This issue looks at the end of the world, the latest Egyptian protests, Israeli concern over the fighting in Syria, the newly discovered gas reserves in Israel, the latest Iranian computer virus, Army political correctness run amuck, a foiled Christmas tree bombing in NYC, the NAACP’s true colors, and the latest Christian pastor imprisoned in Iran.
BREAKING NEWS
The world didn’t end yesterday, despite the Mayan prediction. Maybe we should follow the Bible’s prophecies. They’ve never been wrong.

OUR ISRAELI CONNECTION

News from the Israel Project
Egypt’s opposition is calling for protests and declaring that a weekend referendum on Egypt’s new constitution was marred by irregularities. The draft constitution was hastily passed weeks ago by Egypt’s Islamist-dominated constitutional assembly, as the country was in the midst of a political legitimacy crisis triggered by a power grab by President Mohamed Morsi. The draft was immediately criticized for emphasizing Islamic law and failing to adequately protect the rights of women and religious minorities.

Sunni-backed opposition forces battling to overthrow the regime of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad will soon try to eradicate Israel, according to statements made by Abed Shihadeh, a top Jordanian Salafist figure. Shihadeh, who was speaking at the funeral of a suicide bomber, went on to label the United States “the mother of all the terror in the world.” The statements deepen concerns that the Syrian opposition will be hijacked by hardline anti-American and anti-Israel Islamists, and will complicate efforts by the United States to publicly back rebel groups.

Newly discovered natural gas reserves off Israel’s coast will contribute to greater-than-expected economic growth in 2013, according to statements issued byIsrael’s Finance Ministry. A joint U.S.-Israel consortium is expected to start drilling for the gas in 2013, extracting some of the estimated 274 billion cubic meters of reserves from the so-called Tamar field.

Iranian computers are apparently being targeted by a new, compact piece of data-destroying malware. Dubbed Batchwiper, the virus erases logged-in users’ Windows data as well as all files stored on drive partitions with the letters D through I. Over the last two years, Iran and its proxies have been targeted by a series of sophisticated cyberweapons built on a variety of platforms.The known programs built on the so-called Tilded platform, Stuxnet and Duqu, sought to destroy Iranian nuclear infrastructure and capture information, respectively. Flame, considered the most powerful cyberespionage program yet discovered, was built on a different platform which it shares with the Gauss and Mini-Flame programs.

IT’S NEWS TO ME

Proposed Army Manual Tells G.I.s Not to Insult Taliban, Speak up for Women
Fox News reports: A proposed new handbook for Americans serving in Afghanistan warns them not to speak ill about the Taliban, advocate women’s rights or criticize pedophilia, and the general in charge is not happy with it. The draft of the newest Army handbook seems to suggest that ignorance of Afghan culture is to blame for deadly attacks by Afghan soldiers against the coalition forces, according to The Wall Street Journal, which got a peek at the 75-page document. But its message of walking on eggshells around the locals is not going over well with U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, the top military commander in Afghanistan. Read more.

Merry Christmas From the Jihad Brothers! Planned to Bomb NYC Christians Using Christmas Tree Lights
Debbie Schlussel reports:When will the feds stop calling Muslims who claim allegiance to Al-Qaeda and want to mass murder Americans, “lone wolves”? Probably never, but it’s like calling Barack Obama a conservative. Neither could be less accurate. And so it goes for the Jihad Bros. Raees Alam Qazi and his brother, Sheheryar Alam Qazi, planned to bomb various targets in New York City to take revenge on America for drone attacks on Islamic terrorists. They researched how to use Christmas tree lights (“allahu fubar, let’s kill the Christians!”) for attacks, and they looked into targets on Wall Street (“allahu fubar, let’s kill the evil Zionists!”). They also looked into attacks on Times Square and Broadway (“allahu fubar,” let’s kill the gays!”). Oh, and did I mention that at least one of them slept at a mosque in the course of his travels to New York for the Christmas Jihad? Read more.

NAACP Shows True Colors Against Only Black US Senator Because He’s Conservative
Freedomoutpost.com reports: South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has made the decision to appoint a replacement for retiring U.S. Senator Jim DeMint. She has chosen Congressman Tim Scott (R-SC), a very conservative Republican. He’s also happens to have dark skin, which would make him the only United States Senator who is black. So why would the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People oppose such a man? Precisely because he doesn’t go along with “their agenda.” Read more.

Iran Imprisons another Christian
Iran has imprisoned and is abusing an American Christian pastor because of his faith. Pastor Saeed Abedini, an American citizen, is in one of Iran’s most notoriously abusive prisons, separated from his wife and two young children this Christmas, simply because he is a Christian. Hundreds of thousands of you mobilized to free Pastor Youcef. Now we need your voice urging our government to take action on this American pastor’s behalf.
Sign the petition demanding American Pastor Saeed’s freedom.

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ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
Where there’s a will, I want to be in it.