If you want to know if a war is coming, don’t listen to what the politicians are saying.  Instead, keep an eye on where ships, troops and equipment are headed.  Right now, there are quite a few signs that intense military preparations are being made for war in the Middle East.  By April, there will be multiple aircraft carrier groups in the Persian Gulf.  Large numbers of U.S. troops are being massed within striking distance of Iran, and it is being reported that U.S. aircraft are heading to the Middle East in numbers not seen for years.  So does all of this mean that war is coming?  Not necessarily.  Perhaps the Obama administration is just trying to scare Iran into giving up its nuclear program.  Perhaps the Obama administration is just trying to convince Syrian President Bashar Assad that it is time to step down.  But the fact that such intense military preparations are being made right now is certainly very, very interesting.  Usually wars are planned long in advance.  The truth is that military planning does not begin when the politicians stop talking.  In just about every major military conflict in modern times, forces have been moved into position long ahead of time.

So will we see a war in the Middle East in 2012?

Only time will tell.

But things certainly are starting to heat up.

The following are 7 signs that intense military preparations are being made for war in the Middle East….

#1 France is sending a nuclear aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf, and it is expected that the U.S. will have three aircraft carrier groups operating in the Persian Gulf by April.

#2 It is being reported that large numbers of U.S. troops are being positioned on two strategic islands within easy reach of Iran.  The following comes from a recent Debka article….

Debkafile’s military sources report a steady flow of many thousands of US troops for some weeks to two strategic islands within reach of Iran, Oman’s Masirah just south of the Strait of Hormuz and Socotra, between Yemen and the Horn of Africa.

#3 A major amphibious landing exercise known as “Bold Alligator” is currently being conducted along the Virginia and North Carolina coasts.  Eight other nations are also participating in this drill, and many analysts believe that this drill is in preparation for an Iranian operation.  The following comes from a recent Arutz Sheva article….

The Bold Alligator drill includes 20,000 U.S. forces, plus hundreds of British, Dutch and French troops – as well as liaison officers from Italy, Spain, New Zealand and Australia.

The drill includes a beach landing and air assault supported by 25 warships, and is intended to  “to revitalize, refine, and strengthen fundamental amphibious capabilities and reinforce the Navy and Marine Corps role as ‘fighters from the sea.’”

U.S. Marines have spent a decade out of their native element in the deserts of Iraq and mountains of Afghanistan, but with the Pentagon’s restructuring and forward-focus on Asia, the Marines are returning to their roots.

Admiral John Harvey, head of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, described Bold Alligator as “the largest amphibious exercise conducted by the fleet in the last 10 years.”

#4 There have been reports of huge numbers of U.S. aircraft moving into position in the Persian Gulf region.  The following comes from a recent Debka report….

Debkafile’s military sources report that flight after flight of US warplanes and transports were to be seen this week cutting eastward through the skies of Sinai on their way to Gulf destinations, presumably Saudi Arabia, at a frequency not seen in the Middle East for many years.

#5 A helicopter carrier (the USS Ponce) that was supposed to have been decommissioned after duty in Libya is now being upgraded and is scheduled to be able to be available for service in the Persian Gulf by June.

#6 The Saudis appear to be really preparing for something.  Just check out what Debka says has been going on in Saudi Arabia….

Our military sources report that the Saudis this week wound up their own intensive preparations for war. Large forces are now deployed around Saudi oil fields, pipelines and export facilities in the eastern provinces opposite the Persian Gulf, backed by anti-missile Patriot PAC-3 batteries. American, British and French fighter-bombers have been landing at Saudi air bases to safeguard the capital, Riyadh.

#7 Someone has been moving huge numbers of tanks around by train in California.  Just check out this video.

So what do you think?

Do you believe that these military preparations are a sign that we will see a war in the Middle East in 2012?

Feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below….

There will never be peace in the Middle East until Jesus comes back.  All of the politicians that are relentlessly pursuing peace plans in the Middle East are fighting a hopeless battle.  From the time that they are able to speak, children all over the Islamic world are taught to obsessively hate Jews and the nation of Israel.  They are taught that “Zionists” are their greatest enemies and that they are behind a lot of the major problems that we see in the world today.  Even when Hitler was at the height of his power, there was never the kind of relentless anti-Semitic indoctrination that we now see throughout the Islamic world.  Over the past decade, immense pressure has been put on the Palestinians and the Saudis to clean up their textbooks, and yet they still contain calls to kill the Jews.  In fact, you will probably find it hard to believe some of the quotes from Palestinian textbooks and Saudi Arabian textbooks that are posted below.  We live in very crazy times, and unfortunately the anti-Semitism in the Islamic world is likely to grow even worse as we get even deeper into the last days.

A couple of days ago, the Daily Mail published an article that contained some absolutely shocking details about what is currently in Saudi Arabian textbooks for 9th and 10th-graders.

According to the Daily Mail, one textbook for 9th graders actually contains the following statement….

“The hour (of judgment) will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. There is a Jew behind me come and kill him.”

Unfortunately, it is not just in school where children are being taught these things.

Islam is not just a religion in nations such as Saudi Arabia.  It is a way of life.

Today, millions upon millions of children are immersed in the ways of jihad from the moment that they are taken from the cradle.  It would be hard to overstate how much of a danger this is for the rest of the world.

Palestinian textbooks also contain a lot of really horrible things.  Several contenders for the Republican presidential nomination have even mentioned these Palestinian textbooks in recent debates.

Over the past decade, there has been a relentless campaign to clean Palestinian textbooks up.  Yet they still contain a lot of anti-Semitic language.

For example, one Palestinian textbook for 8th graders used in religious schools includes the following statement….

“Muslim fighters must get rid of the usurping Jews from the usurped lands in Palestine and in the Levant.”

Jihad seems to be a constant and never ending theme in Palestinian textbooks.  Back in 2007, Palestinian Media Watch released a report entitled “From Nationalist Battle to Religious Conflict: New 12th Grade Palestinian Textbooks Present a World Without Israel” which discussed the radical anti-Semitism found in Palestinian textbooks for 12th grade students.  The following is an excerpt from that report….

The teachings repeatedly reject Israel’s right to exist, present the conflict as a religious battle for Islam, teach Israel’s founding as imperialism, and actively portray a picture of the Middle East, both verbally and visually, in which Israel does not exist at all. The following description of Israel’s founding represents the dominant dogma about Israel in Palestinian schoolbooks: Defining Israel’s founding as a “catastrophe unprecedented in history,” “a theft perpetrated by “Zionist gangs,” together with numerous other hateful descriptions of Israel as “colonial imperialist” and “racist”, compounded by the presentation of the conflict as a religious war, leaves no latitude for students to have positive or even neutral attitudes towards Israel. This negative imagery and religious packaging are compounded by hateful presentations of Israeli policy. The young students are imbued with a Palestinian identity as “victims” just by virtue of Israel’s existence. The well-meaning student is left with no logical justification or religious option to accept Israel as a neighbor or to seek coexistence. Given the total rejection of Israel’s right to exist, on nationalistic and religious grounds, Palestinian terror against Israel since Israel’s founding in 1948 is defined as: “resistance … acts of most glorious heroism.” PA educators teach that fighting Israel is not merely a territorial conflict, but also a religious battle for Islam. The schoolbooks define the conflict with Israel as “Ribat for Allah” – “one of the actions related to Jihad for Allah, and it means: Being found in areas where there is a struggle between Muslims and their enemies”.

The following are two quotes from Palestinian textbooks that were heavily featured in the report….

*”Palestine’s war ended with a catastrophe that is unprecedented in history, when the Zionist gangs stole Palestine and expelled its people from their cities, their villages, their lands and their houses, and established the State of Israel.”

*”The Ribat for Allah is one of the actions related to Jihad for Allah, it means: Being found in areas where there is a struggle between Muslims and their enemies… the endurance of Palestine’s people on their land … is one of the greatest of the Ribat and they are worthy of a great reward from Allah.”

When you relentlessly ram anti-Semitic propaganda down the throats of children for years and years, it is really hard to get them to accept the idea of peace with Israel later on when they become adults.

This was clearly demonstrated by the results of a recent poll by The Israel Project.  The poll asked Palestinians living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza a variety of questions about Israel and about the peace process.  The following are some of the results…..

*60 percent were in favor of direct negotiations with Israel that would result in a “two state” solution.

*Approximately two-thirds of the respondents agreed that “over time, Palestinians must work to get back all the land for a Palestinian state.”

*Only 23 percent of the respondents believed that  “Israel has a permanent right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people.”

*58 percent of those surveyed preferred “armed struggle” over “engagement with Israel.”

*Just 12 percent of the respondents said that official maps, documents and school textbooks should show the name “Israel”.

So if only 23 percent of Palestinians believe that Israel has a permanent right to exist, and if two-thirds believe that Palestinians must eventually capture all of the land, then how is lasting peace going to be possible?

No “Palestinian state” is going to bring lasting peace to the region.

But it is not just the Palestinians and the Saudis that are the problem.

A new U.S. government commission report says the following about school textbooks in Pakistan….

“Religious minorities are often portrayed as inferior or second-class citizens who have been granted limited rights and privileges by generous Pakistani Muslims, for which they should be grateful”

Those of us that live in the west simply have a hard time grasping how deep all of this indoctrination really goes.

Most Americans are used to thinking of “religion” as a very small part of life.

In Islamic countries, Islam is life.

Of course the most important book of all in Islamic countries is the Quran.  Children in Islamic countries may read a textbook one or two times, but the Quran will be part of their daily lives for as long as they live.

The following are quotes from the Quran about Jews….

“And thou wilt find them [the Jews] the greediest of mankind” [Surah 11, v. 96]

“They [the Jews] are the heirs of Hell…. They will spare no pains to corrupt you. They desire nothing but your ruin. Their hatred is clear from what they say … When evil befalls you they rejoice.” [Surah 111, v. 117-120]

“Allah hath cursed them [the Jews] for their disbelief.” [Surah IV, v. 46]

“They [the Jews] will spare no pains to corrupt you. They desire nothing but your ruin. Their hatred is clear from what they say, but more violent is the hatred which their breasts conceal.” [Surah III, v. 117-120]

“O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and Christians for friends.” [Surah V, v. 51]

“Allah fighteth against them [the Jews]. How perverse they are!” [Surah IX, v. 30]

The following is found in the Hadith (a record of the deeds and sayings of Muhammad)….

“The Day of Resurrection will not arrive until the Moslems make war against the Jews and kill them, and until a Jew hiding behind a rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: ‘Oh Moslem, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!”

Are you starting to understand?

Muslims commit violent acts against Christians and Jews because that is what they have been taught to do all of their lives.

All over the world we see radical Muslims doing some of the most horrible things imaginable to Christians and Jews.  The following two examples come from an article by frontpagemag.com.

This first example is from Ethiopia….

More than 500 Muslim students assisted by Muslim police burned down a church, while screaming “Allahu Akbar” (and thus clearly positing their attack in an Islamic framework); the church was built on land used by Christians for more than 60 years, but now a court has ruled that it was built “without a permit.”

This next example comes from Kenya….

A gang of Muslims stabbed and beat with iron rods a 25-year-old Somali refugee, breaking his teeth; he was then stripped naked, covered with dirt, and left unconscious near a church. Although he was raised Christian since age 7, he was attacked on the “assumption that as a Somali he was born into Islam and was therefore an apostate deserving of death.”

Wherever you find radical Islam, you will find violence.

For example, back in 2010 a Christian man in Pakistan’s Punjab province was burned alive by radical Islamic leaders for refusing to convert to Islam while his wife was raped by police officers.

Another very shocking incident took place down in Egypt.  In broad daylight and in full view of witnesses, a group of 4 Islamic radicals in the southern Egyptian city of Attaleen fired 31 bullets into the head of a Coptic Christian before beheading him.  The dead body was then dragged through the streets accompanied by shouts of victory.  Later, an Egyptian court acquitted the four Muslim men accused of committing the crime.

Sadly, hundreds more very shocking examples could be included in this article.

There is a reason why so many people are so deeply concerned about the hateful things that Palestinian textbooks and Saudi Arabian textbooks say.

When children have it pounded into their heads over and over that a certain group of people is the enemy and should be killed, then that is what a lot of them will end up believing as adults.

Anti-Semitism continues to grow and has reached a fever pitch in the Middle East.

In such an environment, lasting peace is impossible.

It is just a matter of time before the next major war in the Middle East comes.

So what do all of you think?  Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below….

Giving the Palestinians a state is a really, really bad idea.  But the world seems obsessed with giving them one anyway.  The sad truth is that a Palestinian state is not going to bring peace to the region.  It is not going to bring an end to the conflict between the Jewish people and the Palestinians.  Rather, it is just going to embolden those that desire to see Israel wiped off the map.  As you will see below, poll after poll has demonstrated that the Palestinians overwhelmingly believe that a “two state solution” is only an intermediate step toward the eventual goal of taking all of the land away from Israel, and the vast majority of Palestinians still support committing terrorist acts against the Jewish people.  You cannot pacify radical jihadists that are obsessed with genocide by giving them land.  In addition, if global leaders do try to carve up the land of Israel, that is going to very much upset the Lord God Almighty.  But we live in the last days, and we know that these kinds of things are going to happen.

The Palestinians have now submitted their formal request for statehood to the United Nations.  The U.S. and the EU are blocking that bid at the moment and they are trying to encourage the Palestinians to renew negotiations with Israel, but that does not mean that they don’t want to give the Palestinians a state.

In fact, the U.S. and the EU have both publicly stated that the Palestinians should be given a state based on pre-1967 borders.

It is just that the U.S. and the EU want a Palestinian state to come about through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

But what kind of negotiating position does that put Israel in?  The U.S. and the EU have already basically promised the Palestinians a state based on pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital.

Unless Israel plans to give up East Jerusalem, negotiations are never going to work.  The Palestinians will just keep insisting on East Jerusalem until the rest of the world finally gives it to them.

Not that the Palestinians should ever be given one inch of land.  God gave all of that land to the people of Israel forever.

But unfortunately, most of the politicians around the world think that they know better than God does.

The following are 10 reasons why a Palestinian state is a really, really bad idea….

#1 The “Palestinian territories” are currently ruled by two separate governments.  One of them is a terrorist organization.  Right now, Hamas rules Gaza and Fatah rules the West Bank.  So how can Mahmoud Abbas speak for all of them?  And how will they suddenly become “one people” once they have been given a state?

#2 A large number of Palestinians do not agree with the statehood request that Abbas has submitted.  You would think that this fact would be reported by the mainstream media, but they have been largely silent about this.

The reality, however, is that a number of key Palestinian organizations are very much against what Abbas is doing.  For example, WorldNetDaily recently reported that Hamas has loudly denounced this statehood request….

Major Palestinian factions, including terrorist organizations, reject Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ United Nations statehood request, arguing Abbas does not represent the Palestinian people.

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said Abbas’ U.N. petition “lacks any legitimacy.”

#3 The vast majority of Palestinians do not believe that creating a Palestinian state will resolve the conflict with Israel.

So if that is the case, then what in the world is creating a Palestinian state actually going to accomplish?

According to one recent survey, only 34 percent of Palestinians consider the
“two state solution” to be the answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But you don’t hear numbers like that in the mainstream media, do you?

#4 Giving the Palestinians a state would create a brand new state sponsor of terror in the heart of the Middle East.

Right now, the Palestinians continually commit acts of terrorism against the Jewish people.  The Palestinian Authority is either unwilling or unable to stop this violence.

So why would giving the Palestinians a state change anything?

The truth is that the poll numbers reveal what is really going on….

*According to one recent poll, 58 percent of all Palestinians prefer “armed struggle” over “engagement with Israel”.

*According to another recent poll, 73 percent of all Palestinians agree with the hadith quoted in the Hamas Charter that talks about killing Jews.

*The same poll found that 62 percent of all Palestinians support kidnapping Israeli soldiers and holding them hostage.

Why in the world would the U.S. and the EU support the creation of another terrorist state?

#5 The Palestinians still refuse to recognize that Israel has the right to exist.

The Palestinians want the rest of the world to give them huge chunks of the land of Israel without the Palestinians having to give up anything in return.  In fact, they don’t even plan to recognize that the nation of Israel has a right to exist.

So what kind of neighbor do you think they will be for Israel?

This refusal to recognize Israel is deeply rooted in the Palestinian psyche.  For example, one recent poll found that only 12 percent of all Palestinians agree that official maps, documents and school textbooks should show the name “Israel”.

#6 The Palestinian people are still very much dedicated to the destruction of Israel.

According to one recent poll, two-thirds of all Palestinians believe that the eventual goal of the Palestinians must be “to get back all the land for a Palestinian state.”

The primary goal of the Palestinians has never changed.  For example, Abu Mujaheed, a spokesperson for the Popular Resistance Committees, recently told WorldNetDaily the following….

“For Palestinians, the borders are based on 1948 (all of Israel) and this is not negotiable.”

So how are you supposed to “negotiate” with someone like that?

If the world wants to give big chunks of land to the Palestinians for free, they will gladly take it.

But it will do nothing to dissuade them from their ultimate goal.

In fact, the Hamas charter still calls for the destruction of Israel.  That has not changed.

So why should the rest of the world reward such behavior?

#7 You cannot pacify people that are committed to genocide by giving them land.

It did not work with Hitler and it will not work with the Palestinians.

Hatred for the Jews is growing to a fever pitch all over the Middle East.  Just check out the following example from a recent article in The Blaze….

While perhaps not shocking, it is profoundly disturbing that in the purportedly more “moderate” Egypt of 2011, demonstrators took to the streets outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo with signs bearing swastikas and a message that read: “the gas chambers are ready.”

How in the world are you going to make “peace” with people who think like that?

#8 The pre-1967 borders would make Israel indefensible.

At the narrowest point, Israel would only be 8 miles wide if they were forced to go back to those borders.

The nation would basically become impossible to defend.

In fact, former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Abba Eban referred to them as “Auschwitz borders”.

#9 In the Bible, the Lord God Almighty warns against dividing the land of Israel.

The book of Joel is all about the return of Jesus Christ to this earth at the end of the Great Tribulation.  In Joel 3:2 it tells us that one of the things that Jesus will judge the nations for is dividing up the land of Israel….

“…There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.”

In case you haven’t noticed, whenever the United States gets involved in trying to divide up the land of Israel we seem to get hit by a major disaster of some sort.

In a previous article, I detailed some of the disasters that have happened when the U.S. government has tried to mess around with the land of Israel….

#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 tornadoes of 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 right here.

Could many of the bizarre natural disasters that we have seen this year also be linked to what Obama has been trying to do to the land of Israel?

In the Scriptures, it tells us that God gave the land to the people of Israel.  We should not be trying to mess around with that.  Psalm 105:8-11 says the following….

He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance

#10 The Palestinians are going to insist on East Jerusalem as their capital, but that city belongs to the Lord.

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

“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?

Jerusalem seems to be the “problem” that has no answer.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to never, ever let Jerusalem become divided.

But the Palestinians have said that they will never accept a state that does not include East Jerusalem.

The Palestinian people are incredibly united on this issue.  One recent survey found that 92 percent of Palestinians believe that Jerusalem should be the capital of the future Palestinian state.

So will they get East Jerusalem?

Well, it certainly does not help when United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is running around saying stuff like this….

“…a way must be found for Jerusalem to emerge as a capital of two States, Israel and Palestine, with arrangements for holy sites acceptable for all.”

Not only that, but Barack Obama and many top EU leaders have already essentially promised East Jerusalem to the Palestinians.

So what we have is a huge mess.

Eventually we are probably going to see a Palestinian state.

And then after that we are probably going to see a major war.

A Palestinian state is not going to bring peace.

Instead, it is just going to make war much more likely.

These are the last days, and Bible prophecy is going to be fulfilled.

Let us pray for the peace of Israel and let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Today we have an excellent guest post from Alisha Venetis.  Alisha Venetis is co-founder of www.thePrepRoom.net; an online store specializing in emergency preparedness supplies.  She writes for Smart Girl Nation, as well as other conservative blogs, where she reports on world politics, domestic and global economics and the potentially negative ramifications they may have on America.

The Birth of a Nation

On May 14, 1948, the nation of Israel was born out of the ashes of the Holocaust. A day later, they were attacked by Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. Having had very little time, weaponry and man-power, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) quickly trained their civilian men and women for combat, something still done today.   Miraculously, Israel managed to survive with some last minute aid by the U.S. This was the first time Israel was attacked as a Nation but certainly not their last.

I mean really, what’s the appeal for these other Middle Eastern countries? Israel is the size of Rhode Island compared to the whole United States. It is the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world’s population and  80% of Israel’s land is desert. Golda Meir, the former Israeli prime minister, used to joke that Israel was the only place in the Middle East without oil.  So what could this country possibly bring to the table?

Why Size Doesn’t Matter

What this small country has accomplished in sixty-four short years is nothing short of a miracle. This tiny county, which has been called a technological power house by Bill Gates, leads the rest of the globe in many areas.  Consider the following;

Technology

• Motorola developed the first cell phone in Israel.

• A coding for a chip that allows laptop computers to function, voicemail and technology for AOL Instant Messenger was developed in Israel.

• Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world, apart from Silicon Valley in California.

• Israel has designed the airlines industry’s most impressive flight security system. Their security is so strict the US consults with Israel often on how to handle its security threats. Israel has been linked to the “ground breaking” cyber attack on Iran’s nuclear reactor. This cyber attack is believed to set back Iran’s nuclear capabilities by about three years.

• Israel has one if the best trained and powerful military’s in the world.

• It is rumored that U.S. military experts don’t even study Israel’s wars because Israel’s winning outcomes are too improbable. Let’s keep in mind they are also spending more per capita on her protection than any other country on earth.

• When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969; she became the world’s second elected female leader in modern times (even as Israel is surrounded by some countries who consider women lower than animals).

• Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship, and the highest rate among people over 55 and among women. Israelis invented a hydrogen car that uses just a tank of water.

• Israel is one of the largest exporters of fresh produce and flowers in the world, despite the fact that about 80% of Israel’s land is desert.  Israel has defied agricultural odds.

• The USA would not be as medically advanced if it were not for Israeli advancements.  Israeli scientists developed the first non-radiation computerized test for breast cancer.

• An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from the dipension of medicine and potentially saving thousands of lives per year.

• An Israeli company developed the first ingestible video camera. This camera is so small it fits inside a pill and helps doctors diagnose cancer and other digestive disorders.

• Israeli stem-cell technology is being used in the U.S. to regenerate heart tissue.

• Teva is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies and a major producer of generic drugs.

• When the U. S. Embassy in Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day to help save some of the victims. Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as “conflict free.”

• Hebrew (the official language of Israel) is the only dead language that has been revived after 2,000 years.

Alisha Venetis is co-founder of www.thePrepRoom.net; an online store specializing in emergency preparedness supplies.  She writes for Smart Girl Nation, as well as other conservative blogs, where she reports on world politics, domestic and global economics and the potentially negative ramifications they may have on America.

 

Are the Palestinians going to unilaterally declare independence and ask the UN to formally recognize an independent Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders this September?  That is what many in the Israeli government now fear.  At this point the Palestinians have pretty much given up on negotiations with Israel and they have initiated an all-out effort to get the international community behind their effort to achieve statehood in 2011.  The Scriptures warn over and over again about dividing the land of Israel, and many believe that those warnings were put into the Bible for the last days.  So could we actually see the UN establish a formal Palestinian state without the approval of Israel by the end of 2011?  Unfortunately, a whole lot of signs are pointing in that direction.

A recent article in The New York Times noted the intense pressure that Israel is under right now.  Basically the global community is telling them to give away the farm to the Palestinians or else the UN is just going to go ahead and do it anyway….

With revolutionary fervor sweeping the Middle East, Israel is under mounting pressure to make a far-reaching offer to the Palestinians or face a United Nations vote welcoming the State of Palestine as a member whose territory includes all of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

So where is the incentive for the Palestinians to negotiate in all of this?  If the Israelis don’t give them a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital they will just wait for the UN to hand it to them.

Yes, it could really happen.

The following are 10 alarming signs that momentum is building for the UN to formally recognize an independent Palestinian state in 2011….

#1 The World Bank has publicly endorsed the formation of an independent Palestinian state.

#2 The IMF is formally backing the establishment of a Palestinian state in the near future.

#3 A recent United Nations report made the following statement about the Palestinian Authority: “In six areas where the UN is most engaged, governmental functions are now sufficient for a functioning government of a state.”

#4 The Ad-hoc Liaison Committee on Palestine, composed of the EU, the United States, Canada, Norway, Russia, four Arab countries, the UN, the World Bank and the IMF, has endorsed the UN report and says that the Palestinians are ready for an independent state.

#5 U.S. and EU officials are warning that if Israel does not agree to a Palestinian state within the next few months, “the Quartet may be compelled to recognize a Palestinian State in the 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital”.

#6 It is being reported in the international media that the following 4 points form the core of Obama’s strategy for bringing about a Palestinian state: “Israel’s acceptance of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders; Palestinian acceptance that there would be no right to return to Israeli land; Jerusalem as the capital of both states; and the protection of Israel’s security needs.”

#7 Earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the following statement about the situation in Israel: “The status quo between Palestinians and Israelis is no more sustainable than the political systems that have crumbled in recent months.”

#8 New Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi is now asking the United States to formally recognize a Palestinian state.

#9 The Palestinian Authority has set September 2011 as the deadline to be ready for statehood.

#10 Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sounds convinced that Barack Obama is going to make good on his promise to deliver an independent state into the hands of the Palestinians by the end of the year: “We are counting on the words of U.S. President Barack Obama who said his vision is to see a Palestinian state this coming September according to a deadline set by the Quartet.”

Sadly, an independent Palestinian state would probably only make war more likely.

The following is how author Joel C. Rosenberg recently explained it….

If the Palestinians make a unilateral declaration of what they want, what will stop Israel from unilaterally declaring what they want? What if the Palestinians try to forcibly evict the Jews living in the West Bank? Those Jews would certainly fight back. Would the Israeli military move to defend the Jewish settlers? Would Palestinian security forces then fire upon the Israeli forces? Would the U.N. move into to condemn and isolate Israel, and even impose draconian economic sanctions on the Jewish state? Events could spiral out of control. Indeed, the likelihood is that far more violence — not peace — would result by such a Palestinian declaration of statehood outside the context of negotiations with Israel.

Unfortunately, even if the Palestinians get a state, there is going to be a massive war in the Middle East.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah is arming to the teeth and they are absolutely obsessed with driving Israel into the sea.

Syria had been getting ready for war for decades, and it is almost certainly just a matter of time before Israel and Syria go head to head.

Iran continues to develop their nuclear program and it is seemingly inevitable that at some point the Israelis will strike them in order to stop that.

Egypt has just taken a hard turn towards radical Islam and a recent poll found that the majority of the Egyptian people are in favor of ending the peace treaty with Israel.

So, no, the Middle East is not getting closer to peace.

In fact, it is getting much closer to war.

We live in very unstable times.  Please pray for peace in the Middle East.

So exactly just who is NATO “helping” in Libya?  Are we actually making it possible for radical Islamic jihadists to take control of Libya?  Are we now providing air cover for some of the exact same terrorists that were shooting at our soldiers in Iraq?  You might not like the answers to those questions.  Nobody is claiming that Gadhafi is not a horrible dictator and tyrant.  However, is it really in our interest to have al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood replace him?  The Scriptures tell us in the book of Ezekiel that in the last days the nation of Libya will come against Israel.  Are we making this possible by injecting ourselves into the middle of this civil war?

The mainstream media has been pushing this war really hard, and it is really easy for most Americans to simply trust the judgment of the news channels, but there are some really hard questions that we need to ask about our involvement in Libya.

For example, what in the world is Libya going to look like after all this is over?

Is it going to take a hard turn towards radical Islam and end up being ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood and/or al-Qaeda?

According to The Telegraph, the leader of the Libyan rebels is even admitting that his “troops” include jihadists that were firing bullets at U.S. troops in Iraq….

Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

What type of government do you think they are going to set up once this is over?

The American people need to start demanding some answers.

Why are we on the side of al-Qaeda in Libya but against them in Iraq and Afghanistan?

CBS News recently quoted former CIA officer Bruce Riedel as saying the following….

“There is no question that al Qaeda’s Libyan franchise, Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, is a part of the opposition. It has always been Qaddafi’s biggest enemy and its stronghold is Benghazi. What is unclear is how much of the opposition is al Qaeda/Libyan Islamic Fighting Group – 2 percent or 80 percent.”

Shouldn’t we have learned more about who we are supporting before we jumped in?

Are we actually using our military to support the spread of radical Islam in north Africa?

According to Webster Tarpley, a study conducted at West Point found that Libya has one of the highest concentrations of jihadists on the planet….

The most striking finding which emerges from the West Point study is that the corridor which goes from Benghazi to Tobruk, passing through the city of Darnah (also transliterated as Derna) them represents one of the greatest concentrations of jihadi terrorists to be found anywhere in the world, and by some measures can be regarded as the leading source of suicide bombers anywhere on the planet. Darnah, with one terrorist fighter sent into Iraq to kill Americans for every 1,000 to 1,500 persons of population, emerges as suicide bomber heaven, easily surpassing the closest competitor, which was Riyad, Saudi Arabia.

The more one examines the situation in Libya, the better Gadhafi looks.  The truth is that these “rebels” are not fighting Gadhafi because they want a western-style democracy.  Rather, they are fighting him because they want to set up a radical Islamic jihadist state.

The truth is that NATO knows precisely who they are arming and who they are helping take power in Libya.  As Steve Watson recently noted, there are reports that there are 1000 (or more) al-Qaeda fighters among the rebels in Libya….

A former leader of an al Qaeda linked group in Libya claims that there are around 1000 fundamentalist Islamic fighters in the country that have joined the uprising against Col. Moammar Gaddafi’s forces, a number that jives with intelligence reports and independent estimates.

How in the world is America going to be better off with al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood in control of Libya?

None of this makes any sense.

We are told that we have to have our soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq for years and years in order to “fight al-Qaeda” and then we are helping them take power in Libya?

What in the world is going on out there?

We are living in the last days and weird things are going to happen.

So what do all of you think about what is happening in Libya?  Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below….

So much for Muslims and Christians coming together in brotherly love in Egypt.  In the aftermath of the revolution in Egypt, the persecution of Christians in that nation has escalated dramatically.  In our last post, we warned that Egypt was about to take a hard turn toward radical Islam, and we were right.  Churches are being bombed, Christians are being attacked and there have even been reports of government forces opening fire on church buildings.  As radical Islam gets an even stronger hold on Egyptian society, the horrific persecution of Christians in Egypt is only going to increase.  Let us pray for our brothers and sisters in Egypt because they are living in the middle of a nightmare right now.  Unfortunately, the Scriptures tell us that in the last days persecution is going to increase for all Christians.

At this point there are almost daily stories in the international news about the persecution of Christians in Egypt.

For example, check out the following excerpt from a story today in the Jerusalem Post….

The Health Ministry said the 13 people were killed and 140 wounded in violence on Tuesday night ignited by tensions built up since an arson attack on a church south of Cairo on Saturday.

This recent violence was sparked by an attack over the weekend during which an estimated 4,000 Muslims violently assaulted Christian homes and burned a church in the Egyptian town of Soul which is about 18 miles from Cairo.

The Assyrian International News Agency noted that witnesses of the church burning said that the radical Muslims involved were chanting “Allahu Akbar” as they destroyed the church….

Witnesses said the mob chanted “Allahu Akbar” and vowed to conduct their morning prayers on the church plot after razing it.

Unfortunately, violence against Christians in Egypt is not new.  Back on New Year’s Eve 21 people were killed and 43 people were injured when a massive bomb went off outside a Coptic church in the city Alexandria, Egypt.

Another example of the persecution of Christians in Egypt prior to the recent revolution was recently noted by Family Security Matters….

Despite wallowing in money from America, Mubarak had made no attempt to improve the plight of Egypt’s Christians. As noted by Raymond Ibrahim, in November 2010, Egyptian security forces opened fire upon Christians who had not followed discriminatory building regulations. The Copts had constructed the St. Mary and St. Michael churches in the district of Giza. Three unarmed Christians died from gunfire, and a small girl was suffocated by tear gas. Wounded demonstrators were handcuffed to hospital beds before being sent to detention camps.

Many of our political leaders and many in the mainstream media have been praising the recent Egyptian revolution, but the truth is that it was not about freedom and liberty.

Instead, what the Egyptian revolution really represented was a hard turn toward radical Islam.

Egypt is becoming a radical Islamist state.  10 percent of the population of Egypt is Christian, and they are no longer going to be able to feel safe.  More churches are likely to be burned and more Christians are likely to die.

Please pray for the Christians in Egypt.  Someday we all may be facing the kind of persecution that they are going through right now.

Many Christians have believed for a long time that Egypt would take a hard turn towards radical Islam in the last days.  Well, it looks like that might be starting to happen.  This week tens of thousands of radical Islamic protesters have been violently clashing with police and security forces in some of Egypt’s biggest cities.  So far, at least 4 people have died and dozens have been injured during the Egypt protests.  The level of violence that we are witnessing during these protests is absolutely stunning.  One of America’s biggest allies in the Middle East is rapidly becoming destabilized.

There are reports that police have been forced to use water cannons and tear gas on the protesters.  But this has just seemed to make the Islamic radicals even more determined.

So what are they protesting about?

Well, supposedly this is all about “economic conditions” and the rising cost of living, but the protesters are also demanding the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Mubarak has been in power for three decades, and hardline Muslims in Egypt see him as way too friendly with Israel and the United States.

So while most mainstream media news reports will continue to characterize these as “economic protests”, let there be no mistake – the vast majority of these protesters desire to see radical Islam take power in Egypt.

If that happens, it will be extremely bad news for the United States and Israel.

Organizers are promising that even bigger protests are planned.  It does not look like things are going to cool down in Egypt any time soon.

So could this be the beginning of an Islamic revolution in Egypt?

Let’s pray that it is not.

The following is incredibly shocking raw video from the recent protest in Egypt.  As you can see, things are rapidly becoming very, very serious….