For years, Hezbollah has trained fighters, accumulated rockets, and terrorized Israel from safe havens in Lebanon. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (unifil) is supposed to stop these terrorists. Instead it has helped them. Despite this undeniable fact, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock traveled to Lebanon on October 23 to call for a demilitarized zone under the supervision of unifil—of which Germany is a part.

There is more behind this than an unwillingness to face reality. A dangerous plot is being worked out behind the scenes.

Obstructing Israel

A day after Hamas’s diabolical terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Hezbollah started firing a continuous barrage of rockets on Israel’s north, leaving the area largely uninhabitable.

unifil’s response to the Hamas massacre was mild: “unifil is closely monitoring the unfolding dramatic events in Israel.” After Hezbollah started firing rockets, unifil commented, “Despite concerning events in the past days, the situation in unifil’s area of operations remains stable but volatile.”

unifil didn’t have much to fear because it has done nothing to stand in Hezbollah’s way. Hezbollah and unifil are living side by side—and the peacekeepers were caught in the crossfires of Israel’s counterattack. Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung explained: “Time and again, Israeli bombs or shells also strike near unifil positions because Hezbollah fighters seek precisely this proximity for their supposed protection. The walls of the Bundeswehr accommodation at unifil headquarters have also been shaking.”

In “UN Peacekeepers Are Hezbollah’s Best Friend,” the Wall Street Journal wrote on October 15: “unifil let the terrorists roll in Lebanon but grandstands when Israel fights back.” Another article stated: “Now, as Israel fights Hezbollah’s army in Lebanon, it has found a new foe: the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. Having failed at its mission of neutralizing the Hezbollah threat, unifil is now actively interfering with Israel doing the job.”

The Wall Street Journal further explained:

To make matters worse, this boondoggle seems to have undergone a sort of regulatory capture by the terrorists it was supposed to police. After failing to fulfill its mandate, unifil branched off into social services, building solar power facilities and providing veterinary services for what it called “local communities.” It may in the process have inadvertently provided utilities and social services for Hezbollah. The terrorist group uses private homes in Shiite villages as weapons warehouses and rocket-launching facilities, even paying rent to civilians who host them. Any assistance efforts in south Lebanon that don’t screen for terrorist affiliation would end up aiding Hezbollah.

At the same time, unifil’s budget has expanded steadily. It is the only UN peacekeeping operation with its own navy—six warships tasked with “preventing the unauthorized entry of arms or related materiel by sea into Lebanon,” at which they have failed. …

Now that Israel has finally moved into Lebanon to clear out Hezbollah, unifil is getting in the way—knowingly providing the terrorist group cover.

Hezbollah is operating from within 100 yards of unifil posts. If the Israel Defense Forces fight back against positions that are shelling Israeli civilians, it could hit UN forces. Yet unifil, with the backing of Turtle Bay, has refused to move out of the way. This week an Israeli tank backed into a unifil post while trying to maneuver out of a Hezbollah ambush that wounded many soldiers. Instead of apologizing, the UN blamed Israel for the damage.

This is nothing new. unifil did not prevent the Second Lebanon War in 2006, and it only got worse from there. In 2007, we wrote “UNIFIL, Hezbollah Join Forces”; in 2008, “UNIFIL: Hezbollah’s Ally in Lebanon.” And in 2017, we wrote, “Reports have emerged of unifil essentially aiding and abetting Hezbollah—alongside simply turning a blind eye.”

Instead of questioning the UN, the international community condemns Israel in harsher tones than it does Hezbollah. As the Wall Street Journal commented: “Hezbollah couldn’t have scripted it better.”

Macron vs. Netanyahu

On October 5, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a halt to arms deliveries to Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu replied: “As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilized countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side. Yet President Macron and other Western leaders are now calling for arms embargoes against Israel. Shame on them.”

On October 15, Macron told Netanyahu not to “ignore United Nations decisions,” noting that “Mr. Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a UN decision.” Netanyahu replied: “A reminder to the president of France: It was not the UN resolution that established the State of Israel, but rather the victory achieved in the War of Independence with the blood of heroic fighters, many of whom were Holocaust survivors—including from the Vichy regime in France.”

France’s Vichy regime infamously cooperated with the murderous regime of Adolf Hitler. In recent years, Germany has expressed itself much more diplomatically than France, appearing as an angel of light. Yet as Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in Daniel Unlocks Revelation: “France is only a mouthpiece for Germany today.”

While France demands that Israel accept the UN’s dictates, it is Germany that uses this organization for a deceitful plot.

Enter Germany

In 2008, late Trumpet columnist Ron Fraser wrote:

Fifteen months ago, the German Navy took command of the maritime component of [unifil]. This marked the German Navy’s first official deployment into Middle Eastern waters since World War ii. Ostensibly, the reason for this deployment was to secure the coast of Lebanon from arms smuggling. The German Navy’s operations in the region would appear to have been a resounding success, at least in scaring off any arms smugglers from penetrating the area, for not one smuggler has been captured since the Bundesmarine took on this role.

This has led some to muse that the whole exercise has been a giant PR gambit to condition certain Middle Eastern powers, the United Nations and the United States into accepting a wider remit for Germany in the Middle East.

More than 15 years later, the Wall Street Journal has concluded that unifil failed at its goals. But Germany’s goals are being achieved in a dramatic way. The German Council on Foreign Relations noted in 2008 that the “experience acquired off the coast of Lebanon … could serve possibly as a precedent for similar maritime missions.” Mr. Fraser commented:

Since foisted off onto the public as Germany’s obligation to “protect Israel,” being its due penance for the Holocaust, German Middle East policy is in fact geared to achieving, by diplomacy, trade, aid and military assistance, that which Rommel was denied in battle: the extension of German hegemony into the strategically oil-rich Middle East.

With this in mind, Germany’s mission in the Middle East makes perfect sense. With the pretext of protecting Israel, it expands its own military missions. When Germany assumed command of the Maritime Task Force of the unifil mission on Jan. 15, 2021, German staff moved from Limassol, Cyprus, to unifil headquarters in Naqoura, Lebanon. As part of this mission, Germany also trains the Lebanese Armed Forces, in particular the Navy.

While unifil naval units are primarily intended to help the Lebanese government monitor the waters and prevent weapons smuggling along the entire coast, the mission is being overshadowed by the war on land, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung noted. “We are currently mainly in the south and are monitoring aircraft movements on the border,” explained Dirk Matheis, commander of the German Baden-Württemberg frigate.

The mission could soon expand into the coastal areas of Gaza.

Baerbock now speaks in favor of Germany participating in a “protection force” in the Gaza Strip. Christian Democratic Union foreign affairs expert Roderich Kiesewetter told t-online: “Foreign Minister Baerbock is right when she says that peace needs security guarantees. Even a ceasefire must be credible and robustly secured.” Germany’s participation in unifil and the Sea Guardian mission in the Mediterranean could “be increased and, if necessary, adapted in terms of deployment options,” he noted.

The same unifil mission also allowed Germany to develop strategic military relations with Cyprus—a key location to control the Mediterranean and get access to the Middle East.

Cypriot Defense Minister Charalambos Petrides said in 2022:

Though not so widely known, our two countries have a long-standing defense cooperation through the facilities offered by the Republic of Cyprus to the German unifil Maritime Task Force contingent, which is based in Cyprus, since 2006. We will continue to support you in this important deployment for the fulfillment of the mission’s mandate for ensuring maritime security in the area.

Where It Will Lead

When looking at the work of the UN in the Middle East, one could get the impression that the whole institution is designed to help terrorists control Jerusalem. In “As You Watch Gaza—Watch Germany,” Mr. Flurry explained:

The Bible reveals that Germany wants to loosen the Jews’ control of Jerusalem—but not so Iran and radical Islam can seize it. There is going to be a great clash between the European king of the north and the radical Islamic king of the south. Germany is already planning its foreign policy and its deployments to surround Iran and ultimately destroy it in a whirlwind attack before it can take Jerusalem.

Germany’s military missions are preparing for this clash and the Holy Roman Empire’s quest to take control of Jerusalem, as prophesied in Daniel 11:40-45.

But there is much more to these prophecies. As Mr. Flurry concluded: “We are witnessing momentous prophetic events unfolding before our eyes. Study these prophecies and you will see that these events are part of the very final events to occur in this age of man, before God intervenes to establish His Kingdom on Earth!”

To begin your study, read “As You Watch Gaza—Watch Germany.”