“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: may they prosper who love you.” Psalm 122: 6
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Shmuley Boteach—No Holds Barred: The 10-year klepto-dictatorship of Mahmoud Abbas:
If Western leaders and intellectuals really care for the rights and welfare of Palestinians, why do they continue to throw their money and support behind an terrorist- sponsoring dictator?
For Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas these past few weeks have been busy. Last Tuesday, he applied for statehood at the UN.
When that failed to get a majority vote in the Security Council, due to the last-minute abstention of Nigeria, he immediately set his eyes on the International Criminal Court, where he is currently applying for membership.
Apparently, he’s making plans now with Jordan to go back to the Security Council for round two.
But that’s not all that’s happening for Mahmoud Abbas. There’s something else on his list, something that he might well choose to celebrate.
This coming Friday, January 9, will mark the tenth anniversary of his victory in the Palestinian presidential election. His term was supposed to have ended six years ago, but didn’t – mainly because he’s called off every election since. Which means that this Friday will mark not only the birth of Abbas’ presidency, but also the death of Palestinian democracy. Over the course of the past decade Abbas has completely dismantled whatever democratic process existed in the PA , to the extent that it ever did.
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SnyderTalk Comment: Hamas and Fatah leaders are suspect and most of them are rotten to the core. They lie, cheat, and steal so routinely that it’s their normal behavior.
These are the people with whom Western leaders expect Israel to make “peace”. How can Israel make peace with people who are committed to their annihilation? Both the Hamas and Palestinian charters lay out their plans for Israel’s destruction.
See “Hamas: Abbas’ wanted to disarm the resistance and control the Strip”. Also see, “Hamas: Fatah tortures Hamas prisoners in West Bank”.
It’s a fact that Fatah tortures Hamas prisoners. It’s also a fact that Hamas tortures Fatah prisoners. It’s true that Hamas and Fatah engage in targeted assassinations of members of the other party, too, and they have the audacity to accuse Israel of war crimes for acting in self-defense.
Regrettably, the world ignores the dastardly acts of Palestinians and jumps all over the Israeli government for doing what it must do. It’s time for the U.S. Congress to cut funds destined for Palestinians because we know that up to 85% of those funds are misappropriated. That means they end up lining the pockets of Palestinian leaders.
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SnyderTalk Comment: Hamas says that it’s ready to conquer Jerusalem.
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Hugh Shelton: Iran is a dangerous ‘ally’ in Syria and Iraq— At the dawn of 2015, the U.S. has yet to articulate a comprehensive foreign-policy strategy to counter the influence and territorial gains of Islamic State, the terrorist group that emerged last year — and poses a dangerous and vexing threat to stability across the Middle East and North Africa. By the Pentagon’s admission, we neither understand the underlying ideology of the merciless group nor have a grasp of all the players in the region who have aggravated the crisis. Indeed, the fog of war seems to have muddied Iran’s role in this dark chapter of regional affairs. Is Tehran an ally or a nemesis in the fight against Islamic State? At least initially, the U.S. believed that Iran could play a constructive role in combating a mutual adversary. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, touting the age-old axiom “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” suggested that Iran could be part of the solution.
Eugene Kontorovich: Is the International Criminal Court biased against Israel?— In a prior post, I examined the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which contains an important provision directly designed to target Israel. Now we’ll turn to the Court as an institution. In the wake of the Palestinian turn to the International Criminal Court, several commentators have argued that there is no reason to think the institution is out to get Israel. That is true. Of course, the Court has done so little in its twelve year history, that it is hard to say much with confidence about its inclinations and proclivities. And prosecutions of Israelis (nationals of a non-member state) would be a kind of activity the Court has never engaged in without the request of the Security Council, so there is even less data. There is no reason to think the prosecutor or Court are eager for Israel/Palestine cases, and a lot of reasons to think they are not, given the disproportionate political headaches they entail.
Lauren Williams: ISIS has polarized Turkey domestically—The war in Syria has not only tested Turkey’s economic and institutional ability to absorb 1.1 million refugees, but has also deepened latent tensions between secularists, leftists, Kurds and Islamists. In particular, the increasingly visible presence of ISIS in Turkey has polarized the country, with opponents of the Erdogan government saying its support of the Syrian opposition has allowed ISIS to flourish, even generating homegrown support for militant Islam. Historically, political parties in Turkey have tended to rally constituents not on a policy basis, but on ethnic, religious and ideological grounds. The Republican People’s Party (CHP) – now the main opposition – identifies with secularist, Kemalist and Alevi voters. By contrast, the center-right Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) appeals to Muslim constituents, and has appeared to balance its moderate Islamic platform with democratic values and economic success. Indeed, the AKP’s flourishing relations with Western allies, particularly NATO and the United States, helped make Turkey the poster child for political Islam during the last decade. But tensions have resurfaced in Turkey with greater intensity, particularly between secularists and Islamists.
FATİH ÇEKİRGE: The moment of truth for Turkey—We are entering a painful calendar year in the axis of Syria and Iraq. Kurdish politics and politicians in the region are preparing for international meetings in the coming term. Kurdish forces, having gained U.S. support against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), are making very good use of time. Adding the general elections in Turkey and the ongoing peace process, 2015 will certainly be a very important year. At this point, the most serious crisis appears to be a Parliament without the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), in the event that the HDP remains under the 10 percent threshold. The question is this: If the HDP remains below the threshold, how can a political entity that is not present in Parliament continue to participate in the peace process? This is a dangerous and difficult situation.
Rob Nikolewski: Will crashing oil prices make Russia, Iran and Venezuela more dangerous?— The plummeting price of oil is giving the economies of Russia, Iran and Venezuela a strong smack upside the head. And while the resulting crises before Russian President Vladimir Putin, the ruling clerics in Iran and the successor to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela won’t engender much sympathy from many corners of the world, what those leaders may do in response has a number of foreign policy analysts worried. “With the oil situation, things can go in a lot of different ways,” Stephen Szabo, executive director of the Transatlantic Academy, told Watchdog.org. “The leadership in these countries is not exactly responsive to their people and they could lash out.” All three countries rely on high oil prices to keep their governments afloat.
Rebecca Shimoni Stoil: With Israel “War Crimes” Gambit, PA Risks Loss of U.S. Funding—Aaron David Miller, a former presidential advisor and a distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said: “I think the odds of defunding [the PA] are higher than they ever were before. A whole new reality has now been created and I suspect that they are going to close any loopholes that may exist regarding the funding. The world in Washington is about to change.” The funding bill passed by Congress and signed by President Obama last month stipulates that no State Department economic support may be given to the PA if “the Palestinians initiate an International Criminal Court judicially authorized investigation, or actively support such an investigation, that subjects Israeli nationals to an investigation for alleged crimes against Palestinians.” The ICC clause, Miller suggested, “is going to present a significant funding problem and the administration will probably not have any alternative but to comply.”
Alan Baker: The Fundamental Breach by the Palestinians of the Oslo Accords—Israel and the Palestinians agreed in the Oslo Accords not to initiate or take any steps that will change the status of the territories pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations. Yasser Arafat, in his September 9, 1993, letter to Yitzhak Rabin, declared that “all outstanding issues relating to permanent status will be resolved through negotiations.” By petitioning the UN, the International Criminal Court, and international organizations to recognize them and accept them as a full member state, the Palestinians have knowingly and deliberately bypassed their contractual obligations pursuant to the Oslo Accords in an attempt to prejudge the main negotiating issues outside the negotiation. This, together with their attempts to delegitimize Israel among the international community, has served to frustrate any possibility of realization of the Oslo Accords, and as such the Palestinians are in material breach of their contractual obligations. By the same token those countries supporting them are in breach of their obligations and guarantees as witnesses.
Oded Eran and Robbie Sabel: U.S. Vote Against Palestinian UN Resolution Fulfilled Pledge in Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty—The submission of the draft resolution to the UN Security Council on behalf of the Palestinians was clearly a violation of the Palestinian undertaking under the Oslo agreement, in which Israel and the PLO agreed that “neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations.” The Jordanian draft spelled out in full the Palestinian position, leaving nearly nothing to be negotiated. The Jordanian draft proposed that the Arab refugee problem be resolved on the basis of UN General Assembly Resolution 194. When Resolution 194 was passed in December 1948, all the Arab states voted against it. In voting against the draft, the U.S. was not only expressing its political displeasure but was also fulfilling its obligation as part of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, where the U.S. reaffirmed its commitment to “oppose and, if necessary, vote against any initiative in the Security Council to…change Resolutions 242 and 338 in ways which are incompatible with their original purpose.”
Dennis Ross: Stop Giving Palestinians a Pass— THE president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, insists on using international institutions to pressure Israel, even after he was rebuffed in the United Nations Security Council, where he sought a resolution mandating Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Mr. Abbas has now announced that he will turn to the International Criminal Court — a move that will produce Palestinian charges and Israeli countercharges but not alter the reality on the ground. A European official I met recently expressed sympathy for the Palestinians’ pursuit of a Security Council resolution. I responded by saying that if he favors Palestinian statehood, it’s time to stop giving the Palestinians a pass. It is time to make it costly for them to focus on symbols rather than substance.
Liz Fuller: Six North Caucasus Insurgency Commanders Transfer Allegiance to Islamic State— Sixteen months after his death, the continued viability of the Caucasus Emirate (IK) proclaimed by then Chechen Republic Ichkeria President Doku Umarov in the fall of 2007 is open to question. Over the past six weeks, at least three Chechen and three Daghestani commanders have retracted their oath of obedience (bayat) to Umarov’s successor as Caucasus Emirate leader, the Avar theologian Sheikh Ali Abu-Muhammad (Aliaskhab Kebekov), and pledged loyalty to Islamic State leader Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi. How many more rank-and-file fighters have done likewise is unclear, but Kebekov’s warning of an imminent split within the insurgency ranks suggests the number is not insignificant.
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Study: anti-Semitism most common prejudice in Turkish media
Female suicide bomber attacks Istanbul police station
Gaza man who overstayed medical permit indicted for joining police in Strip
EU condemns Israel’s decision to freeze transfer of tax revenues to PA
Congress returns with punishing plans for Iran and the Palestinians
U.S. donors providing most of Netanyahu’s reelection funds
High court orders raising of last 7 homes in West Bank Migron outpost
Netanyahu says settlements unlikely to be dismantled if elected to fourth term
France warns Palestinians over escalating crisis with UN bid
A-G likely to indict Zoabi for saying Israeli-Arab guard ‘should be scared of us’
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Hamas Accuses PA of Pocketing Gaza Funds
Netanyahu: I Didn’t Promise Bennett Anything
British Councillor Suspended Over Auschwitz-Related Tweet
IDF Investigation Finds Soldiers not Culpable in Abu Ein’s Death
Watch: Protest at ‘Slaughter the Jew’ College Art Exhibit
‘Right-Wingers’ can Champion Social Issues Too
Indictment Filed: ‘Murdered Because He Was a Jew’
Mastemind of Teens’ Murders Given 3 Life Sentences
Three Arabs Planned Attack in Hareidi Disguises
Knife-Carrying Terrorist Thwarted in Samaria
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Hamas leader Mashaal said deported from Qatar
‘Israeli kindness changed my life,’ says Hamas escapee in Canada
Police recommend trying former defense minister for graft
Liberman’s missing former aide suspected of money laundering
Jerusalemites stock up on supplies ahead of blizzard
Jerusalem zoo braces for snowfall of biblical proportions
‘Most Palestinians believe Israel wants to destroy Al-Aqsa’
Hamas ‘totally opposed’ to Abbas plan for new UN bid
Soldiers protest criminal investigations into Gaza war
US weighs cutting aid to Palestinians over ICC move
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Muslim leader: ‘Jesus Christ is among us’
SnyderTalk Comment: I won’t be surprised if the anti-Messiah comes out of Turkey, but no one will have any doubt about Yahweh’s return. He will simply appear. He’ll roll back the heavens and step into our space. That will be a great day for some, but for others it will be the worst day of their existence.
Barack Obama’s One-Man Show Likely to Continue
US opposes Israel’s freeze on Palestinian tax revenue
Lights are switched off in cities across Germany in protest against anti-Islam PEGIDA group
France ‘ready’ to strike extremists on Libya border
Middle East atlas omitting Israel to be pulped following widespread anger
Study finds whole grains help extend life
Man who committed suicide by cop left note apologizing to police
After Miami’s kickoff, gays set to marry across Florida
Israel ‘won’t let its soldiers be dragged to ICC’
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Iran’s Plan to Wreak Havoc on Israel With Missiles
Turkey, US to finalize Syrian rebel training this month: official
Turkey’s witch hunt against the media
US Denies Turkey Leftover Warships
Russia to hire more foreign troops in forces shake-up
‘France wants to mend ties with Russia, asking for ‘progress’ on Ukraine to save face’
Russia’s Gov’t Wrong Again On Ruble
Lindt cafe siege gunman Monis claimed: I knew of Iran’s deadly terrorist plots
China Fast-Tracks $1 Trillion in Projects to Spur Growth
China Still Isn’t Ready to Be a True Global Leader
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Genesis 42: 26-28
26 So they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed from there. 27 As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money; and behold, it was in the mouth of his sack. 28 Then he said to his brothers, “My money has been returned, and behold, it is even in my sack.” And their hearts sank, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”
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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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.
