The Vatican has had its sights set on taking over Jerusalem from the time the Ottomans ousted it in 1517.

Now there are signs that committed papist Mario Monti, Italy’s interim prime minister by appointment of the nation’s president, is keen to step up Rome’s diplomacy in Israel.

The technocracy that has taken over the governing of Italy in the hope that it can last till official elections in 2013 has made an interesting choice for the head of its Foreign Ministry.

Frankfurter Rundschau reported this week that “The career diplomat Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata, who will be foreign minister for the new Italian government under Premier Mario Monti, was ambassador of his country in Israel between 2002 and 2004. In this function he was contributing significantly to better the relationship between the EU and Israel” (November 17; translation ours).

This fact of itself is quite interesting given that we have been watching for some time for a ramping up of Rome’s diplomacy in Israel, in consortium with that of Germany, relative to fulfillment of the prophecy that the latter will be instrumental in leading a contingent of armies to surround Jerusalem, with the former seeking to have the papal seat transferred from Rome to Jerusalem (Luke 21:20; Daniel 8:9).

So it was of particular interest to us when we realized that Terzi di Sant’Agata was directly involved in opening doors for right-wing Italian politician Gianfranco Fini and an entourage of right-wing Italian bedfellows for a high-profile visit to Israel.

Gianfranco Fini’s political roots are deeply fascist. His father was a supporter of the Nazis. During his student days, Fini became deeply involved in the Socialist movement in Italy, ultimately becoming the national secretary of the Italian Social Movement (msi). His tenure in that position often led him to publicly endorse Mussolini and his fascists. Fini publicly acknowledged that the msi were the heirs of the fascist movement, endorsing Mussolini as Italy’s greatest statesman.

Ever the politician at heart, Fini made a display of turning from fascism to the center right in Italian politics so as to enter the mainstream in Italy, and thus gained office in ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government. He successively held the positions of deputy prime minister, foreign minister and president of the Chamber of Deputies in the Berlusconi government.

We have watched Fini for some time, observing his rising star as an Italian politician, especially keeping in mind his prior attachment to fascism. He is one of the main prospects for the Italian premiership when elections are held 2013, assuming that the current technocracy under Mario Monti can last that long.

As some observers have noted, Fini is in Italian politics for the long game. Just how long that game is may be determined at Italy’s next official national elections.

In the meantime, we shall be carefully watching the diplomacy of Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata, the one who enabled Fini’s successful visit to Israel in 2003, where, at the time, the forked-tongue Fini ostensibly renounced the excesses of fascism.

Having publicly defended the pope over criticism by his ex-party boss Umberti Bossi, Fini may be just the man to match the papal forked tongue with that of his chameleon-like approach to politics (Revelation 13:11). He, together with the aid of Ambassador Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata, is well capable of massaging relations with any future leaders of Germany and Israel to gain papal access direct to Jerusalem in the future. After all, it was his old hero Mussolini who in 1929 successfully entered a concordat with the Vatican that was to underpin Pope Pius xii’s neutral stance against Nazism.

Either way, at the present time, EU elites are in a key position to guide affairs of state under the unelected technocracy of one of the Bilderberger’s most influential elites, Mario Monti. Ultimately, those affairs are prophesied to end with the pope ensconced for a brief period in Jerusalem.

But the good news in all of this is that the greater prophecy speaks of all pretenders to the possession of Jerusalem being soon ousted by the very Son of God as He takes up His rightful seat, the regal throne of King of Salem.