A LETTER TO MY FRIENDS & FAMILY by TylerDawn

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Gene & LaVada Triesch

The following was received from a friend of ours.  It is something I wanted to share here on “LaVada’s Blog.”  She sent this out a few weeks ago…  we can identify with her story!  –LaVada

A Letter to My Friends and Family

A re-post from February 18, 2014 at 7:10am

Almost three years ago, our family went through an amazing change that I want to share with you.  June 2011, we were watching an online religious conference and I heard the voice of the LORD challenge me, “Please tell me where in scripture it says you can eat pork.”  I was kind of shocked, it absolutely was out of nowhere. 

I went to my Bible and started pulling out the verses I used to justify it, and studied them in context and I was very upset to find that they had nothing to do with eating pork at all, that I had been taking them out of context all my life.  And, I was further shocked to find that one of the verses was not even in any manuscript anywhere, but was added by translators (the parenthetical statement in Mark 7:19).  I found out that the word food was defined in the Bible in Leviticus 11, and that anything anywhere in scripture that was called food fell within those guidelines, nothing else qualified.  Acts 10 wasn’t about eating unclean at all, we found out, but about two rabbinical laws (not found in the Torah) – the first being that any clean animal that touched an unclean animal was unfit for eating.  “Peter rise and eat” meant it was okay to eat the clean animals even though they were in contact with unclean animals; and, the second being the first century belief that any gentile who had not undergone full conversion to rabbinic Judaism [meaning they submit to the traditions of the elders, like ritual hand washing, the washing of couches, and the very restrictive laws they made for the Sabbath – found today recorded in the Talmud] was unclean, if they were not keeping Torah, and common, if they were keeping Torah but had not yet submitted to the Rabbis. According to Rabbinical law, Peter could not come in contact with gentiles who had not converted to Judaism, and he certainly could not eat with them or go into their houses.  If I had read to the end of the chapter, I would have seen that his vision was about people, not about eating things that the Bible says are not food, but I believed what I had always been taught.

We were very shocked, but we gave up all our pork and Mark and the boys gave up all seafood that did not have fins and scales.  Three weeks later, I noticed that I had not had a single asthma attack, I also noticed that my fingers didn’t hurt anymore and they had started to untwist, and my blood pressure was normal – I found that out when I finally went in to renew my Lisinopril prescription that I had let lapse. 

At this point, we had to figure out what was going on, and we were in for more shocks.  We found that the early church, the church that worked miracles and raised people from the dead – kept Saturday Sabbath, and that the church did not change that until ordered to by Rome centuries later.  None of the early disciples of Yeshua (Jesus’ real name, untranslated to English) would have ever worshiped on Sunday and none of them did – we know this from the writings of the church fathers and from other historical writings.  We read what the Bible said about Sabbath and decided that in order to follow Yeshua, we needed to do what He did – because as He said, “My doctrine is not my own, but Him that sent Me.”  John 7:16. In fact, in reading the only scriptures that the apostles ever had, the old Testament, we found out how incredibly important Sabbath is to God, that it is an affirmation that we believe He created the world in six days and then rested on the seventh, and that it is also an affirmation of our belief that Messiah will return after 6,000 years of human rule upon this earth and reign for 1,000 years, when He will give us rest from our labors.

The next change we made was to keep the Feasts in Leviticus 23, just like our Savior and His disciples always did, including Paul.  In fact, He was in Jerusalem for the Feast (we see from Acts 20:6 that the Passover had just been kept and they were heading to Jerusalem for Shavuot, or Pentecost) when this came up in Acts 21…

18 And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present. 19 And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. 20 And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are ALL ZEALOUS FOR THE LAW: 21 and they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs. 22 What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come. 23 Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them; 24 them take, and purify thyself with them,and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.

I don’t know how I didn’t see it for so many years of Bible reading, but I didn’t.  Paul didn’t teach the Gentiles not to follow the law, he didn’t teach people not to have their sons circumcised (in fact he himself had Timothy circumcised in Acts 16:3).  And Paul himself kept the law.  Otherwise, James would have been telling Paul to lie about what he was doing.

So we traded Christmas for Sukkot, the true birth of Messiah during the Feast of Tabernacles, which is a shadow picture for Him coming to reign for a thousand years.  When we keep that feast, we are making a declaration that we believe He was, is and is to come.  We keep Yom Kippur, which is a declaration that we believe that Yeshua is the salvation of the nation of Israel as a whole, that “all Israel shall be saved.”  We keep Yom Teruah, the day of Trumpets, which occurs on “the day and hour that no man knows” at the sighting of the first sliver of the new moon during the biblical month of Tishri.  We traded Pentecost for Shavuot, the prophetic shadow picture of the spirit being poured out on the assembly, as we see in the book of Acts,  just as the law was given at Mt Sinai to the assembly, which according to Stephen was the true birth of the church (Acts 7:38).  We also traded Easter for Passover, the shadow picture of Messiah coming to die to restore us to right standing with God, in order to obey Him when He said, “from now on, do this in remembrance of Me.”  We traded Resurrection Sunday for First Fruits, the feast which served as a shadow of Messiah rising up out of the earth and ascending to be presented as a holy offering to God.  In Leviticus 23, these are called the Feasts of the LORD, and were to be celebrated by His people Israel forever, not just the Jews, but all those who are in covenant with Him. Just like at Mt Sinai, the descendants of Jacob plus the mixed multitude who came out of Egypt.

We learned from I John 3:4 that sin is defined as transgression of the law.  I John 1:10 says that if we claim we do not sin we are liars, so sin still exists, and that was written long after the death of the other apostles, including Paul.  I read what Peter said about Paul in 2 Peter 3 – that his writings were hard to understand and easily twisted.  And I began to see that Peter was right because the more I understood what everyone besides Paul was saying, the more I realized that the only way I could justify what I had been doing was with Paul’s writings.  I couldn’t use Yeshua, Moses, John, Peter or any of the others to back up any of the doctrines I was taught –I had to ignore Yeshua almost entirely, or take Him out of context.  I decided that Yeshua, and not Paul, died for me, so I had to give the weight to what Yeshua said first and foremost.  He said this,

Matthew 5:17  17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to pleroo. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

I studied and found that pleroo did not mean fulfill as in ‘do away with.’  It can mean many things, but never that.  It means to confirm, complete, perform – and when Paul uses that word in Roman 15:19 – it means ‘fully preach.’  Which is exactly what Yeshua did in the verses that follow. Not only did He fully preach the law, he brought fuller meaning to it, making it more honest and removing the loopholes the Pharisees had added with their rabbinical rulings (extra laws). He said right in the passage I quoted that whoever breaks even a small law and teaches others to do so will be least, but those who teach the law and keep it will be great.  Why would He teach that about the Kingdom of Heaven if He was going to destroy the law?  What He destroyed, was the debt of sin which we were condemned by.  He took the penalty— but nowhere does it say that He kept the Father’s commandments so that we don’t have to.  As we can see around us, heaven and earth have not passed, and not all of the Bible has come to pass! He said, “Follow Me.”  Indeed, how can we follow Him, if we do not live as He lived?

I pray you are still reading, because I love you, and it is my greatest fear that no one will ever share this with you.  I love you so much that I am willing to have you never speak to me again just in the hopes that this will help you come closer to our God.  

Yeshua had much to say about lawbreaking, and how serious it is.  Right after warning about false prophets and their fruits, Yeshua said this in Matthew 7…

21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

It is not enough to confess Him as Lord, we have to do the will of His Father in Heaven in order to make Him Lord, and the will of His Father was given at Sinai – that we would be set apart from the rest of the world by obedience to His way of life, the laws given to Moses.  These people in this passage were doing amazing works, but they were working iniquity, the Greek word ‘anomia,’ which means “lawlessness” – they were living apart from the laws of God.  There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile here, and as we said before, Paul was not teaching the gentiles not to keep Torah.  The Acts 15 council decided that in order to enter in to the body of believers, Gentiles had to first commit to 4 changes in their lives, and then they could learn the rest of the Torah, Acts 15:21…

21 For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.

What we were taught were that our only requirements were simply the minimum requirements to be able to enter into the synagogue – because those 4 requirements were about what happens in pagan temples – sex with cult prostitutes, blood drinking, animals strangled for sacrifice, and no association with idols. From the beginning at Sinai, there has only been one law for Jew and Gentile – Exodus 12:49 (as well as many other references)… 

“One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.”

As Paul said, there is no wall of division, the same standards always applied to everyone equally.  Ephesians 2…

11 Wherefore remember, that ye being IN TIME PAST Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision (not official converts to Judaism) by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands (those submitted to rabbinical Judaism); 12 that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants (plural, meaning all former covenants still apply) of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13 but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15 having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances (rabbinical ordinances that kept Jews and Gentiles apart, and by definition, kept Gentiles from being able to come to the gospel); for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16 and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17 and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. 18 for through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.  19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints (of the nation of Israel, same exact standing), and of the household of God; 20 and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21 in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22 in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

The word holy is not really understood by most people, but it means “set apart” – it means different, and the opposite of set apart is common.  If we live like the world does in any way, it would be remarked what we have in common with them; but, we are supposed to be set apart, and how we are set apart is by striving to live as Messiah lived, and He was a Torah keeping Jewish Rabbi.  In fact, if Yeshua had broken even one of the laws given by God to Moses on Mt Sinai, according to I John 3:4, He would have been a sinner and we would be dead in our sins. If He added to, or took away, from the law in any way, He would have broken Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32, and we would be dead in our sins.   What did our Savior say about Moses’ writings?

For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me:for he wrote of me. 47 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

Yeshua says that if we do not believe Moses, we will not believe what He says… and we were taught not to believe Moses.  We are taught that when God told Moses “forever” over and over and over again, that He really just means, for another 1200 years or so. Moses prophesied the coming one of Israel; Moses was so beloved of God that He spoke to him face to face as a man speaks with his friend (Exodus 33:11), so I believe with my whole heart that whatever Moses says is absolutely true.  Moses said this in Deuteronomy 30 after speaking the law once more to the children of Israel before his death…

11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? 14 But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and IN THY HEART, That THOU MAYST DO IT.”

15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; 16 in that I command thee this day to LOVE the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

Verse 16 tells us how to love God, by walking in His ways, keeping his commandments, statutes and judgments. He says it is not out of our reach, or impossible, that it is in our hearts. There is no reference to any ceremonial laws, in fact, you will never find that phrase anywhere in the Bible.  Yeshua said this exact same thing in John 14:15…

“If you love Me, you will keep my commandments.”

People say He was only referring to two of them, love God with all your heart, mind and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5) and love your neighbor (Leviticus 19:18), but He said elsewhere that all of the other commandments are part and parcel with these, inseparable–

Matthew 22:40 “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

We love God and make Him our God by living according to what He says is good and bad.  Malachi 3:6… He never changes, not ever.  Bad never becomes good and good never becomes bad, or it makes him a liar, like a man. His word is eternal or conditional, true or false, life or death.

One closing thing, does Yeshua ever once say that the law has been done away with? Ever?  Wouldn’t He have said it?  Doesn’t it take a “thus saith the LORD” to undo a “Thus saith the Lord?”   What did He say?  What are His last words as recorded by Matthew?  Matthew 28…

18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

He just said that all power is given to Him in heaven and in earth, and He did not say “You are free from the law.”  He said, in a nutshell, what He had been saying all along, “Keep my commandments and teach others to do the same.”  If He taught anything before His death that diminished the commandments, then He was a sinner and we are dead in our sins. If He had ever taught against the law, or broke it, they would not have needed false witnesses at His trial.  Was he a sinner? May it never be!

I pray my words are received with the love in which they are given, I know this is hard, but the last two and a half years have been so happy for us, we have the whole of scriptures, the eternal word of God, as a gift for all of us to teach us what is and is not acceptable to God. We keep it because we love Him. It is how He desires to be loved and worshiped, not only in spirit, but also in truth.  

We have not fallen from grace, we have found it at last!  Psalm 119:142…

“Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.”

Love,

Tyler, Mark, Matthew and Andrew

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Rousing the Americans from their slumber

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Gene & LaVada Triesch

Re-Post of very insightful article from Caroline Glick…

Rousing the Americans from their slumber

911

In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times Wednesday, former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton warned his countrymen of the disaster that awaits them if President Barack Obama does not change the course of US Middle East policy. 

Bolton warned that Obama’s three-pronged policy, based on three negotiation tracks with Iran, Syria, and the Palestinians and Israel, will almost certainly fail in its entirety.

 In his words, “Iran will emerge more powerful, verging on deliverable nuclear weapons, while still financing and arming terrorists worldwide. [Syrian President Bashar] Assad seems likely to survive, which is bad enough by itself, but it will be compounded by the affirmation it affords Iranian and Russian strength. Israel will trust Wash – ington even less than now, and ironically, Palestinians will be even more anti-American, because Obama will not be able to deliver to them the Israeli concessions he predicted.”

Bolton concluded mournfully, “[T]he increasing danger is that only another 9/11, another disaster, will produce the necessary awakening. There is tragedy ahead for our country if we continue on this course.”

Writing for Strafor the same day, strategic analyst George Friedman explained why Bolton’s warning will be ignored by the public.

 Friedman noted that in previous years, recent events in  Venezuela, Ukraine, Russia and beyond would have been the subject to intense public concern. But, he wrote, “This week, Americans seemed to be indifferent to all of them.”

 Friedman argued that this popular indifference to foreign policy is not driven by ideological attachment to isolationism, as was the case in the 1930s. “It is an instrumental position,” not a systematic one, he explained. Because he sees no deep-seated attachment to isolationism among the American public, Friedman argued that their current indifference will likely end when circumstances change.

 Friedman’s analysis of the American mood is probably right. And Bolton is certainly right about the dangers inherent to that mood.

 Every day the US is subject to greater humiliations and challenges to its power and prestige.

 Declarations from Iranian leaders rejecting the dismantling of their nuclear installations, coupled with threats to attack US installations and Israel, bespeak contempt for American power and convey a catastrophic erosion of US deterrent capabilities against Tehran.

 As subjects of intense US appeasement efforts, the Palestinians are second only to Iran. And as is the case with Iran, those efforts come at the direct expense of Israel, the US’s most important ally in the Middle East.

 Yet like the Iranians, the Palestinians greet US efforts with scorn. Every day Palestinian leaders pile on their incitement against Israel and Jews and their derisive condemnations of the Obama administration’s efforts to force Israel to cater to their every whim.

 Since 1979, Egypt served as the anchor of the US alliance structure in the Arab world. It shared the US’s opposition to Islamic terrorism, and waged a continuous campaign to defeat the forc – es of jihad in Egypt, while remaining outside the circle of war against Israel.

 When protests began in Egypt three years ago, rather than stand with its ally, Obama dumped Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and sided with the jihadist Muslim Brotherhood.

 After winning a popular election, the Brotherhood immediately set about transforming Egypt into an Islamic, pro-jihadist state. And yet, the administration opposed the military’s decision to oust the Brotherhood from power last summer even though the move prevented the most strategically vital Arab state from becoming the cen – ter of the global jihad. It then cut US military aid to Egypt.

So now the military regime is renewing its ties with Russia, after ditching Moscow for Washing – ton in 1974.

 AND SO it goes, throughout the world.

 Japan is the linchpin of US power in the Far East. And today, the Japanese are openly attack – ing Washington as their frustration mounts over the administration’s weak response to Chinese adventurism.

 Etsuro Honda, a key adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, told The Wall Street Journal this week that Japan needs to develop the military capacity to defend itself by itself. The impli – cation – that Japan no longer trusts the US to defend it – is obvious.

 While Friedman is right that Americans don’t want to think about foreign policy, and Bolton is right that their indifference to Obama’s massive failures is dangerous, the truth is that another attack on the US of a magnitude comparable to September 11 is not the only thing that can end their flight from reality.

 ALL THAT is needed to wake Americans from their slumber is an alternative to Obama’s foreign policy and a political leadership capable of convincing the public that its alternative is better.

 Tragically, today the Republican Party vacillates between two foreign policies that have both failed, were seen to fail by the American public, and that on key issues have been aligned with central components of Obama’s failed foreign policy.

 On the one hand, there is isolationism. Sen. Rand Paul is the most outspoken advocate of an isolationist foreign policy.

 In furtherance of his position, Paul was one of only two Republican senators who opposed passing further sanctions on Iran in the event the current nuclear talks fail to produce an agreement that will neutralize the threat of a nuclear Iran.

 As he recently put it, “I think the bottom line is we should give negotiations a chance. My hope is that sanctions will avoid war. We’ve been involved in two long wars in the Middle East. And I think it would be best if we can do anything possible to try to avoid another war now.”

 The September 11 attacks discredited isolationism as a foreign affairs strategy. The attacks showed the American people that threats grow when they aren’t dealt with. Ignoring America’s enemies is not an option. Certainly enabling them to acquire nuclear weapons through use – less negotiations is not a policy that most Americans support.

 As most Americans are not isolationists, Paul’s isolationism is not a viable alternative to Obama’s policies of appeasement. Moreover, since with regards to Iran, his isolationism is aligned with Obama’s appeasement, Paul is in no position to mount a serious challenge to Obama’s foreign policy or rally the public to abandon Obama’s foreign policy and replace it with his own.

 Opposing Paul and the isolationists is Sen. John McCain and the Wilsonian democrats. Their idea is that the US must intervene abroad to promote democracy.

 While McCain opposes Obama’s policy of appeasing Iran and so enabling the mullacracy to acquire nuclear weapons, his neo-conservative ideological assumptions caused McCain to back Obama’s decision to end US support for Mubarak in Egypt. McCain also advocated for US participation in the NATO effort to oust neutered Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi from power.

 Today McCain supports Obama’s decision to cut US military assistance to Egypt’s anti-jihadist military regime because the jihadist Muslim Brotherhood government the military ousted was popularly elected.

 The war in Iraq discredited McCain’s Wilsonian neo-conservatism in the eyes of most Americans. And Obama’s McCain-supported abandonment of the Mubarak regime in Egypt destroyed US credibility in the Middle East and paved the way for Russia’s reemergence as a regional power broker for the first time in 40 years.

 Due to the unpopularity among the American public of McCain’s ideological commitment to use US power to cultivate popularly elected governments in the Islamic world, and due as well to his periodic support for some of Obama’s most disastrous policies, like Paul, McCain cannot mount a credible, popularly supported alternative to Obama’s foreign policy.

 THERE IS a third option, however, that is currently orphaned in the US foreign policy discourse.

 That third option begins with understanding the ideological underpinnings of Obama’s foreign policy, and proceeds with offering an alternative policy, based on the opposite foundation.

 From Russia to Iran, from Israel to the Far East, Obama’s foreign policy calls for the US to appease its adversaries at the expense of its allies. At its core, it is informed by the belief that the reason the US has adversaries is because it has allies.

 By this line of thinking, if the US didn’t support Israel, then it wouldn’t have a problem with the Muslim world. If the US didn’t support Colombia and Honduras, it wouldn’t have a problem with Venezuela and Nicaragua. If the US didn’t sup – port Japan and South Korea, it wouldn’t have a problem with China and North Korea. And if the US didn’t support Egypt and Saudi Arabia, it wouldn’t have a problem with the Muslim Brotherhood and its terrorist offshoots, or with Iran and its terror armies.

 The proper response to this worldview and its corresponding policy is a policy based on sup – porting US allies and opposing US enemies. It is predicated on the recognition that strong allies deter and weaken enemies.

In several key cases, supporting US allies will require fewer, rather than more, US oversees deployments.

 For instance, as Israel’s leaders have stated since the founding of the state, Israel has no interest in having anyone else fight its wars for it. All it requires is the strength – military, economic, territorial and political – to defend itself by itself.

 Rather than seek to weaken Israel by coercing it to recede to indefensible borders in order to make room for a Palestinian terrorist state in its historic heartland, the US should abandon its support for Palestinian terrorists and ensure that Israel has the power to defend itself in a region marked by unprecedented instability and danger.

 A strong Israel will be a force for regional stability and so advance US security while forming the firm foundation of a renewed US alliance structure in the region.

 So, too, the US should embrace Japan’s readiness to defend itself, by itself. With no appetite to go to war for its allies, but with rising concerns about China’s military adventurism, the US should support Tokyo’s desire to stand on its own.

 The same goes for South Korea. Rather than spurn Seoul’s desire to build uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing facilities, Washing – ton should support South Korea’s goal of being a counterweight to Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal and its hyperactive nuclear proliferation.

 IT IS A schoolyard rule, but it is as true for nations as it is for 10-year-old boys: Be good to your friends and bad to your enemies. Then people will want to be your friends. And they won’t want to be their enemies.

Inspiring in its simplicity and tried and true through the ages, it can move the American people to recognize the dangers inherent to Obama’s foreign policy and embrace an alternative policy, and an alternative leadership, before disaster strikes.

Caroline Glick’s new book, The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East , is due out on March 4

 Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.

 

 

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After Soda Stream Factory Visit, Church Leaders Reject Boycotts

Posted on February 23, 2014 by Gene & LaVada Triesch
[Thanks to Hanoch Young and Sabra Joines via Sabra Style LLC for alerting us to this article…]

 

After Soda Stream Factory Visit, Church Leaders Reject Boycotts

Delegates from Presbyterian Church, which formally endorsed boycotts, change their minds after seeing Soda Stream factory.

By Maayana Miskin
First Publish: 2/20/2014, 11:45 AM

A delegation of 14 leaders from the Presbyterian clergy, a church that in the past supported boycotting

Israeli products manufactured in Judea and Samaria (Shomron), arrived last week to visit Israel.

The visit was organized by the America-Israel Friendship League (AIFL); the delegates’ goal was to discover Israel personally and to better understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Representatives from the Presbyterian Church, which has an estimatedsix million followers, visited the Soda Stream factory which is located in Maaleh Adumim, east of Jerusalem. They spoke to representatives from the management and several employees.

While some United States-based religious groups, such as Evangelicals and Mormons, are known for their support of Israel, the Presbyterian Church has historically been critical of Israel, and has even supported boycotts of Israeli products such as “Ahava” and “Dkalim”.

In 2012, over 100 mainstream American Jewish organizations accused the Presbyterian Church’s Israel Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) of promoting anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist propaganda. Among other things, the IPMN had published a cartoon suggesting Jewish control of American policy.

In early 2014, the IPMN released a congregational study guide, titled “Zionism Unsettled,” claiming that the Israel-Palestinian Arab conflict is fueled by a “pathology inherent in Zionism.” The controversial guide prompted church leaders to release a statement saying that IPMN “speaks to the church and not for the church.”

Delegates: Soda Stream good for peace
Soda Stream factory, located in Maale Adumim, employs 1300 employees; 500 are Palestinian Arabs from Judea and Samaria, 450 are Israeli Arabs and Jews. The company sees its factory as an oasis of peace.

The company recently found itself the focus of controversy as actress Scarlett Johansson came under fire for signing on to advertise Soda Stream products.

The Presbyterian delegates told representatives from Soda Stream that the visit to the factory strengthened their belief that the location of the factory enhances the business as well as the interpersonal relations between the Israelis and Palestinians and that they will express their support of Israel to the church administration and followers.

Ruby Shamir, Executive Director of AIFL Israel, stated, “These days when there are many voices calling to boycott Israel both in the business and academia regions, it is crucial to bring leaders and influential figures to change these ideas and to help form a positive and supportive opinion about Israel. This is yet another step towards the mission of the AIFL which is to strengthen the relationships between the American and Israeli people.”

AIFL is dedicated to promoting and strengthening the relationship between the people of the United States and Israel. It frequently sends delegations to Israel to meet Israelis and visit religious, cultural and archeological sites.

Past delegations have included State Attorney’s General, business leaders, scholars, third year law school students, school superintendents, professors of law and Middle Eastern studies.

 
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Israeli Court Recognizes Messianic Jewish Congregation

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Gene & LaVada Triesch

 

Israeli Court Recognizes Messianic Jewish Congregation

Messianic Jews have won another battle for recognition in Israel. This time Israel’s Supreme Court has determined that a Messianic congregation in Jerusalem should receive the same full tax exemption as a synagogue.

The battle began back in 2010, when ultra-Orthodox Members of Knesset Moshe Gafni of United Torah Judaism and Nisim Zeev of the Shas party passed a law providing Jewish synagogues relief from all municipal taxes. Lawyers from the Jerusalem Institute of Justice (JIJ) then petitioned the court to also provide a Messianic fellowship in the capital with the same status. And they won.

The ruling is significant in that it allows for full tax relief for all space used by the Messianic congregation, including the meeting hall, a drug rehabilitation center, children and youth activity rooms, pastors’ offices, and space for secondhand clothing distribution.

According to JIJ, since the case began in 2010, congregations applying now for the discount will be paid back retroactively for all municipal taxes incurred over the last three years. The Jerusalem Institute for Justice is encouraging all Messianic Congregations paying municipal taxes on their facilities to apply for the tax break. The new ruling promises a major windfall of tens of thousands of shekels each year now available for Messianic congregations in Israel.

As with any new law its implementation needs to be worked out on the ground, and already there is opposition.

Secular Israelis fed up with corruption and scandals involving rabbis and religious organizations over the past years are not happy that synagogues don’t need to pay their share of municipal taxes. Many feel that religious Jews are already an unnecessary burden on Israel’s struggling welfare system.

The popular new secular government party “Yesh Atid” (There is a Future), lead by Finance Minister and former television personality Yair Lapid, has put a proposal on the floor of the Knesset to cancel the tax break for synagogues.

Lapid had garnered support from many Messianics in Israel’s last election, particularly amongst the younger Israeli believers who were attracted to his fresh ideas on economic equality.

Now the Messianics find themselves, perhaps for the first time in their short and turbulent history, partnered together with the Orthodox Jewish parties enjoying the new tax break. As one of the lawyers from JIJ said, “Finally, the Messianics have a common interest with the Orthodox political parties.”

According to the JIJ lawyer, it is very unlikely that anti-Missionary groups will try to overrule the new law in order to prevent court recognition of Messianic congregations, as they themselves enjoy the same tax benefits.

When authorities visited the Messianic congregation in question, they took notice of “drums and a sound system in the hall.” Did such equipment belong in a non-profit religious organization?

In his testimony before the court, the spiritual leader of the congregation was able to explain: “The gatherings in our meeting hall are for the purpose of prayer and Torah study. We use musical instruments and a sound system for praise. We believe that according to the Book of Psalms we are to worship God with all kinds of musical instruments, including drums and cymbals.”

In its decision to grant the Messianics full tax relief retroactively for the past three years, the Supreme Court’s Appeals Committee referred to the congregation specifically as “a non-profit Messianic Jewish organization that provides a sanctuary for prayer for all of her members.” The Messianic congregation was clearly not considered a church by the court, nor, for that matter, would they call it a synagogue.

CLICK HERE to read full article & comments.

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All the President’s Women by Nonie Darwish

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Gene & LaVada Triesch

I love Nonie Darwish…we met her once in Minneapolis at Jan Markell’s conference.  She is a remarkable woman… this is posted from David Horowitz’ FrontPageMag — it was just too good not to share. -LaVada

All the President’s Women

January 30, 2014 by

It is not a coincidence that most of the Obama administration scandals happened under the leadership of women. The Obama administration chooses to surround itself with “yes men” and “yes women,” but liberal “yes women” have an advantage: it is hard to criticize and grill them when a scandal happens without being accused of sexism and being a bigoted woman-hater.

In our current political environment, liberal politicians in general, men and women, get away with a lot more than conservative politicians because of media liberal bias. But liberal female politicians can get away with a lot more than their male counterparts, and that explains why almost all the Obama scandals have female faces behind them. Under ordinary conditions, men or women should end up becoming fall guys or gals, but many of the women behind the Obama scandals end up rewarded, sometimes even with a better position.

The Benghazi scandal supposedly hurt several women: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ambassador Susan Rice and Charlene Lamb, among others. It is clear that the White House, for an unknown reason, manipulated the State Department’s decision-making process regarding Benghazi and Clinton went along. Hillary, who wants to be president, has recently stated that she regrets Benghazi, but her “regret” would be more accurately described as her “failure” to be her own boss in the State Department.

When the Benghazi scandal exploded, the administration had to quickly find a “yes” liberal woman to take Hillary’s place on TV. Susan Rice thus came to the rescue when Hillary refused to face the music in public. The White House and the media did everything they could to shield Hillary from the scandal — even from her own investigators, the State Department Accountability Review Board. The Review Board issued their report without interviewing the boss, Hillary, but they accused yet another woman, Ms. Lamb, for failure in leadership when her office denied providing extra security to the US Ambassador in Libya. But low and behold, Ms. Lamb, who was accused of dropping the ball, was never fired and instead was rewarded by the same State Department that gave her another key position.

Few men can, with a straight face, expect to get away with yelling back to questions in Congress, “What difference does it make?” Only a liberal woman with an entitlement mentality can get away with something like that without becoming the laughing stock of Saturday Night Live. Nothing works better to manipulate public opinion more than an offended woman questioned by a nasty, bigoted Republican male.

The Affordable Care Act scandal also had many women behind it and could never have passed Congress without Nancy Pelosi who, like Hillary, feels entitled to immunity from criticism. Pelosi bragged she would stop at nothing to pass the bill when she said:

We’ll go through the gate. If the gate’s closed, we’ll go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we’ll pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we’ll parachute in but we’re going to get health care reform passed for the America people.

No man could have gotten away without scrutiny for a statement like: “We have to pass the [health care] bill so that you can find out what’s in it.” Only in the current liberal environment can the media make a self-made woman like Sarah Palin the subject of ridicule material, while taking someone like Pelosi seriously.

After Pelosi passed the healthcare bill, another woman took over its implementation: Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. While only a few have read or comprehended Obamacare, Sebelius happily took over the job and consistently expressed confidence that everything was under control. She never prepared America for a possible disaster until the opening day of October 1st when the disaster exploded.

Women, who don’t like to be questioned, were also the face of the IRS Scandal. Before taking the 5th, Louis Lerner gave herself the right to state she had done nothing wrong. Lerner’s boss at the IRS, Sarah Ingram, was director of the office that oversaw tax-exempt organizations during the targeting of conservative groups. But again, instead of a demotion, she was promoted to lead the Obamacare office.

While Democrats accuse Republicans of a “War on Women,” they have no problem in using liberal a woman as a shield from scandal. These women act untouchable and entitled and are guarded by a liberal media who will viciously attack Republicans whose job is supposed to be the loyal opposition. But how can you be an effective opposition if your opponent claims gender discrimination every time you question all these liberal women leaders?

Even if these women are exposed to scandal, they act like they have been wronged, deserve to be rewarded, insist on staying the course, claim the 5th and even get promoted. When Hillary Clinton put up with and defended her husband’s accusations of sexual harassment on the job, she managed to appear as the victim who deserved to be elected Senator, Secretary of State and perhaps the Democratic nominee for President. You see, we owe her.

The mainstream media and academia have produced generations of American women with a constant chip on their shoulder, with unrealistic expectations who perceive life’s challenges as a personal attack because they are women. Ironically, these are the same women who ignore Islamic scandals of honor killing, female genital mutilation and killing of apostates. Some of them even go as far as accusing critics of Islam of being “Islamophobes.”

Some liberal women’s feelings of entitlement end up driving them to exaggerate and lie about their background to get special treatment. Two examples are Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and State Senator Wendy Davis of Texas. One can only imagine what kind of work environment these women will create around them.

The current leftist political culture surrounding women is setting them up either to fail or to turn them into female dictators in an authoritarian mommy state that will threaten the fabric of our free society. Under the guise of “we are pro-women” the Left is using women as tools to silence criticism and inquiry of scandals. While the mainstream media places liberal women on a pedestal, it hammers, ridicules and uses vile insults on air to describe conservative women.

And we let them get away with it.

Nonie Darwish is author of “The Devil We Don’t Know.”

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Canadian PM Harper visits the epicenter. Tells Israel: “Through fire and water, Canada will stand with you.”

Posted on January 23, 2014 by Gene & LaVada Triesch

Canadian PM Harper visits the epicenter. Tells Israel: “Through fire and water, Canada will stand with you.”  Brings delegation of 208 Canadians, including Rabbis & Pastors. Also, read full text of Harper address.

In Uncategorized on January 20, 2014 at 5:42 pm

harper-net-flagsAt a time when so many world leaders are turning away from Israel and trying to isolate the Jewish state, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper – an evangelical Christian and the most pro-Israel world leader on the planet at this time — arrived in Jerusalem on Sunday for his first visit, telling the Israeli people, “through fire and water, Canada will stand with you.”

Harper was given the red carpet treatment by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu with whom he has become a close and personal friend, as well as a staunch and reliable ally. He and his wife, Laureen, dined with Netanyahu and his wife, Sara. The Harpers also toured several Christian holy sites, and plan to visit several more — including sites around the Sea of Galilee — during their trip.

Harper brought with him a delegation of 208 Canadians, including 21 Rabbis, 27 CEOs of Canadian companies, as well as numerous evangelical pastors and Catholic priests.

On Monday, Harper became the first Canadian Prime Minister in history to address the Israeli Knesset. He reaffirmed the importance of Israel as ”a Jewish state,” and was given a standing ovation for his long-standing and warm friendship and support for the State of Israel and the Jewish people.

“It is right to support Israel because after generations of persecutions the Jewish people deserve their own homeland,” Harper told the Israeli parliament. “I believe the story of Israel is a great example to the world. It is a story, essentially, of a people whose response to suffering has been to move beyond resentment and build a most extraordinary society, a vibrant democracy, a freedom-loving country with an independent and rights-affirming judiciary. An innovative, world-leading ‘start-up’ nation. You have taken the collective memory of death and persecution to build an optimistic, forward-looking land, one that so values life, you will sometimes release a thousand criminals and terrorists, to save one of your own. In the democratic family of nations, Israel represents values which our Government takes as articles of faith, and principles to drive our national life. And therefore, through fire and water, Canada will stand with you.”

To read the text of his extraordinary speech, please click here (scroll to the bottom of the Haaretz article where the video of the speech is located).

Harper met with Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Monday morning. Later this week, he will visit Jordan and meet with King Abdullah II in Amman, deeply committed as he is to encouraging peace between Israel and the Arab people.

“Prime Minister Harper, my good friend Stephen, welcome to Jerusalem,” said Netanyahu said on Sunday upon welcoming Harper at his office, reported Israel Hayom. “I have to say, Stephen, that you are a great friend of Israel and the Jewish people. I’m not just saying that — I mean it deeply from the bottom of my heart and I speak for all the people of Israel….This world is often cynical and hypocritical, and you have shown great moral leadership. When it comes to fighting terrorism, you know that there cannot be any politically correct double talk, but only unequivocal condemnation and united international action….When it comes to anti-Semitism, you have stood up unabashedly at the side of Israel and the entire Jewish people, I think at the side of decency and fairness to everyone: Jews and non-Jews alike. And when it comes to Iran’s repeated calls for Israel’s annihilation and its unrelenting development of nuclear weapons — you and Canada have stood unflinchingly on the right side of history.”

“Touching on the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations,” Israel Hayom noted, Netanyahu told Harper, “You recognize that a genuine peace, a lasting peace, must be based on mutual recognition and sound security arrangements on the ground. I think in all this and in so many other things, you have shown courage, clarity and conviction. And in standing up for the truth, your voice, Stephen, has been an indispensable one,” Netanyahu said. “So the people of Israel and I deeply appreciate your friendship and the friendship of the people of Canada to us.”

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Newsletter Update – January 2014 – from Gene & LaVada

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Gene & LaVada Triesch

Click here for Newsletter Update from Gene & LaVada – January 2014

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A Global Slaughter of Christians, but America’s Churches Stay Silent

Posted on December 5, 2013 by Gene & LaVada Triesch

A Global Slaughter of Christians, but America’s Churches Stay Silent

Christians are being singled out and massacred from Pakistan to Syria to the Nairobi shopping mall. Kirsten Powers on the deafening silence from U.S. pews and pulpits.

By Kirsten Powers

September 27th 20135:45 am
Photo by Arif Ali/AFP/Getty ImagesChristians in the Middle East and Africa are being slaughtered, tortured, raped, kidnapped, beheaded, and forced to flee the birthplace of Christianity. One would think this horror might be consuming the pulpits and pews of American churches. Not so. The silence has been nearly deafening.

As Egypt’s Copts have battled the worst attacks on the Christian minority since the 14th century, the bad news for Christians in the region keeps coming. On Sunday, Taliban suicide bombers killed at least 85 worshippers at All Saints’ church, which has stood since 1883 in the city of Peshawar, Pakistan. Christians were also the target of Islamic fanatics in the attack on a shopping center in Nairobi, Kenya, this week that killed more than 70 people. The Associated Press reported that the Somali Islamic militant group al-Shabab “confirmed witness accounts that gunmen separated Muslims from other people and let the Muslims go free.” The captives were asked questions about Islam. If they couldn’t answer, they were shot.

In Syria, Christians are under attack by Islamist rebels and fear extinction if Bashar al-Assad falls. This month, rebels overran the historic Christian town of Maalula, where many of its inhabitants speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. The AFP reported that a resident of Maalula called her fiancé’s cell and was told by member of the Free Syrian Army that they gave him a chance to convert to Islam and he refused. So they slit his throat.

Nina Shea, an international human-rights lawyer and expert on religious persecution, testified in 2011 before Congress regarding the fate of Iraqi Christians, two-thirds of whom have vanished from the country. They have either been murdered or fled in fear for their lives. Said Shea: “[I]n August 2004 … five churches were bombed in Baghdad and Mosul. On a single day in July 2009, seven churches were bombed in Baghdad … The archbishop of Mosul, was kidnapped and killed in early 2008. A bus convoy of Christian students were violently assaulted. Christians … have been raped, tortured, kidnapped, beheaded, and evicted from their homes …”

Lela Gilbert is the author of Saturday People, Sunday People, which details the expulsion of 850,000 Jews who fled or were forced to leave Muslim countries in the mid-20th century. The title of her book comes from an Islamist slogan, “First the Saturday People, then the Sunday People,” which means “first we kill the Jews, then we kill the Christians.” Gilbert wrote recently that her Jewish friends and neighbors in Israel “are shocked but not entirely surprised” by the attacks on Christians in the Middle East. “They are rather puzzled, however, by what appears to be a lack of anxiety, action, or advocacy on the part of Western Christians.” 

As they should be. It is inexplicable. American Christians are quite able to organize around issues that concern them. Yet religious persecution appears not to have grabbed their attention, despite worldwide media coverage of the atrocities against Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.

It’s no surprise that Jews seem to understand the gravity of the situation the best. In December 2011, Britain’s chief rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, addressed Parliament saying, “I have followed the fate of Christians in the Middle East for years, appalled at what is happening, surprised and distressed … that it is not more widely known.” “It was Martin Luther King who said, ‘In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.’ That is why I felt I could not be silent today.”

Yet so many Western Christians are silent. In January, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) penned a letter to 300 Catholic and Protestant leaders complaining about their lack of engagement. “Can you, as a leader in the church, help?” he wrote. “Are you pained by these accounts of persecution? Will you use your sphere of influence to raise the profile of this issue—be it through a sermon, writing or media interview?”
There have been far too few takers.

Wolf and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) sponsored legislation last year to create a special envoy at the State Department to advocate for religious minorities in the Middle East and South-Central Asia. It passed in the House overwhelmingly, but died in the Senate. Imagine the difference an outcry from constituents might have made. The legislation was reintroduced in January and again passed the House easily. It now sits in the Senate. According to the office of Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), the sponsor of the bill there, there is no date set for it to be taken up.

Wolf has complained loudly of the State Department’s lack of attention to religious persecution, but is anybody listening? When American leaders meet with the Saudi government, where is the public outcry demanding they confront the Saudis for fomenting hatred of Christians, Jews, and even Muslim minorities through their propagandistic tracts and textbooks? In the debate on Syria, why has the fate of Christians and other religious minorities been almost completely ignored?

In his letter challenging U.S. religious leaders, Wolf quoted Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed for his efforts in the Nazi resistance:  “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

That pretty well sums it up.

Click here to go to the article.

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West Ignores ‘Largest Massacre of Christians in Syria’

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Gene & LaVada Triesch

Monday, November 25, 2013 |  Raymond Ibrahim  – Israel Today

One of the worst Christian massacres—complete with mass graves, tortured-to-death women and children, and destroyed churches—recently took place in Syria, at the hands of the U.S.-supported jihadi “rebels”; and the U.S. government and its “mainstream media” mouthpiece are, as usual, silent (that is, when not actively trying to minimize matters).

The massacre took place in Sadad, an ancient Syriac Orthodox Christian habitation, so old as to be mentioned in the Old Testament. Most of the region’s inhabitants are poor, as Sadad is situated in the remote desert between Homs and Damascus (desert regions, till now, apparently the only places Syria’s Christians could feel secure; 600 Christian families had earlier fled there for sanctuary from the jihad, only to be followed by it).

In late October, the U.S-supported “opposition” invaded and occupied Sadad for over a week, till ousted by the nation’s military. Among other atrocities, 45 Christians—including women and children—were killed, several tortured to death; Sadat’s 14 churches, some ancient, were ransacked and destroyed; the bodies of six people from one family, ranging from ages 16 to 90, were found at the bottom of a well (an increasingly common fate for “subhuman” Christians).

The jihadis even made a graphic video (with English subtitles) of those whom they massacred, while shouting Islam’s victory-cry, “Allahu Akbar” (which John McCain equates to a Christian saying “thank God”). Another video, made after Sadad was liberated shows more graphic atrocities.

Here are the words of Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh, Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of Homs and Hama (another detailed account, with pictures, appears here):

”What happened in Sadad is the most serious and biggest massacre of Christians in Syria in the past two years and a half… 45 innocent civilians were martyred for no reason, and among them several women and children, many thrown into mass graves. Other civilians were threatened and terrorized. 30 were wounded and 10 are still missing. For one week, 1,500 families were held as hostages and human shields. Among them children, the elderly, the young, men and women…. All the houses of Sadad were robbed and property looted. The churches are damaged and desecrated, deprived of old books and precious furniture… What happened in Sadad is the largest massacre of Christians in Syria and the second in the Middle East, after the one in the Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Iraq, in 2010.”

In the Iraqi attack of 2010, al-Qaeda linked jihadis stormed the church during service killing some 60 Christian worshippers (see here for graphic images of the aftermath).

While the archbishop is correct that this is the “largest massacre of Christians in Syria,” it is but the tip of the iceberg of the persecution the nation’s Christian minority has suffered—including beheadings, church bombings, kidnappings, rapes, and dislocation of hundreds of thousands of Christians—since the war broke out (see Syria entries in monthly persecution series).

A month before Sadad, another ancient Christian region, Ma‘loula, one of the world’s very few regions that still spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus, was besieged by the jihadis, its churches bombarded and plundered, its inhabitants forced to convert to Islam or die. The last words of one man who refused were: “I am a Christian, and if you want to kill me for this, I do not object to it.”

The archbishop concluded his statement concerning Sadad by asking: “We have shouted aid to the world but no one has listened to us. Where is the Christian conscience? Where is human consciousness? Where are my brothers? I think of all those who are suffering today in mourning and discomfort: We ask everyone to pray for us.”

Serge Trifkovic—who hails from a European region especially acquainted with Islamic jihad—responds to the archbishop as follows:

_”That no “human consciousness” is to be found in the White House, or in the editorial offices of the leading Western media, is now a matter of well-established record. Just try searching for “Sadad” (or alternatively “Saddad”) on the websites of the Department of State or The New York Times. Ditto the leading European dailies, the CNN/BBC/RTF, the human-rights defending “NGOs” et al.

“The problem, of which Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh appears unaware, is no longer in the Western elite’s mere indifference to the impending demise of Christianity in the lands of its birth, but in its active, ongoing, and open contribution to that demise. Cyprus (1974) and the Balkans (1991-9) provided the test, Iraq (2003-today) the conclusive proof. In Syria the Obama administration remains committed to supporting the rebels—ah, yes, only the “moderate” ones, like the Christian-murdering “Free Syrian Army” (discretion advised again), not “even though” the result will be the same, but precisely because it will be.”_

In one of the Arabic videos documenting the aftermath of the Sadad massacre, as the mutilated bodies of one family are drawn from a well (around :30 second mark), a middle-aged male relative, in tears, says:

”The most precious in the whole universe [his family], are now gone, leaving me alone, but thank God I am still surrounded by these loving people who remain. I want to say, let people [the jihadis] return to their minds. The problems of the world can only be solved by knowledge and brains. Enough insanity, the nerves of the people are shredded. Enough, enough—return to your minds; you people, you humans—return to your humanity, enough crimes.”

As a sign of the times, here is a Syrian, an “easterner,” evoking rationalism and humanity, products of the Christian West, at a time when the post-Christian West is governed by anything and everything—propaganda, emotionalism, mindless indoctrination—but the twain.

_Raymond Ibrahim is author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians _

Click here to go to article.

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Evidence: Syrian Rebels used Chemical Weapons (not Assad)

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Gene & LaVada Triesch

Evidence: Syrian Rebels used Chemical Weapons (not Assad)

shoebat.com.jpg

Walid Shoebat

Former Muslim Brotherhood
Member – Now Peace Activist

by Shoebat Foundation on August 27, 2013 in Blog, General
By Walid Shoebat and Ben Barrack

Recent news of a chemical weapons attack in Syria smacks of desperation. The question comes down to who is most desperate right now, the Assad regime or the Muslim Brotherhood rebels? Consider that since June, Assad’s forces have been winning. According to a CBS News report from last month, victories for the rebels had become “increasingly rare” and that the Muslim Brotherhood-backed opposition fighters were sustaining “some of their heaviest losses” near Damascus.

Saudi_Factory_Chemicals.jpg

Saudi Chemicals in hands of Syrian Rebels
The New York Times echoed this sentiment, even saying that before gaining the upper hand, concerns were that Assad would use chemical weapons; he did not.

In fact, even before Assad’s forces gained the momentum, a UN official reportedly found evidence of rebels using chemical weapons but no evidence Assad’s regime did. This, from a Washington Times article by Shaun Waterman dated May 6, 2013:

Testimony from victims strongly suggests it was the rebels, not the Syrian government, that used Sarin nerve gas during a recent incident in the revolution-wracked nation, a senior U.N. diplomat said Monday.

Carla del Ponte, a member of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, told Swiss TV there were “strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof,” that rebels seeking to oust Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad had used the nerve agent.

But she said her panel had not yet seen any evidence of Syrian government forces using chemical weapons, according to the BBC, but she added that more investigation was needed. {emphasis ours}

Today, while the rebels are more desperate than they were at the time of that article, evidence of rebels using chemical weapons is available; evidence Assad’s regime has used them is not.

Waterman wrote…

Rebel Free Syrian Army spokesman Louay Almokdad denied that rebels had use chemical weapons.

That doesn’t square with a video uploaded on August 23, 2013, in which Free Syrian operatives threatened to launch chemical weapons:


 

A day later, on August 24th, a video was uploaded and featured on facebook that purports to show Syrian rebels loading what very well may be a rocket armed with some sort of chemical agent. The tip of the rocket is armed with a light blue tank or canister that very well contains a nerve agent. At the end of this video, two separate launches of these rockets can be seen:  [this video can be viewed in Walid’s article – click here]

This video from a Syrian TV news report claims to show chemicals (some of labels on these chemicals are in English) and weapons seized by the Syrian government in the rebel stronghold of Jobar. Note at the :10 mark a label that reads:

“Saudi Factory for Chlorine and Alkalies”

In this video, two Syrian rebels (Muslim Brotherhood gang) can be heard coordinating an attack on a nearby building. As smoke billows a short distance from the building, a rebel on the ground can be heard directing someone – presumably at the source of the launch – to change his direction. At that point, the rebel from the launch point can be heard talking about using sarin gas next:

In this video of a Russia Today news report originally broadcast on or before June 16, 2013, testimony from a United Nations panel is reported to demonstrate that rebel groups – not the Assad regime – was responsible for the use of chemical weapons in general, Sarin gas in particular, which backs up the claims in the previous video. Those who attempt to discredit the report below because it is from Russia Today should have difficulty doing so when factoring in rebels above talking about using sarin gas:

It’s significant to consider that the rebels were reportedly using chemical weapons at a time when Assad was more desperate than he is now. Again, why would Assad use chemical weapons now and not then? Who is more desperate at this point in the conflict?

The answer is, the Muslim Brotherhood rebels, who have no problem killing themselves (or their own) if the cause of Islam is moved forward.

Click here to read complete article.

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