Category: Islam

Sep 19

6 Of The Last 8 U.S. Recessions Were Preceded By Oil Price Spikes – Damage To Saudi Oil Industry Could Take “Months” To Repair

September 16, 2019 by Michael Snyder

When the price of oil rises dramatically, that tends to be really bad for the U.S. economy.  Because we are so spread out and goods are transported over such vast distances, our economy is particularly vulnerable to oil price shocks, and that is one reason why the events that we just witnessed in the Middle East are so alarming.  According to an article that was published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco in 2007, five of the last seven U.S. recessions that had occurred up to that time “were preceded by considerable increases in oil prices”.  Since that article was published in 2007, the recession that began in 2008 hadn’t happened yet, and of course that recession was immediately preceded by the largest oil price spike in history.  So that means that six of the last eight U.S. recessions were preceded by oil price spikes, and now we may be facing another one.  It is being reported that it may take “months” for Saudi Arabia to fully repair the damage that was done to their oil industry, and that could fundamentally alter the balance of supply and demand in the global marketplace.

Yesterday, I discussed why high oil prices are so bad for our economy.  When the price of oil is too high, it can cause inflation and hurt economic growth simultaneously.  The article from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco that I mentioned in the last paragraph tried to explain why this happens in very basic economic terms…

Oil price increases are generally thought to increase inflation and reduce economic growth. In terms of inflation, oil prices directly affect the prices of goods made with petroleum products. As mentioned above, oil prices indirectly affect costs such as transportation, manufacturing, and heating. The increase in these costs can in turn affect the prices of a variety of goods and services, as producers may pass production costs on to consumers. The extent to which oil price increases lead to consumption price increases depends on how important oil is for the production of a given type of good or service.

Oil price increases can also stifle the growth of the economy through their effect on the supply and demand for goods other than oil. Increases in oil prices can depress the supply of other goods because they increase the costs of producing them. In economics terminology, high oil prices can shift up the supply curve for the goods and services for which oil is an input.

Needless to say, the unprecedented attack on Saudi oil production facilities was going to cause the price of oil to rise substantially.  In fact, when global markets opened up on Sunday evening we witnessed quite a dramatic spike…

In an extraordinary trading day, London’s Brent crude leaped almost $12 in the seconds after the open, the most in dollar terms since their launch in 1988. Prices subsequently pulled back some of that initial gain of almost 20%, but rallied again as traders waited in vain for an Aramco statement clarifying the scale of damage.

So where is the price of oil going from here?

One analyst quoted by Oilprice.com believes that we could soon see it hit $80 a barrel, and others believe that it could move up toward $100 a barrel not too long from now.

In the days ahead, global markets will be watching Saudi Arabia very carefully.  The longer it takes them to resume normal production levels, the higher the price of oil will go.

According to Bloomberg, one analyst is already publicly admitting that “full resumption could be weeks or even months away”…

All eyes are on how fast the kingdom can recover from the devastating strike, which knocked out roughly 5% of global supply and triggered a record surge in oil prices. Initially, it was said that significant volumes of crude could begin to flow again within days. While Aramco is still assessing the state of the plant and the scope of repairs, it currently believes less than half of the plant’s capacity can be restored quickly, said people familiar with the matter, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

”Damage to the Abqaiq facility is more severe than previously thought,” said Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at Energy Aspects Ltd. “While we still believe up to 50% of the 5.7 million barrels a day of output that has been disrupted could return fairly swiftly, full resumption could be weeks or even months away.”

That is really bad news, and that is assuming that there won’t be any more attacks like we just witnessed.

If there are more attacks, Saudi oil production could be far lower than normal for an extended period of time, and that would be catastrophic for the global economy.

Most Americans don’t realize this, but a lot of Saudi oil actually gets shipped to the west coast.  The following comes from Fox Business…

Drivers in California, however, could be hit the hardest. Nearly half of what Saudi Arabia exports to the U.S. is sent to the West Coast, as reported by Reuters. In the year that ended in June, the West Coast imported an average of about 11.4 million barrels of Saudi crude every month – much of which went to California refineries.

The Golden State already has among the highest average gasoline prices in the country – at $3.63 per gallon as of Monday.

We are going to see higher gasoline prices right away, but in the short-term we should be able to handle them okay.

But if there are more attacks like the one we just saw, or if a major war breaks out in the Middle East, the price of gasoline could easily spike to levels that we have never seen in this country before.

The U.S. economy was already deeply struggling even before the attack in Saudi Arabia, and so this could definitely push us over the edge.  We should all be getting prepared for an extended economic downturn, because it looks like that is precisely what we could be facing.

Hopefully we won’t see any more attacks on oil production facilities, but the attack on Saturday clearly demonstrated how extremely vulnerable such facilities are to terror attacks.  And with Middle East tensions currently at an all-time high, USA Today is warning that our future “may well get much rockier soon”…

The new threat is tension among nations in the region, as well as the ability to attack based on new and relatively simple technology. Drones can be flown long distances carrying weapons just powerful enough to attack oil facilities. Middle East tensions are severe enough that attempts at similar attacks are not over.

Oil futures do not trade based on the present. They trade on forecasts about oil supply and demand in the future. The future looks rocky and may well get much rockier soon.

We are truly in uncharted territory, and we desperately need peace and calm to prevail in the Middle East.

Sadly, that is not likely to happen, and every new wave of violence is going to mean more economic pain for all of us.

Permanent link to this article: http://discerningthetimes.me/?p=10048

Sep 17

If You Think The Price Of Oil Is Skyrocketing Now, Just Wait Until The War Starts…

September 15, 2019 by Michael Snyder

In the aftermath of the most dramatic attack on Saudi oil facilities that we have ever seen, the price of oil has exploded higher.  The Wall Street Journal is calling this attack “the Big One”, and President Trump appears to be indicating that some sort of military retaliation is coming.  Needless to say, a direct military strike on Iran could spark a major war in the Middle East, and that would be absolutely devastating for the entire global economy.  Just about everything that we buy has to be moved, and moving stuff takes energy.  When the price of oil gets really high, that tends to create inflation because the price of oil is a factor in virtually everything that we buy.  In addition, a really high price for oil also tends to slow down economic activity, and this is something that we witnessed just prior to the financial crisis of 2008.  And if this crisis in the Middle East stretches over an extended period of time, it could ultimately result in a phenomenon known as “stagflation” where we have rapidly rising prices and weaker economic activity simultaneously.  The last time we experienced such a thing was in the 1970s, and nobody really remembers the U.S. economy of the 1970s favorably.

The damage caused by the “drone attacks” in Saudi Arabia was immense.  According to the Daily Mail, “huge plumes of black smoke” could be seen pouring out of a key Saudi oil facility…

Infernos raged at the plant in Abqaiq, Bugayg, and the country’s second largest oilfield in Khurais yesterday morning after Tehran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen fired a flurry of rockets.

Huge plumes of black smoke could be seen coming from the oil facility.

Houthi rebels in Yemen have publicly taken responsibility for the attacks, but they may or may not be telling the truth.

At this point, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is completely rejecting that explanation, and he is claiming that there is “no evidence the strikes had come from Yemen”…

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran for coordinated strikes on the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, saying they marked an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply.

The strikes shut down half of the kingdom’s crude production on Saturday, potentially roiling petroleum prices and demonstrating the power of Iran’s proxies.

Iran-allied Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen claimed credit for the attack, saying they sent 10 drones to strike at important facilities in Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich Eastern Province. But Mr. Pompeo said there was no evidence the strikes had come from Yemen.

And according to Reuters, another unnamed “U.S. official” told them that the attacks came from “west-northwest of the targets”…

The U.S. official, who asked not to be named, said there were 19 points of impact in the attack on Saudi facilities and that evidence showed the launch area was west-northwest of the targets – the direction of Iran – not south from Yemen.

The official added that Saudi officials had indicated they had seen signs that cruise missiles were used in the attack, which is inconsistent with the Iran-aligned Houthi group’s claim that it conducted the attack with 10 drones.

Of course drones don’t have to travel in a straight line, and cruise missiles don’t either, and so we may never know for sure where the attacks originated.

But we do know that the Houthi rebels in Yemen are being backed by Iran, and we also know that the Shia militias in Iraq are also being backed by Iran.

So whether the attacks originated in Yemen, southern Iraq or Iran itself, it is not going to be too difficult for U.S. officials to place the blame on the Iranians, and we should expect some sort of military response.

In fact, President Trump posted the following message to Twitter just a little while ago…

Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!

Of course U.S. airstrikes against Iran itself could ultimately spark World War 3, and most Americans are completely clueless that we could literally be on the precipice of a major war.

According to the Saudis, the equivalent of 5.7 million barrels a day of oil production were affected by the attacks.  Saudi Arabia typically produces about 9.8 million barrels a day, and so that is a really big deal.

When the markets reopened on Sunday night, oil futures exploded higher.  In fact, according to Zero Hedge this was the biggest jump ever…

With traders in a state of near-frenzy, with a subset of fintwit scrambling (and failing) to calculate what the limit move in oil would be (hint: there is none for Brent), moments ago brent reopened for trading in the aftermath of Saturday’s attack on the “world’s most important oil processing plant“, and exploded some 20% higher, to a high of $71.95 from the Friday $60.22 close, its biggest jump since futures started trading in 1988.

As I write this article, the price of Brent crude is currently sitting at $66.89, although at least one analyst is warning that the price of oil could soon shoot up to “as high as $100 per barrel” if the Saudis are not able to quickly resume their previous level of production…

The oil market will rally by $5-10 per barrel when it opens on Monday and may spike to as high as $100 per barrel if Saudi Arabia fails to quickly resume oil supply lost after attacks over the weekend, traders and analysts said.

Saudi officials have already told us that they anticipate that a third of the lost oil output will be restored on Monday.

But because of the extensive damage that has been done, restoring the remainder of the lost output could take “weeks” or even “months”.

In the short-term, President Trump has “authorized the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve“, and that should help stabilize prices somewhat.

However, if a full-blown war with Iran erupts, nothing is going to be able to calm the markets.  In such a scenario, the price of oil could easily explode to a level that is four or five times higher than it is today, and that would essentially be the equivalent of slamming a baseball bat into the knees of the global economy.

The times that we are living in are about to become a whole lot more serious, but most Americans are not even paying attention to these absolutely critical global events.

In fact, even the mainstream media seems to believe that the new allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh are more important.

That is because they don’t understand what is really happening.

Trust me, keep a close eye on the Middle East, because things are about to start breaking loose there in a major way.

Permanent link to this article: http://discerningthetimes.me/?p=10042

Sep 17

Iran-Backed Militants Launch Drone Strike On Saudi Arabia’s Aramco Refineries Wiping Out Over Half Of The Kingdom’s Oil Refining Capabilities

Fires raged at the plant in Abqaiq, Bugayg, and the arab country’s second largest oilfield in Khurais this morning after mounting tensions between Riyadh and Tehran finally came to a head prompting Houthi rebels in Yemen to launch the flurry of rockets. A military spokesperson for these Yemeni rebels, who are locked into a bloody civil war, claimed responsibility for the strike on Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Aramco.

by Geoffrey Grider September 14, 2019

Half of Saudi Arabia’s oil production power is feared to have been wiped out after Iran-backed militants turned two of the world’s most valuable refineries into infernos with a devastating drone strike.

Iran is fighting a proxy war on many fronts including Saudi Arabia and Israel, by supplying weapons and funding to Islamic terror groups in Yemen, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. These one-off type of attacks can be, as you can see here, devastatingly effective. In this recent drone strike attack on Saudi Arabia, it wiped out half of the kingdom’s production power to produce oil.

So it’s a good thing that the United States, due largely to the shale boom in the Permian Basin of West Texas, has just this month surpassed Saudi Arabia at now over 11 million barrels per day. The United States isn’t expected to cede its crown any time soon. The EIA expects US oil production to stay ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia through 2019.

Attacks took place at 4.00 am at world’s largest oil processing plant Abqaiq

FROM DAILY MAIL UK: A eye-watering 5 million barrels per day of crude production has reportedly been destroyed – more than 50 per cent of the kingdom’s 9.65 million daily output which is relied upon around the globe. Fires raged at the plant in Abqaiq, Bugayg, and the arab country’s second largest oilfield in Khurais this morning after mounting tensions between Riyadh and Tehran finally came to a head prompting Houthi rebels in Yemen to launch the flurry of rockets.

A military spokesperson for these Yemeni rebels, who are locked into a bloody civil war, claimed responsibility for the strike on Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Aramco.

The Houthi fighters have previously launched attacks over the border, hitting Shaybah oilfield with drones last month and two oil pumping stations in May. Both attacks caused fires but did not disrupt production.

The Saudi government has not yet officially confirmed the scale of the damage, by two well-connected sources told Reuters that 5 million barrels worth of daily production had been impacted.  Yahia Sarie announced that the Houthi’s were taking responsibility for the attacks on Saturday in a televised address carried by the Houthi’s Al-Masirah satellite news channel.

He said the Houthis sent 10 drones to attack an oil processing facility in Buqyaq and the Khurais oil field, warning that attacks by the rebels against the kingdom would only get worse if the war in Yemen continues.

Sarie said: ‘The only option for the Saudi government is to stop attacking us.’

Iran denies supplying the Houthis with weapons, although the UN, the West and Gulf Arab nations say Tehran does. Drone models nearly identical to those used by Iran have been used in the conflict in Yemen. The attacks highlight how the increasingly advanced weaponry of the Iran-linked Houthi rebels – from ballistic missiles to unmanned drones – poses a serious threat to oil installations in Saudi Arabia, the world’s top crude exporter.

The international energy watchdog said that the global oil markets are for now ‘well supplied with ample commercial stocks.’ The International Energy Agency said in a statement: ‘We are in contact with Saudi authorities as well as major producer and consumer nations.

Permanent link to this article: http://discerningthetimes.me/?p=10039

Jul 23

Hezbollah Moves Troops To The Israeli Border As It Prepares To Attack If A U.S.-Iran War Breaks Out

July 21, 2019 by Michael Snyder

It has become exceedingly clear that if the U.S. and Iran go to war, the entire region is going to be set ablaze.  Iran has already threatened to hit Israel extremely hard if the U.S. attacks, and hordes of Hezbollah fighters are massing along Israel’s borders right now in anticipation of a military conflict.  As you will see below, it is estimated that Hezbollah now has 150,000 missiles of their own pointed at Israel, and one Hezbollah military officer recently warned that they “will fire the first shot this time”.  The war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 was highly destructive, but the truth is that it isn’t even worth comparing to what the next conflict will be like.  Today, Hezbollah is the most heavily armed terror organization the world has ever seen, and their forces are battle-hardened after spending many years engaged in the bloody war in Syria.  After victory after victory in that struggle, now those same fighters are being deployed along the Israeli border.  The following comes from the Daily Beast…

Hezbollah’s forces, battle-hardened in the Syrian civil war, have begun redeploying toward the Israeli border, not only in Lebanon, but in Syria opposite the Israeli-occupied side of the Golan Heights.

Hezbollah fighters who spoke to The Daily Beast say their organization is hurting from sanctions and ready to initiate hostilities—if and when Tehran deems that necessary.

All Tehran has to do is give the order and those forces are going in.

In fact, one Hezbollah commander that was interviewed by the Daily Beast is openly admitting that “we will fire the first shot this time”…

“The sanctions now have us preparing for dealing with the Israeli front,” says “Commander Samir,” a Hezbollah officer in charge of 800 fighters on Lebanon’s border with Israel. He declines to use his real name because he is not authorized to speak to the media. “We will fire the first shot this time,” he says.

As I keep warning, we are literally on the verge of World War 3 breaking out in the Middle East.

The moment U.S. missiles start hitting Iran, the Israelis will have to go on full alert because they will be attacked.

One Hezbollah official even said that “if any missile hits Iran, it will be treated like Israel did it”.

And let there be no doubt – Hezbollah is fully capable of raining down hell on Israeli cities.  According to a report in an Israeli news source from late last year, it is estimated that Hezbollah’s arsenal of missiles and rockets has now risen to 150,000…

The Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah’s arsenal of missiles and rockets has grown to 150,000, Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) revealed Sunday.

Speaking at a conference hosted by the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies on Sunday, Erdan highlighted the increasing military presence of Iran and its allies along the Israeli border, Israel Hayom reported.

Can you imagine the devastation that would be caused by 150,000 missiles and rockets being fired into an area roughly the size of New Jersey?

Yes, the Israeli military would intercept some of them, but many would get through.

Of course Israel has even more firepower, and they would undoubtedly win the conflict.  Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised that Israel would “act with tremendous force” if a war with Hezbollah were to erupt.

Unfortunately, it probably would not be just Hezbollah that Israel would be fighting.  The Iranians have also been “providing training and support” for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.  And it definitely raised eyebrows when a delegation from Hamas visited Tehran over the weekend.  The following comes from the Jerusalem Post…

The head of the political bureau of the Hamas terrorist movement, Ismail Haniyeh said on Saturday that he hoped that a visit by a senior Hamas delegation in Tehran over the weekend would provide “important results,” according to a Hamas press release on the terror group’s website.

In the end, Israel could find itself fighting Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Iran simultaneously, and such a war would be unlike anything we have ever seen before.

And the violence would not just be limited to the Middle East.  In a previous article, I detailed the enormous presence that Hezbollah already has in North America, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad definitely have a presence here too.

Could you imagine the chaos that we would see if all of those terrorists were suddenly unleashed and they started destroyed “soft targets” all across America?

So the Trump administration should think very, very carefully before going to war with Iran.  Because once it starts, there will be no going back.

At this point our border security is a complete and utter joke, and conservative activists have been documenting for years that illegal immigrants can hop back and forth across the border with ease.  For highly organized terror organizations, getting operatives into the United States is not exactly a problem.  They are here, and when the right moment comes, they will strike.

I have been loudly calling for the U.S. government to secure our borders for many years, but it hasn’t happened, and now we could pay a very great price for our foolishness.

All it is going to take is one wrong move for war to erupt.  Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are all preparing to fight, and all of them would throw literally everything that they have at the United States and Israel.

We do not want to fight a war against hordes of apocalyptic terrorists that hate us with a passion that most westerners cannot even imagine.  It would be a horrible, bloody, nightmarish war, and none of our lives would ever be the same again.

Permanent link to this article: http://discerningthetimes.me/?p=9949

Jul 23

Ancient Prophecy of Lunar Eclipse: A “Sultan” Will Die Suddenly

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz July 19, 2019 , 12:49 pm

“Here stand I and the children Hashem has given me as signs and portents in Yisrael from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Tzion.” Isaiah 8:18 (The Israel Bible™)

An esoteric Jewish source predicted that the lunar eclipse that passed over Jerusalem Tuesday night portends the sudden death of a “sultan” followed by great confusion and tragedy. The source, written over one hundred years ago, has proven to be shockingly accurate in the past, presaging the recent California earthquakes.

Rabbi Yosef Berger, the rabbi of King Davids Tomb on Mount Zion, personally witnessed the lunar eclipse that passed over Jerusalem on Tuesday night.

“I was at the Kotel (Western Wall) and saw the full moon slowly covered in shadow,” Rabbi Berger told Breaking Israel News. “It was a powerful sight when it passed over the gold dome.”

The rabbi noted that the Biblical characters were far more connected to nature than modern man.

“A modern man does not understand how God appears in nature, how God speaks to us through nature,” Rabbi Berger said. “To the prophets, this was very clear.”

The rabbi cited Yalkut Moshe, a book of kabbalistic insights written in 1894 by Rabbi Moshe ben Yisrael Benyamin in Munkacs, Poland.

“If the moon is eclipsed in the month of Tammuz, a ‘sultan’ will die suddenly and great troubles will follow,” Rabbi Berger quoting yet another esoteric source. “When the moon is eclipsed in Tammuz, a king of ‘luazi’ will die suddenly and a great confusion will follow, leading to great problems.”

“Luazi” is generally translated as foreign, as seen in the Book of Psalms.

When Yisrael went forth from Egypt, the house of Yaakov from a people of strange (foreign) speech. Psalms 114:1

“This clearly refers to troubles for the non-Jews,” Rabbi Berger said, citing the Talmud. “The word ‘sultan’ is not generally used. It is only used in reference to Arab leaders. And since the Muslims mark their months only by the moon, this seems to be a sign for them, those who built the gold dome that sits atop the Holy of Holies.”

This lunar eclipse comes two weeks after a solar eclipse passed over the South Pacific. The eclipse coincided with Rosh Chodesh, the new moon marking the beginning of the Hebrew month Tammuz.  In his book Davar B’ito, a guide to the calendar based on esoteric Jewish sources, Rabbi Mordechai Genut brought Jewish sources stating that a new moon in Tammuz was a sign that great earthquakes were imminent.

“There will be a marked increase in earthquakes and volcanoes, even more than we have seen in the past year,” Rabbi Genuth said. “Just as the eclipse is a conflict between the sun and the moon to rule over the heavens, there will be a similar conflict on earth. This will begin a time when governments are in balance. Some governments that seem powerful right now will fall and others will rise in their place.”

The prediction proved to be accurate when the first of two major earthquakes that hit California last week came on Thursday, on the eve of Rosh Chodesh Tammuz.

Permanent link to this article: http://discerningthetimes.me/?p=9946

Jun 28

A First: Arab Country Asks Israel for Peace Without Even Losing a War to them

By David Sidman June 27, 2019 , 11:44 am

His sons Yitzchak and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah Genesis 25:9 (The Israel Bible™)

The foreign minister of Bahrain, Khalid bin Ahmed al Khalifa said that his country recognizes Israel’s right to exist, knows that it is “there to stay,” and wants peace with it reports The Times of Israel. Unlike Egypt and Jordan, this makes Bahrain the first Arab country to express interest in peace with Israel without first having lost a war to them.

Referring to the Arab Peace initiative, Khalifa said “We offered it to Israel. So we do believe that Israel is a country to stay, and we want better relations with it, and we want peace with it.” The Bahraini official added, “we know our brothers in the region do believe in it”.

Khalifa noted the Arab Peace Initiative as the outline for normalization with Israel. Israel’s rejection of the proposal is a “missed opportunity,” he stated, but Jerusalem can always rethink its position.

He advised Israelis to communicate to Arab leaders regarding any issues they might have with the plan. 

“Come and talk to us. Talk to us about it. Say, guys, you have a good initiative, but we have one thing that worries us,” he added.

The Arab League’s “Peace Plan” is an initiative that offered Israel “normal relations” in exchange for a withdrawal to the 1967 borders and resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue.

Among other things, the plan includes a demand that Israel withdraws from the Golan Heights, a position that stands in direct contradiction from the US, who recently recognized the Golan as an integral part of Israel. 

Permanent link to this article: http://discerningthetimes.me/?p=9904

Jun 27

DEAL OF THE CENTURY: Jared Kushner Just Released His Middle East Plan For ‘Peace To Prosperity’ And The Saudi Kingdom Is Urging The Palestinians To Accept It, They Just Might Do It

“History and Allah brought a real opportunity,” a top-ranking Saudi diplomat told Israelis via an interview in Globes on Friday. “The blood conflict had lasted too long. Us Saudis and all Gulf States plus Egypt and Jordan realize that the age of going to war with Israel is over.”    Pointing to “the advantages of normalizing relations,” he argued that “the whole Arab world could benefit from it,” Globes reported.  The plan — formally dubbed “Peace to Prosperity” — said that the economic package, if implemented, would double the Palestinians’ gross domestic product, create more than one million jobs in the territories, reduce Palestinian unemployment.

by Geoffrey Grider June 23, 2019

Days before the US-sponsored Bahrain conference, Jared Kushner and the White House released its proposal to boost the Palestinian economy by offering a $50 billion aid package that can only be implemented through an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

On one hand, the ‘Peace To Prosperity’ Middle East peace plan created by Jared Kushner seems to be little more than giving the Palestinians an obscene amount of money, in this case $50 billion in cash, loans, incentives including allocation to Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon. But when I took a closer look at the mechanics of it, I saw something else lurking in the shadows that just may contain the right ingredients to push this thing through. What is that, you ask? The newly-forged alliance between the Trump White House and the Saudi Kingdom.

“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” Daniel 9:27 (KJV)

Having the backing of the Saudi Kingdom is a potential game-changer in getting the Palestinians to the table. The close bond between Benjamin Netanyahu and both Jared Kushner and Donald Trump ensures that Israel is already at the table. Are all the elements in place to finally see the ‘deal of the century’ successfully consumated? We shall see, but know this. If it is, then it is not only the ‘deal of the century’, it will be the prophetic ‘deal of the millennium’ and Jared Kushner will be the Antichrist. Let’s see how far it goes, popcorn anyone?

Jared Kushner finally unveils ‘Peace to Prosperity’ economic plan for Palestinians

FROM TIMES OF ISRAEL: The 40-page plan, which Senior Adviser Jared Kushner will push in Manama next week, rests on three initiatives, according to the document — to “unleash the economic potential” of the Palestinians, “empower the Palestinians to realize their ambitions,” and “enhance Palestinian governance.”

Neither Israeli officials nor Palestinians will be attending the confab. Palestinians have refused to participate, or engage at all with the Trump administration since it moved the US embassy to Jerusalem. Israeli officials and ministers were not invited, though a business delegation will be attending. A senior administration official told The Times of Israel that they wanted the focus of the gathering to be “on the economic aspect, not the political.”

Arab nations such as Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have all said they would participate in the conference.

REMEMBER THIS? HAS THE NEWLY-FORMED FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN WASHINGTON AND SAUDI ARABIA BECOME THE ‘SECRET WEAPON’ IN JARED KUSHNER’S ‘PEACE TO PROSPERITY’ PLAN?

The plan — formally dubbed “Peace to Prosperity” — said that the economic package, if implemented, would double the Palestinians’ gross domestic product, create more than one million jobs in the territories, reduce Palestinian unemployment to single digits (it was 31 percent in 2018, according to the World Bank), and cut the Palestinian poverty rate by 50%.

Permanent link to this article: http://discerningthetimes.me/?p=9897

May 30

Muslim Congresswoman And Anti-Semite Ilhan Omar Gives A Fiery Racist Speech Proclaims That America Will ‘No Longer Be A Country Of White People’

Speaking at a “Black Women in Defense of Ilhan Omar” event on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., Muslim Rep. Ilhan Omar blamed President Donald Trump for a rise in Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in America. She also declared, “This is not going to be the country of white people.” Soak that in for a second.

by Geoffrey Grider May 25, 2019

Speaking at a “Black Women in Defense of Ilhan Omar” event on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., Rep. Ilhan Omar declared, “This is not going to be the country of white people.”

Muslim congresswoman Ilhan Omar has gotten herself into a load of trouble after being sworn in back in January with seemingly endless outbursts and invectives against the Jews in general and against Israel in particular. First, she denounced Israel as a terror state in a fiery Twitter attack, she said that the Muslim terrorists who slaughtered 3,000 on 9/11 were just “some people who did something‘. It got so bad that Congress was forced to pass a bill denouncing anti-semitism.  Now Ilhan Omar wants you to know that white people will have no place in the new America that she and her Democratic Socialist buddies want to create. If you doubt she actually used those words, watch the video below.

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” Ronald Reagan

Racism in America will never go away as long as there are Liberals and Progressives around to keep it alive. It is their bread and butter, without the race card they would have no platform and nothing to stand on. Ilhan Omar and all her friends seek to destroy the America the Founding Fathers put together. And if Trump doesn’t win in 2020, it might actually happen.

Muslim Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar: America Is Not Going to Be the ‘Country of White People’

FROM LIFEZETTE: Speaking at a “Black Women in Defense of Ilhan Omar” event on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) blamed President Donald Trump for a rise in Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in America. She also declared, “This is not going to be the country of white people.”

Soak that in for a second.

Aside from the fact that Omar herself is personally responsible for bigoted rhetoric in America, imagine, if you will, a Republican attending a rally called “White Men in Defense of Donald Trump” — and then telling the crowd, “This is not going to be the country of

[insert race here]

people.”

Silver lining here: It appears Omar is at least no longer hiding the fact that she is part of a “coin of bigotry.”

Because on that one side — the anti-Semitic side — there is Omar, whose legacy includes references to Israel as “evil,” comparisons of Israel to Iran, repeated anti-Semitic tropes, support of the BDS movement, and the public badgering of a Jewish diplomat. The rally was held in defense of Omar after President Trump called her out for minimizing the terrorist attacks.

Just getting warmed up.

Omar didn’t stop at one clearly racist comment. No, she was just getting warmed up. “The thing that upsets the occupant in the White House, his goons in the Republican Party, many of our colleagues in the Democratic Party, is that they can’t stand … that a refugee, a black woman, an immigrant, a Muslim shows up in Congress thinking she’s equal to them,” Omar claimed.

Perhaps they’re more concerned with the one adjective she left out: “ignorant.”

While she was busy denouncing half of America as xenophobes and blasting white people, Omar took a stand to defend her home of Somalia.

“I also happen to be a refugee and immigrant from what they call one of the s***hole countries,” she said in reference to Trump’s infamous comments. “The reality is that s***hole country raised a very proud, dignified person.”

Then there was this little moment when she praised Angela Davis — a Communist, a fellow anti-Semite, a once-proud honoree of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitive List, and a clear accessory to murder in a case involving the kidnapping and killing of a judge.

Aside from that, it was a pretty good speech.

Why she gets away with it. The Democrat Party is directly to blame for Omar’s feeling emboldened to make continuous racist and anti-Semitic remarks. Her colleague in Congress, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), has classified criticism of Omar as stoking Islamophobia, even railing against her “white or male” colleagues.

When the Democrats aren’t echoing her bigotry, they’re actively defending it by issuing watered-down resolutions denouncing different forms of generic “hate.”

She even gets away with criticizing John McCain, which the liberal media has made clear is strictly verboten. Why is it OK for Omar to spread her bigotry? Because racist groups, the Democrat Party, and the mainstream media are all perfectly content with it

Permanent link to this article: http://discerningthetimes.me/?p=9851

May 22

Saudi Arabia Intercepts Houthi Missiles Headed for Mecca, Embassy Says

The ballistic missiles, reportedly intercepted over Taif, were fired by Yemeni Houthi rebels and were headed for Islam’s holiest city as well as Jeddah, a port city on the Red Sea

Jack Khoury

May 21, 2019 11:39 AM

Saudi Arabia intercepted two Houthi ballistic missiles fired from Yemen over Taif on Monday, Riyadh’s embassy in Washington said. One of the missiles was heading for Mecca and the other for Jeddah, Saudi news outlet Al Arabiya cited eyewitnesses as saying. 

The kingdom’s air defenses reportedly destroyed the missiles. 

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement denied the reports. “The Saudi regime is trying, through these allegations, to rally support for its brutal aggression against our great Yemeni people,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said on Facebook .

Al Arabiya reported that an official Saudi comment was expected later in the day. 

Last week, Saudi Arabia reported that Houthi explosive-laden drones struck two Saudi oil pumping stations. Citing a source in the group, Yemen’s Houthi-controlled SABA news agency said Sunday that the targeting of these installations was the beginning of military operations against 300 vital military targets.

Other targets included military headquarters and facilities in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia as well as their bases in Yemen, SABA quoted the source as saying.

Saudi Arabia’s deputy defense minister accused Iran of ordering the attack on the Saudi oil pumping stations which Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militia claimed responsibility for

Last week, a state-aligned Saudi newspaper called for “surgical” U.S. strikes in retaliation against alleged threats from Iran. 

The Arab News published an editorial in English, arguing that after incidents this week against Saudi energy targets, the next logical step “should be surgical strikes.”

The editorial says U.S. airstrikes in Syria, when the government there was suspected of using chemical weapons against civilians, “set a precedent.”

It added that it’s “clear that [U.S.] sanctions are not sending the right message” and that Iran “must be hit hard,” without elaborating on what specific targets should be struck.

The newspaper’s publisher is the Saudi Research and Marketing Group, a company that had long been chaired by various sons of King Salman until 2014 and is regarded as reflecting official position. Turki bin Salman al Saud owns the group and is the brother of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman..

Permanent link to this article: http://discerningthetimes.me/?p=9834

May 22

The “Cultural Intifada” Israel is Losing on the Temple Mount

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz May 20, 2019 , 2:01 pm

“And they gave money to the quarriers and to the artisans, and food and drink and oil to the Zidonians and to the Tyrians to bring cedar wood from Lebanon to the sea of Jaffa, by the sanction of Cyrus the king of Persia upon them.”Ezra 3:7 (The Israel Bible™)

Visitors to the Temple Mount have documented timbers from the First and Second Temple being abused in a manner that will ultimately lead to their destruction.

In March, Palestinians rioted on the Temple Mount, breaking into an area adjacent to Sha’ar HaRachamim (Gate of Mercy, also known as the Golden Gate). The site was locked 16 years ago by court order after it was used as a meeting place for a Hamas-affiliated organization.

Their actions were in gross violation of agreements between Israel and Jordan concerning the site. In 1967 there was one mosque on the Temple Mount: the silver-domed al Aqsa. Due to Mulsim expansionism, there are currently five areas set aside for Muslim prayer that are off-limits to non-Muslims. As per the initial agreement, non-Muslims are restricted from praying on the Temple Mount.

This area is incredibly sensitive for political as well as religious reasons and this violation led to international negotiations involving Jordan and the United States. Several court orders were issued by the Israeli High Court. The Waqf ignored these summonses and ultimately was allowed de facto control over the site.

According to Jewish tradition, the Messiah will arrive via the Sha’ar HaRachamim. Out of a mistaken belief that Jewish tradition speaks of the Messiah being from the priestly caste, the Ottomans built a cemetery in front of the gate in order to prevent the Jewish Messiah from arriving.

In addition to religious interests, the site has archaeological significance that is being overlooked. Adjacent to the site is a pile of timber covered in a tarpaulin. Though they appear to be refuse and are treated as such by the Muslims, some of these timbers are from Solomon’s Temple. Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount have noted that refuse is being piled on top of these precious timbers.

Dr. Gabriel Barkay is familiar with Waqf abuses leading to the destruction of artifacts. He began the Temple Mount Sifting project in 2005 after Waqf renovations to Solomon’s Stables resulted in over 400 truckloads of material containing artifacts being removed from the Temple Mount and dumped in landfills. Much of the material was lost but Dr. Barkay’s Sifting Project has succeeded in recovering many of these invaluable remnants from the Jewish Temples.

Dr. Barkay explained the history and significance of the timbers.

“The earthquake in 1927 caused extensive damage to the Aqsa Mosque, causing it to collapse,” Dr. Barkay explained to Breaking Isreal News. “The roofing beams were dismantled and later, at the request of the Waqf, the beams were studied by Robert W. Hamilton, director of antiquities for the British Mandate. He described most of the beams and wooden panels as being from the early Islamic Ummayad Dynasty from the Eighth Century. The best examples were taken to be displayed at the Rockefeller Museum near Jerusalem where they are on display to this day.”

Dr. Barkay explained that some of the beams are currently in the Islamic Museum on the Temple Mount. Others were stored underneath the Temple Mount in Solomon’s Stables.

“When that area was turned into the Marwani Mosque, the beams were moved and many of them disappeared,” Dr. Barkay said. “The leftovers were put in the outer courtyard next to the Golden Gate.”

Some of the beams were sold to an Armenian wood merchant and even more disappeared.

“They were sold as scrap wood,” Dr. Barkay said. “It is quite possible that some ended up as firewood.”

Some timbers found their way to the town of Ofra in Samaria where they are being stored. Some of these beams have Arabic inscriptions and decorations while others have Roman inscriptions and decorations.

In the 1970’s, the beams were checked by a team of Israeli botanists who determined that most of them were cedars from Lebanon and some are Cyprus trees. They carried out Carbon-14 tests on several of the timbers.  Some were determined to have been felled about 1,340 years ago which is approximately when al Aqsa Mosque was originally built. One cypress beam was determined to be was found to be 2,600 years, or around 630 BCE, around 50 years before the destruction of the First Temple.

Shockingly, one of the oak beams was determined to be 2,860 years old. That meant the tree had been cut down around 880 BCE, early in the First Temple period.

“It may be that these beams were used in al Aqsa Mosque as a secondary use,” Dr. Barkay said. “It is possible that when al Aqsa was first built, the builders used materials that were on site from the destroyed Jewish Temples.”

About a decade ago, the Israeli Antiquities Authority wanted to preserve the beams but the Waqf insisted the beams are their property. There have been unconfirmed sightings of some of the beams stored next to the Golden Gate being burned.

“It is a very sad situation when antiquities of this importance are destroyed,” Dr. Barkay said. “Past experience has shown that the Waqf does not care about the antiquities of any civilization but their own. And here we see that they don’t even care to preserve artifacts from their own history.”

“When the Waqf worked with heavy machinery and carted away over 400 truckloads of earth from the Temple Mount, they showed a barbaric approach. They for sure should not be entrusted to take care of such delicate and important antiquities.  These artifacts are important for the history of all of humanity and civilization. We see here, as in other nations, that the Muslim attitude towards history and the past is entirely lacking tolerance and respect. This is a war of civilization; the Islamic civilization against all others. It is, quite simply, a cultural intifada.”

The appearance of refuse at the Golden Gate is additionally disturbing because it may indicate that the Waqf is renovating the site into a more permanent prayer area. Shortly after the riots that opened the area to Muslims, the Waqf requested permission from the Israeli authorities to perform these renovations at the site and they were denied. If the renovations are extensive, then even more artifacts will be destroyed.

Permanent link to this article: http://discerningthetimes.me/?p=9831