The following articles are compiled by:

Rick Allinson

Rick@WatchmenWatching.com

 

 

Israeli media hears Syrian call for war
Source: Jerusalem Newswire
 

23 October 2007 – A speech by the Syrian chief of staff was interpreted by Israeli journalists Tuesday as a call for that country's air force to prepare for war with Israel.

The Ynetnews website quoted General Ali Khabib telling graduating pilots they need to "be prepared to fend off all external aggression that seeks to harm the homeland."

"Syria is interested in gaining back of all of its rights – including the return of all of its territory and sovereignty," the general said, referring to the Golan Heights which Israel captured and extended sovereignty over four decades ago after the Syrians used it as a platform from which to attack the Jewish state.

Syria occupied the heights for just 19 years.

Tension between the two countries has ebbed and flowed since earlier this year when Israeli intelligence services first reported that Damascus dictator Bashar el-Assad was looking for a fight.

In the ensuing months, IDF tank units have on the Golan have been bolstered, and Israel has carried out a number of large-scale military exercises under the very noses of the Syrians.

For its part, Syria has reportedly been deploying SCUD surface-to-surface missiles –some reports say with non-conventional warheads - as well as advanced Russian-made anti-aircraft batteries, in readiness for conflict. Documents of state have been moved out of the Syria capital, and areas that for four decades have been virtually no-man's-land - like the town of Kuneitra - have suddenly come back to life.

While some Syrian officials have said that their country is only preparing for a defensive war in the event of an Israeli attack, other voices have been more belligerent, with some threatening to start a war of attrition similar to the Lebanese Hizb'allah in order to drive Israel off the Golan.

Analysts believe Assad may need to make some sort of military move to quell accusations of weak leadership at home.
 

Comments:  Update; the question is not “if” there will be a war with Syria but “when” there will be a war with Syria. All indications point to some kind of conflict in the near future. Four events to that could destabilize the region is; Lebanon heads towards a showdown over upcoming presidential elections between the opposition – led by Hizbollah and the mainly Christian Free Patriotic Movement – and the US backed ruling coaltion. Lebanon's presidential election delays again. A civil war could erupt over this election very easily.

The second event to keep an eye on is the up and coming peace summit in Annapolis sometime in November or December. A failed peace summit could also send the region into turmoil. The third is a Turkish invasion into Iraq and the fourth is of course Iran. The Middle East is a time bomb ready to explode.

 

Isa 17:3 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.  

 

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Turkey Forms Alliance With Iran Against Kurds
Source: NewsMax
 

23 October 2007 – U.S. ally Turkey and U.S. arch-enemy Iran have formed a military alliance to drive opposition Kurds from bases in northern Iraq they have used since 2004 to launch guerrilla operations inside Iran, rebel leaders told Newsmax at a secret base in the Qandil mountains.

Both Iran and Turkey have vowed to send troops into northern Iraq, but until now evidence of active military cooperation between them has remained a closely-held secret.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stepped up political and diplomatic threats in recent days, telling the United States he would cut off U.S. access to the strategic Incirlik airbase in eastern Turkey if the U.S. tried to prevent Turkey from sending troops against the Kurdish bases in northern Iraq.

Leaders of the Party of Free Life of Iranian Kurdistan, known as PJAK, provided Newsmax with extensive evidence of the Iran-Turkey alliance in two days of exclusive interviews at a secret guerilla base deep in the Qandil mountains. An Iranian Revolutionary Guards outpost was visible on a nearby mountain peak.

“Iran and Turkey attacked jointly on August 16 against our forces inside Iran and against Turkish self-defense forces in northern Iraq,” a PJAK commander using the nom de guerre Xerat told Newsmax at the Iranian rebel base.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards “attacked us across a broad front in the areas of Sardasht, Piranshahr, Shaho, Urmieh, and along the border line,” Xerat said, citing the names of major cities in Iranian Kurdistan where PJAK rebels have been operating.

While those ground operations were underway, Iranian and Turkish artillery simultaneously began shelling civilian villages inside Iraqi Kurdistan from Metina, Zaab, Haftani, and Hakurke in the north, to Haji Oumran, Qalatdizza, Zeh, Marado, and Xinera in the south, he added.

Turkish artillery hit the northern villages, while Iranian gunners hit the southern ones. 
 

Comments:  Students of bible prophecy know what an alliance between Turkey and Iran means in the end time picture. Over the last two weeks we have see all kinds of articles relating to the Gog Magog war in Ezekiel that seems to be looming on the horizon. Russia, Iran and Turkey are the 3 largest armies that come against Israel and just as we are seeing, this alliance is coming together like the bible tells us it will. It is just a matter of time before these three countries form an alliance against Israel.  Everything is coming together according to God’s plan and even the article above, (Israeli media hears Syrian call for war) will fit in that timetable. The question is when?

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Al-Aqsa artefacts 'point to first Jewish temple'
Source: ABC News
 

23 October 2007 – Archaeologists have uncovered artefacts under Jerusalem's contested Al-Aqsa mosque compound that may shed light on the first Jewish temple, the Israel Antiquities Authority said.

"An apparently sealed archaeological level dating to the first temple period was exposed in the area close to the south-eastern corner of the raised platform surrounding the Dome of the Rock," it said in a statement.

The finds include ceramic tableware, animal bones, and pottery shards from the 8th to 6th centuries BC, when Jewish kingdoms reigned over much of the area of modern-day Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The finds could "aid scholars in reconstructing the dimensions and boundaries of the Temple Mount during the first temple period", the statement added.

Much remains from the time of the second temple which was razed in AD 70, including the Western Wall, Judaism's most revered site, but almost nothing remains from the first temple period, considered the peak of Jewish history.
 

Comments:  The exact location of the first and second Temples has never really been pin pointed with positive proof and as far as I know the exact location is just speculation. If the dimensions and boundaries were determined with 100% guarantee then this would pave the wave for the rebuilding of the Third Temple. This discovery is another example of God’s perfect timing and keep in mind that the Ark of the Covenant has yet to be discovered and this new find explains that “An apparently sealed archaeological level dating to the first temple period was exposed in the area close to the south-eastern corner of the raised platform surrounding the Dome of the Rock," The Ark disappeared around the time of the first Temple period and speculation that it is still under the Temple Mount is a good possibility. What else will they find around this sealed level?

 Solomon's Temple Artifacts Found by Muslim Workers

"This is the first time we have shards from the Temple Mount with a [uniform] date," Haifa University's Reich told National Geographic News.

The find "most certainly" indicates the presence of people in the temple during the late eighth century and seventh century B.C., he said.

"From an archaeological standpoint, this is the first time this has happened," Reich said.

"You can say that this was written in the Bible—but the Bible is a text and texts can be played around with. This is physical evidence." 
 

Jer 3:16 And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.

17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.

 

Send me an email. I’d like to hear from you. Rick@WatchmenWatching.com

 

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Keep watching (Matt 24:42)!

 

Until next time,

Shalom!

 

 

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