Tag Archives: BenjaminNetanyahu

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The Broadside | Trump Plaza in Gaza-Lago

I predicted here that the Kansas City Chiefs would beat the Philadelphia Eagles by six points in Super Bowl LIX. If the Chiefs had shown up, that may have happened. They kept Saquon Barkley in check, but the Eagles shut down any Chiefs offense and sacked Mahomes six times. That must be the “six” I sensed in my prediction.

Did you know the flu is going around? I had no idea until it flattened me last week. I hope all of you are staying well.

Just when you think Trump can’t shock you with something new.

The U.S. will “take over the Gaza Strip,” level it and rebuild the area, President Donald Trump said during a press conference Tuesday evening after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

Wut?

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too,” Trump said Tuesday evening in a joint press conference with Netanyahu. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexplored bombs and other weapons on the site.”

“Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,” he said. “Do a real job. Do something different. Just can’t go back. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for 100 years.”

Even more amazing is that instead of laughing off the idea, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu embraced it.

Netanyahu, when also asked about the Gaza Strip, reiterated to the media that he has three goals, one of which is to “make sure that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel again.”

“President Trump is taking it to a much higher level,” the Israeli leader said. “He sees a different – he sees a different future for that piece of land that has been the focus of so much terrorism, so much, so many attacks against us, so many, so many trials and so many tribulations. He has a different idea, and I think it’s worth paying attention to this.”

It’s so radical, it might work.

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Daily Broadside | Israel Retaliates Against Iran—Sort Of

Who had the start of World War III on their 2024 bingo card?

Israel carried out limited strikes in Iran early Friday in retaliation for Tehran firing a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel late Saturday. 

Fox News Digital has confirmed there have been explosions in Isfahan province where Natanz is located though it is not clear whether it has been hit. Natanz is the site of one of Iran’s nuclear facilities, though state television has described all sites in the area as “fully safe.” 

A well-placed military source has told Fox that the strike was “limited.” Sources familiar said the U.S. was not involved and there was pre-notification to the U.S. from the Israelis. 

Pentagon officials have not confirmed the strike. The White House and the National Security Council (NSC) have declined to comment on the unfolding situation. 

The attack was “limited” by the United States, no doubt, who accepted a few missiles lobbed into the interior of Iran. But this administration has been trying to manage both sides of this conflict, apparently green-lighting Iran’s first-ever direct attack on Israel over the weekend, and now urging Israel not to retaliate but *wink, wink* approving of a “limited” strike.

Israel no doubt has the capacity and the will to destroy any of its neighbors should it choose to. Iran’s weak attack did almost no damage and looked pathetic in the face of Israel’s multi-layered defensive systems.

This newly opened direct front in the Middle East between Israel and Iran is pulling Israeli attention away from the unfinished job in Gaza, where they still have to deliver the final blow to the Hamas terrorists who attacked Israel back on October 7.

Be praying that this tit-for-tat doesn’t escalate into a full blown war.

Israel had said it would retaliate against Iran’s weekend attack, which involved hundreds of drones and missiles, in response to a suspected Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Syria. Most of the Iranian drones and missiles were downed before reaching Israeli territory.

Analysts and observers have raised concerns about the risks of the Israel-Gaza war spreading into the rest of the region.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi had warned Israel before Friday’s strike that Tehran would deliver a “severe response” to any attack on its territory.

Iran told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that Israel “must be compelled to stop any further military adventurism against our interests” as the U.N. secretary-general warned that the Middle East was in a “moment of maximum peril.”

Have a good weekend.

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Daily Broadside | Israeli Politicians Tried to Criminalize Talking About Jesus

It’s been a week. Yes, it’s been a week since Monday when I last posted, and now it’s Friday, so it’s been a week since I last posted. But it’s also been a week, if you know what I mean. We’ve got work going on in the house, it’s tax season, work is picking up, the kids need support, and it’s garbage night. What’s a guy to do?

The good news is that I am going to keep daveolsson.com going for another year with the Daily Broadside. Now that I’ve got three years under my belt, I’m going to explore what more can be done with this exceptionally small publication with famously quiet and loyal readers.

Instead of closing the week with the latest moronic effort by our political betters to deceive us into believing that the walls are really closing in this time on Donald J. Trump and that they’re not building a surveillance state that will eventually help them easily label you as a friend or foe of the regime and limit your personal opportunities and purchasing power, here’s an encouraging story from the Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu vowed to block a bill by members of his own governing coalition making it illegal for followers of Jesus in Israel to discuss the Gospel message with other Israelis.

An article on Sunday by ALL ISRAEL NEWS first broke the story of the dangerous bill in which two ultra-Orthodox members of Knesset – Moshe Gafni and Yaakov Asher – were determined to outlaw anyone from sharing the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah in Israel, and punish violators with prison sentences.

Nothing like alienating 660 million supporters in a world that hates you.

Sam Brownback – former U.S. ambassador for international religious freedom in the Trump-Pence administration – was the first American leader to publicly sound the alarm about what a threat to religious freedom and human rights the bill posed.

Brownback also became the first to praise Netanyahu for taking a strong stand against the bill.

“Bibi Netanyahu is an amazing leader of courage,” Brownback told ALL ISRAEL NEWS in a text message on Wednesday. “I applaud his quick and decisive move to address what could have become a major issue.”

I’m not sure that such a law would have turned away evangelical support for the nation of Israel, but it would have made it awkward for those evangelicals who visited the holy land and would have earned a rebuke from US lawmakers. Still, it’s clearly a better policy choice to avoid offending the one block of people across the globe who believe not only in Israel’s right to exist, but in the ongoing role that Israel plays in God’s redemptive work.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” (Romans 1:16)

The bill, which was withdrawn following Netanyahu’s threat, would have imposed a one-year prison term on anyone caught violating the law. It was conspicuously aimed at evangelical Christians by the bill’s authors.

This bill would apply to people having spiritual conversations with Israelis of any religion.

However, in their official explanation of the bill, the two Israeli legislators specifically emphasized the warning to stop Christians, in particular.

The bill’s primary objective, therefore, appears to be making it illegal for followers of Jesus (“Yeshua” in Hebrew) to explain why they believe that Jesus is both Messiah and God with the hope that Israelis might consider following Him.

Fortunately, the freedom to share the good news of Jesus with others in the holy land remains intact.

Have a good weekend.