"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." Northwoods is a ministry dedicated to refreshing Christians and challenging them to search for the truth in Christianity, politics, sociology, and science
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Thursday, December 14, 2023
This is Islam > Is this typical Islamic Hysteria, or does Erdogan have something more sinister up his sleeve? Hamas Creates new group in Lebanon; Turkish MP Curses Israel, has Heart Attack and Dies
Northern Cyprus was seized by an invading Turkish army in July 1974. Many of the Greeks and Maronites in that territory taken by the Turks then fled south, to the Greek-ruled Republic of Cyprus. In 1983, the Turks set up a puppet regime in the territory they had seized, calling it the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.” The Turks have propped up that pseudo-state — that has not been recognized internationally — ever since. It is the Turks who are “occupying” 36% of the territory of Cyprus.
Now the Turkish media are up in arms about what they describe as an attempt by Israelis — or if not Israelis, then Jews from everywhere — to “occupy” Northern Cyprus by buying up property in that region. If that is the definition of “occupation,” then Saudi Arabia, which now owns tens of millions of acres of American farmland, must be guilty of trying to “occupy” the United States. And given the large number of Americans who buy property in southern France and Italy for vacation homes, we must conclude that the United States is trying to “occupy” both of those countries. It is, of course, a nutty idea — that if citizens of one country buy property in another country, whether for farming, for setting up businesses, or for vacation homes, there must be some insidious plan to “occupy” that second country.
Over the past month, Turkish media has been reporting on the “silent occupation” of Northern Cyprus by Jews. More on this hysterical campaign can be found here:
Turkish media accuses Jews of occupying – Northern Cyprus!
About a month ago, the Cyprus Foundation published an announcement warning the public in Northern Cyprus and Turkey against the threat of the occupying Israel. In the statement, it was stated that ‘Israel’s occupation plan is not limited to Palestine’ and that the Island of Cyprus, like Palestine, was included in the “Promised Land” drawn by the Zionists. It added that this situation poses a threat to Turkey’s national security, and it called on the Turkish people to stop the “silent occupation” of northern Cyprus.
This is, of course, completely nuts. Cyprus was never considered by the Zionists to be part of the “Promised Land.” The Zionists claimed for inclusion in Mandatory Palestine only the land that had been part of the ancient Jewish kingdoms, on both sides of the Jordan River. In the end, the Zionists were forced by circumstances to give up their claim to that part of Judea that was east of the Jordan River. The British wanted that territory to be given to the Hashemite Emir Abdullah, as a consolation prize for not being allowed to challenge French rule in Syria, and so it was, despite the protests of such Zionists as Vladimir (Zev) Jabotinsky, who wrote a poem with the famous line “Shtei Gadot L’Yarden – Zu Shelanu Zu Gam Ken” which can translated as “Two sides has the River Jordan, This one is ours, and that one too.”
But Cyprus? It never was mentioned by the Zionists, early or late. They had, and have, as little interest in staking a claim to any part of Cyprus as they would to Bolivia, or Mongolia. But if your country is run by a conspiracy-minded antisemite such as Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of course you are likely, as a journalist in a police state where more journalists have been jailed than in any country in the world, to follow his lead, and see Zionist conspiracies everywhere.
This is as ironic as it gets, since of course it is Turkey that is occupying northern Cyprus. Practically no nation recognizes Northern Cyprus as independent.
In fact, only one country in the world — Turkey itself — recognizes the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” as an independent state.
Because of the uproar over this accusation, the Turkish government issued a list of the nationalities that have bought land in Turkish-occupied Cyprus. They said that there have been 15,000 applications for purchasing real estate in the territory over the last five years, and Israeli citizens ranked 12th among foreigners who bought property there, way behind the British, Iranians, Ukrainians and Russians.
Israelis ranked only 12th among buyers of real estate in Turkish Cyprus? So it’s a tempest in a teapot. There have been a paltry 3,000 applications for real estate purchases each year for the past five years. That’s not very many. And how many of those applications came from Turks living on the mainland? The Turkish government does not say. It does admit that Israelis are far below many other nationalities — including British, Iranians, Ukrainians, and Russians — in applying to buy property in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus,. Once that information was released, that should have ended the conspiracy stories about Israel trying to take over northern Cyprus.
But that wasn’t enough to end the antisemitic rumors of a plan to “occupy” Turkish Cyprus. You see, Turkish pundits explained, the people buying the land from the UK, Ukraine, Iran and Russia were mostly — Jews! And Jews are becoming Turkish citizens in order to buy the land!
And Jews are using other evil means to secretly control the land and Turkish Cyprus’ economy!
How does the Turkish government know that most of these people applying to buy land are “Jews”? Good god, how many Jews are there left in Iran, anyway, and what makes the Turkish government think they would be allowed by the Iranian government to invest money overseas, when their every move is scrutinized by the state? Those journalists are simply making up far-fetched tales, about Jews here, Jews there, Jews everywhere, trying to take over Turkish Cyprus. But why would Israelis, or Jews, want to set their sights on Northern Cyprus? The economy of Northern Cyprus is not exactly flourishing. The territory has few resources. What, oh what could be the attraction for Israelis, who have so many other places where they might invest, including the United States, and the countries of the EU, which have much brighter prospects?
It is true that Israelis have been investing in Turkish Cyprus; there are websites about the pros and cons of such an investment and right now the real estate there is much cheaper than in Greek Cyprus. It looks gorgeous — as long as you are aware of the many risks. And Israelis like to take risks….
No one denies that a few thousand Israelis have been buying second homes — vacation homes —in Cyprus, where real estate is much cheaper than in Israel itself, or on the Greek islands, including the Greek part of Cyprus itself. In Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus, real estate is very inexpensive; that, and not a desire to “take over Turkish Cyprus,” explains the interest among Israelis to buy or build homes in the territory. You are still close to Israel, yet far enough away from the anxieties and dangers of day-to-day life in Israel itself. This has nothing to do with an insidious Jewish plan to buy up most of Turkish Cyprus.
The puppet prime minister of Turkish Cyprus is now looking at passing laws to restrict Jewish land purchases and other investments….
Note that the proposed legislation is not intended to restrict purchases only by Israelis, but by Jews, from wherever they come, a manifestation of pure antisemitism. Of course, such legislation will not do the Turkish Cypriots any good. The value of their property will decline, with a smaller market of would-be purchasers. The Jews who might have bought property, and thereby contributed to the local economy (in addition to putting large sums into the hands of Turkish Cypriot sellers of land, and to realtors, Israeli vacationers would need to buy food, rent cars, jet skis, and boats, pay tour guides, frequent restaurants and shops, hire babysitters, and so on, all of which boost the economy), will now look elsewhere for property to buy — in southern Spain or Sardinia or Calabria, perhaps even in the Republic of Cyprus, which unlike Northern Cyprus, welcomes real estate investors from all over.
Eventually Turkish Cypriots will tire of this nonsense, that has shrunk the market of potential buyers for the property they may wish to sell, and will insist that they be allowed to sell their property to whomever — including Jews, and even Israeli Jews — makes the best offer. As for the ranting Erdogan and his journalistic fellow travelers, they will learn soon enough that the Turkish property owners in northern Cyprus will be furious at being forced to engage in a boycott of Jewish buyers of real property because, they can explain, “it’s the economy, stupid.”
I can't help but wonder if Erdogan is looking for a way to get involved in the Hamas War.
While reeling from the IDF offensive in Gaza, the terror group Hamas has operatives in Lebanon who have since the start of the war been launching rockets at IDF soldiers and soldiers from that country. Hamas has now announced that it is forming a new terror group in Lebanon for a possible large-scale attack across Israel’s northern border. More on these plans, and on Lebanese alarm, can be found here: “Hamas Creates New Terrorist Group to Destroy Lebanon,” by Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute,
On December 4, the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas announced the establishment of a new terrorist group in Lebanon with the goal of “liberating Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.” In the past two months, Hamas terrorists in Lebanon have carried out rocket attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians in northern Israel.
Hamas has called on the Palestinians living in Lebanon to join the group, “Vanguards of the Al-Aqsa Flood,” the name it chose for its barbaric invasion of Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip on October 7, when it massacred 1,200 Israelis and abducted 240 others to the Gaza Strip.
Hamas, in short, is saying that it is planning a similar invasion of Israel, but this time from Lebanon.
The announcement has drawn sharp criticism from many Lebanese, who fear that the Palestinian terror group and its patrons in Tehran are seeking to drag Lebanon into a destructive war with Israel. The Lebanese see how Hamas has brought devastation down on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a result of their attack on Israel. They fear the same consequence in Lebanon.
Israel has already warned Hezbollah that if its rocket attacks in northern Israel do not cease, the IDF could “turn Beirut into Gaza.” And the same warning goes, of course, for Hamas. If it tries a large-scale attack on Israel from Lebanon, it is not just Hamas, but the Lebanese, who will pay a steep price when Israel retaliates.
“This [Hamas] statement is unacceptable, neither in form nor in content,” said Samir Geagea, head of the Lebanese Forces Party. “It harms Lebanese sovereignty and is again trying to harm the relationship between the Lebanese and Palestinians.”…
Geagea is the head of the Lebanese Christians, long a foe of Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel from Lebanese soil, and just as adamant an enemy of Hamas’ plans to hit Israel from Lebanon.
Former Lebanese Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil, who also serves as president of the Free Patriotic Movement, wrote: “We categorically reject the announcement by the Hamas movement in Lebanon. We also consider that any armed action from Lebanese territory [against Israel] is an assault on our national sovereignty.”…
Bassil, a Christian and a son-in-law of former President Michel Aoun, directs his remarks at Hamas directly, but impliedly also at Hezbollah when he denounces “any armed action” from Lebanon at Israel,
Lebanese journalist Tony Bouloss…called on the Lebanese authorities to expel the leaders of Hamas from Lebanon “and protect the Lebanese people from bringing Israeli destruction into our country.” He added: “Hezbollah wants to turn Lebanon into a new Afghanistan, attracting all terrorist organizations in the world so that Lebanon becomes an alternative homeland for rogue groups.”
Bouloss sees Hezbollah manipulating behind the scenes, not only to help Hamas establish itself more firmly in Lebanon, but to encourage other terror groups to come to Lebanon in order to form a grand alliance of such groups to attack the Zionist entity from the north..
This is not the first time that the Lebanese people voice concern over plans Iran and its proxies to turn Lebanon into a launching pad for attacking Israel. Over decades, Hezbollah has accumulated approximately 150,000 rockets and missiles, many of them precision-guided, hidden among the homes of civilians along its 75 mile (120 km) border with Israel.
The Iranian regime has many proxies and allies throughout the Middle East: the Houthis in Lebanon, the Kataib Hezbollah militia in Iraq, the Alawite-led Syrian Army, and — most important of them all — Hezbollah in Lebanon. That is why the Iranians have supplied what is now the most powerful of all terror groups with more arms — rockets and missiles — than are possessed by 90% of the world’s regular armies.
Three-quarters of the Lebanese don’t want war with Israel, whether caused either by Hezbollah, or by Hamas, attacking the Jewish state from Lebanon.
A poll conducted in Lebanon between October 13 and 17 showed that 73% of Lebanese oppose Lebanon’s entry into the current Israel-Hamas war….
In the four weeks since that poll was taken, the IDF’s assault on Hamas has led to the terror group’s reeling from loss after loss. Nearly 1000 of its tunnels now have been destroyed, about 6,000-7,000 Hamas fighters have been killed and many more wounded, most of its command-and-control centers have been reduced to rubble, huge amounts of arms have been found and seized by the IDF, and more than half of Hamas’ battalion commanders have been killed. Such dramatic losses by Hamas surely mean that the Lebanese have even less desire to be dragged into the Israel-Hamas War than they did when the poll was taken between October 13 and 17, when 73% voiced their objections to Lebanon being dragged into a war with Israel.
Hezbollah, under instructions from Iran, recently allowed 400 Hamas fighters to deploy along the border with Israel. Coordination between the two terror groups is increasing: Saleh Al-Arouri is the high-ranking Hamas official who now lives in Lebanon; he is responsible for furthering coordination between Hamas and Hezbollah. It seems that Iran may now favor the opening of a second front against Israel, on its northern border with Lebanon. Tehran knows that if there is a major attack by Hamas across that border, even if immediately repelled by the IDF, that will lead to massive Israeli bombing throughout southern Lebanon and, especially, in Beirut. But the Iranians don’t care what happens to Lebanon, as long as the IDF is stretched thin fighting both in Gaza and in Lebanon.
Hamas has in recent years been receiving aid — money and weapons — from Iran. It has, with Hezbollah’s approval, begun to mobilize fighters from among the mostly-Sunni Palestinians in Lebanon. Hamas operatives in Lebanon are eager to coordinate attacks on Israel with the much larger terror group Hezbollah, that is made up largely of Lebanese Shi’ites. Hamas has thus become part of the “Shi’a crescent” of Iran-allied fighters that extends from the Houthis in Yemen, to the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militias in Iraq, to the Syrian Army controlled by Alawites (Shiites), to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Hamas may be able to launch rockets into Israel from Lebanon, but every such attack, whether successful or not, is answered by Israel with a much more deadly response. And should Hamas try a cross-border surge by its fighters into Israel from Lebanon, like that which it conducted with such hideous success from Gaza on October 7, it can expect much of Beirut to be destroyed. The Israelis have already warned of that result. Four-fifths of the Lebanese will blame Hamas for that destruction, and turn on the group, and then on its backer Hezbollah, with uncontrolled fury.
That, of course, is a consummation devoutly to be wished.
Turkish MP says Israel will suffer ‘wrath of Allah,’ then has heart attack and collapses
Just an unfortunate coincidence for Hasan Bitmez. Or…?
==============================
Turkish lawmaker who had heart attack after saying Israel
‘will suffer the wrath of Allah’ dies
By
Social Links forSnejana Farberov
Published Dec. 14, 2023, 10:26 a.m. ET
The Turkish lawmaker who suffered a heart attack on the floor of parliament after declaring that Israel “will suffer the wrath of Allah” died Thursday, just two days after condemning Istanbul’s policy toward Jerusalem.
Hasan Bitmez, 54, a member of parliament from the opposition Saadet Party, died in Ankara City Hospital, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca told reporters in televised remarks.
He is survived by a wife and child.
Shocking video showed Bitmez collapsing at the podium before the general assembly Tuesday, moments after delivering a fiery speech panning President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party over Turkey’s ongoing trade with Israel despite the war with Hamas.
“You allow ships to go to Israel and you shamelessly call it trade… You are Israel’s accomplice,” Bitmez said in his tirade after placing a banner on the podium emblazoned with the words: “Murderer Israel; collaborator AKP.”
Bitmez collapsed moments after his speech Tuesday, in which he said that Israel “will suffer the wrath of Allah.”
AFP via Getty Images
“You have the blood of Palestinians on your hands, you are collaborators. You contribute to every bomb Israel drops on Gaza,” he told lawmakers, adding that Israel “will suffer the wrath of Allah.”
After wrapping up his impassioned address with the words, “Salutations to all,” Bitmez suddenly fell backward on the floor and remained lying motionless on his back, with other MPs rushing from all sides to his aid.
Turkey’s health minister later said that the two main veins in Bitmez were blocked.
REUTERS
Bitmez, who was diabetic, was rushed to the local hospital in critical condition, after his heart reportedly stopped but was restarted.
Koca said afterward that Bitmez’s heart stopped beating, but he was revived in parliament and taken in extremely critical condition to the local hospital, where he was put on life support.
An angiography revealed that the two main veins in Bitmez’s heart were completely blocked, the health minister said.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has harshly criticized Israel and praised Hamas as “freedom fighters.”
REUTERS
MPs from Erdogan’s party later blamed Bitmez’s medical emergency on “God’s wrath,” according to minutes from the chaotic parliamentary session.
A graduate of Cairo’s Al Azhar University, Bitmez was the chairman of the Centre for Islamic Union Research and had previously worked for Islamic non-governmental organizations, his parliament biography states.
It will be interesting to see how Erdogan and the AK interpret 'God's Message'.
Did He strike him dead because he criticized the AK, or did he strike him dead
because he demanded more anti-Israeli activity? It seems the Egyptians have
learned that God is on the side of the Israelis, but has Turkey? I doubt it. The
ambitious Erdogan is still hoping to recreate the Ottoman Empire.
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