THE UNDECLARED WAR BETWEEN IRAN AND ISRAEL

While the world little notices it, the nations of Iran and Israel are waging an undeclared war that is steadily smoldering in a way that it could become a major war. Readers of this blog are well aware that Iran has declared its national intention to “wipe Israel off the map.” Israel has had no choice but to defend itself in a way that keeps the conflict as low-key as possible, but even its best efforts may not prevent a major war. As readers know, Iran has long smuggled vast numbers of rockets and missiles into South Lebanon where they are controlled by Hezbollah, one of Iran’s terrorist partners. Iran has been trying to pre-position weaponry and troops on Israel’s northern border for a knock-out blow of the Jewish state, and Israel has devised and deployed a layered air-defense system to protect Israeli targets from these possible attacks. However, if Iran orders Hezbollah to attack Israel with its huge inventory of what is regarded as over 100,000 missiles and rockets, how many can Israel shoot down before its defenses are overwhelmed? If Israeli defense reach the point of being overwhelmed, it is my opinion the Israelis will use tactical nuclear weapons across Southern Lebanon and Syria to end the threat of parts of Israel being annihilated. This post will describe new developments that indicate the threat of a major war is growing.

Israel recently launched a series of large-scale air attacks on Iranian military facilities, weaponry and personnel in the Eastern Syrian region. This location indicates the Iranians are moving weapons to Syria and Hezbollah across Iraq’s northern desert region, likely with the tacit awareness of the Iraqi central government. According to the first link, at least 18 Israeli air strikes killed perhaps 57 Iranians, Syrians and their allies as well as destroyed much Iranian weaponry, including components that were begin transited to Iran to supply its nuclear program. Significantly, the report indicates the USA provided intelligence assistance to Israel to help the Israelis accomplish these raids.

Israel has taken another step which warns Iran but also highlights the rapidly-increasing military ties with Sunni Islamic nations. An Israeli nuclear-capable submarine transited the Suez Canal a few weeks ago into the Red Sea, and it sailed openly on the surface with full Egyptian approval to do so (second link). This sends a joint warning signal to Shiite Iran from Egypt and Israel. This Israeli sub could fire long-range missiles across Saudi air space into Iran if necessary or the sub could sail on to take up a firing position in the Arabian Sea near Iran. The link also mentions the USA sent a submarine into the Persian Gulf accompanied by two surface warships as another clear warning to Iran.

Iran seems to not be getting the message as it recently upped the ante with a new provocative step. The Iranian navy very recently hijacked a South Korean merchant ship without any reason (third link), and South Korea responded by dispatching a warship to the Persian Gulf region to protect its civilian merchant ships in that area (fourth link). What Iran did was an act of war, and one of these times it could miscalculate and some nation will respond with military acts of war against Iran in response. Iran also test-launched a new ballistic missile, firing it to a target location in the Indian Ocean (fifth link). This ballistic missile was the test of a strategic weapons system by Iran, and I think it made the point that it has ballistic missiles with the range to hit Israel. The USA responded with a B-52 flight around Mideast locations, reminding Iran that it is very vulnerable to US strategic bombers (sixth link).

More actions are following in the wake of the making and widening of the Abraham Accords which is creating strong ties between Israel and the Sunni Arab nations. As I’ve pointed out in previous posts, the term “Abraham Accords” comes from the recognition by the Jews and the Arabs that they share a common descent from the same patriarch, Abraham. The Jews descend from Abraham via Isaac and Jacob/Israel while the Arabs descend from Abraham via Ishmael. The USA, under President Trump, has been an active participant in deepening these ties. The USA announced that it was recognizing two of the participants in the Abraham Accords, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain as “major security partners” of the USA (seventh link), a relationship that will enable those nations to enjoy better access to US weapons systems–which will make them more secure against an Iranian threat. Also, recognizing President Trump’s historic contribution to the rapidly-growing ties between the Sunni nations and the Israelis, Morocco just gave its highest national award to President Trump for his role in making this process happen (eighth link). You can be sure you will not see this highlighted in the Trump-hating Leftist western media.

Where are we going heading into the future? Iran has demonstrated repeatedly that it will perpetrate acts of war on the high seas vs the ships of other nations, and these acts could lead to a rapidly-escalating shooting war in a future confrontation. Iran is also already waging a on-going war against Israel’s survival by pre-positioning weaponry and military personnel on Israel’s borders to launch a knock-out blow against the Jewish state. As shown in the first link, Israel is continuing to aggressively attack Iranian military forces hard to prevent Iran from obtaining a first-strike capability vs. Israel in the Mideast. The first link reported that the massed Israeli air strikes vs. Iranian and Iranian-allied targets in Syria killed perhaps 57 personnel, but that is just the officially-reported total. Who knows how high the real total was.

It is my view that a Biden administration in the USA will make the possibility of war much more likely. The Iranians remember Biden as the Vice-President in the weak Obama administration that “caved” to the Iranians in the Iranian nuclear deal and also gave Iran mega-billions of cash with which Iran could build more weapons and finance more terrorist entities. Iran will therefore expect Biden to be a far weaker US president than Trump was, making the chances of war greater as Iran will likely feel emboldened to take riskier chances with a passive USA under Biden. If war breaks out between Iran and Israel, Biden may have no choice but to militarily back Israel due to domestic political considerations. Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of Israeli interest in all polls, and Biden would alienate millions of voters if he was weak in an Israeli war with Iran. However, no matter what Biden does, Israel has one thing going for it that it did not have before the Trump administration. Israel is now steadily moving into an alliance situation with many Sunni Islamic nations who are also threatened by Iran. If Israel has to fight Iran, it is now highly likely Israel will have strong Mideast allies in such a war.

As long-time readers of my blog know, the Bible has many prophecies about wars that will occur in the world at the conclusion of our age. Zechariah 14 prophesies a huge war will involve Israel fighting for its survival as a result of an invasion, but Zechariah 12:1-9 foretells God has already predetermined that Israel will emerge victorious from that war, an outcome described also in Zechariah 14:12-14. Revelation 16:12-17 reveals where that final invasion will come from: it will come from the Euphrates River region, which belongs to Iraq–the Shiite ally of Iran. The “kings of the east” mentioned in Revelation 16 will be attacking westward toward Israel and the Sunni nations. These prophecies describe one theater of action in a final, global World War III, but these prophecies do not name the year they will be fulfilled. It is also true that the prophecies about a final climactic war do not preclude the possibility of lesser wars that will occur in the Mideast prior to that final war. With a weaker president over the USA, do not be surprised if Iran tries to take advantage of that situation.

THE UNDECLARED WAR BETWEEN IRAN AND ISRAEL

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