We’ve all heard the expression “raising the stakes”. In the game of poker, it means to simply “up the ante” or add to the wager. When it comes to the Middle East, the stakes have once again been raised—almost to the limit.
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics published figures this week showing the current state of affairs on the eve of the Jewish New Year. According to CBS figures, 7,456,000 people live in Israel; about 75% Jewish and 20 % Arab with the remaining 5% defined as “other”. Israeli society was found to be young relatively with 28% of the population children under the age of 14 (the future of this nation) as compared to the 17% average in other western countries.
Interestingly, 21% of Israeli Jews live in Tel Aviv and the surrounding suburbs, and 28% in the central region in general. Only 10% of the Jewish population lives in the north while 60% of the Arab population in Israel lives in the north. I point this out simply because of the rhetoric coming from Iran again this week.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again raised the stakes against Israel by describing the Holocaust as “a lie based on an unprovable and mythical claim.” In a speech broadcast live on state radio He stated, “Confronting the Zionist regime is a national and religious duty… This regime (Israel) will not last long. Do not tie your fate to it...This regime has no future. Its life has come to an end.”
In an interview this week with NBC news, Ahmadinejad refused to explicitly rule out development of nuclear weapons, all the while repeating his claim that Iran is simply developing peaceful nuclear programs.
However, on the heels of that interview comes a secret report from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog warning that “Iran has the ability to make a nuclear bomb and is developing a missile system to carry it.” Up until now, the U.N. has clearly disavowed the notion that Iran was trying to develop anything but nuclear power for peaceful purposes.
So here’s the overall picture: Israel has the majority of its Jewish population living in the center of the country with 25% living in the city Tel Aviv. Iran has deployed dozens of military officers in Lebanon to actively command Hezbollah fighting units to the north of Israel. They are developing a missile system to carry nuclear warheads and the Iranian president tells his nation that Israel’s “life has come to an end.”
The reality is that when (not “if”) Iran gets a delivery system to carry a nuclear warhead, they will be able to do in six minutes what Hitler tried to do in six years: exterminate 6 million Jews. Is it any wonder that Israel may just have matched the ante placed on the table this week by Ahmadinejad?
See, there’s another phrase used in poker when someone raises the stakes—it’s call “all in.” It’s when an opponent decides to place it all on the table for one last play. And Israel may have done just that this past week.
The Jerusalem Post ran a headline this week stating: “We may have to attack Iran by December”. The article quoted former deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh saying, “We cannot live under the shadow of an Iran with nuclear weapons….By the end of the year (2009), if there is no agreement on crippling sanctions aimed at this regime, we will have no choice.”
The enemies of Israel would do well to note that the Bible said that in the last days, there would be a place called “Israel” – and there it is—and will forever be!
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