We interrupt this regularly scheduled program to bring you a major news bulletin from KGHW (God’s Holy Word). Regular programming will continue subsequent hereto.
While tensions have been building now for forty-two years, a very significant event occurred on April 18, 2021, which has highlighted the extreme importance and seriousness of the threats converging on Israel; and has put the Middle East on a razor thin edge of war between Israel and its major and mortal antagonist, Iran. But let’s go back to 1979 to start this exercise.
1979 was a very bad year for the world because events of that year set it on a course that now sees us all confronted with the spectre and real reality (intended, not mistaken) of Islamic Jihadism with nuclear capabilities; and the mental and moral perversity to self-immolate itself and all others to accomplish its goals (“Islamic paradise”). Well then what, pray tell, happened?
A country known for at least a couple of centuries as Persia, until it changed its name in 1935 to Iran, had a revolution in that ominous year of 1979; and deposed its leader, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, also known as the Shah of Iran, who was a friend, not only of the United States, but also of Israel. And in his place entered onto the world stage the never smiling, bearded, Iranian, muslim emigre from his santuary in France, (thank you, France) the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Ta Da!!!
What follows in very short order will be a new name for Iran: The Islamic Republic of Iran. Be sure and get that Islamic part. But, not only a new name, but a new attitude; and one the world has been having to deal with ever since: A NASTY ONE!!!!
When President Carter attempted to extend humanitarian aid in the form of cancer treatment to the dying Shah, the Ayatollah and his minions seized the US Embassy in Tehran and its staff for 444 days in November 1979. There is that very nasty year of 1979 again. When President Reagan was sworn in as President on January 20, 1981, the American hostages were released. Our nations, however, have been at “odds” with one another ever since. Remember Qassem Soleimani in January 2020, for just a brief reminder of our “cuddly” relationship and connections (targeted assassinations) with The Islamic Republic of Iran. I’ll tell you about another episode called Stuxnet later.
But there was sadly, another major event in that very, very, very bad year of 1979 which would create a tar baby for our nation (remember Brer Rabbit and the tar baby?). In the latter half of December, 1979, the former Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to prop up a “socialist government” in that country, initiating a war with much of the Afghan population. America under President Reagan decided to resist Soviet expansionism and by 1984 the US was earlobe deep in aiding the Afghan “freedom fighters”. So successful were the Afghan resistance efforts, primarily enabled with weaponry from the United States, particularly the Stinger Missile, which pretty much cleared the skies of Afghanistan of Soviert airpower, that by January 1989, Premier Gorbachev withdrew Soviet military forces from the nation. Within another year the Soviet Union found itself and remains to this day in history’s trash can.
America, on the other hand, came home celebrating hanging one on the Soviets after they and China had hung one on us in Vietnam; but yet unaware that those “Afghan freedom fighters” were the mere precursor of THE TALIBAN AND THE FUTURE SUCCORISTS OF ONE OSAMA BIN LADEN AND HIS GANG KNOWN AS AL QAEDA!!! YOU KNOW, THE 9-11 GUY AND GANG!!!
In mentioning the Iranian hostage crisis from November, 1979, to January, 1981, I neglected to note that President Carter ordered a special military unit called Delta Force to attempt a rather complicated rescue of the Americans in Tehran. In the initial stage of the operation, one, if not two, giant Sea Stallion helicopters were forced to abort the mission due to a sand storm in flight. When the remainder of the airborne force landed at a remote area located south of Tehran, designated Desert One, to refuel preparatory for its final stage flight to the American Embassy; it was then reluctantly acknowledged that there were just not enough helicopters now available to get everyone to be evacuated and the rescue force itself into the remaining aircraft. Consequently, Carter ordered the mission scrubbed.
Sadly, as the small air arm of helicopters and fixed wing C-130s began maneuvering for take-off from Desert One, inadvertent contact was made between a helicopter and one of the C-130s resulting in an explosion, fire, and ultimately the death of eight of our servicemen. As I read of this in the Gazette or the Democrat, I also learned that one of the deceased was a young airman from Pine Bluff, and that his father was an attorney. I did not know him, but I paused to pen a note of deep condolence for his loss and heartfelt appreciation for his son’s service to and sacrifice for our nation.
So as we and our ally Israel entered into the 1980s, this former ally of both our nations, and wealthy beyond comprehension with its deposits of oil, was turning into a rabid islamic motivated nation and becoming what it is today: THE WORLD’S CHIEF STATE SPONSOR OF INTERNATIONAL TERROR. Recall please, in sadness and respect, the death of 241 US Marines and 58 French soldiers who died on October 23, 1983, in almost simultaneous suicide truck bombings in Beirut, Lebanon. And who were the perpetrators traced back to? You guessed it! The national epitome of and poster child for devotion to that peaceful religion, Islam: The Islamic Republic of Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah (meaning Party of God which by now, and for all intents and purposes, is the dominant power in Lebanon), under the leadership of another Islamic grizzly, Hassan Nasrallah; as well as some Syrians thrown into the mix for good measure.
And, by the way, these two incidents are merely two of a myriad of mass murderous acts of terror carried out by Iran across the world (even in Argentina, my friends, where they destroyed a Jewish center and killed at least 84 unfortunates who got in the way of that peaceful religion’s doctrine) through its national institutional agencies such as the IRGC (Iranian Republican Guard Corp) and The Al-Quds Force (which is another name for Jerusalem) which are Iran’s regime enforcers as was the SS for Nazi Germany); and Iran’s other agents, allies, and proxies such as Hezbollah (Lebanon), Hamas, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Tanzem, Tahid and Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Fatah, the Palestinian Liberation Organiszation (all of the wanna-be-Palestinian state), Houthis (Yemen), Abu Sayaf (Philippines), Al-Shabab (Somalia), and on and on and on.
Recall our nation’s Beirut CIA station chief William Francis Buckley who was kidnapped and would die from the tender effects of Iranian highly tuned investigative and questioning techniques during 1984-85; or our US Marine Colonel William Richard Higgins who was attached to the United Nations peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL-United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) and was kidnapped by Hezbollah in 1988, tortured and murdered by July 6,1990. Hezbollah lovingly and empathetically left a photo of his hanging body for a memento to his loving family! Recall, too, the suicide bombing and destruction of the US Embassy in Beirut on April 18, 1983, which would kill 63 Americans and Lebanese, at least one Shiite suicide bomber, and wound an additional 120. Some of those wounds left the survivors wishing they were dead instead of a survivor.
How about twenty-three year old US Navy diver Robert Stethem who was tortured, then shot in the head, June 14, 1985, on a terrorist hijacked airliner out of Greece, and was unceremoniously dumped out of the aircraft onto the hot tarmac at Beirut International Airport where he would finally “expire approximately ten minutes later.” Another reserve US Army officer was savagely beaten at the same time but survived. And on, and on, and on it goes. Including on this day of writing, April 28, 2021, when the American warship, USS Firebolt, apparently feeling threatened by Iranian gunboats in the Persian Gulf (remember this Persian connection, cause that is where all this is leading) fired a warning shot at three Iranian Republican Guard Corps gunboats to warn them off. At least they weren’t taken prisoner as ten of their fellow sailors were on January 12, 2016, and held by the Iranians for a few days before being kindly returned to our US fleet in the gulf. Remember that old song that goes “on and on, on and on, on and on?”
Iran, during the 80s, in its relentlessly increasing hostility and enmity toward the great infidels America and Israel, established new names for both her arch enemies: The Great Satan (America) and The Little Satan (Israel). Nice, no? But rhetoric itself doesn’t carry much punch or power. So the talent of the Iranian nation, which is prodigious, was harnessed by the Ayatollahs, Ruhollah Khomeini and Ali Khamenei, the current Supreme Leader, to begin a surreptitious and covert nuclear development program to add some, if not the ultimate, in ooomph to their rhetoric.
And as the years of this 21st century have begun to accumulate, evidence is overwhelming that indeed Iran is now very near to a break out stage for the acquisition of the BOMB!!!! And in keeping with the proximity to that accomplishment, Iran has now coined another name for its arch-enemy in the immediate region, Israel. The name and phrase is: A ONE BOMB COUNTRY!!! Nice, no? Just looking at a map of Israel shows that even one primitive nuclear weapon in the central most populous zone of coastal Tel Aviv would truly devastate, if not obliterate, much of its citizenry and eradicate its national infrastructure.
One might be inclined to say that the ayatollahs, mullahs, imams, and clerics along with their fellow Islamist colleagues across the Middle East are just blowing hot air (no pun intended); but the history of the people of Israel that unfolded upon them just eighty years ago (let alone the previous three thousand years ago) gave and gives those people and their leadership a totally different perspective on this matter.
For “poppycock” is precisely what most of the world and the Jewish people of the European continent actually thought in the 1920s and very early early 1930s; when the words of a little known Austrian, one Adolf Hitler, were published in his book: Mein Kampf, or My Struggle. Within that tome of his, he declared his intention to wage war on all of Judaism and its offspring, the Jews. No one believed him, or at least very few did, until he and his fellow demoniacs initiated and strove mightily to apply the Fuhrer’s idea of a Final Solution to their “Jewish problem.” By the time France and Britain hazily perceived Hitler’s true intentions, racially and militarily, it was too, too, too, late; and then it would take six years of war; a mind boggling devastation of Europe; 50,000,000 million gentile lives; innumerable and unnumberable casualties, physically and emotionally; and the lives of two of every three Jews in Europe, 6,000,000, before that demoniac and his demons of Nazism were returned to the recesses of hell from which they had come.
Israel has CONNECTED THE DOTS from that horror and terror, while Western civilization seems to have lost all recollections of WWII and the lessons of how and why it started: APPEASEMENT. Israel has learned from that history. And now, when someone, anyone, and particularly an Iranian Islamic terrorist state, whose leaders hate Israel with a visceral passion and believe that they can guarantee themselves a place in paradise by killing just one infidel (allahu akbar!), let alone a whole nation of infidels, and Jewish ones at that, (allahu, allahu, allahu akbar!!!!!!) with just one little ole bomb; well, as the Israelis have said since the Holocaust: NEVER AGAIN!!!! AND THEY MEAN IT!!!!
They do not give one !@#>< about this oh so craftily crafted JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) agreement which President Barack Hussein Obama and his Secretary of State, John “Mekong gunboat” Kerry, entered into with The Islamic Republic of Iran in 2015; and now being resuscitated by Nod (the president), Winken (the vice-president) and Blinken (the Secretary of State) along with the Russian Federation, France, England, Germany, and China, and a slavering, drooling United Nations (of which 53 of the 194 member nations are Islamic) cheering them forward. An agreement that, already grudgingly admittedly by its crafters, will eventually and ultimately allow the peace loving mullahs et al, nuclear weaponry. Who knew there was soooo much koolaid in this world.
President Trump put the kibosh on United States participation in that modern day Munich Pact agreement of 2015; but as already noted, the Biden regime sees no problem of Islamic fanatics with the BOMB; and are desperately trying to woo the unwooable, fanactical, Islamic, Iranian, mullahs into playing nice, at least for a while; and thus enable them, ultimately and eventually to warm their little twinkies during the cold winter months with their own nuclear hearth. Gives one the real fuzzies, doesn’t it? That and a hookah pipe would spell heaven, er, paradise.
Unfortunately, the moolahs seem intent on using that anticipated nuclear power to do more than just warm their feet. The Israelis know that they do not want to just warm their feet, but to incinerate the State of Israel; and they have absolutely no plans of cooperating with their efforts through malaise and wishful thinking. In fact, they will do any and all things including eventual war to prevent the Iranian leadership’s fondest dream. Of which the event of April 11, 2021, (erroneously mentioned as the 18th at the beginning of this article) at Natanz, Iran, was a strong reply to all these and those Iranian nuclear goings on. Remember, the mantra in the Jewish world since the Holocaust has persistently and continuously ever been: NEVER AGAIN. And I have not the slightest doubt that Israel means every word of it with every fibre of their national will.
While Israel has failed over these last three thousand years to learn from the warnings, admonitions, and repeated consequences of their horrific history of ignoring God’s Word; and their ultimate rebellion against their, our, and all creation’s God in the crucifixion of His Son and their Messiah two thousand years ago; Israel has learned from the rather recent mistakes and history of Britain and France’s attempted and failed placation and policy of appeasement toward another radical, demonic regime once on the planet: Hitler and Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.
Rather than recognizing the mortal danger Hitler and his Nazi minions posed to a now peaceful but still smoking post WWI Europe of just fourteen years prior; fears of another war and their admiral dreams of peace caused Britain and France to ignore reality and the deadly threat to that restored peace, rather than take the violent but necessarily appropriate action against Hitler: yes even war, particularly when history has shown that the allies were even aware of significant German opposition within the German High Command, who were begging and urging the allies to stand firm so that Hitler, upon ordering war, could be eliminated by a military coup with astronomically less cost in lives and treasure, even as late as October, 1938. Thus they allowed a moral, spiritual, political, and militarily malignant nation, and an oh so deadly, deviant, depraved, demented, debauched, and destructive ideology to become the most powerful military force in the world. One which would almost destroy them and the rest of Europe between 1939 and 1945.
For Israel, their attitude now is: assume the worst; if anyone or any nation utters death threats, believe them and respond before it is too late. Never disbelieve an enemy’s stated intentions; NEVER AGAIN!!!!; and even more so when that nation menacingly appears to be acquiring nuclear capability. Which leads us back to Iran/Persia of April 11, 2021.
There has been a long series of rather quiet, behind the scenes, but lethal engagements between these two countries, and at times the United States, since at least the mid 2000s, which most of the world remains pretty much unaware of. It has been deadly for those small numbers who have been caught up in this covert and surreptitious war; but the numbers of the deceased have not been great because the deaths have, for the most part, though not always, been the result of specially targeted assassinations of singularly key individuals playing immensely sensitive roles in those warring nations’ defense, intelligence, and nuclear institutions. Selective, secret, quiet, but immensely terminal for the intended target. Secret services around the world usually refer to these kind of events as “wet affairs.”
Israel’s Mossad has, through meticulous planning and incredibly well placed agents, been able to assassinate at least seven to eight Iranian scientists who were extremely critical to Iran’s nuclear research and development program, Project Amad. The latest such event took place in late November 27, 2020, when over months in duration, the Mossad used up to sixty of its agents to smuggle in to Iran bolt by bolt, nut by nut, and piece by piece, an extremely sophisticated and accurate weapon to assassinate the latest Iranian scientist to be picked for a targeted assassination. His name was Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
“A SATELLITE-CONTROLLED MACHINE GUN WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE which zoomed in on and confirmed the authenticity of the scientist’s face within his vehicle was used to kill Iran’s top nuclear scientist’’ an IRGC commander said. It was mounted on a pick-up truck, and was able to kill only the scientist, without harming anyone else, not even his wife who was a mere 10 inches from his side in the back of an IRGC chauffeured vehicle with more security vehicles before and aft. Immediately subsequent to the assassination, the weapon and the truck used to carry it was detonated remotely by the same AI and satellite managed system. Nice, no?
Then on April 11, 2021, in another clandestine operation which had to take months for it to unfold, an extremely important nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, Iran, suffered major damage to its centrifugal machinery which is used to refine uranium into weapons grade material. There appears to be some indication that a desk, with explosives secreted inside, was taken into the facility which was at least half a football field in length below the surface. In this particular act of sabotage, it has been estimated that the explosion has set back Iranian enrichment efforts by at least nine months. Iran has given Israel the credit for the mess. And, of course, vowed revenge.
It wasn’t always like this. The first encounter between Israel and the Persians, then known as the Medo-Persian Empire, turned out to be extremely beneficial for Israel. In fact, God had foretold His Chosen People through His prophet Isaiah, but the connections would not be apparent to Judah until approximately 150 years later. Isaiah’s period as a prophet to Israel was roughly from 739 to 681 BC. In His omniscience, God through Isaiah, alerts Judah as to the good and warns of the bad that the nation will experience in its near future.
Isaiah 44:28: “Who says of Cyrus (a future Emperor of the Medes and the Persians), ‘He is My shepherd (instrument), and he shall perform all My pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, you shall be built, and to the temple your foundation shall be laid.” And Judah probably retorted to Isaiah during his ministry between 739 and 681 BC: ‘say what, Isaiah? Jerusalem is just fine; and the Temple which Solomon built is standing and is as beautiful as the day it was completed by Solomon in 959 BC. What in the world are you talking about, Isaiah?”
Little did they know that by 586 BC, their beloved city of Jerusalem and their glorious Temple to the God of Israel would be in ruins. And besides that, a significant segment of Judah’s population would be in exile in Babylon for 70 years. God, however, had always known, and He was already warning Judah and yet also giving hope through Isaiah to His people about it all. Keep in mind that Cyrus, the one whom God would use to return His people to their promised land from Babylon, had not even been born yet. BEHOLD — THE OMNIPOTENCE AND OMNISCIENCE OF THE GOD OF ISRAEL.
Isaiah 45:1: “Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held — to subdue nations before him and lose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors so that the gates will not be shut. 2. I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. 3. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel. 4. FOR JACOB MY SERVANT’S SAKE, AND ISRAEL MY ELECT, I have even called you by your name (Cyrus); I have named you, though you have not known Me. 5. I AM THE LORD, AND THERE IS NO OTHER; THERE IS NO GOD BESIDES ME. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, 6. That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; 7. I form the light and create darkness, I MAKE PEACE AND CREATE CALAMITY; I, the Lord, do all these things… 9. Woe to him who strives with his maker!.. 11. Thus says the Lord, The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker; Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons, and concerning the work of My hands, you command Me. 12. I have made the earth and created man on it. My hands that stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded. 13. I have raised him (Cyrus) up to righteousness, AND I WILL DIRECT ALL HIS WAYS; HE SHALL BUILD MY CITY (JERUSALEM) AND LET MY EXILES (IN BABYLON) GO FREE. Not for price nor reward, says the Lord of Hosts.”
And then God tells Israel and the world, both then and today by the inscriptions of Isaiah in 45:17: “BUT ISRAEL (THE NATION OF ISRAEL which is presently attempting to ward off and thwart the countless missiles and monetary support provided to the Islamic Jihadic hordes by Iran) SHALL BE SAVED BY THE LORD WITH AN EVERLASTING SALVATION. YOU SHALL NOT BE ASHAMED OR DISGRACED FOREVER AND EVER. And in Isaiah 45:25: IN THE LORD ALL THE DESCENDANTS OF ISRAEL SHALL BE JUSTIFIED AND SHALL GLORY.” This, obviously, has not yet occurred, but rest assured that it most assuredly will. God’s Word is unalterable and decisive!
But by 605 BC Judah is now suffering from the initial effects, encroachments, and domination by an empire that God has determined to use as an instrument of chastisement upon His people: Babylon and its emperor Nebuchadnezzar. In that year Babylon will, among other things, seize some very talented and promising young men, among whom is a young man named Daniel with three of his friends, and deport them to Babylon. Eight years later, 597 BC, a similar selection and deportation will occur which will include a young man named Ezekiel. Another prophet will remain in Jerusalem until the bitter end: Jeremiah. He will be there when Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar will finally take off the gloves, so to speak, as a result of a failed attempt by Judah’s king Zedekian to revolt against Babylon and destroy Jerusalem and the Temple, and take thousands of God’s people into captivity in Babylon in 586 BC.
But, as God said He would, God would eventually punish the Babylonian Empire by its decimation in 539 BC at the hands of the Medes and Persians and their emperor. You guessed it: Cyrus. And Cyrus will do just as God said he would through Isaiah in 45:13: “without price or reward” He set the captives free to return to Jerusalem and their land. Read the declaration Cyrus made to initiate Isaiah’s prophecy.
Ezra 1:1: “Now in the first year of CYRUS KING OF PERSIA (Notice! God didn’t waste any time in using Cyrus as conqueror of Babylon to spring His captive people in that former empire) that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled (that is, Judah would spend 70 years in captivity down in Babylon land: Jeremiah 25 and 29), the Lord stirred up the spirit of CYRUS KING OF PERSIA, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, 2. Thus says CYRUS KING OF PERSIA: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house (Temple) at Jerusalem which is in Judah. 3. Who is there among you of all His people? May his God be with him! Now let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. (He is God), which is in Jerusalem. 4. And whoever remains in any place where he sojourns, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, besides the freewill offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem … 7: “KING CYRUS also brought out the articles of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his gods. 8. And CYRUS KING OF PERSIA brought them out … 11 … and [they took them] with the captives who were brought from Babylon to Jerusalem.”
So not only did the Persian King Cyrus show favor to God’s people because of Ezra, but over the next 100 years at least, successors of Cyrus also performed not only good services, but life saving services to the Jewish people. King Artaxerxes (ca.464-423 BC) used his power to aid Judah by allowing Nehemiah to restore Jerusalem; and King Ahasuerus (ca. 483-473 BC) in collaboration with his Jewish Queen, Esther, and her uncle Mordechai, would enable the Jewish people to successfully defend themselves against a cabal of Persian anti-Semites under the twisted leadership of Haman who desired to kill all Jews (sound familiar?) within the empire.
Haman’s plot to eradicate the Jewish people backfired in a royal (pun intended) way. Not only would he hang, but so would his ten sons; and at least 75,000 (Esther 9:16) of his other confederates and co-conspirators would be killed,as well, by the Jews when authorized by Esther’s husband, the Persian King, Ahasuerus. Consequently, Mordechai would decree that the Jewish people should celebrate each year their deliverance from mourning and sorrow to joy and days of feasting. That celebration has been embraced by the Jewish people for the last 2450 years, and it is called Purim. It comes from the word “Pur” which means the casting of a lot which Haman had done to determine the date that the killing of Jews would begin. Israel and the Jews celebrate Purim like we celebrate Halloween. It is the only time that Orthodox Jewry is permitted to tie one on, alcoholically speaking, and they do so with gusto. Things do get rowdy in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and across the rest of Israel during Purim!!!
On a more melancholy note relative to this Jewish holiday, Sir Martin Gilbert in his book The Holocaust, A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War writes of later Purim holidays that were deadly reversals of its intended purpose: “The first week of March 1942 saw the Jewish festival of Purim, a time of rejoicing at the defeat of Haman the Amalekite. It was Haman who had tried, in ancient days, to destroy all the Jews of the Persian Empire, intending not to leave ‘ the least remains of them, nor preserve any of them, either for slaves or for captives.’ Since the first days of the invasion of Poland in September 1939, the Germans had used the Jewish festivals for particular savagery: these days had become known to the Jews as the ‘Goebbels calendar’.”
Having been refused by the Jewish Council to participate in the selection of Jews for what was feared to be the worst, “in fury, the Gestapo sent German and White Russian policemen to search the ghetto. Reaching a children’s nursery, they ordered the … supervisor … to take the children to the Jewish Council building. The order was a trap. On reaching a specially dug pit on Ratomskaya Street, the children were seized by Germans and Ukrainians, and thrown alive into the deep sand. SS officer Wilhelm Kube arrived and in his immaculate uniform, threw handfuls of sweets to the shrieking children. All the children perished in the sand … At least five thousand Jews were killed in Minsk during that Purim day.” P. 297-298.
Two Jewish Council officials who refused to draw up lists for deportation in Baranowicze were shot. “But first, they had been forced to watch the torture and execution of some of the three thousand Jews rounded up that day [of Purim]. P. 298. In all, 3,300 Jews were murdered on Purim in Baranowicze.” P.299.
“Also during the Purim festival, at Zdunska Wola, thirty miles west of Lodz (Poland), the Gestapo asked the Jewish Council for ten young, healthy Jews, for work. Dora Rosenboim, an eyewitness of what followed later recalled: The Gestapo ordered the Jewish police to bring ten Jews to a place where a gallows had been already prepared and the Jewish police had to hang the ten Jews with their own hands. To add to this horrible, unheard of crime, the Gestapo drove all the Jews out of the houses to the hanging place, so that all the Jews could witness the great catastrophe. Many women fainted seeing the terrible and horrible sight, how ten of our brothers were writhing on the gallows.
“According to another account, the Chairman of the Jewish Council at Zdunska Wola, Dr. Jakub Lemberg, had been ordered by the Germans to deliver ten Jews to the Gestapo, as ‘substitutes’ for the ten hanged sons of Haman, the Jew hater, in the Biblical narrative. But Dr. Lemberg replied that he would only deliver four Jews, himself, his wife and two children. In revenge for this defiance, Dr. Lemberg was taken out and shot …
“In the Janowska labour camp at Lvov, on the first day of Purim, six Jews were forced to spend the night outside the barracks, on the grounds that they ‘looked sick’ and should not infect the others. The temperature was at freezing point. In the morning … all six people were frozen lying down where they were put the night before; completely white like long balls of snow.” P.299.
“Part of the Nazi ‘Purim game’ was to ‘revenge’ the ten sons of the Jew-hater Haman. These ten had been hanged in the biblical story. But only eight Jews had been brought from Piotrkow that night, so the Jewish watchman of the cemetery and his wife were included, at the last moment, in the execution.” P. 553. Ahhh, the sophistication of our German allies and their ability to extemporize; but there are far, far, more sophisticated Persian enemies of Israel than the Persian Hamanites, past and present, and the goose-stepping Germans of the horrific Nazi era.
The Book of Daniel reveals matters that extend into the spiritual world. A realm which we humans give far too little contemplation of. And it concerns what is apparently a centuries, if not eons, old major supporter of Persia/Iran.
In chapter 10 of Daniel, we find this prophet of God, decades later, still far from his beloved homeland of Judah and city of Jerusalem, even though his circumstances have been significantly altered. Where he has spent most of his life, Babylon, is no more. King Belshazzar, to whom he interpreted God’s “handwriting on the wall” of his and his Babylonian empire’s imminent demise (like just immediate) is now a mere historical episode. New empire, new ruler: the Medo-Persian Empire and Cyrus (as God had foretold 150 years earlier through Isaiah in Isaiah 44 and 45).
Daniel 10:1: “In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel … 2. In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks (instigated by the visions he received from God, and his acknowledgement in prayer, as set out in Daniel 9, as to what Judah deserved due to its centuries of disobedience and would experience in the future by his people, the Jews; their land, Israel; and their capital, Jerusalem and its Temple). 7. And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision; but a great terror fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. 8. Therefore I was left alone when I saw this great vision, and no strength remained in me; for my vigor was turned to frailty in me, and I retained no strength … 12. Then he (the Angel Gabriel, Dan. 9:21) said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.”
My “cents,” and it's normally worth about as much as this nation’s worthless alloy coinage and soon to be worthless paper currency, is that when this spiritual, heavenly being spoke of “from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God” was referencing not just his immediate prayer, but Daniel’s lifelong devotion, allegiance, and loyalty to the God of Israel. And that devotion, loyalty, and allegiance of Daniel’s had paid incredible dividends and brought vast blessings to him and his equally devoted and faithful friends, over and over and over again: including voided death sentences, a fiery furnace, and a lion’s den, to name but a few of the more hazardous events that he and they were exposed to. But it also speaks positively and particularly to Daniel’s God ordained meteoric rise and stratospheric positions in the political cosmos of both the Babylonian and Medo-Persian Empires. Obedience to God invariably brings blessings in incalculable, incomprehensible, imponderable, and myriad ways, though it does not immunize us from serious difficulties and tribulations, as we wish it would do. I have a book entitled God Has Never Failed Me, But He’s Sure Scarred Me to Death a Few Times by Stan Toler. I need to read it, however, as well as possess it.
What Daniel was — devoted to his God, — I have never, ever been. And now at seventy-eight, I look back with deep regret and remorse at a life that has, for the most part, been wasted on the trivial rather than the God revealed consequential: that which Daniel exhibited all his life, but that which I have exhibited seldom, if ever, in my own. Sadly put, I failed to connect even a few of the dots until it was waaaay tooooooo late, if not impossible, to really benefit from!! So for emulation purposes: it is definitely the life of Daniel.
Daniel 10:13: “BUT (and there it is again: that ominous, little, three letter word “but”) THE PRINCE OF PERSIA withstood me (Gabriel) twenty-one days; and behold MICHAEL, ONE OF THE CHIEF PRINCES [of God], came to help me (Gabriel), for I had been left alone with THE KINGS OF PERSIA.”
What we are reading and observing here in a rather subtle way, I believe, is the profound indication that behind the physical, the tangible, and the observable nation of Persia in Daniel’s time, and remains so in this modern nation of Iran, is a supernatural and demonic force or forces that continue to guide and advance Persia/Iran in its hatred, enmity, and dreams of annihilation of God’s people and chosen nation. As stated previously, the G-5 plus 1 (United States, England, France, Germany, Russia, plus China) is presently negotiating with Persia/Iran regarding its nuclear program with the apparent intention of allowing, via sunset clauses that are contained in the 2015 agreement (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) negotiated by Barack Hussein Obama and John Kerry, of eventually acceding to a nuclear capable Islamic Republic of Iran by 2030. Recall too, that the ayatollahs, imams, clerics, and mullahs repeatedly and presently refer to Israel as “the LITTLE SATAN and a ONE BOMB COUNTRY.” This agreement is a toxic, if not lethal, stew in the making, and it would appear that there are forces at work in this arena that are totally unrecognized or recognizable, by any of these various countries spiritually untuned or tuned out “leaders” involved in these “negotiations.” Let’s look at God’s words again inscribed by Isaiah; “For the leaders of this people cause them to ERR, and those who are led by them are DESTROYED.”
To further increase what would appear to already be unincreaseable toxicity between Iran and Israel, Iran just elected in mid-June, 2021, Ebrahim Raisi as President of Iran to serve under the theocratic Supreme Leader, Ali Khameini. One of his campaign statements was that under his leadership, he and his followers would “cut off the fingers, no, the arms of those who are corrupt!” (that is, those who are not sufficiently dedicated to Islam). Human Rights organizations have claimed that as Chief Justice of Iran in 1988, he was involved in at least 5,000 extrajudicial executions, 5,000!!! Nice, no? He earned for his death panel work the sobriquet: Butcher of Tehran. He makes a former president of Iran, Ahmadinejad ( pronounced almost to sound like “a-major-head-job”; and he was due to his own unfathomable hatred of Israel) look positively angelic.
What God through Daniel is disclosing, to any who will read, of Gabriel’s revelation, is a supernatural conflict in which the Prince of Persia and the Kings of Persia are so powerful that even the Angel Gabriel was denied and prevented for twenty-one days in his effort to reach Daniel; and, in fact, needed heavenly and heaven sent reinforcement and power from the Archangel Michael, one of God’s Chief Princes, to do so. Now, that is the kind of force that should cause us all to stay up at night. And it is that kind of spiritual power and assistance which presently enables, I personally believe, Iran in its increasingly growing, menacing, and malignant conflict with Israel. All indicative of a world that is unseen, but more real and profound than the world that is seen.
Read again the apostle Paul’s words of II Cor.4:18: “For we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are unseen are eternal.” I need not remind you, I know, but just for emphasis recall that GOD IS SPIRIT [and unseen], John 4:24; and JESUS IS THE IMAGE [and seen] OF THE INVISIBLE GOD. Col.1:15. Folks, there is a far bigger world out there than any of us can possibly conceive. Both the immensely loving and, sadly, the immensely evil.
Daniel continues:10:14: “Now I (Gabriel) have come to make you (Daniel) understand what will happen to your people (uh oh! That is an ominous phrase) IN THE LATTER DAYS, for the vision refers to many days yet to come. 15. When he had spoken such words to me, I turned my face toward the ground and became speechless (see what I mean). 16 … then I opened my mouth and spoke, saying to him who stood before me, ‘My lord, because of the vision, my sorrows have overwhelmed me (here it is again), and I have retained no strength. 17 … As for me, no strength remains in me now, nor is any breath left in me.’ (Is this where we get our phrase, “It took my breath away?) ... 19. And he (Gabriel) said, ‘O man (Daniel) greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you; be strong, yes, be strong!’ (As I transcribed this, my mind kind of imagined Daniel replying to Gabriel: “Sure! That’s easy for you to say, Gabriel! You're an Angel of God, but I am just one little Jewish guy down here in all this mess! Be strong? Riiiight!).
But as we read further and to the contrary of my contemplations, Daniel writes: “So when he spoke to me I was strengthened, and said, ‘Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.’” And that is what God is all about, whether for Daniel 2,600 years ago, or for us of this deviant, depraved, and demented 21st century.
Gabriel, however, has more to do. 20 ... “And now I MUST RETURN TO FIGHT WITH THE PRINCE OF PERSIA.” A conflict of centuries that is acutely intensifying as we speak; and which Israel seeks in multiple ways to contend with, through sabotage, targeted assassinations, and diplomacy; including desperate attempts to persuade the Biden regime from re-engaging with Iran in the JCPOA. Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, tried mightily to keep that travesty of appeasement from happening by flying to the United States and giving a major address to a joint session of Congress on March 3, 2015, in an effort to dissuade the Senate from ratifying this modern Munich Pact. Search for that speech, and read a little of Israel’s national concerns from the now former Israeli Prime Minister.
Here are a few of his more interesting and pungent remarks: “We’re an ancient people. In our nearly 4,000 years of history, many have tried repeatedly to destroy the Jewish people. Tomorrow night, on the Jewish holiday of Purim, we'll read the book of Esther. We’ll read of a powerful Persian viceroy named Haman, who plotted to destroy the Jewish people some 2,500 years ago. But a courageous Jewish woman, Queen Esther, exposed the plot and gave the Jewish people the right to defend themselves against their enemies. The plot was foiled. Our people were saved.”
“For those who believe that Iran threatens the Jewish state, but not the Jewish people, listen to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, Iran’s chief terrorist proxy [in Lebanon]. He said: ‘If all the Jews gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of chasing them down around the world.’”
“Don’t be fooled. The battle between Iran (shiite) and ISIS (sunni) doesn’t turn Iran into a friend of America. Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam. One calls itself the Islamic Republic. The other calls itself the Islamic State. Both want to impose a militant Islamic empire first on the region and then on the entire world. They just disagree among themselves as to who will be the ruler of the empire.” ... So when it comes to Iran and ISIS, the enemy of your enemy is your enemy.”
“We must always remember, the greatest dangers facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons. To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle, but lose the war. We can’t let that happen.”
… “this deal has two major concessions [to Iran]: one, leaving Iran with a vast nuclear program, and two, lifting the restrictions on that program in about a decade … It doesn’t block Iran’s path to a bomb; it paves Iran’s path to a bomb … this deal won’t be a farewell to arms. It will be a farewell to arms control.”
“[IRAN!] STOP SUPPORTING TERRORISM AROUND THE WORLD … STOP THREATENING TO ANNIHILATE MY COUNTRY, ISRAEL, THE ONE AND ONLY JEWISH STATE.”
Bibi, I deeply regret and am sorrowful to say that what Israel is presently contending with regarding Iran’s Islamic and demonic hostility toward your nation is only going to metastasize globally in future days. Why do I say that? Because God has advised all who will read His Word and particularly Israel of this apparent developing situation through the writings of his prophet Ezekiel. Let’s take a look at the omniscient God of Israel’s 2,500 year old warning.
Ezekiel 38:1: “Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, 2. ’Son of man, set your face against Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophecy against him, 3. and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. 4. I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. 5. PERSIA, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; 6. Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops — MANY PEOPLE ARE WITH YOU.” 7. Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a guard for them.”
Now Persia, we, of course, are aware of. Today we refer to it as Iran, but what are these other entities? I, of course, have no independent knowledge, but some of those who have made intense studies of peoples and places have with some degree of confidence concluded that Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal are very early indicators or names of Russia, Moscow, and Tobol’sk, a more centrally located Russian city east of the Ural Mountains on the banks of the Irtysh River. Togarmah is mentioned as being from the far north, and while some theologians speculate the possibility of it being Turkey, others, due to the phrase “from the far north,” believe that is also indicative of Russia and even areas of Europe, which are obviously to the far north of Israel. Many concentrated studies as to what these areas are today have been made, but definitely there are honest and factual differences of opinion; as well as the possibility, obviously, of misinterpretation. Regardless, it is clear from Ezekiel’s inscriptions here that this array of military might harnessed by these yet amorphous and puzzling regions and nations is significantly significant. So for what is this mobilization of armoured might being harnessed?
These statements identifying the recipient of all this military attention is a very strong restatement of Israel’s history since the death of Solomon in 930 BC. Seriously weakened by a two hundred year protracted civil war between the divided nation of Israel (Israel v. Judah) and then crushed and dispersed by her enemies Assyria, Babylon, and Rome, the Jewish people eventually found themselves aliens, unloved and unappreciated at that, within almost every nation that now exists on the planet. In every country but their own for 2,000 years, they were savaged, hated, murdered, nay, slaughtered, robbed, plundered, excoriated and reviled. Only beginning late in the 1800’s did the Jews in any significant number begin to return to their God promised land; and only after the horror and terror of the Holocaust would they eventually succeed in getting the United Nations to agree to give them even a sliver of the land that God had originally granted them. And the land they began returning to in the 1880’s was nothing if not desolate; a grim expanse of rock, dust, searing heat, treeless, or mosquito ridden malarial swamps along the Hula Valley, Sea of Galilee, and the Jordan River Valley.
Two thousand years from grim, to grimmer, to grimmest, before things began to look up for these unfortunate but rebellious, obstinate, and stiff-necked people as described by their God, the God of Israel, and the only God this cosmos will ever have. Let us readers beware, but by now it is way toooooo late. Remember, Paul in I Cor.10:1-11. Israel is an example and an admonition. And if you haven’t noticed already, our “ride” too is getting extremely bumpy and very rough.
Thus ultimately, God declares the land to be His; that He can do with it as He pleases; and 4,000 years ago He purposefully deeded and conveyed it to Abraham, Isaac, Israel, and their descendants FOREVER!!! Though possession was interrupted by the disobedience and rebellion of Israel for almost 2,000 years (70 AD to 1948 AD).
However, I definitely do not recommend waiting until that terrible time to finally recognize the already apparent and obvious existence of the God of Israel and only know Him in His fury. It is either HIS LOVE NOW (JESUS), or HIS WRATH THEN (TRIBULATION). And really, do any of us actually have to spend any, let alone much time in contemplation and consternation over the ‘either’ or the ‘or’ choice God sets before us here? God in His love is starkly warning us now, as highway signs warn motorists of dangers ahead, as to this coming period of world chaos because, remember and never forget, HE LOVES US!!! But you do get to make your own choice, for we were created with free will. And because of that God granted freewill, He will not compel you to acknowledge or believe in Him. As authors Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek in their book I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist, state:
“One beauty of God’s creation is this: if you’re not willing to accept Christianity, then you’re free to reject it. This freedom to make choices — is what makes us moral creatures and enables each of us to choose our ultimate destiny. This really hits at the heart of why we exist at all, and why God might not be as overt in revealing himself to us as some would like. For if the Bible is true, then God has provided each of us with the opportunity to make an eternal choice to either accept him or reject him. And in order to ensure that our choice is truly free, he puts us in an environment that is filled with evidence of his existence, but without his direct presence — a presence so powerful that it could overwhelm our freedom and thus negate our ability to reject him. In other words, God has provided enough evidence in this life to convince anyone willing to believe, yet he has also left some ambiguity so as not to compel the unwilling. In this way, God gives us the opportunity either to love him or to reject him without violating our freedom. In fact, the purpose of this life is to make that choice freely and without coercion. For love, by definition, must be freely given. It cannot be coerced. That’s why C.S. Lewis wrote, ‘the Irresistible and the Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of [God’s] scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to override a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish, He can only woo.” P31.
So now the ball, so to speak, is on our side of the court. Will we respond to His wooing, or reject the volumes and mountains of evidence which profoundly demonstrate His existence as well as His love for us; most dramatically and immutably shown in His Son’s dying for us at His behest so that we may forever be reconciled to Him.
In the meantime, as this world proceeds on its march to unparalleled chaos, the Israeli’s and the Iranian’s continue to engage in an increasingly hostile conflict where the ayatollah’s of Iran seek to place themselves in a position where Israel will be indeed a “one bomb country” through the advancement of its nuclear program. On this day of August 5, 2021, I spied an article from the Jerusalem Post which demands, I believe, extensive quoting for an understanding of Israel’s position on the Iranian threat.
Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz made these statements just several days after an Israeli operated tanker, off the coast of Oman and just outside the strategic strait of Hormuz, was attacked by suicide drones which resulted in the death of the captain of the ship, a Romanian, and a security official aboard, a British citizen.
“When a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative in Gaza fires at Israel, he does it with the support of Iran. We know this.
“Israel is ready to strike Iran,” Gantz said on Thursday, as tensions between the two countries continue to mount following a deadly drone attack against a civilian commercial ship in the Persian Gulf.
Asked if Jerusalem was ready to strike Tehran, he answered YES, saying that the Islamic Republic of Iran was a threat to the country, the Middle East, and the entire world.
Israel considers Iran’s nuclear program as the No.1 concern, and although Tehran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons, it is known that they are continuing to develop the capabilities to produce a nuclear weapons arsenal, as well as ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
“Iran is an international and regional problem,” Gantz said. “The world witnessed one example last Friday,” the deadly attack against the Mercer Street tanker, which was carried out by a suicide drone. This could happen to anyone.
Gantz said that new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who took over from moderate Hassan Rouhani on Thursday, could lead to even more extreme regional and security problems.
“I AM TELLING THE WORLD, PAY ATTENTION.” said the defense minister. IT’S COMING.”
In response to Gantz’s comment on striking Iran, the United Nations called on all parties to de-escalate the situation …
Diplomatic action, however, has been stymied. Israel wants the 15 member United Nations Security Council to hold a meeting on what it has referred to as Iranian maritime terrorism and to condemn such attacks on international trade …
The United States and United Kingdom, which believe that Iran was behind the drone attack, also want to see the UNSC convene.
Britain plans to raise the issue of Iranian maritime attacks on August 6, 2021, at the UNSC meeting. Other member states are also expected to speak out.
AT PRESENT, NO ACTION CAN BE TAKEN BECAUSE OF EXPECTED OPPOSITION FROM RUSSIA AND CHINA …
As an example of the complex relationship many in the international community have with Iran, the UN spokesman welcomed the entry into office of Iran’s hard-line new president, whose swearing in ceremony was held earlier in the day.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN and the US Gilad Erdan tweeted about Raisi, calling him “the Butcher of Tehran” who was responsible for the “executions of as many as 30,000 political prisoners in 1988-and he is PROUD of it. This man with blood on his hands will only create more violence and instability.”
Erdan also tweeted a photo from the ceremony of a European Union official sitting together with Hamas and Hezbollah officials.
“Hezbollah, Hamas, and the EU in one photo at the inauguration of the Butcher of Tehran,” Erdan stated.
Continued:
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