“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: may they prosper who love you.” Psalm 122: 6
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Ruthie Blum—Pathological Findings:
On Tuesday evening, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro delivered the keynote address at a conference on “America’s Standing in the World” held at Bar-Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. In his speech, Shapiro warned Israelis not to assume that the results of last month’s midterm elections have made his bosses in Washington powerless in pressing for Palestinian statehood.
“Here is a caution, lest anyone jump to conclusions,” he said. “Divided government, in which one party controls Congress and the other the Executive Branch, does not necessarily mean foreign policy gridlock.”
On the contrary, he added, “Presidents often surge and engage even more intensively in national security affairs in their final years in office.”
Don’t worry, Mr. Ambassador. Israel is under no illusions on that score. Obsessions die hard, after all. And an American administration that is enabling Iran to laugh its way to nuclear armament (among other international catastrophes) has but one piece of low-hanging fruit to pick — and pick on — before going down in history as the disaster it has been all along.
Nothing new there.
Nor was it a surprise that the State Department rushed to dispel rumors, based on a Haaretz report earlier this month, that the U.S. was about to threaten Israel with sanctions over settlement construction. Though neither the Obama administration nor the extreme left-wing Israeli newspaper is trustworthy, in this case, the latter sounded plausible — which goes to show how much faith Israel has lost in its strongest ally.
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SnyderTalk Comment: Ruthie Blum refers to Israel as the “low-hanging fruit” that foreign governments historically have picked on when they were in trouble and needed a scapegoat. As she suggests, they pick on Israel to prop up their administrations, and they tend to do it just before their misguided policies go down in history as the disaster those policies were all along.
In general, Blum’s analogy is a good one, but in Barack Obama’s case, I don’t think it works. He started picking on Israel on Day One.
Obama’s 2009 apology tour had many victims, including Israel. It set in motion forces throughout the Middle East region that led to the destabilization of existing governments and the rapid rise of terrorist acts by radical Islamist groups including Hamas and Fatah.
Hamas is widely known as a terrorist group, but Fatah is regarded as a moderate voice of reason in the Arab world. Nothing could be further from the truth. Fatah is just like Hamas with one notable exception: at the present time, it has an air of undeserved dignity.
Fatah under Yasser Arafat was responsible for more death and carnage than Hamas ever dreamed of creating. He fomented a civil war in Jordan and was ousted by then King Hussein during what came to be known as Black September. Tens of thousands of people died. Then Arafat moved his forces to Lebanon where he stirred up another civil war that lasted for almost 20 years and cost tens of thousands of more lives.
Mahmoud Abbas, the current Palestinian Authority president, was at Arafat’s side all along. He was complicit in many of Arafat’s crimes including the 1972 Munich massacre that led to the deaths of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes. “Mahmoud Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, long the treasurer of the PLO, was the man who provided financing for that attack, according to information compiled by Israeli attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of the Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center.”
Obama needed a “respectable peace partner” on the Palestinian side to negotiate with Israel. He took Abbas, dressed him up a little, and told Israel that he was their man. True to form, terrorism immediately became a resurgent problem for Israel again. As I said, Obama didn’t wait until the world realized that his policies were headed for the trash heap of history before targeting Israel. He did it right out of the blocks.
Hillary Clinton helped Obama and John Kerry has done even more, but Barack Obama is responsible. His schemes to undermine Israel were not kneejerk reactions. They were orchestrated ploys. That’s what history will show.
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Burak Bekdil: Turkey and EU: The Kodak-Moment— The truth is, Turkey’s longer-than-half a-century journey to full EU membership offers volumes of thick picture books full of similar smiling faces, most of them no longer alive. But both the club and the applicant know that Turkey has been dragged planets away from the EU in terms of culture and socio-politics. Turkey is sometimes even hostile to Europe. While the Europeans wasted their time in self-deception – that Turkey’s Islamists were in fact pro-EU, post-Islamist reformers – Turkey was implementing a plan to turn into, not a member of, but a Muslim challenge to what its leaders privately view as a hostile “Christendom.” Turkey, under Islamist rule, has keenly pretended that it wants EU membership, while in reality deeply disliking “Christian” culture; and the EU leaders have pretended that Turkey would one day join the club, while knowing that it would not.
Bryan MacDonald: Revitalized Turkey drifts away from Europe and towards Eurasia— Along with Russia, Turkey lies at the confluence between Europe and Asia. A peripheral European power, like Russia, it is following Moscow’s lead and also looking east. In Turkey, I found a nation of deep contrasts, but a country incredibly sure of its statehood and fastened together by a strong overriding identity. Unlike its Black Sea neighbors, most of whom are searching for a stable course, Turkey is assured and united. A country without the deep-seated corruption of nearby ‘European’ states and the religious radicalism of its Middle Eastern neighbors, Turkey is back in business. It also has the potential to become the dominant power in its hinterland, if it isn’t already. Relations between Moscow and Ankara have been making headlines due to a new gas deal which will replace the ill-fated South Stream project. Nevertheless, from a Turkish perspective, warmer relations with Russia are part of a greater pivot to Eurasia. After flirting with Europe for decades and being constantly spurned, Turkey no longer seeks to be an attachment to a failing EU. Indeed, many Turks expressed the view that being rejected by Brussels has turned out to be a lucky escape.
Smadar Perry: Israel-Palestinian security cooperation is crucial for Abbas’ survival— It’s not easy standing up in Ramallah’s Muqata compound and declaring that the Palestinians are halting their security cooperation with Israel. This cooperation was created in the Oslo Agreements, which led to mutual recognition and joyful promises of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Since then, both sides have learned to live with each other within the big holes of the Oslo Agreements. The mutual recognition has faded, and instead of peace we see growing settlements and violent provocations, with no solution in Jerusalem. Together with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, we led to the dubious democratic achievement of handing the control of Gaza to Hamas.
Gary Rosenblatt: ‘This administration (the Obama administration) has a worldview that is not in accord with any Israeli government.’—During his four-year tenure as Israel’s ambassador to the United States, marked by an often-stormy relationship between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama, Michael Oren was the consummate diplomat. He was dignified, thoughtful, articulate, knowledgeable and tactful. But those days are over. Fourteen months after returning to Israel, where he is lecturing at the IDC Herzliya College and writing a book about his experiences in Washington, the 59-year-old Oren is speaking out about his deep concerns over Israel’s standing in the world, and particularly its relationship with its most important ally, the U.S. In a dialogue at The Plaza here last week at the annual Scholar-Statesman dinner of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he and another former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Tel Aviv University President Itamar Rabinovich, were the honorees, Oren said that “this administration [in Washington] has a worldview that is not in accord with any Israeli government,” not just the current one. Describing the Obama administration as “ideological” on the Mideast, with the president’s 2009 outreach-to-the-Arab-world Cairo speech as its source, Oren said the White House views east Jerusalem communities like Gilo, for example, as not necessarily part of the Jewish state, a position he said no Israeli government would accept.
SnyderTalk Comment: When Barack Obama initiated his apology tour in 2009 in Cairo, Egypt, he lit the fuse that set off the explosion that came to be known as The Arab Spring. It didn’t lead to peace, democracy, or increased recognition of human rights in the Middle East as he said it would. Just the opposite, Islamist terrorists rushed in to fill the vacuums left as governments throughout the Middle East came crashing down.
Obama’s apology tour coupled with his awkward withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq created an ideal environment for Islamist terrorists to prosper, and they have made the most of their opportunities. ISIS is one of many Islamist terrorist groups vying for control of Islam. Terrorists are Islam’s voice, face, heart, and soul. All other Muslims together don’t hold a candle to them even though terrorists represent a minority of people who call themselves Muslims.
The terrorists’ goal is to establish a global caliphate from which they hope to rule the world under Sharia law. That’s what they are fighting to achieve while the rest of the world watches and talks.
This war is just getting started. Our enemy means business. We don’t have time to waste.
Keep that in mind as you think about the 2016 presidential election. We can’t afford another neophyte in the Oval Office.
Omer Einav: The Problem that is Also a Solution: Lebanese Fears Play into Hizbollah Hands— In recent months there have been clear signs of Hizbollah’s legitimacy rebounding in Lebanon’s political and civilian spheres. The current governmental vacuum suits Hizbollah well, and while Lebanon’s army has never been capable of standing up to the challenging array of threats facing the country, Hizbollah is standing steadfast against the current external threat. Ironically, Hizbollah played a role in creating this threat, yet has since become the most effective means of dealing with it. In their despair, more than a few Lebanese are looking to Hizbollah to rescue the country from the dangers threatening to aggravate the already prevailing instability. Nonetheless, at present it is not certain that Hizbollah is capable of drawing widespread support from the Lebanese public and political systems, and a great deal must occur before the organization can claim the victory it seeks.
Yardena Schwartz: An Interview with Israel’s Most Wanted Man, Rabbi Yehuda Glick— On the evening of Oct. 29, Yehuda Glick was hosting his seventh annual Temple Mount Conference at Jerusalem’s Menachem Begin Center, speaking to an audience of 300 about his 20-year fight for Jewish prayer at the holy site where only Muslims are permitted to pray. When the event wound down at around 10 p.m., Glick went outside to meet his wife in the parking lot. Glick opened the back door of the family car to load some signs and flyers that had been left at the conference. As he turned around, he found himself face to face with a man on a motorcycle who was wearing a helmet. Despite having received numerous death threats, the thought that this man was there to kill him never crossed Glick’s mind. “He didn’t look scary,” Glick said. “He just looked like somebody who was very determined to comment on something about the conference.”
Eli Hazan: Easy to blame, hard to face facts— Israeli soldiers are not responsible for the death of Ziad Abu Ein, a Palestinian Authority minister on settlement affairs and the security fence. After all, the autopsy report, made by representatives from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, ruled that Abu Ein died from a heart attack that could have been prompted by stress. The autopsy was not done in the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv and not abroad, but at the pathological institute in Abu Dis. It was later learned Abu Ein was a heavy smoker and suffered from clotting in his heart. All of it was detailed in the report, which is considered by all standards objective.
Richard Baehr: The Middle East realists: Old and new— Professor Stephen Walt of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago like to call themselves foreign policy realists. Realists are, in their minds, people who can assess international situations without any ideological blinders or bias. Walt and Mearsheimer co-authored “The Israel Lobby,” originally as a lengthy article in the London Review of Books in 2006, and then as a much longer book version in 2007. In both the article and book, the professors argued that America’s very tight relationship with Israel was strategically unsound for the United States. The authors claimed that the closeness between the two countries was a product of the behavior of the Congress of the United States, which they believe had been unduly influenced by the political power of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other supporters of the Jewish state, such as evangelical Christians.
Elliott Abrams: What’s Gen. Sissi so scared of?— This morning’s New York Times reveals the paranoia and vulnerability of the current Egyptian regime. Michele Dunne, a former career diplomat who served in Cairo and also at the National Security Council (in the George W. Bush administration), is now a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment. She was refused entry into Egypt yesterday. Here is part of the Times story: “She was traveling to Cairo for a conference organized by the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, a generally pro-government organization composed mainly of former Egyptian diplomats.
Daily Sabah: Jordan, Egypt work against Muslim Brotherhood— Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who led a military coup last year that ousted Egypt’s first democratically elected president, was in Jordan for his first official state visit on Thursday. Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Sissi discussed the threats they face from so-called “Islamic terrorism,” along with the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and its latest developments. Egyptian Ambassador to Jordan Khaled Tharwat, said the visit aims to boost coordination between both countries when facing potential regional threats. “What affects Egyptian national security affects Jordan’s and vice versa,” Tharwat said in a statement relayed by the Egyptian state news agency, MENA. Egypt and Jordan stand on similar ground, as they are both allies to the U.S. with strong relationships with Saudi Arabia and the Unites Arab Emirates (UAE). A glaring difference however, is that Egypt has labeled the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, unlike Jordan where it has been accepted for a long time. In an interview with U.S. interviewer and broadcast journalist Charlie Rose, Abdullah said the Muslim Brotherhood was an official organization in his country. Over the past few months, however, the relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Jordanian government has taken a wrong turn. King Abdullah said on Saturday that the Brotherhood has “hijacked” and taken the place of the youth who launched the Egyptian revolution.
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Netanyahu tells Kerry: Imposed Palestinian state deal will endanger Israel
Hundreds of Chinese said fighting alongside Islamic State in Middle East
Liberman: Israel’s standing in the world is in danger if we don’t present a diplomatic initiative
Head of Jewish extremist group Lehava arrested with 9 others
Palestinian hurls explosive at IDF, shot dead by soldiers
Kerry to meet today with Arab League delegates over Palestinian UN statehood bid
In US spending bill, a warning to Palestinians on UN actions
Genocide by General Assembly: The UN’s latest resolution to disarm Israel
Netanyahu on Australia cafe siege: International Islamic terror does not know borders
8 Arabs arrested in east Jerusalem for using Facebook to incite terrorism
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Fatah Calls for Assassination of Israeli Leader?
Border Police: IDF Cleared for Abu Ein’s Death
ISA: Samaria Hit-and-Run ‘Not a Terror Attack’
Lehava Activists Arrested in Surprise ISA Operation
Liberman: Israel Will Not Be Dictated to by the PA
Thousands March Against Islam in Germany
Australian Jews ‘Under Lockdown’
‘Miracle’: Israeli Singer Escapes Sydney Abduction
Saudi Arabia to Hamas: Stay Away from Iran
ISIS Continues to Execute ‘Criminals’
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SnyderTalk Comment: Never try to eat an olive that’s just been picked from an olive tree whether it’s green or ripe. Olives don’t taste good until they have been processed. I learned that bitter lesson from experience.
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PA halting security cooperation with Israel, top aide Erekat says
Palestinian official bashes ‘dictatorial’ Abbas
Lapid: Israel should approach Arab League for regional agreement
Israel considers cooperation with Lebanon in fight against IS
Ex-Mossad chief: Peace will elude us until we treat Palestinians with dignity
Liberman jabs at ‘hysterical’ Likud, Jewish Home
Lapid says he would serve as finance minister again
Hamas airs more footage it says it stole from IDF computers
Remains of Neolithic ‘Atlantis’ found off Haifa coast
IS beheaded 4 Christian children, says ‘Vicar of Baghdad’
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At its 27th birthday parade, Hamas vows to destroy Israel
Taliban take hundreds hostage at Pakistani military school, 18 dead
Unrest In The Middle East Intensifying Ahead Of Troop Withdrawals
Al-Aqsa TV Reporter Killed in Gaza War Turns Out to Be Hamas Fighter
Cheney on Interrogation Tactics: ‘I Would Do It Again in a Minute’
Email release fuels speculation on Jeb Bush presidential run
Opec willing to push oil price to $40 says Gulf oil minister
UN climate deal in Peru ends historic North-South split
Canada stays mum on controversial Israeli bill
Jewish Member of Britain’s Parliament Called ‘Dirty Pig,’ Issued Death Threats
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Turkey Launches Crackdown On Government Critics
US urges Turkey to protect democratic values after media raid
EU Says Turkey’s Arrests of Journalists Violates European Values
Russia Protests US Aid for Ukraine Military
Congress Sends Obama Measure Pushing for More Russia Sanctions
NATO Aims to Be ‘More Responsive’ in Wake of Russian Aggression
Oil Prices Go Down, Russia’s Gold Buying Goes Up
Sustaining Iran’s regional ambitions at all costs
Turkish MP Lauds Iran’s Key Role in Regional Stability
Saudi Arabia’s oil war against Iran and Russia
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Genesis 41: 14-24
14 Then Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph, and they hurriedly brought him out of the dungeon; and when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came to Pharaoh. 15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, but no one can interpret it; and I have heard it said about you, that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” 16 Joseph then answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” 17 So Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, “In my dream, behold, I was standing on the bank of the Nile; 18 and behold, seven cows, fat and sleek came up out of the Nile, and they grazed in the marsh grass. 19 Lo, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and gaunt, such as I had never seen for ugliness in all the land of Egypt; 20 and the lean and ugly cows ate up the first seven fat cows. 21 Yet when they had devoured them, it could not be detected that they had devoured them, for they were just as ugly as before. Then I awoke. 22 I saw also in my dream, and behold, seven ears, full and good, came up on a single stalk; 23 and lo, seven ears, withered, thin, and scorched by the east wind, sprouted up after them; 24 and the thin ears swallowed the seven good ears. Then I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.”
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 Name Yahweh Sets the Messiah Apart
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.
