Showing posts with label Kurds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kurds. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

UNITED NATIONS - NO TO KURD’S - REBELS & ROMANS ONLY


REAL NEWS. NOW.
WITH STEVEN BEN-NUN


ON TODAY’S PROPHETIC NEWS CAST
The United Nations has followed the United States and NATO in turning against the Kurdish People, it seems that The UN has become a “Roman Only” club. Unless you are in special favor with the Vatican don’t expect an invitation. My apologies to the Kurds that have given their lives fighting ISIS.

ABOUT STEVEN BEN-NUN
Author and Speaker STEVEN BEN-NUN looks deep into the Torah in search of the hidden prophesies regarding the Messiah. Fresh insights that examine the facts surrounding Jesus of Nazareth and His role 2000 years ago and did in fact the Jewish people over look the most important event our history. » Find out more

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Bookmark And Visit These Links!
» Israel Returns | Official Website
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JESUS ON THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES

When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring.
O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky;
but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
~ Matthew 16:2-3, KJV

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

BUSH WANTED TO SAVE KURDS; OBAMA LETS THEM DIE


REAL NEWS. NOW.
WITH STEVEN BEN-NUN


ON TODAY’S PROPHETIC NEWS CAST
What has happened to America? The once great nation falls into the clutches of an administration that is bent on fulfilling a New world Order Agenda... Whatever it takes to please Rome.

ABOUT STEVEN BEN-NUN
Author and Speaker STEVEN BEN-NUN looks deep into the Torah in search of the hidden prophesies regarding the Messiah. Fresh insights that examine the facts surrounding Jesus of Nazareth and His role 2000 years ago and did in fact the Jewish people over look the most important event our history. » Find out more

CONNECT WITH STEVEN BEN-NUN
Bookmark And Visit These Links!
» Israel Returns | Official Website
» Israel Returns | Steven’s Blog
» Steven Ben-Nun | Twitter
» Steven Ben-Nun | Facebook
» Steven Ben-Nun | Video Channel
» Israeli News Live | Official Website

JESUS ON THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES

When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring.
O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky;
but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
~ Matthew 16:2-3, KJV

Monday, July 13, 2015

FIRST WESTERN FEMALE FIGHTER AGAINST ISIS RETURNS TO ISRAEL


A Truthful And Balanced Perspective On Israel



Israel Today Staff — Gill Rosenberg, a Canadian - Israeli, returned to Israel after spending the last 8 months on the front lines against ISIS in Syria and Iraq with Kurdish fighters.

In November 2014 it was reported that Rosenberg had joined the Kurdish forces fighting ISIS in Syria. She flew via Jordan to Erbil in Kurdish controlled northern Iraq where she assumed her combat role.

A few weeks later media reports stated that she had been abducted by ISIS being the first western female combatant having been abducted. Within a matter of days the reports of her abduction were put to rest with reports of a post on her FaceBook page that she was alive and well.

After seeing action in Syria Rosenberg moved to Iraq where she continued in her combat role until she left Iraq for Paris about 10 days ago.

She arrived in Israel on Sunday where she was briefly detained by Israel's General Security Services (Shin Bet) and interrogated before being released.

"It's good to be home. I'm here for now, and don’t plan on going back there anytime soon," she said.

Rosenberg spoke of her difficulty witnessing the humanitarian crisis in the areas that she found herself, saying, "It's a country at war. There are millions of refugees scattered across the country, most of them women and children."

Rosenberg reportedly said that that she left the area for political reasons, saying that peoples attitudes towards the US and Israel and increasing Iranian advances in the area warranted her departure.
About ‘Israel Today’
ISRAEL TODAY is a Jerusalem-based news agency providing a biblical and objective perspective on local news. Founded in 1978, when it began publishing a monthly German news magazine, the English language edition of Israel Today was launched in January 1999 in order to meet a growing demand for news from Israel to the English-speaking market. Since then, Israel Today has also added editions in Japanese, Korean, Dutch and Norwegian. Israel Today maintains a diverse staff of local journalists who live in the Land and therefore report from firsthand experience, offering a mix of information, interviews, inspiration and daily life in Israel. » Find out more

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The God Of Abraham, Issac, And Jacob Regarding Israel

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. ~ Genesis 12:3

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

OBAMA’S KOBANI CROSSROADS


You’ve Read The News - Now Understand It


Obama, Having Foolishly Telegraphed
That He Won’t Send Ground Troops To Confront ISIS...

Noah Beck, Israel Today Staff —

Whatever the U.S. accomplished after about a decade of war in Iraq has, in a matter of months, deteriorated to a situation that may become unprecedented in its instability and threat to Western interests. Obama’s clumsy departure from Iraq, his military mismanagement of the mess that ensued, and his refusal to intervene in Syria – again, overruling his top security advisers – are what produced the current quagmire.

The loss of Christianity in Mosul didn’t have to happen. Obama’s tardy airstrikes managed to prevent the Mosul Dam from falling, but the city may never be the same. Similarly, why did the Yazidis have to find themselves besieged on Mount Sinjar before the U.S. took action?

Instead of preemptively stopping ISIS from spreading into Iraq, Obama effectively waited until some high-profile beheadings forced him to focus on the danger. While such gruesome murders can reliably rally public opinion in favor of military action, the duty of the Commander-in-Chief is to lead and take military action when and how national security requires it, and not just when terrorists provoke some tardy and token airstrikes into empty buildings.

As the next disaster is about to unfold on Obama’s watch, he should recognize that there is much more at stake with the fight for Kobani than just the loss to ISIS of a small town on the Syria-Turkey border.

Above all, letting Kobani fall means betraying our only ally fighting ISIS on the ground, and allowing them to be massacred while the world watches. What message does the U.S. send to Mideast partners and the world at large, if the Kurds are the only force providing the ground troops that Obama so desperately needs now, and yet Obama is unwilling to support them enough to avoid the horrific slaughter that will follow an ISIS victory in Kobani?

Kobani also has geostrategic importance to the Iranian nuclear threat. The more ISIS succeeds at capturing territory and recruiting fighters, a trend bolstered by Kobani’s fall, the more desperate the U.S. becomes for help from Iran, which, as leader of the Shiite world, is the natural enemy of the Sunni ISIS fighters. Because Iran also has one of the most powerful militaries in the region, and has – even before the ISIS crises – outmaneuvered the West in talks to curb Iranian nuclear ambitions, Iran could easily leverage the situation to secure tacit Western acceptance of its nukes. Indeed, Iran has already signaled its fight-ISIS-for-nukes strategy.

Even more important, as Iran watches how feebly the U.S. responds to the loss of Iraq and how Obama cowers from a relatively minor fight in Kobani, the Ayatollahs can rest assured that there really is no U.S. military option to stop their nuclear program. This conclusion becomes all the more inevitable, when they look at Obama’s waning influence at home, as he enters the lame-duck period of his presidency.

There is also a moral dimension to Kobani. Obama – in his 2009 and 2012 speeches on Holocaust Remembrance Day – proudly recalled how his great uncle helped to liberate a Nazi death camp. Yet Obama’s inaction in Syria has left about 200,000 dead, including many who were simply massacred, and Kobani may be where the next atrocities happen. Does the U.S. not hold itself to a higher standard than that of Turkey, which has thus far chosen just to watch the fighting a mere mile from its border? Turkish history already includes genocides against the Armenian Christians and the Kurds (in the Dersim Massacre), so it’s no surprise that the Islamist regime of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would let his army stand idly by, watching and waiting for ISIS to slaughter thousands of Kobani Kurds. But does the U.S. really want to be in the same camp as the Turks on this one? How much more shame will fall upon the United States, and the Obama legacy, when the Internet overflows with images of mass graves containing Kobani’s brave and abandoned fighters, along with Kurdish civilians who were too weak, infirm, or elderly to flee the approaching ISIS barbarism?

As if the above concerns weren’t enough to goad Obama into action, there is also the strategic impact of letting Kobani fall. As good as ISIS recruiting on social media already is, the popularity of this terrorist army among Islamists worldwide will surge when ISIS can boast about one more example of how even the mighty US military can’t stop them.

Having foolishly telegraphed that he won’t send ground troops to confront ISIS, Obama can still try to convert his error into a feint, by doing the opposite and sending troops to Kobani. At least that would restore some element of unpredictability to how ISIS regards U.S. military moves in the region.

Obama is effectively weeks away from the lame-duck portion of his presidency. If Republicans take Congress in next month's midterm elections, then Obama will become that much more ineffectual. But the president can still try to demonstrate some leadership by changing his strategic approach to Mideast threats -- if only to prevent his legacy from going into freefall. If the Middle East has only one lesson for Obama, it is that much can go terribly wrong in very little time. With Iranian nukes around the corner and ISIS on the march, two years of Mideast deterioration is a frighteningly long time to be on Obama’s watch.

About the Author
NOAH BECK is the author of The Last Israelis, an apocalyptic novel about Iranian nukes and other geopolitical issues in the Middle East.

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The God Of Abraham, Isaac, And Jacob Regarding Israel
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. ~ Genesis 12:3

EBOLA? LOOK OUT FOR ANOTHER DEBILITATING VIRUS


America’s Independent News Network
“A Free Press for a Free People”


Polio-Like Malady Possibly Brought By
Illegal-Alien Minors

Aaron Klein, Jerusalem Bureau Chief, WND —
The U.S. news media are giving little attention to one of the most significant and alarming current health stories – the World Health Organization has issued a global alert due to the outbreak in the U.S. of the debilitating Enterovirus D68.

There has been speculation the polio-like Enterovirus, which mostly targets children, could have been carried into the U.S. by illegal-alien minors from Central America.

The WHO’s alert for the Enterovirus 68, or EV-D68, in the U.S. was issued Sept. 17.

A global WHO alert for the virus is exceptionally rare and is the first of its kind associated with an outbreak in the U.S.

The last global alert for Enterovirus was issued in 2008 in China. The only other Enterovirus alert came 10 years earlier, in 1998, again in China.

The U.S. news media, however, largely have failed to report on the WHO alert. A Google News search for the terms “World Health Organization, Enterovirus” finds no headlines on the alert other than the WHO’s own press release.

The WHO release says that on Sept. 10, the U.S. government informed the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization of an “outbreak of severe respiratory illness associated with Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68).”

As of Sept. 17, according to the WHO report, 30 laboratory-confirmed cases of EV-D68 were reported in 12 states – Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, New York, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.

“Investigations into suspected clusters in many other states are ongoing,” WHO stated, justifying the issuance of the global alert.

According to news reports, the EV-D68 virus so far has killed five children and has hit minors especially hard.

Since mid-August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, has confirmed more than 600 cases of Ev-D68, noting almost all cases were documented in children.

Ev-D68 usually causes mild to severe respiratory illness, starting with symptoms of runny nose and cough. The virus could bring on difficulty breathing, wheezing and other respiratory symptoms. It could be more severe in patients with pre-existing conditions such as asthma or other respiratory diseases.

The EV-68 virus was identified in California in 1962, but until the current outbreak it has rarely been diagnosed in the U.S. in the past four decades.

The latest outbreak has taken on a political tone, with some in talk radio and on the blogosphere suggesting the virus may have been carried to the U.S. by illegal aliens, especially the so-called unaccompanied alien children, or UACs, who have been streaming across the southern border.

Most UACs originate in Central American countries, some of which have seen recent spates of EV-68 virus outbreaks.

A study published Oct. 11, 2013, in Virology Journal collected nasopharyngeal swabs from eight Latin American countries from 3,375 subjects aged 25 years or younger who presented with influenza-like illness.

The study found human Enteroviruses were identified in a staggering 3 percent of all subjects.

Former CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, writing at her personal website, surmised “the origin could be entirely unrelated,” but because the “CDC hasn’t suggested reasons for the current uptick or its origin,” some are questioning “whether the disease is being spread by the presence of tens of thousands of illegal immigrant children from Central America admitted to the U.S. in the past year.”


Savage, who earned a doctorate in epidemiology at the University of California at Berkeley, declared on his show last month: “For 20 years, I’ve been trying to warn America about the unscreened immigrants being brought in. Now, of course, it’s coming home to roost and the American people are being lied to by the Centers for Disease Transmission. They used to be the CDC; they’re now the CDT.”

Limbaugh similarly explored the possibility of a link between the flood of illegal aliens and the spread of EV-D68.

Limbaugh asked: “Are the two stories related or are they not? Does this sweeping, mysterious virus that’s multiplying across the Midwest, does it have anything to do with it or not? We don’t know. That’s the answer. We just don’t know. But some people think there may be some kind of a connection.”

Pat Robertson, speaking on “The 700 Club” show on the Christian Broadcasting Network, also connected the EV-D68 outbreak to the flood of illegals.

“I don’t know if anybody has done an analysis, and it may be way off the wall as to the fact we’ve had this flood of children coming across the border from Central America – did they carry with them viruses that we were not familiar with in the United States and haven’t built up immunity to? It’s entirely possible,” he said.

The progressive activist organization Media Matters for America has weighed in on matter.

In a blog posting titled “Conservatives Falsely Blame Undocumented Children For Deadly Enterovirus,” Media Matters cites a statement it obtained from CDC spokeswoman Jeanette St. Pierre saying: “Currently, there is no evidence from testing at CDC that EV-D68 infections in the U.S. are a result of unaccompanied minors moving into the country.”

With additional research by Brenda J. Elliott.
About the Author
Aaron Klein is WND's senior staff reporter and Jerusalem bureau chief. He also hosts "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio" on New York's WABC Radio. Follow Aaron on Twitter and Facebook.

» Aaron Klein | Article Archive
» WND

NEWS BRIEFS: OCTOBER 15, 2014


Current Events And Commentaries

The Hal Lindsey Report: October 10, 2014
Yesterday’s Prophecies.. Today’s Headlines


Most U.S. Hospitals Cannot Safely Handle Ebola Patients
By Michael Snyder, End Of The American Dream —
This Ebola outbreak is being called the “most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times“, and the U.S. health care system is completely and totally unprepared for it.  The truth is that most U.S. hospitals are simply not equipped to safely handle Ebola patients, and most hospital staff members have received little or no training on Ebola.  And the fact that Barack Obama and our top public health officials are running around proclaiming that Ebola is “difficult to catch” is giving doctors and nurses a false sense of security.  There is a reason why Ebola has been classified as a biosafety-level 4 (BSL-4) pathogen.  It is an extraordinarily dangerous virus, and there are only a few facilities in the entire country that are set up to safely handle such a disease.

The Ebola patient that recently died in Dallas was the first to be cared for in a facility that did not follow biosafety-level 4 protocols.  And so it should not be a surprise that this is the facility where transmission happened...

Houston Openly Lesbian Mayor Forces Pastors To Turn Over Sermons On Homosexuality
“This is a shot across the bow of the church.”

By Bradford Thomas, Ben Shapiro’s Truth Revolt —
Houston Mayor Annise Parker, the first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city, has issued subpoenas requiring a group of pastors who were part of a petition drive viewed by some as anti-LGBT to turn over all of their sermons dealing with homosexuality or Parker for scrutiny. The Alliance Defending Freedom, which has filed a motion to block the subpoenas, calls the move a Big Brother-esque “inquisition” and an attempt by Parker to publicly shame the ministers and portray them as anti-gay bigots.

“City council members are supposed to be public servants, not ‘Big Brother’ overlords who will tolerate no dissent or challenge,” said ADF attorney Erik Stanley. “This is designed to intimidate pastors.”...

This Politically-Incorrect Comedy Central Skit
Mocks Obama Like No Other

By Matthew Burke, TPNN — There are have been a few comedy skits featuring Barack Obama over the past six years, but this one is perhaps the bravest and most politically-incorrect one yet.

Posted on YouTube less that three weeks ago, the video has gone viral, with over 2.7 million views as of today....

Americans, Like The Founders,
Must Gather The Courage That Forged A Nation
By Dr. Ben Carson, Townhall —
It should come as no surprise to most thinking people that Wal-Mart, like many other large employers, recently announced it would be suspending health-care benefits for part-time workers. This is really a double hit on workers: In many cases, they previously had full-time jobs with 40-hour workweeks before being reduced to part-time status and now losing their health benefits.

The "Affordable Care Act," which probably seems less affordable to most Americans as we find out more about it, is the cause of this unnecessary misery. When the employer mandate, which is part of Obamacare, is activated early next year, tens of millions more Americans will face dramatic hikes in the cost of the health care they currently receive or will lose it altogether. The current administration understood that this would happen, which occasioned the issuing of several executive orders delaying the implementation of the employer mandate until after the November 2014 elections....

ISIS ‘Declares War On Christians’
By Dalit Halevy, Tova Dvorin, Arutz Sheva —
Islamic State (ISIS) has published a new edition of the propaganda booklet Dabiq, which is again signaling its primary enemy - Christianity.

On the cover page of the booklet is a photo of the Vatican bearing the ISIS flag, along with the terror group's desires to conquer Rome and "break the cross."

According to some Islamic traditions, the founder of Islam Mohammed predicted that the occupation of the three cities of Istanbul, Jerusalem and Rome pave the way for the appearance of the Mahdi, the Islamic Messiah....

NewsBusted: October 15, 2014
The Green Light For Conservative Laughter!

Topics for this Edition of NewsBusted
• Leon Panetta
• ISIS
• President Obama
• San Gabriel Mountains
• China Leader Xi Jinping
• Harry Reid
• Obama Marriage
• Liberia
• Ebola

Sixty Days To Beat Ebola, United Nations Warns
By AUTHOR, Sky News —
If the deadly outbreak cannot be reined in by Christmas then the UN says there is no plan in place and it could be overwhelmed.

The UN says the ebola outbreak must be controlled within 60 days or else the world faces an "unprecedented" situation for which there is no plan.

The United Nations made the stark warning as it warned that the disease "is running faster than us and it is winning the race".

Nearly 9,000 cases of ebola have been reported so far in West Africa, including 4,447 deaths....

Cha-Ching: The Second Fast-Tracked
Ebola Vaccine Trial Just Began in Maryland
By Melissa Melton, Truthstream Media —
This story just popped up on USA Today this evening: “New Ebola vaccine study has begun in Maryland.”

Paragraph 1: The first human trials of a Canadian Ebola vaccine began Monday, part of a flood of experimental therapies rushed into testing to battle the Ebola epidemic.

Great. Another experimental vaccine is being fast-tracked and rushed out thanks to a carefully planned fearporn propaganda campaign designed to ultimately make Big Pharma a lot of big profits. No one is talking about any natural alternatives, underlying nutritional deficiency issues or water treatment problems already plaguing Africa, or the fact that even the guy who designed the Ebola test says it’s unreliable or the fact that stories have leaked out here and there in the African newspapers that people are purposefully poisoning city water wells with formaldehyde which, when ingested, can cause corrosive injuries that appear much like the symptoms of late-stage Ebola.

Also the phrase “a flood of experimental therapies” is perfectly timed for October, because it’s scary as hell. Who knows what’s in those syringes....

Western Journalism
Informing and Equipping Americans Who Love Freedom

BREAKING: What Just Happened In Dallas
Makes It The Epicenter Of Ebola In America

A “Serious Concern”
By Norvell Rose, Western Journalism — Another case of Ebola confirmed in Texas.

A health care worker who provided care for Thomas Eric Duncan, the Ebola victim who recently died in Dallas, has contracted the virus. The individual reported a fever Tuesday and was immediately isolated at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, state health officials said in a statement.

Via NBC News:
“Health officials have interviewed the latest patient to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures, and those people will be monitored,” the Texas Department of State Health Services said. “The type of monitoring depends on the nature of their interactions and the potential they were exposed to the virus.” It is the third case diagnosed in the U.S.

The CDC described the latest case involving a health care worker as a “serious concern.” In a statement, it added: “As we have said before, because of our ongoing investigation, it is not unexpected that there would be additional exposures.”
Meantime, co-workers of Nina Pham, the Dallas nurse who contracted Ebola from Duncan, say they worked for days without proper protective gear — a claim that contradicts what health officials have previously said.

As ABC News reports:
…the hospital’s Ebola protocols and procedures were unclear and inadequate, leaving workers and hospital systems prone to contamination, according to a statement by the largest U.S. nurses’ union.

The statement, which was provided by National Nurses United on behalf of several registered nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, details hospital procedures after Thomas Eric Duncan arrived at the hospital.

“No one knew what the protocols were or were able to verify what kind of personal protective equipment should be worn and there was no training,” the statement reads.

Senator Ron Johnson: CDC Offering ‘Bland Assurances’ on Ebola
Public Needs to Know How Workers Got Ebola
By Mellissa Clyne and Newsmax Wires —
The Obama administration and Centers for Disease Control officials need to be square with the American public about how two Dallas healthcare workers treating a West African Ebola patient contracted the virus, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said Wednesday on "America’s Forum" on Newsmax TV.

"We still don't understand if there was a breakdown in protocols," Johnson said. "What was it? How are these nurses gowned up? How serious — obviously they were taking it seriously, but we just simply don't know how they were infected and that's information we really ought to know."...

Nurses Fight Back: ‘There Was No Protocol, There Was No System’
Breitbart TV —
A statement from National Nurses United on the treatment of Dallas Ebola patient said that “nurses were asked to call the Infectious Disease Department” to learn the policies on how to treat Duncan.

The statement, which was played in its entirety on CNN on Wednesday morning, also reports that Ebola training at the hospital was “optional,” “nurses have been left to train each other,” and that nurses who interacted with Duncan simply continued treating other patients. ...

Obama Finally Gets Asked To Help Campaign

» Cartoonist: Michael Ramirez is the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for Investors Business Daily. Please contact your local newspaper editor if you want to see Michael Ramirez’s cartoons in your hometown paper.

Jesus Privately Briefing His Inner Circle of Disciples
Regarding The Last Days
“And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” ~ Matthew 24:3-14

Friday, June 20, 2014

RETURN OF THE MEDES - PROPHETIC IMPLICATIONS?


Biblical Prophecy in the News
Keeping You Informed of World Events From A Biblical Perspective



By Joel C. Rosenberg — Could recent developments in Iraq have prophetic implications? Actually, the answer may be yes — especially with regards to the Kurdish people who live in northern Iraq. Let me explain.

As we’ve been seeing in recent weeks, the Radical jihadist forces of the “Islamic State of Iraq & al-Sham” (ISIS) are on the move towards Baghdad. They are leaving a trail of bloodshed and carnage in their wake.

The objective of the ISIS leaders is to topple the Iraqi government, seize control of all of Iraq, establish a jihadist state under Sharia law, and use Iraq to begin a regional — and eventually global — Islamic caliphate, or kingdom.

Now, the Kurdish leaders have taken advantage of the chaos of this moment to seize control of the oil-rich region of Kirkuk for themselves. (see AP story below)

The oil fields of Kirkuk have been a long-standing issue of controversy in Iraq, especially since the liberation of the country in 2003. Whoever controls those fields would control enormous wealth as the oil there is more fully developed and shipped to markets around the globe.

The Kurds, generally, are Sunni Muslims, but they are not ethnically Arabs. Indeed, many Kurds have a deep hatred for the Arabs. Several decades ago, the world create a special, protected, autonomous region for the Kurds in the north region of Iraq, after Saddam Hussein repeated attacked and tried to destroy the Kurds, including with the use of chemical weapons.

Ultimately, many Kurds want to create an independent country of their own, uniting Kurds living in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. Yet each of those national governments strongly oppose the creation of an independent Kurdistan.

What’s fascinating is that the modern Kurdish people were known in ancient, Biblical times as the Medes. Here is where things get interesting.

Bible prophecy indicates that in the End Times, as we get closer to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, God will allow the Medes to gain power, even as the Lord allows the Arabs to gain power and rebuild the kingdom of Babylon in the heart of Iraq.

The Book of Revelation, for example, tells us that Babylon will be the epicenter of evil in the last days of history, and will eventually face the judgment of God. The Hebrew prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel tell us this, as well, indicating Babylon will be completely destroyed and when the judgment is complete, Babylon will be completely uninhabitable. Indeed, Isaiah 13:20 says of Babylon, “It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; nor will the Arab pitch his tent there, nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.”

What’s more, Bible prophecy indicates that God will raise up the Medes — that is, the Kurdish people — to be an instrument of judgment against Babylon.

• Isaiah 13:17 — “Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them [the Babylonians]….”

• Jeremiah 51:11 — “The Lord has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His purpose is against Babylon to destroy it; for it is the vengeance of the Lord….”

• Jeremiah 51:28-29 — “Consecrate the nations against her, the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their prefects, and every land of their dominion. So the land quakes and writhes, for the purposes of the Lord against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitants….”

How exactly will these eschatological prophecies come to pass? It’s too early to say for certain.

But after studying these prophecies, traveling four times to the Iraqi Kurdistan region, meeting with senior Kurdish leaders — including Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani — and tracking developments there over the past decade or so, I think it is fair to say we may be seeing some of the prophetic battle lines developing:

• The hatred of the Kurds/Medes against the Arabs, and vice versa, is steadily growing.

• The Kurds/Medes and the Arabs are in a continued struggle to control the oil resources that will make either or both of them enormously wealthy and powerful in the End Times.

• The Kurds/Medes are, step by step, forming into their nation, and possibly their own country.

• The Kurds/Medes are developing an increasingly effective military force that is able to overpower the Iraqi Arabs at times.

Please keep the Kurdish people in your prayers. There are a growing number of truly born again Christians living in Kurdistan, including many MBBs, Muslim Background Believers. Please pray that they would boldly preach the Gospel, and be able to make many disciples, and help the believers that grow deep in their faith in Christ, especially amidst all the chaos and carnage.

For more on the latest geopolitical developments, here are excerpts from a recent article from the Associated Press, “HOW THE KURDS SEIZED KIRKUK.”

• “After a decades-long dispute between Arabs and Kurds over the oil-rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, it took just an hour and a half for its fate to be decided,” the Associated Press reports. “As al-Qaida-inspired militants advanced across northern Iraq and security forces melted away, Kurdish fighters who have long dominated Kirkuk ordered Iraqi troops out and seized full control of the regional oil hub and surrounding areas, according to a mid-ranking Army officer. He said he was told to surrender his weapons and leave his base.

• His account was corroborated by an Arab tribal sheik and a photographer who witnessed the looting of army bases after troops left and who related similar accounts of the takeover from relatives in the army. All three spoke to The Associated Press Friday on condition of anonymity because they feared retribution from Kurdish forces.

• “They said they would defend Kirkuk from the Islamic State,” said the Arab officer, who oversaw a warehouse in the city’s central military base. He asked that his rank not be made public.

• He insisted the Iraqi troops had not planned to retreat before the Islamic state. “We were ready to battle to death. We were completely ready,” he said at a roadside rest house just inside the semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

• The Kurdish takeover of the long-disputed city came days after the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and other Sunni militants seized much of the country’s second largest city of Mosul and Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit before driving south toward Baghdad. Their lightning advance has plunged the country into its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. troops.

• A spokesman for Kurdish forces, known as the peshmerga, said they had only moved in after Iraqi troops retreated, assuming control of the “majority of the Kurdistan region” outside the semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government.

• “Peshmerga forces have helped Iraqi soldiers and military leaders when they abandoned their positions,” including by helping three generals to fly back to Baghdad from the Kurdish regional capital Erbil, Lieutenant General Jabbar Yawar said in a statement on the regional government’s website….

• Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad, is home to Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, who all have competing claims to the oil-rich area. Kurds have long wanted to incorporate it into their self-ruled region, but Arabs and Turkmen are opposed.

• In the 1970s and 1980s the Arab-dominated government in Baghdad drove hundreds of thousands of Kurds out of Kirkuk and surrounding regions, settling Arabs from the south in their place in an attempt to pacify a region that had seen repeated revolts.

• During the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 the highly disciplined peshmerga swept down from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region and established a strong presence in a belt of largely Kurdish towns and villages stretching south toward Baghdad.

• But the disintegration of Iraqi forces this week seems to have led the peshmerga to assume full control in areas they have long coveted, further enhancing their autonomy from Baghdad and undermining hard-fought U.S. efforts to bring about a stable, multiethnic Iraq.

• “To a great extent Kurdish forces had been de facto in control of Kirkuk for some time, but now they’re completely in control,” said F. Gregory Gause, III, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Doha Center.

• He said it was unlikely the Kurds would seek formal independence from Iraq, however, because such a move would be strongly opposed by neighboring Turkey and Iran — both of which have sizable Kurdish minorities — as well as Washington. » Full Article

About The Post Author, Joel C. Rosenberg
Joel C. Rosenberg is the author of numerous New York Times best-selling novels and non-fiction books, with more than 3 million copies sold. He is also the founder of The Joshua Fund. » Full Bio

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