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US has struck three Iranian nuclear sites, Trump says

Hentenza

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Maybe, maybe not. There are a whole bunch of unknowns here. We don't even know the extent of the damage yet.
The pics going around in the internet look like the sites are toast but we’ll see.
 
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Belk

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The pics going around in the internet look like the sites are toast but we’ll see.
You and I both know that "pics on the internet" are as trustworthy as oil of snake. :p
 
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Palmfever

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It is so sad that so much power has been given to such an incompetent reckless president.
This is an excerpt of the above article from the nyt
..."
Just last month, in a televised speech after President Trump’s visit to the region, Mr. Khamenei described Israel as “the lethal cancerous tumor of the region,” adding, “It has to be uprooted, and it will be uprooted for certain.” The audience responded with a familiar chant: “Death to Israel! Death to Israel!”

Nuclear vulnerability​

In territorial terms, Israel is only slightly larger than New Jersey. Half the country is sparsely populated desert. The majority of its population of 10 million people and most of its vital infrastructure and commercial life is concentrated along its narrow Mediterranean coastal plain.
So even though Israel is widely believed to possess its own nuclear arsenal, despite its policy of maintaining ambiguity on the issue, its population is vulnerable to attack and keenly aware that one Iranian nuclear bomb could have devastating consequences.
Iran, by contrast, covers a vast territory more than twice the size of Texas, with a population of more than 90 million.

The threat​

Much of the world views Iran’s nuclear program with alarm, and experts say its stockpile of highly enriched uranium has grown fast.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, an arm of the United Nations, has estimated that Iran has more than 400 kilograms — about 900 pounds — of uranium enriched to a high level, that is short of the level needed for an atomic bomb, but well within reach. No other nation without nuclear weapons has such highly enriched uranium, the agency said.
A U.S. military assessment presented to Congress just days before the Israeli bombing campaign began said that if Iran wanted to raise that uranium to weapons grade, it could produce “enough for up to ten nuclear weapons in three weeks.”
If it generated that fuel, Iran would still need to build an atomic bomb, and possibly a missile capable of delivering it. Mr. Netanyahu has said it could be just a matter of months to develop a bomb.
How Iran’s capabilities stand after the Israeli bombardment is unclear. The attacks have damaged some of Iran’s key nuclear sites, but much of its nuclear program remains, at least for now, including an enrichment plant at Fordow that is buried deep under a mountain on an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps base.

Mr. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest serving prime minister, has been warning of a nuclear Iran for decades. Critics have accused him in the past of fear mongering to remain in power.
In another indication of Iran’s hostile intentions, Israelis have also watched as Tehran funded and trained proxy forces such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad across Israel’s northern and southern borders, and more distant enemies, such as the Houthis in Yemen.
“They created a ring of fire around Israel,” said Jeremy Issacharoff, a former vice director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry and a former Israeli ambassador to Germany.
“If you put together the rhetoric, the building of capabilities and the focused hostility toward Israel,” he said of the threat from Iran, “you take it seriously.”



--
It is unfortunate that some would coddle a rabid dog.
The leaders in Iran have repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel.
Small minds in large cities call out in support of the mad mutts.
They have exchanged the truth for a lie.
 
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Ivan Hlavanda

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Find one verse in the Bible saying "Satan wants to destroy Israel".
While there's no direct quote saying satan wants to destroy Israel, the idea is woven into the broader narrative of satan's rebellion against God and his attempts to undermine God's purposes, with Israel often being a central target.

For example: Pharaoh ordered all male Hebrew infants to be murdered and then he attempted to destroy Israel backed up against the Red Sea. Haman attempted to destroy all the Jews throughout the Persian Empire. Hitler tried to destroy all the Jews and so on. It's the same evil spirits behind them all.

And please do not even try the verse about the woman and the dragon. It has more interpretations than you have fingers on your hands.
Just because there is several interpretations, does not mean there isn't a correct one.
Scripture interprets Scripture.
Note the similarity between this description and the description that Joseph gave of his father Jacob (Israel) and his mother and their children Genesis 37:9-11. The twelve stars refer to the twelve tribes of Israel. So the woman in Rev 12 is Israel.

How do you read the Bible and not see satan is trying to undermine God's purposes, including the Messiah who was prophesised to be form Israel? Satan tried everything he could for this not to happen, and he failed. When the Lord returns second time, He will return to Israel, so satan wants to undermine that.

Well, it is quite absurd to claim that for example the Western Roman Empire ended in the 5th century because Rome destroyed Israel in the 1st one. Or that the Eastern Roman Empire ended in the 15th century because of Israel.
Every man-made Kingdom was destroyed. And the man-made Kingdoms who exist now, and will exist in future, will also be destroyed. There will be only one Kingdom, and that is the Kingdom of God. Look at Daniel 2 or Psalm 2 etc.
 
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trophy33

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For example: Pharaoh ordered all male Hebrew infants to be murdered and then he attempted to destroy Israel backed up against the Red Sea.
When something bad happens to Jews, it is satan, but if something bad happens to other people, it is not satan?

Scripture interprets Scripture.
No, context interprets Scripture.

How do you read the Bible and not see satan is trying to undermine God's purposes
Because it makes no theological sense. God is sovereign and nobody can undermine God's purposes.

Every man-made Kingdom was destroyed. And the man-made Kingdoms who exist now, and will exist in future, will also be destroyed. There will be only one Kingdom, and that is the Kingdom of God. Look at Daniel 2 or Psalm 2 etc.
For your information, Palestinians are genetically closer to original Jews than many modern Jews in Israel. So, should you not, in fact, support rather Palestinians than Israel, if you are buying the genetic theory of God's people?
 
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ViaCrucis

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Because it's the Word of God.

Conflating your opinion on the Bible vs the Bible itself seems a tiny bit imprudent.

I don't believe your interpretation is accurate. I think you are relying on conjecture, working with a flawed hermeneutic (Dispensationalism), and engaging in generally bad exegesis.

Honest commentators tend to confess that Ezekiel 38 is regarded as one of the most difficult prophetic texts in the Old Testament to interpret. Identifications of "Magog" almost always involve some ambiguous distant people, in earlier centuries some commentators thought perhaps referring to the Scythians; though "Scythian" itself could refer to "those far away people up there", as the Scythians were a widespread group of horse people that covered the Eurasian Steppe. "Magog" therefore likely simply represents an unspecific distant peoples, part of a larger group of "the nations", those powers and earthly forces which are hostile to Israel. And this doesn't even begin to address when this prophecy is supposed to indicate, and an assumption that this refers to the modern state of Israel makes an enormous Dispensationalist leap which requires all manner of taking scissors and glue to the Bible; and which in its core essence is such a blatant rejection of the most fundamental and elementary ideas of Christianity--such as Who and What Jesus is, and Why Jesus did what He did. Reducing Jesus into a cosmic side-project. And for what? So that rich bureaucrats can profit off death, bombs, and war?

-CryptoLutheran
 
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ViaCrucis

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Not true. They held one of the largest navies in the world before the start of WWII.

People really should study world history more. Japan was in the process of becoming a giant on the world scene in the early 20th century. They did view the US's presence in the Pacific as a problem for their imperial ambitions, which is why Pearl Harbor happened--the goal was to incapacitate the US's Pacific fleet (and it's actually eerie how close that could have been to a reality). Japan wasn't just some tiny nation, it was on the rise to becoming a world power with big imperial ambitions--taking some inspiration from Europe along with a rather heavy cocktail of ultra-nationalism.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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civilwarbuff

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Ivan Hlavanda

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And this doesn't even begin to address when this prophecy is supposed to indicate, and an assumption that this refers to the modern state of Israel makes an enormous Dispensationalist leap which requires all manner of taking scissors and glue to the Bible; and which in its core essence is such a blatant rejection of the most fundamental and elementary ideas of Christianity--such as Who and What Jesus is, and Why Jesus did what He did. Reducing Jesus into a cosmic side-project. And for what? So that rich bureaucrats can profit off death, bombs, and war?
Israel is the Jews, and the Jews are Israel. There is no difference. And those Jewish people are of the same heritage and ethnicity as the ones in the times of patriarchs, of the wilderness wanderings, of the united kingdom, of the divided kingdom,, of the exile, of the post-exile, of the time of Jesus, of the early church of the middle ages, of the ottoman empire and the British mandate, and now of the reconstituted state of Israel. There is no break of ownership. There is no shifting of people groups. The people of the promise that was given to Abraham are the same people who are populating Israel today.

But many Christians today believe the Church has replaced Israel and/or all the promises God gave to Israel cease to exist because of how they treated Jesus, and that God has abandoned Israel, and today's Israel has nothing to do with the Biblical one. That could not be further from truth.

The Church has never replaced Israel. Paul addressed this in Romans 11 11 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!

Have the Jews stumbled? Undoubtedly, and they are still stumbling. But they've not completely fallen out of God's favour, which is why it will be much more spectacular, when through faith in Jesus, they regain their feet and finally become the witness to the world that they were originally created to be!

The Israel today, is the Israel of the Bible.
 
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ViaCrucis

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Israel is the Jews, and the Jews are Israel. There is no difference. And those Jewish people are of the same heritage and ethnicity as the ones in the times of patriarchs, of the wilderness wanderings, of the united kingdom, of the divided kingdom,, of the exile, of the post-exile, of the time of Jesus, of the early church of the middle ages, of the ottoman empire and the British mandate, and now of the reconstituted state of Israel. There is no break of ownership. There is no shifting of people groups. The people of the promise that was given to Abraham are the same people who are populating Israel today.

But many Christians today believe the Church has replaced Israel and/or all the promises God gave to Israel cease to exist because of how they treated Jesus, and that God has abandoned Israel, and today's Israel has nothing to do with the Biblical one. That could not be further from truth.

The Church has never replaced Israel. Paul addressed this in Romans 11 11 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!

Have the Jews stumbled? Undoubtedly, and they are still stumbling. But they've not completely fallen out of God's favour, which is why it will be much more spectacular, when through faith in Jesus, they regain their feet and finally become the witness to the world that they were originally created to be!

The Israel today, is the Israel of the Bible.

Without getting into a theological debate, I'm curious. You said "Israel is the Jews, and the Jews are Israel", so what is the modern state of Israel? Or do you conflate Jewish people with the modern state of Israel as the same thing? Which, frankly, I'd call straight up antisemitic.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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Desk trauma

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What is the plan then for sleeper cells right here in the homeland?
I’m sure Thomas Fugate has a plan. His, weeks, of experience are just what we need now.
 
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Hentenza

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Without getting into a theological debate, I'm curious. You said "Israel is the Jews, and the Jews are Israel", so what is the modern state of Israel? Or do you conflate Jewish people with the modern state of Israel as the same thing? Which, frankly, I'd call straight up antisemitic.

-CryptoLutheran
Interesting post thanks. Israel in the Old Testament and is in a roller coaster of faith. If they are fat they go against God if they are being attacked or in bondage they want God. What is different between today’s Israel and the Israel of old?
 
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BCP1928

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The Israel today, is the Israel of the Bible.
A controversial opinion which is pretty much limited to Dispensationalist Christians and which in any case is irrelevant to our foreign policy.
 
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Servus

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People really should study world history more. Japan was in the process of becoming a giant on the world scene in the early 20th century. They did view the US's presence in the Pacific as a problem for their imperial ambitions, which is why Pearl Harbor happened--the goal was to incapacitate the US's Pacific fleet (and it's actually eerie how close that could have been to a reality). Japan wasn't just some tiny nation, it was on the rise to becoming a world power with big imperial ambitions--taking some inspiration from Europe along with a rather heavy cocktail of ultra-nationalism.

-CryptoLutheran
That's common knowledge, but did the US consider Japan to be a threat prior to December 7, 1941? Because that's what I was addressing. If you've studied world history as you admonished others to do, you should know the answer without having to look it up.
 
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Desk trauma

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A controversial opinion which is pretty much limited to Dispensationalist Christians and which in any case is irrelevant to our foreign policy.
I wish it were irrelevant to our foreign policy but with the noise coming out of our ambassador and others in power it’s clearly not.
 
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BCP1928

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That's common knowledge, but did the US consider Japan to be a threat prior to December 7, 1941? Because that's what I was addressing.
They foresaw that a clash of imperial ambition of some kind was likely. That's why the Navy's lack of preparedness for a surprise attack was such a scandal.
 
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Servus

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A controversial opinion which is pretty much limited to Dispensationalist Christians and which in any case is irrelevant to our foreign policy.
Actually that's part of what motivated the US to support Israel.
 
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