Latest news on Israel and the Middle East

Click this map of Israel, another young yet ancient nation, prophetically entrusted with the oracles, the sayings of God Romans 3:2, for "Deep inside the plucky country" by Greg Sheridan in The Australian.
Plucky but hemmed in.
Click Here for the latest News on Israel and Palestine — at Dec 30th 2022

Click here to see the population growth in this land that now encompasses Israel, West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 1900 it showed just 500 thousand but in 2020 there were 9 million in Israel, 3 million in the West Bank and 2 million in the Gaza Strip. Further east in Jordan 450 thousand to 10 million, Iraq 2 million to 40 million, Persia (Iran) 10 million to 83 million. Yes phenomenal growth, due in part to the abolition of slavery, the discovery of oil, and of course a massive decline in infant mortality rates click here — in Israel from 39 deaths per thousand in 1950 to 3 per thousand in 2020, in Palestinian territories from 140 to 21, in Jordan from 147 to 17, in Iraq from 225 to 32, in Iran from 220 to 15.
Click the appropriate country to see similar population growth in the north, in Lebanon 600 thousand to 7 million and Syria 1 million to 17 million, in the south, in Egypt 10 million to 101 million and Saudi Arabia 1½ million to 34 million.

Current faith demographics on Israel's population of about 9 million show 74% to be Jewish, 18% Muslim, 2% Arab Christian, 1½% Druze and 4-5% nominally "other or none". In the 2011 census, non-Arab Christians estimated number of 25,000 (including "Messianic Jews"), were counted as "Jews and others". An important point, interfaith marriages are not permitted, when marrying in Israel, both parties must always be of the "same faith". Disputed East Jerusalem, under Israeli law since 1967, currently holds about 300,000 Palestinian Arabs and 200,000 + Israeli Jewish settlers. Then outside of Israel proper, about 2 million live in the Gaza Strip (99% Muslim), and about 3 million live in the West Bank (about 82% Muslim, 2% Christian, 15% Jewish settlers).

Based on jewishvirtuallibrary.org, worldwide Jewish population in 2021 is about 15.16 million. About 7.0 million Jews live in Israel, including the West Bank, about *6.0 million live in the US, and about 2 million or so live elsewhere. About 118,000 live in Australia.
*Sheshkin and Dashefsky estimate the US Jewish population in 2021 as 7.3 million.

Click here for Wikipedia's latest historic perspective on the State of Palestine, a non-member observer state within the United Nations since November 2012, recognized as a "proper, separate nation" by some, and "definitely not" by others. The current president is Mahmoud Abbas. Click here for his predecessor, Yasser Arafat.

Click here for Rulers of Syria (in the north) 1920-2020, and a map of who controls what in its civil war.

Click here for an article in 2017 on the Turkish President following overtures to Iran.

Prophecy

No prophecy (of scripture) ever came under human initiative, no, holy men received inspired utterance under the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:21

"Iran has already threatened to bomb Israel's cities with its long-range missiles" - The Australian, Dec 15, 2009.
Click here for a built-in prophecy regarding the above statement in Isaiah 22. It shows Jerusalem fleeing together for mutual support as death occurs, not from close combat but from archers (or rockets). The warring nation is Elam - Iran (click here for a map) with Kir in Jordan uncovering the shield, and Babylon fallen, along with her false gods Isaiah 21:9. It shows Jerusalem tearing down houses to fortify the wall, rejoicing in her armour, but not looking to her maker, ignoring his call to repentance: "Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die" Isaiah 22:13. Typified in a minister, Shebna meaning "growth" but seen as one digging a spectacular grave.

Click here for the Israeli Democracy Index survey from May 2017, 88% of Jews in Israel placing their highest trust in Israel's Defence Forces.

With such self-centred nihilism, the Lord declares this perversity would only be purged by death, as Shebna's powerful battle tanks Isaiah 22:18 become the disgrace of his master's house. And God calls Eliakim literally "God of resurrection" with words echoed in that promise to the church in Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7) of "laying the key of the house of David upon his shoulder, so he will open and none will shut, and he will shut and none will open" Isaiah 22:22.

The next chapter in Isaiah specifies how Tyre → Carthage collapses, see Isaiah 23 and Ezekiel 27, nor does the land of Egypt escape.

Tyre — Businesses and Politics

According to Jewish records, Tyre settled Carthage about 800BC and it became a mighty trading city. Carthage, spelt originally as Qart-Hadasht, means literally the "New   City", the "New Meeting place", and is sometimes called the "Woman-City". Its Phoenician alphabet, derived from the Hebrew, spread throughout Europe for trading purposes, providing contracts for buying, for selling, for law: before and after an event. And with Greek tutors, Jewish missionaries and schools teaching basics of phonetics to the children of business people and political masters, adapting it to their local language, if God's people, also teaching about God to humble hearts. Good things. Followed by the Christian missionaries, doing the same, and teaching about Christ. Now in the past 100 years the script has become universal, via the League of Nations, the United Nations, in business and entertainment, in computers and smartphones, this "Roman", this Latin, now this English script.

See this article in relation to Tunisia, the modern day name for the place of ancient Carthage, the dawn of the so-called "Arab Spring" in 2011. And we see in Daniel, "He (i.e. the appointed enemy) shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt, and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps" Daniel 11:42-43

Time Complete

With reference to 2 Corinthians 13:14
TIME click here for Bible Timeline can be seen as having now reached:

6000 years mankind on its own, 31 years with the bridegroom — click here for Jesus's timeline, the Son of God.

1. 4018 BC: 2008 years of The Father: Revealing His goodness & strength to individuals — Love of God the Father towards all.
   Mat 7:11   Luk 11:13   John 3:16
   The Father (the Creator of all): Adam to Abraham. From the Beginning.
    
2. 2010 BC: 2008 years of The Son: Birthing (a nation) not by works but by faith - the Lord's grace inside it.
   Gen 17:17   Gen 18:12-15   Gen 21:6   Gen 22:2   Eph 5:2   Heb 11:17-19   James 1:1-5
   Son Isaac (means "laughing")
   Click to see the links in Hebrew between "Son", "Build", "House" and "Stone". See too Psalms 118:22
   The Son (Spoken Word → Living Word): Isaac to Jesus. Ever Present.
    
3. 2 BC: 2008 years of The Holy Spirit: Partnering with people who are outworking God's purposes — Fellowship of the Holy Spirit while awaiting God's coming justice.
   The Holy Spirit (Sealed) — the Pledge or earnest Ephesians 1:13 of belonging to the King:
   Called the anointing, given to all who come as little children. 1 John 2:20
   Heralding Christ to Heralding His Return. Future Hope.

   *1807-2006: (see footnote) Horseman one. The church, as his body. Joseph. The world wide war for the gospel and medical health, opposing slavery and oppression during the last 200 years played a major role in increased life expectancy in many poorer regions outside Europe. But forgotten, somewhat like Joseph in prison (Gen 40:20-23) . Still, between 1959 and 1999, world population doubled from 3 billion to 6 billion.

   Then in 1999, as Y2K (Year 2000) approached, many spoke of world wide economic calamity. In contrast, the sweeping deregulating that occurred with US Banks Securities and Insurance Companies — combined with major advances in VLSI technology that led to a worldwide "explosion" of
   ADSL and Cable Broadband Internet (ca 1998) then GPRS Mobile Internet (2000) — meant these last 7 years were seven years of unprecedented outward prosperity. Though within two years terrorists from Afghanistan declared war with that attack on the World Trade Centre in September 01. Horsemen two and three War and Trade.
   Headed by Omar Mullah, Taliban leader, reigning over that devastated area where gospel missionaries are frequently executed. Horseman four leading to Seal five Devastation and Martyrdom.

   And, following those seven fat years, seven lean years.
    

4. Rosh Hashanah September 2006: 7 years of Israel: with Avowal at the UN.

   Coupled with the subprime crisis — early glimpse was Merit Financial closing its doors May 4 06. Escalating Rosh Hashanah Sept 30 2008 two years later — running parallel to Joseph's words in Genesis 45:9-11
   "Come down to me, do not delay — for there are yet five years of famine". Click here for thoughts.

   Following Rosh Hashanah (Sept 4th) 2013, click Here for that US Debt crisis as the US Govt closed down on 1st October, 2013. And as the world reached 7 billion.
   

Balances with 6031 years. So, as clearly as anything may be seen for now where we judge through a glass darkly, click here for a picture initially glimpsed also on May 4 06. Noting Paul's words: "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds the house. And if anyone figures they have seen anything, they have known nothing — not yet — as they ought to know. But if anyone loves God — seeks the building of God's house — this one has been known by Him." 1 Corinthians 8:1-3
"Despise not prophecy. Examine everything, hold fast that which is good." 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21
"For we know in part and we prophesy in part." 1 Corinthians 13:9

Seals 1-6

*Regarding the four horsemen (of the Apocalypse), we can see the first rider starting way back in 4000BC (1) Lord's finding heart faith — hidden/secret treasure in Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua down to David: hiding it selling all and buying the field. The second rider 2,000BC (2) War & Division follows Babel and the confusion of tongues: in Israel we see Abraham's first son Ishmael following in his mother's footsteps and mocking Isaac, Moses striking the rock following Miriam's death and speaking bitterly to all, Saul's presumption of Samuel's priesthood role — all from time & people pressure. The third rider 500BC (3) Trading idolatry: Gold/Silver/Copper/Iron coinage, seen in Babylon, previewed in Saul's coveting of wealth followed by God's rejection and contrasted with Abraham's refusal to be indebted to the world Genesis 14:21-24 and Genesis 23. Finally the fourth rider 1,000 years later (4) Death and Hell: Terrorism, Intimidation, Devastation, Dark Ages over a quarter of the earth. Their capital becomes Baghdad close by the now ancient city of Babylon.

Thus the four horsemen reflect not just the past 1,940 years (or so) since John wrote the Book of Revelation, but go right back to the Book of Genesis. For the non-believer, it can be seen in those famous stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, eventually, perhaps, comfort (Genesis 27:42).

And see too a similar picture Jesus showed regarding the four internal responses to the gospel in the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:3: "When any one hears the word of the kingdom, and understands it not, then comes the wicked one, and catches away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that hears the word, and immediately with joy receives it, yet has he not root in himself, but is temporary: for when tribulation/social pressure or persecution/physical harassment arises because of the word, in time he is offended/tripped up (due to this warfare). He also that received seed among the thorns is he that hears the word, and the cares/distractions of this world, and the deceitfulness/delusions of riches and physical fullness choke the word and he becomes unfruitful (due to this wealth). But he that received seed into the good ground is he that hears the word, and understands it, which also bears fruit, and brings forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." Hallelujah.

Click here for this four seals comparison table in a separate page

Fifth seal. 1500 AD Martyrs cry How Long? A "new world" is slowly dawning & the Isaiah 60 prophecy.

Community-empowered (as opposed to privately-sponsored) schooling appears, training children up in the scriptures, arts and the law. Starts in Scotland (in 1496), spreads to Strasbourg and other German cities (in the 1500s), Massachusetts in the USA (in the 1600s), Prussia, Austria-Hungary, and Bohemia (in the 1700s), the rest of Europe and America, Australia and Japan (in the 1800s), Russia, China, and Muslim countries (in the 1900s), and finally all of India (in 2010) .

Sixth seal. 2000 AD Rev 6:14 Get ready.

At the Copenhagen summit the whole world starts to focus (in fear) on the sky.

** End Table

Allianz
This table (click here for a full list of countries) is based on each region's gross financial household assets measured in euros by Allianz – currency stocks and bonds at current market values, with a separate column for debt, including mortgage debt. Total gross assets equals €172 trillion. Nett assets €130 trillion.
Its list of countries does not include Africa or the Middle East (other than Turkey, Israel and South Africa).
In Australia perhaps 90% of total debt is property loans, however current house and land values are not included in Gross Assets.

Credit Suisse
Click here for a full list of countries (including Africa and Middle East) showing Total Net Wealth (assets less liabilities) in US dollars by Credit Suisse US $114 trillion China $64 trillion Australia $7 trillion.
In contrast with Allianz it includes Non-Financial private assets, mostly House and Land at current values. Total wealth overall equals $US360 trillion.
Click here to view the Credit Suisse report as a PDF file.

Finally, Australian Households Total Net Wealth, including current house and land values (in AU dollars) is $AU 10 trillion, spread over 10 million households. An average net wealth of $AU 1 million per household, with the Australian Federal Government having a AAA credit rating worldwide.

Click here for Australia's Wealth Details (by household and by adult).

Click here for each country's External Debt with investment in US Treasury (internally and externally) - click here - showing $24 trillion held by the public.
Currently about 88%, click here, of all currency transactions across the world involve the US dollar.
Click here for Sovereign Wealth Funds (king was in his counting house) - US currently showing $240 billion.
Click here for each country's Foreign Exchange Reserves - US currently showing $230 billion.
And click here for each country's official Gold Reserves - with 8133 tonnes, US currently valued about $420 billion, held by the US Federal Reserve. While these assets are technically owned by private shareholders (banks), note that by statute all profits or losses belong to the US Govt.

Comment from a friend "Note: The US not only holds the most gold but it represents 65% of their reserves. This means that whilst their dollar may not be backed by gold, they still understand its role as a potential storage of wealth in tough times. So, the US financial system is being hammered but as a country, any run on the gold price will help them (i.e. the federal reserve) to buy out the toxic debt and restabilise things. Look at the UK. Backs to a wall and no gold to play with...ouch."

And another friend's prayerful thought: "I think there are two currencies operating in the world: a) the currency of greed and corruption orchestrated by the world's international monetary system, and b) the currency of God's love revealed in Christ and extending Eternal Life to all who respond in faith to God's Call. I think this second currency operates 'under the radar' a lot of the time even though the world system tries to annex it through the institutionalisation of religion. But the Word of God grows and multiplies - Acts 12:24 - and wherever it grows and multiplies it brings blessing and peace and stability, in a measure, to the nations that do not actively war against it. Those that oppose it struggle massively with social degradation and economic impoverishment. I believe the uncharacteristic blessing that abides on Australia has come about because godly men and women have faithfully preached the Word over the time of our brief history. 'In Him was Life; and the Life was the Light of men. And the Light shines in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not' John 1:4-5. "

2 Thessalonians 2:1-8

Verse 1	Now we beseech you, brothers (and sisters), regarding the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together to him,
Verse 2	That you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand (i.e. present)
Verse 3	Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come the "female" forsaking first (a breakdown of all legal and monetary restraint in the trading city of Revelation 18:4, the harlot Babylon)   and that man of sin be revealed (uncovered)  the son of perdition (or ruin);
Verse 4	Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God , or that is worshipped ; so that he as God sits in the temple of God , showing himself that he is God .
Verse 5	Remember you not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things ?
Verse 6	And now you have seen what withholds (holds him fast)  that he (i.e. the man of sin) might be revealed (uncovered)  in his season.
Verse 7	For the mystery of lawlessness does already work only the one who holds him fast, will now continue until that one is out of the middle.
Verse 8	And then shall that lawless one be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

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JERUSALEM over nearly 4000 years   ~4000 Year Summary 1925 BC - 2022   Reign of the Maccabees 167 BC - 37 BC   Days of Herod 70 BC - 70 AD   Catholic Account 70 AD - 1913 AD   Eight Hundred Horsemen - 1917   May 1948 - First Arab-Israeli War   June 1967 - The 6 Day War   Jerusalem - Israel - from Moses to Today
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Intro — computer user numbers in 2022

Five billion users worldwide, either on desktops or mobiles or both, are accessing the Internet in 2022.

• According to google-io-2022, there are 3 billion active Google Android devices (i.e. smartphones, tablets, watches etc)

  Plus

• ca 1.65 billion PCs utilizing Microsoft Windows and
• 1.8 billion users across all Apple products (iPhones, iPad tablets, iMac desktops, Apple watches) with the iPhone currently over 1 billion users

Desktop Browsers

An Intro

1. In August 1991 the general public was introduced to the first web browser, Tim Berners-Lee's WorldWideWeb that obeyed standard markup commands written inside the text. His web site was at CERN, the European Nuclear Physics Research Council/Board founded in 1954 in Geneva Switzerland.

   In December 1991 the world's second website, a search engine using a database of 239,000 bibliographic documents on High-Energy Physics was launched at SLAC the U.S. Department of Energy's Stanford Linear Accelerator Center based at Stanford University in California. Any computer terminal worldwide that was running the browser connected to the servers at CERN and SLAC via the same HTTP daemon, the first Web Server program, designed and written at CERN, now made freely available.
   Click here for a list of markup tags employed inside the text of documents/pages downloaded by HTTP to the browser program.

2. It was quickly followed by ViolaWWW, a more mainstream Unix browser in March 1992.
3. NCSA Mosaic, co-written by Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina at the NCSA at the University of Illinois, became the market dominant browser for two years from 1993 until 1995. From late 93 it ran on Windows 3.1 and Apple Macs, as well as Unix. It added support for URL input forms, and placed text and images in the same window.

   Netscape and Internet Explorer

4. Netscape Navigator written by Marc Andreessen's Netscape company became market dominant during 1995-1999. Netscape introduced user-session encryption, and individualized "cookie files" i.e. user-based tokens that identified a user and were uploaded with every page request. Shopping carts for retailers, banks, others, roared into life on the web, but due to lack of revenue Netscape was closed down in 1999 by its new owners AOL. AOL was famously seen in the movie "You've Got Mail", which was released the same year. Many of Netscape's employees became the Mozilla Organization, which launched Mozilla Firefox 1.0 in 2004.
5. Microsoft Internet Explorer, running on Windows, became the market dominant browser 1999-2012. It held over 90% of the browser market share from 2002-2005. It started losing some of that share to Mozilla Firefox 2006-2010, but then in 2011 Mozilla Firefox started losing its market share to Google Chrome.
6. Google Chrome started operations as a browser in 2008, but Google had already become famous for its search engine first published in 1998. Google's browser passed Mozilla Firefox in user popularity in November 2011, then Internet Explorer in May 2012. It has been market dominant ever since.

End Intro

To download a browser, its website may be found under Wikipedia's "External Links" heading

1. Google Chrome with 66% global usage share, 64% in Australia.

2. Microsoft Internet Explorer and Edge
   • Internet Explorer 11 IE's last version. It has 1% global usage share (and minimal usage in Australia).
     
   • Microsoft Edge which runs on Windows 10 & 11 shows a 11% global usage share, 11% in Australia.

3. Firefox with 7% global usage share, 5% in Australia.

4. Apple Safari 9% (17% in Oz), with Safari 5.1.7 the last version for Windows.

5. Opera 3% (just 2% in Oz)

Three browsers used in China: 360 Safe (20%), Tencent's QQ Browser (6%), and Sogou Explorer (4%) employ their own search engines, with Baidu most in use. In Russia, the Yandex Browser (23%) similarly employs its own search engine.

The local Australian statistics are from StatCounter in Ireland. According to them, Mozilla Firefox was historically popular in Germany Iran and Indonesia, but Google Chrome, a fast browser with anti-virus blocking is now more popular day to day nearly everywhere, including here in Australia.

Desktop Operating Systems

Click here for operating system browsing. According to StatCounter

1. Microsoft Windows is most popular worldwide at 78% of web usage — 65% inside Australia, 64% inside US, 92½% inside China.
   1. Breaking the Windows figure worldwide down further, Windows 10 is in the lead at 56%, in Australia it's 46%, in the US 47%, in China it's 58%.
   2. New release Windows 11 is second at 12%, in Australia it's 14%, in the US 11%, in China 5%
   3. Windows 7 is third at 7%, though in China it's 26%, in the US 3%, in Australia it's 2%.
   4. Windows 8.1 shows 2%, bit higher in Africa, a bit lower in Australia US & China.
   5. Windows 8 just 0.5%.
   6. Windows XP just 0.3%.
      Note in China, Windows XP though it's no longer supported holds a slightly higher share at 1%.
2. Apple Mac's OS X holds 16% worldwide — 32% inside Australia, 27% inside the US, 6½% inside China.
3. The final 1% (in China) to 9% (in the US) of web usage worldwide employs Chrome OS, Linux, and other Unix-based systems. In the US, Chrome has about 6% of web browsing.

Desktop PC Sales

^†† PC sales in 2021 were 340 million units. Market leaders were Lenovo on 25%, HP on 22%, Dell on 17½%, Apple Mac on 7½%, Acer on 7%, then Asus on 6½%. Other companies made up the 14½% balance.
^†† Gartner, January 12th 2022

Mobiles and tablets

According to the technology analyst firm Gartner in March 2022, global smartphone sales in 2021 grew by 6% year-on-year to 1.4 billion units, adding that this was mainly due to a rebound in the first half of the year after a 12½% decline in 2020.
Click here for the 10 most popular smartphones worldwide in 2021 showing iPhone 11 12 13 solidly in the lead, followed by Samsung Galaxy A12. Note that with the high prices of newer models, many customers are holding on to their older smartphones, as they continue to offer 4G speeds and performance.

Mobiles and tablets run on chips designed by ARM Holdings, in Apple iPhones, Apple iPad tablets, and Android smartphones and tablets. Despite the higher costs historically of mobile networks vs fixed-line networks, since late 2016 mobile traffic has exceeded desktop traffic, i.e. page views by mobiles are now more than 50% of total page views. Click here to see that graph contrasting worldwide mobile browser traffic with desktop browser traffic.

Click here for Australian vendor market share of smartphones shipped in 2018 (updated November 2021) with Apple on top at 4 million units.
With mobile web, in nearly every country worldwide, Google's Android vendors have a major market share. However this does not apply to five countries where the Apple iPhone is dominant, in Australia, US and Canada, UK and Japan. Last month's Apple iPhone market share worldwide was 28%, but in Australia it was 59%.

Apple Computers

Regarding Apple's popularity, its annual sales in 2021 were estimated at 25 million iMacs, 46 million AppleWatch, 57 million iPads, 85 million AirPods, and 242 million iPhones.

Mainframes

And in mainframes the market leader is solidly IBM, perhaps 90%, followed by Fujitsu.

64-bit vs 32-bit

With regards to 64-bit vs 32-bit as Windows 7 gained momentum, a report in 2010 showed 46% of the worldwide installed base of Windows 7 running 64-bit, with 54% running 32-bit. This contrasted with Vista which had only 11% running 64-bit, and Windows XP with less than 1%. Today all modern desktop computers are designed to run 64-bit Windows 7, 8 or 10.

** End of page
 

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