HAL LINDSAY : 12.9.16

December 9th, 2016

There is a great deal of excitement about the incoming Presidential administration. Many Americans believe we are on the verge of a new period of economic growth and prosperity in the United States.

Some feel like there may be significant, positive changes in our foreign policies and America's standing in the world. That includes a reversal in our deteriorating relations with Israel.

President-elect Trump promised to re-locate the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, confirming Israel's claim to Jerusalem as its national capital.

Mr. Trump has also expressed admiration for Israel's leadership in the region and for its industrial and technological innovation and success. He wants to partner with Israel to combat the forces that are wreaking havoc in the Middle East and around the world.

But not everyone who has filled the office of President of the United States feels so enthused about the nation of Israel.

Of course, it's no secret that President Barack Obama viscerally disdains Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In fact, he has publicly and famously slighted and insulted him on several occasions.

And, as I reported a couple of weeks ago, many observers are nervous that Obama may use his remaining days in office to take a final shot at the Prime Minister or at the nation of Israel by creating an international statehood crisis regarding "Palestine" at the United Nations.

But even with that history and those looming questions, it's arguable that no U.S. President has turned against Israel as markedly as former President Jimmy Carter.

This is the President whose major claim to historical relevance -- of a positive nature (Don't forget, he's the one who facilitated the birth of The Islamic Republic of Iran) -- is the Camp David Accords. He brought Israel's Menachem Begin and Egypt's Anwar Sadat together. That effort culminated in the cordial and beneficial relations those two former enemies have shared the past 38 years.

But in the past few years, President Carter seems to have focused his efforts on de-legitimizing Israel. Among other things, he has publicly and loudly called it an "apartheid state" and claims it is worse than South Africa.

His work has fueled the "Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Movement" (BDS) against Israel.

He has sought to re-write the history of Israel and urged the pursuit of future actions based on so-called historical facts that are simply not true.

But most recently, Carter has doubled down on his efforts to mortally wound Israel and place it in a predicament from which it may possibly never recover.

In The New York Times last week, President Carter publicly urged the Obama Administration to officially recognize "Palestine" as a sovereign state. He encouraged the U.S. to press for Palestine's acceptance as a full member of the United Nations.

In doing so, Carter knows full well that if the United States does that, it will be an act that the Trump Administration will find almost impossible to undo.

Also, Carter knows -- or he should know unless he is descending into dementia or has been given over to a strong delusion -- that the recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state within Israel would virtually be national suicide for the state of Israel. It will be left with utterly indefensible borders and will live with a growing, aggressive cancer in its body core.

Further, Carter knows that the Obama Administration has recently indicated that in its remaining days, it will do nothing at the UN Security Council that will leave Israel in that untenable position.

Yet he publicly calls on President Obama to do an about face and stab Israel in the back anyway.

And, disturbingly, Secretary of State John Kerry apparently agrees with him.

President Jimmy Carter has become such a threat to Israel -- or is trying to make himself one -- that I have called him a "modern Haman." You can read the story of Haman in the book of Esther, chapters 3 to 9.

Believe me, it's not a pretty story. And it doesn't end well for Haman.

Speaking of not ending well, prospects are not so rosy for Basuki Purnama, the current governor of the city of Jakarta, Indonesia.

He is actually a good governor and has done a solid job in leading that city of 10 million people. He's been so successful, in fact, that he's running for re-election.

The problem is, he's a Christian. And Chinese. Two strikes against him in Muslim Indonesia.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim nation in the world. It is the fourth largest nation in the world by population. It is the eighth largest GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in the world.

Up until now, Indonesia's has been predominantly a "secular" government. But radical Islam is on the rise in that nation.

So when it began to appear that a Chinese Christian might win re-election to the post that is second only to the Indonesian Presidency in importance, the Muslims reverted to their traditional tactics.

They fabricated the charge of "blasphemy" against him and began to organize massive protests. The governor had previously had a distinguished military career and has many supporters, but they are not organized and violent like his Muslim detractors.

The Arab news organization, Al-Jazeera, explained Purnama's "blasphemy" like this: "He told a crowd they had been 'deceived' by his opponents who had used a Quranic verse to try to put them off voting for a Christian."

He did not "insult the Koran." He did not "humiliate the Koran." He simply stated his opinion that his opponent had misinterpreted the Koran.

The Muslim agitators have so intimidated Indonesia's national police that they actually changed the transcript of Purnama's speech to make it more incendiary.

Now, Purnama is facing up to five years in prison for "blasphemy" against the Koran.

And the academic figure who publicly criticized the fact that the police had altered the actual transcript has been officially charged with "hate speech." He, too, faces prison time.

Ironically, Indonesia's constitution guarantees religious freedom. But when Muslims grow strong enough to press their will on a nation, constitutional freedoms are hardly worth the paper on which they're printed.

President Obama spent four years during a formative period of his childhood in Indonesia. When he returned in 2010, he complimented the nation publicly. He said, "Your democracy is sustained and fortified by its checks and balances... a vibrant media and engaged citizens who have ensured that -- in Indonesia -- there will be no turning back from democracy."

Just another miscalculation?

I have said on this program, time and time again, that Islam and democracy are incompatible. Because Islam is not a religion, it is a political ideology. It is a way of life and it cannot abide individual equality and freedom.

For decades, well-meaning people have cited Turkey and Indonesia as proof that my contention is wrong. Now, both of those nations are teetering on the edge of becoming Islamic republics and radicalism is exploding in both.

And in a nation as large and powerful as Indonesia, the forces of evil are on their way to tapping into a reservoir of terrorism like the world has never seen before.

Finally, this week I want to continue my discussion of the "Church."

I want to examine the word on which it is based: the common Greek word, "ekklesia," which simply means "a called out assembly of people."

Jesus Christ used that common word in a new sense.

We'll talk about that new meaning this week.

Don't miss this week's Report on TBN, Daystar, CPM Network, The Word Network, various local stations, www.hallindsey.com or www.hischannel.com. Check your local listings.

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God Bless,

Hal Lindsey