Sunday, February 28, 2010

The Ahmadinejad Plague Expands

Syria, Lebanon host Iranian troops, Qatar also willing
DEBKAfile Special Report

Iran further consolidated its anti-US coalition and honed its hard edge against Israel this week with two important defense treaties signed with Syria (covering Lebanon) and Qatar, home to the biggest US air base outside America. These treaties opened doors for Iranian troops to be stationed in all three countries.
According to debkafile's military sources, they are already present in Syria and Lebanon. On this high note, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syrian president Bashar Assad and Hizballah chief Hassan Nasrallah, Thursday, Feb. 25, wound up their talks in Damascus - to which Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal was co-opted - on joint military preparations for a Middle East war. That day too, Israel completed a five-day command exercise against a possible four-front assault by the Tehran-led coalition.
Our sources reveal that after his talks, the Shiite Iranian president made the extraordinary gesture towards the Arab countries he is wooing by attending a two-hour prayer session with Assad at a Sunni mosque in Damascus. Asked about his Shiite sensitivities, Ahmad said, "We are all one Ummah."
Together with Nasrallah, the pair later appeared before the press to scoff at US policies, celebrate their friendship and predict Israel's early annihilation, the day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a U.S. Senate subcommittee the United States had recently urged Syria to "begin to move away" from Iran following the appointment of its first ambassador to Damascus in five years. Ultimately, she said, the United States expects Assad to curb his ties with Iran and his support for militant groups like the Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Hamas, based in the Gaza Strip. Assad drew laughs when he told the correspondents that he and Ahmadinejad had just signed "a separation accord, but because of a bad translation "we ended up signing an accord scrapping visas.
(It doesn't sound to me like Hillary Clinton is taken seriously. I know I don't.)

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Saturday, February 27, 2010

So Much for a Reasonable Discussion!




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Friday, February 26, 2010

In Israeli Calls a Hard Look at Reality: War is Coming!


This Op-Ed piece from the Jerusalem Post speaks for itself. No commentary needed.
The Winds of Middle East War
By MICHAEL FREUND 24/02/2010 22:31
Israel needs to draw more attention to the saber-rattling of our neighbors, and highlight their more violent recent rhetoric.


Something is stirring in the Middle East. The winds of war are blowing, picking up speed with each passing day, and the threat to Israel is growing steadily more alarming.All around us, trouble - major trouble - appears to be brewing, and it is time we open our eyes and confront the dangers that may lie ahead.
From Beirut and Damascus in the north to Teheran in the east, and back to Gaza in the south, the "arc of hate" surrounding the Jewish state is speaking openly and brazenly of conflict and destruction.Israel's foes have launched increasingly fiery verbal volleys in recent weeks, in what appears to be a coordinated campaign to heighten tensions in the region.
With pressure mounting on Iran over its nuclear program, and the threat of stricter sanctions in the air, Israel needs to be on guard and alert.Consider the following. On February 3, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem brashly told reporters: "Don't test the determination of Syria, you Israelis. You know that war this time would move to your cities." Even among Israel's detractors in the Western media, Muallem's remarks caused a stir, with ABC News noting that, "The threatening language implied Syria would be willing and able to target Israeli population centers with long-range missiles in a conflict. It was the first time such a threat had been made."That very same day, Muallem's boss, Syrian President Bashar Assad, also turned up the heat, saying that Israel is "pushing the region toward war".
On February 16, Hizbullah thug-in-chief Hassan Nasrallah made similar threats, taking Muallem and Assad's rhetoric one step further by warning that Israel's infrastructure and cities would be targeted in the event of war."If you hit Dahiyeh, we will hit Tel Aviv. If you strike Martyr Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, we'll strike your Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv," he said, adding that, " If you hit our ports, we will hit your ports. If you attack our refineries, we'll attack your refineries. If you bomb our factories, we'll bomb your factories." Two days later, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke with Nasrallah by telephone and reportedly encouraged him to make sure that Hizbullah is ready for a confrontation with Israel.
The tyrant of Teheran told Nasrallah that, "this readiness must be at a level that they [the Zionists] will be finished off and the region will be rid of them forever." And earlier this week, in an address broadcast live Tuesday on Iranian state television, Ahmadinejad again vowed to destroy Israel, saying that, "If these criminals make the mistake again, the regional countries need to eradicate them once and for all."
IT IS easy, and somewhat tempting, to dismiss all this as more of the same hate-filled harangues which our neighbors frequently like to hurl our way. But a report the other day in the Saudi newspaper Okaz would seem to belie such wishful thinking. According to the paper, Ahmadinejad will soon visit Damascus to meet with Assad, Nasrallah and Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal.
In light of the brazen threats being made against Israel by the participants, such a convocation starts to look more like a council of war, rather than just another routine gathering of terror chieftains. Indeed, on January 31, US National Security Adviser James Jones warned that Iran might very well choose to lash out at Israel in the coming months. Speaking to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Jones said, "When regimes are feeling pressure, as Iran is internally and will externally in the near future, it often lashes out through its surrogates, including, in Iran's case, Hizbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. As pressure on the regime in Teheran builds over its nuclear program," he said, "there is a heightened risk of further attacks against Israel." This turn of events should give us all pause.After all, back in 2006, Iran provoked the outbreak of war in Lebanon to send a message to Israel and the US and divert attention from its nuclear progress. They might very well now be planning Act 2, viewing this as their trump card in order to prevent an attack on their nuclear installations.
It is therefore essential that the Jewish state take steps to confront such a dire possibility. This means moving aggressively to impede weapons shipments to terrorists in places such as Gaza, shutting down their supply routes and maintaining the closure of the area.In the public sphere, Israel needs to draw more attention to the saber-rattling of our neighbors, and highlight their progressively more violent rhetoric. For if the threat of war continues to mount, and diplomacy fails to defuse it, then the government may end up with no choice but to consider preemptive measures. The Second Lebanon War showed us the perils inherent in indecisiveness and delay, and we dare not allow our foes once again to dictate the rules or timing of future conflicts.
It is therefore essential that international pressure be brought to bear on Damascus and Teheran to cease and desist from driving the region toward greater instability.Our enemies may leave us with no choice but to fight, and we should hope and pray this will not be the case. The last thing anyone wants or needs is another conflict in this part of the world.Either way, we had better awaken from our slumber now, and prepare ourselves for the challenges that may lie ahead.The way the winds are currently blowing, the storm might very well be just around the corner.


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Thursday, February 25, 2010

Mahmoud and Bashar: Together Again




As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad paid a visit to his #1 Lackey, Bashar Assad in Damascus. What do you suppose they visited about?
One thing we can be certain of; Ahmadinejad says what he believes when it comes to proving his manhood...or intention in the region. He is a crafty little guy...and he is smarter than the POTUS! READ the article below from the Jerusalem Post. Listen to his words. Notice the countries he mentions as being ready to go to war with Israel. READ your Bible and see if it doesn't line up to the prophetic Word. Then tell me I'm goofy. (Well, withhold that last part:)
Ahmadinejad Craves Zionist-free Middle East
By AP and JPOST.COM Staff
The United States should pack up and leave the Middle East and stay out of regional affaris, Iran's president said Thursday during a visit to Damascus that follows a string of US efforts to break Syria's 30-year alliance with Teheran.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Arab nations will usher in a new Middle East "without Zionists and without colonialists."
"The Americans want to dominate the region by they feel Iran and Syria are preventing that,"Ahmadinejad said during a news conference with Syrian President Bashar Assad. "We tell them that instead of interfering in the region's affairs, to pack their things and leave."
He said that "if the Zionest regime wants to repeat its past mistakes, this will constitute its demise and annihilation."
Ahmadinejad said Iran, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon will stand against Israel.
Assad signaled his strong support of Iran, saying America's stance on Iran "is a new situation of colonialism in the region."
A string of high-profile visits to Damascus in recent months--from the US, France, and now Iran--shows Syria's strategic importance in the Middle East.
US President Barrak Obama is determined to engage with Syria, a country seen as key to peace in the region but which the State Department has long considered a state sponsor of terrorism.
The Iranian President then went on to summon all terrorist groups that Iran sponsors, including the leaders of Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, to meet together in Teheran on Saturday, February 27th, to finalize their roles in military operations against Israel in the event of a Middle East conflagration. This meeting will include the actual heads of state from Syria, Lebanon, and other countries in the region that remain unnamed.
I can almost see them laughing as they watch Barrack and Hillary stomping their feet and throwing a fit because Ahmadinejad and Assad just won't sit down and talk with them. They mock us using terms of colonialism. Pardon me, but we need to take a real big stick and smack them both over the top of the head....then call it colonialism. We should deal with bullies who kill innocent people who get in the way, and we should do it as a bigger bully of justice! But, of course, we won't. The meeting scheduled for Saturday is nothing less than a challenge for Israel and the United States to put up, or shut up. Amazin!



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Wednesday, February 24, 2010

A Hoodwinked Syria

Yesterday, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran (pronounced "Imanutjob") announced that any attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would result in the Great Satan getting his hand slapped, and Israel being destroyed once and for all. Immediately after the speech, Ahmadinejad left for a visit to Damascus for what their spokesmen have called coordination talks between their two governments.
According to debkafile’s Iranian and military sources, their conversation will focus on how to implement the secret military pact their two governments signed in December 2009, which commits each, as well as co-signatories Hizballah of Lebanon and the Palestinian Hamas, to come to the other’s aid if any is attacked by the United States or Israel.
debkafile’s sources in Damascus report that Ahmadinejad put in three phone calls to President Assad, Lebanese President General Michel Suleiman and Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah to warn them that “Iran has reliable information (...) that the Zionist regime is after finding a way to compensate for the ridiculous defeats it suffered by the people of Gaza and Lebanon’s Hizballah.” He added: “Should the Zionist regime repeat its mistakes and initiate a military operation, then it must be resisted with full force to put an end to it once and for all.”
He promised Iran would come to Syria and Hizballah’s aid, should they come under Israeli attack, but left them with the impression that Tehran placed the onus of bringing about Israel's downfall "once and for all" squarely on the shoulders of Syria and Hizballah. Iran would not necessarily fight alongside them.

Will Iran come to the aide of Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestinians? Not according to the Bible. Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia are all listed in what I call an "INNER RING" war. These nations, known by the ancient peoples that inhabited the land, are listed in important passages like:

Psalm 83, Isaiah, 17, Jeremiah 12, Ezekiel 25 & 36, Zephaniah 2, Zechariah 9, and Obadiah 15-18. Notice that these nations that surround Israel will be completely defeated "by the hand of my people Israel" and that it will happen "from the evening until the morning of the next day." KABOOM!

It is important to note that Iran (Persia) will catch the full brunt of God's intervention found in Ezekiel 38-39, known as the Gog and Magog War. The nations are completely different in what I call the OUTER RING war. Notice that these nations will converge on the mountains of Israel with no one coming to Israel's aide except Jehovah. The Lord will cause the bad stuff to happen, and all Israel will know that HE is the LORD.

So, the answer is NO...Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and the other inner ring nations are about to pick an ill-fated fight, and IRAN WILL NOT COME TO THEIR AIDE!


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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

It Would be Funny if it Weren't So Sad

This same basic philosophy of political correctness and global equality is the driving force behind everything our President is, thinks, and does. This includes his foreign policy.
Have you noticed lately, that our "rules of engagement" are tying the military's hand behind its back, while the enemy laughs and mocks?
Gosh: We sure don't want those terrorists to feel bad about us!
Is it any wonder that Iran thumbs it's nose at the White House?


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Monday, February 22, 2010

And the BEAT Goes On

The drumbeat never ends. Form a Palestinian State by any means. Take and security from Israel. Don't make the Palestinians throw out the terrorists!
Am I against the Palestinians? By no means. I'm against the mindset of those who control them...the mindset that says Israel must be driven into the sea, the mindset that claims Israel does not want peace when it has made concession after concession after concession. What has Israel received in return? More demands....and lots of rockets launched into civilian populations. If they hadn't constructed a wall between Israel and the West Bank, suicide bombers would still be doing their thing!
"Will there eventually be a dividing of the land?" you ask. YES! You can read about it in Joel chapter 3. How will it end? Armageddon! READ ON

Sarkozy, Abbas urge rapid renewal of Mideast peace talks
By DPA

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called Monday for the rapid resumption of negotiations that will lead to a Palestinian state. Following a meeting of the two leaders in Paris, Sarkozy said that he would work for the creation of "a modern, viable Palestinian state" which, like Israel, would have Jerusalem as its capital and which would be drawn up according to the borders of 1967. In addition, any solution to the Mideast crisis must also include a discussion on the fate of the Palestinian refugees, the French president said.

The created Palestinian state must be "modern, viable, democratic," Sarkozy added. However, he played down a proposal by his Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, who said in a weekend interview that "one could envisage the rapid proclamation of a Palestinian state and its immediate recognition by the international community." Such a move, said Sarkozy, would be impractical without internationally-recognized borders. "We have always said we want a viable Palestinian state," he said. Abbas said a unilateral declaration of statehood would be undertaken only "in accordance with European nations and the United States." Abbas also said that it was important to overcome the rift between his government and the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip, and that the only way out of the rift would be democratic elections. Sarkozy said he would discuss the situation in the Mideast with US President Barack Obama at the end of March, when he and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, travel to Washington on a state visit. "We are working hand in hand with the Americans, he said.




What bothers me most is how the West continues to believe that the resolution of the Palestinian issue will intice Iran to back off it's intention to become a nuclear state. Forgive me, but the Palestinian issue is only an excuse. Iran will do what it will do because the Jews possess the land that Muslims occupied for a period of time. According to the Koran, taking back the land that they claim as belonging to Ishmael qualifies as JIHAD. That's my take on the situation. Take it or take it not, that is the question.

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Sunday, February 21, 2010

I Don't Get It....Whatever "IT" Is




Forgive me for my ignorance.

Either I don't get it.
Someone is either confused (could be me), or is simply scratching the top of his head in wonder. But I thought sanctions were a good thing...at least stemming from the goofy logic that exists in Washington.
Well......Are Sanctions Good or Bad? Should we apply them, or should we not? You cannot have it both ways. You can't go on a no-carbohydrate diet, and then turn and eat cake unless you are either too weak to diet, or too self-deceived to see your lack of common sense.
Sanctions or No Sanctions......That is the question! (My wife is reading Shakespeare:)
Evidently, the dems in Washington are too wishy-washy to figure it out. Or, could it be that without a true moral foundation and direction they have no consistency of policy. What am I talking about? READ THIS...blurted from the mouth of a Democrat US Representative and see if jives with Obama's lackadaisical push for sanctions against Iran. As far as I see it, Hamas (Iran's lackeys) are making the same attempt as Iran to obliterate the Jewish State. So, why should we apply sanctions against Mahmoud, and then run the Israeli blockaide against Hamas so we can deliver food to rocket-launching, Islamic radicals in the Gaza Strip? Go figure.



Congressman calls for US to circumvent
Israeli Gaza blockade
By HAVIV RETTIG GUR 21/02/2010
Rep. Brian Baird compares Strip to Berlin Blockade after third visit to Gaza since Hamas took


Rep. Brian Baird, a Democrat from Washington state, called on the Obama administration on Friday to “circumvent” Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.Baird spoke in Jerusalem after a two-day visit to Gaza, his third since Hamas took over the territory in 2007.
The US should circumvent Israel’s blockade, “much like we did when we circumvented the Berlin Blockade,” he said. “We would accomplish this using roll-on/off ships supplying the needed material for Palestinians to rebuild their society.”
Baird criticized Israel for being too stringent in its blockade, which he said “was established so that contraband weapons and equipment used for rockets to shell Israel will not enter Gaza. “While there are foodstuffs entering Gaza, the shipments are tightly controlled and items such as tomato paste and pasta are sometimes restricted by the Israelis. Palestinians cannot rebuild their homes, their schools, their hospitals because they cannot import the cement needed to complete the projects. They cannot build sewage systems and prevent 55 million metric meters of sewage flow into the Mediterranean because the Israelis limit the amount of construction materials into Gaza.”
He also called for US special envoy George Mitchell to visit Gaza “to determine first-hand humanitarian needs.”
Israel has rejected Baird’s call, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor telling CNN that he wondered whether Baird’s support for a Berlin-like breaking of the blockade would have extended to a Berlin under the control of Nazi Germany. The best way to help Gaza residents, Palmor said, was “to get rid of those who took power in a bloody coup and now rule there with the bayonet.”
My Suggestion.......find a consistent policy and stick with it.....unless, of course, it's the wrong policy. Sanctions are the wrong policy, in my opinion. A big stick would work far better.
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Friday, February 19, 2010

These Baseless Accusations Against Peace-Loving Iran Must Stop! Yeah, Right!



Please Take NOTE: The blog title has a hint of sarcasm!
As you are surely aware of by now, the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, has finally decided that Iran IS doing everything it can to develop nuclear weapons and may actually be building a bomb right now.
Do ya s'pose? (Again, that was misspelled sarcasm.) And, of course, the Obama administration (not sarcasm) immediately reiterated the need for stepped up efforts to apply harsh sanctions. Again I ask.........NORTH KOREA? How'd that work for ya? (With Sarah Palin's accent.)
If that isn't enough to increase your jocularity, try this one.
The supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said this in response to the IAEA report....
"The West's accusations are baseless because our religious beliefs bar us from using such weapons ... we do not believe in atomic weapons and are not seeking that."

The most difficult thing to swallow will be how the Obama administration will probably take the good Ayatollah at his word! Which one of the two is the greater fool?

What to be watching for:
1. Remarks that downplay the situation on the part of the White House
2. Little reaction from Israel.....which in my opinion would indicate that the Israelis have made the decision to pursue sanctions at the pointed end of a bomb.
3. Russia acting all incensed, but only slapping Iran's radioactive hands. After all, it is their money, their scientists, and their prompting that has put the world in this situation.
4. Further moves by Iran to act like they are ready to comply with international demands, particularly setting dates for inspections. They are simply buying time.
5. Look up, Jesus may shout for your quick exit from the planet anytime now. But if not, keep occupying hearts and minds with the gospel until he comes.

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Thursday, February 18, 2010

Fanning the Flame!

Ahmadinejad vows to stand by Hizbullah

The Associated Press reported told that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that if Israel launches a new war against Hizbullah, the terror group should retaliate strongly enough to "close their case once and for all."
Ahmadinejad's comments took place in a conversation with Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, and they are the latest in a heated, tit-for-tat, exchange of rhetoric between Israel and Iran's lackey states, Lebanon and Syria. All sides have been warning each other not to start a war.
Speaking by phone, Ahmadinejad urged Nasrallah to prepare his fighters to be able to retaliate strongly against any Israeli attack. "The people of Iran will stand by the peoples of Lebanon and the region in this," he said.
Iran is a key supporter of Hizbullah, having funneled millions of dollars in aide and weapons into the hands of the terrorist organization. Hizbullah is closely allied to Syria and claims it now has rockets capable of striking every major Israeli city.
In a speech aired nationally in Lebanon this week, Nasrallah vowed that if Israel attacks again, his fighters would retaliate in kind, striking Tel Aviv or Ben-Gurion Airport on the city's outskirts. Lebanon's prime minister also warned of "escalating" Israeli war threats and vowed Lebanon would support Hizbullah in any conflict. In recent blogs, I have document how the Obama Administration has re-armed Lebanon, meaning US weapons and armor would be used against Israel should war break out.
The question is how far will the rhetoric go before the actual shooting war prophesied in Psalm 83, Isaiah 17, Ezekiel 25, Jeremiah 12, Zephaniah 2, and Zechariah 9 breaks out? We shall see!
In the meantime, "May the peace of God that surpasses comprehension guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus!"



GREAT NEWS! For those who've been asking about my second book in the Lightning Chronicles Trilogy, A Gathering STORM --- The editing and format process will be completed this weekend. Printing and availability is getting closer to reality. I will let you know the second you can order!

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

They Run with the Strong Horse

Columnist Daniel Pipes offers a thought-provoking look at the fundamental flaw in how the West is attempting to deal with Radical Islam.

The violence and cruelty of Arabs often perplexes Westerners. Not only does the leader of Hizbullah proclaim “We love death,” but so too does, for example, a 24-year-old man who last month yelled “We love death more than you love life” as he crashed his car on the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge in New York City.

As parents in St. Louis honor-killed their teenage daughter with 13 stabs of a butcher’s knife, the Palestinian father shouted “Die! Die quickly! Die quickly! ... Quiet, little one! Die, my daughter, die!” – and the local Arab community supported them against murder charges.

A prince from Abu Dhabi recently tortured a grain dealer whom he accused of fraud; despite a video of the atrocity appearing on television internationally, the prince was acquitted while his accusers were convicted.

On a larger scale, one accounting finds 15,000 terrorist attacks since 9/11. Governments throughout the Arabic-speaking countries rely more on brutality than on the rule of law. The drive to eliminate Israel still persists even as new insurrections take hold; the latest one has flared up in Yemen.

In his book, The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations, Middle East correspondent Lee Smith, takes as his proof text Osama bin Laden’s comment in 2001, “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse.”

What Smith calls the strong-horse principle contains two banal elements: Seize power and then maintain it. This principle predominates because Arab public life has “no mechanism for peaceful transitions of authority or power sharing, and therefore [it] sees political conflict as a fight to the death between strong horses.” Violence, Smith observes, is “central to the politics, society, and culture of the Arabic-speaking Middle East.” It also, more subtly, implies keeping a wary eye on the next strong horse, triangulating and hedging bets.

Smith argues that the strong-horse principle, not Western imperialism or Zionism, “has determined the fundamental character of the Arabic-speaking Middle East.” The Islamic religion itself both fits into the ancient pattern of strong-horse assertiveness and then promulgates it. Muhammad, the Islamic prophet, was a strongman as well as a religious figure. Sunni Muslims have ruled over the centuries “by violence, repression, and coercion.” Ibn Khaldun’s famous theory of history amounts to a cycle of violence in which strong horses replace weak ones. The humiliation of dhimmis daily reminds non-Muslims who rules.

Smith’s prism offers insights into modern Middle East history. He presents Pan-Arab nationalism as an effort to transform the mini-horses of the national states into a single super-horse and Islamism as an effort to make Muslims powerful again.

Israel serves as “a proxy strong horse” for both the US and for the Saudi-Egyptian bloc in the latter’s cold-war rivalry with Iran’s bloc. In a strong-horse environment, militias appeal more than do elections. Lacking a strong horse, Arab liberals make little headway. The US being the most powerful non-Arab and non-Muslim state makes anti-Americanism both inevitable and endemic.

WHICH BRINGS us to policies by non-Arab actors: unless they are forceful and show true staying power, Smith stresses, they lose. Being nice – say, withdrawing unilaterally from southern Lebanon and Gaza – leads to inevitable failure. Walid Jumblatt, a Lebanese leader, has half-seriously suggested that Washington “send car bombs to Damascus” to get its message across and signal its understanding of Arab ways.
Smith’s simple and near-universal principle provides a tool to comprehend the Arabs’ cult of death, honor killings, terrorist attacks, despotism, warfare and much else. He acknowledges that the strong-horse principle may strike Westerners as ineffably crude, but he correctly insists on its being a cold reality that outsiders must recognize, take into account, and respond to.


I reiterate my opinion that America's current philosophy in dealing with radicalized Islamic regimes like Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinians totally misses the realities mentioned above. The only way these regimes will back down is when they are slapped down! That sounds harsh, but we live in a harsh world.

However, looking at the situation as a Bible-believing, Christianized follower of the one true Messiah, there are some other principles we can apply. Here they are.


1. God loved the (entire) world so much, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever (Muslim, Jew, or any other Heathen) believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.

2. We are called to pray for our enemies! (That doesn't mean we shouldn't defend freedom and militarily discourage their attempt to take over the world.) However, prayer changes things.

3. We are called to share the gospel (see #1) to everyone, including Muslims, Jews, and any other Heathen. (By the way, we were once a member of heathenry)

4. Pray for the PEACE of Jerusalem! In other words, pray for the arrival of the Prince of Peace to the Planet.


Stay alert! Things are quickly moving to a defining moment, not only in the Middle East, but for the entire world.



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Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Running A Red Light for Survival

From the Jerusalem Post
Will Israel Run Obama's Red Light on Iran?
By AMIR MIZROCH 15/02/2010
If the US gives Israel a firm red, the gov’t will have to approach the oncoming fateful intersection with extreme caution.

It is symbolic that the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff chose Valentine’s Day to come here to talk about the meaning of the color red. It is a passionate color that can lead to violence and warfare, or it can signal a love that transcends time, a true bond. It is the banner that leads the troops to war; and a warning of danger up ahead. Red is the color of blood, courage and sacrifice, love, life and death.
The thinking within the Israeli military community is that when the chips are down, at the precise moment when Israel believes it has no choice but to attack Iran and no better operational window within which to do it, the US cannot stand in Israel’s way, cannot give Jerusalem a red light.As so many observers of Israeli drivers’ traffic habits can attest to, a red light does not always mean you can’t drive through it. There are terrible risks involved, there may be collisions, pileups and casualties, but if you need to get to the other side, then nobody is going to stop you. In some parts of the world, you can even turn at red lights if there is no oncoming traffic.
There are some lines allies don’t cross with each other, and there are others that simply need to be crossed, with all the genuine sadness and acceptance of consequences that comes with crossing them. America won’t want Israel to fly through its red light all the way to Natanz, Isfahan and other such sites, placing its troops in the region in danger of Iranian retaliation, and scuttling President Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world.Some say that even if America gave Israel an explicit red light against attacking Iran, and Israel drove through it, nobody would believe that the US hadn’t given Jerusalem a green light, or even a yellow light.
Russia won’t want Israel to fly through its red light to Bushehr, which it is currently building at an enormous profit. Israel won’t want Russia to cross a red light and deliver the fearsome S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to the Iranians. But if the Russians feel that they simply must cross that red light (the Iranians have already paid for the system, at enormous profit to Moscow) then they’ll cross it, and Israel will have to find a way around the S-300, which will be, at the end of the day, just another technical puzzle to solve, like so many others.
But what would happen to US-Israel ties if Israel flew through a US red light to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities? Not much, according to one school of thought. While officials in the US administration would cry foul and may even impose some penalties, some experts argue that popular American opinion would be understanding of Israel, even sympathetic.
Even were US forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Gulf to bear the brunt of an Iranian retaliation over an Israeli attack, most Americans, so the thinking goes, wouldn’t turn that into a major issue. Most Americans are even now oblivious to the fact that 15,000 of their soldiers have launched a massive offensive against the Taliban.
However, many experts believe that Israel will not drive through an explicit American red light. That would simply be too great a risk. If, hypothetically, it did, the consequences would be strategically catastrophic for Israel.What would happen if Israel violated an American red light may hinge on the results of an attack on Iran. If the attack resembles the 2007 bombing of the Syrian nuclear reactor, which was destroyed, eliciting no Syrian response, the strategic alliance between Jerusalem and Washington may hold firm at some levels, and even recover over time.
However, if the mission is not a clear-cut success, if Iran’s nuclear march is not halted or significantly set back, if the Iranian people unite behind their increasingly illegitimate regime, if Iran strikes out and severely harms American troops in the region, if America’s Gulf allies are overrun and if world oil prices shoot up and stay up, then there is a strong possibility Washington could decide Israel is a country that is not entitled to American support.
Israel could lose its best friend in the world. America could withdraw its support for Israel in the Security Council, where Israel will face severe diplomatic fallout, and even sanctions. America could halt military assistance to Israel. Then we would truly be all alone in the world.
How would Obama react? He has been seeking broad consensus for sanctions against the Revolutionary Guards, which controls Iran’s nuclear weapons program and much of the country’s economy. He wants more time for these sanctions to work. He has just appointed an envoy to the Muslim world to be emissary to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. He has launched an offensive in Afghanistan, is getting increasingly embroiled in Pakistan, and has promised to withdraw American troops from Iraq. He has a lot to lose in an Israeli strike on Iran.
At the end of the day, it may all come down to how clear and explicit the American red light to Israel is. If President Obama looks Prime Minister Netanyahu in the eyes and says, “Absolutely not,” then it will be extremely unlikely Israel will attack Iran. But in politics and diplomacy, there are many different ways of saying no, many different ways of interpreting a “no,” many different shades of red. Sometimes things are not so cut-and-dry, red is not always black and white.But the parade of US officials here will be reminding their Israeli counterparts that red is a primary color, not made up of some green, some yellow and some white. It is not magenta, it is not crimson. If the Americans give Israel a firm red, in the clearest possible terms, and they really mean it, then there is no room for constructive ambiguity, and those in the driver’s seat of Israel’s car will have to approach the oncoming fateful intersection with extreme caution.

My Commentary:
Obama's "NO" had better not mean "NO," and the he'd better not abandon Israel if Netanyhu is forced to defy him. Just sayin'!


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Monday, February 15, 2010

A Fundamental Misunderstanding of the Issue

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warns: "US will not stand by while Iran pursues nuclear program."

Clinton said Monday that Iran is becoming a military dictatorship, a new US accusation in the midst of rising tensions with Iran over its nuclear ambitions and crack down on anti-government protesters. Speaking to Arab students at Carnegie Mellon's Doha campus, Clinton said Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps appears to have gained so much power that it effectively is supplanting the government." Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship," she said. "That is our view."
On the surface, Clinton's assessment is understandable. The problem is she is developing that assessment by mistakenly assuming that Iran's government is bases on a democratic, freely elected system similar to ours. It is not, nor has it ever been. This is the flaw in the Obama/Clinton way of viewing US policy toward Iran. They mistakenly believe that there is a separation between civilian leadership and military hierarchy. This is wrong!
Iran suffers from a RADICALIZED religious dictatorship that not only controls the major elements of the government and the Iranian media, but also controls the military. Radicalism permeates the system, from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, all the way to the lowly private goosestepping his way down the streets of Iran on Revolution Day. The military's assumption of power is being purposefully guided by Khamenei, the Imams, and Ahmadinejad in order to squelch the protests of those who truly seek a free society...a group that Obama has refused to bolster!
What are the goals of Iran's Radicalized Religious government?
1. The forced Islamification of the planet.
Jewish expert, Dore Gold said this; Iran's crossing the nuclear threshold and acquiring nuclear weapons will have global implications that have unfortunately not been fully recognized. This will not be another case like that of Pakistan or North Korea. The Islamic Republic is truly a revolutionary regime that wants to re-shape not only the Middle East but world politics as a whole. In this spirit, General Jafari, commander of the Revolutionary Gaurd, told his officers in 2008: "Our Imam did not limit the movement of the Islamic Revolution to this country, but drew greater horizons."
2. The removal of the Great Satan (the USA)
Will Iran transfer its nuclear weapons to terrorist groups? Of course! In 1983, when Iran ordered the attack on the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, its operatives created the largest non-nuclear explosion that had ever been detonated on the face of the Earth. Tehran was determined to evict the U.S. from Lebanon to consolidate its control. Today, Iran is showing no reluctance to transfer to its terrorist arm, Hezbollah, nor is it reticent in its establishment of relations with rogue states like Venezuela. If Iran develops nuclear weapons, you can be sure it will develop Hezbollah-like groups in places like Venezuela and El Salvador. Hugo Chavez is salivating for the opportunity.
3. The restoration of the Holy Land into the hands of Muslims by destroying the State of Israel!
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei once told the former Spanish prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, in a private audience in 2001 that it was Iran's goal "to set Israel on fire." This was not rhetoric for public consumption. It was stated years before when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his declarations to the same effect. This drumbeat continues. Yesterday, Ahmadinejad said Israel was on the verge of "annihilation".
4. If the above cannot be done by current means, a cataclysmic war will be instigated in order to usher in the ultimate conqueror, the Mahdi.
In fact, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is convinced this is his calling. He is the Islamic forerunner to messiah much like John the Baptist was for Jesus. The only difference? John baptized with water. Ahmadinejad wants to baptize with radioactive fire.
The approach of the Obama Administration to seek multi-lateral sanctions against Iran will not work! It hasn't worked to convert Cuba into a democratic republic, it certainly will not work for those who see suffering and martyrdom as points of merit for eternal reward. What Iran should be seeing is unified strength...and a military strike or two coming from the West. What Iran wants is a continued limp-wristed response (from Hillary of course), and a unilateral military strike against its facilities by Israel. Then, Caddie-bar-the door!
Nothing like backing ourselves into a mess! However, always remember that God is orchestrating these events! His purpose is much bigger than that of the nutjob in Iran.



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Sunday, February 14, 2010

Just Sayin'


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Saturday, February 13, 2010

A Voice to be Dealt With, or Listened To

This Op-Ed article from the Jerusalem Post speaks for itself. I am endorsing no candidate or movement, but Caroline Glick has captured the impetus of Sarah Palin's impact on politics in the USA.
Sarah Palin’s Friendship
By CAROLINE GLICK

Hers is the strongest single American voice opposing Obama’s foreign policy, supporting Israel and denying Iran nuclear weapons.


US President Barack Obama is an inept, incompetent leader. More than his failure to pass his domestic agenda on health care and global warming despite his Democratic Party’s control over both houses of Congress, Iran’s announcement on Thursday that it is a nuclear power and has the capacity to produce weapons-grade uranium is a testament to Obama’s feckless incompetence. Even his most ardent supporters are admitting this.
Take The New York Times. In a news analysis Thursday of Obama’s failure to prevent Iran from advancing with its nuclear program, David Sanger wrote that for the US president, the last year has been “a year in which little in his dealings with Iran has gone the way that the White House expected.” Since Obama first announced his wish to sit down with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at a Democratic presidential candidates’ debate in the spring of 2008, the 44th US president’s only strategy for dealing with Iran has been to appease its leaders. And as of Tuesday, he still believes that ingratiating himself with the regime is his best bet.On Tuesday, Obama wouldn’t admit that appeasement has failed, even as all of Iran’s top leaders said they were expanding their illicit uranium enrichment activities. The most he would do was acknowledge that the regime’s leaders “have made their choice so far, although the door is still open.” As for sanctions, well, Obama said it will take “several weeks” to put those together at the UN.
The distressing truth is that Obama’s aim has never been to prevent Teheran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. His whole “sanctions-if-engagement-fails” strategy is just a ruse. The Obama administration has never intended to place biting sanctions on Iran. As one senior administration official told The New York Times, the purpose of the sanctions talk is to get the Iranians to agree to negotiate. As he put it, “This is about driving them back to negotiations, because the real goal here is to avoid war.” Got that? As far as Obama is concerned, Iran with nuclear weapons isn’t the main concern. Israel using force to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons is the main concern.
US PRESIDENTS have a far freer hand in foreign policy than they have in domestic affairs. A president’s ability to implement his domestic agenda is constrained by Congress. Congress has much less of a say in foreign policy. But the main constraining factor for a US president in both domestic and foreign affairs is public opinion.Over the past year, Obama failed to pass his domestic agenda even though he enjoyed governing majorities in both houses of Congress, because the public opposed his agenda. So, too, if the public is able to express its opposition to his foreign policy, particularly as it relates to Israel and Iran, he will be unable to sustain it.
To date, in light of his sinking approval ratings, the main thing Obama has had going for him is that since the presidential election, his political opponents have lacked a leader capable of uniting his opponents around an alternative path. Over the past week, that leader may have emerged.On Saturday, former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin gave the keynote address at the Tea Party Movement convention in Nashville, Tennessee. As she did in the presidential campaign, Palin electrified her audience in Nashville by credibly channeling the populist impulses of American voters. In her signature line she asked, “So how’s that hopey changey stuff working out for ya?” Palin excoriated Obama on his handling of US foreign policy. Among other things, she noted that a year into his quest to appease dictators, America’s international standing is in shambles. “Israel, a friend and a critical ally, now questions the strength of our support,” she added.Palin bellowed that on issues of foreign policy, there is no room for self-delusion. As she put it, “National security, that’s the one place where you’ve got to call it like it is.” And then, “We need a foreign policy that distinguishes America’s friends from her enemies and recognizes the true nature of the threats that we face.”
If her address wasn’t enough to convince Americans – and specifically American Jews – that Palin thinks supporting Israel and standing up to Iran are the keys to US national security, then there was her interview on Fox News Sunday. Asked how Obama can win reelection in 2012, Palin responded, “Say he decided to declare war on Iran or decided really to come out and do whatever he could to support Israel, which I would like him to do.”And if that still isn’t enough, there is her lapel pin. The politician who leads the populist opposition to Obama decided to make her most important speech since the 2008 election wearing a pin featuring the US flag and the Israeli flag.Palin, who is considering a run in the 2012 Republican presidential primaries, is using her public platforms to reassemble the coalition of security hawks, social conservatives and blue collar workers that propelled Ronald Reagan to the White House in 1980. Her support for Israel serves her in building support among both security hawks and social conservatives.Unlike Obama’s empty protestations of support for Israel, Palin’s support is obviously heartfelt and therefore will not diminish while Obama remains in office. And as Palin becomes stronger, her ability to influence the US debate in a manner that constrains Obama’s freedom to intimidate Israel into allowing Iran to become a nuclear power will rise.....
Obama’s failure to prevent Iran from moving forward with its nuclear program, and his stubborn refusal to support an Israeli move to deny Iran the ability to threaten Israel and global security as a whole, place Israel and core US national security interests in unprecedented jeopardy. His fellow Democrats’ willingness to support him as he maintains this perilous course means that the Democratic ship has abandoned Israel, and strategic sanity. Palin’s future in politics is unknowable. But what is clear enough is that today hers is the strongest single American voice opposing Obama’s foreign policy and the loudest advocate for supporting Israel and denying Iran nuclear weapons. For this she deserves the thanks and support of American Jewry.


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Friday, February 12, 2010

Will He Use it? David Horowitz Analizes the Situation with Iran

This Op-Ed piece by the Editor of the Jerusalem Post is helpful in assessing the worry that is on the hearts of Israelis today. Is Iran really a threat? That is the question. An uncertainty permeates every decision, every analysis. Where we who possess a worldview that deals openly with eschatologically prophetic events, most in Israel are looking through the lens of secularism. However, their first-hand experience with the enemy's attempt to annihilate them remains at the forefront of their fears. My prayer continues to be that Israelis will come to the knowledge of the truth, and that Jesus words will be appropriated personally and nationally. "My PEACE I give to you, not as the world gives..."


Editor's Notes: If he got it, would he use it?
BY DAVID HOROVITZ 12/02/2010 16:01

Is Iran about to get the bomb? It’s getting closer every day, and shows no signs of changing course.

Once a week, the security chiefs who assess the relentless threats posed by enemy forces to the physical well-being of the State of Israel are required to give an assessment to their political bosses: Is war going to break out in the very near future?
The requirement is a legacy of the intelligence failures ahead of Yom Kippur, 1973, the last time that Israel’s neighbors launched a concerted conventional attack on Israel – on an Israel unprepared. The good news – this week – is that concerted conventional attack is not deemed imminent. The bad news – this week and for many past weeks, months and years – is that concerted conventional attack is not what the defense establishment is most worried about. What keep the security chiefs burning the midnight oil are concerns about missiles and terrorism, about nonconventional payloads and secret programs, and about the vulnerability of the Israeli home front – the new battleground. And their focus is not primarily on the traditional military capacities of our immediate neighboring states, but rather on the nonconventional threat to do us harm as posed, in escalating order, by al-Qaida, Hamas, Hizbullah, Syria... and Iran.
All five of those players are incontrovertibly scheming, right now, to damage Israel. And there is another quintet – Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Libya – which, in the dispassionate, nondiplomatic analysis of the intelligence community, cannot be discounted as potentially joining them. By our relative standards, things have been a whole lot better in the recent past. Just six, seven years ago, for instance, Syria was being forced out of Lebanon, Libya was stopping its nuclear program, Yasser Arafat was dying, the United States was disposing of Saddam Hussein, and Iran, fearing that the US was heading its way next, was freezing at least parts of its nuclear program.Now, though, Hizbullah has reconstituted itself as a threat from the north, Hamas controls the Palestinian parliament and runs Gaza, the US is still embroiled in Iraq, Iran is speeding toward that nuclear capability, and the belief that Israel can be destroyed has gathered ground around this region.
Not everything is grim. Day-to-day security for ordinary Israelis has rarely been better. Both Hizbullah and Hamas were deterred by the Israeli attacks on them, respectively, in 2006 and last year. And the international community is taking the Iranian threat more seriously, even as internal opposition continues to challenge the regime in Teheran.
But it is a mark of Israel’s concern about the centrality of Iran to much of what most endangers us that these days, on the one hand, our politicians are again becoming talkative about the Iranian challenge while, on the other, our military chiefs have fallen quiet. Not too long ago, uniformed Israelis, when asked about the threat posed by a fundamentalist regime in Teheran dedicated to the elimination of Israel and acquiring the weapons for the task, were stating curtly but firmly that Israel was ready to do whatever was necessary to protect itself. Senior politicians, meanwhile, were habitually insisting that the Iranian nuclear drive should not be depicted as a challenge primarily to Israel, but rather to the whole international community, and that Israel should be pushing behind-the-scenes for more concerted pressure on the mullahs rather than leading the charge.
Today, the generals are silent and the prime minister is spearheading calls, as he told EU ambassadors this week, not for “moderate sanctions or watered down sanctions,” but for “crippling sanctions... right now.”
THURSDAY’S IRANIAN Revolution anniversary was another test of domestic opposition resolve and of the regime’s authority. Plainly, the mullahs’ readiness to kill their own protesting people has marginalized if not quashed the open forces of dissent. But as our valiant, intermittent Teheran correspondent Sabina Amidi has stressed in her reports from the capital over recent months, the regime’s opponents extend far beyond the ranks of the Westward-looking set who have satellite TV dishes hidden in their air-conditioning units, to encompass devout Muslims who supported the revolution in 1979 but believe Ayatollah Khomeini’s successors have betrayed it.
Most assessments, furthermore, remain that Teheran is acutely vulnerable to sanctions, and there are those who argue that the regime is tottering. There is no consensus, however, about whether the regime will actually fall, much less when; no consensus about whether heavier economic pressure will weaken the mullahs or rally the suffering people around them; no consensus about whether a different regime would be any less committed to a nuclear drive that has been successfully marketed to ordinary Iranians as their legitimate national right.
And the concern that has mounted in Jerusalem in recent years – that, ultimately, Iran will proceed to a nuclear weapons capability unless someone intervenes to stop it – continues to escalate.ISRAEL’S INTELLIGENCE chiefs philosophically acknowledge the extent to which they are hampered by working in a democracy. Every detail of every briefing they give to the cabinet is liable to turn up online, on the radio, on TV and in print within hours. The same, it can safely be said, does not apply to the deliberations of the Iranian leadership.“ The enemy hides away everything of value in schools, mosques, tunnels, mountainsides, and it keeps its secrets better than we do,” observed one Israeli intelligence chief recently, adding dryly, “They don’t give cabinet briefings.”
Here, by contrast, it is known that Israel would be deeply discomfited by Russian delivery of S-300 anti-missile systems to protect sensitive installations – which Teheran insists it has been promised, and on which Moscow is staying silent at present. But still, the defense establishment does not regard such defenses as insurmountable.It can also be assumed that, while an Iranian response to attack would be several times more damaging than Hizbullah’s 2006 Katyusha onslaught, Saddam’s Scuds, and the terror attacks on Israeli-Jewish targets in Buenos Aires in 1992 and 1994 combined, this would still be a small price to pay if it were determined that Iran was about to get the bomb and might use it.
SO IS Iran about to get the bomb – a possibility openly raised, and rejected, by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday for the first time? It’s getting closer every day, and shows no signs of changing course. And if it attained that capacity, would it use it against Israel – directly, or via a third party, non-state actor? That’s not so simple.Indeed, when they are asked for their assessment on these most pressing of questions, this 2010 equivalent to the conventional war assessment that was so delinquent in 1973, our intelligence chiefs are hard-pressed to come up with definitive answers.“ Iran’s is a radical regime, but not an irrational one,” they stutter sometimes, to the frustration of a political leadership that, one day soon now, may have to make one of the most fateful decisions in the history of modern Israel.Or still more unhelpfully, “Iran is rational... but its definition of rational is not the same as ours.”






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