Cram your chair a little closer to the monitor. (Thanks.)
I’m about to cast a wishful eye on the week expiring to note posts that might have been.
(Should there be a comma in there somewhere?)
What might have been — how dreary, that! Read it all
Israel
“Will You Stand With the Terrorists?”
Ladies and gentlemen, today’s blunt speech to the United Nations by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
I have no illusion that it made or will make a difference.
May God keep the Jews, Abraham’s children of the promise.
And may He also bless the Arabs, Abraham’s children of the flesh.*
May He bless us all, Jew and Gentile alike.
Personally.
Undeserving though we all are.
And may we each find peace and hope in that son of Abraham, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.
Amen.
* “Arabs are Abraham’s children of the flesh” — is that a true statement?
Did President Obama Say That About Israel?
Some of what President Obama had to say today regarding Israel is extremely alarming (though hardly surprising) to me.
But my quibble in this post is with what is being reported about part of what he said.
Did he really call for “Israel’s return to pre-1967 borders” as the headline states above?
I didn’t listen to the speech, so I’ll stick my neck out and quote the President from the story headlined above:
“We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.”
That seems to me to say something different than what the headline says.
What say you?
Jew
It is very difficult to hate babies.
It takes a special person.
[…]
But the human being does have to learn to hate children and babies, and to regard the torture and murder of them as morally desirable acts. It takes years of work to undo normal protective human attitudes toward children.
That is precisely what the Nazis did and what significant parts of the Muslim world have done to the word “Jew.”
[…]
Yet, when Pakistan was yanked from India and established as a Muslim state at the very same time Israel was established, that act engendered 12.5 million Muslim refugees and about a million dead Muslims (and similar numbers of Hindu refugees and deaths). Why then doesn’t “Hindu” equal “Jew” in the Muslim lexicon of hate?
Here are some answers in brief:
You can read the full article here: The Other Tsunami.
Know this, though: Matters will get worse. Much worse. And it will seem even more normal. And nothing by which to get unduly exercised. As has abortion. Which also takes “a special person” to perform, accept, tolerate, and/or ignore.
The Fogel Family
Christians, don’t forget this: Americans, Arabs, Hindus, Japanese, Jews — we all need Jesus to the exact same degree.
Whose Is Jerusalem?
I have a bias.
Is it wrong to be biased?
Well, here’s part of the story referenced in the title:
The demolition of an east Jerusalem hotel to make way for Jewish homes in a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood is sparking concerns from Europe to Egypt, which suggests a new intifada could break out as a result.
The Shepherd Hotel project will bring only 20 Jewish homes to Sheikh Jarrah, but it is at the forefront of a broader, intensely controversial Jewish campaign to establish a foothold in Arab neighborhoods circling the heart of Jerusalem.
Proponents see the efforts as a way to secure Jews’ rightful claims to the city as their “undivided and eternal capital.” Opponents, including much of the international community, say such efforts will preclude the possibility of creating a Palestinian state with a capital in east Jerusalem, thus rendering the two-state solution null and void.
“If current trends are not stopped as a matter of urgency, the prospect of east Jerusalem as the future capital of a Palestinian state becomes increasingly unlikely and unworkable,” wrote 25 consuls-general from European Union member states in Jerusalem in a new confidential report obtained by the Independent. “This, in turn, seriously endangers the chances of a sustainable peace on the basis of two states, with Jerusalem as their future capital.”
[…]
After the 1967 war and its annexation of east Jerusalem, Israel took possession of the hotel under its absentee property laws, which apply to buildings whose owners are absent or considered members of an enemy state.
Source: Shrewd development deal likely to preclude possibility of creating Palestinian state
Regarding Jerusalem and the “West Bank” (How much more time must pass before it becomes the “East Bank”?!) and the 1967 war, surely there’s a parallel to this not-so-long-ago perspective in American domestic politics:
“Elections have consequences.”
“I won.”
But I don’t expect anything I say to make a difference, so I’ll just not say more.
I’ll just quote somebody else, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”
How Perceptive Are You?
This post of mine is not a political statement of any sort. (See that period there?)
So, please, no political blah-blah-blah in the comments.
Thanks!
Now I repeat the question to go with the above news clip: How perceptive are you?
Israel: Appeasement or Surrender?
Under this headline, Israel concedes Jerusalem before negotiations even begin, a story that begins thus:
Ahead of the start of today’s Mideast summit in Washington, the Israeli government publicly conceded sections of Jerusalem will become part of a Palestinian state while holy sites would be governed by a “special regime.”
Speaking in an interview with Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, Defense Minister Ehud Barak outlined a deal with the Palestinians: “West Jerusalem and 12 Jewish neighborhoods that are home to 200,000 residents will be ours. The Arab neighborhoods in which close to a quarter million Palestinians live will be theirs.
“There will be a special regime in place along with agreed upon arrangements in the Old City, the Mount of Olives and the City of David,” added Barak.
Barak told the newspaper what is needed “is courage to make historic, painful decisions. I’m not saying that there is certainty for success, but there is a chance. This chance must be exploited to the fullest.”
Courage? Courage?! Other words fit far better.
Furthermore, another spit-in-the-wind observation: Only Jews need make “historic, painful decisions.”
To think anything good will come of this requires a willing suspension of disbelief.
These have not been good years for Israel.
Far worse.
The Bible tells me so.