PROPHECY UPDATE: "WILL ISRAEL ATTACK IRAN WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS?"

Apostolic/ Prophetic/ Global

Joshua AP Network


PROPHECY UPDATE: "WILL ISRAEL ATTACK IRAN WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS?"


~ Perry Stone

http://www.voiceofevangelism.org


Last week, The Times of London said Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons. Several things make this widely-published report plausible. Today, many people are calling Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "a second Hitler."


Doing his best to live up to this description, the Islamic leader continues to spew wild, inflammatory rhetoric and actively call for the total destruction of Israel. He has declared, "Israel must be wiped off the map."


Iran sponsors terrorism worldwide; organizes, finances and trains Hezbollah leadership in Lebanon; funds outlawed Shiite death squads in Iraq; and are actively assisting the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Iran provides cover and comfort for al-Qaeda.


WHY IS IRAN A THREAT?

Iran’s strutting belligerence on the world stage and its indecent threats grow more frequent and more dangerous. The country’s nuclear ambitions and the potential of such weapons in the hands of these irrational leaders should not be downplayed or underestimated.


On January 23, the official news agency of Iran, IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting), reported that Ahmadinejad "assured" Syria’s foreign minister, Wailed Mualem that both the United States and Israel "will soon come to the end of their lives."


Iran’s own news agency said: Ahmadinejad has threatened the State of Israel with annihilation several times in recent months, and has recently added the U.S. and Britain to the list of countries he says will be destroyed. The United States is unable to inflict serious damage on Iran.He claims the Holocaust was a hoax perpetrated on the world by Europe.


Last December, he even convened a Holocaust Conference in Tehran, inviting a motley cast of Holocaust deniers. Speakers included David Duke, America’s Imperial Wizard of the KKK, and Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, one of the founders of Lebanese militia, Hezbollah.


Iran is a major player in the "hate America" group of nations. These despise America’s values, culture, influence and strength. They take advantage of every opportunity to disparage or harm the United States.


Consider these facts:


# Before September 11, 2001, Iran was responsible for the deaths of over 1,500 Americans—more than any other state sponsor of terror or terrorist organization in history.


# The U.S. Department of State has called the government of Iran the "the most active state sponsor of terrorism."


# A report by the Israeli secret service estimates that Iran has "invested more than $10 million to encourage terrorist activity against Israel."


# Iran is responsible for developing Hezbollah in Lebanon, and underwrites it with training, equipment, funds and political support.


# Many indicators show that Iran is connected to al-Qaida.


# Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, repeatedly and publicly calls for the destruction of the only democratic country in the region, Israel.


# In one of his public speeches, Ahmadinejad spoke of "a world without America."


# Iran is intent on possessing both nuclear weapons and the ballistic missiles to deliver them, as well as electromagnetic pulse weapons, which experts say pose a direct and major threat, directly to the American homeland.


The threat of international misfits controlling nuclear weapons is frightening. Israeli Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz has warned: Ahmadinejad believes he is on a divine mission. I’m the last person to call him insane.


Although I am not qualified as a psychologist, it’s clear to me we are dealing with a person driven by an extremist ideology, who is determined to fulfill his mission.


PREPARING TO STRIKE?

All this has led Israeli officials to conclude that it will be left to them to strike. Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said last month: The time is approaching when Israel and the international community will have to decide whether to take military action against Iran.


The widely-published report from London said Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons. If Israel carries out the reported strike, this would be the first attack with nuclear weapons since atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.


Experts say the Israeli weapons would each have a force of one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb."As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished," according to someone inside Israel, The Times.


TARGETS CONSIDERED

Israel has identified three prime targets south of Tehran, which are believed to be involved in Iran’s nuclear program. They are: # Natanz, a nuclear facility where thousands of centrifuges are being installed for uranium enrichment.


An Iranian opposition party, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), disclosed its secret existence in 2002.


# Bushehr is a complex of light water reactors located on the Persian Gulf, southwest of Isfahan, where an Iranian vice-president said, "250 tons of gas for the enrichment process has been stored in tunnels."


# Arak, the site of two planned heavy water facilities, which, in the future, may produce enough plutonium for a bomb.Israeli officials believe that destroying these three sites would delay Iran’s nuclear program indefinitely, and prevent Jewish people everywhere from having to live in fear of a "second Holocaust."


The Israeli government has warned repeatedly that it will never allow nuclear weapons to be made in Iran. Meanwhile, Israeli military commanders feel conventional strikes may no longer be enough to annihilate Iran’s well-defended enrichment facilities.


Several have been built beneath at least 70 feet of concrete and rock. However, the nuclear-tipped bunker-busters would be used only if a conventional attack was ruled out, and if the United States declined to intervene, according to senior sources. The U.S. has declined to intervene so far.


The paper quoted Israeli sources that said two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear "bunker-busters." Under the plans, they said, conventional laser-guided bombs would open "tunnels" into the targets.


"Mini-nukes" would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout. It has been reported that Israeli pilots have flown to Gibraltar in recent weeks to train for the 2,000-mile round-trip to the Iranian targets.


Three possible routes have been mapped out, including one over Turkey. Sources in Jerusalem reveal that Israeli Air force squadrons based at Hatzerim, in the Negev desert and Tel Nof, south of Tel Aviv, have trained to use Israel’s tactical nuclear weapons on the mission. Major General Eliezer Shkedi, commander of the Israeli Air Force, is supervising the preparations.


WILL AMERICA RESPOND?

Reports say that both the U.S. and Britain are bolstering their naval strength in the region. A second U.S. aircraft carrier group, the USS John C. Stennis and escort ships, entered the Persian Gulf in late January.


For the first time, President Bush appointed an admiral, William Fallon, to take over as head of U.S. Central Command. This command is responsible for Middle East operations in both Iran and Iraq. Retired Colonel, Sam Gardiner, called the deployment of a second aircraft carrier strike force to the Gulf region, as well as British minesweepers, as a "huge deal."


"It is only necessary to do this if you are planning to strike Iran and deal with the consequences," he said. Consequences could include Iranian attempts to shut the Strait of Hormuz, the sea route for much of the world’s oil. The United States announced it was also sending two more nuclear submarines to the area.


One U.S. sub collided with a Japanese tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. Reports say that U.S. Navy nuclear submarines maintaining vigil off the coast of Iran indicate the Pentagon’s military plans include, not only control over navigation in the Persian Gulf, but also strikes against Iranian targets.


Admiral Eduard Baltin, a former commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, told the news agency, Interfax: The presence of U.S. nuclear submarines in the Persian Gulf region means that the Pentagon has not abandoned plans for surprise strikes against nuclear targets in Iran. With this aim, a group of multi-purpose submarines ready to accomplish the task, is located in the area.


He said the four submarines in the Persian Gulf area also control navigation in the Gulf of Oman and in the Arabian Sea.American patience is not unlimited. They might receive different orders in future to block off the Gulf of Oman—that is the Iranian coast—and, if need be, launch missile strikes against ground targets in Iran.


Already there are indications the Pentagon is preparing for that eventuality. Over the past few months, senior U.S. officials have been traveling to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to discuss ways of strengthening defense ties and military capacities in those countries.


It may be necessary to defend U.S. military bases in Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain from possible Iranian retaliation, in the event of a U.S. attack. However; Robert Gates, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, has called military action against Iran a "last resort."


Israeli and American officials have met several times to consider military action. Military analysts say the disclosure of the plans could be intended to put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, cajole America into action or soften up world opinion in advance of an Israeli attack.Options Are Limited.


Given the current political climate in both the U.N. and the U.S., Israel may not have a choice.President George W. Bush has stressed he is seeking a diplomatic solution to the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program. Yet, he has not taken the military option off the table.


His recent statements, plus tougher financial sanctions and actions against Iranian involvement in Iraq, has kept alive talk in Washington about a possible U.S. attack on Iran.The world is moving inexorably toward the coming of the Lord.


Turmoil continues to boil in the Middle East. The prophetic spotlight shifts from crisis to crisis and from country to country, but it always goes back to Israel. Pray for President Bush and other decision-makers of the United States. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.


Pray that evil will be defeated and justice and righteousness will triumph. Meanwhile, "Look up . . . because your redemption draws near" (Luke 21:18).


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