In the news:

As we've seen recently, most of the pertinent news revolves around the Middle East:

Palestinian group calls for more 'Nakba Day' style riots

The Pro-Palestinian group that organized "Nakba Day" marches announced on Saturday that they were planning further protests on June 5, the day that the Six Day War broke out. The announcement, which was published on the Internet, called on Palestinians in foreign countries to fly to Israel and land at airports within the state.

The group called on Palestinian refugees to hold demonstrations at the borders between Israel and Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Gaza Strip.

Prepare for second round of protest

In a statement distributed on social networks, the organization called on Palestinians living abroad to fly to Israeli airports, and encouraged Palestinian refugees to gather near the borders of Israel and its neighboring countries.

The organizing committee claimed the previous processions created "embarrassment and confusion" in Israel, saying the marches will continue "until the refugees can return to Haifa, Jaffa and Ashkelon, and the other cities in which they lived until 1948.

"The 'Nakba Day' procession was not a one-time event, but rather a new phase in the Palestinians' historic struggle," added the organizers, who demanded that the United Nations assume responsibility for the safety of the refugees

Americans to Israel: Don't listen to Obama

Leaders across America whose organizations represent literally millions of people have told the nation of Israel, much like the wizard told Dorothy in Oz, "don't listen to that man behind the curtain," or in the current case, don't listen to the man in the White House.

The message to Israel was in a full-page newspaper ad published today in Jerusalem by a coalition of American organizations coming together under the slogan "Israel, You're Not Alone.

"WE STAND WITH YOU," the Jerusalem Post ad states. "Mr. Prime Minister, you are not alone! Millions of Americans stand with you and Israel and we welcome you on your upcoming visit to the United States of America."

The link above contains the full ad, and it is a thing of beauty.

The Middle East Operational Codes: Five Keys to Understanding

Understanding the ME, as tumultuous, anarchist, and violent as it is, does not require complicated pundit analyses and convoluted explanations. Rather, in light of last month's uprisings, simplicity is the key, with five variables serving as instrumental in understanding the ME operational code.

This article is worth reading. Here are a couple of points included in this piece:

The fifth key to understanding is that the alternative to the current regimes in power are other leaders coming from the same political elite or Islamic groups coming from the opposition. Both are patrimonial, oppressive, and undemocratic. It must be clearly stated that aside from anarchy, one of the most likely alternatives to the ME regimes is not democracy, but Islamism.

The Islamic phenomenon is not defensive and passive; it is an aggressive onslaught against modernism and secularism led by urban, educated, secular middle-class groups. Western permissiveness and materialism are the forces leading to these groups' return to Islam and motivating them to bring the Islamic religion back to a hegemony (al-Islam Huwa al-Hall al-Waheed).

We are witnessing the same old chaotic, anarchic ME, and the Arab people's uprisings will not lead to democracies and consensual regimes.

In fact, there is a high probability that the outcome of the uprisings will be either more oppressive authoritarian regimes and patrimonial leadership from the military or the emergence of Islamist groups under the Shari'ah. The latter outcome would ultimately lead to the victory of either Iran and the Shiite version of Islam or al-Qaeda and the Salafi-Sunni version of Islam.

Regarding the ME, the next decade is more likely to witness the emergence of the Sunni Caliphate or the Shiite Imamate struggling for hegemony. Both outcomes signal an imminent threat to the security of the West.

However, instead of concentrating on understanding the operational code of the ME, and instead of trying to maintain the status quo, Western leaders prefer to operate through delusional wishful-thinking policies.

To take a step back, and look at the overall perspective in the Middle East, we see the following facts:

There are more than twenty-five current civil wars going on around the world; there are a billion poor, miserable and hungry people who earn a dollar a day; there are deep food crises and water shortages; there are huge unresolved political issues and hosts of nations without the opportunity to form an independent state (James Minahan, Nations without States, Westport, CT, 1996).

But the international community prefers to concentrate on the Palestinian issue. Indeed, we can draw a direct line between the world's desperation to solve real problems and its eagerness to deliberately concentrate on the Palestine situation.

One can only marvel at how blessed the Palestinians are to have everybody dealing with their issue, as if they are the only orphans of the world. One can only wonder how much political and financial support they receive at the expense of all those really in need. One can only be amazed at the stupidity of the false belief that all other regional issues will disappear, will be gone with the wind, if only the Palestinian issue is solved

The hard truth is that rather than heralding the dawn of democracy and prosperity, this misguided belief and the misunderstanding of the ME operational code are more likely the harbinger of the dark winter of Islam -- a catastrophic set of circumstances that may well lead to the demise of U.S. influence, the destruction of Israel, and general regional chaos besides.

Why Israel cannot trade land for peace

President Obama's call for Israel's return to 1967 boarders is an abomination. As Dr. Leonard Peikoff once wrote:

"Land for peace" is a repugnant formula for Israel's self-immolation. The right of a civilized nation to self-defense against its barbarous enemies is a moral absolute. It should not be surrendered in a vain attempt to appease the initiators of war. It is a moral perversion to demand that Israel give back the very land it captured in the process of defending itself against wars launched by the Arab aggressors.


The legitimacy of any state is based on how much it respects its citizens individual rights. The Islamists in Palestine are not fighting for land to implement a rights-respecting republic, they want land and "sovereignty" to put into place a bloody Islamic Theocracy.

Israel, on the other hand, substantially respects its citizens individual rights. It is by this virtue that their sovereignty is legitimate. It is also the reason why Israel is supported by liberty loving people all over the world.

The choice of President Obama couldn't be any clearer. Israel is a bastion of Western civilization where human rights are respected; the Palestinian Islamists are butchers who do not recognize anyone's right to life and liberty. He knows this. And he chose to speak out on the latter's behalf.

It is truly amazing that so many world leaders choose to ignore the facts, and live in a parallel fantasy world - by choice. It is painfully obvious that the various terrorist groups (including the PLO/Fatah/PA) have no intention whatsoever of living peacefully beside Israel - the epic failure of the Gaza land giveaway proves this fact definitively.

But the world leaders pretend that mythical peace will be obtained if only Israel would just give up some more land..THEN we can see peace in the Middle East.

And this is in the face of the obvious - the obvious being the fact that Hamas refuses to accept or acknowledge that Israel has a right to exist on their land.

Their pretend game depends on an ignorant population - and a population who never reads beyond the MSM headlines and rhetoric.

And of course, more importantly, we know how God views this situation. Unfortunately, the world will gain an understanding of how God views these events and they will see it up front and in person:

"And all the people of the earth will tremble at my presence...I will make myself known in the sight of many nations...My hot anger will be aroused..." (Ezekiel 38)

God's time is almost upon us.