Thursday PM ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 2016             The truth will set you free 
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Featuring:
The Subversion of American Evangelicals
Caroline Glick
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 'I Do Solemnly Swear...' to What? 
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Several presidential candidates are still campaigning to be the one to take that solemn oath of office next January, as prescribed by our Constitution. Yet Donald slump-Trump is on the stump demanding oaths from his supporters.
          Indeed, slump-Trump had people at a rally raise their right hands and repeat, "I do solemnly swear that I, no matter how I feel, no matter what the conditions — if there's hurricanes or whatever — will vote on or before the 12th for Donald J. slump-Trump for president." And then he immediately reminded them, "Don't forget you all raised your hands. You swore. Bad things happen if you don't live up to what you just did."
          Now, surely this is all in good fun, right? In a telephone interview with the "Today" show, slump-Trump said innocently, "[U]ntil this phone call, I didn't realize it was a problem," but "I'll certainly look into it because I don't want to offend anybody. It's been amazingly received." (Doesn't want to offend anybody? Please. That's what he lives for.)
          We're not here to draw any comparisons with any other right-hand-raising regimes, but stop and think for a minute: Isn't this worrisome? There's no doubt slump-Trump has some devoted followers — we've heard hateful, profanity-laced tirades from plenty of them in response to our well-reasoned opposition to slump-Trump. Nevertheless, we're going to stand for principle, as we have for 20 years. Even if that means having the audacity to say it's not the man we owe allegiance to; it's the Constitution. 
 -The Patriot Post
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 The Populists Win Michigan 
The big news from Michigan's Tuesday primary was that socialist Bernie Sanders blew away expectations. Clinton led by 20 points in the polls, and she still lost. She was supposed to have the black vote shored up, what with her political gift giving in Flint. Instead, Sanders squeaked into first place with 50% of the vote to Clinton's 48%. Sanders won on the strength of votes from whites and Millennials, but exit polls also showed 30% of blacks supported the man. The Michigan result raises questions about the accuracy of polling in other Rust Belt states, most notably Ohio. In the grand scheme of things, the "inevitable" Clinton still has more delegates, but the win brings more validation to a Sanders campaign that was likely supposed to be merely political theater.
          Meanwhile, as predicted, Donald slump-Trump appealed to Rust Belt Republicans, picking up 36.5% in Michigan. In the other primaries held yesterday, the real estate mogul also won Mississippi and Hawaii, and he's doing it with broad appeal to several seemingly disparate demographics. Ted Cruz picked up a modest win in Idaho. As we wrote yesterday, if Cruz finished with strong seconds in Mississippi and Michigan, and possibly a win in Hawaii, it could have been a sign that the slump-Trump Train is running out of steam. Instead, the results show slump-Trump's populist appeal isn't losing ground. Then again, 35% of the vote across the board doesn't entitle him to the nomination, either.
          Blogger Rod Dreher notes that the Republicans' response to slump-Trump's rise is akin to the eve of World War II, when the French military brass thought the trenches of The Great War were here to stay. slump-Trump is shattering the assumptions the old Republican politicos held about its base — they're still fighting the previous war. With the rise of Sanders, its something that could be said of the Democrat Party, too.
          Next week, the races move to Florida and Ohio. If Marco Rubio and John Kasich do poorly in their home states, it will be the end of the road for the two. And by then, it may be too late for a consolidated Cruz surge.  -The Patriot Post
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 Record Warm Winter: What Alarmists Overlook 
Meteorological winter is now in the books, and if you live anywhere in the U.S. you won't be surprised to learn it was a warm one. Virtually every region experienced warmer, and in many cases much warmer, than normal conditions. In fact, persistent intrusions of mild air, promulgated by a super El Niño, pushed Winter '15-16 temperatures to their seasonal warmest in at least 121 years. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says the mean temperature for December, January and February was an impressive 4.6 degrees Fahrenheit higher than average, and satellite measurements confirm that February's warmth dwarfed all previous records. However, that's not to say it was "America's year without a winter," as stipulated in a Washington Post headline.
          For example, numerous cities in the Mid Atlantic broke record snowfall during January's epic blizzard — humorously nicknamed "Snowzilla" — and in February the Boston Globe reported, "Valentine's Day in Boston was the coldest on record for more than 80 years, as temperatures plunged to levels that could even keep an intrepid Cupid indoors. Sunday morning, the temperature plummeted to minus 9, with a windchill of minus 36, shattering the record by 6 degrees." That's a remarkable feat in any winter, but even more so considering the strength of El Niño. And let's not forget history. The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang notes, "The warmth of this winter marked a stunning reversal from the previous year in New England, when it witnessed one of its harshest winters on record." Extreme temperature swings are more common than we realize. Yet how quickly we forget them...
          There's no question El Niño drove much of this past winter's warmth. The question, as always, is to what extent. Meteorologist Joe Bastardi stipulates that we're now in a test period. What comes up must come down, and with La Niña looming, these trends should go the opposite direction in the years ahead. But regardless of what the next few years bring, what we'll never know conclusively is how today's trends compare to the past thousands of years. Are we experiencing climate change? You bet. Is it something to be so concerned about that we rearrange the entire economy to combat it? Probably not.  
 -The Patriot Post
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Judge Andrew Napolitano Blasts
Clinton Email Defense: A 'Word Game'
Tiffany Gabbay
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{truthrevolt.org} ~ Democrat presidential contender Hilly Clinton is feigning ignorance about the ongoing FBI investigation into the classified information she kept on her homebrew private server... She even went so far as to tell Bret Baier during the recent Democrat debate that the FBI didn't even inform her she is the target of an investigation.  During an appearance on Fox & Friends Tuesday, Judge Andrew Napolitano shattered Clinton's claim and defense that she never received anything "marked" as classified. He slammed the presidential contender for playing a duplicitous "word game." DC reports: Indeed, Clinton seems unfazed by the oath she signed, but then she's been unfazed by her many other dereliction of duties including allowing our US embassy in Benghazi to fall into the hands of savages who murdered Ambassador Chris Stevens and two Navy SEALs, among others.         http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/judge-andrew-napolitano-blasts-clinton-email-defense-word-game
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Navy Successfully Completes First Live Fire Test Of SeaRAM From Destroyer
Megan Eckstein
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USS Porter (DDG-78) conducts a structural test firing of SeaRAM in Spain on Feb. 28, 2016, as the first Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer with a SeaRAM installation
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{news.usni.org} ~ The Navy successfully launched the Raytheon SeaRAM Anti-Ship Missile Defense System from an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer for the first time ever on March 4... a final step in rapidly fielding a self-defense capability on the Mediterranean-based USS Porter (DDG-78) through an unconventional acquisition process. Porter last week went through structural test firings to ensure a shield would properly protect the ship from the SeaRAM blast, followed by tracking exercises to verify the accuracy of the detect-to-engage sequence. Finally, on Friday the Navy had its first-ever live fire test of a SeaRAM from a DDG, which took place on a Spanish Navy test range in the Mediterranean. USNI News understands the qualification test was successful and Porter will soon be able to use SeaRAM operationally, according to a source familiar with the test event. Additionally, the SeaRAM system has recently been tested successfully in another location against supersonic targets, expanding the utility of the system meant to address close-in threats such as helicopters and cruise missiles.       http://news.usni.org/2016/03/08/navy-successfully-completes-first-live-fire-test-of-searam-from-destroyer?utm_source=USNI+News&utm_campaign=e2f8dbf095-USNI_NEWS_DAILY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0dd4a1450b-e2f8dbf095-231491269&mc_cid=e2f8dbf095&mc_eid=3999f18767
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ISIS, Russia and NATO’s Evolving
Threat in the Mediterranean
Henrik Paulsson
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A screengrab of an Islamic State propaganda video of militants in Nawfaliyah, Libya in 2015
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{news.usni.org} ~ At the Surface Warship Summit in Bucharest, Romania, from Jan. 26 to 28, the commander of NATO’s Allied Maritime Command, Vice Adm. Clive Johnstone expressed concerns regarding several escalating situations in the Mediterranean... The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has consolidated its area of control along Libya’s Mediterranean coast, is attempting to increase its naval capabilities to attack maritime targets with anti-ship weapons in the vein of Hezbollah. Johnstone also talked about the issue of Russia’s increasing presence in the Eastern Mediterranean, spurred on by its commitment to Syria and the expansion of the naval base in Tartus. On 17 February retired Adm. James Stavridis echoed many of Johnstone’s fears regarding the Islamic State and Russian adventurism. Stavridis also raises the issue of the 1.2 million refugees who have crossed to Europe, a number that will only increase and is overwhelming many states.  http://news.usni.org/2016/03/08/opinion-isis-russia-and-natos-evolving-threat-in-the-mediterranean?utm_source=USNI+News&utm_campaign=e2f8dbf095-USNI_NEWS_DAILY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0dd4a1450b-e2f8dbf095-231491269&mc_cid=e2f8dbf095&mc_eid=3999f18767
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Open Arms, Borders, Wallets –
More Money For DHS To Destroy US
Rick Wells
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{rickwells.us} ~ Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is wasting his time if he’s trying to get border enforcement out of DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson... He’s only interested in more funding for his department so that they can process more illegals into the American interior. Senator Johnson asks DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson to acknowledge that the flood of illegal alien kids and young adults crossing the border “is still a huge problem.” It’s a problem that DHS is addressing by awarding a free ride to all comers; not the greatest disincentive ever devised. Of course the quick answer which would be the most effective and which will never come out of Jeh Johnson’s mouth would be to simply turn the illegals back, let them be Mexico’s problem, don’t allow them into the country. Mexico would soon put an end to the flow.        http://rickwells.us/archives/27049        
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nObama’s Diplomacy With America’s Enemies Working
Out About As Well As You’d Expect
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{nicedeb.wordpress.com} ~ If there’s one thing the nObama administration excels at – it’s brokering deals with America’s enemies that benefit them to our detriment... This is the one area in which the Regime can actually claim to have been successful. Take nObama’s “historic” nuke deal with Iran. What a triumph, huh? Let’s see if I’ve got this straight: Iran is not legally bound to do a damn thing because the deal “is not a treaty or an executive agreement, and is not a signed document.” The “deal” creates a path to nuclear weapons for Iran, while rewarding the Islamic Republic with at least $150 billion dollars in sanctions relief – cash that Iran can use to rebuild its military and fund terrorism in the short-term. Cool beans. For them.
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Clinton Bald-Faced Lies, Not Even
Bothering To Hide It Anymore
Rick Wells
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{rickwells.us} ~ Hilly Clinton has been telling an awful lot of lies lately, covering her Benghazi and email tracks as best she can... Some lies are long term, like the ones she told the Benghazi victims’ family members in which she vowed to get that video maker that sparked the “spontaneous attack.” Others are short term, designed just to get her out of the current difficult situation. Whether she’s exposed later is something to worry about later as well. She demonstrated the latter form of falsehoods in a town hall held by Brett Baer. After giving a summary that the State Department has declared 2,101 Clinton emails to be classified confidential, 44 classified as secret and 22 classified as top secret. He then quoted a Clinton statement from March of 2015 in which she said, “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email, there is no classified material. He asks “Can we say definitively that that statement’s not accurate?” She replied, “No, you can’t.” Herridge notes that federal regulations as well as an nObama executive order which state that the intelligence agency which generates the information is responsible for determining its security level. She cites an example of the CIA, which would determine the classification  for all of their information, not the State Department. She also notes that some of the intelligence contained in the Clinton emails came from foreign sources, which can never be revealed.        http://rickwells.us/archives/27064
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America is Going Bankrupt or Socialist
Cliff Kincaid
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{aim.org} ~ I don’t know how many people still rely on the evening news programs for information about the presidential contest... but Monday night’s “NBC Nightly News” without Brian Williams had stories about a uterus transplant, the British Royals on a ski vacation, and football star Peyton Manning’s retirement. This is what passes for “news.” As a faithful viewer of at least two evening news programs every night, I notice that the commercials by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation that are frequently appearing during these broadcasts have proven time and again to have more information about a critical public policy issue than the news broadcasts themselves. The ads point out that the $18 trillion national debt is dragging the economy down. But what will the candidates do about it? The presidential campaign coverage on the Republican side frequently resembles a reality television show starring Donald J. slump-Trump, who used to have his own reality show. CBS executive chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves says about slump-Trump, “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” He adds, “The money’s rolling in and this is fun.” He’s talking about revenue from selling commercial time for political ads. Meanwhile, the United States is going broke.        http://www.aim.org/aim-column/america-is-going-bankrupt-or-socialist/?utm_source=AIM+-+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=email030916&utm_medium=email
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Better Business Bureau Confirms (Again) That Donald slump-Trump is a Liar
Sara Gonzales
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{redstate.com} ~ A few days ago, RedState reported that the Better Business Bureau had denied they faxed anything to Donald slump-Trump during the last Republican debate... The BBB released a seven point statement today to clarify remarks Donald slump-Trump made in the last Republican debate, confirming Donald slump-Trump is still a huge liar. It is unusual for an entity like the BBB who normally stays out of partisan politics to feel the need to issue yet another statement denying these claims, and it shows the persistence with which slump-Trump supporters are pushing them on the Internet.       http://www.redstate.com/uploads/2016/03/BBB-RATING.jpg
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The Left’s Fuel Economy Regulations
Could Cost You $3,800
David Kreutzer
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{dailysignal.com} ~ As Michigan voters head to the polls on Tuesday, they should ask candidates whether they will leave in place costly regulations that have added thousands to the price of new cars and depressed sales for the state’s iconic industry... Federal regulations that force ever-increasing automobile fuel economy standards cost consumers thousands of dollars more than what they save on using less gas. These burdensome regulations also reduce new car purchases and, therefore, auto worker employment. Scholars estimated that the new standards would add at least $3,800 to the cost of a car in 2016 and at least $7,200 in 2025. This cost includes the gasoline savings. Empirical Heritage Foundation research supports those estimates. You get only what you pay for, and you have to pay for what you get.       http://dailysignal.com/2016/03/07/the-lefts-fuel-economy-regulations-could-cost-you-3800/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morningbell&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRonu67McO%2FhmjTEU5z16uwlXaS1iokz2EFye%2BLIHETpodcMTcdnNrjYDBceEJhqyQJxPr3NLtQN191pRhLiDA%3D%3D
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In 2000 slump-Trump Was Nailed 
For Secretly Funding RACIST Anti-NY-Casino Ads
Jeff Dunetz
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{lidblog.com} ~ At an August press conference in Dubuque, Iowa, Donald slump-Trump told reporters... “I know the system better than anybody. The fact is that whether it’s Jeb, or Hilly, or any of ’em—they’re all controlled by these people! And the people that control them are the special interests, the lobbyists and the donors. You know what’s nice about me? he continued, I don’t need anybody’s money.” When it comes to the political disease of being controlled by lobbyists, Donald slump-Trump is part of the problem. He’s one of those special interests controlling politicians, and not for the “people’s interests,” but to fill his already full pockets. He’s even gotten caught trying to hide his efforts from the people. And just as he’s done sixteen years later, Donald slump-Trump used racism and bigotry to get his political point across. The October 6, 2000 NY Times reported, that slump-Trump as well as long time slump-Trump friend Roger Stone, had to pay fines because they failed to disclose the fact they were paying for anti-Casino advertising. The St. Regis Mohawks wanted to build a casino in the Catskills and slump-Trump secretly ran ads to get people to call their New York State legislators to vote against permitting the casino...        http://lidblog.com/in-2000-trump-was-nailed-for-secretly-funding-racist-anti-ny-casino-ads/?utm_source=The+Lid+List&utm_campaign=1ac5e7d61a-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_597b72c01c-1ac5e7d61a-291705165
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The Subversion of American Evangelicals
Caroline Glick
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{truthrevolt.org} ~ Monday the Bethlehem Bible College, an Evangelical Christian college in Jesus’s hometown, opened its fourth biennial Christ at the Checkpoint conference. The conference, which is directed specifically toward US Evangelicals, will run through the week.
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Today, Evangelical communities in the US number anywhere between 60 and 150 million people, depending on who is counting. They form the backbone of American support for the Jewish state. It is the support of the Evangelical community, rather than the Jewish community in the US that ensures that come hell or high water, no matter how Israel is demonized in the media and in academia, the majority of Americans continue to support Israel.
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But will this support last? One of the more surprising aspects of the 2016 elections is Evangelical support for businessman Donald slump-Trump. slump-Trump in many ways personifies everything that people who take the Bible seriously are supposed to oppose. He owns casinos. He curses and uses profanity in his public appearances. He has donated to Planned Parenthood and forcefully supported abortions on demand.
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slump-Trump has also insisted repeatedly that he will be neutral toward Israel.
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Perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of Evangelical support for slump-Trump is that he takes these positions as he runs against primary opponents who all wear their faith on their sleeves. All of his opponents have records of standing with the Evangelicals on social and other salient issues – including support for Israel.
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What are we to make of this seemingly inexplicable phenomenon? At least as far as Israel is concerned, the readiness of Evangelicals to support the most anti-Israel candidate running for the Republican presidential nomination is no surprise.
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To understand why this is the case, the Christ at the Checkpoint conference taking place this week in Bethlehem is a good place to look.
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According to its website, the mission of the biennial conference “is to challenge Evangelicals to take responsibility to help resolve the conflicts in Israel/ Palestine by engaging with the teaching of Jesus on the Kingdom of God.”
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The problem begins with the organizers’ interpretation of those teachings. College officials, among them keynote speakers at the conference, embrace and teach replacement theology. That theology maintains that God’s covenant with the Jews ended with Christianity.
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In recent years, replacement theology has extended its biblical revisionism from Jews as people reviled for their rejection of Jesus and their supersession by Christians to Israel. The Jewish state is reviled as a religiously prohibited entity whose very existence is a sin against God.
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According to current replacement theology, Jesus was not a Jew. He was a Palestinian. The Jews are not a people. They have no rights to the land of Israel.
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Israel, it is asserted, has no historical or theological right to exist. Rather, according to the rewritten scriptures, the Palestinians are the chosen people.
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Jews are colonialist invaders who have taken the land of Israel away from their rightful, biblically sanctioned owners.
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This basic view is encapsulated in the very name “Christ at the Checkpoint.”
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Today a Jewish Jesus would be prohibited from entering Bethlehem. Jews are barred from entering Palestinian population centers because Palestinians have a habit of murdering them. Indeed, just last week two IDF soldiers who accidentally entered a Palestinian village north of Jerusalem escaped a lynch mob by the skin of their teeth.
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On the other hand, a Palestinian Jesus can be in Bethlehem. But to leave he has to go through an Israeli checkpoint to ensure that he isn’t a terrorist, to be sure, but whatever.
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So the image evoked by the name “Christ at the Checkpoint” ignores the reality of Palestinian terrorism.
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And it leaves us with an image of the repression of a Palestinian Jesus at the hands of the Jews.
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The replacement theology at the heart of the conference was made explicit by Rev. Jack Sara, president of the Bethlehem Bible Conference, at the 2012 conference. In his speech Sara edited Chapter 37 of the book of Ezekiel to transform the dry bones prophecy. That prophecy, of course, is one of the most Zionist passages in the Bible. God speaks to Ezekiel and tells him that the people of Israel will be reborn. They will be gathered from the four corners of the earth, return to Israel and restore the Davidic kingdom.
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Yet in Sara’s revised version, the people of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, are replaced by the Palestinians.
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Sara preached, “The hand of the Lord was on me and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and sent me in the middle of the West Bank – Bethlehem, Jenin and Salvit and Nablus and Ramallah.
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It was full of bones.... He asked me, ‘Son of Man, can these bones live? Can the Palestinian people live?’ Then He said to me ‘prophesy to these bones and same to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’” Sara then said, “You see, the Palestinian people were and are a lot like this valley of dry bones that is in need of the Church to come and prophesy life on them.”
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Last March the Bethlehem Bible College posted a promotional video ahead of a summer Christ at the Checkpoint conference directed toward young adults.
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As Tricia Miller, who works as a senior research analyst for CAMERA noted, Christ at the Checkpoint director Munther Issac billed the conference as a means to empower Palestinian Christians.
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The conference website said that the conference’s aim was “to motivate Palestinian Christian youth to take an active role as followers of Christ in spreading justice and peace, through discussing the challenges of our societies from a biblical perspective.”
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Yet, as Miller noted in an article in The Times of Israel, the promotional video for the conference made clear that the conference had no intention of “spreading justice and peace.”
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The video interlaced footage of Palestinians walking in heavy traffic and waiting to cross into sovereign Israel with footage from Islamic State (ISIS) videos showing hostages about to be beheaded and burned alive. Israeli flags flapping in the wind were juxtaposed with the ISIS flag.
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And then, apropos of nothing, the video showed the cellular structure of the H1N1 swine flu virus.
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The implied message was clear. Just as Nazi propaganda depicted Jews as viruses, so the Christ at the Checkpoint video depicted Israel as the moral equivalent of ISIS and the medical equivalent of swine flu.
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In 2014, David Brog published in article in Middle East Quarterly detailing the key role the Bethlehem Bible College plays in a wider campaign directed toward American Evangelicals whose goal is to undermine and eventually end their support for Israel.
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Key figures in this undertaking bring American church leaders and academics to Bethlehem and feed them a diet of anti-Israel propaganda and outright lies masquerading as biblical teaching and objective assessments of reality. These American Christian leaders have taken up the cause of ending support for Israel among Evangelicals upon their return home.
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Key financiers, like Mart Green, the heir of the Hobby Lobby fortune and the chairman of the board of trustees of Oral Roberts University, and financier George Soros have been instrumental in disseminating these positions to all levels of the Evangelical community in the US.
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In September 2014, Senator Ted Cruz spoke before Middle Eastern Christians, who convened in Washington ostensibly to discuss the genocide of Christians in the Middle East. Cruz was booed off the stage after telling the audience, “Today Christians have no greater ally than the Jewish state.”
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Cruz added, “The very same people who persecute and murder Christians right now, who crucify Christians, who behead children, are the very same people who target and murder Jews for the very same reason.”
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Cruz’s statement marked the first time a major US political leader stood up to the Jew hatred of Middle Eastern Christians and pointed out its irrationality and self-defeating core.
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It could have been a seminal moment in the discourse on Islamic persecution of Christians. But rather than be embraced for his willingness to speak the truth to those who reject it even in the face of genocide, Cruz was assaulted as undiplomatic by Washington Post writer Jennifer Rubin. His message was largely ignored outside of policy circles.
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To be sure, the largest Evangelical communities remain solidly supportive of Israel, and their size dwarfs that of the rising forces of replacement theology and its concomitant hatred of Israel. Yet, as Brog noted, the long-term trends are discouraging.
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Moreover, the readiness of Evangelical voters to support the only Republican candidate who says he will be neutral in his handling of the Palestinian conflict with Israel indicates that anti-Israel Christians may already be having a profound impact on their communities.
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This trend represents a strategic threat to US-Israel relations. Those who wish to maintain those relations in the long term must fight this trend head on, beginning with this week’s Christ at the Checkpoint conference.
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