Ahmadinejad at the U.N.: Why The Threat to Israel Is Growing
By Joel C. Rosenberg
More than ever, we need to be praying for the peace of Jerusalem and wisdom for Israel’s leaders for the threats to Israel are clearly growing. May Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government be like the sons of Issachar, “men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” (1 Chronicles 12:32) May we as the Church – and we here at The Joshua Fund – have wisdom from above to know how best to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus at this critical hour.
This was a tough week for Israel at the United Nations. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proved yet again that he is not a world leader worthy of the world stage. Rather, he is the leader of an Iranian death cult. A new U.N. report indicates he is making progress in building nuclear weapons. He is calling for the arrival of the Twelfth Imam and wiping Israel “off the map.” He aspires to be a mass murderer beyond the scale of Adolf Hitler. He deserves to be in prison, or an insane asylum. His speech Thursday before the U.N. General Assembly was further proof, if any more were needed.
Did you see Ahmadinejad’s apocalyptic address, or read the full text? You should. It’s instructive. Unfortunately, you won’t find Ahmadinejad’s full speech re-printed in the major newspapers. But it should be carefully analyzed.
Like Hitler’s speeches in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, Ahmadinejad isn’t hiding what he believes. He’s pretty clear. He denied the Holocaust. He blasted the U.S. for bringing Osama Bin Laden to justice. He blamed the terrorist attacks 9/11 on the U.S. government. He insisted that his so-called messiah known as “Imam al-Mahdi” or the Twelfth Imam is coming soon. He insisted Jesus Christ will come with the Mahdi to take over the world. He called for a one-world government when he called for “the shared and collective management of the world.”
Consider these excerpts: “This movement is certainly on its rightful path of creation, ensuring a promising future for humanity. A future that will be built when humanity initiates to trend the path of the divine prophets and the righteous under the leadership of Imam al-Mahdi, the Ultimate Savior of mankind and the inheritor to all divine messengers and leaders and to the pure generation of our great Prophet. The creation of a supreme and ideal society with the arrival of a perfect human being who is a true and sincere lover of all human beings, is the guaranteed promise of Allah. He will come alongside with Jesus Christ to lead the freedom and justice lovers to eradicate tyranny and discrimination, and promote knowledge, peace, justice freedom and love across the world. He will present to every single individual all the beauties of the world and all good things which bring happiness for humankind.”
Many Christians don’t understand what Ahmadinejad is really saying. But those who have studied Shia Islamic eschatology or End Times theology know that the Iranian leader believes the end of the world as we have known it is increasingly close at hand. He believes the time for establishing an Islamic caliphate or global government ruled by the Mahdi is rapidly approaching. What’s more, he believes that the way to hasten the coming of the Twelfth Imam is to acquire nuclear weapons and use them to annihilate the United States, which he calls the “Great Satan” and Israel, which he calls the “Little Satan.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu understands what Ahmadinejad means. I have talked to him about it. So do some of his top military advisors. That’s why they believe Iran is in the eye of a gathering storm in the Middle East, and that the chance of a major war is growing.
“Iran has not abandoned its nuclear program. The opposite is true; it continues full steam ahead,” warned Israeli Defense Forces Home Front Command Chief Major General Eyal Eisenberg in a speech earlier this month. Also noting recent uprisings in the Arab world and growing tensions with Turkey, Eisenberg said, “This leads us to the conclusion that…the likelihood of an all-out war is increasingly growing.”
What is the world doing to neutralize the Iranian threat? Precious little. Yes, some world diplomats walked out of Ahmadinejad’s speech. Big deal. They walked softly, but where is the big stick? Yes, the world has passed some economic sanctions. So what? The sanctions may be making Iran’s nuclear program more complicated, but as the recent IAEA report indicates, they are not fundamentally changing the equation or stopping the Bomb-building process. Why isn’t the world taking decisive action to stop Iran from building, buying or stealing nuclear weapons and the ballistic missile systems to deliver them? Time is running out. Once Iran has the Islamic Bomb, does anyone really believe they won’t use it against the U.S. and Israel, either directly or through terrorist surrogates?
Rather than stopping Iran from getting the Bomb, however, the leaders of the world — including President Obama — are hyper-focused on pressuring Israel to divide Jerusalem, divide the Land of Israel, and allow for the creation of a corrupt and dangerous Palestinian state co-led by the missile-firing Hamas terrorist group. To be sure, the Israeli-Palestinian issue is an important one, and it should be treated seriously and carefully. But it’s not the most important issue in the Middle East today. The murderous, apocalyptic Iranian regime and its race for nuclear weapons is Issue #1, 2 and 3.
What if the world doesn’t take decisive action soon? What if Iran gets the Bomb? What if Iran’s leaders are about to use nuclear weapons? What if Israel launches a pre-emptive military strike against Iran? What would the world look like, and what would the current – or future – American President do? What should the Church do? And how can The Joshua Fund best care for poor and needy people in the Land, while also preparing for emergencies coming in the future?
Unfortunately, these questions are all too urgent. Ahmadinejad’s apocalyptic address just made that abundantly clear. It was his most blistering attack on the U.S., Israel, Europe and the West he’s ever delivered at the United Nations.
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