GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 428

Starting The Next War

Beefing Up The Border

We learn from a report in The Jerusalem Post that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) is moving troops to the Syrian border between the two countries as the rebel insurgents move to take over Damascus:

Following a situational assessment on the topic of the war in Syria, the IDF will call up additional soldiers for defensive missions in the Golan Heights, adjacent to the Israel-Syria border, the military announced on both Friday and Saturday.

An exercise was just finished there to see if the troops are ready should there be an incursion by the rebels in Syria:

On Friday, the military completed a General Staff exercise in the northern Jordan Valley and the southern Golan Heights.

During the exercise, General Staff readiness was drilled by the Operations Directorate, by both air and land, to assess response time and reaction to an emerging incident in real time.

The exercise involved soldiers from different training programs and squadrons, some of whom remained in the Golan Heights area to reinforce defensive missions along the Syrian Border, the military noted.

Syria’s army is folding like a deck of cards against the aggressive rebels:

The Syrian army began retreating from the Quneitra province bordering Israel on Saturday, Israeli state broadcaster KAN News reported, citing Syrian opposition sources.

Two rebels and a Syrian officer confirmed to Reuters that rebels took over the city of Quneitra in the governate of Quneitra in the Syrian Golan.

Earlier on Saturday, the Syrian army withdrew from Daraa and Suwayda in southwestern Syria.

This means they are extremely close to Israel’s northernmost border and explains why the IDF is taking the threat of them gaining access to Syria’s weapons in Damascus. Iran is also pulling back from Syria:

Along with the Syrian army's retreat, several members of pro-Iranian militias began to withdraw from Syria towards the direction of Iraq, an Iraqi security source told Saudi news outlet Al-Hadath.

Al-Hadath noted that the source said that hundreds of foreign fighters belonging to Iranian-backed militias from Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan are retreating to Al-Qa'im, an Iraqi border town.

Dozens of Syrian troops entered Iraq at the Al-Qa'im border crossing in coordination with Iraqi forces, local officials and security sources told Reuters.

Some sources are predicting that the Assad regime is close to falling and no one seems to be coming to help them fight with Hezbollah and Iran weakened. But the devil you know may be better than devil you don’t in this case. These insurgents are no friends of Israel or the US.

Don’t Forget Iran

It would be a mistake to not keep our eyes on Iran now that Syria is back in the news.
According to the US, Iran is perilously close to having nuclear weapons as seen in an article from The Times Of Israel:

Members of the United States intelligence community are increasingly worried that Iran is moving toward the production of nuclear weapons, according to a report from the Office of the United States Director of National Intelligence (DNI) that was issued on Thursday.

Iran has what it needs but just has to decide to go forward with things:

First reported by The Wall Street Journal on Friday, the DNI document warns that “Iran now has enough fissile material to make more than a dozen nuclear weapons,” but has not yet decided to do so.

So they have the materials but aren’t actually building weapons:

“The Intelligence Community continues to assess that as of 26 September 2024, Iran is not building a nuclear weapon,” the report stated, but added that it has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce one, if it so chooses.”

There continues to be a lot of talk about actually doing it, but then they back off of being definite about it. The ambivalence is a little annoying for my taste:

The DNI report, titled “Assessment Regarding the Nuclear Activity of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” gave a broad intelligence assessment of Iran’s nuclear activities and capabilities from May to September this year, following up on an earlier report published in July.

“Tehran has the infrastructure and experience to quickly produce weapons-grade uranium at multiple underground facilities, if it so chooses,” the DNI said, which “bolsters the credibility of threats to develop nuclear weapons.”

And what materials they do have are far more than a civilian energy need:

“Iran has continued to increase its stockpiles of 20-percent and 60-percent enriched uranium,” the report stated, citing levels that far exceed what would be necessary for a civilian energy program, which is what Tehran claims its nuclear infrastructure is for.

Worse, they have unjustified amounts of uranium at weapons grade levels:

A Western diplomatic source told Reuters on Saturday that the increase in the amount of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity is “extremely serious,” unjustified for civilian purposes and contradicts Tehran’s statements regarding credible nuclear negotiations.

“These measures have no credible civilian justification and could, on the contrary, directly fuel a military nuclear program if Iran were to take the decision,” the source said.

They’re Really Close

While not trying to sound like the boy who cried wolf, people are telling us that Iran could have nuclear weapons any time now yet again:

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, warned Friday that Iran stands poised to “quite dramatically” increase its stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium as it has started cascades of advanced centrifuges.

And when they do they will than have the most missiles to put them on:

The DNI report also said that “Iran has the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the region,” and that recent progress with its satellite program would “shorten the timeline to produce an intercontinental ballistic missile” that could carry nuclear weapons.

Iran, for their part continues to say they only want nuclear capacities for civilian purposes, but Israel isn’t buying that:

Iran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons and says both its space program and nuclear activities are for purely civilian purposes. However, US intelligence agencies and the IAEA say Iran had an organized military nuclear program up until 2003, and continued to develop its nuclear program beyond civilian necessity. Israel contends that the Islamic Republic never truly abandoned its nuclear weapons program.

The truth is that Iran like all the other Arab countries both don’t recognize Israel as a nation with many wanting to see all Jews killed and no nation for them to call home:

Iran is committed to Israel’s destruction. Over the past year, it has twice fired massive barrages of missiles at Israel, which has vowed to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Israel has struck key Iranian military facilities in retaliation for both attacks, which came in the context of a multifront war opened by Iranian terror proxies on the Jewish state.

Where do I see all of this going? I’m glad you asked. With the recent developments in Syria I can see the destruction of Damascus as the seminal act in an all-out assault on Israel from all the Iranian proxies using whatever weapons and troops they have left which would fulfill the prophecies about the Psalm 83 war. And Israel knows now that they can’t let the fanatical Islamic rebels get their hands on the weapons stockpile in and around the Damascus airport and they certainly can’t take months to destroy them. An all out aerial offensive is the quickest way to accomplish neutralizing the threat fulfilling the prophesied obliteration seen in Isaiah 17. And when that happens I see Israel then taking out Iran’s nuclear capacity which would fulfill the prophecies in Jeremiah 49. Some don’t see it this way, but that’s the way I see it going down in light of current events. Your prophetic mileage may vary, but as we pray for the peace of Jerusalem we certainly needs to include they prophecies as we do.