“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: may they prosper who love you.” Psalm 122: 6
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Alan Dershowitz—Hard Leftists Are as Guilty of Censorship as North Korea’s Dictator:
Nobody should be surprised that the dictatorial ruler of North Korea would want to censor a film that offended him, or even that he would feel entitled to break the law by threatening reprisals against the offenders. His actions emulate those of hard-left feminists, radical Muslims, university administrators, and others who seek to prevent the publication or distribution of material they deem offensive.
I recall an incident several years ago when radical feminists fired bullets through the windows of a Harvard Square bookstore to protest its sale of Playboy Magazine. I also recall being physically threatened by a group called “Dykes on Bikes” – a feminist motorcycle gang – for providing legal representation of alleged pornographers.
Then there is radical Islamic censorship that has become far more deadly. When some radical Muslims were offended by Theo Van Gogh’s film Submission, which exposed Islam’s demeaning views toward women, Van Gogh was murdered in cold blood and his co-producer’s life threatened by a Fatwa. Salman Rushdie had to go into hiding when a Fatwa was issued against him and his book, The Satanic Verses. The Yale University Press, fearful of threats of violence, censored the actual cartoons depicting Mohammed from a book about that subject, following violent reaction to the publication of the cartoons in Scandinavia.
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SnyderTalk Comment: “Hard leftists” are as fanatical and oppressive as their predecessors in years gone by—people like Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. If they had the power to do it, I believe they would do what Lenin and Stalin did—line up their ideological opponents against a wall and shoot them.
Communism/socialism came into vogue in the early 20th century. It swept through Asia and Europe and made inroads in Africa, South America, and North America. Despite communism/socialism’s record of dismal failure everywhere it has been tried, it continues to attract support from leftists around the world. They have remained committed to the failed idea even though it has led to more death than both world wars combined.
The progression of communism/socialism in countries where it has been implemented fits a pattern:
- It begins with high-minded political slogans about the masses being set free and taking political control.
- Next comes the revolution.
- Followed quickly by a cleansing of the ranks. By that, I mean eliminating those who are not totally committed to the movement.
- If the revolution is successful, the revolutionary leaders take political control.
- Their first action in power is to confiscate the weapons that were used by the masses to topple the government and then to make gun ownership illegal.
- Since the leaders of the movement don’t trust the masses, they assume dictatorial control. They say that they are doing it for the good of the people, but in reality, they are doing it for themselves.
- The masses become dependent on their political leaders for their livelihoods and their survival.
- Politics becomes the path to power and wealth. People who want both or either are drawn to politics the way a moth is drawn to a flame.
- Political leaders exercise absolute power. They amass great wealth and live in luxury while the masses barely get by.
- Eventually, the masses have had enough, and the system implodes.
As I said, we have enough evidence to know the pattern. It’s a predictable as night following day.
Although communist/socialist dictators don’t believe that the public at large should own weapons, they surround themselves with well-armed police and soldiers who are ideological clones, and they create an intelligence network to identify and eliminate ideological opponents. Simply criticizing political leaders is forbidden.
In communist/socialist governments, reliance on God is regarded as a threat to the state. Political leaders begin immediately to attack the moral underpinnings of society in an effort to place themselves in God’s place. Their goal is to force the masses to look to the government/them for well-being. In due course, worship of God becomes a crime, and in many instances, it becomes a capital offense.
I like the way Dershowitz lumped leftists together with Islamofascists. The pattern that ISIS has demonstrated is eerily similar to the communist/socialist pattern. At this moment, Islamists have a friend in the White House.
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SnyderTalk Comment: I think Jim is correct, and I really do hope that 2015 is the year. Take a look at Jeremiah 16: 19-21. Yahweh tells us exactly what He’s going to do.
19 O Yahweh, my strength and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of distress, to You the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, “Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood, futility and things of no profit.” 20 Can man make gods for himself? [The implied answer is “yes”.] Yet they are not gods! 21“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: 19-21)
Yahweh is determined to make sure that everyone knows who He is by Name. That’s not my opinion. It’s a fact.
If you haven’t read His Name is Yahweh, you should.
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SnyderTalk Comment: We are we on the road to total depravity. The only question is where. Keep that in mind the next time your “leftist” friends tell you that you are behind the times or too conservative. The people in Sodom and Gomorrah didn’t understand their predicament, either, until it was too late.
As King Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” The cycle keeps repeating: depravity, judgment, depravity, judgment, depravity, judgment…. On and on it goes.
Our lives are so short that our days on earth barely register on the scale of time. On the cosmic scale of time, they don’t even make a blip. Even so, we tend to think that we are seeing everything that there is to be seen and for the very first time. For example, adolescent children in every generation think that they invented sex. It doesn’t seem to dawn on them that their existence is proof that they didn’t. As peculiar as this sounds to them, their parents knew something about sex, too, and they still do.
And what about that “antiquated” moral code in the Bible? Our leftist friends tell us that it’s obsolete. Some of them say that it was made up by men to subjugate women. What they believe is of no consequence. This is the only question that matters: will they learn the truth before it’s too late?
You can rest assured that eventually everyone will know the truth. Some of them will be overjoyed and others will be horrified.
I can only guess what a person thinks about when he learns that he’s facing eternity in hell. I suspect that his first thought is that hell never ends. Leftists don’t believe in hell. That’s okay. One day, they will.
There is something about eternity that captures my imagination and baffles me at the same time. The agony of hell for eternity is the most terrifying thing that I can think of.
People who don’t take Yahweh and heaven and hell seriously are making a very bad bet. Losing that gamble carries a penalty that defies description.
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Bill Neely: What Follows Middle East’s Tough And Tumultuous 2014?— This was the year of the unthinkable. American, Iranian and Syrian warplanes in the same airspace, bombing a common enemy — an enemy that used U.S.-supplied tanks and guns to overrun a Middle Eastern army and take a major city in a matter of days. This was the year ISIS burst into life as the region’s most feared killing machine and rubbed out borders that were drawn a century ago. It was the year the Arab Spring finally died in the Middle East’s most populous country. A year of turmoil, when Israel crushed Gaza and Iraq’s national army was exposed as a corrupt shell.
Sam Ro: This Oil Map Answers The First Question Everyone Asks When Turmoil Hits The Middle East—When turmoil hits the Middle East, one of the first questions everyone asks is: “How much oil is at risk?” Before prices crashed again, oil was actually rallying for a little while on Monday. News outlets and energy pundits were quick to attribute the early upward moves to Libya, where a rocket attack caused an oil storage tank fire. Turmoil in the region could lead to a disruption in oil supply. Because Libya is known to be a big player in the oil markets, this was a decent rationale. But how big a player is Libya really? It’s about 1% of total global oil production.
Tehran Times: Thawing US ties: Cuba today, Iran tomorrow?— In an article published on the website of the Al Arabiya news channel on Friday, possibility of expansion of Iran-U.S. relations has been examined regarding transformation of ties between the U.S. and Cuba. Following is an excerpt of the article: There are some partial similarities between the Obama administration’s method to initiate a deal with Raul Castro’s government and the way it has recently approached the Islamic Republic of Iran. The major commonalities are the back channel diplomacy and talks. Similar to the Cuban deal, the Obama administration has conducted back channel talks with Iranian politicians with respect to Iran’s nuclear program. In addition, President Obama sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei highlighting some of the shared strategic, national and geopolitical interests that both nations have in the Middle East.
Benjamin Weinthal: The religious cleansing of Middle East Christians—The fate of struggling Christians in Muslim-majority countries in the Islamic heartland has shifted from persecution to an existential struggle. Anti-Christian violence in 2014 saw a transformation from under-told news coverage, to routine reports of radical Islamists seeking to obliterate Christianity’s presence. Religious freedom experts captured the dire situation of Middle Eastern Christians in comments on Friday to The Jerusalem Post. “Persecution no longer adequately describes the treatment of Christians in a growing number of Muslim areas. Religious cleansing, a type of cultural genocide, which is a crime against humanity, is the more accurate description.
Deniz Arslan: Turkey’s troubled year in the Middle East—Following Qatar’s recent move toward reconciling with Egypt, despite previously being one of the biggest critics of this key Arab country, Turkey seems to be the odd one out in the Middle East given its troubled relationships with a number of countries including Egypt, Israel, Syria and the Gulf countries. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been constantly lashing out at Egypt’s former military head and current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Erdoğan has repeatedly said that el-Sisi came to power through a military coup and accused Western countries of hypocrisy for maintaining normal ties with Egypt. Since the removal of Egypt’s first elected leader Mohamed Morsi from power in June 2013 by el-Sisi, Erdoğan has been one of the heaviest critics of the el-Sisi regime, saying that he has no legitimacy. Erdoğan having taken sides with Morsi — a member of the political Islamist group Muslim Brotherhood (MB) that is considered a terrorist organization by Egypt and Saudi Arabia — has damaged Turkey’s relationships with the Gulf countries as well. Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani made a statement on Dec. 21 announcing Qatar’s intention to normalize ties with el-Sisi, adding that Egypt’s security is important for the security of Qatar and that the two countries are linked by deep fraternal ties.
David Barchard: Is there a thaw in Turkish-Egyptian relations?— Turkish denunciation of Egypt is not based simply on personal ill-feeling between the leaders of the two countries. Both President Erdogan and his prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, believe that the authoritarian regimes across the Arab world before the Arab spring were products of Western gravitational pull, denying the masses the system of government they wanted, one which was both Islamic and democratic. This argument was set out at length years before the Arab Spring in Davutoglu’s writing on international relations. His prescription was a democratic Islamic government closely similar to Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) but also including the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. The latter, in Erdogan and Davutoglu’s views, enjoys a political legitimacy, while military regimes and authoritarian leaders never can. During the first year or so of the Arab Spring, this argument looked rather plausible. If there had been regime change in Syria and the emergence of a Muslim Brotherhood-led administration there, it might have remained so. But by 2013, Turkey was left with Qatar as its only friend in the Middle East, the region it regarded as the core of its foreign policy.
Denis MacEoin: The Destruction of the Middle East— The heritage of centuries has been wiped out in little more than a year. Eventually the need to wipe out all traces of unbelief becomes obsessive. At one time, for instance, Egyptian law demanded that any house found to contain a copy of The Apology of al-Kindi (a book containing a polemical dialogue between a Muslim and a Christian) would be demolished along with 40 houses around it. Ethics were defined by what Allah said was good or evil in Sharia law. The Islamic State’s behaviour is solidly rooted in Islamic ideology, law and practice. It is only when this fundamental fact is grasped that we will be able to address what confronts us. There are many wise and sensible Muslims who favour a shift to a more updated way of thinking. It is their mosques and shrines that are being crushed; it is their heritage. Today, such Muslims use the freedoms bestowed on them in the West to write, network and debate their opposition to fundamentalist interpretation of Islam by the Islamic State and other supporters of murder and destruction.
Tony Karon: Another year of morbid symptoms in the Middle East— The political geography of the “Middle East” as we know it was conceived by Britain and France, exercising the victors’ imperial prerogative at the end of World War I. But the resulting system of nation-states enters 2015 on increasingly shaky foundations. New sovereignties contemptuous of those national borders are being established by claimants who were either ignored (the Kurds) or hard to imagine (ISIL) when Messrs. Sykes and Picot drew their maps dividing up the territory in 1916. And the extent to which Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya continue to define functioning political units is increasingly in question. The demographic make-up of the states of the Levant has been dramatically altered in the wars that, by the end of 2014, have displaced 13.6 million people from their homes in Iraq and Syria — a “Nakbah” whose impact on the already fragile stability of surrounding countries will be felt more acutely in the coming year. The region’s most dramatic news story in 2014 was the extraordinary battlefield gains by ISIL — the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant — which largely eclipsed Al Qaeda by conquering and holding territory in both Syria and Iraq. While U.S.-led airstrikes (and in some cases, ground offensives involving elements with whom the United States is not exactly allied) have helped contain the group’s advances, even the Obama administration’s own projections suggest we’ll still be discussing ISIL a year from now. Indeed, internal discord over strategy and tactics may be the extremists’ most immediate problem.
Ellen Willis: Is There Still a Jewish Question? Why I’m an Anti-Anti-Zionist—Early ’90s, post-Bosnia conversation with a longtime political friend I’ve met by chance on the street: “I’ve come to see nationalism as regressive, period. I can’t use phrases like ‘national liberation’ and ‘national self-determination’ with a straight face anymore.” “You know, Ellen, there’s one inconsistency in your politics.” “What’s that?” “lsrael.” I’m not a Zionist—rather I’m a quintessential Diaspora Jew, a child of Freud, Marx and Spinoza. I hold with rootless cosmopolitanism: from my perspective the nation-state is a profoundly problematic institution, a nation-state defined by ethnic or other particularist criteria all the more so. And yet I count myself an anti-anti-Zionist. This is partly because the logic of anti-Zionism in the present political context entails an unprecedented demand for an existing state—one, moreover, with popular legitimacy and a democratically elected government—not simply to change its policies but to disappear. It’s partly because I can’t figure out what large numbers of displaced Jews could have or should have done after 1945, other than parlay their relationship with Palestine and the (ambivalent) support of the West for a Jewish homeland into a place to be. (Go “home” to Germany or Poland? Knock, en masse, on the doors of unreceptive European countries and a reluctant United States?) And finally it’s because I believe that anti-Jewish genocide cannot be laid to rest as a discrete historical episode, but remains a possibility implicit in the deep structure of Christian and Islamic cultures, East and West.
SnyderTalk Comment: I share Willis’ apprehensions about “Christians”. I should be more precise. I’m not worried about the real Christians. I’m concerned about the ones who say they are but aren’t. It troubles me to say this, but I fear that the pretenders may be in the majority.
Michael Flaherty and Tim McLaughlin: Fed’s Rosengren, Harvard’s Summers offer cautious view of US economy—As the Fed winds down its economic stimulus, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers says the country’s next economic booster could be exporting its fossil fuels around the globe, a move that could make America the next Saudi Arabia. “The United States has the chance to be to the energy economy of the next decade what Saudi Arabia has been for the last two to three decades,” Summers said on Saturday. “The effect of allowing oil exports … would reduce rather than increase American gasoline prices.” Summers, known for his outspoken views about what he describes as a disappointing U.S. economic recovery, made his remarks at the annual American Economics Association conference.
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Delusional, destructive Left vs incompetent, impotent Right
Netanyahu vows to ‘protect IDF soldiers from Palestinian attempts to drag them to The Hague’
Liberman says western Europe, not Iran or Palestinians, Israel main challenge in 2015
British journalist held hostage by ISIS narrates propaganda video
Extensive poll finds Jews, Arabs proud to be Israeli
‘Jordan suspends talks with Israel over $15-billion natural gas deal’
Report: Palestinians to seek admission to Interpol
Arab world: United against Islamic terror
Israeli Arab MK Tibi raises Palestinian flag on Temple Mount
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Deport US Consulate Staff Who Threatened Jews’
‘We Will Not Let IDF Soldiers Be Dragged to the ICC’
Fatah ‘Hangs Bibi’ in Latest Threatening Facebook Image
ISIS Hostage John Cantlie in New Propaganda Video from Mosul
Yair Lapid: a Liar, a Hypocrite, or Simply Irresponsible?
Lapid: I Would Return to Finance Ministry
Public Transportation on Shabbat is a ‘Disaster’
Israelis Fed Up with Poverty, Corruption – But Not Israel
Terrorist Who Stabbed Officers in J’lem Arrested
‘Today’s Kids Face Greater Spiritual Challenges’
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With Israel ‘war crimes’ gambit, PA risks loss of US funding
Israel said to weigh lawsuits against top Palestinian officials
Palestinians submit documents to join ICC
An Iranian family divided by revolution reunites
IDF commander rebuked over sexual assault case
Libyan man on trial for US embassy bombings dies
IS reportedly thwarts rescue attempt of Jordanian pilot
What to see on Herzl Street, birthplace of the first modern Jewish city
Russian diplomat claims Ukraine ‘on Nazi path’
Islamic State kidnaps 170 over flag burning
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Thousand Churches Destroyed in Nigeria
Muslim Brotherhood Suffers Major Blow… They’re NOT Happy
Military Intelligence foresees threats to Israel in 2015
Islamic State executed nearly 2000 people in six months
Republican Senators Seek to Change Unpopular Obama Policies on Israel
Libya FM: Extremists seek to capture oil resources
Spiritual leader of the ‘black Hebrews’ movement dies at 75 in Israel
Speculation Growing Over India’s Potential Pro-Israel Shift at UN
Georgia town bans mosque in controversial vote
Germany Sees Greek Euro Exit as Manageable Outcome, Spiegel Says
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Hamas Leader Mashal Calls to Join with Turkey to “Liberate Palestine and Jerusalem”
Iran as an Occupying Force in Syria
Iran Has 1,000 Military Advisers in Iraq
Iranian Soldiers Photographed on Lebanon-Israel Border
China Just Banned All Muslim Call To Prayer
China Ramping Up Persecution of Christians
Gmail blocked in China and Access restored to Google’s email service in China
SnyderTalk Comment: Still afraid of dissent or even questioning by ordinary Chinese people, China’s government is clamping down on gmail users, Christians, and others who might represent a threat to state control. Will it work? In the history of the world, it never has before. That’s a lesson that Turkey’s President Erdogan has not learned yet, either. It’s just a matter of time before they will get it.
Putin Critic Alexei Navalny Convicted of Embezzlement
Conviction of Putin foe sets off protest in Moscow
SnyderTalk Comment: Something may be wrong with our intelligence community. A few days ago, we were told that the FBI was certain that the hackers were North Korean. China said that our evidence was not convincing. Now we learn from independent experts in the U.S. that the hackers may have been Russian. The article’s title says that they were “actually Russian”, but the article doesn’t say that.
That’s what espionage was like during the Cold War. Information, disinformation, plausible deniability, and other methods of subterfuge were common. The idea was to do something and leave a trail that led to an innocent party hoping that the enemy would blame him.
I don’t know what happened in this instance, but it’s a Cold War signature for sure.
Now is not the time to shackle the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, and the DIA with misguided beliefs about the “peaceful world” in which we live or the “peaceful religion” that is terrorizing the planet. The cost of mistakes can be very high.
Also see, “Doubts on N. Korea claim? FBI briefed on theory Sony hack was inside job”.
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Email Distribution List:
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Genesis 42: 6-7
6 Now Joseph was the ruler over the land; he was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. 7 When Joseph saw his brothers he recognized them, but he disguised himself to them and spoke to them harshly. And he said to them, “Where have you come from?” And they said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”
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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Is it legalistic to pay too much attention to God’s Name?
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.
