Evening Update:

This isn't a new story, but lately it seems that the primary axis of the Gog-MaGog coalition from Ezekiel 38-39 has been getting a lot of attention lately. There is always some academic discussion regarding the specific regions of northern Africa (Cush and Put and the 'many nations'), but there is little disagreement on the "land of MaGog" as Russia, Persia as representing modern-day Iran and Beth Togarmah as today's Turkey.

With that in mind, a casual glance at the news over the past year or so have seen these three nations occupying a large percentage of Middle East news. We have seen Turkey become more and more Islamic while their anti-Israeli rhetoric now rivals Iran's. We have seen Russia threatening the west while re-building their military and their growing influence in the Middle East. And of course Iran, with their continual threats to destroy Israel and ongoing race for nuclear arms.

And this isn't even mentioning their surrogates, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and now Egypt, interestingly all countries that we expect to hit Israel first in the series of battles to come.

It is hard to see a single day of a news cycle in which these countries aren't prominent in the news. Even tonight we see a few articles including Russia and Iran:

Russia's Putin Says The West Is On The Decline

His remarks suggested that Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, would keep on defending ally Syria at the United Nations over its military crackdown on an popular uprising that has evolved into an armed insurgency.

"Domestic socio-economic problems that have become worse in industrialized countries as a result of the (economic) crisis are weakening the dominant role of the so-called historical West," Putin told a meeting of Russian ambassadors from across the world.

He told the envoys, gathered in Moscow, that they should try to influence events where Russian interests were at stake.

"Be ready for any development of the situation, even for the most unfavorable development," he said in the 20-minute speech, parts of which were televised.

Putin's speech was sprinkled with the hawkish rhetoric that has made many foreign policy experts predict a turn for the worse in relations with the United States following his return to the Kremlin in May.

Iran-Fatah Meeting

Israel’s official negotiation partner, the President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas accepted an invitation of the Iranian government for a meeting. Israel and other states are outraged, because it shows that not only Hamas is allied with Iran, but also the allegedly moderate Fatah-Palestinians are cooperating with Teheran.

Endgame In Syria And Iran Risks War With China And Russia

Dominique de Kevelioc de Bailleul of Beacon Equity Research predicts that the coming conflict with Syria will be the trigger event that takes down the U.S. dollar. A military response to Syria and Iran would likely draw in Russia and China, he warns, and the result would be a conflagration the world has not witnessed since the Second World War.

“Cold War-like comments made at the ‘Friends of Syria’ conference in Paris by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton toward Russia and China strongly suggest that a showdown between the former Cold War rivals, now to include China, is on.” he writes. “The prize: oil – and by implications the future of the U.S. petrodollar standard and the American way of life.

Also see:

Israel Perturbed By Obama's Outreach To Mursi - Against His Word

Israeli government and military leaders were taken aback by the news of US President Barack Obama’s invitation to the new Egyptian president Mohammed Mursi to visit Washington in September - in breach of the president's assurances to US Jewish leaders at the White House last month

His key assurance was that Mursi would not be invited to the White House and Obama would not maintain direct telephone contact with him until he met certain conditions, the foremost of which concerned a public and unambiguous commitment to Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel.