Over 50 years, three El Niño events were considered “extreme”: 1982-83, 1997-98 and 2015-16, said Michael McPhaden, a senior scientist. This current El Niño will rival those previous record El Niños, if not exceed them in magnitude, McPhaden said. “With rising global temperatures because of the heat-trapping greenhouse gases being injected into the atmosphere at ever increasing rates, El Niños today aren’t necessarily like the El Niños that we experienced 40 years ago,” he said.

Every year in the decade since 2016 has been among the globe’s warmest 10 years on record, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

On October 27, 1978, only five years after Egypt started the Yom Kippur War with a surprise attack on Israel, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their progress toward achieving a Middle East accord. The Yom Kippur War was followed six years later by a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel.

Could the same process follow the defeat of Iran and Hamas, and their opposition to a two state solution? The only possible chance for avoiding more wars is the two state solution to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel. That will not be possible with the current leaders on either side.

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said that negotiating with Israel under fire would amount to “surrender” for Lebanon, and urged the government to reverse its ban on the party’s military activities. Qassem called on the Lebanese people to embrace “national unity,” saying this could be achieved by the government reversing its March 2 decision to ban Hezbollah’s military activities.

According to Islamic tradition, the Day of Judgment (Qiyahmah) is a very just event where every human soul accounts for all of their actions. Dajjal enjoys and promotes human evil, while Gog-Magog produces natural events of disasters. Together they cause Armageddon.

While some Muslim scholars have suggested a 1500-year period of evil, scholarly consensus emphasizes that only Allah knows the exact time. As the Qur’an (33:63) states:“People ask you concerning the Hour, say: “The knowledge of it is only with Allah. What do you know? It may be that the Hour is (very) near!”

Al-Suyooti said that the Mahdi will appear after twelve hundred years, yet fourteen hundred plus years have passed, and neither the Messiahs of Joseph, David, or the Mahdi have not yet appeared. Al-Suyooti also says that people will remain for one hundred and twenty years after the sun rises from the west, then the Hour will begin.

The sun rising from the West refers to the truth that things change. For thousands of years wisdom came from the East; but now most non religious wisdom comes from the West; and both sources need to be harmonized. For example, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense said Iran has launched at least 44 ballistic and seven cruise missiles and more than 600 drones toward the Kingdom since February 28. Here is a Mahdi job to bring the Gulf Arabs closer to Israel.

Although it might seem impossible now, I do believe that within a decade or two Muslims will visit Jerusalem and pray together with Jews as Prophet Zechariah predicts: “Then everyone who survives from all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths.” (Zechariah 14:16)

Signs of Qiyamah (the Day of Judgment) in Islam are events as warnings for the revival of our world. Major signs include the arrival of the Mahdi, Dajjal (Antichrist), descent of Isa (Jesus), Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj (Gog and Magog), wars, and the cultural challenge of the sun rising from Western countries.

Although it might seem impossible now, I believe that within a decade or two Muslims will visit Jerusalem and pray........

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