Information Related to "World News Review Nov 2000"
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In Brief... World News Reviewby Cecil E. Maranville and John Ross SchroederMiddle East Components Defy Simplification "A fierce attachment to the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan. The assertion of ties to ancient peoples who lived here thousands of years ago. A mythology of universal victimization and unblemished righteousness. National feelings nurtured in aberrant conditions of exile and statelessness. The dream of return to Paradise Lost and a righting of historical wrongs." Most readers would assume the above describes the Jewish peoples and their struggle to possess and retain the Israeli state. Not so. Michael S. Arnold wrote these words about the Palestinians in an article titled "Birth of a Nation" (The Jerusalem Post, Internet Edition, October 22, 2000). It speaks to why we see the depth of passion evidenced in recent clashes between Palestinians and Israelis as the postponed deadline for declaring a Palestinian state approaches again. Observers of and participants in the fighting have asserted that the struggle is out of the hands of the PLO leader Yasser Arafat. Even if he were to attempt to make peace, the rank and file Palestinians say that they would not. On the Israeli side, feelings run strong that the fighting has only verified that the Palestinians never wanted to settle into a peaceful coexistence with Israel, but rather to eliminate Israel altogether-in the way once called for by Arafat in his overtly terrorist days. Many of the Palestinian people were displaced 52 years ago with the creation of the Israeli state in 1948. Another 1.1 million were displaced in the '67 war, when Israel captured the West Bank. Not only are they still officially refugees (Palestinians represent 25 percent of the world's refugee population-UN figures), no compensation has been given to the Palestinians for lost land or homes. The "legal" argument maintained by Israel is that the Palestinians abandoned their property. The estimated value of lost property runs approximately $180 billion, $40 billion of which has reportedly been offered by President Clinton (from U.S. taxpayers' money) as part of the "peace negotiations." At best, that falls considerably shy of the actual value of Palestinian losses. Additionally, the deal on the table would exclude about half the total number of Palestinians, which number between 5 and 6 million. It's hardly surprising that it's been met with little enthusiasm. So, there is no apparent mutually acceptable solution to the conflict, and the thoughts that introduce this piece help illustrate why that is so. Arnold adds, "Palestinian nationalism has been suffused with images of a perfect place that never was: orchards that produced the juiciest lemons known to man, the tastiest olives ever harvested. In many ways, Palestinian nationalism is a desire to return to the Garden of Eden, a pre-industrial paradise that is supposed to have existed before the Zionists came and ravaged the land." He quotes Fouad Ajami, a Lebanese-born political scientist, who offers, "The dream of Palestine was always bigger than Gaza and the West Bank; it was always this grand concept" (ibid.). Additionally, a looming unknown is what attitude will Arafat's successors assume-will they be revolutionaries or diplomats? Will they be pragmatists, willing to scale down their expectations, tone down the nationalist fervor and correct the myths assumed about their past? Or, will they perpetuate them in order to stir the nationalistic "righteous" anger? While the latter would likely guarantee them control over the Palestinians, it would also guarantee that negotiating a peaceful coexistence with or within Israel would remain hopelessly out of reach. ( "Palestinians-Stay Out!" by Eric S. Margolis, October 22, 2000. ) Nightmare Virus Revisits Uganda Rose Akello was the first to fall ill. The 38-year-old mother had a high fever, accompanied by unusual bleeding; she died and was buried in her wretched village of Gulu in northern Uganda. A two-week-old daughter died within another day, followed in two more days by Rose's teenage daughter and finally, by her husband, Alfred. Ebola was back. Hemorrhagic fever begins with flu-like symptoms. It's caused by a virus of unknown origin and spreads alarmingly easily through contact with an infected person. The virus attacks internal organs as it progresses, literally causing them to partially dissolve so that its victims bleed to death. The worst of horrors threatened Uganda-and who knows what other part of the world in this one-community globe?-when Ebola broke out in the district that borders the one in which Rose and her family lived. Fears were inflamed when a case showed up in the southwestern part of the country, transported by a 20-year-old infected soldier returning to his home. As we go to press, the death toll nears 100. Thankfully, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on November 6 that they believed the outbreak to be under control. The WHO cannot declare it over, as 281 infected people remain under supervision. (In past outbreaks in Sudan, Gabon and the former Zaire, the death rate was between 53 and 88 percent of those infected.) The virus has an incubation period of up to 21 days, and the outbreak will not be declared over until a 42-day period has passed with no new cases appearing. Control is attributed to the rapid and thorough response from the Uganda government, WHO and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of international aid. Not only do humanitarian motivations stir the international community to respond, but also the sober awareness that transmission of this terror could be rapid and wide. Journalists borrow the term apocalyptic from the Revelation prophecies when they report on such nightmarish illnesses. Revelation 6:7-8 warns: "When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, 'Come!' I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague [disease], and by the wild beasts of the earth" (NIV). Jesus also foretold of "famines, pestilences [plagues of disease], and earthquakes in various places" (Matthew 24:7) at the end of the age of mankind. This time, it appears that the plague didn't get out of hand and will be contained. How long will it be before it-or other diseases equally devastating-cannot be held back? ( Reuter's, Times Newspapers Ltd. ) "'Aliens' Cult About to Clone Dead Baby Girl" The headline in one of those supermarket tabloids? A plot for X-Files? Sadly, no. It's the title of a genuine news report by Lois Rogers, medical correspondent for The Sunday Times, and it ran in their November 5th edition. As we have reported in the pages of World News and Prophecy, those who have watched the development of the science of cloning have known it was only a matter of time before humans would be openly cloned. Under the umbrella of "religion" that purports humans came from aliens, a company has been created to purchase surplus human egg stem cells from laboratories that treat infertile women. Fertility treatment usually results in the fertilization of multiple eggs and therefore multiple embryos. For the sake of the health of the mother, the number of embryos "is pared" (read that "killed") to "an acceptable amount." What to do with the "garbage," the cast-off embryos? The stem cells of embryos are prized by those seeking to clone humans, for they are perfect for the task. After extracting the nucleus from a mature cell of the one to be cloned and implanting it into the fertilized stem cell, those controlling the process pass a small electrical charge through the new cell to provoke division to begin. This is the science that enabled scientists to clone a sheep, resulting in the famous "Dolly." Only now, circumstances have rushed past the debate over the ethics of doing this with human cells in order to "grow" replacements for diseased or damaged organs and directly into the heretofore theoretical arena of literally cloning humans. The company involved plans as its first project the cloning of a young girl who died as the result of a medical accident. (Her cell tissue was frozen, which will supply more than enough viable cells to be used to clone the girl.) Her parents have provided the funding, and the cult that owns the laboratory has provided the volunteers to carry the baby. Should they need them, 50 women have volunteered to be surrogate mothers for cloning projects. This is no Star Trek fantasy. The reality is now, along with a myriad of complex issues. For example, two pairs of homosexual couples are on the company's waiting list. Not only will the debate over the morality of this bizarre undertaking explode, so also will the debate over the "souls" of those who are cloned. Would they be human, made in the image of God? Brace yourself for the consequences. The cloning of humans is here. Archbishop Calls Britain "a Society of Atheists" ISLE OF MAN-The Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Anglican Church, said "a tacit atheism prevails. Death is assumed to be the end of life." George Carey, the archbishop, lamented that the British people looked to medicine for eternal life rather than religion-and that the Christian teaching of eternal life has virtually been abandoned. He further said that "many people are acting as if doctors can cure all ills and even postpone death forever" (emphasis added). The archbishop connects this trend with a general loss of morality in an increasingly secular society. He called for the whole Church of God (ministry and lay people) to restore authentic Christianity to Britain. But, according to the Scriptures, the loss of authentic Christianity should be laid primarily at the door of the clergy. In the words of our Creator, "Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them" (Ezekiel 22:26; cf. 44:23-24). Quite an indictment! And it applies to the whole of the Western world-not just the British Isles. ( The Daily Telegraph (London). ) |
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Origin of article "World News Review Nov 2000"
Keywords: Palestine Uganda cloning Britain
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