The Secret Diplomacy Channel

by Michael G. Mickey

(12-26-06)

Throughout the years RaptureAlert.com has been in existence, I've closely watched events taking place in the Middle East while considering what Bible prophecy tells us is ultimately going to take place.

A BBC report entitled "A year of Mid-East disappointment" reflects my sentiments as much as it does those of its author, Jeremy Bowen, in many regards. Like Bowen, I thought 2006 might be a better year in Middle East peacemaking than in the past but that hasn't turned out to be the case. Far from it!

Having said that, however, I am more convinced, as we near the end of 2006, that we're very close to the conditions necessary for the advent of the Antichrist to occur than I've ever been before! All the pieces of God's prophetic puzzle - in all its intricacy - continue to slide ever closer together as I continue to document to the best of my ability!

Bowen writes the following, in part, concerning the Middle East's troubled 2006:

The most dangerous long-term problem there is that it is harder and harder to see how a properly sovereign Palestinian state could be established alongside Israel.

The horrible irony of the current moment is that more leaders than ever before agree that a "two-state solution" is the only way ahead.

The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, does and so does Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister, and a long list of others headed by George Bush, Tony Blair and the leaders of Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

Even Khaled Meshal, the exiled political leader of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, though he says that he will not recognise Israel, is prepared for negotiations to create a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, and a ten year truce with Israel.

Assuming for a moment that leaders are telling the truth when they say they want a Palestinian state, a big reason why it is not happening is that they do not mean the same thing.

While everyone in the diplomatic world is crying for "peace and safety" to come to the Middle East, leading us closer to prophetic fulfillment concerning the onset of the Tribulation Period that will coincide with the Antichrist confirming a seven-year covenant of peace in the Middle East "with many" (Daniel 9:26-27), it seems that everyone involved in the peace process has a slightly different goal in mind concerning what the much sought after "two-state solution" will actually consist of! That, brothers and sisters in Christ, is no small problem.

Without a consensus of ideas for bringing it about, how does one find peace?

A lack of consensus, even among those most involved in the Middle East peace process, namely the Quartet of Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations, continues to hold up progress being made in the troubled Middle East.

A good example of this lack of consensus was seen in the recent peacemaking efforts of Spain, Italy and France which seemed, for a time at least, to be moving a powerful segment of the revived Roman empire's diplomatic machinery in a direction away from the Quartet's Roadmap peace plan. Now however, somewhat surprisingly to me, the EU seems committed on some level to incorporating Spain, Italy and France's 1991 Madrid peace conference-like concept into a necessary ingredient for the Quartet's Roadmap peace plan to work. The lack of consensus that has led to that taking place, however, has slowed peacemaking efforts significantly as this newest peace initiative has required all the Quartet's diplomatic power brokers to figure out a way to mesh the Spain-France-Italy initiative into the final Quartet plan that will, hypothetically thus far, give birth to Palestine! What a mess!

And then there are the Palestinians themselves, who seem incapable of agreeing on anything! Some of them are supportive of the continuance of terroristic acts against Israel as a means of obtaining their goals while others want to sit down and at least talk about peace. Again, there is no consensus among a key component of bringing peace to the region which threatens, at least somewhat, to plunge the Palestinians into a civil war that will definitely be of no benefit to ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

And the Israelis? There are many, myself included, who think that Ehud Olmert is so overwhelmed by the international community's incessant ramblings about the failed tactic of "land-for-peace" that he's willing to threaten the very survival of Israel to appease them. Those who see that Olmert is on wobbly legs are striving to stop him from caving in to Israel's enemies as he did in handing over Gaza, which has proven disastrous as expected. And then there are those inside Israel who are, like Olmert, tired of fighting what seems a never-ending battle. These are willing to do just about anything that offers even a faint glimmer of hope that Middle East peace may come, particularly before Iran gets a nuclear weapon.

Israeli fears: They may well be warranted

In the BBC report linked above, Bowen writes the following concerning Israeli fears at the moment:

For Israelis, the world around them looks alarming.

Israel remains the only Middle Eastern state with nuclear weapons.

But suddenly its military hegemony in the region, unquestioned for almost forty years, feels less solid.

The Israel Defence Forces performed badly in Lebanon, and have not been able to break the will of the Palestinians in the occupied territories.

The IDF could not stop crude rockets being launched into Israel from Gaza.

A sense of business unfinished hangs over from the Lebanon war, while military intelligence reports that Syria is arming itself, apparently for self-defence, with missiles to which Israel is vulnerable.

And then there is Iran, and its nuclear ambitions.

Iran denies it wants to make nuclear weapons. It says it wants to generate electricity.

The Israeli government, like the United States, believes that the Iranians want the bomb. They fear that if Iran had a nuclear weapon it would be able to threaten the existence of the Jewish state.

Military action against Iran, by the United States or Israel, still cannot be ruled out.

It is not at all clear whether any of the military options available could destroy Iran's nuclear facilities.

It is clear that any military action would carry a heavy cost, as Iran has a number of ways of hitting back.

A good portion of Israel's confidence was scarred by the Lebanon war earlier this year and Israel's enemies are smelling blood! Syria and Iran are preparing for war in the opinion of many, due, once again, to a lack of consensus on the part of the international community to deal with these two terror-loving rogue states, one of which is openly calling for Israel's destruction while seeking nuclear weapons. But, in spite of all this, Israel has nothing to fear, right? The Jewish state still has the United States and Christians around the world on its side, right? Well, sort of.

As seen in a Chandler News-Dispatch article from earlier this month, clergy "representing many of the largest denominations in the country are urging U.S. leaders to once again put their vast influence behind a negotiated end to Mideast violence and make working for peace "an urgent priority.""

Surely, the ramblings of some clergymen from a variety of faiths couldn't influence United States foreign policy while the Bible-believing Church is still in the fight for Israel, right? If the Church was as engaged politically and as committed as it once was to the Word of God, no way! But, sadly, it isn't. Sure the die-hard evangelicals are holding the line for the apple of God's eye but there are the Rick Warren-type Christians of the world who are visiting with Israel's most despised enemies to the shame of us all, as WorldNetDaily's Joseph Farah has done an outstanding job of pointing out recently I might add. This is, naturally, sending some pretty strong mixed signals to Washington concerning where the loyalties of today's Christians lie.

Is it any wonder, as such, that the United States is slowly starting to turn its back on the nation of Israel, as we see in a Middle East Newsline story, by blocking the transfer of weapons and technology to the Jewish state?

Christians, we need to open our eyes when we see words like the following found in the Middle East Newsline story (emphasis added mine):

"Nobody will say openly that there is a problem," a government source said. "But there is a serious problem that reflects the marginalization of Israel in U.S. strategy."

The marginalization of Israel in U.S. strategy? Church, are you out there? If so, it's time for us to start praying like wild for the peace of Jerusalem that we not be held accountable when we stand before Christ for what the apostate religious leaders of our time and our elected officials are allowing to take place under our noses that places Israel in a more precarious position to make a literal deal with the devil in the form of the Antichrist's peace covenant to come!

Could the Rapture of the Church be closer than is clearly visible? Of course!

Two things in closing:

1. The European Jewish Press is indicating that the EU is hoping for a Mideast peace process revival. Not only that, we see within the details of the article the possibility that there is much more activity going on diplomatically in the troubled Middle East, which seems on the verge of blowing apart at the seams, than we're often aware of!
2. A major breakthrough in Middle East peacemaking could come with little to no warning whatsoever, as we see in the final paragraphs of Bowen's BBC report linked above. They read as follows:

   The Middle East is capable of springing surprises.

   Perhaps there is a secret channel of diplomacy that journalists have not found out about, that will tap into the longings for peace that many people in the Middle East share.

   Let us hope so because if there is not, 2007 is looking very gloomy.

With all that's going on that threatens to keep the Middle East from entering a state of peaceful coexistence, is it possible that the prophesied prince of Roman descent described in Daniel 9:26-27 is utilizing a "secret channel of diplomacy" that could lead to a major breakthrough in Middle East peacemaking in 2007? One never knows but the fact the citizenry of the world is now, by necessity, eyeing the Middle East with concern a nuclear conflict could potentially occur there in the not-too-distant future is a scenario that is begging for a hero to come forth!

Wondering what would happen if a madman like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad obtained a nuclear weapon and was willing to use it, a world that has been near panic-stricken since September 11, 2001, all the while wondering what would happen if a madman like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad obtained a nuclear weapon and was willing to use it, is hungering for a man like the prophesied Antichrist to come along bearing the promise of "peace and safety." The stage for a hero like that to arrive, if it isn't set already, soon will be!

A secret diplomacy channel that could lead to the sudden announcement that peace has come to the Middle East. Could there be one in the works right now and, if so, could that be why we're told the Tribulation Period is going to come upon the world like a snare or a flood, as well as why we're told that Christ will come as a thief in the night, at a moment when we think not?

Luke 21:35-36: For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

Matthew 24:37-39: But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Matthew 24:42-44: Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

With every passing day, Christ's return draws closer, both conditionally and chronologically.

Soon, Christians! Soon!

E-mail this commentary to a friend or family member!