Israel Report Weekly Saturday 18 December 2021
Evidence for a Genuine Faith
18 December 2021
If you sincerely wish to be kept from that hour of 'temptation" which is to "come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth" [Revelation 3;10] [which is surely and rapidly developing today], one must hold to a faith that can withstand the coming onslaught by sound evidence of its truth.
A faith based on genuine history and prophetic insight - worthy of our trust.
So many damning religious systems exist today that demand adherents submit to various laws, edicts and regulations which are pleasing to the fallen human psyche yet disastrous to our spiritual well-being.
Overarching these belief structures is the Darwinian treachery of Evolution. A gradual rise and development of humanity from the primordial mists of a millennia ago. The time required for such a process must of necessity require a long period, and from such chaos order must eventually arise.
This of course is totally opposed to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics the evidence of which is all around us. In our world order finally becomes chaos -an observable experiment that completely dismisses the evolutionary theory.
No, our faith must be judged on its claim to historical, geological and geographic truth, eyewitness accounts, and a supernatural ability to foretell future events - and for those to have been observed to be accurately fulfilled.
Only ONE faith can survive such a rigorous test - Judeo Christianity. It requires a living Saviour - a righteous being who took upon Himself the penalty required for the sinfulness of humankind.
A risen Saviour, who has no grave. Buddha is dead, Mohammed is dead, Confucius is dead, the millions of Hindu gods are a myth - only one person has been physically seen by many hundreds to die and to be resurrected.
It is written evidence that would hold up in any court of law.
This is the rational and saving faith - a faith that promises eternal life to those that believe.
To pass into eternity not holding fast to this faith is to ignore the overwhelming evidence before us - the very definition of insanity?
As Jesus Himself said; I am the way and the truth and the life, no one can come to the Father but through me. [John 14;6]
Weeks Left to Rescue Iran Nuclear deal, - Talks Break.....
18 December 2021
Talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal were held in Vienna on Friday. Iran is said to have made the request.
Negotiators at indirect talks between Iran and the United States on rescuing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have weeks not months to reach an agreement, European powers and the talks' coordinator said, as negotiations adjourned on Friday for at least 10 days.
The talks have made little discernible progress since they resumed more than two weeks ago for the first time since Iran's hard-line president, Ebrahim Raisi, [pictured below] was elected in June.
Tehran's envoys have sought sweeping changes to the outline of an agreement that had taken shape in six previous rounds of talks, leaving the negotiations largely deadlocked while Western powers warn ever more loudly that time is running out to rein in Iran's fast-advancing nuclear activities.
"We don't have months, we rather have weeks to have an agreement," European Union envoy Enrique Mora [pictured above] told a news conference after a meeting that formally ended the seventh round of talks.
He said he hoped they would resume this year, while some officials have mentioned December 27 as a tentative date.
Officials said Iran had requested the break, while Western powers had planned on staying until Tuesday.
Mora said all sides had incorporated Iran's demands into the existing text so as to have a common basis for negotiation, but the three west European powers that signed the 2015 deal sounded less optimistic.
"We hope that Iran is in a position to resume the talks quickly, and to engage constructively so that talks can move at a faster pace," negotiators from France, Britain, and Germany, the so-called E3, said in a statement, adding: "We are rapidly reaching the end of the road for this negotiation."
Syria claims Israel strike in the south, killing a soldier.......
17 December 2021
Israel is alleged by a Syrian “military source” to have “carried out an air raid from the Golan at around 12:50 Wednesday with several missiles…targeting several positions in the south.”
Syrian air defences were said to have shot down most of the missiles. A Syrian soldier was reported killed and material damage caused.
Earlier, a Syrian source said locations in suburban Damascus were also struck.
Without directly acknowledging the attack, Israel’s prime minister Naftali Bennett said later: “We are repelling the malign forces in this region by day and by night and will not stop for a second.”
Last week, Israel was alleged to have struck the container port at the Syrian Mediterranean port of Latakia.
The target was later described as a shipment of advanced weapons, including cruise missile and kamikaze drones, incoming by sea from Iran.
An Israeli man shot dead, two injured in Palestinian West Bank ambush......
December 17, 2021
An Israeli man of 20 took a bullet to the throat and two of his companions were injured, one seriously, when their car came under gunfire Thursday night on a road leading out of Homesh west of Nablus.
A medical team made an all-out effort to stabilise the critically injured man before evacuating him to hospital but failed to save his life.
The two wounded men were driven by ambulance to hospital. Military and security forces have mounted an urgent manhunt for two Palestinian gunmen believed to have ambushed the Israel vehicle.
Killed was Yehuda Dimentman, 25, a yeshiva student.[pictured above]
He is survived by a wife and 9-month-old baby. Three IDF battalions, scouring northern Samaria for the two Palestinian gunmen, have detained several suspects for questioning.
The driver Aviah Entman, who survived the attack, reported that as soon as the gunshots were heard, he raced the car towards Shavei Shomron, while calling for aid.
The terrorists are believed to have laid in wait for their victims in bushes outside Homesh and then opened fire at close range.
While Arab Palestinian knifing and car-ramming attacks have escalated in recent weeks, this was the second terrorist shooting attack.
On November 21, a Hamas gunman in the Old City of Jerusalem murdered South African-born Israeli tour guide Eli Kay, 26.
Turkey could tip the balance in the Ukraine-Russia standoff......
17 December 2021
As the United States and its European allies scramble to deter Russia from invading Ukraine again, the use of direct military force seems to be off the table.
Yet there’s one NATO member state that successfully persuaded the Kremlin to sue for peace twice in recent years using that very tactic: Turkey.
Now, Ankara is raising the stakes by doubling down on its defence cooperation with Kyiv and recommitting itself to the continued sale of dozens of Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), [pictured above] much to Russia’s ire.
This may come as a surprise to anyone who has watched Turkey seemingly drift toward Russia—and away from NATO—in recent years.
In 2017, Ankara signed a deal to purchase the highly sophisticated Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile defense system, to which the United States responded by banishing Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet program and eventually sanctioning the country under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).
But in reality, Turkish-Russian relations are complex and characterized by both competition and cooperation [Ezekiel 38/9] across multiple theatres and dimensions.
Looming in the background are centuries of diplomatic antagonism and military conflict often centred on the Black Sea region—a balancing act that’s playing out again now.
Despite Turkey’s shared economic interests with Russia in energy, tourism, construction, and agricultural exports, Ankara joined its NATO allies in rejecting Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and reaffirming Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
That stance, which has hardened over time, was partially explained by its historical anger over ethnically Turkic Crimean Tatars falling under Russian rule again.
But Turkey’s drone sale, which came five years after Israel balked at selling its own models to Ukraine for fear of antagonizing Russia, is particularly significant.
Having witnessed the devastating impact of Turkey’s innovative drone-based tactics— combining the UAV’s battlefield intelligence and precision rocket strikes with closely coordinated stand-off artillery assaults aimed at neutralising defences and capitalising on air superiority—Russia has plenty of reason to worry.
Such attacks fought Russian and Syrian government forces to a standstill in Syria’s Idlib province in March 2020 and prompted Russia to recommit to its previous agreement with Turkey to protect Idlib as a “safe zone.” Just months later,
Turkey reversed an offensive by Russian mercenaries and Libyan fighters that had already reached the outskirts of Tripoli.
Turkey’s combination of military firmness and diplomatic sobriety offers important capabilities for NATO as it struggles to deter further Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Moscow, for its part, has also been careful not to alienate Ankara—perhaps because of mutual economic interests, or because it simply wants to deepen the wedge between Ankara and its NATO allies.
Developing...........
In Turkey, critics say the sultan has no clothes. Erdogan's advisers won't tell him........
18 December 2021
In Turkey, the lira is falling, and so is the sky. Prices at supermarkets are changing almost daily. Lines for subsidized bread are growing.
Turks are unable to make ends meet as the costs of potatoes, flour and chicken soar. Almost universally, pundits blame one man: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The autocratic Erdogan - who ascended to power during George W. Bush's first term as U.S. president - has effectively declared war on financial orthodoxy, throwing fuel on the fire of a currency crisis by lowering interest rates when economists argue he should be doing exactly the opposite: jacking them up to defend the lira.
But Erdogan, who claims to have studied economics, says he knows best.
Asking Turks to be "patient," he insists a weaker currency and lower interest rates will boost Turkish exports, create jobs, spur growth and beat back inflation.
Having accumulated power over the years, while purging those who questioned him from the government's ranks, Erdogan, critics say, is now surrounded by yes-men.
He has fired free thinkers in Turkey's Central Bank, leaving experts fretting there may be no one left with the president's ear to say the sultan has no clothes.
Analysts are beginning to question whether Erdogan's financial follies may do what years of power consolidation and repressive tactics haven't: Cost him his job.
The next presidential poll won't take place until 2023.
Weekly World News Briefing with Tom Hughes and Don Perkins - 16 December 2021