King of the South -V- King of the North. 20th century remake.

The situation in the Middle East appears to be something like an attempt to remake an old movie. The book of Daniel records a vision given to the prophet, that was of the struggles for supremacy of two dynasties that formed out of the empire left by Alexander the Great – the Ptolemies and the Seleucids. These two, named by Daniel as the King of the South and The King of the North were given those names because of the location of their empires in relation to Jerusalem.

Throughout the third to the first century BC these two kingdoms battled for supremacy over the Levant, and the Promised Land was very often the battle field.

During that same time period the Roman Empire came to be a major power, eventually swallowing up the empires of both competing dynasties.

Now when I consider that piece of history in comparison to what I have seen since the end of World War One, I get the impression someone is trying to remake the movie.

At the end of WWI the British and French (for the most part) carved up the Ottoman Empire, facilitating the creation of Israel. They also ‘liberated’ Syria, Lebanon and Iraq for a northern alliance, and Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Libya etc for a southern alliance.

Fast forward to today and those enemy alliances have grown and matured into the Sunni block (King of the South) and the Shiite block (King of the North) who are currently battling it out in the Syrian conflict that is spilling over into Iraq.

And just like it was back in the days of the Ptolemies and Seleucids, the Western (Revived Roman Empire) alliance is maneuvering about the battle field.

The major difference with this remake though, is Russia.