Watchman of Zion

You may view the 5 minute update this week via audio:

1) Listen to the audio

In this week’s 5 minute update, we focused on:

1) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process
2) The prospects for war with Syria and Iran

Israel has given its version why the Israel / PLO peace talks held during the month of January in Jordan are now stalled. It consists of the following:

1) Beginning in October when the Quartet tried to start between between Israel and the PLO, the PLO refused to talk with Israel in the same room. The talks in January only happened because of the efforts of King Abdullah of Jordan to convince the PLO to hold low-level talks with Israel beginning on January 3

2) In the Jordanian meetings, low-level talks between Israel and the Palestinians in Jordan ended on January 26 without any agreement to hold future direct talks. The PLO did not offer any new positions on borders and security.

3) The PLO demanded that Israel freeze building Jewish homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem or the PLO would end talks on January 26.

4) Israel wanted the PLO to clarify their position on various issues and the PLO refused to discuss the matter

5) Israel brought a delegation to discuss security issues that included a representative from the Israeli army but the PLO refused to allow him to speak

6) Israel presented to the PLO issues regarding incitement against the Jewish state and the PLO did not want to talk about the issue

Mahmood Abbas plans to present to Israel in the near future a series of demands to start direct negotiations. If Israel refuses to accept the conditions, Abbas plans to ask the United Nations to upgrade their status to a non-member observer.

An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Palestinian obsitnacy led to breakdown of Amman negotiations, Israeli official says
2) Abbas to send Israel message on saving Palestine-Israel peace process: sources

Iran, China and Russia continues to support the government of President Bashar Assad of Syria.  Two Iranian warships recently docked at a Syrian port. They were a destroyer and a supply ship. Last week, Bashar Asssad announced a plan to hold a referendum leading to parliamentary elections as a way to resolve the Syrian crisis. China supports the plan. China wants BOTH the Syrian government and the opposition to end the violence.  The US, the European Union and the Arab League supports a “Friends of Syria” group that backs the Syrian Sunni opposition to the rule of Bashar Assad. The “Friends of Syria” group plans to host an international conference on the situation. Russia refused to attend the meeting because the Assad government will not be represented. Hamas in the Gaza Strip has announced that they are severing ties with the Assad government. Hamas is mostly Sunni Muslim and the Assad government is a sect of Shi’ite Muslims. Because of the current situation in Syria, the Israeli army fears that Assad may attack Israel in order to try to remain in power.

A war with Syria where Damascus is destroyed (Isaiah 17)  is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles is as follows:

1) Iranian warships dock at Syrian port after crossing Suez Canal
2) Analysis: Wishful thinking or faulty intelligence?
3) China backs Assad plan for referendum, election
4) Russia refuses to attend Syria meeting
5) Hamas severs ties with Assad, backs Syrian revolt
6) IDF fears Syria attack as pressure builds on Assad

Belgium-based SWIFT, which provides banks with a system for moving funds around the world said it was ready to block Iranian banks from using its network to transfer money. SWIFT has never cut off a country before from the international financial system. President Obama sent National security adviser Tom Donilon to Israel to try to persuade the Israeli government to not attack Iran.  Israel decided to keep its options open.  In order to further persuade Israel not to attack Iran, Obama has invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit with him at the White House on March 5.  Iran indicated to the US and the European Union that they are ready to have talks about their nuclear program. This has caused the US to be cautiously optimistic that Iran will give up its nuclear program and therefore, the US won’t have to attack Iran.  The US wants to try diplomacy with Iran before it decides to attack Iran militarily. However, Iran refused  the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from inspecting their nuclear sites and talking to their nuclear scientists about their nuclear program.  The IAEA also reported that Iran had carried out a significant expansion of activities at its main enrichment plant near the central city of Natanz and also increased work at the Fordow underground facility. Western and Israeli intelligence experts have concluded that the transfer of 20 percent uranium enrichment to the underground Fordo site near Qom has shortened Iran’s race for the 90 percent (weapons) grade product to six weeks. These developments are a cause of great concern for Israel.  It caused Benjamin Netanyahu to say that nuclear sanctions against Iran ‘haven’t worked,’ and Iran is ‘breaking all the rules’.  Israel and the USA are in a public dispute on the best approach to handle the Iranian threat. The US believes there is still time for economic sanctions against Iran to cause Iran to make a decision to stop its nuclear program. Israel believes that the window of opportunity to attack Iran and harm its nuclear program is only several months. Israel believes that sanctions against Iran won’t work and Iran should be attacked in the near future. The US says that sanctions need time to work and the US can attack Iran later. Israel said that a public disagreement with the US over the best way to handle the Iranian threat only servers the interests of Iran. Iran says that if it is threatened that it will launch a preemptive strike. Russian supports Iran and says that an attack against Iran by the US and Israel would be a catastrophe to the world.

A US war with Iran is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles is as follows:

1) Banking’s SWIFT ready to stop Iran transactions
2) US aide tells Israel sanctions on Iran need time
3) Barak: More sanctions on Iran before military option
4) US-Israel crisis: Approaching nuclear talks with Iran disable sanctions, spark anti-Israel terror
5) Iran Is Ready to Talk
6) IAEA: Tehran talks failed to secure agreement
7) IAEA: Iran steps up sensitive nuclear work
8.) ‘US believes Iran not trying to build nuclear bomb’
9)  Nuclear sanctions ‘haven’t worked,’ Iran ‘breaking all the rules’: Israeli PM Netanyahu
10) Crisis in US-Israel relations over nuclear talks with Iran
11) Top White House official arrives for talks on Iran
12) Hard talk with US officials on Iran fails to move Israel from military option
13) Israel to U.S.: Disagreement over attack on nuclear sites serves Iranian interests
14) Tehran Flexes Muscle, Shrugs off Sanctions
15) Iran cuts down to six weeks timeline for weapons-grade uranium
16) Iran warns of preemptive strike if threatened
17) Russia warns: Israeli attack on Iran will bring catastrophe
18) Iran cuts sales of crude to British, French companies

From a Biblical prophetic perspective, the reason why the God of Israel would allow these events to happen is because it will result in the end of the exile of the house of Jacob and the reunification of the 12 tribes of Israel (Ephraim and Judah).

We will to be “watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem” and we will not rest until the God of Israel makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth (Isaiah 62).

Shalom in Yeshua the Messiah,

Eddie Chumney
Hebraic Heritage Ministries Int’l

You may view the 5 minute update this week via audio:

1) Listen to the audio

In this week’s 5 minute update, we focused on:

1) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process
2) The prospects for war with Syria and Iran

Low-level talks between Israel and the Palestinians in Jordan ended on January 26 without any agreement to hold future direct talks. As a result, Abbas had a meeting with the Arab League to decide what to do next. They decided on the following:

1) Solicit for an international peace conference aimed at reaching a comprehensive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

2) Letters will be sent to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and world leaders to determine the basis and the terms for the resumption of negotiations.

Within a week, the Palestinian leadership will send its messages to Israel asking it to recognize the two- state solution, halt its settlement activities in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and release the Palestinian prisoners. “The Israeli government will have three weeks to respond to our messages before we take alternative steps,” said Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator. If Israel fails to agree to the Palestinians terms then the PA will attempt to again seek recognition of a PLO state based upon 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital at the United Nations.

Fatah who controls the West Bank and Hamas who controls the Gaza signed a reconciliation agreement last week. As part of the agreement, Abbas is to head an interim unity government that replaces rival administrations in the West Bank and Gaza and leads the Palestinians to general elections. However, Abbas said that elections would be called off if Israel did not allow the vote to take place in east Jerusalem. “We can not hold elections without east Jerusalem,” Abbas stressed. Meanwhile, the deal never explained how Abbas would take charge again in the Gaza. As a result, some Hamas leaders in the Gaza don’t support the agreement. A Hamas bloc said the deal is illegal because Abbas cannot serve as both president and prime minister. In any event, Fatah official Nabil Shaath said the new interim Palestinian Authority government to be headed by Mahmoud Abbas “need not recognize Israel. It is the PLO, not the PA, that recognizes Israel.” Shaath claimed the PA “is committed to agreements signed and the ongoing process between the parties,” adding that the Quartet “must recognize Palestinians in Israel before the establishment of a Palestinian state.” In addition, Mahmood Abbas also stated that the PA will not recognize that Israel as a Jewish state.

Because of the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas made last week, Netanyahu said that “Abbas has turned his back on peace” and “instead of entering into negotiations that will lead to an end to the conflict, Abu Mazen [Abbas] prefers to join up with the Hamas terrorist organization, the same Hamas that is hugging Iran.”

An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Palestinian peace plan gets Arabs’ OK
2) Netanyahu: Abbas has turned his back on peace
3) Abbas: We Won’t Recognize Israel as a Jewish State
4) Shaath: PA Unity Government ‘Need Not Recognize Israel’
5) Palestinian unity deal faces big hurdle
6) Abbas: If Israel rejects our terms, we’ll head back to UN
7) Palestinians to Give Israel 3 Weeks to Respond to Peace Talks Messages

President Barack Obama’s outreach to the Muslim Brotherhood began three years ago in his famous June 2009 speech in Cairo, Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood are Sunni Muslims. Ten members of the Brotherhood were invited to listen to the address, and they heard a passage crafted especially for them: “America respects the right of all peaceful and law-abiding voices to be heard around the world, even if we disagree with them. And we will welcome all elected, peaceful governments – provided they govern with respect for all their people.”  By courting them in 2009, the United States helped legitimize their political aspirations; by refusing to come to Mubarak’s rescue during the Tahrir Square protests a year ago, the U.S. all but guaranteed that the Brotherhood would emerge as a dominant political force in a new Egypt. The Brotherhood has now risen to power with its “Freedom and Justice Party” who won nearly 50 percent of the seats in Egypt’s post-revolutionary parliament. The Muslim Brotherhood is driving the opposition movement in Syria. In effect, the US and Europe are leading the effort to support the majority Sunni Muslims in Syria against the minority Shiite Muslims from which Bashar Assad’s Alawite sect of Islam is associated.

Rulers in Saudi Arabia through discussions with Iraqi Sunnis have persuaded al Qaeda leaders to fight against Assad in Syria.  The Arab League who consist of mostly Sunni Muslims asked the United Nations Security Council to create a joint peacekeeping force for Syria and urged Arab states to sever all diplomatic contact with President Bashar Assad’s government. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that the plans for a joint peacekeeping force must be discussed “urgently”.  In a statement, Mr Hague said: “We will discuss urgently with the Arab League and our international partners the proposals for a joint Arab League / UN peacekeeping force. He said the UK would play a “very active part” in the new Group of Friends of Syria, which has been established to increase political and financial support to opposition leaders in Syria. The group will meet on February 24. Meanwhile, Russia is supporting Syria.  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said “In order to deploy a peacekeeping mission, you need the agreement of the receiving side. In other words, you need to agree something resembling a ceasefire. But the problem is that the armed groups that are fighting the Syrian regime do not answer to anyone and are not controlled by anyone.”  Russian military “advisors” are “omnipresent” in Syria. Russian advisors are also laboring to reorganize the Baath Party and arrange talks with members of the Syrian resistance.  They are making their own contacts with Arab and Islamic organizations, seeking to dilute the solidarity of the West with Arab leaders on the Syrian problem.  In a phone discussion with Nicolas Sarkozy this week, Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev warned France not to use a coalition of the willing to take unilateral action in Syria.  France – not the United States – was the Perm-5 nation that inaugurated the “friends of the Syrian people” effort immediately after the Russian and Chinese vetoes in the UN on 4 February.  Russia’s vice-minister of defense, Anatoly Antonov, was quoted as saying on Russian television that Russian military personnel are deployed in various sites around Syria.

Western intelligence sources report that Bashar Assad’s loyal military and security forces had by and large managed to subdue the rebellion against the regime. They are now purging the last pockets of resistance, especially in Syria’s third largest city, Homs.  Bashar Assad has drafted a referendum on a draft constitution that is scheduled to be held on Feb. 26 that limits the presidency to two seven-year terms and allows for multiple parties. The new draft also establishes a multiple-party system, revoking a clause put in place by previous President of Syria Hafez Assad which said that his ruling Baath Party was “leader of state and society”. “The political system of the state will be based on a principle of political plurality and democracy will be practised through the ballot box,” the draft says, according to Syria TV. It also says parties cannot be based on religion, profession or regional interests. This would exclude the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Syrian opposition figures immediately spurned the offer and the United States dismissed it as “laughable.”

A war with Syria where Damascus is destroyed (Isaiah 17)  is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles is as follows:

1) Obama wagers heavily on the Muslim Brotherhood
2) Saudis prompt Al Qaeda-Iraq move to Syria: Assad’s ouster top priority
3) Arab League wants UN peacekeepers in Syria
4) Russia says Syria ceasefire needed before peacekeeping mission
5) Syria, Russia: It all looks different from out there
6) Assad wins out against opposition as Russia and Iran strengthen ties
7) Assad sets date for referendum on new Syria constitution
8) US balks as Assad proposes referendum, elections

In order to show Iran’s achievements in its nuclear program, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled nuclear fuel rods, new generation of centrifuges and a number of radioactive medicines. Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Fereidoon Abbasi, said  that the move will, to a great degree, speed up the country’s uranium enrichment activities and is a strong response to the Western hostilities. President Ahmadinejad said  two years ago, Iran told western countries that if Iran is not provided with the fuel rods for its research reactor, the country will produce its own, the western countries did not believe that, now, the Iranian nation proved that they can.  The United States has downplayed Iran’s claims of advances in its nuclear program, saying Iran is feeling the pressure of international sanctions and wants to distract from its growing diplomatic isolation. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland dismissed the announcements as “hype.” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Iran’s announcement of new nuclear achievements was exaggerated. Barak said those announcements were meant to create an impression that any action taken by world powers to curb Iran’s nuclear program would be too late. “They are definitely making progress, but in order to deter anyone dealing with them, or perhaps even to make this seem superfluous, they are priding themselves on achievements that do not yet exist,” Barak said.  Furthermore, Barak said that Iran’s nuclear arms program has not yet reached the point of no return. When Israel believers that Iran is nearing the point of no return, it has threatened to take military action against it.

The US weekly news magazine, Newsweek, reports that the US doesn’t want Israel to start a war with Iran in the near future.  Israel’s Mossad Chief Tamir Pardo’s made a trip to the US recently and according to a US official privy to matter, “to take the pulse of the Obama Administration and determine what the consequences would be if Israel bombed Iranian nuclear sites over American objections.” Israel, the report said, has essentially ceased sharing a “significant amount of information” with the US regarding its military preparations for a possible strike.  Ronen Bergman,  an Israeli intelligence and national security analyst for Israel’s largest daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth says that he expects Israel to strike Iran within the next 9 months.

A top Russian military general, Nikolai Makarov, said that he thinks that the US will make a decision by summer whether to attack Iran. U.S. military sources tell WND that the Pentagon has begun preparations for “a number of operational plans and counter-operations,” with a Feb. 22 due date for submitting the plans. There also is a request for identifying U.S. forces “by 1 March with a ‘through’ date of October.” The military sources indicated that U.S. forces will be augmented by an Aegis warship, presumably one of the two in the U.S. carrier task forces scheduled to be in the Persian Gulf. The Aegis combat system on U.S. Navy ships is used to track and guide weapons to destroy intended targets and to act as a protective shield to counter ballistic missile threats.

Lt.- Gen. Ronald Burgess, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the US Senate Armed Services Committee despite international pressure on Iran, the regime is “not close” to giving up its quest for nuclear capabilities. “Iran today has the technical, scientific and industrial capability to eventually produce nuclear weapons,” he said.  “While international pressure on Iran has increased, including through sanctions, we assess that Tehran is not close to agreeing to abandon its nuclear program. However,” Burgess said, “The agency assesses Iran is unlikely to initiate or intentionally provoke a conflict.”  Meanwhile, the British Guardian newspaper reports that key parts of the Obama administration are increasingly convinced that sanctions will not deter Tehran from pursuing its nuclear programme and believe that the US will be left with no option but to launch an attack on Iran or watch Israel do so. The president has made clear in public, and in private to Israel, that he is determined to give sufficient time for recent measures, such as the financial blockade and the looming European oil embargo, to bite deeper into Iran’s already battered economy before retreating from its principal strategy to pressure Tehran. But there is a strong current of opinion within the administration – including in the Pentagon and the state department – that believes sanctions are doomed to fail, and that their principal use now is in delaying Israeli military action, as well as reassuring Europe that an attack will only come after other means have been tested. The White House has said repeatedly that all options are on the table, including the use of force to stop Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, but that for now the emphasis is firmly on diplomacy and sanctions. Congressman Dennis Kucinich said that he fears sanctions are less about changing Tehran’s policy than laying the ground for military action. He warned that “the latest drum beat of additional sanctions and war against Iran sounds too much like the lead-up to the Iraq war”.

Finally, the Tehran Times reported that the Iranian oil bourse will start trading oil in currencies other than the dollar from March 20. This long-planned move is part of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s vision of economic war with the west. “Recall that Saddam [Hussein] announced Iraq would no longer accept dollars for oil purchases in November 2000 and the US-Anglo invasion occurred in March 2003,” the Times continued. “Similarly, Iran opened its oil bourse in 2008, so it is a credit to Iranian negotiating ability that the ‘crisis’ has not come to a head long before now.” Iran has the third-largest oil reserves in the world and pricing oil in currencies other than dollars is a provocative move aimed at the United States.

A US war with Iran is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles is as follows:

1) Iran announces some nuclear “achievements”, defies western sanction threats
2) US Dismisses Iranian Nuclear Advancement Claims as ‘Hype
3) Barak: Iran nuclear moves meant to fend off attack
4) US gets Barak to backtrack and deny Iran has reached nuclear point of no-return
5) ‘US doesn’t want Israel to start a war with Iran – yet’
6) Top Russian General Expects Imminent “Decision” on Iran from West
7) US Military told to Prepare for Iran OPS
8.) Israel will strike Iran: Bergman
9)  US: Iran ‘not close’ to abandoning nuclear program
10) US officials believe Iran sanctions will fail, making military action likely
11) Obama’s Dangerous Game With Iran
12) Iran presses ahead with dollar attack

From a Biblical prophetic perspective, the reason why the God of Israel would allow these events to happen is because it will result in the end of the exile of the house of Jacob and the reunification of the 12 tribes of Israel (Ephraim and Judah).

We will to be “watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem” and we will not rest until the God of Israel makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth (Isaiah 62).

Shalom in Yeshua the Messiah,

Eddie Chumney
Hebraic Heritage Ministries Int’l

You may view the 5 minute update this week via audio:

1) Listen to the audio

In this week’s 5 minute update, we focused on:

1) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process
2) The prospects for war with Syria and Iran

Once again, Fatah headed by PLO President Mahmood Abbas and who rules in the West Bank and Hamas headed by  Khaled Mashaal who rules in the Gaza Strip have agreed to a reconciliation agreement to end their differences. The original agreement came in May, 2011. Abbas will serve as interim Prime Minister of a unity government until parliamentary elections can be held. No date has been set for these elections. Abbas and Mashaal also agreed to hold a meeting of the temporary leadership of various Palestinian groups in Cairo, Egypt later in February to review the steps taken by the two parties toward implementing the reconciliation agreement. Azzam Ahmed, a senior Fatah official, said the unity government would be announced following the Cairo meeting on February 18.

Because Hamas does not recognize Israel, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that if the Fatah-Hamas unity agreement gets implemented that it will end the peace process.  Netanyahu is asking the international community to pressure the PLO to not implement it.  Netanyahu says that Abbas must choose between a peace process with Israel and a government with Hamas.  In the past, the Quartet (EU, US, UN and Russia) have said that in any PLO unity government between Fatah and Hamas that Hamas would have to recognize three things: 1) Israel’s right to exist  2) Abandon terrorism  3) Accept previous Israel / PLO agreements. The United States has taken the position that the PLO Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement is an “internal” PLO matter and that they won’t oppose it.

Furthermore, the PLO have decided to end the Jordan low-level peace talks with Israel which were held in January because they say that Israel hasn’t agreed to stop building Jewish homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and haven’t agreed that a PLO state would be based upon 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. The PLO view that this is an Israeli obligation as part of the Roadmap agreement negotiated between the US, Israel and the PLO in 2003. Israel sees these demands as preconditions and want to know if the PLO will agree to Israel security needs. Israel is willing to discuss both issues in direct negotiations.

At the urging of the Quartet, Israel agreed to offer the PLO an “incentive package” to continue the Jordan low-level peace talks. The proposal consisted of extending the PLO security forces’ authority over Area B of the West Bank and free 30 PLO prisoners being held in Israel. Area B, which comprises about 20% of the West Bank, is under Palestinian civil controls and shared Israeli-Palestinian security control.  In addition, Israel would ease the restrictions on the freedom of movement of the Palestinians in the Jordan Valley area and grant more work permits for Palestinians laborers to be able to work inside Israel. He also called on Israel to grant 2,500 family reunification permits to spouses of Palestinians so that they would be able to live in the West Bank. Furthermore, Israel proposed a series of measures including Israel’s approval of Palestinian postage for mail leaving via Jordan and to allow the export of textiles and furniture from the Gaza Strip in addition to allowing the transfer of NIS 50 Million to Banks in the Gaza Strip. The PLO Executive Committee rejected the offer. As a result, PLO President Mahmood Abbas told U.S. Envoy, David Hale,  that these proposals are not enough to entice the Palestinians to restart talks with Israel. Hussein Ash-Sheikh, member of the Central Committee of Fateh movement of President Mahmoud Abbas, told the Palestine Radio that Blair’s proposals are “ridiculous”.

An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Hamas, Fatah agree on unity gov’t; Abbas to be PM
2) Netanyahu: Fatah-Hamas deal will end diplomatic process
3) US: Palestinian deal ‘internal’ matter
4) US says won’t oppose Fatah-Hamas deal
5) PA Refuses to Resume Exploratory Talks with Israel
6) Report: PA rejects Israeli incentive package

President Obama is demanding that Bashar Assad of Syria immediately resign from power for his military crackdown of the Syrian opposition. In reality, Syria is engaged in an Islamic civil war where Assad’s ruling Alawite party who are Shiites Muslims are opposed by Sunni Muslims who are a majority in Syria.  Their is also a regional Middle East element to this Islamic civil war where Iran (Shiites) and Syria are being opposed by Turkey and the Gulf Arabs who are Sunni Muslims.

The UN Security Council voted on a resolution that would enable Bashar Assad to resign and set up a transitional government allowing Syrian opposition groups to form a government. Because they are permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia and China have veto power over any UN Resolution. Russia and China decided to use their veto. Russia said that they decided to use their veto for several reasons. #1) Their was no guarantee that international troops would be prevented from being used in Syria against Assad  #2) The language of the resolution failed to put equal blame on both the Assad government and Syrian opposition groups for Syria’s civil unrest.

Former Russian Prime Minister and KGB head Yevgeny Primakov explained the Russian veto to a Saudi Arabian newspaper by saying that regarding the removal of Qaddafi from Libya that “They [the West] assured us that this [Security Council] resolution aimed at nothing more than to provide air cover to prevent Qaddafi using his air force against civilians. They deceived us, for this resolution aimed primarily to overthrow him.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Western states were stirring up trouble in Syria. “Western states inciting Syrian opposition to uncompromising actions, as well as those sending arms to them, giving them advice and direction, are participating in the process of fomenting the crisis,” Itar-Tass news agency quoted Ryabkov as saying. Ryabkov, speaking on a visit to Colombia, said Russia would take “drastic measures” if the West kept trying to intervene in Syria’s internal affairs through the Security Council. “The UN council is not a tool for intervention in internal affairs and is not the agency to decide which government is to be next in one country or another,” Ryabkov said. “If our foreign partners don’t understand that, we will have to use drastic measures to return them to real grounds.” Consequently, Russia and China did not trust Western intentions regarding the overthrow of Assad.

US Ambassador Susan Rice said that the US was “disgusted” by the Russian and Chinese veto.  Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said that the political conflict in Syria is very different than the upheaval in the other Arab countries caught up in the so called “Arab Spring” revolutions over the past year. The big difference, he said, is the Iranian mullah-led Shia regime’s active support of the Assads’ Basque party dictatorship. “Syria is part of Iran’s influence in the region, and the Iranians will shed a lot of Syrian blood to keep the Assad family dictatorship in place,” Bolton said. He pointed out that the civil war in Syria now is a proxy contest for a larger struggle in the region that encompasses Islam as a whole being fought between the Persian Shiite Muslims and the Arab Sunni Muslims. Undoubtedly, he said, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations will arm the opposition in Syria.

Col.-Gen. Leonid Ivashov, a former member of Russia’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, in an interview on Russia Today TV on Feb. 1 said that “Russia is prepared to use military power to defend Iran and Syria. An attack on Syria or Iran is an indirect attack on Russia.” DEBKA reports that Russia has placed Rapid Reaction Force units at their Black Sea bases ready to militarily defend Assad if needed. Russia is concerned that a Sunni Muslim revolution in countries of the Middle East will create an unstable situation in Russia also. Muslim minorities make up 20 percent of the Russian population. They are a majority in the North Caucasus and the regions between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim organization based in Lebanon said that it is prepared to attack Israel if Western powers interfere in Syria and try to topple the government of Bashar Assad according to a Lebanese Hezbollah official as reported by the Palestinian News Network.

A war with Syria where Damascus is destroyed (Isaiah 17)  is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles is as follows:

1) Obama: Assad must step down ‘immediately
2) Russia, China veto UN resolution on Syria
3) Russia vetoes motion after preparing Special Forces for Syria
4) Russia accuses West of arming Syrian rebels
5) Russia Is Prepared to Use Military Power to Defend Iran and Syria
6) ‘Assad’s army won’t survive beyond February’
7) US scenario in Syria: Turkish incursion, Israeli invasion
8) Bolton: Obama Incapable of Handling Syria Crisis
9) ‘Hezbollah will hit Israel if Syria attacked’

On January 23, the European Union voted for an oil embargo on Iranian oil imports which is set to be fully implemented on July 1. Iran’s oil minister said that an EU oil embargo against Iran will not prevent Iran from continuing its nuclear program. A successful EU oil embargo against Iran will be difficult because China, Japan, India and South Korea, Asia’s four largest economies, were the biggest users of Iran’s oil in the first half of 2011  relying on Iran for 59 percent of its exports.

In further defiance of the desires of the US and the European Union that Iran stop its nuclear program, western diplomats say that Iran is believed to be expanding uranium enrichment activity deep inside a mountain at the Fordow underground site near the Shi’ite Muslim holy city of Qom. At the end of January, three International Atomic Energy inspectors were in Iran and had asked to meet the head of Iran’s nuclear program who is also a general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. However, Iran kept the inspectors away from any nuclear installations. A senior Obama administration official said that the prevention of Iran to allow the nuclear inspectors to see various sites were “foot-dragging at best and a disaster at worst.”

In order to squeeze the Iranian economy in a greater way, U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order imposing stricter sanctions on Iran’s central bank where U.S. banks are now required to reject rather than block or freeze Iranian transactions and to also seize Iranian assets. The new restrictions also raised new warnings to financial institutions in other nations that they could face big penalties in the United States if they did business with Iran’s central bank. If fully carried out, that measure could isolate Iran’s central bank and effectively choke off the sale of Iranian oil by obstructing the means of payment. Most of the revenue for oil sales by Iran, one of the world’s biggest oil exporters, is processed by its central bank. The US  Treasury Department said the executive order “blocks all property and interests in property of the government of Iran, the Central Bank of Iran and all Iranian financial institutions (regardless of whether the financial institution is part of the government of Iran) that are in the United States, that come within the United States or that come within the possession or control of U.S. persons.”

In light of these developments, Israel, the US and Iran along with other Middle East countries continue to prepare for war.  The Iranian Guards Ground Forces chief Brig. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour on February 4 announced the start of a three-week exercise in southern Iran and the Strait of Hormuz under conditions of war. Saudi Arabia announced that large military forces are now deployed around Saudi oil fields, pipelines and export facilities in the eastern provinces opposite the Persian Gulf, backed by anti-missile Patriot PAC-3 batteries. American, British and French fighter-bombers have been landing at Saudi air bases to safeguard the capital, Riyadh. Israel has accelerated, expanded and focused its military drill regimen for the coming conflict. On January 31, a division-scale exercise practiced the drafting of reservists under projected heavy missile bombardment of military bases, induction centers, national highways and towns from at least three directions: Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, as well as Iran. Two weeks earlier, the Israel Paratrooper Brigade staged its biggest exercise in over 15 years. US Secretary of State Leon Panetta said that Israel is preparing to attack Iran between April and June.  DEBKA reports that US warplanes and transports were to be seen this week on their way to Gulf destinations, presumably Saudi Arabia, at a frequency not seen in the Middle East for many years.  Furthermore, the US is in the process of a military buildup in the Persian Gulf of about 100,000 troops and its military equipment won’t be fully ready to engage Iran in a possible war until about May. There are already US, British and French aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf area ready to deal with any military conflict that may occur with Iran at any moment.

A US war with Iran is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles is as follows:

1) Iran says Europe oil ban won’t halt its nuclear work
2) Diplomats: Iran boosts nuclear work in bunker
3) Iran Crude Ban Difficult Without India, China: Chart of the Day
4) U.S. imposes stricter sanctions on Iran’s central bank
5) Obama Imposes Freeze on Iran Property in U.S.
6) As US and Israel dicker over Iran strike, American airlifts strength to the Gulf
7) Officials discuss Israel-Iran showdown
8.) Americans talk about an Israeli strike on Iran, but prepare own offensive

From a Biblical prophetic perspective, the reason why the God of Israel would allow these events to happen is because it will result in the end of the exile of the house of Jacob and the reunification of the 12 tribes of Israel (Ephraim and Judah).

We will to be “watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem” and we will not rest until the God of Israel makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth (Isaiah 62).

Shalom in Yeshua the Messiah,

Eddie Chumney
Hebraic Heritage Ministries Int’l