Trump Mulls Pentagon Plan To Deploy 10,000 Troops To "Monitor Iran"

The White House is set to mull a Pentagon plan for deployment of 10,000 new troops to the Middle East on Thursday following heightened tension with Iran, the AP reported Wednesday.

It's as yet unclear whether President Trump will sign off on the full number, but the White House is expected to send at least some of the requested forces, the report noted, citing anonymous defense official sources.

According to the Associated Press report the plan calls for "defensive forces" to "monitor" the Iran threat:

Officials said the move is not in response to any new threat from Iran, but is aimed at reinforcing security in the region. They said the troops would be defensive forces, and the discussions include additional Patriot missile batteries, more ships and increased efforts to monitor Iran.

Though at the start of this week there appeared a calming of war rhetoric out of Washington, with the president signalling that Iran's leaders should "call me," the situation remains highly volatile and dangerous, considering a US carrier strike group is in the region along with B-52 bombers flying over and near the Persian Gulf, based out of Qatar.

Iran military leaders also issued new threats earlier this week over their "full control" over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow vital oil shipping choke point in the Persian Gulf.

The statements, according to Reuters, came as tensions reached their highest, but simultaneous to the Pentagon signalling there's no plan to go to war:

A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said on Wednesday that Guards and regular Iranian military forces had complete control of Gulf waters north of the Strait of Hormuz, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

“Everything north of the Strait of Hormuz is under our control,” Ali Fadavi was quoted by Fars as saying, referring to the strait at the Gulf’s eastern end through which about a fifth of the oil that is consumed globally flows.

“(Movements of) American battleships in the region are under the complete control of Iran’s army and the Revolutionary Guards,” Fadavi told Fars, without providing details.

Moreover, it must be remembered that earlier this year the US designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organization, which could result in a clash between the elite force as it patrols the Strait of Hormuz and any US vessel also patrolling the area.

Also on Wednesday Senate Democrats attempted to reign in any potential White House military action directed against Iran, introducing a bill to requiring Congressional approval before the president acts. However, it was defeated in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-23/trump-mulls-pentagon-plan-send-10000-troops-monitor-iran

Iran will not surrender even if bombed – Rouhani

Iran will not surrender its independence and dignity in the face of US pressure even if it is bombed, President Hassan Rouhani said amid Tehran’s ongoing standoff with Washington.

Iran now faces an attack that is more complex than any it had faced before, Rouhani said at a ceremony commemorating the 1980s Iran-Iraq war. The US pressure campaign against Tehran involves “an attack on welfare and living conditions of our people,” he said.

“We need resistance, so our enemies know if they bomb our land, and if our children are martyred, wounded or arrested, we will not give up on our goals for the independence of our country and our pride,” Rouhani told the gathering.

https://www.rt.com/news/460107-iran-will-not-surrender-bombed/

Congressional Democrats push bill to permanently block states from enacting pro-life laws

'No heartbeat bills'

In the wake of recent victories for the pro-life movement in multiple states, Democratic lawmakers in Washington, D.C., introduced a bill Thursday that would hamstring states' abilities to enact pro-life legislation.

At a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) announced the introduction of the "Women's Health Protection Act," which would prohibit states from enacting a laundry list of abortion restrictions while invalidating laws that already exist.

Chu and Blumenthal have introduced versions of the bill in previous Congresses. The pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights' summary of a previous version of the legislation bills it as "a federal legislative response designed to fight back" against state-level abortion laws.

"Our bill finally puts a stop to the state-based attacks that anti-abortion advocates have been trying to use to undermine or even reverse Roe," Chu said at Thursday's news conference.

"It means no abortion bans," Chu added, noting that the bill "prohibits any non-medical restrictions on our bodies," which would mean "no heartbeat bills," mandatory waiting periods, or ultrasound requirements.

During his remarks, Blumenthal stressed the importance of making sure that abortion rights "are protected, once and for all and forever, against the demagogues who would restrict them." Blumenthal cited the recently signed law outlawing abortion in Alabama as well as what he called "the cut by cut erosion that is just as dangerous as the draconian, demagogic law in Alabama, or Georgia, or Kentucky, or Ohio."

After the news conference, the bill garnered support from multiple congressional Democrats on social media, including 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.):

While the bill is likely to pass out of the Democrat-controlled House before the end of this session, it has very little chance of even coming up for a vote in the Senate under Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Over a Dozen Children Come Forward, Exposing Network of Pedophile Cops Abusing Them for Years

Inside information into the years-long child abuse saga involving Louisville Metropolitan Police Department (LMPD) officers is now being revealed. The city commissioned former U.S. Attorney Kerry Harvey to investigate the LMPD Explorers program for children to determine if sexual misconduct, abuse, and even rape were widespread with police officers involved in the program.

Hardly an isolated incident, in total, a series of seven lawsuits names more than eight current or former LMPD officers.

In a disturbing description to FOX News this week, one of the victims went into graphic detail on how he was abused and raped by people he looked up to.

“C.F.,” who uses a pseudonym to protect his identity in a civil lawsuit, said that what should have been a golden opportunity to learn about law enforcement became a nightmare of exploitation and sexual abuse.

Two former LMPD officers have already been convicted of serious crimes, as The Free Thought Project reported, and the city, with good reason, wanted to know more about how police handled the complaints from parents and reports children were being groomed, propositioned, and even raped.

As TFTP reported in October 2017:

Brandon Wood…allegedly raped a teenage boy, both in [his] car and in a residence, and filmed the crime for the purposes of producing pornography. [Kenneth] Betts and Wood were police officer mentors in the Youth Explorer Program for kids who want to one day become law enforcement officers. It was inside the mentorship program that they are accused of finding their victims.

As FOX reports, Wood pled guilty to a federal attempted enticement charges and is scheduled to be sentenced May 28. Betts pled guilty to federal enticement and and child pornography charges and will be sentenced May 23, although that date could be delayed.

Betts struck a plea deal which was going to allow him to only serve 10-15 years, but U.S. District Judge David Hale said this sentence was too lenient and issued a continuance for sentencing to get Betts to serve more time. The original accusations were followed by lawsuits with one lawyer reportedly representing five victims abused by officers inside the Explorers program. Now, that number has jumped to 15 victims.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/children-come-forward-cops-sexually-abuse/

‘American Taliban’ John Walker Lindh Praised ISIS In 2015 Handwritten Letter

John Walker Lindh, set to be released from prison Thursday, wrote a handwritten letter to NBC’s Los Angeles station praising the Islamic State.

Lindh pleaded guilty in 2002 to charges of providing support to the Taliban and carrying a rifle and grenade. The now-38-year-old from California has served 17 years of a 20-year sentence.

In one of four letters sent to the Los Angeles NBC station, KNBC, Lindh responded to a reporter’s question of whether ISIS represented Islam, according to NBC News.

“Yes, and they are doing a spectacular job,” Lindh wrote in the February 2015 handwritten response, NBC4 Los Angeles reported. “The Islamic State is clearly very sincere and serious about fulfilling the long-neglected religious obligation of establishing a caliphate through armed struggle, which is the only correct method.”

These comments came after ISIS publicized videos showing the beheading of numerous American journalists in 2014, according to NBC News.

Lindh has spent his time in jail learning about Islam and said that he is a political prisoner in another letter to the NBC reporter.

“We are in prison due to our beliefs and the practice of our religion, not for committing any crime,” Lindh wrote in a March 2014 letter, according to NBC4 Los Angeles.

The reporter asked through correspondence if time behind bars had changed him.

Lindh responded: “I feel honoured to have been able to take part in the Afghan Jihad and to contribute to the defence of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, albeit only in a very limited capacity.” (RELATED: John Walker Lindh Seeks Ind. Prison Prayer Ruling)

Lindh signed his letters with the name Yahya.

During prison, Lindh joined a successful 2010 American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit that sought to allow Muslim prisoners at Terre Haute’s Communications Management Unit to participate in group prayer.

The National Counterterrorism Center published a 2017 report that said Lindh “continued to advocate for global jihad.” He allegedly made comments saying that he would continue to “spread violent extremist Islam upon his release.”

Lindh said that he “made a mistake by joining the Taliban” in the 2002 trial.

Lindh’s early release has sparked wide concern, including from Sens. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican and New Hampshire Democrat Maggie Hasson, as well as former CIA officer Bryan Dean Wright. Also expressing criticism was Johnny Spann, the father of CIA operative Johnny Micheal Spann who was killed during a 2001 prisoner uprising in Afghanistan shortly after interrogating Lindh. (RELATED: ‘American Taliban’ John Walker Lindh To Be Released Thursday)

He will be under strict rules upon his release that were imposed by Judge T.S. Ellis. These include being banned from foreign travel and total monitoring of his internet use.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/05/23/american-taliban-john-walker-lindh-isis-praise/

‘India wins yet again’: Narendra Modi declares election victory

Prime Minister Narendra Modi retains a strong majority in India’s parliament, an official vote tally shows. His party delivered a “massive victory” against chief opponent Rahul Gandhi in the general election.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies are projected to win 337 of the contested 542 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament, according to NDTV. This is well above the 272 seats required to secure a majority in the chamber. Modi has already declared victory.

The results were celebrated by Modi’s cabinet members, with Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj congratulating the PM for scoring “a massive victory.” Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, called BJP’s lead “nothing short of a landslide, a political tsunami sweeping entire country.”

https://www.rt.com/news/460074-india-election-narendra-modi/

Soros, EU Taxpayer-Funded NGOs Lobby Brussels for Total Open Borders

Brussels needs a “courageous” migration policy which opens Europe’s borders to everyone fleeing “wars, climate change [and] poverty”, say ‘international experts’ funded by EU taxpayers and globalist billionaire George Soros.

At a forum discussion titled “Europe and migration: Where do we draw the border,” a panel of what were described as politically independent representatives from “established and respected international human rights organisations” concluded that the bloc must dismantle all immigration controls in order to respect the “rights” of illegal immigrants.

Organised by the Centre for Peace Studies (CMS) in Zagreb, panelists from the Croatian NGO, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch (HRW) — all of which are funded by Soros’s grantmaking foundation — as well as the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, spoke on ‘the current state of migration policy’ in Europe and on changes open borders NGOs ‘expect’ from EU decision makers, reported local media.

Representatives from the CMS, which is funded by European taxpayers through the European Commission and the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, said they were hoping to see Brussels bring an end to “violent” protection of the Croatian border.

Last year Breitbart London highlighted how open borders activists from the CMS’s ‘Welcome’ initiative had been threatening Croatian police officers over their defending the border in the face of attacks from third world migrants, the majority of whom were equipped with knives, according to Austrian intelligence.

The group demanded officers either refuse to carry out orders related to securing the country’s frontiers or else face increasing pressure from foreign NGOs, and the subsequent scrutiny that would follow from global media outlets and the so-called international community.

Report: 20,000 Migrants ‘Almost All Armed with Knives’ To Cross Europe’s External Border https://t.co/8JwuEPQyMX

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 5, 2018

Brussels must also offer “safe and legal [migration] routes” for anyone “seeking security in the EU”, to restrict the powers of immigration control agencies in Europe and to establish “an independent mechanism to control conduct on borders”, said Julija Kranjec of the CMS.

Authorities near the Bosnia-Croatia border have increasingly struggled to cope with “militant behaviour” and violence following the arrival of thousands of asylum seekers, 80 to 85 per cent of whom are “economic migrants and not people who need international protection”, a UN Migration Agency/International Organization for Migration (IOM) spokesman said in December.

At the same time, Brussels announced it would be spending an additional €500,000 of taxpayers’ money on “humanitarian assistance” to the third world migrants camping in the Balkans, hoping to break into the EU, having already spent €31 million on migration-related projects in the region since 2015.

EU Confirms Funding for Migrants Massed as Bosnia Border, Locals Say Crime Rife https://t.co/BdRJVh3Z8C

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/05/23/soros-eu-taxpayer-funded-open-borders/

Dutch Minister Resigns After Serious Migrant Crimes Hidden from Data

The Dutch immigration minister has stepped down following outcry over a government migrant crime report which hid serious migrant crimes including rape and murder under the category of “other”.

Resigning from his position on Tuesday, Mark Harbers stressed that no “deliberate concealment” of the figures had taken place, but said he took “full responsibility” for having “misinformed” the Dutch Parliament with regards to the report.

The Ministry of Justice document, which recorded crimes in which asylum seekers were the suspects, listed the number of various misdemeanours, such as shoplifting and pickpocketing while failing to identify much more serious offences like murder, child abuse, and rape as these were simply lumped together under the heading “other”.

According to the Telegraaf, which revealed the omissions last week, this category covered around 1,000 cases including 79 alleged sexual offences, 51 serious assaults, and 31 cases of attempted murder or manslaughter.

The statistics showed asylum seekers from safe countries such as Morocco and Algeria were suspects in almost half of the 4,600 incidents recorded in the report, which was released in the name of “full transparency”, according to Harbers, who had said that “only by providing [such] insight can there be support for the reception of refugees”.

Harbers’ departure came after there was serious criticism of the report in the press and from politicians including the populist Freedom Party leader, Geert Wilders, who described the Justice Ministry of having acted like “a mafia gang” in how they presented the figures.

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte posted on social media to express sadness over the resignation, tweeting: “Politics can be tough. Respect for State Secretary Harbers’ decision to resign… But it is incredibly unfortunate that the cabinet must say goodbye to such a talented and committed liberal.”

The resignation was described in local media as a “heavy blow” to the ruling VVD party, which already this year faced a major setback when the Eurosceptic, anti-mass immigration Forum for Democracy party went from zero seats to becoming the largest force in the Dutch senate at provincial elections in March.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/05/22/dutch-minister-migrant-crime-hidden-data/

Senate Committee Rejects Requiring Congress Sign Off on Iran War

Sens. Murphy, Udall pushed to block unauthorized attack

Congress never authorized a US war in Iran. Under the US Constitution, Congress has sole authority to do that, so that’s seemingly an important deal. With the US engaged in other unauthorized wars, however, it has been little more than a side note, and the Trump Administration has considered Congressional involvement in the process to be optional, at best.

Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Tom Udall (D-NM) led an effort on Wednesday to try to reassert Congressional authority, by trying to preemptively de-fund any US war against Iran unless Congress authorized it ahead of time.

This proposal was brought forward at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and immediately failed, 13-9. Murphy said this vote would remind the administration that they don’t have authorization for the war.

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan downplayed the matter anyhow, insisting that the US is focusing on “deterrence, not war,” suggesting only Iranian miscalculation really threatened a war.

https://news.antiwar.com/2019/05/22/senate-committee-rejects-requiring-congress-sign-off-on-iran-war/

Israel launches massive recruitment drive for social media warriors

Israel has embarked on a massive recruitment drive to support the country’s online propaganda campaign one day after its companies were exposed for spreading disinformation and meddling in the elections of several African, Asian and Latin American countries.

The new initiative, which would see the government funding pro-Israel groups overseas, was unveiled by Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs, a government arm set up to combat the global rise of pro-Palestinian activism and Israel’s poor global image.

Launching the initiative, Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan, who is also the public security minister, was quoted by the Times of Israel saying: “I’m proud to launch the first [government] program to support pro-Israel organizations and activists around the world.”

The plan will “encourage grassroots events and online initiatives against the BDS [boycott] movement and in support of Israel. I’m certain that this program will give a significant boost to all our supporters around the world who are battling this anti-Semitism and the boycott activists,” added Erdan.

Details of the tendering process for recruiting pro-Israeli activists was published in the Jewish Chronicle on 17 May a day after Israeli firms were kicked out by social media giant, Facebook, for spreading disinformation by posing as local journalists and influencers working in several African, Asian and Latin American countries.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190523-israel-launches-massive-recruitment-drive-for-social-media-warriors/

EU expands partnership with Israeli settlement builder

EU ambassador to Tel Aviv Emanuele Giaufret, left, at a ceremony for Horizon 2020 grant recipients last year. The EU uses the science program to channel funding to Israel’s war industry. (via Twitter)

The European Union is expanding its partnership with Bank Leumi, a major financier of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

The EU claims to oppose Israel’s construction of settlements in the occupied territories, a war crime.

On Monday, Emanuele Giaufret, the EU ambassador in Tel Aviv, trumpeted news that the European Investment Fund and Bank Leumi are expanding a loan program for tech companies in Israel.

Called LeumiTech, the program was launched in 2016 with an initial $100 million.

Under the expanded partnership, the EU’s European Investment Fund will provide guarantees for up to $620 million of LeumiTech loans.

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/eu-expands-partnership-israeli-settlement-builder

It is absurd for Danny Danon to tell the UN that Israel has Biblical, historical and legal foundations

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, made a very bold assertion during a debate in the Security Council recently. “Jewish rights to the land of Israel depends on four pillars,” he claimed. “This includes the Bible, history, legality and the pursuit of international peace and security.”

I don’t know what he meant by “legality and the pursuit of international peace” and, given Israel’s record of attacking its neighbours, I will refrain from giving credibility to his illusionary discourse by dissecting it. Suffice to ask if he really believes that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands and regular military assaults on the civilians of the Gaza Strip are both legal and conducive to international peace?

Instead, I will confine myself to the other two pillars that Ambassador Danon claims underpin “Jewish rights to the land of Israel”, the Bible and history. The Bible is available for everyone to examine and provide their own interpretations. Anyone can apply their own hermeneutics to scriptural interpretation. Rest assured, we will all give a different interpretation.

According to Danon, “God gave the land [Palestine] to the people of Israel in ‘Genesis’, when He made a covenant with Abraham. From the book of Genesis; to the Jewish exodus from Egypt; to receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai; to the gates of Cana’an; and to the realisation of God’s covenant in the Holy Land of Israel; the Bible paints a consistent picture. The entire history of our people, and our connection to Eretz Yisrael, begins right here.”

Abraham the patriarch, of course, was neither Jewish nor Arab. He came from Mesopotamia, a region where present day Iraq is located. A careful examination of the so-called Abrahamic covenant story in the Bible’s book of Genesis, Chapters 12-17, reveals that it contains several separate elements or episodes taken from various independent traditions and woven together by the Yahwist into a continuous narrative of the life of Abraham from his call until his death. The following are the elements referred to:

I. The call of Abraham: Genesis 12:1-9

II. The Descent into Egypt: Genesis 12:10-20

III. Abraham and Lot: Genesis 13

IV. Abraham and the four kings: Genesis 14. The Melchizedek episode which the Yahwist has inserted into this section is probably a fragment of an independent Jerusalem tradition.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190523-it-is-absurd-for-danny-danon-to-tell-the-un-that-israel-has-biblical-historical-and-legal-foundations/

>>6568010

Ty posting digging, slip up

If the U.S. Goes to War With Iran, Netanyahu Will Be the Prime Suspect

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the only world leader to openly express support for the escalating U.S. campaign against Iran, but his statement is an exception to the general Israeli rule. In the two weeks that have passed since the U.S. announced it was reinforcing its military presence in the Persian Gulf, official Israel has mostly taken on a vow of silence. “Luckily, we are not involved,” naively optimistic defense officials briefed reporters.

The attempt to distance itself from an American military operation in the Middle East, as if Israel was merely a fan sitting in the bleachers cheering its favorite team, inevitably sparks analogies to Yitzhak Shamir’s policy of restraint in the 1991 Gulf War and Ariel Sharon’s similar attitude during the 2003 war in Iraq. Shamir’s task was rendered far more difficult because Israel was directly attacked by Saddam Hussein’s Scud missiles, but was infinitely easier as well, because no one in his right mind could blame Israel for Saddam’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

And while Israel did not come under direct attack in the 2003 Iraq War, it was nonetheless compelled to defend itself against claims, which proliferated as the war progressed, that it had pushed President George W. Bush to decide on the attack in the first place. In the lead up to that ill-fated war, Netanyahu was once again one of a handful of prominent Israelis who preferred to break the silence. In public testimony before the Government Reform Committee of the House of Representatives in 2002, Netanyahu assured American lawmakers that Saddam either had nuclear weapons or was on the verge of acquiring them, with the help of hidden centrifuges “no bigger than washing machines.” Deposing Saddam, Netanyahu promised, would do wonders for the Middle East as a whole.

More

https://outline.com/HbW5j2

Officials Reject Pompeo’s Claim Iran Is Working With al-Qaeda

Pompeo's claim 'not supported by any available information'

In testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that “there is no doubt there is a connection between the Islamic Republic of Iran and al-Qaeda. Period. Full stop.”

If the connection was that al-Qaeda has been fighting against Iran, and vice versa, for decades he might have a point. That’s clearly not Pompeo’s intention, however, and other officials are noting that he’s wrong.

Pentagon and State Department officials say Pompeo’s comments were “way out of proportion,” and that there “is nothing in the intelligence to suggest” that Iran and al-Qaeda are working together in some grand anti-US alliance.

So why is Pompeo lying? It’s because legally what he claims would have been very convenient. The 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Forces (AUMF) authorizes war against groups affiliated with al-Qaeda, and Pompeo is among administration officials talking up war with Iran. Linking them to al-Qaeda, however non-credibly and preposterously, would be a way to allow Trump to circumvent Congress on authorization.

https://news.antiwar.com/2019/05/22/officials-reject-pompeos-claim-iran-is-working-with-al-qaeda/

I think you meant Israel Mike!!!

Has the New York Times declared war on Iran?

In its quest to paint Iran as a violent aggressor, the US media does not care to provide relevant history

Once upon a time, the United States launched a war on Iraq with the help of false allegations of WMD.

The corporate media - and most memorably the US newspaper of record, the New York Times -thrust itself onto the PR frontlines by presenting as reality the unhinged claims of the George W Bush administration.

A repeat performance

Now, more than 16 years and an obscene quantity of Iraqi deaths later, it seems we may be witnessing a repeat performance of the same old media tricks, this time targeting Iran - although at least Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman has not yet decreed that the Iranians be made to “suck on this”.

First off, of course, there’s the ongoing nuclear hysteria, which apparently can’t be put to rest no matter how many times we review the facts.

More than 16 years and an obscene quantity of Iraqi deaths later, it seems we may be witnessing a repeat performance of the same old media tricks

As Mehdi Hasan points out over at The Intercept, the Times report of 13 May on US visions of “sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack American forces or accelerate work on nuclear weapons” fails to answer a simple question: “How can the Iranians 'accelerate work' on weapons that do not exist?”

Then there’s that Times editorial cartoon, published the same day with the title “Will Iran Revive Its Nuclear Program?" and featuring a caricature of the Ayatollah Khamenei retrieving a "nuclear programme" from his kitchen freezer.

A helpful correction published three days later notes that “[a]n earlier version of a caption with this cartoon erroneously attributed a distinction to Iran’s nuclear program. Iran has not produced highly enriched uranium”.

But selective retroactive fact-checking can hardly reverse a tsunami of radioactive propaganda.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/has-new-york-times-declared-war-iran

>>6568074

Jeremiah 11

The Covenant Is Broken

11 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Listen to the terms of this covenant and tell them to the people of Judah and to those who live in Jerusalem. 3 Tell them that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Cursed is the one who does not obey the terms of this covenant— 4 the terms I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.’ I said, ‘Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God. 5 Then I will fulfill the oath I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey’—the land you possess today.”

I answered, “Amen, Lord.”

6 The Lord said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Listen to the terms of this covenant and follow them. 7 From the time I brought your ancestors up from Egypt until today, I warned them again and again, saying, “Obey me.” 8 But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep.’”

9 Then the Lord said to me, “There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem. 10 They have returned to the sins of their ancestors, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both Israel and Judah have broken the covenant I made with their ancestors. 11 Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. 12 The towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not help them at all when disaster strikes. 13 You, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns; and the altars you have set up to burn incense to that shameful god Baal are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.’

14 “Do not pray for this people or offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress.

15

“What is my beloved doing in my temple

as she, with many others, works out her evil schemes?

Can consecrated meat avert your punishment?

When you engage in your wickedness,

then you rejoice.[a]”

16

The Lord called you a thriving olive tree

with fruit beautiful in form.

But with the roar of a mighty storm

he will set it on fire,

and its branches will be broken.

17 The Lord Almighty, who planted you, has decreed disaster for you, because the people of both Israel and Judah have done evil and aroused my anger by burning incense to Baal.

Plot Against Jeremiah

18 Because the Lord revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing. 19 I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me, saying,

“Let us destroy the tree and its fruit;

let us cut him off from the land of the living,

that his name be remembered no more.”

20

But you, Lord Almighty, who judge righteously

and test the heart and mind,

let me see your vengeance on them,

for to you I have committed my cause.

21 Therefore this is what the Lord says about the people of Anathoth who are threatening to kill you, saying, “Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord or you will die by our hands”— 22 therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says: “I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine. 23 Not even a remnant will be left to them, because I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.”