Global SITREP C7-23: WAR! Phase II

 

UPDATED 11 October 2023: Eschatology Today is expectant of the second phase of this war to commence shortly with the IDF ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, notwithstanding developments on the northern borders with Lebanon and Syria. 

It is anticipated that the IDF operation in Gaza will mirror very closely the imagery contained within the Hebrew text of Isaiah 11:14.  They key words as pronounced are Oof kah-thayf and their meaning is to cover or obscure the shoulder. This evokes the image above of the map of Gaza and the two "shoulders" of the region on the upper right and lower left. This text may be descriptive of a classic pincer movement of armored forces simultaneously moving into Rafah and Gaza City. Another visualization of these two words would be to liken them to a bird covering her young with her wings, or, if you will, how the cherubim covered the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant with their wings. There are the images that come to my mind, others may consider them differently.

There's one other important thing to note that relates to this war. Prior to Saturday Israel was deeply divided, to the point of violence and verbal assaults among the two political camps of the citizens. This appears to be reflected in Isaiah 11:13 where Ephraim and Judah join together and Oof kah-thayf against their common enemy. 

IN THE NORTH The developments in the north could intensify in ferocity and breadth of military action at any moment as for the past couple of days intermittent strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria push towards a literal fulfillment of the Psalm 83 prophecy. At the time of this posting there are ongoing alerts of airborne threats to Israel from Lebanon and Syria.

Today at approximately 10:30 Hezbollah fired and anti-tank missile (ATM) at an IDF M113 personnel carrier known in the IDF as a Zelda. The Zelda was along side the access road to the Blue Line in Avivim, northern Israel, less than a half kilometer from Lebanese territory. The rocket struck the reactive armor on the front of the vehicle but apparently did not destroy it. So we see here that Hezbollah troops are forward deployed up against Israel's border.  Israel's retaliation consisted of addition UCAV air strikes on Hezbollah observation towers in extreme southern Lebanon and saturation artillery fire in the area where the ATM had been launched from. Israeli residents in the Mater Asher region have been directed to their shelters. Israeli police and counterterror forces are prepared for extreme outbreaks of violence and rioting in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem.

INTERNATIONALLY Russia, Byelarus, Turkieh, Iraqi militias loyal to Iran, Houthi-ruled Yemen and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan have clearly and unsurprisingly sided with the Islamic terrorists against Israel. In the US the Biden speech yesterday fell woefully short in complete omission on the culpability of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the IRGC-QF specifically, as bearing responsibility for instigating this war and providing materiel support which made it possible. This war might have been delayed had Biden moved the 6th Fleet much earlier into the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and said "Don't" to Iran weeks ago instead of releasing $6 billion in funds to the mullah terrorists. He bears personal responsibility for this  inaction. 

UPDATE 13 October 2023: Through the UN the IDF has given instructions to Gaza civilians where they are to immediately move to ensure their personal safety. In the map above is a dark line south of Gaza City that stretches from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea. This line is the Wadi Gaza, or Nahal HaBesor, a/k/a the Gaza River. There are just a very few hours remaining before the IDF executes military operations in the entire region of Gaza north of the Wadi Gaza.

Given the Islamist threat of violence for today caution is advised in public gatherings and Jewish neighborhoods everywhere.

Updates will continue as necessary...

Global SITREP G3-21: War in the WESTPAC

 

UPDATED BELOW: 7 October 2021: It's not looking good in the WESTPAC (Western Pacific). A headline and article published yesterday by DailyWaire.com: "Chinese State Media Warns U.S.: 'War May Be Triggered At Any Time' Over Taiwan." 

All pretense of even relative calm between the Communist mainland and the Nationalist democratic government on Taiwan has evaporated. The air force of the PLA have intruded within Taiwan's ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone) well over 150 times since last Friday, with 56 combat aircraft intruding on Monday, 4 October, just three days ago. These aggressive intrusions of PLA J-11 combat aircraft are a virtual daily occurrence and in every circumstance are they  intercepted Taiwanese Air Force F-16 fighters. The confrontations are normally brief, less than 15 minutes, but in this environment air combat could erupt and end in a first contact within seconds.

 

The Communist mouthpiece paper Global Times made clear this week that the trigger for the PLA military to bring punishment upon Taiwan's "secessionist forces" will occur, and "Time will prove that this warning is not just a verbal threat." This was followed by a Communist tweet: "Since Taiwan authorities are preparing for war, let's see whether Australia is willing to accompany Taiwan[s] separatist regime to become cannon fodder."

As we've noted previously, there is no question that Japan will act militarily in defense of Taiwan. Make no mistake, Japan is urgently preparing for war with China. The CCP response has been that it would nuke Japan in the event of Japanese intervention in "Chinese internal affairs." As for the U.S. under fully CCP-compromised President Joe Biden, the longstanding ambiguity of the Taiwan Agreement (maybe we will, maybe we won't) remains as it is.

Here are all of the ingredients necessary for tactical nuclear warfare to erupt in the WESTPAC. The question then becomes, will it remain a tactical exchange of nukes or escalate up to strategic strikes. Wars and rumors of wars.

Tsugaru Strait, Japan

UPDATE 21 October 2021: What is known in naval terms as a Joint Surface Action Group (J-SAG), this one comprised of Russian and Chinese PLA/N surface combatant ships, passed through Japan's international waterway, the Tsugaru Strait, on Monday of this week (map above). The USNI website has the report in detail from the Joint Staff of the Japanese Self-Defense Force (JSDF) in photos and data points. It is well worth your attention.

Eschatology Today will note that this Russian-Chinese J-SAG evokes the future fulfillment in Scripture found in Daniel 11:44 regarding military news from the east and the north resulting in a specific 70th Week military engagements. Nevertheless we see these same military powers acting in concert today in prologue for the future. This transit is also a direct threat to Japan with respect to the Japanese declaration of its intent to defend Taiwan in the event of Communist Chinese military action. 

Global SITREP B6-16: Knowledge is Power

Jordan Border Crossing: Jabhat al-Nusra (Al Qaeda) In Control

7 April 2016: Some time ago I gave the readers of Eschatology Today a warning regarding acceptance of news reporting. The warning to the reader was that during wartime the truth will often be hidden by a bodyguard of outright lies or various levels of disinformation. The war continues and so does my warning. We need to be careful no matter where the information we receive comes from.

A case in point is the above image posted by DEBKAfile yesterday. It carried this opening sentence: "ISIS forces in southern Syria overran several Jordanian border crossings south of the Yarmouk River on Tuesday, April 5. This disastrous turn of events is illustrated by an exclusive picture obtained by debkafile of an ISIS fighter unfurling the organization’s flag at one of the crossings which sports a Jordanian flag."

Everything about this sentence is true except for the most important part - the identification of the terrorist group and flag in the image. As I privately informed the editors at DEBKAfile yesterday  afternoon (we are on the same side in this war, no?) that is NOT an ISIS terrorist waving the ISIS battle flag at an apparently abandoned Jordanian border crossing.  It is a Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) terrorist waving the Al-Qaeda-aligned Jabhat al-Nusra battle flag. 

There is no way on Earth that the astute and experienced editors at DEBKAfile made such a blatant error in the positive identification of an ISIS flag versus the Jabhat al-Nusra flag. It is something a 6-year old child with two minutes of instruction could correctly do with flash cards. 

So, the first question is: For what not-so-obvious political purpose or agenda would DEBKAfile deliberately publish a disinformational report for the whole world to see, and then create a narrative account of reactions to the image by the Israeli government and those of Jordan, the US, the Saudi and UAE military officers? Is the world to believe the military intelligence professionals working for these governments do not know the existent facts on the ground at the Jordanian border? Of course they do. So why the nonsense from DEBKAfile for John and Jane Q. Public to consume?

The second question is: If this photograph is accurate in its depiction, does it provide the first solid evidence that the forces of Islamic State and the jihadists of Al-Qaeda's brand have joined forces in the face of the ongoing Russian-Iranian-Hezbollah-Syrian military offensive, plus the U.S.led Coalition military operation? 

The third question is: If so, then why is this not the core subject of the DEBKAfile report? Why is it not the subject of Corporate News Media (in the U.S. that's ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN and the lot) reporting? Buckle up, a completely unexpected Immelmann maneuver begins with the next sentence. 

DEBKAfile actually got the core issue correct. The Sunni jihadists of the self-declared Islamic State caliphate and the nebulous global jihadists under Al Qaeda's banner are not enemies - they're allies! They are allies in their primary jihad against the secular West, Christianity and Judaism, and secondarily against their enemies of the Russian-Syrian-Iranian axis. How do I know this? I read the stuff the corporate media have embargoed in their boardrooms because they are in agreement with the agenda being pursued by Western governments, led by our own.

Remember the good ol' days? The enemy was known and clearly identified. They were Communists who followed the rigid ideology of Communism. The US and our European and Pacific allies took this clear identification of the enemy and his ideology and crafted a warfighting doctrine with which to defeat the enemy. Ultimately the doctrine succeeded, at least with respect to the former-USSR. 

Now look at the enemy today. We know them as Islamists and their ideology is Islamism. And that's where the similarity ends because the US and our European and Pacific allies resolutely refuse to name Islamists as the enemy and Islamism as their ideology. From this point the failure escalates due to an abject refusal to use this knowledge to craft a warfighting doctrine with which to defeat this enemy. 

This is the reason why this war in many military and intelligence circles, which was fully engaged long before many of us realized that out enemy was at war with us, is known as "The Long War." Without the requisite definition of an enemy and his ideology upon which a warfighting doctrine must be crafted this war will be endless. A perpetual and perfectly good global crisis which those wielding power have no intention of allowing to go to waste.

Remember the "Global War on Terrorism"?  My how the political establishment wailed when this nomenclature was done away with, never mind the fact that no nation has ever successfully waged war against a tactic. Terrorism is not an enemy, it is a tactic used by the enemy. And the recent media headlines across Europe and the US were absolutely predictable: "Terror Attacks San Bernardino" and "Terror Attacks Paris" and "Terror Attacks Brussels."  Terror did not attack anyone or any city. Islamists executing their ideological Islamism attacked the US and French Marines in Beirut in 1983, and every cold-blooded Islamic assault since then to include San Bernardino, Paris, Brussels, Madrid, London, New York City, Washington, D.C. and Shanksville, PA, just to name a handful.

Why isn't this the real news then? Why propagate falsehood for the public to consume. You see where I am coming from, and where I am going. People are being conditioned to believe the lie. Any lie.  Any lie the regime in power wants the public to believe will be accepted because the public has been pre-conditioned to believe it. Heaven help those who reject the lie, whatever it is. And it took me all of four days to attempt to make some kind coherent sense of this and express it here.

I'm not going to hold my breath on this, but there is just the slightest chance the Islamic State-Al Qaeda alliance might become public knowledge through the global corporate media. I hold out this slim chance because I have seen in the past day or so news from Arab-language media where some exceptionally brave Muslim journalists have actually called out Islam as being responsible for the unending wave of global terror. Muslims usually don't call out other Muslims or cite Islamism as the cause of cold-blooded carnage and live long to tell about it. Chances are they'll be assassinated or beheaded, or worse, but it is a faint glimmer of a chance that will likely evaporate with a new wave of jihadist assaults in Rome, London, New York or WhoKnowsWhere. 

Marana'tha Lord, Marana'tha!

Global SITREP E2-15: Bible Prophecy and the War in Syria - Part II

UPDATE 11 November 2015:  I noticed on today's front page of my local newspaper there a USA Today article (links to Chicago Sun-Times) written by Tom Vanden Brook confirming my previous update of 6 November below regarding the deployment of USAF F-16C air-to-air combat aircraft to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey as well as the reasons for this deployment according to an anonymous DoD (Pentagon) source. The F-16Cs now confirmed purpose is: "...to protect low-flying U.S. attack planes hitting Islamic State targets and to deter Russian aggression in the region..." Protect them from whom? From Syrian and Russian fighter aircraft. This article reveals that 6 additional F-16E are being deployed to Incirlik to join the B-1 Lancers, A-10 Warthogs and AC-130U Spooky and the new AC-130J Ghostrider gunships striking Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq. Ahead of the curve is a good place to be.

6 November 2015: Another rather large nail was driven into the coffin of the faulty exegesis and expository preaching of some that the Russian military intervention in Syria's civil war is heralding the immediate fulfillment of Ezekiel 38/39 yesterday when the NATO alliance publicly sounded a call to arms to counter the ongoing Russian military buildup. Ezekiel 38/39 is coming, but it most definitely is not the next fulfillment within the now apparent sequence of pre-70th Week fulfillments that have been discussed in many blog posts over the past seven years and reside in the front-page archives of Eschatology Today.

The forceful call to arms announced in Troia, Portugal (a 'merchant of Tarshish' by the way) by NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg is the diametric opposite of what is prophesied to occur in Ezekiel 38:13. This announcement at its core is an order of magnitude beyond the self-perceived enhanced flexibility of U.S. President Barack Obama in his dealings with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin. This announcement effectually is a line drawn in the sand instructing Putin to go no further; that this is not about Obama, but something well beyond him, this is about the future of the West itself, 'Revived Rome of the 70th Week' as referred to in our dispensational exegesis.

As reported by a plethora of world corporate media, the NATO call to arms (a military response) is a direct response to the Russian military challenge to NATO that is occurring along a north-south axis from Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, to Crimea and Ukraine on the Black Sea, to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea on the Syrian littoral where Russian military forces have been massing all manner of combat capabilities in recent weeks. To quote Stoltenberg, "We have to be sure that we are able to overcome these capabilities, so we can reinforce, so we can move and we can deploy forces if needed." NATO's military response is now in progress and is the reason behind the publicly announced movement of a squadron of American F-16C Fighting Falcons to Incirlik Air base in Turkey.

Again, SITREP E2-15 is a continuation of SITREP D10-15. In the second-to-last paragraph of D10-15 I provided an assessed forecast which was based upon Jeremiah 49:23-27 and Isaiah 17. At this junction that forecast might bear repeating.

"There are verses in both Jeremiah's and Isaiah's prophecies that directly relate to an apparent military catastrophe along the Syrian littoral of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and ashore in the area from Hama to Arpad (the area of Aleppo and north to the Turkish border), and, of course, the destruction (possibly if not probably by nuclear means) of Damascus and all of the military forces that will be within the city as it meets its prophetic fate. Also, not only will the endgame of this intervention in Syria be a military disaster for the Russians and Iranians, but Syria as a nation itself will cease to exist."

In Happier Pre-War Times - Parading IRGC Troops

5 November 2015: As the title strongly suggests, this SITREP is actually going to be a continuation of D10-15.

It may still come as a surprise to some, but a report published today by Asharq al-Awsat (datelined in both Tehran and London) claims according to a source close to Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) that due to the deaths of several senior Iranian generals and field-grade commanders (at least 30 in the past two weeks), and the increasingly heavy death toll among IRGC regular troops in Syrian combat against Sunni jihadists, a mutiny has begun to take hold with a significant number of senior IRGC-QF commanders who have begun refusing to return to the front lines and fight with their troops, while still others back home in the majority ethnic Arab province of Ahvaz have retired from the IRGC-QF and the regular Iranian Army rather than be deployed into the Syrian war zone. In a bid to entice other ethnic minorities in Iran (Balochis, Azeris, Sunni Arabs and Kurds ) to join its depleting ranks, the IRGC is offering these would-be recruits the equivalent of $830 for agreeing to a six week combat tour in Syria after completion of their training. According to Bible prophecy, specifically Jeremiah 49:34-39, Iran's military problems are just beginning with unimaginable losses foretold for the future.

 
One of the adjunct repercussions of the war in Syria, as we all know, is the flood of Christian, Muslim and secular refugees fleeing into the heart of Europe. Much has been made of the strong probability of Islamic terrorists coming with the rank and file refugees, but we've not heard much about what many Europeans themselves think of this influx, until now. Below is an image of a hand-painter banner measuring 50 feet tall by 75 feet wide that was unfurled at a home soccer game in Wroclaw, Silesia, Poland. The banner depicts boatloads of jihadists giving the one-fingered salute of the Islamic State coming uninvited to the southern shores of Europe, only to be greeted by European continent guarded by a fully armored Crusader brandishing a massive sword and St. George's cross, and whose shield displays the Wroclaw football club's crest on it.

Incidentally, one week prior to this soccer match the result of the national election was that the Polish people threw out of office ALL of the left-wing members of the national Parliament. All of them. Memo to America: one year from now follow Poland's lead.

Russia has just a few of it's best combat aircraft in Syria, but America is not letting that go unchallenged. While both countries are against the Islamic State, they are also supporting opposite sides in the Syrian civil war. So the U.S. has upped the ante by sending a squadron of F-16C Fighting Falcons armed only with air-to-air weaponry to operate in Syria from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. Clearly these top-of-the-line U.S. Air Force fighters will not be dog fighting with Islamic State fighter aircraft. So, their purpose is to defend NATO ally Turkey from Russian or Syrian air force incursions - or - to give the anti-Assad rebels the US is supporting air cover from attacks by Russian and/or Syrian aircraft and helicopters. 

Russian Air Force General Bondarev is being quoted in various media reports of 5 November saying that due to the possibility of foreign fighter aircraft being "hijacked" in countries adjacent to Syria (i.e. Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Israel) the assets Russia has deployed to Bassel al-Assad Air Base near Jableh includes an air defense system comparable to Israel's Iron Dome air defense (AD) system. The types of anti-air defenses was not mentioned by Gen. Bondarev. However, Eschatology Today has determined precisely what systems have been deployed into Syria. They are the modernized 9K33 OSA SA-8 'Gecko'; the S-125-2M Pechora-2M, the NPO Almaz S-200 SA-5 'Gammon', the Pantsir-S1 SA-22 Greyhound' and BuK-M2E SA-17 'Grizzly,' as well as all of the associated radar emitters and command and control (C2) infrastructure. This effectively constitutes a division-level air defense umbrella to cover the Latakia and Tartous governorates in Syria. No one should believe the 'hijack' nonsense given by this Russian air force general, these weapons are clearly designed to defend against NATO and Israeli airstrikes against the Russian bases in Syria.

Did I say "upped the ante?" Roger that, I certainly did. And to those who still think the Russian intervention in Syria is a lead-in to Ezekiel 38/39, think again, Russia and Turkey are enemies in this war. 

Global SITREP C4-15: Are We Witnessing the Final Days of the Ba'athist al-Assad Regime, and of Syria?

UPDATE 31 May 2015: It has been about a month since the last words were added here, so an update is definitely in order for SITREP C4-15. And in this interim period the answer to the question posed in the SITREP C4-15 title appears now to be a definitive "Yes!"  

The current status has the "Islamic State" and the other rebel forces continuing to hammer away at what's left of Al-Assad's military forces and defensible territory; Russia has apparently all but abandoned its military ally in Damascus, and Iran's Lebanese Hezbollah proxy is not militarily powerful enough to halt the Sunni jihadist onslaught which is coming very close to surrounding Al-Assad's capital city. Short of Iran airlifting entire combat divisions into Damascus International Airport, there is little or nothing left to rescue the Ba'athist-Alawite regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Jeremiah 49:23-27 and Isaiah 17 do appear to be that much closer to a literal fulfillment in the very near future.

4 May 2015: There is now significant military pressure being placed upon the faltering Syrian Ba'athist regime of Bashar al-Assad and the city of Damascus by an array of Sunni Jihadist militias. This kind of military pressure evokes images from the prophetic texts of Jeremiah 49:23-27 and the more well-known Isaiah 17. Accordingly, a military disaster of epic proportions appears to be in Damascus immediate future, a future vision Spiritually inspired and described by Jeremiah and Isaiah.

A thorough review of those texts is in order. As can be seen from the above image they were written by the two prophets with the Old City in mind, the Damascus they were familiar with. However, the modern-day Damascus we are familiar with over two dozen centuries later is five to six times as large. In the next day or so this will be the focus of eschatological study that will be posted here.

Jeremiah 49:23 "Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet."  

This verse identifies the current battlegrounds in Syria, from the northwestern frontier with Turkey: Tell Erfad (Arpad) to Hama (Hamath) on the Orontes River, to Damascus, 132 miles to the south. As occurred in the ancient past, these cities are to fall to an enemy originating from the region of ancient Assur (Islamic State) before Damascus falls to this enemy. The "sorrow on the sea" appears to be a direct reference to the nations of the Mediterranean Sea; i.e., the West, who act as enablers of what is occurring. 

Therefore, verse 23 sets up the complete and totlal military disaster that follows in verses 24 through 27:

"Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail. How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy! Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts. And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad."

In the concluding verse Ben-Hadad is a direct reference to a false god, and the consuming by fire of the palaces thereof, the walls of Damascus, and all the men of war being cut off in that day, speaks to great carnage and destruction as this war reaches it decisive conclusion. 

It is the burning and consuming by fire which I interpret to be a connecting dot to the same event that is presented in Isaiah 17, the utter destruction of the immense city that is Damascus as we know it today. The scope of the burning destruction and utter ruin into the heap of rubble as foretold by Isaiah should be measured against a recent image of Damascus presented below.

In my studies I have found there is nothing in these prophecies which suggests a peaceful end to the Ba'athist regime of Bashar al-Assad, and nothing good to come of the so-called peace talks. There is also the dire aspect of Isaiah's prophecy on what the Syrian war brings upon Israel and its population. 

There is simply no getting away from and no sugar-frosting of the soon to be established prophetic fact that not only is Damascus to be utterly destroyed, but the whole of what we know today as Syria is coming to an end. And the destruction does not end there, but continues well into the "cities of Aroer," which is northwestern Jordan, and the near total depopulation of that entire region, and into Israel as well in the central region known as Ephraim. 

I think we all need to understand exactly what these prophecies are telling us about what is now in the process of becoming a reality. We, in this present generation, have not seen and therefore do not properly comprehend and therefore are likely not mentally prepared for the unrestrained use of weapons of mass destruction. 

Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the carnage of World War Two are distant memories of a generation passing quickly from the present scene. We hear news reports of chlorine gas and "barrel bombs" being used in the Syrian war, but this is virtually as distant from affecting our lives as the dust on the moon; it is a perspective of real war we simply cannot relate to, but will have to come to grips with soon enough.

Yet through it all we know our God is in control; these things must take place as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear in the Olivet Discourse, they are the birthpangs of what is to come at the appointed time.

Global SITREP D3-14: Islamic Jihadists Want Peace With Israel?

18 August, 2014: If you read the vast majority of Israeli newspapers this morning they are treating nearly 8 million Israelis as if they were turnips freshly fallen off of a farm truck. How so? By reporting that the islamic jihadists of Gaza are saying that even if the current ceasefire collapses without an agreement being reached in the Cairo negotiations they have lost the will to engage Israel in any more warfare (jihad).  In case no one notices, such statements are diametrically opposed to everything Islamic, and thus the Qur'an.  Islam cannot exist without a state of permanent warfare (jihad) against all other things non-Islamic. Period.

Think about it. Would it be possible for HAMAS to abide by the most basic tenets of its raison d'etre, it's foundational charter, without engaging in warfare (jihad) to liberate all of "Palestine" from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and from Lebanon to Egypt from the Jews who have created a modern state on that same land? 

No, it would not be possible. If any of this disinformation in today's Israeli media were truthful then there would be no reason for HAMAS, or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or Fatah, or the PLO, or the PFLP-GC to even exist. Were any of this abject nonsense being reported in the Israeli media this morning accurate then all of these islamic terrorist organizations would declare themselves disbanded; they would immediately recognize Israel's right to exist; declaring their unconditional acceptance of the so-called two-state solution and achieve a permanent peace agreement by sun-rise on Tuesday, 19 August 2014.

More importantly, is there anything that I have just written here which is consistent with Bible prophecy for these last days? If you said "no," then you are correct and you understand the basics about what Israel has to overcome in order to achieve the type of peace, safety and secuirty the prophet Ezekiel has foretold will exist for Israel and its people when the last pre-70th Week military engagement involving Israel occurs in the near future.

20/21 August 2014: Well, now that Israel's egg-faced government, and unfortunately its people, have been rocketed and blasted back into the reality of islamic jihadism a la HAMAS, PIJ, Fatah and the rest of Gaza's terrorists, what might be Israel's next move? Another round of Cairo negotiations for another worthless hudna (ceasefire) for the terrorists to use to their full military advantage? Or will the only other viable course of action to achieve the demilitarization of Gaza, and of Sinai for that matter, be brought to execution in the next few hours or days? If the current government of Israel has one scintilla of common sense, the forcible demilitarization of Gaza (i.e. full scale war) will be the course of action chosen, and the current IDF military tactic of "mowing the grass" in Gaza will fall by the wayside as it has failed to achieve its objectives.

For their part, the muslims will have to begin asking themselves, "Where was allah's protection of Mohammed Deif's wife and infant son? Where is his protection of us all as we wage jihad against the infidel Jews he has told us to kill wherever we find them? Why do the rocks not cry out as promised by the words of the prophet in the holy qur'an,' here is a Jew, come and kill him? Surely allah wills it?'" In this war the muslims will come to realize they have worshiped, enslaved, and murdered all over the world, on an industrial scale, the will of a false god. Or they will die hopelessly destined to eternal fires of hell for they have denied the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living and Eternal God of Israel. And know this, the innocent infant son of terrorist Mohammed Deif is in the loving arms of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And in Israel, the lesson thus far appears to have gone unlearned. There are many in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv who think this war is the product of one man, Mohammed Deif, the commander of HAMAS' Al-Qassam Brigades; that the continuation of this war will end with his own death and the deaths of his sub-commanders. These Israelis are ignorant, secularist dreamers. These are Israelis who do not comprehend that jihad against Israel is a qur'anic directive; that islamists regard the land of Israel no differently than they regard the land of Andalucia (the southern part of the modern NATO member nation we know as the Kingdom of Spain). Islamists do not want to live side by side with Israel in peace; they want Israel to cease to exist (Psalm 83:4)! These Israelis currently have more regard for the al-taqiyya doctrine (lies, deceit, illusion) of the islamists than they do for the prophetic words of the God of their fathers. This is why this war began in 1948 and continues in fits and spurts to this day.

Israel, for the most part still in disbelief, does not yet realize the spiritual basis of why they have been brought back from the four corners of the earth diaspora into Eretz Israel. It is the same reason why the LORD God had them wander in the wilderness for decades after the exodus from Egypt: disobedience and disbelief. They have been brought back into Eretz Israel to take possession of the land the LORD God has given to them, not trade it for worthless treaties with godless barbarians. And here is where I believe ancient history will repeat itself for Israel but on an infinitely more compressed time scale. Now I believe the time is right for the appearance of one whom the religious Jews expect -- Moshiach ben Joseph. See Obadiah 1. Through the coming trials Israel will learn to walk in faith and have full trust in what God has promised to them, and then will the Lord pour out His Spirit upon them.

As for the current war, as long as it continues there remains the possibility that it will morph into the final series of battles against those enemies surrounding Israel as prophesied by Asaph, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Obadiah and a host of others.

ISRAEL BREAKS OPEN ITS STRATEGIC WEAPONS LOCKER

Israel has brought a new weapon onto the battlefield, and although it is a part of the "mowing the grass" tactic, it is also an escalation demonstrating far more precision in which blades of grass Israel's leadership want to cut off at below root level. The weapon now being introduced to HAMAS is the GBU-28, a laser-guided bunker busting bomb that is 18.5 feet long (5.6m) and weighing 5,000 lbs (2,267kg). It makes very big and deep smoking holes of HAMAS underground command and control (C2) centers. The GBU-28 has ben used to devastating effect in Serbia, Afghanistan and Iraq. And now in Gaza.

Israel's GBU-28 - Killing Terrorists in the Holes Where They Hide

The GBU-28 has almost certainly been delivered on target by Israel's recently upgraded fleet of F-15I Ra'am multi-mission strike aircraft. Taking out deeply buried targets in Gaza with this weapon is live fire practice for similar targets that Israel has not forgotten about in Iran. There will be payback with interest for all of the Iranian missiles fired against Israel's civilians by their Gaza proxies. Fair warning.

Update: It now seems fairly evident that the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (a/k/a the al-Mukhabarat), working closely with Israel's Shin Bet clandestine service, provided the extremely critical and time-sensitive HUMINT (HUman INTelligence) which allowed IAF to strike with their other precision bunker buster ordnance that took out significant members of HAMAS senior terrorist leadership (Raed Attar, Abu Shmala and Muhamad Barhoum) early this morning. That weapon was the 2,000 lb U.S.-made BLU-109/B. Five of these bunker busters were delivered on-target by the IAF F-16I Sufa strike aircraft.

Global SITREP A27-13: How Stupid is Bashar al-Assad?

Al-Kibar September 2007: Before (left) and After (right)

05 September 2013: This Saturday marks the 6th anniversary of Israel's September 7, 2007 destruction of Bashar al-Assad's attempt to complete the construction of a North Korean-designed nuclear reactor known as Al-Kibar. Al-Kibar was to have been a plutonium reactor for the specific purpose of producing weapons grade fissile cores for nuclear weapons. This is particularly relevant today in that the question posed by many media pundits of late relates directly to "How Stupid is Bashar al-Assad."  As this timely Israeli-preempted endeavor amply illustrates, Bashar al-Assad has already proven beyond any doubt that he and his closest allies and advisors are absolutely capable of being in the category of world-class tin-foil hatter stupid.

The recent question whether or not Bashar al-Assad would be as stupid with his existing and quite considerable chemical and biological weapons as he was with his desire for nuclear weapons capability is, as former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would likely have framed it, "a known known."  Of course he would and will use these weapons of mass destruction, otherwise there would be no purpose in his possession of them. This is true of all nations which possess such weaponry. If a human being or a group of human beings possess a club, or a stick and a stone, or a bow and an arrow, or a bullet and a rifle, or a rocket with a WMD warhead -- it will be used. This logic has been proven throughout the course of human history. However, the more radical, the  more fanatical, or ideologically or apocalyptically motivated that group of human being is towards their enemies the more the likelihood increases for the use of their most fearsome weapons against their enemies. This is not rocket science. It is fact, Biblically prophetic fact at that.

I have just made the case for a full-scale, no holds barred preemption of both Syria's and Iran's weapons of mass destruction capabilities before they can use them against their enemies. That means us. All sides in the current conflict appear to have adopted the conclusion that the coming war in the Middle East is an inevitability; that there is no chance of walking this one back; that an object in motion tends to stay in motion. So if its war, then we have no other option but to ensure that we dictate its outcome in advance. 

My previous arguments pointing to why our going to war have been based upon falsehoods have fallen upon many deaf ears and blind eyes. These leaders believe they can manage this coming war like one manages the harvesting of turnips from field to truck to market. They are fools. World-class. The first thing that happens in any war is that all plans and anticipated management techniques are killed off in the first engagement with the enemy. And that is saying a lot because based upon the briefing our top military commander gave to various Congressional committees in the past day we have no established warfighting objective here; we're going to be winging it freelance style.

Now I say we must execute this war as the image above indicates Israel executed its preemption of Bashar al-Assad's nuclear ambitions -- leave absolutely nothing but flattened, glass-encrusted dirt and be done with it. Given the manner in which Obama has rundown and castrated our military forces in the past five years anything less than this guarantees that my young sons and your young sons (and daughters) are destined to be boots on yet another Middle Eastern battlefield because current conditions guarantee a re-institution of a military draft. Another Middle Eastern battlefield is the last place I want any of them to be in because it is hell.

UPDATED: The Syrian Missile Crisis: Threat of War Very Real

UPDATE 14 May 2010: Yet another real-world indicator relating to why all of Lebanon is likely to be taken by Israel in the coming Psalm 83/Isaiah 17 war (according to the associated Joshua 13:1-7 prophecy) has been reported in the mainstream TIME Magazine. Here is an excerpt (emphasis added):

"Israel vows it will use far greater force in the next war and will treat the Lebanese state — in whose government Hizballah has a major role — as the enemy, rather than just the Shi'ite militia, a prospect that frightens many Lebanese."

A second interesting excerpt along these same lines comes from the very end of an IsraelNationalNews.com report which cites yet another Kuwaiti Al-Rai report which, in turn, cites "Western sources" and suggests a specific timing and first course-of-action for the start of this next war (emphasis added):

"Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti Al-Rai newspaper claimed several days ago that Western sources told it that "Israel will wage war the minute it discovers the whereabouts of Nasrallah's hideout whatever the time or circumstances," Nasrallah, the anti-Semitic head of Hizbullah, has mostly been in hiding since the Second Lebanon War."

UPDATE 5 May 2010: Yesterday Israel's Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee received a very disconcerting situation report (SITREP) from Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, the chief of the Research Division of the IDF's military intelligence (MI) division. BG Baidatz' told the Knesset, “Weapons transfers to Hizbullah from Syria are carried out in a regular manner and are arranged by the Syrian and Iranian regimes. Therefore this should not be termed 'weapons smuggling to Lebanon' – it is an organized, officially sanctioned process.”

He went on to say (emphasis added), "The long range of Syria's Scuds makes it possible for them to position their missiles deep inside Lebanon, and they cover much longer ranges than what we were familiar with in the past. Hizbullah Model 2010 is different from Hizbullah Model 2006 as far as military capability, which has greatly developed.” "Deep inside Lebanon" is another way of saying "strategic depth." This statement may be the strongest yet real-world indicator of why all of Lebanon is to be taken by Israel in the coming war according to Joshua 13:1-7.

UPDATE 27 April 2010: Israel National News has an ominous banner headline this morning: "Syrian-Turkish Joint Army Drill Intensifies Threat to Israel." A key early sentence in this report notes something which might appear to some, particularly non-Messianic Jews, as being a foreshadowing of the Ezekiel 38/39 Gog/Magog confederation: "Turkey also has established closer ties with Iran, and an Iranian-Turkish-Syrian-Lebanese axis would pose a monolithic threat to Israel from the north."

Since Israel, for the most part, remains under "the terms of the covenant the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb," and which gave them an unperceiving heart, blind eyes and deaf ears relative to the accurate interpretation of Biblical prophecy - Deuteronomy 29:4; Isaiah 29:10 and Romans 11:25 inclusive - the Jews today are to be forgiven for any prophetic misinterpretation of current events or things as they may appear to be unfolding as intimated in the above quoted sentence. Gog/Magog will occur after the war of Psalm 83 and Isaiah 17.

Another key sentence which catches my attention is this report is this one (emphasis added): "Syrian sources told the Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai that if Israel were to attack the Lebanon-based Hizbullah terrorist army, Syria would impose a naval blockade on Israel, using ground-to-sea missiles."

The distance from southern most Syria to northernmost Israel is the same as that of the entire north-south dimension of Lebanon along its Mediterranean coastline - a distance of 140 miles. Given the specificity of the Syrian blockade threat to use ground-to-sea missiles, I must note that Syria is not known to possess any such "ground-to-sea" cruise missile. Syria possesses old Russian-made ship-to-ship cruise missiles (SS-N-2C (Styx) and SS-N-3b (Sepal)). Accordingly, short of deploying the entire Syrian naval fleet to Lebanese coastal waters, Syria must have quietly acquired a far more advanced naval cruise missile capability from either Iran, Russia or North Korea, or has deployed into Lebanon batteries of C-802 cruise missiles acquired from Iran.

Hmmm, purely speculation on my part, but what ever happened to the rumored clandestine cruise missile cargo on board the allegedly hijacked Russian vessel MV Arctic Sea seven months ago? Might Syria have received some Russian-made tactical purpose Kh-65E anti-shipping cruise missiles? Is this one of the "surprises" Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has told the Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai are store for Israel?

The Syrian's also inherently threaten the non-combatant commercial shipping interests of many nations sailing the crowded waters of the Eastern Mediterranean. This threat is consistent with, and was probably crafted with or inspired by Iranian threats relative to the Strait of Hormuz at the head of the Persian Gulf.

UPDATE 26 April 2010: Additional research reveals that the SS-1C Scud-B ballistic missiles that Israel has declared were transferred from Syria to Lebanon may in fact be the Syrian-made M-600 ballistic missile system. The two systems are remarkably similar, if not identical, in their physical appearance. Compare the new image above of the Syrian M-600 missile with original image below it of a Scud-B. According to a pair of Naharnet reports from 14 January 2010, not only have these Syrian M-600s been transfered to Hezbollah, they were declared operational by Israeli defense sources. In fact, some of the exact same wording from the recent reports cited below occurs within the above linked January reports. It would appear from the recent reports that Israel's government has served its final warning to both Syria, Lebanon and Hezbollah, and by extension, to Iran and the world at-large.

19 April 2010: An update today from National Review Online authored by Elliott Abrams. Bottom line excerpt which we agree with, and which yesterday's statement by SECSTATE Hillary Rodham Clinton might be directly related:

"Some people believe that sending a U.S. ambassador to Syria, for the first time since 2005, will be useful, because he will be able to deliver messages to the Assad regime. But the best message we could send right now does not require an ambassador in Damascus, just clarity in Washington: Sending SCUDs to Hezbollah will not be tolerated, and Israeli military actions taken to prevent it will have full American support."

16 April 2010: The threat of a regional war involving Syria, Lebanon, Hezbollah and Israel is more ominous today that it has been at any time since the end of the brief summer war of 2006. The hair-trigger this time involves the reported Syrian delivery of WMD-capable SS-1C "Scud-B" ballistic missiles (like the one seen above) or, according to anonymous Israeli sources the SS-1E "Scud D," to the Shi'a terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon.

On Tuesday, 13 April 2010, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak went public in confirming the stunning news that the governments of Syria and Lebanon were in blatant and deliberate violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 which brought a tenuous end to the Israel-Hezbollah war of July-August 2006. The bombshell news first reported by the Kuwaiti Al-Rai news agency was that Syria was in the process of transferring Scud ballistic missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Item 8 of UNSCR 1701 called for "no sales or supply of arms and related materiel to Lebanon except as authorized by its Government," and Item 14 called for "the Government of Lebanon to secure its borders and other entry points to prevent the entry in Lebanon without its consent of arms or related materiel," and Item 15(a) which decided "all States shall take the necessary measures to prevent, by their nationals or from their territories ... The sale or supply to any entity or individual in Lebanon of arms and related materiel of all types, including weapons and ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, paramilitary equipment, and spare parts for the aforementioned, whether or not originating in their territories; and 15(b) The provision to any entity or individual in Lebanon of any technical training or assistance related to the provision, manufacture, maintenance or use of the items listed in subparagraph (a) above..."

With the reported transfer of Scud ballistic missiles and the training in Syria of Hezbollah troops on the operation and maintenance of these weapons Syria has been caught red-handed and in clear war-provoking violation of UNSCR 1701. The government of Lebanon shares in culpability due to its obvious complicity in the arming and training of Hezbollah's forces due to its failure to control its national territory and borders. This is the most egregious violation of UNSCR 1701 to date, as evidenced by the wholesale re-arming of Hezbollah with even more advanced weapons (such as Syrian-made M-600 rockets and Russian-made Igla-S MANPADS) by Iran, Syria and possibly North Korea during the past 3 years and 7 months, and constitutes a rock-solid casus belli for Israel to immediately begin pre-emptively striking the missiles, and fixed targets related to the weapons transfer and associated training facilities in both Lebanon and Syria. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad bears the lion's share of personal responsibility for provoking the threat of a regional war which could very rapidly escalate to a large-scale exchange of weapons of mass destruction in the Levant.

While rumors continue to circulate in major world capitals that the Syrian's transferred top-of-the line SS-1E Scud-D (50 meter CEP) missiles to Hezbollah, no proof of has yet been made public to confirm the rumor. These missiles would give Hezbollah the capability to act as a proxy for Iran in launching a preemptive or retaliatory strike against Israel's Dimona nuclear complex should Israel strike Iranian nuclear targets in the near term. Sans photographic or human intelligence proof of the Scud variant transferred to Hezbollah, my assessment is that Syria sent the SS-1C Scud-B variant to Hezbollah. Scud-Bs are 1960s-era missiles (obsolete for a modern army), and they would suit Hezbollah better because they're very much a weapon of terror with a 900 meter CEP (Circular Error Probable). Scud-B can carry a thickened VX gas chemical warhead. As with a tossed grenade - close is good enough.

In either case, once Israel confirms Hezbollah's possession of Scud missiles and their operational status vice a malicious ruse of inoperable missile shells, an imminent series of strategic strikes by Israel would be virtually assured. Should these strikes occur, as I believe they will, then this will likely become a war of widespread WMD use per Isaiah 17:4-11, followed by a rapid escalation into the fulfillment of Psalm 83, Joshua 13:1-7 and Zechariah 9.

Today we should enjoy the calm before the storm, a storm which lies a hair's breadth distance between the current relative calm and full-scale war.