Kristallnacht—Today?
Times of Israel reported on November 8:
“As Europe prepares to mark the 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht this weekend, there will be a certain sense of déja vu in the air. Earlier memorials have been characterised by emotional speeches and complex analysis as to how Kristallnacht could have come about in the first place. This year, the 75th Anniversary of the pogroms against Jews, their homes, their businesses and their synagogues, will be marked by – you guessed it – new calls to boycott Jewish businesses!
“But do not expect to hear anything about it in the commemoration events which follow a well-known pattern. The mistakes of past generations will be condemned in the harshest words possible, but anyone who dares to draw a parallel with today´s situation will automatically be dismissed…
“This year however, it will be rather difficult to pretend that anti-Semitism belongs only to the past. In one parliament after another, neo-Nazi parties are gaining ground. This is also true of the European Parliament in Brussels, where extreme right wing parties are expected to score new victories in the upcoming Spring election, and where the European Commission is busy preparing for new guidelines to boycott Jewish businesses in the disputed territories. When the new guidelines come into effect, on January 1st, 2014, any Israeli entity located ‘on the wrong side of the 1967 lines’ will be facing a financial embargo from the EU, as they forbid EU grants, prizes and loans from going not only to Israeli entities located beyond the Green Line, but also to Israeli entities that have any activity beyond the post-1967 lines.
“Other measures are already in place to start marking Israeli goods produced in the disputed territories. Once the EU starts implementing the new guidelines and marking Israeli goods, life will become increasingly difficult for any Jewish person… who chooses to stay on in the territories, as they will now be considered international outlaws.
“The lessons from Kristallnacht should not be forgotten. It all started with boycotts and demonstrations against Jewish businesses, academia and culture, but it did not stop there. Today’s campaigns of the delegitimisation of Israel have all the same ingredients as the events leading up to Kristallnacht.
“The EU guidelines, which in fact pre-determine where Jews can and cannot live, have been issued, despite the fact that they are in clear breach of Article 15 of the Mandate for Palestine which states that ‘No discrimination of any kind shall be made between the inhabitants of Palestine on the sole grounds of race, religion or language. No person shall be excluded from Palestine on the grounds of his religious belief.’…
“Nothing much seems to have changed in Europe since 1938. Yes, the EU has sworn never again to let down the Jewish people, but since the Yom Kippur war of 1973, the European Union has consistently taken the side of the Arabs… much of European civil society, consisting of trade unions, academia, churches and other non-governmental organisations, has stepped up its diplomatic war against Israel and is pressing for more sanctions and boycotts. When the World Council of Churches met recently for its annual meeting in Geneva, there was little concern for its persecuted Christian brothers and sisters in the Middle East; but there were four workshops on the issue of… the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The problems in Europe in 2013 are the same as in 1938. When the boycotts and singling out of the Jewish people began, the good people chose to look the other way. It is now high time to look in the right direction.”
Worldwide persecution of physical Israelites and Jews as well as spiritual Jews (true Christians) is prophesied to happen soon.
The War Against Circumcision
The Jewish Chronicle wrote on November 8:
“In a move triggering one of the gravest threats to European Jewry since the infamous Nuremberg laws, the Council of Europe’s parliament voted last month for countries, including the UK, to ‘take legislative and policy measures that help reinforce child protection’ in cases where young boys are circumcised for religious reasons. Endorsing a report by the Social Affairs and Health Committee, the Parliamentary Assembly voted to restrict religious circumcision performed by non-medical practitioners and initiate a debate on whether male circumcision should be prohibited until a boy reaches the age of consent.
“The problem, according to the report, is that ‘circumcision applied to young boys is clearly a human-rights violation against children,’ since it irreversibly changes the bodily form at a time when the child is unable to give full and informed consent. Since there is no medical justification for routine neonatal circumcision, the procedure is said to violate a child’s right to physical integrity. The report also expresses concern about circumcisions performed by non-medical practitioners in a non-sterile environment such as a private home or ‘a religious edifice’, presumably a synagogue. A footnote asserts: ‘There is clear evidence of regular deaths amongst new-born boys due to infectious diseases (for example, herpes) transmitted by rabbis or mohels (the traditional Jewish circumcisers)’.
“The report disparages the arguments that male circumcision is an integral and indispensable part of religious ritual, which, for thousands of years, has not harmed a child’s health; and that it is in the child’s best interests to be brought up in accordance with the fundamental tenets of his faith…
“The report and resolution are regarded as highly influential in Europe. Children’s ombudsmen from five Nordic countries have already agreed to work with their national governments to achieve a ban on non-therapeutic circumcision of under-age boys…
“In Israel, however, these developments have been met with fury. The Foreign Ministry described the report and resolution as ‘appalling ignorance at best, or defamation and anti-religious hatred at worst,’ and ‘casting a moral stain on the Council of Europe’…
“Alarmingly, there is a subtle change between the report’s draft resolution and the final version approved by the Parliamentary Assembly. The report recognised that there needs to be a public debate concerning the balance struck between the rights and best interests of the child and the rights and religious freedoms of parents and families.
“But, in a breathtaking amendment, the Parliamentary Assembly deleted the reference to striking a balance — because when it comes to the rights and best interests of children, apparently there is no balance to strike.
“If the value of ancient religious practice is diminished to such a degree in the rhetoric of human-rights theology, it is only a matter of time before circumcision of Jewish boys is banned across Europe.”
European Denials
JTA wrote on November 12:
“The Council of Europe will not ban Jewish ritual circumcision of boys, its leader assured members of the Conference of European Rabbis. Thorbjorn Jagland, the council’s secretary general, said Monday in Berlin that he wanted to make it ‘absolutely clear … that in no way does the Council of Europe want to ban the circumcision of boys. It is a very important part of Judaism and of Jewish life.’…”
What Iran Is REALLY Up To!
The Washington Times wrote on November 8:
“Note to Iran: If you’re trying to assure world leaders that the new president brings messages of peace and compromise, you might not want to broadcast a lengthy documentary about attacking Israel with missiles. But that’s what Tehran television just did. The media outlet broadcast an hour-long documentary about Iran’s missile capabilities and how its security force would use them against foreign threats, Ynet News reported.
“Notable in the video was a simulated attack on Israel to take out its nuclear plants. The video went into great detail, showing computer-generated images of launches of Iran’s long-range Sejjil ballistic missiles, Ynet News reported. In the broadcast, Israel was only able to intercept some of the missiles — while others were direct hits.”
Netanyahu Feels Misled by Obama
The Times of Israel wrote on November 9:
“Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is ‘in a state of shocked disbelief’ at [a possible, however so far averted] deal in Geneva [see articles below] over Iran’s nuclear program, Israeli television news reports said Friday night. Netanyahu, the reports on Israel’s Channel 10 and Channel 2 news said, had ‘an unprecedented confrontation’ with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Tel Aviv on Friday morning over the possible deal, which he publicly described as ‘a very, very bad deal’ and which he implored Kerry ‘not to rush to sign’ and to ‘reconsider.’
“The Netanyahu government is ‘in a crisis of faith’ with the Obama administration over the possible deal, Israel’s Channel 1 News further reported, in part because it apparently differs in content from the terms that Kerry had previously described to Netanyahu. Other Israeli reports said Netanyahu felt he had been ‘misled’ by the US over the terms of the deal… Israel, the TV reports said, also believes the US has been negotiating with Iran in a secret channel, without disclosing the content of those discussions to Israel.”
Divisions in Geneva Over Iran
The New York Times wrote on November 9:
“Negotiations on an agreement to temporarily freeze Iran’s nuclear program ran into headwinds on Saturday, as France questioned whether the deal would do enough to curb a nuclear reactor that will produce plutonium and to limit Iran’s enrichment of uranium… Mr. Fabius said that a draft of the agreement was unacceptable to France and that there was no certainty that this round of negotiations would lead to an agreement… France has taken a harder line than the United States in recent years on curbing Iran’s capacity to produce nuclear fuel that could be used in weapon..
“Under a compromise favored by the United States, Iran might agree to refrain from operating the facility for the six months of an interim deal, while continuing to work on the installation. But once the facility is operational, as early as next year, it will be very difficult to disable, since a military strike would ignite the plutonium inside. French officials also noted a difference between the United States and Europe on the issue of sanctions relief, which Iran is seeking in return for concessions…”
A Failed Deal
The Associated Press wrote on November 10:
“World powers’ efforts to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran adjourned early Sunday… with failure to seal a deal…”
However, talks are scheduled to resume November 20.
“Vive la France!”
AFP wrote on November 10:
“Conservative leaders, fond of finger-pointing at France in recent years, lavished praise on Paris Sunday for blocking an agreement between Western powers and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program. ‘Vive la France!’ Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, an outspoken voice on national security issues, wrote on his Twitter account.
“‘France had the courage to prevent a bad nuclear agreement with Iran,’ he said, after the weekend announcement of the failed agreement with the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany, known as the P5+1.”
The Times of Israel added on November 10:
“In Geneva on Saturday, France’s Foreign Minister Fabius gave very specific reasons for his objections to the emerging deal. He said Tehran was resisting demands that it suspend work on its plutonium-producing reactor at Arak and downgrade its stockpile of higher-enriched uranium. Which rather leads to a different question: Not ‘Why did France choose to stand alone against the deal?’ But, rather, ‘why did the other major powers consider the terms acceptable?’”
France–“No Sympathy for Israel”
JTA wrote on November 12:
“France’s posture in the talks between Iran and the major powers — Russia, Britain, the United States, China and Germany along with France — is not the result of its sympathy for Israel or its supposed aversion to confrontation, experts say. Rather it is the product of a complicated matrix of French interests stemming from the country’s centuries-old role in the region, longtime distrust of Iranian theocracy and a postwar insistence on forging its own foreign policies…
“France’s hard line is rooted in the country’s hostility toward Iran, said Heather Hurlburt, a senior adviser at the National Security Network, a Washington think tank. In the 1980s, the Islamic Republic conducted an assassination campaign against Iranian dissidents who had sought refuge in France, a history that generates significant rancor even today. The killings not only hit French national pride — France for centuries has seen itself as a safe haven for dissidents — but were all the more galling because France had protected Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini when he was in exile…
“Also salient are French ties to a number of nations in the region, particularly Syria and Lebanon. The French were among the Western nations pressing hardest to stop the Iran-backed Syrian government’s slaughter of civilians in the country’s grinding civil war — an intervention averted by a deal, brokered by Russia and the United States, to have Syria relinquish its chemical weapons capability. ‘For France, this was a rare opportunity for score settling with Iran, but also with the United States for humiliatingly pulling the plug on France’s plans to strike in Syria,’ said Afshin Ellian, an Iran-born lecturer on international public law at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
“France also has jealously guarded its independence in foreign policy, a legacy of the postwar leadership of Charles de Gaulle, who removed all French forces from the NATO command in 1966 even though France was a founding member of the alliance. France returned to full membership only in 1999…
“Several analysts also have suggested that France has its eye on a major arms deal it is negotiating with Saudi Arabia, a country nearly as adamant as Israel that Iran must not achieve nuclear capability. ‘The hidden player is Saudi Arabia, which is very familiar with Iranian deceit and would do anything to keep Iran from having nuclear arms,’ Guy Bechor, a lecturer on Middle Eastern studies at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, wrote on his website. ‘Saudi Arabia triggered the French move in exchange for its signature on massive weapons contracts from France.’”
USA vs. Israel – As Far Apart As Ever
USA Today wrote on November 10:
“Israel and longtime ally the United States are as far apart as ever on how to deal with growing threats in the Middle East. Analysts say the Obama administration needs to take Israel’s fears seriously, while the White House insists it is doing what is best for the security of Israel, the United States and the Middle East.
“Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. peace negotiator who has advised Democratic and Republican secretaries of State, said the rift may cause problems for the United States on multiple fronts, including a risk of dragging the United States into war with Iran. ‘How this will play out is not clear,’ Miller said. ‘I find it almost unimaginable this administration would conclude even an interim agreement with (Iranian President Hassan) Rouhani that left Israel angry and aggrieved and the relationship in even worse shape.’
“Miller said Israeli frustration with the United States may have been greater at points in the past but he’d never seen Israeli ire expressed as publicly as has been done in recent days by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Headlines in the Israeli press seem to agree. ‘If there were a synoptic map for diplomatic storms, the National Weather Service would be putting out a hurricane warning right now,’ said Haaretz diplomatic correspondent Chemi Shalev. ‘And given that the turbulence is being caused by an issue long deemed to be critical to Israel’s very existence, we may actually be facing a rare Category 5 flare up, a “superstorm” of U.S.-Israeli relations.’…
“The Iranian question is just the latest issue to severely fray relations between Israel and the United States in recent months, along with the U.S. decision to tackle Syria’s chemical weapons with diplomacy, and President Obama’s emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian standoff as being the major problem facing the Middle East. Israel complains that an increasingly radicalized Syria, the spread of Islamist ideology in Egypt and elsewhere, and a nuclear bomb in the hands of what Netanyahu has called ‘Islamofacist fanatic’ in Iran are the real problems for the world in the Middle East…
“Jonathan Rynhold, a senior researcher at Bar Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, said the ‘crisis of trust’ isn’t just between Israel and the U.S. Most Middle East countries, he said, believe that a nuclear-armed Iran ‘would undermine the balance of power that has served everyone so well over the years.’ If Iran becomes ‘a nuclear threshold’ state, ‘Saudi Arabia will quickly obtain nuclear weapons from Pakistan,’ which reportedly developed its own nuclear weapons with help from the Saudis, Rynhold said. ‘Egypt is already looking to Russia to supply it with conventional weapons and will, no doubt, seek to obtain nuclear capability, as will Turkey.’
“The breakdown over Iran came amid the extraordinary public barbs between the two longtime allies… Kerry… told Israel’s Channel 2 TV that Israel faced possible international isolation and violence with the Palestinians if his attempt to broker a peace deal for a Palestinian state failed. An agitated Netanyahu lashed back that ‘no amount of pressure’ would make Israel compromise on its basic security and national interests…
“Former U.S. negotiator Miller agrees that the rift between the United States and Israel may have serious consequences and soon. The frayed relationship makes it harder to gain Israeli backing for a final deal with Iran and to prevent a unilateral Israeli military strike. Such a strike, with or without Obama’s approval, would hike oil prices and threaten the U.S. economy, Miller said. And with the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet based in the Persian Gulf, it could cause the USA to be ‘dragged in and required to respond’ to an Iranian counterattack, he said.”
Sadly, the relationship between the USA and Israel will continue to deteriorate.
US Secretary of State John Kerry’s Anti-Israeli Propaganda
The Times of Israel and The Associated Press reported on November 14:
“Republicans were left unconvinced after US Secretary of State John Kerry’s closed-door presentation to the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday, which was aimed at delaying a new round of sanctions against Iran. ‘It was an emotional appeal,’ committee chairman Sen. Bob Corker said, according to the US-based media outlet BuzzFeed. ‘I have to tell you I was very disappointed in the presentation.’…
“Sen. Mark Kirk called the officials’ presentation ‘very unconvincing,’ and added that it was ‘fairly anti-Israeli. I was supposed to disbelieve everything the Israelis had just told me, and I think the Israelis probably have a pretty good intelligence service.’
“The BuzzFeed report cited a Senate aide who said that ‘every time anybody would say anything about what would the Israelis say they’d get cut off and Kerry would say “you have to ignore what they’re telling you, stop listening to the Israelis on this.”’”
North Korea’s Brutal Dictatorship and Murders
Fox News reported on November 12:
“As many as 80 people were publicly executed in North Korea earlier this month, some for offenses as minor as watching South Korean movies or possessing a Bible… the so-called criminals were put to death in seven cities across North Korea on Nov. 3, in the first known large-scale public executions by the Kim Jong-un regime… authorities gathered a crowd of 10,000 people, including children, at Shinpoong Stadium and forced them to watch the killings.”
The demons which plagued Nazi Germany are still alive and well today…
Pope Francis Will Meet Vladimir Putin
On November 7, Thomson/Reuters reported the following:
“Pope Francis will receive Russian President Vladimir Putin on Nov. 25, an encounter that could help mend strained relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church. Russian-Vatican relations have been fraught since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, with Moscow accusing the Roman Catholic Church of trying to poach believers from the Russian Orthodox Church, a charge the Vatican denies. But Putin is the first Kremlin leader since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution to publicly profess religious faith — to the Orthodox church — and has several times advocated ending the long feud between the two major Christian churches…
“Another dispute between the churches concerns the fate of many church properties that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered confiscated from Eastern Rite Catholics, who worship in an Orthodox liturgy but owe their allegiance to Rome. Stalin gave the Catholic property to the Russian Orthodox Church, but after the fall of communism, the Eastern Rite Catholics took back many sites, leading to a rise in tensions…
“Francis is the first non-European Pope in 1,300 years. His predecessors came from countries — Italy, Poland and Germany — that were caught up in the 20th century’s two global conflicts as well as in the Cold War that followed World War II. Diplomats have said that Francis, an Argentine with no European political baggage, would have a far better chance of improving ties with the Russian Orthodox Church. There have been signs of a general warming between the western and eastern branches of Christianity. On March 20, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew became the first worldwide spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians to attend a papal inaugural Mass since the Great Schism split western and eastern Christianity in 1054.”
The Roman Catholic Church will indeed be successful in convincing other Catholic (Orthodox) churches and most Protestant churches to “return” to the fold of the “mother church.”
“St. Peter’s Bones”?
The Washington Post wrote on November 11:
“For the first time since they were discovered in the 1940s, the Vatican plans to display bones that are believed to have belonged to St. Peter. The remains will be exhibited at the leader of the 12 apostles’ tomb in honor of the end of the Year of Faith… pilgrims who make their way to St. Peter’s tomb will see ‘the relics traditionally recognized as those of the apostle who gave his life for the Lord on this spot,’ announced the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization in L’Osservatore Romano, the Holy See’s semi-official newspaper.”
However, it is highly questionable that the Apostle Peter was killed in Rome, or that his bones are buried there. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Ten European Revivals of the Ancient Roman Empire.”
Sunday—The Day of Rest in France
npr wrote on November 8:
“Since 1906, Sunday has been deemed a collective day of rest in the country, and French law only allows stores to open on Sundays under very specific conditions — for example, if they’re in a high tourist area. Sunday work is also tightly controlled… A Paris court recently upheld the ban on Sunday work… Stores that choose to flout the Sunday work ban are fined $135,000 per day. Some of the larger home-improvement chains went ahead and paid it to stay open…
“Labor groups are leading the push to keep the ban on Sunday work… the Sunday lunch is still sacrosanct in France. In Paris, you see many people carrying bouquets of flowers to decorate the lunch table. But many young people don’t feel bound by such traditions… So far the French government has supported the court’s ruling. One politician said the greatest civilizations always have one day of the week when trade does not take place.”
France will not abrogate Sunday as its “day of rest”—and neither will the rest of continental Europe. In fact, more and more stringent laws to enforce the “holiness” of Sunday will be enacted. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.”
Germany’s Hate/Love Relationship with the USA
The Economist wrote on November 9:
“Germany is disheartened by America… many Germans are now pleading with Angela Merkel, the chancellor, to grant Mr Snowden asylum… Most on Germany’s left and some on the right can’t wait to welcome him… Der Spiegel, a magazine, lists 51 German celebrities chiming in, with several even suggesting him for a Nobel Peace Prize.
“Legally, say scholars, Germany could refuse America’s demand for extradition if it declared Mr Snowden’s acts ‘political’. But everybody knows that this would be an unprecedented affront in the relationship with America…
“[The transatlantic] alliance (many Germans no longer call it a friendship) was always complicated. Germans have yearned for America since they migrated there en masse in the 19th century. Those who stayed behind dreamed of it… Germans still remember the Berlin airlift of 1948-49, when American ‘raisin bombers’ fed and saved West Berlin. This summer they enthusiastically commemorated the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s visit to Berlin. They continue to admire George Bush senior for his effort to make German unification succeed in 1990…
“But Germans, especially on the left, always had a concomitant image of the ugly American… Now Mrs Merkel feels betrayed, as many ordinary Germans do… The emotion that runs through this public debate means that Mrs Merkel can no longer simply drop the subject…”
German Trust in United States and Britain Plummets
Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 8:
“A string of NSA spying scandals has sent Germans’ trust in the United States plummeting, with only a third saying they view their longtime ally as a trustworthy partner, a recent opinion poll has found… The results appear to be a strong indictment of the pervasive US surveillance programs uncovered through classified documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden — whom 60 percent of respondents consider a hero. Despite that strong majority support, Germans were evenly split over the question of whether their country should offer Snowden asylum, with 46 percent saying ‘yes’ and 48 percent saying ‘no.’…
“In the wake of the German government’s furious response, Washington has reportedly offered to negotiate with Berlin over a mutual no-spying agreement akin to the ‘Five Eyes’ deal it has with Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. However no such deal has been publicly announced, and 92 percent of respondents in the poll said they expect the US would break the agreement and continue secret intelligence operations on German soil.
“The survey also found that Germans’ trust in the British government had also deteriorated to 50 percent, down from 80 percent four years ago. The Snowden leaks also revealed a number of heavy-handed espionage practices by GCHQ, the UK counterpart to the NSA, as well as a suspected interception post on its embassy grounds in Berlin.”
Germany will not remain a friend and an ally of the USA.
“Britain a Major Problem”
The Local wrote on November 8:
“Europe needs more integration, including a single finance minister for the bloc, if it is to remain competitive in the years to come – but Britain posed a major problem, former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said…
“Britain would do its utmost to block any attempts to bring the 28-member European union closer together, as that would imply handing over more powers to Brussels, said the former chancellor on Thursday… ‘We need… to press ahead with Europe’s political unity, towards a kind of European federation,’ he urged.”
Japan Automaker Warns Britain
The Independent wrote on November 9:
“The chief executive of the UK’s biggest car maker has added to fears over the economic consequences of an exit from the European Union, by warning it would force a re-evaluation of the company’s presence in this country. Carlos Ghosn – the head of Nissan, whose plant in Sunderland employs 6,500 workers – said a vote by the UK to leave the EU would require the Japanese company to ‘reconsider our strategy and our investments for the future’.
“With David Cameron promising to hold a referendum on EU membership after the next General Election, Mr Ghosn’s warning is the latest note of caution from the business world over the possibility of an exit. The investment banking giant Goldman Sachs and the business lobby group CBI are among those who have also recently spoken out about such a move…
“In contrast, the former CBI director-general and ex-trade minister, Lord Jones of Birmingham, this week attacked the EU as a ‘job destroyer’, writing in The Times that Britain must be prepared to quit in order to be ‘a globally competitive economy worthy of the name’”.
The UK will leave the EU, leading to the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, predicting that ultimately, war will break out between continental Europe and the UK.
Homosexuality Illegal in 41 Commonwealth Countries
The Guardian wrote on November 12:
“Homosexuality is illegal in 41 out of the 53 Commonwealth countries, a report released on Monday reveals. Despite this, the forthcoming Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in Sri Lanka has elected not to discuss the issue of anti-gay discrimination.
“Commissioned by the Kaleidoscope Trust and compiled by LGBT activists throughout the Commonwealth, the report calls for Commonwealth countries to repeal anti-gay legislation, with an immediate moratorium on enforcement. ‘If you look at the world as a whole, around about 40% of nations have state-sponsored homophobia,’ said Kaleidoscope’s spokesman, Douglas Pretsell. ‘Half of those – about 54% – are in the Commonwealth. If you look at the rest of the world not inside the Commonwealth, it’s only 24.5% – so the Commonwealth has a big problem…’
“Pretsell said the anti-gay laws were [a] hangover from British colonial rule. It exported laws – including those outlawing sodomy – to Commonwealth countries, where they persist backed by the prevalence of strong religious views among the populations. ‘It’s worth noting that in the vast majority of these countries, the laws sit there and they’re completely unused, so no one is ever prosecuted…’
“Australia did not completely decriminalise homosexuality until 1997 after a legal case was brought to the UN. From 2007-13 all forms of legislated discrimination were removed from Australian law… ‘In fact Sri Lanka has gone out of its way to refuse visas to any lesbian or gay group, to ban their own activists in the country…’
“Britain’s shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, singled out the host nation’s stance on gay rights, the Press Association reported. ‘Today’s report from the Kaleidoscope Trust highlights the ongoing concern about human rights – and in particular the rights of the LGBT community – within Sri Lanka,’ Alexander said… ‘As David Cameron departs for this week’s Commonwealth summit, the evidence that Sri Lanka is heading in the wrong direction is mounting…’
“A Downing Street spokeswoman said: ‘The prime minister and foreign secretary will make clear their concerns about the human rights situation in Sri Lanka when they visit Colombo this week. The Commonwealth Charter, agreed by all Commonwealth members, explicitly states that we are opposed to all forms of discrimination and it is important that all members live up [to] these values. That is the message that we will be taking to the summit.’”
“British Colonial Rule” has now become the forerunner of attempting to abolish laws which they themselves enacted. Sadly, this “change of heart” is not motivated by godly standards.
“What Obama Forgot to Apologize For”
The Washington Times wrote on November 8:
“When he said Thursday that he was sorry for the health-care mess-up, he performed the mea culpa as well as — if not better than — anyone in recent history… He’s sorry that some people have been inconvenienced by HealthCare.gov’s computer disaster. He’s sorry that some people have lost the policies he promised they could keep. He’s sorry that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) wasn’t adequately ‘crafted.’
“But is he sorry that he intentionally misled people? I must have missed that part… The key to redemption… is the sense that the apology is heartfelt and sincere. Most important, the apology must be specific to the affront. In this case, the sin isn’t the mess but the promise the White House knew as early as 2010 it couldn’t keep… Did they really think no one would notice when they received cancellation notices and their premiums suddenly doubled on the exchanges?
“The other rule of effective apologies is that they must come from authentic remorse rather than at the tip of a sword. Obama had no choice once caught and it was no longer possible to deny reality. That reality was further enhanced when 16 Senate Democrats, 15 of whom are up for reelection next year, stormed the White House barricades to express their outrage to the president.”
True apologies and genuine repentance require a sincere willingness and desire to confess and depart from the wrong and to begin to do what is right.
More Confusion
The Associated Press reported on November 14:
“Bowing to pressure, President Barack Obama on Thursday announced changes under his health care law to give insurance companies the option to keep offering consumers plans that would otherwise be canceled. The administrative changes are good for just one year… But it was unclear if state officials, who would have to implement the changes, would go along. Insurers also had concerns. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners said the president’s proposal could undermine the new health insurance markets his law seeks to create.
“Obama’s proposal ‘may lead to higher premiums and market disruptions in 2014 and beyond,’ said Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon, speaking for the organization. At the White House, Obama acknowledged that ‘we fumbled the rollout of this health care law’ and pledged to ‘just keep on chipping away at this until the job is done.’…
“It’s unclear what the impact of Thursday’s changes will be for the millions of people who have already had their plans canceled. While officials said insurance companies will now be able to offer those people the option to renew their old plans, companies are not required to take that step.
“The main industry trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, said Obama’s offer comes too late and could lead to higher premiums, since companies already have set 2014 rates based on the assumption that many people with individual coverage will shift over to the new markets created under Obama’s law…”
The Weekly Standard added that “Former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean questioned whether President Obama has the ‘legal authority’ to carry out the Obamacare fix the White House outlined today.”
The Hill wrote that “President Obama failed to put jittery Democrats at ease Thursday with a proposal he said would allow millions of people to keep their insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act… Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) said Obama ‘should have done that two weeks ago’ to spare the party a torrent of negative publicity… Obama’s job approval rating has dropped to 39 percent, the lowest of his presidency… When Congress was debating the landmark legislation in 2009, the president repeatedly promised: ‘If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your healthcare plan.’ Democrats fear a public backlash if that promise is broken…”
Abortion Is Murder
The following article just came to our attention. Even somewhat dated, the information contained therein is as relevant and timely as ever.
Life News wrote on May 23, 2013:
“Dr. Anthony Levatino is a pro-life physician from New Mexico but, before having a change of heart on the issue of abortion he was an OBGYN who also performed abortions. Levatino did as many as 1,200 abortions — some of them after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Then, after his daughter died in a tragic automobile accident, he re-evaluated his position on abortion and stopped doing abortions…
“Dr. Levatino told members of a Congressional committee [the following:]
“‘Imagine if you can that you are a pro-choice obstetrician/gynecologist like I once was. Your patient today is 24 weeks pregnant. At twenty-four weeks from last menstrual period, her uterus is two finger-breadths above the umbilicus.
“‘If you could see her baby, which is quite easy on an ultrasound, she would be as long as your hand plus a half from the top of her head to the bottom of her rump not counting the legs. Your patient has been feeling her baby kick for the last 2 months or more but now she is asleep on an operating room table and you are there to help her with her problem pregnancy.
“‘The first task is remove the laminaria that had earlier been placed in the cervix to dilate it sufficiently to allow the procedure you are about to perform. With that accomplished, direct your attention to the surgical instruments arranged on a small table to your right. The first instrument you reach for is a 14-French suction catheter. It is clear plastic and about nine inches long. It has a bore through the center approximately ¾ of an inch in diameter. Picture yourself introducing this catheter through the cervix and instructing the circulating nurse to turn on the suction machine which is connected through clear plastic tubing to the catheter. What you will see is a pale yellow fluid that looks a lot like urine coming through the catheter into a glass bottle on the suction machine. This is the amniotic fluid that surrounded the baby to protect her.
“‘With suction complete, look for your Sopher clamp. This instrument is about thirteen inches long and made of stainless steel. At the end are located jaws about 2 ½ inches long and about ¾ of an inch wide with rows of sharp ridges or teeth. This instrument is for grasping and crushing tissue. When it gets hold of something, it does not let go. A second trimester D&E abortion is a blind procedure. The baby can be in any orientation or position inside the uterus. Picture yourself reaching in with the Sopher clamp and grasping anything you can.
“‘At twenty-four weeks gestation, the uterus is thin and soft so be careful not to perforate or puncture the walls. Once you have grasped something inside, squeeze on the clamp to set the jaws and pull hard–really hard. You feel something let go and out pops a fully formed leg about six inches long. Reach in again and grasp whatever you can. Set the jaw and pull really hard once again and out pops an arm about the same length. Reach in again and again with that clamp and tear out the spine, intestines, heart and lungs.
“‘The toughest part of a D&E abortion is extracting the baby’s head. The head of a baby that age is about the size of a large plum and is now free floating inside the uterine cavity. You can be pretty sure you have hold of it if the Sopher clamp is spread about as far as your fingers will allow. You will know you have it right when you crush down on the clamp and see white gelatinous material coming through the cervix. That was the baby’s brains. You can then extract the skull pieces. Many times a little face will come out and stare back at you… If you refuse to believe that this procedure inflicts severe pain on that unborn child, please think again…
“‘I often hear the argument that we must keep abortion legal in order to save women’s lives in cases of life threatening conditions that can and do arise in pregnancy… But is abortion a viable treatment option in this setting? I maintain that it usually, if not always, is not. Before a Suction D&E procedure can be performed, the cervix must first be sufficiently dilated… In the mid second trimester, this requires approximately 36 hours to accomplish. When utilizing the D&X abortion procedure, popularly known as Partial-Birth Abortion, this process requires three days…
“‘In cases where a mother’s life is seriously threatened by her pregnancy, a doctor more often than not doesn’t have 36 hours, much less 72 hours, to resolve the problem. Let me illustrate with a real -life case that I managed while at the Albany Medical Center. A patient arrived one night at 28 weeks gestation with severe pre-eclampsia or toxemia. Her blood pressure on admission was 220/160. As you are probably aware, a normal blood pressure is approximately 120/80. This patient’s pregnancy was a threat to her life and the life of her unborn child. She could very well be minutes or hours away from a major stroke. This case was managed successfully by rapidly stabilizing the patient’s blood pressure and “terminating” her pregnancy by Cesarean section. She and her baby did well. This is a typical case in the world of high-risk obstetrics. In most such cases, any attempt to perform an abortion “to save the mother’s life” would entail undue and dangerous delay in providing appropriate, truly life-saving care.
“‘During my time at Albany Medical Center I managed hundreds of such cases by “terminating” pregnancies to save mother’s lives. In all those hundreds of cases, the number of unborn children that I had to deliberately kill was zero.’”
Abortion is murder in the eyes of God. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Are You Already Born Again?”. Please also view our new StandingWatch program, “Why Abortion Is Murder in God’s Eyes.”
Biggest Storm in History
Mail On Line wrote on November 9:
“A monster typhoon… [and] category-5 super typhoon Haiyan – Chinese for ‘sea bird’ – smashed into the eastern islands of the Philippines [on November 8] with winds nearly 150mph stronger than the St Jude storm which struck the UK in late October…
“More than 125,000 people were evacuated from towns and villages that lay directly in the typhoon’s path… The storm brought further misery to thousands of residents of Bohol who had been camped in tents and other makeshift shelters after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck the island last month…
“The US Navy said the typhoon’s maximum sustained winds were 195mph, with gusts up to 235mph. Meteorologists said last night that made it the strongest storm to ever hit land… [An] US expert said he expected the damage in Guiuan, a fishing town of about 40,000 people that was the first to be hit on Friday, to be ‘catastrophic’.”
Reuters reported on November 10:
“One of the most powerful storms ever recorded has killed at least 10,000 people in the central Philippines province of Leyte, a senior police official said on Sunday, with coastal towns and the regional capital devastated by huge waves. Typhoon Haiyan destroyed about 70 to 80 percent of the area in its path as it tore through the province, said chief superintendent Elmer Soria, a regional police director… it also caused a storm surge and whipped up waves of 5 to 6 meters (yards).”
The Associated Press added on November 10:
“It wasn’t until Sunday that the scale of the devastation became clear, with local officials on hardest-hit Leyte Island saying that there may be 10,000 dead in the provincial capital of Tacloban alone. Reports also trickled in from elsewhere on the island, and from neighboring islands, indicating hundreds, if not thousands more deaths, though it will be days before the full extent of the storm’s impact can be assessed.”
Sadly, we can expect increasingly devastating natural disasters to continue on a rapid scale.
What If Oxygen Disappeared?
On November 9, The Independent asked the question, “What would happen if oxygen disappeared for five seconds?” It continued giving the following answers which they received from scientists:
“Everyone at the beach would get sunburn. Ozone is molecular oxygen, and blocks the majority of UV light. Every internal combustion engine would stall. This means that every airplane taking off from a runway would likely crash to the ground… Everyone’s inner ear would explode… Every building made out of concrete would turn to dust… Fires would go out… Many of the answers to this question will focus on what would happen during those five seconds, but after that, there would be a huge explosion due to the oxidation of all the oceans that have been converted to hydrogen… So, the Earth would suddenly become extremely cold for five seconds followed by a Big Bang.”
From this we can see that in spite of man’s denial of the existence of Almighty God and his rebellion towards His Will and His Law (Psalm 2:1-4), God, through Jesus Christ, sustains and “upholds” this earth (as well as the entire universe) “by the word of His power” (Hebrews 1:3).
