“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: may they prosper who love you.” Psalm 122: 6
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Steve Apfel—Israel and the cost of being too clever:
“Be not over righteous, nor too clever,” Solomon, a profoundly righteous and clever king, warns Israel for all time. His words speak cogently to modern Israel, at liberty to act for the good of its people, not least with regards to land.
If only Israel took the wise king’s early warning to heart. Echelons of Israeli leaders and society chose to be exactly what Solomon warned them not to be: over-righteous and too clever.
Can anyone dispute that more ingenuity has gone into schemes to give away territory won against the odds than into schemes to keep territory for the benefit of Israel’s own people. Magnanimous is hardly the word. Foolhardy might be.
I’m sure one could turn up some example, but you’d have to dig pretty deep to come up with another nation that gave away parts of a tiny country to a well-disposed neighbour. To come up with another nation that handed its land on a platter to implacable foes you’d have far deeper to dig. Foolhardy is hardly the word. Nihilistic might be.
Like a child craving attention, Israel looked about for compliments only to have to ward off cudgels. “Barbaric barbarians” a celebrity called Israel for the way it conducted the last of three mini wars in Gaza, the strip it had made a gift of to a rocket-firing, tunneling enemy. “Systematic murderers” a British documentary maker called Israel for the way it stemmed waves of suicide attacks rolling in from the ‘West Bank’, Israel’s gift of real estate to bombers in human disguise.
The world forgets Israel’s open-handed sharing, yet remembers her every ‘disproportionate’ attack. You’d have to dig pretty deep to come up with another people universally maligned after giving away land for nothing but the holy grail of peace. Ungrateful is hardly the word. Perverse might be…Or contempt, even from Israel’s big-brother ally.
“The sad fact is that the United States has no appealing (Middle East) partners left today… Israel is wrapping up its latest outrage against the Palestinians—to no lasting strategic purpose. The “special relationship” with Israel also fuels anti-Americanism and makes Washington look both hypocritical and ineffectual in the eyes of much of the world.”
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SnyderTalk Comment: “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help….” (Isaiah 31: 1)
Many times, Yahweh warned the Israelites against going down to Egypt when they were threatened by foreign powers that were trying to destroy them. He wanted to be their Protector, Provider, and Deliverer/Savior.
Yahweh will have it no other way. Israel’s inescapable destiny is to be Yahweh’s chosen people, and they will be whether they like it or not.
Even so, they repeatedly turned their hearts and minds toward Egypt.
Why?
I think their collective memory was selective. They remembered the pharaoh in Egypt who protected them while Joseph was alive, but they forgot the slavery that followed his death.
Today, there are Israeli citizens who are urging their fellow countrymen to emigrate to Germany for a better life. The Holocaust wasn’t enough to teach them a lesson. It was masterminded by the German führer.
While anti-Semitism rages like a wildfire throughout Europe, far too many European Jews think that they will be safe. For instance, French Jews cling to the hope that their property and their lives will be protected in a country that turned on them just a few short decades ago. Anti-Semites in France are doing it again right now, and things will get worse.
Israel is their home. That’s where they will be safe.
Jews in the United States are targets, too. There are anti-Semites in this country who are identical to their counterparts in Europe. Jewish people in the U.S. may feel safe now, but that can change in a hurry. Israel is their home as well.
Since its rebirth in 1948, Israel has been leaning on the U.S. for support. Their selective memory prevents them from grasping the importance of the fact that President George H.W. Bush foisted the Oslo Peace Process on them and that their current problems stem from President Barack Obama’s so-called “peace initiatives”.
The U.S. is not Israel’s savior, but Israeli leaders refuse to see it. They still long for Egypt or the latest benefactor country that they think will protect them.
That’s what leads Israeli leaders to pretend to support the Two-State Solution, for example. It makes no sense and they know it’s wrong, but they think that telling the truth would alienate their current Egypt.
Forget Egypt or any other country. Yahweh is the only hope for Israel and Jewish people. He always has been, and He always will be. Nothing can change that fact. The sooner they accept it and rely on it, the better.
All that Yahweh requires from them is that they recognize Him for who He is, call on Him by Name to do the job that only He can do, and have faith in Him to do it.
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Walid Shoebat: The language of antiChrist is being revived— Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not only intend to revive the Ottoman Empire but this Monday (Dec 8) he put to law to revive the dead Ottoman language and to make the Arabic-alphabet and the Ottoman language compulsory in Turkish education. The move has biblical significance. But before we explain the prophetic ramifications, Reuters reporting on Erdogan’s opponents stating that such a move to change the language to Ottoman is Erdogan’s move to become the modern day Sultan (Caliph) of the Muslim world: Opponents accuse Erdogan of behaving like a modern-day sultan, his Islamist ideology and intolerance of dissent taking Turkey far from Ataturk’s secular ideals. “There are people who do not wish Ottoman to be taught and learned,” Erdogan told a meeting of Turkey’s religious council. “Regardless of whether they want it or not, Ottoman will be taught and learnt in this country.” His supporters, who carried him to victory in Turkey’s first popular presidential election in August with 52 percent of the vote, see him as a champion of the religiously conservative working classes, standing up to a secular elite.
Shlomo Cesana and Israel Hayom Staff: In final two years Obama to seek Israeli-Palestinian peace— U.S. President Barack Obama sent a clear and sharp message to Israel on Tuesday: I will not give up on peace negotiations with the Palestinians, even during the final two years of my presidency. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro issued the message during a speech at Bar-Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies on Tuesday. “There is no other solution” other than two states for two peoples, Shapiro said. The American ambassador chose to say his words on the same stage where in 2009 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu committed to Israeli recognition of the solution of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. According to Shapiro, “The main reason we remain committed to achieving a two-state solution is that we see no alternative that would achieve Israelis’ and Palestinians’ legitimate goals.” Shapiro said the Obama administration was dedicated to the peace process and “committed to keeping that hope alive,” despite Obama’s weakness in the House of Representatives and Senate.
Moshe Phillips and Benyamin Korn: The Battle for Jerusalem— “This is a battle over Jerusalem,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a nationally televised address to the people of Israel this week. He’s right. But because of the Obama Administration’s pressure, Israel is fighting with one hand tied behind its back. The war began last summer. Mobs of Palestinian Arabs in some of Jerusalem’s eastern neighborhoods started launching almost daily attacks on Israelis – sometimes motorists, sometimes police officers. There was no “provocation.” They were not responding to a particular Israeli policy. They were just trying to kill Jews. Occasionally the attackers hit their target. On September 1, for example, rocks crashed through the windows of a Jerusalem bus, injuring a three year-old Israeli girl. On October 2, the day before Yom Kippur eve, an Israeli family returning from the Western Wall accidentally drove into the Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of A-Tur. The rock-throwers jumped upon their prey. Two teenage girls in the car were wounded, which is a gentle way of saying that they narrowly missed being stoned to death.
Tal Kra-Oz: Jerusalem Through its Mayor’s Eyes— It’s back to business as usual in Jerusalem, at least according to the city’s mayor, Nir Barkat. The intifada that’s been brewing since last summer? Mostly kids skipping class. “Over the past six months, we’ve had riots, mostly by teenagers, and we’ve worked very hard to return the kids to school,” Barkat told reporters Sunday. “Unfortunately they weren’t listening to their parents and teachers. Today, ninety-five percent of them are back in school. We’ve been working with local leadership, and the trend is very positive. There’s been a dramatic decrease in violence in the Arab neighborhoods.” Nir Barkat is one year into his second term as mayor of Jerusalem. It’s surely been his most difficult year on the job, with the surge of violence beginning with the murder of Palestinian teen Mohammed Abu Khdeir by Jewish terrorists, an act of revenge for the kidnapping and killing of three young Israelis in Gush Etzion. The ensuing Israeli operation against Hamas in Gaza brought with it almost daily incidents of stone throwing and Molotov cocktails in Jerusalem. The city’s new light-rail system, touted as a symbol of the city’s coexistence as it weaved its way between Jewish and Arab neighborhoods, was shut down repeatedly by rioting, and then targeted twice by Palestinian drivers plowing through the station. The murderous Nov. 18 attack on a Jerusalem synagogue was the latest, and most horrifying, event. But the past few weeks have been relatively quiet.
Elder of Ziyon: NGO Says Palestinians Are Owed Aid Without Restrictions on Killing Jews— The first sentence of an article in Ma’an by Nora Lester Murad, the founder of the Palestinian NGO “Dalia Foundation,” pretty much sums up how Palestinian Arabs feel they must be treated: “Palestinians have a right to request international aid, and donors have an obligation to provide it.” See? The world is obligated to throw billions of dollars to Palestinians, without question. Why? Because they have a right to it! One part of the aid that they get rankles these NGOs. “The policy of non-confrontation with Israel regardless of its actions conveys international acquiescence and contributes to Israeli impunity.” What does that mean? Look at the Dalia Foundation’s petition, which mentions a numbers of issues that they have with international aid, among of which are: “Anti-terrorism certification is unacceptable.”
Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians Flee Hamas, Ask Israel to Imprison Them—Over the past two months, more than 20 Palestinians have been arrested while trying to cross from Gaza into Israel, according to Palestinian sources. The Palestinian news website Al-Watan Voice interviewed two of the young men who said they prefer the “comfort” of Israeli prisons to life in Hamas-controlled Gaza. Ahmed al-Rai, 19, was shot and wounded by IDF troops as he approached the security buffer zone along the border. He lost a leg and is now in Nasser Hospital in Gaza. “I thought it would be easy to infiltrate the border, but now my life has become even more miserable,” he said. The second youth, identified as Rabi, 16, was held in detention for three months before being sent back home. “I’m sad that I’m back in Gaza,” Rabi said. “I went through happy times [in Israeli detention], where I had food, calm and good work.” He said that when the interrogator asked him about the reason he wanted to come to Israel, he responded: “My father, who once worked in Israel, told me it was beautiful there.”
Armin Rosen: Gaza Is Almost Totally Cut Off from the World—Hamas’ summer hostilities failed to coerce Israel into lifting its border restrictions and likely convinced Egypt to tighten theirs. Palestinian political gridlock and Hamas’ weapons arsenal leave little optimism that the root causes of Gaza’s isolation – Hamas’ empowerment, the Palestinian Authority’s collapse, and the chaos and radicalism that each have given rise to – can be resolved peacefully. And there’s almost no possibility of a negotiated resolution to the larger Israeli-Palestinian conflict if Gaza remains outside the full control of the PA, which is the only entity that the peace process empowers to make a deal on the Palestinian people’s behalf. Meanwhile, more than 1.6 million people will be caught in a deadening limbo. “Nobody’s optimistic,” a doctor based in Gaza City told me. “People are very tired and exhausted.” In the 1990s, when the PA was in decisive control of Gaza, “the borders were open. Seventy thousand people worked in Israel. Farmers would export products abroad. All they were thinking was how to develop farms and factories and improve their lives.” A return to those conditions now seems inconceivable.
Eyal Zisser: Hizbullah and Iran Keep Syria’s Assad in Power—The Syrian civil war, which will soon mark its fourth anniversary, has all but obliterated the country. Syria proper has been reduced to a narrow, north-bound strip stretching from Damascus through Aleppo, to the Alawite provinces along the coast. What was once eastern Syria is now controlled by the Islamic State, and the rest of Syria is controlled by various rebel groups. In the past few years President Assad has become more dependent on his Iranian ally and its proxy, Hizbullah. It is doubtful that Assad could have survived this long without their aid. It is Hizbullah’s hundreds of wounded and dead that have been keeping Assad in power.
Jeremy Rosen: Why Are Good People Slaughtered by Terrorists?— As we celebrate the miracles of Hanukkah, we are bound to ask why sometimes some people are saved and at other times not. A month ago four men, all pious, learned, charitable and altruistic, were hacked to death in a Jerusalem synagogue as they prayed to God in tallit and tefillin. They were not ideologues or fighters. Just Jews who wanted to be good human beings and practice their religion in what they believed was their Holy Land. And we must not forget the death of the valiant Druze policeman who intervened. If religion tells us that repentance, prayer, and charity averts evil decrees or that those performing a good deed are protected, why were they not protected particularly at that moment?
Soeren Kern: Germans Rise Up Against Islamization— There is a mounting public backlash over what many perceive as the government’s indifference to the growing influence of Islam in German society. This backlash represents a potentially significant turning point. Despite efforts by German politicians and the media to portray PEGIDA as neo-Nazi, the group has taken great pains to distance itself from Germany’s extreme right. The group says that it is “apolitical” and that its main objective is to preserve what is left of Germany’s Judeo-Christian culture and values. “Many people in Germany have legitimate concerns about the spread of radical Islamic ideology, which promotes violence against non-Muslims, robs women and girls of their natural rights, and seeks to require the application of Sharia law…. Because the rule of law, tolerance and freedom of religion are fundamental Western values, the PEGIDA movement must leave no doubt that it is precisely these values that it seeks to defend.” — Bernd Lucke, leader, Alternative for Germany Party and professor of macroeconomics, Hamburg University.
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On eve of meeting with Kerry, Netanyahu says efforts to impose solution on Israel will fail
Abbas Using PA Minister’s Death to Incite Against Israel
US, Europe pressing PA to continue security cooperation with Israel
Turkish authorities raid newspaper, arrest journalists
Livni skewers Netanyahu on popular satirical show, prompting harsh rebuke from Likud
UN Security Council condemns gun-attack on Israel’s embassy in Athens
Kerry ‘defusing’ tension over possible UN resolutions to end conflict
Analysis: Is Israel ready for a Prime Minister Liberman?
IN PICTURES: Hamas shows off its weapons in military parade marking anniversary
Fight over ad in haredi paper highlights deep divisions
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Hamas Burns Temple Effigy in Anniversary Rally
Lapid Continues to Stress Center Position
IAF Jets Scrambled as Hamas Flies UAV over Gaza Parade
Israel Discovers Another Major Gas Field
Shaked: ‘No Logic’ in Jewish Home-Likud Pact
‘Weinstein Has Damaged IDF Soldiers’ Reputations’
PM: Peace Deal will Lead Islamists to Tel Aviv
Hamas: ‘We Hacked into IDF Computers’
Abbas ‘Hosted Shin Bet Head at his Home’
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Biggest Children’s Book Publisher Erases Israel from Map
With Hatnua on board, Labor projected to be largest party
Netanyahu accuses media of ‘huge’ campaign against him
Sa’ar says he won’t challenge Netanyahu after all
Lapid, Liberman, Kahlon said to discuss alliance
Another round of violence? The PA decides this week
IDF review of Hamas infiltration leaked to Palestinian site
Who cares if the last bastion of pro-Israel American liberals crumbles?
3 anti-assimilation activists cop to attack on Jewish-Arab school
Alternative yeshiva draws protests for teaching secular subjects
SnyderTalk Comment: The criticism is for teaching math and science and other subjects that can actually help Orthodox Jews function in Israeli society.
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Malaysia: Islamic scholars say playing guitar and piano against Islamic law
Atheist a-holes skewered on The Daily Show
Congress Unites to Denounce Hamas and Support Israel
Anti-Semitism in Armenia: A Clear and Present Danger
UN Marks Human Rights Day by Promoting Violation of Human Rights
What Can Israel Do to Postpone the Next Round of Violence in Gaza?
Egyptian Jews: A Community in Danger of Extinction
Fury as Mention of Israel is Banned From Forthcoming Holocaust Memorial Day in Ireland
Al Sharpton Leads March in DC as NYC Protesters Chant: ‘What do we want? Dead cops!”
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SnyderTalk Comment:They are chanting, “What do we want? Dead Cops! When do we want it? Now!”, and Al Sharpton is leading them.
That’s a crime. It’s like yelling “Fire!” in a movie theater. You can’t do it. Besides, this kind of behavior leads to the problem they are protesting.
Will people in the United States wake up before it’s too late? Pray that they will but prepare for the worst.
I think that as a nation we’ve passed the point of no return. I’m drawn to that conclusion because so many “Christian” people have joined ranks with the idiots among us.
Yahweh is a great arborist. He knows how to prune a tree.
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US Defense Secretary Nominee Supports Israel, Hard on Iran
Israel: No Sanctions Relief for Iran If No Nuclear Deal by June
Turkey police raid opposition media with Gulen links
Revitalized Turkey drifts away from Europe and towards Eurasia
European journalists call on Turkey to halt plans to silence press
China’s New Stealth Fighter Jet Can Take Down American Counterpart, Developer Says
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Genesis 41: 9-13
9 Then the chief cupbearer spoke to Pharaoh, saying, “I would make mention today of my own offenses. 10 Pharaoh was furious with his servants, and he put me in confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard, both me and the chief baker. 11 We had a dream on the same night, he and I; each of us dreamed according to the interpretation of his own dream. 12 Now a Hebrew youth was with us there, a servant of the captain of the bodyguard, and we related them to him, and he interpreted our dreams for us. To each one he interpreted according to his own dream. 13 And just as he interpreted for us, so it happened; he restored me in my office, but he hanged him.”
SnyderTalk Comment: Read His Name is Yahweh.
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His Name is Yahweh explains why the Name of God, Yahweh, is so important. It’s available in eBook format and in paperback. It’s also available for free in PDF format.
- God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This [Yahweh] is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.” (Exodus 3: 15)
- “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—this time I will make them know My power and My might; and they shall know that My name is Yahweh.” (Jeremiah 16: 21)
- “Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘Yahweh our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23: 5-6)
- Yeshua said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” (John 8: 58)
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The Messiah May Return Sooner than You Think
Click here to download the entire audio presentation for free and with no strings attached. Share it as often as you want.
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Blessings in the Book of Revelation is a book that you need to read, especially now. There are blessings throughout the Scriptures but Revelation is the only book in the Bible actually containing a specific blessing for reading it. It’s repeated twice, once at the beginning and again at the end. This is the reason that I believe Revelation should be the first step toward studying biblical prophecy. Though not easy to do, Revelation can be broken down and understood by anyone, not just the academic elite. So, Revelation’s blessings are for everyone. Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
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Other Books by Neil Snyder
- Stand! is a suspense novel that exposes the lies, corruption, and greed underlying the theory that man-made CO2 emissions are responsible for global warming. Professor Wes Carlyle and Karen Sterling, his research collaborator, carefully scan the audience for their would-be attacker—a member of the enviro-gestapo who has been following them for days. Wes spots his man in the back of the room leaning against the wall. Suddenly, another man in the audience steps forward and moves toward Karen at a menacing pace. With a vicious stroke, he swings a billy club at her head. Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
- What Will You Do with the Rest of Your Life? deals with a question that every Christian has to consider: what should I do with my life? Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
- Falsely Accused is a true story about a young woman who was accused of committing a double homicide. It’s about a travesty of justice, and it reveals Yahweh intervening in the life of a believer to rescue her from danger in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Everyone will enjoy the book, but young people in particular need to read it because the mistakes made that led to the problem could have been avoided. They were the kinds of mistakes that young people are prone to make. As they say, forewarned is forearmed. Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
