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) Orthodox Jew Embraces Ephraim as his brother and call him to come home to Israel
SPECIAL ALERT !!!
ORTHODOX JEW EMBRACES EPHRAIM AS HIS BROTHER AND CALLS HIM TO COME HOME
1) Summary (youtube): Orthodox Jew Embraces Ephraim as his brother and calls him to come home to Israel (6 minutes)
2) Full Length (youtube): Orthodox Jew Embraces Ephraim as his brother and calls him to come home to Israel (49 minutes)
3) AUDIO: Orthodox Jew Embraces Ephraim as his brother and calls him to come home to Israel (15 minutes)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said there is no compromise that a PLO state should be based upon 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital in any peace deal with Israel. He said that the Palestinians agreed to postpone Palestine’s accession to international bodies for nine months in exchange for the release of 104 prisoners detained before the 1993 Oslo agreement. He said 26 prisoners will be released by Israel every three months. Regarding the Israeli release of long-held Palestinian prisoners, Abbas said that it had nothing to do with the negotiations rather it was granted in return for the Palestinians pulling their appeals to the United Nations.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state in any peace agreement. “How is it that when the Palestinians demand that we recognize their nationhood that they refuse to recognize ours,” Netanyahu asked. “The Jewish people have been in existence for 4,000 years. Why do we not deserve recognition? We are working very hard to end the conflict with the Palestinians,” the Prime Minister said. “I am not fooling myself into believing that this will be easy, but I am determined to come to an agreement that will not sacrifice Israel’s national interests in order to get a nice headline in the newspaper, or to receive international applause.” Mahmood Abbas criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that Israel’s insistence that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state saying: “Netanyahu’s refusal to recognize a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders, his insistence that a united Jerusalem is Israel’s eternal capital and his demand that we recognize the State of Israel as a Jewish state indicate that he isn’t interested in continuing with the negotiations.”
Furthermore, Netanyahu added that in any peace agreement with the Palestinians that it requires a security border in the Jordan Valley. Israel rejected a US proposal to put in the Jordan Valley international troops. In the current peace talks, Israeli negotiators offered to transfer sovereignty of the Jordan Valley to the Palestinian Authority which would in turn lease it back to Israel. The Palestinians promptly rejected this proposal. In speaking to the Israeli Knesset, Netanyahu said that Israeli negotiators “will have to convince the Palestinians to adjust their demands to the circumstances around us.” In response to the Israeli proposal Palestinian National Council member Hanan Ashrawi told an Israeli newspaper, “No Israeli soldier will be in the Jordan Valley. We will not agree [to let Israel] control or lease lands. We will not take part in redefining the Israeli occupation.” She further stated: “Netanyahu wants to control the Palestinian state, its borders and its airspace and refuses to discuss the option of placing international forces in the Jordan Valley. We cannot agree to that. From our view, it’s just the occupation by another name, which wants to rule over us again and control our lives. We won’t accept that in any form.” So far, “All the discussions focus on Israel’s security,” Ashrawi charged. “Israel is entrenched in its positions and continues to build in the settlements. As a result, negotiations have not amounted to anything so far.”
In the past month, there have been several terror attacks by Palestinians who killed Jews in the West Bank. As a result, some Israeli politicians are calling for Israel to suspend peace talks with the Palestinians and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Israel agreed to release 104 Palestinians from Israeli jails in several stages as part of the agreement to restart direct peace talks. In response, a Palestinian official said: “[Abbas] and the Palestinian leadership hear the opinions in Israel that are talking about the possibility of freezing the talks with the Palestinians because of the death of several Jews by Palestinians in the West Bank. Therefore, the Palestinians are preparing an alternative plan which is to appeal to United Nations institutions and organizations with the goal of winning international recognition for a Palestinian state.
Frustrated in the progress of the peace talks, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas plans to travel to Germany, Italy and Belgium where he will meet with heads of state for the purpose of pressuring Israel to impose a building freeze in the West Bank and to rethink the possibility of suspending the prisoner releases. Fatah official Jibril Rajoub said that if Israel doesn’t reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians that Israel should be “removed” from the region. He added: “Peace is not a Palestinian interest, it’s an international interest, and the interest of the world is to put an end to this struggle. I think it’s also an Israeli interest – Israelis should decide whether they are part of the Middle East or an alien body. If Israel is an alien body it should be removed,” he said.
An Israeli official told an Israeli newspaper that a land transfer proposal is being discussed in current peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. In the proposal, Israel would transfer land near Shechem to the Palestinians and Israel would annex parts of Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank. Israel fears that at the end of the nine-months of peace talks that the US will publicize a document accusing Israel of failure in the peace talks. In order to prevent the publication of this document, the report said, efforts were being made to discuss the possibilities of land swaps. During a speech in the US, Israel Finance Minister, Yair Lapid, said Israel must come to terms with the fact that it will have to uproot thousands of Jews from their homes to facilitate the creation of a Palestinian state. “We need to have a final map,” said Lapid. “We cannot escape the need to map the final borders of a future Palestinian state…including an organized plan for the evacuation of tens of thousands of [Jewish] settlers.” At the same time, Lapid said Israel needs to know that acceptable security arrangements will be made to bring an end to ongoing Palestinian terrorism. “We need to know how the story will end, because if we know that, we can be more understanding and responsive to the needs of the other party,” he continued. Therefore, “we need to go all out, draw maps, write agreements, and then set a time frame for implementation.” In his meeting with US Vice President Joe Biden, Lapid reiterated the Israeli government’s commitment to achieving a final status peace deal.
Leader of the Jewish Home political party, Naftali Bennett, threatened that his party would withdraw from Netanyahu’s government coalition should Israel “grant any concession to the Palestinians in peace talks” because they would pose “a serious threat to Israel” and that his party “will not allow that to happen”. Bennett also stated that his party will not only withdraw from the government, but will lead “a political battle at the Knesset to stop any agreement and any concession provided by the government, starting with foiling the Poll Law that the Knesset intends to vote on”. Meanwhile, Israel Justice Minister Tzipi Livni who leads peace talks with the Palestinians said that the Labor political party should join the government coalition of Benjamin Netanyahu. “Israel’s opposition leader [Shelly Yacimovich (Labor)] says she’ll only join the government once there’s an agreement or she thinks [talks are] serious enough. Well, it’s not enough to give a speech about peace, even if it’s a good speech; it’s important to implement it,”Livni said. “In my opinion, Labor should have been part of this coalition, and it’s unfortunate that they refused to enter,” she added. At a Labor faction meeting, Yacimovich said “Labor will be a safety net for peace talks, but not if they’re fake.” The Labor leader said she feels that the government is trying to dissolve talks and is only negotiating for show, and she will not support that.
In an upcoming trip to Italy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to visit with Pope Francis. Netanyahu also will meet US Secretary of State John Kerry on the same trip. In addition, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas invited Pope Francis to visit the Holy Land in 2014. After the private part of the meeting, the pope gave Abbas a pen, telling him “surely, you have a lot of things you have to sign.” Abbas responded: “I hope to sign a peace treaty with Israel with this pen.” Pope Francis plans to visit Israel in March.
Next, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is considering an appeal to the United Nations Security Council over what he termed “serious Israeli violations” in East Jerusalem, specifically on the Temple Mount. “Israel has no right to split up the Al-Aqsa Mosque, neither physically nor in terms of prayer times,” Abbas said, and stressed that “all East Jerusalem is Palestinian.” Meanwhile, Hamas Political Bureau Chief Khaled Mashaal called for Arabs and Muslims worldwide to come up with a strategy for countering what he called the “Judaization” of Jerusalem and the danger to the Al-Aqsa Mosque at the hands of Israel. The Muslim world must prepare for a struggle with “the enemy” to “free” the city, he said. He added that without a Palestinian East Jerusalem and without the recognition of the 1967 borders with minor corrections, a peace treaty is unattainable.
Finally, Hanoch Young, an Orthodox Jew from the United States who now lives in Israel gave a message at the “Alliance of Redeemed Israel” conference where he embraced Ephraim as his brother and welcomed him to “come home” to Israel. His message is included as part of this week’s report. You can also listen to his message on youtube.
An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.
The link to these articles are as follows:
1) No compromise on Jerusalem as Palestinian capital: Abbas
2) Netanyahu Reiterates: PA Must Recognize Israel as a Jewish State
3) Netanyahu: Border must remain in Jordan Valley – like Rabin said
4) PA rejects Israeli ‘leasing’ proposal for Jordan Valley
5) Talks on rocks, Abbas heads to Europe to push for settlement freeze
6) Fatah Official: Israel Should be ‘Removed’ From Region if Peace Agreement Not Reached
7) Report: Livni and Erekat Weighing Land Transfer Proposal
8.) Israeli Minister: We’ll Have to Uproot Thousands of Jews
9) Bennett: “We Will Leave Coalition Should Government Grant Concessions to Palestinians”
10) Livni to Labor: Join Netanyahu government for sake of peace
11) Netanyahu to meet Pope next week
12) Abbas meets Pope Francis, invites him to visit Holy Land
13) Abbas considers appeal to UN over ‘Temple Mount violations’
14) Palestinians mull appeal to UNSC over ‘serious Israeli violations in Temple Mount
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