Shakings, Weighings and
Divisions:
Syria, Annapolis and the Return of
YHVH
Part One - Syria
Israel has been in the headlines again – a
mysterious Israel Air Force attack delves deep into Syria; an upcoming
US-prompted peace conference in Annapolis MD discusses a major dividing up of
the land of Israel; a brazen new book accuses the American Jewish community and
Israel of acting against the interests of the USA, raising the ante of
anti-Semitism in the USA. The sharks smell blood and are circling, while the
Jewish David, one arm tied behind his back by world pressure and opinion, finds
himself confronting many modern-day Goliaths. We are indeed living in
significant days!
Serious stirrings in
Syria
Some secret events in Syria
have hit the headlines in recent days. Israel's strict censorship rules on
military matters forbid direct reporting of certain military matters, but
anonymous leaks to major journalists have somewhat dispersed the mists of war.
London's Sunday Times (www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2461421.ece)
reported on September 16 2007 that just after midnight on September 6, the
69th Squadron composed of eight Israeli F-15Is, F-16s and a UAV
crossed the Mediterranean coastline of Syria and headed to a military target
50 miles from the Iraqi border – Deir ez-Zour. Syrian radar was somehow blocked,
and a pre-positioned Israeli special forces Shaldag team (air force commandos) painted
the target with laser beams.
The pinpoint accurate bombing destroyed
what Israeli intelligence anonymously describe as either nuclear material or a
nuclear device from North Korea which could be fitted on North Korean Scud-C
missiles (already in Syria's arsenal). An Israeli source said,
"We’ve known
for a long time that Syria
has deadly chemical warheads on its Scuds, but Israel
can’t live with a nuclear warhead."
Over the years the world's intelligence
community has given us some context for this attack. A CIA report from June 2003
stated, "Broader access to foreign expertise provides (Syria)
opportunities to expand its indigenous capabilities and we are looking at Syrian
nuclear intentions with growing concern." (https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/archived-reports-1/jan_jun2003.htm#7)
On November 12 2003 John R. Bolton, Under
Secretary for Arms Control and International Security at the State Department,
spoke at a public gathering in Washington DC
(www.state.gov/t/us/rm/26129.htm):
"As I have recently testified to Congress,
we are concerned about Syria's nuclear research and
development program and continue to watch for any signs of nuclear weapons
activity or foreign assistance that could facilitate a Syrian nuclear weapons
capability. We are aware of Syrian efforts to acquire dual-use technologies that
could be applied to a nuclear weapons program. . . Broader access to Russian
expertise could provide opportunities for Syria
to expand its indigenous capabilities, should it decide to pursue nuclear
weapons. . . Since the 1970s, Syria has pursued what is now one of
the most advanced Arab state chemical weapons capabilities. It has a stockpile
of the nerve agent sarin that can be delivered by aircraft or ballistic
missiles, and has engaged in the research and development of more toxic and
persistent nerve agents such as VX."
On April
29, 2004 Bolton told the United Nations that the Pakistani nuclear scientist
Abdul Qadeer Khan had "several other" customers for his nuclear bomb factories
besides Iran,
Libya and North
Korea. Western diplomats
said then that Bolton was clearly referring to Syria
(see the Reform Party of Syria's article in
www.aina.org/news/20050104115532.htm).
Whoever Digs a Pit May
Fall Into It (Eccles. 10:8)
Exactly six weeks before the Israeli
bombing raid, a deadly explosion took place at as-Safir, a secret Syrian missile
production laboratory in the Muslemiah area north of the city of Aleppo. According to Jane's
Defense Weekly, Syrian weapons experts (under Iranian supervision) were
attempting to mount a mustard gas chemical warhead on a North Korean Scud-C (300
mile range). At that moment, rocket fuel caught alight in the lab, and the
explosive blast dispersed mustard gas, VX and Sarin nerve gas across the storage
facility and to those standing outside. Jane's states that 15 Syrian officers
and dozens of Iranian missile engineers were killed, while fifty others were
seriously injured with chemical burns to exposed body
parts.
According to Syrian media sources, "There
is a heat wave and temperatures reached close to 50 degrees, which caused an
ammunition dump to explode" (http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2007/07/heat_wave_cause_1.php
7). However, Jane's reported that the blast took place at
around 4:30 am in the cool morning hours, and also that the Syrian government
rejected the possibility of sabotage. Of course, in November 2005
Syria and Iran had signed an agreement wherein
Iran agreed to supply
Syria with weapons, train Syrian
operators, and transfer technology for chemical warfare systems for mass
destruction (www.forsyria.org/latest_news_details.asp?id=32).
Syrian soldiers,
Iranian missile engineers and North Korean missiles – that combination tends to
make Israeli generals nervous. On August 14, North
Korea's Minister of Foreign Trade, arrived in Syria
to sign a protocol on “cooperation in trade and science and technology”. Though
no details were released, Israel’s attention was certainly
riveted once again. A Middle East expert, who is connected to Israelis
involved in the September 6th raid, told the Washington Post that the
raid's timing was linked to the arrival at the Syrian port of Tartus three days
earlier of a North Korean ship carrying a cargo that was officially listed as
'cement' but was understood to contain nuclear equipment. Perhaps everyone
breathed a sigh of relief to know that on September 18 (12 days after the
Israeli raid) Syrian Expatriate Affairs Minister Bussaina Shaaban said that the
allegations of nuclear cooperation between Syria and North
Korea which led to the reported Israeli
overflight were 'an orchestra of lies.' In an interview with the
Iranian Fars news agency, the
minister denied reports in Israeli and American media that suggested Pyongyang was helping Damascus build a nuclear installation in the
country (http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/19-09-2007/97351-iran_syria_wmd-0).
A Death Wind over
Damascus
In 1991 I served in the IDF during the
First Gulf War. After the war ended, I traveled to the USA
where I met a prophetic man with a world-recognized reputation for accuracy and
humility. He told me a vision the Lord had once given him, a vision which
is yet future. This man saw an accident that would take place in a chemical
weapons stockpile near Damascus. The resulting explosion would cause a
death wind to sweep over Damascus, destroying much of the population.
This prophetic man said that the experience was like a fulfillment of
Isaiah.17:1-14. As we
consider these two recent events in Syria, as well as this prophetic future
aspect, let us pray for God to save many people in Syria, and for His grace to
be extended to believers in that country. Let us pray for protection over the
Jewish people in Israel as dark clouds
gather.
An encouraging biblical story in 2 Kings 6
reminds us of God's age-old perspective regarding the conflict of
Israel and Syria,
and can guide us in our prayers:
Now the king of
Syria was at war with
Israel. After conferring with his
officers, he said, "I will set up my camp in such and such a place." The
man of God sent word to the king of Israel: "Beware of passing that
place, because the Syrians are going down there." So the king of Israel
checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned
the king, so that he was on his guard in such places. This enraged the king of
Syria. He summoned his officers and
demanded of them, "Will you not tell me which of us is on the side of the king
of Israel?" "None of us, my lord the
king," said one of his officers, "but Elisha, the prophet who is in
Israel, tells the king of
Israel the very words you speak in
your bedroom." "Go, find out where he is," the king ordered, "so that I can send
men and capture him." The report came back: "He is in Dothan." Then he sent
horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded
the city. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next
morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh, my lord,
what shall we do?" the servant asked. "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered.
"Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And Elisha
prayed, "O YHVH, open his eyes so that he may see." Then YHVH opened the
servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of
fire all round Elisha. (2 Kings 6:8-17).
He
who guards Israel neither
slumbers nor sleeps (Psa.121:4), and no weapon forged against Israel
will prevail (Isa. 54:17). Yet at the same time the Lord Himself bids us pray
for the peace of Jerusalem (Psa. 122:6). He challenges us to
intercede with passion and resolve in the following words: "I have posted
watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or
night. You who call on YHVH, give yourselves no rest, and give Him no rest till
He establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth
(Isa. 62:6-7). With trust and faith in the Guardian of Israel,
we press forward in prayer at this strategic and significant time in history.
Once Bitten, Twice
Shy
The USA is
facing deep division among its citizens over whether or not the government and
the intelligence community can be trusted regarding the subject of weapons of
mass destruction. The unfortunate strategic shading of some intelligence in the
pressured atmosphere surrounding 9/11 has tarred all involved in that affair
(see The One Percent Doctrine by
Ron Suskind, Simon & Schuster, 2007).
But these intelligence sins of omission or
commission do not cause the all too real threats of Islamist terrorism to simply
fade away. Though these threats may sometimes appear distant from
America's shores, we can take
an example from plucky Israel
– one country that has been constantly forced to deal with chemical, biological
and atomic threats all on its own, in the rather unforgiving neighborhood called
the Middle East.
On June 7 1981 the IAF attacked and
destroyed Iraq's atomic bomb
plant (Osirak or Tammuz 1) at al-Tuwaitah, 11 miles
south-east of Baghdad. Israel had been following the
construction of that plant (built with French and Italian help) as well as the
chemical warfare installations and bunkers (built with German help) "with
growing concern" for many years. The world belittled and dismissed Israel's concerns until the moment of
no return approached, when the reactor was about to go hot. A force of
eight Israeli
F-16s and six
escorting F-15s flew 680
miles across Jordan, Saudi
Arabia and into Iraq to bomb the target successfully.
What was the response of the world to this
successful attack? For starters, Israel was condemned and censured at the United
Nations by the United States,
UK, France,
etc. On June 19 1981 the United Nations
Security Council unanimously passed UN Security
Council Resolution 487, which “strongly condemns the military
attack by Israel in clear violation of the Charter of the
United Nations and the norms of international conduct.”
(S/RES/487; http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/6c57312cc8bd93ca852560df00653995?OpenDocument).
Wisdom is Proved Right
By Her Children (Luke 7:35)
But the God of Israel has a wry sense of
humor, and He is very patient! Ten years later, in the prelude to the First Gulf
War, the Iraqi government tried to recover components from the Osirak site in
August 1990 and then accelerated its nuclear program to create a weapon using
radioactive fuel. On January 17 1991 coalition forces targeted the site
previously bombed by Israel, halting the weapons program.
On January 20 56 F-16s attacked the same site and on January 23 a force of F-117s bombed
Osirak. Finally 48 F-16s targeted the facility 7 more times for over a month
and, a few weeks later, 17 F-111Fs
participated in the raids. After 19 days of strikes the US Defense
Intelligence Agency declared the site to be "severely
degraded". This time, it seems, coalition forces were not censured at the
UN.
In June 1991, then-Defense Secretary
Richard Cheney visited Israel and gave a satellite
photograph of the destroyed reactor to the commander of the IAF Major General
David
Ivry. On the photograph, Cheney wrote, 'For General David
Ivri, with thanks and appreciation for the outstanding job he did on the Iraqi
Nuclear Program in 1981, which made our job much easier in Desert Storm.' (this
story is found in Maj. Gen. [res.] David Ivry's 'The Attack on the Osiraq
Nuclear Reactor – Looking Back 21 Years Later,' Israel’s Strike Against the Iraqi Nuclear Reactor 7
June, 1981, Jerusalem: Menachem Begin Heritage Center: 2003, p.
35).
Professor of International Law at
Purdue University (West
Lafayette, Indiana) Louis Rene Beres
wrote that, “Israel’s
citizens, together with Jews and Arabs, American, and other coalition soldiers
who fought in the Gulf
War may owe their lives to Israel’s courage, skill, and
foresight in June 1981. Had it not been for the brilliant raid at Osiraq,
Saddam’s forces might have been equipped with atomic warheads in 1991.
Ironically, the Saudis, too, are in Jerusalem’s debt. Had it not been for Prime
Minister Begin’s resolve to protect the Israeli people in 1981,
Iraq’s SCUDs falling on Saudi Arabia
might have spawned immense casualties and lethal irradiation.”
(Louis Rene Beres and Tsiddon-Chatto, Col. (res.) Yoash, “Reconsidering Israel’s
Destruction of Iraq’s Osiraq Nuclear Reactor,” Temple International and Comparitive Law Journal
9
(2), 1995. Reprinted
in Israel’s Strike Against the Iraqi Nuclear Reactor 7 June,
1981, Jerusalem: Menachem Begin Heritage Center: 2003,
p.60).
What
has just occurred in Syria seems to be on the order of the
Osirak raid. Powerful events are taking place behind the scenes at this moment –
in the natural and in the world of the spirit. Press on in prayer for God's will
to be done on earth as it is in Heaven; for Israel and her allies to be
preserved and protected; and for the gospel message to spread in power
throughout the Middle East, in Syria, in Iraq, in Iran – and especially and with
priority to the Jewish people, "to the Jew first"! (Romans
1:16).
In Messiah Yeshua's love,
Avner
Boskey (for Rachel, Daniel, David, Asaph and
Elisha)
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