World War III, part 3: Syria to Yemen

At least I’m not the only one calling it World War Three anymore. I’m starting to see WWIII headlines across major media outlets.

There are so many bad things happening now, all at once, we might get ‘news-fatigue’ and fail to see the signs of the times.

The U.S. and the U.K. have attacked more than 60 different targets in the country of Yemen, to Israel’s south. The targets were said to be support sites for the Houthi rebels in their attacks on American and other shipping in the Red Sea. Nearly all the targets contained ammunition, drones, and missiles supplied to the Houthis by Iran.

Who are the Houthis, and what are they doing in Yemen?

The Houthis are Shia Muslims. (Islam is split into two major factions – Shia and Sunni. They don’t get along, but they are united in hatred of Israel.) Houthi rebels overthrew the (Sunni) Yemeni government in 2014, with the help of Shia-led Iran. Sunni-run countries like Saudi Arabia have been trying to reinstate the proper government of Yemen ever since, so far to no avail.

By attacking the Houthis on Yemeni soil, the U.S. and U.K. and their allies (the biblical 'King of the South') are attacking Iran by proxy. Iran and Syria are allied with the 'king of the north', Russia.

Meanwhile, South Africa has formally brought charges against Israel in the U.N. for war crimes associated with their attacks on Hamas-led Gaza. Turkey has backed South Africa’s charges. 

As Hamas attacks Israel from the west, Hezbollah is launching drones and firing rockets and guided missiles into Israel from Lebanon to Israel’s north. Israel retaliates in kind, firing at Hezbollah targets within Lebanon. They have killed hundreds of Hezbollah, thousands of Lebanese civilians and tens of thousands in Gaza. (The actual government of Lebanon doesn’t approve of Hezbollah, but claims it can’t stop them and isn’t responsible for them.)

Like the Houthis, Hezbollah is backed by Iran. Unlike the Houthis, the Hezbollah threat is vast – they are believed to have 150,000 missiles aimed at Israel.

Powerful as Israel is, they are unlikely to be able to succeed against Hamas, Houthis, and Hezbollah without help. The U.S. has 40,000 troops deployed to Israel. They had to recall an aircraft carrier from the Mediterranean after its mission had been extended twice due to the Ukraine war and other threats. With the new troubles, they moved a different aircraft carrier into the Red Sea. Iran claims they, too, have moved their carrier to the Red Sea.

Israel's pressure on Iran seems to have distracted Iran from bolstering the Assad regime in Syria. A Sunni group called HTS has taken advantage and, without the Iranian elite guard to protect him, Assad fled to Russia, leaving HTS in charge of Syria.

Meanwhile, the war between Russia and Ukraine may have left the headlines, but it has not gone away. The ‘clay and iron’ problem in the U.S. government has delayed funding for Ukraine and hindered funding for Israel. Once-neutral Sweden has vowed to increase military spending, is urging its citizens to start preparing for war, and is encouraging its youth to volunteer for military service.

And on the other side of the world from all of that, Venezuela has decided to move its border and grab about half of the country of its neighbor Guyana, after gold and oil were discovered there. That should be a local squabble except that Guyana, the only English-speaking country in South America, has asked the U.K. for help. And Britain responded that they will “ensure Guyana’s territorial integrity” no matter what. They now have a British warship standing off the coast. Venezuela in turn accused the British of destabilizing the area. The U.S. has made the same pledge. 

And Russia recently moved warships into the area to show their support for Venezuela.

So, for those of you keeping score at home:

The King of the North - Russia and its allies, including Iran and Venezuela - is pushing. Perhaps Syria is about to "escape out of his hand." The King of the South - America, Britain, Israel, and their allies are pushing back. (Daniel 2:43; Daniel 11:40, 41) 

Does it need to blow up to global mobilization to be a world war? A better question is, with things as they are in the world now, would it take the end of a massive war to result in the cry of Peace and Security? (1 Thessalonians 5:3) Time will tell.

 You can read Part One of this series by clicking here. You can read Part Two here.

Your polite comments are welcome. 

 

 Bill K. Underwood is the author of several novels and one non-fiction self-help book, all available at Amazon.com. You can help support this page by purchasing one of his books.

 

 

 

World War Three? Part Two: Israel and Hamas

In Part One of this series, I speculated that we might be seeing the start of World War Three. Recent events seem to be building the case for that likelihood.

The Russia/Ukraine war shows no sign of stopping. In the nearly two years since it began, Belarus has made clear that they are firmly on Russia’s side. Despite efforts by the majority of U.N. members to choke off aid to Russia, some countries have given either tacit approval or active aid to Russia’s aggression, including:

• China
• India
• Iran
• North Korea
• Syria
• Myanmar
• Eritrea
• Mali
• Nicaragua

In October, 2023, China hosted Russian leader Putin at an economic meeting that was also attended by Hungary’s president, Viktor Orban. Orban shook Putin’s hand and expressed his eagerness to “expand contacts.” He said, “Hungary never wanted to confront Russia.”  

On the other side of the hostilities, Finland joined NATO in April, 2023, taking their stand against Russia after decades of neutrality. In October, Finland accused Russia of sabotaging an undersea pipeline and telecommunications cable, possibly as a retaliatory move.

Sweden, after a long-standing policy of neutrality, also applied to join NATO in May, 2022, allying themselves against Russia. They, too, reported damage to an undersea cable. They haven’t yet blamed Russia, but the implication is there.

Russia seems to have a split personality: They have a strong anti-extremist policy which they have used against Islamic organizations within Russia (which they have weirdly applied to decidedly non-extremists, like Jehovah’s Witnesses). But they have also always kept an open mind toward Islamic governments outside Russia. They trade, for example, for military drones from Iran. Iran doesn’t need Russia’s oil, but they do import billions of dollars worth of other goods from them.

Russia also has strong diplomatic ties to Israel. Until now, Israel has not joined most of the World in sanctioning Russia for its attacks on Ukraine. A significant portion of Israelis hail from Russia, and a Russian speaker can navigate quite comfortably in Israel.

Just as nations chose up sides in 2022 between Russia and Ukraine, they are now having to choose between Israel and Hamas. (To read my column on the origin of the modern-day state of Israel, click here.)

Hamas is described as an Islamic extremist group or terrorist organization, depending on who’s doing the describing. They disagreed with the peace treaty worked out between Israel and Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian organization back in Bill Clinton’s day. Hamas maintains, as the pre-Arafat Palestinians did, that Israel has no right to exist and should be exterminated. They began ‘poking the bear’ with small attacks against Israelis in the early 2000s. From 2007 on, Israel has walled off the densely populated, tiny Palestinian metropolis known as the Gaza Strip, turning it into a virtual outdoor prison. Anyone entering or leaving Gaza had to be cleared either through a gate east to Israel or a gate south to Egypt. 

On October 7, 2023, Hamas fired an estimated 2,200 rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel. Where did they get the rockets? Some say they were manufactured in Iran; Iran denies it. Just as the Mexican drug cartels dug under the southern border of the United States, Hamas dug tunnels under the border with Egypt to bring in rockets and other contraband from - somewhere. They also seem to have learned how to make rockets themselves.

Coordinated with the rocket attacks, they also launched ground attacks against the checkpoints into Israel and began killing random Israelis in villages and kibbutz’s outside the Strip, grabbing hundreds of hostages and dragging them back inside.  They took hostage many other non-Palestinians who were already within the Gaza Strip.

With the open war between Israel and Hamas, unsurprisingly the United States and most of NATO have come to the aid of or expressed support for Israel. Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen, Qatar, and Lebanon have all expressed their support for Hamas, as have the terror groups Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, Islamic Jihad and others.

True Christians are strictly neutral as to world politics. But that doesn’t mean we are uninterested. We are saddened by the harm, stress, and loss of life in all countries affected by war. But these stressful conditions reaffirm that we are, absolutely, seeing the signs the Bible told us to watch for.

Only two major signs remain unfulfilled.

The next one calls for a significant cry of ‘Peace and Security!’ As we’ve discussed in previous columns, that cry could come in several different ways: 1. A dramatic end to a very large scale war, such as happened at the end of World War Two; 2. A change in the U.N.'s methods or ability to regulate international relations; 3. A shift in the human condition - such as a technological 'miracle' or a significant economic change - that causes the populace to begin saying that they personally are feeling more peaceful and secure than they ever have.

Personally, I’ve always expected the latter. I even speculated about it in my novel Resurrection Day. But if the fulfillment requires the declaration of peace at the end of a major war, then the current crises could escalate to exactly that climax.

 You can read Part One by clicking here. You can read Part Three here.

Your polite comments are welcome. 

 

 Bill K. Underwood is the author of several novels and one non-fiction self-help book, all available at Amazon.com. You can help support this site by purchasing a book.

 

Are the Jews still God's chosen people?

Refugee ship the Exodus

copyright-free photo from Israeli archive

The conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people has exploded, again, with huge losses of life and property on both sides. As I write this, the news is saying that the Israeli government directed civilians in the Gaza Strip to seek refuge in southern Gaza; and then that same government, either intentionally or accidentally, dropped bombs on that area. I haven't read any condemnation of them by the United States or any other western government so far, perhaps because of the belief that they are 'God's Chosen People'. Or perhaps the politicians are afraid of being called antisemitic.