GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 360

Troops Are On The Move

They’re Going In

A lot has been said about the IDF actually sending troops into southern Lebanon and now we’re hearing from an article from The Times Of Israel that it is happening:

Israeli troops have entered Hezbollah tunnels dug near the border with Israel as part of small-scale forays into southern Lebanon, as it gears up for a threatened ground incursion, according to a report in a US newspaper Monday.

It’s not a full blown invasion, though:

Reports in foreign press in recent days have indicated that Israel Defense Forces soldiers have been carrying out limited cross-border raids to collect information or damage Hezbollah’s capabilities to attack Israel.

For now it is specific:

According to the Monday report in The Wall Street Journal, the missions, described as “targeted,” have involved special forces entering a network of subterranean warrens Hezbollah is widely understood to have dug near the Blue Line separating Israel from Lebanon.

It’s been going on in one form or fashion for a little while:

The report, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter, said the raids have taken place over the past months, as well as more recently, with troops “probing” and gathering intelligence, as activity ramps up ahead of a possible ground offensive.

The goal is to push Hezbollah back off the northern Israel border:

Israel has stepped up fighting against Hezbollah in recent weeks as it seeks to push the group away from the border and halt nearly a year of rocket and drone attacks on northern Israel that have left a swath of Israeli towns scarred and uninhabited.

As we’re well aware of, the leadership of Hezbollah has been blown up literally:

The push has included heavy airstrikes on Hezbollah’s leadership, including a Friday strike that killed its chief, Hassan Nasrallah, attacks on weapons stores and missile launchers and actions of a more covert nature, such as a wave of electronic device explosions that killed dozens of members of the Iran-backed group, but which has not been claimed by Israel.

According to some sources a full scale invasion could happen soon:

According to The Wall Street Journal, a wider troop incursion could occur as early as this week, significantly ramping up fighting, though some have interpreted increasingly bellicose comments from Israel on the possibility of a ground war as part of a campaign meant to pressure a weakened Hezbollah into withdrawing as part of a ceasefire.

Why would it be slower? The US isn’t a fan of that operation:

Sources cited by the newspaper were quoted as saying the timing could still change, with Israel under heavy pressure from the US to hold back.

Iran Will Fall

At least that’s what Prime Minister Netanyahu is telling us as we read in an article from The Jerusalem Post:

The Islamic Republic will collapse sooner than people think and the Iranian people will be free, paving the way for relations between these two ancient cultures, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.

The PM sees a time where the Iranian people are free and that it will happen in the near future:

“When Iran is finally free – and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think – everything will be different,” he said.

He predicts that Iran will prosper with that freedom:

“When that day comes, the terror network that the regime built in five continents will be bankrupt, dismantled,” Netanyahu explained, adding that Iran will “thrive as never before.”

Netanyahu’s comments are heard with the background of devastating air strikes on their main proxy Hezbollah and could be seen as signal to Iran that they are next:

He spoke two weeks into a series of IDF strikes that has eliminated Hezbollah’s command structure, including its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

The intense IDF bombardment of Hezbollah targets has been viewed as a veiled warning to Iran. Netanyahu, himself, has issued a number of very public threats against Iran.

“There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach,” Netanyahu said on Monday. “There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country.”

The PM, as he did when he talked directly to the Lebanese people, had a message for Iranians as a whole:

On Monday, he released a statement in English aimed at the Iranian people, explaining that “at this pivotal moment, I want to address you – the people of Iran. I want to do so directly, without filters, without middlemen.

“Every day, you see a regime that subjugates you, makes fiery speeches about defending Lebanon, defending Gaza.

“Yet every day, that regime plunges our region deeper into darkness and deeper into war,” he said.

“With every passing moment, the regime is bringing you – the noble Persian people – closer to the abyss,” he stated.

He thinks that most Iranians want a regime change:

Netanyahu said he believed most Persians are against the regime.

“The vast majority of Iranians know their regime doesn’t care a whit about them,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu says that proof of this is how they are using the vast amounts of money they have:

This regime has wasted billions of dollars on futile wars rather than investing in the country’s economy and future, he explained.

Moving back to the general populace of Iran, the PM said this:

“From Qom to Esfahan, from Shiraz to Tabriz, there are tens of millions of good and decent people with thousands of years of history behind them and a bright future ahead of them,” he said.

Netanyahu described that future including these things:

That future includes global investments, massive tourism, brilliant technological innovations, and peace between Israel and Iran.

He then said that a time like this would result:

When that day comes, he said, “Our two ancient peoples, the Jewish people and the Persian people, will finally be at peace.”

While I certainly want to see these things coming, Bible prophecy doesn’t predict it at or at least talk about it happening in the near future. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen either for a short amount of time and then go back to what we see in the War of Gog and Magog. However Netanyahu is being smart by encouraging hope in both Lebanon and Iran. In the meantime we should factor these things when we pray for the peace of Jerusalem.