After Iran getting the bomb, what is the single most significant event that could happen in the Middle East? According to George Friedman, Stratfor ceo and veteran international relations analyst, it is the “transformation of Egypt into an Islamist country” (emphasis mine throughout).

This week, Egypt took a gigantic step toward becoming an Islamist state.

In fact, a political revolution may already be under way in Egypt!

On Tuesday, tens of thousands of angry Arabs hit the streets of Egypt in a “day of rage” against the autocratic rule of President Hosni Mubarak. Buoyed by the recent overthrow of the Tunisian government, boisterous mobs in Cairo, Alexandria and other Egyptian cities sent a clear message to their president. “Mubarak, Saudi Arabia awaits you,” shouted some. “Out! Out! Revolution until victory,” chanted others.

The protests were the largest Egypt has experienced in more than 30 years. In Cairo, the crowd grew so fast and moved so quickly, police were caught off guard. When the crowd became unruly, smashing cars, breaching barriers and throwing concrete, authorities used tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse it. Four people have died in the protests, and many more have been wounded. Over the last two days, hundreds have been arrested, including Western journalists. Mubarak clamped down hard, and the protests have slowed.

But many say it’s too late—the protests have set off a revolution.

The dam of rage has been breached and more protests will occur, predicts Egyptian political scientist Mustapha Kamel Al Sayyid. “Yesterday was like nothing I’ve seen in living memory,” said Hisham Kassem, an Egyptian analyst in Cairo. “Egyptians are traditionally passive, but now that people have stepped out it means that fear has been broken.” Reporting from Cairo, the Christian Science Monitor’s Kristen Chick noted that “activists, political analysts, and average people … insist that something crucial shifted for Egypt today.”

Keep your eyes fastened on Egypt—this crisis is only just beginning.

Egypt will be in a state of flux at least until September, when presidential elections are slated to occur. Over the next eight months, President Mubarak, who is 82 years old and reportedly dying from cancer, will have to decide whether he should rig himself another electoral victory, or pass the baton on to a successor. More importantly, whatever option he settles on, Mubarak will also have to develop a strategy to guarantee the survival of the next regime.

As Mubarak scrambles, the intense political uncertainty and the enraged Arab street seeking representation will benefit Mubarak’s opponents, especially the Muslim Brotherhood. “The most vulnerable time in Egypt is the period before Mubarak leaves the scene,” wrote Friedman. “No firm new government will be in place, no dynamic leadership will be provided. … If the impending succession crisis divides an already sclerotic state, it might open the door to a resurgence of radical Islamism.” In the coming weeks and months, Egypt’s revolution will continue, and an Islamic state will begin to emerge.

As this occurs, two dramatic realities will come into focus.

First, the emergence of radical Islam into a position of power in Egypt will significantly empower Iran.

Over the past decade, Tehran has gained decisive influence in Iraq, Syria, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Lebanon, and even Turkey. For Iran’s mullahs, whose primary goal is the destruction of Israel, the transformation of the largest and most important Arab country in the region into an Islamic state would be a colossal victory. In terms of regional politics, a pro-Iranian, Islamic regime in Cairo would give Iran dominance over virtually the entire region.

With Egypt on its side, Iran would become the unchecked arbiter of politics in the Middle East!

Of course, Iran will have to tread carefully. Iran’s leaders have been courting the Mubarak regime for years, and relations between Egypt and Iran are improving. After years of giving each other the cold shoulder, politicians from each country are now talking, visiting and striking deals. Iran will be careful it doesn’t jeopardize this progress by appearing to incite the Arab street or openly supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. At the same time, however, with Egypt in a period of political transition and with millions of Egyptians fed up with Mubarak and crying out for new leadership, now might be the ideal time for Iran to go all in and throw its weight behind the radical Islamists. Don’t be surprised if Tehran begins to agitate the Egyptians’ discontent, if it throws its weight more fully behind the Muslim Brotherhood, if it works increasingly behind the scenes for the creation of an Islamic counterpart in Cairo.

This is a historic opportunity for Tehran: The radicalization of Egypt will complete its plan to encircle the Jewish state!

Second, the establishment of a radical Islamic government in Cairo will mark the death knell of Israel.

For 3,000 years, the Jews’ existence in Jerusalem, and the state of that existence, depended largely on the entity that controlled the territory on its southern flank, the land between Eilat on the Red Sea and the Gaza Strip on the Mediterranean. Stratfor acknowledged this reality in 2007 in the context of Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip. “The only thing that could threaten the survival of Israel, apart from a nuclear barrage, would be a shift in position of neighboring states,” Stratfor reported. “The single most important neighbor Israel has is Egypt” (June 19, 2007).

During the 1950s and early 1960s, Israel’s existence was especially precarious when Egypt, under President Gamal Abdul Nasser, was at the vanguard of Arab hostility toward the Jewish state. This suddenly and miraculously changed in the late 1970s when President Anwar Sadat reversed Nasser’s anti-Israel policy with the Camp David Accords and formed a “peace” treaty with Israel. Since then, Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt—and Cairo’s willingness to work with America and Israel—has been the backbone of the national security equation of the Jewish state. This has ensured that for the past three decades, Israel’s southern border, the point at which it is most vulnerable to attack, has remained relatively secure.

Until now.

Here at the Trumpet, the political revolution currently afoot in Egypt arouses a great deal of excitement. For 20 years, we have forecast that the moderate government in Cairo will be replaced by hardcore Islamists who will quickly align Egypt with the anti-Israel, radical Islamic administration in Tehran. We are currently watching this happen.

In the November/December 1990 Trumpet, editor in chief Gerald Flurry discussed the assassination of Egypt’s speaker of parliament, and concluded: “Egypt’s President Mubarak could [also] be assassinated …. This could radically change Egyptian politics ….” By July 1993, Mr. Flurry’s prophecy for Egypt was crystal clear. “Islamic extremism is gaining power at a frightening pace in Egypt,” he wrote. The prophecy in Daniel 11:42 “indicates Egypt will be allied with the king of the south. … I believe this prophecy in Daniel 11:42 indicates you are about to see a radical change in Egyptian politics!”

The reason we find what is occurring in Egypt so exhilarating is because it proves the accuracy of the biblical prophecy, which forms the foundation of the Trumpet’s analysis of world news. If you haven’t read it already, now is an ideal time to read The King of the South, which explains the pivotal prophecy in Daniel 11:40-45. This prophecy says that “at the time of the end” the king of the south (Iran at the helm of an Islamic band, including Egypt) will provoke war with the king of the north, a German-led European superstate. The king of the north will respond by sweeping into the Middle East and crushing Iran, Egypt and the radical Islamists.

After it defeats the king of the south, this European empire will enter Jerusalem, or as Daniel terms it, the “glorious land.” But it will only inhabit Jerusalem for a short time before it enters a confrontation with the armies of Russia and China. When these events happen, as Christ Himself explicitly prophesies in Matthew 24, then His Second Coming is about to happen.

Ultimately, this is why what is occurring in Egypt is so significant and so thrilling: The radicalization of Egypt is an important step toward the now imminent return of Jesus Christ!

We know that may sound ludicrous, and that some will think we’re crazy. But that’s okay, because so did our forecast 21 years ago that Egypt would undergo an Islamic revolution.