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Will the Temple be rebuilt Before Messiah Returns?

December 10, 2006

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Before I began to study the languages of the Bible and the history of Israel’s three Temples some 36 years ago, I taught a Temple would be built on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem before the Second Advent of Messiah. However, I changed my mind shortly after graduating from Seminary and University in the mid-seventies.

A lot of believers are anxiously waiting for the temple to be built before the rapture, but I am confident it will not be built until the beginning of Messiah’s reign. Any attempt to place a Jewish religious edifice of any kind is doomed to failure prior to the return of Christ. My reasons for these statements may in found in Archive Prophecy Update Number 79, which follows the Arutz Sheva Article.

Begin Arutz Sheva Article

Arutz Sheva – National News Service

Israeli Sheikh: Temple Mount is entirely Islamic

Monday, November 6, 2006 / 15 Cheshvan 5767

Responding to a plan to build a synagogue on Judaism’s most sacred site, Sheikh Raad Salah warns that the entire complex is Moslem. Islam was founded 550 years after the Jewish Temple was destroyed.

Sheikh Raad Salah – head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, a Hamas supporter, and an outspoken enemy of Israel – warns that Israeli plans to build a synagogue on the Temple Mount could lead to violence and bloodshed. “The day will never come when a Moslem or an Arab will have the right to cede even one foot of the Al-Aqsa Mosque or of Jerusalem,” the Sheikh’s Al-Aqsa movement announced.

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem was the site of the two Jewish Holy Temples, the first of which was built by King Solomon in the year 832 BCE, close to 1,500 years before Islam was founded.

For most of the next 1,000 years, Holy Temples stood on the site, until the Romans conquered the entire land and destroyed the Second Temple. Though the area came under the control of the Romans, Byzantines, Moslems, Christians, Turks, British and others over the coming centuries, Jerusalem and the Temple Mount were always the focus of Jewish religious and national yearnings and continued to be the Jews’ “capital in exile.” In the Six Day War of 1967, the modern state of Israel liberated the Temple Mount area, placing all of Jerusalem under Jewish control once again after a hiatus of 1,900 years.

Israel, however, never actualized its sovereignty over the holy Temple Mount site, but rather granted the Moslem Waqf nearly total control. Jews, in fact, have not been allowed to pray there ever since then-Chief IDF Rabbi Shlomo Goren led a prayer service there on the first Tisha B’Av after the liberation.

As Arutz-7 reported nearly two months ago, MK Uri Ariel (National Union) is preparing a plan for the construction of a synagogue on the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount. The plan must be approved by the Jerusalem municipality’s planning committee – an unlikely eventuality – and Ariel is set to meet with rabbis and public figures on the issue later this week.

MK Ariel notes that such a building would “rectify a historic injustice,” and that every Supreme Court ruling on the issue has recognized the right of every Jew to pray on the Temple Mount.

“The synagogue will not interfere with believing Moslems who wish to pray at the Al-Aksa Mosque,” Ariel said. “On the contrary, this is an opportunity for the Moslem world to demonstrate and prove that it is tolerant enough.”

The “Moslem world” is not jumping at said opportunity. The announcement by Sheikh Salah’s organization states, “We hereby warn aloud about the existence of a Jewish national consensus that is trying to build the Holy Temple at the expense of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. We warn that similar plans were submitted to Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak and their publication led to violence, the ramifications of which have not ended to this day.”

“The timing of the publication [of this plan] is not coincidental,” the Islamic Movement states, “and it jibes with the increased calls for expulsion [of Arabs], the implementation of the policy of religious persecution and national discrimination, and the giving of a green light to the construction of the Third Temple.”

“We remind, for the 1,000th time, that the entire Al-Aqsa mosque, including all of its area and alleys above the ground and under it, is exclusive and absolute Moslem property, and no one else has any rights to even one grain of earth in it.”

“We remind the Israeli establishment, which stands behind these plans, that the problem of Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem is not just a Palestinian problem, but a Palestinian, Arab and Islamic problem.

The day the Al-Aqsa Mosque is harmed, Heaven forbid, all the Arab and Islamic nations will call to prevent this damage. Watch out! Beware of merely the thought of hurting or desecrating the mosque.”

PROPHECY UPDATE NUM BER 79

August 3, 2002

WILL THE TEMPLE

BE REBUILT IN JERUSALEM?

I long ago lost count of the number of men and women who have reminded me that the temple MUST be rebuilt before Jesus returns.

A majority of believers are certain that it must be rebuilt because antichrist must set in it “showing himself that he is God.”

As a young man I believed that it would be rebuilt before Jesus returned.

But as I studied the Greek language in Seminary, I began to say it would “probably” be rebuilt. I now do not believe it will be rebuilt until the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ. Why?

Much of what follows is quoted primarily from the “New Testament Greek-English Dictionary of the Complete Bible Library,” Volumes 13 and 14.

In the New Testament the word “hieron,” translated as “temple,” is found ONLY in the Gospels, in Acts, and in I Corinthians 9:13, where Paul’s ONLY use of the word appears as “temple.”

I Corinthians 9:13 – Jerusalem’s Literal Stone Temple

Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple

(hieron)? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?

“Hieron” refers to the entire temple including its precincts and the temple hill or, in a limited sense, any portion of the temple, such as the court of the women (Luke 2:37) where Jesus stood before the altar after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Mark 11:11), the court of the Gentiles out of which Jesus drove the money changers (John 2:15), or the temple proper where the veil separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies (Matthew 27:52). “Hieron” is ONLY used in a literal sense in the entire New Testament. This is in very sharp contrast to its closely related term “naos,” which is used both literally and figuratively in the New Testament. It is used figuratively at times to refer to the human body or a local church body.

I Corinthians 6:19 – The Human Body – Naos

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

I Corinthians 3:16,17 – The Local Church Body – Naos

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and

that the Spirit

of God dwelleth in you

? [17] If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

(All the “ye’s” in this verse are plural, and the “in” of verse 16 may be translated with equal validity as being “among” you, because “you” is plural.)

Now, let’s take a look at the word “naos,” translated as “temple” in the New Testament. “Naos” denotes the “dwelling place of a god.” Consequently, the “naos” was the inner “sanctuary” of a temple where the image of the God was placed, or where he dwelled. It is frequently translated as “temple,” but the association with the word “sanctuary” should not be overlooked.

The following verses contain ALL the uses of the word translated “temple” in the writings of the Apostle Paul.

TEMPLE – HIERON – I CORINTHIANS 9:13

Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?

(This is absolutely referring literally to the great temple of stone in the city of Jerusalem)

TEMPLE – NAOS – I CORINTHIANS 6:19

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

(This is absolutely referring to the body of someone who has experienced the new birth as figuratively being a temple)

TEMPLE – NAOS – I CORINTHIANS 3:16,17

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? [17] If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

TEMPLE – NAOS – II CORINTHIANS 6:16

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

(All the “ye’s” and the “them” and “they” are plural, and the two “in’s” may be translated as “among”)

TEMPLE – NAOS – EPHESIANS 2:21,22

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: [22] In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

(The “ye” in verse 22 is plural)

It is perfectly obvious in the verses in the two books of Corinthians and Ephesians that Paul was not referring to the literal temple in Jerusalem, and it is also equally obvious he knew the distinction between “hieron” and “naos.” That is why his ONLY other use of the word “naos,” occurring in I Thessalonians 2:4, is so puzzling.

I am convinced that if he meant the literal stone temple in Jerusalem, then he would have used the word “hieron.”

TEMPLE – NAOS – II THESSALONIANS 2:4

Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

The precise meaning of “naos” in this verse is uncertain. I believe Paul pictures the antichrist sitting on the temple mount in a sinful body of flesh, with his inner soul and spirit claiming he is God to prove it to himself, and to show the world he is God. This would parallel his use of the word “naos” in I Corinthians 6:19. In any case, I Thessalonians 2:4 falls far short of proving that the temple must be rebuilt before the return of Jesus.

The companion Old Testament Scripture often used to link with I Thessalonians 2:2 to prove the temple must be rebuilt is Daniel 11:45.

Daniel 11:45 – And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

However, the word translated “palace” is “appeden.” It is never translated as “temple” in the entire Bible. So it means, in the context of this verse, that antichrist returns to Jerusalem just before the battle of Armageddon, and puts up a command post palace pavilion on the temple mount, from which he plans to sit and direct the final battle. The tents (tabernacles – ohel) are the tents of all the troops from Europe, Eurasia, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa which have poured into Israel in answer to his call, and he will direct their final attack against Israel in the Negev from his “appeden” on the temple mount. I have heard about the rebuilding of this temple for some 54 years.

For better or for worst, I do not believe the temple will be rebuilt until Jesus returns.

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Demonic Principalities of Middle East Kingdom are strengthening the Spiritual Union of the Physical and Spiritual Kingdom they form across Syria, Iraq, and Iran!

December 10, 2006

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

The Prophet Daniel lived into the reigns of Cyrus, the King

of Persia and Darius the Mede.

At the time of his death the current countries of Syria, Iraq, and Iran were all part of a very large country or empire called Persia. The great Kingdom of the Medes and the Persians had swallowed the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires during the lifetime of Daniel. Demon worship was quite common in this area.

One of the chief demons was Pazuzu.

Some identify this area as the spiritual Kingdom of the Prince of Persia in Daniel and “the Seat of Satan” in Revelation.

With each passing day the relationship we have with Syria, Iraq, and Iran (Persia) is grower more hostile, while relations between them are growing stronger and friendlier.

The Iraqi President has just completed his Fourth Trip to Iran for consultations with the Iranian President – The Prince of Persia is linking together his three Demonic Frog Principalities along the Euphrates River (Syria, Iraq, and Iran) to form the “Seat of the Beast” Kingdom!

Daniel 10:10-13 – And, behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. [11] And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling. [12] Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.

[13] But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.

Revelation 16:10-16 – And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. [10] And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, [11] And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. [12] And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. [13] And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. [14] For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

Ephesians 6:12 – For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article

Iraqi president meets with Ahmadinejad

Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

November 27, 2006

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Monday sought to enlist Iran’s help in quelling the escalating violence that threatens to tear his country apart.

“The issue of establishing security in Iraq is the most important part of our talks. We are in dire need of Iran’s help in establishing security and stability in Iraq,” state-run television quoted Talabani as saying after he met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Teheran.

The meeting between Talabani and Ahmadinejad, which was delayed for two days amid a security clampdown in Iraq, comes as Teheran is trying to assert its role as the top regional power broker to counter Washington’s influence on Baghdad.

During their talks, Ahmadinejad pledged Teheran’s support in helping to improve security in Iraq.

“Definitely, the Iranian government and nation will stand next to its brother Iraq and will do every help it can to strengthen security in Iraq,” he was quoted as saying.

“We believe a stable, developed and powerful Iraq is in the interest of the Iraqi nation, Iran and the whole region,” Ahmadinejad said, according to the television report.

Iran had been trying to organize a summit joining Ahmadinejad, Talabani and Syrian President Bashar Assad, but Damascus has not responded to Teheran’s invitation. Talabani had planned to visit Iran on Saturday but had to postpone his trip until Baghdad’s airport, which was closed after an especially deadly week, reopened Monday.

The Iraq-Iran meeting comes ahead of US President George W.

Bush’s visit to Jordan later this week to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. That visit, coupled with Vice President Dick Cheney’s trip to US ally Saudi Arabia on Saturday, is seen as evidence of the Bush administration’s intensified diplomatic efforts to bring stability to Iraq.

But the United States has refused to negotiate with Iran and Syria to seek their support in quelling Iraqi violence, accusing both Teheran and Damascus of aiding insurgent groups there.

Iran is believed to back Iraqi Shi’ite militias blamed in sectarian killings that have killed thousands this year.

Iran has repeatedly denied the allegations.

In recent weeks, the Bush administration has come under increasing domestic and international pressure to engage with Iran and Syria if it hopes to curtail the violence before Iraq breaks out into a full-scale civil war.

The New York Times reported in Monday’s editions that a draft report by a study panel led by former US Secretary of State James A. Baker III recommends more regional diplomacy, including holding talks with Teheran and Damascus.

Ahmadinejad has said Iran is willing to help Washington with Iraq if the US drops its “bullying” policy toward Teheran – but will only do on its terms, not Washington’s.

“(Iraq’s) occupiers need countries to help them get out of the quagmire,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Monday, according to Iran’s state-run news agency.

Syrian officials, meanwhile, have been silent for days over whether Assad would attend an Iran-based summit, apparently to avoid embarrassing Teheran with a direct rejection.

Iran is Syria’s only close ally and a rejection would be an unusual snub, but Damascus may be more worried about angering the United States by joining Iran’s attempt to assert itself in Iraq. Instead, Syria may likely be looking to holding potential talks with Washington in the future.

Monday’s visit is the fourth by Talabani, who speaks fluent Farsi, since he took office. He is a member of Iraq’s Kurdish minority, but he had close ties with Iranian officials before Saddam Hussein was driven out by the US-led invasion in 2003.

Talabani also is scheduled to meet Iran’s former president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, later Monday and Iran’s top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday.

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Add the Battle for Lebanon to the Dried Manure Pile of Failed UN Resolutions against Rogue Nations!

December 9, 2006

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Long ago I remember a practice of going through the fields with a wheel barrow and picking up the many individual dried piles of cow manure to fertilize the corn fields for the next year.

I know in India they stack dried piles of manure to burn as fuel as it is needed. The United Nations has built up a large pile of it in the form of failed resolutions since 1967, and some of it is still very fresh.

I also remember an old joke about a drunken man walking through a cow field in the blinding darkness of night when his hat blew off in the midst of the pasture. They say he tried on 42 hats before he found one that fit. The UN hasn’t found one yet in Lebanon that fits.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article

The Battle for Lebanon

THE JERUSALEM POST

The assassination of Pierre Gemayel is a reminder, if any was needed, of whom the West is dealing with. This was a classic Mafia-style hit to accompany Syria’s standard criminal tactics: spread murder and mayhem in the hopes of extorting support for dictatorial rule.

According to the Economist, Syria would be pleased to accede to calls from some, such as James Baker, to “engage” with the US, and already has its list of demands

prepared: an end to the Hariri investigation, a US guar

antee not to undermine the Assad regime, a return of Syrian influence in Lebanon, and Israel handing over the Golan Heights. In exchange, presumably, Syria would pledge to stop fomenting terrorism in Iraq.

The shakedown, then, has already started. The choice before the US and Europe is straightforward: fight or submit. In truth, there is no choice, because only someone ignorant of history would fall for the notion that submission to such blackmail will buy quiet, rather than spurring more murders, terrorism and demands.

The latest Gemayel assassination, following the murders of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, prominent journalists Samir Kassir and Gibran Tueni, Pierre Gemayel’s uncle Bashir, and many other anti-Syrian figures, shows that Syria wishes to renew Lebanon’s civil war, revive its domination of the country, or both. The recent resignation of Syrian-backed ministers in the Lebanese government also illustrates the lengths Syria will go to attempt to block the UN tribunal being organized to try suspects in the Hariri assassination.

Obviously, this trial should go forward with even greater determination and urgency, but

this is not enough. Now is the time to enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1701, rather than standing by as it is added to the pile of tattered resolutions defending Lebanese independence.

Since the war

in Lebanon ended in August, Syria has been rearming Hizbullah in direct violation of the embargo imposed in Resolution 1701. That embargo lacks minimal monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, which should now be created – better late than never.

For example, the resolution stipulates that UNIFIL can only deploy on the Lebanese-Syrian border if Lebanon so requests. The weapons that are flowing across that border directly threaten the Lebanese government, yet that government does not feel it is strong enough to defy Syria and request UNIFIL’s presence and other enforcement mechanisms.

What may seem like increasing boldness of Syria and Iran, as shown by events in Lebanon and Iran’s defiant acceleration of its uranium enrichment efforts, may actually reveal that these regimes regard Western sanctions as more potent than the West does itself. If they were as impervious to sanctions as defeatists in

the West often claim, why are they working so hard to intimidate the West into abandoning the effort?

End Jerusalem Post Article

Begin Haaretz Article

Hezbollah leader accuses Siniora of working with Israel during war

December 7, 2006

By The Associated Press

BEIRUT – Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah accused Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora of conniving with Israel during the July-August war, alleging that he ordered the Lebanese army to confiscate Hezbollah’s supplies of weapons.

“Didn’t the prime minister of Lebanon work to cut off the supply lines?” Nasrallah said in his sharpest attack on Siniora since a United Nations brokered cease-fire halted the fighting in August.

In a rousing speech delivered on huge screens in two central Beirut squares, Nasrallah called for a committee of Lebanese or Arab judges to investigate the government’s actions during the war.

The Hezbollah leader vowed that the opposition’s protests would continue until it achieved a bigger share of the Lebanese cabinet, but he also said he was prepared to negotiate, and that violence was not an option.

The Western-backed Siniora, who is supported by the anti-Syrian majority in parliament, has repeatedly refused to resign and has rejected the demand by Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian allies for a veto-wielding share of the Cabinet.

Nasrallah told his thousands of supporters that they would eventually achieve their goal of bringing down Siniora’s government.

“We are a people that will not be defeated in the battle of wills,” he said.

“Negotiate with us and we will talk to you,” Nasrallah said, addressing what he called the “illegitimate government.”

“But in the name of all those gathered here, we will not leave the streets before achieving the goal that saves Lebanon,” he said, to roars of approval from the crowd.

It was only the second time since the August cease-fire that Nasrallah had spoken live to a mass rally. The first time – in September – he appeared at the rally in southern Beirut. On Thursday night, he did not appear for security reasons, but spoke via video link to huge screens set up in Riad Solh Square and Martyrs’ Square.

Hezbollah and its opposition allies have staged daily protests for the past week in a bid to force the government’s resignation. Siniora has been holed up in the main government office complex, which is ringed by troops, riot police and barbed wire.

Nasrallah referred to warnings from politicians from all sides, as well as the commander of the national army, that the mass protests could turn increasingly violent and drag the country back to the sectarian civil war of 1975-90. One young Shiite Muslim was shot dead in a riot in a predominantly Sunni Muslim area Sunday night.

“We will not lift our weapons in the face of anyone. We don’t need weapons to defeat you,” Nasrallah said, adding that Hezbollah would use its arms only against Israel.

“We will defeat you with our voices,” he said.

The speech seemed to be an attempt to prime the opposition for the massive demonstration that it plans to convene in central Beirut on Sunday. In a statement published Thursday, the opposition called on its supporters to take part in “a historic and decisive” demonstration that aimed to replace “one-color government with a national unity government” – Hezbollah parlance for a cabinet in which it and its allies have a third of the seats.

Earlier Thursday, Siniora said he would stand firm and the Cabinet was
“constitutional and legitimate.”

Siniora’s allies, meanwhile, have accused Hezbollah of being influenced by Iran and Syria, which they claim want to destabilize Lebanon by supporting the militant group’s plans to oust the government.

Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon last year under heavy international pressure after the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri. Syria’s Lebanese opponents blamed it for the killing, a charge Damascus has denied.

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2007 WINDS OF WAR IN THE SOUTH AND NORTH!

December 9, 2006

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Predictions of war in 2007 are continuing to come in from the Middle East. While I do expect conflicts between Israel and Hizbollah in the north, and between Hamas and Israel in the south, I do not believe they will escalate into a widespread Middle East war in 2007 because U.S. troops will still be in Iraq. My guesstimate for the most likely time for a full scale Middle East war is the same as I have made for some time. I believe it will begin at some point in time between 2008 and 2012.

The article from the Jerusalem Post, which follows, is typical of several such predictions that have been made by Israel General Staff since the end of the most recent Lebanese War.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article

Security and Defense: Weathermap 2007 – Strong Winds of War

Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST

December 8, 2006

Wearing chemical warfare suits and masks, the soldiers ran into the building and started to evacuate those wounded in a non-conventional Syrian missile attack.

The “attack” was a simulation, put on Tuesday for Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz at the Home Front Command’s training center on the Tzrifin military base near Rishon Lezion.

Following the exercise, Peretz turned to one of the soldiers and asked: “When there is a real incident, do you feel you will know what to do? Are you sure you won’t go into shock?”

H is concern

is not baseless.

Four months after the war in Lebanon – during which 4,000 rockets slammed into the North – Military Intelligence is predicting that Israel is on a collision course toward a new round with Hizbullah and possibly even war with Syria.

Peretz’s visit to the HFC’s training base was not a coincidence, but rather a desire to see first-hand how the IDF is preparing for the looming threats. It was not by chance he warned of non-conventional and chemical threats when speaking to reporters following the exercise. With Iran racing to obtain nuclear weapons, Peretz also wanted to ensure that Israel would be ready to deal with the aftermath of such an attack.

According to Military Intelligence’s assessments, obtained exclusively by The Jerusalem Post, Israel is headed toward at least two major military conflicts in 2007 – one against the Hamas army being built up despite the cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, and the other against Hizbullah, which is also rebuilding its military wing and has begun receiving shipments of long-range, Iranian-made missiles smuggled into Lebanon by Syria.

Senior officers who spoke with the Post this week referred to the possibility of a renewed conflict with Hizbullah in the coming months.

MI does not believe that the cease-fire in Gaza will last more than a few weeks and feels that the continued daily smuggling of high-grade explosives

and weaponry into Gaza from the Sinai will force Israel to deal with the Palestinian terror factions.

THE IDF followed this week’s events in Lebanon with extreme concern. The Hizbullah protests in Beirut, defense officials warned, have the potential to topple the US-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. If that happens, these officials predicted, UNIFIL could be expelled from southern Lebanon and Hizbullah would be able to return to its border outposts, just like before the war.

Since the war ended with a UN-brokered cease-fire on August 14, Hizbullah has been receiving weapon shipments – including anti-tank missiles and long-range rockets – supplied by Damascus and transported into Lebanon through the Syrian border late at night.

Hizbullah “nature reserves” – camouflaged underground systems of tunnels and bunkers – are still operating in southern Lebanon, despite the beefed-up presence of UNIFIL. These areas are designated as “closed military zones” for UNIFIL and are used as training centers for Hizbullah and storehouses for its weapons caches.

The Lebanese political crisis, MI believes, may create a “proxy war” between Hizbullah and Saniora’s government. MI saw this clash coming and predicted that following Israel’s war in Lebanon, Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah would feel the need to show in one way or another that his guerrilla group had survived the IDF offensive.

In addition to the protests, MI believes Hizbullah will also resume attacks against Israel in the coming weeks.

The group won’t necessarily launch Katyushas, but at least will fire anti-aircraft missiles at IAF aircraft flying over Lebanon. This, MI believes, will not be condemned by the international community, since countries like France, Germany and Italy – members of UNIFIL – have repeatedly slammed Israel for not stopping the overflights.

More importantly, MI does not believe UNIFIL poses an obstacle to Hizbullah and that it is only a matter of time before the group returns to its former strength.

SYRIA HAS been directly contributing to the tension in Lebanon. According to MI, Damascus is the leading suspect in the assassination of Pierre Gemayel two weeks ago, possibly an attempt by President Bashar Assad to extract revenge for Saniora’s decision to back the establishment of an international tribunal to try those responsible for the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese president Rafik Hariri.

MI does not foresee a Syrian attack in the near future, although the outcome of the war in Lebanon has created a new and dangerous reality on the Syrian front. The Syrian military has been on high alert since the war ended, and Assad has said on several occasions that military action is one way to recover the Golan Heights.

Due to the slight risk of a war, OC Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin has suggested to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he examine the possibility of “engaging” Syria in a dialogue. Unlike Iran, Syria has previously held talks with Israel and has ties with the West MI believes it would like to retain.

According to MI’s assessment, if Israel offered to renew the dialogue, Assad would accept. If Israel does not make any diplomatic overtures to Syria, as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said it wouldn’t, the chance of war will only increase.

BY THE end of 2007, MI expects Iran to have mastered the necessary technology to proceed independently with its nuclear program.

By the end of the decade, it predicts, Iran will have a nuclear bomb – unless it is stopped before then.

As things look now, according to several high-ranking defense officials, the US will not attack Iran’s nuclear sites. In addition, the Baker-Hamilton report that came out Wednesday and called on US President George W. Bush to engage Iran in a dialogue could lead to Washington’s turning a blind eye to Teheran’s nuclear program in exchange for help in stabilizing the situation in Iraq.

Even if sanctions were imposed on Iran, the assessment is that they will not be effective. But other officials say that if the world stopped supplying Iran with refined fuel, the regime would need to consider suspending its enrichment of uranium.

For Israel, 2007 is the critical year. Unlike the US, which sees the point of no return only when Iran has a nuclear bomb, Israel has been warning that the point is actually when the Iranians master the technology.

At the moment, Israel is confronting Iran on two fronts – diplomatically and militarily. While Israeli leaders are pushing the world to take action to stop Iran’s nuclear program, the IDF is also drawing up plans for the possibility that Israel will be left with no choice but a preemptive strike.

THE CEASE-FIRE in Gaza will enter its third week on Sunday, despite IDF predictions that it would not last more than a few days. The question now is where does this lead? One option is to give in to Palestinian demands and extend the cease-fire to the West Bank. The National Security Council is currently drawing up a recommendation on the issue, with officials predicting that if Gaza remains quiet, Olmert will be willing to begin implementing the truce in the West Bank.

The other option is to observe the cease-fire in Gaza and wait for the Palestinians to either return to firing Kassam rockets or establish a national unity government, one that accepts the three conditions of the Quartet – a cessation of terror, recognition of Israel’s right to exist and honoring previous agreements between Israel

and the Palestinian Authority.

If the cease-fire falls apart, the IDF believes it will be headed toward a major conflict in Gaza. Despite the cease-fire, the Palestinians are smuggling high-grade explosives and advanced weaponry into the Strip.

Hamas has set up a 10,000-strong military, consisting of four brigades corresponding to

four sections of the Gaza Strip. This army is believed to be armed with advanced anti-tank missiles, Grad-type Katyusha rockets and anti-aircraft missiles, possibly shoulder-fired, Soviet-made SA-7s.

MI’s assumption is that the cease-fire will last another few weeks at most. The major problem is that unlike the cease-fire before

the unilateral disengagement, this time the Palestinians do not have an incentive to enforce it.

OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Yuval Diskin have been calling for a massive operation in the Gaza Strip for months, claiming that otherwise Gaza would turn into southern Lebanon. The end of the cease-fire could see the beginning of that operation.

End Jerusalem Post Article

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of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more detailed information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. You may use material originated by this site. However, if you wish to use any quoted copyrighted material from this site, which did not originate at this site, for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner from which we extracted it.

Nasrallah, Nasrallah, Go Away, So L itt

le Siniora can come out and Play!

December 8, 2006

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

The Soviet Union went into Afghanistan thinking they could easily put down a rag-tail irregular herd of Islamic mongrels by using disciplined military and high tech weaponry.

They believed they could establish a government like their own in Afghanistan, and their initial spread into Afghanistan seemed to justify their thinking, but they had never faced guerilla type warfare in unbelievable rugged mountainous territory like Afghanistan. They eventually crawled out of Afghanistan with their tails between their legs and their pride as a world power crushed.

We have the best trained military in the world and the largest array of sophisticated weaponry. Our military men and women are patriotic and I support and love them all, and will continue to support and pray for them all. But, as I said from the beginning, we should go into Iraq, get rid of Saddam and all his cronies, and then get out, to let the Kurds, Sunni, and Shiite factions slug it out for supremacy.

I knew we will not be able to successfully conclude a war against guerilla tactics, nor would we be able to establish a lasting democratic government in Iraq.

Believe it or not, Jesus Christ is the only one who can straighten out this unbelievable, ungodly mess mankind has created since he died for it, so that individual men and women could be set free from condemnation by faith in him. I am convinced he is going to come soon to end this chaos at Armageddon, which I believe is not a distant event in the far off sweet forever.

John 5:24 – Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

John 5:40 – And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.

Revelation 22:12 – And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as h

is work shall be.

Begin Arutz Sheva Article

Nasrallah Committed to Ousting Lebanese Government

Friday, December 8, 2006 / 17 Kislev 5767

Arutz Sheva, Israel National News

By Yechiel Spira

Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, and tens of thousands of sit-in protestors, are forging ahead with their campaign to topple the US-allied Lebanese government of Prime Minister Siniora.

In his latest address in Beirut on Thursday, the terrorist leader announced he does not need weapons to topple the government of S

iniora, whose anti-Syrian policies run the current Lebanese government. “Our weapons are pointed only at Israel,” Nasrallah said, dispelling fears that he plans to bring Lebanon into a civil war.

In what began as a Hizbullah support rally earlier this month, Hizbullah is now leading a snowball momentum to topple the Siniora government, vowing to do so without lifting arms.

He has said that he will succeed without the need to fire a weapon as is being alleged by Siniora and other Hizbullah opponents.

While Western leaders are phoning Siniora and expressing support for his administration, it appears that the Lebanese prime minister’s days in office may well be numbered.

Siniora continues to refuse calls to resign, insisting he will not voluntarily step down from office.

At one recent weekend rally in downtown Beirut, Nasrallah succeeded in bringing out 800,000 people to the streets in support of his call for more Hizbullah participation in the government – or else new elections.

Speaking via a live video link from his hideout to tens of thousands of cheering supporters in central Beirut, Nasrallah accused the prime minister of trying to thwart Hizbullah in its recent war against Israel. Thousands of Lebanese soldiers and police are deployed in downtown Beirut and other city areas, while the government headquarters, where Siniora and his ministers are holed up, is surrounded by barbed wire and armored cars.

Israel is watching the events closely and has placed northern border troops on heightened alert.

The fall of Siniora would signal an even increasingly hostile Lebanese border, since the country would then fall into the hands of the pro-Iranian Islamic fundamentalist control of Hizbullah.

Working his anti-government campaign tactfully, the Hizbullah leader stated that unnamed government ministers have been in contact with the United States, which in turn contacted Israel with the mission of destroying Hizbullah. Nasrallah proudly stated that America/Israel failed in their mission, and vowed to bring his terror organization to power despite US efforts to keep Siniora in office.

In Israel, intelligence community officials are in agreement that a third war in Lebanon is likely, with military forces preparing for any eventuality as the government continues probing the failures of the Second Lebanon War.

IDF Homefront Commander Major-General Gershon Yitzchak released a number of alarming statements this week, stating some two million Israelis are without a proper bomb shelters near their homes and an even larger number are without gas mask personal protection kits. He warned that the next war will be different, predicting that missiles will not only fall in the north, but also in population centers throughout the country.

End Arutz Sheva Article

Begin Jerusalem Post Article

Saniora denounces Hizbullah leader Nasrallah\

Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

December 8, 2006

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora sharply denounced Hizbullah and its leader on Friday, a day after the guerrilla group’s chief launched a scathing attack against the US-backed government, promising to eventually bring it down.

The unprecedented trading of accusations and acid words between Saniora and Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah marked a sharp turn in Lebanon’s political crisis and further stoked the tensions between the two sides that threatens to tear the country apart.

“What we’ve seen yesterday was an unnecessary fit of anger and rudeness that we don’t accept,” Saniora told hundreds of supporters at his heavily fortified office complex where he has been holed up since the opposition launched street protests on December 1 to bring down his government.

End Jerusalem Post Article

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more detailed information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. You may use material originated by this site. However, if you wish to use any quoted copyrighted material from this site, which did not originate at this site, for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner from which we extracted it.