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Syr i

a’s Biological WMD Program is very Real!

March 9, 2007

http://www.tribulatuionperiod.com/

A new assessment of Syria’s WMD capacities came out yesterday in a World Net Daily article. I have kept up with WMD status changes in Syria in both production and ability to launch them on missile heads. The last complete Archive Prophecy Update I issued on Syrian WMD activity was i

n 2004, and was as follows.

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 173A

May 24, 2004

Looks Like WMD Speculation of Update 137E May be Correct!

In the first Prophecy Update in our Archives, issued in January of 2001, titled, “Significant World and Mid-East

Events,” I reported what was a rather strange event on the Syrian border involving two regimes that had never liked each other.

I now believe it likely that it was much more significant that I thought at the time. An extract from it reads:

“The beginnings of a pattern of military unity between Syria, Iran, and Iraq are now emerging in the Mid-East. Iraq recently conducted large scale military maneuvers on the Syrian border, reportedly by prior agreement with Syria’s new President, Bashar Assad.

Assad then made a trip to Iran to hold talks with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. The talks were described as a strategic dialogue.”

I now believe those military exercises could well have been maneuvers to prepare for the contingency of a possible future transfer of Iraqi WMD into Syria in the event of a U.S. attack against Iraq.

In Special Prophecy Update Number 81A, August 17, 2002, I quoted the January Update of 2001, and the following extract is from 81A.

“In previous Updates we have told how recent prisoner exchanges from previous wars have softened the bitterness between them. The relations between Iraq and Syria, which are ruled by two rival wings of the Baath party, were severed in the eighties, but have been on the mend since 1997, fueled mainly by trade links. We have covered these trade links in detail in previous Updates, as well as the sneaky way that Syria is militarily assisting Iraq and receiving oil benefits in return. So, as much as Syria and Iran do not like, or trust, Saddam Hussein, any attack against Israel must include Iraq in order to succeed. This is one of the reasons that Bashar, last month, sent a message to Saddam on the thirty-fourth anniversary of his rival Baath party rising to power in Iraq. In the message he underlined his desire to boost the brotherly ties between Iraq and Syria. A Jordanian newspaper, Al-Hilal, reported that last week Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met with the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on the border between the two countries.

The article said Assad took his brother, Maher, and the head of Syria’s Intelligence Service with him to the meeting. During the meeting the report stated that Saddam presented Assad with an ancient rifle taken from the Iraqi Museum.”

Since the conquest of Iraq, we have only found small amounts of Mustard and Sarin gases in-country. I have always believed Saddam destroyed most, but not ALL of his WMD. But where was it? So, in Update 137E I speculated that, based on the extracts from Update 1 in January of 2001 and Update 81A in August of 2002, what was left of Saddam’s WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction), may well have been transferred by convoy into Syria. And, a recent report obtained from the WorldNetDaily gives me reason to believe my analysis was more than speculation. It will be very interesting to see just how much was dumped into Syria. (BEGIN QUOTE OF SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE 137E)

“In the Spring of 2002, Saddam Hussein and Bashar Assad, the President of Syria, had a meeting at the border between Iraq and Syria. As far as I know, this was their only meeting. I must confess that, at the time the meeting occurred, its immediate purpose puzzled me. The Baath parties of Syria and Iraq had not been on friendly terms up to that point in time. As I recall, Saddam presented Bashar with a large, ancient rifle as a present. A year later, after their meeting, Operation Iraqi Freedom put Saddam on the run, and no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) have yet been found in appreciable amounts in Iraq. This has caused me to suspect that the major purpose for the border meeting was to discuss the transfer of the Iraqi WMD into Syria for safekeeping if the United States were to attack Iraq. I admit this is speculation, but time will tell!

Syria is still continuing its support for the terrorist groups, whose suicide bombers have taken a great toll of Israeli lives, and it is continuing its program for the development of WMDs. Bashar Assad is now the main troublemaker in the Middle East. Assad and Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Hizbollah, a large terrorist army in southern Lebanon, have met on many occasions. Countless stockpiles of weaponry have flowed freely from Iran to Hizbollah military camps across Syria for years. Syria, which in reality has control of Lebanon, and refers to it as “greater” Syria, could cut off this horrendous buildup of firearms, explosives, and missiles to Hizbollah, but it’s leader encourages, rather than hinders, all activity that will lead to the destruction of Israel.

Without question, the majority of foreign fighters captured in Iraq are Syrian and Lebanese.

The New York Times quoted an intelligence agent as saying more than 60 percent of all those captured were of Syrian origin, and the London Times has indicated that many of them are being trained in Syria to kill Americans in Iraq. According to the article, three of the trainees, calling themselves Martyrs of Islam, say that 140 men have entered Syria to increase their skills in terrorist killing methods.

As you know, from my many articles on the subject, I believe that

the antichrist is likely to come from Syria. I keep my prophetic eye keyed on Syria. If a coup should occur in Syria, and a new leader immerge who possesses bonding skills between the other Islamic nations, I recommend watching him like a hawk.

My reason for believing antichrist will come out of Syria, or the area immediately surrounding it, can be found in Prophecy Updates 62 to 70, (Those without alphabetic suffixes) in our Archives. (END OF QUOTE FROM SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 137E)

The following information was sent to me by my family physician, who had received it from WorldNetDaily.com. Over the last few months, it seems that the U. S. Intelligence community has received new evidence that reports a sizeable amount of Iraqi WMD systems, components and platforms, were transferred to Syria during the weeks leading up to the launching of operation Iraqi Freedom. However, I assure you, until an absolutely provable package is in hand, one that liberal congressmen and news media cannot degrade in another congressional investigation, it is debatable if the information will be released to the public.

The convoys were first spotted by U.S. satellites in early 2003, but the contents of the WMD were not confirmed. Confirmation came later from Iraqi scientists and technicians questioned by a U.S. team that was searching for Saddam’s conventional weapons, but all they knew for sure was that the convoys were headed west to Syria. However, over the last few months, U.S. Intelligence managed to track the Iraqi WMD convoy to Lebanon’s Bekka Valley, the home of the Palestinian terror group Hizbullah. Through the use of satellites, electronic monitoring devices, and human intelligence, the intelligence community believes that much, if not all, of Iraq’s biological and chemical weapons assets are being protected by Syria with Iranian help, in the Bekka Valley.

I doubt if the Syrians or Iranians would be crazy enough to release any of them to Hizbullah at the present time.

Saddam and Assad met at the border in August of 2002. According to this latest intelligence report, the Syrians received word form Saddam in late 2002 that the Iraqi WMD would be arriving, and Syrian units began digging huge trenches in the Bekka Valley. According to the report, Saddam paid more than 30 million in cash for Syria to build the pits, acquire the Iraqi WMD, and then conceal them.

At first, U.S. Intelligence thought Iraqi WMD were stored in northern Syria, but in February of 2003 a Syrian defector told U.S. Intelligence the WMD was buried in or around three Syrian Air Force Installations. Intelligence sources said the Syrians kept all the dual-use nuclear components for themselves, but transferred any incriminating evidence to Lebanon.

End Archive Special Prophecy Update Number 173A

Continuing Current Blog

I certainly do agree with Jill Bellamy-Dekker’s statement that “Syria is positioned to launch a biological attack on Israel or Europe should the U.S. attack Iran.” However, the key word is “positioned” in what she stated.

“Positioned” means Syria has the “capability” to do it,

NOT that it WILL do it. I assure you that Syria would NOT do it. You will find my reasons for stating this in Archive Special Prophecy Update Number 187A.

BIOLOGICAL WAR-FEAR

Syria ready with bio-terror if U.S. hits Iran

Damascus reportedly hiding WMD among commercial pharmaceuticals

By Jerome R. Corsi

March 5, 2007

An American biodefense analyst living in Europe says if the U.S. invades Iran to halt its nuclear ambitions, Syria is ready to respond with weapons of mass destruction – specifically biological weapons.

“Syria is positioned to launch a biological attack on Israel or Europe should the U.S. attack Iran,” Jill Bellamy-Dekker told WND. “The Syrians are embedding their biological weapons program into their commercial pharmaceuticals business and their veterinary vaccine-research facilities. The intelligence service oversees Syria’s ‘bio-farm’ program and the Ministry of Defense is well interfaced into the effort.”

Bellamy-Decker currently directs the Public Health Preparedness program for the European Homeland Security Association under the French High Committee for Civil Defense.

She anticipates a variation of smallpox is the biological agent Syria would utilize.

“The Syrians are also working on orthopox viruses that are related to smallpox,” Bellamy-Decker said, “and it’s a good way to get around international treaties against offensive biological weapons development. They work on camelpox as a cover for smallpox.”

According to the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota, camelpox is a virus closely related to smallpox, that causes a “severe and economically important disease in camels,” but rarely, if ever, causes the disease in humans.

Bellamy-Decker also told WND the North Koreans were working closely with the Syrians on their biological weapons program.

“The Syrians have made some recent acquisitions in regard to their smallpox program from the DPRK,” she explained. “Right before the recent Lebanon war, the Syrians had a crash program in cryptosporidium.”

According to the Washington State Department of Health, cryptosporidium is a one-celled parasite that causes a gastrointestinal illness with symptoms of diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headaches, nausea, vomiting, and a low-grade fever. The symptoms can last for weeks and may result in weight loss and dehydration.

“Because cryptosporidium is impervious to chlorine,” Bellamy-Decker continued, “you could infect the water supply by the bucket full of cryptosporidium, if you know where to get it. The resulting illness would put down a lot of civilians and military who might oppose you going into their country.”

“The Syrians have a modus operandi of covert operations and deniability,” she stressed, “so biological weapons are absolutely perfect for them.”

WND asked Bellamy-Decker if the Syrians have any history of having used biological weapons.

“I believe they are testing biological weapons right now, in Sudan, in the conflict in Darfur,” she answered. “There is credible information about flyover activity in Darfur, where little parachutes have been dropped down on the population. This is consistent with dispersal methods in bioweapons attacks.

I’ve also seen evidence of bodies that have been recovered from Darfur that look as if they had been exposed to biological weapons.”

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum Feb. 28 to exchange expressions of support and solidarity.

“The Syrians now consider biological weapons as part of their arsenal,” Bellamy-Decker said. “The Syrian military is also beginning to plan the eventual integration of biological weapons in its tactical and strategic arsenals.”

She referenced an April 2000 article published by Syrian defense minister General Mustafa Talas, titled “Biological (Germ) Warfare: A New and Effective Method in Modern Warfare.” The article was republished in a Farsi translation in Tehran.

“All indications suggest that Syria’s ultimate objective is to mount biological warheads on all varieties of the long-range surface-to-surface missiles in its possession,” Bellamy-Decker maintained. “This is a goal that can probably be achieved within a few years, and it may already have been realized in part.”

She argued that instead of producing large quantities of bioweapons agents, Syria is seeking to develop a smaller, but high-quality arsenal, which it can deliver accurately against military and civilian targets.

When asked how Syria might be expected to retaliate against Israel or Europe if the U.S. attacked Iran, she responded, “Syria has most likely forward-deployed some of their covert operatives. Smallpox does not need to be weaponized. Aerosol release is the way to go.”

Bellamy-Decker explained the methodology of a terrorist bio-attack:

So with a good primary aerosol release in an airport in Israel or Europe and you could get 100 index cases. If you’ve made the strain sufficiently virulent, you could have a ratio of 1 to 13 for infectivity, where the normal ratio is 1 to 3. If every index case infects 13 other people, you unfortunately have a great first hit.

“A terrorist bio-attack could go global,” she noted. “A good biological hit will spread rapidly with international travel. Smallpox is a better weapon than anthrax. Smallpox has been field-tested, it is highly stable, and highly communicable, especially if you look at some of the strains the Russians manipulated. Syria probably retained some of [its] smallpox strains from the last outbreak back in 1972.”

Another risk is the possibility Syria’s military might give bioweapons to terrorists.

“We are close to seeing a breakthrough where Syria could provide biological weapons to some of the terrorist groups they work with, like Hezbollah in Lebanon,” Bellamy-Decker argued. “The Syrians believe they can vaccinate themselves and they are working within the Syrian military. They’re certainly not worried about releasing these biological weapons in a military setting, or even if civilians were infected as well, as long as they are vaccinated. I think it is a real threat.”

Bellamy-Decker is presenting a paper at this week’s Intelligence summit in St. Petersburg, Fla. It is expected to focus on the sophisticated state of development of the Syrian bioweapons program.

“The Syrians have developed a rather remarkable bioweapons capability that has gone under the radar of U.S. intelligence,” she said. “U.S. intelligence continues to insist that the Syrian capability is not highly developed. The Syrian program mirrors how the Russians have developed their program, as well as Iraq under Saddam Hussein, North Korea, and Iran. The emphasis in the Syrian program is on latent potential and outbreak capability.”

Bellamy-Decker explained we should not expect to find stockpiles of biological weapons.

“Stockpiles are just not how biological weapons are done,” she said. “With biological weapons, it is not the quantity, but the quality that counts. If you can produce a virulent, communicable strain, then you have a great biological weapon and it doesn’t matter how much of it you have, it depends on what the weapon looks like.”

Bellamy-Decker also referenced a paper she had co-authored for the European Homeland Security Association (EHSA) titled, “Public Health Security and Preparedness.”

This paper is intended to be used as part of a new initiative EHSA is launching in Brussels to hold a quarterly bioterrorism forum bringing together national and international experts with high-level decision-makers “to discuss the threat posed by deliberate disease and the appropriate preparedness and response mechanisms vitally needed to address this threat.”

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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.

Beware the Ides of March Plus Old Black Dog Saga Continues!

March 8, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Begin Blog Number 1

Although optimism is being expressed concerning good coming out of the series of meetings including Syria and Iran, and on the surface I do expect to see a safer withdrawal for U.S. troops to come out of it, I am afraid that, like the Roman Ides of March foretold a time of gloom and death for its Caesar, so will these Ides of March meetings eventually lead to the gloom and death of a fragile Iraqi democracy.

Begin Middle East News Article

US President sees ‘test’ for Iran, Syria, on Iraq

Bush says upcoming international conferences on Iraq will prove the intentions of Damascus and Tehran.

By Olivier Knox – WASHINGTON

March 6, 2007

George W.

Bush challenged Iran and Syria Tuesday to prove at a pair of upcoming international conferences on Iraq that they are serious about helping to quell deadly violence there.

“These meetings will be an important test.

They’ll be a test of whether Iran and Syria are truly interested in being constructive forces in Iraq,” he said in a speech to the American Legion US veterans organization.

The conferences will also “will be a test for the international community to express its support for this young democracy, to support a nation that will be at peace with its neighbors,” said Bush.

Bush was referring to Iraq’s call for a March 10 conference in Baghdad grouping officials from Iraq’s neighbors as well as the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States — and the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

The US president also noted that there would be a subsequent meeting in April of foreign ministers from around the world, including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to discuss Iraq’s future.

Tehran said on Monday it was “not hostile” to joining its arch enemy Washington and other permanent UN Security Council members at the March 10 talks.

Iran’s foreign ministry had stressed on Sunday that no direct talks were planned between Iran and the United States at the Baghdad conference.

The US ambassador in Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said in a television interview that no decision had yet been taken on US-Iran talks at the meeting.

“We have not decided at this point with regard to anything bilateral, but we will be prepared to play our role as constructively as possible,” he said.

Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relations since Washington severed ties in 1980 in the wake of the seizure of its embassy in Tehran by Islamist students.

Any direct contacts between the two sides would mark a major break in the frozen relations, which have been marked by mutual recriminations and enmity over almost three decades.

Washington has repeatedly accused Tehran of fomenting the violence in Iraq and arming Shiite extremists who have carried out deadly attacks on Iraqis and US troops. Iran vehemently denies the charges.

In his speech, Bush also took aim at opposition Democrats now in control of the US Congress over their efforts to curb the war in Iraq and even in some cases threaten to cut off funds for US military operations there.

Bush said lawmakers have “a responsibility” to pay for the war and warned against “undue interference from politicians in Washington” in the way US military commanders in Iraq “carry out their missions.”

And he assailed lawmakers calling for a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

They “seem to believe that we can have it all: That we can fight Al-Qaeda, pursue national reconciliation, initiate aggressive diplomacy, and deter Iran’s ambitions in Iraq — all while withdrawing from Baghdad and reducing our force levels,” he said.

“That sounds good in theory, but doing so at this moment would undermine everything our troops have worked for,” he charged.

Begin Blog Number 2

Ole Black Dog Mystery and Intrigue Details continue to be Vague!

March 8, 2006

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

It does appear that the missing Iranian General, Ali Rez Asghari (Ole Black Dog) has slipped out of his mother country successfully, and is providing valuable information about coordination between Hizbullah, Syria, and Iran.

However, up to this point, the news media has received its information from unidentified officials in several countries, and we may not get the full story until the West has pumped him

dry, which may be awhile.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article

‘Israel behind general’s defection’

JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST

March 8, 2007

A senior US official told The Washington Post Thursday that missing Iranian general, Ali Rez Asghari, was in Western hands and providing intelligence services with information about Hizbullah,

Iran and the ties between the two. It was the first time since Asghari’s disappearance last month, during a visit to Turkey, that a western official confirmed his fate.

Another US official, who spoke to the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity, suggested that Asghari’s disappearance was voluntary and orchestrated by Israel.

The Israeli government denied any connection to Asghari.

“To my knowledge, Israel is not involved in any way in this disappearance,” said Foreign Minstry spokesman Mark Regev.

Up until now, only Iranian officials have suggested he may have been kidnapped by Israel or the United States. The US official said Asghari was cooperating, but did not divulge Asghari’s whereabouts or specify who was questioning him. He made it clear that the information Asghari was offering was fully available to US intelligence.

Iranian officials said Asghari, who in the past had commanded the country’s Revolutionary Guards, was not involved in the country’s nuclear program, and the senior US official said Asghari was not being questioned about it.

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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.

Hizbullah is copied by Syria in Border practice for Outbreak of Future Israeli War!

March 8, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

It appears that Syria has been preparing its border with Israel for war using techniques learned from Hizbullah’s successes against the IDF in the 2006 Summer and Fall war.

Preparation apparently began during early December 2006, and is still continuing.

Begin Arutz Sheva Article

Syrian Border Attacks May Be First Shot in New War

16 Adar 5767, 06 March 07 08:20

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Arutz Sheva, Israel National News

(IsraelNN.com) Syrian terrorists said they tossed mines across the Syrian border into Israel. Israeli officials claimed the attackers were shepherds. The provocative tactics copy those used by Hizbullah ahead of last year’s war in Lebanon.

In a statement to WorldNetDaily, the new Syrian terrorist group said that it was responsible for planting six mines across the Israeli border Saturday morning.

IDF soldiers prevented the attack from succeeding when they discovered the explosive devices before their patrols passed by.

The terrorist gang, the Committee for the Liberation of the Golan Heights, said it is copying the methods of the Hizbullah in Lebanon.

Saturday’s incident of placing anti-personnel mines across the Syria-Israel lines, the first such attack on Israel, comes on the heels of reports of unusual Syrian military activity along the border. Golan Heights residents fear that extensive construction on the Syrian side is intended to house soldiers and terrorists in preparation for the same kind of offensive as last summer’s cross-border attacks on Israel.

Israel initially said that Syrian shepherds were responsible for the mine placement.

Israeli officials filed a complaint with the United Nations, which is responsible for maintaining security in the buffer zone between the two countries.

Before last summer’s war, Hizbullah terrorists often strayed over the Lebanese border into Israel, sometimes disguised as shepherds, with concealed explosive devices.

Their goal in planting the bombs was to entice Israel into a retaliation and a rise in tension. In most cases, Israel refrained from responding, even when the incidents escalated into isolated Katyusha rocket attacks.

Hizbullah simultaneously built a huge underground network of bunkers in southern Lebanon, where weapons were stored and used for attacks during a five-week war with Israel last summer. The war flared after the terrorist organization kidnapped two IDF soldiers and killed seven last June, prompting an extensive Israeli reaction. The resultant IDF campaign against the Hizbullah in Lebanon concluded without the return of the soldiers, the stated aim of the Israeli government at the time.

The Syrian terrorists who claimed responsibility for placing the mines on Saturday is the same group that said last month it is holding missing IDF soldier Guy Hever, who has been missing since 1997.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article

Exclusive: Syria builds ‘death trap’ villages along border in preparation for War

Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST

December 21, 2006

Warning that Israel may face a “Syrian intifada,” a high-ranking officer in Northern Command has told The Jerusalem Post that villages recently built by Syria along the border are planned to be used as “death traps” for IDF troops in Hizbullah-

inspired attacks.

Since this summer’s war in Lebanon, Syria, the officer revealed, has invested large amounts of money in replicating Hizbullah military tactics, particularly in establishing additional commando units and fortifying its short- and long-range missile array.

The idea is to draw Israel into an asymmetric war, the officer said, like the warfare the IDF encounters in combat against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as against Hizbullah in Lebanon.

Over the past two years, Syria has built a number of villages along the border with Israel, some inhabited and some not.

At first, the IDF was not sure of their purpose.

But now, following the war, the officer said, it was understood.

“Syria drew motivation from Hizbullah’s surprise success this summer,” the high-ranking officer said. “They now want to copy that type of guerrilla warfare.”

While for years it was assumed that Israel had a major edge against Syria’s military with regard to a conventional war – tank versus tank, jet versus jet – in an urban setting, the Syrian military would be able, the officer said, to wreak havoc against IDF infantry and armored units like Hizbullah did.

According to the officer, Syria has drawn three major lessons from the war and has begun to implement them. The first is that rockets – 4,000 struck northern Israel during the 33-days of fighting – can paralyze the home front. The second is that antitank missiles can penetrate the Merkava tank and force infantry units to abandon armored personnel carriers and trek into enemy territory by foot. And the third is that in villages and cities the Israeli Air Force’s abilities are limited and IDF ground forces can be defeated.

During the war, the IDF fell into several deadly ambushes in southern Lebanese villages; one in Bint Jbail killed eight soldiers from Battalion 51 of the Golani Brigade.

The Syrian military, the officer said, was conducting urban warfare exercises in preparation for the possibility of a war with Israel.

The IDF has also dramatically increased its training regiments and has, at all times, between two-to-three brigades training in the Golan Heights.

Lacking clear intelligence regarding Syrian intelligence, the officer said that the Northern Command’s “working assumption” was that there was a possibility of war and there was a need to prepare accordingly.

While defense officials have crisscrossed in recent weeks concerning the sincerity of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s offer of peace, the top officer said that, according to “all the signs,” Syria was preparing for war with Israel. The Syrian military has beefed-up forces along the Golan Heights and Israel has done the same. In the Hermon, for instance,

the IDF has doubled the number of troops.

“The feeling is unfortunately that another round is needed before we will be able to engage in a dialogue or peace talks with Syria,” the officer said. ” It is like with the Egyptians.

The war in 1973 was what made it partially possible for [Egyptian president Anwar] Sadat to come to Israel.”

Syria, the officer said, has since the war ended, transferred truckloads of weapons and missiles to Hizbullah.

Due to the convoys, Hizbullah, he said, was almost back at its full strength where it was before the war with Israel.

End Jerusalem Post Article

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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.

False Peace and Safety of I Thessalonians 5 will be a Hudna (Truce)!

March 7, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

We have been discussing this Hudna (False Peace Truce) since 2001 in our Archive Prophecy Updates and Blogs, and have described all of the characteristics of the Islamic version of a Hudna. However, since it is becoming more and more important in the current activities between the Palestinians and Israel, I will give a brief review of the Hudna in this Blog.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hudna is an Arabic term meaning “truce” or “armistice” as well as “calm” or “quiet”, coming from a verbal root meaning “calm”. It is sometimes translated as “cease-fire”. In the Lisan al-Arab (Ibn al-Manzur’s definitive dictionary of classical Arabic, dating to the 14th century) it is defined as follows:

“hadana: he grew quiet. hadina: he quieted (transitive or intransitive). haadana: he made peace with.

The noun from each of these is hudna.”

A particularly famous early hudna was the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah between Muhammad and the Quraysh tribe.

According to Umdat as-Salik, a medieval summary of Shafi’i jurisprudence, hudnas with a non-Muslim enemy should be limited to 10 years: “if Muslims are weak, a truce may be made for ten years if necessary, for the Prophet made a truce with the Quraysh for that long, as is related by Abu Dawud” (‘Umdat as-Salik, o9.16).

I believe I Thessalonians 3:3,4 is describing a long term hudna that will be violently broken when the Palestinians, in coordination with other Islamic nations, think they have attained sufficient strength to finally defeat Israel.

I Thessalonians 5:3,4 – For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. [4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

Hudna has a distinct meaning to Islamic fundamentalists, well-versed in their history: The prophet Mohammad struck a legendary, ten-year hudna with the Quraysh tribe that controlled Mecca in the seventh century. Over the following two years, Mohammad rearmed and took advantage of a minor Quraysh infraction to break the hudna and launch the full conquest of Mecca, the holiest city in Islam.

When Yassir Arafat infamously invoked Mohammad’s hudna in 1994 to describe his own Oslo commitments “on the road to Jerusalem,” the implication was clear. As Mideast expert Daniel Pipes has explained, Arafat was asserting to his Islamic brethren that he will, “when his circumstances change for the better, take advantage of some technicality to tear up existing accords and launch a military assault on Israel.” Indeed, this is precisely what occurred in Sept. 2000 when Arafat & Co. launched a terror assault upon Israeli citizens.

As for Hamas, they have proven time and again their commitment to a tactical hudna — replenishing their strength during the quiet periods, then returning with increased deadliness.

As recently documented by The Washington Institute, Hamas agreed to no less than ten ceasefires in the past ten years, and after every single one returned freshly armed for terror. Hundreds of Israeli citizens have paid for these hudnas with their lives.

When the hudna false peace truce of I Thessalonians 5:3,4 is broken, the death toll suffered by the Israelis will be in the millions. Only one-third will escape into the Negev Wilderness, where they will remain for some three and one-half prophetic years (1260 days).

Zechariah 13:8 – And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.

Revelation 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

I believe what is currently happening in Israel will eventually lead to a Hudna false peace declared by all the internal terrorist groups existing across Israel, which will eventually be broken by a lightening Jihad. My guesstimate is that the Jihad by a coalition of Arab nations will occur at some point in time between 2008 and 2012.

This Hudna (false peace truce) is the same one from Archive Prophecy Update Number 12, March, 2001, which follows.

Begin Archive Prophecy Update Number 12

PROPHECY UPDATE 12

March, 2001

The Apostle Paul had a deep spiritual burden for his own people, the nation of Israel. His born again heart longed for them to forsake their unbelief by turning

to Jesus as their Messiah. He expresses this desire in Romans 10:1 as he states: “Brethren, my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.”

There is no question that Paul saw Israel as being in unbelief. But he knew that some future day they would believe, and consequently be grafted back into God’s olive tree, from which they had been broken off because of their unbelief. He stated this principle in Romans 11:20, as he wrote: “Well, because of unbelief they were broken off.” But he goes on in verse 23 to indicate they will one day believe, and thereby restored to being part of God’s olive tree. He writes, “And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.” I said all this to explain the words “they” and “them” in I Thessalonians 5:3, where Paul states: “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh on them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” Paul, in his use of “they” and “them,” is referring to the nation of Israel in unbelief. However, it would also in part apply to all unbelievers in the last days.

So why have I given this discourse? The word translated as “safety” is “asphaleia,” which means “the security one experiences when standing on something that is firmly fixed.

It gives the one standing on it a sense of “not falling.” After four major victories over the Arabs, Israel doesn’t think she could ever “fall” to them in a major war.

The last four leaders of Israel have worn out the following expression: “We must have a peace with security.” We have heard it used hundreds of times on the media, and it has been printed over and over again in countless articles. Why is this important? God indicates a time will come when Israel actually believes she has “a peace with security.” Why is it so important that we understand this prediction

? Because we can know that the final war, involving Israel’s Islamic neighbors, will not occur until it is fulfilled! Israel must be lulled into a false sense of security before any united Islamic attack against her can be successful. Until this happens, and it will, I merely wait for it to come to pass. Then, when peace and security for Israel does appear to arrive in the Middle East, you can know that the final war of this age is about to occur.

Don’t believe all these terrorist attacks will suddenly cause the final war of this age to begin. It is only when they cease that you can know the last war, which finally produces Armageddon some 3 and ½ years after it begins, is imminent.

End Quote of Archive Prophecy Update Number 12

Begin Haaretz Article

Hamas vows full truce if Israel helps end boycott

By Avi Issacharoff and Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondents

March 7, 2007

If Israel agrees to persuade the international community not to boycott the new Palestinian unity government,

the Palestinians “will offer a promise from Hamas and Fatah of a total cease-fire with Israel, including a complete halt to Qassam [rocket] fire and suicide bombings,” a senior H

amas official told Haaretz on Tuesday.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas plans to deliver this offer at his upcoming meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian sources said.

The meeting is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, thought according to the Palestinians, the date has not yet been finalized.

However, the Hamas official warned, if Israel presses for a continuation of the international boycott and refuses to work with the unity government, the existing partial cease-fire will be in danger.

Olmert, however, plans to use the meeting to urge Abbas to ensure that the new government, which is currently being formed, accepts the Quartet’s conditions: recognizing Israel, renouncing violence and honoring previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

“This will not be a scolding conversation,” said a government source, “but a heart-to-heart talk in which Olmert will try to exploit the grace period that remains before the new PA government is established.”

Israel is also working to persuade the European Union – one of the Quartet’s four members, along with the United States, Russia and the United Nations – to continue the boycott should the unity government not meet these three conditions, laid down by the Quartet last year.

Olmert has no plans to announce any additional steps to ease Palestinian life at his meeting with Abbas. This will be their third meeting over the last three months.

The Palestinians said the unity government was unlikely to be finalized until after the Olmert-Abbas meeting. As of Tuesday, Hamas and Fatah were still arguing over who the interior minister should be.

Should the unity government not accept the Quartet’s conditions, Israel also plans to boycott ministers from Abbas’ Fatah Party. In Europe, however, there is growing support for dialogue with “moderate ministers.”

One reason for this is the change in Abbas’ position. When Hamas comprised the entire government, he supported the boycott. But now that a unity government is being formed, he wants the Europeans to work with Fatah government members, arguing that this will strengthen Fatah’s position in its ongoing debate with Hamas over diplomatic policy.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who returned Tuesday from a meeting with EU foreign ministers, said that thus far, the EU appears to be standing firm on the Quartet conditions, as evidenced by its rejection of an Italian-Spanish-French proposal to set up a special committee to reconsider the conditions for dialogue with the new unity government. However, fearing this position might erode, she devoted much of her visit to urging her counterparts to stand firm on this issue, arguing that insisting on the Quartet conditions would strengthen Palestinian moderates, whereas “compromising at this time would strengthen Hamas.”

Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema, one of the leaders of the anti-boycott camp, opined recently that the EU should not insist that the new government recognize Israel. Instead, it should say that abiding by the other two conditions would be sufficient, in order to encourage Hamas to be more flexible rather than trying to pressure it, he argued.

The EU’s external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, harshly criticized Israel at a meeting with opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu last week: “You’re not giving the Palestinians anything – neither territory nor hope,” she said. But Israeli government sources claimed that she took a more moderate tone in meetings with other Israeli officials and refrained from criticism.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met Tuesday with Khaled Meshal, the head of Hamas’ political bureau, and urged the Palestinians to continue the armed struggle against Israel, “which is undergoing the worst period of its existence, and getting worse.” Iran also pledged financial aid to the new PA government.

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(1) Funds, (2) Training, and ((3) Improved Rockets for Hamas insure Hudna followed by War!

March 7, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Hamas needs Funds, Training, Improved Short Range Rockets, more anti-tank and anti-antiaircraft rockets, and more time to prepare for war, which it will obtain eventually by declaring a Hudna (False Peace Truce) with Israel. All of these elements are coming into place at this time, and my guesstim

ate as to the time of the brief Hudna, which will be followed by a surprise Jihad attack from within and without by an Arab coalition, is at some point in time between 2008 and 2012.

(1) Funds – Begin Jerusalem Post Article

Mashaal secures Iranian pledge of funds for Hamas

Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

March 5, 2007

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal extracted from Iran Tuesday a pledge to fund his radical Palestinian movement to compensate for the West’s financial blockade of the Palestinian government.

Mashaal, who arrived in Iran early Tuesday, told a press conference with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki that Iran had been giving financial and political support to the Palestinians, whose government has been cut off from Western aid since Hamas took office in March last year.

“We still look forward to get support (from Iran) to break the political and economic sanctions,” Mashaal said.

Mottaki told reporters that Iran would continue to provide money to Hamas, but he did not give any figures.

Iran is known to have given sums of money to Hamas since it took office following its victory in the PA legislative elections. But there was no word Tuesday on what more would donated.

The major aid donors to the Palestinian Authority – the United States, the European Union and Canada – cut off aid because Hamas has refused to renounce violence and recognize Israel and the previous agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians.

Last month, Mashaal and Palestinian Authprity President Mahmoud Abbas signed a Saudi-brokered agreement in Mecca under which they would form a coalition government and Hamas promised to “respect” the previous agreements.

The United States and others are waiting for the coalition to be formed before declaring whether the Mecca agreement warrants a resumption of aid.

At Tuesday’s press conference, Mashaal was asked if Hamas had now recognized Israel.

The Hamas leader did not answer directly, but said: “The Palestinian government insists on June 4, 1967 borders (for Israel), full Palestinian sovereignty with Jerusalem as its capital.”

He was referring to the borders of the Israeli state before the 1967 war, which broke out on June 5 that year.

Mottaki said his government backed the Mecca accord.

“Iran supports this initiative, and it also supports any step toward achieving greater unity among Palestinians,” the foreign minister said.

Mashaal met President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday and was expected to meet the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei before he leaves the country.

He lives in exile in Damascus, Syria.

Iran had close ties with Israel when Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was in power.

However after the shah toppled in the 1979 Islamic revolution, the new Iranian government broke ties with Israel and turned the former Israeli Embassy into a Palestinian embassy.

(2) Training – Begin New York Times Article from Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Daily Alert

Israel: Iran Is Training Hamas

Steven Erlanger

Yuval Diskin, the chief of the Israeli internal security service, said Monday that the Islamic movement

Hamas had sent dozens of men from Gaza to Iran for military training. “We know that Hamas has started to dispatch people to Iran, tens, and a promise of hundreds….I see this as the strategic danger, more than any weapons smuggled into Gaza.” Diskin also said that Fatah is continuing to fragment under weak leadership from Mahmoud Abbas, and would lose another election, if it were held now, to Hamas. “Fatah is disintegrated and nearly destroyed, with no strong leadership.”

Hamas, part of the larger Muslim Brotherhood, would never change its fundamental beliefs, he said, and he contended that Hamas’ offer of a long-term truce w

as intended to allow the movement to consolidate its control over the Palestinians and to mask a buildup of military armaments and power that would eventually be aimed at Israel. (New York Times)

(3) Improved Rockets – Begin DEBKAfile Article

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Improved Iranian surface missiles for Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami bring 250,000 more Israeli civilians within range

March 6, 2007, 3:14 PM (GMT+02:00)

According to DEBKAfile’s military sources, the two missiles which reached the southern part of Ashkelon Tuesday, March 6, were range-finding exercises for the new weapons.

Their manufacturers, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, have overcome the snag which held the radius of Palestinian missiles down to 12-13 km from Gaza and upgraded it to 19 km. Another quarter of a million civilians are now threatened, the populations of the port-resort of Ashkelon, Netivot, Ofakim and the outskirts of Kiryat Gat, as well as important military bases in central Israel. Hamas and Jihad Islami, which took delivery of the new weapons, can now match Hizballah attacks on northern Israel with missile barrages against Israel’s Southwest and its central heartland.

Tehran, Hizballah, Hamas and Jihad Islami are making good use of the Israeli government’s compulsive activity in the fending off of domestic criticism for its performance in the Lebanon War of summer 2006 – and infighting in general. They are building up the Palestinian war machine gun by gun, missile by missile and bunker by bunker, unhindered by Israeli military intervention.

As the Olmert government’s negligence in preparing the north for the Lebanon war last summer unfolds, another quarter of a million Israelis find themselves unprotected in the face of the expanding Palestinian threat from Gaza. Olmert and his ministers have not delivered on pledges of generous allocations for protective measures and better shelters, especially for the schools of long- beleaguered Sderot.

Israelis living around the Gaza Strip are watching tensely as Hamas and Jihad Islami missile crews test-fire their new Iranian missiles, aware that their range and precision are improved.

For the moment, the Palestinian terrorist groups are only firing scattered missile volleys; they are not yet ready to let loose against Israeli targets for three reasons.

1. Hamas and Jihad Islami are not yet ready to show their hand; they therefore test-fire the new missiles from deep inside the Gaza so that they land harmlessly in the sand dunes outside Ashkelon. They know that as long as no one is hurt, the Israeli army is under orders to stand aside.

2. Their leaders do not want to provoke an Israeli invasion of Gaza at this time.

Neither has yet perfected its war preparations. More funding and arms consignments are awaited from Iran, to top up their military arsenal and complete their underground fortress. (See separate item on this page).

3. Hamas does not want to break up its unity negotiations with Fatah. Its leaders prefer to keep the talks going on a low fire to mask their war preparations; damaging missile attacks against an Israeli town would derail the process.

DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources add: Both Hamas and Fatah have admitted that their power-sharing talks serve merely to keep the lid on their disagreements, although the next armed clash is only a matter of time.

A Palestinian source told DEBKAfile: “The talks between (Palestinian Authority Chairman) Mahmoud Abbas and (Hamas prime minister) Ismail Haniyeh will go on desultorily until one side or the other feels strong enough to break away and resort to violence.

Those sources stress that, for the Palestinians, the first target for any violence is Israel – especially that now they have at last got hold of missiles which can reach deep inside Israel.

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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.