IRAN ALREADY HAS NUKES

Iran’s Sajjil-2 ballistic missile (FARS News Agency)

“Iran will never get a nuclear weapon on my watch,” says Joe Biden often and unconvincingly. He said it to Israeli prime ministers Bennett in 2021 and Lapid in 2022. He has even threatened to use military force “as a last resort.” A cynic would suggest that Biden’s attempt to forge another Obama-like “nuclear deal” is designed to ensure that Iran gets a nuclear weapon on the next president’s watch. A pessimist believes it’s too late.

As a pessimist by nature, I’m afraid that the window of opportunity to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb has closed. Iran is already a nuclear power, and decades of dithering, cajoling, and appeasing by past U.S. administrations from Clinton to Biden (especially Obama) have given it the time and political cover to build several nuclear bombs. Even the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) now estimates that Iran is only several weeks away from having “the approximate amount of nuclear material for . . . manufacturing a nuclear explosive device,” which, given the IAEA’s spotty record, probably means that threshold was crossed months if not years ago.  (“It’s too late to prevent an Iranian nuke,” AJ Caschetta, National Review, MEF, 9/16/2022)

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RIOTS IN TEHRAN

There have been amazing scenes in Iran. Women have been burning their headscarves and cutting off their hair in protest at the death of 22 year-old Mahsa Amini following her arrest by Tehran’s morality police. 

Amini died after three days in a coma. Witnesses have claimed she was beaten on the head with a baton while being dragged into a police van to be taken to a detention centre for not wearing a headscarf.  

Since Iran’s Islamic revolutionary regime came to power in 1979, women have not only been required to wear headscarves but have also been banned from wearing tight trousers, ripped jeans, brightly colored outfits or clothing that reveals the knee.

Tehran’s police chief, General Hossein Rahimi, said Amini had violated the dress code. The police have rebutted the accusations of brutality and claimed she died of a heart attack. But Col. Ahmed Mirzaei, the head of the moral security police of Greater Tehran, has reportedly been suspended.

The move failed to prevent massive unrest which has now been going on for four days.  The Telegraph reports:  Videos posted on social media showed protesters setting fire to hijabs while chanting promises to “take revenge” for “our sister” Amini, who died in hospital on Friday after three days in a coma following her arrest during a visit to the capital… (“An inflection point for Iran,” Melanie Phillips, 9/21/2022)

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BRITS BLAMED FOR BIAFRAN WAR

I’m mortified by the hideous and historically inaccurate claims’: Nigerian academic slams Carnegie Mellon professor for saying Queen ignited Nigerian Civil War – calling it ‘propaganda and pseudo history’  (Mail,  9/15/2022)

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Ultra-processed Foods –  it’s not just their low nutritional value that’s a concern – The Conversation, 12 Sept 2022

In countries such as the UK, US and Canada, ultra-processed foods now account for 50% or more of calories consumed. This is concerning, given that these foods have been linked to a number of different health conditions, including a greater risk of obesity and various chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and dementia.

Ultra-processed foods are concoctions of various industrial ingredients (such as emulsifiers, thickeners and artificial flavours), amalgamated into food products by a series of manufacturing processes.  Sugary drinks and many breakfast cereals are ultra-processed foods, as are more recent innovations, such as so-called “plant-based” burgers, which are typically made of protein isolates and other chemicals to make the products palatable. The intense industrial processes used to produce ultra-processed foods destroy the natural structure of the food ingredients and strip away many beneficial nutrients such as fibre, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. 

(https://theconversation.com/ultra-processed-foods-its-not-just-their-low-nutritional-value-thats-a-concern-189918)

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EU SEEKS GLOBAL BLOC

In its power struggle against Russia and China, the EU is aiming at the formation of a global bloc, seeking to comprehensively expand the Western bloc and to move against foreign powers’ “Trojan horses” at home, according to yesterday’s State of the Union Address by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The transatlantic bloc, which includes some Asia-Pacific nations, will thus be given the positively connotated label of “democracies.” It is to include as many African and Latin American nations as possible and juxtaposed with a non-western bloc, which will be given the negatively connotated label “autocracies.” While the EU is fostering the formation of a bloc, in the non-Western “rest” of the world – i.e., three quarters of all nations – new alliances are forming, seeking a multipolar international order. Besides Russia and China, these include India Brazil and South Africa. Diverse countries such as Argentina, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia are seeking to join BRICS or SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization). (German Foreign Policy, 9/17/2022)

One of the most influential German dailies is offering a sort of constructive assessment of the German government’s repeated claims to leadership at EU and global levels. These claims to leadership are not new. Already more than ten years ago, the chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Volker Kauder, had spoken of a “Zeitenwende” (historical turning point) and openly declared that Berlin must “lead Europe into a new era.” For several months, a growing number of Berlin’s top politicians – including federal minsters – have again been forging ahead and declaring, like Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, “we are prepared to take the lead.” To implement the claim to leadership, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is calling for the introduction of decision-making by majority rule in EU foreign policy. This will hardly work, according to the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung: Some EU states have already balked at implementing less stringent decisions on the redistribution of refugees within the Union. Recently, Berlin has all too often limited itself to “demanding allegiance.” If it seeks success in the future, it must proceed in a “cooperative” manner.  (German Foreign Policy, 7/21/2022)

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INFLATION REDUCTION ACT

The IRS deliberately sets about impoverishing many Americans by increasing taxes “on everyone” and increasing tax audits at the same time as prices are skyrocketing. Imposing steeper taxes at a time of steeper prices may not mean that much to the rich, but has the effect of a stealth double-tax that crushes especially middle- and working-class families, who now find themselves forced to choose between necessities such as food, gasoline or rent. Reports state that 42% of Americans are struggling financially. (Gatestone, 9/7/2022)

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TO THE POINT

• US WILL DEFEND TAIWAN – Joe Biden has once again said the US would defend Taiwan in the event of an “unprecedented attack” by China. Asked to clarify if he meant that rather than supplying weapons or aid, US forces would actually defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, Biden replied: “Yes.” After the remawere broadcast by CBS, the White House said that US policy had not changed. The US has long held a policy of “strategic ambiguity” on the question of Taiwanese independence.  (The Week, 9/19/2022)

• UK RIOTS BETWEEN HINDUS AND MUSLIMS – Fifteen people have been arrested in Leicester following unrest in the city over the weekend. The arrests came amid tensions involving mainly young men from sections of the Muslim and Hindu communities including “violence after an India vs Pakistan cricket match”, said the BBC. Police said the latest arrests were “to deter further disorder.” Sanjiv Patel, who represents Hindu and Jain temples across Leicester, said he was deeply saddened by the disturbances. Suleman Nagdi, of the Leicester-based Federation of Muslim Organizations, said the violence had been “very alarming.”  (The Week, 9/19/2022)

• New Zealand becomes the first country to grant all women the right to vote 19^th September, 1893

• One of the people in line to view the queen’s coffin suddenly bolted from the 14-hour queue and charged the casket.  Police grappled him to the floor.  His name was Muhammed Khan.  David Beckham was in the line.  He waited a little over 12 hours.  He received no special favors.  Members of Parliament did, which upset people. 

FINAL THOUGHT

In the Bible certain numbers are of great significance.   The numbers 70 and 40 are both significant.  It remains to be seen if the 70 years that Elizabeth II was on the throne were of biblical significance.  She was also the 40th monarch in a line that began with William the Conqueror in 1066.   We should wait and see what follows her reign.  Something big could happen.

I had no idea until last week that prayers are said every Sabbath in synagogues across the UK for the Queen /King.  Melanie Phillips has been a particularly good news source at this time of transition.  In the second extract you will find the words: Some British monarchs in the past have even purportedly traced their line back to King David.  Be sure to read both.

“In any event, his own deep belief in promoting harmony reinforces the fundamental duty of the British monarchy — to unify the nation.

In that duty, the British crown has patterned itself since antiquity on the monarchy of King David, who forged a united kingdom out of disparate tribes and whose own power was limited through alternative power bases of priests, prophets and judges.

Charles III is the latest British monarch in that Davidic tradition. God save the King. And God save British Jews.”  (“The defender of faith,” Melanie Phillips, Jewish Chronicle, 9/18/2022).

The monarch in Britain is consecrated to a higher king. At the coronation — which will take place next year — Charles will be anointed. The oath that he takes is not to the people but to God.

That’s why his duty to serve the people is unbreakable. And that’s why the monarch is a unifying force, and melds the people into a united nation. The royal family helps forge the country into a kind of national family.

Citizens of republics often find it hard to appreciate the benefits of a constitutional monarchy. By enshrining the identity of the nation above and beyond temporal politics, the constitutional monarch acts as a focus for unity often denied to countries that have instead elected presidents as their head of state.

Few also appreciate that the British monarchy is patterned on ancient Israel. It’s why the monarch is anointed; it’s why Handel’s “Zadok the Priest,” with its words taken from the first Book of Kings, has been sung at every English coronation since 973 CE. Some British monarchs in the past have even purportedly traced their line back to King David.

True, ancient Israel was a theocracy and was also eventually destroyed by internal divisions. Nevertheless, it developed a concept of governance that was to serve as a template for both Britain and America.

The genius of the monarchy invented by King David was that it brought together, as one governable nation, otherwise disparate and potentially warring tribes. 

Even more revolutionary was the ancient Israelites’ concept of limited governance. Their king didn’t enjoy absolute power. He was constrained from below by the authority vested in priests, prophets and judges, and from above by the belief that the supreme ruler whose laws even the king had to follow was the Almighty himself. 

Under Oliver Cromwell, some even advocated turning parliament into a sanhedrin or supreme council patterned on the biblical high court of Judea. 

Just as Britain’s constitutional monarchy is generally not understood in republican countries, nor is the relationship in Britain between church and state in which the Crown plays a central role.  (‘The Momentous task for King Charles III,” Melanie Phillips, 9/16/2022)

‘For this is what the LORD says:  David will have a descendant sitting on the throne of Israel forever.”  (Jeremiah 33:7 New Living translation)