DAVID DOLAN is a Jerusalem-based author and journalist who has lived and
worked in Israel since 1980. Here is his latest report on the region.
Shalom from Jerusalem,
Last Wednesday was not only the hottest day in the holy city in many
years (nearly 44 C, which is over 110 F), but also an extremely hot day for
the quaking region. The morning began with a massive explosion in Damascus
that left several senior government and military leaders dead and wounded.
Later that afternoon, another explosion in more distant Bulgaria left five
Israeli tourists dead and over thirty wounded. This month¡¯s Israel news
and analysis report naturally focuses on both of those shattering attacks
and their grave implications for the Middle East and the entire world.
The reality is that we are on the likely brink of a major war in the
region, as detailed in this month¡¯s report. I found it among the most
difficult to put together in the 26 years I¡¯ve been authoring this report.
I was especially moved while detailing the Israeli casualties in the
terrible terrorist assault in Bulgaria. I had actually just arrived at Ben
Gurion airport a few hours before the atrocity after a much-needed break at
a friend¡¯s summer home on a Greek island not far from Bulgaria. While
walking toward passport control, I glanced through the large picture
windows which reveal processed travelers in the large central gathering
area below, seeing many people happily eating and visiting as they waited
to board their flights. Given that the victim¡¯s flight left the airport
just about one hour later, I later realized many of them must have surely
been among the crowd¡ªnever dreaming that they would be killed or wounded
in a foreign terror attack later that same afternoon.
Speaking of sudden, unexpected terror and death, I wish to send out my
condolences to readers in the beautiful state of Colorado over last week¡¯s
ferocious shooting attack in Aurora. As some of you will recall, I was not
far from the city only last February, speaking at two congregations in
adjacent Denver. Later I passed directly through Aurora on Interstate 225
on my way back to the airport after my final meeting in Colorado Springs.
Without desiring to get into domestic American political debates, I have
lived here in Israel long enough to testify that if such a senseless attack
had occurred at a theater or any other crowded place here, the assailant
would have been taken out in seconds by one of the many Israelis who are
both armed, responsible and trained in the use of their weapons. I left the
Denver area in 1999 just one day before the Columbine shootings in
Littleton, where I had spoken at a nearby church on Resurrection Sunday
during that tour. Dark (K) Night Rising indeed!
For those of you interested in such things, I hope to write another
article on the possible prophetic implications of what is happening here in
the Middle East in the coming weeks. I also want to comment on the
best-selling book The Harbinger, which I was finally able to read
while in Greece. It goes without saying that your prayers are especially
appreciated in these momentous days in the tempestuous Middle
East.
¡¡ SHOWDOWN LOOMING WITH SYRIA, HIZBULLAH AND
IRAN
By David Dolan
Israel stepped several paces closer to becoming involved in a major new
Middle East conflict during July after officials named Syria¡¯s ally Iran
and its surrogate Lebanese Hizbullah militia as being behind the worst
terrorist atrocity against Israeli civilians traveling abroad in many
years. The suicide bomb blast on a chartered bus at a coastal airport in
Bulgaria took the lives of five Israelis tourists, including and expectant
mother and her unborn baby. Dozens of others were wounded, several
seriously, including a number of children. A Bulgarian bus driver was also
killed. Several severely wounded victims were flown to the capital city,
Sofia, for emergency surgery. The remaining wounded tourists were quickly
flown back to Israel on IAF transporters for medical treatment at home,
along with the remains of the fatalities. Two pregnant women were among
those injured in the assault. One week before, Israeli and Cypriot security
agents apprehended a suspected Hizbullah terrorist plotting to attack
Israeli tourists in Limassol Cyprus.
Israeli leaders wasted no time in pledging a "firm response" to the
outrageous terrorist atrocity. They cancelled all flights to several
popular tourist destinations, including Greece and Thailand, where
intelligence officials believe similar Iranian-linked atrocities might be
in the offing. Some analysts warned the foreign bus bombing could soon be
matched by a new wave of similar attacks inside of Israel, where dozens of
buses were targeted by Palestinian suicide bombers between September 2000
and February 2004, leaving hundreds of Israelis dead and many more
seriously wounded.
The latest terrorist assault came on the eve of the Muslim fasting month
of Ramadan, when violent attacks often escalate in the region. Ramadan
coincides this year with the Jewish month of Av, marked by the fast on the
ninth of the month (July 28th this year) which marks the
destruction of the first and second Jerusalem temples and other disasters
that have marred Jewish history over the centuries.
The horrendous homicide bombing also came just hours after the crumbling
Syrian Assad regime suffered a massive setback in the escalating armed
conflict engulfing the Arab country. Anti-government forces, believed to
have been Muslim Brotherhood agents, audaciously planted a powerful bomb
inside the national security headquarters building in the capital city,
Damascus, killing the Syrian Defense Minister and his deputy, the
brother-in-law of besieged Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. Other senior
government and military officials were killed or wounded in the bomb blast.
With fighting raging all over Damascus and much of the rest of the country
and senior military defections continuing, rumors abounded that Assad
himself had either been wounded or slain, or had fled the Syrian capital
for the Mediterranean coast where his Muslim Alawite sect, related to
Shiite Islam, has its stronghold.
Ominously, the embattled regime quickly put out a statement blaming
Israel and the United States for being behind the deadly bombing, implying
it might have either been carried out by Israeli agents or Saudis backed by
America. The jarring accusation of possible Israeli involvement prompted
Israeli security leaders to hold emergency discussions about the
possibility of imminent aggression being launched against Israel by the
disintegrating Assad regime. Weekend army leave was cancelled for many IDF
soldiers¡ªa clear message to the public that a major conflict is possibly
at hand.
After the Bulgaria attack, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak quickly
toured the northern Golan Heights border with Syria, warning that the
government will not allow the heavily-armed Hizbullah militia to transfer
weapons from Syria into Lebanon. He later told reporters he has ordered
preparations for possible IDF action to prevent such transfers from taking
place¡ªseen by many as another warning of possibly pending war. This came
soon after major defense drills were carried out in Haifa and the Tel Aviv
area simulating enemy chemical attacks.
Barak also stated that the Russian-backed Syrian regime is nearing its
end. Israeli leaders worry that Assad may seek to take Israel down with
him, or at least engulf the Jewish State in a serious conflict that might
act to deter an IDF strike against Assad¡¯s main regional ally, Iran. How
the Kremlin¡ªwhich angered Sunni Arab and Western leader by vetoing yet
another UN resolution against the Assad regime last week while rapidly
reinforcing Russia¡¯s naval presence in the area¡ªmight react to a Syrian
and/or Hizbullah attack upon Israel, or an Israeli strike against Hizbullah
and/or Syria, is anyone¡¯s guess.
The deadly bomb blasts in Bulgaria and Syria came two days after US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Israel to meet with senior
officials. After holding discussions with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
in Jerusalem, she stated that the Obama administration is fully committed
to Israel¡¯s security and remains strongly opposed to Iran¡¯s threatening
nuclear production program. This came as news reports said additional
American military forces and equipment are being rushed to the Gulf region,
including crew-less mine-destroying mini submarines.
Before arriving at Ben Gurion airport, the senior US diplomat met with
new Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi¡ªthe first-ever top level American
contact with a leader of the militant Muslim Brotherhood group that
parented the radical Palestinian Hamas movement in 1988. However Clinton
also expressed continuing support for the Egyptian military, closely allied
with the United States since 1978. Mursi has been trying to legally
reinstate the Islamist-controlled parliament suspended in June by the
military¡¯s ruling council while resisting the council¡¯s attempts to
prevent his movement from overseeing the writing of a new Egyptian
constitution. In Israel, intelligence officers said the IDF has thwarted
over ten terror attacks in recent months from the Egyptian-controlled Sinai
Peninsula.
While the turbulent tremors shook the tense region, the new Israeli
"national unity" government fell apart after the centrist Kadima party
withdrew from the broad coalition in mid-July, just ten weeks after its
formation. Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz pulled his party, the largest in the
Knesset, out of the unity coalition after he failed to come to agreement
with Prime Minister Netanyahu over the conscription of Orthodox Hassidic
Jews and Arab Israeli citizens into either national military or community
service (as if that was the most pressing matter facing Israel at present).
However some analysts speculated he may re-join the government if Israel
becomes embroiled in a major new war. Several Kadima Knesset members want
to split away from the party and join the ruling Likud.
TERROR IN BULGARIA
As diplomatic relations soured with the Islamic nation of Turkey over
the past few years, Israeli tourists sought out other relatively close and
inexpensive vacation destinations. Several former Soviet-block Eastern
European countries and nearby Cyprus and Greece¡ªwhose ties have vastly
improved with the Jewish state in the same time period¡ªhave rapidly
replaced Turkey as preferred recreation stops. Among them is Bulgaria,
located due north of Turkey and Greece, whose Black Sea resorts have
especially become popular with young Israeli tourists. It was there, in the
coastal city of Burgas, that a suicide terrorist blew himself up on a
chartered bus at the local airport, pretending to be among the Israeli
tourists boarding it after arriving on Air Bulgaria flight 392, which had
taken off a couple hours before from Israel¡¯s Ben Gurion airport.
The attack left five Israelis dead, one of them a 43 year old pregnant
woman (so the death toll was actually six). Kochava Shriki, from the Tel
Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion, had finally gotten pregnant after years of
fertility treatments. She was traveling with her husband Yitzhak after
happily learning just that morning that she was with child. Her wounded
spouse desperately searched through the destroyed bus rubble for his wife,
only to learn one day later that Kochava and their unborn offspring were
among the murdered victims. The other four fatalities were all males in
their 20s. Itzik Colangi and his best friend Amir Menashe, from the city of
Petach Tikva ("Portal of Hope" in Hebrew) near Tel Aviv, had traveled with
their spouses to Bulgaria four months after Colangi¡¯s wife Gilat gave
birth to their first (and now only) child. The widowed mother was severely
wounded in the attack. The two male friends were slaughtered while packing
their luggage onto the bus. Menashe¡¯s widow, who was more lightly wounded,
gave birth to the couple¡¯s first (and now only) son ten months ago.
The two other fatalities, Elior Price and Maor Harosh, grew up together
in the coastal city of Acre (ancient Acco), north of Haifa. Price was a
student and Harosh an electrician. The bachelors had gone on vacation with
another close friend, Daniel Fahima, who was severely wounded in the
vicious terrorist bombing. Tourism Minister Stas Meseznikov spoke at a late
night army ceremony at Ben Gurion one day after the slain tourists had
happily departed from the airport on a chartered vacation airplane. As the
coffins were carried off the military plane that fettered them home to
their final resting places, he told grieving relatives and close friends
that the victim¡¯s "only mistake was that they were Israelis. They were not
randomly targeted."
American FBI security agents rapidly joined their Israeli and Bulgarian
counterparts in investigating the July 18 terrorist atrocity after it
emerged that police had found an American drivers license (later said to be
forged) from the state of Michigan on the dismembered body of the homicide
attacker. Sporting long blond hair under a baseball cap and wearing
sunglasses, the terrorist had earlier been recorded by security cameras
wandering around the outer areas of the busy airport. He was dressed in
summer shorts and sporting a backpack like any typical young Western
tourist¡ªapparently waiting for the scheduled flight from Tel Aviv to
arrive. Investigators later said the perpetrator possibly had a nearby
accomplice who set off the explosion by phoning a rigged mobile phone
located inside the terrorist¡¯s backpack.
Security officials said the suicide bomber was "Caucasian" in
appearance, confirmed by the video recordings. However subsequent
examinations of his remains revealed he had been wearing a wig, with his
actual hair being short and much darker. However he also had light skin and
blue eyes (a British newspaper later reported Iranian agents have recruited
a number of Caucasian converts to Islam to carry out such attacks in
Europe). Just seconds after boarding the bus, the powerful explosive charge
was set off, killing nearby Israelis and the Bulgarian bus driver and
wounding over thirty other passengers, several critically. Hours after the
heinous assault, American President Barack Obama phoned PM Netanyahu to
express his disgust with what he termed "this barbaric attack" upon Israeli
civilian tourists, offering both his condolences for the victims and their
families and US government assistance "to bring to justice the perpetrators
of this attack."
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov expressed outrage over the
assault on his sovereign soil, calling upon Israeli tourists not to allow
the massacre to deter future visits to his friendly country. However
Israeli government officials quickly suspended all outgoing flights to the
country, along with scheduled flights to Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Serbia,
South Africa and Thailand, citing specific intelligence information that
further attacks were possible in each of those countries. Some analysts
said the unprecedented move was probably also quietly designed to alert
vacationing Israeli reserve soldiers to come home, and possibly also to
reduce the number of foreign tourists coming to Israel with a major
conflict possibly pending. Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev later told
reporters that the Israeli Mossad security agency had not issued any
advance warnings that a terrorist operation could be imminent in his
country.
IRAN AND HIZBULLAH ARE RESPONSIBLE
Noting it was exactly 18 years to the day when Iranian backed Hizbullah
agents carried out the deadliest ever terror attack upon Jews in the modern
era¡ªslaughtering 85 people when an explosives-laden van crashed into a
Jewish community center in the Argentinean city of Buenos Aires¡ªIsraeli
officials quickly pointed the finger of responsibility at Hizbullah and its
main sponsor, Iran. Although both Shiite entities denied they were behind
the suicide assault, Israeli officials said they possessed solid evidence
to the contrary. They noted that local police in India, Georgia and
Thailand had irrefutably linked Iranian and Hizbullah agents to terrorist
assaults in those countries last February, while other Iranian-backed
terrorist plots against Israeli targets were recently uncovered in Kenya
and Cyprus (a Swedish citizen of Lebanese descent is being held in custody
in Cyprus after he was arrested mid-month while casing sites frequented by
Israeli tourists). The Prime Minister¡¯s office later revealed that no less
than 20 Iranian-backed plots to attack Israelis abroad had been uncovered
over the past year.
Officials also pointed to public pledges by Iranian and Hizbullah
leaders to avenge the killings of a senior Hizbullah military leader in
Damascus in 2008 and the subsequent deaths of several Iranian nuclear
scientists. Of course, Israel might well have been behind those killings,
especially in Iran, but if so, agents were targeting men who were openly
working to harm, if not destroy, the Jewish State. The victims in Bulgaria
were all tourists, including pregnant women and children.
Within hours of the terrorist assault, Prime Minister Netanyahu issued a
statement saying "All the signs point to Iran. Only in the past few months,
we have seen Iranian attempts to attack Israelis in Thailand, India,
Georgia, Kenya, Cyprus and other places." He added the attack in Bulgaria
"is an Iranian terror campaign that is spreading throughout the world."
More to the point, he vowed that "Israel will react powerfully against
Iranian terror." Knesset opposition leader Shelly Yechimovich condemned
"the murderous terror attack" in Bulgaria, agreeing with Netanyahu that
"There is no doubt the instability in the region is spawned by Iran, aiming
especially for Israelis and Jews throughout the world." She also noted that
"Israeli security forces have succeeded in preventing several attempted
attacks targeted at Israeli travelers in recent months."
Defense Minister Ehud Barak focused more upon the Lebanese Hizbullah
militia rather than its patron Iran as the address for a possible military
reply to the deadly attack. The morning after the slaughter took place, he
pointedly flew by military helicopter to inspect IDF frontline positions
along the northern Golan Heights border with Syria, whose embattled regime
is closely linked to both Hizbullah and Iran. He warned Israel would not
allow Syrian refugees to cross the border, nor the Hizbullah militia to
smuggle weapons from Syria into Lebanon. This seemed to confirm an earlier
Israeli Channel 10 news report which included video of powerful SCUD
missiles being transferred from Damascus to two military bases outside the
capital city. The report said the missiles belonged to Hizbullah, which was
said to be increasingly concerned the weapons, purchased with Iranian
money, might fall under the control of anti-Assad Syrian forces led by the
Muslim Brotherhood. The report added that Israeli government officials
warned Hizbullah via third parties they would order military aircraft to
interdict any attempt to smuggle the missiles, which can carry chemical
warheads, into Lebanon.
Israeli President Shimon Peres issued an unusually blunt statement
against Iran in the wake of the Bulgarian atrocity. He warned the Shiite
clerical regime that Israel "has the means and the will to silence and
paralyze terror organizations." The elderly statesman added that, "We were
witnesses to a deadly terror attack coming out of Iran. We know there were
other attempts, only this time they succeeded." In apparent response to
this and similar comments from Israeli government officials, a leading
Iranian cleric threatened on July 22 that Tel Aviv will be targeted if any
IDF action is directed at Iran or its allies.
Although Israeli leaders are certain Iran and its Shiite Lebanese
surrogate force were behind the tourist bus bombing, most Israeli security
analysts said they do not expect a major IDF military operation in direct
response to the attack (the deteriorating situation in Syria is another
matter). Instead, they anticipate Mossad and other Israeli security
agencies will step up the covert campaign to thwart further assaults upon
Israelis traveling or living abroad, and also probably ramp up their
undeclared surreptitious efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring or building
nuclear weapons. However all note that, with the situation on the edge of a
precipice in this roiling region, it would not take much more at present to
spark off a fullscale conflict with Hizbullah, Syria and/or Iran. Most say
the conflict raging in Syria is the wild card in the equation, enhanced by
the jarring fact that the Hamas movement¡¯s patron is now in control of the
Egyptian government in Cairo¡ªall of this unimaginable just two years
ago
POSSIBLE IDF ATTACK LOOMING AGAINST SYRIA
During a July 20 interview on Channel 2, Defense Minister Barak revealed
that he has ordered IDF planners to prepare for an attack upon Syria¡¯s
huge weapons stockpiles. "Syria has advanced anti-aircraft missiles,
surface-to-surface missiles and elements of chemical weapons. I directed
the IDF to prepare for a situation where we will need to consider the
possibility of an attack." Some saw his jarring comments as an indirect
warning to the Israeli public to get ready for an increasingly likely war
in the coming days or weeks. Subsequent Israeli media reports said Syria
recently test-fired chemical-tipped missiles aimed at Israel, Jordan and
Turkey.
Earlier, the New York Times reported that Barak had spoken to US
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta about the possibility of a joint strike
against Syria¡¯s huge chemical weapons arsenal, but Panetta thought it
would only serve to further inflame the region. Israel is deeply concerned
that such weapons could either be transferred to Hizbullah or fall under
Sunni Muslim fundamentalist control, who could then funnel some of them to
Hamas as happened with some of Libya¡¯s large weapons arsenal after Col.
Gaddafi was violently overthrown, with NATO assistance, last year.
During his previously unscheduled northern tour, Barak said it was
imperative for the Israeli public to not allow terror attacks like the one
in Bulgaria interrupt their normal daily lives. "In my view, it¡¯s of the
utmost importance that we do not lose our stamina, nor the ability to
understand that we have to live." The veteran politician and former
military leader added that it is "important that Israelis continue to
travel in the world, continue to travel in Israel, and continue to live
their normal lives despite all the pain." Speaking at the following Sunday
morning weekly cabinet meeting, PM Netanyahu noted how "heartbreaking" it
had been to watch television coverage of the five funerals conducted the
previous Friday. This came after he phoned President Obama to express
Israel¡¯s condolences over the tragic loss of life when a deranged gunman
opened fire at a crowed movie theater outside of Denver.
WARFARE SPREADS TO DAMASCUS
Just hours before the atrocious bomb blast in Bulgaria, a massive
explosion rocked the military headquarters building in the Syrian capital
city of Damascus. The blast left Defense Minister Daoud Rajha dead, along
with former Defense Minister and senior military official General Hassan
Turkmani. Syrian dictator Bashar Assad¡¯s brother-in-law and close aid,
Assef Shawkat, was also slain in the unprecedented attack. The country¡¯s
wounded intelligence chief died in hospital two days later. Syria¡¯s
Interior Minister and several other senior officials were also seriously
injured. In summary, the attack was a massive blow to the Assad regime that
many said spells its imminent end.
When President Assad failed to appear on television in the hours (and
later days) after the deadly bombing, rumors began to swirl that he too was
among the dead and wounded. With chaotic warfare now gripping the capital
city and the entire country, including for the first time the largest city
and financial capital, Allepo, near Turkey, the unsettling reports could
not be confirmed. An unnamed senior Israeli Defense official, thought by
many to be Ehud Barak, told reporters the deadly bomb attack was a "major
regional earthquake" that measured "seven on the Richter scale." Earlier in
the month, the son of former Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass, Brig. Gen.
Manaf Tlass¡ªa close friend of Bashar Assad¡ªdefected to France, dealing a
significant blow to the tottering regime. Many other military leaders fled
the country as the month wore on. Another defection was Syria¡¯s ambassador
to Iraq, who like Tlass is a Sunni Muslim.
Slain Syrian Defense Minister Rajha was born into a Syrian Orthodox
Christian family, the most senior Christian member of Assad¡¯s cabinet. His
death enhanced growing alarm in the Arab country¡¯s significant Christian
community (which comprises about 10% of Syria¡¯s 22 million citizens) that
the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood-led revolt against the Assad regime will end
up harming their security. They fear any new government that replaces the
Assad regime will reflect the anti-Christian Muslim fundamentalism now
engorged in Egypt. Even before the Damascus attack, many Syrian Christians
had been fleeing the intensifying warfare in their country, as hundred of
thousands earlier did in neighboring Iraq (with a majority of Christian
refugees choosing not to return to the post-war country, now "ruled" by
feuding Shiite and Sunni politicians). As was the case under Saddam
Hussein, the Assad regime¡ªcomprised mainly of members of the minority
Alawite Muslim sect¡ªofficially allows freedom of religion in Syria, with
Christians there saying they have indeed enjoyed such freedom over the past
few decades. They reportedly fear their embattled country will soon split
up into rival sectarian Muslim components, as earlier occurred in Lebanon
and Iraq.
July saw the heaviest fighting so far in the 17-month-old Syrian Sunni
Muslim uprising. Hundreds perished every day, with the death tool now
nearing 20,000. Just three days before the Damascus bombing, the Red Cross
officially declared the conflict a "civil war," meaning both the regime and
opposition forces are now subject to the "rules of warfare" spelled out in
the Geneva Convention.
The Red Cross statement came as United Nations observers investigated
the latest mass killing in the war-torn country, which took place in the
village of Tremseh earlier in the month, leaving dozens dead. A subsequent
UN report said Syrian troops went door-to-door in the small farming
community, checking ID¡¯s before shooting dead some of the residents and
arresting others. However unlike earlier large-scale slaughters, the UN
said the attack¡ªwhich it said left "pools of blood and brain matter in a
number of homes"¡ªmainly targeted Syrian army defectors and anti-regime
activists, meaning most of the victims were adult males. Syrian officials
denied UN claims that government forces employed tanks, artillery and
attack helicopters during the July 12 attack, but eyewitnesses said
otherwise. Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi maintained the attack
"was not a massacre" as many media outlets reported, but instead a
"military operation targeting armed fighters" who had taken control of the
village.
Soon after the seismic bombing in the heart of Damascus, rebel forces
took control of all border crossings along the Syrian border with Iraq,
which means they can insure a free flow of weapons from Sunni Muslim
supporters located there and beyond. Israeli analysts said the dramatic
captures indicated the Syrian army is rapidly disintegrating, with
remaining loyal regime forces being rushed to Damascus and other major
cities now under rebel siege. They worry that the intensifying conflict
might spark off major clashes inside Iraq between Shiite militias that
support the Assad regime and Sunni Muslims that tend to support it. The
conflict could easily also directly involve Shiite Iran, which has
Revolutionary Guards already operating inside Syria in support of the
regime, and spread to Lebanon, Jordan and/or Turkey, which all received
thousands of additional refugees fleeing the growing warfare during the
month.
Naturally enough, the greatest concern in Jerusalem is that the
crumbling, but massively armed, Assad regime might lash out at Israel
before surrendering to Sunni-led Muslim forces backed by Saudi Arabia and
other Sunni Arab countries. Israeli analysts note that Hizbullah¡¯s current
control of much of Lebanon would be seriously jeopardized if the Assad
regime is successfully deposed, as seems increasingly likely, if not
imminent. Iran would lose its main frontline ally along Israel¡¯s borders,
and Hamas would lose one of its most important patrons in the region. All
that to say, Assad and his allies¡ªominously including Russia and North
Korea¡ªmight band together to support the embattled regime by backing or
participating in a military strike upon Israel, and possibly NATO member
Turkey and Jordan as well. The Kremlin would not be expected to join in any
regional attack, but would probably not prevent it either. Some Israeli
analysts said while Iran and Hizbullah denied responsibility for the terror
attack in Bulgaria, they left enough evidence to make it clear they were in
fact the perpetrators. Just as the two world wars began in Europe (the
first with an assassination in Austria), some warned that Iran and its
allies might be attempting to spark off a worldwide conflict centered this
time in the Middle East.
Indeed, in a speech delivered by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to mark the
beginning of Ramadan, the overall Iranian clerical leader declared that
Muslims everywhere must prepare for war since "we are now living in the end
of times." He predicted the imminent return of the Imam Madhi, a medieval
religious leader that many Shiites, including Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, believe will reappear in the last days of this era to convert
the world to Shiite Islam. Most portentously, he is expected to emerge in
the midst of massive regional conflict and upheaval that leaves a third of
earth¡¯s population dead. All "infidels" who resist his rule will be slain,
especially Christians and Jews. Speaking during Friday Muslim prayer
services on July 20, Khamenei proclaimed that "The issue of Imam Mahdi is
of utmost importance, and his reappearance has been clearly stated in our
holy religion of Islam. We must study and remind ourselves of the end of
times and Imam Mahdi¡¯s era, and prepare the environment for the
coming so that the great leader will come." In other words, Iran must bring
the region and wider world to massive warfare in order to fulfill the
Shiite "prophecy."
In reality, Israel and its allies and Iran and its surrogates have
already been at war for many years. The extremist Iranian theocratic
regime, not Israel, initiated the intensifying conflict, now possibly
coming to a climax, vowing decades ago to destroy both the "Great Satan"
America and the "Little Satan" Israel. With the region now violently
quaking and much more apparently just ahead, it is gratifying to recall
that Israel¡¯s anointed Messiah¡ªnot some Shiite Muslim Imam¡ªwill
ultimately govern the world from Jerusalem, ruling with justice and
righteousness and bringing an end to all terror and war: "They will not
hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain. For the earth will be full of the
knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9).
