The Weekend Web

In case you missed it for all the Olympic coverage this weekend, for the first time since the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989, Russian tanks are on foreign soil. Claiming to be on a “peace enforcement” mission, Russian forces have bombed, blockaded and invaded Georgia with the stated purpose of halting the hostilities that have broken out between the Georgian central government and the pseudo-autonomous province of South Ossetia. Contrary to the Kremlin’s propaganda, however, Russia is not on a mission to keep the peace. According to Stratfor, “Georgia is an extremely pro-American and pro-Western state and represents the easternmost foothold of American/Western power. It has also been in the Russian orbit for the bulk of the past 300 years. As such, it is the hottest flashpoint in Western-Russian relations.”

Georgia is located at the crossroads between Europe, Russia and the Middle East. It is also the site of a planned oil/natural gas pipeline that will connect the oil reserves of the Black and Caspian Seas to Europe in such a way as to bypass Russia. Since the Kremlin wants to keep Europe dependent upon Russian oil and wants to keep Georgia out of the European sphere of influence, it is acting to keep the Caucasus under its control. In essence, Russia is doing to Europe what Europe did to Russia in the Yugoslav wars.

The timing of Russia’s invasion is also revealing. It coincided with the start of the Olympics, when much of the world’s attention is on Beijing. August is also when many European officials are on vacation. And with much of America’s forces preoccupied in Iraq and Afghanistan, the West is not capable of defending its ally in any meaningful way. “Therefore, this is Russia’s chance to redefine the boundaries of the region,” Stratfor wrote on Friday. “Tactically, we must watch carefully to see where the Russians halt their advance—and be watchful for the possibility that they push on to Tbilisi.”

Besides undermining America’s influence in the region, you can be sure that Europe is quite concerned about Russia’s power grab. This aggression from one of the “kings of the east” will only intensify Europe’s efforts to consolidate its power in order to counter the threat from the Russian bear (see our articles “Russia: Triggering Europe to Unite” and “Russia’s Balkans”).

Another interesting angle to this story is the conspicuous absence of massive outcry against Russia in the international news media. Imagine the headlines, for example, if U.S. tanks rolled into Georgia over the weekend, causing more than 2,000 casualties in just two days.

Or what if Israel invaded Lebanon or Syria under the same pretenses?

The Next Key Player in the Peace Process

Recent events indicate that Germany is bound to play a central role in the Middle East peace process, says an Israeli member of the Permanent Monitoring Panel on Terrorism of the World Federation of Scientists. Carlo Strenger, a psychology professor at Tel Aviv University, recently submitted his prediction to Britain’s left-wing Guardian. Today it was reprinted in the Middle East Times.

“Israelis overwhelmingly feel that they have no trustworthy backing except from the United States,” Strenger wrote. “The results, particularly through more than seven years of the George W. Bush administration, have been catastrophic.”

Strenger obviously comes from the far left side of the political spectrum. But because of how many European bureaucrats think the way he does and, more importantly, because of what Bible prophecy says, his comments should not be dismissed. He writes (emphasis mine throughout),

[T]he United States has largely built its decades-long efforts toward peace in the Middle East on a summit strategy. Behind-the-scenes negotiations led to high-profile summits. For the last decade this modus operandi has led from failure to failure, and has undermined belief in peace on both sides.Under such conditions there is only the solution suggested by our panel’s research: a permanent peace conference that is not limited in time, involving all parties, including the Arab League, and, in the long run, Iran.Britain, Germany and France could play a crucial role in setting up and sponsoring such a framework, because the United States has lost its status as honest broker through the blunders of the George W. Bush era—even though it is to be hoped that the next American administration will be open to a multi-lateralist approach and undo some of the damages of the last seven years.Britons, Germans and French might well ask: “But why should we get involved in the most intractable conflict on the globe?”I believe there is a compelling answer. The tension between the West and political Islam is probably the number one geopolitical problem in the world, and Europe, for geographic and historical reasons is involved in it up to its neck.

Bible prophecy informs us that the European Union, led by Germany, will indeed become a central player in the Middle East peace process. It will be the German-led EU—not the United States or Israel—that takes on the Iranian-led “king of the south” (Daniel 11:40).

And before Europe unleashes its blitzkrieg whirlwind against the king of the south, prophecy says Israeli negotiators will plead with Europe to intervene in Middle Eastern affairs! “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah [the Israeli people] saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian [modern-day Germany], and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound” (Hosea 5:13). The wound, as we have noted before, is the peace process. And the final stage of those negotiations will culminate in Europe’s “peaceful” entry into the Holy Land (Daniel 11:41).

Notice what my father wrote in his booklet Jerusalem in Prophecy: “Already the European Union has stepped up its efforts to help the Middle East peace process as the U.S. pulls out of the region and grows weaker. German-led Europe has been publicly mentioned as being a protector to Israel.” My father then asks, “Can anyone miss the cruel irony of this situation?”

In Leviticus 26, God says curses are coming upon our peoples—Israel and Judah—because of our lawlessness and dangerous foreign alliances.

The prophetic implication of these events is momentous. To read more about the outcome of Israel’s alliance with a German-led EU, go here.

Regulatory Imperialism

For most people, watching their fingernails grow is more fun than thinking about the inner workings of the American-European economic relationship, especially when terms like antitrust, legislation, chemicals regulation and genetically modified organisms dot the discussion.

But this is a trend we overlook to our own peril, says investigative journalist Mark Schapiro in his latest book Exposed, which, according to the EU Observer, provides a detailed exposé which “looks at how companies and state governments in the U.S., China and the rest of the world increasingly take their legislative lead—whether willingly or dragged kicking and screaming—on issues such as environmental standards, health and safety regulation and consumer protection not from Washington, but Brussels.”

The following are excerpts from an interview with the EU Observer in which Schapiro discussed this noteworthy yet underreported and worrying trend:

Globalization is taking hold very deeply, so U.S. corporations along with other companies are increasingly reliant on foreign markets to sustain their profitability. For many American firms, that means Europe. In order to hold on to access, how do they react at the same time when Europe starts saying: “Take the chemicals out of cosmetics! Take the chemicals out of your electronics! Take the phthalates out of toys!”Nothing close to this had ever happened before to American companies. Reaction number one has been to launch a massive transatlantic lobbying campaign to try to prevent these measures from happening. … [But] “How do you do lobbying in the EU?” they had to find out. “How do you lobby the European Commission, members of the European Parliament? How does it work?” These lobbyists flooded over here and their first reaction was to try to do whatever they could to stop the Europeans.

But American lobbyists have discovered that their many complaints have fallen upon deaf ears.

It used to be that the U.S. could go to any foreign capital and basically say: “Look, we don’t really like what you’re doing, so change it here and there.” The U.S. had huge influence in terms of foreign governments, but now for the first time, there were people saying: “Wait a minute, what are you doing here? We’re talking about what we’re doing to protect Europeans. We’re not here to worry about your problems as an American company.”

Europe’s policy of regulatory imperialism is a critical trend worth watching. History offers a powerful lesson: The nation setting global economic standards and controlling the world economy possesses the political and strategic power to shape the world. To learn more about this trend, go here.

Could Race Be Why the Race Is So Close?

Barack Obama, our editor in chief has written before, portrays himself as the right candidate for healing race relations between blacks and whites in America. His actions, however, indicate that he will do exactly the opposite. No matter what happens in November, this election will do more to inflame racial tensions than it will to ease them.

Notice how one columnist assessed the presidential race in the New York Timeson Friday: “This is supposed to be the Democrats’ year of destiny. Bush is hobbling out of office, the economy is in the toilet, voters are sick of the war and the party’s wunderkind candidate is raking in money hand over fist.”

Why, then, do the latest polls indicate a statistical dead heat between Obama and McCain? The answer has to do racism, Charles Blow theorizes—because some whites simply will not vote for an African American.

Expect others to keep fanning that flame.

Destruction of Temples Mourned Today

On the Hebrew calendar, today is Tisha B’Av—the 9th day of the fifth month—the day Jews all over the world fast in order to commemorate the destruction of both the first and second temples. The book of Jeremiah says that Babylon burned Solomon’s temple and the houses of Jerusalem on the 10th of Av (Jeremiah 52:12-14), but according to the Jewish tradition, the destruction began on the 9th and the city was finally consumed by fire the next day.

The same is true for the second temple, destroyed by the Romans on the 9th and 10th of Av, in a.d. 70, according to the Talmud.

In synagogues on Tisha B’Av, Jews read from the Old Testament book of Lamentations. “It was written by the prophet Jeremiah,” Arutz Sheva writes, “who warned Jews to repent to prevent the fall of Jerusalem, which he [prophesied]. His advice not only was ignored, but he also was imprisoned for stating views that threatened the king’s power.”

Though there is no physical temple in Jerusalem today, the destruction of Jerusalem in the sixth century b.c., and then again in a.d. 70, was only a type of what God says will happen again in this end time. The Prophet Jeremiah’s warning is being ignored once again.

What’s the Hebrew Word for “Doom”?

Here is an interesting piece about the Hebrew language showing signs of decline in Israel, due to the creeping influence of slang, foreign languages and the Jewish state’s uncertain future. We found the article’s conclusion especially noteworthy:

“It comes from a lack of security,” said [Israeli language guru Ruvik] Rosenthal, who was born in 1948 and explained the linguistic qualms as part of the collective summing up of the past 60 years. “The state of Israel has no confidence in its continued existence.”The language may have moved on since the days of the prophets, but perhaps the sense of doom has not.

Syria Taking Over Lebanon

Remember the “Cedar Revolution” of 2005? That’s when Lebanon supposedly kicked Syria out of its country and reclaimed its independence, a move hailed as a victory for democracy in the Middle East.

That revolution has died. Syria’s reassertion of control over Lebanon—not to mention that of Iran—is taking firm hold.

An upcoming visit by Lebanon’s president to Syria, and increased discussion of diplomatic relations being normalized between the two countries, prompted this excellent piece by Jonathan Spyer, “Subtly and determinedly, Syria is taking over Lebanon,” in Global Politician.

The formation of the new Lebanese government after the Beirut clashes in May represented a very significant gain for the pro-Syria element in Lebanese politics. Hizbullah now controls a blocking 11 of the 30 cabinet seats. With a Lebanese government of this type, there is no reason for Syria to be in dispute there. The short period when Damascus felt the need to express its will in Lebanon solely in a clandestine way is drawing to a close. …[O]ne may glimpse the contours of Syrian strategy in the next stage. The election of May 2009 will be conducted under the shadow of Hizbullah’s independent and now untouchable military capability.Intimidation will go hand in hand with the real kudos gained by the movement and its allies because of recent events - including the prisoner swap with Israel, and the Doha agreement that followed the fighting in May. The result, the Syrians hope, will be the establishment of a government more fully dominated by Hizbullah and its allies, in which the pro-Western element will have been marginalized.Such a government would mark the effective final reversal of the events of the spring of 2005, when the Cedar Revolution compelled the Syrian army to leave Lebanon. Damascus would then go on to conduct friendly and fraternal relations with the new order in Beirut. Mission accomplished.If this strategy plays out, however, it will represent not the normalization of Syrian-Lebanese relations, but rather the enveloping of Lebanon into the regional alliance led by Iran, of which Syria is a senior member.

This is more evidence of the futility of the notion that Israel can trust Syria as a “peace partner.”

Can’t Afford to Go to Work

A Cambridge University study found that the women who believe they can go to work without their family life suffering are now in the minority. But according to columns in the Sunday Times and the Financial Times, working mothers are now a financial necessity, so little can be done about the problems this causes at home. “Most of us don’t have any choice,” writes India Knight. “If we stopped working, our place wouldn’t be in the home but in the trailer, or in the cardboard box on the pavement, and our children wouldn’t have any clothes to wear or food to eat.”

The Financial Times weighs in with this: “Yet nowadays, many mothers feel they cannot afford to stay out of the workforce. As a U.S. Congressional report released a fortnight ago points out, American wives typically bring in more than a third of their family’s income. Even more importantly, sending mothers to work has been the only way since the 1970s to live the American dream: over the past three decades, only those American families with a working wife have seen real increases in family income.”

Based on the “have to” excuse, you would expect the percentage of single moms in the workforce to far exceed that of marrieds. In fact, they are virtually identical, with the percentage of single moms only slightly higher. In Britain, however, the figures heavily tilt in the direction of married moms—60 percent of whom work, as compared to just 31 percent for single moms.

Married couples might be convinced they need two incomes to survive, but these “needs” often fall into the category of luxuries, not necessities. As David Gelernter wrote in Commentary magazine, “[A]s a nation we used to be a lot poorer, and women used to stay home” (February 1996).

Today, studies have found that the wealthier the family, the more likely mothers are to leave home for work. For many wives and mothers, a career over children is simply a choice they have made.

Elsewhere on the Web

All but admitting that it has something to hide, Syria said on Saturday it would bar UN nuclear inspectors from visiting a site bombed by the Israeli Air Force. TheTrumpet.com first reported on this project here. Naturally, Syria denies it has a hidden nuclear weapons program—possibly at the behest of Iran, the mastermind and final destination for the Syrian plutonium. The denial of access is another frustration to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which found some suspect traces there in June in spite of major operations by the Syrians to literally bury the entire site. News of the Israeli action first leaked in September of last year, and meanwhile, Syria was voted co-chairman of the iaea’s General Conference.

A top aide to Syrian President Bashar Assad was evidently supplying Hezbollah with advanced Syrian SA-8 anti-aircraft missiles, the Sunday Timesreports. The aide, Brig. Gen. Muhammad Suleiman, was assassinated two weeks ago. The Jerusalem Post writes about the mysterious killing here.

A senior Hamas leader said yesterday that the Hamas movement “must rule in Gaza and the occupied West Bank according to the results of the elections.” For more, go here.

And Finally …

Another sequence of failure by the West to rein in Iran’s nuclear program led Investor’s Business Daily to this conclusion:

The U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China offered Iran a generous package of incentives last week hoping to convince the mullahs that developing a nuclear weapon is not in their interest. Iran’s answer? A vague promise of a “final response” somewhere down the line.It’s obvious that Tehran is stalling. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad knows that the most serious nation in the group—the U.S.—is going through a change of administrations, and that all he has to do is wait. If Barack Obama wins—and Iran’s leaders clearly believe he will—then game over. Obama won’t be nearly as tough or as resilient as President Bush, or even France’s Nicolas Sarkozy.

Yes, it’s obvious. While the U.S. continues to talk tough about the need for robust diplomacy to solve the problem, it is allowing itself—seemingly knowingly—to be played the fool. Quite a vivid picture of a nation with a broken will.