There will never be peace in the Middle East until Jesus comes back.  All of the politicians that are relentlessly pursuing peace plans in the Middle East are fighting a hopeless battle.  From the time that they are able to speak, children all over the Islamic world are taught to obsessively hate Jews and the nation of Israel.  They are taught that "Zionists" are their greatest enemies and that they are behind a lot of the major problems that we see in the world today.  Even when Hitler was at the height of his power, there was never the kind of relentless anti-Semitic indoctrination that we now see throughout the Islamic world.  Over the past decade, immense pressure has been put on the Palestinians and the Saudis to clean up their textbooks, and yet they still contain calls to kill the Jews.  In fact, you will probably find it hard to believe some of the quotes from Palestinian textbooks and Saudi Arabian textbooks that are posted below.  We live in very crazy times, and unfortunately the anti-Semitism in the Islamic world is likely to grow even worse as we get even deeper into the last days.

A couple of days ago, the Daily Mail published an article that contained some absolutely shocking details about what is currently in Saudi Arabian textbooks for 9th and 10th-graders.

According to the Daily Mail, one textbook for 9th graders actually contains the following statement....

"The hour (of judgment) will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. There is a Jew behind me come and kill him."

Unfortunately, it is not just in school where children are being taught these things.

Islam is not just a religion in nations such as Saudi Arabia.  It is a way of life.

Today, millions upon millions of children are immersed in the ways of jihad from the moment that they are taken from the cradle.  It would be hard to overstate how much of a danger this is for the rest of the world.

Palestinian textbooks also contain a lot of really horrible things.  Several contenders for the Republican presidential nomination have even mentioned these Palestinian textbooks in recent debates.

Over the past decade, there has been a relentless campaign to clean Palestinian textbooks up.  Yet they still contain a lot of anti-Semitic language.

For example, one Palestinian textbook for 8th graders used in religious schools includes the following statement....

"Muslim fighters must get rid of the usurping Jews from the usurped lands in Palestine and in the Levant."

Jihad seems to be a constant and never ending theme in Palestinian textbooks.  Back in 2007, Palestinian Media Watch released a report entitled "From Nationalist Battle to Religious Conflict: New 12th Grade Palestinian Textbooks Present a World Without Israel" which discussed the radical anti-Semitism found in Palestinian textbooks for 12th grade students.  The following is an excerpt from that report....

The teachings repeatedly reject Israel's right to exist, present the conflict as a religious battle for Islam, teach Israel's founding as imperialism, and actively portray a picture of the Middle East, both verbally and visually, in which Israel does not exist at all. The following description of Israel's founding represents the dominant dogma about Israel in Palestinian schoolbooks: Defining Israel's founding as a "catastrophe unprecedented in history," "a theft perpetrated by "Zionist gangs," together with numerous other hateful descriptions of Israel as "colonial imperialist" and "racist", compounded by the presentation of the conflict as a religious war, leaves no latitude for students to have positive or even neutral attitudes towards Israel. This negative imagery and religious packaging are compounded by hateful presentations of Israeli policy. The young students are imbued with a Palestinian identity as "victims" just by virtue of Israel's existence. The well-meaning student is left with no logical justification or religious option to accept Israel as a neighbor or to seek coexistence. Given the total rejection of Israel's right to exist, on nationalistic and religious grounds, Palestinian terror against Israel since Israel's founding in 1948 is defined as: "resistance … acts of most glorious heroism." PA educators teach that fighting Israel is not merely a territorial conflict, but also a religious battle for Islam. The schoolbooks define the conflict with Israel as "Ribat for Allah" – "one of the actions related to Jihad for Allah, and it means: Being found in areas where there is a struggle between Muslims and their enemies".

The following are two quotes from Palestinian textbooks that were heavily featured in the report....

*"Palestine’s war ended with a catastrophe that is unprecedented in history, when the Zionist gangs stole Palestine and expelled its people from their cities, their villages, their lands and their houses, and established the State of Israel."

*"The Ribat for Allah is one of the actions related to Jihad for Allah, it means: Being found in areas where there is a struggle between Muslims and their enemies... the endurance of Palestine’s people on their land … is one of the greatest of the Ribat and they are worthy of a great reward from Allah."

When you relentlessly ram anti-Semitic propaganda down the throats of children for years and years, it is really hard to get them to accept the idea of peace with Israel later on when they become adults.

This was clearly demonstrated by the results of a recent poll by The Israel Project.  The poll asked Palestinians living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza a variety of questions about Israel and about the peace process.  The following are some of the results.....

*60 percent were in favor of direct negotiations with Israel that would result in a "two state" solution.

*Approximately two-thirds of the respondents agreed that "over time, Palestinians must work to get back all the land for a Palestinian state."

*Only 23 percent of the respondents believed that  "Israel has a permanent right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people."

*58 percent of those surveyed preferred "armed struggle" over "engagement with Israel."

*Just 12 percent of the respondents said that official maps, documents and school textbooks should show the name "Israel".

So if only 23 percent of Palestinians believe that Israel has a permanent right to exist, and if two-thirds believe that Palestinians must eventually capture all of the land, then how is lasting peace going to be possible?

No "Palestinian state" is going to bring lasting peace to the region.

But it is not just the Palestinians and the Saudis that are the problem.

A new U.S. government commission report says the following about school textbooks in Pakistan....

"Religious minorities are often portrayed as inferior or second-class citizens who have been granted limited rights and privileges by generous Pakistani Muslims, for which they should be grateful"

Those of us that live in the west simply have a hard time grasping how deep all of this indoctrination really goes.

Most Americans are used to thinking of "religion" as a very small part of life.

In Islamic countries, Islam is life.

Of course the most important book of all in Islamic countries is the Quran.  Children in Islamic countries may read a textbook one or two times, but the Quran will be part of their daily lives for as long as they live.

The following are quotes from the Quran about Jews....

"And thou wilt find them [the Jews] the greediest of mankind" [Surah 11, v. 96]

"They [the Jews] are the heirs of Hell.... They will spare no pains to corrupt you. They desire nothing but your ruin. Their hatred is clear from what they say ... When evil befalls you they rejoice." [Surah 111, v. 117-120]

"Allah hath cursed them [the Jews] for their disbelief." [Surah IV, v. 46]

"They [the Jews] will spare no pains to corrupt you. They desire nothing but your ruin. Their hatred is clear from what they say, but more violent is the hatred which their breasts conceal." [Surah III, v. 117-120]

"O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and Christians for friends." [Surah V, v. 51]

"Allah fighteth against them [the Jews]. How perverse they are!" [Surah IX, v. 30]

The following is found in the Hadith (a record of the deeds and sayings of Muhammad)....

"The Day of Resurrection will not arrive until the Moslems make war against the Jews and kill them, and until a Jew hiding behind a rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: 'Oh Moslem, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!"

Are you starting to understand?

Muslims commit violent acts against Christians and Jews because that is what they have been taught to do all of their lives.

All over the world we see radical Muslims doing some of the most horrible things imaginable to Christians and Jews.  The following two examples come from an article by frontpagemag.com.

This first example is from Ethiopia....

More than 500 Muslim students assisted by Muslim police burned down a church, while screaming “Allahu Akbar” (and thus clearly positing their attack in an Islamic framework); the church was built on land used by Christians for more than 60 years, but now a court has ruled that it was built “without a permit.”

This next example comes from Kenya....

A gang of Muslims stabbed and beat with iron rods a 25-year-old Somali refugee, breaking his teeth; he was then stripped naked, covered with dirt, and left unconscious near a church. Although he was raised Christian since age 7, he was attacked on the “assumption that as a Somali he was born into Islam and was therefore an apostate deserving of death.”

Wherever you find radical Islam, you will find violence.

For example, back in 2010 a Christian man in Pakistan's Punjab province was burned alive by radical Islamic leaders for refusing to convert to Islam while his wife was raped by police officers.

Another very shocking incident took place down in Egypt.  In broad daylight and in full view of witnesses, a group of 4 Islamic radicals in the southern Egyptian city of Attaleen fired 31 bullets into the head of a Coptic Christian before beheading him.  The dead body was then dragged through the streets accompanied by shouts of victory.  Later, an Egyptian court acquitted the four Muslim men accused of committing the crime.

Sadly, hundreds more very shocking examples could be included in this article.

There is a reason why so many people are so deeply concerned about the hateful things that Palestinian textbooks and Saudi Arabian textbooks say.

When children have it pounded into their heads over and over that a certain group of people is the enemy and should be killed, then that is what a lot of them will end up believing as adults.

Anti-Semitism continues to grow and has reached a fever pitch in the Middle East.

In such an environment, lasting peace is impossible.

It is just a matter of time before the next major war in the Middle East comes.

So what do all of you think?  Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below....

Giving the Palestinians a state is a really, really bad idea.  But the world seems obsessed with giving them one anyway.  The sad truth is that a Palestinian state is not going to bring peace to the region.  It is not going to bring an end to the conflict between the Jewish people and the Palestinians.  Rather, it is just going to embolden those that desire to see Israel wiped off the map.  As you will see below, poll after poll has demonstrated that the Palestinians overwhelmingly believe that a "two state solution" is only an intermediate step toward the eventual goal of taking all of the land away from Israel, and the vast majority of Palestinians still support committing terrorist acts against the Jewish people.  You cannot pacify radical jihadists that are obsessed with genocide by giving them land.  In addition, if global leaders do try to carve up the land of Israel, that is going to very much upset the Lord God Almighty.  But we live in the last days, and we know that these kinds of things are going to happen.

The Palestinians have now submitted their formal request for statehood to the United Nations.  The U.S. and the EU are blocking that bid at the moment and they are trying to encourage the Palestinians to renew negotiations with Israel, but that does not mean that they don't want to give the Palestinians a state.

In fact, the U.S. and the EU have both publicly stated that the Palestinians should be given a state based on pre-1967 borders.

It is just that the U.S. and the EU want a Palestinian state to come about through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

But what kind of negotiating position does that put Israel in?  The U.S. and the EU have already basically promised the Palestinians a state based on pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital.

Unless Israel plans to give up East Jerusalem, negotiations are never going to work.  The Palestinians will just keep insisting on East Jerusalem until the rest of the world finally gives it to them.

Not that the Palestinians should ever be given one inch of land.  God gave all of that land to the people of Israel forever.

But unfortunately, most of the politicians around the world think that they know better than God does.

The following are 10 reasons why a Palestinian state is a really, really bad idea....

#1 The "Palestinian territories" are currently ruled by two separate governments.  One of them is a terrorist organization.  Right now, Hamas rules Gaza and Fatah rules the West Bank.  So how can Mahmoud Abbas speak for all of them?  And how will they suddenly become "one people" once they have been given a state?

#2 A large number of Palestinians do not agree with the statehood request that Abbas has submitted.  You would think that this fact would be reported by the mainstream media, but they have been largely silent about this.

The reality, however, is that a number of key Palestinian organizations are very much against what Abbas is doing.  For example, WorldNetDaily recently reported that Hamas has loudly denounced this statehood request....

Major Palestinian factions, including terrorist organizations, reject Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' United Nations statehood request, arguing Abbas does not represent the Palestinian people.

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said Abbas' U.N. petition "lacks any legitimacy."

#3 The vast majority of Palestinians do not believe that creating a Palestinian state will resolve the conflict with Israel.

So if that is the case, then what in the world is creating a Palestinian state actually going to accomplish?

According to one recent survey, only 34 percent of Palestinians consider the
"two state solution" to be the answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But you don't hear numbers like that in the mainstream media, do you?

#4 Giving the Palestinians a state would create a brand new state sponsor of terror in the heart of the Middle East.

Right now, the Palestinians continually commit acts of terrorism against the Jewish people.  The Palestinian Authority is either unwilling or unable to stop this violence.

So why would giving the Palestinians a state change anything?

The truth is that the poll numbers reveal what is really going on....

*According to one recent poll, 58 percent of all Palestinians prefer “armed struggle” over “engagement with Israel”.

*According to another recent poll, 73 percent of all Palestinians agree with the hadith quoted in the Hamas Charter that talks about killing Jews.

*The same poll found that 62 percent of all Palestinians support kidnapping Israeli soldiers and holding them hostage.

Why in the world would the U.S. and the EU support the creation of another terrorist state?

#5 The Palestinians still refuse to recognize that Israel has the right to exist.

The Palestinians want the rest of the world to give them huge chunks of the land of Israel without the Palestinians having to give up anything in return.  In fact, they don't even plan to recognize that the nation of Israel has a right to exist.

So what kind of neighbor do you think they will be for Israel?

This refusal to recognize Israel is deeply rooted in the Palestinian psyche.  For example, one recent poll found that only 12 percent of all Palestinians agree that official maps, documents and school textbooks should show the name "Israel".

#6 The Palestinian people are still very much dedicated to the destruction of Israel.

According to one recent poll, two-thirds of all Palestinians believe that the eventual goal of the Palestinians must be "to get back all the land for a Palestinian state."

The primary goal of the Palestinians has never changed.  For example, Abu Mujaheed, a spokesperson for the Popular Resistance Committees, recently told WorldNetDaily the following....

"For Palestinians, the borders are based on 1948 (all of Israel) and this is not negotiable."

So how are you supposed to "negotiate" with someone like that?

If the world wants to give big chunks of land to the Palestinians for free, they will gladly take it.

But it will do nothing to dissuade them from their ultimate goal.

In fact, the Hamas charter still calls for the destruction of Israel.  That has not changed.

So why should the rest of the world reward such behavior?

#7 You cannot pacify people that are committed to genocide by giving them land.

It did not work with Hitler and it will not work with the Palestinians.

Hatred for the Jews is growing to a fever pitch all over the Middle East.  Just check out the following example from a recent article in The Blaze....

While perhaps not shocking, it is profoundly disturbing that in the purportedly more “moderate” Egypt of 2011, demonstrators took to the streets outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo with signs bearing swastikas and a message that read: “the gas chambers are ready.”

How in the world are you going to make "peace" with people who think like that?

#8 The pre-1967 borders would make Israel indefensible.

At the narrowest point, Israel would only be 8 miles wide if they were forced to go back to those borders.

The nation would basically become impossible to defend.

In fact, former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Abba Eban referred to them as “Auschwitz borders”.

#9 In the Bible, the Lord God Almighty warns against dividing the land of Israel.

The book of Joel is all about the return of Jesus Christ to this earth at the end of the Great Tribulation.  In Joel 3:2 it tells us that one of the things that Jesus will judge the nations for is dividing up the land of Israel....

"...There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land."

In case you haven't noticed, whenever the United States gets involved in trying to divide up the land of Israel we seem to get hit by a major disaster of some sort.

In a previous article, I detailed some of the disasters that have happened when the U.S. government has tried to mess around with the land of Israel....

#1) On April 30, 2003, America was positioned to be the catalyst for the so-called "solution" to the Middle East crisis. As Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas was sworn in, the "Road Map" peace plan was set in motion.

The very next day began the worst month of tornadoes in United States history - more than 500 in a single month. Under normal conditions, 1,000 tornadoes hit the United States each year, but in just eight days that May, 375 twisters ripped across the heartland of America.

#2) May 9, 2003, President Bush addressed students at the University of South Carolina. Bush called on the Palestinians to embrace the roadmap to peace, and Bush expressed his desire to see the flag of Palestine raised over a free nation.

Hours later, tornadoes returned and Oklahoma City again became the target for deadly twisters, reducing many businesses and homes to splinters and bricks. The tornadoes of May devastated the Midwest with the third worst property damage in American history.

#3) On October 30, 1991, in a meeting scheduled by George H.W. Bush, Israelis and Palestinians discussed ways to achieve peace in the Middle East. Opening talks focused on trading parts of Israel for a peace agreement.

That same day, thousands of miles away, a powerful storm was brewing off of the coast of Nova Scotia. On October 31st, what would be known as "The Perfect Storm" smashed into New England, pummeling the President's Kennebunkport, Maine home with waves 30 feet high. It was a storm so rare that the weather patterns required to create it only happen about once every 100 years.

#4) On August 23rd, 1992, Middle East peace talks resumed in Washington, D.C. with hope that there would be a great breakthrough. These talks focused on surrendering the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria in exchange for peace. Hundreds of miles south of there at the same time, Florida was the target for one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. Hurricane Andrew ripped through the state with an eye more than 30 miles wide and winds up to 178 miles per hour leaving behind a 32 billion dollar disaster.

#5) Between August 16th and 30th, 2005, Ariel Sharon expelled 9,480 Jewish settlers from 21 settlements in Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank.

On January 4th, 2006, Sharon had a stroke, and he fell into a coma and is now in a persistent vegetative state.

#6) The U.S. had strongly pressured Sharon to evacuate those settlers from Gaza.

On August 29th, 2005 the storm that would become Hurricane Katrina formed, and it devastated New Orleans and the surrounding areas to such an extent that they still have not recovered. That devastating storm caused at least 200 billion dollars in damage.

#7) In June of 2001, George W. Bush sent CIA director George Tenet to Israel in an attempt to implement the Mitchell Plan. The Mitchell plan called for, among other things, the cessation of new building in the Jewish settlements.

On the same day that Tenet met with Israeli and Palestinian officials, tropical storm Allison formed in the Gulf of Mexico and moved over Texas, the President's home state, and dropped over 28 inches of rain over the Houston area alone, causing over $4 billion dollars in damage. The storm then moved to Florida and up the east coast causing damage as far as Pennsylvania. The meteorologists called Allison the "worst tropical storm in history".

There are many more examples of this phenomenon right here.

Could many of the bizarre natural disasters that we have seen this year also be linked to what Obama has been trying to do to the land of Israel?

In the Scriptures, it tells us that God gave the land to the people of Israel.  We should not be trying to mess around with that.  Psalm 105:8-11 says the following....

He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance

#10 The Palestinians are going to insist on East Jerusalem as their capital, but that city belongs to the Lord.

In Zechariah 12:3, we are warned that the city of Jerusalem will one day become a huge stumbling stone for the nations....

"On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves."

Is that not what has happened?

Jerusalem seems to be the "problem" that has no answer.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to never, ever let Jerusalem become divided.

But the Palestinians have said that they will never accept a state that does not include East Jerusalem.

The Palestinian people are incredibly united on this issue.  One recent survey found that 92 percent of Palestinians believe that Jerusalem should be the capital of the future Palestinian state.

So will they get East Jerusalem?

Well, it certainly does not help when United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is running around saying stuff like this....

"...a way must be found for Jerusalem to emerge as a capital of two States, Israel and Palestine, with arrangements for holy sites acceptable for all."

Not only that, but Barack Obama and many top EU leaders have already essentially promised East Jerusalem to the Palestinians.

So what we have is a huge mess.

Eventually we are probably going to see a Palestinian state.

And then after that we are probably going to see a major war.

A Palestinian state is not going to bring peace.

Instead, it is just going to make war much more likely.

These are the last days, and Bible prophecy is going to be fulfilled.

Let us pray for the peace of Israel and let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Today we have an excellent guest post from Alisha Venetis.  Alisha Venetis is co-founder of www.thePrepRoom.net; an online store specializing in emergency preparedness supplies.  She writes for Smart Girl Nation, as well as other conservative blogs, where she reports on world politics, domestic and global economics and the potentially negative ramifications they may have on America.

The Birth of a Nation

On May 14, 1948, the nation of Israel was born out of the ashes of the Holocaust. A day later, they were attacked by Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. Having had very little time, weaponry and man-power, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) quickly trained their civilian men and women for combat, something still done today.   Miraculously, Israel managed to survive with some last minute aid by the U.S. This was the first time Israel was attacked as a Nation but certainly not their last.

I mean really, what’s the appeal for these other Middle Eastern countries? Israel is the size of Rhode Island compared to the whole United States. It is the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population and  80% of Israel’s land is desert. Golda Meir, the former Israeli prime minister, used to joke that Israel was the only place in the Middle East without oil.  So what could this country possibly bring to the table?

Why Size Doesn’t Matter

What this small country has accomplished in sixty-four short years is nothing short of a miracle. This tiny county, which has been called a technological power house by Bill Gates, leads the rest of the globe in many areas.  Consider the following;

Technology

• Motorola developed the first cell phone in Israel.

• A coding for a chip that allows laptop computers to function, voicemail and technology for AOL Instant Messenger was developed in Israel.

• Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world, apart from Silicon Valley in California.

• Israel has designed the airlines industry’s most impressive flight security system. Their security is so strict the US consults with Israel often on how to handle its security threats. Israel has been linked to the “ground breaking” cyber attack on Iran’s nuclear reactor. This cyber attack is believed to set back Iran’s nuclear capabilities by about three years.

• Israel has one if the best trained and powerful military’s in the world.

• It is rumored that U.S. military experts don’t even study Israel’s wars because Israel’s winning outcomes are too improbable. Let’s keep in mind they are also spending more per capita on her protection than any other country on earth.

• When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969; she became the world's second elected female leader in modern times (even as Israel is surrounded by some countries who consider women lower than animals).

• Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship, and the highest rate among people over 55 and among women. Israelis invented a hydrogen car that uses just a tank of water.

• Israel is one of the largest exporters of fresh produce and flowers in the world, despite the fact that about 80% of Israel’s land is desert.  Israel has defied agricultural odds.

• The USA would not be as medically advanced if it were not for Israeli advancements.  Israeli scientists developed the first non-radiation computerized test for breast cancer.

• An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from the dipension of medicine and potentially saving thousands of lives per year.

• An Israeli company developed the first ingestible video camera. This camera is so small it fits inside a pill and helps doctors diagnose cancer and other digestive disorders.

• Israeli stem-cell technology is being used in the U.S. to regenerate heart tissue.

• Teva is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies and a major producer of generic drugs.

• When the U. S. Embassy in Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day to help save some of the victims. Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as "conflict free."

• Hebrew (the official language of Israel) is the only dead language that has been revived after 2,000 years.

Alisha Venetis is co-founder of www.thePrepRoom.net; an online store specializing in emergency preparedness supplies.  She writes for Smart Girl Nation, as well as other conservative blogs, where she reports on world politics, domestic and global economics and the potentially negative ramifications they may have on America.

Are the Palestinians going to unilaterally declare independence and ask the UN to formally recognize an independent Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders this September?  That is what many in the Israeli government now fear.  At this point the Palestinians have pretty much given up on negotiations with Israel and they have initiated an all-out effort to get the international community behind their effort to achieve statehood in 2011.  The Scriptures warn over and over again about dividing the land of Israel, and many believe that those warnings were put into the Bible for the last days.  So could we actually see the UN establish a formal Palestinian state without the approval of Israel by the end of 2011?  Unfortunately, a whole lot of signs are pointing in that direction.

A recent article in The New York Times noted the intense pressure that Israel is under right now.  Basically the global community is telling them to give away the farm to the Palestinians or else the UN is just going to go ahead and do it anyway....

With revolutionary fervor sweeping the Middle East, Israel is under mounting pressure to make a far-reaching offer to the Palestinians or face a United Nations vote welcoming the State of Palestine as a member whose territory includes all of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

So where is the incentive for the Palestinians to negotiate in all of this?  If the Israelis don't give them a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital they will just wait for the UN to hand it to them.

Yes, it could really happen.

The following are 10 alarming signs that momentum is building for the UN to formally recognize an independent Palestinian state in 2011....

#1 The World Bank has publicly endorsed the formation of an independent Palestinian state.

#2 The IMF is formally backing the establishment of a Palestinian state in the near future.

#3 A recent United Nations report made the following statement about the Palestinian Authority: "In six areas where the UN is most engaged, governmental functions are now sufficient for a functioning government of a state."

#4 The Ad-hoc Liaison Committee on Palestine, composed of the EU, the United States, Canada, Norway, Russia, four Arab countries, the UN, the World Bank and the IMF, has endorsed the UN report and says that the Palestinians are ready for an independent state.

#5 U.S. and EU officials are warning that if Israel does not agree to a Palestinian state within the next few months, "the Quartet may be compelled to recognize a Palestinian State in the 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital".

#6 It is being reported in the international media that the following 4 points form the core of Obama's strategy for bringing about a Palestinian state: "Israel's acceptance of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders; Palestinian acceptance that there would be no right to return to Israeli land; Jerusalem as the capital of both states; and the protection of Israel's security needs."

#7 Earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the following statement about the situation in Israel: "The status quo between Palestinians and Israelis is no more sustainable than the political systems that have crumbled in recent months."

#8 New Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi is now asking the United States to formally recognize a Palestinian state.

#9 The Palestinian Authority has set September 2011 as the deadline to be ready for statehood.

#10 Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sounds convinced that Barack Obama is going to make good on his promise to deliver an independent state into the hands of the Palestinians by the end of the year: "We are counting on the words of U.S. President Barack Obama who said his vision is to see a Palestinian state this coming September according to a deadline set by the Quartet."

Sadly, an independent Palestinian state would probably only make war more likely.

The following is how author Joel C. Rosenberg recently explained it....

If the Palestinians make a unilateral declaration of what they want, what will stop Israel from unilaterally declaring what they want? What if the Palestinians try to forcibly evict the Jews living in the West Bank? Those Jews would certainly fight back. Would the Israeli military move to defend the Jewish settlers? Would Palestinian security forces then fire upon the Israeli forces? Would the U.N. move into to condemn and isolate Israel, and even impose draconian economic sanctions on the Jewish state? Events could spiral out of control. Indeed, the likelihood is that far more violence — not peace — would result by such a Palestinian declaration of statehood outside the context of negotiations with Israel.

Unfortunately, even if the Palestinians get a state, there is going to be a massive war in the Middle East.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah is arming to the teeth and they are absolutely obsessed with driving Israel into the sea.

Syria had been getting ready for war for decades, and it is almost certainly just a matter of time before Israel and Syria go head to head.

Iran continues to develop their nuclear program and it is seemingly inevitable that at some point the Israelis will strike them in order to stop that.

Egypt has just taken a hard turn towards radical Islam and a recent poll found that the majority of the Egyptian people are in favor of ending the peace treaty with Israel.

So, no, the Middle East is not getting closer to peace.

In fact, it is getting much closer to war.

We live in very unstable times.  Please pray for peace in the Middle East.

So exactly just who is NATO "helping" in Libya?  Are we actually making it possible for radical Islamic jihadists to take control of Libya?  Are we now providing air cover for some of the exact same terrorists that were shooting at our soldiers in Iraq?  You might not like the answers to those questions.  Nobody is claiming that Gadhafi is not a horrible dictator and tyrant.  However, is it really in our interest to have al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood replace him?  The Scriptures tell us in the book of Ezekiel that in the last days the nation of Libya will come against Israel.  Are we making this possible by injecting ourselves into the middle of this civil war?

The mainstream media has been pushing this war really hard, and it is really easy for most Americans to simply trust the judgment of the news channels, but there are some really hard questions that we need to ask about our involvement in Libya.

For example, what in the world is Libya going to look like after all this is over?

Is it going to take a hard turn towards radical Islam and end up being ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood and/or al-Qaeda?

According to The Telegraph, the leader of the Libyan rebels is even admitting that his "troops" include jihadists that were firing bullets at U.S. troops in Iraq....

Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

What type of government do you think they are going to set up once this is over?

The American people need to start demanding some answers.

Why are we on the side of al-Qaeda in Libya but against them in Iraq and Afghanistan?

CBS News recently quoted former CIA officer Bruce Riedel as saying the following....

"There is no question that al Qaeda's Libyan franchise, Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, is a part of the opposition. It has always been Qaddafi's biggest enemy and its stronghold is Benghazi. What is unclear is how much of the opposition is al Qaeda/Libyan Islamic Fighting Group - 2 percent or 80 percent."

Shouldn't we have learned more about who we are supporting before we jumped in?

Are we actually using our military to support the spread of radical Islam in north Africa?

According to Webster Tarpley, a study conducted at West Point found that Libya has one of the highest concentrations of jihadists on the planet....

The most striking finding which emerges from the West Point study is that the corridor which goes from Benghazi to Tobruk, passing through the city of Darnah (also transliterated as Derna) them represents one of the greatest concentrations of jihadi terrorists to be found anywhere in the world, and by some measures can be regarded as the leading source of suicide bombers anywhere on the planet. Darnah, with one terrorist fighter sent into Iraq to kill Americans for every 1,000 to 1,500 persons of population, emerges as suicide bomber heaven, easily surpassing the closest competitor, which was Riyad, Saudi Arabia.

The more one examines the situation in Libya, the better Gadhafi looks.  The truth is that these "rebels" are not fighting Gadhafi because they want a western-style democracy.  Rather, they are fighting him because they want to set up a radical Islamic jihadist state.

The truth is that NATO knows precisely who they are arming and who they are helping take power in Libya.  As Steve Watson recently noted, there are reports that there are 1000 (or more) al-Qaeda fighters among the rebels in Libya....

A former leader of an al Qaeda linked group in Libya claims that there are around 1000 fundamentalist Islamic fighters in the country that have joined the uprising against Col. Moammar Gaddafi’s forces, a number that jives with intelligence reports and independent estimates.

How in the world is America going to be better off with al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood in control of Libya?

None of this makes any sense.

We are told that we have to have our soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq for years and years in order to "fight al-Qaeda" and then we are helping them take power in Libya?

What in the world is going on out there?

We are living in the last days and weird things are going to happen.

So what do all of you think about what is happening in Libya?  Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below....

So much for Muslims and Christians coming together in brotherly love in Egypt.  In the aftermath of the revolution in Egypt, the persecution of Christians in that nation has escalated dramatically.  In our last post, we warned that Egypt was about to take a hard turn toward radical Islam, and we were right.  Churches are being bombed, Christians are being attacked and there have even been reports of government forces opening fire on church buildings.  As radical Islam gets an even stronger hold on Egyptian society, the horrific persecution of Christians in Egypt is only going to increase.  Let us pray for our brothers and sisters in Egypt because they are living in the middle of a nightmare right now.  Unfortunately, the Scriptures tell us that in the last days persecution is going to increase for all Christians.

At this point there are almost daily stories in the international news about the persecution of Christians in Egypt.

For example, check out the following excerpt from a story today in the Jerusalem Post....

The Health Ministry said the 13 people were killed and 140 wounded in violence on Tuesday night ignited by tensions built up since an arson attack on a church south of Cairo on Saturday.

This recent violence was sparked by an attack over the weekend during which an estimated 4,000 Muslims violently assaulted Christian homes and burned a church in the Egyptian town of Soul which is about 18 miles from Cairo.

The Assyrian International News Agency noted that witnesses of the church burning said that the radical Muslims involved were chanting "Allahu Akbar" as they destroyed the church....

Witnesses said the mob chanted "Allahu Akbar" and vowed to conduct their morning prayers on the church plot after razing it.

Unfortunately, violence against Christians in Egypt is not new.  Back on New Year's Eve 21 people were killed and 43 people were injured when a massive bomb went off outside a Coptic church in the city Alexandria, Egypt.

Another example of the persecution of Christians in Egypt prior to the recent revolution was recently noted by Family Security Matters....

Despite wallowing in money from America, Mubarak had made no attempt to improve the plight of Egypt’s Christians. As noted by Raymond Ibrahim, in November 2010, Egyptian security forces opened fire upon Christians who had not followed discriminatory building regulations. The Copts had constructed the St. Mary and St. Michael churches in the district of Giza. Three unarmed Christians died from gunfire, and a small girl was suffocated by tear gas. Wounded demonstrators were handcuffed to hospital beds before being sent to detention camps.

Many of our political leaders and many in the mainstream media have been praising the recent Egyptian revolution, but the truth is that it was not about freedom and liberty.

Instead, what the Egyptian revolution really represented was a hard turn toward radical Islam.

Egypt is becoming a radical Islamist state.  10 percent of the population of Egypt is Christian, and they are no longer going to be able to feel safe.  More churches are likely to be burned and more Christians are likely to die.

Please pray for the Christians in Egypt.  Someday we all may be facing the kind of persecution that they are going through right now.

Many Christians have believed for a long time that Egypt would take a hard turn towards radical Islam in the last days.  Well, it looks like that might be starting to happen.  This week tens of thousands of radical Islamic protesters have been violently clashing with police and security forces in some of Egypt's biggest cities.  So far, at least 4 people have died and dozens have been injured during the Egypt protests.  The level of violence that we are witnessing during these protests is absolutely stunning.  One of America's biggest allies in the Middle East is rapidly becoming destabilized.

There are reports that police have been forced to use water cannons and tear gas on the protesters.  But this has just seemed to make the Islamic radicals even more determined.

So what are they protesting about?

Well, supposedly this is all about "economic conditions" and the rising cost of living, but the protesters are also demanding the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Mubarak has been in power for three decades, and hardline Muslims in Egypt see him as way too friendly with Israel and the United States.

So while most mainstream media news reports will continue to characterize these as "economic protests", let there be no mistake - the vast majority of these protesters desire to see radical Islam take power in Egypt.

If that happens, it will be extremely bad news for the United States and Israel.

Organizers are promising that even bigger protests are planned.  It does not look like things are going to cool down in Egypt any time soon.

So could this be the beginning of an Islamic revolution in Egypt?

Let's pray that it is not.

The following is incredibly shocking raw video from the recent protest in Egypt.  As you can see, things are rapidly becoming very, very serious....

There has been a major discovery of natural gas just off the coast of Israel.  At this point it has now been officially confirmed that one gigantic offshore gas field alone contains 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.  That is the largest deepwater natural gas find in a decade, and it is being projected that it could supply Israel's gas needs for 100 years.

Wow!

God provides, eh?

The following is an excerpt from a recent Wall Street Journal article about this amazing discovery....

On Wednesday, the frenzy got fresh fuel: Noble confirmed its earlier estimates that the field contains 16 trillion cubic feet of gas—making it the world's biggest deepwater gas find in a decade, with enough reserves to supply Israel's gas needs for 100 years.

Getting all of that natural gas out of the ground is not going to be easy, but there is already talk that Israel could actually become a net exporter of energy.

Wouldn't that be something?

But the truth is that we all knew that Israel would be abundantly blessed in the last days, didn't we?

The other nations in the region are already expressing envy.  Lebanon has announced that it wants to start looking for gas off its own shores, and the Palestinians are less than pleased that Israel has found all this gas and they are not going to get any of it.

But it isn't just natural gas that has been found by Israel.

As I have written about previously, one Israeli oil prospecting and production firm has formally announced the discovery of a "commercially sized" oil field in central Israel.

A recent article in Haaretz provided some intriguing details on this new discovery....

Givot Olam Oil Ltd notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange of the find in its "Megev Five" drill near the town of Rosh Ha’ayin, saying it can produce 470 barrels of oil a day.

Isn't all of this exciting?

God is doing something amazing in the land of Israel.

For years, there have been some Bible teachers that have pointed to scriptures such as Deuteronomy 33:24 as evidence that Israel would someday be blessed with oil....

"And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil."

Well, we have witnessed some incredible oil and natural gas discoveries in Israel this year and many believe that there will be even larger discoveries of oil in Israel over the next several years.

But as Israel keep making these discoveries the Palestinians are going to get jealous and it is going to change the political equation in the Middle East.

Even as you read this, Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria are feverishly preparing for war.  The next war in the Middle East could break out at any time.

So all of this oil and natural gas is not going to provide Israel with any kind of lasting peace and security.  In fact, Israel will not truly experience lasting peace and security until Yahshua the Messiah returns.

The politicians that are working so hard toward a "two state solution" are completely and totally deluded if they actually believe that it will bring lasting peace to the region.  The truth is that according to Islamic law, any lands that have once belonged to Muslims belong to them forever.  Radical Muslims will never recognize the right of the Jews to live on even one inch of the land of Israel.  It simply is not going to happen.  Any "peace agreement" that gives the Palestinians control over more land is only going to be viewed as an "intermediate step" toward the eventual goal of completely eliminating the nation of Israel.  Anyone who doubts this should check out the results of a recent poll by The Israel Project.

The poll asked Palestinians living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza a variety of questions about Israel and about the peace process.  The following are some of the results.....

*60 percent were in favor of direct negotiations with Israel that would result in a "two state" solution.

*Approximately two-thirds of the respondents agreed that "over time, Palestinians must work to get back all the land for a Palestinian state."

*Only 23 percent of the respondents believed that  "Israel has a permanent right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people."

*58 percent of those surveyed preferred "armed struggle" over "engagement with Israel."

*Just 12 percent of the respondents said that official maps, documents and school textbooks should show the name "Israel".

Are you starting to get the message?

In Islam, it is taught that you can negotiate with an enemy, lie to an enemy and even make peace agreements with an enemy if it will put you in a better position to achieve eventual victory.

That is what the Palestinians are doing.  They have no intention of living peacefully alongside Israel forever.  Instead, they are just going to grab land however they can grab it.

If Israel will give them some of the land now peacefully, then so be it.  Later on they will take the rest by force if necessary.

Any attempt at a "two state solution" is absolutely foolish and just puts Israel in even more danger.

Radical Islam does not compromise.  Radical Islam does not forget what the eventual goal is.  Radical Islam will not honor any peace treaty for long.

For years, the top Palestinian leaders have said "peace, peace" to the rest of the world and then have turned right around and have told their constituents that of course they would never give up the eternal struggle to take back "the land of Palestine" for the Palestinians.

But world politicians have been totally fooled.  They keep wanting to believe that if the Palestinians are given more land and more control that they will eventually be satisfied.

But they will never, ever be satisfied.  Not until the entire state of Israel has been wiped off the map.

There will never be lasting peace in the Middle East until Yeshua the Messiah (the Lord Jesus Christ) returns to this earth.  Unfortunately, our politicians are never going to understand that.

Has the Israeli government already decided that they will be giving away East Jerusalem to the Palestinians in peace talks? Unfortunately, there is every indication that is exactly what is going to happen and that Israel plans to give up control over the holy sites in Jerusalem as well.

In an absolutely shocking interview with Israel's Haaretz newspaper on the eve of the peace talks in Washington, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak made the following statement....

"West Jerusalem and 12 Jewish neighborhoods that are home to 200,000 residents will be ours. The Arab neighborhoods in which close to a quarter million Palestinians live will be theirs. There will be a special regime in place along with agreed upon arrangements in the Old City, the Mount of Olives and the City of David."

It is important to note that this is not some minor official in the Israeli government talking here.  This is Ehud Barak - the Israeli Defense Minister.

He seems to have a very clear understanding that the Israeli government is fully prepared to give up East Jerusalem.

And the truth is that the Palestinians will absolutely not accept a "peace agreement" that does not include East Jerusalem, and both the EU and the United States both assume that a peace agreement will include handing over East Jerusalem to the Palestinians.

Not only that, but Barak said that he believes that the holy sites in Jerusalem will be administered by a "special regime" after a peace agreement is reached.

Now what in the world does that mean?  There have been rumors for quite some time that the holy sites would be turned over to international control of some sort or another, and it now seems that the Israeli government is more than willing to give them away.

And for what?

A promise of peace by the Palestinians?

When have they ever kept their promises before?

The stunning concessions that Barak believes the Israeli government is prepared to agree to are absolutely mind blowing.  The following is a brief excerpt from the interview with Barak in Haaretz....

What are the principles of a peace deal that you believe can be agreed upon by the conclusion of the talks?

"Two states for two nations; an end to the conflict and the end of all future demands; the demarcation of a border that will run inside the Land of Israel, and within that border will lie a solid Jewish majority for generations and on the other side will be a demilitarized Palestinian state but one that will be viable politically, economically, and territorially; keeping the settlement blocs in our hands; retrieving and relocating the isolated settlements into the settlement blocs or within Israel; a solution to the refugee problem [whereby refugees return to] the Palestinian state or are rehabilitated by international aid; comprehensive security arrangements and a solution to the Jerusalem problem."

So that's it?

The Palestinians get a Palestinian state?

The Palestinians get East Jerusalem?

Israel gives up control of the holy sites?

And Israel gets a promise of peace that is not worth the paper it is written on?

Already it seems as though progress is being made in the negotiations that are taking place in Washington.  The Israelis and Palestinians have agreed to work towards a "framework agreement" over the next few months as a "first step" to a full peace treaty.

According to U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, the purpose of the framework is to establish the compromises which will be made by both sides....

"The purpose of a framework agreement will be to establish the fundamental compromises necessary to enable them to flesh out and complete a comprehensive treaty that will end the conflict and establish a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians."

Or in other words, the "framework agreement" will set forth the very deep concessions that Israel is making and only require the Palestinians to offer a vague promise of peace.

At this point, Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas have agreed to hold another round of meetings on September 14th and 15th.  It is believed that these meetings will be held in Egypt.

Isn't that fitting?

Israel always seems to want to go back to Egypt.

Israel always seems to want to give away parts of the promised land.

The upcoming September talks are also going to include U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell.  The United States is playing a central role in this "peace process" and that is a very bad thing.

For example, has anyone noticed that Hurricane Earl has been raging just off the east coast of the United States as these negotiations have been taking place?

Oh, you think that this is just a coincidence?

Well, the reality is that whenever the U.S. government has been involved in negotiations to carve up the land of Israel bad things have happened.  If you doubt this, just please see all of the other examples of this phenomenon that we detailed in a previous article entitled "Did The Oil Spill In The Gulf Of Mexico Happen Because Barack Obama Is Trying To Divide The Land Of Israel?"

The truth is that God gave the land of Israel to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob forever.

No man has the right to ever give it away.

Anyone who tries to give it away is coming directly against God.

Psalm 105:8-11 says the following....

He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance

The land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel.

Any effort to give it away is foolish and will only bring the wrath of God.

In the end, the people of Israel will have all of the land that God has promised.

But in the meanwhile, Jerusalem will continue to be a "burdensome stone" and the land of Israel will continue to be carved up by world leaders.

Please pray for the land of Israel and for the peace of Jerusalem in these last days.

As the Obama administration continues to stumble about as if they have absolutely no idea how to conduct foreign policy, Russia and China are busy running around making deals and treaties with the rest of the world.  The United States is becoming increasingly isolated as nations around the world seem more eager than ever to reach out and deal with other major powers rather than with America.  Most serious students of Bible prophecy realize that the U.S. will experience a rapid decline in the last days, but there are times when watching it happen seems almost surreal.  Russia and China are rising.  They are quickly making friends and the influence of both superpowers is dramatically expanding.  Meanwhile, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the other dunces in charge of U.S. foreign policy insist on pushing friends like Israel around while showing no ability to make friends or protect U.S. interests around the globe whatsoever.

The sad thing is that the United States is heading for a very serious confrontation with Russia and China, and the Obama administration (along with the vast majority of the American people) has absolutely no idea what is coming.

Geopolitics is not checkers. 

It is chess.

And right now, Russia and China are wiping the floor with the United States.

Just consider a few of the recent deals that Russia and China have been busy making....

*Russia has signed major arms deals with Syria under which it will sell it warplanes, anti-tank weapons and air defense systems.

*After Russian President Medvedev's historic visit in Damascus, Russia's energy minister says that his country is "studying the question" of building a nuclear power plant in Syria.

*The U.S. government says that it is carefully reviewing a Chinese decision to build two nuclear power plants in Pakistan.

*Nigeria and China have signed a tentative deal to build three oil refineries in the West African state at a cost of 23 billion dollars.

*Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says that Russia and Turkey are becoming key strategic partners.

*According to a new report, China, Iran and North Korea have established a strategic alliance that focuses on missile and nuclear technology development.

*The Russian government has agreed to a raft of new accords with the new government in Ukraine.

*South Africa’s second-biggest lender, has completed its first transactions in Africa with China Construction Bank Corporation after the two agreed to cooperate last July.

*Russia had been busy selling high tech weapons to Iran.  Gary Samore, the White House coordinator for arms control, weapons of mass destruction proliferation and terrorism, says that he would be surprised if Moscow shipped the S-300 anti-aircraft system that Iran has ordered.  But that just shows how clueless the Obama administration actually is.

*A China-led consortium has sealed a deal with the Iraqi government to develop a prized cluster of three oil fields in the country's south, bringing China closer to becoming the dominant foreign player in Iraq's recovering oil sector.

Now wait a second.

I thought it was the U.S. and the U.K. that liberated Iraq.

So the Iraqi people are so grateful that they are letting China come in and be the dominant player in the Iraqi oil industry?

What in the world?

We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to keep Iraq secure so that China can swoop in and get all the oil?

Does anyone else see something wrong here?

U.S. foreign policy is a mess.

The Obama administration is beyond clueless, and Russia and China are rapidly getting their chess pieces into position.

In a few years when things with Russia and China take an ugly turn and the U.S. is facing a major crisis with them, remember where you heard it first.

The United States should not be taking their eyes off of Russia and China.

But as long as we have complete incompetents running U.S. foreign policy things are going to continue to deteriorate.  Russia and China are more powerful than they ever have been before, and they aren't going anywhere.  It is a whole new ballgame, and the U.S. is losing.

Let us pray for our leaders, because they sure need it.

Israel is making it very clear that the next war with Hezbollah will also be a war against Syria.  For years it has been an open secret that Syria was funneling arms and sophistical weapons systems to Hezbollah in Lebanon, but now Israel is on the record as saying that they consider Hezbollah to be a division of the Syrian army.  So what does this mean?  It means that war between Israel and Syria is now closer than it has been in decades.  Just recently, Israel delivered a secret warning to Syrian President Bashar Assad that it will respond to missile attacks from Hezbollah by launching immediate retaliation against Syria itself.

No longer will Syria be able to use Hezbollah to fight proxy wars against Israel.  If a repeat of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah happens, this time Israel says that it will directly strike Damascus. 

In fact, a major U.K. newspaper recently published the following "off-the-record" comment from an Israeli minister....

"We’ll return Syria to the Stone Age by crippling its power stations, ports, fuel storage and every bit of strategic infrastructure if Hezbollah dare to launch ballistic missiles against us."

What is raising tensions even further in the region are reports that Syria has been arming Hezbollah to the teeth in preparation for the coming war.

Just consider the following description by Debka of the kinds of advanced weaponry that Syria has been supplying to the terrorist organization....

"Surface-to-surface missiles able to reach as far as the Dimona reactor in southern Israel: They include Fajr-5, which has a range of 33 km, and the M-600, developed by Syria from the Fateh-110, whose range is 250 km. Both are precise, propelled by solid fuel and carry 500-kilo warheads of conventional explosives, as well as being able to deliver chemical, biological and radioactive materials.  This dangerous new arsenal which tops up the 40,000 rockets Hizballah was allowed to pile up since the 2006 Lebanon war."

The reality is that Syria and Hezbollah between them now have the capability of striking every single inch of Israeli territory with missiles.

No target is out of range anymore.

With all sides on edge in the region, even King Abdullah of Jordan is warning that the next war in the Middle East could break out as soon as this summer.

Meanwhile, there are increasing calls from world leaders for Israel to join the NPT and quit producing nuclear weapons.  In fact, Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallem is calling on all NPT member countries to sever their diplomatic relations with Israel unless it joins the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Of course Syria would love not to have to worry about Israel's nukes during the coming war, but that is not going to happen.

But even Barack Obama is pushing Israel on this issue.  Last week Barack Obama publicly declared that he is calling upon all the nations of the world to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, including Israel.

But what Barack Obama should be really concerned about is trying to figure out what to do about Iran.

It is being reported that Robert Gates, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, warned President Barack Obama in a secret "wake-up call" memo that the White House has no effective policy for dealing with a nuclear Iran.

But at the same time, the Pentagon itself does not seem to have a sense of urgency when it comes to Iran's nuclear program.  Top U.S. military officials told Congress last week that it would take Iran at least a year to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb.  Not only that, but Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently said that that a U.S. strike against Iran would go "a long way" to delaying its nuclear program but that he considered doing so his "last option" right now.

Meanwhile, top Iranian officials are running around making declarations about how advanced Iran's nuclear program is.

Needless to say, Israel is not going to let Iran go down this path indefinitely.

But even before things with Iran come to a crisis point, war could break out between Israel and Syria.

Is the time soon coming when "Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins" (Isaiah 17:1)?

We will just have to wait and see.  Certainly all sides are preparing for a devastating regional war.  So let us pray for the peace of Israel and let us trust that God knows what He is doing.

When it comes to geopolitics, it is much more important to watch what the various players do rather than listen to what they say.  This is especially true in the Middle East.  While many leaders in the region are saying all the "right" things, the reality is that there are indications that all sides are preparing for war.  In fact, there are signs that war in the Middle East may be imminent.  The reality is that Israel is simply not going to let Iran continue with their nuclear program forever, and Iran is showing no indications that they plan to discontinue it.  So a showdown is inevitable at this point.  Tensions are rising and preparations are ramping up. 

The following are ten recent signs that war in the Middle East is getting closer than ever.... 

#1) On Tuesday, Israel began distributing millions of protection kits against biochemical warfare.

#2) The Tel Aviv municipality has unveiled a massive new public bomb shelter built directly under the new Habima Theater.

#3) According to a senior PA negotiator and sources in the Israeli government, the U.S. has actually been conducting negotiations with Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.  Since when did the U.S. government become the representative of the Palestinians?  Things have gotten really weird since Barack Obama got in the White House.

#4) In recent weeks the Obama administration has stepped up its monitoring of Jewish construction projects in eastern Jerusalem.  In fact, if anyone picks up a hammer in east Jerusalem these days the Obama administration flies into a tizzy.

#5) The Obama administration is now rejecting all visa requests from all Israeli nuclear scientists who work on Israel’s nuclear reactor in Dimona and is now imposing severe restrictions on Israel with regard to the purchase of nuclear-related products.  Wait a second - isn't Israel supposed to be our friend?

#6) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled a planned trip to Washington next week for Barack Obama's 47 country nuclear security conference.  So why did he cancel his trip?  Perhaps #5 was a big reason.

#7) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is claiming that Israel plans to start a war this upcoming Spring or Summer, and that this will be a chance for the surrounding nations to "finish" Israel.

#8) A senior cleric within Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard has reiterated warnings that Tehran would strike Tel Aviv immediately if Israel and its Western allies attacked Iran.

#9) Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi says that "no trace of Israel will remain" if Iran is attacked.

#10) Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is promising that the Palestinian people will celebrate the Holy Fire vigil next year in the "true Palestinian capital" of Jerusalem.

If you listen to the major Islamic leaders in the region, it sounds like they are very much looking forward to war.  That may seem strange to those of us with a western mindset, but you have to realize that these Islamic leaders have had the "glory of jihad" pounded into their heads since they were knee-high to a grasshopper (as they say in the South).

The radical Muslims in the region are thirsting for a war with Israel, and Israel cannot allow Iran to continue developing a nuclear program indefinitely. 

Trouble is on the horizon.

The Obama administration is totally inept and seems to be becoming increasingly anti-Israel.

Now is the time to be praying for Israel and for the peace of Jerusalem.

Is war on the horizon in the Middle East?  Iran is certainly arming for one.  In fact, what we are witnessing now could potentially be considered the greatest military buildup in the history of the Middle East.  Basically what Iran has done is they have pushed all of their chips to the middle of the table and have decided that they are going to develop nuclear weapons no matter what.  Now they are arming themselves to the teeth for the confrontation with Israel and/or the United States that they know is coming at some point.  We all know that there will be wars in the last days, but when war erupts in the Middle East, things are not going to be pleasant - especially if nuclear, chemical and biological weapons are used.

Iran and Israel are caught in a bizarre game of chicken, and Iran is showing no signs of blinking.  In fact, Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered his country's nuclear agency to begin the production of higher enriched uranium.  Iran seems to have no fear of sanctions or of anything else.  Perhaps they realize that Obama has absolutely no interest in a war with Iran.  Or perhaps they are just crazy.  In any event, Iran's leaders have set their course and they seem to have no intention of altering it.

In fact, they are arming themselves as if a coming war with Israel is inevitable....

*An Iranian air force commander said on Monday that Iran will soon unveil a domestically-made air defense system with at least the same capability as Russia's very powerful S-300 anti-aircraft hardware.  If this is true, it will be a major change in the balance of power.

*Iran has begun producing very advanced unmanned drones capable of carrying out devastating assaults "with high precision".   

*Iran has also announced that they officially started production of two new kinds of conventional missiles on Saturday.

*There are even persistent rumors that Iran is developing intercontinental ballistic missiles that could potentially carry nuclear warheads.  If that ever comes to fruition, the United States would be in much greater danger.

So what does all of this mean?

It means that Iran is desperately trying to develop strategic weapons that will enable it to close the gap somewhat between itself and Israel and the United States.

There is no way that Iran can achieve strategic parity with the United States military right now, but if they can put enough of a hurt on the U.S. and Israel they know that the politicians in those two nations will think twice before striking.

And that could buy time for Iran to make nukes.

After all, the destruction of Israel is one of the stated goals of the Iranian government.

In fact, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday that he believes that the obliteration of Israel "is certain".

That is dangerous talk.

Tensions are rising all over the Middle East.  It is being reported that one Syrian government official recently said that Syria is ready for either peace or war.

And war seems more likely by the day.

According to one new report, Egyptian maritime sources say that the Israeli navy has deployed two missile ships to the Persian Gulf.

Not that there is anything too unusual about that, but it is yet another move that is raising tensions in the region.

As noted above, we all know that war is inevitable in the last days.  But we are also instructed in the Scriptures to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  So let us pray for peace even as things move ever closer to war.