Fortunately Israel has an "Iron Dome" that works

Where was Iron Dome?
Anti-missile system intercepts one rocket aimed at Beersheba while Ashdod, Ashkelon remain exposed. IDF cites technical problems when trying to explain failure.

Amos 9:
¹³ “The time will come,” says the Lord,
“when the grain and grapes will grow faster
than they can be harvested.
Then the terraced vineyards on the hills of Israel
will drip with sweet wine!
¹⁴ I will bring my exiled people of Israel
back from distant lands,
and they will rebuild their ruined cities
and live in them again.
They will plant vineyards and gardens;
they will eat their crops and drink their wine.
¹⁵ I will firmly plant them there
in their own land.
They will never again be uprooted
from the land I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.

Palestinians press U.N. for statehood vote
The Palestinian drive for United Nations membership may be resolved in the upcoming week, say diplomatic sources.

"The president of the Palestinian Authority has zero authority in the Gaza Strip," he argued. "Before flying 9,000 kilometers to New York to seek U.N. membership, President Abbas should have driven 50 kilometers to Gaza, where he has been unable to visit since 2007."

Israel is secure, but one accurate rocket attack and the whole Middle East could go up in flames.

20 rockets fired into Israel - Man dies of wounds
Man injured in Ashkelon rocket attack dies from wounds.
School takes direct hit.
At least 20 rockets on Saturday evening.
Islamic Jihad, Hamas vow to destroy Israel.

Man injured in Ashkelon rocket attack dies from wounds
Doctors at Barzilai unable to save man injured in residential area; 4 further people wounded as South Israel pounded by 35 projectiles from Gaza in total; extensive damage reported in Ashdod as rocket hit school.

Joel 3:

⁴ “What do you have against me, Tyre and Sidon and you cities of Philistia? Are you trying to take revenge on me? If you are, then watch out! I will strike swiftly and pay you back for everything you have done...

⁹ Say to the nations far and wide:
      “Get ready for war!
   Call out your best warriors.
      Let all your fighting men advance for the attack.
 ¹⁰ Hammer your plowshares into swords
      and your pruning hooks into spears.
      Train even your weaklings to be warriors.
 ¹¹ Come quickly, all you nations everywhere.
      Gather together in the valley.”

   And now, O Lord, call out your warriors!

Saudi prince backs cleric's bounty offer for Israeli soldier | Reuters: A member of the Saudi royal family has pledged $900,000 to a bounty offered by a prominent cleric to any Palestinian who kidnaps an Israeli soldier.

Assad: challenge Syria at your peril
Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, has warned that Western action against his country would cause an "earthquake" that would "burn the whole region".

While the world is distracted by the economy, the end of this age is steadily approaching...(hat tip to Legal Sodium)

Israeli prisoner swap may be prelude to attack on Iran - Washington Times
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to execute a 1,000-for-1 prisoner exchange last week despite his frequently voiced opposition to such lopsided deals is seen by several Israeli military commentators as an effort to “clear the deck” before possibly undertaking an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

French far-right Christians besiege Jesus excrement play
Paris police have arrested around 20 Christian fundamentalists who burst into a theatre and threw stink bombs to protest against a play featuring the face of Christ drizzled with fake excrement.

If it were Mohammad instead of Jesus Christ, Paris would be burning down right now.

Romans 12:

¹⁹ Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”^[d] says the Lord.

"you talkin' to me?"

Syria Grand Mufti: "Assad will activate American sleeper cells if needed"
Syria's top Sunni Muslim cleric has warned Western countries against military intervention in Syria and threatened to retaliate with suicide bombings in the United States and Europe if his country comes under attack.

Israel may lose German sub deal - Ynetnews:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's frustration over new east Jerusalem housing plans may jeopardize Israel's chances of getting new Dolphin class submarine.

French Suburbs Becoming 'Separate Islamic Societies':
Muslim immigrants are increasingly rejecting French values and identity and instead are immersing themselves in Islam, according to the report, which also warns that Islamic Sharia law is rapidly displacing French civil law in many parts of suburban Paris.

6.6 magnitude earthquake rocks Turkey - Telegraph: A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 shook southeastern Turkey on Sunday, Turkey's Kandilli Observatory said, triggering the collapse of buildings and killing scores of people.

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EU bank failures will crash Wall Street — again: EU banks problems are “bound to have a life-changing impact on nearly all investors in the U.S. and around the globe.”

When faced with economic depression - start a war. Syria next?

Obama hails death of Muammar Gaddafi as foreign policy success
The death of Gaddafi immediately raised speculation in the US that the same military model – the use of US air power combined with rebel forces on the ground and special forces from Europe – could be used again in Syria.

Vice-president Joe Biden described the military model as a "prescription" for the future, while White House spokesman Jay Carney, when asked about Syria, said Assad had lost his legitimacy to rule.

NATO hits Syria; Syria and Iran hit Israel. There's a number of ways a war could start against Israel, which would be significant given the time we're living in.

Interesting that the Bible predicts Damascus will be razed.


Isaiah 17:

¹ This message came to me concerning Damascus:    “Look, the city of Damascus will disappear!
      It will become a heap of ruins.

Interesting slant from the Lebanon media:

THE DAILY STAR :: Hezbollah, Israel war imminent, both sides well prepared
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, citing U.S. Embassy cables from 2009 and released by WikiLeaks, said Israel expected the next war to last two months during which Hezbollah would likely fire between 24,000 to 36,000 missiles into Israel, about 6,000 aimed at Tel Aviv.

Worst Killers Released for Shalit
AS Gilad Shalit prepared to return home after five long years in captivity, Israelis agonized over having to release some of the worst-ever Palestinian killers.

Debkafile predicts crucial week ahead with Shalit's planned release
The US, Israeli, Egyptian and Saudi armies are on high military preparedness amid warnings of terrorist attacks to disrupt the prisoner exchange and avenge US charges of an Iran-instigated plot to murder the Saudi ambassador...

Sunday, Oct. 16, US intelligence sources warned that the operation for the Israeli soldier's recovery from Hamas captivity (paid for by 1,027 jailed Palestinian terrorists) could touch off a spate of terrorist attacks in the region, most likely aimed at US embassies and Israel targets in and outside the country.

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 White House Says Data Shows Iran Push on Nuclear Arms - NYTimes.com
President Obama is pressing United Nations nuclear inspectors to release classified intelligence information showing that Iran is designing and experimenting with nuclear weapons technology. The president’s push is part of a larger American effort to further isolate and increase pressure on Iran after accusing it of a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States.

Some U.S. officials question response to Iran plot | Reuters:
 Still, one senior U.S. official said, "There shouldn't be skeptics."
"You can say: 'Why the hell would anyone be so stupid?' That's fair game. But you can't translate that into innocence."

The U.S. is doing their best to make this alleged plot "stick" to the highest level in the Iranian government - to the Ayatollah. But another round of leaky sanctions, which Iran has been able to skirt around for years, is not going to make any difference as an actual deterrent.

Leaky Sanctions - Investors.com (Aug 9, 2010)
[Obama] has not succeeded in using his charm to convince the world to stand together against Tehran; there is no economic warfare — concerted or unilateral — taking place against the regime, and certainly no real pressure to force the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to stop its nuclear program and end its support of terrorism. So much for "the Obama Doctrine" of multilateralism and engagement.

Wild and crazy thought of the day:

What if Israel made an incredibly lop-sided deal with Hamas to free 1027 Palestinian prisoners for releasing 1 Gilad Shalit, just before Israel lets missiles and bunker-buster bombs rain on Iran; and the U.S. at the same time, began forming the pretexts for war on Iran? After all you wouldn't want Gilad in Hamas' hands, just before attempting to "...cut the head off the snake" (in Saudi Arabia's words) that is Iran.

Out of the 1027, why would Israel cut short the life sentences of 280 mass murderers responsible for hundreds of Israeli deaths? Because they are going to end up bombing Gaza and likely killing many of these terrorists anyways.

That's my crazy thought for the day; my theory. No matter what happens - interesting times directly ahead. Ezekiel 38, coming soon.

US Gives Israel Green Light For Iran Strike - Alex Jones' Infowars
Fabricated terror plot provides pretext for intervention following Panetta’s October 3 Tel Aviv visit.

"Unusual" meeting between US, Iran over plot - CBS News
Obama would not say whether Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, knew of the alleged plan. Yet he called it part of a pattern of "dangerous and reckless behavior" by the Iranian government and said people within that government were aware of a murder-for-hire plot.

The U.S. considers it an attempted act of terrorism.

Missing Libya Missiles Find Their Way to Gaza
Some of the thousands of surface-to-air missiles that have gone missing since the collapse of the Gadhafi regime in Libya have now turned up just miles from the Israeli border.



Ezekiel 38:
⁵ Persia [aka Iran], Ethiopia, and Libya will join you, too, with all their weapons.

 Isaiah 41:

 ⁸ “But as for you, Israel my servant,
      Jacob my chosen one,
      descended from Abraham my friend,
 ⁹ I have called you back from the ends of the earth,
      saying, ‘You are my servant.’
   For I have chosen you
      and will not throw you away.
 ¹⁰ Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
      Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
   I will strengthen you and help you.
      I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
 ¹¹ “See, all your angry enemies lie there,
      confused and humiliated.
   Anyone who opposes you will die
      and come to nothing.
 ¹² You will look in vain
      for those who tried to conquer you.
   Those who attack you
      will come to nothing.
 ¹³ For I hold you by your right hand—
      I, the Lord your God.

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Saudis, U.S. trade charges with Iran over plot
"There could have been some contact on this with the Quds Force, but the idea that this was some sort of directed, vetted, fully thought-through plot, approved at high levels in Tehran leadership I think defies credulity,"

Security Official: Shalit Deal will Spill Blood
A senior security official with the IDF, who was involved in the capture of many terrorists over the years, said on Wednesday that the deal to bring back Gilad Shalit is dangerous to Israel.

Setting the stage for a war on Iran
The announcement yesterday that Iran planned the assassination of the Saudi and Israeli Ambassadors to the US  is just too much of a stretch to be believable. Would Iran really risk their nuclear weapons program by starting a war now? What is President Obama up to one year prior to a US election he looks destined to lose? Or is Iran already nuclear weapons capable and willing to instigate an Ezekiel 38 war?

8 Unanswered questions over the alleged Iranian assassination plot
It has the ring of a far-fetched Hollywood thriller and even the senior law enforcement official involved in the investigation admitted to journalists that the alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the US did not fit with what was known about the methods and practices of the supposed perpetrators, the Quds force of the Revolutionary Guards.

Alleged Iran plot could have been trigger for war in Middle East
Robert Baer, a former CIA agent with long experience of observing the QF, said: "This stinks to holy hell. The Quds Force are very good. They don't sit down with people they don't know and make a plot. They use proxies and they are professional about it. If Kassim Suleimani was coming after you or me, we would be dead. This is totally uncharacteristic of them."

The forgotten Christians of the East
It is unclear what either Western governments or Western churches think they are achieving by turning a blind eye to the persecution and decimation of Christian communities in the Muslim world.

Revelation 6:

  ⁹ When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. ¹⁰ They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” ¹¹ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.

DEBKAfile, Sinai militias cut Egypt-Israel trade ties amid declining security
Sunday night, Oct. 9, a Coptic demonstration outside the state TV station to protest the authorities' failure to protect their churches from radical Islamic attacks ended with 24 dead of whom 17 were Copts and more than 200 injured. The Copts, who make up more than one-tenth of Egypt's 85 million inhabitants, were then attacked by hoodlums wielding clubs, stones and machetes. But the security forces turned their guns on the Copts and drove tanks against them – not the rowdies shouting Islam, Islami!

Yom Kippur drill: IDF simulates war call-up
The army decided to hold the exercise in the backdrop of recent developments in the Middle East.

Joel 3:

⁹ Say to the nations far and wide:
“Get ready for war!
Call out your best warriors.
Let all your fighting men advance for the attack.
¹⁰ Hammer your plowshares into swords
and your pruning hooks into spears.
Train even your weaklings to be warriors.
¹¹ Come quickly, all you nations everywhere.
Gather together in the valley.”

And now, O Lord, call out your warriors!

 

Russia, China veto UN resolution against Syria
Security Council resolution threatening sanctions against Damascus if it fails to halt crackdown against civilians defeated by 9:2 vote with four abstentions. Russia and China vote against sanctions.

Report: Assad threatens to attack Tel Aviv in case of NATO strike - Ynetnews
In meeting with Turkish FM, Syrian president discusses possibility of NATO strike, says 'I won't need more than six hours to transfer hundreds of rockets to Golan to fire at Tel Aviv'

 Isaiah 14:

²⁴ The LORD Almighty has sworn,

   “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be,
   and as I have purposed, so it will happen.
²⁵ I will crush the Assyrian in my land;
   on my mountains I will trample him down.
His yoke will be taken from my people,
   and his burden removed from their shoulders.”

 ²⁶ This is the plan determined for the whole world;
   this is the hand stretched out over all nations.
²⁷ For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?
   His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?

Damascus No More

One of the world's most ancient, continuously inhabited cities could become a radioactive wasteland in our day (or perhaps even: "today").

DEBKAfile, Assad holds Tel Aviv hostage against Turkish, NATO attack on Syria
Syria, Iran and Hizballah have charted a coordinated 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 firing from the Gaza Strip.

Israel reacted with a warning of its own: If a single Syrian missile explodes in Tel Aviv, Damascus will be first to pay the price, and if the missile offensive persists, one Syrian town after another will be destroyed.

This of course could be followed by any or all of Ezekiel 38, Zechariah 12, Joel 3, Isaiah 11:14-16, Psalm 83 et al. One thing is clear: the end of this age is very near.

Isaiah 17:

  ¹ A prophecy against Damascus:  

 “See, Damascus will no longer be a city

   but will become a heap of ruins.

Erdogan playing with fire - Ynetnews
Erdogan should not be surprised to see a Turkish or Israeli pilot, who suddenly feel threatened, pressing the button and firing the missile. The distance between provocation and a regional flare-up could be several seconds long.
 
DEBKAfile, Turkish warships harass Israeli freighters. Israeli missile boats off Cyprus
Increasingly assertive Turkey is setting the scene for clashes in the eastern Mediterranean.

Hamas: 'Resistance' against Israel is only option left for Palestinians
Hamas leader Khaled Meshal told an international conference in Iran on Saturday that "resistance" was the only option left for the Palestinians.

Why do human rights groups ignore Palestinians’ war of words? - The Washington Post
The real obstacle to long-term peace is the endless and overwhelming words of hate and incitement to genocide effectively spread to Arabs and Palestinians. One example is the textbooks given to millions of children in Saudi Arabia, distributed in the Arab world and beyond, that label Jews “monkeys and pigs.” This continues to foment discord, radicalism and violence.

Powerful Words

Romans 8:
⁹ But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) ¹⁰ And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. ¹¹ The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
 ¹² Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. ¹³ For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.