Netanyahu at Auschwitz says prohecies of Ezekiel 37 have been fulfilled
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Netanyahu at Auschwitz says prohecies of Ezekiel 37 have been fulfilled

Posted by admin on 2nd f, 2010

This weekend, Lynn and I are in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where I will be speaking at Break Forth, the largest evangelical Christian conference held in Canada every year. I will be teaching the prophecies of Ezekiel 36-39, the centrality of Israel in God’s plan and purpose for mankind in the last days, the threat of Radical [...]

  • Netanyahu at Auschwitz says prohecies of Ezekiel 37 have been fulfilled

    Netanyahu at Auschwitz says prohecies of Ezekiel 37 have been fulfilled

    Posted by admin on 2nd f, 2010

    This weekend, Lynn and I are in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where I will be speaking at Break Forth, the largest evangelical Christian conference held in Canada every year. I will be teaching the prophecies of Ezekiel 36-39, the centrality of Israel in God’s plan and purpose for mankind in the last days, the threat of Radical [...]

  • IN THIS ECONOMIC MELTDOWN, WHERE IS STEVE FORBES?

    IN THIS ECONOMIC MELTDOWN, WHERE IS STEVE FORBES?

    Posted by admin on 7th f, 2009

    As I traveled throughout the U.S. on my recent book tour, I kept running into people who would ask me, “Where is Steve Forbes? The economy is melting down. We need his economic expertise right now.”

  • Bible skeptics take note: Babylon is being rebuilt, just as prophesied

    Bible skeptics take note: Babylon is being rebuilt, just as prophesied

    Posted by admin on 29th f, 2009

    Regular readers of this weblog and my books know that Bible prophecy says the ancient city of Babylon, Iraq will be rebuilt and become the greatest center of wealth, commerce and power in the “last days” of history. The books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Revelation are explicit on this subject

Saudis give nod to Israeli attack on Iran

Posted in Iran, articles Israel, news | Posted by admin |

Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv and Sarah Baxter

Times Online

The head of Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence service, has assured Benjamin Netanyahu, its prime minister, that Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets flying over the kingdom during any future raid on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Earlier this year Meir Dagan, Mossad’s director since 2002, held secret talks with Saudi officials to discuss the possibility.

The Israeli press has already carried unconfirmed reports that high-ranking officials, including Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister, held meetings with Saudi colleagues. The reports were denied by Saudi officials.

“The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israeli air force flying through their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be in the common interests of both Israel and Saudi Arabia,” a diplomatic source said last week.

Although the countries have no formal diplomatic relations, an Israeli defence source confirmed that Mossad maintained “working relations” with the Saudis.

John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations who recently visited the Gulf, said it was “entirely logical” for the Israelis to use Saudi airspace.

Bolton, who has talked to several Arab leaders, added: “None of them would say anything about it publicly but they would certainly acquiesce in an overflight if the Israelis didn’t trumpet it as a big success.”

Arab states would condemn a raid when they spoke at the UN but would be privately relieved to see the threat of an Iranian bomb removed, he said.

saudis28Referring to the Israeli attack on an alleged Syrian nuclear facility in 2007, Bolton added: “To this day, the Israelis haven’t admitted the specifics but there’s one less nuclear facility in Syria . . .”

Recent developments have underscored concerns among moderate Sunni Arab states about the stability of the repressive Shi’ite regime in Tehran and have increased fears that it may emerge as a belligerent nuclear power.

“The Saudis are very concerned about an Iranian nuclear bomb, even more than the Israelis,” said a former head of research in Israeli intelligence.

The Israeli air force has been training for a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear site at Natanz in the centre of the country and other locations for four years.

Update!
Saudi air space is ‘not open’ for attack on Iran
Wael Mahdi, Foreign Correspondent

Last Updated: July 06. 2009 12:27AM UAE / July 5. 2009 8:27PM GMT
RIYADH // Saudi analysts have rejected media reports that the kingdom has given permission to Israel to use its air space for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

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Obama Gives Israel Green Light To Nuke Iran

Posted in Iran, Politics Israel, news | Posted by admin |

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Sunday that the Obama administration would not stand in Israel’s way should the latter chooses to take military action to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat.

White House officials said that the vice president’s remarks demonstrated only U.S. allowance of Israeli sovereignty, and not a change in policy on the part of the Obama administration.

Biden told ABC reporter George Stephanopoulos that Israel has the right to determine its own course of action with regard to the Iranian nuclear threat, regardless of what the Obama administration chooses to do, .

When asked whether the Obama administration would restrain Israeli military action against Iran, Biden responded:

“Israel can determine for itself – it’s a sovereign nation – what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else.”

iran-nuclear-facilitiesStephanaopoulos posed the question three times, and each time Biden repeated that Israel was free to choose its actions. “If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice.”

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said Biden’s remarks did not signaling any change of approach on Iran or Israel.

“The vice president refused to engage hypotheticals, and he made clear that our policy has not changed,” Vietor said. “Our friends and allies, including Israel, know that the president believes that now is the time to explore direct diplomatic options.”

During the interview, Biden hinted that President Barack Obama was looking to take a harder line toward Iran over the latter’s contentious nuclear program.

He said that Obama’s offer for dialogue with Tehran remained on the table, but rejected the notion that the U.S. would make concessions for such negotiation to take place.

“The ball’s in their court,” Biden said. “If they choose to meet with the P-5 under the conditions the P-5 has laid out, it means they begin to change course. And it means that the protestors probably had some impact on the behavior of an administration that they don’t like at all.”

Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday, when asked about Biden’s comments, that the U.S. position on Iran and a military strike involves a political decision.

“I have been, for some time, concerned about any strike on Iran. I worry about it being very destabilizing, not just in and of itself but unintended consequences of a strike like that,” Mullen said on CBS’ Face the Nation.

“At the same time, I’m one that thinks Iran should not have nuclear weapons. I think that is very destabilizing,” he said.

Admiral Mike Mullen says any military strike against Iran would be “very destabilizing.”
As Israel continues its efforts to portray Iran as a regime hell-bent on a nuclear war, top officials in the White House and the US military express contradictory stances on a potential Israeli attack on Iran.

The top US military commander, Admiral Mike Mullen, warned on Sunday that any military strike against Iran would have “unintended consequences”.

Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Fox News on Sunday that any attack against Iran would be “very destabilizing.”

“I’ve been one who has been concerned about a strike on Iran for some time, because it could be very destabilizing, and it is the unintended consequences of that which aren’t predictable,” he was quoted by AFP as saying.

Meanwhile in the White House, US Vice President Joe Biden said that the US would not stop Israel if it launches an attack against Iran.

The US “cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do,” Biden said, the Associated Press reported.

Israel, the possessor of the sole nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, accuses Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons and drawing up plans to attack the regime.

Iran denies the charges and says under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which the country is a signatory of; it is entitled to conduct a nuclear program for civilian purposes.

The US, Israel’s staunchest ally, has for sometime denied Israel a green light to carry out an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Biden, however, told ABC that Israel is able to determine “what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else.”

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In Israel, former US lawmaker remains imprisoned

Posted in Politics Israel, news | Posted by admin |

Former US lawmaker Cynthia McKinney and several other human rights activists remain in an Israeli prison after refusing to sign a deportation form that they claim is self-incriminating.

In a press release from McKinney’s Green Party, she said the form states that the their relief boat carrying 21 activists, medial supplies, cement, olive trees and children’s toys en route to Gaza, was violating the Israeli blockade and trespassing its territorial waters.

She, however, insists the Spirit of Humanity, the Greek-flagged relief boat, was in international waters.

“We were in international waters on a boat delivering humanitarian aid to people in Gaza when the Israeli Navy ships surrounded us and illegally threatened us, dismantled our navigation equipment, boarded and confiscated the ship,” she said in a statement, adding that they were immediately taken into custody.”

“Immigration officials in Israel said they did not want to keep us, but we remain imprisoned,” she said.

On Tuesday, The Israeli Navy detained McKinney and 21 other human rights activists on board a relief boat outside Israel’s territorial waters as they were heading to Gaza on a humanitarian mission.

Meanwhile, the 54-year-old former US congresswoman has accused Tel Aviv of violating the international law by seizing an aid vessel in international waters.

“State Department and White House officials have not effected our release or taken a strong public stance to condemn the illegal actions of the Israeli Navy of enforcing a blockade of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians of Gaza, a blockade that has been condemned by President Obama,” McKinney said.

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Cynthia McKinney was captured by Israeli forces aboard a relief boat en route to Gaza

Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in the Palestinian territories, said Thursday that the seizure of the boat was unlawful.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned of dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, saying 1.5 million Palestinians living in the coastal sliver are ‘trapped in despair’ due to the continuing Israeli blockade on the territory.

The humanitarian agency said that seriously ill patients were not receiving the treatment they needed and thousands of Gazans whose homes were destroyed during Israel’s three-week Christmas war were still without shelter.

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Bible skeptics take note: Babylon is being rebuilt, just as prophesied

Posted in Joel Rosenberg, middle east, news | Posted by admin |

Regular readers of this weblog and my books know that Bible prophecy says the ancient city of Babylon, Iraq will be rebuilt and become the greatest center of wealth, commerce and power in the “last days” of history. The books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Revelation are explicit on this subject. Skeptics and cynics abound, to be sure, but the fact is Babylon is being rebuilt right now, in part with U.S. taxpayer funds. Iraqi leaders hope that eventually millions of tourists will come to visit, and real progress is being made. Consider today’s edition of Stars & Stripes, a U.S. military publication. They have a fascinating story this morning headlined: “U.S., Iraqi experts developing plan to preserve Babylon, build local tourism industry.”

U.S. soldier near the famed Ishtar gate in Babylon, Iraq (June 2009)

U.S. soldier near the famed Ishtar gate in Babylon, Iraq (June 2009)

Excerpts:

  • Soldiers with the 172nd Infantry Brigade are exploring the ruins as part of a U.S.-Iraqi effort to preserve the ancient city and plan for the return of Western tourists.
  • Members of the brigade’s 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment escorted a group of U.S. heritage tourism experts to the ruins last week for the first of several visits to develop a preservation and tourism plan for the area. U.S. and coalition troops have been criticized in the past for damaging and contaminating artifacts. In a 2006 report, the head of the British Museum’s Near East department said that, among other things, military vehicles crushed a 2,600-year-old brick pavement, and sand and archeological fragments were used to fill military sandbags. Now the rapidly improving security situation in surrounding Babil province has persuaded the U.S. State Department and the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage to embark on the preservation project, dubbed the Future of Babylon Project.
  • The State Department and the World Monuments Fund have committed $700,000 to the project, which will see U.S. and Iraqi experts develop a plan to preserve the site and develop a local tourism industry, said Diane Siebrandt, the U.S. embassy’s cultural heritage officer. The Babylon project is one of several that the State Department is involved in to conserve ancient sites in partnership with the Iraqi government, she said.

  • Two people with expertise developing tourism plans for historic sites in third-world nations, Gina Haney and Jeff Allen, have been employed by the State Department to run the U.S. side of the project. They visited the ruins for the first time last weekend. Haney said the pair will involve the local community in the plan’s development, as they did with a similar project encouraging Western tourists to visit Ghana’s Gold Coast. “You could throw money at it and do all this work, but unless you can create a sustainable situation, your opportunities for tourism will run out,” Allen said. “The idea is to develop something that is going to be here 30 to 40 years from now and has benefits for the local people. We don’t want something that will only benefit outsiders.”
  • The Iraqi government will be involved in the planning as well. “If you have 200,000 people a year coming to this site, you will have people staying at hotels, visiting restaurants, buying souvenirs,” Allen said. “The site is in some ways a revenue generator for the local community.”Babylon could be comparable to the Egyptian pyramids, which draw millions of tourists each year. But the area lacks the tourist infrastructure that has been built at sites such as the pyramids, he said. “There is nothing for tourists here, but if you interpret and present it in the right way, you can spark interest,” he said.
  • Allen, who has experience designing walkways and signs for other heritage sites, said detailed planning won’t happen until authorities have worked out how best to preserve the ruins. The crumbling rocks of the original city are surrounded by more elaborate and modern fortifications, including a maze-like collection of interior walls built on top of genuine ruins during Saddam Hussein’s time.
  • “Some of the past restoration work hasn’t been very good,” he said. “Saddam was trying to inherit the power of the ancients and continue that legacy. His restoration methods helped reinforce that vision of himself, and he created a pattern of restoration and repair work that benefited a certain agenda.”
U.S. forces guarding city of Babylon, currently being rebuilt. (June 2009)

U.S. forces guarding city of Babylon, currently being rebuilt. (June 2009)

Last month, a British art publication had a story headlined, “Controversial move to reopen Babylon: State board of antiquities and heritage believes site needs more protection.” The story indicated that Babylon would be open for tourists on June 1st. Another recent story out of Taiwannoted that a Taiwanese tour agency is starting to take people to Iraq to tour — among other things — the city of  Babylon as it is being rebuilt. As Iraq becomes increasingly stable and secure, foreign direct investment is going to flood in, and Iraq will become the wealthiest country on the planet. Skeptics take note: the Bible is coming true, one prophecy at a time.

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UPDATE: JOSHUA FUND INVESTS $300,000 IN “DAMASCUS” FILM

Posted in Joel Rosenberg, middle east, news | Posted by admin |

Quick update on Damascus, the 77 minute docu-drama film. It tells the story of Saul of Tarsus — a religious extremist and persecutor of the Church in the first century — who had a vision of Jesus Christ on the road to the Syrian capital and not only became a follower of Jesus but became the Apostle Paul, arguably the most famous of the early Church fathers and author of nearly half the books of the New Testament. The film was produced by Arab Christians. It was filmed on location in Damascus and other historic locations in Syria. The film has been endorsed by President Bashar al-Assad and premiered in Assad’s personal theater in Damascus in March. The film has also been endorsed by Protestant and Catholic leaders, and premiered at the Vatican in May. The film is also known in the region as, Damascus Is Speaking.

The Joshua Fund was asked to raise $300,000 to produce 300,000 copies of the film on DVD. The DVDs will distributed in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Holy Land. After prayer, the board of TJF enthusiastically supported the project and committed to funding it in honor of Amy Knapp, one of TJF’s founding board members. By God’s grace — and with your faithful prayers and generous financial support — TJF raised the funds and transmitted them in May. The DVDs are currently being produced and readied for distribution. Please check back for more updates.

If you would like to support The Joshua Fund financially to help on future projects to bless Israel and her neighbors, please click  here.

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ALL EYES ON IRAN (updated)

Posted in Iran, Joel Rosenberg, news | Posted by admin |

All eyes are on Iran today. Please be praying for the Iranian people. Humanly speaking, it’s almost impossible for anything good to come out of today’s rigged “elections.”

First, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his cabinet of clerics (the “Guardian Council”) have already chosen four presidential contenders. They denied another 450 or so applicants from even being considered. This gives you a little taste of what democracy means in Iran. Thus, Khamenei and the Radical mullahs around him have already chosen four people they want the country to know would be acceptable to them — that is, people who are loyal to the Revolution, will follow the wishes of the Supreme Leader, and will prepare the way of the coming of the Islamic Messiah known as the Twelfth Imam or the Mahdi.

Humanly speaking, this guy's vote is all that matters: Whom did the Ayatollah Khamenei "vote" for this morning?

UPDATES:

Second, no matter who “wins,” it doesn’t really matter in any practical sense. In Iran’s Sharia-law driven legal system, all authority is vested in the hands of the Supreme Leader. The role of the president in many ways is to be the public face and voice of the Supreme Leader to the nation and the world. For the last four years, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been been that face and voice precisely because Khamenei wanted him to be.

Third, the system really is rigged. Iranians will feel like they are exercising their right to choose their next leader. But Khamenei is pulling strings behind the scenes to engineer the “choosing” of his preferred candidate. The only drama is finding out whom Khamenei wants to be the face and voice of Iran for the next four years, and whether he believes Ahmadinejad has outlived his usefulness.

Fourth, that said, the God of the Bible — the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — is in control. The Lord God Himself is all sovereign and He ultimately will determine who will run Iran, and will do so for His own purposes. Daniel 2:21 tells us that “He removes kings and establishes kings.” While humanly speaking all seems to be lost in Iran, this isn’t really the case. The truth is that Jesus Christ is drawing millions of Iranians away from Islam to become His followers. As I describe in Inside The Revolution in detail, the Lord is using radio broadcasting, satellite TV technology and the Internet to get the good news of salvation to the Iranian people. Jesus is also appearing to many personally, telling them to, “Come, follow Me” — and they are. Iranian Christian leaders tell me they expect more than 10,000 house churches to be planted in Iran in the next 12 to 18 months because Christianity is growing so fast in that country. And one of the main reasons people are abandoning Islam and becoming followers of Jesus is because of the tyrannical leadership of the country. Starting with the Ayatollah Khomeini, and right up to the present with the Ayatollah Khamenei, such cruel, Radical dictators are causing Iranians to become deeply disillusioned with Islam and eager to search for true peace. They are finding it in the Prince of Peace. So, let us pray earnestly for the Iranian people that no matter who wins, they will choose Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords this year.

———————————

UPDATE: WHO IS MIR-HOSSEIN MUSAVI?

Note: There are numerous spellings of his name — Mousavi, Moussavi, Hussein and Hossein.

For the last few days I’ve been noting the evidence that Mousavi is not a moderate or Reformer, as the Western media keeps insisting. Here’s the latest evidence:

Alireza Jafarzadeh is a leading Iranian pro-democracy dissident. He is based in Washington. He gives a summary of the background of the four “candidates” running for president in Iran today. Even this brief snapshot shows how Radical any one of them will be.

  • “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, by his own admission, was part of the quintet of the Central Committee of the Office of the Unity which led and operationally oversaw the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979. He was the special operations officer in the 6th special corps of IRGC’s Qods Force, responsible for sabotage and cross-border missions. In his current hat, he oversees his government’s expanding drive to perfect the nuclear fuel cycle and acquire the ultimate weapon.
  • “Mir Hossein Moussavi is the current reincarnation of the moderate political animal in Iran. He was a founding member of the Islamic Republic Party- think of it as the mullahs’ Third Reich. Among honors on his resume, he lists: 144 extraterritorial assassinations during the premiership, the massacre of nearly 30,000 political prisoners on the eve of the signing of the 1988 UN Iran-Iraq cease-fire accord, and the 1983 embassy and marine barrack bombings in Beirut.
  • “Mohsen Rezai ranks high in the pantheon of terror. He commanded the IRGC during the disastrous war with Iraq, with ultimate responsibility for sending tens of thousands of under-aged adults to their death in the battle fronts as human mine sweepers, many of whom were shrouded in army-issued blankets to prevent their body parts from splattering. Rezai played a decisive role in coordinating and directing the 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires, for which he was implicated by an Argentine court and for whom, in 2007, Interpol issued an arrest warrant.
  • “Mehdi Karoubi is the least consequential. Nevertheless, he occupies a special place among the regime hierarchy. For, he is a permanent member of the Expediency Council, chaired by former president, Rafsanjani.”

CNN is quoting an Iranian professor at Georgetown University as saying Moussavi is deeply anti-American and in no way a Reformer. “‘Twenty years — what has he done in that time? No one really knows,’ said Shireen Hunter, a Georgetown University visiting professor and Iranian author of numerous books on the nation’s political history who interviewed Moussavi just as he was officially exiting politics. ‘What you have is a war and a history that the younger Iranians do not know about or remember, so they know less about him and see him as the reformer he says that he is,’ Hunter said. She spoke with Moussavi for her 1992 book, Iran and the World. ‘I quoted Moussavi as saying that Iran did not suffer as much from the Soviet Union as it did from America,’ Hunter said. ‘He was very anti-Western. He presided over a lot of nationalism [during his time as prime minister,] and now he is saying that he is a reformer? I don’t believe in born-again Democrats. I’m skeptical.’”

The Weekly Standard brings additional nuggets to light:

  • In 1981, when Mousavi first appeared, UPI explained that “Appearances aside, Mousavi heralds a more vigorous propagation of the radical Islamic foreign policy of exporting Iran’s revolution.”
  • In 1987, Reuters quoted Mousavi at a demonstration in Tehran saying “Tomorrow will be the day we step on the Great Satan. Tomorrow is the time for America to see our iron fists.”
  • In 1988, Reuters reported that Iranian Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi called Israel a “cancerous tumour” and said the Palestinian move to accept UN Resolution 242 would anger Muslim revolutionaries.
  • In 1989, after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, the Washington Postdescribed Mousavi as “a leading radical who in the past has competed with Khamenei for primacy in setting government policy pledged subservience, along with his entire cabinet, to the new leader.”
  • In 1989, Mousavi called for Salman Rushdie to be killed. The Times(London) reported that “Mr Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the Prime Minister, said the Ayatollah Khomeini’s order that Mr Rushdie should be killed ‘will undoubtedly be carried out and the person who has become a tool of Zionists against Islam and brazenly attacked it and the Prophet will be punished’, according to Tehran Radio.” And in that same year, theWashington Post described Mousavi as a “leading hardliner,” with links to regime attempts to assassinate political opponents in exile.

Report: Mousavi helped found Hezbollah and is the “younger half-brother of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.”

———————————–

HEADLINES TO TRACK:


Humanly speaking, this guy's vote is all that matters: Whom did the Ayatollah Khamenei "vote" for this morning?

Humanly speaking, this guy's vote is all that matters: Whom did the Ayatollah Khamenei "vote" for this morning?

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Iranian elections friday what to watch

Posted in Joel Rosenberg, news | Posted by admin |

WHAT TO WATCH FOR DURING THE IRANIAN ELECTIONS FRIDAY: And new poll finds Obama not helping U.S. image in Iran

President Obama has launched five major initiatives to reach out to Muslims in general and Iranians in particular since taking office. But disturbing new evidence suggests the President’s strategy is not working. Indeed, a new poll finds America’s favorable ratings among Iranians has actually gone downsignificantly since Obama took office. “Just 29 percent of Iranians said they have favorable views of the United States in the latest poll, which was conducted last month,” reports the Associated Press. “In a similar survey in February 2008 — nearly a year before Barack Obama became president — 34 percent had positive opinions about the U.S.” What’s more, Iran’s Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei, responded to the President’s speech in Cairo last week by noting that Muslims hate the  U.S. from the bottoms of their hearts.

What’s happening? Why were we more popular in Iran when George W. Bush was in office? Because President Bush told the truth. He didn’t kowtow to the Radicals in Tehran. He accurately described them as members of the “axis of evil.” President Obama, by contrast, keeps apologizing about American shortcomings — real and perceived — and keeps beseeching Iran’s Radicals to please, please come to the table and talk to us. Iranians by and large hate their government for lying to them and enslaving them and destroying their economy and their children’s future. They don’t respect Western leaders who legitimize the tyrants who oppress them, plain and simple.

That said, keep your eye on Khamenei this week. When Iranians go to the polls on Friday, the big question will be whether the Supreme Leader believes President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has outlived his usefulness to the regime. Both men share a Radical, apocalptic, genocidal, Shia Muslim world view. Both believe the end of the world is at hand, the Islamic Messiah’s arrival on earth is “imminent,” and that annihilating the U.S. and Israel are central objectives to hastening the Mahdi’s arrival. Up until now, Khamenei has supported Ahmadinejad as the face and voice of such views. Does he still? We’re about to find out. The elections on June 12th are rigged. If Ahmadinejad is reelected, that will be seen as an affirmation that the Persian Hitler known as Ahmadinejad is still the valued “front man” for the Supreme Leader. If someone else wins, we’ll have to watch closely to see if that presages a mere p.r. face lift — Apocalypse Lite — or suggests an actual, fundamental shift away from Radical Shia eschatology. Right now,  I’m expecting Ahmadinejad to win. But I really don’t know how this will play out. Anything is possible. Should be an interesting few days for everyone in the epicenter. Keep praying.

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HEZBOLLAH STRONGER THAN EVER:

Posted in Joel Rosenberg, general, news | Posted by admin |

HEZBOLLAH STRONGER THAN EVER: Pray for Lebanon, and for Israel

“Lebanon’s pro-Western bloc will retain its control of the country’s government despite a strong challenge from a Hezbollah-dominated alliance, according to official election results released Monday,” reports CNN. “The ‘March 14′ coalition won 71 seats in Lebanon’s parliament, while the Hezbollah-dominated ‘March 8′ alliance won the remaining 57 seats, Lebanese Interior Minister Ziad Baroud announced. Saad Hariri, the leader of the Sunni-dominated March 14 bloc, gave a victory speech Monday after the polls closed but hours before the official results were released. So far, there has been no official reaction from Hezbollah, which is supported by both Syria and Iran and considered to be a terrorist organization by the United States.”

Analysis: While it is somewhat encouraging that the Iranian-backed Shia Radicals didn’t gain full political and economic control of Lebanon, let’s not kid ourselves. Hezbollah hasn’t needed control of the parliament to effectively control Lebanon or to launch wars against Israel from Lebanese territory. The truth is: Iran is gaining ground in trying to surround Israel and prepare for the coming of the Mahdi. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, is a devout disciple of the Ayatollah Khamenei, a close friend of Iranian President Ahmadinejad, and fully committed to wiping Israel off the map and creating the conditions of chaos, carnage and genocide believed to be needed to usher in the Islamic messiah. Tensions between Israel and Lebanon are only going to grow after these elections. We need to keep praying for the embattled people of Lebanon — for safety, for security, for peace and for courage as Hezbollah gains strength. We need to pray especially for the true followers of Jesus Christ in Lebanon and do everything we can to support them, strengthen them, and help them get the gospel to every man, woman and child in Lebanon, make disciples and plant new churches. Jesus Christ is the only hope for Lebanon. Especially now. [Click here to read the story of Jesus traveling through southern Lebanon in Matthew 15:20-28, showing mercy to a woman desperate for His lovingkindness.]

Hezbollah members work on their computers at one of their election centers in the southern city of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, Friday, June 5, 2009. Lebanese voters faced stark choices Sunday, handing power to an Iranian-backed Hezbollah alliance or renewing the mandate of a pro-Western coalition in crucial parliamentary elections that could determine the country's future for the next four years. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Hezbollah members work on their computers at one of their election centers in the southern city of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, Friday, June 5, 2009. Lebanese voters faced stark choices Sunday, handing power to an Iranian-backed Hezbollah alliance or renewing the mandate of a pro-Western coalition in crucial parliamentary elections that could determine the country's future for the next four years. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Joel will be on Janet Parshall’s nationally syndicated radio show today from 4:15pm to 5pm eastern to discuss the latest events in the epicenter. Hope you can join us.

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ANALYSIS OF THE CAIRO SPEECH:

Posted in Joel Rosenberg, Politics Israel, news | Posted by admin |

ANALYSIS OF THE CAIRO SPEECH: Plus, Lebanon votes today”
To be honest, it’s taken me several days to process President Obama’s speech in Cairo. But let me offer a bit of analysis now that I’ve had a little more time to think about it carefully.

Evidence that the Cairo speech has already utterly failed to move Tehran to begin serious negotiations: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei had this response: “The nations in the region hate the United States from the bottom of their hearts because they have seen violence, military intervention and discrimination…one cannot remove this deep hatred by words, speeches and slogans.”

Obama

First, the good news:

  • It was important for the President of the United States to reach out to moderate Muslims — to the Reformers, as I describe them in Inside The Revolution — and explain America’s desire to understand them, encourage them, and help them succeed. The vast, vast majority of the world’s 1.3 billion-plus Muslims are not Radicals. They may not necessarily love the U.S., or Israel or the West, but they are not jihadists. They don’t want their children to be suicide bombers. They don’t believe in genocide. They want to live in peace and freedom. They want the opportunity to carve out a better life for themselves and their children. This is empirically true. And it should be acknowledged by President Obama as it was repeatedly by President Bush.
  • It was important for the President of the United States to speak out on religious freedom and the fundamental human right for all people everywhere to be free to choose their religion for themselves. He did so, and it was good.
  • It was also important for the President of the United States — especially one now openly acknowledging his Muslim roots and his upbringing in the Muslim world — to stand before a Muslim audience in an Arab capital and defend Israel’s right to exist and explain the horrors of the Holocaust. He did so. And then, of course, he went on to the Nazi death camp at Buchenwald with Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to denounce such evil against Jews and against humanity, and vow never to let it happen again. “We’ve seen genocide,” President Obama said at Buchenwald, a speech that was written as a corollary to Cairo. “We’ve seen mass graves and the ashes of villages burned to the ground; children used as soldiers and rape used as a weapon of war. This places teaches us that we must be ever vigilant about the spread of evil in our own time, that we must reject the false comfort that others’ suffering is not our problem and commit ourselves to resisting those who would subjugate others to serve their own interests.” This was good.

Now, the bad news:

  • President Obama failed to use the words “terrorist” or “terrorism.”
  • The President failed to discuss the 30th anniversary of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty negotiated at Camp David with the help of American President Jimmy Carter. This was the only shining moment in the Carter years, and a great blessing to all the people of the Middle East. Why avoid even mention of it, much less detailed explanation of it, when peace is what you say you’re pursuing?
  • The President sounded apologetic for America’s role in the Muslim world in recent years. He didn’t explain that Americans have fought to defend the lives of oppressed Muslims in the former Yugoslavia, or in Iraq, or in Afghanistan. He didn’t note that Americans have helped liberate more than 50 million Muslims from totalitarian tyrants just since 2001. This was not simply a missed opportunity. It appeared to be a conscious choice, part of the President’s “apologize for America” tour that he has been making around the world since his inaugural. This was not good; it was offensive.
  • President Obama did defend Israel’s right to exist, but then proceeded to create a moral equivalence between the Israelis and the Palestinians with regards to the peace process. Let’s be clear: the Palestinians are souls made in God’s image. They deserve dignity and respect and the freedom to govern their daily lives free from Israeli interference. But if they had wanted a sovereign state they could have accepted the U.N. Partition Plan in 1947, like the Jews did. They didn’t, and they lost. They could have accepted any one of the numerous deals Israel has offered over the past six decades, including then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s offer at Camp David in 2000 for the Palestinians to have a sovereign state, half the city of Jerusalem, all of Gaza and about 93% of the West Bank. But they didn’t. Instead, the Palestinians continue to miss every opportunity to miss every opportunity. Rather than accept Israeli offers and build a state, they have sent waves of terrorists, suicide bombers and tens of thousands of rockets and missiles at the Israelis. In so doing, they have forfeited any shred of trust the Israelis once had in them. The President should have explained this. He should have noted that Israel gave the Palestinians Gaza as an act of goodwill, and Hamas squandered all of that goodwill by firing more than 10,000 missiles, mortars and rockets at southern Israel and turning Gaza into a terror base camp. But he didn’t. President Obama made it sound like Israel is the obstacle to peace, when this is simply not true.
  • Most concerning, the President did not truly lay down the law with Iran. He did not go to Cairo to forge an Arab-Israeli alliance against the apocalyptic, genocidal death cult leaders currently running Iran. He did not explain who the current regime in Iran is. It’s not even clear President Obama has been adequately briefed about the Iranian leadership’s End Times beliefs or how such eschatology is driving Iran to acquire nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them. The President continues to view Iran as though our 30 year-old tensions with them are: a) our fault; and b) just one big misunderstanding. The truth is: we didn’t seize their embassy in 1979; they seized ours. We didn’t hold their diplomats hostage and torture and humiliate them; they held, tortured and humiliated ours. We didn’t create Hezbollah as a violent terrorist group dedicated to killing Christians and Jews en masse; Iran did. We are not calling for Israel to be wiped off the map; they are. We are not denying the Holocaust, while preparing to create another Holocaust; they are. We are not calling for Iran to be annihilated; they are calling for the U.S. to be annihilated. We don’t believe we need to kill anyone to bring about the Messiah; the Iranian leaders believe they need to kill tens of millions of people to bring about their messiah. Yet Tehran could breathe a sigh of relief after the Cairo speech, because it was crystal clear that President Obama walks softly and carries no stick at all.

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A “NEW BEGINNING” WITH THE MUSLIM WORLD

Posted in Joel Rosenberg, news | Posted by admin |

 

 

 

obama-mubarak

>> Osama bin Laden issues new tape: calls for “long war” against the infidels

NOTEWORTHY EXCERPTS FROM THE SPEECH:

  • THE PRESIDENT’S GOAL: I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world….
  • THE PRESIDENT’S MUSLIM HERITAGE: I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims. As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan [the Muslim call to prayer] at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk….
  • MUSLIMS IN AMERICA: Much has been made of the fact that an African-American with the name Barack Hussein Obama could be elected president. But my personal story is not so unique. The dream of opportunity for all people has not come true for everyone in America, but its promise exists for all who come to our shores – that includes nearly 7 million American Muslims in our country today who enjoy incomes and education that are higher than average….There is a mosque in every state of our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. That is why the US government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it. So let there be no doubt: Islam is a part of America….
  • U.S. RELATIONSHIP WITH ISLAM: America is not — and never will be — at war with Islam. We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security. Because we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women, and children. And it is my first duty as president to protect the American people….
  • ISRAEL AND THE JEWS: America’s strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable. It is based upon cultural and historical ties, and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied. Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and antisemitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Six million Jews were killed – more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful. Threatening Israel with destruction – or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews – is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve….
  • PALESTINIANS: On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people – Muslims and Christians – have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than 60 years they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations – large and small – that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own….
  • IRAN: Since the Islamic revolution, Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against US troops and civilians. This history is well known. Rather than remain trapped in the past, I have made it clear to Iran’s leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward. The question, now, is not what Iran is against, but rather what future it wants to build. It will be hard to overcome decades of mistrust, but we will proceed with courage, rectitude and resolve. There will be many issues to discuss between our two countries, and we are willing to move forward without preconditions on the basis of mutual respect. But it is clear to all concerned that when it comes to nuclear weapons, we have reached a decisive point. This is not simply about America’s interests. It is about preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East that could lead this region and the world down a hugely dangerous path….
  • RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE REGION: Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance. We see it in the history of Andalusia and Cordoba during the Inquisition. I saw it first-hand as a child in Indonesia, where devout Christians worshipped freely in an overwhelmingly Muslim country. That is the spirit we need today. People in every country should be free to choose and live their faith based upon the persuasion of the mind, heart, and soul….

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