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While the Gentile leaders consider their economic imprisonment and ponder the possibility that a "global society" may be the only way to post bail, the Jews find themselves helplessly stuck between the proverbial rock and the familiar anti-Semitic hard place.
Surrounded by ancient Arab and Persian enemies that want to destroy their fledgling Jewish state and a world spun out of financial orbit, Israel's desperate pleadings once again fall upon deaf international ears.
What is on the prophetic horizon for this peculiar "Chosen People" that long ago proudly paraded about in the Promised Land? Have they survived a history riddled with genocidal attempts only to square off with a future filled with more of the same?
In this post-Sept. 11 era, whereby the world wonders if the new American president is the Messiah, as Louis Farrakhan has previously suggested, or the Antichrist, as the article posted in the Nov. 15, Newsweek edition asked, the temperament of humanity has risen to fever pitch. Even the newly elected vice president, Joe Biden, chimed into the apocalyptic rhetoric on Oct. 20 when he said, "Mark my words" "gird your loins" "a generated crisis" is coming "within six months" that will "test the mettle" of an Obama presidency. He subsequently suggested that among the possible mettle-testing scenarios might be a serious conflict in the Middle East.
Could he be referring to a strategic pre-emptive Israeli air strike upon Iran's nuclear facilities? The Jerusalem Post reports on Nov. 18 that according to the Israeli Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, Israel is ready, willing and able to strike Iran's nuclear facilities upon political command. To complicate matters Fox News Channel reported two days later that Iran has produced enough uranium to create at least one atomic bomb. This report did little to dispel the widely held concerns in Israel that by February 2009, Iran will have assembled its first nuclear weapon.
Such a powerful arrow put into the quiver of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's already dangerous arsenal threatens the very existence of the restored Jewish state. Ahma-"genocide," as famous Christian author Joel Rosenberg refers to him, believes himself to be the instrument of Allah's choosing to bring about the apocalyptic conditions that will invoke the return of the Islamic messiah, the "Mahdi."
Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily suggests the easy way to pronounce this crazed leader's name is to say, "I'm in a Jihad" rapidly. More than a quaint way of remembering a difficult name, this "I'm in a Jihad" phrase adequately depicts this Iranian president's radical Islamic fundamentalist mindset. He has publicly declared that he wants to "wipe Israel off of the map," or perhaps better translated in his native Persian language, "vanish Israel from the pages of time."
Additionally, Ahmadinejad's dangerous terror-inspiring friend, Hassan Nasrallah, and his Hezbollah bad boys allegedly now have 40,000 rockets aimed at Israel. Reports filtered through the Kuwaiti Daily July 14, 2008, suggest that these rockets may be chemically equipped with mustard gas supplies that were exported out of North Korea.
To intensify matters, Iran's anti-Israel partner Syria has recently deployed its 10th and 14th military divisions along the Lebanese borders, and on Nov. 22 the DEBKAfile reported that these divisions, along with the Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, were engaged in a concerted series of serious war drill interchanges and communications.
Further fueling the fire, Hamas promptly heralded Obama's election as a "historic victory," implying that their terrorist cause has achieved a powerful American presidential sympathizer. Aaron Klein of WorldNetDaily's Jerusalem Bureau, has recently reported a possible Obama connection with this radical Gaza Strip based organization.
Is some nation or terrorist entity about to put another in checkmate in the age-old, seemingly never ending struggle of the Middle East chess match? Has Joe Biden unknowingly predicted a mettle-testing event of biblical proportion to come against the administration of his newly elected boss? After all, his words "gird your loins" were uttered 2,000 years ago by the apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1:13, and Ahmadinejad's desire to destroy Israel brings to recollection the 3,000-year-old ominous prophecy, whereby the author of Psalm 83:4 says, "They have said, 'Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more'" (NKJV).
Asaph, the author of this ancient prophecy, goes on in Psalm 83 verses 6-8 to identify the "they" of this prophecy as listed in the order below. In my book Isralestine: The Ancient Blueprints of the Future Middle East," I explain who the 10 populations are today, which are listed below alongside their ancient equivalents.
Edom - Palestinians and Southern Jordanians
Ishmaelites - Saudis (Ishmael fathered Arabian descendants)
Moab - Palestinians and Central Jordanians
Hagarenes - Egyptians (Hagar was an Egyptian Matriarch)
Gebal - Hezbollah and Northern Lebanese
Ammon - Palestinians and Northern Jordanians
Amalek - Arabs of the Sinai Area (perhaps al-Qaida)
Philistia - Hamas of the Gaza Strip
Tyre - Hezbollah and Southern Lebanese
Assyria - Syrians and possibly Northern Iraqis
Potentially prophetically problematic for Israel and the new Obama administration is that the Middle East historical records depict that at no time did these ancient populations ever attempt to collectively destroy the nation of Israel. Hence this prophecy is yet to find its final fulfillment.
For these reasons above, and a lengthy litany list of others, many Bible prophecy experts believe that all eyes will soon become fixated upon the Middle East Theater once again. In a conflict that will make "Desert Storm" and "Operation Iraqi Freedom" look like mere sporting events, "Operation Israeli Freedom," as it may be billed, could soon be the next major Middle East news headline reported on CNN, Fox News, WorldNetDaily and many other worldwide news agencies.
As an eschatologist who has long studied these events with enormous interest, I suggest that you brace yourselves now for what could become the next major Bible prophecy to find its fulfillment, and may be the nearby breaking news that "tests the mettle" of an Obama presidency.
