Another mortar has fallen into Turkish territory, and Turkey is even more incensed now. Turkey is a member of NATO. NATO nations are allied by treaty and must come to each other’s defense if attacked. The Lebanon Daily Star reports this afternoon, “Israel says Syrian mortar strike was attack on NATO. Says attack on one NATO member attack on all“
“PARIS: Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor said on Thursday a deadly Syrian mortar strike on a Turkish town had to be considered an attack on a member of the NATO alliance. Israel is technically at war with Damascus and occupies the Golan Heights that it seized in the 1967 war and later annexed, but it has generally taken a cautious line on the uprising in its Arab neighbour. “One has to say that according to the NATO treaty, it was an attack on a member of NATO, and that means France,” Meridor told reporters during a visit to Paris, referring to France’s membership of NATO. Syria and Israel have not exchanged fire in three decades, and a parliamentary briefing in July by the Israeli armed forces chief about the risk of “uncontrollable deterioration” in Syria were interpreted by local media as a caution against opening a new fighting front with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.”
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As reaction to the Presidential candidate debate last night, The Washington Times reports,
HURT: Obama the debater: Making Jimmy Carter look awesome
“Bewildered and lost without his teleprompter, President Obama flailed all around the debate stage last night. He was stuttering, nervous and petulant. It was like he had been called in front of the principal after goofing around for four years and blowing off all his homework.”
It is so interesting to see what the Lord has in store for us here in America through these next weeks and months (Until January’s inauguration). Which king will he set up for us? Which King will he take down? How will we give an account to Him, individually, for our decisions?
It is also interesting to see the Lord’s work in the Middle East. This past June, Syria downed a Turkish jet. Turkey was angry and with their hair-trigger, almost retaliated militarily. NATO and the UN calmed Turkey down. The Reuters article about the June incident opened this way:
“Syria shot down a Turkish warplane over the Mediterranean on Friday and Ankara warned it would respond decisively to the incident that threatened to open a new international dimension in the 16-month revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Syria said the Turkish aircraft was flying low, well inside Syrian territorial waters when it was shot down. With the second biggest army in NATO, a force hardened by nearly 30 years of fighting Kurdish rebels, Turkey would be a formidable foe for the Syrian army which is already struggling to put down a 16-month-old revolt.”
Always remember that. Turkey has the 2nd largest military in NATO, after America. They are hardened from fighting Kurds in the desert and they are less and less secular as each year goes on. The country is Muslim.
Then yesterday Syria shot mortars into Turkey. The spill-over of the revolution in Syria has affected Turkish citizens along the border. Turkey had been wary these last two years of the Syrian unrest, and then became inflamed ever since the June jet incident. The Turkish Parliament and the President became incensed after the shelling crossed into Turkey this weekend, and have been consistently retaliating.
The BBC reports, “Turkey’s territory has been hit by fire from Syria on several occasions since the uprising against Mr Assad began, but Wednesday’s incident was the most serious…. The Turkish parliament is discussing authorising troops to cross into Syria. But government sources say Turkey is not planning to declare war on Syria. … Nato has held an urgent meeting to support Turkey, demanding “the immediate cessation of such aggressive acts against an ally”. The US, the UK and the European Union have already condemned Syria’s actions.”
In Isaiah 17 it is prophesied that Damascus is destroyed in one night, Poof, it’s done, razed to the ground and uninhabitable. The rest of Syria becomes desolate. It is interesting that the prophecy doesn’t say how Syria becomes desolate, nor who does it. It could be Israel, making sure that chemical weapons don’t get released into the hands of Hezbollah. It could be the rebels themselves, on purpose or accidentally. It could be Turkey, now that we see this new tension. We just don’t know how it happens. Some have speculated that Damascus’s demise happens via nuclear bomb, because what other weapon can raze a thriving, ancient city of 3 million so quickly and so permanently? On the other hand, maybe it will be a ‘natural’ incident, like an earthquake. With the current tension in the area ongoing, we just don’t know the details or the timing. Only the results. And that is what makes it so unbearable.
In the Gog Magog war prophesied by Ezekiel in chapters 37-38, Turkey is one of the participants which take part in a surprise attack on Israel. Other nations in the military alliance are Russia, Iran, and parts of northern Africa, including Libya, Ethiopia, and Sudan. Syria is not mentioned in that battle, nor are they mentioned in the Psalm 83 war. It is therefore thought that the prophecy about Syria’s destruction prophesied in Isaiah 17 had already come about. It is thought that something has to happen to ally these disparate nations, which are enemies now (Russia is on Syria’s side and has asked that Turkey remain neutral in this latest cross-border military incident.)
But something has to change to make these nations that are culturally and religiously opposed, come together and attack their common enemy, Israel.
In the Middle East, Turkey and Iran are the two powerhouses, each with a different flavor of Islam and each vying for top dog status in the region. Just because they are Muslim, or are neighbors, does not make them friends. They have their cultural differences, internal and external skirmishes, and ego-driven needs, too.
The region was already stressed to the max from the Arab Spring, a shift from the US to China for world’s dominating superpower, and internal unrest they have had to deal with. The tectonic plates of geo-political power have been shifting under their feet (as well as ours) and they are trying to deal with a new world order that is being formed before our eyes. That is why I say it is so interesting to see what the Lord is doing.
In the region, the trigger fingers of each President or Leader already itching. The Turkey-Syria shelling deepens the tension to a degree I feel is worth noting. If things were teetering before, this incident pushed it to crazy teetering.
The Jerusalem Post reports this morning, “Turkey strikes back at Syria, vows to protect its borders.”
“Ankara seeks parliamentary approval for foreign military operations after a mortar shell kills five in Turkish border town; NATO ambassadors meet to discuss the threat to a member state.”
Please continue to pray for our Christian friends in the affected regions. Also pray for the lost over there, who are close their eternal destiny of death and separation from Jesus forever every day. The area is going to erupt any moment, and we will see (or not see, if the rapture comes first) Isaiah 17 lived out, and Damascus destroyed. Psalm 83 lived out, and Israel victorious. Perhaps we will even see the beginning of the Gog Magog battle, should the Lord tarry.
Though times are stressful and tense, we do rejoice that the Lord is in control. It is all happening exactly as He said it would, lo those thousands of years ago!
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