretz, Halutz and the rest of the government and military makes little sense. At the most they are guilty of bumbl ing Israel to victory rather than lead

ing us there in an orderly fashion. If 1701 was an achievement, then far from attacking them, the report should be applauding them.

The Winograd Report states repeatedly that the commission was formed due to the public’s sense that the war had been lost and its concomitant demand for an accounting by the government. Yet, the public’s sense of defeat is borne out by the text of Resolution 1701.

Resolution 1701 places Israel, a sovereign state, on the same level as Hizbullah, an illegal terrorist organization. The resolution gives international legitimacy to Hizbullah’s continued existence as an Iranian-run sub-national paramilitary organization in Lebanon. Indeed, it makes no mention of either Syria or Iran in whose service Hizbullah fought and at whose pleasure Hizbullah exists.

The international forces that Israel was so keen to see deployed along the border today serve as a buffer protecting Hizbullah from the IDF and allowing it to redeploy its forces in South Lebanon and rearm without fear of the IDF.

So what comes across most clearly in the Winograd Report is the committee members’ desire to ignore the fact that the Second Lebanon War was a war of ideas no less than a war on the battlefield. Last summer Israel had the opportunity to expose the truth about the nature of the war being fought against it. It had the opportunity to assert itself as a vital ally of the US. It had the chance to defeat the leftist narrative of peace which claims that there is no difference between the IDF and the terror forces attacking Israeli society and so there is no reason to seek to defeat them; and which claims that the war against Israel is not connected to the global jihad.

It is too early to know how the political drama now unfolding in Israel will pan out. But what Rice’s current misdirection of the war on all fronts, and the emboldening of Israel’s enemies and the forces of global jihad throughout the world show clearly is that last summer Israel lost two wars, not one. And if we wish to win the next war, replacing the government will be insufficient. We also need to dump the leftist narrative of peace which brought us both our current crop of failed leaders, and last summer’s defeat.

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For more detailed information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. You may use material originated by this site. However, if you wish to use any quoted copyrighted material from this site, which did not originate at this site, for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner from which we extracted it.

We Will Pay a Price if we do not Help Israel!

May 6, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Genesis 12:3 – And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

God has blessed the United States as the bastion of Christianity since it was first settled from shore to shore. A part of that blessing has been due to our willingness to stand with Israel, the apple of God’s eye, since the Balfour Resolution. We leave much to be desired as defenders of the true faith. The silent majority of the 20th century has become the vocal minority of the 21st century.

I do not believe we are going to be as keen to defend Israel as we were in the last century.

Deuteronomy 32:9,10 – For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. [10] He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.

Psalm 17:8 – Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,

Matthew 23:37-39 – O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! [38] Behold, your house is left unto

you desolate. [39] For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Micah 5:3,4 – Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. [4] And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of

the earth.

Genesis 12:1-3 – Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: [2] And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: [3] And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Zechariah 2:8-13 – For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. [9] For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me. [10] Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. [11] And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee. [12] And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again.

[13] Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord: for he is ra

ised up out of his holy habitation.

Ezekiel 38:13 – Sheba, and Dedan,

and the merch

ants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey

? to carry away silver and gold, to take

away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?

Verse 13 mentions three other descendants which were not mentioned previously as being among the horde that attacked Israel, namely, Sheba, Dedan, and Tarshish. Sheba and Dedan settled in the land we know as Saudi Arabia, later colonizing across the Red Sea in the horn we know today as Ethiopia. Tarshish is much harder to nail down to a specific location. The descendants of Tarshish were sea merchants who became the peoples of the Mediterranean Sea coast. The headquarters of the descendants of Tarshish is now generally accepted by most biblical authorities as a district in the south of Spain where the city of Tartessus once existed. The merchants of Tarshish scattered their descendants in village settlements along most of the coastal sections of Europe. I am persuaded that Europe represents the descendant offspring of Tarshish.

It is quite possible that God may look upon the rest of Western Civilization as being the offspring (descendants) of Europe (“the young lions thereof”). The countries of the New World became the “melting pot” of Europe. It is very interesting what Saudi Arabia, Europe, and the rest of Western Civilization have to say to Gog about his attack on Israel: “Art thou come to take a spoil? Hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? To carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?” This is no more or less than the perfect description of a diplomatic protest to Gog’s actions. When the anti-Christ and his armies roar south into Israel in a blitzkrieg lightning strike, the rest of the free world will protest, protest, protest – and do nothing about it. The anti-Christ will take Jerusalem within four days of his initial strike in the north, and within three weeks most of Israel will have fled into the Negev south of Beersheva, where she will remain for some three and one-half years.

Jerusalem will fall and only one-third of Israel’s population will make it safely into the Negev.

Zechariah 13:8 to 14:2 – And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. [9] And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.

[2] For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

Revelation 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

So I expect the only part that

the United States will play in this war will be to violently diplomatically protest, protest, protest, and then protest some more. I believe we will air lift many into the Negev to satisfy our NATIONAL INTEREST vested in our large Jewish population, and will continue to air lift all sorts of supplies into them for a long time. I believe we will not attack in order to prevent a massive outcry of American motherhood in a fantastic body bag count, which is not in the NATIONAL INTEREST, and the loss of Arab oil would most assuredly not be in our NATIONAL INTEREST.

One day, when I kept banishing around this term we identified as NATIONAL INTEREST in the agency, I was asked, just how would you define NATIONAL INTEREST. Now, this is not the agency definition, it is mine!

NATIONAL INTEREST IS WHAT WILL ALLOW A PARTY TO STAY IN OFFICE OR TO GET IN OFFICE. IT WAS NOT THAT WAY IN THE BEGINNING, BUT THAT’S THE WAY IT IS NOW, AND IT WILL STAY THAT WAY UNTIL JESUS RETURNS.

As long as American troops are in Iraq there will not be an attack launched against Israel by a large confederation of Islamic nations.
The Persians and Arabs have no desire to fight a war with America and Israel at the same time. It took us months to get our troops in place for both Operations Desert Storm and Iraq Freedom, and as long as they are in place in Iraq there will be no major attack against Israel.

Once we pull out, it will be only a short time before Israel is attacked in a massive Jihad. And there is no way under the heavens we would dare send them right back into the Middle East – It would be politically suicidal.

By the time American troops are pulled out of Iraq, support for the cause of Israel will have sunk to new levels and, for all practical purposes, the U.S. scream and shout with countless diplomatic protests and United Nations Resolutions, but will take no military action.

The fall of Jerusalem and Israel’s arrival in the Negev that, while we are protesting, it will have taken place. Then we will threaten military action and a truce line will be established from south of the Dead Sea across Beersheba to just south of the Gaza Strip.

Daniel 7:24,25 – And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. [25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

Only the God of both Jew and Gentile can fix the Middle East Problem!

May 6, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

The two articles which follow, one from the Palestinian Media Watch, and the second from the Jerusalem Post, give good credence to validity of our title statement.

Good Reasons why only Messiah can bring Peace at Armageddon!

Articles 1 and 2 Describe the Impossibility of the Middle East Problem!

There is a mindset among suicide bombers and executors in Islam that is now growing among the moderates. They justify it by saying it is not the murder of the innocent, but “resistance” against the occupiers. It is true that the Jews are occupiers of the land God give them through the blood line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel), but Islam’s Koran, written thousands of years after the Old Testament, claims the blood line goes from Abraham to Ishmael, and that they are the inheritors of the promised land.
I find no justification in the Koran itself that justifies the massive blood shedding associated with decapitation of kidnapped captives and killing of innocent civilians associated with homicide bombings.

Judgment is coming for these acts of ungodly horror.

Genesis 15:18 – In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

Genesis 28:10-19 – And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran. [11] And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.

[12] And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. [13] And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; [14] And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. [15] And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. [16] And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. [17] And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place!

this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. [18] And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. [19] And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.

I find no justification in the Koran itself that justifies the massive blood shedding associated with decapitation of kidnapped captives and killing of innocent civilians associated with homicide bombings. Judgment is coming for these acts of ungodly horror.

Revelation 20:13-15 – And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. [14] And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. [15] And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Begin Article 1

Hamas: “The extermination of the Jews is good for the inhabitants of the worlds.”

Palestinian Media Watch

May 3, 2007

by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

The extermination of Jews is Allah’s will and is for the benefit of all humanity, according to an article in the Hamas paper, Al-Risalah. The author of the article, Kan’an Ubayd, explains that the suicide operations carried out by Hamas are being committed solely to fulfill Allah’s wishes. Furthermore, Allah demanded this action, because “the extermination of the Jews is good for the inhabitants of the worlds.”

The killing of innocent Jews by terrorist attacks is portrayed as Allah’s plan for the benefit of humanity.

It should be noted that Hamas’s justification for the extermination of Jews, both as God’s will and for the benefit of humanity, echoes Hitler’s words in Mein Kampf:

“In this case the only salvation remaining was war… If the Jew with the help of his Marxist creed is victorious over the peoples of this world, then his crown will be the funeral wreath of humanity… Thus I believe today that I am acting according to the will of the almighty Creator: when I defend myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” (Mein Kampf)

In another parallel to the Nazi genocide of Jews, the writer says he wants to be sure that “everyone will know” that these murderous actions are “not of [Hamas’s] own accord” – an echo of the Nazi war criminals’ repeated justification of their actions with the defense that they were only following orders.

The fact that these orders are said to be divine in nature makes Hamas’s justification for the murder of Jews even more ominous.

Following is the excerpt from the Hamas article:

“We find more than once condemnation and denunciation to the resistance operations and bombings [suicide attacks], carried out by Hamas and the Palestinian resistance branches.

There is no other choice but to use restraint regarding the condemnation, the attaching of the label of terror [to “resistance”], and the assembling of conferences [for] condemnation [of the attacks]. [This] so that everyone will know, that we did this only because our lord commanded so, “I did it not of my own accord” [*] and so that people will know that the extermination of Jews is good for the inhabitants of the worlds on a land, to which Allah gave his blessing for the sake of the inhabitants of the worlds.”
[Al-Risalah, April 23, 2007]

Begin Article 2

The Region: Dead-end paths

Barry Rubin, THE JERUSALEM POST

April 24, 2007

The world’s approach to the Middle East is largely based on resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Thousands of diplomatic hours, plane tickets, innocent reams of paper, and posh hotel rooms are being devoted to this effort. The pace of time, cost, and attention is accelerating.

But what if the problem cannot be fixed, at least for decades? Doesn’t this require serious thought?

Instead the actual, unpleasant, reality is denied. This approach, while ultimately unsatisfactory and even dangerous, makes some sense. Spending lots of time trying out various unworkable options might keep these issues from becoming worse.

It also covers those who do so from being blamed for the inevitable failure and future crises we can expect.

Still, there should be a lot more people explaining the true situation.

Here is what we are told about the range of current policy options:

*Talk a lot. A good dialogue never hurts and they might even serve food. So Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet Palestinian Authority nominal chief executive Mahmoud Abbas every couple of weeks. No harm. Let’s both sides look cooperative and eager for peace. But nothing will come out of this either.

*Throw in lots of money. Estimates are that around $1.2 billion was given as aid to the PA last year.

This is more than during several previous years before the declared sanctions against the Hamas-led regime, not including money smuggled in by Hamas itself. Palestinians are the biggest per capita aid recipients in the world, even in a period when aid has supposedly been reduced. And yet this does not mean that Palestinians are living well. The aid disappears into corruption or paid to PA employees who do nothing useful or as welfare payments to people prevented by bad regime policies and chaos from anything economically productive. At best, aid maintains the status quo, thus preventing material pressure for change (a more moderate government, peace with Israel, a crackdown on corruption and lawlessness). At worst it subsidizes terrorist gunmen, schools that teach Jews are sub-humans who should be killed, and continued Hamas rule.

*Sanctions to put pressure for moderation, peace, and change. See previous item. If such sanctions have failed it is partly because so much money is being provided any way. While there is an attempt to target the sanctions against Hamas itself, funds can simply be moved around too easily to really fulfill this goal. European governments seem to feel that aid originally provided on condition that the Palestinians achieve a full and lasting peace with Israel should continue after they have rejected this option.

*Build up “moderate” Fatah to counter radical Hamas. This is a clever strategy which would be very appropriate except for one small problem – Fatah does not support it. Of course, in saying this I don’t mean that Fatah opposes Western help to itself (in fact, it is largely waiting around for outsiders to solve its problems and put it back into power). The first problem is that Fatah is not doing anything to help itself.

Since Hamas took power in January 2005 it is impossible to detect any effort by Fatah to reform itself, strengthen its leadership, fight corruption in its ranks, or develop its unity.

All the shortcomings that led Fatah to defeat in the January 2005 elections are still present.

Nobody can save an organization that acts as if it is so bent on its own destruction. The second problem is that Fatah’s main strategy in “combating” Hamas is to imitate it. Not that everyone in Fatah is radical and certainly not Islamist. But aside from the statements of a few, including Abbas himself, there is no big difference between them. The third problem is that Fatah has accepted a role as Hamas’s junior partner. The two groups are rivals. But at present they are allies.

*Make Hamas moderate. Take one percent of Hamas leaders’ statements in English. Discard the rest and everything said by them in Arabic.

Throw in the belief that no one can really be radical. Ignore the fact that they think they are divinely directed and need not change since they are winning. Mix well with ignorance and – voila, Hamas Moderation Stew, makes millions of portions.

SO IF the two-state solution won’t work, what does one

do? Here, too, there is a bad back-up plan: the one-state solution.

Since the Palestinians have produced a failed state, this brilliant concept proposes that having wrecked Palestine one might as well wreck Israel, too.

Sort of expand outward the corruption, hatred, violence, and chaos. No, thanks!

However, the good news is that since this is unsolvable, the Middle East, with whatever appropriate help from the world, could try to solve a few other problems like terrorism, dictatorship, economic and social backwardness, inequality for women, inadequate educational systems, and so on.

For now, however, we are out of space or I would tell you how the United States can simultaneously stabilize Iraq; win Iraqi Shi’ites away from Iran; keep the Sunni happy; reconcile US with Iranian and Syrian interests; and defeat an insurgency by those happy to see the country leveled and millions murdered as long as they could claim to rule it.

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