By Mark Ellis –
Last month, Judge Andrew Napolitano interviewed a liberal American political scientist and international relations scholar at the University of Chicago, John Mearsheimer, 76, who has been accused in the past of being anti-Semitic.
He is best known for developing the theory of offensive realism, which says the interaction between great powers is primarily driven by “the rational desire to achieve regional hegemony in an anarchic international system.”¹ His theory leads him to believe that China’s growing power will eventually lead to war with the US.
Professor Mearsheimer accurately predicted the outcome of the Persian Gulf War. In early 1991, he argued that the war to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi forces would be quick and lead to a U.S. victory, with less than 1,000 American casualties. Four very specific predictions he made about the war proved to be true with uncanny accuracy.
Despite his liberal-leaning politics, his foreign policy credentials are substantial, which make his prediction worth noting about the potential broadening of the current Israel-Hamas war.
The prophecies in Ezekiel 38-39 describe a future conflict wherein various nations will unite to attack Israel.
The nations mentioned include Magog (often linked to modern Russia); Persia (modern-day Iran); Cush (regions in modern Sudan or Ethiopia); Put (associated with Libya or North Africa); Gomer (parts of Eastern Europe or Turkey); and Togarmah (linked to Turkey or the Caucasus region).
Many Bible interpreters believe this coalition of nations will launch an invasion against Israel, but God will intervene to protect Israel, leading to the coalition’s defeat. The prophecy is often viewed by some as a precursor to end-times events including the return of Christ.
Judge Napolitano asked Mearsheimer if the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict gets out of control, would Iran, Turkey, and Russia intervene.
“I think the Russians would be very reluctant to enter but their hand could be forced. I mean if the Turks were to come in, they’d have to come through Syria, and the Russians are present in Syria in rather significant numbers, and if the United States and the Israelis started bombing Turkish forces in Syria, Ohh! I mean not only would that involve Syria, it might involve the Russians.”
Mearsheimer noted that Turkey is a member of NATO. “Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has said that if Israel gets into war with Hezbollah, the United States will come to Israel’s defense. This is not something you want to say if you’re trying to cool the Israeli jets,” he said.
“You want to basically convey to the Israelis that they’re on their own and you’re not gonna bail them out this time because that greatly reduces their incentive to start a war. It makes it more likely that the Israelis will pick a fight with Hezbollah and then we’ll go down the road that you were describing before where the Turks might demand the Russians come in and so forth and so on.”
Slippery slope to WWIII
“So you just see here again how foolish American foreign policy is… You just see more evidence of the fact that we are out on a slippery slope, and if we’re not careful we could slide into a major war. We, meaning the United States in the Middle East, which is the last thing we need at this point in time.”
Approximately 100,000 Israelis have been displaced from their homes in northern Israel due to rocket and missile bombardments by Hezbollah. It is almost a certainty that Israel will be forced to rectify this untenable situation to return people to their homes and maintain their territorial sovereignty.
On September 16th, Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, told a senior adviser to President Biden that “military action” was “the only way” to end months of cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah, according to the New York Times.
The defense minister’s comments seemed to diminish hopes of a diplomatic solution. Gallant said the window for reaching a diplomatic solution to the conflict was drawing to a close because Hezbollah has decided to “tie itself” to Hamas.
“The only way left to return the residents of the north to their homes is via military action,” Gallant said. Gallant said he gave the same message to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Professor Mearsheimer believes the United States (and Israel) are losing credibility in the international diplomatic community. “Israel is doing enormous damage to its reputation inside the United States and outside of the United States around the world. We live in the age of instant information; everything that happens inside of Israel is filmed and those videos that result are sent around the world.”
The professor’s bias against Israel was evident in the interview. “Lots of people around the world really care about international law and they expect the United States which helped create this rule-based order to obey the rules and to get countries like Israel to obey those rules as well, when that doesn’t happen it does significant damage to our reputation.”
¹ wikipedia
