Middle East Update

[Truth Files]

Outside threats from Iran, Syria prompt snap choice of new Israeli army chief
DEBKAfile Special Report August 22, 2010

Ahmadinejad unveils long-range bomber-drone KarrarDefense minister Ehud Barak's snap nomination of OC Southern Command Maj. Gen, Yoav Galant as Israel's 20th chief of staff was necessary - not just to dispel the climate of intrigue among competing generals, but to pull the high command together in view of the preparations to attack Israel gathering momentum in Tehran, Damascus, Beirut and Ramallah - and even in al Qaeda in Yemen.

The general expectation of a US-Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear sites has therefore faded into the background of the threatening stance currently adopted by Tehran's allies, Syria, Hizballah and the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

According to debkafile's military sources, Israel intelligence does not have evidence of concrete plans to make good on these threats, but Jerusalem is extremely concerned by the placing of four hostile military forces on the highest level of war preparedness in the last few days and are asking why.

For example, Syrian prime minister Naji al-Otari and Abbas Zaki, one of Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas' closest aides, have spoken of a "very imminent" Middle East war; Al Qaeda's No. 2. commander in Yemen, Saeed al-Shehri, released a videotape last week stating that a war between Iran and Israel is about to erupt.

He called on all Arab aviators to contribute to the holy cause by crashing their planes on Israeli city centers as did the Al Qaeda martyrs who attacked New York and Washington on Sept. 11 2001.

The situation being too incendiary to ignore, Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister decided the malicious documents traded among the top brass in the last ten days were an indulgence Israel could not afford. They therefore ended the uncertainty over the choice of next chief of staff after Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi steps down in February 2011. Ehud Barak delivered a surprise notice to the regular cabinet meeting Sunday, Aug. 22 that he had cut short the selection process and named Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant as his candidate for the next chief of staff.

debkafile's military sources see five elements with the potential for exploding into a major Middle East flare-up:

1. Iran has taken US and Israeli passivity over the start-up of its Russian built nuclear reactor at Bushehr on Aug. 21 to mean that it can get away with more muscle-flexing and has already factored the reactor which Washington characterized as not immediately dangerous into its military build-up.

Sunday, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled an armed unmanned aerial vehicle called Karrar, claiming its range to be 1,000 kilometers - as far as Israel - and able to deliver four cruise missiles. These claims have yet to be independently verified.

More locally-made advanced weaponry is promised for this week to demonstrate Iran's independence of outside sources. Its leaders are bragging that Iran will soon take its place among the world's top 50 exporters of advanced arms.

2. The forthcoming Israel-Palestinian peace talks beginning in Washington on Sept. 2 - while generally rated as going nowhere - are nonetheless anathema for Tehran and its radical allies. They are perfectly capable of starting trouble on Israel's borders with Lebanon, Gaza or even Syria to sabotage even the dimmest prospect of a diplomatic breakthrough.

There is no telling in the Middle East when an isolated incident may not deteriorate rapidly into a major conflict when the climate is as tense as it is at present. It came dangerously close on Aug. 3, when a Lebanese army sniper shot dead an Israeli colonel precipitating a heavy exchange of fire.

3. Lebanon is on tenterhooks over the nine Hizballah leaders the international court inquiring into the 2005 Hariri assassination plans to summon as suspected perpetrators of the crime. Hizballah's leader Hassan Nasrallah has given the Beirut government due notice that if his top people are surrendered to the tribunal, he will plunge the country in a civil conflict.
Hizballah, backed by Damascus, recently began accusing Israel of engineering the murder, so providing themselves with a neat pretext for going to war and avoiding facing the music.

Thursday, Aug. 19, all Syrian homeland defenses and emergency services were placed on the highest war readiness for an outbreak of hostilities without further notice.

4. The situation on the Israel's southern borders is as tense as its Lebanese and Syrian frontiers.

5. Iran is expected to take advantage of the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq to make a grab for the oil-rich south and send its allies to carry out operations against Israel as a diversionary tactic.

All these reasons have led military sources to indicate to debkafile that the outgoing Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazy may not stay on until February but hand over to Maj. Gen. Galant as soon as the beginning of the Jewish New Year in the second week of September, 2010

[CWH]

Thanks Truth Files for the excellent update.

As I have suspected, Iran and its Muslim allies are all out to wipe Israel from the map of the world. Their purpose is not only to end the Middle East conflict once and for all which has been going on for the last 4,000 years... the conflict between Esau and Jacob but to make Islam as the dominant world religion. To them the land of israel rightfully belongs to Ishmael which they believe God has given wrongfully to Israel. The wiping of Israel from the map of the world is tantamount to destroying the birthplace of Christianity and Judaism at its feet. This will morally affect all Christians, Catholics and Jews throughout the world and ultimately lead them to lose faith and give up their religions, making way ultimately for Islam to be the dominant and sole religion in the world. The Arabs knew that it is very difficult to wipe Israel from the map of the world as long as US and EU is on the side of Israel as experienced from the wars that were fought since 1948 in which Israel has always emerged victorious. Obviously, God was on the side of Israel.

The negotiations that are currently going on between israel and Palestine will unfortunately but surely results in failure.... after this, what?..... Will Israel be defeated this time and be wiped out from the map of the world? I believe Israel will be defeated this time. If so will God then intervene? I strongly believe so, God will never forsake its own people, not only the Israelites and Jews but all Christians.

Just contiinue to watch events in the Middle East, world events and world disasters..don't waste time watching sports and entertaining movies.

Daniel 12 seems to foretell such an event when it talks about a time of great distress that has never happened since the beginning of nations............."It will be for a time, times and half a time. [b] When the power of the holy people has been FINALLY broken, all these things will be completed."

Daniel 12:1 "At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. 2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise [a] will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. 4 But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge."
5 Then I, Daniel, looked, and there before me stood two others, one on this bank of the river and one on the opposite bank. 6 One of them said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, "How long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled?"

7 The man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, lifted his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by him who lives forever, saying, "It will be for a time, times and half a time. [b] When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed."


Many Blessings.

[Truth Files]

CWH,

Exactly what the prophecies predict for the Lord's nation of Israel just ahead of us

The Lord will pressure the nation by allowing for the muslim invasion and occupation during the coming 70th week decreed

The "many" of a believing remnant will turn to Him as Messiah and King and will escape, but most of the nation will not [Daniel 9:24-27; Zechariah 13:8-9]

Those who do will include the 144,000 Israelite evanglists [Revelation 7:1-8; 14:1-7]

After a brief occupation of 1260 days, the Lord will turn on the little horn and Israel's enemies and destroy them at Armageddon [Psalms 83; Ezekiel 39; Daniel 11:45; 7:11; 7:19-22; 7:26-27; 12:11-13; Joel 2; 3; Micah 5:5-6; 5:15; Zecharian 14:1-5; 14:12-14; Luke 21:20-35; Revelation 11:2; 12:6; 12:14; 14:7-11; 14:14-20; 16:1-16; 19:11-21]

[CWH]

I do believe that the war with Israel by the Muslims will last 3 and half years with the final defeat of Israel i.e. the 1290 days as stated by Daniel but come 1335 days (i.e. another 45 days), Israel will be liberated when God intervened, "Happy are those that waited till 1335 days".

Daniel 12:7 The man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, lifted his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by him who lives forever, saying, "It will be for [B]a time, times and half a time. When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed."....... 11 "From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. 12 Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.


Currently Israel has never been defeated in wars since 1948. the following records testifies. That proves that Daniel 12 : 7 is right:

[edit] Wars of Israel

War of Independence (November 1947 - July 1949), that started by a 6 months of civil war between Jewish and Arab militias at the end of the British Mandate of Palestine and that turned into a regular war after the declaration of independence of Israel and the intervention of several Arab armies. In its conclusion, a set of agreements were signed between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, called the 1949 Armistice Agreements which established the armistice lines between Israel and the West Bank, also known as the Green Line.

Sinai War (October 1956) - a military attack on Egypt by Britain, France and Israel, beginning on 29 October 1956, with the intention to occupy the Sinai Peninsula and to take over the Suez Canal. The attack followed Egypt's decision of 26 July 1956 to nationalize the Suez Canal after the withdrawal of an offer by Britain and the United States to fund the building of the Aswan Dam.

Six-Day War (June 1967) - fought between Israel and Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The nations of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Algeria also contributed troops and arms to the Arab forces. Following the war, the territory held by Israel expanded significantly ("The Purple Line") : The West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Golan Heights, Sinai and Gaza were occupied from Jordan, Syria and Egypt, respectively.

War of Attrition (1968-1970) - a limited war fought between the Israeli military and forces of the Egyptian Republic, the USSR and the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1967 to 1970. It was initiated by the Egyptians as a way of recapturing the Sinai from the Israelis, who had been in control of the territory since the mid-1967 Six-Day War. The hostilities ended with a ceasefire signed between the countries in 1970 with frontiers remaining in the same place as when the war began.

Yom Kippur War (October 1973) - fought from October 6 to October 26, 1973 by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel as a way of recapturing part of the territories which they lost to the Israelis back in the Six-Day War. The war began with a surprise joint attack by Egypt and Syria on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Egypt and Syria crossed the cease-fire lines in the Sinai and Golan Heights, respectively. Eventually Arab forces were defeated by Israel and there were no significant territorial changes.

First Lebanon War (1982) - began in 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon. The Government of Israel ordered the invasion as a response to the assassination attempt against Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, by the Abu Nidal Organization and due to the constant terror attacks on northern Israel made by the Palestinian guerilla organizations which resided in Lebanon. See also Operation Litani.

Second Lebanon War (summer 2006) - began as a military operation in response to the abduction of two Israeli reserve soldiers by the Hezbollah. The operation gradually strengthened, to become a wider confrontation. The principal participants were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israeli military. The conflict started on 12 July 2006 and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006, when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon.

Many Blessings.

[Truth Files]

CWH

There may be more intermediate wars between Israel and the nation's enemies, but the invasion and occupation will come at the middle of the 70th week .... the beginning of this time frame is still out in front of us .... but it could start before this day is over

Israel is still under the Lord's protection for His purposes at this time [Ezekiel 38:8-11]

But His is going to allow the game to change and for Israel's temporary defeat

Then He will intervene and rescue a believing remnant part of the nation [Romans 11:25-26]

[The Homemommy]

CWH

There may be more intermediate wars between Israel and the nation's enemies, but the invasion and occupation will come at the middle of the 70th week .... the beginning of this time frame is still out in front of us .... but it could start before this day is over

Israel is still under the Lord's protection for His purposes at this time [Ezekiel 38:8-11]

But His is going to allow the game to change and for Israel's temporary defeat

Then He will intervene and rescue a believing remnant part of the nation [Romans 11:25-26]

Hi TF,

I have been reading your posts and I'm not understanding who is Israel. Who makes up Israel? Is it only born Jews? Does it include people who have converted to Judaism? What about the Jews who don't live in Israel...are they still apart of "Israel" if they don't live in Israel?

Why can't any Jews name what tribe they are from?

Carrie

[Truth Files]

Home,

Thanks for your response

Israel today is all of the ethnic Israelites by blood line and the Lord has preserved this nation for His purposes and as an ensign to the other nations of the world [Isaiah 11]

The Lord Himself is an Israelite by His humanity and the Lion of the tribe of Judah [Revelation 5:5]

Even though they have been scattered to the other nations of the world, they still retain their own unique identity

He knows who they are today .... each and every one of them

About 7 million are in the state of Israel in the Middle East and the rest are still resident in other nations

There are those who know their tribal lineage as well today

[Truth Files]

Jerusalem World Review
August 23, 2010

It was famous victory for diplomacy when, in 1991 in Madrid, Israelis and Palestinians, orchestrated by the United States, at last engaged in direct negotiations. Almost a generation later, U.S. policy has succeeded in prodding the Palestinians away from their recent insistence on "proximity talks" -- in which they have talked to the Israelis through American intermediaries -- and to direct negotiations. But negotiations about what?

Idle talk about a "binational state" has long since died. Even disregarding the recent fates of multinational states -- e.g., the former Soviet Union, the former Yugoslavia, the former Czechoslovakia -- binationalism is impossible if Israel is to be a Jewish state for the Jewish people. No significant Israeli constituency disagrees with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: "The Palestinian refugee problem will be resolved outside Israel's borders."

Rhetoric about a "two-state solution" is de rigueur. It also is delusional, given two recent, searing experiences.

The only place for a Palestinian state is the West Bank, which Israel has occupied -- legally under international law -- since repelling the 1967 aggression launched from there. The West Bank remains an unallocated portion of the Palestine Mandate, the disposition of which is to be settled by negotiations. Michael Oren, now Israel's ambassador to the United States, said several years before becoming ambassador:

There is no Israeli leadership that appears either willing or capable of removing 100,000 Israelis from their West Bank homes. . . . The evacuation of a mere 8,100 Israelis from Gaza in 2005 required 55,000 IDF [Israel Defense Forces] troops -- the largest Israeli military operation since the 1973 Yom Kippur War -- and was profoundly traumatic.

Twenty-one Israeli settlements were dismantled; even the bodies of Israelis buried in Gaza were removed. After a deeply flawed 2006 election encouraged by the United States, there was in 2007 essentially a coup in Gaza by the terrorist organization Hamas. So now Israel has on its western border, 44 miles from Tel Aviv, an entity dedicated to Israel's destruction, collaborative with Iran and possessing a huge arsenal of rockets.

Rocket attacks from Gaza increased dramatically after Israel withdrew. The number of U.N. resolutions deploring this? Zero.

The closest precedent for that bombardment was the Nazi rocket attacks on London, which were answered by the destruction of Hamburg, Dresden and other German cities. When Israel struck back at Hamas, the "international community" was theatrically appalled.

A senior cabinet member -- Moshe Yaalon, strategic affairs minister and possible future prime minister -- says "our withdrawals strengthened jihadist Islam," adding, "We have the second Islamic republic in the Middle East -- the first in Iran, the second in Gaza: Hamastan."

Israel's withdrawals include the one that strengthened the Iranian client on Israel's northern border, in southern Lebanon. Since the 2006 war provoked by Hezbollah's incessant rocketing of northern Israel, Hezbollah has rearmed and possesses as many as 60,000 rockets. Today, Netanyahu says, Israel's problem is less the Israel-Lebanon border than it is the Lebanon-Syria border: Hezbollah has received from Syria -- which gets them from Iran -- Scud missiles capable of striking Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. A leader of Hezbollah says, "If all the Jews gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide."

Because upward of a million immigrants have come from the former Soviet Union, today one-sixth of Israelis speak Russian. Israel has Russian-language newspapers and television. Russian Israelis are largely responsible for Avigdor Lieberman being foreign minister. Yoram Peri, professor of Israel studies at the University of Maryland, says these immigrants "don't understand how a state that can be crossed in half an hour by car would be willing to even talk about relinquishing territories to its seemingly perpetual enemies." These immigrants know that Russia's strategic depth -- space -- defeated Napoleon and Hitler.

Netanyahu, who is not the most conservative member of the coalition government he heads, endorses a two-state solution but says that any West Bank Palestinian state must be demilitarized and prevented from making agreements with the likes of Hezbollah and Iran. To prevent the importation of missiles and other arms, Israel would need, Netanyahu says, a military presence on the West Bank's eastern border with Jordan. Otherwise, there will be a third Islamic republic, and a second one contiguous to Israel.

So, again: Negotiations about what?

[The Homemommy]

Home,

Thanks for your response

Israel today is all of the ethnic Israelites by blood line and the Lord has preserved this nation for His purposes and as an ensign to the other nations of the world [Isaiah 11]

The Lord Himself is an Israelite by His humanity and the Lion of the tribe of Judah [Revelation 5:5]

Even though they have been scattered to the other nations of the world, they still retain their own unique identity

He knows who they are today .... each and every one of them

About 7 million are in the state of Israel in the Middle East and the rest are still resident in other nations

There are those who know their tribal lineage as well today

Hi,

Yes, I know Jesus was a Jew from the tribe of Judah, but he didn't have any gentile blood in Him. Neither did any of the people of the other 11 tribes. Can we honestly say that these Jews today have had pure blood passed down to them from over the past 2,000 years? We are all "Heinz 57's". I don't know any one who can trace their blood back 2,000 years to the people of the Bible. Not even the New Sanhedrin in Israel claim that.

So how much blood does it take to be a Jew? 5%, 25%? Do the people who convert to Judaism count?

Also, I can see you are really anti-Iran from your posts. Did you know that Iran has the second largest Jewish population in the Middle East? It seems that Jewish supporters forget that when they talk about annihilating that country.

Carrie

[Truth Files]

Home,

I know much about Iran, the Middle East, and the world's geopolitical and religious movements

Many Israelites were dispersed throughout the Middle East and specifically Iranian geography by the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions of the ancient past and not all returned under Persian rule .... so they are still there today and some have returned from there to Israel in the recent past

But we must remember it is the Lord who controls all ultimate out comes and we can know what His intents are from knowledge of the scriptures

It is a complex world from our perspective, but He knows all things about everything

And He alreadys knows the outcomes