The current wave of terror, followed by Israeli reaction, will continue as an off-again, on-again, gone-again, cycle of events.  This is now pushing the Israelis into imposing a “forced peace” action on the Palestinians.  I described this “force peace” mode, which I first made mention of in Prophecy Update Number 1 last year, in Prophecy Update Number 26A, where I detailed how it would be implemented if the terrorists continued their activities in Israel.  However, I still believe the countries sponsoring the terrorists with money and weapons, during this year, will finally wise up, and call off their activities until a false peace can be established with Israel.  But one way or the other, a form of peace will probably come to the Middle East this year. 

Prophecy Update Number 50 closed with the antichrist located in Cairo, Egypt, which has been his capital for more than three years.  He will supposedly have fulfilled the desire of what most nations say they want, that is, he will have brought stability to the Middle East. However, between the third and fourth year of his rule, something will cause him to quickly head for Jerusalem.  We closed Update 50 by saying, “Lord willing, In Prophecy Update Number 51, we will discuss what causes him to head for Jerusalem.”

Daniel 11:44,45

[44] 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. [45] 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.

Please bear in mind that Daniel does not bring him out of the Egypt he has conquered until verse 44, and that he heads back for the glorious holy mountain, which is the middle hill of the three hills upon which the eastern part of the city of Jerusalem rests.  It is better known as the Mount of Moriah, where the first three temples sat, and is located between two seas, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Dead Sea.  Before the mighty former Soviet Union of Joseph Stalin arose, some identified this troubling news out of the north as being about Attila the Hun, after him it was about the German Kaiser of WW1, then about Hitler of WW2, and so forth and so on.  Before the great communist revolution of Mao brought forth the present huge sleeping giant of Red China, some identified the troubling news out of the east as being about Genghis Khan, the great Mongol conqueror from the east.  But modern day expositors generally now tend to make it news concerning Russia in the north and China in the east.  I do not believe it is either.  When Daniel wrote his book, it was written to the people of his day. So it is important to consider what they knew to be immediately to the north and to the east of Egypt.  But before we discuss what was, and still is, immediately north of Egypt, and what was, and still is, immediately east of Egypt, let me advise you why I do not believe it involves Russia or China.  Get out a world map and measure how far it is from Cairo to the borders of China and Russia.  The population of Russia today is more than 150 million, and the population of China is more than 1 billion, 300 million.  Do you really think he is going to take them on?  And are they not supposed to join forces with him at the final battle of Armageddon?  If he were, it would be rank insanity to return to Jerusalem to take them on!  And, besides all that, the land we know as China and Russia, for all practical purposes, was perhaps mentioned only in fables in Daniel’s day.  Do you really think he will “go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly make away many” from two distant, vast, countries with a combined population of almost one and one-half billion?

So what is immediately north of Egypt?  What touches its northern border? The Mediterranean Sea!  And what land is immediately east of Egypt?  What touches its eastern border?  The Negev!  And what could possibly be in the Mediterranean Sea that would trouble him?  The U.S. Fleet!  And what could possibly be in the Negev that would trouble him? Between 1.7 and 1.9 million Israelis!  The U.S. Navy & Marine Corps publish periodical “TRANSITIONS” of “All the Ships at Sea.”  You will find it amazing how many vessels we routinely have on scheduled patrols in the Mediterranean Sea.  We keep a carrier constantly on station patrolling that section of the Mediterranean immediately south of Turkey and north of Egypt.  The carriers USS Enterprise and the USS Theodore Roosevelt have often relieved each other on this permanent patrol station, along with other carriers.  There is also a report issued periodically on marine units deployed on the many ships that patrol the seas of the Middle East from the Mediterranean through the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean and up into the Persian Gulf.  It is simply called “All the Marines Deployed.” The U.S. Marines and IDF have been conducting joint operations in the Negev off and on for some 25 years. 

So the antichrist has had Israel bottled up in the Negev for more than three years at this future point in time.  I believe the news he hears is simply this: the U.S. Marines and IDF are planning to close his rear flank back to the country from which he originally came, Syria.  He will have left a strip heavily fortified across Gaza and the northern Sinai, but he will begin to have reservations about the ability of his troops to hold it.  He will then head back for Jerusalem to finally do what he wishes he had previously done, that is, to end the Jewish problem.  He will “go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.” He will super fortify the northeast Sinai and Gaza Strip, and head northeast to Jerusalem to prepare for the destruction of Israel in the Negev.  In Prophecy Update Number 52, Lord willing, I will define his palace, the tabernacles, and the nations involved.

Daniel 11:45

[45] 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.