And, the funny thing is that Israel actually WANTS to be convinced. Israel WANTS to believe that America can be trusted. Israel WANTS to believe that America will not betray her, as the US has done in the past. Israel WANTS America to take the lead.

Unfortunately, Israel KNOWS that America cannot be trusted. Israel KNOWS that America will betray anyone and everyone. And, Israel KNOWS that America will not take the lead and do what’s necessary.

So, with America’s history of betrayal of the State of Israel, what guarantee can America offer Israel that will keep her from acting in her own defense?

I cannot think of any way that America can make a promise that Israel will believe.

And yes, Israel is fully aware of the devastating economic consequences of an attack on Iran. An attack on Iran will cause the price of oil to skyrocket, and the world economy will almost assuredly collapse.

Israel knows this.

However, Israel also knows that Israel’s security is ultimately the responsibility of Israel, and she may find that she has no other choice than to go ahead with an attack, anyway.

If that happens, it will be the world’s fault for having betrayed Israel at almost every step in her history. If the world had supported Israel instead, Israel would have been inclined to listen and wait for the world to act.

I suspect that the world is about to learn that bitter consequences spring from betrayal – very, very bitter consequences, indeed.

Israel’s Last Chance to Strike Iran
by Amos Yadlin, The New York Times, February 29, 2012

ON June 7, 1981, I was one of eight Israeli fighter pilots who bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak. As we sat in the briefing room listening to the army chief of staff, Rafael Eitan, before starting our planes’ engines, I recalled a conversation a week earlier when he’d asked us to voice any concerns about our mission.

We told him about the risks we foresaw: running out of fuel, Iraqi retaliation, how a strike could harm our relationship with America, and the limited impact a successful mission might have — perhaps delaying Iraq’s nuclear quest by only a few years. Listening to today’s debates about Iran, we hear the same arguments and face the same difficulties, even though we understand it is not 1981.

Shortly after we destroyed Osirak, the Israeli defense attaché in Washington was called into the Pentagon. He was expecting a rebuke. Instead, he was faced with a single question: How did you do it? The United States military had assumed that the F-16 aircraft they had provided to Israel had neither the range nor the ordnance to attack Iraq successfully. The mistake then, as now, was to underestimate Israel’s military ingenuity.

We had simply maximized fuel efficiency and used experienced pilots, trained specifically for this mission. We ejected our external fuel tanks en route to Iraq and then attacked the reactor with pinpoint accuracy from so close and such a low altitude that our unguided bombs were as accurate and effective as precision-guided munitions.

Today, Israel sees the prospect of a nuclear Iran that calls for our annihilation as an existential threat. An Israeli strike against Iran would be a last resort, if all else failed to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons program. That moment of decision will occur when Iran is on the verge of shielding its nuclear facilities from a successful attack — what Israel’s leaders have called the “zone of immunity.”

Read the whole article here.

——————–

Last Netanyahu-Obama meeting before Iran strike?

Thursday, March 01, 2012 | Ryan Jones, Israel Today

The mainstream media this week made much of reports that Israel had refused a request to provide the US with advanced warning of any plans to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.

But that may be just what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing as he prepares to depart for Washington this weekend. Some speculate that Monday’s White House meeting may be the last face-to-face between Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama before an inevitable Israeli move on Iran.

In the run-up that the meeting, Obama Administration officials are talking tough on Iran, and suggesting that earlier statement to the effect that the US would not back an Israeli strike were erroneous.

“It’s absolutely clear that the president’s policy is to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons capability,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Wednesday.

Clinton’s statement was important in that she emphasized that, like Israel, the US is not willing to wait until Iran is actually building or fielding a nuclear weapon, but rather is determined to prevent Iran from even gaining the capability to do so.

Also on Wednesday, US Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz revealed to reporters that the US has prepared strike plans of its own, and will likely execute them if Israel goes to war with Iran.

Tough talk is one thing, but former Israeli military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin said that Netanyahu will be seeking firm assurances when he meets with Obama.

Read the rest of the article here.

In July, I wrote the following in my article, An Egyptian Napoleon:

Revolutions are chancy things. You never quite know what you’re going to get when you start one.

We think of the American Revolution as having had only one possible outcome, but that is just not so. For instance, did you know that we came perilously close to a monarchy? That’s right, many of the founding fathers wanted George Washington to become a king. And, it was his for the taking, except for the fact that he abhorred the idea.

The French Revolution wasn’t so lucky. A brilliant young artillery officer from Corsica, Napoleon Bonaparte, rapidly rose in the ranks of the revolutionary army and then staged a coup d’etat in 1799, taking over the French government and calling himself ‘First Consul’. Five years later he was Emperor Napoleon I and on a rampage through Europe, conquering everything in sight. Thankfully he went on to get thrashed by the Russians (Moscow) and the British (Waterloo).

Now, how does Egypt come into this?

Well, Egypt is very much in the midst of its own revolution, and the outcome is undecided – very undecided. All it takes right now to tilt the balance in one direction or another is for a brilliant young army officer to rise and take power.

Well, things aren’t improving. David Goldman has been tracking events in Egypt and has written a series of articles that spell doom for that country:

Endgame for Egypt
September 13, 2011 – 3:21 pm – by David P. Goldman

Egypt “bankrupt in six months” — Mohamed ElBaradei
October 4, 2011 – 11:45 am – by David P. Goldman

Egypt descends into chaos
October 10, 2011 – 2:30 am – by David P. Goldman

Chaos or Corruption in Egypt?
October 17th, 2011 – 1:31 pm

Here’s a bit from that article, Egypt Descends Into Chaos, by David Goldman:

Egypt literally will run out of food. It imports half its caloric consumption, mainly wheat (although Egyptians eat less wheat than Iranians, Moroccans, Canadians, Turks and Russians). Egypt spends $5.5 billion a year on food subsidies. Its social solidarity minister wants to change the system (which subsidizes some people who can afford to pay more than the penny a loaf the government charges), but seems deeply confused. “‘We need to change consumer habits so that we are not consuming so much bread. In Mexico, for example, they rely more on potatoes. Why can’t we start shifting toward that?’said Saad Nassar, adviser to the agriculture minister.” Mr. Nassar seems unaware that Mexicans eat more corn than wheat or potatoes. This discussion would be comical if not for the fact that Egypt is about to run out of money to pay for any sort of food.

It does not appear to be a source of comfort that the Egyptian army is in charge. This is an institution whose Golden Rule is: “Don’t report bad news up the chain of command.” One recalls the June 1967 debacle, when President Nasser and his top generals had no idea how badly they had been beaten until days after the events because no-one in the field would tell them.

Read the rest of the article here.

Don’t you love that last part?

The ‘Golden Rule’ in Egypt is:

“Don’t report bad news up the chain of command.”

That means that no one (in Egypt) will see what’s coming until after it’s happened.

One of the reasons why Egypt had their revolution is due to the rocketing prices in food. And, the ‘revolution’ didn’t solve that problem. It made it worse. Egypt is running out of food, and they don’t have the money to buy more. That’s bad news.

Of course, it gets worse. Here’s part of an article from MEMRI:

Egyptian Economy Under Revolutionary Stress
By: Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli

“All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the state.”
– Albert Camus, The Rebel (1951)

Introduction

Following eighteen days of demonstrations in Midan al-Tahrir (Liberation Square) in the center of Cairo, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, on February 11, 2011. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces assumed the president’s powers and vowed to oversee a peaceful transition process leading to free and fair presidential elections, after five rounds of presidential referenda that had ensured the election of Mubarak, the incumbent, uncontested. As the Egyptian people grapple with their newfound freedom, the broader economic and social impact of the political turmoil in Egypt and, indeed, across the region, will fully unfold in the future.

Read the rest of the article here.

This is not going to end well. In fact, I suspect that we are staring at the fulfillment of this bit of prophecy from Isaiah 19:

² “I will make Egyptian fight against Egyptian—
brother against brother,
neighbor against neighbor,
city against city,
province against province.
³ The Egyptians will lose heart,
and I will confuse their plans.
They will plead with their idols for wisdom
and call on spirits, mediums, and those who consult the spirits of the dead.
⁴ I will hand Egypt over
to a hard, cruel master.
A fierce king will rule them,”
says the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

However, the chapter does end THIS way:

 ²³ In that day Egypt and Assyria will be connected by a highway. The Egyptians and Assyrians will move freely between their lands, and they will both worship God. ²⁴ And Israel will be their ally. The three will be together, and Israel will be a blessing to them. ²⁵ For the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will say, “Blessed be Egypt, my people. Blessed be Assyria, the land I have made. Blessed be Israel, my special possession!”

That is VERY good news, and it’s never happened before, which means that there’s a ton of terrible events to live through before we get to verse 23.

I am impressed.

It is good to see Glenn back on TV with content that we’ve come to expect from him, and more. It’s hard to know where he ends up from here, but I believe that he’s made an impressive start.

Over the next two weeks you can see Glenn for free, and I encourage you to do so. It’s not every day that you get to watch a new network take off, and GBTV is the ONLY way that you are going to see the Glenn Beck Show.

Check it out today.

Thirdly, the threat level to you and the people that you care about has increased dramatically. We are in for an extremely EXTREMELY rough ride over the next two to five years, and we aren’t going to survive that ride unless we do something about it.

I also find myself concentrating on just survival, and I don’t like that idea. I don’t want to stop at mere survival. I want to shoot for thriving in the midst of this coming era of catastrophe. God put us on this planet for a purpose, and that purpose can’t be fulfilled if we don’t survive to fulfill it. And, if we can prosper? Enough to help others who haven’t?

Even better.

Financial catastrophe, resource crash, global war and a globalist agenda are coming together to do terrible damage. And, I have yet to see anyone put all this together. Everyone seems to have a piece of it. Some understand the war that we’re in. Others get the financial disaster. Some even have a handle on the global decline in vital reserves of oil, copper, uranium, etc. A few even understand how the globalist agenda impacts this lethal mix.

But, who can put the pieces together and show you what’s happening?

I haven’t found anyone, so I must not be looking hard enough. However, until I find someone who really can put these pieces together, I need to roll up my sleeves, step in and try to do that for you.

That’s why I’ve decided to create yet another website called OmegaShock. First, there was the financial earthquake and the Aftershock, but then comes the OmegaShock – the last great shock that takes everything down.

The site is already up, and new content will start appearing on it as early as today. Yes, the graphics on the site are a bit basic, but that will improve over the coming week.

The website is www.omegashock.com. Bookmark the site and stay abreast of information that could help you survive and thrive in the face of what’s coming.

Yes, it has a scary message because the impact on people that we care about will be catastrophic. The world will never be the same again. However, it does offer something of a silver lining, and you will do well to jump on that as if your life depends on it.

Because, as scary as the book is, when you add a resource crash and war to the future, the message turns quickly from merely scary to completely horrifying.

So yes, it is a horror show, but the good news is that I’m beginning to see a few ways out of this. Maybe.

Hopefully, it will be enough help me calm down a bit.

Let’s get to the book.

Normally, you would summarize a book before writing up a conclusion. Unfortunately, I’m not normal, (and this is my article) so I’m going to start with the conclusion. In fact, I’ll start doing that by directly quoting the first page of chapter six:

For most people, the advice we are about to give you on how not to lose money in the Aftershock is far more important than any of our good investment ideas (offered in the next chapter) about how to cash in on it. We understand that no one likes to hear this. Most of us find making money far more interesting than simply not losing it. But knowing how to protect yourself is absolutely crucial to surviving and thriving in the months and years ahead, so please don’t skip this part. If you only pay attention to one page in this book, this should be the one.

Let us say at the outset that this chapter discusses protection strategies for the long term. In the shorter term, these protective steps are not immediately necessary. There is no immediate crisis or need for panic. But there is a real need to know what is coming and to learn now how to protect yourself from the way ahead.

For the long term, there are three simple rules for where not to invest as the dollar and other bubbles fall:

Rule #1: Get ready to exit stocks.

Rule #2: Stay away from real estate until after the dollar bubble pops

Rule #3: Stay away from long-term bonds and all fixed-rate investments (including whole life insurance and annuities).

I would also like to add that everyone needs to get out of any adjustable rate debt that they have. The book is pretty clear on this, and I am too. Credit card debt and adjustable rate mortgages need to be paid off somewhere between now and the next year and a half. If we are lucky we might have more time than that, but I doubt it.

Now, I said that there’s a silver lining, and there is – a nice big one. It’s called gold.

Maybe I should have said a gold lining?

As the economy crashes and the dollar crashes and the stock market crashes and the banking system crashes and the government debt crashes… with all this crashing going on, there is only one safe place to be as you ride the crash: ownership of physical gold.

Not gold mining stocks.

You need gold. At least some should be in your sweaty little hands, and the rest should be in a depository somewhere.

Now, the authors of the book aren’t as simplistic as that. They do offer other very sophisticated strategies to profit as we all ride the crash down. But, those strategies require a high degree of technical ability and sophistication – as well as a lot of nerve.

The other possibility, and the authors aren’t shy about this, is to invest with their asset management company. If you agree with their macroeconomic view (and I do) and have a sizable portfolio (I don’t), put some, or all of it with their investment company.

Contact them here:

Absolute Investment Management
(703) 774-3520 or info@aftershockeconomy.com

Remember, you’re not in this to make lots of money. You’re in this to save your assets, and then turn a profit – if you can.

Start the process now.

Okay, so that’s pretty much the conclusion to the book. Or, maybe I should say that this is my personal summary of the conclusions in this book. The devil is in the details, and I’ll get into that later on.

Oh, and don’t forget to order the book. You can find it here:

Aftershock – Protect Yourself and Profit in the Next Global Financial Meltdown