Media Ezekiel 38 Prophecy coming to pass? Syria and Russia vs. Israel

Samstwitch

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The video above deals with Bible Prophecy in Ezekiel 38. It foretells that "Gog", the modern Russia, and surrounding countries will come against Israel in the Last Days. It says "I will put hooks in your jaws [Gog] and bring you out with your whole army..." (Ezekiel 38:4)

The hooks in the jaws of Gog that draws Russia into a war against Israel may very well be the conflict that is now occurring between Israel and Syria. Russia stands behind Syria and is providing them with weapons to use against Israel. Israel is defending itself from being attacked. That puts the hooks in the jaws of Gog (Russia) that will eventually bring Russia against Israel. If this event leads to the Prophecy in Ezekiel 38, then Russia will be joined by other countries named in the Bible by their old names (Syria, Iran, Turkey, Ethiopia, Libya - all Islamic countries that hate Israel) that surround Israel, as the Prophecy says.

To watch an in-depth Video on the Prophecy of Ezekiel 38, visit this Website: Gog-Magog War of Ezekiel 38 / 39

Here is today's Breaking News that could be related to this Prophecy:

Israel warns Russia against giving Syria missiles

May 28, 2013 - JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's defense chief said Tuesday a Russian plan to supply sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles to Syria was a "threat" and signaled that Israel is prepared to use force to stop the delivery.

The warning by Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon ratcheted up tensions with Moscow over the planned sale of S-300 air-defense missiles to Syria. Earlier in the day, a top Russian official said his government remained committed to the deal.

Israel has been lobbying Moscow to halt the sale, fearing the missiles would upset the balance of power in the region and could slip into the hands of hostile groups, including the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, a close ally of the Syrian regime.

Israel has carried out several airstrikes in Syria in recent months that are believed to have destroyed weapons shipments bound for Hezbollah. Israel has not confirmed carrying out the attacks.

The delivery of the Russian missiles to Syria could limit the Israeli air force's ability to act. It is not clear whether Israeli warplanes entered Syrian airspace in these attacks.

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Russia to discuss the Syrian situation with President Vladimir Putin. The sides have said little about the talks, but the S-300s were believed to have been on the agenda.

"Clearly this move is a threat to us," Yaalon told reporters Tuesday when asked about the planned Russian sale.

"At this stage I can't say there is an escalation. The shipments have not been sent on their way yet. And I hope that they will not be sent," he said. But "if God forbid they do reach Syria, we will know what to do."

Since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011, Israel repeatedly has voiced concerns that Syria's sophisticated arsenal, including chemical weapons, could either be transferred to Hezbollah, a bitter enemy of Israel, or fall into the hands of rebels battling Syrian President Bashar Assad. The rebels include al-Qaida-affiliated groups that Israel believes could turn their attention toward Israel if they topple Assad.

Syria already possesses Russian-made air defenses, and Israel is believed to have used long-distance bombs fired from Israeli or Lebanese airspace. The S-300s would expand Syria's capabilities, allowing it to counter airstrikes launched from foreign airspace as well.

In Moscow, Russia's deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, wouldn't say whether Russia has shipped any of the S-300s, which have a range of up to 200 kilometers (125 miles) and the capability to track and strike multiple targets simultaneously. But he insisted that Moscow isn't going to abandon the deal despite strong Western and Israeli criticism.

"We understand the concerns and signals sent to us from different capitals. We realize that many of our partners are concerned about the issue," Ryabkov said. "We have no reason to revise our stance."

He said the missiles could be a deterrent against foreign intervention in Syria and would not be used against Syrian rebels, who do not have an air force.

"We believe that such steps to a large extent help restrain some 'hotheads' considering a scenario to give an international dimension to this conflict," he said.

Russia has been the key ally of the Syrian regime, protecting it from United Nations sanctions and providing it with weapons despite the civil war there that has claimed over 70,000 lives.

In any case, an open confrontation between Israel and Russia would seem to be months away. Russian military analysts say it would take at least one year for Syrian crews to learn how to operate the S-300s, and the training will involve a live drill with real ammunition at a Russian shooting range. There has been no evidence that any such training has begun.

If Russia were to deliver the missiles to Syria, Israeli and Western intelligence would likely detect the shipment, and Israel would have ample time to strike before the system is deployed.

Ryabkov's statement came a day after European Union's decision to lift an arms embargo against Syrian rebels. He criticized the EU decision, saying it would help fuel the conflict.

Israel's defense chief spoke at an annual civil defense drill to prepare for missile attacks on Israel. This year's exercise comes at a time of heightened concerns that Israel could be dragged into the Syrian civil war.

A number of mortar shells from the fighting in Syria have landed in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. While Israel believes most of the fire has been errant, it has accused Syria of firing intentionally at Israeli targets on several occasions, and last week the sides briefly exchanged fire.

Israel's civil defense chief, Home Front Minister Gilad Erdan, said this week's drill was not specifically connected to the tensions with Syria.

"But of course we must take into consideration that something like that might happen in the near future because of what we see in Syria, and because we know that chemical weapons exist in Syria and might fall to the hands of radical Muslim terror groups," he said.
 

Samstwitch

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Syrian Rocket.jpg

A look at the main Syria developments

Here are the main developments in the Syria crisis:

DIPLOMACY

— A day after the EU allows individual member states to send arms to Syrian rebels, British Foreign Secretary William Hague says his country won't do so until diplomacy has been given a chance. The U.S. and Russia are trying to launch Syria peace talks at a conference in Geneva, possibly next month. Britain and France pushed for lifting the EU arms embargo because they believe a threat to arm the rebels can be used to get Syrian President Bashar Assad to negotiate in Geneva in good faith.

— Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says the EU's decision is illegitimate and undermines the idea of the Geneva conference.

— Syria's Foreign Ministry says the EU decision makes a mockery of international efforts to reach a political solution.

— U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell says Washington welcomes the EU decision as a show of support for the Syrian opposition and as a message to the Assad regime that such support will only grow. He says the Obama administration will continue to provide non-lethal assistance to the rebels but hasn't made a decision on whether to arm them.

RUSSIAN MISSILES

— Russia's deputy foreign minister says Moscow won't abandon plans to sell advanced S-300 anti-missile defense systems to Syria. It is not clear if Russia has already sent any of the missiles, which would boost for Syria's air defense capabilities, including against neighboring countries that oppose Assad's regime.

— Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon suggests Israel would be prepared to attack such missile shipments, saying they pose a threat and that the Israeli military "will know what to do" if they are delivered. Earlier this month, Israeli airstrikes hit suspected shipments of Iranian missiles in Syria that were purportedly intended for Assad ally Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia.

— Britain and Russia trade accusations of hypocrisy over the potential weapons shipments.

— The State Department condemns Moscow's decision.

REBELS

— Gen. Salim Idris, the commander of the main Western-backed umbrella group of rebel brigades, tells The Associated Press he urgently needs Western anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to prevent further regime gains on the battlefield. He says he is disappointed by the EU's apparent decision not to send weapons, if at all, until after the Geneva conference.

— Idris says his fighters could lose control of the strategic town of Qusair in western Syrian in coming days unless he gets weapons quickly. He says thousands of Hezbollah fighters are participating in an offensive against Qusair that began May 19, and that his fighters are outnumbered by more than 3 to 1.

SYRIA/LEBANON

— Gunmen kill three Lebanese soldiers in a drive-by shooting at a government checkpoint near the Syrian border. Sectarian clashes tied to Syria's war have broken out with increasing regularity in Lebanon, while rockets fired from across the frontier have struck Lebanese border villages. Lebanon's president says the attack is meant to "sow civil strife" in Lebanon.

— Idris says Hezbollah has sent thousands of gunmen from Lebanon to Syria to fight alongside Assad's forces and now poses the main threat to the rebels. He says the international community must stop the influx of Hezbollah fighters. He says that if Hezbollah is not kept out of Syria, rebel fighters may well start attacking Hezbollah bases in Lebanon, overriding his standing order.
 

Samstwitch

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Update! If true, this is good news. Hopefully it will delay a possible nuclear war. But it could also be a ploy to bide time.

Putin: Russia hasn't sent S-300 missiles to Syria, won't to preserve 'stability'

Russia has changed its story, yet again, about its intention to fulfill a 3-year old contract to sell "game-changing" S-300 advanced air defense systems to the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. Now the answer is "no."

In direct contradiction to what top Russian officials were saying just last week, President Vladimir Putin told European Union leaders at a summit in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg Tuesday that Russia has suspended the $900 million contract to supply six batteries and 144 long range, deadly-accurate surface-to-air missiles, in the interests of preserving stability in the turbulent Middle East.

"The S-300 systems are, really, one of the best air defense systems in the world, probably the best," Mr. Putin told the leaders, who included EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

"We do not want to disturb the balance in the region. The contract was signed several years ago. It has not yet been realized," Russian news media quoted Putin as saying.

Just last month Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Putin at his summer residence in Sochi and begged him not to supply the missiles to Syria. Mr. Netanyahu said the S-300s would threaten planes flying in Israeli airspace, though most experts say the real concern is that the missiles would deeply complicate the ability of Israel, and the US, to intervene in Syria's civil war using air power.

Coming out of that meeting, Putin offered no commitment either way, leaving the door open to weeks of speculation and clashing media reports about what was decided.

In the wake of the EU's decision last week to drop its arms embargo against Syria, opening the door to arms shipments to the rebels by Britain and France, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Rybakov insisted the S-300 sale would go ahead – for exactly the same reason Putin now says it has been halted – to preserve "stability" in the region.

"We believe [S-300 sales] are to a great extent restraining some ‘hot heads’ from considering scenarios in which the conflict may assume an international scale with the participation of outside forces," Mr. Rybakov said.

"We understand all the concerns and signals sent to us from various states. We see that this issue worries many of our partners. We have no reasons to reconsider our position in this sphere," he added.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu went further, telling journalists last week that Russia is now prepared to sell Syria not only "defensive" weapons like the S-300, but "offensive" ones like tactical missiles, tanks, and fighter planes as well.

Mr. Assad put in his own misleading two cent's worth, telling a Lebanese TV station that the Russians had firmly promised to supply him with the S-300s and suggesting that the first shipment of them might have already arrived in Damascus.

Experts say it now appears likely that Putin did, in fact, agree at that May meeting with Netanyahu to suspend S-300 deliveries to Syria. That's not unprecedented: His predecessor Dmitry Medvedev negotiated a secret deal with Netanyahu that led to Russia cutting off S-300 and other major weapons' exports to Iran in 2010.

"When will everybody learn that the main thing is to listen to what Putin says? He is the truth of the last instance in this country," says Alexander Sharavin, director of the independent Institute of Military and Political Analysis in Moscow.

"People can say all sorts of things, and maybe they have their sources, but there is only one person in Russia who can actually decide whether to deliver S-300s to Syria or not. We know this person's name. And he seems to have made his decision quite some time ago," even if he's only informing us of it now, he adds.
 

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