You may view the 5 minute update this week via audio:
In this week’s 5 minute update, we focused on:
1) The Israel perspective of the results of the US Election
2) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process
The relationship between US President Barack Obama and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been rocky over the past 4 years. At the beginning of Netanyahu’s term, Obama pressured him into making a speech to publicly accept a PLO state. In the June 2009 speech, Netanyahu embraced a demilitarized PLO state that takes into account Israel’s security needs. In November 2009, Obama pressured Netanyahu to impose a ten month settlement freeze of Jewish building in the West Bank. When Netanyahu refused to extend the settlement freeze, the relationship between Obama and Netanyahu regarding the peace process began to deteriorate. In a visit to see Obama in the US in March 2010, Obama snubbed Netanyahu over a planned dinner engagement. At that time, Obama presented Netanyahu with a list of 13 demands intended to build Palestinian confidence to resume the peace talks. This list included a US demand that Israel freeze building Jewish homes in East Jerusalem. Netanyahu refused to accept them. As a result, in May 2011, Obama revealed that he expected that the end result of the peace process was a PLO state based upon 1967 borders with agreed land swaps. This announcement outraged the Jewish world in the US and Israel and Obama was beginning to be perceived in the Jewish world as anti-Israel. Concerned about his reelection that was only 18 months away, Obama began the process of damage control. He quit pushing Netanyahu on major issues on the peace process only calling for direct peace negotiations to resume. Because Israel would not agree to freeze building Jewish homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Palestinians refused to engage in direct peace negotiations. The PLO decided they wanted the borders of a PLO state to be imposed at the UN Security Council. They made this request before the UN Security Council in September 2011. Still not wanting to upset his prospects for reelection, Obama threatened to veto the request at the UN. However, the relationship between Obama and Netanyahu remained cold. In the midst of the US election season, Obama refused to meet with Netanyahu when he came to the USA this past September. When a strong Jewish political financial supportr of Benjamin Netanyahu also became a large financial supporter of Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s political campaign, speculation abounded that Netanyahu was trying to influence the US elections by supporting Romney. However, Netanyahu never went public with his private views.
While in his heart, Netanyahu may have preferred Romney over Obama, for all practical purposes Netanyahu’s views were never clearly represented or asserted in the US Presidential campaign. However, Obama’s behavior regarding the peace process over the past 4 years and the pressure that he imposed upon Netanyahu regarding it, it would be reasonable that there would be deep concern within the Israeli government whether Obama would impose his views of the peace process upon Israel if he got reelected for another 4 years as “the handwriting was on the wall” as it seemed that Obama viewed Israel as more of a burden in the Middle East rather than a strategic asset to the USA because during his term Obama actively supported Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria in their countries efforts to bring the Muslim Brotherhood to power in replacing the existing Arab leaders in these countries. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has clearly stated that they want to establish a Sunni-Islamic Caliphate under Sharia Law with Jerusalem as its capital.
Initially, several members of Netanyahu’s Likud political party expressed disappointment and regret that Obama got reelected. One Likud lawmaker said that “Obama is not good for Israel and we’re concerned that he will try to pressure Israel into making concessions because of his chilly relationship with Netanyahu.” Knesset Member Danny Danon from Netanyahu’s Likud party said that Obama cannot be trusted. He went on to say, ” “The State of Israel will not surrender to Obama. We have no one to rely on but ourselves.” Not wanting officials of the government of Israel to speak negatively about the reelection of Obama and what it means to the future of Israel, Netanyahu ordered all of his party’s ministers and Knesset members to avoid commenting on Obama’s re-election without coordinating their statements with his office. Netanyahu officially made positive comments about Obama’s re-election by saying that “the strategic alliance between Israel and the United States is stronger than ever.” and he will “continue working with President Obama in order to safeguard the interests crucial for the security of Israel’s citizens.” Defense Minister Ehud Barak congratulated Obama, and expressed confidence that the basis of the US relationship is support for the Jewish state’s security. “I have no doubt that the Obama government will continue with its policy that is based on support for the security of Israel, and which strives to cope with the challenges the region places in front of all of us, while striving for progress in the peace process,” Barak said. Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman expressed optimism that Obama’s election victory would usher in four years of bilateral cooperation and friendship. “Together with President Obama we will continue to promote and safeguard the robust friendship between our countries and nations, which is based on shared values,” he said. “We will continue to act together with the US for the strengthening of the State of Israel and for protecting its vital strategic interests.”
Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian Authority negotiator sad that Obama would work to isolate Netanyahu and impose a solution to the peace process upon Israel. In converstation with WND, it was revealed that Obama will use his second term to target Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the main party to blame for the collapse of Mideast peace talks. The negotiator further claimed that Obama quietly pledged to the Palestinians a campaign at the United Nations to renew U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which calls for a Palestinian state to be established in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem. The negotiator further said Obama had promised the PA that the establishment of a Palestinian state will be one of the main priorities for a second term.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas congratulated Obama on his victory in the election and praised him for his efforts to boost the peace process. In his letter to Obama, Abbas said that he was prepared to work with the Americans to achieve a two-state solution and mutual respect between Palestinians and Israelis. Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat also welcomed the results of the election and voiced hope that the US administration would support the Palestinians’ attempt to obtain the status of non-member state in the UN later this month. “Obama must stop the policy of settlements and other Israeli violations and not the Palestinian bid at the UN,” Erekat said.
Tensions over Israel building Jewish homes in East Jerusalem increased as on US election day, Israel announced plans to build more than a thousand new housing units in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank city of Ariel. Britain and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton strongly condemned the Israeli initiative. British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said, “I condemn Israel’s provocative decision to advance settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank through the publication of tenders for 1,285 new settlement housing units. The UK has been consistently clear that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, and by altering the situation on the ground are making the two state solution, with Jerusalem as a shared capital, increasingly hard to realize.” Ashton made a similar comment by saying, “Settlements are illegal under international law and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible.”
So the question remains will the US and EU countries translate their view that East Jerusalem is a settlement and it is illegal under international law for Jews to live there by supporting the Palestiian desire to present before the UN General Assembly a resolution recognizing a PLO state based upon 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as it capital as the Palestinians have stated their intention to do so sometime this month. When Abbas said that Israel should be supported of this request, Israel President Shimon Peres supported it but Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected it. Netanyahu has insisted that Jerusalem remain Israel’s united capital and that a final-status agreement should take into account Jewish settlement blocs. Netanyahu has argued that the issue of borders should not be predetermined and that this is one of the subjects to be negotiated. Netanyahu maintains that he is willing to have direct peace talks with Abbas immediately without preconditions. Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying, “Abbas has refused for four years now to renew the negotiations with Israel, and this despite a whole series of steps that Prime Minister Netanyahu has taken to allow for the resumption of talks, including the unprecedented settlement freeze [of housing starts for 10 months that ended in September 2010] in Judea and Samaria,” it said.
In an interview with Israel’s Channel 2, Abbas said, that was needed to restart the negotiations was for Netanyahu to accept a two-state solution on the ’67 lines. “He do it now and tomorrow I will go and sit with him,” Abbas said. Abbas said that no Jews have the right to live in the West Bank or East Jerusalem by explaining, ” This is occupied territory, you do not have a right to send any of your citizens to live there.”
Abbas said that the PA was going to the United Nations this month to ask to upgrade its status to that of a non-member state. Israel defense minister Ehud Barak said Israel and the US must work together to delay a Palestinian unilateral statehood moves at the UN until after the Israeli elections to be held on January 22, 2013. Barak said, “We have a joint interest, ours and theirs, to delay the Palestinian UN bid for nonmember state.” The Obama administration and the European Union are also pushing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to postpone his UN status upgrade bid. Reports suggest that Norway has drafted a General Assembly resolution proposing that the PA receive non-member state status in exchange for pledging to immediately resume peace talks. Norway hopes to secure the support of all 27 members of the European Union but it appears that not all European nations agree on the matter.
One of the arguments being used in talks with the Palestinians by the US and EU is that launching such a move before the Israeli elections will play into the hands of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, put an end to efforts to restart peace talks and weaken leftist and centrist forces. Western diplomats fear that the Israeli elections will result in a tougher Israeli response to the Palestinian UN bid going as far as to suggest that Israel might annex territories, annul the Oslo Accords and adopt the Levy report. Israeli officials estimate that despite US and European pressure, the Palestinians are determined to take their bid to the UN either on November 15 – the day Arafat declared independence in 1988 or on November 29 – the day the UN voted in favor of the Partition Plan and the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
However, senior Palestianian officials are saying that they will press ahead with a bid to upgrade their status at the United Nations despite expressed opposition by Israel, the US and the EU. In a meeting with Middle East Quartet representative Tony Blair, US consul Michael Ratney and French consul Frédéric Desagneaux, PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said Palestine’s request for non-member statehood of the UN did not contradict the two-state solution, Erekat told the international envoys that Israel’s settlement building violates the principle of two states, international law and signed agreements. In response, Tony Blair, echoed the importance of resumed peace talks, but was not as clear about his positions regarding the Palestinians’ UN bid. Blair declined to endorse or condemn the PLO’s UN initiative but warned against hasty reactions by Israel if the UN bid was approved at the General Assembly. Blair said: “We have to understand the position the Palestinians find themselves in. It is all about the credibility of the steps towards statehood. It is very much in our interests to offer them a way forward that allows us one way or another to get back to the negotiating table.” Blair added, “I don’t think there has been any change in President Obama’s view, which is that it is in the strategic interest of the United States and the world that a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian issue is found.”
Meanwhile, Netanyahu appealed to Blair saying, “I have a constant suggestion which I renew today – I said it two days ago, I’m saying it again today. I think the best thing to do is to sit down together, negotiate without preconditions, avoid unilateral actions in the UN and try to get on with peace. That’s my suggestion to President Abbas, I hope you can help me with this.” Abbas has said he would only talk with Israel once it recognizes a Palestinian state at the pre-1967 lines or after the UN General Assembly approves that language as part of an upgrade in the Palestinian status to non-member state.
Based upon their intentions to go forward with a resolution before the UN General Assembly, the Palestinians began circulating a draft proposal of their UN bid before UN member states. The draft, detailing the PA’s request to have its status upgraded from “observer” to “non-member state,” was sent to the UN General Assembly’s 193 members, as soon as the results of the US presidential election became clear. Nevertheless, at this point the bid has not been filed with the UN Secretariat – which would be the one to introduce it to the General Assembly’s schedule for a vote. Palestinian Observer to the UN Riyad Mansour said that the PA has yet to decide on the final date for the proposal. The Palestinians are strongly considering November 15 or November 29 as its goal dates for the vote; but according to Mansour, the PA is only “floating the idea” among UN members for now, to see their reaction to the proposal. The Palestinians said that a final decision on the UN bid will be made after the Arab League summit set on the issue scheduled for Wednesday, November 14.
If a vote is made at the UN General Assembly, it is widely accepted that it will pass. It only requires an approval by the majority and already about 120 countries of the world diplomatically accept a PLO state. Abbas Zaki, a member of the Fatah Central Committee said that the 1993 Oslo Accords between the PLO and Israel will cease to exist the day after the UN votes in favor of upgrading the status of a Palestinian state to non-member. Zaki said that once the status of a Palestinian state is upgraded, the Palestinians would be able to pursue Israel for “war crimes” in the International Criminal Court. Saleh Ra’fat, member of the PLO Executive Committee, warned that the PA leadership would abrogate economic and security agreements with Israel if the Israeli government imposed sanctions on the Palestinians in response to the statehood bid. The PLO official said that the PA was planning to call for international conference for peace in Russia after the UN vote.
The Arab League chief says the time is right for the Palestinians to have their U.N. membership upgraded. A representative of the Arab League said, “It’s time for Palestine to be member states at the U.N.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with Mahmud Abbas over the issue. “Russia has always stood behind Palestine’s statehood and they will vote for the resolution,” he said, standing next to Lavrov.
An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.
The link to these articles are as follows:
1) Israel on the roulette table
2) PM to ministers: Don’t talk about Obama
3) Netanyahu: I’ll continue working with Obama
4) Netanyahu: Israel-US alliance ‘stronger than ever’
5) Claim: Obama to target Netanyahu in 2nd term
6) Abbas, Erekat hope Obama will push for peace
7) Europe condemns plans to build in East Jerusalem and Ariel
8) EU’s Ashton ‘deeply regrets’ new settlement building
9) Peres lauds Abbas’s negotiations plea, PM rejects it
10) Barak: Palestinian UN bid must be delayed
11) US, EU urge Abbas to postpone UN bid
12) Arab League chief says time is right for upgraded Palestinian membership at UN
13) Russia’s Lavrov discusses UN bid with Abbas
14) Palestinians reject PM’s call to drop UN initiative
15) Palestinians circulate draft UN bill, embarking on first step toward enhanced status
16) PA circulates status upgrade draft at UN
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