Sunday, December 25, 2011

News From The Epicenter: Sudan?

Some interesting and unexpected news broke today regarding possible Israeli military action in Sudan. It appears that convoys bringing weapons to terrorist groups could have been the stimulus for this action:

'IAF planes strike convoy of vehicles in Sudan'

Sudanese media reported over the weekend that IAF planes struck a number of targets in the east of the country last week.

According to the reports, the planes attacked a convoy of land cruiser jeeps and a number of people were reportedly killed.

Another strike took place last Sunday against a truck near the border with Egypt, according to the reports.

In another incident in early December Israeli planes were reported to have been spotted over some islands near Sudan.

According to that report, the governor of Sudan's Red Sea State district recently received notification from several citizens in the region that the IAF had raided smuggler convoys,

According to Sudanese newspaper al-Rakoba, last November Israeli air strikes targeted a convoy of vehicles near Sudan's border with Egypt, in Wadi Allaqi in the Hala'ib triangle region, an area whose ownership is disputed between Egypt and Sudan.

That raid allegedly hit and destroyed two cars, a Land Cruiser and a Toyota Hilux, killing two people and wounding several more, who fled in the direction of the Sudanese border, according to al-Rakoba. The report also said that eyewitnesses reported several people missing after the alleged raid, and also that the Egyptian air force flew over the area several times.


Israeli Jets, Sub 'Strike in Sudan'

Israeli fighter jets, helicopters and possibly a submarine were involved in multiple attacks on targets in Sudan last week, according to local news outlets.

The reports say that Israeli jets hit targets in the eastern part of the African country, near its border with Egypt, last Thursday. They hit six Land Cruiser jeeps and killed four people. An earlier strike took place last Sunday and reportedly involved Israeli helicopters. A truck was targeted. Some reports say an Israeli submarine was also spotted at the same time.


Sudanese media report on Israeli air strikes

Also in the Epicenter:

Netanyahu: Hamas-Fatah Union Means No Talks

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday that if Hamas joins the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) government, Israel will not be able to negotiate with the PA.

Speaking at a conference of Foreign Ministry delegation heads, Netanyahu stressed: "We are prepared to meet the Palestinians at any time and place.

"The Palestinians will have to recognize the state of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people," he said, but added: "This is not a precondition for negotiations."


'Military action in Syria is lesser evil'

Western military intervention is the “lesser evil” of a range of difficult options in Syria, according to a report released last week by a UK think tank that offers the first comprehensive analysis of a potential armed intervention in the battle-scarred country.

The report – entitled “Intervention in Syria? An Assessment of Legality, Logistics and Hazards” – calls for the creation of a political and military base for rebel fighters in the country’s northwest, as well as humanitarian “safe zones” for civilians fleeing the bloodshed. It also offers diplomatic avenues for authorizing military action in spite of continued Russian opposition to taking tougher measures against Damascus at the UN Security Council.


This is exactly the kind of 'military action' that Assad warned against when he threatened to attack Israel.

“I would say better to have a multilateral, Western-fronted coalition on the ground to forestall the worst-case scenario rather than let this play out on the ground,” Weiss said by phone. “People in Syria have been holding up signs saying ‘NATO, where’s our no-fly zone?’ You see women in hijabs in Homs with signs saying ‘We want NATO to invade.’ I would hazard that there is now a critical mass of support for a Western-backed intervention.”

The report says Syria could be expected to seize on any Western intervention to try to ignite its border with Israel.


And if that happens, once again, Israel is being asked to sit back and take their punishment without any retaliation:

“Any interventionist force must therefore persuade Israel not to retaliate in the event that it is attacked,” it says. “Such forbearance proved successful during the First Gulf War, and it can be argued that it is in Israel’s strategic interest to assist in the removal of the Assad regime.


It is hard to imagine the Nation of Israel, under the leadership of Netanyahu simply absorbing a massive missile attack without any retaliation.

Either way, the current rhetoric around Syria is almost identical to the rhetoric we all heard in the weeks leading into the Libya incursion.

The evolution of these events seems to be leading in one of two directions, neither of which is favorable to Israel:

1) Assad will step down, and in this scenario a repeat of Libya and Egypt seems certain: Radical Islamic elements are almost guaranteed to assume control of the nation.

or

2) Assad will not step down. In this scenario, it seems certain that he will become more and more desperate - a situation that seems headed in the direction of a Syrian attack on Israel, whether triggered by "outside intervention" or not.

In either of these two options above, one can easily see the set-up for the Isaiah 17 prophecies to be fulfilled - which we believe will trigger the subsequent Ezekiel 37-38 prophetic fulfillments.

As always, this is worth watching closely for future developments.

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