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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