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.