When Will There Be Peace in the Middle East?

One can glean from Scripture that there will never be peace in the Middle East  that is - until Antichrist's rule, which will begin after the rapture, and probably because of it. No new superpower has to surface, or new war has to materialize, for the Rapture and subsequent events to occur. The sudden disappearance of 100 million Christians should suffice to catapult Antichrist into power, leaving those left behind to desperately search for answers that only he can provide with his "lying signs and wonders." He is the only one who can make peace, at which time (towards the end of his 7 year reign) all nations will come against the "city without walls" - Israel  who has been lulled into a sense of peace by him. This will be Armageddon, where Christ himself will have to intervene to save Israel and begin His millennial kingdom.

When will this all begin? No one knows, but at Jesus' own command, we are to look to the heavens in anticipation of his return. Therein lies Imminency  the belief that nothing else has to happen from a prophetic perspective for the rapture to take place. In other words, it could happen tomorrow. Christ likened what the world would be like at that time to the days of Noah, and Sodom and Gomorrah. But what he emphasized was this: people would be marrying, buying and selling, and carrying on. In any event, He wants his Church to be ready for Him.

This is not the only take on the end times, but it is the one that seems makes the most sense. God is has made Israel a "burdensome stone" to all nations (as evidenced by the amount of resources the United Nations has put into that tiny little region) and will punish them all for dividing Israel (see UN Res 181, also Bush's Road Map to Peace). It is my belief based on Scripture that before that punishment, He will get his people out of wrath's way.