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10 Spiritually Transmitted Diseases

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10 Spiritually Transmitted Diseases

It is a jungle out there, and it is no less true about spiritual life than any other aspect of life. Do we really think that just because someone has been meditating for five years, or doing 10 years of yoga practice, that they will be any less neurotic than the next person? At best, perhaps they will be a little bit more aware of it. A little bit.

It is for this reason that I spent the last 15 years of my life researching and writing books on cultivating discernment on the spiritual path in all the gritty areas–power, sex, enlightenment, gurus, scandals, psychology, neurosis — as well as earnest, but just plain confused and unconscious, motivations on the path. My partner (author and teacher Marc Gafni) and I are developing a new series of books, courses and practices to bring further clarification to these issues.

Several years ago, I spent a summer living and working in South Africa. Upon my arrival I was instantly confronted by the visceral reality that I was in the country with the highest murder rate in the world, where rape was common and more than half the population was HIV-positive — men and women, gays and straights alike.

As I have come to know hundreds of spiritual teachers and thousands of spiritual practitioners through my work and travels, I have been struck by the way in which our spiritual views, perspectives and experiences become similarly “infected” by “conceptual contaminants” — comprising a confused and immature relationship to complex spiritual principles can seem as invisible and insidious as a sexually transmitted disease.

10 Spiritually Transmitted Diseases

The following 10 categorizations are not intended to be definitive but are offered as a tool for becoming aware of some of the most common spiritually transmitted diseases.

1. Fast-Food Spirituality: Mix spirituality with a culture that celebrates speed, multitasking and instant gratification and the result is likely to be fast-food spirituality. Fast-food spirituality is a product of the common and understandable fantasy that relief from the suffering of our human condition can be quick and easy. One thing is clear, however: spiritual transformation cannot be had in a quick fix.

2. Faux Spirituality: Faux spirituality is the tendency to talk, dress and act as we imagine a spiritual person would. It is a kind of imitation spirituality that mimics spiritual realization in the way that leopard-skin fabric imitates the genuine skin of a leopard.

3. Confused Motivations: Although our desire to grow is genuine and pure, it often gets mixed with lesser motivations, including the wish to be loved, the desire to belong, the need to fill our internal emptiness, the belief that the spiritual path will remove our suffering and spiritual ambition, the wish to be special, to be better than, to be “the one.”

4. Identifying with Spiritual Experiences: In this disease, the ego identifies with our spiritual experience and takes it as its own, and we begin to believe that we are embodying insights that have arisen within us at certain times. In most cases, it does not last indefinitely, although it tends to endure for longer periods of time in those who believe themselves to be enlightened and/or who function as spiritual teachers.

5. The Spiritualized Ego: This disease occurs when the very structure of the egoic personality becomes deeply embedded with spiritual concepts and ideas. The result is an egoic structure that is “bullet-proof.” When the ego becomes spiritualized, we are invulnerable to help, new input, or constructive feedback. We become impenetrable human beings and are stunted in our spiritual growth, all in the name of spirituality.

6. Mass Production of Spiritual Teachers: There are a number of current trendy spiritual traditions that produce people who believe themselves to be at a level of spiritual enlightenment, or mastery, that is far beyond their actual level. This disease functions like a spiritual conveyor belt: put on this glow, get that insight, and — bam! — you’re enlightened and ready to enlighten others in similar fashion. The problem is not that such teachers instruct but that they represent themselves as having achieved spiritual mastery.

7. Spiritual Pride: Spiritual pride arises when the practitioner, through years of labored effort, has actually attained a certain level of wisdom and uses that attainment to justify shutting down to further experience. A feeling of “spiritual superiority” is another symptom of this spiritually transmitted disease. It manifests as a subtle feeling that “I am better, more wise and above others because I am spiritual.”

8. Group Mind: Also described as groupthink, cultic mentality or ashram disease, group mind is an insidious virus that contains many elements of traditional co-dependence. A spiritual group makes subtle and unconscious agreements regarding the correct ways to think, talk, dress, and act. Individuals and groups infected with “group mind” reject individuals, attitudes, and circumstances that do not conform to the often unwritten rules of the group.

9. The Chosen-People Complex: The chosen people complex is not limited to Jews. It is the belief that “Our group is more spiritually evolved, powerful, enlightened and, simply put, better than any other group.” There is an important distinction between the recognition that one has found the right path, teacher or community for themselves, and having found The One.

10. The Deadly Virus:
“I Have Arrived”: This disease is so potent that it has the capacity to be terminal and deadly to our spiritual evolution. This is the belief that “I have arrived” at the final goal of the spiritual path. Our spiritual progress ends at the point where this belief becomes crystallized in our psyche, for the moment we begin to believe that we have reached the end of the path, further growth ceases.

These are but a few of countless Spiritually Transmitted Diseases that we encounter on the path. It is not a matter of if we encounter obstacles but when. Yet on the path to truth, each level of obscuration we encounter is but a doorway into greater discernment and clarity. It is a mark of human maturity to continually unfold deeper levels of spiritual integration, and to gracefully admit to error and refine our knowledge as we grow.

10 Spiritually Transmitted Diseases

Adapted from Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path (Sounds True)

Mariana Caplan, PhD, is a psychotherapist and the author of seven books and numerous articles in the fields of psychology and spirituality, including the seminal Halfway Up the Mountain: the Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment, the recent release The Guru Question: The Perils and Rewards of Choosing a Spiritual Teacher, and Eyes Wide Open, which won five national awards for Best Spiritual Book of 2010. She has spent 20 years researching controversial topics in spirituality and cutting edge psychologies, and dialoguing with the great spiritual teachers, scholars, and luminaries of our time. She is a leading spiritual psychologist, using somatic approaches to psychotherapy to support spiritual practitioners and teachers with the process of healing trauma and moving towards psychospiritual integration, and working with the complex discernments that arise in the context of spiritual practice and in spiritual communities. She is also a teacher and great lover of yoga, and the ecstatic mother of Baby Zion.

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The Reptilian Aliens and the Council of the 13 'Royal' Families

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Excerpts from Blue Blood, True Blood: Conflict & Creation

The leader of the Earth's Illuminati is called the "Pindar". The Pindar is a member of one of the 13 ruling Illuminati families, and is always male. The title, Pindar, is an abbreviated term for "Pinnacle of the Draco", also known as the "Penis of the Dragon".

Symbolically, this represents the top of power, control, creation, penetration, expansion, invasion, and fear. The holder of this rank reports to the purebred Reptilian leader in the inner Earth.

The Reptilian Aliens and the Council of the 13 'Royal' Families

 Recently, there are reports that the Marquis de Libeaux is the Pindar, but this is disinformation. The true current Pindar is the head of the Rothschild family, as has been for several hundred years.

He is based in Germany near Frankfurt. In the late 1970s, he oversaw the sister project to Montauk, called M.A.L.D.A. is an anagram for Montauk-Alsace-Lorraine Dimensional Activation. This project was located near the city of Strasbourg, France, historically once part of Germany.

Interestingly, there is a winery on the east end of Long Island, not far from Montauk Point, called Pindar Vineyards. This wine is growing in popularity, gaining international accolades.
This fits nicely into the plan, as this area will be a part of the capital district of the Earth/United Nations in the Empire State! Red wine is symbolic of the blood ingested by the Reptilians.

The wine can become sanctified as it did in the Roman Catholic Church, a patsy for the Reptilians. In the Catholic Church, wine replaced the blood in ceremony.

The Illuminati here on Earth have established a pyramid structure of control identical to the system that exists in the Draco Empire. The pyramid with the Reptilian eye, located on the American one-dollar bill, is symbolic of this control structure.

The eye is the cap on the pyramid, thus explaining why the original surface of the Great Pyramid in Egypt was capped in solid gold.

The Pindar is represented by the gold cap on the pyramid. The next layer, or "eye", on the pyramid represents the 13 ruling families. They are as follows:

  •   Rothschild (Bauer or Bower) - Pindar
  • Bruce
  • Cavendish (Kennedy)
  • De Medici
  • Hanover
  • Hapsburg
  • Krupp
  • Plantagenet
  • Rockefeller
  • Romanov
  • Sinclair (St. Clair)
  • Warburg (del Banco)
  • Windsor (Saxe-Coburg-Gothe)

Each of the 13 ruling families is given an area of the Earth and/or a particular function to fulfill on the Earth. These particular functions include global finances, military technology / development, mind-control, religion, and media.

Each of the 13 ruling families has a Council of 13 as well. The number, 13, has great significance to them. They know that there are 12 types of energies that pass through the 10 aspects of God-Mind. The totality of the 12 energies equals a 13th energy. This is considered the most powerful knowledge.
They also know that there are really 13 Zodiac signs, not the commonly acknowledged 12. They have kept the 13th hidden for centuries because it is the sign of the Dragon. They keep the qualities and traits of this sign secret to avoid giving away clues to the Reptilian mind-pattern.

The next layer is the second-in-command families who do the support work for the Pindar and 13 ruling families. While all of the 13 ruling family members are shape-shifters, all members of the 300 supporting families are not. They do, however, all have a high percentage of Reptilian DNA.

[Alexander: In my opinion, if the so called shape-shifting actually exists, then it's nothing more than advanced technology put at work, and we cannot yet understand it. Alternatively, it may be a misunderstood type of possession -- for a better reference, you can imagine the reptilian extraterrestrials using human bodies as vehicles, similar to the way humans used the Na'vi in the Avatar movie].

They are known as the "Committee of 300".These families include such notable names as Agnelli, Balliol, Beale, Bell, Bouvier, Bush, Cameron, Campbell, Carnegie, Carrington, Coolidge, Delano, Douglas, Ford, Gardner, Graham, Hamilton, Harriman, Heinz, Kuhn, Lindsay, Loeb, Mellon, Montgomery, Morgan, Norman, Oppenheimer, Rhodes, Roosevelt, Russell, Savoy, Schiff, Seton, Spencer, Stewart/Stuart, Taft, and Wilson. There are many others.

The Reptilian Aliens and the Council of the 13 'Royal' Families
The Committee of 300 use many well-known institutions to accomplish their goals, including the Council on Foreign Relations, Bilderburgers, Trilateral Commission, Club of Rome, Royal Institute for International Affairs, Mafia, CIA, NSA, Mossad, Secret Service (SS), International Monetary Fund, Federal Reserve, Internal Revenue Service, and Interpol, to name a few. All of these are private organizations or corporations set up as public service devices, but this is far from the truth.

The Illuminati structure also creates artificial countries to further their goals. Examples of these are the United States, Switzerland, Kuwait, the Soviet Union, Panama, Israel, Italy, Yugoslavia, the United Kingdom, most of Black Africa, all of the Arab countries, and all of Central and South America.

These nations were created to amass wealth for the ruling families and their supporters, to hide or keep their wealth, and to create unstable conditions necessary to start wars or increase military budgets.

Switzerland was created as a neutral banking centre so that Illuminati families would have a safe place to keep their funds without fear of destruction from wars and prying eyes.


The United States was established with 13 colonies, one for each of the Illuminati families. The original flag had 13 stars, and still has 13 stripes. The eagle, the symbol of the United States, holds 13 arrows in its talons.

The United States is actually a corporate asset of the Virginia Company that was established in 1604 in England with direct involvement of the Rothschilds. The finances of the Rothschilds were necessary to fund the exploration and exploitation of the North American continent.

The assets of the Virginia Company, including the United States, are owned by the Holy Roman Empire via the Vatican. This occurred in 1213 when King James gave all English assets to the Reptilian Pope. Executorship remains with the British royal family, but actual ownership lies with the Roman Catholic Church.

The United States of America is not named after Amerigo Vespucci, as you learned in school. The Illuminati would never name a continent, actually two continents, after an Italian mapmaker. The name is actually a combination of words.
  •     "Am" is the Hebrew word for "people"
  •     "Ame" is also the command form of the Spanish/Latin verb "to love"
  •     "Eri" or "ari" is a Hebrew term for "lion"
  •     "Rica" is the feminine form of the Spanish word for "rich"
  •     "Ka" is the ancient Egyptian word for soul, or spirit force within a body

There are two layers of meanings. The Ancient Hebrew/Egyptian translates to say,
"the people of the lion with spirit force."

[Alexander: Personally, I believe that America's name derived from the Peruvian 'AMARUCA', which meant 'The land of the flying SERPENTS' (i.e. reptilians)].

Hence, the pyramid and all-seeing eye on the one-dollar bill. The Latinized version translates to say, "love riches", in a feminized/physical reality way. This gives an idea of what they had in mind.

The Reptilian Aliens and the Council of the 13 'Royal' Families

Take this a step further, and one sees the mixture of the feminine Latin/eagle ideas with the masculine Hebrew/lion ideas. The symbolic statement of America is that it is a combination of Lemuria and Atlantis; a blend of the human/Lyrae with Reptilian/Draco. Perhaps the anagram LSD, an Illuminati created drug, has a hidden meaning as well: Lyrae-Sirius-Draco!

The combination of these three civilizations would produce the most powerful, technological Empire ever known!

In 1776, the creation of the United States as an independent nation coincided with the declaration into public existence of the official Illuminati organization by member Adam Weishaupt, in Bavaria. Publicly, Mr. Weishaupt appeared to be determined to create an organization comprised of the European elite that would uplift mankind.

Of course, this was part of an Illuminati global ceremony. The creation for the United States and the Illuminati global ceremony. The creation of the United States and the Illuminati organization were artificial beginnings for public consumption.

The United States was the device to be used to bring the Illuminati into public acceptance. Current Illuminati members believe that Adam Weishaupt was a look-alike for George Washington, and it is actually Weishaupts image that appears on the one-dollar bill.

The Reptilian Aliens and the Council of the 13 'Royal' Families

George Washington was a wealthy slave and plantation owner. He is known to have raped some of his female slaves and used some of the male slaves in ritualistic ceremony. There are many people of the Black race who can literally trace their genetics to the founding fathers.

George Washington also ordered the building of the Montauk Lighthouse in 1796. This lighthouse included an underground area for supply storage in case of a British coastline invasion. If he had only known what that area would become - or did he?

The 13 ruling Illuminati families constantly vie for control amongst themselves. During this time period, the Spanish, British, and French Illuminati all fought to win control over North and South America.

The Rothschilds kept these Illuminati factions in line by sending Hessian troops to monitor the situation. The leaders enjoyed these war games, pitting one against the other to see who would win. The hundreds of thousands of lives lost were meaningless to them.

The Manifest Destiny of the United States was created to expand the territory of the Aryans at the expense of the native populations. As always, the Illuminati seek to destroy native peoples and their cultures.

This is an attempt to destroy their knowledge of God-Mind, as well as the possibility that the natives will impart this information on to others. Especially important is their need to eliminate native cultures with ancient knowledge of Atlantis and Lyrae.

The natives that gave them the most problem were the Cherokee Indians because this tribe retained most of their Atlantean knowledge, even accessing the Bear/Bigfoot frequency for information.

For this reason, these people were uprooted from their homeland in the southern Appalachian Mountains, and forcibly marched to Oklahoma on what is now known as The Trail of Tears.

Many died along the way. Only a remnant remained in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. In the north, the vast Iroquois/Mohawk nation was disbanded. The Montauk, direct descendents of the Atlanteans who call their leader Pharaoh, were systematically eliminated.

The Rothschilds were aggressively involved with the slave trade from Africa, importing slaves to North and South America as well as the Caribbean. They were very careful not to import Blacks from the eastern areas of Ethiopia or Sudan where the descendents of Solomon were located, instead concentrating on western and central Africa for the slave populations.

These areas had the pure mixture of Anunnaki and simian genetics, and the programming desirable for the Illuminati agenda.

The Rothschilds decided that splitting the United States colonies would double their profits. So they politically created, and financially supported, the Civil War. The Civil War was actually a global ceremonial ritual to bring slavery to its next level. This war allowed the North to win, and publicly abolish slavery.

The best slaves are the ones who do not realize that they are slaves. This alleviates rebellion and resistance. This was the status immediately following the Civil War. Blacks in the South are still slaves.

The Reptilian Aliens and the Council of the 13 'Royal' Families

There is still segregation, even in the North. The Illuminati still consider Blacks to be second or third class citizens. Only now the slavery is subtle and masked.

In5D Note: Those in power consider us ALL useless eaters and have used divide and conquer techniques against us to keep us from uniting. What we "ALL" need to keep in mind is that once the bottom of the pyramid unites, the rest will collapse.

Since the Civil War, there have been other staged wars that entrenched the trend toward globalization. The Spanish-American War of 1898-1899 acquired more land for the American Illuminati, placing a greater portion of the Earth's surface under American jurisdiction.

World War I was designed to change the map of Europe as well as test germ and chemical warfare technology for future use. This coincided with the worldwide influenza outbreak designed to reduce the global population, making control easier. World War I also laid the foundation for the German role in the next war.

World War II was a test of the final globalization and extermination projects. It was also designed to test mind-control machinations; to test the use of fluoride which deadens brain activity and slows resistance to authority; to experiment with slave labor camps and study the development of resistance; and to teach the masses to spy and report on one another.

World War II brought three primary goals of the Illuminati to fruition.

  • The first was that hidden Illuminati symbolism were brought to public attention from the underground strongholds in Tibet and Egypt, such as the Swastika and the ankh.
  • The second was the creation of the State of Israel as a foundation for the New World Religion.
  • The last was the creation of nuclear weapons as part of the Illuminati global ceremony. 
During World War II, the Germans helped to perfect "sex-slaves" as a means of transmitting information amongst the elite. Sex-slaves can be either male or female, who are sexually programmed using Wilhelm Reich procedures, which are illegal in the United States, but used by the Illuminati and government.


These sex-slaves deliver messages and keep programmed sleepers in line. The sex-slave is downloaded with a message or function through various sexual acts and drugs, which can only be released by repeating the same sexual act with the target, or person, to be activated. They are trained to know their target's trigger words and trigger events to activate, delete, or change programming.

In recent years, several women have come forward claiming to be the sex-slaves of globally recognized political figures. Many were used as information couriers between high-level male Illuminati. Usually, look-alikes of the political figures are used in the incipient programming as a focal point for the sex-slave.

The slave is put through a desensitizing process, so there is no pleasure in the sexual act; it is merely a duty to be performed. Many times the slave becomes sexually promiscuous, repeatedly having sex with people who look like the intended target. It is a sad life.

By the end of World War II, one of the three major Illuminati global rituals was accomplished. This was the nuclear explosion that took place in 1945 at the 33rd parallel as a test for the nuclear attack on Japan. This explosion was symbolic, representing the simultaneous creation and destruction of matter and energy.

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Alien Pyramid Found On 1999RQ36 Asteroid? [VIDEO]

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Alien Pyramid Found On 1999RQ36 Asteroid?

Strange pyramid type structure found on the 1999RQ36 Asteroid. If real its an excellent find.

WATCH THE VIDEO:

Russia Marches To HOLY WAR

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 Russia Marches To HOLY WAR

Something very strange is happening in Russia – stranger than Putin’s fawning female devotees or half nude, Siberian hunting excursions.

Byzantium II is resurrecting – or attempting to – deep in historic Rus.

Drifting ever further into secularism, the West is too busy nailing the doors of the church shut with endless lawsuits and harassments to even notice. Meanwhile back at the Kremlin, Russia looks back longingly to a pre-revolutionary pattern of government … and church.

Evidence abounds in old-world style military expansionism, Russian media, church announcements and even the arts. Not contemporary art, which is still allied closely with European liberalism, but church art, especially icons, which are becoming decidedly martial. What are we to make of it?

Flocks of the faithful venerate even copies of a “miraculous” icon of Tsar Nicholas II. The original in the U.S. is reputed to exude the scent of myrrh. In 1998 the icon was sent by air to circle Russia to call back “the resurgence of Russia” to faith.
 Russia Marches To HOLY WAR
Nicholas II and his family are now all considered religious martyrs, murdered only for their faith. This has been a quiet belief ever since their deaths in 1918. Historically there is just enough truth in this to make it plausible. The reds who murdered them were devoutly, God-hating atheists, while the Tsar was utterly pious and partisan. Also the Russian Supreme Court legally exonerated the Romanovs in 2008.

Exclusively and devotedly Russian Orthodox, the tsar wasn’t particularly tolerant with Protestants, Roman Catholics or others. Keeping up tradition, he also continued the anti-Semitism of his fathers, pushing a vast number of Jews from Russia.

In spite of Nicholas’ failures, his mythology and grandeur continue to grow long after death. Shrouded in secrecy, the veneration of the tsars never entirely died – even after seven decades of Marxism – and is mushrooming in popularity now.

Nicholas has taken on a beatific glow of sanctity and holiness unmatched by real life, although he wasn’t particularly awful compared to other czars. Some honorifics surrounding him reveal Orthodox spiritual identity with the last tsar, who is seen as a Christ-like sacrifice for Russia.

The tsar was “anointed with Holy Chrism” and “in the eyes of believers and atheists alike, more than a man.” He is “Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,” the Russian Orthodox Church declares.

Since the regent’s death, he and his family were canonized along with a throng of assorted Russian saints and soldiers.

By killing him the “Bolsheviks were consciously striking at the heart of Russia or, more accurately, at its head,” claims writers of “The Mystical Meaning of the Tsar’s Martyrdom.” Another makes the astonishing claim, “The Tsar has taken the guilt of the Russian people upon himself, and the Russian people is forgiven.”

Tsarist believers advance Nicholas as the “Defender of the Church.” His devotees also attribute the curse of Soviet oppression at the feet of the unjust slaughter of the Romanov family alone. Unlike most Westerners, Orthodox see any attacks on the monarchy as attacks on the church.

Some still believe that Nicholas II was the last representative of lawful, Christian authority in this world, that he personally restrained “the mystery of iniquity” (2 Thess. 2:27).

Visions of Nicholas come such as this from a sailor (Silaev, with the cruiser “Almaz”): “The Tsar-Martyr in royal purple and a crown, holding a cup filled to the brim with blood. Beside him on the right was a handsome youth – the Tsarevich – in a dress uniform, also with a cup of blood in his hands. Behind them, on their knees, was the whole martyred Royal Family in white garments, and each of them held a cup of blood in their hands.”

There are several paintings and icons with this theme.

Biblical prophecies, as well as historic events and Bible verses, are reinterpreted in this manner. “Touch Not Mine Anointed One ” warns the Alaska Brotherhood with dire descriptions of the wrath to come. And it did come – too late, of course.


 Russia Marches To HOLY WAR


Some icons even place Nicholas at the Judgment Seat of God or the right hand of Jesus. A modern icon from the Sretensky Monastery in Moscow, “The Opening of the Fifth Seal,” features Nicholas interceding for Christian martyrs in hard times ahead.

Taking a look at the tsars’ titles reveals the scope of Russian power or desire, which seems to be rekindled lately. The full name of Nicholas II from the 1906 Constitution is mighty impressive and ambitious. Remember that the Russian Empire was one of the largest in history, surpassed only by the British and Mongol empires. Perhaps the Finns and others should take note.

Here are a few excerpts from Nicholas’ full name:
  • “Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias’”
  • “Titular King of Poland”
  • “The Grand Principality of Finland (as an inseparable part of the Russian state of course)
  • “Prince of Estonia, Livonia, Courland and Semigalia” (likewise for Georgia being played out now)
  • “Heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein” etc, etc.

Big hunks o’ earth were claimed subject to Nicholas II and considered part of a divine plan to reinstate the Byzantine Empire in Russia. This is quietly encouraged again in some Russian circles, although not highly publicized for obvious reasons.

Statements flying around in recent years confirm this, such as from a website edited by Bishop Alexander of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad: “[Nicholas] was an earthly symbol of the Heavenly King, the protector and upholder of the Orthodox Church in Russia, and the heir of Byzantium. … And, like his father, he too was the head of Russia’s Eastern Orthodox Church. Under Nicholas II, Moscow was still seen as the new City of Constantine, the ‘Third Rome’ (since the 15th century).”

 Russia Marches To HOLY WAR

We hear more about the Byzantine Empire, which may be forgotten by the West but not the East. This is very old stuff. Catherine the Great groomed her grandson (Constantine – what else would he be named?) to become the first emperor of a restored Byzantium. That didn’t happen.

Catherine was also concerned over the fate of Orthodox Christians under Ottoman rule, which was generally not good. Today many of these same lands are in Islamic turmoil. Russians aiding Christians in Syria makes them the “good guys,” and the U.S. is reflected on poorly, as we have not helped.

Western conservative Christians cheer when Putin stands up for Christian rights in Syria and other ex-Ottoman territories – and so do I. But if his motives are altruistic, we’ll have to wait and see. Putin’s interest in religious rights is confined to the Russian empire and those of Orthodox faith. It is not planetary.

But this may become a resurrected war of worldviews from antiquity: Byzantium, led (so far) by Russia, against the Ottomans, which have generally fallen to terrorists. If this is our future, it will be difficult to not cheer for the bear-wrestling one.

Patriarch Kirill and Vladimir Putin are almost attached at the hip, espousing a very strong state/church relationship. The Theotokos (icons of “Our Lady of Kazan”) go on before them.

 Russia Marches To HOLY WAR
Russia’s national icon is making a comeback in popularity after decades in hiding. The Kazan Lady was “found in a garden” in 1597 and after many centuries embodies Russian nationalism and militarism. This Madonna is a Russian girl to the core. Is this a religious revival, a new imperialist crusade or both? Either way the icons have great significance, as they did long ago. They are not merely ornaments.

Christians have always prayed for peace, protection of their nations and troops, sending priests and chaplains out for this office. We understand this. But Russia’s icons have also been portents of war to come as well as promises of peace.

Russia’s palladium, the “Kazan Mother of God” icon, is their most famed religious icon, but it has a secondary mission: She has been borne into battle for centuries by Russian generals and Emperors. The “Kazan” icon is considered imbued with miraculous power to help in military matters – but only for Russia. Her aid is attributed to fending off (generally successfully) Napoleon and the Turks, Persians, Swedes, Poles and Germans.

So precious is the Mother of Kazan (or Black Virgin) to Russians and belief runs so deep that even Stalin appeared to have used the icon for military purposes. Or perhaps that was just propaganda – who knows? From deep banishment, Mother Kazan’s icon was sent to Stalingrad in 1943 by Stalin for divine help against the Germans – apparently a true story.

Russia’s Lady of Kazan is beginning to see duty again.

In February Putin quietly sent the Kazan icon on a trip to the Crimea. At the time it was assumed it was for a blessing over the Winter Olympics – but far from it. The events in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea soon followed. All this is according to ancient custom of bringing in the icons to bless a military venture.

The important icon “She Who Reigns” was also sent on a highly politicized journey across the world by the Orthodox Church and endorsed by Vladimir Putin. The 2007 venture was highly publicized as a call to “celebrate reconciliation among Russians at home and abroad (since the 1917 revolution).”

 Russia Marches To HOLY WAR

Russia’s joint church/state venture receives little fanfare from the Western press, who have no concept of the depth of religious feeling of the mass of humanity. Still, in the U.S., the solid unity, almost theocracy, Putin and Kirill seek for Russia makes both left and right cringe. It is very politically aligned and conveniently supportive of Putin. One wonders, will they need a new Emperor to do this?

Not all Russian Christians are dancing with joy either. After Putin declared a Day of National Unity between the Orthodox Church and the state, many felt alienated. Complaints ranged from the Russian Union of Evangelical Baptists to the leaders of the Communist Party, who called it a “provocation” that would only lead to division. Tatar nationalists detest the Kazan icon, labeling it as symbolic of “the colonial yoke.”

Russian Orthodox consider icons “an entire world that unite our peoples … a consolidating principle.” There are not many important, original icons, and they really aren’t very interesting to look at – especially after you’ve seen them 1,000 times. The art is formulaic and plain, faces unlikely or cadaverous. But their antiquity, purported powers, history and often secret meaning to millions of Orthodox make these little, gilded plaques perhaps the most powerful pieces of art on earth.

Sources: http://www.interfax-religion.com/ R. Monk Zachariah (Liebmann) / The East-West Church & Ministry Report / www.fatheralexander.org / www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org / www.aawsat.net / “The Miracles of the Royal Martyr” / “Eastern America and New York First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad” / www.eastwestreport.org

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The Ten Plagues That Are Hitting America Right Now

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The Ten Plagues That Are Hitting America Right Now

Why are so many plagues hitting the United States all of a sudden? Yes, one can always point out bad stuff that is happening somewhere in the country, but right now we are facing a nightmarish combination of crippling drought, devastating wildfires, disastrous viruses, dying crops and superbugs that scientists don’t know how to kill.

And as you will see, we even have a plague of flies down in Mississippi. So what in the world is going on? Is this just a case of bad luck, or is something else happening? At the conclusion of this article, please feel free to tell me what you think. The following are ten plagues that are hitting America right now…

The Ten Plagues That Are Hitting America Right Now

#1 The Plague Of Flies In The Upper Mississippi River Valley

This is perhaps the least dangerous plague, but it is also one of the most interesting. Just recently, a plague of flies was so thick in the upper Mississippi River valley that it showed up on radar…

The mayflies were detectable on radar around 8:45 pm and reports in the towns and cities began rolling in of the swarming and piles of mayflies. Numerous videos and pictures were circulating on social media.

The radar detected the flies about 8:45 pm, emanating from the river (the source) with echo values similar to that of light-moderate rain (35-40 dBZ). With a general south-to-north wind flow above the surface, the mayflies quickly moved north once in the air. As the flies dispersed moving north-northeast, they also gained altitude with some of the echo being detected as far north as Black River Falls and as high as 2500 feet above ground.

By late evening, mayflies were swarming in La Crosse, La Crescent, Stoddard and points up and down the river. While the emergence of mayflies from their river bottom mud dwelling can occur at various times through the warm season depending on the species, this particular emergence was that of the larger black/brown Bilineata species.

The Ten Plagues That Are Hitting America Right Now

#2 The Chikungunya Virus

As I wrote about the other day, down in Florida health officials have discovered the very first confirmed cases of the chikungunya virus to be transmitted locally. In other words, it is now being passed to people that have not even traveled out of the country.

An epidemic of the virus has already been declared down in Puerto Rico, and authorities are deeply concerned about the possibility of one up here as well. Already, cases of the virus have been reported in 30 different states and the total number of cases in the U.S. is more than five times higher than in any other recent year.

If you live in an area that has a lot of mosquitoes, you might want to be very, very careful right about now because this is a virus that is exceedingly painful…

With illness onset, the person develops high fever, chills, and joint pain, followed in some by a rash on the trunk, limbs and face lasting 3-4 days. Muscle and joint pain last about one week. Joint pain is often severe and in some people lasts longer, up to several months.

The Ten Plagues That Are Hitting America Right Now

#3 The Wildfires Out West

The massive wildfires in Washington, Oregon and western Canada have spread clouds of smoke over vast areas of the northwest United States in recent days. The following excerpt comes from a recent CNN report…

Wildfires spanning almost 170,000 acres are driving hundreds of people from their homes in Washington state and across the border in Canada, officials said.

Washington authorities say the fires surged overnight to 168,713 acres in the state. The flames have encroached on towns.

Janet Pearce of the Washington state Department of Natural Resources said the four fires had not been contained as of Friday morning. An estimated 80 homes were destroyed and cell phone service was knocked out.

The Ten Plagues That Are Hitting America Right Now

#4 The Drought In California

The nightmarish multi-year drought in the state of California just continues to get even worse. This week it was reported that 81 percent of California is now experiencing “extreme drought” or worse. Three months ago, that number was just 68 percent.

And we are being told that downtown Los Angeles is now the driest that it has been since rain records began in 1877.

For much, much more on this, please see my recent article entitled “20 Signs The Epic Drought In The Western United States Is Starting To Become Apocalyptic“.

#5 The Virus That Has Killed Millions Of Our Cattle

A horrific cattle virus known as porcine epidemic diarrhea came over from China a little over a year ago. Since then, it has killed about 7 million cattle, and approximately 100,000 more are dying each week.

#6 Citrus Greening

Have you ever heard of citrus greening disease? Perhaps not, but it has gotten so bad down in Florida that experts are now saying that the entire citrus industry in the state “could be destroyed”…

“It’s horrible — it’s a disaster,” says Fred Gmitter, a professor of horticulture science at the University of Florida Citrus Research and Education Center.

It might be time to kiss your OJ goodbye, unless science steps in to save the day.

At least 70% of Florida’s citrus trees are already infected by the disease, known as citrus greening, huanglongbing, or occasionally just with an ominous “it,” as in “It’s here.”

Florida’s citrus crop this year is the lowest it’s been in 30 years, and agricultural authorities have continued to lowertheir production estimates. Orange-juice prices are up nearly 20% this year alone and will continue to rise. The disease was a major factor in the lime shortage that made the price of a box of Persian limes jump from $18 to $85 last December. Prices could jump higher for oranges. Researchers and growers say that if a cure isn’t found, the entire $9 billion Florida citrus industry could be destroyed.

The Ten Plagues That Are Hitting America Right Now

#7 Bananas Going Extinct?


You bananas are not safe either. According to CNBC, the TR4 fungus is spreading so rapidly that it could eventually totally wipe out the variety of bananas that we find in our grocery stores today…

Banana lovers take note: The world’s supply of the fruit is under attack from a fungus strain that could wipe out the popular variety that Americans eat.

“It’s a very serious situation,” said Randy Ploetz, a professor of plant pathology at the University of Florida who in 1989 originally discovered a strain of Panama disease, called TR4, that may be growing into a serious threat to U.S. supplies of the fruit and Latin American producers.

“There’s nothing at this point that really keeps the fungus from spreading,” he said in an interview with CNBC.

While there are nearly 1,000 varieties of bananas, the most popular is the Cavendish, which accounts for 45 percent of the fruit’s global crop—and the one Americans mostly find in their supermarkets.


#8 The Number Of Earthquakes Is Increasing

For a long time, scientists tried to deny that the number of earthquakes is increasing. But now, the USGS is finally admitting that the number of big earthquakes has doubled…

If you think there have been more earthquakes than usual this year, you’re right. A new study finds there were more than twice as many big earthquakes in the first quarter of 2014 as compared with the average since 1979.

“We have recently experienced a period that has had one of the highest rates of great earthquakes ever recorded,” said lead study author Tom Parsons, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Menlo Park, California.

Fortunately, most of the earthquakes in the U.S. so far this year have been relatively small or have been in isolated areas.

But they have been popping up in very unusual areas (such as Oklahoma), and as seismic activity along the Ring of Fire continues to increase, it is probably only a matter of time before one of our major cities gets hit with a major tragedy.

#9 Superbugs

Thanks at least in part to the massive overuse of antibiotics, a new generation of superbugs is arising. Scientists have no way to kill these superbugs, and according to experts they are finding their way “into healthcare facilities nationwide”…

Drug-resistant superbug infections have reached near-epidemic levels across U.S. hospitals, with an alarming 500% increase now documented in a study just published in the August issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology(the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America).

Lead author of the study, Dr. Joshua Thaden, warned “This dangerous bacteria is finding its way into healthcare facilities nationwide… A CRE epidemic is fast approaching… Even this marked increase likely underestimates the true scope of the problem given variations in hospital surveillance practices.”

The study also found that an astonishing 94 percent of CRE infections were caused by healthcare activities or hospital procedures.

The Ten Plagues That Are Hitting America Right Now

#10 Fukushima

The Fukushima nuclear disaster is the gift that just keeps on giving. Hundreds of tons of radioactive water are being released into the Pacific on a continual basis, and this could potentially affect our oceans and the US food chain for generations to come.

But it is a “slow motion disaster” that is already “old news”, so most Americans don’t think about it anymore. But the truth is that there is a lot of evidence that it should be taken very seriously in this country. For much more on this, please see this article.

In Japan, of course, things are even worse. In fact, one Japanese doctor that was working in Tokyo says that radiation sickness is rampant in that city…

Since December 2011, I have conducted thyroid ultrasound examinations, thyroid function tests, general blood tests and biochemical tests on about 2000 people, mostly families in the Tokyo metropolitan area expressing concerns on the effects of radiation. I have observed that white blood cells, especially neutrophils, are decreasing among children under the age of 10. There are cases of significant decline in the number of neutrophils in 0-1 year-olds born after the earthquake (<1000). In both cases, conditions tend to improveby moving to Western Japan (Neutrophils 0–>4500).Patients report nosebleed, hair loss, lack of energy, subcutaneous bleeding, visible urinary hemorrhage, skin inflammations, coughs and various other non-specific symptoms.

And this Japanese doctor believes that things are so dire that he says that the entire city of Tokyo should be evacuated…

Residents of Tokyo are unfortunately not in the position to pity the affected regions of Tohoku because they are victims themselves. Time is running short. I took an earlier step forward and evacuated to the west. My fellow doctors of medicine, I am waiting for you here. And to the people in Eastern Japan still hesitating, all my support goes to facilitating and enabling your evacuation, relocation, or a temporary relief in Western Japan.

Just like with Chernobyl, this radioactive material is going to silently make people sick and kill people all over globe for years to come, and most of them will never have any idea what is really happening to them.

SOURCE

Superbugs Could 'Cast the World Back Into The Dark Ages', David Cameron says

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Superbugs Could 'Cast the World Back Into The Dark Ages', David Cameron says

The world could be "cast back into the dark ages of medicine" where people die from treatable infections because deadly bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, David Cameron has warned.

The Prime Minister has called for governments and drug companies around the world to work together to "accelerate" the discovery of a new generation of antibiotics.

His intervention comes amid fears in the medical profession that manageable illnesses like pneumonia and tuberculosis could kill huge numbers of people like they did early in the twentieth century.

About 25,000 people die annually across Europe because of infections that are resistant to antibiotic drugs, Mr Cameron said.

Mr Cameron is to announce an independent review led by Jim O’Neill, the economist, to identify why the international market has failed to bring forward new drugs.

Superbugs Could 'Cast the World Back Into The Dark Ages', David Cameron says

The Prime Minister wants to set out a plan for encouraging and accelerating the discovery and development of a new generation of powerful drugs.

GPs could also be told to stop prescribing antibiotics when they are not needed.

“For many of us, we only know a world where infections or sicknesses can be quickly remedied by a visit to the doctor and a course of antibiotics," Mr Cameron said.

“This great British discovery has kept our families safe for decades, while saving billions of lives around the world.

“But that protection is at risk as never before.

“Resistance to antibiotics is now a very real and worrying threat, as bacteria mutates to become immune to its effect."

Overuse of antibiotics for minor infections has resulted in bacteria becoming resistant to medicines.

Drug companies now invest less money in new antibiotics because they cost so much to develop.

Patents for many antibiotics have expired, leading more companies to join the market.

It means the drug firms are making smaller profits and investing less in vital cures.

Mr Cameron said: “With some 25,000 people a year already dying from infections resistant to anti-biotic drugs in Europe alone, this is not some distant threat but something happening right now.

Superbugs Could 'Cast the World Back Into The Dark Ages', David Cameron says
“If we fail to act, we are looking at an almost unthinkable scenario where antibiotics no longer work and we are cast back into the dark ages of medicine where treatable infections and injuries will kill once again.

“That simply cannot be allowed to happened and I want to see a stronger, more coherent global response, with nations, business and the world of science working together to up our game in the field of antibiotics."

Mr Cameron held discussions with world leaders about the issue last month at a meeting of the G7.

The lack of new drugs which are capable of fighting bacteria has been described by the World Health Organisation as one of the most significant global risks facing modern medicine.

Without urgent action the world is heading for a post-antibiotic era, experts have warned.


Mr O’Neill's review will focus on the development, use and regulatory environment around antibiotics.

It will explore how to make investment in new antibiotics more attractive to pharmaceutical companies and other funding bodies.

GPs could also be told to stop giving patients antibiotics when they demand them for non-bacterial illnesses like the common cold.

Mr Cameron also wants to Increase cooperation and support for action by the international community, including much closer working with low and middle income countries.

SOURCE

Agenda 21 = Death

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Agenda 21 = Death

U.N.’s urban planning program turns the population into mere serfs who are easily controlled by the government

Signed in 1992 by multiple nations, including the United States, the United Nations Agenda 21 Sustainable Development program is an urban planning “action plan” which calls for government to eventually take control of all land use without leaving any decision making in the hands of private property owners.


The overall intent of Agenda 21, which can be best described as neo-feudalism, is to expand government power at the expense of individual liberties by making the population more dependent on city infrastructurecontrolled by the government.

Agenda 21 = Death

Some of the current urban planning trends of Agenda 21 include but are not limited to:
  • - The closure of rural land for public use and the erosion of rural property ownership
  • - The development of “multi-use” condos with the first floor designated for businesses catering to the tenants above, encouraging condo dwellers to remain close to home much like serfs from the Middle Ages
  • - The purposeful lack of easy freeway access in cities which similarly ensures that residents never venture far from their neighborhoods
  • - The construction of expensive and inefficient public rail systems in cities in order to increase centralized government control while also reducing – and even outright banning – the use of private transportation such as cars
  • - The accelerated implementation of toll roads, especially toll roads that discourage driving by increasing prices for traveling alone or for driving in “congested” areas
  • - Utilities monitored by “Smart Meters” which can be controlled – and shut off – remotely by public utility companies
While Agenda 21 proponents constantly suggest that the program is simply “voluntary,” this is a moot point when so many American cities are already implementing Agenda 21 which clearly benefits the government at the expense of its citizens.

SOURCE
 

Waiter Predicts £1M Lottery Win In A Dream

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Waiter Predicts £1M Lottery Win In A Dream

A restaurant owner who scooped a million pound jackpot on the lottery has been forced to share half the cash with one of his staff after a judge ruled that the waiter had dreamt about the win the night before.

Hayati Kucukkoylu, who runs the Kapadokya Turkish restaurant in York, could not believe his luck when his numbers came up on the EuroMllions draw in January 2012.

But his celebrations were short lived when Fatih Ozcan, who waited tables at the restaurant, demanded half the money, insisting had it not been for him, his boss would never have entered the lottery draw.

Mr Ozcan argued it had been his idea to buy a ticket having predicted the jackpot win the night before in a dream.

And now a judge has agreed with his claim and has ruled that the warring pair split the money equally down the middle.

The dispute over the win began just hours after the draw was made with Mr Kucukkoylu insisting the jackpot was rightfully his because he had paid for the ticket and had chosen the winning numbers.

But superstitious Mr Ozcan, who had purchased the winning ticket from the local supermarket, was adamant it was his premonition that had prompted the win.

As the dispute became more bitter, the disgruntled waiter contacted the police and lottery organisers, Camelot, falsely claiming his boss had stolen the winning ticket from his jacket pocket.

Waiter Predicts £1M Lottery Win In A Dream

Mr Kucukkoylu was arrested on suspicion of theft and questioned for nine hours by police.

Unable to settle the dispute the pair went to court and now a judge has ruled in Mr Ozcan’s favour, accepting that his explanation about the dream was entirely “plausible”.

Handing down his unusual ruling, Judge Mark Gosnell said Mr Ozcan had had a premonition about the win on the night of January 29 2012.

“He dreamt that he was holding a large bundle of cash and standing in front of him was his boss.

“Mr Ozcan is a strong believer in the power of dreams and interpreted this to mean that he and Mr Kucukkoylu would win the lottery,” the judge explained.

The following day he said the waiter had “pestered” his boss for three hours before he finally agreed to enter the EuroMllions drawer.

It was Mr Ozcan who had bought the physically bought the ticket, but insisted that the cost and the choice of numbers had been shared.

Before arriving at his ruling, the judge examined CCTV footage from the restaurant which showed the two men filling in the winning ticket.

Describing it as a “troubling case”, he said Mr Ozcan had admitted lying to police, but he said he also had “concerns” about the reliability of Mr Kucukkoylu's account.

Waiter Predicts £1M Lottery Win In A Dream

He said the CCTV footage strongly suggested that both men had shared the task of choosing the winning numbers and that each had paid half of the £9 stake.

Ruling that Mr Ozcan’s story was “inherently more plausible”, the judge said: “I cannot see why he would be so determined to make his employer play if he was not directly to benefit.

“It is much more likely that he would badger his employer for hours if his dream was that they had played together and he needed his employer to play for the dream to come true.

“I prefer the evidence of Mr Ozcan on the determinative issues.”

The judge went on: “I find that Mr Ozcan had a dream which involved him and Mr Kucukkoylu and a large sum of money. Mr Ozcan pestered his boss into playing the lottery with him ... they contributed equally to the purchase price of the ticket.”

Although Mr Ozcan gave his boss the lottery ticket, he kept the receipt and the payslips.

The judge said that, after the waiter challenged his boss, Mr Kucukkoylu “became angry and threatening and swore at him”.

The court also heard claims that the restaurateur had “through intermediaries” attempted to persuade Mr Ozcan to drop his claim.”

Judge Gosnell concluded: “I find that the effect of these conversations was that Mr Kucukkoylu and Mr Ozcan entered into a contract to jointly play the lottery on an equal basis.

“There should be a declaration that the prize money from this winning lottery ticket should be shared equally between Mr Kucukkoylu and Mr Ozcan."

SOURCE

'Shadow Entity' Caught On Night Camera ? [VIDEO]

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'Shadow Entity' Caught On Night Camera ?

A man who set up a camera to film his sleep paralysis managed to capture something unexpected.

Sleep paralysis, the phenomenon in which you enter a half-waking state during which you are unable to move, can be an unnerving experience at the best of times, but when coupled with the feeling that you are not alone or the appearance of someone in the room with you it can quickly change from a harmless curiosity to the stuff of nightmares.

This was exactly what happened to YouTube user Mike Pike who last week observed what he believed to be a dark shadow figure watching him from the foot of his bed during a sleep paralysis episode. Having described the experience as the most terrifying of his life, Pike decided to set up a camera in his room to film what was there in the event that the same thing happened again.

'Shadow Entity' Caught On Night Camera ?

"I'm a rationalist and a very skeptical person with no previous interest in paranormal activity, but after doing some research it seemed like there was a possibility that this entity is real," he wrote.

Sure enough, after rewatching the footage he noticed that he had indeed caught something unusual on camera. From around the 30-second mark on the video below it is possible to see a vague shape rising up towards the ceiling above the bed having seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

"I have watched the footage over and over trying to figure out some logical explanation for what could have caused the image of what seems to be a ghost, but I haven't been able to come up with a solution," he wrote.

"I am really starting to believe that I captured the entity I saw during my paralysis on video. This terrifies me so much that I can no longer sleep in my room."

WATCH THE VIDEO:


SOURCE

Fisherman Saved From Bear Attack By Justin Bieber Ringtone

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Fisherman Saved From Bear Attack By Justin Bieber Ringtone

Justin Bieber may have millions of fans worldwide, but Russia's bears don't appear to admire the pop brat's music - which proved fortunate for one lucky fisherman.

Igor Vorozhbitsyn had his life saved by a Justin Bieber ringtone, when his mobile phone went off during a potentially fatal attack by a brown bear.

The 42-year-old was pounced on as he was walking to a favourite fishing spot in northern Russia's Yakutia Republic and firmly believed that he was going to be killed.

Fisherman Saved From Bear Attack By Justin Bieber Ringtone

But as the bear began to claw at him, Igor's mobile went off. The singer's hit Baby rang out and the bear turned tail and fled back into the forest.

Wildlife experts believe the ringtone must have startled the bear into halting its attack

'Sometimes a sharp shock can stop an angry bear in its tracks and that ringtone would be a very unexpected sound for a bear,' explained one.


Fisherman Saved From Bear Attack By Justin Bieber Ringtone
Dangerous: Brown bears are easily capable of killing humans, but as the incident with Mr Vorozhbitsyn showed, can easily be frightened away

Fisherman Saved From Bear Attack By Justin Bieber Ringtone
 Bear-ly believable: Justin Bieber's music isn't very popular with brown bears, it seems

Mr Vorozhbitsyn suffered from cuts and severe bruises to his face and chest and was rescued when he was found by other fishermen after using the phone to call for help.

Mr Vorozhbitsyn - now recovering from his mauling - explained: 'I had parked my car and was walking towards the spot I'd marked out when there was a tremendous impact on my back and the bear was on top of me.'

'I couldn't believe my luck when the phone went off and he fled.

'I know that sort of ringtone isn't to everyone's taste but my granddaughter loaded it onto my phone for a joke,' he added.

Adult brown bears can weigh as much as 600kg and have been known to kill wolves and even Siberian tigers in confrontations.

WATCH THE VIDEO:


SOURCE

Chinese Man 'Cooked Parents And Packed Them In Lunchboxes'

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Chinese Man 'Cooked Parents And Packed Them In Lunchboxes'

A man murdered his parents, chopped up their bodies and cooked them with rice “like barbecued pork” to hide the evidence, a court in Hong Kong has heard.

Henry Chau Hoi-leung, 30, and his accomplice, 36-year-old Tse Chun-kei are accused of planning the gruesome killing for more than three months, using the time to buy knives, refrigerators, microwaves and a rice cooker.

His parents, Chau Wing-ki, 65, and Siu Yuet-yee, 62, went missing in March last year and their heads and organs were found stuffed into two fridges in a bloodstained apartment two weeks later.

Their dismembered bodies had been salted and packed into lunchboxes, the South China Morning Post reported.

Chinese Man 'Cooked Parents And Packed Them In Lunchboxes'

Hong Kong’s Court of First Instance heard that Chau told police after his arrest that he and Tse killed on 1 March because “they felt ready”, the court heard.

The couple were last seen on CCTV walking into a building in Tai Kok Tsui with Henry Chau on 1 March and he reported them missing two weeks later, claiming they had gone to mainland China “to have fun”.

The police arrested him and Tse the next day, discovering the dismembered bodies in the flat along with notes and receipts suggesting pair had started planning the killings in November 2012.

Michael Arthur, a lawyer for the prosecution, said: “Their crime was greatly premeditated. Their planning was extensive.”

Chinese Man 'Cooked Parents And Packed Them In Lunchboxes'

After his arrest, Henry Chau told police that he and Tse killed his parents, but that it was Tse who dismembered the bodies.

He said he chose to kill his parents because his “emotional connection with them had broken down”, the South China Morning Post reported.

Henry Chau and Tse both denied two counts of murder in court yesterday but admitted two counts of preventing lawful burial.

The prosecution did not except Henry Chau’s guilty plea to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility due to his “abnormality of mind”.

Chinese Man 'Cooked Parents And Packed Them In Lunchboxes'

Chinese Man 'Cooked Parents And Packed Them In Lunchboxes'

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Reagan Warned Us About Obama

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Reagan Warned Us About Obama

Back in the late 1950s and into the early 60s, the American Medical Association (AMA) tried to warn us about socializing medicine. The Democrats had developed a scheme to try to extend social security into the medical world, particularly for seniors. Later, the scheme would be called Medicare. The AMA called the campaign to stop socialized healthcare “Operation Coffee Cup,” and they enlisted some famous support to help them spread the word about socialized medicine. Their spokesperson’s name was Ronald Reagan, and Operation Coffee Cup would launch his political involvement. In fact, 50 years before the Obama Presidency, Ronald Reagan warned us about Obamacare!

WATCH THE VIDEO:


The recorded radio address is logical and heartfelt, and we today know the truth of what a younger Ronald Reagan was predicting some 50+ years ago. The first paragraph of his speech in the video below is particularly enlightening, “Now back in 1927 an American socialist, Norman Thomas, six times candidate for president on the Socialist Party ticket, said the American people would never vote for socialism. But he said under the name of liberalism the American people will adopt every fragment of the socialist program.” Isn’t this exactly what we’ve seen in recent years?

Reagan Warned Us About Obama

The Democrat Party, under the guise of liberalism, has been forcing through socialist programs and legislation that if honestly presented, the American people would find abhorrent. However, because so many of our fellow citizens are unaware of the socialist nature of these programs and laws, they simply accept the media driven narrative that these things are mainstream political issues. Nothing could be further from the truth. Today’s liberalism is simply shadow socialism.

WATCH THE VIDEO:


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Jerusalem And Rome Will be Conquered Vows New Islamic Caliph Al-Baghdadi

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 Jerusalem And Rome Will be Conquered Vows New Islamic Caliph Al-Baghdadi
“They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:” Psalm 83:4,5

 Jerusalem And Rome Will be Conquered Vows New Islamic Caliph Al-Baghdadi

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the ISIS revolution, swore a vow this week to capture Jerusalem and Rome as he goes about attempting to construct his Muslim caliphate. Al-Baghdadi has a big mountain to climb in fully wresting control of Iraq, but should he be successful there is no telling how far he can take it. Students of bible prophecy have long known that a Muslim caliphate, or the Psalm 83 confederacy as the bible says, is to rise in the Middle East to come against Israel. This could possibly be the fulfillment of that prophecy, time will tell.

WATCH THE VIDEO:
   

“Those who can immigrate to the Islamic State should immigrate, as immigration to the house of Islam is a duty,” he said in an audio recording released on a website used by the group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. “Rush O Muslims to your state. It is your state. Syria is not for Syrians and Iraq is not for Iraqis. The land is for the Muslims, all Muslims. “This is my advice to you. If you hold to it you will conquer Rome and own the world, if Allah wills.”
 Jerusalem And Rome Will be Conquered Vows New Islamic Caliph Al-Baghdadi

Hassan Hassan, an analyst at Abu Dhabi’s Delma Institute, wrote that Baghdadi provided the most radical challenge since the emergence of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. “The whispers of support to a caliph in Afghanistan are now replaced by clear words and acts, amplified by social media,” he said. “Jihadism has evolved significantly. It is no longer limited to narrow “elitists” who travel to distant countries to wage jihad. Today’s jihad is more sophisticated and individualized and can be waged everywhere.”

SOURCE 

Putin Issues Global War Order Against Obama Regime

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Putin Issues Global War Order Against Obama Regime

An ominous report issued by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) says that President Putin’s order today to move thousands of more troops and military equipment to the Ukrainian border, coupled with his order yesterday to all state organs to begin retaliation against the West for their imposing unjust sanctions on the Federation, is, in fact, a “Global War Order” against the Obama regime blamed by the Kremlin for starting this conflict to cover-up the West’s impending economic collapse.

According to this report, Putin’s order involves forces from the Air Defense Troops in the Central Military District which include the Ural’s Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk regions, Republic of Bashkortostan and West Siberia’s Altai territory. “More than five thousand servicemen and around two thousand units of military hardware will be involved in [these] military exercises,” a spokesman of the Central Military District said.

These thousands of extra troops and their equipment will join their military counterparts on the Ukrainian border, this report continues, who were activated this past Monday and are currently conducting war exercises designed to repel US led NATO retaliatory forces should they be needed.

Putin Issues Global War Order Against Obama Regime

Though the Obama regime has stated that they are “deeply concerned” over Russia’s military Ukrainian border buildup, this report further notes that Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland warned his people yesterday that the risk of Russia invading Ukraine has increased in the “last dozen hours or so”.

To the likelihood of Russian forces having to intervene in Ukraine, this report says, was made more urgent yesterday after UN envoy Vitaly Churkin described to his international counterparts on the Security Council the situation in eastern Ukraine as a “catastrophic, full-blown war”.

Grimly, this MoD report says, are that four million people in the combat area in eastern Ukraine (200,000 of them are deprived of water) are on the verge of a European “humanitarian catastrophe” of unprecedented proportions, a situation not seen on the continent since the ending of World War II in 1945.

So dire has the situation in eastern Ukraine become, this report continues, that this past Sunday, 438 Ukrainian soldiers crossed into Russia in the Rostov region asking for asylum with many of them being reported as being near starvation and total exhaustion.

Putin Issues Global War Order Against Obama Regime

Earlier today, in fact, this report states, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) arranged a flight from Moscow to the Rostov region for foreign reporters to personally interview these defecting Ukrainian soldiers, but as ITAR-TASS News Service reports, all of the journalists from the leading US media working in Russia refused to go and interview them for themselves.

The US media in refusing to report on the truth to the American people about this war, MoD experts in this report say, coincides with the new laws imposed upon the people of Ukraine by their coup-installed fascist governmentallowing them to arrest anybody who uses social media to engage in political activism against the war.

And as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva has stated they are ready to help the Russian Red Cross (RRC) in setting up a humanitarian corridor which would allow the safe transit of sick children from Ukraine, this report sadly states the Obama regime led Ukrainian government will not allow it.

So angry has Russia been about the Obama regimes nefarious machinations in Ukraine, it bears mentioning, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this spring accused them of “running the show” in Kiev “without any scruples”.

Backing up Lavrov’s earlier assessment is the MoD stating in their report that far from helping the women and children in this brutal Ukrainian war, the Obama regime and its European allies are preparing to make it even worse with the US now sending in military advisors into Ukraine and deploying hundreds of heavy tanks, armored personnel carriers and landing crafts into Norway, and the EU flagrantly violating the Geneva Convention in lifting their ban on sending weapons and ammunition to Ukraine too.

Putin Issues Global War Order Against Obama Regime

To some of the further war moves against the Obama regime Putin could order, this report grimly warns, would be the disposal of European companies’ assets in Russia, which would deliver a heavy blow to European manufacturers – a measure that analysts in Brussels describe as an “economic nuclear weapon”.

Another Putin war move being activated with yesterday’s Russian-Iranian energy agreement, this report concludes, is for the Federation and its allies to unleash upon the world a “virtual sea of cheap oil and natural gas” that could only be paid for in rubles, a situation best described by top American investor Jim Sinclair whorecently warned:

“If Russia accepts payment for oil and gas in any currency other than the dollar – whether it’s gold, the Euro, the Ruble, the Rupee, or anything else – then the U.S. petrodollar system will collapse”.

Though not mentioned in this MoD report, and as our world lurches ever closer to all-out war, Russia, which is themost resource rich nation on Earth possessing over $75 trillion of national wealth (compared to the US in 2nd place at $45 trillion), President Obama this past week dismissed them as a nation that “doesn’t make anything”, leading one to wonder if this “leader” of the supposed free world even knows what he’s doing.

SOURCE

Putin Issues Feared “Dead Hand” Order As Global War Nears

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Putin Issues Feared “Dead Hand” Order As Global War Nears

A grim report issued by The Strategic Missile Forces (SMF), which is the main component of Russia’s Strategic Nuclear Forces (SNF), states that President Putin earlier today issued a feared “Dead Hand” order not used since 26 September 1983 when the nuclear early warning system of the Soviet Union twice reported the launch of American Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) from bases in the United States.

The issuance of the 1983 “Dead Hand” order, this report says, was in response to a five-day North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) command post exercise called Able Archer 83 that Soviet military officials feared was a “ruse to war”.

A “Dead Hand” order, it should be remembered, is a Cold-War-era nuclear-control system developed by the Soviet Union and remains in use today and is controlled from the massive and highly secretive underground military city at Mount Yamantau located in the Republic of Bashkortostan

Dead Hand” is an example of fail-deadly deterrence as it can automatically trigger the launch of the Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) if a nuclear strike is detected by seismic, light, radioactivity and overpressure sensors. By most accounts, it is normally switched off and is supposed to be activated during dangerous crises only; however, it is said to remain fully functional and able to serve its purpose whenever needed, such as today.

Putin Issues Feared “Dead Hand” Order As Global War Nears

To Putin’s ordering the “Dead Hand” protocols today, this report continues, is in “direct response” to President Obama’s plan to send US military forces into Ukraine, a hostile war move Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov warned last month would lead to an immediate Russian response by his stating:


Critical to note about Putin’s issuing a “Dead Hand” order today was that nearly immediately after it had been issued, Vladislav Surkov, one of the most powerful men in the Kremlin, and the Russian leaders top aide, in essence, confirmed its existence when during a private interview with the Financial Times News Service on the sham US$50 billion ruling against Russia in a European arbitration proceeding (called The Fine That Rang Out Across The World) relating to the Yukos case stated why the Kremlin wasn’t responding by simply stating: “There is a war coming in Europe.  Do you really think this matters.”


Putin Issues Feared “Dead Hand” Order As Global War Nears

While the barrage of trade sanctions Washington and its allies have imposed on Russia is in fact an act of economic warfare, and which they had likewise imposed on Japan in 1941 that led Tokyo to attack the Western powers, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has nevertheless stated that Russia will not respond in kind by stating: “We cannot ignore it. But to fall into hysterics and respond to a blow with a blow is not worthy of a major country.”

And with the US War Party’s desire to punish Putin for pushing back against American interventionism in Syria, Iran, Iraq, and elsewhere in the Middle East, which has left these nations devastated…in just 800 words, even the American old-guard Cold War warrior Pat Buchanan exposes the sheer juvenile delinquency embodied in Washington’s current Ukrainian fiasco.

He accomplishes this by reminding us of the sober restraint that governed the actions of American Presidents from FDR to Eisenhower, Reagan and Bush I with respect to Eastern Europe during far more perilous times and by stating of today’s events:





Putin Issues Feared “Dead Hand” Order As Global War Nears

And with a source from one of the Ukrainian defense departments now stating that a “system mix up” during a Ukrainian air defense units’ rocket launch exercise (and which we had previously reported on) could be the cause of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash in southeast Ukraine, the Obama regime backed Ukrainian military continues to wage war in this area in their bid to cover up the evidence to such an extent that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has called on them to halt hostilities

Not to be forgotten, it should be further noted, is that with nearly 500,000 Russian-speaking refugees having poured over Russia’s borders fleeing from the Ukraine Civil War, the 13,000 troops of NATO's Response Force (NRF) would pose no obstacle toRussia’s 845,000 active-duty troops. In fact, by one estimate, Russia’s military could take over the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in an afternoon as sizeable portions of their populations are ethnic Russians to begin with.

As to the US military's 1.4 million active duty troops and 850,000 reservists, it can't just throw all of them at Russia — somebody has to maintain those 900 bases around the world in 130 nations, as well as defend the US homeland…a situation perhaps best summed up by Frederick the Great, the renowned Prussian warrior-king, who once warned: He who tries to defend everything, defends nothing.”

So to Putin’s issuance of this “Dead Hand” order today, since 1999, Russia has believed it could win a nuclear war against the United States…and with Obama believing he too can win a nuclear war against Russia…sadly the world may see, very soon, who is right.


Ghost Entity Attacks News Crew On Camera [VIDEO]

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Ghost Entity Attacks News Crew On Camera

A news crew from a local news station in central Pennsylvania had an interview to remember. They went on assignment to a home in Hanover, York County. When the cameras began rolling, FOX43’s photojournalist, Nick Petrillo, felt his hand burning and saw a scratch on his wrist. Simpson put Holy water on him. These are the classical signs of hauntings. It seems reminiscent of the “Amityville Horror” or “Poltergeist”.

WATCH THE VIDEO:


“Because you’re telling the story,” she says. “Because you’re putting it out there, because they don’t want– that is there, I’m just telling you, right now that is their way of a warning.
This home however, is different from others on the block. The homeowner DeAnna Simpson says her house is very haunted, with multiple ghosts and other entities. Over the seven years her and her family has lived at the residence they found it haunted. Simpsonhas many ghostly photos, including some from something that scratches people who come inside. She also has audio recordings of voices, children laughing, and dogs barking that were not in the house.

I have some (ghosts) here that are protecting me, some women here that are protecting me, but the majority are bad, dark forces, inhuman, demonic, Simpson said.

Ghost Entity Attacks News Crew On Camera

Simpson says one of the entities in the house is a demon. It appears in photo’s as a 7-foot-tall shadow person. While the news team was there, Simpson recorded orbs on her cell phone camera and it caught a clip of a shadowy hand reaching out.

Simpson has invited priests, paranormal researchers and mediums into the home.

The house will be on “The Dead Files” on the Travel Channel on Saturday. She says the crew turned up evidence of grisly deaths that took place there.

Hard to say if all this was staged as Ms. Simpsons story is being aired shortly on a popular paranormal TV show. This could just be a publicity stunt to boost ratings for her appearance on the “Dead Files”. Some of her evidence is compelling, more research is needed to have a valid opinion.

SOURCE

Gods Of Cydonia [VIDEO]

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Gods Of Cydonia

Richard Charles Hoagland, (born April 25, 1945) is an American author and a proponent of various theories about NASA, lost alien civilizations on the Moon and on Mars and other related topics.

Richard is, by career, a science writer as well as a consultant in the fields of astronomy, planetarium curating, and space-program education.

Gods Of Cydonia

In 1965, at the age of nineteen, Hoagland became Curator, possibly the youngest in the country, of the Springfield, Massachusetts, Museum of Science.

In 1966 Hoagland served as NBC Television consultant for the historic soft landing of a U.S. spacecraft on the moon, Surveyor 1.

Gods Of Cydonia

Later he appeared on “The Tonight Show” explaining the significance of the landing to Johnny Carson.

In 1968, for the Apollo 8 lunar-orbital mission, he was asked to become a consultant to CBS News, and served as a science advisor to Walter Cronkite.

 
 

Doctors Extract 232 Teeth From Boy's Mouth

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Doctors in India have extracted 232 teeth from the mouth of a 17-year-old boy in a seven-hour operation.

Ashik Gavai was brought in with a swelling in his right jaw and had been suffering for 18 months.

He travelled to the city from his village after local doctors failed to identify the cause of the problem.

Doctors have described his condition as "very rare" and "a world record".

Doctors Extract 232 Teeth From Boy's Mouth

"Ashik's malaise was diagnosed as a complex composite odontoma where a single gum forms lots of teeth. It's a sort of benign tumour," Dr Dhiware said.

"At first, we couldn't cut it out so we had to use the basic chisel and hammer to take it out.

"Once we opened it, little pearl-like teeth started coming out, one-by-one. Initially, we were collecting them, they were really like small white pearls. But then we started to get tired. We counted 232 teeth," she added.

The surgery, conducted on Monday, involved two surgeons and two assistants. Ashik now has 28 teeth.

Describing Ashik's case as "very rare", Dr Dhiware said she had "not seen anything like this before in my 30-year career", but said she was "thrilled to get such an exciting case".

Doctors Extract 232 Teeth From Boy's Mouth

"According to medical literature available on the condition, it is known to affect the upper jaw and a maximum of 37 teeth have been extracted from the tumour in the past. But in Ashik's case, the tumour was found deep in the lower jaw and it had hundreds of teeth."

Doctors Extract 232 Teeth From Boy's Mouth

Ashik's father Suresh Gavai was quoted by the Mumbai Mirror as saying that his son complained of severe pain a month ago.

"I was worried that it may turn out to be cancer so I brought him to Mumbai," he said.

 SOURCE

Gateway to the Heavens: The Assyrian Account to the Tower of Babel

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Gateway to the Heavens: The Assyrian Account to the Tower of Babel

The story of the construction of a tower in Babel, which resulted in the confounding of language has also confounded modern scholars. The Book of Genesis tells of a time in which all of the world’s population migrated eastward to the plain of Shinar. Shinar (Hebrew for “[land of the] two rivers”) is considered by most to be what the Akkadians referred to as Shumer or Sumer, in what is today Mesopotamia; that is modern day Iraq.

The Hebrew etymology is most likely referring to the rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates. In fear of being scattered across the whole face of the earth, the inhabitants of the plain decided to build a city and also a tower to reach the heavens. This city would be referred to as Babel (Akkadian: bab-ili or “gate of God”) which was also a play on the Hebrew word balal or “to confuse” (i.e. the language).

The following excerpt is from the Jewish Publication Society translation of Genesis 11:

1. And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

2. And it came to pass, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3. And they said one to another: ‘Come, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.

4. And they said: ‘Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, with its top in heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’

5. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6. And the Lord said: ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do; and now nothing will be withholden from them, which they purpose to do.

7. Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’

8. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city.

9. Therefore was the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. 

Gateway to the Heavens: The Assyrian Account to the Tower of Babel

While most of us are familiar with the Hebrew account of the dispersal of peoples and the introduction of new languages, archaeology has shown that the concept of a spreading of tongues is not as unique as we believe. We much divert our attention to George Smith, the very same George Smith who first translated the Epic of Gilgamesh in the 19th century, and provided the world with the earliest documented reference to a Great Flood.

Following his translation of Gilgamesh, Smith was sent to the site of Nineveh where he was to continue excavations in the hopes of unearthing additional inscriptions that paralleled or showed some relation to the Old Testament. Archaeology at the time was a new science, founded on validating the writings of the Bible. Smith was fortunate, in that the excavation did yield additional tablets (from the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal) and upon further research, he did discover a story likely to have inspired the Biblical account of the Tower of Babel. Catalogued and hidden in the inventory vaults of the British Museum, the fragmentary piece of text reads as follows:

[…] them? The father
[…] Of him, his heart was evil,
[…] against the father of all the gods was wicked,
[…] of him, his heart was evil,
[…] Babylon brought to subjection,
[small] and great he confounded their speech.
[…] Babylon brought to subjection,
[small] and great he confounded their speech.
Their strong place (tower) all the day they founded;
to their strong place in the night entirely he made an end.
In his anger also word thus he poured out:
[to] scatter abroad he set his face he gave this? command, their counsel was confused […] the course he broke
[…] fixed the sanctuary

Gateway to the Heavens: The Assyrian Account to the Tower of Babel

George Smith provides a commentary to his translation briefly summarizing what the inscription meant to him, along with highlighting key words that emphasize the type of construction that took place.

…we have the anger of the gods at the sin of the world, the place mentioned being Babylon. The building or work is called tazimat or tazimtu, a word meaning strong, and there is a curious relation, lines 9 to 11, that what they built in the day the god destroyed in the night.

Key parallels are seen between the Biblical and Assyrian accounts, that is, that they both speak of mankind unified by a single language and building a tower, thus angering the gods, which resulted in the confusion of the language. The Assyrian account, much like the other tablets found in the same collection, were most likely copies of older tablets. What inspired the Assyrian Babel and what was the original message conveyed? Much like its Hebrew counterpart, these questions continue to elude us.

SOURCE

Why Are The Arab Gulf Countries Silent On Gaza?

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After hopes of a lasting truce fade again today, the intense pressure on Gaza continues. We are used to hearing voices across the world raised against the conflict. But, perhaps surprisingly, the Gulf has scarcely reared its head to protest.

Gulf thinking towards Gaza is mixed up. Upon joining the ruler of Dubai’s central government office in 2007, its Palestinian head of strategy told me to steer clear of Palestinian politics. “For Sheikh Mohammed, policy comes before politics. We don’t put the cart before the horse. We must get our house in order and then we can change things.”


Her attitude, however, contrasted with the material help being provided. “Palestinians have received more humanitarian aid [in the form of budget support] from the United Arab Emirates than from any other nation. The UAE has always stood by us,” the Palestinian Authority’s man in charge of reconstruction told me in 2010.

True to form, through the latest period of violence, 18 Boeing 747s and C130s were dispatched from Dubai laden with meals, blankets and medicine. Saudi Arabia pledged US$80m (around £48m) in aid. Yet this humanitarian effort stands in stark contrast to Gulf foreign policy. Saudi Arabia’s king took three painful weeks to even criticise Israel’s offensive. The UAE then concurred; its foreign minister, Abdullah bin Zayed, had earlier condemned Israel on Twitter.

Why Are The Arab Gulf Countries Silent On Gaza?

But not one concrete, punitive action against Israel was called for by either country. That Gulf Arab silence – in policy, thought and strategy – has not gone unnoticed. It has reverberated in the west, where Spain and Latin American nations have done more to shore up support for Gaza than their Arab counterparts.

Instead of taking action, Gulf nations aimed their diplomatic guns at each other. A spat raged between Qatar, Saudi and the UAE: the Middle East Eye depicted an Israel-Saudi-Egypt troika conspiring against Gaza. The UAE denied it had ever normalised relations with Israel“as others did” – a dig at Qatar’s now defunct 1990s relationship with Israel.

What are some of the reasons for this state of affairs? Partly, fatigue has set in after a decade of pressing the Gulf’s definitive position on Israel, the Arab Peace Initiative, to little avail. But domestic political concerns inevitably play a part for regimes that are constantly wary of their own populations.

As Dr Kristian Ulrichsen of Rice University has said, “Gulf states are also caught in a difficult balancing act as their commitment to the Palestinian cause clashes with their campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood across the region”.

Why Are The Arab Gulf Countries Silent On Gaza?

This may be the case. But it’s hard to see what Gulf states could lose in the long term from a resolution of this most divisive problem. If only they attacked the problem of reaching a lasting settlement with the same vigour they show in attacking each other. The UAE has augmented its standing at the UN with time, energy and resources. In the interest of deterring Iran, the UAE now has the world’s highest military spending per capita at $14bn a year and Saudi Arabia outstrips the UAE for defence imports. It is time to develop a formula for Gulf Arab intervention backed by diplomatic and defence credibility.

Aid is useless if reconstruction materials cannot get through. The Gulf ought to pursue an end to the blockade, in alignment with Jimmy Carter’s and Mary Robinson’s recent proposal for a UN security council resolution. Saudi Arabia and the UAE could either pay for, send or politically back peacekeepers; the precedent exists in Afghanistan alongside western allies. The question of a UAE-funded Iron Dome to protect Gazans has not so far been contemplated. It should be.

Why Are The Arab Gulf Countries Silent On Gaza?

The US has said it will “strongly oppose” a Palestinian push for an investigation by the international criminal court into Israeli actions. A credible Arab plan to back efforts at the international criminal court is overdue; Palestinians should not be going it alone. The US-Gulf relationship should also come under pressure as a result of the former’s financial and military support for Israel. Oil exports should not be off the bargaining table.

This could be the Gulf’s smart-power moment. It must use its influence where it is needed most.

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