May 18, 2009
Obama to Israel: No Surprise Attacks Please
Sometimes when I write an article for “Nearing Midnight,” there is a rush of news the following week that makes me wish I had delayed posting my commentary. Such is the case with last week’s “Brace for Impact” article.
Prophecy is unfolding at such a fast pace, I can see Terry and I being forced to serialize our commentary for future NMU. We may also have to start posting mid-week revisions of our prophetic observations. Because we have a lot of other projects that demand our time, this is an option we hope does not become necessary.
The latest indication that America and Israel are coming into conflict with each other’s interests came when President Obama sent a communication to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding that Israel not surprise the U.S. with a Israeli military operation against Iran. The message was conveyed by a senior American official who met in Israel with Netanyahu, ministers, and other senior officials.
Obama is clearly worried about statements made by the new Israeli leader. Netanyahu has said, "I pledge that Iran will not attain nuclear arms, and that includes whatever is necessary for this statement to be carried out." After taking office, on Holocaust Memorial Day, Netanyahu said: "We will not allow Holocaust-deniers to carry out another holocaust."
Three weeks ago, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, held a secret meeting with Mr. Netanyahu in Jerusalem. The Israeli leader asked the United States to set benchmarks that would demonstrate that its diplomatic effort to resolve the Iranian nuclear conflict is working. Netanyahu made it clear that he would only give Washington a limited amount of time to show that its goodwill approach is getting results.
Iran is not the only source of friction between the U.S. and Israel. President Barack Obama is now also pressing Israel over Jewish settlements in the disputed West Bank. He plans to ask Netanyahu to freeze all new developments. Netanyahu has already confirmed that he is solidly behind the rights of Jews to settle in the West Bank.
“While it isn't known how hard Obama will press the point or the precise outlines of his request, but by raising the settlements issue now, he's wading into one of the most sensitive areas of U.S.-Israeli relations—one that's confounded many of his predecessors” (Warren P. Strobel and Dion Nissenbaum, McClatchy News).
Obama has made several demands of Israel, but has yet to produce a detailed master plan for how to achieve these lofty goals that have eluded American presidents for decades. We may get a glimpse of his new strategy when Obama meets with Netanyahu, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas later this month.
The test of how well President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu will be able to work together will come this week as Netanyahu makes his first trip to Washington. I doubt Obama is going to get a promise of a warning of any Israeli attacks against Iran. There is already too much concern that the Obama administration has become too chummy with the Muslim world. I don’t see why Israel needs to tell the U.S. of its plans. If Obama has no plans to help out in the attack, and with it being vital to the survival of the Jewish state, Obama can rely on the cable news networks to learn of any strike against Iran.
An operation against Iran would change everything in the Middle East. Mohamed El Baradei, the outgoing head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said in an interview with German daily Der Spiegel that a strike “would turn the region into one great fireball, and the Iranians would immediately begin building the bomb—with the support of the entire Islamic world."
A conflict between Israel and Iran could very well be the spark that lights the fuse to the tribulation hour. We are so close the last days, any major event will be enough of a catalyst to set events into motion. If world leaders had a basic understanding of prophecy, they wouldn’t have allowed this ticking time bomb to progress to the point it is now.
“And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it” (Zechariah 12:3).
-- Todd
Gog-Magog Materializing
News that, to me, links to the prophet Ezekiel’s foretelling of the Gog-Magog war continues to bring into focus precursor stage setting for that assault on end-times Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the same time, is scheduled to meet with a new U.S. president whose pre-election rhetoric and post-election actions almost certainly lay groundwork that will drive a wedge between America and the people God calls His chosen. The movement away from Israel by the American administration and the international community inflicting a destructive peace process upon Israel is a prescription for disaster.
Russia, the nation to the uttermost north of Jerusalem, is making noises of intention to exert hegemony over all things pertaining to gas and oil energy within its sphere of influence. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made his nation’s intention known in conjunction with the United Nations’ issuing a deadline for countries wanting to make claims for sea bed gas and oil deposits, particularly in the Arctic region.
The Kremlin policy position paper, signed off by Medvedev, addressed Russia's main challenges to national security for the next decade. Russian policy in the area of acquisition and protection of its energy needs will in the next ten years be shaped by battles over energy reserves, the Kremlin document said. The Kremlin paper stated the leadership’s attitude regarding the use of military force in the problem of Russia’s energy resources.
It declared, "Amid competitive struggle for resources, attempts to use military force to solve emerging problems can't be excluded ... The existing balance of forces near the borders of the Russian Federation and its allies can be violated." The document said the Middle East, the Barents Sea, the Arctic, the Caspian Sea, and Central Asia are considered by the Kremlin as at the heart of competing claims for resources.
Meanwhile, adding to current building tensions that have biblically prophetic overtones, King Abdullah of Jordan has called together–astonishingly, in my view—a series of meetings of Arab nations and western powers called the World Economic Forum on Middle East. The meetings opened in Jordan this past Friday (May 15) at a time Israel is celebrating it’s sixty-first birthday into modern times.
The meeting comes, ostensibly, from the Arab nations’ trepidation about how dangerous is the Iranian regime, led by a man, and by mullahs who believe they can be truly successful only if they bring about the Islamic version of Armageddon. Cynical as the history of the Arabs’ hatred for the Jews has made me, I sense the meetings are much more nefariously based than fear of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and his wanting to bring the mahti from the well to rule over an all Islamic world. I look for there to come from the World Economic Forum on Middle East greatly increased pressure against Israel to agree to a peace initiative yet to be determined.
It can’t be coincident, I’m convinced. While the above things are gyrating in the Middle East, Russia, and Iran, the same man representing Israel as prime minister who so angered U.S. President Bill Clinton when he visited the White House in 1996 that Clinton was said to have had a profanity-laced fit, is about to meet with a president that at every geopolitical turn seems to want to take America farther from the alliance that binds the two nations.
Again, the chief focus of the upcoming Obama-Netanyahu White House meeting, like the focus of the World Economic Forum on Middle East, involves Iran and its threat to introduce yet another nuclear military entity into the volatile region. And, the president has already issued a warning to the leader of our closest ally in that incendiary part of the world.
U.S. President Barack Obama has sent a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding that Israel not surprise the U.S. with an Israeli military operation against Iran. The message was conveyed by a senior American official who met in Israel with Netanyahu, ministers and other senior officials…Obama did not wait for his White House meeting with Netanyahu, scheduled for next Monday, to deliver his message, but rather sent it ahead of time with his envoy.
It may be assumed that Obama is disturbed by the positions Netanyahu expressed before his election vis-a-vis Tehran—for example, Netanyahu's statement that “If elected I pledge that Iran will not attain nuclear arms, and that includes whatever is necessary for this statement to be carried out" (“Obama warns Netanyahu: Don't surprise me with Iran strike,” Aluf Benn and Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz, Reuters, 5/15/09).
The cameras, lights, and action are turned precisely on the nations and issues God’s Word foretold will be at the center of deteriorating world conditions as the time of Christ’s return approaches. Jesus told the disciples who are alive at the time these things come into view to be watchful (Mark 13:37). Certainly, there is much to watch in these troubling, though exciting days.
--Terry
