Global SITREP B6-19: "Deal of the Century" vs "Covenant With Many"

22 April 2019: There is only one place on the planet to find anything authoritative regarding the "covenant with many" amd that place is the Book of Daniel, chapter 9, verse 27. This critically important verse of Scripture is the final verse of the four verses (Daniel 9:24-27) that the angel Gabriel spoke to the prophet Daniel concerning the future of Israel, from the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the present era and just beyond. These four verses are inseparable and are commonly referred to here and elsewhere as the "70 Weeks Prophecy." Of those 70 weeks of years (490 years), 69 weeks of years (483) have come and passed into history; only the final 70th week of years (7 years) remains to occur to complete the total of 490 years, and that 70th week of years lies within our present and very immediate future.

The purpose of the sum total of the 70 weeks (past, present and future) is itemized in a very straitforward manner in verse 24. In verse 25 we find the only instance within of all Scripture where our Messiah (Mashiyach) is actually referred to as "Messiah the Prince (Mashiyach HaNagiyd)." Elsewhere in Scripture, Jesus of Nazareth is referred to by all the other names and titles with which we are familiar. The 69th week of years ended with His crucifixion, death and resurrection, which we just celebrated last Sunday.

The 70th Week, as Gabriel declares, begins with "and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week." Since 69 weeks of years have passed, then only one week of years remains, the 70th week of years. The "he" in this verse is the antichrist.

However, that all said, there are many among us who are now either teaching or strongly advocating that the Trump Administration's much heralded "Deal of the Century" between Israel and the "Palestinians" for a two-state or a one-state solution to the now 71-year old conflict (the Psalm 83 war) is the "covenant with many." The projected release date for the "Deal" is after the soon formation of the new coalition government under PM Netanyahu and following the Muslim observance of Ramadan the first week of June at the earliest. 

Eschatology Today believes this is an extremely dangerous teaching for a variety of reasons, the primary being - it may not even be revealed as planned, or if it is it could fairly quickly result is the flood of sequential or simultaneous prophetic wars we've discussed here for many years. Given what the prophetic Scriptures say about which peoples and nations are vanquished in these wars, the "with many" is a virtual unknown in its full scope. Then there's the always present possibility of our not being here by cause of the Harpazo occurring, making the aforementioned dangerous teaching also very premature. And further still, the "covenant with many" is something that Eschatology Today places as becoming a fact immediately after the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38/39, and therefore still future.

Eschatology Today will watch closely for related developments, such as an expected annexation of vast sections of Judea and Samaria (i.e. West Bank) by Israel. Finally, and based upon certain leaks of information by various parties, the "Deal of the Century" appears at this point to involve a dividing of the covenant land of Israel, which if true could be a nightmare scenario.

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP B5-19: IAF Standoff Strike on Iran in Syria

DELILAH ALCM: 25 YEARS OF SUCCESSES

UPDATED 17 April 2019: A (clickable) ISI satellite photo reconnaissance image has been added below showing the utter devastation the IAF's Delilah missiles wrought on the Syrian-Iranian missile installation in Masyaf. This area has at least one Russian S-400 and three newly acquired Syrian S-300 anti-air missile batteries very nearby for defense. None of them were activated to bring down Israel's now decades old Delilah missiles. The Iranian's must be completely livid with their erstwhile Russian and Syrian allies as strike after strike of the IAF occurs unimpeded, laying waste to their facilities and personnel with regularity and precision.

Now, for those who are wondering, here is the prophetic perspective that Eschatology Today believes is in play here. As noted several times previously, the military action that is described by the Scriptures in Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27 make it crystal clear that Damascus is a populated city during a time of conflict when catastrophe strikes. Jeremiah was inspired by the LORD God to make a lamentable point of this fact in verse 25: "Why is the city of praise not deserted, the city of My joy?" All who are in Damascus at that time shall fall over dead in her streets; they will be cut off by fire.

As can be seen in this image of Tahrir Square in Damascus taken on the morning of Monday, 15 APRIL 2019 this city is anything but a heap of ruins. The drivers of these  hundreds of taxis and  privately owned cars are protesting the severe shortage of gasoline in the city. The Al-Firdous Mosque is directly across the square from the camera's point of view. Does Damascus look deserted? Is it in ruins? Tahrir Square is downtown Damascus. The "Grandpa Fuel Station" is on the right-hand side of this image. The prophecies of Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27 are most certainly in a process of fulfillment, but obviously they have not yet arrived at that point. Soon.

The 21st Century destruction of Damascus has the appearance of a nuclear strike according to the Scriptures. So this begs the question: Is this destruction of Damascus the result of a Syrian/Iranian biological/chemical first strike upon Israel? This is the view Eschatology Today has held for at least two decades. And that means a strong concern that the expected retaliation - of which there has been exactly zero of any consequence thus far since the IAF strikes began - could be exactly that, a bio-chem WMD strike upon Israel for which Israel retaliates by nuking Damascus. 

And that is the point where it really hits the fan, because as Isaiah tells us, not only does Damascus get burnt and crisped, but the whole of Syria fails to survive the conflict. This also is a likely scenario under which all of the other prophetic flood of prophecies go into fulfillment. Why wouldn't Israel's enemies go full bore after her, as Asaph informs in Psalm 83, when they see an Israel reeling following a substantial WMD attack? In military tactical and strategic terms, it's a virtual no-brainer, yet we'll see how it actually transpires.

13 April 2019: Last year when Russia delivered the S-300 anti-air missile batteries to Syria and began training Syrian troops in their operation, many hand-wringers said that it marked the end of Israel's freedom of action in Syrian skies. What took place at 02:30 in the morning today at Masyaf, Syria resoundingly put that falsehood to bed without any supper.

The secondary site of Iranian-Syrian facilities in Masyaf for making precision improvements to the highly mobile, Iranian-made Zelzal-2 rockets, were wiped out by the Israeli F-16I Sufa aircraft while over over Sidon, Lebanon, a distance of about 250 kilometers. From this location the Sufa's cut loose their battle-proven Delilah Air Launched Cruise Missiles (ALCM). It was these vary facilities which received a contingent of the Syrian-manned S-300s specifically to defend them from Israeli air attack. In 2018 the primary facilities in this area, about a dozen buildings in total, was struck by the IAF, wiping out the entire chain-like series of missile production facilities (35.10N 36.38E). The strike this morning took out the closely related facilities (35.08N 36.34E) about 2 miles to the southwest.

INTELLI TIMES Composite Image of the Masyaf strike of 2018-2019

Same buildings as in left-side of the image above, but rotated a little over 45 degrees to the right.
Notice the primary missile production hangers are utterly obliterated. Courtesy: ISI.

In the past week, and perhaps much longer, IRGC-linked 747 cargo aircraft have been closely monitored by Israel and the U.S. intelligence collection assets as they flew from Iran to the Syrian T4 Air Base. Dozens of round-trips have been catalogued. It was apparently assessed that specialized components and other materials were then transported overland, through Homs, to the second group of facilities at Masyaf. A little more than three days since the Netanyahu/Likud election victory and the war to remove Iran from Syria has been resumed. Now the watch for some type of retaliation begins.

Global SITREP B4-19: Another Look Ahead

UPDATED 6 April 2019: Within 48 hours the Trump Administration will have the U.S. declare the iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The designation was accompanied by a warning to all US interests and military forces around the world to be prepared for retaliatory strikes or outright attacks by the IRGC or any of its proxies (i.e. Iraqi, Lebanese or Yemeni Shi'a militias).

The IRGC was founded by Iran's first Shi'a Twelver Ayatollah (literal meaning: "Sign of God") in 1979. The IRGC's purposes are to be the Ayatollah's personal army, to defend the Ayatollah and his regime from foreign or domestic enemies, and to export the Shi'a Twelver revolution globally in order to create the apocalyptic chaos necessary to thereby hasten the arrival of their mythical al-Mahdi. 

The IRGC, and its most notorious offshoot, the Qods (Jerusalem) Force (IRGC-QF), are actively involved in terrorist military and covert assassinations activity within Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, several nations in South America, (most notably Venezuela) as well as within the European Union. They do, in fact, operate in covertly on a global scale. 

The timing and rationale behind the IRGC FTO designation is not a stand-alone event, even though it is decades over due. It is part of the US-Israel commitment to contain, confront and roll back the Shi'a Twelver agenda as kinetically executed by the IRGC around the world. This means in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Afghaistan and, yes, Venezuela. 

Eschatologically, this US-Israeli alliance against the IRGC can be seen as part and parcel of the Jeremiah 49:34-39 prophecy. The US-Israeli alliance also has strategic partnerships with the EU nations as well as the Arab GCC nations. These are all nations directly referenced in the text of Ezekiel 38:13. 

It is also a fact that the rocket fired on March 25th by the terrorists in Gaza which indiscriminately struck a private civilian residence in Mishmeret, Israel, injuring 7 (including an infant), precipitated the current military crisis with Gaza. That rocket launch was an order by Iran to its terrorist proxy in Gaza. That rocket resulted in PM Netanyahu cutting short his meeting with POTUS Trump, but not before they agreed to coordinate to robustly act in-concert against Iran.

We now also know that the US sanctions regime re-imposed upon Iran after the unilateral US withdrawal from the 2015 JCPOA is having a devastating effect as a form of the economic war upon the Ayatolaah's regime. One of the most affected is Hezbollah, and this assists (blesses) Israel greatly. 

The effect has been manifested in Iran being forced to drastically cut its financial support to Hezbollah. Consider:

1.) Hezbollah's soldiers have not been paid regularly in the past three months, and what they have recieved is half of their normal salary. Same goes for Hezbollah's reserve soldiers.

2.)These Hezbollah soldiers have had their upscale apartments in Beirut's al-Dahieh al-Janubiya neighborhood taken away from them and their families because Iran can no longer afford to pay the rent. 

3.) Hezbollah's social engineering network, the backbone of its popular support in Lebanon, has been shut down due to the lack of Iranian funding.  

The next time someone tries to tell you that America is not blessing Israel as it should, tell them to read this and think again.

5 April 2019: In this update we do not have to look ahead to see what's coming. Instead we look at what a senior IDF source assesses to be the threats Israel is facing right now. We also must understand that since senior IDF leadership assesses this, then it's a fair assessment to make that some part of their senior civilian leadership assesses it as well.

The assessment is that Hezbollah and HAMAS are acting in concert to drag Israel deep into Lebanon and Gaza where an underground network of tunnels has created a spider web maze of direct links between homes, mosques, educational facilities and hospitals. IAF air power alone cannot defeat these terrorist armies or completely destroy the tunnel networks, so the insertion of significant ground forces in such a campaign would be essential. 

As the IDF would pass through these areas of Lebanon and Gaza then the enemy infantry in the tunnels below deployed to execute many ambushes with heavily-armed elite forces plus anti-tank rockets in order to kill IDF armor from their rear, as well as killing and capturing individual IDF soldiers. Therefore, the assessment continues, the IDF ground entry into this combat is something that would occur only under the most extreme circumstances. 

This precisely confirms my 6:59 AM comment on March 31 beneath SITREP B3-19: 

"Clearly, it will require a far more serious threat to Israel's national security than a largely unarmed mass of 40,000 Gazans and hundreds of small IEDs before Isaiah 11:14 is fulfilled. Not even a barrage of unguided rockets roughly aimed at civilian housing has been a triggering event. Yes, something of greater consequence will occur for this part of the Psalm 83 fulfillment to take place. Yet, it will happen at the appointed time."

The senior IDF assessment then continued to identify Iran, meaning Iran as forward deployed in the IRGC-QF, as the power directing the activities of Hezbollah in Lebanon and HAMAS in Gaza in drawing Israel into this combat scenario. And so accordingly, Israel is quite busy laying the groundwork for "the big war" and the day when the IDF actually will enter into Lebanon and Gaza. In military terms, Israel is busy right now preparing the battlefield and setting conditions favorable to the IDF emerging from it victorious. This may happen soon, or down the road a bit, but it will happen. Iran will be dealt with leaving Hezbollah and HAMAS, divided by some distance, to each fend for themselves against Israel's formidible military power. We know how this will conclude.

As students of Bible prophecy we have to recognize this IDF assessment as dovetailing very nicely with the pre-70th Week prophetic scenarios we see in Scripture, even if the IDF does not see this direct linkage at present, they will definitely see it in hindsight in the not too distant future. We see in the prophetic Scripture of Psalm 83 Gaza and HAMAS plotting together in direct from the text of Psalm 83. Only the Hashemites of Jordan need be added to the mix, and that, according to Psalm 83, Isaiah 11:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:24-26 is precisely what will take place. And Iran is taken care of to a great extent, and prior to Ezekiel 38/39, per Jeremiah 49:34-39. Syria, per Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27.  Eschatology Today will leave the issue of what occurred at the Russian Ministry of Defense a day ago to address the almost certain questions that will appear in the comments section below this SITREP.

3 April 2019: While we wait for Gaza's fate to be determined, there are a couple of items that should be addressed from the perspective of prophetic implications.

The first item regards the stunning turn of events in Ukraine where a popular comedian and TV actor (who has a role playing the president of Ukraine) could soon actually become elected to that office. Perhaps you've read about this or seen a news report on it in the past week. It certainly and immediately got my mind racing with the potential for possible prophetic implications. 

The actor, Volodymyr Zelensky, captured twice as many votes (30%) as the current Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko (16%) in the first round of the election. These two will face-off in the next round of voting on 21 April. The result is surprising as both Zelensky and Poroshenko have fairly similar views. Both are pro-NATO and pro-EU. Conventional wisdom would say that Poroshenko, as the incumbent, would be favored over Zelensky who has zero experience in this kind of arena. Yet, by 2:1 margin the Ukrainian people went for the comedian/actor. That result was despite the fact that Russia interferred in it with a massive disinformation campaign. My take is that Zelensky took 30% of the vote because Poroshenko has not been effective in countering an aggressive Vladimir Putin and his designs on the whole of Ukraine.

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky

And there's the rub. If Zelensky wins the presidency of Ukraine it's a near certainty that Russia's Putin will pounce after him like a lioness getting after a gazelle. And what it is that Ezekiel tells us? God puts hooks in the jaws of the northern leader (Gog of Magog): "I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws and lead you out..." Gog of Magog will be busy with his army in one direction, when God hooks him up and turns him about face, with his military forces and allies, and leads them all into a great slaughter of the mountains of Israel. I'm not saying Ezekiel 38:4 will be fulfilled precisely in this manner, but if the election result places Zelensky in the Ukrainian presidency it may be too much of an opportunity for Russia to let pass. Oh, and not to forget, but did I mention than Zelensky is Jewish from parents who are both Jewish?

Among the signs our Lord has given as indicators of the end times are natural disasters. Floods are a big one and they are occurring all over the globe as a direct result of severe weather. We pray and open our wallets to assist those affected here in the US and abroad. One place where significant, even unprecedented flooding is taking place is in Iran. Of particular note is the flooding taking place in ancient Elam. Ancient Elam is today divided among a few modern provinces, three of which are known as Ilam, Lorestan and Khuzestan. These floods are even more of a disaster for the people because they're already hard pressed due to an economic form of war we refer to as sanctions that are intended to turn the Iranian government away from its nuclear weapons program. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has been more direct in acknowledging the economic sanctions imposed upon Iran has severely hampered their ability to deal with the flooding, calling the sanctions "economic terrorism" in a recent social media post.

The provinces of Ilam and Lorestan have been ravaged by the floods and all of that water is moving south towards the gulf through Khuzestan. Khuzestan has a great many dams throughout it territory, but those dams are at 95% full and the water coming will easily overwhelm their capacity to hold it back. Disaster looms in a region where the population is mostly ethnic Arabs who aren't very happy with the clerical regime in Tehran to begin with. And these floods are not just occurring in Iran's southwest, the entire country is experiencing flooding, particularly since the middle of March. Roads are blocked, which brings land transport to a complete halt, which bring deliveries of essentials to a halt. Most locations are reachable only by rotary winged craft, helicopters, and Iran's antiquated fleet of choppers is simply not up to the task. 

Flooded Iran

So the people are very quick to blame the clerical regime which has spent, and continues to spend, billions upon billions on the wars in Iraq, Syria and far away Yemen. Iran already has a festering insurrection of its people as we have discussed previously. This is just another important aspect of what the prophet Jeremiah has forecast to occur in Iran. Eschatology Today's position on Iran has for ten years been that Iran will be greatly reduced by the time Ezekiel 38/39 is appointed to occur. We are seeing that reducing happening in real-time today, and there's much more to come.

Speaking of Ezekiel 38/39, and to some extent this will be a repeat of what has been written about on Eschatology Today before, the view here is that Saudi Arabia and the bulk of GCC (Sheba and Dedan) are clearly referenced as the allies of the West, and therefore allies of Israel in the pre-70th Week fulfillment of this prophecy. This strongly indicates that the emerging Israel-Saudi ties will not be broken in the series of conflicts we refer to as the Psalm 83 scenario. The Saudi's will have no qualms with the overthrow of the Jordanian monarchy as Asaph prophesies in Psalm 83. In this we need be aware that the al-Saud monarchy and the Hashemite monarchy of Jordan have long been bitter rivals, well over a millennia in fact.

As a segue into the probable next SITREP to follow, expect new IAF strikes on Iranian targets in both Syria and Lebanon following PM Netanyahu's meeting with Putin on Thursday, 4 April. Some Israeli media have reported the meeting was cancelled. To the contrary, it has not been cancelled.