Netanyahu: 'Prophesies Are Being Realized'

Netanyahu to Christians: 'Prophesies are being realized'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a Christmastime message to believers around the globe that prophesies from Scripture are coming true today as he shared his gratitude to Christians for their loyalty to Israel in the End Times.

"We're united in a shared destiny,” Netanyahu expressed to Christians in a pre-recorded video message, according to CBN News. “I want to thank you for all your support."

Approaching the Last Days …

Netanyahu impressed the fact that prophesies declared in the Bible are unfolding at a record rate in the Holy Land.

“The Israeli leader went on to point out that believers are living in a time when biblical prophecies are unfolding at lightning speed,” CBN News noted from the PM’s address to Christians.

After being dispersed throughout the world for two millennia, Jews are continuing to return to Israel – a process that began in 1948 when the State of Israel was reestablished – while archeological discoveries, the rebuilding of the Temple Mount and other indications show that the End Times, as prophesied in the Bible, are already upon us.

"We live in historic times,” Netanyahu impressed in the video. “The ancient prophecies are being realized. The people of Israel have ingathered their exiles, come back to the Promised Land, built Zion, reunited our eternal capital, Jerusalem."

He could not help but express his gratitude to President Donald Trump fom moving the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the nation’s official capital in Jerusalem.

"And in fact, the American Embassy was just recently moved there in a historic move by President Trump," Netanyahu added. "This is all important. What we're witnessing is the dream of centuries, the dreams of millennium being realized. And we're doing it with your tremendous support."

The importance of the shared religious heritage of Christians and Jews in Israel was then stressed.

"Only in Israel has Christianity blossomed in the Middle East," Netanyahu pointed out. "We understand our heritage, we understand our common heritage and we understand our commitment to a common future. We're united in a shared destiny."

He made it a point that having Christians on Israel’s side during this historically significant time is priceless.

"I know what tremendous friends you are, and I want to wish you a Merry Christmas from the Holy Land," Netanyahu expressed.

The Israeli PM also took to social media to reinforce his critical alliance with Christians on a global scale.

“Merry Christmas to all our Christian friends in Israel and around the world!” Netanyahu tweeted on Christmas Eve.

Israel an integral part of past and present in Scripture

When Netanyahu thanked America for moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem back in May, he made Israel’s role in biblical past and present known.

“So, for me, this spot brings back personal memories, but for our people, it evokes profound collective memories of the greatest moments we have known on this City on a Hill,” Netanyahu declared at the embassy’s opening in Israel’s capital city last spring, according to a transcript of his speech published by the Times of Israel (TOI).

He went on to list off crucial historical events from the Bible that took place in Israel’s Holy City.

“In Jerusalem, Abraham passed the greatest test of faith and the right to be the father of our nation,” Netanyahu continued. “In Jerusalem, King David established our capital 3,000 years ago. In Jerusalem, King Solomon built our Temple, which stood for many centuries. In Jerusalem, Jewish exiles from Babylon rebuilt the Temple, which stood for many more centuries. In Jerusalem, the Maccabees rededicated that Temple and restored Jewish sovereignty in this land.”

The Israeli leader then impressed Israel’s significance today in the fulfillment of Scripture.

“And it was here in Jerusalem some 2,000 years later that the soldiers of Israel spoke three immortal words, ‘Har ha’bayit be’yadeinu,’ – ‘The Temple Mount is in our hands’ –  words that lifted the spirit of the entire nation,” Netanyahu pointed out.

An Old Testament prophet’s words were then repeated by the PM.

“The prophet, Zechariah, declared over 2,500 years ago, ‘So said the Lord, ‘I will return to Zion and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth,’” Netanyahu continued in his speech. “May the opening of this embassy in this city spread the truth far and wide, and may the truth advance a lasting peace between Israel and all our neighbors.”

He ended by blessing America and giving thanks to God for His continued protection of Israel today and through eternity.

Things To Come

The West's Big-Ticket Power Grabs

by David Brown

• The assertiveness of supra-national organisations with a focus on global policy-making is a direct threat to the sovereignty of the nation state, and a dilution of the power of the individuals within it.
  
  
• Most alarmingly, as MEP Marcel de Graaff neatly surmised from the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration: "Criticism of migration will become a criminal offense." At what point have we left all pretext of democracy and moved into the sphere of dictatorship, manifest at a supranational level?
  
  
• "It's very simple: the globalist political elite doesn't respect nation-states, nor does it give a damn about the views of ordinary people. Indeed, it despises them so much that it would much rather make their views illegal than listen to what they have to say." — James Delingpole, Breitbart, December 9, 2018.
  
  

It is a strange time to be a citizen in a Western democracy. Our society is based on exchange -- we transact in the free market, we share ideas online, and most significantly we give up some of our natural liberty in exchange for a civil society and a vote.

But increasingly, the freedoms supposed to be protected by civil society are being eroded away. At the level of the individual, our freedom of speech is under attack. Criticism of migration is apparently about to become "hate speech" and a prosecutable offence.

When the authority of the nation state is ceded to a supra-national body, such as the United Nations, our power as citizens is diluted.

Based on the contractual theory of society and the works of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau from the 17th and 18th century, real power is supposed to sit with the people; in order to retain moral character, government must thus rest on the consent of the governed, or the volonté générale ("general will"):

What happens if you start to interfere with this contract? What happens, for instance if clauses within this contract are removed, or the contract ripped up altogether?

In the United Kingdom, the people were asked to decide between Leaving or Remaining in the European Union. 17.4 million people voted to Leave -- 52% of the total votes cast and a clear majority. The general will of the people was Leave.

It appears increasingly likely, however, that this vote is being frustrated, either by legal obfuscation, a potential second referendum or other political manoeuvring. The possibility of a leadership contest in the U.K. over the coming weeks adds further uncertainty for Brexit supporters.

The powerful elite made it clear their preferred outcome was to remain in the EU.

Boris Johnson correctly called thwarting the results of a vote "treasonous".

According to "social contract theorists":

"... when the government fails to secure their natural rights (Locke) or satisfy the best interests of society (called the 'general will' in Rousseau), citizens can withdraw their obligation to obey or change the leadership, through elections or other means including, when necessary, violence".

Perhaps this helps explain the recent protests by the "Yellow Vests" (Gilets Jaunes) in Paris. Many had voted for Macron based on his promises to improve the lives of the ordinary French. They were outraged by his subsequent cut to the "wealth tax", while increasing taxes for fuel.

Macron's message seems: Global before national, wealthy before poor. But his dismissal of nationalism as "selfish" and a "betrayal of patriotism" is at odds with strengthening populist movements sweeping across Italy, Germany and mostly recently Spain.

Today, dissatisfaction with Macron's Quixotic globalist aspirations -- concerning the seriously disputed policies of "climate change" rather than with the economic and other concerns of the people who elected him -- is increasingly widespread.

The assertiveness of supra-national organisations with a focus on global policy-making is a direct threat to the sovereignty of the nation state, and a dilution of the power of the individuals within it.

A useful example is the United Nations Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which was "adopted in Marrakech on 10 December by 164 Member States." The word "regular" should jar.

The United Nations intends to make it easier for migrants to relocate to new countries -- with safeguarded routes, medical and financial assistance, and open access to public services and a means of income on arrival.

The document includes details on the "harmonization" of borders, rejects the right to detain illegals, and the options for facilitating the transfer of welfare payments back to the migrants' country of origin.

Many countries with strong national political parties did not attend the meeting or sign the agreement; including Australia, the Netherlands, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Latvia, Slovakia, Estonia and Italy. And for good reason. The US has made clear its opposition to the document:

This censorship of dissenting views appears to go hand in hand with insanely expensive power grabs by supra-nationals. If opposition cannot he expressed, acceptance can be asserted. Acceptance must be made mandatory. This method was used to create the EU itself. Many in Europe were obliged to keep voting until they "got it right" -- the way the elites wished.

At what point have we left all pretext of democracy and moved into the sphere of dictatorship, manifest at a supranational level?

If we know we are to be censored at the supranational level, to what extent does that awareness coerce self-censorship at the individual level? Given the disappearance of so many voices from Twitter, together with the vitriol of the on-line mob who demand that those with opposing views be "de-platformed" or forced from their jobs, many in Western Europe now fear to express an opinion outside of their own homes.

The governments that signed the UN's Global Compact appear to be acting in direct opposition to the general will of the people.

James Delingpole writes:

"It's very simple: the globalist political elite doesn't respect nation-states, nor does it give a damn about the views of ordinary people. Indeed, it despises them so much that it would much rather make their views illegal than listen to what they have to say."

The real question, is for how much longer will the people continue to respect the social contract when the political elites do not?

Just how much power will be ceded to supra-nationals, how censored will our voices be by law, how meaningless will the "general will" become before we exercise Jefferson's Right of the People to rip it all up and start again?

Blood Moon, Super Moon, Total Lunar Eclipse Coming January 20-21

A Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse will turn the sky red in January 2019

January's full moon is set to be very special indeed as four lunar spectacles combine to give the night sky a red hue.

Stargazers and astronomers will be treated to both a full moon, Wolf Moon, Supermoon and a total lunar eclipse on the night of the 20th/21st of January.

The moon will be at its closest point to Earth in its orbit, lighting up the night sky as a striking Supermoon.

The eclipse will then give the moon a red glow, creating a phenomenon known as the Blood Moon.

January's full moon has been known as a Wolf Moon for thousands of years. Ancient civilisations tracked the changing seasons by the lunar months rather than the solar calendar, naming the months after features they associated with the northern hemisphere seasons including howling wolves. These names are now used to identify the full moons.

Astronomers say the Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse will last around three and a half hours, and a full lunar eclipse will not be seen again until May 2021.

2019 is set to be an exciting astronomical year. Five eclipses, a stunning meteor shower, a rare planet transit and a blue moon will all feature.

Macron And The Return Of Louis XVI

The Return of Louis XVI: Emmanuel Macron, Roi de L’Ancien Regime

It is easy to imagine ridiculous young President Emmanuel Macron of France as his fellow-free trading liberal King Louis XVI. Macron’s extraordinary pretensions to “dignity” and being a “king” far from elevating him have stripped him of all the bogus credibility that the corrupt, servile and stupid mainstream media of Europe and the United States tried to give him.

Far from raising the embattled Fifth Republic to new heights of achievement and success, it is already clear that Le Jeune Macron is destroying it. The contrast with the founder of the Republic, the great and truly regal Charles de Gaulle could not be greater.

The 1.96 meters tall De Gaulle towered over his nation in many ways. Twice he was his country’s literal savior: First as the leader of the Free French Resistance against the Nazis and as President of France from 1944 to 1946. And then returning to power in 1958, De Gaulle saved his nation from disintegration and civil war.

He ended the long ferocious conflict in Algeria, survived at least six assassination plots on his life and rebuilt his nation into the most powerful and prosperous state in Western Europe. He also defied the United States repeatedly, courageously criticized US conduct of the Vietnam War and built a lasting relationship of friendship and understanding with the Soviet Union.

Far from withdrawing France from needless ruinous wars in the Arab and Muslim worlds as Le Grand Charles did in Algeria, Macron continues to eagerly support and promote the disastrous Western interventions in Syria and Libya.

The true parallel to Macron is not De Gaulle, who restored the wealth, stability, dignity and pride of his nation but of the hapless, witless, very internationalist and liberal King Louis XVI, last monarch of L’Ancien Regime.

Like Macron Louis was an eager, arrogant and idiotic young technocrat. Like Macron, he was an internationalist revolutionary and a free trader. He supported the American colonies in their successful revolution against the British Empire.

It never occurred to Louis, just as it never occurred to Macron, or his predecessors Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande that supporting revolutionary wars thousands of miles away could ever come back to haunt them at home. But that is exactly what happened. The collapse of ordered societies in Syria and Libya unleashed of millions of immigrants into France and other European nations with dire social consequences.

Louis suffered “blowback” too. American revolutionary Benjamin Franklin set up underground societies in France that within a decade toppled the most powerful kingdom in Europe.

Far from being the reactionary he has been caricatured as for more than 200 years, King Louis was one of the leading fashionable liberals and technocrats of his time. He especially revered English free-market economist Adam Smith, whose book “The Wealth of Nations” was published in 1776 (the same year as the American Revolution). So only a decade later, Louis fatefully signed his own 1786 Eden Free Trade Treaty with neighboring Britain.

As I noted in my own 2012 economic history “That Should Still Be Us”, the treaty proved to be a catastrophe: Cheap industrialized goods from the more advanced British economy flooded into France while the British cannily retained barriers of their own against French agricultural and other exports.

The French economy collapsed. Millions of people were thrown out of work. They and their families starved. Within three years the Great Revolution had exploded and the monarchy was toppled.

Louis, like Macron today, was convinced his advanced economic theories were more important than petty human suffering. It took the French Revolution and the loss, first of his crown and then of his own head to teach him otherwise.

Like Louis, Macron has shown no understanding or sympathy for the sufferings of ordinary people crushed beneath his absurd, unnecessary policies. Like Louis, his mask of liberalism and civilized compassion vanished as soon as his own people dared to disagree with him. Like Louis his only answer now is repression. Like Louis, he does not have a clue.

The Yellow Vest protestors are not going away. The French people are heartedly sick and tired of the 50- percent real unemployment, wide open immigration borders, slashed welfare programs and breakdown of law and order that Macron and the European Union elite has foisted on them., The Latest French Revolution is not over: it is only beginning.

Macron has ignored the ominous lessons of history. Now he is doomed to repeat them.

Terry James: Gog-Magog On Automatic Pilot

Gog-Magog on Automatic Pilot « Terry James

Most who will read this commentary are certainly at least cursorily familiar with the term “Gog-Magog.” This is the prophecy most who look at end-times matters from the pre-Trib perspective believe is the first foretold event that will likely be the prophecy to be fulfilled following the Rapture of the Church–either that attack on Israel or, possibly, the destruction of Damascus, Syria.

Likewise, most are also familiar with the term “automatic pilot.” This is the switch on an aircraft pilot’s flight-control console that, when activated, causes the plane to fly without outside help. That is, the aircraft flies the course the pilot sets in the flight plan with pilot’s hands off the controls.

I think we have just witnessed the automatic-pilot setting switched on that will culminate with the fulfillment of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. This is a plan of movement foretold long ago, and the course will be followed no matter what. Any external forces that are applied attempting to divert that course will fail.

It was astonishing to many that U.S. President Donald Trump, almost without forewarning, announced that U.S. forces and diplomats will be pulled from the Syrian theater of conflict. This, although he had said as part of his campaign for the presidency that he planned to remove America’s forces, which he believed had spent too much American blood and money in the war-torn area of Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He is, in fact, following up on that campaign declaration.

In so doing, he has caused many staunch supporters, including the likes of talk show host Rush Limbaugh, to say that they think it is a mistake to make this move at this time.

Yet Mr. Trump is making the move without much consultation with anyone, so far as we can tell. This is believed to be one reason General Jim “Mad Dog” Mattis is leaving the administration as secretary of defense. Whether it influenced the removal of General John Kelly as chief of staff is a matter of much conjecture. Certainly, it seems a strange course of events for one who has been as forthcoming (transparent) as President Trump.

To those who are considered more or less expert observers of biblically prophetic development, the move to remove American forces and diplomatic service types from Syria invites Russia, Iran, and Turkey to fill the power vacuum created with the evacuation. These three actors on the geopolitical scene in the Middle East are the key nations many, including this writer, believe Ezekiel the prophet referred to in his chapters 38 and 39 prophecy. Russia (Rosh), Iran (Persia),  and Turkey (Torgomah) are slated to attack over the mountains of Israel to take “great spoil.”

Not coincidentally, many believe, Israel is developing significant accomplishments in the production of oil and gas in the Golan area and in its Mediterranean coastal waters territory. Plus, Israel’s technological achievements in practically every area are becoming legendary. There is “great spoil” to be had as we move forward into the new year.

Whatever else is to be considered, the fact that America is being removed as a blocking agent to what goes on in the immediate area north of Israel is most relevant to prophetic development. The United States, by name, is not mentioned anywhere in prophecy yet to be fulfilled. The nation’s absence is particularly intriguing in the matter of the Gog-Magog assault.

The only reference anyone can find of any realistic possibility of the presence of America is when the nations observing the attack send their note of diplomatic protest.

Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil? (Ezekiel 38:13)

The phrase “all the young lions thereof” are thought by many to refer to the nations that have sprung from the British Empire, which are thought to be “the merchants of Tarsish” entity that precedes the “young lions” reference.

At the very least, this abdication of American power from this region that has such prophetic significance portends dynamic prophetic movement for the immediate future. It is happening, again, as if on automatic pilot. Protests by people on the president’s side politically and by those who are rabidly against him don’t seem to affect his decision.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and other diabolists have praised the move. This would seem to give credence to the ludicrous claim by Trump’s political enemies that Mr. Trump colluded with Russia in “stealing the 2016 presidential election.” Still, even that collateral political damage consideration–that this proves collusion–has no seeming effect on Trump taking America out of the picture as a direct actor in the Syrian matter and, most likely, the Afghanistan matter.

The whole thing appears to be on automatic pilot.

God doesn’t cause individual leaders to make mistakes in the sense that He manages them a moment at a time. That would take away the free will in their ability to do right or wrong and to make decisions on a personal level.

Now, I know I’m getting into some deep water here–and probably some trouble.

What I mean is that the Lord doesn’t make these leaders think in one direction or another. God does know the end from the beginning, however, so He has given his prophets like Ezekiel the thoughts these human leaders will have. God will put “hooks” in the “jaws” of Gog (Ezekiel 38:4). Ezekiel tells us that the leader called “Gog” will have things come into his mind “and he will ”think an evil thought” (v.  10).

This seems to indicate that God is making Gog take the action he will take. However, I view it as God simply knowing what this leader will do. God’s holy will is bound to be done no matter what in the prophecy. The prophecy will be on automatic pilot at that point of the fulfillment process.

Egyptian And UAE Forces May Fill U.S. Void In Syria From U.S. Pullout

Trump phases Arab forces into Syria vs Iran ahead of US pullout. Egyptian/UAE officers on the scene

When Sen. Lindsay Graham said Monday, Dec. 31: “I think we are slowing things [exit from Syria] down in a smart way,” he confirmed DEBKAfile’s Dec. 22 report: “US troops will leave eastern and northern Syria, but America is not deserting this part of the country and will continue to maintain a presence after the pullout.” On Monday, the Republican Senator, who sharply criticized President Donald Trump for the troop withdrawal as a “huge Obama-like mistake,” stated: “The president assured me he is going to make sure he gets the job done.”

Our sources can now reveal the nature of that presence and the process afoot for the gradual US withdrawal. In the last few days, Egyptian and UAE military officers visited the contested north Syrian town of Manbij. They toured the town and its outskirts, checked out the locations of US and Kurdish YPG militia positions, and took notes on how to deploy their own troops as replacements. On the diplomatic side, the White House is in continuous conversation with the UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Muhammed Bin Ziyad (MbZ) and Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi. 

The deal Trump is offering, is that they take over US positions in Manbij, where the Kurds have sought protection against a Turkish invasion, and American air cover will be assured against Russian, Syrian or Turkish attack.

As DEBKAfile has noted, the Egyptian president, during his four years in power, was the only Arab leader to consistently side with Bashar Assad against the insurgency against his regime. Assad may therefore accept the posting of Egyptian forces in Manbij so long as Syrian officers are attached to their units. 

The Syrian president would likely also favor a UAE military presence. Not only was the emirate the first Arab nation to reopen its embassy in Damascus after long years of Arab boycott, but unlike most of its Arab League colleagues, the UAE can well afford to contribute funding for the colossal reconstruction task needed for getting the war-devastated country on its feet.

Approval of the Egyptian-UAE forces to Manbij would kick off the stationing of mixed Arab forces in other parts of Syria, including the border with Iraq. If the Trump administration’s plans mature, then countries like Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Algeria would send troops to push the Iranian military presence out of key areas where they have taken hold. 

After being briefed on this plan by the president, Sen. Graham made this satisfied comment: “I think we’re in a pause situation where we are re-evaluating what’s the best way to achieve the president’s objective of having people pay more and do more.”

In 2018 Globalists Pushed Peoples' Patience To The Edge

Soros 'person of the year' indeed: In 2018 globalists pushed peoples’ patience to the edge

It is no secret that neoliberalism relentlessly pursues a globalized, borderless world where labor, products, and services obey the hidden hand of the free market. What is less often mentioned, however, is that this system is far more concerned with promoting the well-being of corporations and cowboy capitalists than assisting the average person on the street. 

Indeed, many of the world’s most powerful companies today have mutated into “stateless superpowers,” while consumers are forced to endure crippling austerity measures amid plummeting standards of living. The year 2018 could be seen as the tipping point when the grass-roots movement against these dire conditions took off.

Since 2015, when German Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants into Germany and the EU, a groundswell of animosity has been steadily building against the European Union, perhaps best exemplified by the Brexit movement. Quite simply, many people are growing weary of the globalist argument that Europe needs migrants and austerity measures to keep the wheels of the economy spinning. At the very least, luring migrants with cash incentives to move to Germany and elsewhere in the EU appears incredibly shortsighted.

Indeed, if the globalist George Soros wants to lend his Midas touch to ameliorating the migrant’s plight, why does he think that relocating them to European countries is the solution? As is becoming increasingly apparent in places like Sweden and France, efforts to assimilate people from vastly different cultures, religions and backgrounds is an extremely tricky venture, the success of which is far from guaranteed.

One worrying consequence of Europe’s season of open borders has been the rise of far-right political movements. In fact, some of the harshest criticism of the ‘Merkel plan’ originated in Hungary, where its gutsy president, Viktor Orban, hopes to build “an old-school Christian democracy, rooted in European traditions.” Orban is simply responding to the democratic will of his people, who are fiercely conservative, yet the EU parliament voted to punish him regardless. The move shows that Brussels, aside from being adverse to democratic principles, has very few tools for addressing the rise of far-right sentiment that its own misguided policies created.

Here it is necessary to mention once again that bugbear of the political right, Mr. Soros, who has received no political mandate from European voters, yet who campaigns relentlessly on behalf of globalist initiatives through his Open Society Foundations (OSF) (That campaign just got some serious clout after Soros injected $18bn dollars of his own money into OSF, making it one of the most influential NGOs in the world).

With no small amount of impudence, Soros has condemned EU countries – namely his native Hungary – for attempting to protect their territories by constructing border barriers and fences, which he believes violate the human rights of migrants (rarely if ever does the philanthropist speak about the “human rights” of the native population). In the words of the maestro of mayhem himself: “Beggar-thy-neighbor migration policies, such as building border fences, will not only further fragment the union; they also seriously damage European economies and subvert global human rights standards.”

Through a leaked network of compromised EU parliamentarians who do his bidding, Soros says the EU should spend $30 billion euros ($33bln) to accommodate “at least 300,000 refugees each year.” How will the EU pay for the resettling of migrants from the Middle East? Soros has an answer for that as well. He calls it “surge funding,” which entails “raising a substantial amount of debt backed by the EU’s relatively small budget.”

George Soros has spent billions in the EU to undermine the nation state. This is where the real international political collusion is. pic.twitter.com/ANXOII7SFY

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) November 14, 2017

Any guesses who will be forced to pay down the debt on this high-risk venture? If you guessed George Soros, guess again. The already heavily taxed people of Europe will be forced to shoulder that heavy burden. “To finance it, new European taxes will have to be levied sooner or later,” Soros admits. 

That comment is very interesting in light of the recent French protests, which were triggered by Emmanuel Macron’s plan to impose a new fuel tax. Was the French leader, a former investment banker, attempting to get back some of the funds being used to support the influx of new arrivals into his country? The question seems like a valid one, and goes far at explaining the ongoing unrest.

 If the major EU countries really want to flout their humanitarian credentials, they could have started by demanding the cessation of regime-change operations throughout the Middle East and North Africa, which created such inhumane conditions for millions of innocent people.

This failure on the part of Western capitals to speak out against belligerent US foreign policy helps to explain why a number of other European governments are experiencing major shakeups. Sebastian Kurz, 32, won over the hearts of Austrian voters by promising to tackle unchecked immigration. In super-tolerant Sweden, which has accepted more migrants per capita than any other EU state, the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats party garnered 17.6 percent of the vote in September elections – up from 12.9 percent in the previous election. And even Angela Merkel, who is seen by many people as the de facto leader of the European Union, is watching her political star crash and burn mostly due to her bungling of the migrant crisis. In October, after her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) suffered a stinging setback in Bavaria elections, which saw CDU voters abandon ship for the anti-immigrant AfD and the Greens, Merkel announced she would resign in 2021 after her current term expires.

Meanwhile, back in the US, the government of President Donald Trump has been shut down as the Democrats refuse to grant the American leader the funds to build a wall on the Mexican border – despite the fact that he essentially made it to the White House on precisely that promise. Personally, I find it very hard to believe that any political party that does not support a strong and viable border can continue to be taken seriously at the polls for very long. Yet that is the very strategy that the Democrats have chosen. But I digress.

The lesson that Western governments should have learned over the last year from these developments is that there exists a definite red line that the globalists cross at risk not only to the social order, but to their own political fortunes. Eventually the people will demand solutions to their problems – many of which were caused by reckless neoliberal programs and austerity measures. This collective sense of desperation may open the door to any number of right-wing politicians only too happy to meet the demand.

Better to provide fair working conditions for the people while maintaining strong borders than have to face the wrath of the street or some political charlatan later. Whether or not Western leaders will change their neoliberal ways as a populist storm front approaches remains to be seen, but I for one am not betting on it.

@Robert_Bridge

Robert Bridge is an American writer and journalist. Former Editor-in-Chief of The Moscow News, he is author of the book, 'Midnight in the American Empire,' released in 2013.

Alaska Has 6.1 Quake Followed By 2 Aftershocks (3.6, 4.0)

No tsunami threat to Hawaii from Alaska earthquake

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a magnitude 6.1 earthquake that struck Alaska today poses no local threat of a tsunami.

The quake struck at 3:35 p.m. Hawaii time at a depth of about 16 miles and about 632 miles southwest of Anchorage.

2 aftershocks in an hour jolt Anchorage area

Two aftershocks from Alaska’s Nov. 30 earthquake jolted Southcentral residents Sunday evening. A 3.6 magnitude aftershock at 5:28 p.m. was followed by a 4.0 shake just an hour later.

According to the Alaska Earthquake Center, the first of the two aftershocks was centered 15 miles north of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and occurred at a depth of 18.5 miles. The 4.0 quake struck 11 miles northwest of Anchorage at 6:28 p.m. at a depth of 12.3 miles. 

“This has been an eventful hour,” wrote officials with the Alaska Earthquake Center on their Twitter feed. In addition to the two aftershocks felt in Southcentral, the agency reported a 6.1 quake at 5:35 p.m. - 650 miles to the Southwest. The quake was 61 miles southeast of King Cove and felt from King Cove to Unalaska.

Brazil Moving Embassy To Jerusalem

Another big nation moving embassy to Jerusalem

Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro will move his country’s embassy to Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday during a meeting with Jewish leaders in Rio de Janeiro.

Netanyahu explained, “Mr. Bolsonaro said, ‘I will move the embassy to Jerusalem. It’s not a question of if, just a question of when,’” according to a press release issued by the prime minister’s office.

The Israeli leader added, “President Trump said the same thing. He moved the embassy. And President Bolsonaro will move the embassy as well. He accepted my invitation to visit Israel in the coming months and he’s going to do it, he says, by March. And I look forward to receiving him with the same spirit and the same brotherhood that he received me and that you are receiving us.”

Netanyahu will attend Bolsonaro’s inauguration ceremony on Jan. 1.

When Brazil moves its embassy, it will join the United States and Guatemala.

In addition to these embassy moves, a number of nations have recognized Jerusalem, or portions thereof, as Israel’s capital, including Russia and Australia, among others.

The Emerging New World Order

The New Year and the New World Disorder

“Nation states must today be prepared to give up their sovereignty,” Merkel told a gathering of leaders in Berlin. Moreover, she said that sovereign nation states must not listen to the will of their citizens on matters of immigration, borders or even sovereignty.

President Macron, speaking before the German legislature the Bundestag, was reported by the U.K. Express as saying that “France and Germany should be at the center of the emerging New World Order.”

“The Franco-German couple,” said Macron, has “the obligation not to let the world slip into chaos and to guide it on the road to peace.” The world must reject nationalism and populism, he said, because “nationalism is treason.”

Nationalism is what prompted a majority in the United Kingdom to vote in 2016 for “Brexit,” to exit being a colony of European Union “Eurocrats” that by then were imposing on Great Britain 63 percent of all its laws and regulations. In particular, Britain was losing control of its borders because any EU residents had the right to move to England, without British approval, and collect welfare at British taxpayer expense for the rest of their lives.

Jean Monnet, founder of today’s European Union, as Craig R. Smith and I quote from his personal diaries in our book “Money, Morality & The Machine,” wrote: “Europe’s nations should be guided towards the Super-state without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps, each disguised as having an economic purpose, but which will eventually and irreversibly lead to federation.”

The dogma of the EU’s ruling elite is that they “must not listen to the will of their citizens,” and ultimately not let their subjects change the collectivist global government by voting.

Macron and Merkel have agreed to create an EU military independent of NATO, with the apparent aim of not allowing any other member of the EU to leave. Merkel said that “the times when we could fully rely on others are to some extent over.”

1,000 Rockets And Mortars Fired At Israel From Gaza In 2018

IDF annual report: 1,000 rockets fired at Israel from Gaza in 2018

One thousand rockets and mortars were fired from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip into southern Israel over the past year, a dramatic rise from the past three years when there were less than 100 in total.

According to statistics released by the IDF on Sunday, of the 1,000 rockets and mortars fired from the Strip, 250 were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome Missile Defense System and 45 projectiles fell in urban areas.

The majority of the rockets and mortars fired into southern Israel in late November after a botched IDF commando raid in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis. In the span of 48 hours, close to 500 rockets and mortars were launched, including a Kornet anti-tank missile fired at a bus.

The IDF has struck Gaza a total of 865 times over the past year in response to the firing of rockets towards southern Israel.

While almost every year since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 the number of rockets fired towards Israel was in triple digits, 2018 has seen the most serious peak of violence between Israel and terror groups in the strip like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) since the end of Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

In comparison, a total of 35 projectiles were fired towards Israel in 2017, 15 the previous year, and 21 in 2015 for a total of 71 rockets launched from the coastal enclave by terrorist groups.

In 2007 Israel was hit by 2,433 projectiles, and in 2008 during Operation Cast Lead terror groups fired 3,557 projectiles. In 2012, during Operation Pillar of Defense, Israel was struck by 2,771 rockets. In 2014, which coincided with Operation Protective Edge, Israel was bombarded by 4,897 projectiles.

Israel has also completed 27 kilometers of the country’s underground barrier designed to prevent tunnels from crossing into Israeli territory from Gaza. The barrier will also stretch into the Mediterranean to stave off Hamas infiltration by sea.

The military has also destroyed 15 terror tunnels which infiltrated into Israeli territory this past year, including one operational tunnel which extended into the Mediterranean and would have enabled militants entering a Hamas military post in the northern Gaza Strip to exit into the sea unnoticed.

The IDF has also completed 13 kilometers of a 9-meter-high concrete barrier along the Lebanese border and 2.5 kilometers on the Syrian-Jordan-Israeli border.

Data released by the IDF also showed that seven soldiers and nine civilians were killed and 199 injured in 87 terror attacks in 2018, down from 20 killed and 169 injured in 97 terror attacks the previous year.

Putin Ready For Dialogue With U.S. On An 'Extensive Agenda'

Putin Tells Trump That Russia Is Open For Dialogue On An "Extensive Agenda"

In the latest attempt by Russia to offer an olive branch to the US, on Sunday Russian President Vladimir Putin told his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump in a New Year letter that Moscow was ready for dialogue on "the most extensive agenda”, the Kremlin said following a series of failed attempts to hold a new summit, most recently in November, when Trump abruptly canceled a planned meeting with Putin on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Argentina, citing tensions about Russian forces opening fire on Ukrainian navy boats and then seizing them.

Trump and Putin also failed to hold a full-fledged meeting in Paris on the sidelines of the centenary commemoration of the Armistice. The two leaders held their one and only summit in Helsinki in July.

An official statement by the Kremlin said that "Vladimir Putin stressed that Russia-US relations are the most important factor behind ensuring strategic stability and international security, and reaffirmed that Russia is open to dialogue with the United States on the most extensive agenda."

Moscow also said one of the key issues it wanted to discuss with the United States is Washington’s plans to withdraw from a Cold War era nuclear arms pact.

In a separate letter to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Putin pledged continuation of aid to the Syrian government and people in the “fight against terrorism, in defense of state sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

Putin also sent New Year greetings to other world leaders including prime ministers Theresa May of Britain, wishing “well-being and prosperity to the British people”, the Kremlin said in a year that saw a dramatic deterioration in relations between the two nations; according to Reuters, Russia’s embassy in London said on Friday that Moscow and London had agreed to return some staff to their respective embassies after they expelled dozens of diplomats early this year. Diplomatic relations ground to a halt after Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats over accusations the Kremlin was behind a nerve toxin attack in March on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury.

The Russian president also sent his a letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying “The relations of comprehensive trust-based partnership and strategic interaction between the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China have reached an unprecedented level."

Putin sent similar letter to numerous other heads of state including to President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron, in which he stated that "Russian-French relations have great potential, which was confirmed by our recent meetings and talks,” the Russian President said in his message. “I count on our continued joint work to promote mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries in various spheres, as well as to resolve important issues on the regional and global agenda.”

In his message to Federal President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, the President of Russia noted the significant experience of cooperation between the two countries in various spheres and expressed hope for continued joint work on the bilateral and international agendas next year, in particular, the successful implementation of major joint projects in the economy, culture, science and education. Vladimir Putin stressed that Russian-German cooperation is of great importance not only for the peoples of the two countries, but for the rest of Europe as well.

Among the many other similar letters sent out by Putin, he also addressed one to Pope Francis, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde, and to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, thanking him for his assistance in preparing and hosting the World Cup in Russia.

The Kremlin statement can be found here.