(Denver, Colorado) — On Sunday, I was interviewed on the Fox News Channel by Shannon Bream about the inauguration of Hassan Rouhani as the new President of Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and the rising threat of war between Iran and Israel. You can watch the video of the interview by clicking here.

On Monday, I was interviewed on the Sean Hannity radio show by guest host, Rep. Louie Gohmert, about Iran, Israel & Damascus Countdown. Here is the link to the audio of my interview. (requires by a “Hannity Insider” subscriber.)

Please post your comments on our “Epicenter Team” page on Facebook.

Or send me your thoughts via Twitter — @joelcrosenberg.

>> Over 50% of Palestinians back peace talks, survey finds (Jerusalem Post)

(Denver, Colorado) — I’m looking forward to Thursday night, August 8th, when I’ll be speaking here in the Denver area on, “The War Clouds Rising Between Israel & Iran.”

• How close is Iran to getting The Bomb?
• How close is Israel to launching a preemptive military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities?
• Does the White House have a plan to neutralize the Iranian threat before it’s too late?
• What does Bible prophecy say about the future of the Middle East with regards to Iran, as well as with regards to the military coup in Egypt and the horrific civil war underway in Syria?

I will discuss these questions, discuss my latest novel — Damascus Countdown — and share some insights from the five weeks I recently spent in Israel, and discussions I had with several senior advisors to the Prime Minister. 

The occasion will be the annual fundraising event for Ministry Architecture, Inc., a ministry my parents (Len and Mary Rosenberg) started 13 years to provide architectural services for evangelical Christian ministries operating in developing countries who need orphanages, training centers, hospitals, and other facilities to show the love of Jesus. Before I speak, my folks will share about the exciting work God is doing through this ministry in countries such as Mexico, Nigeria, Zambia, Sudan, Romania, Haiti, Thailand, Turkey, Israel, etc. Then I will share from the Scriptures and discuss the Middle East and take your questions (that is my favorite part of the evening!)

• The event will take place at Calvary Chapel South Denver in Littleton, Colorado, from 7:30pm to 9:30pm.
• Doors will open at 6:30pm.
• A contribution of $25 per person is requested to help support Ministry Architecture. Contributions are tax deductible.
• Registration is required, and you can register at www.ministryarchitecture.com.

Please join us — I hope to see you there.

Seated from left to right: Israeli negotiator Yitzhak Molcho, Israeli Justice Minister/chief negotiator Tzipi Livni, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat & Palestinian negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh, at a dinner marking the resumption of peace talks in Washington on July 29, 2013. (photo credit: Charles Dharapak/AP/Times of Israel)

(Denver, Colorado) — A new poll provides intriguing insights into the thinking of Israeli Arabs, as well as Israeli Jews, with regards to the newly re-started peace talks, reports the Times of Israel.

Key excerpts from the story:

• The poll, released Tuesday by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University, found that 63 percent of Jews in Israel oppose a withdrawal to the 1967 lines with land swaps as part of any peace arrangement with the Palestinian Authority, even if it meant Israel would hold onto the Etzion Bloc, directly south of Jerusalem; Ma’aleh Adumim, east of the capital; and Ariel in the central West Bank about 34 kilometers (21 miles) east of Tel Aviv.
• The poll was conducted among 602 respondents in late July, after the announcement of new peace talks with the Palestinians, and has a statistical error of 4.5%.
• According to the survey, 50% of Jewish Israelis also oppose the transfer of Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem to Palestinian Authority control with a special arrangement for Jewish holy sites.
• Israeli Arabs are more optimistic than their Jewish counterparts regarding the prospects of newly resumed negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. Seventy-nine percent of Israeli Jews believe talks have a low chance of success, as opposed to 18% who believe that the chances are high. Only 41% of the Arab Israelis surveyed said the talks had a low chance of success, while 47% said they had a good chance at success.
• Despite the overall pessimism among Jewish respondents, 61% said that they were in favor of the peace talks, as opposed to 33% who said they were opposed. Ninety-one percent of the Arab citizens polled said they supported the negotiations. Only 6% opposed them.
• Seventy-seven percent of Israeli Jews would oppose any agreement that recognized in principle a right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, with a small number being allowed to come and live in Israel, and compensation for the rest.
• The majority of both Jews and Arabs surveyed — 63% of Jews and 58% of Arabs — said the Netanyahu government was sincere in its desire for negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. However, only 29% of Jews felt that the same could be said for the PA negotiators, while 85% of the Arabs said the PA was sincere in its return to the negotiating table.
• Asked if they believed that the prime minister could safeguard Israel’s security while negotiating with the PA, 60% of the Jews surveyed answered in the affirmative, as opposed to 37% who said they didn’t trust him. Among Israeli Arabs, 32% said that they trusted the prime minister in this regard, while 64% did not.

Here is the link to the audio of my interview on the Hannity show today. (requires by a “Hannity Insider” subscriber.)

—————–

I’ll be on the “Sean Hannity Radio Show” at 3:30pm eastern today. Sean is on vacation. The guest host is my friend, Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas.

The Congressman has asked me to be on the show to discuss a range of troubling trends in the Middle East, including the rise of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the prospects for a possible war in 2013 between Israel and Iran, and the  worst-case scenario I write about in my recent political thriller, Damascus Countdown.

The interview is currently scheduled for 3:30pm eastern today. Please join us if you can — on your local station, or at http://www.hannity.com/.

>> Please join me for a public event on Thursday evening, August 8th in Denver where I’ll talk about “The War Clouds Rising Between Israel & Iran” and take your questions.

>> UPDATE: INTERPOL alarmed by numerous prison breaks in Islamic countries, resulting in the escape of more than 500 al Qaeda operatives.

“On the day that almost two dozen U.S. embassies and consulates across North Africa and the Middle East are closed following the identification of a significant threat from an al-Qaeda affiliate, a senior U.S. official is providing new details about the communications intercepted from the terrorists, telling ABC News that al-Qaeda operatives could be heard talking about an upcoming attack,” reports ABC News. “The official described the terrorists as saying the planned attack is ‘going to be big’ and ‘strategically significant.’

Excerpts:

• “The part that is alarming is the confidence they showed while communicating and the air of certainty,” the official told ABC, adding that the group — Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — appeared to have a media plan for after the attack. Authorities do not know the exact target of the planned attack, according to the official.
• “We do not know whether they mean an embassy, an airbase, an aircraft, trains,” the official said.
• Today on “This Week,” Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-MD — the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee — said the intercepted communications called for a “major attack.”
• “We received information that high level people from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are talking about a major attack,” Ruppersberger said. “And these are people at a high level.”
• “It’s a very credible threat and it’s based on intelligence,” Ruppersberger continued. “What we have to do now is the most important issue, is protect Americans throughout the world.”
• Ruppersberger also commented on the threat’s al-Qaeda connection, saying “We know that al-Qaeda and other people out there want to attack us and kill us and our allies.”
• Read Gen. Martin Dempsey’s comments on the latest overseas terror threats here. 
• The senior U.S. official said there is concern about devices that could be implanted inside the body of a terrorist.
• “We are concerned about surgically implanted devices,” they said. “These are guys who have developed the techniques to defeat our detection methods.”

“An al Qaeda plot against American diplomatic posts in the Middle East and other Muslim countries that prompted the U.S. government to close nearly two dozen embassies and consulates over the weekend is “one of the most specific and credible threats I’ve seen, perhaps since 9/11,’ House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, said Sunday on Face the Nation,” reports CBS News.

Key excerpts from Face The Nation:

• We are now at the end of Ramadan. That timing important, McCaul explained, because the end of Ramadan brings their “night of power.”
• “It’s the night that they tried the first attempt on the USS Cole-style attack,” McCaul said, also pointing to fifteen years ago this week, when twin U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania claimed more than 200 lives and injured more than 4,000.
• “Zawahiri has basically set out a decree to the jihadists on his website saying, ‘Now’s the time to attack U.S. interests,'” McCaul said.
• The threat, signs of which were picked up by U.S. intelligence over the weekend, comes from Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula – also known as AQAP – a terrorist group CBS News correspondent Bob Orr said is “the most active and charged” among al Qaeda.
• “The fear is that this may be a big play from a group that has been unable to muster a large-scale attack since 9/11, and they’ve got some expertise,” he said. “They have a bomb maker in Yemen named Ibrahim al-Asiri – he’s the guy who built the underwear bombs and printer cartridge bombs. He’s a devious genius and we know in the past he’s experimented in research trying to build body bombs, that is, implant explosives in human beings which would give a whole new meaning to suicide bombers.
• “…While we’re not certain at all that’s part of this threat,” Orr continued, “the fact is he’s part of the brain trust there in Yemen that’s been working on plots, and it can’t be discounted.”

OTHER KEY HEADLINES TO TRACK:

• “Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence  Committee, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the threats are ‘very reminiscent  of what we saw pre-9/11.’ He also described the threats as ‘the most serious … I’ve seen in a number of  years.'” (Fox News)
• Bill Kristol: A year ago Obama said al-Qaida is on the run, and now we are on  the run (Daily Caller)
• Embassy closings in 21 countries, travel warning renew debate over NSA data collection (McClatchy News Service)
• Al Qaeda embassy plot among “most specific and credible threats” since 9/11, McCaul says (CBS News/Face The Nation)

• Embassy closings extended due to terrorism threat (Washington Post)

Discussing Iran’s new president on the Fox News Channel (August 4, 2013).

(Denver, Colorado) — Earlier today, I was interviewed on the Fox News Channel by Shannon Bream about the inauguration of Hassan Rouhani as the new President of Iran and the rising threat of war between Iran and Israel.

You can watch the video of the interview by clicking here.

A few excerpts:

• “Rouhani is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Ahmadinejad was a wolf in wolf’s clothing.”
• “Rouhani is perceived widely in the White House and in the Western media as a moderate. But he is certainly not. He was part of the inner circle of the Ayatollah Khomeini. He has been a long-time member of the inner circle of thepro-terrorism, pro-Radical Islam leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Khamenei.”
• “But perhaps the man who knew Rouhani best was his eldest son who committed suicide a number of years ago, and this is what he said in his suicide note: “I hate your government, your lies, your corruption, your religion, your double acts and your hypocrisy….I am ashamed to live in such environment where I’m forced to lie to my friends each day, telling them that my father isn’t part of all of this. Telling them my father loves this nation, whereas I believe this to be not true. It makes me sick seeing you, my father, kiss the hand of Khamenei.”

HEADLINES TO TRACK:

• Israel, US have vastly different takes on Iran’s Rouhani inauguration (Jerusalem Post)
• US says it can be ‘willing partner’ with Iran (Ynet News)
• Obama Resisting New GOP Push on Iran Sanctions (AP)
• Top US general visiting Israel amid Iran, Syria worries (Times of Israel)
• ‘Significant’ al Qaeda threat forces U.S. to keep 19 embassies closed for the week (NBC News)
• Has the end game begun? Privately, senior Israeli officials now warning Iran war could come in 2013. Netanyahu preparing public. (Flash Traffic blog)

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei officially endorsing cleric Hassan Rohani, August 3, 2013. (Photo: AFP/Haaretz)

>> “Late Saturday, Rouhani met with North Korean politician Kim Yong Nam, the new Iranian president’s first meeting with a foreign official.” (VOA)

>> Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to arrive in Israel on Sunday to discuss Iran and Syrian threats. “Dempsey will also address the issue of a possible Israeli strike in Iran in wake of recent statements on the subject made by Netanyahu in an interview with CBS. “Iran is inching closer and closer to the bomb,” Netanyahu said. “I won’t wait until it’s too late.” (Ynet)

(Denver, Colorado) — An historic weekend is underway in Iran. The big question is: Where will it lead, to peace, or to war?

On Sunday, Hassan Rouhani, 64, stepped before the parliament in Tehran and was formally sworn into office as Iran’s 7th President on live television.

“In the presence of the holy Koran and before the nation, I swear to the omnipotent God to safeguard the official religion of the country and the Islamic Republic as well as the country’s constitution,” Rouhani said.

• Iranian President Hassan Rouhani takes oath of office (BBC)
• Iran’s President Hassan Rohani takes oath of office (Press TV/Iran)
• Iran’s Rouhani sworn in as president (Aljazeera)

On Saturday, Rouhani received the full endorsement of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the nation’s so-called “Supreme Leader,” amidst calls by top Iranian and Shia leaders to destroy the State of Israel. Khamenei praised the “selection of a worthy individual who has more than three decades of service to the system of the Islamic Republic…and who from the time of the revolutionary struggle…has resisted the enemies of the Islamic Revolution,” Reuters reported.

Outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad left office predicting the complete destruction of Israel was increasingly close at hand.  “I swear to God that a ferocious storm is coming and it will uproot the Zionist entity,” Ahmadinejad declared on Friday, which was “Quds Day,” the day Muslims mark each year in opposition to Israel and the Jewish people controlling Jerusalem and vowing to reclaim Jerusalem and all of “Palestine” for Islam.

Also speaking on Friday, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah — a key agent of Iran — also called for the destruction of Israel. “The elimination of Israel is not only a Palestinian interest,” said Nasrallah. “It is the interest of the entire Muslim world and the entire Arab world.” The Hezbollah leader also said Israel is a “cancer” in the region and declared that “the only solution is to destroy it without giving it the opportunity to surrender.”

On Friday, it appeared that Rouhani was joining into this chorus of calls for the destruction of Israel. The Iranian news agency, ISNA, quoted Rouhani as saying: “The Zionist regime is a wound that has sat on the body of the Muslim world for years and needs to be removed.” However, according to the Jerusalem Post, “ISNA later retracted the report, saying some domestic news agencies ‘including ISNA, had presented Mr Rouhani as saying the Zionist regime is a wound on the body of the Muslim world that needs to be removed, and this was corrected.'” The quote was later corrected to: “After all, in our region, there’s been a wound for years on the body of the Muslim world under the shadow of the occupation of the holy land of Palestine and the beloved [city of] al-Quds,” reported Haaretz.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu warned that while the face of the Iranian regime has changed, the objectives has not, and hinted that Israel was fully prepared to take military action if necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring and deploying nuclear weapons. “Rouhani’s true face has been revealed earlier than expected,” Netanyahu said. “Even if they will now rush to deny his remarks, this is what the man thinks and this is the plan of the Iranian regime. These remarks by President Rouhani must rouse the world from the illusion that part of it has been caught up in since the Iranian elections. The President there has changed but the goal of the regime has not: To achieve nuclear weapons in order to threaten Israel, the Middle East and the peace and security of the entire world. A country that threatens the destruction of the State of Israel must not be allowed to possess weapons of mass destruction.”

Most Congressional leaders agree with Netanyahu. Thus, the U.S. House of Representatives last week passed a bill 400 to 20 imposing even tougher new economic sanctions on Iran, specifically in an attempt to cripple Iran’s oil industry and in turn persuade officials in Tehran to give up their nuclear ambitions. However, the Obama administration is resisting such new measures, hoping that they can instead engage Rouhani as a “moderate” and achieve diplomatic success through nuclear negotiations.

Most Senate leaders agree with Netanyahu, as well. “In a letter to President Barack Obama, 76 senators are demanding tougher punishment on Iran’s economy until the Islamic republic scales back its nuclear program,” reports the Associated Press. “It also urges Obama to consider military options while keeping the door open to diplomacy. The Senate letter, a copy of which was obtained Saturday by The Associated Press, comes just days after the House overwhelmingly passed new restrictions on Iran’s oil sector and its mining and construction industries. Senators are expected to take up the same package in September. ‘Until we see a significant slowdown of Iran’s nuclear activities, we believe our nation must toughen sanctions and reinforce the credibility of our option to use military force at the same time as we fully explore a diplomatic solution to our dispute with Iran,’ says the letter, which will be delivered Monday.”

However, the AP notes that “the Obama administration is concerned Congress’ effort could undercut Iran’s relatively moderate President-elect Hasan Rouhani….Rouhani has pledged to follow a ‘path of moderation”‘ and promised greater openness over Iran’s nuclear program. Obama wants to give Rouhani a chance to prove his seriousness.”

On Saturday, Rouhani, a trained Shia Islamic cleric, vowed to pursue “moderation” during an endorsement ceremony that was televised live in Iran, and was attended by presidents, prime ministers, and leaders from all over the world.

“The orientation of the government is Iran’s economic salvation, constructive interaction with the world, and a restoration of morality,” Rouhani said today during a brief speech. “The minimum expectation of people from the new government is to create stability in all fields and eliminate the concerns and limitations that the country is facing,” Rouhani said. “Moderation does not mean deviating from principles and it is not conservatism in the face of change and development. Moderation … is an active and patient approach in society in order to be distant from the abyss of extremism.”

Much of the Western press is describing Rouhani today as a “moderate.” But as I have noted in the past, nothing could be further from the truth. Rouhani is no moderate. He is a disciple of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late fanatical tyrant of Tehran. He was a senior national security advisor to Khomeini during the brutal war with Iraq that left a million people dead. He served as a top national security advisor to the regime in the 1990s, as well. He was Iran’s nuclear negotiator from 2003 to 2005 and is both a loyal defender of Iran’s nuclear program and a shrewd and experienced diplomat.

Consider the following:

1. Rouhani’s son committed suicide, “ashamed” of father’s Radicalism.
2. Rouhani was endorsed by the only Iranian leader ever to publicly call for Israel to be destroyed by nuclear weapons.
3. Rouhani has ruled out any halt to uranium enrichment program
4. Rouhani “chaired Iran’s National Security Council between 1989 and 2005, meaning he was at the top table when Iran masterminded the 1994 bombing of the Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people, and of the Khobar Towers in 1996, killing 19 U.S. airmen,” noted a column in the Wall Street Journal. Rouhani “would also have been intimately familiar with the secret construction of Iran’s illicit nuclear facilities in Arak, Natanz and Isfahan, which weren’t publicly exposed until 2002. Rouhani also called on the regime’s basij militia to suppress the student protests of July 1999 ‘mercilessly and monumentally.’ More than a dozen students were killed in those protests, more than 1,000 were arrested, hundreds were tortured, and 70 simply ‘disappeared.’”
5. Rohani once approved of hiding Iran atomic work — “Years before he became Iran’s president-elect, Hassan Rohani spoke approvingly about concealing his nation’s nuclear program and said that when Pakistan got atomic bombs and Brazil began enriching uranium, ‘the world started to work with them,’” reported Reuters. “The comments offer an intriguing window into the past thinking of Rohani, widely seen as a moderate or pragmatic conservative, whose surprise victory in weekend elections to succeed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was perceived by the United States and other Western powers as positive — at least at first glance.”
6. Rouhani thanked the Mahdi, also known as the Twelfth Imam — the Shia Islamic so-called messiah — for his presidential victory.
7. Rouhani is such a close ally of current Supreme Leader Khamenei, who remains hell-bent on building nuclear weapons, that the Netanyahu government is increasingly of the mind that it may have to take military action to stop Iran from getting The Bomb, and soon.
8. Of the 686 Iranian candidates who registered to run for president, only 8 were allowed by Iranian officials  to actually run — Rouhani was one of them, evidence that he is considered a radical enough by Khamenei to represent the Supreme Leader’s own pro-terrorism, anti-Israel, anti-West, and End Times theological views.

On Sunday at 1:20pm eastern, I am scheduled to be interviewed by Shannon Bream on the Fox News Channel. We will discuss the Middle East peace process. I’m hoping time will allow for us to also touch on the inauguration of Hassan Rouhani as the new President of Iran, and assess the rising potential of an Israeli first strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Please join us.

Then, on Monday afternoon at 3:30pm eastern, I am scheduled to appear on the Sean Hannity radio show. Sean will be on vacation. My friend, Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, will be guest hosting. He has invited me on to discuss the same set of issues. Please join us for that interview as well.

If there are changes to this schedule, I will update this blog posting. Thanks.

• UPDATE: “The terror threat prompting the U.S. government to close nearly two dozen embassies and consulates Sunday is the most specific, credible threat information in years, CBS News senior correspondent John Miller reports. Intelligence officers have reporting from a reliable source that a major plot is under way and that the team to carry it out has been selected and is in place, Miller reports. The threat information has been described as the most specific and credible since the foiled plot to blow up British planes en route to the United States in 2006, Miller reports.”
• UPDATE: Al Qaeda terror plot leads U.S. to shut down embassies: “Chairman of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence Rep. Peter King confirmed on Friday that ‘something serious is being planned,’ prompting  the shutdown of 21 U.S. embassies across the world. ‘There’s very little doubt, if any, that something serious is being planned,’  the New York Republican told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on a phone call in The Situation Room. ‘I’ve been getting briefed fairly regularly over the last seven  or eight years at least and also pretty heavily before then and this is the most  specific I’ve seen.'”

>> “The War Clouds Rising Between Israel & Iran”: Please register to join me for an event on August 8th in Denver where I will discuss the latest developments in the Middle East, and take your questions.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat and Mohammed Shtayyeh (right) and Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Molho (left) at the formal resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, in the Oval Office, July 30, 2013 (photo credit: Official White House Photo, Chuck Kennedy/Times of Israel)

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process restarted this week, and this is a good thing. We all want peace in the Middle East. We all want Israelis and Palestinians — Jews, Muslims, Christians, and those of other faiths, and those of no faith — to be able to live with security, freedom, dignity, opportunity, justice, and hope for the future.

As Christians, let us not be cynical or scared about the process, or where it might lead. Rather, let us pray and ask the Lord to give humility and courage to all of the Jewish and Arab leaders and people in the region to truly reach out a hand of friendship and kindness to their neighbors and their long-time enemies in the name of peace.

• The Psalmist told us to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6).
• The Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9).

So let us obey the Word of God. Let us pray for peace, and for the would-be peacemakers, and let us also pray for patience. This conflict goes back to the Biblical times of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac. It is, at its core, a spiritual conflict, not merely a geopolitical one. It has never been easy or simple to solve, and it won’t be so now.

Let us also pray for the leaders and people of the region, and all those involved in the process, to truly have wisdom from above — God’s wisdom — the insight and ability to make the right decisions at the right time in the right way.

To this end, I believe it is vital that we ask five critical questions as the peace process begins:

First, what is the best way to balance competing priorities? Helping the Israelis and Palestinians meet and discuss the “final status issues” and chart a peaceful, respectful path forward is (and should be) a very high priority for U.S. diplomats. But there are other high priorities competing for the U.S.’s attention.

• Example: The Iranian Threat — Iran is steadily moving towards becoming a state with nuclear weapons. Stopping Iran from getting The Bomb is, I would argue, the number one priority we have. Are the White House and State Department investing enough time and energy to accomplish this critical objective at the moment, or are they creating a situation in which the Israelis feel they may have to launch a preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities — and soon — because the rest of the world isn’t acting decisively?
• Example: The Syrian Implosion — More than 100,000 people have already died in the Syrian civil war. There are credible allegations that chemical weapons have been used. The U.S. is contemplating the use of military force in Syria (no-fly zones, arming the “rebels,” etc). The Russians, however, are standing closely with the Assad regime. So are the Iranians and Hezbollah. Given the high stakes in Syria, in the U.S. devoting enough time and energy to make wise decisions vis-à-vis Syria?
• Example: The Egyptian coup d’état — The Egyptian military has just seized power from the Muslim Brotherhood, arrested President Morsi, and installed a temporary government. The military says it will eventually hold elections and draft a new constitution, one explicitly not based on Islamic Sharia law. Are we giving enough time and energy to monitoring the volatility in this important country, and helping the new leaders steer the country away from Islamic Radicalism, and away from military authoritarianism, towards true freedom, peace and prosperity?

Second, are we certain that the Palestinian leadership truly wants to make peace? I believe many of the Palestinian people want to live in peace with their Israeli neighbors. But real questions have to be asked about Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

• What was Abbas’ top priority as the “peace process” began? Pressuring Israel to agree to release 104 Palestinian murderers and terrorists? How exactly does that promote true peace between these two peoples?
• What was Abbas’ next move? To declare that not a single Israeli would be allowed to live in “Palestine” if/when the state is conceived.

Third, does the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah truly have the legal authority and legitimacy to sign a peace deal with Israel? We would all like the answer to be yes, but we should not rush to make an assumption. Consider these troublesome facts:

• Abbas is currently serving the 8th year of a 4 year term. His term expired Jan 15, 2009, yet he refuses to call new elections.
• Abbas doesn’t control all of the territory that he and the PLO define as “Palestine” — Hamas controls the Gaza Strip.
• Abbas either does not have the power, or refuses to exercise his power, to stop Palestinians once and for all from firing rockets, missiles and mortars at Israelis from Gaza.

I’ll be speaking about Israel and Iran at an event in Denver soon. Please register to join us.

UPDATED: (Denver, Colorado) — I’m looking forward to three specific upcoming public speaking opportunities and wanted to make you aware of them. Please take a few moments to learn more about each of these exceptional events, and then register today to join us.

>> August 8th in Denver – Topic: “The War Clouds Rising Between Israel & Iran.” — How close is Iran to getting The Bomb? How close is Israel to launching a preemptive military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities? Does the White House have a plan to neutralize the Iranian threat before it’s too late? What does Bible prophecy say about the future of the Middle East with regards to Iran, as well as with regards to the military coup in Egypt and the horrific civil war underway in Syria? I will discuss these questions, discuss my latest novel — Damascus Countdown — and share some insights from the five weeks I recently spent in Israel, and discussions I had with several senior advisors to the Prime Minister. 

The occasion will be the annual fundraising event for Ministry Architecture, Inc., a ministry my parents (Len and Mary Rosenberg) started 13 years to provide architectural services for evangelical Christian ministries operating in developing countries who need orphanages, training centers, hospitals, and other facilities to show the love of Jesus. Before I speak, my folks will share about the exciting work God is doing through this ministry in countries such as Mexico, Nigeria, Zambia, Sudan, Romania, Haiti, Thailand, Turkey, Israel, etc. Then I will share from the Scriptures and discuss the Middle East and take your questions (that is my favorite part of the evening!) The event will take place at Calvary Chapel South Denver in Littleton, Colorado, from 7:30pm to 9:30pm. Doors will open at 6:30pm. A contribution of $25 per person is requested to help support Ministry Architecture. Contributions are tax deductible. Registration is required, and you can register at www.ministryarchitecture.com. Please join us — I hope to see you there.

>> August 11-17 in the Adirondacks — Topic: “Rediscovering the Purpose and Power of Bible Prophecy” — The occasion will be the Word of Life summer conferences. I am one of three teachers that week, including Dr. Mark Bailey, president of Dallas Theological Seminary. If you and your family have never attended a Word of Life camp, I highly encourage you to come. They are so encouraging and refreshing and I absolutely love spending time in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York, where I have so many fond memories from my childhood.

>> October 3-5 in New York City — Topic: “The People, The Land, and The Future of Israel” — The occasion is a CPM conference that will be held at Calvary Baptist Church in Manhattan. Some of the leading theologians in the West on the subject of Biblical and prophetic Israel will be speaking. I am honored to be part of the event and I hope you will  register today and join us in October. For more details, please click here.