Despite numerous “instructions” from President Obama to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to not attack Iran, Obama’s Secretary of Defense is now saying that there is a possibility of such an attack as early as April. “Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June – before Iran enters what Israelis described as a ‘zone of immunity’ to commence building a nuclear bomb,” Washington Post columnist David Ignatius wrote. “Very soon, the Israelis fear, the Iranians will have stored enough enriched uranium in deep underground facilities to make a weapon – and only the United States could then stop them militarily.” Israel’s military intelligence chief, Major-General Aviv Kochavi, said on Thursday he estimated that Iran could make four atomic bombs by further enriching uranium it had already stockpiled, and could produce its first bomb within a year of deciding to build one. Of course there are many who believe that effort is already under way. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said separately that “if sanctions don’t achieve the desired goal of stopping (Iran’s) military nuclear program, there will be a need to consider taking action.” Barak’s primary believes that while Israeli officials take the time to debate the issue Iran may reach a “zone of Immunity” which would make an attack improbable. However, “Dealing with a nuclearized Iran will be far more complex, far more dangerous and far more costly in blood and money than stopping it today. In other words, those who say ‘later,’ may find that later is too late,” Barak said. Sanctions recently authorized by the international community were “a step in the right direction”, he said. But they needed to be intensified and “if sanctions do not achieve the desired effect of stopping the military nuclearization program, action must also be considered”. Barak said the issues had been and continued to be debated “with directness and frankness that has not always characterized the discourse in the past”. He said that in his decades of experience, no subject of national defense had been discussed “for so many hours with the participation of all the parties that need to be involved”. But, he added, there was “no guarantee that we can remove all the disagreements among us”, indicating that a consensus on whether to attack may not be reached. His comments, prefaced by a list of historical decisions by the state of Israel to embark on military action, appeared to refer to an internal rather than international consensus, but it was not made clear.

Syrian President, Bashar Assad, has been worried about a NATO attack for some time, threatening a regional war if the UN Security Council endorsed the Arab League’s proposal for Him to step down and turn over power to his deputy. Sources in the region indicate that Assad’s military and security forces have already been given their orders and are on standby for such action. There were also indications that Lebanon’s Hizballah was also displaying signs of military preparations. This was not the first time Assad has threatened Syria’s neighbors. On Aug. 9, 2011, four months into his savage crackdown against protesters, he warned Turkey that, six hours after the first shot was fired against Syria, he would “destroy Tel Aviv and set the entire Middle East on fire.” Then on Sunday, Jan. 30th, he suddenly called the Syrian Republican Guard and the Fourth Armored Division, from their positions in the northern rebel centers, back to Damascus. He ordered them into battle positions within the capital for the first time in the long uprising after receiving an intelligence tipoff that western powers had won over one of the armored division commanders posted in the capital and persuaded him to stage a coup d’état to topple him. Apparently, the conspirators were planning to make their move on the night of Monday, Jan. 30, or early Tuesday Jan. 31, just before the UN Security Council was to convene in New York and air plans for him to step down. The putsch would have presented its members with the accomplished fact of Assad’s overthrow by the military. After receiving a warning from his intelligence agents of this danger Assad is now making every effort to ward off the threatened coup. It has also been reported that his wife and family made an attempt to reach the Damascus Airport but were turned back by rebel forces. There was a firefight at the gates to Damascus Monday night which was believed, by the Assad regime, to be part of the planned coup conspiracy. Western military and intelligence sources described the action as a search and destroy mission to wipe out the last vestiges of resistance around the Syrian capital. The conflict is not over. More ups and downs may still be to come and there are signs of sectarian war evolving. The next move most liking will take place in NYC at the UN.

The fighting in Syria has not gone away but continues less as a popular uprising against a secular government and becoming more of an armed sectarian conflict driven by religious beliefs. The conflict is steadily morphing more clearly into a fight between two Islamic religious beliefs held by the Shiite Alawite-dominated regime of President Bashar al-Assad and the primarily Sunni Free Syrian Army (FSA). What we are seeing now is an armed sectarian conflict pitting Sunnis against Alawites and their Shiite allies, Iran and Hezbollah. The FSA is basically composed of deserters from the regular Syrian Army and is commanded by Col. Riad al-Assad who defected last summer and lives in a refugee camp in Turkey. He admitted that all his fighters were Sunnis but denied regime allegations that the FSA was allied to the Muslim Brotherhood, the outlawed main Islamist force in Syria. “We’re deserting because the regime makes us kill civilians. The Alawite officers stand behind us and they shoot anyone they see not firing at protestors,” says Ahmad, who said he deserted six months ago from a military intelligence unit in Damascus. The FSA officers all claim that Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers are active in Syria helping the regime suppress the uprising. Hezbollah, which is a close ally of the Assad regime, has repeatedly denied that its cadres are in Syria. Still the claims reflect the deep hostility felt by many Sunnis in Syria toward the Shiite powers of Iran and Hezbollah and the predominantly Alawite regime in Damascus. The Shitte verses Sunni conflict is also spreading throughout the rest of the region as Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia seek control of the Middle East. However, for now the major battle is for control of Syria.

Activities in the Middle East the past week have been focused primarily around Iran and the situation in the Persian Gulf. The two primary opponents, the US and Iran, had been maintaining a verbal standoff following Iran’s threats to close the entrance to the Gulf at the Strait of Hormuz. Further, the Iranians had forbid the US to send any of their aircraft carriers into the Gulf. After waiting for almost three weeks, the Obama administration finally responded by sending the carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln, into the Gulf to test Iran’s threat. As expected the Iranian military did not respond and allowed the carrier to pass without incident. However, the tension continues to grow in the region as other Arab oil producing nations react to the possibility of Iran trying to control what ships can enter the Gulf. Additionally, the Arab Sunni’s are in the process of forming a confederacy to deal with the worsening situation. At the same time special terrorist units have been sent out by the Iranian Republican Guards to strike some of its regional enemies. It appears Iran will continue to denominate the area’s activities until they relinquish their plans to control the region or they trigger another Middle East war.

It has now been one year since the first Middle Eastern dictatorship began to crumble and collapse around then President, Hosni Murbarak. Today his sons are in prison awaiting trial for treason and the Islamist parties have just won 72 percent of the seats in Egypt’s Lower House. As for the governing military junta, it has made its peace with the Muslim Brotherhood. The generals and the jihadists are negotiating a power-sharing agreement. According to details of the agreements that have made their way to the media, the generals will remain the West’s go-to guys for foreign affairs. The Muslim Brotherhood (and its fellow jihadists in the Salafist al-Nour party) will control Egypt’s internal affairs. This is bad news for women and for non-Muslims. Egypt’s Coptic Christians have been under continuous attack by Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist supporters since Mubarak was deposed. Thus, Egypt became the model for the Arab Spring type uprisings throughout the area and which continue to this day as seen in Yemen, Syria, and Bahrain. While initially most thought Israel to be the major loser from the overthrow of Mubarak, Gaddafi and Saleh, but now in retrospect, many believe it is the US that has taken the biggest hit. To appreciate how badly President Obama’s Middle East policies have failed and the result, consider that on January 25, 2011, most Arab states were US allies to a greater or lesser degree. Mubarak was a strategic ally. Saleh was willing to collaborate with the US in combating al- Qaida and other jihadist forces in his country. Gaddafi was a neutered former enemy who had posed no threat to the US since 2004. Iraq was a protectorate. Jordan and Morocco were stable US clients. One year later, the elements of the US’s alliance structure have either been destroyed or seriously weakened. US allies like Saudi Arabia, which have yet to be seriously threatened by the revolutionary violence, no longer trust the US. As a result the region is more unstable than it has been in years with the threat of war escalating every day. This was demonstrated again yesterday, Jan. 26th, after Dubai police commander Gen. Dhahi Khalfan said on Al Arabiya television that an imminent Gulf war cannot be ruled out and first signs are already apparent. “The world will not let Iran block Hormuz but Tehran can narrow the strait to the maximum,” he said. The speculation in the region is now that an outbreak of war will not be over Iran’s nuclear weapons development program but over the shipping routes out of the Persian Gulf to global markets. We can all thank Mr. Obama and his friends for setting the stage for what could turn out to be WW III.

“Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with destruction.” Psalm 5:9a

While most of the reports coming out of the Middle East today focus on Iran’s threatened closure of the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for the EU’s new sanctions, the Iranian regime is busy getting ready for the coming of the last Islamic Messiah, the Shiites’ Twelfth Imam Mahdi. Iran’s religious leaders believe that the return of the Mahdi is near and that he appears at the time of Armageddon. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has therefore been holding secret meetings with both his economic and military advisors in preparation for a possible war with the US. Apparently, an elite military corps, called “Soldiers of Imam Mahdi,” is being formed and tasked with providing security and protecting the regime against any uprisings. It would seem that the regime is still smarting over the protests and rioting that took place after the 2009 election of Ahmadinejad. This potential problem must be dealt with and it is reported that Khamenei has charged his advisors to tighten up on anyone who opposes or might oppose the regime in case of war. Another “Arab Spring” and western influence are certainly not welcomed here. The plan by the leader calls for total control of Tehran, the capital where the presence of the Basij and Hezbollah militias would be quite visible so that no one would dare to challenge the regime. Also today a Hizballah cell backed by intelligence from Tehran and external Iranian terror cells in Turkey, Bulgaria, Georgia and Armenia, was captured in Baku on Jan. 19 by Azerbaijan’s National Security Ministry (MNS) officers as it was about to launch a series of attacks on the Israeli embassy, Chief Rabbi Shneor Segal and Rabbi Mati Lewis at the Habad center and visiting Israeli personages. The cell leader was an Iranian by the name of Balaqardash Dadashov who arrived in Azerbaijan with a file full of photos of targeted Israelis, plans and maps as well as $9,300 cash to cover operational expenses. For now Iran remains the top problematic nation of the Middle East.

“Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.” Proverbs 28:14

One of the outcomes of the “Arab Spring” uprisings has been a substantial rise in the persecution of Christians as well as Jews. While people like Hillary Clinton argued that bringing democratic freedom to the Middle East would greatly lessen or even eliminate regional Muslim hatred for the democratic West, and in particular for Christians and the Jews. However, that theory failed to pass the test as dictators fell and Islamists took over the governments. In fact, the truth was 180 degrees from what the public was told. Egypt is a prime example today after their first free election, since the US helped force out Hosni Mubarak, it has been confirmed that the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist al-Nour Party will control the Egyptian Legislature. The Salafist al-Nour Party is even more radical that the Brotherhood. This puts these two groups in the position of exercising immense influence over both the selection and the decisions of a 100-person committee tasked with drafting the Egyptian Constitution. Also in the past month, there has been a new wave of increased violence targeting Iranian and Syrian Christians. In addition, Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who has been on death row since 2010 for seeking to register his home-based church, refused to renounce his Christian beliefs in exchange for his release from prison. He was also jailed for questioning the role of Islam as the dominant form of religious instruction in his children’s school. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Christian Post wrote last week on its website, “The Christian community in Syria has been hit by a series of kidnappings and brutal murders; 100 Christians have now been killed since the anti-government unrest began. “Of course Assad is using the power of fear to manipulate the Christians. He is directing the bishops and patriarchs to say what suits him,” Pascal Gollnisch, a Catholic priest and director of l’Oeuvre d’Orient, told the French news organization F24 in December. Christians make up ten percent of Syria’s population of 22 million. Clifford D. May, the president of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former New York Times reporter, has long argued the persecution of Christians in numerous Muslim-majority countries is the most pressing news story ignored by the mainstream media. He told the Post “If the situation were reversed, if such a war were being waged against Muslims, it would be the top story in every newspaper, the most urgent item at the UN, the highest priority of all the big-league human-rights groups.”

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:10

This past week Iran has been front and center most of the week. Despite Iran’s threatening talk about closing the Strait of Hormuz and sending Republican Guards Qods Brigades against its enemies in the Gulf Region the US and Israeli relationship has been stretched almost to the breaking point. President Obama had previously issued a demand for Israel not to attack Iran under any circumstance and to inform Washington of any plans to do so. He even sent the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, to Jerusalem this week to personally convey the same message again to Prime Minister Netanyahu. This was after Netanyahu had already responded to Obama in a phone conversation, telling him that he was not in agreement with the White House demands and would deal with Iran in the best interests of Israel and would not inform Washington of their plans. It would appear that Obama is trying to frustrate any plans Israel has to defend itself against those who would like to completely eliminate the Jews. Bill Wilson shares my concern about President Obama and has written an article which I think is quite good and I want to share it with you today.

The prophetic Middle East leap created by the White House

The man who occupies the Oval Office has created a game changing prophetic leap in the Middle East that may well have set America’s course in prophetic eschatology. Christian and Jewish eschatology speak of the Day of the Lord where the Bible plainly prophesies that Arab/Islamic nations attack Israel and Israel is saved by the Messiah, the Christ, in an end time battle that ushers in the Millennial Reign of Christ. There are many current events that point to this eschatology being set up by the actions of leaders of many nations. The support and acceptance by the White House of the Muslim Brotherhood is a major prophetic and eschatological step that has tremendous consequences.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s advance to establish a worldwide Sharia-based caliphate has been catalyzed by the White House. The Administration throwing its support behind the Muslim Brotherhood in what was called the Arab Spring has resulted in Islamists using democracy to take over Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Yemen. Additionally, there is strife in Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia that is either a direct or a collateral affect of advancing the Muslim Brotherhood plan. This destabilization of the Middle East has created an even more hostile environment for Israel by legitimizing Islamic control through democracy and by energizing Islamic terror groups in Israel–Hamas, al Qaeda, Hezbollah and others.
It is well known that Muslim Brotherhood operatives hold positions at the highest levels of US government. Starting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin, whose ties to the Muslim Brotherhood are undeniable, and continuing with Islamic appointments within the departments of Defense and Homeland Security. The Administration apparently is banking on a theory that the Muslim Brotherhood will help isolate Iran, as the Muslim Brotherhood is Sunni and Iran is largely Shiite. The Muslim Brotherhood plan as revealed in the Holy Land Foundation terror trial in Texas, however, indicates that it will unify all Muslims under a worldwide Caliphate, similar to the Ottoman Empire.
Islamic eschatology has its Mahdi returning to earth to establish a seven year worldwide rule of Islamic peace. Islam’s version of Jesus (Isa) is to be the Mahdi’s prophet in leading Jews and Christians to Islam. Islam’s eschatology is strikingly similar to the Biblical antichrist. Indeed, Islam denies the deity of Christ. 2 John 7 says, “For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.” And Zechariah 12:9 speaks of the day of the Lord, “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.” America has played the eschatological catalyst with its Middle East policy. Its final place in prophecy is yet to be determined.
Have a Blessed and Powerful Day!
Bill Wilson
www.dailyjot.com

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is solidly holding the line by not giving in to Washington’s demand that Israel not attack Iran despite intense personal pressure from President Obama. He further gave instructions to his subordinates, before leaving for a short trip to Holland, concerning their conduct and comments during US General Martin Dempsey’s first visit to Israel next week. It seems that Netanyahu’s Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, made an earlier statement that Tehran had not yet decided to go nuclear, without passing it by his boss for approval. Last night, Jan. 19th, Netanyahu tried to clear the air by declaring that Iran had decided to become a nuclear state. Gen. Dempsey begins his visit to Israel as the new US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Obama’s messenger-boy carrying the White House instructions for how Netanyahu and Israel are to treat Iran. Israel is absolutely not to attack Iran under any circumstances and will keep Washington informed of their every move relative to Iran. After the release of Netanyahu’s statement Obama personally called the Prime Minister to reiterate his demands once again. Netanyahu replied that do to their disagreement on this subject he was cancelling the biggest US/Israeli war games ever, scheduled for the spring. It appears that Obama is pulling out all the stops to insure that he will not be taken by a surprise Israeli attack in the middle of his campaign for re-election. The Israeli Prime Minister is convinced, contrary to the claims by US spokesmen and media, that current sanctions are ineffective insofar as slowing Iran’s advance toward a nuclear weapon and the harsher sanctions on Iran’s central bank and oil exports are too slow and will take hold too late to achieve their purpose. This comes at a time when the Obama administration is backtracking again by signaling Tehran a willingness to go back to direct negotiations with the Iranian regime even though diplomatic dialogue has yet to produce any results. The major concern over negotiations is that Iran will use them as a cover to bring their nuclear weapons program to a conclusion, unhindered by economic constraints. Is Obama about to lose another foreign policy battle?

“May He give you [Jacob] and your descendants the blessing of Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land God gave to Abraham.” Genesis 28:4