Jul 11 2008
WAR IN NOVEMBER?
A military showdown with Iran may be fast approaching.
By Joel C. Rosenberg
(Washington, D.C., July 8, 2008) — War clouds continue to build in the epicenter. Last month in Rome, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed that the United States and Israel would soon be “annihilated,” language he had not used so explicitly since October 2005 when he promised to wipe Israel “off the map” and urged Muslims to “envision a world without the United States.” This week, his regime authorized a new series of Iranian war games. He ordered the digging of 320,000 graves to bury the enemies of Islam. He is calling for the unification of the Islamic world politically and economically, including the creation of a single currency.
What’s more, Iranian TV is running a new anti-Semitic documentary film series entitled, “The Secret of Armageddon.” Setting the stage for a coming apocalyptic war that will usher in the Islamic Messiah known as the Mahdi or the “Twelfth Imam,” the series focuses on a series of Bible prophecies that inform Jewish and Christian End Times theology. While the presentation is grossly distorted, some facts do emerge. Iranian scholar Dr. Ismail Shafe’i Sarustani , for example, tells viewers that the word “Armageddon” is “originally a Hebrew word” and “is a real geographical region, situated south of Haifa,” noting that “the place was shelled by Hizbullah during the 33-day [July 2006] war.” Iranian historian Mohammad-Taqi Taqipour notes that “these [Evangelical Christians], along with the Jews, believe that the War of the End of Days will take place in the desert of Megiddo, in Palestine. They believe that Jesus will return, and that then there will be a millennium of happiness.”
