WorldWatch
Europe
The far right and anti-Semitism are rising in Europe.
On Nov. 7, 2024, mobs of Arab-looking men hunted Jews through the streets of Amsterdam in the Netherlands following a soccer match between Israeli and Dutch teams. The threat was so great that the Israeli government sent planes to rescue its citizens. Before the match even began, Dutch-Arab rideshare drivers were sending messages like, “Tomorrow after the match at night part 2 Jew Hunt.” Jews were attacked on the streets, deliberately run down by vehicles, and forced into hiding.
Prior to the attacks, Dutch police have been reluctant to protect Jews. The government failed to act on warnings from Israel’s intelligence services. International media blamed the violence on Jews who had “desecrated” Palestinian flags. Yet King Willem-Alexander “unequivocally condemned” the attacks and rightly said, “We failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War II, and last night we failed again.”
This is a global problem. “We have experienced a tsunami of anti-Semitism since October 7,” Germany’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, told AFP. The Hamas attack had “broken the existing dams with regard to anti-Semitism in our society,” he added. Open, aggressive anti-Semitism is “stronger in Germany and worldwide than at any time since 1945.”
At the same time, Europe’s far right is re-surging. On Nov. 5, 2024, German police arrested eight members of the neo-Nazi militant group Saxonian Separatists. Its members undergo paramilitary training and practice using firearms and engaging in urban warfare using camouflage fatigues, combat helmets, gas masks and bulletproof vests.
Meanwhile, the Freedom Party of Austria won a national election for the first time in its history. The far-right party, originally founded by two former Nazi SS officers, won nearly 30 percent of the vote. But the mainstream left and right parties worked together to form Austria’s first-ever three-party coalition to keep the Freedom Party out of power. The situation reflects the impossible choices many European leaders face: either cooperate with far-right parties, or form yet another ineffective coalition to keep them from power—only to see even more voters abandon the mainstream and support the far right in the next election.
Tensions between Europe and Russia continue to grow. On Nov. 18, 2024, a critical underwater data cable between Finland and Germany was cut, allegedly by a Chinese vessel that had recently departed from Russia. The next day, Ukraine launched United States-made missiles deep into Russia with the approval of the U.S. government. The same day, Russia formally approved a change to its nuclear doctrine, announced two months earlier, that threatens nuclear retaliation against the U.S. in exactly this scenario.
On Nov. 13, 2024, Poland began work on a $2.4 billion, 400-mile-long system of bunkers, minefields and antitank fortifications dubbed “East Shield,” part of its ongoing massive military expansion.
For two years, militaries across Europe have been rearming. “The amount of fear that Russia’s attack has generated among Europeans is deeply significant prophetically,” wrote Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry. His article “Russia’s War on Ukraine Is Reshaping Europe” shows how this war is fulfilling Bible prophecy.
Spain was inundated by devastating floods in October. The disaster killed 227 people, making it Europe’s deadliest flooding since 1967. The public believed authorities were too slow to warn affected areas; regional and national governments blamed each other. When King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited the area, locals threw mud at them and chanted “Murders! Murders!” Our booklet Why ‘Natural’ Disasters? explains why a loving God allows such tragedies. The reaction to Spain’s government also shows they can have dramatic political conse-
quences.
Asia
The European Union and Japan announced a sweeping defense partnership on Nov. 1, 2024, that strengthens their military ties during a time of worsening global tensions. The agreement promotes cybersecurity cooperation, military information exchanges, joint port calls, weapons production and war exercises. “We live in a very dangerous world,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. “And there is only one antidote to this challenging world, which is partnerships among friends.” The new agreement has alarmed some analysts, given the tragically violent outcome of Europe’s last military alliance with Japan. The validity of such concerns becomes clear when viewed in the context of Bible prophecies that forecast what this partnership will unleash. Isaiah’s End-Time Vision, by Gerald Flurry, explains.
In October and November, Russian President Vladimir Putin increased his nation’s control over several former Soviet nations. His most significant successes came through his military, which advanced against Ukrainian forces at the fastest pace in a year. Russia also brought thousands of North Korean troops into the war, which may have helped the advance. Putin also won a significant and subversive political victory in Georgia on October 26. The overwhelming majority of Georgians wish to tie their nation’s future to Europe, but Putin’s agents rigged an election to give the pro-Russia Georgian Dream party a major victory. Meanwhile, in Moldova, Putin has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to bribe voters and illegally finance a pro-Russia party. In contrast to Georgia, the November 3 election didn’t go his way, thanks largely to the significant number of Moldovans voting from abroad. Still, Putin’s illegal financing and other underhanded tactics are increasing Russia’s power over Moldova. In The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia’ Mr. Flurry said prophecy shows that Putin “will probably conquer more nations of the former Soviet Union.”
Middle East
Russia has increased its support for the Houthi rebel terrorist group in Yemen. The Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 7, 2024, that Viktor Bout was negotiating a sale with the Houthis involving $10 million in automatic rifles. Foreign Policy reported that the two sides have also discussed the potential purchase of antitank and antiaircraft weapons, and some fear that anti-ship weapons could be next. Bout is the infamous Russian weapons dealer who was captured by the U.S., then released in a troubling prisoner swap, returned to Russia as a hero, and largely works on behalf of the Russian government.
On October 25, the Journal reported that Russia is also providing the Houthis with satellite data that helps them target cargo ships passing through the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb strait. Since launching a civil war a decade ago and gaining control of much of Yemen, the Houthis have targeted more than 150 cargo vessels and warships, sinking two, but have pledged to allow Russian ships to pass through. The latest revelations show that, in addition to support from Iran, Houthi weapons caches are also getting filled by one of the world’s most powerful and dangerous nations.
A prophetic passage in Isaiah 23 describes a “mart of nations” developing in our day. Along with Ezekiel 27, Deuteronomy 28 and other scriptures, this is describing a world trade alliance that will shut out America, Britain and other English-speaking nations, largely through control of straits like the Bab el-Mandeb. The Trumpet expects Russia to join this bloc. Read “Why the Trumpet Watches the Development of a Massive Anti-American Trade Bloc.”
Iran struck Israel with a missile barrage on October 1, the second time the Iranian military has attacked Israel directly from Iranian soil. On October 26, Israel struck back, hitting several key Iranian military and nuclear sites. Evidence suggests that the delay in response was caused by the U.S. actively informing Iran about Israel’s attack plans. On October 18, alleged U.S. intelligence documents containing geographic data and Israeli Air Force training details were posted to an Iran-linked social media account. As Axios stated, “The report, if accurate, would suggest very close and detailed surveillance by U.S. intelligence of Israel’s preparations for an attack on Iran, including the use of satellites to spy on operations carried out at Israeli Air Force bases.” It would also indicate that figures in the Biden regime betrayed Israel to protect the radical Islamist regime in Iran. (On November 12, CIA official Asif Rahman was indicted in a federal court for leaking the material.) Gerald Flurry explains in Great Again why the U.S. government under Barack Obama (and through Joe Biden) has mistreated Israel so consistently.
Meanwhile, Israel announced on Oct. 28, 2024, that it would end its funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. This will shut down its operations in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
The UNRWA was one of the main suppliers of medical and educational services in Gaza—and it was also one of the greatest assets of the Iran-sponsored Hamas terrorist organization. Hamas stored weapons and other terrorist assets directly inside UNRWA facilities, using people in offices, schools, scout camps and even hospitals as human shields and accused Israel Defense Forces of war crimes such as intentionally targeting civilians. It has now emerged that thousands of UNRWA employees were affiliated with or actual members of Hamas. This included Hamas’s late leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who taught at an UNRWA school—where curricula glorify terrorism against Israel as holy jihad—and several UNRWA employees who participated in the October 7 massacre.
“The United Nations was founded to prevent catastrophes like the Holocaust from happening again,” the Trumpet stated in its April 2024 issue. “October 7 was its own small holocaust. The UN holds a massive responsibility for building up Hamas to commit that atrocity. It has betrayed the purpose for its existence.”
The war that UNRWA teachers, accomplices and other terrorists helped start has claimed the agency itself as a casualty.
Anglo-America
As the family structure of the United States has disintegrated, the nation has become plagued by sexually transmitted diseases. On Nov. 12, 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in 2023, 2.4 million Americans were known to have contracted chlamydia, gonorrhea or syphilis. Since many sexually transmitted diseases take years to run their course, some experts estimate that 1 in 5 Americans have had some type of STD in the past 12 months. Almost half of the STDs reported in the U.S. afflict promiscuous young people between ages 15 to 24, and there has been a recent rise in such diseases among divorced or widowed senior citizens.
STDs are one of the many curses resulting from breaking the Seventh Commandment, which forbids all sex outside of marriage (Exodus 20:14). Yet many Christians get little to no guidance on keeping God’s laws from their churches. Pew Research found that roughly 58 percent of white evangelicals believe that a couple living together and having sex is “morally acceptable” if they plan to marry, and most American churches now accommodate that perspective. Americans surrendered in the battle against fornication, homosexuality, the definition of marriage and transgenderism. Now they are taking their stand against the sexual mutilation of children.
The fact that more conservatives are having sex outside of marriage is also making it harder to stop the murder of unborn children. In the Nov. 5, 2024, elections, seven states voted for laws to make killing unborn children easier. The fact that even notional conservative Christians are compromising on this issue shows that they are losing the culture war.
Meanwhile, U.S. household debt is at a new high. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, American households finished the third quarter of 2024 $17.9 trillion in debt. About 70 percent of this household debt consists of mortgages, which can be considered mostly manageable (but the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 showed that this debt can be dangerous). More troubling was the fact that credit card balances increased by $24 billion to $1.2 trillion. This means the average U.S. household owes almost $9,000 in credit card debt. A new report by Bankrate estimates that 2 in 5 credit card holders have maxed out their credit—when the economy is not even in a recession. The price for Americans’ moral, sexual and financial sins can no longer be deferred: The nation is about to pay sorely.
