Steven Collins
January 3, 2007
A friend sent the attached link from ASSIST News service in Jerusalem that Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto was likely assassinated because, if elected, she intended to “establish official relations with the Jewish state.” The linked story even asserts, citing Israeli sources, that Bhutto had sought protection from Israeli, British and American secret services because she felt Musharaf’s government “was trying to make her an easy target.” If this report is correct, it is not surprising that Islamicists in Pakistan assassinated her. I am old enough to remember when a true Islamic statesman, Prime Minister Anwar Sadat of Egypt, flew to Jerusalem and made peace with the Israelis in an face-to-face encounter. Sadat was assassinated for his efforts to normalize diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
Bhutto’s assassination has thrown Pakistan’s future into severe crisis. No other moderate, pro-Western leader in Pakistan has her leadership appeal, and Musharraf’s credibility has been badly damaged by his failure to protect Bhutto. Pakistan is a nuclear power, and either a Civil War or its transformation into a radical Islamic state would be disastrous for Western interests. If Pakistan became Islamicist, the USA’s position in Afghanistan would become untenable and an American withdrawal from that nation would be all but inevitable.
As readers of my blogs and articles know, I have indicated a belief that Pakistan and Afghanistan will eventually become allied to the anti-American, anti-Western alliance prophesied in Ezekiel 38 to be led by Russia, China and Iran in the latter days. This is based on a literal application of Ezekiel 38:5 which states that “Cush” will be part of that prophesied alliance (The King James Version of the Bible translates the original for “Cush” as “Ethiopia”). The Cushites were descended from Ham, one of the three sons of Noah (Genesis 10:6), and Cush’s name is still present on the modern world map. The Hindu Kush Mountains (emphasis added) are located within the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Future events will indicate whether biblical prophecy foretold that both these nations will eventually be absorbed into the Russian-Chinese-Iranian alliance or whether just the mountainous border region (a stronghold of Al Queda) was covered in this prophecy. However, Bhutto’s assassination bodes ill for the Western nations and argues that the former alternative is the most likely outcome.
If Pakistan slides into chaos and/or into an eventual alliance with the eastern powers prophesied in Ezekiel 38, it makes it all the more likely that India (Pakistan’s long-time enemy) will ally itself with the West out of sheer necessity. India does not want to stand alone against two, nuclear-armed, long-standing enemies (Pakistan and China) on its borders. India needs nuclear-armed allies, and it can look forward to a warm welcome by the Western world (which also needs India as an ally and economic partner due to China’s increasingly bellicose attitude toward the West). As readers of my blogs and articles also know, my view of biblical prophecy is, indeed, that India will ally itself to the Western nations (the USA, the NATO nations, Japan, Australia, etc.). Previous blogs have documented that India’s navy has already conducted large-scale naval maneuvers with the navies of the Western world and Indian air force pilots have even been invited to participate in the American “top gun/red flag” air force training exercises (an honor traditionally reserved only for close allies).
The trends are clear. Pakistan is sliding away from the Western nations and India is moving toward them. Ezekiel 38 is being fulfilled.
http://2008/www.assistNews.net/stories/2007/s07120175.htm
