the bible prophecy channel: Kedar

Showing posts with label Kedar. Show all posts

Friday, 6 December 2013

Jordan to import coal via Israel, due to closure of its Syrian channel

Haaretz 03-Dec-13

A three-way agreement under which Israel will sell imported coal to Jordan via a group of private companies is expected to get underway in about a month, although some question marks remain about the details.

Two years in the making, the arrangement was approved yesterday by the National Planning and Construction Board. In a pilot program over the next four months, coal will be transported from Israel Electric Corporation’s Orot Rabin power station in Hadera to Jordan.

IEC will buy some 60,000 tons of coal for about $5 million during the pilot program and it’s environmental impact will be studied.

Under a complicated arrangement, National Coal Supply Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the state-owned utility IEC, will buy the coal from overseas suppliers. The coal will be sold in Israel to a closely held foreign company, which in turn will arrange to transport it by truck from IEC’s coal unloading pier in Hadera to Jordan.

IEC will be responsible for unloading the coal from the ships, storing it and loading it on the trucks.

The person responsible for bringing the sides together was Maj. Gen. (res.) Israel Ziv, who manages Global CST, a company that primarily provides security services. Active mainly in Latin America and Africa, Global CST also does business in infrastructure and transportation.

Ziv’s last army job was as head of operations in the Israel Defense Forces at a time when General (Res.) Yiftach Ron-Tal, now chairman of IEC, was head of the ground forces.

Winning approval for the arrangement involved delicate negotiations with Israeli authorities, but Ziv said the region’s changing geo-politics finally cleared the way. “Because of the Syrian situation, the Israeli route became relevant [for the Jordanians.] It was a matter of timing, nothing more than that. It couldn’t have happened at a more ideal time,” he said.

The idea of importing coal via Israel to Jordan was born about two years ago, as anti-government protests in Syria were growing into a fully-fledged civil war, blocking Jordan’s access to Syria’s Latakia seaport on the Mediterranean.

Jordan needs about 400,000 tons of coal annually to power its concrete plants, but had no alternative route to import coal. Bringing in coal through its Aqaba port in the south is prohibitively expensive.

With international companies serving as go-betweens, Israelis and Jordan began discussing the Israel route. IEC’s coal subsidiary imports some 11 million tons of coal annually, which is used to fire many of IEC’s generators. The company sources the fuel from traders who buy it from South Africa, Russia and Colombia, making purchases of about $1 billion annually.

The initial round of talks failed to yield an agreement, among other reasons due to opposition from Israel’s Environmental Protection Ministry. While the ministry never explicitly said so, it is believed officials looked askance at the idea of 20 heavy trucks loaded with dirty coal plying Israel’s road every day.

However, the ministry’s resistance to the plan gradually weakened, after Ziv joined the talks and a change in governments in Israel put a new minister, Amir Peretz, into the environment portfolio. Peretz approved the proposal.

“There are cases in which diplomatic considerations and national needs have to be considered,” the ministry spokesman said on Tuesday. “Because of the issue’s sensitivity, the details can’t be discussed. We are monitoring and supervising the activities [of the coal shipments] and will act as needed.”

IEC also needed to get special permission from the energy ministry to participate in the program because, as a state-owned monopoly, the commercial businesses it can engage in are limited

Friday, 4 October 2013

2013 Egyptian Revolution Isaiah 19:1 The Burden of Egypt!

As the "Arab Spring" moves into a scorching summer, the temperature in the Middle East is climbing dangerously high. We have seen events in Syria lead to civil war and now Egypt is being torn apart by the struggle between the various factions who seek power and control of that country. As far as Egypt is concerned, it brings to mind the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 19, where God says (verse 2):

The Muslim Brotherhood gained power with a 52% majority after the fall of Hosni Mubarak, but that left a large dissatisfied section of the people who have now brought down the Muslim Brotherhood through a military revolution. The Muslim Brotherhood has been removed, at least for now.

But the struggle now going on in Egypt is subject to powerful influences from outside. Saudi Arabia (the Biblical Sheba) and the United Arab Emirates have come forward with $8 billion for Egypt - all in one day! Kuwait has put up $5 billion, making $13 billion in order to support Egypt's military takeover from the Muslim Brotherhood.

On the other hand Iran, Russia and Hizbollah influences are supporting Syria and would like to see Egypt join the radical Islamic nations. This division in the Arab world is exactly what Bible prophecy teaches us to expect, creating a north-south division such as we see indicated in Daniel 11:40-43. but this divide is as much religious as it is geographic - The tug-of-war in Egypt is largely between the two factions of Islam: the Shiite and the Sunni.

The United States would normally support a pro-western Egypt, but President Obama has apparently moved from that position as he seeks to avoid an involvement in the Middle East that could, potentially, bring him into a confrontation with Russia and Europe. He is also said by some sources to have pro-Islamic sympathies, and many will remember his speech in Egypt after his election to his first term in office, not to mention his full name "Barack Hussein Obama."

If he does not intervene in Syria or in Egypt it could influence the outcome of the struggle going on in both of those countries.

So it may be that while men delude themselves into thinking that the modern world is controlled through the ballot box, or by force of arms and revolution, the reality is that God controls everything—

and knowing this to be so the true believer is very interested in politics because he knows that God works out His purposes through the kingdoms of men, placing in power those individuals who will accomplish that which He pleases. This is no less so in the modern age of democracy than it was when kingdoms were founded by the sword—and by by war.

The word of God has revealed that at the time of the end, the Middle East will be divided into two blocks. We have already referred to Daniel 11 (King of North and King of South), and we can also see a similar Confederacy in Ezekiel chapter 38 with Gog's "company"

(the Hebrew word suggests a religious assembly (similar to the Greek "ecclesia"). Another prophecy that gives the idea of a North/South divide is seen in Zechariah 6 (see verses 1-8).

That is the picture that we expect to emerge; a divided Arab world with each side allied to other major powers. So when we see "the Egyptians against the Egyptians" we know from Isaiah's prophecy that the outcome will be their eventual surrender to "a cruel lord" (Isaiah 19:4), for as Daniel also says (Daniel 11:42) "the land of Egypt shall not escape."

Isaiah also tells us of Egypt's economic woes (verses 5 to 10). Such is "the burden of Egypt" (the oracle concerning Egypt, RV) before the God of Israel heals them (verse 22).

"In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: Whom Yahweh of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance."

Thursday, 3 October 2013

Enter Satan The Book of Job #2

Enter Satan

The identification of Satan is critical to any interpretation of the unfolding drama. I propose that throughout the Bible Satan is a metaphorical character representing human pride. Therefore in Job Satan is present wherever pride is present: initially only in the three friends (but later Job too becomes infected).

This proposal is prompted by the following observations:

 The word ‘Satan’ is a Hebrew word meaning ‘opponent’ and is referenced with the definite article (i.e. The Satan), suggesting a metaphorical character, rather than a proper name.

 The natural reading of the prologue suggests that the ‘opponent’ is the opponent of God.

 The Satan is stupid! The entire basis of the Satan’s argument is that he is cleverer than God and has observed something God has missed. This characteristic arrogance points strongly at human pride.

I consider these observations in the light of the broader Biblical teaching concerning Satan, resting on the assumption that the scriptural canon communicates a single message, so Biblical texts interpret each other:

 Peter’s NT writing reveals angels do not slander righteous men, as the Satan does to Job, excluding the possibility of the Satan being an angel, either benign or malign.

 Scripture consistently indicates that God’s opponent is man’s stubborn, proud heart (Gen 6; Jer 17; Mark 7).

 The scriptural scenes of God interacting with Satan follows a template of three generic points: 1) God speaks a truth; 2) Satan counters with an untruth, which forms an accusation against a righteous man; 3) God rebukes the Satan. Examples of this three-part template can be seen in: a) Gen 2-3 & Rev 12; b) Matt 16; c) Ezra 1-4 & Zech 3. The template is consistently fulfilled in Job if we understand the Satan as the pride of the three friends, because their untruths concerning God’s character form accusations against righteous Job and their pride-filled rhetoric is rebuked by God at the end.

 The story of Job forms the iconic tale of human suffering. This forms an appeal to our sensibilities, especially as God is directing the action, that the cause of this suffering should equally be the signature root cause. Other interpretations lay this cause at the feet of others: other men are seen as the Satan, or even a slow-witted angel who doesn’t quite grasp God’s plan. My interpretation identifies the pride and self-will resident in us all as that ultimate, root cause of suffering and divorce from harmony with God: the Satan.