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

De Tocqueville was right about Islam

Reblogged from http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/de-tocqueville-was-right-about-islam/ 

Exclusive: Joshua Charles calls for honest dialogue to replace political correctness

Published: 2 days ago

Joshua Charles About | Email | Archive

Joshua Charles is the No. 1 New York Times best-selling co-author (with Glenn Beck) of "The Original Argument: The Federalists' Case for the Constitution, Adapted for the 21st Century." He is currently a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute at William Jessup University, where he is researching the writings of the American Founders, as well as many other champions of human liberty throughout history. He earns his MA in Government in 2014, and despite being a former concert pianist, will begin law school at Regent University in Fall 2014.

Terrorism is both a complicated subject and a simple subject. It has its complexities, but there are also really bright red lines of moral differentiation that we must not blur. The recent events in Paris have made this clear.

I have a number of Muslim friends. I admire most of them. I respect all of them. They’ve shown me kindness, and we are like-minded in many ways.

But, at some point, given incident after incident, you do have to wonder what the nature of Islam really is. Is it a religion of peace, as we are so often told? Or is it a religion of violence?

There is also the very real possibility that, as happens often in many religions, those who claim to be adherents don’t really understand what their religion actually teaches. Their desire to justify their religion (probably the one they grew up with) overrides their willingness to look at it objectively. I’ve seen this constantly with Catholics, with evangelicals, with Mormons, with Jews, etc. as well. It is a feature of human nature.

And the cold hard facts are that Muhammad was a violent man. Yes, there were some circumstances surrounding some of his life that may have justified some of his violence (i.e. self-defense). But Islam has almost always been spread by the sword. When you look at Jesus, there is not a single example of violence where human life is put in danger, or injuries meted out. The life of Muhammad provides countless examples. And even though I’m sure he was legitimately defending himself on occasion, why did he begin engaging in conquest of the surrounding lands during his own lifetime? Some psycho claiming to do violence in the name of Jesus cannot cite even one example of Jesus doing the same (quite the opposite). The same is not true about Muhammad.

I would encourage everyone to look up the Encyclopedia of Wars, which is a compendium put together by scholars, listing, as best they can, many of the wars in human history. Contrary to the modern stereotypical myths that religion has caused most wars, this scholarly work conclusively shows this is a lie. (That was not their purpose, but the conclusion followed from the results of their survey.) They found that only 6 percent of wars were religiously motivated. The key fact, however, is that if you took out the wars instigated by the dar al-Islam (“the House of Islam”), that number plummeted even further, to 2 percent. Thus, in this survey, Islam alone was responsible for two-thirds of religiously instigated wars in world history. This fact is even more glaring when you consider that many of these wars took place when Islam was not nearly as widespread as it is today.

I’m still open to considering other positions on these issues. There are thoughtful Muslims out there, and I believe they need to be listened to. However, we must not avoid the salient point: We really need to cut political correctness out of our dialogue. It is a dialogue killer. If you can’t stand your feelings getting hurt or your opinions being contradicted, then don’t engage in serious conversations. The West is losing its ability to stand for anything because it refuses to dialogue honestly.

And it is precisely because all over the world thousands of people continue to die at the hands of those claiming to do so in the name of Islam that we need to have honest conversations right now. Not hot-headed conversations. Not paranoid or bombastic conversations. Honest conversations. Let there be no more delay.

Given recent events, it seemed only appropriate that we consider the words of the great 19th century Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville on Islam.
“I studied the Quran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. So far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.” (Letter to Arthur de Gobineau, Oct. 22, 1843)

De Tocqueville lived on the brink of a flowering age of democracy, and he knew it. He foresaw many great possibilities, but also many great dangers. Ultimately, however, he prophesied that Islam would be incompatible with such a world. We ought to consider his words in light of the fact that there is not one single bona fide democracy in the entire Islamic world today:
“Muhammad brought down from heaven and put into the Quran not religious doctrines only, but political maxims, criminal and civil laws, and scientific theories. The Gospels, on the other hand, deal only with the general relations between man and God and between man and man. Beyond that, they teach nothing and do not oblige people to believe anything. That alone, among a thousand reasons, is enough to show that Islam will not be able to hold its power long in ages of enlightenment and democracy, while Christianity is destined to reign in such ages, as in all others.” (“Democracy in America,” Book 1, Chapter 5)
Je suis Charlie.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/de-tocqueville-was-right-about-islam/#oIRMAL3M2dIobYfm.99

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UN Chief: “State of Palestine” Accepted to ICC

Reblogged from www.breakingisraelnews.com   

By Lea Speyer January 7, 2015 , 11:17 am

 

   

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that the “State of Palestine” will officially join the ICC starting on April 1, 2015. (Photo: CTBTO)

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced on Wednesday that “Palestine” will officially join the International Criminal Court (ICC) on April 1.

Acceptance to the ICC will allow the Palestinians to pursue war crimes charges against Israel, a high-stakes move that has been condemned by Israel and the US.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas submitted some 20 applications to international treaties last week, one of them the Rome Statute that established the ICC in 2002. Signing the Rome Statue is the last formal step to becoming a permanent member of the international crimes tribunal.

Application to the ICC came a day after a Palestinian resolution calling for Israeli withdrawal from East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria by the end of 2017 was rejected by the UN Security Council.

The unilateral resolution, submitted by Jordan on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, also called for the establishment of a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders.
In a statement posted on the UN’s website, the secretary-general said that “the statute will enter into force for the State of Palestine on April 1, 2015.” Ban said that he was acting as the “depositary” for the documents of ratification.

 

In response to the Palestinians newest strategy to pressure Israel into statehood, Israel threatened severe retaliation. The government has already acted on its threat, freezing more than $100 million in tax revenue collected on behalf of Ramallah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the unilateral push for statehood has pushed off any prospect of peace for the time being.
Speaking to Channel 2 news, the prime minister added that any talk of evacuation of Jewish areas from Judea and Samaria were off the table. “I don’t see [evacuating settlers] as practical at the moment because any territory we vacate will be grabbed…I don’t see it happening,” he said.

Earlier this week, in anticipation of the Palestinians decision to file war crimes charges against Israel, the legal right NGO Shurat HaDin filed three more war crimes charges against members of Abbas’s Fatah party.

The Obama administration, which has expressed it opposition to Palestinian membership at the ICC, said that it has taken steps with Congress to review its annual $440 million aid package to the Palestinians.

Under American law, any Palestinian case against Israel brought before the ICC would trigger an immediate cutoff of all financial aid from the US to the Palestinians.
The ICC was established to prosecute individual perpetrators of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity at The Hague. “Palestine” will become the 123^rd member.