USA — a Weak Superpower

Der Spiegel wrote on November 28:

“251,000 State Department documents, many of them secret embassy reports from around the world, show how the US seeks to safeguard its influence around the world. It is nothing short of a political meltdown for US foreign policy…

“Never before in history has a superpower lost control of such vast amounts of such sensitive information… Never before has the trust America’s partners have in the country been as badly shaken…

“In the major crisis regions, an image emerges of a superpower that can no longer truly be certain of its allies — like in Pakistan, where the Americans are consumed by fear that the unstable nuclear power could become precisely the place where terrorists obtain dangerous nuclear material.

“There are similar fears in Yemen, where the US, against its better judgement, allows itself to be instrumentalized by an unscrupulous leader… Even after the fall of Saddam Hussein, it still remained a challenge for the victorious power to assert its will on Iraq. In Baghdad… it is now up to Vice President Joe Biden to make repeated visits to allied Iraqi politicians in an effort to get them to finally establish a respectable democracy. But the embassy cables make it very clear that Obama’s deputy has made little headway.

“Instead, the Americans are forced to endure the endless tirades of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek, who claims to have always known that the Iraq war was the ‘biggest mistake ever committed’ and who advised the Americans to ‘forget about democracy in Iraq.’ Once the US forces depart, Mubarak said, the best way to ensure a peaceful transition is for there to be a military coup. They are statements that add insult to injury.

“On the whole, the cables from the Middle East expose the superpower’s weaknesses… And it is drawn into the animosities between Arabs and Israelis, Shiites and Sunnis, between Islamists and secularists, between despots and kings. Often enough, the lesson of the documents that have now been obtained, is that the Arab leaders use their friends in Washington to expand their own positions of power.”

USA Diplomats Deride World Leaders

BBC News reported on November 29:
 
“European countries have reacted with irritation to the release by whistle-blowing website Wikileaks of secret memos written by US diplomats. The messages describe… Russia’s Vladimir Putin as an ‘alpha dog’… President Nicolas Sarkozy is compared to an ’emperor with no clothes’…

“Among the comments released by Wikileaks is a reported conversation in which a senior advisor to the French president branded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ‘crazy’ and Iran a ‘fascist state’. Mr Sarkozy himself was described in cables penned by US diplomatic officials as ‘thin-skinned’ and ‘authoritarian’… the leaks… include descriptions of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as ‘feckless’ and ‘vain’… Mr Erdogan had ‘little understanding of politics beyond Ankara’.”

Tensions Increase in Middle East

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 29:
 
“Tensions in the Middle East are increasing as the fallout from the latest WikiLeaks revelations continues to spread. Previously reticent Arab states have been exposed as having discussed strikes on Iran with the US… Among the most inflammatory [documents] were those between Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus in which the Saudi monarch urged the US to stop Iran’s nuclear program by any means necessary… King Abdullah called on the United States ‘to cut off the head of the snake’…

“The documents show the level of concern within the Middle East of Iran’s nuclear ambitions and, contrary to the public declarations of a number of Arab states, the apparent willingness to deal with the threat militarily. While Israel’s favoring of air strikes is well-known and documented, no Arab nations have gone on record as saying they would support US action or take their own to stop Tehran. A particular danger to stability now lies in the perception that Arab states named in the documents are on the same page as the US and Israel in regard to policy toward Iran.

“… while Iran may not be shocked into action by the revelations, factions within Saudi Arabia may be. There is an escalating unease in the kingdom itself over its allegiance to the United States, and its willingness to support the US and even join in with any military action it mounts against Iran…”

“Crisis For German-American Relations”

The Local wrote on November 29:
 
“In a message attributed to a US diplomat in Berlin dated March 24, 2009, the State Department is told that Merkel is ‘risk averse and rarely creative’… The Americans argue that the chancellor views international diplomacy above all from the perspective of how she can profit from it domestically…

“Merkel’s vice-chancellor and foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle comes in for harsher criticism in the secret documents and is described as incompetent, vain and critical of America… An embassy cable from Berlin from September 22, 2009, days before the general election that put him in office, describes Westerwelle as having an ‘exuberant personality’ but little foreign policy experience…

“Meanwhile Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Germany’s most popular politician, is quoted as telling the US ambassador to Germany, Philip Murphy, in February 2010 that Westerwelle was the real barrier to a US request for an increase in the number of German troops in Afghanistan. Guttenberg also disparages his boss, saying that Merkel has trouble implementing her own economic policies.

“And Horst Seehofer, the head of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Merkel’s Christian Democrats, is shown as unaware that half of 40,000 US troops in Germany are based in his state, which he also governs…

“A German diplomatic source said that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had called Westerwelle on Friday to ‘express her regret about the impending publication of internal US documents.’ Meanwhile US Ambassador Murphy said Monday that there is no reason to apologise to either Westerwelle or Merkel for the information contained in the leaked documents…

“Former US ambassador to Germany John Kornblum, who served in Berlin from 1997 to 2001, told broadcaster ZDF on Monday that the leaks were a crisis for German-American relations. ‘Diplomacy…must function on the basis of trust, and when that trust if broken, as is the case now, then one must begin at almost zero again,’ he said.

“… government spokesman Steffen Seibert told a regular press briefing that Berlin’s ties with Washington would weather the diplomatic storm. ‘The German-American relationship is mature, it has grown so robust over the decades, it is such a deep friendship based on shared values that it will not be seriously damaged by this publication,’ he said.”
 
Whom is he kidding?

German Papers Not Amused

In a related article, The Local wrote on November 29:

“As Washington scrambled on Monday to explain leaked diplomatic communiqués disparaging leaders in Berlin, newspapers in The Local’s media roundup tried to assess the damage to German-American relations… there’s little doubt the leaked communiqués will do little to improve transatlantic ties…

“The left-wing Berliner Zeitung said much damage had been done to US foreign policy by the leak… The paper said the incident will ‘sow mistrust’ and ‘destroy human and political ties,’ which will in turn weaken US diplomacy around the world.

“The Düsseldorf-based Rheinische Post called the episode a disaster for America that would ‘cool Angela Merkel’s already troubled relationship with Barack Obama’…”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 30:

“The dust is still settling after Sunday’s revelations about the contents of 250,000 confidential US diplomatic cables, but it’s already clear that the WikiLeaks disclosure is hugely damaging for the American government… While it remains to be seen what the lasting impact of the explosive leaks will be, it is already clear that the revelations are a huge embarrassment for Washington and a massive setback for US diplomacy. American representatives abroad may find it difficult in the future to find informants who are as willing to talk openly as they might have been in the past, now that reams of supposedly confidential conversations have been made public…

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘… The damage to the US as a result of the documents’ publication is immense… The diplomatic facade has crumbled, revealing just how calculating the business of international politics really is… America’s reserve of trust is empty. … The US has already been struggling for decades to maintain its credibility on the global stage. WikiLeaks has now acted like a weapon of mass destruction on the last traces of trust.’

“The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: ‘…Washington now looks like one giant leak. Who would now trust the Americans to keep confidential conversations confidential? Mistrust will spread, and not only among minor informants. Leaders of the US’s allies have been embarrassed in public, with unpredictable consequences for the relationship between their countries and the states and politicians that they talked about…'”

Nuclear Weapons Hosted in Europe

The EUObserver reported on November 29:

“The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Turkey have US nuclear weapons situated on their soil, the WikiLeaks whistleblower files have revealed. The four countries, along with Italy, had long been suspected of being home to a collection of American nuclear armaments, but neither the states nor Nato had ever officially confirmed or denied their presence…

“According to estimates found in a 2007 report using a variety of different sources to catalogue deployment of US nuclear weapons in Europe from the Natural Resources Defence Council, an American environmental protection NGO, the continent is home to 480 such weapons.

“The report estimated that… Belgium… housed 20 nuclear weapons. The same document reckoned that another 20 are housed… in… the Netherlands. Nuclear weapons are thought to have been stored there since the 1960s and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Some 20 nuclear weapons are believed to be stored in [Germany]… Last October, the country’s foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, came close to admitting their existence when he called ‘for a country free of nuclear weapons’…

“Italy is also thought to host a total of 90 such arms… Turkey… is believed to store 90 such weapons… Beyond the undeclared European nuclear states, the UK, an admitted member of the nuclear club, is home to 110 US nuclear weapons…”

Should Hillary Clinton Resign?

Politics Daily wrote on November 30:

“Should Hillary Clinton resign as secretary of state due to the WikiLeaks revelations?… Clinton, like predecessor Condoleezza Rice, signed orders instructing U.S. foreign service officers to spy on the diplomats of other nations. Cables went out under her name telling State Department officials overseas to collect the fingerprints, facial images, DNA, and iris scans of African leaders, to obtain passwords, credit card numbers, and frequent flyer accounts used by foreign diplomats, and to gather private information on United Nations officials, including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

“Of the many WikiLeaks revelations that have emerged in the past few days — and more are to come in the next few months, as the renegade website continues to release batches of the 251,287 State Department cables it has obtained — the news that U.S. diplomats have been turned into part-time spies certainly warrants thorough investigation. Obama administration officials, of course, have tried to make the leak itself the paramount issue. Attorney General Eric Holder has promised prosecutions if ‘we can find anybody involved in breaking American law.’ Clinton has called the leak ‘an attack on America’s foreign policy interests,’ claiming it has endangered ‘innocent people.’ Republican Rep. Peter King urged Clinton to determine if WikiLeaks can be designated a terrorist organization. Sen. Joe Lieberman has called on the United States and other governments to shut down WikiLeaks. Sarah Palin, naturally, blamed President Barack Obama’s ‘incompetence’ for the leaks…

“Yet there have not been such passionate calls for investigating the transformation of U.S. diplomats into undercover snoops. The administration’s strategy — as is to be expected — is to focus on the easy-to-demonize messenger, not the hard-to-explain message…
 
“In many other nations, news such as this would indeed prompt resignations of high officials. The United States does not have this noble tradition. Here, government officials hold on for dear life when trouble erupts. (How many U.S. officials resigned when it turned out the Bush-Cheney administration was wrong about WMDs in Iraq? None.) So one can expect Clinton to dig in her heels, as the administration decries the leaker and ignores the leaks…”

IRS targets Pro-Israel Groups

Politico reported on November 24:
 
“A Pennsylvania Jewish group that has claimed the Internal Revenue Service is targeting pro-Israel groups introduced in federal court today a letter from an IRS agent to [an] unnamed organization that tax experts said was likely outside the usual or appropriate scope of an IRS inquiry.

“‘Does your organization support the existence of the land of Israel?’ [an] IRS agent… wrote the organization… as part of its consideration of the organization’s application for tax exempt status. ‘Describe your organization’s religious belief system toward the land of Israel.’…

“The IRS can deny tax exempt status to groups that work against ‘established public policy,’ a precedent established in its denial of a tax exemption to Bob Jones University over racial discrimination.”

There are many more or less independent and/or unsupervised powerful institutions within the US government which are perceived to threaten our individual and collective freedoms and liberties.

China Has Not Changed…

CNN reported on November 26:
 
“Having just enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner, the American soldiers were told they would be home by Christmas as they launched their final offensive. In fact, they were driving into the greatest ambush in modern history. Twelve miles to their north, 380,000 brilliantly camouflaged enemy fighters lay in wait. In the days that followed, the U.S. Army would suffer its most harrowing ordeal of the past half-century. Two American regiments were massacred at a pass called Kunu-ri; another was annihilated beside a frozen lake called Chosin. The time was 60 years ago; the battlefield was North Korea; the enemy was China’s People’s Liberation Army.

“Despite wide-ranging global changes — the fall of European communism, the end of the Cold War, China-U.S. rapprochement, the rise of China as economic superpower — there has been no indication that Beijing has altered its stance toward maintaining the isolated regime in the peninsula’s north since it routed U.S.-led United Nations forces in Korea in the winter of 1950.

“‘China does not want to lose North Korea as a buffer zone vis-a-vis a pro-U.S. country — South Korea,’ said Kim Won-ho, dean of the Graduate School of International Studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. ‘The last thing China wants to see is U.S.-style democracy in North Korea,’ added congresswoman Song Sun-young, who sits on the South Korean National Assembly’s Defense Committee. ‘Even if they apply open-door policies to their markets, China wants North Korea to follow the Chinese style’…

“North Korea, in addition to its strategic position on China’s doorstep, is a rare voice of support buttressing China’s historical role at the heart of Asia… Meanwhile, South Korea’s relationship with China is conflicted… Six decades after China crossed the Yalu River to fight in Korea, the competing alliances borne of that conflict — the world’s last remaining Cold War battlefront — remain firmly in place.”

Beware of Russia

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 26:

“Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wants the EU and Russia to forge a massive free trade zone. German commentators are wary of the wily politician’s true intentions and urge Europe’s politicians to read the small print…

“The reaction to Putin’s piece was mixed from the German side. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle welcomed Putin’s suggestion… Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg described it as an ‘interesting proposal,’ but added the caveat that ‘there are certainly a few things that need to be done first.’ Merkel was more reserved in her response, saying on Thursday that recent steps by Russia did ‘not exactly point in the right direction’…

“The business daily Handelsblatt writes: ‘Without political reform in the direction of greater democracy and a freer market, without Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization, and without the release of [political prisoners], proposals like those regarding the free-trade zone will remain nothing but a smokescreen that Putin is creating in a bid to polish his tarnished image in Europe.’

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘… Has the great chameleon Russia now decided to change its color once again?… The global economic crisis may have caused great damage to many countries, but it left Russia in ruins. The country will not be able to head into the future relying on its oil, gas and metals any more. The model of a great power based on raw materials is a thing of the past, and Moscow can no longer depend on energy prices as it once did. Russia must open itself up… In the long term, the country has more to gain than to lose…’

“The Financial Times Deutschland writes: ‘… He wants Russian companies to have access to Western European know-how and capital — but under Russian conditions. The Russian prime minister may have recognized the problem, but he has reached the wrong conclusions… The country’s potential can only be tapped when companies are given freedom and legal security… Freedom, however, is an idea that Putin still finds it hard to get to grips with.'”

The Future of the Euro

Bloomberg wrote on November 25:
 
“The European banking system would be ‘nearly bust’ if the euro were to be abandoned which means the 16-member currency ‘cannot and should not go,’ Evolution Securities Ltd. said. ‘If the euro is abandoned, and we go back to the peseta, lira, escudo, drachma etc., devaluations would follow immediately,’ said Arturo de Frias, head of bank research at Evolution in a note to investors today, adding the industry is a ‘great buying opportunity.’ Devaluations mean write-offs ‘of a size that would render the whole European banking system completely insolvent.’

“Contagion from Europe’s sovereign debt crisis is spreading to Spain, sparking concern that the European rescue fund set up in May isn’t large enough. French, German and U.K. banks could lose 360 billion euros ($479 billion) if the euro collapsed, assuming a 30 percent devaluation in the wake of the restoration of national currencies, said de Frias.

“The damage caused by the abandonment of the euro would be such that such an outcome is impossible and the ‘only way forward’ for Europe is fiscal union, he said. ‘It is simply too late,’ he wrote. ‘There are too many cross-border investments in Europe to go back to national currencies.’

“If Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Ireland devalue by 30 percent on the way to readopting national currencies, total losses for German banks alone would be 120 billion euros, said de Frias. That’s almost half the total equity of German lenders, he said… In such a scenario, losses at U.K. banks would reach 80 billion euros, equivalent to nearly half the equity of Barclays Plc, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc., he said.

“’And this is only the banks. What would happen with the investments of the large European multinationals’ like Siemens AG, Tesco Plc and others…”

Did Britain Do It Right?

The Daily Express wrote on November 25:
 
“From this day forth our energies will be directed to furthering the cause of those who believe Britain is better off out… After far too many years as the victims of Brussels larceny, bullying, over-regulation and all-round interference, the time has come for the British people to win back their country and restore legitimacy and accountability to their political process….
 
“This newspaper has always been hostile to the dilution of national sovereignty that EU membership entailed, but it has also always acknowledged that economic arguments were key. So long as there was a case to be made that leaving the EU would risk jobs and investment in Britain there was a powerful brake on thoughts of leaving altogether… We were told that staying out of the eurozone would be a financial disaster, yet it is now clear beyond doubt that the opposite was true… “
 
Just merely based on monetary considerations, this view point might sound correct in the short term, but the Bible shows that in the longer term, continental EU and the euro will be dominating and all-powerful factors to be reckoned with. In fact, the EU will fight and win not only a monetary, but also a military war against Great Britain. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.”

Practical Impossibility to Leave the Euro-Zone

BBC News reported on November 24:

“Much has been written about the theoretical attractions for financially troubled countries in exiting the euro-zone. But the question of how a country would go about it is less well explored. And the more closely you examine the question of ‘how’ – as opposed to ‘why’ – a country might leave the euro, the clearer it becomes that the practical difficulties are huge.

“To establish a new currency a country would have to convert all existing euro-denominated savings at a fixed rate on a given date. But savers and businesses would not wait passively for that date to arrive… The first practical problem, then, is that if it becomes clear that a country is seriously thinking of leaving the euro a huge amount of money will leave the country. This is sometimes referred to as ‘capital flight’. The overall effect would be to trigger huge transfers of deposits out of the country and wreck the banking system…

“But if a prolonged national debate about leaving the euro creates a risk of capital flight, would the alternative be to prepare in secret and announce it suddenly?… the idea that huge numbers of new bank notes could be prepared and distributed in secret… is absurd…

“However, suppose for a moment that these practical problems could be overcome, where would the country leaving the euro stand financially? It would have a large national debt denominated in euros…

“The euro came into circulation without too many hitches, albeit with many years of preparation. East Germany’s Ostmarks were converted into Deutschmarks. But the key difference is that in these cases the currency into which savings were being switched was perceived to be stable. The incentive for capital flight did not exist.

“… if the fundamental problem is substituting a weak currency for a strong one, the most practical solution would be for the strongest members of the euro-zone to leave the currency union. It means that… Germany could leave the euro while weaker countries could not… it seems massively unlikely that a German government would initiate the break-up of the euro. The euro was not designed with any possibility of break-up in mind… the point of a currency union is that it is supposed to be unbreakable.”

The EU was destined to unite, and the euro is one of the means of such unification. Please also read the next article, which proves as well that the notion that the euro could be exchanged for national currencies is just ridiculous. To believe such speculation would be tantamount to questioning biblical prophecy. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.”

Comeback of National Currencies Would be a Disaster for EU and Germany

Der Spiegel wrote on November 29:

“Europe is discussing the horror scenario of a break-up of the euro zone. At present, that still seems unlikely, but experts are alarmed. A comeback of national currencies would be fatal — especially for Germany… what would really happen if the euro collapsed? Would it really herald a return to the good, old days, to a Germany that uses the much-revered deutsche mark? Or could it actually be a harbinger of chaos and economic depression?…

“Germany has reaped all sorts of benefits from the euro. A collapse of the common currency would have dramatic effects. Here is a list of possible consequences:

“… the high transaction costs alone would cause massive damage to the national economy. For example, huge amounts of new bank notes would have to be printed, and mountains of coins would have to be minted… Merchants and restaurant owners, for example, would have to re-adjust all their prices…
 
“… leading German economist Peter Bofinger said: ‘Many Germans’ eyes would start to glisten with emotion if the deutsche mark were to come back.’ But he also warned that ‘the economic consequences would be disastrous’… [It] would make German goods dramatically more expensive abroad, which would result in a serious competitive disadvantage, especially since roughly 40 percent of German exports go to other euro-zone countries.
 
“Last summer, Gerhard Cromme, chairman of the supervisory board of German engineering giant Siemens, described the consequences in drastic terms: ‘Prices would shoot up so high that those of us in the industrial sector would no longer be able to sell anything out there in the world.’ …

“Experts calculate that there would be severe job cuts in Germany if this were to happen… German companies would also have to assume billions in additional costs. For example, without the euro, they would have to hedge themselves against major currency fluctuations. Thanks to the common currency, this has not been necessary when exporting to countries within the euro zone.

“What’s more, a collapse of the euro… would throw financial markets into chaos. At the moment, all the big German banks have euro-denominated government bonds issued by other EU countries on their books. Were the common currency to disappear, these countries would be forced to repurchase these bonds in… whatever currency they assumed. But this would present the banks with a serious problem… German banks would be threatened with enormous loan losses…

“A defeat of the euro would be a victory for the dollar, which would continue on for the time being as the unrivalled currency for all major international transactions. At the same time, a breakup of the euro zone would also cause damage at the political level. As Andreas Scheuerle, an economist with DekaBank, said last summer: ‘Europe would suffer a massive decline in importance vis-à-vis the United States and China.’…
 
“The political consequences would be downright devastating… an end to the euro zone could lead to significant tension between EU member states. In the end… the entire European Union would be threatened.”
 
The Bible predicts that this will not happen–at least not until sometime AFTER the beginning of the Great Tribulation.

USA vs. Germany?

Reuters reported on December 1:

“The United States would be ready to support the extension of the European Financial Stability Facility via an extra commitment of money from the International Monetary Fund, a U.S. official told Reuters on Wednesday… U.S. Treasurys’ [sic] prices fell and the euro strengthened against the dollar on Wednesday after the news that the United States would be prepared to support an enlarged EFSF.

“Germany, whose leaders have expressed frustration at the market backlash against their plans to solve the euro zone’s debt problems, does not want to make the stability fund larger.”

Germany Not Liked Too Much in Europe

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 26:
 
“Everyone is talking about German Chancellor Angela Merkel these days — and most of what they have to say isn’t complimentary. Her plan to create a bankruptcy mechanism for euro-zone countries, they say, has worsened the debt crisis in Ireland and elsewhere. Merkel’s name, once widely respected, is now mud…
 
“Ever since the sovereign debt crisis began shaking the euro zone, Germany has been the target of criticism more frequently than it has in a long time. And the image of the chancellor has been badly blemished…
 
“In the middle of Europe’s crisis, the former image of the ugly German — all-powerful and arrogant — has returned. Groaning under the weight of the euro crisis, Ireland sees itself as a victim of German conceit. The Irish press writes of ‘neo-colonialism.’ One of the largest newspapers in the country, the Irish Independent, quotes Fine Gael politician Michael Noonan, saying: ‘Can I ask whether this is what the men of 1916 died for: a bailout from the German chancellor with a few shillings of sympathy from the British chancellor on the side?’…

“The president of the Euro Group, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, has hinted at his own concern about Germany’s European policies… ‘That in Germany federal and local authorities are slowly losing sight of European public good, that does worry me,’ he told the newspaper Rheinischer Merkur…

“The influential Spanish daily El País wrote about ‘the clumsiness of Europe’s leaders.’ The article claimed that German unintentionally made things much worse for Ireland by demanding that private investors be held partially liable for losses… Many German taxpayers have been wondering why they should have to foot the entire bill for a mess in which the banks were also heavily involved… Experts in the financial industry are not very impressed with the Germans at the moment…”

However, the time will come–and soon–when Europe will grudgingly ask Germany to lead them–and they will even surrender their power and authority to a charismatic German or Austrian leader. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Is That in the Bible?–The Mystery of the Book of Revelation.”

“A Problem Like Korea”

As the following articles show, the USA is manifesting itself more and more as a completely helpless giant, unable to solve any problems in national and international matters. The pride of US power is surely gone.

Deutsche Welle reported on November 24:

“The divided Korean Peninsula has provided every sitting US president with a dilemma ever since Dwight Eisenhower brokered an armistice in the Korean War, an act that paused but did not officially end a conflict which had raged for almost three years and which cost some 36,000 American lives. Due to the fact that no official peace deal was agreed 58 years ago, the two Koreas have been living under the shadow of a potential return to war ever since Eisenhower’s intervention.

“America’s involvement in the war that divided Korea along the 38th parallel also continues to this day due to the commitment of the US to protect South Korea from any aggression by its communist neighbors in the North. Around 29,000 US troops remain deployed in South Korea.

“Presidents Johnson, Ford and Carter all had run-ins with North Korea during their times in office while more contemporary administrations of Bill Clinton, and both Bush presidencies have had to deal with the North’s growing nuclear ambitions.

“While skirmishes in the seas around the Korean Peninsula and small scale attacks on land gave the immediate post-war presidents a real headache, the last three US leaders have found that the increasingly unpredictable North, with its now indisputable yet crude nuclear weapons, has become a completely different problem. But while the nature of its threat has changed, the question as to how best to deal with North Korea endures…

“While the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island by the North and the responding fire from the South on Tuesday was the most serious exchange between the two Koreas in over a year – the disputed sinking of the South’s corvette ‘Cheonan’ in March aside – this incident is just the latest in a long line of skirmishes. However, the bombing of Yeonpyeong comes just a week after the North revealed a nuclear enrichment facility to a group of American scientists so advanced that it shocked the US…

“President Obama is honour-bound to protect South Korea, as his predecessors have been, and as such has strongly affirmed his commitment to defend it as part of the alliance which stretches back to the Korean War. The nuclear-powered USS Washington aircraft carrier was deployed to the Yellow Sea off the coast of South Korea on Wednesday. But with North Korea’s nuclear capability more advanced than first thought, the US president is unwilling to provoke any escalation and has chosen not to reposition any of the 29,000 US troops in the South closer to the de-militarized zone…

“Experts believe that Obama’s options are limited. Many consider it highly unlikely that the US will engage in any military action against the North, partly because of its nuclear capability and partly because it has a huge army of 9.45 million troops. If the US commitment to South Korea’s defense is to be invoked, it will most likely come in the form of support, not direct intervention…

“The US is also unlikely to want to anger China, North Korea’s only international and economic supporter. While China has called for restraint on the Korean Peninsula, Beijing has refused to issue an outright condemnation of the bombing of Yeonpyeong, even as veiled calls to do so from the United States and Japan began to circulate…

“But with the US unlikely to take military action against North Korea, some experts believe that its commitment toward its allies in Asia may be seen by some countries as wavering. The knock-on effect on regional stability could be just as damaging in the long term as an air strike.”

Obama Disappoints Israelis and Palestinians

Newsmax reported on November 22:

“It’s not just people in the U.S. who are upset with President Barack Obama. Israelis and Palestinians, who agree on very little, are in accord that the president is to blame for their political stalemate, Politico reports. To be sure, both sides in the Middle East dispute have never been willing to acknowledge that their own hard-line stances don’t exactly create an environment for peace to suddenly flourish. Nonetheless, they expected much from the new American leader and feel they have received little.”

America’s role as the world’s leader is clearly no longer reality. The Bible prophesied that this would happen.

China and Russia Renounce US Dollar

China News reported on November 24:

“China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday. Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies.”

The Bible predicts the downfall of the U.S. dollar, as well as a close alliance between Russia, China and other countries in the Far East.

Irish Democracy Under EU “Protectorship”

The EUObserver reported on November 22:

“The Irish government has applied for an EU-IMF bail-out of up to €90 billion to save its banking sector from collapse and reduce its borrowing costs, a move that in effect places Irish democracy, like that of Greece, under the protectorship of experts from Brussels and Washington…

“EU economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn conceded that the emergency action was taken essentially to protect the eurozone from further contagion: ‘Providing assistance to Ireland is warranted to safeguard the financial stability in Europe’…”

That Ireland would ask for European bailouts was predictable. The EU will not allow the euro to die, as also one of the following articles points out. But we also see how certain individual member states will become more and more dependent on European “protectorship,” and, as the next article shows, the possibility of a two-speed Europe, with one core Europe dominating the rest, is becoming more and more a distinct possibility.

A Two-Speed Europe?

On November 22, 2010, Der Siegel Online reported:

“Yesterday it was Greece, and now it’s the sorry state of Irish banks that poses a threat to the common currency. Each new report fuels the suspicion that the problems may be so pervasive that they can no longer be solved with CONVENTIONAL methods and by taking on more and more debt…

“A deep divide between two almost irreconcilable camps runs through Europe. German Chancellor Angela Merkel heads one camp, consisting of the northern European countries. Merkel sees herself as the defender of a culture of stability of the sort that Germany has maintained since the days of the deutschmark. Her goal is to prevent the monetary union from becoming a kind of transfer union, with Germany as paymaster.

“The second camp consists of the so-called PIIGS states, which have accumulated too much debt in the past and are now hoping for help: Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. They want the thing that Merkel wants to prevent: a union in which the strong pay for the weak. Europe’s institutions are now maneuvering between these two camps…

“Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker supports the idea of issuing euro bonds. These are government bonds whose repayment is not guaranteed by the issuing country but by the entire monetary union. The southern euro-zone countries think this is an excellent idea. The Germans and the Austrians are against it. This sort of project would penalize those ‘who are dutifully sorting out their national finances’ and benefits those ‘who haven’t done their homework,’ says Austrian Finance Minister Josef Pröll.”

The existence of two camps in Europe may signal the beginning of a development, which has long ago been prophesied in Scripture; that is, that a core Europe of ten nations or groups of nations will arise, which will then give all their power and authority to a charismatic, but ruthless political and military European leader.

Merkel’s Strong Stance on Europe In Spite of Opposition

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 23:

“For the second time in just a few months, Angela Merkel will have to explain to voters why Germany must bail out a fellow euro-zone member state. Skepticism is growing — amongst voters, in the media and within her party…

“Now that Ireland has become the second country in the euro zone to ask for a bailout from the European Union, and given that Portugal may not be far behind, politicians in Germany have a problem… As the strongest economy in Europe, Germany will once again be called upon to step up to the plate…

“The German chancellor recently issued a sober warning about the need to support the common currency. ‘The way we address the issue of a stable euro will determine the health of the economic and monetary union, the future of the European Union as a whole and therefore also our future here in Germany,’ she said.

“… Merkel and her strategists have been concerned about the possibility that a euroskeptic party in Germany could at some point profit from the general mood of discontent regarding the EU… The mood in the German media landscape is not exactly sympathetic to Merkel’s position. ‘Euro Alarm — What the Bankrupt Irish Will Cost Us,’ read a recent headline in the influential tabloid Bild. During the Greek crisis, the newspaper caused an international furor with its provocative headlines. Now the Irish are worried they will be next in the German media’s pillory…

“But Merkel is determined to stand firm on the issue… In order to secure popular acceptance for a bailout, Merkel and her colleagues want to put pressure on Dublin to implement a tough reform program…

“Merkel also needs to keep an eye on the opposition. Sigmar Gabriel, the leader of the center-left Social Democrats, is looking to make political capital out of the euro’s latest woes, just as he did during Greece’s debt crisis. He accuses Merkel of concealing the truth from voters and damaging Europe. ‘Those countries that have benefited most from the common currency — such as Germany, the world’s second largest exporter — must ensure that the poorer countries in the euro zone are helped,’ Gabriel recently said.

“The emergency funds for Ireland do not need to be approved by the German parliament, the Bundestag. The parliament already passed the euro rescue fund at the height of the Greek debt crisis, effectively clearing the way for help for Ireland too. This time around, the German government only needs to inform the parliament’s budget committee of its plans.”

A German Eurozone?

Deutsche Welle reported on November 23:

“This Irish rescue package agreed this week – along with the Greek bailout earlier in the year – has found the eurozone countries hopelessly divided over the question of how to save the common currency in the long term. They have good reason to be concerned: The bond markets aren’t showing a healthy interest in Portugal, another likely bailout candidate. Nor are they particularly impressed with Spain, an even bigger economy with a similarly troubling debt load, a high unemployment rate and a stagnating economy. Should these countries also seek relief, the future of the euro could be on the line.

“The alarm bells are ringing in Berlin. The German government could end up paying 17 billion euros or more of the expected 90-billion-euro Irish rescue package… In addition to being promised that the euro would be as stable as the deutschmark, Germans were told prior to the deutschmark-euro conversion that there would be a ‘no bailout clause’ that would prevent Europe’s richer countries from having to rescue the indigent.

“With every new day of uncertainty, fears are mounting that the ongoing crisis in Europe could lead to the default of individual countries and ultimately the collapse of the eurozone…

“Some experts question, though, how big a role Germany, Europe’s largest economy, should play in stabilizing the eurozone. Turning the eurozone into a larger Germany, says Philip Whyte with the Centre for European Reform in London, could have adverse consequences – not only for the country itself but also for Europe and even the rest of the world… Expert Heinemann is confident the common currency will survive. ‘I don’t see the euro breaking apart,’ he said…”

The Euro Will Survive

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 24:

“Europe is gripped by a sense of alarm, now that Ireland has become the second euro-zone country to ask for a bailout. Pessimists claim that the crisis means the euro is finished. But that scenario is unrealistic — in reality, there is little to suggest that the common currency is about to disintegrate…

“A serious threat to the euro would only emerge if the financial markets lost faith in major debtor countries like Spain and Italy. But there is little evidence of that happening right now. Firstly, that is because these countries have all passed austerity measures, and secondly because there is enough money available on the market.

“European governments are serious about austerity, while in the US there is no sign of how President Barack Obama plans to get his country’s trillion-dollar deficit under control. Close to 9 percent of all US public spending this year was financed on credit, a considerably greater amount than in the euro zone. And whereas the European Central Bank has at least kept the inflation rate in mind with its currency policies, the US Federal Reserve keeps pumping billions of new dollars into the economy. It is unclear what the outcome of this gigantic wager will be.

“The situation doesn’t look much better in Japan. For a long time, the country was the world’s second-largest economy after the United States. But the Japanese economy has experienced a lasting recession over the past 20 years, and this year it is likely to be overtaken by China. By comparison, Europe looks as dynamic as an emerging economy. The public debt in Japan is at about 200 percent of GDP, around 2.5 times as high as the euro-zone average.

“And the much-celebrated emerging economies themselves are still packed with risks when it comes to investment possibilities. No one knows exactly how long the growth of the Chinese economy will continue. It will take a recession to truly determine the true condition of the country’s economy.

“Nor is it foreseeable at the moment that the yuan will become a serious global alternative to the euro and the dollar in the near future. The currency isn’t even freely tradable in international markets. So far, that situation has suited the Chinese government just fine…

“Europe’s debt problems are without a doubt considerable. But compared to the United States and Japan, the euro-zone states can already point to initial successes in sorting out their finances. In addition, their economies are in better shape. That will help to ensure that the euro remains one of the world’s most important, and thus attractive, currencies.”

Germany’s Astounding Growth

Site Selection’s monthly edition for November reported the following:

“While much of the world slowly emerges from the crisis, Germany is setting records for economic growth and new corporate facility projects… Rob Denman, CEO of London-based Pathfinder Business, believes Germany set itself up for success a decade ago… Denman says the Germans have developed and used core FDI strategies around incentives and clusters and developed world-renowned centers of excellence. ‘They have also developed a globally recognized position as leaders in growth sectors…’

“‘Germany has also developed well-recognized excellence in innovation, and has created the best environment for R&D,’ he says. ‘For example, German brands such as Siemens have been taking the lead and innovating certain aspects of the cleantech sector… It is this innovation that will keep attracting other companies to want to come and be close to the best organizations and, importantly, to give them access to the best talent that will keep Germany at the center of Europe.’

“Not even the biggest global economic slowdown since World War II could tame Germany’s astounding growth…”

Germany’s growth is not astonishing, but it was and is inevitable, based on biblical prophecies.

Terror Attacks in Germany?

Israel National News reported on November 20:

“A terror alert has been issued in Germany. According to Der Spiegel, terrorist groups are planning an attack on the nation’s parliament building, the Reichstag. Al-Qaeda and similar groups planned to take hostages in the building, the paper said. The attack is to take place early next year…

“German officials raised security at airports and train stations last week. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere announced that there was ‘concrete’ evidence that terrorists were plotting attacks to take place in November…”

The Daily Mail added on November 22:

“The world famous glass dome atop the Berlin Reichstag has been closed to all visitors as fears mount of an impending terrorist attack in the capital… Numerous holy warriors raised in Germany have been filtering back into the country in recent months following spells in training camps in Pakistan.”

Germany in Fear

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 22:

“German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière put the entire country in a state of fright on Wednesday…  Wherever they have cause for doing so, the authorities are secretly monitoring communications, conducting surveillance operations and launching undercover investigations… Berlin Senator for the Interior Ehrhart Körting… has already even gone so far as to call on the inhabitants of the German capital city to report suspicious-looking individuals of Arab origin to the police…

“This November will drastically alter de Maizière’s understanding of his role in office. If he tries to return things to their previous state of calm, he’s going to have a very tough time. In fact, it’s much more likely that he will be a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT interior minister…

“Germany is in a state of emergency. Other countries, such as the United States, employ a system of official warning levels based on color codes that change — from yellow to orange, for example — when the danger level is thought to increase. But, in Germany, the interior minister is the barometer: He consults with experts — and then it is he who must call the shots…”

Germany’s state of fear is not a good sign for democracy and freedom. Considering the country’s history, such a situation has always led to regrettable developments with undesirable consequences. And if terrorists are really foolish enough to launch attacks inside Germany, the German reaction against Islamists and Muslims in general will be swift and strong. But perhaps this is the kind of external and internal threat which will force Europe to unite and to create a powerful European army.

Pope Approves of Condoms–in Rare Exceptions

The Associated Press wrote on November 20:

“Pope Benedict XVI says in a new book that the use of condoms can be justified in some cases, such as for male prostitutes seeking to prevent the spread of HIV. The pontiff made the comments in a book-length interview with a German journalist, ‘Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times.'”

The Wall Street Journal wrote on November 21:

“The Vatican on Sunday rushed to clarify a recent interview by Pope Benedict XVI, in which the pontiff states for the first time that there may be some cases in which the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on condoms isn’t absolute… The Vatican, however, played down the potential impact the remarks might have on church teaching. ‘The pope’s thinking certainly can’t be defined as a revolutionary shift,’ said Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi…”

On November 22, The Telegraph added the following regarding the “confusion” created by the pope’s statements:

” The Pope faced calls to clarify his stance on condoms as confusion reigned over exactly what he meant… The Vatican insisted yesterday that the use of condoms was only permissible in ‘exceptional’ cases but did little to clarify the apparent volte-face. ‘The pope considered an exceptional situation in which the exercise of sexuality is a real danger to the life of another,’ said Father Federico Lombardi, his official spokesman.”

The Roman Catholic church’s position on the use or, more correctly, non-use of condoms and contraceptives to prevent pregnancies is simply irresponsible and totally unbiblical. The legitimate prevention of conceptions and pregnancies is absolutely justified. What is not justified and unbiblical are abortions–that is, the killing of an unborn child, having been conceived in the mother’s womb.

Jewish Leaders Upset With Pope

Reuters wrote on November 21:

“Jewish leaders reacted with dismay Sunday to comments in Pope Benedict’s new book that his wartime predecessor Pius was a ‘great, righteous’ man who ‘saved more Jews than anyone else.’

“Many Jews accuse Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, of having turned a blind eye to the Holocaust. The Vatican says he worked quietly behind the scenes because speaking out would have prompted Nazi reprisals against Catholics and Jews in Europe…

“‘Pope Benedict’s comments fill us with pain and sadness and cast a menacing shadow on Vatican-Jewish relations,’ said Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants.

“‘The assertion that Pius saved more Jews than anyone else during the Holocaust is categorically contradicted by the known historical record. As survivors of the Holocaust we have a solemn obligation to the memory of those murdered to defend the truth of the tragedy till our last breath,’ he said… Pius, including the possibility that the Vatican may one day make him a saint, is one of the main points of contention in relations between Jews and the Vatican. The pope’s latest comments raised new tensions.”

The Pope Contacts Iran

Newsmax reported on November 12:

“Pope Benedict XVI has shared his thoughts with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on how to achieve world peace, and at the same time appealed for greater religious freedom in the Middle East… The Pope’s letter… is both courteous and positive without being overtly critical…

“In the pontiff’s letter, Benedict XVI took the opportunity to defend Iran’s 10,000 or so Catholics. Although they are allowed to worship in Iran, Iranian Muslims cannot freely convert to the Catholic faith and the country’s bishops conference does not have official status… He also stressed the positive contribution Catholics play in Iranian society as peace builders… And he argued for a bilateral commission that would be especially helpful in addressing questions of common concern, including that of the juridical status of the Catholic Church in the country. The Pope closed by expressing his hope that the cordial relations between Iran and the Holy See continue.

“The Islamic Republic and the Holy See–both theocratic states–have long had friendly diplomatic ties: Since it established formal relations with the Holy See in 1953, Iran has supported the church on some life issues. However, the Holy See hasn’t held back from criticizing Iran when necessary, especially over Holocaust denial and the country’s nuclear ambitions. Neither of these was explicitly mentioned in the letter…”

Merkel Wins Against Obama

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 12:

“Germany successfully managed to thwart US demands for rigid rules on trade imbalances… [Merkel] enjoyed a preliminary VICTORY in the dispute with the United States over trade imbalances. The American demand for binding limits to be placed on countries with major trade surpluses — a demand aimed clearly at Germany and China — has been taken off the agenda for now… Obama has emerged as one of the LOSERS of the Seoul summit.”

USA Jealous of Germany

The Local reported on November 18:

“… rather than welcome the success of its European partner, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has suggested that Germany’s trade surplus be capped: in other words, that exports be banned if they go above a certain level. He is supported by voices from EU headquarters in Brussels and Germany’s socialist Left party. This is an odd coalition of free trade opponents, but they are united by one thing: envy.

“US President Barack Obama adopted his finance minister’s proposal ahead of the G20 in Seoul, South Korea last week, but fortunately Chancellor Angela Merkel resisted his pressuring. After all, she is in a strong position: the Americans are criticizing Germany for what it is apparently doing right.

“Success breeds resentment, and it’s no surprise that German opposition parties and certain nations are grinding their teeth, because the German example puts pressure on their leaders to explain themselves. But why are Germans themselves not more proud of the achievements they have helped produce?

“Even as their country has escaped the maelstrom of the crisis – and with an even healthier job market than before – Germans are lost in raging debates about disillusionment with politics, a crisis in democracy, deep social insecurity and other supposed anxieties of the zeitgeist… While life expectancy rises every year, so does anxiety about chemicals in food, healthy diets and fitness. Will Germans ever be relaxed and satisfied?…”

“Embarrassment in Seoul”

The Wall Street Journal wrote on November 13:

“Has there ever been a major economic summit where a U.S. President and his Treasury Secretary were as thoroughly rebuffed as they were at this week’s G-20 meeting in Seoul? We can’t think of one. President Obama failed to achieve any of his main goals while getting pounded by other world leaders for failing U.S. policies and lagging growth.

“The root of this embarrassment is political and intellectual: Rather than leading the world from a position of strength, Mr. Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner came to Seoul blaming the rest of the world for U.S. economic weakness. America’s problem, in their view, is the export and exchange rate policies of the Germans, Chinese or Brazilians. And the U.S. solution is to have the Fed print enough money to devalue the dollar so America can grow by stealing demand from the rest of the world.

“But why should anyone heed this U.S. refrain? The Germans are growing rapidly after having rejected Mr. Geithner’s advice in 2009 to join the U.S. stimulus spending blowout. China is also growing smartly having rejected counsel from three U.S. Administrations to abandon its currency discipline. The U.K. and even France are pursuing more fiscal restraint…

“The American FAILURE was most acute on trade, as the U.S. and South Korea couldn’t agree on a bilateral pact that the two countries had signed three years ago… Mr. Obama’s negotiators left Seoul empty-handed… faltering American influence will produce a vacuum in which every nation can seek narrow advantage…”

America’s Shrinking Influence in the World

CNN wrote on November 12:

“Opening The New York Times on Friday morning, I blinked. The headline on its lead story, spread over two columns, blared out, ‘Obama’s Economic View Is Rejected on World Stage.’

“Whether or not you like this president, the headline should make every American wince. Yes, other presidents have experienced setbacks, but it has been a long time since any of them has been so publicly rebuffed in a gathering of the world’s major nations. Indeed, since World War II, our presidents have dominated the world’s economic decision-making…

“There is a suggestion coming from the White House that the press is being unduly dramatic in its reporting on these setbacks. But is this believable about The New York Times? Hardly. No, what we have here is something more serious: not only a president who is personally weakened by elections at home but a proud NATION that is also WEAKENED in the eyes of the world.

“For too long, the U.S. has been seen by a growing number of other nations as acting recklessly with our finances. Within less than a generation, we have fallen from being the world’s biggest creditor to the world’s biggest debtor. Fingers are also pointed at us for CAUSING the Great Recession.

“We increasingly face a stark choice: Either we get our economic house in order or we will lose much of our influence — and our leadership — on the world stage.”

Sadly, the USA will lose much more than just leadership and influence on the world scene. Europe epically feels more and more provoked by American politics and its perceived “arrogance,” and the time will come when it will “retaliate” and pay back in no uncertain terms. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.”

Fear of Trade War

Fox News wrote on November 11:

“The world’s economies stand on the brink of a trade war… A dispute over whether China and the United States are manipulating their currencies is threatening to resurrect destructive protectionist policies like those that worsened the Great Depression. The biggest fear is that trade barriers will send the global economy back into recession…

“A full-blown trade war could lead countries to erect punitive barriers to imports — a replay of what happened in the 1930s. A law the United States passed in 1930 that raised tariffs on imports is widely thought to have DEEPENED the Great Depression by stifling trade.”

Real Threat of Nuclear War

The Pravda reported on October 28:

“On October 23rd, the United States lost the control over a part of its nuclear arsenal for 45 minutes. The news was made public several days later… Needless to say that the incident… has caused quite an uproar in the world taking into consideration the fact that the missiles can turn a large country into radioactive ruins. The 13,000-kilometer range missiles are capable of striking targets in practically any part of the globe. They are the only land-based ICBMs of the United States…

“The incident… means that we can not exclude an unauthorized launch of ICBMs. The Americans failed to control the operation of electric cables, but what about the complicated informational systems? It is an open secret that hackers can easily overcome all possible and impossible barriers today, hacking into computer systems of NASA and the Pentagon. Can we say for sure that there will be no unauthorized launch of missiles in this or that country some day? It is obvious that such a perspective poses a very serious threat to the whole world.

“‘Nobody wants to be the first to use nuclear arms today, but in case of unauthorized launch a country may provoke an act of retaliation,’ Anatoly Tsyganok, an expert with the Institute for Political and Military Analysis told Pravda.Ru.

“One should bear in mind the so-called human factor… There was a case when a [U.S.] sergeant, being in a state of mental stress, fired his gun at a nuclear warhead. Thus, the joke about a drunk sergeant who pressed the red button and then asked where Belgium went, does not seem to be funny.

“We have to admit that the issue of technical security of strategic arms is a very relevant one for Russia too. Vladimir Yakovlev, the former commander of Russian strategic missile troops, stated back in 1998 that about two-thirds of missile complexes and control systems in the arsenal of the forces were beyond their warranty life spans. Many experts admit that nothing has changed for the better since then. That is why Russia should learn from US mistakes.”

California’s Mysterious Missile

The Pravda wrote on November 11:

“It lit up the sky in the Pacific. On film and seen by many witnesses, a missile was sighted over California. On the film, you can see the unexplained contrail. The launch occurred about 35 miles out at sea, west of Los Angeles and north of Catalina Island. Oddly enough, all witnesses, without exception, described it as a missile. Anyone who has seen a live and in person missile or spacecraft launch will clearly recognize the contrail left by the flying object.

“CBS affiliate KCBS television caught the launch on camera and reported that military officials were ‘tight-lipped over the nature of the projectile.’ NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) were at a loss to explain the sighting. They doubted that it was a missile of foreign origin. Even though missile tests are frequently conducted in the area, there were no tests being done at the time, nor by the Navy or Vandenburg Air Force Base.”

In light of the US military’s denial of any knowledge and its rather flimsy explanation of an “optical illusion” or an “airplane,” and the rather mysterious crippling of the cruise ship Carnival Splendor, conspiracy theories have been circulating on the Internet. One version, contained in a report, which was allegedly prepared for Prime Minister Putin by Director Anatoly Perminov of the Russian Federal Space Agency, reportedly claims that, based on findings of an Akron-1 military satellite monitoring the western coastal regions of North America, the cruise ship was attacked by a Chinese submarine, patrolling approximately 200 kilometers off the US coast, through an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) as part of a Chinese test, and that the subsequent missile was fired on the submarine, as an act of retaliation, by a US Navy Ohio-Class submarine operating off the coast of California.

With the US government’s steadfast refusal to reveal what happened, such allegations–whether true or false–are not surprising, and they again severely damage any national or international confidence in the veracity of the U.S. leadership.

Russia’s National Interests

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 15:

“Flush with cash from booming oil and gas exports, Moscow unilaterally pursued Russian national interests during Vladimir Putin’s tenure as president. In the process, Russia’s relationship with the West deteriorated to a historic low point. But then the economic crisis hit. Energy prices collapsed and Russia’s rapid growth ground to a halt.

“After Dmitry Medvedev assumed the presidency in 2008, Moscow sought to jumpstart the slumping Russian economy through so-called ‘modernization alliances’ with the US and the EU. Yet at the same time, the oil-rich country began consolidating its ‘strategic partnership’ with an oil-hungry China. Russia wanted to pursue its national interests in economic modernization and growth and knew that it needed both the West and China in these endeavors…

“Moscow’s relationship with the West has a long history of ambivalence. Culturally tied to Europe, yet also influenced by Asia, Russia sits awkwardly between two worlds… a Euro-Atlantic security community is not the only game in town. Russia is hedging its bets and forging a strategic partnership with China, as well… On the international stage, Russia and China share a similar worldview. They both prioritize national sovereignty and the pursuit of national interests over liberal values, such as democracy and human rights…”

History repeats itself. There was a time when Russia and Germany were allies (compare the Hitler-Stalin non-aggression pact); when Russia and the USA were allies (against Germany and Japan); and when Russia and China were allies (against Germany and Japan). The Bible prophesies that there will be no lasting pact between Russia and the USA–nor between Russia and Europe–but that a pact will be made between Russia, China and other Far Eastern nations, with Iran becoming a part of that alliance.

Sarkozy’s Maneuver

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 14:

“Following the resignation of French Prime Minister Francois Fillon’s administration on Saturday, Fillon unveiled a reshuffled cabinet on Sunday. He was put back in his post as prime minister by President Nicolas Sarkozy earlier in the day…

“While many of the resigned cabinet members were brought back in the shake-up, some new faces have shifted the cabinet slightly to the right… Observers consider the new cabinet a political maneuver to put Sarkozy in a better position for re-election in 2012…

“Opposition Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry criticized the new cabinet, saying Sarkozy did not implement the political change the French people want. ‘The president has brought back the same prime minister to carry on the same politics,’ Aubry said…”

France is moving “slightly to the right”–and the tendency is that other European nations will follow.

President Bush’s Selective Memoirs

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 14, 2010:

“George W. Bush has written his selective memoirs, in which he accuses Gerhard Schröder of breaking a promise. In truth, Bush strung along the then-German chancellor with unfounded promises, even as his administration was already preparing for the disastrous Iraq war…

“That episode took place on Jan. 31, 2002, a date that has taken on near-historic significance after the fact. The former US president argues that [a] deep rift between the United States and Germany over the campaign against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was created on that day. In his just-published memoirs, Bush mentions the meeting and accuses Schröder of breaking his promise.

“According to Bush, it was on that day that the German chancellor had promised him that his country would support Bush in a war against Iraq, just as it had in Afghanistan. Bush claims that Schröder distanced himself from that pledge later on, during the next election campaign… Not true, says Schröder, who insists that he never made any such commitment to Bush or broke his word. Indeed, Schröder says, Bush is ‘not telling the truth’ in his memoirs…

“Ironically, both men are right and wrong at the same time. They lied with the truth, because they avoided speaking openly with one another. They behaved this way because their interests were not compatible…

“Schröder is right in saying that Bush didn’t tell the truth on that Jan. 31. The president claimed that plans for war were not on the table, and yet the military’s first draft of the war plans were already on his desk more than four weeks earlier. He claimed that he was ‘determined to make diplomacy work,’ and yet he had already decided in favor of regime change in Baghdad. He promised to consult with the Europeans before making a decision, but unlike the Europeans, Bush’s idea of consulting with his allies did not involve a discussion of the pros and cons of intervention in Iraq. Instead, he was only interested in their answer to a simple question: Are you with us or against us?

“But Schröder didn’t tell the whole truth, either. It’s hard to believe that the chancellor would have received an unconditional majority vote in the Bundestag for a war against Iraq. The vote on a German military contribution in Afghanistan, which was in fact uncontroversial, passed the Bundestag by a slim margin of 336 to 326. Four Green Party politicians had voted against German involvement in the conflict, while nine others made it clear that they were supporting the administration of Chancellor Schröder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer with great reluctance, and that they would withdraw their support in the event of an invasion of Iraq…

“The predictions coming from Europe’s war skeptics eventually came true, when reality shattered the superpower’s illusions. Blair, who also exhibited unqualified solidarity in Iraq, became a hated figure in his country. In Germany, however, Schröder and Fischer won the election, as they had hoped, because of their opposition to the Iraq adventure.”

Even though Gerhard Schroeder and Joschka Fisher seemed to have acted because of self-serving motives in order to stay in power, the Iraq war was a disaster which alienated the relationship between Europe and the USA, causing great damage in that regard. George Bush’s ongoing insistence that the war was justified sounds shallow in the light of subsequent and even current events, as the next article shows.

New Fragile and Shaky “Government” in Iraq

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 12:

“It has been eight months since the elections, but on Thursday, Iraqi leaders finally agreed on a power-sharing deal and established a government. But the coalition is shaky at best and German commentators are not optimistic about its staying power…

“‘Today is a day of victory, the victory of the free Iraqi will,’ said Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish leader who was elected on Thursday by parliament to a second term as the country’s president. The power-sharing agreement foresees Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki staying on for a second term. Significant posts, however, have been given to the Sunni-backed party of Ayad Allawi, which narrowly won the most seats in the March 7 vote but which fell shy of a majority…

“Still, while there was widespread relief that the country had put an end to months of bickering, optimism was in short supply. Indeed, by the time Talabani addressed parliament on Thursday following his re-election, 57 Sunni lawmakers had already walked out, showing that the power-sharing deal is fragile at best. The Sunnis — less numerous in Iraq than Maliki’s Shiite backers and under-represented in the country’s power structures since the US invasion — have already begun accusing Maliki of having broken promises made during negotiations…

“The US had been hoping for a greater Sunni role, in part to thwart attempts by largely Shiite Iran to gain influence in Iraq. Instead, the Shiite Maliki has been returned to his post — largely as a result of support from the anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr…

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘… The Iraqi democracy, introduced forcefully by the Americans in 2003, doesn’t quite work — yet. Voters have demonstrated their sense of duty, but their representatives have abused their trust. The new government of national unity now faces a test of character — and one should not bet on a positive outcome’…

“The left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung writes: ‘… For a politician who was nothing but a compromise candidate four years ago, it is an impressive victory [for Maliki]. For democracy in Iraq, however, it is extremely damaging. Maliki has demonstrated that, even in the “new Iraq,” rulers cling to power no matter what the voters decide.'”

The American invasion in Iraq for the purpose of bringing democracy to that country was an utter failure. Weapons of mass destruction–the alleged reason for the war–were not found, but there are still many voices today, claiming that the Iraq war was justified. However, millions of dollars and thousands of lives have been wasted in this futile endeavor, which has not brought about more peace or security to the world, nor even to Iraq itself.

Is Assad Iran’s Slave?

Y-Net News wrote on November 11:

“In Islam, slavery was institutionalized and promoted as a necessity during wars. We find throughout our history, during al-Foutouhat (Conquests), many occasions upon which the ‘enemy’ was subjected to servitude by a Muslim master abiding by his Koranic beliefs.

“Even today, we see its enduring finger prints in Islamic societies in the form of sex trade, premature forced marriages, abusive household masters, female mutilations, etc… But we also witness slavery today in Machiavellian form across many Islamic societies in the Middle East. On that basis, there is ample evidence to suggest that Assad has become Iran’s Arab slave.

“In 2000, Assad ascended to power at the age of 34. While still learning how to use power, he was supposedly attacking the greatest power in Iraq with suicide missions. Given his background as a trained healthcare provider, it is quite a stretch to think he was capable of such a bold policy without Iranian assistance and help.

“Another factor is the futility of the US State Department to peel Assad from Ahmadinejad… That failure remains a mystery to many who are still scratching their heads. If you add, as well, how Assad has yielded to Hezbollah in Lebanon, one cannot but come to the same conclusion of how an Arab slave functions under the Iranian grip…

“Ahmadinejad asked for and received a long list of demands to include weapon delivery to Hezbollah, a big footprint of Iranian military and religious assets and symbols inside Syria, a NATO-like weapon exchange program to include storage and upgrade of missile systems to protect Iran, and more importantly, a Hezbollah footprint inside Syria just in case Assad turns his back on Iran…”

The Middle East is in turmoil, and peace negotiations and peace talks won’t change that. However, the Bible shows that Europe–not the USA–will intervene militarily in the region to impose “peace” on the peoples. This event will signalize the beginning of the prophesied Great Tribulation. The next article is very interesting in this regard.

EU Must Establish Common Defense Policies

The Financial Times wrote on November 14:

“The 27 member states of the European Union must ‘grow up’ and establish far better co-ordination of their national defence policies if they want to cope with the inevitable withdrawal of US forces from Europe’s land mass, Finland’s foreign minister has warned… ‘The US is starting to flirt with other partners than the Europeans. The EU is not as sexy as it once was. We are like a grumpy old couple. We’ve been together for 60 years. We nag at each other. We might have the same values but America is starting to look elsewhere… If the Americans are looking elsewhere then we have to start… coming up with European solutions.'”

EU in Financial Crisis

The following articles describe the most recent economic crisis within the EU. Some feel and hope that it signals the end of the euro. They are mistaken. There is no way that Europe will forsake their common currency. But it is also important to realize that a core Europe of ten nations or groups of nations will still have to emerge. The Bible clearly prophesies this. And internal European crises–coupled with external perceived or real threats–may lead to this necessary event.

The Daily Telegraph wrote on November 15:

“The euro is facing an unprecedented crisis after another country indicated on Monday night that it was at a ‘high risk’ of requiring an international bail-out. Portugal became the latest European nation to admit it was on the brink of seeking help from Brussels after Ireland confirmed it had begun preliminary talks over its debt problems. Greece also disclosed that its economic problems are even worse than previously thought.

“Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, raised the spectre of the euro collapsing as she warned: ‘If the euro fails, then Europe fails’… David Cameron said he was thankful that Britain had not joined the euro, but indicated his displeasure that taxpayers in this country face a pounds 7 billion liability in any bail-out package…

“Ireland has resisted growing international pressure to accept EU financial assistance amid concerns that this would lead to a surrender of political and economic sovereignty. However, the German government is expected to signal that Ireland may have to accept a pounds 77 billion bail-out, along with a loss of economic and political independence, as the price of preserving the euro. Mrs Merkel said that the single currency was ‘the glue that holds Europe together’.”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 16:

“EU President Herman van Rompuy was even more stark on Tuesday in a speech in Brussels. ‘We’re in a survival crisis,’ he said. ‘We all have to work together in order to survive with the euro zone, because if we don’t survive with the euro zone, we will not survive with the European Union.’ But, he added, ‘I’m very confident we will overcome this.'”

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 15:

“Germany benefits enormously from the single currency, as 40 percent of its exports go to other eurozone members, and having one currency eliminates fluctuations in exchange rates…”

Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote on November 17:

“Speculators like nothing more than when members of a currency union openly show discord — that opens up chances to make a profit. In order to avoid a new escalation, the governments have to now appear united. EU President of the Council Herman Van Rompuy was right when he said Europe was going through a survival crisis, and that the euro weaknesses could spread to become the writing on the wall for the entire EU. A united front includes a commitment to solid economic activity, something that was not so customary in Greece up to now. And it includes giving the Irish money quickly if it is needed…

“Merkel is… totally right. … And the mistrust in Ireland’s ailing banks has a much more detrimental effect on Ireland’s credit worthiness than the German initiative to clean up the euro in the longterm. The Greeks and the Irish should stop bashing those who want to help them. … And it is clear that Germany would bear the greatest burden in that case.”

Financial Times Deutschland wrote on November 17:

“One should finally face the truth and confront the looming insolvency of Greece and Ireland. … Accepting reality means accepting insolvency and solving the problem. And there are, in principle, two choices: Either leaving the euro zone with a view to re-entering later or a managed insolvency. The later will be the preferred solution, politically and economically.”

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote on November 17:

“If the currency union were to fail, then the economic and political costs would be enormous. We should all be concerned about the historic consequences.”

Die Welt wrote on November 17:

“The unthinkable has happened. The euro, the common currency and pride of the Europeans, is suspiciously close to the abyss. Europe is in the deepest crisis since its foundation. The community began as a project for peace and reconciliation… The EU of today is like a club of 27 egotists, that are somehow connected through technocratic procedures and the competition for the biggest slice of the European wealth cake. Europe is exhausted. It lacks strength, ideas, a common purpose and an identity.

“It could only come to this because the EU elites have failed for years and have not met their responsibilities. The debt mountains and the serious breaches of simple economic rules could only have occurred as a result of selfish calculation on the part of EU member state governments. Now decisiveness, solidarity and political leadership are required. A politics of business as usual has slammed up against the wall. But will the politicians be able to change their spots?”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 17:

“Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, asserted that they would defend the euro by any means… Merkel… attempted to strike a calming note. ‘I do not believe that the euro zone is at risk, but we are experiencing turbulence and situations of a kind that I would never have dreamed of a year and a half ago,’ she told the German public broadcaster ARD.”

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 18:

“… the Irish government, banks and companies owe foreign investors $731 billion (540 billion euros). Banks in Britain hold the highest stake with $149 billion, followed by Germany with $138 billion, the United States with $69 billion, Belgium with $54 billion and France with $50 billion.

“Should the Irish banking system or the government – which has heavily invested in bank bailouts – become unable to pay their creditors, British and German banks would be left with the greatest risk of losses and depreciations…

“Great Britain, Germany and France all have a vested interest in the financial stability of Ireland, as well as the other problem states of Portugal, Greece and Spain.”

These facts alone strongly suggest that Europe will not forsake Ireland.

Superstitions Within the Greek Orthodox Church

AFP wrote on November 17:

“Senior clerics in Greece have told the state in no uncertain terms that vigilance is required to prevent the antichrist from making a manifestation on new ID cards to be issued next year. The authorities must ensure that the cards contain no mention of the number 666, which in Greek Orthodox tradition is associated with the antichrist, the Church of Greece said in a statement.

“‘In no way should the ‘citizen card’ contain the number 666, either in visible or invisible manner,” the Holy Synod, governing council of the Church of Greece, said after a meeting between canon scholars, legal experts, computer specialists and government officials… The Church is officially part of the state in Greece.

“Frequently criticised as backward and superstitious by liberal circles, Orthodox custodians strongly adhere to tradition surrounding the number 666, which appears in the biblical Book of Revelation, believed to have been written by the Apostle John in the first century AD. Also known as the figure of the Beast, the number has led ultra orthodox clerics to oppose the use of bar codes on goods, as well as electronic checks carried out under the border-free Schengen Area of which Greece is a member…”

The number 666 is indeed associated with the end-time “beast”–a military and political European leader still to manifest himself on the world scene. But the book of Revelation tells us that this is the number of a man which needs to be “calculated” or “counted” (compare Revelation 13:18, especially in the Authorized Version). The superstitious belief that it can be easily ascertained by just finding it on an identity card or a microchip does not only contradict Scripture; but it is also dangerous as it detracts from the real meaning of the Word of God.

Turmoil in the Catholic Church

USA Today wrote on November 11:

“He calls AIDS a form of ‘justice’ for homosexuals and wants retired pedophile priests to go unpunished. He says women who have an abortion will be greeted in the afterlife by their unborn child crying ‘Momma!’ Archbishop Andre Leonard, 70, was plucked from a sleepy Belgian citadel-town by Pope Benedict XVI in January to energize the country’s Roman Catholic faithful and reverse 30 years of liberalism. The appointment was in line with Benedict’s policy of putting tradition-minded and conservative bishops in important dioceses.
 
“But since taking office, Leonard’s hardline views have added turmoil to a church already mired in an abuse scandal. And, privately, some Vatican officials are expressing concern about an ever-worsening public relations disaster. The controversy turned into a very public revolt last week when his spokesman resigned, saying he could no longer morally defend Leonard…

“Leonard’s views — and the way he delivers them so stridently — are riling the Catholic base, but they dovetail with church teachings that homosexual acts are ‘intrinsically disordered’ and that women who abort babies are sinners. Also, the Vatican admits it has no tolerance for pedophiles, but rarely subjects elderly pedophile priests to full canonical trials, instead telling them to live out their years in prayer and penance…

“Two of Belgium’s 10 bishops have publicly challenged Leonard. Unusually, Belgian Premier Yves Leterme, a Catholic, also condemned him… Leonard… refused to back off from his view that AIDS is punishment for a promiscuous lifestyle. Writing on his archdiocese’s website, he drew parallels with people who continue to smoke despite seeing clear health warnings on cigarette packs.

“Leonard… holds a philosophy degree from the Leuven Catholic University and did theological studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, a Jesuit school. He was also a member of the International Theological Commission, which then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — now Pope Benedict XVI — headed as prefect of the Vatican’s orthodoxy office.”

The fact that Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Andre Leonard as the head of the Catholic Church in Belgium, knowing full well of his views, shows that the Roman church is trying to bring back conservative views. Anyone who thinks that the Roman church will become more liberal in their views, is clearly mistaken.

Did the Vatican Order Murder of Pope John Paul II?

The Pravda wrote on November 11:

“The Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca, who on May 13, 1981 shot Pope John Paul II in Rome, Italy, said in a statement to Turkish television that the order to kill the leader of the Roman Catholic Church came from the Vatican itself. Ali Agca was released on January 18 this year after spending 30 years in prison for the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981, and the murder of Turkish journalist Abdil Ipecki in 1979…

“In a statement shortly after trying to kill the pope, Agca said he acted alone. This newest statement is one of several contradictory statements he has made since 1983, when he was pardoned by John Paul II when he visited him in prison. Today, Ali Agca is 52 and suffers from mental problems, analysts said. Shortly after being released, he said he was ‘the second Jesus Christ’ and he ‘is rewriting the Bible.’ In the midst of disconnected sentences released from the prison, Agca said: ‘I am the eternal Christ.’

“Previously, Ali Agca said he was connected to a group and blamed the Palestinian secret service in Bulgaria for the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II…

“The release of Ali Agca rekindled the mystery surrounding the causes that were behind the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, which have never been clarified. The truth is that after three investigations and the trials of three Bulgarians and four Turks, these links to the crime were never proven.

“On a visit to Bulgaria carried out in 2002, John Paul II said he did not believe that this Balkan state was involved in the attempted murder. After his meeting with the Turk in prison in 1983, John Paul II said that Agca had little military training and did not believe that he acted alone. In a statement issued through his lawyers, Agca said in the coming weeks all doubts will be cleared up about the attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II, including those relating to the possible involvement of the Soviet and Bulgarian governments.”

In addition, there are of course ongoing persistent rumors (which are even believed by some, if not many Catholics) that officials within the Vatican might have been involved with causing the untimely death of Pope John Paul I in 1978, who was only in office for one month, and who was subsequently succeeded by John Paul II. Also, it has been recently revealed that Adolf Hitler wanted to kill Pius XII, even though he and Benito Mussolini collaborated with him. At the same time, Pius XII was apparently convinced that Hitler was possessed and allegedly attempted to exorcise the demon.

Historically, this strange hate-love relationship between church and state is nothing new, nor are internal power struggles within the leadership of the Catholic Church uncommon (At times, the Roman Church had two or even three competing popes at the same time, all claiming to be the rightful successor on the papal throne.) The Bible shows that in the endtime, the leading nations in Europe will “hate” the Roman Church and “eat its flesh”–apparently confiscating the Catholic Church’s earthly possessions and treasures (compare Revelation 17:16)–something which Hitler had already planned to do on a large scale after the end of the war.

Locusts Invade Melbourne

IOL News reported on November 12:

“Melbourne commuters marvelled on Friday at locusts landing on the streets of Australia’s second-biggest city… Abundant rainfall in the south-east of the continent has provided ideal breeding for the formation of swarms that can number 50 million and devastate crops as well as pester motorists and pilots.

“With the WORST plague in 30 years predicted as the southern hemisphere summer hots up, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) warned pilots that swarms made flying hazardous…”

The Dollar’s Inevitable Decline

The Telegraph wrote on November 6:

“The Fed’s ‘QE2’ risks accelerating the demise of the dollar-based currency system, perhaps leading to an unstable tripod with the euro and yuan, or a hybrid gold standard, or a multi-metal ‘bancor’ along lines proposed by John Maynard Keynes in the 1940s.

“China’s commerce ministry fired an irate broadside against Washington on Monday. ‘The continued and drastic US dollar depreciation recently has led countries including Japan, South Korea, and Thailand to intervene in the currency market, intensifying a “currency war”. In the mid-term, the US dollar will continue to weaken and gaming between major currencies will escalate,’ it said…

“As this anti-dollar revolt gathers momentum worldwide, the US risks losing its ‘exorbitant privilege’ of currency hegemony – to use the term of Charles de Gaulle.”

The US is also risking to lose whatever influence in the world it may still have.

Dollar in Danger of Losing 20 Percent of Its Value

Reuters reported on November 1:

“The dollar is in danger of losing 20 percent of its value over the next few years if the Federal Reserve continues unconventional monetary easing, Bill Gross, the manager of the world’s largest mutual fund, said on Monday…

“‘QEII not only produces more dollars but it also lowers the yield that investors earn on them and makes foreigners, which is the key link to the currencies… less willing to hold dollars in current form or at current prices,’ Gross added… ‘The fundamental problem here is that our labor… relative to developing economy labor is so mismatched—China can do it so much more cheaply,’ he said.”

As this article and the next ones show, the attempt to cure the fragile US economy with poisonous medications is doomed to failure.

Poison as a Cure?

Bloomberg wrote on November 5:

“Michael Burry, the former hedge-fund manager who predicted the housing market’s plunge, said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is trying to use ‘poison as the cure’ by pumping more cash into the economy to spur growth. Bernanke’s Fed pledged this week to use $600 billion in additional Treasury purchases to help lower a 9.6 percent unemployment rate, close to a 26-year high, and to avert deflation.

“The attempt to bolster growth is reminiscent of Alan Greenspan’s actions to revive the economy after 2001, Burry said in a telephone interview from Cupertino, California. The former Fed chairman helped create an unsustainable boom in U.S. property prices with his policies, leading to the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression, he said.”

The US policy will not prevail or bring success, since God is not in it . As we, as a nation, have been turning our backs on the true God, He will not bless our efforts.

Inflation Due to Wrong US Policy?

CNBC wrote on November 4:

“Investors should brace for a much weaker dollar… said Merk, chairman and chief investment officer of Merk Investments, of Portland, Maine. Merk spoke the day after the Fed said it will be embarking on a program to buy $600 billion in Treasuries in an effort  to pump up the economy by increasing liquidity. Critics say the program, also known as quantitative easing, will further devalue the dollar and ultimately create inflation. ‘It’s with the best of intentions but I think it’s a very, very wrong policy,’ Merk said in an interview.

“Consumers should prepare for another turn of events like the spring of 2008, when oil prices soared to $147 a barrel and gas at the pump was more than $4 a gallon… ‘There’s no such thing anymore as a safe asset. Cash is no longer safe,’ he said.”

“Recession Shadows America’s Middle Class”

On November 10, Der Spiegel Online reported the following:

“American society is breaking apart. Millions of people have lost their jobs and fallen into poverty. Among them, for the first time, are many middle-class families…

“Pam Brown is one of millions of Americans who, during the recession, tumbled from their idyllic middle-class existence to near-poverty — or beyond. For many, like Brown, the downfall is a Kafkaesque odyssey, a humiliation hard to comprehend. Help is not in sight: their government and their society have abandoned them.

“Wall Street is preoccupied with chasing new profits again. Yet for large sections of the nation, that old myth of working your way up, of bootstrap success and its ultimate prize, homeownership, has evaporated. The middle class, the America’s backbone, is crumbling. The American Dream has turned into a nightmare.

“Last year the US poverty rate reached 14.3 percent, 1.1 percent higher than in 2008. Almost five million Americans skidded below the poverty line ($22,050 annual income for a family of four), many from hitherto sheltered circles, where poverty was a foreign word. The number of long-term unemployed keeps rising. Worst off are families with children. Every fifth child in the US lives in poverty today…

“‘Nothing’s going to happen,’ Curtis Skinner, head of Family Economic Security at the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), told SPIEGEL ONLINE. The political swing to the right, Skinner fears, is ‘extremely hurtful’ and ‘absolutely disastrous’ to the interest of the weakest…

“Bill Clinton’s ‘Welfare Reform’ of 1996 privatized welfare in the US, turning it into a for-profit business. Nowadays, welfare seekers have to adhere to such strict criteria that ‘a large number of applicants will have their applications denied, mainly because of purported non-compliance with certain requirements,’ the FPWA recently found in a study. Many others would just give up…

“Economists claim things are looking up. Brown doesn’t feel much of that. To this day she spends up to eight hours a day, several days a week, in the waiting room of a ‘Job Center,’ her neatly printed resume in her bag, only to be sent to dead-end training programs and interviews leading to nothing… In the meantime, she feels treated like cattle. ‘They don’t know what to do with educated people like me,’ she says of her overwhelmed social workers… She would be homeless if it weren’t for her lenient landlady. But the house is up for sale, and she isn’t sure how the next owner will handle it. Brown is terrified of homeless shelters. Just the other day she went to visit a girlfriend in a shelter: ‘It was like jail, with steel bars and a curfew.’ Her friend had lost her home in spite of her MBA…”

“Bank Holidays” Not Without Precedence

The Tonka Report wrote on November 5:

“With the world on the verge of a currency war as the Federal Reserve follows through on its dollar-killing quantitative easing program, rumors are once again swirling of a ‘bank holiday,’ during which US citizens will be prevented from withdrawing money or at least limited in the amount of the withdrawal they can make…

“Bank holidays are not without precedent in the United States. On March 5 1933, newly elected Franklin Roosevelt declared a ‘bank holiday’ that lasted four days, during which he rammed through the Emergency Banking Act which granted FDR near dictatorial control over the dealings of banks. The Act also forced every citizen and business in the country to relinquish their gold in exchange for paper currency. The 1933 bank holiday served as a face-saving mechanism for many financial institutions – thousands of them never reopened after the closure period had ended.

“… the debate is no longer about whether the US financial system and the dollar will come crashing down or not, but if that inevitable process will be characterized as a sudden collapse or death by a thousand cuts. The latter seems to be more likely, with a few lurches and leaps along the way…

“The blame for this turmoil can be laid firmly at the feet of Bernanke, acting at the behest of the Fed’s owners, who having promised in June last year that they would not monetize the debt of the U.S. government, have now embarked upon a ‘mad experiment’ that will precipitate ‘the collapse of the US dollar paper standard’…

“So while the happy clappers on Wall Street are drunkenly celebrating the fact that their artificially inflated stock market is surging solely as a result of the value of the dollar being eviscerated, Main Street is hunkering down for a long winter, beset by worries about hyperinflation, rising food prices and gas price hikes, as oil follows gold’s meteoric rise, again solely as a result of the Fed’s decision to debase the greenback.”

The present situation in the USA is filled with so much doubt, concern and uncertainty that even “bank holidays” are not dismissed any more as unrealistic nightmare scenarios. 

Germany Angry With USA

As the following articles show, Germany is angry with the USA, and it expresses her anger with America’s politics in no uncertain terms, accusing the USA of duplicity, arrogance and hypocrisy–let alone the charge that it will not only hurt itself, but that it may also jeopardize the entire global economy. The relationship between the USA and continental Europe–especially Germany–is predestined to deteriorate, as we explain in our free booklets, “Europe in Prophecy” and “The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.”

USA in Breach of International Agreement?

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 5:

“The US central bank’s decision to buy additional government bonds in an effort to stimulate the economy is a breach of international agreements, German Finance Minister Schaeuble said on Thursday evening… [It] contradicts an agreement made by G20 leaders, Schaeuble said… Schaeuble said he would not let Germany’s opposition to the Fed’s action get pushed to the back burner and that the issue would be addressed during the G20 summit in South Korea next week…

“Schaeuble’s harsh assessment was supported by leading economists. The Fed runs the risk of causing long-term damage, said Michael Huether, director of the Cologne-based Institute for Economic Research (IW). The acquisition of government bonds by the Fed is a fundamental regulative sin, he said, and it would do nothing to solve the structural problems in the US economy…

“Internationally, the German politicians were joined by Brazilian and Chinese officials in their criticism of the US plan to buy government bonds. ‘Everybody wants the US economy to recover, but it does no good at all to just throw dollars from a helicopter,’ said Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega.”

“USA At A Loss”

The Local added on November 5:

“Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble removed his diplomatic gloves on Friday, blasting the United States’ decision to go ahead with a massive economic stimulus measure that could harm Germany. Using unusually strong language, Schäuble said that the Federal Reserve Bank’s attempt to stimulate the US economy with a €600 billion cash injection did not make sense.

“’With all due respect, my impression is that the United States are at a loss,’ he said… Schäuble began his assault on Thursday night, when he told broadcaster ZDF that the Fed had already pumped ‘an endless amount of money’ into the US economy with ‘horrendous’ results.”

USA Hypocritical?

The Financial Times wrote on November 7:

“Germany has put itself on a collision course with the US over the global economy, after its finance minister launched an extraordinary attack on policies being pursued in Washington. Wolfgang Schäuble accused the US of undermining its policymaking credibility, increasing global economic uncertainty and of hypocrisy over exchange rates. The US economic growth model was in a ‘deep crisis,’ he also warned over the weekend.”

“Many Reasons for America’s Problems”

On November 8, Der Spiegel Online published an interview with Wolfgang Schäuble. We are bringing you the following excerpts from his comments:

“‘The United States lived on borrowed money for too long, inflating its financial sector unnecessarily and neglecting its small and mid-sized industrial companies. There are many reasons for America’s problems… I seriously doubt that it makes sense to pump unlimited amounts of money into the markets. There is no lack of liquidity in the US economy, which is why I don’t recognize the economic argument behind this measure…

“‘The Fed’s decisions bring more uncertainty to the global economy. They make it more difficult to achieve a reasonable balance between industrialized and emerging economies, and they undermine the US’s credibility when it comes to fiscal policy. It’s inconsistent for the Americans to accuse the Chinese of manipulating exchange rates and then to artificially depress the dollar exchange rate by printing money.'”

There are indeed MANY reasons for America’s problems–not only in the economic sector–and we discuss these reasons in our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.”

“The Atlantic Rift Grew Wider”

Reuters reported on November 10:

“Germany’s undiplomatic outbursts against U.S. policy, calling it ‘clueless’… show growing estrangement on economics as America’s focus shifts away from transatlantic ties to domestic challenges and Asia.

“‘The Atlantic is getting wider,’ said Anton Boerner, head of Germany’s Foreign Trade Association, who spoke of a ‘creeping alienation’ between America and Europe, which has been exacerbated by the global financial crisis.

“Germany and the United States often criticize each other’s approaches to aiding economic recovery, with U.S. calls for more expansive policy falling on deaf ears in fiscally disciplined Germany. But Berlin has taken the rhetoric to a new level… One regional German paper, the Hannoversche Allgemeine, came to the conclusion that ‘never before has the Merkel government had such a direct confrontation with the United States.’

“Merkel’s center-left predecessor Gerhard Schroeder came into conflict with President George W. Bush for criticizing the war in Iraq. The arrival of conservative Merkel raised great hopes in Washington and she got on well personally with Bush… But the chancellor and Bush’s successor Barack Obama have always had a difficult time communicating… Merkel has doggedly refused U.S. overtures to fire up domestic economic demand in Germany.

“‘On economic policy there is no dissonance with Europe as a whole, but rather with successful EU states like Germany,’ said Hans-Ulrich Klose, head of German cooperation with Washington and deputy head of parliament’s foreign affairs committee… ‘But the danger is that anti-American sentiment in Germany could grow,’ said Klose.”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 11:

“The days of close cooperation among the world’s big 20 economic powers may have ended. With the economic recovery, displays of envy and egotism have reared up at this year’s G-20 summit in Seoul. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is on a confrontation course with Washington over trade policy… Washington has accused governments with large trade surpluses of seeking growth in their own economies at the expense of other nations… The criticism has been directed largely at China and Germany… The harsh tone used by US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner recently in making the American case has led to resentment in Berlin and Beijing…

“Notably, Merkel left Germany with well-rehearsed words of praise for the Chinese… Of course, Berlin would rather stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Washington. But the unspoken message was clear: Drive us into a corner, and we’ll find other powerful allies.

“So in Seoul, the Americans appear to be on trial. They haven’t yet brought their economy into line and they still sit on a gigantic state deficit of $1.3 trillion (just under €1 trillion)…”

In a related article, Der Spiegel Online reported on November 11 that a meeting in Seoul before the summit between Merkel and Obama was “extremely frosty” and that the differences between Germany and the USA became “surprisingly” visible, and in the most obvious way. Further, the magazine stated that Obama suffered another set-back since he was unable to secure a trade agreement with South Korea.

“Washington Worries About New Power Couple”

The New York Times wrote on November 9:

“…rarely, in fact, have two men reached the pinnacle in Washington with so little in common. With Mr. Boehner about to become the speaker of the House, the nation’s two most powerful leaders [Obama and Boehner] open this new era with little connection other than a shared fondness for golf and a weakness for cigarettes…  The gulf in background, temperament, personality and philosophy make for an uncertain two years as they try to figure out whether they can work together…

“So far, at least, Mr. Obama and Mr. Boehner have spent virtually no time together and have made little effort to forge a bond. Aides said they could not recall a single one-on-one meeting or substantive phone call… As a result, it may be hard for Mr. Obama to reach out to the emboldened House Republicans… Mr. Obama and Mr. Boehner seem to have been talking past each other since the election last week, with Mr. Boehner claiming a mandate to reverse administration policies and Mr. Obama claiming a mandate to work together.”

California’s Ticking Time Bomb

The Los Angeles Times wrote on November 9:

“With the mid-term elections behind us and pundits offering opinions on what it all means, there is a ticking time bomb that further threatens California’s precarious budget situation and economic recovery for business, large and small. The issue regarding the solvency of the unemployment insurance fund was largely ignored by both gubernatorial candidates and the legislature during the recent budget deliberations. Unfortunately for all Californians, and particularly California employers, the failure to act will have serious consequences for business and unemployed workers.

“On a daily basis, California is borrowing $40 million a day from the federal government for payment of unemployment insurance benefits. California already owes the federal government $8.6 billion and that figure will exceed $10 billion by the end of this year. The state’s California Employment Development Department estimates that the deficit will total $16 billion in 2012. By the end of September 2011, California will owe the federal government $362 million for accumulated interest on the loan.”

Bush’s Memoirs Cause Outcry in Europe

Deutsche Welle reported on November 10:

“The 43rd US president’s apparent mission to have his two terms in the White House reassessed and his reputation rehabilitated through his new book, ‘Decision Points,’ has many Europeans shaking their heads. And it’s not just the most inflammatory excerpts – such as Bush’s assertion that water-boarding of terror suspects saved lives – that are causing an outcry…

“If Bush’s single-minded and heavy-handed approach to Afghanistan and Iraq in the wake of the terror attacks of 9/11 were damaging to his relations with his European allies at the time, his newly released memoirs appear to be giving European readers the chance [to] get angry all over again…

“The Bush legacy is still powerfully felt in the United States: the armed forces are embroiled in the two wars he started; the financial system is struggling to pull out of an overwhelming crisis, and politicians are scrambling to rebuild their credibility on the world stage… But the ripples from his eight-year presidency continue to be felt in Europe as well. Under his leadership, decades of trust and cooperation between the US and European governments was damaged.

“According to Thomas Klau, a Transatlantic Relations expert at the European Council for Foreign Relations, the memoir provides new fodder for Europeans who are skeptical about the US political system. ‘Europeans, and Germans in particular, are still amazed that the US political system has the potential to elect such an incompetent leader who has no respect for Western values,’ Klau said. ‘While Obama gave some hope, the Germans are now saddened to see that a discredited party such as the Republicans can be re-elected as the majority in the House of Representatives.’ Germans see the Republican mid-term victory as proof that ‘the US system and electorate has a very short memory and very little wisdom’…

“So far, European reaction to the Bush memoirs has been heavily affected by comments in the book that seem to advocate torture… Moreover, Bush ‘made bold statements’ that the information gained from water-boarding stopped an attack on London – a claim the UK refutes… The response to his memoirs suggests that the damage Bush did to his country’s reputation in Europe remains severe… Bush may have come out with his book to try and put the record straight in his own words. But in doing so, at least in Europe, it appears that he has taken a big stick to a hornet’s nest of his own making.”

EU President Warns of War…

The EUObserver wrote on November 10:

“EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy has issued a stark warning against growing nationalism, populism and anti-democratic forces across the EU, suggesting that the threat to peace in Europe remains a key issue…

“The president was speaking in the German capital on the Schicksalstag, or ‘fateful day,’ the anniversary of five pivotal events in the nation’s history: the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the fall of the monarchy in 1918, but also the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, Kristallnacht in 1938 and the execution of a leader of the 1848 revolutions in the German states.

“Quoting wartime US president Franklin Roosevelt, he said that the ‘biggest enemy of Europe today is fear,’ and that this ultimately could lead to war. ‘Fear leads to egoism, egoism leads to nationalism, and nationalism leads to war,’ he said.”

Germany To Use Military in Defense of Economic Interests

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 10:

“Earlier this year, then German President Horst Köhler provoked a storm of controversy when he said that military deployments were necessary to protect German economic interests. His remarks, made during a trip to Afghanistan, triggered consternation and sharp criticism in the media. Ultimately, he resigned as a result. Now German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has echoed those sentiments.

“Speaking at a security conference in Berlin on Tuesday, Guttenberg said that Germany should be prepared to use its military to secure trade routes, for example against piracy… Commenting on Köhler’s decision to step down in May, the minister said: ‘I ask myself to this day what was so audacious about his comments’…

“He also referred to the competing demands for raw materials of emerging nations and the industrialized world, which could raise questions of strategic importance for German security. ‘The securing of trade routes and sources of raw materials have without a doubt to be considered from military and global strategic viewpoints,’ he [said].”

Deutsche Welle added on November 10:

“The German government has decided to extend three military operations abroad, promising to supply up to 3,000 soldiers in three separate international missions.

“In the biggest such mission, German marines will continue their involvement in the European Union’s anti-piracy operation. The so-called ‘Atalanta Mission’ targets Somali pirates threatening ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, one of the most important trade routes between Asia and Europe. There are currently 320 German marines participating in the operation off the Horn of Africa. Germany may now deploy a maximum of 1,400 troops in the mission.

“At present there are no German troops actively participating in NATO’s ‘Active Endeavour’ operation in the Mediterranean. However, this week, the German frigate Bremen will be sent to the area to make its contribution to the anti-terror mission. The NATO operation, first devised after the September 11 attacks on the United States, is designed to prevent terrorists from crossing the Mediterranean into Europe. The German cabinet has agreed to maintain its pledge of 700 German troops for the mission.

“Meanwhile there are currently 115 German peacekeeping soldiers stationed in Bosnia. The cabinet agreed to maintain the maximum number of German troops taking part in the EU mission in the country at 900…”

French Democracy in Jeopardy?

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 10:

“French President Nicolas Sarkozy allegedly ordered France’s domestic intelligence agency to spy on journalists who annoyed him. The opposition is now demanding an investigation. Is French democracy in jeopardy?…

“Sarkozy’s fellow conservatives like to point out that François Mitterrand, the former Socialist president, had a department at the Elysée dedicated solely to his own affairs, and that among its responsibilities was listening in on the telephone conversations of journalists. This so-called ‘cabinet noir’ was only exposed a few years later, when its members were put on trial. But Sarkozy is apparently going one step further and secretly exploiting the police and intelligence service for his own purposes, justifying his actions by arguing that the state is in jeopardy…

“Last week, the administration was also forced to admit that — in the interest of the state, of course — a public prosecutor who had been decorated by Sarkozy had ordered intelligence agents to examine telephone communications between two Le Monde editors and a judge… Such revelations make it increasingly difficult to believe the many official denials of wrongdoing. Likewise, Sarkozy’s adversaries point to a series of bizarre burglaries…

“Olivier Metzner, a Paris-based attorney… is worried about the threat posed to French democracy if the government decides to ‘send out agents to steal the computers of journalists who are looking into the affair’…

“Sarkozy has figured out how to gain control over the entire public broadcasting system. For example, when appointing directors of radio and television stations, Sarkozy has shown a clear preference for friends and trusted associates. And they repay the president with loyalty, as can be gathered from a recent incident at France Inter, a major public radio channel, when two comedians were shown the door after making fun of the government. Under these conditions, it’s hardly surprising that there aren’t many members of the media still willing to criticize the administration. Indeed, a major shift has now taken place in the French media landscape, and it is now online publications… who have alone assumed the mantle of uncovering scandals.”

Italy’s Immorality

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 10:

“Pious Christians regard him as sick but many ordinary Italians are cheering him on. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi may grope his way from one scandal to the next, but issues of morality are not likely to cause his downfall.

“Should 74-year-olds be hosting group sex parties? Absolutely. And should they also be in charge of the government affairs of a core European Union country? Silvio Berlusconi would answer this question enthusiastically in the affirmative…

“Once again, Berlusconi finds himself at the center of a scandal that involves underage women, prostitution and the abuse of power…

“Rome has long been full of rumors about sex parties at the prime minister’s house, Villa Arcore near Milan, lavish affairs complete with half-naked young women and lap dancers, wine, drugs and seafood, Neapolitan songs performed by the master of the house, repeated hymn-like invocations (‘Thank God for Silvio’), and all of it surrounding a golden throne…

“Meanwhile, the opposition doesn’t exactly occupy a moral high ground. Berlusconi’s publications reported with relish on how former Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s spokesman was photographed conversing with a transvestite back in 2007. And the center-left coalition lost control of the Lazio region when its president was caught being driven in his official car to a rendezvous with a Brazilian transvestite…”

… And There is No Peace…

The New York Times wrote on November 9:

“President Obama’s criticism of new Israeli housing plans for East Jerusalem, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s even sharper retort, have thrown the Middle East peace talks into jeopardy, with the dispute over Jewish settlements looming as a seemingly insuperable hurdle…”

Americans Have Voted…

The Associated Press reported on November 3:

“Republicans scored the biggest party turnover in more than 70 years Tuesday with their win in the House and, in doing so, will dethrone Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi…

“Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, overcame a tea party challenge from Republican Sharron Angle in one of the election’s most brutally fought races. Sizing up the new order, Reid said he wants to preserve Obama’s sweeping health care law and let taxes rise on upper income Americans…

“Obama called Ohio Rep. John Boehner, the House speaker-in-waiting, to congratulate him late Tuesday. He also spoke with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and top Democrats in a series of conversations that reflected the shifting balance of power…

“About four in 10 voters said they were worse off financially than two years ago, according to exit polls and pre-election surveys. More than one in three said their votes were an expression of opposition to Obama. More than half expressed negative views about both political parties. Roughly 40 percent of voters considered themselves supporters of the conservative tea party movement. Less than half said they wanted the government to do more to solve problems…

“A Republican takeover of the House ushers in a new era of divided government after two years in which Obama and fellow Democrats pushed through an economic stimulus bill, a landmark health care measure and legislation to rein in Wall Street after the near collapse of the economy in 2008…”

The Wall Street Journal added on November 3:

“Moving [Obama’s] agenda through Congress will be far more difficult with GOP leaders claiming control of the House and the Democrats’ Senate majority greatly eroded. At the same time, Mr. Obama’s party will need to move past assigning blame for the midterm lashing and settle on a strategy for regaining momentum and regrouping before the 2012 election. Some top Democrats resisted talk of compromise.

“‘We have taken the country in a new direction and we are not going back to the failed policies of the past,’ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said… Republican leaders also have sent mixed signals about working with the White House.”

“Obama Is to Blame…”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 3:

“The Democrats suffered a debacle at the polls in the US on Tuesday — and President Barack Obama is to blame. Once celebrated as a great communicator, the president has lost touch with the mood in his country…

“To the right he is confronted by the stark hatred of the Tea Party movement. In the political center, voters abandoned Obama in droves. And on the left there are complaints that instead of Mr. Change, Obama has turned into Mr. Weakling. Young voters and African Americans are, of course, still behind Obama, but many of them didn’t even bother to cast their ballots on Tuesday.

“The debacle, the largest loss of seats for the president’s party in more than half a century, isn’t just a warning for Obama. It is a demolition…”

“Washington Big Loser”

The National Journal wrote on November 3:

“Who was the big loser Tuesday? The easy answer is President Obama and his fellow Democrats on this day of epic GOP victories in the House, the Senate, and U.S. statehouses. But there is a bigger loser: Washington.

“The wave of disappointment and disillusionment with Washington that swept Obama into office two years ago never went away. With the unemployment rate hovering near double digits, the president was unable to deliver the change that most Americans could believe in, so voters delivered a message of their own to the incumbent party: Get out.

“And so Republicans won the House and narrowed the Democratic majority in the Senate. But even Republicans acknowledged that the results were more of a referendum against Washington than a vote for the GOP.

“‘We make a great mistake if we believe that tonight these results are somehow an embrace of the Republican Party,’ said incoming Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida… Even as he claimed the Speaker’s gavel, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio said, ‘We’re witnessing a repudiation of Washington, a repudiation of big government, and a repudiation of politicians who refuse to listen to the American people’…

“‘I would absolutely advise Republicans to reach out to the president,’ said 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin… Palin pointed to the nation’s weak economy and declared, ‘We’ll have to be on [a] unified team here to get the economy roaring again.’

“Newt Gingrich… said Tuesday’s results created ‘a dramatically weaker Democratic Party and a severely repudiated President Obama.’ He’s right about that, of course. But does Gingrich really think Americans gave the GOP a full-throated mandate? He made that miscalculation a generation ago and overreached as the new House Speaker…

“Most tea party activists consider Obama a big-spending liberal. Some even question his eligibility to be president. Like a cowboy saddling a bucking stallion, Republican leaders tried to tame the tea party while riding it to victories. The new House majority must now try to govern while being ridden hard by tea party activists. The risk is that the GOP will be driven to positions that turn off the same independent voters who swung away from Democrats on Tuesday…

“‘We’ve come to take our government back,’ Sen.-elect Rand Paul of Kentucky told cheering supporters… He sounded, for a moment, like the Obama of just two years ago.”

And this may reflect a huge problem America will be facing. As Americans placed their unrealistic hope in President Obama and the Democrats, are they now making the same mistake in respect to the Republicans and some of their leaders? Many undoubtedly do, but as representatives of the Tea Party said: Republicans are on probation. The question is, will they be able to deliver? Or are commentators correct who prophesy a total stalemate and paralysis for the next two years?

Without God in the picture, America’s future does not look rosy. Americans have forgotten their Maker, and God has prophesied that in that case, He will withdraw His blessings. No political party or agenda will change this certain and sure fact.

For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.”

Is the American Dream Over?

On November 1, Der Spiegel Online published an interesting article, titled, “A Superpower in Decline,” asking the question, “Is the American Dream Over?” Even though the left-wing article is overly sympathetic, defensive and optimistic towards President Obama and his policies and overly critical and condemnatory towards TV personalities like Glenn Beck, the following statements are worthwhile quoting:

“America has long been a country of limitless possibility. But the dream has now become a nightmare for many. The US is now realizing just how fragile its success has become — and how bitter its reality…

“Americans have lived beyond their means for decades… But at some point, everything comes to an end. The United States is a confused and fearful country in 2010… Some 47 percent of Americans don’t believe that the America Dream is still realistic… Now, 63 percent of Americans don’t believe that they will be able to maintain their current standard of living.

“And if America is indeed on the downward slope, it will have consequences for the global economy and the political world order.

“The fall of America doesn’t have to be a complete collapse — it is, after all, a country that has managed to reinvent itself many times before. But today it’s no longer certain — or even likely — that everything will turn out fine in the end. The United States of 2010 is dysfunctional, but in new ways. The entire interplay of taxes and investments is out of joint because a 16,000-page tax code allows for far too many loopholes and because solidarity is no longer part of the way Americans think. The political system, plagued by lobbyism and stark hatred, is incapable of reaching consistent or even quick decisions.

“The country is reacting strangely irrationally to the loss of its importance… Demagogues stir up hatred and rage on television stations… will the US wake up? Or is it already much too late?…

“When government debt reaches 90 percent of the gross domestic product, the country begins to feel sick. People [lose] confidence in a better future, investors stop investing, consumers stop buying and the economy stops growing…

“The unemployment rate in the United States is at about 10 percent. But when the people who have stopped looking for work and are not registered anywhere are included, the real number is likely to be closer to 20 percent. For the first time since the Great Depression, Americans have a problem with long-term unemployment.

“…once a decline has gotten underway, it isn’t easy to change direction… There is no easy way out of the debt crisis… Unemployment remains stuck at record high levels, a second collapse in the real estate market is not unthinkable, and the classic tools of fiscal policy, tax cuts or economic stimulus packages, are hitting a wall…

“Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz warns of the consequences of a flood of liquidity. ‘It’s doing nothing for the American economy, but it’s causing chaos over the rest of the world,’ he says.

“More money means that the value of the dollar falls relative to other currencies. This is an advantage at first, because it makes exports cheaper and imports more expensive, making the US economy more competitive. But does US industry even make enough products anymore to allow it to increase sales to the global market? And what happens if the world loses confidence in its reserve currency and unloads its dollar reserves onto the market? The resulting dollar crash could plunge the global economy into the next abyss. More money also means more inflation…

“It could certainly be a comfort to the Germans that the United States is no longer so powerful that it can foist its ideas on the rest of the world. Almost 45 million Americans are considered poor, with 4 million falling below the poverty line in 2009 alone. The Department of Agriculture warns of growing ‘food insecurity.’ One fourth of all children in the United States depend on government food stamps…”

The Origin of Modern Halloween?

CNN wrote on November 1:

“Halloween is a holiday with ancient pagan roots, but the modern extravaganza of candy, pumpkins and sexy nurse costumes is as American as the Fourth of July…

“The British grocery chain Tesco sold 1.4 million pumpkins on Sunday. The chain estimates that its Halloween sales have tripled since 2005. British parks sponsored free Halloween spectacles: ghost walks, pumpkin carving. Trick-or-treating is spreading through London neighborhoods.

“But in the United Kingdom as in the United States, the real money is found in the grownup aspects of the holiday: costumes, dance parties, club nights. The growth in adult Halloween dwarfs pumpkin sales…

“The holiday is catching [on] in Germany, too. Influenced by U.S. military personnel, the Germans used to acknowledge Halloween as a children’s holiday. But since 2000, Halloween has become an adult craze…

“The Japanese have taken Halloween to over-enthusiastic heart… Bizarre, horrifying and — above all — sexy costumes have become a national pastime…

“This year… Americans spent an estimated $800 million on costumes for children, $1 billion on costumes for adults. Where did that adult dress-up party begin? As best we can tell: in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood… A local variety store had long sponsored a Halloween street festival for kids. In the 1970s, the street festival transitioned into an adult party of lavish costumed theatricality. The ‘Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’ — a troupe of transvestite nuns — got their start here.

“The Castro Halloween party spread to other gay neighborhoods in the 1980s: Greenwich Village, West Hollywood, Key West, Florida. In 1994, University of Florida anthropologist Jerry Kugelmass published a book on the new trend, ‘Masked Culture,’ describing Halloween as an emerging gay ‘high holiday.’

“And after a while — the straights imitated… The ‘masked culture’ first developed by the gays of San Francisco has reached across the lines of orientation — and now jumped across the boundaries between nations and languages…”

For more information on the ancient origins of Halloween, please read our free booklet, “Is That in the Bible?–Man’s Holidays and God’s Holy Days.”

Mexico’s Fascination with the Dead Becomes Bitter Reality

The Los Angeles Times wrote on November 1:

“… this year, as Mexicans picnic at cemeteries and erect elaborate altars to mark the nation’s annual Day of the Dead observances, death is haunting in its abundance. Mexicans face the stark reality of a drug war that has plunged the country into its deadliest violence since the revolution 100 years ago. So many dead. Tens of thousands, in just a few years.

“In Mexico City’s central Zocalo plaza, the so-called Mega Ofrenda, an elaborate and enormous shrine with offerings of flowers, food, drink and artworks to the dead…

“In just the last 11 days, 48 mostly young people were killed in four separate massacres in different cities, including the capital, prompting some columnists and activists to speak of juvenicidio, or the systematic slaughter of youths…

“Tuesday is the official Day of the Dead holiday, originally an indigenous custom timed by Mexico’s Spanish conquerors to follow the Roman Catholic All Saints’ Day on Nov. 1. As much as the promoters of Halloween try to supplant Dia de los Muertos, the two here end up combining into a long period of festejo.

“Children who engage in Day of the Dead solicitations of sweets and money, similar to trick-or-treating, chant the phrase, ‘Give me my calaverita.’ The word literally means ‘little skull.'”

The Ongoing Threat of Terrorism

The Local reported on November 1:

“Germany has extended a ban on air freight from Yemen to passenger flights… The spokesman told a regular government briefing that Germany had stepped up its emergency measures when it emerged that one of the parcel bombs had been routed via the western German city of Cologne. Germany is the first country to announce a ban on all flights from Yemen.

“‘All Yemeni air companies that fly to Germany have received a flight ban,’ the ministry spokesman said. ‘The German air authorities have orders to turn back all direct and indirect flights from Yemen. That means that for the time being, there will be no flights to or over German territory allowed.’

“The German government said Saturday that it would outlaw all cargo from Yemen indefinitely. A spokesman said Monday that Berlin was now weighing whether to ban freight from other countries amid a major security review…

“Qatar Airways said a package containing explosives was flown from the Yemeni capital Sanaa to Doha and then on to Dubai Friday on one of its aircraft. A source said on condition of anonymity that the plane was a passenger flight. The bomb had PETN hidden inside a computer printer with a circuit board and mobile phone SIM card attached, officials said.

“The other parcel was found at East Midlands airport in central England and travelled through Cologne. British Prime Minister David Cameron said it appeared designed to blow up a plane.

“The two bombs contained 300 grammes (11 ounces) and 400 grammes of explosives respectively and could have caused ‘significant damage,’ a German official said Monday. The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the two bombs contained the explosive PETN…

“US officials have said the two intercepted packages originating from Yemen were addressed to synagogues in Chicago, President Barack Obama’s former power base. They have cited Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, an alleged Al-Qaida bomb-maker born in Saudi Arabia but based in Yemen, as a ‘leading suspect’ in the case.”

The EUObserver added on November 2:

“The Netherlands, France, Canada and the US have also halted all incoming cargo consignments from Yemen, prompting an angry response from the country. Brandishing Germany’s flight ban a ‘collective and illogical punishment,’ a Yemeni official added that the measure was a ‘hasty and exaggerated reaction’ and ‘harms Yemen’s efforts in the fight against terrorism.’…

“Separately, Greek police said one of the four parcel bombs discovered in Athens on Monday was destined for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, while another addressed to the Mexican embassy in the Greek capital exploded in the offices of a private delivery company. The other two packages were addressed to the Dutch and Belgian embassies in the city…”

“It Could Stop World Trade…”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 2:

“The case has led to worldwide calls for tougher security checks on cargo freight but analysts have warned that introducing a global system for cargo screening would cost billions of dollars, plunge shipping firms and airlines into financial difficulties and even bring world trade to a standstill. ‘In a worst case, it would stop world trade,’ James Halstead, a consultant with the company Aviation Economics, told the Associated Press. ‘UPS and FedEx would probably go bust. We’d have a full-disaster scenario’…

“Germany is a major transit location for foreign deliveries that are then flown on to other countries… German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière… said international freight traffic would collapse if Germany were to impose security checks on all freight deliveries in transit…

“German security checks probably would not have detected the explosive hidden in ink toner cartridges. The freight papers showed both parcels were X-rayed in Sanaa as well as in Dubai. No one spotted the bombs. The BKA has received copies of the X-rays from Dubai and one BKA investigator admitted that German security staff would not have identified the explosive either.”

USA Today added on November 2:

“Billions of pounds of packages bound for the U.S. each year are delivered on passenger flights in which cargo is checked with an electronic system that does not screen for bombs… The Homeland Security Department uses computers to identify possibly dangerous cargo, usually after flights are already in the air and en route to the USA… About 20% of the 9 billion pounds of air cargo that comes from overseas each year is physically checked for bombs.”

It is a tragic conclusion that it seems that terrorism is winning, in one way or another, against our highly sophisticated technological “free world”… A strong response to the terrorist threat, especially from Europe, can be expected, and we are already seeing hasty and punitive decisions from some countries, such as Germany.

The Ghost of the Lisbon Treaty

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 29:

“Why decide to revise the Lisbon Treaty, which only came into effect last year? The decision by the European Union’s 27 member states has left the European editorialists far from impressed. One paper asks why the EU must always satisfy Germany’s whims?

“After many hours of talks on Oct. 28, European Union leaders meeting at the European Council in Brussels agreed to impose financial sanctions on fiscally non-compliant member states. And perhaps even more critically, they approved a plan to revise the Lisbon Treaty to facilitate the creation of a permanent framework for ailing euro zone economies…

“‘Mrs. Chancellor Rules Europe,’ the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita states in its editorial… ‘Saving the common currency is, of course, a noble and praiseworthy cause, but more and more European politicians are asking why the EU has to satisfy Germany’s whims all the time.’

“Writing in the Spanish daily El País, José Ignacio Torreblanca remarks that ‘Franco-German entente has brought peace, stability and prosperity to Europe.’ However, he insists, we can no longer turn a blind eye to the current behavior of Paris and Berlin, who are ‘eager to cash in on every opportunity to safeguard their strategic interests, even when these are detrimental to other members of the EU.’ Dragging Europe’s 27 member states into a further round of ratification against the backdrop of economic and civic crisis ‘is worse than Russian roulette: It is a bet that could lead to the institutional suicide of the EU.’

“In Dublin, this prospect is a serious cause for concern. ‘Appropriately enough, as Halloween approaches, the ghost of the Lisbon Treaty walks again,’ laments the Irish Independent. ‘Surely we are not going to have to go through all that again. Surely, by voting for the treaty (albeit the second time around) we gave the European Union the power to make decisions without calling on the Irish to hold a referendum?… When the German chancellor proposes that if a country repeatedly breaches debt and deficit rules its EU voting rights should be suspended, she has Ireland firmly in her sights. And the gun is decidedly frontloaded.’

“The Prague daily Lidové noviny declares: ‘The Euro and War.’ The newspaper remarks that the euro and the bailout have poisoned relations between European countries. Once again, the Brussels summit has shown that there is no common denominator in the range of increasingly different ideas on how to manage the euro, while political, economic and social faultlines are opening up between member states. “Under increasing pressure, the German chancellor is obliged to prove to her skeptical fellow citizens that their country will not be forced to permanently foot the bill for the indebted countries.’… Of course, Berlin can always threaten to leave the euro… but there is no doubt that an initiative of this kind ‘would inevitably lead to the collapse of the European Union,’ warns Lidové noviny.”

New Referendums?

The EUObserver wrote on October 28:

“EU officials are working around the clock because all leaders… are absolutely agreed on one thing: There must be no referendums. One thing truly unites the Evasion Union and that is stopping the terrifying possibility that voters might get the chance to have a say in referendums that would very quickly become judgments on how Europe’s elites have handled the economic crisis.

“This is a frightening nightmare scenario for politicians who have premised their austerity measures and bank bailouts on keeping the public at arm’s length – or further… Only in the crooked world of the Evasion Union can no votes to the European Constitution be interpreted as a popular demand for ‘answers form the EU.'”

The EUObserver added on November 2:

“The nightmare scenario of another referendum on a change to the EU treaty in the Netherlands, five years after the country rejected the bloc’s proposed constitution, could return to haunt European leaders, with the hard-right Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders on Tuesday (2 November) announcing it is considering proposing just such a vote…

“Under the proposed new EU rules, Brussels will watch over the spending decisions of all EU states to make sure they are ‘competitive.’ Eurozone governments that get into debt too deeply will have stiff punishments meted out to them. Leaders were petrified that any major change to the EU treaties would set off a chain of referendums in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and possibly elsewhere, which they are convinced they would lose, as voters have their say on how leaders should have handled the economic crisis.

“The Dutch prime minister and the other leaders last Friday signed off on a treaty amendment only so long as the change envisaged was ‘small, small, small – the smallest possible,’ according to a Danish diplomat, ‘in order to ensure there is no possibility of referendums.’ EU President Herman Van Rompuy has been tasked to go away and come up with a ‘surgical’ – perhaps just two-line – incision to the EU treaty by December.

“One national diplomat described to this website the unwritten anti-referendum pact reached at the EU summit: ‘The move was specifically formulated to ensure that there is no possibility whatsoever that there can be any referendums. Whether this will work or not, I don’t know.'”

New Military Partnership Between Britain and France

Reuters reported on November 2:

“Britain and France will launch a broad defense partnership on Tuesday that includes setting up a joint force and sharing equipment and nuclear missile research centers, a French government source said. Treaties to be signed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron at a meeting in London will pave the way for an unprecedented degree of military cooperation between the two neighbors.

“The NATO allies, western Europe’s biggest defense spenders and its only nuclear powers, have a centuries-old history of military rivalry and, more recently, have differed sharply over issues such as the Iraq war. Their new partnership is driven by the desire to maintain cutting-edge military capabilities while at the same time reducing defense spending to rein in big budget deficits.

“France and Britain will agree to set up a joint brigade-sized army contingent with air and sea support, which could assemble as needed to take part in NATO, European Union, United Nations or bilateral operations, the French source said. British Defense Secretary Liam Fox confirmed the outlines of the agreement…

“The two countries will agree to share nuclear warhead research and simulation centers, the source said. With nuclear missile tests banned, sophisticated laboratories permit both countries to test the safety of their warheads. ‘This signifies that we have reached an unprecedented level of trust,’ the French source said. ‘It’s this step taken in the nuclear domain that allows us to go further elsewhere’…

“Britain and France will work together in developing technology for future generations of nuclear submarines, missiles, aerial drones, maritime anti-mine systems and military communications satellites, the source said…”

BBC News added on November 2:

“David Cameron has said new treaties on defence and nuclear co-operation with France marked a ‘new chapter’ in a long history of defence co-operation. Speaking alongside French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the UK PM said it would make both countries’ citizens safer and would save money. A centre will be set up in the UK to develop nuclear testing technology and another in France to carry it out…

“The UK and France have also agreed to keep at least one aircraft carrier at sea between them at any one time. Each will be able to use the other’s carrier in some form, certainly for training and possibly operations… But Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin told the BBC that while he approved of the talks, Britain had to be ‘realistic’. He said there was ‘a long track record of duplicity’ by France in dealing with allies and questioned whether the French would make an aircraft carrier available for an operation like the Falklands…”

What will happen IF the “mutual trust” between these two countries will cease? We have long proclaimed that Britain will not be part of the final configuration of a revived core Europe, and that ultimately, war will ensue between Great Britain and the final European revival of the Roman Empire. 

A New Era for Europe?

Der Spiegel wrote on November 3:

“German commentators [say] the whole of Europe, like Britain and France, is strapped for cash and faces a decline in global importance. Europe, they argue, should draw lessons from the new cooperation between those two countries.

“Center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘Their partnership doesn’t come from the heart. But the French and British have been good friends to each other in times of crisis — from World War I to the recent battles in the Balkans. This time they are being forced into an alliance not by enemy soldiers, but by red figures. The British and French know that they can no longer fulfil their claims to be major powers on their own… this could usher in a new era of defense policy in Europe.

“‘The British are stressing that the new entente is taking place outside the European Union and that they aren’t thinking about an EU army. But the pact is good for the whole of Europe. France and Britain account for half of the defense spending of the entire 27-nation EU. If they get together, it will serve as a model. Further alliances will be formed as a result of budget pressures. That in itself won’t create an EU army. But such a European defense policy a la carte is definitely better than nothing’…

“Conservative Die Welt writes: ‘The agreement signed by France and Britain on Tuesday is revolutionary. There has never been such a close military cooperation even among allied states. The British and French have had a complex relationship in recent decades. The fact that they are now working together in the sacrosanct area of nuclear weapons is an astonishing development.

“‘This cooperation should serve as an example within NATO and the EU. Not just Paris and London but the whole of Europe is suffering from financial pressure and waning importance in the world. If Europe wants to prevent a rapid loss of influence — and the projection of military might in distant parts of the globe belongs to the classic categories of power — then the countries of the EU will have to bundle their military capabilities much more than they have done so far.'”

Europe will unite and create a powerful European army. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.”

Britain’s Shameful Abortion Practices

The Daily Mail wrote on November 2:

“… for many, abortion appears to have become alarmingly casual, a form of birth control, a lifestyle choice, a minor medical procedure to be booked for a day off. The official UK figures for 2008 show that there were 195,300 abortions in England and Wales — more than 500 a day. A third of those were repeat ­terminations. A quarter of British pregnancies end in abortion.

“London has become the abortion capital of Europe. An estimated 7,000 women travel here from Ireland and Northern Ireland (where abortion is illegal) for terminations, either in ­private clinics or on the NHS. Women from countries such as Poland are encouraged by pro-choice poster campaigns to flock here on cheap flights for free abortions… It’s perhaps no wonder militant pro-life groups are springing up all over ­Britain.”

For more information on the terrible curse of abortion, please read our free booklet, “Are You Already Born Again?”

Germany’s Strong Performance

Reuters reported on October 28:

“German unemployment fell slightly in October, dropping to its lowest level in 18 years as the impact of persistently strong growth in Europe’s top economy continued to filter through to the jobs market…

“Data on Europe’s biggest economy over the past week has been bullish, signalling its unexpectedly strong recovery could hold up in the face of signs of fragility in the global economy. Consumer morale remains at its highest level since May 2008 going into November on expectations for a further rebound…”

… But Not Because of the Government…

The Local reported on October 31:

“An Emnid survey taken for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper found that 63 percent pointed to ‘the world economy in general’ as the main reason for Germany’s better-than-expected economic recovery. Only 28 percent said that government policy was to thank for the situation…

“The people surveyed also gave much more credit to Germany’s companies and employees than the government. Some 54 percent credited the workers, while 50 percent credited the companies.

“Only 22 percent gave any credit to the job market reforms known as ‘Agenda 2010’ introduced by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in the early part of the decade…”

Indonesia’s Ongoing Disasters

The Associated Press reported on November 1:

“Evacuees cringed and fled for cover Monday as an erupting volcano – one of 22 showing increased activity in Indonesia – let loose booming explosions of hot gas and debris, the latest blast in a deadly week… The new blast from Mount Merapi came as Indonesia also struggles to respond to an earthquake-generated tsunami that devastated remote islands. The twin disasters, unfolding simultaneously on opposite ends of the seismically volatile country, have killed nearly 500 people… One of 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, Merapi has killed 38 people since it started erupting a week ago.

“Even in the crowded government camps miles (kilometers) away, people still instinctively ran for shelter at the power of Monday’s eruption, which was accompanied by several deafening explosions… About 69,000 people villagers have been evacuated from the area around its once-fertile slopes – now blanketed by gray ash – in central Java, 250 miles (400 kilometers) east of Jakarta, the capital…

“The fault line that caused last week’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake and killer wave that followed – and also the 2004 tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries – is the meeting point of the Eurasian and Pacific tectonic plates that have been pushing against and under each other…

” Anak Krakatua, a volcano known as the ‘Child of Krakatoa’ also started shooting lava last week. Although the firebursts look spectacular, there were no immediate signs of major eruption… The mountain, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of Jakarta, was formed after the Krakatoa eruption of 1883, the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history that, along with a tsunami, killed at least 36,417 people.”

Haiti’s Fight with Cholera

Der Spiegel Online reported on November 2:

“Haiti, the battered Caribbean island, is fighting a new enemy: Thousands have fallen ill with cholera and hundreds have already died… Nine months after the earthquake, hygienic conditions are still catastrophic, and almost 1.3 million people are still living in makeshift huts made of plastic tarps… The first priority for the aid workers is to protect Port-au-Prince from the impending disaster.

“The situation is extremely serious, says Nigel Fisher, the United Nations representative in Haiti, and it would be irresponsible in light of experiences with epidemics in other places not to prepare for a major outbreak… Cholera, the disease of the poor, transmitted through contaminated drinking water and unclean food, would be very difficult to stop in Port-au-Prince.

“It seems absurd that aid workers from around the world have achieved so little by now. Until recently, they were quick to point out that at least they had prevented disease outbreaks. But even that tiny success has now been destroyed. For decades, Haiti has received international aid every time disaster struck, but no one ever managed to build a functioning community…

“The next hurricane, which normally strikes the island in the autumn, was long a topic of discussion in Haiti. When it didn’t arrive, people talked about the next earthquake, and when it didn’t happen, cholera struck. The question is not whether a catastrophe will ravage Haiti, but which one will do it first…”

Catholic Church Condemns Israel

The US Daily and Reuters wrote on October 23:

“Israel cannot use the biblical concept of a promised land or a chosen people to justify new settlements in Jerusalem or territorial claims, a Vatican synod on the Middle East said Saturday. In its concluding message after two weeks of meetings, bishops from the Middle East also said they hoped a two-state solution for peace between Israel and the Palestinians could be made a reality and called for peaceful conditions that would stop a Christian exodus from the region.

“… the synod fathers took issue with Jews who use the Bible to justify settlements in the West Bank, which Israel captured in 1967… Many Jewish settlers and right-wing Israelis claim a biblical birthright to the occupied West Bank, which they call Judea and Samaria and regard as a part of historical, ancient Israel given to the Jews by God…

“Asked about the passage at a news conference, Greek-Melchite Archbishop Cyrille Salim Bustros, said: ‘We Christians cannot speak about the promised land for the Jewish people. There is no longer a chosen people. All men and women of all countries have become the chosen people. The concept of the promised land cannot be used as a base for the justification of the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of Palestinians,’ he added. ‘The justification of Israel’s occupation of the land of Palestine cannot be based on sacred scriptures’…

“The synod’s concluding message repeated a Vatican call for Jerusalem to have a special status ‘which respects its particular character’ as a city sacred to the three great monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Jerusalem remains a key issue of dispute. Palestinians want East Jerusalem for the capital of a future state. Israel has annexed the area, a move never recognized internationally, and has declared Jerusalem to be its ‘united and eternal’ capital…

“[The document] urged Christians in the region not to sell their homes and properties. ‘It is a vital aspect of the lives of those who remain there and for those who one day will return there.'”

The Catholic Church’s involvement in this issue is quite revealing. The Bible predicts that united Europe and the Catholic Church will intervene in the Middle East and that Jerusalem will become headquarters for both entities.

Israel Condemns Catholic Church

AFP wrote on October 24:

“Israel on Sunday slammed critical remarks made by Middle East Catholic bishops after a meeting chaired by Pope Benedict XVI as ‘political attacks’ on the Jewish state.

“‘We express our disappointment that this important synod has become a forum for political attacks on Israel in the best history of Arab propaganda,’ Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said in a statement…

“‘For Christians, one can no longer talk of the land promised to the Jewish people,’ the Lebanese-born head of the Greek Melkite Church in the United States said, because the ‘promise’ was ‘abolished by the presence of Christ.’

“Ayalon said he was ‘especially appalled’ at those remarks.”

This article and the next show that this kind of confrontation between the Catholic Church and Israel will continue, as it addresses major substantive issues and goes to the core of the arguments and counter-arguments for Israel’s very existence in the Middle East.

High-Ranking Jewish Italian Politician Condemns Catholic Church

A-7 News reported on October 22:

“Jewish Italian MP Fiamma Nirenstein was reconfirmed this week as Vice President of Italy’s Foreign Affairs Committee. In addition, she was also appointed an official consultant on Israel and the international Jewish communities by Italian Foreign Minister Frattini.

“Earlier this week, Nirenstein commented on Christian leaders who criticize Israel yet ignore violence by Arabs. She pointed out that ‘Islam does not like Eastern Christians: it has forced them to flee and now they account for only 6% of the population in the Mideast’, and added that the only country where the number of Christians has grown is Israel, where 163,000 Christians live today…

“Commenting on the Vatican Synod about Middle East taking place in Rome these days, Nirenstein pointed out a document ‘written in a tone of theological excommunication towards the State of Israel,’ which was signed by the Custodian of the Holy Land, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who later denied involvement, saying that ‘no church in the Holy Land had signed the document.’ Nirenstein pointed out, however, that the names of top-level signers are clearly visible on the document which is available on the internet. The document speaks in the name of ‘us Christian Palestinians,’ and says that ‘the military occupation is a sin against God and against man’. It excommunicates Christian supporters of Israel, takes sides against the very presence of Israel, likens the defensive barrier that has blocked 98% of terrorism to apartheid, attacks the communities in Judea and Samaria and essentially cancels the existence of the Jewish state. The document goes so far as to legitimize terrorism…”

Israel Among Most Corrupt Countries

Haaretz reported on October 26:

“Israel ranks among the most corrupt countries in the Western world, according to a study released by the International Transparency Organization on Tuesday. Out of 178 countries – 1 being least corrupt – Israel was listed at number 30. But when compared to other member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Israel fared much worse. The least corrupt countries were listed as Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore.”

Islamists Unwilling to Integrate

In the above-quoted article, A-7 News also reports the following:

“Other comments made by Nirenstein this past week addressed remarks made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said that Germany’s multicultural approach to immigration ‘has failed, utterly failed’… ‘The point is that certain cultures very often have no intention of mixing in with ours, despite our actions and best intentions,’ said Nirenstein in response. ‘Paris has become a city in which more than 200,000 people live in families where polygamy is common practice. In Italy 30,000 women have been subjected to genital mutilation and Islamic courts—ninety-odd in London alone—inflict sentences that are inconceivable.’

“She pointed out that despite the fact that immigrants should have freedom of rights because of democracy, ‘they have other rules, not the ones of democracy. In Germany, Chancellor Merkel’s homeland, a Berlin lawyer was beaten along with her Muslim client who wanted a divorce; she was also attacked in the subway and was forced to close her practice. Again in Germany, Mozart’s opera, Idomeneo, was cancelled following Islamic threats. By pure luck, the editor-in-chief of Die Welt, Roger Köppel, blocked the hand of a young Muslim who was about to stab him in his office. In Germany, England and France, it is no longer possible to trace the “missing girls” who become slaves following arranged marriages…'”

Controversial New Mayor of London–Britain’s Islamic Republic

In addition to the previous article, The Telegraph sheds more light on some of the reasons why Islamists are not liked that much in Europe, including in England. Reporting on the election of the mayor in London, the paper wrote on October 22:

“Outside the Wellington Way polling station in Tower Hamlets yesterday, as at many other polling stations in the borough, people had to run a gauntlet of Lutfur Rahman supporters to reach the ballot box. As one Bengali woman voter went past them, we heard one of the Rahman army scolding her for her ‘immodest dress.’

“That incident is perhaps a tiny taste of the future for Britain’s poorest borough now it has elected Mr Rahman as its first executive mayor, with almost total power over its £1 billion budget. At the count last night, one very senior figure in the Tower Hamlets Labour Party said: ‘It really is Britain’s Islamic republic now.’

“For the last eight months – without complaint or challenge from Mr Rahman – this blog and newspaper have laid out his close links with a group of powerful local businessmen and with a Muslim supremacist body, the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) – which believes, in its own words, in transforming the ‘very infrastructure of society, its institutions, its culture, its political order and its creed… from ignorance to Islam.’ Mr Rahman has refused to deny these claims…

“Now… Mr Rahman has won as an independent… As mayor, he will have far more power than he had as a council leader. And unlike a council leader, no-one can sack him, except the voters in four years’ time…

“Some of my commenters are fond of saying that the borough is an example of “Third World” politics in the UK. There are indeed similarities – but actually the claim is an insult to the Third World. Bangladesh has got to grips with Islamism; the IFE’s Bangladeshi parent, Jamaat-e-Islami, gets about two per cent of the vote in elections there. No Islamist sympathiser in Bangladesh has unfettered control over a £1 billion budget. Bangladesh, in short, has less of a problem with Islamic radicals than Tower Hamlets.”

How Much Church Should There Be in the State?

Deutsche Welle reported on October 21:

“The German constitution declares that there shall be no state church, but the government gives the main churches money and clerics give sermons on public television…

“The consumer affairs minister, Ilse Aigner, and her secretary of state, Julia Kloeckner, both Christian Democrats, had a crucifix put up Wednesday in the conference center of their ministry. Clerics of the two main churches were there to bless the cross. Kloeckner said, ‘It is good to be supported by the hand of God, and one can show that through making a clear statement.’…

“Alois Glueck, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics, says that Germany is a Christian country. ‘Of course our entire value system is linked to Christianity,’ he said in a radio interview. “That’s also what has put its stamp on our culture and our values. The values of our constitution are essentially Christian values’…

“With the arrival of Islam on the scene, the question of how far religion should have an influence on public life has been given a new dimension. The constitution may have been influenced by Christianity, but it was also influenced by a secular tradition of republican values which… often had to fight the churches for such achievements as the rights of women or freedom of religious practice for non-Christians…

“Commentators have noted that the adoption of a line critical of the church could cost the party votes in important elections in the traditionalist state of Baden-Wuerttemberg next March.”

The question is, what kind of culture is the “Christianity” in Germany promoting? To bless a crucifix may be in line with “orthodox Christianity,” but it is not in line with Biblical teaching. Many other “traditions” and “practices” could be named, and the increasing vigor of “Christian” politicians to openly embrace such customs in their public lives may have quite a continuing negative impact for those in Germany who do not conform with a kind of Christianity which they believe originates with paganism and anti-Semitism, and not with the Bible.

Still Haunting Germany Today–Germany’s Nazi Past

The Local reported on October 24:

“Nazi Germany’s Foreign Ministry was a ‘criminal organization’ that was much more involved in the killing of millions of Jews during World War II than previously thought, a German historian said. ‘The Foreign Ministry actively supported all measures of persecution, rights deprivation, expulsions and the Holocaust,’ Eckart Conze, one of four historians asked to shed light on the ministry’s role in the Holocaust, told the weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung…

“The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants hailed the report as shedding light on a chapter that had remained shrouded in secrecy more than six decades on… Elan Steinberg, vice president of the New York-based organisation, said [:] ‘Previous efforts to whitewash the role of the Foreign Ministry and its personnel in the crimes of the Holocaust are now categorically refuted. This report is a pointed reminder of the broad cross-section of German society and institutions which were implicated in the Holocaust and the brutalities of the Nazi regime’…

“The research found that post-war chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who also served as foreign minister from 1951 to 1955, kept many of the Nazi diplomats involved in the Holocaust on staff. Der Spiegel said the envoys were often sent to Arab countries or Latin America, where public protest over their past was less likely.

“In 1966, Social Democratic Foreign Minister Willy Brandt, who would later become chancellor, maintained Ernst Achenbach as a top diplomat despite his involvement in the Holocaust. Achenbach had been a high-ranking staff member at the German embassy in Paris and was ‘actively involved in deportations’, the historians said. He managed to block until 1974 an agreement with Paris allowing Nazis who had committed crimes in France to be prosecuted.”

These revelations, especially the cover-up after the war, are alarming–but they could not have happened without– at the very least–the indifference or even tacit approval of vast portions of the German society.

Network of European Right-Wing Parties

The Local reported on October 24:

“The far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) is reportedly planning to open an office in Germany to help build a similarly populist party with nationwide appeal… The FPÖ is planning to work together with the populist right-wing group Pro Deutschland… Their aim is to establish ‘a patriotic movement on a national level’… FPÖ state party secretary Hans-Jörg Jenewein confirmed that his party intended to “significantly expand’ its activities in Germany…

“The FPÖ has cooperated with the regional sections of Pro Deutschland since 2007, but the FPÖ’s recent success in local elections in Vienna – where it won 27 percent of the vote and became the second strongest party in October – have significantly increased its resources and ability to help its German counterparts.

“It is thought that Europe’s populist right-wing parties are building a network in preparation for the 2014 European elections. Established right-wing political parties like the FPÖ, the Vlaams Belang of Belgium and the Dansk Folkeparti of Denmark need a similarly strong populist party in Germany in order to build a faction that can challenge in the European parliament… Jenewein said [:] ‘The “Pro” movement should achieve in Germany what we have achieved in Austria.'”

This article is also interesting in light of the next one.

Sarkozy’s Approval Ratings At All-Time Low

Deutsche Welle reported on October 24:

“President Nicolas Sarkozy’s approval rating has dropped to an all-time low, dashing hopes that the legislative achievement [of raising the retirement age from 60 to 62] could bring him a political comeback.

“The poll, conducted by the IFOP institute and published in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper on Sunday, showed only 29 percent of respondents were satisfied with Sarkozy’s job performance.

Sarkozy and his allies are hoping that the ongoing protest and strike movement in opposition to the pension reform… will die down as families leave their homes for the mid-term school holiday this week. But unions have already called for two more days of strikes, and university students are planning nationwide marches on Tuesday…

“Strikes in the country’s oil industry and blockades of fuel depots have left 35 percent of gas stations in the Paris area completely dry or out of one kind of fuel… About a third of gas stations in western France were in ‘real difficulty’ and 10 to 15 percent in the rest of the country were empty…

“Polls suggest a majority of French voters support or sympathize with the strikers… Sarkozy’s government insists that the pension reform is ‘inevitable,’ the only way to fill an expected pension budget gap and reduce the country’s growing deficit. But the opposition Socialists say if they win presidential elections in 2012, their candidate will restore the retirement age to 60.

“While Sarkozy’s popularity sits at a record low, analysts believe he may try to appease centrist and far-right voters before his term is over.”

If true, then it will be interesting to see how exactly Mr. Sarkozy is going to appease far-right voters.

A New Treaty For Europe?

The Economist wrote on October 21:

“It was supposed to be a final act. The Lisbon treaty, successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties, would create a permanent club rulebook. ‘We expect no change in the foreseeable future,’ European leaders declared in December 2007. Freed from its internal wrangling, the EU would be able to turn outward and face the real world. Instead, the real world threw up the euro-zone debt crisis. And less than a year after the Lisbon treaty came into force, the EU is talking of a new treaty.

“Brussels’s favourite game has been restarted by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. At their summit in the French resort of Deauville (where they also met Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev) this week, they declared that, in order to deal with future debt crises, ‘it is necessary to revise the treaty’…

“The European Parliament will want more power. Ireland will almost certainly have to put any new treaty to a referendum… Eurosceptics in Britain may seize the moment to call for a repatriation of powers from Brussels. Britain wants a stable euro zone, but is torn. It does not want to be bound by the EU’s fiscal rules, but nor does it want a more tightly integrated euro zone leading to a two-speed Europe…

“A new text would best be negotiated before the 2012 French presidential election, and ratified before Germany’s 2013 election… The EU’s members are part-integrated and part-sovereign, and the contradictions cause inevitable upheavals. Brussels’s instinctive response to the threat of disintegration is further integration.”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 27:

“Tensions are mounting ahead of a crucial meeting of European leaders this week, with Germany and France at loggerheads with both the EU executive and many other member states over their calls for further changes to the European Treaty… Speaking to the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, on Wednesday Merkel reiterated her position. She said that a ‘new, robust crisis mechanism for emergencies’ was required to secure stability in the euro zone. ‘That will only succeed with a change to the European Treaty.’ The chancellor also defended her pact with Sarkozy ahead of this week’s summit. ‘It is true that a German- French agreement is not everything in Europe,’ she told the Bundestag. ‘However, it is also true that without German-French agreement a lot of things don’t happen’…

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘Even if the rest of Europe cries out in indignation, the chancellor will get her treaty change, because there is no other choice. It is unavoidable, and in the coming days presumably the EU foreign minister and members of the European Parliament will recognize the fact. While the arguments are difficult to deny, what about the political style? There is a perception in the majority of EU states that the Franco-German directorate is striking once again. Or that Germany is acting here almost as a European hegemonic power, the export champion, the giant of growth, one that is far too powerful’…

“The Financial Times Deutschland writes: ‘… It is possible that the creation of a European rescue fund has already broken the rules. What is certain is that a long-term solution requires a change to the European Treaty.'”

The EUObserver reported on October 28:

“European Union leaders appear to have come to a consensus that the bloc’s treaty must be changed, although only in a limited fashion, in order to allow for the creation of a permanent bail-out fund for member states and a series of procedures for countries to unwind their debt positions in ‘an orderly fashion.'”

“Germany’s Role in the World”

The Economist wrote on October 21:

“In France workers angry about pension reforms have blockaded fuel refineries, causing 4,000 petrol stations to run dry. The Netherlands’ recently elected minority government depends for survival on support from a Muslim-baiting populist. Economies across Europe are struggling to cope with sluggish growth, lacerating budget cuts and the after-effects of borrowing binges. But there is an exception to the gloomy European rule.

“No big developed country has come out of the global recession looking stronger than Germany has… Its sharp-elbowed behaviour during the near-collapse of the euro earlier this year heightened concerns about Germany’s role in the world that have been stirring ever since unification 20 years ago… Even a pacific and prosperous Germany causes international angst… Germany… will shape Europe, and therefore the world…

“A third of Germans think the country is overrun by foreigners, according to a newly published poll; a majority favour “sharply restricting” Muslim religious practice. Over a tenth would even welcome a Führer who would govern with “a strong hand”—a sign that the embers of extremism still glow…

“Despite their economic strength, Germans fear the worst… This pessimism shapes Germany’s dealings with the rest of the world…

“Germany, with its high-competitiveness, low-debt economy, is on top. The rest are having to adjust, including France, traditionally a joint leader of the European project. This is unsettling… Even during the golden age of European integration Germany was an awkward partner, too big to be first among equals but too small to dominate, as Helmut Kohl, the chancellor who unified Germany, put it. It never lost sight of its own interests…

“Germany’s overall direction is obscure… The EU needs Germany’s leadership more than ever, but fears its pre-eminence. Europe also needs consensus, but will not get it unless the Germans foster it. Matters will be even worse if Germany’s economic self-confidence comes across as political arrogance.”

Germany will become the leading and most powerful nation in Europe. For proof, please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.”

“Unalienable Rights” No Gift from God?

WorldNetDaily reported on October 21:

“…for the third time in a little over a month, President Obama has censored a reference in the Declaration of Independence to people being endowed ‘by their Creator’ with rights. He just says that people ‘are endowed.’… The actual quote from the Declaration is:

“‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’

“But according to the transcript of Obama’s remarks to a Democrat fundraiser in Rockville, Md., just days ago, he was talking about the greatness of America, and said:

“‘As wonderful as the land is here in the United States, as much as we have been blessed by the bounty of this magnificent continent that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, what makes this place special is not something physical,’ he said. ‘It has to do with this idea that was started by 13 colonies that decided to throw off the yoke of an empire, and said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that each of us are endowed with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

“Don Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association, picked up on the dropped words immediately. ‘Repeatedly now the president has simply said Americans are endowed with certain rights, but persistently refuses to acknowledge with the Founders that these rights are a gift from God,’ he wrote his constituents. ‘He stripped God from our founding document on September 15 when speaking to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. He did it again on September 23 at a fundraiser in New York City. And he did it a third time … in Rockville, Md., when speaking to Democratic Senate candidate donors.

“This can no longer by any stretch of the imagination be considered unintentional or accidental… If our rights do not come to us from God, they come to us from government. And what government gives, government can take away…”

This IS telling. Maybe President Obama–a law professor–did not correctly remember the Declaration of Independence? Or, did he omit the reference to a Creator because he did not want to antagonize democratic and independent Atheist voters? Or, did he indeed plan to create the notion that those rights are granted by the government, which can take them away in due time? In each scenario, the answer is troublesome, to say the least.

US War Crimes in Iraq?

ABC News reported on October 22:

“In what is being described as the largest release of secret U.S. military documents ever, whistle-blowing web site WikiLeaks has released a trove of classified reports about the war in Iraq…

“Among the highlights… are claims that the death toll reached 285,000, and that 63 percent of them were civilians… [It is also claimed that] the documents state that 681 Iraqi civilians were killed at U.S. checkpoints, 180,000 Iraqis were arrested during the war, and that 15,000 Iraqis were buried without being identified.

“U.S. officials knew that the Iraqi government was engaged in torture and recorded incidents in which government interrogators electrocuted, stabbed and sodomized detainees, according to the documents.”

Whether true or not, the release of these documents constitutes a further nail in the coffin of a dying giant–the USA. Europe will hate the USA even more because of these allegations, and anti-Americanism will spread and become even larger. In addition, as the next report shows, the documents seem to portray an American army which was helpless in Iraq for years, fueling ideas to the effect that America could be beaten in a war.

The American Giant–A Humbled Nation

Der Spiegel Online reported on October 22:

“The field reports from soldiers cast a new light on the war — documenting in a unique way how the highly armed American military was helpless in the conflict for years… The brief, matter-of-fact incident reports offer an unusual perspective on a war that lasted longer than World War II.

“They show the everyday aspects of the campaign as US soldiers experienced it. The thousands of threat analyses, attack reports and arrest records allow a very precise reconstruction of the escalation of the sectarian battle between the Shiites and Sunnis, how it brutalized Iraqi society and how kidnappings, executions and the torture of prisoners became routine practices. The reports also provide some evidence that neighboring countries including Syria and Iran were involved in the war.

“… they have the cumulative effect of painting a precise picture of an asymmetrical war, one in which a superpower equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry often stands helpless on the battlefield against individual fighting units, as brutal as they are nimble. The material shows how the constant state of fear paralyzed the world’s last remaining superpower…

“George W. Bush, the US president and commander in chief at the time, declared on May 1, 2003 on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln that ‘major combat operations in Iraq have ended.’ The field reports show that his statement proved to be untrue for years to come…

“As tensions mount within the Iraqi population starting in 2004, acts of the greatest cruelty take place… The documents show hundreds of thousands of times what can happen to a society at war — how it gradually slips to the point of self-destruction and the verge of breakdown…

“Recently, Bush’s successor, Barack Obama, also officially declared the end of combat operations. On September 1, Operation Iraqi Freedom was replaced by Operation New Dawn. But aside from the excessively optimistic terminology, there were no signs of triumph to be seen. There were no flag-bedecked aircraft carriers or returning veterans being cheered as they marched up Broadway in New York…

“According to official figures, 3,884 US soldiers died between 2004 and 2009, an additional 224 soldiers from allied nations, well over 8,000 members of the Iraqi security forces… and 92,003 Iraqi civilians… Together, this makes more than 104,111 deaths, a figure that approximates the number of victims reported dead in these documents, namely 109,032. And although this war wasn’t nearly as devastating in terms of the sheer number of casualties as the Vietnam War, with its 3 million deaths, its effects on the standing of the United States in the world have been no less devastating.

“One month before the beginning of the invasion, Bush had blustered that the overthrow of dictator Saddam Hussein and ‘a new regime in Iraq would serve as a dramatic and inspiring example of freedom for other nations in the region.’ But the military that withdrew after seven years of war was a demoralized force that had long since ceased to believe in the noble goals of the campaign.

“The documents faithfully reflect this change. In the roughly 400,000 documents, the word ‘democracy’ appears only eight times. The ‘improvised explosive devices’ which instilled fear in the hearts of American soldiers, however, are mentioned 146,895 times.”

EU Complains About American Intrusive Travel “Security” Measures

ABC News reported on October 27:

“European air officials accused the United States of imposing useless and overly intrusive travel security measures, calling Wednesday for the Obama administration to reexamine policies ranging from online security checks to X-raying shoes.

“British Airways’ chairman made the first in a wave of complaints, saying in a speech to airport operators that removing shoes and taking laptops out of bags were ‘completely redundant’ measures demanded by the U.S.

“He was joined less than 24 hours later by British pilots, the owner of Heathrow airport, other European airlines, and the European Union. The EU submitted formal objections to a program that requires U.S.-bound travelers from 35 nations to complete online security clearance before departure. It called the system burdensome and said it could violate travelers’ privacy… The program applies to Europeans who don’t need visas to travel to the U.S…”

“British Airways chairman Martin Broughton told the annual conference of the U.K. Airport Operators Association that measures like separate examinations of shoes and laptops appeared to be unnecessary and were inconsistently applied in different airports. ‘America does not do internally a lot of the things they demand that we do,’ Broughton said, calling on British authorities not to ‘kowtow to the Americans every time they wanted something done’…”

Some of the American travel security measures appear indeed to be overly intrusive, redundant and plainly ridiculous. This is another example showing how America’s perceived arrogant politics antagonize even allies and friends.

Iran at Odds With Syria?

The American Spectator published the following article on October 22:

“There has been considerable speculation behind the visit to Lebanon of Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The generally accepted theory is the egocentric desire of the Iranian leader to bask in the Lebanese sunshine of acceptance as a ‘protector’ against Israel…

“Behind the scenes, however, is the fact that Syria is increasingly unhappy with the growth of Iranian influence in Lebanese politics. The deal among Hezbollah, Iran, and other Moslem political groups in Beirut always was supposed to be that Damascus would exercise the lead role in Lebanese political life. Recently Syrian intelligence is reported to have substantially infiltrated Hezbollah, aided by a considerable increase in military supplies from Damascus. Ahmadinejad’s presence in Lebanon was supposed to counter this and be a reminder to certain Hezbollah leaders of where their original training and support had come.

“Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s heralded visit was as much a regional statement as it was for local Lebanese consumption. The Iranians have a three-pronged offensive in progress: Shia alignment in Iraq, Hamas allegiance in Gaza, and Hezbollah’s ruling desires in Lebanon. The Syrians see this as the first steps in an attempt by Tehran’s clerical leadership’s plan for a Greater Persia — and Damascus doesn’t like what it sees.

“Parades in Beirut and speeches in a village overlooking the Israeli border serve the purpose of the clerical leadership in Iran in terms of flexing their regional muscle. They want to keep Damascus alert to Tehran’s outreach and international status. It also reminds the United States, and the West in general, that they have more than Persian nuclear development to worry about while they are pressing ahead with sanctions.

“Greater Persia may seem a dream to some outside of Iran. But in Iran and the region it seeks to dominate, it’s real enough…”

The Bee and the Myth of Evolution

The Guardian wrote on October 24:

“Bees can solve complex mathematical problems which keep computers busy for days, research has shown. The insects learn to fly the shortest route between flowers discovered in random order, effectively solving the ‘travelling salesman problem’, said scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London.

“The conundrum involves finding the shortest route that allows a travelling salesman to call at all the locations he has to visit. Computers solve the problem by comparing the length of all possible routes and choosing the one that is shortest. Bees manage to reach the same solution using a brain the size of a grass seed…

“Using computer-controlled artificial flowers to test bee behaviour, [the scientist] wanted to know whether the insects would follow a simple route defined by the order in which they found the flowers, or look for the shortest route. After exploring the location of the flowers, the bees quickly learned to fly the best route for saving time and energy.”

Scientists want us to believe that something like this remarkable conduct evolved through random chance. Or using Stephen Hawking’s rationale, the bee could have created itself and its brain capacity, as, according to him, the universe created itself as well. We would say, however, that the bee puts those concepts to shame.

Germany’s Fight with Islam

Daily News reported on October 14:

“A recent survey showing high levels of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment in Germany alarms the country’s Turkish community, which fears such beliefs could flare into violence. The study released this week indicates that xenophobic feelings are spreading from extremists at the margins of society to the middle-class heart of the European country…

“‘What is most dangerous is that racism in Germany is going from a Nazi appearance to a ‘black-tie racism,’ Kenan Kolat, a leader of the Turkish community in Germany, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Thursday. ‘The existing racism is heading toward the center of society, to cultural, white-collar racism.’…

“The survey, which was broadcast by Deutsche Welle, shows 32 percent of Germans approve of the statement, ‘When there’s a shortage of jobs, foreigners should be sent back home’; 34 percent agree or strongly agree with the statement that ‘Foreigners only come here to exploit Germany’s social welfare system’; and 35 percent think that ‘Germany has a dangerous level of foreign influence as a result of the many foreigners in the country.’…

“Germany has a sizeable Turkish community of around 2.5 million and a total Muslim population of some 4 million. German central bank board member Thilo Sarrazin recently caused outrage among Muslim immigrants when he accused Turks and Arabs of exploiting the welfare state, refusing to integrate and lowering the country’s average intelligence. ‘A policy of humiliation and exclusion is supported by part of German society,’ Kolat said…

“The survey showed the strongest negative opinions when it comes to Islam, with 55 percent of respondents saying they could understand that people find Arabs unpleasant, and 58 percent saying the practicing of the Muslim religion should be ‘considerably restricted’…”

For more information on this intriguing subject, please continue to read the following articles, and view our latest StandingWatch program, titled, “How Germans Really Feel.”

Germany’s “Multicultural Society Has Utterly Failed”

Reuters reported on October 17:

“Germany’s attempt to create a multicultural society has ‘utterly failed,’ Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday, adding fuel to a debate over immigration and Islam polarising her conservative camp… Merkel said allowing people of different cultural backgrounds to live side by side without integrating had not worked… Merkel faces pressure from within her CDU to take a tougher line on immigrants who don’t show a willingness to adapt to German society and her comments appeared intended to pacify her critics…

“Merkel has tried to accommodate both sides of the debate, talking tough on integration but also telling Germans that they must accept that mosques have become part of their landscape…’Horst Seehofer, chairman of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU’s sister party, has rejected any relaxation of immigration laws and said last week there was no room in Germany for more people from ‘alien cultures.'”

Der Spiegel Online added on October 18:

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s declaration that multiculturalism in Germany has ‘utterly failed’ has raised the temperature of an already burning immigration debate. German commentators on Monday clashed on whether she was voicing a home truth or scoring cheap political points…

“The right-wing Die Welt writes:

“‘No one has anything against the immigrants who live and work among us. But many people have something against the immigrants who want to bring their own system of justice along with them. Immigration means accepting the traditions of the chosen country — and also respecting those traditions. Whoever lives here has to accept that honor killings are murder. Whoever doesn’t want to do so, should stay out of the country. For this reason Angela Merkel and Horst Seehofer are right when they say that immigration needs clear-cut principles’…

“The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

“‘CSU leader Seehofer and CDU leader Merkel think that they can win back support by using slogans from the 1980s… Seehofer has positioned himself against uncontrolled immigration. But in reality, immigration has long been limited: Far more Turkish people are leaving Germany than arriving…'”

President Wulff Speaks to Turkish Parliament

Deutsche Welle reported on October 19:

“German President Christian Wulff has called on Turkish immigrants to Germany to integrate in to Germany society, saying Turks and Germans ‘are closely connected.’ ‘Our fellow citizens of Turkish origin … are welcome in our country, and belong to our country,’ he said in a speech to the Turkish parliament in Ankara. ‘As your president, I urge every immigrant to actively integrate in our German society.’

“His comments come amid a controversial debate at home on whether Berlin has failed in efforts to integrate Muslim immigrants. The four-day trip is the first visit of a German president to Turkey in a decade, while Wulff’s speech marked the first time a German head of state has addressed the Turkish parliament…

“In his speech, Wulff stressed immigrants need not give up their cultural identity or background. But those living in Germany should respect and protect the values of the German constitution, including freedom of speech, equality and the right to a religiously and ideologically neutral state… Wulff also touched on the subject of religion, calling on Turkey and other Islamic countries to be more open to Christianity…

“‘Without a doubt, Christianity belongs to Turkey,’ he said… In his speech, the German president also commented on Turkey’s struggling bid to join the European Union… Both Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are against full membership for Turkey, instead suggesting that the country should settle for a ‘privileged partnership,’ an option Ankara has firmly rejected.”

It is doubtful that Turkey will ever become a part of core Europe. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.”

Guttenberg–Germany’s Rising Star?

The Local reported on October 20:

“Nearly a quarter of voters believe the conservative rising star Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg would make a better chancellor than the embattled Angela Merkel, a poll published Wednesday found… The poll comes amid growing speculation that Defence Minister Guttenberg, a member of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), is likely to become leader of his party and has a strong chance to become the nation’s chancellor…

“Guttenberg, 38, is easily the country’s most popular politician at the moment – a title long held by Merkel. In a recent poll, his approval rating of 70 percent positively dwarfed her 40 percent. Guttenberg himself has described suggestions that he might oust Merkel if the conservatives perform badly in state elections next year as ‘bizarre’…

“Forsa pollster Manfred Güllner said Guttenberg was winning the respect of voters for his independence and the fact he did not appear to be part of the ‘Berlin political circus.’… However Güllner stressed the recent speculation about Guttenberg’s leadership potential had been premature. ‘Guttenberg is seen as a nice type but as to his fitness for the Chancellery, there are many question marks. So far he has not been seriously put to the test.’”

Europe’s New Anti-Semitism

The Local wrote on October 15:

“In recent weeks, it’s become rather apparent that bigotry towards Muslims is Europe’s new anti-Semitism.

“Last weekend, Horst Seehofer, the conservative state premier of Bavaria, sparked outrage by calling for an end to immigration from Islamic countries… Seehofer’s remarks followed several of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives expressing unease over German President Christian Wulff’s recent statement that Islam was as much a part of German society as Christianity and Judaism. One Bavarian politician even said there could be no religious equality for Islam in Germany…

“Tragically it took something as horrific as the Holocaust to ensure Jews equal treatment in Western democracies like Britain and the United States, where anti-Jewish attitudes were rife prior to World War II. No-one should forget that it was only the incomparable crimes of Nazi Germany committed against Europe’s Jewry that made it no longer socially acceptable to express anti-Semitic sentiments openly…

“Many German conservatives have recently mentioned the country’s ‘Christian-Judeo’ traditions – something that would normally be expressed in English as being Judeo-Christian… But it doesn’t take a huge stretch of the imagination to apply the ugly rhetoric currently being directed towards Muslims to Germany’s Jewish population before the war.

“‘…just as it was once acceptable to badmouth Jews and scapegoat them for society’s ills – in Germany as well as Western democracies like America and Britain – millions of law-abiding, well-integrated Muslims are now being targeted unfairly…”

New Dutch Government

Bloomberg reported on October 14:

“The Netherlands, the second-largest exporter in the euro zone, got a new government today backed by Geert Wilders’s anti-Islam party that plans to cut immigration and reduce spending on development aid and the European Union… About 1.5 million Dutch voters cast ballots for Wilders’s Freedom Party, which wants to stop the building of mosques and withdraw from the EU…

“The Netherlands, which has been known for accepting foreigners since Portuguese Jews sought refuge there, has played an outsized role in the world economy since the founding of the Dutch East India Company in 1602. The merchant empire, which focused on trading instead of cultural colonization, once stretched from the Caribbean to Indonesia…

“The Netherlands has about 850,000 Muslims, according to Dutch statistics bureau 2006 data. Most are of Turkish or Moroccan origin.”

Wilders Soon Acquitted?

BBC reported on October 15:

“Dutch prosecutors have recommended acquitting leading anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders on all five charges of hate speech. They said his comments had targeted Islam, not Muslims, and he had the right to comment on social issues. The trial will continue next week and judges may still disagree with the prosecution and convict Mr Wilders. Prosecutors were obliged to look at the case again after an appeals court decision last year.

“The trial of Mr Wilders, who compared the Koran to Hitler’s Mein Kampf, has gripped the Netherlands… Prosecutors had initially declined to press charges against Mr Wilders in June 2008. But they were ordered to do so in January 2009 by the appeals court, which ruled that there was significant evidence that the politician had sought to ‘sow hatred’.”

Russians Against Muslims

Der Spiegel Online reported on October 19:

“The leaders of Moscow’s 1.5 million strong Muslim community say they desperately need more places of worship. But a plan to build a new mosque has run into local opposition which is being fuelled by nationalists calling for a ‘clean Moscow’ without Muslims and foreigners…

“The country’s largest online newspaper, gazeta.ru, drew parallels with other European controversies surrounding Islam: The burqa ban in France and the immigration debate now raging in Germany. Europeans are frightened of Islam because the religion’s values are utterly foreign to them, the article said. ‘Now we are experiencing something similar in Moscow and St. Petersburg.’

“According to estimates… up to 20 million Muslims live in Russia today. Muslims have dominated some parts of the country for centuries. While the predominantly Muslim Republic of Tatarstan in the Volga region is regarded as moderate, guerrillas are fighting to set up an Islamic state in the northern Caucasus. Islamic extremists were behind the suicide bomb attacks that shook the Russian capital this March and killed 40 people.”

Strikes Paralyze France

Deutsche Welle reported on October 20:

“The first fuel depots where cleared of blockades by the police overnight after one-third of France’s petrol stations had run dry due to a strike of oil refinery workers and barricades set up at several depots…

“The clashes between police and protesters continued on Wednesday. Many of the country’s motorways and airports remained blockaded as protests against the government’s pension reforms continued for the seventh day in a row.

“Demonstrators blocked access to airports in Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes and Clermont-Ferrand, while truck drivers obstructed traffic on more than a dozen motorways throughout the country. 

“President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday warned that the strikes could have serious consequences for the country’s economy… Sarkozy added that despite the protests the government would persist in pushing for unpopular pension reforms…

“Opinion polls suggest the strikers still have the support of the majority of the French. French daily Les Echos published a poll on Wednesday that said that 59 percent of the country wanted the unions to continue with the protests.

“The pension reforms are aimed at raising the standard retirement age from 60 to 62 and full pension benefits from 65 to 67. The French senate is to vote on the unpopular bill later this week.”

France Off the Hook?

Predictably, the EU dropped their charges against France for the deporatation of Roma.

The EUObserver wrote on October 19:

“The European Commission on Tuesday… put an end to its stand-off with France over Roma expulsions, deciding not to start infringement procedures after Paris submitted plans to bring its legislation in line with EU law on freedom of movement… Over a thousand Roma of Romanian and Bulgarian citizenship were repatriated in August and September… With the Tuesday decision, that case is now closed…

“‘This is proof of the good functioning of the European Union as a Community governed by the rule of law,’ the commissioner added… The news came as a ‘disappointment’ to MEPs following the Brussels-Paris row over Roma.”

“Obama’s Lost Magic” –USA and EU Far Apart

This article and the next one show the vast differences between Europe and America. Once this fact is realized, it is perhaps not any longer so difficult to believe the Bible which prophesies that the relationship between these two power blocs will steadily deteriorate and culminate in an outright war.

On October 19, Der Spiegel Online published a somewhat polemic and largely inaccurate article. Nevertheless, the following excerpts are worth quoting:

“US President Barack Obama is trying to recover his lost magic as defeat for the Democrats looms in the midterm elections. But… his window of opportunity has passed…

“When Obama came to office, the country craved perfection. His government is far from perfect, however. It’s not even close. But what is more appalling still, what is more shocking on so many levels, is the state of the nation — the political stupidity of entire federal states and systems that seem hell-bent on self-destruction. Europe and the United States are much farther apart than many Europeans think. The US is different, completely and utterly different…

“Decades of prosperity have made the US a lethargic country. And in contrast to Europeans, whose lives and countries have been shaped by war, Americans are accustomed to feeling unique and invulnerable.”

“The American and European Systems Are Largely Different”

On October 19, Der Spiegel published an interview with Karl Rove who was one of President George W. Bush’s closest advisers. We are bringing you the following excerpts from Karl Rove’s comments:

“In Europe and the United States, you’ve got different systems to select candidates, and no system is perfect. In Germany you have a parliamentary system in which political parties weed out people. And the fact of the matter is that in Germany, on both sides of the aisle, particularly on the Social Democratic side, you have seen lousy leadership of the political parties that have allowed subpar candidates to emerge through the parliamentary system…

“You have had candidates that the country rejected in a pretty profound way. Our primary system prevents this from happening as often… the advantage of our system is that it is able to react to changes in public opinion better than the European system generally is able to. And, we tend to have broadly representative parties rather than sort of multiple parties that represent more narrow slices of the electorate and lead to coalition politics.

“America does not have a history of social democracy. We have been a country in which even the Democrats have been to the right of the left in Europe, and that’s one of our strengths. A lot of people call [President Obama] a socialist. I don’t. He is a social democrat, though…”

Osama Bin Laden and the Hopeless Afghan War

CNN reported on October 18:

“Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are believed to be hiding close to each other in houses in northwest Pakistan, but are not together, a senior NATO official said. ‘Nobody in al Qaeda is living in a cave,’ said the official… Rather, al Qaeda’s top leadership is believed to be living in relative comfort, protected by locals and some members of the Pakistani intelligence services, the official said. Pakistan has repeatedly denied protecting members of the al Qaeda leadership…

“The NATO official, who has day-to-day senior responsibilities for the war, offered a potentially grimmer view than what has been publicly offered by others. ‘Every year the insurgency can generate more and more manpower,’ despite military attacks, he said… he pointed to an internal assessment that there are 500,000 to 1 million ‘disaffected’ men between the ages of 15 and 25 along the Afghan-Pakistan border region… Most are Afghan Pashtuns and make up some of the 95 percent of the insurgency who carry out attacks just to earn money, rather than fight for a hard-core Taliban ideology.

“The official said it is now absolutely vital for the Afghan government to address the needs of this group with security, economic development and jobs in order for the war to end, and for Afghanistan to succeed. ‘We are running out of time,’ he said. The entire scenario is made more complex by the fact that ‘there is a huge criminal enterprise in this country,’ dealing in human, drug and mineral trafficking, he said. Those crimes are also tied into the insurgency.

“… the official cautioned, hard core Taliban groups such as the Quetta Shura run by Mullah Omar, the Haqqanis, the HiG (Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin) and the Pakistani Taliban still could potentially muster as many as 30,000 fighters…

“The U.S. military could sustain a war ‘indefinitely,’ the official said. But the goal is to achieve reconciliation and allow the Afghan government to function and provide security and services to the people. Without that, he said, ‘we will be fighting here forever.'”

But the world will soon grow tired of America’s fruitless “indefinite” fighting in Afghanistan–and so will the American people. For all intents and purposes, the Afghan war is lost. America has won its last war a long time ago. In fact, America has won no war since World War II.

“No One Will Dictate Israel’s Borders”

Haaretz reported on October 19:

“Israel’s ambassador to the United States Michael Oren remarked on Tuesday that Israel would not allow anyone to dictate its borders. ‘Like Ben-Gurion, Netanyahu will not allow the United Nations, or any other organization, to dictate our borders. They will be determined through negotiations,’ he said in Washington during an event at the Chamber of commerce celebrating 25 years since the establishment of the Free Trade agreement between the U.S. and Israel.

“In September, Israel entered into U.S.-sponsored direct peace negotiations with the Palestinians, which subsequently broke down in the wake of the expiration of a temporary Israeli moratorium on construction in West Bank settlements. As part of the negotiations, Palestinian negotiators have demanded the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders.

“‘Today, too, Israel is blessed with principled and courageous leadership. While facing terrorist groups sworn to destroy every last one of us – women, children, senior citizens – and some 60,000 Hamas and Hezbollah rockets pointed directly at our homes; with so-called human rights organizations and boycott movements and campus coalitions denying our right to defend ourselves and even our right to exist, and with Iranian leaders swearing to wipe us off the map and striving to produce the nuclear means for doing that…. With all of those challenges, the Israeli government under PM Benjamin Netanyahu has not for a nanosecond reduced its commitment to peace,’ Oren said.

“‘But not a peace at any price,’ he added. ‘Not a peace that will impair Israel’s security or impugn its identity as the nation state of the Jewish people. As Netanyahu said last year in his Bar-Ilan speech, he will not allow any future Palestinian state to become another Lebanon or Gaza.'”

Israel will soon find itself in utter political isolation. The world will turn against Israel. We are beginning to see this development occurring in front of our very eyes. For more information, please read our free booklets, “The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord,” and “The Book of Zechariah–Prophecies for Today!”

How Will U.S. Midterm Elections Impact Mideast Peace?

Haaretz reported on October 20:

“Next month’s U.S. midterm elections might do more than just redefine the political landscape in Washington, they could also have a significant impact on stalled Middle East peace talks. Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, launched with gusto by President Barack Obama in September, have fallen into limbo ahead of the Nov. 2 vote as both sides bide their time and wait to see how the U.S. leader emerges from the campaign.

“Polls predict hefty losses for Obama’s Democrats and Israeli ministers expect this will force him to avoid any bruising showdowns with Israel and its supporters in the coming months for fear of further undermining his shaky electoral position.

“Palestinians hope that after the vote, Obama will refocus on foreign affairs and use the last two years of his presidential mandate to seek a place in history by securing an end to the decades-old conflict, regardless of obvious domestic risks. But Palestinians also fear an enfeebled Obama will be in no position to wring concessions from Israel, starting with their demand that Netanyahu suspends Jewish settlement building in the West Bank – the issue that has stalled the talks…

“In the run-up to the midterm vote, Israeli newspapers have jumped on opinion polls showing that support for Obama among Jewish electors had slumped dramatically. Obama swept the Jewish vote in the 2008 presidential ballot, but a survey by the American Jewish Committee this month said just 49 percent of U.S. Jews backed his handling of Israeli relations, against a 62 percent approval rating for Netanyahu.

“…some analysts have questioned whether a catastrophic midterm vote might convince Obama he has nothing to lose and decide to lean heavily on Israel to accept painful compromises – something Arab states say must happen to clinch a deal.”

Lebanese Shiites Love Ahmadinejad

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 20:

“After the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Lebanon, the radical Islamic group Hezbollah is brimming with confidence… Indeed, funds from Iran have been used to finance the construction of new buildings and streets, support war widows and create jobs in the sections of southern Beirut and southern Lebanon that Israeli fighter jets reduced to smoldering rubble in the summer of 2006…

“There was no mistaking the enthusiasm that gripped the vast majority of Shiites in Lebanon as they played host to the Iranian president. Ahmadinejad’s two-day visit gave an enormous boost to what is the largest segment of Lebanon’s population, which was, however, also the most marginalized group for many years. In particular, Hezbollah, whose name means ‘Party of God,’ is brimming with self-confidence. The organization’s militia has long since recovered from the fighting with Israel four years ago and once again boasts a well-filled arsenal of rockets.

“‘Even if Hezbollah is perhaps nothing more than a plaything of the Iranians, the Lebanese Shiites are enjoying finally being recognized as the strongest voice in the country,’ says Beirut political scientist Hilal Khashan. His colleague Raghid al-Sulh even maintains that Hezbollah is the ‘strongest political party in Lebanon of all time’…

“The Sunni and Christian opponents of the Shiite organization have not forgotten May 2008, when street clashes between Hezbollah fighters and government supporters came close to sparking a new civil war.

“The conflict was triggered by the government’s attempt to bring Hezbollah’s special telephone network under state control — a move that the Party of God saw as an attack on its vital interests. Since then, pro-Western forces in the country have tended to refrain from openly criticizing the Shiite militia.

“Still, there is a threat of renewed unrest. In just a few weeks, the United Nations’ Special Tribunal for Lebanon will announce in The Hague whether members of the militia will be charged with the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. This prompted Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Rafik Hariri’s son and political heir, to try to appease Hezbollah. The younger Hariri vowed that he would never endorse such charges.”

Britain In Shock Over Huge Spending Cuts

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 20:

“The Queen has already cancelled the Christmas party at Buckingham Palace. Now she will now have to suffer further impertinences. The British austerity measures announced on Wednesday envisage drastic cuts to public spending, including a sharp reduction of the royal budget. Great Britain is facing a ‘sober decade,’ according to Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England.

“The British newspapers have dubbed it ‘Axe Wednesday,’ the day that Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne finally announced deep cuts to public finances…

“Ministerial budgets are to be cut by an average of 19 percent… And 490,000 public sector jobs will disappear over the next four years. State expenditures will be slashed by 83 billion pounds (€94 billion, $131 billion), and taxes increased by 29 billion pounds (€32 billion, $45 billion.)… These are enormous figures, and it didn’t take long for the public outcry… However,… most British people have long since accepted their fate…

“The coalition has been preparing the public for this day since it took office last May. They warned to expect the toughest cuts since the World War II…

“It took an hour for Osborne to get through his list. He said that the only alternative to his radical package of measures would be state bankruptcy. Indeed, Great Britain’s deficit is the highest in Europe…

“As it stands, Osborne’s policy is nothing short of a massive political experiment, a high-stakes bet with an uncertain outcome. A senior official in the Treasury told the Financial Times that no one knows quite what will happen next… Numerous economists have warned of a relapse into recession. Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, wrote in the Guardian on Tuesday that ‘austerity is a gamble which Britain can ill afford.’ He says that the measures could slow or stop the country’s economic recovery…

“There are reasons for concern. Early economic indicators are worse than they were just six months ago. Real estate prices are weak and consumption, both private and commercial, is cautious. Just how economically damaging drastic savings measures can be has been seen recently in the case of Britain’s neighbor Ireland…

“All the British government can do now is… hope that their plan succeeds. The hope is that the British economy will follow the model of Canada, which saw solid growth following deep spending cuts in the 1990s. Prime Minister David Cameron… is aided by the fact that he has the backing of some of the country’s most influential newspapers. ‘It’ll hurt,’ wrote Britain’s largest circulation tabloid The Sun. ‘But the prize is worth the pain.'”

BBC News added on October 20:

“Chancellor George Osborne has unveiled the biggest UK spending cuts since World War II, with welfare, councils and police budgets all hit… shadow chancellor Alan Johnson, for Labour, called the review a ‘reckless gamble with people’s livelihoods’ which risked ‘stifling the fragile recovery’…

“Labour would also have had to make major cuts if they had won the general election, but the party insists Mr Osborne’s plans were too aggressive and risked tipping the country into a ‘double dip’ recession.

“During raucous Commons exchanges, shadow chancellor Alan Johnson accused Tory backbenchers of cheering ‘the deepest cuts to public spending in living memory.'”

Sarah Palin Warns of World War III and Armageddon

Newsmax reported on October 11:

“Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, in an exclusive interview… discusses her staunch opposition to President Barack Obama’s healthcare plans and socialistic policies, and reveals new details about a possible presidential run in 2012…

“‘We have to realize that, at the end of the day,’ Palin warns in the interview, ‘a nuclear weapon in that country’s [Iran’s] hands is not just Israel’s problem or America’s problem — it is the world’s problem. It could lead to an Armageddon. It could lead to that World War III that could decimate so much of this planet.’ Palin’s reference to Armageddon, described in the Bible’s book of Revelation, refers to a final battle between the forces of good and evil over the existence of the state of Israel.”

The errors contained in the article are tremendous. Armageddon is not the final battle between the forces of good and evil–in fact, it does not describe any battle at all. Rather, it is the place where the armies of the world will assemble to march against the returning Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, where the “battle” between good and evil will take place. Furthermore, this battle will not be caused by a disagreement over the existence of Israel and therefore, Sarah Palin’s reference to Armageddon in the context of Iran is misplaced as well.

However, it is true that a war in the Middle East could lead to an intervention by European troops with the attempt to bring peace to the region–which could be the catalyst for the beginning stages of the Great Tribulation. Please read the following articles on Iran and our Q&A on the Great Tribulation in this issue of the Update, as well as the booklets quoted in the Q&A.

Iran Admits Real Purpose for Nuclear Program

Newsmax reported on October 5 what should have been obvious to any thinking and discerning person:

“For the first time since the expansion of Iran’s nuclear program was exposed in 2002, the Iranian government is dropping the pretense that it is developing nuclear technology purely for peaceful purposes. Iran has developed nuclear war plans to deter U.S. and Israeli aggression and retaliate against it, a top adviser to Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi announced in a strategic analysis.

“Defense Ministry analyst Alireza Saeidabadi’s detailed analysis, published last week on a website that Iran’s intelligence ministry runs, examines several scenarios in which Iran could become embroiled in a shooting war with the United States or Israel. One of the scenarios Iranian military planners must consider is a strategic nuclear U.S. strike on Iran, he writes. If that occurred, Iranian planning documents call for attacks against U.S. interests ‘on the world stage,’ his analysis says… in the event Israel uses unconventional weapons against Iran, ‘then Iran should employ a nuclear strategy’… ‘if the United States launches an unconventional attack, Iran needs to respond with a nuclear strategy,’ the Iranian defense ministry analyst contends.

“The meaning is clear to former Revolutionary Guards officer Reza Kahlili. ‘He means that Iran should be prepared with the capability of nuclear weapons to respond’ if an enemy were to launch a nuclear strike against Iran, says Kahlili… ‘The use of nuclear technology for peaceful means is just a front,’ Kahlili told Newsmax. ‘They are prepared to go to war and will not give up the bomb project, which they feel is very close to being able to arm their ballistic missiles with nuclear war heads.’”

Ahmadinejad in Lebanon

The New York Times wrote on October 13:

“President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran arrived here Wednesday morning to an ecstatic welcome by supporters of Hezbollah, the militant Shiite movement that is backed by Iran. Thousands of cheering supporters thronged the road that leads from Beirut’s airport to the city, waving Iranian flags and chanting greetings in Farsi as Mr. Ahmadinejad’s convoy slowly passed…

“American officials voiced their disapproval last week of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s visit, which underscores Tehran’s powerful role in Lebanon. After his arrival, Mr. Ahmadinejad appeared at a news conference with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman to announce a number of bilateral agreements on energy, trade and other issues. Iran, which has long provided arms and training to Hezbollah, has also offered to help equip the Lebanese Army, which has in recent years received support and training from the United States.”

Reuters added on October 13:

“President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday used his visit to Lebanon on Wednesday to assure the government that Iran would stand by Beirut in confronting what he called hostilities from neighboring Israel.”

The Associated Press wrote on October 13:

“… the Iranian leader’s splashy arrival only exacerbates fears among many Lebanese – particularly Sunnis and Christians – that Hezbollah and Iran are trying to impose their will on the country and possibly pull Lebanon into a conflict with Israel. Ahmadinejad said he was a friend of all Lebanese, while emphasizing the need to fight Israel.” 

It added on October 14:

“On Thursday, Ahmadinejad is scheduled to make a trip to Lebanon’s Shiite heartland in the south and the Israeli border, which will emphasize Iran’s support for Hezbollah’s fight with Israel… Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev slammed the trip Thursday, saying ‘Iran’s domination of Lebanon through its proxy Hezbollah has destroyed any chance for peace, has turned Lebanon into an Iranian satellite and made Lebanon a hub for regional terror and instability.’

“Ahmadinejad’s visit has underscored the eroding position of pro-Western factions in Lebanon. More broadly, it has suggested that the competition over influence in Lebanon may be tipping toward Iran and its ally Syria, away from the United States and its Arab allies Egypt and Saudi Arabia.”

Iran’s PressTV wrote on October 14:

“[At] a dinner banquet held in [Ahmadinejad’s honor] by Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday… Berri… said Iran and Lebanon have a common stance on key regional and international developments and added the two countries could serve as a model of brotherly relations.

“He also insisted on the significance of disarming Israel… The speaker voiced Lebanon’s support for Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities.”

Iran Leads OPEC

Iran’s leading role among Arab nations should not be underestimated.  Note this remarkable announcement in PressTV, dated October 14:

“For the first time in 36 years, Iran will assume the rotating presidency of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as of next year. Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi has been elected president of the 12 oil cartel following a vote on Thursday…

“Iran, OPEC’s second-largest oil producer, was unanimously elected during the 157th session of OPEC ministerial meeting that kicked off in Vienna on October 14. OPEC comprises of Algeria, Angola, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Venezuela. The cartel, which provides 35 percent of global oil demand, also reached an agreement on its oil production target.”

Peace, Peace… and There Is No Peace

Der Spiegel wrote on October 8:

“One year after the Nobel prize jury made its controversial decision to award President Obama the prize for world peace, a larger jury is still waiting for the president to live up to those lofty expectations…

“The one year anniversary of Obama’s prize comes as fighting is escalating in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq continues to smolder and Obama struggles to keep fledgling Middle East peace talks from collapsing. Drones are firing missiles in unprecedented numbers and confrontations with Iran and North Korea are hotter than ever.

“In addition, wars rage in Somalia, Africa, Asia and South America, fueled by religion, tribal hatreds, poverty and piracy.”

No human leader will bring peace to this planet. The Bible says that when people believe that peace is just around the corner, sudden destruction will overtake them.

… Nor Is There Freedom, It Seems…

On October 7, The smokinggun.com reported on an unbelievable court ruling–not in Communist China, but in the USA, the country of the “free”:

“A Mississippi judge yesterday jailed a lawyer who refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in his courtroom. Attorney Danny Lampley, 49, was taken into custody Wednesday morning after Chancellor Talmadge Littlejohn cited him for criminal contempt of court for failing to recite the 31-word pledge at the outset of the morning’s proceedings at the Lee County courthouse.

“An October 6 order signed by Talmadge notes that Lampley was being charged for his ‘failure to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance as ordered.’ Lampley, the judge added, ‘shall purge himself of said criminal contempt…by standing and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in open court.’”

This is outrageous conduct, but it proves that unconverted people in “authority” are prone to misuse their office. A video presently circulating on the Internet shows an American police officer verbally abusing a German tourist for driving too fast, threatening him with jail time and the prospect of being violated by homosexual inmates. Such conduct is unbecoming to anyone in authority and brings shame to this country. It serves as a reminder that true Christians, as ambassadors of Jesus Christ, have to reflect that status at all times and in the best way possible in order to not bring shame on the name of God and His Kingdom.

The Big One Could Strike at Any Time

The Los Angeles Times wrote on October 10:

“Recent reports suggest that the major rupture predicted for the southern San Andreas fault could be longer and stronger than the last big quake, shaking [340 miles] from Monterey County down to the Salton Sea. The ‘Big One’ that has been forecast for the San Andreas fault could end up being bigger than earthquake experts previously thought.

“Recent research showing that a section of the fault is long overdue for a major earthquake has some scientists saying the southern portion of the fault is capable of a magnitude 8.1 earthquake… That’s significantly stronger and longer than the southern San Andreas’ last major rupture, in 1857. Such a temblor would cause much more damage because with a larger stretch of the fault rupturing, a larger area would be exposed to the quake and the shaking would last longer…

“The southern San Andreas hasn’t had a large quake for more than a century. The sleeping giant has been building stress for so long that it could snap at any moment, experts said…”

The Bible prophesies that many earthquakes will hit this planet prior to Christ’s return, and it is very likely that the “Big One” will destroy California–as other earthquakes will lay waste major cities and areas in the USA.

Turkey and China Exclude USA

The Wall Street Journal wrote on October 9:

“Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and China Premier Wen Jiabao said Friday their two countries would from now on trade using their own currencies, effectively excluding the U.S. dollar. The announcement, at a joint news conference in Ankara, came on the final stop of Mr. Wen’s European tour. Mr. Erdogan announced eight trade agreements between the two countries, whose leaders also pledged to triple trade between China and Turkey to $50 billion within five years, and to $100 billion by 2020.”

The trend to exclude the USA and the dollar from all major transactions will continue. Please read our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.”

China at Odds with the USA

The New York Times wrote on October 11:

“Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates met his Chinese counterpart, Liang Guanglie, in Vietnam on Monday for the first time since the two militaries suspended talks with each other last winter, calling for the two countries to prevent ‘mistrust, miscalculations and mistakes.’

“His message seemed directed mainly at officers like Lt. Cmdr. Tony Cao of the Chinese Navy. Days before Mr. Gates arrived in Asia, Commander Cao was aboard a frigate in the Yellow Sea, conducting China’s first war games with the Australian Navy, exercises to which, he noted pointedly, the Americans were not invited. Nor are they likely to be, he told Australian journalists in slightly bent English, until ‘the United States stops selling the weapons to Taiwan and stopping spying us with the air or the surface.’

“The Pentagon is worried that its increasingly tense relationship with the Chinese military owes itself in part to the rising leaders of Commander Cao’s generation, who, much more than the country’s military elders, view the United States as the enemy… The younger officers have known only an anti-American ideology, which casts the United States as bent on thwarting China’s rise…

“The stakes have increased as China’s armed forces, once a fairly ragtag group, have become more capable and have taken on bigger tasks. The navy, the centerpiece of China’s military expansion, has added dozens of surface ships and submarines, and is widely reported to be building its first aircraft carrier. Last month’s Yellow Sea maneuvers with the Australian Navy are but the most recent in a series of Chinese military excursions to places as diverse as New Zealand, Britain and Spain…

“From the Chinese military’s view, this year has offered ample evidence of American ill will. The Chinese effectively suspended official military relations early this year after President Obama met with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan religious leader, and approved a $6.7 billion arms sale to Taiwan, which China regards as its territory.

“Since then, the Chinese military has bristled as the State Department has offered to mediate disputes between China and its neighbors over ownership of Pacific islands and valuable seabed mineral rights. And when the American Navy conducted war games with South Korea last month in the Yellow Sea, less than 400 miles from Beijing, younger Chinese officers detected an encroaching threat.”

Agreement on Nuclear Warheads Being Negotiated Between France and the UK

The Financial Times wrote on October 7:

“An agreement being negotiated by the UK and France would see British nuclear warheads serviced by French scientists and break with half a century in which neither country has collaborated on its independent deterrent… A deal to share the secrets of their nuclear programmes would boost powerfully defence collaboration between the countries and save money at a time when their defence budgets are under stress…

“A US-UK treaty forbids Britain from sharing its nuclear secrets with another country because the UK deterrent, built on the Trident D5 missile, is in large part based on US technology. François Heisbourg, a French defence analyst, said sharing warhead research would assume ‘that the British break their very special relationship with America in that field’. This would require considerable ‘confidence on the US part’.”

The real news is that France will have access to British nuclear warheads. While in all likelihood France will be part of the inner core of the revived Roman Empire, Great Britain will not be. In fact, Britain will be at odds with the coming United States of Europe.

An Opportunity for Strong European Leaders…

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 13:

“With the EU mired in crisis — from demonstrations in French streets to Irish bank bailouts — strong leadership from European capitals is more important than ever. Unfortunately, the EU suffers from a leadership void… Historically, the greatest advances in European integration… have been spurred by crises. The euro zone crisis similarly presents an opportunity — if leaders are willing to seize it…

“A united EU is a stronger and more capable global actor than individual European nations. The collective force of EU soft power on important global governance issues… is substantial. The world benefits from an EU that speaks with a unified voice, and that is capable of following through on its commitments… the EU is a crucial beacon.”

The End for Merkel?

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 13:

“Has the end of Angela Merkel’s chancellorship heaved into view? After miserable poll numbers that show her coalition government losing support among German voters, the heavyweight conservative newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung [FAZ] is now speculating on forces that could topple the chancellor after next March, when the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg holds state elections…

“Merkel was re-elected in 2009 and might not face new elections until 2014, if the political tides run in her favor. But the FAZ reported Wednesday that a movement within her bloc for a new leader may already be afoot. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, 38, is the current defense minister and a rising star in the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to Merkel’s CDU. The generally well-sourced FAZ wrote that he is ‘at the center of the speculation’ about a possible successor to Merkel as chancellor. Guttenberg is not just young but also well-groomed and popular among female voters…

“Guttenberg has proved to be a flexible, ambitious politician. He comes from an old, upper-crust southern German family. Whether chatter in conservative circles about his future has to do with a ‘real power struggle (within the CDU/CSU) or merely what-if speculation’ is, according to the FAZ, not clear.”

Germany New Non-Permanent Member on Security Council

Deutsche Welle reported on October 12:

“Germany has won election to one of two non-permanent seats on the UN Security Council assigned to Western nations. Portugal was awarded the other seat, after Canada withdrew its bid after two inconclusive rounds of voting. All three nations had for years campaigned to represent the regional area called Western Europe and other Groups (WEOG). 

“Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called the UN’s selection a ‘significant vote of confidence’ and pledged to ‘do everything possible to justify the confidence shown to us by the United Nations.’ Westerwelle, in New York to support Germany’s bid to join the council, told reporters: ‘The world knows that it can count on Germany. We are now faced with the responsibility to establish peace, security and development around the globe.’

“The German victory is expected to boost the country’s new campaign to become a permanent member on the council. Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin that the government was delighted with the results. ‘Germany will work hard during its term to push ahead on reforms of the UN Security Council,’ she said. ‘That is the expectation that a lot of people in the world have.’…

“The Security Council is the main global body charged with keeping international peace. It has 15 members: the five permanent members Russia, China, the US, Britain and France, who have the right to veto any council resolution, and ten non-permanent members. Each of these rotating countries stays on the council for two years.

“The other three non-permanent seats at stake this year had already been decided by virtue of being uncontested: India will take over from Japan for the Asian region, Colombia takes Mexico’s seat for Latin America and South Africa takes the place of Uganda for Africa.”

The new two-term for Germany begins on January 1, 2011. It is clearly prophesied that Germany will play a major role in world affairs. At the same time, Germany’s and Europe’s battle with Islam will continue and deepen. The following articles give us a flavor as to what can be expected to accelerate. While German and European mainstream politicians may give lip services to Islamic “integration,” the people think differently–and they show and will continue to show their real feelings.

“Islam Belongs in Germany”

The discussion of Islam’s role in Germany does not cease. The German press debated the accuracy of President Wulff’s statement that Islam belongs in Germany and that he is the President of Muslims.

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 8:

“The recent statement by German President Christian Wulff that ‘Islam belongs in Germany’ has provoked something of a conservative backlash. The German press is divided on whether the presence of Muslims in Germany is self-evident or cause for concern.

“When German President Christian Wulff said that ‘Islam also belongs in Germany’ during his speech to mark the 20th anniversary of German reunification on Sunday, he was initially showered with praise for recognizing the reality that around 4 million Muslims now live in Germany. Yet just a few days later, it is clear than many on the conservative side of German politics and society are still deeply uncomfortable with such a statement.

“The ongoing unease in some quarters about the country’s Muslim population was revealed by a poll published by the influential mass circulation newspaper Bild on Tuesday which showed that 66 percent of those polled disagreed with Wulff’s assertion and only 24 percent agreed with it…

“Wulff’s speech should also be seen in the context of the heated debate in Germany in recent weeks following the publication of a controversial book by Thilo Sarrazin, then a member of Germany’s Central Bank, in which he accused Muslims of sponging off welfare, refusing to integrate and not attaining high enough levels of education…

“The conservative Die Welt writes: ‘… In the end, our relationship with Islam will not be decided by the domestic immigration debates. If we surrender Afghanistan to the Islamist butchers, allow the Iranians to have nuclear weapons and accept Turkey’s anti-Israel path, then the well-meaning integration attempts won’t prevent the acceleration of political Islam here too.'”

German Outcry Over Islamic Rules in Rental Contracts

Deutsche Welle reported on October 12:

“Berlin’s inner-city Ernst-Reuter Square is a prime business location, housing the offices of companies from around the world. But the nine-storey office building at No. 2 stands half empty with a huge billboard near the entrance offering office space. This is at least in part because of a number of restrictions placed on commercial tenants of the building.

“‘Companies seeking to rent office space here are not allowed to operate business that involves selling pork’, said Simone Krziwanek, a lawyer representing a small communications firm on the groundfloor of the building. What is also banned, she said, are businesses offering ‘interest-paying financial products, as well as sex shops, gambling halls and liquor stores’…

“The building was once the Berlin headquarters of the American computer giant International Business Machines, IBM. It now belongs to an Arab property investor, who is said to be based in London…

“On Monday, Germany’s mass-circulation newspaper Bild published details of the controversial rental contracts, describing their clauses as ‘Sharia laws and multi-cultural madness which is now also undermining German business.’…

“Perhaps surprisingly, the German Catholic Church on Monday indirectly expressed support for the Arab investor. ‘Businesses not in line with Catholic ethics, like the arms trade or pornography, are also not allowed to rent office space on church property,’ said Stefan Foerner of the Berlin archbishopric. Among those banned were also shops selling condoms, he added.”

The “support” of the Catholic Church is more likely a vehicle to cement their own interests…

German Courts Apply Sharia Law

The Local reported on October 9:

“A leading law professor has contradicted Chancellor Angela Merkel’s statement that Sharia law was not practiced in Germany, saying a variety of Sharia-based rulings were being made all the time. ‘We have been practising Islamic law for years, and that is a good thing,” Hilmar Krüger, professor for foreign private law at Cologne University, told Der Spiegel magazine. Family and inheritance rulings were often made according to Sharia law, he said, listing a range of examples.

“Women who are in polygamous marriages legal in their countries of origin can make claims of their husbands in Germany regardless of the fact that their marriages would not be lawful here. They can claim maintenance from their husbands and a share of an eventual inheritance, said Krüger… A judge in Cologne ruled that an Iranian man should repay his wife’s dowry of 600 gold coins to her after their divorce – referring to the Sharia which is followed in Iran.”

Far Right Attitudes in Germany

Der Spiegel wrote on October 13:

“A new study has revealed that far-right attitudes are deeply rooted in German society. One-third of Germans would send foreigners home if there weren’t enough jobs, while one-sixth think Jews have too much influence.

“‘Germany is in serious danger of being overrun by foreigners.’ It’s a sentence one would expect to find on an election poster for Germany’s far-right NPD party. As it happens, it’s a view that is held by over one-third of the German population…

“Additionally, more than 30 percent think that ‘foreigners come to take advantage of the welfare state’ and that when jobs are scarce foreigners should be sent ‘back to their own country.’ More than one-tenth would like a ‘Führer’ — the survey deliberately used the German word for ‘leader’ that is associated with Adolf Hitler — who would govern the country ‘with a firm hand’ for the benefit of all.”

The Local added on October 13:

“Anti-Islam views were particularly strong in the… poll… Just over 58 percent said that ‘religious practice for Muslims in Germany should be seriously limited,’ and that number rose to 75.7 percent for people from former East Germany…

“’This development is most likely linked to the effects of the economic crisis,’ the study said… The study results come as the debate over immigration and integration reaches a fever pitch in Germany. Since June, Thilo Sarrazin has made a number of anti-immigrant statements aimed mainly at Turks and Arabs, coinciding with the publication of his controversial book Deutschland schafft sich ab – Wie wir unser Land aufs Spiel setzen, or ‘Abolishing Germany – How we’re putting our country at jeopardy.’

“While many politicians have condemned Sarrazin’s position, polls have shown that public support of his views is growing. In early September a poll conducted by Emnid for daily Bild revealed that 18 percent would vote for a party headed by Sarrazin, who was forced to resign from his Bundesbank position over his hot-button views. But since then, several conservative politicians have been emboldened to make similar remarks, the latest being Bavarian state premier Horst Seehofer, who over the weekend suggested a ban on immigration for Turks and Arabs because of their ‘difficulties’ with integration.”

Right-Wing Party in Austria Celebrates Massive Gains

The Austrian Independent wrote on October 11:

“The Social Democrats (SPÖ) lost their absolute majority in the Vienna city parliament for the second time since World War Two while the right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ) celebrates massive gains… Twenty-seven per cent is the second-best result the right-wing party ever achieved in Vienna…

“[The FPÖ’s Heinz-Christian] Strache said last night he was willing to take responsibility in Vienna. The right-winger, who took over as federal party leader in 2005, remained tight-lipped on whether he will leave the federal parliament… Asked whether the FPÖ will be able to reach ever higher shares in future ballots, he said: ‘This is not yet the end.’

“The FPÖ’s strong performance in the Vienna election comes just weeks after its Styrian branch improved by 6.3 per cent to 10.9 per cent in the provincial election. The right-wing party also improved in the provincial election of Burgenland in May where it won nine per cent, up from the 5.8 per cent it claimed in 2005.

“Despite recently presented plans to focus on a more modest course, the FPÖ’s Vienna branch opted for a far-right campaign in Vienna. It accused the SPÖ of doing more for immigrants unwilling to integrate than for ‘hard-working Austrians’. The FPÖ also claimed it ‘protects free women, while the SPÖ protects (Muslim) men enforcing their women to wear head-scarves.'”

Wilders Warns Against European Islamisation

The Local reported on October 3:

“Far-right Dutch populist politician Geert Wilders warned against the ‘Islamisation’ of Europe and criticised German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a speech in Berlin on Saturday that sparked public protests… In his speech at the Hotel Berlin, Wilders claimed Germany’s national identity, democracy and prosperity were threatened by Islamic political ideology. ‘A Germany full of mosques and full of veiled women is no longer the Germany of Schiller and Heine, Bach and Mendelssohn,’ he said.

“The 47-year-old politician also took aim at Chancellor Merkel and Germany’s established parties, accusing them of accepting the “Islamisation” of Germany. Wilders was invited to speak in Berlin by ousted former conservative politician René Stadtkewitz, who recently announced he was forming a new ‘Freedom’ party in Germany.

“In an interview with the Sonntag Aktuell newspaper, Green party parliamentary group leader Jürgen Trittin said Wilders’ visit was an ‘affront to Berlin’s cosmopolitan tradition,’ in a city that is home to hundreds of thousands of Muslims. ‘We must stop all attempts by smug right-wing populists and Islamophobic bigots to marginalise and vilify these fellow citizens,’ he said.

“Wilders’ anti-immigration Freedom Party (PVV) won record support in the June election in the Netherlands, giving it the third highest vote and an unprecedented bargaining position. At a special party congress in the Dutch city of Arnhem on Saturday, members of the Dutch Christian Democrats (CDA) agreed to a power deal with the Liberal party (VVD), which would rely on support from Wilders’ PVV.”

Presently, Wilder is on trial for incitement charges against Islam. It is rumored that the prosecution will either ask for a verdict on Friday or dismiss the case. This reminds us unpleasantly of the trial against Adolph Hitler when he received a rather mild sentence for actual violence committed during the Hofbraeu House [Bierkeller] putsch. The trial and subsequent sentence did not hurt Hitler, but rather helped him in his political career.

Europe Now a Target

On the heels of warnings for American tourists to be more careful in their travels to Great Britain and Europe, European intelligence officials have revealed more details concerning the source of this concern.

CnnWorld reported on October 5:

“The man at the center of an alleged al Qaeda plot to bomb cities in Europe has told investigators the conspiracy was directed by one of the organization’s most senior figures…

“Ahmed Sidiqi, an Afghan German, was detained in Kabul in July and has since been questioned at the United States’ Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, the officials say. They say he has told interrogators that while in the tribal areas of Pakistan he met with a senior Al Qaeda leader, Younis al Mauretani, who was planning multiple attacks on European countries that would be similar to the attack on Mumbai, India, in 2008.”

The article concludes:

“There are around 40 Germans believed still to be with jihadist groups in the tribal areas of Pakistan, according to German intelligence officials. More than 200 militants have traveled from Germany to the Afghanistan-Pakistan since the 1990s, and most of them are believed to have received training, according to German intelligence officials.”

Equality For Islam?

German President Wulff’s recent comment that he is also the President for Muslims has triggered an ongoing debate–in fact, it appears to be THE NO. 1 topic in German media.

On October 5, The Local reported:

“Wulff riled his fellow Christian Democrats by saying Islam had become an important part of German society in a speech commemorating the 20th anniversary of German reunification on Sunday.

“While several Christian Democrats and their Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) allies grudgingly admitted Muslims had earned a place in Germany, they bristled at the idea they were changing the core social fabric of the country.

“‘The speech was easily misunderstood,’ CSU politician Norbert Geis told Bild on Tuesday. ‘If the president wanted to equate Islam in Germany with Christianity and Judaism, then I’d consider that wrong.’

“Christian Democrat Wolfgang Bosbach, the head of parliament’s interior affairs committee, also said Islam could not expect to be put on the same level as the faiths based solely on the New and Old Testament.

“‘Islam has certainly become part of the reality of daily life in Germany, but we belong to a Christian-Judeo tradition,’ he said.

“In his first major speech on Sunday since taking office in July, Wulff extended the hand of friendship to Muslims, saying the challenge of integrating them into society was comparable to reunifying the country after the Cold War.

“‘Christianity is of course part of Germany. Judaism is of course part of Germany. This is our Judeo-Christian history … But now Islam is also part of Germany,’ he said in his speech. ‘When German Muslims write to me to say “you are our president”, I reply with all my heart “yes, of course I am your president”.’

“His comments were welcomed by leading German Muslim groups as an important sign that they were not second-class citizens in Germany.

“But out of 1,008 Germans surveyed by YouGov for a poll published on Tuesday, a whopping 66 percent disagreed with their president’s views on Islam. Only 24 percent of those surveyed believed Muslims were as much a part of the country as much as Christians and Jews.”

Also from The Local on October 7, 2010:

“In the wake of Wulff’s speech, the centre-left parties hit back against conservatives who had previously attacked Wulff’s remarks as undermining the core values and traditions of Germany.

“‘Islam needs a fair chance in Germany,’ Dieter Wiefelspütz, interior affairs spokesman for the Social Democrats’ (SPD) parliamentary group, told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. ‘It would be an important signal to the four million Muslims in Germany if the state recognised Islam as a religious community.'”

The article continues:

“Secretary general of the German Jewish Council, Stephan Kramer, also slammed the conservative response to Wulff’s speech as ‘close to hysterical’ and said it showed ‘that apparently many politicians even today are shutting themselves off to the reality of an immigrant community.’

“He added: ‘The Muslims living here are part of our society. So of course their religion also belongs in this country.’

“Ultimately the right to exercise freely one’s religious beliefs was anchored in the constitution, he said.

“Yet the debate within Angela Merkel’s conservatives continued. Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Hermann of the Christian Social Union said: ‘Our fundamental values are clearly grounded in the Christian-western tradition. Germany does not want to integrate to Islam but rather to preserve its cultural identity.’

“The acting parliamentary leader for the Christian Democrats, Günter Krings, said Islam was a reality in Germany though he did not want to see the practices of some Muslims incorporated into German society.

“‘There are values represented with Islam that I don’t want to see in Germany culture, such as the position of women in the community,’ he said.

“But Kramer said practical solutions had to be found as to how a pluralistic society could be developed for the future. Wulff’s critics, by contrast, were ‘digging out propagandist phrases to create the impression that Germany was facing an immediate choice between the constitution and Sharia law.’

“CDU Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen also took the more positive view that Wulff’s remarks meant many well-integrated Muslims would see Wulff as their president.

“‘His speech was an acknowledgement to the people of Muslim beliefs who live here and want to live here,” he said. ‘But it is clear – and the president also said this – Germany’s religious and cultural roots lie in Christianity and Judaism.'”

These hotly debated issues regarding Islamic beliefs and even the presence of Muslims in Germany, the German State of Bavaria and other areas of central Europe have been slowly coming to a boil! Following the disasterous handling of the Roma immigrants by the current French government, it appears that the underlying question of Europe’s Christian status is also being drug into the fray, and these overlooked core issues will become even more heated as more disputes arise!

Sludging the Danube!

Reuters wrote on October 7, 2010:

“Toxic red sludge from a Hungarian alumina plant reached the Danube on Thursday and crews struggled to dilute it to protect the river from what the prime minister called an ‘unprecedented ecological catastrophe’…

“Philip Weller, executive secretary to the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), a Vienna-based U.N. body, said most damage was local.

“‘It is clear that the consequences of this are greatest in the local area and that the implications on a trans-boundary level, we understand, will not be significant which doesn’t mean they don’t exist,’ he said.

“‘The Hungarian authorities took a number of measures to reduce the toxicity, they added substances to neutralize the material, they also constructed some underwater weirs to slow the mud and maintain it and contain it as much as possible in the Hungarian territory of the river system.’

“It also helps that the Danube is a large river with a very high volume of water, he added.

“Gabor Figeczky, Hungarian branch director of the WWF environmental group said:

“‘Based on our current estimates, it (pollution) will remain contained in Hungary, and we also trust that it will reach Budapest with acceptable pH values.’

“Downstream from the disaster site, the Danube flows through or skirts Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Moldovan and Ukrainian territory en route to the Black Sea.”

As with other significant issues arising within the EU, calls for more controls are being sounded–especially in light of the possible widespread influence of this spillage. While the European Union continues to solidify its governing role, its member states will have to conform in matters that will influence all aspects of life within the EU.

The Middle East: Talks and More Talks

In the latest round of U.S. sponsored peace efforts in the Middle East, a familiar assessment has come forward–“deadlocked!”

The Los Angeles Times carried this report on October 7, 2010:

“Only a month into a new round of peace talks, the Obama administration is drawing criticism from allies and veteran diplomats that it is giving away too much just to keep negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians from collapsing.

“Administration officials have offered an assortment of inducements to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend a freeze on Jewish construction in the West Bank for two months. Palestinian officials have threatened to break off the talks unless Israel extends the freeze that expired Sept. 26.

“The U.S. has been wooing Netanyahu for weeks with offers including a squadron of F-35 fighters, support for a long-term Israeli troop presence in a new Palestinian state, and a pledge to veto any anti-Israel resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council. The U.S. also is offering access to its satellites that could provide early warning of attacks.

“To the Palestinians, the White House is pledging support for their position on the exact location of borders for a future state in exchange for a promise to continue negotiating even if Israel refuses to extend the construction moratorium.

“Although the Obama administration was expected to eventually give out incentives to keep the negotiations alive, diplomats and other observers say they are surprised that it has offered so much, so early for such a small victory: a commitment by both sides to keep talking…

“The White House’s willingness to pay a steep price so early in the game reflects the huge stakes for the administration. Obama has said repeatedly that peace the Middle East is vital to U.S. national security.

“U.S. officials fear that if the talks fail now, it may be months before they can coax the sides back to the table, and by then they might be dealing with a new and less cooperative Palestinian leadership. And collapse of the talks would hurt U.S. prestige in the region.

“‘This has become all about American credibility, and that’s why there’s such an effort to keep it going,’ said one person close to the talks, who was unwilling to be identified by name because of the sensitivity of the subject.”

While the Middle East continues to draw the attention from would-be “peace brokers” from all over the world, the underlying concerns will not be resolved–not until Jesus Christ returns and forcibly institutes the rule of God’s government! Our booklets, available at www.eternalgod.org; globalchurchofgod.co.uk; and churchofgodacf.ca, present the biblical truth of prophecy for our time and explanations about how good news does lie ahead! Also, please watch our regular web videos found at www.StandingWatch.org (postings appear on YouTube, as well); and, in German, www.AufPostenStehen.de, both presented by evangelist, Norbert Link.

Art Gilmore Dies

Wire reports of October 3, 2010, relate the death of long-time announcer, Art Gilmore:

“Art Gilmore, who launched his more than 60-year career as an announcer in the 1930s and became a widely recognized voice on radio, television, commercials, documentaries and movie trailers, has died. He was 98.

“Gilmore died Sept. 25 of age-related causes at a convalescent care center near his home in Irvine, Calif., said his nephew, Robb Weller.

“Among the highlights of his long and prolific career:

“On radio,he was the announcer on shows such as ‘Amos ‘n’ Andy,’ ‘Dr. Christian,’ ‘Red Ryder’ and ‘The Sears Radio Theater.’

“Moving to television in the 1950s, he was the announcer for ‘The George Gobel Show,’ and he began a 16-season stint as the announcer on ‘The Red Skelton Show.’ He was also the narrator on the TV series ‘Mackenzie’s Raiders,’ ‘Men of Annapolis’ and ‘Highway Patrol.’

“On radio and television, Gilmore’s voice was heard introducing and concluding ‘The World Tomorrow,’ a church-sponsored program with Herbert W. Armstrong and later his son, Garner Ted Armstrong.

“Moviegoers also heard Gilmore’s voice on more than 2,700 movie trailers.”

Why is the Pope Visiting Britain?

Overshadowing the papal visit to Britain, the first for Pope Benedict XVI, are questions as to why he would confront the obvious public outcry against his trip. CNN.com reported on September 16:

“As the United Kingdom braces to receive one of the best-known and most controversial figures on the planet, Pope Benedict XVI, a question hangs over the state visit: Why is he coming?”

The article continues:

“And the United Kingdom is not a Catholic country. On the contrary, Britain’s break from Rome in the 16th century echoes, if faintly, to the present day, with laws on the books forbidding the heir to the British throne from marrying a Catholic.

“In fact, the country is one of the less religious ones in Europe, home to vociferous critics of religion, like Richard Dawkins, and those who find belief in a higher power simply unnecessary, like Stephen Hawking.

“Public opinion on the eve of his visit ranges from indifference to downright hostility. There will be protests from critics who consider him a protector of pedophiles and from liberal Catholics who resent his staunch defense of orthodox doctrine.

“And all this will play out in in front of the British media — one of the world’s most aggressive.

“So why, aged 83 and happier at home, is the professorial vicar of Christ on earth stepping into the lion’s den? It may be the very factors that seem to argue against his coming that impelled him to come, according to two experts.

“This pope relishes a challenge, said John Allen, CNN’s senior Vatican analyst. His ‘No. 1 priority is to combat secularism, and in some ways the United Kingdom is the dictionary definition of a post-religious society,” Allen said. “He just created a whole new department in the Vatican to reawaken the faith in the West, and this trip is a chance to elaborate a strategy.’

However, ABC NEWS/International (online 9/16/10) further reports on the swirling resentment that is following the pope’s visit:

“But this four-day, $20 million visit is already mired in controversy. The cloud of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church is hanging over events.

“Belgian investigators just published a report detailing sexual abuse by priests in nearly every diocese in that country.

“Some of the victims were reportedly as young as two years old.

“British victims of abuse are demanding more than just an apology from the Pope. They want money for counseling and they want the Vatican to throw open its files on abuse.

“Protests are also planned by those who oppose the Pope’s views on condom use, homosexuality and the ordination of women.

“When asked about the sex scandals, he said ‘the revelations were a shock to him’ and ’caused great sadness.'”

UK is Like “Third World Country!”

The guardian.co.uk, on September 15, 2010, reported the reactions to very controversial remarks made by a leading papal advisor:

“The pope’s visit to the UK is mired in controversy after one of Benedict XVI’s senior advisers dropped out after comparing an arrival in multicultural Britain to landing ‘in a third-world country’.

“Cardinal Walter Kasper – the Vatican’s leading expert on relations with the Church of England – also accused the UK of discriminating against Christians.

“The cardinal’s remarks, made hours before the papal party was due to land in Edinburgh this morning, came in an interview with the German news magazine Focus, in which he noted that Britain was a ‘secular, pluralistic’ country.

“Asked by the magazine whether Christians were discriminated against in the UK, Kasper replied: ‘Yes. Above all, an aggressive new atheism has spread through Britain. If, for example, you wear a cross on British Airways, you are discriminated against.'”

Strife Builds Over French Actions

Controversy continues over France’s crackdown on illegal migrants, and BBC reported on September 16:

“President Nicolas Sarkozy was furious after European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding appeared to compare France’s removal of Roma with Gypsy deportations during World War II…

“Although France has deported thousands of Romanian and Bulgarian Roma over the past few years, it began accelerating the process last month, as part of a high-profile crackdown on illegal camps in the country.

“On Tuesday, Ms Reding seemed to compare France’s actions to the persecution of Jews and Gypsies in Nazi-occupied France, when she said: ‘This is a situation I had thought Europe would not have to witness again after the Second World War.’

“She also urged the European Commission to take legal action against France over the deportations.”

Also, from the BBC on September 16, 2010:

“France and Germany are embroiled in a diplomatic row after German Chancellor Angela Merkel flatly contradicted President Nicolas Sarkozy on the issue of Roma camps.

“The issue of Roma (Gypsy) deportations from France has dominated an EU summit.

“Mr Sarkozy told a news conference that Chancellor Merkel had said to him that she intended to follow France’s example in dismantling Roma camps.

“Mrs Merkel’s spokesman denied she had discussed the issue with Mr Sarkozy.

“Fresh from a blazing row with the president of the European Commission, President Sarkozy has managed to fall out with his closest ally in Europe, says the BBC’s Oana Lungescu, who was at the summit in Brussels.”

The focus on human rights is pre-occupying the planned summit of EU leaders in Brussels, while the intended focus was a co-ordinated approach towards China and India–new emerging power-houses on the world stage.

We are witnessing a steady emergence of issues that will soon call for a new kind of leadership in Europe, and Bible prophecies reveal that the stage is set for a startling shift in who is the true super-power! Please read our free booklet: Europe In Prophecy-The Unfolding of End-Time Events.

No Middle-Ground in the Middle East!

Following more “peace talks,” the stalemate remains deeply entrenched in the volatile West Bank.

On September 16, CNN World reported:

“Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has proposed a three-month extension of Israel’s construction moratorium on the West Bank, a diplomatic source told CNN Thursday.

“The proposal, which was made this week during Middle East peace talks being held in the region, was accepted by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, but essentially rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The two sides appear to be at a stalemate, the source said.

“Netanyahu’s official position remains that he will not support any extension of the moratorium, which has been in place for 10 months and is set to expire September 26.

“The U.S. special envoy to the region, former Sen. George Mitchell, is attempting to negotiate a “quid pro quo” from the Palestinians in exchange for an extension, the source added.

“‘There are all kinds of ideas in the air’ over different ways to break the logjam, the source noted.’

“‘Nobody is going to let the talks break down over this issue,’ the source said. ‘Nobody is walking out of these talks.'”

Along with the momentous changes occurring now in Europe, the Middle East remains one of the most troublesome challenges in today’s diplomatic efforts. Like Europe, this region, and especially the State of Israel and Jerusalem, are destined to fulfill prophecies from the Word of God that only few now understand.

Our free booklet, “The Book of Zechariah-Prophecies for Today!,” will help you understand, as well.