There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
Description:How is it that you who hated God so much now love him so much? What did you do to change your heart so radically? Do you remember resisting grace? Do you remember when you received it? Was it before or after you had faith in Jesus Christ for your salvation? In this message, Dr. Sproul considers these questions as he examines the doctrine of “Irresistible Grace.”
Their particular sorrow was the death and absence of their Lord, and it was turned into joy when He rose from the dead and showed Himself in their midst. All the sorrows of saints shall be thus transmuted, even the worst of them, which look as if they must forever remain fountains of bitterness.
Then the more sorrow, the more joy. If we have loads of sorrow, then the Lord’s power will turn them into tons of joy. Then the bitterer the trouble the sweeter the pleasure: the swinging of the pendulum far to the left will cause it to go all the farther to the right. The remembrance of the grief shall heighten the flavor of the delight: we shall set the one in contrast with the other, and the brilliance of the diamond shall be the more clearly seen because of the black foil behind it.
Come, my heart, cheer up! In a little while I shall be as glad as I am now gloomy. Jesus tells me that by a heavenly alchemy my sorrow shall be turned into joy. I do not see how it is to be, but I believe it, and I begin to sing by way of anticipation. This depression of spirit is not for long; I shall soon be up among the happy ones who praise the Lord day and night, and there I shall sing of the mercy which delivered me out of great afflictions.
“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalms 46:10
Thoughts on today’s verse
History tells me it has been true! Faith trusts it will be true eternally! Reverent silences, a pause in the hectic rush of our lives, reminds us that it is true today.
Prayer:
O Father in heaven, may your name be revered and held holy in my life and my world today. Your will be done, your reign on earth come with power and might and finality, just as it has already come in heaven. Through Jesus I pray. Amen.’
“My soul waits in silence for God alone.” Psalm 62:1 NASB
The quietest place that I’ve ever experienced was just above the earth while parasailing. Not only was it thrilling and incredibly beautiful but quite astonishing.
My daughter and I were whisked out beyond the ocean waves by jet-ski, then mounted upward toward the skies on sailing apparatus. What a view of the sea on the one hand and the shoreline dotted with tall buildings and beach goers on the other. Then I noticed the sound of silence. While we could view all the obvious noise below it was no longer audible.
More amazing than the beauty was the peace and quiet. Up near the clouds I felt a closeness to God as never before, drawing me near to Him.
Yet I don’t have to be up in the clouds to draw close to God. Whenever and wherever I come to Him in prayer I draw near to Him and He draws near to me. I sit before Him in reverence sharing love, joy and peace. Worry, fear, and anxiety fall away because I’m present with the King of Kings.
It’s in these still and quiet moments that silence is golden. The psalmist tells us to be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for Him (Psalm 37:7 HCSB). He has great and mighty things to tell us. Set yourself apart from the world and focus on our Maker.
Are you searching for a place of escape from the noisy world around you? God is right there in the quiet places. Meet Him there. Just the two of you.
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, I long to be in your presence joyfully sharing quiet, tender moments with you.
Hamas: Described in the Bible as destroying the world While the entire world is aware of the attack last week in which thousands of Hamas terrorists infiltrated into Israel and murdered over 1,300 Israelis, far fewer people are aware that the portion of the Torah that is being read by Jews all around the world this week contains the word ‘Hamas’ as the reason for which God destroyed the world.
Short changed: Can China pay the bills? Amid reports and rumors of starving zoo animals and retirees not being paid their pensions, the chair of financially distressed China Evergrande Group, the world’s most indebted property developer, is now under “residential surveillance.” Call it house arrest – and as the Chinese property sector loses its mojo some 42,000 local governments are looking for money to pay off creditors. He was once the richest man in China.
George Soros Once Blasted US, Israel For Not Embracing Hamas George Soros, whose empire and its tentacles have worked to flood Western nations with migrants and cause chaos in America through soft-on-crime DAs, once slammed the United States for supporting Israel and not recognizing Hamas after the militant organization gained control over the Gaza strip.
Court Rules No Evidence Georgia’s Voting Law Discriminates Against Black Voters Several left-wing advocacy and civil rights groups, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ, sued in 2021 after Republican state lawmakers passed the measure amid claims about election fraud in the state in 2020. Those lawsuits claim that black voters are now denied equal access to voting, which violates the Voting Rights Act. “Plaintiffs have not shown, at least at this stage of the proceedings, that any of the provisions have a disparate impact on black voters,”
Egypt Mulls Allowing Refugees Entry As Over 600,000 Gazans Move South; FBI Warns Of Hamas Attacks On US Soil Axios reported that Tehran has sent Jerusalem a message through the UN that it will intervene if the campaign in Gaza continues, and particularly if it launches a ground offensive. … the Pentagon confirmed that it has ordered a second carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean Sea … “Rafah will be open,” the top US diplomat said after meeting President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.
IDF commando chief: ‘Hamas will be just a memory, nothing more, that’s a promise’ With only one eye (he lost the other during Operation Protective Edge) and remarkable courage, Lt. Col. D. led his elite Duvdevan unit to the Gaza border, where they fought continuously for 60 hours; During this time, they eliminated dozens of terrorists and saved numerous civilians
‘Hezbollah working to escalate tensions on the northern border’ IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Sunday that it is evident that the Hezbollah terror organization is working with Iranian support to intentionally escalate the situation in northern Israel. “Hezbollah is working to escalate tensions on the northern border under the order and with the support of Iran.
Gallant on Gaza border: ‘This will be a massive, deadly, exact, and decisive war’ Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant … stated: “There is a war here, which is a war of the children of darkness against the children of light. We are facing a culture that does not accept our existence here, wild men, vicious animals, who murdered our soldiers, our children, and our citizens. The soldiers here, together with their friends, together with the Air Force, with the intelligence personnel, and the Navy, will eliminate the Hamas organization.” “This will be a massive war, this will be a deadly war, this will be a precise war,
Israel at war – Live updates: Rockets continue to fly as war enters second week Israel entered its second week of war, which has been dubbed “Swords of Iron,” on Saturday. The war was sparked on October 7th, … the IDF has been striking terror targets in the Gaza Strip as Gaza terror organizations continue to fire rockets into Israel. At the same time, terrorists in Lebanon and Syria have also targeted Israel with missile attacks. The IDF has retaliated to those attacks with tank and artillery fire, as well as airstrikes.
Lebanon border heats up as Hamas continues firing rockets into Israel Sirens were heard in western Galilee on Sunday afternoon close to the Lebanon border in the towns of Nahariya, Rosh Hanikra, Hanita, Gesher HaZiv, Betzet, and Shlomi. Hamas in Lebanon took responsibility for the rocket fire.
Filipina care-giver stayed by elderly patient until the end Angeline was a nurse from the Philippines who was caring for her elderly patient, Nira on Kibbutz Kfar Gaza. Despite having a chance to flee the Hamas terror attacks, Angeline showed unbelievable humanity and loyalty by remaining Nira’s side during the violence, resulting in both of them being brutally murdered by Hamas. Unimaginable honour in the face of evil,” she said.
Dr. James Lindsay warns Minnesotans of ‘indoctrination, brainwashing’ in public schools Dr. James Lindsay spoke at a Child Protection League event Wednesday to discuss what he described as Marxist ideology plaguing the nation’s public schools. … an expert in cultural Marxism, advocates for teaching children to think for themselves and educating parents on how to help make that happen. Some states, Minnesota included, are “worse than others” when it comes to the public education system.
Hamas bombs its own people as they flee northern Gaza, expert video analyst reveals the Hamas terror group has been preventing Gazans from fleeing the northern Gaza Strip and shared photos of roadblocks along the evacuation routes. the IDF released an audio recording [Arabic with Hebrew subtitles] of a phone call with a resident of Jabalia in Gaza who explained that Hamas confiscated personal equipment and car keys from the people he was with in a protective shelter. “They’re preventing people from leaving,” said the resident of Jabalia. the IDF commander asked. “Who is stopping you, Hamas?” “Yes, yes,” the resident responded.
Is America already waffling on their ‘We’ve got your back’ statement? it didn’t take long before mixed messages started to be sent, requesting that we “postpone a ground offensive until there is the establishment of a human corridor.” So, what started out as an unequivocal green light is now beginning to feel more like waffling by the Biden administration
Western Afghanistan hit by fourth M6.3 earthquake since October 7 A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.3 at 03:36 UTC (08:06 local time) on October 15, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 8 km (5 miles). This region of Afghanistan was hit by a total 4 of M6.3 earthquakes (USGS) since October 7 when twin M6.3s killed more than 2 400 people.
Is It Just A Coincidence That We Witnessed A “Ring Of Fire Eclipse” Just As The Great Middle East War Begins? We sure have been experiencing a lot of “coincidences” lately, haven’t we? On Friday, Israeli forces conducted their first localized raids inside Gaza. Then on Saturday, the path of a spectacular “ring of fire” solar eclipse marched across the continental United States. Is it just a coincidence that this eclipse has happened just as the Great Middle East War is commencing?
Islamic Controlled Scotland: Hamas Supporters Taunt Jews about Concentration Camps Mounting concerns point to a possible link between leniency towards Hamas supporters and Scotland’s incoming Prime Minister, Humza Yousaf, whose affiliations, ties to Islamic extremist groups and individuals, advocacy for Sharia blasphemy laws, and allegations of racism and radical connections have cast a dark cloud over his leadership.
8-Year-Old ‘Vaccine Poster Child’ Dies after Sudden Heart Attack An 8-year-old boy, who was featured in a national campaign to promote Covid vaccines for children, has tragically died after suffering a sudden heart attack. Yonatan Moshe Erlichman from Israel died unexpectedly after suffering cardiac arrest while taking a bath.
US Confirms 2nd Carrier Group En Route To “Deter Hostile Actions Against Israel” The Pentagon has ordered a second carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, according to two US officials, as Israel prepares to expand its Gaza operations. The first carrier strike group, led by the USS Gerald R. Ford, arrived off the coast of Israel earlier this week.
Oil Prices Are Now Rising, & Biden Already Drained The Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Global benchmark Brent crude futures soared to $87.20 per barrel on Monday morning, while West Texas Intermediate futures in the United States landed on $85.7 per barrel, having initially passed $86. This represents an increase in oil prices of over 3.1 percent globally and over 3.5 percent domestically, as the markets react to Israel declaring war over the weekend in response to an armed incursion from Gaza.
Chicago Residents Express Concerns Over New Migrant Shelter for Single, Adult Men Chicago continues to face overwhelming challenges with the influx of illegals thanks to Joe Biden’s broken border. In the West Town area of Chicago, residents shared concerns over news that 200 illegals will be placed in their neighborhood. Presenting even more concern, the shelter is being established solely for single, adult men.
MIGRANT SAYS HE IS SOLDIER FOR THE U.N. AND HE HAS BEEN SENT HERE This man claims that a Military aged Migrant UN Soldier told that UN paid the man and gave him a card + a phone then told him to await for orders. Something to look into due to how many people are flooding in through borders of U.S.
Agenda 2030’s goal is “no farmers, no food” – if we can’t own property, we become the property ..A war against farmers has emerged, threatening to push them off the land they’ve farmed for generations. Those in control of the land control the food supply and, along with it, the people. Much of this threat is cloaked under Agenda 2030, which they are attempting to impose across the globe, in every country, by 2030 We are in a situation in which there is no other better term than to call it a crisis.
“No mound of parchment can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the one side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other.” —George Washington (1789)
Fellow Patriots, on this day in 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis was triggered when President John F. Kennedy learned of missile bases in Cuba. Today, the president is busy pandering to blacks by honoring the birth of a thug who happened to be killed be police. —Mark Alexander
Shorter Biden: “Honor his life and legacy” with the leftist version of police reform because America is still a racist cesspool.
Nate Jackson
“George Floyd should be alive,” read a statement released by Joe Biden Saturday. “He should be celebrating his 50th birthday with his young daughter Gianna, family, and friends. He deserved so much more.” The statement declared its intent to “honor his life and legacy.”
Clearly, Biden thought it was time to roll out his latest pandering to blacks with a birthday message for a symbolic figure in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Democrats depend on the monolithic black vote, which is why they pander like this at every opportunity, reminding blacks what perpetual victims they remain in a “systemically racist” society — despite 60 years of Democrat “solutions,” they fail to add. It’s also why Democrats browbeat and ostracize any black Americans who dare think for themselves outside the hive mind.
Before we get back to Biden’s statement, we must ask: Did Floyd deserve more? As a bearer of God’s image, yes, he certainly deserved better than to die under the knee of a police officer who was later convicted of murder. But that’s not really what Biden means. For his own political benefit, he means only to elevate Floyd’s status as a victim of the aforementioned oppression of society.
As our Douglas Andrews wrote in June 2020, George Floyd was not exactly a worthy martyr. In fact, he had a violent criminal history, and the cops were called on that fateful day because he had allegedly tried to use counterfeit money. He was belligerent with police because he had drugs in his system, which also contributed to his death.
That’s not to say Floyd deserved death for his crimes, but neither was he merely an innocent bystander whom racist cops chose to victimize.
In any case, none of that is really Biden’s point in elevating Floyd. Instead, the president crassly used the occasion to trot out one of the Democrats’ long-held policy agenda items: police “reform.” Congress failed to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in 2021 when negotiations broke down in the Senate. In a recurring theme of Biden’s presidency, however, he enacted as much of that bill as he could anyway via executive order.
Not only did he ban or restrict various police tactics at the federal level, but his statement reiterates that he directed “the use of federal tools to support similar reforms in state and local agencies.”
What did the Democrats’ version of police “reform” often look like? It meant defunding police departments around the country. It meant vilifying police and suppressing morale to the point that officers left departments in droves while recruiting plummeted. That was bad enough, but the timing couldn’t have been worse.
Floyd’s death, Biden said, “sparked one of the largest civil rights movements in our nation’s history and inspired the world.” In reality, it sparked a summer of rage in which mobs of Black Lives Matter and antifa radicals burned American cities, looted and vandalized stores, and killed dozens of people. Three years later, we’re still dealing with the crime wave launched by leftist radicals exploiting Floyd’s death.
According to Biden and his fellow Democrats, that crime isn’t the problem; racism is. “Our nation has never fully lived up to its highest ideal of fair and impartial justice for all under the law,” his statement said. Yes, there is two-tiered justice in this country. But it’s the kind that targets and imprisons conservatives and former presidents while shielding the current president and his corrupt son. It’s the kind where J6 rioters are locked up and BLM rioters go free.
Biden’s statement concludes with the kind of sanctimonious declaration that has come to define much of his presidency: “George Floyd’s memory reminds us that there is more work to do to redeem the soul of America.” Democrats ignore or trample the Constitution in service to an agenda that divides us by race and sex and income level. They create resentment and foment fear. By doing so, they are the ones destroying, not redeeming, the soul of America.
Jim Jordan wins speaker nomination, GOP reclaims Louisiana governorship, Ilhan Omar’s disinformation, and more.
Thomas Gallatin & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
Jordan wins speaker nomination: On Friday, Representative Jim Jordan (OH) won the Republican nomination for House speaker by a vote of 124-81 over a last-minute challenge from Austin Scott (GA). The trouble is that thus far 55 Republicans have yet to throw their support behind Jordan, who will need 217 votes to win. The House is looking to schedule a speakership vote on Tuesday, with Republicans hoping to get everyone on board and avoid another drawn-out, multi-vote fight like the one that occurred over Kevin McCarthy’s nomination back in January. Dan Crenshaw (TX) warned that the “high-pressure campaign” to get Republicans frustrated by McCarthy’s ouster to support Jordan was the “dumbest way … and as somebody who wants Jim Jordan, the dumbest thing you can do is to continue pissing off those people and entrench them.” While some members have expressed their refusal to support Jordan, McCarthy yesterday said, “I think Jim Jordan can get the votes.”
Good news: GOP reclaims Louisiana governorship: On Saturday, Louisiana held statewide elections, and Republican state Attorney General Jeff Landry unexpectedly won the governor’s race outright over a crowded field, receiving over 50% of the vote and thereby avoiding a runoff election in the Bayou State’s jungle primary. Landry’s win flips the only Deep South state that had a Democrat governor — John Bel Edwards was term-limited. Landry, who had received Donald Trump’s endorsement, called the victory “a wake up call and it’s a message that everyone should hear loud and clear, that we the people in this state are going to expect more out of our government from here on out.” As AG, Landry repeatedly clashed with Edwards and the Biden administration over several issues, including their promotion of gender-bending medical malfeasance on minors and policies limiting oil and gas production.
Global day of jihad: Last week, former Hamas leader Khaled Mashal called for Friday the 13th to be a “global day of jihad” in response to Israel’s military response to Hamas’s unprovoked murderous attack on innocent Israelis. How did Khaled Mashal’s day of rage pan out? Several nations including the U.S. issued warnings alerting people to be aware and encouraging the maxim, “If you see something, say something.” There were several protests where a few people were arrested, but thankfully no violent uprisings or significant terrorist attacks … so far. Thus, it would appear at this point it was not a credible threat. This also may show the low regard the rest of the Islamic world has for Hamas.
Omar’s disinformation: In a blatant attempt to spread anti-Israel propaganda, Democrat Representative Ilhan Omar (MN) reposted on X (formerly Twitter) disinformation from Hamas. One of Omar’s reposts claims Israeli airstrikes targeted fleeing Palestinian civilians. However, it turns out that a car in a convoy that is seen exploding was actually due to a car bomb placed by Hamas, not the result of an Israeli airstrike. Another of Omar’s reposts shows images of dead children who were claimed to have been victims of Israeli’s strikes in Gaza, but the images were in fact from 2013 and depicted dead Syrian children who had been gassed by President Bashar al-Assad. Clearly, Omar has no qualms over propagating a false narrative to support her vile anti-Semitic views.
Menendez and FARA: The hot water surround Democrat Senator Bob Menendez (NJ) is getting hotter. The longtime Democrat senator was charged with bribery last month and is now facing additional charges related to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Menendez has a long record of opposing FARA, with the latest being in 2020 when he blocked a bipartisan effort to create stricter penalties for foreign governments and individuals who violate the law. “It seems shortsighted to provide additional enforcement tools before we have figured out what that regime should look like,” Menendez argued at the time. “So, before this body passes any tweaks or new tools and adds to the current patchwork of FARA regulations and exemptions, I think we should take a step back and take a comprehensive look, and we have not done that.” Now that Menendez is being accused of FARA violations for accepting hundreds of thousands in bribes from Egypt for his “power and influence as a senator,” it makes sense why he was repeatedly opposed to any expansion of the law.
House GOP launches probe into Biden’s climate corps: On Friday, House Republicans launched an investigation into Joe Biden’s unilaterally created American Climate Corps. The House Oversight and Accountability Committee requested documents from AmeriCorps CEO Michael Smith, who was tasked to run Biden’s new Climate Corps. At issue is a question over the legality of Biden’s new program since Congress never gave him authorization to create it. Where is the money coming from? Well, apparently from other agencies, as one of the first actions of Climate Corps was to partner with AmeriCorps and the U.S. Forest Service to provide $15 million for the creation of Forest Corps, which plans to hire 80 people beginning next summer in order to learn about forest and grassland management.
Headlines
American death toll passes 30, Israel-Lebanon border heats up (National Review)
Hamas blocking mass evacuation in Gaza as IDF urges civilians to move south (National Review)
Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated by the U.S. in 2020, reportedly devised terror plan (Fox News)
U.S. ally Qatar’s ties to terrorism scrutinized after Hamas attack on Israel (Daily Wire)
MSNBC loses 33% of primetime audience during coverage of Israel war while Fox and CNN surge (NY Post)
Airlift ordered by DeSantis evacuates 300 Americans from Israel (Daily Wire) | Republican congressman rescues 96 Americans from Israel (National Review)
Now do Ukraine: Russia offers to mediate Israel-Gaza negotiations, Putin says “no alternative” to two-state solution (Fox News)
Six-year-old Palestinian American boy is killed in anti-Muslim attack in Illinois (NBC News)
These are the safest and most dangerous cities in the U.S. (Daily Mail)
Biden closed Q3 with more cash on hand than entire GOP field (Washington Examiner)
Nearly 70% of active service members are overweight, report finds (Military Times)
Humor: Couple asks waiter for to-go box they can leave in car to make it smell like chicken parm for three weeks (Babylon Bee)
Thanks to an intrepid 25-year-old woman, a single Israeli kibbutz armed up and defended itself against certain slaughter.
Douglas Andrews
It’s probably not much of an exaggeration to say that every adult Israeli citizen knows the story of Jonathan Netanyahu. And perhaps one day, many years from now, every Israeli will also know the story of Inbar Lieberman.
Yoni, as he was known, was the 30-year-old American-born older brother of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the hero of the famed Entebbe raid, which took place on the American bicentennial of July 4, 1976. Netanyahu, a commando whose heroism was already well documented before a group of terrorists hijacked an Air France flight bound from Tel Aviv to Paris, led the daring operation that rescued 94 Jewish hostages from the old terminal building at Uganda’s Entebbe airport, where the plane had been re-routed. Netanyahu was the only commando killed in the raid.
Lieberman was born more than two decades after Operation Entebbe, but she distinguished herself greatly last Saturday during the early hours of the barbaric Hamas attack in which Islamist terrorists murdered more than 1,300 Israeli civilians and 30 Americans, and took 199 others hostage.
Lieberman, a member of the security detail of the Nir Am kibbutz, one of the Israeli farming communities that were targeted by Hamas, heard explosions erupting early Saturday. As America’s best newspaper, the UK Daily Mail, reports:
[Lieberman] quickly realized that the sounds were different to those she heard during the usual rocket attacks on the kibbutz and rushed to open the armory and distribute guns among the 12-member security team. The 25-year-old placed her squad of kibbutzniks in strategic positions across the settlement, set up ambushes, and turned the tables on the incoming forces. She killed five terrorists herself, while the others claimed the lives of 20 more over a four-hour period. Nir Am was turned into an impenetrable fortress, while nearby kibbutzims suffered heavier losses.
“It was amazing,” said one witness, Ilit Paz. “My husband was part of the standby unit that worked to prevent more casualties. They heard the shots and made contact on their own with other members of the standby unit and with Inbal — and they understood that they were told to be on standby. But Inbal made a decision not to wait and be jumped operationally. In fact, the fact that they did it early prevented dozens of casualties.”
A native-language social media post in Israel’s Mariv Daily reflected the sentiment of Israelis everywhere: “When it’s all over, this woman will receive the Israel Prize. The story of her heroism is a story that will go down in Israeli lore for generations. Inbal is the reason there is one kibbutz in the entire surrounding area that remains unharmed — Nir Am.”
There is no constitutional right for Israeli citizens to keep and bear arms, but the Israeli government has responded to the October 7 attack by making it slightly easier for its citizens to defend themselves against the terrorists in their midst.
As The Federalist reports: “Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir announced Sunday in Hebrew an emergency declaration that will ‘allow as many citizens as possible to arm themselves.’ Currently, a mere 1.5 percent of the [9.55 million] civilian population has a license to own a gun.”
Here, then, is a tiny bit of good news amid the slaughter, and yet another story of good people with guns defending themselves against bad people with guns.
We here in the U.S. have a hard time fathoming the existential threat under which Israelis continuously live, but it’s encouraging to see that their government understands the importance of a free people being able to keep and bear arms.
Faced with a great test of moral seriousness, our educational establishment has skipped class. It has joined the delinquents.
Matthew Continetti
As Israel mourns some 1,200 dead, prays for the release of more than 100 captives, reels from the worst day in its history, and mobilizes some 360,000 reservists, student activists and the international Left have mobilized to defend, apologize for, and appease evil.
Protests, marches, and statements of solidarity for Palestinian “resistance” have bloomed on city streets throughout the developed world and within America’s institutions of higher learning. The actions of these young people, and of the elites who run the schools, are more than appalling. They are evidence of Western confusion and decadence.
Who could have predicted that within 24 hours of a pogrom, crowds would appear in New York, Ft. Lauderdale, Toronto, London, and Sydney denouncing Jews and calling for an end to the Jewish State? Who might have anticipated that the message from academe would be, in so many words, that Israel had it coming?
Amid a backdrop of Palestinian flags and keffiyehs, a New Yorker waved a cellphone displaying the image of a swastika. Londoners chanted “From the River to the Sea,” demanding the elimination of Jews from the Holy Land. A kosher restaurant was vandalized in the same city. Down under, in front of the Sydney Opera House, masked men lit flares and called out “Gas the Jews.”
After the terror attacks against America on September 11, 2001, similar scenes of denunciation and celebration played out in Iraq and the Palestinian territories. Now, after Israel’s 9/11, they take place openly and unabashedly in the heart of the West.
Whatever this is, it is not progress. The grotesque tableaux represent social fracture, dissolution, ideological sorting, and weakening of confidence. They are a bad omen. Many of the protesters are young males asking for a fight. The last war with Hamas, in the spring of 2021, was accompanied by a surge of anti-Semitic violence in the United States. The Jewish community must prepare for another hateful backlash when Israel launches its ground campaign to destroy Hamas.
The toxic atmosphere of anti-Semitism has several sources. One is the corrupt university system. Fifty-one U.S. student groups have written a letter that concludes, “We support the resistance, we support the liberation movement, and we indisputably support the Uprising.” The president of NYU’s student bar association said that Israel’s “apartheid regime is the only one to blame” for the chaos. Thirty-one “Palestine Solidarity Groups” at Harvard University echoed her despicable sentiment. Swarthmore Students for Justice in Palestine said it “honors the martyrs” of Hamas. Graffiti writers scrawled “Long live the intifada” and “Israel is dead” on Stanford’s sidewalks. Students at George Washington University, one of the most expensive private institutions of higher learning in the country, held a “Vigil for the Martyrs of Palestine.” This is a small sample of dangerous student idiocy. A full catalogue would be endless.
Campus anti-Zionism and leftwing anti-Semitism are not new. The organizations behind the rallies and letters and social media posts have been around for a while. Democratic Socialists of America, Black Lives Matter, Students for Justice in Palestine, and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the United Kingdom have spent years preparing for this moment. What they have set in motion is stunning, nonetheless.
The behavior of university administrations is just as shocking. They have either been mealy-mouthed or morally imbecilic. They have done everything they could to avoid the reality of Hamas’s barbarism. They are silent as their students celebrate terrorism; they are outraged if called to account for their moral corruption. They have built an environment where dissidents are heckled and harassed and even assaulted; where intellectual freedom is stifled; where racial separatism, political correctness, and gender ideology run rampant; where due process is violated; and where violence, so long as it is “revolutionary,” is glorified.
Writing in the Free Press, investor Marc Rowan, who sits on the board of the Wharton School, wants donors to close their checkbooks. That is a start. The larger goal is to bust up the higher education cartel and apply lessons learned in the K-12 education reform movement to the universities.
At the same time, alumni, donors, trustees, and elected officials must push for better leadership on campus. A great school has a strong leader who is willing to say no to the jackals. Ben Sasse of the University of Florida, for example. “Our educational mission here begins with the recognition and explicit acknowledgment of human dignity — the same human dignity that Hamas’s terrorists openly scorn,” Sasse wrote in a remarkable Oct. 11 statement. “Every single human life matters. We are committed to that truth. We will tell that truth.”
Too many of Sasse’s colleagues are dedicated to truth’s opposite. The past two years have seen the world tumble back into the 1930s. America retreated from Afghanistan. Russia launched the largest ground war in Europe since World War II. Hamas, and its Iranian masters, invaded Israel and sparked another war in the Greater Middle East. World order is collapsing, and the consequence is death and misery.
Nor is it only geopolitics that resembles the interwar period. The intellectual climate does, too. As Allan Bloom observed in his 1987 classic The Closing of the American Mind, German universities in the 1920s and 1930s were seedbeds of fascism. The most prominent German philosopher of the age, Martin Heidegger, belonged to the Nazi Party. He never apologized for his affiliation or behavior. Heidegger’s abstruse thought laid the foundations for the postmodern “critical theory” that has dominated the academy since the early 1990s. The result: Two generations of students cannot tell right from wrong, good from evil, justice from terror.
Also, they are functionally illiterate. The Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at the University of Virginia wrote on Instagram that it “unequivocally supports Palestinian liberation and the right of colonized people everywhere to resist the occupation of their land by whatever means they deem necessary.” Whatever means? Does that include rape and baby-killing? Is that what they teach to international relations majors in Charlottesville? Suffice it to say that none of these young adults have ever read a book on the laws of war. They are too busy mainlining Islamo-fascist propaganda on Tik-Tok.
Faced with a great test of moral seriousness, our educational establishment has skipped class. It has joined the delinquents. Not only is it unable to recognize virtue. It aids viciousness. The future may be unknown and forbidding, but one thing is clear. The academy will never live down this shame.
The Washington Post dubiously claims that Ronald Reagan did not address AIDS until homosexuals launched their National Coming Out Day.
Thomas Gallatin
This past Wednesday, October 11, was the 35th anniversary of National Coming Out Day, and to mark the occasion The Washington Post came out with an article of politically motivated revisionist history that smeared Ronald Reagan and conservatives for something promiscuous homosexuals did. Rebutting that screed requires a trip down memory lane.
Back in 1982, just a few years after a novel virus began spreading across the U.S. primarily among homosexual men, that virus was first named Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. Notably, prior to receiving the AIDS name, it had been dubbed gay-related immune deficiency due to the fact that it seemed only homosexual men were acquiring it.
Eventually, it spread to others, though it was clear that AIDS was still spreading most rapidly among homosexual men, who notoriously engaged in a sexually promiscuous lifestyle. And it was this sexual promiscuity that was quickly established as the primary means of the deadly virus’s transmission.
While AIDS was not confined to the homosexual “community,” that small group writ large was primarily suffering from it. Furthermore, at that time within the broader American culture, homosexuality was still viewed as a deviant and immoral lifestyle.
That view is one of the reasons why little was said publicly about the disease early on. Indeed, President Ronald Reagan only first publicly mentioned AIDS in 1985. And while the deadly effects of the disease and its primary means of transmission had been recognized, there were still many unknowns.
This began to change in 1985, when the first American celebrity died of AIDS, Rock Hudson. Hollywood stars such as Elizabeth Taylor began highlighting the spreading virus, shining a brighter spotlight on it.
The following year, the retrovirus that caused AIDS was named human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. As our old pal former NIAID Director Anthony Fauci stated at the time, “One million Americans have already been infected with the virus and … this number will jump to at least two million or three million within five to 10 years.” Also in 1986, Reagan directed Surgeon General C. Everett Koop to further investigate and present a report on AIDS. Back in 1983, Reagan had established an Executive Task Force on AIDS, which Koop had not been a part of.
In 1988, Koop delivered a report titled “Understanding AIDS.” This eight-page report was sent to all 107,000,000 households in the U.S. It told Americans how they could protect themselves from AIDS. It pointed out specifically that AIDS was transmitted via sexual contact and drug use, and it advised abstinence and monogamy as means of protecting oneself. In other words, avoid risky behavior.
Sexually transmitted diseases have long been a plague on humanity. Everyone has known that promiscuity can lead to acquiring dangerous and debilitating diseases. When AIDS came on the scene, it happened to be one of the deadliest of the STDs.
Yet while much work had been done in seeking to understand the disease and its means of transmission, for homosexuals, that knowledge and the means of avoiding it wasn’t enough or acceptable. They were never going to follow guidance that required a true change in their own behavior.
Which brings us back to The Washington Post. Its article, titled “The first National Coming Out Day [NCOD] 35 years ago took on Reagan and AIDS stigma,” makes the false claim that until this first event, in which thousands of gay men and lesbians paraded on October 11, 1988, in Washington DC, Reagan and his administration were “largely ignoring” AIDS. As noted above, that is far from the case.
While it would be accurate to recognize that the vast majority of Americans did view homosexuality negatively, that did not equate to a refusal to acknowledge the problem of AIDS.
Furthermore, diseases that were plaguing Americans at a much higher rate, like cancer, for example, were of equal if not more significant concern. Arguably, since the means of the transmission of AIDS had been determined, and changing problematic lifestyle choices would easily protect an individual from acquiring the disease, the urgency to find a cure was simply not as pressing.
Yet the problem is that too many people were and are loathe to give up a dangerous and immoral lifestyle. “I was frightened of the predatory aspect of AIDS,” AIDS activist Jay Blotcher told the Post. “I was doing everything to avoid it.” Except ceasing a homosexual lifestyle.
Indeed, the founder of NCOD, Robert Eichberg, would later die of AIDS in 1995. As the Post put it, “Eichberg, who would later write the seminal book ‘Coming Out: An Act of Love,’ was not able to avoid contracting AIDS himself.”
On the one hand, the LGBTQ community demand that the government leave them alone — as they often state, the government needs to stay out of the bedroom. On the other hand, when they begin to suffer the consequences of their own promiscuous behavior, then suddenly it’s the government’s job to mitigate and protect them from their poor choices.
Reagan did not fail homosexuals. They are the ones who chose to abandon the God-given morality surrounding sexuality and thus found themselves suffering the consequences.
This college admissions test had the lowest scores in 32 years.
Emmy Griffin
The ACT and the SAT have long been considered the gold standard of tests for colleges to look at when considering prospective students. Though these tests do change with the times, they are not getting harder. Sadly, students who took the ACT this year did not achieve. In fact, according to Axios, test scores have fallen to their lowest point in 32 years (since 1991).
The average score for this year’s hopeful graduate was 19.5 out of 36. This indicates that students aren’t even meeting the college readiness benchmarks in most or all of the academic areas tested. Most colleges and universities are looking for at least an average score of 21, private institutions closer to a 26, and elite institutions a 32-36.
This drastic drop in ACT performance is yet another indicator that our students are not being educated for success. In recent years, we have seen a pointed loss in math proficiency, reading, and overall standardized test scores for all ages. Instead of taking responsibility, schools and administrators are blaming it on COVID-19.
They are only partially right. Public schools did our children a great disservice when they decided to shut their doors during the pandemic and foolishly turn to online learning as a “suitable” alternative to in-person. Children’s mental health declined, and even upon returning, the learning loss experienced by these students seems like an insurmountable slog.
However, notice the powers that be don’t blame their policies that led to the learning loss; they blame the virus, as if the virus made all the decisions, and the likes of Randi Weingarten in collusion with the CDC did not.
On the other hand, this decline in our students’ academic performance started long before the pandemic shutdowns. The story of the downward spiral in our public education system is a complicated one that shifts with the political winds and cultural fads of the zeitgeist. Our particular cultural moment is by far the most confused and confusing. And the leftists who run the institutions — such as our public schools — are happy to put academics last and social emotional agendas, anti-racism training, and gender ideology front and center.
Ultimately, however, this freakout over falling college admissions test scores is probably a waste of energy. Many universities are opting to sidestep the need for ACT and SAT scores in their admissions processes in the name of making college more “equitable” for everyone. This is not a good strategy.
For the students, it does them a disservice by thrusting them into the rigors of college academia before they are academically ready. They are going to struggle and ultimately end up leaving the major they started with and opting for a fluff major like gender studies. These students are paying for this education — which they aren’t ready for — through the nose. It is a disservice to the colleges and universities because they have to dumb down their content to suit the academic needs of their incoming student body. In other words, finishing a high school teacher’s job.
Worst of all is that these student are being denied something truly beautiful: a love of learning and the great satisfaction when they achieve their own goals fair and square. The majority of these students are going to be put into the hamster wheel of lower standards, not able to be challenged, because they are perpetually behind. It truly is a shame.
“Among the many false ideas surrounding the root cause of this [Hamas] attack, one of the most common misconceptions is that this is a war over territory; that the Palestinian people just want the land that they feel the Jewish people never had the right to inhabit in the first place. But this is not a conflict over land. This is an inbred, ongoing war on a religion — and wars on religion do not stay within a set of borders, and they do not respect specific geographical areas.” —Samantha Koch
Stranger Than Fiction
“I look at this from a legal perspective and I think we all know that Hamas has been designated a terror organization just like many other terror organizations, like the Proud Boys here in the United States.” —”The View’s” Sunny Hostin
Grand Delusions
“Did [Iran] have foreknowledge? Did they help plan the [Israel] attack? There’s no evidence of that at this point.” —Joe Biden
“We haven’t seen direct evidence that Iran participated in or helped plan the attack.” —Secretary of State Antony Blinken
“We just haven’t seen any specific, tangible intelligence that leads us to the conclusion that the regime in Tehran was … [a] participant in these specific attacks.” —National Security Council spokesman John Kirby
“If people are looking for us to say, ‘Well, you gotta hold Iran accountable,’ I mean, my goodness … take a look at what we’ve done in just two and a half years.” —John Kirby
The BIG Lies
“The war on inflation is over. We won, at very little cost.” —New York Times columnist Paul Krugman
“Inflation is coming down. It’s down 60% since last summer. Core inflation is the lowest level in two years.” —Joe Biden
“I reduced the budget by $1.7 billion [sic], okay? I reduced the debt while doing it.” —Joe Biden
Hot Air
“I came to office determined to get this country up again so we could face the existential threat of climate and still grow.” —Joe Biden
“[Climate change is] the only existential threat to humanity.” —Joe Biden
Non Compos Mentis
“Who in God’s name needs a weapon with a hundred rounds in their chamber?” —Joe Biden
“We made human rights for LGBT around the world a top priority of my foreign policy.” —Joe Biden
Dumb & Dumber
“I think about the young [Florida] teachers who are in their twenties who, if they are in a same-sex relationship, are afraid to put up a photograph of themselves and their partner for fear they may lose their job.” —Kamala Harris
“There are some forces in our country that are trying to say that it is a bad term to talk about DEI. They’re trying to do with DEI what they did with woke. … They’re trying to suggest that it is somehow wrong to talk about DEI — diversity, equity, and inclusion.” —Kamala Harris
Political Futures
“Watching House Republicans it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that, as a whole, they don’t really want to run the House. They prefer being the opposition. Voters gave them the majority, and they’ve been uncomfortable ever since. Working to regain the minority in 2024.” —Byron York
And Last…
“There are men’s sports for men, there’s women’s sports for women. It should just stay like that. It’s just as simple as that, man. There’s really no argument. There should really be no conversation about it.” —former NFLer Rob Gronkowski
The House Oversight Committee on Monday launched an investigation into whether Joe Biden’s stolen classified were used to make his family millions of dollars.
“We are investigating whether classified documents President Biden was caught mishandling included sensitive information related to specific countries involved in his family’s foreign business schemes that brought in millions for the Bidens,” the Oversight Committee said on Monday.
On Monday House Oversight Chairman James Comer sent a letter to Special Counsel Robert Hur demanding more information about Joe Biden’s stolen classified documents.
The House Oversight Committee last week revealed that five White House employees were involved in Biden’s stolen classified documents case.
The Committee also revealed Joe Biden and his attorney lied about communications and when the classified documents were discovered.
Joe Biden STOLE SCIF-designated classified documents and improperly stored them at the Penn Biden Center. He also stored classified documents in his garage next to his Corvette where his son Hunter had access to the sensitive materials.
Nine boxes of documents were taken from Joe Biden’s lawyer’s Boston office and we have no idea what is in those boxes because the National Archives is covering up for Biden.
Recall that it was reported that Joe Biden’s attorney first discovered “Obama-Biden administration documents in a locked closet while packing files as they prepare to close out Biden’s office in the Penn Biden Center” in November 2022. Biden and his team claimed they immediately contacted the National Archives upon discovering the documents in November 2022.
“They immediately called the Archives — immediately called the Archives, turned them over to the Archives, and I was briefed about this discovery,” Biden said in November 2022.
This timeline presented by Biden’s attorney is of course a lie.
According to new information released by the House Oversight Committee, Joe Biden lied about the timeline. Annie Tomasini, Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the President and Director of Oval Office Operations, went to Penn Biden Center to take inventory of President Biden’s documents and materials on March 18, 2021.
The classified documents were discovered nearly TWO YEARS before Joe Biden’s lawyer said he ‘found’ them.
Chairman Comer in his letter cited Robert Hur’s interview with Joe Biden.
“Recent reports indicate you recently interviewed President Biden and other individuals involved in this matter, and the Committee now seeks information from your office to further our investigation,” Comer’s letter to Hur said. “As detailed in the Oversight Committee’s bank memoranda and Impeachment Inquiry Memorandum, evidence suggests President Biden may have used certain members of his family-particularly his son, Hunter Biden-to accumulate millions of dollars from foreign individuals and entities for the benefit of his family and himself.”
“Indeed, the Biden family received millions of dollars from foreign sources while President Biden served in public office and afterwards,” the Oversight Committee said. “If any of the classified documents mishandled by President Biden involved countries or individuals that had financial dealings with Biden family members or their related companies, the Committee needs access to that information to evaluate whether our national security has been compromised.”
🚨BREAKING🚨
We are investigating whether classified documents President Biden was caught mishandling included sensitive information related to specific countries involved in his family’s foreign business schemes that brought in millions for the Bidens.@RepJamesComer is… pic.twitter.com/9m6f4u1kwg
CBN cameras were on the scene in the Israeli border town of Sderot when a rocket attack suddenly struck, during a visit by a group of international ambassadors who were in the town on a fact-finding tour- the Israeli/Hamas fighting taking place amid concerns of a wider war on the northern border with Hezbollah and Iran; CBN’s Chris Mitchell talks about the rocket attack in Sderot, Israel’s attacks on Gaza, the possibility of a wider war with Iran, and more; survivors of the deadly Hamas attack on October 7th explain how horrifying it was, with one saying it “looked like the apocalypse;” former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman explains why think Israel will “obliterate Hamas,” and what the war will mean for the future of the Middle East; and how some Israelis are helping the war effort by serving from the sidelines.
On Monday’s “Wake Up America,” General Blaine Holt discusses Iran’s fundamental role in the Hamas attacks and the United States’ ’embarassing’ funding problem. Watch NEWSMAX, an independent news network with a conservative perspective, available in 100M+ U.S. homes.
The recent, unprecedented attacks by Hamas against Israel October 7 were the deadliest since Israel became a nation, and the global conflict has now become a powder keg. Some speculate WW III is here.
Israel has always been under attack. According to Bible prophecy, many events in the last days including the return of Jesus Christ, the judgment of God, and end times wars would revolve around Jerusalem.
The Bible warns about wars and rumors of wars, and since a coalition of Muslim nations surrounding Israel forged an alliance many decades ago, the Middle East meltdown was set in motion. How this will impact America remains to be seen.
According to the Washington Examiner, Iran wants “all Arab and Islamic countries” to unite against Israel in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attack that ignited a war in Gaza.
We are living in prophetic times, but this is not about Jews and Palestinians; this is about enemies of God, Jesus, and the biblical worldview. Hamas and Hezbollah, terrorist organizations have publicly vowed for years they will “wipe Israel off the map.” They will never stop trying.
Frankling Graham commented immediately following the terrorist attacks:
“We just saw Hamas brutally murder 900+ Israelis, most all civilians. If you want to know what else they’re after, a Hamas Commander made it clear. He said they want to kill every Jew and every Christian—and take control of the ‘entire 510 million sq. kilometers of Planet Earth.’ If you think what is happening in Israel is limited to Israel, think again.”
The numbers of injured have surpassed 3,000 and more than 1,300 Israelis have been killed. Of these, less than 300 were soldiers. Thousands of Hamas gunmen invaded southern Israel, kidnapping, raping, torturing, and killing Israelis, specifically targeting women, children, and the elderly.
This attack was pure evil and well planned almost to the day of the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, on Oct. 7. The very next day, the Israel Security Cabinet voted to officially declare war for the first time since 1973.
Some Bible prophecy watchers suggest Psalm 83 is being played out before our eyes concerning Israel and the October 7 attacks:
“O God, do not remain quiet; Do not be silent and, O God, do not be still. For behold, Your enemies make an uproar, And those who hate You have exalted themselves. They make shrewd plans against Your people, And conspire together against Your treasured ones. They have said, “Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, That the name of Israel be remembered no more.” For they have conspired together with one mind; Against You they make a covenant…” Psalm 83:1-5
This is almost like reading a current news story. Isn’t the Bible amazing?
Enemies of God openly want the Jewish state annihilated. A coalition of nations is rising up against Israel just as Scripture predicts, most of which are Muslim nations. The Lord seems to be setting the stage for His return like never before.
The prophet Jeremiah wrote about young men and women taken captive (Lam. 1:18) and:
“Women are raped in Zion, young women in the towns of Judah. Princes are hung up by their hands; no respect is shown to the elders. Young men are compelled to grind at the mill, and boys stagger under loads of wood. The old men have left the city gate, the young men their music. The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning” (Lamentations 5:11-15).
Many questions have arisen regarding Israel, one of the most technologically advanced nations with one of the strongest militaries in the world. How did Hamas break through so easily and virtually undetected? Did Israel drop its guard?
There are certainly parallels to America at Pearl Harbor in 1941 as well as September 11, 2001. Israel has persevered through many wars including 1948, 1967, and 1973 as well as countless attacks. But this?
In recent years it has been business as usual for much of the world, particularly in the West, but the Bible warned about times when people are talking about “Peace and safety,” when sudden destruction will come upon them “and they shall not escape (1 Thess. 5:3).”
The unexpected nature of that day will be glorious to those who have confessed their sins and believe, but tragic for unbelievers of all nations unless they know Jesus Christ and are saved. Have you repented and put your hope in Him?
The promised Messiah came through the line of David as prophesied in Scripture and on all the face of the earth, He determined the appointed times of every nation as well as “the boundaries of their habitation (Acts 17:26).”
God has blessed Israel throughout the centuries. Many however, have tried minimizing, changing, or editing world history, particularly when it comes to Israel and the land God gave them, so this is a good time for a very brief refresher.
May 14, 1948, was a remarkable day when the nation Israel was born as prophesied in Isaiah 66:8. Over five million Jews returned to Israel, and as predicted, the remnant was restored (Isaiah 11:11-12; Ezekiel 37:21-22; 38:8). Never before in world history had a people been dispersed and scattered among the nations of the earth and then centuries later return to their homeland “from the north, south, east, and west (Isaiah 43:5-6).”
The Bible was again proved true when Israel became a desolate wasteland for about 1,900 years, but today we see the fulfillment of several more prophecies, such as Israel will bud and blossom, and fill the whole earth with fruit (Isaiah 27:6; Isaiah 35:1-2). Israel now exports fresh produce to the world to the tune of 800 million dollars each year, including over 200 million dollars from flowers and plants.
According to the prophets Amos and Joel, the mountains of Israel would one day flow with sweet wine, and God would restore the people so they could rebuild ruined cities (Amos 9:13-15; Joel 3:18). They would plant vineyards and gardens, enjoy the land, and God promised they will not again be rooted out from their land which I have given them. Amos and Joel are among the first biblically prophetic books written sometime between 750 BC and 835 BC.
Nearly uninhabited and desolate a century ago, this little nation exports well over 40 billion dollars’ worth of goods. Tourism is one of Israel’s major sources of income and economic growth, attracting around 3.5 million foreign tourists per year.
The prophet Isaiah also describes forests of trees filling the formerly barren land and specifically mentions the cedar, acacia, myrtle, olive, juniper, pine, and cypress trees (Isaiah 41:18-20). God fulfilled His promise to open up rivers, springs, and fountains of waters so people would know the hand of the Lord has done this. In the last hundred years, approximately one billion trees have been planted in Israel.
This is all part of Bible prophecy! The city of Jerusalem had been destroyed, trampled underfoot by the Gentiles (Luke 21:24) around AD 70. The land was a desert and uninhabited. According to prophecies, the city of Jerusalem would be – and was – rebuilt on its own ruins (Jeremiah 30:18; Zechariah 12:6) and reestablished in 1948.
Then Jewish people eventually regained full control of the city during the Six-Day War in 1967. On June 7 of that year, the Israeli army broke through and returned Jerusalem to the Jewish people for the first time in 1,897 years! Israel has been attacked many times and often outnumbered, and yet somehow this tiny nation the size of New Jersey has survived and thrived.
They did it because of God, and at times with the help of allies including the Unites States.
It was President Truman who recognized the state of Israel in 1948, but few recall what Richard Nixon did in 1973. Israel was vastly outnumbered in manpower and weaponry during the fourth Arab-Israeli war when Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Jordan carried out a surprise attack on Israel while Jews were observing Yom Kippur.
There was talk of surrender days into the war as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir faced insurmountable odds. In desperation, she called the White House at 3 AM on October 6, 1973, and the Nixon administration acted decisively sending 22,000 tons of jets, tanks, and ammunition by air and by sea to Israel. Israel overcame its enemies once again and that war came to an end.
What about President Trump? Between his policies, Nikki Haley standing up to the United Nations, the Trump White House reestablishing a strong relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu, and moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, Trump had the most pro-Israel administration in decades.
Few would deny God had blessed America in the past, but we have turned our backs on Him as a nation. The Bible teaches that those who bless Israel will be blessed (Genesis 12:3), and He will curse those who curse Israel. It must be noted the Obama and Biden administrations have been the most anti-Israel in our history and have provided billions of dollars to Iran, a sworn enemy of Israel.
Some believe we are under God’s judgment for our immorality as a nation as well as electing wicked rulers. God judges all nations for their sins. It’s difficult to rule out judgment or discipline as a cause for any national calamity, including what He is allowing in Israel.
Don’t misunderstand, Israel as a nation has been rebellious, and has rejected Jesus as the Messiah for 2,000 years. Luke recorded one of Peter’s sermons in the Book of Acts where he charged the Jews:
“But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.” (Acts 3:14-15)
The world has rejected Jesus, but all nations were not given God’s promises like Israel.
God chose Israel through Abraham to be “a great nation,” and Abraham was promised land, seed, and blessing. That blessing included God’s plan in Genesis 12 saying, “I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing (Gen. 12:2).”
The blessing would extend to Israel and the world (Galatians 3:8, 16) because from Abraham’s descendants would come Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:1; Rom. 9:5) the One who would take away the sins of His people (Matt. 1:21; Jn. 1:29; 1 Jn. 3:5).
How can true believers in Christ and the biblical worldview respond to recent events?
Certainly not in silence. We should stand with Israel and ask God for her protection. The people there need to hear the gospel and be saved. The Bible tells us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 22:6), which seems almost impossible at the moment.
Joshua Arnold at the Washington Stand reminds us that “nations hostile to God still plot the destruction of his chosen people,” and offers this perspective:
“Let us complain to him of the terrible violence and bloodshed, that cruel men do evil with impunity, that many people have set themselves [as] enemies of God and his people, that much of the world continues to reject God and does not give glory to his name.
Let us acknowledge that God presides over the affairs of nations, that he is good, that he accomplishes all his sovereign and wise purposes for the glory of his name, and that he will vindicate himself by judging his enemies.”
No matter what happens, no matter what man does, no matter the wars or catastrophic events, and no matter what this temporary world can throw at us, God is sovereign over all things. As we know from Scripture, this includes all nations, and especially Israel.
Pray also for more Jews to believe in Yeshua (Jesus) and receive eternal life (1 Jn. 5:11-13). It’s not over, friends, but time is running out. Make sure you’re right with the Lord, and that you’re on the right side of historical and biblical truth.
Sometimes, people who don’t know very much about politics lazily say “both parties are the same, so it doesn’t matter whether you vote or not… the system is rigged”. But is this really true? Let’s take a look at the issue of immigration, and see if the two parties really are the same when we look at the details.
Reps. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) and Andy Ogles (R-TN) are introducing legislation that would ban President Joe Biden’s administration from importing Palestinians to the United States to be resettled in American communities.
The bill, exclusively shared with Breitbart News ahead of its introduction, is titled the “Guaranteeing Aggressors Zero Admission Act” or the GAZA Act. The legislation would prevent Biden’s administration from issuing visas to those with Palestinian Authority passports.
[…]Likewise, the bill would prevent Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from funneling Palestinians into the U.S. through the agency’s parole pipeline.
But what about the Democrat view of immigration?
Following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden used his administration’s parole pipeline to resettle nearly 100,000 Afghans across American communities — many of whom were not interviewed in person beforehand and who were found to be linked to terrorism.
As Breitbart News reported, in Fiscal Year 2022 alone, Biden’s DHS gave green cards to about 63,000 legal immigrants to permanently resettle in the U.S. who arrived from countries previously included in a national travel ban list due to their involvement with terrorism.
What I am hearing is that the weapons that America abandoned fell into the hands of the Palestinians, which is why you can see photographs of them holding American military weapons. That seems to be Biden’s foreign policy – arm our enemies, reward them with cash and prizes for attacking us and our allies.
Meanwhile, here’s a message from Ron DeSantis, reported in Fox News:
Florida Gov. and GOP presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis Sunday stuck to his stance that the U.S. should not accept refugees from Gaza amid the ongoing conflict with Israel.
“Palestinian Arabs should go to Arab countries, the U.S. should not be absorbing any of those,” DeSantis said during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday.
The Florida governor’s remarks come after he sparked controversy with comments made on the campaign trail in Iowa Saturday, arguing to those in the audience that the refugees would be “antisemitic.”
“I don’t know what Biden’s going to do, but we cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees,” DeSantis said during the event. “If you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they are all antisemitic. None of them believe in Israel’s right to exist.”
That’s bold, but he’s not wrong.
So there is a clear difference between the parties on issues. I think the people who say that there is no difference just don’t know what the differences are, because it takes work to know.
Hundreds of illegal immigrants are processed by U.S. Border Patrol officers in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Sept. 18, 2023. (Bill Melugin / Twitter video screen shot)
US Customs and Border Patrol reported that four Iranians were apprehended at the open US southern border in the last month.
The Iranians were considered “special interest aliens.”
Via FOX News reporter Griff Jenkins:
**BREAKING ** CBP sources confirm to FOX News at least 2 known instances of Iranians apprehended at the border hitting the TSDB (terrorist screening data base) “raising red flags that they could pose a significant security threat” in first two weeks of FY24 (Oct 1-14) @FoxNews
More from Griff: “A single male from Iran was apprehended at the border on Sunday. Three other men from Egypt and Lebanon were captured at the border last week.”
BREAKING: CBP sources confirm a single adult male from Iran apprehended in the early morning hours in Eagle Pass TX Sunday. This after 2 single adult males from Lebanon and 1 Egyptian male were apprehended on Thurs – all SIAs (Special Interest Aliens) to undergo vetting @FoxNews
How are border patrol agents able to capture any terrorists when the border under Joe Biden is wide open?
**NEW VIDEO** FOX News sources capture a FerroMex train bursting with migrants out of Zacatecas heading to our southern border right now… cheering and clearly not heeding the message: “do not come”@FoxNewspic.twitter.com/YflMwXrWqu
There are 1.5 million illegal alien ‘got-aways’ who have entered into the US during Joe Biden’s watch who were not apprehended at the border and did not want to be apprehended at the border.
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