Netanyahu: Time to stop restraint policy

[Shammu]

Netanyahu: Time to stop restraint policy
JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST
Dec. 5, 2006

Opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu warned on Tuesday that Hamas was busy planning the next major rocket attack-and not just on Sderot.

In an interview with Army Radio, Netanyahu said that "Gaza won't necessarily continue turning into a second Lebanon, but that is what's happening."

"The time has come for us to draw conclusions," he said. "We can't close our eyes and say, 'I'm showing restraint, everything's okay.' Everything is not okay."

The Likud leader called on Israel to stop showing restraint and to take an offensive stance toward Hamas.

"Our policy has stopped [its aggressive approach] toward Hamas and those who announce that they will destroy [us], and continue to arm themselves," he said. "If you think that the correct policy is to sit and shake their hands, I think otherwise. For the sake of security, we have to act."

He added, "We receive condemnation in the UN every time we act, but on the other hand, they say to us, 'If the situation is so bad, why didn't you act earlier?' A policy of restraint is a bad thing, and it is necessary to act against bad things while they are still small, not once they've gotten bigger."

Netanyahu also addressed Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's visit to Damascus and the possibility of reaching an agreement on kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

"I expect and hope that the Israeli government will do what is necessary to bring back Shalit," he said. "But I have no doubt that while Haniyeh is in Damascus and meeting with Iranian representatives, the talks on Shalit will be very short, and the talks on attacking Israel will be very long."

Netanyahu: Time to stop restraint policy

[john909]

Unfortunately, Israel is somewhat on the American and UN leash. If I were Bush, I would turn a blind eye to Israel. Then again, I'm a stalwart supporter of Israel and her people. Friendly people, best military in the world, good food.

Israel, given a green light, and given no interference by the UN or other Arab nations, could end terrorism in Israel in a jiffy. Unfortunately, Mao's statement was corrent -- power (eartly power, anyway) eminates from the barrel of a gun. Terrorists only understand violence. Praying for them doesn't work. They're like roaches. You have to go to great lengths to rid yourself of them, but once they're gone, it's all good again.

The terrorists know that Israel is on a leash, and they rub it in. Take the leash away and let them go to town. The world could use a few less radical islamists anyway. Pull out of Iraq. Let Iraq, Iran, and Saudi go to war. Move back in after they've all killed one another and do it right. Let them do our work for us. It may work, it may not. Let the terrorists kill each other, not our people. One American soldier is worth their entire county.

[Soldier4Christ]

Unfortunately i don't see that happening. What will happen if we pull out of there is that they will join together in strength against a common cause ....  the infidels of the western world. It is an objective that they have in common.

[john909]

Hello,

I don't see the sunnis and shiites getting along well enough to help one another tie their own shoes, let alone mount anything against the west. Let's not forget there are several other smaller muslim factions that get along with no one, and they would have to be dealt with as well by the larger two.

The arabs, if we pulled out of iraq, might mount agaist Israel, but not the US. I think they know better, and logistically speaking, short of terrorism, the US is really difficult to attack, unless it's from the air. Both the Germans and Japanese militaries stated that the US is uniquely positioned geography-wise. Very hard to attack.

[nChrist]

Hello John909,

If and when it starts, the attacks will come from within, and there are already thousands here. The number will continue to grow until the borders are secured. We have to remember that we aren't fighting a conventional enemy. That's why it makes perfect sense to keep them busy in other parts of the world where we don't have to fight them here on our own soil.

If the terrorists ever get the money, resources, and will to hit us here, it will be almost impossible to stop them because of the freedoms that we enjoy. Many people are very naive about what Islam really wants. They already have the plans for a global caliphate, and they are expecting their version of the Messiah, the Mahdi. Their overall strategy is very simple:  1) destroy anything that gets in the way;  2) convert to Islam or die;  3) Christians and Jews are expendable non-persons that need to be exterminated with less thought than one would use in killing insects. The people of the world need to wake up and realize this is a reality, nothing new, and something they have been dreaming about for centuries. Any failure in current conflicts will result in chaos beyond imagination.

HOWEVER, this could also be the unfolding of Bible Prophecy. If so, no power will be able to stop it. Bible Prophecy will be fulfilled at GOD'S appointed time, and no power will be able to hasten it or slow it down by a second. No man knows what that time will be, but it most certainly will come.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Psalms 23:4 NASB  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

[Soldier4Christ]

Even two separate wolf packs will join together when their objective is the same. They see the U.S. as a stumbling block preventing them from getting to Israel. Their are plans even now for knocking the U.S. out of the way. These plans, by both factions,  have been in process even prior to our entering Iraq so Iraq has nothing to do with them wanting to knock us out and take over this nation and our pulling out of Iraq will only serve to strengthen them in their objective. There are already many of them within the borders of the U.S. They will not attack us in the manner that the Germans or Japanese would have done but will do so from within weakening us first.

The islam religion teaches them that one person will come along (they call him Mahdi) that will reunite all islam under one caliphate. They are expecting that person any time now. That is all it would take to reunite the sunnis and shiites.

____________

Brother Tom, I guess we were typing at the same time again and saying pretty much the same thing.   

[nChrist]

Hello Pastor Roger,

Brother, I just looked at your post and said WOW!   

YES, we were both typing at the same time on the same subject. It is amazing about how many current events are similar to Bible Prophecy. We obviously don't know, but if it is, the world is in for a rude awakening. It appears that the world is going into hard times, regardless of whether this is Bible Prophecy or not.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Philippians 4:7 NASB  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

[Soldier4Christ]

Things are definitely coming together for it.

[john909]

The islam religion teaches them that one person will come along (they call him Mahdi) that will reunite all islam under one caliphate. They are expecting that person any time now. That is all it would take to reunite the sunnis and shiites.

This may be written in their books, but it's not Biblical. Nothing in the koran is true. Nothing. Nothing in anything they have ever written is true, nor will it be.

Let them come. I seriously doubt the US will be destroyed from within. Let's not forget that, as blackeyedpeas stated, we enjoy freedoms in the US, namely the freedom to bear arms. We may indeed have civil war, but the averge Americn gun pwner, and this is the majority of the population, would rise up and stop this. Yes, there would be severe damage, but we would quell it fairly quickly.

I, for one, am glad I live nowhere near a major city. Thank God for rural living. There are more people in my area with guns than almost anywhere else in the US. And I'm not talking wacky types, either, but God-fearing working-class people who would have no compulsion against defending their turf against all enemies, foreign or domestic.

Yes, there are forces who would love to see the US and Israel destroyed, but it will not happen anytime soon. Largely these muslim countries are posturing. The unified front they are seeking is years away from realization, if ever. I think we have bigger fish to fry than the arabs. Let's not forget that India, Pakistan, China, and Russia are all nuclear. It's not just the arabs that pose a threat. The US is largely unpopular in the world at large right now. Too bad the crusades didn't succeed.

[Soldier4Christ]

Many people do not understand the ramifications of this. When looking at the Koran there is some twisted truth in it. It is in the opposite side of that in the Bible. What they say is going to happen and are looking forward to is what we see in the Bible as the Beast and his false prophet.

Many people see it the same way that you do. That nothing can take the U.S. down. Right this very minute we have groups such hamas, the aclu, cair and a number of others that are whittling away at the very fiber of this nation, weakening it every day and setting it up for a pretty big fall. With the people of this nation moving away from God it is becoming more apparent that God will no longer protect it.

Yes there will be those that will stand up to this as you said fighting it in the manner you said. This sort of chaos will weaken the infrastructure of this nation. It will pit brother against brother ......

This nation is becoming lackadaisical. The antiwar crowd is growing by the day. Such groups want to just give up and hand it over to the enemy not even doing anything in the way of laws to prevent it. This is another thing that is weakening this nation setting it up to be taken down. All of this is escalating at a higher rate of speed than most people are even aware of. It is happening right before their eyes and they don't even see it.

[john909]

Yes there will be those that will stand up to this as you said fighting it in the manner you said. This sort of chaos will weaken the infrastructure of this nation. It will pit brother against brother ......

I would rather live in a horrible Red Dawn situation that be dictated to by muslims. The sort of chaos I spoke of will likely never happen. It could, and may, but not on any mass scale.

Brother here is the operative word. Let's say America became uninhabitable because of the apathy? What are Christians to do? Where do we go? Who do we turn to here on earth to help us? I think that if something horrible on a grand worldwie scale were to happen, I think God would continue to bless pockets of true believers, those that truly strive to do His will despite the chaos.

Now, I'm not a huge buyer into the eschatological thing. I believe there will be end times, but not in the manner described in certain popular books. The Bible does, however make mention of scary things like the mark of the beast. I don't think it will be a literal mark, but rather, perhaps, in today's vernacular, a bio-chip or other identifying device. I could be wrong. No medicine or food or services without the mark/chip, whatever you want to call it.

I would, of course, refuse to obey any edicts to this effect even if it meant I had to brave the wilds and live like Grizzly Adams. I can't help but envision a sort of Road Warrior existence for Chrisitians in the end times.

[nChrist]

Hello John909,

We have quite a few very detailed threads already on the forum about end of this age events. We really don't need any of man's books to know that this age will end and others ages are to come. The Holy Bible contains details for the history and future of mankind according to GOD'S WORD. It's true that there are many disagreements about interpretation of many extremely complex portions of the Bible, but there is no disagreement that our current age will end and other ages will follow.

Many of the events in the Holy Bible are too horrible for mankind to imagine, but they will most certainly happen at GOD'S appointed time. Only GOD knows the time, but HIS Time will come. If you want to study what we already have on the forum, do a search for "Rapture", "Second Coming", "Tribulation Period", and maybe a few other terms that you will quickly see in several massive studies. Hollywood can forget about trying to portray what will actually happen in all reality. It will be GOD'S Reality given to man to ponder for thousands of years, and the ONLY TRUTH is in the Holy Bible.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Psalms 118:6-7 NASB  The LORD is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me? The LORD is for me among those who help me; Therefore I will look with satisfaction on those who hate me.

[john909]

blackeyedpeas,

Agreed. I have not read the Left Behind series and will not because it IS fiction. As you said, it's God's reality that man will be dealt, not some Holloywood fantasy.

My church teaches differing ideas on Revelation than most XXXXX XXXXXXXXX or XXXXXXXXXXXXXXl churches do. In the end, we'll find out the truth. What I think is most important is to hold fast in faith to what Christ Jesus taught us, partake in the Word and XXXXXXXXX, and we'll be fine in the end.

[nChrist]

blackeyedpeas,

Agreed. I have not read the Left Behind series and will not because it IS fiction. As you said, it's God's reality that man will be dealt, not some Holloywood fantasy.

My church teaches differing ideas on Revelation than most non-denominational or charasmatic/evangelical churches do. In the end, we'll find out the truth. What I think is most important is to hold fast in faith to what Christ Jesus taught us, partake in the Word and Sacrament, and we'll be fine in the end.

Hello John909,

You really need to stop stereotyping Christians and trying to lump them together with terms that might mean 100 different things to 100 different people. Christians are Christians, and all of man's silly labels, tags, and denominations will NOT be present in heaven. I could very easily stereotype you, but I won't. I'll simply tell you again that we don't do that here. I really don't care what your church teaches, but I do care what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches ages and events that haven't happened yet, and they will happen regardless of what any church teaches. The only disagreement is when and in what sequence. The only way to deny the Bible Prophecy I'm talking about is to rip out about 1/3 of your Bible and throw it away. OR, one could belong to a cult that has written their own bible with a little "b".

Most of the real Christians I know could care less about the traditions and teachings of men. The real teachers and preachers who taught the pure and undiluted TRUTH are in the Bible. Many of the teachers and preachers in the following generations twisted, distorted, added, and subtracted from the TRUTH. Many of the things done in churches don't come even close to the teachings of the Holy Bible.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Psalms 104:24 NASB  O LORD, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all; The earth is full of Your possessions.

[Shammu]

Hello,

I don't see the sunnis and shiites getting along well enough to help one another tie their own shoes, let alone mount anything against the west.

What nonsense. How amazing that it even has to be addressed.

Just to start, the mostly sunni people of Egypt were polled and they claim to respect three different leaders more than they respect their own president Mubarak. Nasrallah of Hezbollah, Meshal of Hamas and Ahmadinejad of Iran. Two radical shiites are on that list. It is as if US "racists" respected Nelson Mandela and Julius Nyerere more than they respected Ronald Reagan.

But there are two opposing points. One is the civil war in Iraq and the other is statements by the sunni pro-US dictatorships. The punchline is that the fighting is not caused by ancient hatreds. Sunnis and shiites before the invasion in Iraq were intermarrying, they were being friends for years and never asking to which group they belonged. Marginal and radical former fringe groups have been demarginalized. That is where the civil war comes from.

The second point is the statements by the dictators of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Unpopular dictators are easy to threaten. Nobody can argue that these dictatorships do not feel threatened by Iran. Unlike Iran, whose regime does have popular support (I know, I'll get to the myth that they do not later), a determined outside force that advocates regime change in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia would be a problem.

The thing is that if Iran was not shiite it would be the exact same threat to these dictatorships that it is now. Anyone who would say the Egyptian people should have a say in Egypt's foreign policy are a threat to Mubarak. It doesn't matter if it is the sunni muslim brotherhood or the shiite Hezbollah. There is a real rivalry between states in the Middle East led by legitimate governments and states that are not. But this only happens to align with any sunni shiite split.

Iran's rulers don't have much bad to say about sunni leaders.  In his 2005 World Without Zionism speech Ahmadinejad described Egypt's peace treaty with Israel as a mistake that he hoped it would correct.  And that if it does not, it will be made to suffer.  That is the closest thing I've ever seen to an attack.  In 2006 he seemed to moderate that by saying that nations close to Israel bear the biggest brunt.

It kind of works by a chain.  Iran has a real dispute with Israel.  65% of Iranians do not think Israel is legitimate.  No moderate or reformist Iranian in Iran has ever, to my knowledge, offered to recognize Israel without a resolution of the Palestinian issue on terms acceptable to the Palestinians.  Most moderates, including Khatami say the Palestinians should have a right to return.  This is all to say that regardless of regime, Iran does have a real rivalry with Israel.

The rivalry with Israel causes Iran's rivalry with the United States.

Iran's rivalry with the United States causes Iran's rivalry with the dictatorships that align with the US - Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.  But on this issue, Iran is on the side of the populations of these three states so the three states are especially worried that Iran will end the rivalry by working to establish representative governments.

There is no important Persian-Arab split just as there is no important shiite sunni split.

Populist Middle East leaders align against the US since Nasser's time.  Anti-populist Middle East leaders are threatened by them.  Saudi Arabia at the time was far more threatened by sunni Egypt under Nasser than it was by shiite-persian Iran under the Shah and said most of the same things about Egypt then that it says about Iran now. The Middle East division is populist or anti-Israel vs. anti-populist or pro-US.  It has been that way since shortly after the formation of Israel.

It is time, to put this myth to rest. They can, and have gotten along in the past.