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>Israel Faxx
>JN Dec. 10, 1999, Vol. 7, No. 229
EDITOR'S NOTE: Israel Faxx is taking a brief vacation. The next issue will be dated Dec. 17, 1999.
Millennium: Is Armageddon Around the Corner?
By Ed Warner (VOA-Washington)
As the new millennium dawns, all eyes may be on Jerusalem. The Holy City, cherished site of three great religions, is threatened precisely because of its unique status. A few extremist Christian and Jewish groups are vowing to destroy Muslim shrines to bring about their version of the divine plan.
Anyone trying to visit the great Islamic shrines in Jerusalem's Old City has a long wait at the entrance. For good reason. Israeli authorities have learned of so many planned attacks on the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque - the third holiest places in Islam after Mecca and Medina - that they must carefully scrutinize all visitors. A would-be terrorist may be among them, looking perfectly innocuous.
Vincent Cannistraro is a former chief of counter-terrorism operations at the CIA: "The real danger is that a number of fringe religious cults are taking the year 2000 as a touchstone for the coming of Armageddon and perhaps the end of the world. A lot of them are trying to relocate to Jerusalem. I think they will try to encourage the coming of Armageddon by participating in violent actions against Muslims, against everyone that is defined as outside their particular religious culture."
Cannistraro says even mass suicide is a possibility. Most of the visitors to the sacred shrines, of course, intend no harm to them. They are there to worship or admire. It is only a very tiny, driven minority who might have dreams of destruction. But it is this embattled few who worry Israeli authorities trying to spot them and turn them away.
In her new book, "Forcing God's Hand," Grace Halsell describes the efforts of some Christian groups to hasten the arrival of Armageddon and the Second Coming of Jesus. First the Dome of the Rock must be destroyed, then the third Jewish temple built on its ruins. That accomplished, Jesus will appear, banishing the unworthy to perdition and sending the elect to paradise.
Some Christians are raising millions of dollars for this enterprise and also attending to details. Along with rabbis in Jerusalem, Author Halsell says they are providing training in how to conduct animal sacrifices, a practice in the previous Jewish temples. A fundamentalist Christian minister in Mississippi is hard at work breeding red heifers required for the ritual.
Halsell writes that Christians are collaborating with Jews, including one of the Stern Gang terrorists responsible for the 1946 bombing of Jerusalem's King David Hotel that killed 100 people: "It is the alliance between these two groups that make each of them so powerful. They are the strangest bedfellows. The Christian Zionists say the most anti-Semitic remarks you can imagine, like the anti-Christ is obviously a Jewish man. But at the same time, they love the Land of Israel because they say that has to be the landing base for Christ."
Author Halsell says the Jews who participate in the alliance overlook the Christians' theology. A Jewish leader in America writes that Israel needs all the friends it can get. If the Christian messiah should arrive, he says "We will consider our options. Meanwhile, let's praise the Lord and pass the ammunition." Halsell notes there is plenty of ammunition under way.
Terrorism expert Cannistraro says it takes a strained reading of the Bible to justify the violence against Islam. But the extremists entertain no doubts: "Some of these people are very literal minded. They will take incidents from the Bible and interpret them in their own terms, such as the Phinehas priesthood, which is an element of the Christian Identity movement that engages in acts of violence against people they believe are breaking God's law."
Cannistraro notes that Phinehas was a figure in the Old Testament who saved Israel by killing religious apostates. With that kind of assurance, says Cannistraro, extremist groups are growing and present a genuine danger at the millennium and, indeed, throughout the coming year.
