The Israeli military had no comment. But a source in the Israeli defense establishment told CNN’s Sara Sidner, “We will do whatever is necessary to stop the transfer of weapons from Syria to terrorist organizations. We have done it in the past and we will do it if necessary the future.”

Fox News report:

More details will be posted as they become available.

—-

Yes, the Word of God offends!

“…so that he [the antichrist] takes his seat in the Temple of God, displaying himself as being God”
2 Thessalonians 2:4

People may refuse to hear and believe the truth, but the fact still remains: God made a covenant with Abraham that Israel will forever belong to the Jews.  Throughout history, Jerusalem has indeed belonged to the Jewish people, and one day, the Third Temple will stand on the Temple Mount! Will the Dome of the Rock be destroyed, or will they stand side by side? Only God knows that answer definitively, as prophecy scholars differ in their interpretations of Scripture.

“Am I now your enemy, just because I told you the truth?”
Galatians 4:16

In Genesis 12:1-3, God promised the land of Israel to Abraham and his descendants. In Genesis 17:7-8 God confirms this covenant- “all the land of Canaan.” In Genesis 22:16-18 God promises Abraham the Land will belong to Israel despite opposition and threat. Genesis 26:3-5 is the confirmation of the covenant with Isaac. Genesis 28:13, 14 is the confirmation and extension of the promise to Jacob again. In Genesis 35:9-15, God appears  to Jacob again [see 35:1] at Bethel, and changes his name to Israel. He confirms the promise to him and his descendants. God’s promise to Abraham was that the land of Israel- all of the land of Canaan- belongs to the Jews “forever and ever” (Additional Scripture references and detailed history can be found here.)

YouTube Description:

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, displays in a new video the magic of Jerusalem as a city that combines diversity with harmony, modernity with history, and as a sacred city that for the first time in history, under Israeli sovereignty, Jews, Christians, Muslims, secular, religious, young and old are living side by side. In addition, the video shows the unbreakable bond between the Jewish people and Jerusalem.

A vantage point for inquiring minds and those who’ve lived faith shy of geographical or historical context. Biblical maps are enlightening for tethering us to what was and what is and understanding how small our world has become, bringing Israel and the Middle East today into sharper focus.

The rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire caused people to start questioning what they thought they knew. By 392 A.D. it was the official religion of the region. As it spread across the Mediterranaen, Christianity connected with larger themes in Roman history.

Reading Historical Dates

Without going into all of the science, emporer and political changes to calendars over time – and there were a lot of them – this keeps understanding date abbreviations simple. For more information see the “More Reading” resources below:

There is no Year 0.

There is no difference between “A.D.” & “CE.” They are the same.

There is no difference between “B.C.” & “BCE.” They are the same.

B.C. – means ‘Before Christ’ and starts with Year 1

A.D.- means ‘Anno Domini’ or ‘Year of our Lord.’ This is the year of Christ’s birth and also starts with Year 1. (Commonly referred to as ‘After Death,’ obviously not correct.)

CE – a more recent term meaning ‘Common Era,’ used in place of A.D.

BCE – a more recent term meaning ‘Before Common Era,’ used in place of B.C.

Jesus in Judae (Israel) & the Roman Empire

It’s widely accepted that Jesus Christ was born 4-6 B.C., two years before the death of the Roman Empire’s Herod the Great. Scientific calculations suggest Christ was born in the month of September or October.

Christianity began in Judea about 2,000 years ago with the birth and teachings of Jesus and the disciples who followed Him. Judea was a cultural hub of cities and farms. Click the map to view the area in what we now know as current day Israel.

When Jesus taught the “new covenant” (New Testament) in Judea, Rome was under its first emperor rule. Jesus is known by Christians as the Son of God and of Man, conceived by God by immaculate conception with the virgin Mary, who married Joseph.

The Jews hated Roman rule because it was a pagan reminder of their historical oppression and it violated their faith under the Torah* (Old Testament). The Romans worshiped a number of gods and superficial idols they‘d built to those gods. That was in direct conflict with the Jewish faith, which recognized the one and only God of the Bible.

*”Torah” refers to the Five [Biblical] Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. But the word “torah” can also be used to refer to the entire Jewish bible (the body of scripture known to non-Jews as the Old Testament and to Jews as the Tanakh or Written Torah), or in its broadest sense, to the whole body of Jewish law and teachings.

The start of Christianity is recorded in accounts of the New Testament but its history began with Old Testament prophecy. There are over 300 predictions of the coming of a Jewish Messiah that are recorded in the Old Testament, spanning more than 1000 years.

Click this map to see the Jews’ exodus from Egypt through the Wilderness and into Cannan (current day Israel), their Promised Land.

Some Jews saw conforming to the Roman Empire as their only hope. Others became religious zealots developing warlike guerilla resistances against Rome. Still others withdrew into the Judean wilderness to study Jewish law and wait for the coming of their Messiah, or savior, as promised in the Old Testament.

Isa 7:14 [OT] Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Immanuel means “God with us”. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, had come to dwell with, or tabernacle on earth with, His people.

John 1:14 [NT] And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.

Jesus was a Jew. He observed Jewish faith and was well studied in its law. Said to be a carpenter by trade (though that is questioned today), by His early thirties Jesus traveled between villages teaching in synagogues, healing people and performing miracles. His news traveled swiftly. From a young age He challenged religious leaders to repent from their self-righteous and hypocritical ways and to realize that the Kingdom of God is rooted in service and love.

Jesus taught during the Roman rule of Augustus, their first emperor from 27 B.C. through 14 A.D. He urged purification of the Jewish religion with a moral code of love, charity and humility. Christ’s teachings stirred the hearts of people and His healings grew in influence and ever-increasingly high demand as word of His message and acts spread.

These things and Jesus’ growing popularity because of them created an instability that Jewish authorities feared. The disciples were faithful men who followed Him and Jesus taught them about the “new covenant” that God was bringing to humanity, because men had fallen into so much sin they’d lost the personal relationship with God that they had in Old Testament days.

Jesus was crucified on a cross about 30 A.D., believed to be in Golgotha or “The place of a skull” just outside of Jerusalem. His followers believe he rose three days later, proving that He was the Son of God. The Christian faith, unlike any other religion, hinges on historical events. An example can be seen in the eye-witness accounts evidenced by Paul in I Corinthians 15:3-6.

“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.”

Manuscript studies point to this scripture being written within a few years after Christ’s death. Paul, born Greek, ends this passage with “most of whom are still living,” inviting people to confirm the facts for themselves. He wouldn’t have if he was trying to perpetrate a myth or fraud. It is the historical validity that gives Christians their belief and a genuine and eternal hope.

Roman Mythology & Christianity

Before the coming of Christ and Christianity the Roman Empire was “embroiled in myth,” having archeological traces of early settlements dating back to 750 B.C. The myths were based on both fiction and history in stories passed down through the ages.

Roman mythology was an emphatic state religion consisting of rituals and ceremonies. Their myths were more practical than the Greek’s but they adopted most of the Greek deities.

Every Roman god served a purpose and had an office to fill. There were “divisions of labor” between them, some presiding over births; some over bakers and some over the bakers’ ovens. Every vocation and household function had presiding gods and goddesses. This picture depicts a god tending to the wound of a solider with a Greek goddess looking on.

The rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire caused people to start questioning what they thought they knew. By 392 A.D., Christianity was the official religion. As Chrsitianity spread it connected with larger themes in Roman history.

Christianity comforted social grievances in an empire marked by inequality and among the poor. Slaves, dispossessed farmers and impoverished city dwellers found hope in a religion that encouraged a goodness of morals and after-life rewards for living morally.

The Christian faith also answered cultural needs that Roman values, which stressed political goals and ethics about living in the world, did not. It brought political benefits to the Romans as their empire grew and consolidated, as well. The new faith was seen as universal, open to all, whether people followed the Jewish faith or not.

Click to enlarge this map showing the growth of the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean area; and Israel’s place within it (boxed).

Belief in Jesus spread among Jewish communities in the Middle East, the Roman Empire and beyond. When His disciples realized that Jesus was not returning to earth to set up the Kingdom of God, they fanned out to spread the news, particularly around the eastern Mediterranean area.

The predominant language of the day was Greek. Paul’s Greco-Roman culture helped to explain Christian beliefs in Greece and in Italy as well as in the Middle East. Paul essentially created Christian theology as a set of intellectual principles; and some speculate that he emphasized women’s more subordinate role to men and the dangers of sexuality in the books of the New Testament.

By the 4th Century A.D. Christian writings were the only creative cultural expression of the Roman Empire. Theologians sought to explain issues brought up by the new religion; and to relate it to ethics and Greek philosophy. Just as the Roman Empire was in decline Christianity produced complex thought and elegant language, redirecting its culture and preserving its earlier literary and philosophical achievements.

Christianity goes well beyond Rome and had more to do with opening a new era of history of the Mediterranean region than in shaping the Roman Empire.

Today’s Conflicts between the Middle East and Israel & The West

In the Bible’s Old Testament book of Genesis, chapter 17, God promised Abraham that he would become “the father of many nations.” Many today aren’t familiar with the divisions hinged on that promise.

Abraham’s wife, Sarah, could not bear children so she gave to her husband her Egyptian maiden, Hagar. Hagar birthed Abraham’s son, Ishmael. Many years later Sarah gave Abraham a son named Isaac (described in the scripture below).

When dissention in the houshold grew, Hagar returned with her son to her homeland of Egpyt. By then Abraham and Sarah had located to Cannan (Israel), where they remained. Today Sarah’s descendants are Christian and Hagar’s are Muslim. Indeed Abraham was “the father of many nations.”

Genesis 17 (OT, KJV excerpted): And when Abram was ninety years old and nine the LORD appeared and said, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect and I will make my covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.

And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee and I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house [and] which is not of thy seed. And God said unto Abraham, as for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. And he left off talking with him.

Coming: What was Constantine the Great’s role in Christianity?

“From the time of Constantine onward, the worship of the Roman Catholic Church, in its forms and ceremonies, has been more clearly identified with the paganism of Ancient Rome, than with the religion of the New Testament. The customs of pagan religion were only baptized with Christian names.”

More Reading:

Wise Geek, Bible Time, Got Questions, History of Religion, Judaism 101:Torah, BibleLight, Greek & Roman Religion, History of Christianity, Romans Empire, Cynric

Graham goes on to say that if Chuck Hagel is confirmed as Secretary of Defense, he “would be the most antagonistic secretary of defense toward the state of Israel in our nation’s history.”

(Video uploaded on You Tube Nov. 15, 2012 by Truthloader.)

Crossposted from American Millennium Online

American President Ronald Reagan

by Jeremy Griffith

As the title of this article suggests, the Israeli Iron Dome, an anti-missile missile system is saving lives in that country as Hamas, the Palestinian Terror organization, shoots hundreds of rockets at Israel from the West Bank and Gaza on a daily basis. The rockets create fear and uncertainly and can kill people and cause a lot of damage, but the Iron Dome is preventing many of these rockets from hitting their targets and achieving their goal.

I spoke to my brother recently who asked me to watch a You Tube Video on the topic and to comment upon it. My brother, Jason Griffith, is a Major in the Colorado National Guard and a Space Operations officer recently returned from a 9-month tour of duty in Afghanistan as the leader of a space team. He asked me this  poignant question.

“How many rockets are launched at Israel from Gaza?” he asked. I had no idea, but having been in the Holy Land once before myself, I knew it was a lot.

“Eight Hundred Seventy Seven,” he said. “And that is in just the last two weeks. How many of us would tolerate such a barrage from say Canada or Mexico?”

How many indeed?I think that most Americans would pummel the living crap out of those people attempting to assault us, but when it comes to Israel defending itself, the world urges restraint. RESTRAINT?! Please. This is an outrage. None of us would tolerate this, why should Israel? But instead of siding with Israel, who is the victim of these attacks, the Israelis are targeted by negative world opinion and labeled as the aggressors when they go into these areas and kill the leaders of Hamas responsible for the terror.

So here is my commentary on the video. Ronald Reagan was a demonstrable genius when he envisioned the so called Star Wars shield of anti-missile missile batteries when he came up against the Soviet Union in the Cold War. His greatest achievement was bluffing down the Russians and pushing off from the table at Reykjavik when Gorbachev asked him to give up Star Wars. Now the vision that Reagan had is a reality and all the idiots who called him an idiot can see for themselves the real life realization of his dream. The Patriot Missile batteries of the United States and the Iron Dome of Israel is the culmination of that dream, a shield that would block incoming ballistic missiles and keep a nation free from the threat of intercontinental ballistic missiles, especially nukes.

But we can take no comfort in the long lasting legacy of Reagan. While Israel continues to proof these great defensive weapons, President Obama plans to cut the military and what do you suppose will be among the first programs to cut? Intercontinental anti-ballistic missile systems, leaving us vulnerable to attack from without. Obama will not just stop at cutting Star Wars, he has already planned to cut back our nuclear ballistic missile capability to dangerous levels, thus making us weaker while emboldening our enemies.

This President doesn’t care about defense, which is the executive branch’s primary mission. We saw that with his reaction to Benghazi. Obama’s goal it seems is to continually steal from the taxpayer to pay off cronies and to redistribute wealth from those who have, and have worked to earn it, to those who have not, and who have no plans to ever work. Over half of Americans voted to re-elect a president so they could steal from you what they have no right to have and give it to them who have no desire to earn it. Amazing!

Well, there are consequences to elections people and we will be seeing them in the next few years as this President and his cronies in the Democratic Party, a degrading bastardization of the Party of Thomas Jefferson, drives us all over the fiscal cliff!

Take heart that at least Israel gets it and will likely be fine on their own. Necessity is the mother of invention. When we at last are threatened like Israel, perhaps we will come to our senses. I just hope that isn’t too late.

Watch this video from the US Missile Defense Agency on their prospective anti-ballistic missile capability in 2020.

Similar to the Kosovo, Taiwan and Vatacan City, the Palestinian State would be re-classified as a non-member observer state. Formerly, the Palestinian State was only recognized as an “entity”. The new classification will grant the West Bank government access to international criminal court and other international bodies.

The Palestinians unsuccessfully sought full recognition as a U.N. Member State last year mainly due to U.S. and Israeli opposition. The current effort will succeed despite threats from those same nations. Both the U.S. State department and Israel have warned that they would reduce economic assistance to the Palestinian Authority should they seek recognition by the U.N.

The United States and Israel oppose the U.N. move as they believe it will undermine the peace process. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that ”The path to a two-state solution that fulfills the aspirations of the Palestinian people is through Jerusalem and Ramallah, not New York.”

The Palestinians have reportedly been working with the EU and Arab states to replace the lost funding should they agree to the new classification.

The Resolution only needs a simple majority in the U.N. General Assembly, 130 votes, which they are likely to get. Germany, the Czech Republic being the only two nations other than the United States and Israel to announce that they would be voting against the resolution. Thirteen European countries have already voiced support.

Lee was questioning the administration’s unwillingness to respond to Turkish Prime Minister’s description of Israel as a terrorist state.

Lee: “You say that it would not be helpful to discuss any of the conversations; that quiet diplomacy is the way to deescalate that. Well, you’ve been doing your quiet diplomacy for almost a week. How’s it going so far?”

After several minutes of back and forth Nuland finally responds, “We of course agree that rhetorical attacks against Israel are not helpful at this moment.

It’s refreshing to see a reporter press on the tough questions.
Note: Link updated 8:15pm

Oringally posted at Legal Insurrection

Rather than cheering on the Israelis and complementing them on a job well done – we hear calls for Israeli restraint, even from the United States.

Obama said Israel had the right to defend itself against Hamas’ missile attacks from Gaza. But he urged Israel not to launch a ground assault in Gaza, saying it would put Israeli soldiers, as well as Palestinian citizens, at greater risk and hamper an already vexing peace process.

“If we see a further escalation of the situation in Gaza, the likelihood of us getting back on any kind of peace track that leads to a two-state solution is going to be pushed off way into the future,” Obama said.

I wonder what message this sends to the democratically elected Hamas government in Gaza – the world won’t say a word about the hundreds of rockets targeting school buses and innocents trying to live their lives – but when the world is made a safer place by the assassination of a chief murderer – “restraint” is called for. The message is clear: Jewish blood is cheap.

Not only is Jewish blood cheap – we’ll even reward these attacks by more “peace” talks, more talk of another terrorist state on Israel’s border. A second “Palestinian” state – since Gaza is State #1. Don’t escalate this war, the President warns Israel, we’re trying to have “peace” talks with these terrorists – never mind that they don’t have an interest in peace – just in seeing Israel and her citizens in pieces.

No other nation in the world would tolerate even a single missile entering their airspace. Not the French, and especially not the Germans. Imagine the United States allowing such a thing to happen without an overwhelming response. But the world calls for “restraint” from Israel even after they’ve shown restraint – allowing hundreds of rockets to rain terror on her civilians without complaint.

Jewish blood is cheap and the Arab world knows it. They know the world doesn’t care about the Jews…go ahead, feel free to send the rockets.

Calls for “restraint”? What a joke.

As the world government ship of fools drifts unmanned amid a sea of unparalleled global volatility, we, her passengers, behold – brewing on the horizon – an economic and foreign relations “perfect storm.” 

As so often is the case, the hurricane swirls around the Middle East. 

Historically, the president of the United States has captained the ship. He has, heretofore, been duly regarded “leader of the free world.”

Not now. Not with Gilligan reaching for the helm. 

Indeed, the current occupant of the Oval Office spends more time with his feet on JFK’s Resolute desk than he does leading from behind it.

But “leading from behind” he does. 

More commonly known as “following,” President Obama’s follow-the-leader strategy in the Middle East represents, in my view, either inherent weakness on his part, sympathy toward the Islamic cause or both. 

I suspect both.

Indeed, during his first term, Mr. Obama betrayed both weakness personified and sympathy toward the goals of Islamic fundamentalism with his ongoing embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood.

This extremist group, with Obama’s help, now controls much of the Arab world. It has sworn, in its own words, to “destroy” our “Western civilization from within … so that it is eliminated and God’s religion (Islam) is made victorious over all other religions.” 

Not surprisingly, today the Brotherhood rushes to the aid of both the terrorist group Hamas and Holocaust denier Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority. This, as terrorists ramp-up decades-long rocket attacks and suicide bombings against innocent Israeli women and children. 

Nonetheless – and clearly stemming from a cynical political calculus – Mr. Obama persists in paying shallow lip service to support for Israel. All the while he continues to play footsie with the Muslim Brotherhood. 

Recall that, just last year, the president touted the “Arab Spring” – which any high school history buff could have predicted would devolve into the utter chaos it has – as “an extraordinary change taking place,” wherein, “Square by square, town by town, country by country, the [Muslim] people have risen up to demand their basic human rights.” (You know, like the Quran-given right for Muslim men to beat or kill women and homosexuals with impunity; or like the human right for both Iran and the Palestinian Authority to “wipe Israel from the face of the earth.”) 

Whether due to naiveté, foolishness or pure dishonesty, President Obama’s bungling of the Middle East crisis – let alone his unprecedented attacks on our constitutional freedoms stateside – has disqualified him to lead the free world. 

And so, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stepped forward to answer the call. He has become de facto leader of the free world – chief defender of Western civilization.

As America’s light fades under the Obama regime, Israel has become – for now at least – “the shining city on the hill.”

With a nuclear Iran perhaps only months away, Western civilization needs defending now more than ever. Israel needs defending now more than ever. Consider these words from top Hamas cleric Muhsen Abu ‘Ita: “Annihilation of the Jews here in Palestine is one of the most splendid blessings for Palestine.” 

Thus, Israel defends herself. Israel defends the free world. 

To be sure, the worldwide Islamic juggernaut has become emboldened by the actions – by the inaction – of a sympathetic, do-nothing U.S. president. Muslim terrorists have, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recently noted, “turned Gaza into a frontal base for Iran, terrorizing residents of Israel and forcing them to live under unbearable circumstances.” 

Yet, inexplicably, many in the West – people Vladimir Lenin might have called “useful idiots” (i.e., “progressives,” mainstream media and moderate American Muslims) – willfully suspend disbelief. They play directly into the blood-soaked hands of these terrorist cowards. 

Having time and again demonstrated a willingness to sacrifice their own innocent people (consider child suicide bombers), these monsters today both deliberately target Israeli neighborhoods with rockets and intentionally place their own military launch sites and terrorist headquarters next to mosques, playgrounds, factories and the like. 

This, as intended, has created a propagandist boon. Much of the world blames Israel when these human shields are tragically killed during pinpoint military strikes. Who needs missile defense when you have women and children to hide behind? 

To both the Israeli and the Arab victims of radical Islam, I say this: You are in our thoughts and our prayers. Our hearts break for you. We pray that God will cover and protect you during these dark days and nights. 

To Benjamin Netanyahu I pledge this: Mr. Prime Minister, Christian America thanks you for your bold leadership. We thank you for being the lone voice of freedom in the Middle East.

Sir, you, too, are in our thoughts and our prayers.

America stands with Israel.

We demand our president do the same.

(h/t @galtsgirl)

One of the top comments on YouTube.com illustrates the compassion and frustration Israelis have for Palestinians. If Hamas would stop attacking Israel from Gaza, Israel would have no reason to strike back:

I guess you don’t know that that israeli is holding back..

if we WEREN’T holding back, believe me, and i can sign my life for it, you would be dead by now.

israel CAN delete ALL OF GAZA in COUPLE MINUTES.

but we don’t do that, why? becuase we CARE about civilians, unlike you the terrorist which the only target their looking for is harming people, no matter who they are.

we keep shipping you food, water, electricity, and many more things that keep you alive.

The Jerusalem Post reported on Friday that rockets were fired from the Sinai Peninsula towards an Isreali village on the southern border. No injuries were reported.

These latest attacks come after President Obama spoke with Egypt’s President Morsi on Wednesday and Egypt’s Prime Minister Hesham Qandil visited Gaza to show solidarity with Hamas on Thursday.

Speaking in Cairo on Thursday, President Morsi said that in his conversation with Obama, he told the U.S. President that Israel’s offensive must stop while calling Israel’s defensive actions “unacceptable aggression.” President Mohammed Morsi pledged Egypt’s support of Hamas as he said that Cairo “would not leave Gaza on its own.”

The Egyptian government’s actions are no surprise. Since the rise to power of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab Spring, Egypt’s interest in peace with Israel has steadily lessened. It is unlikely that President Obama will be able to affect the situation as the U.S.’s influence in the region has significantly weakened over the last four years. In a separate statement, President Morsi said that ”Egypt today is not the Egypt of yesterday, and Arabs today are not the Arabs of yesterday” heightening fears that Egypt is no longer a diplomatic partner in the region.

In sending the leader of the Egyptian government to Gaza in a friendly gesture to Hamas, Egypt is openly partnering with a group designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, Japan, the European Union and Israel. There is some concern that some of the more than $2 Billion in annual U.S. military and economic aid to Egypt may be funneled to Hamas.

The current crisis began as Palestinian rocket attacks against Israel were joined by Syrian artillery positions firing on the Israeli region known as the Golan Heights. Israel returned fire against the Syrian artillery.

In order to defend itself, Israel began Operation “Pillar of Defence” during which it killed the military commander of Hammas and struck numerous rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip.

News reports offer confusing timelines often tuned to show Israel as the first aggressor. These reports often ignore the continual and escalating rocket attacks that pre-dated the Isreali offensive. Isreali President Shimon Peres briefed the U.S. President informing him that the current operation was in response to Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza.  During a visit to an Israeli border town, Peres said “”Israel is not interested in stoking the flames, but for the past five days there has been constant missile fire at Israel and mothers and children cannot sleep quietly at night.”

In response to reporting and editorials tilted against Israel, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League Abraham H. Foxman submitted a letter to the editor at the New York Times in which he pointed out some unfair editorialization on the conflict and how a failure to condemn Hamas’ constant attacks on Israel may have missed opportunities to prevent the escalation of hostilities.

Real understanding would be shown in discussion about how Israel is being surrounded by states and entities controlled by Islamic extremists, either the Muslim Brotherhood or Hezbollah, all committed to Israel’s destruction.

Real recognition of the problem would have been articulated by words calling on the international community to condemn Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians long before it came to this.

Three Israelis were killed and 18 injured by rockets fired from Gaza and 19 Palestinians were killed as Israel counter-attacked in defense of herself. 75,000 Israeli reservists have been called up for duty following the Palestinian attacks and resulting tensions.

Hamas is heavily supported by Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood, all vocal adversaries of the Jewish state. Armaments are steadily streaming into Gaza from Africa through smuggling tunnels in Egypt. The latest Hamas attacks included the Iranian Fajr-5 medium range guided missiles which can strike anywhere in Israel. These more dangerous Iranian arms are credited as the real reason for the Israeli counter-attack.

These people have no idea the wrath they are calling down upon themselves!

“I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 12:3