Jerusalem, Israel
JUNE 2013 PRAYER UPDATE
Israel and the Middle East
(Psalm 18:29-50; Psalm 46; Psalm 60:12;
Psalm 91, Matthew 24:6; Ephesians 6:10-19, Isaiah 51:5):
a)
Reportedly, the recent Israeli civil
defense exercise simulated massive missile barrages launched against populated
urban centers. This was a practice to see how the public would respond to the
possibility of missiles hitting anywhere in Israel, day or night, coming from
Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Gaza. A
majority of the public did not take the drill that seriously.
b)
There’s a “leverage” game going on among
the nations, which is part of the “brinkmanship” that is causing a high
military alert in Israel.
c)
The U.S. and Russia are supposed to be
conducting a peace conference in Geneva on the Syrian crisis sometime during
the month of June. They want to bring together Syrian President Bashar Assad’s
regime with the Syrian National Council to see if they can negotiate a deal to
end the two-year bloody war in Syria, which is now estimated to have killed almost
100,000 people and displaced more than 1.5 million throughout the Middle East.
d)
Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces
are murdering Sunni rebels and masses of people near the Homs city of Qusayr.
This is a city in western Syria located in the mountains near Lebanon. Obtaining
control of this Alawite stronghold will give Assad the ability to continue his
rule in part of Syria, while also allowing Iran to continue to supply him with
weapons. These weapons could then flow to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran needs this
corridor to be open in order to hold on to a Shiite arc of control in the
Middle East.
e)
Meanwhile, the Europeans cancelled an
arms embargo, allowing countries such as Britain and France to begin supplying
arms to the Sunni rebels. This has angered Russia who strongly supports the
Syrian regime and opposes any western intervention in the Syrian crisis.
f)
Because of the possibility that the west
could prop up Syrian rebels in the future, Russia is threatening to deliver
advanced weapons systems to Assad so that he will have a much greater edge,
militarily, over opposition forces. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, hoping to discourage him from
delivering the S-300 advanced weapon system to Assad. Netanyahu has claimed it
would tip the balance of power in the Middle East. Reportedly, these weapons
would create a no-fly zone in Syria and Lebanon, not allowing Israel to conduct
sorties over these nations in order to defend the homeland. The system has a
200 km range and could hit Israeli fighter planes in the north. Israeli
officials have declared that if these weapons are delivered by Russia to Syria,
Israel’s air force will knock them out in a pre-emptive strike. Israel would
make sure that the weapons could not be used by Assad or transferred to
Hezbollah.
g)
The United States has been weak in its
foreign policy concerning Syria. (See the
previous blog post re: this subject). It appears that if the peace conference
fails, the U.S. might begin to supply the Sunni rebels with weapons, following
the lead of France and Britain. Assad has threatened to go to war with Israel
because of this.
You can see how complicated
this matter is, and how there appears to be no solution. From the Israeli point
of view, if the Shiites are allowed to maintain control of this part of the
Middle East, through the on-going instability in Syria, this would be the
greater threat to Israel than the Sunni rebels taking over parts of Syria. It
seems that the peace conference, if it happens, will be a determining factor in
how things will look in Syria in the future. Please direct your prayers to the scriptures (above) and stand with us
for God’s protection over the people of Israel at this time.