Audio edition not available this week.

It is no surprise that the project was a great cause for concern for the international community, but of all nations, Israel is the most concerned, and with good reason.  Iran’s comments toward Israel are also not news, but as a reminder for the context for this discussion we will mention a few recent moments:

Jan 2019 - “Our strategy is to erase Israel from the global political map. And it seems that considering the evil that Israel is doing, it is bringing itself closer to that.  We announce that if Israel does anything to start a new war, it will obviously be the war that will end with its elimination, and the occupied territories will be returned. The Israelis will not have even a cemetery in Palestine to bury their own corpses.”  Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami 

May 2020 - “We will support and assist any nation or any group anywhere who opposes and fights the Zionist regime, and we do not hesitate to say this.”  Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Iran has not only made genocidal threats to Israel, they have also supported all of Israel’s surrounding enemies. For example the terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria.  In response to such grave threats Israel has promised that they will never let Iran succeed in gaining access to a nuclear weapon.  This would be in line to Israel’s response to Saddam Hussein’s attempt and Syria’s where in both cases the reactors were bombed before they went live.  Iran clearly and for good reason were spooked by Israel’s past actions, have done all they can to hold Israel back and keep their progress top secret.

Unfortunately for Iran, Israel’s secret service the Mossad smuggled out thousands of documents detailing Iran’s nuclear program.  Armed with this information Israel has been able to push the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect with more success.  The results have yielded shocking information.  

For example, less than a month ago the IAEA published their findings on the progress of Iran’s uranium enrichment to be more than they were supposed to have under the 2015 deal Iran had made with world powers, including the United States led at the time by President Obama.  Iran now has more than 12 times the amount of enriched uranium permitted in that deal.

Unsurprisingly Iran insists its nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes.

The IAEA however also said Iran's explanation for the presence of nuclear material at an undeclared site was "not credible”.  Further to that it was reported that Iran was continuing to enrich uranium to a purity of up to 4.5% - this is in violation of the 3.67% threshold agreed under the same 2015 deal.

Since those findings were published, Fakhrizadeh was gunned down on November 27th using high tech equipment.  Also two days later an Iranian General in Syria was also assassinated.

Israeli journalist Yossi Melman who specializes on the Israeli Mossad intelligence service, tweeted about the killing. Melman's tweet called the killing a "major psychological and professional blow for Iran.”

Israel however hasn’t confirmed or denied its involvement. Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s energy minister told Kan public radio:

“The assassination in Iran, whoever did it, it serves not only Israel, but the whole region and the world,”

It seems the whole world does not agree. 

Only two days after the incident the EU foreign policy spokesperson stated that; “This is a criminal act and runs counter to the principle of respect for human rights the EU stands for.”  And shortly thereafter the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrel sent condolences to the Fakhrizadeh family.

As one Israeli news site, Israel Today, asked, “Why is Europe shedding tears over a man whose greatest desire was to nuke Jews?

The answer is scriptural and simple, hatred, “perpetual hatred.”  This is the spirit of Edom/ Mt Seir that we see in Ezekiel 35:5 - 

“Thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity"

Antisemitism in Europe is like an old disease that just won't die.  And if Europe is not actively participating in persecution against the Jews it is at a minimum siding with their enemies.  For example in 1973 when the surrounding Arab nations invaded Israel on their holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur, Israel was desperate for help.  Finally, the US came to her aid with a tremendous airlift called Operation Nicklegrass.  But with the Arabs on the verge of committing another Holocaust do you think Europe would assist?  No, in fact, European nations refused to allow US aircraft to land for refueling or even overfly their territory.

And according to Ezekiel 38, they will try it again, led by Russia.  But this time deliverance will not come from the United States of America, not from Britain, but from the Lord Jesus Christ as he returns to establish the little stone Kingdom of Daniel chapter 2.

Until next time, this has been John Billington with you with another edition of the Bible in the News.