blog.Tribulationperiod.com

Global Christian forums reviving theological demonology against Israel

The Catholic Church and Daughters, the World Council Of Churches,

Are getting ready to mount the Beast supporting the Palestinians

But when the Islamic Beast has driven Israel into a vast Negev

And Conquered Egypt, It Will Turn on Catholics & Daughters

The Beast will kill their members and burn church Buildings

Across the Known world when John Finished Revelation

There’ll be no church buildings found in his Caliphate!

July 8, 2011

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

The vast majority of the churches across Europe, the former vast Soviet Union and its Satellites, North Africa, the Middle East, China, and Southeast Asia, have little similarity to the New Testament Teachings as they were practiced in early churches. Most of them are apostate from the faith once delivered to the saints.

God has not abandoned Zion!

He will restore her to a glory she has never known when he returns at his 2nd Advent. She will be the Nation of Nations, and the Son of God and of David will be King over all the earth. The Catholic Church, along with her Ecumenical Daughters, has departed “the faith once delivered unto the saints.” They will pay a price for it in the Tribulation Period. Israel is still the apple of God’s eye.

Zechariah 2:8-13 – For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me

unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. [9] For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me. [10] Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. [11] And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee.

[12] And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. [13] Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.

Jude 3 – Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

Revelation 18:4-8 – And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

[5] For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. [6] Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. [7] How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. [8] Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

Revelation 17:4-7,16,17 – And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: [5] And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

[6] And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. [7] And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. [16] And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. [17] For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

Begin Excerpt from YNet News

The churches against Israel

Christian blood libels received, with Israel being painted as evil, having no right to exist

Giuillo Meotti

July 3, 2011

A few days ago UK researchers announced that 17 skeletons belonged to Jews were found at the bottom of a medieval well in Norwich, England. The Jews were murdered in a pogrom or had been forced to commit suicide rather than submit to demands for conversion to Christianity.

The bodies date back to the 12th or 13th Centuries, at a time when Jewish people faced killings, banishment and persecution throughout all Europe.

Those 17 Jews were killed because of “replacement theology,” the most ancient Christian calumny arguing that because of their denial of the divinity of Christ, the Jews have forfeited God’s promises to them which have been transferred to the Church.

Some 10 centuries later, global Christian forums are reviving this theological demonology against the heirs of those 17 Jews: the Jews of

the State of Israel. The World Council of Churches, an ecumenical Christian body based in Genève and boasting 590 million worshippers, just ended a four-day conference in the Greek city of Volos. Not a single word of criticism was uttered there against the Islamists who are persecuting Arabs who believe Jesus.

Lutherans arrived to Volos from the United States, Catholics and Protestants from Bethlehem and Nazareth, Orthodox Christians from Greece and Russia, lecturers from Beirut and Copts from Egypt. The conference declared the Jewish State “a sin” and “occupying power,” accused Israelis of “dehumanizing” the Palestinians, theologically dismantled the “choseness” of the Jewish people and called for “resistance” as a Christian duty.

The conference denied 3,000 years of Jewish life in the land stretching between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, took sides against the very presence of Israel, likened the defensive barrier that has blocked terrorism to “apartheid,” attacked Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria invoking the name of God and conceptually dismissed the Jewish state, imagining it to be a mixture – Islamic, Christian and perhaps a bit Jewish. It even legitimized terrorism when it talked about the “thousands of prisoners who languish in Israeli jails,” proclaiming that “resistance to the evil of occupation is a Christian’s right and duty.”

Copying Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric

In the last few months we have seen a radical and dangerous increase of attacks on Israel by the Protestant and Catholic churches. While the US is home to many Christian supporters of Israel, the groups more closely linked to global public opinion, European bureaucracy, the media industry, the United Nations and various legal forums are all violently anti-Israel and anti-Jewish. They are paving the way for a new Jewish bloodbath by the theological exclusion of Israel’s Jews from the family of nations.

The patriarch of the Antioch Church, the Catholic Melkite Gregory III Laham, proclaimed that there is a “Zionist conspiracy against Islam,” reviving old conspiracy theories that led to infamous pogroms. In Antwerp, once called “the Belgian Jerusalem,” a highly respected and government-funded Catholic school, the College of the Sacred Heart, just hosted a “Palestine Day” replete with anti-Semitic references and activities for youngsters. One stall at the event was titled “Throw the soldiers into the sea,” allowing children to throw replicas of Jewish and Israeli soldiers into two large tanks.

The most influential international Catholic peace movement, Pax Christi, just promoted a boycott of Israel’s goods “in the name of love.” The most hated Israeli product includes Ahava, the famous Israeli cosmetics company, whose shop in Covent Garden, London, has just been closed by the company after years of demonstrations. Strangely, Ahava body lotion tubes have been chosen as a satanic symbol of Jewish colonialism.

Today, most of the divestment campaign against Israel is driven by Christian groups such as the Dutch Interchurch Organization and the Irish Catholic group Troicaré, both funded by the EU.

The United Church of Canada, a very popular and mainstream Christian denomination, just voted to boycott six companies (Caterpillar, Motorola, Ahava, Veolia, Elbit Systems and Chapters/Indigo) and South African bishop Desmond Tutu convinced the University of Johannesburg to severe all its links with Israeli fellows.

Last year the Methodist Church of Britain voted to boycott Israeli-produced goods and services from Judea and Samaria. The catholic Pax Christi is also leading the campaign glorifying Mordechai Vanunu, Israel’s nuclear whistleblower who had converted to Christianity.

La Civiltà Cattolica, the Vatican magazine reviewed by the Holy See secretary of state before publication, in January opened with a shocking editorial on Palestinian refugees. Adopting the Islamist propagandist word “Nakba,” just recently invoked by Arab mobs to breach Israel’s borders, the paper declared that the refugees are a consequence of “ethnic cleansing” by Israel and that “the Zionists were cleverly able to exploit the Western sense of guilt for the Shoah to lay the foundations of their own state.” Indeed, Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric is alarmingly similar.

Israel a ‘foreign implant’

Israel’s relationship with the Vatican is different from Jerusalem’s relationship with Albania or Luxembourg for example, because the Catholic Church has more than one billion adherents and a global moral authority. At the Rome synod, Archbishop Cyrille Salim Bustros, a cleric chosen by Pope Ratzinger to draft the synod’s 44 final propositions, denied the Jewish people’s biblical right to the Promised Land. “We Christians cannot speak about the Promised Land for the Jewish people. There is no longer a chosen people”, Bustros said, reviving the “replacement theology.”

Edmond Farhat, a Maronite Apostolic Nuncio, who is a sort of Vatican’s ambassador, described Israel’s place in the Middle East in terms of a rejected “foreign implant” that which has no specialists “capable of healing it.”

Elsewhere, the current Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, named by Pope Ratzinger to represent the Catholic community in Israel and the West Bank, is sponsoring an appeal against the “Judaization of Jerusalem.” Indeed, at this time, new anti-Israel policies by the most powerful Christian groups are breathing new life into Medieval doctrine that demonized Jews for hundreds of years.

The latest excavations in England suggest the Jews were thrown down the well together, head first, the kids after the parents. Five of them had a DNA sequence suggesting they were likely to be members of a single Jewish family. Some 10 centuries later, five Jews from the same Israeli family, the Fogels of Itamar, were slaughtered in their own beds.

A famous Italian priest, Mario Cornioli, wrote immediately after the massacre in a subliminal justification of the killings: “What is Itamar? An illegal Israeli colony built on stolen land.”

The replacement calumny has changed its language, yet it still marks a death sentence for the Jewish people: Israelis, like Lucifer, were God’s chosen but were cast out for their rebellious and evil ways, and now deserve to be obliterated from the so-called “Holy Land,” the argument goes.

From Norwich to Itamar, the Jewish martyrs are an everlasting and heroic stain in this horrible, theological blood libel.

Giulio Meotti, a journalist with Il Foglio, is the author of the book A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel’s Victims of Terrorism

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God will soon resurrect the Dead Sea to a Living Sea by Geological Chaos!

During God’s Vials of Wrath he will turn a Salt Sea into a Fresh Water Lake!

For 1000 years fishers shall stand upon it from En-gedi even unto En-eglaim!

July 7, 2011

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

MARVELOUS EXCERPT BY WAYNE STILES FOLLOWS UPDATE 188B

THE DEAD SEA, THE SALT SEA, THE EASTERN SEA, THE FORMER SEA

Numbers 34:3 – Then your south quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin along by the coast of Edom, and your south border shall be the outmost coast of the salt sea eastward:

Ezekiel 47:10 – And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from En-gedi even unto En-eglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.

ARCHIVE SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 188B

September 8, 2004

Tectonic Chaos was my first published in the late seven seventies

Birth Pang Figures may be viewed on http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Tectonic Chaos – Chapter 11 – Salty Sea to a Fresh Water Lake!

Figure 47 is a general summarization in a pictorial format of what has been presented thus far by a narrative discourse. It shows the area as I believe it will appear during the Millennium. Please note that the Dead Sea is forecast to become a living sea.

At the present time, the Dead Sea is so saturated with salt and other solids that aquatic life forms cannot be supported. Fish that enter the Dead Sea from its tributaries perish shortly after their entrance.

For centuries the elevated Arabah Fault to the south of the Dead Sea has prevented the waters of the Jordan River from reaching the Gulf of Aqaba (Eilat). Consequently, by a process of evaporation, more and more salt has been continuously added to the land-locked body of water Zechariah identifies as the former (eastern) Sea (See Archive Birth Pang Figure 47).

Zechariah 14:8 – And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.

When God splits the Arabah Fault, during the tribulation period, a natural graben river valley will be formed between the blocking section of the fault structure, and the Jordan’s waters will finally be able to flow from the Dead Sea into the Red Sea by way of the Gulf of Aqaba. This will eventually clean most of the salt out of the Dead Sea, but the shallow northeastern sections will continue to have salt in coastline marsh areas. (See Archive Birth Pang Figures 47 and 48).

Ezekiel 47:6-12 – And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river. [7] Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. [8] Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.

[9] And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh. [10] And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from En-gedi even unto En-eglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many. [11] But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt. [12] And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine. (See Archive Birth Pang Figures 47 and 48).

As we begin with verse six, we have just walked eastward a little over a mile (4,000 cubits) from the utter gate of the Jerusalem Millennial Temple, and have arrived at the brink of the diverted Jordan River. During our walk, we passed directly through the graben valley created during the tribulation period when the Mount of Olives divided into two sections, one moving to the north, and one moving to the south.

The stream along which we walked developed after the Israelites fled to the Negev by way of the valley of the mountains. The area, through which the entire stream and Jordan River Complex is prophesied to flow, is one of the most fertile soul profiles in Israel. But no matter how fertile and perfectly zoned a soil profile is, unless there is water, no vegetation will spring up. This has been the problem in this dry, arid region for centuries, but God is going to change all that. Trees, and all types of vegetation, will flourish along the length of these two living water rivers as they flow toward the Mediterranean and Dead Seas, and the remnant of Israel will use this new source of water to irrigate the desert lands of Judah and most of southern Israel. I am convinced Israel will become the breadbasket of the Middle East.

When Judah’s water shed, to the west of the line from Geba to Rimmon, lifts up as a fault block ridge, it will increase subterranean water flow into the spring that still flows under Jerusalem. The lifting along the Tyropoean Valley fault, just behind the Temple Mount Complex, will cause the spring to surface on the Temple platform just north of the Dome of the Rock, and it will flow eastward as a stream for a thousand years. As westerly winds being the moist Mediterranean air up the gentle slope of the uplifted western Judean watershed block complex, adiabatic cooling of the moist sea air, coupled with convective heating of the plain, will produce frequent periods of orographic and convective precipitation. Some of this rain will drift off the higher central watershed and fall on what are now arid sections of eastern and southern Judea. I also believe that more frontal activity will affect all Israel by increasing precipitation totals.

Increased precipitation will not only water the soil profile directly, but increased occurrence to the west of Jerusalem will keep the water table supplied with ample water to feed Ezekiel’s temple spring continuously through the entire 1000 year reign of Christ. God will so structure the land and the climate that lack of water will no longer be a problem to the east of the line from Geba to Rimmon.

As verse 8 indicates, a part of this fresh water flows into “the east country” (east of the Mount of Olives), then “down (southward) into the desert” (desert of Judah and Arabah), then finally “into the sea” (Dead Sea). Once they are brought forth into the Dead Sea they cause water now there “to be healed” (the salt content is reduced sufficiently to start supporting aquatic life). This is all made possible by the opening of the Arabah Fault into a channel that will allow the Dead Sea to drain most of its salt content into the Red Sea via the Gulf of Aqaba.

Verse 9 gives a clear prophecy that the Jordan River system, from its northern tip to its entry into the Gulf of Aqaba, will be filled with all sorts of aquatic life, this being made possible because the Dead Sea has been healed from its extremely high, life taking, salt content.

Verse 10 reveals that fishermen will fish for a great, exceeding variety of fish along the Dead Sea western shoreline from Engedi to Eneglaim (See Archive Birth Pang Figure 48). This entire shoreline is now barren of all aquatic life forms.

Verse 11 tells us that the northeastern zone of the Dead Sea will exist as a salt marsh because it will be out of the direct fresh water trajectory flowing into the western shoreline (See Archive Birth Pang Figure 48).

Verse 12 is a picture of a vast aggregate of all types of fruit producing trees.

The fruit of the trees will be a part of the “meat” supply of the nation of Israel, and various extracts from the trees will be used for medicinal purposes. Ezekiel’s vision of great fertility in the wilderness of Judea is echoed by many of the prophets, in terms similar to those put forward by Isaiah, as he describes the effects the new hydrological changes will produce in the desolate zones of Israel.

Isaiah 35:1,2,6,7 –The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. [2] It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the Excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the Excellency of our God. [6] Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. [7] And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons (jackals), where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

The day is soon coming when God will so geologically reconstruct the topography of his Holy Land by a massive shifting of his tectonic plates, that the deserts and wildernesses of Judah shall be thoroughly irrigated with waters from a reorganized Jordan River tributary system. Where only jackals (dragons) now dwell, men and women will leap for joy like a hart, and Jewish tongues will sing praise to God for his great blessings of fertility. A vast green paradise will exist where only arid wasteland once appeared.

One of these changes involved in the many that will be wrought by God, is the opening of a valley in the Arabah Fault block, which will allow the contents of the present Dead Sea to flush through it on the way to the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba. At the present time there are convective currents of magma that flow upward into the lower sections on both sides of the Red Sea, which is causing the sea floor to spread apart at the rate of several centimeters per year. This same lake of magma underlies the entire length of the Jordan Valley, but, at the present time, the faults on both sides of it are locked, or “frozen” in place above the magma, and its upward convective currents are much more passive here than under the Red Sea (See Archive Birth Pang Figures, 23, 24, 25, 27, and 38). However, when the present Red Sea floor spreading of the fault finally reaches its critical limits, at that time the northern, or “locked” portion, of the fault will suddenly burst open on both sides for a distance of about 185 miles from the Port of Aqaba (Eilat) northward, to become a raging inferno of volcanic smoke, pitch, and brimstone. The greatest restructur ing will occur

in that section or the fault block between the southern tip of the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba. That section was known as Edom or Idumea during the time of most of the prophets (See Archive Birth Pang Figure 23). Isaiah writes of this catastrophic tribulation period ripping transformation of that land, which will form a new river channel to drain the Dead Sea.

Isaiah 34:4-10 – And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. [5] For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. [6] The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.

[7] And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. [8] For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for

the controversy of Zion. [9] And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. [10] It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

This is a classic description of what geologists label as a “flood basalt plain,” and verse 10 indicates that some degree of volcanic activity will occur there off and on throughout the Millennium. The activity would appear to be such that only wild animals would live there during that period.

Begin Excerpt from THE JERUSALEM POST

Sights and Insights: The Dead Sea will live again

By WAYNE STILES

07/04/2011 16:13

If bodies of water could be ghost towns, the Dead Sea would top the list. It’s the lowest place on earth, hottest spot in Israel, and nothing can live in its waters.

Wayne Stiles is an author who has never recovered from his travels in Israel—and loves to write about them from his desk in Texas.

Piles of driftwood, bleached white like old bones, surround the shoreline of the Dead Sea. If bodies of water could be ghost towns, the Dead Sea would top the list. It’s the lowest place on earth, it’s the hottest spot in Israel, and nothing can live in its waters.

A mosaic on the floor of a church in Medeba, Jordan, represents an early tourist map for Byzantine pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land. The map shows fish swimming down the Jordan River and then turning around once they hit the Dead Sea! As the Jordan River snakes its descent from the base of Mount Hermon, it ultimately empties its flow just south of Jericho into brackish waters.

Today, most of the Jordan River is diverted for domestic and agricultural interests. But what does still flow delivers the Dead Sea its only continuous intake to replenish what water evaporates.

With dimensions measuring forty-five miles long by eleven miles wide, the sea evaporates millions of tons of water each day. The unstable water level of the Dead Sea keeps both Israel and Jordan working to solve numerous problems—suggested solutions ranging from relocating hotels to pumping water north from the Red Sea.

The evaporation leaves behind concentrated calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium chlorides, giving the Dead Sea the highest salinity of any body of water on earth. The Nabataens in the fourth-century BC exemplify some of the many in history who have harvested the minerals for commercial purposes. Even today, the Dead Sea’s minerals remain big business. The worldwide demand for products keeps the more than 1500 employees of the Dead Sea Works Ltd. working around the clock.

With a name like the “Dead Sea,” one might expect a disappointing visit. And yet, anyone who experiences the place never forgets its wonder. Nothing on earth compares.

While tourists may purchase some facial creams and hand lotions, most come to the Dead Sea to experience its reputation for a remarkable buoyancy. The Dead Sea’s salinity is so dense that I literally could stand still without touching bottom and float with the surface of the water at my chest—a really strange sensation!

Many who float on their backs can easily read a book. Throw a stick on the surface, and it appears to be lying on a mirror.

The historian Josephus records that when Vespasian came to the Dead Sea during the Jewish Revolt in AD 68, he decided to test the reputation that it is impossible for someone to sink. Vespasian tied up some people who could not swim and tossed them in the water! (I never understood why he tied them if they couldn’t swim anyhow.)

That story offers a good reminder for swimmers (and non-swimmers) to avoid water in the eyes and mouth—unless one enjoys weeping and vomiting. I’m told that water in the lungs likely will prove fatal. (You think?) Those commonsense warnings observed, the Dead Sea rewards each visitor with an unforgettable experience— including really oily skin.

At the beach at En Boqeq, the tourist stop offers beach umbrellas, chairs, sand, ice cream, cokes, and—most importantly—showers. Wading into the brackish water, many swimmers scoop handfuls of black mud and slather it on their bodies for a photograph.

The Dead Sea has had many names throughout history. The Scriptures refer to it as the “Salt Sea” (Numbers 34:3), the “Sea” (Ezekiel 47:8), and the “Eastern Sea” (Joel 2:20). Other designations in history include the “Sea of Asphalt,” the “Stinking Sea, and the “Devil’s Sea.”

It may seem hard to believe, but the region used to be a well-watered area—as lush and attractive as the Garden of Eden. But God’s judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah changed the area’s fertility to a desolate expanse that represented judgment on sin (Genesis 13:10; Deuteronomy 29:23; Jeremiah 17:6). The evaporation hovering over the Dead Sea gives a constant haze over its surface. It reminds me of the furnace-like smoke that rose from the valley after the destruction of Sodom (Genesis 19:28).

One day, Scripture promises, the Dead Sea will live again. Water will flow from Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and fishermen will line the banks of the Dead Sea (Ezekiel 47:8-11; Zechariah 14:8). What a picture of the power of God to bring life from death.

I wonder what we’ll call the Dead Sea in that day

?

What to Do There:

One of the best ways to enjoy the Dead Sea comes from driving the scenic Route 90 along the western shoreline. The scene is placid, smooth, and lovely—worthy of a camera. The beach at En Boqeq offers a great place to test your buoyancy.

Overlooking the sea, read Ezekiel 47:8-11 and Zechariah 14:8. Wear a hat!

Temperatures are toasty in the summer.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving

the included information for research and educational purposes. For more detailed information go to:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

You may use material originated by this site. However, if you wish to use any quoted copyrighted material from this site, which did not originate at this site, for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner from which we extracted it.

Muslim Brotherhood Streams flow through Islam from Morocco to India

Brotherhood “Islamic Streams should unite to “Restore the Caliphate”

And they asked “the honorable Al-Azhar to rally the Islamic Streams”

“In order to unite the Muslim word and effort, restore the Caliphate”

All This will “Prepare a Practical Plan to Implement the Law of Allah”

It’s “the Goal of the Honorable Al-Azhar and of All Islamic Streams”

One thing is Certain: World Religions are not worshiping One God,

Neither is the World Religion worshiping God in spirit and in Truth!

July 6, 2011

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

John 4:24 – God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit

and in truth.

The entire Islamic system of worship and its sharia law is a large part of a strong delusion.

It is the spirit of Antichrist finally reaching its fullness at the revealing of the Wicked One. God will send a strong delusion to cause all false religious systems to believe a lie. Another part of that delusion may be a fake resurrection of a Mahdi Antichrist who is supposedly wounded to death by a weapon of war in the initial attack, which will reveal him as “that Wicked.” And the False Prophet will testify “that Wicked” to be Allah incarnate in sinless flesh. It is also possible Islam may believe the False Prophet is Jesus Christ.

Islam teaches Jesus did not die in the flesh, and is still alive in the flesh in heaven today.

Muhammad never performed miracles, but Jesus did, and the Devil’s False Prophet will be able to perform what men classify as miracles.

Revelation 13:3-6,11-14 – And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. [4] And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast

? who is able to make war with him? [5] And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

[6] And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

[11] And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. [12] And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

[13] And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, [14] And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live

II Thessalonians 2:8-17 – And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: [9] Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, [10] And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. [11] And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: [12] That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. [13] But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: [14] Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of

our Lord Jesus Christ. [15] Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. [16] Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, [17] Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.

Begin Excerpt from MEMRI

Middle East Media Research Institute

Article on Muslim Brotherhood Website: Implement Shari’a in Phases

Special Dispatch No. 3969

July 5, 2011

In a June 11, 2011 article on the website of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, veteran movement member Sheikh Ahmad Gad argued that the implementation of shari’a in Egypt must be achieved gradually, by preparing the peoples’ hearts and minds for it and introducing it in stages.

He proposed learning from the methods of the early Muslim Brotherhood, which worked in a step-by-step fashion, and called on Al-Azhar to focus on promoting the implementation of shari’a.

The following are excerpts from the article:[1]

“There Is No Hope for Reform Without a Return to Divine Rule”

“Following the blessed popular revolution on January 25, 2011, there was a debate between the majority, which hopes and yearns for the implementation of Allah’s shari’a, and the minority, which uses Islam as a tool of intimidation and fears the Islamists and a return to the Middle Ages.

“This minority, which denies the results of the referendum while calling for democracy,[2] is made up of those who oppose a religious state or a caliphate state, and advocate a return to the tyrannical secular regime that corrupted the land and the people – a minority [that receives] prominent media coverage…

“Islamic shari’a ruled for centuries, but became distant and absent for centuries more. The various forms of imperialism were a burden on the [Muslim] nation in various ways, and caused people to change… In that dark period, the state alternately mimicked Eastern and Western regimes. Corruption developed, grew, and accumulated… [Nowadays], there is no hope for reform without a return to divine rule, which the Creator chose for man. This nation will have no chance of success, [except] by that which caused it to succeed in its beginning.

“[However,] we must not impose Islamic shari’a, forcing the people to adopt something about which they are ignorant and with which they are unfamiliar… If we do this, [various] ploys will be used to circumvent it, and there will be hypocrisy. [People] will exhibit Islamic [behavior] only outwardly…

“Noah, peace be upon him, received a clear sign, a stark vision, a prophecy, and mercy that his people did not understand… Noah could not force or impose [his faith upon the people]. He determined the principle of choosing [one’s] faith [as a result of] persuasion and reflection, [instead of] oppression, authority, condescension, and coercion. [The Koran] says: ‘ O my people!

Tell me, if I have with me clear proof from my Lord, and He has granted me mercy from Himself, and it has been made obscure to you; shall we force you to (accept) it while you are averse to it?’ [Koran 11:28]

“Gradual Action Does Not Impose Islam at Once – But Rather Step by Step”

“There is no other way but gradual action, preparing the [people’s] souls and setting an example, so that faith will enter their hearts… Gradual action does not impose Islam at onc

e, but rather step by step, in order to facilitate understanding, studying, acceptance, and submission.

“[Allah] the Exalted said: ‘And those who disbelieve say, Why was the Koran not revealed to him [i.e., to the Prophet] all at once? [So] that We may strengthen thereby your heart’ [Koran 25:32]. The Koran was sent down in parts over 23 years, according to the events, the circumstances, and the laws that these [circumstances] entailed, and in order to strengthen [people’s] hearts and make it easier [for them] to memorize and understand [the Koran]. And this [verse] is the ultimate proof: ‘And it is a Koran which We have revealed in portions so that you may read it to the people by slow degrees…’ [Koran 17:106].

“The Prophet, peace be upon him, acted in a gradual manner, by first preparing the people, and then [preparing] family, society, state, and finally the caliphate… This gradual method is also employed in the Koran [itself] with respect to the prohibition on [drinking] wine…[3] It was also employed in presenting the duties of Islam… First, there were two prayers – at noon and in the evening – and after people grew accustomed to them, Allah ordered five prayers during the day and night…

“At the [Muslim Brotherhood’s] fifth conference, [the movement’s founder,] Imam [Hassan] Al-Banna, spoke about gradual action and reliance on education, and clarified the stages [of implementing the shari’a]. They [i.e., the movement’s founding members] believed that da’wa must come in phases: The phase of reading, learning the idea, and delivering it to the public; the phase of forming [the idea]; and the phase of implementation, work and results. At that same conference, Al-Banna said, addressing the hasty: ‘Listen to what I say in a loud, resounding voice: This way of yours, whose phases are written and whose boundaries are defined, is long, but there is no alternative [way]. I am not with those who want to pick the fruit before it has ripened.

Those who wait patiently for the seed to sprout, the tree to grow, the fruit to ripen, and the harvest to arrive – their reward will be with Allah… May that be the payment of those who do good.'”

The Islamic Streams Should Unite to “Restore the Caliphate”

“I ask the honorable Al-Azhar to rally the Islamic streams in order to unite the Muslim word and effort, restore the caliphate, and prepare a practical plan to implement the law of Allah the Exalted. This is the goal of the honorable Al-Azhar and of all Islamic streams.

And Allah will help.

“O Allah, guide us, open our hearts to faith, and restore this [Muslim] nation to its previous self – one united nation worshipping You and You alone.”

Endnotes:

[1] http://www.ikhwanonline.com, June 11, 2011.

[2] This refers to the March 30, 2011 referendum on a series of constitutional amendments which limited the president to two terms in office, enabled independent candidates to run for president, removed restrictions on the establishment of political parties, and set the parliamentary elections to September 2011. Though the referendum did not deal with the country’s religious identity, Muslim Brotherhood propaganda created the impression that those who supported the amendments supported the religion, while those who opposed them, opposed the religion.

The amendments passed, and on March 23, a temporary “constitutional declaration” was published, valid until the elections of a new parliament, which is to draft a new constitution. Recently, a debate has started regarding the election date, and whether the new constitution should be drafted before the elections take place. Those who support postponing the elections argue that it will allow the new political parties to prepare for them, thus giving these parties a fairer chance to compete with the established powers – the Muslim Brotherhood and the National Democratic Party.
[3] The Koran initially forbade the drinking of wine only during prayer; later a sweeping prohibition was introduced.

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Jewish Fall Festivals Start Rocky Road to War Beginning Prior to 2015

The most likely time for the war to begin will be between 2013 & 2015

July 5, 2011

http://www.tribulationperiod/

The following excerpt was extracted from Cultural Expressions Magazine article titled “Jewish Roots of Fall Festivals,” written by Rabbi Jack Zimmerman, Sep. 17, 2010.

Begin Excerpt

This time of year is particularly significant, because it is when the fall festivals of Leviticus are celebrated. Before you conclude that these are Old Testament observances that have no relevance anymore, it may surprise you to learn that Jesus Himself celebrated them, and for one obvious reason: these feasts were never meant solely to be “Jewish feasts.” Indeed, Leviticus 23 never says such. Instead, it refers to these as the “Lord’s Feasts,” since they have pointed to Jesus from the very beginning.

Here are some examples of how:

The first fall feast is “The Feast of Trumpets” and is found in Leviticus 23:23-25. On that day in ancient Israel, Jews would rest from all work, come together to worship God, bring an offering of fire, and blow a ram’s horn. The sound of that ram’s horn, or shofar, was to remind the people of their future—one day the day of the Lord would come, and the people would be judged for their sins. The shofar sound was thus a reminder to the people to turn away from their sin and get right with God, before that day arrived. But the blowing of the ram’s horn also reminded people of their past. One that in Genesis 22 told the story of a ram that was provided as a substitution sacrifice for Isaac, so that Abraham’s beloved son’s life would be spared.

Today, that feast is also known as “Rosh Hashanah,” two Hebrew words which mean, “The head of (or beginning of) the year.” And the ram’s horn is still blown, but for us as believers, the significance is even greater: we are reminded of our future in 1 Thessalonians 4, that Jesus will come in the clouds at the blowing of the shofar! Will we be ready for Him

? Will we have gotten right with God and truly turned from our sin? And the shofar reminds us also of an even greater past—one where Jesus himself was the lamb of God provided as a substitution sacrifice for us, so that all who believe would be spared a Christ-less eternity and instead reap the blessings and promises of eternal life.

After Rosh Hashanah comes Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. Traditionally, this was and still is, when Jewish people spend the entire day fasting, and most of that time they are in their synagogues asking God’s forgiveness for their sins. Jews believe that since the Temple was destroyed and thus, animal sacrifices could no longer take place, this is all that now needs to be done to receive atonement for sin.

But that’s not what the Word says:

Leviticus 17:11 reminds us that blood from a sacrifice made atonement for the people, and nowhere did God change His mind.

Am I saying we should start sacrificing animals again? Of course not, the penalty of the Law is obsolete.

But the principle of the Law is eternal. We still need blood from a sacrifice to make atonement for us, only now that sacrifice is not a temporal, annual one, but an ongoing forever one in Jesus! Should not the Day of Atonement therefore hold some importance for us in that regard?

Finally, the third fall feast is known as the “Feast of Booths.” The Word tells us that while the Israelites were wandering in the desert, God provided them booths to dwell in. In that beautiful scene, the people felt God’s presence dwelling among them, as they dwelt with God.

And when they entered the Holy Land, they were required on this feast to go to the Temple in Jerusalem to bring offerings to the Lord. Would Jesus have done the same? In fact, He did! John 7 is the story of Jesus celebrating this all-important festival.

We understand the great significance here is found in Revelation 21:3, where the fulfillment of this festival will come as God once again dwells with us, and we with Him. While the four preceding feasts in the spring are reminders of what Jesus has already fulfilled, the three remaining feasts are rehearsals for what is yet to come.

Let them be for you, signposts of God’s plan of salvation, through His Son Jesus, and as we say in Hebrew, “Hag Sameach!” Happy holiday!

End Excerpt

Begin Archive Special Prophecy Update Number 86B

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 86B

September 21, 2002

SUKKOT – THE JEWISH FEAST OF TABERNACLES

The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles (Tents) began at sundown on Friday and will continue for seven days. Although tourism is down drastically, there will be a few thousand Christians that will have processions during the feast.

During the time of the earthly ministry of Christ, on the last day of the feast, a special priest would leave the temple mount and proceed southward to the old city of David, under which a spring flowed through the old tunnel of Hezekiah into the Pool of Siloam.

Fresh, flowing spring water that flowed throughout the year was looked upon as providing a source of water that provided life year round, as opposed to springs that dried up during

the non-rainy season.

So it came to symbolize something that provided eternal life. The special priest would collect two pints of water in a golden vessel, and then carry it back upon the temple mount.

It would then be carried to the top of the very high altar that stood in the court of the men in front of the steps that led up to the door of the temple’s Holy Place. In the southwestern corner of the altar a small hole had been made that led down under the altar into the subterranean cavern under the temple. This particular feast is a very joyous one, and as the people waved palm leaves they would cry out to the priest on the southwestern corner, “raise your hand, raise your hand,” to show he had poured the water, finally cheering and shouting for joy when he did. The water would proceed under the temple southeastward in a conduit that emptied into the Kidron Valley for drainage of the blood from the sacrifices. It was a picture of living water, which symbolized the living Spirit

of the God of Israel going out from the belly of the temple into the world.

It is very interesting to note the words of Jesus on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, probably uttered immediately after the priest poured the water.

John 7:2,37-39 – Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand. [37] In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. [38] He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [39] (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

During the time of Christ the Spirit of God in the temple’s Holy of Holies was to be proclaimed to all the world. It was a single, local, visible temple. Today there are many local temples that God recognizes individually as His local, visible, temples. And it is from these individual bodies that the power of the Spirit is to go forth into the world. The first such church was formed and organized by its head and foundation, Jesus Christ, during His earthly ministry. This church, which already existed as a local church of about 120, was empowered by the Spirit at Pentecost after Jesus was glorified. And, just as the water flowed out of the belly of the temple into the world was a symbol of the Holy Spirit, so does the Spirit flow out of churches of the same like faith and order as the one empowered at Pentecost.

All believers are indwelt by the living Spirit of God and make up the family of God, and truly their witness of the Spirit is to flow out from within them into the world, but a local church that teaches, preaches, and practices the faith once delivered to the saints is also indwelt by the same Spirit in a special way, and its testimony that goes out into the world is to proclaim the truths of all the Word written by the Spirit.

Ephesians 2:22 – In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

John 4:24 – God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Begin Excerpt from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs/Daily Alert

What Are the Palestinians Planning after September

?

Pinhas Inbari

(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)

July 5, 2011

What the Palestinians really envisage after September is to exploit a UN endorsement of statehood to legitimize an escalation of the conflict. After having the 1967 lines recognized so as to negate the results of the Six-Day War, they plan to seek recognition of the 1947 partition lines.

There are signs that the long period of quiet since the Second Intifada is going to end after September or just before it, and that Abbas’ Fatah organization is already preparing for the “Third Intifada.” Ahmad Abu Ruteima, a Hamas activist in Gaza, describes the objective of the Third Intifada: “The struggle is about the very existence of Israel and not about the 1967 borders. The defense minister, Ehud Barak, confirmed that the [Israeli] army is incapable of confronting a human influx from all directions.”

The post-September scenarios discussed in the upper Fatah echelons involve a return to the struggle. A senior member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, Hatem Abd al-Qader, noted that in case Israel obstructs the Palestinians’ political plans, Abbas will step down, the PA will dissolve itself, and nothing will prevent the Palestinians from returning to the struggle. And even if elections are held, the new president will come from the younger generation, abolish the Oslo agreements, and lead the Palestinians back to the struggle.

Why does the PLO so adamantly refuse any discussion of swaps between

the Palestinian-populated areas in the Israeli Triangle region and the settlement blocs. The PLO, apparently, wants to leave the Palestinian-populated areas in Israel as an anchor for pushing Israel back to the 1947 borders or even further, as the territorial basis for exercising the right of return into Israel.

In his New York Times article, Abbas was straightforward: “Palestine’s admission to the United Nations would pave

the way for the internationalization of the conflict as a legal matter, not only a political one. It would also pave the way for us to pursue claims against Israel at the United Nations, human rights treaty bodies and the International Court of Justice.”

The writer, a veteran Palestinian affairs correspondent who formerly reported for Israel Radio and Al Hamishmar newspaper, is a senior policy analyst at the Jerusalem Center.

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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.

Two Failed US Democracy Attempts Continue in the Middle East

Which will eventually become a part of the Antichrist’s Caliphate

Some three & one-half years prior to the final Armageddon Battle

Both Iraq and Afghan istan

will join in hatred of America and Israel!

July 5, 2011

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Revelation 16:16 – And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

Joel 3:9 – Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:

Daniel 11:45 to 12:1 – And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. [1] And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall

be found written in the book.

Begin Excerpt 1 from MEMRI

Middle East Media Research Institute

Special Dispatch No. 3962

July 3, 2011

Jordanian Official: America’s Withdrawal from Afghanistan Will Turn It into One Big Terrorist Camp

In response to U.S. President Barack Obama’s announcement that U.S. troops with be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, Jordanian Broadcasting Authority director Saleh Al-Qallab wrote that the withdrawal will bring destruction upon Afghanistan, for it will leave the country at the mercy of the terrorists and in a state of increasing chaos.

The following are excerpts from his article:[1]

“If the withdrawal of the American forces from Afghanistan indeed comes to pass, as Barack Obama has announced, this will lead to the same results as the U.S. withdrawal from this [country in the early 1990s]…

“Following that withdrawal, Afghanistan was abandoned to its fate and to the mujahideen, who quarreled over the booty until the Taliban quickly showed up. With the help of a foreign intelligence [apparatus, i.e. the Pakistani intelligence]… [the Taliban] established an administration so backward that even the Middle Ages never saw its like. [It also] fostered Al-Qaeda, under the command of Osama bin Laden, which spread terror across the globe and made a special target of certain Western countries…

“But if the American forces indeed withdraw… when [Afghanistan] is still in this tragic state, with the Taliban able to reach any target it wants and Al-Qaeda still in existence and able to hit any target it wants, whether in [Afghanistan] or elsewhere – the situation is bound to return to what it was [before the Americans came]. And in this situation, we will surely see a recurrence of the tragedies that occurred following [America’s] first withdrawal in the early 1990s, only in a more catastrophic form.

“The Americans have research institutes and professional intelligence services that are [highly] capable. [The U.S.] is a state with institutions, where no administration can overturn what the previous administration has done. Therefore, they must not withdraw from a country when it is they themselves who have brought upon it all the problems it is facing. [They must withdraw] only after guaranteeing its stability, and after a strong regime is established there that can protect [the country] from all those who wish to harm it.

Withdrawing at the present time will be a grave crime, for the situation in [Afghanistan] has not yet stabilized. [President] Hamid Karzai is up to his ears in corruption, and cannot even protect his own palace, which is a permanent target for Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

“Osama bin Laden himself was not [the source] of all the threats

facing the U.S. and other countries. This is evident from the fact that his killing has not rid Afghanistan of the Taliban, and has not rid the world of Al-Qaeda. The inspired leader is gone, yet the global terror network remains. This means that any withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Afghanistan, whether gradual or abrupt, will lead to an increase in violence and will make [the situation in] Afghanistan worse than it was in the early 1990s, turning the country into one big terrorist camp [full of] constantly ticking bombs.

“The strange thing is that the security situation in Iraq is 10 times better than the situation in Afghanistan, yet the Americans exerted real and significant pressure on [various] elements in the Iraqi arena so that they would ask Washington to leave its invading forces in Iraq under the pretext of fearing a rapid return to anarchy and terror.

“This confirms the obvious, [namely that] the Americans recognize only their own interests. Even if this compels them to abandon their closest friend, they will not hesitate for a moment – for nothing is important [to them] but their own interests.”

Endnote:

[1] Al-Rai (Jordan), June 24, 2011.

Begin Excerpt 2 from The Wall Street Journal via Fox News

Iran Funnels New Weapons to Iraq and Afghanistan

Published July 02, 2011

The Wall Street Journal

TEHRAN—Iran’s elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has transferred lethal new munitions

to its allies in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent months, according to senior U.S. officials, in a bid to accelerate the U.S. withdrawals from these countries.

The Revolutionary Guard has smuggled rocket-assisted exploding projectiles to its militia allies in Iraq, weapons that have already resulted in the deaths of American troops, defense officials said. They said Iranians have also given long-range rockets to the Taliban in Afghanistan, increasing the insurgents’ ability to hit U.S. and other coalition positions from a safer distance.

Such arms shipments would escalate the shadow competition for influence playing out between Tehran and Washington across the Middle East and North Africa, fueled by U.S. preparations to draw down forces from two wars and the political rebellions that are sweeping the region.

The U.S. is wrestling with the aftermath of uprisings against longtime Arab allies from Tunisia to Bahrain, and trying to leave behind stable, friendly governments in Afghanistan and Iraq. Iran appears to be trying to gain political ground amid the turmoil and to make the U.S. withdrawals as quick and painful as possible.

“I think we are likely to see these Iranian-backed groups continue to maintain high attack levels” as the exit date nears, Maj. Gen. James Buchanan, the U.S. military’s top spokesman in Iraq, said in an interview.

“But they are not going to deter us from doing everything we can to help the Iraqi security forces.”

In June, 15 U.S. servicemen died in Iraq, the highest monthly casualty figure there in more than two years. The U.S. has attributed all the attacks to Shiite militias it says are are trained by

the Revolutionary Guards, rather than al Qaeda or other Sunni groups that were the most lethal forces inside Iraq a few years ago.

In Afghanistan, the Pentagon has in recent months traced to Iran the Taliban’s acquisition of rockets that give its fighters roughly double the range to attack North Atlantic Treaty Organization and U.S. targets. U.S. officials said the rockets’ markings, and the location of their discovery, give them a “high degree” of confidence that they came from the Revolutionary Guard’s overseas unit, the Qods Force.

U.S. defense officials are also increasingly concerned that Iran’s stepped-up military activities in the Persian Gulf could inadvertently trigger a clash.

A number of near misses involving Iranian and allied ships and planes in those waters in recent months have caused Navy officials to call for improved communication in the Gulf.

Iran’s assertive foreign policy comes amid a growing power struggle between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Many of the president’s closest aides have been detained on alleged corruption charges in recent weeks, raising questions as to whether Mr. Ahmadinejad will serve out his term.U.S. and European officials also say Iran has grown increasingly aggressive in trying to influence the political rebellions across the Middle East and North Africa. Tehran is alleged to have dispatched military advisers to Syria to help President Bashar al-Assad put down a popular uprising.

In recent months, according to U.S. officials, Iran has also increased its intelligence and propaganda activities in Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen, countries where pro-U.S. leaders have either fallen or come under intense pressure.

Iranian officials denied in interviews and briefings this week that the Revolutionary Guard played any role in arming militants in Iraq and Afghanistan. They charged the U.S. with concocting these stories to justify maintaining an American military presence in the region.

“This is the propaganda of the Americans. They are worried because they have to leave Iraq very soon, according to the plan,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast.

“They are better off going home and sorting out their own domestic problems.”
Iranians officials have also accused the U.S. and Israel of interfering in Iranian affairs, including assassinating

Iranian nuclear scientists and supporting opposition groups. The U.S. and Israel have denied this.

In recent weeks, Iran’s leadership invited the presidents of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq to Tehran to discuss regional affairs. Senior Iranian officials made it clear during those meetings that they wanted an accelerated exit of American forces from the region.

“Americans want to have permanent bases in Afghanistan, and this is dangerous because the real security will not be established as long as the American military forces are present,” Ayatollah Khamenei told Afghan President Hamid Karzai last week, according to Iranian state media.

Iraq has in recent years been a proxy battlefield for the U.S. and Iran. U.S. officials in Iraq said the Qods Force is training and arming three primary militias that have in recent months attacked U.S. and Iraqi forces. Kata’ib Hezbollah, or Brigades of the Party of God, is viewed as the one most directly taking orders from Revolutionary Guard commanders in Iran. Two others, the Promise Day Brigade and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, are offshoots of the Mahdi Army headed by the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who currently lives in Iran.

Over the past six months, Kata’ib Hezbollah has escalated attacks on U.S. forces employing weapons called IRAMs, or improvised rocket-assisted munitions. The weapons are often propane tanks packed with hundreds of pounds of explosives and powered by rockets. Militiamen launch the weapons from the backs of flatbed trucks.

Kata’ib Hezbollah claimed credit for a June 6 IRAM attack that killed six American troops at Camp Victory, near Baghdad International Airport.

This week, three more Americans were killed when an IRAM struck a desert base just a few miles from the Iranian border in Iraq’s Wasit Province, according to U.S. officials.

“We believe the militias see themselves as in competition with each other,” said Gen. Buchanan.

“They want to claim credit for making us leave Iraq.”

The U.S. believes Iranian involvement in Afghanistan is significantly lower than in Iraq. But U.S. officials said they have seen clear evidence that the Revolutionary Guard has transferred longer-range rockets to elements of the Taliban that significantly enhance their ability to target U.S. and other NATO forces.

In February, British forces intercepted a shipment of four dozen 122-millimeter rockets moving through Afghanistan’s desolate Nimruz Province near the Iranian and Pakistan borders. The rockets have an estimated range of about 13 miles, more than double the distance of the majority of the Taliban’s other rockets.

“It was the first time we’ve seen that weapon,” said a senior U.S. defense official in Afghanistan.

“We saw that as upping the ante a bit from the kind of support we’ve seen in the past.”

U.S. officials stressed that most of Iran’s influence in Afghanistan is channeled through “soft power”—business, aid and diplomacy. But these officials said the deployment of more U.S. and NATO forces along the Afghan-Iranian border as part of the Obama administration’s Afghanistan “surge” appears to have raised Iran’s sense of insecurity.

These officials said Iran’s support for the Taliban appears to wax and wane in relation to how successful Washington and NATO appear to be in stabilizing Afghanistan. Shiite-majority Iran has traditionally viewed the Taliban, a Sunni group, with trepidation. The two sides nearly fought a war in 1998 after the Taliban executed Iranian diplomats based

in the central Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

“They’re supporting the Taliban because they want us out of here,” said the U.S. official in Afghanistan. “If we’re making gains, I can see them upping their support. If they’re making gains, they’ll probably stay quiet.”

In large part because of the growing wariness over Iran’s backing of Shiite militias in Iraq, the U.S. is considering altering its withdrawal plans from the country, say administration and defense officials.

All U.S. forces are due to depart at the end of the year, but senior American officials have hinted loudly that they would like Baghdad to ask the U.S. to keep a viable force in the country beyond that date. Some administration and military officials have talked about retaining 10,000 troops in Iraq.

Military officials and defense analysts cite Iran as a prime justification for extending the U.S. presence. They say Iran is trying to use its military, which is much more powerful than Iraq’s, and Shiite proxy militias inside Iraq to pressure Baghdad to maintain close ties with Tehran.

Adm. William McRaven, the administration’s nominee to lead Special Operations Command, told a Senate panel this week that he favors keeping a commando force in Iraq that would be available to counter threats.

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