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Gaza, Gaza, Go Away, Let Hell Break Out Another Day!

June 13, 2007

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eriod.com./

Israel i s

growing closer and closer to her date with prophetic destiny. The Gaza Strip, the homeland of the uncircumcised Philistines, has always been a thorn in Israel’s side that seems impossible to pull out.

It is the smelly armpit of the Middle East, and will play a major role in the events that lead up to the initial Islamic attack that sets off a war, which is likely to begin at some point in time between 2008 and the end of

2012.

I will simply let the following four articles from DEBKAfile and the Jerusalem Post speak for themselves concerning the current and future possibilities for the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.

Article 1

DEBKAfile: Gaza in flames. Palestinian Hamas storms Fatah positions in Gaza as brutal civil strife breaks up fragile Hamas-Fatah unity government

June 12, 2007, 6:50 PM (GMT+02:00)

Senior Palestinian politician Saab Erikat warns “Mogadishu syndrome” is overtaking Palestinian Gaza. “If war and lawlessness are not extinguished, the fire will burn us all”

The outcome unfolding after at least 20 deaths in 24 hours is the separation of Palestinian rule between Hamas-controlled Gaza and the Fatah-led West Bank. Hamas gave Fatah’s two hours to vacate its Gaza command posts or face death.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Hamas threw its entire 15,000-strong Executive Force armed with mortars, RPGs, heavy machine guns and grenades into the final bid to conquer the Gaza Strip, whereas Fatah commanders’ desperate appeals to Mahmoud Abbas for rein

forcements drew nothing but a futile call for a ceasefire.

His Fatah earlielr mounted an RPG attack on the Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya’s home in Gaza. No one was hurt. Hamas gunmen then shot dead the top Fatah commander in northern Gaza, his brother and cousin.

Monday, they bound a Fatah fighter hand and foot and hurled him from a 15-story building in Gaza to his death.

For two days, Hamas gunmen have been targeting injured Fatah fighters, killing them in ambulances and Beit Hanoun hospital beds. Fatah has retaliated with mortar and RPG attacks on the Hamas-controlled Shifa hospital.

Several attempts by the Egyptian mission in Gaza to arrange a ceasefire have been short-lived.

In Cairo Tuesday, President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah discussed the Palestinian crisis.

Article 2

DEBKAfile’s Military sources: Iran and Syria are the winners of Hamas’ military coup against Fatah in Gaza Strip

June 12, 2007, 6:46 PM (GMT+02:00)

It was the second triumph in a week for a Palestinian force backed by Iran and Syria, after the Lebanese army failed in four weeks’ combat to crush the pro-Syrian factions’ barricaded in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian camp near Tripoli in four weeks of combat.

Tuesday, Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Palestinian Authority forces faced disaster. Their inevitable ejection from the Gaza Strip effectively severs Palestinian rule between Ramallah, where Fatah will have to fight to retain control of the West Bank and Gaza, dominated now by an Islamist Palestinian force manipulated from Tehran and Damascus.

The Iran-Syrian alliance has acquired by brute force two Mediterranean coastal enclaves in northern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Its momentum, launched a month ago in both sectors was unchecked.

The Fouad Siniora government’s troops failed to break through to the Palestinian camp and crush the pro-Syrian uprising. The Olmert government stood by unmoved as the most radical elements in the Middle East snatched the Gaza Strip on Israel’s southwestern border.

The Bush administration is finding itself forced out of key Middle East positions, its main assets Siniora and Mahmoud Abbas trounced on the battlefield.

Israel’s technological feat of placing the Ofeq-7 surveillance satellite in orbit Monday quickly proved ineffective against the sort of tactics Tehran and Syria employ: mobile, suicidal Palestinian terrorists, heavily and cheaply armed with primitive weapons, who are winning the first round of the Summer 2007 war and preparing for the next.

Article 3

Olmert: West should step into Gaza fray

Herb Keinon, THE JERUSALEM POST

June 12, 2007

Israel has no intention of going into Gaza to aid the pragmatic Palestinian forces against the extremists, but “if Gaza falls into the hands of Hamas it will have regional implications,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday.

Olmert made his comments at a meeting with visiting Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen. Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office said Israel was “carefully watching” the developments in Gaza.

“The situation in Gaza is troubling and worrying, specifically in relation to the ability of the pragmatic forces in the Palestinian Authority to stand up to the steps taken by the extremists, and also in regard to the smuggling of arms into the Gaza Strip,” Olmert said, according to a statement issued by his office.

Olmert also called on the West to take immediate action to “change the situation in Gaza” and said that serious consideration should be given to the introduction of a UNIFIL-type international force along the Philadelphi corridor between Gaza and Egypt to prevent the continued smuggling of arms to Hamas.

This marked the first time that Olmert has publicly backed this idea, first broached a few weeks ago by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

European officials have said the European Union would only discuss the idea if it received formal requests from all the parties involved.

Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office would not say Tuesday whether Israel had received any urgent requests over the last few days to allow weaponry into Gaza to strengthen Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Reflecting concern that the intra-Palestinian violence would lead to an upsurge in attacks on Sderot, as was the case some three weeks ago when the Hamas-Fatah violence re-erupted, Olmert said that “Israel would defend itself and its citizens against any aggressive action from terrorist groups.”

However, he made clear that the IDF would not get involved in the fighting to help out the “moderate” Palestinian forces.

The security cabinet, meanwhile, is scheduled to hold its weekly meeting on Wednesday, but rather than dealing with the situation in Gaza, the issue on the agenda is the establishment of a “National Disaster Administration” to unite and streamline all the civilian rescue emergency services – Israel Police, Magen David Adom and Fire and Rescue Service – with the IDF during times of war.

The meeting is also expected to deal with a reorganization of the Home Front command to make it more effective.

Article 4

Is it time for UN peacekeepers in Gaza?

HARRIS O. SCHOENBERG, THE JEURSALEM POST

June 12, 2007

A recent news story reported that the government of Israel is considering agreeing to a United Nations peacekeeping force in Gaza. One would think that after Israel’s experience with UNIFIL, the UN force in southern Lebanon, Israeli leaders would have said “Never again.” But Israel has found that in Gaza, occupation, trading land for peace, and unilateral withdrawal do not work, and the mystique of peacekeeping may have enticed decision-makers in Jerusalem.

That mystique is an illusion, but it is one that is actively promoted by the UN.

For example, on May 29th the UN observed the fifth International Day for UN Peacekeepers, honoring the men and women who serve around the world.

Since the end of the Cold War, the number of peacekeeping missions has multiplied with uncommon speed. There are reportedly more than 100,000 peacekeepers from 115 countries currently serving in 18 operations on 4 continents, with additional deployments on the horizon.

According to the UN, they are doing useful work keeping warring parties apart, disarming armed forces, and protecting refugees and children. Some of this may be true. Some peacekeepers may have served with distinction. But is it the whole truth?

THE DATE of May 29th for international peacekeepers day was chosen because it is the date in 1948 when the first UN peacekeeping mission, the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), began operations on Israel’s borders.

Although there have been no truces to supervise for a very long time, UNTSO still exists with headquarters in Jerusalem.

UNIFIL, which was established in 1978 to end lawlessness in southern Lebanon, had a record of cooperating with the PLO, when the PLO dominated and terrorized that region and launched terrorist raids into Israel and around the world.

UNIFIL used to return the PLO’s weapons when confiscated, give it advance warning of searches for concealed weapons, and supply it with sophisticated communications equipment.

UNIFIL even hired PLO contingents to guard its offices in Beirut, and individual UNIFIL officers were caught smuggling explosives into Israel for use by PLO terrorists.

(Interviews conducted by this author with UNIFIL contingents in 1981 revealed widespread hostility towards Israel.)

FOLLOWING Hizbullah’s murderous raid on Israel last summer, UNIFIL reportedly supplied real time data on Israeli troop movements into Lebanon on its Web site for Hizbullah to read. The enlarged UNIFIL created under Security Council Resolution 1701 last August has done nothing to disarm Hizbullah (which replaced the PLO in southern Lebanon in the 1980s) or to stop arms smuggling to Hizbullah and Palestinian terrorist groups in Lebanon, including the group Fatah al-Islam, which clashed this spring with the Lebanese army.

In this sad story the Fiji Battalion stands apart. It followed orders to return weapons, but reportedly broke the trigger fingers of the PLO terrorists caught returning from killing sprees into Israel.

PEACEKEEPERS in other parts of the world have not done better. It was downhill after the UN peacekeepers were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1988.

Peacekeepers in Bosnia were reported to have sold their supplies on the black market. Peacekeepers in Cambodia were reported into sex, booze, and drugs parties. One peacekeeper contingent sent there was reportedly composed of convicts and mental asylum inmates who were promised their freedom if they served in Cambodia for six months.

Peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were reported implicated in the massacre of villagers. Others in the DRC were reported to have sold weapons in return for gold to Congolese militia groups they were meant to disarm, according to a BBC report.

These militia groups were guilty of some of the worst human rights abuses during the Democratic Republic of Congo’s long civil war.

A UN investigative team sent to gather evidence was obstructed and threatened. According to the BBC, the team’s report was buried by the UN itself to “avoid political fallout.”

In at least two African countries, peacekeepers sexually exploited the women and girls they had come to protect. In one they demanded sex from hungry females in return for food. A New York Times editorial condemned the practice and said that “far too little has been done to end the culture of impunity, exploitation, and sexual chauvinism that permits” it to go on.

On May 29th, Undersecretary-General Jean-Marie Guehenno, head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations during many of the scandals, admitted to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York that discipline in the field must be improved. But he claimed that the problems were not his responsibility, for, he said, it is up to the troop contributing countries to agree to disciplinary measures.

Why he cannot insist on reviewing applicants for peacekeeping operations and insist as well that any country wishing to participate in UN peacekeeping operations must accept UN disciplinary measures for its contingents engaged in dishonorable acts was not made clear.

Nor it is clear why Israel would consider agreeing to a peacekeeping operation in Gaza, given the peacekeepers’ record of malfeasance and cooperation with Israel’s enemies.

The writer serves as President of UN Reform Advocates.

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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.

A Dark Kingdom Arises then Falls to the Lion of Judah, Who brings His Kingdom of Light!

June 12, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

The first two paragraphs, extracted from today’s Jerusalem Post, in an article titled “UN envoy: ME picture is ‘getting darker,” give reason to feel the dark winds of war blowing across the plains of the Middle East.

Begin Quote

“[UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen raised an “alarm” about the situation

in the Middle East, warning that the region faces the possibilities of full-scale war, a fresh effort to contain the current violence, or energetic diplomacy to try to bring lasting peace.

“The picture which emerges is very dark, and apparently getting darker,” he told reporters on Monday.

‘So there are reasons for real concerns in the international community.’]”

Close Quote

The full Jerusalem Post article follows my comments on today’s Middle East situation.

This picture does not alarm me in the least – In fact I have anxiously waited some 40 years for it to become clear like a picture developing in a darkroom.

It has become clearer and

clearer with each passing year, and I rejoice in it, because the Middle East is being transformed into the picture God said in his word would be visible in the latter times of this age. The fullness of the Age

of the Gentiles will come at the Second Advent of Christ, the Messiah.

The dark kingdom now coming together from Morocco to India and from Turkey to Saudi Arabia, will be a modern day Caliphate, which will consist of 10 Islamic nations having the characteristics of iron and clay mixed together.

They will only hold together for a short period of time, and the dark kingdom will be destroyed by the Messiah upon his return at Armageddon, to be replaced by his kingdom of light. The 10 Islamic nations are symbolized as toes or horns in prophecy. (For a Full Exposition Please Consult Parts 1 through 5 of “10 Jihad Kings” found in our Prophecy Update Archives as Numbers 233B, 234, 234A, 235, 235A, 236A, and 236B)

Daniel 2:42-44 – And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. [43] And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

[44] And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

This Kingdom and its Lamb King, who Daniel’s people rejected at his First Appearance, will soon return for his Second Appearance to bring in his Kingdom as its Lion King of Judah. I have always believed these ten toes would indeed arise out the territory once controlled by the two legs to which they were attached, namely, the southern flank of the old Roman Empire.

The two legs of Daniel’s statue, during the time of their existence as an empire, stretched their long toes into the nations now identified as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.

I believe these 10 nations will be directly involved in the coming Jihad against Israel. I believe the 10 toes found in chapter 2 of Daniel are the 10 horns found in chapter 7 of Daniel, and that the “little horn” of Daniel 7 comes out of Syria or its immediate surrounding area. I believe the Antichrist will subdue the king of Syria to become the 11th horn, and will also subdue the kings of Lebanon and Iraq.

Daniel 7:24-27 – And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. [25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his h

and until a time and times and the dividing of time. [26] But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.

[27] And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.

For those of you who follow my Blogs, you know I have believed for many years that the expiration of a 40 year generation, which began in 1967, would be associated with an attack against Israel, and would set in motion a final major war culminating some three and one-half years later at Armageddon. You also know my guesstimate for the point in time the initial attack will occur is from 2008 to the end of 2012.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article

UN envoy: ME picture is ‘getting darker’

Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

June 12, 2007

UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen raised an “alarm” about the situation in the Middle East, warning that the region faces the possibilities of full-scale war, a fresh effort to contain the current violence, or energetic diplomacy to try to bring lasting peace.

“The picture which emerges is very dark, and apparently getting darker,” he told reporters on Monday. “So there are reasons for real concerns in the international community.”

Roed-Larsen, the current UN envoy for Lebanon-Syria issues who for many years was the top UN Mideast envoy, said “the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East has changed fundamentally over a few years.”

“A few years ago, as it had been over many, many decades, the center of gravity for all the conflicts were the Israeli-Arab conflicts,” he said. “Now, there seems to be four epicenters of conflict in the region with their own dynamics, the Iraqi issues, the Iranian issues, the Syrian-Lebanese issues, and of course the heart of hearts, the traditional conflict, the Palestinian-Israeli issue.”

“The new phenomenon seems to be that all these conflicts are now completely intertwined so that it is very difficult, maybe impossible, to find a solution to one of them without finding a solution to all of them,” he told reporters after briefing the UN Security Council.

Roed-Larsen called the current situation “alarming” and said there are three alternatives.

“One is that we continue on the path of violence – the kind of mildest one being that we continue on the slippery slope of violence that we’ve seen not only in Lebanon but also in Gaza, West Bank, Iraq and elsewhere in the region,” he said. “The other one is that it leads to a full confrontation, and worst case to a regional confrontation with arms.”

The second option is “energetic diplomacy” by the international community to address the underlying problems, he said.

Roed-Larsen said this is “extremely difficult” today because the four conflicts in the Middle East are separate, but have become entwined.

“Hopefully there is still a possibility to address this diplomatically and with peaceful means,” he said. “However, that this will happen in the very foreseeable future is not that likely.”

The third option, he said, is “a vigorous containment policy which stems the slide on the slippery slope” and moves to address “broader regional tensions.”

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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.

Israel’s Major Problem is

not Her Enemies!

June 12, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Former Chief of General Staff Lt. General Moshe Ya’lon’s beginning and closing words in the first and last paragraphs of an article by Etgar Leftovits, which appeared in the Jerusalem Post, were as follows:

Begin Quote

‘Corruption worse than Iranian threat’

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS

First Paragraph

“[The corruption manifest in Israeli leadership and the society as a whole is more worrisome than the Iranian nuclear threat, former chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Moshe Ya’alon said Mon day.

]”

Last Paragraph

“[‘This is a war of light versus darkness,’ he concluded.]”

End Quote

Each time that Israel was in the land from Dan to Beersheba, and became so internally corrupt in immorality and covetousness, the Lord would punish them by allowing their enemies to punish them for their internal condition. This is a well documented biblical fact.

Under the Judges it was a consistent pattern that repeated itself in a never ending series. Perhaps the best known is the time of great corruption in every facet of Jewish society, which existed in the days of Nebuchadnezzar before the Babylonian captivity of some 70 years. The words penned by Jeremiah give a very caustic description of Israel’s carnal character at that time, which is not too different from Israel’s character at the present time. In fact, it does indeed describe all of society’s character at this very moment. I believe the words of Jeremiah will once again lead to the Lord allowing Israel to eventually be driven into the Wilderness known as the Negev.

Jeremiah 5:20-31 – Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, [21] Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: [22] Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? [23] But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. [24] Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. [25] Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you. [26] For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a tr

ap, they catch men. [27] As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.

[28] They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. [29] Shall I not visit for these things

? saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this

? [30] A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; [31] The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

The majority of the prophets of Israel were tickling the people’s ears by telling them what they wanted to hear, assuring them that they, as the children of the Lord, were doing just fine morally, and that their Lord would not allow their enemies to overcome them.

The priests were more like rulers who had become rich by their graft by lowering the standard of the Law, and the people of Israel loved it. They loved it because it allowed them to keep the watered down version of the Law, while they continued in their immorality, and in the assurance their enemies would not prevail over them. Jeremiah tried to warn them that judgment was coming, but the prophets and priests assured them it was not, and they loved them for telling them a lie. He asked them the question: “And what will ye do in the end thereof?” I believe that is still a fair question for both Jew and Gentile?

Isaiah speaks of this coming time of final judgment on Israel before she is restored to greatness by the Messiah she rejected.

Isaiah 26:19-21 – Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. [20] Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

[21] For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

Then Isaiah speaks of the punishment of the evil spiritual forces that have afflicted mankind since Genesis 3:15.

Isaiah 27:1 – In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

Revelation 16:13,14 – 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.

Then Isaiah speaks of the time afterwards when Israel will be restored to greatness like she has never known.

Isaiah 27:2-6 – In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.

[3] I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. [4] Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle

? I would go through them, I would burn them together.

[5] Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.

[6] He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

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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.

IMPORTANT WEEKEND EVENTS!

June 11, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

I do not expect an in iti

al attack against Israel will start a major Middle East War in 2007, but do believe such an attack is very likely to occur at some point in time after 2007, but before 2013 begins. The two events reported over the weekend were definitely preparation for such a war, regardless of when the initial attack occurs. The joint military exercises and precise satellite eyes, over the field of a conflict between Israel and its neighbors, are two essential elements necessary for success when such a conflict eventually erupts.

Begin Article 1

‘Military plan against Iran is ready’

Yaakov Katz. THE JERUSALEM POST

June 10, 2007

Predicting that Iran will obtain a nuclear weapon within three years and claiming to have a strike plan in place, senior American military officers have told The Jerusalem Post they support President George W. Bush’s stance to do everything necessary to stop the Islamic Republic’s race for nuclear power.

Bush has repeatedly said the United States would not allow Iran to “go nuclear.”

A high-ranking American military officer told the Post that senior officers in the US armed forces had thrown their support behind Bush and believed that additional steps needed to be taken to stop Iran.

Predictions within the US military are that Bush will do what is needed to stop Teheran before he leaves office in 2009, including possibly launching a military strike against its nuclear facilities.

On Sunday, Sen.

Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut said the US should consider a military strike against Iran over its support of Iraqi insurgents.

“I think we’ve got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq,” he said. “And to me, that would include a strike over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers.”

According to a high-ranking American military officer, the US Navy and Air Force would play the primary roles in any military action taken against Iran. One idea under consideration is a naval blockade designed to cut off Iran’s oil exports.

The officer said that if the US government or the UN Security Council decided on this course of action, the US Navy would most probably not block the Strait of Hormuz – a step that would definitely draw an Iranian military response – but would patrol farther out and turn away tankers on their way to load oil.

On Sunday, the Israel Air Force held joint exercises with visiting US pilots, but IDF sources dismissed speculation that the drills were connected to an attack on Iran.

The US officer said that perhaps even more dangerous to Israel and the Western world than Iranian nukes was the possibility that a terrorists cell associated with al-Qaida or global jihad would acquire a highly radioactive “dirty bomb” or a vial of deadly chemical or biological agents. The officer said al-Qaida was gaining a strong foothold in the Middle East and that Israel was being surrounded by global jihad elements in Lebanon, Jordan and Sinai.

“Iran is a state-sponsored type of terrorism that can be dealt with,” he said, adding that it was far more difficult to strike at the source of an isolated terrorist cell.

To combat this threat, the US Navy has come up with a plan for a “1,000-ship navy” – a transnational network composed of navies from around the world that would raise awareness of maritime threats and more effectively thwart sea-based terrorism and the illicit transfer of arms by sea.

“The idea is to allow free trade and to prevent criminal and terror activity at sea,” the officer said.

A smaller-scale example of the US Navy’s vision is NATO’s Active Endeavor antiterrorism operation based in Naples. Israel plans to send an officer to be stationed there in the coming months. NATO launched Operation Active Endeavor in wake of 9/11 and has succeeded in bringing together a number of Mediterranean countries to work together in Naples to share information on naval terrorism and suspicious vessels in the region.

Begin Article 2

Israel successfully launches Ofek 7

spy satellite overnight

Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST

June 11, 2007

In the face of Iran’s race to obtain nuclear weapons and predictions that war with Syria is on the horizon, Israel strengthened its foothold in space pre-dawn Monday and successfully launched a spy satellite, which defense officials said granted the IDF unprecedented operational capabilities.

The satellite, called Ofek 7, was launched from the Palmahim Air Force Base and successfully reached orbit. Officials said however that it would take several days to test the satellite’s systems before it would be declared operational.

The satellite was launched atop a Shavit missile.

The successful launch came as a great relief for the defense establishment and particularly Israel Aerospace Industries, lead contractor of the Ofek project. In September 2004, Israel failed to successfully launch the Ofek 6, which in its third boost stage plummeted to the sea. At the time, despite the disappointment, the Defense Ministry continued ahead with its development of the Ofek 7.

Weighing 300 kilograms, the Ofek 7 will orbit earth from up to 600 kilometers in space. It has a four-year lifespan and will communicate its images via downlink with an IAI-run ground station.

Defense officials said that the launching of the satellite was part of the MOD’s multi-year work plan but was also in line with the defense establishment’s “operational needs.” Israel has traditionally launched a new satellite once every two-and-a-half years staring in the late 1980s.

While refusing to divulge the performance levels of the new satellite, defense officials said that it was by far the most advanced satellite Israel has launched into space. Officials said that it was superior to the Eros B satellite – launched in April 2006 – which has the ability to spot images on the ground as small as 70 centimeters. The officials refused to divulge what made it superior

“With this launch we have improved Israel’s operational capabilities by dozens of percent,” said Brig.-Gen. Haim Eshet, director of Space Programming at the MOD’s Research and Development Directorate (MAFAT). “This is due to the improvements made to the satellite and also since we now have better coverage in the skies.”

In addition to the Eros B – a civilian-owned satellite used by the MOD on a contract basis – Israel currently operates the Ofek 5 spy satellite, successfully launched in May 2002.

It was supposed to have had a four-year life span, but its producers boast that it is still functioning and continues to produce high-resolution pictures from space. Its telescopic camera was designed by Elbit Systems and has variable direction capability.

The Ofek 5 satellite is in an elliptical orbit that reportedly takes it over Iran, Iraq, and Syria once every 90 minutes.

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Military Practice Escapades by USAF & IAF in Negev Wilderness!

June 11, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

It is somewhat ironic that the US and Israeli Air Forces are conducting pre-conflict practice exercises over the same zone that represents the future home of Israel’s populace for some three and one-half years.

Revelation 12:14 – And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

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.

The woman is Israel. The place that God has prepared for her is the Negev wilderness. A time is one 360 day year, times are two 360 day years, and half a time is 180 days, which totals 1260 days or 3 and ½ prophetic years. Both these scriptures describe the time period of 42 prophetic months (30 days per month) before the end of the Tribulation Period.

When the antichrist launches his lightning Jihad from the north it will be a two pronged attack.

Syrian and Lebanese troops will launch a blitzkrieg strike southward along the western lees of the Galilean and Samaritan mountain.

The Palestinians will zoom northward along the western lee of the Judean mountains out of Gaza to link with their comrades coming down from the north. This will cut off coastal Israel from interior Israel. Some 70% of the Jewish population lives along the narrow coastal strip from Tel Aviv to Haifa. They will be kept pinned down by thousands of katyusha rockets being launched from the bluff top cities

of Tul Karm and Qalqilya in the Samarian Mountains. It will eventually be necessary to air evacuate the population out of this area across the Mediterranean into the Negev, as stated in 12:14. The other battle prong, consisting of troops from Iraq, Syria, and Iran, will be directed southward along the west bank of the Jordan River in a lightning strike. The Palestinians will pour down the hundreds of dendritic valleys in the eastern lee of the Samarian Mountains, armed with shoulder held antitank launchers. They will destroy many of the Israeli tanks coming north to intercept

the southward moving Arab tank units of Syria, Iraq, and Iran. The Jewish population to the east of

the coastal sections, and to the west of the Jordan River, will flee on land in whatever types of transportation may be available. This has long been the national Israel contingency plan that is to be carried out in the event of attack from the north, and the Negev has been their emergency contingency evacuation area since 1948. If you desire a detailed discussion of what I have just briefly covered, please review Prophecy Updates 5 through 11, which are found in our Prophecy Archives.

Begin DEBKAfile Report

DEBKAfile reports: If attacked, Tehran will strike US and Israeli interests worldwide, says an Iranian official. Oil may hit $250

June 10, 2007, 8:44 PM (GMT+02:00)

Iran’s deputy interior minister on security, Mohammad Bager Zolghadr, issued this warning Sunday, June 10, with an eye on the joint US-Israel air maneuver which began the same day in the Negev. The unusually explicit threat by a senior Iranian official was prompted, say DEBKAfile’s Tehran sources, by his government’s interpretation of the seven-day Negev exercise as a preparatory step for a US-Israeli air attack on their nuclear sites.

His threat to send oil prices skyrocketing to $250 a barrel hinted that Iran could block the Strait of Hormuz to oil exports from the Gulf.

Last week the American carrier USS Stennis and its strike group practiced fending off small fast boats carrying explosives, torpedoes and missiles in the strategic strait, after Tehran announced the expansion of its fleet of small vessels.

Exercise commander Lt. Kevin Ralston said the threat was real. “We all remember the USS Cole [rammed by suicide bombers in a fast explosives-laden boat in Aden Port seven years ago].

Speaking to a gathering of Iranian internal security units, Zolghadr remarked that Iran had spread sabotage networks across the world capable of striking US and Israel interests at any point on the globe. They may take the offensive, he said, but they will not keep control up until the end, and the damage they suffer will be harsh and painful.

Iranian leaders have also taken to heart transport minister Shaul Mofaz’s remark after his strategic talks in Washington last week that no options can be ruled out, including the military option.

DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources have learned add that the Islamic Republic’s rulers have been sounding out “revolutionary” Latin American governments about creating joint anti-US terrorist cells for attacks in North and South America. The subject came up in talks with Nicararagua’s Daniel Ortega when he arrived in Tehran Sunday and in discussions with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

Neither is enthusiastic about getting involved in violent terrorist activity against the United States, although not averse to stepping up anti-US propaganda.

Before Ortega took off for Tehran, Israeli parliamentarian Effie Eytam visited Managua and cautioned Nicaraguan lawmakers about the detrimental implications of close relations with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Iran. However, Ortega is angling for economic aid from Tehran.

On arrival at Khomenei airport, he said he is looking forward to fruitful ties of cooperation with Iran in the war on poverty.

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