In the news...

There are several articles of interest today.

First is a very interesting article - something that we have been watching for. As a backdrop to the story, many of us have predicted for years, that the "confirmation" of the covenant mentioned in Daniel 9:27 (that covenant which will be confirmed by the antichrist, bringing "peace" between Israel and her enemies) will require some sort of security forces to keep the peace. In this era of terrorism, the only way to "confirm" a covenant will be to have the popular "peace-keeping" forces in the region. To be consistent with the scriptures, one would imagine that the antichrist would be in control of such forces. For this reason, any calls for such peace-keeping military forces is of great interest:


"Report: PA seeks NATO presence"

The Palestinian Authority is considering allowing the permanent stationing of NATO forces in the future Palestinian state, London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Quds al-Arabi reported Palestinian sources saying Wednesday.

The NATO forces will be able to prevent arms smuggling into the future state and to monitor that it would remain demilitarized. Under any peace agreement likely to be formulated between and the Palestinian Authority, would expect the Palestinian entity to remain demilitarized.

...envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell is meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Wednesday afternoon. According to the report, Abbas would be making this offer and request in the meeting.

In an unrelated news story - we see more news regarding a global banking system; in this case, we see Canada's opposition:

"Canada campaigns against global bank tax"

Canada will "resist" a bank tax, Industry Minister Tony Clement said Tuesday as ministers fanned out across the world to raise opposition to the proposal for avoiding another financial crisis.

"Canada is, and will remain, opposed to a tax that would penalize financial institutions that remained strong and prosperous while many of the world's banks failed," Clement told a press conference with Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon.

Attempts to reach international agreement on coordinated bank taxes at last month's G20 and IMF meetings ran aground.

Nations including Canada and Brazil, whose banking sectors emerged largely unscathed from the financial crisis, objected to the plan, favoring higher capital reserve requirements instead.

But it is expected to be revived at the next meeting of G20 leaders in Toronto next month, with Germany's Angela Merkel vowing to press for the proposal supported by many in Europe.

Next we see an article on the growing world-wide anti-semitism:

"Waking Up to Urban Anti-Semitism"

As respected journalist Melanie Phillips notes in her important new book, The World Turned Upside Down, a virulent anti-Semitism has emerged that is sophisticated in its presentation, pedagogical in its outreach, and international in its acceptance.


Today's brand of anti-Semitism is perhaps best personified by the global reaction to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran. In Iran, the State of Israel is demonized as a "cancerous tumor to be excised" and the Jewish people as "evil incarnate." If Iran were an economic backwater, the world might happily condemn its leadership. But Iran has money to spend, and many of the world's largest companies, together with their governments, do not want to miss a profitable opportunity.


The diplomatic elite have also joined the ranks of anti-Semites. They use rights-based juridical platforms such as the International Criminal Court and the United Nations to deny Israel, the historic homeland of the Jewish people, the right to be treated equally amongst nations.

This is not the thuggish anti-Semitism of the Cossack mobs, or even the populist anti-Semitism of the Nuremberg stadium. It is the anti-Semitism of the elite, the intellectual, and the literate. It is thoroughly modern and urbane.

There are academics who deny conference attendance and teaching posts to Israeli scholars. There are student governments that seek divestiture of university funds from companies that engage in business with Israel. There is even campus outrage at having the Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., a noted historian, present the commencement address at Brandeis University, an institution named for a respected Jewish jurist and a leading American Zionist of his day.


Today's modern anti-Semites contend that these activities are appropriate expressions of disagreement with Israel's policies. They argue that their responses reflect no anti-Semitism but rather measured criticism toward illegal actions perpetrated by Israel. However, the distinction is a false one, and no other country suffers this kind of ostracism.


As Per Ahhmark, a former Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden, explained, "In the past, the most dangerous anti-Semites were those who wanted to make the world Judenrein, 'free of Jews.' Today, the most dangerous anti-Semites might be those who want to make the world Judenstaatrein, 'free of a Jewish state.'"


This is a clever anti-Semitism. It seeks to justify the physical elimination of the Jewish state by revising the Middle East narrative. Anti-Semites refer to the establishment of modern Israel as a historical mistake, part of a vast colonial conspiracy, involving the subjugation of the Palestinian Arabs and occupation of Palestinian Arab land. Their solution to correct this error is quite clear.


British jurist Anthony Julius explains further: "To maintain that the very existence of Israel is without legitimacy, and to contemplate with equanimity the certain catastrophe of its dismantling ... is a kind of anti-Semitism indistinguishable in its compass and its consequences from practically any that has yet been inflicted on Jews." Julius is correct in this assessment with the exception that the potential consequences are far worse.

Preparing for the elimination of the Jewish state requires constructing a self-righteous logic by which the Jewish state deserves to be dismantled.

We must, in the end, affirm what is true, what is right, and what Western civilization stands for. These are the stakes in fighting the new anti-Semitism. This hatred threatens not only the Jewish community and Israel. It threatens all who value personal freedom, democracy, and the sanctity of life itself. With the world once again turned upside-down, it will take a collective effort to turn it right-side-up.

Of course all of this is completely expected in light of biblical prophecy. we look around and see a world where everything seems to be coming together, prophetically, just like the pieces of a puzzle coming together. Anti-semitism is universally accepted and encouraged now - whether it is found in the classrooms, newspapers, among the world's leaders, the UN, the Arab league, the EU, etc. And, you can find - not only anti-semitism throughout the world - but more disturbing is the fact that such ideas are universally accepted and encouraged.

I believe this will come to a head soon. Will it be the imminent Lebanon/Hezbollah-Israeli conflict? Will it be the Israeli-Iranian conflict? Will it be from Hamas in Gaza or the West Bank? Egypt? Syria? Turkey?

What interests me is the fact that so many of these growing issues could serve as the triggering mechanism, and they are all approaching a climax.