Global SITREP B5-24: The Multi-Front War

IDF Mass in the North

UPDATED 29 August 2024: Indications and Warnings (I&W) of a ground war erupting on Israel's northern front (Lebanon and Syria) have increased exponentially in recent days. This is despite false global media claims that neither Hezbollah nor their Iranian overlords being desirous of a full-scale war with Israel; such claims ignore the Shi'a Twelver's core jihadist theology. Multiple sources linked to Hezbollah declare a renewed Iranian rocket and drone assault against Israel is close at hand. We should not discount that a major Israeli preemptive strike could come at any moment, the intelligence is that good.

The northern front I&W comes as the IDF is now openly operating with full military force in Judea and Samaria where the IRGC-QF has infiltrated significant advanced weaponry and distributed them via Jordan to numerous jihadist cells throughout the region. At least two of Israel's cabinet minister have stated that Judea and Samaria action is a war no different than in Gaza, including the need to evacuation non-combatant civilians to safer 'humanitarian' areas.

IDF commander's briefings of late speak to the IDF being actively engaged on seven fronts completely encircling the State of Israel. Obviously, the multi-front war described by the singing prophet Asaph in Psalm 83 and other prophecies discussed here since 2009 are present and accounted for in 2024.

4 September 2024: The update to this SITREP can been viewed as a substantial modification to the interpretation of who Assur (Assyria) is where Asaph prophesied in Psalm 83:8 (NIV) "Even Assyria has joined them, to reinforce Lot's descendants." The them are identified in verses 6 and 7. Lot's descendants are identified in the subsequent verses, 9 through 11. Lot's descendants are the peoples identified in verses 3 and 4 who cunningly consult conspire together to destroy the nation of Israel. 

This brings us to the above map which illustrates the maximum extent of Assur (Assyria), the regional military superpower concurrent with the time of Asaph. This map then gives context to the role played by the modern-day Islamic Republic of Iran in the current Psalm 83 warfare. Iran has been an existential enemy of Israel since the revolution (coup d'etat) of the Shi'a Twelvers over the Shah of Iran 45 years ago. There is no question, hindsight being 20/20, that Shi'a Iran (IRGC-QF) and its Shi'a proxies as established in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the Houthis of Yemen are providing a strong arm of military assistance, both weaponry and foot soldiers, in the war against Israel. It would be a gross error in the exegesis of Psalm 83 not to make this interpretive distinction.

In conducting recent research on this issue, it has also resulted in the gaining of additional knowledge concerning the Lord's prophet Asaph. Asaph ("who gathers together") was a Levite and was put in charge of music by King David when the Ark of the Covenant was moved from the Tabernacle to Jerusalem. He was in the same role when Solomon was King, and the First Temple was inaugurated. Asaph's relationship with God is best known by Psalm 73:25-26. "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire but you. My flesh and heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." We all would do well the study what Scripture says concerning Asaph.

Panoramic image of CERS strike near Masyaf, Syria.
(Image source: Ma'ariv)

UPDATE 13 September 2024: The massive air assault against the Tier-One High Value Target on the CERS complex near Masya Syria turns out to have been a highly coordinated and hugely successful air-ground assault according to new information published on numerous news sites. Moreover, this strike strongly indicates that Israel has now embarked on nothing less than a strategic offensive. Initial Iranian reaction to this assault reveals how damaging to the IRGC-QF's overall campaign against Israel and to their millions of rials investment in Syria's military-industrial capabilities. The CERS complex was the crown jewel in the Iranian investment in Syria.

IAF Shaldag special forces training at Palmachim Air Base
(Source: IDF)

The IAF's elite Shaldag unit was the ground component which assault the CERS facilities; they were reportedly on the ground collecting computers, important equipment, documentation as well as capturing at least two Iranian specialists (putting the lie to Iranian denials of any connection to the previous CERS activities), before detonating high explosive satchel charges to destroy the underground and above ground sections of the complex. The IAF commandos were able to infiltrate by repelling from helicopters due to the IAF's total suppression of Syrian air defenses, complex access denial and drone attacks on any and all responding defense forces. Access roads were cratered as well to deny access. The intelligence collected is no doubt of immense value, the exploitation of which will be evident in the near future.

Global SITREP A10-24: The End of HAMAS and The War in the North Part V

The Theater of Prophetic War

UPDATED 30 May 2024: Eschatology Today may be the first to note that the current war launched against Israel by the Islamic jihadists of HAMAS in Gaza on October 7, 2023, and then joined by the Islamic jihadists in Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Yemen has fully transitioned from a war of localized tactical engagements to a war of theater-wide strategic engagements. This transition brings us to the doorstep of the over-arching prophetic scenario discussed here for more than the past decade. The deployment and use of strategic strike weapons such as 1,000 miles plus drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles is the defining character of the strategic change to this war. As such great and fearful changes lie ahead as detailed by the inspired prophets of ancient Israel.

UPDATE 03 June 2024: Fires in northern Israel today started by Hezbollah rockets and incendiary drone attacks. 

Most of us will recall that incendiaries were sent over the border from Gaza into Israel prior to HAMAS' invasion and massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023. Those incendiary devices sparked dozens of fires in southern Israel. 

How long will Israel wait before the Hezbollah menace is neutralized? The IDF is well aware that Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies have been practicing repeating what HAMAS did, but this time in northern Israel. The clock is ticking.

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP D8-15: Is This the End of Israel's "Pricking Brier"?

                                                                                                                                   Image attribution: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty

11 October 2015:  In today's edition of YNet.com's Alex Fishman's Israel Opinion column you can see a prime example of how a secular Jew properly puts blame for Arab muslim violence against Israel where it belongs, as well as improperly putting blame for Islamic violence where it does not belong - at the feet of fellow Jews, which he refers to rather antiseptically as "Religious Zionism." 

Mr. Fishman's hand-wringing and galloping, unbridled fear lies not with the next injury to a fellow Jewish citizen of Israel, but with some unknown Arab muslim member of the Knesset - who pledges not one iota of loyalty to the State of Israel, but to islam because that is what is absolutely required of all muslims in the submission to the false god "allah" as dictated by the qur'an and their imams - that the Arab MK might be hit in the head by a rock thrown by a fellow muslim or a baton wielded by an Israeli policeman.

Americans must pay attention here, because a Republican candidate for President of the United States, Dr. Ben Carson, is absolutely correct in what he says about muslim's and the U.S. Constitution - i.e., not one of them can submit to the U.S. Constitution because to do so is diametrically opposed to the quranic dictate of submission (islam) to only "allah" and his will as expressed by the sayings of Muhammed and the sayings of his seventh century followers.

Mr. Fishman does not express any comprehension whatsoever about islamic violence, a/k/a jihad, being waged against Israel. He has no clue that the incitement to violence comes from one origin and one origin only - the sermons of the local imams in the mosques of Israel. He does not understand that the knives have come out of the kitchen because the qur'an says so and the imams preach it every day. Why else are explosives and firebombs kept in the al-aqsa mosque? It is an armory for achieving the will of their false god; all islamic mosques have this same purpose. They are the 'beach head' for the expansion of islam by the sword. This is the "organized leadership" that Mr. Fishman is utterly blind to.

And this non-sense about Israeli officials, who are and act as nothing more or less than the politicians that they are, tip-toeing in expressing their desire for "quiet" - this is what the secular Israeli wants; it's music to his ears. It's also music to the islamists ears as well!

Mr. Fishman wrote in his opening paragraph that "Israel (meaning the Israeli government led by Bibi Netanyahu) should crack down on its own provocateurs, emanating from the Islamic Movement, the Knesset's Arab faction, or Religious Zionism."  Lumping religious Jews in with Israel's implacable enemies - do you see this obscenity coming from Fishman's keyboard? Ignorance defined. 

These religious Zionists have since the destruction of the Temple been praying for Israel's restoration to the land of Israel. Fulfillment of the prophetic word of God, no? Now they pray for the rebuilding of the Temple and restoration of the daily sacrifice and oblations. This is also prophetic, no? Yes! Again, this is prophecy yet to be fulfilled, and we know it will be. We can only pray that Alex Fishman will be one of those Jews to recognize and accept Israel's one and only Messiah; that he may be one of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists soon to spread out across the globe preaching the Gospel of Jesus which will bring millions to God during the 70th Week.

7 October 2015: Israel faces a great many threats at the present time, but the most pressing of them all is the lack of internal security and the safety of its citizens as they go about their daily lives. It is beyond unacceptable, and a possible cause of a government collapse, when the people of Israel find themselves being stoned, assaulted by would-be executioners and hangmen on a daily basis in their own God-given homeland. Who can count the number of Israeli citizens murdered in cold blood over the years by Arab Muslims living in their midst? Eitan and Naama Henkin were the most recent murder victims, but they won't be the last. Against this backdrop of wanton violence against Israelis it is incomprehensible to hear of a high Israeli government official blaming the Israeli citizens themselves for the murderous intent of the "Palestinian" terrorists. According to Israeli media, this is precisely what defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon did recently when he blamed the Jewish Home Party, and Education Minister Naftali Bennett in particular, for the current violence. Apparently Mr. Ya'alon has not been to a mosque recently to hear the imams sermon calling on all Muslims to the most extreme acts of violence against Jews wherever they are, whoever they are - man, woman, child, that is irrelevant - if they are Jews kill them. Sure his intelligence apparatus has informed him better than this, no?

So, how does all of this square with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu's recent eloquent speech and dramatic moments of silence at the UN? He pointed a long finger at the entire world whose silence in the face of holocausts and pogroms against the Jews, yet when Bibi's people are murdered, assaulted, stoned, stabbed and fire-bombed, blown up on buses and risk their very lives just to travel across town or to a nearby settlement to visit friends or relatives, it is Bibi Netanyahu who cannot find the words to call for the kind of action necessary to stop the Arab Muslim onslaught dead in its tracks. 

Bibi Netanyahu has the power to stop this insanity in the time it would take him to fly back to New York City. Will he, even in the face of Arab Muslim MKs who will shortly defy the government as their Muslim ideology explicitly requires of them? It is certain that they will not act for Israel, they will act for Islam. Perhaps it will be their action at the Temple Mount this weekend that spurs Netanyahu to act for Israel? However, I never thought it would be such a laborious decision on Netanyahu's part even though that decision will lead to nationwide violence. He stands against the tide of Islamist fervor for jihad against Israel, and for Israel it will be that Netanyahu must ultimately act decisively. Prophecy proves it.

We know from the many inspired prophecies of all the great, ancient Jewish prophets, particularly Asaph, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Nehemiah, that the time is rapidly approaching when an Israeli leader will rise up and act, whether or not this leader is Bibi Netanyahu is irrelevant. This leader will have the archangel Michael lending his hand in the process. Wait and see if these two fairly specific verses below are not fulfilled in very short order exactly as they are written.

Isaiah 11:14

"But they  (Israel) shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west;
Together they shall plunder the people of the East;
They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab;
And the people of Ammon shall obey them."

Ezekiel 28:24

“And there shall no longer be a pricking brier or a painful thorn for the house of Israel from among all who are around them, who despise them. Then they shall know that I am the Lord God.” 

 

Global SITREP E4-14: A Psalm 83 Link to the Islamic State?

UPDATE 17 November 2014: According to a knowledgeable Kurdish military leader, the Western nations have severely underestimated the fighting strength and physical numbers of the Islamic State's forces.  The West (think Obama Administration) is operating under a false assessment that IS forces number in total about 31,500 men. However, Fuad Hussein, chief of staff of Kurdish president Massoud Barzani, makes the highly supportable assessment that the West's assessment is seven times lower than the true strength of the Islamic State forces. Kurdish field commanders say the true figure is closer to 200,000 that have joined, been assimilated through baya, or actively recruited from among the Sunni populace.

The Kurdish assessment is backed by the fact that IS is able to muster thousands of troops for major assaults simultaneously from Kobani in northern Syria, to Baghdad in Iraq and in several different locales in Kurdistan in between.  Based upon the territory under IS control in Iraq and Syria (2,500,000sq.km.) there are between 10 and 12 million Sunni men of fighting age in the pool of manpower IS can draw from. A Western commitment of boots-on-the-ground would have to be closer to the numbers of Desert Storm in 1991 (500,000 to 600,000) in order to "degrade and destroy" the Islamic State as the Obama Administration's plan exists today. Five bombing mission per day ain't gonna cut it.

16 November 2014: According to Islamic State caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's just released public communique, the list of Islamic State wilayat (provinces) based upon the baya (an Islamic binding oath of allegiance) received from these locales. In addition to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Sinai and the Nile valley of Egypt (detailed below) the other acknowledged baya have come from al-Baghdadi's devoted followers in Saudi Arabia; Yemen; Algeria (Army of the Caliph); Libya (Majlis Shura Shabab al-Islam). Interestingly, some received baya have been ignored, particularly those received from non-Arab nations such as Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines.

This would indicate a distinct Arab supremacist nature is involved with the initial growth of the Islamic State. The acknowledgement of these baya is found in Islamic State references to these various places as, for example, Wilayat Sinai.  Next on the expansionist agenda are Wilayat Jordan and Wilayat Palestine, meaning all of Israel beginning with Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.  The "liberation" of Jerusalem and the rest of "Palestine" is the primary task assigned to Wilayat Sinai, and their brethren in the Nile Valley who will wage war on the Egyptian government currently led by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi whom they have identified as "Zionist collaborators." The Islamic State war against Egypt from within Sinai and the Nile Valley is to take precedence over the Liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem. (See Isaiah 19 and Ezekiel 29 for related Bible prophecy).

The Islamic State also has declared another of its objectives is to annihilate the Shi'a sect of Islam in Saudi Arabia, Yemen and, obviously, Iran and Lebanon. They will leave the jihad against the "Crusaders" to their core jihadist partners in Al Qaeda and its veterans in Syria, the newly identified Khorsan group.

15 November 2014: Exactly one month ago today in the first paragraph of Global SITREP D8-14: General Observations  I posted information regarding the Sunni terrorist group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis and how they had sworn their jihadist allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and who are largely funded by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood - the same Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood that was so steadfastly supported by the Obama Administration in their uprising against former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's government. Remember this because it is both very instructive about a president with two years remaining in the White House and who has long been at war with the government of the State of Israel.

I now report to you that Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, (a/k/a Ansar Jerusalem and 'Supporters of the Holy House' - which is the Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount) has gone well past declaring their allegiance to the Islamic State, they have begun declaring that the Sinai which they control is a wilayat (an Arab word meaning an administrative division, a province, a state) of the Islamic State. This is what the Islamic State's twitter feed banner above illustrates, that Sinai is a wilayat under the control of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis and is an official province of the Islamic State Caliphate.  

It may well be important for us to begin to understand this development in strictly prophetic terms and thus signalling the closeness of the coming final fulfillment of Psalm 83. At this time it does appear  that the Sinai Wilayat of the Islamic State represents the seventh of the ten groups identified by Asaph in Psalm 83 being an integral part of the confederacy of one consent seeking to destroy the State of Israel. The Sinai Wilayat of the Islamic State are  the Amalekites identified by Asaph in Psalm 83:5-8. There is also a branch of the Islamic State now active in the Nile Valley of Egypt as well.

The Amalekites were the very first enemy Israel encountered going back to antiquity when Israel wandered the wilderness of present-day Sinai and western Saudi Arabia in the days of Moses and Joshua after the exodus from Egypt. Exodus 17:8-16 provides a brief description of the first day-long battle between Israel and the Amalekites at Rephidim. Verses 14-16 foretell the final destruction of the Amalekites in the coming final fulfillment of Psalm 83.

As discussed in the previous series of Operation Protective Edge SITREPs, and as stated many times over by Israel's current leadership, HAMAS is Islamic State and Islamic State is HAMAS. Sunni jihadists are Sunni jihadists. HAMAS is born of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood; the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is HAMAS. Islamic State is in Gaza. At some point HAMAS may announce this themselves, but that would merely a confirmation of what we already know. Also at some point the Obama Administration may have to throw their support for the Egyptian Muslim brotherhood under the proverbial bus because it has recently declared war on the Islamic State. Or has it? A few bombing sorties does not a "degrade and destroy" mission make, especially without a serious commitment of American boots on the ground to take and hold territory.

In the north, in Lebanon, the Islamic State has made its presence known in a very big way recently. And along the entire length of the Israel-Syria border in the Golan Heights the jihadists known as Jabhat al-Nusra (Al Qaeda) are now in full control and face the IDF directly across the DMZ after having defeated Syrian and Hezbollah forces seeking to regain control of the border town at Quneitra. Jabhat al-Nursa (Al Qaeda) and the Islamic State, as reported here in previous SITREPS, agreed to a merger of their forces and smaller Sunni jihadi militias into a unified Sunni jihadist force to coordinate their strategic war plans for the expansion of the Caliphate, most likely into Jordan. 

Without any significant opposing military force on the ground other than the outnumbered Kurds, it may only be a relatively brief amount of time before the Islamic State Caliphate is either composed of all ten groups identified by Asaph in Psalm 83 or it consults with their Shi'a enemies, perhaps after an unprecedented catastrophe has occurred in Damascus, to turn their weapons upon Israel for the final engagements of Psalm 83. It may well be that Psalm 83 finds its final fulfillment in a final regional war from Lebanon to the Sinai, with strong arm military hardware assistance from the Islamic State-controlled region of ancient Assur, between Israel and the new Caliphate. Keep watching as this develops.

Global SITREP D4-14: "Do unto them as unto the Midianites..."

22 August 2014: The title of this SITREP is from verse 9 of Asaph's Psalm 83 prophecy about the Arab Islamic confederacy that has come against Israel for the past 66 years and to this very moment, specifically in Gaza. Do you know and understand why Asaph in his prophecy would plead with the Lord "Do unto them (the enemies to Israel's immediate north, east and south) as unto the Midianites." If not, then I would strongly recommend that you leave this blog and go read chapters 6 through 8 in the Book of Judges right now. Learn why Gideon, from a poor family in the tribe of Manasseh and the least of his father Joash's sons, was chosen by God to lead Israel in the smiting of the Arabian tribes known as Midianites, and the Amalekites and the children of the east. You will also learn why he also became known as Yeruba'al. 

If you understand this Biblical history, then you will understand that I believe God is about to chose another "Gideon" whose nick name may well become "Yeruallah," for this Jewish warrior will throw down the altar of the false god allah, and nothing will happen since there is no islamic allah to contend with the modern-day Gideon of Israel. This is the man I have referred to here before which I believe religious Jews will come to regard as "Mashiach ben Joseph." This modern-day Gideon will lead Israel to victory in these latter day final battles prophesied against the enemies named by Asaph, and Isaiah and Ezekiel, and he will do so in a similar manner lest Israel deny that the Lord their God has provided then with the victory. In this way Israel will come to know the Lord their God in fulfillment of Ezekiel 35:5-15.

I now return you to this prophetically appointed war in Gaza already in progress.

 HAMAS murdered 4-year old Daniel Tragerman (source: Times of Israel)

23 August 2014: With thousands of IDF reservists now having reported back to their unit assembly points all along the Gaza frontier, and just hours after Israel's senior military and political leadership could not have been more hopelessly wrong in telling southern Israel's residents that it was okay for them to return to their homes, a four-year old child became a completely unnecessary victim to the Israeli leadership's wrong strategy for the wrong war.  A new strategic prosecution of the conflict has been effectively signaled, taking it from being just another operation in a series of operations against HAMAS in Gaza to one in which the military conquest of HAMAS has been set as the mission complete objective.

 The IDF, as before, has warned civilians to keep their distance from all combatants in Gaza. The IDF is more than capable of conducting military operations in the confined spaces of urban areas, and although on a much smaller scale, this new phase of warfare in Gaza may essentially more resemble Sherman's 'March to the Sea' more than the limited objective, pin-prick boots-on-the-ground incursion into Gaza earlier this month. For young Daniel Tragerman and millions of other youth just like him, this new phase of the war had better be lest Israel's current leadership be accurately described as feckless and inept.

Hopefully it has not escaped the Israeli government's notice that PA President Mahmoud Abbas and HAMAS Khaled Maashal did not, as reported by some media, conclude their meeting in Islamist Qatar with a heated argument, bur rather with a unity consensus between them of destroying Israel through the offices of HAMAS erstwhile ally in Gaza, the United Nations. Israel must respond accordingly by removing HAMAS from existence as surely as Maashal intends to remove Mahmoud Abbas leadership of the PA from existence.

No more empty words Mr. Netanyahu, no more empty words!

UPDATE 25 August: Polls in Israel are reflecting the same sentiments I have openly expressed on this blog regarding PM Benjamin Netanyahu's fecklessness in dealing with the Islamic terrorists in Gaza. As it stands now, Netanyahu and Likud will very likely be trounced in the next election in Israel because HAMAS' tactics have made an utter fool of Netanyahu and his politically expedient military actions and unwarranted ceasefire capitulations.

Israeli's do not want HAMAS to be negotiated with, they want HAMAS to be gone. More importantly HAMAS has effectively and without any ground force invasion, caused the near total depopulation of Israeli territory adjacent to Gaza. Israeli's are refugees in their own country because Bibi Netanyahu hasn't a clue nor the nerve to fight and win a war against HAMAS in Gaza. In fact, he's shown himself to be even more inept as a Prime Minister than Ehud Olmert was during the Lebanon War in the summer of 8 years ago. HAMAS has also effectively set the stage for regime change in Israel. Finally, Bibi Netanyahu literally invites rockets from terrorists in Lebanon and Syria to impact Israel's territory. The current situation is absolutely pathetic.

SITREP D4-14 FINAL UPDATE 27 August 2014: It doesn't take more than a cursory scan of media around the world to see that HAMAS and PIJ terrorists have acheived a technical victory over Israel (the government) and the IDF. As always, this guarantees even more significant and destructive warfighting will occur in the short-term. The Islamists have been emboldened because Israeli PM Netanyahu has behaved as if he were U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama's lapdog. "Good boy Bibi, good boy!"

So, for the foreseeable and indefinitely defined future thousands upon thousands of Israeli citizens will be war refugees in their own God-given country.

Why? Because the IDF was forced into a war in Gaza by islamic terrorists fighting as proxy forces for the Islamic Republic of Iran who were armed with Iranian and Syrian weapons of every description without achieving a clear military objective in total victory.

Why? Because PM Netanyahu never wanted a clear military victory over Gaza's islamic terrorists, he wanted a negotiated political accommodation -- despite the fact that Israel was forced into this war via HAMAS' kidnapping and cold-blooded murder of three Israeli teenagers and unprovoked military extortion through rocket and mortar fire against every region of the country.

Once again, as in the 2006 summer war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, history repeats and Israel was defeated before even one boot of the IDF stepped on Gaza's soil. Bibi Netanyahu has ineptly used this occasion to snatch defeat from the jaws of a military victory because he followed Barack Obama's dictate. And to say that the majority of the citizens of Israel have lost all faith in their own government is a monumental understatement. They have been forced against their will by the governments actions into giving up their homes and livelihoods and life as they knew prior to the war in exchange for what? A worthless agreement with islamic terrorists whose charter calls for their slaughter and the continuous barrage of empty words from the failed Prime Minister of their nation. How utterly pathetic is this situation?

The islamic terrorists surrounding Israel must be licking their bloodthirsty chops. They will not delay their next aggression against Israel for very long.

Addendum 01 September 2014: Tucked away in a corner of the The Algemeiner website there is found a report dated Saturday, 30 August 2014, attributed to a Jerusalem Post article of the same day, with the headline" "Netanyahu Says He Hasn't Ruled Out Toppling HAMAS."

"Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave interviews to the country’s three television networks over the weekend defending the Gaza operation, and saying that driving Hamas from power has not been removed from the agenda.
“I never removed the goal of toppling Hamas, and I am not doing that now,” Netanyahu told Channel 2, saying, however, that Israel faces numerous other security challenges."

In other words, from PM Netanyahu's big picture perspective there are indeed bigger strategic fish for Israel to be prepared to fry. The Israeli PM then went on to identify those fish: 1) Al Qaeda on the Golan, 2) Islamic State moving on Jordan and already in Lebanon, and 3) Hezbollah in Lebanon supported by Iran. Knowing this I still have to ask: Why not deal a death blow to the terrorists in Israel's south (Gaza and Sinai) when the opportunity fully presented itself? Would PM Netanyahu rather have a future war on all three fronts instead of just two?

Sounds prophetic, like the sum total of the Psalm 83 finale.

Ezekiel 37:10 "Meh'ode Gadowl Chayil"

29 December 2012:  Ezekiel 37 is a now fulfilled prophecy about the restoration of modern Israel. In modern times Ezekiel's ancient prophetic vision of a valley filled with dead, dry bones which received new flesh upon them and a spirit that God breathed upon from the four winds of the earth came to fulfillment just two years after the Holocaust in the death camps and ovens of Nazi controlled Europe. The tenth verse of Ezekiel 37 tells us these bones then stood up as "mehode gadowl chayil" - "an exceedingly great army."  This army is "the whole house of Israel," and it is known to us as Tzva Hahagana LeYisra'el, literally The Army of Defense for Israel, the IDF.

We will take a look at the eschatological future of the IDF, what the Word of God does and, surprisingly enough, does not have to say about it. However, no discussion about the future of the IDF can be complete without at least a brief look at its origins, exactly as Ezekiel foretold that this exceedingly great army would suddenly arise in the land of Israel and that valley of dry bones. An executive summary on origin of the IDF and its Psalm 83 adversaries can be found in Eschatology Today's original 5-part series from 2009: The Prophetic Road to Revelation (Part II). 

As we all see from the history of the Psalm 83 military engagements fought thus far, the IDF has emerged victorious at a high cost in each one of them. The concluding battles on the southern, central and northern fronts will be the same, and according to the related Isaiah 17 text, even more so. However, as with most things prophetic, the IDF does not operate in a vacuum, particularly in these few years prior to the 70th Week. The difference has been the spiritual realm activity manifest on Earth by Israel's prince, the archangel Michael. In these days prior to the Lord pouring out His Spirit upon the whole house of Israel the archangel Michael has been busy and he's going to become busier.

It is the final prophetic word of Gabriel  to Daniel found in chapter 12 verses1-3 which tie all of this together and informs us of the archangel Michael's role:

“At that time Michael shall stand up,
The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people;
And there shall be a time of trouble,
Such as never was since there was a nation,
Even to that time.
And at that time your people shall be delivered,
Every one who is found written in the book.

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
Some to everlasting life,
Some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Those who are wise shall shine
Like the brightness of the firmament,
And those who turn many to righteousness
Like the stars forever and ever."

Going 'Back to the Future' with the angel Gabriel

The direct interaction between the prophet Daniel and the angel Gabriel occurs over several chapters. Chapters 10-12 repeat and refine the visions given to Daniel in chapter 7, as well as 8 and 9. Daniel  chapters 8 through 12 in themselves are a more detailed look at the last days. These details Daniel tells us about came from Gabriel beginning in 550 BC (Daniel 8:1) and are a focused prophetic look at the period of human history beginning one-hundred ninety six years into the future, or 334 BC, when the Macedonian-Greek army under Alexander the Great crossed the Hellespont (the Dardanelles Strait) between Greece and the Persian Empire fulfilling the prophecy of the "Ram and the Goat" and concluding with the empire of the fourth beast, the Antichrist and the verses of Daniel 12 quoted above still in our future.

What is amazing in all of this is that there's not so much as a single mention of an Israeli army, the IDF, in the last days events and battles described. Nothing. The closest approach to describing the period of time we are living in right now is found in Daniel 9 where Daniel, fully understanding the word of the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah and the visions given to him thus far by Gabriel, is in the midst of extremely fervent imprecatory prayer and supplications to the Lord in loudly confessing all of the sins of the whole of Israel from the Exodus out of Egypt to the present day. We can know that the concluding period within this prayer is the present day because the Israel that Daniel is referring to is not the one taken captive in Babylon, but rather mirrors the Israel that Aspah prophesied about in Psalm 83.

Daniel 9:16 (emphasis added)

“O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us." 

The very next sentence in Daniel's prayer refers directly to the currently non-existent Temple in Jerusalem, and it is followed with a plea that is also in agreement with that of Asaph in the very first words of Psalm 83. I think it to be more than obvious that the IDF has been raised up as declared in Ezekiel 37:10 to be the Lord's instrument in accomplishing His purposes in answering the Spirit-led prayers of Asaph, Daniel and all of ancient Israel's prophets. These ultimate last day purposes of the Lord commence with the fulfillment Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 28:24-26 and they are purposes which precede the arrival of the 70th Week as foretold by Gabriel.

What is not evident in Scripture is that following the overwhelming victory of Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 28 when Israel is subsequently dwelling in the land safely and securely that anything like the IDF and its nuclear weaponry exists to defend Israel during the 70th Week. It may exist in its present form up until the Antichrist's confirmation of a "covenant among many," but during the 70th Week there is no reference in Scripture that points to the continued existence of the IDF. At that time God is working His will directly and through the activities of the Two Witness and 144,000 Jewish evangelists.

Ezekiel's Confirmation of Psalm 83

14 September 2012:  There is a passage in Ezekiel 38:10-12 that defines the real-world situation that will exist for a disbelieving Israel just prior to the attempt by "Gog of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal" to invade and conquer the land God has given to the descendants of Jacob. In fact, it is this very situation which is the catalyst for Gog's evil plans.

‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’— to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land."

Many words have been written by Bible eschatologists in identifying the events which will create that situation for Israel. We know those many words as sound exegesis on the Psalm 83 war. But how many of us are aware that the prophet Ezekiel was also given a prophecy by God which confirms the singing prophet Asaph's Divinely inspired psalm? Yes, the Lord told Ezekiel that judgments would come against all those nations who despise the regathered house of Israel living in the land of Israel. Clearly, this judgment against Israel's neighboring adversaries occurs prior to the pre-70th Week prophetic events described in Ezekiel 38/39.

Ezekiel 28:24-26 has the prophetic confirmation of the coming Psalm 83 war.

“And there shall no longer be a pricking brier or a painful thorn for the house of Israel from among all who are around them, who despise them. Then they shall know that I am the Lord God.” ‘Thus says the Lord God: “When I have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and am hallowed in them in the sight of the Gentiles, then they will dwell in their own land which I gave to My servant Jacob. And they will dwell safely there, build houses, and plant vineyards; yes, they will dwell securely, when I execute judgments on all those around them who despise them. Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God.”