THE FIRE IN THE NORTH

The Bible tells us: "Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap." (Isaiah 17:1)

Outgoing Chief of Military Intelligence General Amos Yadlin has just warned Israel that the next war she faces will be more serious and bloody than ANY of those previously fought. Some time ago I personally wrote in great concern to Israel's current chief of staff, General Gabi Ashkenazi, stressing that Syria - together with the heavily-rocket-armed Hizbollah - is Israel's most dangerous enemy right now.

Syria has been preparing feverishly for its next round of hostility with Israel. For months, hundreds of Scud missiles, some armed with the lethal VX nerve gas, have been readied for launching against Israeli cities - especially in the north. The New York Times reported December 7 that Hizbollah has 50,000 missiles and is capable of hitting Tel Aviv.

The probable outcome of a surprise first-strike would be thousands of Israeli casualties. This, in turn, would trigger a furious Israeli response to stop Damascus from sending in a second wave of missiles. A military man - little knowing that the scriptures foretell just such an event - said to me: 'If Syria attacks Israel with nerve gas we will flatten Damascus.' Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem alluded to this possible scenario on November 26 when he said: "Everyone will lose because today's advanced military technology allows the causing of a large amount of destruction, even to the side that has a lot of military might." The greatest loser, according to above-quoted verse from Isaiah 17, will be Syria.

The terrible fire that has just ravaged the Carmel region was a wakeup call to the Israeli people and government; I would say, a wakeup call of far worse things to come. For if Israel was caught 'under' prepared for this catastrophe - which killed 42 people, burned five million trees, and destroyed so much property - how will she face thousands of Katyusha rockets and Scud missiles that may soon be fired into the north and center of the country by Syria and the Hizbollah, not only igniting fires everywhere but inflicting FAR MORE civilian casualties than this brush fire, terrible as it was?

When the fire broke out I (and others with me) was not immediately led to pray, as I am sure many Israelis did, that the fire would be stopped. Indeed, heaven at first did not seem out to "help" douse the fire. On the contrary, not only had months (years) of drought prepared the ground for a burning; the strong winds that drove the fire on seemed a divine sign that not all is well; that the God of love and mercy was allowing this fire to warn and prepare His people for a far more serious conflagration to come.

While the spiraling threat of war is the most serious front Israel faces at the present time, it is not the only one. Israel's standing in the world has been drastically eroded, as recently as this very week with the decision to Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay to officially recognize "a free and independent Palestinian state within the borders defined in 1967." Israel's foreign ministry fears the South American states have opened a door through which European and other countries will quickly follow.

And in Washington DC itself - the capital of the single nation Israel has considered a real friend in this hostile world - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is pulling out all the stops to try get the stalled "peace process" moving again.

PEACE THROUGH VICTORY

Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, "O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!" And Elisha said to him, "Take a bow and some arrows." So he took himself a bow and some arrows. Then he said to the king of Israel, "Put your hand on the bow." So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king's hands. And he said, "Open the east window"; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, "Shoot"; and he shot. And he said, "The arrow of the Lord's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them." Then he said, "Take the arrows"; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground"; so he struck three times, and stopped. And the man of God was angry with him, and said, "You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times." (2 Kings 13:14-19)

So, what is the policy Israel's government is ready to implement in the event war breaks out?

Will Israel now forewarn the world, in no uncertain terms, that finding itself surrounded as it is with deadly enemies on all sides - despite all its concessions and proven willingness to secure peaceful coexistence - that if these enemies nevertheless, in their folly and hatred, should again attack Israel and cause thousands of civilian casualties, Israel will annex all territories she already has and those she will acquire as a result of this aggression against her state and people?

If the international community is opposed to such a dire outcome, Israel should serve the following notice: Tell the Arab nations now to desist from attacking us again or face the consequences of the war you initiate.

As Israel's outgoing chief of Military Intelligence just warned, the next war will unquestionably be more serious and bloody than all that have gone before. None of the thousands of Israeli civilian and military casualties will be able to be retrieved.

Israel's government should therefore, in preparation for this conflict, and in a serious bid to avert it, confront the whole world - including its hate-driven foes - with the dire consequences and outcome of this war. There will not be no more negotiations for false and unworthy peace agreements. Israel will make clear and announce now that, like the Allied forces in the last world war, Israel will this time fight until victory, and not until another ceasefire and endless negotiations. And the Jewish state will then, much as the Allied command did after its victory over the Nazis, dictate Israel's own conditions of peace.

Therefore, to Mr Muallem, foreign minister of Syria, who recently said: "There will only be losers as a result of the next war," I say to you: "No, there will be a winner and also there will be a loser. So don't start this war, Mr. Muallem!"