Our Crazy Weather

The Associated Press wrote on December 19:

“Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 – the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years combined…

“And we have ourselves to blame most of the time, scientists and disaster experts say. Even though many catastrophes have the ring of random chance, the hand of man made this a particularly deadly, costly, extreme and weird year for everything from wild weather to earthquakes. Poor construction and development practices conspire to make earthquakes more deadly than they need be. More people live in poverty in vulnerable buildings in crowded cities. That means that when the ground shakes, the river breaches, or the tropical cyclone hits, more people die…

“[Some scientists say] the world’s population is moving into riskier megacities on fault zones and flood-prone areas [and] that 400 million to 500 million people in the world live in large cities prone to major earthquakes. A Haitian disaster will happen again, [some say]: ‘It could be Algiers. it could be Tehran. It could be any one of a dozen cities.’”

Coldest Winter for Britain Since at Least 1910

The Daily Mail reported on December 20:

“The Arctic conditions are set to last through the Christmas and New Year bank holidays and beyond, and as temperatures plummeted to -10c (14f) the Met Office said this December was ‘almost certain’ to become the coldest since records began in 1910.”

Chaos in Europe

The Associated Press reported on December 20:

“Snow and freezing temperatures continued to cause holiday travel chaos for road, rail and air passengers in Britain and much of Europe… Airlines said that Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, was the worst hit by the poor weather — with only a limited number of flights to arrive and depart. Hundreds of passengers camped overnight in terminal buildings after services were canceled or delayed… Eurostar reported that its trains linking England to France and Belgium were also severely delayed or canceled and urged travelers to cancel or postpone their trips if possible…

“In Germany flight operations were slowed even though Frankfurt airport, Germany’s biggest, was clear of snow and ice. Officials canceled about 300 flights there Monday… because of problems elsewhere in Europe… French civil aviation authorities, meanwhile, asked airlines to reduce their flights at the two main Paris airports by 30%…”

“Drought-Plagued California Copes with Near-Record Rainfall”

USA Today wrote on December 22:

“A powerful storm dumped more rain on already waterlogged Southern California on Wednesday, washing hillsides onto highways, endangering houses in canyons and forcing rescuers to pluck dozens of motorists from flooded streets… Floodwaters washed away homes in Arizona and inundated parts of Nevada and Utah…
 
“In Southern California, the burst of heavy rain in the morning left streets flooded and caused minor mudslides. The threat, however, of larger mudslides could last for weeks in the suburban Los Angeles canyon hillsides laid bare by wildfires… Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in six counties… In southern Nevada, a state of emergency was ordered after rain-swollen creeks closed some roads in the Las Vegas area and snow disrupted electricity…”

Obama’s Dangerous Strategy

The Guardian wrote on December 17:

“President Obama has decided to pursue a dangerous strategy that could cause irreparable harm to freedom of the press as we know it… Attorney General Eric Holder is investigating the possibility of prosecuting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in connection with the 250,000 diplomatic cables stolen – according to the government – by army private Bradley Manning.

“By longstanding first amendment tradition, third parties such as news organisations — even an unconventional one like WikiLeaks — are not prosecuted for publishing leaked material, even if the person who gave it to them broke the law. So, Holder is working on the theory that WikiLeaks ‘colluded’ with Manning, acting not as a passive recipient, but as an active participant in persuading Manning to give up the goods.

“The problem is that there is no meaningful distinction to be made. How did the Guardian, equally, not ‘collude’ with WikiLeaks in obtaining the cables? How did the New York Times not ‘collude’ with the Guardian when the Guardian gave the Times a copy following Assange’s decision to cut the Times out of the latest document dump?… For that matter, I don’t see how any news organisation can be said not to have colluded with a source when it receives leaked documents.

“The Obama-Holder wrinkle is to attempt to draw distinctions between WikiLeaks and the traditional media. It can’t be done… attempts to separate the Times and the Guardian, on the one hand, and WikiLeaks, on the other, should be seen as entirely political. Presumably, dragging a handcuffed-and-shackled Assange into federal court would prove quite popular. By contrast, sentencing Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger to a long stint in a federal penitentiary would likely prove too much, even though senator Joe Lieberman, an occasionally moderate former Democrat, has suggested that the Times could be prosecuted.

“…the White House’s legal war against WikiLeaks is a shameful assault on our guarantee of free speech and a free press. It’s ironic that after two years of bogus claims from the right that Obama is dismantling the constitution, now that he really is, the only people who seem to care are on the left.”

U.S. “Overclassification” Made Assange Relevant

The Washington Post wrote on December 18:

“… prosecuting Assange would give him exactly what he wants: proof that America is hypocritical, that we don’t live by the freedoms we preach. Assange would like nothing more than to be a martyr – and President Obama shouldn’t give that to him. The better way to deal with Assange is to make him irrelevant. The only reason WikiLeaks has been a sensation is the absurd secrecy of the Obama administration, in some ways worse than that of George W. Bush…

“The episode spotlighted Obama’s surprisingly poor record on government openness. The administration has already undertaken four prosecutions of government leakers, more than any predecessor, in some cases using the arcane, World War I-era Espionage Act. At the same time, the administration stymied efforts in Congress to pass a ‘shield law’ to protect journalists’ confidential sources…

“Over-classification is so prevalent that even the Pentagon Papers – leaked by Daniel Ellsberg nearly four decades ago – are still classified as Top Secret. Thomas Blanton of the National Security Archive at George Washington University said that between 50 percent and 90 percent of classified material shouldn’t be; the result is ‘vast prairies’ of phony government secrets that are impossible to protect.

“It achieves little to punish Assange for trespassing on the prairie, either by prosecuting him (as Sen. Dianne Feinstein and other Democrats suggest) or hunting him like a terrorist (as Sarah Palin would have it). Instead, end the obsessive classification that made Assange possible – and deny him the martyrdom he desires.”

“Helmut Schmidt Slams ‘Foolish’ U.S. Pursuit of Wikileaks”

The Local wrote on December 21:

“Former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt has blasted as ‘foolish’ the United States’ pursuit of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. ‘That seems like revenge and it is,’ Schmidt told weekly Die Zeit’s magazine in an interview… Schmidt, who served as West German chancellor from 1974 to 1982, frequently weighs in on topical issues despite having reached the advanced age of 91…

“Schmidt said there was a ‘moral obligation for the publication’ of secret documents that exposed abuses at prisons such as Abu Ghraib or Guantánamo Bay, but questioned whether secret diplomatic communications should be released… For the US government, the publication of the cables was ‘a terrible thing, which will affect diplomatic relations for a long time.’”

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” No More

Time Magazine wrote on December 22:

“President Obama… signed the law allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the U.S. military. ‘This morning I am proud to sign a law bringing an end to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,”’ he said. No one should have to ‘sacrifice their integrity’ to wear the uniform of the U.S. armed forces, he said…

“The Pentagon itself is basking in public approval, which isn’t something it always gets… The papers praising the step are not just from the reliably Democratic northeast – journals from more conservative precincts… all have hailed the move… the unanimity, so far anyway, is surprising.”

The President’s words, the action of the House and the Senate, and newspaper unanimity is indecisive as to whether a matter is right or wrong. What really should count is God’s point of view. And the Bible makes that one very clear.

US Senate Approves Nuclear Arms Pact With Russia

BBC News reported on December 22:

“The US president has welcomed the US Senate’s ratification of a much-delayed nuclear arms treaty with Russia. Barack Obama said the agreement, which will pave the way for new cuts in American and Russian nuclear arsenals, was the most important such deal in almost 20 years. After months of wrangling in the Senate, the New Start treaty was passed by a vote of 71 to 26. Under the deal, Russia and the US will cut deployed nuclear warheads by 30%…

“Despite lengthy protests from a number of congressional Republicans, 13 Republican Senators voted with the Democrats during Wednesday’s vote… The treaty must still pass Russia’s parliament, a move expected next spring.

“The New Start treaty, which will replace its lapsed predecessor, Start (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), was signed by Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, President Dmitry Medvedev, in April 2010. It trims US and Russian nuclear arsenals to 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads… The treaty would also allow each side visually to inspect the other’s nuclear capability, with the aim of verifying how many warheads each missile carries.

“In addition, there will be legally binding limits on the number of warheads and missiles that can be deployed on land, on submarines, and on bombers, at any one time… senior Republicans… argued that the treaty could compromise US national security, handing Russia influence over American missile defence strategy.”

America’s attempts to buy allies—called “lovers” in the Bible—is doomed. The Bible clearly says that these lovers will turn against the USA and whatever treaties have been signed, will be broken (as the USA has signed and shamefully broken treaty after treaty with the “Native Americans” or “American Indians”).

Still Plenty to Destroy the World

BBC News wrote on December 22:

“Nobody pretends that the so-called ‘New Start’ treaty is going to save the world from the nuclear threat. It will reduce deployed warheads from 2,200 to 1,550 on each side – still plenty to destroy the world… Tactical Nuclear Weapons [or] short-range weapons emerged as a serious issue during the New Start debate, with opponents of the treaty complaining that it does not deal with them. The US revealed last year that it had 5,113 nuclear weapons in total, of which about half are estimated to be tactical. Russia has about the same.

“One problem is that if each side agrees to store them at home, Russia could deploy them in any war in Europe much more quickly. A ‘world without nuclear weapons’ is a long way off.”

“Obama Biggest Loser of 2010”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on December 23:

“After months of stalling, the US Senate has finally approved the New START disarmament treaty with Russia. The ratification is a major triumph for US President Barack Obama, but German commentators warn that it may be the last such success for a long time…

“SPIEGEL’s Washington correspondent Marc Hujer writes…: ‘Barack Obama was the biggest loser of 2010. He allowed the angry Tea Party movement to grow powerful, he did not pass any decent laws despite his majority in Congress and he was aloof, elitist and indecisive. He had to accept a formidable, yet entirely understandable, defeat in the midterm elections as a result. No one expected much from Obama, at least not during the rest of this year.

“‘Now, just days before Christmas, Congress has ratified the New START disarmament treaty with Russia. … Will Obama build on this victory? Is it Obama’s breakthrough as a president? Will it mark his comeback as a reformer? … Is a new era of cooperation beginning? The opposite is much more probable, namely that the disarmament treaty will be Obama’s last significant achievement for a long time. In January, the new Congress will convene. The new representatives who won in the midterm elections will come to Washington, including those Tea Party activists who have little interest in making compromises with Obama…’”

US Cities and States Could File for Bankruptcy

The Guardian wrote on December 20:

“More than 100 American cities could go bust next year as the debt crisis that has taken down banks and countries threatens next to spark a municipal meltdown… American cities and states have debts in total of as much as $2tn… US states have spent nearly half a trillion dollars more than they have collected in taxes, and face a $1tn hole in their pension funds…

“Detroit is cutting police, lighting, road repairs and cleaning services, affecting as much as 20% of the population. The city, which has been on the skids for almost two decades with the decline of the US auto industry, does not generate enough wealth to maintain services for its 900,000 inhabitants. The nearby state of Illinois has spent twice as much money as it has collected and is about six months behind on creditor payments. The University of Illinois alone is owed $400m…

“California has raised state university tuition fees by 32%. Arizona has sold its state capitol and supreme court buildings to investors, and leases them back. Potential defaults could also hit Florida…”

Europe’s Dependency on USA “Pathetic”

The EUObserver wrote on December 16:

“Europe’s willingness to take directions from other world powers is ‘pitiful’ and ‘pathetic,’ China’s top man in Brussels has said. The remarks come as leaked diplomatic cables show the US lobbied hard to prevent the EU from ending its arms embargo on China.”

Europe Needs Germany

Der Spiegel Online wrote on December 20:

“Germany’s controversial approach to fighting the euro crisis has split the European Union. Some countries are complaining about Berlin’s rigid course, while others accuse Chancellor Merkel of betraying the European project. The only thing they can agree on is that the EU needs Germany as a motor if it is to survive…

“… the Germans… dominated the stage politically in Brussels, once again. The 26 other heads of state and government gave in to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s demand to amend the EU’s Lisbon Treaty to include a permanent crisis fund, known as the stability mechanism, for the euro zone starting in 2013. Also at the chancellor’s request, they inserted a passage stating that the stability mechanism is only ‘to be activated if indispensable to safeguard the stability of the euro area as a whole.’ The group also approved Germany’s demand that private lenders be involved in the event of a government bankruptcy.

“’We came to an agreement,’ a clearly pleased Merkel announced. ‘It was a good day for Europe.’ The other summit participants had no choice but to make similar statements… In Rome, Merkel has long been seen as a chancellor who can do everything Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi cannot. She is seen as credible and honest… But since Germany began going it alone in the EU, Merkel seems to have become sinister and even a threat to the Italians. Suddenly she is being viewed, once again, as the ‘iron chancellor,’ the moral watchdog.”

“Berlin Blocks Bulgaria, Romania from Schengen”

The Local wrote on December 21:

“France and Germany decided Tuesday to block Bulgaria and Romania from joining Europe’s borderless 25-nation Schengen area next year, a move denounced by the Romanian president as discriminatory… The Schengen area allows more than 400 million citizens to travel across a territory that ranges from Greece to Finland, and Portugal to Poland, without having to pull out a passport. The area includes 22 of the European Union’s 27 members plus Iceland, Switzerland and Norway.

“Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007. By choice, EU members Britain and Ireland have not joined the travel zone while Cyprus has applied to enter Schengen… Allowing a country to join Schengen must be agreed by member states by unanimity, meaning that France and Germany have veto power over the applications. The decision to block the entry of Romania and Bulgaria follows a summer row over France’s deportation of Roma migrants from the two eastern European nations, although the issue was not cited as a reason for the Schengen veto.”

Britain’s Isolation

The Economist wrote on December 17:

“Increasingly, these days, Britain seems to be attending a different summit from other countries. Most leaders went to Brussels in the hope of demonstrating unity and determination in safeguarding the euro; Mr Cameron made the trip to safeguard the British (and, he says, the European) taxpayer… the British move was mis-timed and discordant. Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, was irritated by the British move at a time when she wanted European leaders to rally in defence of the euro.

“There is a distinct detachment about Britain and the burning questions of Europe. Partly it is circumstance: the crisis is raging in the euro zone, and Britain is not a member of it. But partly it is also a matter of choice: Mr Cameron seems most comfortable sitting on the sidelines. This attitude that is much different from that of, say, Sweden, a non-euro country that is nevertheless strongly involved in every aspect of the debate about the euro.

“The crisis is slowly creating a two-speed Europe: a more integrated euro core, with a looser fringe that Britain is happy to inhabit.”

Maybe Britain won’t be that happy for long, after all. In fact, what we are seeing now is the beginning of the prophesied fact that Britain will end up as being totally isolated in Europe.

The Afghan War Debacle

Der Spiegel Online wrote on December 20:

“During a surprise weekend visit to Afghanistan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel finally called the conflict a war… While Merkel praised the troops, the Afghanistan mission continued to spark political crossfire at home. Germans have long been critical of their troops in Afghanistan, which make up the third-largest NATO contingent in the country…

“The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes: ‘In January, German parliament will extend the Afghanistan mandate by another year… In the year 2011 we will only agree to support a corrupt government which gained power through electoral fraud, which sees economic growth purely in relation [to] its own foreign accounts and which shows no ambition to reform Afghanistan’s archaic social structures. It is at least honest that the chancellor, in her own convoluted way, called the war a war. But her sentence is only half of the truth. The rest is: We can only lose this war.”

“The left-leaning Frankfurter Rundschau writes:  ‘Angela Merkel calls (war) what it is to make the subject a firm fixture in the consciousness of German people. In reality she produces a headline without any content… She does with words what her defense minister did with television pictures last week. All of that does not bring us forward, at least not towards peace.’”

No Children for Homosexual Couples

The Local reported on December 20:

“Volker Kauder, the parliamentary leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats, said on Monday that homosexual couples had no right to have children. ‘This has to be accepted, even if it’s difficult for those affected,’ Kauder [said]. ‘I don’t think children wish to be raised by homosexual couples.’ He said the question of children’s well-being should come before the desires of adults to become parents…

“Germany introduced ‘registered partnerships’ for same-sex couples in 2001, but stopped short of granting them the full rights and privileges afforded to married heterosexual couples. Homosexuals can legally adopt the children of their partners, but adopting an unrelated child as a couple is not currently allowed… Kauder’s most recent comments highlight the ongoing discrepancy between the Christian Democrats and their junior coalition partners the Free Democrats on gay issues.”

Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s Foreign Minister and Leader of the FDP, is openly homosexual. Volker Kauder’s comments do surprise, however, as it has become extremely politically incorrect in Europe (and more and more in the USA) to say anything about or relating to homosexuals which could be remotely construed as criticism or “discrimination.”  To emphasize this point, please read the next article.

Religious Persecution in Britain (and Soon in the USA?)

WorldNetDaily wrote on December 20:

“Telling a street preacher that it is against the law to affirm the Bible’s teaching on homosexuality is costing a team of British police officers some $11,000 – plus legal fees. That was the resolution announced by The Christian Institute in a case that it fought on behalf of a street preacher, Dale Mcalpine, who was arrested and detained for nearly eight hours on the basis of the officers’ decision that the Bible’s teachings violated the law…

“Mike Judge, spokesman for the institute, which fights on behalf of Christian and human rights in the United Kingdom, said [that] ‘Mr. Mcalpine was arrested and held in a cell for expressing his Christian views… Sadly, it’s not an isolated case. We have defended a number of Christians wrongfully arrested under Section 5 of the Public Order Act. There is a problem with the law and it needs to be fixed.’…

“The U.K.’s Public Order Act includes language that is similar to Barack Obama’s ‘hate crimes’ law in the U.S. that he signed more than a year ago in that they ban some statements regarding homosexuality. That bill became law over the objections of a multitude of Christian organizations who say it grants special protections to those who choose a homosexual lifestyle, creating a form of ‘thought police’ in the United States…

“In one U.S. situation, a street preacher’s toe apparently brushed the grass of private property and he was arrested, and in Oslo, authorities have tried to shut down those who would share their Christian [beliefs] in public. At the time the case developed, Liberty Counsel Cultural Affairs Analyst Matt Barber raised the warning that such cases will be seen more and more in America, too.

“’We know that what’s happening in Europe and what’s happening in Canada offers us a window into the future of what will happen here in the United States,’ he said. ‘The hate crimes laws and employment sexual orientation laws such as ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act here in the United States, have been the precursor to the more oppressive hate speech laws,’ Barber explained. ‘Make no mistake, those laws we have now for hate crimes and the more present danger with ENDA, these laws are the precursor in the U. S. for the same kind of criminalization of Christianity that’s happening in the U. K.,’ Barber said…

“Barber added that the goal of the radical homosexual lobby is to silence Christians. ‘Their goal is to silence any dissent and to silence under any penalty of law the biblical recognition and expression of a traditional Judeo-Christian world view relative to sexual behavior and sexual morality,’ Barber said.”

Belarus—Europe’s “Last Soviet-Style Dictatorship”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on December 20:

“Officially, Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko [formerly part of the Soviet Union] won re-election with almost 80 percent of the vote on Sunday… Throughout Sunday night and into the early hours of Monday morning, security forces went after both opposition activists and critical journalists who denounced the elections as fraudulent. Demonstrators were beaten and at least four of the nine candidates who ran against Lukashenko were arrested. Police took hundreds of protesters into custody…

“… the violence with which the regime confronted protestors will likely have consequences for relations between Belarus and the European Union. The EU recently pledged €3.5 billion ($4.6 billion) in aid for the country.

“… police and members of the Belarus intelligence service, known as the KGB, began beating the crowd with batons. [Presidential candidate] Neklyayev was seriously injured and lost consciousness. Despite the police brutality, however, over 10,000 Lukashenko opponents gathered in the capital to protest what they saw as election fraud…

“The US Embassy in Minsk said that Washington was ‘especially concerned over excessive use of force by the authorities, including the beating and detention of several presidential candidates’… German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said ‘it is unacceptable to harass, beat or arrest opposition candidates and their supporters who want to exert their right to freedom of expression.’ Poland demanded the immediate release of opposition candidates and European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek was scathing in his critique: ‘This cowardly attack on defenseless presidential candidates is horrifying and scandalous.’

“Belarus is seen as the last Soviet-style dictatorship in Europe… dozens of demonstrators were heavily beaten, including presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov. Sannikov was reportedly taken into custody on the way to the hospital. His wife, who works as a reporter for the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, told the radio station Echo Moscow that her husband had been ‘struck several times in the face.’ Aides to injured presidential candidate Neklyayev reported that he was abducted by several men in civilian clothing shortly after arriving at hospital with serious head wounds.

“At 4:20 on Monday morning, special forces broke down the door of the offices of the opposition website Charter 97. Editor in Chief Natalia Radina only had time for one final bit of news. ‘We are all at the KGB,’ she wrote.”

These incredible totalitarian and criminal methods remind us of another dictator who ruled Russia not too long ago—Josef Stalin. And they remind us of Adolf Hitler who terrorized Germany and who was responsible for the outbreak of World War II. It shows how easy it is for dictators to abuse power when they think they have the capability to do so, and that others won’t object to their evil deeds.

Dictators Never Change

Der Spiegel Online wrote on December 21:

“The Western outcry has been loud but feckless, the Russian response purse-lipped (‘an internal matter,’ said President Dmitry Medvedev) — and Lukashenko is unrepentant. On Tuesday a Belarusian court issued blanket 15-day jail sentences to over 600 protestors arrested by police on Sunday. They face up to 15 years in prison, should they be convicted of inciting violence. It was an implicit snub to the European Union, which had made overtures to Belarus ahead of the election and afterwards demanded freedom for the candidates and journalists…

“There has been little progress toward democratic reform during President Aleksander Lukashenko’s 16 years in office. Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice famously called him ‘Europe’s last dictator,’ and the nickname stuck. His close relationship with Moscow — like Belarus’ state-run economy — depends on cheap oil and gas.”

The Financial Times Deutschland wrote on December 22:

“The misdeeds under Lukashenko aren’t new. What is new is that Germany and its EU partners believed a little fair-weather diplomacy would change everything…”

Die Welt wrote on December 22:

“At some point even the Kremlin found it absurd to be played for such a fool by the president of Belarus. The old idea of a Russian ‘union’ began to sound tuneless. The little Soviet brothers would have to learn for themselves how to survive a frigid winter in the no-man’s land between Russia and Europe… (Western) dream that more democracy would move Belarus further West has not grown likelier with the recent election.

“But why do strong men — in Africa or Asia or, in this case, on the doorstep of the EU — need election majorities hovering near 100 percent? The first West German chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, started his long term in office with a one-vote (parliamentary) majority, and John F. Kennedy proved in his day that a narrow victory is also a victory. The world of potentates is different. On the one hand they give lip service to democracy and allow elections; on the other, they never allow those elections to bring change… But fraud is fraud, and dictatorships never change.”

Palestinian State With or Without American Approval?

The Daily Israel Report wrote on December 19:

“The Palestinian Authority is continuing its drive to unilaterally declare independent statehood next year, with or without a negotiated settlement with Israel. PA spokesman Nabil Shaath continued to lay the public relations groundwork Saturday by telling reporters the peace process with Israel is in a ‘deep coma’ and that U.S. proposals for negotiations are ‘totally useless.’ … Moreover, the PA has also formally requested for the first time that European countries recognize a Palestinian state, should one be declared – even in the absence of a final status agreement with the State of Israel…

“Thus far, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba and Venezuela have formally recognized the PA as a sovereign entity, with Uruguay promising to do so in 2011. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas told reporters that he expects Ecuador to follow with a similar announcement shortly.

“Just three days earlier, Norway had upgraded the status of the PA mission in Oslo from a ‘general delegation’ to a ‘diplomatic mission.’ In addition, the head of the PA mission in the country was granted diplomatic immunity. This follows a similar decision by France in July 2010…

“The U.S. House of Representatives, meanwhile, unanimously approved on Thursday a resolution opposing the unilateral declaration of a new PA country. The resolution called on the Obama administration to ‘deny recognition to any unilaterally declared Palestinian state… Former PA head negotiator Saeb Erekat responded with anger to the reaction by the U.S. Congress…”

Europe’s Far Right vs. Islam

Reuters reported on December 20:

“Far-right political parties in Europe are stepping up their anti-Muslim rhetoric and forging ties across borders, even going so far as to visit Israel to hail the Jewish state as a bulwark against militant Islam.

“National Front leader Marine Le Pen has shocked the French political elite in recent days by comparing Muslims who pray outside crowded mosques — a common sight during the holy month of Ramadan — to the World War Two Nazi occupation. Oskar Freysinger, a champion of the Swiss ban on minarets, warned a far-right meeting in Paris Saturday against ‘the demographic, sociological and psychological Islamization of Europe.’ German and Belgian activists also addressed the crowd.

“Geert Wilders, whose populist far-right party supports the Dutch minority government, told Reuters last week he was organizing an ‘international freedom alliance’ to link grass-roots groups active in ‘the fight against Islam.’

“Earlier this month, Wilders visited Israel and backed its West Bank settlements, saying Palestinians there should move to Jordan. Like-minded German, Austrian, Belgian, Swedish and other far-rightists were on their own Israel tour at the same time. ‘Our culture is based on Christianity, Judaism and humanism and (the Israelis) are fighting our fight,’ Wilders told Reuters in Amsterdam last week…

“Some on the far right see similar trends in the United States. Wilders attended a rally in New York on September 11 to protest against a mosque planned near Ground Zero and the leader of the Austrian Freedom Party, Heinz Christian Strache, has said he wants to visit the United States to meet leaders of the Tea Party movement…

“The Israeli newspaper Haaretz accused the rightists of ‘trading in their Jewish demon-enemy for the Muslim criminal-immigrant model’ and visiting Israel only to get ‘Jewish absolution that will bring them closer to political power.’”

This comment by Haaretz is absolutely right. Demagogues like Wilders, Strache or LePen are doing much more harm than good. Their self-serving attempts to create fear for political gain must be rejected. Their unspecified attempts to woo Israel and to “warn” Europe and now even the USA of “Islamization” is of no value, but could prove to be quite dangerous.

Japan’s Dynamic Defense Policy

RTT News reported on December 17:

“Tokyo has adopted a new ‘dynamic defense capability’ policy which marks a major shift from the existing one that seeks only a minimum defense capability… pronouncements include adopting measures for promoting confidence and co-operation with China and Russia even while expanding engagements with the European Union (EU) and the NATO… it moots enhanced defense ties with the United States, Australia, India and South Korea. The country’s projected defense expenditure over the next five years has been pegged at 23.49 trillion yen ($279 billion).”

Japan’s decision to promote co-operation with China and Russia is remarkable in the light of biblical prophecy which predicts that these and other Far Eastern countries will form an alliance against Europe and the USA.

Dangerous Scientific Games

AFP wrote on December 16:

“The White House… said the controversial field of synthetic biology, or manipulating the DNA of organisms to forge new life forms, poses limited risks and should be allowed to proceed. The panel was created by Obama last year. Its first order of business was to consider the issue of synthetic biology after the J. Craig Venter Institute announced in May it had developed the first self-replicating bacteria cell controlled by a synthetic genome.

“Critics said the discovery was tantamount to ‘playing God,’ creating organisms without adequate understanding [of] the ramifications, and upsetting the natural order… But the commission said Venter’s team had not actually created life, since the work mainly involved altering an already existing life form.”

Still, altering existing life forms could be extremely dangerous, and the consequences are unpredictable. Such scientific advances are just foolish and terribly short-sighted.

Catholic Church’s Wrong Teaching on Condoms Continues

USA Today reported on December 22:

“The Vatican on Tuesday sought to clarify the pope’s controversial comments about condoms and HIV, saying he by no means suggested condom use could be condoned as a means of avoiding pregnancy…

“The Vatican has been under pressure from conservative theologians to issue such a clarification amid widespread confusion about what Pope Benedict XVI meant and whether he was breaking with church teaching.”

“Christmas the Deadliest Day of the Year”

The National Post wrote on December 20:

“A new U.S. analysis of mortality rates during different times of year found that people are more likely to die during the holidays — notably on Christmas and New Year’s Day — and researchers cannot explain the yearly spike. After analyzing all official United States death certificates over the 25-year period between 1979 and 2004, a trio of sociologists identified an excess of 42,325 natural deaths — that is, above and beyond the normal seasonal winter increase — in the two weeks starting with Christmas. More people die in hospital emergency wards, or arrive dead on arrival, on Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day than on any other days of the year.

“’It’s not trivial,’ said Mr. Phillips, a professor of sociology at the University of California at San Diego. ‘We looked at all cause categories and, for nearly every one, we found an excess of deaths — particularly for people who are dying rapidly, like dead-on-arrival or dying in the emergency department.’… Less clear are the reasons behind this fatal phenomenon.”

Could the reasons lie, perhaps, in the fact that all these days listed above (Christmas on December 25, Boxing Day on December 26 and New Year’s Day on January 1) are of Satanic, and not godly origin?

Christ Is Not in Christmas!

USA Today reported on December 20:

“Christmas 2010 is a whole lotta jingle and not so much Jesus. Two new surveys find more than nine in 10 Americans celebrate the holiday — even if they’re atheists, agnostics or believers in non-Christian faiths such as Judaism and Islam… ‘It’s alarming to me that while nine in 10 celebrate Christmas, only six in 10 encourage any belief in the source of Christmas and only three in 10 actually read the story of Christmas,’ [Ed] Stetzer, [president of LifeWay Research] says.

“John Lindell — lead pastor of James River Assembly in Ozark, Mo…  is not as alarmed by the gap. Instead, he sees an open path to outreach. ‘We believers put Christ in Christmas by how we care for others and give people chances to change their lives,’ he says.”

Sadly, Christ has nothing to do with Christmas, and to try to “put Christ in Christmas” is exactly what God prohibits us to do. When one wants to go back to “the source of Christmas,” he needs to return to ancient pre-Christian practices of heathens worshipping their pagan sun gods. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Don’t Keep Christmas.”

The Vatican’s POLITICAL Role

The Guardian wrote on December 10:

“The pope is responsible for the Vatican’s growing hostility towards Turkey joining the EU, previously secret cables sent from the US embassy to the Holy See in Rome claim. In 2004 Cardinal Ratzinger, the future pope, spoke out against letting a Muslim state join, although at the time the Vatican was formally neutral on the question…The cable released by WikiLeaks shows that Ratzinger was the leading voice behind the Holy See’s unsuccessful drive to secure a reference to Europe’s ‘Christian roots’ in the EU constitution. The US diplomat noted that Ratzinger ‘clearly understands that allowing a Muslim country into the EU would further weaken his case for Europe’s Christian foundations’…

“Roman Catholicism is the only religion in the world with the status of a sovereign state, allowing the pope’s most senior clerics to sit at the top table with world leaders. The cables reveal the Vatican routinely wielding influence through diplomatic channels while sometimes denying it is doing so. The Vatican has diplomatic relations with 177 countries and has used its diplomatic status to lobby the US, United Nations and European Union in a concerted bid to impose its moral agenda through national and international parliaments…

“The then US ambassador to the Holy See, Francis Rooney, briefed Washington in 2006, shortly after the election of Pope Benedict XVI, that ‘the Holy See hopes that Poland will hold the line at the EU on “life and family” issues that arise’ and would serve as a counterweight to western European secularism once the country had integrated into the EU… In 2001 another American diplomat to the Vatican stated: ‘The Holy See will continue to seek to play a role in the Middle East peace process while denying this intention.’”

The New York Times wrote on December 11:

“Recently released diplomatic cables show the Vatican fighting to shore up its eroding control over sexual abuse scandals in the United States and Ireland, highlighting complex tensions between the Vatican hierarchy, local bishops and civil authorities. The cables… provide a telling glimpse of how American diplomats often rely on the Roman Catholic Church’s worldwide network of prelates for intelligence…

“A cable sent that year by the United States Embassy to the Holy See said that Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Pope John Paul II’s last secretary of state, ‘took the bulk of his initial meeting’ with Ambassador James Nicholson ‘to register his displeasure with the several lawsuits filed in U.S. courts that have been served at the Vatican.’ It added that Cardinal Sodano ‘complained about the “aggressive attorneys” who had started in on the Vatican with the sexual abuse scandal and had also filed suits about Nazi-era gold allegedly acquired by the Holy See. It’s one thing for them to sue bishops… but another thing entirely to sue the Holy See.’ Cardinal Sodano urged Ambassador Nicholson to help defend the Holy See’s sovereignty.

“In 2005, the State Department argued that Pope Benedict XVI should be immune from a lawsuit accusing him of conspiracy to hide abuse because he was a head of state. A federal judge later dismissed the case. The sovereignty issue emerged again more recently in Ireland, where two government-appointed commissions released reports in 2009 revealing a widespread cover-up of abuse, shaking the Irish church to its core. According to a cable sent in February from the American Embassy to the Holy See, requests by Irish investigators ‘offended’ many in the Vatican ‘because they saw them as an affront to Vatican sovereignty.’…

“Other cables show the Catholic Church to be deeply involved in local politics worldwide and a useful source of information for American diplomats, especially in places like Cuba and Venezuela. One cable from 2006 said that a Venezuelan clergyman might be a good source on President Hugo Chávez. The Holy See has also had full diplomatic ties with Iran for decades…

“A 2002 cable said that ‘despite the real progress’ under John Paul in the Vatican’s relations with Judaism, some in the hierarchy still ‘manifested remnants of anti-Semitic sentiments.’  It cited…[a] curial official [as saying] some lawsuits against the Holy See ‘were the result of “Jewish judges having too much influence.”’

The EUObserver wrote on December 13:

“Freshly-published cables from the US mission to the Vatican have shed light on the inner workings of Europe’s most secretive diplomatic corps… ‘The Vatican is second only to the United States in the number of countries with which it enjoys diplomatic relations… and there are Catholic priests, nuns and lay people in every country on the planet. As the spiritual leader of 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide and enjoying respect as well from non-Catholics, the Pope wields an unparalleled moral megaphone,’  a 2009 US note ahead of President Barack Obama’s meeting with the pontiff says. ‘Private comments from Vatican officials to European diplomats also carry some weight – particularly in the traditionally Catholic countries,’ a 2006 cable says.”

The book of Revelation describes in vivid terms the political role of the Catholic Church in the world. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Is That in the Bible?—The Mysteries of the Book of Revelation.”

The Queen Is Dead—Long Live the Queen…

NPR wrote on December 11:

“Though she suffered a major setback in the Middle East peace process this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she’s not giving up. She says the U.S. will remain active trying to bridge the gap between Israelis and Palestinians — even though their leaders aren’t even talking to each other now… The secretary told the audience that she regrets that the two sides are still far apart. She used her speech to warn Israelis and Palestinians that the status quo is not sustainable…

“Israelis argue that it was a mistake to make a settlement freeze a precondition for talks…Palestinians don’t like the idea of an interim deal and have been considering a different route to statehood — through the United Nations. Clinton argued Friday night that unilateral efforts at the U.N. are ‘not helpful and undermine trust.’”

The problem is, any trust in the USA is pretty much gone.  It is obvious that Israel and the Palestinians are looking towards other powers to help them to solve their dilemma. Especially the Palestinians look to Germany and the EU for support. The next article may show some of the reasons.

Influential Ex-EU Leaders Advocate Sanctions Against Israel

BBC wrote on December 10:

“A group of 26 ex-EU leaders has urged the union to impose sanctions on Israel for continuing to build settlements on occupied Palestinian territory. In a letter sent on Monday, they said Israel ‘like any other state’ should be made to feel ‘the consequences’ and pay a price for breaking international law. The signatories include the former EU foreign affairs chief, Javier Solana…

“The letter sent to European governments and EU institutions, asks EU foreign ministers to reiterate that they ‘will not recognise any changes to the June 1967 boundaries and clarify that a Palestinian state should be in sovereign control over territory equivalent to 100% of the territory occupied in 1967, including its capital in East Jerusalem’. It also asks ministers to set the Israeli government an ultimatum that, if it has not fallen into line by April 2011, the EU will seek an end to the US-brokered peace process… The EU should… ban imports of products made in settlements; and force Israel to pay for the majority of the aid required by the Palestinians, it adds… ‘Time is fast running out’, the letter warns, because ‘Israel’s continuation of settlement activity… poses an existential threat to the prospects of establishing a sovereign, contiguous and viable Palestinian state.’

“In addition to Mr Solana, the letter was signed by 10 former leaders of European countries – including Romano Prodi and Giuliano Amato of Italy, Richard von Weizsaecker and Helmut Schmidt of Germany, Mary Robinson of Ireland, Felipe Gonzalez of Spain and Norway’s Thorvald Stoltenberg – 10 former ministers and two former EU commissioners.

“In a letter of response to the former leaders, sent on Tuesday and seen by EUobserver, Baroness Ashton said the EU’s approach to Jewish settlement expansion would remain unchanged for the time being… ‘The European Union will continue to be at the forefront of efforts to advance the peace process and engage with both the Palestinians and the Israelis to find a way to resolve the conflict,’ her letter reportedly said… she [also] said: ‘The EU position on settlements is clear: they are illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace. Recent settlement related developments, including in East Jerusalem, contradict the efforts by the international community for successful negotiations.’”

In any clash between newcomer Baroness Ashton and highly prestigious influential personalities such as Helmut Schmidt or Richard von Weizsaecker, it should be obvious who will ultimately prevail. In addition, as the next article points out, a violent clash between the Israelis and the Palestinians appears to be inevitable.

Israel Won’t Share Jerusalem with Palestinians

The Associated Press reported on December 12:

“Conflicting claims to  east Jerusalem lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The dispute over the area, home to sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites, has derailed past peace talks and spilled into violence. Palestinians claim the sector as the capital of their future state.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reaffirmation of his intention to hold on to east Jerusalem… was likely to increase friction with the Americans… Netanyahu’s defense minister, Ehud Barak… called for sharing Jerusalem with the Palestinians. But a government official said Barak’s idea does not reflect the government’s view.

“’Mr. Netanyahu is distancing himself not from Barak, he is distancing himself from international consensus, he’s distancing himself from international resolutions and distancing himself from international law,’ said Palestinian spokesman Husam Zomlot. ‘And most importantly, he’s distancing himself from any possible negotiated settlement based on the two-state solution.’”

Desecration of the Sabbath Causing Destruction?

On December 4, 2010, the Jerusalem Post wrote:

“Shas Council of Torah Sages Head Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said on Saturday night that the devastating Carmel fire was a result of insufficient Shabbat observance in the area. ‘Fires only happen in a place where Shabbat is desecrated,’ he quoted from the Babylonian Talmud Shabbat tractate in his weekly sermon. ‘Homes were ruined,’ he continued, ‘entire neighborhoods wiped out, and it is not arbitrary. It is all divine providence. We must repent, keep Shabbat appropriately. When the People of Israel repent, God safeguards them with a wall of fire,’ but not of the incinerating type, Yosef added.”

This position is of course overreaching, even though it cannot be denied that God is unhappy with the desecration of His Sabbath. One must be careful, however, that one does not fall into the trap of Pharisaical rules and regulations pertaining to the Sabbath, which Christ, the Lord and Creator of the Sabbath, strongly condemned.

Merkel and Sarkozy Pledge to Protect the Euro

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 10:
 
As German troops officially took up their first symbolic post on French soil since WWII, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel reaffirmed their commitment to the eurozone.
 
“Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy reaffirmed their commitment to the single European currency and to the fiscal solvency of the eurozone at a  meeting in the German city of Freiburg on Friday. ‘There is a spirit that is uniting us all,’ the German chancellor told reporters during a break in the talks. ‘If the euro fails, the European Union fails, too.’ President Sarkozy, meanwhile, pledged that Germany and France ‘will defend the euro, because the euro is Europe.’…

“’Without agreement from France and Germany – the historic motors of European integration and two economies that make up half of the eurozone’s gross domestic product – nothing very important is possible,’ Professor Henrik Uterwedde from the Franco-German Institute in Ludwigsburg told Deutsche Welle…

“While Sarkozy and Merkel discussed the harmonization of economic policies like labor and taxation laws, saying this would improve the eurozone’s coherence as an economic bloc, military leaders just across the border were preparing a more visible symbol of Franco-German cooperation. The first German battalion to be stationed on French soil since the Nazi occupation in World War II officially took up their post near the border-city of Strasbourg on Friday. German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and his French counterpart Alain Juppe attended a ceremony to mark the event…

“‘I was always surprised that the Franco-German Brigade only consisted of French soldiers in Germany,’ Sarkozy said. ‘We are two sovereign nations, two countries at peace, two countries that founded Europe.’”

The historical relationship between Germany and France has been a rocky one, but both countries are predestined to play a leading role during the last revival of the ancient Roman Empire. Charlemagne, Otto the Great, Charles V and Napoleon, who are widely viewed as French and German leaders, did in fact revive in the past the ancient Roman Empire. Angela Merkel’s comments that a spirit is uniting them all is very remarkable. As this report and the next articles show, the concept that the euro would fail and that as a consequence Europe would break apart, is just in total contradiction to biblical prophecy. The Bible does show, however, that a core Europe will develop WITHIN the European power bloc and that it will lead the greater Europe. To an extent, this core Europe or “two-speed Europe” is already developing, as the next article suggests:

A Two-Speed Europe

The Financial Times wrote on December 14:

“With Alliance Trust’s European Equity Fund celebrating its first year anniversary on Tuesday the German and Swiss markets are set to play a central role in the fund’s ongoing success. Fiona MacRae, fund manager of the European Equity Fund, … said: ‘We are currently experiencing a two-speed Europe. There is a strong centre led by Germany, filtering out to a much weaker periphery.’”

“The Euro Won’t Fail”

The Local wrote on December 11:

“German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble on Saturday warned speculators on the financial markets not to bet against the euro, as European leaders prepared for a summit next week to shore up the embattled currency. ‘Whoever bets his money against the euro will not succeed,’ Schäuble [said]… ‘The euro will not fail,’ added the minister, amid speculation that debt crises in some countries of the 16-nation zone could bring down the currency. ‘All those in charge in Europe are agreed: The euro brings us all advantages. And therefore we will successfully defend it,’ Schäuble added… ‘Even if one of the small countries were to leave [the eurozone], the consequences would be incalculable,’ Schäuble said.”

Of course, Wolfgang Schäuble is absolutely right. In addition, note this excerpt from an article which was published by the EUObserver on December 13:

“…  Schaeuble has said… that the next decade is likely to see Europe take significant steps towards closer political union… ‘In 10 years we will have a structure that corresponds much stronger to what one describes as political union,’ he added.”

According to the Bible, Europe’s economic union will lead to a political and military union.

Euro-Zone’s STRONG Performance

The Wall Street Journal wrote on December 14:

“The euro-zone economy looks set to achieve a healthy fourth quarter, with an ongoing strong performance in the core member states expected to limit the likely poorer outcome from the smaller, peripheral economies. The German ZEW expectations survey, released Tuesday, rose for a second straight month in December as investors’ confidence was buoyed by an increasingly broad-based strong economic performance. The expectations element of the survey rose to 4.3 from November’s 1.8, and above the 4 forecast. The harder official data also suggested the euro zone started the fourth quarter on a strong footing.”

The paper added the following in a related article:

“German economic expectations improved for the second consecutive month in December, rebuffing immediate concerns about a deepening debt crisis in the euro zone’s periphery.”

Majority of Germans for the Euro

The Local wrote on December 10:

“Sixty percent of those polled said they preferred the euro, while one-third said they longed for the return of the Deutsche mark, the survey for broadcaster ARD found. The nostalgia for the former German currency was highest among less-educated. Forty-nine percent said they wanted to fill their wallets with the mark once again after 11 years with the euro. Meanwhile 80 percent of the highly educated participants said they were against the reinstatement of the old bills and coins…

“Though it remains considerably stronger versus the US dollar than the mark was back in 1998, the euro’s precipitous decline has sparked concern in Europe’s largest economy.”

A poll, which was published this week in Der Stern, suggests that many Germans are unhappy with the euro, but that a majority are against a return to the Deutsche Mark.

No Euro-Zone Break-Up!

The Local wrote on December 15:

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel moved Wednesday to silence fears of a eurozone break-up, saying that although some members faced tough challenges, Europe’s paymaster would not desert them. ‘No one in Europe will be left alone, no one in Europe will be abandoned. Europe succeeds when it acts together and I would add, Europe succeeds only when it acts together,’ Merkel said in a speech to parliament. Merkel said that some in the 16-nation eurozone faced an uphill task in repairing their public finances but she expressed confidence that the single currency would survive.”

Who Speaks for Europe?

This article shows that there is presently no powerful leader in Europe who could speak for Europe with “one” strong voice, but the Bible predicts that this situation will change soon.

The New York Times wrote on December 15:

“With the euro under siege, European Union leaders will gather Thursday for a meeting aimed at restoring confidence in their monetary union, but threatened by one of Europe’s persistent failings: its inability to speak with one voice… The president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, called on the leaders Wednesday to maintain discipline and show ‘that the E.U. is in control of events.’… Despite the pleas to present a united front, the markets are expected to put further pressure on borrowing costs in Portugal and Spain, two euro countries perceived as weak… Once a key conduit between Berlin and Paris, Mr. Juncker [Luxembourg’s leader] has fallen out of favor in both capitals. With diminished influence behind the scenes, he seems to be trying to bolster his reputation among supporters of closer European integration…

“Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was Mrs. Merkel’s foreign minister from 2005 to 2009, and Peer Steinbrück, finance minister in the same period, said Germany should take the lead in pushing for more European integration…”

German Military Conscription to Be Suspended

The Local wrote on December 11:

“With just months to go before military conscription is set to be suspended in Germany, the government is looking toward pay hikes and monthly bonuses to encourage volunteers to join the armed forces… the draft law foresees a triple system of financial and other incentives, including drivers’ licenses, leisure-time perks and continued education opportunities…

“On Thursday, leaders of Merkel’s coalition government agreed on troop reductions in the Bundeswehr, from 240,000 to 185,000 soldiers. Professional soldiers would account for most of that number, with 15,000 volunteers rounding out the ranks.”

Der Stern Online added on December 10 that military conscription will not be totally abolished and that it could be re-instituted in case of necessity. At the same time, Der Spiegel Online reported on December 15, 2010, that commencing March 1, no one will be drafted against his will.

The future will show what the move of suspending military conscription in Germany will do. We do know that Europe will very soon have a powerful common army, and Germany will be heavily participating in the same.

Europe Needs Germany, and Vice Versa

Der Spiegel Online published an highly propagandistic article on December 14, bordering on the ridiculousness, when describing Europe and especially Germany as extremely pacifistic, comparing them with the “peace-loving Venus,” while picturing America as the “warlord Mars.” However, the following excerpts are worth noticing:

“Germany needs Europe, and Europe needs Germany. This is still true today, but for different reasons than in the past. In the first few decades after World War II, our neighbors wanted to contain Germany so that they could tame the German demon. The Germans needed Europe so that they could play a role on the international stage once again… Today Germany can only exert political influence through the EU, and even that is becoming difficult, because of the strong reciprocal relationship between China and the United States… economic strength must go hand-in-hand with political strength, which Germany can only attain through Europe.

“The Germans gave up their beloved deutschmark for the euro. It was the right decision… Another area in which greater European unity would be in Germany’s interests is security policy… it wants to play a role internationally. The best way to achieve this is through a European foreign policy that has at its disposal a European army… it makes no sense at all for each European country to maintain a complete military force…”

The Bible shows that there will be a most powerful European army within a few years from now.

“The Royal Guttenbergs”

The Local wrote on December 14:

“Not used to glamorous politicians, Germans are both dazzled and dismayed by Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and his wife Stephanie… Politicians in Germany aren’t allowed to be attractive or enjoy their jobs. The public immediately becomes suspicious of anyone daring to break either of these rules…

“It’s in this context that Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg travelled this week to Afghanistan to visit German troops ahead of the holidays – but he wasn’t alone. The aristocratic minister was accompanied by his fetching wife Stephanie, two state premiers, and the TV talk show host Johannes B. Kerner. The Bundeswehr base at Mazar-i-Sharif became the backdrop for Kerner’s show, which had one prominent guest: Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. A few soldiers were used for garnish.

“Is the war trivialised by such visits? Is there room for glamour and entertainment where death and killing is so prevalent? Did Guttenberg exhibit once more his political genius, or did he finally overstep the line separating tact, dignity and humility from obscenity?… The blueblood baron would probably say this division merely separates great minds from small ones… we should be happy to have someone like Guttenberg. He’s stuck to his principles whether the issue was bailing out carmaker Opel or reforming his own ministry. Guttenberg has fearlessly stared down both friend and foe alike on issues such as ending military conscription.

“At the same time, he’s brought a fresh approach to politics – which can both impress and annoy people. But the more he seems to annoy, the more people appear to be impressed by him… Our brutally fickle times demand hero-worship be followed by a precipitous fall. The public instinctively wants to tear people down to its own size – especially those with an aura of aristocracy about them… The Guttenbergs are aware of this and yet don’t seem to care…”

Without perhaps openly admitting it, many Germans are longing for leadership which is respected in the world and which they can be proud of. The “ghost” of the Habsburg empire and “Kaiser Wilhelm” is not dead. And voices can be heard these days to the effect that “not everything that Hitler did was bad. He just shouldn’t have killed all the Jews, but ‘we’ knew nothing about that.”

Freedom in the West Under Attack

On December 13, Der Spiegel Online published the following article:

“Since 9/11, press freedom in the West has come under attack… the hunt for WikiLeaks is a greater danger to democracy than any information that WikiLeaks might reveal…

“Since becoming embroiled in the war against terrorism, the US government has transformed itself into a huge security apparatus… 854,000 people in the US government… hold top-secret security clearances — and this under a president who came into office promising a new era of openness in government…

“In the crisis, the countries of Old Europe are also putting up the barricades. Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblowing platform WikiLeaks, is playing with the fire of anarchy… the hatred he reaps in return is beneath all democracies…

“The US Justice Department[ ] attempt[s] to invoke the controversial Espionage Act of 1917… The period of World War I was a dark time for constitutional freedoms in the US. In its practically hysterical fear of communists and all other critics, the judiciary even prosecuted people who distributed flyers critical of military service, and in doing so ignored all constitutional guarantees…

“For Berlin constitutional law expert Dieter Grimm, it is clear that the whistleblower website enjoys ‘the protections for freedom of the press under Germany’s Basic Law.’ As a judge on the German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, Grimm played a very important role in shaping the current interpretation of freedom of opinion and freedom of the press in Germany…”

“Intolerable Censorship”

The Local reported on December 16:

“A group of major German newspapers and a human rights advocacy group… published an appeal against the criminalisation of whistleblower website Wikileaks, saying the site deserved as much protection as traditional media… The political and economic pressure put on Wikileaks following its publication of thousands of confidential US diplomatic cables has been ‘inappropriate,’ the statement said. While there may be good reasons to criticise the release, taking action against the ‘journalistic medium’ was a form of intolerable censorship, it added…

“Pressure by the US government for large international companies such as MasterCard, PayPal and Amazon to end their cooperation with Wikileaks reveals a ‘shocking understanding of democracy in which freedom of information is only valid when it doesn’t harm anyone.’ ‘Journalism has not only the right, but the duty to check the state and illuminate the mechanisms of government business,’ the statement said, calling on businesses and governments to end their attempts to silence the site.”

U.S. Air Force in Violation of U.S. Constitution?

The Wall Street Journal wrote on December 14:

“The U.S. Air Force is blocking its personnel from using work computers to view the websites of the New York Times and other major publications that have posted classified diplomatic cables, people familiar with the matter said.

“Air Force users who try to view the websites of the New York Times, Britain’s Guardian, Spain’s El Pais, France’s Le Monde or German magazine Der Spiegel instead get a page that says, ‘ACCESS DENIED. Internet Usage is Logged & Monitored,’ according to a screen shot reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The notice warns that anyone who accesses unauthorized sites from military computers could be punished.

“The Air Force said it had blocked more than 25 websites that contained the documents, originally obtained by the website WikiLeaks and published starting late last month, in order to keep classified material off unclassified computer systems…

“‘It is unfortunate that the U.S. Air Force has chosen not to allow its personnel access to the most important news, analysis and commentary,’ a New York Times spokeswoman said…

“One senior defense official questioned the wisdom of blocking the newspaper sites or even prohibiting service members from visiting them on military computers, arguing that the information has spread on the Internet and that sites like the New York Times contain other, useful information. The defense official said blocking the New York Times was a misinterpretation of military guidance to avoid visiting websites that post classified material. The new order doesn’t prevent Air Force personnel from viewing the media websites on nonmilitary computers, one Air Force official said…”

The German and Austrian news agency, news.at, wrote in addition:

“Critics view the blocking as a violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which guarantees freedom of speech.”

This kind of controversial conduct, which even America’s allies perceive as hypocritical, extremely dangerous and a threat to liberty and freedom, is inflicting much additional harm on the USA.

US Is Suing BP

BBC News reported on December 15:

“The US is suing BP and eight other firms for allegedly violating federal safety regulations in connection with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The lawsuit asks that they be held liable without limitation for all clean-up and damage costs.

“The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion in April killed 11 workers and spilled millions of barrels of oil over several months. The oil leak became the worst environmental disaster in US history… In a statement, BP said the filing ‘does not in any manner constitute any finding of liability or any judicial finding that the allegations have merit’… But the justice department said on Wednesday that the investigation into the oil spill was ongoing and that more defendants and charges could be added to the lawsuit.”

The negative US media coverage about BP’s role pertaining to the oil spill has upset many Brits. The lawsuit will only increase Britain’s anger against the USA.

Berlusconi’s Uncertain Future

Deutsche Welle reported on December 14:

“Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has narrowly survived a no-confidence vote in the lower house of parliament, after the Senate also voted in his favor earlier Tuesday. The no-confidence motion was rejected by 314 votes to 311. However, Berlusconi’s government still faces an uncertain future, as its tiny majority will make it difficult for him to pass legislation… Tuesday’s votes come after a year fraught with corruption and sex scandals involving Italy’s premier…

“Italy’s economy [is] in serious trouble, and the country has one of the heaviest public debt burdens in the world… Recent surveys show that less than 30 percent of Italians wanted Berlusconi to finish his current term… Italy’s high court will soon hand down a ruling on the constitutionality of a law passed by Berlusconi to protect himself from prosecution while prime minister. If the law is deemed invalid, he will face charges of corrupting a judge. Berlusconi took power for the first time in 1994, winning three elections and transforming Italy’s political landscape. But now, he faces some rocky times ahead.”

In the USA and many other Western European countries, Silvio Berlusconi would have been forced to resign a long time ago. But not so in Italy. Even though differences exist between Berlusconi and Mussolini, still, sad memories of the times under Benito Mussolini do come to mind…

Terror in Sweden

The Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote on December 13:

“On Saturday two bombs exploded, and a person blew a hole through his stomach for his beliefs… Islamist terror is untamable, because there are vast groups of angry, young men with backgrounds in religious fanaticism who are not able to be mollified. Their targets are random….

Die Welt wrote on December 13:

“Bombs exploding during Advent. Germans security agencies had warned about the possibility. And now it has happened in Sweden…. A society like Israel constantly is experiencing a balancing act between maintaining a heightened state of alert against omnipresent enemies, and, at the same time, enjoying life and personal freedom. This enormous psychological challenge faces Europe if the situation gets any worse.”

The Berliner Zeitung wrote on December 13:

“The attack… reminds us that there aren’t any terror-free islands anymore. Even in a Scandinavia that appeared to be safe, there are fanatics whose wrong-headed ideology doesn’t preclude the murder of innocent civilians… There is no excuse for inhumane terror, nor is there one for pinning a crime committed by a single actor or terror organization on an entire ethnicity or religion.”

The German press reported that, according to captured al-Qaida informants, terror attacks are planned around Christmas time in Europe and the USA, and that the activities in Sweden were already a part of the planned worldwide attacks.

Richard Holbrooke Dies

Der Spiegel Online reported on December 14:

“There is little doubt that he was the embodiment of US diplomacy. Richard Holbrooke, who died on Monday evening at the age of 69, was a widely-respected negotiator, a former US ambassador in Berlin and elsewhere, a key player in bringing peace to Bosnia. Most recently, he was President Barack Obama’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was, in short, a ‘giant of US foreign policy,’ as Obama said on Monday…

“Holbrooke often seemed to be a throwback — a symbol of a time when the US maintained an unshaken belief in its supremacy, a time when China was still in a deep slumber. The proud members of the US Foreign Service were the tools of a Washington that wanted a say in all parts of the globe. Self-doubt was not a widespread characteristic in US embassies around the world… Holbrooke… was a co-author of the Pentagon Papers, the secret report which analyzed how the US became involved in the morass in Vietnam, [and] which… later contributed to the end of the war…

“Holbrooke’s American self-confidence, his conviction that he and his country could solve virtually any problem, never abandoned him… The fact that his aorta ruptured during a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — which triggered multiple operations before his passing on Monday — is reminiscent of a soldier dying in the field. And as sad as it sounds, it may also be a fitting analogy to the US involvement in Afghanistan: A determined and energetic fight, but with little to show.”

America’s “Lovers”

The New York Times wrote on December 4:

“… going through the WikiLeaks cables has made for some fascinating reading… It is a rather sobering message. America is leaking power…

“Saudi Arabia and its Arab neighbors want the U.S. to decapitate the Iranian regime and destroy its nuclear facilities so they can celebrate in private this triumph over the hated Persians, while publicly joining with their people in the streets in burning Uncle Sam in effigy, after we carry out such an attack on Iran — which will make the Arab people furious at us. The reason the Arab people will be furious at us, even though many of them don’t like the Persians either, is because they dislike their own unelected leaders even more and protesting against the Americans, who help to keep their leaders in power, is a way of sticking it to both of us…

“While the Saudis are urging us to take out Iran’s nuclear capability, we learn from the cables that private Saudi donors today still constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide — not to mention the fundamentalist mosques, charities and schools that spawn the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan. So basically our oil payments are cycled through Saudi Arabia and end up funding the very militants whom our soldiers are fighting…

“Yes, these are our allies — people whose values we do not and never will share… America lacks leverage in the Middle East because we are addicted to oil. We are the addicts and they are the pushers, and addicts never tell the truth to their pushers… We’re… supporting a regime that… uses our money to fund a religious ideology, schools, mosques and books that ensure that Al Qaeda will always have a rich pool of recruits in Saudi Arabia and abroad. We also lack leverage with the Chinese on North Korea, or with regard to the value of China’s currency, because we’re addicted to their credit…

“Fifty years ago, the world was shaped in a certain way, to promote certain values, because America had the leverage to shape it that way. We have been steadily losing that leverage because of our twin addictions to Middle East oil and Chinese credit — and the WikiLeaks show just what crow we have to eat because of that…”

The Bible warned ancient Israel and the modern descendants of the ancient house of Israel–mainly the USA and Great Britain—not to hire “lovers” for themselves– allies with different interests (compare Hosea 2:4-5; 8:8-9). These warnings were ignored then, and they have been ignored today, and the predictable consequences were and are devastating (compare Jeremiah 4:30; 30:12-14; Ezekiel 16:36-42).

WikiLeaks Under Attack

NPR wrote on December 5:

“WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange…has been widely praised and criticized. Supporters view him as a savior of the media and free speech; critics vilify him for brazenly unleashing diplomatic secrets… PayPal, a subsidiary of U.S.-based online marketplace operator EBay Inc., said the WikiLeaks website, which specializes in disclosing confidential documents, was engaged in illegal activity…

“[Wikileaks] said it noticed an increasing number of supporters creating ‘mirrors’ of the WikiLeaks site on their own servers, meaning that copies of the site would remain up and running even if WikiLeaks were somehow to lose its own site.

“Starting Friday, the Swiss Web address… became the site’s main access point after… a company based in Manchester, New Hampshire, stopped accepting traffic to the site’s principal address… saying cyberattacks threatened the rest of its network. Amazon stopped hosting WikiLeaks’ Web site and governments and hackers were continuing to go after the organization…”

The release of confidential and secret diplomatic US documents is highly embarrassing for the US government and its allies, and any mutual relationship of trust has been damaged or irreparably destroyed. No wonder, then, that many react with hatred toward the messengers, while trying to ignore the message. As mentioned above in our introductory comments, this is not to imply that we in any way endorse or support the publication of any confidential or secret information—but the fact that these documents are now available to the broad public reveals the ongoing nightmare scenarios which are being created for the USA.

Biblical Dimensions of the WikiLeaks Cables…

Der Spiegel Online wrote on December 6:

“The cables… have shocked, alienated and appalled the world… former Saudi Arabian intelligence chief Prince Turki bin Faisal says that American’s ‘credibility and honesty are the victim of these leaks’ and assumes that from now on people ‘will no longer speak to American diplomats frankly’…

“Those at the right end of the American political spectrum feel threatened by a foreign power once again. Whoever passed on this information is guilty of treason, says former Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee, one of the leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. According to Huckabee, ‘anything less than execution is too kind a penalty.’ His rival Sarah Palin wrote on her Facebook page that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be hunted down like a terrorist. ‘He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. … Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders?’

“One leading politician who hasn’t said much is President Barack Obama, whose handling of the WikiLeaks affair thus far only confirms his political adversaries’ criticisms. Just like with the controversy over an Islamic center in New York and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Obama is once again being accused of not taking decisive action, showing weakness and putting America’s superpower status at risk…

“Turkey has considered taking legal action because of the leaks. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan… wants to strike back at US diplomats in a big way. ‘Those who have slandered us will be crushed under these claims, will be finished and will disappear,’ Erdogan announced in Istanbul, where he is considering filing a lawsuit against the diplomats. Many Turks suspect that a massive conspiracy by the Jewish lobby is behind the WikiLeaks campaign, a view held even by the deputy chairman of the governing party, the AKP. The goal of the reports, he says, is to weaken the Turkish government…

“Last Thursday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) criticized what it called a ‘political campaign’ against Assange and Manning. According to the IFJ, the ‘calls by right-wing commentators for Manning to be executed and that Assange be hunted down as a spy … show a mood of intolerance and persecution that is dangerous not just for the two men but for all journalists engaged in investigating public affairs.’

“The US government is now doing its utmost to prevent the spread of the documents. The Social Security Administration was the first government agency to warn its employees, 62,000 in all, not to disseminate the WikiLeaks documents to others, copy them or even read them. Government workers caught in violation of the order could face criminal consequences.

“Manning, who was 22 when he copied the files, has repeatedly been accused of being motivated by a desire for recognition. But Manning himself offered a different explanation before he was taken into custody. He said that he had been told to cover up a lot of things during his time in Iraq, and that this had outraged him. After seeing the now notorious Baghdad helicopter video, he apparently decided to search for more material. When he found the cables, he said, he wanted the world to find out about them.”

There are important revelations which we can glean from the article. First, as mentioned above in the lead article,  worldwide trust in America deteriorated, and America’s allies—or “lovers”—are turning against the USA. Secondly, as was also prophesied in Scripture, Turkey (biblical Edom) is turning against “Israel” (the peoples of the USA and Great Britain are the modern descendants of the ancient house of Israel, and the Jewish people are the modern descendants of the ancient house of Judah).  And thirdly, messengers of highly unpopular messages, who are being perceived as threatening US security or even America’s reputation, will be hated and hunted down.

God has given His Church a very unpopular message to proclaim—the fact that God will punish modern “Israel”—including the USA and Great Britain–for their many sins. The Bible is very clear that modern “Israel” will be defeated in war and end up in slavery and captivity. When Jeremiah proclaimed a message of inevitable doom to the ancient nation of Judah, he was called a traitor and imprisoned, and his life was in great jeopardy. How could it be any different today for God’s true servants? In addition, God’s Church must also proclaim to ALL nations that God will punish all of them for their sins. God’s people will not be liked for the bold and uncompromising proclamation of His message. In fact, Jesus said that His true disciples who are doing His Work will be hated by ALL nations.

“Assange’s ‘Martyr Status’ Further Damages US Reputation”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on December 7:

“WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested in London and denied bail on charges of rape and sexual molestation. German opinion makers are split on what the arrest really means. One thing they agree on: The reputation of the US continues to suffer…

“The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes: ‘The reputation of the United States has been damaged by the WikiLeaks-controlled release of secret documents. That is true… But the United States’ reputation is being damaged much more right now as they attempt — with all of their means — to muzzle WikiLeaks and its head, Julian Assange. By doing so, the US is betraying one of its founding myths: Freedom of information. And they are doing so now, because for the first time since the end of the Cold War, they are threatened with losing worldwide control of information.

“‘The first real information war has begun,’ writes US civil rights activist John-Perry Barlow. ‘The battlefield is WikiLeaks.’ He is right. With the doctrine ‘Free Flow of Information’ the US has dominated the flow of information and most of its content for decades. They said that every person had the right, everywhere, and without limitations, to collect information and to broadcast and disseminate it. That was a tremendous doctrine, as long as only American companies had the power, the means, and the logistical capabilities, to make use of this freedom. That changed somewhat with the Internet, but companies like Apple, Windows, Google, Facebook and Amazon advance US-domination in the supposedly democratic Internet. Julian Assange and WikiLeaks are the first who have used the power of the Internet against the United States. That is why they are being mercilessly pursued. That is why the government is betraying one of the principles of democracy’…

“The Financial Times Deutschland writes: ‘The arrest is as potentially scandalous and it is superfluous. The operation has produced a martyr… The already damaged reputation of the United States will only be further tattered with Assange’s new martyr status…’

“The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes: ‘In the so-called ‘war on terror’ the democracies of the US and Europe have not only instigated wars without satisfactory reasons but have also tried to reduce the privacy, civil rights and liberties of their citizens…’

“The Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel writes: ‘One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’: this Anglo-Saxon saying still holds true in the Internet age. To the US, Assange is a terrorist; to the Internet community, he is a pioneer of freedom. The favourable view of Assange seems to have more sympathy here in Germany…’”

The “Powerlessness” of the US Superpower

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 8:

“No one knows what really happened on those two August evenings in Sweden, but it’s difficult to see the subsequent and diligent attempts to catch Assange by Swedish prosecutors as anything other than a part of the dogged US pursuit of WikiLeaks. It’s painful for a superpower to have to look on, powerless, as a small group publishes its secrets for the whole world to see. First, there were the revelations on the Afghan war, then the military log books from Iraq, and most recently the slew of diplomatic dispatches.

“But this powerlessness has transformed into anger, and it’s the display of anger – not the WikiLeaks files – that might cause the US to really lose face… The US image abroad is more likely to be damaged when Hillary Clinton blows ‘Cablegate’ out of proportion, calling it ‘an attack on the international community,’ or when Assange is dubbed a traitor, terrorist, or hardened criminal.

“The US really loses face when the online payment service PayPal blocks WikiLeaks’ account, when Mastercard stops transferring donations to the whistle-blowing organization, and when the internet service provider Amazon suddenly stops hosting the website online.

“Bear in mind that freedom of expression was the first amendment ever made to the US Constitution; at least in theory, the US places far greater emphasis on this right than many other democratic countries, including Germany. Already, participants on Internet forums in China are asking just how committed the US really is to freedom of expression, considering its handling of the WikiLeaks case…

“In ancient Greece, the bearer of bad or sensitive tidings was sometimes executed – but we’re in the 21st century, and the world should have moved on. As the world’s superpower, the US is forever under pressure to show its quality – this crusade against Julian Assange is doing precisely the opposite.”

Overreaction by US Government and Legislators?

NPR wrote on December 8:

“The legal and political troubles that WikiLeaks has encountered… may have troubling implications for more traditional media outlets… A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation last week, the SHIELD Act, which would make it illegal to publish the names of U.S. military and intelligence informants.

“Jeffrey Dvorkin, a former NPR… vice president for news, agrees that the WikiLeaks episode illustrates the blurred ethical boundary lines of the new media age… Dvorkin… shares the concerns of civil libertarians… ‘The big immediate danger for all of us now is an overreaction by legislators or governments — or Internet service providers who are worried about lawsuits,’ Dvorkin says…

“U.S. courts have maintained that news organizations may publish government documents, even if the documents were obtained illegally. The most famous decision in this regard came from the Supreme Court in 1971, when it upheld the right of The New York Times to print the Pentagon Papers, which were volumes of secret documents about the history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Electronic publishers have enjoyed the same protections as traditional publishers…”

US Failure in the Middle East

Der Spiegel Online wrote on December 9:

“The Middle East peace process has been left foundering after Washington admitted its efforts to get the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table have failed… The stand-off over the issue of Jewish settlements has left President Barack Obama’s policy in the region in tatters and the two sides more entrenched in their respective positions than ever… The Palestinians are now left with grave doubts that the US will ever be able to broker a final peace settlement if it cannot even persuade Israel to temporarily freeze settlements. There are indications that they could now push ahead with their Plan B, a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state…

“The German papers on Thursday take a look at the failed policy and many blame President Obama for allowing the Palestinians to set a settlement freeze as a precondition to talks.

“The conservative Die Welt writes: ‘It was a tactical mistake to present the settlement issue as the main problem in the conflict. From the beginning it was unrealistic to believe that the right-wing coalition in Israel would agree to a moratorium in the long term…’

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘The peace process is at an end. The most powerful man in the world has capitulated to a bunch of settlers on the hills of Judea and Samaria… Instead of being principled, his policy is marked by ridiculous zig-zagging… Obama had his chance in the Middle East and it is hardly likely he will be given another one during the remaining two years of his term…. The Israelis know now that they have nothing to fear from him…. The Palestinians on the other hand have learnt that they cannot trust him…. Now, an escalation can be expected…’

“The Financial Times Deutschland writes: ‘The Middle East strategy was a vision that Obama couldn’t back up with successes. Now the region is going back to square one… The US should never have allowed the Palestinians to make the settlement freeze the condition for starting talks…’

“The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes: ‘… It is now likely that the US failure will lead to improved relations between Fatah and Hamas… Consideration for the US may dwindle considerably.’

“The business daily Handelsblatt writes: ‘… The peace process will have to hit the “reset” button once again. But who can, or who ought to take over the role of mediator, if the Americans haven’t succeeded? The EU takes a courageous stand on the side of the Palestinians by condemning settlement construction as illegal and demanding fresh talks. Neither EU Commissioner for External Relations Ashton, nor German Foreign Minister Westerwelle appear to have a “Plan B” up their sleeves. Empty phrases are not enough. The EU must do better than that if it wants to be taken seriously as a mediator…’”

Interesting Traditions About the Magi

USA Today wrote on December 5:

“The story of the Three Wise Men is one of the most familiar and beloved parts of the Christmas story. But for all of their popularity, the mysterious travelers from the East — known as the Magi — appear in only one short passage in the New Testament, following a star to the site of Jesus’ birth and bringing gifts of gold, francincense and myrrh…

“Brent Landau, a professor of religious studies at the University of Oklahoma and an expert in ancient biblical languages, found references to a text about the wise men in writings from the Middle Ages and learned that a collector in the 18th century had discovered in a Turkish monastery a manuscript called ‘the Revelation of the Magi’ with a narrative about the wise men…

“Landau spent seven years translating and analyzing the text, written in Syriac, a language used by early Christians throughout the Middle East and Asia…Landau’s book, ‘Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men’s Journey to Bethlehem’ describes the Magi as [having] descended from Seth, the pious and virtuous third son of Adam and Eve. From Seth they inherited a prophecy of ‘a star of indescribable brightness’ someday appearing and ‘heralding the birth of God in human form.’ This same star had initially hovered over the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.

“Among the book’s other revelations:

“The Magi are described as coming from a land called Shir, ‘located in the extreme east of the world, at the shore of the Great Ocean’…In Syriac, the word Magi means ‘to pray in silence.’ Landau says it has no relationship to magicians or astrologers, sometimes cited in stories today. The text names 12 Magi, not three, while other parts of the text suggest that ‘a group the size of a small army’ traveled to Bethlehem, says Landau…

“Although the text claims to be personal testimony, ‘it seems unlikely that it could have been written by the Magi themselves,’ Landau says. He cites a number of anachronisms, such as references to Christian writings recorded years after Jesus’ death…

“When they first encounter the long-prophesied star, the text says it initially appears in a celestial form that then transforms into a human form… who instructs them to go to Bethlehem…”

We should not give too much credence to apocryphal uninspired texts, as they include many errors. But some statements in the article above are interesting; for instance the concept that twelve (!) Magi visited Jerusalem and Bethlehem (perhaps representing the twelve tribes of Israel); that they were not astrologers; and that the star was in fact an angel. These are concepts which have been considered for a long time (compare our free booklet, “Don’t Keep Christmas.”) The additional statement that the star “had hovered over the Tree of Life” is remarkable in light of the fact that a cherub (an angelic being) guarded the Tree of Life after Adam and Eve were driven out of Eden.

The Netherland’s Santa Claus and Black Peters

Deutsche Welle reported on December 5:

“For the Dutch, Sinterklaasavond (St. Nicholas Eve) on December 5 is the biggest celebration of the year – bigger than Christmas… Sinterklaas’ helpers, the Zwarte Pieten or ‚Black Peters,’ are portrayed according to degrading racial stereotypes. They’re typically dressed in 19th-century Moorish outfits, curly Afro wigs, and painted red lips. It is common for both adults and children to dress up as Zwarte Piet, complete with their faces painted black

“… nowadays the Zwarte Pieten are friendly characters that are clever and mischievous, and adored by children. Yet in the original Sinterklaas story, the Zwarte Pieten were slaves. Gradually, the tale evolved and they became Sinterklaas’ helpers, but they were portrayed as being stupid and spoke broken Dutch with a Surinamese accent. They were also frightening figures: It was their job to punish misbehaved children by beating them…

“It’s not uncommon for St. Nicholas figures to have a devilish companion – such a figure exists in both Austrian and Swiss traditions – but the Netherlands is the only place where he is imagined as a black man.“

Devilish companions of Santa Claus are actually very common. In German tradition, the companion of the German “Nikolaus“ is called “Knecht Ruprecht.“ Of course, the entire stories of “Santa Claus“ or “St. Nicholas“ are not Christian, but of pagan origin. Please read our free booklets, “Don’t Keep Christmas” and “Is That in the Bible?—The Mysteries of the Book of Revelation.”

UN Prays to the Moon Goddess

The Washington Post wrote on November 29:

“With United Nations climate negotiators facing an uphill battle to advance their goal of reducing emissions linked to global warming, it’s no surprise that the woman steering the talks appealed to a Mayan goddess Monday.

“Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, invoked the ancient jaguar goddess Ixchel in her opening statement to delegates gathered in Cancun, Mexico, noting that Ixchel was not only goddess of the moon, but also ‘the goddess of reason, creativity and weaving. May she inspire you — because today, you are gathered in Cancun to weave together the elements of a solid response to climate change, using both reason and creativity as your tools.’

“Delegates from 193 countries are gathered in Cancun for the two-week meeting, which kicked off today at 10:20 a.m. local time, or 11:20 a.m. Eastern… Two weeks from now, we’ll have a sense of whether Ixchel — and the delegates — were listening to Figueres’s appeal.”

This is really shocking, but it shows where this world is heading. We wonder how many “Christian” delegates bowed their heads to the moon goddess and participated in this pagan ritual–and how many appealed to the one and only true God of the Bible for inspiration and guidance.

The next article also shows to what extent our liberal societies have turned away from the true God.

British Prisoners Allowed to Practice Pagan Festivals

Mail On Line reported on December 6:

“Hundreds of criminals are to be given four days a year off prison work – to celebrate pagan festivals. Prison governors have been issued with a list of eight annual pagan holidays and told pagan inmates can choose four to celebrate.

“The festivals include Imbolc – The Festival of the Lactating Sheep – which falls on February 1 and is dedicated to the goddess Brighid. Another is the festival of Beltane, which falls in early May… devotees are urged to celebrate the Sun God with ‘unabashed sexuality and promiscuity’. The Yule festival involves pagans ‘casting spells’ and dressing up as ghosts.”

“Bread and Games”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on December 6:

“On the weekend, German television audiences watching one of the country’s most popular shows were shocked when they saw a live stunt go horribly wrong… Viewers watching the popular German television show, ‘Wetten, Dass..?’ (‘Want to Bet?’) are used to seeing members of the public doing crazy things. The prime time show, which regularly attracts 10 million viewers to ZDF, the public television channel that screens it, is based upon ordinary people doing strange feats…

“But on Saturday evening, the television audience got far more than they had bargained for. They were shocked to see Samuel Koch, a 23-year-old drama student and part-time stuntman… fall heavily after an attempt to leap lengthways over a moving car wearing spring-loaded stilts. His own father was driving the vehicle.

“While the cameras rolled, Koch ended up face down and unconscious on the ground. He was then taken to a hospital in Düsseldorf where he was put into an artificial coma after doctors operated on him for two-and-a-half hours. He has serious spinal injuries and until he is re-awakened, doctors say, there is no way of telling the extent of Koch’s injuries.

“The show itself was halted for the first time in its 29-year history… German commentators praised the show’s makers for halting the broadcast and contemplated whether the program had a future. Commentators also lamented the fact that the battle for prime-time ratings on the weekend may have been partially responsible for the tragic accident.

“The conservative Die Welt writes: ‘…Thomas Gottschalk… must be asking himself how things went this far — and not least because the candidate fell badly twice during rehearsals. TV stations, like editors, may have lost their sense of perspective in the fight for the ratings crown… The constitutional obligation of the public broadcaster, funded by public money, has been deformed beyond recognition by ratings pressure. Thanks to their dual incomes through broadcasting fees and advertising, ARD and ZDF have outrageous advantages in the fight for market share…’

“The Financial Times Deutschland writes: ‘… Is Samuel Koch the first victim in the fight for ratings, injured by “friendly fire”? Higher, faster, further? Ever more spectacular, ever more dangerous?…’”

This horrible story reminds us of the atmosphere in ancient Rome, just prior to its fall. The people were basically interested in receiving two things from their government—to have bread on the table and to be able watch horrific dangerous “games.” Man has not changed, and we are seeing a repeat of such desires. We should not be surprised that God will very soon make an end with our way of living.

Austria’s Strache a Friend of Israel?

The Austrian Independent reported on December 7:

“Officials in Austria are at odds over Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader Heinz-Christian Strache’s decision to travel to Israel. The right-winger visited Israeli settlements in the West Bank, a territory Palestinians are also claiming. Speaking about the ongoing conflict about the area and the throwbacks the peace talks have suffered, Strache said in the West Bank area today (Tues): ‘One who comes to this place can understand the real problems. Our hearts are with you, Israel!’…

“Fritz Edlinger, the general secretary of the Society for Austrian-Arabian Relations (GÖAB), said it was ‘incredible’ Strache decided to travel to Israel. Edlinger explained he was ‘surprised’ the head of a party which was ‘still the political home for old and new anti-Semites in Austria’ would find dialogue partners in Israel…

“Strache was elected federal leader of the FPÖ after its former spearhead Jörg Haider walked out to form the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) five years ago. Polls have shown that most right-wing Austrians consider Strache as the political heir of Haider who died in a car crash in 2008… Israel withdrew its ambassador from Vienna in a reaction to the coalition agreement between the conservative People’s Party (ÖVP) and the FPÖ in 2000 before sending a diplomat to become ambassador in the Austrian capital three years later.

“Haider caused outcry in Israel and Western Europe by meeting with late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein several times in 2002… The FPÖ’s election campaigns have been branded as ‘xenophobic’ since Haider became federal leader in a party summit revolt in 1986. Hundreds of thousands of Austrians took to the streets to protest against the FPÖ’s ‘Austrians must come first!’ referendum in 1993. Strache has revealed plans to initiate a similar referendum next year, citing growing fears of ‘growing “Islamisation”’ in Western Europe. He also voted to press on with a referendum against possible new mosques in Vienna where one in 10 residents are Muslims… a majority of 52 per cent of Austrians opposed the idea of more mosques with minarets.”

A Hard Core of EU Member States

On December 7, the EUObserver published a thought-provoking interview with former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. We are bringing you the following excerpts:

“Europe lacks leaders, former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt has said in an exclusive interview with the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum. Set to mark his 92nd birthday later this month, Mr Schmidt… predicts a hard core of EU member states defined by common foreign policy perspectives…

“Helmut Schmidt: … I would say that, in general, Europe lacks leaders. It lacks people in high positions in the national states or in the European institutions with sufficient overview of domestic and international questions and sufficient power of judgment… Additionally, the present German government is composed of people who are learning their business on the job. They have no previous experience in world political affairs or in world economic affairs… The mistake was made around the time of Maastricht, in 1991-92. At this time we were 12 member countries in Europe. They not only invited everybody to become a member of [the] European Union but they also invented the euro and invited everybody to become a member of the euro area. And this was done without changing the rules or clarifying the rules beforehand… What we are suffering now is the consequence of that failure… So far the idea of a common currency still has my full backing, even if the European leaders did fail to set the rules and made the enormous mistake to take in anybody.

“Over the next 20 years, I think it is rather likely, at least 51 percent likely, that a hard core of the Union will emerge. And it would comprise the French, the Germans, the Dutch – I’m not so sure about the Italians. I’m rather sure [that] the British would not be part of it, the same may come true of the Poles. It would not be a hard core in written paragraphs of paper but it would be a hard core de facto and [not] de jure… Probably Austria [would be part of it], conceivably Denmark and Sweden. The Danes are very cautious – they would still look to London… Not necessarily would this [the hard core] pertain to the field of currencies but it would probably pertain to the field of world policies whether vis-a-vis China, Iran, Afghanistan or a new coalition of Muslim states, which is one of the great dangers of the 21st century, that you get a coalition of Muslim states. If there was a president in Washington and he wanted to drop the atomic bomb on Tehran, the Europeans would be strong enough to say: ‘We are not part of it.’ Right now, no one is strong enough in Europe to be in that position…

“It’s difficult to say [whether France would be part of the core nations].  I said the probability would be 51 percent – that makes 49 percent left…  It depends very much on the behaviour of the Germans… The Germans indeed sometimes behave like the strongest nation, they tend to give lessons to everybody. In fact they are more vulnerable than they think… I used to believe in British common sense and state rationale… I was brought up in a very Anglophile way. I was a great supporter of Edward Heath who brought Britain into the European community. But then we had Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher, who didn’t always behave so sensibly. And then we had Tony Blair who brought himself into a position of far too great a dependence on America. You can’t have this dependence on America and at the same time play a responsible role in Europe…”

“Fiscal Situation in the United States Much Worse than in Europe”

Reuters reported on December 8:

“The U.S. dollar will be a safe investment for the next six to 12 months because global markets are focused on the euro zone’ s troubles but America’s fiscal health is worse than Europe’s, an adviser to the Chinese central bank said on Wednesday.

“Li Daokui, an academic member of the central bank’s monetary policy committee, said that U.S. bond prices and the dollar would fall when the European economic situation stabilized. ‘For now, market attention is still on Europe and for the coming 6-12 months, it will not shift to the United States,’ Li said…

“’But we should be clear in our minds that the fiscal situation in the United States is much worse than in Europe. In one or two years, when the European debt situation stabilizes, attention of financial markets will definitely shift to the United States. At that time, U.S. Treasury bonds and the dollar will experience considerable declines.’”

Mail On Line reported on December 8:

“As unemployment in the U.S. nears the dreaded 10 per cent mark, it is a chart to chill the bones of any job hunter. Comparing previous recoveries from all 10 American recessions since 1948 to the current financial crisis, the stark figures show almost no improvement in employment. Some commentators have described the comparison as ‘the scariest jobs chart ever’…”

USA — a Weak Superpower

Der Spiegel wrote on November 28:

“251,000 State Department documents, many of them secret embassy reports from around the world, show how the US seeks to safeguard its influence around the world. It is nothing short of a political meltdown for US foreign policy…

“Never before in history has a superpower lost control of such vast amounts of such sensitive information… Never before has the trust America’s partners have in the country been as badly shaken…

“In the major crisis regions, an image emerges of a superpower that can no longer truly be certain of its allies — like in Pakistan, where the Americans are consumed by fear that the unstable nuclear power could become precisely the place where terrorists obtain dangerous nuclear material.

“There are similar fears in Yemen, where the US, against its better judgement, allows itself to be instrumentalized by an unscrupulous leader… Even after the fall of Saddam Hussein, it still remained a challenge for the victorious power to assert its will on Iraq. In Baghdad… it is now up to Vice President Joe Biden to make repeated visits to allied Iraqi politicians in an effort to get them to finally establish a respectable democracy. But the embassy cables make it very clear that Obama’s deputy has made little headway.

“Instead, the Americans are forced to endure the endless tirades of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek, who claims to have always known that the Iraq war was the ‘biggest mistake ever committed’ and who advised the Americans to ‘forget about democracy in Iraq.’ Once the US forces depart, Mubarak said, the best way to ensure a peaceful transition is for there to be a military coup. They are statements that add insult to injury.

“On the whole, the cables from the Middle East expose the superpower’s weaknesses… And it is drawn into the animosities between Arabs and Israelis, Shiites and Sunnis, between Islamists and secularists, between despots and kings. Often enough, the lesson of the documents that have now been obtained, is that the Arab leaders use their friends in Washington to expand their own positions of power.”

USA Diplomats Deride World Leaders

BBC News reported on November 29:
 
“European countries have reacted with irritation to the release by whistle-blowing website Wikileaks of secret memos written by US diplomats. The messages describe… Russia’s Vladimir Putin as an ‘alpha dog’… President Nicolas Sarkozy is compared to an ’emperor with no clothes’…

“Among the comments released by Wikileaks is a reported conversation in which a senior advisor to the French president branded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ‘crazy’ and Iran a ‘fascist state’. Mr Sarkozy himself was described in cables penned by US diplomatic officials as ‘thin-skinned’ and ‘authoritarian’… the leaks… include descriptions of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as ‘feckless’ and ‘vain’… Mr Erdogan had ‘little understanding of politics beyond Ankara’.”

Tensions Increase in Middle East

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 29:
 
“Tensions in the Middle East are increasing as the fallout from the latest WikiLeaks revelations continues to spread. Previously reticent Arab states have been exposed as having discussed strikes on Iran with the US… Among the most inflammatory [documents] were those between Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus in which the Saudi monarch urged the US to stop Iran’s nuclear program by any means necessary… King Abdullah called on the United States ‘to cut off the head of the snake’…

“The documents show the level of concern within the Middle East of Iran’s nuclear ambitions and, contrary to the public declarations of a number of Arab states, the apparent willingness to deal with the threat militarily. While Israel’s favoring of air strikes is well-known and documented, no Arab nations have gone on record as saying they would support US action or take their own to stop Tehran. A particular danger to stability now lies in the perception that Arab states named in the documents are on the same page as the US and Israel in regard to policy toward Iran.

“… while Iran may not be shocked into action by the revelations, factions within Saudi Arabia may be. There is an escalating unease in the kingdom itself over its allegiance to the United States, and its willingness to support the US and even join in with any military action it mounts against Iran…”

“Crisis For German-American Relations”

The Local wrote on November 29:
 
“In a message attributed to a US diplomat in Berlin dated March 24, 2009, the State Department is told that Merkel is ‘risk averse and rarely creative’… The Americans argue that the chancellor views international diplomacy above all from the perspective of how she can profit from it domestically…

“Merkel’s vice-chancellor and foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle comes in for harsher criticism in the secret documents and is described as incompetent, vain and critical of America… An embassy cable from Berlin from September 22, 2009, days before the general election that put him in office, describes Westerwelle as having an ‘exuberant personality’ but little foreign policy experience…

“Meanwhile Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Germany’s most popular politician, is quoted as telling the US ambassador to Germany, Philip Murphy, in February 2010 that Westerwelle was the real barrier to a US request for an increase in the number of German troops in Afghanistan. Guttenberg also disparages his boss, saying that Merkel has trouble implementing her own economic policies.

“And Horst Seehofer, the head of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Merkel’s Christian Democrats, is shown as unaware that half of 40,000 US troops in Germany are based in his state, which he also governs…

“A German diplomatic source said that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had called Westerwelle on Friday to ‘express her regret about the impending publication of internal US documents.’ Meanwhile US Ambassador Murphy said Monday that there is no reason to apologise to either Westerwelle or Merkel for the information contained in the leaked documents…

“Former US ambassador to Germany John Kornblum, who served in Berlin from 1997 to 2001, told broadcaster ZDF on Monday that the leaks were a crisis for German-American relations. ‘Diplomacy…must function on the basis of trust, and when that trust if broken, as is the case now, then one must begin at almost zero again,’ he said.

“… government spokesman Steffen Seibert told a regular press briefing that Berlin’s ties with Washington would weather the diplomatic storm. ‘The German-American relationship is mature, it has grown so robust over the decades, it is such a deep friendship based on shared values that it will not be seriously damaged by this publication,’ he said.”
 
Whom is he kidding?

German Papers Not Amused

In a related article, The Local wrote on November 29:

“As Washington scrambled on Monday to explain leaked diplomatic communiqués disparaging leaders in Berlin, newspapers in The Local’s media roundup tried to assess the damage to German-American relations… there’s little doubt the leaked communiqués will do little to improve transatlantic ties…

“The left-wing Berliner Zeitung said much damage had been done to US foreign policy by the leak… The paper said the incident will ‘sow mistrust’ and ‘destroy human and political ties,’ which will in turn weaken US diplomacy around the world.

“The Düsseldorf-based Rheinische Post called the episode a disaster for America that would ‘cool Angela Merkel’s already troubled relationship with Barack Obama’…”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 30:

“The dust is still settling after Sunday’s revelations about the contents of 250,000 confidential US diplomatic cables, but it’s already clear that the WikiLeaks disclosure is hugely damaging for the American government… While it remains to be seen what the lasting impact of the explosive leaks will be, it is already clear that the revelations are a huge embarrassment for Washington and a massive setback for US diplomacy. American representatives abroad may find it difficult in the future to find informants who are as willing to talk openly as they might have been in the past, now that reams of supposedly confidential conversations have been made public…

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘… The damage to the US as a result of the documents’ publication is immense… The diplomatic facade has crumbled, revealing just how calculating the business of international politics really is… America’s reserve of trust is empty. … The US has already been struggling for decades to maintain its credibility on the global stage. WikiLeaks has now acted like a weapon of mass destruction on the last traces of trust.’

“The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: ‘…Washington now looks like one giant leak. Who would now trust the Americans to keep confidential conversations confidential? Mistrust will spread, and not only among minor informants. Leaders of the US’s allies have been embarrassed in public, with unpredictable consequences for the relationship between their countries and the states and politicians that they talked about…'”

Nuclear Weapons Hosted in Europe

The EUObserver reported on November 29:

“The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Turkey have US nuclear weapons situated on their soil, the WikiLeaks whistleblower files have revealed. The four countries, along with Italy, had long been suspected of being home to a collection of American nuclear armaments, but neither the states nor Nato had ever officially confirmed or denied their presence…

“According to estimates found in a 2007 report using a variety of different sources to catalogue deployment of US nuclear weapons in Europe from the Natural Resources Defence Council, an American environmental protection NGO, the continent is home to 480 such weapons.

“The report estimated that… Belgium… housed 20 nuclear weapons. The same document reckoned that another 20 are housed… in… the Netherlands. Nuclear weapons are thought to have been stored there since the 1960s and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Some 20 nuclear weapons are believed to be stored in [Germany]… Last October, the country’s foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, came close to admitting their existence when he called ‘for a country free of nuclear weapons’…

“Italy is also thought to host a total of 90 such arms… Turkey… is believed to store 90 such weapons… Beyond the undeclared European nuclear states, the UK, an admitted member of the nuclear club, is home to 110 US nuclear weapons…”

Should Hillary Clinton Resign?

Politics Daily wrote on November 30:

“Should Hillary Clinton resign as secretary of state due to the WikiLeaks revelations?… Clinton, like predecessor Condoleezza Rice, signed orders instructing U.S. foreign service officers to spy on the diplomats of other nations. Cables went out under her name telling State Department officials overseas to collect the fingerprints, facial images, DNA, and iris scans of African leaders, to obtain passwords, credit card numbers, and frequent flyer accounts used by foreign diplomats, and to gather private information on United Nations officials, including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

“Of the many WikiLeaks revelations that have emerged in the past few days — and more are to come in the next few months, as the renegade website continues to release batches of the 251,287 State Department cables it has obtained — the news that U.S. diplomats have been turned into part-time spies certainly warrants thorough investigation. Obama administration officials, of course, have tried to make the leak itself the paramount issue. Attorney General Eric Holder has promised prosecutions if ‘we can find anybody involved in breaking American law.’ Clinton has called the leak ‘an attack on America’s foreign policy interests,’ claiming it has endangered ‘innocent people.’ Republican Rep. Peter King urged Clinton to determine if WikiLeaks can be designated a terrorist organization. Sen. Joe Lieberman has called on the United States and other governments to shut down WikiLeaks. Sarah Palin, naturally, blamed President Barack Obama’s ‘incompetence’ for the leaks…

“Yet there have not been such passionate calls for investigating the transformation of U.S. diplomats into undercover snoops. The administration’s strategy — as is to be expected — is to focus on the easy-to-demonize messenger, not the hard-to-explain message…
 
“In many other nations, news such as this would indeed prompt resignations of high officials. The United States does not have this noble tradition. Here, government officials hold on for dear life when trouble erupts. (How many U.S. officials resigned when it turned out the Bush-Cheney administration was wrong about WMDs in Iraq? None.) So one can expect Clinton to dig in her heels, as the administration decries the leaker and ignores the leaks…”

IRS targets Pro-Israel Groups

Politico reported on November 24:
 
“A Pennsylvania Jewish group that has claimed the Internal Revenue Service is targeting pro-Israel groups introduced in federal court today a letter from an IRS agent to [an] unnamed organization that tax experts said was likely outside the usual or appropriate scope of an IRS inquiry.

“‘Does your organization support the existence of the land of Israel?’ [an] IRS agent… wrote the organization… as part of its consideration of the organization’s application for tax exempt status. ‘Describe your organization’s religious belief system toward the land of Israel.’…

“The IRS can deny tax exempt status to groups that work against ‘established public policy,’ a precedent established in its denial of a tax exemption to Bob Jones University over racial discrimination.”

There are many more or less independent and/or unsupervised powerful institutions within the US government which are perceived to threaten our individual and collective freedoms and liberties.

China Has Not Changed…

CNN reported on November 26:
 
“Having just enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner, the American soldiers were told they would be home by Christmas as they launched their final offensive. In fact, they were driving into the greatest ambush in modern history. Twelve miles to their north, 380,000 brilliantly camouflaged enemy fighters lay in wait. In the days that followed, the U.S. Army would suffer its most harrowing ordeal of the past half-century. Two American regiments were massacred at a pass called Kunu-ri; another was annihilated beside a frozen lake called Chosin. The time was 60 years ago; the battlefield was North Korea; the enemy was China’s People’s Liberation Army.

“Despite wide-ranging global changes — the fall of European communism, the end of the Cold War, China-U.S. rapprochement, the rise of China as economic superpower — there has been no indication that Beijing has altered its stance toward maintaining the isolated regime in the peninsula’s north since it routed U.S.-led United Nations forces in Korea in the winter of 1950.

“‘China does not want to lose North Korea as a buffer zone vis-a-vis a pro-U.S. country — South Korea,’ said Kim Won-ho, dean of the Graduate School of International Studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. ‘The last thing China wants to see is U.S.-style democracy in North Korea,’ added congresswoman Song Sun-young, who sits on the South Korean National Assembly’s Defense Committee. ‘Even if they apply open-door policies to their markets, China wants North Korea to follow the Chinese style’…

“North Korea, in addition to its strategic position on China’s doorstep, is a rare voice of support buttressing China’s historical role at the heart of Asia… Meanwhile, South Korea’s relationship with China is conflicted… Six decades after China crossed the Yalu River to fight in Korea, the competing alliances borne of that conflict — the world’s last remaining Cold War battlefront — remain firmly in place.”

Beware of Russia

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 26:

“Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wants the EU and Russia to forge a massive free trade zone. German commentators are wary of the wily politician’s true intentions and urge Europe’s politicians to read the small print…

“The reaction to Putin’s piece was mixed from the German side. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle welcomed Putin’s suggestion… Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg described it as an ‘interesting proposal,’ but added the caveat that ‘there are certainly a few things that need to be done first.’ Merkel was more reserved in her response, saying on Thursday that recent steps by Russia did ‘not exactly point in the right direction’…

“The business daily Handelsblatt writes: ‘Without political reform in the direction of greater democracy and a freer market, without Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization, and without the release of [political prisoners], proposals like those regarding the free-trade zone will remain nothing but a smokescreen that Putin is creating in a bid to polish his tarnished image in Europe.’

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘… Has the great chameleon Russia now decided to change its color once again?… The global economic crisis may have caused great damage to many countries, but it left Russia in ruins. The country will not be able to head into the future relying on its oil, gas and metals any more. The model of a great power based on raw materials is a thing of the past, and Moscow can no longer depend on energy prices as it once did. Russia must open itself up… In the long term, the country has more to gain than to lose…’

“The Financial Times Deutschland writes: ‘… He wants Russian companies to have access to Western European know-how and capital — but under Russian conditions. The Russian prime minister may have recognized the problem, but he has reached the wrong conclusions… The country’s potential can only be tapped when companies are given freedom and legal security… Freedom, however, is an idea that Putin still finds it hard to get to grips with.'”

The Future of the Euro

Bloomberg wrote on November 25:
 
“The European banking system would be ‘nearly bust’ if the euro were to be abandoned which means the 16-member currency ‘cannot and should not go,’ Evolution Securities Ltd. said. ‘If the euro is abandoned, and we go back to the peseta, lira, escudo, drachma etc., devaluations would follow immediately,’ said Arturo de Frias, head of bank research at Evolution in a note to investors today, adding the industry is a ‘great buying opportunity.’ Devaluations mean write-offs ‘of a size that would render the whole European banking system completely insolvent.’

“Contagion from Europe’s sovereign debt crisis is spreading to Spain, sparking concern that the European rescue fund set up in May isn’t large enough. French, German and U.K. banks could lose 360 billion euros ($479 billion) if the euro collapsed, assuming a 30 percent devaluation in the wake of the restoration of national currencies, said de Frias.

“The damage caused by the abandonment of the euro would be such that such an outcome is impossible and the ‘only way forward’ for Europe is fiscal union, he said. ‘It is simply too late,’ he wrote. ‘There are too many cross-border investments in Europe to go back to national currencies.’

“If Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Ireland devalue by 30 percent on the way to readopting national currencies, total losses for German banks alone would be 120 billion euros, said de Frias. That’s almost half the total equity of German lenders, he said… In such a scenario, losses at U.K. banks would reach 80 billion euros, equivalent to nearly half the equity of Barclays Plc, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc., he said.

“’And this is only the banks. What would happen with the investments of the large European multinationals’ like Siemens AG, Tesco Plc and others…”

Did Britain Do It Right?

The Daily Express wrote on November 25:
 
“From this day forth our energies will be directed to furthering the cause of those who believe Britain is better off out… After far too many years as the victims of Brussels larceny, bullying, over-regulation and all-round interference, the time has come for the British people to win back their country and restore legitimacy and accountability to their political process….
 
“This newspaper has always been hostile to the dilution of national sovereignty that EU membership entailed, but it has also always acknowledged that economic arguments were key. So long as there was a case to be made that leaving the EU would risk jobs and investment in Britain there was a powerful brake on thoughts of leaving altogether… We were told that staying out of the eurozone would be a financial disaster, yet it is now clear beyond doubt that the opposite was true… “
 
Just merely based on monetary considerations, this view point might sound correct in the short term, but the Bible shows that in the longer term, continental EU and the euro will be dominating and all-powerful factors to be reckoned with. In fact, the EU will fight and win not only a monetary, but also a military war against Great Britain. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.”

Practical Impossibility to Leave the Euro-Zone

BBC News reported on November 24:

“Much has been written about the theoretical attractions for financially troubled countries in exiting the euro-zone. But the question of how a country would go about it is less well explored. And the more closely you examine the question of ‘how’ – as opposed to ‘why’ – a country might leave the euro, the clearer it becomes that the practical difficulties are huge.

“To establish a new currency a country would have to convert all existing euro-denominated savings at a fixed rate on a given date. But savers and businesses would not wait passively for that date to arrive… The first practical problem, then, is that if it becomes clear that a country is seriously thinking of leaving the euro a huge amount of money will leave the country. This is sometimes referred to as ‘capital flight’. The overall effect would be to trigger huge transfers of deposits out of the country and wreck the banking system…

“But if a prolonged national debate about leaving the euro creates a risk of capital flight, would the alternative be to prepare in secret and announce it suddenly?… the idea that huge numbers of new bank notes could be prepared and distributed in secret… is absurd…

“However, suppose for a moment that these practical problems could be overcome, where would the country leaving the euro stand financially? It would have a large national debt denominated in euros…

“The euro came into circulation without too many hitches, albeit with many years of preparation. East Germany’s Ostmarks were converted into Deutschmarks. But the key difference is that in these cases the currency into which savings were being switched was perceived to be stable. The incentive for capital flight did not exist.

“… if the fundamental problem is substituting a weak currency for a strong one, the most practical solution would be for the strongest members of the euro-zone to leave the currency union. It means that… Germany could leave the euro while weaker countries could not… it seems massively unlikely that a German government would initiate the break-up of the euro. The euro was not designed with any possibility of break-up in mind… the point of a currency union is that it is supposed to be unbreakable.”

The EU was destined to unite, and the euro is one of the means of such unification. Please also read the next article, which proves as well that the notion that the euro could be exchanged for national currencies is just ridiculous. To believe such speculation would be tantamount to questioning biblical prophecy. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.”

Comeback of National Currencies Would be a Disaster for EU and Germany

Der Spiegel wrote on November 29:

“Europe is discussing the horror scenario of a break-up of the euro zone. At present, that still seems unlikely, but experts are alarmed. A comeback of national currencies would be fatal — especially for Germany… what would really happen if the euro collapsed? Would it really herald a return to the good, old days, to a Germany that uses the much-revered deutsche mark? Or could it actually be a harbinger of chaos and economic depression?…

“Germany has reaped all sorts of benefits from the euro. A collapse of the common currency would have dramatic effects. Here is a list of possible consequences:

“… the high transaction costs alone would cause massive damage to the national economy. For example, huge amounts of new bank notes would have to be printed, and mountains of coins would have to be minted… Merchants and restaurant owners, for example, would have to re-adjust all their prices…
 
“… leading German economist Peter Bofinger said: ‘Many Germans’ eyes would start to glisten with emotion if the deutsche mark were to come back.’ But he also warned that ‘the economic consequences would be disastrous’… [It] would make German goods dramatically more expensive abroad, which would result in a serious competitive disadvantage, especially since roughly 40 percent of German exports go to other euro-zone countries.
 
“Last summer, Gerhard Cromme, chairman of the supervisory board of German engineering giant Siemens, described the consequences in drastic terms: ‘Prices would shoot up so high that those of us in the industrial sector would no longer be able to sell anything out there in the world.’ …

“Experts calculate that there would be severe job cuts in Germany if this were to happen… German companies would also have to assume billions in additional costs. For example, without the euro, they would have to hedge themselves against major currency fluctuations. Thanks to the common currency, this has not been necessary when exporting to countries within the euro zone.

“What’s more, a collapse of the euro… would throw financial markets into chaos. At the moment, all the big German banks have euro-denominated government bonds issued by other EU countries on their books. Were the common currency to disappear, these countries would be forced to repurchase these bonds in… whatever currency they assumed. But this would present the banks with a serious problem… German banks would be threatened with enormous loan losses…

“A defeat of the euro would be a victory for the dollar, which would continue on for the time being as the unrivalled currency for all major international transactions. At the same time, a breakup of the euro zone would also cause damage at the political level. As Andreas Scheuerle, an economist with DekaBank, said last summer: ‘Europe would suffer a massive decline in importance vis-à-vis the United States and China.’…
 
“The political consequences would be downright devastating… an end to the euro zone could lead to significant tension between EU member states. In the end… the entire European Union would be threatened.”
 
The Bible predicts that this will not happen–at least not until sometime AFTER the beginning of the Great Tribulation.

USA vs. Germany?

Reuters reported on December 1:

“The United States would be ready to support the extension of the European Financial Stability Facility via an extra commitment of money from the International Monetary Fund, a U.S. official told Reuters on Wednesday… U.S. Treasurys’ [sic] prices fell and the euro strengthened against the dollar on Wednesday after the news that the United States would be prepared to support an enlarged EFSF.

“Germany, whose leaders have expressed frustration at the market backlash against their plans to solve the euro zone’s debt problems, does not want to make the stability fund larger.”

Germany Not Liked Too Much in Europe

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 26:
 
“Everyone is talking about German Chancellor Angela Merkel these days — and most of what they have to say isn’t complimentary. Her plan to create a bankruptcy mechanism for euro-zone countries, they say, has worsened the debt crisis in Ireland and elsewhere. Merkel’s name, once widely respected, is now mud…
 
“Ever since the sovereign debt crisis began shaking the euro zone, Germany has been the target of criticism more frequently than it has in a long time. And the image of the chancellor has been badly blemished…
 
“In the middle of Europe’s crisis, the former image of the ugly German — all-powerful and arrogant — has returned. Groaning under the weight of the euro crisis, Ireland sees itself as a victim of German conceit. The Irish press writes of ‘neo-colonialism.’ One of the largest newspapers in the country, the Irish Independent, quotes Fine Gael politician Michael Noonan, saying: ‘Can I ask whether this is what the men of 1916 died for: a bailout from the German chancellor with a few shillings of sympathy from the British chancellor on the side?’…

“The president of the Euro Group, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, has hinted at his own concern about Germany’s European policies… ‘That in Germany federal and local authorities are slowly losing sight of European public good, that does worry me,’ he told the newspaper Rheinischer Merkur…

“The influential Spanish daily El País wrote about ‘the clumsiness of Europe’s leaders.’ The article claimed that German unintentionally made things much worse for Ireland by demanding that private investors be held partially liable for losses… Many German taxpayers have been wondering why they should have to foot the entire bill for a mess in which the banks were also heavily involved… Experts in the financial industry are not very impressed with the Germans at the moment…”

However, the time will come–and soon–when Europe will grudgingly ask Germany to lead them–and they will even surrender their power and authority to a charismatic German or Austrian leader. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Is That in the Bible?–The Mystery of the Book of Revelation.”

“A Problem Like Korea”

As the following articles show, the USA is manifesting itself more and more as a completely helpless giant, unable to solve any problems in national and international matters. The pride of US power is surely gone.

Deutsche Welle reported on November 24:

“The divided Korean Peninsula has provided every sitting US president with a dilemma ever since Dwight Eisenhower brokered an armistice in the Korean War, an act that paused but did not officially end a conflict which had raged for almost three years and which cost some 36,000 American lives. Due to the fact that no official peace deal was agreed 58 years ago, the two Koreas have been living under the shadow of a potential return to war ever since Eisenhower’s intervention.

“America’s involvement in the war that divided Korea along the 38th parallel also continues to this day due to the commitment of the US to protect South Korea from any aggression by its communist neighbors in the North. Around 29,000 US troops remain deployed in South Korea.

“Presidents Johnson, Ford and Carter all had run-ins with North Korea during their times in office while more contemporary administrations of Bill Clinton, and both Bush presidencies have had to deal with the North’s growing nuclear ambitions.

“While skirmishes in the seas around the Korean Peninsula and small scale attacks on land gave the immediate post-war presidents a real headache, the last three US leaders have found that the increasingly unpredictable North, with its now indisputable yet crude nuclear weapons, has become a completely different problem. But while the nature of its threat has changed, the question as to how best to deal with North Korea endures…

“While the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island by the North and the responding fire from the South on Tuesday was the most serious exchange between the two Koreas in over a year – the disputed sinking of the South’s corvette ‘Cheonan’ in March aside – this incident is just the latest in a long line of skirmishes. However, the bombing of Yeonpyeong comes just a week after the North revealed a nuclear enrichment facility to a group of American scientists so advanced that it shocked the US…

“President Obama is honour-bound to protect South Korea, as his predecessors have been, and as such has strongly affirmed his commitment to defend it as part of the alliance which stretches back to the Korean War. The nuclear-powered USS Washington aircraft carrier was deployed to the Yellow Sea off the coast of South Korea on Wednesday. But with North Korea’s nuclear capability more advanced than first thought, the US president is unwilling to provoke any escalation and has chosen not to reposition any of the 29,000 US troops in the South closer to the de-militarized zone…

“Experts believe that Obama’s options are limited. Many consider it highly unlikely that the US will engage in any military action against the North, partly because of its nuclear capability and partly because it has a huge army of 9.45 million troops. If the US commitment to South Korea’s defense is to be invoked, it will most likely come in the form of support, not direct intervention…

“The US is also unlikely to want to anger China, North Korea’s only international and economic supporter. While China has called for restraint on the Korean Peninsula, Beijing has refused to issue an outright condemnation of the bombing of Yeonpyeong, even as veiled calls to do so from the United States and Japan began to circulate…

“But with the US unlikely to take military action against North Korea, some experts believe that its commitment toward its allies in Asia may be seen by some countries as wavering. The knock-on effect on regional stability could be just as damaging in the long term as an air strike.”

Obama Disappoints Israelis and Palestinians

Newsmax reported on November 22:

“It’s not just people in the U.S. who are upset with President Barack Obama. Israelis and Palestinians, who agree on very little, are in accord that the president is to blame for their political stalemate, Politico reports. To be sure, both sides in the Middle East dispute have never been willing to acknowledge that their own hard-line stances don’t exactly create an environment for peace to suddenly flourish. Nonetheless, they expected much from the new American leader and feel they have received little.”

America’s role as the world’s leader is clearly no longer reality. The Bible prophesied that this would happen.

China and Russia Renounce US Dollar

China News reported on November 24:

“China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday. Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies.”

The Bible predicts the downfall of the U.S. dollar, as well as a close alliance between Russia, China and other countries in the Far East.

Irish Democracy Under EU “Protectorship”

The EUObserver reported on November 22:

“The Irish government has applied for an EU-IMF bail-out of up to €90 billion to save its banking sector from collapse and reduce its borrowing costs, a move that in effect places Irish democracy, like that of Greece, under the protectorship of experts from Brussels and Washington…

“EU economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn conceded that the emergency action was taken essentially to protect the eurozone from further contagion: ‘Providing assistance to Ireland is warranted to safeguard the financial stability in Europe’…”

That Ireland would ask for European bailouts was predictable. The EU will not allow the euro to die, as also one of the following articles points out. But we also see how certain individual member states will become more and more dependent on European “protectorship,” and, as the next article shows, the possibility of a two-speed Europe, with one core Europe dominating the rest, is becoming more and more a distinct possibility.

A Two-Speed Europe?

On November 22, 2010, Der Siegel Online reported:

“Yesterday it was Greece, and now it’s the sorry state of Irish banks that poses a threat to the common currency. Each new report fuels the suspicion that the problems may be so pervasive that they can no longer be solved with CONVENTIONAL methods and by taking on more and more debt…

“A deep divide between two almost irreconcilable camps runs through Europe. German Chancellor Angela Merkel heads one camp, consisting of the northern European countries. Merkel sees herself as the defender of a culture of stability of the sort that Germany has maintained since the days of the deutschmark. Her goal is to prevent the monetary union from becoming a kind of transfer union, with Germany as paymaster.

“The second camp consists of the so-called PIIGS states, which have accumulated too much debt in the past and are now hoping for help: Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. They want the thing that Merkel wants to prevent: a union in which the strong pay for the weak. Europe’s institutions are now maneuvering between these two camps…

“Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker supports the idea of issuing euro bonds. These are government bonds whose repayment is not guaranteed by the issuing country but by the entire monetary union. The southern euro-zone countries think this is an excellent idea. The Germans and the Austrians are against it. This sort of project would penalize those ‘who are dutifully sorting out their national finances’ and benefits those ‘who haven’t done their homework,’ says Austrian Finance Minister Josef Pröll.”

The existence of two camps in Europe may signal the beginning of a development, which has long ago been prophesied in Scripture; that is, that a core Europe of ten nations or groups of nations will arise, which will then give all their power and authority to a charismatic, but ruthless political and military European leader.

Merkel’s Strong Stance on Europe In Spite of Opposition

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 23:

“For the second time in just a few months, Angela Merkel will have to explain to voters why Germany must bail out a fellow euro-zone member state. Skepticism is growing — amongst voters, in the media and within her party…

“Now that Ireland has become the second country in the euro zone to ask for a bailout from the European Union, and given that Portugal may not be far behind, politicians in Germany have a problem… As the strongest economy in Europe, Germany will once again be called upon to step up to the plate…

“The German chancellor recently issued a sober warning about the need to support the common currency. ‘The way we address the issue of a stable euro will determine the health of the economic and monetary union, the future of the European Union as a whole and therefore also our future here in Germany,’ she said.

“… Merkel and her strategists have been concerned about the possibility that a euroskeptic party in Germany could at some point profit from the general mood of discontent regarding the EU… The mood in the German media landscape is not exactly sympathetic to Merkel’s position. ‘Euro Alarm — What the Bankrupt Irish Will Cost Us,’ read a recent headline in the influential tabloid Bild. During the Greek crisis, the newspaper caused an international furor with its provocative headlines. Now the Irish are worried they will be next in the German media’s pillory…

“But Merkel is determined to stand firm on the issue… In order to secure popular acceptance for a bailout, Merkel and her colleagues want to put pressure on Dublin to implement a tough reform program…

“Merkel also needs to keep an eye on the opposition. Sigmar Gabriel, the leader of the center-left Social Democrats, is looking to make political capital out of the euro’s latest woes, just as he did during Greece’s debt crisis. He accuses Merkel of concealing the truth from voters and damaging Europe. ‘Those countries that have benefited most from the common currency — such as Germany, the world’s second largest exporter — must ensure that the poorer countries in the euro zone are helped,’ Gabriel recently said.

“The emergency funds for Ireland do not need to be approved by the German parliament, the Bundestag. The parliament already passed the euro rescue fund at the height of the Greek debt crisis, effectively clearing the way for help for Ireland too. This time around, the German government only needs to inform the parliament’s budget committee of its plans.”

A German Eurozone?

Deutsche Welle reported on November 23:

“This Irish rescue package agreed this week – along with the Greek bailout earlier in the year – has found the eurozone countries hopelessly divided over the question of how to save the common currency in the long term. They have good reason to be concerned: The bond markets aren’t showing a healthy interest in Portugal, another likely bailout candidate. Nor are they particularly impressed with Spain, an even bigger economy with a similarly troubling debt load, a high unemployment rate and a stagnating economy. Should these countries also seek relief, the future of the euro could be on the line.

“The alarm bells are ringing in Berlin. The German government could end up paying 17 billion euros or more of the expected 90-billion-euro Irish rescue package… In addition to being promised that the euro would be as stable as the deutschmark, Germans were told prior to the deutschmark-euro conversion that there would be a ‘no bailout clause’ that would prevent Europe’s richer countries from having to rescue the indigent.

“With every new day of uncertainty, fears are mounting that the ongoing crisis in Europe could lead to the default of individual countries and ultimately the collapse of the eurozone…

“Some experts question, though, how big a role Germany, Europe’s largest economy, should play in stabilizing the eurozone. Turning the eurozone into a larger Germany, says Philip Whyte with the Centre for European Reform in London, could have adverse consequences – not only for the country itself but also for Europe and even the rest of the world… Expert Heinemann is confident the common currency will survive. ‘I don’t see the euro breaking apart,’ he said…”

The Euro Will Survive

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 24:

“Europe is gripped by a sense of alarm, now that Ireland has become the second euro-zone country to ask for a bailout. Pessimists claim that the crisis means the euro is finished. But that scenario is unrealistic — in reality, there is little to suggest that the common currency is about to disintegrate…

“A serious threat to the euro would only emerge if the financial markets lost faith in major debtor countries like Spain and Italy. But there is little evidence of that happening right now. Firstly, that is because these countries have all passed austerity measures, and secondly because there is enough money available on the market.

“European governments are serious about austerity, while in the US there is no sign of how President Barack Obama plans to get his country’s trillion-dollar deficit under control. Close to 9 percent of all US public spending this year was financed on credit, a considerably greater amount than in the euro zone. And whereas the European Central Bank has at least kept the inflation rate in mind with its currency policies, the US Federal Reserve keeps pumping billions of new dollars into the economy. It is unclear what the outcome of this gigantic wager will be.

“The situation doesn’t look much better in Japan. For a long time, the country was the world’s second-largest economy after the United States. But the Japanese economy has experienced a lasting recession over the past 20 years, and this year it is likely to be overtaken by China. By comparison, Europe looks as dynamic as an emerging economy. The public debt in Japan is at about 200 percent of GDP, around 2.5 times as high as the euro-zone average.

“And the much-celebrated emerging economies themselves are still packed with risks when it comes to investment possibilities. No one knows exactly how long the growth of the Chinese economy will continue. It will take a recession to truly determine the true condition of the country’s economy.

“Nor is it foreseeable at the moment that the yuan will become a serious global alternative to the euro and the dollar in the near future. The currency isn’t even freely tradable in international markets. So far, that situation has suited the Chinese government just fine…

“Europe’s debt problems are without a doubt considerable. But compared to the United States and Japan, the euro-zone states can already point to initial successes in sorting out their finances. In addition, their economies are in better shape. That will help to ensure that the euro remains one of the world’s most important, and thus attractive, currencies.”

Germany’s Astounding Growth

Site Selection’s monthly edition for November reported the following:

“While much of the world slowly emerges from the crisis, Germany is setting records for economic growth and new corporate facility projects… Rob Denman, CEO of London-based Pathfinder Business, believes Germany set itself up for success a decade ago… Denman says the Germans have developed and used core FDI strategies around incentives and clusters and developed world-renowned centers of excellence. ‘They have also developed a globally recognized position as leaders in growth sectors…’

“‘Germany has also developed well-recognized excellence in innovation, and has created the best environment for R&D,’ he says. ‘For example, German brands such as Siemens have been taking the lead and innovating certain aspects of the cleantech sector… It is this innovation that will keep attracting other companies to want to come and be close to the best organizations and, importantly, to give them access to the best talent that will keep Germany at the center of Europe.’

“Not even the biggest global economic slowdown since World War II could tame Germany’s astounding growth…”

Germany’s growth is not astonishing, but it was and is inevitable, based on biblical prophecies.

Terror Attacks in Germany?

Israel National News reported on November 20:

“A terror alert has been issued in Germany. According to Der Spiegel, terrorist groups are planning an attack on the nation’s parliament building, the Reichstag. Al-Qaeda and similar groups planned to take hostages in the building, the paper said. The attack is to take place early next year…

“German officials raised security at airports and train stations last week. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere announced that there was ‘concrete’ evidence that terrorists were plotting attacks to take place in November…”

The Daily Mail added on November 22:

“The world famous glass dome atop the Berlin Reichstag has been closed to all visitors as fears mount of an impending terrorist attack in the capital… Numerous holy warriors raised in Germany have been filtering back into the country in recent months following spells in training camps in Pakistan.”

Germany in Fear

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 22:

“German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière put the entire country in a state of fright on Wednesday…  Wherever they have cause for doing so, the authorities are secretly monitoring communications, conducting surveillance operations and launching undercover investigations… Berlin Senator for the Interior Ehrhart Körting… has already even gone so far as to call on the inhabitants of the German capital city to report suspicious-looking individuals of Arab origin to the police…

“This November will drastically alter de Maizière’s understanding of his role in office. If he tries to return things to their previous state of calm, he’s going to have a very tough time. In fact, it’s much more likely that he will be a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT interior minister…

“Germany is in a state of emergency. Other countries, such as the United States, employ a system of official warning levels based on color codes that change — from yellow to orange, for example — when the danger level is thought to increase. But, in Germany, the interior minister is the barometer: He consults with experts — and then it is he who must call the shots…”

Germany’s state of fear is not a good sign for democracy and freedom. Considering the country’s history, such a situation has always led to regrettable developments with undesirable consequences. And if terrorists are really foolish enough to launch attacks inside Germany, the German reaction against Islamists and Muslims in general will be swift and strong. But perhaps this is the kind of external and internal threat which will force Europe to unite and to create a powerful European army.

Pope Approves of Condoms–in Rare Exceptions

The Associated Press wrote on November 20:

“Pope Benedict XVI says in a new book that the use of condoms can be justified in some cases, such as for male prostitutes seeking to prevent the spread of HIV. The pontiff made the comments in a book-length interview with a German journalist, ‘Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times.'”

The Wall Street Journal wrote on November 21:

“The Vatican on Sunday rushed to clarify a recent interview by Pope Benedict XVI, in which the pontiff states for the first time that there may be some cases in which the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on condoms isn’t absolute… The Vatican, however, played down the potential impact the remarks might have on church teaching. ‘The pope’s thinking certainly can’t be defined as a revolutionary shift,’ said Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi…”

On November 22, The Telegraph added the following regarding the “confusion” created by the pope’s statements:

” The Pope faced calls to clarify his stance on condoms as confusion reigned over exactly what he meant… The Vatican insisted yesterday that the use of condoms was only permissible in ‘exceptional’ cases but did little to clarify the apparent volte-face. ‘The pope considered an exceptional situation in which the exercise of sexuality is a real danger to the life of another,’ said Father Federico Lombardi, his official spokesman.”

The Roman Catholic church’s position on the use or, more correctly, non-use of condoms and contraceptives to prevent pregnancies is simply irresponsible and totally unbiblical. The legitimate prevention of conceptions and pregnancies is absolutely justified. What is not justified and unbiblical are abortions–that is, the killing of an unborn child, having been conceived in the mother’s womb.

Jewish Leaders Upset With Pope

Reuters wrote on November 21:

“Jewish leaders reacted with dismay Sunday to comments in Pope Benedict’s new book that his wartime predecessor Pius was a ‘great, righteous’ man who ‘saved more Jews than anyone else.’

“Many Jews accuse Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, of having turned a blind eye to the Holocaust. The Vatican says he worked quietly behind the scenes because speaking out would have prompted Nazi reprisals against Catholics and Jews in Europe…

“‘Pope Benedict’s comments fill us with pain and sadness and cast a menacing shadow on Vatican-Jewish relations,’ said Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants.

“‘The assertion that Pius saved more Jews than anyone else during the Holocaust is categorically contradicted by the known historical record. As survivors of the Holocaust we have a solemn obligation to the memory of those murdered to defend the truth of the tragedy till our last breath,’ he said… Pius, including the possibility that the Vatican may one day make him a saint, is one of the main points of contention in relations between Jews and the Vatican. The pope’s latest comments raised new tensions.”

The Pope Contacts Iran

Newsmax reported on November 12:

“Pope Benedict XVI has shared his thoughts with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on how to achieve world peace, and at the same time appealed for greater religious freedom in the Middle East… The Pope’s letter… is both courteous and positive without being overtly critical…

“In the pontiff’s letter, Benedict XVI took the opportunity to defend Iran’s 10,000 or so Catholics. Although they are allowed to worship in Iran, Iranian Muslims cannot freely convert to the Catholic faith and the country’s bishops conference does not have official status… He also stressed the positive contribution Catholics play in Iranian society as peace builders… And he argued for a bilateral commission that would be especially helpful in addressing questions of common concern, including that of the juridical status of the Catholic Church in the country. The Pope closed by expressing his hope that the cordial relations between Iran and the Holy See continue.

“The Islamic Republic and the Holy See–both theocratic states–have long had friendly diplomatic ties: Since it established formal relations with the Holy See in 1953, Iran has supported the church on some life issues. However, the Holy See hasn’t held back from criticizing Iran when necessary, especially over Holocaust denial and the country’s nuclear ambitions. Neither of these was explicitly mentioned in the letter…”

Merkel Wins Against Obama

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 12:

“Germany successfully managed to thwart US demands for rigid rules on trade imbalances… [Merkel] enjoyed a preliminary VICTORY in the dispute with the United States over trade imbalances. The American demand for binding limits to be placed on countries with major trade surpluses — a demand aimed clearly at Germany and China — has been taken off the agenda for now… Obama has emerged as one of the LOSERS of the Seoul summit.”

USA Jealous of Germany

The Local reported on November 18:

“… rather than welcome the success of its European partner, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has suggested that Germany’s trade surplus be capped: in other words, that exports be banned if they go above a certain level. He is supported by voices from EU headquarters in Brussels and Germany’s socialist Left party. This is an odd coalition of free trade opponents, but they are united by one thing: envy.

“US President Barack Obama adopted his finance minister’s proposal ahead of the G20 in Seoul, South Korea last week, but fortunately Chancellor Angela Merkel resisted his pressuring. After all, she is in a strong position: the Americans are criticizing Germany for what it is apparently doing right.

“Success breeds resentment, and it’s no surprise that German opposition parties and certain nations are grinding their teeth, because the German example puts pressure on their leaders to explain themselves. But why are Germans themselves not more proud of the achievements they have helped produce?

“Even as their country has escaped the maelstrom of the crisis – and with an even healthier job market than before – Germans are lost in raging debates about disillusionment with politics, a crisis in democracy, deep social insecurity and other supposed anxieties of the zeitgeist… While life expectancy rises every year, so does anxiety about chemicals in food, healthy diets and fitness. Will Germans ever be relaxed and satisfied?…”

“Embarrassment in Seoul”

The Wall Street Journal wrote on November 13:

“Has there ever been a major economic summit where a U.S. President and his Treasury Secretary were as thoroughly rebuffed as they were at this week’s G-20 meeting in Seoul? We can’t think of one. President Obama failed to achieve any of his main goals while getting pounded by other world leaders for failing U.S. policies and lagging growth.

“The root of this embarrassment is political and intellectual: Rather than leading the world from a position of strength, Mr. Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner came to Seoul blaming the rest of the world for U.S. economic weakness. America’s problem, in their view, is the export and exchange rate policies of the Germans, Chinese or Brazilians. And the U.S. solution is to have the Fed print enough money to devalue the dollar so America can grow by stealing demand from the rest of the world.

“But why should anyone heed this U.S. refrain? The Germans are growing rapidly after having rejected Mr. Geithner’s advice in 2009 to join the U.S. stimulus spending blowout. China is also growing smartly having rejected counsel from three U.S. Administrations to abandon its currency discipline. The U.K. and even France are pursuing more fiscal restraint…

“The American FAILURE was most acute on trade, as the U.S. and South Korea couldn’t agree on a bilateral pact that the two countries had signed three years ago… Mr. Obama’s negotiators left Seoul empty-handed… faltering American influence will produce a vacuum in which every nation can seek narrow advantage…”

America’s Shrinking Influence in the World

CNN wrote on November 12:

“Opening The New York Times on Friday morning, I blinked. The headline on its lead story, spread over two columns, blared out, ‘Obama’s Economic View Is Rejected on World Stage.’

“Whether or not you like this president, the headline should make every American wince. Yes, other presidents have experienced setbacks, but it has been a long time since any of them has been so publicly rebuffed in a gathering of the world’s major nations. Indeed, since World War II, our presidents have dominated the world’s economic decision-making…

“There is a suggestion coming from the White House that the press is being unduly dramatic in its reporting on these setbacks. But is this believable about The New York Times? Hardly. No, what we have here is something more serious: not only a president who is personally weakened by elections at home but a proud NATION that is also WEAKENED in the eyes of the world.

“For too long, the U.S. has been seen by a growing number of other nations as acting recklessly with our finances. Within less than a generation, we have fallen from being the world’s biggest creditor to the world’s biggest debtor. Fingers are also pointed at us for CAUSING the Great Recession.

“We increasingly face a stark choice: Either we get our economic house in order or we will lose much of our influence — and our leadership — on the world stage.”

Sadly, the USA will lose much more than just leadership and influence on the world scene. Europe epically feels more and more provoked by American politics and its perceived “arrogance,” and the time will come when it will “retaliate” and pay back in no uncertain terms. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.”

Fear of Trade War

Fox News wrote on November 11:

“The world’s economies stand on the brink of a trade war… A dispute over whether China and the United States are manipulating their currencies is threatening to resurrect destructive protectionist policies like those that worsened the Great Depression. The biggest fear is that trade barriers will send the global economy back into recession…

“A full-blown trade war could lead countries to erect punitive barriers to imports — a replay of what happened in the 1930s. A law the United States passed in 1930 that raised tariffs on imports is widely thought to have DEEPENED the Great Depression by stifling trade.”

Real Threat of Nuclear War

The Pravda reported on October 28:

“On October 23rd, the United States lost the control over a part of its nuclear arsenal for 45 minutes. The news was made public several days later… Needless to say that the incident… has caused quite an uproar in the world taking into consideration the fact that the missiles can turn a large country into radioactive ruins. The 13,000-kilometer range missiles are capable of striking targets in practically any part of the globe. They are the only land-based ICBMs of the United States…

“The incident… means that we can not exclude an unauthorized launch of ICBMs. The Americans failed to control the operation of electric cables, but what about the complicated informational systems? It is an open secret that hackers can easily overcome all possible and impossible barriers today, hacking into computer systems of NASA and the Pentagon. Can we say for sure that there will be no unauthorized launch of missiles in this or that country some day? It is obvious that such a perspective poses a very serious threat to the whole world.

“‘Nobody wants to be the first to use nuclear arms today, but in case of unauthorized launch a country may provoke an act of retaliation,’ Anatoly Tsyganok, an expert with the Institute for Political and Military Analysis told Pravda.Ru.

“One should bear in mind the so-called human factor… There was a case when a [U.S.] sergeant, being in a state of mental stress, fired his gun at a nuclear warhead. Thus, the joke about a drunk sergeant who pressed the red button and then asked where Belgium went, does not seem to be funny.

“We have to admit that the issue of technical security of strategic arms is a very relevant one for Russia too. Vladimir Yakovlev, the former commander of Russian strategic missile troops, stated back in 1998 that about two-thirds of missile complexes and control systems in the arsenal of the forces were beyond their warranty life spans. Many experts admit that nothing has changed for the better since then. That is why Russia should learn from US mistakes.”

California’s Mysterious Missile

The Pravda wrote on November 11:

“It lit up the sky in the Pacific. On film and seen by many witnesses, a missile was sighted over California. On the film, you can see the unexplained contrail. The launch occurred about 35 miles out at sea, west of Los Angeles and north of Catalina Island. Oddly enough, all witnesses, without exception, described it as a missile. Anyone who has seen a live and in person missile or spacecraft launch will clearly recognize the contrail left by the flying object.

“CBS affiliate KCBS television caught the launch on camera and reported that military officials were ‘tight-lipped over the nature of the projectile.’ NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) were at a loss to explain the sighting. They doubted that it was a missile of foreign origin. Even though missile tests are frequently conducted in the area, there were no tests being done at the time, nor by the Navy or Vandenburg Air Force Base.”

In light of the US military’s denial of any knowledge and its rather flimsy explanation of an “optical illusion” or an “airplane,” and the rather mysterious crippling of the cruise ship Carnival Splendor, conspiracy theories have been circulating on the Internet. One version, contained in a report, which was allegedly prepared for Prime Minister Putin by Director Anatoly Perminov of the Russian Federal Space Agency, reportedly claims that, based on findings of an Akron-1 military satellite monitoring the western coastal regions of North America, the cruise ship was attacked by a Chinese submarine, patrolling approximately 200 kilometers off the US coast, through an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) as part of a Chinese test, and that the subsequent missile was fired on the submarine, as an act of retaliation, by a US Navy Ohio-Class submarine operating off the coast of California.

With the US government’s steadfast refusal to reveal what happened, such allegations–whether true or false–are not surprising, and they again severely damage any national or international confidence in the veracity of the U.S. leadership.

Russia’s National Interests

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 15:

“Flush with cash from booming oil and gas exports, Moscow unilaterally pursued Russian national interests during Vladimir Putin’s tenure as president. In the process, Russia’s relationship with the West deteriorated to a historic low point. But then the economic crisis hit. Energy prices collapsed and Russia’s rapid growth ground to a halt.

“After Dmitry Medvedev assumed the presidency in 2008, Moscow sought to jumpstart the slumping Russian economy through so-called ‘modernization alliances’ with the US and the EU. Yet at the same time, the oil-rich country began consolidating its ‘strategic partnership’ with an oil-hungry China. Russia wanted to pursue its national interests in economic modernization and growth and knew that it needed both the West and China in these endeavors…

“Moscow’s relationship with the West has a long history of ambivalence. Culturally tied to Europe, yet also influenced by Asia, Russia sits awkwardly between two worlds… a Euro-Atlantic security community is not the only game in town. Russia is hedging its bets and forging a strategic partnership with China, as well… On the international stage, Russia and China share a similar worldview. They both prioritize national sovereignty and the pursuit of national interests over liberal values, such as democracy and human rights…”

History repeats itself. There was a time when Russia and Germany were allies (compare the Hitler-Stalin non-aggression pact); when Russia and the USA were allies (against Germany and Japan); and when Russia and China were allies (against Germany and Japan). The Bible prophesies that there will be no lasting pact between Russia and the USA–nor between Russia and Europe–but that a pact will be made between Russia, China and other Far Eastern nations, with Iran becoming a part of that alliance.

Sarkozy’s Maneuver

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 14:

“Following the resignation of French Prime Minister Francois Fillon’s administration on Saturday, Fillon unveiled a reshuffled cabinet on Sunday. He was put back in his post as prime minister by President Nicolas Sarkozy earlier in the day…

“While many of the resigned cabinet members were brought back in the shake-up, some new faces have shifted the cabinet slightly to the right… Observers consider the new cabinet a political maneuver to put Sarkozy in a better position for re-election in 2012…

“Opposition Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry criticized the new cabinet, saying Sarkozy did not implement the political change the French people want. ‘The president has brought back the same prime minister to carry on the same politics,’ Aubry said…”

France is moving “slightly to the right”–and the tendency is that other European nations will follow.

President Bush’s Selective Memoirs

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 14, 2010:

“George W. Bush has written his selective memoirs, in which he accuses Gerhard Schröder of breaking a promise. In truth, Bush strung along the then-German chancellor with unfounded promises, even as his administration was already preparing for the disastrous Iraq war…

“That episode took place on Jan. 31, 2002, a date that has taken on near-historic significance after the fact. The former US president argues that [a] deep rift between the United States and Germany over the campaign against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was created on that day. In his just-published memoirs, Bush mentions the meeting and accuses Schröder of breaking his promise.

“According to Bush, it was on that day that the German chancellor had promised him that his country would support Bush in a war against Iraq, just as it had in Afghanistan. Bush claims that Schröder distanced himself from that pledge later on, during the next election campaign… Not true, says Schröder, who insists that he never made any such commitment to Bush or broke his word. Indeed, Schröder says, Bush is ‘not telling the truth’ in his memoirs…

“Ironically, both men are right and wrong at the same time. They lied with the truth, because they avoided speaking openly with one another. They behaved this way because their interests were not compatible…

“Schröder is right in saying that Bush didn’t tell the truth on that Jan. 31. The president claimed that plans for war were not on the table, and yet the military’s first draft of the war plans were already on his desk more than four weeks earlier. He claimed that he was ‘determined to make diplomacy work,’ and yet he had already decided in favor of regime change in Baghdad. He promised to consult with the Europeans before making a decision, but unlike the Europeans, Bush’s idea of consulting with his allies did not involve a discussion of the pros and cons of intervention in Iraq. Instead, he was only interested in their answer to a simple question: Are you with us or against us?

“But Schröder didn’t tell the whole truth, either. It’s hard to believe that the chancellor would have received an unconditional majority vote in the Bundestag for a war against Iraq. The vote on a German military contribution in Afghanistan, which was in fact uncontroversial, passed the Bundestag by a slim margin of 336 to 326. Four Green Party politicians had voted against German involvement in the conflict, while nine others made it clear that they were supporting the administration of Chancellor Schröder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer with great reluctance, and that they would withdraw their support in the event of an invasion of Iraq…

“The predictions coming from Europe’s war skeptics eventually came true, when reality shattered the superpower’s illusions. Blair, who also exhibited unqualified solidarity in Iraq, became a hated figure in his country. In Germany, however, Schröder and Fischer won the election, as they had hoped, because of their opposition to the Iraq adventure.”

Even though Gerhard Schroeder and Joschka Fisher seemed to have acted because of self-serving motives in order to stay in power, the Iraq war was a disaster which alienated the relationship between Europe and the USA, causing great damage in that regard. George Bush’s ongoing insistence that the war was justified sounds shallow in the light of subsequent and even current events, as the next article shows.

New Fragile and Shaky “Government” in Iraq

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 12:

“It has been eight months since the elections, but on Thursday, Iraqi leaders finally agreed on a power-sharing deal and established a government. But the coalition is shaky at best and German commentators are not optimistic about its staying power…

“‘Today is a day of victory, the victory of the free Iraqi will,’ said Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish leader who was elected on Thursday by parliament to a second term as the country’s president. The power-sharing agreement foresees Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki staying on for a second term. Significant posts, however, have been given to the Sunni-backed party of Ayad Allawi, which narrowly won the most seats in the March 7 vote but which fell shy of a majority…

“Still, while there was widespread relief that the country had put an end to months of bickering, optimism was in short supply. Indeed, by the time Talabani addressed parliament on Thursday following his re-election, 57 Sunni lawmakers had already walked out, showing that the power-sharing deal is fragile at best. The Sunnis — less numerous in Iraq than Maliki’s Shiite backers and under-represented in the country’s power structures since the US invasion — have already begun accusing Maliki of having broken promises made during negotiations…

“The US had been hoping for a greater Sunni role, in part to thwart attempts by largely Shiite Iran to gain influence in Iraq. Instead, the Shiite Maliki has been returned to his post — largely as a result of support from the anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr…

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘… The Iraqi democracy, introduced forcefully by the Americans in 2003, doesn’t quite work — yet. Voters have demonstrated their sense of duty, but their representatives have abused their trust. The new government of national unity now faces a test of character — and one should not bet on a positive outcome’…

“The left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung writes: ‘… For a politician who was nothing but a compromise candidate four years ago, it is an impressive victory [for Maliki]. For democracy in Iraq, however, it is extremely damaging. Maliki has demonstrated that, even in the “new Iraq,” rulers cling to power no matter what the voters decide.'”

The American invasion in Iraq for the purpose of bringing democracy to that country was an utter failure. Weapons of mass destruction–the alleged reason for the war–were not found, but there are still many voices today, claiming that the Iraq war was justified. However, millions of dollars and thousands of lives have been wasted in this futile endeavor, which has not brought about more peace or security to the world, nor even to Iraq itself.

Is Assad Iran’s Slave?

Y-Net News wrote on November 11:

“In Islam, slavery was institutionalized and promoted as a necessity during wars. We find throughout our history, during al-Foutouhat (Conquests), many occasions upon which the ‘enemy’ was subjected to servitude by a Muslim master abiding by his Koranic beliefs.

“Even today, we see its enduring finger prints in Islamic societies in the form of sex trade, premature forced marriages, abusive household masters, female mutilations, etc… But we also witness slavery today in Machiavellian form across many Islamic societies in the Middle East. On that basis, there is ample evidence to suggest that Assad has become Iran’s Arab slave.

“In 2000, Assad ascended to power at the age of 34. While still learning how to use power, he was supposedly attacking the greatest power in Iraq with suicide missions. Given his background as a trained healthcare provider, it is quite a stretch to think he was capable of such a bold policy without Iranian assistance and help.

“Another factor is the futility of the US State Department to peel Assad from Ahmadinejad… That failure remains a mystery to many who are still scratching their heads. If you add, as well, how Assad has yielded to Hezbollah in Lebanon, one cannot but come to the same conclusion of how an Arab slave functions under the Iranian grip…

“Ahmadinejad asked for and received a long list of demands to include weapon delivery to Hezbollah, a big footprint of Iranian military and religious assets and symbols inside Syria, a NATO-like weapon exchange program to include storage and upgrade of missile systems to protect Iran, and more importantly, a Hezbollah footprint inside Syria just in case Assad turns his back on Iran…”

The Middle East is in turmoil, and peace negotiations and peace talks won’t change that. However, the Bible shows that Europe–not the USA–will intervene militarily in the region to impose “peace” on the peoples. This event will signalize the beginning of the prophesied Great Tribulation. The next article is very interesting in this regard.

EU Must Establish Common Defense Policies

The Financial Times wrote on November 14:

“The 27 member states of the European Union must ‘grow up’ and establish far better co-ordination of their national defence policies if they want to cope with the inevitable withdrawal of US forces from Europe’s land mass, Finland’s foreign minister has warned… ‘The US is starting to flirt with other partners than the Europeans. The EU is not as sexy as it once was. We are like a grumpy old couple. We’ve been together for 60 years. We nag at each other. We might have the same values but America is starting to look elsewhere… If the Americans are looking elsewhere then we have to start… coming up with European solutions.'”

EU in Financial Crisis

The following articles describe the most recent economic crisis within the EU. Some feel and hope that it signals the end of the euro. They are mistaken. There is no way that Europe will forsake their common currency. But it is also important to realize that a core Europe of ten nations or groups of nations will still have to emerge. The Bible clearly prophesies this. And internal European crises–coupled with external perceived or real threats–may lead to this necessary event.

The Daily Telegraph wrote on November 15:

“The euro is facing an unprecedented crisis after another country indicated on Monday night that it was at a ‘high risk’ of requiring an international bail-out. Portugal became the latest European nation to admit it was on the brink of seeking help from Brussels after Ireland confirmed it had begun preliminary talks over its debt problems. Greece also disclosed that its economic problems are even worse than previously thought.

“Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, raised the spectre of the euro collapsing as she warned: ‘If the euro fails, then Europe fails’… David Cameron said he was thankful that Britain had not joined the euro, but indicated his displeasure that taxpayers in this country face a pounds 7 billion liability in any bail-out package…

“Ireland has resisted growing international pressure to accept EU financial assistance amid concerns that this would lead to a surrender of political and economic sovereignty. However, the German government is expected to signal that Ireland may have to accept a pounds 77 billion bail-out, along with a loss of economic and political independence, as the price of preserving the euro. Mrs Merkel said that the single currency was ‘the glue that holds Europe together’.”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 16:

“EU President Herman van Rompuy was even more stark on Tuesday in a speech in Brussels. ‘We’re in a survival crisis,’ he said. ‘We all have to work together in order to survive with the euro zone, because if we don’t survive with the euro zone, we will not survive with the European Union.’ But, he added, ‘I’m very confident we will overcome this.'”

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 15:

“Germany benefits enormously from the single currency, as 40 percent of its exports go to other eurozone members, and having one currency eliminates fluctuations in exchange rates…”

Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote on November 17:

“Speculators like nothing more than when members of a currency union openly show discord — that opens up chances to make a profit. In order to avoid a new escalation, the governments have to now appear united. EU President of the Council Herman Van Rompuy was right when he said Europe was going through a survival crisis, and that the euro weaknesses could spread to become the writing on the wall for the entire EU. A united front includes a commitment to solid economic activity, something that was not so customary in Greece up to now. And it includes giving the Irish money quickly if it is needed…

“Merkel is… totally right. … And the mistrust in Ireland’s ailing banks has a much more detrimental effect on Ireland’s credit worthiness than the German initiative to clean up the euro in the longterm. The Greeks and the Irish should stop bashing those who want to help them. … And it is clear that Germany would bear the greatest burden in that case.”

Financial Times Deutschland wrote on November 17:

“One should finally face the truth and confront the looming insolvency of Greece and Ireland. … Accepting reality means accepting insolvency and solving the problem. And there are, in principle, two choices: Either leaving the euro zone with a view to re-entering later or a managed insolvency. The later will be the preferred solution, politically and economically.”

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote on November 17:

“If the currency union were to fail, then the economic and political costs would be enormous. We should all be concerned about the historic consequences.”

Die Welt wrote on November 17:

“The unthinkable has happened. The euro, the common currency and pride of the Europeans, is suspiciously close to the abyss. Europe is in the deepest crisis since its foundation. The community began as a project for peace and reconciliation… The EU of today is like a club of 27 egotists, that are somehow connected through technocratic procedures and the competition for the biggest slice of the European wealth cake. Europe is exhausted. It lacks strength, ideas, a common purpose and an identity.

“It could only come to this because the EU elites have failed for years and have not met their responsibilities. The debt mountains and the serious breaches of simple economic rules could only have occurred as a result of selfish calculation on the part of EU member state governments. Now decisiveness, solidarity and political leadership are required. A politics of business as usual has slammed up against the wall. But will the politicians be able to change their spots?”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 17:

“Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, asserted that they would defend the euro by any means… Merkel… attempted to strike a calming note. ‘I do not believe that the euro zone is at risk, but we are experiencing turbulence and situations of a kind that I would never have dreamed of a year and a half ago,’ she told the German public broadcaster ARD.”

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 18:

“… the Irish government, banks and companies owe foreign investors $731 billion (540 billion euros). Banks in Britain hold the highest stake with $149 billion, followed by Germany with $138 billion, the United States with $69 billion, Belgium with $54 billion and France with $50 billion.

“Should the Irish banking system or the government – which has heavily invested in bank bailouts – become unable to pay their creditors, British and German banks would be left with the greatest risk of losses and depreciations…

“Great Britain, Germany and France all have a vested interest in the financial stability of Ireland, as well as the other problem states of Portugal, Greece and Spain.”

These facts alone strongly suggest that Europe will not forsake Ireland.

Superstitions Within the Greek Orthodox Church

AFP wrote on November 17:

“Senior clerics in Greece have told the state in no uncertain terms that vigilance is required to prevent the antichrist from making a manifestation on new ID cards to be issued next year. The authorities must ensure that the cards contain no mention of the number 666, which in Greek Orthodox tradition is associated with the antichrist, the Church of Greece said in a statement.

“‘In no way should the ‘citizen card’ contain the number 666, either in visible or invisible manner,” the Holy Synod, governing council of the Church of Greece, said after a meeting between canon scholars, legal experts, computer specialists and government officials… The Church is officially part of the state in Greece.

“Frequently criticised as backward and superstitious by liberal circles, Orthodox custodians strongly adhere to tradition surrounding the number 666, which appears in the biblical Book of Revelation, believed to have been written by the Apostle John in the first century AD. Also known as the figure of the Beast, the number has led ultra orthodox clerics to oppose the use of bar codes on goods, as well as electronic checks carried out under the border-free Schengen Area of which Greece is a member…”

The number 666 is indeed associated with the end-time “beast”–a military and political European leader still to manifest himself on the world scene. But the book of Revelation tells us that this is the number of a man which needs to be “calculated” or “counted” (compare Revelation 13:18, especially in the Authorized Version). The superstitious belief that it can be easily ascertained by just finding it on an identity card or a microchip does not only contradict Scripture; but it is also dangerous as it detracts from the real meaning of the Word of God.

Turmoil in the Catholic Church

USA Today wrote on November 11:

“He calls AIDS a form of ‘justice’ for homosexuals and wants retired pedophile priests to go unpunished. He says women who have an abortion will be greeted in the afterlife by their unborn child crying ‘Momma!’ Archbishop Andre Leonard, 70, was plucked from a sleepy Belgian citadel-town by Pope Benedict XVI in January to energize the country’s Roman Catholic faithful and reverse 30 years of liberalism. The appointment was in line with Benedict’s policy of putting tradition-minded and conservative bishops in important dioceses.
 
“But since taking office, Leonard’s hardline views have added turmoil to a church already mired in an abuse scandal. And, privately, some Vatican officials are expressing concern about an ever-worsening public relations disaster. The controversy turned into a very public revolt last week when his spokesman resigned, saying he could no longer morally defend Leonard…

“Leonard’s views — and the way he delivers them so stridently — are riling the Catholic base, but they dovetail with church teachings that homosexual acts are ‘intrinsically disordered’ and that women who abort babies are sinners. Also, the Vatican admits it has no tolerance for pedophiles, but rarely subjects elderly pedophile priests to full canonical trials, instead telling them to live out their years in prayer and penance…

“Two of Belgium’s 10 bishops have publicly challenged Leonard. Unusually, Belgian Premier Yves Leterme, a Catholic, also condemned him… Leonard… refused to back off from his view that AIDS is punishment for a promiscuous lifestyle. Writing on his archdiocese’s website, he drew parallels with people who continue to smoke despite seeing clear health warnings on cigarette packs.

“Leonard… holds a philosophy degree from the Leuven Catholic University and did theological studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, a Jesuit school. He was also a member of the International Theological Commission, which then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — now Pope Benedict XVI — headed as prefect of the Vatican’s orthodoxy office.”

The fact that Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Andre Leonard as the head of the Catholic Church in Belgium, knowing full well of his views, shows that the Roman church is trying to bring back conservative views. Anyone who thinks that the Roman church will become more liberal in their views, is clearly mistaken.

Did the Vatican Order Murder of Pope John Paul II?

The Pravda wrote on November 11:

“The Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca, who on May 13, 1981 shot Pope John Paul II in Rome, Italy, said in a statement to Turkish television that the order to kill the leader of the Roman Catholic Church came from the Vatican itself. Ali Agca was released on January 18 this year after spending 30 years in prison for the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981, and the murder of Turkish journalist Abdil Ipecki in 1979…

“In a statement shortly after trying to kill the pope, Agca said he acted alone. This newest statement is one of several contradictory statements he has made since 1983, when he was pardoned by John Paul II when he visited him in prison. Today, Ali Agca is 52 and suffers from mental problems, analysts said. Shortly after being released, he said he was ‘the second Jesus Christ’ and he ‘is rewriting the Bible.’ In the midst of disconnected sentences released from the prison, Agca said: ‘I am the eternal Christ.’

“Previously, Ali Agca said he was connected to a group and blamed the Palestinian secret service in Bulgaria for the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II…

“The release of Ali Agca rekindled the mystery surrounding the causes that were behind the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, which have never been clarified. The truth is that after three investigations and the trials of three Bulgarians and four Turks, these links to the crime were never proven.

“On a visit to Bulgaria carried out in 2002, John Paul II said he did not believe that this Balkan state was involved in the attempted murder. After his meeting with the Turk in prison in 1983, John Paul II said that Agca had little military training and did not believe that he acted alone. In a statement issued through his lawyers, Agca said in the coming weeks all doubts will be cleared up about the attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II, including those relating to the possible involvement of the Soviet and Bulgarian governments.”

In addition, there are of course ongoing persistent rumors (which are even believed by some, if not many Catholics) that officials within the Vatican might have been involved with causing the untimely death of Pope John Paul I in 1978, who was only in office for one month, and who was subsequently succeeded by John Paul II. Also, it has been recently revealed that Adolf Hitler wanted to kill Pius XII, even though he and Benito Mussolini collaborated with him. At the same time, Pius XII was apparently convinced that Hitler was possessed and allegedly attempted to exorcise the demon.

Historically, this strange hate-love relationship between church and state is nothing new, nor are internal power struggles within the leadership of the Catholic Church uncommon (At times, the Roman Church had two or even three competing popes at the same time, all claiming to be the rightful successor on the papal throne.) The Bible shows that in the endtime, the leading nations in Europe will “hate” the Roman Church and “eat its flesh”–apparently confiscating the Catholic Church’s earthly possessions and treasures (compare Revelation 17:16)–something which Hitler had already planned to do on a large scale after the end of the war.

Locusts Invade Melbourne

IOL News reported on November 12:

“Melbourne commuters marvelled on Friday at locusts landing on the streets of Australia’s second-biggest city… Abundant rainfall in the south-east of the continent has provided ideal breeding for the formation of swarms that can number 50 million and devastate crops as well as pester motorists and pilots.

“With the WORST plague in 30 years predicted as the southern hemisphere summer hots up, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) warned pilots that swarms made flying hazardous…”

The Dollar’s Inevitable Decline

The Telegraph wrote on November 6:

“The Fed’s ‘QE2’ risks accelerating the demise of the dollar-based currency system, perhaps leading to an unstable tripod with the euro and yuan, or a hybrid gold standard, or a multi-metal ‘bancor’ along lines proposed by John Maynard Keynes in the 1940s.

“China’s commerce ministry fired an irate broadside against Washington on Monday. ‘The continued and drastic US dollar depreciation recently has led countries including Japan, South Korea, and Thailand to intervene in the currency market, intensifying a “currency war”. In the mid-term, the US dollar will continue to weaken and gaming between major currencies will escalate,’ it said…

“As this anti-dollar revolt gathers momentum worldwide, the US risks losing its ‘exorbitant privilege’ of currency hegemony – to use the term of Charles de Gaulle.”

The US is also risking to lose whatever influence in the world it may still have.

Dollar in Danger of Losing 20 Percent of Its Value

Reuters reported on November 1:

“The dollar is in danger of losing 20 percent of its value over the next few years if the Federal Reserve continues unconventional monetary easing, Bill Gross, the manager of the world’s largest mutual fund, said on Monday…

“‘QEII not only produces more dollars but it also lowers the yield that investors earn on them and makes foreigners, which is the key link to the currencies… less willing to hold dollars in current form or at current prices,’ Gross added… ‘The fundamental problem here is that our labor… relative to developing economy labor is so mismatched—China can do it so much more cheaply,’ he said.”

As this article and the next ones show, the attempt to cure the fragile US economy with poisonous medications is doomed to failure.

Poison as a Cure?

Bloomberg wrote on November 5:

“Michael Burry, the former hedge-fund manager who predicted the housing market’s plunge, said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is trying to use ‘poison as the cure’ by pumping more cash into the economy to spur growth. Bernanke’s Fed pledged this week to use $600 billion in additional Treasury purchases to help lower a 9.6 percent unemployment rate, close to a 26-year high, and to avert deflation.

“The attempt to bolster growth is reminiscent of Alan Greenspan’s actions to revive the economy after 2001, Burry said in a telephone interview from Cupertino, California. The former Fed chairman helped create an unsustainable boom in U.S. property prices with his policies, leading to the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression, he said.”

The US policy will not prevail or bring success, since God is not in it . As we, as a nation, have been turning our backs on the true God, He will not bless our efforts.

Inflation Due to Wrong US Policy?

CNBC wrote on November 4:

“Investors should brace for a much weaker dollar… said Merk, chairman and chief investment officer of Merk Investments, of Portland, Maine. Merk spoke the day after the Fed said it will be embarking on a program to buy $600 billion in Treasuries in an effort  to pump up the economy by increasing liquidity. Critics say the program, also known as quantitative easing, will further devalue the dollar and ultimately create inflation. ‘It’s with the best of intentions but I think it’s a very, very wrong policy,’ Merk said in an interview.

“Consumers should prepare for another turn of events like the spring of 2008, when oil prices soared to $147 a barrel and gas at the pump was more than $4 a gallon… ‘There’s no such thing anymore as a safe asset. Cash is no longer safe,’ he said.”

“Recession Shadows America’s Middle Class”

On November 10, Der Spiegel Online reported the following:

“American society is breaking apart. Millions of people have lost their jobs and fallen into poverty. Among them, for the first time, are many middle-class families…

“Pam Brown is one of millions of Americans who, during the recession, tumbled from their idyllic middle-class existence to near-poverty — or beyond. For many, like Brown, the downfall is a Kafkaesque odyssey, a humiliation hard to comprehend. Help is not in sight: their government and their society have abandoned them.

“Wall Street is preoccupied with chasing new profits again. Yet for large sections of the nation, that old myth of working your way up, of bootstrap success and its ultimate prize, homeownership, has evaporated. The middle class, the America’s backbone, is crumbling. The American Dream has turned into a nightmare.

“Last year the US poverty rate reached 14.3 percent, 1.1 percent higher than in 2008. Almost five million Americans skidded below the poverty line ($22,050 annual income for a family of four), many from hitherto sheltered circles, where poverty was a foreign word. The number of long-term unemployed keeps rising. Worst off are families with children. Every fifth child in the US lives in poverty today…

“‘Nothing’s going to happen,’ Curtis Skinner, head of Family Economic Security at the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), told SPIEGEL ONLINE. The political swing to the right, Skinner fears, is ‘extremely hurtful’ and ‘absolutely disastrous’ to the interest of the weakest…

“Bill Clinton’s ‘Welfare Reform’ of 1996 privatized welfare in the US, turning it into a for-profit business. Nowadays, welfare seekers have to adhere to such strict criteria that ‘a large number of applicants will have their applications denied, mainly because of purported non-compliance with certain requirements,’ the FPWA recently found in a study. Many others would just give up…

“Economists claim things are looking up. Brown doesn’t feel much of that. To this day she spends up to eight hours a day, several days a week, in the waiting room of a ‘Job Center,’ her neatly printed resume in her bag, only to be sent to dead-end training programs and interviews leading to nothing… In the meantime, she feels treated like cattle. ‘They don’t know what to do with educated people like me,’ she says of her overwhelmed social workers… She would be homeless if it weren’t for her lenient landlady. But the house is up for sale, and she isn’t sure how the next owner will handle it. Brown is terrified of homeless shelters. Just the other day she went to visit a girlfriend in a shelter: ‘It was like jail, with steel bars and a curfew.’ Her friend had lost her home in spite of her MBA…”

“Bank Holidays” Not Without Precedence

The Tonka Report wrote on November 5:

“With the world on the verge of a currency war as the Federal Reserve follows through on its dollar-killing quantitative easing program, rumors are once again swirling of a ‘bank holiday,’ during which US citizens will be prevented from withdrawing money or at least limited in the amount of the withdrawal they can make…

“Bank holidays are not without precedent in the United States. On March 5 1933, newly elected Franklin Roosevelt declared a ‘bank holiday’ that lasted four days, during which he rammed through the Emergency Banking Act which granted FDR near dictatorial control over the dealings of banks. The Act also forced every citizen and business in the country to relinquish their gold in exchange for paper currency. The 1933 bank holiday served as a face-saving mechanism for many financial institutions – thousands of them never reopened after the closure period had ended.

“… the debate is no longer about whether the US financial system and the dollar will come crashing down or not, but if that inevitable process will be characterized as a sudden collapse or death by a thousand cuts. The latter seems to be more likely, with a few lurches and leaps along the way…

“The blame for this turmoil can be laid firmly at the feet of Bernanke, acting at the behest of the Fed’s owners, who having promised in June last year that they would not monetize the debt of the U.S. government, have now embarked upon a ‘mad experiment’ that will precipitate ‘the collapse of the US dollar paper standard’…

“So while the happy clappers on Wall Street are drunkenly celebrating the fact that their artificially inflated stock market is surging solely as a result of the value of the dollar being eviscerated, Main Street is hunkering down for a long winter, beset by worries about hyperinflation, rising food prices and gas price hikes, as oil follows gold’s meteoric rise, again solely as a result of the Fed’s decision to debase the greenback.”

The present situation in the USA is filled with so much doubt, concern and uncertainty that even “bank holidays” are not dismissed any more as unrealistic nightmare scenarios. 

Germany Angry With USA

As the following articles show, Germany is angry with the USA, and it expresses her anger with America’s politics in no uncertain terms, accusing the USA of duplicity, arrogance and hypocrisy–let alone the charge that it will not only hurt itself, but that it may also jeopardize the entire global economy. The relationship between the USA and continental Europe–especially Germany–is predestined to deteriorate, as we explain in our free booklets, “Europe in Prophecy” and “The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.”

USA in Breach of International Agreement?

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 5:

“The US central bank’s decision to buy additional government bonds in an effort to stimulate the economy is a breach of international agreements, German Finance Minister Schaeuble said on Thursday evening… [It] contradicts an agreement made by G20 leaders, Schaeuble said… Schaeuble said he would not let Germany’s opposition to the Fed’s action get pushed to the back burner and that the issue would be addressed during the G20 summit in South Korea next week…

“Schaeuble’s harsh assessment was supported by leading economists. The Fed runs the risk of causing long-term damage, said Michael Huether, director of the Cologne-based Institute for Economic Research (IW). The acquisition of government bonds by the Fed is a fundamental regulative sin, he said, and it would do nothing to solve the structural problems in the US economy…

“Internationally, the German politicians were joined by Brazilian and Chinese officials in their criticism of the US plan to buy government bonds. ‘Everybody wants the US economy to recover, but it does no good at all to just throw dollars from a helicopter,’ said Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega.”

“USA At A Loss”

The Local added on November 5:

“Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble removed his diplomatic gloves on Friday, blasting the United States’ decision to go ahead with a massive economic stimulus measure that could harm Germany. Using unusually strong language, Schäuble said that the Federal Reserve Bank’s attempt to stimulate the US economy with a €600 billion cash injection did not make sense.

“’With all due respect, my impression is that the United States are at a loss,’ he said… Schäuble began his assault on Thursday night, when he told broadcaster ZDF that the Fed had already pumped ‘an endless amount of money’ into the US economy with ‘horrendous’ results.”

USA Hypocritical?

The Financial Times wrote on November 7:

“Germany has put itself on a collision course with the US over the global economy, after its finance minister launched an extraordinary attack on policies being pursued in Washington. Wolfgang Schäuble accused the US of undermining its policymaking credibility, increasing global economic uncertainty and of hypocrisy over exchange rates. The US economic growth model was in a ‘deep crisis,’ he also warned over the weekend.”

“Many Reasons for America’s Problems”

On November 8, Der Spiegel Online published an interview with Wolfgang Schäuble. We are bringing you the following excerpts from his comments:

“‘The United States lived on borrowed money for too long, inflating its financial sector unnecessarily and neglecting its small and mid-sized industrial companies. There are many reasons for America’s problems… I seriously doubt that it makes sense to pump unlimited amounts of money into the markets. There is no lack of liquidity in the US economy, which is why I don’t recognize the economic argument behind this measure…

“‘The Fed’s decisions bring more uncertainty to the global economy. They make it more difficult to achieve a reasonable balance between industrialized and emerging economies, and they undermine the US’s credibility when it comes to fiscal policy. It’s inconsistent for the Americans to accuse the Chinese of manipulating exchange rates and then to artificially depress the dollar exchange rate by printing money.'”

There are indeed MANY reasons for America’s problems–not only in the economic sector–and we discuss these reasons in our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.”

“The Atlantic Rift Grew Wider”

Reuters reported on November 10:

“Germany’s undiplomatic outbursts against U.S. policy, calling it ‘clueless’… show growing estrangement on economics as America’s focus shifts away from transatlantic ties to domestic challenges and Asia.

“‘The Atlantic is getting wider,’ said Anton Boerner, head of Germany’s Foreign Trade Association, who spoke of a ‘creeping alienation’ between America and Europe, which has been exacerbated by the global financial crisis.

“Germany and the United States often criticize each other’s approaches to aiding economic recovery, with U.S. calls for more expansive policy falling on deaf ears in fiscally disciplined Germany. But Berlin has taken the rhetoric to a new level… One regional German paper, the Hannoversche Allgemeine, came to the conclusion that ‘never before has the Merkel government had such a direct confrontation with the United States.’

“Merkel’s center-left predecessor Gerhard Schroeder came into conflict with President George W. Bush for criticizing the war in Iraq. The arrival of conservative Merkel raised great hopes in Washington and she got on well personally with Bush… But the chancellor and Bush’s successor Barack Obama have always had a difficult time communicating… Merkel has doggedly refused U.S. overtures to fire up domestic economic demand in Germany.

“‘On economic policy there is no dissonance with Europe as a whole, but rather with successful EU states like Germany,’ said Hans-Ulrich Klose, head of German cooperation with Washington and deputy head of parliament’s foreign affairs committee… ‘But the danger is that anti-American sentiment in Germany could grow,’ said Klose.”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 11:

“The days of close cooperation among the world’s big 20 economic powers may have ended. With the economic recovery, displays of envy and egotism have reared up at this year’s G-20 summit in Seoul. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is on a confrontation course with Washington over trade policy… Washington has accused governments with large trade surpluses of seeking growth in their own economies at the expense of other nations… The criticism has been directed largely at China and Germany… The harsh tone used by US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner recently in making the American case has led to resentment in Berlin and Beijing…

“Notably, Merkel left Germany with well-rehearsed words of praise for the Chinese… Of course, Berlin would rather stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Washington. But the unspoken message was clear: Drive us into a corner, and we’ll find other powerful allies.

“So in Seoul, the Americans appear to be on trial. They haven’t yet brought their economy into line and they still sit on a gigantic state deficit of $1.3 trillion (just under €1 trillion)…”

In a related article, Der Spiegel Online reported on November 11 that a meeting in Seoul before the summit between Merkel and Obama was “extremely frosty” and that the differences between Germany and the USA became “surprisingly” visible, and in the most obvious way. Further, the magazine stated that Obama suffered another set-back since he was unable to secure a trade agreement with South Korea.

“Washington Worries About New Power Couple”

The New York Times wrote on November 9:

“…rarely, in fact, have two men reached the pinnacle in Washington with so little in common. With Mr. Boehner about to become the speaker of the House, the nation’s two most powerful leaders [Obama and Boehner] open this new era with little connection other than a shared fondness for golf and a weakness for cigarettes…  The gulf in background, temperament, personality and philosophy make for an uncertain two years as they try to figure out whether they can work together…

“So far, at least, Mr. Obama and Mr. Boehner have spent virtually no time together and have made little effort to forge a bond. Aides said they could not recall a single one-on-one meeting or substantive phone call… As a result, it may be hard for Mr. Obama to reach out to the emboldened House Republicans… Mr. Obama and Mr. Boehner seem to have been talking past each other since the election last week, with Mr. Boehner claiming a mandate to reverse administration policies and Mr. Obama claiming a mandate to work together.”

California’s Ticking Time Bomb

The Los Angeles Times wrote on November 9:

“With the mid-term elections behind us and pundits offering opinions on what it all means, there is a ticking time bomb that further threatens California’s precarious budget situation and economic recovery for business, large and small. The issue regarding the solvency of the unemployment insurance fund was largely ignored by both gubernatorial candidates and the legislature during the recent budget deliberations. Unfortunately for all Californians, and particularly California employers, the failure to act will have serious consequences for business and unemployed workers.

“On a daily basis, California is borrowing $40 million a day from the federal government for payment of unemployment insurance benefits. California already owes the federal government $8.6 billion and that figure will exceed $10 billion by the end of this year. The state’s California Employment Development Department estimates that the deficit will total $16 billion in 2012. By the end of September 2011, California will owe the federal government $362 million for accumulated interest on the loan.”

Bush’s Memoirs Cause Outcry in Europe

Deutsche Welle reported on November 10:

“The 43rd US president’s apparent mission to have his two terms in the White House reassessed and his reputation rehabilitated through his new book, ‘Decision Points,’ has many Europeans shaking their heads. And it’s not just the most inflammatory excerpts – such as Bush’s assertion that water-boarding of terror suspects saved lives – that are causing an outcry…

“If Bush’s single-minded and heavy-handed approach to Afghanistan and Iraq in the wake of the terror attacks of 9/11 were damaging to his relations with his European allies at the time, his newly released memoirs appear to be giving European readers the chance [to] get angry all over again…

“The Bush legacy is still powerfully felt in the United States: the armed forces are embroiled in the two wars he started; the financial system is struggling to pull out of an overwhelming crisis, and politicians are scrambling to rebuild their credibility on the world stage… But the ripples from his eight-year presidency continue to be felt in Europe as well. Under his leadership, decades of trust and cooperation between the US and European governments was damaged.

“According to Thomas Klau, a Transatlantic Relations expert at the European Council for Foreign Relations, the memoir provides new fodder for Europeans who are skeptical about the US political system. ‘Europeans, and Germans in particular, are still amazed that the US political system has the potential to elect such an incompetent leader who has no respect for Western values,’ Klau said. ‘While Obama gave some hope, the Germans are now saddened to see that a discredited party such as the Republicans can be re-elected as the majority in the House of Representatives.’ Germans see the Republican mid-term victory as proof that ‘the US system and electorate has a very short memory and very little wisdom’…

“So far, European reaction to the Bush memoirs has been heavily affected by comments in the book that seem to advocate torture… Moreover, Bush ‘made bold statements’ that the information gained from water-boarding stopped an attack on London – a claim the UK refutes… The response to his memoirs suggests that the damage Bush did to his country’s reputation in Europe remains severe… Bush may have come out with his book to try and put the record straight in his own words. But in doing so, at least in Europe, it appears that he has taken a big stick to a hornet’s nest of his own making.”

EU President Warns of War…

The EUObserver wrote on November 10:

“EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy has issued a stark warning against growing nationalism, populism and anti-democratic forces across the EU, suggesting that the threat to peace in Europe remains a key issue…

“The president was speaking in the German capital on the Schicksalstag, or ‘fateful day,’ the anniversary of five pivotal events in the nation’s history: the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the fall of the monarchy in 1918, but also the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, Kristallnacht in 1938 and the execution of a leader of the 1848 revolutions in the German states.

“Quoting wartime US president Franklin Roosevelt, he said that the ‘biggest enemy of Europe today is fear,’ and that this ultimately could lead to war. ‘Fear leads to egoism, egoism leads to nationalism, and nationalism leads to war,’ he said.”

Germany To Use Military in Defense of Economic Interests

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 10:

“Earlier this year, then German President Horst Köhler provoked a storm of controversy when he said that military deployments were necessary to protect German economic interests. His remarks, made during a trip to Afghanistan, triggered consternation and sharp criticism in the media. Ultimately, he resigned as a result. Now German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has echoed those sentiments.

“Speaking at a security conference in Berlin on Tuesday, Guttenberg said that Germany should be prepared to use its military to secure trade routes, for example against piracy… Commenting on Köhler’s decision to step down in May, the minister said: ‘I ask myself to this day what was so audacious about his comments’…

“He also referred to the competing demands for raw materials of emerging nations and the industrialized world, which could raise questions of strategic importance for German security. ‘The securing of trade routes and sources of raw materials have without a doubt to be considered from military and global strategic viewpoints,’ he [said].”

Deutsche Welle added on November 10:

“The German government has decided to extend three military operations abroad, promising to supply up to 3,000 soldiers in three separate international missions.

“In the biggest such mission, German marines will continue their involvement in the European Union’s anti-piracy operation. The so-called ‘Atalanta Mission’ targets Somali pirates threatening ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, one of the most important trade routes between Asia and Europe. There are currently 320 German marines participating in the operation off the Horn of Africa. Germany may now deploy a maximum of 1,400 troops in the mission.

“At present there are no German troops actively participating in NATO’s ‘Active Endeavour’ operation in the Mediterranean. However, this week, the German frigate Bremen will be sent to the area to make its contribution to the anti-terror mission. The NATO operation, first devised after the September 11 attacks on the United States, is designed to prevent terrorists from crossing the Mediterranean into Europe. The German cabinet has agreed to maintain its pledge of 700 German troops for the mission.

“Meanwhile there are currently 115 German peacekeeping soldiers stationed in Bosnia. The cabinet agreed to maintain the maximum number of German troops taking part in the EU mission in the country at 900…”

French Democracy in Jeopardy?

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 10:

“French President Nicolas Sarkozy allegedly ordered France’s domestic intelligence agency to spy on journalists who annoyed him. The opposition is now demanding an investigation. Is French democracy in jeopardy?…

“Sarkozy’s fellow conservatives like to point out that François Mitterrand, the former Socialist president, had a department at the Elysée dedicated solely to his own affairs, and that among its responsibilities was listening in on the telephone conversations of journalists. This so-called ‘cabinet noir’ was only exposed a few years later, when its members were put on trial. But Sarkozy is apparently going one step further and secretly exploiting the police and intelligence service for his own purposes, justifying his actions by arguing that the state is in jeopardy…

“Last week, the administration was also forced to admit that — in the interest of the state, of course — a public prosecutor who had been decorated by Sarkozy had ordered intelligence agents to examine telephone communications between two Le Monde editors and a judge… Such revelations make it increasingly difficult to believe the many official denials of wrongdoing. Likewise, Sarkozy’s adversaries point to a series of bizarre burglaries…

“Olivier Metzner, a Paris-based attorney… is worried about the threat posed to French democracy if the government decides to ‘send out agents to steal the computers of journalists who are looking into the affair’…

“Sarkozy has figured out how to gain control over the entire public broadcasting system. For example, when appointing directors of radio and television stations, Sarkozy has shown a clear preference for friends and trusted associates. And they repay the president with loyalty, as can be gathered from a recent incident at France Inter, a major public radio channel, when two comedians were shown the door after making fun of the government. Under these conditions, it’s hardly surprising that there aren’t many members of the media still willing to criticize the administration. Indeed, a major shift has now taken place in the French media landscape, and it is now online publications… who have alone assumed the mantle of uncovering scandals.”

Italy’s Immorality

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 10:

“Pious Christians regard him as sick but many ordinary Italians are cheering him on. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi may grope his way from one scandal to the next, but issues of morality are not likely to cause his downfall.

“Should 74-year-olds be hosting group sex parties? Absolutely. And should they also be in charge of the government affairs of a core European Union country? Silvio Berlusconi would answer this question enthusiastically in the affirmative…

“Once again, Berlusconi finds himself at the center of a scandal that involves underage women, prostitution and the abuse of power…

“Rome has long been full of rumors about sex parties at the prime minister’s house, Villa Arcore near Milan, lavish affairs complete with half-naked young women and lap dancers, wine, drugs and seafood, Neapolitan songs performed by the master of the house, repeated hymn-like invocations (‘Thank God for Silvio’), and all of it surrounding a golden throne…

“Meanwhile, the opposition doesn’t exactly occupy a moral high ground. Berlusconi’s publications reported with relish on how former Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s spokesman was photographed conversing with a transvestite back in 2007. And the center-left coalition lost control of the Lazio region when its president was caught being driven in his official car to a rendezvous with a Brazilian transvestite…”

… And There is No Peace…

The New York Times wrote on November 9:

“President Obama’s criticism of new Israeli housing plans for East Jerusalem, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s even sharper retort, have thrown the Middle East peace talks into jeopardy, with the dispute over Jewish settlements looming as a seemingly insuperable hurdle…”

Americans Have Voted…

The Associated Press reported on November 3:

“Republicans scored the biggest party turnover in more than 70 years Tuesday with their win in the House and, in doing so, will dethrone Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi…

“Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, overcame a tea party challenge from Republican Sharron Angle in one of the election’s most brutally fought races. Sizing up the new order, Reid said he wants to preserve Obama’s sweeping health care law and let taxes rise on upper income Americans…

“Obama called Ohio Rep. John Boehner, the House speaker-in-waiting, to congratulate him late Tuesday. He also spoke with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and top Democrats in a series of conversations that reflected the shifting balance of power…

“About four in 10 voters said they were worse off financially than two years ago, according to exit polls and pre-election surveys. More than one in three said their votes were an expression of opposition to Obama. More than half expressed negative views about both political parties. Roughly 40 percent of voters considered themselves supporters of the conservative tea party movement. Less than half said they wanted the government to do more to solve problems…

“A Republican takeover of the House ushers in a new era of divided government after two years in which Obama and fellow Democrats pushed through an economic stimulus bill, a landmark health care measure and legislation to rein in Wall Street after the near collapse of the economy in 2008…”

The Wall Street Journal added on November 3:

“Moving [Obama’s] agenda through Congress will be far more difficult with GOP leaders claiming control of the House and the Democrats’ Senate majority greatly eroded. At the same time, Mr. Obama’s party will need to move past assigning blame for the midterm lashing and settle on a strategy for regaining momentum and regrouping before the 2012 election. Some top Democrats resisted talk of compromise.

“‘We have taken the country in a new direction and we are not going back to the failed policies of the past,’ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said… Republican leaders also have sent mixed signals about working with the White House.”

“Obama Is to Blame…”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 3:

“The Democrats suffered a debacle at the polls in the US on Tuesday — and President Barack Obama is to blame. Once celebrated as a great communicator, the president has lost touch with the mood in his country…

“To the right he is confronted by the stark hatred of the Tea Party movement. In the political center, voters abandoned Obama in droves. And on the left there are complaints that instead of Mr. Change, Obama has turned into Mr. Weakling. Young voters and African Americans are, of course, still behind Obama, but many of them didn’t even bother to cast their ballots on Tuesday.

“The debacle, the largest loss of seats for the president’s party in more than half a century, isn’t just a warning for Obama. It is a demolition…”

“Washington Big Loser”

The National Journal wrote on November 3:

“Who was the big loser Tuesday? The easy answer is President Obama and his fellow Democrats on this day of epic GOP victories in the House, the Senate, and U.S. statehouses. But there is a bigger loser: Washington.

“The wave of disappointment and disillusionment with Washington that swept Obama into office two years ago never went away. With the unemployment rate hovering near double digits, the president was unable to deliver the change that most Americans could believe in, so voters delivered a message of their own to the incumbent party: Get out.

“And so Republicans won the House and narrowed the Democratic majority in the Senate. But even Republicans acknowledged that the results were more of a referendum against Washington than a vote for the GOP.

“‘We make a great mistake if we believe that tonight these results are somehow an embrace of the Republican Party,’ said incoming Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida… Even as he claimed the Speaker’s gavel, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio said, ‘We’re witnessing a repudiation of Washington, a repudiation of big government, and a repudiation of politicians who refuse to listen to the American people’…

“‘I would absolutely advise Republicans to reach out to the president,’ said 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin… Palin pointed to the nation’s weak economy and declared, ‘We’ll have to be on [a] unified team here to get the economy roaring again.’

“Newt Gingrich… said Tuesday’s results created ‘a dramatically weaker Democratic Party and a severely repudiated President Obama.’ He’s right about that, of course. But does Gingrich really think Americans gave the GOP a full-throated mandate? He made that miscalculation a generation ago and overreached as the new House Speaker…

“Most tea party activists consider Obama a big-spending liberal. Some even question his eligibility to be president. Like a cowboy saddling a bucking stallion, Republican leaders tried to tame the tea party while riding it to victories. The new House majority must now try to govern while being ridden hard by tea party activists. The risk is that the GOP will be driven to positions that turn off the same independent voters who swung away from Democrats on Tuesday…

“‘We’ve come to take our government back,’ Sen.-elect Rand Paul of Kentucky told cheering supporters… He sounded, for a moment, like the Obama of just two years ago.”

And this may reflect a huge problem America will be facing. As Americans placed their unrealistic hope in President Obama and the Democrats, are they now making the same mistake in respect to the Republicans and some of their leaders? Many undoubtedly do, but as representatives of the Tea Party said: Republicans are on probation. The question is, will they be able to deliver? Or are commentators correct who prophesy a total stalemate and paralysis for the next two years?

Without God in the picture, America’s future does not look rosy. Americans have forgotten their Maker, and God has prophesied that in that case, He will withdraw His blessings. No political party or agenda will change this certain and sure fact.

For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.”

Is the American Dream Over?

On November 1, Der Spiegel Online published an interesting article, titled, “A Superpower in Decline,” asking the question, “Is the American Dream Over?” Even though the left-wing article is overly sympathetic, defensive and optimistic towards President Obama and his policies and overly critical and condemnatory towards TV personalities like Glenn Beck, the following statements are worthwhile quoting:

“America has long been a country of limitless possibility. But the dream has now become a nightmare for many. The US is now realizing just how fragile its success has become — and how bitter its reality…

“Americans have lived beyond their means for decades… But at some point, everything comes to an end. The United States is a confused and fearful country in 2010… Some 47 percent of Americans don’t believe that the America Dream is still realistic… Now, 63 percent of Americans don’t believe that they will be able to maintain their current standard of living.

“And if America is indeed on the downward slope, it will have consequences for the global economy and the political world order.

“The fall of America doesn’t have to be a complete collapse — it is, after all, a country that has managed to reinvent itself many times before. But today it’s no longer certain — or even likely — that everything will turn out fine in the end. The United States of 2010 is dysfunctional, but in new ways. The entire interplay of taxes and investments is out of joint because a 16,000-page tax code allows for far too many loopholes and because solidarity is no longer part of the way Americans think. The political system, plagued by lobbyism and stark hatred, is incapable of reaching consistent or even quick decisions.

“The country is reacting strangely irrationally to the loss of its importance… Demagogues stir up hatred and rage on television stations… will the US wake up? Or is it already much too late?…

“When government debt reaches 90 percent of the gross domestic product, the country begins to feel sick. People [lose] confidence in a better future, investors stop investing, consumers stop buying and the economy stops growing…

“The unemployment rate in the United States is at about 10 percent. But when the people who have stopped looking for work and are not registered anywhere are included, the real number is likely to be closer to 20 percent. For the first time since the Great Depression, Americans have a problem with long-term unemployment.

“…once a decline has gotten underway, it isn’t easy to change direction… There is no easy way out of the debt crisis… Unemployment remains stuck at record high levels, a second collapse in the real estate market is not unthinkable, and the classic tools of fiscal policy, tax cuts or economic stimulus packages, are hitting a wall…

“Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz warns of the consequences of a flood of liquidity. ‘It’s doing nothing for the American economy, but it’s causing chaos over the rest of the world,’ he says.

“More money means that the value of the dollar falls relative to other currencies. This is an advantage at first, because it makes exports cheaper and imports more expensive, making the US economy more competitive. But does US industry even make enough products anymore to allow it to increase sales to the global market? And what happens if the world loses confidence in its reserve currency and unloads its dollar reserves onto the market? The resulting dollar crash could plunge the global economy into the next abyss. More money also means more inflation…

“It could certainly be a comfort to the Germans that the United States is no longer so powerful that it can foist its ideas on the rest of the world. Almost 45 million Americans are considered poor, with 4 million falling below the poverty line in 2009 alone. The Department of Agriculture warns of growing ‘food insecurity.’ One fourth of all children in the United States depend on government food stamps…”

The Origin of Modern Halloween?

CNN wrote on November 1:

“Halloween is a holiday with ancient pagan roots, but the modern extravaganza of candy, pumpkins and sexy nurse costumes is as American as the Fourth of July…

“The British grocery chain Tesco sold 1.4 million pumpkins on Sunday. The chain estimates that its Halloween sales have tripled since 2005. British parks sponsored free Halloween spectacles: ghost walks, pumpkin carving. Trick-or-treating is spreading through London neighborhoods.

“But in the United Kingdom as in the United States, the real money is found in the grownup aspects of the holiday: costumes, dance parties, club nights. The growth in adult Halloween dwarfs pumpkin sales…

“The holiday is catching [on] in Germany, too. Influenced by U.S. military personnel, the Germans used to acknowledge Halloween as a children’s holiday. But since 2000, Halloween has become an adult craze…

“The Japanese have taken Halloween to over-enthusiastic heart… Bizarre, horrifying and — above all — sexy costumes have become a national pastime…

“This year… Americans spent an estimated $800 million on costumes for children, $1 billion on costumes for adults. Where did that adult dress-up party begin? As best we can tell: in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood… A local variety store had long sponsored a Halloween street festival for kids. In the 1970s, the street festival transitioned into an adult party of lavish costumed theatricality. The ‘Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’ — a troupe of transvestite nuns — got their start here.

“The Castro Halloween party spread to other gay neighborhoods in the 1980s: Greenwich Village, West Hollywood, Key West, Florida. In 1994, University of Florida anthropologist Jerry Kugelmass published a book on the new trend, ‘Masked Culture,’ describing Halloween as an emerging gay ‘high holiday.’

“And after a while — the straights imitated… The ‘masked culture’ first developed by the gays of San Francisco has reached across the lines of orientation — and now jumped across the boundaries between nations and languages…”

For more information on the ancient origins of Halloween, please read our free booklet, “Is That in the Bible?–Man’s Holidays and God’s Holy Days.”

Mexico’s Fascination with the Dead Becomes Bitter Reality

The Los Angeles Times wrote on November 1:

“… this year, as Mexicans picnic at cemeteries and erect elaborate altars to mark the nation’s annual Day of the Dead observances, death is haunting in its abundance. Mexicans face the stark reality of a drug war that has plunged the country into its deadliest violence since the revolution 100 years ago. So many dead. Tens of thousands, in just a few years.

“In Mexico City’s central Zocalo plaza, the so-called Mega Ofrenda, an elaborate and enormous shrine with offerings of flowers, food, drink and artworks to the dead…

“In just the last 11 days, 48 mostly young people were killed in four separate massacres in different cities, including the capital, prompting some columnists and activists to speak of juvenicidio, or the systematic slaughter of youths…

“Tuesday is the official Day of the Dead holiday, originally an indigenous custom timed by Mexico’s Spanish conquerors to follow the Roman Catholic All Saints’ Day on Nov. 1. As much as the promoters of Halloween try to supplant Dia de los Muertos, the two here end up combining into a long period of festejo.

“Children who engage in Day of the Dead solicitations of sweets and money, similar to trick-or-treating, chant the phrase, ‘Give me my calaverita.’ The word literally means ‘little skull.'”

The Ongoing Threat of Terrorism

The Local reported on November 1:

“Germany has extended a ban on air freight from Yemen to passenger flights… The spokesman told a regular government briefing that Germany had stepped up its emergency measures when it emerged that one of the parcel bombs had been routed via the western German city of Cologne. Germany is the first country to announce a ban on all flights from Yemen.

“‘All Yemeni air companies that fly to Germany have received a flight ban,’ the ministry spokesman said. ‘The German air authorities have orders to turn back all direct and indirect flights from Yemen. That means that for the time being, there will be no flights to or over German territory allowed.’

“The German government said Saturday that it would outlaw all cargo from Yemen indefinitely. A spokesman said Monday that Berlin was now weighing whether to ban freight from other countries amid a major security review…

“Qatar Airways said a package containing explosives was flown from the Yemeni capital Sanaa to Doha and then on to Dubai Friday on one of its aircraft. A source said on condition of anonymity that the plane was a passenger flight. The bomb had PETN hidden inside a computer printer with a circuit board and mobile phone SIM card attached, officials said.

“The other parcel was found at East Midlands airport in central England and travelled through Cologne. British Prime Minister David Cameron said it appeared designed to blow up a plane.

“The two bombs contained 300 grammes (11 ounces) and 400 grammes of explosives respectively and could have caused ‘significant damage,’ a German official said Monday. The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the two bombs contained the explosive PETN…

“US officials have said the two intercepted packages originating from Yemen were addressed to synagogues in Chicago, President Barack Obama’s former power base. They have cited Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, an alleged Al-Qaida bomb-maker born in Saudi Arabia but based in Yemen, as a ‘leading suspect’ in the case.”

The EUObserver added on November 2:

“The Netherlands, France, Canada and the US have also halted all incoming cargo consignments from Yemen, prompting an angry response from the country. Brandishing Germany’s flight ban a ‘collective and illogical punishment,’ a Yemeni official added that the measure was a ‘hasty and exaggerated reaction’ and ‘harms Yemen’s efforts in the fight against terrorism.’…

“Separately, Greek police said one of the four parcel bombs discovered in Athens on Monday was destined for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, while another addressed to the Mexican embassy in the Greek capital exploded in the offices of a private delivery company. The other two packages were addressed to the Dutch and Belgian embassies in the city…”

“It Could Stop World Trade…”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 2:

“The case has led to worldwide calls for tougher security checks on cargo freight but analysts have warned that introducing a global system for cargo screening would cost billions of dollars, plunge shipping firms and airlines into financial difficulties and even bring world trade to a standstill. ‘In a worst case, it would stop world trade,’ James Halstead, a consultant with the company Aviation Economics, told the Associated Press. ‘UPS and FedEx would probably go bust. We’d have a full-disaster scenario’…

“Germany is a major transit location for foreign deliveries that are then flown on to other countries… German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière… said international freight traffic would collapse if Germany were to impose security checks on all freight deliveries in transit…

“German security checks probably would not have detected the explosive hidden in ink toner cartridges. The freight papers showed both parcels were X-rayed in Sanaa as well as in Dubai. No one spotted the bombs. The BKA has received copies of the X-rays from Dubai and one BKA investigator admitted that German security staff would not have identified the explosive either.”

USA Today added on November 2:

“Billions of pounds of packages bound for the U.S. each year are delivered on passenger flights in which cargo is checked with an electronic system that does not screen for bombs… The Homeland Security Department uses computers to identify possibly dangerous cargo, usually after flights are already in the air and en route to the USA… About 20% of the 9 billion pounds of air cargo that comes from overseas each year is physically checked for bombs.”

It is a tragic conclusion that it seems that terrorism is winning, in one way or another, against our highly sophisticated technological “free world”… A strong response to the terrorist threat, especially from Europe, can be expected, and we are already seeing hasty and punitive decisions from some countries, such as Germany.

The Ghost of the Lisbon Treaty

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 29:

“Why decide to revise the Lisbon Treaty, which only came into effect last year? The decision by the European Union’s 27 member states has left the European editorialists far from impressed. One paper asks why the EU must always satisfy Germany’s whims?

“After many hours of talks on Oct. 28, European Union leaders meeting at the European Council in Brussels agreed to impose financial sanctions on fiscally non-compliant member states. And perhaps even more critically, they approved a plan to revise the Lisbon Treaty to facilitate the creation of a permanent framework for ailing euro zone economies…

“‘Mrs. Chancellor Rules Europe,’ the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita states in its editorial… ‘Saving the common currency is, of course, a noble and praiseworthy cause, but more and more European politicians are asking why the EU has to satisfy Germany’s whims all the time.’

“Writing in the Spanish daily El País, José Ignacio Torreblanca remarks that ‘Franco-German entente has brought peace, stability and prosperity to Europe.’ However, he insists, we can no longer turn a blind eye to the current behavior of Paris and Berlin, who are ‘eager to cash in on every opportunity to safeguard their strategic interests, even when these are detrimental to other members of the EU.’ Dragging Europe’s 27 member states into a further round of ratification against the backdrop of economic and civic crisis ‘is worse than Russian roulette: It is a bet that could lead to the institutional suicide of the EU.’

“In Dublin, this prospect is a serious cause for concern. ‘Appropriately enough, as Halloween approaches, the ghost of the Lisbon Treaty walks again,’ laments the Irish Independent. ‘Surely we are not going to have to go through all that again. Surely, by voting for the treaty (albeit the second time around) we gave the European Union the power to make decisions without calling on the Irish to hold a referendum?… When the German chancellor proposes that if a country repeatedly breaches debt and deficit rules its EU voting rights should be suspended, she has Ireland firmly in her sights. And the gun is decidedly frontloaded.’

“The Prague daily Lidové noviny declares: ‘The Euro and War.’ The newspaper remarks that the euro and the bailout have poisoned relations between European countries. Once again, the Brussels summit has shown that there is no common denominator in the range of increasingly different ideas on how to manage the euro, while political, economic and social faultlines are opening up between member states. “Under increasing pressure, the German chancellor is obliged to prove to her skeptical fellow citizens that their country will not be forced to permanently foot the bill for the indebted countries.’… Of course, Berlin can always threaten to leave the euro… but there is no doubt that an initiative of this kind ‘would inevitably lead to the collapse of the European Union,’ warns Lidové noviny.”

New Referendums?

The EUObserver wrote on October 28:

“EU officials are working around the clock because all leaders… are absolutely agreed on one thing: There must be no referendums. One thing truly unites the Evasion Union and that is stopping the terrifying possibility that voters might get the chance to have a say in referendums that would very quickly become judgments on how Europe’s elites have handled the economic crisis.

“This is a frightening nightmare scenario for politicians who have premised their austerity measures and bank bailouts on keeping the public at arm’s length – or further… Only in the crooked world of the Evasion Union can no votes to the European Constitution be interpreted as a popular demand for ‘answers form the EU.'”

The EUObserver added on November 2:

“The nightmare scenario of another referendum on a change to the EU treaty in the Netherlands, five years after the country rejected the bloc’s proposed constitution, could return to haunt European leaders, with the hard-right Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders on Tuesday (2 November) announcing it is considering proposing just such a vote…

“Under the proposed new EU rules, Brussels will watch over the spending decisions of all EU states to make sure they are ‘competitive.’ Eurozone governments that get into debt too deeply will have stiff punishments meted out to them. Leaders were petrified that any major change to the EU treaties would set off a chain of referendums in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and possibly elsewhere, which they are convinced they would lose, as voters have their say on how leaders should have handled the economic crisis.

“The Dutch prime minister and the other leaders last Friday signed off on a treaty amendment only so long as the change envisaged was ‘small, small, small – the smallest possible,’ according to a Danish diplomat, ‘in order to ensure there is no possibility of referendums.’ EU President Herman Van Rompuy has been tasked to go away and come up with a ‘surgical’ – perhaps just two-line – incision to the EU treaty by December.

“One national diplomat described to this website the unwritten anti-referendum pact reached at the EU summit: ‘The move was specifically formulated to ensure that there is no possibility whatsoever that there can be any referendums. Whether this will work or not, I don’t know.'”

New Military Partnership Between Britain and France

Reuters reported on November 2:

“Britain and France will launch a broad defense partnership on Tuesday that includes setting up a joint force and sharing equipment and nuclear missile research centers, a French government source said. Treaties to be signed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron at a meeting in London will pave the way for an unprecedented degree of military cooperation between the two neighbors.

“The NATO allies, western Europe’s biggest defense spenders and its only nuclear powers, have a centuries-old history of military rivalry and, more recently, have differed sharply over issues such as the Iraq war. Their new partnership is driven by the desire to maintain cutting-edge military capabilities while at the same time reducing defense spending to rein in big budget deficits.

“France and Britain will agree to set up a joint brigade-sized army contingent with air and sea support, which could assemble as needed to take part in NATO, European Union, United Nations or bilateral operations, the French source said. British Defense Secretary Liam Fox confirmed the outlines of the agreement…

“The two countries will agree to share nuclear warhead research and simulation centers, the source said. With nuclear missile tests banned, sophisticated laboratories permit both countries to test the safety of their warheads. ‘This signifies that we have reached an unprecedented level of trust,’ the French source said. ‘It’s this step taken in the nuclear domain that allows us to go further elsewhere’…

“Britain and France will work together in developing technology for future generations of nuclear submarines, missiles, aerial drones, maritime anti-mine systems and military communications satellites, the source said…”

BBC News added on November 2:

“David Cameron has said new treaties on defence and nuclear co-operation with France marked a ‘new chapter’ in a long history of defence co-operation. Speaking alongside French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the UK PM said it would make both countries’ citizens safer and would save money. A centre will be set up in the UK to develop nuclear testing technology and another in France to carry it out…

“The UK and France have also agreed to keep at least one aircraft carrier at sea between them at any one time. Each will be able to use the other’s carrier in some form, certainly for training and possibly operations… But Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin told the BBC that while he approved of the talks, Britain had to be ‘realistic’. He said there was ‘a long track record of duplicity’ by France in dealing with allies and questioned whether the French would make an aircraft carrier available for an operation like the Falklands…”

What will happen IF the “mutual trust” between these two countries will cease? We have long proclaimed that Britain will not be part of the final configuration of a revived core Europe, and that ultimately, war will ensue between Great Britain and the final European revival of the Roman Empire. 

A New Era for Europe?

Der Spiegel wrote on November 3:

“German commentators [say] the whole of Europe, like Britain and France, is strapped for cash and faces a decline in global importance. Europe, they argue, should draw lessons from the new cooperation between those two countries.

“Center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘Their partnership doesn’t come from the heart. But the French and British have been good friends to each other in times of crisis — from World War I to the recent battles in the Balkans. This time they are being forced into an alliance not by enemy soldiers, but by red figures. The British and French know that they can no longer fulfil their claims to be major powers on their own… this could usher in a new era of defense policy in Europe.

“‘The British are stressing that the new entente is taking place outside the European Union and that they aren’t thinking about an EU army. But the pact is good for the whole of Europe. France and Britain account for half of the defense spending of the entire 27-nation EU. If they get together, it will serve as a model. Further alliances will be formed as a result of budget pressures. That in itself won’t create an EU army. But such a European defense policy a la carte is definitely better than nothing’…

“Conservative Die Welt writes: ‘The agreement signed by France and Britain on Tuesday is revolutionary. There has never been such a close military cooperation even among allied states. The British and French have had a complex relationship in recent decades. The fact that they are now working together in the sacrosanct area of nuclear weapons is an astonishing development.

“‘This cooperation should serve as an example within NATO and the EU. Not just Paris and London but the whole of Europe is suffering from financial pressure and waning importance in the world. If Europe wants to prevent a rapid loss of influence — and the projection of military might in distant parts of the globe belongs to the classic categories of power — then the countries of the EU will have to bundle their military capabilities much more than they have done so far.'”

Europe will unite and create a powerful European army. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.”

Britain’s Shameful Abortion Practices

The Daily Mail wrote on November 2:

“… for many, abortion appears to have become alarmingly casual, a form of birth control, a lifestyle choice, a minor medical procedure to be booked for a day off. The official UK figures for 2008 show that there were 195,300 abortions in England and Wales — more than 500 a day. A third of those were repeat ­terminations. A quarter of British pregnancies end in abortion.

“London has become the abortion capital of Europe. An estimated 7,000 women travel here from Ireland and Northern Ireland (where abortion is illegal) for terminations, either in ­private clinics or on the NHS. Women from countries such as Poland are encouraged by pro-choice poster campaigns to flock here on cheap flights for free abortions… It’s perhaps no wonder militant pro-life groups are springing up all over ­Britain.”

For more information on the terrible curse of abortion, please read our free booklet, “Are You Already Born Again?”

Germany’s Strong Performance

Reuters reported on October 28:

“German unemployment fell slightly in October, dropping to its lowest level in 18 years as the impact of persistently strong growth in Europe’s top economy continued to filter through to the jobs market…

“Data on Europe’s biggest economy over the past week has been bullish, signalling its unexpectedly strong recovery could hold up in the face of signs of fragility in the global economy. Consumer morale remains at its highest level since May 2008 going into November on expectations for a further rebound…”

… But Not Because of the Government…

The Local reported on October 31:

“An Emnid survey taken for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper found that 63 percent pointed to ‘the world economy in general’ as the main reason for Germany’s better-than-expected economic recovery. Only 28 percent said that government policy was to thank for the situation…

“The people surveyed also gave much more credit to Germany’s companies and employees than the government. Some 54 percent credited the workers, while 50 percent credited the companies.

“Only 22 percent gave any credit to the job market reforms known as ‘Agenda 2010’ introduced by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in the early part of the decade…”

Indonesia’s Ongoing Disasters

The Associated Press reported on November 1:

“Evacuees cringed and fled for cover Monday as an erupting volcano – one of 22 showing increased activity in Indonesia – let loose booming explosions of hot gas and debris, the latest blast in a deadly week… The new blast from Mount Merapi came as Indonesia also struggles to respond to an earthquake-generated tsunami that devastated remote islands. The twin disasters, unfolding simultaneously on opposite ends of the seismically volatile country, have killed nearly 500 people… One of 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, Merapi has killed 38 people since it started erupting a week ago.

“Even in the crowded government camps miles (kilometers) away, people still instinctively ran for shelter at the power of Monday’s eruption, which was accompanied by several deafening explosions… About 69,000 people villagers have been evacuated from the area around its once-fertile slopes – now blanketed by gray ash – in central Java, 250 miles (400 kilometers) east of Jakarta, the capital…

“The fault line that caused last week’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake and killer wave that followed – and also the 2004 tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries – is the meeting point of the Eurasian and Pacific tectonic plates that have been pushing against and under each other…

” Anak Krakatua, a volcano known as the ‘Child of Krakatoa’ also started shooting lava last week. Although the firebursts look spectacular, there were no immediate signs of major eruption… The mountain, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of Jakarta, was formed after the Krakatoa eruption of 1883, the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history that, along with a tsunami, killed at least 36,417 people.”

Haiti’s Fight with Cholera

Der Spiegel Online reported on November 2:

“Haiti, the battered Caribbean island, is fighting a new enemy: Thousands have fallen ill with cholera and hundreds have already died… Nine months after the earthquake, hygienic conditions are still catastrophic, and almost 1.3 million people are still living in makeshift huts made of plastic tarps… The first priority for the aid workers is to protect Port-au-Prince from the impending disaster.

“The situation is extremely serious, says Nigel Fisher, the United Nations representative in Haiti, and it would be irresponsible in light of experiences with epidemics in other places not to prepare for a major outbreak… Cholera, the disease of the poor, transmitted through contaminated drinking water and unclean food, would be very difficult to stop in Port-au-Prince.

“It seems absurd that aid workers from around the world have achieved so little by now. Until recently, they were quick to point out that at least they had prevented disease outbreaks. But even that tiny success has now been destroyed. For decades, Haiti has received international aid every time disaster struck, but no one ever managed to build a functioning community…

“The next hurricane, which normally strikes the island in the autumn, was long a topic of discussion in Haiti. When it didn’t arrive, people talked about the next earthquake, and when it didn’t happen, cholera struck. The question is not whether a catastrophe will ravage Haiti, but which one will do it first…”

Catholic Church Condemns Israel

The US Daily and Reuters wrote on October 23:

“Israel cannot use the biblical concept of a promised land or a chosen people to justify new settlements in Jerusalem or territorial claims, a Vatican synod on the Middle East said Saturday. In its concluding message after two weeks of meetings, bishops from the Middle East also said they hoped a two-state solution for peace between Israel and the Palestinians could be made a reality and called for peaceful conditions that would stop a Christian exodus from the region.

“… the synod fathers took issue with Jews who use the Bible to justify settlements in the West Bank, which Israel captured in 1967… Many Jewish settlers and right-wing Israelis claim a biblical birthright to the occupied West Bank, which they call Judea and Samaria and regard as a part of historical, ancient Israel given to the Jews by God…

“Asked about the passage at a news conference, Greek-Melchite Archbishop Cyrille Salim Bustros, said: ‘We Christians cannot speak about the promised land for the Jewish people. There is no longer a chosen people. All men and women of all countries have become the chosen people. The concept of the promised land cannot be used as a base for the justification of the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of Palestinians,’ he added. ‘The justification of Israel’s occupation of the land of Palestine cannot be based on sacred scriptures’…

“The synod’s concluding message repeated a Vatican call for Jerusalem to have a special status ‘which respects its particular character’ as a city sacred to the three great monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Jerusalem remains a key issue of dispute. Palestinians want East Jerusalem for the capital of a future state. Israel has annexed the area, a move never recognized internationally, and has declared Jerusalem to be its ‘united and eternal’ capital…

“[The document] urged Christians in the region not to sell their homes and properties. ‘It is a vital aspect of the lives of those who remain there and for those who one day will return there.'”

The Catholic Church’s involvement in this issue is quite revealing. The Bible predicts that united Europe and the Catholic Church will intervene in the Middle East and that Jerusalem will become headquarters for both entities.

Israel Condemns Catholic Church

AFP wrote on October 24:

“Israel on Sunday slammed critical remarks made by Middle East Catholic bishops after a meeting chaired by Pope Benedict XVI as ‘political attacks’ on the Jewish state.

“‘We express our disappointment that this important synod has become a forum for political attacks on Israel in the best history of Arab propaganda,’ Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said in a statement…

“‘For Christians, one can no longer talk of the land promised to the Jewish people,’ the Lebanese-born head of the Greek Melkite Church in the United States said, because the ‘promise’ was ‘abolished by the presence of Christ.’

“Ayalon said he was ‘especially appalled’ at those remarks.”

This article and the next show that this kind of confrontation between the Catholic Church and Israel will continue, as it addresses major substantive issues and goes to the core of the arguments and counter-arguments for Israel’s very existence in the Middle East.

High-Ranking Jewish Italian Politician Condemns Catholic Church

A-7 News reported on October 22:

“Jewish Italian MP Fiamma Nirenstein was reconfirmed this week as Vice President of Italy’s Foreign Affairs Committee. In addition, she was also appointed an official consultant on Israel and the international Jewish communities by Italian Foreign Minister Frattini.

“Earlier this week, Nirenstein commented on Christian leaders who criticize Israel yet ignore violence by Arabs. She pointed out that ‘Islam does not like Eastern Christians: it has forced them to flee and now they account for only 6% of the population in the Mideast’, and added that the only country where the number of Christians has grown is Israel, where 163,000 Christians live today…

“Commenting on the Vatican Synod about Middle East taking place in Rome these days, Nirenstein pointed out a document ‘written in a tone of theological excommunication towards the State of Israel,’ which was signed by the Custodian of the Holy Land, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who later denied involvement, saying that ‘no church in the Holy Land had signed the document.’ Nirenstein pointed out, however, that the names of top-level signers are clearly visible on the document which is available on the internet. The document speaks in the name of ‘us Christian Palestinians,’ and says that ‘the military occupation is a sin against God and against man’. It excommunicates Christian supporters of Israel, takes sides against the very presence of Israel, likens the defensive barrier that has blocked 98% of terrorism to apartheid, attacks the communities in Judea and Samaria and essentially cancels the existence of the Jewish state. The document goes so far as to legitimize terrorism…”

Israel Among Most Corrupt Countries

Haaretz reported on October 26:

“Israel ranks among the most corrupt countries in the Western world, according to a study released by the International Transparency Organization on Tuesday. Out of 178 countries – 1 being least corrupt – Israel was listed at number 30. But when compared to other member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Israel fared much worse. The least corrupt countries were listed as Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore.”

Islamists Unwilling to Integrate

In the above-quoted article, A-7 News also reports the following:

“Other comments made by Nirenstein this past week addressed remarks made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said that Germany’s multicultural approach to immigration ‘has failed, utterly failed’… ‘The point is that certain cultures very often have no intention of mixing in with ours, despite our actions and best intentions,’ said Nirenstein in response. ‘Paris has become a city in which more than 200,000 people live in families where polygamy is common practice. In Italy 30,000 women have been subjected to genital mutilation and Islamic courts—ninety-odd in London alone—inflict sentences that are inconceivable.’

“She pointed out that despite the fact that immigrants should have freedom of rights because of democracy, ‘they have other rules, not the ones of democracy. In Germany, Chancellor Merkel’s homeland, a Berlin lawyer was beaten along with her Muslim client who wanted a divorce; she was also attacked in the subway and was forced to close her practice. Again in Germany, Mozart’s opera, Idomeneo, was cancelled following Islamic threats. By pure luck, the editor-in-chief of Die Welt, Roger Köppel, blocked the hand of a young Muslim who was about to stab him in his office. In Germany, England and France, it is no longer possible to trace the “missing girls” who become slaves following arranged marriages…'”

Controversial New Mayor of London–Britain’s Islamic Republic

In addition to the previous article, The Telegraph sheds more light on some of the reasons why Islamists are not liked that much in Europe, including in England. Reporting on the election of the mayor in London, the paper wrote on October 22:

“Outside the Wellington Way polling station in Tower Hamlets yesterday, as at many other polling stations in the borough, people had to run a gauntlet of Lutfur Rahman supporters to reach the ballot box. As one Bengali woman voter went past them, we heard one of the Rahman army scolding her for her ‘immodest dress.’

“That incident is perhaps a tiny taste of the future for Britain’s poorest borough now it has elected Mr Rahman as its first executive mayor, with almost total power over its £1 billion budget. At the count last night, one very senior figure in the Tower Hamlets Labour Party said: ‘It really is Britain’s Islamic republic now.’

“For the last eight months – without complaint or challenge from Mr Rahman – this blog and newspaper have laid out his close links with a group of powerful local businessmen and with a Muslim supremacist body, the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) – which believes, in its own words, in transforming the ‘very infrastructure of society, its institutions, its culture, its political order and its creed… from ignorance to Islam.’ Mr Rahman has refused to deny these claims…

“Now… Mr Rahman has won as an independent… As mayor, he will have far more power than he had as a council leader. And unlike a council leader, no-one can sack him, except the voters in four years’ time…

“Some of my commenters are fond of saying that the borough is an example of “Third World” politics in the UK. There are indeed similarities – but actually the claim is an insult to the Third World. Bangladesh has got to grips with Islamism; the IFE’s Bangladeshi parent, Jamaat-e-Islami, gets about two per cent of the vote in elections there. No Islamist sympathiser in Bangladesh has unfettered control over a £1 billion budget. Bangladesh, in short, has less of a problem with Islamic radicals than Tower Hamlets.”

How Much Church Should There Be in the State?

Deutsche Welle reported on October 21:

“The German constitution declares that there shall be no state church, but the government gives the main churches money and clerics give sermons on public television…

“The consumer affairs minister, Ilse Aigner, and her secretary of state, Julia Kloeckner, both Christian Democrats, had a crucifix put up Wednesday in the conference center of their ministry. Clerics of the two main churches were there to bless the cross. Kloeckner said, ‘It is good to be supported by the hand of God, and one can show that through making a clear statement.’…

“Alois Glueck, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics, says that Germany is a Christian country. ‘Of course our entire value system is linked to Christianity,’ he said in a radio interview. “That’s also what has put its stamp on our culture and our values. The values of our constitution are essentially Christian values’…

“With the arrival of Islam on the scene, the question of how far religion should have an influence on public life has been given a new dimension. The constitution may have been influenced by Christianity, but it was also influenced by a secular tradition of republican values which… often had to fight the churches for such achievements as the rights of women or freedom of religious practice for non-Christians…

“Commentators have noted that the adoption of a line critical of the church could cost the party votes in important elections in the traditionalist state of Baden-Wuerttemberg next March.”

The question is, what kind of culture is the “Christianity” in Germany promoting? To bless a crucifix may be in line with “orthodox Christianity,” but it is not in line with Biblical teaching. Many other “traditions” and “practices” could be named, and the increasing vigor of “Christian” politicians to openly embrace such customs in their public lives may have quite a continuing negative impact for those in Germany who do not conform with a kind of Christianity which they believe originates with paganism and anti-Semitism, and not with the Bible.

Still Haunting Germany Today–Germany’s Nazi Past

The Local reported on October 24:

“Nazi Germany’s Foreign Ministry was a ‘criminal organization’ that was much more involved in the killing of millions of Jews during World War II than previously thought, a German historian said. ‘The Foreign Ministry actively supported all measures of persecution, rights deprivation, expulsions and the Holocaust,’ Eckart Conze, one of four historians asked to shed light on the ministry’s role in the Holocaust, told the weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung…

“The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants hailed the report as shedding light on a chapter that had remained shrouded in secrecy more than six decades on… Elan Steinberg, vice president of the New York-based organisation, said [:] ‘Previous efforts to whitewash the role of the Foreign Ministry and its personnel in the crimes of the Holocaust are now categorically refuted. This report is a pointed reminder of the broad cross-section of German society and institutions which were implicated in the Holocaust and the brutalities of the Nazi regime’…

“The research found that post-war chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who also served as foreign minister from 1951 to 1955, kept many of the Nazi diplomats involved in the Holocaust on staff. Der Spiegel said the envoys were often sent to Arab countries or Latin America, where public protest over their past was less likely.

“In 1966, Social Democratic Foreign Minister Willy Brandt, who would later become chancellor, maintained Ernst Achenbach as a top diplomat despite his involvement in the Holocaust. Achenbach had been a high-ranking staff member at the German embassy in Paris and was ‘actively involved in deportations’, the historians said. He managed to block until 1974 an agreement with Paris allowing Nazis who had committed crimes in France to be prosecuted.”

These revelations, especially the cover-up after the war, are alarming–but they could not have happened without– at the very least–the indifference or even tacit approval of vast portions of the German society.

Network of European Right-Wing Parties

The Local reported on October 24:

“The far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) is reportedly planning to open an office in Germany to help build a similarly populist party with nationwide appeal… The FPÖ is planning to work together with the populist right-wing group Pro Deutschland… Their aim is to establish ‘a patriotic movement on a national level’… FPÖ state party secretary Hans-Jörg Jenewein confirmed that his party intended to “significantly expand’ its activities in Germany…

“The FPÖ has cooperated with the regional sections of Pro Deutschland since 2007, but the FPÖ’s recent success in local elections in Vienna – where it won 27 percent of the vote and became the second strongest party in October – have significantly increased its resources and ability to help its German counterparts.

“It is thought that Europe’s populist right-wing parties are building a network in preparation for the 2014 European elections. Established right-wing political parties like the FPÖ, the Vlaams Belang of Belgium and the Dansk Folkeparti of Denmark need a similarly strong populist party in Germany in order to build a faction that can challenge in the European parliament… Jenewein said [:] ‘The “Pro” movement should achieve in Germany what we have achieved in Austria.'”

This article is also interesting in light of the next one.

Sarkozy’s Approval Ratings At All-Time Low

Deutsche Welle reported on October 24:

“President Nicolas Sarkozy’s approval rating has dropped to an all-time low, dashing hopes that the legislative achievement [of raising the retirement age from 60 to 62] could bring him a political comeback.

“The poll, conducted by the IFOP institute and published in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper on Sunday, showed only 29 percent of respondents were satisfied with Sarkozy’s job performance.

Sarkozy and his allies are hoping that the ongoing protest and strike movement in opposition to the pension reform… will die down as families leave their homes for the mid-term school holiday this week. But unions have already called for two more days of strikes, and university students are planning nationwide marches on Tuesday…

“Strikes in the country’s oil industry and blockades of fuel depots have left 35 percent of gas stations in the Paris area completely dry or out of one kind of fuel… About a third of gas stations in western France were in ‘real difficulty’ and 10 to 15 percent in the rest of the country were empty…

“Polls suggest a majority of French voters support or sympathize with the strikers… Sarkozy’s government insists that the pension reform is ‘inevitable,’ the only way to fill an expected pension budget gap and reduce the country’s growing deficit. But the opposition Socialists say if they win presidential elections in 2012, their candidate will restore the retirement age to 60.

“While Sarkozy’s popularity sits at a record low, analysts believe he may try to appease centrist and far-right voters before his term is over.”

If true, then it will be interesting to see how exactly Mr. Sarkozy is going to appease far-right voters.

A New Treaty For Europe?

The Economist wrote on October 21:

“It was supposed to be a final act. The Lisbon treaty, successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties, would create a permanent club rulebook. ‘We expect no change in the foreseeable future,’ European leaders declared in December 2007. Freed from its internal wrangling, the EU would be able to turn outward and face the real world. Instead, the real world threw up the euro-zone debt crisis. And less than a year after the Lisbon treaty came into force, the EU is talking of a new treaty.

“Brussels’s favourite game has been restarted by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. At their summit in the French resort of Deauville (where they also met Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev) this week, they declared that, in order to deal with future debt crises, ‘it is necessary to revise the treaty’…

“The European Parliament will want more power. Ireland will almost certainly have to put any new treaty to a referendum… Eurosceptics in Britain may seize the moment to call for a repatriation of powers from Brussels. Britain wants a stable euro zone, but is torn. It does not want to be bound by the EU’s fiscal rules, but nor does it want a more tightly integrated euro zone leading to a two-speed Europe…

“A new text would best be negotiated before the 2012 French presidential election, and ratified before Germany’s 2013 election… The EU’s members are part-integrated and part-sovereign, and the contradictions cause inevitable upheavals. Brussels’s instinctive response to the threat of disintegration is further integration.”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 27:

“Tensions are mounting ahead of a crucial meeting of European leaders this week, with Germany and France at loggerheads with both the EU executive and many other member states over their calls for further changes to the European Treaty… Speaking to the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, on Wednesday Merkel reiterated her position. She said that a ‘new, robust crisis mechanism for emergencies’ was required to secure stability in the euro zone. ‘That will only succeed with a change to the European Treaty.’ The chancellor also defended her pact with Sarkozy ahead of this week’s summit. ‘It is true that a German- French agreement is not everything in Europe,’ she told the Bundestag. ‘However, it is also true that without German-French agreement a lot of things don’t happen’…

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘Even if the rest of Europe cries out in indignation, the chancellor will get her treaty change, because there is no other choice. It is unavoidable, and in the coming days presumably the EU foreign minister and members of the European Parliament will recognize the fact. While the arguments are difficult to deny, what about the political style? There is a perception in the majority of EU states that the Franco-German directorate is striking once again. Or that Germany is acting here almost as a European hegemonic power, the export champion, the giant of growth, one that is far too powerful’…

“The Financial Times Deutschland writes: ‘… It is possible that the creation of a European rescue fund has already broken the rules. What is certain is that a long-term solution requires a change to the European Treaty.'”

The EUObserver reported on October 28:

“European Union leaders appear to have come to a consensus that the bloc’s treaty must be changed, although only in a limited fashion, in order to allow for the creation of a permanent bail-out fund for member states and a series of procedures for countries to unwind their debt positions in ‘an orderly fashion.'”

“Germany’s Role in the World”

The Economist wrote on October 21:

“In France workers angry about pension reforms have blockaded fuel refineries, causing 4,000 petrol stations to run dry. The Netherlands’ recently elected minority government depends for survival on support from a Muslim-baiting populist. Economies across Europe are struggling to cope with sluggish growth, lacerating budget cuts and the after-effects of borrowing binges. But there is an exception to the gloomy European rule.

“No big developed country has come out of the global recession looking stronger than Germany has… Its sharp-elbowed behaviour during the near-collapse of the euro earlier this year heightened concerns about Germany’s role in the world that have been stirring ever since unification 20 years ago… Even a pacific and prosperous Germany causes international angst… Germany… will shape Europe, and therefore the world…

“A third of Germans think the country is overrun by foreigners, according to a newly published poll; a majority favour “sharply restricting” Muslim religious practice. Over a tenth would even welcome a Führer who would govern with “a strong hand”—a sign that the embers of extremism still glow…

“Despite their economic strength, Germans fear the worst… This pessimism shapes Germany’s dealings with the rest of the world…

“Germany, with its high-competitiveness, low-debt economy, is on top. The rest are having to adjust, including France, traditionally a joint leader of the European project. This is unsettling… Even during the golden age of European integration Germany was an awkward partner, too big to be first among equals but too small to dominate, as Helmut Kohl, the chancellor who unified Germany, put it. It never lost sight of its own interests…

“Germany’s overall direction is obscure… The EU needs Germany’s leadership more than ever, but fears its pre-eminence. Europe also needs consensus, but will not get it unless the Germans foster it. Matters will be even worse if Germany’s economic self-confidence comes across as political arrogance.”

Germany will become the leading and most powerful nation in Europe. For proof, please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.”

“Unalienable Rights” No Gift from God?

WorldNetDaily reported on October 21:

“…for the third time in a little over a month, President Obama has censored a reference in the Declaration of Independence to people being endowed ‘by their Creator’ with rights. He just says that people ‘are endowed.’… The actual quote from the Declaration is:

“‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’

“But according to the transcript of Obama’s remarks to a Democrat fundraiser in Rockville, Md., just days ago, he was talking about the greatness of America, and said:

“‘As wonderful as the land is here in the United States, as much as we have been blessed by the bounty of this magnificent continent that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, what makes this place special is not something physical,’ he said. ‘It has to do with this idea that was started by 13 colonies that decided to throw off the yoke of an empire, and said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that each of us are endowed with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

“Don Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association, picked up on the dropped words immediately. ‘Repeatedly now the president has simply said Americans are endowed with certain rights, but persistently refuses to acknowledge with the Founders that these rights are a gift from God,’ he wrote his constituents. ‘He stripped God from our founding document on September 15 when speaking to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. He did it again on September 23 at a fundraiser in New York City. And he did it a third time … in Rockville, Md., when speaking to Democratic Senate candidate donors.

“This can no longer by any stretch of the imagination be considered unintentional or accidental… If our rights do not come to us from God, they come to us from government. And what government gives, government can take away…”

This IS telling. Maybe President Obama–a law professor–did not correctly remember the Declaration of Independence? Or, did he omit the reference to a Creator because he did not want to antagonize democratic and independent Atheist voters? Or, did he indeed plan to create the notion that those rights are granted by the government, which can take them away in due time? In each scenario, the answer is troublesome, to say the least.

US War Crimes in Iraq?

ABC News reported on October 22:

“In what is being described as the largest release of secret U.S. military documents ever, whistle-blowing web site WikiLeaks has released a trove of classified reports about the war in Iraq…

“Among the highlights… are claims that the death toll reached 285,000, and that 63 percent of them were civilians… [It is also claimed that] the documents state that 681 Iraqi civilians were killed at U.S. checkpoints, 180,000 Iraqis were arrested during the war, and that 15,000 Iraqis were buried without being identified.

“U.S. officials knew that the Iraqi government was engaged in torture and recorded incidents in which government interrogators electrocuted, stabbed and sodomized detainees, according to the documents.”

Whether true or not, the release of these documents constitutes a further nail in the coffin of a dying giant–the USA. Europe will hate the USA even more because of these allegations, and anti-Americanism will spread and become even larger. In addition, as the next report shows, the documents seem to portray an American army which was helpless in Iraq for years, fueling ideas to the effect that America could be beaten in a war.

The American Giant–A Humbled Nation

Der Spiegel Online reported on October 22:

“The field reports from soldiers cast a new light on the war — documenting in a unique way how the highly armed American military was helpless in the conflict for years… The brief, matter-of-fact incident reports offer an unusual perspective on a war that lasted longer than World War II.

“They show the everyday aspects of the campaign as US soldiers experienced it. The thousands of threat analyses, attack reports and arrest records allow a very precise reconstruction of the escalation of the sectarian battle between the Shiites and Sunnis, how it brutalized Iraqi society and how kidnappings, executions and the torture of prisoners became routine practices. The reports also provide some evidence that neighboring countries including Syria and Iran were involved in the war.

“… they have the cumulative effect of painting a precise picture of an asymmetrical war, one in which a superpower equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry often stands helpless on the battlefield against individual fighting units, as brutal as they are nimble. The material shows how the constant state of fear paralyzed the world’s last remaining superpower…

“George W. Bush, the US president and commander in chief at the time, declared on May 1, 2003 on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln that ‘major combat operations in Iraq have ended.’ The field reports show that his statement proved to be untrue for years to come…

“As tensions mount within the Iraqi population starting in 2004, acts of the greatest cruelty take place… The documents show hundreds of thousands of times what can happen to a society at war — how it gradually slips to the point of self-destruction and the verge of breakdown…

“Recently, Bush’s successor, Barack Obama, also officially declared the end of combat operations. On September 1, Operation Iraqi Freedom was replaced by Operation New Dawn. But aside from the excessively optimistic terminology, there were no signs of triumph to be seen. There were no flag-bedecked aircraft carriers or returning veterans being cheered as they marched up Broadway in New York…

“According to official figures, 3,884 US soldiers died between 2004 and 2009, an additional 224 soldiers from allied nations, well over 8,000 members of the Iraqi security forces… and 92,003 Iraqi civilians… Together, this makes more than 104,111 deaths, a figure that approximates the number of victims reported dead in these documents, namely 109,032. And although this war wasn’t nearly as devastating in terms of the sheer number of casualties as the Vietnam War, with its 3 million deaths, its effects on the standing of the United States in the world have been no less devastating.

“One month before the beginning of the invasion, Bush had blustered that the overthrow of dictator Saddam Hussein and ‘a new regime in Iraq would serve as a dramatic and inspiring example of freedom for other nations in the region.’ But the military that withdrew after seven years of war was a demoralized force that had long since ceased to believe in the noble goals of the campaign.

“The documents faithfully reflect this change. In the roughly 400,000 documents, the word ‘democracy’ appears only eight times. The ‘improvised explosive devices’ which instilled fear in the hearts of American soldiers, however, are mentioned 146,895 times.”

EU Complains About American Intrusive Travel “Security” Measures

ABC News reported on October 27:

“European air officials accused the United States of imposing useless and overly intrusive travel security measures, calling Wednesday for the Obama administration to reexamine policies ranging from online security checks to X-raying shoes.

“British Airways’ chairman made the first in a wave of complaints, saying in a speech to airport operators that removing shoes and taking laptops out of bags were ‘completely redundant’ measures demanded by the U.S.

“He was joined less than 24 hours later by British pilots, the owner of Heathrow airport, other European airlines, and the European Union. The EU submitted formal objections to a program that requires U.S.-bound travelers from 35 nations to complete online security clearance before departure. It called the system burdensome and said it could violate travelers’ privacy… The program applies to Europeans who don’t need visas to travel to the U.S…”

“British Airways chairman Martin Broughton told the annual conference of the U.K. Airport Operators Association that measures like separate examinations of shoes and laptops appeared to be unnecessary and were inconsistently applied in different airports. ‘America does not do internally a lot of the things they demand that we do,’ Broughton said, calling on British authorities not to ‘kowtow to the Americans every time they wanted something done’…”

Some of the American travel security measures appear indeed to be overly intrusive, redundant and plainly ridiculous. This is another example showing how America’s perceived arrogant politics antagonize even allies and friends.

Iran at Odds With Syria?

The American Spectator published the following article on October 22:

“There has been considerable speculation behind the visit to Lebanon of Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The generally accepted theory is the egocentric desire of the Iranian leader to bask in the Lebanese sunshine of acceptance as a ‘protector’ against Israel…

“Behind the scenes, however, is the fact that Syria is increasingly unhappy with the growth of Iranian influence in Lebanese politics. The deal among Hezbollah, Iran, and other Moslem political groups in Beirut always was supposed to be that Damascus would exercise the lead role in Lebanese political life. Recently Syrian intelligence is reported to have substantially infiltrated Hezbollah, aided by a considerable increase in military supplies from Damascus. Ahmadinejad’s presence in Lebanon was supposed to counter this and be a reminder to certain Hezbollah leaders of where their original training and support had come.

“Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s heralded visit was as much a regional statement as it was for local Lebanese consumption. The Iranians have a three-pronged offensive in progress: Shia alignment in Iraq, Hamas allegiance in Gaza, and Hezbollah’s ruling desires in Lebanon. The Syrians see this as the first steps in an attempt by Tehran’s clerical leadership’s plan for a Greater Persia — and Damascus doesn’t like what it sees.

“Parades in Beirut and speeches in a village overlooking the Israeli border serve the purpose of the clerical leadership in Iran in terms of flexing their regional muscle. They want to keep Damascus alert to Tehran’s outreach and international status. It also reminds the United States, and the West in general, that they have more than Persian nuclear development to worry about while they are pressing ahead with sanctions.

“Greater Persia may seem a dream to some outside of Iran. But in Iran and the region it seeks to dominate, it’s real enough…”

The Bee and the Myth of Evolution

The Guardian wrote on October 24:

“Bees can solve complex mathematical problems which keep computers busy for days, research has shown. The insects learn to fly the shortest route between flowers discovered in random order, effectively solving the ‘travelling salesman problem’, said scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London.

“The conundrum involves finding the shortest route that allows a travelling salesman to call at all the locations he has to visit. Computers solve the problem by comparing the length of all possible routes and choosing the one that is shortest. Bees manage to reach the same solution using a brain the size of a grass seed…

“Using computer-controlled artificial flowers to test bee behaviour, [the scientist] wanted to know whether the insects would follow a simple route defined by the order in which they found the flowers, or look for the shortest route. After exploring the location of the flowers, the bees quickly learned to fly the best route for saving time and energy.”

Scientists want us to believe that something like this remarkable conduct evolved through random chance. Or using Stephen Hawking’s rationale, the bee could have created itself and its brain capacity, as, according to him, the universe created itself as well. We would say, however, that the bee puts those concepts to shame.

Germany’s Fight with Islam

Daily News reported on October 14:

“A recent survey showing high levels of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment in Germany alarms the country’s Turkish community, which fears such beliefs could flare into violence. The study released this week indicates that xenophobic feelings are spreading from extremists at the margins of society to the middle-class heart of the European country…

“‘What is most dangerous is that racism in Germany is going from a Nazi appearance to a ‘black-tie racism,’ Kenan Kolat, a leader of the Turkish community in Germany, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Thursday. ‘The existing racism is heading toward the center of society, to cultural, white-collar racism.’…

“The survey, which was broadcast by Deutsche Welle, shows 32 percent of Germans approve of the statement, ‘When there’s a shortage of jobs, foreigners should be sent back home’; 34 percent agree or strongly agree with the statement that ‘Foreigners only come here to exploit Germany’s social welfare system’; and 35 percent think that ‘Germany has a dangerous level of foreign influence as a result of the many foreigners in the country.’…

“Germany has a sizeable Turkish community of around 2.5 million and a total Muslim population of some 4 million. German central bank board member Thilo Sarrazin recently caused outrage among Muslim immigrants when he accused Turks and Arabs of exploiting the welfare state, refusing to integrate and lowering the country’s average intelligence. ‘A policy of humiliation and exclusion is supported by part of German society,’ Kolat said…

“The survey showed the strongest negative opinions when it comes to Islam, with 55 percent of respondents saying they could understand that people find Arabs unpleasant, and 58 percent saying the practicing of the Muslim religion should be ‘considerably restricted’…”

For more information on this intriguing subject, please continue to read the following articles, and view our latest StandingWatch program, titled, “How Germans Really Feel.”

Germany’s “Multicultural Society Has Utterly Failed”

Reuters reported on October 17:

“Germany’s attempt to create a multicultural society has ‘utterly failed,’ Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday, adding fuel to a debate over immigration and Islam polarising her conservative camp… Merkel said allowing people of different cultural backgrounds to live side by side without integrating had not worked… Merkel faces pressure from within her CDU to take a tougher line on immigrants who don’t show a willingness to adapt to German society and her comments appeared intended to pacify her critics…

“Merkel has tried to accommodate both sides of the debate, talking tough on integration but also telling Germans that they must accept that mosques have become part of their landscape…’Horst Seehofer, chairman of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU’s sister party, has rejected any relaxation of immigration laws and said last week there was no room in Germany for more people from ‘alien cultures.'”

Der Spiegel Online added on October 18:

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s declaration that multiculturalism in Germany has ‘utterly failed’ has raised the temperature of an already burning immigration debate. German commentators on Monday clashed on whether she was voicing a home truth or scoring cheap political points…

“The right-wing Die Welt writes:

“‘No one has anything against the immigrants who live and work among us. But many people have something against the immigrants who want to bring their own system of justice along with them. Immigration means accepting the traditions of the chosen country — and also respecting those traditions. Whoever lives here has to accept that honor killings are murder. Whoever doesn’t want to do so, should stay out of the country. For this reason Angela Merkel and Horst Seehofer are right when they say that immigration needs clear-cut principles’…

“The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

“‘CSU leader Seehofer and CDU leader Merkel think that they can win back support by using slogans from the 1980s… Seehofer has positioned himself against uncontrolled immigration. But in reality, immigration has long been limited: Far more Turkish people are leaving Germany than arriving…'”

President Wulff Speaks to Turkish Parliament

Deutsche Welle reported on October 19:

“German President Christian Wulff has called on Turkish immigrants to Germany to integrate in to Germany society, saying Turks and Germans ‘are closely connected.’ ‘Our fellow citizens of Turkish origin … are welcome in our country, and belong to our country,’ he said in a speech to the Turkish parliament in Ankara. ‘As your president, I urge every immigrant to actively integrate in our German society.’

“His comments come amid a controversial debate at home on whether Berlin has failed in efforts to integrate Muslim immigrants. The four-day trip is the first visit of a German president to Turkey in a decade, while Wulff’s speech marked the first time a German head of state has addressed the Turkish parliament…

“In his speech, Wulff stressed immigrants need not give up their cultural identity or background. But those living in Germany should respect and protect the values of the German constitution, including freedom of speech, equality and the right to a religiously and ideologically neutral state… Wulff also touched on the subject of religion, calling on Turkey and other Islamic countries to be more open to Christianity…

“‘Without a doubt, Christianity belongs to Turkey,’ he said… In his speech, the German president also commented on Turkey’s struggling bid to join the European Union… Both Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are against full membership for Turkey, instead suggesting that the country should settle for a ‘privileged partnership,’ an option Ankara has firmly rejected.”

It is doubtful that Turkey will ever become a part of core Europe. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.”

Guttenberg–Germany’s Rising Star?

The Local reported on October 20:

“Nearly a quarter of voters believe the conservative rising star Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg would make a better chancellor than the embattled Angela Merkel, a poll published Wednesday found… The poll comes amid growing speculation that Defence Minister Guttenberg, a member of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), is likely to become leader of his party and has a strong chance to become the nation’s chancellor…

“Guttenberg, 38, is easily the country’s most popular politician at the moment – a title long held by Merkel. In a recent poll, his approval rating of 70 percent positively dwarfed her 40 percent. Guttenberg himself has described suggestions that he might oust Merkel if the conservatives perform badly in state elections next year as ‘bizarre’…

“Forsa pollster Manfred Güllner said Guttenberg was winning the respect of voters for his independence and the fact he did not appear to be part of the ‘Berlin political circus.’… However Güllner stressed the recent speculation about Guttenberg’s leadership potential had been premature. ‘Guttenberg is seen as a nice type but as to his fitness for the Chancellery, there are many question marks. So far he has not been seriously put to the test.’”

Europe’s New Anti-Semitism

The Local wrote on October 15:

“In recent weeks, it’s become rather apparent that bigotry towards Muslims is Europe’s new anti-Semitism.

“Last weekend, Horst Seehofer, the conservative state premier of Bavaria, sparked outrage by calling for an end to immigration from Islamic countries… Seehofer’s remarks followed several of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives expressing unease over German President Christian Wulff’s recent statement that Islam was as much a part of German society as Christianity and Judaism. One Bavarian politician even said there could be no religious equality for Islam in Germany…

“Tragically it took something as horrific as the Holocaust to ensure Jews equal treatment in Western democracies like Britain and the United States, where anti-Jewish attitudes were rife prior to World War II. No-one should forget that it was only the incomparable crimes of Nazi Germany committed against Europe’s Jewry that made it no longer socially acceptable to express anti-Semitic sentiments openly…

“Many German conservatives have recently mentioned the country’s ‘Christian-Judeo’ traditions – something that would normally be expressed in English as being Judeo-Christian… But it doesn’t take a huge stretch of the imagination to apply the ugly rhetoric currently being directed towards Muslims to Germany’s Jewish population before the war.

“‘…just as it was once acceptable to badmouth Jews and scapegoat them for society’s ills – in Germany as well as Western democracies like America and Britain – millions of law-abiding, well-integrated Muslims are now being targeted unfairly…”

New Dutch Government

Bloomberg reported on October 14:

“The Netherlands, the second-largest exporter in the euro zone, got a new government today backed by Geert Wilders’s anti-Islam party that plans to cut immigration and reduce spending on development aid and the European Union… About 1.5 million Dutch voters cast ballots for Wilders’s Freedom Party, which wants to stop the building of mosques and withdraw from the EU…

“The Netherlands, which has been known for accepting foreigners since Portuguese Jews sought refuge there, has played an outsized role in the world economy since the founding of the Dutch East India Company in 1602. The merchant empire, which focused on trading instead of cultural colonization, once stretched from the Caribbean to Indonesia…

“The Netherlands has about 850,000 Muslims, according to Dutch statistics bureau 2006 data. Most are of Turkish or Moroccan origin.”

Wilders Soon Acquitted?

BBC reported on October 15:

“Dutch prosecutors have recommended acquitting leading anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders on all five charges of hate speech. They said his comments had targeted Islam, not Muslims, and he had the right to comment on social issues. The trial will continue next week and judges may still disagree with the prosecution and convict Mr Wilders. Prosecutors were obliged to look at the case again after an appeals court decision last year.

“The trial of Mr Wilders, who compared the Koran to Hitler’s Mein Kampf, has gripped the Netherlands… Prosecutors had initially declined to press charges against Mr Wilders in June 2008. But they were ordered to do so in January 2009 by the appeals court, which ruled that there was significant evidence that the politician had sought to ‘sow hatred’.”

Russians Against Muslims

Der Spiegel Online reported on October 19:

“The leaders of Moscow’s 1.5 million strong Muslim community say they desperately need more places of worship. But a plan to build a new mosque has run into local opposition which is being fuelled by nationalists calling for a ‘clean Moscow’ without Muslims and foreigners…

“The country’s largest online newspaper, gazeta.ru, drew parallels with other European controversies surrounding Islam: The burqa ban in France and the immigration debate now raging in Germany. Europeans are frightened of Islam because the religion’s values are utterly foreign to them, the article said. ‘Now we are experiencing something similar in Moscow and St. Petersburg.’

“According to estimates… up to 20 million Muslims live in Russia today. Muslims have dominated some parts of the country for centuries. While the predominantly Muslim Republic of Tatarstan in the Volga region is regarded as moderate, guerrillas are fighting to set up an Islamic state in the northern Caucasus. Islamic extremists were behind the suicide bomb attacks that shook the Russian capital this March and killed 40 people.”

Strikes Paralyze France

Deutsche Welle reported on October 20:

“The first fuel depots where cleared of blockades by the police overnight after one-third of France’s petrol stations had run dry due to a strike of oil refinery workers and barricades set up at several depots…

“The clashes between police and protesters continued on Wednesday. Many of the country’s motorways and airports remained blockaded as protests against the government’s pension reforms continued for the seventh day in a row.

“Demonstrators blocked access to airports in Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes and Clermont-Ferrand, while truck drivers obstructed traffic on more than a dozen motorways throughout the country. 

“President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday warned that the strikes could have serious consequences for the country’s economy… Sarkozy added that despite the protests the government would persist in pushing for unpopular pension reforms…

“Opinion polls suggest the strikers still have the support of the majority of the French. French daily Les Echos published a poll on Wednesday that said that 59 percent of the country wanted the unions to continue with the protests.

“The pension reforms are aimed at raising the standard retirement age from 60 to 62 and full pension benefits from 65 to 67. The French senate is to vote on the unpopular bill later this week.”

France Off the Hook?

Predictably, the EU dropped their charges against France for the deporatation of Roma.

The EUObserver wrote on October 19:

“The European Commission on Tuesday… put an end to its stand-off with France over Roma expulsions, deciding not to start infringement procedures after Paris submitted plans to bring its legislation in line with EU law on freedom of movement… Over a thousand Roma of Romanian and Bulgarian citizenship were repatriated in August and September… With the Tuesday decision, that case is now closed…

“‘This is proof of the good functioning of the European Union as a Community governed by the rule of law,’ the commissioner added… The news came as a ‘disappointment’ to MEPs following the Brussels-Paris row over Roma.”

“Obama’s Lost Magic” –USA and EU Far Apart

This article and the next one show the vast differences between Europe and America. Once this fact is realized, it is perhaps not any longer so difficult to believe the Bible which prophesies that the relationship between these two power blocs will steadily deteriorate and culminate in an outright war.

On October 19, Der Spiegel Online published a somewhat polemic and largely inaccurate article. Nevertheless, the following excerpts are worth quoting:

“US President Barack Obama is trying to recover his lost magic as defeat for the Democrats looms in the midterm elections. But… his window of opportunity has passed…

“When Obama came to office, the country craved perfection. His government is far from perfect, however. It’s not even close. But what is more appalling still, what is more shocking on so many levels, is the state of the nation — the political stupidity of entire federal states and systems that seem hell-bent on self-destruction. Europe and the United States are much farther apart than many Europeans think. The US is different, completely and utterly different…

“Decades of prosperity have made the US a lethargic country. And in contrast to Europeans, whose lives and countries have been shaped by war, Americans are accustomed to feeling unique and invulnerable.”

“The American and European Systems Are Largely Different”

On October 19, Der Spiegel published an interview with Karl Rove who was one of President George W. Bush’s closest advisers. We are bringing you the following excerpts from Karl Rove’s comments:

“In Europe and the United States, you’ve got different systems to select candidates, and no system is perfect. In Germany you have a parliamentary system in which political parties weed out people. And the fact of the matter is that in Germany, on both sides of the aisle, particularly on the Social Democratic side, you have seen lousy leadership of the political parties that have allowed subpar candidates to emerge through the parliamentary system…

“You have had candidates that the country rejected in a pretty profound way. Our primary system prevents this from happening as often… the advantage of our system is that it is able to react to changes in public opinion better than the European system generally is able to. And, we tend to have broadly representative parties rather than sort of multiple parties that represent more narrow slices of the electorate and lead to coalition politics.

“America does not have a history of social democracy. We have been a country in which even the Democrats have been to the right of the left in Europe, and that’s one of our strengths. A lot of people call [President Obama] a socialist. I don’t. He is a social democrat, though…”

Osama Bin Laden and the Hopeless Afghan War

CNN reported on October 18:

“Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are believed to be hiding close to each other in houses in northwest Pakistan, but are not together, a senior NATO official said. ‘Nobody in al Qaeda is living in a cave,’ said the official… Rather, al Qaeda’s top leadership is believed to be living in relative comfort, protected by locals and some members of the Pakistani intelligence services, the official said. Pakistan has repeatedly denied protecting members of the al Qaeda leadership…

“The NATO official, who has day-to-day senior responsibilities for the war, offered a potentially grimmer view than what has been publicly offered by others. ‘Every year the insurgency can generate more and more manpower,’ despite military attacks, he said… he pointed to an internal assessment that there are 500,000 to 1 million ‘disaffected’ men between the ages of 15 and 25 along the Afghan-Pakistan border region… Most are Afghan Pashtuns and make up some of the 95 percent of the insurgency who carry out attacks just to earn money, rather than fight for a hard-core Taliban ideology.

“The official said it is now absolutely vital for the Afghan government to address the needs of this group with security, economic development and jobs in order for the war to end, and for Afghanistan to succeed. ‘We are running out of time,’ he said. The entire scenario is made more complex by the fact that ‘there is a huge criminal enterprise in this country,’ dealing in human, drug and mineral trafficking, he said. Those crimes are also tied into the insurgency.

“… the official cautioned, hard core Taliban groups such as the Quetta Shura run by Mullah Omar, the Haqqanis, the HiG (Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin) and the Pakistani Taliban still could potentially muster as many as 30,000 fighters…

“The U.S. military could sustain a war ‘indefinitely,’ the official said. But the goal is to achieve reconciliation and allow the Afghan government to function and provide security and services to the people. Without that, he said, ‘we will be fighting here forever.'”

But the world will soon grow tired of America’s fruitless “indefinite” fighting in Afghanistan–and so will the American people. For all intents and purposes, the Afghan war is lost. America has won its last war a long time ago. In fact, America has won no war since World War II.

“No One Will Dictate Israel’s Borders”

Haaretz reported on October 19:

“Israel’s ambassador to the United States Michael Oren remarked on Tuesday that Israel would not allow anyone to dictate its borders. ‘Like Ben-Gurion, Netanyahu will not allow the United Nations, or any other organization, to dictate our borders. They will be determined through negotiations,’ he said in Washington during an event at the Chamber of commerce celebrating 25 years since the establishment of the Free Trade agreement between the U.S. and Israel.

“In September, Israel entered into U.S.-sponsored direct peace negotiations with the Palestinians, which subsequently broke down in the wake of the expiration of a temporary Israeli moratorium on construction in West Bank settlements. As part of the negotiations, Palestinian negotiators have demanded the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders.

“‘Today, too, Israel is blessed with principled and courageous leadership. While facing terrorist groups sworn to destroy every last one of us – women, children, senior citizens – and some 60,000 Hamas and Hezbollah rockets pointed directly at our homes; with so-called human rights organizations and boycott movements and campus coalitions denying our right to defend ourselves and even our right to exist, and with Iranian leaders swearing to wipe us off the map and striving to produce the nuclear means for doing that…. With all of those challenges, the Israeli government under PM Benjamin Netanyahu has not for a nanosecond reduced its commitment to peace,’ Oren said.

“‘But not a peace at any price,’ he added. ‘Not a peace that will impair Israel’s security or impugn its identity as the nation state of the Jewish people. As Netanyahu said last year in his Bar-Ilan speech, he will not allow any future Palestinian state to become another Lebanon or Gaza.'”

Israel will soon find itself in utter political isolation. The world will turn against Israel. We are beginning to see this development occurring in front of our very eyes. For more information, please read our free booklets, “The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord,” and “The Book of Zechariah–Prophecies for Today!”

How Will U.S. Midterm Elections Impact Mideast Peace?

Haaretz reported on October 20:

“Next month’s U.S. midterm elections might do more than just redefine the political landscape in Washington, they could also have a significant impact on stalled Middle East peace talks. Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, launched with gusto by President Barack Obama in September, have fallen into limbo ahead of the Nov. 2 vote as both sides bide their time and wait to see how the U.S. leader emerges from the campaign.

“Polls predict hefty losses for Obama’s Democrats and Israeli ministers expect this will force him to avoid any bruising showdowns with Israel and its supporters in the coming months for fear of further undermining his shaky electoral position.

“Palestinians hope that after the vote, Obama will refocus on foreign affairs and use the last two years of his presidential mandate to seek a place in history by securing an end to the decades-old conflict, regardless of obvious domestic risks. But Palestinians also fear an enfeebled Obama will be in no position to wring concessions from Israel, starting with their demand that Netanyahu suspends Jewish settlement building in the West Bank – the issue that has stalled the talks…

“In the run-up to the midterm vote, Israeli newspapers have jumped on opinion polls showing that support for Obama among Jewish electors had slumped dramatically. Obama swept the Jewish vote in the 2008 presidential ballot, but a survey by the American Jewish Committee this month said just 49 percent of U.S. Jews backed his handling of Israeli relations, against a 62 percent approval rating for Netanyahu.

“…some analysts have questioned whether a catastrophic midterm vote might convince Obama he has nothing to lose and decide to lean heavily on Israel to accept painful compromises – something Arab states say must happen to clinch a deal.”

Lebanese Shiites Love Ahmadinejad

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 20:

“After the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Lebanon, the radical Islamic group Hezbollah is brimming with confidence… Indeed, funds from Iran have been used to finance the construction of new buildings and streets, support war widows and create jobs in the sections of southern Beirut and southern Lebanon that Israeli fighter jets reduced to smoldering rubble in the summer of 2006…

“There was no mistaking the enthusiasm that gripped the vast majority of Shiites in Lebanon as they played host to the Iranian president. Ahmadinejad’s two-day visit gave an enormous boost to what is the largest segment of Lebanon’s population, which was, however, also the most marginalized group for many years. In particular, Hezbollah, whose name means ‘Party of God,’ is brimming with self-confidence. The organization’s militia has long since recovered from the fighting with Israel four years ago and once again boasts a well-filled arsenal of rockets.

“‘Even if Hezbollah is perhaps nothing more than a plaything of the Iranians, the Lebanese Shiites are enjoying finally being recognized as the strongest voice in the country,’ says Beirut political scientist Hilal Khashan. His colleague Raghid al-Sulh even maintains that Hezbollah is the ‘strongest political party in Lebanon of all time’…

“The Sunni and Christian opponents of the Shiite organization have not forgotten May 2008, when street clashes between Hezbollah fighters and government supporters came close to sparking a new civil war.

“The conflict was triggered by the government’s attempt to bring Hezbollah’s special telephone network under state control — a move that the Party of God saw as an attack on its vital interests. Since then, pro-Western forces in the country have tended to refrain from openly criticizing the Shiite militia.

“Still, there is a threat of renewed unrest. In just a few weeks, the United Nations’ Special Tribunal for Lebanon will announce in The Hague whether members of the militia will be charged with the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. This prompted Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Rafik Hariri’s son and political heir, to try to appease Hezbollah. The younger Hariri vowed that he would never endorse such charges.”

Britain In Shock Over Huge Spending Cuts

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 20:

“The Queen has already cancelled the Christmas party at Buckingham Palace. Now she will now have to suffer further impertinences. The British austerity measures announced on Wednesday envisage drastic cuts to public spending, including a sharp reduction of the royal budget. Great Britain is facing a ‘sober decade,’ according to Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England.

“The British newspapers have dubbed it ‘Axe Wednesday,’ the day that Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne finally announced deep cuts to public finances…

“Ministerial budgets are to be cut by an average of 19 percent… And 490,000 public sector jobs will disappear over the next four years. State expenditures will be slashed by 83 billion pounds (€94 billion, $131 billion), and taxes increased by 29 billion pounds (€32 billion, $45 billion.)… These are enormous figures, and it didn’t take long for the public outcry… However,… most British people have long since accepted their fate…

“The coalition has been preparing the public for this day since it took office last May. They warned to expect the toughest cuts since the World War II…

“It took an hour for Osborne to get through his list. He said that the only alternative to his radical package of measures would be state bankruptcy. Indeed, Great Britain’s deficit is the highest in Europe…

“As it stands, Osborne’s policy is nothing short of a massive political experiment, a high-stakes bet with an uncertain outcome. A senior official in the Treasury told the Financial Times that no one knows quite what will happen next… Numerous economists have warned of a relapse into recession. Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, wrote in the Guardian on Tuesday that ‘austerity is a gamble which Britain can ill afford.’ He says that the measures could slow or stop the country’s economic recovery…

“There are reasons for concern. Early economic indicators are worse than they were just six months ago. Real estate prices are weak and consumption, both private and commercial, is cautious. Just how economically damaging drastic savings measures can be has been seen recently in the case of Britain’s neighbor Ireland…

“All the British government can do now is… hope that their plan succeeds. The hope is that the British economy will follow the model of Canada, which saw solid growth following deep spending cuts in the 1990s. Prime Minister David Cameron… is aided by the fact that he has the backing of some of the country’s most influential newspapers. ‘It’ll hurt,’ wrote Britain’s largest circulation tabloid The Sun. ‘But the prize is worth the pain.'”

BBC News added on October 20:

“Chancellor George Osborne has unveiled the biggest UK spending cuts since World War II, with welfare, councils and police budgets all hit… shadow chancellor Alan Johnson, for Labour, called the review a ‘reckless gamble with people’s livelihoods’ which risked ‘stifling the fragile recovery’…

“Labour would also have had to make major cuts if they had won the general election, but the party insists Mr Osborne’s plans were too aggressive and risked tipping the country into a ‘double dip’ recession.

“During raucous Commons exchanges, shadow chancellor Alan Johnson accused Tory backbenchers of cheering ‘the deepest cuts to public spending in living memory.'”