The Bible tells of coming wars centered in the Middle East. These wars are so devastating that, until the invention of nuclear weapons, most scholars assumed the Bible’s descriptions were hyperbole. Now, as the world steps closer to a nuclear Middle East, something amazing grows more obvious every day — God meant exactly what He said.
A nuclear arms race in the region now seems inevitable. How did this happen?
A few months ago, when it first looked like a deal with Iran might be possible, the Obama Administration began some tough negotiating, but not with Iran. The U.S. reserved the hardest negotiating for its allies, trying to get them to go along with what was obviously a bad deal. John Bolton, former Ambassador to the UN, called the new agreement “abject surrender by the United States.”
What caused this rush to agreement? President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry both acknowledged that the economic and political impact of sanctions forced the Iranians to the negotiating table. The U.S. held all the cards, but the negotiating team worked as if from a position of weakness. The deal brokered gave Iran what it wanted, but did not give America’s allies in the region what they wanted.
This puzzling behavior by the United States raises a lot of questions. Did Obama and Kerry fear that Israelmight soon launch a military assault on Iran? Is that what pushed them to move so quickly? With the first phase of a peace agreement already on the books, Israel would be forced to hold off on any kind of military action.
Sadly, if the president meant to remove Israel’s military option, he may have accomplished exactly the opposite. The sanctions were Israel’s primary hope for avoiding actual military strikes. But now the United States has given away that leverage . . . and, with it, that hope.
Israel will not attack in the next six months unless it sees an imminent threat. Such a threat is possible because, like North Korea, Iran has a history of making concessions in order to buy time. If it becomes obvious that they are breaking the agreement, then anything could happen. The deal does not bindIsrael. They were not included in the negotiations, and they opposed the plan since it first surfaced. They consistently said it would lead to an even more volatile Middle East.
Still, it would take more than chutzpah to strike Iran now. The Arabs may be privately egging them on, but it’s difficult to imagine these mortal enemies standing up to defend Israel once the deed is done. The so-called P5+1 powers who signed the agreement would take an attack as a personal affront.
Suppose Iran sticks to the accord, at least in the visible ways. What happens after six months? Will Iranstill have its nuclear infrastructure? Yes. Will it agree to meaningful concessions? Probably not. It got an agreement without doing so this time. Will sanctions be re-imposed? Not at the same level as before. WillIran renew its nuclear program? Maybe not in exactly six months, but soon. Will Israel then attack? It may not have a choice.
In the 1990s, North Korea stopped its nuclear program and the Clinton Administration hailed that moment as a victory for peace. Today, North Koreais firmly in the nuclear club. They are the only member of that club which regularly threatens to nuke its neighbors. But they are one of the poorest countries in the world. They are developing missile technology as fast as they can, but their resources are severely limited.
Iran is not North Korea. Iran has oil. It’s teeming with it. And oil is money — a sure currency anywhere in the world. With the sanctions lifting, Iran will have the cash to build its nuclear arsenal and the missiles to carry it. Oil also givesIran great economic leverage with powerful friends like China and Russia. Another difference is that the North Korean leaders just want to stay in power. Iranian leaders want World War III.
Iran is not North Korea, but Israel is not South Korea either. They have vowed not to allow Iran to build nuclear weapons.
Sadly for the world, it may not matter. Iran has already gone too far. It knows how to build these weapons. Bomb them or make a treaty with them, and they will still know the secrets. They will not forget. And they have constructed so vast a nuclear infrastructure that, to destroy their capability with military strikes, would require a prolonged campaign that Israel cannot sustain without significant support. If the mullahs want the bomb, and if they stay in power, they will get the bomb.
And they are not alone. Pakistan and North Korea, poor countries that already possess nuclear weapons, have shown a willingness to sell both the technology, and off the shelf nukes. We can soon expect theMiddle East to be awash in centrifuges and fallout shelters.
Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon said in a radio interviewSunday: “We will do whatever is necessary to protect Israel.”
One wonders what all that may include.
Credit To Hal Lindsey
The U.S. military has flown two warplanes over the East China Sea on a training exercise, the Pentagon announced Tuesday, blatantly ignoring a recent edict from China that it must be informed in advance of any such flights over the region.
The two unarmed aircraft flew Monday evening, Eastern time, over a small island chain that China and Japan both claim as their territory, said Lt. Col. Tom Crosson, a Pentagon spokesman. He said the U.S. military did not provide any notice to Beijing and described the mission as “uneventful,” saying that there was “no contact, no reaction from China.”
On Saturday, China issued an edict imposing an “air defense identification zone” over part of the East China Sea and the uninhabited islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyo in China. The Chinese Defense Ministry warned that any noncommercial aircraft entering the zone would need to submit flight plans in advance or else face the possibility of “defensive emergency measures.”
Japan and the United States immediately protested the move. The Pentagon, which frequently conducts naval and air exercises in the East China Sea, said it had no intention of bowing to China’s demands, calling them “a destabilizing attempt to alter the status quo in the region.”
On Tuesday, the White House blasted China’s imposition of the air defense identification zone, but urged Beijing to address territorial conflicts diplomatically instead of militarily.
“We believe that inflammatory rhetoric and inflammatory policy pronouncements like those made by the Chinese over the weekend are counterproductive, and we believe that those differences of opinion can and should be resolved diplomatically,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters. “It’s in the interest of all of the parties in the region to do that.”
Crosson declined to identify what kind of U.S. military aircraft carried out the mission on Monday but said the planes came from a base on Guam, the U.S. territory in the Pacific. Another U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the operation, said the aircraft were both long-range B-52 bombers.
Credit to Washington Post
A stone altar dating from the Iron Age was accidentally discovered near the remains of an ancient wall during a dig in Judea, according to the Unity Coalition for Israel.
Apparently the altar was moved from its original location in Tel Shiloh; its discovery is the first physical evidence that Shiloh had served as a religious center prior to the First Temple period.
Archaeologists had thought that after the Philistines had captured the Ark of the Covenant in battle that they went on to completely destroy Shiloh and its Jewish settlement. But the altar’s discovery now suggests that a Jewish presence there had still remained.
According to the Book of Samuel, the Ark was pressed into service by Israel to help turn the tide of battle, but instead the Philistines prevailed, killing thousands of Israelites — including the sons of the high priest — and capturing the Ark as well.
However, every enemy city the Ark was taken to experienced problems, so after seven months of plagues, the Philistines finally decided to return their troublesome trophy — along with a guilt offering — to the Israelites at Beth Shemesh.
According to biblical commentator Hans Hertzberg, the return of the Ark revealed that the Jewish God whom the Philistines thought they had defeated was in fact the real victor: even when His people were beaten by the armies of their enemies, Yahweh still remained Lord of all.
Credit to Worthy News
After the study by the Radiation and Public Health Project research was made public there was little response or reaction in the US. Although, Joseph Mangano expects to hear from people more as there are great concerns about the safety of food in water, even in the US from Fukushima.
"We just published a study in the Open Journal of Pediatrics. We looked at official two types of data: one was the EPA statistics on how much radiation was in the air in the weeks and months after Fukushima (it was much higher in the West Coast than in the rest of the country) and number two – we looked at the state California’s official statistics on newborns who are born with a condition called hypothyroidism which is where the thyroid is underactive. It is something that is known to be affected by exposure to radioactive Iodine which is only created in atomic bombs which haven’t been exploded for years and nuclear reactor emissions," explains Joseph Mangano.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster is quite harmful for human health, although it happened in Japan, all the way across the ocean, the contaminated waters and polluted air can easily reach the continent on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
"Studies almost three years ago found that the plume of radiation that escaped from Fukushima arrived on the West Coast of the US just five days after the initial meltdown. It doesn’t take long: once these radioactive particles in gases get in the air, it moves along with prevailing winds and keeps travelling until it returns to the environment through rain and snow," says epidemiologist Joseph Mangano in an interview with the Voice of Russia.
"It circled the entire Northern hemisphere but it got to the West Coast within five days and came into the environment in greater amounts on West Coast and elsewhere in the country," Mangano continues.
The aim of the study is to find the correlation between the increased cases of hypothyroidism disease in children and the consequences of the Fukushima catastrophe.
"We are just now starting to get our hands on recent data from 2011. It means that we start by looking at the fetus and the newborn because they are the most susceptible to radiation. And we are going to be looking at not just hypothyroidism but at further birth effects: infant deaths, babies were born underweight; babies were born prematurely- things of that nature to see before and after Fukushima if there was a difference. It’s gonna take decades to know what the full casualty list of Fukushima is because sometimes it takes decades, for example, for a cancer to show itself, to manifest itself after the exposure," Joseph Mangano explains to the Voice of Russia’s host Jay Johnson, who conducted the interview.
In the future more children would be born with diseases or other health problems caused by Fukushima disaster. According to Mangano, more people would be born not just with birth defects, but with diseases affected by the radiation, such as cancer.
Recently, Japan has surveyed 200,000 children near the Fukushima plant in 2012 and has found out that 56% of the children under 18 have a precancerous lesions which is absolutely off the charts, as it should be almost none, says Mangano.
"It’s an ongoing study by Fukushima Medical University. They also found as many as 59 kids had thyroid cancer and that’s a condition that’s very rare in kids. We would expect in three years maybe one or two. They confirmed 26 and they suspect another 33. So, this is just the beginning. As a research community we really need to look at this terrible meltdown seriously and do all the studies on the continuing basis," Joseph Mangano said.
Credit to Voice of Russia
Archaeologists digging in Turkey have found the guardians of the "Gate to Hell" -- two unique marble statues which once warned of a deadly cave in the ancient Phrygian city of Hierapolis, near Pamukkale.
Known as Pluto's Gate -- Ploutonion in Greek, Plutonium in Latin -- the cave was celebrated as the portal to the underworld in Greco-Roman mythology and tradition. It was discovered in March by a team led by Francesco D'Andria, professor of classic archaeology at the University of Salento.
"The statues represent two mythological creatures," D'Andria told Discovery News. "One depicts a snake, a clear symbol of the underworld, the other shows Kerberos, or Cerberus, the three-headed watchdog of hell in the Greek mythology."
Rolled onto itself, the snake looks threateningly toward anybody trying to approach it, while the 4-foot-tall Kerberos resembles the Kangal, the Anatolian shepherd dog.
"It's a pretty scary statue," D'Andria said.
The sculptures were found as archaeologists further excavated the area where in March they unearthed the remains of the Plutonium, which included an inscription dedicated to the deities of the underworld -- Pluto and Kore.
The dig revealed the source of the thermal springs, which produce the famous white travertine terraces.
"Pamukkale's springs originate right from this cave," D'Andria said.
Believed to have healing properties, the hot springs made the Roman city of Hierapolis -- now a World Heritage Site -- a popular destination for pilgrimages.
Both marble statues emerged from the thermal water, leaving little doubt that the site was indeed Pluto's Gate. The cave was described in historic sources as filled with lethal mephitic vapors.
"This space is full of a vapor so misty and dense that one can scarcely see the ground. Any animal that passes inside meets instant death," the Greek geographer Strabo (64-63 B.C. to about 24 A.D.) wrote about the site.
"I threw in sparrows and they immediately breathed their last and fell," he added.
"They were instantly killed by the carbon dioxide fumes," D'Andria said.
Strabo's account was confirmed during the excavation, as D'Andria and colleagues found several dead birds and insects near the opening.
In the previous excavation, the archaeologists also found the remains of a temple, a pool and a series of steps placed above the cave -- all matching the descriptions of the site in ancient sources.
The site represented an important destination for pilgrims. People watched the sacred rites from steps above the cave opening, while priests sacrificed bulls to Pluto. The ceremony included leading the animals into the cave, and dragging them out dead.
Only the eunuchs of Cybele, an ancient fertility goddess, were able to enter the hell gate without any apparent damage.
"They hold their breath as much as they can," Strabo wrote, adding that their immunity could have been due to their "menomation," "divine providence" or "certain physical powers that are antidotes against the vapor."
According to D'Andria, the site was a famous destination for rites of incubation. Pilgrims took the waters in the pool near the temple, slept not too far from the cave and received visions and prophecies, in a sort of oracle of Delphi effect. Indeed, the fumes coming from the depths of Hierapolis' phreatic groundwater produced hallucinations.
The popularity of the site is testified by dozens of lamps unearthed in front of the cave opening. Among the most precious objects, the archaeologists also found a marble head representing the goddess Aphrodite.
"These votive offerings shows the relentless vitality of the pagan cults in Hierapolis between the 4th and 6th centuries A.D., when the Roman empire was progressively Christianized by emperors such as Constantine and up to Justinian," Alister Filippini, a researcher in Roman history at the Universities of Palermo, Italy, and Cologne, Germany, told Discovery News.
It is possible that during the 5th century the Plutonium's entrance was blocked, preventing access to the underground cave, so that the related pagan rites could not be performed. However pilgrims continued to venerate the area by leaving offerings to the deities, who were believed to miraculously heal the sick people taking the thermal waters near the Plutonium.
At the same time, between the 4th and 6th centuries, the statues of Kerberos and the snakes were scarred, most likely by Christian pilgrims.
"These details show the growing conflict between the new and old cults, and the resulting marginalization of the traditional pagan religion," Filippini said.
During the 5th century A.D. pilgrims came to Hierapolis from remote locations to venerate the tomb of Saint Philip, one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ, whose remains were found by D'Andria two years ago.
Several pilgrims however, continued to visit Pluto's Gate, braving the anti-pagan laws.
Finally, in the 6th century A.D., the site was obliterated by the Christians who covered it with soil.
"Geological investigations have already started in collaboration with the University of Pamukkale to begin the restoration of this unique site. We hope we can open it to the public in a near future," D'Andria said.
Credit to Fox News
According to a recent news report, President Barack Obama has for over a year secretly conducted negotiations with Iran (through his adviser Valerie Jarrett) and the Geneva talks on Iranian nukes now appear to be just a facade providing international legitimacy for Obama's secret deal with Iran.
Secretary of State John Kerry's contradictory criticism of Israeli objections to that deal only suggests more bad faith by the Obama administration. Kerry claims that Israel has been kept fully apprised of the negotiations with Iran but then argues that Israel has never seen the terms of the proposed deal with Iran and therefore shouldn't question it. The Obama administration apparently wants to present the nuclear deal as a fait accompli that Israel must simply accept as is.
In what is becoming a familiar pattern, Russia is readily moving in to the Mideast areas where U.S. influence has waned because of Obama's many fumbles in the region. Last August, Saudi Arabia made it clear that it would happily replace US aid to Egypt (highlighting one of many issues straining U.S. relations with yet another Mideast ally).
On the issue of Iranian nukes, France has effectively replaced the U.S. as Israel's strongest ally and as the most sober-minded advocate of caution when negotiating over the single greatest threat to global security. Incredibly, Saudi Arabia is reportedly replacing the US in providing logistical support for an Israeli strike on Iranian nukes.
Yaakov Amidror, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's former national security adviser, recently indicated that the Israeli Air Force has been preparing for a potential strike on Iran. According to Amidror, such a strike could set back Iran's nuclear program "for a very long time." So Israel can go it alone, if it must, although the results will be far messier than those produced by a stronger U.S. approach.
While the Obama administration has suggested that critics of the current Geneva deal are "on a march to war," it is that very deal -- which gives Iran a nuclear breakout capacity -- that will force the states most threatened by Iran to take preemptive military action.
Even if one accepts Obama's apparent view that decades-long alliances matter no more than does U.S. assurances, there are other compelling reasons for Obama to reverse his disastrous Iran policy before its too late. Granting an Iranian nuclear weapons breakout capability will produce catastrophic consequences (many of which Obama himself acknowledged, in his March 2012 speech):
1) The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) will effectively be finished. The world's most volatile region will become even more explosive as other regional players scramble to establish their own nuclear arsenals to counter Iran's. And rogue nations will realize that by following Iran's deceptive playbook, they too can develop a nuclear capability.
2) The force of U.N. Security Council Resolutions will be further diluted, as Iran will continue flouting six of them with impunity.
3) Iran-backed terrorist organizations -- including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah -- will grow emboldened by the nuclear umbrella of their patron.
4) Terrorism could go nuclear, should Iran share some of its nuclear materials with the terrorist groups that it supports.
5) U.S. influence in the Middle East will erode even more, as Obama further damages U.S. relationships and influence in the region.
6) U.S. credibility throughout the world will plummet. If the U.S. cannot be trusted to provide strong leadership on the national security issue of greatest concern to the free world, where U.S. interests are directly at stake, what does that mean for U.S. credibility more generally?
7) Global instability and oil prices will skyrocket. If Israel, with Saudi assistance, strikes Iran's nuclear program, the Iranian retaliation that follows could spark World War III. Will Iran attack Saudi oil fields or otherwise pour more fuel onto the Sunni-Shia fire in Syria? Will Iran and Iran-backed Hezbollah (estimated to have at least 45,000 missiles) launch a massive attack killing thousands of Israeli civilians? Will some of the Syrian chemical weapons held by Assad (another Iranian ally) end up hitting Israel? How would Israel respond? Is this how Armageddon happens?
8) U.S. interests will be attacked. Obama may think that his policy of appeasement will shield the U.S. from Iranian reprisals, but the opposite is true. When the U.S. appears so weak and ready to abandon allies (as with Egypt, Israel, and Saudi Arabia), Iran has less fear of attacking the U.S. and more reasons to do so, as a way to exacerbate U.S. tensions with Israel.
Will attacking U.S. interests be yet another Obama "red line" that gets crossed with impunity? If so, then whatever is left of U.S. deterrence and credibility will have been destroyed. If not, then the U.S. will get sucked into another Mideast war but on terms dictated by the adversary, and without any first-strike advantage.
The catastrophic consequences outlined above would all directly result from Obama's disastrously weak -- but still reversible -- policies on the Iranian nuclear threat.
The Jewish people have a long memory, and it pervades the thinking of Israeli civilians and top brass alike. Thus, Israel's brief history is replete with daring military operations to protect its security. In Netanyahu's speech at the last UN General Assembly, in what may have been Israel's final warning to the world to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat before Israel must, the Prime Minister summed up -- from his personal family history -- the collective experience that guides Israel on fateful decisions:
"[O]ne cold day in the late 19th century, my grandfather Nathan and his younger brother Judah were standing in a railway station in the heart of Europe. They were seen by a group of anti-Semitic hoodlums who ran towards them waving clubs, screaming 'Death to the Jews.' My grandfather shouted to his younger brother to flee and save himself, and he then stood alone against the raging mob to slow it down. They beat him senseless, they left him for dead, and before he passed out, covered in his own blood, he said to himself 'What a disgrace, what a disgrace. The descendants of the Macabees lie in the mud powerless to defend themselves.' He promised himself then that if he lived, he would take his family to the Jewish homeland and help build a future for the Jewish people. I stand here today as Israel's prime minister because my grandfather kept that promise."
Obama should know by now that if he forces Israel's hand, then Israel alone will neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat, regardless of how messy the aftermath may be. Netanyahu -- like any other responsible Israeli leader -- would rather bring about World War III than the last Israelis.
Credit to CP
