Global SITREP A3-19: Israel's Northern Front Offensive

F-16I Sufa

UPDATED 21/22 January 2019: The IDF pummeled IRGC-QF forces across Syria beginning just before midnight Israel Standard Time with one of the heaviest rocket and missile barrages ever. Iran's allies in Syria were also warned to stand down unless they desired to recieve the same. Ammo dumps, command and control (C2) sites, training camps, Iranian structures at Damascus International Airport, and dozens of mobile Syrian air defenses, like the Russian-made Pantsyr and Buk, have been all but obliterated during these strikes. The Iranian targets struck were on every side of Damascus, completely encircling the city.

The Iranian buildings at Damascus International Airport destroyed tonight.
Click on this image for a much more detailed view.

One of the reasons for this action was that Israel determined it was IRGC-QF forces which fired an Iranian Ra'ad-1 surface-to-surface rocket (good read at link) at northern Israel yesterday morning. It could not go unanswered; an overwhelming response was needed to teach the Iranians a lesson. Thus, as intimated yesterday, the war against Iran in Syria has suddenly eschalated to a new and much higher level. The fulfillment of Isaiah 17 may just be in the offing as the end result of the war against Iran in Syria. One of several prophetic dominos set to topple in rapid sequence.

20 January 2019: It took all of just four days for the new IDF CoS Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi to continue the war against Iranian military entrenchment and arming of Hezbollah in Syria. Moreover, he threw a Russian ultimatum and threats concerning no more IAF attacks in Syria right back into Moscow's face. This morning, in broad daylight, at least four IAF strike aircraft attacked one or more targets in Syria. 

Apparent disinformation coming from Russian and Syrian sources claims the attack was on Damascus International Airport and it failed completely with all Israeli missiles destroyed by Pantsyr and Buk air defense systems. However, there is considerable OSINT reporting that the strike actually targeted the Iranian Hezbollah underground weapons bunkers located at al-Kiswah. Damascus Int'l and the al-Kiswah bunkers are about equidistant from central Damascus.

An hour after the airstrike Syria launched one or more rockets towards northern Israel which were promptly shot out of the sky by Israel's Iron Dome ADS. Bottom line: Lt. Gen. Kochavi has called the Russians bluff in the most forceful , broad daylight manner. In this gambit Russia wisely stood down and did not fire at the IAF strike aircraft. Israel's deterrent power is as it has always been. There was never any doubt that Israel would stand down in the face of empty Russian threats. On this blog those kinds of doubts never existed.

12 January 2019: At about 11 PM last night in southern Syria that latest strike in the war Israel has been waging against Iranian entrenchment in Syria and the arming of Hezbollah began. As before the IAFs targets were Iranian weapons storage facilities at Damascus International Airport and a Hezbollah weapons depot a few miles to the southwest at Al-Kiswah. Media disinformation that last night's strikes were unsuccessful should be ignored. They were quite successful. Also, this particular strike was assessed to be imminent 11 days ago in the 30 December update to SITREP E4-18. It is the most recent strike since the strike on the night of 25 December 2018.

Satellite Photo Reconnaissance of Damascus Int'l Strike

It is interesting to note that this strike occurred on the very same day as reports of non-essential U.S. military equipment were seen to be withdrawing from northern Syria. In this light, last nights IAF strikes could be seen as a message to Tehran, Damascus and Moscow: nothing has changed. The strike would also mesh neatly with IDF CoS Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot's pre-retirement interview of yesterday with the New York Times.

Key points in the information coming from LTG Gadi Eisenkot are that a January 2017 decision of the cabinet authorized him to commence a sustained series of military actions against Iran in Syria. This authorization followed Israel's intelligence assessment that IRGC-Qods Force chief Qassem Soleimani had amassed 22,000 men of an eventual 100,000-strong force in Syria. According to LTG Eisenkot this was Soleimani's greatest strategic error - he picked a fight where he did not have the forces to sustain it much less win it.

LTG Eisenkot made clear that between 2011 and 2016 "thousands" of strikes occurred and they were conducted within specific parameters, such as the targeting of Iranian arms shipments moving overland via Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon. However, from his January 2017 authorization the strikes against Iranian assests in Syria have been an almost daily occurrence; the inference here is that many were not reported or attributed to actions of the waring sides in the Syrian civil war. Most recently, the general stated that in 2018 alone there were more than 2,000 ordnance strikes on Iranian targets in Syria.

LTG Eisenkot officially retires next week, but he leaves behind complete Israeli superiority in intelligence collection, combat air superiority, strong deterence and justified freedom of action, not to mention the continued full-support of the United States. This reality has forced Soleimani to transfer his troops to eastern Syria and Iraq. U.S. forces may yet directly engage Iranian forces in Iraq.

So, we still watch the ongoing real-world process for the filfillment of Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27 continue. These night-time events in Syria that we wake up to here in the U.S. will continue, and more than likely increase in severity. The incoming IDF CoS Major-General Aviv Kochavi, who will certainly will be promoted to Lieutenant General, will have the same authorization as his predecessor and will likely be able to expand the operations he leads against Iran in Syria.

Global SITREP A4-19: Current Developments - The Global Order PART II

NATO in IRAQ

13 January 2019: This new reality has been referenced as soon-to-occur on Eschatology Today in more SITREP's than we have fingers to count them on. For reference material, if one were to go into the blog archive from 2014 to the present and seek out SITREP's D6-14, E3-15, C2-16, C3-16 D11-16 and E1-16, this half dozen plus D7-18 and A2-19 would suffice for the referencing purpose.

The big picture is that the US withdrawal from Syria was never a unilateral decision by President Trump; it did not occur in a vacuum, nor was it ever envisioned to create one in Syria. Since taking office the POTUS has been on NATO's case to increase its funding of the military needs of the alliance, to become more involved in war zone operations. Even the Iraqi government requested a more robust NATO presence in the country. Now it is a reality.

Eschatology Today has discussed how the Syrian war was morphing into a global war (see also: SITREP D7-18 MidEast Wars Magnified). One global media report has coined a new phrase to name this morphing war as the "Syraq War." With U.S. forces in northern Syria withdrawing to Iraq, and the forces at al-Tanf staying put for the foreseeable future, the big link up and base of warfighting operations in the coming months will be from Iraq. 

This past December a significant conference occurred in Baghdad at the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. The conference was largely unheralded in major media, just a blurb here and there, yet the net result was the establishment of NATO Mission Iraq (NMI). The parent military command for NATO Mission Iraq is the NATO southern command in Naples, Italy. Formerly known as AFSOUTH, this long-time NATO base is presently known as NATO Allied Joint Force Command. The primary military entities that will fold their operations into the new NATO Mission Iraq will be the U.S.-led CJTF-OIR, the E.U.-led Mission in Iraq, the U.N. Assistance Mission Iraq, the Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq and several other diplomatic missions.

The NATO Mission Iraq presents problems for the Russian Federation, and Turkey, but most especially for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran will no longer be able to use Iraq as a high speed highway to transit its military supplies into Syria. Hence the near daily air-bridge flights of 747 cargo aircraft between Tehran's and Damascus' international airports. And given a little time for that air lifted material to accumulate in Damascus, Israel then strikes and destroys the hastily constructed warehouses that are filled with it. Checkmate.

This new reality was largely brought about by Israel. PM Netanyahu presented it to Donald Trump, and after a couple of phone calls in December our President demonstrated his acceptance and enthusiastic support for this new paradigm by making the surprise announcement that 2,000 U.S. troops would be exiting from Syria. But it's not really a withdrawal from Syria as it is actually a redeployment to Iraq. In fact, there are numerous OSINT reports of a U.S. military build up occurring in Iraq. More bad news for Iran.

The NATO Mission Iraq is also, in effect, the joining of Iraq into a military partnership with NATO. This is a muscle-up of the longstanding NATO-Iraq relationship which began after Operation Iraqi Freedom concluded which was so grossly ineffective during the rise of the Islamic State in western Iraq following the unilateral and ill-advised Obama withdrawal of U.S. boots on Iraqi soil. The NMI is not only a problem for Iran, but it guarantees there will be no Islamic State resurgence in the country.

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Also going to note in this SITREP the leaked information of yesterday. This past December President Trump's National Security Adviser, John Bolton, requested the Pentagon to advise him of contingency plans for a U.S. military strike on Iran. This strike would have been in retaliation for the recent "acts of war" committed on behalf of Iran by their Iraqi Shi'a proxy militias in mortar attacks against the U.S. consulte in Basra and and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

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As of this morning, Tuesday, 15 January 2019, Lt.Gen. Aviv Kochavi is the IDF Chief of Staff (CoS). Eschatolgy Today has a high regard for anyone who began their military career by making combat jumps (700ft/213m) out of perfectly good airplanes. The military operations against Iran and Hezbollah in Syria now rests upon his very capable shoulders. Will he be the IDF CoS who will see through the fulfillment of Isaiah 17? Time will tell.

Hezbollah's chief, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has been conspicuously MIA for some time now. Since 21 December his second in command, Naim Qassem, has been making the important speeches Nasrallah would normally make after events such as the IDF destruction of multiple Hezbollah tunnels or IAF strikes on Hezbollah positions. The rumor is that Nasrallah suffered a coronary stroke in late November or early December; he's not be seen or heard from since then. A speech braodcast yesterday is from the Hezbollah archives of 2015 when he was also hospitalized during his fight with cancer.

Iran's launch of of a Shahab-6/Simorgh, Iran's long desired nuclear-capable ICBM, failed this morning, the third stage (the "bow") did not ignite properly. No word on where the payload (i.e. simulated nuclear warhead), named "Message," returned to earth. Iran has acknowledged the failure of this launch. An attempt to launch a second Shahab-6/Simorgh with payload is scheduled shortly.  If it fails, will we begin to see the fulfillment of Jeremiah 49:35? “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the foremost of their might." The Shahab-6/Simorgh is the foremost of the Iranian nuclear weapons delivery systems.

Global SITREP A2-19: Current Developments - The Global Order

8 January 2019: During a Brussels meeting the European Union has enacted economic sanctions which are effective tomorrow against the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, alternatively known as VAJA, and two high ranking officers in the wake of their failed attempt to execute a political assassination in Paris. In late 2018 another Iranian attack failed in Denmark. 

In addition to the sanctions, which freezes all Ministry of Intelligence assets in all financial institutions of the member states of the European Union, the EU also, without debate, designated the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and its two agents as international terrorists. Their names will be released to the public tomorrow morning (09JAN19) via the EU's Official Journal.

These are the kinds of EU actions which might cause the Iranians to abrogate the 2015 nuclear deal with the EU.

The G20 in Argentina

5 January 2019: The existing global order recently held its annual G20 meeting in Argentina on 30 November-1 December 2018. The G20 is a group of 19 nations plus the EU (represented by the European Commission and the European Central Bank). The purpose and agenda of the G20 has expanded significantly since its inception about 20 years ago and is today a form of global governance which functions primarily as a global economic council. It's members account for 90% of the world's GNP; 80% of global trade; two-thirds of the world population and 50% of the earth's land mass.

It was the RCC's Pope Francis' view in watching a video of the G20 summit that a unique truth that he understands had to be immediately communicated to his favorite non-believer journalist for world-wide dissemination. The journalist is Eugenio Scalfani of the Italian paper La Repubblica, and the Pope demanded at about noon last Thursday that Scalfani come to the Vatican for an audience in four hours time. The interview was published by La Repubblica in Italy and then picked up for global distribution by Agence France Presse.

The urgent message Pope Francis has for the the world is that he sees dangerous alliances emerging among the world powers. He says these world powers, the US, Russia, China and North Korea, all possess a distorted view of the world. According to the Pope the solution to these nations distorted worldview is that they must be brought under direct rule by a World Government as soon as possible for their own good.

Pope Francis

No great surprise there, especially if you're watching even a little bit of what's going on in the world these days. Just days prior to the above demand from Pope Francis, while speaking to an assembled audience at the Vatican he also demanded that Christians must abandon the notion of their individual nation's maintaining mational sovereignty and embrace World Government in order to make the world a better place.

The Pope speaks dangerous yet prophetically-themed words. This is especially true when one considers Revelation 13. Eschatology Today assesses that the G20 could rupture at some point in the near-term future due to stresses and factures such as wars create and what emerges would be a functioning 10-nation council under one supreme head-ot-state as foretold in Revelation 13:1. 

We have prophetic fulfillments approaching at every turn, in every aspect of life on this earth. If you do not yet know the Lord Jesus Christ, now is the time to answer His call at the front door of your life.

Global SITREP A1-19: Continuity

PSALM 83

Update 4 January 2019: Straight up and to the eschatological point of this update. 

Is it not now obvious the the Government of the State of Israel regards the Government of the Russian Federation as a viable partner with whom trust is given regarding Israel's national security? If so, and I believe this is true considering the level and scope of continuing Israeli-Russian contacts and cooperation that is being conducted, then it would not follow logically that the eventual advent of Ezekiel 38/39 would constitute an abject betrayal of the security partnership and trust bestowed by Israel upon the Russian Federation?

And will Israel not immediately follow-up such an ill-advised folly in the subsequent and apparently carte blanche acceptance of the 7-year "covenant with many" (security treaty) of the 70th week as confirmed by the Western ruler (nagiyd) per Daniel 9:26-27?

My curiosity in this has now flared up because as I understand Ezekiel 38/39, it is concluded with the prophet declaring that God shall have poured out His Spirit upon "all Israel" (Ez. 39:29). How does an Israel dwelling at that time with the Holy Spirit then turn around and accept a false messiah, one who is empowered by the dragon (satan), his seat, and great authority (Revelation 13:1-6)? 

What am I missing here? Does not the Holy Spirit provide discernment in such things?

Yes, He does! The "All Israel" that recieves the LORD God's pouring out of the Holy Spirit in Ezekiel 39:29 are the 144,000. 12,000 of every tribe of Israel - all Israel - who proclaim the gospel of Yeshua HaMashiach to the whole world during the first 42 months of the 70th week. Their ministry is concurrent with the Lord's Two Witnesses ministry in Jerusalem during this same 42 months. Amen!

1 January 2019: Yesterday there was a meeting in Tehran in which that terrorist regime once again made clear its military agenda of seeking the destruction of Israel and to replace it with a Shi'a Islamic government in Tel Aviv. This is the news this morning in the Jerusalem Post and few other Israeli media.  

Lost is the shuffle of last week, but captured within SITREP E3-18, was the report of a delegation of Hezbollah VIPs which departed for Tehran from Damascus minutes before Israeli ordnance began destroying Iranian, Hezbollah and their Syrian hosts warfighting materiel at 10PM on Christmas night. Concurrent with the Hezbollah VIPs travel to Tehran, we now know that Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) VIPs, led by PIJ chief Ziyad al-Nakhalah, a U.S. State Department specially designated global terrorist, also departed Gaza recently and arrived in Tehran. The object of this unfettered travel by Iran's primary terror proxies in Lebanon and Gaza was a face-to-face meeting with Ayatollah Khamenei on Sunday and Iranian president Rouhani today. The meeting with the Iranian Ayatollah was in all actuality, as announced by the PIJ leader in Iranian media, a war council for the next round of war against Israel. Rouhani doubled down on this by declaring the only way for the "Palestinians" to achieve their rights in "Palestine" is to wage war on Israel.

Except for the leadership of Iran and the still missing Jordanian factor, this Eastern Mediterranean enemy confederation has an uncanny resemblance to the enemy confederation found in Psalm 83. Eschatology Today views the Iraqi Shi'a militias as Assur per Psalm 83:8.  These militias are under IRGC-QF command and currently sitting on the Syrian side of the Golan. As noted in the JPost report linked above, all of these forces constitute a unified military command structure, from Lebanon to Gaza, for the next war. This news tends to confirm the assessment made in the 29 December 2018 update to Global SITREP E4-18.

There is also direct linkage between the ultimate fulfillment of Psalm 83, Isaiah 11:14, Ezekiel 28:24-26 and the prophecies of Jeremiah 49:34-39, Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27. In fact, the fulfillment of the entirety of Jeremiah 49 is applicable here, and our oft reference flood of prophetic fulfillments in the run-up to Ezekiel 38/39 and the 70th Week. Unknown is the specific timeline, but they do appear to be standing on all of Israel's current frontiers. 

This SITREP is about the continuity of prophetic developments as we watch in real-time.