US Troops Deploy New Weapon in Iraq
Source: Metimes.com
U.S. forces in Iraq are using a high-resolution, thermal/infrared sensor system that turns night into day and helps protect troops as well as bring security to towns and cities.
The European-made system (the cheapest model is reputed to cost about $1 million) is called GBOSS, an acronym no one seems to know the meaning of. But troops call it a godsend.
“It’s terrific,” said Pvt. Joshua Bernard, who was manipulating the system’s “eye” with a joystick one night in a command post. “This thing is by far one of the best things we have. It makes life much easier, especially for the guys who’d have to do night duty in the guard towers if it wasn’t for this.
“The Iraqis think it has a laser beam we can zap them with.”
Bernard, from Providence, Rhode Island, is with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment the Army’s 3rd Division, which is home-based at Fort Stewart, Georgia.
He and about 40 others man what is known as TCP-2, a traffic control point on the outskirts of Rutbah, a small trading town in northwest Anbar province on the main highway from the Jordanian border to Baghdad. It’s a desolate outpost but an important one. Together with another TCP, it’s a gateway to Rutbah. Through the use of strategically placed berms, all road traffic into and out of the town must stop at the two TCPs, where identity papers are thoroughly checked and cargoes vetted – by sight and hand as well as by mobile X-ray vans the vehicles must pass by.
U.S. military and town officials credit the berms that virtually encase the town and the TCPs for bringing insurgent violence in the community into the “occasional” category. The only incident of note since November 1 was a young insurgent who tried to plant an IED at night. He didn’t succeed. He accidentally blew himself up and killed his two companions.
“The army [Americans] makes Rutbah more secure,” Sheikh Fala Hussein Mohammed abu Zenna told a reporter, who stopped by a city council meeting. “Only a few troubles now. Before, many troubles.”
Rutbah and U.S. officials have established curfews as part of their security plan. In Rutbah, everyone must be indoors by 11:30 p.m. U.S. forces close their gateways at 9 p.m., and no traffic is allowed into or out of Rutbah until the next morning.
At night GBOSS, which is European made, comes into its own. From a 150-200 ft. tower in the middle of TCP-2 – a barren encampment of dust and plywood structures ringed by berms, concertina wire and sand barriers – its large lens scans for movement of any kind. Nothing escapes notice as it methodically gazes, tilts and pans in slow 360 degree journeys. Depending on the switch tripped by Bernard or others, the landscape and human or animal life scanned by it appear as clear and bright – from a distance, and then up close through a zoom function.
Programming allows the GBOSS lens to travel along pre-determined coordinates. The system can also be programmed to emit a sound when it detects movement. It also has a laser, which is used to calculate targeting distance.
The range: miles, many miles.
Troops won’t say much more about the system’s capabilities for security reasons. But in a demonstration, shown to this reporter one night, the GBOSS was aimed at a pickup truck at great distance. It would have been just the barest speck to the naked eye if it had had its lights on. Bernard flipped a switch, played with the joystick and suddenly one could clearly see the empty water bottles in the back of the vehicle. The image was so clear and the view so close, there was no mistaking the objects for what they were.
“They [insurgents] know we have it and are scared to death of it,” said Capt. Jason Schuerger of West Virginia. “I’d like to keep it that way.”
Jesus as the Messiah
Source: About.com
Question
Why did the majority of the Jewish world reject Jesus as the Messiah, and why did the first Christians accept Jesus as the Messiah?
Answer
It is important to understand why Jews don’t believe in Jesus. The purpose is not to disparage other religions, but rather to clarify the Jewish position. The more data that’s available, the better-informed choices people can make about their spiritual path.
Jews do not accept Jesus as the messiah because:
1) Jesus did not fulfill the messianic prophecies.
2) Jesus did not embody the personal qualifications of the Messiah.
3) Biblical verses “referring” to Jesus are mistranslations.
4) Jewish belief is based on national revelation.
At the end of this article, we will examine these additional topics:
5) Christianity contradicts Jewish theology
6) Jews and Gentiles
7) Bringing the Messiah
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1) JESUS DID NOT FULFILL THE MESSIANIC PROPHECIES
What is the Messiah supposed to accomplish? The Bible says that he will:
A. Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28).
B. Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6).
C. Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease. As it says: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:4)
D. Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. As it says: “God will be King over all the world — on that day, God will be One and His Name will be One” (Zechariah 14:9).
The historical fact is that Jesus fulfilled none of these messianic prophecies.
Christians counter that Jesus will fulfill these in the Second Coming, but Jewish sources show that the Messiah will fulfill the prophecies outright, and no concept of a second coming exists.
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2) JESUS DID NOT EMBODY THE PERSONAL QUALIFICATIONS OF MESSIAH
A. MESSIAH AS PROPHET
Jesus was not a prophet. Prophecy can only exist in Israel when the land is inhabited by a majority of world Jewry. During the time of Ezra (circa 300 BCE), when the majority of Jews refused to move from Babylon to Israel, prophecy ended upon the death of the last prophets — Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.
Jesus appeared on the scene approximately 350 years after prophecy had ended.
B. DESCENDENT OF DAVID
The Messiah must be descended on his father’s side from King David (see Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 11:1). According to the Christian claim that Jesus was the product of a virgin birth, he had no father — and thus could not have possibly fulfilled the messianic requirement of being descended on his father’s side from King David!
C. TORAH OBSERVANCE
The Messiah will lead the Jewish people to full Torah observance. The Torah states that all mitzvot remain binding forever, and anyone coming to change the Torah is immediately identified as a false prophet. (Deut. 13:1-4)
Throughout the New Testament, Jesus contradicts the Torah and states that its commandments are no longer applicable. (see John 1:45 and 9:16, Acts 3:22 and 7:37)
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3) MISTRANSLATED VERSES “REFERRING” TO JESUS
Biblical verses can only be understood by studying the original Hebrew text — which reveals many discrepancies in the Christian translation.
A. VIRGIN BIRTH
The Christian idea of a virgin birth is derived from the verse in Isaiah 7:14 describing an “alma” as giving birth. The word “alma” has always meant a young woman, but Christian theologians came centuries later and translated it as “virgin.” This accords Jesus’ birth with the first century pagan idea of mortals being impregnated by gods.
B. CRUCIFIXION
The verse in Psalms 22:17 reads: “Like a lion, they are at my hands and feet.” The Hebrew word ki-ari (like a lion) is grammatically similar to the word “gouged.” Thus Christianity reads the verse as a reference to crucifixion: “They pierced my hands and feet.”
C. SUFFERING SERVANT
Christianity claims that Isaiah chapter 53 refers to Jesus, as the “suffering servant.”
In actuality, Isaiah 53 directly follows the theme of chapter 52, describing the exile and redemption of the Jewish people. The prophecies are written in the singular form because the Jews (“Israel”) are regarded as one unit. The Torah is filled with examples of the Jewish nation referred to with a singular pronoun.
Ironically, Isaiah’s prophecies of persecution refer in part to the 11th century when Jews were tortured and killed by Crusaders who acted in the name of Jesus.
From where did these mistranslations stem? St. Gregory, 4th century Bishop of Nanianzus, wrote: “A little jargon is all that is necessary to impose on the people. The less they comprehend, the more they admire.”
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4) JEWISH BELIEF IS BASED SOLELY ON NATIONAL REVELATION
Of the 15,000 religions in human history, only Judaism bases its belief on national revelation — i.e. God speaking to the entire nation. If God is going to start a religion, it makes sense He’ll tell everyone, not just one person.
Judaism, unique among all of the world’s major religions, does not rely on “claims of miracles” as the basis for its religion. In fact, the Bible says that God sometimes grants the power of “miracles” to charlatans, in order to test Jewish loyalty to the Torah (Deut. 13:4).
Maimonides states (Foundations of Torah, ch. 8):
The Jews did not believe in Moses, our teacher, because of the miracles he performed. Whenever anyone’s belief is based on seeing miracles, he has lingering doubts, because it is possible the miracles were performed through magic or sorcery. All of the miracles performed by Moses in the desert were because they were necessary, and not as proof of his prophecy.
What then was the basis of [Jewish] belief? The Revelation at Mount Sinai, which we saw with our own eyes and heard with our own ears, not dependent on the testimony of others… as it says, “Face to face, God spoke with you…” The Torah also states: “God did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us — who are all here alive today.” (Deut. 5:3)
Judaism is not miracles. It is the personal eyewitness experience of every man, woman and child, standing at Mount Sinai 3,300 years ago.
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5) CHRISTIANITY CONTRADICTS JEWISH THEOLOGY
The following theological points apply primarily to the Roman Catholic Church, the largest Christian denomination, and the one most familiar to the Western world.
A. GOD AS THREE?
The Catholic idea of Trinity breaks God into three separate beings: The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost (Matthew 28:19).
Contrast this to the Shema, the basis of Jewish belief: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is ONE” (Deut. 6:4). Jews declare the Shema every day, while writing it on doorposts (Mezuzah), and binding it to the hand and head (Tefillin). This statement of God’s One-ness is the first words a Jewish child is taught to say, and the last words uttered before a Jew dies.
In Jewish law, worship of a three-part god is considered idolatry — one of the three cardinal sins that a Jew should rather give up his life than transgress. This explains why during the Inquisitions and throughout history, Jews gave up their lives rather than convert.
B. MAN AS GOD?
Christians believe that God came down to earth in human form, as Jesus said: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).
Maimonides devotes most of the “Guide for the Perplexed” to the fundamental idea that God is incorporeal, meaning that He assumes no physical form. God is Eternal, above time. He is Infinite, beyond space. He cannot be born, and cannot die. Saying that God assumes human form makes God small, diminishing both His unity and His divinity. As the Torah says: “God is not a mortal” (Numbers 23:19).
Judaism says that the Messiah will be born of human parents, and possess normal physical attributes like other people. He will not be a demi-god, and will not possess supernatural qualities. In fact, an individual is alive in every generation with the capacity to step into the role of the Messiah. (see Maimonides – Laws of Kings 11:3)
C. INTERMEDIARY FOR PRAYER?
The Catholic belief is that prayer must be directed through an intermediary — i.e. confessing one’s sins to a priest. Jesus himself is an intermediary, as Jesus said: “No man cometh unto the Father but by me.”
In Judaism, prayer is a totally private matter, between each individual and God. As the Bible says: “God is near to all who call unto Him” (Psalms 145:18). Further, the Ten Commandments state: “You shall have no other gods BEFORE ME,” meaning that it is forbidden to set up a mediator between God and man. (see Maimonides – Laws of Idolatry ch. 1)
D. INVOLVEMENT IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD
Catholic doctrine often treats the physical world as an evil to be avoided. Mary, the holiest woman, is portrayed as a virgin. Priests and nuns are celibate. And monasteries are in remote, secluded locations.
By contrast, Judaism believes that God created the physical world not to frustrate us, but for our pleasure. Jewish spirituality comes through grappling with the mundane world in a way that uplifts and elevates. Sex in the proper context is one of the holiest acts we can perform.
The Talmud says if a person has the opportunity to taste a new fruit and refuses to do so, he will have to account for that in the World to Come. Jewish rabbinical schools teach how to live amidst the bustle of commercial activity. Jews don’t retreat from life, we elevate it.
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6) JEWS AND GENTILES
Judaism does not demand that everyone convert to the religion. The Torah of Moses is a truth for all humanity, whether Jewish or not. King Solomon asked God to heed the prayers of non-Jews who come to the Holy Temple (Kings I 8:41-43). The prophet Isaiah refers to the Temple as a “House for all nations.”
The Temple service during Sukkot featured 70 bull offerings, corresponding to the 70 nations of the world. The Talmud says that if the Romans would have realized how much benefit they were getting from the Temple, they’d never have destroyed it.
Jews have never actively sought converts to Judaism because the Torah prescribes a righteous path for gentiles to follow, known as the “Seven Laws of Noah.” Maimonides explains that any human being who faithfully observes these basic moral laws earns a proper place in heaven.
For further study of the Seven Laws of Noah, see:
Bnei Noah of Fort Worth
http://www.fastlane.net/~bneinoah/
Path of the Righteous Gentile
http://www.chabad.org/gopher/outlook/7laws/index.html
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7) BRINGING THE MESSIAH
Maimonides states that the popularity of Christianity (and Islam) is part of God’s plan to spread the ideals of Torah throughout the world. This moves society closer to a perfected state of morality and toward a greater understanding of God. All this is in preparation for the Messianic age.
Indeed, the world is in desperate need of Messianic redemption. War and pollution threaten our planet; ego and confusion erode family life. To the extent we are aware of the problems of society, is the extent we will yearn for redemption. As the Talmud says, one of the first questions a Jew is asked on Judgment Day is: “Did you yearn for the arrival of the Messiah?”
How can we hasten the coming of the Messiah? The best way is to love all humanity generously, to keep the mitzvot of the Torah (as best we can), and to encourage others to do so as well.
Despite the gloom, the world does seem headed toward redemption. One apparent sign is that the Jewish people have returned to the Land of Israel and made it bloom again. Additionally, a major movement is afoot of young Jews returning to Torah tradition.
The Messiah can come at any moment, and it all depends on our actions. God is ready when we are. For as King David says: “Redemption will come today — if you hearken to His voice.”
Who is the Son of G-d?
Source: Noahide.com
This “Suffering Servant” Holds the Key to Your Salvation
You were created so that you could recognize your Creator, love Him, and serve Him here on earth. But do you know Who G-d really is? The answer to this question surprises many people.
It is an easy mistake to think that one is worshipping the one, true G-d, while actually serving a false one. To help prevent this mistake, G-d described Himself in the Bible, warning us to remember how He appeared when He gave the Ten Commandments:
And the Eternal spoke to you from the middle of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form, only a voice….
And guard your souls carefully, for you did not see any form on the day the Eternal spoke to you in Horev from the middle of the fire, lest you become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any physical shape, the form of a man or woman (1).
In other words, G-d has no physical shape. He is infinite and unlimited, and never appears in the form of any human.
Nor does G-d have any “partners.” He alone is the only One Who brings us eternal salvation, as He says in the Bible:
Am I not the Eternal? And there is no other god besides Me—a just G-d and Savior; there is none else. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am G-d and there is none else (2).
Anyone who makes the mistake of worshipping a man for spiritual salvation will be betrayed (3). Eternal life comes directly from G-d, Who is One and infinite, and not through any mediator.
G-d’s Firstborn Son
So how has G-d brought His message of truth to the world? According to the Bible, G-d declares that He does have a special son whose mission is to bring His blessings and His salvation to the entire world.
Who is this son? Many religious leaders have offered their opinions on the identity of His son, but really we should find out G-d’s “opinion” on this matter.
In the book of Exodus, G-d openly proclaims His son to the world: “Thus says the L-rd: My firstborn son is Israel” (4).
“Israel” is the Jewish people—all of them. The Jews were chosen by G-d to be His special “son,” to be, in the words of the Bible, “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” for the whole world (5).
All people are G-d’s children, of course, but the Jews are like a “firstborn son” who brings G-d’s Word to his younger brothers. Every person who learns from the Jews, and helps them fulfill their special role, becomes a part of G-d’s kingdom.
Unfortunately, many times people have not listened to the Jews. For many centuries, the Christian church killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Jews—men, women, and children — to prevent their holy message from reaching the rest of the world. Today, church leaders still try to silence the Jewish message by sending missionaries to convert Jews to Christianity!
The Bible tells us that the Jews would suffer greatly, not just for their own sins, but also for the sake of bringing G-d’s Word to a rebellious world:
“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your G-d. “Persuade Jerusalem and call to her, for her time is full, for her sins have been repaid; for she has received from the hand of the L-rd double for all her sins” (6).
Salvation Through the Law
The Jewish people have been taught the secret to eternal life and blessings for all people, and now they finally have the freedom to reveal G-d’s message.
According to that message, the key that unlocks the door to a personal relationship with G-d is His Law—one part for the Jews, the other part for the rest of the world.
At Mount Sinai, G-d gave the Ten Commandments (and hundreds of others) to the Jewish people. These laws apply only to the Jews in their special role as the world’s spiritual leaders.
But for everyone else, G-d gave the Seven Commandments (and dozens of other laws). These commandments were given to Noah, after he left the ark that saved his family from the great flood, as an eternal covenant with all the peoples of the earth (7). Since Mount Sinai, the Jews have carried the message of these seven laws to all the peoples.
A non-Jew who follows these commandments is called a Hasidic gentile, and he receives both eternal life and G-d’s blessings in his earthly life. By doing good works exactly as G-d commands, he earns a close relationship with his Creator.
A Hasidic gentile celebrates certain “Old Testament” holidays, not Christian holidays. He prays to G-d in the proper way, according to G-d’s instructions. He also helps the poor, and he guides his fellow humans—including non-religious Jews—back to G-d’s Law. A Hasidic Gentile learns how to redeem every part of his life from the emptiness of modern existence, becoming a “soldier” in G-d’s spiritual army.
The Messiah’s Message to the World
By asking the Jews for spiritual guidance and turning back to “Old Testament” Law, a Child of Noah also accomplishes the most important task of all: He helps bring the Messiah to redeem the entire world.
The Messiah is a Jewish king who will gather all the Jewish people to Israel, destroy all evil, rebuild the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, and bring true freedom to the world by returning everyone to the Law. He will institute G-d’s eternal kingdom here on earth.
The Messiah will teach the Word of G-d to all nations, causing Christianity and all other religions to disappear. The Bible says that everyone will become a Hasidic Gentile, thirsting for the ancient Truth:
O L-rd, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of distress, gentiles will come to You from the ends of the earth and say, ‘We have inherited only lies from our fathers, vanity and things which are not useful. Can a man make gods for himself, and they are not gods?’
Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, this time I will let them know My hand and My strength, and they will know that My Name is Hashem (8).
In our generation, the spiritual leader of the Jewish people—and therefore of the whole world—is Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe”), in New York. He is a righteous prophet who has never sinned, nor even been tempted, in his entire life; indeed, he has brought hundreds of thousands of Jews and gentiles back to the Law. Moreover, he is a direct descendant of King David.
The Rebbe has revealed that the Messiah will finally arrive now, in our generation, amidst great miracles. He has also announced that every Jew, and every gentile, is a representative of G-d to help bring the Messiah immediately.
An Urgent Call to Action
In the book of Genesis, G-d told Abraham that his descendants, the Jewish people, would bless the world with the light of G-d’s Word. Only by turning to the Jews can anyone join G-d’s holy kingdom:
And I will bless those who bless you, but I will curse those who curse you; and through you all the families of the earth will be blessed (9).
G-d promised Abraham that this covenant of priesthood would apply to all the Jews, forever:
And I establish my covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, throughout their generations, for an eternal covenant (10).
Regardless of your race, religious background, or nationality, G-d is calling on you to help the Jewish people bring the Messiah. You don’t have to be Jewish to help; in fact, Hasidic Gentiles can serve G-d in special ways that Jews cannot, since G-d’s Law is stricter for Jews.
The Seven Noahide Laws
Source: Noahide.com
To the Jewish people G-d gave the entire Torah [teaching] as their Law. They therefore have a special responsibility—with special commandments—to be the priesthood of the world, a “light unto the nations.”
What about the rest of the world? What is G-d’s will for them?
G-d gave Noah and all his descendants (B’nei Noach or “children of Noah”) seven commandments to obey. These seven universal laws (known as the “Seven Noahide Laws”) were reaffirmed with Moses and the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai in what is now known as the Oral Torah, establishing modern observance of these laws. These seven commandments (mitzvos), actually seven categories of hundreds of specific laws, are G-d’s will for all non-Jews.
Non-Jews who (1) reject all idolatrous ideas and accept the kingship of the One G-d, (2) accept the priesthood of the Jewish people as the guardians and teachers of Torah, and (3) commit to following the Seven Noahide Laws as revealed in the Oral Torah from Mt. Sinai are “Hasidic Gentiles” or “Noahides.” The term “Hasidic Gentile” is derived from a classic commentary by the Rambam, Rav Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides), in The Laws of Kings 8:11:
“Anyone who accepts upon himself the fulfillment of these Seven Mitzvos [commandments] and is precise in their observance is considered one of the hasidei umos ha’olam ["Hasidim of the nations of the world"] and will merit a share in the World to Come.”
The Seven Noahide Laws are the minimal observance for non-Jews. The source of these laws and the basis of their understanding is the Oral Torah, which G-d gave to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai along with His Written Law. By learning from the Jews and performing the mitzvos, non-Jews have a crucial role in G-d’s Creation.
The Seven Noahide Laws actually encompass numerous details and applications within hundreds of laws, each with specific applications. One should also keep in mind that these laws are only the minimal basis for a Hasidic gentile’s service to G-d, since there are many Jewish mitzvos that non-Jews are encouraged to adopt to accomplish more. Through these laws a gentile refines himself and the Creation as a whole, fulfilling his purpose for existence.
Visit Noahide.com’s sister site Hasidic University for a detailed listing of the Noahide Laws.
INTENSIFIED CHINESE PREPARATIONS TO SINK US AIRCRAFT CARRIERS
Source: StevenMCollins.com
Previous blogs at this site have documented Chinese preparations to sink the USA’s aircraft carriers in the opening hours of a future Chinese-American war. These preparations have included equipping new Chinese submarines (and perhaps other launch platforms) with new Russian supersonic cruise missiles, having Chinese subs stalk US carriers, etc. The Washington Times National Weekly Edition of May 12, 2008 has revealed another Chinese preparation to sink US carriers.
The link below details that China is deploying an advanced submarine monitoring system underneath the Pacific Ocean to track US submarines. The Chinese system will mimic a similar system already deployed in the Cold War period by the US Navy called the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS ) which monitored the locations of Russian subs in the world’s oceans. The Chinese realize that US attack submarines are deployed with each US aircraft carrier group to protect the carriers from enemy subs. By deploying their own SOSUS system, China hopes to be able to pinpoint where American subs are at the beginning of any conflict so they can destroy US subs and prevent them from protecting US carriers. China is also deploying a number of “over the horizon” radars along the Chinese coast to further locate all US Navy vessels. The article, By Bill Gertz, states that “The radar-sonar network provides the Chinese military with ‘constant air and sea coverage of the western Pacific for the first time, so they can keep a 24-7 trail on American naval assets for the first time.’”
Clearly, China is making every preparation it can for a future war against the USA. Given the numerous media articles about thefts of US military information by Chinese spies, many Chinese military advances are, no doubt, made possible by stolen US technology. Ezekiel 38’s warning that Russia, China, Iran and many other nations will form an alliance which will attack the nations of the modern western world in the latter days of our age is relentlessly heading for a certain fulfillment in the years ahead of us.
In the link below, Bill Gertz also writes that Taiwan, rightly concerned about the massive Communist Chinese military build-up, is seeking to obtain 66 advanced F-16 aircraft from the USA as well as 8 submarines and quantities of Patriot missiles and Apache attack helicopters. The US Defense Department supports the sale of this military equipment to Taiwan. However, the US State Department “wants the sale postponed in order to avoid upsetting China.” President Bush’s National Security Council staff is also reported to be shifting away from supporting Taiwan to “backing Beijing on most policy issues.” Given the historic US policy of supporting Taiwan in any attack on it by Communist China, the US State Department and the White House seem to be betraying Taiwan’s security interests. Why? I think the answer is obvious. The American government and the US economy are hopelessly addicted to profligate spending financed by foreign money, much of it from China (the nation which is openly preparing to wage war on the USA). Proverbs 22:7 states an eternal truth: “the borrower is servant to the lender.” This truth applies to nations as well as people and corporations. The US government increasingly has “servant” status to China because of its chronically self-destructive borrowing and fiscal policies.
It is entirely possible that China is blackmailing the USA re: Taiwan. It can quietly tell President Bush: “Either you stop helping Taiwan or we (A) sell your T-Bonds and T-bills on the open market, (B) refuse to loan you any more money, and (C) stop accepting US dollars in our oil transactions. That’s pretty powerful blackmail! Communist China has the “economic whip hand” over the USA now and it is not afraid to use it.
Bill Gertz also observes in the third item in the link below that in any US-Chinese war over Taiwan, “China’s key strategic goal [is] knocking out the five or more aircraft carrier strike groups that would be rushed to the region near Taiwan in any future conflict.” If the US loses five or more aircraft carrier battle groups in a war over Taiwan, the USA will cease to be a superpower and the US President at the time would likely be impeached for gross negligence in providing for US national defenses.
Let’s hope that the US Navy has advanced defensive weapons systems to defend its carriers against the new Russian/Chinese supersonic cruise missiles which will surely be fired in salvos at US carriers in any future war with China. Ezekiel 38 guarantees that such a war will occur. China is obviously making rapid preparations for it. The USA seems to be asleep to the growing danger. Ezekiel 38:11 also prophesies the nations of the western world will have neglected their defenses at the time this attack occurs. Biblical prophecy for the latter days is proving to be accurate in every detail, which means only a very real and living Creator God can be implementing those prophecies in world geopolitics.
Those desiring abundant evidence that the USA and many western nations are the “house of Israel” (identified as the targeted nations in Ezekiel 38-39) are referred to the author’s books at the book links at this website. Much free information is also available on this subject in the report entitled “What Ezekiel 38-39 Reveal about a Future World War III” (see Articles link at this website)
A Triumph of Life and Hope
Source: Boston Globe
THE BIRTH of the state of Israel 60 years ago this week was an astonishment. It is not unheard of for a nation to vanish from the map and later reappear. Poland, for example, was partitioned out of existence in 1795 and regained its independence in 1918. But the restoration of Israel was unlike anything the world had ever seen.
“And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.”
—Amos 9:14-15
Jews had been deprived of their homeland for nearly 2,000 years, ever since the Roman devastation of Judea in the first and second centuries A.D. That upheaval had been cataclysmic. By the time the fighting ended in 135, half of Judea’s population was dead. Of those who survived, hundreds of thousands were sold into slavery or expelled. Not until the Holocaust 18 centuries later would the Jewish people experience a more shattering catastrophe.
Yet through all the generations of dispersion that followed, the Jews never lost their self-awareness as a nation or their connection to the land of Israel. They expressed their longing for it in daily prayer and turned toward it when they worshiped. They collected charity to support the minority of Jews who had never left the land; and over the years others made their way back as well, often in response to Christian or Muslim persecution. By the 1860s, a majority of Jerusalem’s population was Jewish once more. Zionism – an organized movement to renew Jewish independence in the Jewish homeland – was formally launched in 1897. Five decades later, against steep odds and every historical precedent, Israel was reborn.
It was an incredible achievement, made even more incredible by the fact that it occurred in the wake of a genocide that had wiped out one-third of the Jewish people.
Within hours of declaring its independence, the newborn state of Israel, with a population of just 600,000, was invaded by five Arab armies. They were intent, in the words of Azzam Pasha, secretary-general of the Arab League, on waging a “a war of extermination and a momentous massacre.” The ovens of Treblinka and Auschwitz had barely cooled, and Jews were again being threatened with annihilation. Yet the fledgling state survived and thrived, a triumph of life and hope over the forces of hatred and death.
It was more than an astonishment; it was a miracle. For many, the rebirth of Jewish sovereignty after the blackness of the Holocaust thrillingly evoked Ezekiel’s vision in the valley of dry bones. “These bones are the whole house of Israel,” God had told the prophet. “They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off.’ ” But before Ezekiel’s eyes, the bones reassembled and the skeletons came back to life – and so, God said, will the vanquished and exiled Jews: “Behold, I will . . . raise you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel.” To millions of Christians and Jews, the creation of modern Israel was nothing less than the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. That is part of the reason that a country so tiny – Israel is smaller than Lake Michigan – seems to loom so large.
Under siege since the day it was born, Israel has never known a day of true peace. It is the only nation in the world whose legitimacy is routinely called into question. It still has enemies who want it wiped off the map. Uniquely, the Jewish state came into being with the imprimatur of both the League of Nations and the United Nations. Yet time and again it is told it has no right to exist. Of course that is fatuous; few nations can present a birth certificate as storied as Israel’s. Nonetheless, Israel’s fundamental right to exist doesn’t derive from UN votes, or promises in the Bible, or its own Declaration of Independence.
For the right of statehood ultimately accrues only to those who can fashion and sustain a nation. “The land of Israel belongs to Israelis,” Yale’s David Gelernter wrote in 2002, “for the same reason America belongs to Americans: Because Israelis conceived and built it – and what you create is yours. If you want a homeland, you must create one. You drain swamps, lay out farms, build houses, schools, roads, hospitals . . .
“That’s how America got its homeland. And that is why Israel belongs to the Israelis.”
Israel Is Now America’s Closest Ally
Sources: Washington Post
President George W. Bush will soon make his second visit to Israel in less than six months, this time to celebrate the country’s 60th anniversary. The candidates for the presidency, Republican and Democratic alike, have all traveled to Israel and affirmed their commitment to its security. So have hundreds of congressmen.
“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.”
—Genesis 12:3
American engineers, meanwhile, are collaborating with their Israeli counterparts in developing advanced defense systems. American soldiers are learning antiterrorist techniques from the Israeli army.
Israel is the only Middle Eastern country where the American flag is rarely (if ever) burned in protest – indeed, some Israelis fly that flag on their own independence day. And avenues in major American cities are named for Yitzhak Rabin and Golda Meir. Arguably, there is no alliance in the world today more durable and multifaceted than that between the United States and Israel.
Yet the bonds between the two countries were not always so strong. For much of Israel’s history, America was a distant and not always friendly power.
Consider the period before Israel’s founding in 1948, during the British Mandate over Palestine. Though many Americans, Christians as well as Jews, were committed to building the Jewish national home, their government’s policy was strictly hands-off. Palestine, in Washington’s view, was exclusively Britain’s concern, and the Arab-Jewish conflict was a British headache.
Accordingly, the Roosevelt administration raised no objection to Britain’s 1939 decision to end Jewish immigration into Palestine, sealing off European Jewry’s last escape route from Nazism. The U.S. indifference to Zionism deepened during World War II, when America feared alienating its British allies and angering the Arabs, whose oil had become vital to the war effort. Deferring to British and Arab demands, America confined hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors in displaced-persons camps in Europe rather than let them emigrate to Palestine.
America’s ambivalence toward Zionism persisted after the war, as the battle against Nazism gave way to the anticommunist struggle. While a sizeable majority of Americans welcomed Israel’s creation in May 1948, policy makers in Washington feared that such support would trigger an Arab oil boycott of the West and the Soviet take-over of Europe. Secretary of State George Marshall even warned the president, Harry Truman, that he would not back him for re-election if he recognized the newborn state. An ardent Baptist whose best friend was a Jew, Truman ignored these warnings and made the U.S. the first nation to accord de facto recognition to Israel. But buckling to State and Defense Department pressures, Truman also imposed an arms embargo on Israel during its desperate war of independence. Later, he arm-twisted Israeli leaders to relinquish land to the Arabs and to readmit Palestinian refugees.
Pressure for territorial concessions escalated under Truman’s successor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who also vetoed weapons sales to Israel. His secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, dismissed Israel as “the millstone around our necks,” and threatened it with sanctions during the 1956 Suez Crisis. Israel is home to the Middle East’s largest memorial to John F. Kennedy, but Kennedy similarly refused to sell tanks and planes to Israel, and warned that America’s relationship with the Jewish state would be “seriously jeopardized” by Israel’s nuclear program. Lyndon B. Johnson was the first president to invite an Israeli prime minister, Levi Eshkol, to Washington – 16 years after Israel’s birth – but he then balked at Eshkol’s request for American help against the Arab armies assembling for war in June 1967. “Israel will not be alone unless it decides to go it alone,” Johnson replied, implying that the U.S. would not stand beside Israel militarily.
The Six-Day War nevertheless inaugurated a dramatic change in America’s attitude toward Israel. Israel’s astonishing victory in that conflict instantly transformed the “millstone” into an American asset, a hardy fellow democracy and Cold War ally. Nixon regarded Israel as “the best Soviet stopper in the Mideast,” and furnished the weaponry Israel needed to prevail in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter both ran on platforms highly favorable to Israel, and dedicated themselves to the search for Israel-Arab peace. By the end of the 1970s, an inchoate U.S.-Israeli alliance had emerged, sealed by the existence of a potent pro-Israel lobby in Washington and the extension to Israel of billions of dollars of American aid.
But the relationship was hardly friction-free. Israel’s reluctance to forfeit territories captured in 1967, and its efforts to settle them, became a perennial source of tension. Presidents Ford and Carter threatened to withhold assistance from Israel unless it made territorial concessions. President George H.W. Bush denied Israel loan guarantees for resettling Russian immigrants in the West Bank. Israel’s security policies also jolted the alliance – Ronald Reagan condemned Israel’s bombardment of the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 as well as its siege of Beirut the following year. Americans, in turn, irritated the Israelis with their transfer of sophisticated weapons to Saudi Arabia and their opposition to Israeli arms sales to China.
Such rifts have grown increasingly infrequent, however, and today there are few visible fissures in the U.S.-Israeli front. Yet America has never recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital – imagine if Israel refused to recognize Washington. Powerful interest groups lobby against Israel in Washington while much of American academia and influential segments of the media are staunchly opposed to any association with Israel.
How does the alliance surmount these challenges?
One reason, certainly, is values – the respect for civic rights and the rule of law that is shared by the world’s most powerful republic and the Middle East’s only stable democracy. There is also Israel’s determination to fight terror, and its willingness to share its antiterror expertise. Most fundamentally, though, is the amity between the two countries’ peoples. The admiration which the U.S. inspires among Israelis is overwhelmingly reciprocated by Americans, more than 70% of whom, according to recent polls, favor robust ties with the Jewish state.
No doubt further upheavals await the alliance in the future – as Iran approaches nuclear capability, for example. Israel may act more muscularly than some American leaders might warrant. The impending change of U.S. administration will also have an effect. But such vicissitudes are unlikely to cause a major schism in what has proven to be one of history’s most resilient, ardent and atypical partnerships.
Mr. Oren, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, is the author of “Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present,” now available in paperback from Norton.
Perplexity in the Nations
Distress of Nations
“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity the sea and the waves roaring;”
—Luke 21:25
Perplexity:
”ajpori÷a aporia, ap-or-ee´-a; from the same as 639; a (state of) quandary:—perplexity. 639. ajpore÷w aporeo, ap-or-eh´-o; from a compound of 1 (as a negative particle) and the base of 4198; to have no way out, i.e. be at a loss (mentally): — (stand in) doubt, be perplexed.”
—Strongs 640.
Time To Look Up
“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”
—Luke 21:28
Watch this disturbing video about US immigration policies.
The Economist: The End Of Cheap Food
Source: Economist
Rising food prices are a threat to many; they also present the world with an enormous opportunity
FOR as long as most people can remember, food has been getting cheaper and farming has been in decline. In 1974-2005 food prices on world markets fell by three-quarters in real terms. Food today is so cheap that the West is battling gluttony even as it scrapes piles of half-eaten leftovers into the bin.
That is why this year’s price rise has been so extraordinary. Since the spring, wheat prices have doubled and almost every crop under the sun—maize, milk, oilseeds, you name it—is at or near a peak in nominal terms. The Economist’s food-price index is higher today than at any time since it was created in 1845 (see chart). Even in real terms, prices have jumped by 75% since 2005. No doubt farmers will meet higher prices with investment and more production, but dearer food is likely to persist for years (see article). That is because “agflation” is underpinned by long-running changes in diet that accompany the growing wealth of emerging economies—the Chinese consumer who ate 20kg (44lb) of meat in 1985 will scoff over 50kg of the stuff this year. That in turn pushes up demand for grain: it takes 8kg of grain to produce one of beef.
But the rise in prices is also the self-inflicted result of America’s reckless ethanol subsidies. This year biofuels will take a third of America’s (record) maize harvest. That affects food markets directly: fill up an SUV’s fuel tank with ethanol and you have used enough maize to feed a person for a year. And it affects them indirectly, as farmers switch to maize from other crops. The 30m tonnes of extra maize going to ethanol this year amounts to half the fall in the world’s overall grain stocks.
Dearer food has the capacity to do enormous good and enormous harm. It will hurt urban consumers, especially in poor countries, by increasing the price of what is already the most expensive item in their household budgets. It will benefit farmers and agricultural communities by increasing the rewards of their labour; in many poor rural places it will boost the most important source of jobs and economic growth.
Although the cost of food is determined by fundamental patterns of demand and supply, the balance between good and ill also depends in part on governments. If politicians do nothing, or the wrong things, the world faces more misery, especially among the urban poor. If they get policy right, they can help increase the wealth of the poorest nations, aid the rural poor, rescue farming from subsidies and neglect—and minimise the harm to the slum-dwellers and landless labourers. So far, the auguries look gloomy.
In the trough
That, at least, is the lesson of half a century of food policy. Whatever the supposed threat—the lack of food security, rural poverty, environmental stewardship—the world seems to have only one solution: government intervention. Most of the subsidies and trade barriers have come at a huge cost. The trillions of dollars spent supporting farmers in rich countries have led to higher taxes, worse food, intensively farmed monocultures, overproduction and world prices that wreck the lives of poor farmers in the emerging markets. And for what? Despite the help, plenty of Western farmers have been beset by poverty. Increasing productivity means you need fewer farmers, which steadily drives the least efficient off the land. Even a vast subsidy cannot reverse that.
With agflation, policy has reached a new level of self-parody. Take America’s supposedly verdant ethanol subsidies. It is not just that they are supporting a relatively dirty version of ethanol (far better to import Brazil’s sugar-based liquor); they are also offsetting older grain subsidies that lowered prices by encouraging overproduction. Intervention multiplies like lies. Now countries such as Russia and Venezuela have imposed price controls—an aid to consumers—to offset America’s aid to ethanol producers. Meanwhile, high grain prices are persuading people to clear forests to plant more maize.
Dearer food is a chance to break this dizzying cycle. Higher market prices make it possible to reduce subsidies without hurting incomes. A farm bill is now going through America’s Congress. The European Union has promised a root-and-branch review (not yet reform) of its farm-support scheme. The reforms of the past few decades have, in fact, grappled with the rich world’s farm programmes—but only timidly. Now comes the chance for politicians to show that they are serious when they say they want to put agriculture right.
Cutting rich-world subsidies and trade barriers would help taxpayers; it could revive the stalled Doha round of world trade talks, boosting the world economy; and, most important, it would directly help many of the world’s poor. In terms of economic policy, it is hard to think of a greater good.
Where government help is really needed
Three-quarters of the world’s poor live in rural areas. The depressed world prices created by farm policies over the past few decades have had a devastating effect. There has been a long-term fall in investment in farming and the things that sustain it, such as irrigation. The share of public spending going to agriculture in developing countries has fallen by half since 1980. Poor countries that used to export food now import it.
Reducing subsidies in the West would help reverse this. The World Bank reckons that if you free up agricultural trade, the prices of things poor countries specialise in (like cotton) would rise and developing countries would capture the gains by increasing exports. And because farming accounts for two-thirds of jobs in the poorest countries, it is the most important contributor to the early stages of economic growth. According to the World Bank, the really poor get three times as much extra income from an increase in farm productivity as from the same gain in industry or services. In the long term, thriving farms and open markets provide a secure food supply.
However, there is an obvious catch—and one that justifies government help. High prices have a mixed impact on poverty: they hurt anyone who loses more from dear food than he gains from a higher income. And that means over a billion urban consumers (and some landless labourers), many of whom are politically influential in poor countries. Given the speed of this year’s food-price rises, governments in emerging markets have no alternative but to try to soften the blow.
Where they can, these governments should subsidise the incomes of the poor, rather than food itself, because that minimises price distortions. Where food subsidies are unavoidable, they should be temporary and targeted on the poor. So far, most government interventions in the poor world have failed these tests: politicians who seem to think cheap food part of the natural order of things have slapped on price controls and export restraints, which hurt farmers and will almost certainly fail.
Over the past few years, a sense has grown that the rich are hogging the world’s wealth. In poor countries, widening income inequality takes the form of a gap between city and country: incomes have been rising faster for urban dwellers than for rural ones. If handled properly, dearer food is a once-in-a-generation chance to narrow income disparities and to wean rich farmers from subsidies and help poor ones. The ultimate reward, though, is not merely theirs: it is to make the world richer and fairer.
U.S. Weighing Readiness for Military Action Against Iran
Source: Washington Post
The nation’s top military officer said yesterday that the Pentagon is planning for “potential military courses of action” as one of several options against Iran, criticizing what he called the Tehran government’s “increasingly lethal and malign influence” in Iraq.
“…upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity…”
—Luke 21:25
