Iran�s president says Israel �can be removed from the world�

New York Post (Link) (September 3, 2010)

Hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday that the people of the Middle East are �capable of removing the Zionist regime from the world scene� in an annual Palestinian solidarity day address in Tehran.

�If the leaders of the region do not have the guts, then the people of the region are capable of removing the Zionist regime from the world scene,� he said as the crowd chanted �Death to America! Death to Israel!�

Ahmadinejad said that direct peace talks, which Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas relaunched with Israel in Washington on Thursday after a 20-month hiatus, were �doomed� to fail.

�What do they want to negotiate about? Who are they representing? What are they going to talk about?� the Iranian president asked of the Palestinian leadership.

�Who gave them the right to sell piece of Palestinian land? The people of Palestine and the people of the region will not allow them to sell even an inch of Palestinian soil to the enemy. The negotiations are stillborn and doomed,� he added.

Iran is implacably opposed to the new peace talks and has given strong support to the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza and which carried out two shooting attacks against Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank in the run-up to their relaunch that killed four and wounded two.

My comments - Israel & Islam

This area has many changes that will bring about many outcomes, ultimately leading to a Middle East and world that will be completely different from today. There are several main prophecies that are centered in the end times that seem incompatible, but I believe will progress through each one leading to the ultimate fulfillment in the abomination of desolation and the time of Jacob�s trouble. I�ll shortly present the sequence I believe possible in the near future.

Psalm 83

I recommend reading Psalm 83 Revisited by Jack Kinsella. While the context of the beginning of the article hasn�t panned out to be the fulfillment, he describes the players, which are the immediate surrounding Muslim nations. Many of these are actively working to foment war, stockpiling weapons and preparing armies. These are also supported as seen in the above article, by Iran - which I�ll get to further below. From the article:

�. . . Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot.�

Let�s first identify the various players (with a hat tip to Bill Salus for much of the research)

Ishmael was the eponymous father of the Arabs, his brother Isaac being the father of the Jews. The Ishmaelites most probably refers to the Saudis, but that identification is admittedly speculative.

The Tents of Edom refers to the Palestinians of the West Bank and southern Jordan. The Moabites refers to the Palestinians and central Jordanians.

The Hagarites corresponds with Egypt, Gebal with Hezbollah and the Lebanese. Ammon includes the Palestinians and northern Jordanians, Phillistia corresponds with Hamas and the Gaza Strip.

Last but not least are Assyria (Syria and Kurdish Iraq) and Tyre, (Hezbollah and South Lebanon).

Persia -- modern Iran -- doesn�t make the list. Iran�s fingerprints are all over the battle plan, but the combatants are all Arabs. Iranians are Persians, not Arabs.

I believe we are seeing many of these alliances building and providing the means by which a war will be triggered in the Middle East. It may be this trigger, given Syria�s assistance in proving the weapons that triggers the next prophetic fulfillment.

Isaiah 17:1-9

�The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. 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. ... In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation.�

Will Israel cause the desolation of Damascus either as part of Psalm 83�s war or because of Syria�s arming for it? Several times in the past Israel has threatened to attack Damascus if Hizbullah attacks and Damascus is a center for terrorist activities. This leads to the next prophecy in the sequence.

Ezekiel 38, 39

These chapters lay out an alliance of Turkey, Russia, Iran, Libya and others attacking Israel from the North, presumably through Lebanon. What is interesting is that over the past several years, Syria and Iran have entered into a defense agreement essentially stating that if one is attacked the other will defend them. Likewise Turkey and Iran have gotten much closer and Russia has been supplying them all weapons and technology. After the Psalm 83 loss and the destruction of Damascus, the logical next step would then be for the alliances to come into effect and bring about the fulfillment of this prophecy.

Zechariah 14:1-2

While it seems odd that all this war would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state, this parallel push for peace by the world in the midst of war and the combination of God�s intervention on Israel�s behalf may be the catalyst that makes it all come together. The PA will realize it is powerless after all the wars are lost with Hamas and Hizbullah temporarily diminished and will finally agree to terms that will divide Israel and bring a false sense of peace.

�Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.�

This chapter begins with a warning that the day of the LORD is coming, which I believe starts soon after the start of the time of great tribulation, it begins with the wrath of God. However I don�t believe it to be referring to the abomination of desolation because at that point the city of Jerusalem will have no Jews left. Anyone who doesn�t flee to the mountains will be killed and for the remainder of the time of great tribulation I believe this will be where the man of sin�s seat is.

Therefore I believe that this is referring to a global enforcement of the dividing of Israel to create a Palestinian state as is being discussed now. As we saw when Gaza was evacuated, once the Jews had been forcibly removed from their homes, Gaza was effectively overrun and disassembled by the new inhabitants. Imagine now with Israeli settlers having seen the results of the last time desiring to remain and a global enforcement of a peace agreement effectively dividing the city.

I also believe that part of this peace agreement will divide the Temple Mount and as some rumors have said, place this area under UN control, perhaps allowing for the rebuilding of the temple next to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.