Pray for the peace
of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee - Psalm 122:6
These are perilous
times for the nation of Israel. Her existence is being threatened on a multitude
of fronts. If ever there was a time when the Jewish state needed more the
prayers of those that love her, that time would be now. Those groups that seek
her destruction are stepping up, while nations that once supported her are
backing off.
In the south,
Egypt has had a peace treaty with Israel since 1979, when Anwar Sadat and
Menachem Begin signed the Camp David peace accords after 13 days of secret
negotiations the previous year. All through the Mubarak years, there had been
relative calm between the two nations. Israel had to give up control of the
Sinai Peninsula as a condition of the peace treaty, thus beginning a "land for
peace" mindset for any further negotiations with her Arab
counterparts.
Then recently, as
a result of the so-called Arab Spring, Hosni Mubarak was ousted and replaced
with a "democratically elected" Muslim Brotherhood leader, namely Mohammed
Morsi. One of Morsi's first declarations since taking office, was that he
intended to "amend" the 1979 peace treaty with Israel, which is more than likely
Islamic- speak for rendering it null and void. He has since re-militarized the
Sinai in efforts to control Gaza rebels who are infiltrating from the Gaza-Egypt
border, but could also be used as a pretense for a further military buildup
along the Israel-Egypt front - a development that the Israeli leadership is
concerned about.
In the north,
along Lebanon's border with Israel, Hezbollah - the Iranian-backed
militia/terrorist group - has continued to build up its arsenal of rockets, some
of which are capable of hitting Tel Aviv and surrounding areas. They continue to
be a growing menace and may soon get their hands on weapons of mass destruction
from nearby Syria.
In Gaza, to the
West, as soon as Israel gave up that land, Islamic militants/terrorists took
over. Since the inception of the Hamas regime, there has been a continual
barrage of crudely made rockets fired into Israel. Repeated airstrikes by Israel
in their efforts to get Hamas and other groups to stop firing rockets has not
succeeded. Tunnels leading into Gaza from the Sinai have been blown up by the
IDF and a naval blockade has been set up off the coast of Gaza, to try to stem
the tide of arm shipments into the area. Activity in and around that strip of
land requires constant surveillance by Israel.
In the northeast,
Syria has always maintained that a starting point for them in any peace
negotiations must be the return of the Golan Heights to their control. That
pretense for peace with Israel by Syria is about as worthless as the signed
document that Neville Chamberlain exuberantly waved to the crowd on his return
from a meeting with Adolph Hitler, who had guaranteed that he had no intentions
of any further aggressions towards Europe. Syria only wants the Golan back
because of its strategic importance in launching any future wars against
Israel.
Now Bashar al
Assad's regime of Syria is involved in their own Arab Spring uprising, having
raged on now for about 20 months. That civil war has, by all estimates,
surpassed the 20,000 lives lost mark and is now spilling across the border into
Turkey. The Turkish government is striking back and the conflict could further
escalate into a conflagration with other surrounding countries - namely Israel.
Assad has threatened to unleash his stockpile of chemical and biological weapons
on any outside groups or nations who interfere with his attempts to cling to the
reins of power. Would he consider using them against the Turks?
A more likely
scenario could be one where Assad would possibly use some against Israel, in an
effort to get the Arab world from closely observing what he is presently doing
to his own countrymen, and instead come to Syria's help if he were to get Israel
involved in a massive retaliatory strike after being hit by Assad's WMDs. It
would be an extremely foolhardy venture on his part, but if he feels that he is
going to lose power anyway, he may just roll the dice.
Another scenario
involves those weapons falling into the rebel's hands, or Al Qaeda groups
infiltrating into his country, or maybe even Hezbollah getting control of some
of them. It has been recently reported that Assad has had some of those weapons
moved; either to safeguard them or have them at his disposal should he decide to
use them. In any case, this bears close monitoring by Israel. They may have to
take quick and decisive action to prevent those sinister weapons of war from
being used against them.
Probably the
biggest threat facing Israel and the one that has been in the news a lot lately,
is Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. Under no circumstances can Israel allow
the Iranian regime to develop and stockpile those weapons. Israel has been
warning the world for years that that effort has to be stopped, including the
use of military action to prevent them from acquiring such capability.
Negotiations have ensued, inspectors have inspected, sanctions have been
implemented, but still the centrifuges spin on toward the goal of enriching
enough uranium to tip a missile or two with a nuclear warhead.
Time is running
out. Ahmadinejad has only until next year to remain in office. He would like
nothing more than to get his hands on some nukes and to start a catastrophic war
that would then usher in his Mahdi. He made his little spiel during his recent
UN address that the return of the 12th Imam is soon to take place. In their
apocalyptic vision, their Mahdi could only come back as a result of an Iranian
shock and awe campaign or something cataclysmic that would bring the reclusive
imam out of hiding.
Time is running
out for Netanyahu as well. He practically pleaded with the UN body -
particularly the USA - to set a red line and do whatever is necessary to stop
Iran in their tracks. He even felt compelled enough to have his Boris Badenov
cartoon bomb as a visual, in effort to convey how close the Iranians actually
were in their pursuit of nuclear weaponization. However crude and simplistic it
may have been - and I'm sure he knew he would open himself up to scorn in using
such a diagram - he felt it necessary to show how desperate and how close the
situation is to becoming a reality and that unless stopped, Iran will have
achieved their goal.
Will it fall on
deaf ears? Will the world take action or simply resort to the use of further
sanctions? Will the US finally draw a realistic red line before it is too late?
Or, will Israel have to go it alone and take out the sites and suffer the
consequences of any fallout?
These are
extremely difficult days for Israel. The pressures on Netanyahu and the Israeli
leadership have to be tremendous. Either way, it is a no-win situation. Iran
cannot be allowed to have such nuclear capability at their disposal; the result
of that would be untenable for Israel, the Gulf nations, Europe and the USA. On
the other hand, taking military action against the sites would also result in a
huge backlash for Israel: Iran could try to bottle-up the Strait of Hormuz like
they have threatened; they could attack US bases in the region; they could fire
their long range conventional missiles at Israel; and most certainly, Iran would
get their proxies in Hamas, Hezbollah and maybe even the Syrians to launch an
assault against the Jewish nation.
Israel needs our
prayers now more than ever. Tough decisions have to be made. The weight of the
world must be on Bibi's shoulders. Strike or wait? Will the USA come to their
aid or not? The backlash from the world community on Israel could be severe. Oil
prices will almost certainly skyrocket in an attack and the subsequent fallout,
thus putting more pressure on the already fragile world economies. A further
rise in the cost of a barrel of crude could plummet some countries over the
cliff into the abyss. All of these factors have to weigh heavily on the thought
process of the Israeli leadership.
Very dark days
indeed lie ahead for Israel; their troubles will become
ever-increasing.
This know also,
that in the last days perilous times shall come. - II Timothy 3:1
They have the Body
of Christ this side of the Rapture praying for them on their behalf:
And I will bless
them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all
families of the earth be blessed. - Genesis 12-3
But after that
event, who will be there initially to pray and support the nation of Israel in
her struggle against those who wish to see their demise? The world is becoming a
dark place with the Church still here; imagine how darker it will become after
the restraining power of the Holy Spirit indwelt Body of Christ is removed.
Seven years seems like an awful long time to see the condition of the world
continually deteriorate, with all the accompanying wars, plagues, disease,
earthquakes and loss of life.
Israel will have
their hands full during the Tribulation period, with the prospect of a looming
confrontation with Iran over their nukes on the horizon; action against Syria as
prophesied in Isaiah 17; a possible Psalm 83 war with surrounding Arab nations;
the Gog-Magog battle; a false peace treaty inked by the antichrist that is
described in the Bible as "a covenant with Death and Hell"; and a fleeing Israel
out of the land at the midpoint of the Tribulation, when they refuse to worship
the beast and his image and a severe persecution ensues. All will culminate at
the end of the seven year period during the Armageddon campaign in northern
Israel, where the loss of life will be unimaginable.
Israel needs our
prayers like never before. The Church may be gone before any of this takes
place; Israel will still be here suffering through the time of Jacob's
Trouble.
e-mail author at
GoTitans25@aol.com
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