“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: may they prosper who love you.” Psalm 122: 6
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ISIS Releases Turkish Hostages, but Something Smells Fishy—it’s Time to Rethink Turkey’s NATO Membership
On Saturday, ISIS released Turkish hostages that it has held since taking control of Mosul, Iraq more than 3 months ago. This is what Voice of America said about it:
Dozens of Turkish hostages being held by the radical Islamic State group have been released. The hostages arrived in Turkey in the early hours of Saturday, local time, after being held for 101 days.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced in a written statement that 49 Turkish hostages held by Islamic State had been released through the efforts of Turkey’s intelligence agency.
[…]
The hostages are Turkish diplomats and their families, including women and young children, who were taken in June when Islamic State militants overran Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, and seized the Turkish consulate.
This is what The Daily Star in Lebanon said about it:
[T]he circumstances of their release – which drew flag waving crowds to the Turkish capital’s airport – were clouded in mystery.
Turkish leaders gave only limited details of the release and the hostages declined to answer all but the most general questions from journalists when they arrived at Ankara airport around midday Saturday.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported no ransom had been paid and “no conditions were accepted in return for their release” but the organization didn’t cite any source for its reporting.
“I think it’s fair to say that we haven’t been told the full story,” said Aaron Stein, an associate fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute who has studied Turkey’s security policy.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the release was the result of the intelligence agency’s “own methods,” and not a special forces operations, but he didn’t elaborate.
“After intense efforts that lasted days and weeks, in the early hours, our citizens were handed over to us and we brought them back to our country,” Davutoglu said.
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Turkey had been reluctant to join a coalition to defeat ISIS, citing the safety of its 49 kidnapped citizens, but Stein said he doubted Turkey would suddenly adopt a much more muscular attitude toward the organization. Turkey might feel freer to advertise its existing efforts against the group, he said, citing its efforts to control oil smuggling across the border. But he said Turkey would not open its air bases to U.S. aircraft operating against the group.
“There will some changes, but not as much as people hope,” he said.
Congratulations to the Turkish government and to the people of Turkey, but so many questions have been scrupulously unanswered by Turkish officials that something smells fishy. We would be foolish to ignore the possibility that Turkey may not be on our team any longer.
Turkey has been unwilling to join the fight against ISIS, and Turkish leaders have used the hostages as an excuse for not being a part of the coalition. Also, Turkey has been unwilling to allow coalition forces to use Turkish airbases in their fight against ISIS. In other words, Turkey has been useless where ISIS is concerned.
Now that the justification for Turkey’s failure to cooperate has been removed, will things change? According to Turkish officials, the answer is “not much”. Why?
At home politically, the release of the hostages was a big plus for Turkish leaders. In the eyes of the world, it makes them look like they are part of the problem—not part of the solution. It’s no secret that Turkey has been moving in the Islamist direction for more than a decade, and the most recent election did nothing to reverse that trend.
As a NATO member, Turkey has access to lots of classified information that they can give to our enemies or trade with our enemies for sinister purposes. Would they do that? Don’t rule it out. It’s possible.
Turkey has done everything that it can to deny Israel access to NATO intelligence. Why? Could it be that Israel’s enemies are Turkey’s allies? Don’t rule it out. It’s possible.
The global fight against militant Islamism is just starting. Because of its widely publicized brutality, ISIS is the first group that has galvanized the Western alliance, but this war is far from over. In time, other Islamist groups will become our targets.
For instance, Hamas is just like ISIS, and Israel has been fighting Hamas to protect its citizens from indiscriminate acts of violence. That means Israel is on our team and Turkey isn’t. We don’t need a Benedict Arnold in our midst at this crucial moment.
Since the birth of nation-states, alliances have changed along with circumstances. Saying that circumstances have changed in this case is an understatement. A few weeks ago, then Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan threw his support behind Hamas in its war with Israel and he publicly compared Israel to Hitler:
“Just like Hitler tried to create a pure Aryan race in Germany, the State of Israel is pursuing the same goals right now.”
[…]
“They [Israelis] kill the women so that they will not be able to give birth to Palestinian babies. They kill the babies so that they will not be able to grow up to be men. They kill the men so that they will not be able to defend their homeland.”
But Erdogan didn’t stop there. He said that Israel “will drown in the blood that they shed.”
Obviously, Erdogan has a warped perspective where Israel is concerned, and it doesn’t square with mountains of hard evidence. As Turkey’s newly elected president, he can continue to do damage. Would he? Does Mavi Marmara ring a bell?
This is the bottom line: with each passing day, Turkey looks more and more like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It’s time to take a long, hard look at the wisdom of allowing Turkey to remain in NATO and at the wisdom of keeping Israel out of the alliance.
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IPT News: Turkey’s Erdogan Compares Israel to Hitler, Openly Supports Hamas— Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared Israel to Hitler and predicted that the Jewish state “will drown in the blood that they shed” at a rally prior to his presidential election last month, a Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) translation of his address posted on the Internet on Aug. 3 shows. “Just like Hitler tried to create a pure Aryan race in Germany, the State of Israel is pursuing the same goals right now,” Erdogan told a cheering crowd. He continued his anti-Semitic rant, accusing Israel of genocide. “They kill the women so that they will not be able to give birth to Palestinian babies. They kill the babies so that they will not be able to grow up to be men. They kill the men so that they will not be able to defend their homeland.”
Alexander Christie-Miller: Why Turkey Won’t Fight with U.S. Against Islamic State—When Washington sought to rally world and regional partners last week for an assault on the jihadis of the Islamic State, one crucial ally was notably reluctant: Turkey, a NATO member with the alliance’s second largest army. Visits to Ankara over the past week by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry yielded little, with Turkish leaders publicly refusing to play any military role against IS and forbidding the U.S. to use Turkish soil for strikes against the group. During the Iraq war of 2003, Turkey similarly spurned American overtures to station troops in the country and use its airbases. Asli Aydintasbas, a foreign affairs columnist at Milliyet, says Ankara is doing more to combat IS than its public rhetoric suggests. “They want the Americans to take care of ISIS, but they don’t want to have their fingerprints on it.”
Melanie Phillips: The Islamic State Stands for Mass Murder and Barbarism—When the Islamic State started beheading American and British hostages and circulating its videos, this helped to recruit thousands of Muslims from Europe and elsewhere to join it. Are we supposed to believe this is just coincidence? Millions of Muslims believe that Islam should rule the world and that jihad is the path to this end; millions of other Muslims do not believe this. The fundamental goal of the Islamic State is not to remedy some geopolitical grievance against Israel, America, India or Saudi Arabia. It is to establish a caliphate and force the world to submit to Islam. What the Islamic State openly stands for is mass murder and barbarism.
Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas and Fatah Already Fighting Over Gaza Funds— As efforts are underway to hold an international conference in Cairo for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of Operation Protective Edge, the two major Palestinian parties, Hamas and Fatah, are already accusing each other of stealing funds that were channeled to help Palestinian families. It is not clear at this stage how much money has made its way into the Gaza Strip since the Egypt-brokered cease-fire was announced late August. But it is clear by now that both Hamas and Fatah are engaged in a fight over who will control the funds and assume responsibility for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. The war between Hamas and Fatah over the funds earmarked for the residents of the Gaza Strip is being fought over every penny and dollar. This is a power struggle in which the only losers are those Palestinians who lost their homes and family members during the military confrontation with Israel.
Mudar Zahran: Gazans Speak Out: Hamas War Crimes— While the world’s media has been blaming Israel for the death of Gazan civilians during Operation Protective Edge, this correspondent decided to speak with Gazans themselves to hear what they had to say. They spoke of Hamas atrocities and war crimes implicating Hamas in the civilian deaths of its own people. Although Gazans, fearful of Hamas’s revenge against them, were afraid to speak to the media, friends in the West Bank offered introductions to relatives in Gaza. One, a renowned Gazan academic, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that as soon as someone talked to a Western journalist, he was immediately questioned by Hamas and accused of “communicating with the Mossad”. “Hamas makes sure that the average Gazan will not talk to Western journalists — or actually any journalists at all,” he said.
Jerold Auerbach: New Year’s Greetings From Hamas—In the narrative of inversion that distorted media coverage of the recent Gaza war, the plight of Israeli civilians targeted by Hamas rockets, missiles and tunnel attacks was all but ignored. The conventional media wisdom featured innocent Gazans whose homes and lives were destroyed by cruelly disproportionate Israeli responses. Little wonder that during seven weeks when thousands of Israeli civilians fled from their homes and communities to safety with family, friends, or in makeshift accommodations elsewhere, the media remained fixated on Gaza victims of Hamas aggression. New York Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief Jodi Rudoren finally roused herself to check the fate of bombarded Israeli civilians in Sderot, who have endured Hamas rocket attacks ever since the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza nearly a decade earlier. She fixated on a group of middle-aged men, comfortably seated on a sofa and beach chairs on Koby Hill, who happily munched snacks while they cheered the Israeli rocket “show.” So much for the plight of Israeli civilians under attack. The death of 4-year-old Daniel Tragerman from a rocket attack on his family’s home in a border kibbutz, which immersed the entire country in sorrowful mourning, was virtually ignored.
Eric Edelman, Dennis Ross and Ray Takeyh: Iran Remains Our Biggest Challenge—As the U.S. begins its campaign to destroy the Islamic State, many voices can be counted on to call for cooperation with Iran. However, the theocratic Iranian regime and its attempt to upend the regional order remains the U.S.’ most consequential long-term challenge in the Middle East. The Islamic Republic is not a normal nation-state seeking to realize its legitimate interests but an ideological entity mired in manufactured conspiracies. In today’s disorderly region, Iran sees a unique opportunity to project its influence and undermine the U.S. and its system of alliances. Today, in Syria and Iraq, Iran’s interests are inimical to those of the U.S. Our interests strongly argue against working with Iran against the Islamic State in Syria lest we lose the very Sunni support that will be necessary to eradicate the group. Similarly in Iraq, any putative alliance with Iran would undo much of what the U.S. has attempted to accomplish there.
Emily B. Landau: Why We Need Iran to Reveal All— As we move to the November 24 deadline for P5+1-Iran negotiations on a comprehensive nuclear deal, the issue of Iran’s past weaponization activities is becoming critical. Iran’s most recent stonewalling on the IAEA’s outstanding questions regarding what it calls the “Possible Military Dimensions” (PMD) of Iran’s program was evident when Iran missed the August 25th deadline for providing answers (then claiming it never agreed to the deadline). Meanwhile, Iran continued to prevent entry into the military facility at Parchin, where it is suspected of carrying out activities relating to its military nuclear program. A debate has been ongoing over the past year among officials and non-official arms control experts on the importance of confronting Iran on the weaponization issue. In early June, my INSS colleagues Ephraim Asculai, Shimon Stein and I made the case for the need to include the weaponization aspects of Iran’s program. In a recent article in Foreign Policy, Jeffrey Lewis claims that making Iran come clean about its past nuclear weapons activities before a deal is secured is “a terrible idea”, potentially devastating for the prospects of a nuclear deal. His piece underscored for me the need to re-emphasize what the real problem is, and why it is truly imperative to press Iran on this issue.
J.M. Berger: The Islamic State vs. Al-Qaeda—The post-9/11 jihadi movement has split into two major groups – al-Qaeda and its declared affiliates, under the leadership of bin Laden and now Ayman al-Zawahiri – and everyone else. In the spring of 2014, Zawahiri disavowed the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) – at the time considered an al-Qaeda affiliate – essentially firing it for failing to follow his orders. A small but notable number of splinter groups from al-Qaeda and its affiliates have pledged their loyalty to the Islamic State. Yet very few establishment al-Qaeda supporters and clerics have come down in favor of the Islamic State. The Egyptian jihadi group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM) is believed to have strong ties with the Islamic State. It recently mimicked one of the Islamic State’s favorite practices, releasing a video featuring graphic decapitations of alleged Mossad spies. The Islamic State has a significant, possibly substantial, number of supporters in Gaza, including an armed brigade and key technology operatives who support the group’s online presence.
Daniel Easterman: Israeli Ambassador: British Jews Fed “a Relentless Diet of Media Distortions”—Israeli ambassador to the UK Daniel Taub said Tuesday that British Jews had been fed “a relentless diet of media distortions.” “When trade unions resolve to boycott the only country in the Middle East which has a free trade union. When the media chooses to exact a price on the only country in the region which permits journalists to travel freely, and to report without intimidation.” “When at the Edinburgh festival violent rioters prevent Israeli productions from performing for the first time. When supermarkets cave in to hooliganism by taking Israeli and even non-Israeli kosher products off the shelves. In this environment, a new generation of the Jewish people is coming of age. Fed on a relentless diet of media distortions, they leave school and go to universities where voices for Israel are rare and often silenced.”
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Anti-Semitism in America. It’s not coming. It’s already here.
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Senior Iranian official: Ready to work with US to fight IS, but wants nuclear flexibility
Israeli Arabs: Move to differentiate Christians an attempt to ‘divide and conquer’
Argentine President said received Islamic State threats
Bomb explodes at Hezbollah checkpoint in eastern Lebanon
Fatah Blames Hamas for Palestinians Fleeing Gaza
Moroccan Journalist Accuses Islamic Jihad Deputy Leader of Sexual Assault
Blast near Egyptian foreign ministry kills two policemen
NATO: Ukraine ceasefire is ‘in name only’
Israeli population climbs to 8,904,373 ahead of Jewish New Year
Gaza shipwreck survivors plea for entrance into Europe
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Senior Egyptian Official: Morsi Leaked Intel to Iran
Sisi: Egypt Willing to Help Coalition Against IS
Egypt: 5 Islamists Sentenced to Death for Terror Crimes
European Commission: No Threat to Our HQ from Islamists
Moroccan Poet: Arab World is Imperialist, ‘Palestine’ is Jewish
2 French Teens Arrested for Attempting to Join Syrian Rebels
Jerusalem: Rocks, Paint Cans Thrown at School Bus
IDF Forces Arrest 8 Wanted Men Overnight in Judea-Samaria
Haredi Leaders and the Dangerous Use of Words
Hamas and Fatah to Try to Save Crumbling Unity
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Echoes of Jesus in the Valley of the Cross
IS uploads full length English propaganda video
As nuclear talks open, US says Obama-Rouhani meet is ‘up to Iran’
US hopes face-saving plan offers a path to a nuclear pact with Iran
Kerry: Role for Iran in fight against Islamic State
Iran, six powers head into ‘very tough’ nuclear talks
Sa’ar slams Netanyahu for ‘undemocratic’ behavior over presidency
US: $10 million bounty on killers of Foley, Sotloff
Antwerp police chief: In crisis, army should protect Jews
Israel-Palestinian ‘solution’ to be put to UN Security Council: France
SnyderTalk Comment: The “Security Council”? That doesn’t make me feel secure.
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Obama Faces Mission Creep Questions As Campaign Against Islamic State Expands
Kurdish fighters from Turkey join battle to save Syrian Kurdish town from ISIS
Islamic State Issues New Curriculum in Iraq
ISIS Gang Sparked Norway Terror Alert
Hamas-Backing Qatar Contracts Top Flight Public Relations Firm to Improve Ties With US
U.S. Director of National Intelligence: We Underestimated the Islamic State’s “Will to Fight”
Israel Believes Syria Kept “Significant” Chemical Munitions
Israel Names Six New Female Ambassadors
Gaza War Leaned Heavily on F-16 Close-Air Support
Principles and Guidelines for a Comprehensive Nuclear Deal with Iran
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When does an idiotic idea take hold and turn into a movement?
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Email Distribution List:
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Genesis 30: 37-43
37 Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white which was in the rods. 38 He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the gutters, even in the watering troughs, where the flocks came to drink; and they mated when they came to drink. 39 So the flocks mated by the rods, and the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40 Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he put his own herds apart, and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41 Moreover, whenever the stronger of the flock were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the gutters, so that they might mate by the rods; 42 but when the flock was feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. 43 So the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys.
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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Does it matter what we call God?
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.
