It’s All in the Timing

One of the most fascinating aspects of Bible prophecy is paying attention to details. If we are in the season of the very end of the end-times (remember, John told us it was “the last time” 2,000 years ago), big things are happening, but are we paying attention to those details?

Probably the hottest topic going is the timing of the Gog-Magog war. A key detail is found early on:

“And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates…” (Ezekiel 38:11)

That certainly does not describe Israel today, as the security barrier and myriad other checkpoints and barriers exist throughout the country. So it is not accurate to say that Gog-Magog is ready to break out any minute. (Too, Putin—if he were Gog—is, shall we say, preoccupied at the moment?)

Now, we must always remember that things can “change on a dime,” especially in the Middle East. It could be that something unforeseen can change the situation regarding the Palestinians and their hatred/incitement. In order for the Ezekiel War to launch, Israel would have to be feeling quite safe. Currently it is anything but.

This week comes word that perhaps things are moving in that direction, although there is the matter of nuance.

With the coming back of the Netanyahu reign in Israel, attention will once more be turned to the Abraham Accords, that is, reinvigorating them. Since 2020, the historic agreements between Israel and Gulf States has been on the backburner, as the globalists hate the initiative. It is possible though that we are seeing the outlines of a period in which Israel might dwell more securely. If relations can be established between the Jewish state and Saudi Arabia, for instance, that would be monumental.

However, here is the nuance: those Arab states are wanting to see “progress” on the Palestinian issue. It is that point that I have long believed will light the bomb culminating in the “Zechariah” invasion of Israel.

For the moment though, long-time Israeli politician Danny Danon sees progress on the Abraham Accords:

“’I expect we’ll see an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia this year,’ he told the first Abraham Accords Global Leadership Summit held in Rome with representatives from 30 countries.

“’Netanyahu’s first state visit will be to Abu Dhabi, and we hope that Riyadh will follow,’ said Danon who is a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party.

“’The Abraham Accords were not built in a day. The hardest part was going public. We have been in contact with the Saudis for years. I worked personally with them at the United Nations on matters of regional stability and security. It’s just a matter of time before courageous leaders step out of the shadows and full peace is achieved between all the children of Abraham,’ Danon said.”

Extraordinary.

Further, is it possible the situation with Iran can turn around?

“In Rome Imam Mohammad Tawhidi, a  Shi’a Muslim Scholar and vice-president of The Global Imams Council said he saw a future in which both Saudi Arabia and Iran had relations with Israel. He recalled that Jerusalem and Tehran enjoyed close relations before the Iranian revolution.

“Despite the enmity between those two countries, he said,  ‘peace between Israel, Iran, and even between the Shi’a and the Sunni world is closer than ever.

“’The people of Iran have seen the fruits of the Abraham Accords, they have witnessed how fast peace can be built and many remember the days of Israeli tourists visiting Tehran and long for those days to return,’ Tawhidi said.

“He later told The Jerusalem Post by telephone from Rome that he believed Danon’s assessment was correct about Saudi Arabia, noting that their tacit consent would have been needed for the creation of the Abraham Accords.”

Oddly enough then, as we see the possibility of Israel and the Arabs moving toward each other, that eventuality can eventually cause Israel to feel “false security,” as in a land of unwalled villages, thus allowing the Arabs to lure them into a false peace.

Is that what the Abraham Accords are in the end? Could this positive development be a Trojan Horse of sorts?

We shall see. But let us always keep in mind what Scripture says. The day is coming when Israel will find herself alone. History cannot conclude without that.

“All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased.” (Jeremiah 30:14)

God will fight for her in the end. Of that we can be sure.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

 

Ivan the Terrible

This week I watched a Netflix documentary, “The Devil Next Door.” It presented the story of a Cleveland auto worker accused of being the infamous Treblinka guard known as Ivan the Terrible. John Demjanjuk, ostensibly a Ukrainian refugee/immigrant after World War 2, had been a quiet, unassuming employee at the Ford plant in Cleveland—a model husband, father, and grandfather.

In 1986, Demjanjuk was extradited to Israel and stood trial. He was found guilty and sentenced to hang, but later (dubious?) evidence from the crumbling Soviet Union saved Demjanjuk. He was later stripped of his American citizenship and extradited to Germany, of all places. He died in prison before he could technically, legally, be convicted. Demjanjuk was 91.

As a journalist, I watched the documentary with an open mind. It resembled a heavyweight fight, as both sides traded punches and at any given time, one could be persuaded of his guilt, or consider there was reasonable doubt. In the end (watch it for yourself), I concluded he was Ivan. A very interesting notation on his immigration papers seemed to show that Demjanjuk identified himself as “Ivan Marchenko.” I also felt that relying on a KGB officer was almost laughable, as the KGB files identified another man as Ivan, however as I said, that testimony saved Demjanjuk’s life.

The passage of time, disagreement over a worker’s camp card, and frankly motivations of both sides made this story a bit murkier than you’d like.

Both sides made mistakes at trial. The prosecutor, Michael Shaked, got caught offguard when one compelling witness later appeared to suffer some dementia, thus throwing his identification of Demjanjuk into question. Conversely, the odd defense attorney, Yoram Sheftel, was off-putting for his enjoyment of the whole scene. He even admitted that he loved the spotlight, a very bad look for such a solemn proceeding. Sheftel also made points by mocking the prosecution’s reliance on Soviet records, yet later embraced the same type of evidence from…the KGB officer!

Overall a very weird story. It was also supremely tragic and horrific. Ivan the Terrible was an unusually sadistic madman, which is saying something in that Nazi crowd. In the end, it was proven that Demjanjuk was a guard at nearby Sobibor, and at the time of his death he had been charged as an accessory in 27,000 murders.

This was the most disturbing aspect of Demjanjuk’s story; he denied any knowledge of murders and basically claimed to be a completely innocent bystander of war, himself an innocent victim. It wasn’t credible. Of course, in order to play all this out, he had to claim complete innocence. It wouldn’t do to admit that, yes, he had been a guard, but blah, blah, blah.

He died never having admitted any complicity whatsoever. That Israel’s Supreme Court let him go after the KGB evidence came forward made the emotional pain in Israel all the more gut-wrenching. Sheftel was considered a traitor by his own people and I’m surprised he’s still around.

Demjanjuk was the biggest villain to be tried in Israel since the inhuman Adolph Eichmann in 1961. The court testimony was chilling.

I mention all this because my real takeaway from it all was much broader than just a retired autoworker from Cleveland, Ohio. I paid close attention to both his neighbors and family’s views of it all, as well as the German people.

It was a reminder that anti-Semitism is alive and well, unfortunately. Now, it is obvious that a man’s family will fight for him. The Demjanjuk family never wavered, particularly the son-in-law. Neighbors closed ranks around them. And the broader “Ukrainian-American” community in Cleveland behaved very much like the shadowy Odessa group that shielded Nazi war criminals in the years after the war. They either were silent, or made it known that they were afraid further inquiries about war criminals might implicate more in the community. All in all, this particular group was, shall we say, unsympathetic to the victims of the Holocaust.

 

At the end of the day, we are confronted with the same problem that has always existed: a lot of people hate Jews. In light of the insane comments from Kanye West this week—in which he lauded Hitler during an interview with the discredited Alex Jones—I am dismayed by the Jew-hatred that clearly exists even in America (long a haven for Jews).

Whoever he was, John Demjanjuk went to meet his Maker. As we all will.

When I meet mine, I will not have to tell Him why I hated the Jews.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com