Israeli Airstrike in Syria Response To New Iranian Threat - By Yaakov Lappin -
The recent missile strike on a military airbase deep in the central Syrian desert looks like the latest installment in a long-standing Israeli campaign to police its red lines against highly dangerous developments to its north.
Usually, such strikes are driven by incoming intelligence of threatening activity underway in Syria--activity that breaches Jerusalem's ban on Iran from constructing military bases in Syria, from setting up weapons factories there and from using Syria as a transit zone for the trafficking of advanced arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran is keen to cash in on its heavy investment and bloody involvement on behalf of the survival of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime. That means attempting to expand the Iranian military presence on Syrian soil. Israel is determined to stop this at all costs.
By chance or not, the strike also comes amid fallout from the Syrian government's use of chemical weapons against rebel-held areas over the weekend, leading to warnings from President Donald Trump of likely military strikes in retaliation.
Nevertheless, the precise reason that triggered the latest strike remains unknown and can probably only be found in classified intelligence reports.
What is clear, however, is that over the past several years, Israel has reportedly carried out a series of strikes targeting the Iranian-led axis in Syria. If left unchecked, Iran would flood Syria with Shi'a militia groups and terrorist organizations, arm them with rockets and missiles, and set up terrorist cells. It would convert southern Syria into a new launch pad for attacks against Israel.
Iran's Quds Force, the elite overseas unit, and Hezbollah use Syria to manufacture and smuggle precision-guided ballistic missiles, heavy rockets, advanced surface-to-air missiles and surface-to-sea missiles. Israel has reportedly disrupted these activities on a regular basis.
Lebanon is already a well-established Iranian rocket base, filled to the brim with 120,000 rockets embedded in 200 Shi'a Lebanese villages. All of these projectiles are pointed at Israel. Under Iran's plans, Syria, too, would become a major threat.
The military base reportedly struck in the latest attack, known as "T4," has a history. In early February, Israeli fighter jets destroyed an Iranian drone control cabin that was stationed there, after Iranian operators sitting in it flew a drone into Israeli airspace. It's likely that the Iranian operators were killed in that attack.
According to reports that emerged on Monday, Iranian military personnel were killed in Monday's strike as well. That would seem to indicate that whatever was going on at the T4 airbase--hundreds of kilometers from the Israeli border--constituted a serious security threat to Israel, and that Iran has again tested the waters, seeing how far it can go in building up its military presence before provoking an Israeli response.
This dangerous pattern looks set to continue. Each incident represents a potential escalation point that can spiral into a wider conflict between Israel and the radical Shi'a axis that is taking over much of the Middle East.
The Russian Complication
What makes this situation more tense is the fact that Russia acts as the air force of the Shi'a axis in Syria. Russian airpower helped turn the tide of the war in Assad's favor, a fact that has probably given the Syrian dictator the confidence to unleash the horrors of chemical warfare on Sunni areas and make a mockery of the international community in the process.
Russia has, through its waves of airstrikes in Syria, gained a warm-water port at Syria's Tartus naval base, and it has an airbase at Hmeimim on the Syrian coastline. It has moved advanced air-defense batteries to Syria. Moscow has used its intervention to position itself as a superpower actor in the Middle East. Meanwhile, the United States has decreased its influence in Syria to a bare minimum.
Israel seeks no conflict with Russia, but is unwilling to ignore the activities of Moscow's allies--something Israel has communicated to Russia repeatedly.
The Russians have so far been able to help de-escalate the situation by convincing their radical and dubious allies to tone down their responses to Israel's self-defense actions. The Iranian axis may not have needed much convincing; it remains fundamentally deterred by Israel's vast firepower and intelligence capabilities.
Iran is keen on consolidating its control of Syria at this stage, rather than opening a new active front against Israel right now, which would risk its entire Syrian project. But if it succeeds in its goal of converting Syria into a new base of hostility towards Israel, there can be no doubt that sooner or later, it would activate this front.
These events put Russia's project in Syria at risk, and this poses a complication. Any full-scale conflict that erupts would place the Assad regime in existential threat, and Russia could see its investment go down the drain.
Statements released by Moscow on Monday indicate Russian displeasure at Israel's alleged actions.
Yet Israel has responded that it will not blink when it comes to defending its security.
It's also hard to ignore the fact that the alleged Israeli strike came hours after a horrendous chemical massacre was carried out, once again, by the Assad regime against a rebel-held area.
Scenes of men, women and children murdered through the use chemical-weapons agents have once again flooded the world, with an ally of Iran and Russia--the Assad regime--again committing a ghastly crime against humanity.
As a result, it cannot be ruled out that the latest attack also served as an Israeli signal of intolerance to the usage of chemical weapons in the region.
Whatever triggered the strike, one thing seems certain: Iran will continue to test Israel's lines, and Israel will continue to enforce them.
Turkey on End-Times Table - Terry James - http://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/
A major leg of the Ezekiel 38-39 Gog-Magog coalition is coming into view. The Turkey leg is now, undeniably in the estimation of many students of prophecy, on the end-times table of Bible prophecy.
We are given the nations that will make up that attacking force by the prophet Ezekiel.
Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee. (Ezekiel 38:2-6)
Modern-day Turkey covers most of the territory that made up ancient Togarmah. Ezekiel was told to prophesy that the house of Togarmah will be among the horde from the north of Jerusalem that will assault Israel near the time of Christ's return.
Many things have been written in recent months and years that analyze developments to Israel's north. It is as if those with spiritually attuned eyes and ears are being given a play-by-play unfolding of this coalition.
Russia is pared down from its configuration as the nucleus of the former Soviet Union. It more or less once again covers territory that it encompassed during the time of Ezekiel's giving the Gog-Magog prophecy. Meshech and Tubal comprised that territory. The "Gog" demonic spirit will, according to this prophecy, inhabit the chief prince, or leader of Russia. This leader is also destined to be the leader of the entire coalition.
Developments toward these prophesied have been nothing short of phenomenal as of late.
Russia, after falling apart as the USSR, is again a powerful force. It has inserted its influence, including a considerable military presence, into the region directly north of Israel.
Iran, which is the central-most territory today that once was called Persia, has joined Russia as a close ally-again, just to Israel's north. Russia's and Iran's military assets co-mingle in the region to influence Syria, another end-times player.
Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, as we've said many times, looks to be the prototype for the leader who will be Gog of the Gog-Magog force prophetically scheduled to invade toward Israel to the south.
The prophet Ezekiel was told to foretell that God, Himself, will put hooks into the Gog-leader's jaws and jerk him southward like a fisherman would set hooks into a big fish's mouth and reel him in.
There is good reason to believe, upon watching all that has been transpiring to Israel's north, that the "hooks" are about to be set. The evidence of this certain eventuality mounts. The latest evidence is that the third major leg of the three main Gog-Magog invasion force diabolists now seems to be solidly within the evil coalition.
The transformation of Turkey-ancient Togarmah-from being friend of America and the geopolitical west to being increasingly hostile is amazing to witness. Turkey is a NATO member that is rapidly changing allegiance from the western defense conglomerate to cozying up to Putin, Iran, and what seems to be the coalescing Gog-Magog force.
Turkey's leader, who recently has made moves within the nation's government that make him virtually a dictator, now almost daily expresses his hatred for Israel. This, when Turkey for decades, if not exactly in a warm, fuzzy, relationship with Israel, was nonetheless in a cordial, live-and-let-live relationship with the Jewish state.
Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently called Israel's actions against the violence in Gaza "inhumane" and referred to the Jewish state as "terrorist state and occupier," and to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as a "terrorist."
According to Turkey's Daily Sabah, Erdogan-speaking at a meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party in the southern Adana province-said, "I do not need to tell the world how cruel the Israeli army is. We can see what this terror state is doing by looking at the situation in Gaza and Jerusalem."
The Turkish leader was referring to the actions taken by Israeli forces in answer to the largest uprising of Palestinians along the Israeli-Gaza border in recent years. The protesters were carrying out acts of violence, demanding a right of return for refugees to what is now Israel. More than 3,000 gathered at five locations along the fenced 40-mile frontier where tents were erected for a planned six-week protest, it was reported.
Israeli troops finally had to use force in order to stop the enraged attackers. Reportedly, 17 protesters were killed and more than 1,400 were injured.
Netanyahu, in answer to Erdogan's accusations against Israel's actions to put down the violent demonstrators, said: "I am not used to receiving lectures about morality from the leader who bombs Kurdish villagers in his native Turkey, who jails journalists, who helps Iran go around international sanctions and who helps terrorists, including in Gaza, kill innocent people. That is not the man who is going to lecture us."
Along with Israel, itself, being prime indicator of just how near might be the Gog-magog attack are these swiftly moving developments to her north. The end-times table is indeed in process of being set!
High Time to Awake! - A. V. Rauf -
If you are a student of Bible prophecy and/or if you have ever visited this sight, many of the blogs written on this website inform the reader of current events that are transpiring in our world today as examined in the light of Biblical Scriptures.....henceforth, Bible prophecy for today.
When the New Testament commands us to "watch," it is usually the translation of one of two Greek word (gregoreuo and agrupneo ), which have similar meanings-to "stay awake" and to "not sleep" or rather to be sleepless." They are usually meant in the metaphorical and spiritual sense-to be vigilant and on guard, fully awake, aware, alert and intently focused-with several applications and implications.
1 Corinthians 15:34- Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
Being "awake,"is synonymous with righteousness and not sinning. The apostle Paul Paul was writing to the church at Corinth, which means that even true Christians can be spiritually asleep to varying degrees.
Romans 13:11-12-And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
In other words, the closer we draw to the second coming of Christ, the more urgent it is that we awake out of spiritual sleep. We are clearly living in the last of the last days as the Church Age is rapidly coming to a close and the 7-Year tribulation period, also known as the Time of Jacob's Trouble and the 70th Week of Daniel is on the cusp of actually becoming a reality. Yes, we are that close folks!!! If ever there was a time to pay attention and get prepared, it is now!
To know where to focus our attention, we particularly need to know the Bible prophecies of the end time, especially the prophecies surrounding the second coming of Christ.
We are to "eagerly wait for" Christ's return, not just passively wait around. Jesus was emphatic that His followers should hope for His return, expect His return and pray for His return! In addition, our enthusiastic anticipation and excitement will or SHOULD intensify as we see more and more world events fulfilling Bible prophecies-especially those that point to the increasing nearness of Christ's return.
Luke 12:35-47--Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; 36 And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. 37 Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. 38 And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. 39 And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. 40 Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not. 41 Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? 42 And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? 43 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 44 Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.45 But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; 46 The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. 47 And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will.......
I have always stated that the closer we get to the return of the LORD, the faster events will unfold.
Ever since Easter/Resurrection Sunday, so much has transpired that I do not even know where to begin: Less the 24 hours ago Syria was accused of launching a chemical attack on the town of Dhouma. This is actually one part of a region surrounding Damascus city on its eastern and southern sides. Within the eastern sector is the Douma district Just south of Douma (also Duma) in the countryside is al-Bahariyah, a village 12 miles east of the center of Damascus City. As a result of this attack is the United States., the United Kingdom and France have been moving towards a joint strike to punish Bashar Al-Assad. This strike could occur at any moment. And then things could change drastically in Syria.
If you recall, Saddam Hussein also released Chemical weapons on the Kurds and this ultimately led to the Persian Gulf war. Now if the U.S, the U.K and France can join together to attack Syria, what will stop Russia, Iran and Turkey from attacking Israel? I am clearly referencing Ezekiel 38-39 here, but let me not get ahead of myself here.
The situation in Syria is escalating even as I write this post. Some reports suggest that U.S. strikes have already begun and Syrian president Bashar Assad's forces are fleeing the southern border. President Trump has warned Russia not to interfere. Russia responded stating that they will shoot down U.S. missiles.
Meanwhile, Israel has warned that she is attacked by Iran from Syrian soil, Israel will retaliate and overthrow President Assad. Moscow and Tehran have vowed to retaliate for what Israel has done in Syria:
To make matters even more interesting, it is now being reported that North Korea may have built underground military bases in.....wait for it..........Syria:
The key point to understand is this:
The key nations in the Ezekiel 38-39 Russian led invasion of Israel are now opposing each other in Syria, just miles away from the Golan Heights, which belongs to Israel. These are the nations whose forces are already in Syria as of today: Russia, Iran, Turkey and Israel. Turkey has invaded Syria in the northern part of Syria, in an effort to defeat the Kurdish army.
Syria is not mentioned in Ezekiel 38-39 prophecy and neither is North Korea. Either way, many Bible scholars conclude that, perhaps, Syria will be destroyed as a sovereign nation before the invasion of Israel begins.
It is very obvious that the current developments are preparing this coalition led by Russia, Iran and Turkey to execute an attempted strike on Israel.
The Lord's Word proclaims a series of 'latter days' events leading to the second coming of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His Kingdom upon the earth in this generation. It is High time to awake!
Russia, the United States and Israel - By Matt Ward -
Since the end of the first Gulf War in 2001, missile defense has been an absolute priority for Israel. In 2001, Saddam Hussein, in an effort to draw the Jewish State into a war he knew he was going to lose, fired 39 Scud Missiles at Israel in a failed attempt to fracture the fragile Arab coalition formed against him. Though ultimately Saddam Hussein's attempt to draw Israel into the conflict failed, many missiles did manage to find their targets and innocent Israeli's died as a consequence.
Since then missile defense has become a matter of the greatest strategic military importance for Israel. To this end, in early March, elements from the United States and Israeli militaries began a joint training exercise known as "Juniper Cobra." Five thousand US and Israeli troops trained together with the aim of successfully defending Israel from missile attack should a war break out in the Middle East. The training included live fire drills, missile defense simulations, field training and computer simulations of multiple attacks against Israel from multiple fronts, all at once. (1)
The strategic threats Israel faces in 2018 are much direr today than they ever were in the 1990's or early 2000's. Hezbollah, to Israel's north, has acquired a truly enormous arsenal of missiles and rockets. Conservative estimates put the Hezbollah arsenal at well over 100,000 rockets or more-all of which are aimed exclusively at Israel, and all of which now have the ability to reach any part of the Jewish state for the first time.
In any future confrontation with this Lebanese terror group, there is a genuine risk that Israel's defensive solutions, sophisticated though they are, would be completely overwhelmed by the sheer weight of the barrage they would face. Israel would be rapidly swamped by the deluge of rockets and missiles fired at her.
Yet, that is not the only, or most significant, threat Israel must manage. Hamas, towards Israel's south has also managed to acquire, despite their often repeated claims of abject poverty, a truly huge arsenal of rocketry. Add Iran into this mix, and the existential threat of their nuclear weapons program and their genuinely sophisticated ICBM systems, and it becomes clear that the Israeli strategic military landscape is a formidable one.
Juniper Cobra is part of the joint response to these threats. Not aimed at any individual scenario, it deals with the development of "complex scenarios," which include simultaneous attacks from multiple enemy countries and militant groups.
The US and Israel are preparing for a war in which the Jewish state will face a "multidirectional threat." In other words, they are preparing for a war in which Israel will be attacked, at the same time, from all sides.
Brig. Gen. Zvika Haimovich, chief of Israel's air defense command, relays that they do this "...because this scenario is real."
Brig. Gen. Zvika Haimovich is not over-exaggerating; Iran has been very busy of late. In late January - early February, Iranian leader, Hojatoleslam Seyed Ebrahim Raisi, was pictured closely scrutinizing the Israeli-Lebanese border. Raisi was not there simply to enjoy the fine views; he was examining Hezbollah fixed border positions directly facing Israel and, ominously, inspecting the border formations Israel's army had taken up to counter them.
That this man would visit the Israeli-Lebanese border is highly significant. He is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's leading successor and the second most important person in Iran. Nobody commands more attention or wields more power other than the Ayatollah himself, than this man. And he seemed to be very interested in Israel's borders and in her ability to defend and repel an organized and sustained attack, and in the capability of Iran's proxy, Hezbollah, of launching just such a meaningful attack.
Accompanied by Revolutionary Guard commanders and Hezbollah officers, he then received a thorough briefing on both the battle readiness of Hezbollah units and IDF military build-ups along the Lebanese, Syrian and Golan border areas. Concluding the visit, Raisi held extensive and wide-ranging talks with Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of Hezbollah, before departing back to Tehran.
According to Israeli military and intelligence sources, the gist of Raisi's message was that Hezbollah has now become a genuine fighting force in the Middle East, experienced and battle-hardened by the Syrian civil war. Raisi's pep talk concluded with darker tones, referring to the growing spirit of resistance against Israel in the Muslim and Arab world, exemplified by the Palestinians and their "struggle." He clearly signposted Iran's approaching endgame for its proxy group:
"It was Hezbollah's fighting capacity alone that generated resistance in the Islamic countries. Allah willing, we shall soon witness the liberation of Jerusalem!"
Yet Raisi is not the only high-profile Shiite to visit Lebanon in recent months. On December 2nd, 2017, Qais al-Khazali, head of the pro-Iranian Iraqi Aasaib Ahl al-Haq militia, also visited the area, also for a firsthand look at Israel's border formations and military set up. It is widely believed in Israeli intelligence circles that Qais al-Khazali performed this surveillance on behalf of the Iranian al-Quds General Qasseem Soleimani himself, the legendary Iranian supreme military commander in Syria and Iraq.
Qais al-Khazali, on behalf of Iranian General Soleimani, was assessing how to more effectively deploy Hezbollah's now tested and battle-hardened forces right along the full extent of Israel's northern border.
These visits were highly political in nature too. Qais al-Khazali's visit came just one day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss Syria, Iran and Hezbollah. The message of these visits, and their timing, was a clear one; no matter what was discussed between the Israeli and Russian leaders, Tehran has no intention of withdrawing militarily from Syria and, additionally, would be extending its presence right into Lebanon with the aim of directly confronting Israel itself at some point in the very near future.
That Iranian and Shiite aim of confronting Israel may be a desire granted sooner rather than later. Russian President Vladimir Putin is currently under the most enormous pressure. Putin has miscalculated badly in recent weeks, and he now finds himself increasingly boxed into a corner by the international community.
And it all began to go wrong for Putin in a quaint little English town called Salisbury, with the poisoning of two seemingly harmless individuals - an old man and his thirty-year-old daughter. It would seem at this point unthinkable that Vladimir Putin did not directly authorize the poisoning and attempted assassination of Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia.
The international reaction to this attack, the first use of chemical weapons on mainland Europe since the end of the Second World War, and in Britain of all places and against and amongst civilians, has provoked a diplomatic whirlwind against Russia that seems to have genuinely caught the Russian leadership off guard.
Then, just days ago, came Douma. In another act of senseless barbarity, someone - the Syrian regime or another actor, launched a horrific chemical weapons attack on the Damascus suburb of Douma, killing and maiming many, including babies and children.
The West was quick to point the finger of blame at Assad and Russia; Russia vehemently denied it. Indeed, Russia to this point has denied that chemical weapons have even been used in Douma. However, despite the swift and strong Russian denials, babies and young children foaming at the mouth paint a completely different picture. Somebody did use chemical weapons. The question is who.
The tone of the Security Council emergency session called to discuss this heinous act was unprecedented, and the rhetoric coming from politicians and leaders all over the Western world would seem to indicate that the West is pretty sure that they think it was Assad.
What Putin cannot have foreseen, or in any way anticipated, was that the United States and its chief allies, the UK and France, all seem to be holding him directly and personally responsible for both the chemical weapons attacks in Syria and in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom attack against Sergei Skripal and his daughter is being tied together by the international community at the United Nations with the chemical weapons attack in Syria.
It is against this background that the large Syrian air base, known as T-4, and operated extensively by Iran as a forward-operating base, was then attacked on Sunday night. Russia believes this attack came from Israel, and Russia's tone and attitude towards the Jewish State has immediately shifted.
The Kremlin's longstanding modus operandi with regards to Israel's military strikes in Syria in the past was to make no comment. That has now changed. This time, the Kremlin condemnation of the Jewish State was swift, reporting that two Israeli F-15 jets carried out the attack using guided missiles launched from within Syrian airspace.
Russia has asked Israel for their "explanations." Israel, as always, has made no comment. Sergei Lavrov, the outspoken Russian Foreign Minister, told reporters that the "air strikes carried out on Sunday were a dangerous development."
Dangerous indeed, because Russia seems to now suspect that the Israeli strike is a US test, to see what Russia's response would be ahead of a potentially larger US operation that may come any moment now. Russia has warned of "grave consequences" if they do.
It is impossible to say, at the point of this writing, what may happen next, as developments on the ground are fast moving. The US or her allies may strike in Syria, or they may not. Russia may retaliate, or she may not. One thing is certain though; the events of the past few weeks, the obvious preparations being made by Iran and Hezbollah for war against Israel, the poisonings in the UK and the chemical weapons attacks in Syria - all being brought into sharp focus through the prism of Syria - may be pushing Putin firmly into the embrace of an alliance prophesied about eons ago by the prophet Ezekiel.
Recent events, especially if there is further military action taken against the Assad regime by the West in the coming days and weeks, may make Putin finally turn on the West's regional Achilles heel, Israel.
These events, and whatever lies just up ahead, may make Putin turn completely against Jerusalem and decide that supporting a war against Israel, which Syria, Iran and Hezbollah have long since been planning for, is actually the best long-term way of hitting back at America and her allies after all.
Heightening Mid-East Tensions - By Hal Lindsey - https://www.hallindsey.com/ww-4-12-2018/
On Saturday, Syria apparently launched another chemical attack against its people - including small children ... By the time you read this, the expected US military response may have already begun ... Russia has warned that it will shoot down US missiles and even target the US naval vessels that fire the missiles ... After the chemical attack, came a mystery air strike against Syria - probably launched by Israel ... Russia then began a war of words with Israel, finally showing their long-held but usually camouflaged disdain for the Jewish state ... Hamas continues to stir up violent anti-Israel protests along Israel's Gaza border ... Iran says it will soon restart its nuclear program - as if it had ever actually stopped.
And that's just part of what's gone on, in only the last few days!
The first big question is whether the Trump Administration can really be sure that Syria launched the chemical attack. Russia and Syria both deny it. That's what they would say in either case, but the timing seems suspicious. Only a few days ago, the President said that with ISIS defeated, he wanted to pull US troops out of Syria, and soon. That would seem to be in Syria's favor. Why rock the boat now?
But while tweeting on the subject, Mr. Trump made a good case that the chemical attack really was a Syrian operation. "Many dead," he tweeted, "including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price..."
If the area is "in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army... completely inaccessible to outside world," then who else could it be? As President, Donald Trump surely knows the facts, and he has no reason to lie about it. After all, a Syrian chemical attack will delay the troop withdrawal he's anxious for.
The President answered the last major chemical attack in Syria by launching 59 cruise missiles at Syria's Shayrat Airbase. Most observers expect a bigger response this time, but Russia's increasingly close relationship with Syria and Iran complicates things. Alexander Zasypkin, Russia's ambassador to Lebanon, made an ominous threat. He said, "If there is a strike by the Americans, then... the missiles will be downed and even the sources from which the missiles were fired."
It's unlikely that Russia has the ability to shoot down US cruise missiles. It's also unlikely that they would actually try to sink the US Navy ships launching the attacks. But even the threat shows how dangerous things have become. A world soaked in gasoline is playing with matches.
President Trump has worked hard to form a better relationship with Russia. But by the time of Trump's election, Putin's course was already set. He committed to it when he sent the Russian military into Syria in 2015. It's ironic that Trump's critics have called him weak on Russia and have demanded a more hardline approach. Yesterday's peaceniks have turned into today's warmongers.
But in this case, the President has pulled no punches. He directly blamed Putin for Assad's action, and practically dared Russia to try and stop the US response. On Wednesday, President Trump tweeted, "Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!' You shouldn't be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!"
Assad has placed his troops on alert, evacuating bases near the border with Lebanon, and transporting personnel to Russian installations - presumably safe from a US missile strike.
The "mystery air strike" took place Monday on an air base in the Homs province. At first, Syria blamed the US. But after the Pentagon issued a strong denial, they and the Russians switched the blame to Israel. Was it Israel? They didn't confirm it, but neither did they deny it.
Israeli Defense Forces play their cards close to the vest. Just last month they finally acknowledged an air strike on a Syrian nuclear reactor way back in 2007. The Syrian civil war began four years later, so we can all be glad that Israel chose to forcibly shut down the Syrian nuclear program.
The strike on Monday caused the deaths of several Iranians as well as Syrians. There were no Russian deaths or injuries reported, but Russia had soldiers assigned to the base. That's a problem for US forces as well. We don't know for sure where Russian soldiers are embedded with Syrians.
On Monday, Israeli fighter jets hit a Hamas target in Gaza. It was clearly a military target, and no one was hurt. But Russia used it as another excuse to ramp up their anti-Israel rhetoric.
In January, Putin and Netanyahu met at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow. They seemed to hit it off. Netanyahu's main purpose in the trip was to express concern about Iran's stronghold in Syria, and their movement of advanced weaponry into Lebanon and Syria. The two got along well, but looking at it now, the effort seems to have been wasted.
Putin knows that his alliance with Iran is one of the chief causes of unrest in the region. He's playing a dangerous, high-stakes game. Newsweek reported on Wednesday that Russia is instructing its citizens to stock up on water and buy gas masks in anticipation of nuclear war. The world right now is teetering on many dangerous precipices. All of them fit the dramatic scenario laid out in the Bible for the end times.
For Christian believers, I have two pieces of extremely good news. First, God has already shown us how these things eventually work out. We win! In the meantime, we will face difficulties. But that's where the second piece of good news comes in. God's promises remain in effect even when the world seems to be falling apart. Trust Him.
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