Great Summary of the Geula Situation

Hashem1.net has a great summary of the Geula situation that it's keeping on the bottom of its home page. It looks like he plans on updating this post often as events occur, but I'm going to attempt a translation בס"ד of what he has so far:

The End of Days - Where are we Holding?

The purpose of this post is to make a little order out of the balagan, and be as brief as possible, in order to make it possible for everyone to get caught up quickly on End of Days current events. One who wants to go into further details can click on the links that are embedded in the post.

So, where are we?

War of Gog Umagog

The accepted opinion (and it's brought in the name of kabbalists, and also in the name of Rav Kaduri) is that we are now in the era of 7 years of the third (see the Midrash) and last (according to one of the calculations, it will last 7 years) war of Gog Umagog, which has already begun. The opening shot of the new era was the Islamic attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon in the U.S. The war itself started as a "War on Terror" (in the U.S. war on Afghanistan) on the night of Hoshana Rabba, which is an accepted date for being the start of the war of Gog Umagog. According to the prophecies, the war was supposed to bring the downfall of Bavel (Iraq), and so it happened, and in the process, it will reach Iran/Syria (and these words were said way before recent tension with these nations). During the war, Mashiah will be revealed according to some opinions, and in the final stage of the war, it will relate to Israel and mainly Jerusalem. As an aside, Gog is George Bush, just like we call him Gog Bush. The Malbim said in his commentary on the Book of Yehezkel that in the final stage of the War of Gog Umagog, the nations that will come to fight against Israel and Jerusalem will be Moslems and Christians who will join forces against Israel, but when they will come to fight against Israel, Hashem will cause animosity between them, and they'll start to fight and kill each other.

So, What's Going to Happen?

This is not so simple. There are 2 main scenarios for redemption: Redemption "in its time" (Be'itah) or redemption of "I will hasten it" (Ahishena). According to most of the Sephardic kabbalists (see here for the difference of approaches to redemption between the Hassidic and Sephardic kabbalists) who are speaking out more and more lately (as one can see under "תחזיות מימינו" on the website), we are on the path of "Be'itah", which implies redemption, but with not just a few troubles. The path of "Ahishena" comes when the nation of Israel is worthy, in other words, when every Jew will come closer (everyone according to his value) to our Father in Heaven, and that is a path of redemption with miracles from heaven, and with great joy to Israel.

The War Against Iran

According to the prophecies and predictions that are received every now and then, war with Iran is unstoppable in the year that Mashiah will be revealed, but generally, they speak of a war of the U.S. with Iran (with the U.S. capturing Iran), and not a war of Israel. In short, they speak of something along the lines of the Gulf War, or as Rabbi Lazer Brody Shlit"a described it recently: "ה’ יילחם לכם ואתם תחרישון" (Hashem will fight for you and you will be silent - Shemot 14:14). The chances are high that as the appointed time approaches, we'll hear more statements about this war and its influence over Israel.

The Situation in Israel

The Disengagement was the turning point of the redemption - this is according to the prophecies that were received from generation to generation from the holy Baal Shem Tov, who received it from the prophet Ahiah Hashiloni, as one can see here a son of a holy family who explained the matter, with predictions for the future. Assuming that we are going in the direction of redemption "Be'itah", then it appears from the received predictions that Prime Minister Sharon will win in the next elections - this comes from many predictions that were given recently (see also here) from Tzadikim. Sharon is the last prime minister before Mashiah, and therefore, his downfall will have awesome implications. According to one scenario, Sharon will win the next elections, and his government will be a "puppet government" to the U.S., and in such, fulfilling the prophecy of the Gemara that says that for 9 months the evil government will rule over Israel, and then Mashiah will come. (My personal note: from my perspective, the clock started ticking when they started announcing early elections...)
Regarding the situation that is said to occur in Israel, "Gush Katif was chocolate compared to what will be". There are some gloomy predictions regarding the matter of conceding parts of the homeland in the near future, Has Veshalom.

Mashiah

During the last few months, many predictions and many statements were received from Tzadikim regarding Mashiah's coming, and the beginning of the punishments and natural disasters on the nations. This was a phenomenon of which there was none like it ever in the world. The Gerrer Rebbe Shlit"a was one of the first to give a date (??) for Mashiah's coming, and Rav Kaduri was quoted as saying that on Yom Kippur 5766, the soul of Mashiah had attached itself to a Jewish person, and there were many posts regarding this on the website.
Besides the clear predictions from our generation, there are also hints to the coming of Mashiah, and also a clear description of the ruling government before Mashiah comes.

Signs

Besides events having to do with war, there are a number of signs that describe (??) the era close to the coming of Mashiah. One of them is signs in the heavens and "star wars", and it's possible that even the burning of the oil in England is also a sign mentioned in the Zohar. Other signs include the destruction of the Statue of Liberty in the U.S. (see some interesting details here), a worldwide plague, which possibly could be the bird flu, worldwide floods, and more.

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These are the items very briefly. I will try to update this post every so often, along with developments. One who wants to be updated is invited to visit the website on a regular basis. Also, the post about the predictions of the Tsunami-prediction rabbi give a clear idea of what has happened and what will be.

One who is interested in information in English can find it on Lazer Beams by Rabbi Lazer Brody Shlit"a (in the "Geula and Redemption" section) and in the discussions in the English forum Ledavid.

We should hear good news!

Amen, Ken Yehi Ratzon!