The Week in Review
Middle East
Hezbollah-backed leader Najib Mikati was chosen as the new prime minister of Lebanon on January 25. The same day, Sunnis protested during a “day of rage” against what they called Hezbollah’s “soft coup.” Hezbollah’s success confirms that the group is “the country’s most powerful military and political force,” writes Farnaz Fassihi in the Wall Street Journal. Hezbollah brought down the government of Saad Hariri a fortnight ago when its ministers and allies withdrew from the cabinet. Now it has persuaded the majority of Lebanon’s parliament to support Mikati for prime minister. Hezbollah’s takeover is an effort to limit the damage done to the organization by the United Nations-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Mikati has not commented on the tribunal as yet, but it is evident that Hezbollah would only back someone who had agreed to its demands. “The real story behind the coup now under way is that of Iran,” writes Israeli analyst Jonathan Spyer in the Jerusalem Post. “Hezbollah’s rise to power is the latest victory for the Iranian model of combined political militancy and paramilitary strategy …” (January 26).
Egypt took a gigantic step this week toward becoming an Islamist state. On Tuesday, tens of thousands of angry Arabs hit the streets of Egypt in a “day of rage” against the autocratic rule of President Hosni Mubarak. Buoyed by the recent overthrow of the Tunisian government, boisterous mobs in Cairo, Alexandria and other Egyptian cities sent a clear message to their president. “Mubarak, Saudi Arabia awaits you,” shouted some. “Out! Out! Revolution until victory,” chanted others. The protests were the largest Egypt has experienced in more than 30 years. Many say the protests have set off a revolution. Egypt will be in a state of flux at least until September, when presidential elections are slated to occur. The intense political uncertainty and the enraged Arab street seeking representation will benefit Mubarak’s opponents, especially the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition movement. On Wednesday, the Islamist group demanded that President Mubarak dissolve the nation’s freshly formed parliament and hold a new election. It also urged Cairo to prosecute corrupt policymakers and repeal a law banning political rallies, and demanded constitutional changes to curb election rigging. In a statement on its website, the Brotherhood threatened that if the Egyptian government “does not move fast and shoulder responsibility to start a serious reform process, stability might not last for long.” For two decades, the Trumpet has forecast, based on Bible prophecy, that the moderate government in Cairo will be replaced by Islamists who will quickly align Egypt with the anti-Israel, radical Islamic administration in Tehran. Events in Egypt this week have undoubtedly brought this shift much closer.
Another round of nuclear talks between Iran and the UN Security Council plus Germany was held January 21-22. Although the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. and European officials headed into the two-day negotiations with increasing confidence that sanctions and covert actions were taking their toll on Iran’s nuclear program, the talks ended in stalemate. Tehran remains defiant toward the UN Security Council and continues to work toward its goal of becoming a nuclear nation. The talks never got past Tehran’s precondition that the “P5+1” nations recognize Iran’s “right” to enrich uranium and agree to drop sanctions before substantive negotiations could begin. Besides setting the agenda of the talks, Iran scored another victory by setting the location of the talks in ally Turkey.
More than 1,600 leaked documents detailing dialogue between Palestinian and Israeli officials from 1999 through 2010 have shaken up the Israeli/Palestinian peace process. According to the documents, as late as 2008 Palestinian negotiators understood that a peace deal with Israel would mean that most of the settlements in East Jerusalem, comprising over 200,000 Jews, would remain under Israeli sovereignty. This means Palestinian leaders were actually prepared to negotiate a peace deal with Israel where they would allow most Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem to be part of the Israeli state, instead of being in “occupied territory.” This revelation could not have come at a worse time for the Palestinian Authority, since the very reason it now says it will not return to the negotiating table with Israel is Jewish construction in areas that would occupy land in a future Palestinian state. Furthermore, the documents are an embarrassment to the Obama administration, as it has repeatedly made an Israeli construction freeze the hallmark to its brokering of peace in the Middle East. Not surprisingly, the Palestinian leadership denied the veracity of the documents.
Europe
German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has defended himself against accusations that he does not control what goes on in his department. “Frankish firs do not fall down,” he said on January 23, as he defended himself against efforts by the Free Democratic Party and Social Democratic Party to blacken his name in the run-up to important state elections in Germany (Bild, January 23). The allusion was to the young aristocrat’s long family heritage of unyielding resistance in the face of battle. It is such charismatic confidence that endears Guttenberg to the German public, while at the same time causing his political enemies such frustration in their efforts to disparage him. Guttenberg ordered an investigation into the recent accidental deaths of two soldiers, as well as the scandal caused by the military opening letters sent home by German troops in Afghanistan. Watch how this most popular of German politicians handles his latest challenge with Frankish aplomb, with the chance of emerging more popular than ever in the public eye, perhaps with his own eye more firmly planted on gaining the chancellorship of Germany himself.
President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Aneglo Bagnasco, said on January 24 that the persecution of Christians in some countries is reaching the level of ethnic or religious cleansing. “For a long time [Christians] have been the religious group that must face the greatest number of persecutions because of their faith,” he said. “The Middle East is certainly the region with the highest tension; there, Christianophobia, which is the most current version of religious intolerance, is not far from becoming now a form of ethnic or religious cleansing.” Watch for tensions between Islam and Catholicism to continue to rise.
Secret nato documents leaked to Britain’s Guardian newspaper confirm Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi’s role as a major leader of organized crime in the Balkans. The documents confirm that Western nations knew of Thaçi’s role for years, yet they continued to support him, according to an article published in the Guardian on January 24. The documents state that Thaçi is one of the three “biggest fish” of organized crime in the country. So also is one of his close allies, Xhavit Haliti. These are the unsavory people that the U.S. put in charge of Kosovo.
Asia
On Wednesday, Spiegel Online published leaked American Embassy cables from 2009 and 2010 showing that U.S. officials worry that terrorists could obtain radioactive materials from Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, where the Soviets detonated over 500 nuclear bombs. Because of the test detonations, the soil in some parts of Semipalatinsk is so contaminated with plutonium that a terrorist would be able to dig up enough of it to construct a dirty bomb. “Of all the projects funded by the [Cooperative Threat Reduction] appropriation, the most critical is a classified project to secure weapons-grade material at the former Soviet nuclear weapons test site in Semipalatinsk,” wrote then U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan Richard Hoagland in the cables.
The Russian Army has developed stand-alone nuclear missiles capable of penetrating any existing projecting missile defense system, Interfax news agency reported on Thursday. Yury Solomonov, head designer at the Moscow Heat Engineering Institute, said the advanced system was successfully tested last year and is now able to strike several different targets spaced far away from each other. He also said the new sophisticated weaponry will “put a full stop on all discussions regarding our countermeasures towards non-existent antiballistic missile defense system of our potential enemy.” Expect Russia’s military might to continue to grow.
The fifth round of strategic security talks between China and Russia took place in Moscow Sunday to Tuesday, with both sides pledging increased focus on national, international and regional security. During the discussions, Beijing and Moscow said the warm relationship between them has contributed to regional and global stability, and they pledged to further boost strategic coordination. The next round of Russia-China talks is planned for later this year in China. Watch for the ties between Moscow and Beijing to continue to strengthen.
On Wednesday, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said that Monday’s suicide bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport was “payback” for the Kremlin’s meddling in the North Caucasus. Saakashvili and Russian leaders have been at odds with each other since the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and Saakashvili’s statement is likely to anger Russia, since it follows so closely after the terrorist bombing that claimed 35 lives and injured over 180 others. Saakashvili blamed Moscow for attempting to destabilize neighboring nations by supporting secessionist movements. “I discussed this personally with Vladimir Putin a while ago. I said to him that the payback for his country for supporting separatists would be that violence would come back to hit them as well,” Saakashvili said. When Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote, “Russia’s attack on Georgia … marks the beginning of a dangerous new era in history.” The suicide bombing and acerbic comments from Saakashvili provide evidence that the dangers of the new era are intensifying.
Anglo-America
U.S. Weekly, a magazine about celebrities, splashed a provocative image on a recent cover. The image shows singer Elton John and his partner, who claim to be married, along with a surrogate baby boy whom they have adopted. An Arkansas supermarket responded to complaints about the “Elton’s Baby!” cover by placing a small plastic “family shield” over a rack holding the magazine. When a more liberal shopper photographed the shield and tried to use social media to stir up an outcry, the story made national headlines. “Why was this loving family photo treated as something shameful?” one Hollywood reporter said.
Elsewhere in Arkansas, megastore chain Walmart has introduced “anti-aging” cosmetics for 8-year-olds. The “geoGirl” line of 69 products includes blush, mascara and exfoliators and is aimed at girls between the ages of 8 and 12, who, all-importantly, have a reported buying power of $2 billion.
American President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address to the U.S. Congress Tuesday. The president called on America to maintain greatness through innovation. He hearkened back to the Cold War era, when the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union both scared and inspired America into a period of scientific innovation. Then President Obama did his best to play down the seriousness of the fiscal challenges that lay ahead for America as a result of unsustainable federal deficit spending. He outlined a plan to cut defense spending by $78 billion over the next five years, but this cut barely makes a dent in the trillion-plus-dollar deficit, and many believe Obama was only seeking to counter a Republican move to drive through deeper budget cuts. Fiscally, America is very near the edge of anarchy and chaos. The last days of the republic as we know it are here.
To underline that fact, foreclosures are spreading to areas previously insulated from the financial carnage. Joblessness has spread to metropolitan areas such as Seattle, Houston and Chicago, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
According to the “2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress,” which was released on Tuesday, only 21 percent of American high school seniors are performing at or above the science proficient level. “The results released today show that our nation’s students aren’t learning at a rate that will maintain America’s role as an international leader in the sciences,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement made just after the report was issued. A separate report, the “Program of International Student Assessment,” which evaluates different types of literacy, found that the United States ranked 13th out of 34 developed countries.
The American Northeast experienced its snowiest month on record this week as New York City and Newark, N.J., picked up a whopping 19 inches of snow by early Thursday. Unlike previous snow storms this season, heavy accumulation also piled up in both Washington, d.c., and Baltimore, in addition to Philadelphia and New York. Weather-related disasters across the Americas, Australia, South Africa and the rest of the world are continuously being labeled the worst ever. These worsening weather trends are a warning from God that we need to turn away from materialism, false religion and our multitudinous sins, and turn to Him and the only way of life that will bring true abundance and happiness. For more information on the cause of these weather-related crises, read Brad Macdonald’s January 20 column, “Nature: God’s ‘Unlimited Broadcasting Station.’”
Speaking to British members of the European Parliament on Tuesday, America’s ambassador to the UK, Louis Susman, signaled that Washington wants a clearer British commitment to remain in the European Union. In the face of polls indicating that 70 percent of Britons want out of the EU, Susman urged the British Parliament to ensure that Britain remains firmly attached to what whistle-blowers for years have maintained is a corrupt, anti-democratic and imperialist institution. This is a case of a once great superpower, now in rapid decline, leading a nation the Bible terms a “silly dove” into the maw of national destruction.
British schools are preparing to honor homosexuals, bisexuals and people who pretend to be or have operations to become a different sex. Organizers have established February as “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month.” The measure is supported by the British government, including the Department for Children, Schools and Families; Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs; the Department of Health; the Crown Prosecution Service; and the Ministry of Justice. The government’s Training and Development Agency for Schools is funding lesson plans for children as young as 4 to use geography, design technology, language classes and even math and science to promote the homosexual agenda.