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Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible John the Baptist 21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. 23 When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24 After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25 “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days...

President Obama is pushing back against the idea that he’s been outmaneuvered in Syria by Russian President Vladimir Putin since the two met at the United Nations on Monday. Obama appeared frustrated by the suggestion during a press conference this afternoon, dismissing it as a notion only talked about in the Washington D.C. “Sometimes the conversation here in the Beltway differs from the conversation internationally,” Obama responded. Obama accused Putin of acting in Syria “out of weakness,” repeatedly referring to Russia’s weakening economy. He also compared his coalition to act against ISIS in Syria to Putin’s unilateral decision to prop...

The ever-growing proof of an anti-Israel prejudice at The New York Times (NYT) is so extensive and persistent that the paper’s partiality is now undeniable (see this endless archive of bias reports). […] On September 10th, the NYT singled out Jewish lawmakers on the Iran deal. On September 15th, the NYT suggested that the Israeli who was murdered by rock-throwing Palestinians had died of a “self-inflicted accident” after the attackers had merely “pelted the road” (rather than his car). The National Review provided a detailed critique of this farcical “reporting.” […] On September 29, (Diaa) Hadid used an anonymous European...

On Wednesday the Obama administration was caught off guard by Russia’s rapid rise in Syria. As the Russians began bombing a US-supported militia along the Damascus-Homs highway, Secretary of State John Kerry was meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, at the UN. Just hours before their meeting Kerry was insisting that Russia’s presence in Syria would likely be a positive development. Reacting to the administration’s humiliation, Republican Sen. John McCain said, “This administration has confused our friends, encouraged our enemies, mistaken an excess of caution for prudence and replaced the risks of action with the perils of inaction.” McCain...

A horrific terror attack has claimed the lives of an Israeli mother and father Thursday evening after their car came under fire by Palestinian terrorists. The couple, identified as Eitam and Naama Henkin, lived in Neria, north of Ramallah. They leave behind six orphaned children, four of whom – aged 4 months, 4 ,7 and 9 years – were in the vehicle at the time of the attack. Shortly before 9 pm, the Henkin’s were traveling between the Itamar and Elon Moreh communities, located near the Palestinian village of Beit Furik. As the car slowed before making a turn, a...

Vladimir Putin is meeting western leaders for the first time since Russia launched airstrikes in Syria, amid a growing rift over who it is targeting.

This was a bad idea when Fiorina pushed it yesterday and it’s still a bad idea today. Is one worse than the other, though? Fiorina wants an NFZ to protect American-backed rebels from Putin’s bombs; Hillary wants one for “humanitarian” reasons, the same sort of thinking that produced the paradise you and I know as modern Libya. It’s worth risking a world war to help decide which barbarians ultimately prevail in Syria, no? “I personally would be advocating now for a no-fly zone and humanitarian corridors to try to stop the carnage on the ground and from the air, to...

Senators are calling on President Obama to clarify his strategy on Syria, after Russia ignored repeated U.S. warnings and began bombing rebel groups there this week to shore up the Assad regime. -snip- Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), one of the administration's biggest foreign policy critics, called on the administration to take stronger measures. "We should establish no-fly zones in Syria and make it clear that any aircraft that enters those zones will be shot down,” he said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - International monitors say they have spotted a new kind of Russian weapons system in rebel-held Ukraine this week, possible evidence of Moscow's continued interest in Ukraine even as it focuses on Syria. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which is monitoring a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, reported that its monitors had seen a mobile TOS-1 'Buratino' weapons system for the first time. The Buratino is equipped with thermobaric warheads which spread a flammable liquid around a target and then ignite it. It can destroy several city blocks in one strike and cause indiscriminate damage. Only...

BEIRUT/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia bombed Syria for a third day on Friday, mainly hitting areas held by rival insurgent groups rather than the Islamic State fighters it said it was targeting and drawing an increasingly angry response from the West. The U.S.-led coalition that is waging its own air war against Islamic State called on the Russians to halt strikes on targets other than Islamic State. "We call on the Russian Federation to immediately cease its attacks on the Syrian opposition and civilians and to focus its efforts on fighting ISIL," said the coalition, which includes the United States, major...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible John the Baptist 11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in...

Saudi Arabia has expressed deep concern over Russia’s airstrikes in Syria, saying there was no evidence of Daesh operating in the areas targeted and that innocent civilians had been killed. Russia launched several strikes in Hama and Homs on Thursday, the second day of operations, with Kremlin officials saying that they targeted members of Daesh. Russian warplanes bombed a camp run by CIA-trained rebels, the group’s commander said. Abdullah bin Yahya Al-Moallemi, the Kingdom’s permanent representative to the UN, criticized Russia’s actions in a speech delivered at the Security Council on Wednesday. “As for those countries that have claimed recently...

Syrian military weakness, painfully exposed over the last few months, is the main reason for direct Russian intervention in the war – whether its goal is to strike at Islamic State or, more likely, to take on any rebel force fighting Bashar al-Assad in order to shore up his position and stave off demands that he step down. Officials and analysts say Moscow decided to deepen its involvement after the fall of the northern towns of Idlib and nearby Jisr al-Shughour in May served as a “wake-up call” about the parlous state of the Syrian army. Both were taken by...

Many Russian analysts maintain that Russia's intervention in Syria is driven by Vladimir Putin’s desire to reinstate the status of the world's largest nation as a superpower and his genuine belief that the United States has deliberately seeded chaos in the region to secure its reign there. While this assessment may be accurate, it only reveals part of the Russian president's intentions. Russia’s military engagement in Syria comes on the backdrop of three major factors: a serious threat to the survival of President Bashar Assad's regime, Russia's old Middle Eastern client; Putin's success at securing the occupation of Crimea and...

Executive Summary The Iranian nuclear deal is a full capitulation to Iran’s terrorist mastermind Mullahs, and the latest in a series of betrayals of the American people and allies by the Obama administration. At the highest level of the administration, Barack Obama’s Senior Advisor, the Iranian-born Valerie Jarrett, prioritized rapprochement with the terror state. Throughout the process and negotiations, she had the backing of billionaire investor (and Obama-backer) George Soros, and his multi-headed network of tax-exempt foundations. Their efforts were driven by deep-rooted anti-Semitism and personal greed. Meanwhile, since the mid-1990s, a small but very connected Iranian lobby (funded, in...

Last month, the Syrian civilians living in the government-controlled parts of Syria had little be optimistic about: the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) was spread too thin and on the defensive at most fronts, while the humanitarian crisis inside the country spread to the provinces that were once relatively unaffected by the violence (i.e. Al-Sweida). Well, “hope springs eternal” when hundreds of Russian Marines and dozens of Russian jets enter your country; this was the case in the overcrowded provinces of Latakia and Tartous, as large crowds gathered near the coast to welcome these Russian naval infantrymen and their advanced military...

Thursday, October 01, 2015 Three Cheers for Terroristine Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog We need a terrorist state. Where the politicians are terrorists, the police are terrorists and even the men sitting at the desk when you come in to drop off a form are terrorists. There are states that support terrorists, and give safe harbor to them, but that's not good enough. We don't want another Pakistan or Iran. We're not half-assing it this time. What we want is the genuine article. Terrorists from the top down. Terrorists everywhere. A state where every branch of...

CAIRO - Bahrain said on Thursday it had recalled its ambassador to Iran, a day after it said security forces had discovered a large bomb-making factory and arrested a number of suspects linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Bahrain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had also declared the Iranian charge d'affaires in Bahrain a "persona non grata" and gave him 72 hours to leave the country. In a statement on its website, the ministry said the decision to recall its ambassador had come "in light of continued Iranian meddling in the affairs of the kingdom of Bahrain ... in order...

Vladimir Putin has conscripted 150,000 new troops into the Russian army as the country unleashed a new wave of airstrikes in Syria - while and Iran and Islamist group Hezbollah prepare for a major ground offensive. Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria over the last ten days, backed by the country's Lebanese allies, Hezbollah, and rebel fighters from Iraq and Afghanistan, two Lebanese sources claimed today. One of the sources said the Iranian ground forces were 'soldiers and officers', not advisers, adding: 'We mean hundreds with equipment and weapons. They will be followed by more.' They are being...

While the hostilities between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama have long been an open secret, the depth of the breakdown in relations between the two was demonstrated on Wednesday, as it was revealed Obama twice refused to veto a UN resolution establishing a Palestinian state. Politico revealed Thursday that Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid asked White House chief of staff Denis McDonough twice this year to have Obama publicly announce he would veto a UN Security Council call establishing “Palestine.” On both occasions, Obama flatly ignored the request. Reid had made the requests in an...