Israel´s elections struggle

Caroline Glick

 Reposted from FB.

The most despicable aspect of the Left's pile-on against Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו's speech to the Congress is that everyone from LivniHerzog to the last of their media cheerleaders insist that it is Bibi who is responsible for the crisis in our relations with the US when the simple fact is that Obama has picked fight after fight with Israel. And we're not alone.
As my colleague and friend Khaled Abu Toameh writes in the linked report, the Egyptians view the US as si...
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carolinglick | Iran — Unafraid and Undeterred

carolinglick | Iran — Unafraid and Undeterred

Palestinian propagandists infiltrate the church

Exclusive: Jim Fletcher warns totalitarians are on the march

Published: 13 hours ago

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Jim Fletcher

Blogger and researcher Jim Fletcher has worked in the book publishing industry for 15 years, and is now director of the apologetics group Prophecy Matters. His new book, "Truth Wins," provides important analysis of Rob Bell and his Emergent friends.

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Americans are trusting. We want to believe good about people. It’s part of the open, free society built by decent folks. It separates us from other cultures, and at the end of the day it’s better to be optimistic than pessimistic.

  Unless danger lurks.

When delirious activists and regular citizens joyously took sledgehammers to the Berlin Wall, most of us watched the television images with wonder. Finally, the Evil Empire was gone, along with the Nazis and the ancient Assyrians and all the other historical totalitarian states.

Collectively, free people and especially those who fight for freedom breathe a sigh of relief when evil is defeated. Think America, circa 1945-46. We went back to developing this great country, and an unprecedented era of prosperity followed.
Yet, our enemies didn’t take a day off. They didn’t go shopping or to the beach. The result was decades of a Cold War that got dicey at times.

The period of 1989-91 doesn’t exactly feel similar, although seemingly we defeated communism.
Except that I don’t think we did. Totalitarians never really go away. They change their spots and strategies, but never really are defeated. In his extraordinary book, “Dupes,” Paul Kengor outlines in chilling detail how the Soviets (beginning even before World War 2!) targeted the U.S. for destruction, from within.
Agents were sent to cozy up to political and religious leaders, and it is this latter group I find fascinating.

American Christians, including the leadership, usually are affable and trusting. They want to believe in the good of humanity, although our own sacred writings poke holes in that worldview.
So it is that the same strategies used in 1940 are still being used by our enemies. I find it fascinating that the Soviets schooled Muslim terrorists like Yasser Arafat not only in operational plans, but also – more critically – in the use of propaganda.
It is this propaganda that is plaguing our nation now, nowhere more evident than in religious circles.

In the 1990s, Arafat let loose the crocodile tears and lamented the alleged Israeli policy of keeping Muslims from their holy sites.
Except there was no such policy. In reality, only under the Israelis have religious minorities enjoyed wide access to holy sites.
That didn’t keep religious types like the leadership of the United Methodist Church from putting an affectionate arm around the PLO terror chief.
For decades, some key American Christian leaders have embraced totalitarians, ranging from Fidel Castro to Sheik Nasrallah of Hezbollah.
Curious, curious.

Now, the propaganda of the jihadists has infiltrated American evangelicalism, incredibly, and herein lays perhaps the greatest victory of the jihadists in their drive to take down America. If Christian leadership is duped, what hope is there for the laity?
It was with alarm that I saw a social media message recently from Andy Braner, director of Camp KIVU, a Colorado-based camp for young people. Braner is a charismatic, dedicated and passionate mentor for youth, and comes from the fairly famous Kanakuk Kamps.
I have tracked for the last few years the effort by Palestinian leaders, both the Palestinian Authority and its dhimmi (subjugated) Christian population, to network with influential American Christians. This is almost solely for the purpose of pushing the PLO narrative and undermining/demonizing Israel. The net effect is an erosion of support for Israel among next-generation (Millennial) Christian evangelicals.
They are succeeding wildly, in my view.

Braner has just announced a spring 2015 trip to what is generally referred to in these circles as “the Holy Land.” I suspect even this description is an effort to avoid saying “Israel” in a positive light.
“KIVU Holy Land 2015” promises to be quite the adventure, but one with knowledge of Palestinian duplicity can scan the itinerary for KIVU’s planned trip and recognize immediately that something is rotten in Ramallah.

The webpage devoted to the trip features a prominent photo of a contingent posing in front of the Dome of the Rock, the Muslim shrine to Muhammad. Below that is a most interesting itinerary.
After the usual Christian sites through Day 3, we find that the group will begin the meaty part of the trip in Bethlehem. This biblical city, where of course Jesus Christ was born, is now under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is really a cleaned-up-for-the-cameras version of the old PLO, Israel’s sworn enemy. So any group visiting the town will be treated to a propaganda fest that would make Joe Stalin swoon.

First thing on the agenda for Day 4 is a trek to the Holy Land Trust, run by Sami Awad, the point man for the Palestinian agenda. Identifying himself as a proponent of non-violent protest of Israel’s alleged occupation of the Palestinian people, Awad actually spends a good deal of time traversing the U.S., speaking in churches.
Further on Day 4, the group of impressionable youth will be treated to lunch at Bethlehem Bible College, a hotbed of anti-Israel invective, and later, the group will “visit a refugee camp and walk around the wall.”

Keep in mind, language has meaning. Words mean something. Visiting a refugee camp means there is a 100-percent certainty the American youth will talk to downtrodden Palestinians who will read from their scripts about alleged Israeli abuses. There will be no mention of the 100-year Arab terror war against Jews, because, well, that just wouldn’t fit the agenda.
And the “walk around the wall”? That will entail more tales of woe about how Israel has built a “big, open-air prison” that separates Palestinians from family and good jobs elsewhere in the country. Again, no mention of the thousands of murdered Jews at the hands of homicide bombers, etc., since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993. Hence, the need for a security fence, most of which is wire and not high, cement walls.

On Day 5, the group will visit another Palestinian-controlled city, Hebron, where they will meet with a Christian Peacemaker Team. The group is decidedly anti-Israel.
Later in the day is an option to visit a “settlement.” Notice that it isn’t referred to as an Israeli community, but as a “sssssettlement.” That fits the Palestinians’ political agenda, to further label Jews as illegitimate colonizers.
Leftists in the American church are quite good at shaping the dialogue during “settlement” visits, making sure the usually unsuspecting Jewish hosts are portrayed in the worst possible light.
Starting to get the picture?

Day 6 features a picnic with locals, so one can be sure the Israel-bashing will be in full swing.
Day 7 features “Silwan threatened – the political threat,” which refers to an Arab village on the slopes opposite Jerusalem’s Old City. There, no doubt, the youth will hear about the nefarious plans by the Jews to “Judaize” Jerusalem. I find this to be a particularly outrageous political statement by the trip organizers.

Later in the day, there is a planned visit to Jerusalem’s Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, but I have two thoughts about this: The visit provides cover from critics who rightly point out the outrageous propaganda trip overall, and I’m quite sure somewhere along the way, the youth will hear about how the Jews subtly became Nazi-like in their treatment of the poor Palestinians, who of course were simple shepherds and farmers set upon by hordes of Jews after World War II, who forcibly established a state.

Look, there is no way I’d allow my child to participate in such a trip. Does Braner know that his group is being used by skilled Palestinian propagandists?
One would hope not.

---

The president is not involved in helping defeat Netanyahu, of course not. It would be a breach of protocol!

Caroline Glick

Reposted from Facebook

 23 hrs · Edited ·

Obama won't meet Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו in Washington when he addresses the Joint Houses of Congress in March because of Netanyahu's visit's proximity to the Israeli elections. And Obama, of course believes in protocol and propriety which is why he won't get involved.
No, he's not getting involved at all. He's just sending his 2012 field campaign manager to Israel to run a campaign to defeat Netanyahu. That's all. No interference whatsoever.
By the way, the link below is to a report of the article in Haaretz that I linked to in the previous post in Hebrew. For whatever reason, Haaretz chose not to translate this article in its English edition. http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=66198

IMRA - Monday, January 26, 2015 Foreign Funding Bankrolls Anti-Netanyahu Campaign – Flies in...

Foreign Funding Bankrolls Anti-Netanyahu...

imra.org.il

What if stupidity is genetic?

NATION IN DECLINE 

Exclusive: Craige McMillan examines consequences of human genome deterioration

Published: 2 days ago

image: http://www.wnd.com/files/2011/12/Craige-McMillan_avatar.jpg
Craige McMillan Dr. John Sanford, a retired plant geneticist who turned his attention to human genetics after retirement, has said the human genome is deteriorating at one or two percent per generation. The real question is, how many more generational cycles before collapse?

Certainly baby boomers are not getting any smarter. I learn technical stuff, but only because I have to. A tech-savvy society demands tech-savvy employees to pull the levers, stoke the knowledge burners and ring the caution bells when the high-tech pressure cooker over-inflates and takes off in whatever direction it was already going.

Maybe that is part of the problem. Is being tech-savvy the same as being educated? Do we actually educate anyone anymore? While there are a lot of definitions of stupidity, most of them indicate that the exercise of stupidity leads to a poor outcome – both for ourselves and others.

Well, how might we apply that to history? We might decide that becoming a dictatorship instead of a republic is bad for personal freedom. But then we would have to know what a dictatorship looks like, and how it takes hold. If we don’t have that information, we are forced to rely on the truthfulness of Hollywood in telling the story over two hours in a movie theater, or a few half-hour segments on TV. If you are good with those options … well I’m sorry, but you’re tottering toward stupidity.

History is the big backdrop in the theater of our lives that each of us struts back and forth upon during our brief stay here. The backdrop sets the mood and tone, we add the events of our time. The fabric that we weave becomes the future.
This big backdrop allows us to see patterns in current events that look the same as those we see in the backdrop. Certain events, repeated over, lead to disease, starvation and death. Other events lead to vibrancy and life. Spotting these early on can make all our lives better – or much, much worse.
Not spotting these patterns for what they are leaves us not at the mercy of random events, but at the mercy of others who do see the patterns and are using them to drive us down a road we would not otherwise willingly travel.

God tells us that the last road humanity takes will lead to a place so terrible that our extraction will require divine intervention, “or no flesh will survive.” The world leader we find at the end of that long road is not going to be our friend. The tapestry of history makes this quite clear. But it does require “eyes to see.” Do you have them?

Jihad in France: It's Just Beginning

Reblogged from http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5120/jihad-in-france

by Guy Millière
January 19, 2015 at 5:00 am

The demonstration gathered nearly four million people, but seeing in it a mobilization against terrorism, jihad and anti-Semitism would be a mistake.
The Ambassador of Saudi Arabia attended, shortly after his nation had just finished flogging the young blogger Raif Badawi with the first 50 lashes of his 1000 lash sentence. Badawi is being flayed alive -- "very severely," the lashing order said. He has 950 lashes to go.

Mahmoud Abbas, the President of Palestinian unity government, which includes Hamas and supports jihadist terrorism as well as genocide, was at the forefront -- smiling. Israel's Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, was originally not invited. He came anyhow. He was told not to speak. He spoke anyhow. As a sign of disapproval, French officials left before his speech.

Although six Jews were among the seventeen victims, the anti-Semitic dimension of the attacks was barely spoken about.
The words "Islam" and "jihadist" were not mentioned. President François Hollande said, against all evidence, "Those who committed these acts have nothing to do with Islam."

Few Muslims came. They stated their only concern: "Avoid stigmatization of the Muslim community!"
Anyone who watches television and sees what is happening in many Muslim countries has to be doubting that Islam is peaceful.
Several polls show that more than 70% of the French think Islam is incompatible with democracy and Western civilization. Those polls predate the attacks.

The French demonstration of "unity" on Sunday, January 11, may have attracted nearly four million marchers and shown a facade of unity, but behind this facade, rising tensions are approaching the breaking point.[1]

Read more: 
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5120/jihad-in-france

Mid-East prophecy update J.D. Farag

Homegrown Jihad: The terrorist camps around the US

Open Letter to the French President

Reblogged from http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5050/letter-president-france

by A Palestinian Journalist in Ramallah 

January 14, 2015 at 5:00 am

Your Excellency, many Palestinians nearly fell off their chairs upon seeing their president march at the front row of a rally in your capital to protest against terrorism and assaults on freedom of the media.

Undoubtedly, you are unaware of the fact that President Abbas is personally responsible for punishing Palestinian journalists who dare to criticize him or express their views in public. Every day we see that the Western media, including French newspapers and magazines, does not care about such violations unless they are committed by Israel.
Your Excellency, you are completely mistaken if you believe that Abbas and his Palestinian Authority are tolerant toward satire or any form of criticism. While he was attending the rally, a human rights group published a report accusing the Palestinian Authority of "waging war" against university students in the West Bank.
President Abbas has managed once again to deceive you and the rest of the international community. He now has managed to create the false impression that he cares about freedom of speech and independent journalism
Palestinians like me will now pay a heaver price because Abbas has been emboldened and will now step up his assaults. France will be helping to establish another corrupt and repressive Arab dictatorship -- one that glorifies and rewards terrorists no different from those who carried out the Paris attacks.
I hope now your Excellency understands why I am too scared to reveal my identity.

His Excellency, François Hollande
Dear Mr. President,

First, I wish to express my deep condolences over the killing of innocent citizens in the recent terror attacks in Paris.

Second, I want to apologize to Your Excellency for not revealing my true identity. After you read my letter, you will realize why people like me are afraid to reveal their real identity.
I decided to write to you this letter after hearing my president, Mahmoud Abbas, declare that you had invited him to attend the anti-terror rally in Paris earlier this week.

Like many Palestinians, I see President Abbas's participation in a rally against terrorism and assaults on freedom of speech as an act of hypocrisy -- a condition that is not alien to Palestinian Authority leaders.

In fact, many Palestinians nearly fell off their chairs upon seeing their president march in the front row of a rally in your capital, in protest against terrorism and assaults on freedom of the media.

President Abbas's participation in the rally is an insult to the victims of the terror attacks. It is also an insult to Western values, including freedom of expression and democracy.
Your Excellency, myself and other journalists living under the rule of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank were the first to be offended by the invitation you extended to President Abbas to attend the anti-terror rally.

Undoubtedly, you are unaware of the fact that Abbas is personally responsible for punishing Palestinian journalists who dare to criticize him or express their views in public. Of course, Your Excellency, we cannot blame you for being unaware of this assault on public freedoms because the mainstream media, including French newspapers and magazines, deliberately turn a blind eye to these practices. Every day we see that the Western media does not care about such violations unless they are committed by Israel.

That is why, Your Excellency, you are probably unaware of the cases of several Palestinian journalists who have been arrested and intimidated by President Abbas's security forces over the past few years. Yes, this is the same Abbas who came to Paris to express his condolences over the brutal killing of the Charlie Hebdo journalists.

The most recent example of Abbas's crackdown on Palestinian journalists occurred shortly before Your Excellency phoned President Abbas to invite him to Paris. The case involves my female colleague, Majdolin Hassouneh, who was detained for "extending her tongue," or insulting, President Abbas.

Your Excellency, please allow me to tell you that you are completely mistaken if you ever thought that President Abbas and his Palestinian Authority are tolerant toward satire or any form of criticism. And of course, you haven't heard of the Palestinian Authority's decision to cancel the only popular satirical show on Palestine TV, Watan ala Watar (Country on a String).

The show was forced off the air in 2011 because President Abbas believed it had "crossed a line" by mocking his top officials in Ramallah. This is the same Abbas who came to Paris to protest the massacre at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

And, Your Excellency, if you want further evidence of President Abbas's clampdown on political satire, you can ask Palestinian comedians Abdel Rahman Daher and Mahmoud Rizek. The two men are currently in Jordan because they are afraid to return to the West Bank. No, Your Excellency, they are not afraid to return home because of Israel. They are afraid of being arrested by President Abbas's security forces, which accuse the two men of insulting their leader.

President Abbas, Your Excellency, should be the last person to walk in a march honoring journalists who were massacred because of their satirical work. His participation in the Paris rally is not only in an insult to the memory of the slain journalists, but to all those who believe in freedom of expression and media.

I also want to bring to the attention of Your Excellency that while President Mahmoud Abbas was attending the rally in Paris, a human rights group published a report accusing the Palestinian Authority of "waging war" against university students in the West Bank. According to the report, 24 students have been arrested in recent weeks by Abbas's security forces for "political reasons."

Again, I'm sure Your Excellency did not hear about the crackdown on university campuses because Western media outlets and foreign journalists based here do not report about such stories. You read and hear about such incidents only when the Israeli army or police are involved.

I do not want to take much of your time, Your Excellency, by telling you about President Abbas's double standards and hypocrisy on the subject of terrorism. You can learn a lot about this by going on the Internet and seeing, with your own eyes, how our president often condones and glorifies terrorism and terrorists.

You will even discover that our president, who will soon celebrate his 80^th birthday, is prepared to stay awake all night to welcome Palestinians released from Israeli prison for murdering Jews and committing terror attacks no less serious than the ones your country experienced last week.
You will also discover, Your Excellency, that our president also rewards terrorists by granting them monthly salaries and other privileges.
What would be your reaction, Your Excellency, if someone decided to reward financially the families of the terrorists who massacred the innocent civilians in Paris?

Your Excellency, perhaps it is now too late to talk about the decision to invite President Abbas to the anti-terror rally. The damage has already been done, as far as I and many Palestinians are concerned. The way we see it is as follows: President Abbas has once again managed to deceive you and the rest of the international community by placing himself on the side of the good guys in their fight against terrorism and extremism. Even worse, President Abbas has managed to create the false impression that he cares about freedom of speech and independent journalism.

Undoubtedly, now Palestinians like me will now pay a heavier price because President Abbas has been emboldened by his participation in the Paris rally. President Abbas will now step up his assaults on public freedoms because he knows that the international community will only see photos of him marching together with Your Excellency and other world leaders in defense of freedom of expression.

By extending the invitation to President Abbas, you have caused damage to Palestinians like me who have been hoping that someone -- maybe even a leader like you -- would finally expose the dictatorship of the Palestinian Authority for what it is. President Abbas's participation in the Paris rally is a severe blow to people like me who are genuinely opposed to terrorism and suppression of free speech.

Your Excellency, now that the damage has already been done, all that is left for people like me is to beg you to take all what I have said into account in your future dealings with President Abbas. Please do not hesitate to raise these issues with President Abbas the next time he requests your support for the creation of an independent Palestinian state. Otherwise, France will be helping to establish another corrupt and repressive Arab dictatorship -- one that glorifies and rewards terrorists no different from those who carried out the Paris attacks.

Finally, Your Excellency, I hope that by now you understand the reason why I am too scared to reveal my identity.
Sincerely,
A Palestinian Journalist with No Name or Voice

World leaders link arms at the Paris anti-terror rally on January 11, 2014. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas stands at the far right of the front row. (Image source: RT video screenshot)

Mid-East Prophecy Update - Pr. J. D. Farag

Via servehiminthewaiting.com 

Commentary By STLloyd January 12, 2015
 

I have to say, that the content of this video, the things Pastor Farag says in this video, represents a “catching up” on his part, to where I personally have already been, in my thinking, for quite some time.  I turned to my husband while the images of the world leaders were standing arm in arm in Paris and said that I have a feeling this is a specific beginning of that merging of government and religion which the antichrist will exploit to control the whole world. 

 He responded “we will be next” (in regard to the next terror attack).  The Lord has been doing in my own heart just what J.D. is saying here, frustrating me in the normal avenues and means of making a difference, from first any “activist” type measures, then even in the administration of this blog, at times, and even in prayer for this nation and for effective evangelization in our own area.  I’ve taken flack at times from folks who aren’t ready to concede the inevitability of America’s necessary demise or at least, a swallowing-up into something other than what we as a nation have historically been.   And yes, people who aren’t “there” yet, do get upset at that suggestion, and I realized that I couldn’t convince them, that God has to do that in them, the same way He did in me. 

I believe J.D. was wise in being cautious and prayerful and even somewhat hesitant in saying some of these things, but for me, the fact that God led someone in Pastor Farag’s position, with the reach of his ministry, to say this, is frankly a relief for me, and I think it is significant.  Not because I place stock in a man.  Because I have cried and pled with the Lord on my face, I have wept and fasted, as no doubt, many Americans have, but when you have already been praying those kinds of prayers for many years, and you have seen that things continue to progress on a trajectory that you had hoped your prayers might turn, (and I do believe God’s heart can be moved by the sincere, fervent, unrelenting prayers of one or two), there comes the time that the Lord releases you from that task, the time you know your prayers have been heard and “registered” and the answer is determined, even if you have yet to see it.

Obama supports the cause that all of those world leaders were standing against in that powerful image of them standing arm in arm, united.  America’s fate is set, without any necessity of speculation on our part.  It’s not in the pages of prophecy. When and how that is accomplished, is the only question left unanswered, and one thing is for certain, in regards to the when, the wait to find out is getting shorter every day.  Still Christ’s instruction stands, “occupy until I come”. –S.T. Lloyd