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A Gathering of Evil Scheduled to Eventually Follow

Antichrist!

January 29, 2008

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On Wednesday, January 23, a large gathering of terrorist groups met in Damascus, the home address and headquarters for multiple terrorist groups in Israel and across the Middle East. I wonder if it was just by coincidence that the next day Hamas smashed through the border wall into Egypt and allowed some 700,000 Palestinians, including multiple terrorist groups, to eventually stream in the Egyptian territory of the Sinai. As I indicated in the previous blog, this is preparing the way for an eventual conquering trip into Egypt by the Syrian

Antichrist, who is yet to arise.

The path of conquest, and the account of the initial Thursday Hamas incursion into the Sinai, as well as Part 1 of a continuing series on the coming invasion of Egypt via Israel, was included in the previous blog. Part 2 will be a part of this blog, followed by the TIME/CNN article detailing the January 23 gathering of terrorists in Syria.

Part 2 of a 5 Part Exposition of Daniel 11:41-45, which began with the Afternoon Blog of January 28, 2008!

I exposited on verses 41 and 42 in our January 28th blog.

Daniel 11:42 – He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

We begin this blog with Israel

having already lost some 2/3 of its population while being driven into the Negev wilderness by 10 Arab nations led by the antichrist. Once he has driven Israel into the Negev and secured the northern periphery of it to stop a breakout from it, he will leave Israel trapped in it and proceed to his most important military objective, the Suez Canal.

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.

There is no more important zone in the entire Middle East from a military, political, and economic standpoint than the narrow strip of water known as the Suez Canal. World shipping passes through it from the south into the Mediterranean Sea on its way to European ports, and to the ports of the northern Atlantic. It carries southward through its banks the shipping commerce that services the ports of the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, the Andaman Sea, the Gulf of Siam, the South China Sea, and the vast Pacific Ocean.

The sudden lightning Jihad strike from the north will catch the western world by complete surprise. The short period of false peace in the Middle East, following a period of no peace since 70 A.D. for the Jewish nation, will lull Israel and those nations that are friendly to her into a false sense of security. Furthermore, I am convinced that the lengthy chain of worldwide earthquake activity will begin at this time with the occurrence of the first earthquake in the book of Revelation, found in 6:12, and that the worldwide activity will continue until the last earthquake of Revelation, found in conjunction with Armageddon in 16:16-18.

Revelation 6:12 – And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

Revelation 16:16-19 – And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. [17] And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.

[18] And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

This surge of worldwide earthquake activity, acting with the element of surprise, and pushing an already weak economy over the edge, will cause the western world and Europe to be more concerned with their own national interest in survival, than in the survival of Israel. Besides, I assure you that, immediately upon the antichrist’s conquest of the Suez Canal, the plans will already have been laid to instantly announce that the status quo of the Suez Canal operations will remain unchanged, and that all nations will have free access through it.

I have always believed that the 10 toes of Daniel’s statue and the 10 horns of his fourth beast are the same as the 10 horns found in Chapters 13 and 17 of Revelation. There is no question in my mind that in the last days of this age the 10 horns were to arise out of the southern flank of the area dominated by the fourth beast of Daniel, which represented the Roman Empire of John’s time. The great Roman Empire, at its maximum expansion, extended into parts of all the nations that I believe will be involved in the support of the antichrist when he drives Israel into the Negev, and then takes over the Suez Canal. I believe those 10 nations will be Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Turkey, and Sudan, and that the Palestinians will attack Israel in coordination with them from within the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Daniel 2:32,33 – This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, [33] His legs of iron, his feet part

of iron and part of clay.

Daniel 7:23,24 – Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.

[24] 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 t

he first, and he shall subdue three kings.

Revelation 13:1 – And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

Lord willing, I will continue this discourse on Daniel 11: 41-45 as Part 3 on an attachment to our next blog on current events.

Begin TIME/CNN Article

Syria: Who Needs Annapolis?

January 24, 2008

By Andrew Lee Butters/Damascus
Neither rain, nor snow nor sleet from a huge storm the night before could dampen the militancy of the aging all-stars of 60 years of Arab conflict with Israel gathered at a trade union resort hotel outside Damascus on Wednesday. It was the biggest gathering of radical Palestinian factions since the signing of the Oslo Peace Accord in 1993, with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command attending along with the Lebanese Hizballah organization — an all-star cast of organizations branded as terrorist by the U.S.

Beneath portraits of Syrian President Bashar al Assad and his late father, Hafez, one speaker after another called for an end to peace negotiations with Israel, demanded a lifting of the Israeli siege of Gaza, and urged Palestinians and Arabs to unite against Israel. “Zionists are bastards, and will always be bastards,” said Hamas chief Khaled Meshal. “They will never be legitimate.”

With melted snow dripping into the conference hall, decorated in burlap sacking to evoke the inside of a bedouin tent, the setting could hardly have born less resemblence to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, scene of the U.S. sponsored Middle East peace conference last November.

That, of course, was the point.

By hosting this belligerent, anti-Annapolis conference, the Assad regime seemed to be symbolically turning its back on the U.S.-led peace effort. For over a year, Damascus had been calling for a resumption of peace negotiations with Israel, not least at the Annapolis meeting itself.

But though a brief thaw in U.S.-Syrian relations ensued, the resumption of hard-line posturing seems to suggest that Syria wanted more than the Bush Administration was willing to deliver.

Syria’s main beef with Israel is the occupation of the Golan Heights (captured by Israel in 1967), but the Assad regime has long been concerned that the U.S. is trying to isolate or even topple it.

Still, it’s not clear that that Syria’s rejection of Annapolis means it seeks confrontation with Israel.

Despite the presence of Meshal and a few other leaders, a look at the graying conference attendees — mostly third-tier political cadres sporting corduroy suits, leather trench coats, and other 70s fashion statements — suggests that the best minds of

the resistance are busy elsewhere.

Syria may be betting that after President Bush’s lackluster tour of the Middle East, the Annapolis process will simply die a natural death. Or perhaps Damascus believes it can cut a better deal after Bush leaves office. Already there are whispers in Washington that an incoming Democratic administration might be willing to allow Syria to return to Lebanon — which it occupied until forced out in 2005 — in return for peace with Israel.

In the mean time, of course, Damascus can bask in the accolades of its more militant allies. “Syria is a partner of the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon, and it can get a share of the victories in Palestine in Lebanon,” said Ibrahim Amin Sayeed, chairman of the political council of Hizballah, which gets its weapons from Syria and Iran. “And there are many victories ahead.”

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Palestinians Setting Stage for Future Path of Antichrist!

The Hamas move into the Northeastern Sinai is unknowingly Preparing the Future Path for the Antichrist’s Southwestern Veer into Egypt after He:

(1) Enters the Glorious Land of Israel from the North,

(2) Proceeds from Dan to Beersheba,

(3) By-Passes Jordan,

(4) Leaves Israel in the Negev Wilderness

(5) Moves through the Southern Gaza Strip, and then,

(6) Conquers Egypt.

January 28, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

I have taught what follows at Dardanelle MBC and on all my many lectures tours for 30 years. The Middle East events are now lining up prophetically like ducks in a row and, since I believe there is likely to be an attack against Israel from the north at some point in time between 2010 and 2015 I plan, Lord willing, to once again issue what I have been teaching for 30 years on Daniel 11:41-45. They will be issued in a 5 part sequence as attachments to our daily current events blogs.

Part 1 of a Five Part Exposition of Daniel 11:41 to 45

Daniel 11:41,42 – He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. [42] He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

The initial attack into the glorious land of Israel will be from the north, from Syria and Lebanon, and the first of many countries that will fall before the antichrist will be Israel.

There will be a lightning surprise Jihad blitzkrieg launched by Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Iraq, with logistical support from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Turkey, and Sudan. These are the ten toes of Daniel’s great statue, the ten horns of his fourth beast, and the ten horns on both of John’s beasts. At the time of

the attack the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza will attack the IDF internally and outwardly.

Daniel 2:42 – 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.

Daniel 7:7 – After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

Revelation 13:1 – And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon

his heads the name of blasphemy.

Revelation 17:3 – So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

Many of the countries of Daniel’s day were named for their first descendants as they related to Abraham. Edom was associated with the descendants of his grandson Esau, with Ammon and Moab being associated with the two sons of his nephew Lot. In Daniel’s day these three countries were to

the immediate east, northeast, and southeast of Israel. If you will check all maps from B.C. 500 to 700, you will discover that all three of these countries would be entirely engulfed by modern day Jordan. So why would Jordan escape his wrath

? Its geographical position would have no military, political, or financial value to him, and the occupants of Jordan will certainly not attack him, so he will bypass Jordan on his way to conquer the Suez Canal, which will have all three of these values abundantly. Jordan will not be a part of the initial Jihad, but after Israel is driven into the Negev it will be 100% in the antichrist’s camp. Because Egypt and Jordan made peace with Israel they are out of favor with what I call the big three, which are Syria, Iraq,

and Iran. And because Saudi Arabia plays footsies with the United States, it also falls into the non-favored category. The Arab world simply doesn’t trust Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia enough to include them in the secret planning that will go into the Jihad, and they will be as surprised as Israel when it is launched. Jordan and Saudi Arabia will support the antichrist after he conquers Egypt, and will to do so for the remainder of the tribulation period.

Daniel 11:42 – He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

(To Be Continued on Future Blogs through Daniel 11:45)

Begin DEBKAfile Exclusive

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Sinai cut off from Egypt for the first time since 1982, 4,000 Palestinian infiltrators detained

January 28, 2008, 5:38 PM (GMT+02:00)

DEBKAfile’ s military and Middle Ea

st sources report that Monday, Jan. 28, as the Palestinian surge across

the Gaza- Sinai border veered out of control, Cairo blockaded the

Sinai Peninsula and the Suez Canal. The ferry service and other shipping between Egypt and the Sinai coast were shut down.

Sinai highways were closed as Egyptian security forces arrested some 4,000 Palestinians on the move south of El Arish and found in places between this town and the Suez Canal and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Shut to traffic too are the Peace Bridge spanning the Suez Canal to Sinai and the central tunnel running from Suez Town to the peninsula. All the food and commodities convoys heading from Egypt to Sinai have been halted before crossing over.

The economic curfew clamped down on El Arish overnight to keep Palestinian shoppers out, has been extended to East Qantara. The Red Sea coastal roads connecting Sharm el Sheikh to the Egyptian-Israeli border terminal at Taba near Eilat are closed to civilian traffic.

Saturday, Jan. 26, Israel imposed similar security measures on its side of the unfenced 220-km border fence, cordoning off large swathes of the Negev and Arava in the South to civilian traffic.

Monday, Egyptian security forces began stretching barbed wire across the three holes Hamas bulldozers forced in the Gaza-Sinai border wall Saturday.

Earlier Monday, DEBKAfile reported that Saudi Arabia and Iran had stepped into the Gaza crisis on the sixth day of the disorderly Palestinian march across the broken Gazan border into Egyptian Sinai. Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal is meeting Saudi foreign minister Saud al-Faisal in Riyadh Monday, while the deputy director-general of Iran’s foreign ministry Ali Asghar is in Cairo with an offer of cooperation.

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A WONDERFUL GAZA SECURITY PLAN!

Wolf, Fox, and Weasel Plan to Guard Gaza Chicken Yard Gate!

Alias Hamas, Fatah, and Egypt (+ Iran Offers Help) – Who could ask for anything More!

Sleep Tight Tonight Israel, the Arab Keystone Cops are Awake!!!!

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

At least part of what Rabshakeh said to Judah’s King Hezekiah on behalf of the King of Assyria was correct.

And it is still true today for Israel, when they are crazy enough to put their trust in Egypt’s ability to help against their Islamic enemies.

Isaiah 36:6 – Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article 1

Cairo invites Hamas for talks on Rafah border situation

Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST

January 28, 2008

Egypt has invited Hamas representatives to Cairo for talks on ways of controlling the border between the Gaza Strip and Sinai.

Hamas officials said the visit would take place later this week. They expressed satisfaction that the Egyptians were coordinating their moves with Hamas.

The invitation came shortly after Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad held talks in Cairo on the latest developments along the border.

During the visit, Fayad appealed to the Egyptians to allow the PA’s Force 17 Presidential Guard to assume control over the Rafah crossing. Fayad is reported to have stressed the PA’s opposition to the presence of Hamas security personnel at the border.

PA Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki said the Egyptians agreed to allow the Presidential Guard to return to the Rafah terminal in accordance with an agreement reached between the two parties in 2005. PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s forces left the border crossing after Hamas took full control over the Gaza Strip in June.

Abbas has also been invited to Cairo later this week for talks with President Hosni Mubarak on the latest border crisis.

Speaking to reporters in Cairo, Malki said: “Hamas will be told about this agreement and they will have to accept the presence of the Presidential Guard at the border. This is the Egyptian position as delivered to us by Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and General Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.”

The PA minister said the agreement would be discussed by the Arab League foreign ministers during their upcoming meeting in Cairo and warned Hamas against rejecting it.

“If Hamas rejects the agreement, they will be held responsible for the continued closure of the border [with Egypt],” he said.

Earlier this week, Abbas presented the Arab League ministers with a security plan for control of the border. The plan calls for deploying members of Abbas’s Presidential Guard at the Rafah border crossing and completely ignores Hamas’s demand for joint control.

Hamas reiterated Sunday its opposition to Abbas’s plan, saying it would not recognize the agreement that was signed between

the PA and Egypt after Israel left the Gaza Strip in 2005.

“We want new arrangements at the border,” said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. “The agreement that was reached in 2005 does not exist any longer.”

He added that the main reason for Hamas’s opposition to the 2005 agreement was because it allowed international observers to be stationed at the border crossing. “The Rafah border should be controlled only by Palestinians and Egyptians,” he said.

Meanwhile, Egyptian security forces sealed off roads to el-Arish in the northern Sinai, stopping hundreds of Palestinians from entering the town. They also ordered shops and gas stations to close down as part of an effort to block the influx of Gazans. Nevertheless, Palestinians c ontinued to flock into other parts of Egypt for a fifth c

onsecutive day on Sunday.

About a dozen Hamas-affiliated troops fanned out on both sides of the Rafah crossing Sunday in their first significant deployment there during the five-day ordeal.

They appeared to be coordinating security efforts with their Egyptian counterparts, jointly directing traffic and manning checkpoints alongside one another. Egyptian forces have been deployed in the hundreds here for several days, and some guards have also crossed briefly into Gaza.

On Sunday, both forces encouraged Gaza motorists to return to the Palestinian territory.

But the cooperation appeared only to be between low-level security guards on the ground, and not indicative of any change in policy by Hamas or the Egyptian government.

Before the border breach, Hamas had no role in patrolling Gaza’s borders.

Some Palestinians could be seen returning to Gaza on Sunday, though streets on the Egyptian side of Rafah were still jammed with people bargaining for gasoline, water bottles, car batteries, carpets and other supplies.

A rare rainstorm turned the area’s dusty thoroughfares into sludge, making window-shopping a messy affair and prompting some customers to return home early.

Some stores in Rafah were closed Sunday, either because of the bad weather or because supplies had run low. Some speculated that Egyptian officials had encouraged shopkeepers to close in hopes that Palestinian customers would return home.

AP contributed to this report

Begin Jerusalem Post Article 2

Iran offers to help Egypt with Rafah

Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

January 28, 2008

Iran on Sunday offered to help Egypt deal with growing chaos on its breached border with Gaza, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said.

The offer came during a rare visit to Cairo by a top Iranian diplomat, Ali Asghar Mohammadi, who serves as the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s director-general for Arab, Middle East and North African affairs. He met Sunday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

Egypt and Iran have had no formal ties in nearly three decades, but government ministers from the two countries have met frequently in the past two months.

Last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad telephoned his Egyptian counterpart, Hosni Mubarak, for the first time to discuss the Gaza border crisis.

Mohammadi offered Iran’s “cooperation with Egypt to provide help to the Palestinians,” said Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki. He did not give details of the Iranian

offer, but said Egypt welcomes cooperation between the two countries through their Red Crescent branches.

Teheran cut diplomatic ties after Cairo signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1979 and provided asylum for the deposed Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Relations further deteriorated when Egypt backed Iraq during the 1980-1988 Gulf War. Since then, the two countries have had limited diplomatic contacts.

Aboul Gheit has said that a resumption of ties could only take place if Iran takes down a large mural of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s assassin, Khaled el-Islambouli, and changes the name of a street honoring him.

El-Islambouli was one of the army officers who killed Sadat during a military parade in 1981. Egypt executed him by firing squad soon thereafter.

Begin DEBKAfile Article 3

Egypt summons Hamas leaders for crisis talks five days after they blew up Gaza-Sinai border wall

January 27, 2008, 11:44 AM (GMT+02:00)

Since Tuesday, Jan. 22, almost half Gaza’s Palestinian population of 1.5 million has surged into northern Sinai, their gunmen and sheer numbers forcing Egyptian riot troops to stand back while taking 40 injured, some critically. The summons to Cairo was issued by Egyptian foreign minister Abdullah Gheit who appealed to “our Palestinian brothers” not to abuse his government’s hospitality.

Egyptian border guards are reported to have apprehended 20 Palestinian bands armed with weapons and surveillance instruments in Sinai Saturday night.

Israel has closed the main Highway 10 to Eilat which runs along the 220-km unfenced frontier and sections of the Negev.

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report that the flood of shoppers masks intense efforts by

the Palestinian terrorist Hamas, Jihad Islami, Fatah-Al Aqsa Brigades, the Popular Resistance Committees as well as al Qaeda to establish a base in northern Sinai. They don’t see anyone stopping them.

Restoring the border, Western military experts have told DEBKAfile, would require the deployment of 30,000 Egyptian troops to the El Arish area and divided Rafah Gaza border, backed by air force, navy

and armored units.

This would contravene the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. But even if this obstacle could be overcome, Cairo would never on any account let itself be drawn into battle with Palestinians in view of the catastrophic impact it would have on President Hosni Mubarak’s standing at home and the Arab world. For now, the Egyptian army lacks strength on this scale without calling up reserves.

Hamas and its allies have broken the Israeli siege of Gaza. In so doing, a bunch of terrorist groups has acquired control of a chunk of northern Sinai twice the size of the Gaza Strip as well as a safe haven against Israeli reprisals for their cross-border attacks. A Western military source says the terrorists have laid the foundations of a “Palestinian Waziristan.”

At best, Mubarak might persuade the Gazan invaders to accept a power-sharing arrangement over the lost Egyptian enclave.

Early Thursday, Jan. 24, American forces and equipment withdrew from the Multi-Force Organization base at Al Gura northeast of al Arish when they learned from Egyptian contacts that Hamas had begun moving some of its elite units into the new stronghold. Washington and Cairo are discussing evacuating the entire base and its 400 multinational personnel, which monitors Sinai’s demilitarization under the Egypt-Israel peace treaty, for fear of Hamas and al Qaeda missile fire and shelling of the base.

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PRAY FOR KENYA MISSIONARIES

January 27, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

I have spent a lot of time in this rift valley area, and know the violence and killing sprees that can erupt between the tribes in this area. Joel and Jenna Cobbs are in mortal danger in this situation.

PLEASE TAKE TIME TO PRAY FOR THEM AND OTHER MISSIONARIES IN THIS AREA. The following by Mike Rice is the latest report from Joel on the situation there.

Joel and Jenna Cobb’s live at Naivasha. I received a call from Joel early this morning. They are more or less trapped at their home. Houses, buildings and vehicles are being burned all around them. More church members and preachers have fallen victim to the violence. Soldiers have been called to the area but so far haven’t done much good.

Please pray.

Mike Rice

NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE

January 27, 2008
Mob Violence Is Tearing Kenya Apart
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
NAKURU, Kenya — Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, may seem calm, but anarchy reigns just two hours away.
In Nakuru, furious mobs rule the streets, burning homes, brutalizing people and expelling anyone not in their ethnic group, all with complete impunity.
On Saturday, hundreds of men prowled a section of the city with six-foot iron bars, poisoned swords, clubs, knives and crude circumcision tools. Boys carried gladiator-style shields and women strutted around with sharpened sticks.
The police were nowhere to be found. Even the locals were shocked.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said David Macharia, a bus driver.
One month after a deeply flawed election, and despite international pressure on Kenya’s leaders to compromise and stop the killings, the country is tearing itself apart along ethnic lines.

Nakuru, the biggest town in the beautiful but deeply troubled Rift Valley, is the scene of a mass migration now moving in two directions.

Luos are headed west, Kikuyus are headed east, and packed buses with mattresses strapped on top pass each o ther in

the road with the bewildered children of the two ethnic groups staring out the windows at each other.
In the past 10 days, dozens of people have been killed in Molo, Narok, Kipkelion, Kuresoi, and now Nakuru, a tourist gateway which until a few days ago was considered safe.
In many places, Kenya seems to be sliding back toward the chaos that exploded on Dec. 30, when election results were announced and Kenya’s president, Mwai Kibaki, was declared the winner over Raila Odinga, the top opposition leader, despite widespread evidence of vote rigging.
The tinder was all there, even before the voting started. There were historic grievances over land and deep-seated ethnic tensions, with many ethnic groups resenting the Kikuyus, Mr. Kibaki’s group, because they have been the most prosperous for years.

The disputed election essentially served as the spark, and opposition supporters across Kenya vented their rage over many issues toward Kikuyus and other ethnic groups thought to have supported Mr. Kibaki.
In the Rift Valley, local elders organized young men to raid Kikuyu areas and kill people in a bid to drive the Kikuyus off their land. It worked, for the most part, and over the past month, tens of thousands of Kikuyus have fled.
More than 650 people, many of them Kikuyus, have been killed. Many of the attackers are widely believed to be members of the Luo and Kalenjin ethnic groups.
What is happening now in Nakuru seems to be payback.

The city is surrounded by spectacular scenery, with Lake Nakuru and its millions of flamingos drawing throngs of tourists each year. The city has a mixed population, like much of Kenya, split among several ethnic groups including Kikuyus, Luos, Luhyas and Kalenjins.

On Thursday night, witnesses and participants said that bands of Kikuyu men armed themselves and began attacking Luos and Kalenjins.
Paul Karanja, a Kikuyu shopkeeper in Nakuru, explained it this way: “We had been so patient. For weeks we had watched all the buses and trucks taking people out of the Rift Valley, and we had seen so many of our people lose everything they owned. Enough was enough.”
In a Nakuru neighborhood called Free Area, hundreds of Kikuyu men burned down homes and businesses belonging to Luos, Mr. Odinga’s ethnic group. The Luos who refused to leave were badly beaten, and sometimes worse. According to witnesses, a Kikuyu mob forcibly circumcised a Luo man who later bled to death. Circumcision is an important rite of passage for Kikuyus but is not widely practiced among Luos.

The Luos and the Kalenjins, who have been aligned throughout the post-election period, then counterattacked, and the result was a citywide melee with hundreds wounded and as many as 50 people killed.
By Friday night, the Kenyan military was deployed for the first time to intervene. Local authorities also slapped a dusk-to-dawn curfew on Nakuru, another first.
Many people in Free Area, which is now almost totally Kikuyu, say it will be difficult to make peace.
“We’re angry and they’re angry,” s aid John M

aina, a stocky butcher, whose weapon of choice on Saturday was a 3-foot-long table leg with exposed screws.

“I don’t see us living together any time soon.”
This is the reality across much of Kenya, and it seems to be nothing short of ethnic cleansing. Mobs in Eldoret, Kisumu, Kakamega, Burnt Forest and countless other areas, including some of the biggest slums in Nairobi, have driven out people from opposing ethnic groups.

Many neighborhoods that used to be mixed are now ethnically homogeneous.
Kofi Annan, the former secretary general of the United Nations, visited the Rift Valley on Saturday. He called it “nerve-racking.”
“We saw people pushed from their homes and farms, grandmothers, children and families uprooted,” said Mr. Annan, who is in Kenya trying to broker negotiations between Mr.

Kibaki and Mr. Odinga.
He called for the Kenyan government to investigate the perpetrators and increase security.
On Saturday, Kenyan soldiers in Free Area escorted Luos back to their smoldering homes and stood guard with their assault rifles as the people collected whatever they could salvage before leaving.
Many Luos said they had no choice but to go to far western Kenya, the traditional Luo homeland, just as many Kikuyus who have been displaced said they would resettle in the highlands east of Nakuru, their traditional homeland.
Mr. Macharia, the bus driver, who is Kikuyu, conceded that many Kikuyus were feeling vengeful.

But that, he said, doesn’t mean they actually want to fight. “I saw it myself,” he said. “The elders called ‘Charge!’ but not all the boys charged.”
Still, enough did charge that the Luos who used to live in Free Area were not taking any chances. On Saturday afternoon, hundreds of people carrying trunks on their heads and bags of blankets streamed toward a government office that was protected by a few soldiers.
Nancy Aloo, a Luo, was guiding four frightened young children.
“God made all of us,” Ms. Aloo said. “We need his help.”

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Hamas and Al Qaeda Incursions into My Negev Travel Paths!

January 27, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

The explosion of terrorist leaders and groups out of the chaotic Gaza Strip, through the security wall between Gaza and Egypt (Sinai), has created a very real threat for terror attack incursions across the long border fence between Egypt (Sinai) and Israel. Such a threat has long been there, but the destruction of the wall, separating the Gaza Strip and Egypt (Sinai), will surely cause a steady acceleration in the number of attacks carried out with the passage of time.

I have traveled all the roads in the Negev for many years, including the ones mentioned as being closed by the IDF in the DEBKAfile article, which follows. The last time I traveled in Israel, when headed north on HWY 10 from the southern Negev along the Egyptian border to the Gaza Strip border, I planned to stop at traditional Kadesh Barnea, but was stopped by Israeli border guards at Nitsana Border Crossing. The Palestinians were digging tunnels from the Egyptian side under the border fence, and they would not let me proceed unless I was armed. So I took HWY 211 east across the Negev to Tlalim Junction and HWY 40 north to Beersheba.

I had seen Israeli Merkava-3 tanks backed into mountain crevices to the east of HWY 10, with their cannons pointed to the west as I traveled north from Eilat to the Nitsana Border Crossing. The group I took with me was deliberately all male.

We called ourselves a “rough and ready” group of preachers, and I wanted them to see the Israeli site identified as tradition Kadesh Barnea, but the IDF would not let us progress void of weapons. We traveled from one end of Israel to the other, from the top of Mount Herman at the extreme northern tip of Israel to the wild depths and highs of the rugged southern Negev. If I ever completely recover from my 5-by pass heart surgery, I would like to do it again before 2010.

Every nation has a war contingency plan. And, the smaller the country, the more imperative is the requirement for a detailed war contingency evacuation plan. Israel began to formulate, plan, and build her evacuation area in the early fifties.

She chose the only reasonable zone, the Negev wilderness. The Negev comprises more than one-third of the total land area of Israel, beginning just north of Beersheba, and extending all the way southward to the Gulf of Aqaba. Why was the Negev the only reasonable area? From the historical prospective, the majority of Israel’s major conquerors have come down from the north. Even Nebuchadnezzar, whose great empire began to the east of Israel in Babylonia, first went northwest through southern Syria to eventually attack Israel from the north.

Once Israel had signed a peace treaty with Egypt, and then with Jordan, it became evident to her political and military leaders, that they had been correct in selecting the Negev. At present, it appears very unlikely that an attack will be made against Israel from any zone other than the Syria-Lebanon area. Some minister, no one knows who, during the early part of the last century, visited Petra in Jordan, and formed an erroneous opinion, which has become very popular among many teachers of prophecy. Whoever he was, hi s military

training was sadly lacking, for he looked Petra over, and decided it would make a great defensive position for Israel to occupy, that is, if she ever had to flee her homeland. As a graduate of a military academy, and a retiree from the USAF-NSA, I can assure you, Petra is the worst possible place to evacuate the survivors of a successful Arab attack against Israel. I doubt if the one who first advanced this idea actually walked all the way through Petra’s narrow northern entrance and then continued to walk out on the vast open plain to the southwest. Petra may have been a great place to defend in biblical times with the weaponry of those days, but it would be impossible to defend today.

But there are other compelling reasons that Israel would never flee to Petra.

There are no natural water sources in that area, and

water collection by its ingenious ancient inhabitants from desert thunderstorms was never able to support a population of more than 20,000. And food production in the soil horizons of this area could never support the evacuation of one-third of Israel’s population. It is also a certainty that the modern day occupants of Jordan would not offer to help Israel escape the Antichrist. But the belief that Israel will flee to Petra has become so popularized by many prominent ministers, it makes it very difficult to dissuade most followers of prophetic events.

However, the fact that Israel has spent billions and billions of dollars turning the Negev into the most fortified, best camouflaged, zone on the earth, gives me the assurance that this is the place the woman Israel, who is described as going into the wilderness in the 12th Chapter of Revelation, will soon end up for the last three and one-half years of the tribulation period.

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.

Prophetic years in scripture are based on a year of 360 days, hence this represents a period of three and one-half years.

So Israel will be kept trapped in the Negev wilderness for the last 3 and ½ years of the tribulation period.

Israelis have spent billions of dollars to prepare the Negev for the possibility of such an evacuation of their population in the event of a sudden attack from the north. The Negev has been the central focus of Israel’s war contingency plan from the beginning, as Israel’s God put this thinking in the minds of her political and military leaders in the late forties, and active preparation of the area began in the early fifties. Today, the Negev is the most cleverly camouflaged zone on the surface of the earth, and unless sky satellites had watched it being prepared, one would not suspect that numerous military installations were implanted in it.

Even knowing where certain defense mechanisms were originally placed, it is now extremely difficult to spot them, even driving by them at ground level. Thousands of tourists pass through the bleak Negev and admire the naked beauty of its terrain from widely spaced roads, but its military capabilities are cleverly camouflaged on the surface, hidden out of sight beneath the surface, and concealed inside and between its hills and mountains.

Active preparation of the Negev began in the early fifties.

After the Six Day War of June, 1967, Israel poured her finances and efforts into the creation of a hidden fortress in the Negev wilderness. The Yom Kippur War of 1973 was followed by Israel quadrupling her military forces by 1980, and the bulk of this increase was placed in

the vast Sinai. The peace treaty between Israel and Egypt led to the evacuation of this increase in men and equipment from the Sinai into the much smaller Negev. This turned the already heavily fortified Negev into an impenetrable fortress. By 1983 the Sinai IDF and equipment had been withdrawn into the Negev. The IDF packed up about 80 thousand tons of military equipment, same 3800 military vehicles, and 3 airfields, and moved it into the Negev. The Negev is about 20 percent the size of the Sinai. By 1988 about 40 new military camps had been set up in the Negev.

By 1990 the Negev had been topographically transformed, at a fantastic expense, into an area no enemy would dare to attempt to penetrate. When Syria, assisted by troops from Iraq and Iran, secretly and very slowly smuggled in across her southern and western borders, attacks Israel from the north, then Israel will get to use her Negev wilderness for about 3 and ½ years. These three nations, because of the sharing of satellite information received from the Russians about the Negev, know all about the military strength there and, because of this, will stop their southward push into Israel just north of Beersheva.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will be able to hold the Negev, and the woman Israel will stay there for the last 3 and ½ years of the tribulation period.

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.

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.

Begin DEBKAfile Article

DEBKAfile: Much of southern Israel closed to civilian traffic, US and Israeli bases on high alert for Hamas incursions from Sinai

January 26, 2008, 10:33 PM (GMT+02:00)

Most highways of the southern Negev – which adjoins the Egyptian Sinai frontier – were ordered shut to civilian traffic early Saturday, Jan.

26, until further notice. This is Israel’s most extensive terror alert ever, DEBKAfile’s military sources report. The big Israeli and American air and military bases in the region are on high terror alert and officers’ families are being removed to central Israel, following intelligence warnings that Hamas, Jihad Islami and al Qaeda are preparing to launch suicide operations across the porous Egyptian border from N.

Sinai.

Israeli military forces have spread out across the southern region, checkpoints set up on the highways, lookout positions posted, and helicopters and drones are on constant surveillance.

DEBKAfile’s sources in the south report that Eilat, Israel’s southernmost town and Red Sea port, is not entirely cut off; the eastern Highway 90 is open to traffic although Highway 10 which follows the Egyptian Sinai frontier is closed.

So too are 221 and 222 and parts of Routes 40 and 12. Israeli units have been deployed to block off to terrorist access the southern towns of Eilat, Mitzpeh Ramon, Kfar Yeruham, Beersheba, Arad and the villages and military installations located in the Negev and Aravah regions. Popular tourist nature reserves and beauty spots are closed.

The latest intelligence input speaks of an ingathering in Sinai of al Qaeda cells from Egypt and other parts of the Middle East. They are heading for the Egyptian-Israel frontier, which Egyptian border forces have abandoned to focus on the anarchy on the Gaza-Egyptian border Hamas generated by knocking down the border wall. One-third of Gaza’s 1.5 million Palestinian inhabitants has flooded into N. Sinai in a disorderly exodus.

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources disclose another ominous symptom: Al Qaeda has appointed an “emir” for the Gaza Strip, the customary military commander assigned when the jihadist group goes into operational mode.

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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.