Greetings from Tyler, Texas from Mark Armstrong
This is the world we live in……….
The futile effort to plead with Iran for some kind of nuclear agreement that will forestall its acquisition of nuclear weapons proceeds without progress. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu gave perhaps the most sober, patriotic address we’ve heard in years in front of a joint session of Congress. His message was clear. We cannot trust Iran to abide by any agreement or even any assertion it makes. The ayatollah and his diplomats have made a career of lying through their beards while secretly breaking every promise. While “talking” with UN nuclear regulators Iran has developed hidden nuclear sites, developed systems that have nothing to do with generating electricity, denying everything all the while. Only top officials and spokesmen for the current administration claim to have any confidence that Iran would “keep its word” in relation to any nuclear agreement. Based upon all recent history and relevant evidence, everybody else knows better.
But Netanyahu, perhaps the only world leader willing to tell the unvarnished truth about the dangers Israel, Europe and the United States face from a nuclear Iran, may well lose the Israeli election next week if published polls are accurate. They’ll be popping champagne corks in the White House if that happens. It will mean that the last prominent world leader who believes in confronting rather than appeasing evil, and who loves the America that has supported Israel through thick and thin over the past sixty seven years will be out of office. This is something that deserves our attention and our prayers.
A story that has not received widespread attention was published this week in the Jerusalem Post. Who knew that the European Union was building prefab structures flying the EU flag all around Jerusalem and the West Bank, and turning them over to the Palestinians? One such “building” (they barely deserve the description) was recently bulldozed off Mt. Scopus after being declared an illegal structure, built without a permit, and in violation of Jerusalem zoning laws. According to the report, there are five hundred such structures hastily erected all over the West Bank.
The EU has consistently sided with the Palestinians in the ongoing conflict with Israel. Still, it seems quite a provocative move that buildings would be erected without permit or any official consultation on territory that Israel controls. It is the Israeli government, according to the report, that demolished the first of them. We’ll have to see how this may further complicate Israel-EU relations, at a time when everything around the region is in a state of flux.
Iranian militias are supplying “boots on the ground” in the fight against ISIS in Iraq, along with U.S. trained and supplied Iraqi soldiers. They’ve already been implicated in similar atrocities to ISIS as they’ve begun to reclaim the city of Tikrit. It is sickening to read of headless bodies stacked on the hood of an American-made Humvee. Are these the good guys?
What part might Iran’s intervention against ISIS play in the stalled nuclear talks? Will the U.S. not be in the debt of the ayatollah if Iranian forces are the ones to ultimately expel ISIS from Iraq? Are the United States and Iran on the same side against ISIS? Where does that leave us in relationship to Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or for that matter, Israel?
Imagine the influence Iran will gain if it is the primary factor in the defeat of ISIS! Iran is already well ensconced in Damascus, Beirut, Baghdad and its most recent conquest, Sa’naa the capitol of Yemen. But ISIS is growing from the Mediterranean coast of north Africa down through the center of the continent as another terrorist band, Boko Haram pledges allegiance to ISIS. Hasn’t the appeasement of Islamic terrorism just worked wonders?
Here at home, we just got a glimpse into the immediate future with the renewed protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and the shooting of two police officers. Apparently only the weather gave us a lull in “peaceful demonstrations” for a few months. The current administration’s recent condemnation of law enforcement in general and the Ferguson Police Department in particular has once again given the race-baiters and anarchists all the excuse they need to get back out in the streets. It is looking like open season on police officers all over the United States, regardless of their race, as attacks against them are becoming common. Interviews with protesters, combined with a flood of comments on social media indicate that many are not sorry the police were shot. They call them “pigs” and say shooting them is justified.
The number of ways that the United States is being fractured is all but incalculable. Illegal immigrants from all over the world are practically invited to violate our laws and come to take advantage of every benefit afforded citizens, and more. The current administration continues to pound the theme that America is racist to the core, putting local law enforcement everywhere in danger, and giving would-be rioters and anarchists every excuse to act out. It is community organization on display, and it will characterize America’s plight over the next two years, unless we’re assailed with something even worse. It is past time we realize who we are, where we come from and look for guidance and protection from God.
Have a great Sabbath,
Mark Armstrong of Tyler, Texas
Mr, Armstrong writes for the Buffalo Gap, Texas Round-Up.
