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Factoring Israel Into Your Voting Decision

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God certainly has his ways of getting our attention, and He got my attention this past Saturday night when I was speaking at a pre-election conference at a church in Lakeland, Florida.

The pastor and his wife have three small children, the middle one being a boy named Israel, just three years old.

His grandmother, the pastor’s mother-in-law, was babysitting for him and his sister at the pastor’s house, when suddenly, to her shock, the boy was nowhere to be found. She tried calling her son-in-law and daughter, who were at the church service, finally reaching them on the fourth try.

“Israel is missing!” she exclaimed, as they jumped in their car to head home, calling 911 on the way.

At this time, the night service was now over, and I was waiting for the pastor to drive me back to the hotel, but he had disappeared and was nowhere to be found. That’s when a church worker came up to me and said, “I’ll be driving you back,” explaining to me that the pastor had received a message that “Israel is missing.”

Thankfully, by then, he had been found, asleep in his own bed. Apparently, he had wandered somewhere else in the house, falling asleep in a closet or in the garage, somehow evading his frantically searching grandmother, only to find his way back to his bed and to a quiet night’s sleep.

But those words “Israel is missing” kept ringing in my ears, and when I woke up Sunday morning, reflecting on whether I should speak on Israel and the elections, there was an Amber Alert on my phone for a missing child in the area (obviously, not for little Israel, but the coincidence of the moment was not to be missed).

This certainly got my attention.

But given the importance of America’s relationship with Israel, I didn’t need any kind of special sign to focus on the subject, since I honestly believe that God judges nations, in part, based on how they treat Israel.

Now, before you write me off as some kind of hyper-spiritual, Zionist nut case, let me explain what I do and do not mean. (For those of you who don’t believe the Bible is God’s Word, then I’m already a hyper-spiritual nut case in your eyes. No problem!)

First, standing with Israel does not mean standing against the Palestinians or sanctioning everything Israel does.

Second, if a country stands with Israel, that does not give that country some kind of magic pass because of which God will overlook all their transgressions.

Third, we stand with Israel despite Israel’s shortcomings, not because Israel is perfect (far from it).

That being said, I believe the ancient principle spoken first to Abraham, then to his grandson Jacob, then to the nation of Israel as a whole, still applies today, namely, that God blesses those who bless Israel and curses those who curse Israel (see Genesis 12:3; 27:29; Numbers 24:9).

How has this worked out historically?

In Jeremiah 30:11, the Lord said to Israel,

For I am with you to save you, declares the LORD; I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I scattered you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.

Looking back, we can see that Assyria and Babylon, the mighty empires that exiled Israel and Judah in the 8th and 6th centuries, ceased to exist in the centuries that followed, while the nation of Germany suffered horrific defeat in war and was divided for decades after the Holocaust.

Are these just coincidences? I think not.

Derek Prince, an Oxford-trained, British Bible teacher (1915-2003), noted many years ago that, “Britain emerged victorious from two World Wars, retaining intact an empire that was perhaps the most extensive in human history. But in 1947–8, as the mandatory power over Palestine, Britain opposed and attempted to thwart the rebirth of Israel as a sovereign nation with her own state.” (At that time, Prince was living in Jerusalem, and so he spoke “as an eyewitness of what actually took place.”)

In his words,

From that very moment in history, Britain’s empire underwent a process of decline and disintegration so rapid and total that it cannot be accounted for merely by the relevant political, military or economic factors. Today, less than a generation later, Britain — like Spain — is a struggling, second-rate power.

It’s for you to decide whether you believe any of this, but in my humble opinion, even though America helps Israel every year with billions of dollars of military aid, I believe America needs Israel more than Israel needs America.

And since the Republican platform is much stronger on Israel than is the Democratic platform (this seems to reflect the views of Trump-Pence vs. Clinton-Kaine as well), that’s another strong reason I will vote for Trump-Pence on Tuesday, despite Mr. Trump’s many obvious and serious flaws. (For more from the author of “Factoring Israel Into Your Voting Decision” please click HERE)

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OBAMA’S PARTNERS IN PEACE: We Will Turn Israel ‘to Dust’

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A banner at an Iranian military parade Wednesday threatened to “turn Tel Aviv and Haifa to Dust,” The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday.

Iran held military parades across the country to commemorate the start of the 1980 war with Iraq. At the Tehran parade, which was shown on state television, a banner on a military truck read, “If the leaders of the Zionist regime make a mistake then the Islamic Republic will turn Tel Aviv and Haifa to dust.”

Iran displayed its latest military equipment at the parades, including the recently acquired Russian S-300 air defense systems. The Iranian navy displayed over 500 vehicles, including submarines and helicopters, at the parade in the port city of Bandar Abbas.

The test launch of an Iranian ballistic missile received global attention in March because the missile had the phrase “Israel must be wiped from the face of the earth” inscribed on it in Hebrew.

Ahmad Karimpour, a senior adviser to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, boasted in May that “If the Supreme Leader’s orders [are] to be executed, with the abilities and the equipment at our disposal, we will raze the Zionist regime in less than eight minutes.” (Read more from “OBAMA’S PARTNERS IN PEACE: We Will Turn Israel ‘to Dust'” HERE)

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A Soros Plan, a Marginalized Israel

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After the election of Barack Obama in 2009, the George Soros organization saw an opportunity to weaken the pro-Israel lobby’s influence in Washington. So his Open Society Foundations began an ambitious project in 2009 to persuade Europe and the U.S. to “hold Israel accountable” for violations of international law.

This plan was outlined in two internal papers from the Open Society Foundations that were published online this month. They disclose how a web of grants to Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups were part of a larger strategy to influence Congress, reporters and government officials.

It started with so much hope after Obama won the 2008 election. “The right-wing so called ‘pro-Israel’ lobby has lost some credibility by being closely associated with Bush Administration Middle East policies,” a 2013 summary of the foundation’s “Palestine/Israel International Advocacy Portfolio” said. “As the Obama Administration distances itself from these somehow discredited policies, space for reasonable, unbiased discussions in the policy deliberations, including criticism of Israeli policies, is opening.”

There was, however, a catch. Soros’s organization, then known as the Open Society Institute, did not want to be open about its advocacy. A 2009 paper on the project says the organization must “maintain a low public profile regarding OSI sponsorship of this initiative.”

The 2013 document describes the “toxic atmosphere” in 2000 and 2001 when the foundation began its work in the Middle East, and how this environment could lead to “politically motivated investigations” from either the Bush administration or what it calls “pro-Israel entities.” Soros himself was worried about George W. Bush. In 2006, he said the president’s communications strategy reminded him of Nazi and Communist propaganda. Hence his foundations took a “cautious approach.” (Read more from “A Soros Plan, a Marginalized Israel” HERE)

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Report: US Tax Dollars Paid for Anti-Netanyahu Effort in Israel

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Obama administration officials “took no action” to stop the Department of State-financed group called OneVoice International when it launched a campaign to topple Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a bipartisan Senate staff report issued Tuesday.

The report is the first official confirmation of Obama administration political meddling in the 2015 Israeli national elections. Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations endorsed the report.

It’s likely to rekindle anger within Israel over the anti-Netanyahu tilt expressed by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her successor, Secretary of State John Kerry.

Neither Clinton nor Kerry attempted to block the award of U.S. tax dollars to the group despite its public intervention in Israeli politics.

“OneVoice’s track record of involvement in Israeli elections did not deter the State Department from making the grants,” the report said. “The subcommittee’s investigation revealed that, during the grant period, OneVoice developed a political strategy designed to defeat the incumbent Israeli government.”

The report also said, “the State Department failed to adequately guard against the risk that resources built with government grants would be deployed for political purposes.”

The subcommittee also found “there were regular meetings between State Department officials and grantee representatives, including some 26 meetings or events recorded by the U.S. embassy that were held between various officials and OneVoice.”

Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio said “it is completely unacceptable that U.S. taxpayer dollars were used to build a political campaign infrastructure that was deployed against the leader of our closest ally in the Middle East. The State Department ignored warnings signs and funded a politically active group in a politically sensitive environment with inadequate safeguards.”

At one point, some State Department officials expressed discomfort about the group’s anti-Israel messaging, including promotional materials “proclaiming Jerusalem to be the holy capital of Palestine.”

Even so, OneVoice received a grant of $465,000 which included the payment of $40,000 to 270 Strategies, OneVoice’s consulting firm.

270 Strategies is an American political consulting firm founded by Jeremy Bird and Mitch Stewart, two senior campaign staff for Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.

Former Ambassador Marc Ginsberg, who served during President Jimmy Carter’s administration and was the U.S. ambassador to Morocco under President Bill Clinton, was CEO of OneVoice at the time.

Ginsberg received $211,000 in income, according to the 2014 tax filing for the parent organization, called the Peaceworks Foundation

Jewish billionaire Daniel Lubetzky underwrites Peaceworks. The group reported in 2014 net assets of $3.8 million.

In 2016, Lubetzky donated $7,300 to the Democratic National Committee and $2,700 to presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.

In an email obtained by the subcommittee, Ginsberg “circulated a ‘roadmap strategy” and said 270 Strategies “has become an essential partner” for the group.

OneVoice “resources would be deployed to disrupt the Netanyahu-led coalition by pushing for the ‘defection’ of ‘center/center-left political parties,’” the report said.

The staff stated the “Definition of Success” would be “forcing the [Netanyahu- led] coalition to collapse,” according to a OneVoice memo.

“As described by its CEO, OneVoice’s objective was to use its grassroots- organizing resources to become a decisive influence in the next election,” according to the report.

OneVoice was not coy about its political ambitions in its discussions with federal officials.

“OneVoice was candid with the State Department regarding its past political involvement. … Less than six months before seeking State Department funds, [OneVoice] had operated a grassroots campaign in the 2013 Israeli parliamentary elections to help ‘increase[e] the number of center-left seats in the [Israeli] Knesset’—which it described as one of its ‘Strategic Milestones,’” according to the report.

When the Netanyahu coalition government collapsed, “OneVoice shifted its focus to influencing the electoral outcome by working to defeat incumbent Prime Minister Netanyahu. Planning for this effort began during the period when OneVoice was still a State Department grantee.”

OneVoice did not directly use State Department funds for political activities, “but it did use the campaign infrastructure and resources that it had built, in part, with State Department funds to support a campaign to defeat Prime Minister Netanyahu in the 2015 elections,” the report said.

OneVoice “absorbed” the Israeli anti-Netanyahu group called “Victory 15” or V15. “V15 had no further independent organizational existence,” the report said. “There was no legal entity known as V15 in Israel or the United States. V15 had no separate bank account.” (For more from the author of “Report: US Tax Dollars Paid for Anti-Netanyahu Effort in Israel” please click HERE)

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Iran Threatens to Destroy Israel in ‘Less Than Eight Minutes’

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A top Iranian commander has claimed that the Islamic Republic had the ability to destroy Israel “in less than eight minutes,” according to comments offered on the same day that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei declared that Iran would continue to build its ballistic missile arsenal in defiance of U.S. demands.

“If the Supreme Leader’s orders [are] to be executed, with the abilities and the equipment at our disposal, we will raze the Zionist regime in less than eight minutes,” Ahmad Karimpour, a senior adviser to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp’s al-Quds Force, was quoted as stating, according to regional reports.

The threat comes as Khamenei declared in a speech Monday that U.S. “cries” over Iran’s ballistic missile program will not alter the regime’s behavior.

“They [the U.S.] have engaged in a lot of hue and cry over Iran’s missile capabilities, but they should know that this ballyhoo does not have any influence and they cannot do a damn thing,” Khamenei was quoted as saying during a speech Monday in Tehran, according to Iran’s state-controlled media.

“Jihad still exists,” Khamenei added “Great Jihad means not abiding by the enemy whom we are fighting; not abiding by enemy in economy, politics, culture and art is the great Jihad.” (Read more from “Iran Threatens to Destroy Israel in ‘Less Than Eight Minutes'” HERE)

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Abbas’ Fatah Praises ‘Heroic Martyr’ Who Murdered U.S. Veteran

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Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization on Wednesday praised as a “heroic martyr” the killer of West Point graduate and U.S. Army veteran Taylor Force, according to an Israel-based media monitoring group.

On its Facebook page, Fatah posted a sketch of a man’s hand holding a knife over a map of “Palestine,” Palestinian Media Watch reported. Across the map is written “Bashar Masalha,” the name of the 22 year-old Palestinian who stabbed Force and 11 others in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area on Tuesday.

Written on the arm of the person holding the knife in the sketch are the words, “the heroic martyr.”

Meanwhile a news report on official Palestinian Authority television stated in part, “A complex operation was carried out in Jaffa, or more precisely in the Jaffa port, by the Martyr – according to Hebrew sources and sources in Qalqilya – Bashar Masalha, 22 … in which 12 settlers were hurt, among them an American tourist who was killed, according to the Hebrew sources.”

Separately, an Arabic-language article on a Fatah website page describes Masalha as a shahid (martyr). It also says, incorrectly, that the man he stabbed to death in the Jaffa “operation” was an Israeli. (Read more from “Abbas’ Fatah Praises ‘Heroic Martyr’ Who Murdered U.S. Veteran” HERE)

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West Pointer Murdered by Palestinian Terrorists in Israel

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2009 West Point Grad Killed in Jaffa Terror Attack

By Tovah Lazaroff. Taylor Force, 29, was killed Tuesday evening by a Palestinian terrorist who went on a stabbing rampage in Jaffa in which 12 other people were wounded.

“This horrific act of violence has robbed our Vanderbilt family of a young hopeful life and all of the bright promise that he held for bettering our greater world,” Vanderbilt chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos wrote in a letter to the student body . . .

According to Force’s LinkedIn profile, he had completed tours of duty with the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

After graduating from the US Military Academy at West Point in 2009, he served as a field artillery officer until 2014.

“Taylor was visiting Israel with his classmates in order to expand his understanding of global entrepreneurship and also to share his insights and knowledge with start-ups in Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in a Facebook post. “On behalf of the people of Israel, I send my condolences to Taylor’s family and friends. May his memory be a blessing.” (Read more from “2009 West Point Grad Killed in Jaffa Terror Attack” HERE)

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Cruz: Murder of West Point Grad in Israel Proves Radical Islamists Target Americans and Israelis Indiscriminately

By Michael W. Chapman. In reaction to the murder of Taylor Force, an American from Lubbock, Texas, and graduate of West Point who served multiple tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said the brutal crime “is grim evidence that the scourge of radical Islamic terrorism targets Americans and Israelis indiscriminately.”

Taylor Force, a 28-year-old MBA student, was visiting Israeli along with other students from Vanderbilt University, to study start-up companies.

He was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist on March 8, reported the Associated Press and other outlets, another victim in a wave of stabbing and shooting attacks by Islamic terrorists against police and civilians. (Read more from “Cruz: Murder of West Point Grad in Israel Proves Radical Islamists Target Americans and Israelis Indiscriminately” HERE)

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Clinton: Two-State Solution, Support for Palestinians in ‘Best Interest’ of Israel [+video]

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By Aaron Kliegman. Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton reaffirmed her call for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Sunday and added it is in Israel’s best interest to provide greater support for the aspirations of the Palestinian people.

“I happen to think that moving toward a two-state solution, trying to provide for support for the aspirations of the Palestinian people is in the long-term best interest of Israel, as well as the region and, of course, the people themselves,” Clinton told Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union.

Tapper had asked Clinton to comment on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s recent statement that he would be neutral when it comes to negotiating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R., Texas) subsequent criticism of Trump’s comment.

Clinton told Tapper both men “missed the mark” with their comments because supporting Israel and working toward a two-state solution are not mutually exclusive. (Read more from “Clinton: Two-State Solution, Support for Palestinians in ‘Best Interest’ of Israel” HERE)

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Reid, Powerful Union Come to Clinton’s Aid

By Ben Kamisar. Harry Reid and the powerful Culinary Workers Union were huge players in Hillary Clinton’s victory Saturday in Nevada’s caucuses.

Clinton racked up big wins in caucuses held in six major casinos on the Las Vegas strip, which helped her roll out a big majority in Clark County, home to about three-quarters of the state’s registered Democratic voters.

Reid, the Senate minority leader and longtime Nevada Democratic political pro, encouraged the head of the Culinary Workers Union to get casino workers to turn up at the caucuses, according to The New York Times.

“He’s been extremely cooperative,” Reid told the Times about union head D. Taylor. “Probably 100 organizers will be at the caucus sites and in hotels to make sure people know what they’re doing.” (Read more from “Reid, Powerful Union Come to Clinton’s Aid” HERE)

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Obama Joins Israel Boycott, Labels West Bank Goods

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In a step towards joining an Israel boycott, the U.S. is now requiring goods originating from the West Bank (also known as Judea and Samaria) to be labeled separately from products from the rest of Israel, following the European Union’s crackdown on products from the disputed territories.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has issued new mandates requiring that West Bank products not be marked “Israel,” citing a notice from the year 1997 that offers such instructions.

The memo from DHS, titled, “West Bank Country of Origin Marking Requirements,” reads:

“The purpose of this message is to provide guidance to the trade community regarding the country of origin marking requirements for goods that are manufactured in the West Bank.”

According to the instructions, “It is not acceptable to mark” goods from the West Bank as having been from “Israel,” “Made in Israel,” or from “Occupied Territories-Israel.” (Read more from “Obama Joins Israel Boycott, Labels West Bank Goods” HERE)

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Hillary Clinton’s State Department Discussed Creating Riots in Israel

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As incredible as it may sound, the US Ambassador to Israel, Thomas Pickering, pitched a plan to Hillary Clinton to use UN and Non-governmental organizations to foment riots in Israel as a way of forcing Israel to agree to concessions to the Palestinians.

In the aftermath of the fall of Egypt and Libya, the State department thought it had stumbled upon the perfect weapon to be used against dictators: street riots (you must break eggs to make omelets, n’est-ce pas), insurrection, and the a few US airstrikes. When it became clear that the future and the territorial integrity of Israel meant more to Benjamin Netanyahu that international acclaim given to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, it was only natural that they consider him an enemy and try to unleash the same strategy on him. Via The Washington Free Beacon:

Pickering described the effort as a potential “game changer in the region,” recommending that the United States undertake a clandestine campaign to generate unrest. Clinton requested that his email be printed.

“What will change the situation is a major effort to use non-violent protests and demonstrations to put peace back in the center of people’s aspirations as well as their thoughts, and use that to influence the political leadership,” Pickering wrote.

“This is far from a sure thing, but far, in my humble view, from hopeless,” he continued. “Women can and ought to be at the center of these demonstrations. Many men and others will denigrate the idea. I don’t and I don’t think that was your message.”

(Read more from “Hillary Clinton’s State Department Discussed Creating Riots in Israel” HERE)

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