WorldWatch
Israeli, German air forces train in Germany
Israeli pilots, some of whom descended from Holocaust victims, trained in German airspace for the first time during the August 17–28 military exercises “Blue Wings 2020.” This follows German pilots training in Israel in 2017 and 2019 during “Blue Flag” military exercises.
This year’s war games began with the commander of the Israeli Air Force being escorted by German Eurofighter jets to the Nörvenich Air Base, where he was received by the inspector of the German Air Force. German-Israeli aircraft formations flew over historical sites such as the Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base to memorialize the massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, and Dachau, the site of a major World War II concentration camp where Germany’s Nazi regime confined and killed tens of thousands of Jews and other victims. A German-Israeli delegation laid a wreath at the concentration camp memorial to commemorate victims of the Holocaust and Nazi tyranny.
Over the past five years Germany and Israel have increased their cooperation in military and other important matters. But Bible prophecy shows that Israel is trusting an attacker not only of the past, but also of the future.
“It seems the Israelis can trust their worst enemy,” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in Jerusalem in Prophecy (theTrumpet.com/go/JIP), “but they can’t trust God to protect them! And God is their only source of help.”
Iran announces new precision missiles
Iran announced a new ballistic missile and a new cruise missile on August 20, its National Defense Industry Day. The Iranian military said the ballistic missile named after Gen. Qassem Suleimani, who was killed in a U.S. air strike in January, has a range of 870 miles, is equipped with an advanced precision-guidance system, and is faster and more flexible to deploy. Its Abu Mahdi cruise missile, named after an Iraqi militia leader also killed in the January air strike, has a range of 620 miles and a new targeting system that uses satellite navigation and radar for greater accuracy.
Iran’s Tasmin News Agency reported that the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman are all within range of these two weapons. These are all nations that have themselves been militarizing in response to increasing Iranian power. The missiles also increase Iran’s ability to threaten shipping routes like the Gulf of Oman, used by these and other nations.
Just last year, oil tankers from Japan, Norway, Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. were attacked with explosives; Iran is the most likely perpetrator.
Recent history shows that Iran is willing to use whatever power it has to push its aggressive foreign policy, which is forecast in the prophecy of Daniel 11:40. With these new missiles, it is even better equipped to do so.
Guttenberg has a doctorate again
Germany’s Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg again has a doctorate degree. His original doctorate on constitutional law in the United States and Europe was awarded by the University of Bayreuth in 2007 while he was a member of parliament and considered by many to be a possible future chancellor. But in 2011, it emerged that he had intentionally copied significant portions of his doctoral thesis, and he lost both his doctorate and his position as defense minister. Yet many of his supporters hoped he would regain the trust of the German people, perhaps in part by re-obtaining a doctorate, honestly this time.
Universities typically hesitate to affiliate their reputations with someone who has committed what amounts to an academic crime, but in August of this year, German news media reported that the former political star had submitted a new doctoral thesis, this time on the history of banking. The institution that received it and then granted Guttenberg a new doctorate, was Southampton Business School at the University of Southampton in Britain.
Despite denying political ambitions, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, PhD, has been traveling to Berlin repeatedly, advising politicians on economics and even holding private meetings with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“Is KT zu Guttenberg About to Come to Power?” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry asked in the January Philadelphia Trumpet cover story (theTrumpet.com/go/KTZ1). Mr. Flurry has said that Daniel 8 contains a prophecy of a man who will lead Germany and Europe to become a powerful and aggressive 21st-century empire, and that empire will ultimately destroy the United States, Britain, Israel and other nations descended from ancient Israel. Mr. Flurry has been watching Guttenberg closely since 2009—before his plagiarism scandal, before his work in futuristic banking, before his thesis on historical banking, and before his new doctorate from a British university. As Guttenberg has acquired the forgiveness, support, knowledge, connections and power to return to European and trans-Atlantic politics, he is being watched. You should watch him too.
Europe poised to intervene in Lebanon
One hundred years after the French government created Greater Lebanon, France was back in Lebanon on September 1, discussing how it could intervene. The initiative comes after a massive explosion occurred in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, on August 4. French President Emmanuel Macron said after the blast, “France will never let Lebanon go. The heart of the French people still beats to the pulse of Beirut.” Some Lebanese once again were celebrating “France, the tender mother.”
Many Lebanese are deeply hostile toward their government, which is dominated by Hezbollah and influenced heavily by Iran. This has opened the door to reform, even to the extent of inviting in Lebanon’s former colonizer. Just before Macron’s visit, the Lebanese parliament announced it had selected a caretaker prime minister to manage the reform process: Mustapha Adib, formerly the Lebanese ambassador to Germany. Macron said he accepted the selection and would give Lebanon’s leaders a chance to make changes before he returned a month later.
“It’s the last chance for this system,” Macron told Politico. If Adib does not implement significant reforms, Macron said, he will “switch tack, taking punitive measures that range from withholding a vital international financial bailout to imposing sanctions against the ruling class.”
The Bible prophesies that Lebanon, currently aligned with Iran, will enter a full alliance with Europe instead, even as Europe and Iran clash in open warfare. The Bible specified that Germany would lead Europe, so although France will be a major part of that union, Germany will exert its power over Europe and other nations around the world. Adib could be uniquely positioned to give Germany a greater role in Lebanon.
First Israeli commercial flight lands in U.A.E.
The first-ever direct flight from Israel to the United Arab Emirates by an Israeli commercial airline took place on August 31. A Boeing 737 from Israel’s national airline, El Al, carried dozens of Israeli and American representatives from one capital, Tel Aviv, to the other, Abu Dhabi.
Upon landing, Israeli National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat met with his U.A.E. counterpart, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, and other Israeli and Emirates officials met to discuss opportunities for cooperation, often with an American facilitator.
This flight is part of the peace deal announced on August 14 after Israel and the U.A.E., in a telephone call with United States President Donald Trump, agreed to full normalization of relations. This is the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab country in 25 years.
The peace agreement includes establishing embassies and exchanging ambassadors, investments into Israel’s economy, trade, direct flights between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi, investment in Israeli efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine, and cooperation in matters of energy and water, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The deal was followed up less than a month later by a similar deal between Israel and Bahrain, another Middle East Arab state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called these normalized relations a “warm peace,” but it is actually a deceptive peace. Based on a prophecy in Psalm 83, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has forecast that an alliance will quickly form between Arab states that oppose Iran. This anti-Iranian alliance, however, will be anything but warm toward the Jewish state.
Chinese navy runs five simultaneous war games
China conducted five nearly simultaneous military exercises along its coast during August, demonstrating an unprecedented ability to mobilize its forces for operations across multiple sea regions.
Two of the drills occurred at locations in and near the South China Sea from August 24 to 29, one of which included test firing a series of advanced missiles into waters between Hainan and the contested Paracel Islands. Another drill took place in mid-August in the East China Sea, near Taiwan. The other two drills took place in the northern and southern areas of the Yellow Sea, from August 22 to 26 and from August 17 to September 30.
Chinese military analyst Ni Lexiong said, “By simultaneously conducting drills in the three seas, it means China is testing its ability to fight enemies coming from three directions at the same time—for example from Taiwan, from Japan and from the U.S. from the south” (Reuters, August 26).
China used these drills to send a message mainly to the United States that it is anticipating and ready for war. Ni also noted the increasing frequency of Chinese military drills in these sensitive areas and said, “Historically, frequent drills are a clear predictor of war.”
Read “China Is Steering the World Toward War.”
‘The man Vladimir Putin fears most’ poisoned
German authorities announced on September 2 that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok chemical nerve agent.
Navalny, a Russian political activist, rose to prominence in the early 2010s for exposing corruption by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies. The Wall Street Journal described him in 2012 as “the man Vladimir Putin fears most.” Putin’s government has arrested and jailed Navalny more than 10 times, keeping him in custody for hundreds of days. The fact that Navalny was poisoned with a military-grade substance developed by the Soviet Union indicates that Putin wanted to end his activism permanently, and wanted the world to know it.
After Navalny fell ill on August 20 and was admitted to a Russian hospital, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other officials petitioned Putin’s government to allow Navalny to transfer to Berlin for treatment. The Russians denied the request until August 22, at which time Navalny was flown to the Charité hospital in Germany’s capital. Specialists there found traces of Novichok in his body.
“This means that Alexei Navalny is definitely the victim of a crime,” Merkel said at a press conference on September 2. “They wanted to silence him and I condemn this in the strongest possible terms, also on behalf of the entire federal government.”
Navalny is the latest known example on a list of assassinations and assassination attempts that are evidently connected to Putin. Putin is determined to stay in power, and has shown himself willing to use violence to remove threats to his position.
Read The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia.’
Russia and China wage war on the dollar
Data released by Russia’s central bank in August shows that in the first quarter of 2020, the amount of dollar-denominated trade between Russia and China dropped below 50 percent for the first time on record. Trade between the two using the U.S. dollar fell to 46 percent. Trade in euros hit a new high of 30 percent, while the Russian ruble and Chinese yuan were used for a record 24 percent. As recently as 2015, the dollar was used for 90 percent of Russia-China trade.
For more than 50 years, the Trumpet and our predecessor magazine the Plain Truth have warned that a monetary crisis will strike the U.S., affect the world economy, and dramatically change the balance of power. In 1968, Plain Truth editor in chief Herbert W. Armstrong wrote, “If the dollar is devalued, inflation will almost surely result,” he wrote, “and eventual economic collapse for the United States” (co-worker letter, March 26, 1968).
Mr. Armstrong’s assessment was based on Bible prophecies, such as those in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, which reveal that if the people of the United States reject God and His law of love, He will bring the country to collapse. Mr. Armstrong continued: “Those of you who truly believe the prophecies of your Bible know such economic collapse is prophesied to happen! … We have shown how God prophesied a virtual trade war will get underway against the United States and Britain—and how our national economics will falter, and then collapse!”
COVID-19 lockdowns are crippling Australia
Government lockdowns are exacting a toll on Australians, economically, mentally and emotionally.
The restrictions have helped tip Australia into its first recession in 29 years as jobs have been lost and businesses have closed, some temporarily, some permanently. Investment has plunged, and debt has risen. Total government debt is at its worst level since World War II and is estimated to eclipse 80 percent of gross domestic product this fiscal year, while national unemployment may surpass 10 percent, a 26-year high.
Australians are also experiencing more mental and emotional problems. Support network Lifeline reports that suicide is the leading cause of death for Australians age 15 to 44, and its phone lines are receiving an increased number of calls.
Trumpet executive editor Stephen Flurry wrote in the May-June 2020 issue, “These measures will no doubt save lives that would have been cut short by this virus. But they are also coming at incalculable cost—to our economies, our livelihoods, our civil liberties and freedoms, our social cohesion, even mental and physical health. In many ways it appears the ramifications of the reaction to the coronavirus will dwarf and far outlive the virus itself” (“The Cure Is Killing Us”).
Many people realize something is dangerously wrong with the hysterical way governments around the world are responding to COVID-19, but few realize the deadly reason so many people are adopting insane ideas. There is a real, active evil being: Satan. As Revelation 12:12 and other scriptures show, his powerful influence of selfish, self-destructive attitudes on human minds is intensifying.
