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:
- In its heyday, Britain made promises to both the House of ibn-Saud and to the Hashemite dynasty, promising each hegemony over the Islamic jewel of Mecca. In the end, the jihadi warriors of ibn Saud defeated the Bedouin armies of the Hashemites, and Arabia found itself with a new name – Saudi Arabia. Britain had pulled the strings across the entire Middle East, and ended up controlling puppet regimes in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, etc. But within thirty years, these acquisitions of the Crown were mostly swept away, replaced by the ‘friendly’ bear-hug of Uncle Sam.
- The United States, through its intelligence contacts with Harry St. John Philby, (British spy and father of the infamous double-agent Kim Philby) also known as Jack Philby or Sheikh Abdullah, was able to pull the strings regarding British colonial schemes. The US nudged Saudi Arabia out of the orb of British influence, bringing that country solidly into the ‘Standard Oil’ American arena. American influence has been predominant in the Middle East to this day
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
- “And the serpent was more crafty/cunning/subtle (Hebrew: עָר֔וּם ] than any animal of the field which YHVH God had made” (Genesis 3:1)
- “Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns . . . And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, and they did not prevail, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him . . . And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child” (Revelation 12)
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.
- Will Israel be allowed by its American ‘big brother’ to decisively defeat the armies of jihad? Or will the Jewish state continually face the wagging finger of rebuke, and be told: “Take the win! Thus far and no further!”
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.
- The potential for decisive and needful measures to remove the bin-Laden-like jihadi threat coming from Hezbollah is very real. Your prayers for minimal loss of life, and for Israel’s leaders to clearly receive God’s strategies and leading are vitally important at this time.
How should we then pray?
- Pray for divine revelation and courage to be given to world leaders to discern how jihadi forces are cowing and intimidating Israeli and world efforts to oppose and crush them
- Pray for Israel’s leaders to clearly receive YHVH’s strategies and leading for the coming conflict
- Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 33-70 living Israeli hostages (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some of these hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Sadly, over 100 of all Israeli hostages are dead; Hamas is holding on to their corpses as cold storage bargaining chips
- Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth
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
