Could Hizbollah War Give Courage To The Arab World For Final Showdown With Israel  

Israel begins withdrawal
BEIRUT (Reuters) - As a truce between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas entered its second day on Tuesday, planning got underway for a beefed up U.N. peacekeeping force to back the Lebanese...

IDF Begins Withdrawal from Lebanon; Hizbullah Refuses to Disarm
Paratrooper brigade reservists began returning to Israel this morning. Hizbullah fired rockets at them, but missed; Israel did not respond.

The Hizbullah War Encourages a "Third Intifada"
A Hamas newspaper columnist declared that the Palestinian Authority must leverage what he considers a Hizbullah victory for a renewed terrorist campaign against Israel, a "third intifada."

ISRAEL HUMBLED BY ARMS FROM IRAN...
Abandoned Hizbollah positions in Lebanon yesterday revealed conclusive evidence that Syria - and almost certainly Iran - provided the anti-tank missiles that have blunted the power of Israel's once invincible armour.

After one of the fiercest confrontations of the war, Israeli forces took the small town of Ghandouriyeh, east of the southern city of Tyre, on Sunday evening, hours before a ceasefire brokered by the United Nations took effect.

Victory celebrations in Iran...
Iranians find cause for celebration. Upwards of 110 ambulances and mobile intensive care units rode through the center of Tehran Tuesday morning as a sign of solidarity with the Lebanese people, as reported by the Iranian news agency, Fars. Ambulance teams continued driving toward the mosque of Tehran University in order to show their willingness to help the Lebanese wounded in the past month.

Missile defense emerges as a top Israeli priority...
TEL AVIV — The war with Hizbullah has rekindled Israeli interest in a U.S. laser-based missile defense system once deemed too expensive.

Iran says won't back down over atomic rights
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday Iran would not yield to Western pressure to give up its home-grown nuclear technology.

Jordan: Time ripe to renew peacemaking with Israel
Jordan called for the immediate resumption of Arab peacemaking with Israel, saying Tuesday that the time was ripe after guns fell silent in the Hizbullah-Israeli conflict.

King Abdullah II warned that the Lebanon conflict "could be repeated unless the international community shoulders its responsibility and works for a comprehensive solution to he Arab-Israeli conflict."

Assad: American plan for a new Mideast has collapsed
The conflict with Hizbullah may have created a new opportunity for renewed dialogue with the Palestinians, and potentially also with Syria, Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Tuesday afternoon.

Speaking at a bar mitzva party, Peretz said that he believes every war generates the possibility to further the greater diplomatic process, and that in this case that could mean conducting negotiations with Lebanon and creating the conditions for negotiations with Syria.

Report: X-rays don't detect explosives; But feds still want passengers to remove shoes, run them through machines
X-ray machines that screen airline passengers' shoes cannot detect explosives, according to a Homeland Security Department report on aviation screening.

Comments
Syrian President Bashar Assad said the American peace plan for the Middle East is in a total collapse.  I have to agree!  I don't expect a short time of peace to be established until after the antichrist comes on the scene. 

As Israel enters their second day of a very fragile truce with Hizbollah they have begun slowly withdrawing troops from southern Lebanon.  A 15,000 Lebanese force along with an international peacekeeping army is suppose to fill the void and keep Hizbollah from taking up positions in that area.  But I have to believe that it won't be long before they will be fully infiltrated right back in the areas they were forced from.  It amazes me that the Israeli defense leaders would even consider allowing the Lebanese army to act as a police force to keep Hizbollah out of the territory.  Isn't that like the fox guarding the hen house?  

With all that said, guess who's claiming victory over Israel?  Actually, that's to be expected in the Arab world, but this time they think they smell blood.  Many are talking about the new Middle East, and frankly, how things are going to be different from now on.

"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that Hezbollah has "hoisted the banner of victory" over Israel and toppled U.S.-led plans for the Middle East. Hezbollah's main backers _ Iran and Syria _ struck nearly identical tones a day after a cease-fire took effect in Lebanon: heaping praise on the guerrillas as perceived victors for the Islamic world and claiming that Western influence in the region was dealt a serious blow.

"God's promises have come true," Ahmadinejad told a huge crowd in Arbadil in northwestern Iran. "On one side, it's corrupt powers of the criminal U.S. and Britain and the Zionists ... with modern bombs and planes. And on the other side is a group of pious youth relying on God."

In Damascus, Syrian President Syrian President Bashar Assad said Washington's plans for the Middle East were turned into "an illusion" by Hezbollah's resistance to the Israeli military during the 34-day conflict."  http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/08/15/D8JGVFKO0.html

Truthfully, the supposed Hizbollah victory is the only illusion.  Granted, Israel's battle plan was questionable at best but they did inflict a wound to Hizbollah and also depleted (or destroyed) a vast amount of their missiles that took two decades to build up.  No matter how Iran and Syria try to spin it that was an massive loss of firepower.

But there is the other side of the coin.  The Arab world gained a huge amount of confidence in that war.  Many are starting to think maybe Israel isn't the all powerful nation that they thought they were.  Certainly, career politician Prime Minister Olmert doesn't have the military mind or experience previous Israeli PM's have had and it showed.  It's got more than a few Arab leaders thinking this may be the time to strike Israel and finally destroy them once and for all.

Then there's the Biblical side of the coin.  God has promised that Israel will not only stand against its enemies but (He will) utterly destroy them.  It is my belief that this false confidence is a part of the plan of God to draw the enemies of Israel together so that He may show His awesome and mighty power (Ezekiel 38:18-23).  What the world will see as the final doom of Israel will turn into the greatest military defeat up to that time.  "For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground." (Ezekiel 38:19 & 20)

That leads us to the question of where does this situation go from here?  I have to believe that we will witness many twists and turns from this day forward, but ultimately, I believe this generation will witness the rapture of the church and possibly the war of Gog and Magog firsthand. 

And if you haven't heard, the x-ray machines being used in airports can't detect explosive materials according to Homeland Security.  I have to admit, I was ignorant of the that fact, and with terrorist hiding explosive material in sports drink bottles, I have to believe they were too.  Now with that revelation out in the open expect the terrorist attempts to increase...and at some point find success.

Are you ready to meet the Lord?  If not, your time is running out!

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Pastor Malone