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Pope Benedict’s recent visit to Israel has made a lot of people there really, really angry. Why? Because he walked into a Palestinian refugee camp and openly called for a Palestinian state.

During his visit to the Palestinian refugee camp, Pope Benedict stated, “It is understandable that Palestinians feel frustrated,” and that “their legitimate aspirations for permanent homes, for an independent Palestinian state, remain unfilled.”

Wow.

I guess there is no guessing where Pope Benedict stands on this issue.

During a speech in “Manger Square” in Bethlehem, right in front of “the Church of the Nativity”, Pope Benedict encouraged the Palestinians to keep the “flame of hope” alive for a “sovereign Palestinian homeland in the land of your forefathers, secure and at peace with its neighbors, within internationally recognized borders.”

Does anyone still not understand why many Jews are furious?

Of course the Pope is not nearly the only major political leader who is pushing for a Palestinian state.

U.S. President Barack Obama has also been very open regarding his goal to see an independent Palestinian state created.

In fact, there were reports that Barack Obama held a secret meeting with Palestinian leadership last summer even before he became president during which he expressed his desire to divide up the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem.

According to WorldNetDaily, Barack Obama told the Palestinian leadership during a trip to that region in July that he supports a Palestinian state and a Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem, but he asked them to keep his remarks secret, according to a Lebanese newspaper.

So Barack Obama wants to divide up the land of Israel and give the Palestinians a capital in east Jerusalem?

As if the U.S. didn’t have enough problems…..

Don’t all of these politicians realize what they are doing?

God does not bless those who try to divide the land of Israel.

In fact, world leaders continue to operate under the delusion that they can find a solution to all of this conflict by dividing up the land of Israel.

In Genesis 12:3, God warns that those who curse Israel will be cursed when he promised this to Abraham:

“I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

In the book of Joel, God warns specifically against dividing the land of Israel.

Joel 3:1-2 states, “…I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of my people and my inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up my land.”

Bill Koenig, the author of “Israel: The Blessing or the Curse”, has said this:

“We know for a fact that God gave this land, through the Abrahamic covenant, He gave the land of Israel to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants, and this land is God’s land.”

In the Scriptures, we are warned that the city of Jerusalem would one day become a huge stumbling stone for the nations in Zechariah 12:3…..

“On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.”

Is that not what has happened?

The truth is that God gave that land to Israel long ago, and now that He has started to bring His people back to the land, anyone who tries to give it away is going to be under a curse.

So is there any evidence of a curse on those who try to divide the land of Israel today?

Yes.

Consider these examples…..

#1) On April 30, 2003, America was positioned to be the catalyst for the so-called “solution” to the Middle East crisis. As Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas was sworn in, the “Road Map” peace plan was set in motion.

The very next day began the worst month of tornadoes in United States history – more than 500 in a single month. Under normal conditions, 1,000 tornadoes hit the United States each year, but in just eight days that May, 375 twisters ripped across the heartland of America.

#2) May 9, 2003, President Bush addressed students at the University of South Carolina. Bush called on the Palestinians to embrace the roadmap to peace, and Bush expressed his desire to see the flag of Palestine raised over a free nation.

Hours later, tornadoes returned and Oklahoma City again became the target for deadly twisters, reducing many businesses and homes to splinters and bricks. The tornadoesof May devastated the Midwest with the third worst property damage in American history.

#3) On October 30, 1991, in a meeting scheduled by George H.W. Bush, Israelis and Palestinians discussed ways to achieve peace in the Middle East. Opening talks focused on trading parts of Israel for a peace agreement.

That same day, thousands of miles away, a powerful storm was brewing off of the coast of Nova Scotia. On October 31st, what would be known as “The Perfect Storm” smashed into New England, pummeling the President’s Kennebunkport, Maine home with waves 30 feet high. It was a storm so rare that the weather patterns required to create it only happen about once every 100 years.

#4) On August 23rd, 1992, Middle East peace talks resumed in Washington, D.C. with hope that there would be a great breakthrough.  These talks focused on surrendering the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria in exchange for peace. Hundreds of miles south of there at the same time, Florida was the target for one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. Hurricane Andrew ripped through the state with an eye more than 30 miles wide and winds up to 178 miles per hour leaving behind a 32 billion dollar disaster.

#5) Between August 16th and 30th, 2005, Ariel Sharon expelled 9,480 Jewish settlers from 21 settlements in Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank.

On January 4th, 2006, Sharon had a stroke, and he fell into a coma and is now in a persistent vegetative state.

#6) The U.S. had strongly pressured Sharon to evacuate those settlers from Gaza.

On August 29th, 2005 the storm that would become Hurricane Katrina formed, and it devastated New Orleans and the surrounding areas to such an extent that they still have not recovered. That devastating storm caused at least 200 billion dollars in damage.

#7) In June of 2001, George W. Bush sent CIA director George Tenet to Israel in an attempt to implement the Mitchell Plan.  The Mitchell plan called for, among other things, the cessation of new building in the Jewish settlements.

On the same day that Tenet met with Israeli and Palestinian officials, tropical storm Allison formed in the Gulf of Mexico and moved over Texas, the President’s home state, and dropped over 28 inches of rain over the Houston area alone, causing over $4 billion dollars in damage. The storm then moved to Florida and up the east coast causing damage as far as Pennsylvania. The meteorologists called Allison the “worst tropical storm in history”.

There are many more examples of this phenomenon here:

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1055/1055_01.asp?wpc=1055_01.asp&wpp=b

So are you convinced yet?

Do you still think that all of these things are just coincidences?

The truth is that you DO NOT mess with the land of Israel.

God has really big plans for that land in these last days.

Popes and politicians will continue to do their best to divide the land and negotiate it away, but God’s purposes will ultimately be fulfilled.

There will be ups and downs, wars and conflicts, treaties and agreements, but no matter what happens, we know that there is no stopping the Word of God.

God’s purposes for Israel will stand.

A new poll by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reveals that the more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of prisoners.

What in the world is going on?

According to the survey, 54 percent of Americans who attend church at least once per week said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified, while only 42 percent of Americans who “seldom or never” attend church services agreed with that viewpoint.

Wow.

So is that would Jesus do?

Torture helpless prisoners?

Just think about this question: Is a prisoner more likely or less likely to become a Christian if he gets tortured mercilessly by “Christians”?

What about his family?  Are they more likely or less likely to become Christians if they know their husband or their father or their son has been mercilessly tortured by “Christians”?

What ever happened to the concept of doing good to those who persecute you?

Well, the truth is that the church is quickly becoming as corrupt as the nation as a whole is, and that is saying a lot.

Imagine a government that cruelly tortures thousands of prisoners endlessly for years and years and then announces to the world that nobody will ever be held accountable for the torture.

That’s torture “American style”.

Where else in the world can you be waterboarded an average of 6 times per day?

It has now been revealed that terror suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003and Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002.

The following is how Wikipedia defines waterboarding:

Waterboarding is a form of torture that consists of immobilizing the victim on his or her back with the head inclined downwards, and then pouring water over the face and into the breathing passages. By forced suffocation and inhalation of water the subject experiences drowning and is caused to believe they are about to die.

Imagine having to go through that once.

Now imagine having to go through it 183 times in one month.

How could we treat any human being that way?

But now it is being announced that nobody will ever be held accountable for all of this torture.

President Barack Obama recently released four top secret memos from during the Bush administration that discussed the torture of terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay and at other secret detention centers around the globe.

In a statement accompanying the release of the memos, Obama said very clearly that those who had been involved in the torture would NOT be prosecuted. Obama stated that this is a “time for reflection, not retribution.”

What in the world?

No prosecution for anyone?

President Obama correctly acknowledged that this was a “dark and painful chapter in our history.”

So why is nobody being held accountable?

“Nothing will be gained,” Obama said, “by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past.”

Is he serious?

Is anything gained when we put a rapist in jail?

Is anything gained when we put a serial killer behind bars?

How can he say that nothing would be gained from prosecuting those people who have committed horrific torture crimes?

Apparently Barack Obama thinks that all of this torture is not that big of a deal.

The new attorney-general, Eric Holder, also stated that there will be no prosecution of CIA operatives working within the guidelines set by the Bush administration: “It would be unfair to prosecute dedicated men and women working to protect America for conduct that was sanctioned in advance by the justice department.”

Unfair?

Was it unfair to prosecute the Nazis after World War II who were “just following the orders of Hitler”?

You can read the four torture memos that Obama released here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/page/torture-memos

The torture techniques described in these memos include…..

*Forced nudity

*”Walling”, which is slamming a prisoner into a wall

*”Cramped confinement” which means “placement of the individual in a confined space”

*Stinging insects placed inside “a confinement box”

*Waterboarding – one of the memos actually admits that “the use of waterboarding constitutes a threat of imminent death”

*Sleep deprivation for several days

*Sleep deprivation while wearing a diaper

*The use of “stress positions” to cause “muscle fatigue”

*”Dietary manipulation”

*Facial and abdominal slapping

One of the most shocking things in these memos is that they recognized that the techniques that they were authorizing were ones that we condemned other countries for using.

However, the reality of American torture goes far beyond what was described in those four memos.

The truth is that it is documented that the torture of American prisoners around the world has been absolutely sadistic and brutal.

The following is list of some of the torture acts that U.S. military personnel committed against “terror suspects” as recorded in the executive summary of the Article 15-6 investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade by Major General Antonio M. Taguba. A full copy of this report can be found at MSNBC.com…..

*Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees

*Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing

*Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time

*Forcing naked male detainees to wear women’s underwear

*Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped

*Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them

*Positioning a naked detainee on a MRE Box, with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture

*Writing “I am a Rapest” (sic) on the leg of a detainee alleged to have forcibly raped a 15-year old fellow detainee, and then photographing him naked

*Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee’s neck and having a female Soldier pose for a picture

*A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee

*Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee

*Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees

*Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees

*Threatening detainees with a charged 9mm pistol

*Pouring cold water on naked detainees

*Beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair

*Threatening male detainees with rape

*Sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick

Does that sound like sadistic torture to you?

I certainly hope so.

Don’t you think that those who participated in such acts should be held accountable?

So do I.

But apparently Obama does not, so all of the torturers are going to escape punishment and will never be brought to trial.

For even more reports of American torture that are almost too horrific to describe, read these articles:

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=30291

http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2009/05/news-from-iraqs-underworld.html

The word “shame” is not nearly strong enough to describe this state of affairs.

Have the American people sunk so low that they are now perfectly willing to accept that their government brutally tortures people with absolutely no accountability?

Has the church sunk so low that it now applauds the sadistic torture of helpless prisoners?

Growing up I always regarded torture as something that the “bad guys” did. 

That was something that the Nazis and the Soviets and the North Koreans did.

Are we now becoming the bad guys?

It is a fair question.