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Remember back in September of 2007 when Israel conducted a mysterious air raid in Syria and then had next to nothing to say about it? Remember how it was a short time afterward that rumors began to circulate that Israel had discovered that Syria, in conjunction with Axis of Evil member nation in good standing North Korea, was building a top secret nuclear facility in a remote area which was the target of that raid? Well, it seems the United States is now prepared to levy accusations that North Korea was indeed helping the Syrians build a nuclear reactor that could produce plutonium. Thus, the Israelis had little choice but to destroy it.
There has been some concern on the part of Israel that, if the Bush administration lays out its case before U.S. lawmakers as expected to occur today, it could push Syria and Israel to the brink of a very dangerous confrontation. Perhaps this is why it is being reported that Israel, just as this is about to surface, is prepared to offer Syria the Golan Heights in return for a peace accord between the two.
According to a report, Israeli officials have declined to comment on the offer, but this potentially conveniently-leaked information "could be a sign of progress in back-channel contacts that the two nations have reported in recent days."
It's all a bit odd, isn't it?
Why would the Bush administration publicly trot out information connecting Syria and North Korea attempting to manufacture weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, raising tensions in what is already a tense environment between Israel and Syria wherein each has recently speculated that the other may be preparing to attack?
This is pure conjecture on my part but could it be that all of this is being carefully orchestrated to put pressure on both Israel and Syria to come to peace with one another and resolve their long-standing conflict concerning the Golan Heights? I think there's an excellent possibility this is the case and perhaps there is even more to all of this than we have yet conceived.
A bit of speculation
If the Bush administration, via Israel, has the goods on Syria and North Korea working together in the construction of a nuclear production facility that Israel was forced to destroy in September of last year, it's a great time for Syria, purely as a counter-measure to these U.S. allegations of course, to be receptive to talking peace with Israel.
If what President Bush has said concerning there being a reasonable chance that a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be agreed upon before the end of 2008, one could easily speculate that this disclosure of Syrian-North Korean nuclear cooperation could be, in a diplomatic sense, one cog of a much bigger diplomatic machine, all of its gears spinning as fast as possible in an effort to conclude its work soon with no loose strings left untied that could unravel its progress made toward the seemingly unattainable end result of peace coming to the Middle East.
A lot has been going on lately, none of which by itself seems to be of extraordinary significance. Viewed as a whole, however, it certainly seems that something of a prophetic nature may be in the works, potentially to be realized very soon.
Along with the rumors of Israel offering the Golan Heights in return for peace, the Bush administration and members of the European Union's diplomatic corps suggesting a negotiated peace could be reached before the end of this year and one other element - Hamas, for the first time in history as Joel Rosenberg has been reporting, suggesting "not a comprehensive peace deal in perpetuity, but a peace treaty of a short and specific time frame" - and we have a lot of prophetic potential on the table right now! A lot!
Many, many times people have asked me how I thought a peace covenant such as the one described in Daniel 9:27, which will lead to the advent of the Antichrist, could ever be tabled because peace treaties don't tend to be limited to a set number of years. Peace treaties or covenants are, after all, negotiated to be permanent in duration. Don't look now but we may be getting at least a hint as to how a seven-year covenant "with many" may eventually come to pass through this latest development.
A lot is going on - and on multiple fronts - pointing toward the return of Jesus Christ for His Church drawing nearer by the second. Even though that has been true ever since Christ ascended to the right hand of the Father, we can now take our Bible out and, increasingly it seems, sit it beside the daily newspaper and draw connections that are both plentiful and wholly complimentary to the prophecies contained within it. Amazing, in my opinion.
Soon, I have to believe with all my heart, those of us who have placed our faith in Him are going to see Jesus Christ face-to-face. At least I hope so.Keep the faith!
