Health Care–The Fight Is Just Beginning…

The Los Angeles Times wrote on March 21:

“Democrats may feel today as though they just fought — and won — the equivalent of a 100-year war. The House passage Sunday night of sweeping healthcare legislation ends months of caustic debate over the plan and the way it was enacted, marked by a steep decline in approval for Democrats almost everywhere. Now, they hope, the discussion will finally shift in their favor.

“President Obama was spared a devastating defeat, and squabbling lawmakers showed they could accomplish something epic and important in the face of unanimous GOP opposition. That should count for something, they hope, at a time when many voters had written off Washington as utterly dysfunctional…

“But in fact, the political battle is just beginning. The party now must live or die with its landmark legislation in hundreds of congressional districts across the country, in the most hostile midterm election climate Democrats have faced since the Republican landslide year of 1994…

“This year figured to be tough for Democrats, whatever happened Sunday. The party holding the presidency almost always loses House seats in the first midterm vote. Since World War II the average is 16. (It’s been pretty much a wash in Senate races.) Democrats would be thrilled if that were the outcome Nov. 2, but it seems highly unlikely…

“For Democrats, the next several months will be spent trying to hold down their losses, which makes passage of the gargantuan healthcare bill all the more audacious — especially when the chief animating force in politics today is a profound mistrust of Washington and anger over the expansive growth of government…”

USA Today wrote on March 22:

“Some Republicans have already promised to make repeal of the legislation a major theme of the 2010 campaign year, and beyond… Lawyers for both sides are gearing up. Legal challenges could focus on parts of the health care bill, such as its requirement that all Americans buy health insurance or face financial penalties…”

“US Health Care — Bad for the World”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on March 22:

“Obama has made history. His health care package is the most important reform America has seen in decades. But what is good for the US may not be a positive for the president himself — nor for the rest of the world…

“There is little doubt that the reform package, which guarantees health care coverage for 95 percent of Americans, is one for the history books. It was a scandal that the world’s richest country for so long offered its citizens such pitiful protection against illness or injury… Nevertheless, [Obama] cannot really celebrate the reform that he promised for so long… Insurance companies will get millions of new customers, but no real competition. Their shares are currently skyrocketing — they are the true winners of US health care reform.

“The president, in other words, won the moral debate, but he is paying a high price… One thing… seems clear: the debate over health care is far from over… Every other issue has become a sideshow, particularly those outside the borders of America. The Afghanistan mission: of marginal interest. Protecting the environment: postponed. Peace in the Middle East: off in the distance. Sanctions against Iran: delayed. Europe: not even worth a trip.

“The one remaining global superpower has succumbed to navel gazing. The nature of Obama’s hard-fought victory means little will change in the near future. On the contrary: Now he must explain to the country and to his own party why the entire health care journey, as all-encompassing as it turned out to be, was worth it in the end. He will have little time for anything else.”

The ongoing fight pertaining to health care reform will only contribute to America’s demise. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.”

Obama the Antichrist?

Mail On Line wrote on March 24:

“Nearly a quarter of Republicans believe the Democrat president ‘may be the Antichrist’, according to a survey. An even greater number compared him to Hitler.

“Mr Obama was jubilant this week after securing his £626billion healthcare reform plan. But his triumph seems only to have inflamed his critics among the evangelical Christians from America’s heartland who kept George Bush in power for eight years and have demonised his successor.

“More than half of the Republicans… believed the president was secretly Muslim, something he has consistently denied. And 67 per cent of Republicans who responded believed Obama was a socialist, despite his central leanings.

“The startling results came as lawyers representing 14 U.S. states filed lawsuits yesterday challenging an overhaul of the country’s $2.5trillion healthcare system, minutes after President Barack Obama signed the landmark legislation. One joint lawsuit by a dozen Republican attorneys general and a Democrat claims the sweeping reforms violate state-government rights in the U.S. Constitution and will force massive new spending on hard-pressed state governments.

“Virginia went to court separately, while Missouri Republican Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder said he would like to join the suit. The joint suit, led by Florida, was filed with a federal court in Pensacola, according to the office of Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum. In addition to McCollum, the Republican attorneys general from Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington joined the suit.

“The lawsuit says the law – which expands government health plans for the poor, imposes new taxes on the wealthy and requires insurers to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions – violates the Constitution’s commerce clause by requiring nearly all Americans to buy health insurance. Mr McCollum said: ‘It forces people to do something – in the sense of buying a healthcare policy or paying a penalty, a tax or a fine – that simply the Constitution does not allow Congress to do.’

“Mr McCollum, who is seeking the Republican nomination to run for Florida governor, said the healthcare reforms would add $1.6billion to Florida’s spending on the Medicaid health program for the poor. The Justice Department, which is responsible for defending U.S. law in court, pledged to vigorously fight any challenges to the new healthcare law… The White House agreed the suits would fail…

“But on the most historic occasion of his presidency so far, vice-president Joe Biden managed to put his foot in it. Gaffe-prone Mr Biden inadvertently broadcast the F-word to America after he introduced the President to sign his much vaunted health reform bill into law yesterday. After hugging Mr Obama at a…ceremony in the White House, Mr Biden leaned in and whispered in the President’s ear: ‘This is a big [omitted] deal.’

“The remark was caught on microphones recording the event that was shown live across the country. By last night, the clip was being replayed all over the internet.”

The idea that President Obama could be the “antichrist” is of course utter nonsense. For more information on the concept of the “antichrist,” please read our Q&A on the topic. Many confuse the idea of the “antichrist” with the prophesied “beast” and/or “the false prophet.” But President Obama is neither. For more information on these two future personalities, please read our free booklets, “Europe in Prophecy,” and “Is That in the Bible? — The Mysteries of the Book of Revelation.”

“Clinton Warns Israel”–Worst Crisis for Decades

BBC News reported on March 22:

“US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called on Israel to make ‘difficult but necessary choices’ if it wants a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Mrs Clinton warned that the status quo was ‘unsustainable’… Her comments come amid a dispute between the US and Israel over plans for 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out halting settlement construction in the city.”

Times On Line wrote on March 24:

“Two separate meetings between President Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, failed today to produce so much as an official photograph as a deep chill settled over US-Israeli relations and secrecy shrouded any efforts to repair them. The Israeli Prime Minister was due to fly home from Washington after three days marked by fierce Israeli defiance on the issue of settlements and an extraordinary silence maintained by both sides after his three-and-a-half hour visit to the White House.”

BBC added on March 24:

“Differences remain between Israel and the US, following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, the White House has said. President Obama urged the Israeli PM to take steps to build confidence in the peace process, during ‘honest’ talks on Tuesday, spokesman Robert Gibbs said. Mr Gibbs added that the US was seeking ‘clarification’ of the latest plans to build homes in occupied East Jerusalem. Mr Netanyahu’s trip came amid the worst crisis in US-Israeli ties for decades.”

Reuters reported on March 24:

“In a move sure to anger Palestinians and frustrate Western proponents of a freeze on settlement construction, a city official said approval was given to develop a flashpoint neighborhood from which Palestinians were evicted last year. Word of the move came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu completed an unusually low-profile meeting in Washington with U.S. President Barack Obama for fence-mending talks, after their open spat over East Jerusalem earlier this month.”

Jordan: “Israel Playing with Fire”

AFP wrote on March 25:

“Israel is ‘playing with fire’ in expanding Jewish settlements in annexed Arab east Jerusalem and attempting to alter the Holy City’s identity, Jordan’s King Abdullah II said on Thursday. ‘We have warned repeatedly that Israel is playing with fire, and Jordan rejects and condemns all measures aimed at changing the identity of Jerusalem and the displacement of its Christian and Muslim Arab population,’ the king said in an interview with Jordanian journalists.

“‘East Jerusalem must be the capital of an independent Palestinian state which should be established as soon as possible… Jerusalem belongs to the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in 1967…’, the king added…

“Abdullah said Israel’s settlement policy risked damaging relations between Israel and Jordan, already ‘frosty’ because of Israeli actions that threatened to ‘destabilise the region and put all Middle East peace efforts at risk.'”

Israel in Isolation?

The Washington Post wrote on March 24:

“The two-week-old dispute between Israel and the United States over housing construction in East Jerusalem has exposed the limits of American power to pressure Israeli leaders to make decisions they consider politically untenable. But the blowup also shows that the relationship between the two allies is changing, in ways that are unsettling for Israel’s supporters.

“President Obama and his aides have cast the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not just the relationship with Israel, as a core U.S. national security interest…

“The cooling in the U.S.-Israel relationship coincides with an apparent deepening of Israel’s diplomatic isolation. Anger has grown in Europe in the wake of Israel’s suspected misuse of European passports to kill a Palestinian militant in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. On Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced the expulsion of a senior diplomat over the incident, an unusually drastic step for an ally. Relations with Turkey, a rare Muslim friend of Israel for decades, have hit a new low…

“Arab leaders have long said that a peace deal would be possible if the United States pressured Israel. But many experts say such hope is often misplaced. In the case of East Jerusalem, Netanyahu believes that a halt to construction represents political suicide for his coalition, so no amount of U.S. pressure will lead him to impose a freeze…”

The Bible predicts that in the near future, the state of Israel will find itself more and more alone–without any support from its allies. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Book of Zechariah–Prophecies for Today!”

Sarkozy Suffers Bruising Defeat

The EUObserver wrote:

“President Nicolas Sarkozy suffered a bruising defeat in the last round of France’s regional elections on Sunday, with his centre-right party losing in all but one of the 22 mainland regions. Some cabinet ministers are likely to be reshuffled as a consequence. The Socialist Party, Greens and other left-wing allies took some 54 percent of the vote at a national level… leaving Mr Sarkozy’s Union du Mouvement Populaire (UMP) at just 36 percent, the centre-right’s worst showing in 50 years…

“Right-wing veteran Jean-Marie Le Pen… mounted something of a comeback, whose National Front party did well enough to stay in the race in 12 mainland regions, depriving Mr Sarkozy’s party of about 10 per cent of voters. His daughter Marine also won some 22 percent of the vote in her region, suggesting she may inherit the leadership of Mr Le Pen’s party once he retires.”

Will Guttenberg Resign?

Deutsche Welle reported on March 19:

“Members of the Green Party and the Social Democrats are saying that Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg should resign if he lied about being ill-informed regarding a fatal Afghanistan airstrike. ‘If Guttenberg is found to have lied in connection with a central leadership decision, his position as defense minister is no longer viable,’ Social Democratic Party whip Thomas Opperman told the Berliner Zeitung on Friday. The Greens’ spokesman for defense matters, Omid Nouripour, told the ARD television network that Guttenberg should step down if that is proven to be the case. But Nouripour added that he had not yet seen proof in that direction.

“Germany’s former top military officer, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, told the inquiry on Thursday that Guttenberg had been well briefed about the September 2009 airstrike, which killed as many as 142 Afghan civilians. That contradicts Guttenberg’s earlier claims that he was relying on incomplete information when he initially described the attack as ‘militarily appropriate.’ He later rescinded that statement. ‘Minister zu Guttenberg has up to now failed to explain in any way how he came to his mistaken evaluation and how he corrected it,’ Rainer Arnold, the Social Democrats’ expert on defense policy, told Deutsche Presse Agentur on Friday…

“Guttenberg was serving as economics minister when the incident occurred in September 2009. He became defense minister when Prime Minister Angela Merkel assembled her second cabinet last February. Guttenberg replaced fellow Christian Democrat Franz Josef Jung, who resigned in the scandal’s aftermath.  Jung will go before the committee next week. Guttenberg’s appearance is scheduled for April 22.”

Possible reconstitutions of the French and German governments might be revealing in light of biblical prophecy. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Is That in the Bible?–The Mysteries of the Book of Revelation.”

Vatican Silent on Catholic Sex Scandal in Germany

The Associated Press reported on March 20:

“Pope Benedict XVI rebuked Irish bishops Saturday for ‘grave errors of judgment’ in handling clerical sex abuse and ordered an investigation into the Irish church but did not mention any Vatican responsibility. In a letter to the Irish faithful read across Europe amid a growing, multination abuse scandal, the pope doled out no specific punishments to bishops blamed by victims, and Irish government-ordered investigations, for having covered up abuse of thousands of Irish children from the 1930s to the 1990s.

“Ireland’s main group of clerical-abuse victims, One in Four, said it was deeply disappointed by the letter because it failed to lay blame with the Vatican for what it called a ‘deliberate policy of the Catholic Church at the highest levels to protect sex offenders, thereby endangering children’…

“The letter directly addressed only Ireland, but the Vatican said it could be read as applying to other countries. Hundreds of new allegations of abuse have recently come to light across Europe, including in the pope’s native Germany, where he served as archbishop in a diocese where several victims have recently come forward. One priest suspected of molesting boys while the future pope was in charge was transferred to a job where he abused more children.

“While a cardinal at the Vatican, Joseph Ratzinger penned a letter instructing bishops around the world to report all cases of abuse to his office and keep them secret under threat of excommunication. Irish bishops have said the letter was widely understood to mean they shouldn’t report the cases to police.”

German Reaction to Benedict’s “Apology”

On March 22, Der Spiegel Online published reactions of the German press to Pope Benedict’s most recent “apology”:

“Though highly anticipated, the apology was not well received. Many slammed the letter for not including a requirement that Cardinal Sean Brady, head of the Irish church, step down. Requirements that other church leaders be punished were likewise missed by victims groups…

“In Germany… expectations that the pope might finally break his silence on the church abuse scandal that has shaken the country in recent weeks remain unfulfilled. Hundreds of people have come forward since the end of January with stories of sexual maltreatment perpetrated by priests and by teachers at Catholic boarding schools.

“Of particular concern are allegations that the pope, back when he was the Bishop of Munich in the 1980s, knew of one particular abusive priest from Essen, who had forced a young boy to perform oral sex before being transferred to Munich. According to SPIEGEL information, the pope, then called Joseph Ratzinger, was aware of the church’s decision not to turn the priest over to the police. Just weeks later, the abusive priest was once again working with children, a fact which Ratzinger may also have known about…

“Conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: ‘The pope has done little to indicate the way forward for churches in Ireland or Germany, so that they may atone for past wrongs as well as avoid doing harm in the future…’

“Left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes: ‘The central issues of the scandal will remain. Now, as before, and despite all his warm words for the victims, the pope shies away from any debate about sexual morality in the church. And one can only hope that his public silence about the abuse cases in Germany, is not because the pope himself was unhappily involved in such a case when he was the archbishop of Munich…’

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘… the letter is not going to rescue the church from the crisis it is currently enmeshed in. The letter will not do this because it is addressed to the Irish church only. The letter localizes a problem that actually affects the church throughout the world.”

“‘And the pope’s letter is also problematic when it tries to come to grips with the reasons for the abuse. Benedict XVI suggests that these problems arose because of a moral laxness in the clergy and church that arose after the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (eds note: the 1960s reforms that the church brought about in acknowledge[ment] of the changing modern world). The pope says these were mistakenly interpreted as a softening of moral standards. With respect, this is nonsense. Many of the cases from the more distant past, which are currently coming to light, demonstrate this…’

“The conservative daily Die Welt writes: ‘Had the pope actually said anything about the occurrences in his homeland, the letter’s impact on the church worldwide would doubtless have been greater. Even without that, the text is explosive. That bishops protected perpetrators, that camouflage and concealment were not exceptions: The head of the Catholic church has never been as clear about any of this before. His call for the church to be subject to the law of the land is an unmistakable instruction to all who abide by the church’s rules. But his pastoral letter will not dispel all of the dark clouds hovering over the Catholic church. Nor will it put to rest the debate over celibacy, that so many in the church find so troubling…'”

Even though the Catholic Church is under attack, it will play a prominent influential role in the near future. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.”

“No Alternative to the Euro”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on March 12:

“Another general strike in Greece shut the financially beleaguered nation down on Thursday. But… now nobody [in Germany]… believes there is any danger to the euro’s long-term survival.

“In the Financial Times Deutschland, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble writes in a signed editorial: ‘… There is no alternative to the monetary union. The euro has established itself as the second most important currency in the world, and as a currency in which to invest…'”

The Euro–Built on a Lie–But Predestined to Stay…

Der Spiegel Online wrote on March 9:

“The notion that the European common currency is based on nothing but a series of lies is now taking its toll. All of the founders of the euro knew that the new currency could only be stable if all member states committed themselves to sound financial policy and, in the long run, spent only as much as they collected in tax revenue. But many ignored this principle right from the start… The first lie was soon followed by the second. The euro-zone members had promised to support the common currency with a common policy. The problem was that they were not prepared to make good on their promise.

“… a second Europe, which remains largely concealed from the public, currently exists in parallel to the public Europe of summit meetings, government statements and official visits…

“Since joining the euro zone, the 16 euro countries have violated the deficit rule, under which net new debt cannot exceed 3 percent of GDP, 43 times. Most of the infractions have occurred in the last two years. Greece is at the top of the list of violators…

“On the one side are the EU’s heavyweights, headed up by Germany. The new currency has made them more competitive, and they now produce far more than they consume. On the other side are countries like Spain and Ireland, which attracted large amounts of foreign capital, and where wages and asset prices rose rapidly…

“Many now feel vindicated, including Harvard Professor Martin Feldstein, a prophet of the euro’s demise for many years… But such considerations are naïve. It’s possible that the euro was indeed introduced too soon. But that is by no means an argument to abolish it prematurely. It is clear that a fracture in the monetary union would not just be a political disgrace, but also an economic catastrophe. For 10 years, European businesses and banks have become accustomed to a uniform European basis of calculation. Reversing it would trigger economic disruptions so severe that the Greek crisis pales by comparison.

“Europe doesn’t need a new currency. What Europe does need is the culture of stability, transparency and credibility that its governments have promised citizens, but have never created. Although the euro zone has a common monetary policy, it lacks a shared financial and economic policy… Even if the Germans are far from supporting a European economic government, as the French have long advocated for the euro zone, the German government believes that cooperation on economic policy must be coordinated far more closely and intensified in the future…

“The recent crisis shows, however, that even small countries can jeopardize the entire common currency project. ‘European leaders are now realizing that the members of the monetary union are all in the same boat,’ says one senior Brussels diplomat, ‘and that its members, for better or worse, are dependent on each other.'”

A European Two-Class System? — But No Exit from the Eurozone

Reuters wrote on March 8:

“When they negotiated the 1991 Maastricht Treaty, Helmut Kohl, Francois Mitterrand and Jacques Delors believed that European Monetary Union would lead inevitably over time to a closer political union with more federal governance. But the flaws revealed by Greece’s fiscal jam seem more likely to hasten a two-class system in which ‘grown-ups,’ led by Germany, exert ever more control over wayward ‘children’ such as Greece, but accept no reciprocal scrutiny…

“Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso proposed last week giving the EU executive new powers… French President Nicolas Sarkozy has seized on the Greek crisis to revive ideas of a ‘European economic government’ that would coordinate member states’ economic policies and keep the euro exchange rate competitive against the dollar and the yuan. But Germany, the biggest economy, has made clear it does not want EU surveillance of its own export-oriented policies, which generate big current account surpluses that economists say are partly responsible for widening imbalances in the euro zone…

“A two-class euro zone has been a reality since 2004, when EU budget discipline rules applied more strictly to small countries were suspended, then rewritten to avoid sanctions against France and Germany after they repeatedly breached the deficit limit. The Greek crisis has strengthened that trend, whether or not Athens ends up being bailed out by its partners… Any financial support for Greece is likely to be an ad hoc arrangement, with Germany calling the shots as Europe’s de facto lender of last resort. Berlin would attach draconian conditions to deter potential emulators.

“This two-class euro zone will likely cause resentment and aggravate mistrust between large and small member states, and between North and South. It may be how power works in the real world, but the EU was created to do things differently…

“The… most improbable option is that a country might be tempted to walk away from the euro zone. The price of a euro exit would be enormous in devaluation, extra borrowing costs, diplomatic isolation, unemployment, loss of purchasing power and at least short-term loss of investment. Strikingly, there is no serious discussion of this in Greece or other euro states under pressure.

“Debate about temporary or permanent exits from the euro is largely confined to countries and people who opposed monetary union all along and forecast it would end in tears.”

German Government in Disarray

Time Magazine wrote in its latest edition, dated on March 22:

“When Germany’s Deputy Chancellor and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle held a briefing for reporters in Berlin last month, he arrived exuding an aura of defiance and ebullience. It didn’t last… Five months after Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party began forming a new center-right government with Westerwelle’s probusiness Free Democratic Party (FDP), the alliance that was billed as a marriage made in heaven is on the rocks. The government has been riven by infighting, bitter personal rivalries and squabbles over policy direction. The partisan bickering has grown so bad it threatens complete inertia…

“Merkel’s main headache is Westerwelle, whose various job titles seem to have given him carte blanche to be the government’s unofficial troublemaker. Finding himself holding the balance of power following 11 years in opposition, the ambitious politician is enjoying his first taste of power. Even though his main job is Foreign Minister, Westerwelle has flexed his muscles on domestic issues from tax reform to health care to nuclear power…

“One recent crunch came when Westerwelle launched a blistering attack on Germany’s cherished welfare state, criticizing handouts for the long-term unemployed. Raising welfare benefits smacks of socialism, Westerwelle wrote in the daily Welt newspaper on Feb. 11. ‘Whoever promises the people effortless prosperity encourages late Roman decadence.’ The FDP leader went on to argue that those who work should always get more than the unemployed and that young jobless Germans should take up community work like shoveling snow…

“Criticism of the welfare state touches a raw nerve among Germans. They have jealously guarded social benefits since they were introduced by Otto von Bismarck, the ‘Iron Chancellor,’ in the 1880s. Bismarck’s system — designed to win over workers and increase productivity — guaranteed every citizen social insurance, including a pension, national health insurance and disability benefits. Westerwelle thinks that should change, and is also pushing for lower taxes and a new simplified tax system… Merkel was not amused…

“The government’s bickering is set against the backdrop of the ongoing economic crisis, which remains the key issue for voters. Germany may be officially out of recession but Europe’s biggest economy is struggling to get back on its feet… Germans are disgruntled.”

Even though it is perceived that presently there is no alternative to the current German government, stranger things have happened. It only takes the manifestation of a powerful charismatic leader who would seemingly be able to bring back order and direction to a disorderly government. Some have suggested that Germany’s Defense Minister Guttenberg might be such a man–but as the next article shows, this analysis seems to be far-fetched and unsupportable by the current facts.

German Defense Minister Guttenberg’s Star Is Sinking

Deutsche Welle reported on March 13:

“German Defense Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg has been sharply criticized for sacking a general who wrote him a letter asking for the reason why Military Inspector General Wolfgang Schneiderhan was sacked in last year. ‘It looks like the heads of disagreeable oddballs are rolling just because they have a different opinion than the minister,’ Green party speaker Omid Nouripour told the daily Mitteldeutsche Zeitung… Following Schneiderhan’s dismissal in November 2009, Brigadier General Henning Hars, a former military attache to Washington, wrote a letter to the defense minister asking why the high-ranking officer had been dismissed. Hars also asked Guttenberg for his assessment of the controversial Kunduz air raid, which killed a large number of civilians in northern Afghanistan last September. Hars did not receive a response to his letter.

“Defense Minister Guttenberg then used his right to move General Hars into involuntary retirement, according to a report in the Tagesspiegel newspaper. A few days ago, Hars received his discharge papers from German president Horst Koehler… “Rainer Arnold, a spokesman for the opposition Social Democratic Party, criticized Guttenberg’s decision. ‘Of course a minister can send a general into retirement if he has no confidence in him,’ Arnold told the newspaper Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger. ‘But I have the impression that it’s the military leaders who do not have any more confidence in the Minister,’ Arnold added.”

Praised as the rising star in German politics, Guttenberg has come increasingly under attack for his controversial actions, especially pertaining to Germany’s participation and conduct in the Afghan war. The German press, like Der Stern, recently portrayed him as a showman with much talk and little substance.

Germany Third Largest Weapons Dealer

The Local reported on March 15:

“Germany has doubled its arms exports over the last five years, making it the world’s third largest weapons dealer after the United States and Russia, according to a new study released on Monday. Sales of mainly submarines and armoured vehicles helped Germany capture 11 percent of the global arms market, compared to 30 percent and 23 percent for the United States and Russia, the study from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said.

“Warships made up 44 percent of all arms exports, while armoured vehicles accounted for 27 percent… Fourteen percent of Germany’s arms exports went to Turkey, while Greece bought 13 percent and South Africa imported 12 percent… The growth is part of a worldwide increase of 22 percent in weapons sales in the last five years, particularly in the trade of extremely expensive fighter planes.

“SIPRI warned of an arms race in tense regions like the Middle East, North Africa, South America and South Asia. Meanwhile Greece has become one of the world’s top-five importers despite being on the verge of bankruptcy.”

If we were to include all the additional European arms exports, it stands to reason that Europe would probably be the world’s largest weapons dealer.

Widening Catholic Sex Abuse Scandal in Germany

Bild Online wrote on March 9:

“Germany has been shocked by the scandal surrounding the world-famous choir. Victims were forced to endure excessive force, including violence, whipping and perverse sex games from teachers and even headmasters.

“Many of them are still suffering today… producer and composer Franz Wittenbrink, who was at the Regensburg Cathedral choir boarding school until 1967, believes that the school staff did have some knowledge: In the school an ‘elaborate system of sadistic discipline connected to a sexual lust’ was in existence, according to ‘Spiegel’… ‘Everyone knew it,’ Wittenbrink added.”

Vatican Tries to Defend Pope in Sex Abuse Scandal

The Associated Press wrote on March 13:

“The Vatican on Saturday denounced what it called aggressive attempts to drag Pope Benedict XVI into the spreading scandals of pedophile priests in his German homeland. It also insisted that church confidentiality doesn’t prevent bishops from reporting abuse to police. The Vatican’s campaign to defend the pope’s reputation and resolve in combatting clergy abuse of minors followed acknowledgment by the Munich archdiocese that it had transferred a suspected pedophile priest to community work while Benedict was archbishop there.

“Benedict is also under fire for a 2001 church directive he wrote while a Vatican cardinal, instructing bishops to keep abuse cases confidential. Germany’s justice minister has blamed the directive for what she called a ‘wall of silence’ preventing prosecution… Irish bishops have said the document was widely taken to mean they shouldn’t go to police. And victims’ lawyers in the U.S. say the document shows the church tried to obstruct justice… The Catholic church in Switzerland has become swept up in the scandals.”

Deutsche Welle added on March 13:

“In a reaction to the widening pedophile scandal in Germany, the Vatican has rallied around the pontiff, claiming that ‘certain elements’ had launched a targeted campaign to discredit the Catholic Church… The pope’s former diocese in Bavaria on Friday said he was involved in a decision in 1980 to move a priest who was suspected of sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy. Instead of undergoing therapy, the priest was assigned to a Munich parish without restrictions. Six years later, the priest was given a suspended jail sentence for child sex offenses during that period.

“The diocese claims this was a decision made by then-vicar general Gerhard Gruber, but the head of the Catholic lay reform movement in Germany, Christian Weisner, has rejected that interpretation, saying that due to the Church’s hierarchal structures, it was the pontiff – then Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger – who was ultimately responsible.

“On Friday, the head of Germany’s Catholic Bishops Conference, Robert Zollitsch, briefed journalists about the situation in Germany, where more than 100 reports have emerged of abuse at Catholic institutions, including schools and one linked to the prestigious Regensburg choir run by the pope’s brother from 1964 to 1994…

“The recent raft of revelations prompted Weisner to express his disappointment that the pope had ‘not found any words of sympathy (for the victims), nor asked for forgiveness and reconciliation.’

“The president of the Central Committee of German Catholics, Alois Glueck, told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper in an interview on Saturday that the Church needed new structures. He said it was time to consider whether ‘church-related conditions’ had promoted the abuse and that the issue of celibacy for priests should be re-examined…

“In another blow for the Catholic Church, an opinion survey conducted by the Emnid Institute for a German television news channel on Friday found that 86 percent of those polled had lost faith in the church leaderships’ willingness to pursue the sex abuse allegations.”

Forced Celibacy the Root of Evil…

Mail On Line wrote on March 11:

“In recent weeks the church has been rocked by a series of abuse scandals in Ireland, Holland and Germany [and Austria]… It is thought that many Catholic priests privately believe a married clergy is the obvious solution to a number of problems confronting the church, from the shortage of priests to the recent sex scandals.

“The celibacy rule for priests was not part of the early Christian Church but was introduced in the Middle Ages. A number of early Christian fathers were married, including St Peter himself, according to St Mark’s Gospel.”

“The Devil Is in the Vatican”

Times On Line wrote on March 11:

“Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that ‘the Devil is at work inside the Vatican’, according to the Holy See’s chief exorcist. Father Gabriele Amorth, 85… said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as ‘cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon’. He added: ‘When one speaks of “the smoke of Satan” [a phrase coined by Pope Paul VI in 1972] in the holy rooms, it is all true – including these latest stories of violence and paedophilia.’

“He claimed that another example of satanic behaviour was the Vatican ‘cover-up’ over the deaths in 1998 of Alois Estermann, the then commander of the Swiss Guard, his wife and Corporal Cedric Tornay, a Swiss Guard, who were all found shot dead… A remarkably swift Vatican investigation concluded that Corporal Tornay had shot the commander and his wife and then turned his gun on himself after being passed over for a medal. However Tornay’s relatives have challenged this. There have been unconfirmed reports of a homosexual background to the tragedy and the involvement of a fourth person who was never identified…”

Bild Online added on March 11:

“The chief exorcist also spoke of an attack by Satan on Pope Benedict XVI (82): ‘The Pope fought with the Devil on Christmas Eve. Satan threw him to the ground.’ He was referring to an incident where Pope Benedict was attacked and pulled to the floor by a mentally unstable woman.”

For more information on the Roman Catholic Church — past, present and future — please read our free booklets, “The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord,” “Europe in Prophecy” and “Is That in the Bible–the Mysteries of the Book of Revelation.”

The End of the Road for President Obama?

The Telegraph wrote on March 8:

“The descent of Barack Obama’s regime… has been swift and precipitate. It was just 16 months ago that weeping men and women celebrated his victory over John McCain in the American presidential election. If they weep now, a year and six weeks into his rule, it is for different reasons.

“Despite the efforts of some sections of opinion to talk the place up, America is mired in unhappiness, all the worse for the height from which Obamania has fallen… 15 million Americans, or 9.7 per cent of the workforce, have no job. Many millions more are reduced to working part-time. Whole areas of the country, notably in the north and on the eastern seaboard, are industrial wastelands. The once mighty motor city of Detroit appears slowly to be being abandoned, becoming a Jurassic Park of the mid-20th century; unemployment among black people in Mr Obama’s own city of Chicago is estimated at between 20 and 25 per cent. One senior black politician – a Democrat and a supporter of the President – told me of the wrath in his community that a black president appeared to be unable to solve the economic problem among his own people. Cities in the east such as Newark and Baltimore now have drug-dealing as their principal commercial activity…”‘

“Mr Obama benefited in his campaign from an idiotic level of idolatry, in which most of the media participated with an astonishing suspension of cynicism. The sound of the squealing of brakes is now audible all over the American press; but the attack is being directed not at the leader himself, but at those around him…

“The root of the problem seems to be the management of expectations. The magnificent campaign created the notion that Mr Obama could walk on water. Oddly enough, he can’t…

“There are lessons from the stumbling of Mr Obama for our own country as we approach a general election. Vacuous promises of change are hostages to fortune if they cannot be delivered upon to improve the living conditions of a people. The slickness of campaigning that comes from a combination of heavy funding and public relations expertise does not inevitably translate into an ability to govern. There is no point a nation’s having the audacity of hope unless it also has the sophistication and the will to turn it into action. As things stand, Barack Obama and America under his leadership do not.”

Biblical prophecy shows that America will not recover substantially from its present crisis. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.”

Obama Disappoints Israelis and Palestinians

Der Spiegel Online wrote on March 15:

“Hopes were high in the Middle East when US President Barack Obama took office last year. But instead of progress toward peace, he has shown indecision and hesitancy. With many in the region united against Iran, he is in danger of letting a golden opportunity slip through his fingers…

“Never before had a US president enjoyed such trust in the Middle East — and gambled it away in such a short time. Obama has vacillated to an extent that has confused friend and foe alike…

“US Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Jerusalem, where he assured his hosts of Washington’s ‘absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to Israel’s security’ — only to discover, hours later, that the Israeli interior ministry had just approved the construction of 1,600 housing units for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem. Biden was so angry that he showed up an hour-and-a-half late for a dinner with Netanyahu and his wife. ‘I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem,’ he said afterwards. ‘It is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now.’ It was undoubtedly a brazen insult to Israel’s powerful ally. Nevertheless, sympathy with the Americans has been muted. ‘Mr. Obama has himself to blame,’ the Financial Times remarked drily…

“Obama’s failure in the Middle East is but one example of his weakness, though a particularly drastic and vivid one. The president, widely celebrated when he took office, cannot claim to have achieved sweeping successes in any area. When he began his term more than a year ago, he came across as an ambitious developer who had every intention of completing multiple projects at once. But after a year, none of those projects has even progressed beyond the early construction phase. And in some cases, the sites are nothing but deep excavations…

“He set out to negotiate with Iran. He courted the regime… But the end-of-the-year deadline he had loudly proclaimed passed without incident, and yet Iran’s uranium centrifuges in Natanz and Qom are still up and running. Although Iraq held an election two Sundays ago, the results are so ambiguous, and the situation is so unclear, that Ray Odierno, the commanding general of US forces in Iraq, is thinking about delaying the withdrawal of his troops — which would represent yet another breach of Obama’s campaign promises.

“Obama has turned his attention to Afghanistan, sending an additional 30,000 troops to the country. But even that measure was announced and then withdrawn in the same speech. The troops were deployed in 2009, but their withdrawal is set to begin by mid-2011. By announcing his plans for the deployment and withdrawal of the troops at the same time, Obama didn’t exactly create the impression of supreme decisiveness among America’s enemies in Afghanistan…

“Obama can hardly count on gaining the support of allies, partly because he doesn’t pay much attention to them. The American president doesn’t have a single strong ally among European heads of state…

“In the Middle East, the irresolute Obama is missing an opportunity to bring about peace that he… will not be offered in its current form anytime soon. Never before in Israeli history have Jews and Arabs been as united as they are today, in the face of the Iranian nuclear threat. Indeed, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister has spoken openly of the need for a military strike against Iran.

“SPIEGEL has learned that Western intelligence services believe that the Saudis would even provide the Israelis with access to their airspace for such a strike… The Arab states are no longer the ones who benefit from the Middle East conflict. Instead, it is the Iranian leadership, whose ruthless rhetoric and nuclear program has the Arabs just as nervous as the Israelis.

“Nevertheless, Obama continues to stand alone on the world stage, seemingly without a goal and oceans removed from achieving a solution to the toxic Middle East conflict… The Palestinians no longer trust him, and the Israelis don’t take him seriously, as Prime Minister Netanyahu’s ‘apology’ to Vice President Biden demonstrated last week. Netanyahu said that he regretted the ‘unfortunate timing’ of the settlement announcement. Netanyahu’s spokesman claimed that the premier had not known about the settlement plans — one of the biggest construction projects in Jerusalem.

“It isn’t as if the US government had no leverage to convince Israel to at least make minor changes to its settlement policy. The Jewish state receives about $2.5 billion (€1.8 billion) in annual military aid alone from Washington. Some of Obama’s predecessors had no qualms about threatening Israel with cuts in aid. President Gerald Ford did it in 1975, because he felt that the Israelis were too inflexible in negotiations with Egypt. President George H.W. Bush held back $10 billion in US government loan guarantees until Israel agreed to participate in the planned Madrid peace conference. Even his son, President George W. Bush, froze some of the loan guarantees in 2003, when Israel began building a ‘security fence’ that penetrated deeply into Palestinian territory.

“Obama, on the other hand, has shied away from setting tough conditions for Israel. Many of his critics blame that stance on his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, 50. In Washington, every Democrat who would like to but doesn’t dare to criticize the president is turning against Emanuel. They see him as a dark Rasputin exerting his virtually hypnotic control over Obama. In Arab countries, many believe Emanuel is an Israel agent, and they cite his background as proof. The son of a Zionist underground fighter, he served in the Israeli army as a civilian volunteer, despite being an American citizen.

“Obama’s many mistakes in the Middle East are reflected in the low opinion of Emanuel held among Prime Minister Netanyahu’s staff members, who see him as a despicable figure. In their view, it was Emanuel who incited Obama against Israel and was responsible for Jerusalem’s and Washington’s troubles with the settlements.”

US-Israeli Relations at All-Time Low

The Dutch newspaper, NRC Handelsblad wrote on March 15:

“Will Israel succeed in imposing its will on the United States again? Or will it be forced into compliance this time around?

“Last year, prime minister Netanyahu’s government ignored Obama’s demand to freeze the construction of settlements in the Palestinian occupied territories. Last May, American secretary of state Clinton emphasised that all construction had to stop… Last November, Netanyahu announced construction would indeed cease for ten months, but this freeze did not apply to East Jerusalem, where the foundations for some 3,000 homes had already been laid, and some other projects.

“Washington responded warmly to Israel’s offer. The small nation had succeeded in imposing its will on its biggest ally. Last week, the American vice president Joe Biden visited Israel to improve US-Israeli relations. The US had persuaded the Palestinians to return to negotiations with Israel, if only indirectly, even though construction of settlements continued. On the second day of Biden’s visit to Israel, its government announced it would be building another 1,600 homes in occupied East Jerusalem. Biden condemned the announcement, Netanyahu apologised (for the timing of the announcement, not for the construction itself) and, as far as Israel was concerned, the matter was now a thing of the past.

“But on Friday, secretary Clinton lambasted the Israeli prime minister over the phone, calling the Israeli act ‘deeply negative’ for American-Israeli relations. David Axelrod, one of president Obama’s chief political advisors, went even further, calling the Israeli move ‘an insult’ to the US which ‘undermined this very fragile effort to bring peace to that region’ on the American TV-programme Meet the Press. ‘For this announcement to come at that time was very, very destructive,’ he added. The relationship between the two countries has rarely been as bad as it is now.

“This morning, Israeli officials and newspapers reported that the American government would not be satisfied until the entire construction project had been scrapped. This has put the Israeli prime minister in a tough spot. The Ramat Shlomo settlement is an orthodox-Jewish stronghold, and the construction project there is considered of utmost importance to his orthodox coalition partner Shas. It was Shas-minister Eli Yishai who announced the plans in the first place.

“Netanyahu needs the Shas’ support, otherwise his coalition might fall apart. But Netanyahu also needs the US’s support. Not only does it depend on the billions in economic and military aid, it also desperately needs the US’s political support against Iran’s nuclear programme which Israel considers an ‘existential threat.'”

How Ridiculous Can It Get?

The Sacramento Bee reported on March 14:

“It was every businessperson’s nightmare. Arriving at Harv’s Metro Car Wash in midtown Wednesday afternoon were two dark-suited IRS agents demanding payment of delinquent taxes. ‘They were deadly serious, very aggressive, very condescending,’ says Harv’s owner, Aaron Zeff. The really odd part of this: The letter that was hand-delivered to Zeff’s on-site manager showed the amount of money owed to the feds was … 4 cents.

“Inexplicably, penalties and taxes accruing on the debt – stemming from the 2006 tax year – were listed as $202.31, leaving Harv’s with an obligation of $202.35.

“Zeff, who also owns local parking lots and is the president of the Midtown Business Association… [is] trying to figure out how penalties and interest could climb so high on such a small debt. He says he’s never been told he owes any taxes or that he’s ever incurred any late-payment penalties in the four years he’s owned Harv’s.

“In fact, he provided us with an Oct. 22, 2009, letter from the IRS that states Harv’s ‘has filed all required returns and addressed any balances due.’ IRS spokesman Jesse Weller isn’t commenting ‘due to privacy and disclosure laws.'”

This serves as just one example proving that human rule is bound to fail. Godly justice would never allow anything grotesque like the above to happen. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Gospel of the Kingdom of God.”

Watch Putin’s Coming Soviet Union!

Times On Line wrote on March 9:

“The Soviet Union is gradually being rebuilt as Vladimir Putin eyes a return to the Kremlin. The man who declared the collapse of the Communist state to be the ‘greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century’ appears determined to forge a new empire.

“The latest evidence emerged in a suggestion by Igor Shuvalov, First Deputy Prime Minister in Mr Putin’s Government, that Russia may abolish the rouble and create a common currency with Kazakhstan and Belarus. The three states have already established a customs union and plan to form a single economic market by 2012. Mr Shuvalov said… that it would be modelled on the euro.

“The last time these countries had a common currency, of course, was in Soviet times. Mr Putin was quick to extend an invitation to join the customs union to Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s new pro-Russian President, when they met in Moscow on Friday. Were Ukraine to sign up, there would be a common economic space encompassing the ‘Big Four’ republics of the Soviet era, with a combined population of 213 million and stretching from the European Union to China. Its political, military and economic centre would be in Moscow, where Mr Putin is expected to reclaim the presidency in 2012 for up to 12 more years…

“Other ex-Soviet republics would find it hard to resist the gravitational pull of a single currency and economic space. Armenia’s economy is almost completely owned by Russian companies already… Russia’s history of political interference in its former Soviet satellites has no comparison in the EU.”

The Bible predicts that in these last days, a militaristic alliance, under Russian leadership, will become a mortal enemy to a united EU. The resurgence of the Soviet Union would be another piece of the prophetic puzzle, leading to Christ’s return, which we are commanded to watch.

EU: Iran Is Building Nuclear Weapons

Israel National News reported on March 3:

“The European Union announced Wednesday that it agrees with the position of the International Atomic Energy Agency, that Tehran is secretly developing nuclear weapons for military purposes. In a statement given to the Council of Trustees of the Atomic Energy Agency, the European Union said that Europe will support any action against the Iranian nuclear threat agreed upon by the UN Security Council.”

Deutsche Welle reported on March 13:

“Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb said the EU remained committed to seeking a UN resolution on sanctions against Iran, but lacking that, the 27-nation block would take action on its own.”

A war in the Middle East, involving Israel and Iran, is likely to occur soon. And it is very possible that as a consequence, the EU will intervene in an effort to “bring peace” to the region.

“US Prepares for Total Destruction of Iran”

Scotland’s The Sunday Herald wrote the following on March 14:

“Hundreds of powerful US ‘bunker-buster’ bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for a possible attack on Iran. The Sunday Herald can reveal that the US government signed a contract in January to transport 10 ammunition containers to the island. According to a cargo manifest from the US navy, this included 387 ‘Blu’ bombs used for blasting hardened or underground structures. Experts say that they are being put in place for an assault on Iran’s controversial nuclear facilities. There has long been speculation that the US military is preparing for such an attack, should diplomacy fail to persuade Iran not to make nuclear weapons.

“Although Diego Garcia is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, it is used by the US as a military base under an agreement made in 1971. The agreement led to 2,000 native islanders being forcibly evicted to the Seychelles and Mauritius… A shipping company based in Florida, Superior Maritime Services, will be paid $699,500 to carry many thousands of military items from Concord, California, to Diego Garcia…

“‘They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran,’ said Dan Plesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London, co-author of a recent study on US preparations for an attack on Iran. ‘US bombers are ready today to destroy 10,000 targets in Iran in a few hours,’ he added…

“For Alan Mackinnon, chair of Scottish CND, the revelation was ‘extremely worrying’. He stated: ‘It is clear that the US government continues to beat the drums of war over Iran, most recently in the statements of Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. ‘It is depressingly similar to the rhetoric we heard prior to the war in Iraq in 2003.’

“The British Ministry of Defence has said in the past that the US government would need permission to use Diego Garcia for offensive action. It has already been used for strikes against Iraq during the 1991 and 2003 Gulf wars. About 50 British military staff are stationed on the island, with more than 3,200 US personnel. Part of the Chagos Archipelago, it lies about 1,000 miles from the southern coasts of India and Sri Lanka, well placed for missions to Iran.”

Dutch Government Collapses Over Afghanistan

The collapse of the Dutch government will have wide-reaching consequences, not just for The Netherlands, but also for Europe and the future of the Afghan War. Sentiments against America’s insistence to continue the war will increase in Europe and force European governments to either follow public demands to withdraw their troops, or risk their political survival.

The EUObserver wrote on February 22:

“Dutch Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende said on Sunday… that his country’s troops are likely to be pulled out of Afghanistan by the end of this year, a move he said may prompt other wavering states – including EU members – to think about doing the same… The centre-right leader was speaking a day after his government collapsed over the issue. The Labour Party quit the coalition on Saturday, saying it could not agree to a Nato request to extend the Dutch mission beyond 2010…

“There is also tension between contributing countries. Germany, which has the third biggest contingent behind the US and the UK, has its troops mainly stationed in the less risky northern part of the country. Fighting is heaviest in the south. France, which has just over 3000 troops in Afghanistan last month said it will not be sending any more, while London is feeling the political toll of the high number [of] British soldiers who have died in Afghanistan – over 100 last year…

“The move is a set-back for US President Barack Obama, who has been arm-twisting EU nations to do more in Afghanistan since making it a key plank of his foreign policy…

“The collapse of the government could result in a swing to the right in the 16-million strong country, which has been suffering from tensions over how to treat its Muslim and wider immigrant communities… Polls show that the anti-immigration Freedom Party, which was second only to Mr Balkenende’s Christian Democrats in last June’s European elections, may gain the most from the coalition’s dissolution.”

German Reactions to the Dutch Debacle

On February 22, Der Spiegel Online reported on the reaction of the German press to the collapse of the Dutch government, and the Afghanistan mission in general:

“The Dutch government is the first to collapse in a dispute over NATO’s involvement in Afghanistan. German media commentators say other NATO member states could share the same fate if they continue to ignore growing public opposition to the mission. The home front, it seems, is starting to crumble… The Afghan mission is unpopular across Europe and other governments will get into trouble too if they keep on ignoring public concern, say editorial writers at leading German commentators.

“The Dutch withdrawal is expected to fuel public debate in Germany, which has over 4,000 troops in Afghanistan. The mission has become even more controversial since an air strike ordered by a German commander on two hijacked fuel trucks in the northern region of Kunduz killed several civilians, possibly dozens, in September 2009…

“Center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

“‘The alliance no longer seems able to muster and preserve the unity without which the war will scarcely be winnable. The political home front is crumbling at a time when the alliance is making a tremendous military and political effort to turn the situation in Afghanistan in its favor. This shows that the public and politicians are losing patience with the Afghanistan mission. The political class is now, for the first time, prepared to take the consequences. The Dutch government is the first to have stumbled and collapsed over the war…

“‘It is only a matter of time before the pressure in other capital cities becomes so great that politicians will be forced to choose between staying loyal to the alliance and their own political survival… The writing is on the wall. If NATO doesn’t soon outline a clear plan for its withdrawal, more and more national governments will organize their own pullout in response to public pressure. Even at the cost of doing lasting damage to the alliance.”

“Conservative Die Welt writes:

“‘The collapse of the government in The Hague could open the European floodgates. Madrid, just like Berlin, can no longer sell the Afghanistan operation as a peace mission. In Britain too, public support for the mission is increasingly brittle…’

“Left-wing Berliner Zeitung writes:

“‘The Netherlands was always regarded as a reliable partner in NATO and the EU. They were rewarded for their loyalty with top jobs in international organisations. The collapse of the coalition marks a break with that foreign policy tradition. Dutch policy has undergone a reversal and shows how domestic political calculations will in future dominate foreign policy…'”

It is perhaps interesting to speculate whether The Netherlands, as the prophetic Zebulon–a modern descendant of one of the tribes of the ancient House of Israel–will be or won’t be a part of the final ten nations or groups of nations, which are prophesied to rise in Europe just prior to Christ’s return. For the identity of modern nations in biblical prophecy, please read our Q&A on the matter.

The EU in Afghanistan

The EUobserver wrote on February 24:

“The EU’s new envoy to Afghanistan, Lithuanian diplomat Vygaudas Usackas, has said he aims to demonstrate that new member states are up to handling the bloc’s top overseas postings… Mr Usackas… will in April leave behind his family to go to Kabul, where he will take charge of around 80 staff as the EU Special Representative to Afghanistan and the head of the EU delegation in the Afghan capital.

“The move will see him become the second ever person from a new EU member state to lead one of the EU’s 136 foreign missions, six years after the 2004 round of enlargement. The first was by a Hungarian diplomat in Norway. But the Afghanistan job is of a different magnitude.

“Afghanistan is a theatre of war for over 110,000 foreign troops including armed forces from 25 EU states… But unlike in Lithuania, where public opinion supports the war, other EU countries are starting to pull out. It is also a huge recipient of EU aid, with around €8 billion pumped in by the European Commission and member states over the past eight years, and hosts one of the union’s fastest-growing police missions.

“Mr Usackas’ job will be to advise President Hamid Karzai on the conduct of parliamentary elections in autumn, to help build Afghan government structures in pacified territories, oversee the influx of aid and speak on behalf of the EU… The new EU envoy warned that Nato-caused civilian deaths, such as the incident in Uruzgan last Sunday which saw 27 casualties, are generating opposition to the international presence both inside Afghanistan and in Europe.”

Europe is getting more and more involved politically and militarily–including and especially in areas outside Europe.

Afghan War Unwinnable

BBC reported on February 23:

“Sixty-four per cent of British people think the war in Afghanistan is unwinnable, a BBC poll suggests… Only 27% agree that the government has given sufficient support to UK forces… The data was collected between 19-21 February 2010, while more than 1,000 British troops were taking part in Operation Moshtarak as part of a 15,000-strong Nato and Afghan offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan’s Helmand province…

“63% of respondents to the Newsnight poll agreed when asked if they thought that whoever formed the next government after this year’s general election should commit to removing Britain’s armed forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2010. It is widely expected that a general election will take place in early May.

“When asked whether the war in Afghanistan was unwinnable, older people were gloomier than the young about the prospects of success. Seventy per cent of people aged 55 and over agreed that the war was unwinnable, compared with 58% of those aged 18-24. Otherwise, the response to this question was virtually unchanged since polling last November, suggesting that Operation Moshtarak might not have made an impact on the public.”

France’s Warship Sales to Russia “Very Risky”

The EUObserver wrote on February 19:

“Georgia on Thursday (19 February) warned Europe against a proposed French sale of warships to Russia, as it would allow Moscow to invade any former Soviet republic ‘within hours,’ echoing concerns raised by Baltic leaders that the deal is in breach of an EU code on arms trade. During a visit to London, President Mikheil Saakashvili said that the warship sale was ‘very risky’ and would ‘reward’ Russia’s continued military presence in Georgia’s breakaway provinces, in violation of a French-brokered ceasefire agreement after a brief war in 2008.

“Russia is negotiating a €500 million deal to buy at least one Mistral, an assault ship capable of carrying up to 16 helicopters and a 750-strong landing force. It has also expressed interest in three others.
 
“Mr Sarkozy has defended the sale, saying ‘one cannot expect Russia to behave as a partner if we don’t treat it as one.’ The deal would be a considerable boost for France’s Saint-Nazaire shipyard, which builds Mistrals…

“The Georgian leader also referred to remarks made last year by admiral Vladimir Vysotsky, the commander of Russia’s navy, who said that if his country had such a ship in 2008, it could have won the war against Georgia ‘in 40 minutes instead of 26 hours’… Vladimir Putin was now searching for a new conflict to underpin his bid to recapture the Russian presidency in 2012, Mr Saakashvili claimed.

“Baltic ministers last week also warned against the deal with Russia, which would be the first time a Nato country sells advanced military technology to the former Cold War enemy. There is no EU law governing arms sales by member states. But in 2008 the bloc adopted a political commitment not to sell weapons or components to countries which violate human rights, pose a risk to regional stability or hurt the security interests of EU allies. The code was signed into life by the French EU presidency four months after the Georgia war…

“Earlier this month, a Pentagon spokesman said the US’s ‘friends and allies’ in Eastern Europe had ‘good reason’ to be nervous about the deal. On Wednesday, Moscow signed a military treaty with the Georgian breakaway province of Abkhazia, which has access to the Black Sea. The deal includes setting up a Russian military base for at least 45 years. Moscow has currently about 1,700 troops in the self-declared independent province, despite the ceasefire agreement stipulating a scale-back in its military presence.”

Europe has had its history of signing pacts and making deals with Russia, only to break them later. There can be no doubt that Russia is on an aggressive course against nations which once belonged to the Soviet Empire. The Bible predicts that the relationship between the prophesied ten European nations or groups of nations and a power bloc under Russian and Chinese leadership will deteriorate and end in an out-right war.

“USA and Britain Are Next…”

A-7 News reported on February 24:

“Meeting with foreign ambassadors in the Knesset on Tuesday, Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin (Likud) said, ‘If the trend doesn’t change, the U.S. and Britain will be next in line’ to pay the price for the world’s double standards, and for their willingness to fight, in the war against terrorism.

“‘According to the standards laid down by the Goldstone investigation,’ Rivlin said, ‘Winston Churchill should have been charged with war crimes, as should the American and British armies in Iraq. In the meanwhile, though, only Israel is paying the price of the double standard that does not differentiate between attacker and victim, or between terrorism and self-defense.’

“The Goldstone Commission, charged by the United Nations with investigating Israel’s counter-terrorist Cast Lead offensive against Hamas-run Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009, accused Israel of war crimes, attacks upon civilians, and the like. ‘If the trend doesn’t change,’ Rivlin continued, ‘the next in line to be accused will be the members of the militaries of Great Britain, the U.S., and the other countries of the free world.’

“Some 70 ambassadors and foreign representatives took part in the Knesset event, which dealt with the fight of the democratic countries against terrorism… Rivlin warned of another terrific loss of life such as occurred in World War II… ‘Terrorism is trying to paralyze and silence democracies fighting against it,’ the veteran Jerusalemite Knesset Member said… Rivlin called on the nations of the world to stand by Israel in its fight against terrorism – a struggle that he said is ‘beginning to take on dimensions of World War III.'”

“PIIGS to the Slaughter”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on February 22:

“As speculators attack the euro, Europe is facing a growing threat of national bankruptcies. The consequences would be dramatic for the whole of the continent, especially German banks, which are highly exposed to risky debt. EU politicians are willing to pay almost any price to help the beleaguered countries…

“Europe is indeed currently the hottest topic on the global financial markets. The value of the battered euro has been falling since the Greek government confessed to the actual scope of its debt — and since it became clear that things are not looking significantly better in the other PIIGS countries (the acronym refers to Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain).

“There has never been this much uncertainty. No one knows whether the Greeks will manage to solve their problems, whether and how other countries will come to their aid, whether the crisis can be confined to Greece or whether it will spread like wildfire among the PIIGS — and end up tearing apart the European currency union…

“The financial industry is back to its old tricks, playing with the greatest possible amount of risk. In the past, it speculated with the debts of American homeowners and, as a result, triggered the biggest crisis in the world economy since the Great Depression of the 1920s. Now it is gambling with the debts of entire countries…

“It is no coincidence, however, that the speculators have not zeroed in on the dollar, the British pound or the yen. Although the United States, Britain and Japan are also groaning under the burden of their debt, the euro is much more vulnerable, for both historic and political reasons. The weak southern countries, members of the so-called Club Med, have always been seen as problem cases. They have lived beyond their means and neglected the need to be competitive, they have built up — partly in full view, partly cleverly hidden — enormous mountains of debt, and they have avoided hard-hitting reforms. These conditions existed before they became members of the euro zone, and they did not improve afterwards.

“The other euro countries looked the other way. Initially, before the establishment of monetary union, they looked away because they didn’t want to jeopardize their political goal of a European common currency. Later, it was because they themselves were benefiting from the euro. The German export economy, in particular, was able to expand continuously…

“The euro has been a success story until now. During the recent financial crisis, the common currency proved to be a blessing at first, particularly for the smaller countries. But as debt levels increased, the problems, previously suppressed, became more and more evident…

“US investment bank Goldman Sachs, in particular, has its finger in several pies at once: as an adviser to the beleaguered governments — and on the side of the hedge funds that are speculating against the Greeks. Goldman Sachs was also involved when the Greeks tried to hide their debts from Brussels. In 2002, the US bank helped them exchange a portion of their dollar and yen debts, worth $10 billion, into euro debts. Goldman even granted Greece a loan of €1 billion, which was never reported as such to Brussels, and collected €200 million for its efforts… even the new Greek government… cannot manage without the US investment bank…

“The situation would spin completely out of control if, in addition to Greece, countries like Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain got into difficulties… German banks are apparently the ‘principal creditors in Spain and Ireland, and the second-most important creditor in Italy’… Early last week, the German-French duo brought the remaining finance ministers in the euro group on board. Officially, all are still cloaked in silence and behaving as if bailouts will not be necessary. Nevertheless, the package of measures is beginning to take shape. The German Finance Ministry expects support for Greece to amount to between €20 billion and €25 billion. All the members of the euro group are expected to participate, including those, like Spain and Portugal, who also might find themselves needing help soon… The assistance is to consist partly of loans and partly of loan guarantees… the official version is that the participating countries will not assume any of Greece’s debt, which would be forbidden under the treaty. Instead, they will add new debt to the existing debt, something that the rules do not prohibit…

“The Finance Ministry officials are also thinking about creating a new institution… to handle future bailout efforts. This European fund would provide financing to countries in difficulty. It is still unclear how the new rescue fund will be financed. There are two conceivable options: Each member state’s contribution could be based on either its share of ECB capital or the level of its deficit. The second solution would be fairer: the worse a country’s financial policy, the higher its contribution. In other words, the biggest sinners would be required to pay the highest indulgence.

“Such an institution doesn’t exist yet, which means that European politicians will have to make do with what they have. The financial strength of the donor countries could soon be depleted. This could force ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet to buy up the debt of the countries facing bankruptcy — which is tantamount to printing money. Although this is prohibited under the Maastricht statutes, the EU finance ministers already demonstrated that the treaty could be amended if necessary when, in 2005, they stealthily relaxed the 3 percent criterion for government debt. Such a bailout would come at a high price: It would turn the European monetary union into an inflation union.”

The present European crisis, caused by Greece and blamed on U.S. banks, might be another stepping stone to the unification of ten leading and powerful European nations or groups of nations within larger Europe, as prophesied in Scripture. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.”

Germany Urges Catholic Church to Come Clean on Child Abuse

Deutsche Welle reported on February 21:

“German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger leveled criticism at the Bishop of Augsburg, Walter Mixa, who she said was ‘hiding behind polemic excuses instead of contributing to clearing up’ the matter. The controversial bishop had previously told a local newspaper that the media and the ‘so-called sexual revolution’ were partly to blame for the problem of child abuse in society…

“The minister’s comments come to a backdrop of a widening scandal involving allegations of sexual molestation at Catholic schools throughout Germany dating back to the 1960s…

“Hamburg Archbishop Werner Thissen said the scandal was the result of ‘structural problems’ in the church… An association of Catholic lay people… has also called on bishops to come clean, and admit that cases that have come to light are not isolated.”

Der Spiegel Online added on February 24:

“The Catholic Church in Germany is under pressure as more and more cases of sexual abuse come to light. Now the government is demanding that the Church take rigorous action to investigate the incidents… But Benedict XVI remained silent…

“New allegations of abuse by members of the Catholic Church are emerging every day… Despite the apparent urgency of the situation, Germany’s highest-ranking Catholic… had been unavailable for comment for weeks during the scandal…

“In reacting to what is probably the biggest scandal within their ranks in decades, German bishops have seemed helpless and dazed, sometimes concerned about the victims, but often stubborn, out of touch with reality or ignorant — and generally confused…

“Even the German government is unequivocally calling upon Church leaders to take action — an extremely unusual approach in the context of the relationship between Church and state… The prevalent view within the clergy, however, is still that sexual assaults are isolated cases, the regrettable transgressions of brothers gone astray… At the same time, the many new suspected cases indicate that abuse of children and adolescents was apparently widespread throughout the Catholic world…

“Given their experiences, however, many victims have little confidence in an investigation conducted by precisely the institution that concealed the abuse, sometimes for years or even decades.”

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, the Catholic Church will do to get itself out of this mess. Please watch our new StandingWatch program on this important issue, titled, “Why Catholic Sex Abuse?”

Head of German Lutheran Church Resigns Over Drunk Driving

Deutsche Welle reported on February 24:

“The head of the Lutheran Church in Germany, Margot Kaessmann, announced her resignation at a press conference on Wednesday after being pulled over for drunk driving days before… Her resignation as head of Germany’s Protestants and Hanover’s bishop is effective immediately, but she will remain a pastor in the local Hanover church…

“Police had stopped the 51-year-old, who was driving a car provided by the Church, for running a red light in Hanover on Saturday night. A test showed her blood alcohol level to be 0.154 percent, three times the legal limit for driving in Germany, prosecutors said.

“‘I am shocked at myself for committing such a grievous error,’ Kaessmann had told Bild newspaper. ‘I am aware how dangerous and irresponsible it is to drink and drive. I will accept the legal consequences’…

“Kaessmann was elected in October 2009 to be the first woman to head the Protestant Church in Germany, an umbrella organization that unites Germany’s 25 million Protestant Christians. She was a controversial choice, because she was divorced. Kaessmann was viewed as a modernizer and a supporter of improving ties with Catholics. She gained attention recently by calling for a pullout of German troops from Afghanistan, saying there was no such thing as a just war.”

The Habsburg Legacy

The Habsburg Empire was for many years a predominant force in continental Europe and constituted the seventh resurrection of the ancient Roman Empire and the fourth resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire. Even though it is very unlikely, based on the facts set forth below, that the Habsburgs will ever come to political power again in Europe, stranger things have happened in history.

Der Spiegel Online wrote on February 19:

“Many tourists take an underground detour to the Imperial Crypt, an internationally famed heritage site beneath the city of Vienna… When night falls, loneliness sweeps in around Leopold I. The deceased emperor lies inside his coffin… The man who lies buried beneath this dusty splendor was once the continent’s most powerful monarch. Leopold I reigned over the Holy Roman Empire for nearly half a century, beginning in 1658. He drove Turkish forces back from Vienna, defied King Louis XIV of France, and paved the way for an empire that stretched as far as the Netherlands, the Carpathian Mountains, Silesia, and Sardinia. Of the 146 Habsburg relatives to Leopold I who are interred in that part of the crypt open to the public, only Emperor Franz Joseph I reigned longer. But resting in his robust copper coffin since 1916, Franz Joseph I hasn’t yet needed to visit the workshop…

“The crypt provides one of the prime attractions within Vienna’s historic city center… Nearly 400 years’ worth of coffins and heart urns are collected here. Reform-inclined emperors lie alongside crowned warmongers, murder victims like Empress Elisabeth — better known by her nickname ‘Sisi’ — lie alongside suicides like her son Rudolf, who was the heir apparent. The remains of blue-blooded relatives from the houses of Bourbon, Parma, Burgundy and Aragon also rest here. The Habsburgs became a major power through their strategy of nonviolent annexation through marriage.

“Today, though, aside from the monks and the city of Vienna, only a ‘Society for the Preservation of the Imperial Crypt,’ with around a thousand members, sees to it that the deposed Habsburgs’ Valhalla, at least, still reflects the family’s former splendor. ‘We were dispossessed, so we didn’t even have funds available for restoration,’ complains Karl Habsburg, loyal grandson of the last emperor and now himself head of the House of Habsburg…

“Even 90 years after it enacted the Habsburg Law, the Republic of Austria still greets requests from the former dynasty with ‘limited enthusiasm’… The decision from April 3, 1919, still holds. The Habsburgs were dispossessed of private property held in family funds, denied the right to run for election, and forbidden to remain in Austria, unless they renounced in writing their claims to the throne and their affiliation with the deposed dynasty.

“Carl Ludwig, son of the last Habsburg emperor, was interred in the family crypt in January 2008. He refused his entire life to meet the full demands of the Habsburg Law, and paid for it with more than half a century of being denied entry to the country. Carl Ludwig was the younger brother of the heir to the throne, Otto von Habsburg, and took part in the Allied landing at Normandy in 1944 in an American uniform. He felt he had sufficiently proved his republican sentiments.

“Using the relics of the fallen dynasty as a tourist attraction but ostracizing the family’s heirs is typically Austrian, living descendents of the family argue. Michael Salvator Habsburg, a great-grandson of Emperor Franz Joseph I from the Tuscany line, has the same complaint. His ancestors, the historian says, relinquished their claim to the throne and remained in the country, yet still have not been rehabilitated…

“To this day, Vienna continues to supplement individual EU laws at the national level with conditions concerning the Habsburgs, as if a return to the throne remained a constant threat. Any remaining concerns that the republic is in danger of collapse, though, should be dispelled by the appearance of the elderly gentlemen who make up the Teutonic Master Guard Corps. They come every year on November 20, the anniversary of Franz Joseph’s death, to sing ‘God Save the Emperor’ in the Capuchin Church above the vault and then gather to pray in the crypt chapel below, within view of the vault’s last three empty marble plinths.

“It ‘doesn’t take much of a stretch of imagination’ to guess who is meant to take these last places of honor, Karl Habsburg commented shortly before his mother’s death two weeks ago. Karl’s father Otto, 97, has joked that the Capuchin monks seem to eye him with particular attentiveness during his visits to the crypt — ‘to take measurements for later’…

“What should be done, for example, with the monstrous copper coffin standing around uselessly at Vienna’s Central Cemetery? It was originally meant for Emperor Charles I, but he was buried in Madeira, where he was forced into exile. Since his beatification in 2004, the emperor’s resting place on the island has drawn more tourists than ever before. The autonomous Portuguese archipelago declines to transfer the tomb to the Imperial Crypt in Vienna…

“One gets a clearer sense of the ephemeral nature of things down here, adds Michael Salvator Habsburg. ‘The Christian Western world speaks out of the depths of the crypt,’ he says. ‘You can sense continuity and legitimation here.’ But things are different above ground, amid the daily life of the republic, Habsburg comments: ‘A government thinks first and foremost about its pension rights.'”

Scientists Retract Global Warming Study

The most important aspect in the following article is the fact that scientists openly admit that they make mistakes of such a magnitude that they can have wide-ranging consequences. It is high time that our “modern” and “sophisticated” civilization begins to place its trust and belief in God–rather than in erring scientists–and that it rejects scientific “knowledge” when it is in clear contradiction to the revealed Word of God–the Holy Bible.

The Guardian wrote on February 22:

“Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings.

“The study, published in 2009… confirmed the conclusions of the 2007 report… It used data over the last 22,000 years to predict that sea level would rise by between 7cm and 82cm by the end of the century.

“At the time, Mark Siddall, from the Earth Sciences Department at the University of Bristol, said the study ‘strengthens the confidence with which one may interpret the IPCC results.’ The IPCC said that sea level would probably rise by 18cm-59cm by 2100, though stressed this was based on incomplete information about ice sheet melting and that the true rise could be higher.

“Many scientists criticised the IPCC approach as too conservative, and several papers since have suggested that sea level could rise more…

“Announcing the formal retraction of the paper from the journal, Siddall said: ‘It’s one of those things that happens. People make mistakes and mistakes happen in science.’ He said there were two separate technical mistakes in the paper, which were pointed out by other scientists after it was published. A formal retraction was required, rather than a correction, because the errors undermined the study’s conclusion.”