Christian Friends of Israel - Jerualem IND Weekly (Israel News Digest) October 7 - 11, 2013 Netanyahu’s UN Speech Angers a Few but Encourages Many “We are an ancient people,” the Prime Minister reminded his UN audience on October 1. “We date back nearly 4,000 years to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We have journeyed through time. We’ve overcome the greatest of adversities. And we re-established our sovereign state in our ancestral homeland, the land of Israel. Now, the Jewish people’s odyssey through time has taught us two things: Never give up hope, always remain vigilant. Hope charts the future. Vigilance protects it.” The Prime Minister went on to talk about a time when Persia and Israel were friends, and in fact the Persian king brought to an end the Babylonian exile of the Jewish people. Because of his famous edict giving the Jews the right to return to their homeland, both the walls of Jerusalem and the destroyed Temple were rebuilt. But now this is all changed and “a nuclear-armed Iran seeks our destruction,” Netanyahu declared. President Rouhani presents a smiling face, and he tends to make friends more easily than Ahmadinejad, but underneath the smile, his aims for Iran are the same. He still wants a nuclear bomb. As Netanyahu put it, “Ahmadinejad was a wolf in wolf’s clothing. Rouhani is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” And he has pulled the wool over the eyes of the international community. Netanyahu said, “I wish we could believe Rouhani’s words, but we must focus on Iran’s actions. And it’s the brazen contrast, this extraordinary contradiction, between Rouhani’s words and Iran’s actions that is so startling. Rouhani stood at this very podium last week and praised Iranian democracy — Iranian democracies. But the regime that he represents executes political dissidents by the hundreds and jails them by the thousands.” The Prime Minister’s speech encouraged many, mostly Jews and Christians. However, some supposedly “friendly nations” did not necessarily like his speech. And one of those nations was the United States—at least the Obama administration. Israel and Saudi Arabia coordinate policies to counter US détente with Iran President Obama’s reaching out to Iran has further damaged US relations with Israel. In fact, the US is on a collision course not only with Israel but also with the God of Israel. In brief, the Obama Administration has decided to give Iran no further grief over her race for a nuclear weapon. Obama has apparently decided that the US can live with a nuclear Iran. What he forgot was that Israel cannot. Netanyahu just said it again in his speech: Israel cannot and will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Can tiny Israel stop it? Of course it can—especially if the God of Israel helps them. Meanwhile, Israel has a partner of sorts in its efforts to stop the détente with Iran. Contacts have been going on with Gulf Emirates as well as Saudi Arabia to cooperate in offsetting any potential American easing-up on Iran’s nuclear program. The three nations have also agreed to synchronize their lobbying efforts in the US Congress to vote down the Obama administration’s moves on Iran. Secretary of State John Kerry carried a message requesting moderation toward Iran in the speech he delivered to the United Nations. On the other hand, at least two European diplomats, German and French, made the opposite request: they asked for a hard-hitting Israeli declaration for setting boundaries - not so much for Iran’s nuclear program as for attempt to slow down President Obama’s dash for détente with Tehran. It is feared in European capitals that the US is running too fast and too far in its bid for reconciliation with the Islamic Republic, to the detriment by association of their own standing in the Persian Gulf. Thus, ironically Israel is not alone in the Middle East in her efforts to slow down Iran’s nuclear program. If the US does not fear Iran’s bomb and intercontinental ballistic missiles, other states do—notably Saudi Arabia that withstood some of Saddam Hussein’s missile attacks during the Gulf War. God can use the most unlikely of allies to preserve the tiny land that He loves. “When the ways of people please the Lord, He makes even their enemies to be at peace with them” (Proverbs 1:7). Reporting for CFI Jerusalem, Lonnie C. Mings
Posted on: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 14:43:42 +0000
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