On August 13th of this year, the United States, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates released a joint statement announcing an agreement normalizing relations between Israel and the UAE. They call their agreement the Abraham Accords. The announcement explained their choice for that name. “Recognizing that the Arab and Jewish peoples are descendants of a common ancestor, Abraham.”
Less than a month later, on September 12th, the White House announced that Bahrain had also agreed to normalization of ties with Israel.
The reactions of other Arab nations have been mixed. A group from the Kuwaiti assembly representing Liberals, Shi’ites, Islamists, and Arabists condemned the treaty. Significantly, however, the Kuwait government remained silent. That means they left their options open. Oman supported the agreement. Saudi Arabia said they would not normalize relations with Israel until the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
The Accords represent a remarkable turn of events and a huge diplomatic victory for the United States. Some have said that the Abraham Accords cannot be called a “peace agreement” because the nations involved were not officially at war with one another. While technically true, that fails to recognize the depth of enmity these Muslim nations have shown toward Israel over the seven decades of modern Israel’s existence.
After years of blood threats and extreme rage, why peace now? We should give a lot of credit to the President and his team, especially his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. But the most important factor is Iran. That nation scares everyone in the region. It has a large and growing nuclear weapons program. It is quickly developing missiles to carry those nukes wherever it wants to send them. It has developed ties to Russia and China. And its military meddling across the region shows that it has no respect for the sovereignty of neighbors. Israel makes a strong friend in such a dangerous time.
Even those Gulf nations that condemned the agreement continue to show a desire for friendship with Israel. That, too, is because of the severe and imminent threat posed by Iran. Only a few years ago, friendly overtures between these nations and Israel seemed impossible. Today, all that has changed.
Since before Israel declared its independence, these nations showed nothing but hatred for Israel. Yet the Bible teaches that a peace agreement between Israel, its neighbors, and the Antichrist will mark the starting point of the seven years of tribulation coming on the world. Until recently, such a peace treaty seemed utterly impossible. Now, it makes perfect sense.
Antichrist’s peace treaty will be hailed as miraculous, but the peace it will bring will be both short and weak. We can already see the nations moving in the direction of peace. But we can also see the inherent weakness of that future treaty. There remains a fundamental prejudice against Jews written into the Koran and other teachings associated with Mohammed.
The fracture lines that will mark the breakup of the Antichrist’s peace treaty are also evident. We already see the “king of the south” nations aligning, including most of the Gulf States. We also see the Ezekiel 38 group beginning to form.
You might wonder how Antichrist could ever convince Iran to agree to peace with Israel. That will probably be accomplished because of Russia’s power over Iran, and Russia’s need to be part of the world trade groups that Antichrist will control. But Ezekiel 38 says that Russia, Turkey, Iran, and certain African nations will form into another coalition that will break away from Antichrist’s peace accord and move against Israel.
The world is rapidly realigning itself into the place described by the Bible in the last days. It is an awe-inspiring thing to see. Thousands of years ago, prophets wrote down God’s words, and what He said then is coming true today. That provides a strong reason to trust Him and His word. In a time when it’s hard to know who you can believe, you can know that God has spoken, and believe Him.
