The Burden against Damascus
Isaiah 17
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. 2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. 3 The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts.
Isaiah 17 The Burden against Damascus
It is this conjecture that the above verse could be the event on the prophetic horizon that could usher in this coming to pass soon!
Israel lost face in the summer of (06) in the war with Hezbollah and the whole Arab world was embolden with new vigor to take the fight to Israel. I think that this ill-advised move on Syria’s part could launch a battle that Israel must win convincingly before the Arab world. The world and the UN will condemn her for her decisive action against Damascus. This could be the action that galvanizes Islamic nations to gather with Russia arming and leading Iran and a host of other Arab nations into another humiliating defeat on the mountains of Israel outlined in Ezekiel in the battle of Gog and Magog.
I think this will leave a vacuum of military strength in the are and China thirsty for oil will make their move for the black gold at Armageddon. The rapture of the church will occur possibly before, but I think after the Gog and Magog battle. I think this is when the Antichrist will appear with answers of peace. There will be some peace and he will break that covenant with Israel and pursue her with vengeance and wrath. But the beast will be turned away from pursuing her as God hides Israel and the Antichrist will have to turn his attention to the kings of the east. The influence of the Holy Spirit-filled church will be gone and unbridled lust for power, money, and hatred will be unleashed without any restraining influence to bring constraint.
Israel and The Samson Option
The Samson Option is a term used to describe Israel’s alleged deterrence strategy of massive retaliation with nuclear weapons as a “last resort” against nations whose military attacks threaten its existence, and possibly against other targets as well.[1]Israel refuses to admit it has nuclear weapons or describe how it would use them, an official policy of nuclear ambiguity, also known as “nuclear opacity.” This has made it difficult for anyone outside the Israeli government to definitively describe its true nuclear policy, while still allowing Israel to influence the perceptions, strategies and actions of other governments.[2]
As early as 1976, the CIA believed that Israel possessed 10 to 20 nuclear weapons.[3] By 2002 it was estimated that the number had increased to between 75 and 200 nuclear weapons.[4] Kenneth S. Brower has estimated as many as 400 nuclear weapons.[5]These can be launched from land, sea and air.[6] This gives Israel a second strike option even if much of the country is destroyed.[7] Samson Option – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This could lead to what is called the Samson Option during the battle of Gog & Magog. Note the following excerpts from Israeli Nuclear Threats and Blackmaill
Israeli Weapons of Mass Destruction: A Threat to Peace explores how Israel uses it’s threat of preemption. It is widely quoted, especially on Israel’s threats:
Israel has made countless veiled nuclear threats against the Arab nations and against the Soviet Union (and by extension Russia since the end of the Cold War). One chilling example comes from Ariel Sharon, the current Israeli Prime Minister “Arabs may have the oil, but we have the matches.”In another example, Israeli nuclear expert Oded Brosh said in 1992, “…we need not be ashamed that the nuclear option is a major instrumentality of our defense as a deterrent against those who attack us.” According to [Israeli human rights activist], “The wish for peace, so often assumed as the Israeli aim, is not in my view a principle of Israeli policy, while the wish to extend Israeli domination and influence is.” and “Israel is preparing for a war, nuclear if need be, for the sake of averting domestic change not to its liking, if it occurs in some or any Middle Eastern states…. Israel clearly prepares itself to seek overtly a hegemony over the entire Middle East…, without hesitating to use for the purpose all means available, including nuclear ones.”
Shimon Peres;
“acquiring a superior weapons system (read nuclear) would mean the possibility of using it for compellent purposes – that is forcing the other side to accept Israeli political demands, which presumably include a demand that the traditional status quo be accepted and a peace treaty signed.” From a slightly different perspective, Robert Tuckerr asked in a Commentary magazine article in defense of Israeli nukes, “What would prevent Israel… from pursuing a hawkish policy employing a nuclear deterrent to freeze the status quo?”
…..Another major use of the Israeli bomb is to compel the U.S. to act in Israel’s favor, even when it runs counter to its own strategic interests. As early as 1956 Francis Perrin, head of the French A-bomb project wrote “We thought the Israeli Bomb was aimed at the Americans, not to launch it at the Americans, but to say, ‘If you don’t want to help us in a critical situation we will require you to help us; otherwise we will use our nuclear bombs.'” During the 1973 war, Israel used nuclear blackmail to force Kissinger and Nixon to airlift massive amounts of military hardware to Israel.
The Israeli Ambassador, Simha Dinitz, is quoted as saying, at the time,
“If a massive airlift to Israel does not start immediately, then I will know that the U.S. is reneging on its promises and…we will have to draw very serious conclusions…” Just one example of this strategy was spelled out in 1987 by Amos Rubin, economic adviser to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who said “If left to its own Israel will have no choice but to fall back on a riskier defense which will endanger itself and the world at large… To enable Israel to abstain from dependence on nuclear arms calls for $2 to 3 billion per year in U.S. aid.” ….
….It is clear from Israel Shahak that Israel has no interest in peace except that which is dictated on its own terms, and has absolutely no intention of negotiating in good faith to curtail its nuclear program or discuss seriously a nuclear-free Middle East,”Israel’s insistence on the independent use of its nuclear weapons can be seen as the foundation on which Israeli grand strategy rests.”
According to Seymour Hersh, “the size and sophistication of Israel’s nuclear arsenal allows men such as Ariel Sharon to dream of redrawing the map of the Middle East aided by the implicit threat of nuclear force.” …. Ze’ev Shiff, an Israeli military expert writing in Haaretz said,
“Whoever believes that Israel will ever sign the UN Convention prohibiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons… is day dreaming,” and Munya Mardoch, Director of the Israeli Institute for the Development of Weaponry, said in 1994, “The moral and political meaning of nuclear weapons is that states which renounce their use are acquiescing to the status of Vassal states. All those states which feel satisfied with possessing conventional weapons alone are fated to become vassal states.”
….. Seymour Hersh warns,
“Should war break out in the Middle East again,… or should any Arab nation fire missiles against Israel, as the Iraqis did, a nuclear escalation, once unthinkable except as a last resort, would now be a strong probability.” Ezar Weissman, Israel’s current President said “The nuclear issue is gaining momentum (and the) next war will not be conventional.”
Russia and before it the Soviet Union has long been a major (if not the major) target of Israeli nukes. It is widely reported that the principal purpose of Jonathan Pollard’s spying for Israel was to furnish satellite images of Soviet targets and other super sensitive data relating to U.S. nuclear targeting strategy. (Since launching its own satellite in 1988, Israel no longer needs U.S. spy secrets.) Israeli nukes aimed at the Russian heartland seriously complicate disarmament and arms control negotiations and, at the very least, the unilateral possession of nuclear weapons by Israel is enormously destabilizing, and dramatically lowers the threshold for their actual use, if not for all-out nuclear war.
I will build on this possible scenario with scripture links for you to look over. If you are not a Christian and your are afraid of things you see coming and feel in your heart. I beg you to receive the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart and life. Ask Him to forgive you your shortcomings of sin and make Him Lord of all your life. Go to the Take the Test page on the Home page button. May God richly bless you as you grow in the grace and knowledge of Him who loved us and bought us with His own blood.
Report: Iran protests threats from Israeli official – CNN.com
Israeli officials downplay Mofaz’s threat to attack Iran – International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC
