What you need to know about Israel and Gaza

The current flare up of violence in Gaza is simply the most recent confrontation in a long history of battles between the Israelis and the Arab occupants of the Gaza Strip, a tiny area on the Mediterranean Sea between Israel and Egypt that is about the size of Montgomery, Ala. and is home to 1.8 million Palestinian Arabs. To fully understand the current situation, one must look back almost 50 years to 1967 and the Six Day War.

 

In antiquity, Gaza was ruled by a number of empires including the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Israelites, the Romans, and the Ottomans. The home of the ancient Philistines, it was also the location of Samson’s imprisonment in the Old Testament. After World War I, control passed from the Ottoman Empire to the British. After Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, an event referred to by Palestinians as “al Nakba” (the catastrophe), Gaza was occupied by Egypt even though the United Nations partition plan for Palestine had set aside the area to be an Arab state. Gaza was ostensibly governed by the All Palestine government during this time until 1959 when Egyptian President Nasser assumed overt control.

 

Read the full article on Atlanta Conservative Examiner

 

flickr.com/photos/farshadebrahimi

Ancient prophecy may be linked to Egypt violence

Mohamed Morsi (Wilson Dias/Agencia Brasil)

The civil strife in Egypt seems to be coming to an end.CBS News reported on Saturday that the curfew for civilians would be shortened from 11 hours per night to nine. The Islamist former president of the country, Mohammed Morsi, is in jail along with many leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. Over a thousand pro-Morsi demonstrators have been killed by security forces according to a New York Times report. The crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood may have pre-empted Egyptian involvement a soon-to-come regional war against Israeland helped to fulfill a 2,000 year old prophecy.

In Ezekiel 38-39, an ancient Hebrew prophet foretold a future war in which a large Islamic army marched against a reconstituted Israel. Although many of the names of the participating nations are unfamiliar to modern ears, the identities of many can be determined by Biblical scholars. Ironically, Egypt, one of Israel’s largest and most powerful neighbors, is not mentioned in the prophecy even though its modern name is the same as it was in Ezekiel’s day.

 

Read the rest on Atlanta Conservative Examiner

UN plan for Arab state may spark Middle East… again

Israeli soldiers on patrol in Hebron, West Bank (Justin McIntosh)

Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, has indicated that he will petition the United Nations to recognize Palestine as a national state as early as this Friday.  When the UN takes up the question of Palestinian statehood over the next few weeks, it may well spark another explosive confrontation in the Middle East.

 

At first glance, bestowing statehood on the Palestinians makes about as much sense as deeming that Georgia and the other southern states are still part of the Confederate States of America and are merely occupied by the United States.  Many observers may be confused as to how a group of people without land could be considered a nation.  The fact that the Palestinian Authority does not possess a defined territory, one of four requirements for national recognition under the 1933 Montevideo Convention, is part of the legal case against Palestinian statehood in a recent Wall Street Journal column.

 

Read this article on Examiner.com:

http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-atlanta/un-plan-for-arab-state-may-spark-middle-east-again

Iran film: Muslim messiah arrives in August 2011

Khamenei with Vladimir Putin. The Bible prophesies an alliance between Iran and Russia (www.kremlin.ru.)

The film also discusses the primary characters in the Mahdi prophecies. The Sofiani is only briefly mentioned in the film, but other sources indicate that this is a bloodthirsty leader with links to Syria. The Sofiani will send an army to oppose the Mahdi. He will also kill women and children. Ironically, suicide bombers, terrorists, and Arab dictators all make war on women and children.

Read the rest of this article at Examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-atlanta/iran-film-muslim-messiah-arrives-august-2011

Iranian film says Muslim messiah returning soon

Ahmadinejad (Daniella Zalcman http://dan.iella.net/)

A documentary video, “The Coming is Near,” released on March 28 by the Iranian government promotes the idea that the Mahdi, an apocalyptic Muslim messiah, is about to return to usher a new Islamic civilization. The documentary is based in Twelver Muslim theology to which many of Iran’s highest leaders subscribe.

Twelver Muslims are a branch of Shia (Shiite) Islam. Shiites and Sunnis, two factions prominent in the Iraq War, split after the death of Muhammad in A.D. 632 in a disagreement over who his successor should be. Sunnis, the dominant branch of Islam, believe that leadership should be by elected leaders, while Shiites believe that Muslim leaders should come from Muhammad’s family line. The Shia believe that there were twelve such leaders, called imams, although many Shia religious leaders use the title today.

Read the rest of this article at Examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-atlanta/iran-film-says-muslim-messiah-is-near