AMERICA’S STRATEGIC PARALYSIS

It is obvious Trump seeks a clean break with Obama’s policies. But will the swamp let him?

On Thursday morning, for the second time in so many days, North Korea threatened to attack the US territory of Guam with nuclear weapons. Taken together with Pyongyang’s two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month, and the US’s Defense Intelligence Agency’s acknowledgment this week that North Korea has the capacity to miniaturize nuclear bombs and so launch them as warheads on missiles, these threats propelled the US and the world into a nuclear crisis.

To understand what must be done, it is critical we recognize how we reached this point. We have arrived at the point where an arguably undeterrable regime has achieved the capacity to attack the US with nuclear weapons due to the policy failure of three successive US administrations.

The Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations all opted not to take concerted action against North Korea, instead embracing the easy road of appeasement. All three let the threat grow as they kicked the North Korean nuclear can down the road. They engaged in nuclear talks with Pyongyang that North Korea exploited to develop nuclear weapons and missile systems.

North Korea’s threats and capabilities tell us that the can has reached the end of the road. It can be kicked no further.

Unfortunately, neither the State Department nor the US media seem to have noticed. Rather than consider the implications of North Korea’s threats and its nuclear capabilities, the major US media outlets and Donald Trump’s political opponents on both sides of the political aisle have opted instead to attack Trump.

The media and Trump’s opponents all focused their responses to North Korea’s nuclear brinkmanship on Trump’s response to the threat. They stood as one in condemning Trump for responding to the ballooning threat by threatening on Tuesday to unleash “fire and fury like the world as never seen” against North Korea if it continues to threaten the US.

TV hosts and commentators bemoaned Trump’s dangerous trigger finger. Democratic Sen. Diane Feinstein said, “Isolating the North Koreans has not halted their pursuit of nuclear weapons. And President Trump is not helping the situation with his bombastic comments.”

Sen. John McCain, one of Trump’s Republican nemeses, similarly attacked Trump and intimated that the US lacks the capacity to follow through on his threats.

“I take exception to the president’s comments, because you gotta be able to do what you say you’re gonna do. I don’t think that’s a way you attack an issue and a challenge like this,” McCain said.

For his part, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the media on Wednesday that Trump’s statement was not a threat to use force, per se. It was, rather, an attempt to speak to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in a language he can understand, “since he doesn’t seem to understand diplomatic language.”

Tillerson then said that the administration’s policy remains the policy of its predecessors. The US seeks to renew nuclear talks with North Korea if it will just step back from the brink. Last week Tillerson said that the US is not seeking to overthrow the Kim regime. This was an extraordinary unilateral concession to a regime that is developing the means to conduct nuclear strikes against US cities.

What Tillerson’s statement along with the response of the media and Trump’s political opponents all make clear is that at a moment when the US is in critical need of a serious strategic discussion about North Korea, no such discussion is taking place.

And North Korea is not the only threat that the foreign policy elite in Washington – both in and out of government – is failing to address realistically or responsibly.

The absence of serious strategic discourse in the US is just as striking in everything related to Trump’s handling of the Iranian threat.

Over the past several weeks, Israeli officials have expressed dismay at the terms of the July 7 Syrian cease-fire agreement the Trump administration concluded with Russia. As Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kupperwasser of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs explained in a pointed critique of the deal, the cease-fire “tacitly gave legitimacy to the prolonged presence of Iranian and Iranian-backed forces throughout the regions of Syria nominally controlled by the Assad regime.”

Two weeks after concluding the pro-Iranian cease-fire deal, Trump met with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the White House. Ignoring the fact that Hezbollah and Iran control the Lebanese government, and that Hariri, consequently, serves at the pleasure of both, Trump embraced Lebanon as an ally. He pledged continued US support for the Lebanese Armed Forces despite the fact that the LAF is subordinate to Hezbollah. And he extolled Lebanon’s war “against terror.”

Last week Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah announced in a televised speech that the LAF in coordination with Hezbollah would be carrying out a strike against ISIS forces along the Syrian- Lebanese border. The LAF would attack from the Lebanese side. Hezbollah and Assad regime forces would attack from the Syrian side of the border.

Nasrallah did not mention that US special forces were fighting alongside the LAF troops. But they were. The Pentagon released photos of US special forces operating from an LAF base. And news agencies reported that US forces were accompanying Lebanese forces into battle.

In other words, the Trump administration has embraced the Obama administration’s policy of viewing Iran and Hezbollah as allies in a common war against ISIS.

One of the lone voices who opposed this policy was Col. Derek Harvey. Trump’s National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster fired Harvey from his position of Middle East director on the National Security Council last month.

According to a senior US national security source familiar with the issue, Harvey advocated that the administration recognize and act on the growing threat to US allies Israel and Jordan posed by Iran and Hezbollah in Syria.

This week it was reported that both Israel and Jordan briefed US officials involved in cease-fire negotiations and set out their objections to continued deployment of Iranian and Hezbollah forces in the country.

Harvey, the source explains, objected to the Pentagon’s insistence on limiting its discussion of US operations in Syria to the campaign against ISIS. He said that Hezbollah and Iran must also be addressed.

Rather than consider his position, Harvey, the source says, was shot down by his colleagues from the Pentagon who accused him of being a warmonger.

And as a consequence, with US forces fighting side by side with Hezbollah in Syria, and so advancing Iranian control over Syria, the Trump administration’s policy in the country has become substantively identical to that of its predecessor.

As to Iran’s nuclear program, last month Trump again certified that Iran is in compliance with the JCPOA nuclear deal. He did this despite the fact that he opposed recertification. Trump was allegedly was blindsided by his national security team McMaster, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Tillerson, who reportedly insisted that the US has no alternative at this time to maintaining its commitment to the deal that guarantees Iran will be in North Korea’s position within 13 years.

National security sources in Washington dispute this claim. One source reveals that between Trump’s electoral victory and his firing last month, Harvey developed a detailed plan for withdrawing the US from the nuclear deal but that McMaster prevented him from presenting his plan to Trump.

Whatever the case may be, the fact is that at least for the next 90 days, the Trump administration remains committed to Obama’s Iranian nuclear deal.

Unfortunately, if the US does not act swiftly to forge and implement a strategy for denuclearizing North Korea, it may well face the specter of a nuclear-armed Iran in possession of ICBMs in much less than 13 years.

This is the case for two reasons. First, nothing happens in isolation.

If the US does not attach Trump’s threat to attack North Korea to a credible strategy for removing North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, then Iran will draw the appropriate lessons.

The second reason Trump’s response to the North Korean nuclear crisis will directly impact the burgeoning nuclear threat of Iran is that there is strong circumstantial evidence that the two programs are connected. Indeed, they may be the same program.

Last week, after the UN Security Council passed a new sanctions resolution against North Korea, the regime’s No. 2 official, parliament chairman Kim Yong Nam, arrived in Tehran for a 10-day visit.

In the past, CIA officials have claimed that Iranian observers have been present at North Korean nuclear tests. Iran also reportedly financed the Korean-built nuclear reactor in Syria that Israel reportedly destroyed in 2007.

Iran’s Shihab-3 and Shihab-4 intermediate range ballistic missiles are based on North Korean designs. Former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton recently revealed that during North Korea’s 1999-2006 missile testing moratorium, Iran conducted missile tests for North Korea.

If the circumstantial evidence linking the two nuclear programs is correct, then whatever North Korea has will be possessed by Iran in short order.

It is certainly possible that there is more happening behind the scenes in Washington than anyone can possibly know. Far from the television cameras, US national security officials may be configuring strategic goals and programs that will enable Trump to abandon Obama’s failed policies in relation to North Korea, Syria and Iran and move the US – and the world – in a safer and more secure direction.

Unfortunately, in light of Tillerson’s claim that the US seeks to return to the negotiating table with North Korea, and given the administration’s decision to continue to implement Obama’s pro-Iran and pro-Hezbollah policy in Syria and Trump’s second certification of Iranian compliance with Obama’s nuclear deal, it is certainly easy to conclude that this is not the case.

As Kupperwasser noted in his essay on the dangers the US-Russian Syrian cease-fire deal pose to Israel and Jordan, Trump’s abidance by Obama’s pro-Iranian policies in Syria “worries Israel… because it casts doubt over the depth of American commitment, the ability of the Americans to deliver, or the relevance of the ‘Art of the Deal’ to the Middle East and international politics.”

It is obvious that Trump continues to seek a clean break with Obama’s policies. But as his critics’ piling on against him following his threat to North Korea and the State Department’s determination to maintain Obama’s failed policy of appeasement toward Pyongyang both make clear, more than anything else, Trump needs advisers who are capable of helping him achieve this goal. He needs advisers willing to stand up to the pressure and the inertial force of the foreign policy bureaucracy and capable of having a serious strategic discussion about how to proceed in an international environment that grows more daunting every day.

Originally published by the Jerusalem Post

North Korea, Iran, and the Militarization of the United States

President Donald Trump’s tweet last week after the UN Security Council voted to put new sanctions on North Korea held within it loads of information that should have alarmed both the President’s most dedicated followers as well as most Americans. Here it is again:

While the UN Security Council vote was important, the idea that more sanctions would cause North Korea to simply just roll over is pure fantasy.

At the same time as the UN Security Council vote North Korea’s “Number Two” headed to Iran for ten days to strengthen ties between the two countries.  These ties have been covert for years, but now with official sanctions having been increased, Iran’s backing to the North Korean regime becomes key in allowing the nuclear progress to continue at an increased pace.

Furthermore, as long as the world believes Iran is abiding with the Nuclear Deal then cash will continue to flow into Iran.  These investments by Russia and China are no doubt now being channeled back into North Korea for nuclear weapons development.

A Soft Coup in the US by the Generals?

With the take over of Gen. Kelly as White House Chief of Staff and the growing influence of Generals McMaster and Mattis, the alt-right has been abuzz with the rumors of a soft coup. No matter the exact terminology, there is a growing sense that all the President has is his Twitter feed.

Anytime there is military personel involved with the day to day running of the government, especially when war is on the horizon, the chances for direct conflict can and will increase.

While Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric against North Korea, the real question on why he has allowed Generals who have either bent over backwards to support the Iranian nuclear deal or at least have been complacent with the Persian expansion to continue to strengthen their control over America’s foreign policy.

By not tackling the growing partnership with Iran, the US has forfeited their ability to shut down the orth Korean threat in a peaceful manner.  The world’s money is pouring into Iran and thus enabling Kim Jong Un to move beyond theatrics.

General McMaster, the head of the NSC has not only been one of the biggest supporters of the Iranian nuclear deal, he has cleared the NSC of any opposition to that deal. By creating an atmosphere where Iran gets a free ride and thus empowers a situation where North Korea can trigger a nuclear war is not only negligent, but downright dangerous. The current situation has lead to a militarization of the American government in both day to day thinking and actual action.

The following Tweets from Trump hold an ominous tone:

The world has every right to be nervous. Afterall the Executive branch is being run by three generals and they have not only choked off President Trump’s closest friends, but have left him with only a Twitter feed to vent.

Buckle your seat belt, the World is about to get very rocky!

Iran, North Korea, and the Fast Approaching End Game

Two events  in the past week have now reshaped world events and the geo-political landscape for the forseeble future. The first was the Iranian launch of an advanced satellite-carrying rocket that experts believe is cover for the Islamic Republic’s long-range ballistic missile program.

The other was the second ICBM launch on Friday, carried out by the North Korean regime.  This ICBM flew 3,724km before crashing into the Sea of Japan.  Most experts concur with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s statement that, “The test confirmed that all the US mainland is within striking range.”

Trump had been banking on a year or two to convince the Chinese that they would have no choice but to reign in North Korea.  That has gone bust.

 

The long term game is over, as well as the parallel track with Iran.  There too Trump’s assumption was that Russia, if given certain “carrots” could be enticed to push back against the Ayatollah’s. The satelite launch ended that as well.

With Russia on Israel’s doorstep and Iran preparing for Middle Eastern hegemony, Trump can ill-afford to wait in order to build a coherent foreign policy.

No More White House Distractions

The firing of Reince Priebus and the appointment of General Kelly as his replacement as the new White House Chief of Staff has deep implications on America’s foreign policy.  The Trump White House could ill-afford to have the leaks continue during such a sensitive time where crucial decisions involving a two front war would have to be made. General Kelly also brings serious military experience to the White House, setting the stage for flipping the Trump administration to a war presidency.

The Israel Factor

With the Syrian war turning into an existential crisis for Israel, Jerusalem is waiting for the USA to put together a comprehensive strategy in dealing with these two interconnected threats. Given the fact that Syria appears to be the testing ground where Iranian and North Korean know-how are actually merged together on the battlefield, Israel will be called on to alleviate the burden put on America if and when an actual war would break out.

 

TWO FRONT WAR: Iran is Sharing ICBM Technology with North Korea

Donald Trump issued the following Tweet in reaction to this morning’s North Korean ICBM launch that had the potential to hit Alaska.

Despite the bravado, the Tweets do not hide the utter shock in North Korea’s ability to make serious advancements in its ICBM program.  Today’s test was supposed to be a year away.  This puts pressure on the Trump administration to respond accordingly.

Yet, how did the situation reach this point?  Disregarding the last 17 years of foolish attempts at convincing North Korea to stop, the last several months has seen their program has grown considerably.

Iran is Developing North Korea’s ICBM Technology

The partnership built around missile development and nuclear technology between Iran and North Korea has only grown stronger since the Obama administration reached a deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

North Korea tests missiles then sells the know how to Iran who in turn tests and improves the missile and then sends the updated specs back to North Korea.  This is the explanation of how the Kim Jong Un regime has reached impressive levels of missile capability is disconcerning and means that the Trump administration is essentiall fighting a two front war. It also means that the North Korean and Iranian issue are ver intertwined.

Israel Defense Analyst Tal Inbar wrote in May:

“The ‘accuracy revolution’ is a process we see in many countries’ rockets and missile forces,” Inbar wrote. “North Korea’s close ally, Iran, which bought the technical know-how on ballistic missiles from North Korea, introduced a new generation of ballistic missiles with a forward section containing a set of movable fins and guidance equipment.”

Taking on One Means Taking on Two

Micha Gefen reported in April about the interconnection of the two programs.

“It has been known for some time that Iranian missile technology was developed in North Korea.  Both regimes see the USA as their number one enemy and have worked together to build a situation where they would pose a serious threat to the USA. To most observers North Korea and Iran are in constant coordination as can be seen from last week’s ballistic missile test in Ira, which followed North Korea’s launch of four missiles near Japan.

Researchers from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies published a research paper (.pdf) in January 2016 outlining Iran’s past and present military dealings with North Korea, concluding that “the signs of military and scientific cooperation between Iran and North Korea suggest that Pyongyang could have been involved in Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic-missile program, and that state-run trading companies may have assisted in critical aspects of Iran’s illicit nuclear-related activities.””

If America and its allies want to deal with North Korea, the Iranian advance accross Syria and its threat to the Israeli Golan must be taken into consideration.

North Korea, Donald Trump, and Obama’s Controlled Chaos

With news coming out of North Korea that the regime has in fact tested another engine for an ICBM capable of reaching the USA, observers are begining to wonder if the only real solution to North Korea is war. Russia and China have alredy moved troops to the border as early as May when tensions began to increase, but now any pressure the international community might have had (especially China) on the North Korean regime has melted.

President Trump himself acknowledged this in a tweet.

The world like the Syria crisis moves ever closer to the point of no return. If the Kim regime would get an ICBM, it’s nuclear ambitions would be fully realized.  This means the Trump administration has little time to avert a fully nuclear capable North Korea, which would destablize Asia and upend America’s dominance in the Pacific, not to mention being held “captive” by a mad man who could decide to nuke America whenever he got angry.

So how did we get here?  Afterall, even the most ardent Trump critics do not blame the crisis on him. The North Korean nuclear program flourished under Obama after it achieved break out under Bush.

The Obama administration could  have stopped it early on, but allowed it to develop and grow. Why?

Everything the Obama administration did when it came to foreign policy should be seen through the prism of chaos creation.  This can be applied to funding ISIS ( in its early days), Black Lives Matter, not preventing Russia from entering Syria, and of course North Korea.

This attempt at creating controlled chaos serves both the Deep State and the Globalists, because chaos breeds the need for placing a new order so as to provide a solution where there was none within the chaos. This allows the Deep State and Globalists to take more control.

The problem is, chaos cannot be controlled.  It goes the way it wants and almost never where the party who creates intends it to. The world is at the precipice because the Deep State and Globalist elite network of rulers has put us there.

Donald Trump will have no choice but to take down the North Korean regime. It is clear he does not wnat to go to war, but an ICBM in the hands of a madman is not an option. In the ensuing chaos, the Deep State and Globalists will attempt to assert control, but the chaos may very well be too much even for them.

How the Korean Crisis is a Key Next Step in Israel’s Redemption

Today is the Day of the Dry Bones (Yom HaAtzamot HaYevashot) when the first half of Yechezkel’s prophesy on the Dry Bones occurred on the Fifth of Iyar 5708 aka Israel’s Independence Day (Yom HaAtzma’ut).  The difference in spelling is that Atzma’ut has one extra Aleph, the Aleph of Elokim, who decided that the time of PHYSICAL wandering for the Jewish people was coming to a close.  The spiritual prophesy on the Arba Ruchot, the second half of Yechezkel’s vision, the spirit of the Messianic Era, has yet to occur.

This post is based on the previous two posts:
The Light of Mashiach Courtesy of the Korean Peninsula Leaving the Twilight Zone
and
The Two Legged Goat .

It is also based on all other posts that I have written on this blog since its inception in 2005.  Some of those posts are linked to in the first post above.  I suggest everyone review the material in all those posts because this post will incorporate in it the combined work of all posts discussed before on this blog dealing with the Korean Peninsula at the halakhic international date line.

As discussed previously according to the Vilna Gaon and others, B’itah and the ingathering of the exiles “officially” began with Rosh HaShanah 5751 (19 September 1990 at sundown) which was 3/4 of the way through the 6th Millennium and which corresponded to high noon on Friday, the 6th day of the week.  In came the Lost in the Land of Ashur (Russian Jewry) and the castaways in the Land of Egypt (Ethiopian Jewry) like clockwork as if the shofar blast at high noon on Friday to call Jews in from their fields for Yom SheKulo Shabbat had been blown precisely on time…. because it WAS blown in Heaven precisely on time.  So it was time for those two groups of Jews to come home.  (This was discussed in post #1 above.)   Keep in mind that Yom sheKulo Shabbat, the day that will always be Shabbat is the entire 7th Millennium which should “officially” begin b’itah no later than Rosh HaShanah 6001, the first year of the 7th Millennium.  Now every observant Jew knows halakhically we are allowed to bring on Shabbat as early as Plag HaMincha which is half way between Mincha Ketanah and sunset.  This would correspond with approximately being 1 and a quarter halakhic hours before sunset on Friday afternoon.  Depending on the time of year 1 1/4 halakhic hours could last 1 hour and 20 or 25 minutes in the Summer OR 1 hour and 5 or 10 minutes in the Winter.  Usually those who bring Shabbat on early do it in the Summer time when the sun sets rather late such as at 8:20 pm.  So they bring on Shabbat at 7:15pm in order not to have Shabbat dinner at an unG-dly hour late at night every week.  Now 1 1/4 hours before sunset can be calculated as being the last 1/8th of the 2nd half of the 6th Millennium or the last 1/4 of the last 250 years of human history between 5751 and 6001.  Each quarter of 250 years is equal to 62.5 years.  So from this simple calculation it would seem that b’itah cannot begin until 62 1/2 years before the end of the year 6000 in the year 5938.  That date would be a long way off, and talking about b’itah bringing the Utopian Age of human history that far into the future would be a big let down.  So why would one want to anticipate Mashiach’s coming since it is obvious that he is not coming because of our merits Achishena at any hour of any day?  He is obviously coming B’itah while we are hanging on at the 49th level of impurity while Edom has beaten us to the Sewer of -50 last Shavuot 5776.  He is coming In its time very likely, and even those who say that Mashiach could come in the next five minutes agree that after Mincha Gedolah of the 6th Millennium which was in Av 5771, he is almost assuredly coming B’itah.  See our conundrum?

Into this fray comes the Zohar HaQodesh VaEira 32.  We are told that B’itah, the third battle of Gog UMagog will begin when “wicked” Rome has to fight a war against a nation  at the edge of the World for about three months.  Since the world is round, there is only one way to understand what is the “edge of the world”.  The edge of the world is the halakhic international dateline.  This dateline is determined when it is high noon in Yerushalayim, for if Rosh Chodesh is sanctified for the entire world by the Sanhedrin BEFORE high noon, then Rosh Chodesh is that very day not just in Yerushalayim but all over the world.  If the Sanhedrin delayed until after high noon to sanctify the new month, then Rosh Chodesh for the entire world is not that day but the following day.  So from this we learn that at High Noon in Yerushalayim, the actual day or date of the month on the calendar is determined for the Entire World!  Since Yerushalayim is at 35 degrees longitude on the Globe, then at the moment it is high noon in Yerushalayim, it is sunset 90 degrees to the east at the 125 degree longitude mark, separating between one day and the previous day.  So 125 degrees to the east of Yerushalayim at this 125 degree mark IS the halakhic international dateline!  From a Global map we can see that this 125 degree line separates China from the Korean Peninsula in the Yellow Sea.  Approximately 2000 miles to the south of Pyongyang, N. Korea is the southern Philippines island of Mindanao where ISIS terrorists are trying to take over the island (and where President Duterte has threatened to eat them!).  The importance of this will become clearer later on either in this post or in comments.  Here we are just noting the geographical facts.  If we extend this 125 degree line into the Southern Hemisphere, we see that it cuts in half the Island nation of Indonesia through the island of Timor.  And further south, it cuts through the western deserts of the Australian continent in what is for the most part a sparsely inhabited part of Australia.  The two places where we will concentrate our understanding though will specifically be in the Northern hemisphere (Korea and the Philippines) because Yerushalayim, and its high noon timepiece is specifically in the Northern Hemisphere.  So it seems much more likely that the places of final war of GogUMagog will be at least experiencing the same season as Eretz Yisrael at the time of its onset.

Yet, as we see from previous posts about this matter, it is at this 125 degree line or “Sunset” line that we begin to have a problem.  D’Oraita, that is according to the Torah, the day may begin at Sundown, but it does not end until the stars come out the following day approximately 45 minutes AFTER sundown.  So for each potential day during Twilight, between Sundown and “Tzeit Kochavim” it is BOTH the day before Sundown and the new day after Sundown at the same time!  On the Globe we know that there are 15 degrees for each hour time zone.  So for let us say 42 minutes of Twilight, 42/60 = 10.5/15, we have 10.5 degrees of Twilight where at high noon in Yerushalayim on Rosh Chodesh or on Shabbat or on Yom Kippur, it is both the day before and the day after at the same time.  Anyone who would live in that “Twilight Zone” would need to keep two days of Shabbat out of every seven days, and they would need to fast for 48 hours on Yom Kippur!  This actually happened to the Mir Yeshivah when they escaped Nazi Germany and ended up at first in Kobe, Japan which is just inside this Twilight Zone shaded area.  The Chazon Ish ruled that the Mir refugees would need to do just that (two days of Shabbat every week and fasting for 48 hours on Yom Kippur).  They did not stay in Kobe long. They quickly moved to Shanghai in order to NOT have to live with these halakhic issues because Shanghai is significantly less than 90 degrees to the east of Yerushalayim.  So in Shanghai there is no doubt D’Oraita what day it is.  So there in Shanghai, one day of Shabbat every week and 24 hours of fasting on Yom Kippur are just fine.

Now why mention a Twilight Zone of 42 minutes?  Isn’t that arbitrary?  Well actually not.  I went to MyZmanim.com, and looked up Seoul, South Korea, the capital city in the Korean Peninsula a mere 30 kilometers from the DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone or No Man’s Land between N. and S. Korea).  Now here is the table that came up for the month of Nissan.  In order to view this table, you may have to log in with a UserName and Password.  You might even have to make a contribution.  They are a private site that needs funding, and who am I to complain if they want me to give them a few bucks to have access to their exact Zmanim times over the course of an entire year.  They even have a new feature to take into account the altitude of the place you might be at!    I started with Nissan because I noted that the it was at the very beginning of Tekufat Nissan that Trump sent those 59 missiles to destroy the Syrian Airforce base because Assad used chemical weapons.  Almost immediately after that the situation of the Korean Peninsula began to explode into the headlines, and Trump used his military action against Assad as a show of force to convince the Chinese to help him against Kim Jong Un.  So the Whisper of War against the country at the edge of the world did begin during the month of Nissan 5777.  Notice that the time between sunset and Tzeit Kochavim (stars coming out) is between 41 and 42 minutes for Seoul, South Korea at least during the entire month of Nissan.  Again this corresponds with an additional 10.5 degrees on the Globe AFTER the 90 degree mark east of Yerushalayim for 100,5 degrees on the Globe.

Now let us put two concepts together.  High noon on Yom ShiShi (Friday) was at Rosh HaShanah 5751 which kicked off the “official” period of intense ingathering of the Exiles.  Ostensibly it could last 250 years until the year 6001.  At the same time it is Sunset through Tzeit Kochavim on the entire Korean Peninsula.  So it is a Saffeik (a halakhic doubt) that at high noon in Yerushalayim on Friday whether that Saffeik area, between 125 degrees and 135.5 degrees, is going into Shabbat or into Thursday night at the same time.  Assuming that the Saffeik assertion that they are entering Shabbat is true, then there are 100.5 degrees on the Globe that enter Shabbat before Israel enters Shabbat.  Over the course of those 250 years, places to the east of Eretz Yisrael enter Yom sheKulo Shabbat BEFORE Eretz Yisrael enters Yom SheKulo Shabbat, that is especially with places which are within either 90 to 100.5 degrees to the east of Yerushalayim.  Yet because the first 10.5 degrees to enter are a Saffeik (A DOUBT) UNTIL those 10.5 degrees have fully entered Tzeit Kochavim so that the 90 degrees to the east then begin to enter, the period of time from Rosh HaShanah 5751 until the 10.5 degrees to the east of 125 degrees fully enter into the darkness of the starlight, Yom sheKulo Shabbat could not begin b’itah.  Upon entering the darkness of twilight, the light of Shabbat would begin to shine upon the world from the places on the Globe furthest East of Yerushalayim once there is no doubt that those places entering are now within the 90 degrees east of Yerusahalayim!  At the point that the area 90 degrees east of Yerushalayim begin to enter Yom SheKulo Shabbat, the entire area 10.5 degrees further to the east enters Yom SheKulo Shabbat with it.  From the number above we see the following:  Over the  course of 250 years, 100.5 degrees on the Globe enter Yom SheKulo Shabbat.  That is 2.5 years per degree on the Globe starting in the year 5751.  If the Twilight Zone shaded area of doubt is 10.5 degrees as it is at the DMZ and Seoul on the Korean Peninsula, then it takes 2.5 years/ degree x 10.5 degrees to bring the Korean theatre and places to the west of it in the Yellow Sea into Yom SheKulo Shabbat.  2.5 x 10.5 = 26.25 years.  Rosh HaShanah 5751 + 26.25 years is precisely Tevet of the year 5777!, this year at the beginning of the Nine Months!  From this we see that the entire Korean Peninsula has now entered Yom SheKulo Shabbat, and on Shabbat the wicked are judged.

From the Psalm 92 for the Day of Shabbat:

  ח  בִּפְרֹחַ רְשָׁעִים, כְּמוֹ עֵשֶׂב, וַיָּצִיצוּ, כָּל-פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן:    לְהִשָּׁמְדָם עֲדֵי-עַד. 8 When the wicked spring up as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they may be destroyed for ever.

ט  וְאַתָּה מָרוֹם–    לְעֹלָם יְהוָה. 9 But Thou, O LORD, art on high for evermore.

So as the entire Korean Peninsula now has its time guaranteed as entering Yom SheKulo Shabbat, it is from there that G-d brings judgement upon a Wicked world less that 250 years before the end of the year 6000 long before Plag HaMinchah.

Originally published under the title: The Timepiece for B’itah, the Koreas Leaving the Twilight Zone

NORTH KOREA AND THE END TIMES: “Then the whole world shook with the violence of battle”

Rebbe Nachman says the following at the end of his famous story The Cripple:

“…all the remaining Whisperers were furious at this injustice, and they went up on earth and brewed trouble among all the kings of earth, so that there was hunger, and pestilence, and death everywhere among men and among demons of the earth; then the whole world shook with the violence of battle, and earthquakes came of war. And then the walls of the Demon’s pit fell inward, and the soil filled the pit and pressed against the Tree, and the water passed through the earth to the Tree, and the Tree drank.

And all the Demons perished.”

The World stands on edge as North Korea, a despotic, brain washed country led by an insane person is about to throw humanity seemingly over the nuclear cliff. How have we gotten to this point? The Cripple’s end is eerily similar to the mayhem the leaders of our World are heading to.

King Solomon teaches us “the hearts of kings are in the hand of G-D.”  When we see nonsensical actions taking place in front of us the chaos unleashed can only have one goal and that is a sort of wiping the slate clean of the past.  Chaos leads to order.  Darkness to light. The “demons” of our world, those creatures we entertain in the dark recesses of our society have no choice but to be destroyed.  These demons of corporatization, globalism, atheism, consumerism, and moral relativism have no place in a rectified World.  Yes, the collapse is on and the chaos unleashed because of leaders gone mad seems incoherent with a Divinely empowered existence, but in fact the crisis flowing from the “End of the Earth” on the Korean peninsula is now the trigger G-D is using to move humanity beyond the demons of its past.

The World’s super system and hierarchy of lies is being destroyed. All we have to do is have the faith to hold on.

OBAMA’S CHICKENS COMING HOME TO ROOST

Ticking time bombs from Syria to North Korea.

Democrats inherit the foreign policy crises of a thousand Republican presidential fathers, but the foreign policy crises inherited by incoming Republicans in the White House are always orphans.

Or at least that’s how the media likes to spin it.

If you believe your random mainstream media outlet of choice, North Korea and Syria were crises freshly spawned by this administration with no prior history. But these ticking time bombs are the direct result of the two terrible terms of his predecessor.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner’s years in the White House were the most dysfunctional, schizophrenic and senseless eight years of our national foreign policy. His domestic policy was a disaster, but it was a radioactive toxic waste dump with clear and consistent goals. ObamaCare, the abuses of the Justice Department, the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency were the naturally terrible outcome of left-wing policies being implemented with inevitably terrible results.

But Obama’s foreign policy was a wildly inconsistent mess. The Nobel Peace Prize winner couldn’t quite decide if he was a humanitarian interventionist or a pacifist non-interventionist. He couldn’t make up his mind if he wanted to take the side of the Sunnis or the Shiites in their Islamic unholy war. He didn’t know if he wanted to appease Russia or sanction it, to pivot to Asia or run the other way, to play another round of golf or replace his defense secretary for the fifth time.

Obama could be consistent on domestic policy because there were few hard choices to make. Government had to be constantly expanded and every arm of it enlisted in pursuing left-wing goals. Republican opposition was largely hapless. The “Irish Democracy” of the public response to ObamaCare was more effective at sabotaging it, but by the time anyone understood that it was far too late.

The world stage was a much more dynamic place with players who didn’t fit into Obama’s ideology. The Islamist democracy proponents got Obama to kick off the Arab Spring. When Gaddafi shot the Islamists in the streets, the interventionists got him to sign on to regime change in Libya. But then Syria boiled down to Sunni and Shiite Islamists shooting each other and interventionism hit a roadblock.

Obama stopped at his own Red Line and couldn’t figure out what to do next. His foreign policy had somehow boiled down to helping Shiites kill Sunnis in Iraq and helping Sunnis kill Shiites in Syria.

He was bombing and arming the same Islamists at the same time to improve relations with them.

Even a guy who thought they speak Austrian in Austria and celebrated Cinco de Cuatro had to know that something had gone horribly wrong with his foreign policy. When the Russians stepped in and promised to clean up the WMD mess in Syria, he was happy to take them up on the offer without looking at the fine print.

Like a badly programmed computer, Obama locked up in Syria because Islamists fighting Islamists didn’t fit into his left-wing code. He feared alienating either Iran or the Muslim Brotherhood. Meanwhile appeasement not only failed to defuse the growing conflict with Russia, but poured more fuel on the flames. And bluffing China with a hollow pivot only sent the message that America was impotent.

Obama’s tenure was marked by two inexplicable wars; a surge in Afghanistan that failed to accomplish any of its goals while killing and crippling thousands of Americans, and an illegal regime change operation in Libya that left the country looking like Iraq. Obama and his fans don’t talk about either of these wars. And you can’t blame them. They make ObamaCare look like a shining success story.

But they’re not the biggest Obama disasters that President Trump inherited.

President Bush left Obama a largely stabilized Iraq. All he had to do was keep the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds working together. It wasn’t a cakewalk, but it was far from the mess that it had been or would be again. A decade ago though Democrats had been as obsessed with Iraq as they would be with Russia. Obama, like the leading non-Hillary candidates, ran on being against the war. So he pulled out instead.

Pulling out alone might have been disastrous because it would encourage the Shiite majority to trample on the Sunni minority. But Obama combined a pullout from Iraq with backing for Sunni Islamists nearly everywhere else, including next door in Syria, who helped swell the ranks of ISIS.

The threat of ISIS and other Sunni Islamists helped Iran get a firm grip on Iraq and Syria. The Arab Spring wedged it deeper into Yemen. And Obama was too worried that Iran would walk away from a potential nuclear deal to do anything about it. The nuclear deal sealed the deal for a resurgent Iran.

And that means that Russia is the dominant power in the region.

Obama alienated Egypt by backing the Brotherhood.  President Trump has been trying to undo that disaster. Obama backed Turkey’s totalitarian Islamist tyrant even as he quarreled with and then sidled up to Russia. The only remaining strong ally in the region capable of defending itself is Israel.

Meanwhile possible alliances in Asia fell apart as Obama dithered. The Philippines has an anti-American government that Obama further alienated during his disastrous final months in office. South Korea has fallen back into political instability at a time when it can least afford it while Japan stands alone.

Obama’s Asia pivot was exposed as another gimmick when he proved unwilling to defy the People’s Republic in the South China Sea. His diplomatic efforts seemed to prioritize ideological gestures toward Vietnam’s Communist regime over meaningful strategic alliances. Aside from the risk of war over China’s expansionism, this failed policy was cutting off the non-military China route to resolving North Korea.

This is the route that President Trump is now struggling to reopen again by restoring leverage.

Perversely, Obama did more damage with his failed Asia pivot than he would have done by staying out of it. The non-military option, like so much of diplomacy, depends on the perception of what we might do. In Asia, as in Syria, Obama made it painfully clear that he would do nothing. And the average totalitarian regime has difficulty grasping that different American governments really are different.

The Iran deal once again sent the message to North Korea that nuclear weapons can only benefit it. And that, when combined with Obama’s failures in Asia, funnels us into the military option in North Korea.

Back in Syria, Obama’s Red Line stranded us in the middle of an Islamic civil war and credibility crisis. Obama had handed over the keys to the region to Iran and Russia. America is now stuck trying to get them back.

President Trump chose to do it by going back to the point of collapse and enforcing Obama’s Red Line. It was a controversial choice, but it made a clear statement that presidential promises mean something. It also sent a message to Syria, Russia and Iran that just because we don’t want yet another war, doesn’t mean that they have a free hand to do anything they want.

Obama saw foreign policy in the social justice terms of the left. Trump and his people see a geopolitical struggle. His predecessor believed that we had to atone for our historical crimes. Trump understands that at the root of local crises like Syria and North Korea is a larger contest with Russia and China. It’s the worldview that Obama had sneeringly dismissed as rooted in the Cold War in his debate with Romney.

And yet it’s far more useful than Obama’s incoherent foreign policy whose three pillars were Islamism, appeasement and global warming.

President Trump believes that global stability comes from the stability in the relationship between world powers. Syria and North Korea are just the ways that Russia and China test us to see how far they can push. His goal is to achieve stability from the top down by reaching an understanding with the other powers. And to do that he has to undo the credibility crisis that he inherited from Barack Obama.

Obama left behind plenty of domestic and international ticking time bombs, from ObamaCare to Iran, and Trump’s first years in office will be occupied with finding ways to keep the bombs from going off.

Published First in FrontPageMag.

REDEMPTION WATCH: As Russia Moves Closer to North Korea, The Final War Inches Closer

No can know how the events of the next few months will play out, but it has become clear that the world as we know it is ending. History is driven in stages.  According to Jewish mysticism time is a spiral and yet propels forward through a series of bubbles.  The bubble that has grown since the end of World War 2 and more accurately since 1948 wth the founding of the State of Israel, is about to burst.

The news has been reporting that Russia has decided to move its military to the North Korean border.

The video below has surfaced showing Russian forces and military equipment being transferred South to its border with North Korea.

This troop movement follows the Chinese moving 150,000 troops to its border with North Korea. With a North Korea ready to trigger another nuclear test, Donald Trump’s response could very well trigger a military response from both China and Russia.

Newsweek is reporting:

Moscow reportedly threatened to veto the motion, despite its support from all 14 other members of the U.N. Security Council, including Pyongyang ally China, over the way it was worded. The statement said the U.N. was opposed to North Korea’s decision to launch a liquid-fueled ballistic missile Sunday on the 105th birthday of Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s late founder and current leader Kim Jong Un’s grandfather. Amid a recent fallout between Washington and Moscow in foreign policy in Syria, Russia argued Thursday that the U.S.-drafted statement on North Korea needed to open the possibility for diplomatic talks.

As these forces draw close to one another the great global game of control, the stakes have risen to the point that there is no turning back. The coming Korean war is not just an Asian war, it is the bursting of the bubble that is the barrier between the world as we know it and the world that is meant to come next.

There is tremendous fear in the world.  Fear is the tool of the forces of evil.  We are moments before the final battle and we have no need to fear for a moment.  Rebbe Nachman says joy is the true way to serve G-D.  Joy leads to prophecy and true connection to the Almighty.  Joy brings our prayers to fruition and it is prayer that ultimately changes the reality we experience.

The world is shattering before us.  We must be joyful that the world that is to come is the rectified experience we have been yearning for.

THE COMING WAR: Iran vs. Israel, North Korea vs. America

With America and North Korea rapidly heading towards a direct conflict, the wider ramifications of such a conflict are far-reaching. Given the fact that North Korea built Syria’s now destroyed nuclear weapons program and continues to aid Iran’s nuclear development, the two programs are linked.

In the coming days as Donald Trump sends more and more firepower to the Korean penninsula, the Iranians will most likely stir up trouble against Israel. Although government officials are insisting that the summer time is likely for renewed hostility between Hamas and Israel, North Korea will likely cause a flare up with Iranian proxies much sooner.

The Iranians will turn Hezbollah loose on Israel as a means of drawing the Trump administration away from full out war with North Korea.  With half of their program under attack in the East, Iran will have nothing to lose against Israel.

Winning is Not So Easy

A North Korean war may end in the North’s defeat, but not without Seoul’s devastation and depending on the time frame Japan’s capital in Tokyo suffering from direct missile hits.

Israel too can repel both Hamas and Hezbollah, but if reports of Hezbollah tunneling and Iranians plans to take the Golan are true, the war will likely cascade into something far more dangerous for Israel’s security.

The above assessment does not count Russia and Chinese involvement in either theater as well as Iranian direct attacks on Sunni states in the Gulf.

Whatever the scenario, the next few days have the potential to trigger an all out war in multiple areas around the globe.

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