Here Comes Syrian Peter Cottontail,
Hopping Down the FALSE Peace Trail,
Under a Diplomatic DIALOG Sellout Sail,
In Its Ship’s Wake Arab Folks WILL Hail,
But as it Ends in War the Peace Will Fail!
July 28, 2009
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
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.
Gog is not the chief prince of Magog (Russia). He is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. At the time of Ezekiel’s writing the descendants of Meshech and Tubal lived in Lebanon. Syria, Turkey, and northern Iraq, but were clustered in Syria in much greater numbers. God tells Ezekiel to set his face against a land and a person, the land is the land of Magog (Russia), and the person is Gog the Antichrist, who is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, who will rise in Syria.
Ezekiel 38:2,3 – Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, [3] And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
Ezekiel 38:9 – “Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.” This describes the suddenness of the blitzkrieg attack of Gog the antichrist against Israel from the north. It compares the attack with the rapid development of a cumulonimbus cloud when it first comes quickly toward the observer as a rumbling thunderstorm, and then rapidly covers the land where he or she stands from horizon to horizon.
This will be the manner the bands and many people supporting Gog will abruptly spread southward across Israel.
Israelis are not being enclosed by walls – the Palestinians are ‘walled’ – Israelis are ‘unwalled.’ The purpose of Israel’s security barrier was to wall the Palestinians in and leave the Israelis living outside them in ‘unwalled’ villages.
Ezekiel 38:10-12 — “Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: [11] And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, [12] To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.” Take a look back at Prophecy Update Number 30 in the prophecy archives, and the exposition of the last phrase in Ezekiel 38:8, which is: “And they shall dwell safely all of them.” This phrase is directly tied to the “evil thought” that comes into the mind of the antichrist concerning the purpose of the false peace he has led them into by deceit. Verse 11, in the terminology of the people of Ezekiel’s day, painted a picture of people at peace with the other peoples around them. Believe it or not, in spite of what is currently going on around, and in, Israel, I believe that before 2015 you will see Israel lulled into a false sense of security by agreements with the Palestinians, Lebanon, and Syria. The arrangements, whether by voluntary free will choice, or by force, or by a combination of both, will cause Israel to have peace security agreements with all the nations that touch her borders, and the one that exists within her. But they will be agreements of deceit by Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinians. The Islamic leaders, and the leaders of the terrorist groups they support, are now becoming aware they can never defeat Israel by their present tactics, and that what is going on now, and what has been going on since 1948, can never accomplish their objective of driving Israel out of the choice northern part of her domain. In order for Israel to believe they have what every leader of Israel since 1967 has said they must have, that is, “A PEACE WITH SECURITY, PEACE WITH SAFETY,” the terrorist groups must temporarily cease their activities for a reasonable period of time, and a well coordinated plan of blitzkrieg attack must be formulated between Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Iraq behind closed doors. Verse eleven describes his evil plan to attack a nation he has deceived with a false peace agreement. Verse 12 tells us he will break or betray the agreement (“turn thine hand”), and that he will take the spoils of war from the nation of Israel. The “spoils” are identified in terms that the readers of Ezekiel’s day would understand (“cattle and goods”), but to us they are to mean the national wealth and high tech resources of modern Israel. I firmly believe that in spite of what appears to be a state of never ending conflict between Israel and the other descendants of Abraham in and around her, soon a false peace will come to exist between them. And it will be followed by an attack against Israel, a nation in unbelief, as a sudden blitzkrieg from the north. When Israel is driven into the Negev, God will finally get her attention drawn to her true Messiah. Romans 11:25,32 + I Thessalonians 5:3,4: “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. [32] For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. [3] 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.”
Ezekiel 38:13 – Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
Verse 13 mentions three other descendants which were not mentioned previously as being among the horde that attacked Israel, namely, Sheba, Dedan, and Tarshish.
Sheba and Dedan settled in the land we know as Saudi Arabia, later colonizing across the Red Sea in the horn we know today as Ethiopia. Tarshish is much harder to nail down to a specific location. The descendants of Tarshish were sea merchants who became the peoples of the Mediterranean Sea coast. The headquarters of the descendants of Tarshish is now generally accepted by most biblical authorities as a district in the south of Spain where the city of Tartessus once existed.
The merchants of Tarshish scattered their descendants in village settlements along most of the coastal sections of Europe. I am persuaded that Europe represents the descendant offspring of Tarshish. It is quite possible that God may look upon the rest of Western Civilization as being the offspring (descendants) of Europe (“the young lions thereof”). The countries of the New World became the “melting pot” of Europe. It is very interesting what Saudi Arabia, Europe, and the rest of Western Civilization have to say to Gog about his attack on Israel: “Art thou come to take a spoil? Hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? To carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?” This is no more or less than the perfect description of a diplomatic protest to Gog’s actions. When the anti-Christ and his armies roar south into Israel in a blitzkrieg lightning strike, the rest of the free world will protest, protest, protest – and do nothing about it. The anti-Christ will take Jerusalem within four days of his initial strike in the north, and within three weeks most of Israel will have fled into the Negev south of Beersheva, where she will remain for some three and one-half years.
Jerusalem will fall and only one-third of Israel’s population will make it safely into the Negev.
Zechariah 13:8 to 14:2 – And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. [9] And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. [2] For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Begin Excerpt from Gulf News
The US finds a new peace partner in Syria
By Sami Moubayed, Special to Gulf News
Published July 27, 2009
Back in December 1990, then US secretary of state James Baker famously said, “It is in a situation such as we have in the Gulf that we cooperate with a major Arab country who happens to share the same goals as we do.” Back then, Baker was referring to Syria.
These words were the first signs of a concrete rapprochement between Damascus and Washington, after a gridlock in relations that had lasted, on and off, since 1979.
George Bush Sr came to the White House with a new mentality, much like Barack Obama in 2009.
When the Gulf War broke out in January 1991, Bush made sure that Israel kept out of the conflict in order to prevent alienating Syria from Operation Desert Storm, and forced Israel to practice self-restraint when Saddam Hussain showered the Israeli capital with Scud missiles.
Annoyed by a remark made by Israeli finance minister Yitzhak Modai, who claimed that Washington would have to pay Israel $2 billion (Dh7.3 billion) in compensation for the Scud attacks, Bush refused to channel a $400 million housing development loan to Israel, promised earlier to Israeli housing minister Ariel Sharon.
This is the kind of pressure Syria is seeking from the US Administration today, to get Benjamin Netanyahu to commit to peace on the Golan, and to a freeze on colonies. Currently, nearly 300,000 Israelis live in colonies
in the West Bank, and approximately 200,000 are found in East Jerusalem.
So far, all we have heard from Netanyahu is that colonies are part of the “natural growth” of the state of Israel, and that Jerusalem – occupied by Israel in 1967 – will remain “Israel’s capital”.
This week, Obama’s envoy George Mitchell wrapped up meetings in Damascus, where he described his talks with President Bashar Al Assad as “very candid and positive”, adding that he told his Syrian host that Obama is “determined to facilitate a truly comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace”.
Meanwhile, in Israel he tried to downplay very visible differences with Israeli officials by describing disagreements as “discussions among friends”.
He then quickly added, “There isn’t agreement on all points, and on several issues we are trying to reach an understanding.”
It is rather ironic that, coinciding with an American administration that wants to change the status quo in the Middle East, comes a hard-line government in Israel that is interested in nothing but escalation.
Some hardliners in the US are still not convinced that Syria is ready for peace, arguing that it wants a peace process, rather than a peace treaty, with Israel.
They believe that because of the election results in Lebanon, and what happened in Iran since June 12, Syria is in a weaker position today, and therefore, more pressure should be applied to it, to extract concessions on the Hezbollah and Hamas resistance movements.
That is apparently not what Obama thinks, since shortly after the Lebanese elections, not only did he send Mitchell on his first visit to Syria, but also announced that he would be sending an ambassador to Damascus to fill a post that has been vacant since 2005, and quickly withdrew the charge d’affaires, who was a reminder to the Syrians of the Bush era.
Taking the lead from the US is Saudi Arabia, which has engaged positively with the Syrians since January, ending tension that has lasted since 2005.
Earlier this month it announced that it, too, was restoring an ambassador to Damascus, and plans are underway for King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz to visit the Syrian capital.
One of the common denominators that can bridge
the gap between Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the US is Iraq. All three happen to have common benchmarks in Iraq; counter-terrorism cooperation, border security, reconciliation of all parties, and bringing the Sunnis strongly back into the Iraqi political process.
They also want no militias, no more autonomous districts, and no more religiously driven politicians running Baghdad.
Earlier this month, US Vice-President Joe Biden landed in Baghdad to talk Iraqi leaders into a reconciliation conference, to be held in the US in late 2009.
Reportedly, Obama wants all parties involved in Iraq, including the Syrians, Saudis, Iran – and Iraqi Baathists – to attend the conference.
Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki was furious at trying to get the Baathists, and Sunni tribesman opposed to his government, onboard the proposed Washington conference, via Syria and Saudi Arabia.
The Americans want both countries to help control hotbeds of the insurgency, like Anbar, and are very pleased at the results of the latest provincial elections, where thanks to Syria and the Saudis, the Sunnis voted in large numbers, even in strongly anti-American towns like Tikrit.
They also believe both countries can help disarm – or at least tame – the 170,000-strong Awakening Councils who were armed to the teeth – then abandoned – by the Bush Administration.
This would be step one towards reconciliation, the Americans believe, hoping that this can be repeated – if Riyadh and Damascus push the right buttons – in the upcoming parliamentary elections of early 2010.
If the Americans had a check-list of priorities, they would give Iraq high priority, while the Syrians are clearly more interested in restoring occupied land to its rightful owners.
Common ground can be found between a regional conference, chaired by Obama, on Iraq, and another conference, this time international – also chaired by Obama – on peace and restoring the Golan to Syria.
The Syrians are capable and willing to help the Americans in Iraq, but want Obama to pull the right strings – a la James Baker in 1991 – to get the Israelis to change course vis-a-vis Middle East peace.
Sami Moubayed is editor-in-chief of Forward Magazine in Syria
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