Prophecy Digest: Hamas Unite With Iran if Israel Attacks -Reuters

Hamas Says Will Unite With Iran if Israel Attacks

By REUTERS

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Islamist militant groups will fight alongside Iran if the country is attacked by Israel, exiledHamas leader Khaled Meshaal said on Tuesday.

Israel has not ruled out military action against Iran if diplomacy fails to end a dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme, which the United States and its allies suspect is aimed at building an atomic bomb. Iran denies such an ambition, saying it wants to generate electricity using nuclear power.

"All Islamist militant groups will form a united front with Iran against Israel if it attacks Iran," Meshaal, visiting Iran, told a news conference broadcast live on state television.

"We are all parts of the same body ... We all should fight against the mutual enemy. But how, the leaders will decide, based on our capacities."

Israeli officials have warned they could try to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities in the same way that Israel bombed Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor in 1981.

Iran has said it will retaliate if attacked, and security analysts believe it would mobilise militant allies such as Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah in its response.

Meshaal said Israel was a danger for the Middle East region. "God willing, a regional resistance has the capacity to confront this danger," Meshaal said.

Israeli and U.S. officials have accused Iran of providing weapons, cash and training to Hamas and another Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad. Iran insists it only gives them moral and political support.

"TERROR ORGANISATION"

A senior Israeli general said on Tuesday that Hamas and Hezbollah were expanding their rocket reach as part of their alliance with Iran, which refuses to recognise Israel.

"Syria, Iran and Hezbollah is the only terror organisation in the world that possesses surface-to-surface missiles and has the ability to threaten the greater Tel Aviv area," said Major- General Amos Yadlin, chief of Israeli military intelligence.

"And recently, Hamas has been trying to achieve the same abilities."

Israel cites Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated calls for the destruction of the Jewish state as a clear sign that Iranian nuclear weapons, if it acquires them, would threaten the country's existence.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran had no intention to end its support for Islamist guerrilla groups.

"Supporting Palestinians is our religious and national duty. We will continue our support and will never give it up," he said at a meeting with Meshaal, state television reported.

Meshaal praised Iran for backing Hamas, which won a Palestinian parliamentary election in 2006, defeating the once- dominant, more secular Fatah faction, and drove Fatah out of the Gaza Strip the following year

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Prophecy Digest: (Israel)the price of nuclear war - Uri Bar-Yosef

Israel must not forget the price of nuclear war

By Uri Bar-Yosef

Tags: Israel News




In 1987, Politika, the Israeli journal of political science, issued a special edition under the title "Israel's Nuclear Policy: The Intolerable Weakness of the Debate." Since then, the nuclear issue has become more acute while discussion of the question has totally disappeared. This is a dangerous situation. The experience gathered during the Cold War, particularly in the United States, shows that while the generals who were entrusted with the new weapon considered it a more effective way to destroy the enemy, civilian experts understood its true significance and developed strategies that prevented it from being used. The lack of public debate on the most important issue for Israel's security leads to a lack of information that encourages a baseless approach under which there are no differences of opinion on Israel's nuclear policy, nor should there be. This is because the policy is a success story and there is someone to rely on.

This kind of public consensus can be costly; the price of a mistake could be high. That's why it is important to ask questions about the accepted wisdom. Beyond a basic issue like the relevance of the ambiguity policy, the following are examples of reservations about the consensus.

The indispensability of Dimona for Israel's security. In the accepted narrative, Israel's nuclear image has convinced the Arab states not to pose existential threats. But from what is known of the Arabs' concepts about Israel's strength, it turns out that this image has played a marginal role, if any, in shaping their hesitation to threaten Israel's existence. What deterred them, including during the Yom Kippur War, was Israel's conventional military superiority and its strategic alliance with the United States.

On that basis, one can ask a basic but skeptical question: Did Israel even need the bomb that foreign reports attribute to it? Because Israel's image as having nuclear weapons makes it easier for countries like Iran (and Iraq in the past) to make progress in that respect - with the excuse that if Israel is allowed, why aren't they? - one can also ask whether the means designed to prevent an existential threat against Israel (as foreign reports say) makes it possible to create such a threat. Under these circumstances, the theoretical question arises - what is preferable, a regional balance of fear, or removing the nonconventional capability of all countries in the region (including Israel)?

The bombing of the Iraqi nuclear facility was a story of success and salvation. This statement is based on the assumption that the bombing in 1981 did indeed destroy the Iraqi nuclear project. But today, from the testimony of the Iraqi scientists who conducted the project, we know that the opposite was true. The bombing blocked the cautious and slow processing of plutonium, which may or may not have led Iraq to a bomb, and rerouted it to the faster track of enrichment, which was less public but more efficient. It was only Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent war that quelled the effort that could have turned Iraq into a nuclear state within a year or a little more.

It is worth asking what one can learn from this. Did the Begin Doctrine prove itself? Is the best way to deal with the Iranian initiative something similar to that doctrine? What might be the ramifications of an Israeli attempt to destroy the Iranian project with regard to Iran's ability to achieve nuclear weapons and its readiness to use them when it gets them?

Military superiority is a condition for deterring a nuclear Iran. The head of the air force says Israel needs stealth planes to deter Iran. That's a mistaken statement. World history has proved that in a nuclear world, the price of a war is mutual destruction, so the aim is not to achieve military victory but to prevent war. This means that the most important objective is not military supremacy but rather strategic stability. Precisely because the stealth can evade radar, it could make Iran fear a surprise attack; a new dimension of instability would be created in the two countries' relations. In a situation like that, the chance increases that Iranian nuclear weapons would be used by mistake against Israel.

Theoretically the opposite is also true. Since the capability of a second strike, which foreign publications attribute to Israel, contributes to nuclear stability, and since Israel supposedly has such a capability, the Israeli interest must be that Iran also has such a capability. Therefore, no matter how absurd it sounds, the most reasonable thing Israel could do with the submarines Germany is building for it - and which, according to foreign reports, are to serve as platforms for a second strike - is to deliver them to Iran so that, like their counterparts already in service in Israel (as foreign sources report), they will calm Iran's fears about losing its nuclear capability after a surprise Israeli attack. This will contribute to stability.

This logic, of course, is totally contrary to the accepted military logic that Israeli officers and shapers of Israeli policy are used to. That's why the subject must be opened to a public debate in which other voices can be heard.

The writer is a member of the International Relations department at the University of Haifa.

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Prophecy Digest: Israel-UK relations strained over Livni arrest warrant -Debka

Israel-UK relations strained over Livni arrest warrant

DEBKAfile Special Report

December 15, 2009, 6:38 PM (GMT+02:00)

The British court practice of issuing war crimes warrants against Israeli official visitors has catapulted UK-Israel relations to the brink of a crisis. Tuesday, Dec. 15, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he takes a grave view of the warrant for the arrest of opposition leader Tzipi Livni issued by pro-Palestinian campaigners for her role in the cabinet which conducted Operation Cast Lead in Gaza a year ago.

"We will never countenance a circumstance which puts Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni in the dock" or allows Israeli soldiers and commanders "who fought heroically and morally for their country" to be accused of war crimes.

This is totally absurd, he said.

UK foreign secretary David Miliband agreed this situation was insufferable and promised to correct it, after Netanyahu's national security adviser Uzi Arad summoned British ambassador Tom Phillips and informed him that the UK was expected to put an end to an immoral practice aimed at impugning Israel's right to self-defense.

Ambassador Philips was also told by Naor Gilon, deputy director general at the foreign ministry in Jerusalem, that if Israeli officials continued to be unable to visit London, the UK's role in Middle East diplomacy would be compromised.

Tzipi Livni cancelled the visit to London planned for the coming weekend to step around the British legal loophole exploited by pro-Palestinian campaigners since 2005 to try and drag Israeli officials and former commanders before London courts on charges of "war crimes." She was to have addressed a JNF conference and met British prime minister Gordon Brown.

Ironically, she nearly fell into the very loophole she failed to plug during her years as foreign minister in the previous government. It is a British legal oddity which allows individuals in the UK to petition police to arrest foreigners as suspected war criminals, on the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Two British premiers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, promised her to amend the law which has never been used against any other world politicians, even tyrants like Zimbabwe's Mugabe, but they never did anything about it.

Livni herself said she was not bothered by the world's judgment of Israel for doing what it needs to do and what is right. As a member of former war cabinets, she stressed she would repeat each and every decision. What she found most troubling was the failure in some quarters to distinguish between terrorists and their actions and the duty performed by Israel soldiers in their country's defense.

Israel complies with international law no less than any other Western country such as the US and Britain. As foreign minister, Livni was much less vehement.

At the foreign ministry Tuesday, the British ambassador heard a long list of unresolved Israeli grievances against his government. They included its support for the Swedish proposal for the European Union to recognize East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, the biased Goldstone Report, the various British boycotts of Israel - academic and commercial, including the Brown government's directive to chain stores to blacklist Israeli products manufactured on the West Bank.

Livni was not the first Israeli official to be hounded by pro-Palestinian groups and lawyers.

The most bizarre incident occurred earlier this year when Gordon Brown invited Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak to Downing Street and was almost prevented from seeing him by one of those court orders. The UK premier hurriedly intervened to get the court order delayed until the Israeli minister left the country.

However, Moshe Yaalon, strategic affairs minister, called off a UK visit to address a fundraiser for Israeli soldiers two months ago.

In an earlier embarrassing diplomatic incident in September 2005, retired Israeli general Doron Almog was warned not to disembark from a plane at Heathrow because a British police officer was waiting at the terminal with an arrest warrant submitted by pro-Palestinian "human rights activists."

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Propehcy Digest: France to launch spy satellite -Debka

An iron wall in construction to block Hamas tunnels

France poised to launch spy satellite,

helps tighten anti-Hamas blockade

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

The French spy satellite Helios 2B was scheduled for launching from French Guinea Thursday, Dec. 17, but postponed shortly before liftoff, DEBKAfile's military and intelligence sources report. The new satellite will be able to map and relay images in real time from battle zones and track threatening terrorist movements. It can also monitor nuclear facilities and materials. Helios 2B is designed to support the French forces fighting in Afghanistan, the officers serving with UNIFIL in Lebanon and, according to French military sources, monitoring events in Iran as well.

France is extending its Middle East commitments in more than one key arena.

Our military sources caught up with the head of the French Directorate of Military Intelligence (DRM), General Benoit Boujis, Tuesday, Dec. 15, as he watched giant Egyptian cranes lift armored iron plates 18 meters long and 50 cm thick and drive them into the ground along the Philadelphi border which divides the Gaza Strip from Egyptian Sinai.

French officers are working alongside Americans and Egyptians on the construction of Iron Blind, a perpendicular armored iron barrier, which ranks as the most ambitious military project ever attempted for obstructing tunnels carrying smuggled arms to a terrorist organization.

It is managed from a special headquarters located in the US embassy in Cairo with US and French officers stationed at its forward command in the northern Sinai town of El Arish.

Gen. Boujis called on the Cairo headquarters before heading to the site, where US, Egyptian and French

officers are overseeing the work, which also entails inserting sensors between the plates for alerting security forces to attempts to tamper with them. Laser instruments are used to place them with maximum precision.

Our military sources further report that by Thursday, Dec. 17, the plates had been dug in along a 5.4 km section of the 14 km-Philadelphi border route. US and French intelligence tacticians view Iron Blind as a ground-breaking experiment which, if successful in blocking the Palestinian Hamas' arms traffic beneath the Egyptian-Palestinian border, may be carried over to other theaters of war for keeping smuggled war materials out of terrorist hands.

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Prophecy Digest: Revelation 2 And 3 Pt1 -Jack Kelley

Revelation 2 And 3 … Seven Letters To Seven Churches, Part 1

by Jack Kelley

According to Revelation 1:11, the book was written to seven congregations in Asia, modern Turkey. For 2,000 years scholars have wondered why such an important message would be sent to these churches since they weren’t even the most important of their day, let alone now. True, Ephesus was a leading city of the time, but the church there was small and so were the others. Why wasn’t the book written to the Church in Rome, for example? Surely the Lord knew that Rome would be the capital of Christianity for much of church history, the perfect addressee for such a timeless message. Or how about Jerusalem, where the Church was born?

The answer lies in the realization that the letters of chapters 2 and 3 have a representative as well as a specific purpose. They can actually be read with four levels of application.

Four Levels of Application

The first level is historical. These seven churches really existed and each was experiencing the particular problem to which the Lord referred as He dictated the letters to John. Second, since all the churches were to read all the letters, they were also admonitory to all. Third, since both the challenge and promise with which each letter ends are personal rather than corporate, the letters were for individuals as well as congregations. And fourth, read in the order in which they appear they outline church history and so are prophetic. They chronicle the gap between the 69th and 70th weeks of Daniel's 70 weeks prophecy. (Daniel 9:24-27)

The Lord begins each letter with a different one of the 24 titles that are used to describe Him in the book, and the title He selects gives a clue to the letter's theme. The name of each Church also contains a clue. Each letter can be divided into seven parts, the Lord's title being the first one. Then come a commendation, a criticism, an admonition, a call, a challenge, and a promise. Two of the seven letters, Sardis and Laodicea, contain no commendation, and in two, Smyrna and Philadelphia, no criticism is given. Pergamum has no admonition, but has two criticisms. In the last 4 letters the challenge and the promise are reversed.

I'll dissect each letter into its component parts as we go. And since I visited the sites of each of the seven churches a few years ago, I'll include a personal note or two as well. By the way, each letter also bears an interesting resemblance to one of the 7 Kingdom Parables in Matthew 13, and to one of the 7 letters Paul wrote to churches. (Paul actually wrote 13 letters, not counting Hebrews, but four were to individuals and two were second letters to churches he had written previously.) With that, let's get started.

To the Church in Ephesus (Rev 2:1-7)

"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: Ephesus means darling, or beloved, maiden of choice. Ephesus represents the 1st century church.

(Title)These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. In using this title the Lord identifies Himself as the One who came to visit John, the One with authority over the Church, and the One to whom the Church owes affection as well as allegiance.

(Commendation) I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. The Church in Ephesus had worked tirelessly to remain true to His Gospel.

(Criticism) Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Already the church had become so busy in its service to the King that it had forgotten about the King! The relationship He sought was turning into another religion.

(Admonition) Remember the height from which you have fallen! How many times have we heard friends comment about the "good old days" when they were new believers?

(Call) Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Here's the remedy. Go back to doing what you did at first. Remember when you couldn't get enough of the Bible? When you showed up at church half an hour early, just because you loved being there, and didn't want to leave when the service was over? How you kept up a running conversation with the Lord that began when you woke up in the morning and didn't end till you fell asleep at night?

The Nicolaitans were a heretical sect that advocated a blending of pagan customs, like eating food sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality, into Christian worship. There's only One worthy to receive our worship, and worshipping Him is the Church's primary purpose.

The lamp stand is identified in Rev 1:20 as the church, so removing it means removing the church of Ephesus. Though the ruins of Ephesus are extensive and impressive, requiring most of a day to see, when we were there a few years ago we found only the faintest traces of a 1st century church in Ephesus.

(Challenge) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Reach up along each side of your head. Do you have ears there? Then this letter was written to you. Though the letter to Ephesus describes the Apostolic era, the church struggles with the same problems today. The church as a whole is too distracted with programs and plans, your congregation is too busy implementing them, and you're too busy helping. We're human beings, not human doings, and once we're saved being with the Lord in fellowship is our life's purpose.

(Promise)To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." Because of the emphasis on good works and programs in the church today, many who call themselves Christians, and rightly consider themselves to be hard working members of their congregations, have never taken the time to meet the King they claim to serve and receive the pardon He purchased for them with His life. How shocked they'll be to hear Him say, "I never knew you. Away from me you evil doers." (Matt. 7:23)

The first of the Kingdom Parables, the Sower and the Seed, applies here. It teaches that while the seed was sown in all the world, it only found fertile ground in a small part. And of course Paul's letter to the Ephesians is the clearest description of how we are already perceived by God, having been saved by grace, not by works lest anyone boast.

To the Church in Smyrna (Rev 2:8-11)

"To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: Smyrna means crushed. It comes from the same root as Myrrh, an embalming spice the released its aroma when crushed. Smyrna represents the 2nd and 3rd Century church that suffered intense persecution.

(Title) These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. The emphasis in the title is obvious, overcoming death.

(Commendation) I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. The first to persecute the church were Jews. Polycarp, the most famous of the early martyrs was the Bishop of Smyrna and was burned at the stake there at age 86.

(Admonition) Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. The ten days refers to the reigns of 10 Roman Caesars, covering a period of 250 years.

(Call) Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. There's no promise of deliverance, only of reward in Heaven. The stories of believers' grace in the face of death while ingenious and diabolical methods were employed to exterminate them as a form of public entertainment have achieved legendary status.

(Challenge) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Many of us in the west have never faced serious threats on account of our faith, but world wide the number of Christian martyrs has averaged over 1 million per year for the last 10 years. Their number will only grow as the End draws nearer.

(Promise) He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death." The old adage goes: Born once, die twice. Born twice die once. It's the second death that you have to watch out for. It's the permanent one.

Today a prosperous city called Izmir, third largest in Turkey, stands where ancient Smyrna once was. An incident that clearly displayed the Lord’s sense of humor while emphasizing the point of the letter, happened as we drove through the city. We saw prominent signs on a freeway exit just outside Izmir pointing to Smyrna and thinking we had found the ancient site, I quickly pulled off. But at the bottom of the short exit ramp was a T intersection with no indication as to which way we should turn. And there were no more signs pointing the way to Smyrna. After an hour of driving back and forth searching in both directions, I gave up and drove on. I didn’t get the point till later after describing the event to our Turkish travel agent. He told me the sign points to where Symrna was. There’s no trace of Smyrna today. The church of Smyrna is in heaven.

The parable of the Tares and the Wheat carries similar insights to this letter, as does Paul's letter to the Philippians, the theme of which is joy through suffering.

To the Church in Pergamum (Rev. 2:12-17)

"To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: Pergamum means mixed marriage and represents the merger of pagan and Christian practices in the 4th century when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

(Title) These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. In Hebrews 4:12 the double-edged sword is used to describe God's Word, the source of Truth.

(Commendation) I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives. With the establishment of Baghdad as the major distribution center between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea following Alexander's death, Babylon had gone into decline so the original mother/child cult religion moved its headquarters from there to Pergamum. (It eventually settled in Rome.) The reference to Satan's home there shows the true source of this false religion.

(Criticism 1) Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.
(Criticism 2) Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. These pagan practices crept into the church at Pergamum, just as they had in Ephesus.

(Call) Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. The truth of the Gospel has always been the best defense against the cults.

(Challenge) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

(Promise) To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it. Just as the black ball was a vote against someone, a white stone was a sign of trust. When an important businessman had to complete a transaction in a distant city, he didn't travel there. It was too dangerous. Instead he sent a trusted servant empowered to act on his behalf. The servant carried a coin like form of identification made of baked white clay. The seal of the businessman being represented was pressed into the clay as was a secret name, known only to the other party in the transaction. By the presentation of the white stone, the servant authenticated himself as being entitled to all the rights and privileges of his master. In this way, our Lord Jesus will identify us as being entitled to all the rights and privileges due Him, when we enter into the Presence of our Father in Heaven.

Our Lord instructed the Disciples to go into all the world (Matt 28:19-20), but in Pergamus the world came into the church. In the 4th century the Edict of Milan made Christianity legal and ultimately the official religion of the Empire. When that happened, pagan festivals became Christian holidays. The Feasts of Saturnalia and Ishtar became Christmas and Easter. This explains why such pagan symbols as the Yule log and evergreen tree, which symbolized the sun dying and being born again at the winter solstice, are associated with Christmas, while fertility symbols like rabbits and eggs are connected with Easter. Ishtar was the Babylonian goddess of fertility.

The impressive ruins on a hill 1000 feet above the surrounding valleys near modern Bergama are markedly pagan with remains of great temples to Roman gods and emperors but only faint traces of the church that was there.

The parable of the Mustard Seed tells of a small seed that grows into something it was never intended to be and is a prophecy of what can happen when the world and the church are mingled. And Paul's letter to the Corinthians, the worldly church, is an obvious parallel.

Children Of A Mixed Marriage

It’s my belief that the churches in Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamus have all disappeared, symbolically and in reality. But the marriage of pagan and Christian beliefs in Pergamus produced 4 offspring that all survive to this day and are represented by the four remaining letters. We'll cover them next time.

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Prophecy Digest: Great Jet no one can fly (India) -Siddharth Srivastava

Sukhois crash India's defense

Written by Siddharth Srivastava

It has been one of the worst years ever for India's Air Force, with 13 crashes in 2009 that have taken some 25 lives. But two particularly stand out – the loss of two fast, deadly Russian-built Sukhoi SU-30 MKI jet fighters, which can fly 3,200 km at cruising speed carrying eight tons of armaments, with the ability to strike deep into China if necessary.

The crashes, which have resulted in the grounding of India's entire 105-plane Sukhoi fleet, have raised questions about India's air strike capabilities, given the existing arsenals held by India's often hostile neighbors, Pakistan and China. The first occurred in April, killing Wing Commander PS Narah and injuring Wing Commander SV Munje. In the second, late last month, on a routine training sortie southwest of the Pokharan firing ranges, the two pilots, Wing Commander Srivastava and Flight Lieutenant Arora, bailed out to safety.

Officials say the first crash was due to a defect in the computerized flight control system, while the latter one was laid to fire in the aircraft engine. As a result, the grounding of the fleet deals yet another blow to the already flailing Indo-Russian defense relationship.

Ominously as well, the accidents are regarded as a setback to India's air security, as the powerful long-range aircraft have been deployed for combat from any part of the country in a matter of hours. They currently are predominantly stationed along India's western peninsular areas bordering Pakistan to protect the industrial states Maharashtra and Gujarat. However, given recent border tensions with China over territorial rights over the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, Sukhois have been deployed in adjoining Assam for quicker access to China as well.

India has five Sukhoi squadrons bought from Russia in three separate transactions worth US$8.5 billion and aims to ultimately be able to field 280 such fighters, worth US$45 million per copy. The domestic company Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd is expected to manufacture 140 under license by 2015.

However, the latest events raise new doubts about Russia's ability to service the Sukhois and supply spare parts, which has bedeviled India's MIG aircraft fleet as well, which long formed the backbone of India's air strike force. However, technical snags, shoddy servicing and non-availability of spares resulted in many MIGs going down, killing pilots and damaging India's air force capabilities.

In a statement in October, the Indian defense ministry said: "the (Sukhoi) aircraft are due for overhaul shortly."Now questions are being asked whether the Sukhois are going the way of the MIGs, raising doubts as well about the efficacy of India's massive defense modernization efforts.

Pakistan, a former Cold War ally of America and now partner in its war against terror, has meanwhile continued to receive military aid that has included state-of-the art F16 fighters. Pakistan is also assisted by China, whose military prowess is far ahead of India's. Pakistan is the immediate focus of India's military upgrade as evidenced by the recent successful test firing of two nuclear-capable short-range Prithvi missiles in quick succession for the first time. The Prithvi missiles are aimed at targets in Pakistan.

In response to perceived threats from its neighbors following the Mumbai terror attacks by a team of Pakistani militants last November that took 195 lives, India escalated its defense budget (2009-10) by 34 percent in the last year to US$30 billion, while defense modernization expenditures should scale over US$100 billion over the next decade.

India is in the process of building a fighter jet fleet that will comprise the multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA) that will replace the long-obsolete, crash-prone MiG-21 interceptors and fit between the more powerful Sukhoi-30s and the low-end indigenous Tejas LCA lightweight fighters. The Defense Ministry is also looking at a variety of helicopters, radars and long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft to secure its air defense preparedness.

Six global aerospace companies, Lockheed Martin, Boeing (American), Dassault's Rafale (French), Gripen (Sweden), MiG (Russian) and Eurofighter Typhoon (a consortium of British, German, Italian and Spanish companies), are bidding for the big US$12 billion deal to supply 126 MRCA jets.

Shift away from Russia

The latest episodes add to the diminishing role of Russia as India's chief defense supplier, built when the two countries were allies in the Socialist bloc. India has already suffered severe delays in delivery of the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and at least two nuclear powered submarines from Russia. All of these mean New Delhi has been making a definitive turn away from Russia to other countries such as Israel and America to procure arms, apart from partners France and UK.

Ties between India and America have deepened with a strategic shift in the relations between the two countries over the last couple of years that also resulted in the signing of the landmark civilian nuclear pact.

The US has been promoting India as a regional counterweight to China as well as tapping new business opportunities for the US's massive defense establishment. Recent American acquisitions by India include, Airborne Early Warning Air Craft, Hawkeye E-2D, developed by Northrop Grumman, and six P-8I Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance aircraft for US$2 billion from Boeing to replace India's ageing TU-142s.

US firms are top contenders of the MRCA deal as well. Even as America emerges as India's new defense partner Israel has become India's biggest supplier of arms (overtaking Russia) accounting for 30 percent of imports.

India and Israel have finalized deals for the Barak-8 Naval air-defense system, and the Spyder surface-air-missile system. India also launched an Israeli-made spy satellite from Sriharikota in April 2009 for round the clock surveillance, helping to monitor India's international borders and to anticipate any troop build-up or infiltration attempts by armed groups and track incoming ballistic missiles.

Israel has also supplied India aerostat radar facilities to seek to spot surreptitious guerilla activity, such as Mumbai where the terrorists employed dinghy boats to infiltrate the city. Meanwhile, delivery of the Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd developed Phalcon Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) mounted on Russian-delivered Ilyushin-76 aircraft, have begun. The Phalcon will boost surveillance capabilities.

The vast amounts of money to be spent over the decade have raised fears that the country's corruption ridden military procurement system will be subject to additional scandals. Already, in June of 2008, the chairman of the state-controlled Ordnance Factory Board was arrested and seven major domestic and international companies, including ones from Singapore, Poland and Israel, were permanently banned from doing business with the Indian ministry of defense.

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Prophecy Digest The Revelation of Jesus -Chuck Smith

1. The Revelation

The Bible is unique and different from any other book in the world. It is a book

that still stands today after years and years of criticism. It has been hammered

on by all kinds of people for thousands of years. The hammers have worn out

but the book still remains.

The Bible took over two thousand years to write and includes more than forty

different authors. Yet, it is one, beautiful, continuous story of God's love and

God's plan for sinning man.

The book of Revelation, written by the apostle John, is the last book of the Bible.

It is divided into three sections or divisions. In Revelation 1:19 John was told by

the angel to "write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are,

and the things which shall be after these things."

In chapter one, John wrote the things which he had seen - the vision of Jesus

Christ. This is the first section of the book.

In chapters two and three, John wrote the things which are the letters of Jesus

to the seven churches of Asia dealing with - things concerning the church, the

ministry of the church, and the witness of the church in the world. These letters

are the second section of the book and they describe the various periods of

church history.

From Revelation 4 onward, the third section of Revelation, John prophesied those

things which are to take place after the church has been taken out of the world -

the future which is about to unfold before us.

REVELATION 1:1-2

The head of your King James Bible says "The Revelation of St. John the Divine."

That is not accurate. That is man's heading. The book of Revelation does not

reveal St. John the Divine. It reveals Jesus Christ.

We get the truth in verse one: "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." The word

revelation is a translation of the Greek word "apokalypsis" which literally means

"unveiling."

Picture, if you will, a draped statue that is about to be dedicated in front of city

hall. The band is playing, the mayor gives a speech, and the artist who carved

the statue tells about designing it.

Then, the dramatic moment comes and the

canvas is lifted. Everybody sees this statue that will now adorn city hall for the

next century. That lifting-off of the canvas in the Greek is the word apokalypsis.

It is taking off the wraps so you can see.

The book of Revelation is the unveiling

of Jesus Christ. So rather than being a sealed book, as some claim, it is taking

the wrap off so that we might see Jesus in His future glory.

It is extremely important for you to know what God is and who Jesus Christ is.

Some of you are totally ignorant concerning God. Your hearts are darkened. You

have no knowledge of Him.

Some of you have a veil over your eyes and heart,

and you really don't want any knowledge of God. The Bible states, "The fool hath

said in his heart, There is no God" (Psalm 141). The man is a fool who doesn't

seek to know God.

God has spoken to man. In times past He spoke by the prophets. In these last

days he has spoken to us by His own dear Son "whom he hath appointed heir of

all things, by whom also he made the worlds" (Hebrews 1:2). Jesus Christ is the

faithful witness of what God is.

If you want to know what God is like, you can

look to Jesus Christ and understand what God is all about.

The Revelation [or unveiling] of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show

unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and

signified it by his angel unto his servant John (Revelation 1:1).

Here we find the route by which this revelation came to us. God gave it to Jesus

Christ, showing Him the glory that should be revealed. Concerning the cross the

Bible said, "Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising

the shame" (Hebrews 12:2).

This book of Revelation, to a great extent, is the joy

that was set before Jesus Christ as the Father showed Him the place that He

would have in the ages to come.

Jesus, in turn, gave the revelation to His angel who brought it to His servant,

John, "who bore record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ,

and of all things that he saw" (Revelation 1:2).

In his first epistle John wrote,

That which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our

hands have handled, of the Word of life... That which we have seen and heard

declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our

fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ (I John 1:1,3).

John is the faithful recorder writing the things that he saw and heard, writing as

the Lord dictated to him. This revelation came by vision as well as by voice. The

people in the vision, the spiritual entities that John saw, were conversing with

him and explaining many of the things that he saw.

REVELATION 1:3

Included in this book of Revelation is a built-in blessing.

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and

keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand (Revelation

1:3).

The blessing is upon those that hear and those that read this book. It was

addressed to the seven churches in Asia. It was actually intended to be read in

the churches and, no doubt, a copy was made for each church.

In those days they did not have bookstores or racks in the supermarkets. Writing

material was very scarce. The early writing material was papyrus from Egypt.

Then Egypt put a premium on it and began a papyrus embargo in order to raise

prices and put the squeeze on the world.

So, in Pergamos, they invented

parchment as a writing material. But it, too, was very scarce. At the time of

Christ there were great libraries but very few people had any books of their own.

They did, however, have the materials to write personal letters. Each of the

churches received a copy of the letter and it was to be read aloud in the church.

Much of the church service in those days was given to the reading of the various

epistles and this book of Revelation.

The blessings are to those that hear, to

those that read the words of this prophecy, and to those that keep the things

that are written in it.

Notice that John himself calls it a prophecy. Thus, when we read it we must look

to the future. It's speaking of things that shall happen.

Interpretations

There are various interpretations of the book of Revelation. There's the preterist

interpretation of the book of Revelation, which seeks to make all the events

correspond to the church's struggle against imperial Rome. It sees the whole

book transpiring during the period of Roman history when the church went

through great persecution by various emperors. It interprets the book as

completed and fulfilled.

There is the historic interpretation which sees the book of Revelation as the

history of the church's struggle against the world systems. This goes beyond the

Roman period and follows through to the present time.

There is also the spiritual interpretation which confuses things so completely that

nobody understands what is what. This interpretation spiritualizes everything so

nothing means what it says.

Everything is interpreted as a spiritual allegory.

When you spiritualize the Scriptures you remove any authority or teaching from

them, because every man is free to interpret the spiritual allegory as he desires.

Then there is the futurist interpretation of the book of Revelation. I personally

feel that the futurist view is the correct view.

With the futurist view you can read

the book and believe that it meant what it said, and it said what it meant. You

don't have to start twisting things to make them fit here and there, and changing

them to fit some scheme. The futurist view takes the Revelation just as it says,

to be understood just as it is.

REVELATION 1:4-5

John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace,

from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seen

Spirits which are before his throne (Revelation 1:4).

The number seven is mentioned over and over throughout this prophecy. Seven

is sometimes called God's perfect number because it represents completeness or

totality. Seven days make a complete week, seven notes comprise the musical

scale, and seven colors are in the rainbow. Thus, seven churches would indicate

the complete church.

Geographically, these churches complete a small circle. There were many more

churches in Asia Minor than these seven; one of the major churches, Colosse,

was not addressed here. But, because seven is the number of completeness,

these seven present us with the complete history of the church.

In this prophecy here also have the seven seals, the seven trumpet judgments,

the seven thunders, and the seven vials of God's wrath - all of which

demonstrate God's complete judgment on the earth.

It is also worth noticing that the number eight is the number of new beginnings.

The eighth day starts the new week; after seven musical notes the eighth note

starts the new upper scale. Since each letter of the Greek alphabet carries a

numeric equivalent, it is interesting that the total numeric value of the names for

Jesus in the Greek are all divisible by eight - Jesus, Christos, Kurios. He is the

new beginning, and we have a new beginning in Christ.

"Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is

to come." This is God's eternal character. God is past, He is present, and He is

future. He was, He is, and He is to come. He's all these at the same time.

Everything is the "eternal now" with God.

"And from the seven Spirits which are before his throne." Here (and in

Revelation 3, 4, and 5) we read of the seven Spirits before the throne of God.

Again, the number seven indicates the completeness of the work of the Holy

Spirit.

The prophet Isaiah, speaking of the ministry of Jesus Christ declared,

The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and

understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the

fear of the LORD (Isaiah 11:2).

Thus, the seven-fold working of the Holy Spirit is defined and described.

John sends the blessings from God, from the Holy Spirit, "and from Jesus Christ,

who is the faithful witness" (Revelation 1:5). Jesus Christ is the faithful witness

of what God is. He came to reveal the Father.

The night in which He was betrayed, Jesus was talking with His disciples. Philip

cried to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." Jesus said, "Have I

been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that

hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the

Father?" (John 14:8-9).

Today, God wants to reveal Himself through you. It is God's purpose that the

world sees Him through you. That is a very heavy obligation on our part. Jesus

said, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me" (Acts 1:8). Our lives are to bear witness of

Jesus Christ and who He is.

The word witness in Greek is "martus," from which we get our English word

"martyr." "Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness [martyr], and the first

begotten of the dead" (Revelation 1:5).

This phrase first begotten doesn't mean the first in time but the first in priority.

First begotten is speaking of prominence. It refers to Jesus Christ as the most

important one ever raised from the dead.

Also, Jesus was begotten of the dead unto eternal life never to die again. Others

had been raised from the dead only to die a second time. But Jesus arose never

to die again. In this sense, He is "the first begotten of the dead."

He is "the prince [ruler] of the kings of the earth" (Revelation 1:5). This is the

title and position that Jesus will have during the kingdom age. God "has made

him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor"

(Psalm 8:5). We see a world that is in chaos and under the power and dominion

of Satan. But we're looking for that glorious coming Kingdom when Jesus will

assume His position as the ruler of the kings of the earth.

Revelation 1:5 describes Jesus and His relationship to you: "Unto him that loved

us." Never doubt the love of Jesus Christ for you! Satan will seek to have you

doubt that love. He'll whisper, "You've been bad! God certainly doesn't love you

now. You've failed! You haven't lived up to His standards. Jesus doesn't love bad

little boys."

That isn't true. Jesus loves you no matter what your condition.

"While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Jesus died for the

ungodly. And if, while you were a sinner and rebelling against Him, He loved you

enough to die for you, how much more shall you experience the fullness of that

love and grace now that you've opened your heart to Him and sought to walk

after Him.

Unto him that loved us, and [because He loved us] washed us from our sins in

his own blood (Revelation 1:5).

For the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses a man from all sin. In His love,

Jesus shed His blood and washed you from all of your sins. For "all we like sheep

have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath

laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). He died in our place.

REVELATION 1:6-7

"And hath made us kings and priests unto God" (Revelation 1:6). Or, more

literally, "hath made us a kingdom of priests unto God."

A priest of the Old Testament had a two-fold ministry. First of all, he represented

the people before God. While doing this, he wore a breastplate with twelve

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