Signs of the Times – Part unknown

Syrian Buildup Threatens Israel

For over three years Syrian President Hat ex Assad has been building up his nation s military power with the help of the Soviet Union His goal has been what he calls “strategic parity” with Is­rael, that is, the ability to engage Israel in limited conflict Despite the dire economic conditions in his country and debilitating military involvement in Lebanon Assad s long term objective has been the recovery of the Golan Heights and to this end he has been thoroughly and relentlessly strengthening his armed forces

In a recent speech Assad declared that unless the Golan is returned to Syria by diplomatic means, “the Golan will be the center of Syria” and not its border Although many of Assad s speeches are designed for internal consumption or to impress other Arab States, Israeli analysts see a sudden military maneuver to grab and hold this territory as a distinct possibility even though they do not think Syria has the means to win an extended war with Israel Syria has invested heavily in advanced antiaircraft missiles and ground to ground rockets that if concentrated in a limited area could hold off an Israeli counter-offensive long enough for an alarmed world to call for and bring about a cease fire

To deter such a limited Syrian offense Israel is projecting the message that Israel will respond with total war to even a limited provocation and that even the hint of an attack could spark a preemptive response Some observers feel the greatest deterrent to a move by Assad at this time is the aggressive response that Israel has demonstrated to other threats such as bombing the PLO headquarters in Tunisia and the massive incursion above the security zone in Lebanon recently in response to terrorist attacks For the time being Assad seems to be proceeding with the caution that this dangerous game deserves

Syria and Jordan Confer on Strategy

For years Syria was almost at war with Jordan but recently at the urging of Saudi Arabia, President Assad and King Hussein have agreed to work toward reconciliation and Hussein has paid a visit to Damascus to meet with Assad Assad with Soviet help is fast assuming the role of power broker in the Middle East With 25,000 troops in Lebanon he seems to have the leverage to impose a peace on the warring factions there and wants to demonstrate his dominance in the Arab world by challenging Israel. Hussein would prefer to negotiate with Is­rael with Yassir Arafat as the PLO representative but Arafat’s refusal to accept the U.N. resolutions recognizing Israel’s right to exist have always stood in the way. Assad, Arafat’s bitter personal enemy and leader of the anti-Arafat wing of the PLO, now seems to have the power to make sure that if any peace negotiations with Israel take place he will have a part in them.

Pope Makes Historic Visit

Pope John Paul II has been unusually creative in his promotional efforts on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church. He has been the first pope to travel outside of the Vatican while in office. He has held joint services with the leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church as well as the Anglican Church and he has even met with moslems and expressed a certain unity of purpose with them.

The most recent event of this type to receive news headlines is the pope’s visit to a Jewish synagogue, said to be the first such visit in history. Although Christ and all his apostles were Jews and the Christian religion had its origin in the Jewish law the Catholic Church has for centuries persecuted the Jews to the embarrassment of most modern day Catholics in a civil rights conscious world.

The synagogue visited by the pope is located in a walled ghetto about a mile from the Vatican where Jews were once locked up at night. In a ceremony that Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff called “a true turning point in the policy of the church” the pope read from the Psalms and spoke in condemnation of the hatred, persecutions and displays of antisemitism directed against the Jews in the past. Following the visit Vatican spokesmen emphasized that this was not a prelude to official recognition of the nation of Israel by the Church.

Libyan Attack Gets Europe’s Attention

The nations of Europe as remnants of the Roman empire are still demonstrating the lack of cohesiveness that the prophet Daniel graphically portrayed in the iron and clay mixture of the feet of the image After the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro, the airport attacks at Rome and Vienna, and the hijacking of aircraft in which Americans were killed, the United States called for a united effort to punish Libya, the nation most openly sponsoring these terrorist activities. Due to the strong economic ties that many European nations have with Libya they all declined to join such action and a frustrated U.S. administration decided to take strong action on its own.

When the confrontation with Libya over navigation rights in the Gulf of Sidra produced only a step up in terrorist activity, the U.S. launched the April 15th bombing attack with the help of only Britain. Shocked and fearful of the escalation of terrorism the European na­tions immediately denounced the raid but later decided to take action against Libya in the form of expulsion of some of their embassy officials. Fearful of further U.S. action further talks were held at the Tokyo economic summit in which a basis for closer cooperation against state sponsored terrorism was reached. So far action has been taken only against Libya even though evidence is mounting that Syria is also involved in many of the terrorist incidents. Action against Syria is more difficult than against Libya so it remains to be seen what form it will take if it is needed.

Nuclear Accident Frightens the World

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the Ukraine serves as an example of one of the dangers of life in the modern world. The hazards of living in today’s environment exceed anything that could be imagined a half century ago. The effects of this nuclear meltdown have been felt across an entire continent and will probably continue to be felt for decades to come. At Three Mile Island, the worst U.S. nuclear accident so far but less serious than the Russian incident, the cleanup work has been going on for seven years and will not be completed for several more. After a massive nuclear accident in the Ural Mountains in 1957 the Soviets closed off hundreds of square miles and relocated the population of a dozen villages. As this is being written the full scope of the Cheryobyl disaster is not fully known but 49,000 people are said to have been evacuated from the immediate area and the populations of many eastern European countries are receiving treatment to minimize the effects of radiation from the contaminated air mass that moved over their countries. The effects on the food supplies for the Soviet Union and neighboring countries are expected to cause serious economic problems. The dire predictions of anti-nuclear critics seem to have been justified in this case.

The dangers of late 20th century life are not limited to nuclear catastrophes however. On any list of serious environmental concerns the following would almost certainly appear; damage caused by acid rain in northeastern United States and Canada; contamination of groundwater supplies in many of the worlds population centers; the burning off of the tropical rain forests to provide food and living space for rapidly growing populations, hazardous waste disposal; air pollution, and so on. Human nature and the world’s political system being as they are, these problems seem beyond human ability to solve, but God’s word gives assurance that a resplendent earth under divine rule will be the eternal habitation of the faithful.

Smoking Now a Worldwide Health Concern

In the two decades since the smoking of tobacco was statistically linked to lung cancel and other diseases, cigarette smoking worldwide has risen steadily According to a report issued recently by the World watch Institute the use of tobacco is increasing faster than world population and in spite of the dire warnings of the dangers of smoking, over 1 billion people are puffing some 5 trillion cigarettes a year

In this study smoking is estimated to cause 2 5 million premature adult deaths a year — more than are caused by famine, war and international terrorism combined This estimate does not include the increased infant mortality rate due to smoking by pregnant women According to the report, smoking is increasing at an explosive rate in the developing nations In China, for instance, smoking has doubled in the last decade, accounting for half the world increase In poverty­stircken Bangladesh two thirds of men now smoke and tobacco consumes 5 percent of all household income

In the United States where vigorous anti smoking efforts have been made, the number of smokers has dropped from 43 percent to 32 percent of the population but the total consumption of tobacco has increased 20 percent since 1964, indicating that those that still smoke now consume more than ever Lung cancer in women has increased and is now the leading form of cancer in women as well as in men

Among the tobacco producing nations of the world China takes the lead at 25 percent and consumes all it grows The United States, India, the Soviet Union and Brazil follow in order with all except the Soviet Union being major exporters Some countries have an inconsistent policy in which the growing of tobacco is encouraged because of its value to the economy but at the same time its use is discouraged in the interests of public health Although public concern is growing in western countries little is being done in most of the world, and a rapid worsening of this health problem is expected in the developing nations

A Powerful Diagnostic Tool for Medicine

The prophet Daniel s prediction that an increase of knowledge would take place at the time of the end can certainly be applied to this present age. Scientific and technological developments seem to be occurring at an explosive rate. What brings this to mind is the recent publicity regarding a new machine in the field of medicine, hailed the most powerful diagnostic tool ever invented.

Called MRI for Magnetic Resonance Imaging the system provides pictures of the internal soft tissue organs of the body, a task the x-ray does not do so well. Unlike with x-ray, bone is transparent to this device so that organs previously difficult to see such as the brain, the spinal cord, and blood vessels in various parts of the body can be viewed without the injection of dyes as is necessary with x-ray. With MRI the operators can differentiate fat, blood, muscle, blood Vessels and tumor tissue. In many cases the need for exploratory surgery is eliminated and the extent of the invasion of diseases such as cancer can be accurately determined.

Although a complete description of the system can not be attempted here, suffice it to say that it involves the action of radio frequency waves on the protons in the nucleus of hydrogen atoms in the presence of an extremely powerful magnetic field. A computer is also used to control instrument operation and to reconstruct and store images produced by the machine.

The patient on a special bed is conveyed into the opening into the center of the 7-ton superconducting magnet. An operator sees the resulting picture on a monitor screen and can manipulate the controls to obtain the desired field of view. Since each machine costs over a million dollars they are at present being installed only in large hospitals and regional medical centers. It appears ironic that many of the systems that are brought together to make possible marvelous machines such as this were originally developed in the field of weapons research. It is also ironic that while a great deal of effort is being spent to cure disease and prolong human life an even greater amount of effort is going into the production things like tobacco and addictive drugs that cause disease and shorten life, further evidence of the truth of the words of the prophet Jeremiah, “It is not in man who walks to direct his steps.”

Middle East Peace Illusive

The era of peace and prosperity for the eastern Mediterranean seaboard that Israel’s former defense minister Ariel Sharon envisioned to be the objective of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 to drive out Yasser Arafat and his PLO was obviously just a dream. Now the latest attempt to bring about peace in that area has ended in apparent failure as Jordan’s King Hussein decided that he could no longer work with Arafat in a year-long effort to develop a joint peace strategy for negotiations with Israel.

Political analysts consider this to be a major if not fatal setback in the decade-long effort of the United States to get the Israelis and Palestinians to agree to negotiate on a plan to give the Palestinians a homeland in return for recognition and security for Israel. In a three and one half hour television speech the king accused the Palestinian leader of reneging on his promises and proving an untrustworthy partner in the efforts to develop a position from which to begin negotiations.

Some analysts see the hand of Arab extremists and their threats of assassination as the reason for Arafat’s indecisiveness. Some even go so far as to implicate the Soviet Union on the grounds that it would want to break up any peace effort in which it did not have a part. Although the Israeli Labor Party of Shimon Perez has expressed a willingness to trade “territory for peace,” it is doubtful if any Israeli government would be willing to make the concessions that even the most “moderate” Palestinians would demand.

The recent assassination of Zafer el­Masri, the newly appointed mayor of the city of Nablus, must be considered an object lesson for moderate leaders. Masri had replaced an Israeli mayor as part of a plan to give Palestinians in the occupied territories a greater participation in their local affairs.

A Victory for People Power

In a thus far peaceful assumption of power Corazon Aquino, widow of the assassinated opponent of former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, has brought the 20 year authoritarian rule of Marcos to an end. The victory might also be con­sidered a victory for “liberation theology” in that the civil disobedience that led to the mutiny of army units ordered to fire on unarmed civilians was orchestrated by Cardinal Jaime Sin the archbishop of Manila. Priests rallied demonstrators and made public statements denouncing the fraudulent election that Marcos claimed to have won. Aquino credited her eventual victory to the Catholic Church whom she considered the only opposition well enough organized to confront Marcos and his party. For the time being Cory Aquino has captured the imagination of the Philippine people but only time will tell if she can rally the nation to overcome its extremely serious social and economic difficulties.