by Lior Akerman
The chaos was too intense for anyone to notice the blog that was posted at the same time on the “Shuvu Banim” Jewish religious website, on Facebook and Twitter, on behalf of Rabbi Yohanan Aharon Hacohen. His post began with a quote from Ezekiel, 38:
Therefore, prophesy, O son of man, and say to Gog, So said the Lord God: Surely on that day, when My people dwells securely, you will know.
And you will come from your place, from the utmost north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding horses; a great assembly and a mighty army.
And you will ascend upon My people Israel like a cloud to cover the earth; at the end of days it will be, and I shall bring you upon My land in order that the nations recognize Me when I am sanctified through you before their eyes, O Gog.
So said the Lord God: Are you he about whom I spoke in ancient days through My servants, the prophets of Israel who prophesied in those days many years ago, to bring you upon them.
And it will come to pass on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel, declares the Lord God, that My blazing indignation will flame in My nostrils.
And it will come to pass on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel, declares the Lord God, that My blazing indignation will flame in My nostrils.
For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath I have spoken; Surely there shall be a great noise on that day in the land of Israel.
And at My presence, the fishes of the sea and the birds of the heaven and the beasts of the field and all the creeping things that creep upon the earth and all the men who are upon the surface of the earth shall quake, and all the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall to the ground.
And I will call the sword against him upon all My mountains, says the Lord God: every man’s sword shall be against his brother.
And I will judge against him with pestilence and with blood, and rain bringing floods, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone will I rain down upon him and upon his hordes and upon the many peoples that are with him.
And I will reveal Myself in My greatness and in My holiness and will be recognized in the eyes of many nations, and they will know that I am the Lord.
Following the excerpt from the Bible, the rabbi added:
“The Third War is not around the corner, it is here already. Believe in the emissary. He will bring us victory and redemption because he is the one who has the power.”
The website directors were unable to track the source of the blog. They found it impossible to delete or change the text. The IT expert who was called in to solve the problem said that the only possible solution was to take down the entire website and restart it again. The Facebook experts in Israel had no explanation of how the post was uploaded, without any trace of the source. The technicians were given authorization to delete the post, even if it meant that the site would crash. However, all their attempts to take down the site, to shut down the servers and reboot them failed. Readers began spreading the blog on social networks and within several hours, the post was translated into many languages, with millions of people around the world reading the words that were posted. The person who wrote the post was not found, although some claimed to know him. No one knew that these words were written by someone who had left the world long before.
The words of the post reached the American public in the afternoon, just as U.S. satellites identified the launching of two long range nuclear missiles from North Korea targeting North America. In addition, satellites positioned over Asia identified missiles fired from East Russia towards Washington, New York and Los Angeles. With the missiles still in the air, Russian President Dimitry Magrayev called U.S. President Gerald Lindon to make it fully clear that the Russian administration had nothing to do with the attack. He also notified the President that the Iranian government was not responsible for the missiles fired at Israel. The Chinese President was next to call Washington on the emergency line, reporting that no one in North Korea had authorized the firing of the missiles. The state leaders were in a state of chaos, while the National Security Administration and the CIA had no explanation of what was going on. The U.S. missile defense system responded by arming the missiles aimed at Moscow, Teheran and Pyongyang.
Britain and Germany expressed their full support of the U.S. and Israel but refrained from becoming actively involved in the war. This restraint did not prevent them from being targeted in a series of large-scale terrorist attacks that would come a few days later.
The news reports from around the world were shocking. London suffered huge explosions in the Parliament building, at Buckingham Palace and the London Bridge. In Berlin, the Reichstag building collapsed with many people trapped inside. The huge Sony building at Potsdamer Platz was also blown up. Estimates were that hundreds were killed. The British and German governments were completely helpless.
After a few long minutes of hysteria in the U.S. government offices, the following report was finally received in the White House War Room:
“The Korean and Russian missiles fired at American cities have been disarmed. They have been diverted from their courses and will land in open areas without causing damage.”
The room filled with the loud sounds of relief. This optimism did not continue for very long. Six units of U.S. Special Forces were sent to the sites the missiles were to hit, in unpopulated areas of the U.S. The forces soon discovered that someone had already taken action before them and removed the nuclear heads from the missiles. Now the pursuit was going to be very different. A report of these developments was transferred to President Lindon immediately, who grabbed his head in distress and said:
“That is the last thing we needed. Six missing nuclear warheads, out in the open in the U.S.”
3.
New York, August 6th
The people of New York enjoyed a few days of peace, only to face the breaking news reports of huge explosions shaking the center of Manhattan once again. Large explosives blew up at a number of central intersections in the city. The terror attack started a huge fire in Mike’s office building at the Park Avenue Plaza Tower on East 52nd Street and Madison. The fire destroyed the lobby and several floors above it and the area between 47th and 59th Streets was blocked off. Life in this part of the city had come to a halt.
Security analysts and investigators in the West discovered the source of the attacks, sooner than expected. What they found was very surprising. In underground broadcasts posted on the internet, factors identifying themselves as “the leaders of the global anti-western underground movement,” claimed responsibility for the attacks. This was an unknown organization that had never acted before.
Videos were posted on YouTube in which two figures dressed in black stated the bombings are just the beginning of a full attack on religious entities and on world order. They declared their goal: “To undermine the foundations of the new world order and establish a new and reformed world in its place.”
Sharing the same fate, hundreds of millions of civilians in America, Europe, Israel, the Middle East, Russia and the Far East, were in desperate need for safety and entered bomb shelters, running anywhere they could hide. They stared at television and computer screens, watching the news and trying to get more information on what was happening. By now they knew what had happened. What terrified them and their leaders, though, was what was yet to come.
No one could have foreseen what was about to unfold and no one knew what the connection was between the attacks on Manhattan, the attacks in Israel and elsewhere, and the missiles launched at the Middle East and the West that had started at the beginning of the month.
4.
New York, Midtown, July 15th
It was midnight in New York, afternoon in Israel. The lights were still on in the office of Mike Messenger on the 22nd floor of the Park Avenue Plaza Building. This was when Mike held his long distance calls with the company offices in Tel Aviv.
Mike was a hig
hly acclaimed worker of EBDM. His intelligence, business and financial acumen were appreciated by the company. He was exceptionally talented, spoke five languages fluently, was extremely professional. He was gifted in finance and marketing. In his personal life, he lived a quiet life. Some would say he was a loner. He did not have a family or friends he spent time with. He dedicated all of his time to work. The only social ties he developed were with the fast food delivery guys who brought him his dinner every evening.
Mike was 35 years old, handsome and tall but he looked much younger. His thin metal reading glasses covered his blue eyes. His dark blond hair was cut short and well-kept and his face was childlike. The suits he wore were always a size too big, making him look thinner than he actually was. His skin was very light and he had a very slight limp when he walked, the result of an orthopedic problem he had as a child.
No one around him knew that he did not have an easy childhood. The thin and weak boy suffered many ailments, which were taken seriously by his parents. Alice was the only one he told that his bones were weak, his muscles developed too slowly and that he was near? - sighted as a child.
Mike was highly valued in the company. His conduct between himself and the other workers was always very modest. His acquaintances knew he did not have a car and preferred to use the subway. The small studio apartment he rented on West 23rd in Chelsea, near 8th Avenue, was on the sixth floor in an old and crowded ten story apartment building, coated with red bricks. The apartment interior was designed with simple and modern furniture. On the ground floor of the building there was a tattoo store and a small guitar shop. Two floors above him were the offices of the American Communist Party but this did not bother him in the least.
On the night that he confessed his love for her, she discovered that he had only had two close relationships with women. He told her that his last relationship, with Yochi, ended two years ago, before he left for New York. He described Yochi as a very talented and beautiful woman. She was 30, with dark blond hair and despite being short, she left a strong impression on the people who met her. He also told her that like him, Yochi, despite coming from a religious family, had left religion. He used to call her “the love of his life” and they were alike in many ways. Mike said that he never reached a point where he was ready to get married and start a family. He became very sad when he told her that Yochi was the one who decided to end the relationship and left him after three years. They have not spoken since.
His remedy for loneliness was drowning himself in hard work at the office, improving the company’s performance, even though he was not always rewarded or credited for it. His colleagues at work would occasionally try to introduce him to a woman but despite his isolation, he usually turned them down. The most he would do was meet someone for coffee and none of the relationships continued. He was waiting for true love to appear hoping to find someone with whom to start a family. Yochi was the only one who managed to get into Mike’s heart, from the day he came to the office in N.Y.
Alice Christy was a beautiful woman. Light skinned, thin and tall, black hair covering her neck. Her penetrating eyes showed her modesty and authenticity. She came from a wealthy Christian family, but she did not let this be known. She was quiet, hardworking and smiled at everyone, although Mike thought she smiled for him more than anyone else. He did not ask for any of her free time. At first their relationship was strictly work-related. Only on occasion did they sit together at lunch or at company events and discuss their lives. On these rare occasions, this is when he got to hear from her about her family and that her mother came from the known Roman Christy family. Documents show that her forefathers came from Nazareth. Mike laughed every time he heard this and they were both amused at how fate randomly had brought them together. A Jew and a Christian with roots in the same city.
One evening, when Alice came into his office with a document he had to sign, Mike was tempted to ask Alice if he could walk her home but his shyness paralyzed him. Alice looked at him and understood his intention but preferred to smile and look at him without emotion before walking out of the office silently. He recalled that in the past two years he had had several opportunities to open his heart to her but something always held him back. Over time, they had more private conversations and she consulted with him on personal matters. Every morning, on his way to work, he would order coffee and a pastry for her. There were many times when she felt he wanted to say something to her. His body language clearly showed he wanted to be with her, but Mike did not say anything and didn’t take any step to make his intentions clear. Their collegial relations became a close friendship but the tension remained and they both knew and felt it.
They had many talks about religion and faith. Alice learned from Mike that he was not religious at all, despite his religious upbringing. He stated repeatedly that life led him to be a man who did not believe in miracles or God. She felt the fact that he was alone in the world emphasized his lack of belief in divine providence. At the same time, he also told her that when he is in N.Y., he enjoyed the holiday atmosphere at the small synagogue on the second floor of the Beit Yisrael Medical Clinic on 8th and West 23rd. His visits to the synagogue warmed his heart and reminded him of Israel and his family, the family he no longer had.
As she got to know him, Alice knew that since he had moved to N.Y., his routine was regular and set. Mike woke up at 0700, showered, brushed his teeth, read the paper delivered to his door every morning, catching up on the daily financial news and the stock markets. Then he made himself weak coffee with sweetener and he prepared his favorite dish - low fat yogurt with natural granola and dried fruit. If he did not have time to eat at home, he stopped at the deli outside the office and bought muesli. When he didn’t even have time for this, Alice would come into his office and ask him if he wanted anything, since she was going to get herself something. He always did.
By 08:00 he was on his way to work. He would walk to the subway station on West 23rd Street, where he rode to the Madison station on East 53rd. From there, he walked to the office. He was usually one of the first to get to the office in the morning and was the last to leave on most days. He would take the same route back home, sometimes stopping at the tea shop near his apartment where he would order a small chocolate milk and a pastry and take it up with him.
Mike never felt that he was special or different. Nothing in his life had ever indicated that things were about to change and he certainly did not foresee what was about to happen.
The night in mid-July was hot and humid. As Mike took the elevator up to his apartment, he felt sweat on his back and in his armpits. The first thing he was going to do when he got inside, he thought, was turn on the air conditioning and heat the water for a shower. He pressed the button for the 6th floor but the elevator did not respond. He pressed firmly several times but it refused. Mike had no choice but to press the button for the floor beneath him. The elevator took him to the 5th floor and he got out and took the stairs up to his floor. It was completely dark. He tried to turn on the light but it would not work. What is going on here? Such poor maintenance of the building. He was paying so much for this. He had to call Jeffrey right away. He put his key in the lock and turned. The lock will probably get stuck, he thought, but it didn’t, and the door opened. The apartment was freezing. Did he forget to turn off the air conditioner when he left in the morning?
Mike went over to check the air conditioning control in the corridor near the bedroom. The air conditioning was off, the windows were closed and no electric device was on in the apartment. The temperature in the apartment was extremely low, despite the heat outside.
He had to check what was going on in his apartment. Something was not working properly or was working too well. Mike lifted his eyebrows in surprise. He was happy to discover that the hot water was working and fifteen minutes later he was able to get into the shower and wash off the day’s hard work. He suddenly felt how tired he was. He forgot about the coo
lness in the apartment, got into bed and covered himself with his comfortable blanket. A minute later, he was in a deep sleep.
Suddenly, he was awakened by a loud knock at the door. He tried to ignore it but the knocking continued. Then the bell started ringing, which he could not ignore. He opened his eyes slowly, rolled out of bed and limped over to the door. It is warm and cozy in the apartment, how strange. He unlocked the door and when he started opening it, he knocked over the metal bucket at the entrance containing three umbrellas, two tennis balls and a long shoehorn.
Standing at the door was a person Mike knew well but his presence here and at this time seemed extremely surprising. Rabbi Yochanan Aharon Hacohen, the rabbi of the synagogue where Mike prayed on holidays, was the man knocking. He was wearing black pants, a white buttoned short and a black blazer. He had a dark grey Borsellino Fedora hat on his head. He stood at the door and did not say a word. Mike was very surprised and embarrassed but he immediately invited the rabbi in. The rabbi did not answer and remained standing without moving. The two men looked at each other in silence for a long time, until the rabbi finally said:
“There are things we still do not understand and may never understand. The things that happened to you and your family may seem like a punishment but they are not. Don’t ever doubt that and always believe in what you are supposed to do. You will know what the right thing is.”
The rabbi turned and left, disappearing into the darkness of the stairwell.. The encounter was very odd to say the least but Mike was so tired that he decided not to get into it right then and he went back to sleep. He told himself he would check with the rabbi tomorrow to see what he wanted and what he had meant. Mike went back to bed. He was too tired to pick up the umbrellas and balls that had scattered on the floor. He would take care of that, too, in the morning.
As always, Mike woke up at 07:00. He realized that the apartment was freezing again. How strange. When he had gotten up at night, it had been nice and warm and now it was cold again. He opened the window and looked down at the street. The heat and humidity were unbearable.
