Syrian tanks in Golan Heights?

On Twitter I read Steve Schippert's note. It got my attention. "@SteveSchippert, Good Morning! While you were sleeping, Syrian tanks violated Golan Heights. Q is how localized decision was." Here is the news of it-

Syrian tanks enter demilitarized Israeli frontier
BEIRUT (AP) — Three Syrian tanks entered the demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights on Saturday, Israel said, raising concerns violence from Syria’s civil war could heat up a long-quiet frontier that has not seen such an incursion in nearly 40 years. Israel complained to U.N. peacekeepers present in the area, a relatively low-key response that suggested it did not see the Syrian armor as an immediate threat. But the entry marks the most serious spillover of Syria’s turmoil to date at the frontier, where stray ordnance has exploded on the Israeli side in the past."

The Golan Heights are strategically important to Israel. The Israel Project explains a brief history of the Golan Heights, situated at Israel's north along the border with Syria:

"The Golan Heights were captured from Syria in 1967 as a valuable military asset. Prior to 1967, Israelis living in the valleys below the Golan Heights suffered rocket fire and terrorist attacks from Syria for more than a dozen years. In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Syrian forces overran much of the southern Golan before being pushed back by an Israeli counterattack. Israel and Syria signed a ceasefire agreement in 1974 that left almost all of the Golan Heights in Israeli control, while returning a narrow demilitarized zone to Syrian control. Since losing control of the territory, Syria has made clear that any peace negotiations with Israel would require a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory to the pre-1967 borders."

The Israel Project explains why the Heights are so important. If you go to their site you can click on their footnotes for verifications of all facts.

"The topography of the Golan serves as a natural blockade against any military attack from Syria. The Golan is essentially one high-altitude plateau that overlooks southern Syria and serves as an excellent vantage point for Israel to keep track of Syrian military movements."

'Advances in ballistic technology in recent years have increased the importance of keeping control of this strategic high ground and maintaining geographic depth. During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, control of the eastern mountain ridge of the Golan helped 177 Israeli tanks to repel 1,400 Syrian tanks."

"The Sea of Galilee borders the southwestern Golan and provides one-third of Israel's fresh water supply. In 1964, the Syrians attempted to impair Israeli access to fresh water through a damming project, which the Israel Defense Forces ultimately thwarted. Israel has utilized the fertility of the Golan landscape to enrich and expand Israel's agricultural sector. About 40 percent of Israeli beef, 30 percent of Israeli fruit and 38 percent of Israeli wine exports come from the Golan."

So you can see that any incursion into Israel's Golan Heights is cause for concern. Israel's response was immediate. Today Al Arabiya reports,

Israeli army on high alert as Syrian tanks enter Golan Heights
"Three Syrian tanks entered a demilitarized zone of the Golan Heights, which was set up in the 1974 disengagement treaty, raising Israel’s high alert as the Israeli military chief observed the area a day after the entrance of the tanks and warned his soldiers to be on high alert. On Sunday, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz warned Israeli soldiers, occupying the heights area, of the escalating violence in Syria and expressed concerns of possible spread of the Syrian conflict across the border."

“This is a Syrian affair that could turn into our affair,” the army’s website quoted Gantz during his visit to the troops on the frontier."

"Marco Carminjani, an official with the U.N. body supervising the zone, said he could not immediately confirm the entry of the tanks. But if the report is true, he said, it would be a violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement between Syria and Israel. He said it would be the first such move in the zone since the accord."

In other news,

"Iran has built an advanced drone which can take off vertically without a runway, Iranian state media says"
(Reuters) - Iran has built an advanced drone that can take off vertically and without a runway, Iranian media reported. Iran's military regularly announces defense and engineering developments, though some analysts are skeptical of the reliability of such reports. Abbas Jam, researcher on a project for a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drone, said on Saturday that the drone would be tested that day and "unveiled" next year, according to Iran's Mehr news agency."

Israel has been responding to each Iranian military and technological advance with an advance of their own. At some point the men in charge of these toys are going to want to try them out. And Psalm 83, Isaiah 17, and Ezekiel 38-39, (and don't forget Zechariah 12-14) tells us that they will. The only question is wondering how many of these battles will occur on this side of the rapture and how many after we are gone. We do not know. That is one reason the tension among Christians is so high. However, we all feel the imminence.

Iron Dome Upgraded to Meet Iranian Missile Threat
"The Ministry of Defense officially announced Sunday that a series of tests to the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system has been successfully completed, in an important step in the IDF's plans to upgrade the system. Following the tests, IDF forces will acquire an additional Iron Dome battery, this one with improved capabilities. The new battery, which will be the IDF's fifth, will soon be transferred to the IAF. The series of tests was designed to broaden the activities of the Iron Dome system and to improve its capabilities against an unprecedented variety of threats. The advancement of the system will enable it to handle the threats posed by Iran's Fajr and Zelzal missiles."

Imminence spoken of by John McTernan
"For you that followed this blog for a long time, I can tell you that there is a strong dread over me for America. It is as if the nation was already judged, Something has radically changed in the heavenlies."

And Todd Strandberg:
"We are now at a point where disasters have become so frequent and massive is scale, the news life cycle of an single event is very brief. Tropical Storm Irene was a bad storm, but it has been wiped from everyone's memory by Hurricane Sandy.God is clearly trying to get man's attention with all these calamities. The Lord is very patient, but He is no fool. Eventually, the warnings will end and the final judgment will begin. "Am I truly ready?" is the question everyone needs to ask themselves."

And Joel Rosenberg:
"That said, we also need to pray for the peace and protection of the nation of Israel, and all of the inhabitants of the epicenter, be they Jews or Arabs. Given all the sins we are committing as a nation — and the danger we face of God’s judgment — the last thing we dare do is forget, or abandon, or turn away from, or stand against the nation of Israel."

And John MacArthur:
"I don’t know how much time America has left, I really don’t. But we’re on a course described here as God casting us out. The land has become defiled. “I’ve brought its punishment upon it,” verse 25, “so the land has spewed out its inhabitants.”

The most important thing is to continue to pray. Stay connected to Him. He is a Mighty Rock in a weary land! 

"Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land" (Isaiah 32:2)