Christianity for Today 2

I hope you are following the continuing saga of Israel's political scene.  We have now entered into Act 3.  You might remember that in Act 1, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was invited by President Rivlin to form a coalition government following the September elections.  The Prime Minister was unable to put together such a coalition.  That brought us to Act 2 where Benny Gantz, the leader of the Blue and White Party, was invited to form a coalition government.  After four week, he, too, was unable to assemble such a government.  That has brought us to Act 3 where President Rivlin went to the Knesset and invited anyone there to form some type of coalition government that had a minimum of controlling 61 seats within the Knesset.  This act will last for three weeks.  As I write this blog, it appears that Act 3 will be a failure as well.  That would bring us to Act 4 which would be national elections to be held in March of 2020.  In the meanwhile, Israel is under what is called a &q

Tonight is the fifth Democratic debate which is being held in Atlanta, Georgia.  There will be ten candidates on the platform this evening.  One word that will be used repeatedly this evening will be that of "socialism."  Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have been espousing some form of socialism since they entered into the race months ago.  According to a recent Gallup poll, 43% of Americans believe that some form of socialism would be good for America.  Another poll indicated that 70% of millennials and 64% of gen-Zers would favor a socialist candidate.  Why this dramatic increase in the favorability of socialism today? On November 8, Tyler Durden published an article titled, "4 Reasons Why Socialism Is Becoming More Popular."  It can be found at: www.zerohedge.com/economics/4-reasons-why-socialism-is-becoming-more-popular .  The author suggests four factors that are contributing to this rise in the acceptance of socialism.  "Factor #1: Ignorance of Hi

Temperatures are rising in the Middle East as old conflicts seemingly escalate near a boiling point.  Early yesterday morning, Israeli Air Force planes conducted a surgical strike deep into the Gaza Strip.  Their target was Baba Abu al-Ata, one of the senior military leaders of Islamic Jihad.  Al-Ata and his wife were killed in the attack.  Prime Minister Netanyahu had described al-Ata as "the chief terrorist in Gaza."  He had been responsible for many of the rocket attacks upon Israel in the past.  Almost immediately the Palestinians retaliated with a barrage of nearly 200 rockets yesterday, mainly causing minimal damage within southern Israel, although creating a sense of fear among the Israeli citizens living near the border.  Could this be the beginning of a fourth Israeli-Palestinian War?  The last one was in 2014 and lasted for 50 days.  This escalating conflict comes at a time when Israel has only a caretaking government as neither Prime Minister Netanyahu nor his oppo

As I begin writing this afternoon, a brief update on the ongoing saga of elections in Israel.  As I shared with you last week the acting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was unable to form a coalition government.  That forced Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to mandate Benny Gantz, the former army chief of staff and leader of the Blue and White Party to form a government.  As of the writing of this blog, Mr. Gantz has been unable to create a coalition government.  If there is no break through in the next two weeks, then it is entirely possibly and very probable that President Rivlin will mandate new national elections - Israel's third in less than a year.  This would be unprecedented in Israeli history.  So, at the moment, Prime Minister Netanyahu is the acting head of a government that truly does not exist.  The Knesset is open, but there is no one to give leadership in matters of national importance.  And while this is going on, Israel's neighbors to the north (Hezbolah in