“O magnify Yahweh with me, and let us exalt His Name together.” Psalm 34: 3

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Daniel Greenfield—Why Obama Will Just Keep Making the Middle East Worse:

A few years ago it was the Muslim Brotherhood. These days it’s Iran. Next week it may be ISIS or Al Qaeda. Obama stands with the worst elements in the Middle East. That’s always been his philosophy.

If the left had a foreign policy, it would be, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” But the wheel is a sword and it’s lubricated with blood. The squeakiest wheels and the bloodiest swords get the most grease from the State Department because they hate us the most. And hating us the most means that somewhere along the way we must have hurt them the worst. They hate us, therefore we’re guilty.

The squeaky wheel runs on blood and on American guilt. The worse they are, the guiltier we must be. Instead of reinforcing the moderates, whose shortage of ravening hatred suggests that they don’t have any legitimate complaints about us worth listening to, the left seeks out the extremes of extremists.

When he wasn’t vowing to lower the oceans, abolish taxes on seniors or heal up race relations, Obama was campaigning on fixing our alliances with our allies. But that’s not what he really had in mind.

Any old Joe can ally with allies. It takes a real Barack to ally with enemies.

Our allies were the problem, so he started shedding them. The least crazy Muslims went first. Then Israel. Now he’s down to deciding which enemies will be his allies and he sits on a golf course, like that little girl in the LBJ ad, picking petals off a daisy trying to choose between Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood. Meanwhile the nuclear countdown is building from one to a mushroom cloud.

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SnyderTalk Comment: Obama’s actions launched the Arab Spring, led to the rapid growth of militant Islam, and resulted in the carnage we see today in the Middle East.  Even worse, his actions emboldened Islamists in Europe, the United States, and the rest of the world.

Iran has taken full advantage of the situation.  Obama’s failure to act appropriately in his dealings with Iran has galvanized resistance to U.S. foreign policy among nations that were once our staunchest allies.

Even so, Obama can still influence events in the Middle East.  After all, the U.S. is still a global superpower with a powerful military, a vibrant economy relatively speaking, and deep pockets despite having the world’s highest debt load.

U.S. national debt as of 2014 was a staggering $18 trillion.  The country with the next highest debt load in 2014 was the United Kingdom.  It came in at about $9.6 trillion.

In 2014, it took the combined debt of the next three nations on the world’s highest debtors list (the U.K., Germany, and France) to exceed U.S. debt.

Our nation’s willingness to borrow to support misguided adventures can’t go on forever, but the end is not yet in sight.  However, at these dizzying debt levels, the end could come in the blink of an eye.

When countries stop buying U.S. debt, the game is over.  Leaders in China, Russia, and Iran, for example, know that.

This much is certain: the day will come when world leaders speaking with one voice will tell the U.S., “Enough is enough”.  That’s when our enemies will tell us what to do, and we will have few options short of all-out war to resist them.

Iran sees the writing on the wall.  Obama can’t see it.

See “Is Iran Really a Partner?”

Obama is a figurehead.  He’s President of the United States and his office has enormous power, but we put him there and he represents us.  Stated another way, in the eyes of our friends and our enemies, he is the United States.

Obama is a manifestation of our nation’s underlying problem.  We have turned away from Yahweh.  There are so many examples that prove the point that it’s embarrassing to have to point them out.  Legalizing sodomy and defending a mother’s “right” to murder her unborn children are two obvious ones.

I used the word “obvious”.  It’s not really obvious because we can’t see it.  Our senses have been dulled.

The U.S. is in the same position today that the Northern Kingdom of Israel* was in when Hosea delivered this message to them from Yahweh:

“Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God.  For a spirit of harlotry is within them, and they do not know Yahweh.” (Hosea 5: 4)

Nothing short of a miracle can change things now.  Thankfully, Yahweh is in the miracle business, but for Him to act, we must repent.

Literally, repent means to turn and go in the opposite direction.  That’s what we must do as a nation if we want Yahweh’s help.

Some say that we need revival.  I say that we need repentance.  Stated another way, no repentance, no revival.

See “US Senate Overwhelmingly Passes Bill Giving Congress Oversight of Iran Deal”.  This may be a very good sign.  It’s a good start, but a lot of follow through is needed because Obama can’t be trusted.  As president, he can do many things that are not visible to anyone in the U.S. including U.S. senators.

* The Northern Kingdom includes the ten tribes of Israel in the north.  Judah and Benjamin were in the south.  This distinction is key in Bible prophecy, but I won’t explain it here.

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David Jackson: Obama may pitch Middle East defense system—President Obama may push for creation of a Middle East region-wide defense system when he meets with Persian Gulf allies next week, according to a news report. Reuters, citing unnamed sources, said Obama is seeking to “allay their anxieties over any nuclear deal with Tehran.” The president summits next week with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, nations that are wary of Iran and the proposed nuclear deal: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Yoram Ettinger: Iran and suspension of disbelief— The term “suspension of disbelief” — coined in 1817 by the philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge — refers to a willingness to suspend one’s critical faculties and believe the unbelievable; sacrificing reality, common sense, doubt and complexity on the altar of a pretend reality, convenience and oversimplification; infusing a semblance of truth into an untrue narrative. U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s policy toward Iran in 1977-1979 was characterized by suspension of disbelief: energizing the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini while ignoring or underestimating his track record and his radical, supremacist and violent worldview. The betrayal of the Shah transformed Tehran from “the U.S. policeman in the Gulf” to the worst enemy of the U.S.

Andrew Beatty: Obama to host anxious Gulf leaders at Camp David—With Iran emboldened and the US seen in retreat, President Barack Obama faces the vexed task of restoring lost trust and influence when he hosts Gulf leaders at Camp David next week. It is a meeting that Gulf officials privately describe as “a welcome gesture”, “thrown together” and “long overdue”. Six Gulf Cooperation Council leaders – including Saudi Arabia’s freshly crowned and hawkish King Salman – visit the White House on 13 May, followed the next day by a trip to the bucolic presidential retreat near Washington. The prestigious invite comes amid deep unease over Washington’s nuclear talks with arch-foe Tehran and perceived US disengagement in the region under Obama’s administration. In public, Gulf nations have been broadly supportive of the pending nuclear deal, but in private they fear Washington is making a Faustian bargain.

Rabbi Aryeh Spero: Netanyahu Not the Cause of Obama’s Dislike of Israel— Much has been said about the strange behavior of Barack Obama, who can’t let a day go without maligning Israel and Mr. Netanyahu. In contrast, he displays friendship to a thug and anti-Semite like Recip Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, palled around with the deceased communist Hugo Chavez, and keeps standing up for the Iranian mullahs who want to kill us all or make us slaves to Islam. Those in the media who see politics simply as a stand-off between personalities ascribe all this to a clash of personalities: Obama doesn’t like PM Netanyahu and Netanyahu returns the dislike. No doubt the dislike is there, but what underlies the animosity of Obama toward PM Netanyahu goes beyond schmoozability to seismic differences in outlook and policy. In fact, at Mr. Netanyahu’s very first White House meeting, before they really knew each other, Obama purposely mistreated PM Netanyahu by forcing him to enter through a side entrance and, then, abruptly left the meeting and went upstairs by himself for dinner while leaving PM Netanyahu and his staff without hospitality or even a piece of bread. This was a deliberate, unheard of disparagement, directed more at Israel, the state represented by Netanyahu, than it was at Mr. Netanyahu per se.

Rachel Avraham: Iranian Opposition: “There might be a Kurdish Spring”— As we speak in Mahabadad, Iran, a large demonstration is taking place in front of Hotel Tara in order to protest the brutal murder of a Kurdish girl who had managed to escape being raped by an Iranian intelligence agent by jumping from the fourth floor of the hotel.  She died immediately afterwards.  According to reports from the Iranian Kurdish opposition, the hotel owner is alleged to be an accomplice in the murder. According to the report, the young Kurdish girl was working in the hotel. The owner of the hotel had lured the girl into the hotel room in order to be sexually exploited by this Iranian government agent so that the hotel can receive a 5 star rating. She jumped out of the window of that hotel room to her death in order to escape from being raped.

Michele Chabin: Israel to California: Here’s how to save water—As Californians struggle with an ever-worsening water shortage caused by a historic drought, they might look east for a solution — to the Middle East. Israel, subject to intermittent droughts for decades, has pioneered a number of water-saving techniques. It long ago figured out how to grow crops in the desert and for decades has advised the developing world on how to manage scarce water resources. Now, Israel is eager to share its latest know-how with drought-ridden states like California. These helpful techniques include water quotas, desalination plants and the reuse of household wastewater.

Andrés Martinez: Can Barack Obama Uphold Bill Clinton’s Free Trade Legacy?— It’s poignant to watch President Obama fight for the legacy of Bill Clinton while Hillary Clinton coyly refuses to join in, lest she offend the regressive forces within her party that the Clintons once eagerly confronted. Obama is selling the nation on an ambitious free trade deal to bind together a dozen Pacific nations in the Americas and East Asia. This Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would represent 40 percent of the world’s GDP and a potentially valuable counterweight to Chinese influence in Asia. In pushing passionately for this deal, Obama is following the playbook of Bill Clinton, who – embracing the notion that the outside world offers the U.S. more opportunities than dangers — faced down organized labor to adopt the North American Free Trade Area.

SnyderTalk Comment: Labor unions don’t like free trade, but it’s the most powerful soft weapon in the U.S. arsenal.  The difference between soft and hard weapons is well-known and widely discussed among government and military officials.

Soft weapons include things like trade policies, American culture represented by everything from entertainment to the products we sell, and a range of other things that do not involve military force but tie countries closer to us.  Hard weapons are military in nature.

Using soft weapons makes a lot of sense.  First, we can actually make money.  Second, it doesn’t involve killing people.  Third, countries that engage us in trade have a positive experience, but the use of military force leaves behind an array of problems including hard feelings.

Unions don’t like free trade for several reasons.  First and foremost, workers in the U.S. are grossly overpaid by world standards.  For that matter union employees in the U.S. are grossly overpaid compared to non-union workers.  On top of that, union work rules that are designed to give unions power in the workplace drive up costs even more and make union workers even less competitive globally and domestically.

Don’t expect unions to go along with Obama.  Since they have supported him from the get-go, they think they should get special treatment.  They already have.  That’s why union workers have fared so much better than non-union workers since Obama took office.

At this point, some of Obama horrendous decisions are beginning to haunt him at home with his base.  It will be interesting to watch what happens.

See “Nike backs Obama on trade with pledge to create 10000 US jobs”.

Ishaan Tharoor: Israel’s new justice minister considers all Palestinians to be ‘the enemy’—An 11th-hour deal on Wednesday led to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forming the most right-wing government in his country’s history. Netanyahu’s slim majority in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, was secured after a pact with the Jewish Home party, led by Naftali Bennett, an ultra-nationalist who draws much of his support from Israel’s settler population and rejects a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One of the terms of the alliance was that Netanyahu would tap Bennett’s de facto lieutenant, Ayelet Shaked, to be the next justice minister. This is a move not without controversy.

SnyderTalk Comment: That’s not true, but it’s definitely the way the political left in Israel and President Obama see it.

Charles Crawford: What to Do About ISIL?— At a recent conference, I found myself bemoaning the ineffectiveness of Western military action against the Islamic State (ISIL). We in the West had decided to attack ISIL, but seemed to be pulling our punches. Why were their banking, propaganda and other facilities that support their terrorist operations not being blown to bits? Imagine the surprise when a senior U.S. expert on these issues replied that by far the best thing to do with ISIL was precisely nothing: the Middle East and wider “Muslim world” was doomed to a massive revolting civil war, so let them get on with it and take stock of the situation once it clarified.

Ari Z. Zivotofsky and Ari Greenspan: Pashtun Pride, Israel Denied— In recent years you may have seen sensationalist headlines proclaiming that the Taliban (and by extension bin Laden) are descended from the Jewish People. Well, bin Laden was actually an ethnic Yemenite from Saudi Arabia; and the Taliban? It’s not them per se, but the tribe they come from, that some researchers have put under the microscope in a quest to resolve the historical mystery of linkage to the Ten Lost Tribes. Do the Pashtuns, or Pathans — mostly living in an Islamic world — really have ancient Israelite roots as they claim?

Mark A. Kellner: U.S. religious freedom commission calls for criminal prosecution of Islamic State— A U.S. government commission is calling for international prosecution of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, over the militant group’s attacks on Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria. The request is a first for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in its 2015 report on the state of religious freedom around the world. But the independent commission’s chairman sees some areas of optimism despite the extreme strains on world religious freedom from “non-state actors” such as ISIS and the persecution of Christians and others in the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia.

Elder of Ziyon: Israeli Soldier Describes Hamas’ Immorality— Looking at more of the “Breaking the Silence” testimonies, here’s an example where the leftist group is trying hard to pretend that the IDF is doing something immoral – but in fact it is Hamas that is trying to get the IDF to kill civilians. There was this mentally handicapped girl in the neighborhood, apparently, and the fact that shots were fired near her feet only made her laugh (earlier in his testimony the soldier described a practice of shooting near people’s feet in order to get them to distance themselves from the forces). She would keep getting closer and it was clear to everyone that she was mentally handicapped, so no one shot at her. No one knew how to deal with this situation. She wandered around the areas of the advance guard company and some other company – I assume she just wanted to return home, I assume she ran away from her parents, I don’t think they would have sent her there. It is possible that she was being taken advantage of – perhaps it was a show, I don’t know. I thought to myself that it was a show, and I admit that I really, really wanted to shoot her in the knees because I was convinced it was one. I was sure she was being sent by Hamas to test our alertness, to test our limits, to figure out how we respond to civilians.

Pnina Sharvit Baruch and Keren Aviram: Report of the UN Secretary-General Board of Inquiry on Damage to UN Facilities during Operation Protective Edge: Balanced and Unbiased— On April 27, 2015, the UN Secretary-General released a summary of the report by the Board of Inquiry appointed to investigate damage to UN facilities during Operation Protective Edge in July-August 2014. While the report states that in seven of ten incidents UN schools were damaged by IDF fire, it refrained from blaming Israel. In addition, for the first time, the report speaks of the illegitimate use of UN facilities by Palestinian militant groups. The balanced and factual nature of the report, particularly as compared with the biased and critical report issued by a similar Board of Inquiry charged in 2009 with investigating damage to UN facilities during Operation Cast Lead, is a positive development. It is to be hoped that this change stems from a greater understanding of the complex challenges confronting Israel and many other countries fighting in densely populated areas, and that such understanding will also be reflected in the report by the Commission of Inquiry appointed by the UN Human Rights Council that is expected to be released soon.

Douglas Murray: The Cartoon Wars— ISIS appears to have inspired its first terrorist attack in the United States: in Garland, Texas. This item may have slipped the attention of many people because as is so often the case today, much of the reporting and commentary has got caught up on other, supplementary issues. The supplementary issues are first, that the attack targeted a competition set up to show images of what people thought Muhammad may have looked like. Then, there is the identity of the people who organized the exhibition and spoke at it.

Gal Cohen: Investigators say ISIS not responsible for shooting in Texas— U.S. investigators believe that the two terrorists who were killed after opening fire at an exhibition of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed earlier this week worked alone, rather than in the name of an active terror cell – and the responsibility taken by ISIS has no basis.  According to the investigators, even if there was remote support, it was only in a moral sense, not with the supply of weapons or other logistical support.

Caroline Glick: Siding with the victims of aggression— The notion that a rape victim deserved to be raped because she was wearing a tight outfit lights up all our red lights. This is the case first and foremost because it absolves the rapist of responsibility for his crime. We are also disgusted by attempts to blame the victim for her victimization because they are substantively false. If men are more likely to rape women in tight clothing then rape should be all but non-existent in traditional Islamic societies. Yet the opposite is the case. Rape and sexual abuse are endemic to such societies. According to the UN, a whopping 99.3 percent of Egyptian women report having suffered sexual abuse. There is a third, more general reason that we recoil from the thought of blaming rape victims for their suffering. One of the foundations of liberal societies has always been that victims of aggression are not to blame for their attackers’ behavior. Over the past few days, we have witnessed a dangerous erosion of this principle among American elites.

SnyderTalk Comment: As I have said, were have lost touch with Yahweh.  Problem is that a very large percentage of our people can’t see it, or worse, they see it and don’t care.  Either way, it’s an indication that we are on the wrong path.

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Syrian army, Hezbollah advance in areas along Lebanon border

Assad acknowledges recent setbacks in war

Anti-Israel politician loses UK parliament seat in recent elections

Syrian army, Hezbollah advance in areas along Lebanon border

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With less than 2 hours to spare, Netanyahu secures a coalition

Hoping to woo Herzog, Netanyahu to keep Foreign Ministry in back pocket

Herzog pans new Netanyahu government as ‘national failure’

Netanyahu promised a ‘better, more stable government.’ And we got this?

How Netanyahu’s election victory became a political rout

Ramallah blasts new Netanyahu government as ‘against peace’

A glance at the challenges facing Israel’s new government

Bill to expand cabinet to be submitted Monday

IDF to follow up on claims of Gaza tunnel under kibbutz

US may sell Saudis bombs once only offered to Israel — report

Jewish activists move into building in Arab Jerusalem neighborhood

Israel okays 900 East Jerusalem homes, peace group says

Sudan unsure where downed drone came from

Portman ‘very upset’ by Netanyahu win

SnyderTalk Comment: Who cares?

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Crimes Against Jews on Rise in Germany

Chilling College Reports Highlight Rising Antisemitism on University of California Campuses

Video: The Jerusalem Shabbat Bus Controversy

US military starts training Syrian fighters to combat Islamic State

Blue Bell Creameries Knew About Listeria Contamination in 2013: FDA Report

See Saturn moon’s ‘soda ocean’ shooting to surface in sheets

Natalie Portman Shares ‘Leftist’ Thoughts on Israel: ‘I’m Very Much Against Netanyahu’

SnyderTalk Comment: Thankfully, Portman is in the minority in Israel.  With friends like her, who needs enemies?

British Prime Minister Cameron’s Conservatives on track for absolute majority

Bonds and stocks rebound, sterling soars after UK election

Omar Khadr, free on bail, vows to prove he is ‘a good person’

IDF: We will not accept attacks on soldiers

Former AP Journalist Blasts ‘Breaking the Silence’ Report on Israeli Conduct in Gaza

Lapid on the formation of the government: “A sad day”

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Iran rejects Saudi claims it armed Yemen rebels

Saudi intensifies shelling of Yemeni Shiite rebel stronghold

Saudi-led forces conduct air strikes in Yemen’s Saada

Turkey, Saudi in pact to help anti-Assad rebels

Yemen Al Qaeda Leader Who Claimed Credit for Charlie Hebdo Attack Killed in U.S. Drone Strike

Senate OKs bill giving Congress review of Iran nuclear deal

Iran Claims Navy Chased Away US Warship, Planes in Gulf of Aden

BDS Suffers Dual Defeats as Anti-Israel Resolutions Fail at CA Community College, Bowdoin College

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Email Distribution List:

I have created an email distribution list that I use to notify people when I post a new SnyderTalk.  If you would like to be on that list, send your email address to nhsny@yahoo.com, and put “add me to your distribution list” in the subject line.  If you know others who are interested in SnyderTalk content, tell them to send me their email address, and I’ll put them on the list.

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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.

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