All language subtitles for (English)Amir Tsarfati_ TV7 Times Observer – Russia Scales Back Forces from Syria - and the ‘Final Battle’

JONATHAN: Shalom, and welcome to another
episode of TV7 Times Observer.

I'm Jonathan Hessen and
joining me all the way from Canada

is my dear brother in Christ
and friend, Amir Tsarfati.

Amir, how are you today and how are your
engagements in the Northern American state?

AMIR: Shalom, Jonathan, it's
good to see you again.

I'm here in Edmonton, on the western part
of Canada and I wanted to say something ...

I came from Montreal where so many people told
me to say hello to Jonathan and to TV7

because they follow you
and they watch you over there.

And so I am now officially publicly
bringing those greetings to you.

JONATHAN: Well, greetings to
everybody back at home, of course

and we're blessed to have them
join us for today's production as well.

So how about we also
invite the Lord to join us,

as we will engage also in the
Word of our Savior and God

and we will also discuss some of the events
that have taken place over the past month,

and what it may mean
from a biblical perspective.

So how about you lead us in prayer.

AMIR: Yes. Father, we thank You so much
that You are the Ruler, You are in control.

Although it may seem to so many people that
there is no law and no order in this world,

and that war and violence is all over.
Father, You are on Your throne.

But we know that the ruler of this
world is indeed doing all these things.

And we know Father, that unless we know You
personally through faith in Christ Himself,

we will never be able to understand what it means
to have peace that surpasses all understanding,

even in the midst
of times like these.

Father, we thank You that
we have a way to approach You,

to come to the seat, to that Holy of
holies to find mercy in times that we need.

And now we ask that You will bless this hour
of looking into Your Word and world events,

and connecting the dots for the sake of
finding much hope and comfort in this world.

We thank You and we bless You in
the name of the Holy One of Israel,

Yeshua HaMashiach,
we pray, amen.

JONATHAN: Amen. All right Amir, even though
we usually start with an uplifting word,

unfortunately, in today's age,
we're looking all around us

and all we can see is conflict, strife,
challenges, projections of disastrous outcomes.

And we know that
God is in control,

but at times, we feel like crying
out and saying: God, where are You?

Where are You manifested
in this whole situation?

And how can we engage in such a reality
to truly project who You are through us.

And as we discussed prior to the program,
we will start with the book of Habakkuk.

The prophet Habakkuk, of course, was a very illustrious
individual who provided quite an interesting mirror.

As you stated earlier, to this reality
back then, which is quite similar.

We can establish quite a long list of
analogies between that time to today.

But how about I'll open with the four first
verses in Hebrew you'll follow up in English

and provide us an understanding
of where's that coming from.

Where's that response that
God also gave Habakkuk

because He's a good God ...
He knows and hears us and does so.

I'll start in Hebrew as I stated.

[Hebrew Bible Reading]

AMIR: Yeah, I'll read it in English.

By the way, this is a question that
Habakkuk himself is asking God.

He's literally talking to the Lord
asking Him questions.

He sees all the
violence around him

and he's literally interested in
knowing why God is allowing it.

So he says: "The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.

O Lord, how long shall I cry,
And You will not hear?

Even cry out to You, 'Violence!'
And You will not save.

Why do You show me iniquity,
And cause me to see trouble?

For plundering and violence are before me;

There is strife, and contention arises.

Therefore the law is powerless,
And justice never goes forth.

For the wicked surround the righteous;

Therefore perverse judgment proceeds."

And we can clearly see that
the prophet is a human being,

he's not, you know, anything else,
and he can see things around him.

And just like David, David, also at times was
looking for God and asking - God where are you?

I mean, the enemies surrounding
me and God has always been there.

And God has no problem with
us asking Him: Where are you,

as long as we trust, that we need to
listen to Him and hear back from Him

because the Lord answered
Habakkuk, and said:

"I will work a work in your days
Which you would not believe, though it were told you."

God says, Look, I am not
asleep, I see what's going on.

But I am going to work ...
you have to have faith,

there is a time and a season for everything.

And Jonathan, we have to remember,

violence and all this evil is a direct result of a sinful world.

You know, when God created the world, it was
beautiful and God said: It is good, it was very good.

And then chapter 3 came in
Genesis and the first sin came.

It just started small, you know, that you had
a wrong choice of eating from the wrong tree.

That's it.

And from, you know, from the first sin of
disobedience and breaking God's rules,

it took 3 chapters only and
the Bible says in Genesis 6:5:

"Then the Lord saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth,

and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually."

And then the saddest verse in the whole Bible, Genesis six, verse six,

"And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth..."

So you can clearly see a direct result of
sin, to evil, violence, war,

and now we live in a sinful world.

We have a problem.

You know, sin is not something
that is just a spiritual thing,

we see the physical
manifestation of it as well.

But we know that there is a solution
for sin provided 2000 years ago,

and this is our only hope - this world
has no hope - Israel has no hope.

No country has any hope in
the world systems of this world,

the governments of this
world, the armies of this world,

the parliaments of this world,
health organizations of this world,

they will not give us the hope
that we need to defeat sin.

You know, we can try to
reduce 2 degrees temperatures

in order to preserve the world,
but we know the end of the story.

So unless you
come before the Lord,

and put your trust in the One who
paid for your sins and worship Him,

you will unfortunately not find
any hope anywhere else. This is it.

And so the prophet is
asking good questions.

God is answering
very good questions.

And I think that every person around
the world that is asking those questions

should be given the
answer from the believers.

That there is hope, that
there is life, that there is a way

and the only One that is the hope, the
life and the way is Yeshua HaMashiach,

that came and died for us,
took our sins, brought end to sin

and the consequences of sin,
which is death, death has lost its sting.

And trusting Jesus, we
will also have eternal life.

JONATHAN: You know, it seems like every time
humanity distances itself more from God,

it really becomes more vicious,
more violent, more hateful.

And this obviously, is a matter of causality.

You know, violence begets
violence, sin begets sin,

but as you noted, the apple, you know,
from that moment, what did sin do?

It created a wedge ... it kicked out Adam and Eve
from "gan-ʿĒḏen" - the Garden of Eden.

And then ultimately what it brought about
was a more of a precarious relationship

from humanity's
perspective towards God,

but then through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
obviously, as you mentioned so beautifully.

The relationship is once again there,

we are able to get closer to Him through
grace, not because of our own actions,

but through grace, which then in turn, drives
us to want to be like Christ and to follow Him.

And through action, then also project
His love through us to our surroundings.

And as you know this dialogue that basically
the prophet Habakkuk has engaged in with God

then continues, obviously, he didn't like
God's answer, because he became afraid.

And then in chapter 3, we see as he mentions
a prayer of Habakkuk, the prophets,

just the first couple of
verses, or the 2nd verse (of chapter 3):

"O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid;

O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!

In the midst of the years make it known;
In wrath remember mercy."

And this is the beauty - our mercy
is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

we can look around - we can
read Revelation, you know,

and it may startle us or scare
us or we think about those wars

and we may be afraid, but our salvation is in
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ ... now ...

AMIR: Jonathan, take a look at
how Habakkuk ended his book.

He started with all his questions but
he ended the book with a hymn of faith.

He says (3:17-19), "Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;

Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;

Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.

The Lord God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s feet,

And He will make me walk on my high hills."

That's how we need to end up eventually,
faith is not based on the things we see.

It's based on
things we don't see.

That's what faith is all about.

So, you know, we
see a lot of bad things,

but we need to have our faith in the things
that we cannot see that are promised to us.

JONATHAN: And as you
mentioned earlier, King David.

I know we read this
already in the past,

and I think we should read it
every time but it's a different story.

Psalm 23 and I'll just read it
in Hebrew, if you may follow up.

He was speaking about, you know, being
the flock and as the flock we know that:

[Hebrew Bible Reading]

AMIR: Yes ...

Beautiful. And remember verse 4:

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;"

He doesn't say there
is no evil, he says ...

JONATHAN: Amir, I think it would
be good for you to read it in English

because not all our
viewers know Hebrew yet.

AMIR: Okay.

"The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;

For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever."

You see there is the timely perspective, there is the very limited

and then there is the eternal perspective.

And even in other Psalms, we see that David is
asking,

how come the wicked is flourishing?

How come they have their
good things going on well?

And then it says - it is that
they may be destroyed forever.

In the temporary it
looks like they do well.

But in the eternal perspective,
they will be destroyed

and we need to be people who live in a
temporary world, but with eternal perspective.

JONATHAN: Amen.

All right Amir, let's move to the
next stage of our program today.

So many people are obviously
keen to hear also what you have to say

from a biblical perspective
with regard to the latest develops.

Let's start with the first report,
which occurred last month.

And that is specifically about a scale back of
Russian forces, which were deployed in Syria.

Following this report, obviously,

which was initially published by the
Netherlands based Moscow Times,

in which the report insinuated that there
was a large scale back of Russian forces.

Nevertheless, we found out
that it's only parts of those forces,

experienced troops, veterans and the mercenaries
of the Russian military corporation called Wagner.

This occurred not only from Syria, obviously,
from other areas throughout the region and beyond.

But if in the biblical perspective, we look up north,

and you mentioned that Russia is one of those
that are taking part in the final battle.

And how does this align itself with
the current times that we're living in

considering the fact that yes, the Russians
are still there, but there is a scale back?

AMIR: Yeah. Well, as we talked earlier,
before we started this recording -

is that not only that Russia started scaling back,
but it's the Iranians who are taking their places.

So we're seeing two things.

There's still Russian
presence in Syria.

I mean, for the longest time they
have this, you know, naval base,

they have now the
airbase in Khmeimim.

But yes, you're right, quite a few soldiers
that they have there now have been relocated,

but Iranians are now taking - or
pro-Iranian militias taking over

and so we can clearly see that Russia is still
there, but Iran is strengthening its grip in Syria

which I think you and I will discuss
in a few minutes also that issue,

but remember, I want to remind you
that yes, there were reports about that,

but there also were reports that the
European Union is now in full scale efforts

to cut deals with Israel to
buy natural gas via Egypt,

which means that there is a good reason for
the Russians not to want to leave that area,

and also not to have great, great
perspective of Israel as of today.

Look, the Russians right now
are collaborating with Israel,

when it fits their own agenda and interest,

which you know, interest is important for every country.

But at the moment, all the talks about replacing
the European dependence on Russian gas and oil,

and now finding alternatives
such as now the Israeli gas,

they don't make
Moscow very, very happy.

And certainly Jerusalem is not being
seen now as friendly as it used to be.

And so, you know,
when we look in the Bible,

and we talk about the war that Ezekiel talks,
when we mentioned Rosh, Russia coming down.

Remember, the Bible talks about a
hook in the jaw, that will bring them down,

which means that there has to be a reason for
them to engage into some move against Israel.

Israel right now is doing
nothing wrong to the Russians,

we don't engage in
war with the Russians,

we actually coordinate with them most
of our moves when it comes to Syria.

But when it comes to selling gas
and hurting the Russian economy,

by doing so, I think Russia will have no
problem changing completely - 180 degrees

and moving forward
towards Israel.

It will be in the near future. I'm not
sure when I'm not a prophet, thankfully.

But I can see the direction -
all of us can see the direction.

And at the moment, it's not like peacekeeping
forces are filling up the empty Russian bases now,

- it's Iranian, so even Iran is mentioned in the
same book and with the same attack against Israel.

So everything fits
Bible prophecy,

the scaling back right now for the
sake of helping their forces in Ukraine

is not anything that will change eventually
the moves of Russia against Israel when it comes

because, again, to begin with, it's
not about how many Russian soldiers are in Syria,

it's about the hook that has to
cause Russia to come against Israel.

And the hook is not
any military engagement.

The hook is the gas and oil which is the
main-main-main backbone of the Russian economy.

JONATHAN: Indeed, of course, Israel is only
one component and there are multiple areas

that also are alternative sources of energy
to Europe's energy reliance on Russia.

We need to wait and
see how this develops.

From what I understand,

the report about the talks with the EU, were a
little bit beyond what is actually happening.

But it is one of those direct
discussions that are taking place.

We heard Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the
Greek Prime Minister, of course speak about

his intention to deepen
cooperation with Israel,

on not only energy reliance from the
offshore gas reservoirs that Israel has,

but also from an electricity perspective,
connecting Greece through Cyprus to Israel,

and then of course,

having a two-way street for Israeli energy
going in the direction of continental Europe.

But let's look again
to the northern arena.

You spoke obviously about (Russian militias), or
Iranian militias, excuse me taking over Russian bases.

There we had just this path months
for the second time since 2011,

when the Syrian
conflict emerged.

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad felt
comfortable enough to leave Damascus

and go to Tehran, where he had two statements,
which I define as as quite critical.

The first one is that he proclaimed that
Syria and Iran cooperating in Syria proper,

was the reason for Israel's weakening
or diminishing from Syrian perspective,

even though this is detached
completely from reality.

And then the second
point that he mentioned was

actually to urge the Iranians to further
deepen cooperation between Tehran and Damascus.

How do you see this manifest
itself in the Word of God?

And to what degree is this something
that may then trigger a chain of events

that could then potentially bring
about a regional configuration?

AMIR: Well, every place Iran is becoming a
major part in, is becoming a puppet of Iran.

You can see it in Iraq, you can see it in
Lebanon and you can see it also in Yemen.

But what we see here is, once the Russians are now
too busy and too preoccupied with other things,

Iran is not waiting for any minute and Iran
is deepening its entrenchment in Syria.

The Syrian President
understands - he can read the map,

he can understand it - at the
moment Putin is too busy elsewhere,

he must strengthen his
alliances with other main forces.

And Iran, of course,
is the main one.

The Iran ... and why am
I saying that, Jonathan,

because if Damascus will ever be attacked,
for some reason and cease to become a city,

it's no longer an
attack on Syria,

which Syria, by the way, ceased to exist as a
sovereign country as an independent country.

You know, other
forces are controlling it.

Assad is just a
puppet at the moment.

So once Damascus is going to be destroyed, it
will not be looked at as an attack on Syria,

it will actually be looked at as an attack on the
countries that are pulling the strings over there.

And I've always said, throughout the
years I've been teaching Bible prophecy,

that I don't believe that the Ezekiel war against
Israel that will involve Russia and Iran,

will start just like that without first having the
amazing prophecy of Isaiah in chapter 17 being fulfilled,

because that is of course the prophecies
that Damascus is going to cease to exist.

Damascus is the longest
standing city, oldest city in the world.

I mean, there's no doubt about it, it has
never been utterly, completely destroyed.

So this is a future prophecy.

And I believe that the more
Iran is controlling that area,

the more an attack on Syria will actually
be translated as an attack on Iran.

And that is, of course, going to be translated in Iran
joining that coalition that will come against Israel.

Look, I wish things
were different,

but we're not going towards a very, very
good future when it comes to the Middle East.

Everything is coming to a boiling
point we can clearly see that.

You said that even
before the program

that unless we do something now or unless
things are going to be dealt with right now,

once a deal with Iran
will be once again signed,

Israel's hands will be kind of
tight to do major major moves.

And so that means that in
the coming weeks or months,

depends how fast the Europeans will push
for a deal that will be eventually signed,

we're only going to
see heightened tensions

and even more escalation in the
conflict between Israel and the Iranians.

JONATHAN: Indeed, I think one point that was
quite interesting to hear was about 2 weeks ago,

King Abdullah, the 2nd of the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,

was interviewed by the Hoover
Institute in Washington DC,

during which he voiced alarm about
the Iranian entrenchment in Syria,

saying that it's going to do a
lot of problems in the region,

and spoke also about
the Russian scale back.

And not to forget that when we're speaking
about King Abdullah the 2nd of Jordan,

he is the great grandson
of Amir Abdullah, the 1st,

his namesake, and also Amir Abdullah the 1st
happens to be the son of Sharif Hussein of Mecca,

the Hashemite monarchy basically
used to be the rulers of Saudi Arabia,

maybe this has, of course, a connection
to what we may be reading in the Bible,

but we're drawing near
to the end of the program,

we have about 40 seconds -
Amir, what can you encourage us with?

And what should we pray
for at this moment in time?

AMIR: Well, as we can clearly see, war -
there's wars and there was rumors of wars.

Jesus said these are
obviously the signs of the end.

But He says, but when you see
those things - the end is not yet.

The one thing is for sure, if
you're not a follower of Christ,

you will never be able to find peace
and safety and security in this world.

If you want the peace that surpasses all
understanding and the promise of eternal life,

and to be taken out of
here before it's too late,

then put your trust in the Lord Jesus
and confess your sins

and receive Him as
your Lord and Savior.

And that will be the most important
thing you'll ever do in your life.

JONATHAN: Amen,
He's our prince of peace.

Thank you so very much, Amir, wishing you a
blessed travel, of course in Canada right now

and looking forward to seeing you once again
in Israel and in Jerusalem, in the near future.

So God bless and I'd like also to thank
our viewers for taking from your time

and partaking in this dialogue
between Amir and myself.

God bless you and we will see you next time for
yet another episode of TV7 Times Observer, Shalom.