World News and Trends
An Overview of Conditions Around the World
by John Ross Schroeder and Jerold Aust
- Turkey: An American ally no longer?
- Israel's security fence disturbs U.S. Mideast aspirations
- Iran threatens Israel with missile
- The knowledge explosion
- Australia: Neighbor-hood policeman in Asia?
- Why liberate Liberia?
- Will Catholicism become the religion of the EU?
Turkey: An American ally no longer?
For more than half a century the United States has enjoyed good diplomatic relations with Turkey. More often than not over the decades, this strategically located nation has helped the United States deal with various crises overseas. Furthermore, Turkey is the only Islamic country with a respectful, cooperative working relationship with Israel.
Now the Justice and Development Party (known in the Turkish language as AKP) threatens to move the nation in the direction of an Islamic state. AKP played a major role in the parliament's recent passage of laws that, in the words of Daniel Pipes, "dramatically reduc(ed) the political role of the country's armed forces."
Dr. Pipes, a Middle East expert, goes on to explain that "what might seem like bureaucratic wrangling has such potentially profound importance because the Turkish armed forces have long been Turkey's main bastion for political moderation and close relations with the United States and Israel."
Despite official protests that the AKP is not essentially religious and has no desire to impose Islamic law on the country, observers like American journalist Robert Kaplan suggested that this Turkish party could "usher in an Islamic version of the Protestant Reformation."
What are some of the key events that have led us to the present crossroads in Turkish national life? Author Andrew Boyd helps explain: "In some Muslim countries (first and foremost in Turkey; later, notably in Iran) this century saw a movement towards religious toleration and a separation of religious authority from government. Now, in many places, a backlash against this secularism has brought a surge of Muslim fundamentalists; modernizing policies are branded as alien ‘westernizing' ones. A dramatic example was the 1979 revolution in Iran" (An Atlas of World Affairs, 1998, p. 95, emphasis added).
Now, nearly 25 years later, is Turkey about to join Iran as a fundamentalist Islamic nation? And must the European Union (EU) share in the responsibility for the present Turkish plight? Greece, an EU member, has continually quarreled with Turkey over the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and has successfully lobbied against Turkish desires for membership in the EU. In spite of U.S. urging to open its doors to Turkey, the European Union has a habit of delaying Ankara's requests for membership, citing human-rights violations.
These recent developments in Turkey are sobering because the stakes are enormous. Washington's relationship with Ankara was already somewhat strained by the decision of the Turkish parliament to stay out of this year's war in Iraq. If things continue in the present direction, both the United States and Israel may see an important, strategically placed ally become another potential enemy in this crucial region.
(Sources: New York Post, An Atlas of World Affairs, The Sunday Telegraph (London).)
(back to top)Israel's security fence disturbs U.S. Mideast aspirations
Israel is in the process of constructing a long security fence to help keep suicide bombers from infiltrating from the West Bank. Equipped with electronic sensors and surveillance cameras, the fence is flanked by coils of barbed wire and deep ditches on each side. At a few strategic points particularly vulnerable to attack, the fence becomes a concrete wall 20 feet high.
Eighty miles of this strategic fence are nearing completion, including a section around parts of Jerusalem. Proposed sections would surround the northern tip and parts of the southern sector of the West Bank.
The Palestinians claim that in reality the fence constitutes a land grab on the part of Israel because it doesn't in all places strictly follow Israel's borders from before the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel, having lost hundreds of its citizens to suicide bombers in recent years, argues that it desperately needs the fence to prevent further such attacks. A similar fence in the Gaza area has been successful in this regard.
Recently the United States has entered the picture by threatening to withhold millions of dollars in economic aid unless Israel reconsiders its present course. According to Roland Watson, reporting for The Times in Washington D.C., "President Bush has been persuaded that if left unchecked, construction of the 370-mile barrier was a threat to the Middle East peace process." One proposal being considered is deducting dollar-for-dollar any funds Jerusalem uses to fund the security fence east of the 1967 boundaries between Israel and the West Bank.
President Bush's father actually carried out a previous threat to withhold an American aid package in the billions when Yitzhak Shamir, the then-Israeli prime minister, refused to cease settlement activities in the West Bank. The U.S. Jewish vote reacted by defecting to the Democrats on a wholesale basis in 1992, partially contributing to the loss of the presidency to Bill Clinton.
In spite of its single superpower status, the United States still needs friends and allies among the nations of the world. And Israel, a tiny nation in a very dangerous neighborhood, relies on U.S. support. Both can ill afford these arguments with a longtime, trusted ally.
(Source: The Times (London).)
(back to top)Iran threatens Israel with missile
According to the British newspaper The Guardian, Iran claims to have conducted final tests on a missile capable of reaching Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East, and is poised to deploy the weapon. The claim, confirming an earlier Israeli allegation, is certain to heighten tensions with the United States, amid allegations from Washington that Iran is making rapid progress in a clandestine program to build nuclear warheads.
President Bush included Iran among the infamous "axis of evil" nations, along with Iraq and North Korea. We have warned our readers about Iranian intentions from time to time in The Good News. Although both the European Union and the United Nations have pressed Iran to allow nuclear inspections, there is little evidence that the Islamic nation has heeded.
If you would like to understand both the past and future of this severely troubled area, request or download our free booklet The Middle East in Bible Prophecy.
(Source: The Guardian.)
The knowledge explosion
According to the August issue of Discover magazine: "In the 1990s some library scientists concluded that our stockpile of information doubles every seven or eight years. A recent study at the University of California at Berkeley found that between 2000 and 2002, the total information of the world doubled. In many fields, such as life sciences and space technology, knowledge is accumulating at speeds that are impossible to keep up with."
The prophet Daniel was told that knowledge would be increased during the time of the end (Daniel 12:4). This almost appears as an understatement now. Regrettably, the most important type of knowledge—the knowledge of God—is not doubling and trebling every few years or so. Mankind has a habit of suppressing biblical knowledge. Even in free nations like the United States and Britain, where Bibles are available everywhere, secularism is stunting the spread of true biblical information.
You can swim upstream against these secular currents by enrolling in our free 12-lesson Bible Study Course and requesting or downloading our free booklet How to Understand the Bible.
(Source: Discover.)
Australia: Neighbor-hood policeman in Asia?
The Middle East is far from the only area on the globe troubled by serious conflicts. Reporting for The Financial Times, correspondent Anna Fifield assessed the "Land Down Under" in terms of the current situation in Asia. She began by noting that Australian soldiers were recently dispatched to the Solomon Islands as a peacekeeping force to restore order and stability to the island archipelago troubled by five long years of conflict.
"Alarmed by the rise of instability and Islamic fundamentalism among the near neighbours," Fifield stated, "Canberra is adopting an increasingly interventionist stance that aligns it closely with Washington in the war on terror."
Another recent bombing in Indonesia seems to support the necessity of the current policy. After all, the first bombing in Bali last year killed 89 Australian tourists. And despite protestations to the contrary, ties to predominantly Muslim Jakarta have been troubling.
Increasingly the new economic and financial infrastructure emerging in Asia apparently excludes full Australian participation. The Land Down Under is increasingly viewed as "a white outpost more attuned to the interests of America and the United Kingdom" (ibid.). One professor of Asian studies at Adelaide University noted that "Australia is now increasingly perceived in Asian capitals as a self-appointed deputy to the U.S."
According to Fifield, "The unresolved question is whether—and at what cost—Australia can align itself with Anglo-Saxon partners on the other side of the world without jeopardising its position among its neighbours in Asia."
This raises an even more fundamental long-term question. Why did Australia willingly send its soldiers halfway around the world to fight in two world wars alongside Britain and the United States? Why is it supporting American policy now? The underlying answer is found in our full-color booklet The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy.
(Source: The Financial Times (London).)
Why liberate Liberia?
Where in the world is Liberia? And why is America interested in this tiny country on Africa's west coast?
Freed American slaves settled Liberia back in the early 1800s. There has been a connection between the United States and Liberia since that time.
Well over 100,000 men, women and children have died in Liberia during the past 15 years in conflicts between the government and revolutionaries. The world community and some European nations, together with Liberians, have appealed to the United States to resolve the political differences and to stop the wholesale carnage.
The Economic Community of West African States has become involved and sent Nigerian soldiers to quell the violence around the capital, Monrovia. Some Liberians think such interference will only result in looting and stealing their women. Sending poor soldiers into the battle might also encourage pillaging.
Though the nation's tyrannical leader, Charles Taylor, has stepped down as president and gone into exile, the conflict between the warring factions remains unresolved. And with no electricity, little food and water, and deadly diseases spreading, little Liberia needs help.
But why should America help? Why is the United States interested enough to send troops to Liberia? America is the only superpower on the globe at this time, a superpower that sends goods, services and military forces to protect and relieve the downtrodden, something so deeply entrenched in its history that the word America is synonymous with helping others.
America has its own problems, to be sure, but it still strives to help and lift up the underdog. America remembers its historical connections. World public opinion still counts for something as well. Still, the United States must be careful not to overextend its God-given power and wealth, which are finite.
The infinite factor in America's ability to help others rests in Almighty God, as acknowledged by America's founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." After 227 years, America still carries this belief abroad, and the world is much better for it. To understand the biblical foundation of America's power and freedoms, request or download our free booklet The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy.
(Source: The Washington Post.)
Will Catholicism become the religion of the EU?
The leaders of the Roman Catholic Church leveled harsh criticism at the Charter of Fundamental Rights adopted by the European Union in December 2000. At the time, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, a close aide to the Pope, said the charter failed to take adequate account of the "historical and cultural roots of Europe, in particular Christianity, which represents Europe's soul and which still today can inspire Europe's mission and identity."
In March of this year, Cardinal Ratzinger, the prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (successor to the medieval Inquisition), said that it was regrettable that "God and our responsibility before God" had not been "anchored in the European constitution."
Many European politicians do not want religious clerics to determine their future. They understand that history has a way of repeating itself. For nearly 2,000 years European leaders had either been crowned by the pope (as in the case of Charlemagne, Otto the Great and Charles Hapsburg) or been given its blessing (as was Napoleon, who took the crown from the pope and crowned himself).
Cardinal Ruini was correct in his assessment that Europe's roots are Catholic, a tradition that can still powerfully influence Europe's mission and identity.
Will Europe eventually become like another Roman Empire of old? If so, will it also be blessed by the Vatican, transforming it into a modern revival of the Holy Roman Empire? Some European Parliamentarians have already suggested this thought. But more importantly, a number of biblical prophecies support it. To learn more, request or download our free booklets The Book of Revelation Unveiled and You Can Understand Bible Prophecy.
(Source: Zenit News Agency.)
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