Where Are We?

[Daniel 11:36]

DebkaFiles, January 16, 2017

Obama’s Mid-East Legacy Is Tragic Failure

The Middle East is a more dangerous place after eight years of the Obama Presidency than it was before. The eight disastrous Obama years follow eight disastrous Bush years during which that part of the world became more dangerous as well. So have many other international hot spots. In sum, the past 16 years have seen major foreign policy blunders all over the world, and most especially in the area between Libya and Iran, that includes Israel, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and the Gulf.

With regard to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, the Obama policies have made the prospects for a compromise peace more difficult to achieve. When Israel felt that America had its back – under both President Clinton and Bush 43 – they offered generous proposals to end settlements and occupation in nearly all of the West Bank. Tragically the Palestinian leadership – first under Arafat and then under Abbas – did not accept either the Barak-Clinton offers in 2000-2001, nor the Olmert offer in 2008. Now they are ignoring Netanyahu’s open offer to negotiate with no pre-conditions.

In his brilliant book chronicling the American-Israeli relationship – “Doomed To Succeed” – Dennis Ross proves conclusively that whenever the Israeli government has confidence in America’s backing, it has been more willing to make generous compromise offers, than when it has reason to doubt American support. President Obama did not understand this crucial reality. 

Instead of having Israel’s back, he repeatedly stabbed Israel in the back, beginning with his one–sided Cairo speech near the beginning of his tenure, continuing through his failure to enforce the red-line on chemical weapon use by Syria, then allowing a sunset provision to be included in the Iran deal, and culminating in his refusal to veto the one-sided Security Council resolution, which placed the lion’s share of blame on the Israelis for the current stalemate.

Who’s Really Behind the Academic Boycott Against Israel?
One of the main challenges to hopes for peace in the Middle East is the campaign to boycott and isolate...

These ill-advised actions – especially the Security Council resolution – have disincentivized the Palestinian leadership from accepting the Netanyahu offer to sit down and negotiate a compromise peace. They have been falsely led to believe that they can achieve statehood through the United Nations, or by other means that do not require compromise.

The Iran Deal, while it delayed Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons, virtually guaranteed that it would be allowed to develop a nuclear arsenal as soon as the major restrictions on the deal expire in the next decade. Israel will never allow a regime sworn to the destruction of the Nation-State of the Jewish People to secure such a genocidal weapon. So the likelihood of an eventual dangerous military confrontation has been increased rather than decreased by the poorly negotiated Iran deal.

Obama’s failure to carry out his red-line threat against the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons has weakened American credibility among its allies and adversaries alike. It has created a vacuum of power that Russia was quick to fill. 

Turkey, too, has flexed its bullying muscles, as its irascible and egomaniacal leader has used the excuse of ISIS to go after another American ally, the Kurds, who have at least as strong a claim to statehood as do the Palestinians.

America’s traditional allies in the mid-East – Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Jordan – have all been weakened by the Obama policies, most especially by the Iran deal. America’s traditional enemies – Iran, Syria and Hezbollah – have been strengthened, along with Turkey.

Terrorism has increased and moved northward to Europe, partly as a result of the Syrian crisis.

ISIS, Al Qaeda, the Taliban – and other terrorist offshoots – thought weakened, remain a serious threat to regional stability and to civilians.

A destabilized Middle East poses increasing dangers to American allies and to peace. The blame for this instability is shared by presidents Bush and Obama. The overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the invasion of Iraq divided that country into ungovernability and invited Iran to play a major role in its current destabilized condition.

The toppling of Gaddafi left Libya open to increasing terrorist influences. The attempt to replace Assad has turned Syria into a nightmare. The forced resignation of Mubarak initially placed Egypt under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood and strengthened Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Only a coup, opposed by the Obama Administration, restored some semblance of stability to Egypt. Lebanon has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Hezbollah, a terrorist group under the influence of Iran that has 100,000 missiles aimed at Israel’s population centers. The Shia arc now runs from Iran through parts of Iraq and Syria and into Lebanon.

This is the tragic legacy of the Obama administration’s failed efforts to undo the harms caused by the Bush administration. Radical Islamic terrorists have replaced authoritarian secular tyrants. Both are bad, but tyrants at least produce a degree of stability and predictability. 

They also tend to keep their tyranny domestic, whereas terrorists tend to export their evil tactics. We should have learned the lesson from the replacement of the tyrannical Shah of Iran by the far more tyrannical and dangerous Ayatollahs. But we did not. We insisted on supporting the “democracy” of the Arab spring, which resulted in the replacement of undemocratic domestic tyrants by undemocratic international terrorists.

History will look kindly on Obama’s domestic successes, but it will judge his Mideast policy harshly.

My comments:
The Middle East is the focus of the Bible prophets with regard for Israel and the Muslim states round about .... the setting for the time of the end of this age
 

Obama and Kerry have pushed the clock forward even though neither have any idea about what they have done

The coming 70 week decreed for Israel is at the cusp .... just a matter of time

According to the end time visions of the Bible prophets this scene will see a little known and surprising change in the region by the rising of the biblical "antichrist" who will actually succeed in confederating the current Muslim divides of the region

This kingdom will shock the world and will cause horrific upheaval across the earth including the invasion and occupation of Israel, Jerusalem, and the temple mount

These events will bring the Lord's action to close this present age by His fierce wrath and judgment against not only the Muslims, but the entire world of unbelief, and when the dust settles He will take back and rule the earth from Jerusalem for 1000 years

[Keras]

      The Lords fiery judgement on the Middle East:

Isaiah 29:1-2 Woe to you Ariel! Ariel, the city where David settled. The years roll on and you carry out your festivals. Yet, I shall reduce Ariel to dire straits. There will be suffering and sorrow, when I make her My fire altar.

Ariel – is a pun on the Hebrew word, ‘har’el’ = the Temple burnt offering altar. In this prophecy, it refers to Jerusalem and the Jewish State of Israel.  Ezekiel 21:1-7, Isaiah 22:1-14, Amos 2:4-5

 

Isaiah 29:3-4 I will encompass you and besiege you with the visitation of My fiery judgement. You will be brought low, you will hide underground, your voice will whisper out of the earth. [A Christian remnant will survive in bunkers. Isaiah 6:13]

The Lord’s judgement/punishment of the nations, by fire from God’s storehouse, Deut. 32:22,34-35,41-43, will be a huge explosion of the sun, Isaiah 30:26a, Isaiah 66:15-16, Malachi 4:1, Hebrews 10:27, 2 Peter 3:7, Revelation  6:12-17

Joel 2:1-11 Sound the alarm!  For the Day of the Lord’s wrath is coming. As the sun rises, a vast host will appear, the like has never been known. It advances in a devouring fire, behind is a leaping flame that leaves a desolate wasteland. Nothing can escape it, nothing can stop it and as it strikes, the earth quakes and the heavens thunder. Who can survive that dark and terrible Day?

Isaiah 29:5-8 But, your enemies will become like dust, those ruthless hordes, like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant, punishment will come from the Lord Almighty, with earthquakes, thunder, storms and a blaze of devouring fire. All the nations warring against Mt Zion, will vanish, as a dream, like one who is hungry or thirsty; then wakes to find himself empty, so it will be with all those nations attacking Israel.  Jeremiah 10:18

The fire judgement on the Middle East, striking ‘in an instant’, will be a Coronal Mass Ejection: a sunstrike of unprecedented magnitude and is the next prophesied event we can expect, it is the Day that will ‘come as a thief’, sudden and unexpectedly. Zechariah 3:9, Isaiah 10:17 It is quite a different event to what is described about the attack and destruction of Gog/Magog or of Armageddon, both to come later, respectively. 

 Psalm 83:13-18, Isaiah 34:5, Isaiah 30:25-28 & 30, Ezekiel 30:1-5, Zephaniah 1:14-18,

The regeneration of the Middle East:  Isaiah 35, Ezekiel 36:8-12, Amos 9:13-15

Isaiah 29:17-21 In a very short time, the Land will be made prosperous again. On that Day, the deaf will hear and the blind will see and the lowly and poor will exult in the Holy One of Israel. The ruthless and evil peoples will be gone, all who practise falsehood will be cut down.  Isaiah 66:12-14, Psalm 107:1-43, Jeremiah 33:12-13

Isaiah 29:22-23 Therefore, these are the words of the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, about the House of Jacob: This is no time for you to be ashamed, no time to be frightened, for his descendants will praise My Name, [now all true Christians] when they see what I have done for them. They will stand in awe of the Holy God of Israel. Reference: REB, NIV. Some verses condensed.

Christian Israelites: all those whose names are written in the Book, Malachi 3:16-18, be they descendants of Jacob or grafted in, will be gathered into the Land, ”in a very short time” after the Lord’s Day of vengeance and wrath against the nations  Ezekiel 20: 34-38, Isaiah 11:11-12, Jeremiah 30:18-24, Rev 7:1-14                       

 

Edited January 27, 2017 by Keras

[Keras]

God’s Plan for our Time

As 2017 moves along, we may wonder what it is that the Lord has next for His creation. We know the story of how He destroyed an early civilization by the means of a great flood. Jesus prophesied that in the time of the end it will again be ‘as in the days of Noah’. We can’t know how bad that civilization was, but it seems they just got on with life much the same as we do today. From God’s point of view, their problem was they failed to acknowledge Him or respect His Laws, so their Creator simply wiped them out and started over again, just like anything made that turns out defective is remoulded, or with breeding; try a new bloodline. Isaiah 64:8, Jeremiah 18:6-7, Romans 9:20-21

So are the world’s people today as bad as those in Noah’s day? It seems likely, as evidenced by the decline in moral standards and the widespread disbelief in the Creator God. Jeremiah 6:18-19, Psalms 10:13, Ezekiel 20:39

 

Several Bible verses tell us that God the Creator takes a keen interest in what is happening on earth. Revelation 2:23b, Job 34:21-22, Proverbs 15:3, Psalms 11:4-5, Jer. 32:18-19 In our perfectly balanced and organized universe, He is playing out a drama, a set piece carefully orchestrated and arranged so that each player can choose their own role. Each person is given a conscience; a moral intuition to be aware of what is right and what is wrong, so we all make our choices as to how we live our lives.

 

Today, the whole world is in a precarious state, with a population of over 7 billion. There is the capacity to produce enough food and provide a reasonable lifestyle for that many, but not the altruistic desire to do so and human mismanagement exacerbates the problems. Therefore the situation deteriorates, life is difficult and short for most and only relatively few live a good and fulfilling life, while all mostly do not acknowledge the one true God or keep His Laws. Over 100 Bible prophesies say how God will judge the nations and punish His enemies, to once again ‘reset civilization’. Deuteronomy 32:35, Psalms 18:7-15, Isaiah 2:12, Isaiah 30:25-28, Habakkuk 3:12, Zephaniah 3:8, Hebrews 10:27, 2 Thess. 1:8, Jeremiah 23:19-20, Revelation 14:17-20

Note that most of the prophesies about the great Day of the Lord’s vengeance and wrath, which is the next prophesied event we can expect, being the fulfilment of Psalms 83, Micah 4:11-12, is the Sixth Seal of Rev. 6:12-17, state that this time He will use fire to ‘set the heavens ablaze, the earth will be enveloped in flames and all that is in it will be brought to judgement’. 2 Peter 3:7, Isaiah 30:25-28, Malachi 4:1, Isaiah 66:15-16, Zephaniah 3:8

 

But the Lord’s people have a Powerful Advocate, He promises to protect and save His righteous people. Jer. 50:33-34, Isa. 51:16, Nahum 1:7, Psalm 60:4-5, Zech. 9:15-16

Psalms 30:1-5 I shall exalt You Lord, for You have lifted me up and not let enemies prevail. I cried out to You and You healed me, You saved my life as I was sinking into the abyss. Sing praises to the Lord, all you His loyal servants, give thanks to His holy name. In His anger there is punishment, but in His favour there is life. There may be distress at nightfall, but the morning will bring rejoicing.