Romney’s Constant Flip-Flops

Newsmax reported on September 9:

“Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has called for scrapping President Barack Obama’s 2010 U.S. healthcare law, said in remarks aired on Sunday that he likes key parts of ‘Obamacare’ despite his party’s loathing of it and wants to retain them. Romney, who faces Obama in the Nov. 6 election, has vowed throughout the campaign to repeal and replace the Obama healthcare law. But asked about the Obama healthcare law on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ program, Romney said, ‘Well, I’m not getting rid of all of healthcare reform. Of course, there are a number of things that I like in healthcare reform that I’m going to put in place,’ Romney added. ‘One is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage. Two is to assure that the marketplace allows for individuals to have policies that cover their family up to whatever age they might like.’

“The Obama healthcare law, among other provisions, prevents insurance companies from denying medical coverage to people who already are suffering from a medical condition. It also allows parents to keep their young-adult children on their health insurance plans until age 26. The law is Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement. Elements of the state healthcare reform plan that Romney put in place as governor of Massachusetts served as a model for the federal law passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by Obama in 2010 despite unified Republican opposition…

“On the day the Supreme Court upheld the Obama law in June, Romney said the American people must vote the president out of office in order to ‘get rid of Obamacare.’”

Mr. Romney also supported in that interview Mr. Obama’s drone war (as most Republicans do), even though critics have described it correctly as being morally and ethically wrong. For a true Christian, voting for either side or at all has become—and has always been–prohibitive. Please listen to our video-recorded sermon, “What Would Be Jesus’ Vote?,” and please read also the next article.

Better Off Now?

CNS reported on September 4:

“The U.S. government debt, which topped $16 trillion for the first time at the close of business on Friday, now equals approximately $136,260 for every household in the country. Just since President Barack Obama was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009, the debt has increased by $45,848 per household—or about 50 percent per household…”

… even though the President keeps telling us that we are better off now than at the time when he was inaugurated… Surprisingly, even though Bild Online reported diligently the many embarrassing mishaps during Mitt Romany’s recent international trip, the tabloid voiced the opinion that he would still be a better president for Europe than Mr. Obama, as Mr. Obama had no international portfolio, experience or grasp for political international matters.

IRS Agents Not Involved in Obamacare?

CNBC wrote on September 11:

“The Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday assured congressional lawmakers that agents would play no role in enforcing the controversial requirement that Americans buy insurance under President Barak Obama’s health care overhaul. ‘IRS revenue agents will not be involved. There will not be audits,’ IRS Deputy Commissioner Steven Miller told a subcommittee of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The law… will charge individuals a fee, or tax, if they fail to buy insurance starting in 2014.

“Opponents of the healthcare measure have focused on that requirement, with some Republicans saying they worry the IRS, the agency responsible for tax collection and tax law enforcement, will harass people who fail to buy insurance. ‘In most cases, taxpayers will file their tax returns reporting their health insurance coverage, and-or making a payment, and there will be no need for further interactions with the IRS,’ Miller said.

“Under the law, Americans who lack health insurance will have to pay an annual fee to the IRS of $95, or 1 percent of taxable household income, starting in 2014. By 2016, that will rise to $695 per person, with a cap that equals the greater of $2,085 per family or 2.5 percent of household income. About 1 percent of the population will be charged for not buying insurance, government watchdogs have estimated.”

So it seems to us, the IRS would be heavily involved in this.

“Germany Must Lead or Leave”

Reuters reported on September 8:

“Germany should leave the euro zone if it is not prepared to take a more decisive lead in helping the euro zone’s weaker nations escape a spiral of increasing indebtedness and economic decline, veteran financier George Soros said on Saturday… ‘Germany should either lead in developing a growth policy, political union and burden-sharing, accept the cost of leadership, or leave through an amicable arrangement,’ Soros said in an interview with Reuters television in Vienna… Germany should step up and accept its de-facto leadership role…”

Of course, Soros’s suggestion that Germany might leave the eurozone is utter nonsense and a far-fetched illusion, but his statement that Germany should step up to the plate and carry out more forcefully its de-facto-leadership role is quite interesting. In this regard, note the next article.

“Germany a Pillar in the International Community”

The Times of Israel reported on September 9:

“Germany shares Israel’s concern regarding Iran’s nuclear program, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Sunday at the beginning of a meeting with Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Jerusalem. ‘A nuclear-armed Iran would pose a threat not only to Israel but to the stability of the entire region. A nuclear-armed Iran is not an option,’ Westerwelle said…

“Barak called Germany ‘a pillar in the international community,’ praising its stand against ‘Iran’s continued movement toward military-nuclear capability.’ The minister said Germany ‘plays a part in both the sanctions and the diplomacy, and whatever might be needed to block them; we highly appreciate this position.’

“Westerwelle… said Israel and Germany shared a special friendship. ‘We condemn every kind of terrorist attack against Israel. We stand together with Israel, which means, of course, that we share also the concern about the Iranian nuclear program,” he said. Barak cited Israel’s recent purchase of a Dolphin-class submarine from Germany at a large discount as proof of the two countries’ ties. ‘We are thankful for the very good relationship, and the continued support that Germany provides for Israel, reflected by the recent signing of the agreement to buy a sixth submarine,’ he said.”

Whatever Germany will do in the future regarding Israel, the Arab nations and others, it is becoming more and more obvious that Germany is rising as the world’s leader. Please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.”

Jews Not Welcome?

Der Spiegel Online wrote on September 10:

“Aaron Buck, the spokesman of Munich’s Jewish community, says that long before the circumcision debate began he has experienced anti-Semitism on a daily basis. People call him on the phone, write e-mails or letters, and many even give their names… In light of this, any desire for a ‘relaxed relationship’ between Jews and other Germans would appear somewhat naïve. It’s almost as though the circumcision ruling by the Cologne regional court had only brought the truth of people’s real differences to light…”

Fragile US-Israeli Relationship

According to Haaretz of September 11, “The White House declined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request on Tuesday to meet [with] U.S. President Barack Obama during a UN conference in New York at the end of the month.”

The paper commented that “The White House’s response marks a new low in relations between Netanyahu and Obama, underscored by the fact that this is the first time Netanyahu will visit the U.S. as prime minister without meeting Obama.”

The Washington Post added on September 11 that “The deepening dispute between the United States and Israel over how to stop Iran’s nuclear program broke into public view Tuesday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggesting that the Obama administration did not have the ‘moral right’ to forestall military action. Netanyahu’s remarks — and a White House decision that President Obama will not meet with the Israeli leader later this month — threatened to further exacerbate tensions between the two allies and possibly push the disagreement over Iran into the U.S. presidential campaign.”

In typical diplomatic and political fashion, the White House denied the reports. According to CNN, dated September 11, “Wolf Blitzer, citing Israeli sources, reported that the Israelis were told Obama’s schedule would not permit a meeting even though Israel offered to have Netanyahu travel to Washington. Obama and Netanyahu are both due to address the United Nations in New York in late September but not at the same time. The Obama administration pushed back later Tuesday. ‘Contrary to reports in the press, there was never a request for Prime Minister Netanyahu to meet with President Obama in Washington, nor was a request for a meeting ever denied,’ the White House said Tuesday night in its statement, which made reference to ‘our close cooperation on Iran and other security issues.’”

However, the Financial Times wrote on September 12: “Feuding between the US and Israel burst into the open when Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, sharply criticized recent US statements about Iran while the White House said President Barack Obama would not meet Mr Netanyahu in the US this month… The core disagreement between the two governments has been rumbling for some time, with Israel paying close attention to Iran’s ‘capability’ to make a nuclear weapon while the US is more focused on efforts to build an actual weapon.”

Iran on the Attack

Newsmax wrote on September 9:

“An Iranian military official said Iran will retaliate against American interests as well as Israelis if Israel launches an attack on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities… Iran has missiles that could reach U.S. targets in the region, as well as Israel. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah also said Iran will attack American targets in the Middle East if Israel launches a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities…

“Iran has launched an attack against Israel on another front, asserting that Israel ‘spreads homosexuality’ across the globe to pursue its goal of world domination, the Jerusalem Post reported. Mashregh News, a state-controlled Iranian paper, claimed that the United States and Britain are using money from Jews to spread homosexuality, and described Tel Aviv as the gay paradise on earth.”

Radical Islamists Attack Americans

The Washington Times wrote on September 11:

“A State Department worker was killed and another injured Tuesday in separate attacks on a U.S. Consulate in Libya and the U.S. Embassy in Cairo by hard-line Islamic protesters angry about an anti-Islamic film. In the Libya attack, armed men stormed and burned the American Consulate in the eastern city of Bengazi, fatally shooting one worker and injuring another. Anti-American Islamists clambered over the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and ripped down the U.S. flag, replacing it with a black flag bearing the Islamic inscription ‘There is no God but Allah,’ commonly flown by al Qaeda.

“Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who confirmed the death, condemned ‘in the strongest terms’ the attack. ‘We are heartbroken by this terrible loss,’ she said.

“There were warnings late Tuesday of the potential for more attacks on Americans. ‘There is a high threat of additional attacks against U.S. diplomatic facilities around the world,’ warned IntelCenter, a private-sector firm that tracks jihadi messaging for clients including U.S. agencies… The protesters — most of them hard-line Islamists of the Salafist movement — stormed the embassy chanting, ‘Say it, don’t fear: Their ambassador must leave’ as part of a rally sparked by anger about a film deemed offensive to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad that reportedly was produced by expatriate members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority in the U.S.”

Predictably, the Arab Spring is turning more and more into a very cold and chilly winter—especially for America. Demonstrations in Tunsia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen against U.S. Embassies have become violent and deadly. But notice also the next article.

The Curse of the “Arab Spring”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on September 9:

“They began as a cry for freedom in the Middle East, but the Arab rebellions have become increasingly characterized by an ancient sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims… the power struggle between the two groups is sparking new fears along old frontlines…

“When representatives from around the world convened in the Iranian capital of Tehran last Thursday for the start of a Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, an annual meeting of 120 nations that view themselves as not aligned for or against any major powers, the focus was suddenly on 1,300-year-old battles, murders and power struggles. The host was Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a Shiite. Next to him on the dais was Egypt’s new president, Mohammed Morsi, a Sunni. Morsi began his opening address with a mention of the Prophet Muhammad, but then continued: ‘May Allah’s blessing be upon our masters Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali.’

“Iranian media immediately took the statement as a provocation. Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman were Muhammad’s successors after the Prophet’s death in 632. Sunni Muslims venerate them as the first caliphs — but Shiite Muslims consider them usurpers and traitors to the faith, hated figures whose very names should not be spoken. Muhammad’s true successor, Shiites say, was Ali, their first imam, who later fought against the other three before being murdered.

“Morsi went on to discuss the present situation in Syria, where Bashar Assad is overseeing the massacre of rebels who are mostly Sunni. Assad and his clique belong to the country’s Alawite minority, which is more closely aligned with the Shiites. ‘The bloodshed will not stop without intervention from outside’  the Egyptian president declared, saying that Assad’s regime had lost all legitimacy. Morsi, a Sunni, made these statements while sitting next to the Shiite Ahmadinejad, who has been providing the Syrian regime with weapons and now fighters, too. Morsi must know that any country that intervenes in Syria risks ending up at war with Iran, as well…

“From Tunisia to Bahrain, the Arab Spring began as a rebellion against despots… But, increasingly, these rebellions are being sucked into… the ancient conflict between these two different camps of Islam, the Sunnis and the Shiites… In the past, that tension has often burst forth as carnage, for example, in the Iraqi civil war, which began in 2004 and still hasn’t really ended…

“There is an apocalyptic prophecy in Islam that some attribute to the Prophet Muhammad. It’s only a fragment, the legend of an evil being known as the Sufyani that will one day arrive to sow death and ruin among the faithful. This tradition, supposedly ascribed to Muhammad, says the Sufyani will rise from the depths of the Earth beneath Damascus.”

For more information, please read our new free booklet, “Middle Eastern and African Nations in Bible Prophecy.”

Israel Prepares for War

The Financial Times wrote on August 31:

“Amid media speculation that Israel may carry out a strike on Iran’s nuclear sites and possibly prompt a regional war, the number of Israelis collecting state-funded gas masks has quadrupled from 17,000 in April to 70,000 in July… On Thursday, a UN report showed that Iran has doubled the number of uranium enrichment machines it has in an underground bunker. Already, many in Israel are renovating bomb shelters in their apartment buildings or sealing rooms so they can provide protection in the event of biological and chemical attack… Tel Aviv, Israel’s business and cultural capital, has unveiled plans [to] put up about 800,000 residents in 60 underground parking lots in case of an attack… Many bomb shelters in residential buildings across Israel are rundown and neglected or have become furniture storage rooms, while most of Israel’s Arab citizens – about 20 per cent of the population – lack shelters altogether.

“Relentless speculation has also made investors wary. Real estate investments by foreigners dropped 50 per cent in the second quarter from the same period last year, partly because of Iran-related worries… ‘The more the media reports about a possible Iran attack, the more investments are clearly being avoided from abroad,’ said Jacky Mukmel, head of Man Properties. A regional war could cost Israel Shk47bn ($11.7bn) in direct damages such as to private property and infrastructure, six times more than the damages of the 34-day hostilities between Israel and Lebanon’s Hizbollah group six years ago, the research firm BDI-Coface said last week. Its analysis is based on the assumption that this time the more densely populated centre of Israel – rather than the north – would be targeted.”

The Bible says that in the future, Israel will receive a “wound,” apparently referring to a (military and/or economic) loss in a war.

Israel and USA—“We Don’t Trust Each Other”

The Time wrote on August 31:

“Seven months ago, Israel and the United States postponed a massive joint military exercise that was originally set to go forward just as concerns were brimming that Israel would launch a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The exercise was rescheduled for late October, and appears likely to go forward on the cusp of the U.S. presidential election. But it won’t be nearly the same exercise. Well-placed sources in both countries have told TIME that Washington has greatly reduced the scale of U.S. participation, slashing by more than two-thirds the number of American troops going to Israel and reducing both the number and potency of missile interception systems at the core of the joint exercise. ‘Basically what the Americans are saying is, “We don’t trust you,”’ a senior Israeli military official tells TIME.

“The reductions are striking. Instead of the approximately 5,000 U.S. troops originally trumpeted for Austere Challenge 12, as the annual exercise is called, the Pentagon will send only 1,500 service members, and perhaps as few as 1,200. Patriot anti-missile systems will arrive in Israel as planned, but the crews to operate them will not. Instead of two Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense warships being dispatched to Israeli waters, the new plan is to send one, though even the remaining vessel is listed as a ‘maybe,’ according to officials in both militaries…

“In the current political context, the U.S. logic is transparent, says Israeli analyst Efraim Inbar. ‘I think they don’t want to insinuate that they are preparing something together with the Israelis against Iran – that’s the message,’ says Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University. ‘Trust? We don’t trust them. They don’t trust us…’

“The [U.S. anti-missile system] is extraordinarily powerful, so sensitive it can detect a softball thrown into the air from thousands of miles away. But… only Americans are allowed to see what’s on the screens…  the U.S. array can detect an Iranian missile launch six to seven minutes earlier than Israel’s best radar. Difficult as it may be to imagine U.S. decision-makers holding back information that could save Israeli lives, both by giving them more time to reach a shelter, or their interceptors to lock onto and destroy an incoming Shahab-3, the risk looms in the complex calculus of Israeli officials mulling an attack on Iran.

“Inside Israel, reports persist that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defense chief Ehud Barak are determined to launch a strike, and American officials continue to urge restraint. Israeli analysts say Netanyahu wants Obama to send a letter committing to U.S. military action by a specific date if Iran has not acceded to concessions, but the U.S. administration does not appear to be complying…”

The lack of cooperation and trust between the USA and Israel is also more fully discussed in the next article.

Israel Being Pushed into a Corner

The Times of Israel wrote on August 31:

“Israel responded bitterly on Friday to comments by the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, who said on Thursday that he did not want ‘to be complicit’ if Israel were to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities… Israeli commentators made much Friday of Dempsey’s use of the word ‘complicit.’ The US army chief could have said he did not want to be Israel’s ‘partner’ or its ‘ally’ in an attack on Iran, noted analyst Oren Nahari on Channel 1 state TV, but instead Dempsey employed a term with criminal connotations.

“On the same channel, analyst Ari Shavit said that the events of the past week… showed that both diplomacy and sanctions have failed, and yet the US was doing nothing to ratchet up pressure on Iran… Given the US’s publicly stressed disinclination to act, ‘Israel is being pushed into a corner, in a way that is really dangerous,’ said Shavit. ‘If all these moderate players, in the US and Europe, are so concerned about a dangerous Israeli action [against Iran], why haven’t they taken any meaningful action?’ he asked…

“Regional analyst Oded Granot said on the same program that Iran ‘does not think Obama will act’ by force to stop its nuclear program. On Channel 2, diplomatic reporter Udi Segal said comments like Dempsey’s might be bolstering the sense in the Israeli leadership that ‘maybe there’s no-one else who’s going to help us.’”

America’s alienation from the state of Israel has been predicted in Scripture. At the same time, America’s relationship with the Arab world will not improve, either. See the next article.

Endless War in the Middle East?

Haaretz wrote on September 6:

“The Palestinians criticized the U.S. Democratic Party’s decision to declare Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. The Democrats on Wednesday restored language in the platform saying Jerusalem ‘is and will remain the capital of Israel.’ A day earlier, the language had been removed from the platform, prompting Republicans to question U.S. President Barack Obama’s support for Israel. The language is at odds with U.S. policy calling for the status of Jerusalem to be resolved through negotiations. Both Israel and the Palestinians claim east Jerusalem.

“Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas … said a failure to recognize the Palestinian claim to East Jerusalem will ‘destroy the peace process’ and lead to ‘endless war.’…

“On Wednesday, Democrats voted to change their convention platform to add a mention of God and declare that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Many in the audience booed after the convention chairman, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, ruled that the amendments [were] approved despite the fact that many delegates objected…

“The party reinstated language from the 2008 platform that said ‘we need a government that stands up for the hopes, values and interests of working people and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential’…  The platform now included what advisers said was Obama’s personal views on Jerusalem.”

Israel’s Security Cabinet Meets on Iran Issue

The Jerusalem Post wrote on September 4:

“The 14-member Security Cabinet, the body authorized to approve military attacks, met Tuesday to hear the annual intelligence assessments provided by the country’s intelligence agencies. The 10-hour meeting is believed to be the first time in months that this body conducted an in-depth discussion on Iran…

“While Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s inner cabinet, which is made up of eight ministers, can give an advisory opinion on whether to attack Iran, the actual decision needs to be made by the security cabinet. This body could also choose to bring such a decision to the full 29-member cabinet.”

The Threat of Retaliation

Reuters reported on September 3:

“Iran could hit U.S. bases in the Middle East in response to any Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities even if American forces played no role in the attack, the leader of Lebanon’s Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah said on Monday…

“Unrest in neighboring Syria, which acknowledged for the first time in July that it possessed chemical or biological weapons, has led to Western fears that those weapons might fall into the hands of Islamist groups including Hezbollah… Even if Israel launched a first strike attack on Lebanon, destroying a large part of Hezbollah’s missile arsenal, the militant group would retain the capacity to hit back with deadly force, he added.”

Apocalypse in the Entire Region?

The Times of Israel wrote on September 6:

“War with Iran ‘would be tormenting for Israel’ and would cause ‘an apocalypse in the entire region,’ Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan said Wednesday night. Erdoðan stated, however, that an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities is ‘a very null probability’ and that he does not believe Israel would launch a unilateral attack. ‘I’m sure that I don’t want to see anything like that happening in the region because in this day and age, [the Middle East] needs peace and prosperity and stability,’ the prime minister told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

“Regarding the increasingly violent, 19-month civil war in Syria, Erdoðan equated the ‘merciless slaughter’ of the Syrian people by President Bashar Assad to genocidal mass murders perpetrated in the Bosnian and Kosovo Wars in the 1990s… The international community’s failure to intervene in Syria was the fault of the United States, which has not offered anything but nonlethal support for Syrian rebels, he said.”

It is interesting that Erdogan fails to mention the genocidal mass murders of the Turks against the Armenians. Further, the Bible says that Turkey will become violently hostile against the Jews in the region.

Germany and USA Supply Egypt with Submarines and Missile Ships

The Times of Israel wrote September 1:

“Israel’s angst over the willingness of Germany to sell Egypt two Type 209 attack submarines was dismissed by Egypt’s navy Sunday. In a statement published by Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, sources in the Egyptian navy denied that Berlin would torpedo the military deal with Egypt due to Israeli pressure, as was reported in Yedioth Ahronoth. ‘The only two parties determining the fate of this deal are the German and Egyptian governments and not Israeli newspapers which try to destabilize security within Egypt,’ a source in the navy told Al-Ahram, assuring the daily that the deal is proceeding as scheduled.

“It was ‘noteworthy’ that Israeli media did not comment on another important military deal with the United States, which would supply Egypt with four US-built FMC missile ships by early 2013, the daily claimed. ‘We will not allow anyone to enter our territorial waters,’ Egypt’s new navy commander Osama el-Gendy told Al-Ahram on Friday during a joint naval exercise with Greece.”

Anti-Semitism in Germany

Deutsche Welle reported on September 1:

“An anti-Semitic attack has caused consternation in Berlin. Politicians have called for more moral courage. Jews in the German capital have expressed fear, while Jewish organizations worldwide demanded more security. The attack was completely unexpected for Rabbi Daniel Alter, who was walking down the road with his 6-year-old daughter. Four young men jumped the 53-year-old, beat him viciously and threatened to kill his child. Before attacking Alter, who was wearing a kippa, the men asked him if he was Jewish. Alter, who later underwent surgery for a cheekbone fracture, described his attackers as Arab-looking. The beating did not take place in one of Berlin’s districts with a large number of Arab immigrants – it happened in affluent suburb Friedenau, southwest of the city…

“Since the incident on Tuesday (28.08.2012), several members of Berlin’s Jewish community have described their negative experiences when appearing recognizably Jewish on the street – in any district of the city. Many have taken to hiding their kippas under a baseball cap. Rabbi Andreas Nachama, a well-respected representative of the city’s Jewish community, has said he tries to avoid public transport after being attacked ten years ago on one of Berlin’s elevated trains…

“In most cases, the attacks are motivated by far-right extremism… there are many reports of an aggressive anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli sentiment in certain schools and among young Arab people…

“Governing politicians and police in Berlin would not reveal exactly how many police officers are allocated to protect Jewish public buildings, such as synagogues, Torah schools, kindergartens or other facilities – though they are protected around the clock, 365 days a year. Guarding property is one thing, but creating a sense of security for Jews in their everyday lives is a task that can’t be solved with more personnel.

“The outrage over the attack against Alter is also part of a wider context. Not only is Berlin still a city closely associated with the persecution of Jews by the Nazi regime, and many Jews are deeply concerned by the current legal debate over circumcision. The president of the Conference of European Rabbis, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt who is the chief rabbi of Moscow, said on Friday that Germany’s Jewish community was currently ‘at a crossroads.’ He said it was becoming clearer ‘that there is a conflict in Germany between those who truly respect freedom and tolerance, and those who would like to see an end of the German Jewish community.’ Jews, Goldschmidt said, were being faced ‘with narrow-minded humanist activists and violent thugs.’ Many believe that what is being threatened is nothing short of the successful restoration of Jewish life in Germany after the Shoah.

“Politicians have reacted with the usual appeals. Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit called the Alter attack an ‘attack on the peaceful co-habitation of everyone in the capital,’ while the federal government’s Integration Commissioner Maria Böhmer called on the population to show more courage. She said every individual should stand up ‘whenever people from whichever background are threatened or discriminated against.’… There were also clear signals from members of Germany’s Muslim community. Aiman Mazyek, chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, said such acts caused ‘deep revulsion’ among Muslims. He then professed solidarity and empathy with all Jews in Germany…”

According to the Bible, persecution of Jews and other religious minorities in Germany and Europe will continue and increase drastically. Note the next article.

Anti-Semitism in Europe

The Times of Israel wrote on August 31:

“On Sunday, 27 countries across Europe will celebrate the annual European Day of Jewish Culture 2012… Anti-Semitism, on and off, has been a growing and disconcerting phenomenon in Europe during the last decade and a half… we should not mistake an enthusiastic embrace of dead Jews and their artefacts, or of living Jews and their active participation in Western culture, as a sign that Jews are fully welcome…

“When Jews wish to pray regularly in their European synagogues… they can only do so at their peril or under heavy security. Jews who wish to publicly display the outward paraphernalia of their faith do so at their peril as well — chances are they will be beaten up here and there. It has happened before. It will happen again. It rarely gets more than the perfunctory condemnation of a society that, deep down, still feels uncomfortable when Jews dress, eat, and pray, like Jews.

“Jews who wish to impart their children with a Jewish education know their little ones will grow sheltered in the golden cage of a caring Jewish school – happy islands with no anti-Semitism inside, thanks to the barbed wire and high walls plus round-the-clock security service outside. They also know that metal detectors and police patrols will not always deter those who thirst for Jewish blood — ask Jews in Toulouse and ask no further – though plenty of others could tell you stories late into the night of how Jewish toddlers grow accustomed to cops with sniffer dogs and machine guns outside their kindergartens.

“Nor are Jews at liberty to express open, unabashed, and unconditional support for Israel — sooner or later that invites scorn and the occasional abuse (both verbal and physical)… what’s funny about facing criminal charges for circumcising your newborn sons and explosive charges when going to synagogue? A European day of Jewish Culture can no longer hide the fact of a widening assault on the most fundamental facets of Jewish identity in today’s Europe – the concerted efforts, from all corners of the political spectrum, to ban circumcision of newborn Jewish boys and the ritual slaughter of animals, according to Jewish dietary laws.

“All this is done in the name of liberal values – ritual slaughter becomes cruelty to animals; circumcision becomes an assault on free choice for toddlers to keep their foreskins intact; and the proverbial demonization of Israel as the 21st century version of apartheid has become the backdoor access for anti-Semites to join the liberal bandwagon of one standard for Jews and a different one for all other nations.

“What makes Jews what they are, ultimately, is not their jokes or their movies or their occasional literary and artistic contributions to Western culture. It is the mark in their flesh that solemnly and permanently affirms their commitment to the laws of their forefathers; the head covers and prayer shawls they wear – daily for the pious, occasionally for everyone else – to remind themselves of their Creator and the covenant that binds them to His laws; that which they can and cannot eat for so He commanded; and their love for the land and the people of Israel, with the attendant dream of restoring Zion, in both the mundane and the messianic sense, which pervades their daily prayers, the rhythm of their holidays and their rites of passage from cradle to grave.

“And yet, to fearlessly walk the streets of Europe, the parents of a 21st century-born Jewish child must henceforth forgo his circumcision, make him renounce the outward signs of Jewish devotion, raise him as a vegetarian lest he break his ancestors’ dietary laws, deny him a Jewish education to increase his chances to live to adult age, and let him become imbued with a hatred for the country where half his coreligionists live and his ancestors came from or yearned to return to. This is not a joke. It is what Europe, increasingly, has become for Jews.”

A terrible testimony, indeed. And far too many are sound asleep (or stay willingly ignorant) and do not see (or refuse to see) the real dangers looming on the horizon…. In this context, please see our recent StandingWatch programs, titled, “Political EU Union in Germany’s Image” and “The World’s Stance Against Israel” .

Further Developments on Circumcision Issue in Germany

The Times of Israel reported on September 2:

“Berlin prosecutor Matthias Weidling told Rabbi Yitzhak Ehrenberg that the charges filed against him in mid-August — for ‘disturbance of the public peace and other offenses’ — had been halted. Weidling stopped the proceedings even before initiating a[n] investigation because the police complaint against him contained ‘no indications of illegal behavior’…

“Ehrenberg had become the second German rabbi to be charged in connection with remarks he made regarding the current circumcision controversy raging in that country. In June, a Cologne court declared the ritual illegal. As a direct consequence of that ruling, a German citizen last month filed a police complaint against Rabbi David Goldberg, from the Bavarian town of Hof, who said he had performed hundreds of circumcisions in recent years…

“The question of how to apply the Cologne ruling to Ehrenberg’s pledge to continue circumcisions could ‘remain open,’ the prosecutor added. Since the Ehrenberg’s remarks didn’t call on others to commit illegal acts and no cases are known of circumcisions that were performed as a direct result of his words, there was no reason to further investigate the issue, he wrote.”

The Times of Israel reported on September 5:

“Berlin, Germany’s capital and itself a state, is the first to declare the practice legal following a Cologne court ruling in June that non-medical circumcisions on children amounted to a criminal offense, according to DPA, a German news wire… The Berlin state has authorized only doctors, and not mohels, to perform circumcisions…”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on September 5:

“Germany has been debating the rights and wrongs of circumcising infant boys ever since a German court ruled in June that the ritual, a core part of the Jewish religion, was unlawful. Now Charlotte Knobloch, 79, the former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, has had enough. In a furious editorial published on Wednesday in one of the country’s top newspapers, Süddeutsche Zeitung, she said the controversy was calling the existence of Germany’s small Jewish community into question and asked: ‘Do you still want us Jews?’… Knobloch is president of the Munich Jewish community and vice president of the World Jewish Congress…

“Knobloch wrote that circumcision was at the core of Jewish identity. ‘The zeal with which the self-appointed are unfeelingly and thoughtlessly dragging our religious foundations through the mud is unequalled. People who apparently have no idea of the religious significance of the Brit Mila (circumcision ceremony) who presumably have never spoken to a Jew, now want to tell us whether and how we can follow our religion… ‘I’m no longer prepared to go along with the sham in which people are talking about a new, fresh, flourishing Jewry in Germany… The fact is that German Jewry has never gotten over the Shoah…”

“Germany Takes the Lead”

Deutsche Welle reported on September 1:

“Germany has assumed its role as chair on the UN Security Council for the month of September. Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has vowed to use the presidency to take a tough stance on Syria’s Assad. France handed the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council to Germany on Saturday… During a visit to Hong Kong on Friday, Westerwelle condemned the council’s failure to take firm action against President Bashar Assad’s brutal suppression of the 17-month uprising. He described China and Russia’s veto of three Security Council resolutions on the conflict as nothing less than a ‘blockade.’

“Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov defended Moscow’s position, saying it was ‘naïve’ for foreign powers to expect Assad to withdraw his forces from Syria’s major cities first… Westerwelle noted that it was clear the international community was edging closer to the ‘continued isolation of the Assad regime,’ during this week’s summit of nonaligned countries in Iran. He was referring in part to Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s offer of support for the Syrian opposition movement as the summit opened on Thursday… Morsi said his country had a ‘moral obligation’ and ‘political necessity’ to show ‘solidarity with the Syrian people against a regime that lost its legitimacy,’ prompting a walkout from the Syrian delegation.

“Germany is due to end its two-year tenure as one of 10 nonpermanent members of the UN Security Council at the end of 2012. It will not be eligible for immediate re-election. Permanent council seats are held by Russia, China, the US, France and Britain.”

Whether or not Germany will be re-elected as a member on the Security Council, Germany will continue to lead in European and world affairs… Please read our free booklet, “Germany in Prophecy.” 

No More Public Healthcare for Spain’s Immigrants?

The Guardian wrote on August 31:

“About 150,000 immigrants living in Spain will lose their right to public health services on Saturday as the recession-hit country tries to save money. But doctors warn that excluding immigrants from the health system will have a wider impact on ordinary Spaniards’ health. The move by Mariano Rajoy’s conservative People’s party government has provoked anger among doctors and some regional governments that deliver public health to Spaniards. Amnesty International and other NGOs have accused the government of breaking international agreements by excluding a significant section of the population – immigrants without proper residence permits – from public healthcare. Hundreds of doctors have pledged to keep their surgeries open to all immigrants, regardless of whether they have a valid health card or not.

“Médecins sans Frontières pointed to cases such as María, a 32-year-old Bolivian woman who works in the black economy as a maid and who needs antidepressants ever since she discovered her elder son was badly sick. ‘As of tomorrow she will be unable to continue the treatment,’ a spokeswoman said.

“Another immigrant, Petru from Romania, who suffers from pulmonary tuberculosis and diabetes, will lose a right to regular insulin while her untreated tuberculosis becomes a health risk to ordinary Spaniards, the NGO added.

“Six of Spain’s 17 regional governments have pledged to ignore Rajoy’s orders and will keep providing healthcare to immigrants… But those regions that want to keep looking after irregular immigrants must go through the costly process of inventing new electronic health cards for them. As Spain’s regional governments seek their own bailouts, authorities in cash-strapped Valencia, eastern Spain, have also been making British residents apply for new health cards as they tighten up on services to EU citizens.”

More and more drastic measures will be imposed by European countries against illegal and certain legal immigrants. But the discussion is also continuing in the USA. See the next article.

Jeb Bush Criticizes Republican Party’s Anti-Immigration Policy

Bloomberg wrote on August 30:

“Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said his party’s anti-immigration policies are costing Republicans elections and contributing to lower fertility rates and gloom in the U.S. ‘The most vociferous anti-immigrant kind of candidates lose,’ Bush said during a Bloomberg/Washington Post breakfast at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida. ‘They lose in primaries, they lose in general elections. And I’m all about winning.’… More than two-thirds of Hispanics voted for Democrat Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election… Mitt Romney… trailed Obama among Hispanics by more than a 2-to-1 margin…

“Romney has said he favors ‘self-deportation,’ the idea behind Alabama and Arizona immigration laws that pressure undocumented workers to leave. The party has adopted a similar platform calling for proposals to ‘encourage illegal aliens to return home voluntarily.’ The platform supports requiring employers to verify workers’ legal status and opposes ‘any form of amnesty’ for illegal immigrants.  Bush said a ‘dark pessimism’ coming from Washington over immigration and other issues has led to lower fertility rates in the U.S… ‘We have a lower fertility rate today than France. It’s a sign of this pessimism. And the solution is to not view immigrants as a problem.’…

“Jeb Bush, who has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2016 should Obama win re-election, forecast a close race in the state [of Florida] this year…

“Bush criticized Obama for skirting Congress and ordering a plan to exempt from deportation younger illegal immigrants who meet certain requirements. Bush said he supported the policy.  ‘Having a solution to the fact that we have all of these young people, many of whom are making great contributions, don’t have a connection to their parents’ former country, yeah, of course I’m for it,’ Bush said…

“Asked in an interview on Bloomberg Television after the breakfast if the Republican Party runs the risk of becoming the minority party because of the issue, Bush said: ‘Not just Latinos, but Asians as well.’ The growing immigrant community, he said, ‘will become the dominant factor in politics.’… Bush said he was in favor of better control over the nation’s borders. ‘But then get to a different conversation about American greatness that can be sustained over the long haul, if we allow people to come in, embrace our values, fortify them, and bring vitality and energy and an aspirational notion about what it is to be an American,’ he said.”

Freedom of Speech in America?

Kens5.com reported the following on August 30:

“The Secret Service is looking into a sign posted in Victoria, Texas. The sign says ‘Pray for Obama’, but it’s the scripture quoted below those words that is raising eyebrows: Psalms 109:8. Psalms 109:8 reads, ‘Let his days be few, and let another take his office.’… some people say it is hateful and inappropriate. They say it misuses the holy scripture and it must come down…

“When asked what the sign means, Neitsch responded, ‘Exactly what it says. Hope he’s gone soon and somebody different takes his place.’ Reverend Amy Danchik started a petition demanding Neitsch take down the sign. They’ve since met and Neitsch… agreed to replace the billboard.”

This is another ridiculous example to show as to how far away this country has removed itself from concepts of freedom of speech—and that with the support of ministers.

Clint Eastwood Takes the Stage

On August 30, the Washington Post posted Clint Eastwood’s refreshing, funny, intelligent and unusual unscripted speech to the Republican National Convention. While most Republicans were laughing and Rush Limbaugh described Eastwood’s speech as “bold,” Democrats and the left-liberal press were “appalled.” Here is a typical example from the New York Times, dated August 31:

“For all the finger-pointing about Clint Eastwood’s rambling conversation with an empty chair on Thursday night, the most bizarre, head-scratching 12 minutes in recent political convention history were set in motion by Mitt Romney himself and made possible by his aides, who had shrouded the actor’s appearance in secrecy.”

To judge for yourself, we are bringing you the following excerpts (we did, however, omit any of his crude remarks, which we, of course, do not approve of):

“I’ve got Mr. Obama sitting here. And… I was going to ask him a couple of questions. But… I remember three and a half years ago, when Mr. Obama won the election. And though I was not a big supporter, I was watching that night when he was having that thing and they were talking about hope and change and they were talking about, yes we can, and it was dark outdoors, and it was nice, and people were lighting candles. They were saying, I just thought, this was great. Everybody is trying, Oprah was crying… I was even crying. And then finally — and I haven’t cried that hard since I found out that there is 23 million unemployed people in this country… Now that is something to cry for because that is a disgrace, a national disgrace, and we haven’t done enough, obviously — this administration hasn’t done enough to cure that. Whenever interest they have is not strong enough, and I think possibly now it may be time for somebody else to come along and solve the problem…

“So, Mr. President, how do you handle promises that you have made when you were running for election, and how do you handle them?… I know even people in your own party were very disappointed when you didn’t close Gitmo. And I thought, well closing Gitmo — why close that, we spent so much money on it. But, I thought maybe as an excuse… I thought maybe it was just because somebody had the stupid idea of trying terrorists in downtown New York City… I know you were against the war in Iraq, and that’s okay.

“But you thought the war in Afghanistan was OK. You know, I mean — you thought that was something worth doing. We didn’t check with the Russians to see how [they] did it — they did [it] there for 10 years… I think you’ve mentioned something about having a target date for bringing everybody home. You gave that target date, and I think Mr. Romney asked the only sensible question, you know, he says, ‘Why are you giving the date out now? Why don’t you just bring them home tomorrow morning?’…

“I think attorneys are so busy — you know they’re always taught to argue everything, and always weigh everything — weigh both sides. They are always devil’s advocating this and bifurcating this and bifurcating that. You know all that stuff. But, I think it is maybe time — what do you think — for maybe a businessman. How about that?… And I think if you just step aside… You can maybe still use a plane… Though maybe a smaller one. Not that big gas guzzler you are going around to colleges and talking about student loans and stuff like that… You are… an ecological man. Why would you want to drive that around?

“… we own this country… It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours… And — so — they are just going to come around and beg for votes every few years. It is the same old deal… And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go…”

USA Today reported on September 1:

“President Obama wants to make it clear that, in his own words, ‘I am a huge Clint Eastwood fan. He is a great actor, and an even better director,’ the president said in an interview with USA TODAY aboard Air Force One, on his way to campaign rallies in Iowa Saturday. ‘I think the last few movies that he’s made have been terrific.’ However, Obama seemed less eager to review Eastwood’s latest performance, on stage at the Republican National Convention Thursday. The 82-year-old Hollywood icon preceded Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney with a rambling 12-minute improvisation that included a rude ‘interview’ with an empty chair purportedly occupied by an invisible Obama. Was he offended? ‘One thing about being president or running for president — if you’re easily offended, you should probably choose another profession.’ Obama said with a smile…”

The problem is, however, that the Bible has prophesied that in these last days, America will not succeed—no matter who is going to lead this country. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.” You might also want to watch our video-recorded sermon, “What Would Be Jesus’ Vote”?

2013—A Year of Crisis

CNN wrote on September 3:

“2013 will be a year of serious global crisis. That crisis is predictable, and in fact has already begun. It will inescapably confront the next president of the United States… The crisis originates in this summer’s extreme weather. Almost 80% of the continental United States experienced drought conditions. Russia and Australia experienced drought as well… The drought has ruined key crops. The corn harvest is expected to drop to the lowest level since 1995…

“The Arab Spring of 2011 is sometimes compared to the revolutions of 1848. That’s apter than people realize: the ‘hungry ’40s’ were years of bad harvests across Europe. Hungry people are angry people, and angry people bring governments down. Will 2013 bring us social turmoil in Brazil, strikes in China or revolution in Pakistan? The answer can probably be read in the price indexes of the commodities exchanges — and it is anything but reassuring.”

The Curse of Drugs

The Los Angeles Times wrote on September 1:

“[Gruenenthal, the] German manufacturer of a notorious drug that caused thousands of babies to be born with shortened arms and legs, or no limbs at all, issued its first ever apology Friday — 50 years after pulling the drug off the market… The drug is a powerful sedative and was sold under the brand name Contergan in Germany. It was given to pregnant women mostly to combat morning sickness, but led to a wave of birth defects in Europe, Australia, Canada and Japan. Thalidomide was yanked from the market in 1961 and was also found to cause defects in the eyes, ears, heart, genitals and internal organs of developing babies…

“Gruenenthal settled a lawsuit in Germany in 1972 — 11 years after stopping sales of the drug — and voiced its regret to the victims. But for decades, the company refused to admit liability, saying it had conducted all necessary clinical trials required at the time… [They] reiterated that position Friday, insisting that ‘the suffering that occurred with Contergan 50 years ago happened in a world that is completely different from today’ and the pharmaceutical industry had learned a valuable lesson from the incident… Thalidomide is still sold today, but as a treatment for multiple myeloma, a bone marrow cancer and leprosy. It is also being studied to see if it might be useful for other conditions including AIDS, arthritis and other cancers.”

The last two sentences in the article are truly alarming. Man simply does not want to learn!

Earthquakes in Southern California

USA Today reported on August 27:

“The earthquake swarm that has been rocking Southern California since Sunday has been the area’s strongest such swarm in 30 years… [The region is known for quake swarms, even ones in the 5.5 magnitude range recorded on Sunday]. Similar swarms in the magnitude-5.0 range occurred in the area in the 1970s and in 1981, seismologist Lucy Jones of the U.S. Geological Survey told the [Los Angeles] Times. The area, in the region of Imperial County, is known as the Brawley Seismic Zone and sits between the San Andreas and Imperial faults, Jones told the Times.”

USA Today wrote on August 26:

“A series of earthquakes rocked the San Diego area stretching from last night to earlier this afternoon, but none was strong enough to cause any reports of damage or injury so far… The strongest one — a magnitude-5.4 — took place Sunday afternoon…”

Christ warned of the increase of powerful earthquakes in diverse places. California, as the entire USA, is most certainly in a danger zone.

Coming—A Political EU Union in Germany’s Image?

The Guardian wrote on August 26:

“Germany is pushing ahead with plans for a new treaty that will transform the European Union… Angela Merkel wants European leaders to agree by the end of the year to hold a constitutional convention in order to fashion a new legal basis for the EU… The plan could dramatically reshape the EU in Germany’s image… the debate in Germany is now moving beyond Greece towards the question of political union. During the two and a half years since the euro crisis began, Germany’s approach has been to seek to impose its own economic preferences on the eurozone…

“Many… have seen in Germany’s approach a kind of economic imperialism. But Germany seems to be coming to the conclusion that it is no longer enough to try to remake the eurozone in Germany’s image in economic terms; it must do so in political terms as well… Just as Germany has sought to impose its economic preferences on the rest of the eurozone, it is now also likely to seek to impose its political preferences…”

The Bible shows that within the current Eurozone—not separate and apart from it–a powerful economic and political union of ten nations or groups of nations under German leadership will arise. Please note the next article as well.

Germany and France Want Political Union

The EUObserver wrote on August 30:

“Last year Germany went out on a limb by calling for political union in Europe. The idea was met with little enthusiasm elsewhere in the eurozone, but particularly in France. After the election of French President Francois Hollande in May, it seemed thatviews of the EU’s foremost political duo could not be further apart. But the mood has since changed and serious plans are underway to create – if not a full political union – then something close to it.

“Watching the evolution from the inside is Thomas Wieser, an Austrian economist who prepares the regular meetings of the eurozone finance ministers. ‘There will be consultations with the member states in the second half of September in Brussels and I think you will be surprised in the autumn by the degree of movement that will have taken place in some member states,’ he tells this website. ‘What I have observed is a degree of co-operation between the two (France and Germany) which has increased, even within last week.’

“One example is recent announcement by Berlin and Paris that they will establish a bilateral working group between their finance ministries. ‘It is a group of colleagues from the two member states and if they prepare for our meetings, our meetings go even smoother,’ said Wieser.

“Meanwhile, EU council president Herman Van Rompuy and others are drawing up a paper to upgrade the eurozone, which will be discussed by EU leaders at a summit on 18-19 October. It will include elements for a political union, but also for a fiscal union – surrendering more budgetary powers to Brussels – considered key for the survival of the single currency. One of the key steps along the way is the creation of a eurozone-wide banking supervisor under the authority of the European Central Bank.”

Rabbi Prays for Destruction of Iran

The Jerusalem Post wrote on August 26:

“Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef implored God to ‘wipe out and destroy’ Iran and Hezbollah during his weekly sermon on Saturday night. This is the second time in a row in which Yosef has spoken about the threat of Iran’s nuclear program during his post-Shabbat Torah lesson… ‘When we make the blessing on the dates that “our enemies and haters should be ended” we should have in mind the Iranian regime, those evil people who threaten Israel,’ the rabbi said. ‘Do good, God, wipe them out, kill them,’ he entreated, to which the assembled crowd answered ‘amen.’…

“‘Destroy them God, obliterate them from the face of the earth,’ he said… in reference to a Persian enemy of the Jewish people recorded in the Book of Esther, Yosef said that ‘a second Haman, also from Persia, intends to do evil to us. We are in danger, all of us are in danger. We have no one to rely on apart from our Father in heaven,’ said Yosef.”

This article is important also in light of the next one—showing that a war between Israel and Iran will have devastating consequences for both sides.

Will Israel Assassinate Enemy Leaders?

The following was reported in the DEBKAfile, on August 25, 2012:

“President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu have bandied thousands of words in their dispute over an Israeli  strike on Iran’s nuclear sites. For a time, their argument muffled the abiding ambition of the Islamic Republic to destroy Israel–come what may. However, the message roared by Iranian leaders over last weekend – before and after Al Quds Day – was quite simply this: Israel must be destroyed, irrespective of whether or not it attacks the Islamic Republic…

“Certain Western intelligence sources were reminded of a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in 2006 when he quoted a Holocaust survivor as saying:  ‘My main lesson from the Holocaust is that if someone tells you he is going to exterminate you, believe him. And I add to that. Believe him and stop him!’

“Six years later, those sources now suggest, after America’s top soldier Gen. Martin Dempsey offered the opinion that Israel can no longer destroy Iran’s nuclear weapon capacity – only delay it , that Netanyahu may be willing to go further: Not only to stop them, but kill them. They are quietly using the term ‘decapitation.’ They point to the Israeli Mossad’s long record of targeted covert operations for dealing with past and would-be annihilators: In the fifties, the Mossad captured the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann in Operational Finale. In the seventies, Golda Meir ordered Operation Wrath of God to hunt down and pick off one by one the Palestinian Black September murderers of 11 Israeli sportsmen at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

“In February 2008, Iran’s senior terrorist operations commander, Hizballah’s Imad Mughniyeh, was liquidated in Damascus, so ending a bloody career of assassinations, terrorism and abductions against US and other Western targets as well as Israel. Hizballah’s chief Hassan Nasrallah knows the score: He has spent six years hunkered down in a fortified bunker, taking care never to  broadcast his inflammatory speeches calling for Israel’s destruction live, only by video.

“It cannot be ruled out that (at) this point, Israel may decide to disable Iran’s nuclear program by going for its leaders.”

We live in a world in which vulgarities, lies, threats and almost any thought conjured up is being spewed openly and without regard for its consequences. So called “idle threats” may not be lightly dismissed by those who are receiving them!

Tensions Inflamed in East Asian Seas

NBCNEWS.COM wrote on August 24, 2012:

“Vast oil reserves, trillion-dollar trade routes, fervent nationalist sentiments, competing territorial claims and bitter histories – the waters off the east coast of China are a sea of money and a sea of trouble. Tensions have been rising for several years and recently hit new heights with activists landing on disputed islands, angry diplomatic exchanges and even a threat to deploy troops, prompting fears of an armed conflict that could potentially involve the United States, China, Japan and other nations.

“The South China Sea has a myriad of competing claims of ownership: China staked out most of it in 1947 but its neighbors have never accepted it. The Spratly Islands alone are claimed by a total of five countries: China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam.

“All are eyeing oil and gas reserves thought to be so rich that the area has become dubbed ‘The Second Persian Gulf.’ Also, an estimated $5 trillion worth of trade is shipped through its waters… But perhaps the most dangerous potential flashpoint is farther north in the East China Sea. China and Japan both claim ownership of the uninhabited Senkaku Islands – known as Diaoyu in Chinese – with strong nationalist feelings on both sides.”

This article also quotes Senator James Webb, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations East Asian and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, as follows:

“‘The U.S., China and all of East Asia have now reached an unavoidable moment of truth. Sovereignty disputes in which parties seek peaceful resolution are one thing; flagrant, belligerent acts are quite another…'”

This and other recent articles point to the undeniable fact that new powers are emerging, and the United States is, for all practical purposes, left a place at the negotiating table but no longer able to effectively enforce its will–especially, from the standpoint of military intimidation or outright war.

Osama Bin Laden’s Killing Under Scrutiny

BBC News reported on August 29:

“A first-hand account of the May 2011 raid by US forces that killed Osama Bin Laden contradicts the official story, the Associated Press claims. It has purchased an advance copy of an unauthorised account of the raid, No Easy Day, by a former Seal. The book says Bin Laden was shot dead as soon as he looked out of his bedroom as Seals rushed up the stairs, AP says.

“But US officials have stated he was shot only once he had ducked back into the bedroom. They have said his actions suggested he might be reaching for a weapon.

“The alleged contradiction will add to existing controversy over the book. It was written under a pseudonym, Mark Owen, but only hours after the book’s existence came to light the author’s real name was revealed by Fox News. Military officials also say the publishers failed to submit the book to the Pentagon to ensure it discloses no secret information – part of normal protocol – and are scrutinising its contents… According to AP, the author says he was directly behind a ‘point man’ going up the stairs… The author writes that Bin Laden ducked back into his bedroom and the Seals followed, only to find him crumpled on the floor in a pool of blood with a hole visible on the right side of his head and two women wailing over his body, AP relates. The women were pulled out of the way and Seals fired several shots into Bin Laden’s still-twitching body until he was motionless. The Seals later found two unused weapons by the doorway…

“The author says early official accounts of the operation, including reports of a protracted firefight, were misleading… in the days after the raid, the White House seemed to contradict itself more than once… According to AP, the book also asserts that one Seal sat on Bin Laden’s chest in a cramped helicopter as his body was flown out to sea. This again apparently contradicts official US claims that his body was treated with dignity ahead of his burial.”

The way in which Osama Bin Laden’s death was originally described was questionable from the outset. This book might shed some light on the true occurrences, but this won’t be helping President Obama and his administration. Understandably, the Pentagon is quite nervous. Note the report from AFP, dated August 30:

“The Pentagon on Thursday threatened legal action against the Navy SEAL who has written a book recounting his role in the raid that killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. ‘In the judgment of the Department of Defense, you are in material breach and violation of the non-disclosure agreements you signed’ and the Pentagon is considering ‘all remedies legally available to us,’ Defense Department general counsel Jeh Johnson wrote in a letter to the author…”

What Does the World Think about Obama and Romney?

CNN reported on August 30:

“Europeans have had a four-year love affair with Barack Obama: 87 percent of Germans, 86 percent of French and 80 percent of the British have confidence in Obama… in each case this is higher than public confidence in their own national leader. And 92 percent of the French, 89 percent of the Germans and 73 percent of the British want Obama reelected… in Britain, France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands, strong majorities said the 2004 re-election of George W. Bush led them to have a less favorable opinion of the United States. A newly-elected Romney administration may have to contend with a similar European reaction if the popular Obama is defeated in what will come to a surprise to many of them…

“But an Obama defeat may not play as poorly in the Middle East – in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia – where a median of only 29 percent approve of Obama and a median of just 25 percent want him reelected. Elsewhere, foreign reaction to an Obama defeat could be mixed.

“In Asia, 74 percent of Japanese have a favorable view of the current U.S. president and 66 percent want him reelected. But Obama’s popularity is only 38 percent in China and only 31 percent there want him to get another term. Similarly, in Latin America, while 68 percent of Brazilians like Obama and 72 percent want him reelected, only 42 percent of Mexicans are well disposed toward the current U.S. president and just 35 percent hope he has a second term…”

Ukraine Follows Russia’s Footsteps

The EUObserver wrote on August 29:

“Ukraine’s high court decision to toss out an appeal by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko may place an additional strain on EU relations with the country, EU foreign affairs spokesperson Michael Mann told reporters in Brussels… The court had earlier in the day rejected Tymoshenko’s appeal against her conviction of abuse of power over gas contracts with Russia for which she is currently serving a 7-year prison sentence. Her sentence, issued on 11 October 2011, also bans her from serving public office for three years.

“Her defence lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko, told reporters following the court’s decision that ‘the findings have no relation to justice’, reported Reuters. Vlasenko claims the court’s ruling is politically motivated and driven by Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovich’s desire to prevent her from running for office. Judge Oleksandr Elfimov, one of three judges who presided the case, said Tymoshenko’s appeal was without basis and that her prison sentence was proportionate ‘to the gravity of the crime.’

“Mann said the EU regrets the high court’s decision and is ‘deeply disappointed with the consequences of the current situation’ which prevents leaders of the opposition from standing in the parliamentary elections. He noted the trials have failed to respect international standards and have not demonstrated ‘fair, transparent and independent legal processes’…

“Tymokshenko’s detention is a possible stumbling block on on-going free trade negotiations between Ukraine and the European Commission.”

Ukraine’s politically motivated decisions and conduct mirrors Russia’s autocratic behavior of recent months under dictator Vladimir Putin. The Bible shows that finally, Russia and Ukraine will align against Europe. See also the next article.

Gauck Avoids Putin

The Local wrote on August 29:

“German diplomats are struggling to gloss over the fact that President Joachim Gauck – a democracy activist in East Germany – is reluctant to have anything to do with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer. Since his appointment in March, Gauck has managed to keep his contact with Putin to a minimum.

“He received the Russian leader at his official residence in Berlin at the end of May when Putin was visiting Germany after becoming president again, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Wednesday. But the visit was not hugely friendly, the magazine said, and Gauck addressed Russian deficiencies in the rule of law when speaking with Putin, something the Russian leader was less than enthusiastic about. Since then the pair have not met…

“Gauck is hugely popular amongst Germans due to his perceived high political and social principles, his work in the pro-democracy movement in the GDR, and his integrity and determination in opening the Stasi files to the public in the 1990s. He and Putin, an authoritarian former KGB agent who was stationed in Dresden during much of the 1980s, and has arguably overseen anti-democratic developments as Russian leader, certainly clash politically.”

Circumcision in Germany—and the Witch Hunt Continues…

Times of Israel reported on August 31:

“One of Germany’s most prominent rabbis has been charged after publicly vowing to continue to perform circumcisions… The office of Rabbi Yitshak Ehrenberg, who has been serving the Berlin Jewish community since 1997, on Wednesday confirmed in an email that criminal charges had been filed against him. Ehrenberg has received a letter from the prosecutor’s office because of comments he made on a nationwide broadcast television show, an aide confirmed…

“Ehrenberg is the second Jerusalem-born Orthodox rabbi living in Germany who is being investigated amid the current controversy surrounding circumcision. In June, a Cologne court declared the ritual illegal. As a direct consequence of that ruling, a German citizen [a doctor] earlier this month filed a police complaint against Rabbi David Goldberg, from the Bavarian town of Hof, who said he had performed hundreds of circumcisions in recent years.

“On July 11, Ehrenberg — a well-known figure among German Jews and a member of the executive committee of the European Rabbinical Conference — participated in a debate on ‘Anne Will,’ a popular talk show dedicated to the Cologne ruling and its implications… ‘We’re talking about religion,’ said Ehrenberg. ‘This ruling will kill Judaism in Germany.’

“After more than an hour of lively discussion, host Anne Will allowed Ehrenberg the last word. The rabbi first appealed to his congregants not to have their children circumcised in a hospital but in a synagogue or at home. Then he concluded: ‘Circumcision is a basic law for us Jews. There is no Judaism without circumcision, and therefore — we will continue.’”

And Now—The Netherlands?

Reuters wrote on August 29:

“Israel’s leading rabbi has warned Dutch populist politician Geert Wilders that his party’s support for a ban of ritual slaughter of animals in the Netherlands is ‘anti-Semitic’ and could drive away the country’s Jewish community.

“Wilders rose to prominence in the Netherlands denouncing the growing influence of Islam in the West, calling for a ban against Muslim immigrants, a halt to the construction of mosques and a ban on Muslim face-veils. Some of his most outspoken supporters are in the conservative, pro-Israeli movement in the United States. Wilders calls himself Israel’s ‘greatest friend’ and has also proposed creating a national Dutch holiday to commemorate the victims of the Auschwitz concentration camp…

“Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger called on Wilders’ Freedom Party to stop backing a ban on ritual slaughter. It is the strongest public condemnation yet of Wilders’ position on the policy and comes two weeks before the Netherlands holds a general election September 12 in which he is expected to take a sizeable portion of the vote. ‘It is obvious that one cannot be at the same time a friend of Israel and the Jewish people and on the other hand support an anti-Jewish law,’ Metzger wrote. ‘By denying Jews to live according to the Torah you will eventually force them to leave the Netherlands where they enjoyed religious freedom for centuries.’

“Metzger wrote that he was ‘shocked and upset to learn that your party once again has adopted a total ban on ritual slaughter in its platform. This is the classical anti-Semitic way our rites have been targeted and demonized throughout history,’ he wrote…

“Both Muslim halal and Jewish kosher laws require animals to be conscious when they are put to death. Some 3,500 cows are slaughtered annually according to the Jewish kosher ritual in the Netherlands. The loss of backing from prominent Jewish leaders could be damaging to Wilders, who has enjoyed support from pro-Israeli and anti-Islam organizations in the United States…

“Manfred Gerstenfeld, a prominent Israeli author, said in a telephone interview from Jerusalem that the banning of ritual slaughter has been used in Europe to deter Jews. ‘Are you going to support a guy who is at forefront of the anti-Semitism movement in Europe?,’ he said. The Netherlands, where Anne Frank hid as a teenager in an Amsterdam canal house until being murdered by the Nazis, had one of the highest rates of Jewish deportation during World War Two.”

America’s Drought

Deutsche Welle, August 20, 2012:

“Across the agricultural heartland of the US, the worst drought in at least 50 years is shrivelling crops, baking pastures and running livestock farmers out of business… The flat, almost treeless plains of eastern Colorado are dry in a good year. This summer has been one of the hottest and driest on record and the crops are devastated. Dale Mauch runs a large farm near Lamar, Colorado. He’s not used to seeing deep cracks in the earth… For four generations, Mauch’s family has used the Fort Lyon Canal to divert water from a nearby river in order to irrigate these plots. But the river dried out in early July and the canal is empty. ‘That’s something that has never happened in 152 years,’ he said…

“This scene is repeating itself across thousands of kilometers of farmland in the Midwestern United States. Corn is the big cash crop here. This past spring, US farmers planted more of it than any time since before World War II. They anticipated a recordbreaking harvest. Instead, half the crop is dead, or badly battered by the drought conditions… Soybeans, another lucrative crop, aren’t doing much better…

“Many farmers who raise cattle, hogs, dairy cows or poultry are now selling animals they’d rather keep… There are fewer live cattle in the country than at any time since 1950. High feed prices are expected to keep shrinking the US cattle herd this year.

“Until recently, most of the corn grown in the US was fed to animals. Now, the largest part of it is used to make ethanol. A government quota requires that petroleum companies use enough ethanol to account for 10 percent of the fuel burned in cars. The drought and corn shortage have led to an international call for the US government to relax its ethanol mandate…

“Joe Aistrup, a professor at Kansas State University, said the current situation leaves farmers high and dry ‘both in terms of the weather and in terms of relief from Washington.’ Farmers like Dale Mauch in Colorado have little choice but to hunker down and pray for rain…”

The Bible prophesies that in these end times, we will be plagued by droughts and famine, especially in the USA. Man’s laws (pertaining to the ethanol mandate) make a terrible situation even worse.

Putin’s Dictatorship–a Strain on German-Russian Relations

Deutsche Welle reported on August 17:

“Whoever thought the Russian state was able to demonstrate any form of lenience or clemency towards its opponents has been proven seriously wrong. The verdict against the three women of the punk band ‘Pussy Riot’ is not just a harsh punishment that will affect the accused artists personally. This trial has been used to set a precedent: Anyone in Russia who chooses to publicly speak out against the authoritarian Putin system, especially if it involves breaching the law, is going to feel the full force of the establishment.

“There’s no question about it. The public act of the punk activists at the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior in February was a scandal. Certainly it had the potential for hurting people’s religious beliefs. And certainly – according to German legal standards, too – such action within a church could be prosecuted on the basis of going against the freedom of practicing religion. Within that, the freedom of expression and the freedom of religion each put limitations on the other…

“But in a case like this, genuine rule of law commands the weighing of both rights against each other. This hasn’t happened in Moscow. For the judge it was enough to simply state that ‘this wasn’t art, but hooliganism stemming from religious hatred.’ The trial against the three women wasn’t anything but a show trial. They were in pre-trial custody for almost half a year. Shortly after their public protest, they were ruthlessly separated from their families and little children.

“All this despite the fact that the protest happened without any violence. No one was actually hurt. There was no doubt about what had happened, and the women didn’t deny the charges. And that means it would have indeed been possible for the court to show lenience and mark what had happened off as bad taste nonsense of some young people.

“Instead, the women were treated like dangerous criminals. They had to endure the trial handcuffed and locked up in a glass cage. The court gave little room for the defense to make its case. The accused, too, were barely able to tell their side of the story – and when they could, they focused on criticizing the Putin government as a repressive regime. There was no sign of religious hatred – it was clearly a political protest…

“Kremlin supporting politicians and representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church surpassed each other in demanding draconian punishments – as if they themselves were the prosecutors in this trial… The verdict becomes a dark omen for Putin’s third term in office – a technocrat of power, who only managed to reemerge as Russia’s leader by tricking the constitution itself. His first 100 days in office have clearly showed that there will be no further political liberalization. During the past weeks, members of the opposition have been browbeaten – also by exploiting the legal system. The demonstration law has been drastically tightened, and NGOs have seen further curtailing of their work.

“These developments, now including the verdict against the all-female punk band, are going to put a strain on German-Russian relations. Rarely has there been such a wave of protest against a trial in Russia – throughout all political ranks and all parts of society. In bilateral discussions, the German side increasingly asks the question whether a dialogue with Russia is at all possible when it comes to civil rights and society. After the verdict against Pussy Riot, politicians in Berlin could find themselves forced to reevaluate the… relations Germany has with Russia.”

Russia’s development into becoming a full-fledged dictatorship was foreseeable—only many commentators and politicians were and still are willfully ignorant and blind about Russia’s authoritarian government. That the relationship between Russia and Germany will deteriorate—for whatever reason—is clearly prophesied in the Bible.

Germany, the EU and the USA Condemn Russia

The Local wrote on August 17:

“The German government, the EU and the USA all condemned the verdict… Human rights organisation Amnesty International recently recognised the three women as political prisoners. ‘In my eyes, the harsh sentence has no relation to the music group’s protest action,’ German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told Saturday’s edition of the Tagesspiegel. He said he was ‘concerned about the effects of the sentence against the three musicians for the development and freedom of Russian civil society as a whole.’… [The] head of the Green parliamentary party Renate Künast… said it showed that Russia was ‘no democratic country.’”

It is high time that we wake up to this fact. But many are still unwilling to admit the obvious, mostly because of financial and economic “advantages.” The constant embarrassing support of former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (SPD) for “his pal Putin” is indicative of a certain despicable mentality—after all, Schroeder has strong financial ties with Russia’s oil companies.

Putin Rules With an Iron Fist

The EUObserver wrote on August 20:

“The trial is seen as yet another proof of Putin’s decision to run his second presidency with an iron fist and his determination to crack down on opposition and dissent… Protests in support of Pussy Riot were staged on Friday in Moscow, Brussels, London, Berlin and Barcelona. Chess star and anti-Putin politician Gary Kasparov was reportedly arrested during the demonstrations. Pop and rock singers from Madonna to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Paul McCartney and Sting have all voiced their outrage over the affair in recent weeks…

“For her part, the EU’s foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton on Friday said the sentence was ‘disproportionate’ and called for it to be reversed. ‘This case adds to the recent upsurge in politically motivated intimidation and prosecution of opposition activists in the Russian Federation, a trend that is of growing concern to the European Union. Respect for human rights and the rule of law is an indispensable part of the EU-Russia relationship,’ she said.”

Modern Russia–State and Church Against Dissidents

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 17:

“The three members of Pussy Riot on trial in Moscow have received sentences of two years in jail. With the harsh verdict on the harmless artists, Russian President Vladimir Putin has committed a serious mistake: He is provoking the opposition to more aggression toward the state…

“It was inevitable that the stunt by the punk band in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior would provoke objections. By entering the altar space and insulting the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church as a ‘suka’ (‘bitch’) in their song, the band hurt the feelings of many believers. The performance, with its ‘blasphemous words which insult Christians,’ had deeply shocked ‘the faithful of all religious communities,’ read a statement by the Interreligious Council of Russia, which was also signed by the Federation of Jewish Communities.

“Some Orthodox Christians also separately called for the activists to be severely punished. One arch-abbot even went so far as to write, in a Moscow weekly paper, that ‘the country will go under if you do not punish profanity.’ The court has now ruled that the three women had been ‘motivated by religious enmity and hatred.’ But those in power seem not to understand that the Church and state are doing themselves a disservice by locking up the three young women, two of whom are mothers of small children… The trial has divided Russian society deeper than any other incident in the Putin era… By turning basically harmless artists into criminals, the regime has transformed the trial against Pussy Riot into a political time bomb.”

That the Russian Orthodox Church—with the support of the Jewish Communities—should support Putin’s totalitarian regime by ganging up on an unimportant punk group of three young women is not only shameful, but it is also terribly short-sighted and stupid. They are playing into the hands of former KGB spy Putin—as far too many Christians and Jews did in Nazi Germany, when they were all too willing to support Adolf Hitler in the beginning. On the other hand, note the hypocrisy manifested by top clerics of the Russian Orthodox Church, as explained in the next article.

The Pinnacle of Hypocrisy of Russian Orthodox Top Clerics

The Associated Press reported on August 18:

“Two top clerics in the Russian Orthodox Church said Saturday that it has forgiven the members of feminist punk band Pussy Riot who were convicted of hooliganism and sent to prison for briefly taking over a cathedral in a raucous prayer for deliverance from Vladimir Putin.

“Tikhon Shevkunov, who heads Moscow’s Sretensky Monastery and is widely believed to be the Russian president’s spiritual counselor, said on state television Saturday that his church forgave the singers right after their ‘punk prayer’ in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow in February. Archpriest Maxim Kozlov agreed, but he also said on state TV that his church hopes the young women and their supporters change their ways…

“Both clerics supported the court’s decision to prosecute Pussy Riot, despite an international outcry that called it unfair… The Pussy Riot case has underlined the vast influence of the Russian Orthodox Church. Although church and state are formally separate, the church identifies itself as the heart of Russian national identity and critics say its strength effectively makes it a quasi-state entity. Some Orthodox groups and many believers had urged strong punishment for an action they consider blasphemous.

“The head of the church, Patriarch Kirill, has made no secret of his strong support for Putin, praising his leadership as ‘God’s miracle,’ and [] describing the punk performance as part of an assault by ‘enemy forces’ on the church.”

Belief in Resurrection—Body and Soul—of the Queen of Heaven?

Zenit wrote on August 16:

“Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the Mass of the Assumption at the parish church of St. Thomas of Villanova in Castel Gandolfo on Wednesday morning. The pontiff said the solemnity is ‘an invitation to praise God and to look to Our Lady’s greatness since we know who God is by gazing about the faces of those who are his.’ Entrusting the faithful to the blessed Mother, the Holy Father asked her intercession so that all may live their lives with hope… the Holy Father explained that Mary’s assumption, body and soul, into heaven at the end of the course of her earthly life is something that Christians throughout the world have always believed, confessed and celebrated…

“After the Marian prayer, the 85 year old pontiff greeted pilgrims in many languages… ‘Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady. May the example and prayers of Mary, Queen of Heaven, inspire and sustain us on our pilgrimage of faith, that we may rejoice with her in the glory of the resurrection and the fulfillment of her Son’s promises…’ he said.”

The early New Testament Church did not believe that Mary was resurrected and that her body and soul went to and are now in heaven. Rather, it believed that Mary died and is in her grave and that she will be resurrected—with all other true Christians—at the time of Jesus Christ’s return. The book of Jeremiah speaks of a Queen of Heaven and chastises the Israelites and Jews for believing in and worshipping her.

Church Reconciliation Coming

Zenit wrote on August 13:

“The President of the Polish Episcopal Conference, Archbishop Jozef Michalik and Kirill I, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia will sign a joint declaration to both Polish and Russian people this Friday. The signing will take place during the first visit in Poland’s history of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. ‘It is an unprecedented event,’ stressed the representatives of the Catholic Church in Poland and of the Russian Orthodox Church…

“The first important step towards Russo-Polish reconciliation was the visit of a group of monks from a Russian monastery near Ostashkov to Jasna Gora, the shrine of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa in September 2009. The delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church was led by Arkadij Gubanow, Prior of the Orthodox Monastery of Saint Nil at Stolobienskoje, region of Twer. Archbishop Stanislaw Nowak of Czestochowa and Father Izydor Matuszewski, Prior General of Pauline Fathers and Custodian of the Shrine, also gave a copy of the Icon of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa to the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“‘This Holy Icon of the Black Madonna is a sign of our spiritual closeness, and also a symbol of Europe’s two lungs, Eastern and Western, as the Servant of God John Paul II taught,’ said Archbishop Nowak at the consigning of the icon. The Orthodox monks kept the copy of the image of the Madonna in the Monastery of Saint Nil at Stolobienskoje… ‘In this place, in our monastery, we must pray together, Russians and Poles, before the Holy Icon of the Madonna of Czestochowa, to ask for peace and to pray for all those who were killed,’ exhorted Arkadij Gubanow, prior of the Orthodox Monastery of Saint Nil. The signing of the declaration this Friday is seen as another step towards reconciliation between the Churches of the East.”

“International Hypocrisy”–WikiLeaks Founder Assange Is Granted Asylum

Der Spiegel Online rote on August 17:

“For almost two years, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has wiggled out of efforts to have him extradited to Sweden where he faces sexual assault charges. Now with the decision of the Ecuadorian government to grant him asylum at its London embassy, Assange got another reprieve. What happens next is far from clear.

“The British government has retaliated by threatening to invoke a little used law to remove the embassy’s diplomatic status so that it can ship Assange to Sweden. The law was enacted in 1987 after a British police officer was shot outside a Libyan embassy. In doing so it would be violating the principles behind the 1961 Vienna Convention which deemed embassies as extra territorial areas so that diplomats could work undisturbed in foreign countries. Furthermore, London has promised to arrest Assange as soon as he sets foot on British soil, something he would have to do should he wish to travel to Ecuador…

“The conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: ‘Whatever one thinks of Julian Assange and his deeds, he is neither Osama bin Laden nor a mafia boss. That’s why, carefully put, it was a blunder that the British government challenged Ecuador by referring to a law that allows it to retrieve asylum seekers from embassies in individual cases…. By heading down that path, the British government has done Assange a favor. Now, he can continue working on his own myth. That a government such as Ecuador’s, of all countries, can now pose as a defender of human rights is shameful, but that is in the end London’s fault. Unfortunately, it has also meant that the fact that Assange is accused of raping a woman in Sweden has taken a back seat.’

“The leftist Die Tageszeitung writes: ‘The case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has become an unbelievable example of international hypocrisy. Both of the countries involved, Great Britain and Ecuador, are blameworthy. Far from the world’s attention, the (Ecuadorian) government is evicting an ex-government worker from Belarus who has enjoyed three years of asylum status in Ecuador. The reason is that six weeks ago, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko was in Quito to sign a number of trade agreements and applied pressure. A short time later the man… was arrested in Quito. Against this background, the flowery words of Ecuador’s foreign minister about the huge importance of political asylum don’t hold much value.

“‘Great Britain, for its part, has openly threatened to storm the Ecuadorian embassy with police forces in order to arrest Assange. That makes an absurdity out of its own internationally supported position about the protection of diplomatic representatives and adherence to the Vienna Convention. That the British government is prepared to even suggest setting such a precedent is a tough blow…’

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

“Why does (Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa) have so much sympathy for an Australian named Julian Assange?… By publishing classified dispatches that have exposed the US above all, Assange has pleased Correa. He belongs alongside Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Cuba’s Fidel Castro as the most important opponents of Washington… Correa is allowed to protect his embassy from encroachment by England. Yet he should display just as much respect for his critics at home.’

“The business daily Financial Times Deutschland writes:

“Julian Assange… has received a lot of free PR from the blundering Brits who have catapulted the almost forgotten Australian back into the headlines. And he is even in his favorite roll as David fighting against the Goliaths of the world, mainly the US and Great Britain. Great Britain has helped Assange again portray himself as a victim of political persecution…. In truth Assange is fleeing from a long prison term in Sweden…”

It seems, whatever Great Britain is doing these days is backfiring. There are reasons for that, and the Bible tells us why. The UK is not being blessed by God. Their sins separate them from the God of Abraham who had given them their land because of the unconditional obedience of the ancient patriarch and “father” of the children of faith.

Israel Determined to Strike Iran Before US Elections

Times of Israel wrote on August 20:

“Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘is determined to attack Iran before the US elections,’ Israel’s Channel 10 News claimed on Monday night, and Israel is now ‘closer than ever’ to a strike designed to thwart Iran’s nuclear drive.

“The TV station’s military reporter Alon Ben-David… said it seemed that Netanyahu was not waiting for a much-discussed possible meeting with US President Barack Obama, after the UN General Assembly gathering in New York late next month — indeed, ‘it’s not clear that there’ll be a meeting.’ In any case, said Ben-David, ‘I doubt Obama could say anything that would convince Netanyahu to delay a possible attack.’

“The report added that Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak believe Obama would have no choice but to give backing for an Israeli attack before the US presidential elections in November. There is considerable opposition to an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the report noted — with President Shimon Peres, the army’s chief of the General Staff and top generals, the intelligence community, opposition leader Shaul Mofaz, ‘and of course the Americans’ all lined up against Israeli action at this stage. But, noted Ben-David, it is the Israeli government that would have to take the decision, and there Netanyahu is ‘almost guaranteed’ a majority.

“Other Hebrew media reports on Tuesday also said Netanyahu had despatched a senior official, National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror, to update the elderly spiritual leader of the Shas ultra-Orthodox coalition party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, on the status of the Iranian nuclear program, in order to try to win over Shas government ministers’ support for an attack.”

No “October Surprise”

WorldNetDaily wrote on August 19:

“… if the strike is made prior to the election, Obama is much more likely not to condemn Israel. It just wouldn’t be a popular political move for him. Even most Democrats in the U.S. Congress will support Israel’s right to defend itself.­ On the one hand, most Israeli leaders would like to see Obama, the harshest critic of Israel ever to reside in the White House, be defeated in November…

“The likelihood of this attack is growing. The timing is nearly predictable. Yet, Americans and the U.S. media have not focused much attention on it. The only thing that might change the equation is if Mitt Romney soars far ahead of Obama in the polls, effectively buying Israel more time to make its strike without major political fallout from the U.S.

“As it stands now, the election is too close to call–and, in the minds of Israeli leaders, the strong possibility of an Obama re-election must be considered in the equation. As long as that is the case, you can take it to the bank that October is the likely time for a strike on Iran… That’s why 2012’s ‘October surprise’ might not be so surprising at all–for those who understand the politics of the Middle East.”

The Volatile Situation in the Middle East

Al Jazeera wrote on August 17:

“Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanon-based Hezbollah group, and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the Iranian president, have issued stern warnings to Israel, saying that any aggression on that country’s part would be met with a swift armed response.

“Nasrallah… said that his fighters will make the lives of Israelis ‘a living hell’ if it is attacked… Any such action would present Iran with ‘the opportunity it has been dreaming of’ since it was founded in 1979, he said.

“Last month, an Israeli general warned that the Israeli military would respond ‘decisively’ to any rocket attacks aimed at Tel Aviv… He also said that towns in southern Lebanon used as launching bases for Hezbollah rocket attacks would be ‘destroyed’…

“Meanwhile, the governments of the United States and Turkey have asked their citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Lebanon… The [US] embassy also announced the suspension of the State Department’s flagship Fulbright and English Language Fellow programmes in Lebanon, cutting short research projects and teaching grants for US university students and educators in Lebanon… Several Gulf countries have ordered their nationals to leave the country immediately in the face of threats, particularly against Saudis and Qataris whose governments are staunch opponents of the Syrian regime.”

Iran Warns Saudi Arabia

WorldNetDaily reported on August 16:

“Iran has warned Saudi Arabia and Qatar that if either country allows Israel to use its airspace, Tehran may retaliate directly against those Gulf nations… one official said that in talks with Gulf nations, Iran ‘hinted’ that a couple of Iranian missiles ‘may lose their way’ and strike Qatar, Saudi Arabia or any other Gulf nation that allows Israel to use its airspace in any attack against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

“Such threats may help to account for a reported change in Saudi Arabia’s attitude toward an Israeli strike on Iran. Last week, Israel’s Yedioth Aharonot newspaper reported Saudi Arabia informed the Jewish state that it would intercept any Israeli aircraft crossing its airspace en route to Iran… Saudi Arabia does not maintain an open diplomatic relationship with Israel. But the Sunni Muslim country, together with Qatar, Jordan and other moderates, views itself as threatened by the growing and opposing influence of Iran, dominated by Shiite Islam.”

Saudi Cleric Questions Holocaust

The Washington Free Beacon wrote on August 16:

“A prominent Saudi Arabian religious cleric declared that the Holocaust is an ‘exaggeration’ and that Jewish people consume the blood of children during a wide-ranging interview with an Arabic television station. Saudi cleric Salman Al-Odeh, a well-known scholar revered by millions globally, went on a lengthy tirade against the Jews during an interview Monday in which he stated that ‘the role of the Jews is to wreak destruction, to wage war, and to practice deception and extortion,’ according to a translation of his remarks by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“Al-Odeh ranted about the use of human blood in Jewish religious rituals, a notorious anti-Semitic smear commonly referred to as a ‘blood libel.’ ‘It is well known that the Jews celebrate several holidays, one of which is the Passover, or the matzos holiday,’ he said. ‘I read once about a doctor who was working in a laboratory. This doctor lived with a Jewish family. One day, they said to him: “We want blood. Get us some human blood,”’ Al-Odeh explained. ‘He was confused. He didn’t know what this was all about,’ Al-Odeh says as the interviewer nods along. ‘He found that they were making matzos with human blood. They eat it, believing that this brings them close to their false god, Yahweh.’ Jewish people ‘would lure a child in order to sacrifice him in the religious rite that they perform during that holiday,’ Al-Odeh adds.

“The prominent Saudi Cleric also believes that the Holocaust ‘has been turned into a myth of tremendous proportions.’ Jewish people across the globe now use the Holocaust to extort governments, Al-Odeh claimed… Jewish people ‘believe that [they] have the right to kill anyone who does not adhere to their religion,’ Al-Odeh adds.

“The Obama administration has gone out of its way to maintain stellar relations with the Saudi government, which is known to oppress its people. The president famously took heat early in his presidency for bowing to Saudi King Abdullah.”

These anti-Semitic libelous and blasphemous comments by a prominent Saudi Arabian cleric should make us realize to what extent Satan has been able to deceive the world and to prepare it for persecution and a future outright war against the modern descendants of the houses of Israel and Judah—as well as God’s true followers, members of God’s Church, who are spiritual Israelites and Jews. It is also telling and abominable that this false Arabic cleric is allowed to libel the true God of the Bible as the “false god, Yahweh,” while Muslims are in arms when Christians point out that the true Word of God does not endorse Allah and the prophet Mohammed.

Hezbollah Operates With Few Restrictions in Germany and Europe

The New York Times wrote on August 15:

“As American officials sound the alarm over what they call a resurgent threat from the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, thousands of its members and supporters operate with few restrictions in Europe, raising money that is funneled to the group’s leadership in Lebanon. Washington and Jerusalem insist that Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed terrorist organization with bloody hands, and that it is working closely with Tehran to train, arm and finance the Syrian military’s lethal repression of the uprising there. Yet, the European Union continues to treat it foremost as a Lebanese political and social movement…

“While the group is believed to operate all over the Continent, Germany is a center of activity… The European Union’s unwillingness to place the group on its list of terrorist organizations is also complicating the West’s efforts to deal with the Bulgarian bus bombing and the Syrian conflict…

“The stark difference in views reflects the many roles that Hezbollah has played since it emerged in Lebanon after the Israeli invasion in 1982. Hezbollah’s militant wing was responsible for a string of kidnappings and for sophisticated bombings at home and has been accused of bombings abroad. But the group also became a source of social services that the shattered Lebanese government was incapable of providing, and has evolved since then into a political force with two cabinet ministers and a dozen seats in Parliament…

“Some analysts [in Germany] say that Shiite groups like Hezbollah pose less of a risk than Sunni militant organizations like Al Qaeda… American officials sound more concerned about the threat posed by Hezbollah to Europe than the Europeans themselves… The Netherlands declared Hezbollah a terrorist organization in 2004, saying that it did not distinguish between the group’s political and terrorist wings. Britain distinguishes between the parts, listing only the militant wing.”

That Hezbollah is a dangerous terrorist organization cannot be questioned. That many European states are willing to tolerate its activities shows once again their hypocrisy and political indecisiveness.

The Circumcision Debate

USA Today wrote on August 20:

“Evidence that male circumcision has health benefits is growing, even as the quick but often-controversial surgery becomes less common in the United States, say medical experts making new efforts to publicize the benefits… The researchers say that if U.S. rates dropped to 10% — the level seen in European countries where insurers don’t cover circumcision — the results would include:

“… 12% more HIV cases in men. 29% more human papillomavirus (HPV) cases in men. 18% more high-risk HPV infections in women. The fallout also would include more cases of cervical and penile cancer linked to HPV, but the highest costs would be associated with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the researchers say…”

The often-claimed health benefits from circumcision are non-existent, generally speaking. God would have never abrogated the need for circumcision, if it had been a health law. But what we can see is that health benefits are claimed regarding diseases which man is bringing upon himself, such as sexually transmittable diseases, HIV and HPV. As USA Today, dated May 8, 2012, explains, “HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says at least half of all sexually active people will get genital HPV at some time in their lives. But certain strains of human papillomavirus also can live in the mouth, passed on through oral sex.” So we see, if sex were limited to marriage, then there would be no transmittable sexual diseases, and the whole discussion about health benefits of circumcision would become moot.

The discussion regarding the terrible decision in Germany, prohibiting circumcision on religious grounds should not be confused with unsustainable claims of medical benefits of circumcision. However, it is also wrong to say that circumcision is in any way harmful to boys and must be prohibited to protect the boys’ welfare. God would have never ordered circumcision in Old Testament times if that were the case. Such ignorant and incompetent postulations from our medical community and others ignore the tragic fact that man has no right to prohibit what God allows. But religious persecution is on the rise, especially in Germany and Europe, as the next article shows.

Criminal Charges Pressed Against German Rabbi for Conducting Circumcision

The Times of Israel reported on August 21:

“For the first time, criminal charges have been pressed against a German rabbi for performing circumcisions, a Jewish weekly reported on Tuesday. A doctor from Hesse filed a criminal complaint against Rabbi David Goldberg, who serves in the community of Hof, in Upper Franconia (northern Bavaria), according to the Juedische Allgemeine weekly newspaper. The chief prosecutor of Hof confirmed that charges had been filed against the rabbi. The charges are based on the controversial decision of a Cologne district court, which ruled in June that circumcisions for religious reasons constitute illegal bodily harm to newborn babies. ‘I am shocked,’ said Cologne Rabbi Yaron Engelmayer, co-chairman of the national umbrella group of Orthodox rabbis in Germany, in a first reaction to the report. This marks the first time that a court in the Federal Republic of Germany is investigating a rabbi for performing a religious ritual, Engelmayer told the paper.

“Goldberg, a qualified mohel (ritual circumciser) who says he has performed more than 3,000 circumcisions, was informed about the criminal charges against him by journalists, the paper said. Born in Jerusalem, the 64-year-old has been the rabbi of Hof since 1997… The Cologne court decision caused a major uproar in Germany’s Jewish and Muslim communities… Rabbi Engelmayer, from Cologne, told The Times of Israel in July that the court decision had ‘enormously’ impacted Jewish life in his community. ‘De facto it looks as if doctors across the country are afraid [to perform circumcisions],’ he said. ‘The mohels are inquiring, and we tell them: without circumcision, there is no Judaism,’ he said at the time…”

Will Israel Strike Iran This Fall?

Times of Israel wrote on August 11:
 
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have ‘almost finally’ decided on an Israeli strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities this fall, and a final decision will be taken ‘soon,’ Israel’s main TV news broadcast reported on Friday evening. Channel 2 News, the country’s leading news program, devoted much of its Friday night broadcast to the issue, detailing the pros and cons that, it said, have taken Netanyahu and Barak to the brink of approving an Israeli military attack despite opposition from the Obama administration and from many Israeli security chiefs.
 
“Critically, the station’s diplomatic correspondent Udi Segal said, Israel does not believe that the US will take military action as Iran closes in on the bomb. The US, the TV report said, has not provided Israel with details of an attack plan. President Obama has not promised to attack Iran if all else fails. Conditions cited by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta for an American attack do not calm Israeli concerns. And Obama has a record of seeking UN and Arab League approval before action. All these factors, in Jerusalem’s mind, underline the growing conviction of Netanyahu and Barak that Israel will have to tackle Iran alone, the TV report said.
 
“Israel’s leaders have also noted that president George W. Bush vowed repeatedly that North Korea would not be allowed to attain a nuclear weapons capability — a vow that proved empty.
 
“Obama does not want to intervene militarily before the presidential elections in November, and it is doubtful that he would act afterwards, runs the Israeli assessment, the TV report said. Obama may believe that the US can live with a nuclear Iran, but Israel cannot, the report quoted those in ‘Netanyahu’s circle’ as saying.
 
“As for presidential challenger Mitt Romney, he takes a more forceful position, but would probably not have the domestic support necessary to act in the first year of his presidency, if elected, and after that it would be too late… Netanyahu, for his part, ‘is convinced that thwarting Iran amounts to thwarting a plan to destroy the Jewish people,’ Channel 2’s Segal said. The prime minister considers Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to be acting rationally in order to achieve ‘fanatical’ goals…
 
“The TV report cited intelligence information suggesting that Iran ‘is much further ahead’ than previously thought in its uranium enrichment and in other aspects of its nuclear weapons program…
 
“Militarily, an Israeli strike would prompt missile attacks on Israel, attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah from the south and the north, and upheaval on the Arab street…The assessment is that Syria’s President Bashar Assad would not get involved, since this would finish him off, the report said. But if Iran got the bomb, the missile threat would be escalated, Hamas and Hezbollah further empowered, and there would be a danger of any crisis escalating into a nuclear crisis.
 
“Diplomatically, an Israeli strike would prompt a confrontation with the US, global protests, international isolation for Israel, delegitimization, and a situation in which Israel was seen as the aggressor. But if Iran got the bomb, Israel would be defeated and humiliated diplomatically…
 
“Economically, an Israeli strike would deepen the economic slowdown and lead to a suspension of foreign investment. An Iranian bomb would end foreign investment in Israel, however, and prompt an exodus of Israel’s best brains…
 
“The TV report made much of a recent speech by Netanyahu, at the scene of Sunday’s terror attack thwarted by Israel at the Gaza-Egypt-Israel border. Visiting the area on Monday, Netanyahu said Israel ‘must and can’ only rely on itself to safeguard its security…’No one can fulfill this role except the IDF and different Israel security forces of Israel, and we will continue to conduct ourselves in this way,’ Netanyahu said.”
 
The German paper, Die Welt, added on August 10 that the Jewish papers, “Jedict Achronot” and “Maariv” also reported on the same TV report, and stated that, according to “Maariv,” 40 percent of the Israelis would support an Israeli strike without support or assistance from the USA. Only 35 percent would prefer a strike by the USA. The report stated that “Maariv” concluded that Netanyahu has received  a “green light” for a strike. Notice the next articles as well:

When Is Israel Expected to Strike?

The New York Times wrote on August 12:

“Amid intensifying Israeli news reports saying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is close to ordering a military strike against Iran’s nuclear program, his deputy foreign minister called Sunday for an international declaration that the diplomatic effort to halt Tehran’s enrichment of uranium is dead… Asked how long the Iranians should be given to cease all nuclear activity, Mr. Ayalon said ‘weeks, and not more than that.’

“The comments came after a frenzy of newspaper articles and television reports over the weekend here suggesting that Mr. Netanyahu had all but made the decision to attack Iran unilaterally this fall. The reports contained little new information, but the tone was significantly sharper than it had been in recent weeks, with many of Israel’s leading columnists predicting a strike despite the opposition of the Obama administration and many military and security professionals within Israel. Articles in Sunday’s newspapers also examined home-front preparedness for what experts expect would be an aggressive response not just from Iran but also its allies, the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas…”

The Times of Israel wrote on August 13:

“The US would not necessarily join in were Israel to launch a military strike against Iran’s nuclear program, an unnamed source in the Obama Administration told Israel’s Channel 2 News on Monday… A second Israeli TV report on Monday night went so far as to specify the ostensible timeframe for a possible Israeli attack, based in part on a tentative meeting scheduled between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama.

“Netanyahu is set to meet the president — in Washington, rather than as previously thought at the UN General Assembly in New York — between September 28 and October 1. The prime minister, Channel 10 News reported Monday, could not possibly order an Israeli strike on Iran prior to that meeting, where the Iranian threat would presumably be the main subject of discussion. Neither could he order an attack before his tentatively scheduled address to the General Assembly a few days earlier, on September 27 — his last appeal to the international community for firmer action to thwart Iran, according to Channel 10.

“The timeframe for an Israeli attack, the report suggested, would thus be sometime between October 2 and the presidential elections on November 6. Immediately after the US elections, Israel could presumably not defy a newly elected president. And fairly soon after that, it might be too late for Israel to stop Iran because of the Iranians’ progress and the limitations of Israel’s military capacity.

“Channel 10 went on [to] predict the likely consequences of an Israeli attack in terms of retaliatory missiles fired by Iran and its allies such as Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. While Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah in 2006 saw 4,500 rockets and missiles fired into Israel, an Israeli attack on Iran would prompt the firing of 50,000 missiles into Israel…

“The Maariv daily reported on Monday morning that, were Israel to attack Iran, Washington would provide Israel with an air defense ‘umbrella’ against the anticipated retaliation by Tehran and its proxies. Messages passed from Republican and Democrat policy makers in Washington to Israeli counterparts suggest that should Israel decide to bomb Iran in advance of the US presidential elections in November, Obama would order the American armed forces to join in the military effort, the paper said. Such an intervention, the sources explained, would all but guarantee Obama a second term in office. If he chose not to act, the president would likely be handing the office over to the Republicans, they said.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s concern that Iran wants to acquire the bomb in order to annihilate the state of Israel was confirmed by Hezbollah MP Walid Sakariya, and, again, by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as the next two articles report.

Hezbollah Leader Admits: Iranian Bomb is to Annihilate Israel

Times of Israel reported on August 9:

“Hezbollah MP Walid Sakariya told Lebanese television this week that the nuclear weapon Iran is allegedly developing is intended to annihilate Israel. In a segment recorded and translated by MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute), Sakariya, also a retired general, told his interviewer on Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV Tuesday that should Iran acquire a nuclear weapon it would serve Syrian as well as Iranian interests, namely the eradication of the Jewish state.

“‘This nuclear weapon is intended to create a balance of terror with Israel, to finish off the Zionist enterprise, and to end all Israeli aggression against the Arab nation,’ Sakariya said. ‘The entire equation in the Middle East will change,’ he asserted.”

Ahmadinejad Repeats His Plea for Annihilation of Israel

On August 2, the Daily Israel Report added:

“Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has once again called for the annihilation of Israel, which he labeled ‘the axis of unity of the world hegemonic powers.’… Ahmadinejad repeated his annual litany of hate for the Jewish State in a meeting with ambassadors and embassy personnel of Islamic nations in Tehran, according to the official state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), quoting from a statement posted on the website of his presidential office.

“‘It has now been some 400 years that a horrendous Zionist clan has been ruling the major world affairs, and behind the scenes of the major power circles, in political, media, monetary and banking organizations in the world, they have been the decision makers…’ the Iranian president claimed… ‘any freedom lover and justice seeker in the world must do its best for the annihilation of the Zionist regime in order to pave the path for the establishment of justice and freedom in the world,’ he declared.”

Major Earthquakes Strike Iran

Deutsche Welle reported on August 12:

“Two powerful earthquakes, registering 6.4 and 6.3 on the moment magnitude scale, killed over 200 people and injured hundreds more on Saturday (11.08.2012). Most of the damage centered on the rural villages of Ahar, Varzaghan and Harees, near the city Tabriz, according to Iranian media.

“German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle was quick to offer his country’s help to Iran. ‘I extend my deep sympathies to the people who have lost their loved ones and belongings during the holy month of Ramadan,’ Westerwelle wrote in a message to his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi. ‘I wish the injured a quick recovery. Rest assured that Germany stands ready to help your country in this difficult time.’

“But such offers of international aid and help caring for survivors and the homeless have been turned down by Iran. The Iranian Red Crescent also has not accepted help from its sister organizations…

“A report by an Iranian news agency… cited the head of the Iranian Red Crescent, Mahmud Mosafar, as saying there was no access to several villages. The Fars news agency reported that a crisis center for 16,000 people had been established and that mobile hospitals had been brought to the crisis area.

“Sitting above an area where several tectonic plates meet, Iran is often subjected to earthquakes. The last strong quake to hit Iran occurred in Bam in December 2003 when some 31,000 people died. Such devastating earthquakes cannot be predicted, Rainer Kind, a seismologist at the German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam, told DW. ‘In countries like Iran, houses are often poorly built out of air-dried clay bricks – especially in villages’ Kind said, adding that such buildings collapse easily during even a minor earthquake.”

Tense Relations Between Egyptian Military and Muslim Brotherhood

BBC News reported on August 12:

“Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi has ordered the retirement of the powerful head of the country’s armed forces, Field Marshal Mohamad Hussein Tantawi, a presidential spokesman has said. He also said a constitutional declaration aimed at curbing presidential powers had been cancelled. Mr Mursi, who was elected in June, is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Relations between Islamists and the military have been increasingly tense since the fall of President Mubarak…

“BBC Middle East correspondent Kevin Connolly says the dismissal of senior military officers will be seen by Egyptians as a decisive move in a struggle for real power between the country’s newly elected politicians and the generals who have exercised power for many years.”

Israel National News reported on August 12:

“Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has sacked the entire leadership of the country’s defense establishment… Morsi also cancelled all constitutional changes that gave the military enlarged powers… The Muslim Brotherhood’s Morsi appears to be wasting no time in consolidating his hold over power at the expense of the military, which many hoped would be a moderating power over him… Al Jazeera said the president’s spokesperson made the surprising announcement on state television. ‘All of this has happened very fast, and it was unexpected,’ said the station’s correspondent… Channel 2’s Middle East analyst Ehud Yaari said that the move places the Muslim Brotherhood solidly at the helm of power in Egypt.”

Morsi’s New Dictatorship

Haaretz reported on August 15:

“Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi said on Wednesday that it is of utmost importance that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran work together to solve the ongoing crisis in Syria. Speaking at the Islamic Solidarity Conference in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Morsi said that it is time for regime change in Syria. He quoted the Prophet Mohammed who forbade war among Muslims and criticized those who allowed for the situation to deteriorate and for ‘blood to have been spilled during the holy month of Ramadan.’ Morsi stressed however that for Egypt and Arab Muslim countries, the Palestinian issue remains the most urgent, and called on the Palestinians to unite their ranks.

“On Tuesday, Egypt’s Information Minister Salakh Abd al-Maksud, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, said that ‘Egypt will not normalize relations with Israel until occupied Palestinian land is freed.”’ He… also said that Israel ‘stole Palestinian lands, and for this reason we will not normalize relations with it until those lands are freed.’ …

“Following Morsi’s decision to appoint 53 new government-run newspaper editors, the new editor of Al-Akhbar newspaper refused to publish an article critical of the Muslim Brotherhood on Tuesday, according to reports. Author Youssef al-Qaeed told al-Ahram newspaper that Al-Akhbar’s new editor, Mohamed Hassan al-Banna – who was appointed by the Brotherhood – was the one who banned the article… Earlier this week, an Egyptian court ordered a ban on all Saturday editions of Al-Dustour newspaper, claiming it had insulted Morsi. According to reports, the editions of the privately-owned newspaper were confiscated as part of an investigation into suspected subversion against Morsi.

“In the Saturday edition of the newspaper, the first page featured articles warning of a takeover of the Brotherhood Islamic rhetoric. This case is not an isolated one: A few days ago a television network was closed down for allegedly inciting to murder Morsi.”

Radical Islamists Move to Egypt

The Local wrote on August 12:

“German security services have recorded a leap in the number of radical Islamists traveling to Egypt, according to a report [by] Der Spiegel magazine. Radical Salafists considered violent by Germany’s security services have been leaving Germany in droves in the past weeks, wrote the magazine. But rather than traveling to the conflict zone in Pakistan and Afghanistan, they are increasingly heading for Egypt, a high ranking security official told Der Spiegel…

“In Egypt they are hoping to live ‘the true Islam’ or fight in a ‘Jihad against infidels,’ wrote the magazine… Officials are concerned that terror organisations such as Al-Qaeda are planning to exploit the power vacuum in Egypt following the Arab Spring to build up their own structures there, wrote the magazine.”

Arab World Divided

Deutsche Welle reported on August 16, 2012:

“The Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s early Thursday… decision to suspend Syria’s membership in the 57-nation group appeared geared at presenting a united front against sectarianism in the Muslim world. But during the build-up to the vote in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, resistance from Iran and Iraq seemed to show how divided the body really is. The conflict in Syria is increasingly turning into a religious one. Shiite-dominated Iran opposed the move to suspend Syria, while Sunni-dominated states were for it. Shiite-ruled Iraq did not even take part in the Jeddah conference. Though the Assad regime still holds power, evidence points to the Sunnis having considerably more influence there than before in determining Syria’s destiny. Apart from Iran, Russia and China have also shown some support for the Assad regime.

“In this sense, OIC’s conference reflected the increasingly sectarian nature of the Syrian civil war – something that some of those gathered in Jeddah actively promoted, especially those from Saudi Arabia itself. It is generally agreed that a wide range of private Saudi institutions promote Sunni extremists who are fighting in Syria not for democracy, but for the triumph of their faith. In other words, they mainly fight against Syrian Shiites…

“But neither Syria’s neighbors nor the neighbors’ western allies have any interest in an increasingly sectarian conflict… none of the states involved would benefit from the religious tensions. Currently Iran, which as a Shiite state is being put on the defensive, is noticing this most clearly. If Assad falls, Iran will lose its direct contact with Lebanese Hezbollah, to which it currently maintains close relations. This will also weaken its reputation as a steadfast opponent of Israel.

“If the Assad regime falls, Iran would lose a great deal, Iran expert Walter Posch said… [The Iranians] are worried that their contact with the Muslim Brotherhood and other Sunni Islamist groups, which are in the majority, would be interfered with, and they would then lose all contact with the Syrians. That would also make it difficult to contact the Lebanese Shiites.’ But above all, Posch said, Iran fears that religious unrest could also spread to its own territory. There the Sunnis form the second largest religious group in the country after the Shiites.

“But Sunni states also have reason to be worried about the development of the Syrian violence toward a religiously dominated conflict. The religious tensions could also spill over to their nations, which are also home to Shiite populations. In Saudi Arabia, Shiites constitute nearly 15 percent of the population, while they are 35 percent in Kuwait and as much as 60 percent in Bahrain. The Saudi Shiites are also geographically a challenge for the royal family: they live mostly in the east of the country, where the giant oil fields are. If they were to rebel, it could easily have economic consequences…”

Syrian Rebels Feel Abandoned by USA

The Washington Post wrote on August 7:

“As the Arab world’s bloodiest revolt continues to maim, kill and ravage lives on an ever-escalating scale, anti-American sentiments are hardening among those struggling to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, in ways that could have profound consequences for the country and the region in a post-Assad era.

“America, once regarded by the Syrian opposition as a natural friend in its struggle for greater freedoms against a regime long at odds with the West, increasingly is being viewed with suspicion and resentment for its failure to offer little more than verbal encouragement to the revolutionaries.

“In the nearly 17 months since Syrians joined the clamor for change that swept the Middle East last year, Tunisians, Egyptians and Libyans have voted in elections, chosen new leaders and embarked, however messily, on democratic transitions.

“Syria, by contrast, is hurtling ever deeper into an all-out conflict with no end in sight, ‘and all we get is words,’ said Yasser Abu Ali, a spokesman for one of the Free Syrian Army battalions in the town of al-Bab, which lies 30 miles northeast of Aleppo.

“The rebels say they don’t want direct military intervention in the form of troops on the ground. But they have repeatedly appealed for a no-fly zone similar to the effort that helped Libyan rebels topple Moammar Gaddafi last year and for supplies of heavy weapons to counter the regime’s vastly superior firepower, say rebels and opposition figures.

“When the regime falls, as the rebel battalion spokesman assumes it eventually will, Syrians will not forget that their pleas for help went unanswered, he said. ‘America will pay a price for this,’ he said. ‘America is going to lose the friendship of Syrians, and no one will trust them anymore. Already we don’t trust them at all.’

“It is not entirely accurate that the United States is doing nothing to help the Syrian opposition, nor is it clear what more it usefully could or should be doing, analysts say… But the assistance has been small-scale, intermittent, and dwarfed by the demands of an expanding battlefield that now covers all corners of the country and has escalated to include the use of air power by the government…

“But at a time when al-Qaeda-influenced jihadis are trying to establish a presence in Syria, there is a risk that a virulently anti-American form of Islamism could take hold among disillusioned Syrians, said Andrew Tabler of the Washington Institute of Near East Affairs… If Washington continues on its current path, ‘ultimately the political entity that comes to power is not going to be in U.S. interests,’ he said.”

The “Arab Spring” movement will become more and more hostile to the USA.

Mitt Romney Selects Running Mate Paul Ryan

BBC News reported on August 11 (note also our added comments in italics throughout the article):

“US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has named fiscal conservative Paul Ryan as his running mate in November’s election. Mr Ryan, 42, is a [practicing Catholic, pro-choice and anti-abortion, anti-gay marriages, and an ardent supporter of gun possession, as well as a] Wisconsin congressman and chairman of the House of Representatives budget committee.

“BBC North America editor Mark Mardell says the decision is a bold and ideological choice. Obama campaign said Mr Ryan stood for ‘flawed’ economic policies that would repeat ‘catastrophic’ mistakes…

“In a slip of the tongue, the former Massachusetts governor introduced Mr Ryan as ‘the next president of the United States’, before correcting himself to say he meant vice-president.

[Our comment: Mr. Obama made the same mistake almost four years ago when he introduced Mr. Biden as the next president of the United States, before correcting himself.]…

“Mr Ryan told the crowd that he and Mr Romney would ‘restore the greatness of this country’.

[Our comment: According to the Bible, this won’t happen, neither under an Obama-Biden or a Romney-Ryan leadership.]…

“Prompting one of the loudest cheers from onlookers, he said: ‘Our rights come from nature and God, not from government.”

[Our comment: Sadly, our God-given rights have been disregarded by the governments of this world, and until Jesus Christ returns to establish righteous rule and government on this earth, no human leadership will guarantee their people the establishment and enforcement of the laws of God.]

“Mr Ryan is best-known for a controversial alternative budget which he produced to counter President Obama’s plans in 2011 and 2012. Known as the Path to Prosperity, it delighted the Tea Party, an anti-tax, limited-government, grassroots Republican movement. The plan proposed reducing taxes, pensions and food aid, and overhauling government-funded healthcare. In all, it projected spending cuts of $5.3 trillion (£3.4 trillion) over a decade.”

The Catholic Church condemned Mr. Ryan’s plan as unchristian. At the same time, they condemned Mr. Obama’s and Mr. Biden’s stance on homosexuality and contraceptives as unchristian. In any event, it is not anticipated that Mr. Ryan’s original controversial plan will be accepted and approved—even high ranking Republicans have voiced their disapproval. Now, as USA Today reported on August 12, 2012, “Ryan also has a different Medicare plan that he crafted with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and introduced in December. The key difference is that it would give seniors the choice of staying in Medicare as it is currently configured or getting health insurance through private companies.” At the same time, no plan has been forthcoming so far from the Obama Administration. See also the next article on Paul Ryan.

Who is Paul Ryan?

The Washington Times wrote on August 12:

“Rep. Paul Ryan, Republicans’ presumptive vice presidential nominee, has amassed a very conservative voting record during his seven terms in Congress, including repeated votes against spending bills, unemployment benefit extensions and most of President Obama’s agenda. But he also voted for some of the major parts of the Bush administration that have drawn fire, including the No Child Left Behind education bill, and the 2003 Medicare prescription drug law that added a new entitlement to the government’s books without finding a way to pay for it. He also voted for the Wall Street bailout in 2008, which has become a flashpoint for both ends of the political spectrum.

“His chief breaks with most Republicans usually came on spending bills, where he regularly voted against his party leadership when they controlled the chamber before 2007. In 1999 he voted against expanding the Peace Corps, and voted against expanding debt relief to impoverished nations. Mr. Ryan voted for the Patriot Act and later voted to preserve federal authorities’ ability under that law to seek library records in their investigations — a major test point for the legislation.

“But he’s also had some more pointed dissents, including being one of relatively few House Republicans to vote for a bill that would have outlawed workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, the Employment Nondiscrimination Act. And he has voted to halt some of the strict U.S. sanctions against Cuba, siding with many Democrats… On social issues, he voted to end federal funding for both NPR and Planned Parenthood as part of the GOP’s spending fights last year.

“He maintains an A rating from the National Rifle Association, which backs Second Amendment rights… He has signed Americans for Tax Reform’s pledge, which commits him to opposing any legislation that increases taxes… He voted against expanding embryonic stem-cell research, and has amassed a decidedly pro-life record…

“On jobs and labor, he voted against extending unemployment benefits without offsetting their costs, but he also was one of the relatively few Republicans to vote to preserve the Davis-Bacon labor rules in military construction spending earlier this year, which gives preference to unionized labor. He has a 90 percent lifetime rating from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with most of his mark-downs coming because he voted against government spending as a way to produce jobs — including opposing Mr. Obama’s 2009 stimulus. He was also one of less than three dozen Republicans who in 2007 backed Democrats’ plan to require at least 15 percent of electricity in each state come from renewable fuels — a program the Chamber called unworkable.”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 13:

“Despite his popularity among Republicans, newspaper editorialists in Germany argued on Monday that choosing Ryan could backfire on the Republican presidential candidate. Many believe he is a more solid choice for the Republicans than Sarah Palin was back in 2008, but they similarly conclude that he may drive swing voters to the center and help secure Obama’s re-election in November.

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘…The country will experience a bloody duel that will pit Obama, a self-proclaimed defender of the middle class, against Romney, a staunch believer in the markets and archetypal capitalist. It’s the kind of sharp contrast that the Republican candidate has so far tried to avoid. Romney wanted to win by denouncing Obama’s weaknesses and miserably high unemployment levels. But he avoided showing clear political platforms or nuances. That’s why, to many in his party, he had come to be seen recently as a figure … who stood for nothing. Now Romney is borrowing a political face: Paul Ryan, a 42-year-old spitfire of the right, who will sharpen Romney’s profile and push the candidate to the right. That may please the party base, but it also entails risks…’

“The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: ‘…Romney is putting all his eggs in one basket… Ryan is popular with the party base, but his ability to attract swing voters is likely to be limited. Although they may be dissatisfied with the current situation, it is unlikely that a radical restructuring of the social system will warm their hearts, either…’

“The business daily Handelsblatt writes: ‘Risky, surprising and courageous: The choice of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s vice presidential candidate is all of these things. But it is also an act of desperation. He is currently trailing significantly behind Obama in the polls and his chances of winning the election this fall might have been better if he had gone with a certain ticket… Paul Ryan is a politician who divides people… Romney’s strategic calculus is clear. He, himself a procrastinator, dawdler and notorious opportunitist [sic], is viewed by the conservative wing of his party as being too liberal. During his time as governor of Massachusetts, he passed… a health care reform there that looks a lot like Obama’s, and Romney lost credibility with the Republican Party basis. And that has changed little despite his claims that he will roll back Obama’s health care reform if he is elected. With Ryan, who has the support of the Tea Party, he is hoping to at least offset this deficit…’

“The leftist Die Tageszeitung writes: ‘More than anything else, Ryan is a radical ideologue who has never changed his platforms. By selecting Ryan, the Republican candidate has taken one step closer to clarifying his ideological position.’

“Ryan has a reputation as a hardliner… Ryan wants to lower taxes (also for the highest earners), he wants to further cut social benefits (including food stamps for the needy and government healthcare for pensioners), he wants to limit the authority of environmental protection agencies, he disputes the existence of climate change, he is against abortion, opposes same-sex marriages and he would like to increase military expenditures…’”

Some Members May Leave the Eurozone

BBC News reported on August 8:

“Some members of the eurozone may have to leave the bloc as the debt crisis continues, according to one of the architects of the euro. ‘Everything speaks in favour of saving the euro area,’ said Otmar Issing, a former European Central Bank chief economist. ‘How many countries will be able to be part of it in the long term remains to be seen,’ he added…

“The central bank highlighted the fall-off in money being lent across borders between the 17 countries that share the euro, saying the eurozone is becoming increasingly fragmented… ‘Its banking and money team have highlighted how the weaker eurozone economies – Spain, Italy, Portugal, Cyprus, Greece and Ireland – have been progressively starved of credit as banks in the bigger, stronger economies of Germany and France have stopped lending to them,’ the BBC’s business editor Robert Peston said…

“Mr Issing was a member of the German Bundesbank until 1998 and then worked at the ECB, during the introduction of the euro in 1999 until 2006… He added that it was not true that Germany would be better off returning to the deutschmark, saying the euro had been more stable than the mark… The UK is not in the Eurozone.”

The Bible predicts that ultimately, ten nations or groups of nations will run Europe. They will be the core members of the Eurozone. Some members will apparently indeed leave the Eurozone, but it appears to be certain that countries like Italy or even Spain will not exit and abandon the euro.

Will Britain Leave EU Soon?

The EUObserver reported on August 10:

“The prospect of Britain leaving the European Union is increasingly likely according to a leaked strategy paper by banking giant Nomura. The Asian bank, which is drawing up contingency plans for a ‘Brexit,’ said that ‘a referendum on EU membership without first securing significant concessions from EU partners would result in the UK leaving the European Union.’ The paper, written by Alastair Newton, a one-time British diplomat and advisor to former prime minister Tony Blair, added that ‘the British government’s response to the crisis of encouraging eurozone integration while looking for a looser UK relationship with the EU appears to be fanning the Eurosceptic flames’…

“The eurozone debt crisis has led to increasing euroscepticism among back-bench Conservative MPs, who are urging Prime Minister David Cameron to use potential changes on further integration to the EU Treaty to re-negotiate Britain’s terms of membership… Meanwhile, an opinion poll for YouGov taken last month indicated that only 15 percent of Britons would vote to remain in the EU as it is, while 50 percent would vote to leave the EU if other countries refused to re-negotiate Britain’s terms of membership.”

Coming—a European “Defense” Force

WorldNetDaily wrote on August 12:

“France once again is pushing the notion of a common European defense force. Three countries – Poland, Germany and France – are often referred to as the Weimar Triangle nations…

“The call for a common European defense comes as Europeans see the United States shifting its emphasis more toward the Asia-Pacific region. Until now, the U.S. has been the lead country in maintaining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. But many now are questioning whether it needs to exist.

“While Europe still relies on NATO primarily for its defense, the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty in 2009 allowed for creation of an independent course of action. [French Defense Minister Jean] Le Drian said that the Weimar Triangle, a political cooperation forum set up in 1992, should lead the effort.

“The three countries are working to set up a tactical military group by 2013 to be used as an example for wider E.U. participation and cooperation.”

Revisited: “There’s Little Germany Can Do About Circumcision Ban”

Times of Israel reported on July 9:

“[The] German parliamentary system won’t allow for unambiguous legislation affirming [the] right to Jewish ritual… While some German lawmakers are considering drafting legislation that would enshrine parents’ rights to circumcise their children, there is little else the German government can do about last month’s decision by a local court that effectively outlawed the procedure, Berlin’s ambassador to Israel said Monday. ‘I ask for your understanding that the federal government — I represent Germany’s federal government here in Israel — respects the independence of the German judiciary. That is no different by us than it is with you. Therefore, my abilities to comment on this judgment are limited,’ Ambassador Andreas Michaelis told the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee…

“While at least three parties in the Bundestag are considering drafting legislation that would allow religious groups to perform circumcisions, Michaelis said it was not clear that this would be possible. Some German lawmakers pointed out that the German legal system is based on a ‘principle of prohibitions’ — as opposed to laws permitting certain actions — he said. That means that complete legal certainty regarding the performance of circumcision might remain elusive, he added.”

The persecution of religious minorities in Europe will continue. As Satan is the deceiver, the destroyer and the accuser of the brethren, we can expect that very soon, members of the true Church of God will be increasingly targeted by the governments and the public for their “unique” beliefs, including the observation of the Sabbath and the annual Holy Days, their rejection of Christmas, Easter and the atheistic Evolution hypostasis, their upholding of God’s dietary laws, and their biblical belief in a God Family and their rejection of the unbiblical concept of the Trinity.

Raccoons Overrun Germany

Der Spiegel Online reported on August 3:

“Germany is being invaded by what is estimated to be over a million raccoons. Worried residents have been driven to take extreme measures to deter or eradicate the furry pests, but experts fear the nocturnal marauders are here to stay… These predatory mammals originally from North America can weigh over 10 kilograms (22 pounds). They’re known for their intelligence, and many Native American legends assign raccoons the trickster role that Germans associate with Reynard the Fox in European fables…

“The first raccoons were brought to Germany in around 1920 to be bred in captivity for their pelts. Their controlled introduction into the wild occurred on April 12, 1934, when Prussian hunting and game authorities released two pairs of raccoons near the Edersee, a reservoir near Kassel. Their stated purpose was to ‘enrich the fauna’ of the area.

“A persistent rumor has it that Hermann Göring, one of the Nazi party’s most powerful figures, personally ordered that raccoons be released into the wild. The fact that this isn’t historically accurate didn’t stop British tabloid newspaper The Sun from running an article in 2007 entitled ‘Nazi raccoons on warpath.’ The article warned that they ‘are just across the Channel from Britain after marching through France, Belgium, Holland and Denmark in a furry blitzkrieg’ and that they ‘are invading new territory — just like the Nazis did.’

“Competition for habitat space is so high in the raccoons’ main population centers — in the German states of Hesse, Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt — that young male raccoons have started migrating to other parts of the country… Statistics kept by the German Hunting Association (DJV) offer proof of a downright invasion. It calculates that 67,700 raccoons were killed in Germany last season, a new record…

“There’s no law against trapping raccoons — in fact, quite the opposite is true… Hunters complain that raccoons kill partridges and pheasants, devour bats and steal eggs from wild ducks’ nests… there is the potential danger to humans from rabies spread by raccoons…

“In cities such as Dresden and Bielefeld, the animals have started banding together to harvest entire cherry or plum trees. Another problematic occurrence is when these marauding gangs make their homes in building attics, where they tear the insulation to bits and leave their droppings everywhere.”

When man tries to fool around with or “improve” nature, unpredictable consequences are the results. The Bible shows that God will use wild animals to punish disobedient mankind.

West Nile Virus on the Rise

Reuters reported on August 15:

“The mayor of Dallas declared a state of emergency in the ninth largest U.S. city on Wednesday to combat the spread of West Nile virus infections, which have been more prevalent than usual in Texas and other states this year. There have been more cases of West Nile virus reported so far this year than any year since the disease was first detected in the United States in 1999, the Centers for Disease Control said on its website.

“Nearly half of the 693 human cases of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus infections reported this year to the CDC have been in Texas, along with 14 of the 26 deaths confirmed by the federal agency as of Tuesday… It is not clear why the number of West Nile cases in Texas is so high. It could be related to a warmer winter and rainy spring that has contributed to an increased mosquito population…

“West Nile virus usually flares up in the summer because it is most often transmitted by mosquito bites. People infected can suffer fever and aches that can become severe or even cause death, especially of the elderly, children and other at risk groups. There is no specific treatment for the West Nile infection.”

Khamenei: WAR IN WEEKS!

DEBKAfile published on August 1, 2012:

“On July 27, just before Friday prayers, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei summoned top Iranian military chiefs for what he called ‘their last war council.’

“’We’ll be at war within weeks,’ he told the gathering, DEBKAfile’s exclusive Iranian and intelligence sources disclose.

“Present were Defense Minister General Ahmad Vahidi, Khamenei’s military adviser General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, Armed Forces Chief Major General Seyed Hassan Firuzabadi, Revolutionary Guards Corps commander General Mohammad Ali Jafari and Al Qods Brigades chief General Qassem Soleimani. The commanders of the air force, the navy and ground forces were also there.
 
“Each of the participants was tapped to report on the readiness of his branch or sector for shouldering its contingency mission.

“While retaliation had been exhaustively drilled in regular military exercises in the past year, Khamenei ordered the biggest fortification project in Iran’s history to save its nuclear program from even the mightiest of America’s super-weapons. Rocks are being gathered from afar, piled on key nuclear installations, covered with many tons of poured concrete and finally plated with steel.

“That same Friday, the US Air force unveiled its new Massive Ordnance Penetrators. Each bunker buster weighs 30,000 pounds and is able to penetrate 60 feet of reinforced concrete.

“Turning to retaliation, the war council endorsed a battery of paybacks for potential US and/or Israeli pre-emptive strikes against its nuclear program. They would start by announcing enhanced uranium enrichment up to 60 percent – that is close to weapons grade.

“Oft-tested ballistic missiles, Shehab-3, would be loosed against Israel, Saudi Arabia and American Middle East and Gulf military installations.

“Hizballah in Lebanon and Hamas and Jihad Islami in Gaza stand ready to pitch in against Israel with attacks from the north and the southwest.
 
“Saudi oil export terminals would be blown up and mines sown in the Strait of Hormuz to impede the export of one-fifth of the world’s oil.

“Khamenei put before his war council a timeline of weeks for the coming conflict – September or October.”

War is coming again in the Middle East! Up to this point, rumors of impending conflict–especially between Israel and Iran–have been a constant item in the news. What we are witnessing following the “Arab Spring” is leading to the realignment of nations of the area to form an even stronger Islamist power-bloc–all potential enemies in a war against the State of Israel. However, the Bible does not support many of the ideas which are being circulated pertaining to future events in the Middle East. For more information, please view our new StandingWatch program, “War With Iran Coming Soon?”

Egypt Talks to Iran

The Los Angeles Times wrote on August 8, 2012:

“Signaling a new era in Egypt’s diplomacy, President Mohamed Morsi met with Iran’s vice president Wednesday in the highest-level official contact between the two strategic nations in decades.

“Morsi’s visit with Hamid Baghaei gave Iran a diplomatic coup amid sharpening international pressure over its nuclear program and links to Syria. It came as Egypt’s new Islamist president looks to gradually reshape the pro-American policies of toppled leader Hosni Mubarak to reflect political shifts brought by the ‘Arab Spring’ revolts.

“The brief meeting in the Egyptian capital did not produce any breakthroughs, but it was symbolic. Formal relations between the two countries were broken after the Iranian Revolution and Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel. Mubarak had rebuffed Iran’s efforts in recent years to restore full diplomatic ties, although lower-level talks between officials were occurring.

“Baghaei’s stopover came at a pivotal time for both nations regarding Israel. Israel has suggested it might attack Iran’s nuclear program, which it believes is aimed at developing a bomb and which Tehran says is purely for civilian purposes. Cairo is under pressure from Israel and the United States to improve security in the Sinai peninsula after recent attempts by militants to infiltrate Israel…

“Iran has hailed Morsi’s presidency as Egypt’s ‘Islamic awakening.’ It has turned to Cairo as Iran’s regional stature is under duress from economic sanctions and political upheavals that have reconfigured the Arab world.

“Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iran’s reliable proxy, has been weakened by months of protests and bloody insurgency. If Assad is overthrown or relinquishes power, Tehran could lose an ally in its maneuverings in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, which is governed by the militant group Hamas.

“The Muslim Brotherhood, which inspired the founding of Hamas, has been urging closer relations with Iran. But many Egyptian clerics have been opposed to strengthening ties given the historical animosity between Sunnis and Shiites.”

Israel in a Defense Race

Reuters reported on August 5, 2012:

“Israel is upgrading its Arrow II ballistic missile shield in a U.S.-backed ‘race’ against Iran, Syria and other regional enemies, a senior Israeli defense official said on Sunday.

“The new ‘Block 4’ generation of guided interceptor rockets, radars and technologies for synchronizing Arrow with U.S. systems was being installed in deployed Israeli batteries, a process that would take several weeks, the official said.

“‘The accuracy and the reach will be greater,’ the official said of Arrow, which has been operational since 2000 and is designed to blow up incoming missiles at altitudes high enough for non-conventional warheads to disintegrate safely.

“‘It is part of the technological race in the region,’ the official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

“Long jittery about Iran’s disputed nuclear program, the Israelis have more recently worried the Syrian insurgency could loosen Damascus’s hold on its chemical weapons and missiles.

“Israel has threatened to attack preemptively in both countries, a prospect that could trigger wider war and clash with Washington’s efforts to resolve the crises diplomatically.”

Greece Rounds Up Migrants

The New York Times reported on August 6, 2012:

“A vast police operation here aimed at identifying illegal immigrants found that, of 6,000 people detained over the weekend, 1,400 did not have proper documentation, leading the minister of public order to say that Greece was suffering an ‘unprecedented invasion’ that was threatening the stability of the debt-racked nation.

“The minister, Nikos Dendias, defended the mass detentions, saying that a failure to curb a relentless flow of immigrants into Greece would lead the country, which is surviving on foreign loans, to collapse. ‘Our social fabric is at risk of unraveling,’ Mr. Dendias told a private television channel, Skai. ‘The immigration problem is perhaps even greater than the financial one’…

“About 4,500 officers conducted raids on streets and in run-down apartment blocks in central Athens, a police spokesman said, calling the sweep one of the largest ever by the force. Eighty-eight Pakistanis were flown back home on a chartered flight on Sunday, said the spokesman, who spoke on the standard ground rules of anonymity. He said more deportations were expected in the coming days.

“With its position on the southeastern flank of the European Union, Greece has long been the most common transit country for impoverished migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. But the global economic malaise and the revolutions of the Arab Spring have sharply increased the flow of migrants, and the government has been calling for more help from the European Union.”

As has been talked about for quite a while, the United States of Europe are becoming a European fortress.

Euthanasia Business Finds German Approval!

The Local published the following on August 6, 2012:

“Nearly half of Germans are in favour of legalising euthanasia businesses, a recent survey revealed. The German parliament is still divided over proposed changes to assisted suicide laws.

“The survey, carried out by pollsters Emnid, found that 49 percent of Germans would be in favour of lifting the ban on privately-run euthanasia services. Just 41 percent said they would be against, Sunday’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported.

“Last week, Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said that she was going to present a redrafted version of the country’s assisted suicide laws in parliament.

“The new laws would see doctors, carers and close family being able to help someone end their life without facing punishment. Oddly, Emnid found that only 47 percent of the 501 people they asked, approved of this, as opposed to the 49 percent who approved lifting the ban on commercial euthanasia.

“But if the law is altered, providing a commercial euthanasia service would still be illegal, punishable by a two-year prison sentence. Euthanasia businesses were outlawed in Germany in 2009, and Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said the ban was not up for negotiation.

“But the suggested changes have provoked outcry from critics and sparked a debate within Germany’s ruling coalition.

“Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger is a member of the Free Democratic Party, the junior partner of the coalition, and members of the main governing party – the Christian Democratic Union – have said the distinction between commercial and non-commercial euthanasia is false and misleading.
 
“Social Democratic Party legal expert Edgar Franke told regional newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung that assisted suicide was an ethical issue that party-politics had no business with.”

The business of assisted suicide is, first and foremost, the breaking of God’s inviolable law against MURDER! Not only in Germany, but nations around the world trample on human life with ghastly decisions that “legalize” such atrocities as abortion. Life is now a commodity–something never intended or allowed by God, and it will take His direct intervention to now save us from our own twisted and misguided actions!

Gay Relationships Claim “Conservative Values”!

The Local, August 7, 2012, wrote:

“German Family Minister Kristina Schröder of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has said gay partnerships represent ‘conservative values’ because of their ‘long-term commitment’ – so they should get the same tax breaks as marriages.

“Schröder came out in support of a proposal by 13 CDU MPs calling for tax equality between marriage and homosexual partnerships, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Tuesday.
 
“In a joint statement, the conservative parliamentarians said, ‘It is not acceptable that politicians are constantly … being asked to abolish the current inequality by the Constitutional Court.’
 
“The proposal comes in reaction to a Constitutional Court verdict from last week, which decided that public officials, judges, and soldiers in registered partnerships – whether gay or heterosexual – should have the same custody rights as married couples, and so should also be entitled to family allowance.
 
“The 13 MPs therefore called on their own party to ‘finally’ make tax equality ‘its own political decision.’
 
“‘We want to recognize that life partners with a registered partnership have set up a framework for a long-term relationship based on mutual trust and affection,’ the statement said. They said registered partners had the same ‘mutual income obligations and duties to each other’ as married couples, so they should have the same tax status.”

Germany’s opposition party, the SPD, is also in favor of providing the tax breaks mentioned in the article. Of course, Germany is by no means the only Western country which is trying to establish such new rules. In fact, most Western countries are doing this or have already done so. However, the so-called “conservative values” offered in this article are a total rejection of the true biblical values established by God. To whitewash sin by calling “evil good and good evil” does not change the timeless LAWS of God. In fact, here is what God says of this kind of approach in Isaiah 5:20: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

Romney Campaign Avoids Stance But Takes a Stance

Newsmax wrote on August 6, 2012:

“The Romney campaign’s decision to duck the Chick-fil-A controversy over gay-marriage appears to have reopened old wounds with social conservatives, who were never fully sold that the former Massachusetts governor would represent their concerns in the marbled halls of Washington.

“’This is the most disheartened that certainly I’ve felt looking at this entire race,’ said Catholic League president Bill Donohue. He told Newsmax in an exclusive interview that social conservatives will now have to decide whether to sit out the race.

“On Friday, Romney told reporters he does not intend to address the controversy that was touched off when big city mayors threatened to punish the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain after its president, Dan Cathy, voiced support for the traditional definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.

“’Those are not things that are part of my campaign,’ said Romney.

“Romney’s aides have explained that while the presumptive GOP presidential nominee favors the traditional definition of marriage, he is trying to structure his remarks to keep the focus solely on the economy in order to have the best possible chance of defeating President Barack Obama in November.”

Spiegel Online (August 6, 2012) adds:

“Critics have called Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney a weakling, and polls show him far behind President Barack Obama. With new suspicions emerging that he has been less than honest about his taxes, even fellow Republicans are having their doubts about him.”

And from the Washingtion Times, August 7, 2012:

“There is one social issue on which Mitt Romney is more liberal than President Obama — that of urging the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to accept gay scouts.

“Mr. Romney said in 1994 that while it was up to BSA to set its own policy, he thought the scouts should allow gay boys in, and this week his campaign reaffirmed that stance to the Associated Press. The 1994 comments came as he was running to unseat then-Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in Massachusetts.

“‘I support the right of the Boy Scouts of America to decide what it wants to do on that issue. I feel that all people should be able to participate in the Boy Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation,’ Mr. Romney said during a debate at the time.

“Now Scouts for Equality, a group pushing for the national scouting group to allow gay boys to join, said it’s time for Mr. Obama — who as president is the honorary president of the scouts — to take the same stand.”

Mr. Romney’s approach is typical–rather than boldy standing up for the fundamental values long established as basic in American life, he has chosen to let opportunity pass him by, or to support wrong concepts. On the other hand, President Obama is not behaving any better. Our nation is not producing leadership which is rooted in biblical truth, and the sad consequences of that tradegy are already tearing us apart! The world is not ruled by God or His standards—it is ruled by Satan the devil who has deceived the whole world—including the American people and their leaders. Thanks be to God that He will send His Son Jesus Christ very soon to establish the Kingdom of God and righteous rule on this earth.

African Swine Fever Spreads

Reported in The Local, August 8, 2012:

“German pig keeping experts warned on Wednesday that if the African swine fever spreading across Russia and Ukraine hits Germany, damages could cost billions of euros and spark mass culls.

“’We don’t want to start spreading panic, but the situation is serious,’ head of the German pig keepers association (ISN) Torsten Staack told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (NOZ) on Wednesday.

“He said that the virus was highly contagious between animals and if a pig contracts it, they generally die very quickly. If it hit Germany, the consequences would cost ‘into the billions’ and could see around 31,000 of the country’s pig keepers affected by trading restrictions.

“A mass cull could be, he warned, necessary to keep the virus under control as affected animals have to be put down immediately, the NOZ said.

“The Agriculture Ministry issued an official warning on Tuesday about the outbreak in Russia and Ukraine – and has advised people travelling from those countries in particular not to bring pork products back into Germany.

“The virus manifests itself primarily with a high fever, other symptoms differ between animals and there is no vaccination against it. It is not dangerous to humans…

“A kind of ‘fire brigade for plague control’ could be beneficial in situations like these, he said.”

Try as we might, plagues will remain unstoppable as long as humanity rejects the health laws of God–and that includes not eating swine!

Britain’s Weird Olympic Opening Ceremony

The New York Times wrote on July 28:

“With its hilariously quirky Olympic opening ceremony, a wild jumble of the celebratory and the fanciful; the conventional and the eccentric; and the frankly off-the-wall, Britain presented itself to the world Friday night as something it has often struggled to express even to itself: a nation secure in its own post-empire identity, whatever that actually is.

“The noisy, busy, witty, dizzying production somehow managed to feature… a suggestion that the Olympic rings were forged by British foundries during the Industrial Revolution… and… a zany bunch of dancing nurses and bouncing sick children on huge hospital beds.

“It was neither a nostalgic sweep through the past nor a bold vision of a brave new future. Rather, it was a sometimes slightly insane portrait of a country that has changed almost beyond measure since the last time it hosted the Games, in the grim postwar summer of 1948. Britain was so poor then that it housed its athletes in old army barracks, made them bring their own towels and erected no buildings for the Games. The Olympics cost less than £750,000, turned a small profit and made the nation proud that it had managed to rise to the occasion in the face of such adversity.

“There was that same sense of relief intermingled with self-satisfaction this time… Queen Elizabeth II was there… Looking mystified at times — the ceremony was pitched to a generation different from hers — she presided over a bevy of lesser royals and Prime Minister David Cameron.  The first lady, Michelle Obama, was in the audience to cheer on the United States athletes, who, it must be said, did a lot of cheering for themselves anyway during the athletes’ procession. And Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was there, too, although he was practically Public Enemy No. 1 around here after he appeared to question the British capacity for enthusiasm, something only Britons are allowed to do…

“As is the case (with) almost every Olympics, much of the speculation around it centered on how Britain could possibly surpass the previous summer host, China… But outdoing anyone else, particularly the new superpower China, was not the point for a country that can never hope to re-create the glory days of its empire… That the Olympics come at a time of deep economic malaise, with Britain teetering on the edge of a double-dip recession, the government cutting billions of dollars from public spending… made the scene a bit surreal, even defiant in the face of so much adversity.

“The crowd in the stadium sat in a bubble of excitement. In the wider park, volunteers have been behaving with an enthusiasm that seems bewilderingly un-British. But out in the rest of the country, critics have been questioning the expense, the ubiquitously heavy-handed security apparatus, and the rampant commercialism of the Games… The ceremony, too, reflected… deeply left-leaning sensibilities…”

The expense for the Games is certainly outlandish, but it must be remembered that when London was nominated for the Games eight years ago, the economy was going well and no thought about cost would have stopped the process. Now, in 2012, we have the Games with ridiculous costs that Britain can’t afford but to which it was committed in different economic times. What the article in the New York Times expresses in so many words is that Britain is in self-denial, apparently believing that it could regain its former glory. But catering to weird modern ungodly ideas won’t help. In fact, Ephraim is destined to fall totally and completely, and even what is left of its former glory will be taken away. This is what God prophesied in the book of Hosea, when referring to Ephraim or the modern UK: “Ephraim is a cake unturned… but he does not know it… the pride of Israel testifies to his face, But they do not return to the LORD their God, Nor seek Him for all this… Ephraim also is like a silly dove, without sense… Ephraim has made many altars for sin… I have written for him the great things of My law, But they were considered a strange thing…  As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird… Yes, woe to them when I depart from them…” (Hosea 7:8-11; 8:11-12; 9:11-12).

Opening Ceremony by a Socialist?

AFP wrote on July 28, 2012:

“A celebration of free healthcare, the trade union struggle, the battle for women’s rights and a fleeting lesbian kiss: the Olympics opening ceremony Friday did not shy away from weighty social issues. Unsurprisingly, the show devised by Oscar-winning British director Danny Boyle drew accusations from the British political right that it had strayed into ‘leftie’ issues… Alastair Campbell, former British Labour prime minister Tony Blair’s communications chief, [wrote] on Twitter: ‘Brilliant that we got a socialist to do the opening ceremony.’…

“The show bringing the curtain up on the London Olympics began with sections showing idyllic rural Britain being overtaken by the Industrial Revolution, before moving on to a 10-minute sequence celebrating the state-run National Health Service (NHS). Britain’s first televised lesbian kiss — from a 1993 episode of soap opera ‘Brookside’ — was shown in a fast-moving montage of film and TV clips. Later in the ceremony, dancers formed the shape of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament badge and other performers represented the struggle of trade union movements.”

The Telegraph wrote on July 29:

“The opening ceremony was a bit of a grab-bag, wasn’t it? I thought some of it was great, some was rather bad and quite a lot of it will mystify the foreign TV viewers (95 per cent of the audience) who it was supposed to dazzle… It was more political than I expected… Tonight marked perhaps its final transformation from a healthcare system into a religion… The idea of the Health Service as a beacon for the world is, bluntly, a national self-delusion. Most other Western European countries have better state healthcare systems – and healthier people – than we do…”

The Horror of Female Circumcision

The Guardian wrote on July 24:

“Female circumcision will be inflicted on up to 2,000 British schoolgirls during the summer holidays – leaving brutal physical and emotional scars… Some will be taken abroad, others will be ‘cut’ or circumcised and sewn closed here in the UK by women already living here or who are flown in and brought to ‘cutting parties’ for a few girls at a time in a cost-saving exercise…

“The UK Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985 makes it an offence to carry out FGM [female genital mutilation]… or to aid, abet or procure the service of another person. The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, makes it against the law for FGM to be performed anywhere in the world on UK permanent residents of any age and carries a maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment. To date, no prosecutions have been made under UK legislation…

“FGM has no basis in Christianity, it has no basis in Islam [or Judaism]…

“Female genital mutilation, also known as cutting, is practised in 28 African countries. The prevalence rate ranges from 98% of girls in Somalia to 5% in Zaire. It also takes place among ethnic groups in the Middle East, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, the US and New Zealand. Until the 1950s FGM was used in England and the US as a ‘treatment’ for lesbianism, masturbation, hysteria, epilepsy and other ‘female deviances’… No European country accepts the threat of FGM as a reason for asylum…”

This is so appalling, and of all places, this is being carried out in Britain without any law enforcement. It has been reported that Britain is the leading Western nation guilty of this outrage. The nations rule against what God does allow and then twist and pervert things in such degrading and sinful ways!!!  At the same time, we should be able to see how Satan is instigating this whole discussion on circumcision in general, including the prohibition of [biblically permitted] circumcision of young boys. See the next article.

The Ongoing Circumcision Debate

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 27:

“A German court’s outlawing of the circumcision of boys — and the vociferous support it has received in the self-proclaimed enlightened media — confirms a tendency that has seen religion-bashing… rampant anti-religious prejudice and growing intolerance toward believers… But elsewhere in the world, people are shaking their heads over the fact that it’s the Germans, once again, who… are trying to make it impossible for Jews to remain in their country…

“The sharpness of the attacks [on circumcision] is only surpassed by the absurdity of the justifications. A procedure that is hardly more painful than a vaccination — something for which parents also don’t consult their child in advance — is now being expanded and revamped to form a strategy of cultural anthropology…

“Germany — despite the fact that it still has a large number of registered church members — hasn’t been a Christian country in a long time. Today, the fathers of the German constitution would no longer come together ‘before God and the people.’ But we are quick to overlook the fact that our secular nation… depends on conditions that it cannot in fact guarantee… In the name of reason alone (and common sense), there is no love, no beauty and perhaps even no God. For that, the heart must be open…

“The anti-religious rhetoric is no longer restricted to newspaper columns… We have eliminated almost all taboos in our society, and we tout this as a sign of great progress. But we need taboos. Child pornography is one of them, and denying the Holocaust is another. Both are punishable offences… What if we rejected blasphemy — that is, the foolish disparagement of God and faith — out of inner conviction and respect for others? This would be a genuine step forward.”

This could of course become a double-edged sword as well, because who is to define “blasphemy”? In times past, Satan was very busy influencing and inspiring zealous church leaders to excommunicate, label as “anathema” and accuse everyone as having committed blasphemy who denied the false concept of an ever-burning hell fire, torturing the wicked souls for all eternity, and the unbiblical concept of the Trinity. The same is true for the insistence that the weekly biblical Sabbath—as opposed to unbiblical Sunday—must still be kept today.

A Policy of Deception?

Fox News reported on July 24:

“The ancient Chinese practice of lingchi, the ‘Death of a Thousand Cuts,’ best describes the manner in which the Obama administration has systematically whittled away most immigration enforcement since taking office. Over time, the rule of law has been shredded not by a single act, but by many small cuts. A review of President Obama’s record reveals a jaw-dropping steady and stealthy dismantling of virtually every tool and resource used to identify and remove deportable aliens…

“Immediately after taking office, the Obama administration replaced effective worksite enforcement that targeted both employers and illegal workers with meaningless paper audits and modest fines… Failing to hold employers who hire illegal aliens accountable was an early, yet clear signal that the Obama administration intended to derail all enforcement…

“In 2011, Obama’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director, John Morton, issued a series of internal directives instructing agency staff to focus their efforts exclusively on removing illegal aliens with criminal records…

“Obama told Americans that the border was secure and that that deportations were up. Both were deceptions. In official documents, DHS stated that only 44% of the border was under operational control. And while deportations had, in fact risen slightly, the increase had nothing to do with expanding enforcement by the Obama administration. A ‘pipeline’ of deportable cases was filled by vigorous enforcement during the last two years of the Bush administration. Those cases carried forward and Obama took credit in his first two years. Moreover, while deportations for violent criminal aliens had risen, all other deportations were down indicating that the Obama administration felt it could pick and choose which laws to enforce…

“From the beginning, President Obama knew that the public would reject amnesty legislation. However, he also knew he stood a good chance of getting it done through a strategy of piecemeal efforts, provided no one noticed. With an election looming and special interests demanding grandiose and immediate action, in June President Obama declared unilaterally that he was using executive power to implement the DREAM Act for an untold number illegal alien ‘kids’ who were brought here through ‘no fault of their own.’ During his DREAM Act speech, Obama failed to mention that his new edict allowed illegal aliens up to the age of 30 to qualify.

“Then, in an interview shortly thereafter with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, DHS Secretary Napolitano admitted that parents of illegal aliens applying for deferred action – illegal alien adults who most certainly did knowingly break the law – will not be subject to immigration enforcement… With that announcement, amnesty for illegal aliens tripled…

“Obama’s Death of a Thousand Cuts has virtually gutted our country’s immigration enforcement apparatus, but the record is clear and the public must hold this president accountable…”

But before Church members jump to premature conclusions and become political agitators for the presidential challenger, as being the “lesser of two evils,” be sure to read the next article.

Mitt Romney’s Flubs in Britain

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 27:

“Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney had been hoping to show off his foreign-policy credentials by traveling to Europe this week. Instead, he has committed one flub after another. The headlines have not been kind.

“Mitt Romney was hoping to start off his European tour with a bang: a meeting with conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron, the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on Friday and a couple of lucrative fundraising events. The idea was to show the presumed Republican presidential candidate from his best side. After all, he himself successfully managed the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah… Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for Romney to make the kind of negative headlines he had been hoping to avoid. And it has cast a dark cloud over his entire trip.

“It all began with an anonymous Romney ‘adviser’ and the special relationship between the US and Great Britain. ‘We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he (Romney) feels that the special relationship is special,’ the adviser told the British daily Telegraph. ‘The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have.’

“Perhaps the comment hadn’t been adequately vetted. But the Telegraph teased it out for its readers. The remarks, the paper wrote, ‘may prompt accusations of racial insensitivity’ given that Obama’s father, after all, was neither white nor Anglo-Saxon. US Vice President Joe Biden reacted strongly by calling the comments ‘disturbing’ and saying the assertion was ‘beneath a presidential campaign.’ Obama adviser David Axelrod said that the comment on shared heritage was ‘stunningly offensive.’

“And Romney? The candidate has done his best to distance himself from the statements, saying he doesn’t know who the source is — and accusing Biden of reacting to quotes from an unnamed adviser in a ‘foreign newspaper.’

“That, though, was just the appetizer. Not long after his arrival in London, Romney joined Brian Williams from the US broadcaster NBC for an exclusive interview… he said: ‘There are a few things that were disconcerting, the stories about the private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging.’

“As if that weren’t enough, Romney also seemed to take aim at the British people. ‘Do they come together and celebrate the Olympic moment? That is something which we only find out once the Games actually begin.’ Not surprisingly, the British press jumped on the comments. As did British leaders. During a rally to celebrate the end of the torch relay in Hyde Park, London Mayor Boris Johnson said to the gathered crowd: ‘There’s this guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we are ready.’ And Prime Minister Cameron also chided the Republican candidate. ‘We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world,’ he said. ‘Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.’

“Chagrined, Romney quickly did something that Americans have become used to from him: He flip-flopped. In comments to the press afterward, he conceded that it is ‘impossible for absolutely no mistakes to occur.’ And added that, once competition starts, ‘those are all overshadowed by the extraordinary demonstrations of courage, character and determination by the athletes.’

“Still, Romney wasn’t quite done making headlines. It was, after all, a long day full of meetings with a variety of people, including Labour party head Ed Miliband, who Romney addressed as ‘Mr. Leader.’ And then there was another appointment. ‘I can only say that I appreciated the insights and perspectives of the leaders of the government here and opposition here as well as the head of MI6 as we discussed Syria and the hope for a more peaceful future for that country,’ he said at a news conference. Oops. The meeting with MI6 head Sir John Sawers was supposed to remain secret. That, at least, had been the agreement beforehand.”

So, either way, this country is in big trouble, and ONLY the return of Jesus Christ and His godly and righteous government here on earth will experience and manifest real and better change!

CNN President Resigns

On July 27, 2012, Newsmax and Bloomberg News reported:

“CNN President Jim Walton, who presided over the once-dominant cable-news business… will resign after almost a decade in the job, saying the network needs ‘new thinking’… CNN is suffering through a ratings slump… CNN now ranks far behind News Corp.’s Fox News…

“Walton, 54, started at CNN in December 1981, one year after it was founded by billionaire Ted Turner. Walton helped build the nascent network into a dominant news organization, and CNN soon became a staple in many households. It was the only news company that broadcast live video feeds of the first Gulf War from inside Iraq.

“In recent years, the network struggled to find a formula that connected with viewers. It also made a major gaffe last month, reporting incorrectly that the U.S. Supreme Court found a central piece of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act to be unconstitutional…”

Maybe this would help: a little bit less left-wing propaganda and CNN’s definite agenda to get Mr. Obama re-elected, and much more objective reporting of the news.

Standing Up to the NRA

On July 26, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wrote the following insightful article on Bloomberg.com:

“It has been a week since the massacre in Aurora, Colorado. The two major U.S. presidential candidates spent the past week avoiding the subject of whether anything should be done to prevent such shootings from recurring. Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, declared Wednesday that ‘changing the heart of the American people’ is our best hope to stop the carnage. President Barack Obama offered little more than support for his past positions, such as banning assault weapons. Very likely, both candidates will spend the next few months avoiding the issue altogether.

“The wise men of Washington tell us that candidates are silent on guns because to speak out is to incur the wrath of the National Rifle Association. But polls consistently show that gun owners, including NRA members, overwhelmingly support the common sense measures that mayors across the country have been trying to get Washington to pass for years.

“More than 700 mayors, from both political parties, have joined together to stop the flow of illegal guns into our communities. Mayors know all too well that the debate on the Second Amendment is over. The Supreme Court recognized that the Second Amendment grants citizens the right to bear arms, subject to reasonable restrictions. The question is: What should those restrictions look like?

“Mayors and the NRA strongly agree that the federal government should enforce the laws already on the books. Federal law prohibits all felons — and those with a history of mental illness or drug abuse — from possessing guns. The NRA believes — rightly — that enforcing the law means prosecuting criminals to the fullest extent. In New York state, we have increased the mandatory minimum prison sentence for illegal possession of a loaded gun to 3 1/2 years, one of the toughest penalties in the country.

“But whether fighting illegal guns or drugs, we should seek not merely to make arrests, but to prevent the crime from occurring in the first place. That is why the federal government requires licensed firearm dealers to conduct background checks to determine whether an individual is eligible to purchase a gun. Nonlicensed sellers, however, are not required to perform federal background checks, and as much as 40 percent of gun sales slip through this loophole. Criminals and the deranged can buy guns simply by logging on to the Internet or visiting a gun show — and they do, every day. Stopping them requires background checks for every gun sale, a change strongly supported by major law enforcement organizations, as well as gun owners and NRA members. But not the NRA’s leadership. The NRA is a $200 million-plus-a-year lobbying juggernaut, with much of its funding coming from gun manufacturers and merchandising. More than anything, the NRA is a marketing organization, and its flagship product is fear…

“There is one particular fear the NRA manufactures with great success: fear of electoral defeat. Romney has walked away from the assault-weapons ban he once supported, and in nearly four years, Obama has offered no legislation to rein in illegal guns…  Some Americans view smarter, tougher gun measures as a hopeless crusade. But political environments change, especially when strong leaders build coalitions and carve new paths through seemingly settled territory. There are conservative, pro-gun rights members of Congress who understand that more can be done to keep guns away from dangerous people.”

These accurate statements should wake up those up who are so fascinated with their love for guns that they can’t see the truth in this matter—including the dubious and terrible role which the NRA leadership has been playing all along.

Gay Rights Advocates Push the Envelope Even More

Newsmax wrote on July 26:

“Billy Graham [a strong advocate for traditional marriage] has thrown his support behind embattled Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy… Dan Cathy’s recent comments supporting the ‘biblical definition’ of marriage as between a man and a woman has led to calls by gay rights advocates to boycott the chain. The mayors of Boston and Chicago have recently promised to stop further expansion of the restaurants in their cities. ‘I want to express my support for my good friends Truett Cathy and his son Dan Cathy, and for their strong stand for the Christian faith,’ Graham said.

“‘I’ve known their family for many years and have watched them grow Chick-fil-A into one of the best businesses in America while never compromising their values. Chick-fil-A serves each of its customers with excellence, and treats everyone like a neighbor. It’s easy to see why Chick-fil-A has become so popular across America. Each generation faces different issues and challenges, but our standard must always be measured by God’s word. I appreciate the Cathy family’s public support for God’s definition of marriage.’”

The actions of the “gay activists” and the mayors of Boston and Chicago are unconscionable. No wonder that God is deeply upset about the direction that our country is going.

Coming—Global Food Crisis?

Al Jazeera wrote on July 26:

“For weeks the US has been suffering its most extensive drought in half a century. And meteorologists expect the severe conditions to continue… the drought has expanded since the beginning of this year, particularly affecting the US heartland, known as the breadbasket of the country and the world.

“The US dominates the global corn market but the US Department of Agriculture has predicted a sharp drop in corn exports, with prices for corn and soybeans already hitting record highs. At least 87 per cent of all US corn and soybean crops are grown in drought-stricken regions. Corn is what is called a mega-crop used in the production of everything from meat to cereal to sugary drinks and fuel. As a result, rising prices have the potential to lead to another global food crisis…

“About 60 per cent of continental US is experiencing drought conditions. The US is the world’s largest corn producer, and provides up to 60 per cent of the world’s food aid. The price of corn has increased by 34 per cent in the last month. The US government says nearly 40 per cent of the corn crop is in poor condition… The US is ranked as the most food-secure nation in the world… Second is Denmark, followed by Norway… The least food-secure nations are in sub-Saharan Africa, with the DR Congo scoring most poorly with 70 per cent of household income there spent on food despite the country’s huge agricultural potential. Chad and Burundi suffer from similar circumstances.”

God prophecies that even the USA will be suffering from severe famine in the not-too-distant future.

Possible Strike on Iran?

The Associated Press wrote on July 29:

“An Israeli newspaper reported Sunday that the Obama administration’s top security official has briefed Israel on U.S. plans for a possible attack on Iran, seeking to reassure it that Washington is prepared to act militarily should diplomacy and sanctions fail to pressure Tehran to abandon its nuclear enrichment program. A senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential talks, said the article in the Haaretz daily was incorrect.

“Haaretz said National Security Adviser Tom Donilon laid out the plans before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a dinner at a visit to Israel earlier this month. It cited an unidentified senior American official as the source of its report, which came out as presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was telling Israel he would back an Israeli military strike against Iran.

“The American official also said Donilon shared information on U.S. weapons that could be used for such an attack, and on the U.S. military’s ability to reach Iranian nuclear facilities buried deep underground, the newspaper said. It cited another U.S. official involved in the talks with Israel as concluding that ‘the time for a military operation against Iran has not yet come.’

“The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential meeting, said, ‘Nothing in the article is correct. Donilon did not meet the prime minister for dinner, he did not meet him one-on-one, nor did he present operational plans to attack Iran.’ He had no information when asked if Donilon had discussed any kind of attack plans with any Israeli official. Haaretz said another Israeli official attended for part of the meeting.

“The U.S. Embassy had no immediate comment. Haaretz cited Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, as declining to comment on the confidential discussion between Netanyahu and Donilon…

“Israeli leaders have repeatedly said they would not contract out their country’s security to another nation. In Jerusalem on Sunday, a top Romney foreign policy adviser told reporters, ‘If Israel has to take action on its own, in order to stop Iran from developing the capability (to build a nuclear weapon), the governor would respect that decision.’ Romney also thinks the option of a U.S. attack should also be on the table.”

Attack on Iran Could Devastate Global Economy

Newsmax reported on July 28:

“The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers, has now stated publicly that Iran and its agents masterminded the recent terror attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria. Rogers stated flatly: ‘I believe there were certainly elements of Hezbollah [involved] and I believe it was under the direction of their masters in Iran.’ And former UN Ambassador John Bolton has urged Israel to retaliate directly against Iran for this barbaric attack. Such an attack, experts fear, could escalate quickly into a wider military action against Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

“Meanwhile, Iran is also ratcheting up its support for Syria’s Assad regime. ‘The Iranian people have an unchangeable stance on Syrians and will always stand by them,’ Iran’s Vice President Rahimi said this week.

“Iran appears to be on a collision course with Israel, the U.S. and other Western allies. The implications of a crisis in Iran are grave. Former U.S. National Security Adviser Brzezinski has warned that an attack on Iran could lead to a series of events that ‘devastate’ the global economy.”

A war in the Middle East, involving Israel and Iran, would indeed have terrible consequences for the entire world.

Fierce Fighting in Ethiopia

BBC wrote on July 28:

“Ethnic clashes in southern Ethiopia are reported to have left at least 18 people dead and 12 others injured. More than 20,000 people have crossed into Kenya to escape the fighting, the Kenyan Red Cross says.

“A spokesman told the BBC that people were continuing to cross the border although Ethiopian government forces had intervened to stop the fighting… Local reports speak of armed militias taking up positions in outlying villages on Wednesday, with the fighting spreading to Moyale town, on the Ethiopia-Kenya border, on Thursday.”

Keep your eye on Ethiopia!

Weapons Acquired Legally in Colorado

BBC wrote on July 20:

“Residents [are] allowed to keep guns in homes, offices and vehicles, but [they] can only carry them in public with a permit. There are no limits to how many guns can be bought a month, and the state permits sale of automatic weapons. No waiting period [exists] for buying a handgun, both state and federal state law require criminal background checks. Since [the] 1998 Columbine massacre, 20 miles from [the] scene of Friday’s shooting, it has become easier to buy guns in [the] US–a national ban on assault weapons sale expired in 2004.”

The occasional claim that the murderer acquired some of the weapons illegally —especially an assault rifle— is absolutely false.

U.S. Gun Laws Make No Sense

The Washington Post wrote on July 20:

“As President Obama said in brief but eloquent remarks Friday, there is no rational explanation for the massacre that occurred in a Colorado movie theater early Friday. ‘Such violence, such evil, is senseless. It’s beyond reason,’ Mr. Obama said… There’s something else that is senseless, though, and that is America’s gun laws. The temptation is not to mention this fact. That’s true partly because… any mention of gun control is dismissed by gun-control opponents as an ‘exploitation’ of tragedy. But it’s true also because we’ve all been worn down by the futility and repetitiveness of the debate. A massacre occurs; advocates of gun control point out the folly of total permissiveness; the laws do not change; the issue disappears until the next massacre…

“There is no rational basis for allowing ordinary Americans to purchase assault rifles… The alleged shooter in Friday’s crime, which claimed at least 12 lives, came to the theater with two .40-caliber Glock handguns, a Remington 12-gauge shotgun and a Smith & Wesson AR-15 assault-style rifle. According to NBC News, ‘the weapons were legally bought from local stores of two national chains… beginning in May.’

“Yes, the Second Amendment protects a citizen’s right to own a gun, but it does not preclude reasonable regulation for public safety. Yes, mass killings occur in societies with stronger gun laws, but not with such regularity — and not against the backdrop of daily gun violence, both criminal and accidental, that distinguishes the United States.

“We don’t expect this massacre to lead to more sensible laws. We understand the politics. Still, it’s disappointing that the president doesn’t couple his words of comfort with some reminder of the common-sense regulation that could make such tragedies less common. The politics of guns will never shift if people are too cowed or dispirited even to join the argument. U.S. gun laws make no sense.”

Indeed, they don’t—and no civilized country outside the US shows any sympathy for our “American Wild-West” mentality.

Americans in Love With Their Guns

USA Today wrote on July 22:

“There are calls now for gun laws strict enough to stop incidents like these, just as there were after previous tragedies, but those demands will fade. The nation has had a long and acrimonious debate on guns and decided to allow individuals to own them, with reasonable limits. It’s a devil’s bargain that allows millions of law-abiding people to own and use guns responsibly, while accepting thousands of deliberate and accidental shootings a year, including the sort of perverse tragedy that occurred in Colorado.

“Gun control strict enough to stop every shooting is a fantasy. Americans are fiercely devoted to their right to keep and bear arms, and the Supreme Court has upheld that right. The notion that the authorities could somehow confiscate the millions of guns in private hands in the U.S. is a delusion. So is the idea that Americans would support a ban on private handguns — the latest Gallup poll shows that just 26 % of Americans favor that.

“But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to be done. Americans do support bans on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, which have figured in mass shootings and were a part of this one. There’s no legitimate reason for the loophole that lets some people evade background checks when they buy guns at gun shows…”

As long as Americans continue with their love and adoration for and fascination with guns, “political correctness” will prevent meaningful changes, as the next article shows.

Political Considerations in an Election Year—Play It Safe

The Los Angeles Times wrote on July 20:

“President Obama and rival Mitt Romney issued similar statements Friday expressing shock and offering their condolences after the shooting rampage in Aurora, Colo. Absent was any discussion of gun control or ways to end gun violence… don’t count on a whole lot of substantive talk about guns or gun control between, say, next week and Nov. 6 — at least from the two main contestants for the White House. Few issues evoke as much emotion as the personal right to bear firearms, and Obama and Romney have their reasons to steer clear of any lengthy debate.

“It has become an article of faith among Democrats that Al Gore lost the White House in 2000… because of his support for gun control… the president has not signed a single piece of major gun-control legislation, nor has Congress given him the opportunity… White House spokesman Jay Carney notably mentioned 2nd Amendment rights…

“Romney… will certainly not do anything to agitate the 2nd Amendment crowd. As governor of Massachusetts, he backed an assault weapons ban and a waiting period to buy firearms; as a presidential candidate, he’s backpedaled from those heresies ever since.

“Reacting to the shootings, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a staunch advocate of gun control, virtually taunted the two presidential candidates to offer more than platitudes, however sincere or well-meaning they may be. ‘You know, soothing words are nice,’ he said on WOR radio, ‘but maybe it’s time that the two people who want to be president of the United States stand up and tell us what they are going to do about it, because this is obviously a problem across the country.’…

“Avoiding politics may be the respectful thing to do as the nation grieves the dead and wounded in Colorado. Politically, it is also the safe thing to do.”

CNN added on July 20:

“Daniel Vice, senior attorney for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, criticized Obama on Friday for steering clear of the issue in office. ‘President Obama has refused to even talk about guns… Unfortunately the president has shown a lack of leadership in standing up to the gun lobby’…

“Gun safety advocates have expressed disappointment with the president’s actions since taking office, particularly over his failure to fight for the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban. They pointed out Obama signed bills into law that allowed loaded weapons in some national parks and on Amtrak trains and the destruction of background check documents…”

That our leading politicians shy away from even addressing the issue of gun control for fear of their political survival is shameful and, as Piers Morgan stated correctly on CNN on July 19, “that can’t be right.” However, presumably due to pressure from the media, President Obama has now begun to speak openly about reducing gun crime. Note the next article.

President Obama to Reduce Gun Crime

Deutsche Welle reported on July 26:

“US President Barack Obama has vowed to pursue a cross-party deal on new measures to reduce gun crime across America… Obama pledged late on Wednesday to introduce ‘common sense’ measures to combat gun violence. He vowed to work with both political parties and religious groups to ensure that guns didn’t fall into the hands of criminals. ‘I, like most Americans, believe that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual the right to bear arms,’ he told the National Urban League Convention in New Orleans, referring to part of the US Constitution. ‘But I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals – that they belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities,’ he said…

“It was the first time Obama had commented on gun control since 12 people were shot dead in a midnight showing of the new Batman movie last Friday… Previous attempts to impose gun controls have been met, however, with fierce resistance from the powerful lobbying group the National Rifle Association and many Republican members of Congress. That makes the issue of gun control extremely decisive in an election year and Obama was careful not to make any specific law change proposals.

“On Wednesday his Republican opponent Mitt Romney voiced his opposition to changes to gun legislation. He argued that a tightening of rules wouldn’t have prevented the Colorado shooting. ‘I don’t happen to believe that America needs new gun laws,’ Romney said…”

It is not quite clear what President Obama is contemplating doing, as the Washington Times added on July 25:

“Progressives are pushing Mr. Obama, who campaigned four years ago on a platform of stricter gun control, to speak out on the subject and use the tragedy to impose stricter gun regulations. But the White House has been saying since the shooting last week that Mr. Obama has no plans to seek new gun legislation. The president used the speech to the Urban League to defend his own actions to date on gun control, as much as to call for tougher controls.”

In any event, it is highly unlikely that new gun laws will be passed, as the next article points out.

No Chance for Successful Ban on Assault Weapons

USA Today wrote on July 25, 2012

“Two bills circulating in Congress would ban high-capacity ammunition magazines, such as the 100-round drum used in Friday’s attack. But passage of those bills — or stiffer bans on assault weapons — are not likely in the near future… On Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he would not use the shooting in Aurora, Colo., to push for any new gun laws, blaming the incident on ‘a deranged person’…”

Gun Sales Up

The New York Post wrote on July 25:

“Firearms sales are surging in the wake of the Colorado movie theater massacre as buyers express fears that anti-gun politicians may use the shootings to seek new restrictions on owning weapons.

“In Colorado, the site of Friday’s shooting that killed 12 and injured dozens of others, gun sales jumped in the three days that followed. The state approved background checks for 2,887 people who wanted to purchase a firearm — 25 percent more than the average Friday to Sunday period in 2012 and 43 percent more than the same interval the week prior…

“Day-to-day gun sales frequently fluctuate, but the numbers also look strong outside of Colorado, too. Seattle’s home county, King, saw nearly twice as many requests for concealed pistol licenses than the same timeframe a year ago. Florida recorded 2,386 background checks on Friday, up 14 percent from the week before. Oregon sales on Friday and Saturday were up 11 percent over the month prior. Four days of checks in California were up 10 percent month-to-month…

“Jay Wallace, who owns Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, Ga., found that his sales on Saturday were up 300 percent from the same day a year ago — making it one of the best Saturdays his business has ever had…

“Some Democratic lawmakers in Congress cited the shooting as evidence of the need for tougher gun control laws — particularly a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines. Congress, however, hasn’t passed strict legislation in more than a decade, and leaders in Washington show no sign of bringing up such measures any time soon.”

Americans Unable of Honest Debate on Gun Laws?

BBC wrote on July 20:

“The shooting tragedy in Aurora, Colorado, has reignited the debate over gun rights in America. But, argues Rod Dreher, senior editor at The American Conservative, the arguments on both sides say little, and accomplish even less… America will have a national media fit over gun violence, as we always do, and then carry on as we always have. The pattern never fails… Both sides in the US gun debate are heavily committed to absolutist positions that make little sense.

“The anti-gun side holds to a dogmatic belief that stricter gun control would prevent these kinds of killings. Norway has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world. Those laws did not stop Anders Breivik from killing last summer… People on the pro-gun side, however, tend to carry on like fire-breathing fundamentalists at a tent revival. They meet any proposal to restrict weaponry or ammunition, no matter how sensible, as an attempt to give a toehold to the devil…

“Liberals, for example, often defend grotesque violence in film and hip-hop music, denying that it has anything to do with gun crime, and claiming that tolerating it is the price one pays for First Amendment freedom of expression. Civil libertarians object to stop-and-frisk laws that get illegal weapons off the streets. For their part, conservatives idolise the Second Amendment guarantee of gun rights, but rarely consider what that liberty does to peaceable poor people trapped in inner cities ravaged by armed young thugs…

“Americans seem incapable of honest debate among ourselves about what our permissive gun laws do – and do not – have to do with the chronic bloodletting. If our ideological hardness keeps us from talking straight about gun violence, how can we ever make any real progress on reducing it?”

This article states an interesting point. Unbalanced radical viewpoints on either side will not help in solving the issue—especially when important aspects are being overlooked. Fortunately, the issues of “gun control” and the reasons for love of guns will be swiftly and correctly addressed in the Millennium.

Can We Learn from Australia?

CNN wrote on July 21:

“The shooting was senseless. And it makes us think once again about how we can address the horrific problem of gun violence in America. The first task is conceptual — can we figure out what will work? The second task is political — can plausible solutions be implemented legislatively?

“The conceptual problem is immensely difficult, especially in a society that is already as gun-saturated as America is today. The political problem borders on the impossible. Gun policy in this country is made by the National Rifle Association, and no serious effort at gun control can currently get past its veto. Even when legislation passed during the Clinton years in the form of the Brady bill, requiring background checks at the time of gun purchases, or the assault weapons ban, the NRA succeeded in injecting gaping loopholes into the laws…

“Consider what happened in Australia after a crazed gunman killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996.

“The Australian federal government persuaded all states and territories to implement tough new gun control laws. Under the National Firearms Agreement (NFA), firearms legislation was tightened throughout the country. National registration of guns was imposed and it became illegal to hold certain long guns that might be used in mass shootings. The gun ban was backed up by a mandatory buy-back program that substantially reduced gun possession in Australia. The effect was that both gun suicides and homicides (as well as total suicides and homicides) fell. Importantly, while there were 13 mass shootings in Australia during the period of 1979–96, there have been none in the sixteen years since.

“In 1996, then-Prime Minister John Howard stated that the ‘whole scheme is designed to reduce the number of guns in the community and make Australia a safer place to live.’ Of course, the Australian gun control law in 1997 enjoyed an extremely high level of public support and was not hampered by any domestic gun industry (since Australia did not have any). Such would not be the case in the United States where pro-gun political views and NRA power create a very different climate. In the wake of another tragic massacre of innocent lives, we should look carefully at the Australian experience to see if the American public will ever rise up as one against gun violence.”

Why can’t America do what Australia did? The answer lies in the mentality of most Americans. It would require a change of heart. As General Douglas MacArthur so pointedly put it in his famous speech of 1951:

“The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art, literature, and all material and cultural developments of the past 2000 years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.”

Mitt Romney seemed to have somewhat echoed those sentiments. According to USA Today, he stated on July 25 that “changing the heart of the American people” might be what’s needed to end such violent acts. Also notice the next article.

We Have a Sin Problem

Newsmax wrote on July 22:

“Mike Huckabee, speaking on his Fox News show, said America doesn’t have a gun problem or crime problem but a ‘sin problem’ and that while the Aurora movie massacre was a horrible incident that deserves the media coverage it’s getting, other daily American tragedies such as mass abortion, suicides, and other murders should receive more attention.

“The former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate said… that the shooting ‘is impossible to understand except that we live in a world where there is evil. We simply don’t know why any person would reach deep enough into the forces of darkness to decide to kill innocent people simply watching a movie…’ Huckabee said killing a dozen people in a movie theater gets attention because it doesn’t happen every day ‘but one million innocent and unborn babies die in their mother’s wombs each year by elective abortions and we pay scant attention to that.’…

“‘Ultimately,’ Huckabee concluded, ‘we don’t have a crime problem or a gun problem – or even a violence problem. What we have is a sin problem. And since we ordered God out of our schools and communities, the military and public conversations, you know, we really shouldn’t act so surprised when all hell breaks loose.’”

True to an extent, but not completely. We have a sin problem, BECAUSE we have a crime problem, a gun problem and a violence problem. Crimes, violence and (misuse of) guns constitute sin. That our civilized world has become a terribly violent and therefore sinful place is also discussed in the next article. And, it puts much blame on inconsiderate parents, allowing their children to get more and more engaged in violent environments, being apparently oblivious to the ensuing dangers.

Violence on the Rise

On July 20, The Drudge Report linked to an article of The Telegraph, dated 26 July 2008, dealing with the previous Batman movie, The Dark Knight:

“Our attitude to violence is beyond a joke as [the] new Batman film, The Dark Knight, shows… The new Batman film reaches new levels of brutality, so why are we letting children watch it? Jenny McCartney looks at a society seduced by sadism.

“If I were 10 years old, would I be badgering my parents to take me to see the new Batman film, The Dark Knight? You bet I would… If I were the parent who relented and took a 10-year-old child to see The Dark Knight, would I be sorry? Once again, you bet I would…

“The Dark Knight… has been rated 12A by the British Board of Film Classification, which means that although the BBFC believes it is best suited to children aged 12 and over, any under-12 can see it provided he or she is accompanied by an adult. Cinemas are even holding parent-and-baby screenings…

[In the US, the movie The Dark Knight, as well as the sequel, The Dark Knight rises, received a PG 13 rating for intense sequence of violence and action, among others. Children at any age can watch those movies without being accompanied by an adult. PG-13 means parents are strongly cautioned about letting a child under 13 see the movie. It does not mean that a parent is required to attend the movie with a child if they’re under 13. So a child can go to a PG-13 alone at whatever age a parent may feel comfortable with. Just for reference, in the US, rated R means a parent or guardian is required to attend the movie with a child or teen under 17. NC-17 (aka Rated X) means no one under 17 is admitted, even if they have a parent with them.]

“In 2002, the BBFC took a stand on Spider-Man, a hugely hyped Hollywood release: it decided that it contained unsuitable levels of violence for under-12s, and therefore awarded it a ‘12’ certificate, meaning that under-12s should not be allowed into cinemas to see it. A public storm erupted; children and many parents were furious; and a number of councils announced their intention to defy the ban… Spider-Man now looks like Bambi when set next to The Dark Knight. Even since 2002, the public’s willingness to expose children to previously unthinkable levels of screen violence has soared…

“Britain appears to be gulping down entertainment values wholesale from a Hollywood intent upon mining the profit margin from barbarism. America, for all its manifold strengths, is still a country in which the population can [view] the sight of a bound man being torched to death as all-round family entertainment. Just as notable as the… violence in popular entertainment itself, however, is the rage directed at anyone who dares to question it…

“Is there a link between screen violence and actual violence? Fans of violent films will tell you – frequently in the most aggressive terms – that there is not. Yet we know that children are, to greater and lesser degrees, highly imitative of what they see… And we know that entertainment aimed at young people is becoming markedly more violent. My generation was terrified by the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; the current one is diverted with torture and agonising death…

“The poet WB Yeats once wrote, ‘In dreams begins responsibility’, yet Hollywood will never take responsibility for its most brutal dreams so long as the paying public still flocks to the theatre of cruelty.”

There can really be no reasonable denial of the undisputable fact that a relationship exists between watching violent movies and playing violent video games on the one hand, and becoming, in mind and sometimes in action, more and more violent towards our fellow man. When children grow up with violence, then in far too many cases, they will respond in kind when the opportunity presents itself.

Violence by Returning Soldiers

BBC wrote on July 24:

“One in eight soldiers has attacked someone after coming home from a combat deployment… Soldiers involved in direct combat were twice as likely as others to admit having hit someone at the end of the tour… A third of the victims were someone in the family – often a wife or girlfriend… This month an ex-soldier was jailed for shooting dead his landlady, just months after he had returned from serving in Afghanistan with the Territorial Army.”

An Addendum:
 
The Drudge Report asked on July 20: “What was a 6 Year Old Doing in Midnight Screening?”

A very good question!

Spying on US Citizens—“An Unholy Mess”

The Economist wrote on July 21:

“… in 1967… the court decided that fourth amendment protections extend anywhere a person has ‘a reasonable expectation of privacy’. If police wanted to wiretap a phone, they now needed a warrant, just as they would if they wanted to search a person’s home. But the warrant requirement applies only to the actual conversation, not to the numbers dialled from a phone…

“In 2001 the Patriot Act allowed pen/traps to be served on internet-service providers (ISPs) as well, where they reveal e-mail senders and recipients, the size of each e-mail sent and received, the IP address with which a computer communicates and the sites visited while browsing the web. The standards for getting a pen/trap approved are far lower than for getting a wiretap. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), which was passed in 1986 and remains the main law governing access to electronic communication, requires police only to certify to a court that the information is relevant to an investigation. For a wiretap, police must show both probable cause and that ‘normal investigative procedures have been tried and failed’…

“In 2011 federal and state courts approved a total of 2,732 wiretaps; but government agencies made over 1.3m requests for data to mobile-phone companies. That figure includes wiretaps and pen/traps, but it also includes requests for stored text messages, device locations and tower dumps, which reveal the presence of everyone—suspects and not—within range of a particular mobile-phone tower at a particular time. Most of these requests require no warrants at all. Sometimes all it takes is a subpoena from a prosecutor.

“Internet companies have also seen a sharp rise in requests from law-enforcement agencies for information about their users… Among the things that Google is typically asked for are account information and location data… Web firms say that police tend to grab as much information as they can rather than targeting specific items relevant to a case…

“Among the many expansions of government snooping power contained in the Patriot Act after the attacks of September 11th, 2001, it became far easier for the FBI to issue national-security letters, which compel service providers to turn over vast amounts of data about the recipients of such letters without a court order. The FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Amendments Act allows intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on communications between Americans and people overseas without a probable-cause warrant. FISA investigations require an order from the FISA Court—which meets in secret, and in the 32 years from 1979 to 2011 rejected a grand total of 11 applications. They are subject to no other review…”

Western Military Intervention in Syria?

The Guardian wrote on July 24:

“Western military intervention in the Syrian crisis is ‘looking increasingly likely’ because the conflict is now in danger of provoking violence across the Arab world that could lead to cross-border invasions, a report has warned. The study, by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), finds fears that President Assad’s regime may turn to its stockpile of chemical weapons, or that these devices may be stolen in the chaos of the civil war. It says these concerns have intensified ‘the sense of imminent international conflict that is gripping the region’…

“The study says the stage is now set for a proxy contest, with Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon and Shia forces in Syria and Iraq being pitted against Sunni communities in the same countries, some of them supported by Saudi Arabia. ‘An arc of proxy confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia is likely to follow the fall of the Alawite elite in Syria… We are not moving towards intervention, but intervention is moving towards us. Events of recent days have created a step-change in the situation that will make a hands-off approach increasingly difficult to maintain.’

“The study rules out the likelihood of a full-scale invasion by the west, but suggests more limited action… Military support would then be needed to support any new government and to prevent the desire for retribution against the old order… With Assad’s family losing power and beset by defections in the lower ranks after last week’s assassinations of those in the highest ranks, the study suggests, Iran and Russia may be prepared to ‘attempt a controlled implosion, by working to replace President Assad with a favoured Sunni successor.’”

German Resolution on Circumcision – and Reactions

Der Spiegel wrote on July 20:

“Germany’s parliament approved a resolution on Thursday that called on Berlin to create legislation that would ensure that circumcision of boys remain[s] legal in the country. The move is intended to quiet international outrage over a recent German court ruling that criminalizes the tradition… The resolution is not legally binding…

“German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle of the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP) welcomed the vote, saying it would be difficult for him to defend abroad any incursion into the religious right to circumcision. Günter Krings, a senior member of Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party in parliament, said the vote sent a clear message that Germany would not make life unnecessarily complicated for Jews or Muslims living in the country…

“But not all were pleased by the decision, including the Federation of German Criminal Police (BDK). ‘Our constitution cannot be limited by a simple law, as parliament is currently trying to do in panic,’ BDK chief André Schulz told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung newspaper. ‘The freedom of parents to practice religion will… be limited by a child’s more important right to physical integrity.’

“Meanwhile, a group of child-protective organizations has also issued a petition calling for a two-year delay on any new law on circumcision so that the issue could be debated more intensely by experts. The groups include the BDK as well as Deutsche Kinderhilfe (German Children’s Aid) and the German Association of Physicians in Child and Adolescent Medicine. In the petition, they warn that a working group should be created before taking any legal steps that could permit the ‘serious and irreparable intrusion on the physical integrity of a child’…”

According to an article of Der Spiegel Online, dated July 22 (which only appeared in the German edition of the online publication), many voices have been heard by now warning against a “quick solution.” Prominent doctors and lawyers pleaded not to act too rashly, advocating to focus more on the welfare of the child. They state that the charge that Jewish life becomes impossible when circumcision is prohibited must be countered with the right of the Jewish child.

Also, articles of Jews writing against circumcision are being published (so in Sunday’s Frankfurter Allgemeine, dated July 22), with the obvious attempt to find more arguments for a prohibition. Note the next article.

According to an article of Der Spiegel Online, dated July 22 (which only appeared in the German edition of the online publication), many voices have been heard by now warning against a “quick solution.” Prominent doctors and lawyers pleaded not to act too rashly, advocating to focus more on the welfare of the child. They state that the charge that Jewish life becomes impossible when circumcision is prohibited must be countered with the right of the Jewish child.

Also, articles of Jews writing against circumcision are being published (so in Sunday’s Frankfurter Allgemeine, dated July 22), with the obvious attempt to find more arguments for a prohibition. Note the next article.

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 22:

“A fierce debate over circumcision has been raging in Germany for weeks and has caught Chancellor Merkel’s government off guard. Berlin is now hoping to introduce a law regulating the practice, but it is a delicate issue due to the religious passions involved. It could take years before it is resolved… Children have a fundamental right to physical integrity. A circumcision is no minor operation, with the German Professional Association of Pediatricians calling it a ‘form of bodily injury.’ But the child’s right contrasts with those of parents, which include religious matters — and in this case a ritual that goes back thousands of years and, for Jews and Muslims, is a vital component of their faith.

“Balancing these fundamental rights is complicated. Furthermore, Justice Minister Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger is likewise concerned about the debate shifting in an unpleasant direction. Male circumcision isn’t the only religious practice based on ancient traditions. Polygamy is another such practice, as is the prohibition of blood transfusions among Jehovah’s Witnesses or the compulsory veiling of women in parts of the Islamic world. The question will arise as to why one practice is banned while the other is allowed…

“Rolf Dietrich Herzberg, a criminal law professor in the western city of Bochum, agrees with the Cologne court. He considers the removal of the foreskin for religious reasons to be a ‘violation of the fundamental right to physical integrity [and] a heartless trivialization of what is done to children through circumcision’…

“In other Western countries, the battle over circumcision has been raging for years. Other governments are having just as much trouble as Berlin with the complicated triangular relationship between parents, children and the state. Sweden is the only European country that expressly regulates circumcision. It applies strict requirements and only permits the practice in hospitals… The French, who are especially strict about the separation between church and state, remain pragmatically silent on the issue. In principle, the removal of a boy’s [foreskin] is considered assault, and consent of the parents only justifies the procedures in exceptional cases. But there are no accounts of criminal charges having been brought to date…

“Opponents of circumcision are now looking to Germany, where legal experts will have to find a solution. It will not be an easy operation. To begin with, it’s completely unclear which code of law should apply to the regulation of circumcision. The criminal code would be one option, but the problem with that is that the criminal code is only supposed to regulate criminal acts. Family law, which defines the rights of parents and children, is another option. Justice Minister Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger has pointed out that the law on the religious education of children is also a possibility. A clear, legal solution, as the German Association of Judges demanded on Friday, will be difficult to find.

“The justice minister has appointed a task force of senior legal experts to address the complexities of the issue. The group, which includes the directors of the departments of civil law, criminal law and constitutional law at the Justice Ministry, will spend the summer brooding over how a law could neutralize the Cologne court’s decision. ‘The matter is more complicated than just inserting a simple little sentence somewhere, as some people envision,’ says the minister. ‘After this emotional debate, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the law will come before the Federal Constitutional Court. The judges there will have to determine whether they share the balancing of fundamental rights that we intend to make.’ This could take years.”

As can be seen, this question is not going to be solved any time soon, and in the meantime, as feared, other European countries begin to follow Germany’s lead, as the next articles show.

Circumcision Suspended in Switzerland and Austria

Haaretz wrote on July 23:
  
“Two Swiss hospitals announced last week that they would temporarily stop performing circumcisions. The announcements followed a recent ruling by a German court that the ritual is illegal, which sparked outrage among the Jewish and Muslim communities living in the country.

“On Thursday, the Zurich children’s hospital announced that it was temporarily halting circumcision operations. ‘We are in the process of evaluating the legal and ethical stance in Switzerland,’ said Marco Stuecheli, a spokesman for the hospital. Meanwhile, another children’s hospital, located in the city of St. Gallen in northeastern Switzerland, has also decided to reassess its policy on circumcision.”

The Guardian wrote on July 25:

“A group of Orthodox rabbis warned on Wednesday that the ancient Jewish practice of infant male circumcision could face further restrictions in Europe after some hospitals in Austria and Switzerland suspended the procedure by citing a German court ruling that it could amount to criminal bodily harm.

“Last month’s verdict by a regional court in Cologne… prompted angry protests from Jewish and Muslims groups, especially after the German Medical Association advised doctors not to perform unnecessary circumcisions until the legal situation was clarified…

“On Tuesday, the governor of Vorarlberg province in Austria told state-run hospitals to stop circumcisions except for health reasons until the legal situation was clarified. He said the German decision, which arose from the case of a child whose circumcision led to medical complications, was a ‘precedence-setting judgment.’

“‘Our fears that the court ruling in Cologne could have a knock-on effect across Europe are now being realised,’ said Pinchas Goldschmidt, the president of the Conference of European Rabbis… While Muslims commonly circumcise their sons at a young age, in Judaism the procedure must take place eight days after birth. According to religious law, an uncircumcised male is not considered fully part of the Jewish community, Goldschmidt said. ‘In order to change that, we would have to convene a supreme Jewish religious court, which has not convened for the last 2,000 years,’ he said.”

 

German Catholic Doctor Speaks Out Against Circumcision of Children

On July 26, Der Spiegel published an article by a German doctor, advocating against allowing circumcision of young children:

“Munich’s university hospital… stopped circumcising boys without medical indication back in 2001. Many renowned pediatric hospitals had taken similar steps even before the Cologne Regional Court recently declared religious circumcision of children illegal. The medical community has been debating the issue for almost a decade. It’s only thanks to the judges in Cologne that the matter has been brought to the attention of the public.

“One of the fundamental principles of medical ethics is that no one should be harmed. The oath formulated by Hippocrates (approx. 460-370 BC) and sworn by all doctors includes the following statement: ‘I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.’ Another key idea lies at the heart of all ethical behavior by medical personnel: ‘Primum nihil nocere,’ or ‘First, do no harm,’ a phrase coined by Scribonius Largus, a doctor at the court of the emperor Tiberius Claudius. The treatment of patients must be with their welfare in mind, and must therefore have priority over other interests, such as science, financial gain or profit.

“Medically unnecessary circumcision causes damage because it results in an irreversible loss of healthy bodily tissue… Medically, there is no evidence of advantages for boys. Therefore non-medically indicated circumcision is not in the child’s best interests… Doctors have to weigh potential risks and benefits. There are no medical benefits to circumcision on religious grounds. For this reason it’s all the more significant that it’s a serious surgical procedure fraught with risks and complications… circumcision causes boys undue suffering. This procedure must therefore be rejected from both a medical and an ethical perspective.

“As a devout Catholic, I have great respect for the concerns of religious communities. As a scientist, I feel discredited by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s comments about how the circumcision ruling makes Germany ‘a laughing stock.’ The Cologne Regional Court presented us with an opportunity to work together with the various religious communities to consider the rights of physical inviolability and religious freedom. Some Muslims have already shown a willingness to accept that boys be circumcised only when they are old enough to give their consent…”

As can be seen, the prohibition of circumcision of young boys in Germany and Europe has been and is being carefully planned. And so, this ungodly “debate” will continue, and the danger is steadily increasing that the free exercise of religious minorities will be violated and prohibited. The Bible has prophesied that this will happen more and more in Europe. For further information, please view our StandingWatch program and our sermon on circumcision, as well as our StandingWatch program on religious persecution.

How Close to a New Depression?

CNBC wrote on July 16:

“The risk of a new depression — a sustained, severe recession — has struck fear into the heart of markets and driven monetary policy in developed economies since the current financial crisis began. ‘We’re in a very unfortunate position to be here,’ Richard Duncan, author of The New Depression, warned on CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box Europe’ Monday… ‘[The] explosion of credit created the world we live in, but it now seems that credit cannot expand any further because the private sector is incapable of repaying the debt it has already, and if credit begins to contract, there’s a very real danger that we will collapse into a new Great Depression,’ he argued. ‘If this credit bubble pops, the depression could be so severe that I don’t think our civilization could survive it… You can defer, but not prevent.’”

The Wall Street Journal added on July 17:

“Fed Chairman Bernanke delivered a bleak assessment of the U.S. economy to lawmakers on Tuesday, citing a slowdown in economic activity this year and a stubbornly high rate of unemployment.”

These are frightening warnings—but how many take them to heart?

Executive Order Gives Control of Internet to Homeland Security

Rt.com wrote on July 13:

“The White House has finally responded to criticism over US President Barack Obama’s hushed signing last week of an Executive Order that allows the government to command privately-owned communication systems and acknowledges its implications.

“When President Obama inked his name to the Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions Executive Order on July 6, he authorized the US Department of Homeland Security to take control of the country’s wired and wireless communications — including the Internet — in instances of emergency. The signing was accompanied with little to no acknowledgment outside of the White House, but initial reports on the order quickly caused the public to speak out over what some equated to creating an Oval Office kill switch for the Web.

“Now the Obama administration is addressing those complaints by calling the Executive Order a necessary implement for America’s national security. ‘The [order] recognizes the creation of DHS and provides the Secretary the flexibility to organize the communications systems and functions that reside within the department as [Homeland Security Secretary Janet A. Napolitano] believes will be most effective,’ White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden tells the Washington Post. Hayden insists that ‘The [order] does not transfer authorities between or among departments,’ but the order does indeed allow the DHS to establish and implement control over even the privately owned communication systems in the country, including Internet Service Providers such as Time Warner, Verizon and Comcast, if the administration agrees that it is warranted for security’s sake.

“Immediately after last week’s signing, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) said the order allowed the DHS ‘the authority to seize private facilities when necessary, effectively shutting down or limiting civilian communications.’ Following up with the Post this week, EPIC attorney Amie Stephanovich stands by that initial explanation, agreeing that the DHS can now ‘seize control of telecommunications facilities, including telephone, cellular and wireless networks, in order to prioritize government communications over private ones in an emergency.’…

“According to the order, the DHS can take charge of ‘commercial, government, and privately owned communications resources’ to satisfy what is described as ‘priority communication requirements.’ With little insight from outside the White House, though, what constitutes such an emergency may very well be decided on by Washington, where the country’s elected leaders are still split on all things involving the Internet.”

As we have been reporting in previous Updates as well, do we realize that the USA is becoming a country with less and less individual freedoms and more and more governmental control? Do we really think that this is what the founding fathers had in mind when they were desirous of distancing themselves from British rule? When America celebrates the 4th of July, it should remember that freedom from governmental oppression must be an ongoing endeavor. As Paul said: “Don’t become a slave of men.”

President Obama: Let the State Do It for You!

What has been described as the single-most telling comment by President Obama over the weekend, his approach to the American Way of Life has been met with outright condemnation by small businesses and entrepreneurs, while the left-liberal media is quick and anxious to sugarcoat the President’s ill-advised remarks, which seem, however, to reveal his vision of the USA.

Mail Online reported on July 16:

“America’s leading small business association has slammed Barack Obama for showing ‘an utter lack of understanding’ of the country’s entrepreneurs when he told them: ‘If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.’ In a hard-hitting statement to Mail Online, the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) president Dan Danne said: ‘What a disappointment to hear President Obama’s revealing comments challenging the significance of America’s entrepreneurs… His unfortunate remarks over the weekend show an utter lack of understanding and appreciation for the people who take a huge personal risk and work endless hours to start a business and create jobs.’…

“The inflammatory campaign speech comments underline the extent to which Obama believes that the state rather than ordinary citizens create jobs and wealth. They highlight a key contrast with Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, who is preaching a message of wealth creation by individuals and reinvigorating the private sector.

“Andrea Saul, spokeswoman for Romney, told Fox News that the remarks ‘reflect just how unqualified he is to lead us to a real economic recovery’ and were ‘ insulting to the hardworking entrepreneurs, small-business owners, and job creators who are the backbone of our economy.’”

In an accompanying article, Mail Online wrote:

“As President Obama comes under scrutiny for remarks that he made about entrepreneurs over the weekend, it’s not surprising to many that the president has never served in a leadership level at any private sector job. The president has held a number of jobs since the late 1980s, including editor, writer and professor before getting into politics.

“But questions have been raised about Obama’s lack of business experience as the U.S. struggles with a high joblessness rate and a frail economy. It was a point that Obama’s political foes were quick to exploit in their attacks on Monday. Louisiana Gov Bobby Jindal, appearing alongside Mitt Romney today, said: ‘We have a president who hadn’t run anything before he was in the White House.’ He added: ‘[Obama is the] most liberal and incompetent president since Jimmy Carter. No offense to Jimmy Carter.’”

It is of course correct that whatever abilities we may have and whatever success we might achieve in this life is not to be attributed to ourselves, but to God Almighty who has given us all things to enjoy. But sadly, this is not what President Obama had made reference to.

Mitt Romney’s Unsolvable Bain Problem

While President Obama has been coming under attacks because of his remarks and politics, his challenger Mitt Romney is dealing—or not dealing—with problems of his own. His inconsistent position regarding health care is well-known (advocating it in his state, but rejecting it on a federal level), but another ongoing problem is the controversy regarding his position as CEO in the Bain Capital company, which outsourced jobs to companies overseas, while Mitt Romney is now strongly advocating the opposite policy.

The Washington Post wrote on July 16:

“Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney continues to struggle to get out from under questions regarding just when he departed from his job at Bain Capital. And there’s reason to believe that he won’t be able to solve his Bain problem anytime soon… Politics 101 says that when your campaign is bleeding — and Romney’s camp is bleeding right now — the best way to stop it is to get as many facts out as quickly as possible and then insist that it’s a dead issue and refuse to answer questions on it moving forward.

“That won’t likely work for Romney because of the seeming contradictions about when he left the company — and the exotic nature of his financial life. While most independent fact checkers agree that Romney had no involvement in Bain’s day-to-day operations after 1999, the fact that he was listed on Securities and Exchange Commission documents as chairman and president of Bain creates a fuzziness that allows President Obama’s campaign to continue to hammer away on the issue. That fuzziness was furthered over the weekend by Romney campaign senior adviser Ed Gillespie who said that the former Massachusetts governor had ‘retroactively’ retired in 1999.

“That phrasing might work in the business world but it points to the political problem Romney has with Bain. Regular people who aren’t CEOs don’t retroactively retire after three years in which they are listed as the head — whether titular or not — of a major company. Therefore, trying to explain that while he remained — at least on paper or in name — the chairman and president of Bain to people is no easy task…”

The Washington Times added on July 16:

“Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Monday defended his campaign amidst cries from fellow Republicans that he needs to quit playing defense in his challenge to President Obama after a week in which the topic dominating the headlines was Mr. Romney’s record at Bain Capital and exactly when he left the firm. ‘I think when people have accused you of a crime, you have every reason to go after them pretty hard,’ he said, referring to allegations that he may have committed a felony by stating in Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure forms that he stayed on at Bain as a managing director past 1999, contrary to what he previously claimed. ‘What does it say about a president whose record is so poor that all he can do in his campaign is attack me? … A campaign that’s based on falsehood and dishonesty does not have long legs… if we want to talk about transparency, the real issue is why has this president used his presidential power and executive privilege to keep the information about the “Fast and Furious” program from being explained to the American people?’ he said, referring to the botched gunrunning scheme to Mexico by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives…”

ABC News reported on July 16:

“Last week, Romney demanded in five interviews with the main TV networks that President Obama apologize for his campaign’s implication that Romney broke the law by misstating his role at Bain Capital on documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Obama said he would not be apologizing.

“The chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, revived the accusation on MSNBC today. Democrats have been helped by a Boston Globe report that said Romney was listed as the head of Bain Capital for three years after he had said he left, in 1999. Romney’s maintaining that he had left Bain that year let him escape blame for the outsourcing of jobs that happened at Bain-backed companies after 1999. ‘Either Mitt Romney was lying on SEC forms and misrepresenting to his investors — which could be a felony — that he was the sole owner, president, CEO of Bain Capital from 1999 until almost the end of 2001, or he wasn’t and represented that he was,’ Wasserman Schultz said. ‘It can’t be both. And so if he was sole owner, president, CEO, then he is to be held accountable for the decisions that were made for the outsourcing of jobs that took place during that time.’… The Democratic-aligned Huffington Post also reloaded the Bain gun by publishing a new document that shows Romney was listed as a managing member of Bain in late 2002.

“Romney said in his interviews last week that he had ‘no responsibility whatsoever’ for what happened at Bain after 1999, even if he was ‘the owner of the general partnership’ that managed Bain. Then on Sunday, one of Romney’s advisers, Ed Gillespie, claimed that Romney had stayed at Bain part-time at first, then took a leave of absence, and finally ‘retired retroactively to 1999.’…

“What’s clear is that the Obama campaign is directing the media narrative, and it’s more about taxes and Bain than the economy… Even Romney’s campaign, which would like the news to be focused on the unemployment rate, has spent a good deal of time responding to the attacks… Is that what the public wants to hear about the most? Hard to say…”

The Guardian wrote on July 17:

“With a host of pundits inside and outside the Republican party speculating about Mitt Romney’s handling of his Bain Capital tenure, outsourcing controversy and tax returns, Bloomberg Businessweek’s Joshua Green wonders about ‘Mitt Romney’s Wimp Factor,’ as his article is headlined: ‘The danger for Romney is that voters won’t parse these episodes but will instead conclude, based on their overall impression of his squealing and inability to get results, that Romney is a wimp.

“This is a charge that famously dogged another establishment Republican,’ Green notes – beneath a shot of the famous 1987 Newsweek cover entitled ‘George Bush—fighting the wimp factor’ which is said to have damaged Bush senior’s image – and continues: ‘It’s not clear Romney can do much to prove he wasn’t running Bain between 99 and 02. An article in today’s New York Times notes that 142 documents have surfaced tying Romney to the ownership of the firm during this period…”

And so, the mud-slinging contest of American politics, which both sides label as false, dishonest and destructive, is bound to continue and to get even more dirty in the ensuing months… proving again why true Christians should have absolutely nothing to do with any of it…

Germany’s Harvests in Danger Due to Weather and Mice

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 11:

“Millions of field mice are overrunning the central German states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, much to the concern of local farmers. The rodents are devastating food crops, cutting yields by up to 50 percent. Getting birds of prey to hunt the critters didn’t help, and now farmers want to be allowed to use a banned rat poison… The furry rodents are currently wreaking havoc in the states, which are suffering the worst field mouse plague in over 30 years… Farmers estimate that they may have to write off an average of 10 percent of their crops as a result of mouse damage, and up to 50 percent in extreme cases.”

The Local added on July 15:

“Current harvesting work has been interrupted by the rain recently, while harvests were already expected to have been hit by the spring frosts which damaged many fields. Lower Saxony’s state farmers’ association said it was expecting a ten percent drop in grain harvest this year compared to last, which itself was a disappointing one. ‘With 5.1 million tonnes of harvested grain, that was already an abysmal year,’ said a spokeswoman. Farmers in Brandenburg, Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein said it had been too wet recently to expect a good result.

“And in Thuringia the wet weather was compounded by a mouse plague. ‘Where the weather was not so awful, the mice came,’ said Reinhard Kopp from the Thuringia farmers’ association… Farmers in the more southern states of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland Palatinate and Hesse say their grain suffered badly from the frost, while the spring was too dry…

“There are fears in Bavaria that the dry May could result in a smaller harvest…”

German Court Decision Prohibiting Circumcision Under Further Attack

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 13:

“A controversial German court ruling on circumcision has outraged Muslim and Jewish groups in Germany and abroad. German commentators say the decision was misguided and could have devastating consequences.

“The ruling came nearly two weeks ago, but the reaction is getting increasingly vocal… In addition to Jewish and Muslim groups in Germany, the ruling has also drawn strong condemnation from the state of Israel… In recent days, the ruling has drawn nearly universal criticism in the press. On editorial pages on Friday, most newspapers writing on the topic call for the German government to move to provide clarity for religious groups that their freedoms will be protected.

“Center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘It is understandable when religious leaders protest because they feel their faith and their rituals are being ridiculed… circumcision is an act of recognition: It makes the child the member of a faith and represents entry into a community. Some Christians and atheists may smirk over that, but Christians also don’t have to celebrate the ‘Feast of the Circumcision of Christ’ on Jan. 1 if they don’t want to. … The Cologne court’s ruling was rash and the loud outcry is justified.”

“The regional Saarbrücker Zeitung writes: ‘Under no circumstances can the circumcision ritual … of Judaism be reduced to an inherited, archaic religious law. To an overwhelming majority of secular Jews, it is viewed as much more of a foundation that is indispensable for establishing identity. Viewed in this context, there is no exaggeration in the objection that this legal decision makes Jewish — as well as Muslim — life in Germany impossible. … Another court, presumably (the Federal Constitutional Court) in Karlsruhe, will have to re-weigh the issues. If it affirms the (lower court’s) ban, it would be unique in the entire world. It would do so in the full awareness that it risks triggering an exodus of Jews and Muslims (from Germany). One can’t imagine what the consequences of this would be for Germany.’

“Conservative Die Welt writes: ‘The circumcision of Jewish boys on the eighth day after their birth is a foundation of the Jewish religion. If it is suspended through disregard for freedom of religion, then Jewish life in Germany will no longer be possible. For the first time since the end of the Third Reich, Jews would be forced to leave the country in order to be able to adhere to this mandate of the scriptures. If that happens, it would send out a message with disastrous political consequences. There are also other reasons that legal certainty in the interests of freedom of religion and faith under Article 4 of the German constitution be created. A ban on circumcision, be it Muslim or Jewish, is a manifestation of the increasing intolerance shown towards religious groups in the world… Intolerance can swell like a flood: If you don’t dam it up, it will continue… The Cologne judges…  issued a ruling that is unprecedented in the Western world. It is a shameful farce for Germany.’

“The left-leaning Frankfurter Rundschau writes: ‘The rabbis’ worries are justified. As long as German jurisprudence is concerned with finding a balance between the legally protected right of religious freedom and the right of physical integrity, religious Jews and Muslims will see themselves as confronted by a climate of defamation…’”

The Local wrote on July 14:

“The German government on Friday pledged quick action to protect the right of Jews and Muslims to circumcise baby boys on religious grounds, after a court ruling that prompted international outcry… German diplomats admit that the ruling has proved ‘disastrous’ to the country’s image abroad…

“Legal experts… note that drafting legislation could prove tricky in balancing religious freedom on the one hand against ‘physical integrity’ on the other. Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger noted this week that even with a new law, a federal court would likely have the last word on the issue. The Cologne judges’ ruling is final and cannot be appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court… attorneys say that doctors and parents run the risk of prosecution under the status quo.”

In an article by Der Stern of July 14, the Minister for Health, Daniel Bahr (FDP), questioned in an interview with Die Welt whether legislation could even be passed in such a case.

Deutsche Welle wrote on July 17:

“Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has told her party that it risked becoming a ‘laughing stock’ after a court in Cologne ruled that religious circumcision was a criminal act. ‘I do not want Germany to be the only country in the world in which Jews cannot practice their rites,’ Merkel was quoted as saying this week…

“The regional court ruling came at the end of June, but it’s only now that reactions are coming in from various groups around the world, especially from the US, where male circumcision is more common… The ruling… may mean that families will have to wait until their sons are over the age of consent before they can be circumcised.

“This is something that’s worrying Dr. Aaron Tobian, assistant professor of pathology, medicine and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. ‘There are multiple advantages of neonatal male circumcision compared to adult circumcision,’ Tobian told DW…

“Whilst male circumcision is relatively uncommon in Europe, the practice saw a dramatic increase in North America during the 20th century… Neonatal and childhood male circumcision rates in the US rose to about 80 percent in the 1960s, and remain relatively high today, although they have fallen somewhat in recent years…

“Unsurprisingly, Jewish and Muslim groups have responded angrily to the ruling, saying it poses a threat to religious freedom. Britain’s Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, wrote in the Jerusalem Post earlier this month: ‘It is hard to think of a more appalling decision…’ In the United States, Charles Lane of the Washington Post wrote a blog post on the subject entitled ‘The stink of Cologne’ – in which he took issue with what he called a ‘blatant affront to the Muslim and Jewish peoples’… The European Union, meanwhile, seems reluctant to get involved in the debate. A spokesman for the European Commissioner for Health told DW that this was a ‘national issue.’”

The Local wrote on July 19:

“[A new German] survey published on Thursday shows 45 percent supported a ban on circumcision, in line with a recent court ruling which said the conducting the operation was inflicting bodily harm. But 42 percent said they disagreed, telling pollsters from the YouGov firm they thought the ritual carried out by Muslims and Jews on young boys and babies should be allowed.

“Parliament is set to vote for a resolution on Thursday which would call on the government to lay out a law which would explicitly legalise circumcision. It is expected to be supported by all the major parties… The resolution will call on the government to legalise, ‘a medically professional circumcision of boys without unnecessary pain.’ The legal rights of the child must be considered, as should their physical integrity, but also freedom of religion and the right of parents to raise their children as they see fit. The resolution was adopted on Thursday by the German parliament. The Greens and the Left did not participate in the vote. Even though an overwhelming majority of the major parties—CDU/CSU, SPD and FDP—voted for the resolution, there were numerous abstentions and opposing views in all parties. The resolution has only symbolic value, without any binding legal effect.

“The survey also suggested that 83 percent of Germans feel religions should move with the times and not cling to old traditions at all price. Only nine percent of those asked said they did not think modernisation of religious practices were necessary. Global anger at the Cologne district court’s decision from last month has damaged Germany’s standing in the world, said 33 percent of those questioned, while 55 percent disagreed.”

The positon by the EU Commission regarding lack of protection of religious minorities is highly hypocritical, as the next article shows, which addresses the proclaimed need for protection of sexual minorities.

Gay Rights Legal Criterion for EU Accession

The EUObserver wrote on July 13:

“The European Commission has said in a written note that respect for gay rights is a legal criterion for EU accession.  It cited the 1993 so-called Copenhagen criteria for EU eligibility and article 2 of the EU Treaty, which prohibit discrimination against ‘minorities.’  It also cited articles 10 and 19 of the EU Treaty and article 21 of the European Charter on Fundamental Rights, which explicitly forbid discrimination on grounds of ‘sexual orientation.’ ‘Rights of LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] people thus form an integral part of both the Copenhagen political criteria for accession and the EU legal framework on combatting discrimination. They are closely monitored by the EU commission, which reports annually on the progress made by enlargement countries with regard to the situation of the LGBT community,’ it said.

“The commission note was sent to EUobserver in response to a question born of an interview with an Armenian cleric. Armenia, a deeply Christian country where church teaching has more authority than in many EU states with Christian roots, is keen to become an EU member. Homosexuality is not against the law. But according to a recent study by the Brussels-based rights group Ilga-Europe, it scores better only than Moldova and Russia in terms of legal protection of LGBT people in Europe.

“Armenian law does not prohibit discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity. It does not recognise any form of same-sex partnership and has no provision for legally changing one’s gender, the study says. Its legal edifice is reflected in popular feeling… Three priests came to speak to media, one of whom recalled the Biblical story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah to justify anti-gay views…

“Bishop Hovakim Manukyan, an ecumenical officer at the Armenian catholic church, made no bones about the situation. ‘It’s not in our culture to accept homosexuals. I mean, we don’t reject the person, but we reject the sin and this is our freedom as Armenians. Our culture does not accept this,’ he told EUobserver in a recent interview in Etchmiadzin, the official seat of the Armenian church. He said Armenia upholds basic human rights, but gay rights are a ‘secondary’ issue where difference of opinion should be permitted…

“But for Ulrike Lunacek, an openly lesbian Austrian Green MEP who co-chairs a European Parliament gay rights group, this does not mean countries can choose which values they adopt. ‘Accession of a country will not be possible if certain LGBTI [the I stands for ‘intersex’] rights are not put into law and into practice… ‘Protection of Pride marches has become a recurrent monitoring theme in the commission’s progress reports on enlargement countries,’ she added.”

What a joke. While “gay rights” are to be enforced under the cloak of protection of sexual minorities, religious persecution of minorities is running rampant in the EU and labeled as “national issues.”

French City Petitions for British Crown Jewels

The Christian Post wrote on July 17:

“A French city that once produced generations of English kings has created a petition insisting that the British Crown jewels be given to the city as compensation for ending the Plantagenet line, once heirs to the English throne, in the 15th century. The city of Angers was the capital of the Anjou province and home to the Plantagenets, rulers of England from 1154 until 1485. It was during this time that some of the most famous monarchs ruled, including Richard the Lionheart and Henry V.

“The mayor of Angers will send the signed petition to Queen Elizabeth II, which calls the execution of Edward Plantagenet a ‘state crime’ that brought to an end more than three centuries of rule… Edward Plantagenet, the Earl of Warwick, was executed for treason in the Tower of London in 1499. His death brought the legitimate male line to an abrupt end.

“While there might be a shred of merit to the claims, the French petition disregards the fact that most of the crown jewels came after the date of execution. During the time of Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century there was a serious financial crisis in which many of the royal jewels were sold. The jewels were eventually replaced over the centuries either for a succession of monarchs or created for a specific person. The petition was started in the spring and refers to the people of Angers as ‘moral heirs’ of the Plantagenets. The petition received little attention initially, but since the story has made the rounds on British media officials are hoping that more people will support the cause.”

Will this development cause further antagonism between France and Great Britain?

“Pope: Do Not Preach What the Powerful Wish to Hear”

Zenit wrote on July 16:

“The Pope… spoke of the courage to announce the truth despite being rejected by men, as was seen in the first reading from the prophet Amos, who preached against the abuses of the power of the king. ‘And this remains the mandate of the Church: do not preach what the powerful wish to hear. The criterion of prophets is the truth and justice even if this goes against human applause and human power,’ he said.”

Good advice—and so very true. One could also think of Jeremiah’s preaching, or the challenges of John the Baptist towards Herod.

Terror Attack Against Jews in Bulgaria

Deutsche Welle reported on July 19:

“Wednesday’s bombing of the bus containing Israeli tourists in the Bulgarian coastal town of Burgas, in which at least seven people were killed, should not come as a surprise. There have been several indications in recent months that such an attack would occur. In January, Israeli security forces warned their Bulgarian counterparts of the possibility of Islamist terrorist operations against Israeli tourists…

“Bulgarian Middle East expert Vladimir Chukov suspects the Islamic Hezbollah militia of being behind the attack, and diplomatic sources in Sofia indicate that Bulgarian authorities agree with him… Solomon Passy, former Bulgarian Foreign Minister and national security specialist, is convinced that Bulgaria is now dependent on the support of NATO and the European Union. Bulgaria’s European Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva has also called for intensive cooperation with the EU and Europol to investigate Wednesday’s attack.”

Der Spiegel Online added on July 19:

“Investigators believe that the attackers specifically targeted Israelis traveling abroad, following a pattern similar to several other terror attacks and attempted bombings in previous months. The date of the attack has also aroused suspicion. Wednesday was the 18th anniversary of the attack on a Jewish cultural center in the Argentinean capital of Buenos Aires in which 85 people were killed. Argentina believes that Iran and Hezbollah were behind that assault and has issued an international arrest warrant for Iran’s former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani…

“Intelligence officials in both Israel and abroad believe that recent months have seen an increase in attempts to stage terror attacks targeting Israelis traveling overseas. Evidence indicates that most of those attempts were steered from Iran or from the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah is based.”

Fighting in Syria Escalates

The Associated Press reported on July 17:

“Syrian government forces backed by helicopter gunships battled rebels in heavy clashes in Damascus, a clear escalation in the most serious fighting in the capital since the country’s conflict began last year… The fierce clashes, which have raged over the past three days in at least four neighborhoods across the city, were the latest sign that Syria’s civil war is moving ever closer to the heart of President Bashar Assad’s regime. Government forces already have thrown tanks and armored personnel carriers into the battle in the capital, but the use of air power reflected the intensity and seriousness of the fighting…

“The clashes are the most sustained and widespread in the capital since the start of the uprising against Mr. Assad in March last year and a crackdown that activists say has claimed the lives of more than 17,000 people. In the past, clashes happened at night in the capital. Now, the fighting rages during the day — a sign of the growing strength and boldness of the rebels. That increased fighting has brought bloodshed to the heart of Damascus — and Syria’s largest city, Aleppo…

“As the violence across the country has spiraled out of control, diplomatic efforts to halt the bloodshed have seemingly come to a dead end. Much of the international community has condemned Mr. Assad’s crackdown, but world powers remain deeply divided over who is responsible and how to stop the fighting. The U.S. and many Western nations have called on Mr. Assad to leave power, while Russia, China and Iran have stood by the regime.”

Deutsche Welle added on July 19:

“China and Russia on Thursday vetoed a United Nations’ resolution that would have imposed sanctions against the regime of President Bashar Assad in Syria.

“Both German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and British Prime Minister David Cameron had called on Russia to abandon its opposition to sanctions at the UN Security Council… The veto comes as the Syrian capital, Damascus, is seeing ongoing bloody clashes between government forces and rebels calling for the ouster of President Bashar Assad.

“The situation was exacerbated by a rebel bomb attack on Wednesday that killed three top Syrian officials, including Defense Minister General Daoud Rajha and Assef Shawkat, President Assad’s brother-in-law. General Hassan Turkmani, the head of the crisis cell, also died in the attack.”

That the big villains and violators of individual freedoms, Russia, China and Iran, are supporting Bashad Assad is no surprise. The sad part is, they are indirectly supported by the inconsistent position of the USA due to political and highly hypocritical considerations, as the next article shows.

USA Won’t Help Syrian Rebels for Now

The Telegraph wrote on July 16:

“Despite mounting fury from the Syrian rebels, who are seeking assistance for their efforts to overthrow the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, the White House has refused all requests for heavy weapons and intelligence support. Syrian lobby groups in Washington, who only a few weeks ago were expressing hope that the Obama administration might give a green light to the supply of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, said they had now been forced to ‘take a reality pill’ by the US government…

“The Obama administration has also made clear to its allies that it will not intervene…The American position means there is little hope of any swift resolution to the Syrian crisis, with the stage set instead for a protracted civil war. Russia repeated yesterday that it was ‘unrealistic’ of the West to expect the country to convince Mr Assad to step down…

“Abdulbaset Sieda, chairman of the official Syrian National Council… called on the US not to abandon the rebels for the sake of domestic political calculations… ‘We want for America and the Western countries to carry out their responsibilities,’ he said. ‘With regard to America, specifically, we would like to say to President Obama that waiting for election day to make the right decision on Syria is unacceptable for the Syrians. We cannot understand that a superpower ignores the killing of tens of thousands of Syrian civilians because of an election campaign that a president may win or lose…’

“Jonathan Schanzer, vice president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think-tank in Washington… said division among Republicans had also helped to give the Obama administration a ‘free pass’ politically. ‘The Right is split between those who say the US has a moral imperative to intervene and those who say Syria is an enemy of the US and there is no national interest in intervening. The result is that no one [wants] to touch this. The reality is that the US appears to have no coherent foreign policy since the Arab Spring. It is not clear why we helped topple Gaddafi and we let Mubarak fall but we let Assad stay in power.”

We are not commenting on the advisability of direct US involvement in the matter. We are opposed to human violence in any manner, shape or form. But we are quoting the article above to show American inconsistencies in the dealings with the “Arab Spring” movement, which reveal mere egoistic motives and the desire for political advantage. God is most certainly not pleased by such objectionable strategies.

New Dictatorial Measures in Putin’s Russia

The Los Angeles Times wrote on July 14:

“Russian lawmakers this week passed three measures to increase government control over the Internet, media and foreign-funded activist groups, despite widespread protests from Web professionals, journalists and human rights advocates.

“A bill that criminalizes libel and imposes fines of up to $153,400 on violators, and a measure that requires nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, that receive foreign funding to register as ‘foreign agents,’ were approved by the lower house of the parliament Friday, the last day of the legislative session. On Wednesday, the lower house unanimously approved a bill that provides for a federal registry of websites that could face being shut down for carrying prohibited material. The bills are the latest in what is seen as an attempt to crack down on resistance to the rule of President Vladimir Putin, dissent that became more pronounced with mass opposition rallies in December, when Putin was still prime minister. The measures must still be approved by the upper house and signed by Putin, who in May began his third presidential term, but both moves are expected by the end of the month…

“The bills follow other government moves to encumber its critics. A recently adopted law sharply increased fines for organizers of unsanctioned rallies and participants. A bill initiated by the ruling United Russia party this week and under consideration in the lower house would crack down on independent volunteers. It would require contracts and official approval for any donated resources or labor to any cause or event… Devastating floods last weekend in southern Russia brought an unprecedented number of volunteers to the region, which only highlighted the failures of the government amid popular mistrust.”

Russia is bound to become again a dictatorship, and it will clash with Europe. Ultimately, two dictatorial power blocs (a United States of Europe under Germany and a United Confederation of Asian countries under Russia and China) will be engaged in a terrible and all-encompassing world war, which will be fought with nuclear and biological weapons.

Will 2012 Become a Historic Disaster?

Time magazine wrote on July 5:

“Triple-digit days. Weeks with little to no rain. Soil crumbling away. Stunted corn stalks. Right now the fertile fields of the U.S. Midwest are experiencing corn-killing weather, with parts of five corn-growing states in the region experiencing severe or extreme drought. In at least nine states, one-fifth to one-half of cornfields are currently in poor or very poor conditions. And all of this comes after earlier expectations that corn farmers were going to produce a bumper crop this season, with 40 million hectares planted — the largest corn area in 75 years…

“So terrible is the weather in the heartland that farmers have begun to compare it to the drought of 1988, which wiped out millions of hectares of corn and caused $78 billion in crop damage, or even worse, the great Dust Bowl era of the 1930s. Already, stockpiles of corn have fallen by 48% from March to June, the biggest drop since 1996 — and that was before the drought and the brutally hot weather began in earnest. The percentage of the corn crop with top-quality ratings was 48% as of July 1, compared with 69% a year ago. Whether 2012 goes down as just an off year for corn crops or a truly historic disaster will depend on the next couple of weeks…”

The Guardian added on July 10:

“The worst drought to hit the United States in nearly 25 years is threatening to drive up food prices around the world.

“The price of corn, the staple crop of much of the midwest and the prairies, has risen by a third in the past month and rose again on Wednesday after a US government report said farmers would not yield as much from their parched fields as expected. Higher prices are likely to be passed on in the cost of hamburgers and steak and also affect a range of other foods such as corn flakes and bread.

“Almost a third of America’s corn crop is already showing signs of damage and a report released by the US Department of Agriculture on Wednesday forecast that farmers would only reap a fraction of the corn expected last spring when they planted 96.4m acres (39m hectares) – the most since 1937.”

Terrible Weather Conditions in Continental USA

Reuters reported on July 9:

“Scorching temperatures in June’s second half helped the continental United States break its record for the hottest first six months in a calendar year… The last 12 months also have been the warmest since modern record-keeping began in 1895… The recent blistering heat wave broke records across much of the United States, threatening the Midwest’s corn crop and helping to fan destructive wildfires…

“This past month was also the 10th driest June, with drought spreading to 56 percent of the contiguous U.S. states, up from 37.4 percent in May, making it the largest drought footprint of the 21st century… Wildfires claimed 1.3 million acres, mostly in the West, the second-largest area to be charred during any June on record.

“But it wasn’t all dry. Tropical Storm Debby dumped so much rain during its slow pass across Florida that the state’s monthly statewide precipitation total for the month was 13.16 inches, or 6.17 inches above average, making it Florida’s wettest June on record. Maine, Oregon and Washington state each had a top-10 wet June.”

Terrible Weather Conditions in Great Britain

The Daily Mail wrote on July 7:

“Torrential downpours battered the South West of England today causing life-threatening floods as ‘colossal’ levels of summer rain continued… After more than two inches of rain fell in just 18 hours in Devon, the Environment Agency put parts of the Rivers Yealm, Axe and Burton on the highest grade flood warning, meaning they pose a ‘danger to life’… A total of around 75 flood warnings and 150 flood alerts were issued across England and Wales… Many parts of the country received more than half the average rainfall for July in just one day…”

On July 9, The Daily Mail stated about Great Britain:

“… the country endured another sodden week, following the wettest spring and early summer period since records began…”

The Last Days of Britain

The Daily Mail wrote on July 6:

“The face of the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, has been slapped on the front of a U.S. magazine with a set of yellow, decaying teeth. The Royal was PhotoShopped like the American stereotype of a Brit with bad gnashers for a special issue of the politics and arts publication The New Republic about the future of Britain… The 30-year-old… appears in front of a tattered Union Jack alongside the words, ‘Something’s Rotten. The Last Days of Britain.’… Last year the pearly white Duchess spent thousands of pounds having her teeth polished and turned to give her the perfect smile…”

One can dispute the American “humor,” making the Duchess a target, but the perception that Britain has entered its last days is quite remarkable in light of biblical prophecy.

Terrible Weather Conditions in Russia

In an article on Russia, The Daily Mail wrote on July 7:

“At least 99 people have been killed in floods and landslides in southern Russia today after two months’ average rainfall fell in a few hours overnight. Most of the victims died in or around Krymsk, a town about 190 miles northwest of Sochi, the Black Sea resort where Russia will host the 2014 Winter Olympics…

“Some of the victims were electrocuted while others were swept into the sea. Many of the dead were elderly people who had been sleeping and drowned. Others survived by climbing on to rooftops after the torrential rain hit thousands of homes, flooded railways and roads, and halted oil shipments from the port of Novorossiisk.”

Animals Responsible for 2.2 Million Human Deaths a Year

Reuters reported on July 5:

“A global study mapping human diseases that come from animals like tuberculosis, AIDS, bird flu or Rift Valley fever has found that just 13 such diseases are responsible for 2.4 billion cases of human illness and 2.2 million deaths a year… The vast majority of infections and deaths from so-called zoonotic diseases are in poor or middle-income countries, but ‘hotspots’ are also cropping up in the United States and Europe where diseases are newly infecting humans, becoming particularly virulent, or are developing drug resistance.”

The Bible says that many people will die because of, among other factors, the wild beasts of the earth.

“Florida Closes Only Tuberculosis Hospital Amid Worst US Outbreak in 20 Years”

The Guardian wrote on July 9:

“Health officials in Florida hastened their closure of the nation’s only dedicated tuberculosis hospital on cost-cutting grounds as one of the worst outbreaks of the deadly disease in 20 years was taking a grip on the state, it has been revealed. At least 3,000 people in Jacksonville may have been exposed to the highly contagious respiratory illness that claimed 13 lives in the city and left another 100 sick in the last two years… patients once deemed too sick for contact with the public were released into the community and others newly diagnosed with the disease, mostly from the homeless population, are being put up in local motels in an effort to keep them on their medications… The CDC confirmed it was one of the worst outbreaks of TB anywhere in the United States for at least two decades.”

No Return to Deutschmark—Political Union Needed

The Local wrote on July 7:

“’A return to the Deutschmark would be irresponsible,’ Allianz CEO Michael Diekmann told the newspaper Welt am Sonntag. ‘Therefore we should stop toying with the idea.’ Diekmann said his company has made economic calculations for what would happen if Germany were to give up the euro, and that the result would be a deep depression in which a quarter of the gross domestic product (GDP) would be lost within four to five years.

“As a way out of the euro crisis, the head of the Munich-based insurer called for a stronger political union ‘that will only work with more shared responsibility and financing.’ He said limits need to be established on how one country helps another in the eurozone. ‘Whoever helps another country must also have the possibility of control,’ he told the paper.”

As this and the next article show, Germany will never give up the euro.

Merkel Extremely Popular in Germany In Spite of Criticism

The Independent wrote on July 7:

“Despite angry domestic criticism of her efforts to resolve the euro crisis, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s popularity among German voters has reached its highest point since 2009, according to the results of an opinion poll broadcast yesterday by the ARD television channel. According to the poll, 66 per cent of the electorate were satisfied with the performance of their country’s first woman leader, and some 58 per cent said they agreed with the view that Ms Merkel had acted ‘properly and decisively over the euro crisis’…

“On her return from last week’s eurozone summit, where she was widely perceived as having given in to demands from Italy and Spain to approve bailout funding to be used directly to rescue ailing banks, Ms Merkel was accused by many of her domestic critics of making a policy U-turn.

“Yesterday, 170 leading German economists, headed by Hans-Werner Sinn, the eurosceptic head of the Munich-based Ifo economic research institute, stepped up the criticism by publishing an appeal for citizens to rise up and oppose Ms Merkel’s plans to rescue the single currency. The appeal singled out plans for a banking union announced at the Brussels summit and called on Germans to ‘warn’ politicians of the dangers of such a project. ‘Countries like Germany could be saddled with ever-increasing risks through heavily indebted countries,’ it argued.

“Wolfgang Schäuble, the finance minister, responded to the economists’ criticism yesterday by accusing them of confusing the public. ‘I find this outrageous,’ he said… In what threatened to become a ‘battle of the economists’, seven other leading financial experts announced their support yesterday for Ms Merkel’s euro policies, in a joint statement headlined: ‘No horror scenarios’. They accused Mr Sinn’s economists of failing to support their arguments with facts.

“Despite Ms Merkel’s renewed popularity, yesterday’s poll result suggested that her ruling coalition of conservative Christian Democrats and liberal Free Democrats would lose next year’s general election, meaning that to stay in power Ms Merkel would have to form a second grand coalition with the opposition Social Democrats.”

This will remain to be seen. In any event, Frau Merkel’s rise in popularity is quite remarkable.

50 Years of French-German Friendship

The Local wrote on July 9:

“French President Francois Hollande [said to German Chancellor Angela Merkel:] ‘No dark force and even less stupidity can alter the deep Franco-German friendship… Our friendship inspires Europe… We don’t want to preach. We just want to give examples to be followed… Madam Chancellor, I propose from our side to open and even cross a new door together that will lead to even closer friendship between our two nations’…

“Merkel’s message was more direct. ‘Europe is more than just a currency, and the Franco-German relationship is vital in this regard, it has deeply marked European unification,’ she said. At the same time she stressed that others were welcome to join in, echoing Hollande who is seeking closer ties with Italy and Spain. ‘We must now put finishing touches on a political level of the economic and monetary union, it’s a Herculean task but Europe is up to it,’ she said, ending her speech with ‘Long live Franco-German friendship’ in both languages.”

Germany Under Pressure Over Abominable Court Decision on Circumcision

The Local wrote on July 6:

“Germany is coming under increasing pressure over the court decision that ruled circumcision was bodily harm and thus a crime – with the Wiesenthal Centre quoting Hitler, and a Muslim group saying it was a blow against integration. The Los-Angeles-based Jewish group called on German lawmakers to provide legal safety for the practice, saying it would be ‘a stain on today’s Germany’ to let the court ruling stand.

“Criminalising circumcision was ‘an attack on one of the fundamental principles of Judaism,’ wrote Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, founder and dean and associate dean of the Centre in a letter to Merkel. ‘For 3,500 years, every male child has entered the Jewish people through the rite of circumcision. We are not talking about a mere custom, but a biblical principle that has defined the Jewish people from time immemorial.’ They noted that Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler said ‘in one of his infamous anti-Semitic rants’ that ‘conscience is a Jewish invention, it is a blemish like circumcision.’…

“The ruling marked a ‘big blow against integration,’ a spokesman for the Coordinating Council of Muslims in Germany, one of some 20 groups representing most of Germany’s around four million Muslims, said on Wednesday. German Muslim leaders urged lawmakers Wednesday to pass legislation protecting the right to circumcise boys after a court ruling against the practice when carried out on religious grounds…

“The Muslim groups are in contact with Jewish and Christian leaders on the issue and discussing how to bring pressure to bear on the political class…  After the ruling touched off a storm of international protest, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle insisted the country would continue to protect religious freedom and rites including circumcision. However several doctors and hospitals have said they would suspend the practice as long as its legal standing is unclear.”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 9:

“An Israeli parliamentary committee Monday denounced a recent German regional court decision making circumcision a crime while the ruling also provoked the Conference of European Rabbis to call for an emergency meeting in Berlin to discuss the issue. Both groups agree that ritual circumcision of Jewish boys when they are eight days old is a fundamental part of being Jewish.

“Israeli politician and committee member Danny Danon noted that Germany last banned circumcision in the country’s ‘darkest hour,’ referring to the Nazi years and the persecution of the Jews. The Associated Press reported that Danon said Israel would not tolerate restrictions on the practice of Judaism anywhere in the world, ‘and certainly not in Germany.’

“The Israeli committee’s denouncement of the decision, announced last month by a court in Cologne, was made after committee members met with Andreas Michaelis, Germany’s ambassador to Israel…

“Muslims, Jews, Catholics and Protestants alike have cricitized the ruling. The Coordinating Council of Muslims in Germany called the ruling a ‘massive intrusion on religious freedom and on parents’ rights.’ Meanwhile, the Central Council of Jews in Germany warned the ruling ‘would make Jewish life in Germany practically impossible.’ The Torah explicitly states that all Jewish boys should be circumcised by the eighth day after their birth.

“It is estimated that at least 15 percent of German men are circumcised, with around 50,000 circumcisions performed each year… In the United States, around 70 percent of all men are circumcised.”

Deutsche Welle wrote on July 11:

“European Orthodox rabbis have protested a German court’s ban on circumcision for religious reasons. The Jewish leaders say it’s yet another example of the marginalization of minorities… It’s a ‘highly problematic’ ruling for Jewish communities in Germany, Pinchas Goldschmidt , the president of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), told DW. He said he hoped the government in Berlin would quickly arrange for legal clarification.

“Goldschmidt said he is just as shocked by opinion polls that show a majority of Germans welcome the Cologne court’s ruling. This is about the ‘basics of a liberal democracy, about the absolute recognition of the religious freedom of minorities,’ he said… Goldschmidt also pointed out a rising tendency toward intolerance of religious minorities in Europe. As example, he cited a recent Swiss ban on building new minarets on mosques, a French ban on women wearing Islamic veils in public and a debate in the Netherlands about kosher meat prepared by Jewish butchers.”

BBC News added on July 12:

“European Jewish and Muslim groups have joined forces to defend circumcision for young boys on religious grounds after a German regional court ruled it amounted to bodily harm. A joint statement says the practice is fundamental to their faiths and calls for it to be awarded legal protection… Germany’s Medical Association told doctors not to perform circumcisions…

“The unusual joint statement was signed by leaders of groups including the Rabbinical Centre of Europe, the European Jewish Parliament, the European Jewish Association, Germany’s Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs and the Islamic Centre Brussels… The leaders also met members of the European parliament and the Bundestag to express their anger and insist that the German parliament establish clear legal protections for the rite. The BBC’s Stephen Evans in Berlin says the German government is clearly uneasy about the ruling, particularly after accusations that it was inappropriate for the country of the Holocaust to outlaw a fundamental ritual of Judaism.”

Haaretz wrote on July 12:

“Europe’s main Orthodox rabbinical body is urging Jews in Germany to uphold the commandment to circumcise newborn sons, despite a court ruling in Germany that said circumcising young boys [is] considered a criminal act. Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, said his organization is ready to back Jews in challenging the May ruling by a Cologne district court, which Jewish groups see as symptomatic of a trend across Europe against some Jewish rituals. Goldschmidt said some lawmakers intending to curb Muslim practices unwittingly outlaw Jewish traditions as well… Two Berlin hospitals that routinely perform the surgery, mostly for Muslim families but also for Jewish ones, have temporarily stopped the practice…

“Virtually all Jewish denominations have roundly condemned the Cologne ruling, though they may differ on other religious practices… Circumcision is one tradition that unites secular and religious Jews, Goldschmidt noted. He added that current challenges to the practice of circumcision and kosher slaughter in Europe stem from the notion that Muslims have similar practices but with less rigorous training than Jews. Lawmakers are reacting, for example, to botched circumcisions performed by poorly trained practitioners, he suggested, adding that such problems are extremely rare among mohels, or Jewish ritual circumcisers. Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 12:

“An influential group of European rabbis on Thursday used unusually strong language to attack a German court ruling against the circumcision of boys. If the ruling is allowed to stand, the group’s president warned, ‘then I don’t see a future for Jews in Germany.’ Calling it the ‘worst attack on Jewish life since the Holocaust,’ the Conference of European Rabbis on Thursday strongly condemned a recent German court decision that criminalizes the circumcision of boys. ‘A ban on circumcision poses an existential question for the Jewish community in Germany,’ the president of the organization, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, said on Thursday…

“He said the ban on shechita, the ritual slaughter of mammals and birds according to Jewish dietary laws, by the National Socialists had also been a sign for many Jews that ‘we need to leave Germany.’ But he added that a ban on circumcision, given the importance of the tradition, would send a much stronger message…”

In addition, according to the President of the Central Council of Jews, Dieter Graumann, in Germany’s “Tagesthemen,” one fourth of all young males are being circumcised worldwide, and for many generations, the successors on the British throne are being circumcised as well by Jewish circumcisers. This last statement is quite interesting, giving additional credence to the fact that British kings have been sitting on the Jewish throne of David.

Shame on the German court in Cologne and on the majority of Germans who have actually supported this abominable court decision, which was rendered by a professional judge and two appointed “jurors”—speaking volumes about jury duty systems. Shame also on the many German- and English-speaking listeners to our AufPostenStehen and StandingWatch programs on circumcision who voiced their disagreement with our programs which condemn the unbiblical and intolerable court decision.

The statement of Herr Westerwelle is ridiculous in light of the legal finality of the court decision which clearly serves as a precedence for other courts. As can be seen in other examples as well, Germany is steadily moving towards more and more intolerance and even persecution of religious minorities. It will have to be seen whether this trend can be (at least temporarily) stopped or reversed. On the other hand, incredible Muslim behavior in the Western world is not going to find too much understanding and approval, as the next article shows.

Muslim Values Not Popular

Breitbart wrote on July 10:

“A feminist journalist from England, Cinnamon Heathcote-Drury… got her world turned upside down over the last few months, and the liberalism of her own self-defeating British culture is what did her in…

“So, imagine the scene. A British, feminist journalist sees a woman in a hijab loading a large number of groceries onto the store conveyor belt at check out. She begins fuming with feminist ire because this Muslim woman’s husband stands idly by doing nothing to help the overworked woman load the groceries. The journo can take it no more and just has to say something. She brusquely confronts the man telling him that his wife needs help loading the merchandise. She pushes past the man and starts helping the hijab-clad woman herself…

“As it happened, neither the Muslim man nor his wife much appreciated the ‘social lesson’ the journalist thought to teach them. And, as so many Muslims in Britain do, they proceeded to play the Brit’s liberalism against them. The couple cried racism and had the journalist arrested for a ‘hate crime.’…

“We must realize, of course, that this Muslim man’s indifference to his wife’s toils is typical in many Muslim cultures. The groceries would be ‘women’s work,’ after all. Women are often second-class citizens. And in the male-dominated Muslim world, women do all the work for the home and children. Everything…

“In the end, this journalist was lucky. Her court system returned a not guilty verdict for her. She was let off the hook. But the next pushy journalist — or other citizen — might not be so lucky. The next one may be thrown in jail because of liberalism gone wild…”

Barack Obama—Now In Trouble over “Fraudulent Social Security Number”?

On July 6, The Drudge Report linked the following article by WorldNetDaily, dated July 4:

“If Barack Obama has an immediate eligibility problem, it is more likely to derive from the Social Security Number he has been using for the last 35 years than from his birth certificate. Ohio private investigator Susan Daniels has seen to that. On Monday, July 2, she filed suit in Geauga County (Ohio) Common Pleas Court demanding that Jon Husted, Ohio secretary of state, remove Obama’s name from the ballot until Obama can prove the validity of his Social Security Number.

“Daniels, who has vetted thousands of Social Security Numbers for numerous other clients, has done her homework. In her filing, she thoroughly documents her contention ‘that Barack Obama has repeatedly, consistently, and with intent misrepresented himself by using a fraudulently obtained Social Security Number.’ To acquire appropriate standing in court, Daniels has gone to the trouble of establishing herself as a valid write-in candidate for president. Before she is through, this 70-something mother of seven, who has been a licensed Ohio PI since 1995, may cause Obama more trouble than the Romney campaign.

“Daniels started her investigation in August 2009. Given her profession, she has been able to access a variety of proprietary databases. What she learned without much trouble is that Obama has been using a Social Security Number with the prefix ‘042’ since 1986. As she discovered, the ‘042’ number is reserved for the exclusive use of individuals who register in Connecticut… she came to the firm conviction that Obama’s number was issued in March 1977 in Connecticut. By all accounts, as Daniels thoroughly documents, Obama was then a 15-year-old living in Hawaii. There is no record of him even visiting Connecticut in or near this time frame.

“To have gotten a Social Security card at this time Obama would have had to show up for a ‘mandatory in-person interview.’ This could not have taken place in Connecticut. Obama’s sister, Maya, by contrast, uses a number appropriate for a Hawaiian resident. Daniels checked other databases as well to validate her findings, including the Massachusetts Department of Motor Vehicles and the IRS. Yes, Obama used the 042 number to get a driver’s license when at Harvard and as recently as on his 2009 income tax return…

“The ample evidence Daniels gathered led her to believe that the 042 number Obama has been using ‘had previously been issued to another person,’ one who lived in Connecticut between 1977 and 1979 and who was born in 1890. This assertion can be verified. By law, the Social Security Administration will have kept on microfilm a copy of the original SS-5 application attached to a particular Social Security Number. Daniels, however, does not have access to that microfilm. For this reason, Daniels has filed suit…

“Daniels asks the court, among other things, to issue an injunction against Obama’s name appearing on ballot until it is determined that he is using a proper Social Security Number. Given the response of courts elsewhere, it is unlikely that Daniels will find satisfaction in Geauga County or from the Republican secretary of state… The major media, of course, will not bother to look…”

There are many cases pending in front of numerous courts, questioning the eligibility of Mr. Obama as President for several reasons. So far, to our knowledge, no case has been decided on the merits.

Obamacare Could Come Home to Roost for Most Taxpayers in 2014

The Associated Press wrote on July 7:

“The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold most of President Barack Obama’s health care law will come home to roost for most taxpayers in about 2 1/2 years, when they’ll have to start providing proof on their tax returns that they have health insurance. That scenario puts the Internal Revenue Service at the center of the debate, renewing questions about whether the agency is capable of policing the health care decisions of millions of people in the United States while also collecting the taxes needed to run the federal government.

“Under the law, the IRS will provide tax breaks and incentives to help pay for health insurance and impose penalties on some people who don’t buy coverage and on some businesses that don’t offer it to employees. The changes will require new regulations, forms and publications, new computer programs and a big new outreach program to explain it all to taxpayers and tax professionals. Businesses that don’t claim an exemption will have to prove they offer health insurance to employees. The health care law ‘includes the largest set of tax law changes in more than 20 years,’ according to the Treasury inspector general who oversees the IRS. The agency will have to hire thousands of workers to manage it, requiring significant budget increases that already are being targeted by congressional Republicans determined to dismantle the president’s signature initiative…

“The Supreme Court, in its 5-4 ruling, upheld the mandate that most Americans get health insurance. The majority said Congress has the power to enforce the mandate under its taxing authority. The decision labeled the penalties a tax, noting that they will be collected by the IRS. Those who don’t get qualified health insurance will be required to pay the penalty – or tax – starting for the 2014 tax year, unless they are exempt because of low income, religious beliefs, or because they are members of American Indian tribes. The penalty will be fully phased in by 2016, when it will be $695 for each uninsured adult or 2.5 percent of family income, whichever is greater, up to $12,500…

“The law, however, severely limits the ability of the IRS to collect the penalties. There are no civil or criminal penalties for refusing to pay it and the IRS cannot seize bank accounts or dock wages to collect it. No interest accumulates for unpaid penalties. So how can the IRS enforce the mandate? Scary letters and threats to withhold tax refunds…”

Obamacare’s catastrophic and troublesome consequences for the American public and economy have not even hit yet the conscious minds of many indifferent Americans. And as the next article shows as well, the powers usurped by the US government and its institutions are truly frightening.

Big Brother in Big Operation

MSNBC wrote on July 7:

“Does the U.S. government read your email? It’s a simple question, but apparently there’s no simple answer. And the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service are reluctant to say anything on the topic.

“In March, the American Civil Liberties Union caused a nationwide stir when the advocacy group released the results of its year-long investigation into law enforcement use of cellphone tracking data. After issuing hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests, the ACLU learned that many local police departments around the country routinely pay mobile phone network operators a small fee to get detailed records of historic cell phone location information… In most cases, law enforcement obtains the data without applying for a search warrant; generally, subpoenas are issued instead, which require law enforcement to meet a lower legal standard…

“In a landmark 2010 case, United States v. Warshak, government investigators acknowledged that they read 27,000 emails without obtaining a search warrant, violating both the suspect’s privacy and the privacy of everyone who communicated with the suspect… Evidence obtained during that email search was thrown out on appeal by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but that ruling applies only to four U.S. states…

“The Justice Department and the Obama administration had a chance to settle the issue in April 2011, during a Senate hearing on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Instead, officials with both the Commerce and Justice departments failed to provide any clarity. Instead, a Justice Department official argued against extending Fourth Amendment protections — specifically strict warrant requirements — to email, saying that doing so would hinder investigations…”

These are troubling developments, but most Americans don’t seem to know or to care. They are like the proverbial ostrich, placing its head in the sand, or the frog that is being boiled in hot water.

Egypt’s Morsi in Confrontation with Military

Deutsche Welle wrote on July 9:

“Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s decision to reinstate parliament after its dissolution by the country’s highest court could be the beginning of a face-off with the military, which backed the ruling, observers say… Local newspaper Al-Akhbar, summed up Morsi’s decision to defy the ruling military council, led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi as an ‘early confrontation.’ Since Mubarak’s ouster in February 2011, the military council has run the country. Seeking to trim Morsi’s authority they dissolved parliament, as well as giving themselves full legislative powers, before swearing him in as Egypt’s first freely elected president on June 30. Morsi’s decree late Sunday to reinstate parliament gives those powers to his party, the Muslim Brotherhood, who share a two-third majority in the house along with other Islamists… Non-Islamist political forces in Egypt have reacted angrily to Morsi’s decision, especially leftists and liberals who fear the Brotherhood is aiming to establish an Islamic state where human rights will be undermined.”

The Telegraph reported the following on July 9:

“Egypt is braced for a major confrontation between the country’s Islamist president and military after the generals vowed to uphold a Constitutional Court ruling disbanding parliament.”

UN Asks Iran for Help and Becomes a Laughing Stock

Newsmax reported on July 10:

“The United Nations has turned to Iran to help negotiate a global arms treaty in a move that is drawing scorn and ridicule around the globe. The appointment was made by members of the U.N. Conference of the Arms Trade Treaty in New York last week. The committee to which Iran was appointed is tasked with coming up with a treaty regulating the international trade of conventional arms…

“The 15-nation committee, which is meeting this month, is led by Argentina, which serves as president, and includes the United States, Iran, China, and Russia, nations that serve as vice presidents… The Iranian media wasted no time in touting the appointment, noting that Iran ‘has been elected as deputy for the talks.’ According to The Times of Israel, The Islamic Republic News Agency reported that ‘some 193 participating countries unanimously voted in favor of Iran during the fourth day of the meeting under way in the United Nations headquarters, to draft a bill on regulating arms trade in the world.’”

How could any kind of true success be achieved with these kinds of organizations?

Syria and the Arab Sunni Versus Persian Shiite Struggle

Stratfor.com wrote on July 10:

“… this is a useful moment to step back and think seriously about the regional implications should [Shiite] Syria return to Sunni hands…

“Let’s first recall why Syria is up for grabs. Human rights interests alone do not come close to explaining why this particular uprising has received a substantial amount of attention and foreign backing over the past year. The past decade enabled Iran to wrest Baghdad out of Sunni hands and bring Mesopotamia under Shiite control. There is little question now that Iraq, as fractured as it is, sits in the Iranian sphere of influence while Iraqi Sunnis have been pushed to the margins. Iran’s gains in Baghdad shifted the regional balance of power, creating a Shiite crescent stretching from western Afghanistan to the Mediterranean coast.

“This disturbance in the regional balance of power has aggravated a number of regional stakeholders. With U.S. backing, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar have banded together to lead a counter-coalition to Iran. Iraq may have been reluctantly conceded to Iran, but the uprising in Syria offered a new opportunity to undercut Iran’s Mediterranean outlet in the Levant. Saudi Arabia has been trying to manage simmering Shiite unrest on the Arabian Peninsula, while Turkey is looking to lay a Sunni foundation for its regional resurgence.

“As a result, increased amounts of money, supplies, weaponry, training and intelligence support have made their way to the Syrian rebels through covert channels. The hope was that a covert campaign would obviate the need for a costly foreign military intervention and lead to the collapse of the regime from within. In theory, the plan sounds reasonable. In practice, it’s a lot more complicated.

“A transition to Sunni rule in Syria is bound to be messy. Syria’s Alawites have become well established in Damascus and in other key urban centers across the country… the Alawites, with Iranian backing, could be expected to mount a militant resistance against Turkish- and Arab-backed Sunnis. The Alawites… currently dominate Syria’s ruling Baath Party…

“It is safe to assume that Syria, between the fall of the Alawite regime and the turbulent emergence of a new, Sunni-empowered regime, would experience an interregnum defined by considerable chaos…

“The most important battleground to watch in this regard will be Iraq. There are a number of regional stakeholders who are not satisfied with Baghdad’s Iranian-backed Shiite government… the domino effect from Syria could place Iran back on the defensive in Iraq, which has the potential to re-emerge as the main arena for the broader Arab Sunni versus Persian Shiite struggle for regional influence…”

Syria is a powder keg ready to explode, potentially setting the entire Middle East (and more) on fire. For further information on Syria’s future, please read our Q&A on Syria.