#6 — Israel and the Middle East
Finally, the most important and significant mega-trend is Israel and the Middle East. This is the flashing red light.
We are more than 90 days into the Israel-Gaza war, and recent events that are happening in Israel could cause this conflict to explode into a wider battle.
Israel’s mission to hunt down Hamas is stoking fears of an escalation of this war. On Tuesday, Israel assassinated the person that many believed to be the number two leader of Hamas. Saleh al-Arouri was assassinated in Beirut, Lebanon, and was the linchpin of relations between Hamas, Iran, and Hezbollah.
Of course, this has been decried by Hezbollah, Iran, Lebanon, and others, but Israel has vowed to neutralize—a nice word for assassinate—the leaders of Hamas, tracking them down wherever they are, even after the war is over. Most of them can be found in Lebanon, Qatar, and Turkey.
Last week, an Israeli airstrike in Syria killed a senior figure in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, showing Israel is also assassinating leaders from Iran as well.
Wednesday was the fourth anniversary of the American drone attack in Iraq, ordered by President Trump, that killed the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. Iran had scheduled a big ceremony in commemoration of Soleimani on Wednesday morning. However, on the road to the cemetery, two explosions changed their plans and killed approximately 100 people.
Blame for this has not yet been assigned. Iran has called it a terrorist attack. Certainly, Israel could have been behind this, but it may have been Sunni Muslims attacking the Shiites in Iran; we may never know. Nevertheless, all of this is stoking fears of escalation.
Meanwhile, Turkey has just arrested 33 People who were suspected of being Mossad agents, which is essentially Israel’s version of the CIA. Turkey believes they’ve uncovered an Israeli spy ring and are looking for 13 more individuals they insist have links to Mossad.
Turkey has said very clearly that if Israel attacks any Hamas leaders on Turkish soil, there will be serious consequences. They have also stepped up their support for Gaza since October 7th.
The Spark That Ignites The Fuse
Iran is obviously a veteran enemy of Israel, but we can also now see Russia and Turkey’s relationship with Israel deteriorating. These are the three key players in the Ezekiel 38 invasion. All three of these relationships with Israel have come to an all-time low.
This area of the world today is experiencing a series of pinprick attacks that constantly put more and more gas on the fire. Behind all of this, you have the Israel-Gaza war that shows no signs of dwindling.
Add to that what’s happening over in the Red Sea with the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are firing at American warships, and Iranian warships now entering the Red Sea.
All of these different events, or the combination of them, could easily be the spark that ignites the fuse to blow up this Middle East powder keg and can so easily precipitate the war of Ezekiel 38.
Alfred Hitchcock, George Orwell, Edgar Allan Poe & Rod Serling would have an absolute field day conjuring up stories about this age.
ReplyDelete