A Saudi Israel deal could dramatically reshape the Middle East — but don’t expect it anytime soon

PUBLISHED FRI, SEP 1 20231:40 AM EDTBy:

BY: Natasha Turak@NATASHATURAK

KEY POINTS

• A deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia could dramatically shape the geopolitics of the Middle East.
• But numerous barriers remain to official normalization, which is a major goal of the Biden administration’s foreign policy and one his team is trying to achieve during the president’s current term. 

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends a meeting in Athens, Greece, July 26, 2022.

Louiza Vradi | Reuters

Anticipation and rumors are growing about the potential normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel – two of America’s most important allies in the Middle East whose ties have never formally existed. 

Saudi Arabia doesn’t recognize Israel as a state and has refused to do so since the latter’s independence in 1948. But after decades of tension, recent years saw discrete but growing cooperation between the two. 

The shared threat perception of Iran, a longtime common adversary, has brought the two closer together in terms of coordination and intelligence sharing, according to numerous reports and admissions by Israeli officials.

Saudi Arabia has also allowed Israeli airlines to fly over its territory in recent years, and Israel officials reported that Saudi Arabia received help from Israeli cybersecurity firms to fend off certain cyberattacks. The rise of non-state actors and the perceived threat of political Islamists, particularly in the wake of the Arab Spring, also contributed to a sense of shared interests among Gulf states and Israel.

And just on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Riyadh is offering to restart its funding of the Palestinian Authority in order to gain its leader Mahmoud Abbas’ support for open relations with Israel.

A deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia could dramatically reshape the geopolitics of the Middle East.

But major barriers remain in the way of official normalization, which is a major goal of the Biden administration’s foreign policy and one his team is trying to achieve during the president’s current term. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a statement at the Palmachim Air Force Base near the city of Rishon Lezion, Israel July 5, 2023. 

Amir Cohen | Reuters

One is the issue of Palestinian statehood, and another is the raft of demands that Saudi Arabia has of the U.S., including demands for U.S. security guarantees and support for its own civilian nuclear program. And Israel, currently led by the most right-wing government in its history, is very unlikely to want to meet Saudi demands for concessions to the Palestinians. 

This has been an ongoing development since the efforts of former President Donald Trump to bring about Peace in the Middle East.  This is not surprising to Bible Students as we fully expect to see this development based on Bible Prophecy that has foretold the alignment of Nations in the “latter days”.  The Bible describes a King of the North and a King of the South Geo-political Alignment of Nations in the last days prior to the last battle of mankind and the intervention of Christ to established God’s Kingdom on Earth Forever.  We read of this in Daniel Chapter 11:

“And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.”

You can read more about this in this article: Alignment of Nations in the Latter Days

Russian Military Officer Defects to NATO Country

BY THOMAS KIKA ON 8/12/23 AT 12:38 PM EDT

A Russian military officer defected to Lithuania, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member, on Thursday, requested political asylum in an attempt to escape the war with Ukraine.

News of the development broke on Friday from BBC News, which reported that Ivan Korolev, a lieutenant in the Russian army, had illegally crossed the border into Lithuania, which has been a member nation of NATO since 2004. The crossing took place on Thursday, with the lieutenant making his way to the capital city of Vilnius before being detained by border guards and taken into custody at a checkpoint.

Speaking directly with BBC News, Korolev said he made the decision to defect a week prior on August 3, no longer wishing to take part in the “bloody war” with Ukraine. He also said he had never taken part in the direct conflict in Ukraine itself, rather serving in different capacities.

“On August 3, I decided to leave the Russian Federation due to the fact that I did not want to take part in the bloody war that my state unleashed,” he said. “At the moment I am in the Republic of Lithuania, where I asked for political asylum.”

He continued: “I participated in the [special military operation], but remained on the territory of the Russian Federation this whole time. I have not been on Ukrainian territory. We supplied Russian troops with ammunition. We took ammunition from all over Russia, from all parts, from all arsenals, and distributed it to brigades, units directly in Ukraine.”

Korolev is has been transferred to a migration center in Pabradė while his political aslyum application is processed and considered.

A NATO flag flying in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. A Russian lieutenant has defected to Lithuania, requesting political asylum.SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGES

Korolev is the latest in a string of Russian army members who have defected over the course of the lengthy conflict with Ukraine. In May, a group of defecting soldiers released a video statement via the Freedom of Russia Legion, decrying the invasion and Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s government.

“We are Russians like you,” one soldier said in the video. “We want our children to grow up in peace and be free people so that they can travel, study and just be happy in a free country.”

This desire, he continued, was impossible in Russia due to the Kremlin, which he called “rotten from corruption, lies, censorship, restrictions on freedoms, and repression.”

“The time has come to put an end to the dictatorship of the Kremlin,” the soldier added.

US-Saudi talks amid reports of far-reaching diplomatic plan for Middle East

But Jeddah’s demands for brokering an Israeli-Palestinian respite are reportedly a ‘non-starter’ and a ‘sucker’s bet’

Julian Borger in Washington  Published: Thu 27 Jul 2023 22.53 BST

The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has held talks with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in Jeddah, in what was reported to be part of a bid for an ambitious and far-reaching diplomatic breakthrough in the region.

The White House said Sullivan and the prince discussed on Thursday “initiatives to advance a common vision for a more peaceful, secure, prosperous and stable Middle East region interconnected with the world”.

A New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, said that based on an interview with Joe Biden last week, he believed Sullivan went to Jeddah to “explore the possibility of some kind of US-Saudi-Israeli-Palestinian understanding”.

The deal would amount to a grand bargain involving a US-Saudi security pact and the normalisation of Saudi-Israel diplomatic relations, in which recognition of Israel would be exchanged, on Washington’s insistence, on some improvement in the plight of Palestinians in the occupied territories, such as a halt to Jewish settlement building, and a promise never to annex the West Bank.

Friedman said Biden had yet to make up his mind whether to proceed and the talks in Jeddah were exploratory. Any such deal, he said, would be “time-consuming, difficult and complex”.

This has been an ongoing development since the efforts of former President Donald Trump to bring about Peace in the Middle East.  This is not surprising to Bible Students as we fully expect to see this development based on Bible Prophecy that has foretold the alignment of Nations in the “latter days”.  The Bible describes a King of the North and a King of the South Geo-political Alignment of Nations in the last days prior to the last battle of mankind and the intervention of Christ to established God’s Kingdom on Earth Forever.  We read of this in Daniel Chapter 11:

Britain signs deal to join £12 trillion Indo-Pacific Trade Bloc

PUBLISHED SUN,  JUL 16 20234:21 AM EDT Matt Clinch

KEY POINTS

• Britain’s Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, formally signed a treaty confirming accession to the vast Indo-Pacific CPTPP bloc.
• Signed Sunday in New Zealand, the deal will now receive parliamentary scrutiny in the U.K., while other CPTPP nations will also complete their own legislative processes.

Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade, Minister for Women and Equalities Kemi Badenoch leaves 10 Downing Street.

Future Publishing | Future Publishing | Getty Images

LONDON — Britain’s Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, formally signed a treaty confirming accession to the vast Indo-Pacific CPTPP bloc, the country’s largest post-Brexit trade deal to date.

Signed Sunday in New Zealand, the deal will now receive parliamentary scrutiny in the U.K., while other CPTPP nations will also complete their own legislative processes. More than 99% of the current U.K. goods that are exported to CPTPP countries will soon be eligible for zero tariffs, the U.K. government said.

The 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership includes Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia, among others. The U.K. would be the first European nation to join the bloc, which the government says would unlock trade to a region with a total GDP of £12 trillion ($15.7 trillion).

It remains to be seen how much the deal actually benefits Britain’s growth prospects. Based on the government’s own estimates, the deal will raise long-term domestic GDP by just 0.08%, which will have little impact to offset European trade losses as a result of Brexit. The U.K. officially left the EU on Jan. 31, 2020.

Badenoch said Sunday that Britain was using its status as an independent trading nation to join an “exciting, growing, forward-looking trade bloc.”

″[It] will help grow the U.K. economy and build on the hundreds of thousands of jobs CPTPP-owned businesses already support up and down the country,” she said in a statement. One in every 100 workers in Britain was employed by a business headquartered in a CPTPP nation, according to the government citing 2019 data.

BREXIT was the greatest change to UK politics ever, and Britain has left the EU as determined by Bible Prophecy over 2,500 years ago.

What’s more, Bible Students fully expect to see the UK and the USA come close together with the UK leading the Commonwealth Nations as the KING OF THE SOUTH against the EU and RUSSIA. We will see this develop following BREXIT. Bible Prophecy is very clear on the fact that Britain will be a major global politically leader at the time with Russia and the EU invade the Middle East.  Britain will assume this role following BREXIT along with the Commonwealth Countries (and America who is also of British origin) make up the King of the South (along with Israel, Eqypt and the Gulf Arab Nations) at the time of the end that will move to stop Russia and Europe from invading the Middle East.

God has declared the End from the Beginning and the Bible (God’s Word) revealed that Britain would not be part of the EU when Christ Returns to Earth, and World Events have conspired to ensure that has now happened. But we need to keep watching this development as there is much to see yet as Britain takes her place once more on the World Political Stage.

See this Article to learn more about Britian and the Commonwealth Block in Bible Prophecy.

See this article below to learn more about this:

Britain a Trading Nation Again

Deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia is ‘absolutely possible,’ says ex-Mossad chief

Yossi Cohen, citing ‘personal knowledge’ of potential dealings, strikes optimistic note, as senior Netanyahu aides said to be headed for Washington

By LAZAR BERMAN Today, 9:05 pm  

Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen speaks at a conference of the Makor Rishon newspaper at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, February 21, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90/ File)

Against a backdrop of measured optimism from Jerusalem over the chances of a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen said Sunday that such an agreement was “absolutely possible.”

Speaking at the Institute for National Security Studies, Cohen — Israel’s top spy from 2016-2021 — said, “in my opinion – and here I am leaning on personal knowledge on the topic — it is absolutely possible.”

“There is indeed in the Middle East a new era in which brave leaders… know how to create normalization,” he added.

There has been a flurry of reports that US-brokered talks between Jerusalem and Riyadh on starting direct flights for Hajj pilgrims are in advanced stages.

A flight deal could have the potential to lead to a wider normalization deal — which has long been sought by Israel but largely rejected by the Saudis.

In exchange for full normalization with Israel, Saudis are said to be demanding that the White House unfreeze some Trump-era weapons deals that were frozen when US President Joe Biden took office, and are also seeking a defense treaty with the US, similar to NATO, as well as the US stamp of approval for a civilian nuclear program.

This has been an ongoing development since the efforts of former President Donald Trump to bring about Peace in the Middle East.  This is not surprising to Bible Students as we fully expect to see this development based on Bible Prophecy that has foretold the alignment of Nations in the “latter days”.  The Bible describes a King of the North and a King of the South Geo-political Alignment of Nations in the last days prior to the last battle of mankind and the intervention of Christ to established God’s Kingdom on Earth Forever.  We read of this in Daniel Chapter 11:

“And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.”

You can read more about this in this article: Alignment of Nations in the Latter Days

Europe Doesn’t Need the United States Anymore

January 30, 2023  in Europe, News

The Russian military’s weaknesses have been apparent since the early days of the war in the Ukraine. The staggering losses in troops and equipment, Moscow’s inability to adequately equip or even supply its troops, and the multiple shifts in command—Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov being Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest choice—have exposed the myth of the Russian army’s supposed invincibility.

The jostling between Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group—a private army active in the key battles of Soledar and Bakhmut—and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu as well as Russia’s high command attests to deep and persistent friction among the very people Putin counts on to run the war and attain victory.

Still, nearly a year since the invasion began, Russia is still regarded by many as a formidable military power and a dire threat, not only to Ukraine itself but also to Europe as a whole. This continues to be the predominant lesson drawn from the Russian military’s decision to invade what is—the European part of Russia aside—Europe’s largest country in land area and one of its most populous.

Driving this widespread assumption is the misguided notion that Europe is simply incapable of defending itself without the help of the United States and that in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine the U.S. military presence has to be beefed up—which it has. This belief is pervasive in the corridors of power in Washington and Europe and was reiterated most recently by Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin in December.

This assessment—of a Europe rich and technologically advanced but in effect defenseless—was compelling for much of the Cold War. Back then, the Soviet Union had a substantial conventional military advantage over Western Europe. Soviet troops were forward-deployed all across Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe (which formed part of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact), with more than 300,000 Soviet troops stationed in East Germany alone. European economic recovery was also a work in progress.

Today, however, this view is flat-out wrong.

A somewhat startling headline, it will be interesting to see this thought continue to develop within the EU as the EU is challenged to deal with its future security post the Ukraine war no matter how it ends.  President Emmanual Macron wants to bring Russia back to the negotiating table and begin dialogue on some form of a Security Pact with Russia, NATO’s existence in its current form will be an issue even more so now.

The Bible has long revealed that Russia and an EU Army will enter into a final conflict with Israel and the Middle East.  Germany is the key country in what Bible Prophecy refers to as the land of “Magog”. They are spoken of militarily as the “King of the North”.  Together the Bible says that Russia and the EU will invade the Middle East in the Last Days.  So Bible Students expect to see Germany and France taking a greater role in leading Europe.  It is also interesting to see Germany taking greater control of a continent they tried to take by war and failed.

Yet again we see in Todays News Headlines words that show how the Nations are fulfilling the latter day alignment of Nations as Prophesied by the Bible. 

See this article to learn more about this and the latter day prophecies of the Bible.

See this article for more on this subject: WHAT IS NEXT FOR EUROPE