Weekend News And Commentary

As usual for the weekend, we have some fascinating commentaries in circulation as reflection takes place regarding current, prophetic news. 

First up, Caroline Glick who gets it right once again:

Moral Relativism And Jihad

Two events happened on Wednesday which should send a shiver down the spine of everyone concerned about the future of the American Jewish community. But to understand their importance it is important to consider the context in which they occurred.

On January 13, The New York Times reported on a series of virulently anti-Jewish comments Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi made in speeches given in 2010. Among other things, Morsi said, "We must never forget, brothers, to nurse our children and our grandchildren on hatred for them: for Zionists, for Jews." He said that Egyptian children "must feed on hatred; hatred must continue. The hatred must go on for God and as a form of worshiping him."

In another speech, he called Jews "bloodsuckers," and "the descendants of apes and pigs."

Two weeks after the Times ran the story, the Obama administration sent four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt as part of a military aid package announced in December 2012 entailing the provision of 20 F-16s and 200 M1-A1 Abrams tanks.

The Anti-Defamation League, AIPAC, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and other prominent American Jewish groups did not oppose the weapons transfer.

With the American Jewish leadership silent on the issue, Israel found its national security championed by Sen. Rand Paul. He attached an amendment to a budget bill that would bar the US from transferring the advanced weapons platforms to Egypt.

Paul explained, "Egypt is currently governed by a religious zealot... who said recently that Jews were bloodsuckers and descendants of apes and pigs. This doesn't sound like the kind of stable personality we [sh]ould be sending our most sophisticated weapons to."

Paul's amendment was overwhelmingly defeated, due in large part to the silence of the American Jewish leadership.

The Times noted that Morsi's castigation of Jews as "apes and pigs" was "a slur for Jews that is familiar across the Muslim world."

Significantly the Times failed to note that the reason it is familiar is because it comes from both the Koran and the hadith. The scripturally based denigration of Jews as apes and pigs is legion among leading clerics of both Sunni and Shi'ite Islam.

It was not a coincidence that the Times failed to mention why Morsi's castigation of Jews as apes and pigs was so familiar to Muslim audiences.

If the Times acknowledged that the Jew hatred espoused by Morsi and his colleagues in the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as by their Shi'ite colleagues in the Iranian regime and Hezbollah is based on the Koran, they would have to acknowledge that Islamic Jew hatred and other bigotry is not necessarily antithetical to mainstream Islamic teaching. And that is something that the Times, like its fellow liberal institutions, is not capable of acknowledging.

They are incapable of acknowledging this possibility because considering it would implicitly require a critical study of jihadist doctrine. And a critical study of jihadist doctrine would show that the doctrine of jihad, or Islamic holy war, subscribed to by the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates, as well as by the Iranian regime and Hezbollah and their affiliates, is widely supported, violent, bigoted, evil and dangerous to the free world.

And that isn't even the biggest problem with studying the doctrine of jihad. The biggest problem is that a critical study of the doctrine of jihad would force liberal institutions like the New York Times and the institutional leadership of the American Jewish community alike to abandon the reigning dogma of the liberal ideological camp - moral relativism.

Moral relativism is based on a refusal to call evil evil and a concomitant willingness to denigrate truth if truth requires you to notice evil.

Below we see two timely pieces from Joel Rosenberg:

DIA 'Bombshell' Assessment That North Korea May Now Have Nuclear Missiles - Could Accelerate Israeli Calculations For Hitting Iran

The news that the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency now believes North Korea may be able to miniaturize its nuclear warheads and fit them on ballistic missiles means the crisis on the Korean Peninsula involves not just one but two dangerous scenarios.

First, that Kim Jung Un — the Pyongyang man-child dictator – will trigger a nuclear war in East Asia, either purposefully or accidentally. The last Korean war cost more than 2.5 million lives. The next one could cost many multiples of that. Seoul alone is a city of some 12 million people.

Second, that Benjamin Netanyahu — the Israeli Prime Minister — will feel compelled to launch a massive preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities sooner rather than later. Why? Because the rapid advancement of North Korea in building nuclear warheads capable of fitting on ballistic missiles means Iran is not far behind from accomplishing the same if North Korea is selling their research to the mullahs in Tehran. This could accelerate the Israeli calculus for taking decisive action since neither the Obama administration nor other world powers appear to be taking decisive steps of their own to neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat.

While on the surface North Korea is creating a crisis that is unique to the Pacific theater, the sober truth is that the crisis actually has direct and immediate implications for the Middle East. Israeli leaders are monitoring the North Korean developments very closely. They are also watching equally closely how the White House is handling the Korean situation.

At this point, Netanyahu and his advisors are likely drawing the following conclusions:

1. Pyongyang either has or nearly has not just an operational nuclear warhead, but one that can be fitted on a ballistic missile;
2. Therefore, because Iran and North Korea are working so closely together, it must be assumed that Iran is even closer to having deliverable nuclear missiles than previously believed;
3. The U.S. intends to take no decisive action to stop Pyongyang from becoming a nuclear weapons power;
4. Therefore, it can be assumed that the U.S. is not going to take decisive action to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons power;
5. In the cases of both North Korea and Iran, the Obama administration talks tough, but carries a little stick — the U.S. merely intends to contain and deter these two countries from using nuclear weapons, not really prevent them from building them;
6. Thus, Israel is on its own, and may need to move hard and fast to keep Iran from crossing the red line, after which Israel won’t have an effective military option.

“The results of a classified Defense Intelligence Agency report indicate that ‘North Korea now has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles,’” reports the Christian Science Monitor. “That was the bombshell out of a House Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday. It came when Rep. Doug Lamborn (R) of Colorado began quoting from what he said was an unclassified version of the DIA report, which has not yet been made public.”

Is War With Iran Unavoidable?

In the Mideast context, the central question is how Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his War Cabinet assess the implications and ramifications of the North Korea nuclear program and the Obama administration’s unwillingness to take decisive action to stop Pyongyang from building nuclear weapons. The more alone Israel feels, the more likely it will be to strike Iran hard and fast.

Here’s the link to the video — it runs just under 4 minutes.

Iran Test-Fires Three New Missile Types

The Iranian military has test-fired three new missiles of a previously untested type, the country’s Fars news agency reported Saturday.

“Three types of missiles developed by the army and the defense industries have been successfully test-fired in the Ground Force’s recent war games,” Fars quoted Iranian Army Ground Force Lieutenant Gen. Kioumars Heydari as saying.

Heydari said the missiles were of a previously untested type, “different from the Naze’at 10 and the Fajr missiles.”

The Naze’at 10 is a long-range artillery rocket capable of reaching targets between 110 and 130 kilometers away, while the Fajr 5 artillery rocket has been used against Israel in the past few years by Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants.

Heydari reportedly added that the Iranian military would also reveal its new personnel carriers during National Army Day parades on Thursday, April 18.

A top army official told the news agency that the purpose of the trials was to deter Iran’s enemies from striking it. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made similar statements in the past.

Also on Saturday, Iranian Ambassador to Paris Ali Ahani warned that Tehran’s response to any Israeli aggression would be so crushing that it could trigger a third world war with unprecedented consequences.

“A potential Israeli attack on Iranian territories to hit a blow at its scientific and nuclear facilities is sheer madness and its consequences are catastrophic and uncontrollable,” Fars quoted the envoy as saying.

“Iran will not sit silent under such an aggression. Such a move can trigger a series of violence which will possibly lead to the World War III,” Ahani reportedly said, citing IAEA Resolution 533, which prohibits “all armed attacks against nuclear installations devoted to peaceful purposes whether under construction or in operation.”

IDF Troops Come Under Fire Along Syrian Border

An IDF patrol in the Golan Heights came under artillery and small arms fire Friday from Syrian forces. No injuries were reported, but damage was inflicted to an IDF vehicle, according to an Israel Radio report. The IDF Spokesperson reported that no damage was reported.

The army dispatched helicopters to the area, near Kibbutz El Rum in the northern Golan Heights, and IDF forces stationed along the border returned fire at the Syrian army post with a Tammuz missile and tank fire. The IDF confirmed a direct hit. Israeli authorities notified the United Nations of the incident.

Syrian Troops Battle Rebels Near Lebanon Border

The province of Homs and its capital of the same name were the scenes of some of the heaviest fighting during the first year of Syrian conflict. The violence has escalated there in recent weeks, with Syrian war planes hitting the city daily. On Friday, troops clashed with rebels on the edges of the province along the Lebanese border.

The border area is strategically important to both sides fighting in Syria’s civil war and battles there have been frequent in past weeks, particularly in and around the town of Qusair in Homs province. The area is considered vital to the Syrian regime because of its location along a road linking Damascus with the city of Homs, a strategic supply route for the military. The rebels also have been using the road to transport supplies and weapons from Sunni supporters in Lebanon.

This next article may reveal the most chilling news we have seen in quite a while:

'Evangelicals Could Be Put On Watch List, Denied Guns'

Citing recent “inflammatory rhetoric” by Army officials, the head of the Family Research Council is warning supporters that President Obama could put evangelical Christians and Catholics on a “watch list” to prevent them from purchasing guns.

FRC President Tony Perkins said on his “Washington Watch” radio broadcast Wednesday that the Senate’s bipartisan proposal requiring background checks for Internet gun sales is “very concerning given the fact that the United States military has been increasingly showing hostility toward evangelicals and Catholics as being somehow threats to national security and people that need to be watched.”

In an email today to FRC supporters, Perkins explained that a recent Army briefing on “religious extremism” declared evangelical Christians and Catholics are among the biggest threats to America, along with Islamic supremacist groups such as al-Qaida and Hamas.

Perkins said it was also discovered that, in an email, Army Lt. Col. Jack Rich highlighted FRC and the American Family Association as groups that do not share “our Army Values.”

In his broadcast Wednesday, Perkins tied together the Army rhetoric with the proposed Senate legislation.

“Well, what does that have to do with gun control?” he continued. “Well, what happens if all the sudden you are identified as an evangelical, Bible-believing fundamentalist and the government decides you’ve got to be put on a watch list?”

Perkins explained that under the legislation, if “a caution comes up when they put your name in, you don’t get a chance to buy a gun.”

The controversial Army briefing, titled “Extremism and Extremist Organizations,” was given to an reserve unit in Pennsylvania.

A slide titled “Religious Extremism” listed organizations and movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida, Hamas, the Nation of Islam, the Ku Klux Klan and Christian Identity as examples.

However, the first group on the list is “evangelical Christianity.” Catholicism and ultra-orthodox Judaism are also on the list of religious extremist organizations.

The 14-page email puts FRC and AFA together with the Ku Klux Klan, Black Panthers and neo-Nazis, citing the Southern Poverty Law Center, which, according to a judge, inspired the shooting at Family Research Council’s headquarters last August.

Perkins cited Fox News correspondent Todd Starnes’ list of “recent military missteps”:

• A Fort Leavenworth War Games scenario identified Christian and evangelical groups as potential threats;
• A 2009 Department of Homeland Security memo identified evangelicals and pro-life groups as potential threats to national security;
• The U.S. Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center released a study linking pro-lifers to terrorism;
• Evangelical leader Franklin Graham was uninvited from the Pentagon’s National Day of Prayer service;
• At the National Cemetery in Houston, Christian prayers were prohibited at the funeral services for military veterans;
• Distribution of Bibles was banned for a time at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
• Christian crosses and a steeple were removed from a chapel in Afghanistan because the military said the icons disrespected other religions;
• Catholic chaplains were prohibited from reading a letter to parishioners from their archbishop regarding the Obama HHS mandate.

Perkins noted members of Congress, led by Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., have sent a letter to the secretary of the Army calling on the Army to apologize for attacking Christians and labeling them as extremists.