Global SITREP B10-18: Dara'a, Quneitra and the Israeli Golan

Liwa Zulfikar - Iraqi Shi'a militia under IRGC command in Syria

UPDATE  11 July 2018: A final warning given to Tehran via Moscow.

10 July 2018: Pay attention to the now bold red text in the 4 July update below. Any Syrian, Hezbollah or IRGC-led military forces crossing the eastern Line Bravo into the DMZ will trigger the IDF into the large-scale operation described. Israel again yesterday directly warned against such movement. Nevertheless, the enemy has begun firing into the Quneitra area. The rest will soon be prophetic fulfillment in real-time.

4 July 2018: Eschatology Today is fairly well convinced that the Syrian-Hezbollah-IRGC Dara'a offensive on Dara'a (ancient Edrei) with Russian air support was suddenly ordered into a "quick halt" by Russian generals at Khmeimim Air Base. That order came from further up the chain of command in Moscow because Russian leadership learned that an Israel counter-offensive was with hours of being launched into Syria. Indeed, at about that same time, and as if to press home the point, the Dara'a joint-Syrian-Iranian weapons and ammo depot was attacked and largely destroyed.

Despite the military halt in Dara'a, Russia doubled down with Israel on the critical Iranian/Hezbollah issue. This morning Russian FM Sergei Lavrov declared that a total Iranian withdrawal from Syria was "completely unrealistic." Lavrov issued his double-down knowing full well that Israel had recently attacked and drove back Iranian militia attempting to cross into Syria from Iraq. What part of that message did Mr. Lavrov fail to comprehend? 

Clearly, for Israel, the Russians should save their breath as the issue of Iranian military forces remaining in Syria is non-negotiable. How they leave is the only option on the table: either willingly or by being destroyed in-place. For its part, Iran will ignore the Israeli red line, as it sees continuing the offensive through Dara'a and into Jordan itself as a means to outflank the IDF on the Golan. The rest is largely predictable.

With respect to the Golan, and Quneitra, the above map provides a key visual aid. The thin purpule-colored strip of land is the U.N. Disengagement Of Forces (UNDOF) zone that has existed since it was negotiated in 1973. Notice Quneitra (indicated by the red-colored oval) lies on the western side of this no-mans land. It is nigh impossible for Syrian, Hezbollah and IRGC-QF militias to enter any part of the UNDOF zone, or even appear to be about to enter it, without triggering an IDF offensive operation to push the enemy forces back another 30 to 35km away from the Israeli border. A 30-35km push would mean the entire right-hand side of this image becoming an Israeli military conquest within a couple days time.


2 July 2018: When these SITREPs are posted they always contain enough information, enough keywords, for the true Christian reader to eagerly seek out more information from the Word of God. This has been true from day one of Eschatology Today and its secondary objective of getting the reader to seek out the truth directly for themselves. Sad to report, this is not happening with this SITREP; if it were the comments section would have been flooded by this morning with questions or requests for clarifications regarding prophetic content within the first paragraphs of SITREP B10-18, if not the title itself.

Eschatology Today will now illustrate because this is a "teaching moment." We find in the Book of Numbers 21:33-35 that during Israel's arrival in the Promised Land, that Israel turned up (went north) to Bashan and then fought and won the Battle of Edrei. With whose help did Israel prevail in those ancient battles? Is the IDF not similarly empowered by THWH God today? 

Here's an eye-opener: Edrei is the modern city of Dara'a. We must understand Bashan is all of the land of this part of southern Syria, from the border of Gilead in the south to Mount Hermon on the north, and from the Jordan River valley east to the city of Salkhad (Salchah). And Israel possessed this land. See the map below with a thin black outline across southern Syria. 

Those who have read Eschatology Today all these many years are very well aware of the frequent mention of Joshua 13 as a prophetic chapter for this modern era. Joshua 13 goes hand-in-hand with Psalm 83, Isaiah 17 and the other pre-70th Week war prophecies. Once again, the prophetic importance of Joshua 13 cannot be understated, yet from far too many prophecy teachers little to nothing is ever mentioned. Now read Joshua 13:29-31 to know what lies in the near future for these same places where battles rage at the moment. Know that today Israel's mighty army stands at the ready on the Golan Heights against the approaching armies of Syria, Lebanese Hezbollah and their Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force overlords. Once again the Word of God presented the past as the prologue for future events. Very near future events.

All the land of Bashan, the kingdom of King Og.

Eschatology Today - Out front where we belong.

29 June 2018: Israel Defense Forces crossed overland into Syria last night on a humanitarian mission to provide many tons of tents, food, water, medicine and clothing to Syrian civilian war refugees pushed up against the Israeli Golan and Jordanian borders. Several tractor trailers loaded with the supplies and forklifts where escorted by heavily-armed IDF troopers through no-mans-land security fences where the humanitarian relief was transferred to waiting Syrian civilian trucks which delivered it all directly to the make-shift refugee camp nearest to the Israeli border. 

There are an estimated total of 125,000 civilian refugees pressed into this no-mans-land in the tri-border region, and whose ranks are swelling at a high rate due to indiscriminate and unrelenting Syrian and Russian Air Force bombings in and around Dera'a. The three best hospitals in Dera'a were bombed into forced closeure. War crimes and crimes against humanity are normal fare here as in other parts of Syria. Direct Israeli military intervention is only a matter of time now.

28 June 2018: This SITREP will focus on the newest and most dangerous flashpoint in the Syrian war: Dara'a, Quneitra and the Israeli Golan. Considerable fresh OSINT is being assessed along with material that has aged for at least five years regarding Iraqi Shi'a militias operating in Syria for iranian strategic interests. These militia, under IRGC-QF command, have added Syrian Shi'a militia to their ranks. Thus Syrian militia is also under the command of IRGC-QF General Qassem Soleimani and the iranian Ayatollah. The in-progress OSINT assessment is pointing to these militia joining the battle underway in southern Syria within the U.S., Israel and Jordan deconfliction zone.

The prophetic importance, besides the obvious regarding Syria, can also be attached directly to Psalm 83:8.  

Assyria also has joined with them;

They have helped the children of Lot.

Eschatology Today has for many years held the interpretation of this verse to point directly at troops from Iraq. These iraqi Shi'a militia have recently completed campaigns in that part of Iraq and Syria where the ancient Assyrians once had uncontested rule. There are now on Israel's northern doorstep.

Psalm 83 Verse 8: Assur - Syria or Iraq?

Assyria also has joined with them;
They have helped the children of Lot.
Asaph, Psalm 83:8

19 July 2012: Although this may seem redundant to some readers, we're going to look at Psalm 83:8 once again with the intent to firmly affiliate the modern-day nation that God inspired the Levite priest Asaph to include as the tenth of the confederated enemy peoples and regions who have come against Israel in these last days.  As essential backgrounders for this topic I invite the reader to also take the time to review "All these things be fulfilled... Part I and Part II" posted in 2009 as well as "The Psalm 83 Inner Ring Solidifies" posted 2010 to this blog.

In revisiting the subject of Psalm 83 I have learned that according to a commentary by Matthew Henry and the article "Who was Asaph?" (an excellent "must read" study) written in 2005 by Richard Thompson, what we know as Psalm 83 is the last of the total of twelve Psalms that bear Asaph's name as the composer. We know that Asaph lived circa 1020-920 BC, and that Psalm 83 was most likely composed near to Asaph's 100th year during the reign of king Rehoboam and following the twin disasters of the rending of Israel into Israel and Judah and the invasion by Egypt's pharaoh Shishak. These historical details date Psalm 83's composition to about 925 BC.

What was Asshur's (Assyria's) situation circa 925 BC? At this specific point in Assyria's history the king was a man by the name of Ashur-dan II. Ashur-dan II's reign endured for all of 23 years, from 935 to 912 BC, wherein the year of 925 BC pretty much falls smack dab in the middle.  Now, for the previous hundred years Assyria had been subject to Aramean invasions to such an extent that by the end of those 100 years Ashur-dan II was completely preoccupied with securing the Assyrian heartland against these Aramean invasions. His primary task was in "rebuilding Assyria within its natural borders" according to Assyrian historian Peter BetBasoo. The British ancient history website historyfiles.co.uk concurs, saying  of the same time period "Recent Aramean migrations into Mesopotamia increase to the point where Assyria is seriously weakened and begins a decline and a century of total obscurity, reduced to its heartland." Reduced to its heartland, which means there was no such thing an an Assyrian Empire during this time. Total obscurity.

So the totally obscure Assyrian heartland was geographically located where? In the north-central part of modern-day Iraq, as seen in this Goggle Earth satellite image below and in the image at the top of this post. This region is also known as the Assur-Nineveh-Arbela triangle which survive to this day, respectively, as the modern Iraqi cities Qala'at Sherqat, Mosul and Erbil.  Assur in Psalm 83:8 is Iraq.

That issue settled, we now move into a more detailed analysis of what Iraq actually is, and what it is likely to become in the days ahead.

Iraq is an artificial, man-made construct that is geographically divided between the Sunni populated northern and western three-fourths of the country and the Shi'a southeastern quadrant. Ancient Assur lies wholly within in the northern Sunni section; the remainder is Shi'a dominated and closely tied to Shi'a Iran and ancient Elam.

We are informed in verse 8 that Assur helps Lot's progeny. Lot's children constitute modern-day Jordan, and there are real-world ethnic and tribal links that cross over the equally artificial Iraqi-Jordanian frontier. In fact, as mentioned in earlier posts referenced above as an essential part of this post, the help (zĕrowa`) provided by Iraq dates back to the 1948 war and every war since then in which Israel squared off on the battlefield against Jordanian forces there were Iraqi battalions and their commanders also in the fight.

It would seem that something also needs to occur respective to the cohesion of the present Iraqi nation. Perhaps that something is related to Jeremiah 49:34-39, or perhaps to the Sunni-Shi'a civil war that is ongoing in Aram-Syria at this time, or both. In any event, the Lord specifically identified Assur in verse 8 and the expected paradigm-shifting events are likely more widespread that we currently are able to envision.