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 and Hamas / Israel at war in the Gaza
2) The current situation with Iran
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that he is planning to ask the UN General Assembly to upgrade the status of a Palestinian state at the UN from an observer to non-member on November 29. Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said that Abbas will attend the UN General Assembly session on November 29 for the vote. The decision was made after consulting with Arab League foreign ministers in Egypt and speaking in Saudi Arabia with King Abdullah. Abbas said that Arab ministers pledged to support the Palestinian statehood bid and Egypt was working to convince other countries to vote in favor of the resolution. The date in question – November 29 – has dual significance: On November 29, 1947, the UN voted to accept the Partition Plan for Palestine; and in 1977, the UN General Assembly named Nov. 29 the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
Abbas said, “The Palestinian appeal to the UN is meant to make us a non-member state thereby upgrading our status from that of ‘disputed territory’ – which is how we are widely perceived by Israel – to that of an occupied state.” He also said that the move was aimed at salvaging the two-state solution and “confronting [Israel’s] settlement onslaught.”
The Palestinians need a majority vote from the current 193-members of the UN. The Palestinians already have majority support for the resolution as 132 nations diplomatically recognize a PLO state based upon 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. However, they feel their efforts would carry more weight if European and other Western nations support them.
“We are under pressure from several parties to make us backtrack on this right,” Abbas said. “But we will not backtrack. We are going in November 2012.”
US President Barack Obama told Abbas in a telephone conversation that his administration opposes the Palestinian UN initiative. The US did not release any press release about the content of the phone conversation but Palestinian officials said that Obama’s tone was not aggressive but normal.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saab Erakat said: “Obama did not utter any threats but there are threats from the Congress, which has a draft bill, according to which it would demand closing the PLO office in Washington and cutting off aid if the Palestinian leadership pursues any move at the UN and its related agencies.”
Abbas told Obama that the Palestinians were intent on seeking a Palestinian upgrade at the United Nations despite American objections because “The train has left the station”.
European and Arab foreign ministers met but failed to jointly endorse the unilateral Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations during a meeting in Egypt calling instead for a negotiated two-state solution. But when it came to talking about obstacles to the peace process, the European and Arab ministers blamed only the West Bank settlements and Israel’s security barrier. In the Cairo Declaration, the EU and Arab League ministers called for the “removal of all obstacles that prevent an immediate resumption of negotiations between the parties as well as the resolution of all issues related [to] achieving a solution of two states living side-by-side in peace and security.” However, the portion of the declaration addressing the Israeli- Palestinian conflict spoke only of Israeli actions as obstacles to peace stating:
“The ministers stressed their common position that Israeli settlements and the separation barrier built anywhere in the occupied Palestinian territory are illegal under international law and constitute an obstacle to peace.”
The Palestinians believe 12 EU countries could support their UN bid. In private discussion it was learned that five EU nations openly support the Palestinians UN bid. In addition, seven other EU countries expressed intent to vote for the proposal. Although the EU would like to reach a common position among its 27 member states, this is unlikely to happen.
Referring to the US and other countries that are opposed to the unilateral statehood bid, Abbas said: “We want to ask all those who have endorsed the Israeli stance: Aren’t you opposed to settlements? Didn’t you vote in the Security Council and General Assembly against Israel’s decision to annex Jerusalem? Didn’t the UN vote in favor of resolution 194 which guarantees the right of return of refugees to their homes? Didn’t you support the two-state solution and ending occupation, which began in 1967?”
China said it would vote in favor. A Chinese official said:
“China always supports the Palestinian people’s just cause of recovering their national and legitimate rights and interests, and will always hold that independent statehood is the lawful right of Palestinian people, and also the basis for a two-state solution.”
Israel has threatened to take retaliatory measures against the PA should it make good on their pledge to head to the UN. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz has threatened economic sanctions including withholding taxes which Israel collects for the Palestinians on a monthly basis. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman suggested removing Abbas from power if he refuses to drop the Palestinian bid for UN recognition. He is also considering a draft document proposing Israel offer the Palestinians partial statehood in exchange for the Palestinians ending their UN bid. The plan would give the Palestinians sovereignty over about half the West Bank with the final borders to be negotiated. Furthermore, Israel instructed its ambassadors to warn that Israel may revoke all or part of the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO which set up the Palestinian Authority under an interim peace agreement if the Palestinian bid at the UN was successful.
A Palestinian spokesman said: “We disapprove of the talk about sanctions. It is shameful to talk about sanctions. This is the first step toward political independence and the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
Abbas said: “Our hearts are open to the Americans and Israelis. We have told them that when we obtain the status of non-member in the UN, we would be willing to resume Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations to talk about the core issues of the conflict.” Abbas also reiterated his commitment to the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees to their former homes inside Israel on the basis of UN resolution 194.
In retaliation for Hamas launching hundreds of into Southern Israel, Israel launched a major offensive against Palestinian militants by killing the military commander of Hamas in an air strike. He was caught driving in a black Mercedes in Gaza City. Within minutes of the death of Ahmed Al-Jaabari, big explosions shook Gaza as the Israeli air force further struck selected military targets. In the attack, Israel eliminated the majority of Hamas’s medium-range Fajr-5 rockets which have the capacity to reach Tel Aviv and dozens of Hamas’s medium range (up to 40km) underground rocket launch and infrastructure sites in the air strikes. Such a strike requires enormous amounts of accurate intelligence, painstakingly assembled and verified, since organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah hide their strategic weapons amid the civilian population. The Hamas internal security headquarters in southern Gaza was also destroyed.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the onset of a broad aerial and naval bombardment of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip that the Israeli military was ready to widen its operations until its objectives were reached. Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak noted that Operation Pillar of Defense would not be completed in “one fell swoop,” but that the objectives would be attained in due time. Barak said that the operation’s objectives were “strengthening deterrence, damaging the rocket arsenal, damaging and hurting Hamas and minimizing injury to the civilians on the homefront of the State of Israel.”
After confirming the death of Ahmed Jabari, commander of Hamas’s military arm, Hamas announced: We are now at war with Israel. Hamas has announced a general call-up and threatened to respond not just with rockets but suicide attacks within Israel.
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi recalled his ambassador from Tel Aviv and decided to call a UN Security Council session to stop “Israeli aggression.”
An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.
The link to these articles are as follows:
1) Abbas rebuffs pressure on UN upgrade plan
2) Abbas tells Obama he’s intent on UN status bid
3) Rejecting Obama’s Request, Abbas Presses Ahead With U.N. ‘Palestine’ Application
4) Palestinian UN bid to proceed despite US plea
5) ‘Abbas confirms statehood bid to Arab League chief’
6) Palestinian UN bid by Nov 29: Palestinian negotiator
7) Abbas Confirms Palestinian U.N. Bid on November 29
8) PA president: Statehood bid to go forward Nov. 29
9) Abbas confirms Palestinian U.N. bid on November 29 despite U.S. disapproval
10) PA to present UN bid on Nov. 29
11) Text of the draft UNGA resolution for Palestinian Arab non-member statehood
12) Israel mulls recognizing Palestinian state
13) FM threatens to overthrow Abbas, cancel Oslo Accords if Palestinians go ahead with UN statehood bid
14) PA misses EU-Arab League endorsement of UN bid
15) Palestinians: 12 EU nations to support our UN bid
16) China reaffirms support for Palestinian UN bid
17) Israel launches Gaza offensive, kills Hamas commander
18) A stunning initial success for the IDF. Now what?
19) Wider offensive and possible ground operation on the table, as cabinet okays reserves call-up
20) Israel air strikes continue after death of Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari. Hamas: It’s war
21) Egypt recalls envoy over IAF air strikes. Iron Dome hits 17 out of 50 missiles
In his first press conference since winning reelection, President Barack Obama said that he would “make a push” in the near future for talks with Iran on its nuclear program. He said:
“I will try to make a push in the coming months to see if we can open up a dialogue with Iran. There is still a window of time for us to resolve this diplomatically,” which he said was his preferred option. But he stressed, “We’re not going to let Iran get a nuclear weapon.”
Obama said tough economic sanctions imposed by Western nations were hurting Iran’s economy and he believed Iranians could find a way to use nuclear energy peacefully while assuring the world that it is not trying to build a weapon.
In another sign diplomacy between Iran and major powers may be poised to resume, diplomats in Washington said officials from five major world powers and Germany planned to meet next week, possibly in Brussels, to chart strategy for a new round of talks with Iran. The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany – a group collectively known as the P5+1 – planned to send their foreign ministry political directors to the talks.
In October, diplomats had said they were considering asking Iran for stricter limits on its nuclear program in exchange for an easing of sanctions in a long-shot approach aimed at yielding a solution that has eluded them for more than a decade. One option could be for each side to put more on the table – both in terms of demands and possible rewards – than in previous meetings in a bid to break the stalemate despite deep skepticism about the chances of a breakthrough any time soon.
The UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to submit its next quarterly Iran report to member states soon. The report is expected to show a defiant Iran pressing ahead with expanding its controversial nuclear program, despite harsh Western sanctions targeting its vital oil sector, and continuing to sanitize a military site the IAEA wants to visit.
A war with Iran (Medes) and the USA (Babylon) (Isaiah 13) is a tribulation event.
The link to this article is as follows:
1) Obama to push for diplomacy with Iran
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