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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 4

April 21, 2010

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The same God who made the ocean and sea floors

of the world also happens to control them! God used his own creation to destroy man when man had become as corrupt in the days of Noah as we are today, leaving a remnant of eight humans.

Genesis 6:9,11-13 – These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. [11] The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. [12] And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. [13] And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I WILL DESTROY THEM WITH THE EARTH.

Genesis 7:11 – In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

When man has again reached the degree of corruption in Noah’s day, God will once again use his creation to destroy sinful man, not with water, but will the fire of his wrath in the form of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions affecting his earth and his heavens, and will also use his creations in the universe as well.

The vials of wrath follow the catching out of the saved.

Luke 17:26.27 – And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. [27] They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, UNTIL THE DAY that Noe ENTERED into the ark, and the flood came, AND DESTROYED THEM ALL.

GOD’S WRATH WILL NOT COME ON THE SAVED BECAUSE THEY WILL ENTER INTO HEAVEN ON THE DAY HIS WRATH IS POURED ON EARTH.

I Thessalonians 5:9 – For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

Revelation 11:15,18 – And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. [18] And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; AND SHOULDEST DESTROY THEM WHICH DESTROY THE EARTH.

There will be fantastic numbers of seamounts rising from the oceans and seas along the tectonic plate boundaries as exposed active volcanoes during the 3 and ½ years prior to Armageddon.

“SEAMOUNTS ARE TYPICALLY FORMED FROM EXTINCT VOLCANOES”

“AN ESTIMATED 30,000 SEAMOUNTS OCCUR ACROSS THE GLOBE”

THE FOLLOWING QUOTED PARAGRAPH IS FROM WIKIPEDIA

Seamount

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water’s surface (sea level), and thus is not an island. These are typically formed from extinct volcanoes, that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from a seafloor of 1,000–4,000 metres depth. They are defined by oceanographers as independent features that rise to at least 1,000 metres above the seafloor.

The peaks are often found hundreds to thousands of metres below the surface, and are therefore considered to be within the deep sea. An estimated 30,000 seamounts occur across the globe, with only a few having been studied. However, some seamounts are also unusual. For example, while the summits of seamounts are normally hundreds of metres below sea level, the Bowie Seamount rises from a depth of about 3,000 metres to within 24 metres of the sea surface

Begin Chapter 6 from “Birth Pangs from the Bottomless Pit,” which I wrote in 1979.

CHAPTER 6 – BURNING MOUNTAINS AND BLOODY SEAS

To view the Birth Pangs Figures, go to Web Site and click on Menu under “BIRTH PANGS”

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Revelation 8:7-9 – The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. [8] And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; [9] And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

In the previous chapter a lengthy discourse of verse seven was given; a discourse portraying the terrible effects of volcanic spillage on dry land masses. I have attempted to build a case that God will move the massive tectonic plates of figure 3 to produce unbelievable dry land eruptions. But the shifting of the plates would most assuredly not only affect the land, for most of these great cracks exist on the world’s ocean and sea floors. John’s eyes had been fixed on the horrifying volcanic burning of the earth’s greenery (verse seven), but as he watched the land scene the underwater volcanic activity remained hidden from his view. It is therefore only natural that the dry land events were reported before the water events.

In order to correctly interpret verse eight, one must understand what the expression “as it were” means, and how it is used in relation to the subject and verb of the middle section of this verse.

Many commentaries identify the great burning mountain as a meteorite that falls into the sea from heaven, but I will attempt to prove that this is not the case.

The expression “as it were” is one very small Greek word. That word is ‘hos.’ Hos is a particle having a very wide variety of uses in the New Testament. At times it applies to the subject, at other times it applies to the verbal action, and sometimes it applies to both. Hos can be translated as “what looked like,” “it was as though,” “what seemed to be,” “it was as if,” “as it were,” etc.

The verbal action “was cast” Is a single Greek verb, ‘eblethe,’ which expresses punctiliar action in past time and, as such, can be translated “had been cast.”

John used hos in John 7:10 to describe the action performed by the subject:

But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:9 used hos to refer to a verbal action affecting the subjects:

For I think that God hath set birth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.

Now considering the usage of hos and eblethe in Revelation 8:8, let us carefully examine what John saw and how he reported it:

And the second angel sounded, and as it were [hos] a great mountain burning with fire was cast [eblethe] into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood.

Hos (as it were) refers to both the subject (great burning mountain) and the verbal action eblethe (had been cast) that began at some point in time before John actually saw the sub¬ject. John’s attention had been fixed on a horrible scene of fiery objects coming down upon the dry land masses of the world, destroying all the green grass and one-third of the trees. Suddenly the second trumpet shifted his eyes to the sea, and he beheld what looked like a great mountain on fire in the midst of the sea. John did not know where it came from, so he used the expression (hos) to tell us it was as if it had been cast into the sea. John did not see it cast into the sea, because

the tense of the verb eblethe indicates the action that caused it to be in the midst of the sea occurred before John actually saw it there. What John saw is what you see in figure 5. The mountain had been cast into the sea from beneath, not from above as many commentaries assume.

Not all commentaries take the falling meteor position. Among one of the more reputable that does not is the Expositor’s Greek Testament Volume five of this highly esteemed work provides the following information concerning Revelation 8:8 and the rest of the book of Revelation:

Volcanic phenomena in the Egean archipelago are in the background of this description, and of others throughout the book; features such a the disturbance of islands and the mainland, showers of stones, earthquakes, the sun obscured by a black mist of ashes, and the moon reddened by volcanic dust, were the natural consequences of eruption in some submarine volcano, and Thera—adjoining Patmos—was in a state of more or less severe eruption during the first century. All this suggested the hideous colors in which the final catastrophe was painted by the imagination of pious contemporaries. In the eruption of 1573, the sea round Thera was tinted for twenty miles round, and even when the submarine volcano is quiescent, “the sea in the immediate vicinity of the cone is of a brilliant orange color, from the action of oxide of iron.” In 1707 a large rock suddenly appeared in the sea, during the eruption, and owing to noxious vapors ‘all fish in the harbor died.’

It is difficult to prove conclusively the case for volcanic eruptions by linguistics alone, but the effects produced in the form of blood-red water that destroys aquatic life is a natural consequence of volcanic eruptions. There have been thousands of meteorites that have fallen into man’s water supplies for many years and yet not one case of poisoning has ever been validated. Meteors are not poisonous nor do they turn water a continuing red.

Please do not let the “orange” color mentioned in the quote from the Expositor’s Greek testament mislead you.

You will not find the color “orange” in the entire Bible. One of the reasons the word “blood” appears so often in Revelation is that it figuratively covers a wide range of blood shades from orange to reddish black. Ask any hematologist about the tremendous change in blood color found in various parts of the human anatomy.

The surface of Mars has a very high hematite iron content that gives it its red color and its nickname as the “Red Planet.” It is rust produced from hematite oxidation, and is found all over Mars.

It forms whenever iron is oxidized by being exposed to air.

Basaltic magma has the highest iron content of the three types of volcanic eruptions.

There are three types of magma that burst onto the earth’s surface as blood-red lava, and basaltic magma has the highest iron content of the three, with virtually all oceanic eruptions being of the basaltic variety. If a piece of iron is left long enough in a glass of water it will turn the water a rusty red by oxidation If the water is heated the oxidation (rusting) will be accelerated. As the basaltic material makes contact with the ocean seawater its temperature is often in excess of six hundred degrees centigrade, and this produces fantastically accelerated oxidation of its iron content. In virtually all oceanic eruptions a blood-red shield is formed, and this shield is carried away from the source many miles by the currents of the sea. When coupled with the other chemical reactions associated with maritime volcanic eruptions, it acts like a smothering aerobic blanket on aquatic life as it spreads across the seas and oceans of the world.

God, who created all things and will use them to fulfill His prophecies, has also created life forms in the sea that can produce dreadful effects. There are certain microscopic organisms that exist in the sea that can reproduce at fantastic rates. Under certain conditions these oceanic organisms have reproduced to exhibit over sixty million in a single quart of seawater.

They are deadly only under certain conditions which I shall describe later. As long as these organisms remain in a certain environmental temperature range there is no problem.

They will remain absolutely harmless. In fact, if the organism is carried into a cold water zone by the currents of the ocean, God has so designed it that a protective crust forms around it, and the shield remains until it is carried back into a favorable temperature environment. But there is one thing that must never be performed on this organism: never heat the water. For if you heat the water above the organism’s normal temperature environment, the following quote from a standard biological text describes what will happen:

Under certain conditions it reproduces at a fantastic rate; sixty million have been counted in a single quart of seawater. The organ¬ism tends to utilize the dissolved oxygen at a rate which creates an anaerobic condition. Thus aerobic organisms, such as fish, die.

It also releases an airborne “poison gas” which irritates the human res¬piratory tract and may cause coughing, sneezing and even shortness of breath.

During the red tide off the coast of Florida in 1952 and again in 1954 enormous numbers of fish died, and the shore was littered for miles with stinking fish.

Another dinoflagellate, Gonyauiox, also causes waters to appear a rusty red at times becaue of its great numbers. Gonyaulax catenella is known to have been the cause of disastrous poisoning in man. Several kinds of shellfish along the Pacific coast feed on them, thus making the shellfish poisonous for human consumption.

In 1941 there were 346 cases of poisoning with 24 deaths. Since 1941 state laws forbid the gathering of shellfish during the season of the red waters. Experiments have shown the toxin (an alkaloid) to be about ten times as potent as strychnine, which is used for poisoning mice.

When God shifts the great tectonic plates, all the cracks on the ocean floors shown in figure 3 will open to produce long chains of oceanic eruptions as pictured in figure 5. As the magma begins to heat

the oceans and seas of the world, many varieties of dinoflagellate will begin to reproduce at fantastic rates. As the heating spreads, the dinoflagellate will spread, both by formation and transportation by the currents of oceans and seas of the world. The sea will be turned red by the oxidation and organism secretions, both creations of God. The same God, who created the process of oxidation and all organisms, has also created the mechanism to slowly spread the blood-red shroud of poison across the oceans and seas of the world—the currents of the “seven seas” shown in figure 5A. By the time the last drop of the second vial has been poured out, all aquatic life in the oceans and seas will have been destroyed by this shield of death carried by the currents that daily move life through them.

And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood: and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed (Revelation 8:8,9).

And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea (Revelation 16:3).

The great red shield of death is formed and spreads across one-third of the sea as the trumpet sounds. The second trumpet begins the event and the

second vial closes it. By the time the last drop of the vial has fallen, the ocean current spread of both organic and inorganic takers of life will have rendered the sea to belike the blood of a dead man. A dead man’s blood will not support life. The trumpets and vials do not occur separately from one another in a chronological sense. The first trumpet announces the beginning of event one, and the last drop of the first vial closes it. This sequence is true throughout all seven trumpets and vials.

America Won’t Commit Ground Troops in Israel!

America WILL Provide an Israeli Nuclear Umbrella,

But the US Won’t Defend Israel in the Coming War!

I have taught this would be the case for some 35 Years,

Because America Set a Precedent for This in Several Wars,

So I was Happy to see the QUOTE in the Wall Street Journal!

April 20, 2010

“For all the current talk about Israel costing America lives and treasure, the striking fact is that the U.S. has never had to go to war to defend the Jewish state. This is more than can be said for Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Bosnia, Kosovo and the people of Afghanistan and Iraq.” (Wall Street Journal Editorial)

I have used the following Scripture so often in my blogs so often one would think it to be the only one I know. I took the series of excerpts which follow it from a single news source. The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs/Daily Alert for April 19, 2010. Please note that the CRY for “PEACE AND SAFETY” has never been as LOUD as it is NOW.

I am not a child of darkness and, while I cannot tell you the day, week, month, season, or year it will come, I am quite confident Israel is in for sudden destruction beginning at some point in time prior to 2015 – In any case it is not a far distant event.

I am certain the event will definitely occur eventually, and that each passing year does increase the chances, even if it does not occur before 2015.

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.

Begin Series from the Jerusalem Center for Public Afairs/Daily Alert

April 19, 2010

Excerpt 1 – Prime Minister’s Office

Netanyahu on Memorial Day: PEACE Will Come Only If Israel Remains Strong
Speaking at the Memorial Ceremony for Fallen Soldiers at Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Twice we have paid the heavy cost of liberating the siege on Jerusalem – first, during the War of Independence, and again, when the city was bombarded during the Six-Day War….Jerusalem, which until that time had been a divided and weakened city, became once again a city full of life, creativity and renewal.”

“Not one day has passed without us reaching out to our neighbors in peace. Not even one day, and we still reach out to those of our neighbors that desire peace. Over the years, we have learned that the olive branches of peace will only be attained if we are strong and are willing to defend our country as did those who have fallen here. It was not out of a lust for battle that they charged this destination and other hills, but out of faith in the justness of the cause of defending the one and only country of the Jewish people….They all believed in the right of the Jewish people to live in peace and security in the land of their forefathers.” (Prime Minister’s Office)

Excerpt 2 – Haaratz

Peres: Israel Yearns for PEACE But Will Defend Itself.-

Jonathan Lis, Yuval Azoulay, and Liel Kyzer

Israel fell silent on Sunday night as sirens wailed across the country to mark Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terror attacks. President Shimon Peres addressed Israel’s bereaved families after lighting a memorial flame at the Western Wall plaza, saying, “On this blessed occasion, I want to say in the name of the State of Israel: We do not seek war. We are a nation that yearns for peace, but will know how to defend itself.”

“Israel’s strength springs from the strength of its faith, and its greatness emanates from the heroism of its sons,” said Peres. “Today we grieve for their loss and are blessed by their legacy.” “There are still those who wish to annihilate us, and at their head, the autocratic Iranian regime that seeks to cast its rule over the Middle East, silence it with lethal weapons, and launch an anti-Israel incitement campaign to deflect Arab concerns.” (Ha’aretz)

Excerpt 3 – Wall Street Journal

Mideast PEACE, One Brick at a Time

Robert McFarlane

President Obama should focus on the building blocks essential to an ultimate settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. The U.S. is already work ing hard to shore up the Palest

inian Authority security apparatus in the West Bank.

With continued American help, other civil infrastructure can also be put in place, for example to combat corruption and establish the rule of law – necessary if the new Palestinian state is going to function and be self-sustaining. Models from other emerging countries (e.g., South Korea) suggest that this process takes at least a decade to accomplish and that expecting anything less may lead only to a failed state.

No one should underestimate how difficult it will be to reach a comprehensive settlement.

For example, the Palestinians seek their so-called right of return to territory in Israel and want the capital of their state to be in Jerusalem.

Israelis believe that accepting a right of return would be demographic suicide. And they are loath to divide Jerusalem, not least because they recall that when Jordan ruled East Jerusalem prior to 1967 it was ethnically cleansed of Jews. They view Jerusalem as their ancient and “indivisible” capital. These issues cannot be resolved easily or quickly. Papering them over is counterproductive. Only by laying one brick at a time can a solid foundation for peace be built. The writer served as President Reagan’s national security adviser and is currently a member of the Leadership Council at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. (Wall Street Journal)

Excerpt 4 – Washington Times

Panting after PEACE

Joel Mowbray

Some argue that striking an Israeli-Palestinian deal would be the first domino that would rally the Arab states to prevent Iran from obtaining nukes. This is absurd. Arab dictators already want to stop Iran, as they fear the political dominance the mullahs would achieve across the region should they acquire nukes. Furthermore, a “two-state” solution currently seems impossible because of Hamas’ control over Gaza. Simply put, ordinary Palestinians are not yet ready to accept peaceful coexistence with a Jewish state of Israel. (Washington Times)

Excerpt 5 – Wall Street Journal

Why Israel Is Anxious about the Obama Administration

Editorial (Wall Street Journal)

For all the current talk about Israel costing America lives and treasure, the striking fact is that the U.S. has never had to go to war to defend the Jewish state. This is more than can be said for Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Bosnia, Kosovo and the people of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Concern is growing that the U.S. wants Israel to return to its pre-1967 borders. At their narrowest, those borders give Israel a nine-mile margin between the West Bank and the Mediterranean Sea.

Israel could conceivably withdraw to something close to that border if it had credible assurances that a future Palestinian state would be peaceful, stable and well-governed. But the Palestinian reality today is that it is riven politically and geographically between two camps, one of which (Hamas) is armed by Iran and sworn to Israel’s destruction.

Syria has further entrenched its alliance with Iran, despite repeated entreaties by the Administration and its allies in Congress; Egypt is entering a period of political transition; and Turkey has gone from being an Israeli ally to an adversary under its Islamist government. None of this can inspire much confidence among Israelis that the time is ripe to withdraw from the West Bank.

For all the current talk about Israel costing America lives and treasure, the striking fact is that the U.S. has never had to go to war to defend the Jewish state. This is more than can be said for Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Bosnia, Kosovo and the people of Afghanistan and Iraq.

That’s because for 62 years Israelis have provided for their own defense, in an alliance with the U.S. that has reflected American values and – in both the Cold War and the war on terror – advanced American interests.

Begin Excerpt from the BBC

US summons Syrian envoy over arms

The US has summoned Syria’s most senior diplomat to review its “provocative behaviour” concerning the potential transfer of weapons to Hezbollah.

The state department told the deputy chief of mission in Washington, Zouheir Jabbour, that it condemned the arming of the Lebanese Shia Islamist group.

Particular concern was raised about the possible transfer of Scud missiles.

Last week, Israel’s president accused Damascus of supplying the ballistic missiles to Hezbollah’s military wing.

Hezbollah fought a 34-day conflict with Israel in 2006 during which more than 1,200 Lebanese people, mostly civilians, were killed. Some 160 Israeli people, most of whom were soldiers, also died.

‘Amplified message’

UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the conflict, included an arms embargo on Lebanon, except for transfers authorised by the Lebanese government or UN.

“The risk of miscalculation that could result from this type of escalation should make Syria reverse the ill-conceived policy it has pursued”

Gordon Duguid US Department of State

But many analysts believe Hezbollah has since been rebuilding its arsenal with the help of its backers, Syria and Iran.

They say that if the group obtains ballistic missiles, it could alter

the military balance in the region, putt

ing all of Israel within reach.

In a statement after the meeting with Mr Jabbour on Monday, state department spokesman Gordon Duguid said: “This was the fourth occasion on which these concerns have been raised to the Syrian embassy in recent months, intended to further amplify our messages communicated to the Syrian government.”

“The United States condemns in the strongest terms the transfer of any arms, and especially ballistic missile systems such as the Scud, from Syria to Hezbollah,” he added.

“The risk of miscalculation that could result from this type of escalation should make Syria reverse the ill-conceived policy it has pursued.”

The Syrian embassy has previously dismissed the allegations and accused Israel of trying to divert attention from questions about its alleged nuclear programme. Israel neither confirms nor denies it has nuclear weapons.

Ties between Syria and the US had been tense since

the killing in 2005 of Rafik Hariri, a former Lebanese prime minister.

His assassination was blamed on Damascus – which denied any involvement – but Washington withdrew its ambassador shortly after.

The White House has recently been trying to engage diplomatically with President Bashar Assad and has appointed a new ambassador to Damascus, although his nomination is on hold in the US Senate.

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BIRTH PANG NUMBER 3

Two survivors have been rescued from the rubble in China’s Qinghai province, as the number of people killed in the quake five days ago reached 1,944.

TO SEE THE FIGURES REFERENCED IN THIS BLOG CLICK ON “BIRTH PANGS FIGURES,” WHICH APPEARS UNDER “BIRTH PANGS” ON OUR WEB SITE MENU FOUND AT:

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In 700BC the Prophet Isaiah gave a perfect description of what God intended to do in the tribulation period just before the visitation of His Son’s Second Advent.

The phenomena he describes in Isaiah 29:6 is a detailed, concise description of what is produced along the tectonic plate boundaries. And and it stated to be occurring during the time the multitude of nations is fighting against Jerusalem (Ariel).

Isaiah 29:6-8 – Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great

noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. [7] And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision. [8] It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.

Earthquakes, thunder from lightning in volcano clouds, great noise in volcanic blasts and earthquakes, the storm and tempest of tsunami waves breaking on the shorelines of the world, and the flame of devouring lava from volcanoes, are all a part of tectonic plate movements. I have taught for 35 years the first earthquake in Revelation 6:12 would be the trigger to set off the tribulation horrors, and the last earthquake in Revelation 16:18 would close the tribulation period.

Revelation 6:12-14 – 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; [13] And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. [14] And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

Revelation 16:16-21 – 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. [19] And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. [20] And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

[21] And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague

of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

April 20, 2010

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FROM “TRIBULATION BIRTH PANGS FROM THE BOTTOMLESS PIT”

CHAPTER 5- CHALAZA, PUR AND HAIMA

Revelation 16:18-21 – 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. [19] And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. [20] And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. [21] And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

Verses eighteen and nineteen announce the occurrence of great worldwide earthquake activity, and then go on to describe some of its universal (cities of the nations fell) and local (the great city was divided into three parts) effects. Verse twenty then gives a visual observation of what is producing the effects of verses eighteen and nineteen: the visible movement of the islands and mountains atop the great shifting crust of the earth. This great shifting of the crust producing the earthquake activity of verses eighteen and nineteen will simultaneously be creating the phenomenon described in verse twenty-one.

The “hail” of verse twenty-one is not made of ice.

These tal¬ent approximated chunks of matter are hot volcanic rocks thrown high in the heaven where the birds fly to eventually come down on sinful mankind as a plague of fire. There are three heavens portrayed in the Scriptures: the heaven where the birds fly (atmosphere); the heaven where the sun, other stars, and the planets exists; and the Heaven where God dwells. Verse twenty-one is an observation of those regions of the heav¬ens containing this planet’s atmosphere. The King James trans¬lators in 1611 correctly supplied the word “stone” rather than “hailstone” to describe the true contextual meaning 6f the Greek word chalaza.

The word “hail” appears only four times in the entire New Testament, and all four appearances are limited to the book of Revelation. By a process of abridgment the basic meaning of the word chalaza has been lost in a great surge of definition by com¬mon usage, which began about the time of the Civil War. The original Greek lexicons of the New Testament were monstrous¬ly large, far too enormous to conveniently carry from class to class or place to place. For this reason a historical process of abridgment has gradually reduced the first lexicons to about one fourth of their original size. In order to shorten lexicons to their present day volumes, it was necessary to select those seemingly non-essential Greek words with long definitions for particularly close trimming and chalaza was just such a word; a word appearing only four times in the Scriptures and pos¬sessing a lengthy variety of meanings.

In today’s modern era of rapid technological development, vast improvements in the area of creature comfort have slowly given rise to what is now the generally accepted idea: new is better than old. This, of course, is true in most aspects of learn¬ing: knowledge of today is better than that of yesteryear. But this idea must be rejected when considering the true meaning of a biblical word. The farther back in time one is able to track the meaning of a word, the closer he or she comes to what the writer meant when he wrote it. In paragraphs that follow, the history of the word chalaza will be unveiled back to the most authoritative lexicons ever written.

Most preachers and commentators after the Civil War began to teach uniformly that the “hail” of Revelation was in the form of ice. Primarily because of this common usage, virtually all new post-Civil War publications simply abridged away the orig¬inal basic meaning of the word chalaza. All of the following pop¬ular reference publications were abridged in part from post-Civil War sources, and merely list chalaza as “hail”: Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, The Analytical Greek Lexicon, and Strong’s Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament.

Now, please carefully examine the following definitions extracted from pre-Civil War sources from which the post-Civil War sources were abridged.

1857—A Critical Lexicon & Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament by E. W. Bullinger.

(1) Chalaza—something let go, let fall.

1843—A Greek-English Lexicon compiled by Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, based on the work of Franz Passow in his lexicon of 1819.

(1) A pelting shower of anything.
(2) Any small knot like a hailstone.
(3) A knot or hard lump.
(4) A bituminous rock.

1836—A Greek & English Lexicon of the New Testament by Dr. Edward Robinson.

(I) In the proper sense, not figurative, something let go, let fall.

1826—A Comprehensive Lexicon of the Greek Language by Dr. John Pickering.

(1) A precious stone.

1819—A Lexicon of the New Testament by Franz Passow.

(1) Strictly, that which is let loose.

The writings of the early Greeks clearly reveal that the usage of chalaza was not limited to a frozen ball of ice that fell from the heavens. The word chalaza was used by Sophocles, Aristotle, Athenaeus, Theophrastus, Orphica, and Plutarchus to describe the following things:

(1) a knot, (2) a hard lump, (3) a pelting shower of anything, (4) a bituminous rock, (5) a stone that resembles a hailstone, and (6) anything that falls from the heavens.

The 1819 lexicon by Franz Passow is recognized as the grandfather of modern day lexicons even though it was based on the 1797 lexicon of Johann Gottlob Schneider. The noun cha¬laza comes from the verb chalao, which means “to let down from above.

” Chalaza is whatever happens to be let down from above. Passow’s 1819 definition states its full, basic meaning best:

“Strictly, that which is let loose.”

The four occurrences of chalaza in Revelation do not picture balls of ice being let down, but rather stones of fire from mas¬sive volcanic eruptions produced by a fantastic shifting of the plates. A further validation of this statement may be made by an interpretation of Revelation 8:7:

Revelation 8:7 – The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

Please note in figure 3 that many of the great cracks in the crust of the earth pass across large segments of the earth’s dry land mass. What John observes as recorded in verse seven is the opening of these plate boundaries to allow massive showers of hot, burning pyroclastic material to shower down upon the dry land masses. The word chalaza appears as “hail” in this verse, but this chalaza is not made of ice, for ice does not mix with the literal Greek word used for “fire” (pur), nor does it burn up trees or green grass. Because God sent a plague of hailstones and fire against the Egyptians in the Old Testament as one of the ten plagues, most commentaries link this verse in Revela¬tion to that event and thereby identify the fire as lightning. I can see the reason for this common interpretation, but I hearti¬ly disagree with it. The reason for my disagreement is dramat¬ically portrayed by what appears in the preceding two verses of chapter eight.

Revelation 8:5-7 – And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. [6] And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. [7] The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

Please note in verse five that the word “lightning” appears. This is a translation of the Greek word aetrapai, which means “vivid flashes of static electricity,” a very common phenomenon produced by volcanic eruptions. Why am I so sure that the word “fire” in verse seven is not lightning? Because an entirely dif¬ferent word from astrapai is used in verse seven as God’s Holy Spirit causes John to use the word pur, which means, “a visible heat flame evolved by ignition and combustion.” The Holy Spirit would not have caused John to use astrapai for light¬ning” in verse five and then suddenly cause him to use an unre¬lated word like pur for lightning in verse seven.

John reported exactly what he saw. He saw lightning in verse five and he saw fire in verse seven.

The Greek word for “blood” in verse seven is haimati, which can mean any one of three different things: (1) real blood, (2) the blood-red color taken on by an object, (3) any form of liquid hav¬ing a blood-red color. The Hebrews had a habit of identifying any color from orange to reddish black as “blood.” The following passages from the Old Testament show that the word “blood” was often used in a figurative sense.

Deuteronomy 32:14 – Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.

Genesis 49:11 – Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:

Certainly grapes do not contain real blood, but many vari¬eties contained a blood-red liquid. The Hebrew was familiar with the many various shades of blood from the wounds of the battlefields. They had seen blood from the heart area of an extremely light reddish hue and blood from the femur veins that was almost blackish. Not only is there a tremendous dif¬ference in the shades of blood within each individual, but also differences between individuals. Anytime that John observed a color from orange to deep dark red he simply reported the color as “blood.” You will not find the color orange in the Scriptures. In Revelation 6:12 we are not told that the moon will actually turn into real blood, but rather that it will take on a blood-red color (orange to deep red) from volcanic lithometers in the lower stratosphere.

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,

In Revelation 8:5-7 John observed an angel take fire from the heavenly altar and then cast it into (eis) the earth to produce the following phenomena: (1) voices (phonai—literally, sounds), (2) thunderings, (3) lightnings and (4) an earthquake. The sounds that John heard were the terrifying sounds generated by movement along the pressurized plate boundaries. The thun¬derings were from massive thunderstorms formed by wide¬spread uplift ing of moisture

in hot convective currents above vast volcanic eruptions. The lightning he observed was from vivid static electricity produced by both thunderstorm and the volcanically induced heat component of friction. As a meteorol¬ogist and physical scientist, I assure you that sounds, thunder¬ ing, lightning and earthquakes are common occurrences in all major volcanic eruptions. And may I also assure you that the sounds, thunderings, lightning and earthquakes occur in conjunction with, and are followed by, chalaza, pur and haimati. The word translated as “mingled” among these seven frightening phenomena is memigmena, and it means to be mixed in with something, as one would dip a garment in red dye.

Now, armed with all this information, let us carefully exam¬ine what John saw in verse seven. He saw chalaza (something let go, let fall). He observed objects being cast upon the earth. These objects were pur (fiery) and they looked like they had been dipped in haimati (a blood-red liquid). The objects were fiery volcanic rocks that looked as if they had been dipped in blood, and that blood-red liquid was lava. This is a perfect figu¬rative description of a literal volcanic eruption.

The linguistics of verses five and seven describe massive vol¬canic eruptions, but the effect on the dry land is the final proof of the pudding.

Please note that all the green grass is destroyed, but only one-third of the trees. Why not all of the trees? Because in all major volcanic eruptions the grass is destroyed over a vast area due to the shallowness of its roots, but only the trees in the immediate vicinity of the eruption are destroyed due to the much greater depth of their tap roots. In virtually all-volcanic eruptions you will find within the same area that all the green grass is destroyed, but only about one-third of the trees are killed, those being the trees nearest the volcanic cone.

If there is a question in your mind concerning the rendering of the word translated as “blood” in the book of Revelation, please consider this reference from volume one of Gerhard Kittel’s Theological Dictionary: In the language of apocalyptic haima “signifies the red color simulate to blood which indicates eschatological terrors in the earth and heaven, such as war (Ac. 2:19), hail and fire (Rev. 8:7), the changing of water (Rev. 8:8…), the coloring of the moon (Rev. 6:12), the judgment of the nations (Rev. 14:20).” This source clearly indicates that the word “blood’ in Revelation may be understood as any liquid substance having a red color.

Begin Excerpt from BBC News

April 19, 2010

Two China quake survivors rescued

Two survivors have been rescued from the rubble in China’s Qinghai province, as the number of people killed in the quake five days ago reached 1,944.

Wujin Cuomao, 68, and a four-year-old girl, Cairen Baji, were found under a house near Jiegu in Yushu County, the worst-hit town, state media said.

They had been kept alive by water and food passed through gaps in the debris.

Tens of thousands of people have been made homeless in the remote region by the powerful 6.9-magnitude quake.

Another 12,135 were injured, many of them seriously, and 216 people are still missing, officials say.
China’s CCTV broadcast images of the two survivors as they were taken for medical treatment.

They been trapped under a bed in a village about 20km (13 miles) from Jiegu. It was not clear whether the two were related.

‘Nothing left’

Officials say people in the quake zone now have basic shelter, food and water, but it has not been easy to get supplies to the area 4,000m (13,000ft) above sea-level.

Miao Chonggang, deputy head of the China Earthquake Administration, said some 15,000 rescue personnel were on the scene.

This included 11,000 soldiers, 2,800 firefighters and 1,500 search and rescue workers, he told Xinhua.
One man, Zhang Zhaojun, said he had only received a tent so far and feared for his family’s future.

“Life would be very difficult. All the houses here have collapsed and we don’t have any economic means to support ourselves,” he told Reuters.

“We have nothing. It is going to be very difficult for us.”

Thousands of people have slept in the open since Wednesday’s quake, despite freezing temperatures.
Ninety-seven percent of Yushu’s population is ethnic Tibetan and hundreds of translators have been sent to the region.

Tibetan Buddhist monks have been heavily involved in the emergency operation, digging through the rubble for survivors, distributing aid and collecting bodies.

Many of the monks have travelled from other provinces to help.

“We have over 10,000 monks here for one reason – to save people,” one monk told the Associated Press news agency on Monday.

On Sunday, the bodies of more than 700 quake victims were burned on vast funeral pyres.

The scale of the deaths meant that traditional Tibetan sky burials – where bodies are left in the open to be eaten by vultures – were impossible.

President Hu Jintao, who visited Qinghai on Sunday, has promised the region will be rebuilt.

On Saturday, the Dalai Lama appealed to the Chinese authorities to allow him to visit the quake zone.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader was born in Qinghai province but has not set foot in China since a failed Tibetan uprising more than 50 years ago.

Correspondents say it is highly unlikely that the Chinese government – who see the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist – will agree to his request.

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Syria’s Assad Made HIS END TIME Choice Long Ago,

Since that time Syria has played a game of Deception,

Syria is now entering into the final phase of a Deception,

Syria’s time has come and it is likely to end in war by 2015!

April 19, 2010

http://www.tribulationperiod,com

I have taught for 35 years that the final war of the Age of the Gentiles would begin by Syria (King of the North) deliberately having an act performed, which irritated Israel (King of the South) sufficiently to push across the border into Lebanon. And when this occurred Syria, along with Islamic troops from several Islamic nations and terrorist groups, would charge against Israel in a whirlwind counterattack, which would drive Israel into the Negev Wilderness.

Daniel 11:40,41 – And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and

shall overflow and pass over.

[41] 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.

The two excerpts from the Khaleej Times, which follow our October 2008 Blog, lend credence to what I have stated up to this point.

BEGIN EXCERPT WE ISSUED ON OCTOBER 22, 2008

Syria and Hezbollah are seeking an Excuse

To invade northern Lebanon and fully Control

Everything within the boundaries of all of Lebanon

From Russian Ports of Syria to the land of the Israelis!

October 22, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Ever since the great ancient wars between the Syrian kings of the north and the Egyptian kings of the south, which began during the days of the breakup of the empire of Alexander the Great, there has been constant struggle for land expansion from Turkey to Egypt.

Until 1920, “Syria” referred to a region much larger than the Syrian Arab Republic of today, a region that stretched from the borders of Anatolia to those of Egypt, from the edge of Iraq to the Mediterranean Sea. In terms of today’s states, the Syria of old comprised Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, plus the Gaza Strip and Alexandretta. This larger land, known since 1920 as Greater Syria, is what they dream of reclaiming.

The two Syrian ports, now being utilized by Russian Ships, are located between the northern border of Lebanon and Turkey. This makes it very important for Syria and Hezbollah to control all parts of northern Lebanon, which has always been the location of their major opposition, being the stronghold of anti-Syrian sentiment. As far as Syrian plans are concerned, it is a well known fact that Syria will always consider the small country of Lebanon as “Greater Syria.” Nothing, including the establishment of a Syrian Embassy in Lebanon, will ever change this Syrian belief.

Lebanon will be one of the ten horns on the Islamic beast (Daniel 7) when they stream south to attack Israel (King of the South in Daniel 11). I believe this attack is likely to occur at some point in time between 2010 and 2015.

END BLOG WE ISSUED OCTOBER 22, 2008

Begin Excerpt 1 from Khaleej Times via World News

Syria’s time has come

Kenan Mortan

19 April 2010

Will the recent rapprochement between the United States and Syria mark a new era in Syria’s international standing?

Syria can hope for two major changes following the restoration of full diplomatic relations with the US. First, it will be removed from America’s informal blacklist of “Axis of Evil” countries, which will substantially improve its chances to enter the World Trade Organisation.

Second, Syria will probably receive the go-ahead for a pipeline to bring Iraqi oil across its territory to Turkey. Such a link to Turkey’s economy – and thus possibly to the European Union – would encourage Syria to open its economy even more to foreign investment.

But all of this will undoubtedly come

at a price.

Syria’s side of the bargain will invariably need to be an end to its support for Hezbollah in Lebanon, for which it will likely seek the return of the Golan Heights. Israel would presumably resist this outcome, and Iran – as leader of the so-called “Shia crescent” spreading from Lebanon to Tajikistan – would strongly, and perhaps violently, oppose such a bargain as well.

During Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Syria earlier this year, Syria’s President Bashar Assad and he reiterated their unyielding cooperation in the face of “Western manipulations.” But Assad is under growing pressure from the ranks of his Baath Party to modernise the country and its infrastructure, which is impossible without improved ties to the West.

Syria’s economy is a rust pile.

With a per capita income of $2,000, it has been closed to the outside world until recently.

Rationing is pervasive. But, in order to secure public support, Assad’s government has allowed for greater domestic consumption, so foreign imports are rising fast.

Indeed, the country has run a trade deficit since 2005, with no path back to balance in sight.

Supposedly “friendly” countries like Iran have been giving a helping hand, but almost always in the form of oil – and not even refined oil – rather than cash.

The effort to liberalise foreign investment has not taken up the slack in investment from the regime’s regional political partners. For example, the Foreign Investment Law of 2007, which fixed a 15-day deadline for projects to be authorised, has resulted in only $200 million in new inward investment.
 This lack of investment has left the economy, particularly the oil industry, in a shambles. A member of OPEC, Syria is now a net importer of oil.

The ruling Shia elite that surrounds President Assad – and that, together with the military oligarchy, retains almost total control of the economy – appears to be interested mainly in preserving the stagnant status quo. In opposition stand Syria’s Sunni traders, who are joined in demanding a change in the rules of the game by the country’s various minorities, composed of two million Christians, 1.7 million Kurds, and 400,000 Druze. The combined economic weight of the Christians – Nestorians, Maronites, Catholic Greeks, and Syriacs – is greater than their actual number, and the Bathist regime has always sought to accommodate these minorities. But it was only with the accession to power of Bashir al Assad that they were given more economic and political breathing space.

Assad has good reason to do so, because the unequal distribution of wealth, combined with an official unemployment rate of 15 per cent, is fueling social pressure. The $3 fare for a bus ride between Aleppo and Damascus might look cheap to someone from outside Syria, but, given that a well-trained technician may earn only $150 monthly, it is almost prohibitively expensive.

A warming of relations with the US could set in play two types of dynamics: one originates with the OECD’s development initiative for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), created in 2004. For the first time, the OECD became directly involved with non-member countries in the Middle East, and in 2009 Syria was included in its development cooperation master plan.

The second positive dynamic may come from improved Turkish-Syrian economic ties. Bilateral relations started to thaw 12 years ago, when Syria expelled the leader of the violent Kurdish separatist PKK movement, Abdullah Ocalan. A Turkish-Syrian Business Council was established soon after with the hope of developing economic relations, but little impact has been felt, owing to Turkey’s lingering suspicion of Syria’s political alignment. The only Turkish investment was made in the textile field by the firm Akteks.

Last year, however, as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pushed forward on strengthening Turkey’s Middle Eastern ties, visa requirements between the two countries were eased, with cross-border car traffic increasing 22 per cent in five months. Regular bus lines have been opened, and, according to a high-ranking Turkish bank official, “We were hesitating about opening a branch in Syria because of the US embargo, so the sending of an envoy is like a green light to us.” For Syria, the choice now is between seizing this opportunity to open its economy, or retreating back into its Baathist shell. The benefits of such an opening are clear. The question is whether Syria’s rulers can make the political choices necessary to 
obtain them.

Kenan Mortan is Professor of Applied Economics at Istanbul Mimar Sinan University in Turkey. His latest book is on Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar

Begin Excerpt 2 from Khaleej Times via World News

US alarm on Scuds spurs Israel to attack Lebanon

(AFP)

17 April 2010

BEIRUT – US concern over allegations that Syria has been supplying Scud missiles to Hezbollah serves to encourage Israel to attack Lebanon, the Lebanese Shia militant group said on Saturday.

Israeli President Shimon Peres has accused Damascus of providing Hezbollah with the missiles, prompting Washington to warn that the trade ‘potentially puts Lebanon at significant risk.’

‘With this position, (the Americans) are encouraging Israel to carry out an aggression against Lebanon that they are trying to endorse at the international level,’ Hezbollah MP Ali Fayyad told AFP.

‘The United States is thus placing itself in a position of complicity in the event of aggression and it will have to take responsibility,’ he said.

Such statements ‘exacerbate tension and directly threaten the stability of the region,’ the MP said, accusing Washington of trying ‘to cover up its failures as well as those of Israel’ in the Middle East.

According to Arab media and some think-tanks, Syria has been sending some of its own arsenal of Scuds to Lebanon, an allegation denied by Damascus.

‘We are obviously increasingly concerned about the sophisticated weaponry that is allegedly being transferred,’ White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Wednesday.

‘We have expressed our concerns to those governments and believe that steps should be taken to reduce any risk and any danger,’ Gibbs said, apparently referring to the Israeli and Syrian governments.

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Charm has no effect on the wolf leaders of the Nations,

Obama’s a Proud Educated Lamb Dialoging with Wolves!

Obama is a novice lifted up with pride in his own Intellect!

Obama Seems to have NO Long Range Strategy to Deal with Iran,

At least that is the impression I get from reading Excerpt Number 2,

After reading Excerpt Nr. 1 – Is there a strategy for Syria & Hizbullah?

April 19, 2010

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

I Timothy 3:6 – Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

If the pastor of a local church is supposed to meet the qualification of not being a novice, then surely it is not wise to elect a man to the office of President of the U.S. if he has no experience other than briefly holding a Senate seat.

Begin Excerpt 1 from DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

The “New Hizballah” built by Syria sparks ME summer war fear

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

April 18, 2010, 5:24 PM (GMT+02:00)

DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that Syria has expanded the flow of smuggled Syrian and Iranian weaponry across the Lebanese border to Hizballah in line with a master-plan charted in Tehran and Damascus for transforming the 25,000-strong Hizballah terrorist militia into an organized, mobile army with a whole range of sophisticated missiles and other weapons. The new Hizballah is being trained to carry out such offensive operations as capturing parts of Israel’s Galilee and equipped with the hardware for knocking out warplanes, warships and armored strength.

One of their missions will be to defend the Syrian capital, Damascus. Tehran and Damascus calculate that the next time a war erupts on Israel’s borders, its army will try and outflank Syrian forces on the Golan and drive past the units defending Damascus.

That is where Hizballah is expected to come in.

Even after the Kuwaiti Al Rai claim that Syria had smuggled Scud ground missiles into Lebanon proved inaccurate and was denied in Washington, regional war tensions remained high – although not for the reason ascribed by Jordan’s King Abdullah during his current visit to Washington.

The king forecast an outbreak of Middle East hostilities in the coming summer because of the Israel-Palestinian diplomatic stalemate. What’s the connection? Our sources ask. Rather than admit he is nervously watching his aggressive Arab neighbor to the north, the Jordanian ruler is pinning the region’s troubles on Israel because it is the right tune to sing in Barack Obama’s Washington.
In actual fact, a Middle East war this summer depends on two actions which have nothing to do with the Palestinians: a decision by the US and/or Israel to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities together or separately, and a decision in Tehran to unleash its allies against Israel – spearheaded by Hizballah – to preempt such an attack.

Ready to step into its new shoes, Hizballah is being armed with five major military capabilities, DEBKAfile reports:

1. Surface-to-surface missiles able to reach as far as the Dimona reactor in southern Israel: They include Fajr-5, which has a range of 33 km, and the M-600, developed by Syria from the Fateh-110, whose range is 250 km. Both are precise, propelled by solid fuel and carry 500-kilo warheads of conventional explosives, as well as being able to deliver chemical, biological and radioactive materials.

This dangerous new arsenal which tops up the 40,000 rockets Hizballah was allowed to pile up since the 2006 Lebanon war.

Saturday, April 17, Israel’s deputy defense minister Mattan Vilnai, warned that Syria and Hizballah between them had ballistic missiles that could reach every millimeter of Israeli territory.

But he did not explain how the national defense leadership, of which he is a senior member, allowed this to happen.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said nothing to account for his 14-month old government’s failure to make good on its pledges for change, and first of all to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat. Instead, he follows his predecessors’ same old passive routines on Iran, Syria and Hizballah, an open invitation to aggression and a recipe for armed conflict.

Of late, he is hardly to be seen or heard except for the irrelevant comments he makes at state ceremonies.

2. Iran has built for Hizballah five expanded commando brigades whose mission in a future conflict will be to capture and hold key northern Israeli towns and villages, including the town of Nahariya or parts thereof. This tactic would force Israeli forces marching into Lebanon to turn back and recover lost land.

On March 28, DEBKAfile revealed this Iranian-Syrian master plan in detail.

3. Syrian instructors are training Hizballah militiamen at top speed in the operation of ground-to-air weapons, including self-propelled missiles, against warplanes and incoming missiles and cruise missiles. Israel has threatened to destroy these batteries if they cross the border into Lebanon. They are therefore being held back in Syrian bases up against the border until such time as fighting flares.

They will then be transferred into the hands of Hizballah units standing by on the Lebanese side of the border.

4. Syria has set up a Hizballah special unit for attacking warships and fighting off Israeli coastal landings. It is equipped with advanced Chinese SS-26 Yakhont marine cruise missiles, which combine assault features with the ability to intercept attacking missiles or cruise missiles.

5. Iranian and Syrian military engineers have constructed fortified anti-tank lines in many parts of Lebanon. They are linked by fast highways, to be closed to all traffic barring Hizballah units in an emergency, and

by a military-grade communications network.

Begin Excerpt 2 from Arutz Sheva

Obama Faces Iran ‘Wake-up Call’ from Defense Secretary Gates

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates sent President Barack Obama in January a secret “wake-up” call warning of lack of strategy to deal with an Iranian nuclear threat, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The White House has denied the charges, and the Defense Secretary’s spokesman issued a non-committal statement: “The secretary believes the president and his national security team have spent an extraordinary amount of time and effort considering and preparing for the full range of contingencies with respect to Iran.”

The memo warned President Obama that his administration had no long-term strategy to deal with the growing inevitability that the Islamic Republic will be able to produce a nuclear weapon.

He suggested that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might adopt a tactic of being a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty while having at hand all of the available parts to assemble a nuclear weapon for a warhead, which presumably would be aimed at Israel.

Defense Secretary Gates last week stated on American television, “If their (Iran’s) policy is to go to the threshold but not assemble a nuclear weapon, how do you tell that they have not assembled? I don’t actually know how you would verify that.”

Aides to the president defended the administration, stating that it has been planning several scenarios to deal with Iran’s nuclear program.

Last week, President Obama concentrated on the threat that Al-Qaeda terrorists may gain access to a nuclear weapon. His strategy has been to “engage” Iran in diplomatic talks and, if necessary, place crippling economic sanctions against it. However, a 2009 “deadline” for Iran to respond to diplomatic engagement passed without a strong American reaction, except for rhetoric.

President Obama’s advisors then unsuccessfully tried to scare the international community into backing harsh sanctions by revealing that Iran was building a new uranium enrichment plant.

His latest effort was to attract China to attend a “nuclear summit” where optimistic statements were issued without reference to intense opposition from Beijing. It is dependent on Iranian oil, has worked with Iran on its nuclear program and also is against gas and oil sanctions that might stop Irans’ nuclear development in its tracks.

Despite Secretary Gates “wake-up” memo, he stated as far back as last May that bombing Iran might delay Iran from gaining nuclear capability but would not stop it. “Even a military attack will only buy us time and send the program deeper and more covert,” he told the Senate Appropriations Committee. He previously said that bombing Iran would “create generations of jihadists.”

However, he h as not issued

a clear-cut strategy on how to deal with Iran other than the same measures President Obama has suggested. Two years ago, Secetary Gates stated, “We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage . . . and then sit down and talk with them. My personal view would be we ought to look for ways outside of government to open up the channels and get more of a flow of people back and forth. We ought to increase the flow the other way . . . of Americans visiting Iran.” (IsraelNationalNews.com)

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