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
2) The prospects for war with Syria and Iran
PLO Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the Palestinians will ask the UN General Assembly to recognize Israel as an observer state. The timing of the request will be decided next week by the Arab League. Full recognition of a PLO state can only come through the UN Security Council. Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas held talks with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi regarding the peace process. Abbas said that the “doors of the political process with Israel are shut.” Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr said Egypt’s 1978 Camp David peace treaty with Israel would only be upheld if Israel returns to its 1967 borders and agrees to make East Jerusalem the capital of a PLO state.
Meanwhile, the Kadima political party in Israel resigned from being a member of the coalition government of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over a disagreement to continue to exempt ultra-Orthodox seminary students from serving in the Israeli army. In doing so, Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz, also resigned as deputy prime minister. Kadima joined the government 2 months ago giving Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the largest coalition government in Israeli modern history.
An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.
The link to these articles are as follows:
1) Palestinians to Revive UN Recognition Bid
2) Abbas tells Morsi ‘doors of political process with Israel are shut’
3) Egypt Attaches Strings to Peace with Israel
4) Israeli coalition unravels as centrist Kadima party quits over draft dispute
5) Israel’s largest party walks out of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition
Russia and China continue to support policies which enable Syrian President Bashar Assad to remain in power. This past week Russia and China vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that threatened Syria with more sanctions. Despite strongly supporting the Syrian rebels, the US is not willing to provide them with heavy weapons to advance their efforts to overthrow Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian opposition were clearly told by the US that the US would not get involved in Syria on that level until after the US Presidential elections in November.
Four of Assad’s top men were killed by a 40-kilogram bomb hidden in the Syria ministers’ conference room located in a heavily fortified National Security building. Those killed included Assad’s interior and defense ministers. In addition, several high-placed generals in the Syrian army defected to Turkey. These events have seriously weakened Assad’s protective inner circle of trusties and have reduced his military and security options. The war being fought against Assad has now moved to the capital of Damascus. Last week, Syria staged a large-scale missile exercise testing Scud D missiles capable of carrying chemical gas warheads were tested. At the same time, US military sources reported that Syria has moved chemical weapons out of storage and distributed them to missile and artillery units. As a result of these developments, Israel called off weekend furloughs for a number of its army military units due to concern over the fighting in Syria. Israel is concerned that due to Assad’s situation, he may decide to launch a chemical missile attack against Israel in the near future.
A war with Syria where Damascus is destroyed (Isaiah 17) is a tribulation event.
The link to these articles is as follows:
1) Russia, China veto western-backed Syria resolution at UN Security Council
2) Russia: Western pressure over Syrian conflict is ‘all about Iran’
3) US refuses to help Syrian rebels until after election
4) Assad’s top four men killed by hidden bomb. Urgent consultations in Washington, Jerusalem
5) Assad receives last warning to stop moving his WMD: Top generals defect
6) Russia says “decisive battle” underway in Syria
7) Residents flee Damascus as Syrian capital sees heaviest fighting so far in country’s ‘civil war’
8.) IDF on alert, cancels weekend breaks over Syria
With Iranian nuclear talks with the P5 + 1 powers at an impasse, the United States is, once again, concerned that Israel may be willing to launch in the near future a strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities. As a result, US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns met with top Israeli officials last week along with national security adviser, Tom Donilon. US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, also met with Israel over the same issue. Meanwhile, the US is concerned that Iran may be willing to try to shut the Strait of Hormuz where about 20% of the world’s oil supply passes on a daily basis. As a result, the US is building a missile-defense radar station at a secret site in Qatar and organizing its largest-ever mine sweeping exercises in the Persian Gulf. The radar base in Qatar will supplement two similar X-band radars already in place in Israel’s Negev and central Turkey. Together, the three sites will form an arc to detect missile launches from within Iranian territory. As a result of these things, there is growing concern that the US will be at war with Iran in the coming months.
A US war with Iran is a tribulation event.
The link to these articles is as follows:
1) What Is Hillary Clinton Doing in Israel?
2) ‘US bolsters ME missile defense to counter Iran’
3) Why Iran will ignite a regional war, sooner rather than later
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