MA51 – November 2011. THE EURO CRISIS AND THE GLOBAL ALARM

BE ON THE ALERT

            FOR YOU DO NOT  KNOW WHICH DAY YOUR MASTER IS COMING !   

My dear friends,

Maranatha! Shalom! The good news for all who are ready – the Messiah, the Prince of Peace is coming soon.  The Heavens and the Earth are crying out – “The Day is at hand! Get ready!” 

This Millennium report is a bit heavy — too heavy for readers who want to enjoy a little exciting news. Things are very serious.  And there are several major world developments that are engaging me at present – and they are all disturbing, and ongoing.

1.  The European Debt crisis that is impacting Greece, Italy and the Eurozone. The euro is in an advanced stage of disintegration, and the European Union itself is threatened with upheaval. It seems that the prophesied Revived Roman Empire of the Beast may soon emerge out of the present turmoil.

2.  The new Russian initiative - Vladimir Putin’s plan to establish a new superpower – the Eurasian Union. This could lead to the formation of the Northern Confederation which will include Turkey, Iran, all the Turkic people, as well as Libya and others.

3.  The King of the South - a Southern Islamic Alliance, which could be formed by the “new” north African nations – Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and other Arab nations.

4.  The Middle East – Turkey and NATO; Iran and Iraq; Lebanon, Hizb’ollah Kurdistan.; and the whole region!

5.  Watching Syria particularly, for the outcome of the revolution going on there, and the possibility of it igniting a regional war, in which Damascus could become a heap of ruins.

6.  The Palestinians – Fatah/Hamas/Islamic Jihad; and Israel’s possible response to the endless hostility. When will the Arab-Israel war of Psalm 83 break out?

7.  Is a war with IRAN imminent! Will the US, Israel and the international community take any decisive action to prevent its nuclear weapons program becoming a threat to the whole world.

Perilous times are here, filling men’s hearts with fear;

Freedoms we all hold dear, now are at stake!

“Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Master.  See how the farmer waits expectantly for the precious ‘fruit of the earth,’ waiting patiently until the land receives the early and late rains. You too be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Master is near.” (James 5:7-8)

EUROPE:  THE COMING FINANCIAL STORM

The Eurozone goes from one crisis to the next.  After bailouts and countless summits, Greece remains in a mess and is still in danger of collapsing, and dragging down financiers and the European Union with it.

Greece, with a national debt of over €350 billion has reached the point where its sovereign debt is equal to 166% of its annual GDP. Conditions for the people have deteriorated so much, that many are fleeing from the impossible and ruinous situation.

Having already been bailed out by the EU & IMF in the past year, Greece is again in danger of defaulting on its international debt. And as it is part of the 17-nation euro currency system, its default would have a profound effect on the European Union, and have an impact also on the global economy. Panic is hitting the area, and the stock markets are plummeting.

EUROZONE CHIEFS REACH DEAL ON GREEK “HAIRCUT,”

AND NEW BAILOUT

Last month, leaders of the EZ (eurozone – the 17 EU nations that have adopted the euro as their currency), hammered out a deal to save Greece and the euro from disaster. It involved a “haircut” for Greek stakeholders.

OCT 27/11. Eurozone leaders reached a deal with the world’s major banks under which the creditors will accept a “haircut” of 50% on their holdings of Greek sovereign debt.

European Council President, Herman Van Rompuy, also announced that eurozone leaders had agreed on a plan to leverage the area’s rescue fund - the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), and to build a “firewall” of some €1 trillion.

OCT 28/11.  Doubts emerged over the eurozone deal as economists questioned the fine print, and the Polish prime minister dubbed it a "hell" hidden in the details.

NOV 1/11. Greek PM George Papandreou threw a spanner in the works by a surprise announcement that he would hold a referendum, asking the people to support the bailout plan. This move stunned European officials and roiled global markets. It also angered many of his Socialist deputies and touched off a political fire storm in Athens that threatened to topple the government.

Eurozone leaders warned Papandreou that the real issue in a referendum must be whether the Greek people want to be in the euro system or out of it. If Greece does not accept the bailout plan offered to them, the whole thing could be jeopardised. Without the funding from the eurozone, Greece would run out of money in December.

A few days later, Papandreou backed down from the controversial plan to hold a referendum, and then narrowly survived a confidence vote against his government as opposition members called for a unity government to pave the way for passage of €130 billion ($178-billion) deal.

The two mainstream political parties finally agreed on a pact to form a unity government after intense pressure from the EU which warned that the country would be left to go bankrupt if a cross-party consensus was not achieved. Papandreou resigned, and after several days of tense talks, Lucas Papademos, an economist and former central banker, was asked to serve as prime minister until new elections could be held in 14 weeks’ time.

ITALY NOW ON THE WATCH LIST

Europe is being hit with a cold dose of financial reality as investors react very negatively to the European debt deal and demand higher returns on bonds.

The yield on 10-year Italian bonds has risen to around the 7% mark which is a key psychological barrier. If it stays at this mark or goes even higher, it will mean big trouble for Italy. The Italian government just can't afford to take loans that are so expensive. The higher the yield on 10-year bonds goes, the worse things are going to be for Italy.

The surge in Italian bond yield is leading analysts to say Italy is at the brink of being unable to afford to borrow in the public markets.

The financial world could handle a financial collapse in Greece. But a financial collapse in Italy would essentially be the equivalent of financial Armageddon for Europe.

That is why Italy is so vitally important.

Because of its huge debt, Italy has agreed to be brought under surveillance by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of a plan to restore market trust in Italy, the eurozone's third-largest economy, (and the world’s eighth largest economy).

Italy has a €1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion) debt, and of that €200 billion is coming due next year. Italy’s debt, (which is larger than the combined debts of Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain), is too big to be bailed out!

NOV 4/11. PM Silvio Berlusconi said Italians are poorer today than before the introduction of the euro, after failing to gain the trust of world leaders about the reforms his government has to implement. Many Italians are blaming Berlusconi for debt problems of Italy, and are calling for his resignation.

NOV 14/11. Berlusconi is the latest casualty of the financial crisis. Following a humiliating rout in parliament, the embattled prime minister resigned. Mario Monti, a 68-year-old an economics professor and former European commissioner, was nominated as the new prime minister, and has already won endorsements from all of Italy's main parties. He is immediately moving to form a new government which is tasked with leading Italy out of its alarming debt crisis.

ITALY FEARS RATTLE WORLD'S INVESTORS

NOV 10/11. The growing investor exodus from Italian bonds, sparked by the dual political crisis in Italy and Greece, raises the most dangerous scenario yet in the eurozone’s two-year old debt crisis.

Investors have stampeded out of Italian bonds, sparking a broader decline across global markets driven by the prospect of the world's fourth-largest borrower losing access to financing.

Stock markets in the US and Europe have dropped as turmoil fuels fears that the crisis could ricochet across the Atlantic and endanger common currency.

The latest escalation has fed fears that the euro-zone debt crisis is starting down its most perilous path: going from a storm raging among small countries at Europe's fringe to one that strikes a major economic power. From there, the risks to the global economy are broad. The European and US financial systems are deeply intertwined, and Europe is a major export market for American companies.   The Wall Street Journal

PORTUGAL EVEN WORSE THAN GREECE

Another EU nation to watch closely is Portugal which in many ways, is in even worse shape than Greece.

A recent article by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard discussed the debt problems that Portugal is faced with. The following statistic was quite eye-opening .... Portugal’s public and private debt will reach 360% of GDP by next year, far higher than in Greece. 

Like Greece, Portugal is essentially insolvent at this point. Their current financial situation is unsustainable and politicians in Portugal are already suggesting that they should be able to get a "sweet deal" similar to what Greece just got.

A PANDORA’S BOX  

The truth is that what the Greek debt deal has done, is that it has opened up a Pandora's Box (a box of unsolvable problems).

Most of the financially troubled nations in Europe are eventually going to want a "deal," and this uncertainty is going to drive investors crazy. There is very little that’s positive that can be said about this Greece debt deal. It has bought Europe a few months perhaps, but that is about it. Financial professionals all over the globe were harshly criticizing this deal.

*The CEO of TrimTabs Investment Research, Charles Biderman, says that the big problem with this deal is that the fundamental issues have not been addressed .... The euphoria about the latest euro zone bailout will fade quickly, as investors realize that the underlying solvency issues have not been addressed."

*Bob Janjuah of Nomura Securities International in London was even harsher.... "This latest round of euro zone shock and awe is, in my view, nothing more than a confidence trick and has possibly even set up an even worse financial outcome."

*The chief economist at High Frequency Economics, Carl Weinberg, is calling the European debt deal a scheme "of Madoffian proportions"....  He describes it like this:  "Now they (EU Leaders) are keen to tap into resources that are not their own to fund this crazy scheme of guarantees, leveraged off guarantees to sell bonds and bank shares that no one may want to buy, (in order) to restore value in the banking system destroyed by other bonds that no one wants to own right now.”

Politicians in Europe did not want to increase the "bailout fund" with any of their own money, so they are going to go crawling to China, Russia and Brazil and beg those countries to lend them huge amounts of money. This is incredibly foolish, and it is already fairly clear that China is going to play hardball with Europe. China has Europe exactly where it (China) wants them, and it will likely demand all sorts of crazy things before they will lend Europe any cash for this bailout fund.

As a recent CNN article noted, Europe is going to be in a lot of trouble if they can't get money out of China, Russia and Brazil. The hope is that China and other sovereign wealth funds will invest in new special vehicles that will allow the EFSF (European Financial Stability Facility) to

add leverage to increase the amount of funding available.

Without the help of China, Brazil, Russia and others, Europe is back where it started. And it still seems clear that the stronger northern European nations aren't keen on the idea of a full bailout of their southern siblings.

A massive financial storm is coming to Europe. It is going to rock the entire globe.

Now is the time to make certain that your financial house is not built on a foundation of sand. Get your assets into safe places and keep them safe because the road ahead is going to be quite rocky.                            Extracts from>  http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com

  HU JINTAO

CHINA WARNS IT CANNOT 'CURE' EUROZONE'S DEBT CRISIS

NOV 1/11. China has stressed it will not be a "saviour" to Europe, as President Hu Jintao embarks on an official visit to the continent for the crucial G20 summit in Cannes.

China, holder of the world's largest foreign exchange reserves at $3.2 trillion, said it wants more clarity before investing.

The official Xinhua news agency, used to communicate Communist Party policy, said Europe must address its own financial woes. "China can neither take up the role as a saviour to the Europeans, nor provide a 'cure' for the European malaise," it stated. "Obviously, it is up to European countries themselves to tackle their financial problems."  - The Telegraph

'HARD LANDING' COMING IN CHINA

OCT 26/11. Australia faces the threat of a "hard landing" in China within two years and the growing risk of being hit by a double-dip global recession sparked by the European debt crisis, one of the world's leading economists says.

Nouriel Roubini, from New York University and widely known as "Dr Doom" for predicting the global financial crisis of 2008, told the opening day of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting business forum in Perth that China's economic growth model was unsustain-able, and he predicted a sharp slowdown in 2013.

The downturn would have a "major effect" on Australia by driving down commodity prices and denting economic growth. "If China has a hard landing, for a period of time that's going to hurt growth and reduce commodity prices until China recovers and until the rest of the world recovers," he said.  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

G20 MEETING HIJACKED BY EURO CRISIS

NOV 4/11.  Overshadowed by a tumultuous few days in the eurozone, a 2-day meeting in France of the world's most powerful leaders drew to a close with few concrete agreements, leaving EU leaders no wiser on how to control their single currency crisis.

The meeting wrapped up with a promise to boost the reserves of the International Monetary Fund - which is involved in loans to Greece, Ireland and Portugal - but details on how this will be done remain vague and G20 finance ministers will only tackle the issue in February.

The biggest news out of the G20 meet was the report that Barak Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy were overheard making disparaging remarks about the Israeli PM. Sarkozy was heard to say that Netanyahu is a liar. But nobody was particularly shocked. Since when was it news that Obama and Sarkozy have little love for Israel's PM?

The Eurozone and US debt crisis is expected to grow dramatically worse in 2012 as debt levels among Western nations continues to soar. As bad as 2011 was, 2012 may push the world into even more adverse territory.

Japan, the Eurozone, and even the U.S. are struggling with massive deficits as the economy deteriorates, unemployment rises, and natural disasters increase.  The US federal debt could exceed $17 trillion dollars by the end of 2012.

   GREENSPAN:

WHY THE EUROPEAN UNION IS DOOMED TO FAIL

OCT 25/11. The European Union is doomed to fail because the divide between the northern and southern countries is just too great, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan told CNBC in a recent interview.

“At the outset of the creation of the euro in 1999, it was expected that the southern eurozone economies would behave like those in the north; the Italians would behave like Germans. They didn’t," Greenspan said. "Instead, northern Europe fell into subsidizing southern Europe’s excess consumption, that is, its current account deficits."

Greenspan predicts that as the South’s fiscal crisis deepens, the flow of goods from the north will stop altogether and southern Europe's standard of living will go down.

"The effect of the divergent cultures in the eurozone has been grossly underestimated," he added. "The only way to have several currencies from divergent nations lumped together is if they are culturally close, such as Germany, the Netherlands and Austria. If they aren’t, it simply can’t continue to work." - 2011 CNBC.com

EU-EURO “EMPIRE PLOT BY BRUSSELS”

OCT 22/11. European Union chiefs are drawing up plans for a single “Treasury” to oversee tax and spending across the 17 eurozone nations. The proposal, put forward by Herman Van Rompuy, the European Council president, would be the clearest sign yet of a new “United States of Europe” — with Britain left on the sidelines.

British sources said Van Rompuy, who is regarded as being close to the German government, suggested plans for a “finance ministry” to be based either in Frankfurt or Paris. The EU already has its own “foreign ministry,” headed by Baroness Ashton, the former British Labour minister, and based in Brussels.  -The Telegraph 

Herman Van Rompuy, is very clear about what he believes the final result of this crisis will be .... “This crisis in the euro zone will strengthen European integration.”  And the overwhelming consensus among the political and financial elite in Europe is that increased European integration is the answer.

Many of the elite in Europe are now openly talking about the need for a "United States of Europe.”

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder recently said: "From the European Commission, we should make a government which would be supervised by the European Parliament.  And that means the United States of Europe."

The EU’s top bureaucrat claimed that only a fully-fledged super-state can save the euro. Jose Manuel Barroso, the Commission’s President, said the deepening economic crisis in Europe was a “fight for integration” and a federal Europe.

IN EUROPE,

                NEW FEARS OF GERMAN MIGHT

http://www.washingtonpost.com

OCT 2011. For decades, Germany’s role in Europe has been to supply the cash, not the leadership. With fresh memories of war, the continent was cautious about German domination  - and so were the Germans themselves.

But the economic crisis has shaken Europe’s post-war model, and Germany increasingly calls the shots. As countries struggle to pay their debts, only Chancellor Angela Merkel has enough money to haul them out of trouble. And the price Merkel is demanding — more control over how they run their economies — is setting off alarm bells in capitals across the continent.

In Athens, protesters dressed up as Nazis routinely prowl the streets, an allusion to the old model of an assertive Germany. In Poland, accusations that Germany has imperial ambitions became a campaign issue in the recent presidential election.

Misgivings about a larger German role in Europe have been apparent inside the country, as well, with Merkel facing tough debates about the extent to which the country should commit its money to helping others. And the rest of Europe remains cautious about taking German medicine, needing the help but worried about the side effects.

“That’s the predicament of leadership,” said Joschka Fischer, a former foreign minister who has urged Merkel to do more to support the euro. “When Germany acts, there is the fear that Germany will dominate. If Germany doesn’t act, it’s the fear that Germany will withdraw from Europe.”

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Germany, long split between rival Eastern and Western blocs, announced plans to reunite, raising fears that a powerful nation at the heart of Europe would once again tower over its weaker neighbours. As a condition of French consent to the reunification, French President Francois Mitterrand demanded a steep price: that Germany give up its cherished stable currency, the deutsche mark, and bind itself to a common currency, and to the broader tapestry of Europe.

That worked for years. But time and circumstance are conspiring to put Germany in the driver’s seat. Continental powers including France and Italy have faded in influence, while inside Germany the long caution about being assertive has mostly worn out. The German flag, long regarded with suspicion even inside Germany as a symbol of nationalistic pride, now flutters more and more across the country.

At the highest levels of the chancellery, there is a sense that now is the time for grand plans, and Merkel this month called for far-reaching changes intended to impose greater economic policy coordination among the 17 countries that share the euro. A change could take years to take effect, but a first step, they hoped, would come at the G-20 meeting of world leaders on November 3.

Germany “has been in a constant reactive role,” said Fredrik Erixon, head of the European Centre for International Political Economy, a Brussels think tank. Now, though, it “is at a place where it can largely dictate what it wants to see in other countries, and they have to go along with it.”

But even long-time allies such as Austria are resisting Germany’s supremacy. “I can absolutely not accept that Germany and France make decisions, then present them to the rest of the euro zone, Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger told Austrian television. “There’s no economic board or diktat. We have a euro zone with 17 countries.”  In Germany, the dissension is raising eyebrows. “Everybody is calling for leadership,” said the country’s deputy foreign minister, Werner Hoyer, “but no one wants to be led.”

VATICAN CALLS FOR CENTRAL WORLD BANK

The Vatican just recently published a report by the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace. It calls for the establishment of a "global authority" and a "central world bank" to rule over the world's diverse financial institutions.

Although this body does not speak directly for Pope Benedict, it carries his authority because the report quotes him extensively.

In fact, in 2009 Pope Benedict issued an encyclical called "Caritas in Veritate." In it, the Pope denounced the capitalist mentality as responsible for the global financial meltdown.

He also stated that the world's nations need to transfer part of their powers to a world authority. Then he argued that "there is an urgent need for a true world political authority."

   THE BIBLE HAS WARNED OF

FINANCIAL DISASTER IN THE ENDTIMES:

JAMES 5:1-6

“Come now, you rich, weep and wail because of the miseries that are coming upon you.  Your wealth has become rotten, and your garments are moth-eaten.  Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will testify against you and will consume your flesh like fire …

“See, the wages of the labourers who reaped your fields, and which have been withheld by you cries out against you; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of YHWH of Hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and self-indulgence; you have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous who were not resisting you.”

The same passage in James indicates that believers will see something of this financial meltdown before the Rapture:

“Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Master. See how the farmer waits expectantly for the precious 'fruit of the earth,' waiting patiently until the land receives the early and late rains. You too be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Master is near.” (James 5:7-8)

THE MIDDLE EAST

U.S. PULLOUT FROM IRAQ  – A WIN FOR IRAN

 In October, President Obama announced that all US soldiers will be brought home from Iraq by the end of the year. In celebratory remarks Obama said: “The tide of war is receding,” the Iraq war is ended. But he failed to tell the American people that after tremendous cost in blood - 4,485 killed, 33,169 wounded - and treasure - $800+ billion spent - he is giving Iraq to Iran because he lacks political will and diplomatic skills.

After the announcement, Hillary Clinton pledged: "To countries in the region, especially Iraq's neighbours, we want to emphasize that American will stand with our allies and friends, including Iraq, in defence of our common security and interests."

Debka.com reports that many top experts believe the pull-out will leave in Baghdad, a government and national army incapable of defending the country against widening cycles of terror as the government, headed by Nouri al-Maliki, under Tehran's thumb. Torn by strife among Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds, Iraq is in no state to obstruct Iran's hegemonic plans for the Persian Gulf and Syria.

More than 30,000 armed members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' terrorist arm, al Qods Brigades, are already deployed there. Most of the Shi’ite figures in government and parliament are now using al Qods for protection. This makes them vulnerable to manipulation from Tehran. Already, al Qods has the run of Baghdad's Green Zone, the top-security enclave, built at a cost of billions of American dollars to keep the US embassy and high commands in Iraq and its seat of government safe from terrorist bombs.

After the US military drawdown, 16,000 US embassy staffers will remain in the Green Zone, including 5,000 security officers and civilian contractors. They will stand eyeball to eyeball with a like number of al Qods operatives defending the pro-Iranian Iraqi government. It is on this jarring note that America is about to end its war in Iraq.

For Tehran, the US pullout is seen as a green light to intensify its meddling in Iraq. A long-standing joke has been that the US has spent billions of dollars to invade Iraq only to hand it over to the Iranians on a golden plate.

At the outset of the US military campaign, the George W. Bush administration saw the toppling of Saddam Hussein as a means of weakening their common enemy, Iran. They hoped a democratic government in Baghdad could lead to increasing calls among Iranians for an end to their political system, which was controlled by ayatollahs and religious clerics.

Washington hoped a new Iraqi government would back the West on econ­omic reform, energy policy and the need to eliminate weapons of mass destruction. But it did not work out like that; rather, Iran took advantage of Saddam’s downfall to extend its influ­ence into Iraq, and supplied weapons and commandos to fight against American troops there.

Nouri al-Maliki and other top Iraqi officials lived in Tehran during much of Saddam's reign, and developed close rela­tions with Iranian officials who share the Shia faith with 60% of Iraqis. And in Iraq they have backed Iran on important regional issues such as support for embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

A danger now is that Iraq could replace the role Syria has played for Iran, facilitating Iran's transfer of funds and arms to proxy groups such as Hizb’ollah and Hamas.

Iran’s leadership had prided itself on its ability to destabilise Iraq through Shia allies such as cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Now analysts say Iran could turn its attention to Afghanistan where more than 100,000 US troops remain.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told CNN: "The United States has become weaker and weaker. Now they are hated in the region." He also said that Tehran has "a very good relationship" with Iraq's government, and said the relationship will continue to grow. "We have deepened our ties [with Iran] day by day."

Military leaders on the ground in Iraq say that the resurgence of Al-Qaeda in Iraq will be a major threat to the rebuilding of this very important Middle Eastern nation.

Now with US troops out of the country, Iraq, backed by Iran, will become once more an intense adversary of Israel, as Psalm 83:1-8 has foretold:

“O God … They craftily plot against Your people, and conspire against Your hidden, treasured ones. They have said, 'Come, and let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.' For they have conspired together with one mind; they make a pact against You; the Ishmailites, Edom, Moab, Ammon (Jordan) … Philistia (Gaza), with the inhabitants of Tyre (Lebanon). And Assyria (Iraq) also had joined with them …”

US PLANS POST-IRAQ BUILDUP IN GULF

The New York Times reports the United States is negotiating with Kuwait to allow American combat troops to be based in the Persian Gulf area after completing the announced withdrawal from Iraq by the end of this year.

THE ULTIMATE DESTRUCTION OF IRAQ (BABYLON)

The total destruction of Babylon which is Iraq, is in Jeremiah 50 & 51. These are a few of the verses:

"So the land quakes and writhes, for the purposes of YHWH against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitants. 'The sea has come up over Babylon; she has been engulfed with its many tumultuous waves. 'Her cities have become ruined and desolate, a parched and desert land; a land where no-man lives and through which no-one passes’.”  (Jeremiah 51:29, 42-43)

TURKEY AND IRAN VIE FOR INFLUENCE IN MID EAST

Though official comments praise “brotherly ties” between Turkey and Iran with some sore remarks here and there, the two neighbours are competing with each other to gain influence in the region.

It appears Turkey and Iran both have found themselves positioned in different camps with the latest developments in the Middle East. A hidden power struggle is likely.

It was less than a year ago when Turkish President Abdullah Gül visited Tehran, and when the leaders of the two countries expressed hopes for strengthening relations.

But then the “Arab Spring” (uprisings) began. Turkey chose to act in line with the US. This, as well as Turkey’s attitude towards Syria, caused Iran to turn sour. To top it all off, when Turkey agreed to the construction of a NATO radar on its territory at Kürecik, Tehran started to express its disappointment at the highest level. The statements coming from Iran were not only criticism but also a threat.

According to a former Turkish ambassador, there is a hidden power struggle between Iran and Turkey, and it has intensified as Turkey started to act as a leader in the region.

When looking at the picture in the region, Turkey seems to have concluded that its best interests at present lie with acting together with the US, which means that Turkey’s relations with Iran will follow a sour course in the near future. But Turkey and Iran, who have not fought a war since the Qasr Shirin Treaty of 1639, in spite of their own ambitions, always find a balance in managing their ties.       -  www.todayszaman.com

According to the prophet Ezekiel (38:5-6), both Iran (Persia) and Turkey (Togarmah) will be aligned with the Northern Confederation of Rosh in the Tribulation when it comes down against Israel.

“THE ARAB SPRING” (or is it “WINTER”?)

Recent events demonstrate that the so-called Arab Spring (uprisings) have toppled three North African tyrants that may be replaced by Islamist regimes.

Many prophetic watchmen believe the Arab Spring is not about democracy, but rather about using democracy as a mask to establish Islam and Sharia law.

TUNISIA was the first to bring down its president. As the people protested and called for democracy in January, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia.

After the elections last month, the Ennahda "Renaissance" Islamic party, with a plurality (41%) of the votes, claimed the victory. While the party is politically Islamic, it claims to be moderate. Tunisia depends on tourism, and so the concern is to present the new Tunisia as a model of a balanced democratic Islamic state.  Ennahda has vowed to promote social justice, economic development, and a government free of corruption. It also has said it would promote democratic and women's rights.

But Ennahda is led by Sheik Rached Ghannouchi​, a man who just returned from a 22-year exile in the UK. He claims his party is a “broad umbrella party” of Islamists and “an antidote to the Western notion of a clash of civilizations.”

Tunisia’s election impressed Barak Obama so much that last week he hosted that country’s acting prime minister at the White House. Obama used the occasion to praise Tunisia’s election as an “inspiration” and stated he was “deeply encouraged by the progress.” But perhaps Obama wouldn’t be so sanguine if he knew Ghannouchi’s history.

Martin Kramer, a scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, wrote a paper which documents Ghannouchi’s Islamic extremism and his hatred for America.  He threatened the US in a speech given in Sudan in 1990. “We must wage unceasing war against the Americans until they leave the land of Islam, or we will burn and destroy all their interests across the entire Islamic world,” he said.

He visited Iran in 1979 where he defended the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran, claiming it was a “spy centre.” Subsequently he helped “thaw relations between Sunni Islamist movements and Iran.” He reportedly received a delegation from Hizb’ollah - Iran’s terrorist proxy - while in Britain.

Ghannouchi’s radicalism was publicized as recently as 2001 on an al-Jazeera broadcast, when he extolled Palestinian suicide bombers and advocated anti-American violence. So is there any doubt Ghannouchi will seek to make Tunisia into a radical Islamist state?

EGYPT. Since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak last February, the “freedom movement” has been stymied, and Islamic forces have increased in power. Elections have been scheduled for November 21, and the Muslim Brotherhood is positioning itself to become the ruling power of the new Egypt. It is organized and popular, and promotes a strict form of Islam.   

The MB, however recognizes the financial and social problems that Egypt currently faces, and it does not want to deal with the mess all on its own. The MB has announced it would not field a presidential candidate or attempt to gain a parliamentary majority, but it would have its candidates run for 50% of the parliamentary seats. The idea is to gain a strong voice in the parliament, taking a central role in shaping the constitution, without having to take on all the responsibility, and all the blame, if things go badly.

In the past, Egypt, like many Gulf nations, made Sharia the main source of legislation, but did not necessarily enforce all that Sharia dictates. Like Tunisia, Egypt depended on tourism. (In Saudi Arabia and Iran, public flogging is still the punishment for drinking alcohol and thieves' hands are still hacked off.)  Egypt has Sharia as "the source" of law, but it simply requires that no laws directly contradict Sharia, rather than requiring that Sharia be strictly implemented.

We believe that Egypt will be the prophesied “king of the south” - a southern Islamic alliance.

Signs that Egypt will break away from its 1978 peace treaty with Israel have increased. And in fact, the Scriptures foretell Egypt’s agenda.

“Egypt rises like a flood, like the rivers whose waters surge about; and he says, 'I will go up; I will cover that land; I will destroy the city and its inhabitants’.”        Jeremiah 46:8

Egypt’s destruction is also foretold:

“At the end time the king of the South will collide with him (the Antichrist) … and the land of Egypt will not escape.” (Daniel 11:40, 42. Also see Ezekiel 29:9-12 – “Egypt will become a desolate land.”)

LIBYA. After months of conflict, aided by NATO air strikes, Mahmoud Gadhafi’s brutal regime crumbled and the dictator himself was humiliated and killed in October. As a new government was being formed, the interim leader, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, declared the official liberation of the country, and outlined a more radical plan than was expected; it included the introduction of Islamic law in the new Libya. He declared that Libyan laws in future would have Sharia, the Islamic code, as its "basic source."

Mr Abdul-Jalil went further, lifting by decree a law from Gaddafi's era that, he said, was in conflict with Sharia - the banning of polygamy. Jalil indicated that he would legalize polygamy. (Under Sharia men can take up to four wives).

In a blow to those who hoped to see Libya's economy integrate further into the western world, he announced that in future, bank regulations would ban the charging of interest, in line with Sharia. "Interest creates disease and hatred among people," he said.  (Gulf states like the UAE have pioneered the development of Sharia-compliant banks which charge fees rather than interest for loans.)

Islamists are also heroes right now in Libya. The Islamist leader who stormed Tripoli, Abdalhakim Belhadj, was tortured for seven years in a top security Libyan prison under Gaddafi. And now he, and other freed men like him, hold honoured positions as living martyrs.

LIBYA ELECTS ACADEMIC AS INTERIM PM

NOV 1/11. Libya now has a new leader with the election of a university academic Abdurrahim al-Keib as the country's interim prime minister. He has immediately vowed to make human rights his priority. 

As Acting PM, he has the job ahead of him of organising elections for a National Congress within eight months, and multi-party elections in 2013. However, one of his first tasks will be to deal with international concerns about Libya's missing shoulder-fired missiles, and other weapons.

According to Ezekiel 38:5, Put (modern Libya) will be embedded in the Northern Confederation of Rosh.

YEMEN.  The conflict that has gone on since February is still a stalemate. President Ali Abdallah Saleh clings to power, but al-Qaida which is entrenched in Yemen, seeks to overthrow him.

SYRIA.  The regime of Syria's Bashar al-Assad - a key partner of Iran - has been accused of major human rights violations, including "crimes against humanity," in clamping down on the  insurgency targeting his regime.

The revolution in Syria has been going on for eight months, and more than 3000 people have been killed by the regime. Thousands of Syrians have fled and taken refuge in Turkey, and also some in Lebanon and Jordan.

The uprising is in large part led by Muslim Brotherhood-oriented militants, some reportedly armed by Turkey.

Recent mass demonstrations in Syrian cities called for the NATO coalition that had helped liberate Libya from Gadhafi, to now deploy in Syria to help bring an end to Assad’s brutal crackdown.

SYRIA PROMISES “TEL AVIV WILL BE FLATTENED”

Bashar Assad warned he will set the Middle East on fire if NATO forces attack his country. "If a crazy measure is taken against Damascus, I will need not more than six hours to transfer hundreds of rockets and missiles to the Golan Heights to fire them at Tel Aviv."

Assad also reiterated that Damascus will call on Hizb’ollah in Lebanon to launch an intensive rocket and missile attack on Israel.

Assad was quoted as saying: "All these events will happen in three hours, but in the second three hours, Iran will attack the US warships in the Persian Gulf and the US, and European interests will be targeted simultaneously.”

A high-level Islamic threat against Israel is now a dark reality.  “According to Western intelligence sources, Syria, Iran and Hizb’ollah have charted a co-ordinated military operation for flattening metropolitan Tel Aviv, Israel’s financial, industrial and cultural center, with thousands of missiles launched simultaneously by all three – plus the Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami [Islamic jihadists] firing from the Gaza Strip.

“Israeli officials have never publicly admitted that this threat is on record, but Western intelligence sources have reported that Israel reacted with a warning of its own: If a single Syrian missile explodes in Tel Aviv, Damascus will be the first to pay the price, and if the missile offensive persists, one Syrian town after another will be destroyed.

“The Israeli message to Assad cited the warnings Defence Minister Ehud Barak and government members addressed in the past year to Hizb’ollah, that if Tel Aviv comes under attack from its missiles, not only Beirut but all of Lebanon would go up in flames. Assad was given to understand that Syria would go the same way as Lebanon if it engaged in missile belligerence against Israel.”  - DEBKAfile / Oct 4/11

SCRIPTURE FORETELLS:

“DAMASCUS WILL BE FLATTENED”

Syria’s threats against Israel bring Isaiah’s prophecy into sharp focus in these days:

“The oracle concerning Damascus. Look! Damascus is about to be removed from being a city, and it will become a heap of ruins … the fortified city with disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus.” (Isaiah 17:1, 3)

Damascus has never suffered the fate described by the prophet. It has been continuously inhabited in its present location for about four thousand years. But its destruction could be very near. Today we see warring parties following a course that could very well fulfil this prophecy. (Apparently, central Israel will be involved in this action, as a city of Ephraim is destroyed.)

ASSAD 'OFFERED ASYLUM' TO QUIT

NOV 10/11. Arab leaders are privately telling the US that they have offered Bashar al-Assad asylum in a bid to get him to step down. "Some Arab leaders already have begun to offer Assad safe-haven in an effort to encourage him to leave peaceably and quickly," "Almost all the Arab leaders say the same thing: Assad's rule is coming to an end. Change in Syria is now inevitable."

LEBANON: NASRALLAH > “NEXT TIME,

WE’LL BEGIN WITH ATTACK ON TEL AVIV”

OCT 21/11. Hizb’ollah chief says that if another war breaks out with Israel, he’ll start the attack on the Centre, not the north of the country.

Should Israel enter into another war with Lebanon, Hizb’ollah will start by attacking Tel Aviv and not north of the country, Hizb’ollah chief Hassan Nasrallah threatened.

The threats are very real, and utter devastation of Israel would be very possible, if it were not for the promise of El Shaddai, the Almighty, to His people Israel:

"No weapon forged against you will prosper, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of YHWH, and their vindication is from Me," declares YHWH.” (Isaiah 54:17)

Although the majority of Israel are still in denial in regards to the Messiah, Y’shua, God is mightily at work among them, and the day of their national spiritual awakening is not far off. God’s purposes for Israel will be fulfilled, and He will save them, and will bring one third through the fire, purify them, and bring them into millennial blessing.

“In the whole land, declares YHWH, two thirds will be struck down and perish; but one third will be left in it. And I will bring this third through the fire, refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My Name and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are My people,' and they will say, ‘YHWH is my God'.”                                                                                                                                     (Zechariah 13:8-9)

 “In the last days the mountain of the House of YHWH will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream into it. Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of YHWH, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.’

“For the Torah (instruction) will go out from Zion, and the Word of YHWH from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations, and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they learn warfare any more.” (Isaiah 2:2-4)

That’s all part of the Millennial kingdom that’s to come in the near future. But for the present::

“There will be war until the end (of the age);

and desolations have been decreed.” (Daniel 9:26)

SHARIA LAW WILL BRING WAR TO THE MID EAST

Ronald Reagan’s assistant defence secretary, Frank Gaffney, has warned in an exclusive Newsmax TV interview: “War is on its way in the Middle East as Muslim countries are determined to force a showdown over the future of Israel. It will presumably be over, at least in part, the future existence of the state of Israel. It may involve all of its neighbours. It may involve the use of nuclear weapons,” Gaffney predicted. “But whatever form it takes and whenever it occurs, it is unlikely to be contained to that region, and we must do everything we can to prevent freedom’s enemies from thinking they have an opportunity to engage in that kind of warfare.” That means standing “unmistakably” as one with Israel, and doing everything to prevent Iran getting its hands on nuclear weapons.

Gaffney, who now heads up the non-profit Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., was speaking on the day that the “moderate” Islamist party Ennahda claimed victory at the ballot box in Tunisia, and the day after Libya’s new rulers declared that country will be run on Islamic principles and under Sharia law.

Gaffney noted that Ennahda had won what appears to be a clean election in Tunisia, but that doesn’t mean there ever will be another vote there. He does not believe Ennahda is really a moderating force. “I don’t believe there is such a thing as a moderate Islamist party,” he said. 

“The problem is not simply democracy. People are pointing to Tunisia as a perfect example of democracy at work. Democracy is fine if all you want is one-man-one-vote one-time. That is precisely what the Muslim Brotherhood and its like-minded friends want.”

The Obama administration has to stop “embracing” the Muslim Brotherhood, Gaffney says. “This is legitimating our enemies,” he said. “It is facilitating their influence operations and their penetration and it greatly increases the prospect that they will be successful at what the Muslim Brotherhood’s own documents indicate is their desire, which is to destroy western civilization from within.”

The Obama administration must apply pressure to ensure that democracy has a future there and elsewhere in the region, Gaffney said. “The president and his administration are not even pursuing that. What we are likely to wind up with, not just in Tunisia, not just in Libya, not just in Egypt, but probably in due course in Syria — as we have in Lebanon, as we have in Gaza and probably will have down the road in Yemen, Bahrain, maybe Saudi Arabia — is the takeover, perhaps through the ballot box, of people who will not seek or allow others freedom, who will impose Sharia and who will use whatever resources they amass as a result, not only to suppress their own people, but to endanger us.”  -  www.newsmax.com

MUCH TALK ABOUT A MILITARY STRIKE ON IRAN’S NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Over the past few weeks there has been a great deal of war talk, even about world war. And there has been a lot of military activity, and countless speculative news articles in circulation that have focused on the possibility of Israel and the West launching an attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities.

The debate over possible Israeli military action has reached fever pitch in recent days with newspaper leader columns discussing the benefits and dangers of hitting Iran.

 POSSIBLE ISRAELI FIRST STRIKE AGAINST IRAN  

OCT 31/11. Binyamin Netanyahu told his parliamentary colleagues: "If I had to summarize what will happen in our region, I would use two terms: instability and uncertainty. The collapse of Gaddafi's regime in Libya, the bloody incidents in Syria, the American forces leaving Iraq, the new government in Tunisia, the upcoming elections in Egypt and many other events - these are all expressions of the immense changes occurring around us.

“These changes can increase the instability within these countries, and the instability between countries. A nuclear Iran would pose a terrible threat on the Middle East and on the entire world. And of course, it poses a great, direct threat on us too ... A security philosophy cannot rely on defence alone. It must also include offensive capabilities, which is the very foundation of deterrence. We operate and will continue to operate intensely and determinately against those who threaten the security of the State of Israel and its citizens. Our policy is guided by two main principles: the first is 'if someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first,' and the second is 'if anyone harms us, his blood is on his own hands’."

NOV 5.  Israeli President Shimon Peres said he believes a military strike against Iran is a more likely option than a diplomatic solution to the country's nuclear standoff. “Intelligence services of various countries understand that time is running out and they are warning their leaders,” he said in an interview with Israeli TV. “It would seem that Iran is getting closer to having nuclear weapons. World leaders need to 'fulfil their responsibility' to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, whether that means serious sanctions or whether it means a military operation.”

Fuelling the speculations was a new crucial report on the Iran’s nuclear programme that was scheduled to be presented by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).  (see report below). 

Other indications of a possible attack on Iran, are:

A US army official told CNN that the US is concerned over the possibility that Israel may attack Iran's nuclear facilities without notifying it first. Washington is strongly opposed to Israel taking unilateral action, as any strike on Iran could trigger retaliation from Iran across the region.

* In a recent conversation with US Secretary of Defence Panetta, PM Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak reportedly gave only vague responses on Israel's intentions regarding Iran's nuclear facilities and the possibility of independent action.

* Barak and the Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman are said to be among those backing a pre-emptive strike to neutralize Iran's nuclear ambitions. Mr Lieberman said, "Iran poses the most dangerous threat to world order." But a narrow majority of ministers currently oppose the move.

Publicly, Israel is pushing for a diplomatic offensive against Iran - including the imposition of sanctions - rather than a military strike, but Netanyahu has repeatedly warned that all options are on the table.

*Iran has warned that if Israel strikes its nuclear facilities, missiles will rain down on Israeli cities. Syria and Hizb’ollah would presumably join Iran in such an attack.

NOV 3/11. www.debka.com said:  The sudden rush of military news on Nov. 2, is part of an orchestrated Western performance to convince Tehran that the US, Britain and Israel are on the verge of a military operation against its nuclear installations. Directed from Washington, it is meant to warn Iran that the play could become a reality show if it refuses to give up the drive for a nuclear weapon.

Contributing to the menacing climate hanging over Iran were four events involving Israel – all on Wednesday 3rd:

1. Israel conducted a successful test launch of a new intercontinental ballistic missile, Jericho 3, which foreign sources report is capable of carrying a 1,650 pound nuclear warhead 7,000 kilometers.

2. The IDF released photographs of Israeli Air Force squadron leaders reporting from Italian air base runways to the media on joint exercises they had conducted in long-range manoeuvres with the Italian air force "and other NATO nations," to familiarize the IAF with NATO military tactics. The inference was clear: The Israeli Air Force was strengthening its cooperation with Western allies in preparation for a NATO assault on Iran.

3. The IDF's Home Command conducted a major drill in the Tel Aviv region simulating a long-range enemy missile strike on Israel's population centres.

4. Defence Minister Ehud Barak left for an unscheduled trip to London shortly after a secret visit to Israel by the British chief of staff General Sir David Richards earlier in the week, as guest of Israel's top soldier Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz. If the British general was in Israel only this week, why was Barak in such a hurry to visit London?

British media reported as soon as Barak arrived, the

Ministry of Defence in London had accelerated and upgraded its contingency planning for participation in a US-led assault on Iran. They carried an account of plans for deploying large naval units including submarines to the Persian Gulf, and said the UK was reported to have asked Washington for permission to station its fighter-bombers on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia for launching bombing sorties against Iran.

The Guardian newspaper reported that London is increasingly concerned over Tehran's nuclear program and is preparing to deploy Royal Navy ships in the coming months to assist a possible American strike on Iran.

According to The Guardian, the decision to strike Iran came about as the result of the successful campaign that resulted in the dethroning of Muammar Qadhafi.

All this whirlwind of military activity was said to have been prompted by the IAEA’s conclusion that

within 12 months, Iran will have hidden all its nuclear and ballistic missile facilities in deep underground tunnels in the mountains where they will be invulnerable to attack.

THE IAEA REPORT 

NOV 9. The International Atomic Energy Agency has given the strongest indication yet that Tehran is secretly pursuing nuclear weapons. It reported that it had credible evidence from member states that Iran was pursuing activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device.

“The agency has serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program." "Since 2002, the IAEA has become increasingly concerned about the possible existence in Iran of undisclosed nuclear-related activities involving military-related organisations, including activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile, about which the agency has regularly received new information." It says while some of the activities it has identified have civilian as well as military applications, "others are specific to nuclear weapons."

Drawing on evidence collected over eight years, the IAEA reported that Iran carried out “work on the development of an indigenous design of a nuclear weapon including the testing of components.” The document shows that Iran worked to redesign and miniaturize a Pakistani nuclear-weapon design by using a web of front companies and overseas experts. Such a warhead could be mounted on Iran’s Shahab-3 missile, which has the range to reach Israel, according to the IAEA.

As could be expected, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected the report: "We do not accept any accusations by the IAEA, whose head unfortunately has no authority and just repeats what the US tells him to say."

WORLD DIVIDED OVER STOPPING NUCLEAR IRAN

NOV 10. The world’s leading powers are at loggerheads over how to halt Iran's nuclear programme.

Britain and other Western nations seized on the report to threaten further sanctions. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said that it "completely discredited" Iran's claims that its nuclear programme was for wholly peaceful purposes, and that the Islamic Republic was "ramping up its production of uranium enrichment to levels which could easily and quickly be converted into weapons-grade material. Unless Iran was prepared to engage in serious negotiations,” he said, "we must continue to increase the pressure and we are considering with our partners a range of additional measures to that effect."

France said that it was prepared to adopt "unprecedented sanctions" if Iran did not co-operate with the IAEA.

The German Foreign Minister said that "more severe sanctions would be inevitable" if Iran did not return to serious negotiations.

Russia, however, said that the report contained nothing fundamentally new and it flatly rejected further sanctions.

China, which depends heavily on Iranian oil to fuel its growing economy, said that it was studying the report but called for dialogue and co-operation.

Israel, which has threatened military action to prevent its arch-enemy obtaining the means to destroy it, kept silent except for a pointed statement by the prime minister:

"The significance of the report is that the international community must bring about the cessation of Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, which endanger the peace of the world and of the Middle East," it said.  – The Times

IRAN 'READY FOR WAR' WITH ISRAEL   

NOV. 3/11. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi responded to reports claiming Israel is planning a military attack against his country, stating Tehran is "ready for war" with Israel. "We have been hearing threats from Israel for eight years. Our nation is a united nation; such threats are not new to us," Salehi told Turkey's Hürriyet Daily.

Salehi further warned that if any country would attempt an attack, Iran would not hesitate to retaliate. "We are very sure of ourselves. We can defend our country," he claimed.

Salehi's statements came a day after Iran's chief of staff, Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, said Israel would be severely punished for any attack on Iranian soil. "We would make them regret such a mistake and would severely punish them. In case of an attack by the Zionist regime, the United States would also be hit."

IDF PREPARES TO DEPLOY “DAVID’S SLING”

OCT 26/11. The Israel Defence Force is in the final stages of laying the groundwork to deploy its “David’s Sling” – also called "Magic Wand" -- long-range missile defence system in central Israel.

The move to deploy the system comes on the heels of Israel's deployment of the Iron Dome missile defence system in the south, which has provided efficient, but gives limited protection from rockets fired by terrorists operating in Hamas-run Gaza into southern Israel.

If it works as advertised, Magic Wand will be able to operate in inclement weather and will fire intercepting missiles capable of changing course mid-flight. Whereas Iron Dome is intended to intercept short range rockets, Magic Wand is designed to intercept long-range missiles fired from Gaza and Lebanon.

According to security officials, Hamas and Hizb’ollah possess medium-range missiles capable of striking at Israel's central regions, which could potentially be intercepted by Magic Wand.

The cost of such units, however, is potentially prohibitive. A single Magic Wand projectile can reach up to $1 million. Defence officials argue the financial damage by a single rocket not intercepted, could easily outstrip that. But critics of systems like Magic Wand say, despite their proven operational success, that they are tactically defensive weapons which only mitigate - rather than remove - the strategic threat posed by stockpiles of rockets in terrorist’s hands.

Concerns have also been raised that reliance on such systems, rather than aggressively pursuing the elimination of strategic threats, presents a weak strategic posture and could lead to complacency among Israel's political echelons in regard to Israel's necessary strategic depth in terms of maintaining defensible borders.

Like Iron Dome, there will be a limited number of Magic Wand units to be deployed based on immediate operational needs. While the system is likely to be able to protect central Israel from the daily threat of Hamas' rocket capabilities, analysts say defence officials may have over-sold its capabilities to the public in a scenario where open conflict with Hizb’ollah - in possession of tens of thousands of rockets - erupt.

In such a scenario the IAF would be in a race against the clock to destroy the stockpiles and launchers from the air, before the system was overwhelmed or Israel's own stockpiles of expensive defensive rockets was depleted.

The Iron Dome and Magic Wand are two of the three systems Israel is developing and deploying as part of its multilayered missile and rocket defence apparatus.

The third system, the Arrow, developed by state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, formed the top layers of the defence shield.  Arrow-2, the variant currently deployed, is designed to knock out ballistic missiles, primarily the Shehab-3b currently deployed by Iran, and the more advanced solid-fuel Sejjil-2 Tehran is now developing.

Arrow-3,  which would be able to intercept ballistic

missiles in space earlier in their trajectory, is currently under development. According to Israeli media reports, David's Sling would also be capable of intercepting long-range missiles like the Shehab at lower altitudes if they evaded the Arrow batteries.   - www.israelnationalnews.com

RUSSIA BOOSTS IRAN'S SECURITY

www.debka.com  reports on Russia’s solidarity with Iran.

OCT 26/11. Moscow has sold Iran the highly-advanced Avtobaza truck-mounted systems which are capable of jamming aircraft radar and the electronic guidance instruments of attacking missiles. This deal substantially boosts Russian military assistance to the Islamic Republic.

These radar jammers are a component of Russia's most sophisticated anti-aircraft and electronic warfare system for the early warning of approaching assault planes and missiles.

Avtobaza is only part of the complete system. Its job is to transmit incoming information via optic fibers to separate electronic command centres and central air defence commands which then act to foil air or missile attacks.

Arguing that the weapon is purely defensive, Moscow claimed its sale to Iran does not violate the UN Security Council weapons embargo against Iran.

However, the US and Israel are reported to suspect a Russian stratagem whereby the Avotbaza jammers are only the first part of the deal, to be followed by the delivery to Iran of the full ELINT-electronic signals intelligence system. The full system would enable Iran to identity and react to any aerial or missile movements – not only over its territory but in the skies of the entire Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea.

Debkafile’s military sources describe the Avrobaza system as able to simultaneously detect and electronically jam 60 targets within a 150-kilometer radius at angles ranging 360 degrees on 20 minutes’ notice.

Western suspicions were alerted by the way the Russians announced the transaction. It was made by Konstantin Biryulin, head of a department in the Russian Defence Ministry, a departure from the usual practice of announcing these transactions through spokesmen of Russia arms export industry agencies outside the government.

In his statement, Biryulin stressed, “Russia has sent a set

of mobile radar jammers to Iran and is negotiating future deliveries.” He did not say how many jammers were in the contract or what other weapons were under negotiation with Tehran.

American and Israeli officials were annoyed by Biryulin’s remarks: “We are not talking about jets, submarines or even S-300 (missile) systems," he said. "We are talking about providing security for the Iranian state.”

Our Moscow sources take this also as the Kremlin's notice that this time it will not surrender to US and Israeli pressure for calling off the Avtobaza deal in the same way as it revoked its contract with Iran for supplying S-300 missiles. From now on, Russia is undertaking responsibility for providing Iran with the defensive hardware it needs for its national security.

Implied in this undertaking is another message: Russia will not stand for American or any other Western attacks on Iran or Syria like the NATO operation which overthrew Muammar Qaddafi in Libya.

ALL THE BUZZ MAY BE A SMOKE SCREEN

Middle East investigative reporter, Aaron Klein, reports:

The media buzz claiming Israel is preparing an attack on Iran's suspected nuclear installations has reached a fevered pitch. My information, however, indicates the Jewish state is prepping for a different war, an international effort that could potentially escalate into a direct confrontation with Iran.

If Israel were indeed on the brink of launching air raids on the mullahs, it would not first hold such a public discussion on the matter or leak to the news media the debate about the subject from within PM Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet.

The visible Israeli military preparations, including the missile tests, most likely are related to the strong possibility of a U.S.-NATO-led campaign against Syria.

Damascus officials have told me that NATO troops are currently training in Turkey for a Turkish-led NATO invasion of Syria. And separately, informed Middle East security officials say Iran has been inspecting Syrian forces and has been advising Syria about possible Syrian military responses should NATO attack Assad's regime.

The same officials also said Russia recently sold Syria a large quantity of Iskander ballistic missiles and that, in light of the NATO threat, the Russian government renewed its pledge to sell Syria the advanced S-300 anti-missile system.

A Turkish-U.S.-NATO strike on Syria would have immediate implications for Israel. The Syrian president has publicly warned that foreign intervention in Syria would cause an "earthquake" across the region, create another Afghanistan, and threaten the Jewish state. Assad reportedly made similar comments in a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmad Davutoglu. He was quoted stating, "If a crazy measure is taken against Damascus, I will need not more than six hours to transfer hundreds of rockets and missiles to the Golan Heights to fire them at Tel Aviv."

Assad also warned that "all these events will happen in three hours, but in the second three hours, Iran will attack the U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf and the U.S. and European interests will be targeted simultaneously."

The Syrian president's threats are not empty. His military possesses tens of thousands of rockets and missiles capable of striking every zone in the Jewish state. The Syrian and Iranian-backed Hizb’ollah is similarly armed, and can rain rockets and other projectiles in a combined onslaught with Iran's proxies in Gaza and West Bank.

Syria's military is not entirely capable of standing up to NATO. Its strategy, therefore, is to immediately target Israel to create a wider regional offensive that would greatly complicate an international effort to dispel the Assad regime.

Iran could become directly involved in any war. Its Shi’ite fundamentalist influence in the region is now challenged by the Sunni-led Turkey, which is on the march, attempting to become the Islamic superpower in the Middle East and Persian Gulf. Turkey is being aided in its pursuit by the Obama administration.

Iran rightly views the possibility of a Turkish-NATO effort in Syria as a thinly veiled attempt to check its own power by changing the Iranian-backed leadership in Damascus to a Muslim Brotherhood-oriented Turkish partner. If Tehran feels Syria is losing the war effort, Iran could escalate the conflict by attacking U.S. or Israeli interests. In turn, Israel or the U.S. could retaliate by striking Iran.

The war in Syria would likely translate into a larger regional war, a clash of Shi’ite and Sunni superpowers, backed by larger international players, all seeking to remake the Middle East in their interests.       - http://kleinonline.wnd.com

SECURITY EXPERT WARNS OF CYBER WORLD WAR

NOV 1/11. A leading Internet security expert has warned that a cyber-terrorist attack with "catastrophic consequences" looked increasingly likely in a world already in a state of near cyber war.

Speaking outside a global conference on Internet security in London, Eugene Kaspersky, a Russian math genius, told Sky News the threat was a real and present danger.

"I don't want to speak about it. I don't even want to think about it," he said. "But we are close, very close, to cyber terrorism. Perhaps already the criminals have sold their skills to the terrorists -- and then ... oh, God."

Kaspersky, who founded an Internet security empire with a global reach, said he believed that cyber terrorism was the biggest immediate threat confronting nations as diverse as China and the U.S.

"There is already cyber espionage, cyber-crime and hacktivisim [when activists attack networks for political ends] -- soon we will be facing cyber terrorism," he said.

British PM David Cameron, talking at the London Cyber Conference, added to the growing chorus of world leaders sounding the cyber alarm.

"We are here because international cyber security is a real and pressing concern," he said. "Let us be frank. Every day we see attempts on an industrial scale to steal government secrets -- information of interest to nation states, not just commercial organizations. Highly sophisticated techniques are being employed ... These are attacks on our national interest. They are un-acceptable."

He warned that "we will respond to them as robustly as we do any other national security threat."

Both the US and UK used the conference to set out principles they hope will form the basis of international cooperation in web governance, in which states would work together on issues such as security and copyright protection without imposing new restrictions on users, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The conference, which was attended by business and government leaders from 60 nations around the world, demonstrates how cyber security has vaulted onto the foreign policy agenda. But it is as likely to highlight dis-agreements as much as consensus, with China and others more interested in clamping down on Internet users than shutting the door on criminals and spies.  Read more:

 http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/11/01/expert-at-london-internet-security-conference-warns-cyber-war/print#ixzz1cdOZpzuW

RUSSIAN LEADER TELLS TOP GENERALS,

“PREPARE  FOR  ARMAGEDDON”

The following abbreviated report may seem “way out.” But it certainly lines up in many ways with the Biblical prophecies of World War (Revelation 6:4-8, Daniel 11: 40-44, Joel 3:9-13, Zechariah 12:1-4, & 14:1-3, & Ezekiel 38 & 39).  And without a doubt, the nations at present are diligently preparing for this apocalypse.

The world war will take place early in the Tribulation.  “Armageddon” is a term often used for world war, but strictly speaking, it is the war at the end of the seven year Tribulation when the survivors of the armies of the Beast (Antichrist) gather in anticipation of “The Word of God” (Messiah) descending on a White Horse to destroy the enemies.

Posted by EU Times /Oct 6/11.

A grim Federal Security Bureau (FSB) report on PM Putin’s meeting with China’s leader, Hu Jintao, in Beijing warned that both Russian and Chinese military forces were being placed on their ‘highest alert’ in anticipation of  a massive land invasion believed being planned by the US, of both the Middle East and Central Asia.

The plans for this “Total Global War” the Americans are

preparing to launch were first revealed to China’s Ministry of State Security by the former Blackwater mercenary, Bryan Underwood, who is currently being held by US authorities for spying and which we reported on in our  October 4 report entitled, “China Warns Russia of Coming American Great Event.”

Within hours of Putin’s reading of the coming US plans for Total Global War, this report says, he wrote a rare article in the Izvestia daily outlining a grand project to integrate post-Soviet states into closer co-operation (see next article), scheduled an emergency trip to China to meet with Hu, and ordered the FSB to notify China’s MSS of the arrest and detention of their spy, Tun Sheniyun, who was captured last year for attempting to steal sensitive information on Russia’s most powerful anti-aircraft system.

As we had detailed in our previous report, the “New Great Game,” moves being planned by the Americans that are striking fear into both Russia and China includes:

1.) The deliberate implosion of both the US and EU economies in order to destroy the Global Financial System that has been in place since the ending of World War II,

2.) The launching of a massive conventional war by the US and EU on the North American, African and Asian Continents to include the Middle East,

3.) During this all-out war, the deliberate releasing of bio-warfare agents meant to kill off millions, if not billions, of innocent civilians,

4.) At the height of this war the US and its allies will sue for peace and call for a new global order to be established in order to prevent the total destruction of our planet.

Russian and China stopped the West’s plan for another war this week by vetoing the US-backed plan in the UN

Security Council to turn Syria into another Libya.

Even worse for the West’s war plan against Syria was President Assad’s warning that if his nation was attacked by NATO, he would cause hundreds of missiles to be fired onto Israel’s most populated city of Tel Aviv within six hours, which would, of course, bring about a catastrophic nuclear response.

And in a pre-emptory move to counter the planned American blitzkrieg into Central Asia and Pakistan from Afghanistan, Indian Army Chief General VK Singh warned yesterday that thousands of Chinese military forces have now moved into Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir joining an estimated 11,000 more of them believed to have entered that region in the past year.

Most frightening of everything in this FSB report, however, is the reply Putin gave to Russia’s top generals yesterday when asked what preparations should be made. He answered ... “Prepare for Armageddon.”

For full article>  http://www.eutimes.net/2011/10/russian-leader-tells-top-generals-prepare-for-armageddon/

RUSSIA'S PUTIN PLANS TO BUILD

NEW “SUPERPOWER"

Vladimir Putin wants to bring ex-Soviet states into a "Eurasian Union." In an article outlining his first foreign policy initiative as he prepares to return to the Kremlin as the country's next president, Putin said the new union would build on an existing Customs Union with Belarus and Kazakhstan which from next year will remove all barriers to trade, capital and labour between the three countries.  "We are not going to stop there; we are setting an ambitious goal -- to achieve an even higher integration level in the Eurasian Union," Putin wrote in Izvestia.  –  Reuters, 4 Oct/11

Putin’s goal, evidently, is a Russian-led confederation that will include most of the former Soviet Union, but much more.  Maybe Putin has read Ezekiel 38 and discovered that Russia is destined to lead a much greater superpower than the Soviet Union. The new alliance will include all the Turkic peoples from Turkey across to Xinjiang in West China, as well as Iran, Libya, and more.

Mr Putin said: "Only in around 2015 may we approach the realization of the idea of creation of Eurasian Union if we work as energetically as we have been. … We propose creating a powerful supranational union capable of becoming a pole in the modern world, and at the same time an effective bridge between Europe and the dynamic Asia-Pacific Region."

"A Eurasian Union will differ from the EU in that it will be based on Eurasian values, not European ones," says Alexander Dugin, head of the International Eurasian Movement, a group of right-wing businessmen, officials and intellectuals that is thought to have considerable influence in the Kremlin. He says the EU's reliance on liberal economic institutions to hold it together is its fatal flaw, and that Putin will move to cement the economic integration of the Eurasian Union with strong central authority.

KYRGYZSTAN RETURNS TO KREMLIN FOLD

Nov 7/11. Putin’s skilful plans for his Eurasian Union is exerting influence over highly strategic recent converts to democracy such as Kyrgyzstan. In his first pronouncement as President-elect, Almazbek Atambayev declared that the US would have to get out of the Bishkek military base. But the large Russian military base in Kyrgyzstan would remain untouched.  Almazbek also declared keen interest in joining Putin’s Eurasian Union.

WHAT DO THE BIBLE PROPHECIES REVEAL

ABOUT THE ENDTIMES?

There are terrible times ahead! But before I explain those events, let me tell you there’s good news for those who are “in Christ.”  And this is it …

The Messiah, Y’shua (Jesus), will come to deliver His people.

The Lord Jesus promised to come again to receive His people – those who have come humbly to Him, in simple faith, believing in Him as Saviour and God; they have received pardon and forgiveness of sins, and His free gift of eternal life.  To these the Saviour says:

“Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's House are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you, for I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, so that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3)

My dear reader, if you have not received the Lord Jesus as your personal Saviour; if you are not yet counted amongst those who love the Master and are saved, I urge you not to delay, but pray to Him today, believing and trusting Him to forgive your sins, and to be your Saviour and God. (If you don’t know how to pray, there is a prayer on page 48 which will help you to pray for salvation.)

How will the Master come for His people?

“For the Master Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. Then the dead in Christ - those who died with faith in the Messiah - shall rise first. Then we, the living believers who remain, will simultaneously be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Master in the air. And so we will be with the Master for ever.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

This “catching up” is usually called The Rapture – it is a rapturous, glorious event, when the bodies of believers are transformed into bodies like the Master, and they will be taken by Him to the Father’s House – in Heaven.  (Details are in our book The Coming Worldwide Rapture.)

This great “evacuation” will take place before the 7-year Tribulation, for the Master has promised to keep His people from the time of trial that’s coming on the whole world. (Revelation 3:10). The apostle Paul explained:

“For God has not destined us to suffer His wrath, but to receive salvation through our Master, Y'shua the Messiah.”    (1 Thessalonians 5:9)

A believer in Y’shua the Messiah is secure, and destined for Rapture and Eternal Joy. An unbeliever is not secure, but he is headed for the blackness of Eternal Remorse. 

The horrific events that are ahead ...

After the Rapture, the 7-year Great Tribulation begins.

“There will be great tribulation, such as has never occurred since the beginning of the world until now; and there will be nothing like it again.”   -  Y’shua  (Matthew 24:21)

The Book of Revelation, chapters 6 through 19 gives details of the Tribulation.  Many Old Testament passages such as Isaiah 24, also describe that horrific time. (See our book, How to Survive if You are Left Behind.)

There are three wars prophesied for the endtimes.

1.  Psalm 83 foretells a fierce war between Israel and its surrounding Arab nations. Israel will be powerful – like a firebrand in a field of sheaves. (Zechariah 12:5-7).  This war could possibly take place before the Rapture. But it could be early in the Tribulation, as a lead up to the world war.  The result will leave Israel in a seemingly secure position.  But it will soon after be caught in the midst of world war.

2.  World War is foretold in Revelation 6:4-8, Ezekiel 38-39, Joel 3:9-12, Zechariah 12:2-3, Daniel 11:40-44, Malachi 4:1 and other passages. This war, I believe, will be in the first year of the Tribulation. It will begin with the nations coming against Jerusalem, but it will develop into a global war and a nuclear holocaust.

The result is the destruction of one quarter of the world’s population (Rev 6:8), including the wipe out of Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Russia and its allies including Iran and Turkey.  The leader of the Revived Roman confederation, Antichrist, will be the apparent “victor,” and he will move into Israel after the war, to establish Jerusalem as the world headquarters of the New World Order – World Government. He will reign over all nations for the second half of the Tribulation.

3. Armageddon occurs at the very end of the seven years Tribulation. The remnant armies of the Antichrist are gathered in the Valley of Megiddo, in northern Israel, in anticipation of the return of the Messiah with the armies of heaven. The Antichrist will be destroyed there– cast into the Lake of Fire.  And Satan will be cast into the bottomless pit.

The Messianic Kingdom for 1000 years

After the Tribulation, the destruction of the Antichrist, and the binding of Satan in the bottomless pit, the Messiah will establish the glorious Kingdom of God on earth for 1000 years. (Details are available in our book, Messiah Reigns).

TODAY IS THE DAY OF SALVATION!

THE SAVIOUR IS CALLING YOU!

“WHOEVER WILL CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD

WILL BE SAVED.” (Romans 10:13)

CALL UPON THE SAVIOUR WHILE YOU MAY!

  PRAYER FOR SALVATION

ALMIGHTY GOD, I come to You just as I am, a sinner, seeking forgiveness and salvation.

I believe Your Son, Y’shua (Jesus) died on the cross in my place, and paid the penalty my sins deserved. I believe Jesus rose again from the dead, and that He is indeed the living Saviour.

I believe Your promise, Father, that if I call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus, I will be saved. So I call upon You in faith, today. I place my trust in the Lord Jesus, and I am now deliberately receiving Him as my personal Saviour. By Your grace, I will follow Him all the days of my life.

Lord Jesus, I give my life to You. Fill my life with Your power and holiness I pray, and make me Your true disciple.

Thank You, Father, for receiving me, for Your salvation and for forgiving my sins. Thank You for making me Your child. Thank You for the assurance that You will save me from the Great Tribulation, and from a lost eternity. Thank You, my Saviour.  Thank You. Amen.

                        Signed ...............................................   Date .............

KEEP YOUR SIGNED PRAYER WITH YOU, AS A PERMANENT REMINDER OF YOUR DECISION TO FOLLOW THE LORD JESUS THROUGHOUT YOUR LIFE.

AND I INVITE YOU TO WRITE TO AN MRC ADDRESS NEAR TO  YOU, OR TO OUR WEST AUSTRALIA OFFICE. We would like to send you a booklet to help you on the Way.

       And may Almighty God bless you and keep you.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Your new brother in Christ,  Don Stanton

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