The Vice Continues to Tighten Around Israel

"On that day when all the nations are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable object for all the nations"
(Zechariah 12:3)

"I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it"
(Zechariah 14:2)

That vice is indeed tightening around Israel. Recent changes in both Turkey and Egypt serve to complete this picture, as Israel already had Gaza pressing from the west, Lebanon pressing from the North, Syria pressing in from the east - not to mention the rest of the world.

Something fishy about Eilat terror attack

When terrorists infiltrated southern Israel and killed eight people in a three-pronged assault near the resort town of Eilat, it was presumed that Palestinian militants from Gaza were responsible. And likely they were, at least in part.

But the political proceedings following the attack have raised serious questions about Egyptian military involvement in the brutal murder of Israeli civilians.

It is beginning to look like Egypt was directly involved in these attacks. If so, we are indeed entering a brave new world:

Immediately following the attack, Israeli lawmaker and retired army general Aryeh Eldad questioned why Defense Minister Ehud Barak was ignoring the testimony of civilian eyewitnesses. Many of those eyewitnesses told Israeli media that part of the Eilat attack was perpetrated by uniformed soldiers firing from within or next to Egyptian army installations along the border.

But it is also likely that the largest political force in Egypt contesting the upcoming election - the Muslim Brotherhood - did have knowledge of the planned attack, as it is closely affiliated with Hamas and its allied terror groups in Gaza.

There have been increasing reports, both in Israel and Egypt, that Islamic terror groups from Hamas to Hizballah to Al Qaeda are active in the Sinai Peninsula, and are successfully recruiting from the local population. It would not be unreasonable to think that one of those groups managed to get a few Egyptian soldiers doing border patrol duty to take part in an attack on Israel.

If that isn't enough, take a look at this report:

Turkey to sign strategic alliance with Egypt

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is slated to visit Egypt and Gaza soon to sign strategic cooperation agreements with Cairo, just days after the leaking of the Palmer Report which led to a new low in Israel-Turkey relations.

Egyptian newspaper al-Youm al-Sabe'a quoted Turkish diplomats as saying that Erdogan will arrive in Cairo next week.

The purpose of the visit will be to sign strategic cooperation agreements in the military, diplomatic and commercial fields.

Also see:

Turkey: Two More Steps Toward Islamism

The problem isn’t that the United States is following a wrong policy to deal with the problem of Turkey, with its powerful army and economy, joining the Islamist side. The problem is that the U.S. government is pretending it isn’t happening at all.

The victory of the revolutionaries and making Islamism the standard for Islam isn’t inevitable. But it is a strong trend in Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, and among the Palestinians. It is a possible victor in Syria and is generally advancing, including among Muslim communities in the West.

Then we turn to the next imminent threat to Israel:

Lebanon warns UN: Israel's proposed maritime border threatens peace and security

Lebanon has warned the United Nations that Israel's proposed sea border threatens peace and security, media reports said Monday, in the latest development in the two countries' maritime claims.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansor, in a letter sent Monday to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, rejected Israeli claims of the northern part of the waters between the two countries.

"This is a clear violation of Lebanon's rights... over an area of some 860 square kilometers, and puts international peace and security at risk," it said.

Over the past two years, Israel has discovered two fields thought to contain about 24 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. The discoveries could be enough to make Israel energy self-sufficient for decades.

"Ownership" of these waters is vital as billions of dollars are at stake. In this day and age wars have been fought over far less. There is a lot at stake here, and watching this situation evolve is very germane to developments in the epicenter.

For context around the article below - don't forget, Northern Africa is an important part of the Gog-MaGog alliance:

Libya: Gaddafi weapons dump left unguarded in Tripoli

The scale of the potential security crisis facing post-revolutionary Libya has been fully exposed after the Daily Telegraph discovered a huge Gaddafi weapons dump left unguarded in the capital, Tripoli.

Western officials have also expressed concern about the possibility of weapons being smuggled across Libya's open desert borders to militant groups, some allied to al-Qaeda, operating in north and west Africa.

Libya: An Islamist Terrorist Takes Command of Main Rebel Forces

Finally, we have evidence that Islamists and even al-Qaeda supporters will play a central role in Libya’s new regime.

According to Al Jazeera, the network recommended by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as fair and balanced, Abdul al-Hakim al-Hasadi, also known as Abdelhakim Belhaj, has been named commander of the Tripoli Military Council. He was formerly head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an al-Qaeda affiliate. Moderates are understandably nervous.

In fact, we can quote on this point Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who told a U.S. official in 2007 — as we now know thanks to Wikileaks– “He was extremely worried about Qatar and its continued support for Hamas and other Islamist organizations in the West Bank and Gaza…claiming that they provide ‘more support to fundamentalists than Kuwait or Saudi Arabia.’”

U.S. policy has given no sense that it is aware of this problem.

Moving on to the Revived Roman Empire of this era.

This article is interesting for one reason. Take a look at the concluding paragraph and count the number of quotes pertinent to biblical prophecy:

This week in the European Union

Global politics have moved on, with America in danger of losing grip its claim to be the sole world superpower amid the rise of China among others. Meanwhile, the EU remains fitfully anxious about its place on the world stage and its ability to speak with one voice on issues such as Palestine's upcoming UN bid.

1. "America in danger of losing grip its claim to be sole world superpower"
2. "...amid the rise of China among others"
3. "Meanwhile the EU remains....its place on the world stage and its ability to speak with one voice..."
4. "...such as Palestine's upcoming UN bid"

That is a lot to pack into one paragraph isn't it?

Simple

This commentary is beautiful in its brevity as it hits right to the point:

Forget about lower taxes, smaller government, national debt, abortion, media bias, the 2012 election, the failing economy, our failing schools, flash mobs, immigration, hurricanes.....
Because none of it -- none of it will matter -- if Iran acquires a nuclear weapon.
We will all be incinerated.

They're moving forward. They've already got enough enriched uranium to make six nuclear war heads.

What are we waiting for? The time is now. In truth, the time to act was yesterday.

On an unrelated note - we are still watching the following:

1300-Ft Asteroid Flyby Due On 8-9 November

The third near-earth asteroid of 2011 will pass between the moon and earth later this year, NASA has confirmed.
The 1300-foot-wide (400 metres) asteroid, which is more than one and a half times the length of a soccer pitch, will pass within 0.85 lunar distances of the Earth on November 8, 2011.

Meanwhile, Dutch has an interesting update on earthquakes around the world. The number of big quakes in the last couple of weeks is truly remarkable:

Earthquakes: Update

There is a lot going on these days in terms of prophecy watching as the birth pains continue to escalate in both frequency and severity.