Herbert Armstrong said that following a future—and final—demonstration of renewed German military power, the nation would declare, “You made us do it.” That day is getting nearer.

A month ago, German-Foreign-Policy.com reported that “Josef Braml, a scientific adviser to the usa/Transatlantic Relations Program at the German Council on Foreign Relations (dgap), writes in a recently published analysis that, since 2008, the financial and economic crisis has hit the usa very hard. … Because the U.S. is forced to adopt stiff austerity measures to confront the crisis, Braml predicts that Washington, to ease the strain on its budget, will pressure Berlin to increase its participation in Western global military interventions” (February 20; emphasis added).

Such a scenario fits exactly with Herbert Armstrong’s prediction. As a massively debt-bound U.S. continues to draw down its troop presence within Europe and the Middle East, it is inevitable that another power will fill the security and defense gap within those regions. The only nation within reasonable proximity to the Middle East possessing the industrial and economic might to do so is Germany.

German elites have anticipated this for some time. Yet they still have the problem of public opinion at home to contend with. As we report in the upcoming edition of the Trumpet magazine, German elites have mounted significant public relations initiatives to influence the minds of the masses to support the future projection of German power in a manner that befits its newfound world power status.

In the meantime, German military and defense elites are moving to carefully develop their strategy of moving south into northern Africa and east into the Middle East to consolidate control over their much-needed energy supplies.

This strategy for southern and eastward influence started with Germany sparking a security emergency in the Balkan Peninsula by unilateral recognition of Slovenia and Croatia as sovereign states separate from greater Yugoslavia. This was Germany’s first foreign-policy initiative following unification of East Germany with its western counterpart. The rest is history, and a rather bloody history at that. The resultant Balkan wars ended with the entire Balkan Peninsula a veritable colony of the German-dominated European Union.

Recently—this time by Germany applying an economic rather than a military chokehold on its victim—Greece has succumbed as the final Balkan nation to capitulate to Berlin’s demands. In every respect, Greece is now subservient to Berlin as its latest Balkan colony. It now remains for Cyprus to fold under financial and economic pressure from Berlin. Then Germany will have all its stepping stones into the western shores of Israel set like ducks in a row.

In the meantime, moves are afoot to strengthen German military presence in what is developing as the most crucial seaway in the world—the nexus between the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea, through which a third of total global trade travels.

We reported last week on German moves, via the EU, to strengthen its naval, military and air presence around the Horn of Africa. A further effort to shore up Germany’s naval strength—enhancing its ability to strike land-based targets in Somalia—was highlighted last week by the sharp analysts at German-Foreign-Policy.com.

Following the European Union approval for its Somali mission to strengthen its military presence off the coast of Somalia, enabling it to engage land-based targets, German military advisers are pressing for extra strike capability. “German government advisers are pleading for using submarines in the war on piracy at the Horn of Africa. Thanks to their ‘highly modern sensor technology,’ German submarines are not only capable of ‘covertly observing the pirates’ vessels’ and following their course, but also of ‘observing the pirates’ potential bases both day and night,’ according to a statement just published by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (swp). The bases could therefore be attacked with greater precision, as the EU decided Friday” (March 27).

Yet, as our friends at Germany-Foreign-Policy.com point out, the real reasons behind this push for German combat-ready dominance off the Horn of Africa is geostrategic. In fact, it is a further initiative to consolidate Germany’s military moves south and east. “Geostrategic considerations are at the core of the militarization projects being promoted by the Bundeswehr. The Indian Ocean has become extremely important in global policy and it will play a pivotal role in future conflicts with China. Under no circumstances should the ‘new momentum in the greater region of the Indian Ocean’ be neglected, warns the director of the swp. Military strategists are underlining the importance of a strong naval presence in the ocean between Africa and Southeast Asia” (ibid).

What is the end goal of Germany’s military moves south and east? Believe it or not, the real prize, even above that of protecting access to vital energy supplies, is the jewel in the German elites’ imperialist crown: Jerusalem!

With the consolidation of its presence in the Mediterranean (access being opened up by the gift of warm-water ports in the Adriatic courtesy of the Balkan wars) and efforts to now harden its presence at the southern tip of the Red Sea, Germany is carefully positioning itself to gain direct and open access to the tiny nation of Israel. In fact, German elites intend to ultimately take over the Middle East peace process.

Germany took a step in this direction last week in its latest public declaration of support for the Palestinian cause. German Middle East diplomacy is working in tandem with German military policy for the Middle East. At the end of a meeting of the German-Palestinian Coordination Council last Wednesday in Berlin, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle announced that the German government would render financial support to the Palestinian cause: “‘Our aim is a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution,’ he said, ‘and we support the development of that state not just theoretically, but also practically.’ Germany, he said, was a friend and partner for the Palestinian people and for the Palestinian Administration in Ramallah.

“The commission was founded in 2010 as a balance for the regular consultations between the German and Israeli governments” (Deutsche Welle, March 29).

Meanwhile, Israeli government officials hold to a line that, after the U.S., Germany is their greatest ally.

“Germany is regarded as the country’s closest friend, said former Israeli ambassador to Germany Avi Primor. … Germany has also already sold weapons, including submarines, to the Israeli armed forces. In mid-March it was announced that the Israelis would receive a sixth vessel and that Germany would pay for about a third of it. Experts said the boat, which is thought to be capable of carrying medium-range nuclear weapons, could be part of a strategy of deterrence against an Iranian missile threat” (ibid, April 1).

Thus we see Germany playing both sides against the middle between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

Israel’s recognition of its friendship with Germany and Germany’s efforts to take over the Middle East peace process are in complete accord with the Bible prophecies in the books of Hosea and Micah.

There are other angles to this story which it will take more than one brief article to expose.

Keep checking this website for the clearest analyses of the rise of German power south and east of Berlin. It’s a great sign of the ongoing fulfillment of the most powerful of end-time prophecies leading to Jesus Christ’s most imminent return.