‘Israel May Have to Strike Iran at Any Time’ - End Times Scenario?

Israel’s Air Force commander said that looming military strike on Iran’s nuclear facility necessitates increased defense budget.
By Israel Today Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

In battling the political echelon for defense budget increases on Sunday, the commander of the Israel Air Force, Maj.-Gen. Amir Eshel, reminded everyone that the same planes used to attack Gaza over the summer could be called upon at any moment to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“There’s no one in this room who’d be prepared to ride in a car as old as our planes,” Eshel said in remarks carried by Israel’s Channel 2 News. “Yesterday these planes were in Gaza, and tomorrow we may send them to Tehran.”

Israel’s national budget has been a source of great tension in the wake of the summer’s Gaza war.

Finance Minister Yair Lapid has vowed not to raise taxes to cover the expense of the offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists that in addition to covering the Gaza war, Israel needs to pour billions of additional shekels into the defense budget in order to effectively tackle a wide range of pressing security threats.

Netanyahu remains committed to preventing Iran from attaining nuclear weapons at any cost, and maintaining Israel’s air superiority is key to following through on that promise.

With Iran remaining defiant in its quest for an atomic bomb, Eshel’s comment was seen in local media as a hint that Israel could be preparing to strike the Islamic Republic in the very near future.

For an 'end times' scenario, it could hardly get any better. 
Iran is probably within months of being able to produce atomic weapons which it will attempt to use on Israel and probably the US.
The US is giving Iran the 'elbow room' it needs to complete the process.
Israel has to attack Iran's nuclear facilities as America will not.

What happens next is anybody's guess. Here is mine:
Israeli strikes will result in a major release of nuclear fall-out that will affect much of Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and several other ...stans, and perhaps even India. Remember Pakistan and India are both nuclear powers, and most, if not all of the ...stans are Islamic.

While the various sects of Islam fight relentlessly with each other, I can see them coming together for a common enemy - Israel.

With the level of barbarity seen from IS this year, one has to consider that they have set a behavioural precedent that could be emulated by much of Islam. Indeed, an angry Islam could reach even deeper depths of demonic behaviour.

That leads us to Exekiel 38 & 39 - the massive invasion of Israel from the north. Some think this will include much of Islam and be led by Russia. Russia has a military agreement with Tehran that would automatically draw them into a war. Other interpretations suggest that it will be led by Turkey.

Whichever is the case it will be an incredible assault that only God will be able to stop. In the current atmosphere, it is unlikely that the US would come to Israel's defence.

Eze 38:15.  "You will come from your place out of the remote parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great assembly and a mighty army;

16. and you will come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. It shall come about in the last days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me when I am sanctified through you before their eyes, O Gog.

19.  ...on that day there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.

21.  "I will call for a sword against him on all My mountains," declares the Lord GOD. "Every man's sword will be against his brother.

22.  "With pestilence and with blood I will enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, a torrential rain, with hailstones, fire and brimstone.

23. "I will magnify Myself, sanctify Myself, and make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am the LORD."'

The Unpredictable Czar Putin is in Control

Excerpts from an interesting article in the New York Times:

Earlier this month, Mr. Putin shocked Moscow’s political and media circles with a surprise announcement that he would remake RIA-Novosti, the semi-independent state news agency, under the direction of a Kremlin loyalist.      
See: http://northwoodsministries.blogspot.ca/2013/12/putin-takes-control-of-russian-media.html

In that post and the one immediately before it, I discuss Putin's ambition to recreate the influence of the old Soviet Union, with one exception - he will be Czar over the Russian Federation.

Nothing in this article gives any kind of hint that my assessment is incorrect. As his executive power increases, he is scary enough, but I would not be surprised if, in some emergency, he shut down the Duma and ran the country by himself. 

Such an event could be pivotal in the Russian, Muslim war on Israel prophesied by Ezekiel in chapters 38 and 39 of his book.

The decisions demonstrate Mr. Putin’s singular ability not only to wield executive power but also to bend the legislative and judicial branches of government to his will, and to exert heavy control over the Russian news media.      

“What we are seeing is a president who has no limits on his power in a country that never was democratic, that never had anything called a balance of power — where one of the estates could balance the power of another,” said Vladimir Posner, one of Russia’s most prominent television journalists, with his own nightly show on Channel One, the premier government-controlled station.    
 
“There is no Fourth Estate,” he said. “And as a matter of fact there is no Second or Third Estate. There is just the First, just the presidency. That’s the way things are today in Russia.”    
 
As he prepares to begin his 15th year as Russia’s paramount political leader, Mr. Putin’s sweeping authority gives him far more leverage than his counterparts in the West to influence the course of events and, at times, to set the agenda in world affairs.      

In defiance of the United States, Russia granted temporary asylum to the former national security contractor Edward J. Snowden, with Mr. Putin portraying him as a whistle-blower.

Mr. Putin also averted an American military strike on Syria with a plan to disarm its chemical weapons.
     
Yet all of his recent moves carry serious risks. Releasing Mr. Khodorkovsky could well set loose a vengeful rival, with the money and will to do everything possible to force Mr. Putin from power. The bailout of Ukraine could easily turn into a financial debacle, exacerbating Russia’s own creeping economic problems, should Ukraine continue stumbling toward default.      

Czar Putin

And scrapping RIA-Novosti, a respected news agency, in favor of a replacement already being derided as a Soviet-style propaganda arm could undermine the credibility needed to cultivate the public image that Mr. Putin has sought for Russia as a re-ascendant power, able to challenge the West.  
   
Supporters of Mr. Putin say that his actions reflect sure-footed pursuit of a plan to build a greater Russia, evidenced by mega-vanity projects like the Sochi Olympics that will burnish the image of both the president and his country. A magnanimous gesture like freeing Mr. Khodorkovsky, they say, demonstrates his statesmanship and deflects any criticism of authoritarianism.

Critics say the recent moves are tactical, aimed at retaining power that is sure to slip as the flood of cash from the country’s vast fossil fuel reserves, which generated unprecedented wealth during his tenure, slowly recedes. By this view, Mr. Putin is impulsive and increasingly isolated, unchecked by opponents or even by formerly trusted advisers....

Experts said Russia’s slowing growth was another factor in Mr. Putin’s recent decisions, prompting him to take steps to improve the investment climate to attract foreign capital, as well as to lift his own popularity in case the economy takes a dive. In part because of a slowing economy and rising prices, Mr. Putin’s approval rating stands at 61 percent, its lowest point since 2000, the first year of his presidency, according to the Levada Center, a polling agency here.

Chris Weafer, a senior partner at Macro-Advisory, a consulting firm based in Moscow, said that the release of Mr. Khodorkovsky was a positive sign, but that more would be needed to reassure skittish foreign investors. “The reason investors are wary is not because of the arrest of Khodorkovsky 10 years ago,” he said. “It’s the corruption, the poor business climate, the perception that there is little respect for the rule of law.”

Sergei M. Guriev, a former rector of the New Economics School in Moscow, said in a telephone interview that he, too, believed that the president’s recent decisions had been dictated in part by economic challenges.

“There is no external crisis, and yet the Russian economy is growing only at one-and-a-half percent a year,” he said. “Oil prices are high, and yet the Russian government is balancing the budget with difficulty. Not everything is going so well.”

Israel will Strike Iran Alone if the US Agrees to Weak Deal at Geneva

The following contain excerpts from a few posts by Joel Rosenberg on his blog. He, along with many others are convinced that war between Israel and Iran is inevitable. Iran's Supreme Leader, today, restated his determination to see the destruction of Israel.

Meanwhile, Israel is preparing to go it alone as it doesn't trust the US to have its back. So much depends on whether the Geneva negotiations are able to stop Iran's nuclear production or not. Khamenei sound completely uninterested in stopping production.

But even if Israel has to 'go it alone', they won't be alone. God has their back, even if we don't. See Ezekiel 38 and 39.

Search this blog for Iran or Israel for more articles regarding this great threat.

(Jerusalem, Israel) -- "Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said his country would not step back from its nuclear rights and his negotiating team had set limits for talks over Iran's disputed nuclear program to resume in Geneva later on Wednesday," reported the Jerusalem Post. "Khamenei took swipes at Israel and France during his speech to tens of thousands of volunteer Basij militiamen in Tehran, broadcast live on Iran's Press TV."

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran

“Zionist officials cannot be called humans, they are like animals, some of them,” said Khamenei. “The Israeli regime is doomed to failure and annihilation,” he added.

"The 'Zionist regime' says things that 'only bring humiliation on themselves,' he said adding that it is a regime that 'emerged through force and no phenomenon that has emerged through force has continued to exist, and this regime will not continue to exist either,'" the Iranian leader insisted....

"The leader also criticized France. French President Francois Hollande assured Israel on Sunday that France would continue to oppose an easing of economic sanctions against Iran until it was convinced Tehran had given up any pursuit of nuclear weapons," noted the Post.

Francois Hollande, President of France

The Times of Israel reported that "President Francois Hollande believes comments by Iran’s supreme leader about Israel are 'unacceptable' and complicate talks between world powers and the Islamic regime over its nuclear program," according to a French government spokesperson.

A profound sense of dismay is spreading among the Israeli people that they are watching the sunset of the golden years of the U.S.-Israeli alliance.

The slowly but steadily emerging consensus is that the American government is poised to cut a disastrous deal with Iran that could potentially endanger the State of Israel, and that the perhaps the White House cannot be trusted as the supreme ally it has been for seven decades.

"Israeli-US tensions over Iran have now emphatically reached the level of a major crisis, involving a fundamental clash of interests," notes a respected Israeli commentator, echoing the view many analysts here are reluctantly stating.

He noted that since the President chose to back down from using military force in Syria after America's red lines were repeatedly crossed, "Israel has broadly concluded that — while the US insists it is not bluffing, and while it has made preparations for military action — there is no credible American military option [regarding Iran]....

There is not absolute certainty in Jerusalem that the United States would have Israel’s back in the event that it did resort to force. If Israel’s leaders find themselves faced with the following equation: on the one hand, the imperative to protect eight million Israelis and the existence of the state and, on the other, the danger of enraging the international community, the choice would actually be quite straightforward. 

Those in the know in Israel are convinced that, against Iran’s nuclear program, Israel has formidable capabilities. This is not to suggest that the Israeli Air Force would be scrambling on the day after a deal is signed with Iran. But the option to strike would be there."

Amidror and Netanyahu (Bibi)

“We are not bluffing.” Israel ready to strike Iran alone, says Netanyahu’s outgoing national security advisor.

(Jerusalem,  Israel) -- The plan is set. The air force has trained. Everything is in place. Should Prime Minister Netanyahu order a full scale attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, the Israeli Defense Forces are ready to go into battle. They are ready to do so alone, without American or other allied support. And Israel will succeed.

This was the message of Netanyahu's outgoing national security advisor Yaakov Amidror in recent days, and it has Mideast analysts buzzing.

Amidror, a devout Orthodox Jew and long-experienced intelligence analyst, rarely gives interviews and doesn't do spin. When he starts speaking publicly about a possible Israeli preemptive strike and says, "We are not bluffing," heads start turning and ears prick up.

Personally, (says Joel Rosenberg) I believe Netanyahu recruited Amidror to help Israel prepare for this moment.

Amidror was named national security advisor (February 2011) -- he spoke at a conference in Washington, D.C. and said he fully expected a war with Iran.

“Technically, Israel will be ready [to strike Iran] if and when the decision will be taken….[but] no one is eager for war with Iran," Amidror said at the time. "If war with Iran comes, American planes will be used — the question is will it be American pilots or Israeli pilots flying those planes?….It would be a dirty one, a long one, one no one wants to be in….We want to postpone as long as possible….If you ask me for my assessment — and that’s what I have done for 25 years, doing assessments — I believe it is almost impossible to stop Iran without military force.”

Now consider Amidror's latest statements, given just as he is stepping down from government service after several intense and grueling years in the inner circle.

"An Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear installations would halt Iran's ability to produce nuclear weapons 'for a very long time,' said Yaakov Amidror who stepped down as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's national security adviser last week," reported Haaretz, picking up a "rare interview" Amidror gave to British newspaper the Financial Times.

Key excerpts from the interview:

Amidror said Netanyahu "is ready to take such decisions" but "the situation will be the determining factor for any prime minister. The situation will dictate actions.”

He also said the Israeli air force has conducted in recent years “very long-range flights . . . all around the world” as part of preparations for a possible military confrontation with Iran. “From here to Iran, it is 2,000km, and you have to be familiar with such destinations,” Amidror said. "All those who have radar cover of the Middle East know what we are doing.”

He added: “We are not the United States of America, of course, and believe it or not they have more capabilities than us. But we have enough to stop the Iranians for a very long time.”

The former national security adviser, who was until recently Netanyahu's top aide on security matters, was asked if Israel has the capability to hit Iran's subterranean nuclear sites. “Including everything," he answered. 

"We are not bluffing. We are very serious – preparing ourselves for the possibility that Israel will have to defend itself by itself.”

Amidror addressed the possibility an Israeli strike would trigger a response by Hezbollah, such as the firing of thousands of missiles toward Israel. In that case, Amidror said Israel would have to go on a ground assault into Lebanon and enter urban areas to stop the fire. 

Netanyahu says Preemptive Strike (on Iran) is still on the Table

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered a thinly veiled defense of a possible Israeli preemptive strike on Iran during a Knesset commemoration Tuesday of the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War," reports the Times of Israel.

"In a speech to MKs [Members of Knesset] about the war, in which Israel was surprised by a coordinated Arab invasion on the northern and southern fronts, Netanyahu explained that IDF soldiers who fought in the bitter battles of that war 'saved us from paying the price of complacency.' In the end we won a great victory, but the lessons of the war have stayed with us these 40 years,'” Netanyahu said.

“The first lesson is to never underestimate a threat, never underestimate an enemy, never ignore the signs of danger," Netanyahu said. "We can’t assume the enemy will act in ways that are convenient for us. The enemy can surprise us. Israel will not fall asleep on its watch again."

"The second lesson, he added, was that 'we can’t surrender the option of a preventive strike. It is not necessary in every situation, and it must be weighed carefully and seriously. But there are situations in which paying heed to the international price of such a step is outweighed by the price in blood we will pay if we absorb a strategic strike that will demand a response later on, and perhaps too late.'"

Netanyahu added: “A preventive war, even a preventive strike, is among the most difficult decisions a government can take, because it will never be able to prove what would have happened if it had not acted. But the key difference between the [1967] Six Day War and the [1973] Yom Kippur War lies first of all in the fact that in the Six Day War we launched a preventive strike that broke the chokehold our enemies had placed on us, and on Yom Kippur the government decided, despite all warnings, to absorb the full force of an enemy attack.”

"The prime minister is engaged in a blitz of international meetings and interviews warning against any slackening of international sanctions directed at the Iranian regime over its nuclear enrichment program," the Times reported. "Netanyahu has openly threatened that Israel would unilaterally attack the Iranian nuclear program if it was allowed to advance to the point where Iran was able to develop a nuclear weapon. Sources close to the Prime Minister’s Office suggested the Tuesday speech was directed at the Iranian issue. Netanyahu also offered hints at Israel’s negotiating position in peace talks with the Palestinians."

Search this blog for 'Israel' for other posts on this subject.

“The third lesson” of the war, he said, “is the strategic importance of buffer zones. [Israel’s] control of the Golan [Heights] and the Sinai Peninsula [in 1973] prevented an enemy penetration deep into the country” in the first days of the war.

"Press reports sourced to leaks from the peace talks with the Palestinians have suggested in recent days that Israel seeks to retain security control over the Jordan Valley as a buffer zone to the east," noted the Times.

And, Netanyahu said, “there is a fourth lesson: Peace is attained from a position of strength. In the Yom Kippur War, despite the enemy’s excellent opening position, they learned they could not best us with weapons. Five years later, [Egyptian president Anwar] Sadat and [prime minister Menachem] Begin signed a peace deal, and later [peace accords were signed] with Jordan. Now we are engaged in a serious investment in [making] peace with the Palestinians. Peace was achieved when our neighbors understood we are powerful and will not disappear.”

From Joel C Rosenberg

Is the US Playing into the Hands of Iran?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's stern warning on Iran, made from the rostrum of the UN General Assembly, comes on the heels of the recent charm offensive by new Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani in New York.

Search 'Rouhani' in this blog for further articles exploring the dangerous situation for Israel and the possibility that the US will abandon it at it's moment of greatest need.

President Rouhani's “historic” telephone conversation with President Obama was the first personal encounter between the two countries’ leaders since the breakup of US-Iranian relations in 1979.

Under such circumstances, Netanyahu is desperate to make his voice heard - but will it work? How credible are his arguments? And isn't Bibi – who is too late in New York – missing the point? These are the questions which will determine the future of the stick-and-carrot policy, adopted by the West towards the enigmatic and stubborn regime in Tehran. The answers will shape up the world diplomacy agenda on the Iranian nuclear crisis in coming days, weeks, and months.

The rapidly changing relationship in the Obama-Rouhani-Netanyahu triangle makes this year's UN gathering of world leaders one of the most dramatic moments in years, spent in the East River UN building in New York, along with the recent UNSC resolution passed on Syria. As the new Iranian gamble is gaining momentum, the 68th session of the UN General Assembly is looking strikingly different from the previous UN sessions, with plenty of empty seats which made the participants and journalists yawn.

While Obama is basking in the publicity as a new peacemaker - four years after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize - and is fascinated with the bold idea to tame the Islamic regime and trim its nuclear programs, Netanyahu sees the situation in a quite different way. His message to Obama and the world is crystal clear: while abandoning the former hard rhetoric of Rouhani's predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran is cutting corners in its efforts to win time and build nuclear weapons.

According to the Israeli leader, in its dealing with the world, Tehran is following the same policy of deception and cheap diplomacy tricks which was followed by North Korea at a time when it was not yet a nuclear power, but rather a threshold state. With all its talk of nuclear proliferation, the “hermit state” on the Korean peninsula has succeeded in acquiring a nuclear bomb.So, Iran wants to get its own nuclear big stick the way North Korea did it, and the world – not Israel alone – should ultimately prevent it, says Netanyahu.

Judging by Netanyahu's logic, by hobnobbing with the new Iranian leader, President Obama proves that his Iranian policy is idealistic, naive and inconsistent – and thus, detriment to regional peace and dangerous enough, regardless of whatever Obama’s intentions and rosy expectations might be. In fact, Netanyahu was never a fan of Obama – it is an open secret that during the 2012 US presidential race, the Israeli leader voiced his support to Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. Then, after a long period of somehow awkward - if not frosty - relations between the two leaders, President Obama paid his first visit to Israel this March and the two sides have experienced something similar to a delayed reset.

However, six month later, the US-Israeli reset has come under critical test by another reset – the unimaginable Washington-Tehran honeymoon. Visiting President Rouhani - who is smart enough not to lash out at the “American big Satan” and “Zionist enemy” - has stolen the show in New York. And this is what makes Mr. Netanyahu so unhappy. It looks like he has to start from a scratch to win President Obama’s ear on Iran again.

Will Netanyahu this time succeed? Obviously not. There is more than one reason for that. First, President Obama has already invested heavily into his new Iranian gamble and probably wants to prove that his 2009 Nobel Peace Prize by no means was a bad joke, as some say. So there is no need for Obama to rush to reverse the whole process, following Netanyahu's desperate pledge to address hard-boiled facts, even if by doing so he puts his reset with Israel at risk.

Secondly, with this week's US government partial shutdown, uncertainty over Obamacare, and the looming default threat, President Obama will be preoccupied with his domestic agenda in the immediate future, sticking to the point that “all politics are domestic.” So with one Washington-made crisis over US budget, Obama can hardly afford himself another crisis and is resorting to a notorious “last option” scenario which envisages use of military force.

So, Netanyahu's major problem at this UN General Assembly session is not the strength of his main argument - that what matters is hundreds and hundreds of Iranian centrifuges enriching uranium - but the polite language of Rouhani. His problem is not the lack of communicative skills, but the lack of will on the part of the White House to listen to him at this point and, finally, the lack of an audience at the East River building - which could have helped Netanyahu make his 2013 UN address a game-changer on Iran. This is a very untimely moment for him and this round of the battle over Iran he has lost, no doubt about it. That doesn't mean, however, that he has lost the whole battle.

The recent US-Israeli controversy over what to do with Tehran showed that there is not any pre-set “anti-Iranian axis” as portrayed by US and Israeli-hates. Each side – Washington and Tel Aviv - has its own agenda, its own priorities, and its own “red line” in evaluating the Iranian nuclear crisis, so even closest allies like the US and Israel can squabble seriously and lock horns.This year’s UN General Assembly showed that while Obama has chosen to act like a good cop, Netanyahu never hesitates to be a bad one.

Netanyahu is more and more facing a painful dilemma – to throw his weight to support world diplomacy efforts or to look for a moment when his arguments over the “paralysis of diplomacy” will be found credible enough. However, this moment may never come. 

Rouhani - We will never Build Nuclear Weapons

Iran's new President Hassan Rouhani has said that his country will never build nuclear weapons.

Hassan Rouhani replaced the bombastic Ahmadinejad as President of Iran. He is the polar opposite of his predecessor. He has replaced the 'in your face' fire of Ahmadinejad with a much more diplomatic tone. He pledged a more moderate and open approach in international affairs and seems to be delivering. But how honest is he? Is he just working the system to buy more time? Would you buy an oasis in the middle of the Sahara desert, unseen, from this man?

Israel is getting closer and closer to bombing Iran's nuclear facilities. Will he delay that strike or even prevent it from happening? He will have to be a lot more open with nuclear inspectors than his predecessor was.

Mr Rouhani also told US broadcaster NBC he had full authority to negotiate with the West over Tehran's controversial uranium enrichment programme.

And he described a recent letter sent to him by US President Barack Obama as "positive and constructive".

Earlier, Iran freed noted human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and reportedly released 10 other political prisoners.

The 10 other detainees - seven women and three men - are said to include reformist politician Mohsen Aminzadeh.

In his election campaign earlier this year, Mr Rouhani promised to free political prisoners. He also pledged a more moderate and open approach in international affairs.

He is due to visit New York next week for a meeting of the UN General Assembly.

The BBC's Iran correspondent James Reynolds says Mr Rouhani's interview shows the importance to his government of reconciliation with Washington.

Iran is under UN and Western sanctions over its controversial nuclear programme. It says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes but the US and its allies suspect Iran's leaders of trying to build a nuclear weapon.

In a wide-ranging interview with NBC News in Tehran, Mr Rouhani said Iran had "never pursued or sought a nuclear bomb and we are not going to do so".

"We have time and again said that under no circumstances would we seek any weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, nor will we ever."

Iranian technicians walk outside the building housing the reactor of Bushehr nuclear power plant
Iran insists its nuclear programme is solely for energy needs.

He added: "In its nuclear programme, this government enters with full power and has complete authority. We have sufficient political latitude to solve this problem."

President Rouhani said his government wanted the Iranian people to be "completely free" in their private lives.

He said a "commission for citizens' rights" was to be set up in the near future.

"In today's world, having access to information and the right of free dialogue and the right to think freely is the right of all people, including the people of Iran,'' he said, according to NBC's translation of the interview.

Mr Rouhani said he had received a letter from President Obama congratulating him on his election in June.

More than 800 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Iran today, according to research by the Guardian. Political activists, students, journalists, women's rights campaigners, lawyers, artists and members of religious and ethnic minorities are among those held. Senior figures include opposition leaders Mir Hussein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who have been under house arrest since February 2011.

He said Mr Obama had raised some issues and that he had responded to the points raised.

"From my point of view the tone of the letter was positive and constructive," Mr Rouhani said.

"It could be subtle and tiny steps for a very important future."

'Sense of urgency'
The White House on Wednesday gave details of the recent exchange of letters between President Obama and President Rouhani.

"In his letter the president indicated that the US is ready to resolve the nuclear issue in a way that allows Iran to demonstrate that its nuclear programme is for exclusively peaceful purposes," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

"The letter also conveyed the need to act with a sense of urgency to address this issue because, as we have long said, the window of opportunity for resolving this diplomatically is open, but it will not remain open indefinitely," he added.

Nasrin Sotoudeh has been freed but Mohsen Aminzadeh's release has not been officially confirmed
The moves come a day after Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gave the strongest sign yet of Iran's potential flexibility in future talks with the West.

In a meeting with Revolutionary Guards he said: "I don't oppose diplomacy. I am in favour of showing a champion's leniency. A wrestler may give way for tactical reasons, but should remember who is its opponent and enemy."

The head of Iran's nuclear agency told reporters in Tehran on Wednesday that he expected "a breakthrough" this year in settling the nuclear issue with the West.

"We are very optimistic about the process that has started to resolve the nuclear issue," said Ali Akbar Salehi.

Dangerous Times in the Middle East

As the UN investigates the use of chemical weapons in Syria, the US, Britain and France are moving military assets into position for a possible strike against Syria. According to Joel Rosenberg, Syria and Iran have vowed to strike Israel if attacked by western military, while Russia is warning the west not to intervene because there is no proof of chemical weapons use.

Joel Rosenberg is one of the world’s leading experts on the middle east and prophecy in scripture concerning the middle east. He has written several books of fiction based on what he sees as prophesied in scripture. Some of his scenarios have already come true.

http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/author/joelcrosenberg/

What happens if the UN inspectors find proof of the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime? Will the west attack Syria? Will Syria and Iran then attack Israel? According to Rosenberg, Israel is ready for such an attack and, in fact, is hoping for the US to do something.

Remember President Obama’s promise that use of chemical weapons would be crossing a red line? Israeli PM Netanyahu is anxious to see whether he will keep his word thereby sending a message to Iran about their nuclear weapons ambitions. Something has to be done in the next several months to neutralize Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Rosenberg suggests that a strike would punish the Assad regime but not be a fatal blow, perhaps air or missile strikes against military targets.

Meanwhile France’s Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) reported that 3600 people were treated in hospitals in which it operates in Damascus for neurotoxic symptoms, about 10% of them died.

How long can it be before even Russia has to admit the use of chemical weapons? What will Obama do when it happens?

Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the commander of the Republican Guards’ elite Basij force in Iran suggests that the US would never get involved in a war in the Middle East right now because they can’t afford it and they don’t have the morale (read will).

In 2008, I first wrote about the potential of an Islamic-Russian war against Israel in which the US fails to come to their rescue. I suggested that the US would either not be able to financially afford to join a war, or there would be no will to do so. Now I have a top Iranian military leader agreeing with me.

And what of Russia? If Iran attempts to attack Israel, Israel will respond by attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. They have many facilities that will need to be rendered inoperable, so the attack(s) will be fierce and messy. Russia has an agreement with Iran to come to their rescue if Iran is attacked. Will Russia honor its agreement with Iran while the US abandons its agreement with Israel?

Search this blog for "Russian-Islamic War" for several other posts on this subject.

This is a dangerous times we live in.

Get Ready for the End of the World - Ayatollah Ali Hamenei

That was the message presented by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Hamenei to his people. Hamenei warned the Iranian people of the coming of the Mahdi, the Hidden Imam, the last and awaited prophet who will appear for the Doomsday to save the world and impose Islamic world order.

He said that, if the Iranian people believed themselves to be the soldiers of the Twelfth Imam, they should get ready to be led by Allah to the war to help the Islamic civilization triumph over the world.

“It is our destiny,” the Iranian spiritual leader concluded.

Local media report that Tehran has been circulating a brochure titled “The Last Six Months,” urging officers to brace themselves ahead of the Mahdi‘s arrival and the last standoff with the West.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards cautioned Israel and the US they had no information as the kind of warheads Iranian missiles may carry.

The threat from the Revolutionary Guard to Israel and the US was made to deter or delay the inevitable attack on Iran's nuclear weapons program. See the following posts for background: 
Iran and the Bomb 
The Inevitable Middle East War 

Christians believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will return to earth after seven years of the Great Tribulation, and restore peace and order. During that 7 year period, the AntiChrist will take control of the world and slaughter millions of Christians. I believe the 12th Imam, or the Mahdi, is the AntiChrist.

The recent statement by Hamenei, at the very least, confirms Islam's desire for world dominance, either by war or by emigration and population growth. Hamenei, in his old age, seems to be getting too impatient to wait for the second option.

Uprising in Turkey

As mentioned in a previous post, see: "Turkey, key to a Russian/Islamic invasion of Israel", Turkey is vitally important to the prophesied Russian and Islamic invasion of Israel (Eze 38,39). Russia will have to go through Turkey to get to Israel. Some interpreters of these scriptures suggest that it is Turkey itself, not Russia, that will lead the Islamic invasion of Israel.

For either to happen, Turkey would almost certainly have to become an Islamic country. It is mostly Islamic, but politically secular. As pointed out in the above blog, that appears to be changing and many people don't like it. That's part of the reason there is so much rioting going on there now.

However, President Erdogan has very little patience for these rioters and if he can't restore order soon, he is liable to declare something akin to martial law. He has his own people in place in the military so the threat of a military coup, which has happened several times in the past, is very limited.

With martial law, Erdogan can instil more Islamic values on the people in the name of peace and good government, thus taking them one more step closer to a full-out Islamic state which would, most certainly, be an enemy of Israel.

2013 – The Scariest Year yet?

There can be little question that 2013 is the most frightening year since 1962. In ’62 the threat of nuclear war hung over the entire world as President Kennedy stared down Nikita Khrushchev for weeks before the Russian president blinked. Our high school teachers were telling us to hide under our desks in the event of a nuclear attack; or, if we were at home, to hide under a sheet to protect us from the fall-out. Even as children we knew how absurd this was.

The 911 attack in 2001 was a complete surprise and while shocking as can be, the only fear came afterward and quickly dissipated as it became apparent that Al Qaeda had no more major surprises in it’s arsenal of murder and mayhem.

What is happening in 2013 that is so riveting to those of us who pay attention to world events? 2013 is the year Iran gets a nuclear bomb. Iran is run by Muslim fanatics (read lunatics) who believe they were sent by Allah to pave the way for the 12^th Imam who will bring peace and Muslim rule to the entire earth. However, the road to be paved is one of complete chaos – it is in the midst of this that 12^th Imam, or Mahdi, will come.

Muhammad said:

Our Mahdi will have a broad forehead and a pointed (prominent) nose. He will fill the earth with justice as it is filled with injustice and tyranny. He will rule for seven years
—Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, [17]
If this sounds a lot like the Biblical Antichrist, it is not a coincidence.

                         

Both the Ayatollah, the spiritual head of the country, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are on board with this belief. Ahmadinejad has promised publicly many times that he will destroy Israel. Destroying Israel and the Jewish people seems to be a common theme among most inherently evil dictators. Although Iran calls itself a democracy it’s most recent elections were condemned as fraudulent. In fact, I doubt that any Muslim country is truly democratic. (For that matter, I have doubts about a lot of ‘Christian’ countries.)

Both American and Israeli intelligence believe that Iran will have nuclear capability by this summer unless something is done to stop or delay them. Just today, the US increased sanctions against Iran - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21361798 but diplomacy has failed to slow them down one little bit. The only good news is that they don’t have an elegant delivery system to launch such a bomb on Israel. They don’t have the long range ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear payload. That, however, may not be an insurmountable problem as Iran has many maniacal friends in many Muslim countries.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, has promised that Iran will not reach nuclear capability. In 2007, Israel attacked and destroyed a Syrian nuclear facility before it could produce a bomb. That might surprise you for it made remarkably little news in the western world. This means that Israel does not make idle threats. It will attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, and it will do so in the next few months. It must!

However, Iran, unlike Syria, has taken extreme cautions to protect their nuclear research stations. They have several all over the country and some are buried under mountains where most conventional weapons cannot touch them. How Israel plans to overcome this obstacle is beyond me, but I have little doubt that they will.

What the consequences of an Israeli strike or strikes on Iran will be is where the fear comes in. Will Iran unleash an all-out war on Israel? How many allies will join her? Russia is an ally of Iran; will the great bear also come against Israel? Will the US defend her? Some believe the answers to these questions are in Ezekiel 38 and 39 which describe a war where all of Islam plus, probably, Russia, attack Israel. But it is not the US that comes to Israel’s defense, it is Christ Who destroys the attacking forces and preserves His chosen people.

I am not convinced that Ezekiel 38 and 39 are for this time period, but if it is, all hell is going to break loose in the middle east and the world will be a very different place afterward. If the 12th Imam (Antichrist) does emerge, then we will enter that 7 year period called the Great Tribulation when the world becomes a more horrible place than it ever was or than we could ever imagine it.

I am not saying that this is all going to happen in 2013, but the wheels will be set in motion. When Iran and/or other Islamic countries attack Israel may still be some years away, or maybe not.

Now having read this, we can all go back to watching the mindless myriad of television shows. We can get the spit scared out of us with horror movies, as if there isn't enough real horror in the world. We can play video games where we run around killing people and things when there are real people with real guns doing more than enough of that. We can focus our lives on entertaining ourselves and miss the entire reason for our existence.

But we will all stand before God one day and give an accounting for what we did with our time and talents. Are you ready for that?

Iran and the Bomb

Click! Another minute goes by in the countdown to the Russian/Islamic war against Israel. But this is a big minute. It was revealed today on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16470100 that Iran has begun enriching uranium to 20%. While not weapons-grade, 20% is a big step in that direction and is considered a major provocation by the UN.

James Reynolds BBC Iran correspondent reported: “It has been built underground and it is heavily fortified. In particular, Iran appears to want to guard against potential air strikes. Military experts suggest that the facility may be able to survive attack from all but the most powerful bombs.” If it’s for peaceful purposes why the great expense of building it under a mountain and the excessive military protection?

The problem here is that if Israeli’s Mossad cannot find a way to destroy the facility from within, Israel may have to blow it to hell with ‘the most powerful bombs’. Being very near the Muslim ‘holy city’ of Qom, this could result in provoking all Islam to rise against Israel.

Will Israel wait until they start producing weapons-grade plutonium? It may depend on how good their intelligence is. They may be able to hold out until sanctions cause the Iranian people to turn on their fanatic Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his equally fanatical President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iranians are technologically savvy and the Arab Spring could blossom very quickly there.

Turkey, key to a Russian/Islamic invasion of Israel

The Ottoman Empire came to an abrupt end during WW1, when they chose to align themselves with the losing side. The allies occupied the Empire until 1922 When Mustafa Kemal Pasha (later called Attaturk – Father of Turks) led an uprising and chased them all out of what is now modern day Turkey. He then set about building a one-party democracy that was thoroughly secular.

Ever since then, the military has stepped in whenever the country was poorly run or in danger of Islamic takeover, as in 1971. Four military coups occurred between 1960 and 1997. Along the way, they abandoned the one-party system and became a real democracy.

The majority of Turks are Islamic by faith but largely secular in public. Headscarves are banned in universities and an attempt to end that law in 2007 nearly toppled the government. Even so, Turkey’s human rights violations have been the main obstacle to it joining the European Union. They might consider that a blessing right now.

So what is happening in Turkey now? They have a devout Muslim as Prime Minister, elected to a second term with a large majority.  However, over the past few years, a plot, whether real or imaginary, has been uncovered implicating top military officials in planning to overthrow the elected government again.

The evidence is sketchy at best, and may simply involve some thinking out loud by some people in the military. Nevertheless, hundreds of former and active military officials, prominent academics, journalists and lawyers have been detained. Many are still awaiting trial and some have not even been charged. Included is the recently retired General in charge of all the Turkish Armed Forces.

Is the conspiracy real or imagined? Or, was it possibly contrived by the government in order to place leaders at the top of the military who are more faithful to the vision of Islam than to a secular state? They still have to replace a number of Supreme Court judges with like-minded Muslims which could happen so quietly as to not be noticed. If it does happen or is happening, there will be little stopping Turkey from becoming a total Islamic republic.

Turkey has, under the current Prime Minister, started out with excellent relations with Israel, however those relations have dramatically cooled since the Israeli commando raid on the Mavi Marmara in May 2010, when it tried to breach the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Eight Turkish nationals were killed as well as an American of Turkish descent.

Whether intentional or not, Turkey is preparing itself to be involved in the Russian/Islamic invasion of Israel prophesied in Ezekiel 37 and 38.

Facts: Turkey may be the cradle of civilization as the Biblical Garden of Eden may well have been in or partly in that country.  

In WW2, Turkey wisely stayed neutral until February 1945 when it chose the winning side.

The Inevitable Middle-East War

In 2008, I first wrote about the likelihood of Israel striking Iran’s nuclear program and the possibility of it precipitating an Islamic/Russian war against Israel. Such a war is described in great detail in Ezekiel 38 & 39, and a study of those two chapters of the Bible make very compelling reading in light of today’s geopolitical landscape.

 I suggested that unexpected consequences could result in a dramatic condemnation of Israel, even by the US. I also suggested that in order for such a war to occur that the US would have to abstain from supporting their Israeli allies. I said this would be possible because of a change in the US leadership’s attitude toward Israel, or due to a complete financial failure of the US.

Yesterday, Russia refused to allow UN sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program despite the UNs IAEA declaring that Iran was most likely preparing to make nuclear weapons. Since Iran has promised to wipe Israel off the map, then we can only conclude that Russia is in favour of such a catastrophe. Russia has recently made a military alliance with Iran and should Israel attack Iran, Russia would almost automatically be at war with Israel.

Will the US abandon its long-time ally in its greatest hour of need? This is what the US Secretary of Defence had to say today about attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities:

"You've got to be careful of unintended consequences here," Mr Panetta told reporters in Washington, when asked about his concerns about a military strike.

He acknowledged military action might fail to deter Iran "from what they want to do".

"But more importantly, it could have a serious impact in the region, and it could have a serious impact on US forces in the region," he said.

He further suggested that it would only delay Iran’s nuclear ambitions by 3 years at the most. His plan is to use the toughest possible sanctions against Iran. Since Russia has veto power in the UN, it will mean the US will not have a lot of support in applying sanctions. And since the leadership of Iran believes they have been called to create complete chaos in the world to pave the way for the Mahdi, there is little doubt that they will use nuclear weapons on Israel, if, and when, they can.

The Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of Islam, will, according to prophecy, accompany the antichrist of the New Testament. (That would make him the Beast or the False Prophet.) The Mahdi will be a descendant of the daughter of Mohammed. This is where it gets really interesting. The daughter’s name was Fatimah after whom the little city of Fatima, Portugal was named. You’ve heard of Fatima, that is where the Virgin Mary was supposed to have appeared to three children in 1917. Curious, huh?

According to Christian prophecy, the US will abandon Israel; Russia and Islam will attack Israel with conventional weapons, and God will intervene and destroy the Russian and Islamic forces. Israel will survive; Islam and Russia will be severely crippled, which, eventually, will open the doors for the Chinese to invade, 200 million strong, in what will be the real Armageddon.