Judging by the events unfolding in the Middle East, and especially in Israel, we ARE in the end times as outlined in the Books of Daniel and Revelation. The world basically already hates Israel, just exactly as the Scriptures tell us:

Zechariah 14: 2 "For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city."

Ezekiel 38: 12 I will seize the spoil and take the plunder." You will attack the former ruins that are now inhabited and come against the people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and other wealth and are living in the central parts of the land. 13 Sh'va, D'dan and all the leading merchants of Tarshish will ask you, "Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your hordes to loot; to carry off silver, gold, livestock and other wealth; to take much plunder?"' 14 "Therefore, human being, prophesy! Tell Gog that Adonai ELOHIM says this: 'Won't you be aware of it when my people Isra'el are living in security? 15 You will choose just that time to come from your place in the far reaches of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them on horseback, a huge horde, a mighty army; 16 and you will invade my people Isra'el like a cloud covering the land. This will be in the acharit-hayamim; and I will bring you against my land, so that the Goyim will know me when, before their eyes, I am set apart as holy through you, Gog.'

Whenever Israel is in the news, especially as the aggressor, the world's collective hackles rise and they automatically - whether they are knowledgeable about the situation or not - jump to the defense of "the other side." You don't hear "the world" rushing to the defense of Israel when Israeli children are killed at a local Starbucks by some Muslim suicide bomber; but let Israel attempt to retaliate, and BAM! Israel is automatically the "bad guy," being accused of killing innocent Palestinian children - never mind that Hamas, et al, train their children, practically from infancy on, to become warriors and suicide bombers....

The truth is, most Westerners don't really have a clue when it comes to the conflict between Israel and "Palestine" which started with the jealousy between Isaac and Ishmael and, in reality, there are many lessons for the West to learn, accroding to Aramaic scholar, author and translator of the Aramaic English New Testament, Andrew Gabriel Roth:

1. Whenever Palestinians say "end the occupation" we need one journalist--hasn't happened yet--to have the courage to ask what they mean. They certainly do NOT mean the occupation of Gaza as Israel pulled out, nor other Palestininian cities on the West Bank run by Mahmoud Abbas's PA. No, they don't date the occupation from the 1967 war but from 1948, when Israel became a state. They want the WHOLE LAND of Israel to not be occupied by Jews!
   
   
2. The emblem of the Palestinians (not just Hamas) is a picture of the entire map of Israel with a bloody knife through it's heart. You cannot negotiate with people who want you and all your kin dead.
   
   
3. When the news companies are pro-Israel they say so directly. When they are not they talk about "more balanced coverage" that is always slanted against Israel.
   
   
4. The Palestinians had several chances to make their dreams of statehood come true, most notably the hugely controversial plan that got prime minister Ehud Barak kicked out of power. That agreement in 1998 would have given them 99% of the land they wanted and an extremely high level of autonomy, if not statehood itself. They turned it down because they wanted to keep killing Jews.
   
   
5. The word "Palestine" is derived from "Philistine" and the Philistines are all gone. The name was attached to the land after Rome destroyed Jerusalem as a way to further humiliate the Jews. Then, in 1967, about 3 million Jordanians woke up on the day Israel re-annexed East Jerusalem and called themselves "Palestinians". Between ancient Rome and 1967 there is not one scintilla of a trace of the "Palestinian" people.
   
   
6. Arab countries attack Israel without provocation save that Israel exists. If they win, they think Allah made it happen. If they lose they cry to the media that Israel won't do a cease fire. Of course not! Why let them go to attack again?
   
   
7. Eight thousand Hamas rockets landed in Israel and the press said nothing. They hit schools, cafes, shopping areas, no one cared. But when Israel responds - well now, let's get the UN involved, as if they helped in Rwanda and Kosovo too, right?
   
   
8. If the Palestinians--even the moderates--were really interested in peace they would join the Israeli government. This has been offered to them many times and they could actually outnumber Jews in the Parliament and do "real change" whatever that is. But they won't do it because that would give Israel legitimacy.
   
   
9. No country on earth has ever been asked to "give up sovereign territory and in return they won't be killed." Every human should ask if they would allow their country to give up land for peace. If they say "no" but insist Israel should do this, they are racist pigs....
   
   
10. What would the US do if they had a 9/11 every day? Would they "restrain" themselves? Did they do so at Pearl Harbor?

The thing is, when you finally stand before YHWH on Judgment Day, do you really want to admit YOU were one of the hordes who was against His Land and His Chosen?

Zechariah 8: 22 Yes, many peoples and powerful nations will come to consult ADONAI-Tzva'ot in Yerushalayim and to ask ADONAI's favor.' 23 ADONAI-Tzva'ot says, 'When that time comes, ten men will take hold - speaking all the languages of the nations - will grab hold of the cloak of a Jew and say, "We want to go with you, because we have heard that God is with you."'"