Global SITREP C2-24: Rockets Red Glare

RS-26 Rubezh IRBM a/k/a RS-26 Oreshnik MRBM

UPDATED 22 November 2024: The Russian ballistic Missile attack on Dnipro, Ukraine yesterday morning appears to have been a new variant of a Russian Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile known as the RS-26 Rubezh. 

Russia's clandestine development of this weapon almost certainly was the reason President Trump and SECDEF Esper announced the US's unilateral withdrawal from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (a/k/a INF Treaty) on August 2, 2019. The development of the RS-26 Rubezh was a one of a series of blatant violations of the INF Treaty signed in 1987 by U.S. President Ronald Regan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.

Development continued and an MRBM variant of the Rubezh was rebranded as (RS-26) Oreshnik. It is difficult to distinguish between these two missiles which led to major confusion in expert media reporting yesterday on the identity of the missile. 

RS-26 Oreshnik test launch

However, what is now known puts yesterday's strike in an entirely new perspective. First and foremost is that the Oreshnik strike is the first use of an IRBM or MRBM in the history of warfare. The proverbial genie is out of the bottle, and with this strike a clear signal was sent; the world has crossed into unknown territory. Secondly, analysis of imagery makes clear that the Oreshnik warhead contained six (6) warheads or MIRVs (Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicles). Three were either inert, kinetic or decoys and three had conventional high explosives. These MIRV warheads were also impervious to Ukrainian air defenses; they never even came close to being shot down due to their hypersonic speed and maneuverability. A third aspect, not widely reported, is that ALL of the missiles Russia has launched into Ukraine in more than 1,000 days of warfare were capable of carrying nuclear warheads of various yields.

So, with Russia having let the genie out of the bottle who's to say that Israel would not deploy a mix of its Jericho-2 MRBMs and Jericho-3 MIRVed IRBMs in a follow-up strike on Iran's now virtually defenseless nuclear and petroleum infrastructure. Maneuverable warheads can arrive on target from every direction on the compass.

UPDATE 28 November 2024: This past Tuesday morning as I lay in my hospital bed, I turned on the wall-mounted television not intending to watch a particular program, to channel surf. It was a big surprise to find that the channel was not set to the Monday Night Football station I had been watching but was now set to a CSPAN channel. The program CSPAN was airing was a live, in-progress UN Security Council session concerning the Middle East. 

Israel's Ambassador Danny Danon was on the receiving end an exceptionally nasty series of exchanges with both the PA representative and an Algerian representative. Despite repeated decorum warnings from the UNSC chair (held by the UK), the venom being spewed by Israel's enemies continued unabated. Credit to Ambassador Danon for remaining in his seat, but a rage of volcanic anger was plainly evident on his countenance.

Then a thought came to mind and the Ezekiel 38/39 "Battle of Gog of Magog" prophecy consumed my thoughts. A seed that had been planted recently suggesting a broadening of the actual identities of both "Kuwsh (Cush) and Put" was now a necessity. This continual enlightening strongly intimates that the closer we get to that prophetic day, the clearer the prophecy becomes. 

The people Ezekiel identified as "Put" is far more than just those inhabiting Libya but includes most of North Africa on the Mediterranean Sea's southern coastline to include Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria. Together, these are the populations of Put. And of Kuwsh the same is true, they are not just Sudan and Ethiopia as many interpretations suggest. Kuwsh includes the peoples of the Horn of Africa as well as modern-day Yemen.

The Horn of Africa and Yemen

I prayed for the LORD to show me in Scriptures where this has already been revealed. Within a few minutes my gaze was directed to reading passages in Isaiah and Joel. There, in Isaiah 45:14-17, as if it were an adjunct to Ezekiel 38/39 are all these peoples listed together and who will be given into the hand of Israel by the God of Israel. Egypt, Kuwsh (Horn of Africa) and Sabeans (Yemen). We know the end of this because God has known of it from the beginning.

Thus says the Lord:

“The labor of Egypt and merchandise of Cush
And of the Sabeans, men of stature,
Shall come over to you, and they shall be yours;
They shall walk behind you,
They shall come over in chains;
And they shall bow down to you.
They will make supplication to you, saying, ‘Surely God is in you,
And there is no other;
There is no other God.’ ”

 Truly You are God, who hide Yourself,
O God of Israel, the Savior!
 They shall be ashamed
And also disgraced, all of them;
They shall go in confusion together,
Who are makers of idols.

But Israel shall be saved by the Lord
With an everlasting salvation;
You shall not be ashamed or disgraced
Forever and ever.

And then we can turn to Joel 3:4-8 where we find Tyre and Sidon (Lebanon) and all the coasts of Philistia (Gaza), as if they're all in the same basket of judgment, who have retaliation repaid upon their heads. The Sabeans (Yemenites) are seen in verse 8.

The current SITREP in the Middle East reads like a sidebar, a very short interlude, before the next and final act that sets the whole region in the conditions graphically illustrated in Ezekiel 38/39. 

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP C9-18: The "Price to be Paid"

UPDATE 22 November 2018: In a nod to the wishes of Israeli PM/DM Bibi Netanyahu President Trump will hold off releasing the details of the "Deal of the Century" until some unknown point in February 2019 at the earliest. This is a very interesting minimum 3-month window. 

30 October 2018: This SITREP is in urgent need of an update. Late last week (Thursday 25 October) and devoid of any fanfare, Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu made a state visit to the Sultanate of Oman. The purpose of the visit with Oman's Sultan Sayyid Qaboos bin Said Al Said, who invited the PM to come to Oman, was within full accordance and preparation for U.S. President Donald Trump's forthcoming announcement of the ""deal of the century" (Middle East peace)" according to Oman's foreign minister Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah. 

Quoting a Jerusalem Post report on the visit:

"Communications Minister Ayoub Kara said the visit was a testament to declarations “about the good relations that are developing between the Israeli government and the Sunni countries that oppose the Iranian terror, which also threatens them.”
“In the coming days and until President Trump presents his diplomatic [peace] plan, there will be more pleasant surprises and embraces of Israel from the Gulf states.”"

The Jerusalem Post report "Oman Says Time to Accept Israel" is linked HERE.

UPDATE 1 November 2018: We've known that Donald Trump's electoral victory in November 2016 was due to the will of God. His purposes are being served by the man in the US as well as in Israel and all around planet earth. The opposition to Trump as POTUS, and the GOP he represents, has been marked by extreme acts of violence and uncivil behavior to say the least - precisely as predicted by Eschatology Today. We know the author of this evil opposition also. We became initmately familiar with a dark enemy entity known simply as "The Deep State." In fact, and because I keep track of such things, pretty much everything posted here regarding the pro's and con's resulting from "the Donald's" election has become reality. The thing is, those predictive Eschatology Today posts started in July 2016, four months prior to the election and six prior to the Inauguration. As you will now read, we're not done yet.

President of the United States of America Donald J. Trump is truly the Lord's instrument. And those who are in opposition to this are in opposition to the will of God on this earth, at this late hour, in these last days. So tell me: is Bible prophecy being fulfilled before our eyes? 

That's a rhetorical; Eschatology Today already knows the answer. (Grins) We've seen reports of late which in one manner or another pur forward the notion that Trump is America's first Jewish president. The website American Thinker published an article on this theme just yesterday which was authored by a Harrisburg, PA attorney. Give it a read! Perhaps it's a matter of time before an Israeli newspaper hails President Trump as the awaited Moshiach ben Yosef? Only half-kidding here as it is within the realm of possibility.

On a serious note, Eschatology Today believes the forthcoming "Deal of the Century" peace plan which the Trump Administration will put forward at what they believe is precisely the right political moment, is in all actuality an appointment made by the LORD God aeons ago.  That makes this peace plan integral to the will of God. He is in complete and total control.

Marana'tha! 

23 August 2018: Global SITREP C9-18 will develop over the next so many days or weeks, maybe months. The title is attributed to something said by President Trump at a rally in West Virginia on Tuesday this week. Trump said, according to media reports, that Israel would pay a "high price" in any future peace negotiations with the PA. 

Little noticed was a caveat to that "high price" to be paid by Israel as it is directly linked to the fact that Jerusalem will not be part of any future "peace plan" negotiations. That Jerusalem, site of the Embassy of the United States of America, belongs to Israel as its capital city has henceforth since May 2018, anniversary of Israel's 70th year of existence, been non-negotiable. This is old news. 

So what else is there to negotiate? Not much if anything. With Jerusalem off the table the PA has lost its desired crown jewell of wannabe statehood. The PA has made abundantly clear over the past three months that there's nothing to negotiate, particular with the U.S. as mediator, without Jerusalem being on the table. This was and remains a typical response from the PA, and it ignores the one critical piece of turf at the heart of the Jerusalem issue - the Temple Mount. 

To say that the Temple Mount, central to Jerusalem, is the sovereign territory of Israel and not subject to any negotiation, well, one might as well say the issue will have to be settled by war. There is no amount of land, not even the pre-1967 boundaries, that would be acceptable to the PA without Jerusalem in the mix. And therein, I surmise, is the casus belli for what we know from Bible prophecy as the Psalm 83 War. If Jerusalem is non-negotiable, and Israel has truly learned the hard lessons of "land for peace" gambits with the PA, then what does the PA have to lose by going all-out to eliminate the State of Israel through war? Knowing Bible prophecy, the PA will lose everything in such an adventure.

We'll see how this scenario plays out, yet there are mulltiple peripheral crises that could very quickly turn the Trump "Deal of the Century" into an irrelevant waste of time. As we also know from Bible prophecy, the "high price" to be paid by Israel is directly related to the Isaiah 17 prophecy involving Syria. The developing Trump plan is at least several more months distant, probably sometime in 2019 at the earliest. That's plenty of time for the other events to occur making the one-state solution a fact-of-the-matter.

UPDATE) 24 August 2018: According to information contained within an article written by Hugh Fitzgerald of the highly reputable jihadwatchdotorg just yesterday: 

"A Saudi academic, Abdulhameed Hakeem, the head of the Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Studies in Jeddah, has declared on an Arab-language TV station that Jerusalem is as holy to Jews as Mecca and Medina are to Muslims, and called on Arabs to accept Israel’s claims, its “historic right,” to the city. Crown Prince Muhammad has told Mahmoud Abbas (of the PA) to take whatever deal is offered him and to stop expecting endless Saudi and other Arab support. There are clear signs that Israel and Saudi Arabia have been sharing intelligence about their common enemy, Iran." 

This statement is a monumental sea change in the 70-year history of ideological and religious conflict between Israel and its eastern neighbor Saudi Arabia. It's a monmumental sea change between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.  If you've followed Eschatology Today since Crown Prince Mohammed ibn Salman al-Saud (a/k/a MBS) for the past year since MBS's elevation to Crown Prince and heir apparent to the throne, then this update is only a mild shock to you, as the close military coordination between Saudi and Israeli armed forces has been a subject here on multiple occasions - such as SITREP B2-18 for example, which was about Saudi Arabia exclaiming Israel's right to exist as a sovereign nation.

Today, Eschatology Today must now go an eschatological step further in its exegesis of Psalm 83. Just because the Ishmaelites are noted in Psalm 83:6 does not necessarily indicate modern Saudi Arabia will be a part of that enemy confederation to move against the State of Israel. The same is true for the Hagrites mentioned in the same verse; their presence also does not necessarily indicate Egypt being a party to that conspiring confederation either. 

The text literally reads: "(The) tabernacles (of) Edom, (and the) Ishmaelites, (of) Moab, (and the) Hagrites..."

Eschatology Today believes that the impending literal fulfillment of this verse closely associates the Ishmaelites and Hagrites with Jordan, and not Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Several exegeses on Psalm 83 may require an update or two. In sum only two modern day nation-states appear to be involved and in direct association: Lebanon and Jordan plus some tribes of the Sinai Peninsula.

The present military confederation is an anti-Iran group of nations: The United States and its CJTF-OIR Coalition (which includes NATO or Tarshish and its young lions), Israel, Saudi Arabia and the GCC (Sheba and Dedan) plus Egypt.