No Choices Left for His Father’s Son!
November 27, 2006
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Bashar Assad’s father, who he followed as President of Syria, was one of the most ruthless rulers in the Middle East. I did not know which path Bashar would follow, one like his parent, or a gentler approach toward governing his people toward some small degree of freedom.
It did not take long to see that he was going to choose his father’s path – for better or for worse, he is now stuck with it, and will follow it to his death.
Please read the article by Khaled Abu Toameh, which immediately follows, and Archive Special Prophecy Update Number 161C which ends this BLOG.
Begin Jerusalem Post Article
Analysis: Assad’s sleight of Hand
Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST
November 22, 2006
The assassination of Lebanese Christian minister Pierre Gemayel on Tuesday was intended to remind the anti-Syrian forces in Beirut that President Bashar Assad has not forgiven them for forcing him to pull his army out of Lebanon in a humiliating manner.
Although the Syrian occupation of Lebanon formally ended with the pullout, Syrian military intelligence officers are reported to have remained behind to settle scores with all those who dared to speak out against Assad.
These officers, who operate under the guise of businessmen, have infiltrated the various Lebanese security branches and parts of the political establishment in Beirut.
With the help of remaining pro-Syrian elements such as Hizbullah, the Syrians have embarked on a systematic policy of eliminating and terrorizing their critics.
Gemayel was the fifth anti-Syrian figure to be killed in Lebanon in the past two years. Three other critics of the Syrian regime have been wounded in failed assassination attempts since the Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon earlier this year.
Tuesday’s assassination comes in the wake of increased tensions in Lebanon over the government’s decision to endorse an international tribunal that would bring the assassins of former prime minister Rafik Hariri to justice.
In a desperate attempt to prevent a further investigation into the Hariri murder, Assad has been trying to undermine the government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora with the help of Hizbullah.
Earlier this week, Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah openly declared that his followers would soon launch a campaign to get rid of the pro-US government in Lebanon.
Although Nasrallah made it clear that he was talking about a non-violent campaign that would force Saniora and his government to resign, many Lebanese expressed the fear that his remarks could signal the beginning of a new civil war.
Last month, Nasrallah and his masters in Damascus instructed Hizbullah ministers to resign from the government hoping that such a move would lead to its collapse.
The resignations were part of a larger scheme designed to disrupt the investigation into the Hariri assassination.
The slaying of Gemayel is yet another indication of how far Assad is prepared to go to avoid a situation in which he is held personally responsible for the Hariri assassination.
Assad’s biggest fear is that once he is implicated in the murder, he could meet the same fate as Saddam Hussein.
When Assad succeeded his father, many Middle East experts and analysts predicted that the young and charismatic leader would lead his country out of the darkness and into a new era of openness and democracy.
But it took Assad only a few months to prove to the entire world that, in his case, the apple does not fall far from the tree.
Endorsing his father’s ruthless and tyrannical tactics, Assad launched a merciless campaign against reformists and critics at home. In Lebanon, he copied his father’s policy of liquidating opponents and critics.
The timing of the Gemayel assassination is of particular interest because it comes only days after reports in the US media claimed that Washington was seeking Syria’s assistance in end
ing the violence in Iraq.
According to the reports, the Americans believe that Assad’s Syria could play a “positive” role in ending sectarian violence and bloodshed in Iraq. Gemayel’s friends are convinced that the US overtures toward Syria encouraged Assad to order the killing of another one of his foes in Lebanon.
Assad may be able to help the US achieve some of its goals in Iraq, but there is no doubt that he’s expecting Washington to pay a price, namely allowing him to get away with the Hariri murder and to send his army back into Lebanon. Unless the Americans comply, Assad will continue to stir up trouble not only in Lebanon, but also in Iraq and the Palestinian territories, where radical elements continue to enjoy Syria’s full backing.
End Jerusalem Post Article
Begin Archive Update 161C
SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 161C
March 5, 2004
Syria Makes a Very Bad Choice
I have always believed and taught that the most likely part of the old Roman Empire, which would foster the rise of the Antichrist, would be Syria.
Syria has been hanging suspended between two choices: (1) Turn toward the United States in order to avoid sanctions, and to gain support from the western world in a war on terror, or, (2) Turn toward Iran to make an alliance and continue to give support to all the terrorist groups. On February 28 Syria apparently made its choice.
The Iranian Defense Minister, Admiral Ali Shamkhani, came to Damascus and signed a new military pact with the Syrian Defense Minister, General Mustufa Tias. I believe this is a clear sign that President Assad has made his choice to put his trust in an Iran-Syria Axis to protect his administration from a coup by terrorist groups in his own country. President Assad has been active recently in communications with Washington to see what they would give him in the way of security if he should choose to give up sponsoring the many terrorist group offices in Syria, and Hizbollah in Lebanon. Really, he did not have much of a choice. Had he turned pro-west and resisted the terrorist groups, his regime would have been overthrown in a matter of weeks. Syria’s new military pact with Iran likely contains an Iranian promise to invest in additional long range Scud-C missiles, now in mass production at Syria’s underground missile facility near Hamah, which is somewhat ironic in that the northern extent of Israel’s territory, after it defeats Syria at the end of the tribulation period, will extend to Hamah. The biblical name for Hamah is Hamath.
Ezekiel 47:17 – And the border from the sea shall be Hazar-enan, the border of Damascus, and the north northward, and the border of Hamath. And this is the north side.
Genesis 15:18 – In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
Ezekiel 47:19 – And the south side
southward, from Tamar even to the waters of strife in Kadesh, the river to the great sea. And this is the south side southward.
If you want to envision the size of the Abrahamic Land Grant promised to the descendants of Abraham through Jacob (Israel), then go southwest from the southernmost tip of the Gaza Strip along the coastline of the Mediterranean 35 miles and place a point on the shoreline. Then draw a line directly east from that point until you hit the Euphrates River of Iraq. That is the southern border of the land God promised to the seed of Abraham through his grandson, the man whom God renamed Israel, the man Jacob, the son of Isaac, the promised seed God gave through Sarah. The northern border of the land grant may be visualized by finding Hamah or Hama in north central Syria, and then drawing an east-west line through it, which ends on the Mediterranean to the west, and on the Euphrates River to the east. This is the northern border of Abraham’s God given Land Grant. As you can see, this is a very large tract of land, 95 percent of which is occupied by descendants of Abraham through Ishmael’s twelve sons, the six sons of Abraham by Keturah, and Moab and Ammon, the two sons of Abraham’ s nephew Lot by hi
s own daughters. They are identified generally as Arabs, and some 95 percent of them are of the Islamic faith. Since they believe that the promises of God come through Abraham’s son Ishmael through Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s handmaiden, you can see the basic reason for the hatred between Arabs and Jews that has only intensified with the passage of the centuries (See Prophecy Updates 67 and 68 in the Archives).
I am confident that the new military pact will undoubtedly transfer
the information necessary for the manufacture of the advanced Shihab-3 missile in Syria, as well as the financing for greater production of long-range artillery and ammunition.
The United States and Europe wanted Syria to follow Libya’s lead, but Bashar Assad was really in no political position to do so without being overthrown by the terrorist elements in his own country.
There were four things the United States wanted Syria to give up.
(1) Scrap your long-range missile program.
(2) Scrap your WMD program.
(3) Drive all the terrorist groups out of Syria.
(4) Stop supporting Hizbollah in Lebanon.
I feel confident it was a choice Bashar Assad simply could not make. Iran and Syria are of the same mind on these four issues. Had Syria chosen to do those four things, it would have cut Iran’s flow of weaponry and the movement of terrorists to Hizbollah. Syria was left without any military backup with the fall of Iraq, so Assad has chosen to shore up and expand its existing ties with Iran, and create new military ties with them for a joint defense against the west. The strong showing by the radical Shiite hardliners in Iran’s elections last month was a strong element that Assad considered in making his choice.
Iranian Shiites will continue to have a direct pipeline via Damascus airport for massive shipments of military hardware to the large Hizbollah terrorist army, which it has supported in southern Lebanon for years, as have the Syrians.
Rest assured that Israel has three very definite targets on its mind for the possibility of future air strikes, namely, the Syrian underground and surface facilities near Hamah, the Iranian nuclear complex centered ten miles south of Bushehr, and selected weapons supply depots in southern Lebanon (See Prophecy Update 160A). By no stretch of the imagination will Iraq remain a democracy any great length of time after the election of a new government. It will take less than two years after Iraqi elections for most of Iraq to become an Islamic Republic.
And, when it does, there will be a military Islamic union stretching from Iran to Lebanon through Iraq and Syria.
Contrary to today’s popular belief, the antichrist will not come out of Europe, but out of the area that includes Syria, Lebanon, and northern Iraq (See Special Prophecy Update 74B and Whole Numbered Prophecy Updates 62 to 69).
And, contrary to today’s popular belief, the 10 toes of Daniel’s statue and the 10 horns on his fourth beast, which are the same 10 nations that will make up the coalition of nations that attack Israel in the last days, will not come out of Europe, but out of the southern half of the old Roman Empire, which included lands from Morocco to Iran, and as far north as Turkey (See Prophecy Updates 54 and 78).
Daniel 2:42 – And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
Daniel 7:24 – And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
Revelation 17:12,13 – And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
[13] These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
End Archive Update 161C
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