Joel C. Rosenberg: Arab & Israeli media provide inside details of President Sisi’s historic meeting with Evangelical Christian leaders in Cairo.

New post on Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog

Arab & Israeli media provide inside details of President Sisi’s historic meeting with Evangelical Christian leaders in Cairo. Here’s a sampling of the coverage. by joelcrosenberg Nov. 2, 2017 (Cairo, Egypt) -- The first stories on our Delegation are beginning to appear in Arab and Israeli media.  A story on Egypt Today, the daily news website of an English-language monthly magazine, was headlined, Sisi meets delegation of U.S. Evangelical heads in Cairo. A story on Masrawy.com, one of the largest news websites in Egypt and the Middle East, was headlined, السيسي لقيادات الطائفة الإنجيلية الأمريكية: نحرص على إعلاء مبادئ المواطنة(translation: "Sisi to the leaders of the American Evangelical community: We are keen to uphold the principles of citizenship.") A story in Haaretz, one of the leading Israeli daily newspapers, was headlined, In First, Egypt's Sissi Meets With Leading American Evangelical Christian Activists Meanwhile, a correspondent and videographer from CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network, is here in Cairo with us to cover the Delegation. I'll be sure to post their story when it's filed. Here's the text of the Haaretz article by Washington correspondent, Amir Tibon.... WASHINGTON -- Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi met on Wednesdaywith a group of leading evangelical Christian activists from the United States at his office in Cairo, where they discussed the fight against ISIS, the prospects for peace between Israel and the Arab world and the situation of Christians in Egypt and elsewhere in the region The meeting, the first of its kind, lasted for almost three hours and signaled the Egyptian president's interest in forging a close relationship with one of the largest and most influential religious denominations in the United States The meeting was initiated by Joel Rosenberg, an evangelical activist and author who lives in Jerusalem. Rosenberg participated in a meeting that Sissi held earlier this year in Washington, D.C., with experts on the Middle East, leaders of Jewish organizations and former senior U.S. government officials. Following that meeting, he discussed with officials in the Egyptian president's close circle the idea of arranging a meeting for him with Evangelical leaders, noting that no such meeting has taken place in recent history.                                                                             Sissi accepted the idea, and on Wednesday, the 12-member group arrived to meet him at the Presidential Palace in Cairo. According to Rosenberg, who spoke with Haaretz after the meeting, "it was supposed to last an hour, but lasted almost three." Egypt's intelligence chief, General Khaled Fawzy, and the president of the Protestant Churches of Egypt, Dr. Andrea Zaki, also attended the discussion. Sissi opened the meeting by expressing his condolences to the American people following Tuesday's terror attack in New York. He added that Egypt and the U.S. are partners in the fight against terrorism and extremism, and spoke about Egypt's battle against Islamist terror organizations in the Sinai Peninsula. Rosenberg added that Sissi told the group that he wants to "build on the legacy of President Anwar Sadat," the Egyptian leader who signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1978, and paid for it with his life. "The president explained to us that Egypt has learned a lot over the years on how to make and maintain peace, and because it has a leadership role in the Arab world, it can help others move towards peace, based on its unique experience." According to Rosenberg, Sissi told the group that he remembers being impressed, as a young man, with Sadat's determination to sign a peace agreement with Israel. "My sense after the conversation was that after a rough start, he now has more confidence in his stability and position, to start working more on regional issues," Rosenberg told Haaretz. With regards to the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations that the Trump administration is trying to renew, Rosenberg said that Sissi "didn't go into tactics and specifics," but expressed his support for that effort. Over the last year, Sissi has stated a number of times that Egypt believes an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord could have a positive influence on the entire Middle East, and has encouraged the Trump administration to pursue such a deal.            Egypt played an important role in forging the recent reconciliation deal between the two leading Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, an issue that naturally came up during the meeting with the evangelical group. "I think that with a different leader, everyone in the room would have been very uncomfortable with discussing this reconciliation deal," Rosenberg said. "But with him, people felt like they should give him some space and consideration to lead this process. It's OK to be skeptical, but let's not be cynical - let's give the man some credit and see what he can do in a very difficult situation."               The evangelical community in the United States is considered very supportive of Israel, and over the last two decades, Israeli right-wing politicians and organizations have created significant partnerships with Evangelical Christian groups. A number of the participants in the meeting on Wednesday are members of President Trump's Evangelical Advisory Council, and Rosenberg is considered close to Vice President Mike Pence. There are more than 60 million evangelical Christians in the United States, and more than 600 million worldwide. At some point during his conversation with the evangelical leaders, Sissi asked his aides to organize a meeting for the group with Jehan Sadat, the late president's widow. "They called her and asked if she would be willing to meet us, and she said - yes, they are invited for tea at 4:00. So right after the meeting with the president, we all went to her house in Cairo. She was fascinating. She told us about the night her husband first told her he was planning to go to Jerusalem and give a speech at the Knesset about the chance for peace. According to Rosenberg, Sadat also told the group about "her memories from meeting Israeli leaders like Menachem Begin, Shimon Peres and Ezer Weizman. We were truly humbled to spend time with her and hear these stories. Rosenberg, who was born to a Jewish father, told Haaretz that he was surprised at the level of interest expressed by the Egyptians in the delegation. "For the leader of Egypt to invite a Christian group to sit with him, discuss what he's doing, talk about some of the difficult issues, that's very impressive. I was hoping we could get ten minutes with him, and eventually we got almost three hours. From our side, the important thing was to show our appreciation for his fight against terrorism and extremism, for his commitment to peace and security ties with Israel, and for saving Egypt from the darkness of the Muslim Brotherhood." joelcrosenberg | November 2, 2017 at 5:35 am | Categories: Epicenter | URL: https://wp.me/piWZ7-8AI

Joel Rosenberg - Dynamic of U.S. presidential campaign changing in light of ISIS attacks in Paris

Dynamic of U.S. presidential campaign changing in light of ISIS attacks in Paris & pursuit of chemical weapons. Here’s why. (Also: latest headlines seem ripped out of “The Third Target” & “The First Hostage” novels.) by joelcrosenberg

(Des Moines, Iowa) -- The barbaric attacks in Paris by jihadists loyal to the Islamic State could the dynamic in the presidential campaign in a profound way.

So could the news -- just breaking in the last 24 hours -- that the Islamic State is actively pursuing the production of chemical weapons to advance their genocidal aims.

So could the seizure of a hotel in Mali by al-Qaeda jihadists. And new ISIS threats to attack Washington, New York and the U.S. homeland.

Such developments put into sharp relief the need to choose a new President who doesn't simply have a great tax reform plan, and a plan to grow the economy and create millions of jobs and reduce spending and balance the budget and reform entitlements. We certainly need a President who will defend the sanctity of innocent human life, and the sanctity of Biblical marriage. Those are vital issues. But so is national security.

• We need a President who understands that Western leaders ignore the threat of Apocalyptic Islam at their peril.
• We need a Commander-in-Chief who truly understands the magnitude of the threats posed by Radical and Apocalyptic Islam.
• We need a President who has serious ideas about how to neutralize such threats, and has solid national experience that can assure us that he or she is really ready to confront this evil.
• We need a President who sees Israel as a faithful ally -- not an adversary -- in this showdown with the jihadists.
• We need a President who rejects the insane Iran nuclear deal, and the notion of allowing Russia and Iran to run wild in Syria.
• Commander-in-Chief is not an entry level position.
• There is no time for on-the-job training in the White House for a new President who has little or no experience thinking about foreign policy and national security issues.
• The next President must come in ready for war -- because that's what we're in, and the stakes are simply too high to go with an untested outsider or newcomer.

So, good morning from epicenter of the U.S. presidential campaign. I just got into the Iowa capital around 1:40 this morning after a 27 hour journey (including numerous flight delays) from Israel.

I'm here at the invitation of several Evangelical Christian leaders to discuss the implications of recent events on their efforts to choose and coalesce around a presidential candidate. We're gathering tonight to attend a forum tonight with seven Republican presidential candidates in hopes of better discerning who could truly be ready to lead us and protect us in dangerous and dark times.

The event is hosted by The Family Leader, a pro-family organization that has had me to speak at several of their events in recent years on U.S.-Israel relations and the threats America faces at home and abroad. (for details, see here, and here)

Tomorrow, I have been invited to spend the day praying and fasting with Christian leaders and further discussing what we are seeing and hearing from the various presidential contenders. I hope to post more on this throughout the weekend.

For now, consider the following headlines, each of which seem ripped from The Third Target, and the forthcoming sequel, The First Hostage.

• ISIS pursuing production of chemical weapons, officials say (CBS News)
• What Is ISIS' Chemical Weapons Stockpile? Islamic State Group Has Recruited Experts From Across the World To Build Terror Arsenal(International Business Times)
• Islamic State terrorists determined to build chemical weapons, officials say(AP/Fox News)
• Paris attacks: ISIS has secret branch of scientists developing CHEMICAL WEAPONS for terror strikes (UK Daily Record)

Chilling. Eerie, actually. But this is the world we live in at the moment.

Will you join me in praying and fasting for the Lord to graciously show all of us if He has a candidate He wants us to support, a president that He wants to raise up to get America back on the right track, stand with Israel, and counter the evil rising in the Middle East? Thanks, and God bless you.

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joelcrosenberg | November 20, 2015 at 3:57 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL:http://wp.me/piWZ7-3qC