“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: may they prosper who love you.” Psalm 122: 6

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9/11 was a Pin Prick Compared to what is heading Our Way if We Don’t Get Serious about Islamists

In the aftermath of the brutal killing of 12 journalists/cartoonists in Paris by 3 Islamist terrorists on Wednesday, the so-called “intellectual elite” and self-proclaimed thought leaders among us are at their wits end.  Nothing is lining up with the propaganda that they have been peddling.

Yascha Mounk is one of those people.  In an article for Slate titled “Europe’s Brutal Truth: Europeans are both too Islamophobic and too timid to face up to the roots of Islamic fundamentalism”, he said,

Wednesday morning, two assailants armed with Kalashnikovs forced their way into the editorial offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine, and murdered 12 people—many of them writers, editors, and cartoonists. It was as pure an attack on freedom of speech as can be imagined. Though the identity of the terrorists is as yet unknown, they likely meant to exact vengeance for the fact that Charlie Hebdo had published a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed in 2011.

For now, it is difficult to think beyond the brutal slaughter of journalists who would not bow to intimidation even though they knew the risks their bravery would court. But the long-term consequences of Wednesday’s events are likely to be just as disastrous. The attack on Charlie Hebdo will further entrench the terms of a confused European debate about Muslim immigrants—one in which both the “accusers” and the “defenders” of Islam are painting in dangerously broad brushstrokes. While the European far right points to Islamic terrorism to exclude and malign all Muslims, the European left responds by refusing to recognize how fundamental a challenge Islamic terrorism represents (or that it is inspired by Islam at all). Both sides fail to realize that two seemingly opposite sentiments can stand side by side: the conviction that Muslims should become full and equal members of European democracies and the unabashed determination to defend those democracies against Islamic fundamentalism.

[…]

Leading French intellectuals have begun to join the anti-Islamic bandwagon. For the past several weeks, French papers have been consumed with a protracted debate about Submission, a new novel by Michel Houellebecq—one of France’s most celebrated writers—which landed in French bookstores on Wednesday. Set in 2022, its protagonist is François, a literature professor who converts to Islam to practice polygamy, rises to the French presidency, and rules the republic according to the dictates of Sharia.

[…]

This tack is doubly disingenuous. It is disingenuous because it invokes violent extremists to tar the vast majority of peaceful Muslims with the same calumnious brush. And it is disingenuous because its supposed love of liberal values is but a fig leaf. What ultimately drives movements like Pegida or the National Front is not a defense of universal norms but rather a monocultural and monoethnic conception of who is a true German or a true Frenchman. After all, most of the same people who attack Muslims on the grounds that they are unwilling to accept liberal values are themselves unwilling to accept that most basic of liberal credos—that somebody should be able to become a full member of the nation irrespective of his skin color or his creed.

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In denying that Islamic terrorism has anything to do with Islam—or that a small fringe of fundamentalist Muslims poses a real threat to values we deeply cherish—self-styled defenders of Muslim immigrants are making the same mistake as their adversaries. For political reasons, they blind themselves to the vast differences among various forms of Islam.

Mounk is confused. His mind is telling him that there is a solution to the problem somewhere in the middle, but facts on the ground keep getting in the way.  People like Mounk weary me because they won’t accept the truth.  They continue parroting the same old mantra despite all the evidence that is piling up against their preferred theory of reality.  In the face of ever-increasing numbers of Islamist terrorist attacks on innocent people, they keep repeating, “Ordinary Muslims are peaceful.”

So what?

According to Islamists, “ordinary Muslims” are “peaceful” because they aren’t really Muslims.  They don’t adhere to or even pretend to believe in Islamic doctrine in the Quran.  To Islamists, “ordinary Muslims” are worse than infidels.

I’m also getting sick and tired of the word “Islamophobia”.  To people with good sense, “Islamophobia” is a derisive term that reveals the blatant ignorance of the person using it.

If you are a thinking person with no political agenda and you make any effort to keep up with the news, you know that Islam is a serious problem all over the world.  That is a statement of fact.  It’s supported by mountains of hard evidence.  It has nothing to do with a phobia of any sort.

“Ordinary Muslims” are irrelevant in this discussion.  The only Muslims who matter at this point are the ones who are butchering people with reckless abandon all over the world.  They are called Islamist terrorists.  They are the voice, face, heart, and soul of Islam.  Next to Islamists, “ordinary Muslims” fade to nothing.

Although Islamists are a minority of the roughly 1.6 billion people on the planet who call themselves Muslims, the raw number of Islamists is huge.  Approximately 15% of so-called “Muslims” are Islamists.  That means there are about 240,000,000 potential jihadists out there running around many of whom are trying to blow up the world.  You don’t have to be a military genius to realize that we have a dangerous problem on our hands and that we have waited far too long to take it seriously.

World leaders are doing precious little to help.  In fact, some of them are making things worse.  For example, President Obama pumps the “Islamophobia” mantra as though he thinks that the victims and potential victims are the guilty ones because they call Islamist terrorists what they are.  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan even went so far as to chastise European governments that are being forced to grapple with the mayhem that Islamist terrorists are creating.

Thankfully, fewer and fewer people in the U.S. are taking Obama’s bait.  In Turkey, Erdoğan was just promoted.

I believe that most people have had enough and are ready to listen to reason.  When Egyptian President Sisi said recently that Islamic thinking is “antagonizing the entire world”, I think we reached a tipping point.  Of course, he was right, but it took lots of needless loss of life to reach what should have been an obvious conclusion many years ago.

We are at war with Islamist terrorists.  We didn’t declare war on them.  They declared war on us and put fighters on the field of battle.  Their forces are fully engaged while we debate whether it’s fair to say that Islamists are Islamic because “ordinary Muslims” are “peaceful”.  That’s an absurd argument.

Islamists have given us no choice.  Either we fight or we die.  They have made that perfectly clear.  Their goal is to kill anyone who won’t submit to their way of thinking.

Despite our weak-kneed response thus far, one thing is working in our favor.  Islamists kill each other over minor differences in doctrine.  If they stop killing each other before we get our act together, we are in serious trouble.

The woefully naïve and stupid among us say that we are safe for the time being because Islamists don’t have nuclear weapons yet.  Well, Pakistan is a nuclear power, and it’s an Islamist country.  Islamist terrorists could take control of those weapons in the blink of an eye under the right conditions.  And what about Iran?  They are a few months away from having nuclear weapons, and they already have missiles that are capable of delivering warheads on target.

How can anyone be so foolish as to believe that we are safe since our enemy can’t vaporize millions of us in a fraction of a second at this particular moment in time?  Since 9/11, Islamists have carried out more than 20,000 attacks around the world and killed millions of people.  Do we really want to wait for them to take control of or manufacture nuclear weapons before we take them seriously?

We have two choices: fight or submit.  It’s as simple as that.

Israel is the front line against Islamist terrorism.  The Israeli people are fighting the battle that the rest of the world is talking about because they have no choice, either.  They must fight or submit.

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Raymond Ibrahim: Egypt’s Sisi: Islamic “Thinking” Is “Antagonizing the Entire World”—Speaking before Al-Azhar University and the Awqaf Ministry on New Year’s Day, 2015, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said: “It’s inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire umma [Islamic world] to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world. Impossible! That thinking – I am not saying “religion” but “thinking” – that corpus of texts and ideas that we have sacralized over the years, to the point that departing from them has become almost impossible, is antagonizing the entire world!” “Is it possible that 1.6 billion people [Muslims] should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants – that is 7 billion – so that they themselves may live? Impossible!…We are in need of a religious revolution….This umma is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost – and it is being lost by our own hands.”

Zalman Shoval: Don’t take political Islam lightly— Charles Hill is a diplomat-in-residence and lecturer in International Studies at Yale University. In the past he served as ambassador and as adviser to presidents. Last week, he published an article on the Politico website titled “Why Political Islam is Winning.” In the article, Hill quotes U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry as saying, of the Islamic State group, that “there is literally no place for their barbarity in the modern world.” He says that in his view, it is actually “modernity” that has failed, while political Islam, meaning barbarism, is succeeding. Hill blames the Americans and argues that U.S. President Barack Obama’s message to the world is that the U.S. is stepping back from being the leader of the free world to do “nation-building at home.” The result: The world has been left without a leader and without direction.

Shlomo Cesana and Israel Hayom Staff: ‘American public’s support for Israel is at an all-time high’— “I want to tell you, the support for Israel among the American public is at an all-time high,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Channel 2 in a interview on Tuesday. Asked about a recent accusation made by Yesh Atid leader and former Finance Minister Yair Lapid that Netanyahu had destroyed Israel’s relationship with its closest ally, the prime minister replied: “It has been measured — U.S. public support is at an all-time high. The U.S. Congress supports us avidly. Relations with the administration on security and intelligence issues are steadfast and strong. “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have disagreements with the United States. When it comes to dealing with the Palestinians, I insist on certain things. I insist on Palestinian recognition of a Jewish state …”

Wall Street Journal: The Palestinians Repay America— A conceit of Obama Administration diplomacy is that international institutions invariably serve U.S. interests. The opposite has been true for nearly four years concerning Syria at the United Nations, and now the Palestinians are using the International Criminal Court against Israel. On Friday the Palestinian Authority filed papers to join the treaty that created the ICC, which would allow investigations against Israel for war crimes. This “is an option that we are seeking in order to seek justice for all the victims that have been killed by Israel, the occupying power,” said Riyad Monsour, the Palestinian observer at the U.N. He added that the PA is also seeking retroactive ICC jurisdiction “with regard to the crimes committed during the last war in Gaza.”

John Bolton: How the Palestinian Authority Could Stop Obama’s Penchant for Internationalism— The Palestinian Authority is aggressively seeking to have itself declared a “state” by joining treaties and international organizations, thereby pressuring Israel and the United States to accept outcomes they long ago rejected. In a fantasy that only seems sensible after years of incubating at the United Nations, the Palestinians believe they can create “facts on the ground” in the UN’s hallways, rather than on real ground in the Middle East. While these disputes profoundly impact Israel and the region generally, they also have significant, often-unrecognized consequences for both America and the United Nations.

Yoni Ben Menachem: The Palestinian Strategy: Internationalization of the Conflict Combined with a Popular Intifada—On Jan. 4, 2014, the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds revealed a conversation between Mahmoud Abbas and Secretary of State John Kerry, which dealt with the Palestinian motion at the UN Security Council. When Kerry despaired of convincing Abbas to desist from his move, he reportedly threatened Abbas with the words: “You will lose the Authority, you will lose the two-state solution, and you will lose yourself.” Muhammad Ashtiyeh, a member of the Fatah Executive Committee and a close associate of Abbas, defined the Palestinians’ new strategy in an interview with Al Jazeera on Jan. 4: “The Palestinians are now moving to a strategy of internationalization of the conflict with Israel, but it will not win real success if it is not accompanied by a nonviolent popular intifada.”

Peter Cluskey: War Crimes Case Against Israel over Gaza May Never Get Started—The decision on whether or not to launch an investigation of Israel will be taken by the ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, having examined the merits of the case. Even if Bensouda was to begin an investigation, she would then have to decide whether its findings should lead to indictments against named individuals – as distinct from the Israeli state or the Israel Defense Forces. But most politically complex of all is the possibility that the ICC may have to rule on whether or not Palestine is legally a state, because only sovereign states can join the ICC. If Palestine is not a state, then it cannot join. If it is a state, then, before proceeding with any investigation, there will be the task of defining its territory. Such a case, says Leiden law professor Carsten Stahn, “could take close to a decade, at least.”

Hamas Deputy Foreign Minister Ghazi Hamad: How and Why the Palestinians Lost Palestine—We have always held the Arab regimes responsible for the loss of Palestine and have equally faulted the Western regimes for their collusion and unlimited support for Israel. But what is our share in bearing responsibility? Many applauded us at international forums and we received “theoretical” recognition as a country. But where is the practical result on the ground? Oddly, everyone believes they are close to achieving their goals: Fatah believes it’s a step away from achieving statehood, while Hamas thinks it’s on the brink of liberating Palestine. Yet the struggle has become intra-Palestinian, in which each of the sides tries to prove that his option is best and the other’s has failed. We tried a Fatah government and corruption was rampant in both the administrative and security services. Then came a national unity government, but it only took two months before it reached its demise. As has become our custom, we are rushing from failure to greater failure. As a result – after six decades – Palestine has vanished and its blood has been divided between the different tribes/factions.

Jonathan S. Tobin: Time to Call Abbas’ Bluff— For the past 20 years, whenever some Americans have raised the question of whether U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority should be cut off, opponents have always trumped such calls by invoking a single point: the Israelis disagree. Even as the PA flouted its commitments under the Oslo Accords and acted in various ways that ought to, under U.S. law, mandate a halt to American aid, Israel’s various governments have always opposed such action. But in the wake of the PA’s failed attempt to get the United Nations Security Council to recognize their independence and decision to head to the International Criminal Court to further harass Israel, Jerusalem is preparing to ask Congress to finally enforce the law and end the flow of U.S. taxpayer dollars to PA leader Mahmoud Abbas and his corrupt Fatah government. Though the Obama administration disagrees, Congress should do just that. Why were the Israelis so reluctant to turn off the spigot of American cash to the PA up until now? The answer is that for all of its flaws, every Israeli government has always rightly viewed the PA as a necessary evil.

Colum Lynch: U.N. ‘s Fear of Angering Assad Leaves Gap in Syria Aid Effort— Six months ago, the United Nations assured the world it could deliver humanitarian aid to as many as 2 million imperiled civilians living in rebel-controlled communities along Syria’s borders with Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq. Today, the U.N.’s chief relief agencies are reaching only a fraction of those numbers — meaning that hundreds of thousands of desperate Syrians are still at risk of starvation, dehydration, and disease. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently acknowledged that food has been delivered across Syria’s borders to rebel-held communities to only 208,000 people, medical supplies to just 250,000, and water and sanitation equipment to as few as 86,000. At the same time, the ranks of Syria’s displaced have continued to swell throughout the country: A stunning 12.2 million Syrians are now in need of humanitarian aid, 2.9 million more than just 10 months ago, according to U.N. estimates.

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In Washington, Gantz warns against concessions with Iran

Hamas accuses PA of neglecting Gaza Strip

Israeli man moderately hurt in suspected Jerusalem terror stabbing

Bennett: No secret Bayit Yehudi opposes gay marriage

Uruguay: Fake bomb promoted evacuation of Israeli embassy in Montevideo

French police converge on small town after Paris attack suspects seen

Amateur video released shows gunmen in Paris shooting, drive off in getaway car

US senator introduces bill to cut American aid to PA until ICC bid dropped

Ya’alon comes out against IDF probe of ‘Hannibal protocol’ employed during Gaza war

Fewer American Jews now identify as Democrats, poll finds

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‘Stabbed in the Lung with a Screwdriver Returning From Kotel’

MKs React to Screwdriver Stabbing: A Religious War for Jerusalem

Horrifying ISIS ‘Guide for Jihadi Mothers’ Surfaces Online

Hundreds of Hamas Terrorists in Israel Switching to ISIS

Egypt’s Sisi: 1.6 Billion Muslims Antagonizing the Entire World

Gen. Naveh Rips Ministers and IDF General Staff over Gaza War

Ya’alon: No Investigations into ‘Black Friday’

Israeli Arab to Return After Joining ISIS

Cops Nab Arab Driver Over ‘CarTerror’ Threat

Dayan: Leaders Backing Off Two State Solution

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2 Charlie Hebdo shooters said spotted in north France

Jihadist flags, bombs found in Paris shooters’ car

Charlie Hebdo to come out next week, despite bloodbath

The first step toward defeating Islamist terrorism

Netanyahu: Paris attack proves world must fight Islamist terror

Obama condemns ‘horrific’ attack on Paris newspaper, IS fighter hails it

Paris massacre highlights jihadists’ Mideast-Europe traffic

Liberman links Paris attack to local Muslim group

Gantz: Time is not right for Iran concessions

PA Arrests Hamas Members in West Bank; Hamas Arrests Fatah Members in Gaza

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Europe’s anti-immigrant sentiment was rising long before Paris attack

French police identify gunmen in attack on Paris magazine that killed 12

Youngest Suspect in Paris Magazine Shooting Surrenders, AFP Says

Charlie Hebdo Attack Proves Islamist Terrorism is a ‘Matter of Life or Death’ for Western Democracies, French Jewish Leader Declares

Car Explodes Outside Paris Synagogue Hours After Magazine Attack

Nigeria: Islamic jihadists murder at least 28 Christians

Islamic State Police Official Beheaded

Sisi First Egyptian President to Attend Coptic Christmas Mass

Hamas Forces Practice Takeover of IDF Posts and Abduction of Soldiers near Gaza

France warns Palestinians over escalating crisis with UN bid 

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Hamas Denies Reports That Leader Meshaal Left Qatar for Turkey

China’s Xi woos Latin America with $250 billion investments

Images emerge of suspected female suicide bomber in Turkey

Turkey bombing raises Anzac Day terror concerns for Gallipoli centenary

Turkey warns its citizens to evacuate Libya ‘immediately’

Putin Blames the West for Russia’s Woes—and Russians Believe Him

Why Russia’s Evangelicals Thank God for Putin

Iran’s Supreme Leader Is Skeptical of Nuclear Talks With US

Maduro Says Venezuela Gets $20 Billion New China Investment

China-US rivalry fuels tensions in South China Sea

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Email Distribution List:

I have created an email distribution list that I use to notify people when I post a new SnyderTalk.  If you would like to be on that list, send your email address to nhsny@yahoo.com, and put “add me to your distribution list” in the subject line.  If you know others who are interested in SnyderTalk content, tell them to send me their email address, and I’ll put them on the list.

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Genesis 42: 35-38

35 Now it came about as they were emptying their sacks, that behold, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack; and when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were dismayed. 36 Their father Jacob said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and you would take Benjamin; all these things are against me.” 37 Then Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “You may put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you; put him in my care, and I will return him to you.” 38 But Jacob said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If harm should befall him on the journey you are taking, then you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.”

SnyderTalk Comment: Read His Name is Yahweh.

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His Name is Yahweh explains why the Name of God, Yahweh, is so important.  It’s available in eBook format and in paperback.  It’s also available for free in PDF format.

• God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This [Yahweh] is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.” (Exodus 3: 15)
• “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—this time I will make them know My power and My might; and they shall know that My name is Yahweh.” (Jeremiah 16: 21)
• “Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘Yahweh our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23: 5-6)
• Yeshua said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” (John 8: 58)

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His Name is Yahweh

Click here to download the entire audio presentation for free and with no strings attached.  Share it as often as you want.

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Blessings in the Book of Revelation is a book that you need to read, especially now.  There are blessings throughout the Scriptures but Revelation is the only book in the Bible actually containing a specific blessing for reading it. It’s repeated twice, once at the beginning and again at the end. This is the reason that I believe Revelation should be the first step toward studying biblical prophecy. Though not easy to do, Revelation can be broken down and understood by anyone, not just the academic elite. So, Revelation’s blessings are for everyone.  Click here to order the eBook.  Click here to order the paperback.

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Other Books by Neil Snyder

• Stand! is a suspense novel that exposes the lies, corruption, and greed underlying the theory that man-made CO2 emissions are responsible for global warming. Professor Wes Carlyle and Karen Sterling, his research collaborator, carefully scan the audience for their would-be attacker—a member of the enviro-gestapo who has been following them for days.  Wes spots his man in the back of the room leaning against the wall.  Suddenly, another man in the audience steps forward and moves toward Karen at a menacing pace.  With a vicious stroke, he swings a billy club at her head.  Click here to order the eBook.  Click here to order the paperback.
• What Will You Do with the Rest of Your Life? deals with a question that every Christian has to consider: what should I do with my life? Click here to order the eBook.  Click here to order the paperback.
• Falsely Accused is a true story about a young woman who was accused of committing a double homicide. It’s about a travesty of justice, and it reveals Yahweh intervening in the life of a believer to rescue her from danger in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.  Everyone will enjoy the book, but young people in particular need to read it because the mistakes made that led to the problem could have been avoided.  They were the kinds of mistakes that young people are prone to make.  As they say, forewarned is forearmed.  Click here to order the eBook.  Click here to order the paperback.

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