KOENIG

(photo: AFP)

US President Joe Biden on Thursday told reporters in Washington that the idea of Israel striking Iran’s oil in retaliation for Tuesday’s ballistic missile attack was “in discussion,” as reports indicated that Israel was determined to strongly respond, but had not yet decided on the scope and timing.

Speaking to reporters as he headed to his Marine One helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House, Biden was asked if he supported Israel striking Iran’s oil facilities.

“We’re in discussion of that. I think — I think that would be a little — anyway,” Biden responded, adding that Israel would ultimately make its own decisions on how to respond to Iran’s massive missile strike.

“First of all, we don’t allow Israel. We advise Israel. And there’s nothing going to happen today. We’ll talk about that later,” Biden said.

(photo: Reuters)

The Biden administration believes it is appropriate for Israel to continue with its ground and air attacks on Hezbollah for now, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Thursday, even as he acknowledged the risk of the operation in Lebanon expanding beyond Israel's current aims.

Israel sent troops into southern Lebanon on Tuesday after two weeks of intense airstrikes in a worsening conflict that has drawn in Iran and risks sucking in the United States.

Speaking at a regular press briefing, Miller said the nature of all conflicts was "fluid" and "unpredictable," and therefore, it was impossible to say how long it would take Israel to achieve its stated goal of clearing Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, allowing it to return Israelis displaced from their homes across the border by months of rocket fire.

US President Joe Biden doesn’t back an Israeli retaliatory strike on Iran’s nuclear strike but has striven to build a broad international consensus for a response to the Islamic Republic’s missile strike against the Jewish state Tuesday.

"We'll be discussing with the Israelis what they're going to do, but all seven of us (G7 nations) agree that they have a right to respond, but they should respond proportionally," Biden told reporters before boarding Air Force One. He said he would be speaking soon with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but did not give a timeline for that call.

“Iran is way off board,” he said. “There is going to be some sanctions imposed on Iran,” he stressed.

Israel may respond to Iran’s major Tuesday ballistic missile attack by striking strategic infrastructure, such as gas or oil rigs, or by directly targeting Iran’s nuclear sites, media reports said on Wednesday, citing Israeli officials.

Targeted assassinations and attacks on Iran’s air defense systems are also possible responses, Axios reported.

An attack on Iranian oil facilities could devastate the country’s economy, and any of the considered responses could mark another escalation, almost one year into the ongoing war that began when the Hamas terror group attacked Israel in October 2023.

The Israel Defense Forces announced on Wednesday that another division, the 36th, was joining its ground operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, as the Iranian terror proxy continued to launch rocket barrages across the border.

According to the IDF, some 100 rockets were fired at northern Israel during the morning hours, which followed Tuesday night’s second-ever direct attack on Israel by Iran.

In the latest barrage, around 10 rockets were launched at the Western Galiliee and Haifa Bay area.

In considering what the October 2, 2024 annular eclipse could possibly mean as a "sign" (cf. Luke 21:25, Genesis 1:14), it seems there is a parallel here with what happened with the annular eclipse last year on October 14, 2023 and what is happening with this eclipse. Both of these eclipses were annular eclipses which are nicknamed "ring of fire" eclipses because at maximum eclipse the edge of the sun is still visible outside of the disk of the moon that blocks the rest of the sun.

The 2023 annular eclipse happened one week after Hamas' terrible October 7 attack on Israel. The 2024 annular eclipse is happening shortly after Israel made a major offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon and also right after Iran just unleashed an attack of ballistic missiles against Israel. Even though the path of full annularity of the 2024 annular eclipse passes mostly over the water, the timing of when it is occurring still seems to be significant. The eclipse is occurring at the time of the new moon that indicates the start of the Jewish month of Tishrei. The first day of Tishrei is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, which is also known as the Feast of Trumpets.

In addition to this, Iran also attacked Israel earlier this year on April 13-14, 2024. This was less than one week after the April 8, 2024 total eclipse.

While the Bible is clear that there will be celestial signs, it is not so clear on how they should be interpreted. Still, based on the evidence above, these signs all seem to be referencing in some way military conflict and war. This definitely involves Israel, Iranian proxies (Hamas and Hezbollah), and Iran. And it seems at some point, Israel will deal with Iran's nuclear program. It is not fully clear yet whether that will happen in this season or at a later point. But given the two major Iranian projectile/missile attacks on Israel this year, Israel is certainly not going to keep putting up with it without a response. And Israel is already at least considering striking Iran's nuclear program in response to the most recent missile attack.

This way of looking at these signs seems to align with what Jesus said about "wars and rumors of wars" in Matthew 24:6.

For more background on this topic, earlier this year we released an article titled, "A Biblical Framework for Understanding the 2017 and 2024 Total Solar Eclipses and What the Eclipses Indicate Could Be Coming to the United States." This article looks at these eclipses through a scriptural lens that strongly takes into account Matthew 24 and Luke 21.

In another article, we pointed out some possible connections between last year's annular eclipse and what it might mean for the United States and that it could warn of an attack on cities in the United States. Thankfully, much prayer and intercession has been made over the last year, and perhaps that has prevented anything more major from breaking out. Still, it is possible this warning that was given last year could be a factor for events that could happen involving the United States in this next season. That article is available here, "The Prophetic Significance of the October 14, 2023 Annular Eclipse Across the United States."

In a different article, it has also been pointed out that the 2017 total eclipse seems to in part point to a pattern of war that references the World War I eclipse over Europe. This at least in part seems to have relevance for the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and the possibility that NATO could be pulled into it. (We need to be praying if that can be avoided.) This pattern also seems to point to military conflict involving Iran which has at least partially come to pass given recent events in the Middle East. There seems to be a specific warning here to the United States as well, since the 2017 eclipse look place over the US. The article is available here, "Did the 2017 eclipse contain a warning of a conflict involving Ukraine? What does that mean for the United States?"

In the event that the current military conflicts involving Israel in could lead to a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians (which seems unlikely in the short-term but should not absolutely be ruled out), the 2017 and 2024 total eclipses are a warning to the USA as described in this article, "The 2017 and 2024 Solar Eclipses: The Warning of a Major New Madrid Earthquake If America Facilitates a Two-State Agreement That Divides Israel."

One additional article about these topics is also available here, "The Biblical Significance of the August 21, 2017 and April 8, 2024 Total Solar Eclipses, and the Warnings of Coronavirus, War, Earthquakes and Famine." In the addendum of this article, there is a brief discussion of how the 2017 total eclipse where the solar corona appeared seems to have been a warning of the Coronavirus.

Given all of these things, we still need to be praying for God's mercy and trusting in Jesus. Our intercession is often a factor in why some things are delayed, prevented, or lessened. Although there may be some things that cannot be prevented. At the same time, as these challenges come on the world, Jesus will give grace and strength to His body the Church as it seeks Him in this next season.

IDF Chief Spokesman Daniel Hagari at 8:30 p.m. following Iran's massive ballistic missile attack on Israel on Tuesday said, "We do not now see other aerial threats from Iran...So we issued instructions to [the Israeli populace] leave safety areas."

"During our defense, we shot down not a few [many] of the threats. There have been some hits in central Israel and in other parts of the country. We have not heard that there are wounded persons," said Hagari.

Further, he said, "Do not give recordings or information about where there are hits," as it provides intel to the enemy.

Iran is planning to attack Israel “imminently” with ballistic missiles, an anonymous senior White House official tells Israeli and US media.

The official says that “we are actively supporting defensive preparations to defend Israel against this attack. A direct military attack from Iran against Israel will carry severe consequences for Iran.”

The Israel Defense Forces warned residents of Southern Lebanon on Tuesday not to venture south of the Litani River, hours after IDF tanks rolled across the border to begin a limited ground operation against Hezbollah.

“Intense fighting is ongoing in Southern Lebanon, during which Hezbollah militants are using the civilian environment and population as human shields to launch attacks,” Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, head of the Arab Media Branch in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, tweeted in Arabic.

The military launched limited raids into southern Lebanon late on Monday night against Hezbollah forces and infrastructure positioned along Israel’s northern border, hours after the security cabinet was said to approve plans for the newest phase of the war against the Lebanese terror group, in a move that the US appeared to express its support for.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the IDF said that a “targeted and limited” incursion had begun several hours earlier, focused on Hezbollah targets and infrastructure in a number of Lebanese villages along the border that posed an immediate threat to Israeli towns on the other side of the Blue Line.

Ground troops operating inside southern Lebanon were being assisted by air and artillery forces, the military said, adding that the operation was based on plans drawn up by the IDF’s General Staff and Northern Command.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday told his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant that the United States supports Israel’s limited ground operation against Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a rare direct message to the Iranian people on Monday, saying Israel “stands with you,” as it aggressively fights the Islamic Republic’s proxies across the region in response to their attacks on the Jewish state.

“Every day, you see a regime that subjugates you make fiery speeches about defending Lebanon, defending Gaza. Yet every day, that regime plunges our region deeper into darkness and deeper into war,” the premier said in an English-language video statement, which was also disseminated with Persian subtitles.

Saying Iran’s “puppets” were being eliminated, Netanyahu added there was “nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach. There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people.

“With every passing moment, the regime is bringing you — the noble Persian people — closer to the abyss,” he said. “The vast majority of Iranians know their regime doesn’t care a whit about them. If it did care, if it cared about you, it would stop wasting billions of dollars on futile wars across the Middle East. It would start improving your lives.

The US doubled down on diplomacy Monday as the IDF weighed ground campaign to destroy Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country was facing fateful and historic days.

“Diplomacy remains the best and only path to achieving greater stability in the Middle East,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Washington, adding that "the United States remains committed to urgently driving these efforts.”

He acknowledged that the Israeli assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last Friday made “the region” and “the world safer.”

Israeli special forces have conducted targeted raids in Southern Lebanon to gather intelligence and prepare for a possible ground incursion, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The raids have been going on for months and have included entering Hezbollah’s vast tunnel network in advance of a potential ground operation that could launch as early as this week, according to the report.

(photo: Charlotte Observer)

Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast this week, leaving a path of devastation. Dozens of people died as a result of catastrophic flooding, tornado damage, downed trees and other impacts of the destructive storm. Helene made landfall as a Category 4 storm in Florida’s Big Bend, but prompted flash flood emergencies stretching into Appalachia. By Sunday morning, just under 3 million remain without power and some parts of western North Carolina are cut off by mudslides and flooding. And, across the Southeast, many communities are in recovery mode due to significant damage.

O​n Sunday morning, North Carolina's Governor announced that President Joe Biden approved his request for a Federal Major Disaster Declaration, providing immediate federal help for the western North Carolina region. This declaration is in addition to the federal emergency declaration that was in place before Tropical Storm Helene hit the state.

Small-scale operations or "border movements" into Lebanon to take out Hezbollah positions right on the border have begun or are about to, according to two U.S. officials.

Israel does not yet appear to have fully decided whether to launch a ground operation but is prepared for one, the officials said. If a ground operation happens, its scope will likely be limited, sources said. The key is fulfilling the promise to Israelis that the tens of thousands displaced from northern Israel will be able to go home. To do that, decapitating Hezbollah is not enough, the officials said.

U.S. officials received a "few minutes notice" at best, before Hassan Nasrallah's assassination on Friday, the officials said.

In response to reports that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin blew up when Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant informed him about Nasrallah, the officials said...

Asked by reporters whether an Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon is inevitable, US President Joe Biden responds, “It’s time for a ceasefire.”

On Friday, a senior Israeli official briefing foreign reporters on the IDF strike targeting Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Jerusalem took the step with the hope that it would allow it to avoid having to launch a ground invasion.

However, on Saturday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s office said he met with IDF head Herzi Halevy and other top generals to discuss expanding the offensive in Lebanon.

It was a great relief when the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office issued a denial of the rumor, cited on Thursday morning as a fait accompli, that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a three-week ceasefire—to go into effect “within the next few hours.”

Not only that. Certain pundits asserted that the P.M. had ordered the Israel Defense Forces to slacken off on striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. This caused most Israelis to go as ballistic as the missiles that have been fired at them from every direction for the past year.

Several delegations to the United Nations played diplomatic musical chairs during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the General Assembly on Friday morning.

For the first time, the Palestinian seat was empty in the General Assembly hall during a speech by an Israeli premier. The Iranians and Saudis also were no-shows during the talk, with Riyadh’s foreign minister later criticizing Netanayhu for failing to mention the Palestinians as he spoke about the hope of Israeli normalization with the kingdom.

The U.S. delegation raised eyebrows when a gray-haired, bespectacled man—whom JNS has not yet identified—occupied the ambassador’s chair, with two other men sitting to his left. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. envoy to the global body, and Robert Wood, the political special affairs ambassador who tends to take her place at the Security Council, did not appear to be in the room.

The  IDF confirmed on Saturday that Hassan Nasrallah, the arch-terrorist who has led the Shiite group Hezbollah since 1992, has been eliminated, some 12 hours after Israel announced that it had struck the headquarters of the organization in Beirut."Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world," the IDF said on X.

On Friday night,, IDF Spokesperson Brigadier General Daniel Hagari announced that the Israeli Defense Forces recently conducted a strike against the central headquarters of Hezbollah in Lebanon. At the time, it was clear that Israel had potentially decapitated the entire command of Hezbollah.

There is no ambiguity about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declining a U.S.-French proposal for a ceasefire between the Jewish state and Hezbollah, Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, told JNS on Friday afternoon, after an Israeli strike targeted Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.

“When Prime Minister Netanyahu landed yesterday, he said it very directly. We will continue to fight the terrorists of Hezbollah, and we mean what we say. We are fighting terrorists,” Danny Danon told JNS, of Netanyahu’s comments upon touching down in New York City on Thursday. 

The Israeli prime minister’s remarks appeared to indicate that he wasn’t interested in a three-week respite from hostilities, even though Washington had suggested that the proposal had Jerusalem backing. Netanyahu clarified his remarks on Friday morning, prior to his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, and said that he “shared the aims” of the ceasefire proposal, without explicitly committing to it.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called an emergency session of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council at his home Friday, The New York Times reported, citing two Iranian officials with knowledge of the meeting.

The officials said the meeting was called following the Israeli strikes on Hezbollah headquarters in southern Beirut which apparently targeted the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Unconfirmed Hebrew media reports said Nasrallah was targeted, leading to widespread speculation and conflicting reports as to his fate. The New York Times quoted multiple Israeli and US officials saying Nasrallah was targeted.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran not to directly attack the Jewish state, as he addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Friday morning.

“If you strike us, we will strike you,” Netanyahu said.

“There is no place in Iran where the long arm of Israel can not reach,” Netanyahu said.

“Far from being lambs led to the slaughter, Israel will fight back,” Netanyahu said, adding, “We are winning.”

Netanyahu spoke to the plenum as his country is fighting a multi-front war against Iranian proxies, namely Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

He was greeted by loud applause from the Israeli delegation while the entire Iranian [delegation] walked out as he strode to the podium.

Netanyahu [also] spoke of the potential of Israel-Saudi normalization, noting that this could happen sooner than anyone could imagine.

The Israeli Air Force carried out massive targeted airstrikes in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Friday evening, with the military saying it had struck Hezbollah’s main headquarters.

The attack shook the Lebanese capital and sent thick clouds of smoke over the city. There were reports of many casualties in the multiple strikes.

Unconfirmed Hebrew media reports said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was targeted, leading to widespread speculation and conflicting reports as to his fate. The New York Times quoted multiple Israeli and US officials saying Nasrallah was targeted.

Hurricane Helene made landfall Thursday night in northwestern Florida as a Category 4 storm as forecasters warned that the enormous system could create a “nightmare” storm surge and bring dangerous winds and rain across much of the southeastern U.S.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Helene roared ashore around 11:10 p.m. EDT near the mouth of the Aucilla River in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast. It had maximum sustained winds estimated at 140 mph ( 225 kph). That location was only about 20 miles northwest of where Hurricane Idalia came ashore last year at nearly the same ferocity and caused widespread damage.

Helene prompted hurricane and flash flood warnings extending far beyond the coast up into northern Georgia and western North Carolina. More than a million homes and businesses were without power in Florida and more than 50,000 in Georgia, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us. The governors of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas and Virginia all declared emergencies in their states.

image: Accuweather

H​urricane Helene is intensifying ahead of a Category 4 landfall in Florida tonight, delivering catastrophic, possibly record storm surge, destructive winds and flooding rainfall.

The fast-moving pace of Helene means its dangers will spread well inland. Life-threatening flash flooding, potential record river flooding, damaging winds and tornadoes are expected in parts of Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee.

Here's the latest status: Helene became the second major hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season Thursday afternoon, after an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter mission measured winds of a Category 3 hurricane.

I​t is still gaining strength, centered 130 miles west of Tampa, Florida, and is speeding up, now moving north-northeast at 23 mph. Maximum sustained winds are 125 mph.

Countries around the world, including leading Arab nations, those in the G7 and the European Union, want a halt to hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah along Israel's northern border with Lebanon, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday.

Asked about Israel's rejection of a U.S.-backed Lebanon ceasefire proposal, Blinken told MSNBC: "The world is speaking clearly for virtually all of the key countries in Europe and in the region on the need for the ceasefire."

He added that he would be meeting with Israeli officials in New York later on Thursday.

The IDF will continue with its military campaign against the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah in Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said upon landing in New York Thursday.

“We are continuing to hit Hezbollah with all our power, and we will not stop until we achieve all our objectives, first and foremost the retune of the northern residents to their homes,” Netanyahu told reporters on the tarmac.

"Our policy is clear, " Netanyahu said, so "nobody should misunderstand it."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Office dismissed reports that it had accepted the call for a 21-day ceasefire issued overnight by the United States and France.

“The report about a ceasefire is incorrect,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement it issued while Netanyahu was en route to New York to address the high-level session of the United Nations General Assembly.

“This is an American-French proposal that the Prime Minister has not even responded to,” the PMO stated.

An airstrike killed a senior Hezbollah leader in a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday afternoon, the military said, with fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group showing little sign of slowing as an international bid to secure a ceasefire appeared to fall apart.

The strike in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeh targeted the head of Hezbollah’s aerial forces, Mohammed Srur, who is largely responsible for the terror group’s drone fleet along with cruise missiles and aerial defenses.

According to the military, Srur directed and commanded numerous and various aerial attacks on Israel, including explosive-laden drones and cruise missiles.

Hurricane Helene continues to intensify in the Gulf of Mexico, where it’s now expected to become a Category 4 hurricane ahead of an anticipated landfall along the Florida Gulf Coast on Thursday, bringing a catastrophic storm surge up to 20 feet. 

Nearly the entire state of Florida is under some sort of tropical weather alert, with Tropical Storm Watches extending hundreds of miles to the north into Georgia and the Carolinas, including cities like Atlanta.

Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wrote to U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday alleging that his administration is withholding additional arms to Israel.

The Biden administration has acknowledged delaying the delivery of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel over concerns, it says, that the Jewish state will harm civilians. But the senators wrote that they have “reason to believe” that the administration is also pausing delivery of Apache helicopters and tractors to Israel.

“Despite ongoing discussions between the United States and Israel, your administration has failed to fast-track and approve the sale of Apache attack helicopters,” the pair wrote. “Israel requested these helicopters last December, recognizing the increased need given the war in Gaza. That need has only increased with Hezbollah’s escalation in the north.”

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot reveals at the UN Security Council a joint proposal with the United States for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon.

“A diplomatic solution is indeed possible. In recent days, we’ve worked with our American partners on a temporary ceasefire platform of 21 days to allow for negotiations,” he tells the 15-member UN Security Council.

Barrot says the plan will be made public soon.