Watchman of Zion

Uploaded. This week’s update is 26 minutes.

You may view the 5 minute update this week via audio:

1) Listen to the audio

In this week’s 5 minute update, we focused on:

1) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process
2) An annoucement that the Temple Institute will begin training Priests to perform the daily sacrifice of the Temple

In July, the European Commission drafted new guidelines that stated that the EU will no longer be associated to any economic, social or academic ventures involving Israeli institutions based in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), eastern Jerusalem or the Golan Heights. The new guidelines stipulate that any agreement between Israel and the EU should explicitly state that it is not applicable to the territories captured in 1967. EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said that the guidelines are simply “putting down on paper what is currently the EU’s current position on the issue.” This policy is scheduled to be implemented on January 1, 2014. However, the United States is trying to persuade the Europeans to delay the implementation of their new guidelines in order to not complicate direct peace talks taking place between Israel and the Palestinians. PLO negotiator Nabil Shaath revealed that the EU issuing these guidelines were part of an agreement with the Palestinians for them to restart direct peace talks with Israel. He said, “The Europeans encouraged us to enter U.S.-brokered talks by publishing their new directions against settlement activities.” He added: “If Europe doesn’t implement what it had decided regarding the settlements, it will be impossible for the negotiations to make any progress.” Furthermore, Shaath revealed that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry “guaranteed in writing” that Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would start with the 1967 lines saying that the Palestinians agreed to restart the peace talks as a direct result of the guarantee. However, the US denied the existence of such a document according to The New York Times. PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi repeated that the European guidelines were an important element in the Palestinian decision to resume talks with Israel. She also confirmed that US Secretary of State John Kerry was pressuring the EU to revoke, postpone, or “water down” a decision taken in July to outlaw all cooperation with Israeli entities over the pre-1967 lines. “The US should stop being Israel’s lobbyist,” Ashrawi said. These EU guidelines contradict Israeli domestic law. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1980 and the Golan Heights in 1981. These annexations are not recognized by international community.

PA Foreign Minister Riyad Malki said that the United States and President Barack Obama personally may get more involved in the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations in order for the talks to achieve their goal by their target date. Arab foreign ministers from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and Malki, met US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris in the past week to discuss progress in the peace talks. Malki, who described on Voice of Palestine the meeting with Kerry as held in “positive and frank atmosphere,” said the next meeting with Kerry will take place in October. ‘At some stage, the US president will directly follow up these negotiations,’ said Malki.

Meanwhile, the Negotiations Department of the PLO distributed to members of the executive committee an official document in which senior official Saeb Erekat lays out his reasons for renewed negotiations. In the document, Erekat claimed that some countries have promised to recognize the State of Palestine and support Palestinian institutions and joining of international treaties if negotiations with Israel fail. In a visit to the United Kingdom, Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas urged Britain to recognize the state of Palestine. Addressing members of the British parliament, Abbas said that 138 states voted last year on November 29 at the UN General Assembly to upgrade the status of Palestine at the United Nations from being an observer to a non-member state and urged “Great Britain to follow suit by recognizing the state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital on the 1967 borders.”

In domestic Israeli politics, the Jewish Home party has initiated the “Jewish Identity project”. The leader of the political party, Yesh Atid (which means ‘There is a Future’) Yair Lapid believes that the project should include the Reform and Conservative branches of Judaism in an Israeli government initiative for “Jewish identity.” Lapid succeeded in adding a phrase stating that the project would be “for all parts of Judaism,” a phrase which he explained includes non-orthodox Jewish movements. Orthodox Judaism believes that the Torah is divine and unchanging, and that proper observance of mitzvot (commandments) must be determined in accordance with Jewish tradition. The Reform movement teaches that mitzvot are optional, while the Conservative movement teaches that mitzvot are obligatory in theory, but has made changes to Jewish observance that Orthodox leaders view as invalid, such as allowing cars to be driven on the Sabbath and permitting gay marriage. The Reform and Conservative movements are popular in the United States and parts of Europe, but are extremely small in Israel, where Orthodox Judaism has been used as the standard for Jewish tradition regarding marriage, burial and other life cycle events. Lapid has announced that he plans to change the monopoly that Orthodox Judaism has in Israeli society by putting non-Orthodox movements on an equal footing with the Orthodox.

About 2% of Americans are Jewish. In a 1990 US survey of Jews living in the United States 38% of American Jews are reform Jews, 35% are conservative, 6% are Orthodox and 10% consider themselves as “just Jewish.” In a 2012 survey, reform Jews remained steady at 34%, conservatives dropped to 26%, Orthodox Jews slightly increased to 8% but those who regard themselves as “Just Jewish” skyrocketed to 25%.  But what does being “Just Jewish” mean? In actuality, the term applies to those who did not identify with any particular branch of Judaism and do not attend a synagogue.

The Temple Institute, an organization dedicated to making preparations to eventually rebuild the Jewish Temple announced that on August 20 that 20 Kohanim (Jewish men of priestly descent) will begin to be instructed on how to perform that ‘daily sacrifice’ or ‘Tamid offering’ of the Temple. The detailed laws of the Divine service in the Holy Temple have always been accessible in the volumes of Jewish tradition. But now, for the first time in two millennia, an organized academy has been inaugurated to prepare for the renewal of Temple service. The grand opening of the academy began with a semi-dress rehearsal/dry run of the entire daily service from start to finish, reenacted step by step.

For the purpose of this unique educational endeavor, special educational tools and props were used, representing the necessary vessels. A figure of the lamb offered up in the daily service, and a small scale altar, were also created exclusively for study purpose. The evening was not open to the public. Some twenty men, young and old alike, of Kohanic descent (direct lineal descendants of Aharon, the first High Priest), participated in the rehearsal. Some of these men donned actual priestly garments manufactured for them by the Temple Institute. The garments are constantly being prepared, and as there were not enough garments available, others sufficed with white shirts and pants for this dry run. All of the Kohanim were barefoot, as they are forbidden from wearing shoes while attending to their sacred tasks within the confines of the Holy Temple. The numerous priestly tasks which make up the daily Tamid service, as well as the holiday and Shabbat services in the Holy Temple require a complete command of every detail of the task at hand to perform them properly.

The reenactment was overseen by Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, founder of the Temple Institute, who drilled the Kohanim in the particular instructions for each of the individual actions that make up the daily service. Leading the Kohanim was Rabbi Baruch Kahana, who conducted each of the four daily lotteries and distributed the specific assignments to various Kohanim. All these activities as described in the Mishna and other sources of Torah understanding. This is the first time that the daily sacrifice has been practiced since the destruction of the Holy Temple in the year 70 A.D.

An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Senior Palestinian official: EU guidelines part of a deal that led the PA resume talks with Israel
2) Palestinians urge EU to stick with settlement boycott
3) Palestinian official: Kerry guaranteed 1967 lines for peace talks
4) PA Foreign Minister Says US May Get More Involved in Talks
5) Erekat: Some countries will recognize Palestine if negotiations fail
6) Abbas urges UK to recognize Palestine
7) Lapid Adds Reform Judaism to ‘Jewish Identity’ Initiative
8.) Reform leader: Orthodoxy in Israel jeopardizes Judaism
9) The Temple Institute begins training priests on performing the daily Tamid offering on the 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

Uploaded Sept 10. This week’s update is 22 minutes.

You may view the 5 minute update this week via audio:

1) Listen to the audio

In this week’s 5 minute update, we focused on:

1) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that before the resumption of direct peace talks with Israel, the United States demanded that the Palestinians avoid lobbying for recognition in various United Nations organizations including the International Criminal Court. Initially, the Palestinians refused. However, Abbas said that the Palestinians agreed to enter direct peace talks with Israel only because the United States promised that they would support the Palestinian demands that Israel withdraw to the pre-1967 borders as the basis for any final status agreement with Israel. Without it, he said, the PA would not have agreed to participate in the talks. Furthermore, Israel agreed to release 104 Palestinian prisoners in four stages. Abbas said he agreed to delay seeking full United Nations membership of a Palestinian state in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. “I consider the issue of the UN to be very important, but the case of the prisoners is worthy of sacrifice,” he added. “We have prepared 63 requests to join 63 UN agencies and conventions, but I said the issue of the prisoners is now more significant.” The first 26 prisoners have already been released.  The second group of Palestinian prisoners is expected to be released by the end of September. Palestinian Minister of Prisoner Affairs Issa Karaka said that the third round of Palestinian prisoners’ release will take place on October 29. According to Karaka, the next group of prisoners will be released regardless of diplomatic progress of the talks, adding that the prisoners will only be released to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The minister added that the fourth and final group of prisoners will be released on March 28.

According to Reyad al-Malki, the Palestinian minister of foreign affairs, the Palestinians agreed to resume direct peace talks with Israel because the United States submitted written guarantees to the Palestinian leadership backing the establishment of a Palestinian state while declaring Israeli settlements illegal. As a result, al-Malki said: “The American Administration, which presented the written guarantees to the Palestinian leadership, is fully responsible for Israel’s attempts to fail the direct peace negotiations and continue settlement construction which violates the two-state solution.” He explained that the Palestinians agreed to resume the talks not only due to the Israeli approval to release prisoners, “but because the United States had submitted to the Palestinian side written assurances that it considers settlement activities illegal and backs a Palestinian state.”

Regarding Palestinian goals for the peace talks, Mahmood Abbas reassured his fellow Fatah leaders that he would not make any concessions during the negotiations with Israel. “Our positions are the same as previous ones,” he explained. “This means Jerusalem is at the top of our list of priorities. A Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital. Without that there will be no solution. There will be no state without Jerusalem, which is a red line for us. If there is any development and an agreement, it is known that we will go to a referendum,” Abbas clarified. “It won’t be enough to have the approval of the Fatah Central Committee or the PLO Executive Council for an agreement. Rather, we would go to a referendum everywhere because the agreement represents Palestinians everywhere.” Nabil Sha’ath, member of the Fatah Central Committee said. Sha’ath said that despite the lack of progress the Palestinian Authority was determined to continue with the peace talks while not ruling out the possibility of going to international agencies and forums if the negotiations fail.

Regarding the current status of peace talks, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met recently for the 5th round of talks since they started in July. In the latest meeting, both sides presented their view on final status issues but no agreement between them has been reached.  Mahmood Abbas said that all that has taken place so far has been a review by both sides of each other’s negotiating position. A Palestinian official said that formal talks between Israel and the Palestinians has not yet started. US Secretary of State John Kerry plans to will meet with Arab League representative and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in London next week to discuss the current status of the Israel / Palestinian peace talks. The Palestinians want a meeting with Kerry to express their disappointment in the progress of the peace talks so far. The Palestinians are unhappy over what they say are Israel’s repeated attempts to dictate the talks’ agenda which have been focused on Israel’s security. Abbas and his aides are also displeased with what they perceive as US mediator Martin Indyk’s lack of insufficient participation in the talks.

In presenting its view of a final status agreement, Israel has focused on issues of security.  As a result, Israel wants to retain control of the West Bank, keep early-warning stations on hilltops, and retain military bases near the Jordanian border. The current proposals suggest that Israel would like to keep control of about 40% of the West Bank. Furthermore, Israel discussed the idea of a Palestinian state with provisional border.  According to a Palestinian official, Israel said: ” ‘Let’s discuss a state with provisional borders.’ In return, the Palestinians said, ‘Let’s agree on a state based on the 1967 borders first, and then we can agree on having this state in phases.” The idea of a Palestinian state with temporary borders would give the PA independence, while leaving the issues such as the fate of Jerusalem and the “right of return” to later negotiations.

According to a Palestinian official, Israel has proposed a Palestinian state on temporary borders on about 60% of the West Bank. Under this plan, Israel would keep dozens of Jewish settlements and military bases in the West Bank. This plan has been rejected by the Palestinians. Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas  urged the US to put pressure on Israel. Otherwise, he said, “there will be no progress.” A Palestinian official said, “Agreeing with Israeli ideas on the issue of security will give Israel control over all the routes and major centers in the West Bank. The Palestinians refused all Israeli proposals and demanded sovereignty throughout the West Bank. However, we did agree to the presence of NATO troops to patrol the border. In a Rosh HaShanah statement to the Jewish public, Netanyahu said that he hoped that peace talks with the Palestinians would succeed. “We seek to advance peace with the Palestinians while maintaining our security and ensuring that the peace will be real and genuine peace. This peace must be anchored in recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and in our security. This is what ultimately is needed.” Furthermore, Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said that  Israel is not willing to vacate the major Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank.

Expressing concern of the talk of a Palestinian state with provisional borders, several members of Netanyahu’s own political party, the Likud, are joining forces to oppose any peace agreement with the Palestinians. This would include Israel Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon.  Danon said that he is “very disturbed” by the current diplomatic efforts. “I look at the diplomatic negotiations team and I ask myself, who represents the interests of the state of Israel in the negotiations? Who represents the national camp [those that oppose a Palestinian state] ? I respect Israel chief negotiator Tzipi Livni but she does not represent the national camp. She does not represent the settlers and their numerous supporters. I am very concerned by the fact that the team of US Representative Martin Indyk, Tzipi Livni and [PA negotiator Saeb] Erekat is leading us to the days of [Ehud] Olmert and the dividing of Jerusalem, to an agreement that speaks of a retreat from most of the territory in the West Bank. There is no doubt that if negotiations cause an agreement to be made then the Likud political party will be put to the test. They will have to decide whether they will remain loyal to the founding principles of the Likud party which opposes a Palestinian state or choose to be support a peace agreement headed by Benjamin Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni. However, it is my understanding that we are not yet discussing a comprehensive peace agreement with the Palestinians and I hope that we will never have to face this situation. Nevertheless, if a peace agreement is reached, we must tell fellow Likud members who may support such an agreement that ‘you do not belong in Likud.’”

Likud Knesset Member, Moshe Feiglin said that the time to stop the Netanyahu government from negotiating a peace agreement with the Palestinians is now.  Netanyahu’s government cannot be called “nationalist,” so there is no reason for its existence. It endorses the policies of transferring Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount to the Jordanians and releasing terrorists. I am not calling on anyone to resign. On the contrary, it is imperative to use all the political power that we have to forge a new direction and to compel the “nationalist” government to carry out the policies that it was elected to do.

An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) U.S. backs Palestinian state, considers Israeli settlement illegal: Palestinian official
2) Abbas: US Promised Us Full Withdrawal as Basis of Talks
3) Abbas reveals deal PA made to restart peace talks
4) Israelis and Palestinians meet for fresh round of talks
5) PA Official: Israel Proposed Evicting Communities
6) Ya’alon: Settlement evacuations is not part of new talks with Palestinians
7) Israel wants to hold 40% of West Bank in peace deal’
8.) Danon Warns Netanyahu over ‘Peace’ Deal
9) The Time to Stop Netanyahu Is Now
10) Peace talks with Israel going nowhere, says Abbas’ top aide
11) Kerry to discuss peace talks with Abbas in London next week
12) Abbas says peace with Israel will be brought to a referendum for Palestinians ‘everywhere’
13) PA minister: Next prisoners’ release in October

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

Uploaded. This week’s update is 53 minutes.

You may view the 5 minute update this week via audio:

1) Listen to the audio

In this week’s 5 minute update, we focused on:

1) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process
2) The current status of the situation with Syria
3) The current status of the situation with Iran

According to Reyad al-Malki, the minister of foreign affairs in the Palestinian National Authority, the Palestinians agreed to resume direct peace talks with Israel because the United States submitted written guarantees to the Palestinian leadership backing the establishment of a Palestinian state while declaring Israeli settlements illegal. As a result, al-Malki said: “The American Administration, which presented the written guarantees to the Palestinian leadership, is fully responsible for Israel’s attempts to fail the direct peace negotiations and continue settlement construction which violates the two-state solution.” He explained that the Palestinians agreed to resume the talks not only due to the Israeli approval to release prisoners, “but because the United States had submitted to the Palestinian side written assurances that it considers settlement activities illegal and backs a Palestinian state.” “It is still too early to speak about evaluating the rounds of talks that were held during the last four weeks,” al-Malki said, adding “all that I can say is that the ongoing Israeli settlement activities overshadowed the meetings which were conducted under the U.S. sponsorship.” “The Palestinian side is expecting more U.S. pressure on Israel to halt settlement construction, because no one else is able to do so,” said al-Malki, who revealed that the Palestinians are contacting the U.S. administration and other international parties to intensify pressure on Israel. “We had repeatedly informed the Americans and the international community that they are fully responsible for the situation … Everyone, including the Palestinians, consider the talks a last opportunity for peace,” said al-Malki.

Regarding formation of sub-negotiation committees on permanent status issues of Jerusalem, settlement, refugees, water, security, borders and release of prisoners, the official said it is still too early to speak about such groups. When asked about the options the Palestinians have in case the peace talks fail, al-Malki said “even if we have other options, we won’t unveil them now,” noting that “we bear in mind the nine- month ultimatum to finalize the talks and we hope we will succeed and reach our goals.” Regarding the direct peace talks, fighting broke out between Palestinians and the Israeli soldiers in the West Bank  following a funeral for three Palestinians who were killed in a confrontation with Israeli Border Police earlier in the day. As a result, it was initially reported that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians that were scheduled that day were cancelled. However, a Palestinian official said that the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams met in the house of chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in Jericho.

The Palestinians continue to insist that they will not give up on the “right of return”.  Palestinian spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said in a statement that “the main goal of the negotiations with Israel is to establish an independent Palestinian state within the [pre-]1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital with a return of Palestinian refugees in accordance with resolutions by international institutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.” He reiterated that Jewish settlements “is an obstacle to reaching a just peace based on the rights of the Palestinian people that cannot be canceled.”

Meanwhile, there are rumors that Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is planning a second “Bar Ilan Speech,” in October in which he will lay out Israel’s “red lines” and reiterate his willingness to allow the establishment of a Palestinian Authority-run state in the West Bank. A report in an Israeli newspaper said that Netanyahu was planning to offer the Palestinian Authority a temporary deal, in which Israel would surrender more land to the PA. The offer would be Israel’s response to PA demands that Israel withdraw from all of the West Bank and most of Jerusalem. Netanyahu is likely to offer the PA nearly all the land outside the large settlement blocs, withdrawing IDF troops from many areas where Jews live, especially in the Binyamin area of the West Bank. The religious Zionist party, Jewish Home, opposes the possible speech saying, “During these times, when the Middle East is being rocked by war, the deaths of children with chemical weapons, and dictators that are being deposed, Israel must finally understand and accept that a Palestinian state will do nothing but bring more terror and mourning to Israelis,” Jewish Home said, adding “we will continue to be the only party in the government that opposes withdrawals and sees the Zionist future as one of building, development, and settlement. We hope there will be no additional Bar Ilan-type speeches.”

As a result, members of the Jewish Home party as well as several members within Benjamin Netanyahu’s own party, Likud, have announced that they are preparing in case of new developments in Israel-PA talks. Among them being, Likud MKs Zev Elkin, Ofir Akunis, Danny Danon, Tzipi Hotovely and Yariv Levin.  Likud Party MK and Israeli Deputy Transport Minister Tzipi Hotovely has suggested that the solution to the Israel-Palestine problem is the annexation of the West Bank and creation of a Palestinian State in the Gaza Strip. Arab citizens of Israel, would she claims, be granted equal rights in the extended state. The aim of annexation, added the deputy minister, would be to boost the number of Jews migrating to Israel, which would “solve the demographic problem” for Israel as a supposedly “Jewish state”.  Furthermore, Likud Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar said  that Israel will not accept a Palestinian demand to return to the 1967 lines as part of renewed peace talks. Sa’ar also addressed the issue of potential settlement evacuation and said, “We do not believe in uprooting Jewish communities and do not believe that this will lead to peace.” Sa’ar further stated, “We shall insist on keeping a united and undivided Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.” He added that Israel cannot refuse to enter into negotiations because of national responsibility and a need to safeguard all of Israel’s interests.

At least five European nations have recently began warning companies and businessmen against engaging in business activity in Israeli settlements as they risk breaking local and international law, according to reports received by Israel’s Foreign Ministry. The countries mentioned by Israeli ambassadors include Britain, Germany, Denmark, Holland and Sweden. According to one report, one country’s foreign office told a company involved in trade beyond the 1967 borders that its actions are in violation of local law and international law which stipulates that settlements are illegal. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said  the EU settlement guidelines which put into writing EU policy restricting any EU financial cooperation with Israeli entities beyond the 1967 borders and calling for Israel to sign a territorial clause limiting the scope of any future agreement with the EU to the pre-1967 lines, was not a change from EU policies and was meant to signal that there were ramifications for continued settlement policy, he indicated.

After meeting Netanyahu, the French Foreign Minister Fabius said that the Palestinian / Israel conflict was the root cause of Mideast instability. Netanyahu disagreed with him saying, “The Palestinian / Israeli conflict is not the root cause of instability in the Middle East. Instead, it is one of the results. If Israel makes peace with the Palestinians, the centrifuges will not stop spinning in Iran, the turmoil will not stop in Syria, the instability in North Africa will not cease, the attacks on the West will not cease,” he said.

It is being reported by an Israeli newspaper that Benjamin Netanyahu is losing trust  in the performance of Tzipi Livni, Israel’s chief negotiator, in peace talks with the Palestinians, amid suggestions that she is offering too many concessions. Netanyahu is said to be unhappy that Livni has “strayed from the official line” during the first two sessions of the recently revived talks. His discontent has been increased by reports that she has offered compromises and territorial concessions in informal talks with Palestinian and U.S. mediators that have taken place away from the main negotiation sessions. Gaps have also emerged between Livni, the most dovish member of the Israeli cabinet who also serves as justice minister, and Netanyahu’s lawyer, Yitzhak Molcho. While Livni favours “large working teams” that would seek to reach a historic “final-status agreement” at the end of the nine months allotted to the talks, Molcho – representing the views of his boss – believes that to be unrealistic. He favors an “agreement in principle” on the core issues that can be consolidated into a formal pact at a later stage. However, the two seem to be more divided by more fundamental issues. “The problem Molcho has with Livni is far deeper and pertains to the question of how much trust Netanyahu has in Livni as the head of the Israeli negotiating team with the Palestinians,” says the Israeli newspaper. Netanyahu is reported to be upset Livni offered to compromise on Jerusalem, which both Israel and the Palestinians claim as their capital. She has also spoken of withdrawing from the West Bank, where around 350,000 Israeli settlers live, and dismantling settlements.

So who is Tzipi Livni. What is her family and political background. What life events shape her world view? In the last part of our update on the current status of the Israeli / Palestinian peace process, we will share with you some of this information.

An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) U.S. backs Palestinian state, considers Israeli settlement illegal: Palestinian official
2) Peace talks on the rocks amid clashes in Qalandiya
3) Report: Israeli, Palestinian negotiators met in Jericho
4) Bayit Yehudi: No Need for a Second ‘Bar-Ilan Speech’
5) Likud’s Nationalist Camp Prepares for ‘Developments’
6) Likud solution is to annex West Bank and establish Palestinian state in Gaza
7) Minister Sa’ar: Israel won’t return to 1967 lines
8.) European nations: Don’t do business in settlements
9) French FM questions details of EU settlement guidelines
10) Israel ‘to continue settlement building during peace talks’
11) Netanyahu disputes Fabius diagnosis that Israeli-Palestinian issue is region’s central concern
12) Fatah Stresses: We’re Not Giving Up ‘Right of Return’
13) Netanyahu having doubts over peace negotiator
14) The Believer: Tzipi Livni still thinks that peace is possible

On August 21, Western countries including the United States claims that Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war. As a result, US Secretary of State John Kerry made a speech where he stated the following, “In the past week, President Obama and his entire national security team have been reviewing the situation in Syria. As a result, I want to provide an update on our efforts as we consider our response to the use of chemical weapons. What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world. It defies any code of morality. Let me be clear. The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard, it is inexcusable. And despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured, it is undeniable. So I also want to underscore that while investigators are gathering additional evidence on the ground, our understanding of what has already happened in Syria is grounded in facts, informed by conscience and guided by common sense. We have additional information about this attack, and that information is being compiled and reviewed together with our partners, and we will provide that information in the days ahead.”

Then, on Thursday, the Obama administration gave American lawmakers what it called fresh evidence that Syria’s government was behind a chemical weapons attack. US officials told members of Congress there was “no doubt” that chemical weapons were used in Syria last week. Obama aides cited intercepted communications of Syrian officials and evidence of movements by Syria’s military around Damascus before the attack that killed more than 300 people, said US Representative Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The administration’s 90-minute briefing on Syria for senior members of Congress was conducted by US Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and other high-ranking US officials.

Meanwhile, Syrian official Halef al-Muftah said that Syria views Israel as “behind the aggression and therefore it will come under fire” should Syria be attacked by the United States. He said, “We have strategic weapons and we can retaliate. Essentially, the strategic weapons are aimed at Israel.” Al-Muftah stressed that the US’s threats will not influence the Syrain regime and added that “If the US or Israel err through aggression and exploit the chemical issue, the region will go up in endless flames, affecting not only the area’s security, but the world’s.”

Meanwhile, Russia warned Western powers against any military intervention in Syria, saying the use of force without a UN mandate would be a grave violation of international law. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had no plans to be drawn into a military conflict over the civil war in Syria and that the US and its allies would be repeating “past mistakes” if they intervened in Syria. He said, “If anybody thinks that bombing and destroying the Syrian military infrastructure, and leaving the battlefield for the opponents of the regime to win, would end everything – that is an illusion”.

In a UN Security Council meeting held on the Syrian issue on August 28, Russian and Chinese officials walked out of the meeting after US Representative Samantha Power called for immediate action in Syria. Meanwhile, , Russia has sent at least 12 warships to patrol waters near its naval base in Tartous, Syria. This move by Russia represents one of its largest sustained naval deployments since the Cold War.

On August 28, a US official said that the United States has ruled out unilateral military action against Syria and is conferring with allies on potential punitive strikes that could last for more than a day. However, an ally of the United States and military intervention in Syria, Great Britain backed out of being military involvement when the British parliament voted against military intervention in Syria. French President Francois Hollande said a British parliamentary vote against taking military action in Syria would not affect France’s will to act to punish Bashar Assad’s government for an apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians. Despite the vote, French President Francois Hollande said a British parliamentary vote against taking military action in Syria would not affect France’s will to act to punish Syria. Asked if France could take action without Britain, Hollande replied: “Yes. Each country is sovereign to participate or not in an operation. That is valid for Britain as it is for France.”

Hollande told the daily Le Monde in an interview that he still supported taking “firm” punitive action over an attack he said had caused “irreparable” harm to the Syrian people and said he would work closely with France’s allies. However, Germany’s foreign minister said that Germany would not participate in a military strike in Syria. ruling out his country’s participation in a military strike in Syria. Meanwhile because of the British vote, the US has changed its mind and has stated that it is now willing to unilaterally strike Syria. Obama, officials said, is basing his case for action against Syria to safeguarde international standards against the use of chemical weapons and on the threat to America’s national interests posed by Syria’s use of those weapons. US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro said: “The ongoing deliberations in Washington are not around the question of whether chemical weapons were used or whether the regime was responsible. The deliberations are about what the appropriate response will be and there will be a response.” The United States said that their response to Syria will be “very discrete and limited” and not open-ended. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, “When the president reaches a determination about the appropriate response … and a legal justification is required to substantiate or to back up that decision, we will respond.”

Fearing an attack by the US upon Syria, UN inspectors looking for chemical weapons use left Syria for Lebanon on Friday, August 30. The team of experts was ordered out of the country by UN chief Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon.

A senior official in the Syrian army warned the United States and its partners that waging a full-scale war on Syria would be reciprocated with an immediate attack on Tel Aviv. “If Damascus comes under attack, Tel Aviv will be targeted too and a full-scale war against Syria will actually issue a license for attacking Israel,” the Syrian army source told the Iranian Fars news agency. “Rest assured that if Syria is attacked, Israel will also be set on fire and such an attack will, in turn, engage Syria’s neighbors,” he added.  According to various reports, Syria has its Scud, M-600 and other missiles targeted on Israel and the Syrian military has already been instructed to launch “an intensive response” to any U.S. strike. It is being reported that Syria has 500 Scud missiles targeted at Israel. Furthermore, Hezbollah also threatened to strike Israel should Syria come under attack. Lebanese media quoted a senior, unnamed official in the Shiite terror group as saying that Hezbollah operatives had been placed on high alert and that the organization was gearing up for a possible armed conflict with Israel. “Hezbollah will not be able to sit idly by and see how aggressive attempts are made to topple Syria’s legitimate government,” the official said.

Israel responded by saying that if it is attacked by Syria that it will respond fiercely.  Netanyahu said: “We are not involved in the civil war in Syria. But I would like to reiterate, if anyone tries to harm Israel’s citizens, the IDF will respond with great strength.”

A war with Syria where Damascus is destroyed (Isaiah 17) is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles is as follows:

1) Text of Kerry’s Statement on Chemical Weapons in Syria
2) White House gives Congress new evidence of chemical arms use in Syria
3) Syrian official: Israel ‘will come under fire’ if Syria attacked
4) Russia, China walk out of UN Security Council meeting after US call for immediate action in Syria
5) Russia sends at least 12 warships to Syria
6) US rules out unilateral military action in Syria: official
7) British parliament votes against military intervention in Syria
8.) France: UK vote does not change will to act on Syria
9) UN inspectors leave Syria amid fears of US attack
10) Aides: Obama willing to pursue solo Syria strikes
11) US ambassador: There will be a US response to gas attack
12) White House: Syria Intervention Will be Limited
13) Syrian Official: If Damascus is Attacked, Tel Aviv Will Burn
14) ‘Syria has missiles trained on strategic facilities in Israel’
15) 500 Syrian Scud Missiles Have Been Aimed At Israel
16) Netanyahu, Gantz pound home Syria message: Israel not involved, but will respond severely if drawn in

Iran has installed about 1,000 advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges and is set to test them says a report from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency. The report also said that Iran has started making fuel assemblies for a reactor which the West fears could yield nuclear bomb material. Iran and the UN nuclear agency have agreed to restart talks on September 27. The goal of the IAEA is to get Iran to agree to allow them to gain access to a section of a military site. It will be the first time that Iran and the IAEA has met since the most recent Iranian elections. Before talks between Iran and the IAEA was suspended earlier this year, they met 10 times over 18 months without any concrete results.

The link to these articles is as follows:

1) Iran expands advanced uranium enrichment capacity – IAEA
2) UN, Iran agree to restart talks in September

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

You may view the 5 minute update this week via audio:

1) Listen to the audio

In this week’s 5 minute update, we focused on:

1) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met on August 20 completely out of the media’s spotlight as one meeting was held in Jerusalem during the day with a second meeting held in the evening. It was attended by PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat and Muhammad Shtayyeh and the Israel representatives consisted of Israel chief negotiator Tzipi Livni and Netanyahu lawyer Yitzhak Molcho. Given the agreement that Israel and the Palestinians made with US Secretary of State John Kerry’s to keep the content of the discussions secret from the public, there was no pre-announcement of the meetings, or any statement following them. Israel chief negotiator Tzipi Livni said that “there will be dramatic decisions” by Israel at the end of the negotiations but the sides had agreed not to disclose details about their deliberations in order to build trust between them. “We are arguing but we are arguing inside the room,” she said.

Accodring to a senior Palestinian spokesperson, “There has been no breakthrough and no agreement in the talks. So far, discussions have not been on specific details.” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his commitment to a two-state solution that would see the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the pre-1967 lines with Jerusalem as its capital. In an interview with an Arab radio station, PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat revealed that the Palestinians would not have returned to the negotiating table with Israel had it not received a letter of assurance from the United States, guaranteeing its main negotiating preconditions. Erekat said in the interview that the U.S. had assured the PA in writing that talks would recognize the pre-1967 borders as the basis of a Palestinian state, would deal with all core issues (Jerusalem, refugees, borders, security and water), would take place within six  to nine months and would not allow for any interim solutions before a final status agreement is signed. Erekat also said that the European Union’s new guidelines which boycott Israeli entities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem was done by the EU as part of a deal reached with Europe so that the PA would resume negotiations. He said that the PA was currently talking with Latin American countries, China, Russia, Japan and the African Union to adopt similar sanctions toward Jewish communities in the West Bank. “This is an accomplishment,” Erekat said. “We would not have returned to the negotiating table without a written document confirming these points.” Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority wants to sue Israel through international bodies if it continues building Jewish homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem warning that this would put an end to talks unless the building of Jewish homes stopped.

Yesh Atid (meaning “There is a Future”) faction leader Ofer Shelah said that East Jerusalem is likely to be the capital of a Palestinian state. Speaking at a Peace Now conference, Shelah said: “I don’t see a possible agreement with the Palestinians in which they will not be able to call east Jerusalem their capital, just like I don’t see a possible agreement that isn’t based on ‘67 borders. Yesh Atid party leader, Yair Lapid, who is the current Finance Minister called for a united Jerusalem under Israel control during the recent election campaign saying: “The Palestinians will have to understand that we have iron principles that we will not break,” Lapid said. “The heart of Jerusalem is also the heart of the State of Israel.” Furthermore, the election platform of Yesh Atid said: “Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel and its unity is a national symbol of the utmost importance.”

Israel chief negotiator Tzipi Livni called for the religious Zionist party, Jewish Home, to be replaced by the left wing political party, Labor, in order to help her efforts to achieve a peace agreement with the Palestinians. “Jewish Home opposes the two-state solution, and this is very problematic within the context of negotiations,” Livni said. Meanwhile, Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich said that in order for Labor to join the government told there must be an American “blueprint” for a final-status agreement, a decision on beginning the evacuation of isolated settlements and the departure of Jewish Home from the coalition. Labor faction chairman Isaac Herzog said he especially did not like Yacimovich’s invitation to the Americans to impose a plan on the Israelis and Palestinians. “Let’s first give a chance for the two sides to agree before we invite an international plan,” Herzog said. “It is premature to deal with entering the government and setting preconditions is incorrect. We hope there’ll be a breakthrough in the peace talks. If there is then we will decide how we will proceed as a party. However, in case there is a movement in peace talks, it would be wrong to topple the Netanyahu government at this time.”

An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Israeli and Palestinian negotiators hold unannounced Jerusalem meetings
2) Erekat: The U.S. Guaranteed All Our Preconditions Will be Met
3) PA Threatens to Sue Israel Over Building Tenders
4) Shelah defies Yesh Atid platform: Jerusalem will be Palestinian capital
5) Livni: Bayit Yehudi’s presence in coalition hinders peace
6) Yacimovich’s preconditions for joining coalition irk her Labor rivals

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

You may view the 5 minute update this week via audio:

1) Listen to the audio

In this week’s 5 minute update, we focused on:

1) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process

In a Bloomberg article, US journalist Jeffrey Goldberg who is closely affiliated with the Obama White House reported that US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a widespread campaign to delegitimize Israel  — in Kerry’s words — “on steroids” if renewed peace negotiations fail. In moving forward with the peace process, Netanyahu has made some of those who make up the base of his own political party, Likud, to be quite nervous. According to Goldberg, Kerry believes that the only thing that Netanyahu fears more than the Iranian nuclear program is international isolation of Israel.

Meanwhile, DEBKA (an Israel intelligence and news gathering service) reports that the formal Israel / PLO peace negotiations are only an outer shell of the secret hard-core negotiations that have been taking place for weeks between US Secretary of State John Kerry, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The real private talks between Kerry, Netanyahu and Abbas are approaching a climax on the fundamental issues of borders, Jerusalem, refugees and settlements. Every afternoon in past few weeks, Kerry has called the Israeli prime minister and Palestinian leader on secure phone lines. Any incoming calls from the two leaders are switched directly through to the Secretary of State. This procedure is unheard of within the State Department. DEBKA sources report that there has been dramatic progress made in the private talks between Kerry, Netanyahu and Abbas such that Kerry was asking Netanyahu for specific information on the Jewish settlements he was willing to remove in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Abbas was giving his own list.

Although Secretary Kerry has stated publicly that his objective is a final resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, his expectations are more realistic in his behind-the scenes negotiations. All three parties believe that the most they can achieve now are interim accords. Outstanding issues will have to be set aside for an unknown future round of negotiations. For now, the officials assigned with conducting the formal negotiations are not privy to the progress made secretly by their principals. US special envoy Ambassador Martin Indyk, Justice Minister and senior negotiator Tzipi Livni and Palestinian negotiator Saab Erekat and are therefore still in the dark. However, progress is substantial enough by now to have prompted Kerry to convene a meeting of Jewish American leaders for a briefing on August 8 at the White House. He told them there was a “strategic imperative” to arrive at a deal soon, and said he understood the difficulties Netanyahu faced in dealing with a coalition that included hard right parties and figures. He was described as appearing “bullish” about the talks but also “nervous” about the Israeli prime minister’s ability to overcome the resistance in his own Likud party and government coalition to sweeping concessions on settlements.

In addition to US special envoy Ambassador Martin Indyk, Kerrry invited National Security Adviser Susan Rice to join him at the meeting of American Jewish leaders to signal President Barack Obama’s approval.  The meeting lasted for 90 minutes. Kerry’s motive in summoning American Jewish leaders to the White House was his belief that progress in the negotiations has brought the Israeli prime minister close to a crossroads. He will soon face a decision to whether to reshuffle his cabinet and replace ministers who would oppose the terms of the interim accord shaping up with Palestinians. For this step, he would find the support of American Jewry helpful. Netanyahu will soon need to present the leaders of the pro-settlement parties Israel Beiteinu and Jewish Hom parties with the choice of backing him up all the way with an accord with the Palestinians or quit the government coalition. The same question will need to be put to Netanyahu’s own Likud party members who oppose a Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, the first round of Israel / PLO peace negotiations were held in Jerusalem on August 14. They last for five hours. The meeting was secret in an attempt by both sides to prevent leaks to the media and maintain trust. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that the first session of talks with Israel dealt with all final-status issues, including borders, Jerusalem, settlements, refugees, security and prisoners. Speaking at a press conference in Ramallah after meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Abbas said: “Palestine, according to the international law, has become a state under occupation. This occupation must end on the basis of a two-state solution on the 1967 borders with a slight swap of land, UN resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.”

As talks began, there is anger in Israel over the leak from US Secretary of State John Kerry’s circle of his threat that Israel would face a campaign against its legitimacy unless it gives way to pressures on West Bank settlements. “The Secretary would be better advised to focus on the hardening of the Palestinian position,” said Israeli sources. They also pointed out that although Kerry had insisted on the talks be kept secret, his own people were pouring out confidential data to the media. “This can only be explained,” said the Israeli sources, “by the talks having run into crisis before they begin.” Recently, Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas made a statement that in any future Palestinian state, it must be free of every last Jew whether it be civilian or military. In doing so, Abbas takes an even more extreme line than Yasser Arafat did in 2000. In the trilateral talks he held with then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, under the auspices of US President Bill Clinton in the summer of 2000, the Palestinian leader accepted the right of the Israeli Defense Forces to rapidly deploy on the West Bank and Jordan Rift Valley in the event of a security crisis threatening Israel from the east. Furthermore, Abbas has also backed away from the Palestinians’ original consent for Israeli security forces to be posted at the border crossings of the future Palestinian state.

As talks were beginning,  Israel authorized construction of around 800 new housing units in East Jerusalem and around 400 in the West Bank. The Israel Housing ministry said: “We will continue issuing tenders for construction in Jerusalem and the settlement blocs.” However, the plans are in the early stages and the construction could take as long as two years to begin. Palestinian negotiator, Mohammad Shtayyeh, said that these announcements prove that Israel “wasn’t serious about negotiations” and was rather trying “to topple the foundations of the solution, which is establishing a Palestinian state in the ’67 borders. Furthermore, it is a slap in the face of the United States who is trying to restart direct peace talks” he said. Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry charging that Israel’s latest settlement plans were an indication of “Israel’s bad faith and lack of seriousness” in the talks. Erekat urged Kerry to “take the necessary action to ensure that Israel does not advance any of its settlement plans and abides by its legal obligations and commitments.” He said the Palestinians see the move as direct defiance of the US role in facilitating negotiations adding that it was difficult to see how peace talks could move forward while settlements expand.

In a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told him that the root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the refusal by the Palestinians to recognize the Jewish state “on any border” and has nothing to do with Israel’s settlements. He remarked that until recently the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was commonly cited as the root of instability in the Middle East but that this was no longer the case in the wake of unrest in the Arab and Muslim world. Addressing the Palestinian issue, the prime minister said that the conflict began before even one settlement was established. He noted that attacks against Israel continued despite the Gaza pullout and that this was because of a fundamental rejection of the Jewish state. He stressed that construction in areas such as Gilo or in settlement blocs, which he said everyone including the Palestinians knows would stay under Israeli sovereignty in a future agreement, should not be the main issue of discussion. The main issue should be how to achieve a demilitarized Palestinian state that will recognize the one and only Jewish state, Netanyahu said.

In the wake of the chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat’s angry letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry about Israel’s new settlement building amid the resumption of peace talks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent his own letter to Kerry over the weekend, lambasting the Palestinians for failing to curb incitement against Israel. Netanyahu wrote to Kerry that leading Palestinian Authority officials were calling for Israel’s destruction even after peace talks resumed on July 31. “Incitement and peace don’t go together,” Netanyahu wrote, explaining that new generations of Palestinians were being taught to hate Israel, further fueling the cycle of violence. Netanyahu asserted, for example, that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s comment that a future Palestinian state wouldn’t have a single Israeli in it — which Abbas made as peace talks kicked off in Washington two weeks ago — was a form of incitement. He also pointed out that an anchor on the PA’s official news channel stated recently stated that the state of Palestine would extend from Rosh Hanikra to Eilat, i.e. the entire length of Israel, constituting another statement of incitement.

Finally, in another example of Palestinian Authority (PA) denial of the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and the very legitimacy of the State of Israel, the Presidential Guard of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas claims that the Western Wall is an Arab and Islamic site. Last week, a picture of the Western Wall was posted onto the PA Presidential Guard’s official Facebook page with a PA flag superimposed on it.

An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Report: Kerry warned Israel of negative results of talks failure
2) Israel Faces Deepening Isolation, Kerry Warns
3) US-sponsored Israel-Palestinian interim peace talks near moment of decision
4) US-led Israeli-Palestinian talks get off to confused start. Palestinians shun security issues
5) Secrecy veils first round of Israeli and Palestinian peace talks
6) Abbas: First round of peace talks dealt with final-status issues
7) Israel, Palestinians agree to meet again ‘within days’
8.) Israel approves 900 additional homes in East Jerusalem
9) Minister: 1,200 new homes to be built in J’lem, West Bank
10) Palestinians say Israeli settlement plans ‘destroying negotiations’
11) Palestinians: Peace talks face collapse over settlement expansion
12) Bibi to Ban: Settlement is not the main issue
13) Netanyahu to Kerry: Abbas is inciting against Israel
14) Palestinian Authority Denies Jewish Right to Western Wall

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

You may view the 5 minute update this week via audio:

1) Listen to the audio

In this week’s 5 minute update, we focused on:

1) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process

Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to restart direct peace talks.  The United States administration gave the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams letters of assurance which outlined the U.S. position regarding the peace talks, their parameters and their goals, in order to facilitate the renewal of peace talks, a senior Israeli official said. A senior Palestinian official said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to resume peace talks with Israel only after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry gave him a letter guaranteeing that the basis of the negotiations will be Israel’s pre-1967 borders. In the letters, the U.S. made clear to Israel that the U.S. position is that the future borders will not be identical to the 1967 lines but include changes in accordance to the reality on the ground. In addition, the letter to Israel included an American declaration stating Israel is a Jewish state and that the U.S. position is that the Palestinian refugees should return to the future Palestinian state. The full content of the letters are classified and will not be revealed to the public.

However, a top Palestinian negotiator revealed parts of Kerry’s proposed outline for a Palestinian state as presented orally to Israel and the PA. Regarding Jerusalem, Kerry’s plan is to rehash what is known as the Clinton parameters. That formula, pushed by President Bill Clinton during the Camp David talks in 2000, called for Jewish areas of Jerusalem to remain Israeli while the Palestinians would get sovereignty over neighborhoods that are largely Arab. Most Arab sections are located in eastern Jerusalem. For the strategic Jordan Valley, Obama’s proposal calls for international forces to maintain security control along with unarmed Palestinian police forces, the PA negotiator said. Israel will retain security posts in some strategic areas of the Jordan Valley. When it comes to the West Bank, Kerry’s plan is that Israel is expected to evacuate about 90 percent of its Jewish communities currently located in the territory. Israel would retain strategic security posts along with the West Bank’s main blocs, Maale Adumin, Ariel and Gush Etzion. In return, Obama is calling for an exchange of territory with the Palestinians in other locations inside Israel, with discussion being open for the Palestinians to possibly receive land in the Israeli Negev in the country’s south.

Furthermore, U.S. President Barack Obama promised Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, to take action “in the coming months” regarding the Iranian nuclear threat, in exchange for Israel’s agreement to renew “peace talks” with the Palestinian Authority (PA), an Israeli security official said. The official said, however, that Obama did not reach a specific agreement with Netanyahu, but gave only a general commitment  In addition, the Obama administration has presented a plan in which the Palestinian Authority and Jordan will receive sovereignty over the Temple Mount while Israel will retain the land below the Western Wall according to a senior PA negotiator. However, Israel has not agreed to the U.S. plan over the Temple Mount, with details still open for discussion, stated the PA negotiator. Finally, in a further enticement to the Palestinians, US President Obama ordered another waiver of congressional restrictions on direct funding of the Palestinian Authority due to the “national security interests” of the U.S. As a result, the Palestinians will receive $148 million for the purpose of “helping the PA maintain and build the foundations of a viable, peaceful Palestinian state.”

The Israel / Palestinian negotiating teams initiated talks over the traditional Muslim Iftar dinner which breaks the month long fast of Ramadan. The event was hosted at the US State Department building by US Secretary of State, John Kerry. The kick-off meeting was primarily intended to agree on a framework and schedule for future talks. The next meeting is scheduled to be held in Jerusalem’s King David Hotel on August 14. Following that will be a meeting in Jericho. Both sides have set a goal of nine-months to complete final status negotiations. However, this is not a deadline. Regarding the nine-month period of negotiations, Israel’s Justice Minister and chief negotiator Tzipi Livni said: “All the relevant sides have a vested interest in an agreement. If [the talks] are serious and we’re at the eighth month and we find that we need more time, then of course we will carry on talking. If after a month, we see it’s not serious, then why carry on talking for the next eight?”, she said.

US Secretary of State John Kerry Kerry said both sides agreed that the only solution to the conflict is the implementation of a two-state solution based upon the principles of peace, security and mutual recognition. Kerry said that all final status issues will be on the table for the talks including – the borders of the Palestinian state, security arrangements required by Israel, refugees, settlements and water. He reiterated the need for both sides to make “reasonable compromises” to achieve a peace agreement. However, a senior State Department official said that neither the Palestinian nor Israeli sides had agreed to President Obama’s basic formulation from a major speech in 2011, when he announced that the basis for negotiations should be Israel’s de facto border before 1967—with land swaps. “It would not be safe to say the parties have accepted that position,” the senior official said. In any event, Kerry used the initial meeting to put hard questions before the Israeli and Palestinian leaders while pushing for answers on borders, security, the Jordan Rift Valley and Jerusalem. They included the following:

1) Would Israel adopt the security arrangements-versus-borders formula conceded by his predecessor Ehud Olmert to President Obama and Abbas in early 2009, in which he offered to cede around 94.6 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians? Although the Palestinians never accepted the offer, they are now trying to make it the starting-point of the current round of talks. If Netanyahu rejected this, Kerry asked what alternative he had in mind in terms of territory he is prepared to cede on the West Bank – bearing in mind that Jewish settlements stand on app. 9.8 percent of the West Bank (not counting Jerusalem). In this way, the US Secretary quietly launched final-status negotiations on future borders

2) Kerry also asked Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu what he believes should be the scope and depth of Israel’s proposed withdrawal when he insisted that Israel must retain a security presence on the Jordan Rift Valley which marks part of Israel’s eastern border. Kerry wanted to know if Jewish communities would be removed and whether only a military presence would be left in their place. This question jumped the process fast forward to the interrelations between security measures and the final borders between the Israeli and Palestinian states.

3) A question Kerry asked of both Netanyahu and Abbas related to the deployment of an international force as a buffer between the Palestinians and the Israel Defense Forces. Netanyahu was open to discussing this plan. Abbas gave his answer when he visited Cairo, Egypt saying that “not a single Israeli must remain in the Palestinian state, whether soldier or civilian.” He indicated that he would not object to an international force on the lines of UNIFIL in Lebanon or the Multinational Force in Sinai or even NATO units.

4) Abbas asked Kerry to put forward ideas on the final status of Jerusalem and the shape of the Palestinian state’s borders.

Of special importance regarding the talks is that Kerry said that they were be kept private and that he is the only one authorized to make any public comments to the press on the status and outcome of each round of talks.

In order to help to jump start talks, Israel has agreed to release 104 Palestinian prisoners held prior to the 1993 Oslo Accords for murder of Israelis. They will be released in four stages. The first 26 prisoners will be released on August 13. The Palestinian Authority slammed remarks by an Israeli minister who said these Palestinian prisoners are “terrorists.” “Terrorists are those who occupy the lands of another people and displace them by force and settle in their place. Palestinian prisoners are strugglers for their freedom and not terrorists,” the PA Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

In the event of a peace agreement, the Israeli cabinet approved the draft of a bill mandating a national referendum if a peace agreement with the Palestinians is reached that necessitates withdrawals from part of Jerusalem or land swaps. The bill, which is to be a basic law, will essentially say that any change in the status of territories where Israeli law applies will have to be brought before the country in the form of a referendum after the move passes the government and the Knesset. The bill has passed its first reading. The coalition does not plan vote on the second and third  (final) before the summer recess. As a result, the national referendum cannot become law until at least October.

Regarding the Palestinian position for the talks, Mahmood Abbas said that no Israeli settlers or border forces could remain in a future Palestinian state and that Palestinians deem illegal all Jewish settlement building within the land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. “In a final solution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli – civilian or soldier – on our lands,” Abbas said in Egypt. Abbas said he stood by understandings he said he reached with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that NATO forces could deploy there “as a security guarantee to us and them.” “An international, multinational presence like in Sinai, Lebanon and Syria – we are with that,” he said, referring to United Nations peacekeeping operations in those places. On the future of Jewish settlements on the West Bank and the status of Jerusalem – among the most contentious issues facing the two sides – Abbas gave no sign of any softening of his stance. “We’ve already made all the necessary concessions,” he said. “East Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Palestine … if there were and must be some kind of small exchange (of land) equal in size and value, we are ready to discuss this – no more, no less,” he said. Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash stated that the political peace process is just a means of a greater plan to defeat Israel. In a sermon delivered in the presence of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and broadcast on official Palestinian Authority TV, Al-Habbash compared the US-driven peace negotiations to the Hudaybiyyah Peace Treaty concluded between Islam’s prophet Mohammed and the Quraish tribe of Mecca. Peace talks with Israel at this time are “the right path, which leads to achievement, exactly like the Prophet [Mohammed] did in the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah,” Al-Habbash stated. Two years after signing the treaty, Mohammed’s forces had gained enough strength and he launched the brutal conquest of Mecca. “This is the example and this is the model” that the Palestinian leadership is following, Al-Habbash acknowledged. All Palestinian factions belonging to the PLO with the exception of Fatah, the sect of Mahmood Abbas, reject peace talks with Israel. One of the factions, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said that talks’ resumption was a unilateral move by Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas which did not have the backing of the PLO as a whole. “The PFLP is against a return to negotiations,” said one of the party’s leaders, Khaleda Jarar. A Palestinian oversight committee is meant to advise the Palestinian negotiating team throughout the talks with Israel and will likely include Abbas’s close circle of officials and negotiators. “[The committee] will be a formality, because it will only representing those conducting the negotiations,” a Palestinian official said.

Israel’s deputy foreign minister Zeev Elkin said that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was prepared to give 86% of the West Bank to the Palestinians in any peace agreement. However, Elkin said that Netanyahu would not agree to divide Jerusalem. However, he said that Israel chief negotiator Tzipi Livni would agree to divide Jerusalem.

Former US Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk has been appointed as US envoy for Mideast peace and the top American negotiator for Israel / Palestinian peace talks. He promised that he would work “to achieve President Obama’s vision of two states living side by side in peace and security.” He will be in Israel for the next round of peace talks scheduled for August 14.

A dramatic new directive was published by the European Union which prevents its 28 members from all cooperation with Israeli entities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The directive extends to “all funding, cooperation, and the granting of scholarships, research grants and prizes” to Israeli entities in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. It also requires that any contracts between EU member countries and Israel henceforth include a clause stating that East Jerusalem and the West Bank are not part of the State of Israel. This new directive, was initiated in December by the EU foreign ministers, is “in conformity with the EU’s longstanding position that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law and with the non-recognition by the EU of Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied territories, irrespective of their legal status under domestic Israeli law,” the EU said in a statement. At the meeting, the EU foreign ministers document stated that “all agreements between the State of Israel and the EU must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, namely the Golan Heights, the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.”

Israel Prime Minister rejects the EU directive and says that hit harms the peace process. “It hardens the Palestinian positions, it causes Israelis to loose confidence in the impartiality of Europe,” he said. “I think for years the Europeans have been whining about the fact that the Americans are not involved enough, now that they are involved this action actually undermines the American effort. It undermines the negotiations.” Furthermore, Netanyahu said: “Israel will not accept any foreign dictates about our borders. This matter will only be determined through direct negotiation between the [two] sides” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he stated.

In response, Andreas Reinicke, the European Union special envoy for the Middle East peace process, reaffirmed the position of the EU Foreign Ministers saying: “The fact that any agreement between the EU and Israeli recipients must state their inapplicability to territories outside the 1967 lines by no means preempts the outcome of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. Prime Minister Netanyahu is correct when he says that the borders between Israel and Palestine will not be imposed from outside but that they will determined by both parties,” Reinicke said. “That’s also our position. If there will be an agreement, our definition of Israel’s territory will change. Until that moment — and that is not only the position of the EU but that of the entire international community except Israel – [Israeli sovereignty of territories beyond the 1967 lines] is not recognized.”“The guidelines will take effect as they are. This is how they were published [in the EU’s Official Journal], as a legal act, and that’s how it will be. In certain areas where the guidelines are still unclear, “a closer look” at the details might be have to be taken, he said but their main points will not be changed and will take effect by January 2014 as planned.

Israel Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon instructed troops to halt cooperation with EU representatives in the West Bank and Gaza. In the wake of the new EU guidelines, the Israeli government has also decided that Israel will not sign additional agreements with the European Uniont and will not participate in a multibillion-dollar scientific cooperation program under EU auspices called Horizon 2020.

A senior Palestinian negotiator said that the Obama administration was working behind the scenes in tandem with the European Union’s boycott of Israeli settlements and that these EU guidelines were published in full coordination with Secretary of State John Kerry. “Without the U.S. support, the EU wouldn’t have taken such measures,” the negotiator said. The negotiator further claimed that if Israel does not collaborate with the current round of Palestinian talks being brokered by Kerry, the EU financial sanctions could become tougher. The threat has been communicated to Israeli officials, according to the Palestinian negotiator. Possible further boycotts being considered, the negotiator stated, include an official statement from EU that settlements are illegal; a full financial boycott; and sanctions on all trade, universities and Jewish entities in the settlements. Another possibility is an EU dictate requiring special visas for settlers. On the other hand, if Israel goes along with Kerry’s peace plan, the EU will reconsider its current and future settlement boycott, the Palestinian negotiator stated.

The Council of Jewish Communities in the West Bank  and the Gaza Strip said that the Israeli government should ban European Union funded projects in Area C of the West Bank (this is area under Israel control) until it rescinds its ban on providing funding and grants to Israeli projects over the pre-1967 lines. “All European projects [for Palestinians] in Judea and Samaria [Wet Bank] should be stopped until this unilateral decision is rescinded,” the council said.

Meanwhile, a US federal appeals court invalidated a law that was designed to allow American citizens born in Jerusalem to list Israel on their passports as their birthplace. While Israel calls Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital, few other countries accept that status. Most, including the US, have their embassies to Israel in Tel Aviv.
While continuing peace talks with the Palestinians, Israel has given preliminary approval for the construction of more than 800 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank land. US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that the US has taken up the issue with the Israelis. Furthermore, she said that “The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity and opposes any efforts to legitimize settlement outposts.”

Finally, the leadership within Samaria in the West Bank area of Samaria has established its own Foreign Ministry Department. Over the past months, Samarian leaders Gershon Mesika and Yossi Dagan have led a number of diplomatic delegations meeting with European officials in Brussels, Berlin, Stockholm, London and Paris. For the first time ever, leaders in those countries have had opportunities to hear directly from the leaders of the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria (aka “the West Bank settlements”) and learn their side of the story that has drawn so much extended attention in the international political arena.

An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Kerry: Israel, Palestinians agree to hold sustained talks on all issues
2) Israelis, Palestinians agree to 9-month timeline for negotiations
3) Palestinian prisoner release passes cabinet by wide 13-7 margin
4) First 26 pre-Oslo prisoners to go free on August 13, PA says
5) PA ministry: Palestinian prisoners are not terrorists
6) Israeli-Palestinian peace talks kick off with Iftar dinner at State Department
7) Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks: Neither Side Has Yet Agreed to Much
8.) Kerry in secret final-status talks with Netanyahu and Abbas on borders, security, Jerusalem, Jordan Valley
9) Palestinians: U.S. says 1967 lines basis for talks
10) U.S. gave Israel, Palestinians letters of assurance in order to renew talks
11) Obama Made Secret Promises to Israel, Palestinians Over Peace Talks
12) Obama: Action on Iran in Return for Peace Talks
13) ‘Secret Obama plan’ forfeits Temple Mount to Palestinians
14) Obama again waives ban on Palestinian aid
15) Palestinian president wants no Israeli in future state
16) Abbas pledges: There will be no Israelis in Palestine
17) PA minister: New peace talks will help us conquer Israel later
18) Palestinian party rejects Mideast peace talks
19) PM would give up 86% of West Bank, says deputy FM
20) Martin Indyk is new US envoy for Israeli-Palestinian talks
21) US peace envoy to come to Israel next week
22) New EU directive bars all dealings with Israeli-held areas over the pre-1967 lines
23) ‘We will not accept any external dictats regarding our borders’
24) Netanyahu lashes out at EU, rejects ‘foreign dictates about borders’
25) EU, Israel headed for showdown over settlement rules
26) PM: Israel will not sign additional agreements with EU
27) Kerry ‘using Europeans to blackmail Israel’
28) Obama ‘pushed boycott of Jerusalem, biblical territories’
29) US court: No ‘Israel’ on passports of American citizens born in Jerusalem
30) Settler leaders: Israel should ban EU projects in Area C
31) Israel gives preliminary approval for 800 new settler homes
32) US says peace talks to resume Aug. 14, settlement activity ‘unacceptable’
33) Samaria Establishes Its Own Foreign Ministry

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

You may view the 5 minute update this week via audio:

1) Listen to the audio

In this week’s 5 minute update, we focused on:

1) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process

US Secretary of State John Kerry plans to return to the Middle East in the coming week in an effort to restart direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Kerry is working to try to resolve several areas of disagreement between Israel and the Palestinians. These include defining the borders of a Palestinian state, the release of Palestinian prisoners and the Palestinian demand that Israel stop building Jewish homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel is only willing to freeze building Jewish homes outside the main settlement blocs. The Palestinians want all 123 prisoners incarcerated since the 1993 Oslo Accords to be released. Israel is only willing to release 60 in three stages. The Palestinians want Israel to agree that the peace talks will be based upon the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel believes that these borders are indefensible and defining them before talks begin will weaken their negotiating position. As a result, Kerry is trying to get both sides to agree to a memorandum of understanding which will guide the talks. Western diplomats are suggesting that these plans are being influenced by a Middle East policy document put out by the James Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in March. James Baker was a former Secretary of State under George Bush the father. Once the talks are initiated, they would last six to nine months.

The Baker policy paper is entitled, “Re-engaging the Israelis and the Palestinians: Why an American Role in Initiating Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations is Necessary and How It Can Be Accomplished.”

We will now detail some of the highlights of the suggestions of the Baker document. It is guided by the following principles.

1) Resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through meaningful, direct negotiations will require substantial U.S. engagement.

2) Any successful American approach must clearly define a political horizon with Terms of Reference for an acceptable end state for both parties.

3) The mechanism for conflict resolution necessitates a dual approach of “fast” and “graduated” negotiating tracks in which areas of sufficient agreement can be negotiated and implemented to facilitate agreement on longer-term issues.

4) Regional and international support is essential for both parties and for the U.S. to resolve the conflict through an agreed upon monitoring and oversight structure.

Fundamental Concepts for Successful U.S. Engagement consists of the following:

1) Clarify U.S. Terms of Reference (TOR) for negotiations toward an end state

2) Adopt the principle “what has been agreed upon shall be implemented” based on understandings between the parties, and with guarantees from the international community, that all measures implemented shall be without prejudice to remaining issues and subject to the TOR and rules of engagement of the negotiating process. The essence of this principle is to transform the economic, social, and security environment on the ground while working concurrently to achieve breakthroughs on permanent status issues; and

3) Maximize regional and international support, building the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 into a new international framework, and attempt to engage Hamas in accordance with the accepted framework for negotiations led by the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Five U.S.-Led Actions Toward a Peaceful Two-State Solution

1) Announce American TOR for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, including principles for the end state and modalities to support the negotiations;

2) Conclude parallel U.S.-Israeli and U.S.-Palestinian Memoranda of Understanding (MOU);

3) Define and broker negotiations along a “fast” and a “graduated” negotiating track

4) Engage regional and international support through a new international group expanded from the Quartet (the United Nations, United States, EuropeanUnion and Russia)

5) Facilitate a monitoring and oversight structure for negotiations.

U.S. engagement should aim to achieve a comprehensive Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement as a first step toward achieving a broader Arab-Israeli peace, while reshaping realities on the ground. The parameters of the end state should be broad enough to allow buy-in from both parties and regional stakeholders, while at the same time be sufficiently defined to ensure breakthroughs and avoid a deadlock in negotiations. They should also be linked to the Arab Peace Initiative. The objective of the fast-track negotiations in particular is to create positive developments on the ground and to lead to a more sustainable path at the negotiating table.

Territory, Borders, and Settlements:

1) As a result of mutual trust building, reach agreement that the quantity of territory included in the West Bank, Gaza, and Dead Sea territorial waters as defined by the 1967 lines will equal the amount of territory of the Palestinian state following land swaps with Israel equal in size and value.

2) Identify and transfer territory in locations that both sides agree will be included within Palestinian borders.

3) Identify territory that both sides agree will be included within Israeli borders, and prevent settlement expansion into territory that could be included in Palestinian territory as part of a final agreement. At the same time, Israeli officials should present in the graduated negotiating track a proposal to transfer territory that is equal in size and value to the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Security

1) Expand Palestinian internal security capacities, particularly by constructing police stations, upgrading equipment, and developing the justice system.

2) Assure Israeli security issues through an initial U.S.-Israel MOU.

Refugees

1) Integrate the Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank into the existing system of municipalities and local councils. The PA should also work with Israel to identify refugee groups living in particularly hazardous conditions in their present areas of residence, such as in Lebanon, and facilitate their relocation to the West Bank based on special needs or humanitarian considerations.

Jerusalem

1) Agree to realize two capitals for two states in Jerusalem on the basis of the 1967 border, while recognizing the principle that Jewish neighborhoods will become part of Israel and Palestinian neighborhoods will become part of Palestine.

2) Form joint planning teams to prepare a Ten-Year Development Plan for the greater Jerusalem metropolitan area, emphasizing undisturbed access to and from the city and improving water supply, electricity, sewage, and drainage systems, as well as solid waste facilities and other key infrastructure.

3) Reopen Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem and halt Palestinian house demolition and displacement, reintegrate East Jerusalem with the West Bank, and allow for Palestinian development in the city and the establishment of a Palestinian municipality.

4) Establish a committee for the coordinated management of the city, with particular attention to its holy sites.

Prisoners

1) In support of the peace process, release Palestinian and Arab prisoners.

Defining the Core Concept for Potential U.S. Engagement

To make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian front, President Obama and his incoming foreign policy team will have to demonstrate a strong and sustained personal commitment to the issue at an early stage. President Obama will need to develop and maintain personal understandings with Prime Minister Netanyahu and with President Abbas, and his periodic input helping to define agreed aims for the next stage of negotiations will be necessary. Based on understandings reached, President Obama may from time to time have to mobilize the support of key international leaders. Secretary of State John Kerry will need to establish a strong Middle East team to plan, oversee, and implement a comprehensive strategy for the entire region. On the Israeli- Palestinian issue, it is important that a U.S. negotiations support team work closely together with national security and development agencies in order to combine “top- down” and “bottom-up” work in support of reaching a sustainable two-state solution. The Pentagon, NATO Central Command, the CIA, and other intelligence organizations will have to adopt a hands-on approach to create the necessary deterrence against militant state and nonstate actors in the Middle East and work with all concerned parties to prevent arms smuggling, terrorist action, and the proliferation of weapons, combining this work with an ongoing action to strengthen the already prevailing regional security coordination.

Renewed U.S. Leadership

The following three strategies attempt to recognize and balance the difficulty of restarting negotiations, with clear indicators by the U.S. that the current status quo is unacceptable to American national security interests and the U.S. vision of the end state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

1) Clarify the Terms of Reference for negotiations : Both parties and the international community need a unified understanding of the end state that negotiations will be working toward. The U.S. should define and proceed to help broker its own vision for a Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel.

2) Adopt the principle “what has been agreed upon shall be implemented” : While working toward a common conception of the end state, a focus on implementation in issue areas with sufficient agreement opens the way to substantial Palestinian state-building efforts that transform realities on the ground, sustain the two-state solution, and improve prospects for conflict resolution. Agreement on permanent status issues, or elements thereof, should be implemented through coordinated measures based on an understanding between the parties, guaranteed by the international group, and without prejudice to remaining issues. A comprehensive Palestinian- Israeli peace agreement can only be reached when all permanents status issues have been settled.

3) Maximize regional and international support : On the diplomatic front, Washington will have to work together with Arab Gulf states, the EU, and Israel to provide fiscal support and border security to Jordan; and with Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Qatar, and Turkey in order to stabilize the situation in Gaza and prevent arms smuggling. All concerned parties, including the UN and other international bodies, should provide for economic growth and private investment, as well as convene an international conference following the ground rules laid out at the Madrid Conference of October 1991.

Defining U.S.-Announced Terms of Reference

Drawing on past experience, any restart of peace negotiations should be based on clear Terms of Reference and end-game parameters creating a political horizon and framework for effective negotiations to reach a comprehensive Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement, which is a necessary first step toward achieving a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace agreement. The Terms of Reference for Israeli-Palestinian permanent status negotiations (PSN) should include the principles of international law, relevant UN resolutions, the principles of the Madrid Peace Conference and the Arab Peace Initiative, and should refer to progress achieved in previous negotiations. Based on these Terms of Reference, the parameters for the end game should be laid out on borders (including territorial aspects of Jerusalem and settlements), Jerusalem, refugees, security, water, and state-to-state relations.

The parameters for an end game should be broad enough to allow buy-in from both parties and regional stakeholders, and at the same time be sufficiently defined to ensure a breakthrough and avoid a deadlock in negotiations. Based on the Arab Peace Initiative and progress made in previous negotiations, the following parameters should be adopted:

1) The U.S. government, after a short dialogue with the parties, should announce American Terms of Reference (TOR) for negotiations. The American terms would not oblige either side to endorse the TOR, but would call for both parties to gravitate toward the principles laid out by Washington. This first action would signal strong U.S. engagement in the issue while moving Israelis and Palestinians to start planning for direct negotiations under the broad U.S. TOR.

2) During earlier negotiations under Prime Ministers Ehud Olmert and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli side proposed that the essence of a two-state solution clearly implies that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, and Palestine the nation-state of the Palestinian people.

Terms of Reference

The U.S. TOR will define America’s approach to the negotiations and its envisaged outcome, without obliging either side to fully endorse all provisions; yet it will call upon both sides to start negotiations under the framework of the guidelines laid out by the U.S. TOR. The key understandings to be clarified in the U.S. TOR are below:

1) Goals of the end state: The resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will enable the State of Israel, realizing the Jewish people’s right to self-determination, and the State of Palestine, realizing the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, to live side by side in good neighborly relations, in peace and security.

2) Regional outcome: Progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process will be an integral part in the promotion of a wider, comprehensive peace between Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and all Arab and Islamic nations, as laid out in the Saudi Peace Initiative of 2002.

3) International framework: Past UN resolutions, including the recent UNGA vote on Palestine’s nonmember observer state status, should inform the negotiations.

4) Territory and settlements: Negotiations on territory and on the final recognized and secure border between Israel and Palestine will be based on the June 4, 1967, cease-fire line and agreed-upon swaps on a one-to-one basis. Israeli settlers will be evacuated from Palestinian territory within the agreed borders.

5) Refugees: A comprehensive resolution of the Palestinian refugee problem will be negotiated and agreed upon by the parties in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative and the goals of the end state as defined above.

6) Jerusalem: Jerusalem will be the capital of two states on the basis of the 1967 borders, while recognizing the principle that Jewish neighborhoods should become part of Israel, and Palestinian neighborhoods should become part of Palestine, within the framework of land swaps of equal size and value. Full access to holy sites for religious exercise will be granted to all religions on the basis of an agreed special regime.

7) Security: There shall be complete Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territory, a Palestinian state with limited arms, and a multinational force presence, with the creation of regional security arrangements in line with the obligations referred to in the Israeli-Egyptian and Israeli-Jordanian Treaties of Peace.

8) Resources: The resolution of the conflict will include an equitable and reasonable allocation of all shared resources.

9) State-to-state relations: Relations shall be based on the principle of equal sovereignty of states, creating the supportive conditions for good neighborly relations between the two states.

Modalities Supporting the TOR

1) Negotiations will be pursued on two tracks: a fast and a graduated track. The U.S. will propose to both sides a negotiating plan for every six months. At the end of six-month negotiation periods, the parties will conclude implementation agreements on the basis of the principle “what has been agreed upon will be implemented.”

2) International support: Regional powers, particularly Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, and Turkey, will be asked to support the Palestinian state-building effort and to promote, together with Israel, regional security; and in accordance with the U.S., the other Quartet powers, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, and Turkey will form an international group to oversee and support the ongoing negotiation process

3) In accordance with the parties, a monitoring and oversight structure for the negotiation and implementation of agreements will be established.

An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Kerry’s peace plan includes ‘settlement freeze outside major blocs’
2) The Baker Paper: Kerry’s guide to Mideast peacemaking
3) Baker Public Policy Paper: Engaging The Israelis and The Palestinians: Why An American Role In Initiating Israeli-Palestinian
Negotiatians Is Necessary And How It Can Be Accomplished
4) PA negotiator: US efforts alone won’t bring peace

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

You may view the 5 minute update this week via audio:

1) Listen to the audio

In this week’s 5 minute update, we focused on:

1) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process
2) Are the events in Egypt fulfilling prophecy ?

According to Palestinian officials, US Secretary of State John Kerry is close to reaching an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians to relaunch direct peace talks. Kerry has suggested a compromise proposal to resume talks in which Israel would freeze settlement construction outside of the major Jewish settlement “blocs” that Israel expects to keep in any final status agreement.  While Israel would not explicitly commit to returning to its 1967 borders, negotiations would be based on a May 2011 policy speech by President Barack Obama where he called for a Palestinian state based upon 1967 borders with mutually agreed “land swaps” and the Palestinians would recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. Kerry’s plan also calls on Israel to release about 100 of the longest-held Palestinian prisoners in its jails in several stages, and envisions a $4 billion international investment plan, conducted in various stages, to develop the struggling Palestinian economy. Once talks begin, they would last six to nine months an an agreement would be made on all outstanding matters, including final borders, the fate of Palestinian refugees and resolving the competing claims to east Jerusalem. However, Palestinian president Mahmood Abbas has not yet accepted the proposal.

In any event, Palestinian officials blamed Israeli “intransigence” for the failure of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s effort to revive peace talks when he was in the region from June 27 – 29 as the Palestinians are still demanding that Israel completely halt building Jewish homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the release of Palestinian prisoners held since the 1993 Oslo accords and that Israel recognize a Palestinian state based upon 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. As a result, one Palestinian official said that “the gap between the Israeli and Palestinian position remains as wide as ever because the US position is closer to the Israeli position who which wants to restart talks without preconditions.”

Meanwhile, at the end of an EU foreign ministers’ meeting on June 24, Britain and France wanted the EU to issue a tough statement condemning the building of Jewish homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and place the blame for the failure to restart peace talks with Israel. However, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told EU Foreign Secretary Catherine Ashton that such an announcement on the eve of Kerry’s visit to the Middle East would hurt efforts to restart peace talks. In the end, Ashton agreed to not make any announcement as the EU is still willing to give the United States an opportunity to try to convince Israel and the Palestinians to restart direct peace talks.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has been removed from power by the Egyptian army following major demonstrations against the rule of his Muslim Brotherhood government. Supporters of Morsi are also demonstrating for him showing their support. Are we witnessing the fulfillment of a prophecy from Isaiah 19 that in “the Day of the Lord”:

Isaiah 19:2 And I will set the Egyptians against the
Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and
every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom
against kingdom.

Finally, some Palestinian officials called upon Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to rise up against Hamas to topple their government. Hamas is a sect of the Muslim Brotherhood.  Said one Palestinian official: “Now it’s Gaza’s turn to get rid of the Muslim Brotherhood branch. The dark era of political Islam [meaning the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood to establish an Islamic caliphate] has ended.” However, there are no signs that this is on the verge of happening.

An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Palestinians say restart of peace talks close
2) Erekat: Settlement construction in the way of breakthrough on peace talks
3) EU Loses Patience With Israel
4) Fatah calls on Palestinians to overthrow Hamas in wake of Morsi’s fall

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

You may view the 5 minute update this week via audio:

1) Listen to the audio

In this week’s 5 minute update, we focused on:

1) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process

US Secretary of State John Kerry is in the Middle East from June 27 – 29 meeting with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Presiden Mahmood Abbas with the goal to convene direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. This is Kerry’s 5th visit to the Middle East since he became US Secretary of State. Kerry’s short-term goal is to restart peace talks without preconditions. In doing so, Kerry would like for both Israel and the Palestinians to agree to “confidence building measures” in renewing peace talks. An eventual peace agreement would establish separate areas of jurisdiction in Jerusalem, probably with international administration; resolve claims of Palestinian families that left homes in what is now Israel when the Jewish state was founded; and provide new security assurances to Israel. The Palestinians want a state based upon 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. Kerry said that he did not want to set any deadlines to restart peace talks but that there needed to be progress made before the UN General Assembly meets in September. Senior U.S. administration officials have said that the Obama administration have given until the end of September to renew negotiations between the sides.

According to Palestinian officials, although Kerry is not expected to present an “American plan” for peace, Kerry has been at work on something very close to that. President Abbas has made clear to Kerry in the past several weeks that he intends to give him more time to try and renew negotiations between the sides. Abbas has set a target date of September which is the 20th anniversary of the Oslo Accords will be marked and when the Palestinians are likely to try to renew taking unilateral steps at the United Nations. The Palestinians want Kerry to “define the end game first,” by establishing clear U.S. principles for a possible peace agreement at the beginning of peace talks and then settle borders quickly. That would require a strong U.S. hand in setting the terms for negotiations and keeping both sides at the table.

In any peace agreement, Israel wants the Palestinians to recognize it as a Jewish state. However so far, the Palestinians have failed to do so. In fact, Abbas has declared that he shares Hamas’ position to refuse to meet with Jews. Not just Israelis… Jews. This is what you are likely to hear these days if you request a meeting with any senior Palestinian Authority official in the West Bank. Palestinian journalists who try to arrange meetings or interviews with Palestinian Authority representatives for Western colleagues have become used to hearing such things almost on a daily basis. Last week, a journalist who requested a meeting between Western journalists and a top Palestinian Authority official was told “to make sure there were no Jews or Israelis” among the visitors. The official’s aide went on to explain: “We are sorry, but we do not meet with Jews or Israelis.” Another Palestinian journalist who tried to arrange an interview with a Palestinian Authority official for a European colleague was turned down “because the man’s name indicates he is a Jew.”

Regarding Kerry’s effort to visit to the Middle East to restart peace talks, the Palestinians reiterated their demand that Israel freeze building Jewish homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and that Israel release Palestinian prisoners who have committed crimes. Furthermore, he said that negotiations must be based upon establishing a Palestinian state based upon 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. If Israel refuses to accept these conditions, the Palestinians are willing to take unilateral steps at the United Nations this fall to possibly become members of the UN International Criminal Court. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said, “The Palestinians will be joining all organizations in the United Nations,” he said. “Those who worry about the Palestinians joining the international criminal court must stop committing crimes.” Furthermore, Erakat said, “The Palestinians are willing to return to the negotiating table but before they do, they must know if Israel is willing to agree to a Palestinian state based upon 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. The Palestinians don’t want Israel to lecture us. I do not want anyone to stand up and say I cannot negotiate ’67, I cannot negotiate Jerusalem, I cannot negotiate refugees, I cannot negotiate anything, and then after 30 minutes of conditioning the negotiations say, we know what is best for you.” Israel, Erekat said, wants to dictate terms, such as there must be settlement blocs, but it does not want to negotiate.

Meanwhile, senior officials in the political party of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud, said that Netanyahu is prepared to give up as much as 90% of the West Bank in a peace agreement with the Palestinians. If Netanyahu is satisfied that Israel’s security needs are met then nearly all of the West Bank except for the large Jewish “settlement blocs” would be given to the Palestinians. “Isolated” settlement communities would be demolished with residents forced to resettle elsewhere. In any event, members of the Jewish home political party who are currently members of Netanyahu’s government have said that they will leave the government if it became clear that a major withdrawal from the West Bank was on the horizon. Former Israel foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said that the Palestinians are not interested in reaching a peace agreement with Israel. Abbas may be willing to start negotiations with Israel but this would be a ploy to cover up his real plan which is to make another unilateral move at the United Nations this September. Lieberman predicted that Abbas would again make accusations against Israel and claim that it does not want peace, give another speech full of hatred against Israel as he does every year at the General Assembly, ask to join various UN agencies and apply for full membership at the UN. A senior Palestinian official confirmed on Monday that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was willing to drop some of his preconditions and instead might want Israel to take symbolic moves that would demonstrate its seriousness. The official said Abbas would be willing to enter direct peace talks with Israel for a limited duration if Israel agreed to carry out several goodwill gestures. A senior Israeli official played down the significance of Abbas’ possible new approach, saying, “It is hard to know whether Abbas is serious this time, but if so, this is a welcome development that the prime minister considers long overdue,” he said. “If Abbas renews talks only to call them off several weeks later, then blames Israel for torpedoing the talks and asks the U.N. to recognize the 1967 borders, this would surprise no one.”

Finally, at the closing session of the World Economic Forum in Jordan on May 26, Kerry presented a “groundbreaking” $4 billion package of private investment in the Palestinian economy. Coordinated by the office of Tony Blair, Quartet envoy to the Middle East, the investment package seeks to boost the Palestinian GDP by 50 percent within three years and cut unemployment from its current rate of 21-22% to just 8% in a similar time frame. The money is targeted to go to eight sectors of the Palestinian economy that are in dire need of financial assistance: construction and housing, building materials, light manufacturing, IT and communications, agriculture, energy, water, and tourism. However, a Western diplomatic official said that this $4 billion foreign investment package plan will not be implemented unless there is progress in reaching a peace agreement. Said the Western diplomat, “This package is not intended as a substitute for the political process. It will be launched either in parallel or after the political track is resumed as judged by John Kerry.”

If Israel does make a peace agreement with the Palestinians, Likud cabinet member Silvan Shalom said that Likud would face a major crisis warning that it could cause a split within the party.

An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) For Kerry, little new traction as yet another visit to Israel awaits
2) On eve of Mideast visit, Kerry sets new target date for Israeli-Palestinian progress
3) Kerry says he doesn’t want deadlines for peace process
4) Israel’s Palestinian Peace Partners Now Refusing to Meet with Jews
5) Report: Netanyahu Ready to Give Up 90% of Judea and Samaria
6) Lieberman: Abbas Only Wants to Go to the UN
7) Israel concerned Abbas will meet Netanyahu, then torpedo talks
8) Abbas douses expectations for resumption of talks
9.) Abbas: We will only negotiate based on 1967 lines
10) ‘$4b. for Palestinians contingent on peace progress’
11) Likud minister Shalom warns: Peace moves could split party

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

You may view the 5 minute update this week via audio:

1) Listen to the audio

In this week’s 5 minute update, we focused on:

1) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process
2) The current status of the situation with Syria and Iran

US Secretary of State John Kerry will return to the Middle East June 27 – 29 to hold meetings with Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian officials in order to try to restart direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. In doing so, Kerry will try to coordinate a meeting between Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. At this point in the process, Kerry is trying to get both sides to take trust-building steps in order to move the peace process forward. Kerry’s goal is that he would like to find a solution where both Israel and the Palestinians could achieve political gains that would not be viewed as giving into the other sides demands which would allow the resumption of peace talks. Kerry would like Israel to release Palestinian prisoners and freeze the construction of new Jewish homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In return, Kerry would like to convince the Palestinians to renew direct peace talks. The Obama administration has given Kerry until September to achieve a breakthrough in negotiations. Kerry is expected to present an outline for a peace agreement by that time.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the willingness of the Palestinian Authority to restart peace talks with Israel hinges on Israel’s commitment to halt settlement construction, its acceptance of the two-state solution which established a Palestinian state based upon 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital and release of Palestinian prisoners. The Palestinian Fatah leadership warned the United States against exerting pressure on the Palestinian Authority to resume peace talks with Israel unconditionally. It affirmed its firm support for Abbas’s demand for a cessation of settlement construction, the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and Israeli recognition of the two-state solution on the basis of the pre-1967 lines before resuming the peace process. Instead of the US pressuring the Palestinians, the Fatah leaders called on Kerry to exert pressure on Israel to “fulfill its obligations” towards agreements signed with the Palestinians in order to resume a “meaningful” peace process. Palestinian negotiation team member Muhammad Ishtayya criticized the US and the international community for reluctance to exert pressure to get Israel to comply with the Palestinian demands of ending settlement expansion and accepting a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 borders. Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat rejected that the Palestinians demands of Israel are preconditions to restart direct peace talks but instead called them Israel obligations. Furthermore, Erekat stated that the Palestinians would not modify their peace demands in order to participate in US-brokered peace talks. After Kerry presents his views on how to restart peace talks, the Palestinians will then determine if Kerry’s plans will meet the Palestinian demands to restart the peace process. If Kerry’s efforts do not satisfy the Palestinians, they plan to resume their efforts to join various UN organizations.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel seeks to engage in serious negotiations with the Palestinians in order to arrive at a comprehensive final-status agreement. Netanyahu said: “Our fervent hope is for peace, a genuine peace that can be achieved only through direct negotiations without preconditions. We’re ready to enter such negotiations. I hope the Palestinians are, too. Our goal is not just to begin the negotiation process but to persist in the negotiations, to engage in them consistently over a serious period of time in order to try to grapple with all the issues and come to an agreement that resolves the fundamental issues in the conflict.” Such a process “will require time and determination and a systematic approach. This is Israel’s goal and I hope that this is the goal of the Palestinians also. Israel gives US Secretary of State John Kerry all our support in his efforts to restart peace talks. Israel wants him to succeed. However, why have the past six Israeli governments failed in promoting peace? “Ultimately,” Netanyahu said, “it is the willingness of the Palestinians to accept the existence of Israel as a Jewish state that will determine whether there can be a peace agreement. This is the heart of the matter.”

In order to show goodwill in an effort to restart peace talks, Israel is willing to release a limited number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas dropping the return to the ’67 lines as a precondition to resuming peace talks. In addition, Israel Housing Minister Uri Ariel announced their their is an “indefinite” freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem saying, “We confirm a freeze on building behind the pre-1967 borders until further notice in order to avoid a confrontation with the United States.” While Jewish Home (the political party of Housing Minster Uri Ariel) supports the building of Jewish homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, it has no power to go against the orders of Netanyahu. If Ariel violates Netanyahu’s orders, he’ll be fired from being Housing Minister. Netanyahu ordered Ariel to declare a building freeze after US President Barack Obama visited Israel and the Palestinian territories in March.

Within Israel’s political parties, the leader of Jewish Home, Naftali Bennett, said that the idea of establishing a Palestinian state has reached a dead end and should be forsaken. He said, “Never in the history of Israel has so much energy been invested in something so pointless. We need to go from a situation in which we try to convince people that it is a bad idea, to one in which this idea is behind us. There are 400,000 Israeli residents in the West Bank and another 250,000 in eastern Jerusalem,” he noted. “More than 10% of Israel residents now live in the pre-1967 borders. The attempt to establish a Palestinian state inside our land should be over.” Israel needs to keep on “building and building and building” in the Land of Israel, Bennett said. “It is important that there be a Jewish presence everywhere. Our main problem is still the fact that Israel’s leaders are not prepared to say simply, that the Land of Israel belongs to the nation of Israel. We need to tell ourselves and the entire world that this land has been ours for 3,000 years.”

In response, Israel Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said that the diplomatic process with the Palestinians would soon begin. Livni said that her party would not be a fig leaf for a right-wing government but would pursue a serious peace process led by Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu against the view of Bennett. We need a diplomatic process that results in a peace agreement with the Palestinians yet keeps Israel as a democratic Jewish state.

Meanwhile,  former Israel Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said, “There’s no chance of reaching a diplomatic arrangement with the Palestinians at this time.” Furthermore, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said that US Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace initiative has “failed so far” and that the Arab League proposals – which Kerry has praised –  is nothing more than “spin.” Ya’alon dismissed the recent Arab League agreement for “territorial swaps” between Israel and the Palestinians and the Arab initiative as a whole as nothing more than “spin” and a “dictation” to Israel to give up territory before discussing its own demands. Ya’alon said that the Palestinians are clinging to their preconditions for coming to talks – “they want to get something for nothing” – and, in any case, they are unwilling to accept Israel’s two main demands – recognition of its right to exist as a Jewish state and a willingness to declare “end of conflict” after an agreement on borders is reached.

An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Palestinian official: Kerry should propose plan next week
2) Kerry to return to Israel to double down on peace push
3) Kerry to return to region in late June
4) Kerry hasn’t given up
5) Kerry seeks Netanyahu-Abbas meeting
6) Amid rumors of renewed talks, PM says contacts must be meaningful
7) PM: Peace hinges on PA’s willingness to recognize Jewish state
8) Israel announces settlement freeze in West Bank, Jerusalem
9.) Housing Minister: Yes, There Is a Building Freeze
10) Diplomats: Netanyahu ready to release Palestinian prisoners
11) Fatah warns US against exerting pressure on PA to resume talks unconditionally
12) Erekat: Abbas insistent on Israeli retreat to 1967 borders
13) Bennett: Palestinian State? Get Over It
14) Livni swears on peace, despite Bennett’s comments
15) Israel’s Liberman: ‘No Chance’ For Deal With Palestinians
16) Ya’alon: Kerry peace move has failed so far; Arab League initiative is ‘spin’

US President Barack Obama has ordered the US Central Intelligence Agency to provide small, lethal arms to rebel fighters in Syria. British Prime Minister David Cameron also supports providing money and arms to the Syrian opposition. In an effort to hasten the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Cameron encouraged members of Syria’s army and security forces to launch a coup against their leader promising them they would not be prosecuted for atrocities committed against the Syrian people. Cameron is fed up with the G-8’s inability to come to a consensus on the need for an Assad exit to end the Syrian civil war due to Russia’s support of Assad. Meanwhile, the US and  Turkey have intensified political and military dialogue for strategic planning to smoothly deliver U.S. weapons to the Free Syria Army. One of the most likely potential routes for the transportation of this weaponry into Syria is through Turkey, which has a long southern border with Syria. Syria’s northern parts are under the FSA’s control and Turkey has stood as the best logistical center for the Syrian opposition.

NATO and a number of European governments, most significantly the UK, have started airlifting heavy weapons to the Syrian rebels. The first shipments arrived on June 17 in Turkey and Jordan. They contained anti-air and tank missiles. From there, they were transferred to rebel forces in southern Syria and Aleppo in the northwest.  However, a large fleet named “Mol Comfort” carrying Arms for FSA crashed in the Indian Ocean as it made its way from Singapore to Saudi Arabia. On board were 4,500 containers loaded with arms for the Syrian rebels. Saudi Arabia also expressed a desire for the Syrian rebels to receive military aid. Saudi prince Saud al-Faisal said, “Saudi Arabia calls for issuing an unequivocal international resolution to halt the sale of arms to the Syrian regime government. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi said he has cut all diplomatic ties with Syria and called for a no-fly zone over Syria. Addressing a rally called by Sunni Muslim clerics in Cairo, Morsi said: “We decided today to entirely break off relations with Syrian government of Bashar Assad.” The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood called for Sunni Muslim religious organizations to declare a jihad against Assad and his Shi’ite Islamic allies.

Russia continues to support the Assad government. Russia is Assad’s major arms supplier. In opposing the West support of the Syrian rebels, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the radical al-Nusra Front – an outfit that has been listed by the United States as a terrorist group – would handle most of the weapons earmarked for the Syrian opposition. Lavrov said any attempt to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria using F-16 fighter jets and Patriot missiles from Jordan would violate international law. The United States has moved Patriot missiles and fighter jets into Jordan, officially as part of an annual exercise in the past week but making clear that the military assets could stay on when the war games are over. Russia has strongly criticized military support for the rebels while defending as legitimate its own arms sales to Assad. Lavrov said that Russia would honor all weapons deals with the Syrian government. “We’re fulfilling all our contracts,” Lavrov said. Asked about the controversial shipment of S-300 air defence systems, he merely said that “those contracts have not been fully realized.” On June 19, Russia announced that two warships carrying 600 Russian marines were heading for Syria “to protect the Russian citizens there” along with air force cover as needed.

In commenting about the Syrian civil war, Henry Kissinger said, “There are three possible outcomes. An Assad victory. A Sunni victory. Or an outcome in which the various nationalities agree to co-exist together but in more or less autonomous regions, so that they can’t oppress each other. That’s the outcome I would prefer to see. But that’s not the popular view. In the American press, the Syrian conflict is described as being a struggle between a desire for democracy and a dictator- and the dictator is killing his own people, and we’ve got to punish him. But that’s not what’s going on. It may have been started by a few democrats. But on the whole it’s an ethnic and sectarian conflict. It is now a civil war between sectarian groups”, Kissinger said. In other words, the Syrian conflict is an Islamic civil war between the Sunnis and Shi’ites.

A war with Syria where Damascus is destroyed (Isaiah 17) is a tribulation event.

The link to these articles is as follows:

1) Obama begins answering Syrian rebels’ call for arms
2) Blair: Syria’s rebels want democracy; help arm them
3) Turkey, US cooperate on aid to Syrian rebels
4) Cameron’s coup against Assad
5) First European & NATO heavy arms for Syrian rebels. Russian reprisal expected
6) Container Ship Carrying Weapons for Syrian Rebels Splits in Half/Sinks
7) Saudis: We ‘cannot be silent’ in face of Iran, Hezbollah involvement in Syria
8.) Syrian Rebels: We’ve Received Heavy Weapons from Saudis
9) Morsi cuts Egypt’s Syria ties, backs no-fly zone
10) Russia says illegal to impose no-fly zone over Syria
11) Russia warns against arming Syrian rebels
12) Lavrov: Russia will honor its S-300 missile contract with Damascus. Two Russian warships head for Syria
13) Putin will address G8 summit as head of winning Syrian war camp
14) Henry Kissinger: Balkanized Syria Best Possible Outcome

Iran elected Hassan Rowhani to be their new President on June 14. He will take office on August 3. Rohani plans to hold direct dialogue with each of the six world powers (the five members of the Security Council and Germany) separately, in order to clarify with them Iran’s stance on its nuclear program. The US European allies plan to press Rohani for the resumption of nuclear negotiations by August. US President Barack Obama’s chief of staff said that the Rohani’s election was a “potentially hopeful sign,” and that if he lived up to his obligation “to come clean on this illicit nuclear program, he will find a partner in us.” Rowhani said that he wants to reduce tensions with the United States over Iran’s nuclear program but ruled out direct talks exclusively with the US in order to do so. When asked if he would be prepared to hold direct talks with the United States, Rohani replied: “First of all, the Americans have to say… that they will never interfere in Iran’s internal affairs. Second, they have to recognize all of the Iranian nation’s due rights including nuclear rights. And third, they have to put aside oppressive… policies towards Iran,” he said. He added there needed to be an end to American “bullying.” He said that “All should know that the next government will not budge from defending Iran’s inalienable rights while saying that Iran is not prepared to suspend uranium enrichment.

Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that Israel’s red line on Iran has not changed with Rohani’s election. Israel red line is Iran obtaining 250 kilos of uranium enriched to 20 percent. Acknowledging that economic sanctions against Iran were clearly taking their toll, Netanyahu said the pressure on Iran needed to be maintained and urged Western allies not to pin their hopes on Rohani. “He doesn’t count. He doesn’t call the shots,” Netanyahu said. Iran’s nuclear policy is determined by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made all the decisions regarding nuclear policy.

Canada’s foreign minister has warned Iran that it has only two-to-three months to prove to the West that it seeks a negotiated resolution to the crisis over its rogue nuclear program. Since Rowhani was a former Iranian nuclear negotiator, “He doesn’t need to have any time to read up on the files.” Asked whether diplomacy had run its course, Baird said, “There’s always a reason to wait another two or three months. If they want to prove the naysayers wrong, they should make meaningful progress with the P5+1. I’m pessimistic on that but I hope to be proven wrong.” The diplomatic process “is nearing the end. If Iran wants to seek out concrete, meaningful solutions to this, they have the opportunity to demonstrate to the world in the coming weeks that they’ll do that. And if at the end of two or three months there isn’t some kind of concrete progress, then “I think fair and reasonable people will have shown that they have taken every reasonable measure, every diplomatic measure, to try to successfully bring this to a conclusion.” At that time, the world community may try other measures to achieve its goals to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.

The link to this article is as follows:

1) Iran President-Elect Wants to Ease Strains With U.S., but Sees No Direct Talks
2) Rohani puts ‘moderate’ foot forward, yet shows no sign of halting nuclear program
3) ‘Rohani wants to renew direct talks with world powers’
4) Iran’s Rohani: Sanctions only benefit Israel
5) Canadian FM: Iran has 2-3 months to prove it’s resolving nuclear crisis

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