Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday blasted Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu for "daring" to attend an anti-terror solidarity march in Paris, accusing him of leading "state terrorism" against the Palestinians.
The comments, at a press conference in Ankara with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, were the latest verbal assault against Netanyahu by Erdogan under whose rule Turkey's relations with Israel have steadily deteriorated.
He said he could "hardly understand how he (Netanyahu) dared to go" to Sunday's massive march in the French capital and urged him to "give an account for the children, women you massacred."
The Turkish president is known for his angry outbursts at the Jewish state, declaring in July that Israel had "surpassed Hitler in barbarism".
In 2009, Erdogan walked off the stage at the World Economic Forum after an angry exchange with the the then Israeli president, Shimon Peres.
"Turkey will continue to fight... against Israel's reckless actions that do not recognise law," the Turkish president said.
Abbas said on Monday he had participated in the rally at the invitation of French President Francois Hollande.
"I haven't seen anyone trying to prevent me from doing so. I was welcomed very well," he said.
"We have a strong relationship with France ... I received an invitation from the president and participated."
Israeli media reported earlier that France had asked Netanyahu to stay away from the march but he ignored the request and attended anyway.
The same message was conveyed to Abbas, Channel Two television and Israeli newspapers reported. But when Netanyahu rejected the appeals of the French government, Abbas was swiftly invited, they said.
French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo defied the attackers in last week’s bloodbath by putting a cartoon of a weeping Prophet Muhammad on its next cover, as the government on Monday announced the deployment of 10,000 soldiers to boost security.
The no-holds-barred publication released the front page of what it called the “survivors’ issue,” due out Wednesday, featuring Muhammad in a white turban and holding a sign that reads “Je suis Charlie” under the words: “All is forgiven.”
In a further show of defiance, the magazine announced it would print three million copies — not the usual 60,000 — when it reappears on newsstands this week.
Charlie Hebdo has become an international symbol of free speech since the massacre and a second attack two days later at a Jewish supermarket. A total of 17 people were killed in the twin rampages.
Seeking to reassure a jittery nation after the attacks, French officials announced the unprecedented deployment of thousands of soldiers to boost security, including at Jewish schools.
“We have decided… to mobilize 10,000 men to protect sensitive sites in the whole country” from Tuesday evening, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said after an emergency security meeting.
“This is the first time that our troops have been mobilized to such an extent on our own soil,” he added.
Another 5,000 security officers were also part of the reinforcements.
Reverend Franklin Graham, son of world renowned evangelical preacher Billy Graham, said that America is increasingly embracing a “culture of death” that echoes what has occurred in Europe, and which stems from a “sinful, godless worldview that rejects Christ.”
A further problem in America, he added, is that “Christianity is constantly under siege from the halls of government and education, which seek to suppress any public expressions of faith.”
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that this rise in the culture of death in our own country coincides with the embrace of an immoral, sinful, godless worldview that rejects Christ,” he said. “Christianity is constantly under siege from the halls of government and education, which seek to suppress any public expressions of faith.”
In addition to the push for euthanasia -- the deliberate murder of the terminally sick, handicapped, elderly, or mentally ill – Reverend Graham noted that the social and entertainment culture seems fixated on death and gore.
Despite the near-constant stream of death-entertainment, the peddlers of such fare avoid the stark reality of actual death, said the reverend. They avoid the serious questions.
“The Bible says that once a person dies, he will face the judgment of God,” said Rev. Graham. “There is no reincarnation. There is no second chance.”
He continued, “Death is serious, eternal business. Once our physical hearts beat for the last time, we will instantly find ourselves either in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in all His splendor, or in the pit of Hell away from His presence.”
North Korea has drastically shortened the time it takes to prepare for missile launches by improving liquid fuel quality for ballistic missiles, a government source here claimed Monday.
This could virtually incapacitate South Korea's current missile defense system.
"It used to be thought possible to detect a North Korean launch of ballistic missiles in advance because the liquid fuel had to be pumped into the missiles right before the launch," the source said.
"But analysis of various intelligence reports last year shows that the North's ballistic missiles can now stay in standby mode for a long time even after they are injected with liquid fuel because its quality has improved."
That would give the renegade country more flexibility in deciding when to launch a missile.
The North is estimated to have some 1,000 ballistic missiles, most of which use liquid fuel.
This could virtually incapacitate South Korea's current missile defense system.
"It used to be thought possible to detect a North Korean launch of ballistic missiles in advance because the liquid fuel had to be pumped into the missiles right before the launch," the source said.
"But analysis of various intelligence reports last year shows that the North's ballistic missiles can now stay in standby mode for a long time even after they are injected with liquid fuel because its quality has improved."
That would give the renegade country more flexibility in deciding when to launch a missile.
The North is estimated to have some 1,000 ballistic missiles, most of which use liquid fuel.
On Saturday, I spoke at length with Joseph, a French Jew who had family members and friends inside the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris when it was stormed by Amedy Coulibaly, an Islamic jihadist who ultimately murdered at least four Jews for the cause of Islam. He spoke to the families and some of the survivors, and told me some shocking and terrible details about what happened during the attack – revealed here for the very first time.
When I spoke to Joseph, he was grief-stricken: "I lost a good friend and it's very hard, very hard. You have no idea how difficult it is." Joseph was close friends with Yohan Cohen, who was murdered in the jihad attack. Coulibaly was threatening to kill a three year-old, and Cohen tried to save the child by grabbing Coulibaly's gun; the jihadist shot Cohen in the head.
The attack, Joseph said, was "planned ahead of time. Because they knew it was Shabbat. They knew that people would come shopping for Shabbat. It wasn't like the media said, that he saw a kosher place, he stopped by and that was it. No. This was planned by Coulibaly, his wife and the Kouachi brothers. They all had a very specific plan. The Kouachi brothers were supposed to take care of Charlie Hebdo and Coulibaly had to take care of police officers and the Jews."
A record 25,000 people joined an anti-Islamic march in Germany on Monday, claiming their stance was vindicated by last week's Paris jihadist attacks.
However, the impressive turnout was dwarfed by 100,000 counter-demonstrators calling for tolerance nationwide.
Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier stressed that "Islam belongs to Germany" and announced she would on Tuesday join a Muslim community rally in Berlin against extremism, along with most of her cabinet ministers.
Against the Islamisation of the Occident, or PEGIDA, gathered for their 12th rally since October in their birthplace of Dresden in former communist east Germany.
The marchers waved the German national flag and held up placards that read "Fight Islamisation, stop the flood of foreigners now" and "Stop multiculturalism. My homeland will stay German".
Following last week's deadly Islamist attacks in Paris, they held a minute's silence and many wore black armbands.
Persecution Update:
Hi Scott,
ReplyDeleteI am looking for the last article you wrote on evolution. I believe it was fall of 2014? It was lengthy and I wanted to copy it for my kids but never got around to it and now I can't find it in the old posts!! Help please. My 7th grader's teacher is telling the class they came from apes, as if it was a fact, not theory. Kids are believing it. I would really like this article to share with my kids. Can you please send me the link to it? Many thanks!!
Gina
wow - I'm not remembering that at all - but I'll be glad to poke around and see if I can find it - do you recall what time of year it may have been?
ReplyDeleteAs a better idea - I HIGHLY recommend a book by Grant Jeffrey called "Creation" - he addresses the issues in a very straightforward easy to read format.
Additionally - in my opinion - an evolutionist has to be able to tell me how the FIRST cell was formed, when in the lab it cannot be done, despite forming the the most favorable circumstances. And IF (very doubtful) - but if they had ANY explanation as to how the first cell was formed (I have never gotten any response to this) - then I need to know how the first DNA was spontaneously formed...Good luck getting an answer to that