Yair Doin’ Good, Kid

Yair Lapid might just be in campaign mode, but he’s making some good moves in his caretaker prime minister role, after the year-long reign of Naftali Bennett came to an end.

My general sense of him the last several years is that he’s just another garden-variety political opportunist united with several in their efforts to get rid of Benjamin Netanyahu. That’s probably not an illegitimate assessment.

But Lapid has somewhat surprised with some good decisions and strong statements that lets the world know—and specifically, Israel’s regional enemies—he is no pushover.

His latest is publicly saying that the world should walk away from the so-called Iran Deal (launched by that fiend, Barack Obama, and his team of anti-American/anti-Israel advisors). Rather than deal with Iran from strength, as Donald Trump did, this “deal” allows the Iranians to continue their drive for nuclear weapons. It kicks certain things down the road and most importantly, gives the state sponsor of terrorism more time to develop nukes.

From the Times of Israel:

“’The Europeans sent Iran a final offer, which doesn’t even meet the demands that the Americans committed to, and established that this offer was ‘take it or leave it,’ said a senior Israeli official at the highest level of decision-making on Thursday.

“’Iran turned down the offer, and the time has come to get up and walk away,’ the official continued. ‘Anything else sends a strong message of weakness.’”

Frankly, the diabolical Joe Biden Regime in Washington is driving this as much as anything, in terms of projecting weakness.

(I’ve long thought that Obama intentionally projected weakness, first because he hates America and secondly, he wanted to take practical steps to place us on equal footing with the Frances of the world. Remember our credit-rating downgrade?)

“Israel believes Iran wishes to build a nuclear bomb, and has reportedly carried out sabotage operations within the Islamic Republic to delay the development of such a weapon.

“Iran has denied any nefarious intentions and claims its program is designed for peaceful purposes, though it has recently been enriching uranium to levels that international leaders say have no civil use.

“Two major roadblocks remain in the negotiations if Tehran does want to return to the deal: Iran is demanding an end to International Atomic Energy Agency investigations into its nuclear program, and wants guarantees to cover the possibility of the US ditching the agreement again in the future.”

That last sentence is interesting, since international leaders still fear a return to office for Donald Trump, who would no doubt be even more forceful in confronting the mullahs.

For his part, Biden is worse than weak. I believe he is a mendacious figure and not quite so doddering. He is part of an international criminal cabal, and helping Iran is in his best interests financially.

Closer to home for Israel, the Iranians still continue their mischief by bankrolling various terrorist entities, including and especially Hamas. The following item from the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center is obviously written from an Iranian propaganda perspective, but there is one tantalizing sentence that I hope you pick up on:

“On August 6, the Secretary General of PIJ, Ziad al-Nakhleh, met with the Commander of the IRGC, Hossein Salami. In the meeting, Salami insisted that the decline of the power of the Zionists is an unavoidable process that cannot be reversed, and that the liberation of Jerusalem is near. He asserted that Israel, frustrated due to the inability of the United States to protect it, is trying to build closer relations with some Arab countries to strengthen itself, but this strategy cannot save it, and the weakness of the Zionist regime prevents it from fulfilling its ambitions. Salami argued that the weakness and helplessness of the Zionists are becoming clearer day by day, while the power of the Palestinians becomes more apparent. He added that the Zionists are crumbling from within, and it is possible that the Palestinian resistance will not need to wage war to bring about Israel’s collapse. He stressed the unyielding support of the Islamic Republic to the Palestinians and the ‘resistance’, and condemned the Israeli actions in Gaza, asserting that the Zionists will pay a heavy price for their crimes. He averred that the swift response of the Palestinian resistance to the Israeli attack indicates that the resistance is now at an evolved stage of its power. Al-Nakhleh thanked Salami for Iran’s support, led by Ali Khamenei, to the Palestinians, and proclaimed that the Islamic resistance achieved significant advances in its military capabilities, and this trend will persist. He added that Iran’s defiance in the face of the United States and Israel provides strength to the Palestinian people and to the other forces of resistance (Tasnim, August 6).”

Did you catch that? The “liberation of Jerusalem is near.”

At the moment, there is a fascinating synergy between terror states like Iran and “respectable” Western countries. That close coordination is born I think from frustration that the Oslo Accords have to this point not destroyed Israel by creating a Palestinian state. For many years I have believed that Palestinian statehood, at least the prospect of it, and the status of Jerusalem would be the spark that would ignite the war described in the book of Zechariah.

We are closer than ever to that moment.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

 

 

 

The 10^th Roman Legion

I remember once visiting an antique shop near Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City. At the time, if I’d had a lot of money, I would have bought a slab of stone bearing the inscription of the 10^th Roman Legion, the infamous fighting force that destroyed Jerusalem and murdered thousands of Jews in AD 70. The white stone was chiseled with that “Roman” font, a stark reminder of one of history’s darkest days—the destruction of the Temple.

(In one sense though, we can look at that day as a remarkable, detailed fulfilled prophecy given by Jesus and recorded in Matthew 24; the Lord predicted the destruction of the Temple, at that time an unthinkable occurrence.)

After the Six Day War in 1967, Israeli archaeologists began removing dirt and debris that had accumulated around the Temple Mount, much of it dumped there by the Jordanians. Today, a gleaming archaeological park is there and the walls have been almost fully exposed. One of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen is the pile of gigantic stones lying at the bottom of the Western Wall; they were pushed over the side by Roman soldiers, almost possessed by a demonic energy as they destroyed the Temple in a frenzied effort of fire and blood.

We know what happened due to a few historical accounts, the most important being that of Josephus, a Jewish historian that had been captured by the Romans and taken to Rome. Upon his return, he was camped with the legionnaires as they laid siege to the city.

Four years before, the Jews had revolted against Rome, wanting to throw off the oppression and rule. Nero was the emperor and Vespasian the general that commanded the troops in Judea. Nero would die and Vespasian would go back to Rome as emperor. It was in this era that the famous Masada siege also took place; Jewish scribes just down the road were setting to writing what would become known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Titus would eventually replace his father, Vespasian, as commander of the forces in Judea; they would spend five months laying siege to the fabled city.

All this to say…archaeologists have now uncovered proof of the Roman siege of Jerusalem, and it’s a fascinating story. From a Jerusalem Post report:

“Over the course of many years, archaeological excavations were able to uncover a significant number of Roman military equipment in the city. Many of these were found by Arbiv and fellow researcher Dr. Rina Avner in the Russian Compound near the Jerusalem Municipality.

“So far, the excavated equipment consists of anything from ballista stones, sling stones, spears, arrowheads, swords and catapults.”

I’ve seen various Roman and Babylonian ballista stones, arrowheads, etc., in various parts of the city. But these latest discoveries show a widespread and well-coordinated attack. As the Romans squeezed the city’s inhabitants even more, starvation and suicide took place on a wide scale.

These large, ballista stones were launched from a platform that also employed springs that would send the heavy stones over great distances, at great speed.

These stones were used with brutal effectiveness:

“This lines up with the Siege of Jerusalem, with the ballista stones found being of varying weight and size, able to be launched in an effort to break through the walls or to hit people and prevent the defenders from trying to come out from cover to strike back.”

The story of this siege is fascinating:

“Much of the battle itself was described by the famed Jewish historian Josephus in his landmark work The History of the Jewish War against the Romans.

“With this information, Arbiv was able to match it up with his own findings. These were gained through the locations of where the ballistae stones were found and, from there, he calculated where they must have been fired from.

“This complex series of calculations had to factor in everything from the location of the city walls, the angles used to launch each stone and what their ranges were and the local topography.

“From here, Arbiv helped discover two things: Where much of the Roman artillery was located, and where the Romans probably managed to breach the city.”

It seems the artillery was in what is now the center of modern Jerusalem, to the west of the Old City. And the Romans breached the walls in the area of today’s Russian Compound.

Still to be discovered are the towers and siege rams that were also used.

We wait with great anticipation for these and other discoveries!

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com