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.

Global SITREP D7-14: THE NEXT WAR

9 September 2014: The map above depicts my geographic estimation of what the 1,600 square kilometers of land Egypt has offered to the Palestinian Authority in the Sinai 10 days ago would look like on a map. Egypt offered this land to Mahmoud Abbas as more than adequate compensation for whatever land in Judea and Samaria the PA would of necessity relinquish in a comprehensive peace deal, and within which a fully sovereign State of Palestine would be created. 

This proposed State of Palestine would have defensible borders controlled by Palestinians. It would have a Palestinian Army. A Navy and an Air Force. It would have airports and seaports, a national currency, as well as mineral and other resources rights under the land and sea. It would have had a seat in the United Nations as a full-fledged member of that world body and all other world bodies that it so would choose to belong to. 

Of course, as expected, the Palestinians once again, and this time through PA President Mahmoud Abbas, immediately rejected the offer straight away. They don't want this land for their state; they want all of Israel as we have known all along for these past 66 years. Besides, if they took this land then the tunnels under the Egyptian border would lead to... nowhere except into the territorially expanded Gaza. What a monumental waste of HAMAS and PIJ manpower and resources that would make for!

Therefore and as so many other things have evidenced over the years the end result of this will be, as foretold in Bible prophecy, that the resolution of this 66-year old conflict will be through a great final war. And the result of that war will be that no State of Palestine will ever exist, nor will any group of people known as "Palestinians" ever exist after the war is concluded. Palestine had it's chance at statehood and threw it all away.

It may not look like it at this very moment in time, but rejection of the Egyptian offer evidences something else. It evidences that Mahmoud Abbas is absolutely not serious, and never has been, about making a state that "Palestinians" can call home, and that he is very much in lock-step with what Ayatollah Khamenei and the Shi'a Mullahs of the Islamic Republic of Iran want to accomplish - the destruction of the State of Israel. Mahmoud Abbas is their kind of jihadist and that is why Iran has been covertly delivering weapons to the PA in Judea and Samaria for use in the coming war.

Preparations for the Next War

In addition to the Iranian weapons coming into Judea and Samaria, preparations for the next war are well underway in Gaza and Lebanon.

GAZA
In Gaza they began the moment the most recent ceasefire took effect. Here are some facts I have compiled since the end of Operation Protective Edge (OPE).

1.) HAMAS still has thousands and thousands of rockets; they're building new ones as we speak. At least 1/3rd probably more of the arsenal HAMAS had in July at the start of the war remains in their arsenal. HAMAS capability to build new rockets is estimated to be roughly 40% of what it was prior to OPE.
2.) HAMAS is hastily reconstructing critical tunnel infrastructure into Israel and Egypt with North Korean and Iranian assistance. They are driving medium-sized trucks through the largest tunnels between Sinai and Gaza loaded with rocket parts, ordnance and other munitions.
3.) Israel's military forces did not degrade HAMAS nearly as much as PM Netanyahu thinks they did. The political echelon led by Netanyahu did not cry havoc and cut loose their dogs of war (IDF) as should have been the case. As a result Israel very much lost this round of the war in Gaza because of politics. When the war resumes it will not only be Gaza but also a wide expanse of Sinai that Israel will have to deal with on the southern front.

According to a PIJ/Al-Quds terrorist, the coming war against Israel was described to Al-Jazeera. Here is his statement as translated from the Arabic language video broadcast by Al-Jazeera a week ago:

"We are now in one of the tunnels of the Al-Quds Brigades [within] which work began as soon as the war on Gaza ended, and the ceasefire was declared. We have begun work and we are continuing it regardless of the threats by the Zionist enemy. We will not be hindered by the threats of the enemy, or by the ban on importing cement and other building materials. We are getting these tunnels ready for the next battle in order to launch attacks and fire mortars and artillery. These tunnels will also have other uses which we will not disclose."

From the eschatological perspective, Israel will have to endure and ultimately recover from (per Ezekiel 38/39) existential warfare on three fronts, the northern, central and southern. Israel will also have to deal with a 3rd dimensional aspect of missile fire over the front lines of ground combat. Iron Dome, Arrow and the US PAC-3 Improved Patriot ABM systems cannot and will not be able to stop all incoming rockets; widespread destruction will occur in many cities.

LEBANON and the GOLAN

According to Colonel Dan Goldfus, commander of the  IDF's 769th Hiram Infantry Brigade stationed on the Golan who was speaking to the inevitable assault upon Israel by Hezbollah in Lebanon:

"Israel’s Iron Dome rocket defense system would not be able to cope with that kind of challenge, and thus the IDF would have to “maneuver fast” and act forcefully to prevail decisively in the conflict."

Add to this a barrage of other heavyweight MRBM/LRBMs coming upon Israel from Syria and/or Iran.  Iron Dome, Arrow and the U.S. PAC-3 Patriot batteries based in Israel will be hard pressed.  Israel might be forced to call upon US/NATO Aegis-capable ABM cruisers for assistance in order to contain the conflict from going into the WMD threshold.

If we look at Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49 literally, this may be exactly what happens in the coming war, and which stands a very good chance of becoming a literal flood of prophetic fulfillment prior to Ezekiel 38/39. As most of you already know, this is precisely what I have been forecasting in my recent blog postings.

The IDF will maneuver fast and with extraordinary lethality in the coming war, especially in Lebanon where the IDF will completely over-run the whole of the country in subduing Hezbollah and IS/Sunni jihadists. (Joshua 13).

UPDATE 14 September 2014: Three hours ago DEBKAfile reported as Breaking News today's IDF briefing which contained a specific warning on the potential for Hezbollah incursions into northern Israel. These incursions could occur at virtually any moment from tunnels Hezbollah has constructed under the border with the same Iranian/North Korean expertise as seen in the Gaza tunnels, but which are also even more sophisticated that those in Gaza. The IDF has yet to discover even one of the tunnels Hezbollah is assessed to have constructed into northern Israel. Here's the Breaking news report:

"IDF Northern Command warns Hizballah plans invasion in next clash

DEBKAfile September 14, 2014, 9:57 PM (IDT)

A senior IDF officer disclosed in a briefing Sunday that there is concern that Hizballah may provoke a clash with Israel and use it to seize territory – part of an Israeli town, a mountain ridge or an IDF outpost. There is no concrete warning that Hizballah is preparing to launch a surprise attack, said the officer, but the possibility cannot be discounted that a single event with casualties could spark a series of incidents leading to a conflagration. The officer said that the IDF has prepared contingency plans to evacuate border populations at risk."

To those who would decry this news because it comes from DEBKAfile, I would caution that this IDF briefing did occur and has also been reported by The Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post in virtually identical terminology, but in far more extensive reports, some of the details of which have already been reported in the original posting of this SITREP five days ago.

Global SITREP B10-13: The Jordan Valley

UPDATE 27 March 2014:  Getting back to the premise of the 20 December post regarding the "great upheaval" that will have to overtake Jordan, an article published in the Winter 2012 edition of Middle East Quarterly (link is to a .pdf) is now making the intel round again. The article was authored by Mudar Zahran and it gives a glimpse of what that upheaval might look like as well as its causation.

In that article Zahran shows how the relative clam in Amman, Jordan is an illusion maintained by the Hashemite, (i.e. Bedouin) royal family and regime. Zahran effectively points out that the "Palestinians" are the largest ethnic group within Jordan, and that they have a profound hatred of the Hashemite regime whom they view as illegitimate occupiers and intruders upon the eastern half of their country. The bottom line: A full-fledged revolt in Jordan is extremely likely; it would be a revolt where the minimum 66% majority of common "Palestinians" take up arms to overthrow the regime of the minority Hashemite Bedouin elite.

Keep an eye on Jordan as this is precisely the kind of "great upheaval" in Jordan that would be a precursor to Jordan's involvement in the coming Psalm 83 finale. Islamist Palestinians in control of Amman and the rest of that land east of the Jordan River would then rapidly set their sights on Israel as a remainder to be conquered west of the Jordan River. Or so they will think according to Psalm 83.

3 February 2013: Once again DEBKAfile has the confirming data regarding the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan's very strong opposition to a "Palestinian" security or military presence in the Jordan valley. Jordan has once again diplomatically smacked U.S. SECSTATE John Kerry upside his head with the "Treaty of Peace Between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan." In particular there are two parts of the treaty King Abdullah II wants Kerry to pay attention to: Annex I (borders and sovereignty issues) and Article 9 which deals with Jordan's 'special status' regarding Jerusalem and the Temple Mount and the high priority Israel places on Jordan's historical role in negotiation regarding its final status. In effect King Abdullah II is telling Kerry that there can be no Israel-Palestinian accord without Jordan's concurrence.

06 January 2014: Contrary to most other Israeli media, this morning's news published at DEBKAfile confirms what was posted to this topic one month ago. Most Israeli media are putting a decidedly pro-Kerry spin to their reports, probably because their editorial staffs believe it is better to see whipped-cream-pie-in-the-sky reporting than the truth concerning the abject rejection of US SECSTATE Kerry's so-called "framework" has received from Israel, Jordan and the PA. The best that they can say is that Kerry spent more than 1 hour yesterday in Amman with Jordan's King Abdullah II and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh. However, there is not one word about Jordan's total rejection of Kerry's plan for the Jordan Valley. This is the kind of ridiculous spin one can expect from the globalist's compliant lapdog media.

20 December 2013: The "great upheaval" that will have to occur within Jordan for it to become openly hostile to the existence of Israel is any change to the status of Mount Moriah (Temple Mount) that has existed since the end of the Six Day War in June 1967. This "great upheaval" is something that could be manufactured almost overnight. And it has been. We may refer to this new situation is an Islamic demand for apartheid on Temple Mount, or a Muslim Only Temple Mount.

On the very day of my posting this topic, the issue of Jordanian control of the Temple Mount suddenly reemerged when a Muslim riot erupted in the early afternoon on 6 December was instigated by a Jordanian cleric in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. When Israeli police intervened to halt the Muslim rock-throwing riot directed at themselves, a no-brainer intervention which the Jordanian cleric knew would happen, made-up charges of an Israeli plot to make Muslim worshipers "uncomfortable" at the Mount appeared out of thin air. Even the long-term presence of security cameras on the Mount suddenly became an issue for the clerics as well as Jordanian government ministers.

Now the Muslim's have raised the bar in the control of Temple Mount they were given in great error by General Moshe Dayan some 46 years ago. The Muslim clerics have urged their deceived youth resort to violence and bloodshed in the instant they see any Jew or Christian engage in prayer, or what they believe is prayer, on the ground of the Temple Mount. Previously Christians have been allowed to ascend and to pray on the Mount, but no longer as the Muslim clerics are now declaring the Mount to be a "Muslim Only" religious site.

I am of the assessment that this new situation may well force Israeli authorities, and I mean in the Israeli Knesset, to take action to enforce a full and free access to the Temple Mount by Jews, Christians and Muslims. Per Bible prophecy, Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, will be the center of the "great upheaval" in these last days. It will likely be the largest spark in a sea of sparks to ignite this powder keg in the near-term.

06 December 2013: The geo-political and military situation in the Jordan Valley (image above) is tremendously informative as to where we are prophetically with respect to the fulfillment of Psalm 83, Ezekiel 28:24-26 and Isaiah 11:14 at any point in the near term. This present situation clearly informs that some great upheaval will have to occur within the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (Jordan's official name) for it to become openly hostile to the existence of Israel as made clear in the prophecy.  

As can be determined by reading an article published yesterday morning in The Times of Israel, at the present time Jordan is resolutely supportive of Israel through the IDF maintaining total military control of the Jordan Valley and the West Bank instead of Palestinian Authority's forces. Amman wants Israel to complete a security fence along this frontier because it would be a security benefit for both Jordan and Israel. Jordan has been telling its American ally that it supports Israel's position in the ongoing negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. And US SECSTATE John Kerry's notion of an international security force for this region has already been shot down in flames, almost before it was presented to these nations.

Obviously Jordan and the PA are not reading from the same sheet of deadly music as seen in the above noted prophecies, therefore something of a sea-change will have to occur between these two nations. Isaiah 17 might be the catalyst for that change, but only time will tell. It's clear to me that Jordan will be key to how the final fulfillment of the Psalm 83 prophecy comes to fulfillment. We'll keep an eye on this for new developments.

The map above  has been added to illustrate the nations and peoples prophetically identified by Asaph in Psalm 83. This is how the region was geo-politically divided 2,900-3,000 years ago. However, at that time none of these nations or peoples were united in an alliance against Israel. Only since 1948 A.D. has this been true, making Psalm 83 a prophecy in he process of fulfillment for our time.