You may view the 5 minute update this week via audio:
In this week’s 5 minute update, we focused on:
1) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process
According to DEBKA, which is an Israeli intelligence and news website, Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has informed US Secretary of State, John Kerry, of his acceptance in principle of the US framework document – subject to the reservations he has raised with US Special Envoy Martin Indyk. A high-ranking US official said: “We all know that the die is cast in Jerusalem and that Netanyahu has accepted Kerry’s guidelines. They are now working on the reservations he needs to submit for his government coalition to survive the expected storm of protest and resistance and for the talks with the Palestinians to carry on. Netanyahu will also try presenting the Kerry paper to the public as an American proposal which is not binding either on Israel or the Palestinians, except for the attached reservations. US officials predict that those reservations will eventually find their way to the dustbin. In 2004, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appended 16 reservations to President George W. Bush’s letter defining the American position on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Sharon’s reservations had dropped by the wayside by the time the US Congress came to approve the Bush letter in its original form. Informed sources in the US forecast a similar fate for the Kerry framework document. The prime minister’s office and Israel’s embassy have asked the White House and State Department to delay publication of the Kerry document to mid-April during the Knesset’s Passover recess. This will help Netanyahu to stay clear of the rowdy debates and heated special sessions he expects to erupt over his acceptance of the paper. As a result, Kerry may therefore add a few weeks to the three-way negotiating time table and release his framework accord at the end of April or early May.
According to various sources, Kerry’s framework proposal will call for recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. The Palestinians are expected to reject this element of the framework. The US may present a copy of Kerry’s framework to Netanyahu when Netanyahu visits the US the first week of March. Kerry’s framework will call Israel the “nations state of the Jewish people” and Palestine the “nations state of the Palestinian people”. “When you talk about a Jewish state, you are talking about the end of the end of any solution for Palestinian refugees – do you think any Palestinian can accept this,” Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official. “If Mr Kerry thinks this is the sum of his brilliant intelligence, the document will go nowhere. It’s impossible for the Palestinians to sign such an agreement with Israel.” In addition, Kerry’s framework will propose a peace agreement based upon 1967 borders with land swaps that take into account “demographic changes” on the ground. This is a phrase meant to enable Israel to keep settlement blocs in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem – a sector that includes the biblical city’s holy sites – as their capital. Netanyahu is insisting that a Palestinian capital be sited in an unspecified area termed “Greater Jerusalem” – possibly meaning the city’s outer lying suburbs. He also wants reference to the Palestinian demand to be referred to as merely an “aspiration”. Palestinian official, Nabil Abu Rdeineh warned that the framework document should not cross Palestinian “red lines” which is a Palestinian state based upon 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital and calling Israeli settlements “illegal” instead of “illegitimate.” Kerry is suggesting that the Israeli and Palestinian leaders be permitted to “express reservations” regarding the US plan. However, the US framework proposal will be the basis for the continuation of peace talks. Kerry said that he believed that these conditions provide “the only way for Israel and the Palestinians to politically be able to keep the negotiations moving… For them as leaders to be able to embrace an endgame, they need to have the right to be able to have some objection.” In response, Abu Rdeineh said that the “Use of the word ‘reservations’ bogs down the peace process and the use of this concept in the past has got the process stuck. It is doomed to fail.”
So, the Palestinians have informed US Secretary of State, John Kerry that it will not accept his framework peace proposal as it currently stands. According to Palestinian officials, the central clauses in Kerry’s framework proposal which is being rejected by the Palestinians is as follows:
Borders: The peace agreement is to be based on pre-1967 lines but will take into consideration changes on the ground in the decades since.
Settlements: There will be no massive evacuation of “residents.”
Refugees: Palestinian refugees will be able to return to Palestine or remain where they currently live. In addition, it is possible that a limited number of refugees could be allowed into pre-1967 Israel as a humanitarian gesture and only with Israeli acquiescence. Nowhere is it written that Israel bears responsibility for suffering caused to the refugees.
Capital: The Palestinian capital will be in Jerusalem.
Security: Israel has the right to defend itself, by itself.
The Jordan Valley: The IDF will retain a presence in the Jordan Valley. The length of time the IDF will remain will depend on the abilities of the Palestinian security forces.
Border crossings: Israel will continue to control border crossings into Jordan.
Definition of the countries: Two states will result, “a national state of the Jewish people and a national state of the Palestinian people.”
Senior Palestinian officials say that these clauses are unacceptable to the Palestinians for several reasons:
For a start, the references to the borders and settlements leave too much room for Israeli interpretation. “What does ‘There will be no widespread evacuation of residents’ mean?” asked one official. “This means that Israel will want to keep a bigger percentage of the West Bank and this point is not acceptable to us. What does ‘Taking into consideration changes on the ground since then’ mean? I mean, Israel continues to build settlements.”
The official continued: “The same with the refugee issue; there is no recognition of Palestinian suffering. We want an expression of regret, an Israeli admission of the suffering caused to us. Where did it disappear to? And the humanitarian gesture [for a limited entry of Palestinian refugees into Israel] that depends on Israel’s consent doesn’t leave much to the imagination,” the official said, indicating that Israel would not likely be generous on this issue.
The official added that a still more problematic issue for the PA is Jerusalem. “When the Palestinian capital is defined as ‘in Jerusalem,’ what does it mean? In Shuafat? In Issawiya? We demanded that the Palestinian capital would be al-Quds a-Sharqiya (East Jerusalem). But Netanyahu refused firmly and the US administration accepted his position.
“What about security and the Jordan Valley? What does it mean that Israel has the right to defend itself, by itself? We will not agree to the entry of Israeli troops into the PA territory. And as for the ongoing presence of the army in the Jordan Valley, it’s ridiculous to set the timeline [for the IDF’s exit] according to ‘the abilities of the PA security forces.’ Who will determine that ability? And who will say, ‘That’s it, the PA is ready to assume responsibility for the Valley’?”
For its part, Israel would likely have significant objections to the Kerry framework terms if they are drafted according to Palestinian demands. Israel has indicated that the relatively minor alterations to the pre-1967 lines envisaged by the PA are inadequate, and that there will have to be larger land swaps to accommodate most of the settlers. Netanyahu further wants any Jews whose settlements are on the Palestinian side of an agreed border to be given the option of staying on under Palestinian rule — a stance rejected by Abbas. Israel is adamantly opposed to any “return” for any Palestinian refugees to today’s Israel. Netanyahu has reportedly insisted that there be no suggestion of legitimate Palestinian claims to Jerusalem in the framework document. And he has insisted that the IDF secure the West Bank-Jordan border even after Palestinian statehood.
A senior Palestinian administrator said: “We said ‘No’ to Kerry in the past, and we will say it again in the future,” Asked how events would play out if the PA rejects the framework proposal when Kerry presents it, the official said, “All options are open to us, whether contacting international institutions [to seek to advance Palestinian statehood unilaterally] or in other ways. But, he warned, “I have no doubt that the situation on the ground will get worse. For both sides. The stability we have grown used to will start to crack.”
The PA is also having trouble digesting the Israeli insistence on the Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, he noted. “We have no intention of dragging this conflict in a religious direction. Every sensible person in the Middle East is trying to keep religion away from the various conflicts, except for you. What’s in it for you? The conflict between us is not religious. So why do you need our recognition that your state is Jewish? In your ID cards, your nationality is listed as ‘Israeli’ and not as ‘Jewish.’ You never asked such a thing of Egypt or Jordan. What is your concern? We are telling you outright: the peace agreement will bring about the end of the conflict and the end of all claims. So what is all this nonsense you are saying that this proves we won’t accept the state of Israel? The whole world recognizes you. These are not the days of the founding, when the world didn’t accept you. But you’re still stuck in that mindset.”
Israel Foreign Minister Israel Avigdor Lieberman wants to sign a peace deal with the Palestinians but not at the cost of Israel’s security. “There are those who say, ‘Don’t give up any land.’ There are those who say, ‘A deal with the Palestinians at any price.’ I say yes to a deal with the Palestinians but not at any price.” Liberman said. “We’ve already had a deal with more holes than Swiss cheese,” the foreign minister added, a likely reference to the 1993 Oslo Accords which failed to produce a peaceful end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Lieberman’s comments came after praising US Secretary of State John Kerry as a “friend of Israel” which drew criticism from Jewish Home political leader Naftali Bennett who wrote on his Facebook page that “our children’s future is more important than our friends’ compliments.”
EU Ambassador to Israel Lars Faarborg-Andersen said that Israel-European ties depend on outcome of peace talks. “Israel is an important partner of the European Union and the Middle East peace process is one of the EU`s foreign policy priorities and therefore a visit to Israel is almost a must for every European Parliament president,” Faarborg-Andersen said. He said that the EU is “very keen” to strengthen ties with Israel and bring them to the same level as European non-EU countries like Norway or Switzerland but that “because of the vital importance that the international community attaches to [negotiations with the Palestinians], this depends to a large degree on the success of that process.”
Chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, reiterated the PA’s refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Erekat said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has made it clear to the US that the Palestinians will not recognize Israel a Jewish state. In addition, Abbas will not agree that any Israeli civilians or military officials remaining in the future Palestinian state. Furthermore, Erekat said that the Palestinians demand that Israel compensates the so-called “Palestinian refugees” whether they decide to stay in their own countries, move to the Palestinian state, or return to Israel. Finally, Eraket said that the direct negotiations have stalled and would not be extended beyond April. He described the current state of the talks as being “negotiations between U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, and his team, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his team, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his team.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ said that his red lines in any framework peace agreement with Israel include East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital and an Israeli withdrawal from all Palestinian territories within four years. He said that the Palestinians would categorically not recognize Israel as the Jewish state,on the grounds that the PLO had recognized Israel in a 1993 mutual step. The Palestinians have made their red lines known to US President Barack Obama, US Secretary of State, John Kerry, and the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators which includes the US, EU, Russia and the UN. The Palestinian principles for a framework agreement is based upon the following items:
1) An end to the conflict be based on the Arab peace initiative and relevant UN resolutions
2) The borders of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines
3) Israel must gradually withdraw from all Palestinian territories within three or four years
4) East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital
5) Resolution to the refugee issue based on “international legitimacy”, the Arab peace plan and UN resolution 194
6) All Palestinian prisoners must be freed by Israel with its final withdrawal from Palestinian territory
“These are the red lines of the Palestinian position, since without these principles there can be no just and comprehensive peace in the region,” Abu Rudeineh said. In any event, senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath was doubtful that negotiations with Israel would continue beyond their original April deadline, due to American support for Israel’s demand to recognize it as a Jewish state and to maintain a long-term military presence in the Jordan Valley. “Negotiations will not be extended [beyond their original nine-month time frame] if these conditions persist,” Shaath said. He warned, however, that Palestinians should be prepared for the eventuality that refusal to accept the American conditions would bring about a “cutting of the foreign aid which the PA relies on to fulfill its needs.”
Finally, Fatah and Hamas have made significant progress in reconciliation talks held in Gaza and are now on the verge of implementing previously signed agreements, according to Palestinian media. “Things are completely ready for ending the divide, and [PA] President [Mahmoud] Abbas is very optimistic that the reconciliation will soon be implemented,” said Nabil Shaath, a senior Fatah member sent by Abbas to Gaza late last week at the head of a delegation from Fatah’s Central Committee to hold talks with Hamas. The two rival movements have been at loggerheads since Hamas’s violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, a year after winning a landslide victory in national elections. A series of signed reconciliation agreements have not been implemented amid ongoing persecution of opposition members both by Hamas in Gaza and by Fatah in the West Bank.
Speaking to journalists in Gaza, Shaath said that Hamas has agreed to the immediate formation of a “national consensus” government headed by Abbas, followed by legislative and presidential elections in six months. Elections are also to be held for the Palestinian National Council, the legislative body of the PLO, in which Palestinian refugees living in the diaspora will take part. Abbas is expected to send Azzam Al-Ahmad, the Fatah official responsible for talks with Hamas, to Gaza to discuss the implementation of the agreement, Shaath said.
An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.
The link to these articles are as follows:
1) Netanyahu accepts Kerry’s “framework” in principle, seeks publication delayed to Knesset recess
2) John Kerry peace plan “to recognise Israel as a Jewish state”
3) Liberman: I want a Palestinian deal, but not at any price
4) EU envoy: Relations with Israel depend on outcome of peace talks
5) Abbas aide calls Kerry peace formula a recipe for failure
6) Erekat: No to Recognition, No to Israeli Presence in ‘Palestine’
7) PA’s Erekat: Peace Talks Will Not Be Extended, PA Recognition of Jewish State ‘Will Not Happen’
8.) PA tells Kerry no to framework deal in current form
9) Aide: Abbas’ red lines include East Jerusalem, Israeli withdrawal and refugees
10) Abbas’s new red line: Israeli withdrawal within 4 years
11) Fatah-Hamas reconciliation almost final, reports say
From a Biblical prophetic perspective, the reason why the God of Israel would allow these events to happen is because it will result in the end of the exile of the house of Jacob and the reunification of the 12 tribes of Israel (Ephraim and Judah).
We will to be “watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem” and we will not rest until the God of Israel makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth (Isaiah 62).
Shalom in Yeshua the Messiah,
Eddie Chumney
Hebraic Heritage Ministries Int’l