Ancient Jerusalem in the 21st Century

Al-Qaida declares holy war against the U.S. over Trump’s Jerusalem decision  "Street protests were expected Friday across the Arab world Hundreds of Muslims in Indonesia and Malaysia protested outside U.S. Embassies"

So what's different from before? When the World Trade Center was destroyed, Jerusalem was not officially called Israel's capital. 
Watch for an alliance between militant Islam and North Korea. TD

File this under "Don't speak too soon": Palestinian agitators embarrass selves with puny turnout for ‘day of rage’ over Jerusalem embassy move  
 . . . "President Trump knows hardball negotiations, and feels no guilt at all at pressing for the interests of the United States and its allies. Now that the world is seeing the brand-new American postyre, we can expect the behavior of our foes to change. I am not yet “tired of winning” and I expect more gains to be made in the Middle East over the next three years than have been made in the last three decades. No less than Osama bin Laden noted that when people see a “strong horse” they naturally are attracted."

America spent the past eight -plus years being the weak horse, enduring taunts and mockery from Russian planes and Iranian combat boats buzzing US warships in defiance of Obama and "his" military. But I digress...

'Jerusalem, Israel' has a nice embassy-sounding ring to it   "The recent announced decision by President Trump formally designating Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel has generated a storm of protest, mainly from left-leaning American groups and newspapers, as well as predominantly Muslim countries.  Setting aside for a moment whatever one might think of the president in general, his action in this particular case deserves some thoughtful consideration." . . .

"Israel has shown itself to be a positive contributor to world sustenance and health.  Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish State, has been since 1948, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.  It deserves recognition as such by the world's community of nations."

Haley: Israel will never be bullied into an agreement . . . "Haley added the UN has done "much more to damage the prospects for Middle East peace than to advance them."
" 'We will not be a party to that. The United States no longer stands by when Israel is unfairly attacked in the United Nations. And the United States will not be lectured to by countries that lack any credibility when it comes to treating both Israelis and Palestinians fairly,” she stressed.

"Haley further noted that Trump and his administration remain committed to the two-state solution, as long as that’s what the sides agree on. The Jerusalem decision doesn't change this, she stressed." . . .

William Safire called Hillary "a congenital liar"; that was even before these comments:

Hillary Says She Wants To Put Coal Workers ‘Out Of Business’ - Spox Rushes To Her Defense

Hillary Caught In Lie To Coal Miner

Even with Chris Wallace on national TV: Hillary is caught lying, but she just shrugs her shoulders and brushes it off

Pentagon plans to identify hundreds killed in Pearl Harbor

The life and death of the USS Oklahoma
Story continues below picture and caption.

Picture and accompanying story from The National Post

Continuing from top:
. . . "The USS Oklahoma capsized at 8:08 A.M., approximately 12 minutes after the first torpedo hit. Hundreds of men were trapped below her decks. They found themselves in a bizarre world turned upside down, in pitch-black darkness, as compartments filled with water. Death came to 429 officers, sailors and Marines, marking the second greatest loss of life at Pearl Harbor." . . .

. . . "Of the 14 men trapped in D-57, three made a daring escape. They swam nearly 20 feet down the trunk space, 35 feet out of the hatch and across the upside down deck, and finally ascended almost 30 feet to the water's surface. Ordinary men with extraordinary courage swam approximately 90 feet to freedom. 
"The hours passed by slowly for those trapped below decks. Using hammers and wrenches, they pounded on bulkheads to draw attention to would-be rescuers. For those in compartment D-57, time was running out as the air grew foul and the water steadily rose." . . .

Fox News  "HONOLULU –  Tom Gray's family has waited for more than 70 years to bring home the remains of his cousin who was killed in the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.

May 24, 1943: File photo, the deck of the capsized battleship USS Oklahoma breaks water at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu.

"On Tuesday, they got a step closer when the military announced it would exhume and attempt to identify the remains of almost 400 sailors and Marines from the USS Oklahoma who were buried as unknowns after the war.

"Gray's cousin, Edwin Hopkins, of Swanzey, New Hampshire, was a 19-year-old fireman third class on board the USS Oklahoma when the battleship was hit by nine torpedoes and capsized on Dec. 7, 1941. His remains weren't identified and his family was told he was missing.

"Gray said Hopkins' mother never accepted that. She believed he had amnesia and he would show up one day, Gray said.

"Hopkins' parents, Frank and Alice Hopkins, put his name on their headstone in Keene, New Hampshire, thinking he would join them one day, Gray said.

"They did so, "just waiting for him to come home," Gray said.

"All together, 429 sailors and Marines on board the Oklahoma were killed. Only 35 were identified in the years immediately after." . . .

It is now possible to reconstruct the images of those long dead.

Forensic anthropologist says he can identify unknown dead on USS Oklahoma   . . . "Emory scoured through Army and Navy records, finding whatever information he could about the burials. 
"The results were startling.
"In 1950, 61 caskets carrying the remains of about 400 unknowns from the USS Oklahoma were buried in the Punchbowl.
"He dug further and discovered a deceased personnel file listing the names of 27 servicemen from the ship whose remains were believed to be identified in 1949. An anthropologist didn't approve the identifications, however, and the remains were buried with the rest.
"For more than a decade, Emory tried convincing officials to exhume these remains so they could be re-identified and returned to their families. He won a small victory after officials finally relented and added the ship names to the grave markers." . . .

"Now Twitter Snowflakes are Setting Their Sights on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"

Western Journal  "Just in time for the holiday season, the beloved Christmas tale “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” has come under attack.
"The 1964 film has been accused of racism, sexism, homophobia and numerous forms of bigotry, PJ Media reports.
"And many have added their voice to the rhetoric, with HuffPost even publishing a video montage of tweets assailing the animated classic on Dec. 2."

. . . "Through the montage, the HuffPost implies that the movie defends the bullying Rudolph and his elf friend endure.

"What these tweets and the HuffPost fail to realize is that the main message of the movie is something that social justice warriors should agree with.

"But, according to the story,Rudolph and his elf friend are outcasts because they are different from the rest, but the story shows them actually saving Christmas.

"And not everybody agreed with the outrage against the classic Christmas show, as others took to Twitter to express their frustrations." . . .

Brianna Ashley @nicholekinne

Daily news: Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer is now sexist and racist...........

Does the US Moving Its Embassy to Jerusalem Have Prophetic Significance?

The Three Tenors: The Holy City (Jerusalem)

Does the US Moving Its Embassy to Jerusalem Have Prophetic Significance?  . . . "Of course, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Long before there was Islam or Palestinians, there was Israel. Jerusalem has been its capital of Israel since the reign of King David. It’s true that a majority of Jews were driven out of their land in AD 70 by the Romans, but this did not change the fact that the nation continued to exist, Jews continued to live there, and Jerusalem was its capital. 

"Moving an embassy to Jerusalem has no biblical significance, however, and neither does the United States acknowledging or not acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The Bible doesn’t make any mention of these types of political maneuverings. Many Evangelicals who disagree with Trump’s pronouncement about Jerusalem do so because of the political fallout the decision might bring about. I’ll  leave that discussion to others." . . .

Question: "What is Israel's role in the end times?"  "Every time there is a conflict in or around Israel, many see it as a sign of the quickly approaching end times. The problem with this is that we may eventually tire of the conflict in Israel, so much so that we will not recognize when true, prophetically significant events occur. Conflict in Israel is not necessarily a sign of the end times"."

"However, the Bible does say there will be terrible conflict in Israel during the end times. That is why the time period is known as the Tribulation, the Great Tribulation, and the “time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7). Here is what the Bible says about Israel in the end times:

• There will be a mass return of Jews to the land of Israel (Deuteronomy 30:3; Isaiah 43:6; Ezekiel 34:11-13; 36:24; 37:1-14).
• The Antichrist will make a 7-year covenant of "peace" with Israel (Isaiah 28:18; Daniel 9:27).
• The temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4; Revelation 11:1)

From Oct 1016: Charles Krauthammer: Is Obama Preparing a Parting Shot at Israel?
"UNESCO, approved a resolution viciously condemning Israel (referred to as “the Occupying Power”) for various alleged trespasses and violations of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Except that the resolution never uses that term for Judaism’s holiest shrine. It refers to and treats it as an exclusively Muslim site, a deliberate attempt to eradicate its connection — let alone its centrality — to the Jewish people and Jewish history." 
. . .

How Trump Is Going After Hezbollah in America’s Backyard

We may detest some of President Trump's brashness and bombast, but this is a president who has been effective and proactive. Democrats have turned America into the world's doormat, an object of ridicule. TD

Politico

The pro-Iranian militant group is up to no good in Latin America—and U.S. officials are pushing back.

. . . "But Hezbollah’s more recent moves in Latin America are very much a matter of interest for investigators, too. In October, a joint FBI-NYPD investigation led to the arrest of two individuals who were allegedly acting on behalf of Hezbollah’s terrorist wing, the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO). At the direction of their Hezbollah handlers, one person allegedly “conducted missions in Panama to locate the U.S. and Israeli Embassies and to assess the vulnerabilities of the Panama Canal and ships in the Canal,” according to a Justice Department press release. The other allegedly “conducted surveillance of potential targets in America, including military and law enforcement facilities in New York City.” In the wake of these arrests, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center warned: “It’s our assessment that Hezbollah is determined to give itself a potential homeland option as a critical component of its terrorism playbook, and that is something that those of us in the counterterrorism community take very, very seriously.” These cases, one official added, are “likely the tip of the iceberg.

"The administration’s counter-Hezbollah campaign is an interagency effort that includes leveraging diplomatic, intelligence, financial and law enforcement tools to expose and disrupt the logistics, fundraising and operational activities of Iran, the Qods Force and the long list of Iranian proxies from Lebanese Hezbollah to other Shia militias in Iraq and elsewhere. But in the words of Ambassador Nathan Sale, the State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, “Countering Hezbollah is a top priority for the Trump administration.” Since it took office, the Trump administration has taken a series of actions against Hezbollah in particular—including indictments, extraditions, public statements and issues rewards for information on wanted Hezbollah terrorist leaders—and officials are signaling that more actions are expected, especially in Latin America. Congress has passed a series of bills aimed at Hezbollah as well." . . .

US Military set free from shackles of the feckless Obama - the hero of TV talk shows - now conquering ISIS

Just over a year later, ISIS has been routed from Iraq and Syria with an ease and speed that's surprised even the men and women who carried out the mission. Experts say it's a prime example of a campaign promise kept. President Trump scrapped his predecessor’s rules of engagement, which critics say hamstrung the military, and let battlefield decisions be made by the generals in the theater, and not bureaucrats in Washington.

Mattis, a US Marine Corps general, said there would be no White House

 micromanaging on his watch  

Once freed from Obama and the Democrats, the generals were amazed at how easy this was all done. Liberals feared many civilians would be killed if restraints were lifted from our forces; I have to believe civilians are now living that would have died under the American left. TD

Fox News  During the Obama administration in 2016, "Hundreds of ISIS fighters had just been chased out of a northern Syrian city and were fleeing through the desert in long convoys, presenting an easy target to U.S. A-10 "warthogs." 

"But the orders to bomb the black-clad jihadists never came, and the terrorists melted into their caliphate -- living to fight another day. The events came in August 2016, even as then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was vowing on the campaign trail to let generals in his administration crush the organization that, under President Obama, had grown from the “jayvee team” to the world’s most feared terrorist organization. 

U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Robert Sofge said the military
 now has a clear mandate

. . . "President Trump gave a free hand to Mattis, who in May stressed military commanders were no longer being slowed by Washington “decision cycles,” or by the White House micromanaging that existed President Obama. As a result of the new approach, the fall of ISIS in Iraq came even more swiftly than hardened U.S. military leaders expected.

“It moved more quickly than at least I had anticipated,” Croft said. “We and the Iraqi Security Forces were able to hunt down and target ISIS leadership, target their command and control.”
. . . 

“We were able to focus on what our job was without distraction and I think that goes a long way in what we are trying to accomplish here,” he said.Sofge said criticism that loosening rules of engagement put civilians at risk is “absolutely not true.”

French School In Lebanon Forced To Apologize For Putting Israel On Map…

Related to the story below:  Trump Terminates Palestinian Revisionism
. . . "So why would any clear thinking person believe giving more land away would bring peace? Especially, when Abbas refuses to accept the existence of the Jewish state of Israel no matter what the borders are?" . . .

Weasel Zippers

. . . 

LEBANON: A private French school in Beirut has sparked controversy after it emerged one of its textbooks referred to the land south of Lebanon as Israel, and not Palestine. Under Lebanese law, Israel’s very existence is forbidden from being acknowledged.

The transgression first surfaced on social media, when the father of a nine-year-old girl posted a picture of a map showing Israel in one of the school’s textbooks, along with the caption, “this is what my fourth grade daughter learned in class today.”

The school was forced into an apology, issuing a statement saying it has absolute respect for the sovereignty and history of Lebanon, while emphasizing its commitment to the official curriculum. Lebanon and Israel remain technically at war, and Lebanese law does not allow recognizing Israel in any form, even on maps.

Marwan Hamadeh, the Lebanese Minister of Education, has promised to look into the matter, the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported. MP, Wael Abu, has asked Hamadeh to look into the running of the school and to take appropriate measures if it’s found to be undermining Lebanese and Palestinian political or cultural identities.

Regional tensions with Israel have been particularly inflamed over the last few days, as US President Donald Trump signed a declaration moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, officially acknowledging the ancient city as the Israeli capital. International observers have warned that Trump’s decision could lead to more unrest in the Middle East.

Regarding our guardians of free speech...

Accused leftist abusers of women: the list grows (again)  "More women are speaking out against boorishness and much worse that they claim to have experienced from prominent politically active men, encouraged by the courage of others, and by the contrition expected of their accused tormentors. A decision appears to have been made at the top levels of the Democratic Party that the sacrifice of the careers of their own pawns on the political chessboard is worthwhile in the quest to unseat a sitting POTUS." . . .

American Thinker

Colleges Struggle to Make Christmas Politically Correct

Legal Insurrection

“ensure that office celebrations are not indirectly celebrating religious holidays”

 "Having successfully ruined the holidays of Halloween and Thanksgiving, academia is now moving on to Christmas.

"Campus Reform reports:

Universities strive for ‘Christmas’-free campuses

As another Christmas quickly approaches, colleges across the country are issuing their annual guidelines on how to make the season as inclusive as possible.

At the University of California, Irvine, for instance, individual departments are encouraged to “focus on celebrating a special occasion, instead of a specific holiday,” suggesting that they have a “year-end celebration” or celebrate “seasonal themes such as fall, winter, or spring.”

The California university also requests that academic departments “ensure that office celebrations are not indirectly celebrating religious holidays,” suggesting that they display “diverse symbols representing a variety of faith traditions along with secular ones.”

The State University of New York, Brockport has issued similar guidance on “culturally sensitive holiday decorations,” even advising employees to “consider a grab bag instead of a ‘Secret Santa’ gift exchange.”

“Keep decorations general and nonspecific to any religion. Create a winter theme with lights and color rather than religious icons, or include decorations from all the cultural traditions represented in your department,” the guidelines add, saying the “holiday season should be considered an opportunity to demonstrate cultural sensitivity and inclusivity.”

Similarly, Ohio University put out a guide on “holiday expenditures,” noting that decorations cannot be purchased with university funds, but that any decorations “displayed in public areas” should “be secular in nature.”  Emphases in the original. TD 

Is Saying 'Merry Christmas' Politically Correct? Who Cares?  

Ireland Calling

The Frankenphiles have left the building

Rich Terrell

Franken’s Phony Finale: He casts his resignation as an act of gallantry, not an act of atonement.  . . . "The speech followed the usual pattern of lying pols: I didn’t do it, I’m only quitting because I am a distraction and can’t advance my party’s agenda “effectively anymore, and the other side is worse. Franklin bitterly remarked upon the “irony” of his resignation, presenting himself as an innocent man on the pyre while guilty men like Trump and Roy Moore walk free." . . .

In Franken's fall, sudden Senate pickup chance for GOP   . . . "Franken's exit gives Republicans an opening to expand their reach in an already favorable Senate map — two dozen Democratic senators are up for re-election next year, including 10 in states that President Donald Trump carried in 2016. That difficult math raises the question of whether Dayton will appoint a temporary placeholder or try to give a Democrat a running start for the 2018 campaign." . . .

What about Judge Roy Moore?

Slate: Roy Moore’s Story Is Unraveling   . . . "But the harder line comes at a cost: It’s demonstrably false. Moore knows these women, and they have evidence to prove it. If Moore is fully investigated by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, he’ll be exposed not just as a former predator, but as a current slanderer. 
. . . 
"Republican senators need Moore’s vote. If he wins, they’ll argue that voters exonerated him and that his offenses, even if true, are ancient history. His Christian supporters will add, as some already have, that God has forgiven him. “Many of the things that he allegedly did were decades ago,” says Orrin Hatch, the Senate’s longest-serving Republican. 

"But Moore’s lies about his accusers aren’t ancient. They’re happening right now. That makes him an unrepentant sinner. It also makes him fair game for the ethics committee, which doesn’t like to delve into senators’ pasts. Open an investigation. Subpoena the yearbook and the scrapbook. Summon the accusers and their witnesses. And judge Roy Moore."

Oh, by the way, Dylan Farrow asks: Why has the #MeToo revolution spared Woody Allen?  . . . "It isn't just power that allows men accused of sexual abuse to keep their careers and their secrets. It is also our collective choice to see simple situations as complicated and obvious conclusions as a matter of "who can say"? The system worked for Harvey Weinstein for decades. It works for Woody Allen still."

If Roy Moore Wins?  "Senate Republicans will have decisions to make. First, they must decide what to say. Members who believe the most serious allegations against Moore and don’t think the passage of nearly 40 years matters should feel free to say Moore is unfit for the Senate and thus should resign.

"Once they say so, they will have done as much as Democrats did to John Conyers and Al Franken. And much more than they did to Bill Clinton.

"But if they declare Moore unfit, they should be prepared to explain why they consider Donald Trump fit for the presidency. The allegations of sexual assault against Trump were much more recent than those against Moore. In addition, Moore denies the allegations. Trump admitted to sexual assault in the Billy Bush tapes." . . .

Real Clear Politics poses the same question  . . . "Second, a Moore victory would be further proof of how little credibility the national media has outside of the political class. Many who are troubled and offended by Moore are also troubled and offended by the apparently partisan behavior of the Post. Why didn't the left leaning paper report Moore's problems before the Republican primary? If they had done so, Moore wouldn't be the GOP nominee and the Democrats wouldn't have a chance." . . .

. . . "I Wrote The Part Of That Yearbook Inscription Under Roy Moore’s Signature, Says Accuser"

. . . "It’s not *that* weird for someone to memorialize an inscription made by another by noting the circumstances, especially if that person was a figure of some importance like the assistant district attorney. (People did it on the backs of old snapshots, right?) But how the hell does Gloria Allred let her client go out there last month at a press conference, produce the yearbook as a smoking gun proving that she and Moore knew each other, and not acknowledge immediately that she added to the inscription? Did Allred not notice the discrepancy in the handwriting or did Nelson not think to bring it up? It’s not a minor addition, either. The location and especially the date are crucial to showing that Moore and Nelson were acquainted when she said they were. Turns out she wrote that part, though, not him. Was it contemporaneous with his signature or did she add it years afterward?" . . .

Legal Insurrection: "But insists the rest of the writing is Moore’s, including the signature." . . . "Gloria Allred repeatedly declined to make the yearbook available for forensic analysis, as I covered in If Roy Moore wins, thank Gloria Allred and Al Franken:" . . .

Judge Roy Moore Known as Disciplined, Honorable During His Time at West Point, Vietnam  . . . " 'That evening, if I didn’t know it before, I knew then that with Roy Moore I was in the company of a man of great self-control, discipline, honor, and integrity. While there were other actions by Roy that reinforced my belief in him, that was the most telling,” he said.

"Staele told the story in light of allegations that Moore just a few years later behaved inappropriately towards women, which he said were “obvious, politically motivated allegations.”

“What I saw, felt and knew about him in Vietnam stands in stark contrast to those allegations,” he said. “I sincerely doubt that Roy’s character had changed fundamentally and dramatically in a few short years later.”

“Roy was a soldier for whom I was willing to put my life on the line in Vietnam if the occasion ever arose. Fortunately, it did not,” he said. “I was prepared to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him then, and I am proud to stand by Roy now.' ”