Information Related to "World News and Trends - November/December 2006"
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A new Middle East peace initiative: Is the time really ripe?
American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has described the present distress as "the birth pangs of a new Middle East." Former President Bill Clinton indicated that the recent deterioration of conditions in Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza had paradoxically created a climate for "some kind of positive movement to take place" (Financial Times, Sept. 20). President George Bush recently said, "Some of the [positive] changes in the Middle East are happening gradually, but they are real" (USA Today, Sept. 20).
One journalist recently talked about "a new momentum for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace settlement out of the ashes of the past several months."
But are all these comments pie-in-the-sky? Are they just another manifestation of the proverbial triumph of hope over hard experience? True, even the Bible does indicate that conditions are going to come together that may produce a temporary peace that causes world leaders to say, "'Peace, peace!' when there is no [real] peace" (Jeremiah 6:14).
However, not all astute observers of the world scene would agree that substantive prospects for peace exist in the Middle East. Consider the views of Harvard historian and author Niall Ferguson. He conceives of a conflict there that could spark a global conflagration. Professor Ferguson considers the 20th century to have been the most violent in the history of humankind and sees the 21st century as beginning to move in the same tragic direction.
He wrote in the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs: "Today one region displays in abundance all of the characteristics of the worst conflict zones of the twentieth century. Economic volatility has remained pronounced there even as it has diminished in the rest of the world . . . That place is the Middle East" (emphasis added throughout).
Ferguson concluded his article with these words of warning: "The sobering possibility we urgently need to confront is that another global conflict is brewing today —centered not on Poland or Manchuria, but more likely on Palestine and Mesopotamia."
Another long-neglected source of wisdom is the Bible. It is full of forewarnings of Armageddon-like conditions that will prevail in the Middle East. Its pages foretell a series of shattering events that will end with the Messiah returning to Jerusalem, from where He will govern the earth—finally ushering in the utopian peace that mankind has so long sought for in vain. To understand how this will come about, request or download our free booklet . (Sources: USA Today, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs.)
Rivals catching up with America
Recent newspaper reports have indicated a certain shift beginning to take place in the world's economic balance of power. For instance, according to The Guardian, "The recent flow of news around the world suggests that the balance of world economic power may finally be swinging away from the United States—the powerhouse of the past decade or more—towards Japan and Europe, which have lagged behind for many years." China and India are also growing economically at breakneck speed.
Also a recent report from the European Commission stated that Europe was finally beginning to catch up with growth and productivity rates in the United States. The growth rate in Europe has been buoyed up by a resurgent German economy, which had been long arrested by difficult problems with the reunification of West and East Germany following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
One observer stated, "For years we Germans have seen the glass as half-empty; now at long last, it is half full"—reflecting a positive change in German attitudes. (Source: The Guardian [London].)
Hatred of Israel and the rise of anti-Semitism
The so-called nonaligned nations recently met in Havana, Cuba, and heartily endorsed one point: their condemnation of Israel.
Elsewhere, Europeans were often in the forefront of criticism of Israel's conduct of the Lebanese war. Whether in parliaments, on the street or in TV studios, Israel was generally accused of a "disproportionate reaction" and "indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets." Polls show that many Europeans believe Israel is a greater menace to peace in the world than rogue nations like Iran and North Korea.
According to The Economist, "Some Americans blame rising anti-Semitism in Europe" for these attitudes against the state of Israel (Aug. 17). And although anti-Semitism and broad-based criticism of Israel are not necessarily synonymous, clearly the two do often go hand in hand. For instance, "A group of prominent MPs, alarmed at the rise of anti-semitism in Britain, will accuse some left-wing activists and Muslim extremists this week of using criticism of Israel as 'a pretext' for spreading hatred against British Jews" (The Observer, Sept. 3).
According to news sources like The Times, synagogues and Jewish citizens have been specifically targeted. Britain has also seen a decided increase in hate mail, verbal harassment, graffiti and vandalism directed at Jews.
A new 58-page House of Commons report showed that "Anti-semitism in Britain is flourishing and on the rise" (Jewish Chronicle, Sept. 8). But Britain is by no means unique. This plague is also rampant through much of the rest of the Europe. (Sources: The Times, The Observer, Jewish Chronicle [all London], The Economist.)
The Horn of Africa and Darfur on the road to ruin
Bossaso is a case in point. According to The Economist, "Bossaso is an exit point from the Horn of Africa . . . This port in Northern Somalia already has 300,000 people . . . It is a raw place, entrepreneurial, resilient, armed to the teeth. It is also diseased, inadequate and famished." Islamists are also on the increase there. Already the powerful Islamic Militia dominates much of the southern part of Somalia.
Despite enormous international pressure on Khartoum, the countdown to carnage and the possibility of a mini-holocaust remains in Darfur. The UN peace plan has been trampled and the Sudanese government rejects UN peacekeepers. Aid groups and charities are also threatened from carrying out their work for those who desperately need help.
Clearly parts of Africa continue in appalling conflict and turmoil, with no end in sight. (Sources: The Guardian [London], Scotland on Sunday, The Economist.)
Incurable TB threatens South Africa
According to The Guardian, "Doctors at the Church of Scotland Hospital in Tugela Ferry [in South Africa] were already grappling with the onslaught of AIDS and its partner in death, tuberculosis."
Dr. Tony Noll, chief medical officer at the hospital, is additionally now very concerned about a fresh outbreak of apparently untreatable TB. Regular tuberculosis is the single largest killer of those who are already afflicted with AIDS. One in 10 of the South African population is HIV-positive.
Recently the World Health Organization (WHO) and America's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have urged quick action in meeting this new drug-resistant strain of TB. We have this stern warning from the head of the research team at Durban's Nelson Mandela School of Medicine in dealing with this fresh outbreak of TB: "I hope and pray that that it dies out. If we do nothing about it and it spreads, it could make bird flu look like a picnic."
Disease epidemics are represented by one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, the book of Revelation. To understand more about what is coming on the world in terms of great pandemics, request or download our free booklet . (Source: The Guardian online.)
Will the Pope, Habermas turn Germans to religion?
Pope Benedict XVI's recent message in Germany urged Europe to rethink the notion that secularism and economic progress is the answer to the European Union's future. As a matter of record, some EU parliamentarians have resisted the notion that Christianity should be in the EU charter as the primary religion, thinking this is a veiled strategy to make Catholicism the EU religion and give the Vatican greater influence within the EU.
Europe's dark history of church-state relations has not been forgotten. Still many Germans are now beginning to turn back to religion. "The recent shift of Jürgen Habermas, one of Germany's foremost philosophers, shows evidence of the potential for a rethinking of the public role of religion. A professed secularist who has spent nearly half a century arguing against religiously informed moral argument, he made some arresting statements in his 2004 essay, 'A Time of Transition'" (Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 15).
Remarkably, Habermas wrote that "Christianity, and nothing else, is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights, and democracy, the benchmarks of western civilization. To this day, we have no other options [from which to derive these]. We continue to nourish ourselves from this source. Everything else is postmodern chatter" (ibid.). To understand how a religious revival will play a dominant role in Europe's future, request or download your free copy of . (Source: Christian Science Monitor.)
Digging a moat around Baghdad?
It appears that the Middle Ages moat has not gone out of style. "Iraqi security forces will dig trenches around Baghdad and set up checkpoints along all roads leading into the city to reduce some of the violence plaguing the capital" (USA Today, Sept. 15). While it doesn't appear there will be water in these trenches, the purpose is similar: to stop Islamic extremists from driving explosives-laden vehicles into Baghdad, then detonating them and killing dozens of innocent civilians.
The idea of these Islamic extremists is to create more terror; that's why they are called terrorists. The fighting focuses on the power struggle between Iraq's Shiite and Sunni Muslims. Both Arabic Islamic insurgents and Iran are behind this struggle for power in Iraq, for different reasons.
The Iranians would like to keep America and coalition forces bogged down in Iraq so Iran can continue to expand its influence throughout the Middle East. Of course, down the road Shiite-dominated Iran would like to link up with a new Shiite-dominated Iraq to form a new regional superpower capable of enforcing its will on the many oil-rich Sunni Muslim governments of the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Arabic Islamic insurgents are likely supported by both Iran and Syria in hopes of derailing the new Iraqi democratic government. Militant Islamic groups hate democracy, believing it would undermine their deep-seated religious beliefs and culture.
For now, in Baghdad, digging trenches around the city is necessary to slow down and stop the ruthless bloodshed. The jury is still out on whether such killings can be stopped. To better understand the bloodstained history of the Middle East and where it is leading, request or download your free copy of . (Source: USA Today.)
Revisiting Gibraltar: Long "siege" finally ended
According to The Times, officials "from Britain, Spain and Gibraltar are meeting to sign a deal that is expected effectively to end the siege imposed on the disputed territory by General Franco [of Spain] almost four decades ago." As a result, border restrictions will be eased and thousands of Spanish employees who commute to the Rock of Gibraltar will find their working lives more pleasant than before.
However, more basic issues remain. As The Guardian stated, "The symbolic importance of Gibraltar and Spain coming to a first direct agreement will not be lost on Spanish conservatives who want sovereignty returned to Madrid . . . 300 years after it was handed to Britain in the Treaty of Utrecht [1713]."
Gibraltar has been a burr under the saddle between England and Spain ever since the British first captured the Rock in 1704. Historically Gibraltar, guarding the western end of the Mediterranean Sea, has been one of Britain's crucial strategic possessions and played a significant role in both world wars. If you would like to understand the prophetic importance of the gaining and loss of Britain's seagates, request or download our free booklet . (Sources: The Times, The Guardian [both London ].)
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Keywords: middle east peace antisemitism Gibraltar Iraq Somalia tuberculosis
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