The ‘Gog-Magog’ prophecy of Ezekiel (chapters 38 and 39) is back in play! Events in last week’s news made me reconsider its relevance to current international affairs.

But now comes new news!

After posting Thursday’s Bible Update on the implicit accord or ‘understandings’ agreed between Netanyahu and Trump with Putin, I thought this development deviates from the prophesied wars against God’s people in Israel from an alliance of peoples in north and north-eastern Middle-East: currently, Iran, Syria and Turkey under Russian leadership. As that stance seems to be changing by Russia supposedly ignoring or going against Iran’s policy and by coming to an ‘understanding’ of Israel’s need to defend itself against continuous Iranian hostility, perhaps the prophecy isn’t yet applicable?

Therefore, perhaps we need to be open to such a possibility bringing an outcome that doesn’t line up with scripture as it’s not yet the ‘appointed time’?

HOWEVER, yesterday brought news of a diplomatic rift, as exclusively reported by DEBKAfile in Breakdown in Russian-Israeli “Understandings” for S. Syria:

‘The US-Russian-Israel formula for South Syria, composed in painstaking discussions for weeks, is not working. This became clear in phone conversations on Friday, July 20, between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Vladimir Putin and their defense ministers. The “understandings” they had apparently reached were proving inoperable, including Russia’s guarantees for the non-presence of Iranian militias and Hizballah near Israel’s Golan border.

‘The breakdown stemmed from an abrupt Russian U-turn. Russian diplomats were suddenly claiming that Moscow never agreed to have Iranian proxies and Hizballah pushed back from the Israel border or out of Syria at large…’

Thus, PM Netanyahu said Israel is free to engage and wipe out Iranian or Hezbollah forces in the Golan border area, and went into a high state of operational readiness.

So today (Monday), the Russian Foreign Minister and Chief of Staff urgently arrived in Israel for further talks. Last night Netanyahu had described events to his Cabinet in these revealing terms:

‘He said Israel will not accept the Syrian army’s entry to the buffer zone set up by the 1974 Syrian-Israeli separation of forces accord, thereby indicating that he did not trust in Syrian compliance with this accord, despite the guarantee offered by President Vladimir Putin in their phone conversation on Friday, July 20. DEBKAfile’s sources note that Putin’s pledge came after he reneged on a series of promises he gave US President Donald Trump and Netanyahu in recent weeks, relating to keeping the Iranians and their proxies away from the Israeli border.’ (Read full details here)

UPDATE on MONDAY’s MEETING

The Russians returned empty-handed to Moscow after offering to move Iranian-allied forces in Syria back beyond 100km of the Israeli border but being rejected by Israel.

The Times of Israel reports, ‘Israel is sticking to its demand that Iran not be allowed any military foothold in Syria, the official stressed. Israel is furthermore demanding that all long-range missiles be removed from the war-torn country and that any factories producing precision-guided missiles there be shut, the official said.

‘Additionally, Jerusalem has asked Moscow to guarantee that all air-defense systems that protect the aforementioned arms be taken out of Syria. Lastly, Israel requested the closing of border crossings between Syria and Lebanon and between Syria and Iraq, to prevent Iranian weapons being smuggled into Syria.’

Military sources had provided Debka ‘pre-news service’ with details of 8 pro-Iran militias operating in the Golan area. Therefore, according to their latest report:

‘Israel’s leaders confronted their Russian visitors with the charge that, if they can’t – or won’t – remove these hostile forces from Israel’s doorstep, how can they be trusted to keep their pledge to hold them at a distance of 100km?

‘Putin’s emissaries, despite their high rank, had little hope of talking Israeli leaders around when the evidence of his perfidy was in full sight. Contrary to his pledges to the US and Israel, Hizballah and Shiite militias loyal to Tehran were operating freely at this moment on the Syrian-Israeli Golan border.’

[Hand with News Icon by Watcharakun, courtesy Freedigitalphotos.net]