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Will Israel attack Iran? They are right on the verge of responding. The issues are complicated. Now more than ever, the Israeli leaders need much prayer for God's wisdom to make the right decision.
Iran's consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus was flattened on Monday. The strike also killed a top Revolutionary Guards commander and several diplomats. Zahedi was a significant figure in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its efforts to project power throughout the region.
At one point, he commanded the IRGC’s air force, but he’s better known for his work as a liaison to both Hezbollah and Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, which is allied with Iran. He was the only non-Lebanese citizen to sit on Hezbollah’s Shura Council, the group’s main decision-making body. The strike also killed six other senior leaders of the Quds Force — the branch of the IRGC responsible for operations outside Iran — including Zahedi’s chief of staff and the commander for Palestine. As such, Israel not only severed a key link between Tehran and its foreign proxies, but also removed several of the men who might have been in line to replace him.
Former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas, writing in Ha’aretz, said that while Israel has thus far been conducting a “covert ‘shadow war’” against Iran, “the attack on an annex building of the Iranian consulate hosting Quds Force commanders in charge of operations in Syria and Lebanon was a direct and explicit hit on Iran.”
Pinkas raised the possibility that this could be seen as a “reckless act of premeditated escalation that could not only lead to an expansion of the (Gaza) war, but also involve the United States, (depending on Iran’s scale and timing of retaliation).”
The IDF announced on Tuesday that it has attacked Hezbollah around 4,500 times in Lebanon and Syria since the start of the war.
As part of those attacks, the IDF has killed over 300 Hezbollah terrorists as well as injured over 750 of them, though most of the attacks have been against the organization’s weapons and assets, such as nearly all of its border lookout posts.
In fact, the IDF said it had destroyed 150 lookout posts, which is dozens more than the number that was on the border, suggesting that its attacks have proceeded deeper into Lebanon.
In recent days, evidence has grown that two key actors—the Biden administration and Israel's security establishment—are both pushing the country in that direction to advance their longstanding common goal of ousting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the religious-right bloc from power. This will open the door to advancing a two State solution of dividing God's Covenant land and Antichrist signing the devil's long awaited Daniel 9 Peace Treaty.
Israel has warned they are in a war on seven fronts as attacks recorded in a handful of neighboring countries in the last 48 hours spark fears of the conflict escalating to the wider region.
In an address to the Israeli government on Tuesday, Yoav Gallant, the country’s defense minister and one of only three members of its war cabinet, said they were coming under attack from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, Iraq, Yemen and Iran.
“We are in a multifront war and coming under attack from seven theatres,” he said, before listing them all.
Without specifying, he added that they were taking action on six of the fronts.
His comments came as explosions were recorded off the coast of Yemen, presumed to be an attack by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, and missiles were fired into Israel by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon.
Rabbi Kirt Schneider shares the history of Hanukkah, and what Christians should remember on this Jewish holiday.
JERUSALEM, Israel (LifeSiteNews) October 13th, 2023
An Israeli boy featured in a video used to push COVID vaccines on children in a nationwide campaign died tragically from a sudden heart attack in late September. The boy was only 8 years old.
According to reports, Yonatan Moshe Erlichman, grandson of a distinguished physician in Beit El, Dr. Mati Erlichman, “died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest while taking a bath.”
n 2020, at the age of 5, the child had appeared in a video produced by the regional council of Mateh Binyamin. The video was part of a government program aimed at pushing COVID vaccines on children, despite the nearly universal immunity of children to COVID-19.
The video made Yonatan a “poster child” for the vaccine campaign in Israel, which became one of the most draconian nations in the world for vaccine measures. The video aired just before the nationwide vaccine campaign began.
After a distinguished physician's grandson who appeared in vaccine promotions tragically passed away, one commentator asked, 'How many more children will die on the golden altar?'
The INS Drakon is not a "nuclear submarine", it's a diesel-generated electric propelled submarine, but has additionally a fuel cell and batteries, arrangement capable of allowing a 15.000 miles voyage in silence. The hull is stealth design. It's weapons include 6 torpedo tubes (53 mm) and 4 tubes enabled to launch nuclear-armed cruise missiles with a range capable to hit Iran from the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, the Red Sea, or comparable positions. All 6 existing vessels (of 2 different basic hull designs, Dolphin-I and Dolphin-II; 3 of each) have that armament; together they could cover all of Iran's major cities in one only attack, with nuclear destruction. But it's still Diesel-electric submarines, including the new INS Drakon. The Dolphin-I ships will be replaced from 2027 on by a new Class (Dakar), equally Grman built, all fuel cell equipped and stealth.
Asher Intrater, President of Tikkun Global declares we are fighting a spiritual war that we must be both humble and bold. How is that possible? In military war there are rules of engagement. What does that mean? Today Asher gives an update on the war in Israel and explains how waging war impacts the promise of peace. Watch. Engage. Pray
This archeological discovery is one of the most substantial pieces of Physical evidence that the Biblical story is accurate, yet no one has heard of it. This video will take you on a journey to the most ancient part of Jerusalem. This place - known as Temple Zero, also identified as the Temple of Melchizedek - is so old that it even predates the city of David, the first capital of Jerusalem.
Sept. 17th Jerusalem Post
Saudi Arabia has reportedly told the Biden administration that it is freezing US-brokered, indirect normalization talks with Israel because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government is unwilling to make any concessions to the Palestinians.
According to the report Sunday in the Saudi-owned Elaph newspaper, citing officials in Netanyahu’s office, the US has informed Israel of the Saudi stance.
It said that Israel was “confused” by the move, believing that the Saudis were prepared to move ahead with normalizing ties without linking it to the progress on the Palestinian issue.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah on Monday affirmed their “full support” for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and urged Israel to fulfill its obligations in accordance with international law to honor all agreements signed with the Palestinians.
Finding a suitable solution to the Palestinian cause and achieving a just and comprehensive peace is a “strategic option and a regional and international requirement,” the three leaders said in a joint communique after the tripartite summit in the Egyptian city of El Alamein.
The summit was held amid ongoing talk about a possible normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. In their communique, Sisi, Abdullah, and Abbas did not make any direct reference to reports about US efforts to broker a deal between Jerusalem and Riyadh. They stressed their “adherence” to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, however, which stipulates that the Arab states would normalize their relations with Israel only after a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines and the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Jewish Press.com
In a series of strategic political and military moves, Hezbollah is intensifying preparations for an imminent confrontation with Israel, drawing global attention and raising concerns about regional stability. Under the guise of the battle over an Israeli border barrier, the terror group aims to preserve its option of invading the Galilee, while also serving Iran’s interests in establishing a foothold in Syria.
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is reportedly promoting the deployment of his forces along the border, with over 30 outposts established for alerting and observation. Lebanese sources suggest that the group is readying itself for a prolonged conflict with Israel, which it believes is gradually accepting new rules of engagement set by Nasrallah.
As tensions escalate on the border, Lebanon has backed Hezbollah’s claims, rejecting any negotiations with Israel over the border. Al Akhbar, a Lebanese daily close to Hezbollah, reported on Saturday that Beirut demands that Israel recognize the border established in 1923 and withdraw from the village of Ghajar. Nasrallah’s recent remarks further emphasized this stance, warning of an inevitable escalation if the situation is not resolved promptly.
Furthermore, Hezbollah continues to provoke the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and challenge Israel along the Blue Line, exacerbating border incidents and violating established orders. Nasrallah’s threats to resist any attempts to remove a tent erected in Israeli territory, signaling the terror group’s determination to assert its presence in the region.
The mounting tension has drawn the attention of the United States, which is attempting to mediate between Israel and Lebanon to prevent a full-scale confrontation. Amos Hochstein, the American special envoy, known for his involvement in previous mediation efforts on maritime border disputes, has been dispatched to the region.
Hezbollah’s military capabilities have also seen significant improvements, with the group maintaining 15 battalions, including the elite “Radwan Unit” of 8,000 highly trained fighters. This force has been redeployed from the Syrian conflicts to the Israeli border, bringing with it invaluable operational experience.
Additionally, there have been reports of a noteworthy enhancement in Hezbollah’s unmanned aerial and air defense capabilities, as well as anti-tank weaponry.
The Israel-Lebanon Border
The Blue Line demarcating the 120 km-long border was created in 2000 by UN cartographers to verify Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, which the UN Security Council later certified as complete. The border runs from Rosh HaNikra on the Mediterranean coast to Mount Dov, where the Israeli-Lebanese border converges with Syria. Hezbollah says it does not recognize the Blue Line and disputes numerous points along the border.
Among those points is a strip of land on Mout Dov itself, which Israel captured from Syria. Hezbollah claims the area called Shebaa Farms belongs to Lebanon. Syria has not commented on the matter.
International peacekeepers from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) have been deployed in southern Lebanon to monitor the border since 1978.
However, Israel and Lebanon reached a US-brokered agreement delineating their maritime borders in October 2022.
Hezbollah has in the past year constructed no fewer than 27 military posts along the border.
The posts were built under the guise of Green Without Borders, a Hezbollah-affiliated organization that poses as an environmental NGO. Hezbollah launched the project in parallel to Israel’s construction of a fortified perimeter fence along the entire border. Israel’s effort to fortify the border was prompted by the discovery of Hezbollah cross-border attack tunnels in 2018.
[Reader Mayer Ilovitz points out that green is the signature color of Islam, and green without borders refers to Islam without borders.]
According to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, the terror group is forbidden from operating near the border and Israeli officials have been critical of UNIFIL’s inability to stop Hezbollah.
Hezbollah is believed to be responsible for a roadside bombing inside Israel at the Megiddo junction in March. Its leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, is believed to have given a green light to Palestinian terror groups in Lebanon to fire a barrage of rockets in April during the beginning of the Passover holiday.
Hezbollah perceives Israeli social divisions over judicial reform as a sign of weakness.
Israeli military forces were operating in the West Bank city of Jenin early Monday morning, in a major operation focused on the city’s restive refugee camp, with reports of airstrikes on multiple targets.
The Palestinian Authority health ministry said three people were killed and at least 13 others were wounded in a number of strikes, as large numbers of Israeli ground forces were seen entering the city from several directions. The ministry said three Palestinians were listed in serious condition.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that “security forces are now engaged in a widescale effort to thwart terror throughout Jenin” and had struck “terror infrastructure” in the city shortly after 1 a.m., without explicitly saying the Air Force was involved
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is expected to arrive in Beijing on Tuesday for a three-day visit, will be the first Arab leader to be hosted by China this year.
The visit is seen as a sign of China’s ongoing effort to increase its influence in the Middle East at a time when the US has refocused its attention on the Indo-Pacific region and Ukraine. It’s further seen as a sign of strengthened relations between the Palestinians and China, which has long been critical of Israeli policies and measures.
Abbas’s visit to China comes shortly after Beijing helped broker the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. It also comes in the aftermath of China’s offer to help Israel and the Palestinians resume peace negotiations, which have been stalled since 2014.
Founded in 1987, the Temple institute located in Jerusalem aims to rebuild the temple, training choirs and clerics and making objects for use in religious rites.
While apprentice choristers come from across Israel to delve into the collection of ancient hymns, the Temple Institute has made all of the objects deemed necessary for Jewish rites according to rabbinical instructions.
These include priestly robes, baking moulds for bread, incense burners and musical instruments.
- 'Matter of time' -
Known as Temple Mount to Jews and revered as their holiest site, the compound has for centuries housed Al-Aqsa mosque, the third most sacred place in Islam.
Those seeking to rebuild the temple recall the former place of worship, destroyed around 70 AD during the Roman period.
According to Jewish tradition, their first temple was demolished in 586 BC by then ruler Nebuchadnezzar II at the same location.
For Haim Berkovits, a 50-year-old third temple advocate, "you can say whatever you want (about the Muslim presence), this was the place for Jews".
Jewish worship at the future temple is "only a matter of time", he said.
Berkovits is part of Boneh Israel ("Building Israel"), an organisation which according to its website works at "bringing the redemption closer".
In order to hasten their sought-after redemption, Boneh Israel imported five red heifers from the United States last year.
The plan is to sacrifice them and blend the ashes with water, a mixture that will be used to brush anyone deemed impure -- for example those who have had contact with a corpse -- before their ascent to the third temple.
The rare cows are crucial, because the inability to perform this ritual is part of Israeli rabbinical authorities' opposition to Jewish visits to Temple Mount.
The animals' "return is a messianic sign", affirmed Berkovits at a farm in northern Israel where they are inspected by vets and rabbis to ensure that every single hair is red.
Israel is worried by reports of an interim nuclear agreement between the United States and Iran being reached “in the coming days and weeks,” Israeli media reported on Monday.
Specifically, Jerusalem is concerned about a deal that would allow the regime in Tehran to freeze part of its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of U.S. sanctions, according to Kan News.
A source close to the White House told Kan that “diplomacy is the best way to stop Iran from having nuclear weapons,” and it was reported that messages have been broadcast between Washington and Tehran on the nuclear issue.
ran International reported on Saturday that Washington and Tehran are close to a deal on the release of billions of dollars in frozen funds in exchange for the release of American hostages and “flexibility” in nuclear negotiations.
The money would reportedly come from frozen assets in Iraq and South Korea valued at up to $10 billion or more, according to Iranian officials.
U.S. sanctions bar Iraq from paying Iran for natural gas and electricity it imports, and South Korea owes Iran $7 billion for oil imported prior to May 2019, when former U.S. president Donald Trump imposed a fresh set of sanctions on Iran.
According to the Iran International report, in return Iran would be expected to take a less rigid approach to its nuclear program, and release three U.S. citizens held hostage in Iran—Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi and Morad Tahbaz—and two U.S. permanent residents—Jamshid Sharmahd and Shahab Dalili. All five are detained on espionage charges.
On Friday, Iran exchanged two prisoners with Belgium in a deal that was brokered by Oman.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told Kan on Monday that while there was “excellent cooperation” between the United States and Israel on Iran, which had resulted in several achievements, “The State of Israel relies first and foremost on itself.”
Cohen is currently on a diplomatic trip to central Europe, and met in Zagreb on Monday with Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said that an interim agreement would be “dangerous” and that “every effort” must be made to prevent one.
“It is possible that such an agreement will make it difficult for us to act—and we must do everything to prevent this from happening,” he said, according to Kan.
Amid mounting security tensions on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah recently responded to statements made by the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate Aharon Haliva that Israel is preparing for war with Hezbollah.
"You are not the ones threatening war, it is us who do so," Nasrallah emphasized. "And any such war will include all of Israel's borders." He further said that "any wrong action in Palestine, Syria or Iran could lead to a major war."
A nuclear facility Iran is constructing near the Zagros Mountains is so deep it is likely beyond the range of a U.S. weapon designed to destroy such sites.
Satellite imagery shows Iranian workers digging tunnels near the Natanz nuclear site in central Iran, about 140 miles south of Tehran.
Such a facility presents a “nightmare scenario that risks igniting a new escalatory spiral,” said Kelsey Davenport, the director of nonproliferation policy at the Washington-based Arms Control Association, AP reported.
“Given how close Iran is to a bomb, it has very little room to ratchet up its program without tripping U.S. and Israeli red lines. So at this point, any further escalation increases the risk of conflict,” she added.
Four entrances have been dug into the mountainside, images analyzed by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies reveal. Each is 20 feet wide and 26 feet tall.
Based on the size of dirt mounds and other satellite data, experts at the center told AP that Iran is likely building a facility at a depth of between 260 feet and 328 feet.
“So the depth of the facility is a concern.… It would be much harder to destroy using conventional weapons such as a typical bunker buster bomb,” said Steven De La Fuente, a research associate at the center who led the analysis.
The new Natanz facility will likely go deeper than Iran’s Fordo plant, a uranium enrichment site exposed in 2009.
Such facilities led the U.S. to create the 30,000-pound, precision-guided GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), or “bunker buster” bomb, which can cut through at least 200 feet of earth before detonating, says the U.S. military.
U.S. officials reportedly have talked about using two such bombs, one after the other in quick succession. It is not clear whether even that would be enough to damage the new Natanz facility.
Jerusalem Post Article
Former national security adviser Yaakov Amidror said Thursday that war with Iran is increasingly likely and Israel needs to gear up to attack without US assistance.
“We need to prepare for war. It’s possible that we will reach a point where we have to attack Iran even without American assistance,” Amidror, a hawkish former general who served as Nation Security Council chief under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2011-2013, said in an interview with Radio 103 FM.
Amidror was discussing a flareup over the Passover holiday that saw rockets fired at Israel from Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria by groups largely seen as Iranian proxies.
He also questioned the US commitment to Israel’s security.
“America is not the same America in terms of its presence, and the Iranians see that. The US has much greater problems than the Middle East. The world looks at Israel differently,” he said.
Some 11,516 olim (immigrants) arrived in Israel from Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries, representing 92% of olim who arrived during January and February and a 434% increase compared to the number of immigrants from this area during these months last year – according to an official document of the Jewish Agency obtained by The Jerusalem Post.
The vast majority came from Russia (10,203), almost seven times more than in the same period in 2022. Only 583 immigrants arrived from Ukraine, a 32% increase compared to the two first months of 2022. In addition, 388 immigrants came from Belarus, an increase of 229%.
Some 342 immigrants came from other FSU countries, an increase of 235% compared to the number of immigrants from these countries during January and February 2022.
During the first two months of 2023, the number of immigrants to Israel through the Jewish Agency was 12,658, an increase of 219% compared to last year.
A “horrible nuclear war” will break out if the world does not stop Tehran from obtaining atomic weapons, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his first ever address to the Iranian people on Thursday night.
“If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, this will be a problem all of us will face. It will change the world,” he said in an English-language interview with Washington-based Iran International that was also dubbed into Persian and broadcast in Iran.
News reports claim the Israeli prime minister has held secret meetings with senior defense officials to discuss a potential strike. "When we speak of preventing Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, we must keep all the possible means – I repeat, all possible means - on the table," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, speaking at an event alongside officials from the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
Netanyahu said he had a message for “those who say, ‘Well, if we take action against Iran, we will face war’ – You will face a war if you don’t, a potentially horrible nuclear war if you don’t.”
Iran has enough highly enriched uranium to build “several” nuclear weapons if it chooses, the United Nations’ top nuclear official is now warning. The warning from Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in response to questions from European lawmakers this week, shows just how high the stakes have become over Iran’s nuclear program. Even at the height of previous tensions between the West and Iran under hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran never enriched uranium as high as it does now.
