Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

World Braces As Deflation Tremors Hit Eurozone Bond Markets
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Telegraph
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

'The forces of monetary deflation are gathering. Global liquidity is declining and central banks are not doing enough, either in the West or the East to offset the decline,' warns CrossBorderCapital

'The forces of monetary deflation are gathering,' says CrossBorderCapital Photo: Getty Images

Westerners in ISIS Threaten Countries of Origin
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;War

UN Envoy Meets Hezbollah Leader Who Called to Destroy Israel
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem

Reuters

Israel last Wednesday asked the UN to demand the disarmament of the Iran-proxy Hezbollah terror organization in Lebanon a day after it wounded IDF soldiers with two explosives set on the border - instead, this Thursday the UN sent an envoy to chat with the terror group's deputy leader.

UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura was accompanied by UN special coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly on Thursday as he met Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, reports the Lebanese The Daily Star.

The two then met with Sheikh Naim Qassem, second-in-command behind Hassan Nasrallah of the terror organization that has pledged to destroy Israel and launched numerous attacks to do so.

Making the meeting the more astonishing is the fact that Hezbollah's "military wing" was added to the European Union's (EU) official terror list last July.

After meeting Qassem in his Beirut office, de Mistura said his visit to the terror group was part of consultations with all parties to find a "political solution" to problems in the Middle East, particularly the internecine bloodshed in Syria where Hezbollah is helping to prop up President Bashar Assad's regime.

The UN envoy said his viewpoint was identical with the terror group that a Syrian solution should be political - despite the fact that the group has been sending thousands of troops and is actively engaged in the bloody fighting.

"It has been confirmed that a political solution will save Syria and its people. Everyone must expect painful concessions in this respect. But it is the only solution at hand. There is no other solution," said Qassem.

De Mistura also called for political unity in Lebanon while meeting with the terror group, saying "the Lebanese political environment should be stabilizing the sooner and the better."

Israel, "enemy of humanity"?

Meanwhile the Hezbollah deputy in May called Israel the "main enemy," adding "Israel is the enemy of humanity and truth. It cannot coexist with anyone," and promoting violent terrorism instead of political dialogue with the Jewish state. After claiming the attack last week, Qassem said his terror group is ready to fight Israel.

The meeting comes as Hezbollah is expanding its influence, holding a clandestine meeting on Wednesday in Beirut with a senior Hamas official and vowing strong ties with the group.

For the UN's part, the meeting comes amid a recent upsurge in anti-Israel rhetoric, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon slamming "settlement activity" on Monday in Ramallah despite Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's covert building freeze against Jews.

Ban also called for a return to peace talks on Tuesday while receiving an IDF tour of Hamas terror tunnels - even though Hamas has already restarted construction on the terror tunnels, and bragged that the IDF didn't destroy all of the tunnels, an assessment this week backed by an IDF commander.

Regardless of that, and the fact that humanitarian materials were siphoned by Hamas to build the tunnels in the first place, Israel began transporting more construction materials into Gaza on Tuesday as a "humanitarian gesture," including 600 tons of cement, 50 truckloads of aggregate and 10 truckloads of steel.

U.S. Ebola Cases May Exceed Two Dozen By November, Researchers Say
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsBloomberg
Uncategorized

Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg’s Brendan Greeley describes the processes of putting on a hazmat suit. He speaks on “Bloomberg Surveillance.” (Source: Bloomberg)

There could be as many as two dozen people in the U.S. infected with Ebola by the end of the month, according to researchers tracking the virus with a computer model.

The actual number probably will be far smaller and limited to a couple of airline passengers who enter the country already infected without showing symptoms, and the health workers who care for them, said Alessandro Vespignani, a Northeastern University professor who runs computer simulations of infectious disease outbreaks. The two newly infected nurses in Dallas don’t change the numbers because they were identified quickly and it’s unlikely they infected other people, he said.

The projections only run through October because it’s too difficult to model what will occur if the pace of the outbreak changes in West Africa, where more than 8,900 people have been infected and 4,500 have died, he said. If the outbreak isn’t contained, the numbers may rise significantly.

“If by the end of the year the growth rate hasn’t changed, then the game will be different,” Vespignani said. “It will increase for many other countries.”

Staying Rational

The model analyzes disease activity, flight patterns and other factors that can contribute to its spread.

“We have a worst-case scenario, and you don’t even want to know,” Vespignani said. “We could have widespread epidemics in other countries, maybe the Far East. That would be like a bad science fiction movie.”

The worst case would occur if Ebola acquires pandemic status and is no longer contained in West Africa, he said. It would be a catastrophic event, one Vespignani said he is confident won’t happen.

“Let’s be rational for the next couple of months,” he said. “We aren’t going to have an invasion of cases. After November, we need to reassess the situation and see what is the progress of containment in West Africa.”

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser said he’s not concerned about Ebola’s impact on the U.S.

“I don’t out a lot of weight on the Ebola stuff at this point, at least for the U.S. stock market and the U.S. financial markets,” he told reporters after a speech in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “You could make up scenarios, and people are really good at making up fantastically doomsday scenarios. I don’t engage in that.”

Unlikely Case

It’s unlikely that Ebola will ever exceed 20 cases in the U.S. or Europe because of their extensive health-care infrastructures, said Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C. The problem in the developed world will center more on the economic impact, he said.

“The damage is not as much in the number of deaths as much as in the panic it creates and all the disruption it creates in trade and travel,” he said. “It’s important for public health officials to strike a balance between being serious and certainly not creating panic.”

“It’s not going to be like the movie ‘Contagion,’” he said.

The infection of two nurses who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., has some worried that the virus may be mutating and becoming more infectious. When trying to extrapolate from those cases, people should remember five other Americans were flown to the U.S. for care, said Eli Perencevich, professor of epidemiology at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. None of them transmitted the virus.

Uniquely Vulnerable

Average Americans shouldn’t see any risk from the virus outside of the medical community because patients aren’t terribly infectious until the disease peaks, Perencevich said. In industrialized areas like the U.S., those people will be in the hospital, he said. Health-care workers, though, are uniquely vulnerable.

“There’s a high probability that there will be another person who comes in, no matter what we do, but the risk is in the hospital,” he said in a telephone interview. “As long as people who know they have been exposed to the virus get themselves quickly to the hospital, even after they have started a fever, it should be OK because they aren’t that infectious.”

Import Ebola

Getting to the hospital may be difficult for some people, said Maria Cristina Garcia, a professor of history at Cornell University, who has written extensively about refugees and immigrants. While any international traveler could import Ebola, Garcia worries that the outbreak may give Americans another reason to fear or lash out against immigrants.

“An immigrant, like any other person in the U.S., is concerned about cost and confidentiality,” she said. “If he cannot afford a hospital stay, he might avoid seeking treatment until it’s too late. He might also fear coming forward for fear of stigma. Those of us who lived through the 1980s remember how Americans responded to the AIDS crisis during the early years.”

It’s possible that a handful of infected travelers could spread the virus to new areas, especially given its long latency period, said Jeffrey Shaman, who is modeling the outbreak at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. The models that show a possible range of cases in various countries are a good place to start, although there are so many variables that to some extent they are flying blind, Shaman said.

“Human folly and human nature plays into this,” he said in a telephone interview. “All these chains of human error can lead to these things emerging in little clusters. The real question is can we contain it.”

Rapid Detection

For that to happen, people have to limit close contact with anyone who might have an infection and quarantine those who have been exposed, said Wayne Getz, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, who studies environmental science and is modeling how the Ebola outbreak can be contained.

The U.S. has the health-care infrastructure to prevent an epidemic, as long as the disease is detected early.

“It’s very important to rapidly detect and isolate cases,” Getz said. “If this isn’t done properly, we have a big problem in the United States. If it is done properly, we can control the spread.”

The real risk is that Ebola continues to gather steam in Africa and expands globally, said Irene Eckstrand, director of the NIH Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study. A consortium of about 100 scientists, based at the National Institutes of Health, mobilized in July to model the virus’ spread.

“At the moment Ebola is spreading exponentially,” Eckstrand said. “There’s no convincing evidence that it’s beginning to slow down. It can get out of hand very fast.”

The Height of Idiocy: U.S. Government Hijacks the Whole Swiss Banking System
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Sovereign Man
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Our goal is simple: To help you achieve personal liberty and financial prosperity no matter what happens.

The Antichrist and the Muslim Mahdi
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Prophecy;Commentary

Many people—religious and non-religious—are asking questions about a word they hear the media use when referring to ISIS and other Islamist jihadists. That word is apocalyptic, which is used when specifically referring to the fatalism of Islamists.

People wonder, why do so many Muslims (both Sunni and Shi'ite) operate with such an "apocalyptic," end-of-world mindset?

Our secular society, however, coupled with the media's carelessness, is bandying about words like apocalyptic without using them properly and without explanation. That creates a great deal of confusion for some, many of whom just throw up their hands in resignation and say, "I don't understand this."

But for those who want to understand, I am offering this two-part column, taking excerpts from my newest book, Jesus, Jihad, and Peace. I hope this will put things into perspective, so when the media says that an Islamist entity (such as ISIS, al-Qaeda, Iran, etc.) operate with an apocalyptic vision, you can make sense of it.

The word apocalypse does not, in fact, refer to a disastrous, catastrophic, end-of-world event. It's a Greek word, the root of which means revelation, or revealing things that are hidden. For instance, we know the last book of the Bible as Revelation, but in the original Greek language, it is Apokalupsae. It reveals what is happening in the heavenly realm, as well as events in the future.

The Concept of the Antichrist

Both the Old Testament and New Testament spoke of an end-times figure, the Antichrist, some 600 years or more before Islam came on the scene. That timing will be important when I explain Islam's "end of time" coming of a Mahdi in my next column.

The Antichrist is known by various names. Paul calls him "the lawless one," "the man of lawlessness," and "the man doomed to destruction" who "will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God" (2 Thess. 2:1-12). The most detailed description of the Antichrist is in Revelation 13, where the Apostle John refers to the Antichrist as "the beast." The Old Testament prophet Daniel describes the abominable works of the Antichrist, but gives him no name or title (Dan. 9:27).

Who, then, is the Antichrist, whose brief but terrible reign is predicted in both the Old and New Testaments? He will be a world leader of unparalleled political, military and religious power. He will be charming, persuasive and popular beyond measure. The world will not know him as the "Antichrist," but by some attractive name and appealing title. But just as the word "Antichrist" suggests, he will be the opposite of the Lord Jesus Christ in every way. Everything Christ is, the Antichrist is not; everything Christ is not, the Antichrist is.

Jesus came from heaven (John 6:38); the Antichrist comes from the Abyss, the spiritual domain of evil (Rev. 11:7). Jesus came in the Name of the Father; the Antichrist comes in his own name (John 5:43). Jesus was despised by the world (Is. 53:3); the Antichrist will be worshipped by the world (Rev. 13:3-4). Jesus came in humility as a servant (Phil. 2:7-8); the Antichrist comes in pride, claiming to be God (2 Thess. 2:4; Dan. 11:36). Jesus is the truth (John 14:6); the Antichrist is the lie (2 Thess. 2:9-11). Jesus is the Son of God (Mark 1:1; Luke 1:35); the Antichrist is the son of perdition (2 Thess. 2:3, KJV).

The Apostle Paul tells us that the mystery (or secret) of godliness is that God Himself has appeared to us in human flesh (1 Tim. 3:16)—and that the mystery (or secret) of lawlessness is that Satan has produced a counterfeit Christ, the Antichrist, Satan wrapped in human flesh (2 Thess. 2:6-8). Jesus is the true Shepherd; Satan will have his evil shepherd, the Antichrist. Jesus is the Holy One of God; the Antichrist will be the lawless one of Satan. Jesus is the Man of Sorrows; the Antichrist will be the man of sin.

One Antichrist and many antichrists

First of all, the Antichrist is coming—a lawless man who will come in Satan's power, demanding to be worshipped as God, destroying all those who love God. But John tells us that there are many other antichrists, lesser deceivers who are also self-exalting, evil and destructive. They are antichrists, but they are not the Antichrist.

Jesus tells us that, shortly before His return, the Antichrist will arise during a time of global chaos and confusion, when the world is in political, social, financial and ecological upheaval. The terrified people of the world, desperate for a strong leader, will turn to this man and give him control of the governments of the world.

Daniel tells us that the Antichrist will speak "boastfully" (Dan. 7:8), yet it is clear that these will not be empty boasts. The Antichrist will appear to possess superhuman brilliance. He'll be the ultimate smooth talker, the greatest con man who ever lived, and he'll unite the nations under his rule. At first, he'll seem to be a wise and benevolent dictator, bringing peace, prosperity and hope. But once he is firmly in control of the gears and levers of power, he'll reveal his true intentions.

The way has been paved for such a leader. Atheists, humanists, New Age mystics, Hindus, Buddhists and Islamists have little in common with each other—but they all share in the belief that Jesus is not the only way to salvation. There are even many self-styled "Christians" who deny the Lord's claim to be the only way to God. So it will be easy for the Antichrist to establish himself to many as an acceptable alternative.

In these days of muddled and confused worldviews, it is vitally important to know the truth. After all, Jesus said, "The truth will set you free." As events unfold, we need to see them not only through the camera's lens, but also through the lens of biblical revelation.

That the Antichrist is coming is known—only the timing is unknown. Although we know not the hour of night that the thief comes, we must be prepared nonetheless.

Muslims see the Mahdi as a savior who will lead a global revolution and establish a worldwide Islamic empire. The Mahdi will rule the Earth as the final Caliph of Islam (a caliph is both a political ruler and a spiritual representative of Allah on Earth).

Muslims revere Jesus (whom they call Isa) as the Masih or Messiah. In Islamic eschatology, the Mahdi will arrive at the same time that Isa returns. Isa will descend to Earth in Syria, east of Damascus, dressed in yellow robes, and will assist the Mahdi, who will rule over the world for seven years (or, in some Islamic traditions, nine or 19 years). At the end of the Mahdi's rule, there will be a Day of Judgment for the entire human race.

The parallels between the biblical Antichrist and the Mahdi of Islam are chilling. Both are associated with the End Times and the Judgment. Both are said to possess political, military and religious power, and head up a one-world religion. The Mahdi will force all non-Muslim people to convert to Islam. Like the Antichrist, the Mahdi will establish Jerusalem as his capital, from which he will rule the Earth.

Islamic scholars Muhammad ibn Izzat and Muhammad Arif write, in Al Mahdi and the End of Time: "The Mahdi will be victorious and eradicate those pigs and dogs and the idols of this time so that there will once more be a caliphate based on prophethood as the hadith states. ... Jerusalem will be the location of the rightly guided caliphate and the center of Islamic rule, which will be headed by Imam al-Mahdi. ... That will abolish the leadership of the Jews ... and put an end to the domination of the Satan who spit evil into people and cause corruption in the earth, making them slaves of false idols and ruling the world by laws other than the Sharia [Islamic law] of the Lord of the worlds."

Though Muslims revere Jesus as a prophet, they deny that Jesus is the Son of God. Jews and Christians are, to Muslim fundamentalists, "pigs and dogs" who must either convert to Islam or be eliminated. Bible prophecy makes it clear that the Antichrist will target Jews and Christians for destruction, just as Islamic prophecy states that the Mahdi will wage war against Jews and Christians. Those who oppose the Antichrist's worldwide religion will be executed.

Muslim scholar Imam Muhammad Baqir states clearly how the Mahdi will establish his one-world religion: "There must be bloodshed and jihad to establish Imam Mahdi's rule." And Ayatollah Ibrahim al Amini of the Religious Learning Center in Qom, agrees: "The Mahdi will offer the religion of Islam to the Jews and Christians; if they accept it, they will be spared. Otherwise they will be killed."

Daniel tells us (and Jesus affirms in the Olivet Discourse) that the Antichrist will establish "the abomination that causes desolation" in the Temple in Jerusalem. The apostle Paul adds that the Antichrist "will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God" (2 Thess. 2:4). Since the Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., as Jesus predicted, this has led some (not all Christians) to suggest that the Jewish Temple must be rebuilt on Temple Mount before the Antichrist can be revealed to the world.

Yet the golden-topped Dome of the Rock shrine and the Al-Aqsa mosque stand on Temple Mount today. One of the Islamic Hadiths (traditions) records that their Prophet Muhammad said, "[Armies carrying] black flags will come from Khurasan [Iran and Afghanistan], no power will be able to stop them, and they will finally reach Eela [the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem] where they will erect their flags." In Islamic tradition, black banners symbolize violent conquest, and Muslims await the Mahdi's conquest of Jerusalem, when he establishes his reign from the Temple site.

Daniel 9:27 tells us the Antichrist will establish a seven-year covenant with Israel—but he will break the covenant after three-and-a-half years, defiling the Temple with "an abomination that causes desolation." The Hadiths of Islam also speak of a seven-year covenant that the Mahdi makes with Israel: "The Prophet said: There will be four peace agreements between you and the Romans. The fourth will be mediated through a person who will be from the progeny of Hadrat Aaron [Honorable Aaron, the brother of Moses] and will be upheld for seven years."

There can be no doubt: Muslims are preparing to accept the Mahdi as their leader—and the Mahdi is indistinguishable from the world leader we know as the Antichrist.

I bring all of this to your attention so we can have a knowledgeable perspective when viewing current events unfolding in the Middle East.

But Christians should not fear.

Regardless of whether the Antichrist comes in this generation or a hundred years from now, those who have placed their faith in God's Messiah, Jesus the Christ, fear no one nor even death. Their eternity is secure in the One who is the only One to defeat death and rise from the grave.

The Amazing Leaf Miner
Oct 17th, 2014
CommentaryCreation Facts
Categories: Creation - Evolution

If you live in a climate where fall brings colors to the leaves before they fall, you’ve probably noticed something strange. Once the leaves start to fall, the ground is littered with their color. But among all those fading leaves, you might find a perfectly healthy looking green leaf. That green leaf is probably the work of one of God’s more amazing tiny insects.

Several species of beetles, flies and moths go through a larval stage in which the larvae burrow into leaves. These leaf miners gain their nutrition from the leaf. But when fall comes, and the leaves lose their green chlorophyll, they stop making food for the larvae. So the larvae secrete a hormone that prevents the leaf from losing its chlorophyll and shutting down to die. This hormone enables a leaf to stay green and produce food for the larvae even long after the leaf would normally have turned color and dried up on the ground.

Leaf miners present several problems for those who think that mindless evolution produced the variety of life that we see around us today. How did the larvae learn to make just the right hormone to preserve the leaf on which it depends? Are we to believe that these larvae kept evolving from something else until one of them figured out the chemistry of the leaf? And finally, are we to believe that this unlikely evolutionary event happened in several species?
Just as the sprouting of new leaves in the spring means that summer is near, so the cleverness of the leaf miner should tell us that the hand of God created this insect. And we can reliably conclude that God made the entire creation.
"Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near." (Mark 13:28).

Syria Tunnel Blast Proves Hezbollah Terror Tunnel Threat
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Members of the Syrian rebel group Ahrar al-Sham, part of the Islamic Front coalition, blew up a Syrian army post on Tuesday by digging attack tunnels in rocky terrain - similar to that of the Israeli-Lebanese border - in an incident further raising fears that Hezbollah may use the same techniques.

Al Jazeera Arabic reported on the blast and the tunnels on Wednesday, showing how the strike was conducted on the Al Dahrouj checkpoint near Maarat al-Numaan, in the rural northern Syrian region not far from Idlib.

In the video, the rebels who identify ideologically with Al Qaeda are seen pulling off a massive explosion that shoots high into the air, obliterating the checkpoint and killing over 60 Syrian soldiers and captains.

The fighters are seen preparing the tunnel with drills before placing the explosives, in a digging process that according to the report took around 120 days.

Like Hamas in Gaza, which used UNRWA facilities to store rockets on at least three occasions and killed three IDF soldiers with a booby-trapped UNRWA clinic, the Syrian rebels were also seen to be using UN equipment in the video.

The equipment from the UN refugee agency UNHCR can be seen in the tunnel, including large plastic bags emblazoned with the UN organization's logo.

Syrian rebels similar used tunnels to blow up the Wadi al-Deif checkpoint in May, using 40 tons of explosives and killing at least 30 soldiers.

Hezbollah may be doing the same?

As noted above, the rocky terrain is similar to that on the Lebanese border with Israel, strengthening concerns raised by Israeli residents of the north who have reported hearing the sounds of tunneling and suspicious evidence of such activities on the Lebanese side of the border.

The Iran-proxy terror group Hezbollah has already launched numerous attacks on Israel from that space, including an attack last Tuesday with two explosives on the border that wounded IDF soldiers. Security sources warned Israel may be in danger of "losing control" of the Lebanese border.

Several senior IDF officers raised concerns about possible terror tunnels; the IDF has refused to acknowledge those concerns publicly, instead launching a private investigation into the issue. 

While Israel last Wednesday asked the UN to demand the disarmament of Hezbollah following the explosive attack, instead, this Thursday the UN sent an envoy to meet with the terror group's deputy leader.

Hezbollah also held a clandestine meeting with a senior Hamas terrorist leader on Wednesday in Beirut, pledging cooperation and strong ties.

Putin: Russia will Reduce Europe's Gas Supplies If Ukraine Takes Gas
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsCNBC
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Russia's President Vladimir Putin said Russia will have to reduce gas supplies to Europe if Ukraine steals gas. Pipelines that supply Europe crosses Ukraine en route.

In June, Moscow halted gas supplies to Ukraine due to mounting debts and pricing disagreements.

Disturbance of Russian gas supplies to Europe has happened two times in the past ten years, in 2006 and 2009. A third of Europe's gas comes from Russia.

If no agreement is reached between Ukraine and Russia, Ukraine may face energy shortages this winter—further increasing risks to Europe's gas supply.

Pope Says We are on the Way to Reconciliation and Communion
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily Newswayoflife.org
Categories: Today's Headlines;One World Church

Pope Francis told a massive crowd at St. Peter's Square that it is the devil who causes disunity among Christians but that "we are on the way to reconciliation and communion." On October 8, the pope said, "the Church is tempted by the devil who tries to divide it ... [and] she has been marred by serious and painful divisions" ("Pope Francis: The Devil Works to Divide Christians," Breitbart.com, Oct. 8, 2014). He claims that "behind all these divisions there is always pride and selfishness." He called for a "spiritual ecumenism" that ignores doctrinal differences and focuses "not on what divides us, but rather on what unites us." He concluded by saying, "History has separated us, be we are on the way to reconciliation and communion! And this is true!" The pope is right in this matter. The Bible prophesies an end-time, one-world "church," and Rome is doubtless at the heart and soul of it.

Obama Defines US as a Muslim Country
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsJerusalem Online
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

In an interview with French TV station, says number of Muslims residing in US justifies regarding it as a Muslim Country

Moscow Accuses U.S. of Working on Military 'Scenarios' Near Russia's Borders
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Age
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Moscow: Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu accused the United States on Thursday of working on military "scenarios" near Russia's borders that he said were a source of grave concern.

Interfax news agency quoted Mr Shoigu as expressing surprise at a speech on Wednesday in which US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said US armed forces "must deal with a revisionist Russia - with its modern and capable army - on NATO's doorstep".

Russia's relations with the West have reached a post-Cold War low over the conflict in Ukraine, with Moscow denying accusations that it has supplied weapons and troops to back pro-Russian separatists in the east of the former Soviet republic.

A statue of Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin, who gathered an all-Russian volunteer army to expel Polish-Lithuanian forces Commonwealth from Moscow in 1612, in front of St Basil's Cathedral in Red Square. Moscow has expressed concern that the US military is working on military "scenarios" near its borders. Photo: Getty Images

"Chuck Hagel's thesis on the necessity for the American army to 'deal' with 'modern and capable' Russian armed forces on NATO's doorstep is of grave concern," Shoigu said, according to Interfax.

"This testifies to the fact that the Pentagon is working on scenarios for operations at the borders of our country."

Mr Shoigu did not say what he thought the US military was planning.

Washington has been open about its deployment of additional troops to Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland and the Baltic states, on manoeuvres intended to signal its commitment to nervous NATO allies.

Since the collapse of Communism, NATO has expanded eastward to take in three former Soviet republics and a clutch of ex-communist states once dominated by Moscow, in what Russia views as a serious threat.

Mr Shoigu said an "impartial dialogue" was needed with Russia's Western partners on all aspects of relations, instead of "pumping up tension".

His comments marked Moscow's second forceful intervention in two days on the topic of relations with the United States.

In an interview published on Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin warned Washington that a "spat between major nuclear powers" over the Ukraine crisis could threaten global stability, and said Russia would not be "blackmailed" by Western sanctions. 

Minister Erdan: Kerry 'Broke Record' for Lack of Understanding
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Communications Minister Gilad Erdan

Kfir Bolotin

Minister of Communications Gilad Erdan (Likud) added his voice to criticism of comments made Friday by US Secretary of State John Kerry, in which the latter implied that the lack of a "two-state solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was to blame for the rise of ISIS.

Speaking to Kol Yisrael radio, Erdan said Kerry had "broken the record for lack of understanding" the region, and that his comments proved he was totally detached from the realities on the ground in the Middle East. He also noted that even Kerry's boss, President Barack Obama, has clearly stated in the past that recent developments in the region prove that there is no connection between the Israeli-Arab conflict and other conflicts in the Middle East.

He also took to Facebook to express his views.

"I actually respect Kerry and his efforts, but every time he breaks new records of showing a lack of understanding of our region and the essence of the conflict in the Middle East I have trouble respecting what he says," wrote Erdan, who is tipped to become the next Interior Minister.

Erdan's comments followed a sharp response by Economics Minister Naftali Bennett earlier Friday.

"Even when a British Muslim beheads a British Christian, there will always be those who blame the Jews," the Jewish Home party leader remarked sardonically.

In a statement at a State Department ceremony marking the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, Kerry called for a resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, claiming that the ongoing impasse and lack of Israeli concessions were fueling Islamist extremism.

"We need to find a way to create two states that can live together side by side, two peoples, with both of their aspirations being respected," Kerry insisted. "I still believe that's possible, and I still believe we need to work towards it."

There wasn't a leader I met with in the region who didn't raise with me spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel and the
Palestinians, because it was a cause of recruitment and of street anger and agitation," Kerry claimed, referring to a visit to Cairo that raised $5.4 billion for Hamas in Gaza on Sunday.

Let the Headlines Speak
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Earnest: "Likely" That Additional Healthcare Workers At Dallas Hospital Will Get Ebola
What we do anticipate is certainly possible maybe even likely is that some additional cases of Ebola will occur. It is possible, again, maybe even likely that there will be additional healthcare workers from this hospital in Dallas who treated Mr. Duncan who may contract -- may have contracted the virus.  

Hurricane Gonzalo sets its sights on Bermuda, gusts top 130 mph
The eye of the powerful Category 3 storm with its 130 mph winds and higher gusts is expected to pass near the British territory Friday evening, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. "Bermuda we are prepared," said island Premier Michael Dunkley. "Well rehearsed plans for most contingencies are enacted, and as we hope for the best, we are prepared for the worst."  

Polar vortex could return to parts of US this winter, according to forecasters
The polar vortex that brought even the Niagara Falls to a halt in the US last winter could make a return in the coming months. Forecasters at AccuWeather.com predicted another harsh season for north-eastern states with more ice, snow and arctic winds causing below-freezing temperatures.  

Flight MH17: Dutch Prime Minister Demands 'Maximum Cooperation’ From Vladimir Putin
The investigation into the MH17 disaster and the recovery of the bodies from the crash site has been moving at a slow pace due to the ongoing conflict between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists. The Boeing 777-200 was carrying 298 people on board, mostly Dutch nationals, when it crashed on July 17. It is believed to have been brought down by a surface-to-air missile fired by pro-Moscow rebels with access to Russian arms and ammunition.  

UN rights chief: Ebola, extremists 'twin plagues'
Zeid said the UN human rights office has begun drawing up guidelines for Ebola-hit nations to follow if they impose health quarantines on people, because such efforts can easily violate a wide range of human rights if imposed and enforced unjustly.  

Britain may use mediaeval treason law to tackle Islamist fighters
any British citizen who had sworn personal allegiance to the so-called Islamic State could have committed an offence under the Treason Act of 1351, which was passed during the reign of English King Edward III.  

Biden's son discharged from Navy after reportedly testing positive for cocaine
The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported Thursday that Hunter Biden’s short-lived military career ended because he failed a drug test after reporting to his unit in 2013. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Navy discharged him in February of this year.  

Vatican Document Stirring Controversy Over ‘Welcoming and Accepting’ Practicing Homosexuals
..the first proposed version asserts that Roman Catholics should welcome and accept those practicing homosexuality. “Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community: Are we capable of welcoming these people, guaranteeing to them a fraternal space in our communities?” it reads.  

Airlines on edge after Ebola nurse's flight
Planes grounded, passengers probed but no West Africa ban. In the wake of a Dallas nurse infected with the Ebola virus traveling on an airliner that subsequently made five trips, airlines worldwide are reacting with extreme caution to any sign of the disease.  

Bennett Blasts Kerry for Blindness to ISIS
"Even when a British Muslim beheads a British Christian, there will always be those who blame the Jews," Bennett stated. ISIS declared "war" on "all Christians" in this week's issue of its propaganda publication.  

FARSIDE EXPLOSION
A sunspot capable of powerful eruptions is about to rotate onto the Earthside of the sun. It announced itself on Oct. 14th by hurling a spectacular CME over the sun's southeastern limb.  

Ebola ruled out as passenger dies on Nigeria flight to JFK
A passenger died on a Nigeria-to-JFK flight after a vomiting fit on Thursday — and a top lawmaker said officials gave the corpse only a “cursory” exam before declaring that the victim did not have Ebola. Rep. Peter King said in a letter to Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol that the handling of the remains exposed serious flaws in airport preparedness for an Ebola outbreak.  

Kerry: Unresolved Israel-Palestinian conflict fuels IS recruitment
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday called for a resumption of the Israel-Palestinian peace process, saying the talks were vital in the fight against extremism. "It is imperative that we find a way to get back to the negotiations," Kerry said at a State Department ceremony marking the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.  

The Rise of All-Purpose Antidepressants
Antidepressant use among Americans is skyrocketing. Adults in the U.S. consumed four times more antidepressants in the late 2000s than they did in the early 1990s. As the third most frequently taken medication in the U.S., researchers estimate that 8 to 10 percent of the population is taking an antidepressant. But this spike does not necessarily signify a depression epidemic.  

Islamic State 'training pilots to fly fighter jets'
Iraqi pilots who have joined Islamic State are training its members in Syria to fly three captured fighter jets, according to a UK-based activist group that monitors the conflict. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said witnesses had seen the planes being flown around a military airport in Aleppo. It said the planes appear to have been captured from the Syrian military.  

Ukraine crisis: Putin-EU talks 'positive but hard'
Russia's president and EU leaders have said their talks on the Ukraine crisis - also including Ukraine's president - were positive but difficult. The UK, German, French and Italian leaders were expected to press Vladimir Putin to do more to end the fighting. Correspondents say that while there was no sign of breakthrough, the main thing was to create trust between the sides.  

Ebola crisis: Alert in US expands to Ohio
Health officials in the US believe a nurse infected with Ebola may have been sick and contagious for four days - and took two flights - before diagnosis. They believe Amber Vinson may have become ill as early as last Friday, when she flew from Dallas to Ohio. Disease control specialists are being sent to Ohio to help monitor people she came into contact with there.  

Report: Spanish parliament to vote on Palestinian state recognition
The Spanish parliament is reportedly slated to vote on recognizing Palestinian statehood following suit of British lawmakers earlier in the week, according to Al Arabiya on Thursday. The report came following a vote in Britain’s House of Commons on Monday in favor of recognizing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Iraq crisis: Wave of attacks in Baghdad leave 40 dead
More than 40 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a series of attacks in mainly Shia areas of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, officials say. In the deadliest incident, two car bombs exploded simultaneously in the western district of Dawlai, killing 14. No-one claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they bore the hallmarks of previous operations by Islamic State.  

Islamic State 'being driven out of Syria's Kobane'
The Islamic State (IS) militant group has been driven out of most of the northern Syrian town of Kobane, a Kurdish commander has told the BBC. Baharin Kandal said IS fighters had retreated from all areas, except for two pockets of resistance in the east.  

Researchers Expect Over 20 US Ebola Cases In Weeks, "You Don't Want To Know Worst Case"
"We have a worst-case scenario, and you don't even want to know," warns Alessandro Vespignani, a researcher creating simulations of infectious disease outbreaks, but there could be as many as two dozen people in the U.S. infected with Ebola by the end of the month. The projections only run through October because it’s too difficult to model what will occur if the pace of the outbreak changes but, as Bloomberg reports, Vespignani warns if the outbreak becomes more widespread in other regions, it "would be like a bad science fiction movie."  

EU leaders to confront Putin over gas threats
Vladimir Putin meets his Ukrainian counterpart and EU leaders here on Friday fresh from warning he could pull the plug on crucial Russian gas supplies to Western Europe this winter.  

China's Banks Are Getting Ready For A Debt Implosion
Chinese banks are seeing the writing on the wall in terms of the debt they've accumulated, and they are taking measures to protect themselves. The Bank of China is planning the biggest sale of shares ever — $6.5 billion to offshore investors, Bloomberg says. It's all in an effort to create a capital cushion.  

Ebola Travel Bans Enacted by Nearly 30 Countries, but Not US
House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday urged President Barack Obama to consider a temporary ban after two American nurses contracted the virus from a Liberian man who flew to Dallas to visit family, according to CBS News,  

Kerry Blames ISIS on Failure in Israeli Peace Talks
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;War

John Kerry

Flash 90

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday called for a resumption of the Israel-Palestinian Authority (PA) peace process, claiming the talks were vital in the fight against Islamic extremism.

"It is imperative that we find a way to get back to the negotiations," Kerry said at a State Department ceremony marking the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, which celebrates Abraham's "sacrifice of Ishmael" in an appropriation of the original Torah story.

Kerry insisted at the ceremony that it was a lack of a "two-state solution" - not Western apathy to brutal Islamism - that is to blame for the rise of the radical Islamist group Islamic State (ISIS).

"We need to find a way to create two states that can live together side by side, two peoples, with both of their aspirations being respected," Kerry insisted. "I still believe that's possible, and I still believe we need to work towards it."

"There wasn't a leader I met with in the region who didn't raise with me spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel and the
Palestinians, because it was a cause of recruitment and of street anger and agitation," Kerry claimed, referring to a visit to Cairo that raised $5.4 billion for Hamas in Gaza on Sunday. 

He further implied that Israel was responsible for "humiliating" the Palestinians.

"People need to understand the connection of that. And it has something to do with humiliation and denial and absence of dignity," he said.

Kerry was the architect of the resumption of the peace talks between July 2013 and April - a process which imploded after the PA violated the Oslo Accords by appealing to the international community for legitimacy, and then made a unity pact with the terror group Hamas.

During those talks, Kerry was revealed to be orchestrating the European boycott threats on Israel in an attempt to pressure the Jewish state to submit to concessions against its interests.

Despite this, the US has previously claimed Hamas was not represented in the unity government to justify its supportive stance towards it - even though one of the unity government ministers was previously the education minister in Hamas's Gaza government.

That stance was made further questionable last Thursday when the unity government held its first cabinet meeting in Gaza and called for elections jointly with Hamas.

Pot, meet kettle?

Kerry's statements follow a series of US - not Israeli - failures in dealing with Islamism. 

In 2007, then-President George W. Bush predicted that pulling US troops out of Iraq too early could have disastrous consequences for the region. 

“To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region and for the United States,” Bush cautioned. 

“It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to Al Qaeda. It would mean that we’d be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It would mean we allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan.  It would mean we’d be increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous.”

ISIS - which rose out of Al Qaeda, then broke away after the latter group's leaders called its policy "too extreme" - did indeed take power in Iraq, just months after the US officially left the region. US airstrikes against the group began this summer. 

More recently, Kurdish intelligence forces revealed to British media that they had alerted the US months in advance that the extremist group was gaining ground in Iraq - but the Obama administration allegedly did nothing. 

Obama later admitted he had "no plan" on ISIS in August.

Islamist Threats Have Soldiers At Home in Hiding
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Earlier this week, Timon Dias wrote on these pages that the Dutch authorities have ordered Dutch soldiers not to wear their uniforms when they are using public transport on their way to the barracks. But the Dutch are not the only cowards in the West. Unfortunately, the Netherlands is not the only country that, for fear of attacks by Muslim extremists, has advised its military to no longer wear their uniforms in public. Apparently, Australia, Belgium, Britain and France have done the same.

As Dias wrote, the order in the Netherlands was a response to a threat by a Dutch jihadist known as Muhajiri Shaam, who is currently fighting in Syria with al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda. After the Netherlands announced that Dutch F-16s would participate in the allied offensive against ISIS in Iraq, Shaam tweeted that the Dutch people had now become a target for jihadists.

In Belgium, a country that has also sent F-16s to participate in the attacks on ISIS, soldiers have also been advised not to wear their uniforms when using the Belgian public transport system. According to General Tom Middendorp, the Dutch supreme military commander, the British and French authorities have made similar recommendations. In May 2013, after the murder of Lee Rigby -- a British soldier hacked to death by two Muslims outside his military barracks in London -- the British military commanders already told their troops not to wear their uniforms outside their bases.

It seems that the Europeans are terrified by the presence on their soil of jihadists targeting the army. Last September's assault on a uniformed Australian Navy officer in Sydney reinforced these fears. Immediately after the Sydney attack, Australia's defense chiefs also issued a warning, advising the military not to wear uniforms while off duty.

The result is that the military in Australia and Europe are currently behaving like cream puffs. If trains and buses are no longer safe places for soldiers on their way to work, surely they are no longer safe for ordinary citizens, either. Jihadists are also threatening to murder ordinary citizens.

Three weeks ago, ISIS spokesman Mohammed al-Adnani called on jihadists worldwide to assassinate citizens from the Western countries belonging to the international coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria. "The best thing you can do is to make an effort to kill any infidel, French, American, or any of their allies. ... Smash his head with a rock, slaughter him with a knife, run him over with a car, throw him from a high place, choke him or poison him," al-Adnani said.

What will the cowardly authorities in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Britain and Australia do when terrorists randomly kill the first citizen on the streets of their countries? Advise them to cover themselves in hijabs when female, or grow beards and dress in djellabas when male?

Instead of telling their soldiers to hide themselves, Western governments should tell their soldiers to show themselves in order to make it clear to the jihadists, and to frightened citizens, that we in the West are not afraid of terrorists. On the contrary, we will root them out and come down on them with all our military might.

ISIS in Jets for First Time, U.S. Reportedly Trains Rebel Pilots
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines

MiG fighter jet (illustration)

Flash 90

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights revealed on Friday that the brutal Islamic State (ISIS) terror group has begun training pilots on three captured fighter jets, relying on the knowledge of Iraqi pilots who have joined the group.

Rami Abdul Rahman, director of the monitoring group, said witnesses in northern Syria have seen the group flying the three MiG 21 or MiG 23 model jets above the al-Jarrah airbase east of Aleppo, in the first instance of ISIS going airborne, reports Reuters.

"They have trainers, Iraqi officers who were pilots before for (former Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein," said Abdul Rahman. "People saw the flights, they went up many times from the airport and they are flying in the skies outside the airport and coming back."

ISIS has captured several fighter jets during its conquest of Syria and Iraq. In August it captured several MiGs when it took Tabqa airbase in northern Syria from President Bashar Assad's forces.

Meanwhile the US, which has been leading an international coalition in conducting airstrikes against ISIS, was also training locals to fly fighter jets according to Lebanese reports in Arabic.

The report in Al Mayadeen on Friday cited "reliable sources" saying America is training pilots "from countries in the Middle East" to conduct airstrikes in Syria.

The sources added that the training is taking place on the aging British BAC 167 Strikemaster training jet in the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range along the Mexican border in Arizona.

Also cited in the report was the Boeing A-10 Thunderbolt II, a twin-engine aircraft meant for air support and bombing, which it was suggested may be delivered to pilots in the Syrian rebel forces at some later point.

While the identities of the jet fighter trainees was not disclosed, the US has been amassing ties with various entities in the fight against ISIS.

State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki on Thursday revealed the US is working directly with Kurdish fighters to defend the city of Kobane along the Turkish-Syrian border from ISIS, despite Turkey's opposition to the Kurdish groups.

Gordon College, Don't Sell Your Soul for Secular Accreditation
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Apostasy;Commentary

For years now, educators have known that a confrontation was looming between secular accreditation agencies and Christian schools over the issue of homosexuality. What would these colleges, universities and seminaries do when they were told they had to revise their policies on homosexual practice?

We no longer need to speculate, as this hypothetical scenario has become reality.

An article in Christianity Today on Thursday noted that, "Gordon College will spend the next year studying current campus policies on same-sex behavior."

According to the story by Ruth Moon, "The New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) discussed whether Gordon's prohibition on 'homosexual practice' conflicts with its accreditation standards at its September meeting, and has agreed to give the school time to examine its policy. Gordon had already formed a discernment committee after recently losing partnerships with nearby Lynn Public School District."

But what is there to discern? What exactly does a committee need to examine?

It's one thing to look into ways of reaching out to students who identify as LGBT and are struggling to reconcile what they understand about themselves with what the Scriptures teach.

But if Gordon College is considering revising its morality standards so that all sex outside of marriage is forbidden unless it's homosexual sex in the context of a committed relationship, then Gordon College would be considering exchanging the favor of God for the favor of man.

Why is this debatable?

As I have stated many times, no new textual, archeological, sociological, anthropological or philological discoveries have been made in the last 50 years that would cause us to read any of the relevant biblical texts differently.

This means that the reason some professing Christians now embrace homosexual practice is because they have changed, not because God's Word has changed and not because valid new interpretations have been discovered.

What then, do the esteemed leaders of the college expect to find out during the discernment period?

If this is their way of gaining increased sensitivity in the issues involved before restating that they cannot compromise their convictions, then that is surely commendable. But if the discernment period is meant to re-evaluate whether they are willing to face the loss of accreditation for upholding godly values, that makes no sense at all.

According to Barbara Brittingham, president of the NEASC's higher education commission, "the school's current Life and Conduct policy—which bans Gordon community members from 'sexual relations outside marriage' and 'homosexual practice,'—'may be inconsistent with the commission's standards.'"

And if Gordon College does not deviate from biblical standards and its policies are deemed "inconsistent with the commission's standards," then what? Will this venerated Christian college capitulate to culture, or will it do what is right in the sight of God and man?

To Michael Lindsay, the gifted president of Gordon, and to the board of trustees, I remind you: Many eyes are watching you, knowing that the decisions you make could either strengthen or dishearten many other schools that will soon be put under similar pressure.

In the sight of the God that we serve and love, I ask you this crucial question: If your decision will cause a ripple effect across the nation for other Christian colleges, universities and seminaries, what do you want that effect to be?

Do you want to send the message across America (and beyond) that when culture changes, we capitulate to culture? That a practice expressly forbidden by the Bible and all major forms of Christianity through the centuries becomes acceptable if enough people sign a petition? That sufficient pressure exerted from some alumni or students or faculty can overturn God's Word? That accreditation is more important than morality?

I pray your message will be that the potential loss of accreditation is a small price to pay for obedience to God.

Jesus said that whoever loved father or mother or son or daughter more than Him was not worthy of Him (Matt. 10:37). Surely those of us who love secular accreditation and its many benefits more than the Lord are not worthy of Him either.

In the year 2000, writing on the theme of Jesus Revolution, I noted that Christian colleges could potentially be guilty of bowing down to the idol of secular academics. (To be clear, I am an educator myself, with all my degrees, from B.A. to Ph.D., coming from secular universities, and I have had the privilege of teaching at many of the leading seminaries in America. My concern has to do with us compromising our convictions for the sake of secular approval.)

I noted that Christian schools "can bow down to the same idol [as secular schools do]. Unless they offer certain courses and meet certain guidelines, they will lose their accreditation, and if they lose their accreditation, they will lose potential students, and their degrees will not be recognized by other universities, and then that will make Christian education look bad. How so? Because the Christian college failed to live up to the standards of the state. But why must the state (or accrediting agency) set the standards? What if that school has a unique purpose and function? What if it needs to major on things the state considers minor and minor on things the state considers major? Why must it conform? To offer degrees, of course! This too is idolatry."

I'm sure there are many excellent standards set by accreditation organizations and many excellent benefits that accrue with accreditation.

But when those organizations demand that we revise biblical morality in order to keep our accreditation, we respectfully decline without hesitation or flinching. Really now, if believers worldwide are losing their lives rather than compromise, surely we can lose secular benefits as the result of holding to our faith.

It is these accrediting organizations that will need to change, not us. And if they don't, then we can work together as committed believers and form our own educational networks, esteeming the favor of heaven to be infinitely more valuable than the favor of this world.

To the leaders of Gordon College, I ask: What is the right decision in light of eternity? When you stand before God to give account, what answer will win the approval of our Father and King?

Earnest: Obama, White House Open to Transgender Service, Commitment to Equality
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Daily Caller
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

When asked if President Obama planned to take the lead on allowing military service for transgendered Americans, White House press secretary Josh Earnest seemed to creak the door open to the possibility.

Earnest, rather than deferring the question outright to the Department of Defense, responded to the question head on, saying that while the matter is subject to Department of Defense review, President Obama’s “commitment to that principle [of equality] is unwavering.”

Earnest took this as his final question after answering about the fear of an Ebola outbreak for the better part of his hour and ten minute-long briefing.

The White House flack made the comments during the White House press briefing Thursday afternoon.

“I do think that the president’s commitment to equality is one that he has articulated many times. He also believes that commitment to equality makes our country stronger and he believes it makes our armed forces stronger,” said the White House spokesman. “So his commitment to that principle is unwavering, but as it relates to how it is implemented in the armed forces, that’s the status of an ongoing review, and I’d refer you to the department of defense for a status update on it.”

Earnest declined to answer whether President Obama plans to make transgendered individuals able to serve by the end of his term in office.

City of Houston Demands Pastors Turn Over Sermons
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The city of Houston has issued subpoenas demanding a group of pastors turn over any sermons dealing with homosexuality, gender identity or Annise Parker, the city’s first openly lesbian mayor. And those ministers who fail to comply could be held in contempt of court.

“The city’s subpoena of sermons and other pastoral communications is both needless and unprecedented,” Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Christina Holcomb said in a statement. “The city council and its attorneys are engaging in an inquisition designed to stifle any critique of its actions.”

ADF, a nationally-known law firm specializing in religious liberty cases, is representing five Houston pastors. They filed a motion in Harris County court to stop the subpoenas arguing they are “overbroad, unduly burdensome, harassing, and vexatious.” 

“Political and social commentary is not a crime,” Holcomb said. “It is protected by the First Amendment.”

The subpoenas are just the latest twist in an ongoing saga over the Houston’s new non-discrimination ordinance. The law, among other things, would allow men to use the ladies room and vice versa. The city council approved the law in June.

The Houston Chronicle reported opponents of the ordinance launched a petition drive that generated more than 50,000 signatures – far more than the 17,269 needed to put a referendum on the ballot.

However, the city threw out the petition in August over alleged irregularities.

After opponents of the bathroom bill filed a lawsuit the city’s attorneys responded by issuing the subpoenas against the pastors.

The pastors were not part of the lawsuit. However, they were part of a coalition of some 400 Houston-area churches that opposed the ordinance. The churches represent a number of faith groups – from Southern Baptist to non-denominational.

“City council members are supposed to be public servants, not ‘Big Brother’ overlords who will tolerate no dissent or challenge,” said ADF attorney Erik Stanley. “This is designed to intimidate pastors.”

Mayor Parker will not explain why she wants to inspect the sermons. I contacted City Hall for a comment and received a terse reply from the mayor’s director of communications.

“We don’t comment on litigation,” said Janice Evans.

However, ADF attorney Stanley suspects the mayor wants to publicly shame the ministers. He said he anticipates they will hold up their sermons for public scrutiny. In other words – the city is rummaging for evidence to “out” the pastors as anti-gay bigots.

Among those slapped with a subpoena is Steve Riggle, the senior pastor of Grace Community Church. He was ordered to produce all speeches and sermons related to Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality and gender identity.

The mega-church pastor was also ordered to hand over “all communications with members of your congregation” regarding the non-discrimination law.

“This is an attempt to chill pastors from speaking to the cultural issues of the day,” Riggle told me. “The mayor would like to silence our voice. She’s a bully.”

Rev. Dave Welch, executive director of the Texas Pastor Council, also received a subpoena. He said he will not be intimidated by the mayor.

“We’re not afraid of this bully,” he said. “We’re not intimidated at all.”

He accused the city of violating the law with the subpoenas and vowed to stand firm in the faith.

“We are not going to yield our First Amendment rights,” Welch told me. ‘This is absolutely a complete abuse of authority.”

Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council, said pastors around the nation should rally around the Houston ministers.

“The state is breaching the wall of separation between church and state,” Perkins told me. ‘Pastors need to step forward and challenge this across the country. I’d like to see literally thousands of pastors after they read this story begin to challenge government authorities – to dare them to come into their churches and demand their sermons.”

Perkins called the actions by Houston’s mayor “obscene” and said they “should not be tolerated.”

“This is a shot across the bow of the church,” he said.

This is the moment I wrote about in my book, “God Less America.” I predicted that the government would one day try to silence American pastors. I warned that under the guise of “tolerance and diversity” elected officials would attempt to deconstruct religious liberty. 

Sadly, that day arrived sooner than even I expected.

Tony Perkins is absolutely right. Now is the time for pastors and people of faith to take a stand. We must rise up and reject this despicable strong-arm attack on religious liberty. We cannot allow ministers to be intimidated by government thugs.

The pastors I spoke to tell me they will not comply with the subpoena – putting them at risk for a “fine or confinement, or both.”

Heaven forbid that should happen. But if it does, Christians across America should be willing to descend en masse upon Houston and join these brave men of God behind bars.

Pastor Welch compared the culture war skirmish to the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto, fought in present-day Harris County, Texas. It was a decisive battle of the Texas Revolution.

“This is the San Jacinto moment for traditional family,” Welch told me. “This is the place where we stop the LGBT assault on the freedom to practice our faith.”

We can no longer remain silent. We must stand together - because one day – the government might come for your pastor.

Arab Idol Contest Outcry After Israel Shows Up on Map
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: One World Church;Anti-Israel;Commentary

The Saudi MBC TV network was recently forced to apologize to its hundreds of millions of viewers for using the name Israel instead of Palestine.

The apology came after viewers strongly condemned the network and threatened to boycott its programs over the use of a map with Israel's name on it.

The reason Israel appeared on the MBC's map was because of the participation of two Arab citizens of Israel in its popular Arab Idol contest. The show, based on the popular British show Pop Idol, is the most widely viewed in the Arab world.

The two Arab Israelis, Manal Moussa, 25 and Haitham Khalailah, 24, are from villages in northern Israel. They are among many contestants from all over the Arab world who are performing songs on stage in front of four judges and the public.

This is the first time that Arab Israelis have participated in the popular show.

When this season's show began in mid-September, the TV station introduced a map with the names of the contestants' countries. This year, of course, the map showed Israel as one of the countries taking part in the show.

The Saudi station and directors of the Arab Idol show quickly learned, however, that they had committed a big and unforgivable crime. Within minutes, they were flooded with requests to remove Israel from the map and apologize to all Arabs for this "serious offence."

The condemnations did not come only from Palestinians, but from nearly all the Arab countries. The protesters demanded that MBC immediately replace "Israel" with "Palestine" or face a massive boycott campaign.

Arab activists did not even wait to hear back from MBC, and launched their own online campaign to boycott the station. One group launched a Twitter campaign entitled "Shut Down Arab Idol." Another campaign was launched under the banner, "Palestine is Arab, not Hebrew." A third online campaign carried the title, "Together Against Arab Idol."

And of course there were the more extreme activists who issued threats against the station and its Saudi owners, whom they dubbed "Zionist Arabs."

Not surprisingly, embattled MBC managers rushed to issue a statement apologizing for displaying a map that referred to Israel as an existing state. MBC claimed that Israel appeared on the map as a result of a "technical error." The name Israel was removed from the map, which now uses only the name Palestine.

But with that, the story did not come to an end. Under pressure from the viewers, the two Arab Israeli singers are now referred to only as Palestinians. There is no mention whatsoever of the fact that both Moussa and Khalailah were raised in Israel and hold Israeli passports.

The uproar that erupted throughout the Arab world over the use of a map with Israel's name on it is yet another reminder that many Arabs still have not come to terms with Israel's existence -- and apparently are not interested in coming to terms with it.

This refusal is not related to the recent war between Israel and Hamas or to settlement construction. Rather, it is the narrative that has been prevalent in the Arab world since 1948 -- a narrative that considers Israel an alien entity that was violently planted in the Middle East and needs to be removed.

The incident with MBC's Arab Idol show came amid renewed talk of the purported readiness of some Arab countries to make peace with Israel, in light of the increased turmoil and anarchy in the Arab world and the war on the Islamic State terrorist group.

Every now and then, Israel is advised by some of its friends to consider endorsing the 2002 Saudi Peace Initiative, which later became to be known as the Arab Peace Initiative.

In the initiative, the Arab countries say that if Israel withdraws to the pre-1967 lines, they will consider the Arab-Israeli conflict over, sign a peace agreement and establish normal relations with Israel.

These, of course, are just promises made by heads of state and monarchs, most of whom were never elected, and hardly represent the sentiments on the Arab street.

If a powerful TV network such as MBC was unable to face pressure and intimidation and had to remove Israel from its map, how can anyone seriously expect that Arab leaders will be able to win the backing of their people for an initiative that talks about "establishing normal relations" with Israel?

And how can anyone seriously expect that if Israel pulled back to the pre-1967 lines, the Arab world will consider the Israeli-Arab Conflict over?

The protesters who forced MBC to remove Israel from its map were not demanding a two-state solution and an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They were protesting against Israel's existence; that is what really bothers them.

Their success in forcing MBC to remove Israel from the map is a symbolic victory for those who seek Israel's destruction. But it is also a reminder that this conflict is not about a settlement or a checkpoint or a fence -- but about Israel's very existence.

In order to make peace with Israel, the Arab world needs to prepare its people for such a move, and not incite violence against Israel and demand that it be removed from maps. Unless that happens, the prospects for real peace will remain as remote as ever.

A Wake - Up Call for Abortion Supporters
Oct 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Contemporary Issues;Commentary

Lately, advocates of legal abortion have attempted to give their ailing cause a shot in the arm. As John Stonestreet pointed out on BreakPoint recently, the tried and true "pro-choice" moniker is falling out of favor. And the accompanying crocodile tears over “the difficult choice of abortion” that were once necessary for public credibility seem to have dried up. The "safe, legal and rare" days are gone, replaced with cavalier celebrations of abortion as a positive good in art, film and now spoken word poetry.

That last is the work of Leyla Josephine, whose new video, "I Think She Was a She," is being trumpeted as an act of heroism at The Huffington Post. Josephine, who had an abortion as a teenager, says she felt no shame over her decision. In fact, she's proud of it, and thinks her aborted child would agree!

"I would’ve supported [my daughter’s] right to choose, to choose a life for herself, a path for herself," Josephine says. "I would’ve died for that right like she died for mine. I’m sorry, but you came at the wrong time."

She concludes, “When I become a mother it will be when I choose.”

This heartbreaking, horrific little paean to human sacrifice fits to a T the new narrative of the movement formerly known as "pro-choice."

For years the "pro-choice" crowd fought to change the subject whenever pro-lifers brought the debate back to the central question: are the unborn human? After all, you can't just choose to kill a human, no matter how inconvenient he or she might be. As my friend Scott Klusendorf has argued in hundreds of debates, if babies are human before birth (as almost everyone agrees they are after birth), then choice is irrelevant. Their right to life trumps all other claims.

That's why, for almost forty years following Roe v. Wade, abortion defenders spilled buckets of ink to drown that question. Equivocations and euphemisms abounded. We heard non-stop about "blobs of tissue," "clumps of cells," and "pregnancies." Not so much now, thanks mostly to advances in imaging technology, which has clearly shown unborn life for what it is.

So, instead of denying the humanity of the unborn, pro-choicers now deny that their lives matter. At all. As Mary Elizabeth Williams wrote in Salon earlier this year, "So What If Abortion Ends Life?" The woman's convenience, hopes and dreams take precedence over any claims her unborn child has to existence. Wow.

All of this led Janet Harris to admonish readers in The Washington Post "Stop Calling Abortion a Hard Decision." It's empowering, she argued, and something to celebrate. Besides, making a big deal out of how tough abortion is just fuels the pro-life fire and implies that unborn children might have rights, or at least value.

Well, I guess we all now agree that abortion does end a human life. But that's okay, say its defenders. That's a sacrifice worth making to avoid the rigors of motherhood or the hassle of adoption. In fact, it's so worth it that women shouldn't even consider abortion a hard decision. They should celebrate and make art out of it.

The whole spectacle brings to mind a sketch by British comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb. In it, they play two Nazi SS officers on the front line who, upon noticing the skull insignias on their caps ask an incisive question: "Are we the baddies?"

It's a question advocates of legal abortion, having admitted they stand for taking human life when it’s ill-timed or inconvenient, might want to ask themselves.