#if i ever need to cry on command i just think of that old jewish couple several seasons back

[selenityshiroi]

I know that Call the Midwife gets a little more cheesy and a little more on the nose each year...but it's good cheese and some issues need to be smacked on the nose with a rolled up newspaper.

And every episode still has heart. Still makes you feel. Because it's always about people being people.

I rolled my eyes at the completely unsubtle romance they shoved in for Nancy (and what do you mean 'one day I'm gonna tell you I love you'??? It's been one date, lad!) but also cried at that convict saying goodbye to his mum.

I know, at some point, they really aren't going to be able to continue the show. But until then I'm going to get my annual dose of real human emotions from watching it.

Also the Turner family continues to give me warm fuzzies and it's so cute that the kids we've watched growing up in this show now have plots and lines, Phyllis Crane is still the greatest person who has ever existed, I hope Trixie's plane never leaves (clearly she's gonna be back for some episodes, from the preview), I'm glad Reggie is back for some episodes and I wonder if we'll see Tim for any at all, I hope that man who has it in for Sister Jullienne steps on a lego and then chokes and dies how dare he (but are we going to get new, more relaxed habits for the nuns to make them more approachable?), I genuinely forgot that Sister Veronica was midwife trained and not just a social worker, the Cyril and Rosalind plot is obvious but I wonder how they will handle the Lucille of it all, Miss Higgins and her grandson bonding is so sweet (even with how heartbreaking it was to see her find and lose her son)...and, well, here's to the show making me cry with some character who has like 15 minutes of screen time for another season!

[docholligay]

Set Fire to the Rain

@rhiorhino‘s prompt was “Tell me literally everything about Yael so here is the beginning of their lives intertwining. I hope you like it. 

Mercy’s mother had told her, that everything existing had its opposite. That light could not exist without the shadow, that the land was made real by the sea, that good could only persevere if there was the wall of evil to climb, and this was why so many things we would rather not have were present in this world.  That all these things were present in all humanity, as well.

Like many things her mother had said to her, it had not quite clicked into place until she was much older.

She had been thirteen, and did not understand these things, staring into a fire as other children who had lost just as much as she had warbled Hebrew songs off key. She looked down at the nametag on her chest, bearing a simple “Angela” and the small flags of the languages she spoke.

She’d stopped trying to correct the pronunciation of her name. It was mostly English spoken here, and she imagined it would be the same as she went into the international medical community. It didn’t matter anyway.

They put the languages they spoke, but not any city or country, seemingly noting that they were nothing but orphans and refugees from their own lives, gathered up here by kindly adults who had lost just as much. One of the summer camps where they would tell their donors was a place to ‘let kids be kids’ and forget their problems, but that all of them knew was a place to let them remember their problems, to let them cry and feel without any uncomfortable people scrambling for words to say.

A place where they could learn to be this, as well.

Being a Jew was always about juggling many identities at once.

Her junior counselor settled down on the log next to her, not much older than her but a few years out from her own tragedy. She was not tall, but she had a hungry leanness to her, her auburn hair tied back simply in a low braid, tied with a leather thong at the end, streams of it whisping around her face even still. She wore a beat up leather cowboy hat that somehow looked right on her head, as preposterous as it might have looked on anyone else’s, and her counselor’s t-shirt hung loosely over the buckle of her belt.

Yael, her name tag said, though one of the other campers had told Angela that was really her middle name. She’d only started using it last year. Angela understood. In the way that it felt easy to let go of the sound her name had made on her parents’ lips, she imagined it must be so simple to slip into another name entirely.

There was the name of who you were before, and you were after.

Abraham had done no less.

Yael leaned forward wordlessly, staring into the fire as the singing went on around her. Angela looked over to her. The fire looked at home in her eyes, and it was true that for the rest of Yael’s life, Angela would never see it die out. Her family’s ranch was always burning in her eyes, and because it never left her vision, she never saw the flowers that grew later.

Well, that would not be entirely true. She would see them again, when she took the ranch back from those that had swooped in after the tragedy, but by then she would not be a creature that could work the earth, only burn it herself, and it was her own, second, tragedy that Yael would be reflective enough to realize that was true. That she had been made into something else.

Fire warps and twists even the strongest metal sometimes, it seems.

“You doin’ alright?” Her voice stretched out long and lazy.

Yael had been uncommonly kind ot her. Angela hadn’t even wanted to be here, had shaken her head and said she would just stay at the tiny room in the shared apartment where she carefully tried to mete out her parents’ money and make it last till she got through all her schooling. But her professor insisted. She was so young, however old her education made her seem, and she needed to be with others like her. There were so many young Jews who had been hard-hit lately.

Yael had somehow seemed to know this, and sat next to her on the bus up to the mountain, smiling as she looped a bunch of flowers she’d picked from the field, one over and around the other, until she’s made a crown, and plopped it onto Angela’s head with a grin. Did that when were kids, she’d said, as though it were a lifetime away.  Yael hadn’t asked anything about where she’d come from or what she’d lost. Everyone’s story was similar enough, she seemed to figure. It would be years before she heard Yael’s.

There was something in them both, that drew them together, even more so than being in the same box as everyone at this camp.

Angela nodded, hands clasped in her lap, a woman by Jewish tradition but feeling so very much a child.

Yael picked a stray bit of wheatgrass and gnawed on the end of it thoughtfully.

“You sure ‘bout that?”

There were many things that Yael would be accused of,.over the course of her lifetime, and the regrettable fact was that most of them were true, but no one would ever accuse Yael of lack of observation, or the ability to delude herself or accept delusion.

“I am afraid.”

Angela hadn’t meant to say it. People had told her how brave she was almost daily, and she wanted it to be true, she wanted to be fearless and bold and the unstoppable prodigy they all believed her to be. But when she sat in her room, alone, and the night crept in, she did not feel brave. She did not feel like a prodigy. She felt like a little girl, who was without anyone now.

Yael considered a moment, still chewing on the end of the weed. She never looked over to Angela, as if they were have a conversation in parallel, instead of revealing anything to each other.

“Think we’re all afraid, from time to time. Be stupid not to be. Sides all that,” she plunked another blade of grass and whirled it around her finger as she flicked an eyebrow, “they like us scared.”

Sometimes Angela struggled to understand Yael. Angela’s English was very good, but Yael drew words together, and left some out, and said even questions as if they were statements. The ahs and uhs and the aggressive r sometimes got tumbled in her head, and she had to think for a moment, a dialect her mother had never prepared her for.

She would laugh, so many years later, when the difficulties of even Tracerian English were nothing to her, how she found entirely new ways not to understand Yael. For Yael not to understand her.

“I do not…” Angela took a deep breath, blinking back tears. “I am wanting to be a doctor. To repair the world. To help. Only… only I am only having little money.”

“Thought school was free in Europe. S’where you’re from, right?” Yaels’ forehead furrowed, and the question came out half-offended.

Angela shook her head sadly as one of the adult counselors started a new song, about going into the unknown, without the promise of anything, but the hope of everything.

“It is very,” she could not stop herself, “not expensive, only--the house was destroyed when they--and I have to rent a room--I do not know--”

Yael placed her hand on Angela’s knee, gave it a pat,and shook her head, still looking into the fire. “I get it. Alright now.”

They sat in silence for a moment, and then Yael joined in the song, softly but with a sense of steel and powder behind it, as if she was making a promise to herself that she’d sign in blood. Angela sat, looking at her feet, wondering where they would go, looking at Yael’s hand, wondering where it would lead her, looking at the edge of the fire, envying its ability to burn. She did not burn. She had seen enough of burning, and would not embrace it.

She may never go to school, and she may never change the world, but she had sworn, picking through the rubble of what had once been her life, that the world would never change her.

Yael took the wheatgrass out of her mouth and tossed it into the flame, where it alit immediately, twisting as it burned.

“Tired of bein’ afraid. I’m gonna make them scared a me, is what I’m gonna do.”

Angela put her hand on Yael’s, and Yael looked at her for the first time, their bright blue eyes siblings but never twins, two halves of the same whole.

“You’ll go.” She said it not as a note of hope, but as if she were giving a command. “You get in, I’ll take care of it.”

Angela’s face contorted in confusion. “What? I...I do not understand.”

Yael withdrew her hand, turned her gaze back to the fire, and sighed. “I have plans for this comin’ year. You give me your address in, where is it?”

“Switzerland.”

“Right,” she nodded, “You tell me where it is, I’ll do my level best to help you. Might be scattershot, but I will make it my solemn duty.”

Yael had been uncommonly kind to her, from the day she had stepped onto the bus, and Angela had not known why. There was no reason that she were any more or less deserving than any of the children here, for they were all still children, even Yael, who gave herself such adult responsibility and bearing.

Do be a Jew was to question, her father had said.

“Why?” she half whispered.

Yael scoffed. “Because I think you can be something I ain’t strong enough to be, Angie. Because someone's gotta be your left hand.”

They sat, watching the fire crackle and pop and burn, sending bits of light out into the darkness, even knowing they would likely be extinguished, the fire still had to try. Yael and Angela sat next to each other, for maybe the last time in their lives before Yael would always sit across, and sang, and were children for one more moment.

Everything existing had its opposite, her mother had told her, and when Angela was a woman not only by tradition, but by experience, she would come to understand that opposites were not only black and white, but the blue of a healing rain and the orange of a blazing fire.

Yael would be hers.

[jewish-privilege]

@skystonedclouds replied (a lot) to this post:

Well I’m female... So you’re off to a bad start. There also multiple Talmuds. The old one is different. I was referring to the Babylonian Talmud (written after Jesus). Not the old Talmud written long ago.

We do “follow” the Talmud (when Jews say Talmud, they’re referring to the Babylonian Talmud/Talmud Bavli). Jews who believe the Torah to be divinely inspired also believe the Talmud to be divinely inspired. The Talmud explains the Torah. It’s not “basically just random people making up guides for the heck of it.” 

You need to stop learning about Judaism from white and Christian supremacists and separatists. All Jewish people read the Babylonian Talmud, so I guess we’re all Satanic Christ killers who want to cover up how we killed Jesus.

And they were both finalized after Jesus; they both contain teachings that JESUS IS LITERALLY QUOTED IN YOUR BIBLE AS SAYING. The Mishnah is part of both Talmuds. Jesus was teaching the Mishnah (only one version! Same ole Mishnah in both! Although neither covers the entire Mishnah because, you know, Romans wouldn’t let us practice our culture!). Both of them are the recordings of debates amongst rabbis over Torah since, oh, around 550 BCE if not earlier. 

The Talmud Yerushalmi/Jerusalem Talmud (you know it was “the old Talmud written long ago”) was finalized in the 4th century (because Theodosius II decided that Jews couldn’t learn Judaism anymore). Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that’s after the crucifixion.

As an aside, do you know why the Talmuds exist? The Temple had been destroyed (again), the Jews were expelled (again), and the rabbis knew they had to change Judaism because centering it on the Temple and in Judea/Samaria/Jerusalem was now impossible. The rabbis had to write down all of their discussions and teachings. All of them, both the normative and non-normative opinions. So, even you saying that Jews follow the “old” Talmud shows you don’t really understand what the Talmud is. We study the Talmud (which is made up of the Mishnah and the Gemara) to understand the Torah because we can't just go ask one of the rabbis roaming around Jerusalem any more. A diaspora in 2018 is different than a small, concentrated tribal group in 1st century Judea. You’d start to write shit down too if you realized you no longer had one central place to argue, study, and teach because it had been razed to the ground. 

The reason there are two is that after the destruction of the Temple and the exile of Jews from Jerusalem, the two remaining academic centers of Judaism were Mesopotamia (Talmud Bavli/Babylonian Talmud) and Syria Palaestina (Talmud Yerushalmi/Jerusalem Talmud/Palestinian Talmud). (As an aside, the Talmud Yerushalmi doesn't have the Gemara because Theodosius II decided that Jews couldn’t learn Judaism anymore. It ends rather abruptly.)

The God of the Torah the one true God who had a son. He died for me to take my place so I do not have to die. He is merciful 💖🙏 amazing grace and love for sure 💕Psalm 145:2 Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. Yes the God of the Torah who broke a son to die in my place. I may live now ever praising the one true God 💖🙏 Psalm 145:2 Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.

Do you not know any other tehillim or...?

The G!D of the Torah is indivisible and cannot become incarnate. Explain how Jesus works with that fundamental definition.

I think it’s a Christian responsibility to protect Jewish people and their nation. I don’t agree with you in rejecting the messiah. It doesn’t mean Israel is not chosen. I’m so glad my great aunt protected Jewish people from Holocaust. A lot of the Christians I talk to want to protect Israel. I know Israel is under a of attack. Let us unite in that we both love God of the Torah. I was made aware maybe I don’t understand Jewish culture (I’m not sure). I like that day ”the feast of trumpets”.

We’re not children; you don’t have to protect us like we are. And anyway, what precisely are you protecting us from? Those who would not allow us to be Jewish and practice our culture and religion? Let me know who precisely the Christians are protecting us from if not from you them.

What, precisely do you like about “that day ‘the feast of the trumpets’”? The connection to the resurrection? The idea that the second coming will occur with a trumpet? Because I hate to break it to you, that’s all Evangelical Protestant nonsense shoehorning Jesus symbolism where it doesn’t make sense. Do you know what we actually do on Rosh Hashana?

You said it was the Catholics. They are not filled with the Holy Spirit.

Oh. You’re one of those Protestants. Soteriological exclusivity is quite the drug.

It’s actually pretty tragic. The Catholics did a lot of bad things even to your family 💔. They sinned against your family.

Sure. Just the Catholics. Protestants never did anything sinful against Jews. Nice emoji use. It’s not at all contemptuous.

Not gatekeeping just seeing a pattern. Whenever I use christian apologetics on the flaws of other religions people cry for my execution (metaphorically). To Muslims I’m islamophobic if I find flaws in the Quran. To the Jewish people I’m antisemetic if i find flaws in the Babylonian Talmud which they don’t even use. Apparently finding flaws in a belief system makes people think I must not like them. Meanwhile Christians never yell Christianphobia when the religion is examined find potential flaws

Maybe it’s because you’re cherry-picking passages, taking them out of context, and outright misquoting them. 

It’s news to me, an actual Jew, that we don’t use the Babylonian Talmud. Where’d you get that pearl of wisdom? When Jews talk of the Talmud, we’re talking about the Babylonian Talmud. 

But hey that’s comes with the contract of following a leader who was crucified. He was crucified for finding flaws in the Pharisees who taught well but were kinda hypocritical (didn’t do the commands themselves).

Again I say: Cool antisemitism bro. Modern Jews are Pharisees. If you don’t want to be called an antisemite, don’t be antisemitic. 

One person did want tell me to die so yeah the ill wishes only came from one side. I always knew I’d be crucified one day. I welcome to share in the death of the saviour🙏✝️

People pointing out to you that you’re misquoting their exegetical texts isn’t being crucified. That’s an amazing level of hubris.

Also the crucifixion of Christ is s historical fact and biblical core truths. You just admitted someone believing the bible is offensive.

Nope, @rose-in-a-fisted-glove said “... Did you seriously just try to claim to not be antisemitic while crying deicide in literally the next breath? That's just, wow.“

The Romans killed Jesus the same way they killed all other political criminals. Crucifixion was the Roman punishment for political crimes/crimes against the state. You claimed Jesus was crucified because the Pharisees (again, modern Jews are Pharisees) were upset he “found flaws” in them. That’s... do you know HOW MANY Jews found fault with the teachings of other Jews during the 1st CE in Judea? In the first centuries of the common era the main sects of Judaism were the Pharisees, Essenes, and Sadducees. They all argued with themselves and each other. Jesus, I’m sorry, wasn’t unique in that.

Like you mean Nazis tried to find flaws in Judaism too ? They didn’t stop there though they wanted to dehumanized people. I’m just doing apologetics. I’m mentioning how there was a cover up over the crucifixion of Christ. I even mentioned that the text has other outrageous claims. It ties back to the point that it’s unreliable and not many follow it. Now I can assume this might be a point of insecurity. Do you think only Nazis see flaws? Everyone can see a flaw in beliefs.

Nazis didn’t try to find flaws in Judaism; Nazis believed (and continue to believe) that Jews are racially inferior and impure. Do you really think the Holocaust was due to theological differences? 

I still really want to know who taught you that Jews don’t “follow” the Babylonian Talmud. You should ask for your money back.

Of course Nazis will point our flaws. I one time crashed my friends course on genocide. I know the warning signs of genocide. It’s dehumanization. It’s silencing. It’s treating as second class.

Oh. One time. Cool. Well, then you’re a bonafide expert on dehumanization and genocide. So much so that you seem to believe that the Nazis dehumanized Jews by finding “flaws in Judaism” and not, you know, phrenology and racial pseudo-science. 

I took Astronomy 101 in college; I guess that makes me Neil deGrasse Tyson.

There’s a difference between criticism and debating and being a nazi who wants to dehumanize. In seminars people debate flaws of beliefs. In apologetic posts people mention flaws they see from their perspective. So if people can mention flaws in beliefs no one gets anywhere. Why do muslims day I’m islamophobic when I point out dangerous passages about killing jewish people ? I say ”Woah there Muslim this passage says to kill jewish people! You think that’s cool ?!”. They say ”Islamophobic !”.

And you’re doing neither. And again, they’re probably calling you Islamophobic because you’re taking the passages in isolation and out of context.

Okay if some are made up lemme know which ones. But I know at least the ones about Christ are true. I can understand maybe it could be exaggerated in translation or maybe some invented. I don’t need false flaws or anything since that’s just a waste of time. And if something was made up just by Nazis I’m sorry about that part that would be made up.

What are “false flaws”?

We actually don’t know definitively if they’re about your Jesus or not. Yehoshua (of which Yeshu is a derivation) was and is an incredibly common Jewish name. Different scholars have different ideas of what and to whom those passages refer.

But assuming they (Sanhedrin 43a, Sotah 47a, Shabbat 104b, Gittin 57a) are all about Jesus? The historical context of these passages (which make up an unusually small part of the totality Talmud)? 

“By the time the Talmud was coming into final form, Christianity was the dominant religion of the Mediterranean world and beyond. Negative expressions in such writings reflect negative experiences in the time of their creation. Quoting such texts without explaining these contextual influences can grossly distort one’s understanding of how Jewish tradition views Jesus.” - Jesus in Rabbinic Tradition, Burton L. Visotzky from Amy-Jill Levine’s The Jewish Annotated New Testament.

Christians were legislatively prohibiting Jews from practicing our religion or, you know, killing us with impunity. That’s the context of those passages, not abject, irrelevant Jesus hate. And on top of that, you quoted them incorrectly. 

In Jewish tradition (from the Satanic Talmud) “he” and servant in Isaiah 34:11 refers to Israel the people. You know, the Jewish people in total. Not Jesus.

This is the graphic you used in this post. It literally says “Become Jew-Wise and learn more at www.national-liberation.org” 

For all your talk that “Jew” is the n-word for Jewish people (it’s not), you use a graphic that says that? And that “Killing and Enslaving Whites is OK”? That didn’t scream Nazi to you?

Well Catholics aren’t Christian (they believe works salvation). I’ll let that pass for now. Christians are oppressed. Statistics show Christians are the most persecuted religion in the world stated by huffington post. We are being killed India by Hindus, in Turk ube Muslims, in North Korea. 6000+ Christians were killed in Nigeria this year alone. 1/12 Christians are persecuted violently stated by daily mail. Independent uk states the estimate is that 11 Christians die every hour of every day.

Catholics are Christian. The Protestant Reformation didn’t de-Christianize them. Sorry. 

Are you a Christian in any of those countries? You seem to be an American Protestant Christian living in the United States. You are not oppressed. 

You also don’t know anything about Judaism and should stop pretending you do.

[dailychapel]

Lord, my Father, You reign over all and You hear my cry. Enemies are coming with evil intent. If they get their way, harm will come to me. Father, shield me and be my protection. Rooted in Christ, I will look to You to be my defense. Even if I should suffer, help me to hold on to the promise of the victor’s crown You have waiting for me. In the name of Jesus, who guarantees escape from the second death, I pray this prayer of strength. Amen.

[Psa 33:1-9 NLT] 1 Let the godly sing for joy to the LORD; it is fitting for the pure to praise him. 2 Praise the LORD with melodies on the lyre; make music for him on the ten-stringed harp. 3 Sing a new song of praise to him; play skillfully on the harp, and sing with joy. 4 For the word of the LORD holds true, and we can trust everything he does. 5 He loves whatever is just and good; the unfailing love of the LORD fills the earth. 6 The LORD merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. 7 He assigned the sea its boundaries and locked the oceans in vast reservoirs. 8 Let the whole world fear the LORD, and let everyone stand in awe of him. 9 For when he spoke, the world began! It appeared at his command.

[Rth 4:13-17 NLT] 13 So Boaz took Ruth into his home, and she became his wife. When he slept with her, the LORD enabled her to become pregnant, and she gave birth to a son. 14 Then the women of the town said to Naomi, "Praise the LORD, who has now provided a redeemer for your family! May this child be famous in Israel. 15 May he restore your youth and care for you in your old age. For he is the son of your daughter-in-law who loves you and has been better to you than seven sons!" 16 Naomi took the baby and cuddled him to her breast. And she cared for him as if he were her own. 17 The neighbor women said, "Now at last Naomi has a son again!" And they named him Obed. He became the father of Jesse and the grandfather of David.

[Luk 7:1-10 NLT] 1 When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people, he returned to Capernaum. 2 At that time the highly valued slave of a Roman officer was sick and near death. 3 When the officer heard about Jesus, he sent some respected Jewish elders to ask him to come and heal his slave. 4 So they earnestly begged Jesus to help the man. "If anyone deserves your help, he does," they said, 5 "for he loves the Jewish people and even built a synagogue for us." 6 So Jesus went with them. But just before they arrived at the house, the officer sent some friends to say, "Lord, don't trouble yourself by coming to my home, for I am not worthy of such an honor. 7 I am not even worthy to come and meet you. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. 8 I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, 'Go,' and they go, or 'Come,' and they come. And if I say to my slaves, 'Do this,' they do it." 9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, "I tell you, I haven't seen faith like this in all Israel!" 10 And when the officer's friends returned to his house, they found the slave completely healed.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

[chronic-doe]

How Could Loving You Be Wrong?

So this isn’t the usual kind of stories that I write, but I feel very passionate about this topic as it’s very close to my heart. I hope you enjoy it, and I have put little asterisks next to words that I’m not sure if you will understand! Enjoy

Yaakov woke up, bleary eyed, to the sound of his mother calling up the stairs to him and his siblings to wake up. He sat up immediately, yawning and rubbing sleep from his eyes, then looked over at his younger brother, Tzadok who was still fast asleep in the bed next to him, and his other brother, Yaron who was already awake on the opposite side and pulling on some socks quietly.

“Tzadok!” He said, reaching over and patting him on the shoulder, “Tzadok, you need to get up now!” But Tzadok didn’t even stir. Yaakov groaned. He shared a small room with his two brothers but he had 10 siblings in total, all younger than him. He looked over at Yaron, exasperated,

“Mums going to come in and see he’s not awake and get upset with him, no point her being upset with us too” Yaron shrugged “You know full well that because I’m the oldest in he-“ but before he could finish the sentence, their mother walked in, hands on hips, “Good, Yaakov, Yaron you’re up, oh Tzadiki” she looked at Yaakov, “why is he still asleep? Why didn’t you wake him up?” Yaakov threw his arms up in exasperation, but didn’t dare talk back to his mother. He saw Yaron smirking behind their mother’s back and Yaakov scowled at him, vowing payback. “Just get him up, you’ve got school and you can’t be late” she said this as if he didn’t know this, but again Yaakov elected the safest option was to say nothing as his mother walked out the room, her long skirt whipping out of sight. “Get that smirk off your face” Yaakov growled at Yaron, who had the decency at least to stop smiling as he continued getting dressed. Yaakov sighed and stood up, going over to Tzadok and shaking him until his eyes opened. “Morning, Tzadiki” Yaakov said, in a sing song voice, “Oh shut up” Tzadok groaned, “Is that any way to speak to your elder?” Yaakov said in tones of mock outrage, smirking at him, but Tzadok was already getting up and Yaakov knew he had to get changed and make sure everyone else was up too, since his mother was now cooking the breakfast. He quickly pulled on his clothes at lightning speed, and, Yaron right behind him, they went to the three other rooms to the siblings that needed to be up for school, and with many protests and in the case of Avital, their five-year-old sister, tears. Once they were in the kitchen their Mum beamed at them and walked over to Yaakov, taking a break from cooking, and bent over to whisper in his ear, “I really appreciate you helping me, thank you Yaakov. Don’t know what I’d do without you” and she planted a kiss on his forehead. Yaakov smiled at her and went to sit down at the table, watching all his siblings slowly walk in, one after the other. Eventually, everyone sat down to tiredly consume their breakfast. The boys made their steady way to school, talking about the upcoming days’ events. It was not too hot at this time of year in Jerusalem, but later on when summer came their suits would make it seem like it was 50 degrees and Yaakov dreaded the bringing of that season again, but after doing it for years he was sort of used to it. The four brothers, for they also went to the older boys’ school with their brother Matan, made their progress to school as the wind whipped their clothes about them and their peot* whipped their cheeks. Yaakov kept his hand on his hat to make sure it didn’t fly off as he walked. They and the other boys at the school all converged at the tall gates, Yaakov’s demeanour changing immediately. No one noticed though, no one ever noticed. Yaakov was the best 17-year-old actor in the world he thought, he had to be.

They were studying the Torah portion, Vayikra*, in class and Yaakov could feel his hands tense on his desk and all eyes stare at him even though logically he knew no one was staring at him. “Would you like to read the next part?” his teacher said, Yaakov was so distracted he just stared down at the passage, “Yaakov!” His teacher said again and Yaakov’s head whipped up, he had a lump in his throat, as he began to read Vayikra 17-19, feeling his fists get tighter and tighter and his chest heavier and heavier.

The boy was in the corridor, Yaakov could see him, but he didn’t look at him, didn’t think about him for they never spoke at school, he kept his head down as his friend, Ilan, talked about their plans for the weekend, and Yaakov pretended to smile as he listened but inside he was ice.

As he walked outside that evening to his extra Torah class he felt a hand tug him, and he was there: Moshe. “We can’t keep doing this” Yaakov said, but that look in Moshe’s big brown eyes melted his resolve instantly, and they walked off into an alleyway where they knew no one would ever go, and where they knew they would be safe. Yaakov looked down at the floor, and Moshe’s face was only of concern, “What is it?” Moshe asked softly, gently taking Yaakov’s hands in his own and Yaakov felt his worries ease a little as he looked up and stared at Moshe’s perfect face. His mind travelled back to when they had first started doing this a year before:

Yaakov had been crying, sobbing like he had never done before, in that alleyway that they were in now, and no one was there, there was no one to see him cry. Except, someone was at the end of the alleyway, approaching him. Yaakov froze halfway through a sob and looked up in shock. He was supposed to be at his after-school Torah studies so he expected it to be someone who was about to tell him off, but it was a kid in his year who he never really spoke to, called Moshe, and it shocked him so much that he forgot to cry for a second. Moshe walked forwards, and sat down by Yaakov, “What’s wrong?” He asked but Yaakov stayed quiet, wiping his eyes with the back of his sleeve, “At least use a tissue, man” Moshe said, handing him a tissue from out of a packet. Yaakov thanked him in a whisper and took the tissue to wipe his eyes and streaming nose, “What has got you in such a state?” Moshe asked, “you’re Yaakov, right? You are like...the last person I’d expect to find a complete wreck in an alleyway behind some bins. I thought someone was dying.” The humour was lost, however, and Yaakov kept sobbing into the tissue. “Oh man, it was a joke” Moshe said, “please tell me what’s wrong?” He moved to put his arm around Yaakov, but Yaakov tensed up and Moshe retracted his hand immediately. At that moment, Yaakov looked up at Moshe and noticed how his eyes were a beautiful shade of light brown and how he had smooth olive skin and he was...he was... Moshe smiled at him, “Can I help you?”

Pulling himself back to the present, Yaakov put his hand up on Moshe’s cheek and Moshe smiled sadly as Yaakov stroked his smooth skin. He reached up and took Moshe’s hat off, stroking his soft, black, curly hair, “You’re so beautiful” Yaakov mumbled, “Don’t distract me with compliments” Moshe said, “what’s bothering you? I can tell something is by those big sad eyes” Yaakov put his hand back by his side and collapsed onto the floor, 

“Do you remember a year ago, how we first met?” Yaakov asked,  “Of course I do, I will never forget it” Moshe said, lowering himself to sit next to Yaakov, “because I’ve never seen such an ugly crier in my life” “Oh shut it.” Yaakov said, putting his head in his hands as he willed himself to say the next part aloud. “I never told you what was bothering me that day, but it’s happened again.” He took a deep breath, and Moshe waited patiently. Yaakov loved that about him, he didn’t interrupt, he just let Yaakov speak. “It was Vayikra” and Yaakov saw the look of dawning comprehension on Moshe’s face, and his eyes clouded over. The playful look on his face changing to a guarded expression, “What we’re doing is wrong, Moshe, we are abominations, just like it says” and even as he said it he felt the pit of his stomach drop. Moshe’s face flashed with anger and what was that? Hurt. Yaakov hated himself for hurting Moshe. “God does not think that, Yaakov. God loves us and he wants us to live happy lives and do good things and be good to people. How can we do that if we’re living a lie? I will not believe that what I love, who I love is bad.” Moshe stared into Yaakov’s eyes and Yaakov felt butterflies in his stomach, “how could loving you be wrong?” And it was the first time Moshe had ever said it, and Yaakov was angry with him because he needed to grow up and marry a woman and have lots of children, like it was commanded in the Torah, but before he knew what was happening, he was kissing Moshe, cupping his cheek softly and his heart felt so conflicted by everything he had been taught in his upbringing and by everything he was feeling for this boy in front of him.

*peot - curly hair religious Jewish men have on either side of their heads

*Vayikra - a chapter in the Torah

[dfroza]

A real form of bravery is standing in the eternal truth of Love

because there are people who fight against it. and True illumination has been revealed by our Creator as illuminated in the Son and we who believe are meant to stand without being afraid of what the world may think.

in Today’s reading from the book of Acts (chapter 24) we see a courtroom scene with Paul stating his defense for sharing the new covenant of grace:

[Paul’s Trial before Felix]

Five days later, Ananias the high priest arrived in Caesarea, accompanied by some Jewish elders and Tertullus, their prosecuting attorney. They were brought before the governor to present formal charges against Paul. After Paul was summoned, Tertullus accused him, saying, “Your Excellency Felix, under the shadow of your wise leadership we Jews have experienced a long period of peace. Because of your wise foresight, many reforms are coming to pass in our nation because of you, Most Honorable Felix. We deeply appreciate this and thank you very much.

“So that I won’t weary you with a lengthy presentation, I beg you to hear our brief summary, with your customary graciousness. For we have found this man to be a contagious plague, a seditious man who continually stirs up riots among the Jews all over the world. He has become a ringleader of the sect known as the Nazarenes. He has even attempted to desecrate our temple, which is why we had him arrested. We sought to judge him according to our law, but Commander Lysias came with great force, snatched him away from our hands, and sent him here to you. He has ordered his accusers to come to you so that you could interrogate him and ascertain for yourself that all these charges we are bringing against him are true.”

All the Jews present joined in the verbal attack, saying, “Yes, it’s true!”

[Paul’s Defense before Felix]

The governor motioned that it was Paul’s turn to speak, so he began to answer the accusations.

“Because I know that you have been a judge over this nation for many years, I gladly respond in my defense. You can easily verify that about twelve days ago, I went to Jerusalem to worship. No one found me arguing with anyone or causing trouble among the people in the synagogues or in the temple or anywhere in the city. They are completely unable to prove these accusations they make against me.

“But I do confess this to you: I worship the God of our Jewish ancestors as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. For I believe everything that is written in the Law and the Prophets. And my hope is in God, the same hope that even my accusers have embraced, the hope of a resurrection from the dead of both the righteous and the unrighteous. That’s why I seek with all my heart to have a clean conscience toward God and toward others.

“After being away from Jerusalem for several years, I returned to bring to my people gifts for the poor. I was in the temple, ritually purified and presenting my offering to God, when they seized me. I had no noisy crowd around me, and I wasn’t causing trouble or making any kind of disturbance whatsoever. It was a group of Jews from western Turkey who were being unruly; they are the ones who should be here now to bring their charges if they have anything against me. Or at least these men standing before you should clearly state what crime they found me guilty of when I stood before the Jewish supreme council, unless it’s the one thing I passionately spoke out when I stood among them. I am on trial today only because of my belief in the resurrection of the dead.”

Felix, who was well acquainted with the facts about the Way, concluded the hearing with these words: “I will decide your case after Commander Lysias arrives.” He then ordered the captain to keep Paul in protective custody, but to give him a measure of freedom, he allowed any of his friends to visit him and help take care of his needs.

[Paul Speaks to Felix and Drusilla]

Several days later, Felix came back with his wife, Drusilla, who was Jewish. They sent for Paul and listened as he shared with them about faith in Jesus, the Anointed One. As Paul spoke about true righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment, Felix became terrified and said, “Leave me for now. I’ll send for you later when it’s more convenient.”

He expected to receive a bribe from Paul for his release, so for that reason he would send for Paul from time to time to converse with him.

Two years later, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. Before he left office he decided to leave Paul in prison as a political favor to the Jews.

The Book of Acts, Chapter 24 (The Passion Translation)

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is the 17th chapter of 1st Samuel that documents the ancient story of David and Goliath and a challenge issued by Goliath who was defeated by David:

The Philistines drew up their troops for battle. They deployed them at Socoh in Judah, and set up camp between Socoh and Azekah at Ephes Dammim. Saul and the Israelites came together, camped at Oak Valley, and spread out their troops in battle readiness for the Philistines. The Philistines were on one hill, the Israelites on the opposing hill, with the valley between them.

A giant nearly ten feet tall stepped out from the Philistine line into the open, Goliath from Gath. He had a bronze helmet on his head and was dressed in armor—126 pounds of it! He wore bronze shin guards and carried a bronze sword. His spear was like a fence rail—the spear tip alone weighed over fifteen pounds. His shield bearer walked ahead of him.

Goliath stood there and called out to the Israelite troops, “Why bother using your whole army? Am I not Philistine enough for you? And you’re all committed to Saul, aren’t you? So pick your best fighter and pit him against me. If he gets the upper hand and kills me, the Philistines will all become your slaves. But if I get the upper hand and kill him, you’ll all become our slaves and serve us. I challenge the troops of Israel this day. Give me a man. Let us fight it out together!”

When Saul and his troops heard the Philistine’s challenge, they were terrified and lost all hope.

Enter David. He was the son of Jesse the Ephrathite from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse, the father of eight sons, was himself too old to join Saul’s army. Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to war. The names of the three sons who had joined up with Saul were Eliab, the firstborn; next, Abinadab; and third, Shammah. David was the youngest son. While his three oldest brothers went to war with Saul, David went back and forth from attending to Saul to tending his father’s sheep in Bethlehem.

Each morning and evening for forty days, Goliath took his stand and made his speech.

One day, Jesse told David his son, “Take this sack of cracked wheat and these ten loaves of bread and run them down to your brothers in the camp. And take these ten wedges of cheese to the captain of their division. Check in on your brothers to see whether they are getting along all right, and let me know how they’re doing—Saul and your brothers, and all the Israelites in their war with the Philistines in the Oak Valley.”

David was up at the crack of dawn and, having arranged for someone to tend his flock, took the food and was on his way just as Jesse had directed him. He arrived at the camp just as the army was moving into battle formation, shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines moved into position, facing each other, battle-ready. David left his bundles of food in the care of a sentry, ran to the troops who were deployed, and greeted his brothers. While they were talking together, the Philistine champion, Goliath of Gath, stepped out from the front lines of the Philistines, and gave his usual challenge. David heard him.

The Israelites, to a man, fell back the moment they saw the giant—totally frightened. The talk among the troops was, “Have you ever seen anything like this, this man openly and defiantly challenging Israel? The man who kills the giant will have it made. The king will give him a huge reward, offer his daughter as a bride, and give his entire family a free ride.”

[Five Smooth Stones]

David, who was talking to the men standing around him, asked, “What’s in it for the man who kills that Philistine and gets rid of this ugly blot on Israel’s honor? Who does he think he is, anyway, this uncircumcised Philistine, taunting the armies of God-Alive?”

They told him what everyone was saying about what the king would do for the man who killed the Philistine.

Eliab, his older brother, heard David fraternizing with the men and lost his temper: “What are you doing here! Why aren’t you minding your own business, tending that scrawny flock of sheep? I know what you’re up to. You’ve come down here to see the sights, hoping for a ringside seat at a bloody battle!”

“What is it with you?” replied David. “All I did was ask a question.” Ignoring his brother, he turned to someone else, asked the same question, and got the same answer as before.

The things David was saying were picked up and reported to Saul. Saul sent for him.

“Master,” said David, “don’t give up hope. I’m ready to go and fight this Philistine.”

Saul answered David, “You can’t go and fight this Philistine. You’re too young and inexperienced—and he’s been at this fighting business since before you were born.”

David said, “I’ve been a shepherd, tending sheep for my father. Whenever a lion or bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I’d go after it, knock it down, and rescue the lamb. If it turned on me, I’d grab it by the throat, wring its neck, and kill it. Lion or bear, it made no difference—I killed it. And I’ll do the same to this Philistine pig who is taunting the troops of God-Alive. God, who delivered me from the teeth of the lion and the claws of the bear, will deliver me from this Philistine.”

Saul said, “Go. And God help you!”

Then Saul outfitted David as a soldier in armor. He put his bronze helmet on his head and belted his sword on him over the armor. David tried to walk but he could hardly budge.

David told Saul, “I can’t even move with all this stuff on me. I’m not used to this.” And he took it all off.

Then David took his shepherd’s staff, selected five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s pack, and with his sling in his hand approached Goliath.

As the Philistine paced back and forth, his shield bearer in front of him, he noticed David. He took one look down on him and sneered—a mere youngster, apple-cheeked and peach-fuzzed.

The Philistine ridiculed David. “Am I a dog that you come after me with a stick?” And he cursed him by his gods.

“Come on,” said the Philistine. “I’ll make roadkill of you for the buzzards. I’ll turn you into a tasty morsel for the field mice.”

David answered, “You come at me with sword and spear and battle-ax. I come at you in the name of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel’s troops, whom you curse and mock. This very day God is handing you over to me. I’m about to kill you, cut off your head, and serve up your body and the bodies of your Philistine buddies to the crows and coyotes. The whole earth will know that there’s an extraordinary God in Israel. And everyone gathered here will learn that God doesn’t save by means of sword or spear. The battle belongs to God—he’s handing you to us on a platter!”

That roused the Philistine, and he started toward David. David took off from the front line, running toward the Philistine. David reached into his pocket for a stone, slung it, and hit the Philistine hard in the forehead, embedding the stone deeply. The Philistine crashed, facedown in the dirt.

That’s how David beat the Philistine—with a sling and a stone. He hit him and killed him. No sword for David!

Then David ran up to the Philistine and stood over him, pulled the giant’s sword from its sheath, and finished the job by cutting off his head. When the Philistines saw that their great champion was dead, they scattered, running for their lives.

The men of Israel and Judah were up on their feet, shouting! They chased the Philistines all the way to the outskirts of Gath and the gates of Ekron. Wounded Philistines were strewn along the Shaaraim road all the way to Gath and Ekron. After chasing the Philistines, the Israelites came back and looted their camp. David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem. But the giant’s weapons he placed in his own tent.

When Saul saw David go out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, “Tell me about this young man’s family.”

Abner said, “For the life of me, O King, I don’t know.”

The king said, “Well, find out the lineage of this raw youth.”

As soon as David came back from killing the Philistine, Abner brought him, the Philistine’s head still in his hand, straight to Saul.

Saul asked him, “Young man, whose son are you?”

“I’m the son of your servant Jesse,” said David, “the one who lives in Bethlehem.”

The Book of 1st Samuel, Chapter 17 (The Message)

my personal reading of the Scriptures for Tuesday, October 6 of 2020 with a paired chapter from each Testament along with Today’s Psalms and Proverbs

A set of posts by John Parsons to accompany Today’s reading from the Bible:

"The Spirit shall testify of me" (John 15:26). But what is the testimony of the Spirit but the truth of the unconditional love of God given in Yeshua? The inner witness from heaven gives light to our darkness and overcomes all our fears. A great challenge, however, is to personally receive the blessing of God's acceptance because we demand to define the conditions in our own terms (that is, we refuse to believe). So do you really want to be made new? Are you ready to turn away from your deep-rooted and habitual distance from God by surrendering to his love for you? Salvation is about being healed from your self-imposed exile to experience God's compassion for your life. The Holy Spirit moves you beyond the rules of "religion" and the "hired servant" mentality to that of a beloved and celebrated child (Luke 15:18-24). The hired servant does not live in the house forever, but a child of the Father does: "If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free in reality" (John 8:36). If you ever find yourself seeking God’s love by appealing to anything other than God’s own heart, for instance, through your religion, your good deeds, and so on, or if you withhold your inner pain, seeking to escape your sinfulness, then you are still in fear, which is a state of unbelief. Prayer means surrendering your fears, abandoning yourself to God’s heart, and letting go until you are finally able to receive the blessing...

"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption (πνεῦμα υἱοθεσίας) as children, by which we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit confirms within our spirit (συμμαρτυρεῖ τῷ πνεύματι ἡμῶν) that we are children of God (Rom. 8:14-16). [Hebrew for Christians]

10.6.20 • Facebook

When we receive Yeshua as the Lover of our souls, we abide in the hope of love that awaits future consummation in the world to come... Meanwhile, we are “suspended between worlds,” though the veil of this world has been rent asunder and we may now appear before the LORD in the realm of the spirit by faith. We can come “boldly” before the Throne of Grace (παρρησίας τῷ θρόνῳ τῆς χάριτος) to find help for our lives (Heb. 4:16). Note that the word translated “boldly” in this verse (παρρησίας) comes from πᾶς (all) + ῥέω (to utter), suggesting that we can speak freely to God and share everything within our heart without fear or shame. We do not need to conceal ourselves from the Divine Light -- any more than we need to perform religious rituals or offer any “prescribed prayers” to access Him. We who are trusting in God’s sheltering love understand the LORD to be our loving Savior and Redeemer. In our brokenness we can bare our souls before Him without fear ("there is no fear in love" - אין פַּחַד בָּאַהֲבָה). We can express “all our heart” to the LORD and be assured that He will help us in our hour of need (Heb. 4:16). “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart to him; God is a refuge for us” (Psalm 62:8). [Hebrew for Christians]

10.6.20 • Facebook

Today’s message from the ICR (Institute for Creation Research)

October 6, 2020

Filled with the Knowledge of His Will

“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” (Colossians 1:9)

Paul has chosen a particular word, pleroo, to describe an action that “fills to the top” so that the knowledge about which he prays has no more space to fill. While speaking to his friends in Rome, Paul said that he was “persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another” (Romans 15:14).

This includes the kind of knowledge (Greek epignosis) of God’s will that stresses precise and complete understanding of that will for our lives. “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.... that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.” These “things” (the knowledge, the precious promises) enable us to escape “the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:3-4).

This magnificent and complete knowledge of His will includes the wisdom (Greek sophia) to use the knowledge acquired by experience. And even that grace God made to abound “toward us in all wisdom and prudence” (Ephesians 1:8), which, since it comes from God, is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17).

The wonderful knowledge and wisdom that God has provided for us includes a spiritual understanding (Greek pneumatikos sunesis), an ability to put complicated matters together with the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). Indeed, “he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man” (1 Corinthians 2:15). “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things” (2 Timothy 2:7). HMM III

to be concluded by another post from John that illuminates the significance of the Hebraic holidays in the way they all point to the Son which is the hope that all Jews will see, just as others may see clear:

The “appointed times” of the Scriptures (i.e., mo’edim: מוֹעֲדִים) were given by God to help us turn away from the omnipresent urge within the human heart to embrace vanity: "Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father and guard (שָׁמַר) my Sabbaths (שַׁבְּתתַי)... Do not turn to worthlessness (i.e., אֱלִיל) or make for yourselves any molten gods" (Lev. 19:3-4). In other words, the Biblical holidays - including Shabbat, Passover, and so on - were intended to help us to sanctify ("set apart," "make holy") the times and seasons in order to remind us of God’s Presence (Psalm 104:19). Therefore they are called mikra’ei kodesh (מִקְרָאֵי קדֶשׁ), “times in which holiness is proclaimed” (Lev. 23:2). The Torah’s declaration that these days are holy implies that they are set apart for special activities, such as commemorating God as our Creator (Shabbat), our Redeemer (Passover), our Resurrection (Firstfruits), our Lawgiver (Shavuot), our King (Rosh Hashanah), our High Priest (Yom Kippur), our Sustainer (Sukkot), and so on. In this connection it should be noted that it is a mistake to assume that the divine calendar was somehow abrogated with the cross of Yeshua, since all of the Jewish holidays center on Him, and indeed the advent of the Ruach Ha-Kodesh (Holy Spirit) occurred after the resurrection of Yeshua, precisely during the prescribed 50th day Jubilee of Shavuot or “Pentecost” (Acts 1:8; 2:1-4).

Presently our lives are “suspended” between two worlds - this world with its illusions (olam hazeh), and the real world of spiritual substance and meaning (olam haba). We exist in an “already-not-yet” state of expectation and yearning where we must consciously mediate the truth of heaven by bringing it “down to earth.” This is a truth war, and by truth I do not mean intellectual knowledge as much as the living truth that marks the lifestyle and vision of a follower of Messiah. We consciously remember Torah truth; we choose to always "set the LORD before us," and take "every thought captive to the passion of Messiah..." May God help each of us heed the call to walk in holiness by the power of His love and grace. Amen. [Hebrew for Christians]

10.6.20 • Facebook

[frederickwiddowson]

The writings of Luke the physician starting with his version of the gospel - Luke 12:22-40 comments: Jesus continues a radical sermon against materialism

Luke 12:22 ¶  And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. 23  The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. 24  Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? 25  And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? 26  If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? 27  Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? 29  And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. 30  For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. 31  But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. 32  Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33  Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. 34  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 35  Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; 36 And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. 37  Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. 38  And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. 39  And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. 40  Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

 Jesus was previously invited to dinner with a Pharisee who considered that Jesus did not follow the ritual hand washing the Pharisees required which drew a sermon on the hypocrisy of the Pharisees which he then reiterated to a throng of people, encouraging them to confess Christ before men in spite of the persecution they would face from the Pharisees. He then reinforced that they should focus on what is important and not on worldly matters. He spoke of covetousness and laying up treasure with God. This has been a very powerful teaching time for Christ and is very important for us.

 Jesus continues His lesson about covetousness and what to concern ourselves with and not concern ourselves with from the previous passage and tells His disciples that they should not worry about the basics of life; food and clothing. In His model prayer for them, which He gave in the previous chapter He included Give us day by day our daily bread.

 Paul wrote by the wisdom given to him by the Holy Spirit.

 2Peter 3:15  And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; 16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

 Paul told the Philippian church…

 Philippians 4:19  But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

 An interesting note here is that God provides our food and that of the beasts and fowls in spite of all of the National Geographic and Discovery Channel blather about predator and prey. You didn’t think that zebra that the lions brought down was chosen by God for their food did you? We are so clueless to the unsearchableness of God’s mind, the Holy Ghost, acting in the world.

 Psalm 104:21  The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.

 In God’s own words as He spoke to Job He said the following.

 Job 38:39  Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions, 40  When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait? 41 Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

 Jesus reveals how powerless we are to change many of the most important circumstances in our lives. For instance, all of the Norman Vincent Peale or Dale Carnegie type of positive thinking in the world won’t make you 6’3 rather than 5’8.

 We don’t control the most basic of circumstances and yet we worry about things that are way beyond our control. We think we control our health and thereby extend our lives by diet and exercise, one of my favorite objects of thought and action, but that too may be an illusion.

 Job 7:1  Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?

 Psalms 39:4  LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.

 We see news stories about how scientists are on the verge of or at least thinking about everything from extending our lifespans hundreds of years to curing all diseases with gene manipulation and, truthfully, it is almost laughable if it were not so painfully sad in that man thinks so highly of his ability to oppose God’s ordinances and the boundaries He has set and people hope while they lay dying.

 God will care for us and we are not to doubt. The unbelieving world is concerned about these carnal things, these things of the flesh, but we are to be about God’s business and all of these things will be given to us as needed. Of course, this is easy to have as a standard of our faith in a rich country where we spend so much less of our income on food than in places in Africa, South America, or Asia. Christians are suffering in some places and in some instances almost always due to cultural impediments and economic injustice and the oligarchic rule of a few powerful, narcissistic sociopaths, sin and wickedness which we who are so blessed should be willing to fight on our poorer brothers and sisters’ behalf. They, on their side, need to trust in God to provide, to pray for deliverance, and that this day they receive just enough to get by knowing that things may not be resolved in this life as they live in a fallen world in fallen bodies under the judgment of sin and the evil, malicious designs of the powerful and the wealthy.

 Specifically, and doctrinally, though, Jesus is speaking directly to His Jewish disciples in the first century in a preview of the book of Acts by telling them to sell what they have and be about His business telling Israel about Him and then, after His crucifixion expectantly waiting for His return in an hour they will not have imagined. We must remember in reading this that Christ’s crucifixion and His resurrection were immediate future. We must also remember that God dispersed the Jewish Christians from Jerusalem in Acts so that they would fulfill His command for them to be witnesses to the world rather than hold up in that compound/bunker mentality in Jerusalem.

 We Christians today are given this from Paul to keep in our hearts.

 Titus 2:11 ¶  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

 For those who would use the watches mentioned as a key to knowing when Christ will return verse 40 is an alarm that tells us we should not claim knowledge we do not have. Your preacher does not really know when Christ will return and acting as a minister of Satan by misrepresenting God does not speak well for those who claim that knowledge from the pulpit. We are not given prophecy for us to sit smugly and shout to those we consider spiritual lessers that we know when that will be or who the Antichrist is or other things we do not know. Prophecy is given for a specific reason according to Jesus Himself.

 John 16:4  But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.

 Just as Paul gave us the reason for the preservation of the Old Testament writings and histories.

 Romans 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

 To all those people out there who divide and parse out words and verses and examine numbers and compare verses to current news items, writing books like ones I have from the 1990s about how Saddam Hussein was rebuilding Babylon and could be the Antichrist all the way back to those who called Kaiser Wilhelm the Beast of Revelation I say one thing. Spend more time considering and obeying what Christ has told you to do, how to treat God and others, and less time presuming knowledge you do not have.

 Deuteronomy 29:29  The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

 My final comment on Old Testament prophecy in particular is to ask you to remember that every individual Christian’s life is like the experience of the entire nation of Israel taken collectively. We can be visited by God and judged in this life for our sin and disobedience but God will never forsake us, as He will not Israel, or put us away forever because it is Christ’s righteousness and not our own that saves us. We can look at Old Testament prophecy as directly applying to the Jews then, as applying to the first and second advents of Christ, and as a tale of how our backsliding and rebellion can lead to ruin and despair knowing only that Christ will lift our sorry heads out of the dust, as He will Israel’s, at the end of the day.

[confrontingbabble-on]

Every religious belief system...is a complete blasphemy...in the eyes of every other religious belief system...and all are a complete blasphemy in the eyes of rational unbelief...

For example, as outlined by Atheist Ireland ...

“Here are the 25 blasphemous quotes that we first published on 1 January 2010, along with the quotation that has caused the Irish police to investigate Stephen Fry.

1. Jesus Christ, when asked if he was the son of God, in Matthew 26:64: “Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” According to the Christian Bible, the Jewish chief priests and elders and council deemed this statement by Jesus to be blasphemous, and they sentenced Jesus to death for saying it.

2. Jesus Christ, talking to Jews about their God, in John 8:44: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” This is one of several chapters in the Christian Bible that can give a scriptural foundation to Christian anti-Semitism. The first part of John 8, the story of “whoever is without sin cast the first stone”, was not in the original version, but was added centuries later. The original John 8 is a debate between Jesus and some Jews. In brief, Jesus calls the Jews who disbelieve him sons of the Devil, the Jews try to stone him, and Jesus runs away and hides.

3. Muhammad, quoted in Hadith of Bukhari, Vol 1 Book 8 Hadith 427: “May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of their prophets.” This quote is attributed to Muhammad on his death-bed as a warning to Muslims not to copy this practice of the Jews and Christians. It is one of several passages in the Koran and in Hadith that can give a scriptural foundation to Islamic anti-Semitism, including the assertion in Sura 5:60 that Allah cursed Jews and turned some of them into apes and swine.

4. Mark Twain, describing the Christian Bible in Letters from the Earth, 1909: “Also it has another name – The Word of God. For the Christian thinks every word of it was dictated by God. It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies… But you notice that when the Lord God of Heaven and Earth, adored Father of Man, goes to war, there is no limit. He is totally without mercy — he, who is called the Fountain of Mercy. He slays, slays, slays! All the men, all the beasts, all the boys, all the babies; also all the women and all the girls, except those that have not been deflowered. He makes no distinction between innocent and guilty… What the insane Father required was blood and misery; he was indifferent as to who furnished it.” Twain’s book was published posthumously in 1939. His daughter, Clara Clemens, at first objected to it being published, but later changed her mind in 1960 when she believed that public opinion had grown more tolerant of the expression of such ideas. That was half a century before Fianna Fail and the Green Party imposed a new blasphemy law on the people of Ireland.

5. Tom Lehrer, The Vatican Rag, 1963: “Get in line in that processional, step into that small confessional. There, the guy who’s got religion’ll tell you if your sin’s original. If it is, try playing it safer, drink the wine and chew the wafer. Two, four, six, eight, time to transubstantiate!”

6. Randy Newman, God’s Song, 1972: “And the Lord said: I burn down your cities – how blind you must be. I take from you your children, and you say how blessed are we. You all must be crazy to put your faith in me. That’s why I love mankind.”

7. James Kirkup, The Love That Dares to Speak its Name, 1976: “While they prepared the tomb I kept guard over him. His mother and the Magdalen had gone to fetch clean linen to shroud his nakedness. I was alone with him… I laid my lips around the tip of that great cock, the instrument of our salvation, our eternal joy. The shaft, still throbbed, anointed with death’s final ejaculation.” This extract is from a poem that led to the last successful blasphemy prosecution in Britain, when Denis Lemon was given a suspended prison sentence after he published it in the now-defunct magazine Gay News. In 2002, a public reading of the poem, on the steps of St. Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square, failed to lead to any prosecution. In 2008, the British Parliament abolished the common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel.

8. Matthias, son of Deuteronomy of Gath, in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, 1979: “Look, I had a lovely supper, and all I said to my wife was that piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah.”

9. Rev Ian Paisley MEP to the Pope in the European Parliament, 1988: “I denounce you as the Antichrist.” Paisley’s website describes the Antichrist as being “a liar, the true son of the father of lies, the original liar from the beginning… he will imitate Christ, a diabolical imitation, Satan transformed into an angel of light, which will deceive the world.”

10. Conor Cruise O’Brien, 1989: “In the last century the Arab thinker Jamal al-Afghani wrote: ‘Every Muslim is sick and his only remedy is in the Koran.’ Unfortunately the sickness gets worse the more the remedy is taken.”

11. Frank Zappa, 1989: “If you want to get together in any exclusive situation and have people love you, fine – but to hang all this desperate sociology on the idea of The Cloud-Guy who has The Big Book, who knows if you’ve been bad or good – and cares about any of it – to hang it all on that, folks, is the chimpanzee part of the brain working.”

12. Salman Rushdie, 1990: “The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas – uncertainty, progress, change – into crimes.” In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie because of blasphemous passages in Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses.

13. Bjork, 1995: “I do not believe in religion, but if I had to choose one it would be Buddhism. It seems more livable, closer to men… I’ve been reading about reincarnation, and the Buddhists say we come back as animals and they refer to them as lesser beings. Well, animals aren’t lesser beings, they’re just like us. So I say fuck the Buddhists.”

14. Amanda Donohoe on her role in the Ken Russell movie Lair of the White Worm, 1995: “Spitting on Christ was a great deal of fun. I can’t embrace a male god who has persecuted female sexuality throughout the ages, and that persecution still goes on today all over the world.”

15. George Carlin, 1999: “Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time! But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!”

16. Paul Woodfull as Ding Dong Denny O’Reilly, The Ballad of Jaysus Christ, 2000: “He said me ma’s a virgin and sure no one disagreed, Cause they knew a lad who walks on water’s handy with his feet… Jaysus oh Jaysus, as cool as bleedin’ ice, With all the scrubbers in Israel he could not be enticed, Jaysus oh Jaysus, it’s funny you never rode, Cause it’s you I do be shoutin’ for each time I shoot me load.”

17. Jesus Christ, in Jerry Springer The Opera, 2003: “Actually, I’m a bit gay.” In 2005, the Christian Institute tried to bring a prosecution against the BBC for screening Jerry Springer the Opera, but the UK courts refused to issue a summons.

18. Tim Minchin, Ten-foot Cock and a Few Hundred Virgins, 2005: “So you’re gonna live in paradise, With a ten-foot cock and a few hundred virgins, So you’re gonna sacrifice your life, For a shot at the greener grass, And when the Lord comes down with his shiny rod of judgment, He’s gonna kick my heathen ass.”

19. Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion, 2006: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” In 2007 Turkish publisher Erol Karaaslan was charged with the crime of insulting believers for publishing a Turkish translation of The God Delusion. He was acquitted in 2008, but another charge was brought in 2009. Karaaslan told the court that “it is a right to criticise religions and beliefs as part of the freedom of thought and expression.”

20. Pope Benedict XVI quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor, 2006: “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” This statement has already led to both outrage and condemnation of the outrage. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the world’s largest Muslim body, said it was a “character assassination of the prophet Muhammad”. The Malaysian Prime Minister said that “the Pope must not take lightly the spread of outrage that has been created.” Pakistan’s foreign Ministry spokesperson said that “anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence”. The European Commission said that “reactions which are disproportionate and which are tantamount to rejecting freedom of speech are unacceptable.”

21. Christopher Hitchens in God is not Great, 2007: “There is some question as to whether Islam is a separate religion at all… Islam when examined is not much more than a rather obvious and ill-arranged set of plagiarisms, helping itself from earlier books and traditions as occasion appeared to require… It makes immense claims for itself, invokes prostrate submission or ‘surrender’ as a maxim to its adherents, and demands deference and respect from nonbelievers into the bargain. There is nothing—absolutely nothing—in its teachings that can even begin to justify such arrogance and presumption.”

22. Ian O’Doherty, 2009: “(If defamation of religion was illegal) it would be a crime for me to say that the notion of transubstantiation is so ridiculous that even a small child should be able to see the insanity and utter physical impossibility of a piece of bread and some wine somehow taking on corporeal form. It would be a crime for me to say that Islam is a backward desert superstition that has no place in modern, enlightened Europe and it would be a crime to point out that Jewish settlers in Israel who believe they have a God given right to take the land are, frankly, mad. All the above assertions will, no doubt, offend someone or other.”

23. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, 2009: “Whether a person is atheist or any other, there is in fact in my view something not totally human if they leave out the transcendent… we call it God… I think that if you leave that out you are not fully human.” Because atheism is not a religion, the Irish blasphemy law does not protect atheists from abusive and insulting statements about their fundamental beliefs. While atheists are not seeking such protection, we include the statement here to point out that it is discriminatory that this law does not hold all citizens equal.

24. Dermot Ahern, Irish Minister for Justice, introducing his blasphemy law at an Oireachtas Justice Committee meeting, 2009, and referring to comments made about him personally: “They are blasphemous.” Deputy Pat Rabbitte replied: “Given the Minister’s self-image, it could very well be that we are blaspheming,” and Minister Ahern replied: “Deputy Rabbitte says that I am close to the baby Jesus, I am so pure.” So here we have an Irish Justice Minister joking about himself being blasphemed, at a parliamentary Justice Committee discussing his own blasphemy law, that could make his own jokes illegal.

25. As a bonus, Micheal Martin, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, opposing attempts by Islamic States to make defamation of religion a crime at UN level, 2009: “We believe that the concept of defamation of religion is not consistent with the promotion and protection of human rights. It can be used to justify arbitrary limitations on, or the denial of, freedom of expression. Indeed, Ireland considers that freedom of expression is a key and inherent element in the manifestation of freedom of thought and conscience and as such is complementary to freedom of religion or belief.” Just months after Minister Martin made this comment, his colleague Dermot Ahern introduced Ireland’s new blasphemy law.

26. Finally, here is the quote that has caused the Irish police to investigate Stephen Fry for blasphemy. Asked by Gay Byrne on RTE what he would say if he was confronted by God, Fry replied: “How dare you create a world in which there is such misery that is not our fault. It’s not right. It’s utterly, utterly evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?” Questioned on how he would react if he was locked outside the pearly gates, he responded: “I would say, ‘Bone cancer in children? What’s that about?’ Because the God who created this universe, if it was created by God, is quite clearly a maniac, utter maniac. Totally selfish. We have to spend our life on our knees thanking him? What kind of God would do that?””

https://atheist.ie/2017/05/25-blasphemous-quotes-in-solidarity-with-stephen-fry/

[sarakellar]

i found grace for the man that i am not

When he is five years old, he clutches his father’s hand all the way to the synagogue. It is time for him to begin his education, but he has heard a lot about this path and the burden feels too long for his slim shoulders. All his life he has heard about the Almighty, participated in the traditions, but that is different than learning formally.

When they arrive, the synagogue looming over them, his father gently extracts his hand and kneels down to his eye level. “Levi,” he says quietly, “pay attention. Observe. Learn as much as you can. You were named for the father of the priesthood, and you can rise to the ranks of rabbi if you apply yourself.”

He is five years old, and his family has placed such high hopes on him. To become a rabbi would be an honour far greater than riches. In Galilee, to be a rabbi meant that you were the most learned. That you had outlasted your fellow students, learned better than all of them. Ascended through Beth Sefer, considered gifted enough to continue into Beth Midrash, and the most exemplary would become talmidim—learning under a rabbi until they knew enough to teach talmidim themselves. To teach their own disciples.

“Yes, Abba,” Levi replies. He isn’t the smallest child, but in this moment he feels tiny.

That feeling never really goes away.

-

He does well in school. He memorizes quickly, writes well, and can apply his knowledge the best that he can. He knows the Law. He can recite it on demand.

He is not the best, though.

He loves the stories of their forefathers, of how the Almighty called Abraham out of Ur, how Isaac was the child of the promise, how Jacob wrestled with the Almighty. His imagination runs wild to set the scene—the night sky dark, not a star to shine, as Jacob struggles with the Almighty in flesh, the one who created all of humanity. He feels the pain of Jacob’s dislocated hip socket and the determination that accompanies it—that, in spite of the immense pain he’s in, Jacob will struggle on. Will wrestle with the Almighty until he is blessed.

He doesn’t think too hard about why he relates so much to the story. He is only ten; he should not feel as if he is wrestling with the Almighty. So he pushes the thoughts away as he recalls the other stories, as he delves into reciting the law.

His education sometimes feels like his own struggle with God, but he sees his father look at him with pride as he recites every evening and he knows he must not say a word.

It’s not his fault that he doesn't feel like he’s connecting to the material, is it? It’s a ridiculous thought to begin with. That a Jewish child growing into a Jewish young man wouldn’t be able to connect with the law that the God of his forefathers—of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—gave to his people is almost…laughable. Levi has never heard of it happening, to be sure. He starts to struggle with his studies as he strives to push to connect with something that doesn’t quite click. He wants to know, but he feels as if he’s a step too far away. As if there’s still something that he is missing.

He doesn’t know what that could be, though, so he keeps his head down and continues to study and acts as if he is near the top of his class.

His parents want him to be a rabbi. To be a rabbi would be a great honour. He won’t let them down.

-

Memorize, memorize, memorize.

I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

The words of Israel’s greatest king simultaneously encourage him and haunt him. Encourage him, because if nothing else becomes of his education—if he does not get into the next level of education, Beth Midrash—then at least he will know. He will know what the Almighty requires of him. He will know how not to sin.

Haunt him, because despite all of his best efforts at memorizing and learning he may not get into Beth Midrash.

When he is eleven, his father finds him crying in one of the rooms near the back of the house. He surreptitiously tries to wipe away his tears, but it doesn’t work. His father says, “Levi, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he replies.

His father sees right through it. “Aren’t your studies going well?”

It’s an innocent question, but Levi can’t help but think that anything other than the affirmative will be viewed as defiance. Not that he means to defy his father, but what if he thinks that it’s because he is not trying hard enough? What if he thinks it’s because he doesn’t want to be a rabbi?

Levi wants to be a rabbi so badly, especially now that he has learned under one, but he is not too sure—

A thumb wipes his cheek. He’s started crying again. His father says, tone turning serious, “Levi.”

“They’re going well,” Levi says quietly; if he speaks any louder, he knows his voice will crack.

He does not need to look into his father’s eyes to know that his father doesn’t believe him, but his father simply squeezes his shoulder and then stands, leaving the room. It’s not as much of a surprise as it should be. He is eleven—soon he will be twelve. Soon he will go to his first Passover in Jerusalem. Soon he will be a man.

Soon he will see if he is good enough to continue.

-

Jerusalem at Passover is a jubilant time. It has been thousands of years since the Almighty brought them out of Egypt, but the celebration calls to something deep in each of them, something that is yearning for a connection with the Creator of the world. With the God of their forefathers. With the one who sent the prophets. With the one who promised a Messiah.

As Levi has grown, he has become more and more aware of Roman oppression. How great would they be if they were their own kingdom once more, instead of being continually squished by a Roman thumb? How much more prosperous would they be if tax collectors weren’t swindling them out of house and home? Levi knows that his father can’t possibly owe as much in tax as the tax collectors say that he does, but every year his father still pays. He is clearly not happy about it, but he still pays. He calls them traitors, but he still pays.

Passover is a brief reprieve from it all. It’s a chance for them to remember, and to hope. A reminder that this cannot last forever, that the Almighty will not let his people suffer for much longer. He did, after all, send the prophets. The Almighty made a promise, and he does not change his mind.

Levi loves the celebration. The reminder that what he is learning is bigger than him, and has meaning and importance. It briefly feels as though there is no gap between what he’s learning and what he knows for sure, like he is connected to the Almighty.

Then they go home, back to Galilee, and it all comes crashing to the ground.

He doesn’t move on.

-

It feels like every conversation is made of ice. Thin ice, that might crack under any sort of pressure whatsoever.

Levi’s parents believe him when he tells them that he tried his hardest. Indeed, even the rabbi said that he was a good student. Good, but not great. Good, but not exemplary. Good, but not good enough to move on.

His parents take it in stride. They thank the rabbi for his report and then continue on like it wasn’t earth shattering news to them. “We’ll find you someone to apprentice with,” his father says. “You might not be taught by a rabbi, but you will apprentice. You can go back to the synagogue at any time, too.”

He takes a deep breath. “But what if I don’t succeed?”

“We’ll find you someone,” his father repeats. “It may not work out right away, but we will find you someone to apprentice with. You might not be a rabbi, but that doesn’t mean you are a failure.”

-

He tries. He studies and learns and tries his hand at different trades and ways of work. His hands aren’t steady enough for carpentry, though he can do the math just fine. He doesn’t have the patience to be a shepherd. He faints the first day out in the fields. Fishing is promising, for a while, but then he gets seasick after a particularly rough storm.

It’s been two years since his education finished. He’s fourteen, now, considered a man, and his father shouldn’t have to look for apprenticeships for him but he still looks. Levi’s garnered quite a reputation for himself; their town in Galilee is small, and no one is sure he’ll ever find a trade that he’ll succeed in. His father and mother are the lone exceptions. “There are still other places,” his father says one night, though the way his brow furrows is telling. The options are growing thin. “Maybe tent-making next? I’ll talk to him tomorrow.”

Levi nods absentmindedly, watching his mother knead a small amount of bread dough. They’re low, again. If only he could get established in something, finding something and sticking to it, then he would be able to help. They don’t have a lot of time. They need money. Right now.

Tax collectors make money.

Do not steal.

One of the first laws that the Almighty gave to his people. Before the laws of sacrifice and cleansing, there were the ten. His education might be two years removed, but the memorization does not go away easily. He didn’t move on, but the words are still hidden in his heart.

That I might not sin against you.

Stealing is a sin.

Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.

But his family needs the money.

And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.

His parents are growing older. He needs to support them.

Honour your father and mother.

After a restless night of sleep, he wakes up early. It’s still dark outside—his parents aren’t even awake yet. He silently creeps around them, slipping out the door. He knows where the tax collectors meet in the morning.

-

They laugh at him.

“Aren’t you Alphaeus’ boy?” one of the larger men asks. Fattened with his corruption and wealth. Levi will stop before he gets that far. He’ll only get some money to make sure his parents will be okay, for as long as it takes him to find a trade. A job that he’ll do for the rest of his life. He doesn’t want to be a tax collector forever, but he needs the money.

He swallows around the lump in his throat. “Yes.”

The man leans back in his chair. “You haven’t been successful at anything you’ve tried.”

“I know,” Levi says, and he thinks, I’m about to be rejected from the rejects, before the man says, “You can be with me today. Until you learn the ropes. Are you sure you want to do this?”

His father calls tax collectors traitors. That’s the kindest thing Levi has heard them called.

“Yes,” he says.

-

At the end of the day, he’s sent home with a heavy bag of money and an appraising, “Good work today.” He’s pretty sure it means that he’s welcome to come back tomorrow, but he won’t need to. Not with a haul this good. His parents have always been good with money—they could make this last for weeks. Maybe months.

His parents are waiting for him when he gets home. It’s not even after noon yet, but they look worried. “Where did you go?” his mother asks. “We looked everywhere for you.”

He is a man now, not a boy; he made sure to go far enough away that no one would recognize him. He thinks he succeeded. “I have money,” he says. He holds out the bag, in case his father doubts him; the money inside sings with the movement.

His father raises an eyebrow at it. “Where did you get that?”

“I—I worked.”

“At what?”

Tax collectors are traitors.

Honour your father and your mother.

Love the Lord your God.

He is a man now. He only did it for one day. They need the money. There’s no reason to be ashamed.

You stole.

“I was—I worked with the publicans.”

He speaks so quickly and quietly that his words slur together. His father says, “You what?”

Levi takes another deep breath, forces himself to speak slowly and clearly as much as he wishes that he could avoid this entire conversation. “I worked with the publicans. The tax collectors.”

His mother’s face goes pale and his father actually stumbles back. Because of him. Because of what he said. Panic washes through him—they have to understand. They must.

“We need the money!” he says hurriedly. “I only did it for this morning, we won’t need anything else, just to give me more time to find a suitable apprenticeship. I know it’s been a long time, I didn’t want you guys to foot the burden yourselves. You shouldn’t have to. I’m a man now.”

The silence is damning before his father even speaks. Then he says, quiet voice a shout compared to the stillness, “Get out.”

Levi’s heart sinks. “But I just did it to help—”

His father’s steely expression shuts him up. He remembers, vividly, his father saying, You might not be a rabbi, but that doesn’t mean you are a failure.

His father’s voice cuts through the memory. “Get out,” he says. And then, the final blow: “You are no son of mine.”

-

The sun hits him harder than it ever has before as he wanders the streets in a daze. He barely has a grip on the bag of money, but he doesn’t care. He’s barely aware of it. He’s holding more money than he’s ever had in his entire life, and he doesn’t care. All he can see is his father’s shattered expression; all he can hear is, You are no son of mine.

He just wanted to make them proud. He just wanted to make sure they were taken care of.

He’s not looking where he is going. He’s not even sure where he is. Eventually, he runs into someone—the man from this morning. The man curses and turns, but stops when he realizes. He curses again, but in a different way. “What happened?”

Levi’s mouth is dry, but that doesn’t matter. He wouldn’t have the words to say if he could even speak. He holds out the bag of money, like it’ll take away the taint in his soul that his father saw. He feels permanently marked. Like his hands will never be clean. And if that’s what his father thought, then what must the Almighty think?

The man puts it together. “I’m sorry, little man. Come with me. We’ve got a home for you.”

Levi goes, because there’s nowhere else he can.

-

He works as a tax collector. There’s nothing else for him to do now that he’s associated with it. Dreams of being a rabbi are a distant memory now. He gets rich, but he doesn’t want the money. He feels poor. Incomplete. He can remember everything he learned in Beth Sefer, under the rabbi. It hits the hardest in the morning right after he wakes up, the word of the Almighty heavy with the weight of condemnation.

The separation he feels from the Almighty makes sense now. He was never going to be good enough.

It’s larger than that now, though. He doesn’t just feel separated from the Almighty—he feels separated from his people. Jewish people avoid tax collectors if they have nothing to do with them. Levi finds that even people he knows avoid eye contact with him.

He does his best to work places that he knows he won’t run into his family. The imprint of his father’s face is still fresh in his mind; he doesn’t need to see it again. His mother, to be sure, is just as disappointed, and even if she isn’t Levi doesn’t want to see her pity. See her confusion. See her want for him to come home.

Their people consider him a traitor now. A disgrace. He wouldn’t do that to them.

He buys himself a nice house, squanders his money on gambling and women. He’s not as brash as other tax collectors—he doesn’t flaunt his status shamelessly. He sticks to the shadows, the darkness. There are less disapproving looks there. The people in there with him, that which the Pharisees consider to be the worst of sinners, welcome him in.

It doesn’t feel like home, but at least there’s one place that hasn’t cast him aside.

-

He’s sitting at his booth, counting and separating his earnings from the Roman tax, when the whispers hit his ears. They ride the wind quietly at first, but louder as the crowds that walk past him catch on. There is a man from Nazareth—a rabbi, they say—going around and healing people. He has a small group of men following him, learning from him, though the crowds surrounding them are growing. He makes the sick well. He drives demons away.

He touches the leper and makes them clean.

That’s how Levi knows it’s too good to be true. His education at the synagogue might be four years ago, now—he’s a whole sixteen years old—but he still remembers the law. It’s chained around his heart, condemning him and holding him down. He usually manages to ignore it, drown out the do not steal that echoes in his brain, but a prophet touching lepers is a shock to the system.

Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’

He shrugs the whispers off. Even if it is true, if there is such a teacher, he wouldn’t come to their town. And even if he did come to their town, he wouldn’t want anything to do with Levi.

-

The next day, it’s almost impossible for him to set up his tax booth. He got to the area early, or so he thought, but it’s absolutely teeming with people. Everybody seems to be trying to cram into one house, and whoever can’t get in is peering into the windows.

Levi knows better than to touch people. He raises his voice instead. “What’s going on?”

It takes a few attempts, more than one person choosing to glare at him instead of answering, but a young woman eventually has pity. “The Nazarene is teaching,” she says, and then continues trying to weave closer to the door.

His heart sinks, but he ignores it. There’s nothing he can do. The crowd is so big that the rabbi probably won’t even see him, never mind have time to condemn him. He’s heard all that they have to say before, anyways. The comments only sting when he thinks about them right before he sleeps.

This isn’t the life he chose for himself, or wanted for himself. Can’t they see that?

The day is chaotic, but still profitable. People would rather somehow make their way to his booth than get accused of evading, and maybe it’s good that the rabbi is teaching because it gives them an excuse to come. Levi gets a pretty good seat, for as much as he doesn’t want it; every now and then, when the wind blows the right way and the crowd is just quiet enough, he hears some of the teaching. It loosens the shackles on his heart, reminds him of a time when the word of the Almighty was a comfort for him instead of a sentence upon him.

Then, the crowd near the back starts complaining. It’s not long before Levi sees why—four men are carrying their paralyzed friend through the crowd. They’re talking amongst themselves. “Come on,” one says. “We’re almost there.”

“We better be. We don’t even know if this is going to work.”

“Did you hear what he did at Capernaum? All the healing? Or what about the leper? If he can heal that, then he can heal a simple case of a lame man.”

Levi finds no fault with their logic—what he doesn’t understand is how they’re planning on getting the man through the door. It’s packed tight inside the house that the rabbi is speaking in, and nobody has left. There is no way that they’ll be able to get him in.

It doesn’t take them long to realize this. “We’re getting nowhere,” the second one says.

“We’ll get him in. We have to.” They’ve paused, but then something catches the first man’s eye. “There’s a staircase up to the roof.”

“What are we going to do from the roof?”

“Open it up and lower him down.”

Really, Levi thinks, but then someone comes up to pay their taxes and he loses track of them. Visually, at least; he hears them struggle to the roof. There’s rustling as they move around the tile and the hay. It takes them awhile to figure out how to do it, but once people start screaming Levi assumes they’ve figured out a way to do it.

It doesn’t take long for the rabbi to quiet the crowd down, and the wind is blowing just right. Faintly, Levi hears him say, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

The Pharisees and teachers of the law scoff, but Levi can’t hear any complaints. The Rabbi can, though.

“Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins—so I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home.”

There’s silence, and then another scream.

No, Levi thinks as the crowd inside starts to shuffle. No way.

The crowd parts for the lame man walking.

-

So he heals the sick.

So he drives out demons.

So he cleanses lepers.

So he makes the lame walk.

Levi tries not to think about it, but it cycles around in his head for the rest of the day. As much as he doesn’t want to, he finds himself thinking about Beth Sefer, how he failed to get into Beth Midrash. What might he have become if he had been chosen to be a talmid? How did this man choose his disciples?

You can’t be this man’s disciple, his thoughts whisper. You have sinned.

But this man forgives sins. Where their society rejects the outcast, tramples them underfoot, this rabbi goes right to them. He heals them. He gives them new life.

Maybe—

But any hope that Levi have falls once the crowd starts moving with purpose. The rabbi is done his teaching, and he is leaving the house. With the way the crowd is moving, he is moving down Levi’s street.

Then the crowd parts a path right towards Levi.

It’s not hard to tell who the rabbi’s talmidim are. They’re trying to play it casual, though it’s clear they don’t understand why their teacher is approaching a tax collector. Levi doesn’t understand it, either. His thoughts are a resounding cymbal in his head:

YOU’RE A SINNER

YOU’RE A SINNER

YOU’RE A SINNER

A quiet whisper to his heart, though, silences them:

He forgives sins.

The rabbi stops in front of his booth. Levi looks up and holds his gaze, as much as he wants to look away.

The rabbi smiles. “Levi,” he says. “Matthew. You gift from God. Follow me.”

Levi’s—Matthew’s—heart leaps.

He forgives sins.

He gets up. Leaves everything. And follows the rabbi.

Follows Jesus.

[theimaginatrix27]

Sometimes I see posts on Tumblr where Christianity is discussed, and I want to cry.

I just read this post reblogged by        @kintatsujo                 and I might have reblogged it to mention my views about what was said about Christianity in one of the comments, but that would have been disrespectful to the Jewish people trying to make a point and that wouldn’t have helped my case much.

Honestly, though, when the topic of Christianity comes up on Tumblr, it’s all too often with this negative tone because people are discussing how bad Christians are for x y and z.

To anyone who has known someone who identified as Christian and mistreated you in any way, regardless of whether they used the name of God while doing so, I am truly, deeply sorry. They were not doing God’s will as I understand it from all I’ve learned and from my own Bible study, and that breaks my heart, as does your suffering.

For me, the fundamental truths of Christianity are to love God, and love one another. If you love someone, you will not mistreat them, or steal from them, or lie to them, or kill them. There are scriptures that describe this far more eloquently than I am right now, but this is one of the core beliefs I will always stand by. Another is that Jesus didn’t die for us to have another legalistic religion full of rules and regulations, but to have a relationship with God. This is a difficult concept for non-Christians to get their heads around and if I start explaining it to you now, you’ll probably think I’m a nutcase. Related to Jesus not dying to make a religion, however, is the fact that according to Scripture, we are not under the Law (the Ten Commandments etc from the Old Testament) but under Grace, unmerited favour from God. All we need to do is acknowledge we need a saviour and accept him into our lives and our hearts, and we have that grace. We can’t earn it. It’s freely given but humans have free will, so they have to accept the gift.

With regards to the post linked above, the commentor said that the narrative of Christian Fantasy revolved around a struggle against and eradication of evil. I will come right out and say that some Christian Fantasy has things in it that I don’t entirely agree with. It’s also mostly symbolistic. Of course, you could be talking, not about books that are dubbed “Christian Fantasy”, but about ideals. I could not be entirely certain. Here’s how I understand the Christian battle, however.

We, as people, cannot change other people. People have free will and make their own choices. You have control over your own choices, and as a Christian, you should be choosing to live in a way that reflects God—meaning that you act in love and all that that encompasses. You can’t do this without God’s help, though, because your flesh is always struggling against you doing the right thing. The Bible says that we aren’t struggling against flesh and blood (meaning other people) but against the Powers and Principalities and Rulers in heavenly places )demons basically). We’re not supposed to be fighting other humans. At all. Ever. We’re supposed to be renewing our minds with Scripture, having a relationship with God and handing all our worries and anxieties over to him because he is bigger than any struggle we might face. Prayer is the Christian’s weapon, but it’s a private thing between them and God. When it comes to dealing with people whose lifestyles or choices or simply opinions conflict with yours, you’re not supposed to shove doctrine down their throats. Jesus didn’t do that. He met people where they were at. He hung out with fishermen and tax collectors and Samaritans and the sick and the poor and the outcasts. He treated them equally and he taught them in ways they could understand. The only people he was properly angry with were the religious hypocrites who said one thing and did the opposite. All the other people, even Judas who betrayed him, he treated with love and kindness and gentleness, even when he chastised them. Another thing he did on a regular basis was go off on his own to pray. That’s what he wants us to do as well—pray for others, even your enemies. Submit your concerns to God and let Him deal with what you cannot change. Sometimes God will call you to do something specific, and when he does he will equip you to accomplish that task. If you want to do something that blatantly goes against what the Bible says, though, that’s the Devil talking and he should not be heeded. He wants to steal and kill and destroy, and it is heartbreaking how often he’s deceived Christians into doing his work so that God and Christianity is discredited and people are driven further away. This is not excusing those people. They chose to listen to the Enemy instead of God and they are responsible for those choices. God can change their hearts if they let him, but the more often they listen to the Enemy the harder their hearts get in those places. I will say no more on this topic because I’m straying into judgment here and that’s God’s job, not mine. I try to be as unjudgmental as possible but it’s something I still wrestle with, especially in today’s climate.

I rambled a lot and I’m sorry, but I’m very passionate about this subject and am saddened by others who have misrepresented God in various ways.

To anyone who is reading this, from a Christian who speaks from the heart: no matter what anyone else has told you about him, God loves you just the way you are, and so do I. Be safe and may your day go well.

[joellemiller10-blog]

“Mom, I made it!” - NYC Update

The look on people’s faces after I shared my “moving to New York City without a job” plan never got old. Many would smile nervously back at me. The evident looks of “yikes, that sounds slightly foolish” were still visible through the laughter and encouragement I received. There were moments when I had to fight fear thinking about the future, but I genuinely believed God would “go before” me in the step of faith I was taking. After doors closed to stay in Minneapolis after graduation, I decided to take the jump. I sincerely believed God had something good for me in New York City.

Susan sent me this quote on November 1st, 2017:

“When God moves us out of our comfort zones - into places that are way bigger than us, places that are difficult, hard, painful, places that even hurt - this is a gift. We are being given a gift. These hard places give us the gift of intimately knowing God in ways that would never be possible in our comfort zones.”

Why New York City?

That could be an entry of its own. The short answer is: for proximity.

Proximity to the communities that God loves, but that are often forgotten. Proximity to people from many different cultures, religions, languages, races, and ethnicities. The world’s diversity exists in this city. I would be living the most mundane parts of my life rubbing shoulders (literally) and sharing train poles with strangers I wouldn’t normally come in contact with. This, to me, would be beautiful. So, whether it was pursuing the legal field, ministry, or nonprofit work, I wanted to be in New York City and live in that proximity.

Funny enough, in December of 2015, several years prior during my sophomore year of college, Tammy (a lifelong mentor of mine) told me, “You know Joelle, I think you’ll end up in New York City one day.”

I chuckled. “Really? Why do you say that?”

“I don’t know, you love people, you love God. It only makes sense that you’d end up there.”

*High five* Tammy Dunford.

Truthfully, throughout the process of preparing to come, I fought to trust the Lord. Was God going to provide a job? What if the step of faith I was taking would result in failure? What if I went broke and had to fly home? Even though I knew God was good, and he wanted good for me, moments of fear over how he would show his goodness were very real. I prayed for three specific things: wisdom, provision, and that I wouldn’t be afraid. 

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”                                                        1 John 4:18

“I’m emotionally weary. But I’m still choosing to trust the Lord with these next few months. With the loneliness, discouragement, and heartache. He will be with me. And if the point of all of this is for it to fail, so I can experience God in a better way, then okay. Whatever it takes. Lord, give me a heart of willingness for failure and disappointment.” (Journaled on 12/15/17)

“I will be with you on the train. I will be with you on the street. I will be with you in Flatbush, in Cafe Madeline, in the subway station, in church. I will be with you in your tears. In your heartache. In your discouragement. I will be with you.” (Journaled on 12/31/17)

So, after hugging my family goodbye in the Minneapolis airport on January 8th, I got on the plane.

And, nearly eight months later, I sit in awe as I process all that God did. 

The quick update is - God blew my mind. 

Day by day, week by week, month by month, he kept me alive. The first two months were full of job interviews, random dog sitting, trying to make friends, and exploring new churches. During month three, I spent my days working at a Jewish college. Drinking tea every morning with the school’s dean and sharing candy with the Armenian janitor. I had lots of alone time with the Lord as I sat on the floor of a filing room and sorted student records. By the end of month four, I had landed a full-time job as the Associate Director of CSM. My bank account had never hit zero (miraculously). I moved into a new apartment with friends (the third place I had lived since arriving). My legs were finally adjusted to all the walking, and I started teaching ESL as a volunteer to North African Muslims in Brooklyn. 

Dang. God did it.

Kelsey Linnartz sent me a verse in the mail that month:

“The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.” Psalm 145:18-19

It’s true that even though God miraculously gave wisdom, offered provision, and took away my fear, I still experienced much loss in this process. Not only in leaving Minnesota to come here, but also since I’ve arrived. In my transition, it was the loss of my home (trading in Minnesota snow for Florida palm trees, ayyeee). Also, loss of proximity with dear friends. Since living here I’ve equally experienced loss of relationships, and loss of the Cru world that I’ve grown to love my whole life.

But oh, how good and faithful God has been these last eight months.

Needless to say, New York City is an adventure every day. In the spring, I found myself shaking hands with Tim Keller as I was having an interview in his office (I definitely didn’t get the job, I was “fan-girling” too much to focus). Just this last weekend, I took a photo for a random tourist, and he turned out to be a famous Brazilian youtuber. We hung out, he took of a video of me listening to Brazilian music, and the video has nearly gone viral (I’ll send you the link if you ask for it, it’s pretty funny actually). I guess I’m famous in Brazil now...? I’ve also had conversations with the president of Black Lives Matter for the Greater New York Area, and I’m getting to know the local Turkish barista in my neighborhood.

Not only has the Lord been so gracious in providing fun experiences here, but he has provided a job in which I can use my giftings and passions. 

What is CSM?

CSM (City Service Missions) is an urban missions organization that seeks to bridge the gap between suburban experiences and the injustices that affect the inner-city. We lead mission trips in New York City for high schoolers who come from out of state with their church youth groups. We connect them with ministries in the city where they can serve, and we teach them about how to see justice through the lens of the gospel. http://www.csm.com/

As the Associate Director, I create and maintain partnerships with other churches, nonprofits, and ministries throughout the city. I mentor our college interns, create the mission trip schedules, and speak to the high schoolers during our weekly “worship nights”. My passion for helping my white brothers and sisters in Christ understand the Biblical basis for racial justice is beautifully fleshed out in this role. Through speaking, writing, training, mentoring, and advocating, my skills are thriving. God knew what he was doing in providing CSM for me.

I also want to give a quick shout-out to my boss and CSM City Director, CJ Quartlbaum. Not only has he been an awesome director to work for, but he’s starting to “make it big” with his speaking and writing. Check out his website: https://www.cjquartlbaum.com/ for his published articles and sermons. (Yo Cru people, if you need someone for a Fall Retreat or Cru Winter Conference speaker, he would be fantastic, just sayin’).

CJ and I have been given a fundraising goal to meet for CSM before the end of the year. We still have $5,000 remaining. I figured this post would be a great way to invite you to partner with us financially (see below). The journey towards racial reconciliation and understanding Biblical unity is pertinent to our lives as followers of Christ. We believe that CSM is making an impact in the lives of students, and they are beginning to see the Biblical call for diversity and justice. They are understanding that the journey of following Jesus includes caring for the orphan, widow, imprisoned, poor, and marginalized. 1 John 4 has become even more real for me in this process...

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because is love ... Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another ... And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother”. 

So, long story short, New York City is one of the biggest “memorial stones” I’ve ever experienced in my walk with God (Joshua 4). I’ve seen his provision, his faithfulness, his kindness. Even if I would’ve gone broke and had to fly home, he still would’ve given provision, shown to be faithful, and expressed his kindness. 

Yet now, some days I am so overwhelmed with gratitude for what the Lord has done that I don’t know how to pray. I’m at a loss for words.

The only things my heart can muster most days is Psalm 13:6 - “I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me.”

- Joelle 

To give to CSM and help us meet our fundraising goal for the year, go to: http://www.csm.org/donate/

(Be sure to write “New York City - CJ Quartlbaum and Joelle Miller” in the “Additional Information” section. Also, message me and let me know if you give!)

[melbynews-blog]

MoA - Netanyahoo To Again Cry Wolf

Neuer Beitrag veröffentlicht bei https://melby.de/moa-netanyahoo-to-again-cry-wolf/

MoA - Netanyahoo To Again Cry Wolf

April 30, 2018

Netanyahoo To Again Cry Wolf – But Something Bigger Is Up (Updated)

Updated below —

U.S. President Trump wants to end the nuclear agreement (pdf) with Iran and wants to eliminated Iranian forces in Syria which support the Syrian government. Something is being prepared to make that happen.

Last week General Joseph Votel, commander of CENTCOM – the U.S. military command for the Middle East, was in Israel. It was the first ever visit of a CENTCOM commander to Israel which usually works with the European command EUCOM.

Yesterday former CIA director and now Secretary of State Pompeo visited Israel. A few hours later Israel bombed two ammunition depots in Syria which are supposedly related to Iran. This was a clear attempt to provoke Iran into some reaction.

The Israeli defense minister Lieberman just visited Washington DC and only today came back to Israel.

Now the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahoo loudly announced that he will hold a press conference to present a „huge amount of new and dramatic information on the Iranian nuclear program“. He will allege that Iran cheats on the nuclear agreement (JCPOA).

Netanyahoo is a notorious liar and warmonger. In September 2002 he lied (vid) to the U.S. congress:

There is no question whatsoever that Saddam is seeking and is working and is advancing towards the development of nuclear weapons – no question whatsoever”

Only yesterday he promoted a false story that claimed Arabs in Israel had disrupted a minuted of silence for some people killed in a flash flood.

The IAEA says that Iran is in full compliance with the JCPOA. If there were any serious intelligence about any Iranian deviation from the nuclear agreement it would be presented to the IAEA and the six signature powers of the agreement. The IAEA would investigate and report back. If Iran cheated it would be put back under serious international sanctions. That Netanyahoo wants to present something publicly makes it very likely that he has nothing of relevance.

We hear that the documents he is said to present were compiled by one Christopher Steele and assembled with the help of one Sergej Skripal and his MI6 handler [redacted]. They will show that Iran attempts to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger.

This new comedy stunt by Netanyahoo is tightly coordinated with the Trump administration.  Trump’s national security advisor John Bolton has worked with the Zionists since early 2000 to push for a war on Iran:

During multiple trips to Israel, Bolton had unannounced meetings, including with the head of Mossad, Meir Dagan, without the usual reporting cable to the secretary of state and other relevant offices. Judging from that report on an early Bolton visit, those meetings clearly dealt with a joint strategy on how to bring about political conditions for an eventual U.S. strike against Iran.

Behind Trump, Netanyahoo and Bolton is one financier, the militant Zionist and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. He financed Trump’s and Netanyahoo’s election campaigns and the various think tanks that create anti-Iranian propaganda and paid Bolton.

bigger

Trump wants to leave the nuclear agreement but the other signers, China, Russia, the UK, France and Germany want to keep it up. Just leaving the JCPOA without cause will increase doubt over any agreement the U.S. wants to make on other issues. The allegations Netanyahoo will put forward, no matter how ridiculous they may be, could give Trump some excuse to put new sanctions on Iran without actually leaving the agreement.

But even that does not explain all the recent meetings and visits by the various Israeli and U.S. officials. French soldiers and mercenaries from the UAE have entered north-east-Syria. What for? The Saudis are on board with any operation against Iran.

Something big is up and we do not know yet what it might be.

— Update

That was lame. Netanyahoo just finished his show (vid). He claimed that Israel got access to an Iranian archive of its former nuclear program dating from 1999 to 2003. In 2007 a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate found that Iran stopped all nuclear weapon research in 2003 after the U.S. had destroyed Iran’s then arch-enemy Iraq. In 2011 the IAEA reported in detail of Iran’s former „structured program“. It agreed that it had stopped in 2003.

All that Netanyahoo now claims to have acquired is old and known stuff. He refers to an AMAD plan Iran had as if that was some new intelligence. But the IAEA documented AMAD and its development in 2011 (PDF, Annex, page 5). He uses the archive documents with details of well known former programs to declare that Iran has cheated and is not trustworthy. He says that gives Trump reason to disavow the nuclear agreement the U.S. and others had signed with Iran. That is bullshit.

One wonders where the pictures and files Netanyahoo presented are coming from. I have a hunch that these were not obtained from a „warehouse“ in Iran but exfiltrated from a computer in Vienna where the IAEA analyzes the former Iranian research program from files Iran handed to it.

I had expected better from a serial liar. Some well forged documents or something more dramatic. This was just nonsense.

My feeling is that this is a diversion from an upcoming military(?) operation against Iran or its assets in Lebanon, Syria or Iraq.

Posted by b on April 30, 2018 at 01:06 PM | Permalink

Absolutely correct b. Something’s cooking and it won’t take long for the world to find out what it was.

Also, when responding to the Iranian threats to re-start their nuclear program, Mr Trump appears to have an answer pretty resolute i.e „They won’t be starting anything, you can bank on that“

One more thing I like to add. If Mr Trump withdraws US from the deal which is also endorsed by the UNSC, US will loose to IRAN in the war that follows-up.

Posted by: Fantome | Apr 30, 2018 1:18:54 PM | 1

Well, what’s up is war. Syria and Iran are still missing in the trophy collection.

Posted by: BX | Apr 30, 2018 1:20:34 PM | 2

Right now Netanyahu on CNN – Iran lied. Claims Israel has lots of stolen files.

Posted by: spudski | Apr 30, 2018 1:25:09 PM | 3

OH no! not the yellow cake saga again. Well, if they can get away with the Syrian chemical weapons attack that the white helmets can fix with a hose pipe, then anything goes. It looks as though the Skripal affair has lots more secrets to reveal. This story just keeps on giving and giving, although if you looked for it in MSM you wouldn’t find anything on it. I don’t understand why the missile defense system doesn’t appear to activate for the Iranian contingent in Syria. Is it because this was a surprise attack and the Syrians?Russians were caught off guard, or are the Iranians left to fend for themselves as far as air bombardment is concerned? I get the feeling that the West is probing and poking the bear a bit at a time with a stick to get a reaction. They may well be sorry what they wish for.

Posted by: john wilson | Apr 30, 2018 1:32:07 PM | 5

Doesn’t look like fake anti-establishment, swamp-drainer, poseur Trump has given himself ANY leeway…

with which he might counter or to move away from the numerous neocon nut cases hell-bent for WW3 whom he has permanently invited to his war cabinet golden shower party.

Posted by: fastfreddy | Apr 30, 2018 1:36:25 PM | 6

Netanyahu is probably the most dangerous leader in this world, the raw lying and propaganda, its heinous. Not to mention this sick lunatic in Israel have some 300 nukes already themselves, IN SECRET!

Now he have come up with fake documents, trying to justify a war! Same jewish state that whine about antisemitism, this people are not sane…

Hopefully west dont accept this blatant sicko, because as usual, its not Israel that want to wage the war, no, the war must be fought by goyim europeans and especially americans.

With ugly pack of morons as Trump, POmpeo, Bolton, it doesnt look good.

This war hysteria just come weeks after the illegal and dangerous bombing of Syria. Netanyahu clarly is a psychopath.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 1:36:55 PM | 7

What is going on with those s300s? Russia needs to give Syria/Iran the means to defend themselves from these repeated acts of Israeli aggression. It should not be so easy for Israel to take out Iranian forces.

Posted by: Jayhawk2018 | Apr 30, 2018 1:37:18 PM | 8

The only way to kick the legs out of Iran in a manner that Israel cares about which would also hurt Assad would be to destroy Hezbollah. The only chance of doing that would be to go full war crime mode and use the most vicious thermobaric or possibly tactical nuclear weapons.

If we did that or enabled the Israelis to do that then we will have reached total depravity. At this point I believe the U.S. public is okay with bombing anyone as long as U.S. lives are not lost. If the Israelis do it we cheer, if we do it then it shows the rest of the world who is boss.

Posted by: Christian Chuba | Apr 30, 2018 1:40:17 PM | 9

Jayhawk2018

Russia is bust, they refused s300 and here we are, not only bombing of Syria but even Iran now?

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 1:40:41 PM | 10

This can all be easily followed all the way back to before the Iranian nuclear deal and a policy paper out of Brookings on how to set up Iran for war. Basically, it states make a deal with Iran then prove that although the West did its best, Iran broke the deal in whatever manner. Appears they have all the actors lined up. Now it begins. The war of words then war. Like we haven’t seen this before.

Posted by: LJ Smith | Apr 30, 2018 1:40:54 PM | 11

Nuttyyahoo is dangerous BECAUSE he is thoroughly enabled by the FUKUS, but especially the US in EVERY way – politically, monetarily, morally, and and he is promoted on every television network and mainstream media outlet.

Trump has become increasingly dangerous because he has surrounded himself with Pompeo, Bolton, Nikki Haley, Nuttyyahoo…

Posted by: fastfreddy | Apr 30, 2018 1:48:46 PM | 13

Holy jumping f***, the „yellow cake“ BS again. You’d think these war mongering morons could be more inventive.

Posted by: ben | Apr 30, 2018 1:52:18 PM | 14

Where will it end? Russia allows it to continue. Then remains who? Pakistan? Are we profitting? US has become monster.

Posted by: Jared | Apr 30, 2018 1:54:26 PM | 15

„That was lame.“

US/UK/Israel are not even trying for convincing narratives now. Sounds like F-35 was used to hit the ammo dumps in Syria. Maybe the zionists figure they have F35 bugs ironed out and its time to put it to work against Iran.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Apr 30, 2018 2:03:51 PM | 16

Nikki Haley aka Nimrata Randhawa, is obviously a mental lightweight and a „yes man“ for positive reinforcement & public relations/messaging purposes.

The others are genuinely depraved, lunatic warmongers whom maintain the ability to string together sentences.

Wonder where the Kagans are in all this. Cheering from the sidelines? Seems they’d be invited.

Posted by: fastfreddy | Apr 30, 2018 2:03:57 PM | 17

Didn’t an American Green Beret from IIRC a nuke snoop/radiological team just die reecently in Niger?

Posted by: Tannenhouser | Apr 30, 2018 2:13:18 PM | 18

We hear that the documents he is said to present were compiled by one Christopher Steele and assembled with the help of one Sergej Skripal and his MI6 handler [redacted]. They will show that Iran attempts to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger.

I think b was being sarcastic although Netanyahu and Bolton really are dumb and arrogant enough to try it.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Apr 30, 2018 2:19:08 PM | 19

Actually Iran has a long-time investment in uranium mines in Namibia, from the Shah’s time, and Ahmadinejad even visited Niger in Apr 2013 while that country was looking to diversify its uranium sales away from the French Areva. There’s nothing „secret“ about any of this, uranium is a fuel for reactors.

Posted by: Cyrus | Apr 30, 2018 2:20:01 PM | 20

… What I like about this story is that, even though smearing Iran doesn’t make any sense, narratives that don’t make sense are ’normal‘ for that bloodthirsty experiment in social engineering known as „Israel“. One wonders whether, if the „Israelis“ are serious about attacking Iran, then shouldn’t they be encouraged to give it a try, just to see what happens? If they’re not worried about blowback from Iran and Hezbollah, why should anyone else lose any sleep over it? When Medvedev was President of Russia he said in an interview (with Zacharia) on a US network that ab attack on Iran would create an „unimaginable refugee catastrophe“. Ironically (or Russian-ly), he didn’t say for whom it would be catastrophic…

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 30, 2018 2:20:13 PM | 21

The JCPOA is not a treaty it’s an agreement between the US president and some other countries. The fact that a US president would seek any agreement with its mortal enemy Iran (as dictated by Israel) is ridiculous, but Obama needed something positive for his presidential library besides mandatory medical insurance (Obamacare) so there you go.

So now there’s a new president who ran on a campaign of scrapping the Iran nuclear agreement (and Obamacare) and he’s doing it. It’s no surprise to Ayatollah Khamenei: Oct 6, 2013– Iran’s Leader “Optimistic” about Rowhani’s US Diplomacy, but Skeptical of Washington, Israel

Certainly, we are pessimistic about the Americans. We do not trust them. We consider the government of the United States of America as an unreliable, arrogant, illogical, and trespassing government, which is badly possessed and dominated by the international Zionist network. They are forced to appease the extorter and forged regime that has occupied Palestine to observe the illegitimate desires and interests of the international Zionist network. They ought to be flexible against it for the interests of the international Zionist network. They call it America’s interests, whereas America’s national interests entirely contradict what they are doing today in support of the forged regime. The government of the United States of America is blackmailing the entire world, appeasing the forged Zionist regime. We witness these facts. We do not trust the US government. We trust our own officials. We are optimist and we want them (officials) to take right and firm steps carefully and considering all aspects. They should not forget national interests even for a second. The important point for the Islamic Republic’s system is the internal strength of the structure of the Islamic Republic, the internal strength of the Iranian nation. This has managed to protect the country, national unity, respect to great ideals of the Islamic Republic, and respect to the national honor. The Iranian nation is a dear nation. The revolution gave honor back to them. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 2:21:40 PM | 22

Also, there was actually never any evidence of a nuclear weapons research program prior to 2003 either. The IAEA has specifically gone on record stating in 2009 that it has „no concrete proof that this is or has been a nuclear weapons program in Iran“. Gareth Porter has written more about the 2003 allegations and Israel’s later attempts to undermine the NIE by insisting that there was evidence of „continued“ nuclear weapons work. The worst that the IAEA could ever say it actually found in Iran, were „fragmented and incomplete feasibility studies“ that were „relevant to“ nukes — none of which is in any way a violation of the NPT which actually ENCOURAGES the sharing of technology „relevant to“ nuclear weapons including data from nuclear test explosions.

Posted by: Cyrus | Apr 30, 2018 2:25:01 PM | 23

Wow! The anti-corruption probe into Nuttyyahoo’s activities must be coming close to arresting him; so, to avoid arrest, he must start an actual war of aggression. Only problem is the Zionists like their Outlaw allies are incapable of actually defeating anyone they might attack.

What the Zionists are scared to death of is becoming irrelevant; their Airstrip 1 existence no longer of any value to the Imperialist Empires that created the Zionist state for their own geopolitical machinations. Is there any real reason to militarily attack the Zionists beyond reclaiming Golan? If Lebanon becomes strong enough–I’d argue it’s already–then a simple containment policy coupled with the international BDS movement will be more than enough to facilitate internal political change within the Apartheid State over time–containment will take several years to work as it did on South Africa. Zionist racism has destabilized itself. Talk about a state ripe for being Color Revolutionized. Those are the reasons for the easily seen and rebutted lies of a very desperate politico wanting very much to avoid prison for crimes he committed against his own nation, not the many War Crimes against others.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30, 2018 2:26:38 PM | 24

Cyrus

„Also, there was actually never any evidence of a nuclear weapons research program prior to 2003 either“

INdeed, b better fix that desinformation.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 2:29:26 PM | 25

doesn’t make sense …FUKUS does war on Iran, Iran closes the Gulf …oil goes to 200/ barrel ….US does a superb imitation of a Dead Fly.

Posted by: Breadonwaters | Apr 30, 2018 2:34:35 PM | 26

B.: I had expected better from him. Some well forged documents or something more dramatic. This was just nonsense. ______________________________________________

This is another example of a trend I’ve been on about lately. You’re quite right; the quality of the Western/ME hegemony’s Big Lies is deteriorating markedly before our eyes. But only the minority who are willing and able to keep their eyes wide open seem to notice.

It’s hard to tell if the proliferation of weak and incredible fabrications is based on the Big Liars‘ belief that the public is, or has become, so benighted and bamboozled that they’ll swallow anything, or if it’s an indication that they are running on empty. But, whether it’s due to hubris or degenerate incompetence, it indeed looks as if they aren’t even trying any more.

Then again, as you also point out, Bibi’s anticlimactic histrionics are on a par with his comical September, 2012 performance at the UN, where he produced that cartoon drawing of a „bomb“ in order to flog the typically mendacious and hysterical claim that the noble, harmless State of Israel was in imminent danger of destruction from the „Iranian bomb“.

It’s one thing when zealous Hasbarists, amateur or professional, troll/spam Internet comments boards with their rigidly fatuous, fantastic, Zionist Israel-serving talking points. One expects unsophisticated, fully-indoctrinated True Believers to spew rote talking points and dogma that insult the intelligence of anyone outside the Zionist Hive Mind.

But the fact that Israel’s leaders and authorities shamelessly rely on such childish props to sell their genocidal policies and actions suggests both hubris and abiding contempt for the rest of the world.

It’s hard to believe that Bibi and his allies and supporters don’t know that they’re insulting the rest of the world’s intelligence. I think there’s a word for this. Chutzpah, maybe?

Posted by: Ort | Apr 30, 2018 2:36:07 PM | 27

https://www.bitchute.com/video/IF7ZwfM4tQQK/

This is an absolutely stunning breaking interview of the Syrian independent member of parliament Fares Shehabi by the bbc hardtalk program. The msm typically try to aggressively browbeat non-western interviewees that they disagree with. Unfortunately, most of the interviewees either get cowed or they get emotional and angry.

Fares Shehabi instead is factually and rationally aggressive, fact by fact, counter-argument by counter-argument, not allowing the bbc interviewer to shut him up. It is a model of how to deal with the msm.

the msm have already managed to get the interview wiped off youtube. but it is still available here

http://www.syrianews.cc/syrian-mp-fares-shehabi-pummels-bbc-colonialist-sackur/

download it and upload it and torrent it everywhere you can so that they cannot wipe it off the net.

crossposted

Posted by: anon | Apr 30, 2018 2:36:12 PM | 28

@b and 19: please clarify re Steele and Skripal reference re Net’s „documents“

Posted by: Sid2 | Apr 30, 2018 2:40:25 PM | 29

@Peter AU 1 16 Sounds like F-35 was used to hit the ammo dumps in Syria What’s your reason for saying this. We established at the previous threat that GBU-39 glide bombs were used. They are a stand-off weapon and I believe that the F-35 is incapobale of carrying them.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 2:48:38 PM | 30

anon @ 27

The interview appears to be deleted from the second link also.

Posted by: spudski | Apr 30, 2018 2:54:45 PM | 31

spudski 30

No I just watched its there. Scoll down a bit.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 2:55:47 PM | 32

Thanks very much, Anonymous @31.

Posted by: spudski | Apr 30, 2018 2:58:00 PM | 33

„unhinged“ = arrogance turns into stupidity? The latest in the continuing Net-job droning on and on „war with Iran“ might not go as well as he expects, given resistance to withdrawal from the JCPOA. A more easily applied application of „arrogance turns into stupidity“ is the White House Correspondents Dinner this weekend roasting Press Sec Sanders. James Woods‘ response did it nicely at „low class trash.“ More of this sort of thing will indeed be „a gift“ to the Republicans in the upcoming elections.

http://theduran.com/james-woods-crushes-white-house-correspondents-dinner-comedian-michelle-wolf/

Posted by: Sid2 | Apr 30, 2018 2:59:38 PM | 34

it’s getting harder and harder to tell what’s really going on. Sites like this are useful, but can only read between the lines: they simply do not have the resources to independantly uncover and vet primary sources of information. More the pity that our establishment news organizations are totally corrupt and have no credibility. That’s a bigger loss than one might at first realize.

That said, it’s interesting that Israel seems to be going real crazy now and not acting as it usually does through its proxies in Washington. I posit two possible interpretations, based on what I would expect as blowback from Trump’s latest Syrian missile strike.

1. The US strike really was successful, Russian air defenses are impotent against US weaponry, and Israel and the US elites feel that it’s now open season on Israel and Iran etc. Open skies, blast away!

2. The US strike was a failure, and Russian air defenses are potentially totally changing the game. Israel and US elites are going nuts and determined to strike hard and fast before the window of opportunity closes, and because they are just in general pissed off at having been defied (‚how dare they defend themselves from our holy humanitarian missile strike?‘). Israel is determined to build momentum for war before the military option becomes untenable. Even if Russian air defenses really are that good, the West can still prevail in the middle east through overwhelming massed attacks… for now…

Note that my thinking posits that our elites will go crazy regardless of what happens – which fits with past experience, but is not perhaps what Karl Popper would have called „falsifiable.“

Posted by: TG | Apr 30, 2018 3:11:12 PM | 36

@Fec 34 The F-35 is not capable of GBU-39 carry, also these glide bombs could be released over international water which safeguards the delivery system.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 3:15:23 PM | 37

If Nikki Haley was supposedly voted most likable US politician hence I suggest, lock the US insane asylum and throw out the key, since now anything will be blabbermouthed and nothing of substance will really happen except some unwitting crisis actors will die, a fact of inhumane cruelty of imperial rulers.

Where are dire warnings from Russia about severe consequences if Syria attacked. Russians lost credibility of their threats which is even worse if they have never made them.

I do not know what it would take for people to see what cruel charade all this is, what would it take for people to realize that it is all Roman type of theater of wilderness and pain and we are audience and targets of this propaganda of fear of global nuke war and destruction that they want us to believe is behind all this cruel soap opera.

There will be no global war since there are no fundamental conflicts within global elites despite what propaganda from all sides claims and that including b, trying to make sense of utter unadulterated nonsense of MSM, for those establishment people in west who are already in it are not idiots but rational people who do that immoral, opportunist job for money knowing what they lie about, knowing that there is no danger of global nuke catastrophe whatsoever, otherwise they would act more sober like it was during Cold War.

However, there is logic in this madness, namely to forcefully align nations with discredited ruling elites who attempt to take role of saviors, when no other method of control over population works any more and policies of deliberated destruction of welfare and civil society, openly provoked mass unrest or revolution and instigated natural growth of working class movements in self defense. Warmongering was classical ploy against discontented population used many times in history and nor mere speculation.

Spreading of fear of global anihilation among populations is the ultimate objective of this unheard of verbal and acting belligerence on world stage, which upon examination of basic socioeconomic facts especially soundness and calm of global financial system indicates mood of world peace and love among oligarchic elites who have a good thing going while sheeple are orderly dying of starvation and fear.

But I guess even on this quite brainy blog people are more interested in menacing tabloid surrealism than boring naked truth. Otherwise, b would not have much to write about in his devastating reports on masive MSM lying, with implicit hope that one day may be NYT writes some truth.

It ain’s gonna happen b , their business is lies yours it seems is to skillfully debunk them, these are ironically two sides of the same coin of unsubstantiated hope of making any difference anymore.

Posted by: Kalen | Apr 30, 2018 3:16:34 PM | 38

Israel will not risk Jews so they will stick to launching air strikes from Lebanon. All of the characters will be happy to use another mercenary army of goys to attack the Syrian gov and it’s allies. Especially attractive might be to use these to buttress the SDF to hold onto eastern Syria or to attack Turk aligned forces.

Posted by: Alaric | Apr 30, 2018 3:43:34 PM | 42

b,

unfortunately the majority only read headlines. In a world where evidence matters not, details of Bibi Nuttuyahoo’s claim 1999-2003 is a side show.

Bibi is setting the stage for his managing director, D. J. Trump, to „honourably“ withdraw from the JCPOA on May 12 and to pressure the other signatories.

There are somethings larger – I do hope someone (Russia or China) will grant Iran their nuclear umbrella. And Kim, do make a note to self.

The Anglo-Zionists are deep in pretexts to coverup:

1. the black swan flying under heavy wings with $230 trillion global debt must be brought down. Not nearly enough in the ESF.

2.Revelations on the recent 100 missiles hoax to retaliate for the ‚chemical attack‘ that was not. Can’t disappear Robert Fisk’s expose – he is widely read..

3. Christoper Steele’s Case on the dock wherein he will be deposed. Oh wait, where is he in hiding with the Skripals?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

@ 8, re Russia delivery of S-300s to Syria. Don’t count on it as Israel’s and Russia’s militaries „have an arrangement to avoid aerial conflict over Syria.“ Last week Russia’s Ambassador to Israel made that clear.

Posted by: Likklemore | Apr 30, 2018 3:48:57 PM | 43

Looks to me like trump is groveling before the Saudis for keeping the petrodollar. Hence he is walking out of the Iran deal despite its geopolitical risk, and trying to show some fireworks in Syria. What’s the half life of this show? More, or less than Trump’s average ejaculation time?

Posted by: meme | Apr 30, 2018 3:49:50 PM | 44

Putin blocking the delivery of S-300 in Syria against the demands of the Russian Military

This was discussed by Putin with General Staff chief Valery Gerasimov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on April 20. The Russian military, they told the President, want the go-ahead to deploy S-300 missile batteries to cover Syrian and Iranian forces against US and Israeli attack from the air. They believe Israeli threats to attack the S-300 batteries as soon as they are operational are a bluff which Russia must call if Russia’s positions in Syria, and Iran itself, are not to come under subsequent attack from the American-Israeli combination. Testing the threat in Syria, they argue, is the less threatening, less costly option than encouraging the Americans and Israelis to prepare their offensive against Iran. Putin won’t agree.

To respond to Putin’s reluctance, the General Staff and the Defence Ministry have devised a step short of the S-300, but with potentially enough defensive power to intercept or deter American and Israeli air attacks. This is the deployment of more Russian electronic warfare systems with the capacity to jam the surveillance, targeting, fire control and command signals on which the attackers rely. It is the Samson Haircut option – deprive the giant of control of his firepower, blind him.

Silently, Putin has decided to protect Deripaska; not to call the US attack on Rusal an act of war; and to test the Americans with an offer of armistice. International bankers close to Russian business believe it is a Russian illusion that an armistice with the US can be anything but temporary; pursuing it is a miscalculation of US intentions, the sources add. They warn that new attacks will come.

http://johnhelmer.net/the-samson-haircut-option-one-step-before-russia-opens-fire-on-american-israeli-forces/#more-19116

Putin Reportedly “Ready For Deep Concessions”, Seeks Deal With Trump

He understands Russia can’t compete with the West economically and he doesn’t plan to go to war with the West.

Kremlin has ordered officials to curb their anti-U.S. rhetoric.

Putin’s decision explains why lawmakers Monday suddenly pulled a draft law that would’ve imposed sweeping counter-sanctions on U.S. companies, two of the people said.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-18/putin-reportedly-ready-deep-concessions-seeks-deal-trump

Russian Senators to soften counter sanctions against US

RBC: Russian senators to water down Moscow’s response to US sanctions. Two Federation Council members told the newspaper that the final version of the amendments to the ‘anti-sanctions’ bill initiated by State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and leaders of all parliamentary factions, will be “quite mild.”

http://tass.com/pressreview/1001647

Russia not to take action against US diplomatic property – diplomat

More: http://tass.com/politics/1002504

Posted by: Passer by | Apr 30, 2018 3:53:05 PM | 46

Don and Peter.

That’s a lot better than what I had. Beast mode. Hilarious.

For all I know, they shoved it out the back of a C-17.

Posted by: Fec | Apr 30, 2018 3:54:08 PM | 47

By the huge ammount of trolls totally blocking comments at RT English ( and I suppose at any other media )with thousands of botted likes under their comments to rise them to the top of view, I would say they are preparing something big, since I have not seen this level of trolling ( which implies having RT news about this topic blocked for comments as if a DDOS attack would be happening in fact )since the beginning of the Syrian war at some MSM where I started commenting supporting Syria.

Posted by: From the resistance | Apr 30, 2018 3:58:55 PM | 48

Passer by | Apr 30, 2018 3:53:05 PM | 45 I believe Putin is playing for time. The March 1 weaponry display didn’t include production numbers but I think it is a safe bet they don’t exist in sufficient numbers..yet.

So US&Co have a small window left to create hell on earth for as many as possible and they IMO will hit Iran before the football playoffs that Putin so wants to go smoothly.

I would assume Iran is/was responsible for Iranian defense of these sites so I am surprised they didn’t respond, maybe there was no time?? Couldn’t Russia have warned them?? And does anyone know what weaponry the Russians brought into Syria recently under cover of smoke?

Posted by: frances | Apr 30, 2018 4:02:55 PM | 49

I’ve no doubt that for a lot of people the question of F-35 usage anywhere near a combat zone is a so-what issue, but for those of us who have struggled for years to bring some truth about this fault-filled much-delayed program through the fog of corruption, it’s important to maintain that the current fleet of expensive pre-production F-35 prototypes is truly worthless.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 4:08:50 PM | 50

Likklemore

@ 8, re Russia delivery of S-300s to Syria. Don’t count on it as Israel’s and Russia’s militaries „have an arrangement to avoid aerial conflict over Syria.“ Last week Russia’s Ambassador to Israel made that clear.

Uh, that is the reason Russia should use S300. Then, there wouldnt be any „aerial conflict“ over Syrian sovereign airspace to begin with.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 4:09:58 PM | 51

@ frances 48 US&Co . . will hit Iran before the football playoffs And how might they „hit Iran?“ Do you mean hit the country itself with a military attack?

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 4:13:42 PM | 52

Israel has said that it will take out any S-300 in Syria, and that would include any nearby Russians.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 4:15:24 PM | 53

From the resistance | Apr 30, 2018 3:58:55 PM | 47 You’re right, pretty amazing, I did manage to post two comments debunking the docs, but it took forever.

Posted by: frances | Apr 30, 2018 4:18:37 PM | 54

@ frances

I think the World Cup is playing a big role in the decision making as you have said. There is a lot at stake: investments already made and international exposure also. I can’t wait for it to be finished so we can get back to war !! (sarc)

Posted by: imoverit | Apr 30, 2018 4:20:46 PM | 56

Israel could start its assassination program, carry out sabotage, airstrikes, there is no limit to the sick regime and the sick western media accetpance of the same unhinged behavior by Israel.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 4:32:44 PM | 57

Posted by: frances | Apr 30, 2018 4:18:37 PM | 53

Go out of tha site and come in again to post your comment, This you must do it with every comment you want to post, as I have discovered so far, but who is to tire with this invasion and what is at stake? Not me…. I am noticing that they are already tyring indeed, and start desisting. One of my comments was deleted while still tipping….and the keyboard gets blocked when you saty there a while, but if you go out and come in again you will be able to post. Try it.

Posted by: From the resistance | Apr 30, 2018 4:37:17 PM | 58

the hero of hebrew history above is a great man did obaama not give him 30 billion in war arms. did germany not give him 5 free dolphin class submarines for samson option. does german public funds pay compensation cover amounting to a trillion euros by the year 2070. the man is a god he can drop and fire depleted uraniun ,drop dialed down nuke bombs kill president,primeminister sell usa top secret files to china and russia via operation talpiot can he not listen and blackmail the world. who else can kill gaza semites by the 10s of thousands and then call critic anti semite this man benji is a king maker bow down for you are not fit to lick his precious fingers

Posted by: charles drake | Apr 30, 2018 4:38:45 PM | 59

From the resistance

Re: trolls at RT commenting commenting and liking troll comments to many thousands. I have seen this before so its not a new thing, I wonder who initiate this, most likely western states spy orgs.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 4:41:20 PM | 60

Does NuttyYahoo’s document collection include the plans for nuclear triggers that the CIA gave to them via Operation Merlin?

Posted by: Curtis | Apr 30, 2018 4:44:15 PM | 61

Et al–

Russia began its Syria intervention with an S-400 deployed in Latakia and has introduced several more since, one being in Sept 2017. Syria also has the BUK-M2E AA system and the Pantsir to go with its older and upgraded S-200 systems along with who knows what else. Just what was off loaded from Russian supply vessels under the cover of smoke last week (don’t know if such veiling’s continuing)? My guess is more AA systems of the type causing Zionists on both sides of Atlantic to freakout.

As for the Zionists attacking Iranian military bases, those Iran uses in Syria are joint-use with Syria regardless of what’s said by Zionists; so, any such attack will need to be aimed at Iran proper. The consequences for the region would be horrible–particularly for Zionists and Saudis: Dimona would be leveled as would Saudi oil infrastructure. The fallout and other pollution would be appalling. If the Zionists want to keep their skin, they’ll arrest Nutty before he gets his get-out-of-jail war started.

Zionists know they’ve lost and are contained and constrained, so they’re moving into desperation mode. Too bad they lack the courage to put a pistol to their head and pull the trigger.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30, 2018 4:45:37 PM | 62

to all those who say the F35 can not use the GBU-39, well what about the upgrade to this weapon the GBU-53/B which it can…

here is a pic of 4 loaded on F35 http://www.navair.navy.mil/img/uploads/2012209CA001-159.jpg imbedded date on this image is 7/27/2012

also note the small diameter bomb has been adapted to be launched from HIMARS mlrs. So, the story of ground launched weapons used could have been this version of the weapons used in addition to air launches.

SDB weapons can also be used from drones…

Posted by: the original Paul | Apr 30, 2018 4:46:33 PM | 63

I have trouble in believing that Trump will really attack Iran, just because of some new fake evidence from Netanyahu. N’s been trying this forever.

The basic point is that Trump’s electorate don’t want real war, with American deaths. So far, it’s been like that, 102 missiles following 59 Tomahawks,and no effect.

Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 30, 2018 4:47:05 PM | 64

Laguerre

Trump is dumb enough, Pompeo, Bolton, Trump, I mean you cant get worse, these are the most sick hawks and Trump have already showed that he could attack states illegally Syria, with no proof whatsoever. Stop hoping on Trump.

Posted by: Anonymous_1 | Apr 30, 2018 4:58:29 PM | 65

Posted by: TG | Apr 30, 2018 3:11:12 PM | 35

Israel is in a position to attack but not to defend. Israel’s problem is not Iran but the Palestinians.

John Helmer seems to think that Russia has decided on electronic warfare, that would be reason for panic as Israel’s (and US) stuff is completely dependent on electronics.

Posted by: somebody | Apr 30, 2018 5:00:07 PM | 66

One guy has traced the „Paul Bright“ bot IP to KSA..but I do not know how the hell it could be done…

Posted by: From the resistance | Apr 30, 2018 5:05:31 PM | 67

It’s clearer and clearer that Russia is at best impotent, but more likely complicit.

Posted by: paul | Apr 30, 2018 5:07:14 PM | 68

Its absolutely disgusting to see comments on social media majorities uncritically belive Netanyahu.

Posted by: Robert D | Apr 30, 2018 5:12:43 PM | 69

„Trump is dumb enough,“

yes but not to the degree where he has to justify American dead.

Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 30, 2018 5:16:15 PM | 70

„It’s clearer and clearer that Russia is at best impotent,“ Frankly that’s fantasy.

Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 30, 2018 5:25:04 PM | 71

@Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30, 2018 2:26:38 PM | 23 „the Imperialist Empires that created the Zionist state for their own geopolitical machinations“ Read a book once in a while. Some racial-supremacist, religious-supremacist Ashkenazi zionist jews created Israel for their own machinations, and no-one else’s. Israel is not Airstrip One. It serves no masters other than bigoted zionist jews.

@Posted by: Ort | Apr 30, 2018 2:36:07 PM | 26 Convince the plebian mob, and you convince most of society. Dissenters are drowned out, or hounded. Jewish-owned/run companies control most of the Western world’s major news media.

@Peter AU 1 16 „Sounds like F-35 was used to hit the ammo dumps in Syria“ F-35 is a POS. Ammo dumps hit by old technology – ground-launched ATACMS missiles with unitary penetrating warheads. ATACMS = supersonic, manoueverable, non-ballistic flight path, hard to shoot down, big @%!$ impact and kaboom.

Posted by: 3.14159kalteckaltectowthatline | Apr 30, 2018 5:29:53 PM | 72

Laguerre

No hes right, russia is backstabbing as usual.

Posted by: Robert d | Apr 30, 2018 5:31:46 PM | 73

There were a number of reasons for the Balfour Declaration, but one of the major ones was defense of the Suez Canal, vital for communications to India. The Turks had already attacked the canal twice by 1917. The Brits wanted a local group on the spot that would help to defend the canal. A Jewish settlement filled the bill.

Posted by: lysias | Apr 30, 2018 5:43:03 PM | 74

And in 1956 they did precisely that. But by that time the British Empire was too far gone to be able to make proper use of that support.

Posted by: lysias | Apr 30, 2018 5:47:03 PM | 75

@Cyrus | Apr 30, 2018 2:20:01 PM | 20 As background knowledge that most overlook, Iran is one of the top sources for uranium ore, unfortunately it is contaminated with molybdenum making it almost useless for high grading. That is a primary reason for their investment in uranium in Africa.

Posted by: Bakerpete | Apr 30, 2018 5:48:45 PM | 76

Embedded in the news story (link below) is a video claimed to be of one of the bombs dropped during the attack described in the news story.

I have no way of knowing yet how many bombs were dropped in all nor what they were exactly. The report of the attack registering 2.6 on the Richter scale suggests that at least one hit was something VERY big. I am inclined to believe that this blast in the video is entirely independent of the earth-shaking explosion.

The explosion in the video is obviously of a uranium-based warhead. The brilliant white flash is NOT a nuclear (fission or fusion) flash (no mushroom shaped up-draft), and it is followed immediately by a scattering of equally brilliant white sparks and leaves a major fire burning. The sparks are bits of the warhead (which is actually made of a uranium-based alloy — at least 95% uranium) designed to shatter upon ignition in order to give access to air (oxygen) to all the metal mass of the warhead, thus enabling it all to burn simultaneously (i.e. within a few seconds of the initial ignition) and create maximum heat/destruction. The smaller the pieces, the better they burn in such an explosion.

When the uranium is ignited, it burns at +/- 6,000°C. creating heat on par with a nuclear explosion (but without that horribly inconvenient mushroom-shaped cloud). This one looks like a thermobaric bomb (a reworked up-graded, „enhanced“, uraniumized version of the „daisy cutter“ first used in Vietnam).

Visible near the end of the (brief) video are other, small explosions, which could be of the same magnitude but much farther away or which could be the result of other weapons near the same site but of much smaller power.

This bomb appears to be similar to those used in southern Lebanon in 2006. The United Nations Environmental Program’s post-conflict assessment unit found that those warheads had been made of low enriched uranium.

Noteworthy, and in contradiction to the official version of an attack on arms depots, is the lack of any cascade of explosions that such an attack would trigger among the arms in the depot. After the invasion of Iraq, there was an attack on a United States arms depot, and it was recorded on a fair number of videos, some quite good, all, as far as I know, long since flushed down the memory hole. The noise of the depot’s arms exploding was unmistakable, and there were major firey elements flying everywhere from those secondary explosions. There is none of that here.

Iranian missiles destroyed in ‚bunker busting‘ Syria strikes: Report #SyriaWar

Hama and Aleppo attacks destroy major arms depots and cause minor earthquake, according to reports, days after Israel threatened Iran http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/syrian-army-says-enemy-rocket-attacks-strike-military-bases-886095650

No news site is perfect — much less infallible. However, Middle East Eye I have found to be one of the more reliable. Hence, I am inclined to take seriously anything that they publish, even when it does not seem to make sense to me.

R.J.P.

Posted by: Robet James Parsons | Apr 30, 2018 5:50:46 PM | 77

Russia’s non-intervention in the attack last night will only encourage further attacks.

Posted by: Perimtr | Apr 30, 2018 5:53:21 PM | 78

Russia could easily give Syria the s300 system. But Putin clearly does not want to hurt his buddy Netanyahu’s feelings. They are always so chummy you can see there is a mutual respect between them whenever they meet. Russia is only in Syria to fight terrorism. They will obviously not confront Israel and go to war, and that is of course, understandable. But whats even worse is that they seem to refuse to give Syria/Iran the means to defend themselves from Israeli attacks.If its true Putin is blocking the delivery himself against the request of the Russian Army, that is even more shameful.I guess in terms of preventing a World War, it is good that Putin is chummy with Netanyahu.However a regional war is looking very likely at this point.Unfortunately the only way Israel will learn is by being smashed in the teeth. I’m sure in time Syria, Iran or Hezbollah will have to teach them another lesson.

Posted by: Jayhawk2018 | Apr 30, 2018 6:03:45 PM | 79

It’s hilarious when some idiot suggests I read a book when almost my entire knowledge-base comes from various written sources including several thousand books over the years.

Seems the Zionist desalination program’s insufficient to solve Palestine’s water crisis, which is the primary reason Lebanon’s been invaded by them. Jordan’s situation is even worse as it has less water and faster growing population. Here’s one brief look at the problem but lacks specifics about the Zionist’s contribution–they don’t want to share with any non-Zionist. The Zionists new desalination plants would be juicy targets (yes, I know they aren’t supposed to be targeted, but tell that to the Killer Coalition Outlaws), more important than Dimona.

Or maybe it’s that Nutty has his own private Death Wish.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30, 2018 6:26:03 PM | 80

@Posted by: Robet James Parsons | Apr 30, 2018 5:50:46 PM | 76

The fire-station in HOms 35km away from the strike main point was also targetted in a clear intend to avoid fire-fighters going to suffocate the huge fires in the aftermath, which is a despicable act much in line with Israel usual behavior.

Also, by attacking the „Zainabydoun Brigade“, where the young died soldiers belonged, Israel is clearly trying to provoke the Shia sector of the resitance, and especially Hezbollah,in the verge of the Lebanese Parlimentary Elections to be hold 6th May, where hezbollah could well consolidate, more if needed, its role as one of the main political forces in Lebanon with which Israel and the US will find it more difficult to continue labelling it as a terrorist organization…

Posted by: From the resistance | Apr 30, 2018 6:28:00 PM | 81

A lot of Russian oligarchs are dual Israeli or American -Russian citizens. Even in the Soviet era while they provided just enough support to prevent the Arab countries from being totally defeated they stopped short of giving them enough to threaten Israel or defeat them. Putin has made peace with a number of the oligarchs that remain in Russia but he has to take care not to get the pro Israeli -US faction riled or threaten their overseas financial interests which Trump has threatened to do with sanctions targeted at the oligarchs

So Russia will prevent Syria from being totally overwhelmed but concede the US the northeast oil rich fields and Israel gets the gas fields in Golan. They will allow isolated missile attacks and bombing by US and Israel that both resort to for show to appease their hawks. In the meantime if Assad has an accident or gets overthrown due to economic reasons then israel and US may get their puppet state and Russia/Iran may exit. Then on to Lebanon and Iran.

Wars are not fought to be won anymore. They are fought to be long lasting. Perpetual War Abroad is Peace at Home

Posted by: Pft | Apr 30, 2018 6:50:46 PM | 82

Not one Arab country gave a damn about Israel’s nuclear weapons, becasue they knew Israel would never attack them.

the donmeh house of Saud did NOT say it was going to build a nuclear arsenal becasue Israel has one.

Nope —

the mi6 donmeh house Saud said it is going to build a nuclear arsenal if they think Iran will produce nuclear weapons.

There you have it.

Posted by: charles drake | Apr 30, 2018 7:04:31 PM | 83

The strike on the Aleppo targets (only some civilian buildings were hit, either there was a glitch or they simply didn’t care what they hit) seems to have been carried out by Israeli aircraft releasing glide bombs from turkish (and/or US) controlled air space, similar to the 2007 warehouse attack.

As for the Hama strike, it seems that for the first time ballistic missiles instead of cruise missiles were used. These are more challenging targets than subsonic cruise missiles because of their high speed (The Scud for instance reaches Mach 5 / 1.7 km/s).

The „Pantsir“, the most modern short range AD system in syrian service is suitable for targets up to a speed of Mach 3 / 1 km/s. A new high speed missile for the system should enable it for target speeds of several km/s, but it is only scheduled to become available in 2019.

The most modern medium range system is the „Buk“ which is able to combat targets with a speed of up to 1.2 km/s in the M2 version. The M3 version gets up to 3 km/s but it is only available since 2016 and therefore not likely to be in Syrian service.

Syria does not have modern long range air defence systems with ABM capability like S300/S400. Note that because of the target speed the range of an AD system is lower against ballistic missiles, S-400 with its standard 48N6DM missile has a range of 240 km against aircraft, but only 60 km against ballistic missiles. Therefore the Russian S-400 system in Khmeimim was not in a position to do anything against the strike.

So the current capabilities of Syrian AD against ballistic missile threats don’t look too good – the S-300 really is needed.

Posted by: Menschmaschine | Apr 30, 2018 7:04:54 PM | 84

A 95% uranium „anything“ is not possible, and would kill anyone trying to manufacture it, or transport, load, store etc., if it did not go fissile in the first place…

Dont pull facts out of your ass here, OK?

regards

OY

Posted by: oldenyoung | Apr 30, 2018 7:11:02 PM | 85

Canthama at SyrPers provides this from the SAA’s FB:

Canthama: „I believe this an important statement from the folks of the SAA FB (not official SAA but with ex SAA and with deep connections to the SAA leadership).

„It confirms some of the info we shared early today, limited damaged, but it brings hints of a possible attack from the ground and not long distance missiles, that would explain the lack of SyAAD activity. Worth following this info.“

SAA FB:“We had a long post regarding last night and we were asked to put it on hold for the time being. We can however say that almost all the speculations and analysis that are circulating social media are false.

„A storage depot was hit by GBU-39B glide bombs not coming from the sea or South/West; the attack is highly suspected to be ground launched but we cannot confirm this.

„The type of ammunition targeted was insignificant, grad rockets and several other domestic munition; there was no sophisticated weaponry whatsoever; also, the level of attack was insignificant as well.

„What created the huge explosions was the fact that one of the major storage depots caught fire and exploded which resulted in what you saw.

„No side publicly claimed responsibility for the attack but that doesn’t mean the Syrian command isn’t aware of the side and the intention.

„Finally, and this message is to those in non-official military media; in cases of foreign aggression no one should be spreading any sort of information that they aren’t sure of, rather they should wait an official statement or only stick to the aftermath in their reports, rather than jumping into spreading rumors and analysis-based reports then calling it news.

„For the time being, we cannot answer more than what’s written here but perhaps soon we can have a long explanation posted.“

Canthama recommends this piece by Adam Garrie which I too find interesting. However, Garrie’s incorrect about the lack of fatalities; Canthama specifically posted these four–Captain Fadi Othman, Lt Hassan Zuhair, Suleiman Mohsen Al Malhami, Yahya Mohammed Alsaleem–out of an initial 13 reported KIA.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 30, 2018 7:11:34 PM | 86

There is nothing new about Netanyahu’s nonsense-as everyone seems to realise: the only justification for his party and his particular brand of fascism is the belief that there can be no peace for Jewish people generally, and Israelis in particular until all potential opponents have been wiped out or terrorised into slavery. And he has managed to convince most Israelis of this-something which means that in moral and political, and probably clinical terms too, they are insane- beyond the reach of reason. What is new and makes the situation very dangerous is that the US is going along with this for the ride. It has run out of ideas on how to deal with the gathering storm of consequences from eighty years of arrogance and careless neglect of the inevitable fall out from its self indulgent policies. And Trump, under constant pressure from the idiots running the Deep State, has no conception of the implications of the little games that he is playing and encouraging others (see Netanyahu above) to play. In his mind he is starring in an extempore version of the Godfather. Way down at the bottom of things worth mentioning is the fact that the UK government is in an even bigger crisis. It is clearly doomed unless the world ends first, which is something it is happy to consider. May and her allies (who include the Blairite Labour party and almost all the political class including the SNP and the Liberals) will (as the recent attacks in Syria showed) go along with Trump whatever happens, which means that the other ‚eyes‘ the White Commonwealth of Canada, Australia etc will do the same. This is the problem with empires in decline, they become suicidal. And having reconciled themselves with death they lose any inhibitions. Poor old Putin just doesn’t understand that: for years it has been clearer and clearer that Russia and China were rational, legalistic and diplomatic while the ‚west‘ reverted to its barbaric ways, defying rules, breaking treaties, laughing at international law, drunken berserkers running amok employing the weapons that they have been accumulating for decades because fearing that the end is near they fear nothing else. The future holds no hope for them. Putin who sees only the reality that the US remains both enviably rich and powerful cannot understand how unstable and dangerous it has become. As to China, nothing surprises its leadership any more which is why it spends all day lifting weights and eating high protein foods, ready to defend itself and studiously avoiding involvement.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 30, 2018 7:13:34 PM | 87

I’m still in shook Putin didn’t place 300s in Syria long, long ago. He really can be behind the curve at times. How could have thought the Empire would not grow more brazen in aggression?

Posted by: timbers | Apr 30, 2018 7:33:08 PM | 88

Here is a well thought out thread that analyses Bibi’s claims. Including that Israel probably hacked into the IAEA systems to get some of the data, in particular a photo of the ’new‘ storage site.

https://twitter.com/yarbatman/status/991064102314369025

Posted by: JohninMK | Apr 30, 2018 7:38:16 PM | 89

Excellent bevin @86.

Here is former Sweden foreign minister Carl Bildt, in a tweet immediately after Netanyahu’s remarks: “Nothing really new in @netanyahu Iran speech. Confirms that Iran closed down nuclear weapons program in 2003. Continued technology efforts. In peinciple all of this well known. No allegation that Iran cheats on 2015 nuclear deal.”

Posted by: fairleft | Apr 30, 2018 8:05:02 PM | 90

@karlof1 85 the [GB-39B glide bomb] attack is highly suspected to be ground launched but we cannot confirm this. Mar 10, 2015 Boeing, Saab Unveil Ground Launched SDB

The system essentially sticks a GBU-39B small diameter bomb, widely used by the US military and a number of international customers, on the front of a M26 rocket. The M26 is set to be demilitarized by 2018 under a set of cluster munitions treaties, meaning the GLSDB program would essentially be recycling an item that countries were planning to stockpile or scrap. The weapon is designed to be launched out of a multiple launch rocket system (MLRS), used by a number of US allies already, avoiding the need to design a new launch system. That MLRS can hold six weapons per pod, with two pods per vehicle. . .here

There would be evidence of the rocket, methinks.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 8:10:43 PM | 91

„I’m still in shook Putin didn’t place 300s in Syria long, long ago“

Shocked? Lol

Israel ordered Putin not to sell the S-300 to Syria 7 years ago. It is a well known info. „Western Partners“ demanded that Russia never sells anything like that to Syria. Russia also complied with US sanctions against Iran and refused to sell them the S-300 until the JCPOA was signed. Even now, Russia offers the S-400 to Turkey and Saudi Arabia but not to Iran.

Not only that, but there is an agreement between Putin and Netanyahu where Russia allows Israel to bomb targets in Syria without any retaliation.

You see, Putin is begging to be admitted in the Western Club, as an equal. This is why he is doing those things. But they still don’t want him, as they want full control over Russia. They do not recognize „equals“. What he wants is that several different oligarhies carve up the world between themselves (multipolar world), and so that his group can control Russia and the surrounding areas (its sphere of influence). What they want is only one oligarchy to rule them all (unipolar world).

Syria is just a chip for Putin in that game to be part of the NWO.

Posted by: Observer | Apr 30, 2018 8:16:55 PM | 92

@timbers 87

„I’m still in shook Putin didn’t place 300s in Syria long, long ago“

Shocked? Lol

Israel ordered Putin not to sell the S-300 to Syria 7 years ago. It is a well known info. „Western Partners“ demanded that Russia never sells anything like that to Syria. Russia also complied with US sanctions against Iran and refused to sell them the S-300 until the JCPOA was signed. Even now, Russia offers the S-400 to Turkey and Saudi Arabia but not to Iran.

Not only that, but there is an agreement between Putin and Netanyahu where Russia allows Israel to bomb targets in Syria without any retaliation.

You see, Putin is begging to be admitted in the Western Club, as an equal. This is why he is doing those things. But they still don’t want him, as they want full control over Russia. They do not recognize „equals“. What he wants is that several different oligarhies carve up the world between themselves (multipolar world), and so that his group can control Russia and the surrounding areas (its sphere of influence). What they want is only one oligarchy to rule them all (unipolar world).

Syria is just a chip for Putin in that game to be part of the NWO.

Posted by: Sea Breeze | Apr 30, 2018 8:18:55 PM | 93

Re: oldenyoung | Apr 30, 2018 7:11:02 PM | 84

You don’t know what you are talking about.

For example, nuclear fuel rods are made of low enriched uranium typically containing 3% to 5% U-235, with the other 95-97% being pure uranium-238. While you wouldn’t want them in your pocket 24/7, you certainly could hold them in your hand without any great danger.

Even a sub-critical mass of uranium-235 is not going to go fissile and it will not „kill anyone trying to manufacture it, or transport, load, store etc.“

Please do a little homework before you rudely go off on someone without having any idea what you are talking about.

Posted by: Perimetr | Apr 30, 2018 8:19:52 PM | 94

@bevin 86 the US is going along with this for the ride No, for the money. The simple fact is that AIPAC and Israel have an iron grip on each and every member of the US Congress. It’s been established that Israel rules, and Congressmembers get „contributions“ and trips to Israel and other perks. On the other hand, if any Congress member who gives a slight little anti-Israel (i.e. anti-Semitic) peep will become an ex-Congressmember. It’s happened, with highly-financed opposition to a deviant’s transgression at the next biannual election. One example is Cynthia McKinney (links broken.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 30, 2018 8:30:39 PM | 95

@52 I don’t understand that argument, Don.

The Russians can unload any S-300 delivery at Tartus. There is zero chance that the Israelis will bomb them while they remain inside a Russian military base.

And those missiles can stay there while the Russians train up the Syrians in their use. Again, attacking while they remain inside Tartus is a no-go.

And the S-300’s are road-mobile. They can be driven out of Tartus to their eventual operational deployment, which means that they leave the protection of Tartus only when they are capable of defending themselves.

Or, in short: Israeli plans are predicated on taking out those missiles before they can be made operational. But they can be made operational while they are still inside a Russian military base protected by S-400 defences, and by the time they leave that protection the Syrians are already able to shoot down any attackers.

Posted by: Yeah, Right | Apr 30, 2018 8:33:06 PM | 96

The only thing using a 95% uranium level is a fission weapon(supercritical reaction)…otherwise 95% is only found in top national R & D labs, working on fission efficiency…letting field grunts load a 95% uranium anything?…not in anyones imagination….

regards

OY

Posted by: oldenyoung | Apr 30, 2018 8:34:44 PM | 97

@ 92…do you understand why the majority is u238?

OY

Posted by: oldenyoung | Apr 30, 2018 8:39:02 PM | 98

You wrote „A 95% uranium „anything“ is not possible“. Maybe you meant something else, but that statement is hardly true.

Posted by: Perimetr | Apr 30, 2018 8:44:25 PM | 99

@97 we are not talking about a weapons R & D facility…we are talking applied munition in the field…scattering many kgs of 95% uranium in the field would be fairly easy to detect, and would bring you under immediate international scrutiny…

OY

Posted by: oldenyoung | Apr 30, 2018 8:49:38 PM | 100

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Mother And Daughter Quotes, Sayings, Messages And Wishes

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Mother And Daughter Quotes, Sayings, Messages And Wishes

Mother And Daughter Quotes

Mother and daughter quotes? Daughters are a life of their mothers, they treat their daughters like their Barbie dolls, take care of them like princess similarly for daughters, mothers are heaven for them. They take care of her so much more than every relation. Daughters are mostly attached to their mothers and they both are friends with each other…

Mother and daughter Quotes are searched by most mothers and daughters due to many reasons some search mother and daughter quotes in order to put on their status, some have to write mother and daughter quotes on gifts. Some wanna surprise their mother or daughter by speaking these mother and daughter quotes in front of their owns… Here are a huge collection of mother and daughter quotes. Just visit our blog for mother and daughter quotes and get best mother and daughter quotes.

Relationship Between Mother And Daughter Quotes

A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take. – Cardinal Mermillod

Sometimes when I need a miracle I look into my daughter’s eyes and realize I have already created one.

Angels are often disguised as daughters.

I didn’t give you the gift of life, life gave me the gift of you.

What the daughter does, the mother did. – Jewish Proverb

The special bond shared between a mother and daughter is the one place in all the world were hearts can be sure of each other. Like branches on a tree, we may grow in different directions, but our roots remain one.

Brother And Sister Quotes, Sayings And Wishes With Images

I never want her to think that the whole world revolves around her. But I want her to know, without doubt, that my whole world does.

A daughter is God’s way of saying, though you could use a lifelong friend.

Mothers and daughters are closest when daughters become mothers.

A son is a son till he takes him a wife, a daughter is a daughter all of her life.- Irish Saying

No matter how old my daughter gets, she’ll always be my baby girl.

A mother holds her children’s hands for a while..their hearts forever.

A daughter is the happy memories of the past, the joyful moments of the present, and the hope and promise of the future.

If you ever feel like giving up, just remember there is a little girl watching who wants to be just like you.

My mother: She is beautiful, softened at the edges and tempered with a spine of steel. I want to grow old and be like her.

No daughter and mother ever live apart, no matter what the distance between them.

Daughters are another version of yourself only better.

Mother Daughter Quotes Sayings

“As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied.” – Oscar Wilde

“We mothers are learning to mark our mothering success by our daughters’ lengthening flight.” – Letty Cottin Pogrebin

“A daughter without her mother is a woman broken. It is a loss that turns to arthritis and settles deep into her bones.” – Kristin Hannah

“A daughter is a little girl who grows up to be a friend.”

“Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation.” – Robert A. Heinlein

“A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary.” – Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Weekend Quotes Amazing Collection With Images

“My mom is the greatest mom in the whole wide world. She’s done everything for me to make my dreams come true.” – Josh Hutcherson

“My mom is literally a part of me. You can’t say that about many people except relatives, and organ donors.” – Carrie Latet

“The best place to cry is in a mother’s arms.” – Jodi Picoult

“I can see my daughter a successful woman, a fighter, and a very good person. So, I always believe in her. I love how she becomes exactly like me. I only hope she will be a better mom more than me.”

“A daughter is a mother’s gender partner, her closest ally in the family confederacy, an extension of her self. And mothers are their daughters’ role model, their biological and emotional road map, the arbiter of all their relationships.” – Victoria Secunda

“Only a mother can understand a daughter who’s in her teenage. Treats her same and most especially loves her the same.”

“There were times when, in middle school and junior high, I didn’t have a lot of friends. But my mom was always my friend. Always.” – Taylor Swift

Cute Short Mother Daughter Quotes

I am not a perfect mother and I will never be. You are not a perfect daughter and you will never be. But put us together and we will be the best mother and daughter we would ever be. Zoraida Pesante

“She thought, she hoped, that the handkerchief was something fantastic, like a piece of a tale, but real, and just for her, a symbol of the real, hidden love of her mother.” Shannon Hale

“The bride’s getting ready to toss her bouquet, so get me up there! Mom said the day after she turned 96.” June Shaw

“Yes, it’s quite amazing how I continue to shock my mother even after all these years together” Eloisa James

“If you can’t go back to your mother’s womb, you’d better learn to be a good fighter.” Anchee Min

Happy Birthday Mom Quotes, Sayings, Wishes, And Messages With Images

“In a child’s eyes, a mother is a goddess. She can be glorious or terrible, benevolent or filled with wrath, but she commands love either way. I am convinced that this is the greatest power in the universe.” N.K. Jemisin

“I loved my mother too,’ I said. ‘I still do. That’s the thing – it never goes away, even if the person does.” Anna Carey

“In a corner of her heart, she imagined her compassion as kindling that could ignite not only her tender and guarded feelings for her mother, but also jump across the void and ignite her mother’s feelings for her.” Sonja Yoerg

“Maybe I stepped into the skin my mother left behind and became the girl my mother had been, the one she still wanted to be.” Laura Kasischke

“I got almost eighteen years with you. The best eighteen years of my life.” Kristen Simmons

Mom Quotes From Daughter I Love You

A mother… sees all, says little. Sacrifices all complain little. Gives all, expects little. All she wants is her child to be happy – that’s what I’ve learned from all these years. Thanks for everything, love you, mom.

With you, I have fought and argued. In return, you kept a calm mood. At you, I have ranted and screamed. At me, you made sure your love beamed. For you, I could have definitely done more. For me, your heart has always had an open door. I love you, mom.

The job of a mother is more important than the job of any CEO in this world. CEOs run companies, mothers change lives. CEOs make good employees. Mothers make CEOs. I love you, mom.

This is a tribute to a woman who works hard to pay the mortgage, raise her children and support her friends. She is not SuperWoman, she is my mom. I love you.

If my life had to be fit in a single selfie, it would be incomplete without my mommy. I love you.

Cute Good Night Quotes, Sayings, Wishes, And Messages With Images

However, I may never be able to be exactly like you, but just the thought of filling the shoes of a woman like you makes me a better person. I love you, mom.

The world would change into a better place if producers started making reality TV shows about how loving moms like you juggle the burdensome responsibilities of work, family, and kids – all while carrying a beautiful smile on the face. I love you ma.

Mom – your love is the chicken soup for my soul. I love you.

I fight with you every now and then, I keep arguing again and again. But deep down inside I hope that your heart knows, that my love for you will forever grow. I love you, mom.

Short Daughter Quotes

To my Daughter. Never forget that I love you. Life is filled with hard times and good times. Learn from everything you can. Be the woman I know you can be.

A daughter is God’s way of saying, “thought you could use a lifelong friend.”

You are amazing. Remember that.

Let me love you a little more before you’re not little anymore.

If I could give my daughter three things, it would be the confidence to always know her self-worth, the strength to chase her dreams, and the ability to know how truly, deeply loved she is.

For all the things my hands have held, the best by far is you.

A daughter is one of the most beautiful gifts this world has to give. –Laurel Atherton

Sad Quotes About Life Best Collection For You

And she loved a little girl very, very much – even more than she loved herself.

Chin up, princess. Or the crown slips.

I constantly go between wanting you to be my baby forever and being excited about all the amazing things you’ll do in this life.

To my daughter, I will say, ‘See your beauty without a compliment or a mirror.’

Teach your daughter to worry less about fitting into glass slippers and more about shattering glass ceilings.

Someday when the pages of my life end, I know that you will be one of its most beautiful chapters.

Life is tough my darling, but so are you. –Stephanie Bennett-Henry

Out of all the moms in the world, I’m SO glad you are mine.

A mom’s hug lasts long after she lets go.

To the world, you are a mother, but to your family, you are the world.

You’re the mom everyone wishes they had.

My identity rests solely and firmly on this: I am my mother’s daughter.

I Love My Daughter Quotes And Sayings

All people want their achievements to be noticed and recognized. A simple phrase “I am proud of you” can inspire and cheer anyone up, especially if it is said, my mother. So if you think that your daughter is doing really great, tell her about it! These short heartfelt messages will help you express your feelings!

You are such a beautiful girl, and I’m so proud of the incredible way that you are growing up. Even at such a young age, you are full of wisdom, kindness, compassion, and courage. I love you so much, honey. Never ever change.

My daughter, I am so proud of the beautiful young woman you have become, and I am so proud to not only call you my daughter but also my best friend. I love you more than words can express.

I am proud of many things in life but nothing beats being a mother of such a girl.

Funny Friend Quotes Beautiful Collection

Despite all the hardship, you persisted, you endured, you never quit, you persevered, you kept going, you never gave up, you prevailed. I’m so proud of you!

My dear, I am blessed to have a daughter like you. You always make you feel proud.

You are an indispensable part of my life. However, You are for me like water for a flower. Thanks to you, I am able to grow, develop, prosper, learn and achieve success.

The biggest privilege in my life is to be a daughter of the prettiest, the kindest, wisest, the most patient and understanding woman on Earth. I love you, mommy.

I can be not the best daughter for you because I know how many troubles you’ve experienced with me. But I want to tell you that for me, you are the best mom ever.

Mother Daughter Poems

She’s always been there for me Just talking to her can make me happy She tells me of the hard times she’s been through In hopes that I won’t go through them too She’s an independent woman of stature and grace She has beautiful eyes and a lovely face An audacious strength from deep inside In her I know I can confide She’s my guardian angel who’ll always be A very special part of me She takes pride in caring for her kin She gives us hope and things to believe in If I didn’t have her there for me I wouldn’t be half the woman I turned out to be I Love You, Mom,

Kevin Gates Quotes Huge Collection

You brushed my hair and tucked me in, Made me laugh for hours on end. You kissed my boo-boos when I fooled around. Mommy, you never let me down.You held my hand as I got my shots Then took me for ice cream that hit the spot. You bought me Polly-Pockets and Barbies too. Mommy, there’s no one quite like youYou held my hand as I walked through the door, Then you met my teacher as I stared at the floor. You told me it’d be fun, and I’d make friends too, And for that reason, Mommy, I love you.You listened to me talk about the drama and boys Then taught me how to handle it with class and poise. Also, You spoke of wisdom and of things you know. You love to hear me say, “Mommy, you told me so.”You love the Lord with all your heart, And you’re kind and gentle and pretty and smart If I could be anyone, I’d pick you ‘Cause, Mommy, the world would be better with two of you.You’ve taught me so much, with more in store And with each day that passes, I love you more.

Funny Mother Daughter Quotes

I smile because I’m your daughter. I laugh because there’s nothing you can do about it.

Mom, what is it like to have the greatest daughter in the world

Dear Girls, if a guy pauses a video game just to text you back… Marry him.

“Nobody loves me but my mother. And she could be jivin’ too.”

“I asked mom if I was a gifted child. She said they certainly wouldn’t have paid for me.”

“I want my children to have all the things I couldn’t afford. Then I want to move in with them.”

“The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.”

If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?

“The hand that rocks the cradle usually is attached to someone who isn’t getting enough sleep.”

Baby Boy Quotes Awesome Collection For Mommy And Daddy

A Harvard Medical School study has determined that rectal thermometers are still the best way to tell a baby’s temperature. Plus, it really teaches the baby who’s boss.

“A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.”

“My mother used to say that there are no strangers, only friends you haven’t met yet. She’s now in a maximum security twilight home in Australia.”

“The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.”

“Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.”

And here’s to the Mommy angels in Heaven. I know you’re still watching over my friends and your grandbabies.

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