“And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”
(Luke 21:24)

Times Of The Gentiles

***

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Light Of The Gentiles.pdf

WND

U.S. TO MOVE EMBASSY TO JERUSALEM IN MAY

Coincides with Israel's 70th anniversary of independence

Art Moore

February 23, 2018

Jerusalem

The U.S. Embassy in Israel will officially move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May as Israel celebrates its 70th Independence Day, the State Department said Friday.

Steven Goldstein, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, said that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson approved a security plan Thursday evening for “a facility” in Jerusalem.

The plan is to open the new facility May 14.

“We’re looking at that as a possible date, but safety of the Marines and other people who visit and work there is primary,” said Goldstein.

Reacting to the news Friday, PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat called the move a “flagrant violation of international law and agreements” signed between the Palestinians and Israel that will “destroy” the two-state solution, the Times of Israel reported.

Pointing out that the date coincides with the anniversary of Israel’s independence – which the Palestinians call “the Nakba,” meaning “catastrophe” in Arabic – Erekat said the decision was “provocative to the feelings of all Arabs and Muslims.”

A State Department official confirmed the date to the Jerusalem Post after Israel’s transport minister, Israel Katz, appeared to indicate in a tweet that the move would take place in the spring.

Katz said the U.S. Embassy will initially be located on a compound in Jerusalem’s Arnona neighborhood that currently houses the consular operations of the Consulate General Jerusalem.

“At least initially, it will consist of the ambassador and a small team,” he said.

“The Miracle of Israel,” a documentary narrated by Leonard Nimoy, tells the remarkable story of the only nation in history that maintained a national identity for centuries without a homeland. It’s available now at the WND Superstore.

Reshet TV of Israel reported the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, will move his office and a small staff of four or five people to a building known as The Diplomat Hotel, which the State Department bought in 2014.

Residents in the neighborhood have noticed workmen delivering crates and furniture to the building, the Israeli channel said.

The State Department continues to examine possible sites for the construction of a larger, permanent embassy in Jerusalem, the Post reported.

Trump: ‘It’s the right thing to do’

Last month, on his trip to Israel, Vice President Pence said the permanent embassy will open by the end of 2019, a faster timeline than had been previously reported.

“In the weeks ahead, our administration will advance its plan to open the United States Embassy in Jerusalem — and that United States Embassy will open before the end of next year,” Pence said.

The Trump administration is considering an offer from Republican donor Sheldon Adelson to pay for at least part of a new embassy in Jerusalem, four U.S. officials told the Associated Press.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, President Trump mentioned his discussion with world leaders leading up to his decision in December to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the embassy there.

“I said, ‘I have to do it, because it’s the right thing to do,'” Trump said. “The campaign against it was so incredible. But you know what, the campaign for it was also incredible.”

Clinton, Bush, Obama supported embassy move

As WND reported, the United Nations General Assembly voted 128-9 in favor of a resolution declaring Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on Dec. 6 “null and void.”

The president’s decision sparked violent protests in the Middle East and a call from Hamas for an uprising against Israel.

The Trump administration’s move fulfilled the requirements of a 1995 law that was adopted overwhelmingly by the Senate (93-5) and the House (374-37).

When Trump announced the decision, he reiterated his commitment to peace in the Middle East, noting the previous policy of not recognizing “the reality” that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital brought us “no closer to a lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.”

The Palestinian leadership, Fatah and Hamas, claims the Jewish people have falsified their 3,000 year-old history to lay claim to Jerusalem. The holy city, the Palestinians insist, is “Palestinian” and must be the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital a milestone.

“There are major moments in the history of Zionism: the Balfour Declaration, the founding of the state, the liberation of Jerusalem and Trump’s announcement yesterday,” he said in a video posted to social media.

Hamas, meanwhile, said the decision “opens the gates of hell” and called for several days of protests.

After the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 was passed, Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama signed every six months a waiver incorporated in the law allowing the president to delay its implementation for national security reasons.

President Trump signed the waiver in June but decided in December to finally implement the law.

The three presidents who chose to delay enacting the Jerusalem Embassy Act nevertheless affirmed publicly that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, and two of them said they supported moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.

Obama, a Democrat, told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in 2008 that Jerusalem “will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided. I have no illusions that this will be easy.”

Bush, a Republican, promised during the 2000 campaign that “as soon as I take office I will begin the process of moving the U.S. ambassador to the city Israel has chosen as its capital.”

And Clinton, a Democrat, entered office in 1993 saying he supported “the principle” of moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.

RT

Nikki Haley says Israel won’t ‘love’ peace plan drafted by pro-Israel Trump advisers

February 23, 2018

Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. © Debbie Hill / Reuters

Trump’s Middle East peace plan is almost ready but won’t be “loved” by either side, Nikki Haley has predicted. However, the Trump administration’s staunchly pro-Israel stance seems at odds with the plan’s alleged impartiality.

A vision for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is currently being finished by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a vocal supporter of Israel; along with Jason Greenblatt, a senior Trump adviser and, coincidentally, also Israel's ardent advocate. This was revealed by Haley in her address at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics on Thursday.

Haley reassured her Chicago audience that the peace roadmap "won't be loved and won't be hated" by either Israel or the Palestinians. She added that “it’s up for them to decide” how to best solve the conflict, and "if they decide on two states, the United States will support two states. If they decide on certain boundaries, the United States is going to support those boundaries."

"The Palestinians deserve better and the Israelis deserve better. Right now, they're in conflict. It's not a good situation,” Haley said. “If the leaders would put aside their pride and their ego, and think about their people, and improving the quality of life for their people, this peace process will do that."

However, Haley apparently put aside her basic arithmetic skills while speaking with the event’s moderator, David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Barack Obama.

Commenting on the UN General Assembly resolution that condemned Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital – which passed 128-9 – Haley said she initially “thought that we were going to have two or three [countries] with us,” but was delighted that “68 didn’t vote against us” because “they saw that this was America-bashing.”

Actually, only eight nations (including Israel) joined the US in voting against the resolution, while 35 abstained and 21 failed to vote at all. That makes 64 nations in total, which technically “didn’t vote against” the US – four nations shy of Haley’s courageous 68 countries that apparently stood up to the UN’s “America-bashing.”

Even Axelrod was perturbed by Haley’s logic, reminding the UN envoy that only “nine voted with you” (actually eight – RT).

Haley’s suggestion that the Trump plan won’t heavily favor Israel will be difficult for many to believe. She has repeatedly used her seat on the UN Security Council to defend Israel from international “bullies,” and Trump’s Jerusalem decision marked the first time since the UN-brokered partition of Palestine in 1947 that a president of the US – a member of the Middle East Quartet, which is charged with mediating the peace process between Palestine and Israel – has departed from the established policy that the issue of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital should be kept off the table.

***

WND

BILLY GRAHAM DEAD AT 99

Famed evangelist preached to more than 2.2 billion

Art Moore

February 21, 2018

Billy Graham, America’s best-known evangelist and a spiritual adviser to 11 presidents who preached to more than 2.2 billion souls in more than seven decades of ministry, died Wednesday at the age of 99.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said he died at his home in Montreat, North Carolina, from “natural causes.”

Born Nov. 7, 1918, on a dairy farm near Charlotte, North Carolina, William Franklin Graham Jr. became a believer in Jesus Christ at the age of 16 during a series of revival meetings and went on to lead hundreds of evangelistic “crusades” in which he famously invited members of vast stadium and arena audiences to “come forward and accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior.”

“My one purpose in life is to help people find a personal relationship with God, which, I believe, comes through knowing Christ,” Graham once said.

He counted it a privilege to preach the Gospel “on every continent in most of the countries of the world.”

“I have found that when I present the simple message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with authority and simplicity, quoting the Word of God, He takes that message and drives it supernaturally into the human heart.”

Graham knew from personal experience the “human heart is the same the world over.”

“Only Christ can meet the deepest needs of our world and our hearts,” he declared. ‘Christ alone can bring lasting peace – peace with God, peace among men and nations.”

‘Jesus coming soon’

On the day of his 95th birthday, Nov. 7, 2013 – celebrated by about 900 people at a hotel in Asheville, North Carolina – Graham released a 30-minute video message broadcast on the Fox News Channel, on other networks and on the Internet titled “The Cross” as part of an outreach called “My Hope America with Billy Graham.” Graham summarized his aim: “With all my heart I want to leave you with the truth that He loves you and wants to forgive you of your sins.”

Graham told WND in an exclusive interview in 2013 he still believed people need to repent of their sins, turn to God and “take the narrow road that Jesus talks about in the Bible.”

He told WND he believed the signs of the end of the age are “converging now for the first time since Jesus made those predictions.”

In his 2013 book “The Reason for My Hope: Salvation,” Graham wrote the second coming of Jesus Christ is “near” and the United States “can’t go on much longer in the sea of immorality without judgment coming.”

“We have been going down the wrong road for a long time,” Graham told WND. “Seemingly, man has learned to live without God, preoccupied and indifferent toward him and concerned only about material security and pleasure.

Family legacy

His wife, Ruth, born in China to missionary parents, died in June 2007 at age 87 after 63 years of marriage. He is survived by their five children, Virginia Leftwich “Gigi” Graham Tchividjian, Anne Graham Lotz, Ruth Graham, William Franklin Graham III and Nelson “Ned” Graham. He also leaves 19 grandchildren and more than 28 great-grandchildren, including grandson Tullian Tchividjian, who succeeded Rev. D. James Kennedy as senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

His oldest son, Franklin Graham, succeeded him as president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in 2000. Franklin Graham also directs the major international Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse.

When his wife died at their mountaintop home in Montreat, North Carolina, near Asheville, Graham stated he and his “life partner” had been “called by God as a team.”

“No one else could have borne the load that she carried,” he said. “She was a vital and integral part of our ministry, and my work through the years would have been impossible without her encouragement and support.”

Graham said that in their final years together they “rekindled the romance of our youth, and my love for her continued to grow deeper every day.”

“I will miss her terribly and look forward even more to the day I can join her in Heaven,” he said.

The couple met as students at the evangelical liberal arts school Wheaton College, near Chicago. Graham said that when their eyes first met as he came across her walking down a road, “I felt that she was definitely the woman I wanted to marry.”

Hour of decision

One of America’s most recognizable figures, Graham was listed as No. 8 on Gallup’s list of the most admired people of the 20th century. According to his staff, he preached the Gospel to live audiences of an estimated 215 million in more than 185 countries and territories. In addition – through the use of television, video, film and webcasts – he spoke to a combined audience of more than 2.2 billion.

His weekly radio program, “Hour of Decision,” was broadcast for more than 50 years, and his city Gospel events were seen in prime time on television.

Along with his syndicated newspaper column, “My Answer,” and monthly Billy Graham Evangelistic Association magazine, Decision, Graham was the co-founder of the leading evangelical magazine Christianity Today in 1956.

Graham also launched World Wide Pictures, producer and distributor of more than 130 films.

He wrote 27 books, which included numerous best-sellers. Among them were his memoir, “Just As I Am,” released in 1997. His 1983 book “Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” was on the New York Times best-seller list several weeks. In 1977, “How to Be Born Again” was released with the largest first printing in history, more than 800,000 copies. The book followed “Angel’s God’s Secret,” which sold more than 1 million copies in 90 days.

Graham came to faith in 1934 when he was persuaded by an employee of the family farm to attend a series of revival meetings in Charlotte led by evangelist Mordecai Ham.

After high school, Graham entered Bob Jones College – now Bob Jones University – which then was located in Cleveland, Tennessee. The young student was nearly expelled, however, and dropped out after only one semester, because he thought the school was too legalistic.

The school’s founder, Bob Jones Sr., famously told Graham: “At best, all you could amount to would be a poor country Baptist preacher somewhere out in the sticks.”

But Jones said: “You have a voice that pulls. God can use that voice of yours. He can use it mightily.”

Graham transferred to the Florida Bible Institute – now Trinity College of Florida – in Temple Terrace, Florida. Graham said in his book “Just As I Am” he “received [his] calling on the 18th green of the Temple Terrace Golf and Country Club.” He graduated with a Bachelor of Theology degree.

He then attended Wheaton College, where he graduated in 1943 with a degree in anthropology. Graham said that during his time at Wheaton he came to believe the Bible was the infallible word of God, citing Henrietta Mears of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, California, as a key influence.

Graham served as pastor of Village Church in Western Springs, Illinois, near Wheaton, from 1943 to 1944. During that time he succeeded his friend, well-known pastor Torrey Johnson of Midwest Bible Church in Chicago, as host of the radio program “Songs in the Night.” He recruited singer George Beverly Shea for the program, who later became a fixture in his Gospel crusades.

In 1947, Graham became the youngest person to serve as a college president when he took the helm of Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota, at age 30.

Later, he became a traveling evangelist with the newly founded evangelical group Youth for Christ International, co-founded by Torrey Johnson and evangelist Charles Templeton.

He rose to national prominence in 1949 as the lead evangelist in a series of circus-tent revival meetings in Los Angeles that drew the interest of legendary news mogul William Randolph Hearst, who famously sent a telegram to his news editors with the instruction: “Puff Graham.”

With increased exposure, the revival meetings originally scheduled for three weeks, ran eight weeks, and Graham soon became a household name.

America’s pastor

Graham, a registered Democrat, developed influential relationships with 11 presidents, from Harry Truman to George W. Bush, but was careful not to endorse any candidate.

In 2012, however, Graham broke from form and endorsed Republican Mitt Romney for president. In full page ads and a dedicated website, his “vote biblical values” campaign urged voters to support candidates who oppose abortion and back traditional marriage.

The campaign didn’t mention candidates by name, but Graham met with Romney and pledged he would “do all I can to help you.”

He met briefly with President Obama at Graham’s home, April 25, 2010, and prayed with him.

“Like others before him, President Obama shared how lonely, demanding and humbling the office of president can be, and how much he appreciated the counsel of people like Mr. Graham and the prayers of so many citizens,” said Graham spokesman Larry Ross.

Graham presented Obama with two Bibles, one for him and the other for first lady Michelle Obama, according to Ross.

Graham “concluded with a prayer for the president, his family and his administration.”

In November 2009, Ross disclosed the two men spoke for the first time when Obama called Graham from Air Force One to offer good wishes on the evangelist’s 91st birthday.

Graham shared Scripture verses with the president, Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

Graham told Obama “he would continue to be in prayer for him,” Ross reported.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her family dined with Graham at his home that month. Franklin Graham told reporters his father had followed her career and “liked her strong stand on faith.”

“Daddy feels God was using her to wake America up,” the younger Graham said.

During the two-and-a-half hour visit, Palin told Billy Graham how she became a Christian as a girl at a Bible camp, and she quizzed him on the presidents he knew.

She also asked him what he believed the Bible says about Israel, Iran and Iraq.

Graham described Ronald Reagan as the president to whom he was closest.

A close friend of the Bush family, Graham prayed with George H.W. Bush as the first bombs of Desert Storm fell on Baghdad in 1991.

The elder Bush told ABC’s Charlie Gibson during a 2007 interview at his home in Kennebunkport, Maine, that Graham also helped him address questions about the afterlife.

“I don’t think the president is any different than anybody else when it comes to wonder,” Bush said. “Especially as you get older. … I find myself thinking about it more and more: What’s it going to be like?”

The senior Bush invited Graham to hold a series of Bible studies at the family home.

George W. Bush recalls that at a time when he was a cynic and a heavy drinker with many questions about faith, Graham had an “enormous influence” on his life.

Regarding religion, Bush described himself as a person who would “listen but never hear.”

“Billy Graham helped me understand the redemptive power of a risen Lord,” he said in a Fox News Channel interview.

Graham also developed a friendship with Bill Clinton.

Clinton recalled attending a Graham crusade in Little Rock, Arkansas, when he was 13 and becoming so moved he sent a portion of his allowance to Graham’s ministry for years afterward.

Rough start

Graham’s spiritual counsel to presidents didn’t begin well, however. In 1950, decked out in a pastel suit and white buck shoes, he prayed with President Truman, then reenacted the prayer to the press, kneeling on the White House lawn. An angry Truman, a fellow Southern Baptist, called Graham a “counterfeit” publicity seeker and refused to speak to him for many years.

Graham later apologized and retold the story to emphasize his commitment to not reveal details of his conversations with world leaders.

Graham was particularly active in Richard Nixon’s White House, regularly advising the president and leading private church services there. Graham turned down an offer from Nixon to become ambassador to Israel. After Nixon’s role in Watergate emerged through White House tapes, which captured his profane speech, Graham expressed profound disappointment.

He wrote of Nixon in 1997, “Looking back these forty-five years later, considering all that has intervened, I wonder whether I might have exaggerated his spirituality in my own mind.”

Later, Nixon’s tapes inflicted damage on Graham when segments declassified and released in 2002 captured the evangelist apparently agreeing with Nixon that Jews had a “stranglehold” on the American media. Graham issued a statement of apology amid criticism from Jewish and fellow evangelical leaders.

“Although I have no memory of the occasion, I deeply regret comments I apparently made,” said Graham, a long-time supporter of Israel. “They do not reflect my views, and I sincerely apologize for any offense caused by the remarks.”

Graham admitted, “I guess I was trying to please” and noted he went to a meeting with Jewish leaders and, “I told them I would crawl to them to ask their forgiveness.”

In 1979, when Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority gathered strength, Graham refused to join.

“I’m for morality, but morality goes beyond sex to human freedom and social justice,” he explained. “We as clergy know so very little to speak with authority on the Panama Canal or superiority of armaments. Evangelists cannot be closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle in order to preach to all people, right and left. I haven’t been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will be in the future.”

But he regularly was called on at times of national mourning, leading prayer, for example, at national services following the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

After holding what he called his last crusade, in New York City, Graham and son Franklin held a “Festival of Hope” in New Orleans in March 2006 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

‘Give him power and authority’

Graham developed a close friendship with Martin Luther King Jr., who credited him with helping reduce tensions between blacks and whites in the South.

“Had it not been for the ministry of my good friend Dr. Billy Graham, my work in the civil rights movement would not have been as successful as it has been,” King said.

Graham’s decision in 1952, in the face of fierce criticism, to stop holding segregated crusades had a profound influence.

In 1957, King opened in prayer at one of Graham’s services in New York City and came to a meeting of Graham’s team to, in the words of the evangelist, “help us understand the racial situation in America more fully.”

King prayed at Madison Square Garden, where 2.3 million attended over 16 weeks: “We thank Thee this evening for the marvelous things that have been done in this city, and through the dynamic preaching of this great evangelist. We ask Thee, oh God, to continue blessing him. Give him power and authority. And as we look into him tonight, grant that our hearts and spirit will be open to the divine inflow.”

In 1965, amid heightened racial tensions in the South, Graham canceled a tour of Europe to preach in Alabama, regarding his ministry as an effort to work with King to break down racial barriers.

In his autobiography, Graham recalled the moment he heard of King’s assassination in 1968.

“I was almost in a state of shock. Not only was I losing a friend through a vicious and senseless killing, but America was losing a social leader and a prophet, and I felt his death would be one of the greatest tragedies in our history.”

Graham said he couldn’t “point to any single event or intellectual crisis that changed my mind on racial equality.”

“At Wheaton College, I made friends with black students, and I recall vividly one of them coming to my room one day and talking with deep conviction about America’s need for racial justice.”

The greatest influence, he said, was his study of the Bible, “leading me eventually to the conclusion that not only was racial inequality wrong but Christians especially should demonstrate love toward all peoples.”

Spreading the Gospel

Graham drew praise as well as strong criticism for his de-emphasis of theological and political differences, explaining his primary aim was to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ as widely as possible.

Forays to countries that repressed Christianity drew censure from many fellow evangelicals.

When he began his ministry, he called communists “Satan worshippers,” but in May 1982 he went to Moscow to discuss peace and nuclear disarmament at a conference run by the state-controlled church.

Graham told reporters he found more religious freedom than he expected and was surprised at the warmth of his welcome.

Despite the communist nation’s documented, systematic persecution of Christians in the underground church, Graham emphasized “there are millions of people in the Soviet Union that go to church on Sunday and practice their religious faith.”

“I’m not an expert. … I learned that there are two sides to all these questions,” he said.

Meanwhile, demonstrators outside the Billy Graham Center at his alma mater, Wheaton College, carried signs reading “Billy Graham has been duped by the Soviets” and “Russian Baptists tortured as Graham praises the torturers.”

Later, Graham issued a statement saying there had been “apparent distortion and actual misquotes” about what he had said at the conference.

“Freedom is relative,” his statement said in part. “I don’t have freedom in the United States to go into a public school and preach the Gospel, nor is a student free in a public school to pray, or a teacher free to read the Bible publicly to the students. At the same time, we have a great degree of freedom for which I am grateful.”

Hope for the world

In a rare television interview late in his life, Dec. 22, 2010, the Fox News Channel’s Greta van Sustern asked Graham, “At age 92, do you have hope for the world, for the nation?”

“I have a tremendous amount of hope,” Graham replied, his once smooth, booming voice now measured and gravelly. “I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead, and I believe he’s alive right now.

“My wife is already in heaven,” he continued. “I look forward to seeing her in Heaven, definitely, because I’m 92 now, and I know that my time is limited on this earth.

“But I have tremendous hope in the fact I’ll be in the future life, and I’ll be there because of what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross and by the resurrection.”

(“For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.” 2 Thessalonians 2:7 NIV)

***

RT

Europe’s ‘last hope’ in face of mass migration is Christianity – Hungarian PM

February 19, 2018

Migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean into Europe on a rubber boat. © Hani Amara / Reuters

EU politicians endanger Europe by advocating migration, with Christianity being the only means of preventing a Muslim majority on the continent, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said.

“Our worst nightmares can come true,” Orban warned, referring to the influx of migrants from north Africa and the Middle East since 2015. “The West falls as it fails to see Europe being overrun.”

Orban told a huge crowd of supporters of his right-wing Fidesz party, who gathered in front of the Royal Castle in Budapest on Sunday, “Christianity is Europe’s last hope.” “Absurd as it may sound, the danger we face comes from the West, from politicians in Brussels, Berlin and Paris,” who advocate migration and “opened the way to the decline of Christian culture and the advance of Islam,” the PM added.

“The rate of migrants will grow at an accelerating pace in countries to the west of us… For example, the rate of native Germans has decreased in larger German cities. Migrants choose big cities to occupy first: In Bavaria, for instance, they spend more money on migration and integration (of migrants) than on the economy, environment and health combined,” he said.

The EU will find itself under “hideous pressure” if migrants from Muslim countries in Africa aren’t prevented from coming to the continent, Orban said. “If things don't change, there will be a Muslim majority in Europe,” he added.

The rally was dedicated to the launch of the ruling party’s campaign for the April 8 election, in which Fidesz are seen as strong favorites for a third consecutive landslide win. Orban’s popularity in Hungary is boosted by economic success and his firm anti-migrant stance. The country refused to accept refugees in accordance with EU quotas, going as far as building a double razor wire fence on its border to prevent illegal crossings, and was sued by the bloc.

Western European nations want Budapest to implement the same “policies that made them migrant-countries… They want us to accept migrants and have a mixed population,” the PM told the crowd and promised to “fight” the EU on the issue.

He said that Budapest will employ “ever-stronger legal tools” in the battle, recalling the so-called ‘Stop Soros Act,’ which is aimed at curbing migration and giving the state more control over foreign-funded NGOs that assist refugees.

Hungarian-born US philanthropist and multiculturalism advocate George Soros and Orban have been at odds for years. The PM has accused Soros of working to undermine European values, demographics and identity by flooding the continent with millions of Muslim asylum seekers. He also said that the American financier plans to interfere in April’s Hungarian election by spreading propaganda via his network of NGOs.

“Soros has antagonized not only us but also England, President Trump and Israel too… everywhere he wants to get migration accepted. It won’t work. We are not alone and we will fight together... and we will succeed,” Orban said.

The PM praised Hungary’s Visegrad Group partners — the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia — for sharing the anti-migrant stance, adding that “Croatia has come around, Austria has turned in a patriotic direction, and in Bavaria the CSU (Christian Social Union) has created a resistance… we don’t think the fight is hopeless — on the contrary, we are winning,” Orban said.

***

Voice of Europe

EU: HUNGARIAN TOWN CAN’T BE EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE BECAUSE THERE ARE “TOO MANY HAPPY WHITE PEOPLE”

And not enough migrants

FEBRUARY 17, 2018

The EU jury of the European Capital of Culture contest (EKF 2023), said that one of the participating towns is “too white and there are not enough migrants”, Hungarian news website “888.hu” reports.

With only seven semi-finalists left, the Hungarian town of Székesfehérvár made a promotional film for the jury. The film shows the town’s most beautiful places, a happy couple and some kids playing.

But the EU’s jury rejected the submission of Székesfehérvár’s debut film: “There are too many happy white people and crosses, and not enough migrants,” the jury said.

The film of the town also featured on YouTube and attracted over 3,000 views. One of the European Union’s experts replied with: “This is the propaganda film for white Christian Europe; everyone is white, happy and dancing in the streets.”

The mayor of the Hungarian town, Dr. András Cser-Palkovics, gave a press conference about the decision of the jury on Wednesday. He said that in fact no expert hearing was conducted, but the decision was solely based on daily political issues and accusations were directed at Székesfehérvár and the delegation.

The mayor also recalled the criticisms made by the film committee about Székesfehérvár: “They left the poor and the migrants out of the film, but at the same time, there were too many crosses, churches, and what was even worse, the attitude of the city, because they regarded this as a value.”

The jury decided after all to recommend the entries of Győr, Debrecen and Veszprém as finalists for the European Capital of Culture.

***

Townhall

Franklin Graham: Christians Should be Alarmed by ABC’s Anti-Christian Rhetoric

Todd Starns

February 20, 2018

Evangelical leader Franklin Graham said on the Todd Starnes Radio Show that every Christian in the nation should be offended and alarmed by recent anti-Christian rhetoric that was broadcast on ABC’s “The View.”

Joy Behar, one of the co-hosts of ABC’s “The View,” suggested last week that Christians who listen to the voice of God may be mentally ill.

“This is something reminiscent of what we saw during the second world war back in the 1930s with the rise of the Nazis. For Joy Behar to say that all Christians are mentally ill is like suggesting we need to lock them up. They need to be taken out of society because these people are a danger. These people are a threat,” Graham said on the nationally-syndicated radio show.

Graham, the president of Samaritan’s Purse and Graham Evangelistic Association, said he could not believe ABC News would permit such dangerous rhetoric to be broadcast on national television.

“Every Christian who is listening right now – whether you are a Catholic, whether you are a Protestant – Baptist, Evangelical, - whatever you may be – Pentecostal – this should scare the socks off of you,” Graham said.

Behar’s remarks were in response to a segment on Omarosa Manigault Newman, the reality television star turned White House staffer turned reality television star.

“As bad as you think Trump is, you would be worried about Pence — everyone that is wishing for impeachment might want to reconsider their life,” Omarosa said in a clip from “Celebrity Big Brother.”

“I am Christian. I love Jesus, but he thinks Jesus tells him to say things,” Omarosa told her fellow contestants.

Behar was stunned by the revelation that Vice President Mike Pence would listen to the voice of God.

“It’s one thing to talk to Jesus. It’s another thing when Jesus talks to you. That’s called mental illness, if I’m not correct, hearing voices,” Behar declared.

“We are mentally ill because we believe in God and we believe in his son Jesus Christ? I’m offended by what she said,” Graham told me.

Vice President Pence responded to Behar’s vile claims during an interview broadcast on C-SPAN.

“To have ABC maintain a broadcast forum that compared Christianity to mental illness is just wrong,” Pence saidWednesdayon C-SPAN. “It is simply wrong for ABC to have a television program that expresses that kind of religious intolerance.”

Co-host Sunny Hostin called the vice president’s Christianity “dangerous.”

“When you have a Mike Pence who now puts this religious veneer on things and who calls people values voters, I think we're in a dangerous situation. Look I'm Catholic. I'm a faithful person, but I don’t know that I want my vice president, um -- speaking in tongues and having Jesus speak to him,” she said.

Brent Bozell, the founder and president of Media Research Center, is calling on ABC News to apologize for what he called a “deplorable episode.”

“Make no mistake, the slurs against the Vice President’s faith insult millions of Christians and are unacceptable,” Bozell wrote in a letter to the network.

If there is no apology, Bozell warned that ABC News could face a grassroots uprising targeting the network’s sponsors.

“I am sure the advertisers of The View will be just as appalled as I am about the anti-Christian remarks made on the show. I hope you are able to take the appropriate action before we begin,” Bozell wrote.

***

WND

WHAT A LIFE: FROM BASEBALL STAR TO EVANGELIST

Bill Federer recounts phenomenal career of famous radio preacher pioneer

February 17, 2018

Billy Sunday preaching

A baseball star, Billy Sunday played for the Chicago White Stockings in the 1880s and later the Philadelphia Phillies.

Born during the Civil War in a log cabin in Iowa, his father, who was a Union Army soldier, died of pneumonia when Billy was a month old. At age 15, Billy Sunday struck out on his own, working several jobs before playing baseball. His career took off when he was recruited by A.G. Spalding, owner of the White Stockings and founder of Spalding Sporting Goods Company. Billy Sunday became one of the most popular athletes in the nation.

While leaving a Chicago saloon with some other players in 1886, he heard a group of gospel singers on the street from the Pacific Garden Mission. Attracted by the hymns, as they were the same ones his mother used to sing, Billy Sunday went to listen. He began attending services at the mission, where he experienced a conversion. Billy began attending YMCA meetings, quit drinking and got married.

A national sensation occurred Feb. 17, 1889, when Billy Sunday preached his first sermon as a Christian evangelist in Chicago. Billy Sunday went on to pioneer radio preaching, and did so enthusiastically that the FCC was formed when his radio signal overlapped ballgame broadcasts.

During the next 46 years, till his death November 6, 1935, over 100 million people heard Billy Sunday preach.

Commenting on prevailing Christian sentiments, Billy Sunday stated: “Rivers of America will run with blood filled to their banks before we will submit to them taking the Bible out of our schools.”

In his animated style, Billy Sunday said:

• “The devil says I’m out, but the Lord says I’m safe.”

• “Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in.”

• “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.”

• “I never see a man or a woman or boy or girl but I do not think that God has a plan for them. … He will use each of us to His glory if we will only let Him.”

Billy Sunday’s preaching against alcohol led to the passage of the 18th Amendment. He stated: “I am the sworn, eternal, uncompromising enemy of the Liquor Traffic. I ask no quarter and I give none. I have drawn the sword in defense of God, home, wife, children and native land, and I will never sheathe it until the undertaker pumps me full of embalming fluid, and if my wife is alive, I think I shall call her to my beside and say: ‘Nell, when I am dead, send for the butcher and skin me, and have my hide tanned and made into drum heads, and hire men to go up and down the land and beat the drums and say, ‘My husband, “Bill” Sunday still lives and gives the whiskey gang a run for its money.'”

Billy Sunday’s revival preaching followed in the tradition of:

• Scotland revivals beginning in the 1730s

• First Great Awakening preaching of George Whitefield

• Second Great Awakening camp meetings

• pre-Civil War preaching of Charles Finney

• post-Civil War evangelist D.L. Moody

• Welsh revivals at the turn of the last century

Billy Sunday inspired famous tent evangelists and revival preacher such as Oral Roberts and Billy Graham. Billy Sunday spoke in city after city across America where tens of thousands heard him in month long meetings. Huge wooden auditoriums, called Billy Sunday Tabernacles, were built to accommodate the crowds.

The Billy Sunday Tabernacle in Winona was the largest auditorium in northern Indiana for many years, seating 7,500. A Billy Sunday museum is on the campus of Grace College and Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana.

In 1910, Billy Sunday preached a historic revival in Joplin, Missouri, a mining town known for hotels, women of the night, gambling and saloons.

Rev. Frank Neff of the Independence Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church in Kansas City, and president of the Ministers Alliance of Joplin, told reporters: “We expect a great clean up in the city, but it will be in the nature of a religious awakening which will result in a permanent clean up and will come from a sincere desire of the people.”

During Joplin’s “Fifty Days of Sunday,” Billy Sunday explained: “A revival is the conviction of sin. Inside the church there must be a spiritual revival before it gets outside.”

Teaching that salvation was through faith in Jesus Christ, not in organized religion, Billy Sunday explained that churches were fine so far as they were “in the world, but all wrong when the world is in them,” adding: “You can go to hell just as fast from the church door as from the grog shop or bawdy house.”

Billy Sunday stated: “Live so that when the final summons comes you will leave something more behind you than an epitaph on a tombstone.”

Brought to you by AmericanMinute.com.

***

EXPRESS

Armed gangs WIPE OUT 15 villages in mass Christian slaughter in Nigeria

ARMED men stormed through 15 villages to massacre Christians and destroy their churches in a violent crackdown against the religion in Nigeria.

February 18, 2018

Dozens of people have been killed after the gangs ransacked towns and villages to clear them of all aspects of the Christian faith.

Houses belonging to believers have also been razed with authorities doing little to help, an anti-persecution watchdog claimed.

Open Doors spoke to one Christian who described the broad daylight attack carried out by a group of Fulani - one of Africa’s largest ethnicities.

A spokeswoman said: “One attack took place in broad daylight, as people were about to go to church.

“The assailants chased and killed the villagers and burned down nine churches and many more houses.”

Churches are regularly attacked in Nigeria in waves of Christian persecution

Christian persecution is a major problem in Nigeria which has been exacerbated by the spread of radical Islamic teaching and practice.

The shocked witness said Christians needed more protection from the country’s leader or lives would continue to be lost.

They said: “Despite several calls to the governor and his deputy, and other security apparatus, the government remained silent as the atrocities continued.

“The Fulani were able to carry out their deadly attack. They stayed for hours in the vicinity, moving at will, unchallenged.”

Christians are subject to waves of oppression and attacks in Nigeria

Details of the attack, which took place in north-eastern state of Adamawa earlier this year, have only just emerged.

In the central state of Nasarawa, 25 villages have been destroyed since January 15.

Again, the predominately Christian victims said they had been abandoned by leaders.

A spokesman for the Concerned Indigenous Tiv People group said: “Since the outbreak of the crisis on January 15 this year, due to the Fulani /herdsmen attack on our villages, leading to the displacement of Tiv in their ancestral homes, the Nasarawa State Governor, Tanko Almakura, has done very little to bring the situation under control.”

Fifteen villages were attacked in the state of Nasarawa

Other attacks have taken place in Benue State and across the Middle Belt region of the country. The Army has now been deployed to certain areas in order to stop the violence.
A spokeswoman for Open Doors said: “Believers experience discrimination and exclusion, and violence from militant Islamic groups, resulting in the loss of property, land, livelihood, physical injury or death; this is spreading southwards.

“Corruption has enfeebled the state and made it ill-equipped to protect Christians. Rivalry between ethnic groups and raids by Fulani herdsmen compound the persecution. Converts face rejection from their Muslim families and pressure to recant.”

***

JEWSNEWS

Muslims outraged as the Coliseum in Rome to be lit up in red February 24th, to draw attention to Islamic persecution of Christians around the world

BY BARENAKEDISLAM

February 15, 2018

The Roman Colosseum along with two churches in Mosul and Aleppo will be lit up by red lights later this month to draw attention to the global persecution of Christians.
“Christians are the victims of at least 75 percent of all religiously-motivated violence and oppression,” declared the latest report from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the group organizing the event, and moreover “the extent of this persecution is largely ignored by our media.”

In a gesture meant to combat global indifference to the plight of persecuted Christians, on Saturday, Feb. 24, one of Rome’s most iconic structures—the Colosseum—will be illuminated in red, representing Christians who have shed their blood for the faith.
In the 13 countries where Christians suffer the most intense persecution, the situation has worsened in all but one—Saudi Arabia—in the last two years, and conditions there have stayed the same.

“In almost all the countries reviewed,” the report reads, “the oppression and violence against Christians have increased since 2015 – a development especially significant given the rate of decline in the immediate run-up to the reporting period.”
The group has also complained of culpable inaction on the part of western countries that have shown little effective support for persecuted Christians in the Middle East.
“The one exception is Saudi Arabia, where the situation was already so bad it could scarcely get any worse,” the report said.

***

JOL

Iran will ‘level Tel Aviv to the ground’ if Israel makes ‘unwise’ move, official warns

Avital Zippel

February 20, 2018

Iranian news outlets quoted Expediency Council secretary Mohsen Rezaei on Monday warning Israel that if it carries out any “unwise” moves, Tehran would “level Tel Aviv to the ground and will not give any opportunity for Netanyahu to flee." The comments were made in response to the Israeli prime minister’s speech at the Munich Security Conference.

The remains of the Iranian drone Photo Credit: Twitter screenshot/IDF Spokesperson's Unit

Iran warned on Monday that if Israel took any military action against the Islamic republic, it would suffer crushing consequences. Addressing a meeting he conducted with IRGC officials in Tehran, secretary of Iran's Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei responded to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the Munich Security Conference.

According to a report in the Iranian semi-official Fars News Agency, Rezaei addressed the speech during an interview with Arabic-language al-Manar news agency. "About Netanyahu's unwise words, I should say that if they carry out the slightest unwise move against Iran, we will level Tel Aviv to the ground,” Rezaei was quoted as saying. “[Iran] will not give any opportunity for Netanyahu to flee."

As previously reported by JOL, Netanyahu spoke on Sunday at the Munich Security Conference, where he addressed the danger posed by Iran, both to Israel and to the entire world. Turning to Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was representing his country in the conference, Netanyahu displayed a piece of the downed Iranian drone and asked: "Do you recognize this? You should. It's yours."

***

SPUTNIK

House of Cards: Israeli Opposition Prepares to Celebrate End of 'Netanyahu Era'

February 21, 2018

Opposition leaders are not hesitating to say that Netanyahu’s days in power are numbered, after one of his confidants reportedly turned state witness in a bid to incriminate him on corruption allegations.

Shlomo Fiber, former director of the Communications Ministry under Netanyahu, who is under arrest on suspicion of advancing regulation worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Israel’s Bezeq telecom company, will allegedly testify against the prime minister in the so-called Case 4000, the Jerusalem Post reported. Bezeq, in turn, allegedly made sure that its popular news website Walla would provide favorable coverage of the Netanyahu family.

This bombshell report comes shortly after an explosive allegation that a different aide made an attempt to bribe a judge in exchange for dropping a corruption case against Sara Netanyahu.

Leader of the Zionist Union party Avi Gabbay believes that the opposition should get prepared for an early election in light of recent revelations.

“The events of the last two days and recent hours make very clear: The Netanyahu age is over. We must prepare for an election soon. The criminal house of cards the prime minister built in recent years — corrupting the civil service, harming the rule of law, threatening freedom of the press and more than all else, dividing Israeli society — is crashing down on him and around him,” Gabbay wrote in a letter to party lawmakers on Tuesday night.

Gabbay insisted that Netanyahu should resign immediately, claiming that other parties’ leaders would agree with him.

“We must focus our efforts on one thing: To win the elections and provide Israel with leadership and a government that has values, integrity, is transparent, does not flip-flop and is not working for any tycoons,” Gabbay stressed.

Either way, Zionist Union faction Chairman Yoel Hasson is said to be working on steps in preparation for an election on Wednesday, although, according to the Jerusalem Post, his office abstained from giving any comment on whether the party was preparing a bill to dissolve the Knesset.

At the same time, Meretz party member Ilan Gilon, who is running in the party’s leadership primary in March, urged candidates to form an election task force.

“The Netanyahu government’s days are numbered, and we already need to prepare for the upcoming election in order not to be caught unprepared, because we are dealing with our internal election,” Gilon said. “I call on my friends who are running for the position of Meretz chairman to reach agreements on manning and establishing an election committee before the primary. We cannot forget that the real and most important struggle is to replace the corrupt right-wing government and increase Meretz’s power in the next Knesset.”

Last week Israeli police recommended the indictment of the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on ground of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in two corruption cases.

Responding to the allegations, Netanyahu slammed the police probe against him is "like Swiss cheese" full of holes, stressing that the truth would eventually come out. He stated that his government was stable and no early election was being planned.

***

SPUTNIK

Jewish Foundation Says US Should Cut Ties With Poland Over Holocaust Speech Law

February 22, 2018

The Ruderman Family Foundation, an American Jewish philanthropic organization, recently initiated a campaign calling for the US to dissolve its ties with Poland over the country’s controversial new law that makes it illegal to accuse the Polish nation of complicity in Nazi crimes during World War II.

The campaign includes a petition for the US to suspend its ties to Poland on the NeverDeny.org website. The site also reportedly included a video message showing men, women and children saying "Polish Holocaust," according to Times of Israel. Other footage showed people asking about time spent in a "Polish prison." However, the footage is currently unavailable on the website or YouTube.

The contentious law, recently signed by President Andrzej Duda this month, is due to take effect February 28. However, the law is to be reviewed by Poland's constitutional court since it has generated much criticism.

The law makes it a crime punishable by up to three years behind bars to claim that the "Polish state" was to blame for or took part in Nazi crimes. The law also allows the Institute of National Remembrance, a research organization that specializes in the legal and historic examination of Poland, to demand compensation from any individual or organization that "falsifies" Polish history.

On Tuesday, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Bartosz Cichocki said on TVN24 that Poland will "react, demand clarifications, argue against them" [false accusations of involvement in the Holocaust]." However, he also added that "no means of prosecution will be implemented."

According to the Times of Israel, several Jewish organizations, among them Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Israel, along with the US Department of State, the French Foreign Ministry and the Israeli government, have criticized the law.

"This law is liable to blur historical truths due to limitations it places on expressions regarding the complicity of segments of the Polish population in crimes against Jews committed by its own people, either directly or indirectly, on Polish soil during the Holocaust," Yad Vashem said in a recent statement, the Jerusalem Post reported.

However, the museum noted that the phrase "Polish death camps" is erroneous since the concentration and extermination camps were operated by Germans in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson condemned Poland's new legislation in a statement.
"The US is disappointed that the president of Poland has signed legislation that would impose criminal penalties for attributing Nazi crimes to the Polish state," Tillerson said.

"We understand this law will be referred to Poland's Constitutional Tribunal. Enactment of this law adversely affects freedom of speech and academic inquiry," Tillerson added.

***

***

STRANGE SOUNDS

Iraq: The sky over Basra is tinged with a terrifying deep blood red color!

February 19, 2018

Basra, a city that has become famous all over the world during the Gulf War, has turned blood red on February 18, 2018. The strange sky phenomenon is most probably linked to a sandstorm that dyed the sky with this bloody color.

The sky over Basra turns blood red as dust storm engulfs Iraq on February 18 2018.

The strange sky phenomenon started at sunset.

Blood red sky = apocalypse, no?

(“Who [is] this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this [that is] glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Isaiah 63:1”)

AMMC

Hal Turner Radio Show

ULTIMATUM: Russia Warns Saudis: "Pull Forces out of Ghouta, Syria or it will be be OBLITERATED Grozny Style"

February 21, 2018

Russia has had quite enough of the "Rebels" operating in Syria with the support of foreign governments. Rebels in the suburbs of Damascus, an area called Ghouta, are particularly troublesome and those "rebels" are backed by, among others, Saudi Arabia.

This morning, a Russian Air Force plane flew directly from Damascus, Syria to Riyhad, Saudi Arabia, with a Russian Military official onboard who told the Saudis face-to-face "Pull your forces out of Ghouta or we will obliterate the place, Grozny-style."

The UN Secretary General has demanded an immediate end to fighting in the Eastern Ghouta in Syria, describing the rebel enclave as a "hell on earth".

"My appeal to all those involved is for an immediate suspension of all war activities," Antonio Guterres told the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

He said a ceasefire would allow humanitarian aid to reach the region.

The Eastern Ghouta has been under fierce bombardment from Syrian government forces in recent days.

The Syrian military says it is trying to liberate the area from what it terms terrorists.

"I believe Eastern Ghouta cannot wait," Mr Guterres said.

"This is a human tragedy that is unfolding in front of our eyes and I don't think we can let things go on happening in this horrendous way."

He said an end to the fighting would allow the evacuation of hundreds of people who require urgent treatment.

Russia has meanwhile called for an urgent Security Council meeting on Thursday to discuss the violence in the Eastern Ghouta.

Earlier on Wednesday, UN human rights commissioner Zeid Raad Al Hussein joined calls for an end to the conflict in the region.

"How much cruelty will it take before the international community can speak with one voice to say enough dead children, enough wrecked families, enough violence, and take resolute, concerted action to bring this monstrous campaign of annihilation to an end?" he said in a statement.

The Eastern Ghouta is dominated by the Islamist faction Jaysh al-Islam. But Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist alliance led by al-Qaeda's former affiliate in Syria, also has a presence there.

Pro-government forces, backed by Russia, intensified their efforts to retake the last major rebel stronghold on Sunday night.

Since then, activists say nearly 300 people have died, more than 60 of them children. At least 1,400 people have been injured, they say.

What Do they mean "Grozny-style?"

The 1999–2000 battle of Grozny was the siege and assault of the Chechen capital Grozny by Russian forces, lasting from late 1999 to early 2000. The siege and fighting left the capital devastated. In 2003, the United Nations called Grozny the most destroyed city on Earth.

At the time, Russia utilized Thermobaric Bombs against that city. Nothing survived those blasts. Those types of bombs, in terms of their local destructive power, are only one step below atomic weapons.

That's what Russia means.

*** CORRECTION: This story previously reported "a plane flew from Moscow to Riyhad carrying a Russian Envoy. . ." That has been corrected to report "a Russian Air Force plane flew from Damascus to Riyhad carrying a Russian Military General who told the Saudis . . ."

***

PRESSTV

Turkish army shells pro-Syrian government forces as they enter Afrin

February 20, 2018

Turkish-backed Syrian rebel fighters fire towards Kurdish forces from the People's Protection Units (YPG) in the Afrin region on February 19, 2018. (AFP photos)

The Turkish army has attacked pro-Syrian government forces that had earlier arrived in the Kurdish-held Afrin region in northwestern Syria to defend the Syrian Kurds against Turkey’s offensive.

"Turkish regime forces targeted the locations of popular forces with artillery fire as they arrived to the Afrin region," Syria’s state news agency SANA reported on Tuesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of popular forces from the National Defense Forces (NDF) supporting the government in Damascus began entering the Kurdish-held region of Afrin through the al-Ziyara crossing point north of the town of Nubl.

Turkish state news agency Anadolu said Turkey’s army fired "warning shots" at the Syrian popular forces, noting that they “retreated to about 10 kilometers from the town because of the warning shots."

The shelling marks a major escalation of tensions between the two countries since Turkey and its allied militants launched a military offensive against Afrin last month.

In a statement on Tuesday, US-backed People's Protection Units (YPG) spokesman Nouri Mahmoud said the Kurdish forces had called on the Syrian government to help fend off Turkey's assault.

"The Syrian government responded to the invitation, answered the call of duty and sent military units today, February 20, to take up positions on the borders, and participate in defending the territorial unity of Syria and its borders," the statement said.

This is the first time that Syrian government forces are deployed in the area since 2012 when the YPG held the area under its control.

Meanwhile, Turkish media say Turkey’s army and its allied Syrian opposition militants are advancing in Afrin and they have reportedly taken over a key road linking the Turkish-held town of Azaz to the city of Afrin. Turkish forces are in control of nine more villages in the region.

Earlier on Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country is set to “lay siege” to Afrin, noting that the siege will prevent YPG militants from “bargaining” with the Syrian government.

Ankara has said it would confront Syrian government forces if they came to the region.

Turkey has been waging “Operation Olive Branch” against Syria’s Afrin region since January 20 in a bid to eliminate the YPG, which forms the backbone of the US-back Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Turkish government views the YPG as a terror organization and the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The latter has been fighting for an autonomous region inside Turkey since 1984.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has harshly denounced the Turkish incursion as an act of aggression.

Ankara has threatened to expand the operation to the nearby city of Manbij, which is also controlled by the Kurdish militants, and beyond to the Iraqi border.

***

***

TURKISH OPPOSITION PARTY: WILL “INVADE, TAKE OVER 18 GREEK ISLANDS”

Claims there’s no document proving those islands belong to Greece

Uzay Bulut | Gatestone Institute - FEBRUARY 19, 2018

IMAGE CREDITS: ANADOLU AGENCY / GETTY.

In December, for instance, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main Turkish opposition CHP party, stated that when he wins the election in 2019, he will “invade and take over 18 Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, just as former Turkish PM Bulent Ecevit invaded Cyprus in 1974.” He said that there is “no document” proving that those islands belong to Greece.

Meral Akşener, the head of the newly established opposition “Good Party,” has also called for an invasion and conquest of the islands. “What is required must be done,” she tweeted on January 13.

The most garish muscle-flexing has come from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, of course, who seems emboldened by his military invasion of the Afrin region in northern Syria having gone virtually unchallenged.

“We warn those who have crossed the line in the Aegean and Cyprus,” Erdoğan declared, continuing:

“Their courage persists only until they see our army, our ships and our planes… Whatever Afrin is to us, our rights in the Aegean and Cyprus are the same. Do not ever think that the natural gas exploration in the waters of Cyprus and the opportunistic attempts in the Aegean Sea drop off our radar.

“Just as we disrupt the plots [in the region] through Operation Euphrates Shield and Operation Olive Branch [on Syria], and soon in Manbij and other regions, we can and we will disrupt the plots of those who engage in miscalculations on our southern border… Our warships and air forces are keeping an eye on the area closely to intervene in every way when required.”

Referring to the days of the Ottoman Empire, Erdoğan went on:

“Those who think that we have erased from our hearts the lands from which we withdrew in tears a hundred years ago are wrong.

“We say at every opportunity we have that Syria, Iraq and other places in the geography [map] in our hearts are no different from our own homeland. We are struggling so that a foreign flag will not be waved anywhere where adhan [Islamic call to prayer in mosques] is recited.

“The things we have done so far [pale in comparison to the] even greater attempts and attacks [we are planning for] the coming days, inshallah [Allah willing].”

The Ottoman dynasty and empire was established by a nomadic Turkmen chief sometime around the year 1300. During the more than 600 years of the Ottoman period, the Ottoman Turks, who also represented the Islamic Caliphate, regularly launched wars of jihad, invading and occupying lands across five continents.

Neo-Ottomanists in Turkey still proudly embrace the concept of jihad (Islamic holy war) against the kafirs (infidels). The head of the state-funded Directorate of Religious Affairs, the Diyanet, has openly described Turkey’s recent military invasion of Afrin as “jihad.”

This designation makes sense when one considers that Muslim Turks owe their demographic majority in Asia Minor to centuries of Turkish Muslim persecution and discrimination against the Christian, Yazidi and Jewish inhabitants of the area. In the 11th century, Turkic jihadists from Central Asia invaded and conquered the Greek-speaking, Christian Byzantine Empire, paving the way for the gradual Turkification and Islamization of the region through methods such as murder, kidnapping, rape and forced conversions.

The greatest 20th century Turkish assault against Christians took place in the 1914-1923 genocide of Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians (Syriacs/Chaldeans) in Ottoman Turkey. This did not prevent Turkey, which continues to deny the genocide, from becoming a member of NATO in 1952. The assault also did not stop Turkey, three years after joining NATO, from committing a savage anti-Greek pogrom in Istanbul or from forcibly expelling the remaining Greeks from Turkey in 1964.

It is precisely because the Turks have never been held accountable for their criminal actions and aggression that they continue to threaten the security and sovereignty of their neighbors. It is high time for the West wake up and take Ankara to task.

***

RT

New South African president wants to seize land from white farmers without compensation

February 22, 2018

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa © Mike Hutchings / Reuters

South Africa’s new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has pledged to return the lands owned by white farmers since the 1600s to the black citizens of the country.

The government plans to accelerate land redistribution through expropriation without compensation.

“The expropriation of land without compensation is envisaged as one of the measures that we will use to accelerate the redistribution of land to black South Africans,” said Ramaphosa, who was sworn into office to succeed Jacob Zuma as president last week.

The millionaire ex-businessman Ramaphosa promised that land expropriation operations will not be a “smash and grab” exercise and promised to handle the matter properly, adding that people “must see this process as an opportunity.”

“No-one is saying that land must be taken away from our people,” he said, “Rather, it is how we can make sure that our people have equitable access to land and security of tenure. We must see this process of accelerated land redistribution as an opportunity and not as a threat,” he added during a speech to parliament on Tuesday.

Such a drastic move would not damage the country’s agriculture or economy, the South African president promised.

“We will handle it with responsibility. We will handle it in a way that will not damage our economy, that is not going to damage agricultural production,” he said.

More than two decades after the end of apartheid in the 1990s, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party is under pressure to tackle racial disparities in land ownership in South Africa. The country is home to over 50 million people, with whites owning most of the land.

According to a recent study, black South Africans constitute 79 percent of the population, but directly own only 1.2 percent of the country’s rural land. Meanwhile, white South Africans, who constitute 9 percent of the country’s population, directly own 23.6 percent of its rural land, and 11.4 percent of land in towns and cities, according to the Land Audit report.

A similar program of land redistribution was carried out by then-Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Thousands of white farmers were forced from their lands.

However, food production plummeted without the experienced farmers’ contribution, and Zimbabwe’s economy suffered massively. In 2010, the Guardian reported that Mugabe used land reform to reward his allies rather than ordinary black Zimbabweans. In 2016, Mugabe signed a decree that foreign companies would face closure unless they sold or gave up 51 percent of their shares.

Speaking about the redistribution of land in his country, Ramaphosa said that “in dealing with this complex matter”South Africa would not “make the mistakes that others have made.”

***

ANCIENT-ORIGINS

Similar Petroglyphs in Israel, America Reveal Ancient Global Language?

By Tara MacIsaac , Epoch Times

Brigham Young University is a Mormon school, and Mormons believe ancient people from Israel settled in America.

Harris and Dann W. Hone published their book “The Name of God: From Sinai to the American Southwest. A Script and Language of Ancient Palestine Also Found in the Ancient American Southwest,” in 1998. Stephen D. Ricks, a professor of Hebrew at Brigham Young University, reviewed the book, pointing out some weaknesses in the authors’ arguments, but ultimately agreeing that the petroglyphs in Colorado, USA, near the town of La Junta could show a common root with Semitic languages.

Ricks wrote about a sign described by Harris and Hone as an ankh symbol, a sign of “life in the realm of the gods.”

“While this may in fact be the importation of an ankh sign, it could also be a symbol with a very different meaning, or no meaning at all. We ought to be very cautious when assigning meanings to signs,” Ricks wrote. He said the authors left out characters that inconveniently did not convey the meanings they sought to input or which posed problems for their theories.

“And yet there may be a kernel of truth standing behind their efforts. I am persuaded … that a striking resemblance between the petroglyph signs of the American Southwest and the early Semitic alphabets exists. Still, I have yet to be persuaded that the writers of the petroglyphs were full-fledged, bona fide speakers of Hebrew,” he wrote.

The theory seems to have gotten little attention outside of the Mormon academic community.

Davida Eisenberg-Degen at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, who has examined many of the Negev petroglyphs, has commented that the petroglyphs have been generally under-studied because of violence in the region. She wrote on her blog in 2012: “The Negev’s rock art has generally been neglected by archaeologists. There are two major reasons for this. First, few scholars have actually ventured into the Negev to examine its rock art. Until well into the 20th century, the Negev was a dangerous barren wilderness occupied by Bedouin tribes. And for those explorers such as Edward Henry Palmer, who did venture into this wasteland, the Negev’s petroglyphs were ‘mere scratches on the rock, the work of idle loungers, consisting for the most part of mere names interspersed with rude figures of men and animals.'”

***

RT

Ancient ‘gate to hell’ still emitting poison gas centuries after mysterious deaths

February 19. 2018

Archaeological sites at Hierapolis. ©Gerig Ullstein / Getty Images

Scientists studying an ancient site in Turkey, once thought to be a gate to hell, have found that the deaths recounted at the stone grotto in historical texts were most likely caused by noxious natural gas.

The Ploutonion at Hierapolis, or Hades’ Gate – said to contain the deathly breath of the Greek god of the underworld – is located in modern day Denizli, Turkey.

Its existence was confirmed in 2013 by Italian archaeologist Francesco D’Andria. Now researchers have found that the Roman-Greco grotto in the ancient ruins of Hierapolis emits concentrated levels of CO2, perhaps giving a scientific reason for unexplained fatalities at the site.

Published in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, the study was lead by professor Hardy Pfanz of the University of Duisberg-Essen, Germany.

“In a grotto below the temple of Pluto, CO2 was found to be at deadly concentrations of up to 91%,” the study reveals.

“Astonishingly, these vapors are still emitted in concentrations that nowadays kill insects, birds and mammals.”

The reason for the gas emission is due to seismic activity, with the cave reportedly situated above the Babadag fault line.

Greek geographer Strabo once recounted around 17AD how he witnessed animals being sacrificed in the cave, which was so full of vapor that “one can scarcely see the ground.”

“Now to those who approach… anywhere around the enclosure the air is harmless, since the outside is free from that vapor in calm weather… but any animal that passes inside meets instant death,” he wrote.

“At any rate, bulls that are led into it fall and are dragged out dead,” he added.

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1&1

North Korea: 28 domains for 25 million inhabitants

07.03.17

The internet now consists of more than 314 million domains worldwide. Overall, there are upwards of 200 different country code top level domains (ccTLDs), all of which relate to a specific land or region. According to the 2016 Versign Domain Report, .com was the most popular ending worldwide with 123 million registered domains globally. With regards to country-specific top level domains, those at the top of the list are Tokelau, China and Germany, followed by the UK in 4th place.

Here in the UK we have a population of 65 million people and approximately 12 million domains. Compare that then with North Korea; a population of 25 million with access to a paltry 28 domains. This figure came to light after a system malfunction (more specifically a wrongly-configured server) led to the list of North Korean domains under the .kp top level domain being released. From there the list found its way into the hands of the Guardian newspaper. What it revealed was that in North Korea the freely-available internet database is made up of 28 registered domains – or at least this is the amount accessible to internet users. All other domains are on a so-called ‘blacklist’. There is however next to nothing known about the state’s own intranet, which remains completely inaccessible from outside, hidden from the rest of the world.

Everything from maritime affairs to cooking recipes

A glance at the selection of sites shows a large amount of official state websites, e.g. that of the regime’s committee for cultural relations or the maritime affairs authority. Perhaps surprisingly there are also a lot of sites pertaining to normal and everyday topics, ranging from Korean food recipes to film festivals. News, sports and communication portals, as well as a website for the state’s airline, offering the possibility to book a flight there and then. The complete list of domains can be found on Reddit. Since going public, several of the websites on the list are no longer accessible. This may be down to the sudden increase in visitor numbers. However, it could also be the case that they have been offline now for quite some time.

Alongside North Korea’s severely limited supply of domains, there is a policy of ever-present and very strict monitoring of internet users. The regime casts a stern and watchful eye over all internet activity and has the ability to cut off anyone’s online access at any time. This is set to be the case for the foreseeable future, as the global trend towards a more communal and international online monitoring system has up till now, been wholeheartedly rejected by the North Koreans. Control and monitoring continue to play a central role in all interactions with internet users. So how then did all this domain information come to light, given that the regime manages so well to keep its internal affairs so secret? The reason for this is a security leak in the Korean network, identified by an IT specialist from the west and who as a result succeeded in filtering out the 28 domain names. He then published his work on the programming portal GitHub.

RT

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RT

Ancient elephants & Mayan shrine: Massive underwater caves reveal staggering history

February 20, 2018

© Gran Acuifero Maya, INAH

Archaeologists in Mexico have been showing off discoveries unearthed during their aquatic expeditions into the world’s largest underwater cave.

Researchers from the Gran Acuifero Maya (GAM) exploration and preservation group presented ancient relics recovered from the site on Monday, including fossils of a type of ancient elephant, giant sloths and a shrine to a Mayan god. It’s believed that desperate animals ventured into the caves in search of water at times of severe drought, some of which then became trapped.

"It’s very unlikely that there is another site in the world with these characteristics. There is an impressive amount of archaeological artefacts inside, and the level of preservation is also impressive," Guillermo de Anda, an underwater archaeologist, told a press conference Monday.

Two networks of underwater caves, known as the Sac Actun and Dos Ojos, totalling 350km (217 miles) in length were discovered last month in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. They were found to intersect at a natural pit or sinkhole, known as a cenote, in a jungle area of the coastal town of Tulum. It is hoped that the remains found within these networks will help scientists develop a picture of the cave’s history, which they believe dates back more than 2.5 million years to the Pleistocene era.

The Yucatan peninsula is known for the number of Mayan ruins found throughout the state. It is believed that the civilization made extensive use of the cenotes for sacrificial offerings as well as travel between cities. Some cenotes are also believed to have held great religious and cultural significance. According to Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, the ancient Mayans would have seen the caves as “extremely sacred places.”

MailOnline

Thousand-year-old 'lost' pyramid city uncovered in the heart of Mexico using lasers had as many buildings as modern Manhattan

• Experts used lasers to send beams of light from an aircraft to the ground below to build up a map of the area

• They discovered a lost pyramid city known as Angamuco built by the Purépecha, rivals to the Aztecs

• The city was more than double the size of Tzintzuntzan, the culture's capital, at 10 square miles (26 sq km)

• It contained 40,000 building foundations which is roughly the same as on the island of Manhattan

By Tim Collins For Mailonline

PUBLISHED: 17:26, 16 February 2018 | UPDATED: 14:39, 19 February 2018

Article

MailOnline

Frightening moment schoolchildren flee as colossal cloud of suffocating ash spews 5,000 metres into the air from Indonesian volcano

• Indonesian volcano Mount Sinabung has been erupting since last Wednesday

• Terrifying video shows huge ash clouds and plumes of smoke across the sky

• Children fled for their lives as plumes of volcanic ash spewed from mountain

• Officials said there are no casualties yet but residents should watch out for lava

• The mountain sits on a volatile volcanic zone which is prone to seismic activity

By MAX MARGAN and BEN HILL FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and FAIMA BAKAR FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 03:56, 20 February 2018 | UPDATED: 04:01, 20 February 2018

Article

MailOnline

Thousand-year-old 'lost' pyramid city uncovered in the heart of Mexico using lasers had as many buildings as modern Manhattan

• Experts used lasers to send beams of light from an aircraft to the ground below to build up a map of the area

• They discovered a lost pyramid city known as Angamuco built by the Purépecha, rivals to the Aztecs

• The city was more than double the size of Tzintzuntzan, the culture's capital, at 10 square miles (26 sq km)

• It contained 40,000 building foundations which is roughly the same as on the island of Manhattan

By Tim Collins For Mailonline

PUBLISHED: 17:26, 16 February 2018 | UPDATED: 14:39, 19 February 2018

TIME

Amish People Stay Healthy in Old Age. Here's Their Secret

Illustration by Pete Ryan for TIME

By JEFFREY KLUGER

February 15, 2018

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Until next week...keep on believing.
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“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
(Philippians 1:6)