David Berg
Do 180212/11/82
—As True Today as Then!
2. ACCORDING TO THE JAPANESE RELIGION, PARTICULARLY SHINTOISM, SUICIDE IS A VIRTUE! That's true of a lot of religions. Death in defence of your country, dying to fight for your country is supposed to be a glory even to Christians! They're not so innocent of that. And of course for Muslims it's supposedly instant paradise if you die on the battle field!
3. THAT'S WHY SO MANY OF THESE IRANIANS ARE MAKING PROGRESS IN THE WAR AGAINST IRAQ! They said they're coming over in absolutely overwhelming human waves, some of them just boys of 9 to 16!—Deliberately sending them to their death!—Human waves, suicide charges, overwhelming just by a mass of flesh! That is a horror to us & sounds like an atrocity, how could they be so terrible? Well, it's an honour to the Muslim, an honour to the Iranians being chosen to die for their country on the battlefield—even though it's a suicide mission!
4. RELIGIOUSLY IT MEANS INSTANT PARADISE TO MUSLIMS, HEAVEN WITH ALL THOSE RIVERS OF WINE & HOURIS, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN! And considering the horrible lives that most of them have to lead of poverty & deprivation & suffering & sin & sickness & everything else‚ you can't blame little boys of nine years old for volunteering to commit suicide for their country! Think of it! So I doubt if they have any problem at all getting recruits, especially amongst the poor. They don't have much else to look forward to anyhow, so why not go to Heaven real quick via Holy War since that's going to guarantee entry into Paradise!
5. SO THAT'S ONE REASON THE IRANIANS SEEM TO BE MAKING A LITTLE PROGRESS IN IRAQ. In spite of Iraqi superiority in arms & military training, etc., the Iranians have the superiority in population. I think the population runs something like three times that of Iraq, so they can afford to lose a little population! Most of the poor countries of the World are happy to lose population, that means more for the people who are left!
6. THAT'S WHY THEY'RE NOT VERY ANXIOUS TO HAVE EVEN AMERICANS COME TO SOME OF THESE POOR THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES, they figure they're just there to make money off of them‚ & besides that, who needs'm? And they certainly don't take in people from other countries if they can help it, they figure they've got enough poor of their own!
7. BUT THIS IS ONE REASON FOR THE PRESENT CURRENT EVENTS OF THE MAJOR IRANIAN DRIVES NOW, WHICH IS ANOTHER MAJOR CONCERN. It's not really getting so much of the headlines as some other things that really aren't as important, but that little war over there, Beloved, is very important! That little war, so-called, can be the beginning of the end if they win! If Iran actually does overwhelm the Iraqis in Baghdad, you're going to have a major war involving the whole World!
8. RIGHT NOW THE REST OF THE ARABS ARE LETTING IRAQ PRETTY WELL FIGHT FOR ITSELF. They are sending arms & money & equipment & even some volunteers & that sort of thing, but if Iran really overwhelms the Iraqis. ... PTL! How is dear Baby doing? (Pregnant Sara: It's a little excited!)—To hear its Grandfather's voice maybe! Maybe it's jumping with the news of the Truth! Well anyway, it's a serious situation over there‚ & you can bet your boots that the [Americans and Israelis] are doing everything they can to help the Iranians win!
9. THE U.S. HAS OBVIOUSLY BEEN VERY SOFT ON IRAN, HAVE YOU NOTICED? You never hear any more about the hostages or any kind of retribution or retaliation or reaction about the hostages, they hushed the whole thing up! Because Israel is obviously planning to use Iran as an ally to help them lick their next most powerful neighbour aside from Egypt‚ & that's Iraq!
10. ALONGSIDE OF IRAQ & EGYPT, THOSE OTHER LITTLE ARAB COUNTRIES RIGHT AROUND ISRAEL ARE PUSHOVERS! Israel could take them over any day if she could get away with it, & she did get away with it! She's already got Lebanon, she hasn't moved out yet! And they say she's encouraging the factional fighting amongst the Lebanese up in the mountains to give her an excuse to stay in that area, because that's the area she wants to stay in!—In the Eastern mountainous area in the Bekaa Valley where the Syrians & the PLO are entrenched!
11. SO FAR I NOTICE THE SYRIANS HAVE BEEN VERY SMART & TRIED TO AVOID ANY KIND OF CONFRONTATION OR INCIDENTS, & the PLO have gotten by with one or two, not much. Apparently the Syrians are trying to keep the lid on them too‚ because they would like to just stay right where they're at & have the Israelis leave'm alone! Therefore the Israelis have got to have some kind of trouble going on as an excuse to stay there—& the Lebanese themselves are accusing the Israelis of fomenting it.
12. BUT COMPARED TO IRAQ, THOSE LITTLE COUNTRIES OF LEBANON, SYRIA & JORDAN ARE PUSHOVERS! Even Saudi Arabia has nothing compared to the immense armed forces of Iraq! Iran, of course, had the largest army & the largest armed forces in all the Mideast until they got rid of the Shah, but apparently they must still have plenty of it there, & they say the Israelis are supplying it hand-over-fist as fast as they can‚ sending them ammunition, arms & everything! Because you see, Iran's on the other side of Iraq, & the more Iran can cause Iraq trouble, the less Iraq causes Israel trouble! That's the whole deal!
13. IRAQ, AS YOU REMEMBER, IS WHERE THE NUCLEAR POWER FACTORY WAS THAT THE ISRAELIS CAME IN & DIVEBOMBED, & along with killing a few Frenchmen & quite a few Iraqis, got away with it! She was condemned for it, although I couldn't say even slapped on the wrist by the U.S. & Europe & the rest of the World or the U.N. These little objections that the U.S. makes to some of the Israeli shennanigans are really almost ridiculous & amusing, that the U.S. does not agree or condemns or uses all kinds of diplomatic language to show disapproval‚ "Naughty naughty!" (Fam: Begin was even bragging about the bombing, it was one of the highlights of his career!) Yes, it really increased his political backing.
14. BUT ANYHOW, JUST PRAY GOD'S WILL BE DONE, BECAUSE THAT COULD ERUPT INTO A MAJOR WAR BETWEEN THE ARABS & IRAN, & OF COURSE ISRAEL, because Israel is now backing Iran. That helps you understand why even after all that insulting 444 days of 50 hostages, the U.S. has been so soft on Iran & even paid'm the five billion dollars ransom & all that kind of stuff! Can you imagine? It was a criminal kidnapping & they literally paid'm five billion dollars ransom! And they say that the U.S. has been sort of winking or turning away from looking at some of the arms shipments that even U.S. arms merchants have been sending to Iran.
15. SO THE [ISRAELIS] ARE USING IRAN! And although Khomeini was supposed to be a deadly enemy of the Jews & Israel, & one of his major drives was supposedly against Israel, have you noticed he hasn't said anything more against Israel lately? In the early days of his revolution he used to blast Israel all the time & said they were not going to stop their march & their revolution until they got to Jerusalem! I haven't seen one word against Israel since this war with Iraq started, not a word!
16. IT'S ALMOST COMMON KNOWLEDGE, EVEN IN THE PRESS, THAT ISRAEL IS SUPPLYING IRAN WITH ARMS & AMMUNITION‚ ETC.—Why?—Because Israel needs other allies in the Mideast area to help fight the Arabs! After having neutralised Egypt, her next major Arab opponent—best-armed & militarised opponent—is Iraq! That's the next one! They say the little countries of Lebanon, Syria & Jordan are pushovers by comparison‚ Israel could take them all, boom, just like that! Her guns in the tops of the Mt. Hermon mountains are within firing range right now of the capital of Syria at Damascus! And the [Israelis] constantly remind the Syrians of that: "You'd better not cause us any trouble or we can even shoot our guns at Damascus, we're within 16 miles of Damascus!"—And modern guns like that can fire about 20 miles!
17. SO IF IRAN OVERRUNS IRAQ, THEY'VE SAVED ISRAEL THE TROUBLE! And by befriending Iran, Israel has not only neutralised Egypt, she has neutralised Iran—she hopes! And by using Iran, she has neutralised Iraq—or at least knocked her out of the running if she can help Iran to conquer Iraq—because Iraq is one of the bitterest, most outspoken enemies of Israel!
18. THE PRESIDENT OF IRAQ IS ANOTHER HUSSEIN‚ BY THE WAY! You can get'm mixed up once in awhile!—Not King, but President Hussein. It's King Hussein of Jordan, but President Hussein of Iraq is one of the bitterest enemies of Israel! When he was being interviewed by one of the bigshot journalists of the press—he's quite outspoken—they said, "Why is it you're holding back & you're not attacking Israel now?" He said, "We're not ready yet, just give us ten more years!"—And I think that was about five years ago. So Israel's not planning to give'm ten more years!
19. BUT OF COURSE ISRAEL'S NEXT MOST POWERFUL ARAB NEIGHBOUR IS SAUDI ARABIA, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU CAN ALMOST COUNT POOR LIBYA OUT! I think Godahfi realises he's in a very difficult position, & I don't doubt for a moment that the thing that has kept him out of the action & from helping the PLO or anything is that the U.S. has slipped him the word secretly—& they almost did it publicly by pulling out all the Americans—& probably told him: "If you make one move against Israel or to help the PLO, we will move into Libya!"
20. THAT WOULD BE A VERY SIMPLE THING FOR THE U.S. FORCES TO DO! They've already got Egypt & Sudan on the one side & Tunisia as a friend on the other side‚ along with Morocco, which is an ally of the U.S. About the only other one there that's not very friendly to the U.S. in North Africa is Algeria‚ which is somewhat pro-Communist & helped by Russia, along with Libya. But I think the U.S. probably gave Godahfi the word: "You'd better stay out!"—And I'm sure that must have been hard for him to do! But he's a wise smart man‚ he decided it was better to lose a few friends & resist the temptation to help the PLO than to start trouble with Egypt, etc.
21. LOOK AT A BIG NATION LIKE EGYPT RIGHT THERE NEXT DOOR, ALL ARMED & BACKED BY THE U.S. WITH FORCES LINED UP ON HIS BORDER READY TO MARCH RIGHT IN!—A nation of about 42 million which has the largest standing army in the entire Mideast outside of Pakistan, nearly half-a-million men, over 400,000 men, & well-armed!—A nation of nearly 42 million with a military of nearly half-a-million on the border of Libya, a little country of only three million people‚ mostly desert Bedouins! Even though armed to the teeth, they say the largest possible force that Godahfi could probably muster is maybe 40,000 men! Even the army of Egypt outnumbers him ten-to–one, so what chance has he got? That's why he doesn't dare attack Egypt, & I'm sure the U.S. has slipped him the word—the [Israelis] have seen to that—"Don't you touch Israel, don't you interfere in Lebanon & help the PLO or you'll get it!"
22. THE U.S. HAS BEEN WANTING THAT OIL FOR A LONG TIME ANYHOW! When they first of all told the American oil companies to get out‚ I thought that was one danger signal, that's for sure! But then when they actually told all American personnel to get out, that was a pretty sure sign! They don't do that until they're prepared to have an invasion & go in & take over the country! In other words, they don't want any of their oil companies & their U.S. citizens there when the trouble begins! So now it's all nicely prepared to where they can take over Libya at a moment's notice‚ but they're not even bothering to now because they have virtually neutralised Libya just through the threat of both U.S. & Egyptian forces!
23. SO HERE'S LIBYA PARALYSED, EGYPT NEUTRALISED, LEBANON INVADED & SYRIA & JORDAN TREMBLING IN THEIR BOOTS because they know they couldn't possibly resist the push‚ Israel could take them over tomorrow!—And Saudi Arabia, although it's one of the best-armed for its size, has an extremely small force‚ only about 20,000 altogether, & that's nothing to what Israel's got & the armour & the super planes! Have you noticed these new super planes the U.S. is making sure Israel's supplied with? They lost almost no planes, very few planes in the Lebanon War, whereas the poor Syrians were losing planes about 20-to-1 in that war!
24. ISRAEL IS MORE WORRIED ABOUT THE U.S. FRIENDSHIP WITH SAUDI ARABIA THAN SHE IS ANYTHING ELSE! She objects to every bullet the U.S. sends to the Saudi Arabians & every plane, & puts up this big squawk squawk squawk in the henhouse, the U.S. Senate particularly! But [a lot of] U.S. Senators are Jews, so nothing goes through the U.S. government any more unless it has [Senate] approval!
25. SINCE ISRAEL IS ACTUALLY MUCH MORE POWERFUL THAN SAUDI ARABIA & could with a blitzkrieg, lightning war, take over those little countries around her just like that, & then be able to take on the bigger ones, Saudi Arabia would be a little problem but not very big. But as far as her neighbours are concerned‚ Israel's major worry is Iraq. Of course‚ her biggest worry is Russia, which is just on the other side of both Iran, Iraq & Turkey! Israel is only about 600 miles from the Russian border! Look at a map! I told you all this in an old Letter that maybe you ought to read again sometime: "Israel Invaded!" (No.281).
26. WELL, THAT'S WHAT'S GOING ON WITH THIS WAR RIGHT NOW! As I said, all of this other news is sort of pushing it off the front page, but as far as affecting the World & us, that's probably some of the most serious news because it's apt to erupt more than anywhere else right now into a full-scale war between the Arabs & a combination of Israel & Iran‚ plus the Superpowers!
27. IRAN HAS NOT OFFICIALLY BACKED DOWN ON ITS ENMITY TO ISRAEL, BUT IT HAS SOFT-PEDALED NOW, & the Iranians hate the Iraqis even more than the Israelis because they're nextdoor neighbours!—Ha! That's why the Lord said, "Love your neighbour!" Outside of loving God, your greatest responsibility is to love your neighbour, because it seems that neighbours are the hardest people to love! They're right next door & they affect you & your life more than anybody else. You know'm better & their faults & their problems they cause you & everything else.
28. SO IT'S HARDER TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR THAN SOMEBODY YOU DON'T KNOW WHO'S MUCH FURTHER AWAY & DOESN'T BOTHER YOU! Your neighbours bother you, especially if they're unfriendly, so you have to worry more about your neighbours. I've told you you'd better worry about yours here & not cause'm any trouble or cause any complaints, or that could give us trouble! So it's wise of you to love your neighbours & be concerned about their peace & quiet & tranquility & not make too much noise at night.
29. SO IRAQ IS NEXT-DOOR TO IRAN & THEY HAVE BEEN BITTER ENEMIES FOR MANY YEARS, CENTURIES! Iraq is what old ancient land? What was its last name before WW2 when they changed the name? They changed the names of so many of these countries! Iran was Persia‚ Iraq was Mesopotamia—which it was named by the Romans, the Latin word meaning "the land between the rivers" (Tigris & Euphrates)—but Mesopotamia before that was Babylon & Assyria.
30. SOUTHERN IRAQ WAS BABYLON, AT THE MOUTH OF THE EUPHRATES & TIGRIS RIVERS, THE GULF AREA THAT HAS ALL THE OIL.—Not all of it though, Iran has some & there's some in Kuwait & Bahrain, etc.‚ around the upper Gulf. And of course one reason they've got all that oil is because all that used to be lush vegetation in the Garden of Eden 6,000 years ago, & now it's gone to desert because of the sins of the people! God allowed it to revert to desert sands‚ when once it was like the Garden of Eden!
31. SO LOWER IRAQ WAS BABYLON & THE CENTER OF THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE, & UPPER IRAQ WAS ASSYRIA, THE CENTER OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE BEFORE BABYLON. Modern Iraq today is what was still called Mesopotamia when I was young, & in fact, Iran was still called Persia! Just think, within my lifetime Iran was still called Persia & had been called Persia for thousands of years! And Iraq was still called Mesopotamia‚ which it had been called ever since the time of the Romans! For 2,000 years it had the same name!
32. I THINK THE DEVIL'S REALLY TRYING TO CONFUSE PEOPLE WITH THESE NEW NAMES SO THEY WON'T RECOGNISE THEM IN THE BIBLE & see that they have to do with Bible Prophecy & so they won't understand. Your generation probably doesn't even remember the former names, you're even a little uncertain about the names of these countries. Only a very few have kept their original names, but the Lord has seen to that, apparently, to identify them & their role in present-day current events & the near future.
33. WHICH ONES HAVE KEPT THEIR ORIGINAL NAMES BESIDES, OF COURSE, ISRAEL?—Egypt, Ethiopia‚ Libya & Syria. Not actually Jordan, because it was called Moab, but it was sometimes in the Bible called "across Jordan" & "on the other side of Jordan‚" meaning across the Jordan River. Well, when the British took over, they called it Trans-Jordan because it was on both sides of the Jordan River at that time, including today what is called the occupied West Bank. That was a part of Jordan in the days of the British‚ but now it's just called Jordan because they lost the West Side to the Jews. So its ancient name was Moab & the modern name is Jordan.
34. BUT WE STILL HAVE EGYPT, ISRAEL‚ SYRIA, LIBYA & ETHIOPIA! In fact, what is today Somalia & Ethiopia, in my lifetime was still called Abyssinia. And who was its King?—Haile Selassie!—The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, he was called!—Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia, later called Ethiopia.
35. I RECALL, YOU'LL ALSO FIND THE NAME ABYSSINIA IN THE BIBLE! And I think you'll also find Ethiopia there. The Ethiopian Coptic Church was one of the earliest Christian Churches, & the eunuch whom Philip met on the road hitchhiking was an emissary of Queen Candace of Ethiopia who was travelling in Israel! (Ac.8:27.) Hitchhiking is a very old & honourable profession! So you see, many of those countries still have their ancient names. (Fam: And Lebanon.) Yes! There we have about five or six countries that still have their ancient Bible names which they've had for thousands of years!
36. IN THE OLD TESTAMENT‚ ARABIA IS USUALLY CALLED SHEBA & DEDAN. In the New Testament it is already called Arabia, but wherever you find Sheba or Sheban or Dedan, it's Arabia. And I don't recall for sure, but normally the people from there in Old Testament days were called Ishmaelites, because they were descendants of Ishmael, which of course means the Arabs. So the people that Joseph's brother sold him to were Arabs, Ishmaelites, the sons of Ishmael. (Ge.37:28.) So those countries are all ancient Bible countries. I didn't intend to talk to you about that, I was talking about the news!
37. THAT'S SOMETHING TO REMEMBER IN PRAYER, AT LEAST, ABOUT THE IRAN-IRAQ WAR, THAT GOD WILL HAVE HIS WAY, BECAUSE IT'S GETTING SERIOUS AGAIN! Time & again it looked like it was about over, but Iran is totally intransigent, refusing to make peace on any terms but her own, in which she demands a total surrender of Iraq, the ouster of President Hussein & the liberation of all the Shiite Muslims—who are a radical minority, you know. The Sunnis are the major Muslim religion.—And Iran is demanding something like 15 billion dollars in reparations from Iraq!
38. WELL, OF COURSE, IRAQ IS NOT GOING TO SETTLE FOR THAT‚ not while Hussein's still running the country & as long as the Iranians are still not in Baghdad! By the time they get to Baghdad the Iranians won't have to demand such terms, they'll have the whole country! And that's what is worrying the other Arab countries right now, it looks like Iran might take over Iraq! So now they're quickly rushing to her aid with arms & money & a few men. They never seem to be too generous with their manpower because they're pretty scarce & they need their own little armies to protect themselves! They don't have very many people, so they can't spare'm!
39. EGYPT IS STILL THE WORLD'S STRONGEST ARAB NATION, & THE WORLD'S LARGEST MUSLIM NATION NEXT TO INDONESIA! Western Java‚ the capital island of Indonesia, so to speak, & Sumatra, the biggest island across the Straits, are almost entirely Muslim. But the Family is still there (until 1984) & have operated there somewhat with a minimum of opposition & persecution (until now!), & we're (we were) even on radio stations there, think of that! But most of the Family & where we're (were) most royally received is in the major part of the civilised more Westernised Europeanised Dutch Java, Batavia & the more civilised parts of Indonesia. But outside of China & India, isn't Indonesia the largest & most thickly populated country in the East?—Yes!
40. CHINA IS NOW CLAIMING ONE BILLION PEOPLE! Of course, I heard the latest report that in her stats she's kind of like us & our Clubbers‚ she's including Taiwan & Hong Kong! Well, after all, they're Chinese, why shouldn't she? That's the way I feel about the Clubbers! After all, they're members of the Club, why shouldn't we?
41. BUT YOU SEE HOW CLEVER ISRAEL HAS BEEN? She worked hard to neutralise Egypt, & now Egypt doesn't dare do a thing!—Won't even go to the assistance of Lebanon, her sister Arab nation, never raised a finger! They only raised a little protest & called back their ambassador for consultation from Israel. Of course she's cut off the talks about the PLO in Israel & its fate, but that hurts the PLO & the Palestinians worse than it does the Israelis!
42. THE ISRAELIS DON'T MIND CUTTING OFF THOSE TALKS AT ALL, THEY NEVER WANTED THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE, SO THAT'S NO LOSS! It was only Egypt & the U.S. that were supposedly wanting talks about the future of the Palestinians. As far as the future of the Palestinians is concerned, the Israelis have that all settled! They know what they want to do with the Palestinians & what they plan to do & are doing!—The same thing they did to them in Beirut! The Arabs seem to be so impotent & so scared, & I think part of it is they're even unsure of their own populations! After all, their armies are composed of the common people, who are actually enemies of their leaders & administrations!
43. ISRAEL HAS RIGHTLY ACCUSED NEARLY ALL OF THOSE ARAB REGIMES OF BEING DICTATORSHIPS & AUTOCRACIES OF THE ARISTOCRACY & the very very very very few very very very very rich people, whereas the vast majority of the people, 90–some–percent or more, are very very poor & mere slaves & serfs on the land! And it's those people that Godahfi's been after to rise up & overthrow their rulers! All of those major rich Arab regimes like Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, etc., are more afraid of their own armies than they are of the armies of their enemies! So that's one of the main reasons their leaders don't send a lot of them off to help any sister Arab countries, they're keeping them at home to protect themselves from the people!
44. THIS IS WHY THEY DIDN'T SEND ANY HELP TO SPEAK OF OTHER THAN WORDS‚ WORDS, WORDS, TO LEBANON WHEN SHE WAS BEING OVERCOME BY ISRAEL! They did send some funds & ammunition & a lot of sympathy, supposedly, but that's about all! And as you recall, Arafat got pretty fed up with them! He's pretty disgusted with the whole bunch, that they never helped him, not one of them! Not one of those Arab countries actually went to his aid! They sent arms & ammunition, but what happened to it all?—It all fell into the hands of the Israelis & they've been digging it out like gold mines from the hills & the basements & putting it on display!
45. YOU NOTICE THE ISRAELIS ARE NOT PLANNING ON MOVING OUT OF SOUTHERN LEBANON, THEY HAD A PERMANENT HEADQUARTERS SET UP IN TYRE!—Tyre‚ which used to be the capital of Lebanon & is now virtually the capital of Southern Lebanon. The U.S. today accused Lebanon of obstructing their peace efforts there because they were refusing to sign a peace treaty with Israel or any kind of agreement for Israeli security in Southern Lebanon—or surrender to Israel!
46. WHAT THE ISRAELIS WANT LEBANON TO DO IS WHAT LITERALLY AMOUNTS TO SIGNING OVER ALL OF SOUTHERN LEBANON TO ISRAEL & its stooge troops, its Lebanese army that it pays, clothes, arms, supports & protects under the renegade rebel Lebanese army of Major Haddad—who is nothing in the World but an Israeli stooge! (Now dead.) He's a puppet government of Southern Lebanon sponsored by Israel already & they're not about to begin to give up Southern Lebanon!
47. THIS ISRAELI PEACE PLAN IS ALL TALK, DON'T BELIEVE A WORD OF IT! It's all sparring for time! Just like the Jews told us when we were in Israel: "Well, as long as we can keep'm talkin', we'll keep'm talkin'!" The Jews know they can outtalk anybody‚ they can outtalk even the Arabs, they can out-talk the Americans, they can outtalk the Europeans‚ they can outtalk anybody when it comes to talking! You ought to know! Ahem!—I'm still talkin'!
48. AS LONG AS THEY CAN KEEP THE TALKS GOING, THEY ALWAYS WIN, & THAT WAY THEY DON'T HAVE TO FIRE A SHOT! The trouble with the PLO is they won't talk to'm!—Ha! They just want to shoot'm, because they know the [Israelis]! They know that talkin' to'm does no good at all, the more they talk, the more they lose!—Like talking to the camel's nose!
49. SO THE WAR IN THE MIDEAST LOOKS PRETTY SERIOUS RIGHT NOW BECAUSE OF THIS. Can you see why? Libya's paralysed with fright, Egypt is paralysed with American money & was literally bought–off. Egypt has the largest population in the Arab World, but it was the poorest nation of all. It has the largest army, & one of the poorest paid, so what they needed most was money. They also needed arms & they wanted a Sinai airbase, so the U.S. [was] finally willing to give'm all of it just to neutralise'm & make sure they didn't enter any of Israel's proposed wars which she was already planning—such as the invasion of Lebanon!
50. THAT FIRST INVASION OF LEBANON WAS JUST LIKE A TEST TO SEE WHAT EGYPT WOULD DO, & then due to persuasion from the U.N.—I don't think Israel even listens to the U.N. anymore‚ but the U.S.—she supposedly backed out of Southern Lebanon. But she left a Lebanese army under her control there which has ruled Southern Lebanon ever since!
51. TYRE IS THE CAPITAL OF SOUTHERN LEBANON & APPARENTLY THE ISRAELIS HAVE HAD WHAT LOOKED LIKE A PRETTY PERMANENT HEADQUARTERS THERE, what looked like about a ten-story building! They said the building was just as tall as those surrounding it, & they looked like about ten stories! Now it's only 20 feet high, just a mound of ruins & rubble & they've only dug out the people that were in the top floor. They said there could be a hundred people buried in the rubble. Well, if you live by the sword, you die by the sword!
52. THEY SAID SOMETHING EXPLODED, BUT I THINK REALLY THE ISRAELIS ARE TRYING TO MINIMISE THE THING. They'd hate to admit that the Arabs & the Lebanese & the terrorists are still that powerful! They'd hate to admit such a victory, as they said that explosion would be the greatest single loss of the Lebanese war by the Israelis if there are as many people dead as they assume! But notice how Israel's trying to minimise & downplay it: "Oh, there were only about 25 casualties!" The Lebanese say there must have been at least 100!
53. IT MUST HAVE BEEN A REAL SHOCK TO ISRAEL, BECAUSE THEIR WHOLE SOUTHERN LEBANON HEADQUARTERS COLLAPSED! It was the Israelis' government headquarters of Southern Lebanon, which they control & rule & is virtually a part of Israel! The whole building collapsed—blown up by either a powerful bomb, or they're trying to even say it might have been a gas explosion which set off the stores of ammunition. My God, what would they be storing ammunition in the basement of their government building for, anyhow? That's like sitting on top of the bomb! That's a pretty stupid thing to do! Well, maybe they couldn't trust it anywhere else.
54. BUT THE LEBANESE SAY IT WAS A KAMIKAZE CAR BOMB, some suicide pilot‚ as I was explaining to you. A car loaded with a pretty good–sized charge of explosives simply must have rammed the building or rammed into the basement or someplace where they knew there were other things to explode, & the whole thing blew up & the whole building collapsed! You reap what you sow! That's only one building‚ the [Israelis] destroyed thousands of buildings in Lebanon & Beirut, & tens of thousands of lives! But they're always lying & minimising it & giving little tiny ridiculous figures!
55. SO THAT'S ONLY THE BEGINNING, WAIT & SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE ARABS REALLY HAVE A CHANCE TO GET BACK AT'M! According to God's Word they're going to almost be wiped out & only a very small remnant of them left who will survive! But right now they're in control & they are not about to give up Southern Lebanon. And the attitude of the Lebanese government is, you might say, almost literally helping their cause!
56. THE LEBANESE GOVERNMENT IS REFUSING TO MAKE AN AGREEMENT OR A TREATY WITH THEM—which the Lebanese are doing for their own sake‚ & the government is doing for its own sake, because it would lose the Arab nations as their friends if they would in this way sign away half of Lebanon to Israel, & that's what they'd be doing! So even though Israel has it & has conquered it & controls it & runs it & has occupied it, the Lebanese government is refusing to recognise her right to be there! Whereas, if they would sign an agreement or treaty, that would recognise Israel's right to be there.
57. SO WHAT GEMAYEL IS SAYING TO THE ISRAELIS, IN EFFECT, IS‚ "WELL, YOU'RE THERE & YOU'VE GOT IT, but we still protest & we refuse to agree to your right to be there, it's our country!"—Which, of course‚ is another reason why the [Israelis] will never get out of Lebanon, at least not within the foreseeable future. And of course, they're using that as their excuse for not getting out. Well, they weren't planning to get out anyhow, so the more excuses they can find the better!
58. AND THEIR EXCUSE FOR NOT GETTING OUT OF THE REST OF LEBANON IS THE SYRIANS & THE PLO WHO STILL REMAIN THERE. About the only thing they have gotten out of has been Beirut‚ & apparently only because the Americans & the Europeans were willing to move in & take care of Beirut for them. Pretty smart, huh? They don't have to waste any troops on Beirut now, the foreign troops can control Beirut & make sure the PLO are not there & they don't have any trouble with Beirut.
59. SO ALTHOUGH THEY PRETENDED THEY WERE RELUCTANT TO BACK OUT, THEY WEREN'T ALL THAT RELUCTANT, OR THEY WOULDN'T HAVE BACKED OUT! If the [Israelis] had wanted to stay in Beirut, they would be there today! Let me tell you, the [Israelis] get what they want! They never would have gotten out! They stayed lingering around on the fringes till the very last minute, they weren't even supposed to be at the harbour when the Americans moved in‚ & the French were angry & the Americans protested! They just wanted to show their authority that they didn't really have to get out if they didn't want to. They're still out there on the fringes of the airport & some of those places.
60. THEY STILL VIRTUALLY ENCIRCLE ALL OF BEIRUT! They've only gotten out of the areas that the Lebanese & the Americans & the French & the Italians have occupied. But that's just gotten the responsibility of keeping the peace in Beirut off their hands, they've neutralised Beirut. They've gotten rid of the PLO & they've pretty well neutralised even the Lebanese army there by having all those foreign troops there. Talk about getting foreign troops out of Lebanon, ha! There's oodles of'm in Beirut!
61. (THIS WAS THE SITUATION THAT YEAR‚ & IT HASN'T CHANGED MUCH! Till Jesus comes!—Are you READY?—Get your job done NOW!—The END is NEAR! "Go ye into all the World & preach the Gospel" NOW!—TOMORROW will be TOO LATE!)