Can you see a war coming?  I used to wonder about that.  When I was very young, I somehow thought World War II suddenly exploded onto the world scene like spontaneous combustion.  It wasn’t until I came across a story that mentioned an article from 1939 that talked about the looming war in Europe.  Then it dawned on this young mind that the winds of war had blown for years before World War II began.  People could see the coming conflict. 

We’re in a similar period of history today in the Middle East.  The signs of a looming war can be seen in every direction.  Michael Freund, a noted Jewish commentator here in Israel wrote about those signs in an article called “The Coming Middle East War.”  CBN News interviewed Freund about what he sees throughout the Middle East. 

CBN NEWS: What is the Israeli government saying right now about Hezbollah on the Lebanese border?

MICHAEL FREUND: The other day, one of the heads of Israel’s military intelligence reported to the cabinet that Hezbollah has been actively re-arming since the end of the war in August.  Not only that but the assertion was made that Israel has inconvertible proof to indicate that Syria is actively taking part in this rearming of Hezbollah and of course we know where those weapons are coming from, they’re coming from Tehran.  They’re coming from Iran.  So we see how Hezbollah is wasting very little time in the aftermath of the war re-building its terrorist infrastructure and laying the groundwork for the conflict to come.

CBN NEWS: When you look at all these threats that are surrounding Israel, Hezbollah, Tehran, Damascus what do you see?

FREUND: I hope I’m wrong but I think that everything we see going on around us all points in one direction which is war in the Middle East at some point in the near future.  And this is not a matter of paranoia or scare-mongering at all.  It’s simply a matter of reading the map and looking at the facts as they are.  North of us, Hezbollah is actively re-arming.  The Syrian president Bashar Assad in recent weeks has spoken openly of fighting Israel, of re-taking the Golan Heights through the use of force.  To our east, the Iranian regime is continuing to pursue nuclear weapons.  The Iranian president has spoken openly of his desire to wipe Israel off the map.  And to our south, the Palestinians in Gaza have continued to fire rockets at Israeli towns and cities.  And the Hamas led government there is talking also openly about fighting the Jewish state.  So in whatever direction we might choose to look, north of us, east of us, south of us, threat is very dire and it is growing more and more real with each day.

At the end of our interview, Freund said the coming conflict is a profound impetus for prayer for all those who believe in the God of Israel.   

He said, " So we find ourselves in a situation where whichever direction we look in, there is a threat being made to the existence of the state of Israel; to the existence of a Jewish state in this region.  So I think it behooves us at this time to realize that when we look around us and all we see is danger that it’s a sign that it’s time for us to turn in a different direction, to look upwards, to look to Heaven and to beseech God for His divine mercy and intervention.  Because the danger is very real, and we should not be confused into thinking are quiet because they are not.  Under the surface, our enemies are actively preparing to attack us in some point down the line.  We need to be prepared.  We need to do everything we can to avoid the mistakes that were made during the Lebanon war this past summer when Israel was essentially unprepared to fight.  All those efforts need to be made but at the same time we also need to strengthen our faith and to turn to God and to appeal to Him to deflect our enemy’s intentions and to help us to emerge victorious.”