In the news...

Things are still somewhat slow as far as prophetic news; it seems that every time in the past, such slow periods were followed by major "contractions", covering almost every sign that we track (Middle-East, earthquakes, etc). We'll see what we're in for when the next contraction begins and based on the past birthpains it shouldn't be long.

Regardless, we see the following news of interest:

"Iran DM: Attack by Israel will lead to its end"

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi on Monday warned Israel that "any injudicious action" will lead to the annihilation of the Israeli regime. "Any injudicious action of Israel will trigger the countdown of its destruction," General Vahidi told reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet session on Monday.

"If Hizbullah strikes, we hit Lebanon"

The IDF will attack Lebanese government institutions if Israel is again subjected to rocket attacks, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in an interview with The Washington Post published Sunday.

He told the newspaper that since the Lebanese goverment is allowing Hizbullah to rearm, "we will not run after each Hizbullah terrorist or launcher. . . . We will see it as legitimate to hit any target that belongs to the Lebanese state, not just to Hizbullah."

"U.S. and South Korea Begin War Drills"


The United States and South Korea began their largest joint war games in years on Sunday, with a nuclear powered American aircraft carrier prowling off the east coast of South Korea while North Korea threatened to retaliate and reportedly put its military on alert for war.

The latest escalation of tensions began in March when a South Korean warship was sunk and 46 sailors died. A team of investigators from South Korea, the United States and several other countries determined in May that North Korea had torpedoed the ship.

On Sunday, in a show of the allies’ military power, a fleet of American and South Korean ships and submarines sailed into waters off the east coast of South Korea, led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington, one of the biggest ships in the United States Navy.

On Saturday, North Korea vowed to start a “sacred war” against the United States and South Korea at “any time necessary” to counter their “largest-ever nuclear war exercises” with its own “powerful nuclear deterrence.”

“North Korea will try to fend off the mounting joint pressure from the United States and South Korea by ratcheting up tensions in stages,” Mr. Kim said. “For now, both Washington and Seoul seem to believe that they’ve got nothing big to lose by continuing the pressure. What worries me is that the tension is not just between the two Koreas, but also between the biggies, the United States and China.”

China has been unusually vocal in criticizing the joint maneuvers, prompting the allies to relocate the drills from the Yellow Sea, west of the Korean Peninsula, to the Sea of Japan on the east.

The following article addresses a question that many of us have:

"Why Hasn't Israel Bombed Iran (Yet)?"

Why hasn't Israel bombed Iran yet?

...for a long time I was confident that an attack would happen in the first six months of this year. Since it didn't, it's worth thinking through why.

What gives? Here are four theories in ascending order of significance and plausibility.


The first is that Israeli military planners have concluded that any attack would be unlikely to succeed (or succeed at a reasonable price). Maybe. But this analysis fails to appreciate the depth of Israeli fears of a nuclear Iran, and the lengths they are prepared to go to stop it. A successful strike on Iran may be at the outer periphery of Israel's capabilities, but senior Israeli military and political leaders insist it is not completely beyond it.

A second theory is that Israel is biding its time as it improves its military capabilities on both its offensive and defensive ends. Yesterday Israel completed tests of its "Iron Dome" missile defense shield, designed to guard against the kind of short-range rockets that Hamas and Hezbollah might use in retaliation against an Israeli strike on Iran. The system will begin coming on line in November. Israel is also mulling the purchase of a semi-stealthy variant of the F-15 as an alternative to the much more expensive F-35, delivery of which has been delayed till 2015. What Israel decides could be a telling indicator of what it intends.

The third theory concerns the internal dynamics of Israeli politics. Mr. Netanyahu may favor a strike, but he will not order one without the consent of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, President Shimon Peres, Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and perhaps also Mossad chief Meir Dagan. This inner cabinet is said to be uniformly against a strike, with the wavering exception of Mr. Barak. But Mr. Ashkenazi and Mr. Dagan are due to step down within a few months, and who Mr. Netanyahu chooses to replace them will have a material bearing on the government's attitude toward a strike.

Finally, Israeli leaders are mindful of history. Put aside the routine comparisons between a prospective military strike on Iran with Israel's quick and effective destruction of Iraq's Osirak reactor in 1981. As I'm reminded by Michael Doran, a Middle East scholar at NYU, Israel's leaders are probably no less alert to the lessons of the Suez War in 1956. Back then, a successful military operation by Britain, France and Israel to humiliate Egypt's Gamel Abdel Nasser (in many ways the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of his day) fell afoul of the determined political opposition of the Eisenhower administration, which mistakenly thought that it could curry favor with the Arabs by visibly distancing itself from Israel and its traditional European allies. Sound familiar?

We'll see which category winds up being correct. If any. It seems that almost anything is possible in the Middle East, and one has to expect the unexpected.

Personally, I believe Netanyahu is waiting because he wants to be in a position of being able to say that he (and the 'international community") had tried everything possible, to no avail, and a strike against Iran therefore had to be made. Thats my theory, but of course no one knows for sure. It would seem, if that theory is correct, then he will await Iran's response to the EU's latest round of sanctions against Iran. That too would presumably have to run its course.

Another possibility is that Israel is waiting for the perfect timing to "attack" these facilities, and the perfect timing could have a number of factors, many of which may be unknown to the general public.

Who knows. Ultimately, its all in God's divine hands. It may or may not even happen. If Iran opts to use their proxies, Hezbullah and Hamas as a diversion, which many people expect, then anything is possible.

We shall see... Or perhaps not. That depends upon the timing of another epic event - one which has a far more favorable outcome for the Bride of Christ. That "event" has us waiting with great anticipation and excitement. It's all in God's hands. Maranatha!