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CAMP DAVID -- Sixty-seven years to the day since Israel declared independence, and 37 years since it signed a peace accord with Egypt here at the American presidential retreat in Maryland, US President Barack Obama cast doubt on the prospects for peace between Israel and the Palestinian people on Thursday after meeting with Arab leaders. A final Israeli-Palestinian accord "seems distant now," Obama said from Camp David, reiterating the US position that an agreement recognizing two states for two peoples is "absolutely vital" for greater Middle East peace. "Since we're up here at Camp David, I think it's important to...

Beams of Heaven As I Go – A Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent By: Msgr. Charles PopeWhat is it that gives hope, peace, and serene joy to the Christian life? Briefly, it is the vision of glory, a glimpse into the Promised Land of Heaven, which the Lord can and does give to His people. Today’s gospel shows forth a kind of process wherein the Lord lays the foundations of hope, peace, and joy for His disciples and for us. Let’s look at four aspects of how the Lord lays this foundation.I. The Paradoxical Prelude - The...

I was listening to a sermon by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones not long ago in which he pointed out that assurance is one of the most prominent subjects in the New Testament. Virtually every New Testament epistle was written to address some doubt, answer some question, settle some uncertainty—all of them aimed at stimulating or reinforcing the assurance of believers. Scripture encourages us to have assurance. It is not inherently brash or presumptuous to be confident in your faith.Shortly after reading that comment by Lloyd-Jones, while doing some research on a totally different theme, I had occasion to review The Canons...

Dennis Ross and David Makovsky in Israel’s Drive Toward Self-Destruction, argue that Netanyahu must offer up hope to Palestinians or face a revived de-legitimization movement. They’re certainly right to point out that the delegitimation movement will grow, but they are wrong to suggest that the answer is for Israel to offer hope to the Palestinians. How facile is that? They argue that what Israel needs to do is begin capitulating even before the negotiations commence, let alone, conclude. They want Israel to give up its bargaining chips for nothing in return. The Palestinians don’t hope to be given a state,...

Obama is insisting on the creation of Palestine with a border separating it from Israel based on the ’67 lines plus swaps. In doing so he is ignoring UNSC resolution 242 which grants Israel the right to secure and recognized borders and does not demand a full retreat to the ’67 lines. He is also threatening to allow the UNSC to impose such borders on Israel thereby circumventing his oft stated insistence that all matters are to be negotiated between the parties. Ben-Dror Yemini, writing in YNET, which is left of center and Netanyahu's arch enemy, makes the case, "Given...

Migration, the mass movement of communities for natural, economic, political, religious reasons or because of oppression, dates back almost as far as the history of mankind. It is certainly a difficult thing to leave the land where one was born and is familiar with and to move somewhere entirely different. Forced relocation is the most ruthless and painful form of migration. World history is full of stories of forced migration in which millions of people were obliged to leave their homes and live in places they had never been before. The violence and troubles suffered by these people forced from...

This is a guest post by my (imaginary) guest author, the Most Reverend Mohamed Allah-scimitar, President Obama's chief adviser on Islamic relations with Christians and Jews. The Most Revereddd Mohamed Allah-scimitar ********************** The worst crisis ever to face The Obama Nation -- man-caused global warming climate change -- continues to immobilize the country. It does so  contemptuously despite the decades-long warming trend recognized by all reputable scientists. Therefore, President Obama will use the emergency broadcast system to preempt all other programming, including the internet, to address the nation on March 3.Hell Niagara Falls freezes over [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zfdXJ7eVQs] Video linkViolent right-wing Christian and Jewish extremist Islamophobes have contended that, by virtue of its timing, President Obama's address...

Principal photography has started on the six-part adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic War And Peace which is being made by BBC Cymru Wales in partnership with The Weinstein Company and BBC Worldwide/Lookout Point. Paul Dano, Lily James and James Norton are already aboard to star, with new additions to the cast including Jim Broadbent, Gillian Anderson, Brian Cox and Ken Stott. The epic drama is written by House Of Cards and Bridget Jones‘ Andrew Davies. Anderson was nominated for a Golden Globe for her turn in his 2007 adaptation of Dickens’ Bleak House.

Editor’s note: This is another post by my (imaginary) guest author, the Very Honorable Ima Librul, Senator from the great State of Confusion Utopia. He is a founding member of CCCEB (Climate Change Causes Everything Bad), a charter member of President Obama’s Go For it Team, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Chairman of the Meretricious Relations Subcommittee. Senator Librul is also justly proud of his expertise in interfaith dialogue, on the basis of which he has explained to the entire world that Islam is the religion of peace, grossly distorted by the non-Islamic Islamic State and other textual deviants. He was recently awarded...

Quartet has been totally compromised--the peace process and its intricate negotiating structure irretrievably ended. Back to the drawing board for yet another new proposal Revelations that the European Union (EU) has been acting illegally in funding and facilitating the construction of more than 400 unauthorised buildings in areas in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) under exclusive Israeli control—signals the end of: negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation under the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2003 Bush Roadmap and the role of the Quartet - America, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union - as mediator in...

A prominent Iraqi politician and the longtime head of the De-Ba'athification Committee, Mithal al-Alusi, survived an apparent attempt on his life when armed men fired on his car on the morning of 8 February. Two of al-Alusi's sons -- Ayman and Jamal -- and a bodyguard who were inside his vehicle were killed, however, when the assailants struck just outside al-Alusi's Baghdad home. Radio Free Iraq (RFI) spoke with al-Alusi, who is secretary of Iraq's Democratic Umma Party [Hizb al-Umma al-'Iraqi al-Dimuqrati], after the incident. The following is an edited transcript of that interview. Al-Alusi: Again, the ghosts of death...

October 3, 2014 Restless till We Rest in You by Mike Riccardi Many Christians recognize the name of Augustine of Hippo from his valiant defense of the biblical doctrine of divine sovereignty against the man-centered heresy of the British monk Pelagius. And we know that the Reformers made exceedingly frequent references to Augustine’s work as they fought against the man-centeredness of the Roman Catholic Church. But what many don’t know about Augustine was his consistent emphasis on the centrality of the affections—and particularly joy—in the believer’s life. In fact, he even defined love for God in terms of enjoying...

Balloon-ey!: Vatican takes wrong lesson from dove attack by Daniel Clark On the last Sunday of January, the Vatican released the balloons of peace from St. Peter’s Square. You probably recognize this as a biblical allusion to the Great Flood, when Noah released a balloon that returned to him with an olive leaf in its beak. Mind you, balloons don’t have beaks, which is what made it so miraculous. Pope John Paul II had started an annual tradition of releasing two doves on that particular day, but last year when Pope Francis let the birds loose, a crow and a...

More than “theoretical discussions,” what unites Christians is encounter, and a willingness to “challenge one another,” said Pope Francis as he marked the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. “Christian unity will not be the fruit of subtle theoretical discussions in which each party tries to convince the other of the soundness of their opinions,” the Pope said during vespers at Saint Paul Outside the Walls Basilica on Jan. 25. “To plumb the depths of the mystery of God, we need one another, we need to encounter one another and to challenge one another under the guidance...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyNew England, USA — January 17, 2015 … The above mosque is not in Iraq, Syria, Turkey or Iran. But one would have wished it was. The speaker was Dr. Saud Anwar, mayor of South Windsor, Connecticut. Dr. Anwar is respected for saving lives. Saud Anwar is a physician who specializes in Lung Diseases and Critical Care Medicine. Currently, he serves as Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine of Manchester Memorial and Rockville General Hospitals. Dr. Anwar is involved in humanitarian and peace initiatives nationally and internationally. He is frequently invited to consult for...

the White House President Barack Obama Home • About the White House • Presidents William J. Clinton During the administration of William Jefferson Clinton, the U.S. enjoyed more peace and economic well being than at any time in its history. He was the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second term. He could point to the lowest unemployment rate in modern times, the lowest inflation in 30 years, the highest home ownership in the country's history, dropping crime rates in many places, and reduced welfare rolls. He proposed the first balanced budget in decades and achieved...

Christmas Peace (Finnish: joulurauha, Swedish: julfrid) is a tradition based on old Scandinavian legislation created by Birger Jarl in the 13th century, extending the tradition of the Truce of God. Offenders who committed crimes on religious holidays like Christmas were given harsher punishments. Today it is a tradition to recommend that people behave in a respectful and peaceful manner at Christmas.[1] The Declaration of Christmas Peace has remained in Finland where it is an essential part of the Christmas tradition.[2]

Intentional or not, some photographer has capture one of the greatest truths of our time...

Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe:...

Now the nation can truly begin a healing process. It is time for the people to begin to come together again. We do not hate minorities or illegals. We only want them to follow the rule of law. We do care about the well-being of people...just work hard and earn it like many of us have instead of expecting a handout. Being a minority or an illegal alien does NOT give you a right to run rough shod over everyone else. On the other hand, true discrimination and racism will not be tolerated either. We began as a nation of...