Pulling the strings in the Middle East

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian mystic and a so-called ‘faith-healer’ during the period of Tsarist Russia’s disintegration. Today, the name ‘Rasputin’ is synonymous with someone who exerts great and insidious influence as a ‘power behind the throne.’ People think of a Rasputin as a Machiavellian manipulator or a puppet master – one who controls governments, bending their political decisions to his own malevolent will.

In the roomful of mirrors known as the Middle East, there are many countries led by aspiring Rasputins, each one seeking to hornswoggle and hoodwink his neighbors. Most of today’s players are attempting to pull the strings on each other, all the while not realizing that they are being exploited and possibly out-maneuvered by the very parties they themselves are trying to unscrupulously manipulate. Here are two out of many recent examples which touch on modern Middle Eastern dynamics:

A deeper analysis of these activities is found in ‘The Secret War against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People’ (John Loftus and Mark Aarons, St. Mark’s Griffin, 1997).

Who is pulling whose strings today?

The answer to this question is multi-faceted, and involves many countries:

Saudi Arabia – The Saudi rulers (mostly secular and profligate in lifestyle) need to walk carefully, trying not to offend their religious scholars, the ulema. Saudi leaders pull the strings, encouraging the ulema to spread jihad in Afghanistan, in Central Asia, in the West, etc. – just not in Saudi Arabia. Were jihadis allowed free rein in Mecca and Medina, mujahidin zealots would have long ago chopped off the heads of most of Saudi Arabia’s leaders. This explains why 15 of the nineteen  9/11 jihadis were Saudi citizens, and why much of the funding and organization for them came from royal Saudi sources. At the same time, the Saudis pull America’s strings, pressuring it to force Israel to withdraw from Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem (including the Temple Mount).

Qatar – This Islamist state has stepped up to the plate, funding jihadi Muslim Brotherhood groups like Hamas (as does Saudi Arabia), while trying to overthrow the Saudi state and Egypt. Qatar insists on pulling US strings, declaring itself to be an honest mediator between Hamas and Israel, while hosting Hamas’ main theological leaders and terrorists. Qatar hosts America’s biggest US Air Force base al-Udeid in Doha, while simultaneously hosting al-Jazeera TV, the most virulent anti-American and anti-Israeli media source reaching the Western world. A lot of strings are being pulled here at the same time!

Iran – The US supports Iran in many ways, allowing many billions to flow into her coffers – money which is immediately fungible for terrorist support and nuclear weapons development. Iran is the world’s premier funder and protector of jihadi terror. The US pulls strings by supporting Iran, in order to strike fear into the heart of Iran’s arch-enemy Saudi Arabia. America is using Iran to act as a counter-balance against Saudi Arabia. US-Iran connections threaten Saudi security and potentially weaken its confidence. America hopes that this will make the Saudis more amenable to follow American goals in the Arabian Gulf.

But then Saudi Arabia turns around and pulls US strings, warming up to China (America’s mortal enemy), and threatening to step out from under the US protective umbrella. In the same way, Israel is threatened by America’s support for Iran and Saudi Arabia. Those moves pull Israel’s strings in an attempt to to ‘keep the Jewish state in line’ as it deals with daily threats to its existence in the Middle East.

There are many more such interactions, but our newsletters are too small a medium to adequately explore the entire subject here.

Serpentine craftiness in the Middle East

The ‘accuser of the brethren’ is often known by his Hebrew name ‘Satan’ (literally, ‘the one who accuses’). The craftiness of the enemy, his cunning and subtlety – these are accurately reflected in jihadi terror tactics. The Jewish people have had over 100 years of dealing with such attacks, from the massacres of 1834 and 1929 in Hebron, Safed and Jerusalem, to the massacres of Jews surrounding the time of the birth of the State of Israel. Modern incarnations of this evil include the PLO’s bloody murders of Jewish civilians, athletes and tourists; Hamas’ kidnapping, rape and murder of Israeli farmers, students and rock-concert goers; Hezbollah and Iranian missile and rocket attacks against Israeli civilians; etc.

The jihadi terrorists who initiate these atrocities are also pulling strings – American, Israeli and UN strings. Jihadi threats to bring murderous Islamist attacks against Western Europe, Russia, North and South America – these threats pull Western strings. Western diplomats are led down a path of deception, believing that such attacks will stop if Israel can be pressured to collapse and surrender significant portions of its Promised Land to jihadi demands. Unfortunately, time and time again jihadi attacks have led Westerners to surrender to Islamist diktats. Throw in the threat of an Arab oil embargo (think 1973-74), and it has proved rather easy to manipulate the West. Hamas and their fellow travelers are old hands at this, smoothly adept at insidiously shaping Western hearts, Western anti-Israel resolutions, anti-Israel embargo pressures and anti-Israel student riots.

One outstanding example of this was seen in a recent media headline, stating that the US is “trying to remove obstacles to a hostage deal” (between Israel and Hamas). This misleading headline should actually read “The West is trying to crush Israeli objections to Western pressure, as the West tries to force Israel to cave into jihadi terror tactics.” This bending of reality is quite common – actually, most of the news coming out of the Middle East fits in exactly to this type of pro-jihadi propaganda.

Jihad is not a low-grade fever which can be blithely ignored by paying a hefty ransom to its perpetrators. To resist jihad does not mean that that the planet must immediately enter into World War III. But, unfortunately, most Western media only presents the ‘Hamas-Mafia option’ (to paraphrase U2’s Bono): “Just give us what we want, and no one gets hurt!” The jihadi world is pulling the strings, manipulating Western (and even some Israeli) fears, trying to force all resistance to jihad to come to a shuddering halt.

100 IAF fighter jets have not decisively removed the jihadi threat

On Sunday morning August 25, 2024, ten minutes before Hezbollah was about to unleash a massive 6,000+ rocket attack on northern and central Israel, an Israel Air Force (IAF) mailed fist of over 100 fighter jets and bombers carried out a preemptive strike against 270 targets in Lebanon – thousands of Hezbollah rockets and launchers – with barely ten minutes to spare. This was an amazing military, intelligence and technological feat, and it will go down as a military operation to be studied and imitated in days to come.

Yet the threat from Hezbollah is not over by a long shot.  Their forces possess upwards of 140,000 rockets and missiles, many with GPS guidance. They have an unknown number of Iranian-manufactured drones. Were they to fire these weapons at Israel, there would undoubtedly be painful Israeli civilian casualties, significant infrastructure damage – and, immediately after that, apocalyptic damage to Beirut’s international airport, Lebanon’s national water-pumping system, electrical power and internet grids.

How should we then pray?

 

 

 

 

 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES  

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

“You will devise an evil plan against the land of unwalled villages” (Ezekiel 37:10-11)

I was awakened early this morning, at 0400. I came downstairs to sit in my armchair and to think about the day ahead. At 04:40 am I began to hear the skies above me being torn by many Israel Air Force (IAF) fighter jets and bombers. Something was up. I opened my cell phone to wait and see what would pop up on the news.

Within 20 minutes information began to leak out: Hezbollah had planned a surprise attack on Israel (using 6,000 of its 150,000 available missiles and rockets) which was to be triggered at 05:00 hours – at 5:00 am Israeli time. The targets of these jihadi weapons (according to the New York Times) included the HQ of Signals Intelligence Unit 8200 (equivalent to the NSA); the HQ of Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad (equivalent to the CIA); Ben-Gurion Airport (equivalent to JFK in New York), and other strategic sites.

But at this critical moment, Israeli Military Intelligence was properly working. One hundred IAF jets rose up and, in an intensely coordinated preemptive bombing attack between 04:50 am and 05:00 am, destroyed approximately 6,000 Hezbollah long-range precision rockets and missiles as well as their launchers. This preemptive attack was fully coordinated with the US Department of Defense.

Had Hezbollah’s surprise attack succeeded, a full-blown war would be in full throttle. Beirut’s airport, water-pumping system, electrical power and internet grids would probably be lying in smoking ruins on the Lebanese coast.

Hezbollah fired over 320 rockets and drones at civilian areas in Israel, in response to the IAF’s preemptive strike.

But this round of hostilities is not the end of the process here. It is merely the opening shot of a cunningly crafted Iranian gambit in the Lebanese theater.

Will Hezbollah step back from the brink? Will Israel move to decisively throttle her military enemies who have been trying to put a chokehold on the Jewish state since 1982? Will the 40,000 or so American troops positioned on destroyers, frigates and aircraft carriers from Mediterranean waters to the Persian Gulf be either an effective deterrent or attack force, restraining Iran’s jihadi terror tentacles from wreaking damage on the Jewish state? This ‘state-in-the-process-of-restoration’ is what Ezekiel’s Last Days vision described in chapters 38 and 39 – the lead-in to the War of Gog and Magog.

How should we then pray?

 

 

 

 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey
 
Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES  

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

When God parachuted Abraham into the Promised Land

In the very first chapters of the Bible, YHVH the God of Israel plucks Abraham out his father’s community and ‘parachuted’ him into the Promised Land. When he arrived in that land, he found various peoples living there:

Taking a Gallup Poll from Canaanites and Philistines

If modern mainstream media had been around in the days of Abraham, reporters might well have gone out to take a survey as to how the Canaanites or Philistines felt about Abraham’s arrival. But to the Canaanites, Abraham’s ‘stealth’ appearance in that land would have felt like an insignificant event. Nevertheless, history was being decisively changed with each and every step that Abraham’s sandaled feet took, according to the declaration of YHVH: “Arise, walk about in the land through its length and width – for I will give it to you” (Genesis 13:17).

Four hundred years later, Israel invaded and conquered the Promised Land, obeying the express command of YHVH (see Deuteronomy 6:10-14). It can be safely assumed that Goliath’s people would not have supported Israel’s entrance into the territories promised to them in the Abrahamic Covenant (see Genesis 15:17-19).

The Great People-Mover

The Hebrew prophet speaks the very thoughts of YHVH in Amos 9:7-8 when he describes the God of Jacob as the ‘Great People-Mover’:

Although the Jewish people may sometimes feel that they are currently stuck in the Exile somewhere – whether Egypt, Babylon, Europe or America – the God of Jacob reminds us that He is the One who rescued Israel from Egypt in the days of Moses. And He moved us in the days of Joshua back into the Land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

YHVH has moved other peoples around the Middle East as well. The Arameans of Damascus had been moved by YHVH from Kir (located somewhere between Armenia, Iraq and Iran), while the Greek-speaking Philistines had been moved by the God of Jacob from Caphtor (possibly Crete or Cyprus) towards Gaza, where they conquered the Avim (a people living in Gaza prior to the Philistine conquest) and established a five-city confederacy or pentapolis (Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron).

But the God of Jacob emphasizes a huge distinction here: Israel’s destiny will not be the same as that of the other peoples He moves around. YHVH declares that He will eventually judge every nation and eliminate every sinful kingdom, but that He will never eliminate the Jewish people even if their hearts temporarily turn away from Him. God will judge Israel; He will even exile Israel; but He will never remove Israel from being His beloved and chosen priority nation. As Hosea 11:7-10 declares:

 

People-moving can be an unpopular move

 

In our day, the world opposes the return of the Jewish people to their Promised Land – just as Canaanites or Philistines back in the day opposed the return of Jacob’s people to the Promised Land. At that time Israel was led by the sword of Moses, Joshua and Samuel, or by the strength of Samson:

 

 

Opposing the Return to Zion

The original Zionists had dreams and visions of a Jewish return to Zion – to the plains of Sharon, to the Valley of Jezreel, to the hills of Galilee and Samaria, and to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The empires which occupied God’s land –

First, the Ottoman Empire Turkey in the 19th century and then the Britain Empire in the early 20th century – opposed full Jewish return. In the second half of the 20th century, America, the European Union and the Arab League opposed the Jewish people’s full return to the Promised Land.

Today many nations forbid the Jewish people from settling in Gaza, East Jerusalem, or the Jewish heartland in Judea and Samaria. But they stress how generous they are in allowing Jewish people to settle in Tel Aviv or West Jerusalem. In doing so, they ignore and violate God’s prophetic promises that He will return His people to the entire Land of Israel. And today’s world empires are trying to whittle away major territories of the Promised Land, endeavoring to establish Judenrein enclaves where jihadi terrorists plot Israel’s destruction.

Jeremiah’s consolation

The prophet Jeremiah in his chapter 31 waxes rhapsodic over Israel’s full return to the Promised Land. The sword of the enemy in the land of the enemy will not block YHVH’s great restoration of the Jewish people to the fullness of their homeland:

“But YHVH hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen (Exodus 9:12)”

YHVH hardened Pharaoh’s heart in the days of Moses. The greatest empire in the world watched as its firstborn sons’ bodies corroded in the harsh Egyptian sun, and as the corpses of its top military charioteers were washed up onto the shoreline of the Red Sea. In our day, the superpowers and the jihadi terrorists of the world are arrogantly violating God’s divine principles regarding the inviolability of the Promised Land or the divine protection overshadowing the Jewish people. These solemn truths are scorned and belittled by the nations, who are about to receive the crushing hand of YHVH’s judgment. The global plans of the nations and their anti-Israel strategies will soon receive their divine come-uppance.

How should we then pray?

 

 

 

 

 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey
 
Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES  

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Peace, insanity and the same results

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” The brilliant physicist Albert Einstein is credited with speaking these words, but the proverb was actually penned by civil rights campaigner Rita Mae Brown in 1983.

This maxim applies to the nations of the world, as they attempt to establish a quicksilver pseudo-peace in the Middle East. It also applies to strong political forces in Israel’s opposition who are attempting to re-establish a terror-controlled Gaza, ruled by a jihadi bouillabaisse  comprised of both Hamas and the PLO. The metallic chaff of mainstream media news serves as a cheerleader for this march of death, jamming clear thinking on this development for most people. These broadcasters valiantly press on, presenting their end-game scenarios which include:

International news headlines hammer home these points day and night. Incessant reportage homes in with laser-like intensity on the politically correct narrative: presenting Hamas as pursuers of peace who truly desire ceasefire and return of the Israeli hostages (those 35 or so who are still alive, or the 100 or so Israeli corpses in Hamas tunnels and caves). TV and news outlets consistently portray Israel as an evil and stubborn people led by wicked and deceptive rulers, who are perversely holding out for unrealistic and counter-productive demands.

The openly declared jihadi strategies of Hamas and the PLO – that they will never recognize the Jewish state or allow it to survive – are uncomfortable deal-breakers, revealing the total bankruptcy of Western political  ‘peace plans.’  But these deadly declarations of the terror masters are deftly swept under the carpet, blithely dismissed by diplomats like Vedant Patel, the US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesman, who stated on August 13, 2024:

The enemy of my enemy is also my enemy

An oft-quoted proverb ascribed to Middle Eastern origins states that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” This saying is also known in Latin as “Amicus meus, inimicus inimici mei” (‘my friend – the enemy of my enemy’). The closest Arabic equivalent is found in Nahj al-balāgha (‘the path of eloquence’), an eleventh-century collection of more than two-hundred sermons, nearly eighty letters, and almost five-hundred sayings attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661 AD). Ali was the fourth Rashidun caliph (who ruled between 656 and 661 AD). He was also the first Shia imam, and the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad. His collection has served as an ideological basis for Islamic governance, especially for Shi’ite Muslims. Here is the pertinent quote from that book:

This proverb helps us to understand what is going on in the purported ‘peace discussions’ in Doha, Qatar. The three catalyzers of this ‘Doha Summit’ are POTUS Biden, the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and the President of Egypt Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Qatar is Egypt’s mortal enemy, supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. The Muslim Brotherhood (Jamāʿat al-Ikhwān al-Muslimīn) carried out the assassination of former Egyptian President Anwar es-Sadat on October 6, 1981. They forced the resignation of Sadat’s successor Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011, replacing him with Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi.

Morsi (the Muslim Brotherhood President) received strong support from Qatar, a long-time financier of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar declared that it would provide Egypt with US$2 billion, while private Qatari investors from Qatar pledged US$10 billion to strengthen Egyptian infrastructure. The Brotherhood uses the Arabic honorific ‘sheikh’ to refer to Osama bin Laden, and has never condemned the 9/11 jihadi terror attacks. But they have condemned the killing of Bin Laden, stating: “The whole world, and especially the Muslims, have lived with a fierce media campaign to brand Islam as terrorism and describe the Muslims as violent by blaming the September 11th incident on al-Qaeda.”

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby stated in the past few days that “Qatar and Egypt are, in turn, mediating with Hamas.” The Hamas terror group has refused to formally attend the summit, but says it will be negotiating through Qatari and Egyptian mediators. Deep-rooted duplicity and hypocrisy are reflected by Egypt, Qatar and the USA here, as they push Israel to step away from crushing jihadi terrorist Hamas and move toward dividing the Land of Israel:

U.S. National Security Spokesperson John Kirby said: “This is vital work. Remaining obstacles can be overcome, and we must bring this process to a close. We need to see the hostages released, relief for Palestinian civilians in Gaza, security for Israel and lower tensions in the region, and we need to see those things as soon as possible.”

Kirby stated that CIA director Bill Burns and White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk are currently meeting with representatives from Israel, Qatar and Egypt. In a joint statement from the triumvirate of POTUS Biden, Qatari Emir al-Thani and Egyptian President al-Sisi, it was stated: “It is time, immediately, to put an end to the long-standing suffering of the people of the Gaza Strip . . .  It is time to finalize a ceasefire agreement.”

The Israeli delegation

Israel has given in to American pressure, sending a delegation comprising Mossad chief David Barnea and Shin Bet (Israeli FBI) head Ronen Bar. Accompanying them are IDF Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon and senior Netanyahu adviser Ophir Falk. Iran and Hamas are manipulating the entire process: Iran hints that it may delay its seven-pronged attack on Israel for a few days if a ‘Doha deal’ can be achieved. The US State Department indicates that such a deal can be obtained if Israel pulls out of Gaza and allows Palestinian terror groups to take over. Hamas refuses to officially attend the Doha Summit, acting as ‘the strong horse’ in this Middle Eastern race, and using its recalcitrance as a bargaining chip.

Hamas’s clearly stated short-term conditions and long-term goals include: the total destruction of the state of Israel and the annihilation of the Jewish people (as per its 1987-88 Charter); the full withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza and a complete and unconditional Israeli ceasefire; the total release of all Hamas terrorists jailed by Israel; the total and unfettered return of Hamas to all areas in Gaza now held by the IDF; free passage for weapons into Gaza from Egypt and from the Mediterranean Sea; the return of only 33 of all the Israeli hostages (Hamas prefers to return mostly corpses, but perhaps some living hostages as well).

How should we then pray?

 

 

 

 

 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey
 
Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES  

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

License to kill

Ian Fleming, former operative for the British Naval Intelligence, created a fictional British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) agent named James Bond – known by the code number ‘007.’ Bond’s code number identified him as having been granted a license by Her Majesty’s government to initiate the use of legal force in the pursuit of his intelligence objectives.

According to classic Islamic sources in the Quran and the Hadith, jihad warriors look forward to constant battle and death until they conquer the world for Islam: “The believers . . . fight in his cause, so they kill (others) and are killed” (Sahih al-Bukhari 51:1).  “I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers. Therefore, strike off their heads and strike off every one of their fingertips . . . Strike terror (into the hearts of) the enemies of Allah and your enemies” (Quran, Surah 8:12, 60).

Classic Islamic teaching considers it a matter of course that mujahidin (jihadi warriors) will, in the pursuit of their Muslim objectives of world conquest, be involved in killing and being killed. This is part of the challenge and romance of jihad.

There is a popular Arabic proverb than throws some needed Middle-Eastern light on current events: “Darabani wa baka, wa sabaqani wa eshtaka” (‘First he hits me. Then he starts to cry. Finally, he runs ahead of me to the judge and sues me’).  The jihadi terrorists of Gaza’s Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have made it their profession to murder, rape, torture and kidnap Jews and Israelis for forty years, targeting civilians (including women and children) with horrendous atrocities. Yet when the IDF or Mossad bring terminal justice to these murderers, the terror groups’ spokesmen ‘cry, run to the judge and try to sue Israel,’

In recent days, two top jihadi masterminds have met their well-deserved demise. Hezbollah’s chief of staff Fuad Shukr was assassinated on Tuesday, July 30, 2024 at 7:40 pm in the Beirut Shi’ite stronghold of Dahiya, in a targeted elimination acknowledged by Israel, Shukr was Hezbollah’s most senior commander, and second in command to arch-terrorist Hassan Nasrallah. He was directly responsible for the Hezbollah rocket attack on Saturday July 27, which murdered 12 Israeli Arab Druze schoolchildren playing soccer on a football pitch in Majdal Shams at the foothills of Mount Hermon. Shukr had also been deeply involved in the mass murder car bombing of 241 US Marines and 58 French paratroopers on October 23, 1983 at the US Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut.

On Wednesday July 31, 2024 at approximately 2 am, a bomb concealed two months previously in a diplomatic suite of a high-security Islamic Revolutionary Guards Neshat guesthouse in the affluent suburbs of North Tehran exploded, sending Ismail Haniyeh (Hamas’ Politburo chief) and his bodyguard on their way to a divine encounter. Haniyeh was one of the two top leaders in Hamas, the other being Yahya Sinwar who is holed up in Hamas tunnels somewhere in the Khan Yunis area of Gaza. Haniyeh was in Tehran for the swearing-in of Iran’s newly elected president Masoud Pezeshkian. In the guesthouse another master terrorist was housed in a room adjoining Haniyeh’s – Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhaleh. He was unharmed. Iran’s supreme Shi’ite Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (who was staying barely 150 meters away at the time) was also unharmed. Israel has not claimed responsibility for this hit on Haniyeh.

Coming out of the shadows

The Book of Daniel describes a high-level demonic principality casting its dark shadow over Iran. In Daniel’s day this fallen angel was called ‘the Prince of Persia’ (see Daniel 10:13, 20). The Prince of Persia was the nefarious force pulling the strings of Haman’s genocidal heart, attempting to destroy all the Jewish people living in the vast Persian Empire. Today it is the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and their Supreme Leaders who have stepped up to the plate in a modern attempt to complete that devilish assignment.

Similar to James Bond, the secret agent in the shadows, Iran has mostly refrained from open confrontation with Israel, preferring to exert a gradual chokehold on the Jewish state through proxy terrorist puppets. These include Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Kata’eb Hezbollah in Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen, and other forces in Syria. Israel and Iran have been waging a cat-and-mouse campaign over the years, but as of April 13, 2024 the gloves have come off and the clash is now open.

The October 7 Hamas pogrom into Israel was Iran’s way of communicating to Israel and the United States that Iran would oppose any rapprochement with Saudi Arabia, and was threatening escalation if such moves increased. Israel’s response to the tightening Iranian chokehold involved both a concerted campaign to annihilate Hamas as well as a war of attrition against Lebanese Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel. Over 80,000 Israelis have had to abandon their homes in the North of Israel due to Hezbollah rocket attacks, and 28 Israelis have been murdered by these attacks. America has exerted much pressure on Israel not to respond and remove the Hezbollah threat, at the cost of continuing and increasing Israeli casualties. The resent assassinations of top-level jihadi leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas reveal that the Jewish state is ready for face-to-face confrontation with its mortal enemies – enemies who are not beating around the bush in their clear declarations and actions to destroy Israel. 

Preparing for the clash

Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei announced three days of national mourning on Wednesday July 31, 2024: “The criminal and terrorist Zionist regime martyred our dear guest in our house and made us bereaved . . .  It also prepared the ground for a harsh punishment for itself . . . We consider it our duty to avenge his blood in this bitter and difficult incident that happened in the territory of the Islamic Republic.”

It is assumed that Iran will attack Israel with significant waves of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic rockets in a strike similar to its April 13, 2024 attack – but with greater intensity. It is also assumed that Iran’s proxies and puppets in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon will all join in, believing that they also have a ‘license to kill,’ It should be noted that no country or body has taken responsibility for the assassination of Haniyeh, though it is understood that Haniyeh and Hamas are operating as Iranian agents, and Iran is lashing out in a Middle Eastern attempt to show itself as the ‘strong horse’ and the neighborhood bully.

He hits, he cries, he runs to the lawyer

On the same day as Hamas’ Haniyeh moved on, Iran’s Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations Amir Saied Iravani asked the United Nations to condemn and punish Israel for eliminating one of the world’s prime terrorist threats:

During a phone call with Iranian diplomats, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres affirmed to the Iranian Foreign Minister that Iran holds the ‘inherent right to self-defense’ in response to violations of its national security and territorial integrity.

Iranian negotiations with the USA regarding how to attack Israel

Prior to Iran’s attacks on American soldiers in Iraq (January 2020) and against Israeli military bases on April 13, 2024, the US coordinated the extent and target locations of Iran’s attacks with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s leadership. It is to be assumed that such negotiations are ongoing at this time, probably through Swiss and Qatari mediators, regarding Iran’s soon-coming attack on the Jewish state.

The Iranian strike is about to happen

Now is the best time to begin to pray for Israel.

How should we then pray?

 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

Restoration and vengeance

Messiah Yeshua’s message blends together two seemingly opposite ingredients – suffering and joy: “Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking only at Yeshua, the Originator and Perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the Throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

YHVH the Avenger

In a similar fashion, YHVH brings together two seemingly opposite ingredients in a major End of Days scenario: He brings restoration to the Jewish people while simultaneously bringing vengeance upon all those who have cursed Israel and shed her blood:

The Bible drives home this message throughout the pages of Scripture: YHVH will avenge the Jewish blood which the anti-Semitic nations of the world have spilled, still are spilling and will spill in days soon-to-come. The God of Jacob will restore the sons and daughters of Isaac by His grace (to the Land and to Himself), while simultaneously judging the nations who unrighteously condemn Israel.

The Valley of Vengeance is also the Valley of Judgment

This divine ‘double whammy’ – restoration for Israel and judgment upon the nations – is, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, God’s ‘slow train coming.’ And that train is picking up speed as it comes rolling down the track. This is not a new improved version of Cat Steven’s ‘Peace Train.’ The Heavenly Locomotive is about to pile into both superpowers and Western pagan democracies, into Middle Eastern nations and jihadi armies. All these nations are about to enter the Valley of Decision and tread the sobering soil of the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

Waving the red flag – a revived anti-Semitism

Nearly 2,000 years ago, Messiah Yeshua spoke about the significance of red skies from a prophetic viewpoint:

What would Yeshua say to us in our day? Are we able to discern the signs of the times? Truly, YHVH is trying to get our attention now. The red banner of anti-Semitism is wildly waving – a sign for all the world to see and take note of. All across America, violent students carrying clenched-fist banners join with ANTIFA anarchists in assaulting Jewish students and citizens, beating up those who wear stars of David, Israeli jewelry or Jewish skullcaps/kippahs. Extreme-left Democrats join with jihadi advocates in cursing those who stand with Israel; they call for genocidal attacks on the very Jews who are resisting genocidal and jihadi attacks. And even dead Jews are being hounded, as Jewish cemeteries in the Western world are being desecrated, their silent tombstones toppled. Dead Jews can’t run. ‘Anti-Israel’ and ‘anti-Zionism’ are the new buzz-words of Jew-hatred. These bloody train tracks are leading the world to a resurrected Auschwitz. These are the signs of the times. Are we discerning them?

Waving the green flag – a jihadi tsunami of Islamist Israel-hatred

Virulent anti-Semitism is being joined on the world stage by a rabid Western support (especially among university and disaffected youth) for jihadi slogans, pro-Hamas dress and anti-Israel street-action demonstrations. Cheered on by an unlikely combination – ex-Pink Floyd’s bassist Roger Waters, media commentators Candace Owens (here, here, here and here) and Tucker Carlson (here, here and here) – the world is witnessing a pseudo-revolutionary ‘uprising’ similar to the August 26-29, 1968  Democratic National Convention riots in Chicago, and the May 4, 1970 Kent State shootings. The Hamas mujahidin (jihad warriors) who raped, tortured, kidnapped and committed genocidal murder on Israeli farmers and teenagers on October 7, 2023, are being glorified, morphed by world media into ‘Che Guevara’-type heroes on the campuses of Ivy League American universities. Calls to destroy the state of Israel and to carry out genocide on its Jewish inhabitants have become both commonplace and politically correct in the Western world.

The green banner of world conquest

The vast majority of secular and post-Christian Western demonstrators are stunningly ignorant of the Islamist worldview held by jihadis. It was impossible to come to a peace agreement with Hitler in his day; in the same way, it is impossible to establish a viable deal with those truly committed to jihad.

According to classical jihadi Islam – think Muḥammad, Usāmabin Lādin, the Taliban, ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran’s mullahs – the world is divided into two basic groups: Dar al-Islam (the House or Territory of Islam) and Dar al-Harb (the House of Territory of War) or Dar al-Kufr (The House of Unbelief/ Infidels).

According to classical Islamic scholars, this concept goes back to Muḥammad, who demanded from Persian, Abyssinian, and Byzantine emperors to choose between conversion to Islam and jihadi war. If those leaders bent the knee to Islam, their territory became part of Dar al-Islam (the Islamic Caliphate), and Islamic law (Shari’a) prevailed. The classical jihadi use of the term Dar Al-Harb teaches that all non-Muslim lands should be considered as at war with Islam until they come under the rule of Dar al-Islam.

Most classical scholars of Islam agree that the Quran clearly teaches that the Islamic state is destined to conquer the entire world; therefore, it is not permitted by Allah for Muslims to ratify treaties with Dar al-Kufr – the House of Infidels. A 10-year maximum limit on any such agreement was tolerated in unusual circumstances only. Under classical Islamic doctrine, every Muslim ruler is duty-bound to bring Dar al-Harb (Christians, Jews or pagans) under Islamic sovereignty. In the meantime, a state of war is presumed to exist between Dar al-Harb and Dar al-Islam,

Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the recently deceased doyen of jihadi scholars, issued a ruling in Qatar (where he resided, not far from US CENTCOM’s al-Udeid airbase), defining non-Muslim countries that attack or conquer Muslim territories as Dar al-Harb. Based on his ruling, Israel, the USA, the UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, etc., are all part of ‘the House of War.’ No treaty is to be signed with them; no such treaty can be considered Islamically ‘kosher.’

These Islamic beliefs may not be trumpeted in the super-glitzy malls of Dubai, but they form the foundations of the what the classical Muslim madrasas teach and propagate in the mosques of the Middle East. They are accurately reflected in the declarations of Hamas, Hezbollah and the PLO.

A Charter Member

According to Hamas’ 1988 Charter:

The original Palestinian vow

Here are some selected articles from the 1968 PLO Charter:

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat declared on May 10, 1994 at a closed-doors speech secretly recorded in a Johannesburg, South Africa mosque: “The permanent state of Israel? No! The permanent state of Palestine! You have to come and to fight and to start the jihad to liberate Jerusalem, your first shrine.”

Get with the (Hezbollah) program!

The goals and strategies of Hezbollah are found in their 1986 document ‘The Hizballah Program.’ Here are some selections from the CIA translation of that document:

The unabridged version of the Hezbollah Program adds the following:

In 2006, Hezbollah’s leader Sheikh Nasrallah said: “There is no solution to the conflict in this region except with the disappearance of Israel.”

On August 2, 2013, Nasrallah spoke on Quds Day in Beirut, saying that Israel was “a cancerous growth that must be eradicated . . . The only solution is to destroy it without giving it the opportunity to surrender . .  The elimination of Israel is not only a Palestinian interest. It is the interest of the entire Muslim world and the entire Arab world.”

 

Thorns – Israel’s unfinished business

The God of Israel warned the Jewish people not to allow mortal enemies to co-exist with Israel in the Promised Land: “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from you, then it will come about that those whom you let remain of them will be like thorns in your eyes and like pricks in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live” (Numbers 33:55). YHVH declares that this is a serious matter, one which has long-term geo-political and military consequences. It should be stressed that the same demonic powers which operated through the Canaanites and Philistines have not disappeared and their hatred of the Jewish people has in no way slackened.

Herein lies and intercessory challenge for those who accept that these spiritual realities are still influential and significant.

Waving the flag – black for a capitalist-totalitarian world dictatorship

Spy agencies like the OSS, the CIA, the NSA, the DIA, the GCHQ, etc., make use of the intelligence they monitor and mine from the internet superhighway. Edward Snowden and others have shown that such organizations do not always make use of such information in benign ways. Great power in the hands of ungodly men can result in great potential evil, as well as the loss of basic civil liberties and the encroachment of the police state. One man’s good technological discoveries may inadvertently end up also having dangerous ramifications for mankind – and not only good results.

Recent world events have highlighted how computer micro-chips, QR codes, and Central Banking Digital Currencies (here, here and here) are being used to give countries broad new surveillance powers. These in turn are leading to enhanced control of their own civilian populations. This will lead to the deterioration of both financial privacy and economic freedoms (freedom of expression and association); increasing limitations of political expression, shopping and travel; as well as the trimming away of the individual’s freedom to make his or her own health-care decisions. Such massive power will result in dictatorial social developments, similar to what is now seen in modern China or in George Orwell’s classic book ‘1984.’ Orwell’s dystopian vision of the future ranks as one of the greatest 20th century prophetic warnings. Our planet is on the cusp of a totalitarian make-over, and loud whispers straight out of the Book of Revelation are being quietly rehearsed by actors waiting in the wings.

Another 20th century prophet is Hal Lindsey, whose book The Late Great Planet Earth sold more than 28 million copies immediately on being published. Lindsey spoke a powerful message to his generation when he stated that the return of the Jewish people to a regathered State of Israel (according to the promises of the Hebrew prophets) is the most significant event of the 20th century.

The rise of bone-crushing evil in our day is being positively paralleled by YHVH’s restoration of Israel’s sons and daughters of Israel to the entirety of their Promised Land. This amazing Return is materializing before the eyes of the world. Coming prophetic attractions include the soon-coming spiritual resurrection of the Jewish nation, and the imminent return of Messiah Yeshua to establish His Davidic throne in Jerusalem and to rule over the entire planet. 

Whispers and megaphones

It has been in vogue in some circles to focus on the future shaking of the House of Jacob as the main eschatological event coming down the pipeline. While it is biblically true to note that both Jews and Gentiles will be greatly shaken in the Last Days, it is important to remember the words of C.S. Lewis: “God whispers to us in our pleasures . . .  but shouts in our pains. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world” (The Problem of Pain).

Suffering and joy are meshed in the Good News of Messiah Yeshua. God’s simultaneous restoration of the Jewish people and His divine judgment on Israel’s mortal enemies are also part of the Scripture’s End of Days vision. We are standing on the threshold of these mighty events.

How should we then pray?

 

 

 

 

 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey
 
Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES  

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Open your doors, O Lebanon – that fire may destroy your cedars! (Zechariah 11:1) – Part Three

Our previous newsletter (Part One) presented biblical teaching regarding Lebanon; the origin and theological strategies of the Islamist terror organization Hezbollah; and concluded with a survey of its venomous anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli and anti-American perspectives and goals. Part Two unpacked Hezbollah’s role as an Iranian proxy and ‘fifth column’ within Lebanon. Part Three deals with the specifics of Hezbollah’s military threat to Israel; and Israel’s probable military response both to Lebanon and to Hezbollah, the ‘Rasputin’ of the Land of the Cedars.  

The Prince of Persia is still on the move

“So Jacob came close to his father Isaac, and he touched him and said, ‘The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau’” (Genesis 27:22). There is a modern Middle Eastern parallel to Jacob’s utterance: In the present war between Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel, the voice may seem to be the voice of Hezbollah, but the hands are without question the hands of Iran/Persia. Iran’s long-term strategy to destroy Israel (and after that, Saudi Arabia and America) involves:

These are not disconnected ‘whack-a-mole’ wildfires; they are a controlled and deliberately kindled international forest fire planned and triggered by the Ayatollahs in the arsonist jihadi state of Iran

Iran’s geopolitical strategies are rooted in its control over Syrian territory, the crucial land connection to Lebanese Hezbollah. Hezbollah’s Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah, has clearly stated that his organization is completely reliant on Iran for all of its financial expenses and its weapons. During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad allowed Iran to transfer arms to Hezbollah. After Assad's death in 2000, his son President Bashar al-Assad approved the increased traffic of Iranian weapons through Syria – including Scud and Fateh-110 surface-to-surface missiles. Today, Iran and Hezbollah have access to Syrian Army facilities and storehouses. Syria is not only a bridge between Iran and Lebanon; it has become the logistical and operational focal point of the Iranian-led ‘Axis of Resistance’ (Arabic, Miḥwar al-Muqāwamah). This axis is an Iranian-led political and military coalition in West Asia and North Africa, including the Iraqi Shiite Islamic Resistance, the Syrian government, Lebanese Hezbollah, the Yemeni Houthi terror organization Ansar Allah and Hamas.

Arms deliveries to Hezbollah start out from Iranian military depots and then run through Syria. Civilian and military Iranian flights carrying ordnance fly into Damascus International airport or into Beirut’s Hariri International airport. Civilian-marked trucks transfer these weapons (including advanced rockets, surface-to-surface missiles and anti-aircraft systems) from the Iranian logistics center in Damascus Airport to the Lebanese border, where they are handed over to Hezbollah, and later dispersed throughout Lebanon.

Between 2013 and 2015, Iran attempted to move precision guided missiles via Syria into Lebanon. Most of these efforts were interdicted by the IDF. Between 2016 and 2018 Iran’s strategy shifted: they now attempted to smuggle precision guided missile parts into Lebanon for assembly by Hezbollah – either by land (via Syria), by air (via Damascus to Beirut Airport in Beirut), or by sea (via the Port of Beirut). This program was not rewarded with a high rate of success. In 2019 Iran redirected their efforts, attempting to manufacture such missiles entirely on Lebanese soil, in a number of locations throughout Lebanon.

Lessons from Lebanon 2006

The upcoming war between Hezbollah and Israel is not the first in the Levant’s chequered history. The year 2006 saw major clashes between Lebanon and Israel, with Hezbollah dragging the weakened and spineless state of Lebanon along into its pitched battle with the Jewish state. Most media outlets downplay or even sidestep the fact that Lebanon is a sovereign state which has signed agreements (like UN 1701) requiring it to disarm Hezbollah and move the Iranian proxy away from Israel’s border where it continues to threaten and attack.

At the outbreak of the 2006 hostilities, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora promised to rein in Hezbollah in an effort to stop Israel's offensive. Siniora said that there could be no sovereign state of Lebanon without Hezbollah being disarmed. The former President of Lebanon Amin Gemayel, a longtime critic of Hezbollah, said, “The government is helpless. Hezbollah took a unilateral action, but its repercussions will affect the entire country.” Nevertheless, international law holds the Lebanese government responsible for whatever attacks come against Israel from Lebanese soil. Ehud Barak, former Israeli Chief of Staff, remarked on November 24, 2009: “We will not accept the equation whereby a UN member state is home to a militia in possession of 40,000 rockets but also parliament members and ministers. The Lebanese government is responsible for any clash rather than [just] the Hezbollah, and all of Lebanon's systems will be held accountable.”

The Second Israel-Lebanon War began with a surprise Hezbollah cross-border attack on July 12, 2006, resulting in the murder of five IDF soldiers patrolling the border fence, and the kidnapping of two of their bodies, to be later used as bargaining chips. Israel’s counter-offensive Operation Just Payback/Change of Direction, lasted for 34 days. A thorough analysis of the decision-making steps and strategic issues involved can be read in Benjamin Lambeth’s excellent September 1, 2011 article ‘Behind Israel’s 2006 War With Hezbollah.’

During the war, Hezbollah fired close to 4,228 rockets into civilian areas of Israel (more than 100 per day). Most of these were 122 mm Katyusha artillery rockets, carrying warheads of up to 33 kg/ 66 lb. Approximately 23% of the rockets hit cities and built-up areas in northern Israel. Cities hit included, Kiryat Shmona, Tiberias, Bet She’an, Safed, Karmiel, Shaghur, Ma’alot-Tarshiha, Nazareth, Afula, Acre, Haifa, Hadera – as well as smaller towns, kibbutzim, moshavim, Druze and Israeli-Arab villages, and the northern West Bank. Fires caused by Hezbollah rocket attacks destroyed 16,500 acres (67 km2) of forest and grazing fields, which will take 50 to 60 years to rehabilitate, according to the Jewish National Fund.

On July 16, 2006, eight employees of the Israel Railways were killed by direct Hezbollah rocket hits on the Haifa train depot. In southern Lebanon, Hezbollah jihadis fought IDF ground troops from well-fortified positions, often in urban areas, attacking in small, well-armed units. These fighters were highly trained, equipped with flak jackets, night-vision goggles, communications equipment, and sometimes with Israeli uniforms and equipment. An Israeli soldier who participated in the war said that Hezbollah fighters were “nothing like Hamas or the Palestinians. They are trained and highly qualified. All of us were kind of surprised.” One million Israelis were instructed to stay near or in their bomb shelters or security rooms, with approximately 250,000 Israeli civilians evacuating the north and relocating to other areas of the country, A total of 44 Israeli civilians and 119 IDF soldiers were killed in this war.

On July 13, 2006, and again on July 15, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) bombed the Jiyeh power station, 30 km (19 miles) south of Beirut, resulting in the largest-ever oil spill in the Mediterranean Sea. The plant’s damaged storage tanks leaked an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 tonnes (more than 4 million gallons) of oil into the eastern Mediterranean. A 10-kilometre-wide (6.2 mi) oil slick covered 170 km (105 statute miles) of coastline, and threatened the coastal areas of Turkey and Cyprus. The Lebanese government estimated it would take 10 years to recover from the damage of the strike. The UN guesstimated the cost for the initial clean-up at $64 million. Large parts of Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure were destroyed, including 640 kilometers (400 miles) of roads, 73 bridges, and 31 other targets such as ports, water and sewage treatment plants, electrical facilities, 25 fuel stations, 900 commercial structures, up to 350 schools and two hospitals, and 15,000 homes. Some 130,000 more homes were damaged. Beirut’s Rafik al-Hariri International Airport was bombed and forced to close, but was quickly repaired and came back on line.

Hezbollah used the same tactics of civilian shields in 2006 as Hamas has been using in all it clashes with Israel: the firing of rockets from Gazan or Lebanese civilian areas into Israeli civilian areas – a double war crime. The Qatari Muslim Brotherhood/pro-Hamas station al-Jazeera reported at that time: “Foreign journalists based in Lebanon also reported that the Shia militia chose to fight from civilian areas and had on occasion prevented Lebanese civilians from fleeing conflict-hit areas of south Lebanon. Al-Manar, Hezbollah's satellite channel, also showed footage of Hezbollah firing rockets from civilian areas and produced animated graphics showing how Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli cities from inside villages in southern Lebanon.” Images obtained by the Australian Sunday Herald Sun show that “Hezbollah is waging war amid suburbia. The images ... show Hezbollah using high-density residential areas as launch pads for rockets and heavy-caliber weapons. Dressed in civilian clothing so they can quickly disappear, the militants carrying automatic assault rifles and ride in on trucks mounted with cannon.” Some things never change with jihadi combatants, it seems.

On August 27, 2006, Nasrallah said in an interview with al-Jadeed TV (Lebanon): “If there was even a 1% chance that the July 11 capturing operation would have led to a war like the one that happened, would you have done it? I would say no, absolutely not, for humanitarian, moral, social, security, military, and political reasons.”

Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld stated that Israel's war against Hezbollah was “marked by a long series of failures” but he also noted that Hezbollah was “thrown out of South Lebanon,” and was replaced by “a fairly robust United Nations peacekeeping force” to prevent its return. The Israeli Winograd Commission reported that “Security Council Resolution 1701, and the fact that it was adopted unanimously, were an achievement for Israel.” But both of these ‘achievements’ were quickly reversed within a year or two of the war’s conclusion.

The US Congressional Research Service found that although Hezbollah's military capabilities may have been substantially reduced, its long-term potential as a guerrilla movement appeared to remain intact: “Observers note that Hezbollah's leaders have been able to claim a level of ‘victory’ simply by virtue of not having decisively ‘lost.’”

Military analyst and former IDF Major-General Giora Eiland concluded that, though outgunned and outnumbered, Hezbollah managed to hold off Israel’s advanced armed forces and proved its ability to damage Israel by launching rockets at its territory until the end of the war. He estimates (“Hezbollah planning 'large raids' into Galilee, senior army source says”) that Hezbollah's destructive capabilities have increased in the years after the war and that the group is capable to inflict “far worse damage on the Israeli home front” than in 2006.

British military historian John Keegan states (“Why Israel will go to war again – soon”) that the outcome of the 2006 war was “misreported as an Israeli defeat” due to anti-Israel bias in the international media. He stated that Hezbollah had suffered heavy losses, and that a ceasefire came into effect before Israel could completely dislodge Hezbollah from its positions. He also noted that the casualties sustained by Israel during the war had alarmed the Israeli Government and High Command, because Israel's small population is acutely vulnerable to losses in battle.

Battle inventory

It is assumed that the news media of the world are not freely allowed into Hezbollah’s weapons warehouse to do a full inventory. Yet, it seems that the Israeli Mossad has been able to do just that at Iran’s nuclear archives.

Nevertheless, a combination of Iranian and Hezbollah disclosures combined with intelligence breakthroughs have revealed a basic understanding of what armaments Hezbollah has at its disposal.

Here are seven articles detailing the weaponry in Nasrallah’s hands. These include rockets, rockets with GPS, precision-guided missiles, drones, etc.:

August 10, 2021         https://missilethreat.csis.org/country/hezbollahs-rocket-arsenal/

           

February 21, 2022       https://israel-alma.org/2022/02/21/does-hezbollah-really-have-150000-missiles-and-rockets/

October 19, 2023          https://www.inss.org.il/social_media/precision-missiles-uavs-and-tens-of-thousands-of-fighters-hezbollahs-order-of-battle/

November 15, 2023    https://www.forbes.com/sites/erictegler/2023/11/15/hezbollahs-rocket-missile-and-drone-arsenal-is-huge-and-varied/

February 26, 2024       https://www.fdd.org/analysis/op_eds/2024/02/26/breaking-down-hezbollahs-rocket-strategy-the-short-range-threat/

June 6, 2024                https://www.inss.org.il/social_media/the-scope-of-hezbollahs-weaponry/

June 26, 2024              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah_armed_strength

   

For those who want a ‘fast food’ perspective, it is suggested that the link presents helpful graphics and a clear mini-summation: https://www.inss.org.il/social_media/the-scope-of-hezbollahs-weaponry/.

The paragraph quoted below also briefly sums up the available facts:

Apart from these, Hezbollah has networks of tunnels (some probably crossing under the border into Israel, through which ‘Radwan’ commando teams can move and attack).

Are you ready?

Messiah Yeshua shared some words of wisdom with Israel nearly 2,000 years ago:

Here are six articles reflecting the perspectives of some senior military, strategic and national security analysts, regarding the upcoming possibilities, scenarios and challenges facing Israel in the days soon ahead. They are thought-provoking and are a great impetus for intercession. Their points must be weighed and prayerfully considered. Not everything which is stated in these articles will come to pass. Consider their perspectives prayerfully:

The following is an excerpt from Dr. Ehud Eilam, a highly respected analyst of Israel’s national security. He is a contributor toIsrael Defense. His suggested scenario is an eminently possible one:

Staring down the cobra

According to updated assessments (https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/03/03/hezbollahs-precision-missiles-a-bigger-threat-than-irans-nuclear-program/), Hezbollah currently possesses between 120,000-140,000 short-range rockets (range of 25-28 miles), which cover Israel’s north, including Haifa Bay and Tiberias; several thousand medium-range rockets (range of 56 miles), which can reach the Sharon coastal plain and northern suburbs of Gush Dan; and several hundred long-range rockets and missiles (range of hundreds of miles), including Scud missiles from Syrian military warehouses, capable of hitting targets anywhere in Israel. Hezbollah’s rockets and missiles are dispersed throughout Lebanon. Its short-range rockets are mostly stored in the country’s south, in the area near the Israeli border, to maximize their range. They are hidden in homes in the 230 Shiite villages, ready to be activated at a moment’s notice. It is from here that Hezbollah intends to rain fire on the Galilee, and essentially paralyze it. If the IDF decides to enter these villages on the ground to stop this barrage, it will be met with an array of fortifications and ambushes.”

According to a recent IDF Home Front Command report (https://www.idf.il/en/mini-sites/hezbollah-and-lebanon-an-in-depth-examination-under-hassan-nasrallah-s-leadership/hezbollah-s-threat-to-the-israeli-home-front/) roughly 1,000-1,500 rockets and missiles will be launched into Israel per day. Thousands of homes will be hit and hundreds of Israeli civilians will be injured or killed. Hundreds of thousands are expected to be evacuated from their homes.

The majority of Hezbollah’s rockets, however, are ‘dumb’ rockets. One cannot control where they hit, and a large number of rockets need to be launched to inflict real damage. On the other hand, a key Hezbollah precision-guided missile is the M-600 (‘Tishrin’) of Syrian manufacture. Its range is 250 kilometers (155 miles); it carries a half-ton warhead and is accurate to dozens of yards from the target. Such missiles can strike IDF HQ (the Kirya) in Tel Aviv. Hezbollah’s goal in war would be to hit strategic facilities (power, electricity and water-pumping stations), air force and army bases, government buildings in Jerusalem, etc. The IDF would hit similar structures in Lebanon, as well as national sewage systems, bringing that country ‘back to the Stone Age’ as has been repeatedly warned by top Israeli brass.

Hezbollah has made use of what are called its ‘nature reserves’ – fortified networks of underground tunnels, hidden rocket launchers, and interconnected passages allowing Hezbollah fighters to pop out and destroy IDF ground forces. These are sometimes connected to civilian housing with newly constructed ‘extra’ garages. These challenging threats to Israeli security will need to be met by powerful and neutralizing counter-responses.

On August 8, 2023 Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant publicly addressed Hassan Nasrallah while visiting the Har Dov region of Mount Hermon (overlooking Hezbollah forces in South Lebanon): “You have made mistakes in the past, you have paid very heavy prices. If an escalation or conflict develops here, we will return Lebanon to the Stone Age. We will not hesitate to use all our power, and erode every inch of Hezbollah and Lebanon if we have to.” On June 27, 2024 he repeated that same threat while visiting Washington DC: “We do not want war, but we are preparing for every scenario. Hezbollah understands very well that we can inflict massive damage in Lebanon if a war is launched.” Gallant stressed that Israel’s military is capable of taking Lebanon “back to the Stone Age.”

Standing with the armies of YHVH of armies

As the seconds tick off in Israel and Lebanon, as the populations of both countries face the very real possibility of a massively destructive clash, it is a good time to intensify our prayers for this situation.

How should we then pray?

 

 

 

 

 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey
 
Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES  

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Open your doors, O Lebanon – that fire may destroy your cedars! (Zechariah 11:1) – Part Two

Our previous newsletter (Part One) presented biblical teaching regarding Lebanon; the origin and theological strategies of the Islamist terror organization Hezbollah; and concluded with a survey of its venomous anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli and anti-American perspectives and goals. This newsletter (Part Two) unpacks Hezbollah’s role as an Iranian proxy and ‘fifth column’ within Lebanon. Part Three will deal with the specifics of its military threat to Israel; and Israel’s probable military response to Lebanon and to Hezbollah, the ‘Rasputin’ of the Land of the Cedars. For a more in-depth look at Lebanon’s spiritual history, see: https://davidstent.org/a-day-of-reckoning-for-the-cedars-of-lebanon/

Exporting the Iranian Revolution

On November 2, 1969 Lebanese Army General Emile Bustani signed ‘The Cairo Agreement’ with Yasser Arafat, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman. This agreement surrendered Lebanese sovereignty to the PLO in districts adjacent to Israel, by removing local Palestinians from the control of Lebanon’s Deuxième Bureau and placing them under the authority of the PLO. After 1969, these Palestinian refugee camps became key bases for the Palestinian terror movement. The Agreement gave the right to Lebanese Palestinians “to join the Palestinians revolution through armed struggle” and become a state within a state in Lebanon. Within five years the Lebanese Army became incapable of controlling PLO activity, especially terror attacks on Israel and PLO attacks on Lebanese Christians. In April, 1975, the Lebanese Civil War broke out between the PLO and the Maronite/Phalange Christians. This led to Lebanese President Suleiman Frangieh asking Syria to intervene from the East in May 1976, while in March 1978 and then again in June 1982 Israel invaded from the South – after bloody PLO attacks on Israeli civilians and diplomats.

At that time, Iran was going through turmoil which eventually led to the overthrow of the Shah in January, 1979, and the establishment of a Shiite dictatorship under the control of Ayatollah Khomeini. But before that Islamist revolution, anti-Shah activists from Iran began arriving in Lebanon, and promptly received military training from the PLO.

In the early 1980’s, the long hand of the Islamic regime in Iran reached out toward Lebanon and created Hezbollah – a new organizational framework serving as a tool for spreading the Iranian revolution in Lebanon. Khomeini’s Iran persuaded prominent Lebanese Shiite leaders to abandon Amal, the previous leading Shiite organization in Lebanon, and to join Hezbollah’s ranks. Iran quickly became Hezbollah’s main source of economic, military, and political support. They dispatched 2,500 members of the Revolutionary Guards, who arrived in Lebanon in 1982. Two-thirds of them remained in Lebanon in the following years, solidifying Hezbollah’s power. To the present day, the Revolutionary Guards have been the principal channel connecting Iran’s Islamist revolutionary regime with Lebanese Hizbollah.

On November 5, 1989, the Taif Agreement was signed in Saudi Arabia, enabling Hezbollah to remain armed until ‘Israeli withdrawal’ which happened in 2000. Hezbollah then refused to disarm or withdraw, in violation of the Taif Accords.

The Agreement ‘established a framework’ for a complete Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, scheduled for 1991 – though it only came to pass in 2005. The Agreement was supposed to end the 15 year-long Lebanese Civil War and reassert Lebanese governmental authority over South Lebanon. Rafik al-Hariri (later Lebanon’s Prime Minister) was the major catalyst in getting this agreement off the ground. Sixteen years later, in 2005 al-Hariri was assassinated in Beirut by Hezbollah. Seventeen days after signing the Taif Agreement, Lebanon’s President-elect René Moawad was assassinated in a West Beirut car-bombing near the Raml el-Zareef High School in November 22, 1989 as his motorcade returned from Lebanese Independence. Day ceremonies. Syrian Military Intelligence seems to have been involved here.

Iran-Hezbollah communication is conducted through the al-Quds Force, an elite Revolutionary Guards unit whose purpose is to export the Islamic revolution beyond Iran. This secret branch also guides Hezbollah and Hamas. Hezbollah terrorists and paperwork captured by Israel during the Second Lebanon War reveal that the al-Quds Force established and operated a training network to train Hezbollah members in the use of Iranian-supplied advanced weapons – even in Iran itself. This perspective is summed up in Hassan Nasrallah’s recent February 13, 2024 pronouncement: “The front in southern Lebanon is a front of support, assistance, solidarity, and participation in weakening the Israeli enemy until it reaches the point where it is convinced that it must stop its aggression. This front will only stop when the aggression against Gaza stops within an agreement with the Palestinian resistance.”

Subsidizing the Iranian Revolution

In America, the watchmen on the walls include the CIA and the NSA. The majority of those employed at these two august organizations do not see events through a biblical framework, nor do they have a grid for God’s heart and calling on Israel. Nearly no one understands YHVH’s Last Days vision for the Middle East as laid out in the Hebrew prophets. The viewpoint of Robert Baer, former CIA case officer in the Directorate of Operations from 1976 to 1997 (serving in Iraq, Lebanon, Dushanbe, etc.) provides a fair representation of the perspectives that typify the American intelligence community. The movie Syriana starring George Clooney is based on experience Baer gained as a spy:

In another interviews, Baer elaborates:

The fact is that Baer and others in the US intelligence community have a certain sympathy for Iran and Hezbollah. These same perspectives influence both Presidents and State Department officials in their Middle East realpolitik. Quite recently, both POTUS Barak Obama and POTUS Joe Biden released billions of dollars ($71.02 billion according to one investigative reportage) to Iran through deception, money which went straight to Iran’s support of Hezbollah and other terror groups, in a classic case of diplomatic obfuscation and fungibility.

The following quote is from Hassan Mneimneh’s October 29, 2020 article ‘Iran in Lebanon: A Fatal Occupation’:

Encouraging the Iranian Revolution

The current events roiling the Middle East are mostly connected to Iran’s ravenous hunger to once again rule this region. It has carefully crafted a strategy which requires much patience. The strategy of encircling Israel – based on the Arabic term ‘Wahdat al-Saha’at’ (unity of the arenas) – lies behind Iran’s effort to gather its allies and all armed Islamist forces arrayed against Israel under a single Persian umbrella. Today Iran controls a contiguous area of control stretching from Syria’s Quneitra Province adjoining the Golan Heights, through southern Syria and into Iraq, where Tehran dominates the government and controls the Kata’ib Hezbollah Shiite paramilitary jihadi forces, and the Quwwāt al-Ḥashd ash-Shaʿbī or Popular Mobilization Units. Add to this the Houthi jihadi pirates in Yemen, and the picture sharpens in clarity.

Hamas’ and Hezbollah’s gnarled hands may be what the media and the diplomats see, but the voice is the voice of Iran (see Genesis 27:22). The policies taken by Western diplomats which dovetail with Hamas’ war strategies show a criminal lack of understanding in dealing with these jihadi forces and their cunning built up over the centuries. Though it seems that these are simply appeals for humanitarian aid, or mock horror at Hamas/civilian casualties, or the flipping of facts in accusing Israel of cruelty and genocide – these feckless political moves pour fuel on the jihadi fire and encourage the gray eminences of the Iranian Revolution.

One such example is Western diplomatic efforts to strike a deal with Hezbollah, allowing de-escalation of military tensions. Such a deal was signed on August 11, 2006; it is called UN Security Council Resolution 1701. It insisted that Hezbollah withdraw northward 18 miles from the Israeli border to the Litani River, and that it demilitarize. How did that work out? No part of the resolution was ever carried out by Hezbollah, while Israel fulfilled its obligation one-sidedly.

After the October 7, 2023 Hamas pogrom on Israeli civilians living in kibbutzim near Gaza, jihadi groups in southern Lebanon (including Hezbollah and Hamas) have been routinely firing rockets at Israeli cities and on IDF positions on the Israel-Lebanon border. On November 21, 2023, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen warned the UNSC that a regional war was likely if UNSCR 1701 was not fully implemented. On January 8, 2024, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib called for a diplomatic solution to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict through “full implementation” of the Resolution 1701 . . .

Resisting the Iranian Revolution

Those Lebanese who resisted Iran’s salami-slice annexation of Lebanon often paid with their lives for their bravery. Bachir Gemayal, Lebanese Forces Supreme Commander and later President of Lebanon,  was assassinated in Eastern Beirut on September 14, 1982 by a member of the Syrian Nationalist Party. It is conjectured that Syria’s President Hafez al-Assad was party to the planning and execution of Gemayel. Phalange Christian response to the assassination was the massacre of Lebanese Palestinians in Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

On August 13, 2023, Lebanon’s top Christian cleric, Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai spoke guardedly in his Sunday sermon, rebuking Hezbollah as a ‘state within a state,’ an irresponsible actor causing damage to Lebanon: “It is not possible to live on one land with more than one state, more than one legitimate army, more than one authority, and more than one sovereignty.”

On August 13, 2023 Samy Gemayel, the leader of the Lebanese opposition al-Kataib Party, said in a al-Hadath TV interview that “the Lebanese state has surrendered to Hezbollah. There is a green light for Hezbollah to transport weapons, also via residential areas. There is a great danger. What if the truck had contained explosives and the incident led to a huge explosion and hundreds of people were killed? We are not prepared to coexist with an armed militia in Lebanon, and this will be followed by practical steps, opposition meetings, and decisions.”

In October 2023 MP Fadi Karam of the Lebanese Forces party on told Radio Free Lebanon: "The decision on war [in Lebanon] is currently in the hands of Iran. [Iran’s principle of] 'the unity of the fronts' means revoking the sovereignty and the independence of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.”

On November 1, 2021, Saudi Arabia banned all imports from Lebanon. Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said his country’s disengagement from Lebanon was prompted by “Hezbollah’s continuing dominance of the political scene.” Over that weekend, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain asked the Lebanese ambassadors in their capitals to leave as well. “Lebanon has been captured,” Ali Shihabi, a commentator close to the Saudi government, said about Riyadh’s thinking. “Nothing can be done except cut Lebanon off so its people also see the price of Iranian domination.”

How should we then pray?

 

 

 

 

 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey
 
Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES  

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Open your doors, O Lebanon – that fire may destroy your cedars! (Zechariah 11:1) – Part One

The world’s media is focusing a fear-filled spotlight on the tinder-box of Lebanon. Those who turn on the nightly news are shown to a ringside seat and where they can gaze at what may well be a coming bloody confrontation. Even some Christian sites are engaging in a measure of prophetic voyeurism about what may happen on the Israel-Lebanon border.  Here are questions currently being raised on TV:

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel once stated: “Wir lernen aus der Geschichte, dass wir überhaupt nichts lernen” (‘We learn from history, that we mostly learn nothing at all’). Yet some things can be learned from history, from understanding religious motivations, and from mining biblical and military strategic contexts.

“From the River to the Sea”

In Deuteronomy 4:44-46, Moses coaches the Jewish people, recounting to them the entire Mosaic Covenant as they camp in modern Jordan, waiting to invade and conquer Canaan. Moses pronounces to Israel, on the authority of the God of Jacob, that “every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the [Negev] desert to the Lebanon and from the River – the river Euphrates – to the western [Mediterranean] Sea” (Deuteronomy 11:24). According to the God of Jacob, ‘from the River to the Sea’ means the borders of the Promised Land that YHVH gave to the Jewish people – from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. No other people has sovereign and divine right to those territories. These territories include Gaza (Joshua 15.47), what is known today as the West Bank (Numbers 34:1-12), northern Jordan (Deuteronomy 3:11-18), a large section of modern Lebanon (Joshua 12:7) and part of modern Syria (Genesis 15:18; Joshua 13:1-5).

Claims by Hamas or the Palestinian Authority to Gaza or to the West Bank, and claims by Hezbollah to southern Lebanon – these flagrantly violate YHVH’s word regarding the biblical borders of the Promised Land.  These are the vain imaginings of the nations that Psalm 2:1 mentions, and they run roughshod over God’s prophetic promises to His Jewish people:

In light of the fast-paced events now happening in Israel and the Middle East,  it’s worth remembering that the Bible does not ask the question: “How does Israel fit in with superpower strategies or Islamist jihadi plans?” Rather, the question that the Bible raises is: “How do all these superpowers and Islamist nations fit in to YHVH’s good plans for Israel?”

Psalm 83 notes prophetically that, at the End of Days, Lebanon (Gebal and Tyre) will be actively at war with Israel. Lebanon will join Edom, Ammon and Moab (Jordan and the West Bank), the Ishmaelites and Hagrites (Egyptian Sinai, Saudi Arabia), the Philistines (the region of Gaza), and Assyria (northern Iraq) in an attempt to commit genocide against the Jewish people:

“They make shrewd plans against Your people” (Psalm 83:3)

The present jihadi army in Lebanon is called Hezbollah (in Arabic, Ḥizbu 'llāh; the Party of Allah). It is also known as al-Muqāwamah Al-Islāmīyah fī Lubnān (‘The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon’). Hezbollah is a Shia Islamist jihadi group with two wings – a paramilitary/terrorist Jihad Council and a political party in the Lebanese Parliament known as the ‘Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc.’ The Secretary-General of Hezbollah is Hassan Nasrallah. The group was founded around 1982, toward the close of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). That war was waged primarily between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Lebanese Christian Maronites. Hezbollah’s administrative center gradually situated itself in south Beirut’s Shiite Dahieh neighborhood. Hezbollah’s training grounds eventually were located in the Bekaa Valley. And South Lebanon became their operational ground, from where attacks were made against Israel and the IDF.

Beirut was once known as ‘the Jewel of the Mediterranean’ or ‘the Paris of the Middle East.’ But the 15 year-long Lebanese Civil War reaped a grisly harvest of over approximately 150,000 dead Lebanese. Sniping, ambushes, kidnappings, car bombs and IEDs – life in Beirut gradually became a nightmare for many. Daily life in Beirut was characterized by cruelty and violence, and Hezbollah flourished and blossomed in that bloody soil.

The most famous/infamous terror operative associated with Hezbollah was Imad Mughniyeh, born in 1962 in the Lebanese village of Tayr Debba, not far from Tyre. He joined Yasser Arafat’s Force 17 special forces as a teenager and fought against Lebanese Christian and Druze forces in the 1970’s and early 1980’s.  After Israel expelled the PLO from Beirut to Tunisia in August 1982, Mughniyeh and four others helped found the Islamic Jihad Organization, a Shiite terror arm of Hezbollah under the tutelage of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (Pasdaran), in the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley. He was directly involved in or had responsibility for the following terror acts, often working as a team with Mustafa Badreddine. The two men were known professionally as ‘the ghosts of Beirut:’

‘Hajj Radwan’ (Mughniyeh’s professional alias) had his fateful encounter with divine justice on February 12, 2008, at approximately 22:15 hours. This master Hezbollah terrorist was blown up as he approached his Mitsubishi Pajero on a dark Damascus street in the fashionable Kafr Soussa neighborhood, not far from an Iranian school, a Syrian police station and a Syrian Intelligence office.

“They conspire together against Your treasured ones” (Psalm 83:3)

The goals and strategies of Hezbollah are based on their philosophy and principles. These have been clearly stated by the organization from the outset: “These are our objectives and these our enemies.” On February 16, 1986 Sheikh Ibrahim al-Amin publicly read the document ‘The Hizballah Program’ at the al-Ouzai mosque in West Beirut. It was simultaneously published in as-Safir, a leading Arabic-language daily newspaper in Beirut. The article was titled ‘The Hizballah Program, an open letter to all the Oppressed in Lebanon and the World.’ An English pamphlet was published in 1987. Here are some selections from the CIA translation of that document:

The unabridged version of the Hezbollah Program includes the following instructive paragraphs:

“The mouth speaks from that which fills the heart” (Matthew 12:34)

Hezbollah’s heart-attitudes (see Genesis 12:3) towards Israel reveal a virulent anti-Semitism rooted in classic Islamist texts.

In July, 1985, Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah (the spiritual mentor of Hezbollah) stated in an interview: “We believe there is no difference between the United States and Israel; the latter is a mere extension of the former. The United States is ready to fight the whole world to defend Israel's existence and security. The two countries are working in complete harmony.”

According to a video posted on Saudi news channel al-Arabiya, Nasrallah declared in a 1988 speech Hezbollah’s commitment to a worldwide Shiite Islamist Caliphate dictatorship: “Our plan, to which we, as faithful believers, have no alternative, is to establish an Islamic state under the rule of Islam . . . Lebanon should not be an Islamic republic on its own, but rather, part of the Greater Islamic Republic, governed by the Master of Time [the Shiite messianic figure known as the Mahdi], and his rightful deputy, the Jurisprudent Ruler [Persian: Velâyat-e Faqih] Imam [Ayatollah] Khomeini.”

In a 1998 speech marking the Shiite Day of Ashura, Nasrallah’s official website quoted him referring to Israel as “the state of the grandsons of apes and pigs – the Zionist Jews” and described the sons of Jacob as “the murderers of the prophets.”

Speaking at the Shi'ite Day of Ashura flagellation ceremony (tatbir) on April 9, 2000, Hassan Nasrallah declared: “The Jews invented the legend of the Nazi atrocities. It is clear that the numbers they talk about are greatly exaggerated. They can speak of fabricated or exaggerated massacres that occurred during the Second World War.”

On May 26, 2000, Nasrallah gave a speech in the Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil, from where the IDF had withdrawn a few days previously. Nasrallah crowed: “Several hundred Hezbollah fighters forced the strongest state in the Middle East to raise the flag of defeat . . . The age in which the Zionists frightened the Lebanese and the Arabs has ended . . . Israel, which possesses nuclear weapons and the most powerful air force in the region – this Israel is weaker than a spider's web.”

On September 4, 2002, Hezbollah-affiliated Ayatollah Fadlallah stated to the British newspaper ‘The Telegraph’: “I was not the one who launched the idea of so-called suicide bombings ... but I have certainly argued in favor of them.”

On September 27, 2002, Nasrallah spoke on al-Manar (Lebanese Hezbollah TV), proclaiming: “Let the entire world hear me. Our hostility to the Great Satan [America] is absolute . . . I conclude my speech with the slogan that will continue to reverberate on all occasions so that nobody will think that we have weakened. Regardless of how the world has changed after 11 September, Death to America will remain our reverberating and powerful slogan: Death to America!”

In an October 23, 2002 article in the Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star, journalist Badih Chayban quoted Nasrallah saying, “Among the signs . . . and signals which guide us, in the Islamic prophecies and not only in the Jewish prophecies, is that this State [of Israel] will be established, and that the Jews will gather from all parts of the world into occupied Palestine, not in order to bring about the anti-Christ (i.e., al-Masīḥ ad-Dajjāl) and the end of the world, but rather that Allah the Glorified and Most High wants to save you from having to go to the ends of the world, for they have gathered in one place, and there the final and decisive battle will take place.” Nasrallah’s speech is available in Arabic on Hezbollah's website. More recently, the relevant excerpt from the speech, along with Arabic transcription and English translation, have been published online.

In Jeffrey Goldberg’s October 14, 2002 article in ‘The New Yorker’ titled ‘In the Party of God’, Hezbollah spokesman Ibrahim Mousawi states that the “Jews are a lesion of the forehead of history.”

On February 18 and 19, 2005, Hezbollah-connected TV al-Manar aired Nasrallah’s speech of February 2, where he stated: “Israel is our enemy. This is an aggressive, illegal, and illegitimate entity, which has no future in our land. Its destiny is manifested in our motto: ‘Death to Israel!’”

In 2006, Sheikh Nasrallah said: “There is no solution to the conflict in this region except with the disappearance of Israel.”

On August 2, 2013, Nasrallah spoke on Quds Day in Beirut, saying that Israel was “a cancerous growth that must be eradicated . . . The only solution is to destroy it without giving it the opportunity to surrender . .  The elimination of Israel is not only a Palestinian interest. It is the interest of the entire Muslim world and the entire Arab world.”

On August 14, 2014, Nasrallah gave an interview to the Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar, stating that: “Israel is an illegitimate entity and it is a threat to the region. It is a constant threat to the whole region. We cannot coexist with this threat. That is why the ultimate goal of the [Arab and Islamic] nation is to end Israel’s existence irrespective of the problems, sensitivities and everything that has happened and could happen between Palestinians and non-Palestinians, Shia and Sunni, Muslims and Christians.”

On November 30, 2009 Nasrallah announced Hezbollah’s new ‘Manifesto’ at a live press conference in Beirut, 24 years after the publishing of its original ‘Hezbollah Program.’ The scholar and Neubauer Research Fellow Benedetta Berti at INSS, explains that “Hizbollah shows complete continuity both regarding its worldview and its strategic goals” in both documents.

“Certainly in the fire of My jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations!” (Ezekiel 36:5)

The prophet Jeremiah spoke forcefully about the divine judgment which will fall on every nation who disparages or dismisses YHVH’s calling on Israel and His love for His own Jewish people:

Hezbollah and Iran are not the first groups to find themselves blacklisted in the Bible. The divine gavel is about to come crashing down in the courthouse of the Most High.

 

How should we then pray?

 

 

 

 

 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey
 
Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES  

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

 

The elephant and the flea

Sometimes the stout-hearted can learn from history. There are certainly enough examples which might grant wisdom to those who so desire. Indeed, the present superpower machinations and intrigue surrounding the Middle East – with the focus here on jihadi forces versus Israel – have some sobering lessons to impart, for those who have eyes to see.

But to take instruction, one has to clean out one’s ears and polish one’s spectacles. Preconceived ideas of which world powers are the heroes and which are only partly heroic – these perspectives may need to be deposited in the cubicles at the doors of the classroom, in order to more clearly discern what is truly taking place. Under the glare of history’s microscope, heroes sometimes turn out to be anti-heroes, while those who are universally castigated often turn out to be the true champions.

This newsletter examines five such cases:

“America is an elephant - Cyprus is a flea – Greece is a flea”

At one point in the career of the rough-talking Texan who became POTUS, Lyndon Baines Johnson addressed some fiery words to Alexander Matsas, Greece’s Ambassador to Washington. The context was a June 1964 US-Greek disagreement concerning the fate of Cyprus (as quoted in ‘I Should Have Died’ (1977), Philip Deane, pp. 113-114):

On April 21, 1967, a military junta led by three Greek Generals took over Greece in a coup. The CIA was certainly involved in encouraging these leaders, and LBJ’s earlier comments take on a more menacing air in this context.

“There is no American reason why the Turks should not have one-third of Cyprus”

In 1974, a fascinating document archived at the US National Security Advisor’s Memoranda of Conversation Collection (situated at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan) throws light on how the United States government views power politics and warlike moves against its own allies. The US at that time related to the Greek military dictatorship as an ally. Yet they also stationed nuclear weapons at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey after 1958. Today there are purportedly 90 B61 gravity bombs on site. The US strategic game-plan involved dealing simultaneously with two mortal enemies – Turkey and Greece. Yet ultimately, the American cards were stacked in favor of the Turks.

In Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s discussion with the POTUS Ford, Kissinger stated quite flatly:

“We would have our hands full to keep the Greeks from going to war. The Turks right now are extremely nationalistic. For a few years ago, the Turkish tactics are right – grab what they want and then negotiate on the basis of possession . . . But if the Turks run loose on Cyprus, the Greeks could come unglued. We certainly do not want a war between the two, but if it came to that, Turkey is more important to us . . . There is no American reason why the Turks should not have one-third of Cyprus.”

“We can reduce Israel’s size to historic proportions”

The long-term heart and strategy of the US State Department regarding its end-game for Israel is no secret. On December 17, 1975 US Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger met S’adun Hammadi, Iraq’s Minister of Foreign Affairs at the Iraqi Ambassador’s residence on Rue d’Andigne, Paris. In that meeting Kissinger communicated a ‘no-nonsense’ US foreign policy regarding Israel:

This State Department realpolitik position still informs the thinking of American diplomats and politicians today: Israel’s borders must be shrunk in order to weaken its military and political standing in the Middle East, and a Palestinian state needs to be established on land which has been pried away from Israeli control. An awareness of these anti-biblical schemes can help intercessors to pray for leaders and diplomats in the US and elsewhere, for these talking points are part and parcel of British, European and Russian strategies as well.

The betrayal by the West

Adolf Hitler had plans to swallow up Europe piece by piece. One of the largest initial pieces was the Sudetenland – territories in Czechoslovakia to where a significant number of Germans laborers had moved, seeking work and new opportunities. The Führer threatened Continental Europe with war if Sudetenland were not given to him in appeasement.

Chamberlain believed that negotiations with Hitler could avoid a World War. His impression was that Hitler could turn out to be a man of peace. “In spite of the hardness and ruthlessness I thought I saw in his face, I got the impression that here was a man who could be relied upon when he had given his word.”

To avoid war, France and the United Kingdom permitted Nazi Germany to incorporate the Sudetenland. In meetings at the Munich Conference with Hitler on September 15th (Berchtesgaden, Bavaria), 22nd (Rheinhotel Dreesen, Rüngsdorf, Bad Godesberg) and 29th (the Führerbau, Munich), Chamberlain was manipulated and bullied into finally abandoning England’s Czechoslovak ally to the tender mercies of the Nazi juggernaut. The representatives of Czechoslovakia were not allowed to take part in any negotiations due to Hitler’s refusal to allow their participation, as their homeland was drawn and quartered by Europe’s Great Powers. Up to that point the Czechs had refused to bow to any form of diplomatic surgery, preferring to trust in their small though well-trained army and in their political alliances with France and the Soviet Union.

The Munich Agreement was signed at 01:30 on September 30, 1938 by Hitler, British PM Sir Neville Chamberlain, Italian Fascist PM Benito Mussolini and French PM Édouard Daladier. This Quartet’s meeting was known as the ‘Four-Power Conference.’ It sanctioned the immediate Nazi invasion and annexation of Czech Sudetenland. A few hours after having signed away Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain took a light nap, arose and asked Hitler to sign a peace treaty between the United Kingdom and Germany. Hitler happily agreed. The German High Command’s plot to stop Hitler was shelved, and Europe tumbled slowly into the abyss.

Czech politicians joined the newspapers in regularly using the term The Betrayal by the West (Czech: zrada Západu). All of the Czechoslovak border fortifications (the only viable defense against German invasion) were now in Nazi hands. Poland seized Trans-Olza; Hungary annexed and occupied the remainder of Carpathian Ruthenia. Chamberlain returned to Britain claiming he had established peace in our time. However, within a year of the agreement World War II had started. Czech poet František Halas published a poem with verse about the “ringing bell of betrayal” that occurred at Munich. MP Winston Churchill was said to have declared that “Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor. They will have war.” To this day, the terms ‘Munich’, Sudetenland,’ Chamberlain and ‘peace for our time’ convey betrayal and diplomatic duplicity.

After Munich, Hitler no longer had any fear that the West would oppose his genocidal plans. His comments about Chamberlain and Daladier were telling on this point: “I did not think it possible that Czechoslovakia would be virtually served up to me on a plate by her friends.” Even more telling was Hitler’s conclusion: “Our enemies are little worms. I saw them at Munich” (“Unsere Gegner sind kleine Würmchen. Ich sah sie in München”). In March 1939 Hitler invaded and conquered the rest of Czechoslovakia.

On Friday October 5, 2001 Israeli PM Ariel Sharon gave an evening press conference where he said:

In a blunt response on October 6, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said: “The President believes that these remarks are unacceptable. Israel could have no better or stronger friend that the United States and no better friend than President Bush.” Yet the American push to get Israel to retreat from Gaza, the Golan, the West Bank and the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem continued full press from that day onward.

A banana republic in the desert

The present US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has been active in communicating State Department wishes and Presidential orders to Israel throughout the past eight months of the Israel-Hamas war. Little is known by most people about Blinken’s political role prior to his current office.

Blinken was functioning as Biden’s principal foreign policy advisor and spokesman for his 2020 presidential campaign. As senior campaign official, he reached out to acting CIA Director Mike Morell on or before October 17, 2020, and triggered him to organize 50 colleagues in the intelligence community to sign a letter “falsely claiming that damning emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop [just] published by The [New York]Post were Russian disinformation.” At 10:53 pm that night, “Blinken emailed Morell a USA Today article” dealing with the same theme. Over the next two days, Morell “gathered signatures from 51 former intelligence officials, including himself and four other former CIA directors, including John Brennan and Leon Panetta.” Morell also testified “that he sent an email telling Nick Shapiro, former chief of staff to Brennan, that the Biden campaign wanted the statement to go to a particular reporter at the Washington Post.” Morell testified that “he received a call from Steve Ricchetti, chairman of the Biden campaign, to thank him for writing the statement.”

Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote to Blinken on April 20, 2023, requesting his assistance because they “have learned that you played a role in the inception of this statement while serving as a Biden campaign advisor. This concerted effort to minimize and suppress public dissemination of the serious allegations about the Biden family was a grave disservice to all American citizens’ informed participation in our democracy.”

When asked about Blinken’s role in the disinformation letter sent out by CIA acting Director Morell (according to his sworn testimony to the House Judiciary Committee), State Department spokesman Vedant Patel refused to answer directly, only stating that “It is not a State Department issue, and I don’t really have a comment on this from the State Department.” Morell was not a State Department employee, and at that time neither was Anthony Blinken.

Since moving to the State Department, Blinken’s statement and policies have raised concerns regarding his strategic perspectives on Israel-related issues.

Fair-weather friends and erratic allies

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, president of the International American Council on the Middle East, and a board member of Harvard International Review, has published an incisive June 15, 2024 article: “As US Is Being Encircled by Enemies, the US Administration Wants Israel to Surrender to Terrorists.” Here are a few selected quotes:

How should we then pray?

 

 

 

 

 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey
 
Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES  

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

 

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