Pre-tribulation Rapture Believers Safe House

Israeli policymakers' alarming over-reliance on Egypt to grapple with Hamas and ISIS
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis July 3, 2015, 6:22 PM (IDT)
Tags: Israeli security, Egypt, Sinai, Hamas terror, ISIS,

Egyptian troops battle ISIS in Sinai

The statements coming from different Israeli spokesmen this week were not just at dangerous variance with the actual events but with one another, when it came to Egypt’s massive confrontation this week with ISIS close to Israel’s border, a fresh round of Palestinian West Bank anti-Israel terror and the ambivalent role played by Hamas extremists in all these events.

Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai said in an Al Jazeera interview Thursday, July 2, that Israel had “clear evidence” of Hamas aiding the offensive the Islamic State’s Sinai affiliate launched against Egyptian positions in northern Sinai Wednesday.

The Israeli commander accused Hamas of giving “weapons and logistical support to the ISIS affiliate.” He added “we have examples of Hamas commanders who actively participated in this assistance,” and named “Wael Faraj, a brigade commander of the military wing of Hamas…who smuggled wounded [ISIS fighters] from Sinai into Gaza,” and “Abdullah Kitshi …who trained operatives belonging to Wilayat Sinai.”

Asked about Israeli-Egyptian cooperation, Mordechai commented: "Egypt is a strong and independent country."

The Defense Ministry’s strategic adviser Amos Gilead was more specific: He said Egypt was “a strong country of 90 million people with an army of half a million.” Gilead was sure that the Egyptians would do everything necessary for a determined war on ISIS.

Thursday, July 2, the day after the ISIS raid, the Egyptian military said it had killed 123 Islamic State gunmen in two days, 100 of which were killed on Wednesday. Egyptian bombers were then described as wiping out ISIS concentrations around the northern Sinai town of Sheikh Zuwaid. "The situation in northern Sinai is now under complete control,” said the Egyptian spokesman

All three officials were doing their best to put a good face on the Egyptian army’s reverses in its largest battle yet with ISIS, say DEBKAfile’s military sources. No one was ready to admit that the Islamic State’s Sinai branch had won this confrontation on points.

For two years, the Egyptian army has only chipped away at the edges of the threatening Islamist presence growing larger in the Sinai Peninsula, even through Israel suspended the restrictions of the 1979 peace accord and allowed Egypt to bring large military forces, tanks, artillery and helicopters into Sinai for a major campaign to expunge that presence. This has not happened although both the Egyptians and the IDF know the exact whereabouts of the Islamist terrorists’ bases.

Even while playing down the unwelcome outcome of the Wednesday battle, the IDF took the precaution of closing to traffic the main Israeli highway running parallel to the Egyptian border from Nitzana to the southern port of Eilat. The army in the south was also placed on high alert in case ISIS raiders crossed the border from Egyptian Sinai.

Then, on Friday afternoon, parts of southern Israel heard a red alert for rockets which the IDF estimated had come from Sinai, i.e. ISIS, rather than the Gaza Strip.
Israeli officials are at their most mixed up when they discuss Hamas – even after crediting that extremist Palestinian group with conducting a fresh surge of terrorist attacks on the West Bank and Jerusalem. In the past week, they murdered three Israelis - David Capra, Danny Gonen and Malachi Moshe Rosenfeld.

Yet, according to the mantra the IDF has taught accredited military correspondents, all Hamas wants is a long-term ceasefire so as to live in peace. They also trot out the official claims that the deadly attacks were the work of “lone wolves,” just as the persistent trickle of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip comes from “rogue” elements.

Israeli officials appear to have lost their way amid vain attempts to let Hamas off the terrorist hook.

Hamas’ own willingness to jump into bed with Egypt, Hizballah, Iran and ISIS - all at once - undoubtedly creates a confused picture about its shifting motives. However, Israeli policymakers must beware of falling into the dangerous trap of ambivalence and loss of focus.

President El-Sisi must realize by now that his army has missed the boat for a resounding one-strike victory against ISIS, because that enemy is no longer alone. Its association with Hamas is further bolstered by a secret pact with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, the deadly foe of the El-Sisi administration.
Hamas, as the Brotherhood’s ideological offspring, in fact hosted Mahmud Izzat Ibrahim, head of the Brotherhood;s clandestine operational networks, which run from Libya through to Sinai.

This tripartite ISIS-Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas axis is currently in full momentum. Egypt is therefore in for a drawn-out bloody war.

Israeli policymakers would be foolish to depend on Cairo pull this red-hot iron out of the terrorist fire any time soon. They must find ways – the sooner the better – to grapple with the reality of a rampant Islamic State next door. ISIS is already in the process of overrunning the Gaza Strip; it is on the way to seizing expanding sections of the Sinai Peninsula. That territory will serve as a convenient base for Islamist raids against Israel.
If ISIS leaps further to hijack the coastal areas of Sinai, it may be necessary to fight a major war to preserve the freedom of navigation in the Suez Canal and Israel’s southern exit through the Gulf of Aqaba.

« Breaking News »
ISIS-Sinai claimed firing three Grads at “Jewish positions”
DEBKAfile July 3, 2015, 11:09 PM (IDT)
The Sinai branch of ISIS reported Friday night: "Three Grad rockets were fired at Jewish positions in occupied Palestine.” One rocket was located on open ground in the Eshkol district. There were no casualties or damage

Report: ISIS used advanced Russian weapons in Sinai attacks
Egyptian media calls unprecedented Sinai attacks a 'war,' claims that militants responsible were heavily armed with sophisticated weaponry.

Ynet, Associated Press

Published: 07.02.15, 17:25 / Israel News

A newspaper close to the Egyptian government reported Thursday that the Islamic State-linked militants who attacked troopsin the Sinai Peninsula on Wednesday used sophisticated weaponry, including Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles.


An ISIS stockpile of weapons discovered by the Egyptian Army in Sinai.

ISIS rushes reinforcements to Egypt. Its next targets: The Pyramids and Sphinx
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report July 5, 2015, 12:32 PM (IDT)
Tags: ISIS, Egyptian army, Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, Sinai, Sinai Bedouin, Cairo, IDF,

President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi visits Sinai torops

The Islamic State is rushing reinforcements to Egypt from Libya and Iraq for its battle with Egyptian forces in northern Sinai, which went into its fifth day Sunday, July 5, and other offensives, DEBKAfile’s intelligence and counter-terror sources report. After sustaining hundreds of casualties, both sides claim to have won the upper hand but the tenacious struggle is not over.

An Islamist manpower pool is provided by Egyptian extremists who crossed into Libya in the past and settled in bases around Benghazi. Last week, ISIS summoned them to take up positions in Cairo and the Suez Canal and wait for orders to go into action. They crossed back with the help of smugglers. Those rings, dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood underground, with branches controlled by Hamas and Hizballah, bring illicit weapons and ammunition supplies to Sinai from Libya via Egypt.
President Abdel Fatteh El-Sisi is therefore obliged to earmark substantial military and intelligence resources for defending the Suez Canal and Cairo – more even than the Sinai front.

The other source of jihadi reinforcements is Iraq, They use another branch of the smuggling network which carries them through southern Jordan to the Gulf of Aqaba where they are picked up by smugglers’ boats and ferried across to the eastern coast of the Sinai Peninsula.

The IDF had more than one reason for its decision last Wednesday to close to traffic Rte 12, Israel’s main southern highway, which runs parallel to the Egyptian border up to Eilat: It was a necessary precaution lest ISIS turned its terrorists and guns against Israel from next-door northern Sinai. The other reason was to deter the Islamists coming from Iraq from trying to transit Israel and reach Sinai with the help of Bedouin smugglers operating on both sides of the Israeli-Egyptian border.

Our military sources estimate that some 1,000 jihadists are directly engaged in the North Sinai battle with the Egyptian army, but add that they could quickly recruit supplementary fighting manpower from Bedouin tribes near the warfront who already play ball with the terrorists.

Egyptian tacticians have strictly limited the army action on this front to air and helicopter strikes and local ground and armored forces. They are focusing on defending three Sinai enclaves, the northern district around Sheikh Zuweid, El Arish port and Rafah, and Sharm el-Sheikh in the south, to pin ISIS forces down in those places and prevent them from fanning out into areas controlled by the big Bedouin tribes.

When President El-Sisi visited the troops in northern Sinai Saturday, July 5, he disclosed that only one percent of the Egyptian army of 300,000 men was assigned to Sinai. He indicated that his army was perfectly capable of wiping out the Sinai terrorist threat in no time if all its might were to be thrown into the fray.

This strategy leaves ISIS with free rein in central Sinai. However, El-Sisis, like his predecessor Hosni Mubarak, is not prepared to go all out against ISIS in its “dens” any time in the near future, because he needs all his military resources and assets he can muster to defend the capital Cairo and the Suez Canal.

Neither the Islamic Army nor the Muslim Brotherhood or any other radical Islamists make any secrets of their next plans. ISIS has announced that it is setting its sights on Egypt’s pyramids, the Sphinx of Giza, and the country's unique historic monuments in general, after its savage vandalism and looting of other precious world heritage sites.

In a new message released Friday, July 3, a number of radical Islamist leaders, including the ISIS “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, told their followers that the destruction of Egypt’s national monuments, such as the pyramids and the sphinx, was a “religious duty” that must be carried out by those who worship Islam, as “idolatry is strictly banned in the religion.”

This message has sharply ratcheted up the jihadist element of ISIS military confrontation with Egypt to a higher, more inflammatory level

Israel Hayom News July 5, 2015

A culture clash

The world has seemed stunned by the recent wave of global terrorism linked to the Islamic State group and the various terrorist organizations affiliated with it. But a closer look at the group's operational strategy leaves little to wonder about. Imbued with Islamist-jihadi-Salafist ideology, Islamic State's logic is network-based, operating on multiple fronts simultaneously and employing murderous methods.

Islamic State also employs effective media strategies, including savvy use of social media, meant to serve a dual purpose: the first to create shock and awe among populations and regimes, and the second to encourage its fighting forces and recruit new members eager to pledge their allegiance to Islamic State and its caliphate.

The West struggles to understand this phenomenon and its implications, and in some cases, as in France, it is in complete denial. The West is inclined to see Islamic State as a military threat, thus ignoring the political ideology it represents in the name of Islam.

Islamic State strives to undermine the existing world order, based on the concept of the nation-state, erase existing borders, and undo the Arab nations, especially the monarchies, which it sees as heretic entities.

The group is promoting an outright culture war. The efforts to form the Islamic caliphate and recapture the fundamentals of Islam represent fierce animosity toward the West and its principles, and a desire to obliterate them. This is nothing short of a clash of civilizations.

Driven by fundamentalist ideology, Islamic State operatives return to their homelands after having fought on its front lines, determined to establish local cells with the sole purpose of terrorizing the population and encouraging the Muslim fanatics living in these nations.

Islamic State's perception of time and space is derived from a deep sense of religious history, and the group is vested in its fight for the long haul, as it seeks to both defeat the West and install Islamic rule, even if not during this generation's time.

Tunisia cannot fight Islamic State alone, France cannot counter the growing Islamic radicalization of its Muslim community, Iraq is losing actual ground to the group, and the Kurds can at best protect their own territory. Fighting Islamic State requires regional and international collaboration led by the West and regional powers, and it requires leadership and determination.

It is difficult to disregard the link between France's lobbying before the U.N. Security Council on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the plight Paris is facing. Much of France's efforts, it seems, aim to appease the forces brewing domestically. But this is only a mirage and it is not how to counter threats from within.

Last Friday's attack in France, which introduced it to the horror of beheadings, was the latest in a series of terrorist attacks in France and other European countries. Each time, however, the need to be politically correct and the paralyzing fear of potential riots by the local Muslim communities curtailed the European leaders' efforts to fight domestic terrorism.

Perhaps the latest tragic events will lead the public to impose its will on decision-makers, and the realization that the fight against Islamic State is a war waged by Western culture, in the broadest sense of the word, against those seeking to eradicate it, will finally mature.

My comments

The article above is a secular view of the great controversy between east and west .... but the Lord and His Bible prophets have already written the story and outcome in advance [Revelation 16:1-15; 17:16-18; 19:11-21]

This cultural offset has a deeper meaning centered in the Middle East between Issac/Jacob/Israel ..... and Ishmael/Esau/Islam

The Lord is going to settle this issue once and for all, and the entire earth will be affected .... for He is coming to bring His wrath and judgment upon an intransigent unbelieving world [Psalms 2; Jude 1:14-15; Revelation 6:12-17]

The prophets have foretold what is coming and yet most of the 8 billion people on the earth today have no idea what is about to take place [Matthew 24:33-51]

The follower of Jesus Christ can know and can understand by reading His Word on the matter [2 Peter 1:16-21]

Resources
http://www.seekingtruth.co.uk/israel_arab_conflict.htm

http://www.gotquestions.org/Jews-Arabs.html

Inspirational

« Breaking News »
Urgent meeting of Turkish-Syrian border commanders
DEBKAfile July 5, 2015, 4:46 PM (IDT)

Sources in Ankara report that Turkish military chiefs have ordered commanders of the armored brigades of Syrian border troops and commando brigades to attend a meeting at military headquarters to discuss a possible cross-border operation in Syria. The air force's role in a possible intervention will also be discussed. A plan to have more than 400 armored vehicles, which will carry military personnel and be protected by jammers, to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL) planting mines across Syria's Turkey border, is also on the agenda.

A total of 54,000 members of Turkey's land forces have reportedly been deployed on the country's Syria border. DEBKAfile’s military sources: Some Western sources say that the Turkish military build-up on the Syrian border is smaller than described and most probably limited to the Gaziantp region of eastern Turkey.

« Breaking News »
US in series of air strikes against ISIS Syrian stronghold
DEBKAfile July 5, 2015, 4:56 PM (IDT)

The US-led coalition against the Islamic State group said Sunday it had carried out a series of 16 air strikes in Syria on its main stronghold, Raqqa, calling this one of its largest assaults in Syria so far. US military spokesman Lt Col Thomas Gilleran said: "The significant air strikes tonight were executed to deny Daesh [IS] the ability to move military capabilities throughout Syria and into Iraq." DEBKAfile: This number of air strikes was too small to have the effect claimed. The raids followed the release of an ISIS video showing young teenagers shooting dead 25 Syrian men in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra

Egyptian army backed by Apaches kills 63 Islamists in broad area between Sheikh Zuwaid and Rafah
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report July 6, 2015, 9:58 AM (IDT)
Tags: ISIS, Egyptian army, Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, Sinai, Sinai Bedouin, Cairo, IDF,

President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi visits Sinai torops

An immense stretch of Sinai desert populated by half a million people is under siege, as the Egyptian army fights off a major offensive by the Islamic State’s Egyptian affiliate, the Sinai Province, against its positions in northern Sinai. The battle, which Monday, July 6, went into its sixth day, is being fought in an area bounded by the northern town of Sheikh Zuwaid, Rafah on the Gaza border, and up to Kerem Shalom and Nitzana on the Israeli border to the south. DEBKAfile’s military sources report a news blackout on the ongoing warfare except for Egyptian army handouts.

Egyptian security sources reported Monday that the latest round of helicopter strikes and ground operations had killed 63 Islamists in villages between Sheikh Zuwaid and Rafah, where four of their hideouts had been located. Our sources add that these air strikes are directed against civilian dwellings, especially in farming districts, where ISIS fighters are suspected of hiding out. No figures have been released by Cairo on civilian or Egyptian army casualties.

DEBKAfile describes the contest as an asymmetrical one between an army that depends heavily on aerial operations and ISIS terrorists, who have resorted mainly to guerilla warfare. By night, they flit swiftly on foot between the dunes to strike Egyptian army positions. By day, their foot soldiers trap Egyptian soldiers by setting up ambushes around those positions and on the roads of Sinai to keep Egyptian troops pinned down. Terrorist operations are a constant on their agenda.

The Egyptians respond with blanket air strikes which swoop on any moving object in the embattled area - whether by car or on foot

The hide-and-seek tactics employed by ISIS are sustainable in the long term, especially when the Islamists can rely on a constant influx of reinforcements, weapons and ordnance, the sources of which DEBKAfile disclosed in an exclusive report Sunday, July 5.

• JULY 5, 2015
  Quartet of crises threatens Europe's core
  
  
  
  Reuters/Reuters - A barbed wire is seen in front of a European Union flag at an immigration reception centre in Bicske, Hungary June 25, 2015. REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh
  Four great crises around Europe's fringes threaten to engulf the European Union, potentially setting the ambitious post-war unification project back by decades.
  
  The EU's unity, solidarity and international standing are at risk from Greece's debt, Russia's role in Ukraine, Britain's attempt to change its relationship with the bloc, and Mediterranean migration.
  
  Failure to cope adequately with any one of these would worsen the others, amplifying the perils confronting "Project Europe".
  
  Greece's default and the risk, dubbed 'Grexit', that it may crash out of the shared euro currency is the most immediate challenge to the long-standing notion of an "ever closer union" of European states and peoples.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/quartet-crises-threatens-europes-core-080943887--business.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...les-on-europe-in-austerity-referendum-triumph

Reuters/AP, July6 2015

Israel's Prime minister Netanyahu on Sunday expressed alarm at the emerging nuclear deal between western powers and Iran currently taking place in Vienna.

Speaking at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that "what's coming out of the nuclear talks in Vienna is not a breakthrough, it's a breakdown."

Netanyahu said that the world powers were conceding more and more with each passing day.

The emerging deal "will pave Iran's way to produce the cores of many atomic bombs and it will also flood Iran with hundreds of millions of dollars that will serve it in its aggression and its mission of terror in the region and the world," the prime minister warned.

Netanyahu claimed that the emerging deal with Iran was worse than the nuclear deal that had been signed with North Korea which led to Pyongyang obtaining an arsenal of nuclear weapons.

"However, here we are talking about a very big conventional and non-conventional threat against Israel, against the countries of the region and against the world," he stated.

Iran and world powers made progress on future sanctions relief for Iran in marathon nuclear talks on Saturday, but remained divided on issues such as lifting United Nations sanctions and the development of advanced centrifuges.

Diplomats close to the negotiations said they had tentative agreement on a mechanism for suspending US and European Union sanctions on Iran.

But the six powers had yet to agree on a United Nations Security Council resolution that would lift UN sanctions and establish a means of re-imposing them in case of Iranian non-compliance with a future agreement.

"We still haven't sorted a Security Council resolution," a diplomat close to the talks told Reuters. "We don't have Iran on board yet."

Senior Iranian and Western diplomats echoed the remarks. Some of the toughest disputes, including the question of easing UN sanctions, were likely to be left for foreign ministers when they arrived in the Austrian capital on Sunday, officials said.

"Even if and when issues get resolved at an experts level, there will remain some open issues that can only be decided by ministers," a senior US official told reporters.

Iran is in talks with the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia on an agreement to curtail its nuclear program for at least a decade in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

The negotiators missed a June 30 deadline for a final agreement, but have given themselves until July 7. Foreign ministers not in Vienna are expected to rejoin their counterparts in a final push for a deal beginning on Sunday.

Top News

• JULY 6, 2015
  Greece votes No: The European Union is dying before our eyes
  
  
  
  
  It's not just disaffected pensioners: young Greeks have worked out that they don't need the bloated EU
  Despite the scaremongering and bullying from those in Brussels, we are waking today with Greece having delivered a resounding No.
  
  That comes despite EU bosses saying that it would mean a Greek exit from the Euro, not to mention the heavy economic pressure placed on the Greek people to go along with the wishes of Brussels. It is a crushing defeat for those Eurocrats who believe that you can simply bulldoze public opinion.
  
  Chief bully-boy Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, and other supposed leaders of the European Union did their best to terrify the Greek people into submitting to the wishes of the European Union. But they utterly failed. The fear espoused by the Yes campaign was rejected. Opinion polls that put the Yes side ahead just days before were way out, as thousands upon thousands of Greek citizens lined the streets chanting “Oxi”.
  

Israel merges IDF elite units to form the new Commando Brigade tailored to combat ISIS
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis July 7, 2015, 10:26 AM (IDT)
Tags: Gen. Gady Eizenkott, IDF, commandos, ISIS, Egyptian mililtary, Sinai,

Israel Special Operations Forces

While US president Barack Obama coined his approach to the struggle against the Islamic State with the words: “Ideologies are not defeated by guns. They’re defeated with better ideas.” – Israel and its military leaders are taking no chances against a declared enemy.

Last Friday, July 3, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s Sinai branch fired three Grad missiles across the border into the Israeli Eshkol district, while it was in mid-offensive against the Egyptian army in North Sinai. Large parts of southern Israel next door had already been declared closed military areas in consequence of that offensive.

ISIS and its affiliates, while currently preoccupied with snatching up territory from countries neighboring Israel, make no secret of their intention, confirmed by military intelligence, to reach Israel’s northern, eastern and southern borders before long.

Monday, July 6, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkott unveiled Israel’s answer to the coming challenge. It is a unique, multi-purpose commando ground force, especially tailored to fight ISIS and provide the “boots on the ground” which the US-led coalition has kept back from the Islamists’ constantly expanding warfront.

It will be trained and armed for extraordinary missions outside routine military tasks.
The revelation was something of a wake-up call for the general Israeli population. The new force’s short term tasks are to guard southern and northern Israel against hostile rocket fire and attempts by Islamist groups riding captured armored carriers to storm the border.

This happened once before on Aug. 6, 2012, when Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis Islamists (who later joined ISIS) broke through the Egyptian-Israeli Kerem Shalom border crossing from Sinai. Their APCs had driven almost up to a military base before they were wiped out by Israeli warplanes.

The new Commando Brigade is designed for quiet, bold, covert and effective action against terrorist groups posing a threat from the Sinai Desert to Egyptian sovereignty and Israel’s southern border. Such action would be coordinated closely between Israeli and Egyptian military and intelligence arms.
Similar operations would also be staged if necessary from Israel’s northern border – against Hizballah or any threat from Syria.

The new outfit brings together the different skills and the high, focused fire power rendered by the four elite units' assorted weaponry. In this sense, these units, all highly adept in different aspects of covert and stealth operations deep behind enemy lines, complement one another. This amalgam that may be loosely likened to a unique combination of US Delta, Seals, Rangers, and airborne commandoes all rolled in one.

The elite units merged into the new commando brigade are:

1. Meglan, which specializes in destroying enemy systems with the accent on armored units. Its members are equipped with intelligence technology for gathering data and its transmission in real time.

2. Duvdevan's tasks are to liquidate targeted terrorists and round up suspects. Its members operate under cover by blending into a hostile population in disguise. They are trained for single combat in the heart of enemy terrain.

3. Egoz commandos employ guerilla tactics borrowed from the books of terrorist organizations.

4. Rimon commandos also blend into a hostile population disguised as locals for the purpose of spotting and foiling terrorist operations in difficult and complex areas.
The commander of the new combined brigade is Col. David Zinni who defers to the 98th (Esh) Division.
Gen. Eisenkott has brought the four elite units together from the Paratroops, Golani and Givati brigades, among which they were formerly distributed. His action capped the reassessment of the IDF’s war doctrine which he found essential for dealing with the new volatile and constantly moving enemy.

The four elite units in combination offer a synergetic combination. They will train together in air, sea and tactics for missions to meet unorthodox intelligence demands. They will also be set apart from the conventional military by their special weapons, secret high-tech equipment, and separate guidelines and logistics.

The swiftness of ISIS’s climb to highest ranks of Israel’s foes caused Gen. Eisenkott to override the most recent innovation of his predecessor, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz: the Depth Command. The Commando Brigade has made the Depth Command redundant.

Related scripture for things to come:

Zechariah
14:1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.

14:2 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.

14:3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

Micah
5:1 Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

5:2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

5:3 Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.

5:4 And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.

5:5 And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.

5:6 And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.

« Breaking News »
Iran nuclear talks miss another deadline with no deal
DEBKAfile July 7, 2015, 4:13 PM (IDT)

Tuesday, the second deadline in eight days for a comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran, went by with no new date set for finalization. Some of the diplomats representing the six powers left Vienna. Russia’s Sergey Lavrov said he would return if necessary. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran’s Mohammed Javad Zarif planned to stay in Vienna and keeping negotiating, along with the EU foreign executive Federica Mogherini. DEBKAfile: The sticking points remaining are the types of centrifuges Iran may develop after the expiration of the 10-year agreement; the timetable for sanctions relief; and access to data on Iran’s past activities for developing a nuclear weapon


My comment

Not good for Israel .... and not good for the Western nations [Revelation 17:16-18; 18:1-21]

Religion alert:

Here is a set of information resources giving warning about the past and recent Latter Rain movements that one should be aware of

http://so4j.com/new-apostolic-reformation-latter-rain

These "cult like" movements are extremely apostate for many reasons and all of them teach against the Lord's pre-tribulation "harpazo" action that is coming

All teach kingdom now/dominion theology and replacement/suppression dogmas

Beware of these movements and if you are following any of the same that you check them out

« Breaking News »
Britain evacuates tourists from Tunisia over fresh terror threat
DEBKAfile July 9, 2015, 9:19 PM (IDT)

Britain Thursday night advised against non-essential travel to Tunisia as “the threat picture has developed considerably since the Sousse beach attack,” which killed 39 people most of them British. Flights are underway to evacuate 3,000 British holidaymakers from Tunisia.

US-Israeli-Egyptian mobile sensor-fence projects to block further ISIS Mid East expansion
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report July 10, 2015, 2:32 PM (IDT)
Tags: US Middle East, radar & surveillance, security fence, Egypt, Suez Canal, Israel, Jordan, ISIS,

A US mobile surveillance sensor tower

US counter-terror experts are overseeing a lightning operation for setting up mobile sensor towers and electronic fences in Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Israel in a desperate bid to seal their borders off against the fast-moving impetus of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – ISIS, or at least slow it down. This reign of terror is spreading out from Iraq and Syria and creeping into southern Jordan, the Israeli Negev, and Egyptian Sinai, then on to Libya and over to Tunisia and Algeria, covering a distance of 4,000 km.

When President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi saw his army had not repelled the ISIS Sinai affiliate’s offensive in North Sinai as it went into its second week – controlling only the main highway from El Arish to Cairo via Bardawil Lake - he turned to Washington with an urgent request to ship over mobile surveillance sensor towers and American crews to operate them. His plan is to string them across the Sinai Peninsula and along Egypt’s borders with Libya and Sudan in a last-chance bid to block the constant influx of reinforcements and weapons to ISIS fighters reaching Sinai from Libya, through the Egyptian border and from Iraq, through southern Jordan and the Israeli Negev.

The State Department acceded to the Egyptian request and has submitted the application worth $100 million for congressional approval.

The application states: “This procurement is intended for Egyptian Border Guard Forces, which currently lack any remote detection capability along unpatrolled areas of Egypt’s borders.” Libya, Sudan and Sinai are specified. The application goes on to explain: “The system would provide an early warning capability to allow for faster response times to mitigate threats to the border guards and the civilian population.”

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror and intelligence sources disclose that Egypt already has one set of American mobile sensor towers. They were installed on the 193 km long banks of the Suez Canal more than a year ago and have kept ISIS terrorists from reaching those banks and firing missiles at passing ships to block the waterway, like the RPG attack of Sept. 5, 2013.

The sensor towers have proved effective so long as the various terrorist groups, such as ISIS, were deterred from directly attacking American facilities by tactical considerations of their own, such as a preference for those systems rather than a large-scale army forces to police the Suez zone, which would physically impede the convoys carrying men and arms from Libya into Egypt.

The drivers of these convoys stop over at Suez and Port Suez to rest up before carrying on with the long drive to their destinations in Sinai. Scattering the mobile sensor towers in areas unpatrolled by Egyptian troops would expose the American operators to ISIS attacks and abductions. So while solving one problem, they may well generate another. In any case they won’t make the ISIS threat go away.

Whereas Egypt asked for mobile sensors, Tunisia is to have a new, permanent fence with electronic warning stations along its route. Our counter-terror experts point out that, however effective this system is, it can’t promise Tunisia hermetic protection against terrorist encroachment.

ISIS has at least two ways of getting around the fence barrier:
1. Landing by sea. The gunman who massacred 39 tourists on the Soussa beach on June 26 landed from the Mediterranean by speedboat.
2. Circumventing the fence through the meeting point of the Tunisian-Libyan-Algerian borders. That point will not be enclosed. Tunisia may be reached through western Algeria where the border is wide open.

The second electronic fence the United States is providing will run down 30 km of the border between Israel and Jordan from Timna to Eilat. It is a joint project, which has become necessary to curb ISIS movements from southern Jordan through the Israeli Negev and onto Egyptian Sinai and the Gaza Strip

My comment

Scriptural comparison

Daniel
11:36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.

11:37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.

11:38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.

11:39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.

11:40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

11:41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

11:42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

11:43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

11:44 But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.

11:45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

DebkaFiles: article related to the Islamic State, July 10, 2015

Could the conspiracy of Psalm 83 against Israel involve ISIS?

It was only fifteen years ago that I was conducting research for my first book on anti-Semitism They Have Conspired Against You. This led me to an in-depth study of the 83rd Psalm written by Asaph who was a contemporary of King David. Psalm 83 spoke of many enemies of Israel and of the pleading of Asaph with God for His miraculous intervention on behalf of the Jewish people. Of the several points made by this short psalm, I was intrigued by the ten people groups who were described as conspiring against Israel.

In digging a little deeper, I realized that this covenant of nations had never taken place in the history of Israel. I also thought that there was a strong possibility that Asaph usage of the sentence: “They make shrewd plans against Your people, And conspire together against Your treasured ones. They have said, “Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, That the name of Israel be remembered no more.” could very possibly be a literary device to express emphasis in despair. Maybe Asaph wanted to express that Israel had enemies–a true statement–and for emphasis, he described all her neighbors as the enemies, akin to someone with a few foes saying:”The whole world hates me!”

Of course, an equally valid interpretation could be that it is a future attack on Israel by a confederation of countries and/or states. I find it fascinating to look at the people described in Psalm 83:6-8: The tents of Edom and theIshmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites; Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistiawith the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with them, and compare them to modern day countries or people groups. The results could even be too close for comfort.

Edom – Southern Jordan
Ishmaelites – Ishmael was one of the fathers of all the Arabs.
Moab – Central Jordan
Hagarenes – Egypt
Gebal – Lebanon
Ammon – Northern Jordan
Amalek – The Sinai Peninsula
Philistia – The Gaza Strip
Tyre – Lebanon
Assyria – Iraq and parts of Syria

By these standards, Israel finds herself surrounded by enemies who have conspired together to destroy the Jewish state. This would be a likely scenario in light of the fact that eventually the whole world will go against Israel, but we are faced with an inconsistency. There are two countries that have an ongoing peace treaty with Israel in the whole Middle East: Jordan (Edom, Moab and Ammon) and Egypt (Hagarenes, Sinai Peninsula). Yet these are listed as enemies of Israel, so how can this be possible?

I wonder if the answer could not be found in the events of the last year and the progress of ISIS (Islamic State) in the region? ISIS is continuously making progress in a very volatile region, not to mention their global recruitment over the last year. A quick review of their progress could lead credence to an upcoming fulfillment of Psalm 83:

• ISIS started their bloody takeover campaigns in parts of Iraq and Syria.
• ISIS has also been trying to gain some ground in Northeast Lebanon andNorthern Lebanon. The mere idea that Lebanese Christians would praise Hezbollah for fighting ISIS is frightening at best and most likely temporary.

• They even got into the Gaza Strip, giving Hamas a run for their money.
• Of course, they also recently launched an offensive in the Sinai Peninsula. How’s that peace treaty with Israel looking right now? Very shaky if ISIS spreads further into Egypt!
• This leaves us with Jordan and the Iraqi border, which have also been affected.

So there you have it in a nutshell. To an extent, ISIS has infiltrated all the areas listed in Pslam 83, INCLUDING JORDAN AND EGYPT, the only two countries with existing peace treaties with Israel. Asaph might have spoken prophetically and we might be getting really close to seeing the evil confederacy of Psalm 83 being formed.

It was almost impossible to fathom that Psalm 83 would have a literal fulfillment 15 years ago. Today and with the advance of the Islamic State, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if it took place. And what if it did take place?

While the entire civilized world appears to be in agreement regarding the barbarism displayed by ISIS, it is now becoming obvious that the terrorist group is not being stopped, let alone even contained. It is very surreal and quite puzzling to see ISIS recruits coming from all corners of the world to train under “the black banner of death”. So yes indeed, the grip around Israel is tightening at the hands of ISIS.

Israel has her plate very full with a Hamas ruled Gaza Strip in the south and a Hezbollah ruled Lebanon in the north. The Jewish state has been on high alert since May 14, 1948. They will not provoke but they will certainly respond. They will do it better and faster than the rest of the world because their existence depends on it. To an extent, the rest of the world’s existence also depends on how serious we are about ISIS.

But when you hear people such as Richard Barrett, former head of counter-terrorism at MI6 who said that:” We cannot destroy ISIS, so we will have to learn to live with it“, you wonder how serious anybody really is about defeating ISIS? We are not even discussing how Islamic ISIS really is or is not, but we are still faced with a terrorist group that is organized, wealthy, well advertised and very arrogant. The minute that ISIS crosses the line where Israel feels threatened, they [Israel] will respond swiftly and efficiently. No question about it.

We must also keep in mind the rest of Psalm 83 like verse 5 describing the enemies of Israel as the enemies of God Himself:“For they have conspired together with one mind; Against You they make a covenant.” God might or might not intervene between ISIS and the world, but if they [ISIS] go against Israel, I am certain that He will get involved. Yet, there is still time for the enemies of Israel to repent because God might be just but He is also patient as Psalm 83:15-18 says:

So pursue them with Your tempest And terrify them with Your storm.
Fill their faces with dishonor, That they may seek Your name, O Lord.
Let them be ashamed and dismayed forever, And let them be humiliated and perish,
That they may know that You alone, whose name is the Lord, Are the Most High over all the earth

The prophetic hourglass was turned on May 14, 1948 and it is running out of sand in its top section!

The Times of Israel, July 10, 2015

Iran Made Illegal Purchases of Nuclear Weapons Technology Last Month


The question is not whether Iran can be trusted to uphold the nuclear deal now being negotiated in Vienna (it can’t), but whether the Obama administration and its P5+1 partners can be trusted to punish Iran when it violates the agreement?

Experience shows that unless Iran violates the deal egregiously, the temptation will be to ignore it. For instance, Iran got away with selling more oil than it should have under the interim agreement. More ominously, Tehran repeatedly pushed the envelope on technical aspects of the agreement—such as caps on its uranium stockpile—and got away with it. The Obama administration and other Western powers have so much invested in their diplomatic efforts that they’ll deny such violations ever occurred.

More evidence of Iranian violations has now surfaced. Two reports regarding Iran's attempts to illicitly and clandestinely procure technology for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs have recently been published. They show that Iran's procurement continues apace, if not faster than before the Joint Plan of Action was signed in November 2013. But fear of potentially embarrassing negotiators and derailing negotiations has made some states reluctant to report Tehran’s illegal efforts. If these countries have hesitated to expose Iran during the negotiations, it is more likely they will refrain from reporting after a deal is struck.

Huge crowds chanted in anti-Israel and U.S. slogans in Iran's capital on Friday, an indication of the power that hardliners still hold even as negotiators struggle to finalize a nuclear deal that would help normalize the country's relations with the rest of the world.

"Today, I am here to punch Israel in the mouth," said Fatemeh Hossieni, a 61-year-old English teacher who was marching for Al-Quds Day, a holiday held to show support for Palestinians. "Israel will be destroyed, America will be destroyed — so will ISIS and England."

Negotiators for Iran and six world powers — the U.S., Britain, Russia, China, Germany and France — have missed a series of deadlines trying to craft a deal that would restrict Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for easing punishing economic sanctions.

On Friday, as talks reportedly became fractious, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed warnings that the U.S. was ready to leave the talks, saying they were counterproductive. The negotiations in Vienna were later extended until Monday afternoon.


My comment

The US has failed to take Iran to the task and the only thing the Iranians wanted was time and removal of the economic sanctions against the rogue state

The real danger of Iranian nuclear WMDs is the passing of the same to the Islamic State

Iran's Drive to Weapons of Mass Destruction

Does Obama work for his own legacy, or for US interests?

Back in Tehran… Khamenei adds red lines, Rouhani tries to resign, Jaafari hints at “fait accompli” soonDEBKAfile Exclusive Report July 12, 2015, 2:19 PM (IDT)

Iran’s top leaders remain ambivalent about whether or not to sign the comprehensive nuclear accord with the six world powers in Vienna as 22 agonizing months of negotiation falter on the brink. The all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s latest comment was far from helpful. Saturday, July 11, he said publicly: “The US is the true embodiment of global arrogance,” the fight against which “could not be interrupted” even after the completion of the nuclear talks. He also boasted that the Islamic Republic had “managed to charm the world” by sticking with those negotiations.

DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report that Khamenei’s remarks reflect the struggle between the pro- and anti-nuclear deal factions at the highest level of the Iranian leadership. For now, President Barack Obama’s odds of less than 50 percent on a final accord may well describe the balance in Tehran.

On June 29, President Hassan Rouhani was planning to resign when he asked the supreme leader to receive him first. He was upset by Foreign Minister Mohamed Zavad Zarif’s recall from Vienna to Tehran for a tough briefing. Zarif had warned the president that the talks were doomed unless Iran gave some slack. The foreign minister said that the six foreign ministers were preparing to leave Vienna in protest against Iran’s intransigence.

Rouhani when he met Khamenei warned him that Iran was about to miss the main diplomatic train to its main destination: the lifting of sanctions to save the economy from certain ruin.

The supreme ruler was unconvinced: He referred the president to the conditions for a deal he had laid down on June 23 and refused to budge: Sanctions must be removed upon the signing of the final accord; international atomic agency inspectors were banned at military facilities, along with interviews with nuclear scientists; and the powers must endorse Iran’s right to continue nuclear research and build advanced centrifuges for uranium enrichment.

Rouhani hotly stressed that those conditions had become a hindrance to the deal going through and insisted that sanctions relief was imperative for hauling the economy out of crisis.

Khamenei disputed him on that point too. He retorted that the revolutionary republic had survived the eight-year Iranian-Iraqi war (1979-187) with far fewer resources and assets than it commanded at present.

For back-up, the supreme ruler asked two hardliners to join his ding-dong with the president: Defense Minister Hosseim Dehqan and Revolutionary Guards chief Mohammad Ali Jaafari.

Both told Rouhani in the stiffest terms that Tehran must not on any account bow to international pressure for giving up its nuclear program or the development of ballistic missiles.

In a broad hint to President Rouhani to pipe down, Khamenei reminisced about his long-gone predecessor Hassan Bani-Sadr (president in 1980-1981) who was not only forced out of office but had to flee Iran, and the former prime minister and presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi, who has lived under house arrest for six years since leading an opposition campaign.

The supreme leader then set out his thesis that the danger of Iran coming under attack had declined to zero, since Europe was in deep economic crisis (mainly because of Greece) and because the US president had never been less inclined to go to war than he is today.
Jaaafri added his two cents by commenting that after a succession of fiascos, Obama would go to any lengths to reach a nuclear deal with Iran as the crowning achievement of his presidency. The Revolutionary Guards chief then added obliquely: “Before long we will present the West with a fait accompli.”

He refused to elaborate on this when questioned by the president, but it was taken as a reference to some nuclear event and
Rouhani left the meeting empty-handed, but his letter of resignation stayed in his pocket.

The next day, when Zarif landed in Vienna to take his seat once more at the negotiating table, he learned about a new directive Khamenei had sent the president, ordering him to expand ballistic missile development and add another five percent to its budget - another burden on Iran’s empty coffers.

Khamenei’s office made sure this directive reached the public domain. Zarif too was armed with another impediment to a deal. Khamenei

instructed him to add a fresh condition: The annulment of the sanctions imposed against Iran’s missile development and arms purchases.



My commentary

A nuclear Iran will create great danger for Israel, the Middle East, and the western world .... including the threat to the USA

Obama and his state department have failed miserably and they do not understand the Middle Eastern Muslims and the intent not only to destroy Israel, but the USA as well .... the US needed to prevent Iran from this venture, but instead caved in and on it goes

At the same time the Bible prophets have predicted what must take place as the world nears the time described as the "Day of the Lord", the time of the end of this present age .... all of this is in the Lord's hands and will come according to His will

He knows the end from the beginning of all things and has revealed our day in His prophetic word [Psalms 2; Joel 2:31; 3:14; Zephaniah 1:14; 1:18; Acts 2:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4; 2 Peter 3:10-18; Jude 1:14-15; Revelation 1:10-19; Revelation 1:1-3; 1:10-19; 6:12-17; 16:15]

Here is an example of what is coming related to the Middle Eastern Muslim ambition of which Iran [ancient Persia] will be a part in the provision of Muslim terrorists with nuclear weapons [Revelation 8:6-12; 14:8; 17:16-18; 18:1-21]

The "beast" and the 10 kings are defined in scripture as a future Islamic kingdom in the Middle East noted in Revelation 17:16-18

Read the following [Daniel 2:40-43; 7:7-25; 8:9-25; 9:24-27 [the other prince and his people of the Muslims that shall come]; 11:36-45; 12:7] [Revelation 9:11; 11:2; 11:7; 12:12; 13:1-4; 17:8-18]

.... the "woman" is the unfaithful dominating commercial, economic, and financial power, the "great city" of the lost world of humanity .... Mystery Babylon the Great, the symbol of the lost world of human depravity [Revelation 17:5] .... from Babel to this very day [Genesis 10; 11]

Iran [the Persians] ruled the Middle East in the ancient past and was the super power of the day that defeated the previous empire of the neo-Babylonians .... Iran will be aligned with the current state of Islamic terrorists[ISIS] at the time of the end [Ezekiel 38:5]

http://www.timemaps.com/history/middle-east-500bc

The others of this Muslim confederation can be found here [Psalms 83:1-8; Ezekiel 38:5-6] .... all of those listed are identified as the Middle Eastern populations surrounding Israel .... their coming objective will be to destroy Israel and the western nations

And the entire world will be drawn in to this foray of the controversy between Israel and the Muslims [Zechariah 12] .... between Issac/Jacob .... and Ishmael/Esau set long long ago still on going [Genesis 17; 18]

http://timothyjhammons.com/2011/06/10/ishmael-blessed-but-not-chosen/

However, the Lord will come and destroy them all at the battle of Armageddon [Micah 5; Ezekiel 39; Joel 3; Revelation 14:14-20; 16:1-16; 19:11-21]

Not to worry for His true followers at the time .... those will oil [His holy spirit] [Matthew 25:1-13; 1 Corinthians 15:20-23; 15:51-58; Thessalonians 4:13-18; 2 Thessalonians 2:1; Revelation 3:10; 16:15; 18:4]

The Lord is an awesome God and He has revealed His intents to us in advance so that we can be assured of our faith, and can know that eternity is ours to keep in the new heavens and earth that are coming [John 14:1-10; 1 John 3:2; Romans 8:1-25; 2 Peter 3:10-18; Revelation 7:9-17; 21]


Inspirational