Israel Update...And The End

As I pondered what to do for my last post, I decided that it really should be the thing I considered the single most important issue going on in the world today. Environmentalism, illegal immigration, overspending, expansion of government...most of the many political hot buttons floating around now are basically just different slices of the pie of liberalism. The basic tenets of the founding of our nation are fundamentally different from that liberalism, and that fundamental difference is what causes so many conflicts in this nation. It is a question that must be resolved if America is to remain free and prosperous. While there are many issues that are more than worthy of your consideration, however, I believe there is none more critical than that of Israel and the Middle East. First, let's check in on the latest events. (h/t to Melekiop for several of these links - thanks!)

Iran is now sending some ships to Gaza this week with 'relief'. Right. This kind of 'relief' would be like the relief your mouth would get from eating glass. In reality, this is probably just the next step in the radical Islamists' efforts to provoke Israel into international isolation (made all the more possible by Obama's lack of support for Israel after Turkey's flotilla). Watch for more problems and conflict to come.

Someone really needs to clue in our Secretary of State, who clearly hasn't followed these events over the past few days, and thinks that Iran might try something fishy. Way to be on top of it, Hil.

Of course, someone in Israel has not only a sharp sense of political awareness, but also a sense of humorous irony:

Student Union chairman Boaz Torporovsky, who has been leading the reverse flotilla charge, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday, “Hundreds of people have volunteered for the flotilla, and many more are contacting us all the time for ways they can help.

“Our plan is to deliver much-needed humanitarian assistance to the Kurds of Turkey, who by the way outnumber Israelis and Palestinians combined,” he said…

Another sea-bound venture is being organized in an effort to draw attention to Turkey’s own controversial policies – this time to Cyprus, to “call for an end to the Turkish occupation” of the island’s northern half – and is being organized by Meretz activist Pinchas Har-Zahav, and his son Haim, who has also signed on for the voyage…

Har-Zahav added that the ship’s passengers were not looking for a violent confrontation and if told to turn back, they would.

“But we feel that it’s important for us to show and remind the world that Turkey is not a righteous country, but a near-rogue state, and that we, the Israeli people, are not suckers.”

Sweet! Well played!

Still, perhaps the most unfortunate thing about this series of events is that Barack Obama is using them to revise American policy on Israel, and not in a way that will improve relations or Israeli security.

Kyle-Anne Shiver offers some words of encouragement with which I heartily agree:

I must now ask whether Barack Obama is signaling to the entire Muslim world that Israel is theirs for the taking, that America will stand aside and twiddle our collective thumbs while Iran and her Muslim neighbors finally get to carry out Holocaust II.
...

The only thing I can add is that I now declare myself, a devout Catholic, Jewish too. And it would seem the only moral thing any of us can do is to proclaim this as loudly and as furiously as we can.

Amen! Regardless of the official position, you and I can boldly proclaim support and love for Israel, and do our small parts to stand with them. On that note...

The bottom line is that we need to understand the dangers from radical Islam. The pope apparently does, which is a very good thing. Unfortunately, the Obama administration does not. Politically speaking, the Middle East is a powder keg that is likely to explode due to the simple fact of diametrically opposed ideologies. For example, Hamas' official charter explicitly professes the extermination of Israel and the Jewish people as its reason for existence; much of the radical Islamic world agrees. There's simply no negotiation possible with that mindset. As long as the Middle East exists, there will be conflict, and as long as the U.S. is a major world leader, the politics of the Middle East will affect us, if nothing else but for the simple demographics of it.

But I believe there's even more to it than that.

Even more critical is to understand the role of Israel in the world. Let me recap a bit on my understanding of things. Based on my Christian beliefs, I obviously hold Israel in a special place in my heart, and I believe that it is God's chosen land for His chosen people. The Bible is mostly a story about Israel and the Jewish people, and the rest of the world is only brought into their blessings and inheritance after Jesus Christ graced this world. Make no mistake: we are all included, if we accept His gift of salvation. But, Israel and the Jewish people are the primetime, and I believe there is a reason that the Middle East is flush with critical natural resources...to guarantee that that part of the world remains prominent, and becomes more so as our time on this planet comes to an end.

Thanks to the theology of smart people like Joel C. Rosenberg and Dr. David Jeremiah (and their study of the events written about in Ezekiel 38-39), I believe that we're careening toward another world war, called the War of Gog and Magog; on one side will be a coalition of Russia, Iran, and a bunch of Arab nations, and on the other side will be Israel. Of more concern to us, perhaps, is the fact that there is absolutely no mention in the Biblical record of a powerful nation to the West (us) helping Israel once this war is fully joined...they will be completely on their own. The Bible is silent on exactly why the U.S. is a non-player, but it's not too much of a stretch to see any number of scenarios that might play into current events:

1. the U.S. chooses not to participate --- given the Obama administration's pullback from our long-time ally, this is certainly plausible
2. the U.S. is unable to participate because...
...a collapsed economy destroys our ability to do anything
...a devastating terrorist attack renders us unable to do anything
...some combination of those, or some unknown circumstance

For whatever reason, we don't help Israel. But God does, and Israel wins a decisive victory that triggers the sprint to the end of the world as we know it and the return of Christ.

For a vastly more comprehensive set of details on this whole thing, check out the Rosenberg and Jeremiah links above. The nuts and bolts of the situation is that while we don't know the exact timing of these events, the Bible does give us a series of general road signs that we will pass leading up to this climax. While the exact timing and precision of details are subjects for much debate, it seems plain to me that we are seeing a whole lot of those general road signs nowadays, so it would be wise if every one of us investigated these prophecies and takes them seriously.

Why do I bring this up? To scare you? To predict gloom and doom? To get all preachy on you?

No, that is not my intent. My intent is to encourage you to think. You know I've always been a proponent of looking at the evidence and making up your own mind on things, and that hasn't changed with this subject. If you're familiar with these topics and have come to your own conclusions on them (and thus, how you should live your life in relation to those conclusions), I applaud you. If not, then now's a great time to start. Don't dismiss this as mere religious hocus-pocus...I think that if you'll take but a small amount of time to objectively examine the facts first, then the prophetic clues, suggestions, and predictions made by the likes of Rosenberg and Jeremiah suddenly become immeasurably more plausible and worthy of serious consideration that could have major ramifications for your life.

As Christians, we are called to understand our faith, to live it out, to be in prayer for Israel, and to rest confidently in the anticipation of Christ's ultimate victory over all evil in the world. In reality, the exact unfolding of the end times -- both the ways and the timing -- is irrelevant, because if we do what we're supposed to do, then we're standing with God's people, and with God Himself. And really, if you're on God's side, what else matters?

It's time to bring it to a close. No matter how dark the days get, remember who ultimately wins this battle. Always strive to conduct yourself as if you represent God...because you do. When you're bone-weary of the struggle and you wonder why you should bother to keep going, just remember the words of Galations 6:9:

"And let us not get tired of well-doing; for at the right time we will get in the grain, if we do not give way to weariness."

In closing, I wanted to post something that really captured this message, both in an overarching sense and in the sense of how we in the West need to recover our roots. I could think of none better than this clip of one of my favorite movie franchises, from a moment when the heroes are surrounded and outnumbered, and facing obliteration at the hands of their enemies:

It's just a movie, but that spirit is very real, and one that we should live with each day.

It's been a tremendous journey...thank you for making it with me.

There's my two cents.

Speaking Of Radical Islam: Anti-Civilization

Whoever he is, this Dr. Zero guy keeps hitting home runs:

Look at the world through the eyes of Hamas and its apologists, and ask yourself: what’s the point of sending a couple of boats full of terror “activists” to run the Gaza blockade?

The short-term benefit is obvious. Israel is placed in another no-win situation. If the Israeli military had allowed the Terror Flotilla to cruise on its way, they would have displayed a dangerously provocative weakness. Enforcing the blockade brought the Israelis into contact with armed and determined terrorist agents. When the IDF commandos defended themselves, a credulous global media was ready to write stories of “peace activists” being “massacred,” as Hamas desired. Within twenty four hours, regimes noted for the regular murder of their captive subjects were at the podium of the United Nations, denouncing a democracy for defending its borders. I have yet to see a major media figure ask how many of the countries denouncing Israel would respond to an invading flotilla by sending in a squad of guys with paintball guns.

The long-term strategy behind the Terror Flotilla is more troubling, because the pieces in that game are moved by the skeleton hand of anti-civilization… and it is winning.

The central flaw in Western liberal foreign policy is the naïve belief they can construct a civilization without enemies. No amount of multicultural babble, foreign-aid payoffs, or servile bows before foreign leaders can accomplish that task. Every society has both rivals and enemies. Rivals have plans which extend beyond victory in any given contest or campaign. The conquerors of old were looking to assemble empires, and the most successful of them made efforts to incorporate the people and cultures they overwhelmed. Not even the rowdiest English king planned to exterminate the French.

Anti-civilization is different. It destroys without assimilation. It learns nothing from its enemies, studying them only to find weaknesses it can exploit. In ancient times, it took the form of barbarian reavers, who looked upon graceful cities full of art and music and felt nothing but hunger and contempt. The industrial age refined anti-civilization into a powerful black oil, fueling massive engines of murder. It learned to wear crisp uniforms, and build concentration camps. It orchestrated decades of mechanized slaughter, with an atomic finale. By the end of the twentieth century, it had learned to manufacture terror, and transform the wonders of the civilization it hates into firebombs that could level mighty skyscrapers.

Anti-civilization stands opposed to the crucial idea that animates civilization: the belief that human life has value. It took a long time for both Western and Asian civilizations to fully understand this concept, but even in their infancy, they were dimly aware of its power. Mankind tended a garden of thought that grew for thousands of years, nourished by growing concepts of limited rule and transcendent rights, until it finally produced the most succulent fruit of the Enlightenment, the United States Constitution. Civilization begins with respect for the lives of others… the recognition that other people cannot be casually butchered for the slightest of reasons. Focusing this understanding to the elegant modern respect for individual dignity is the work of centuries, but the very concept of law is rooted in the most primitive incarnation of that respect.

It is this core value of respect for life that anti-civilization rejects. It dreams of Final Solutions and drowning its enemies in blood. It’s not just carless of civilian casualties… it deliberately inflicts them, as a matter of policy. It is ravenous for innocent blood, because it knows it can only defeat the superior intellectual and physical power of civilized nations through atrocities. It defeats mighty nations by murdering their children, and mutates its own children into bombs to achieve that purpose.

Anti-civilization can only succeed with the assistance of traitors from within the ranks of its civilized enemies… and it never has trouble finding them. Every society breeds people who refuse to see anti-civilization for what it is, rendering it invisible because it exists beyond the limits of their imaginations. There are also those who grow weary of the constant challenge to defend the society they have built, weakly accepting the comfort of a quiet grave for their civilization. Worst of all, every civilization produces those who eagerly cooperate in the task of burning them to the ground, with plans for rebuilding from the ashes tucked into their back pockets. The barbarians can always be defeated, if their allies within the city walls can be kept from opening the gates.

Industrial technology allowed the creation of Israel, a tiny democracy floating in a sea of barbarism, able to defeat all of its hostile neighbors in an incredibly short war. That same technology produced the media apparatus that anti-civilization relies upon, to commune with its allies and dupes around the world. In a very short time, atomic technology will put genocide back on the table in the Middle East… and our civilization will face a challenge that certain elements are already preparing themselves to lose.

The long-term significance of the Terror Flotilla is that it gives the worldwide Left one more dose of sedative to deal with the possibility of a coming horror in Israel. They’ve long since grown weary of dealing with the problems that tiny nation creates, and begun telling themselves it might just be better for everyone if it ceased to exist. Look how quickly the Left agrees with the Palestinian narrative that every problem in the Middle East is caused by the Jewish state… with the implied conclusion that all those problems would disappear if Israel does.

Anti-civilization wishes to convince the elite of the civilized world that its crimes are understandable, and the victim had it coming anyway. It’s already delighted to know the democracies of the world are less than enthusiastic about standing beside the little democracy it plans to drown. What we’re seeing now is part of the long prologue to something the global Left is slowly, quietly convincing itself will be the tragic but inevitable end to a complicated story. In truth, it will only be the beginning. Anti-civilization is both merciless, and relentless.

Given the strictly dogmatic, violent, and yes, even evil nature of anti-civilization, I believe there's no proverbial Switzerland in this battle, and no one will be able to remain neutral. You're either with the forces of anti-civilization, or not. I choose not.

Sadly, those who are quietly, inevitably enabling anti-civilization will be destroyed just as surely as those of us who plan to go down fighting. They may be destroyed last, but they will still be destroyed. Unfortunately, it will be too late to change their minds at that point.

There's my two cents.

Decline Into Madness

Scary stuff:

Over at the Wall Street Journal, Robert Pollock has an important piece about Turkey’s “national decline into madness.” Demonic images of the United States, Israel, and the Jews, are the daily fare of the Turkish press. Turkey’s leaders are both captives of this propaganda and its perpetuators. Their behavior in the flotilla fiasco, which according to Pollock includes instigating the provocation, is leading the region to disaster. Concludes Pollock:

Good leaders work to defuse tensions in situations like this, not to escalate them. No American should be deceived as to the true motives of these men: They are demagogues appealing to the worst elements in their own country and the broader Middle East.

And of course, Turkey is among the more moderate of the countries of the Muslim world, its demagogic leaders among the most reasonable. Elsewhere, across the great arc from the Maghreb through the Middle East to Pakistan, the delusions and the viciousness are far more entrenched among both the populace and the elites. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Iran, where Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has issued yet another call for Israel’s annihilation on the same day that the UN reports that Iran has amassed enough uranium to make, with further enrichment, two nuclear bombs.

The reaction of the democratic world to the Gaza flotilla debacle suggests that the barbarians are making impressive headway. The outpouring of condemnation from Europe—so outsized, so hypocritical, so ready to ignore the plain truths evident in the videos of the incident, so ready to pounce on embattled Israel—truly does reveal a world gone mad—the headline of a Jennifer Rubin post over at Contentions. One hopes that we are not yet in 1939. But we are unquestionably somewhere in the 1930s, a decade in which few and lonely voices were willing even to recognize the looming catastrophe.

Scary stuff, though not at all unexpected, if you understand the reality of the conflict. Unfortunately, the White House's cautious reproach of Israel from a few days ago has now blossomed into what appears to be hardening opposition:

“There is no question that we need a new approach to Gaza,” said one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the policy shift is still in the early stages. He was reflecting a broadly held view in the upper reaches of the administration…

[W]orld powers have grown increasingly disillusioned with the blockade, saying that it has created far too much suffering in Gaza and serves as a symbol not only of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians but of how the West is seen in relation to the Palestinians.

“Gaza has become the symbol in the Arab world of the Israeli treatment of Palestinians, and we have to change that,” the senior American official said. “We need to remove the impulse for the flotillas. The Israelis also realize this is not sustainable.”

Hot Air points out the obvious:

You’ll never remove the “impulse for the flotillas.” The real impulse is, as it has been for 60 years, Islamic regimes wanting to incite and exploit their populations’ sense of grievance over the Palestinians to further their own regional ambitions. If the blockade lifts and Iranian weapons start to flow and, inevitably, a new war erupts between Israel and Hamas (and likely Hezbollah too), then that’ll be the next thing to exploit, replete with Erdogan pandering for even more votes by screeching about how Israel’s betrayed Turkey’s “friendship” or whatever.

And, ultimately, it all boils down to the core conflict: radical Islam's primary purpose is to see the eradication of the Jews. In fact, Hamas, the likely intended recipient of the weapons aid contained on this flotilla, actually states in its formal charter that they don't believe Israel has the right to exist. Simply put, there is no possible peace here unless one side or the other is wiped out.

I should take this opportunity to once again point out that things appear to be headed toward another war in the region. As you know, I'm a big fan of Joel C. Rosenberg, and I put a lot of stock in his writings about Biblical prophecy. Here's his latest take on these events:

A pastor friend of mine who is helping us set up the 2010 Epicenter Conference in Philadelphia later this month just sent me an urgent text message with this headline from Israel National News: Rabbis: Flotilla Clash Similar to Gog and Magog Prophecy. As you might expect, it caught my attention right away. Excerpts:

• “The Rabbinical Council of Judea and Samaria issued a statement Thursday in which it said that the results of the incident in which Israel intercepted a flotilla trying to break the naval blockade of Gaza seem like the Biblical description of “the beginning of the Gog and Magog process where the world is against us, but which ends with the third and final redemption….
• “The Council was formed by Rabbi Zalman Melamed of Beit El and includes leading religious Zionist rabbis who are the spiritual leaders of communities in Judea and Samaria….
• “‘Gog and Magog’ is a reference is to chapters 38 and 39 in the book of Ezekiel, a part of which is read on the intermediate Sabbath of Sukkot (Tabernacles). These chapters describe a vision of a war where the world is united against Israel that will precede the final redemption of Israel and the world. The prophecy’s symbolism involves a prince called Gog of Magog, leader of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, who leads a coalition that includes Persia (Iran), Cush, Phut, Gomer, and Beit Togarmah against Israel. There are various opinions regarding the modern identity of these nations.
• “As a sampling of passages from Ezekiel 39 shows, the prophesy predicts that the coalition will be defeated by Israel, at a time following Israel’s gathering from its exile….”
• Meanwhile, an intriguing new article on the Jerusalem Post website today that also feels ripped from the Ezekiel prophecies: “ISRAEL SET TO BECOME GAS EXPORTER.”
• FRIDAY UPDATE: Israel says doesn’t want clash with ‘Rachel Corrie’ – Foreign Ministry calls out to last flotilla ship en route to Gaza, asking it to sail directly to Ashdod. ‘We have no interest in boarding ship,’ statement says. ‘If cargo contains no weapons we will convey it to Gaza’
• Tensions rachet up as Hamas fires 4 rockets at Israel from Gaza
• Prime Minister Netanyahu makes first formal remarks on the Gaza crisis
• President Obama calls Israeli raid on aid flotilla was ‘tragic,’ unnecessary
• Israel risks losing ‘sole friend’ in Mideast, says Turkish PM Erdogan
• FRIDAY UPDATE: Turkey mulls cutting Israel ties to ‘minimum’ over Gaza flotilla
• Turkish protestors: We’re all soldiers of Hamas
• Videos of the Gaza flotilla incident
• Al-Qaida Orders Abduction of Christians, Saudi Royals
• Must-read column by Charles Krauthammer: Those Troublesome Jews — excerpt: “The world is tired of these troublesome Jews, 6 million — that number again — hard by the Mediterranean, refusing every invitation to national suicide. For which they are relentlessly demonized, ghettoized and constrained from defending themselves, even as the more committed anti-Zionists — Iranian in particular — openly prepare a more final solution.”
• FRIDAY UPDATE: “Guns may have been thrown overboard”: Gun-sights, cartridges and coded plans found on ‘Marmara.’
• FRIDAY UPDATE: Israel Navy: 3 commandos nearly taken hostage in Gaza flotilla raid — According to preliminary navy investigation, some passengers on the Mavi Marmara boat dragged three unconscious commandos into one of the passenger halls below deck.
• FRIDAY UPDATE: Israel obeyed international law: Legally, the Gaza flotilla conflict is an open-and-shut case, writes Alan Dershowitz
• Wall Street Journal editorial: Turkey’s Radical Drift

There is growing interest in the Ezekiel prophecies and whether they could play out in our lifetime. I believe it is still too early to say anything definitively. But I agree that current events are strikingly consistent with the prophecies and I believe it is possible that we could see these events unfold soon. The mention of “Gomer” in Ezekiel, for example, refers to the modern-day State of Turkey which will be an enemy of Israel and part of a Russian-Iranian alliance against the Jewish state. I’m not saying the prophecy will necessarily come to pass soon, but I can’t rule out that possibility. We’ve never seen a convergence of geopolitical and spiritual events so consistent with Ezekiel 38-39 in history like we are seeing today. We need to be prayerful, sober, alert and prepared.

Are you?

There's my two cents.


Related Reading:
Religion of peace activists
Israel, right and long
The Muslim Brotherhood's flotilla
Essential Krauthammer on Israel

Israel Vs. Turkey: Condemnations And Insanity

In case you missed what happened, here's a great recap:

A motley crew of Turkish Islamists, European leftists and Israeli Arab leaders yesterday succeeded in provoking a bloody clash with Israeli forces that were enforcing an arms embargo against Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Six ships with more than 600 “peace activists” left Cyprus bound for Gaza but were intercepted by the Israeli Navy and special forces commandos before they could land in Gaza. The first five ships complied with Israeli forces, but the passengers aboard the sixth vessel, the Mavi Marmara, attacked Israeli commandos with steel poles, knives and pepper spray, provoking a battle that claimed at least nine lives.

According to an eyewitness account by a reporter:

Navy commandoes slid down to the vessel one by one, yet then the unexpected occurred: The passengers that awaited them on the deck pulled out bats, clubs, and slingshots with glass marbles, assaulting each soldier as he disembarked. The fighters were nabbed one by one and were beaten up badly, yet they attempted to fight back.

However, to their misfortune, they were only equipped with paintball rifles used to disperse minor protests, such as the ones held in Bilin. The paintballs obviously made no impression on the activists, who kept on beating the troops up and even attempted to wrest away their weapons.

One soldier who came to the aid of a comrade was captured by the rioters and sustained severe blows. The commandoes were equipped with handguns but were told they should only use them in the face of life-threatening situations. When they came down from the chopper, they kept on shouting to each other “don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” even though they sustained numerous blows.

Caught off-guard by the violent attacks of the “peace activists,” the Israeli commandos were compelled to use firearms in self-defense. Many of the passengers on board the Mavi Marmara were believed to be members of a Turkish Islamist charity organization, the Humanitarian Relief Fund, that has a long history of support for radical Islamist causes and deploying jihadists to Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya. The Humanitarian Relief Fund is part of an umbrella group, the Union for Good, that was created by Hamas leaders in 2000 to aid fundraising for Hamas’s radical Islamist agenda. The U.S. government has designated the Union for Good as a terrorist organization.

The biggest surprise in all this is that the Israeli soldiers were so unprepared for violence. Really?? Strange, because the jihadists-turned-peace-activists released a video the day before pledging to use violence to provoke the Israeli Defense Force into making martyrs out of them. Oh, and ships going from Islamic nations to Israel are so often just so darned peaceful, aren't they? And sure enough, several dozen of these peace activists have now been determined to be Al Qaeda members. Go figure. I think this is just another case of Israel trying to defend itself while walking on eggshells, and coming off badly because of it. Cassy Fiano offers this analysis with which I agree completely:

Of course, the left will do anything they can to demonize Israel, so they will ignore and manipulate the facts of the situation. (Don’t call them anti-Semitic, though!) The fact is this: Israel’s actions were perfectly justified. The Gaza blockade was in effect, the flotilla knew this, and was intent on running the blockade after being told to turn back. IDF soldiers boarded the ship, and we all know what happened. What were they supposed to do? Let the ship run the blockade without knowing if there were weapons on board that could be smuggled to Palestinians and then used to kill innocent Israeli civilians? (And of course, several caches of weapons were found on board.) Once faced with violence on board, should they have just stood there and let themselves be slaughtered? Apparently, these are the only two options for Israelis from the left: let people smuggle whatever they want into Palestine, a country filled with backwards, bloodthirsty, homicidal maniacs intent on eradicating all Jews from the planet, or when confronted with violence, choose not to fight even in their own self-defense. (Again, don’t call them anti-Semitic though! They love Israel!) Because Israel chooses to not allow themselves to be annihilated, they are always the bad guys in the eyes of the left, no matter what. This case is just another example of that.

In my initial post about this incident, I wrote this:

As Israel's strongest ally, it is now time for the U.S. to step up and help them out. Will we? With Barack Obama in the White House, I'm not so sure.

Ahem:

I suppose the fact that the Obama administration waited for a whole day before condemning our ally should be considered good news. Then again, is any condemnation of one of our allies for defending itself against radical Islamic terrorists actually a good thing?

Not in my book.

As if this wasn't enough to worry about, we now see news that Iran has enough enriched uranium to make not one nuclear weapon, but two. Oh, and Syria is has also confessed to conducting nuclear weapons experiments, too. This happened at the mysterious facility that Israel took out a couple years ago.

Are things spinning out of control?

There's my two cents.


Related Reading via Drudge:
Activists send new boat to challenge blockade...
Thousands of Gazans rush for Egyptian border...
Turkey's PM says Israel should be punished...
...Israeli gov't defends
'Next time we'll use more force'...
Passengers were armed, 'no peace activists'...
VIDEO...
U.N. Security Council Condemns 'Acts'...
Ahmadinejad: 'Israeli commandos are wild dogs'...
...wants Netanyahu to face trial
JERUSALEM POST News Feed...
REPORT: Lebanon fires on Israeli warplanes...
Turkish lawmakers urge govt to review Israel ties...
Says Israel has 'criminal status'...
'Activists threw stun grenades'...
US consulate issues advisory...

Weekend Round-Up

Once again, a great deal happened over the weekend, so let's hit the high points briefly.

Big Oil
Multiple new attempts to plug the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico have failed, and it now looks like this economic disaster will continue for months. President Obama's swift and decisive reaction is to bus in props people to stand there while he gives a statement in a fake photo op to sucker you into thinking he cares. Oh, and did you know that he proposed down-sizing the Coast Guard just a couple months before this all happened? Great foresight there, champ. Too bad he also wants to downsize the military...

Anyway, the photo op may have been complete fakery, but his statement was all too real, as he used this spill to call for a complete ban on oil drilling. Not just in the Gulf of Mexico, and not just dangerous or troubled rigs...all oil drilling:

He made a resounding push for clean energy legislation and referenced the House cap and trade bill passed last year and the one recently introduced in the Senate. He also suspended or canceled a number of lease sales off the coasts of American waters and extended a moratorium on deep-sea offshore oil drilling permits.

I can't wait to see what that'll do to the cost of gas. Here's the bottom line:

If “clean energy” legislation moves forward, higher energy costs will spread throughout the economy as producers everywhere try to cover their higher production costs by raising their product prices, further impacting Americans. The result will be a much slower economy and lost jobs at a time when the top priority for Americans is economic growth.

Also adversely impacting America’s economic recovery and long-term energy policy in President Obama’s speech was his announcement to cancel or suspend lease sales in the Arctic, Atlantic and Western Gulf. “Domestic oil production is an important part of our overall energy needs,” President Obama said in his speech, but his announcements do not reflect that. There are billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas under these waters that could possibly create tens of thousands of jobs as well as create revenues for financially strapped state governments and increase revenues for federal governments.

Controlling the energy sector is the third leg -- after health care and the financial industry -- of the government takeover of America, so you can bet your bottom dollar that they'll continue to push for some kind of controlling regulation, be it cap-n-tax, EPA over-reaches, or this kind of an 'emergency' ban on fossil fuel acquisition.


Time for the dog food!
Tsk...tsk...tsk...!

Back in February it was Armageddon. Republican Senator Jim Bunning was blocking an extension of unemployment insurance on a matter of principle. He simply wanted Congress to cut spending somewhere to pay for the extension. And by block, I mean he refused to agree to an extension by unanimous consent which would have put a lot of senators, of both parties, in the uncomfortable and unaccustomed position of taking a stand on an issue. The Huffington Post nearly developed an industry in demeaning a handful of senators who were simply requiring a recorded vote.

Yesterday, Congress quietly left town for Memorial Day with a bill to extend unemployment benefits still not passed. Tens of thousands will lose benefits on Tuesday. No one blocked the bill. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi simply couldn’t get their act together, the House getting around to acting on the bill only after the Senate had adjourned.

The crickets you hear chirping at the lefty blogs, like Huffington Post, is the sound of abject and unprincipled hypocrisy. Altogether it is unsurprising.

Why, without this extension, da' po' people will haf to eat dog food, won't dey? But wait...this happened purely because the Democrats in charge couldn't get their crap together before going on vacation. Hm, how to spin this...? Oooh...oooh...I know! It was George W. Bush's fault.


Skirmishes
It looks like a new conflict with Israel may be opening up:

The United States has a major problem in Turkey, which under increasingly authoritarian Islamist rule, has become a primary player in undermining U.S. policy in the Middle East, not to mention a growing antagonist of Israel.

I have posted on Turkey's Islamist government before. The ploy recently to announce a farce agreement (along with Brazil) to reprocess some Iranian nuclear materials as a means of helping Iran avoid international sanctions, was a deliberate attempt to undermine the United States efforts against Iran.

Now, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist political party along with the Turkish government helped organize the flotilla trying to break the Israeli military blockade of Gaza.

Let's be clear, this flotilla had nothing to do with humanitarian supplies, which could have been shipped by land. The flotilla, if successful, would have opened the door to military supplies to Hamas concealed in later shipments.

Iranian desire to turn Gaza into the equivalent of the Hezbollah missile arsenal was the real purpose of the flotilla, with European useful idiots tagging along. That Turkey played a leading role as proxy for Iran in breaking the blockade is yet another sign that Turkey's growing alignment with Iran is a harbinger of bad things to come.

The flotilla was a collective human shield operation in which civilians, including reportedly including an 18 month old child, were put on the ships either to dissuade the Israelis from stopping the ships, or alternatively, to create an international incident. Prior to the flotilla launching, the leader of Hamas announced that it would be a triumph regardless of whether the flotilla landed or was stopped by Israel.

Israel stopped the flotilla, and 14 people ended up dead. Turkey is threatening a military response, which is exactly what was predicted would happen. As Israel's strongest ally, it is now time for the U.S. to step up and help them out. Will we? With Barack Obama in the White House, I'm not so sure.

More details to come as these events unfold.

There's my two cents.

Cheerful Thought Of The Day: The Next War Against Israel Creeps Closer

Courtesy of Gateway Pundit:

Armed with Scud Missiles, Hezbollah fighters announced recently that they are eager for war with Israel and more ready than ever before. The Lebanese terror group Hezbollah is reported to have received over a hundred M600 ballistic missiles from Syria.
The Christian Science Monitor reported:

Nearly four years after Hezbollah fought invading Israeli troops to a standstill in south Lebanon, the militant Shiite group says it's prepared for a fresh conflict and confident of victory.

"We are ready for another war and we eagerly await it," says veteran Hezbollah fighter Abu Hadi on a drive through the Bekaa Valley. "We expect the next war to be short. The Israelis will not be able to endure what we will do to them."

Hezbollah's leadership insists it does not seek a war and that its military preparations are a defense against potential Israeli aggression. Yet, the inconclusive outcome of the 2006 war has stoked a feeling here that another war is inevitable.

War drums have been beating faster in recent weeks amid allegations that Syria has supplied Hezbollah with Scud ballistic missiles – a development that has enraged Israel, forced Lebanese leaders to seek international support, and complicated a gradual US-Syria rapprochement. On May 3, President Obama renewed sanctions on Syria for a year because of its "continuing support for terrorist organizations and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and missile programs."

Hezbollah's strongholds in the Bekaa Valley are likely to be one of several front lines during another war with Israel – a war that threatens to be far more destructive than the one in July 2006. Hezbollah says lessons learned from that conflict have been implemented, including new battlefield tactics and the acquisition of improved weapons systems, surface-to-surface rockets, and possibly advanced antiaircraft missiles.

Remember, this talk of not wanting war is coming from the same people who believe they have divine permission to lie about wanting peace while they re-arm for the next war.  Thus, the next war is not a question of if, it's a question of when.  At that time, we need to exert some monster-sized pressure on our government to support our ally, Israel.  They sure as shootin' aren't going to do it on their own, and they may ignore us then, anyway.  They've been doing a lot of that lately, but we still need to do the right thing.  Just be ready - it's coming.

And let's pray that Russia and a bunch of Arab nations aren't involved, too.

There's my two cents.

Obama Gets Aggressive Against...Our Long-Time Ally Israel

This is absolutely nuts:

Do you remember when Jesse Jackson said that under Obama Jews would lose all of their clout?
He was right.

The Obama Administration and the United Nations Security Council pushed legislation to strip Israel of nuclear weapons.
The Jerusalem Post reported:

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council said they support a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East, according to a unanimous statement circulated during a conference aimed at strengthening nonproliferation.

Without mentioning Israel by name, the group voiced support for the “full implementation” of a 1995 resolution intended to free the Middle East from nuclear arms. “We are committed to a full implemented of the 1995 NPT resolution on the Middle East and we support all ongoing efforts to this end,” the statement read. “We are ready to consider all relevant proposals in the course of the Review Conference in order to come to an agreed decision aimed at taking concrete steps in this direction.”

The statement also stressed “serious concern” over the Iranian nuclear program and urged all countries to sign and adhere the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Three countries are not party to the NPT, including India, Pakistan and Israel, which is widely believed to possess a nuclear arsenal. “We urge those state that are not parties to the treaty to accede as non-nuclear-weapon states and pending accession to the NPT, to adhere to its terms,” the five countries wrote.

Coming on the third day of a month-long NPT review conference, the statement spoke to competing interests: The US came into the conference pushing for tough measures against Iran, while in speeches the Arab states have increasingly focused on Israel’s presumed nuclear arms and their desire for Israel to sign the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state.

This would be akin to Great Britain demanding that we give up our nuclear weapons while the combined forces of Russia, China, and Mexico mass along our borders. I can't think of anything less ally-like than what the Obama administration is doing to Israel with this.

Of course, if Obama is doing his damnedest to give up our own nuclear arsenal, I suppose it's only natural that he thinks all of our allies should have to give up theirs, too.

Never mind the suicidal insanity of taking such a position, of course...we know for certain that Russia, China, North Korea and Iran have nothing but the purest wind-driven-snow intentions for their own nuclear weaponry/aspirations. Yep, without a doubt, oh, so pure...

By the way, don't forget this. With this move by the U.N., Joel Rosenberg once again predicts the future:

In a move ripped from the pages of The Ezekiel Option, the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday unanimously announced that they want to see “full implementation” of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), requiring a “nuclear free Middle East zone.” To the uninitiated, that may sound good on the surface, but it’s actually a direct attack on the State of Israel. Let me explain.

While Iran is feverishly trying to build, buy or steal nuclear weapons to destroy Israel, the Jewish State is currently believed to be the only country in the region that has actually has nuclear weapons. While Israel is believed to have had an arsenal of 150-200 or so nuclear warheads since the 1960s, the country has never formally acknowledged having them, a policy it calls “strategic ambiguity.” But no one has ever truly worried about Israel having nuclear weapons because everyone knows the weapons are for defensive purposes only. Israeli leaders have never threatened to annihilate its neighbors, much less do so on a daily or weekly basis.

What makes the new U.N. announcement so dangerous is that it does nothing to stop Iran from continuing to build its own nuclear weapons. Rather, it turns the world’s attention away from stopping Iran from getting offensive nukes and towards pressuring Israel to give up its defensive nukes. The world will now ramp up unbearable pressure on Israel first to disclose and second to dismantle all of its nuclear arsenal, and claim that no more action can be taken to stop Iran until the “double standard” of Israel is dealt with.

In The Ezekiel Option [see excerpt below], the Russians take the lead. In real life, it is the United States under President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton that has taken the lead to turning hostile towards Israel. But the Russians, Chinese, Brits and the French have rapidly followed suit. What will happen next? That is not yet clear. But it could get very ugly. Barring some unforeseen development, Israel will be increasingly isolated from the international community. And as amazing as it is to say it, the events of this week could theoretically set into motion the fulfillment of the End Times Bible prophecies found in Ezekiel 38-39 — i.e, the “War of Gog and Magog” — if the leader of Russia begins to emerge as the leader of the anti-Israel coalition and requires Israel to comply with the treaty or face an international military coalition prepared to force her to comply.

Yet again, we are reminded by events to pray for peace, but prepare for war.

Read the excerpt from his book at the link - it could be a news report from tomorrow. That book was written five years ago, by the way. But, with the guidance offered in the Bible, and open eyes to see what's going on in the world, Rosenberg has been uncanny in his fictional predictions for years. Now might be a good time to check out The Last Jihad, and maybe crack open that Bible, don't you think?

There's my two cents.

Israel Update

Something (or someone) is going to explode soon:

Lebanon is now a serious danger to Israel. What's Teh Wun supposed to do, though? He's too busy threatening Canada with military action. Considering Labatt Blue, I don't blame him.

Syria has supplied Lebanon's Hizballah terrorist militia with an unspecified number of SCUD ballistic missiles, US officials confirmed on Tuesday.

The new arsenal of SCUDs gives Hizballah the ability to hit any target in Israel should hostilities resume. The SCUDs also carry a far heavier payload than the thousands of smaller missiles Hizballah rained down on northern Israel during the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

Senior US officials familiar with the incident told The Wall Street Journal that the SCUD missiles given to Hizballah were built using either North Korean or Russian technology.

The source of the technology doesn't mean they were the last point of sale. There seems to be someone with much more vested interest in keeping Israel's attention occupied right now. Here's the big question: how long until Obama tries talking with Hezbollah? Seriously. He shunned Georgian President Saakashvili in favor of rubbing elbows with Medvedev over the START treaty. He's completely thrown Israel under the bus. He's bowing to everyone under the sun(or red flag), but sends England a set of DVDs they can't even watch. How long before he calls a beer summit between North and South Korea? He can force Canada to supply the beer.

I suspect we'll be reading more about this in the next couple years, probably along the lines of 'oh yeah, those missiles that just blew up in [insert Israeli city name] were the same ones that Lebanon gave to terrorists...huh, how about that? we never would have guessed that might happen...'

In the meantime, Gateway Pundit continues to document Obama's shift away from our long-time ally:

Do you remember when Jesse Jackson said that under Obama Jews would lose all of their clout?

He was right.

(Top left clockwise) Barack and Michelle Obama and radical Leftist anti-Israel Professor Edward Said at a May 1998 Arab community event in Chicago at which Edward Said gave the keynote speech. (Bill Baar's West Side), Former PLO operative and close friend of the Obama's Rashid Khalidi, Barack Obama and his racist minister Jeremiah Wright, and close terrorist friend William Ayers.

In an unprecedented move, the Obama administration said today that support of Israel will be "balanced against other US interests."

The New York Times

reported:

It was just a phrase at the end of President Obama's news conference on Tuesday, but it was a stark reminder of a far-reaching shift in how the United States views the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how aggressively it might push for a peace agreement.

When Mr. Obama declared that resolving the long-running Middle East dispute was a "vital national security interest of the United States," he was highlighting a change that has resulted from a lengthy debate among his top officials over how best to balance support for Israel against other American interests.

This shift, described by administration officials who did not want to be quoted by name when discussing internal discussions, is driving the White House's urgency to help broker a Middle East peace deal. It increases the likelihood that Mr. Obama, frustrated by the inability of the Israelis and the Palestinians to come to terms, will offer his own proposed parameters for an eventual Palestinian state.

Mr. Obama said conflicts like the one in the Middle East ended up "costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure" — drawing an explicit link between the Israeli-Palestinian strife and the safety of American soldiers as they battle Islamic extremism and terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Mr. Obama's words reverberated through diplomatic circles in large part because they echoed those of Gen. David H. Petraeus, the military commander overseeing America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In recent Congressional testimony, the general said that the lack of progress in the Middle East created a hostile environment for the United States. He has denied reports that he was suggesting that soldiers were being put in harm's way by American support for Israel.

Previously on Obama & Israel:

**Obama Refuses to Dine With Jewish Leader

**Obama Won't Allow Any Photos of Him With PM Netanyahu

**Stunner. Obama Has Refused All Israeli Military Requests Since Entering Office in 2009

**Obama Administration Denies Visas to Israeli Nuclear Scientists

The good news is that -- as with so many things right now -- the Obama administration isn't at all in sync with the American people.  In fact, his actions on Israel are scoring broad disapproval:

 

35 percent of the public gives the president a thumbs up on how he's dealing with the situation between Israel and the Palestinians, with 44 percent saying they disapprove...

Just days ago, thousands of Americans rallied in New York in support of our ally.  Let's hope the American people win the day rather than the American president.  Recall God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3:

...go to the land that I will show you. I will bless you and make your descendants into a great nation. You will become famous and be a blessing to others. I will bless anyone who blesses you, but I will put a curse on anyone who puts a curse on you. Everyone on earth will be blessed because of you.

Whether you put stock in the Biblical perspective or simply believe it's the right thing to do to support one of your ALLIES, it's clear that the American people are on Israel's side.  Unfortunately, America's political leadership is not -- on this and many other issues -- and that's a profoundly disturbing scenario.

There's my two cents.

Dissing Israel

It's hard to imagine, but it's getting worse:

Roger Simon reported, via Instapundit:

The Obama administration is now denying U.S. visas to Israeli scientists who work at that nation’s Dimona nuclear reactor. This startling reversal of traditional policy was reported April 7, 2010, in the Israeli website/newspaper NRG/Maariv (link to the original Hebrew here and to an exclusive Pajamas Media translation here).

This could be yet another flashpoint in the increasingly sensitive relations between the administration, the American Jewish community, and Israel. The revelation in Maariv came only a day before the arrival in New York of Tariq Ramadan — controversial grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al Banna — whose visa was reportedly championed by Secretary of State Clinton. Yesterday as well, new rules disavowing the term “Islamic radicalism” were announced by Secretary of Defense Gates.
According to Maariv:

“…. workers at the Dimona reactor who submitted VISA requests to visit the United States for ongoing university education in Physics, Chemistry and Nuclear Engineering — have all been rejected, specifically because of their association with the Dimona reactor. This is a new policy decision of the Obama administration, since there never used to be an issue with the reactor’s workers from study in the USA, and till recently, they received VISAs and studied in the USA.”

Deny visas to American allies while 'championing' visas to our enemies?

What else is left to be said? This is a bad, bad sign...

There's my two cents.

The Knowledge Problem

Glenn Reynolds (the Instapundit) has a very interesting analysis of why government is so totally incompetent:

"If no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?" -- President Reagan, Jan. 20, 1981.

Economist Friedrich Hayek explained in 1945 why centrally controlled "command economies" were doomed to waste, inefficiency, and collapse: Insufficient knowledge. He won a Nobel Prize. But it turns out he was righter than he knew.

In his "The Use of Knowledge In Society," Hayek explained that information about supply and demand, scarcity and abundance, wants and needs exists in no single place in any economy. The economy is simply too large and complicated for such information to be gathered together.

Any economic planner who attempts to do so will wind up hopelessly uninformed and behind the times, reacting to economic changes in a clumsy, too-late fashion and then being forced to react again to fix the problems that the previous mistakes created, leading to new problems, and so on.

Hm, very interesting, don't you think?  I'd say we've got more than enough evidence of this truth throughout history, and there's no reason to think that Obama's burgeoning command economy in America will be any different.  In fact, anyone who has paid any attention to the federal government already realizes that...well, they suck at just about everything they do.  So what can be done to help out?

Market mechanisms, like pricing, do a better job than planners because they incorporate what everyone knows indirectly through signals like price, without central planning.

Thus, no matter how deceptively simple and appealing command economy programs are, they are sure to trip up their operators, because the operators can't possibly be smart enough to make them work.

Hayek's insight into economics and regulation is often called "The Knowledge Problem," and it is a very powerful notion.

The Founders knew this, and that's why they took so many deliberate steps to ensure that the free market would be the primary operator of the American economy.  Over the past century or so, however, government has been creeping ever forward, expanding constantly with the occasional major leap.  The New Deal in the 1930s, the Great Society in the 1960s, and now Obama's bald-faced takeover of huge swaths of the nation are those leaps.  And here's where it gets really interesting (emphasis mine):

But recent events suggest that it's not just the economy that regulators don't understand well enough -- it's also their own regulations.

This became apparent when various large businesses responded to the enactment of Obamacare by taking accounting steps to reflect tax changes brought about by the new health care legislation. The additional costs created by Obamacare, conveniently enough, weren't going to strike until later, after the November elections.

But both Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Securities and Exchange Commission regulations require companies to account for these changes as soon as they learn about them. As the Atlantic's Megan McArdle wrote:

"What AT&T, Caterpillar, et al did was appropriate. It's earnings season, and they offered guidance about , um, their earnings."So once Obamacare passed, massive corporate write-downs were inevitable.

But don't bother a liberal with facts, history, or details, right?  Nope:

They were also bad publicity for Obamacare, and they seem to have come as an unpleasant shock to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who immediately scheduled congressional hearings for April 21, demanding that the chief executive officers of AT&T, John Deere, and Caterpillar, among others, come and explain themselves.

Obamacare was supposed to provide unicorns and rainbows: How can it possibly be hurting companies and killing jobs? Surely there's some sort of Republican conspiracy going on here!

And, with the media acting as the trained poodle for Obama, the effort to spin a blatantly obvious reality into unicorns and rainbows continues daily.  It would be funny if they weren't in the process of ruining the country.

More like a confederacy of dunces. Waxman and his colleagues in Congress can't possibly understand the health care market well enough to fix it. But what's more striking is that Waxman's outraged reaction revealed that they don't even understand their own area of responsibility - regulation -- well enough to predict the effect of changes in legislation.

In drafting the Obamacare bill they tried to time things for maximum political advantage, only to be tripped up by the complexities of the regulatory environment they had already created. It's like a second-order Knowledge Problem.

Possibly this is simply because Waxman and his colleagues are dumb, and God knows there's plenty of evidence that Congress isn't a repository of rocket scientists. But it's just as likely that adding 30 or 40 IQ points to the average congressman wouldn't make much difference.

The United States Code -- containing federal statutory law -- is more than 50,000 pages long and comprises 40 volumes. The Code of Federal Regulations, which indexes administrative rules, is 161,117pages long and composes226volumes.

No one on Earth understands them all, and the potential interaction among all the different rules would choke a supercomputer. This means, of course, that when Congress changes the law, it not only can't be aware of all the real-world complications it's producing, it can't even understand the legal and regulatory implications of what it's doing.

Flat tax, anyone?  A single page with a handful of questions should do the trick.

There's good news and bad news in that. The bad news is obvious: We're governed not just by people who do screw up constantly, but by people who can't help but screw up constantly. So long as the government is this large and overweening, no amount of effort at securing smarter people or "better" rules will do any good: Incompetence is built into the system.

The good news is less obvious, but just as important: While we rightly fear a too-powerful government, this regulatory knowledge problem will ensure plenty of public stumbles and embarrassments, helping to remind people that those who seek to rule us really don't know what they're doing.

If that doesn't encourage skepticism toward big government, it's hard to imagine what will.

Good stuff.  Once again, there's an important principle here: an economy is vastly more complex than any control of a human government can handle.  The decisions about buying, selling, and worth need to bubble up from the consumer level, which means that the American economy has roughly 308 million variables constantly fluctuating on a daily basis.  To try to clamp down and control all of these variables from the top down is as astoundingly arrogant as it is completely destined to fail.  Unfortunately, we're all going to see the American economy crippled in the process of that failure.  I've often heard the comparison that the field of economics was invented to make meteorologists look accurate.  But, the basic understanding of historically proven principles like taxation and free markets are very, very simple.  Every American is capable of understanding those things, and make political decisions (i.e. votes) based on that understanding.

America is a sinking ship heading toward the rocks, and needs a fast change of direction.  If we can't turn this thing around, we're going to experience a violent crash that will severely damage -- if not destroy -- this nation.  The Knowledge Problem doesn't need to be a problem at all - in a free market economy, the knowledge transfer takes place on a consumer level basis, with each transaction.  It's what works, and it's what we need to get back to if we're to avoid this crash.

Funny how it goes hand in hand with freedom, too.

There's my two cents.

It's Official: Obama Is Severely Distancing Israel

Gateway Pundit:

Last week Barack Obama refused to have his picture taken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. There were reports that he refused to dine with Netanyahu, too. But, his angst against Israel does not stop there…
His far left Administration has refused all military requests by Israel since entering office in January 2009.

The World Tribune reported:

Officials said the U.S. Defense Department and Israeli Defense Ministry concluded an agreement that would enable the sale of at least three C-130J Super Hercules aircraft to Israel.

They said the agreement was signed in Washington on March 24 but has not been announced.

"There is a signed agreement," an official said. "The announcement requires a political decision."

Under the accord, Israel would be able to purchase three C-130Js from manufacturer Lockheed Martin. The agreement called for an option of another six air transports for a total value of $1.9 billion. The Israeli request for the Super Hercules had been approved by the administration of then-President George W. Bush in 2007.

The administration of President Barack Obama has refused to approve any of Israel's military requests since it entered office in January 2009. The Pentagon did not announce any weapons contracts to Israel over the last 14 months.

Israel was expected to receive its first C-130J in 2013, officials said. They said the next step would be to sign a contract with Lockheed Martin, which has been processing requests from such Middle East countries as Iraq, Oman and Tunisia.

I don't see any other conclusion.  We knew his administration and his history are full of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment, but it is still rather shocking to see such a brazen distancing proven right in front of us.  Just one more reminder:

Genesis 12:1-3
Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go out from your country and from your family and from your father's house, into the land to which I will be your guide. And I will make of you a great nation, blessing you and making your name great; and you will be a blessing. To them who are good to you will I give blessing, and on him who does you wrong will I put my curse, and you will become a name of blessing to all the families of the earth."

Really?  Is this the road we want to go down?  I believe there's a reason the U.S. has been so blessed, especially in the past half century or so, and I'm convinced it's at least partly because of our friendship with Israel.  Barack Obama is apparently flushing that down the drain.  We must stand up and reaffirm our support for Israel, and elect leaders who will do the same.

There's my two cents.

What's Going On With The U.S. And Israel?

Some very quiet negotiations are being conducted, and it looks like there is an increasing strain on the relationship between the U.S. and our long-time ally, Israel.  It started with Israeli PM Netanyahu's trip to the U.S., and a speech at AIPAC:

Prime Minister Netanyahu defied the Obama Regime and stood strong on Israel's right to Jerusalem.
YNet reported:

"As the world faces monumental challenges, I know that Israel and America will face them together," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, opening his speech before the American Israel Public Affairs committee Monday, after a meeting with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.

The prime minister reiterated his stance on construction in Jerusalem, and told his audience of some 8,000 pro-Israel activists, "The connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel cannot be denied. The connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem cannot be denied.

"The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 year ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today. Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is our capital."

He continued to say, "In Jerusalem, my government has maintained the policies of all Israeli governments since 1967, including those led by Golda Meir, Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Rabin. Today, nearly a quarter of a million Jews, almost half the city's Jewish population, live in neighborhoods that are just beyond the 1949 armistice lines. All these neighborhoods are within a five-minute drive from the Knesset. They are an integral and inextricable part of modern Jerusalem. Everyone knows that these neighborhoods will be part of Israel in any peace settlement. Therefore, building them in no way precludes the possibility of a two-state solution."

Then Netanyahu paid a visit to the White House -- which is now a hot-bed of Israeli-haters and anti-Semitic policy-makers -- to meet with Barack Obama...behind closed doors and with none of the usual fanfare that takes place between ally heads of state:

The fumbling of the US-Israeli relationship may be one, long Obamateurism, but if so, it's comprised of a series of amateurish stumbles along its trajectory to disaster. Consider last night's meeting with Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu. In his interview with Bret Baier last week, Barack Obama insisted that relations between the two countries remain strong despite disagreement over an Israeli plan to build more housing in Jerusalem — which could only have come as a surprise to someone with absolutely no knowledge of the issue. But if the relationship was really that strong, why did Obama refuse to be seen with Netanyahu and pose for pictures with him, as is customary when friendly heads of state visit the White House?

Obama and Netanyahu conferred for about 90 minutes in the Oval Office, but in a break with custom reporters were not invited to see the close allies shake hands and begin their discussions. The White House had no immediate comment on what was discussed. Netanyahu did not leave the White House for another two hours after his formal talks with Obama, but what he was doing during that time was not immediately clear.

NBC's Chuck Todd tweeted from the White House (via CentristNet):

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu departs White House after meeting President Obama, with no word on progress, no photo op, no press access

Of course, Barack Obama is happy to meet and take warm fuzzy pictures of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez:

But never mind that now.

What, exactly, is going on in these meeting between Israel and the U.S.?  We finally started seeing some leakage, courtesy of Joel Rosenberg, who also provides some analysis in a greater context:

The Obama administration has been applying intense and unprecedented pressure on the Netanyahu government to make huge unilateral concessions to the Palestinians even before direct peace talks begin. One advisor who has been briefed on the talks told me: "President Obama is insisting that Israel sign a document that specifies Israel's commitment to a peace deal with the Palestinians that will be based on 1967 lines. This means no building in Jerusalem, and a time table to address other core issues, like the 'right of return.'" The source, one that I trust a great deal, also noted that President Obama spoke by phone in the last 24 hours with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to make sure each of them are on board with pressuring the Israelis to make such unprecedented unilateral concessions. The White House apparently wants the document to become the blueprint for final status negotiations, even though the Palestinians refuse even to come to the table and sit down face-to-face with Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu.

The Netanyahu team delayed their departure out of Washington Wednesday afternoon to continue meeting almost non-stop together at the Israeli Embassy. Several key officials also met with special Mideast envoy George Mitchell and other key administration officials. The team finally left for Israel late Wednesday night. Thus far, a virtual news blackout has been imposed on President Obama's meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Remember, Rosenberg knows Netanyahu personally, so his information is likely very solid.  He goes on:

The good news: Netanyahu had a very good week. He looked strong and principled. He was gracious and diplomatic. And he stood his ground. He did not cave into the intense pressure from the White House and State Department. He refused to divide Jerusalem. In a masterful AIPAC speech, he calmly and clearly explained why Israel would never give up the right to build homes in her capital. He sent the U.S. and the world a straightforward and sobering message that if they don't move quickly and decisively to stop Iran from getting the Bomb, then Israel will do it herself. He didn't threaten. He didn't swagger. He simply stated the facts, in their historic context, and nobody does it better than Netanyahu. What's more, he did all this with Defense Minister Ehud Barak standing in solidarity at his side, which was important because it sent the White House — and his critics back in Israel, and enemies back in Iran — the message that the Israeli government is united. No small thing.

Now the bad news:

The White House, however, has refused to treat Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak with the dignity and respect afforded other world leaders. No joint press conferences. No photo ops. No still shots released of the two leaders meeting. Pretty much "no comment" to any of the substance.

The Netanyahu team, apparently following the request of the White House and trying to be sensitive to the desire of its host, hasn't been talking either. On Wednesday morning, the Israelis canceled all interviews. Several news outlets have noted the silence related to the talks is "deafening," and I agree. It's hard to remember the last time a world leader of Netanyahu's caliber — particularly a strong friend and ally of the United States — was subject to such treatment from an administration that claims to be hitting the "reset" button to improve relations between the two countries. Except for last year when Netanyahu came to Washington and also met with Obama without a photo op, press conference, or any of the diplomatic trappings of mutual respect and true friendship.

Now the greater context:

The central problem is the White House and State Department are trying to force Israel to divide Jerusalem and divide Judea & Samaria, commonly known as the West Bank. This is a mistake for numerous reasons, particularly because of Joel 3:1 in which the Lord says in the last days He will "enter into judgment" with "all the nations" because they have terribly mistreated the Jewish people "and they have divided up My land."

Prophetically, I believe Israel will eventually be isolated from all countries in the world, especially as we approach the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38 & 39.

This is referring to the next world war, an attack on Israel by a coalition of Russian-Iranian-Arab forces, and no one comes to the aid of Israel.

Eventually, the Lord will wean Israel off of every nation – including the U.S. – so that the Jewish people only have Him to turn to and depend upon. That said, however, the Scriptures are clear in Genesis 12:1-3 and elsewhere that those who bless Israel, He will bless, and those who curse Israel, He will curse.

Could this be part of why the U.S. has declined in recent years?  Even as allies, several American Presidents have pressured Israel to make concessions (usually in the form of land) to achieve peace with its enemies, thus seeming to play into the Joel 3:1 passage.  Furthermore, the Obama administration is clearly only barely tolerating Israel, and if it comes to a conflict between Israel and a Russian/Iranian coalition, there is genuine doubt on whether or not Obama would enter into it on Israel's side.  For example:

The U.S. has backed away from pursuing a number of tough measures against Iran in order to win support from Russia and China for a new United Nations Security Council resolution on sanctions, according to people familiar with the matter.

Among provisions removed from the original draft resolution the U.S. sent to key allies last month were sanctions aimed at choking off Tehran's access to international banking services and capital markets, and closing international airspace and waters to Iran's national air cargo and shipping lines, according to the individuals.

Ace of Spades comments:

This is just the most recent step in Obama's Kabuki dance designed to make it look like he's willing to do something about Iran. In fact, he is either absolutely indifferent to a nuclear Iran or kind of likes the idea...it'll help put Israel in its place. It's hard to say which for sure. But there's simply no other way to look at this administration's actions (or lack of actions) for the last year and conclude anything else.

Actually, it's not fair to say Obama and company have done nothing on this front. They've dialed down their rhetoric from 'crippling' sanctions to sanctions with 'bite'. Next we'll have sanctions 'that will sting a bit', followed of course by sanctions that 'tickle!'.

So it's not just me.  Anyway, all of this appears to be pointing straight toward Rosenberg's interpretation of the Ezekiel prophecy, so these are most definitely events that bear watching.

Here's a final message:

We want our countries to be blessed by God, to experience repentance and revival and to be blessings to the rest of the world. Now, therefore, is the most critical time for true followers of Jesus Christ to show unconditional love and unwavering support to Israelis and to their Palestinian neighbors. We need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We need to show the love of Jesus to every Jew and Gentile in the Holy Land. And we need to strengthen the Church in the epicenter, encourage pastors and ministry leaders, and help them fulfill Isaiah 60:1-4.

The good news is: the God of Israel neither sleeps, nor slumbers. He is in charge. He is watching over His people to protect them. But He calls on us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, to educate Christians around the world about God's love and plan for Israelis and Palestinians, and to care for both sides in real and practical ways, including food, clothing, medical supplies, and other forms of humanitarian aid. ... This is a critical moment for followers of Jesus Christ. May we be faithful to the Lord until He returns.

He runs an aid organization to provide that humanitarian aid, and if you're interested in helping, check out the link.

Regardless, this is world-changing stuff going on, so we need to know what's happening and be able to correctly interpret events as they unfold.  Don't be caught unprepared...pay attention.

There's my two cents.