Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Today: Elections in Libya
Jun 25th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Libyan nationals will vote today (Wednesday) in the country’s parliamentary elections. The elections are taking place in the shadow of battles led by Ret. General Khalifa Haftar against Islamic extremists in the east of the country.

Senior sources in Libya reported that they hope that the elections will lead to a functioning governmet and parliament that will maintain public order.

Rice Sets Aside Global Crises, Insists U.S. Must be Global Leader in Promoting Gay Rights
Jun 25th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Washington Times
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Report: Syrian Forces Bomb Sunni Targets in Iraq
Jun 25th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Airstrike (illustrative)

Reuters

Iraqi officials accused Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces of taking advantage of the crisis near Baghdad Wednesday, saying that Syrian warplanes struck several border areas in Anbar province Tuesday. 

At least 57 Iraqi civilians were killed and 120 wounded in the attacks, local officials told CNN, in cities controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). 

This is not the first time this week Syrian forces have fired into a neighboring country. On Sunday, Syrian forces lobbed a mortar shell into the Golan Heights, killing a 13 year-old boy and seriously wounding a Ministry of Defense civilian subcontractor. Israel responded with airstrikes. 

If true, the report would indicate an even broader spillover of the Syrian Civil War, which has mushroomed since 2011 from a statewide dispute into an all-out Islamic holy war between Sunni and Shi'te groups. 

Sabah Karkhout, the head of Iraq's Anbar provincial council, told CNN that Tuesday's airstrikes hit markets and fuel stations in Rutba, al-Walid and Al-Qaim (see map below). 

Syria-Iraq border. Burnt orange X = alleged site of Syrian airstrikes. Several hundred kilometers northwest of clashes near Bagdhad; note - the entire region under ISIS control, locals say. Google Maps/Annotations from A7 staff

Karkhout said he was certain the warplanes were Syrian because they bore the Syrian flag.

"Also, the planes flew directly from Syrian airspace and went back to Syria," he added. 

Nickolay Mladenov, head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, confirmed Wednesday that the warplanes that bombed the Iraqi cities were not Iraqi jets, but told reporters he did not have information beyond that.

State-based media in Syria called the reports "completely baseless," blaming them on "malicious media outlets." 

Meanwhile, the Iraqi military continue to hold the entire area between Samarra and Baghdad, according to several international media outlets, despite constant skirmishes with advancing ISIS forces. 

ISIS progress, moving toward Bagdhad. Circles show where ISIS have taeken over full cities; X shows clashes between Iraqi forces and ISIS. Purple: Iraqi military holding, but ISIS clashes common Google Maps/Annotations from A7 staff

The ISIS has already controlled the Iraqi city of Fallujah for five months, and has also led one of the strongest rebel movements fighting Assad in Syria. 

This month's offensive has seen the ISIS claim an unprecedented number of victories in a lighting-fast takeover of the flashpoint region. 

So far, the Islamists have made a systemic advance from northern Iraq and southward. Several weeks ago, ISIS leaders seized Mosul; just 48 hours later, Tikrit - birthplace of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein - fell to the terrorists.

Pluralism is the Enemy: Jesus is the Only Way will be Deemed Hate Speech, Says Pastor
Jun 25th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Pluralism, not gender and sexuality, will be the biggest issue that every evangelical Christian will face, according to one Presbyterian pastor.

Bryan Chapell warned that increasingly "it will be difficult to say in this culture that 'Jesus is the only way.'"

"That will be interpreted as hate speech," Chapell, senior pastor at Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois, said Wednesday at the 42nd PCA General Assembly in Houston.

Members of the PCA tout the motto: faithful to the Scriptures, true to the Reformed faith, obedient to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. The denomination was formed in 1973 by those who left the PCUS (Presbyterian Church in the U.S.) over the growing influence of liberalism.

Chapell joined a panel discussion on the past, present and future of the PCA on Wednesday in which participants recalled the beginnings of the church body, touched on the cultural and generational divide, and predicted future battles.

Gender and sexuality are major issues for the church, he recognized. The PCA, like other denominations, will likely continue to discuss and debate those topics. But they're not the most pressing.

"If you continue to stand for 'Christ alone' in a culture that calls that bigotry, that will be the issue that presses us in the future," Chapell, former chancellor of Covenant Theological Seminary, said.

Pluralism is the major enemy, he added, and Presbyterians must unite despite differences on smaller issues to fight that enemy.

He encouraged those in the PCA "not to listen to the gossip that parades as news that tries to make us enemies of one another" when debating theological positions but to remember who the real enemy is.

"We will disagree sometimes strenuously but the reality is we have learned to trust one another," Chapell stated.

Roy Taylor, stated clerk of the PCA GA, agreed and gave out a similar warning.

"Our enemies are not those with whom we have some intramural disagreements in the PCA. Our enemies are not other Christians from other denominations," Taylor said. "As our culture continues to degenerate, we would be well served to understand that our friends are our brothers and sisters in Christ and we will begin to move forward against the true enemies of the Gospel."

The true enemies, he said, are the world, the flesh and the devil.

PA Use Name Change to Dodge International Criticism
Jun 25th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Jail (illustrative)

Flash90

Palestinian Authority (PA) officials have successfully pulled off a scheme designed to dupe the US into continuing to give aid to the Hamas-Fatah Unity government - all because of a simple name change. 

According to one report earlier this month, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) - the terror group behind the PA and Fatah - changed the name of a PA Ministry office from "Ministry of Prisoner Affairs" to "Authority of Prisoner Affairs" in an attempt to deflect criticism over the 12 million dollar per month salary to terrorist prisoners and their families. 

PA government spokesman Ehab Bessaiso has since confirmed this ploy in an interview on official PA TV, according to Palestinian Media Watch.

Bessaiso explained that the change of "the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs" under the PA into "the Authority of Prisoners' Affairs" under the PLO would "provide political and legal cover" and "eliminate arguments ... that [foreign] aid money [to the PA] is going to the prisoners" in a June 5, 2014 broadcast.

Ultimately, the goal was to save the status quo - despite international criticism.

"The [prisoners'] salaries will continue to flow... nothing will harm the prisoners; their rights - under a ministry that became an authority - will remain the same," according to Bessaiso. 

One week later, Fatah Central Committee member Azzam Al-Ahmad also confirmed that the change was decided on "following international pressure aimed at preventing the payments to the prisoners." 

Al-Ahmad added there had been "attempts on the part of the donors to exert pressure [on us] to stop the payments to the prisoners in the occupation prisons, causing us to transfer the issue of the prisoners back to the prisoners' and Martyrs' (Shahids') original mother [organization] (the PLO)." 

The planned new "Authority of Prisoners' Affairs" has not yet been established, and the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs is currently still functioning, but with Minister Shawqi Issa replacing former Minister Issa Karake under the new Fatah-Hamas unity government.

PMW has documented repeatedly that according to PA law and practice, the PA does not give stipends to terrorist prisoners' families but salaries to the terrorist prisoners themselves.

At a government meeting earlier this month, current PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said the PA places "prisoners at the top of its priorities" and that they will continue to implement the "Prisoners' and Released [Prisoners'] Law" - which specifically refers to salaries and other payments to prisoners.

Despite the overwhelming evidence, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Ambassador Anne W. Patterson, defended the PA practice of paying salaries to terrorists in jail before Congress last week, saying "they have to provide for the families."

Methodists Reinstate Pastor Defrocked Over Gay Sons Wedding
Jun 25th, 2014
Daily NewsTrue News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A Pennsylvania pastor who broke church law by presiding over his son’s same-sex wedding ceremony and then became an outspoken activist for gay rights can return to the pulpit after a United Methodist Church appeals panel on Tuesday overturned a decision to defrock him.

The nine-person panel ordered the church to restore Frank Schaefer’s pastoral credentials, saying the jury that convicted him last year erred when fashioning his punishment. He was then transferred to the more progressive California conference of the church, effective July 1.

“I’ve devoted my life to this church, to serving this church, and to be restored and to be able to call myself a reverend again and to speak with this voice means so much to me,” an exultant Schaefer told The Associated Press, adding he intends to work for gay rights “with an even stronger voice from within the United Methodist Church.”

The church suspended Schaefer, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, for officiating his son’s 2007 wedding, then defrocked him when he refused to promise to uphold the Methodist law book “in its entirety,” including its ban on clergy performing same-sex marriages.

Schaefer appealed, arguing the decision was wrong because it was based on an assumption he would break church law in the future. 

Let the Headlines Speak
Jun 25th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Baghdad May Lose Its Drinking Water As ISIS Approaches Second Largest Dam
Against a background of having lost control of all western border crossings, Iraqi officials are concerned that ISIS fighters are advancing on the Haditha Dam, the second-largest in Iraq.  

Supreme Court bans warrantless cell phone searches, updates privacy laws
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that police cannot go snooping through people’s cell phones without a warrant, in a unanimous decision that amounts to a major statement in favor of privacy rights.  

Microsoft: Future ‘Bleak’ If Government Continues Unlawful Data Collection
Microsoft’s top lawyer is keeping up the pressure on the federal government to end its secret data collection, reports CNet. Brad Smith called on Congress and the White House to stop “the unfettered collection of bulk data.”  

West warns Russia of sanctions amid Ukraine fighting
The West has warned Russia of new sanctions after fighting flared up in eastern Ukraine despite a truce between the government and pro-Russian rebels. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin that new sanctions could be applied if efforts to stabilise the situation were not speeded up. UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said inaction by Russia would mean a stronger case for sanctions.  

Sudan death row woman 'forged papers'
The Sudanese woman freed from death row has been accused of forging official documents to leave the country, her lawyer has told the BBC. Meriam Ibrahim was detained on Tuesday, a day after a court released her, annulling the death sentence imposed on her for renouncing the Islamic faith. Mrs Ibrahim had emergency travel documents issued by South Sudan when she was detained at Khartoum's airport.  

Judge rules 'no-fly' appeals process unconstitutional
A federal judge has ruled the US no-fly list has deprived 13 people of their constitutional right to travel without giving them a way to clear their names. In Oregon, US District Judge Anna Brown ordered the justice department to devise a mechanism for people on the list to appeal against their inclusion. The plaintiffs who sued in 2010 include four veterans and the leader of Portland's largest mosque.  

US forces arrive in Baghdad to advise Iraqi troops
The first US troops deployed to assist the Iraqi army in combating a growing Sunni militant insurgency have arrived and begun work, the Pentagon has said. Nearly half the 300 special operations soldiers promised by US President Barack Obama are in Baghdad or on the front lines of the fight. The rest are expected within days.  

Experts downplay threat that Israel’s neighbor could soon be engulfed in jihadist mayhem
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) takeover of the only Iraqi border crossing to Jordan has set off alarm bells that Israel’s neighbor could be the next to find itself engulfed in jihadist mayhem. However, Jordanian officials and experts are downplaying the chances of the Iraqi scenario repeating itself in their country. The more likely threat, they say, comes from an internal terrorist insurgency, rather than ISIS overrunning its border.

Ukraine foes cast doubt on ceasefire
Both sides in the Ukraine conflict have cast doubt on a newly called ceasefire, following the downing of a military helicopter on Tuesday. Pro-Russia separatist leader Alexander Borodai said that in his view "there has been no ceasefire".  

US Republican Thad Cochran beats Mississippi Tea Party rival
US Republican Senator Thad Cochran, who is seeking re-election, has narrowly beaten a Tea Party candidate in a high-profile primary in Mississippi. Mr Cochran, a six-term senator, had the backing of establishment Republicans but was forced into a run-off by Tea Party challenger Chris McDaniel.  

US special forces face complex challenge in Iraq
U.S. teams of special forces going into Iraq after a three-year gap will face an aggressive insurgency, a splintering military and a precarious political situation as they help Iraqi security forces improve their ability to battle Sunni militants.  

Air raids kill 38 as Iraq forces hold off assaults
Iraqi air strikes killed at least 38 people on Tuesday as security forces held off attacks on a strategic town and an oil refinery, officials and witnesses said.  

Could 2014 Become the Warmest Year on Record?
Even though the year is only halfway over, a series of warm months — including the warmest May on record, announced Monday — paired with a brewing El Niño,have set one question circulating: Could 2014 take over the title of the warmest year on record?  

How a US decision to allow oil exports could change the world’s energy balance
The Obama Administration has taken a bold step toward loosening the grip of tense geopolitics on oil prices, reports the Wall Street Journal (paywall), giving the first permission in four decades for the export of unrefined American oil. The decision—not made public but announced in the form of private letters from the US Commerce Department to two oil companies, according to the paper–seems certain to cause a stir in global oil markets and perhaps send prices lower.  

Putin says US trying to derail gas pipeline plan
The U.S. is trying to derail a project to build a gas pipeline that bypasses Ukraine to supply Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday after Russian and Austrian energy firms agreed to build the pipeline's western end.  

JCPD Analyst: 1,000 Chinese Jihadists Training in Pakistan
Jun 25th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Jerusalem Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Islamic Jihad members Photo: REUTERS

Some 1,000 Chinese jihadists are receiving military training at a base in Pakistan, as an indeterminate number of Chinese nationals are already fighting inside Syria, Jacques Neriah told a top-flight delegation from China visiting the country.

Neriah, a Middle East analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) who was formerly foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, presented material to his guests on the role of thousands of Chinese jihadists in the Syrian civil war, as well as on the involvement of volunteers from Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states surrounding China.

What makes the existence of a training camp in North Waziristan in Pakistan even more interesting from a Chinese perspective, is that China and Pakistan are allies.

The 10-person Chinese delegation includes several participants from the Central Party School (CPS) of the Communist Party’s central committee, which has served as a training ground for China’s top leadership, including its president, Xi Jinping.

The delegation arrived at the beginning of the week to take part in a symposium organized jointly by JCPA and SIGNAL, the Sino-Israel Global Network and Academic Leadership, and to discuss joint Israeli-Chinese interests in the Middle East.

JCPA head Dore Gold said that in understanding the operations of al-Qaida and its “franchises” operating around the world, it was necessary to keep in mind the groups’ strategies, as well as the fact that “there are certain risks” when the volunteers fighting in Syria return home.

Israel, Gold said, has “a great deal of knowledge about the spread of jihadist organizations, and when you learn the patterns in parts of Africa and Europe, it may have applications in other parts of the world.”

According to Gold, while many people are aware of the growing business and economic interests that Israel and China share, and the extensive ties between their business communities, the two countries also have “shared strategic foreign policy interests” – among the most important being counter- terrorism.

Gun Control Advocates Push to Take Firearms from Those Accused of Threatening Violence
Jun 25th, 2014
Daily NewsFox News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Domestic abusers are not allowed to have guns. But gun control advocates want to expand that federal law to include those who merely have been accused of threatening violence -- by prohibiting those under a temporary restraining order from having firearms.

Second Amendment supporters say these bills are unconstitutional because they violate the right to due process. But they may be gaining traction.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., introduced a bill last week that would make it illegal to possess a gun while subject to a temporary restraining order.

Temporary restraining orders generally are given for a two-week period to allow time to set up a court date for the accused to defend himself or herself before a judge.

Under these proposals, firearms could be taken during that period -- as opposed to current law which only allows for that to happen when someone is convicted of domestic violence or subject to a final restraining order.

Victims' advocates say this temporary period, however, is crucial to saving lives.

"At the time a domestic violence survivor leaves a domestic violence situation, she or he is five times more likely to get murdered," said Karma Cottman, executive director of the D.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence. "When a firearm is present, the intimidation threats are heightened -- but also her own risk, in terms of being able to feel safe -- are incredibly heightened."

In Washington, D.C., the mayor and city council are fighting over the constitutionality of a similar bill -- sponsored by Councilmember Mary Cheh -- which had a hearing earlier this month.

Cheh said in an interview that the high degree of danger that a domestic partner faces right after seeking help "weighs in favor of getting the gun first -- for a short period of time -- and then sorting it out later." She said that, "It's not right to say they don't have due process. They don't have it right away. Under a temporary restraining order, they will have to give up their guns for 14 days."

The Democrat said her bill is "perfectly consistent with due process" because it allows for the accused to defend themselves in court, even if that defense is delayed. Cheh, who is a constitutional law professor, said she has "complete confidence" that her bill would be upheld by the courts.

But D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray said that he would veto Cheh's  bill if it got to his desk -- because he worries it would lead to another lawsuit against the District. Gray asked the council not to pass the bill in its current form because of "the constitutional issues that are raised around the Second Amendment rights and the issues around people having due process."

Gray suggests he is just being pragmatic, after the city lost a recent Supreme Court case to keep its 30-year handgun ban. "I am a huge proponent of gun control," the mayor said, when asked about the temporary restraining order proposal. "And I want to make sure we do everything that we can to keep guns away from people because, obviously, of the harm they can do."

Cheh said she will push to pass the bill with nine votes so that the council can override the mayor's expected veto.

The effect of a D.C. law would be different than that of a federal law because of the mandatory registration of every single gun in the nation's capital.

On the federal level, law enforcement officers wouldn't know who has guns -- or how many -- when a temporary restraining order is issued. But in the District, the police would be able to easily confiscate guns without giving a resident his or her day in court.

Laws that take away guns for temporary restraining orders already are in effect in California and Massachusetts.

French Jews Leaving for Israel in Increasing Numbers
Jun 25th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Increasing numbers of French Jews are leaving for Israel, citing dim economic prospects and a sense of being caught between an increasingly influential far right and militant Islam. More than 5,000 are on track to leave this year, the most since after the Six-Day War in 1967. 

Israel, seeing the influx as a success, is doubling down on its efforts to attract Europeans, planning to dedicate $29 million over two years to bring in new immigrants. 

France has the world’s third-largest Jewish population after Israel and the United States: about 500,000, according to rough estimates in a country that has outlawed any official documentation of a person’s religion since the Holocaust.

Since World War II, France has redoubled efforts to make Jewish families feel welcome. But many say dramatic acts of anti-Semitism coupled with France’s stagnant economy — which includes a 25 percent youth unemployment rate, compared with 11 percent in Israel — make a hard choice easier.

Laurie Levy, 26, left in 2013. A native of the southern city of Toulouse, her departure came after attacks by a French-born Islamic radical on a Jewish school and soldiers left seven people dead, including three children and a rabbi. She has given up on a career in French law and left behind her parents and siblings.

In Tel Aviv, she no longer feels the need to hide the Star of David she wears around her neck. But there are other concerns: Her parents are unlikely to uproot themselves and she worries about their future back in France. They, in turn, worry about her, living alone in a different country.

“Life is beautiful here. You work. You go to the beach. You see your friends. You’re not afraid,” said Levy, who now works at an Israeli design firm. “The irony is that I am more concerned about them than they are about me.”

That she was able to switch fields and find a job is a demonstration of Israel’s economic allure. The country annually welcomes 1,000 French youths for a year abroad and 70 percent of them decide to stay in Israel, according to Ariel Kandel, who runs the Jewish Agency for Israel in Paris.

The agency, which works closely with the Israeli government, aims to strengthen ties between Jews in the diaspora and Israel and spends tens of millions of dollars each year to bring Jews to Israel permanently. The $29 million in new spending targets European Jews and another $8 million will help them resettle.

The Jewish Agency cites an influx of immigrants from France and Ukraine, which has been fighting with separatists and has seen some anti-Semitic leaflets distributed amid increasing tensions with Russia.

France doesn’t pose such a dramatic danger. Its economy is stagnant and joblessness is high, but France has among the world’s strongest social safety nets and highest standards of living.

“Never would anyone have thought there would come a time when Israel would be more attractive than France,” Kandel said.

The number of people obtaining French citizenship is down about 45 percent from a high in 2010 and the general mood among French of all faiths is one of deepening pessimism.

French Jews say they have the added burden of watching the rise of an increasingly militant Islam and a revitalized far right. In May, on the eve of Europe-wide elections that saw the National Front party — whose founder has been repeatedly convicted of anti-Semitism — sweep into first place in France, a gunman attacked a Jewish museum in Belgium. The suspect arrested was a Frenchman who authorities say had recently returned from fighting with Islamic extremists in Syria.

“They are finding themselves between the extreme right of Europe and the radical Islam of Europe,” said Kandel.

The number of French Jews migrating to Israel has been around 2,000 annually since the mid-1990s, decreasing from a peak of 5,292 after the 1967 Six-Day War. At the current rate, the Jewish Agency for Israel says French migration appears set to surpass that peak.

The French government is aware of the increase in departures, Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said.

“Emigration is an individual choice and it’s not our place to comment,” he said.

Jewish Agency head Natan Sharansky expects the French number to top out at over 5,000 this year. That would be about 1 percent of France’s total Jewish population, and compares with 3,300 in 2013 and 1,900 in 2012.

With the French economy flat and one in four youths unemployed, the immigration to Israel fits with “a trend in France of young people migrating and trying to find opportunity elsewhere,” he said.

David Kadoch is among those on the cusp of departure. Born in a Paris suburb, the married father of two will be joining his two brothers in Israel in August. A network administrator, he’s confident that his skills will translate well in his new home even though he speaks what he laughingly describes as “Biblical Hebrew.”

“People laugh when I speak Hebrew. I can make myself understood more or less, but I lack any grammar,” he said.

Kadoch cited a combination of economic, social and spiritual factors for leaving, including concerns about the future for his two daughters, ages 1 and 3, if Europe returns to its dark past.

“There is a rise in anti-Semitism, there’s a difficult social climate, there’s a horrid economy,” he said of his native land. “From one side and the other, you have people who are hostile to Jews, for completely divergent reasons. And I don’t see how, in this context, history can fail to repeat itself.”

He acknowledged that Israel’s security situation can appear more precarious than that of France, but emphasized that for him, there’s a compelling difference.

“The security of Israel at least is handled by people who have the same interests as we do,” he said. “That is not necessarily the case in other countries of the world.”

Diminishing Presbyterian Church Breaks Faith With Israel
Jun 25th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

In the same sense that French statesman Georges Clemanceau announced that war was too important to be left to the generals, the Presbyterian Church USA just showed the world that political morality is too important to be left to the churches – well, at least the New Age leftist churches.

At its Detroit conference, the church’s governing body voted, by a razor-thin margin of seven votes, to divest from three companies that provide equipment to Israel. Even the most amateurish observer of the New York Stock Exchange knows that the entire PCUSA’s holdings in Caterpillar, for example, do not comprise 3 percent of the company’s daily trading.

The only impact the PCUSA’s divestiture will realistically have is to give symbolic affirmation to those who have found simple and ahistorical solutions to complex problems. But whatever “good feeling” warms over the people who voted for divestiture, it comes at the cost of rupturing long-standing relations with the Jewish community that will take a long time to heal.

Relations between the two faith communities – long known for sharing common interests – began to unravel when a leftist advocacy group within the PCUSA published a study guide titled, “Zionism Unsettled,” which denied the legitimacy, history, and theological underpinnings of the modern Zionist movement. The Jewish community found it ignorant, vicious, and anti-Semitic. The PCUSA denied that it officially endorsed the guide, but it is used throughout its churches, making the denial as offensive as the church’s publication.

The church further offended the Jewish community by embracing the leftist and anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace at its convention. Dressed in black T-shirts emblazed with the slogan, “Another Jew for Divestment,” JVP members were conspicuous at the convention. Even within the most leftist and tepid Zionist Jewish communities, like the one in the San Francisco Bay Area, which opens a big tent to incorporate nearly all Jewish religious and political ideologies, the JVP is considered to be neither a voice for peace nor really Jewish, but a front group of radical leftists who use their Jewishness to give legitimacy to Israel’s destruction.

This raised the issue of whether the church was acting as a Christian community, however ignorant of the Middle East, or a community of aging, leftist members of a declining church, who wanted to score one last leftist policy statement under the masquerade of Christ’s followers, just as JVP invoked their Jewishness to fulfill a leftist agenda that had nothing to do with Judaism.

Adding insult to injury, the vote came at a time when Israel is suffering the emotional trauma of trying to find three high school students kidnapped by the terrorist group Hamas. The Palestinians, whom the PCUSA have now embraced, are calling the kidnapping a hoax, as is a United Nations spokesperson, even while Hamas openly takes responsibility for it. News of the vote comes at a time when an innocent Arab-Israeli was shot on the Israeli side of the Syrian border by Syrian troops and rockets are again being launched from Gaza, reflecting the danger with which Israelis constantly live.

The idea that all of the problems between Israel and the Palestinians would go away if the settlements were removed is an idea rooted in unconscionable ignorance. Before there was a single Israeli on the West Bank, there was terrorism and a call for exterminating every Israeli.

The Arabs openly and resolutely described the war of 1948 as a war of extermination. In 1967, when Israel took the West Bank as consequence of Jordanian intervention in Israel’s defensive war with Egypt – one in which she asked the Jordanians not to intervene – Israel waited in vein for a Palestinian gesture for peace. Instead of peace, Israel got the Arab League’s three No’s of Khartoum – no peace, no recognition, and no negotiation.

Since 1939, the Arabs have rejected every opportunity to have an Arab state if it also meant having a Jewish state alongside it. If the Arabs wanted a state, they have had ample opportunity to achieve that goal.

The PCUSA has decided that faced with an implacable enemy that is prideful in its announcement of its attempts to exterminate Jews, Israel has no right to self-defense. The PCUSA has decided that Israel has no right to use the technologies provided by Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola to defend its children from kidnappings, its innocents from suicide bombings and rocket attacks, or its military from those committed to waging perpetual war against it.

Israel unilaterally left Gaza, yielding land for peace. Instead of getting peace the Israelis put their civilian population under the unrelenting attack of Iranian-supplied rockets.

Israel left southern Lebanon, and found that all it did was encourage the Iranian-proxy, Hezbollah, to take up positions from which to harass Israeli civilians and add to the minions now defending the brutal dictatorship of Syria’s Bashir Assad, whose troops recently killed an innocent Arab Israeli.

We all know that the PCUSA will divest, but it will not give up its cell phones using Israeli technology; its mothers and daughters will not give up the Israeli technology that provides a non-invasive test for breast cancer, and its children will not reject the highly effective Israeli-invented blue light treatment for acne. Indeed, the PCUSA will bask in its political correctness, but the medicines, technologies, and discoveries that Israel has given to humanity will not be among the things it boycotts.

As Islam wages an unrelenting brutal war against the remnant of the Christian community in the Middle East, a community that preceded Islam by seven centuries, the PCUSA had absolutely nothing to say about the slaughter of its brethren whether in Egypt, Syria, or Iraq. It had nothing to say about the gays it embraces that are being executed in Iran for the crime of being gay. It had nothing to say about the non-existence of a Presbyterian church anywhere in Saudi Arabia. It had nothing to say about the money flowing from Saudi Arabia and Quatar to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria that has taken to killing Christians for the crime of being Christian and is now imposing the dhimmi tax on survivors.

No, the PCUSA could only condemn Israel, and then it wonders why the Jewish community sees this as a vile act of anti-Semitism, unbecoming of real Christians.

Creepily Human Robots Almost Outdo People in Japanese Test
Jun 25th, 2014
Daily NewsTrue News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

 

The new robot guides at a Tokyo museum look so eerily human and speak so smoothly they almost outdo people — almost.

Japanese robotics expert Hiroshi Ishiguro, an Osaka University professor, says they will be useful for research on how people interact with robots and on what differentiates the person from the machine.

“Making androids is about exploring what it means to be human,” he told reporters Tuesday, “examining the question of what is emotion, what is awareness, what is thinking.”

In a demonstration, the remote-controlled machines moved their pink lips in time to a voice-over, twitched their eyebrows, blinked and swayed their heads from side to side. They stay seated but can move their hands.

In a clear triumph, Kodomoroid read the news without stumbling once and recited complex tongue-twisters glibly.

The robot, designed with a girlish appearance, can use a variety of voices, such as a deep male voice one minute and a squeaky girly voice the next. The speech can be input by text, giving them perfect articulation, according to Ishiguro.

Credit Union Chooses Biometrics Over Passwords
Jun 25th, 2014
Daily NewsCredit Union Times
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Biden: Gay Rights Take Precedence Over Culture
Jun 25th, 2014
Daily NewsABC News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Seeking to mobilize a global front against anti-gay violence and discrimination, Vice President Joe Biden declared Tuesday that protecting gay rights is a defining mark of a civilized nation and must trump national cultures and social traditions.

Biden told a gathering of U.S. and international gay rights advocates that President Barack Obama has directed that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender men and women around the world

"I don't care what your culture is," Biden told about 100 guests at the Naval Observatory's vice presidential mansion. "Inhumanity is inhumanity is inhumanity. Prejudice is prejudice is prejudice."

With anti-gay laws taking root in nearly 80 countries, Biden and other top White House officials met with religious, human rights and HIV health care advocates in a forum dedicated to promoting gay rights internationally.

Biden, who has emerged as a leading gay rights advocate within the Obama administration ever since he got ahead of Obama in declaring his support for gay marriage, said that across U.S government agencies officials have been instructed to make the promotion of gay rights abroad a priority.

Where countries fail to move toward protections of LGBT people, he warned, "there is a price to pay for being inhumane." Among those at the evening reception were leading gay rights activists and the ambassadors from Britain, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland.

Earlier Tuesday, White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice cast the protection of gays from global discrimination, abuse and even death as one of the most challenging international human rights issue facing the United States. Biden called gay rights "the civil rights issue of our day."

"To achieve lasting global change, we need everyone's shoulder at the wheel," she said. "With more voices to enrich and amplify the message — the message that gay rights are straight-up human rights — we can open more minds."

Rice cautioned that the effort is difficult because laws limiting gay rights in some countries enjoy strong popular support. But she said cultural differences do not excuse human rights violations.

"Governments are responsible for protecting the rights of all citizens, and it is incumbent upon the state, and on each of us, to foster tolerance and to reverse the tide of discrimination," Rice said.

Last week, the U.S. imposed visa bans on Ugandan officials who are involved in corruption and are violating the rights of gay people and others. Uganda passed a law in February that strengthened criminal penalties for gay sex and made life sentences possible for those convicted of breaking the law.

During his trip to Africa last year, Obama, while in Senegal, urged African leaders to extend equal rights to gays and lesbians. Senegal's president, however, pushed back, saying his country "still isn't ready" to decriminalize homosexuality. Seven countries have laws imposing death sentences for gay sex and Brunei is on track to becoming the eighth one.

Tuesday's forum was the latest administrative attempt by Obama to promote gay and lesbian rights both in the United States and abroad. Obama successfully pushed to repeal the ban on gays serving openly in the military and his administration stopped defending the Defense of Marriage Act years before the Supreme Court took it up.

Earlier this month, Obama announced he will sign an executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating against employees based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Last week, it also granted new benefits to same-sex couples, including those who live in states where gay marriage is against the law.

Apostate Presbyterians Vote to Allow Homosexual Marriages By 3-1 Ratio June 25, 2014 | Christian
Jun 25th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The 1.8 million-member Presbyterian Church (USA) voted Thursday (June 19) to allow homosexual ‘weddings,’ making it among one of the largest religious groups to take an embracing step toward openly supporting homosexuality.

By a 76-24 percent vote, the General Assembly of the PCUSA voted to allow their pastors to perform homosexual “marriages” in states where they are considered legal. Delegates, meeting in Detroit this week, also approved new language about marriage in the PCUSA Book of Order, or constitution, altering references to “a man and woman” to “two persons.”

This change will not become church law until a majority of the 172 regional presbyteries vote to ratify the new language. But given the lopsided 3-1 ratio of the vote, approval is expected.

Homosexual activists within the PCUSA rejoiced at their victory, which was remarkable for its margin of victory after multiple years of razor-thin defeats.

“This vote is an answer to many prayers for the church to recognize love between committed same-sex couples,” said Alex McNeill, executive director of More Light Presbyterians, a group that has led the fight within the PCUSA.

The vote came after an emotional but polite debate in which opponents of the motion said it conflicted with Scripture and would cause Presbyterian churches abroad to break relations with the PCUSA.

The Presbyterian Lay Committee, which opposes homosexuality, urged congregations to launch a financial boycott out of protest.

“The Presbyterian Lay Committee mourns these actions and calls on all Presbyterians to resist and protest them,” the group said in a statement. ” … You should refuse to fund the General Assembly, your synod, your presbytery and even your local church if those bodies have not explicitly and publicly repudiated these unbiblical actions.”

“God will not be mocked,” the statement continued, “and those who substitute their own felt desires for God’s unchangeable Truth will not be found guiltless before a holy God.”

Under the new rules, pastors who do not want to preside over such ceremonies are not obligated to, and the change applies only in the 19 states and the District of Columbia where same-sex civil marriage is considered legal.

The PCUSA has long grappled with the issue, which came to a head at the last General Assembly, in 2012, when a similar resolution allowing for homosexual marriage lost 338-308. Since then, the church’s decades-long decline in membership — it has lost 37 percent of its membership since 1992 — has continued. These losses have been led by conservative-leaning congregations that defected over what they lamented as the PCUSA’s embrace of more unbiblical teachings.

Those defections — many to smaller and more conservative Presbyterian denominations — made it more likely that the General Assembly would approve a homosexual marriage resolution this year.

Some who voted in favor of the resolution said they hoped it would draw people in.

“I fear that our church brand is in jeopardy,” said PCUSA member and public relations professional Margaret Blankers to the General Assembly. “Some question the relevance of a church they see is not living up to its reputation for fairness. Do we really want to be known for not accepting and embracing our LGBT brothers and sisters?”

The General Assembly’s vote reflects change in the nation, where in rapid succession during the past year, judges have struck down laws prohibiting marriage between members of the same-sex.

The move follows a 2010 vote in which the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) removed a clause requiring pastors to practice fidelity in marriage or chastity in singleness, triggering a mass exodus of traditionalists from the denomination.

The Presbyterian Church  has mirrored the decline of other oldline Protestant denominations. The latest membership statistics show a loss of 89,296 in 2013, preceded by a loss of 102,791 in 2012.

PCUSA membership is now down to 1,760,200, and at the current rate it could have no members in less than 20 years.