My cousin Jessica attended Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle last night in Belfast, where she heard Pastor Jim McConnell speaking on his recent trip to Israel. I wished I could have heard what he said, but I was at my own meeting. But Jessica has just given me a run down on Pastor McConnell's experience. He took the trip on his own, and was praying that the Lord would lead him to speak to the right people. On his journey to Israel he witnessed over 800 Russian Jews arriving at the airport. Asking them why they were coming to live in Israel, they said they didn't know, but they had left jobs, friends and everything else to make a new life there. Jim McConnell ended up meeting with an Israeli tour guide, who had fought in the three major wars since the birth of Israel. During his discussions with the guide, McConnell asked him if the holocaust would ever happen again. The guide became angry and said Israel would never allow it to happen again. He said Israel's back was against the wall now (in relation to Iran, etc.). Jim McConnell asked how Israel could prevent a holocaust from occurring again, and the guide replied that Israel would be prepared to use nuclear weapons in a pre-emptive strike. He said they would turn the lands of their enemies into a "glass parking lot" (the heat from a nuclear explosion melts sand into glass). Jane's Defence estimates that Israel has at least 400 nuclear warheads, enough to destroy an entire world should it consider to attack the nation. 

Quote: "Although Israel has often said that it would not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the region, Israeli officials have often publicly implied that certain circumstances - especially the use of chemical weapons by their enemies - would elicit a nuclear response. In fact, evidence indicates that Israel might launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike under certain conditions.

Jane's Defence also states that Israel's main nuclear weapons installation is vulnerable to attack. A couple of well placed low-yield nuclear missile could damage the facility enough to prevent a major Israeli nuclear retaliation. This is perhaps why Israel is currently investing in two German second-strike nuclear submarines. According to Jane's Defence, this vulnerability could form part of the equation that might lead Israeli politicians to decide a pre-emptive nuclear strike - the Samson option, was necessary to ensure Israel's survival.

Quote: "The size of the Israeli nuclear arsenal, the uncertainty of how it would be used and the risk of a mistake raises many questions in the unstable Middle East. Although Israel is the dominant conventional military power in the region, could the vulnerability of its nuclear force tempt the Israeli Government to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against another country? There is also the question of Israel's growing nuclear arsenal - even though its enemies are geographically small and militarily weaker. These questions must be answered if a serious miscalculation is to be avoided in the future.

When you consider the geographical size of Israel, along with the fact that the Israeli population is centred in just two main cities, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, any strike by a nuclear Iran would have devastating consequences. Tel Aviv would be the target of choice, as this would cripple Israel's economy and kill hundreds of thousands of people. Ahmadinejad would most likely not mount an attack on Jerusalem, which is also revered in Islam. Under these circumstances, Israel could find itself having to use nuclear weapons against Iran or Syria, just in order to guarantee its own survival.

Quote: "Israel is a one-bomb state, meaning that a single nuclear weapon would dramatically change the nature of the country. The country could not tolerate the human or economic disaster that would result from a single low-yield nuclear explosion. This is the nightmare image that Israeli nuclear scientists and government officials have calculated over and over again, ranging across various scenarios regarding type of weapon, nature of impact, and probabilities of secondary and tertiary crisis waves spreading through the metropolitan area, the nation, and the world. The "Never again!" resolve takes on new meaning when one bomb promises to bring the entire nation of Israel to its knees.

All these facts have led Pastor McConnell to believe that Israel may mount a pre-emptive nuclear strike during the tribulation period, which would bring all the nations of the world against it in the battle of Armageddon.

Quote: "Former army Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon says Israel has the ability to launch a pre-emptive strike that could set back Iran's nuclear program for years. He said that a single attack would not be sufficient, and that Israel was not limited to air strikes, a possible reference to submarine-fired missiles. Ya'alon who ended his term as army chief last year, said Israel's anti-missile defenses would protect it from an Iranian counterattack.

Jeremiah 49:23-27 
Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet. Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail. How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy! Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts. And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad (the name of a Syrian ruler - like Pharaoh).

Source Wikipedia, Jane's Defence, Free Republic, Payvand