Biblical Fact: The AntiChrist will sign a 7 year covenant with the Jews. Dan. 9:26-27
FAULTY REASONING: The Jews will not sign a covenant with any one other than a Jew.
FAULTY CONCLUSION: The AntiChrist must be a Jew.
TRUTH & REALITY: The Jews have signed all kinds of peace agreements with other nations and most recently with Arab nations. Why would the Jews need to sign a peace agreement with another Jew?

Biblical Fact: The AntiChrist will set himself up to be worshipped. 2 Thess. 2:4
FAULTY REASONING: The AntiChrist will set himself up as the Messiah of the Jews.
FAULTY CONCLUSION: The AntiChrist must be a Jew because the Jews would not accept a Gentile as Messiah.
TRUTH & REALITY: When the AntiChrist sets himself up to be worshipped, all chaos breaks out and many Jews flee for their lives, because the AntiChrist will do the same thing that Antiochus Epiphanes did - persecute and kill anybody who does not kneel to his image. It is because they do NOT accept him as Messiah that AntiChrist turns his anger against the people and wreaks havoc all over Israel. There will always be a few collaborators, but the AntiChrist is the son of Satan and empowered by him. He hates the Jews and will do all he can to destroy them.

Initially, the Jewish People will be very impressed and enamoured with the AntiChrist and sign a covenant with him. They will accept him as a political leader. Their infatuation will end abruptly at the mid-point of the 7 year covenant, when the AntiChrist breaks his word and sets up an image on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

It is during the second 3 and one-half years of the Covenant (Tribulation), that the government of Israel, its spiritual leaders & many citizens will actually flee to Jordan (Petra, also called Edom or Bozrah). It is while they are there, and have lost all hope for their country that they finally look up to the L-rd and pray for His return. 2 Thess. 2:1-4, Matt. 24:15-22, Hos. 5:14-15 thru 6:1-3, Matt. 23:39

Who is the AntiChrist - from where does he come? There is a clue in Daniel 9:26 ".the people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary." We know from history that the Roman Empire destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 A.D. However, the Roman Empire used soldiers from many countries for their army. The army that actually destroyed Jerusalem was almost totally made up of Syrian soldiers, many of them mercenaries.

Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) is the historical type/example of the AntiChrist. (the little horn of Daniel 8, Dan. 11:21-35) He was born in Syria of the Seleucid Dynasty. He was by race a Macedonian, and by culture and education, a Greek. He was a foreigner in the eyes of the Syrians. He was the 4th of 13 Seleucid kings to bear the name of Antiochus (withstander). He was raised in Rome, where he spent his early days as a hostage. He seized the throne in Syria after his brother, the king was, was assassinated, and later led an army conquering Egypt and persecuting Israel and imposing Greek culture on them. He outlawed Judaism and set up an image of Zeus of the Temple & offered pigs on the altar. The Maccabees revolted against him, and a few years later, he died.

All of the territory mentioned was once part of the Roman Empire. The AntiChrist will probably be a Gentile from this area, probably Syria, educated in Europe. Many of the upper & middle-class Arab families send their sons to Europe for education today.