Information Related to "World News & Trends: July/August 2010"
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It's hard to improve on The Wall Street Journal'sabove title when it comes to accurately depicting the global siege directed against Israel for its enforcing of its naval blockade of terrorist-ruled Gaza.
Canada is one of the few countries left in the world whose government and press remains reasonably friendly to Tel Aviv. The Jerusalem-based correspondent for the Toronto Globe and Mail observed, "The speed and intensity with which governments around the world condemned the Israeli behavior appears unprecedented" (Patrick Martin, "Israel's Status Slips as Governments Around the World Condemn Raid," May 31, 2010).
Politicians and journalists ransacked their vocabularies for phrases deemed apt enough to describe their bias and ill-will towards tiny Israel. The Israeli action in stopping six ships was variously described as "piracy, banditry and barbarism," "the massacre of Gaza," "the true face of barbarism," "state terrorism" and "a blatant defiance of civilized values."
Longtime White House reporter Helen Thomas opined that the Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and return to Germany, Poland and the United States. While she was forced into retirement over these remarks, being almost 90, her sentiments are shared by many people the world over.
Few bothered to ascertain the crucial background facts—or willfully ignored them—for Israel's case before unleashing a storm of verbal criticism. Few seemed to recall the fact that Israel has already endured 3,300 rocket attacks since unilaterally and voluntarily departing from Gaza five years ago.
A pro-Palestinian demonstration suddenly materialized in New York City's Times Square. Similar gatherings occurred in Washington D.C., London, Rome, Athens, Oslo and Stockholm.
Trying to reason with people on behalf of the Israeli embassy in Washington, spokesman Jonathan Peled wrote in USA Today, "Israel is not at strife with the people of Gaza and goes to great lengths to organize the transfer of some 15,000 tons of humanitarian aid each week" ("Opposing View on battle in the Middle East: 'A Bloody PR Stunt,'" June 1, 2010).
Of course, the terror group Hamas, which rules Gaza with an iron fist, has many times taken active advantage of Israel's already battered global image to advance its relentless attack on the country's very existence. Yet according to London Telegraph reporter Adrian Blomfield, "Some [citizens of Gaza] in the battered enclave blame Hamas and its overlords for their depredations" (The Sunday Telegraph, June 6, 2010).
Peled further stated, "Hamas not only calls for the destruction of Israel and works hard to achieve it, but also deprives its own population of basic human rights and freedoms."
Telegraph columnist Charles Moore wrote: "Israel has fought so long, and usually so well, in real battles, but it seems to have forgotten how to fight in verbal ones. On the day of the flotilla incident, all the outraged governments were on the airwaves almost before anything had happened. But it took five and a half hours before the Israeli Ambassador in America appeared in public" ("Why Has Israel Disarmed Itself in the Battle for World Opinion?" The Daily Telegraph, June 4, 2010).
Daniel Henninger, reporting for The Wall Street Journal, summed up the disturbing lack of character and resolve among many in government for tackling difficult problems: "In any of the places where men discuss truly monstrous and dangerous plans, in Kim Jong Il's Pyongyang or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Tehran, watching this hyperventilated criticism of Israel for a shoot-out on a boat must strike them as laughable . . .
If the world's powers unload like this only on relatively small, isolated nations like Israel, then clearly the keepers of the world order find it easier to be blowhards than statesmen" (June 3, 2010). (Sources: The Telegraph, The Spectator, BBC News [all London], The Globe and Mail [Toronto], USA Today, The Wall Street Journal.)
The popular British historian Simon Schama is worried over where current trends are headed, declaring that "the world teeters on the brink of a new age of rage" (Financial Times, May 22-23, 2010). He explained, "Historians will tell you there is often a time-lag between the onset of economic disaster and the accumulation of social fury" (emphasis added throughout).
Dangerously alienated citizens brood on the dramatic disruption of their rising income expectations and materialistic lifestyles and the fact that the value of their property may have fallen through the floor.
Many, he says, come to believe that "someone else must have engineered the common misfortune." So scapegoats must be found and duly blamed. The state of Israel, for instance, becomes a universal whipping boy, with worldwide displays of irrational outrage directed against its alleged misbehaviors.
Reality bites in Europe, where "widespread social unrest grows." It's been predicted that "the new austerity [restrictive measures to alleviate the recent European sovereign debt crisis] will impose strains on social peace in southern Europe" ("Beyond the Door Marked 'Austerity,'" New Statesman, May 24, 2010). This has already happened in the streets of Greece.
The following headline emerged in Ireland: "Irish 'Mad as Hell' Over Banks and Cuts" (Irish Independent, May 22, 2010). In Thailand, one former parliament member now aligned with the "Red Shirts" (who maintain that the current government is illegitimate) observed, "People are filled with hatred and we must be prepared for a campaign of terrorism" ("Thailand: Raising a Red Flag," Time, June 7, 2010).
So, before this summer is even over, are we facing more and more populist furies around the world—further disrupting economic and political well-being?
The Bible cautions against ill-considered popular uprisings where rumor and accusation urge people to frenzied emotion and outbreaks of violence: "You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. You shall not follow a crowd to do evil" (Exodus 23:1-2). (Sources: New Statesman, Financial Times [both London], Time.)
Extremist politicians in Hungary, Poland and other Eastern European countries are reverting to blaming Israel and the Jewish people in general for their own national shortcomings.
The Fidesz Party, successful in recent Hungarian elections, launched verbal attacks on the "Jewish capital . . . which wants to devour the entire world." A Warsaw political professor stated: "Anti-Semitism is crucial for the Polish right. The number of Jews in Poland today is minimal, but the anti-Jewish prejudice serves as a code for a general hostility to diversity and to Polish liberal democracy."
One Polish member of the European Parliament went so far as to say that he "will apologize for the killing of Jews on Polish soil in World War II when Jews apologize for killing Poles."
Denis MacShane of Newsweek summed up serious concerns that all should have: "To anyone with a half sense of European history, the parallels with an older Jewish-baiting politics can no longer be dismissed" ("Europe's New Politics of Fear," April 16, 2010, emphasis added). (Source: Newsweek.)
A lead editorial in The Sunday Telegraph summed up the sad state of Christian education in the United Kingdom today, betraying a rich historic legacy:
"The Christian religion is the foundation of most of Britain's culture and traditions. The history of our nation is incomprehensible without some knowledge of it. And yet . . . the rudiments of Christianity are frequently poorly taught—if, indeed, they are taught at all. A report by Ofsted [the education watchdog] has found that, although nominally required by the national curriculum, in many schools instruction is 'superficial,' and is treated less seriously than the study of other religions" ("the Foundation of Our Culture," June 6, 2010, emphasis added throughout). This is particularly true in secondary schools.
In the same issue of The Sunday Telegraph, education correspondent Julie Henry wrote in a separate feature article, "In non-faith state schools, Christian assemblies are being dropped in favour of multi-faith worship, despite a legal requirement for Christian collective worship, and children are no longer taught the Lord's Prayer" ("Schools Failing to Teach Children the Core Beliefs of Christianity, Says Ofsted" June 6, 2010). She rightly advises that "getting to grips with the key teachings of Jesus Christ and other core elements of Christianity are building blocks that will help our young people analyse and interpret the society they are growing up in."
The lead editorial previously quoted also said: "There is, as Ofsted euphemistically puts it, 'uncertainty' about what the teachings of Christianity should involve." This is the crux of the problem. Even traditional Christianity has missed out on truly understanding the basic teachings of Christ given in the four Gospel accounts and fleshed out in the rest of the New Testament, all solidly based on the fundamentals of the Old Testament (see 2 Timothy 3:15-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21).
The largely unrecognized apostasy from the true faith is explained in our free booklet The Church Jesus Built, which you can request or download from our Web site. (Source: The Telegraph [London].)
The Horn of Africa is a large peninsula of East Africa on which sits four countries: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia. American soldiers are stationed in Somalia, a nation which has been in the international news quite a lot in recent times. This country has been plagued by the presence of some 1,000 pirates in the Gulf of Aden (situated at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula between Yemen and Somalia), one of the most important sea trade routes in the world.
Nations such as Russia, France and India have sent naval forces to both protect and rescue cargo ships from Somali pirates, being specially authorized by the United Nations Security Council to enter these waters. But there are huge sums for the taking at stake, and these risk-taking pirates have proved very persistent—making these waters perpetually dangerous for merchant vessels.
The Horn of Africa itself remains no stranger to violence and continual conflict. As the global affairs magazine North-South states, the Horn "is one of the most complex and deeply troubled regions of both Africa and the world and over the last 50 years it has suffered some of the continent's most brutal and enduring conflicts while the antagonisms aroused by these conflicts reach back generations and have become the basis for continuing rivalries and suspicions: They include wars between Eritrea and Ethiopia, Ethiopia and Somalia and civil wars in Ethiopia and Somalia" (North South, June 2010). (Source: North-South.)
At the end of the Korean War in 1953, the United States and the Soviet Union divided Korea at the 38th parallel (a narrow strip here becoming the Demilitarized Zone or DMZ). Nearly all Koreans were opposed to the separation. Their differences and antagonisms have since grown and deepened. Currently North Korea's absolute leader is the ailing Kim Jong Il, who is also head of the fourth-largest army in the world.
On March 26, 2010, the South Korean warship Cheonan was sunk by a torpedo apparently launched by a North Korean submarine, killing 46 of the 104 sailors aboard.
South Korea has now sought intervention from the UN Security Council, taking the strongest step ever toward bringing international punishment to the communist North.
"'North Korea must admit its wrongdoing' and 'pledge to never again engage in such a reprehensible action,' [South Korean President] Lee [Myung-bak] said. 'If the enemy continues to taunt us and think that they can do whatever they want they must understand that there is a limit. They 'must understand very clearly that they will have to suffer the consequences'" (Associated Press, June 5, 2010). North Korea, meanwhile, denies responsibility for the attack and warns that any punitive move against the country could lead to another war.
The story of the two Koreas is the story of the world—division caused by confusion. God says that the way of peace is not humanly inherent (Jeremiah 10:23). He promises humanity peace only at the return of the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6-7). Then not only will the two Koreas be united, but so will all peoples on earth (Isaiah 11). (Source: Associated Press.)
Media reports have amply revealed the devastating results of an oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 oil workers and has led to millions of gallons of oil gushing from a broken pipeline almost a mile below on the ocean floor. This far-reaching disaster is the worst oil catastrophe in U.S. history.
BP (formerly the British Petroleum Company), owner of the well, has acknowledged its responsibility for this ecological tragedy, but as of this writing it appears that it could be months before the well is plugged. Meanwhile, the American states along the Gulf coastline are pleading for help to save their beaches, marshlands and natural bird sanctuaries.
As gooey tar blobs wash up on the once-pristine white beaches of Alabama and the Florida panhandle, human mistakes are taking a direct toll on the livelihood of fishermen and tourist industries alike.
Who knows where or how this will end? The Bible foretells far greater catastrophes for the United States and for humankind in general if we don't turn to and obey Him. To learn more, request or download our free booklets The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy and Are We Living in the Time of the End?
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Keywords: Israel and Gaza Gaza anger rage pirates Somalia oil spill
Somalia: