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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; prayers</title>
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		<title>Why the Temple Mount Belongs to Jews and Israel</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ronn-torossian/why-the-temple-mount-belongs-to-jews-and-israel/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=why-the-temple-mount-belongs-to-jews-and-israel</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Nov 2014 05:10:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ronn Torossian]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jewish connection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Palestinian]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[temple mount]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=244604</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The facts underlying the Jewish connection.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/tm.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-244607" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/tm.jpg" alt="tm" width="278" height="181" /></a>In Jerusalem, The Temple Mount is the historical location of the First and Second Temples, the holiest place in the world for Jews.  There has been ongoing disputes about the right of Jews to pray there – and it is absurd that anyone in the world can deny Jews the right of freedom of prayer in the <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ronn-torossian/all-of-jerusalem-belongs-to-the-state-of-israel/">State of Israel</a>.</p>
<p>A week ago, American-born Rabbi Yehuda Glick, a leader of the movement encouraging Jews to pray at the Temple Mount, was shot by a Palestinian Arab assassin who objected to the idea of Jews praying on the Temple Mount.  The Palestinian Arabs continue to do all they can to deny Jews the right to live – and pray – in the Jewish State.  It is unacceptable – and Jews must have the right to pray at the Temple Mount.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/11816#.VFjTdZt0yUk">Ze’ev Jabotinsky</a>, the Zionist prophet, once asked, “Is a situation moral in which one side can commit any crime or murder and the other is forbidden to react?”  There must be a price for <a href="http://observer.com/2014/09/the-muslim-brotherhoods-new-pr-agency-rejects-israel/">attacks upon Jews</a> in Israel at the holiest site in Judaism – and amongst that price must be increased rights of Jews to pray. As Ricki Hollander has said,</p>
<blockquote><p>“Jewish reverence for the Temple Mount<em> </em>long predates the building of the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque in the 7<sup>th</sup> century CE, and even predates the construction of the first Jewish Temple by King Solomon almost 2000 years earlier.”</p></blockquote>
<p>There are so many meaningful reasons and quotes about the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount:</p>
<p>*  “There is very telling Jewish teaching about the Temple Mount, and that is: whoever controls the Mount, controls the world.” Yisrael Medad</p>
<p>*  “[The Temple Mount] is the only place in the country where you feel you’re discriminated against because you’re Jewish.” Eli Duker</p>
<p>*  “I want equal rights for Jews on the Temple Mount. What Muslims do, I want to do too.” Arnon Segal</p>
<p>*  “There is only one meaning to giving up the Temple Mount: the end of the State of Israel.” Ronen Shoval</p>
<p>*  “Although other parts of the Temple Mount retaining wall remain standing, the Western Wall is especially dear, as it is the spot closest to the Holy of Holies, the central focus of the Temple.” Rabbi Shraga Simmons</p>
<p>*  “This compound was our Temple Mount. Here stood our Temple during ancient time, and it would be inconceivable for Jews not to be able freely to visit this holy place now that Jerusalem is under our rule.” Defense Minister Moshe Dayan</p>
<p>*  “Islamist exclusivity has debased the Temple Mount. It’s time to return this holy site to its original inclusivity and allow anyone who wants to pray there respectfully to do so. That is the meaning of Jewish sovereignty and human dignity.” Moshe Dann</p>
<p>*  “According to the Talmud, the world was created from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount. It’s believed to be the biblical Mount Moriah, the location where Abraham fulfilled God’s test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac.” Aaron Klein</p>
<p>*  “But you cannot be a Zionist if you are prepared to yield the place that provides us with the moral, historic and religious right to this land &#8211; the Temple Mount.” Ronen Shoval</p>
<p>*  “It is the supposed site of Mt. Moriah, where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac, where the prophet Muhammad is believed to have ascended into heaven, and was the location of the first and second temples, Judaism&#8217;s most holy structures.” Jason Reuter</p>
<p>*  “Every Jew that goes to the Temple Mount puts another stone in the building of the Temple, and is making another step to fulfill Jewish sovereignty on the Temple Mount.” Moshe Feiglin</p>
<p>*  “Three times a day, for thousands of years, Jewish prayers from around the world have been directed toward the Temple Mount. Kabbalistic tradition says that all prayers from around the world ascend to this spot, from where they then ascend to heaven.” Rabbi Shraga Simmons</p>
<p>*  “We were not trying to demonstrate that it’s exclusively ours, or that we want the Muslims off, only that it’s a significant, if not the most significant Jewish site, archaeologically, historically, and religiously. This is the heart of it all.” Elli Fischer</p>
<p>*  “To compare the Temple Mount to Mount Olympus is to bring everything into focus.” Dr. Israel Eldad</p>
<p>*  “It is the Jewish root – the deepest roots that any people has. Elsewhere, we grope for insight.” Rabbi Shraga Simmons</p>
<p>*  “The Temple Mount has remained a focal point for Jewish services for thousands of years. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition.” Aaron Klein</p>
<p>*  “Jewish religious interest in the Mount is not monolithic, and includes those who merely want to visit a site of great Jewish importance, those who believe Jews should be allowed to pray there, those who believe Temple rituals, like sacrifice, should be renewed immediately, and those who <a href="http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/ronn-torossian-what-prime-minister-netanyahus-vision">support the construction</a> of a Third Temple in place of the Islamic shrines of the Noble Sanctuary.” Matti Friedman</p>
<p>*  “Since Jews ascend it would not enter my mind to stop them from holding prayers services there.” Itzhak Nissim</p>
<p>*  “Despite the conventional wisdom that the Jewish people were banished from this holy site, the evidence suggests that Jews continued to maintain a strong connection to and frequently even a presence on the Temple Mount for the next two thousand years.” F.M. Loewenberg</p>
<p>As Yisrael Medad of the <a href="http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/10/30/when-in-israel-visit-the-farkash-gallery-and-menachem-begin-heritage-center/">Menachem Begin Heritage Center</a> has noted,</p>
<blockquote><p>“Although the Temple Mount is important to both groups, only under Jewish rule have both religions been given access to the Temple Mount. Therefore, it must remain under Israeli rule.”</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ronn-torossian/all-of-jerusalem-belongs-to-the-state-of-israel/">All of Jerusalem – including The Temple Mount – belongs to Israel.</a></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Muslim Brotherhood Supporters Slaughter Christian Woman</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/muslim-brotherhood-supporters-slaughter-christian-woman/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=muslim-brotherhood-supporters-slaughter-christian-woman</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 03 Apr 2014 04:35:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[egypt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Friday]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mary Sameh George]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[murder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim brotherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prayers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=222355</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Friday: the day of Muslim prayers -- and infidel bloodshed. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/mary-coptic-martyr.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-222361" alt="mary-coptic-martyr" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/mary-coptic-martyr-450x290.jpg" width="315" height="203" /></a>On Friday, March 28, in Ain Shams, a suburb of Cairo, Muslim Brotherhood supporters attacked the Virgin Mary and Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church, including by opening fire on it and setting parked cars aflame.  Four people died.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">One of the slain, a young Coptic woman, was savagely mauled and molested before being murdered—simply because her cross identified her as a Christian to the Brotherhood rioters.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">According to an eyewitness who discussed the entire event on the Egyptian program, </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcFmEDb19y0&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;hd=1">90 Minutes</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, Mary Sameh George was parking by the church to deliver medicine to a sickly, elderly woman:</span></p>
<blockquote><p>Once they saw that she was a Christian [because of the cross hanging on her rear view mirror], they jumped on top of the car, to the point that the vehicle was no longer visible. The roof of the car collapsed in.  When they realized that she was starting to die, they pulled her out of the car and started pounding on her and pulling her hair—to the point that portions of her hair and scalp came off.  They kept beating her, kicking her, stabbing her with any object or weapon they could find….  Throughout [her ordeal] she tried to protect her face, giving her back to the attackers, till one of them came and stabbed her right in the back, near the heart, finishing her off.  Then another came and grabbed her by the hair, shaking her head, and with the other hand slit her throat.  Another pulled her pants off, to the point that she was totally naked.</p></blockquote>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The eyewitness, as well as </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.vetogate.com/932616">many others</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> who have since appeared on videos, complained about Egyptian State Security and how it did not intervene—just like under Morsi, when </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/an-islamic-declaration-of-war-on-christianity/">St. Mark Cathedral was besieged</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, even as </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/scandal-morsi-government-permits-savage-attack-on-st-mark-cathedral/">security stood by</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">—how it knows exactly who the murderers are, and how one of Mary’s murderers, whom “everyone reported to Security,” was simply relaxing in his home, not even hiding.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Added the eyewitness: “Let me tell you, here in Ain Shams, we [Christians] know that every Friday is a day of death; that the day after Friday, Saturday, we’ll be carried to the morgue!”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In fact, the overwhelming majority of attacks on Egypt’s Christians occur on Friday—the day when pious Muslims meet in mosque for prayers and to hear sermons.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The significance of this fact can only be understood by analogy: what if Christians were especially violent to non-Christian minorities on Sunday—right after they got out of church?  What would that say about what goes on in Christian churches?</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">What </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">does</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it say about what goes on in Muslim mosques?</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A video of Mary’s family members has one woman screaming out the following words—which may be of interest to some Americans:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A message to [U.S. President Barack] Obama, who is calling for the Brotherhood to return to power again.   I want to tell him, have mercy, enough is enough!  </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/obamas-brother-muslim-brotherhood-leader/">His brother</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> is in the </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/exposed-the-muslim-brotherhoodal-qaeda-connection/">al-Qaeda organization</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">!  Why do you want to destroy Egypt?….Egypt will remain whether you, the Brotherhood, or anyone else likes it or not!</span></p></blockquote>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">She was referring to something that is as well known in Egypt as it is little known in the United States: that the Obama administration is </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/john-mccain-proves-u-s-leadership-allied-to-muslim-brotherhood/">a sponsor of the Muslim Brotherhood</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, which itself is connected to </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/exposed-the-muslim-brotherhoodal-qaeda-connection/">al-Qaeda</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The rest of the video portrays some of Mary’s other family members—many in tears and near hysteria—prompting one to wonder: where is the U.S media?  I have not seen a word on this latest Islamic attack on a church and Christians on BBC, CNN, or any of the so-called “mainstream media”?  Why is that?  They had no problem constantly showing us (over and over again) a video clip of a hysterical female relative of a member of Malaysian flight MH370.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The mainstream media is silent because Muslim persecution of Christians in general—Obama-sponsored Muslim Brotherhood in particular—</span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/why-the-media-doesnt-cover-jihadist-attacks-on-middle-east-christians/">throws a huge wrench in that narrative</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">After all, how many Americans ever heard of the </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/largest-massacre-of-christians-in-syria-ignored/">largest massacre of Syrian Christians by U.S.-supported Islamic rebels</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">?</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Responding to this latest murder of a Christian, Coptic Bishop Raphaeil </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/coptic-woman-martyred-for-the-cross-body-torn/">wrote</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Oh how lucky you are, Mary, you who are beloved of Christ.  They tore your body because of the Cross.  Yet they offered you the greatest service and gave you a name of honor as one who has attained the crown of martyrdom.</span></p></blockquote>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">More poignantly, the bishop quoted Christ in the Bible, “Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service” (John 16:2)—a reference to the fact that</span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1621570258/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1621570258&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=uhurnetw-20"> the Muslims slaughtering the followers of Christ all around the world</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> quite often believe they are doing God’s (or Allah’s) work.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Hence why anecdotes such as Friday’s are becoming immensely regular in the Muslim world. Indeed, only a few months ago, two other Coptic Christian girls — both also named “Mary” — were slain when </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/murdered-christian-children-the-price-of-obamas-pro-brotherhood-jihad/">Brotherhood supporters opened fire on yet another church</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Such is the dramatic, eye-opening, and medieval world outside U.S. borders that that the “powers that be” do not want you to know about—for only their </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/surreal-and-suicidal-modern-western-histories-of-islam/">well-crafted, self-serving narratives must prevail</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Seven Miracles that Saved America &#8211; by David Forsmark</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/davidforsmark/seven-miracles-that-saved-america-by-david-forsmark/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=seven-miracles-that-saved-america-by-david-forsmark</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:10:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[David Forsmark]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=44450</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A new book examines the overwhelming odds the U.S. beat to become a nation.
]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-44481" title="miracle" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/miracle.gif" alt="miracle" width="450" height="473" /></p>
<p><em>Seven Miracles that Saved </em><em>America<br />
Why they Matter, Why We Should Have Hope</em></p>
<p>By Chris Stewart and Ted Stewart<br />
Shadow Mountain, $27.95, 311 pp.<br />
Review by David Forsmark</p>
<p><em>“In the beginning of the contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine protection &#8212; Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. &#8230; I have lived, Sir, a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs the affairs of men!&#8221;</em></p>
<p align="right"><strong><em>—Benjamin Franklin, 1787</em></strong></p>
<p><em>&#8220;There is no overwhelming proof, but deep inside we know. And to those who believe, it also seems clear that these events took place with the direction and purpose. Despite our weaknesses, which are many, and our failings, which have existed since our inception, God has been willing to intervene so that this nation might survive.” </em></p>
<p align="right"><strong><em>&#8211; Chris and Ted Stewart, 2009</em></strong></p>
<p>The Founding Fathers regularly wrote that they considered themselves to be doing God’s work in establishing the United States. This habit was not just confined to the conspicuously devout, such as Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams but also to such secular saints as Jefferson and Franklin, the so-called Deists.  More to the point, they fervently believed &#8212; and often asserted &#8212; that God in his Providence actively intervened in events to make their efforts successful.</p>
<p>Today, we often dismiss such rhetoric as “just the way people talked back then” and explain how politicians of a certain era used it to rally an overwhelmingly religious populace behind them.</p>
<p>In their terrific new book, <em>Seven Miracles that Saved America: Why they Matter, Why We Should Have Hope, </em>former Air Force officer Chris Stewart and his brother, U.S. District Court Judge Ted Stewart, argue forcefully that the Founders not only <em>meant</em> what they said, but they were <em>right</em>.</p>
<p>The Stewarts look at seven instances in which overwhelming odds had to be beaten for the United States to exist in its current form. While some might argue over their meaning or the significance of some of their “miracles,” the unlikely circumstances that saved the day in several cases will have even a hardcore secularist taking a second look:</p>
<p>·         The extraordinary unlikelihood that America was colonized due to the efforts of an ambitious navigator with humble beginnings  &#8211; rather than perhaps the greatest fleet ever assembled for just such a purpose&#8211; which “discovered” North America about 70 years before Columbus.</p>
<p>·         The million-to-one odds that saved the English colonization of America as a fleet crossing the Atlantic arrives in Jamestown minutes before it was to be abandoned.</p>
<p>·         The fortuitous fog that saved Washington’s army that was as well-timed &#8212; and accurate &#8212; as any artillery smokescreen.</p>
<p>·         The discovery of the Japanese fleet heading toward Midway in the vastness of the Pacific during World War II by an American reconnaissance airplane extending its search well beyond its operational range.</p>
<p>While this book makes a theological and political point, the emphasis in <em>Seven Miracles that Saved America </em>is on storytelling. The Stewarts employ an unusual device &#8212; novelizing part of each chapter, much like the Shaaras or Alan Eckert — while sticking to known facts and actual quotes. This makes for an extremely engaging, if rather quirky, narrative.</p>
<p>The authors open with the fascinating — and not well known account &#8212; of how America should have been colonized by the Chinese, rather than by Western Europeans.  Even if the Chinese did not discover the American continents, though it seems likely they <em>should</em> have, with their massive fleet and more advanced technology.</p>
<p>However, the glorious fleet that was sent on a mission of discovery, returned to a China that had changed and become inward-focused and xenophobic. The records of the exploration were burned, and the fabled fleet was left to rot, along with China’s expansionist ambitions.  (For more on this, check out last year’s interesting, if flawed, book, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/1421-Year-China-Discovered-America/dp/0061564893/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1261012960&amp;sr=8-1">1421</a>.)</em></p>
<p>The next chapter, <em>The Miracle at Jamestown</em>, continues the discussion of the religious and cultural nature of those who colonized America and why it was important. While the Stewarts propose the obvious, that those who followed Columbus were culturally very different than the navy of Zheng He, the authors assert it was also very important that a Protestant presence be established in America. They contend the competition among Christian sects led to the religious diversity and tolerance that formed the basis of the United States.</p>
<p>Their story of how close Jamestown came to failure and abandonment is gripping reading.  How it was saved is one of the more convincing cases for the word “miracle” in the book—along with the “mysterious fog” that saved Washington’s army in New York in the Revolutionary War, allowing him to pull off a Dunkirk-like evacuation and live to fight another day.</p>
<p>Many might put the circumstances of extraordinary events down to the American character that results from free men, for the first time in history, being allowed to operate on principles of liberty.  It’s not unusual, for instance, to hear the term “the miracle of the Constitution.”  It’s just unusual — today, at least — for it to be meant as literally as the Stewarts’ assert.</p>
<p>This is particularly true in the chapters in which the authors see the hand of God in the timing of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan assuming the presidency in times of crisis.</p>
<p>Easily the most controversial chapter &#8212; and the most likely to raise the ire of some country club Republicans, much less Democrats — is the chapter saying that Ronald Reagan not only won the Cold War but also saved America.</p>
<p>The Stewarts, however, point out that George H.W. Bush, while a good man, <em>did</em> call the Reagan economic agenda “voodoo economics” during the Republican primaries. Even if Bush 41 truly was aboard, he would not have had the political oomph to push it through a Democrat-controlled Congress.</p>
<p>More importantly, Bush was from the “realist” foreign policy tradition, which would have looked for “stability” and détente over real change. The most persuasive point the authors make here is to remind us that, after all of Reagan’s successes in putting the USSR on the ropes, Bush ordered a “reassessment” of U.S. relations with the Soviets upon taking office.</p>
<p>While the first Bush administration was “reassessing,” communism collapsed, and 41 was too surprised to even celebrate the Berlin Wall coming down, as Reagan had predicted.</p>
<p>Of course, such pivotal battles as Gettysburg and Midway had hundreds of little moments that one could argue “changed the course of history.” In the case of Midway, for example, the authors are persuasive in their argument that nearly every one of those moments miraculously went the Americans’ way.</p>
<p>In the case of Gettysburg, for instance, they could easily have titled the chapter, “The Miracle of Friendly Fire.”  Had Stonewall Jackson, the South’s best tactician and Lee’s greatest commander been with him at Gettysburg … who knows?  Jackson was easily the most important figure in American military history to be mistakenly shot by his own troops.</p>
<p>Those of a determinedly secular mindset may be apt to dismiss this book too quickly.  Even if you reject the premise out of hand and prefer to think of it as “<em>Seven Statistically Wildly Improbable Coincidences that Saved </em><em>America</em><em>,”</em> this book is worth your time.</p>
<p>In each case, the Stewarts do a masterful job of setting the stage of not only why the odds were stacked against the outcome we take for granted but also in reminding us of what was at stake.  Each chapter, it could be argued, is as good a one-chapter treatment of a momentous time as you are likely to find anywhere—particularly setting the stage for the Civil War, and demolishing the notion that slavery was a side issue.</p>
<p>Which brings us to the authors’ ultimate point. As bad as things seem now, America has been much closer to the precipice in its history. The Stewarts write that if God did not let the nation fail, or fall to its enemies then, there is no reason to suppose he is done with America yet.</p>
<p>The end may not be near after all.</p>
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