Watchman of Zion

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) A Preview of the Israel Elections
2) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process
3) The current status of the situation with Iran

Israeli elections are scheduled for January 22.  All the polls indicate that Benjamin Netanyahu will keep his job as Prime Minister of Israel. The main issue of debate therefore is will he establish a center-left (secular Zionist) government or will he establish a center-right (nationalist Zionist) government ? Conventional wisdom is that Netanyahu will choose his historical “natural partners” from the center-right. However, some members of his Likud political party are saying that Netanyahu prefers to form a coalition with the center-left parties rather than the nationalistic party of Jewish Home and Sephardic ultra-Orthodox party of Shas. Senior Likud minister Moshe Ya’alon said the new government would look to create as large a coalition as possible. “It is 99 percent certain Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid), Tzipi [Livnit] (The Movement), and Mofaz (Kadima) are [on Netanyahu’s list],” the Likud source said. Only after exploring those options would Netanyahu approach either the ultra-Orthodox or the national religious Jewish Home party.

However, another senior Likud official said that Netanyahu prefers to keep (Jewish Home) out of the coalition. The official, who asked to remain anonymous, said that Netanyahu has indicated in private conversations he would prefer to form a coalition with Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid (Future) party, Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua and even with the Labor party headed by Shelly Yechimovich, though she has publicly stated she would not join a Netanyahu-led government. According to this official, “Netanyahu fears a strong Bennett”, referring to Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett, because his party will make it difficult for him to make diplomatic moves in terms of peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

Other Likud insiders were quoted as saying that Netanyahu is expected to redefine his “natural partners” after the upcoming election, shifting from a nationalist government (center-right) to a more leftist one (center-left). One of many concerns of the newly elected government is to pass a national spending budget to implement his economic policies. Netanyahu is expected to make cuts in the budget. This is not seen as being agreeable to the Ultra-Orthodox parties.  A Israeli newspaper quoted senior Likud members as saying that because of a need to focus on issues such as the economy and due to pressure that is expected to come from U.S. President Barack Obama in regards to the peace process, Netanyahu is expected to shift his coalition more towards the center-left in an effort to build as broad a coalition as possible.

In response to these things, the leaders of Yesh Atid (Yair Lapid), The Tzipi Livni Party, and Jewish Home (Naphtali Bennett) all called for a national unity government (a government with a combination of center-left and center-right). “I am a responsible person,” said Yesh Atid party head Yair Lapid. “We can build a national unity government oriented toward economic and social issues – one which is not right-wing extremist and haredi.” Lapid continued: “I guarantee that if there won’t be equality in the burden of IDF service, and if there will be higher taxes, we will not sit in the Knesset. If they sell us out, we won’t be in government.” Tzipi Livni agreed on the need for unity, saying “We require a national emergency government.” Earlier in the day, Livni warned that Israel is in a “state of emergency” and promised to work toward a national unity government that would be Centrist and [secular] Zionist in its orientation.

Therefore, Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni were highlighting the election issues of: 1) Israel / Palestinian peace process 2) Socio-economic issues 3) The role of ultra-orthodox men serving in the Israeli military.

Jewish Home leader Nephtali Bennett also called for a national unity government which included Yair Lapid for economic reasons but not Tzipi Livni who strongly advocates a need for a peace agreement with the Palestinians which Jewish Home opposes. “I am against a Palestinian state,” said Bennett. “The land of Israel has been ours for 3,800 years.”

Last month, Jewish Home leader Naphtali Bennett called for Israel to annex Area C which is under complete Israeli control from the Oslo Accords signed in the 1990’s by Israel and the Palestinians. All the Jews in the West Bank live in Area C while only 4% of Palestinians live in Area C. However, Rabbi Shai Piron, number two on the Yesh Atid party list of Yair Lapid and serves as head of the Petach Tikva Yeshiva Institutions [which is modern Orthodox) said that he would support uprooting Israeli communities in the West Bank if Israel reached a diplomatic deal with the Palestinian Authority. He also called the plan by Naftali Bennett of Jewish Home as being “delusional”.

Tzipi Livni said that she would consider joining a coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu only if Netanyahu were to truly commit to advancing the diplomatic process with the Palestinians and if his government did not implement the diplomatic platform of Jewish Home whose calls for annexing Area C in the West Bank and giving the 50,000 Palestinians living there full Israeli citizenship.

Meanwhile, the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox Shas party accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of having already forged a coalition deal with two center-left parties, Tzipi Livni’s (The Movement) and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid.

In an interview with Benjamin Netanyahu conducted by the Jerusalem Post, Netanyahu explained his position on these issues. He was asked the following:

QUESTION: You know Bennett very well – you worked with him. In your mind, is he an extremist?

NETANYAHU: I’m not rating anyone, and I am not disqualifying anyone. But I think it’s important for people to realize that the only way we can lead the country is to have a very strong ruling party… You need a prime minister that can focus on the main issues, and that can’t be done if you have to attend the needs of sectorial parties…

QUESTION: What is your dream coalition?

NETANYAHU: The dream coalition is the one with the broadest possible Likud Beytenu chassis, if you will. Because that is really what determines what drives stability and effectiveness…

If we go the other direction, of fragmentation and sectorial parties, you’re going to have an ineffective government. I know that people say, ‘We’ll strengthen Netanyahu from the Right, we’ll strengthen Netanyahu from the religious side, we’ll strengthen Netanyahu from that side.’ We want our hands on the wheel. If you ever drove a car, you know that you have to have two steady hands of one driver on the wheel, and if you start having other people grab the wheel, pretty soon the car overturns.

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) An Israeli Election Preview by Eddie Chumney (15 minutes)
2) Prime minister eyeing deal with center-left, insiders say
3) Likud Official: Netanyahu Prefers Lapid
4) Lapid, Livni, Bennett call for national unity gov’t
5) On the Agenda: Annex Area C, Says Jewish Home’s Bennett
6) Rabbi on Lapid’s List: I’d Uproot ‘Settlements’
7) Report: Rabbi Shai Piron Second on Lapid List
8) Yesh Atid’s Rabbi Piron: Bennett’s Annexation Plan ‘Delusional’
9) Shas: Netanyahu in cahoots with center-left

In a Bloomberg article, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg seemed to have written an article expressing the feelings of the Obama administration regarding the peace process. The short term background to understanding these issues as explained in the article is as follows:

Shortly after the United Nations General Assembly voted in late November to upgrade the status of the Palestinians, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that it would advance plans to establish a settlement in an area of the West Bank known as E-1, and that it would build 3,000 additional housing units in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. The world reacted to the E-1 announcement with strong criticism. The Obama administration response came from Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the National Security Council, who said the following: “We believe these actions are counterproductive and make it harder to resume direct negotiations or achieve a two-state solution.”

In the weeks after the UN vote, Obama said privately and repeatedly, “Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are.” With each new settlement announcement, in Obama’s view, Netanyahu is moving his country down a path toward near-total [international] isolation. In mostly likely expressing the view of the Obama administration, Goldberg commented by saying, “When such an issue arises again, Israel may find itself even lonelier. It wouldn’t surprise me if the U.S. failed to whip votes the next time, or if the U.S. actually abstained. I wouldn’t be particularly surprised, either, if Obama eventually offered a public vision of what a state of Palestine should look like, and affirmed that it should have its capital in East Jerusalem.”

Israel responded to the Jeffrey Goldberg article by announcing that it will build over 200 new Jewish homes in the West Bank. Tzipi Livni condemned the Israeli plans by saying, “Netanyahu is destroying Israel’s international relations and is sacrificing national interests for political considerations right before an election.”

Meanwhile, on December 4, a Palestinian official announced that Britain and France are working on a new Mideast peace plan. In the past week, this was confirmed through an Israeli newspaper who wrote that the European Union is working on a detailed plan meant to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and establish an independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital. The plan will set a clear timetable for a discussion on all core issues over the course of 2013. It will likely be presented in March after a new Israeli government is formed.

According to the plan, Israel and the Palestinians will enter peace negotiations after a brief interval. The plan will likely also include a demand to freeze settlement construction. The initiative is promoted by the British and French foreign ministers, and has the support of Germany. Efforts are being made to internationalize the plan: The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton is examining the possibility of making the plan an all-European proposal. Similar efforts have been made in a Quartet meeting in Amman, Jordan, where the EU’s representatives have asked to discuss their proposed peace plan. However, the US requested to delay the discussion until after the Israeli elections and the Obama inauguration.

Several reports revealed that the plan will also include a basis for a regional Middle Eastern committee with the participation of Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf states. Such a committee will marginalize Israel, but a refusal to join it will be perceived as a general rejection of the peace process. The Palestinians have already said they will accept the invitation if issued.

“There is great movement behind the scenes,” a senior Israeli official said. “The Europeans can’t force Israel to enter into an agreement, but they can certainly put us in an awkward position. “They are drafting a document which will present the principles of the future peace accord, putting it on the table as a challenge. It is likely the Palestinians will accept it and that Israel will have some difficulty. It will drive us into the corner.”

Tzipi Livni commented on the plan saying: “In March the world will present us with a peace plan – either it will be forced upon us or we come up with our own plan.

“If we form an Israeli plan we could renew the alliance with the region’s moderates and will be able to better deal with the extremist front. It is therefore important to have a government which promotes a real peace process.”

Meanwhile the Palestinians are trying to initiate a special UN Security Council meeting on January 23, a day after the Israeli elections, to discuss settlement construction and particularly Israel’s area E1 construction plan.

French Presiden Hollande announced that “immediately after the Israeli elections you should expect a French-brokered peace initiative in the Middle East, in order to bring Israel and the Palestinians to the negotiating table.” Hollande said he hopes that an agreement to return to the negotiation table will come as early as March.

The British foreign secretary warned of the dire consequences of letting the current turmoil in the Middle East continue unabated Thursday, calling on the US to lead a renewed drive for peace of the type not seen in decades.

Hague said US President Barack Obama should take charge and launch an intense drive for peace matching that of the last major Israeli Palestinian breakthrough which brought about the 1993 Oslo Accords.

“Before long, a two-state solution could be made impossible by facts on the ground,” Hague said. “We recognize the immense obstacles to the peace process, not least of all the role of Hamas in Gaza. But still, we believe that it must be a priority for President Obama’s re-elected administration to launch a new effort to start the peace process, greater in intensity than anything seen since the Oslo Accords.”

Furthermore, Jordan is in the process of consolidating an international coalition to kick-start the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Jordan’s King Abdullah said in an interview with French publication:

“We are working closely with several parties in Europe, including France, to put some effective and workable ideas on the table that would enable the US to engage and play a leading role in the peace process soon after the start of the second term of President [Barack] Obama.” Abdullah expressed hope that Germany, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE would participate in the efforts.

Israel Radio reported that Jordan’s King Abdullah believes that peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians will resume in February. Jordan is also reported to be hosting a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian representatives next month in efforts to advance the peace process.

In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his view on these developments:

QUESTION: King Abdullah gave an interview yesterday in which he said that after the election, the Europeans will come with a new initiative. Do you know anything about that? Do you plan to put anything of your own on the table?

NETANYAHU: I’m sure there will be many initiatives, and certainly we’ll have an important task in trying to tell the truth to the world: that the Palestinian problem is neither the core of the instability in the Middle East (people actually believed that until the Arab Spring; I think they’re a little wiser now), nor that the question of settlements is the core of the Palestinian-Israel conflict. The core of the conflict is the persistent refusal of the Palestinians to recognize the Jewish state in any boundary.

QUESTION: Can Israel withstand the pressure on the settlements? Can we build in east Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim with the Europeans saying, ‘If you do we might boycott you’?

NETANYAHU: I think that many recognize that while there are differences inside Israel, there is a common acceptance that the so-called settlement blocs will remain part of Israel in any settlement, and that’s where the majority of construction is taking place.

QUESTION: But the Europeans are not saying that.

NETANYAHU: Some of them are not saying that, it’s true. But I think that there is recognition that ultimately there has to be a real and fair solution, and that certainly doesn’t include driving out hundreds of thousands of Jews who live in the suburbs of Jerusalem, and in the suburbs of Tel Aviv in the Ariel bloc. I think that is unrealistic.

There is an attempt to escape this simple reality, and we will have to get the world to focus on the real issues, the real problem – and to resist attempts to impose a solution that would deprive Israel of its security and fundamental national interest. A peace that you can’t defend will not exist; will not last for a second.

QUESTION: President Shimon Peres says PA President Abbas is a real potential peace partner, while former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman says he’s not. Where do you stand?

NETANYAHU: Well, so far he hasn’t been because he’s avoided negotiations. He’s run away from negotiations for the last four years. He’s piled on precondition upon precondition.

He went to the UN for a unilateral resolution, which is a fundamental breach of the Oslo Accords. He embraced Hamas. If he changes that and comes back to the table without preconditions, he’ll find me there, if I’m elected prime minister.

QUESTION: Would you consider alternative ideas to the two-state solution?

NETANYAHU: I don’t think it is a good idea for the Jewish state [for the Palestinians to be incorporated as citizens of Israel]. On the other hand, I don’t shut my eyes, the way some suggest, and say ‘Let’s just get out and sign a treaty – that will protect us.’ No, peace treaties don’t protect us; security protects us. And what protects us is the ability to understand that you need two things: You need a change in the Palestinian attitude toward the Jewish state so they recognize that if they want a Palestinian state, they will have to accept the idea of a Jewish state as the nation state of the Jewish people and to end the conflict with us once and for all. And the second thing is to recognize that even if the [Palestinian] leadership accepts that [a Jewish state and end to conflict], you can’t be guaranteed that this will take root in the general public. They will have to change the way they educate their children, and the national propaganda that they spew forth in their state-controlled press.

Equally, even if that happens, you have to assure yourself against the possibility that there will be a change of regime or change of policy in the Palestinian areas. And that is why you need very, very solid security arrangements that protect Israel. These are measures that were not present in Gaza. We walked out and Hamas walked in, which means Iran walked in. I’m not going to have that replicated.

There are two positions that I think are important. We don’t want a binational state, we don’t want to govern the Palestinians. But at the same time, we don’t want them to govern us or threaten our existence by irresponsible agreements that are made without a realistic appreciation of the Islamist tide that is sweeping the region and the speed in which Israel can move from relative strength to great vulnerability because we didn’t take care of our vital security needs – because we trusted a peace of paper. That’s not where I’ve been and that’s not where I’m going to be.

Finally, Hamas and Fatah agreed to implement, by the end of January, previous reconciliation agreements signed between the two parties. Azzam al-Ahmed, head of the Fatah delegation to the talks, announced that the two parties agreed, among other things, to launch consultations over the formation of a Palestinian unity government, with the hope of reaching agreement within the next two weeks.

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

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Obama: ‘Israel Doesn’t Know What Its Best Interests Are’
2) Israel advances settlement plans after alleged Obama rebuke
3) Europe mulls new Mideast peace plan: Palestinian official
4) EU working on new Mideast peace plan
5) France Calls for Renewed Peace Talks Immediately After Elections
6) France to initiate Middle East peace plan
7) London warns of ‘perfect Mideast storm,’ calls for intense peace push
8) Jordan forming int’l bloc to spur Israeli-Palestinian talks
9) Will there be a peace push after the elections?
10) PM: Obama and I do have our differences on peace process
11) Hamas, Fatah agree to implement unity agreement

UN nuclear inspectors and Iran failed in talks to finalize a deal to resume their long-stalled talks into ending the Iranian nuclar program. The UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran have scheduled another meeting for February 12.

In an interview with Rick Wiles, former CIA spy, Reza Kahlili believes from his sources that Iran already has the capability to produce a nuclear bomb. He said that they also are capable of conducting biochemical warfare on US soil.

The link to these articles is as follows:

1) Diplomat: No deal seen reached in Iran-IAEA nuclear talks
2) Rick Wiles Interview with Reza Kahlili: Does Iran now have nuclear capability?

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

This week’s update is an interview with Pastor T.D. Hale regarding his prophetic dreams about Obama being reelected and events associated with his 2nd term.

Shalom in Yeshua the Messiah,

Eddie Chumney
Hebraic Heritage Ministries Int’l

I am still in Europe.  No update this week. Next update will be January 12.

Eddie Chumney
Hebraic Heritage Ministries Int’l

There will be no update this week. I am in Germany.

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 prospects for war with Syria and Iran

After receiving recognition to upgrade their status at the UN from being an ‘observer’ to a ‘non-member state’, the Palestinians have been posting signs throughout the West Bank which say, ‘State of Palestine: internationally recognized – November 29, 2012.’ In response to the Palestinians upgrade at the UN General Assembly, Israel initially announced that they would build 3,000 homes in the West Bank and Jerusalem.  This has now been followed by an announcement to build an additional 1,500 homes.

Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, said the PA was about to take “important and necessary measures against Israel’s settlement building, including recourse to the UN Security Council, to prevent implementation of these decisions.” At the Security Council, 14 of the 15 current members of the UN Security Council issued statements which condemned Israel’s announcement to build Jewish homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Only the US didn’t make a statement through the Security Council. Instead the US condemnation came from the US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland which called the decision a ‘provocation’. British foreign secretary, William Hague, called all Israeli settlements “illegal under international law.”

France, Britain, Germany and Portugal issued a joint statement, which was read out after a meeting of Security Council members. The statement said that “the viability of a two-state solution is threatened by systematic expansion of settlements,” and that “all settlement activity, including in east Jerusalem, must cease immediately.” Vitaly Churkin, the Russian permanent representative to the United Nations said after the Security Council meeting, “Of special concern are the settlement activities of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories including East Jerusalem and the decision to suspend transfer to tax and duty revenues for the Palestinian National Authority.” Wang Min, China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN said, China supports the endeavor of the Palestinian people to establish, on the basis of the 1967 border, an independent state of Palestine with full sovereignty and with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Addressing the press after the various condemnatory statements from the countries on the Security Council were read out, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor rejected the notion that the settlements were the major obstacle to peace  but rather terrorism, incitement, the Palestinians’ insistence on the “so called right of return” and their refusal to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

Separately, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton released a statement condemning Israel’s decision to go forward with plans to build thousands of new homes in two Jerusalem neighborhoods by saying, “The EU has never been clearer than it was on 10 December in voicing its strong opposition to settlement expansion,” she said. “The EU particularly opposes the implementation of plans which seriously undermine the prospects of a negotiated resolution of the conflict by jeopardizing the possibility of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state and of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states. Furthermore, European Union foreign ministers strongly stated that all of the EU’s agreements with Israel only applied to the pre-1967 lines, as they spoke out against Israeli settlement plans including the development of E1. The EU said all of its agreements with Israel “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.” The EU in its statement said it was “deeply dismayed by and strongly opposes Israeli plans to expand settlements in the West Bank, including in east Jerusalem, and in particular plans to develop the E1 area,” it said. Building up E1, the council warned, would “undermine the prospects of a negotiated resolution of the conflict by jeopardizing the possibility of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state and of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states.

In a joint statement issued after the talks by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, they said the EU  and Russia “are deeply dismayed by and strongly oppose Israeli plans to expand settlements in the West Bank and in particular plans to develop the El area.” “These plans if implemented, would jeopardize the possibility of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state. The European Union and the Russian Federation reiterate that settlements are illegal under international law and constitute an obstacle to peace,” the statement said. The EU and Russia also said they “will not recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties”.

Earlier this month, Hamas marked its 25th anniversary with a gala event in Gaza City. In attendance was overall Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who usually resides in Damascus. Speaking before hundreds of thousands of Gazans, Mashaal declared: “Palestine is our land and nation from the (Mediterranean) sea to the (Jordan) river, from the north to the south, and we will not cede even one inch of it.” Mashaal went on to insist that political, diplomatic and legal efforts to achieve control of the land must be coupled with violence. He explained that all non-violent methods are “senseless in the absence of resistance,” which is how the Palestinians define their acts of terrorism against Israelis.

In addition, leaders of the rival Palestinian movements Hamas and Fatah called for fresh attempts to cement a reconciliation process that has been stalled for more than a year. In Gaza, the exiled head of the Hamas movement Khaled Meshaal said it was time for the bitter opponents to make good on the deal they signed in Cairo in 2011. “We want national unity in the armed resistance and popular resistance. I urge you towards reconciliation and national unity of the Palestinian ranks,” he said. In a sign of unity, the Hamas and Fatah leadership said it would allow the other to hold rallies in their respective territories for the first time since the groups violently broke in 2007. Two days after Hamas held its Gaza rally, Fatah announced that it, too, would hold celebrations in the city. According to a statement issued by the Fatah office in Gaza Sunday, the celebrations will highlight “the Palestinian principles”: the Palestinian refugees’ right of return; independence; Jerusalem; the right to use [armed] resistance; and the release of prisoners.

In response to the international rebuke of Israel, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chastised the international community for overly focusing its attention on Israel’s actions, rather than pressuring the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table. “The Palestinians can afford to avoid negotiations [with Israel] because the international community exacted no price for the Palestinian failure to negotiate in good faith,” Netanyahu said. Recently, he said Hamas leaders in Gaza openly called for Israel’s destruction. In doing so, Hamas had “shown its true face,” and slammed Abbas for seeking unity with a group that will clearly never live in peaceful coexistence with the Jewish state. “Where was the outrage?” he asked. “Where were the UN resolutions? Where was [PA] President [Mahmoud] Abbas? Why weren’t the Palestinians summoned to European and other capitals to explain why the PA president not only refused to condemn this but declared his intention to unite with Hamas?” Netanyahu added that the only thing he heard was a deafening silence.

“We cannot accept that when Jews build homes in their ancient capital of Jerusalem, the international community has no problem finding its voice,” Netanyahu said. “But when Palestinian leaders openly call for the destruction of Israel, the one and only Jewish state, the world is silent,” said Netanyahu. Netanyahu also said that he rejected any attempts by the Palestinians to impose preconditions on negotiations.  Netanyahu outlined the steps he has taken to show good will, including calling for a two-state solution in his Bar-Ilan University speech in 2009. “I can tell you as a leader of the Likud this was not a simple speech to make,” he added. Israel removed roadblocks and checkpoints to facilitate the movement of people and goods, Netanyahu said, adding that his government took the unprecedented step of imposing a 10-month moratorium on new settlement building. “Still the Palestinians refused to come to the talks,” Netanyahu said. They sat down with Israel for only a few hours in the final month of the moratorium to insist that it be extended, he said. The Palestinians refused first a US initiative and then a Jordanian one for renewed talks, the prime minister said. “The facts are clear to anyone who wants to see them. Year after year, the Palestinians pile up precondition after precondition,” Netanyahu continued. First the Palestinians wanted a full settlement freeze in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, the prime minister said, then a preagreement that the pre-1967 lines would be the territorial border of the two states, then they wanted the release of all prisoners. “Who knows what preconditions the future holds?” he asked. “The Palestinians avoided negotiations because they were prepared to take concessions from Israel, but they were not prepared to make concessions to Israel,” Netanyahu said. The Palestinians’ unilateral steps toward statehood at the UN, including the UN General Assembly resolution upgrading their status to that of non-member observer state, was similarly an attempt to avoid negotiations, he said. The Palestinians are not prepared to recognize Israel as a Jewish state or to seriously address Israel’s security needs, he said. Netanyahu added that the Palestinians’ UN resolution did not address these concerns nor did it speak of ending the conflict. The UN bid was “a material breach of the peace accord. It was an attempt to establish unacceptable terms of reference for negotiations,” Netanyahu said. It upgraded the Palestinians’ ability to wage legal and diplomatic war against Israel, Netanyahu said. With things as they currently stand, Netanyahu said it would be utter foolishness for Israel to consider surrendering more land to Abbas’ regime. “Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the state of Israel, and we will continue to build there.” Israel “will […] withstand the international pressure,” he pledged.

In light of all these developments, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that the Middle East peace process must be revived with the United States playing a key role.  Nimir Hamad, an adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that a new initiative to bring the Palestinians and Israelis back to the negotiation table was being proposed by Britain and France. They would try to get the US on board their proposal to restart talks. In the initiative there were “concrete terms of reference,” Hamad said without elaborating, and noted that there was no “specific time frame.” Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority say they have a new plan to restart talks with Israel that includes a call to end Israel settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  Palestinians chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said he would start the initiative next month with international officials in an attempt to renew talks with Israel over a status solution. Erekat said the initiative includes resumption of negotiations, along with demands to end the occupation that include releasing Palestinian prisoners and stopping settlement construction. Erekat said Palestinian leadership allotted six months for the initiative. In meetings with the Arab League, Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas said “We want to discuss with you a mechanism that would lead to an Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian and Arab territories, including Jerusalem, the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and halting settlement construction. If this happens, there could be feasible negotiations. Also, we could return to the point where we stopped during the era of Ehud Olmert’s government, when we put all the final-status issues on the table. We reached many understandings over these issues,” Abbas said. The PA will not agree to return to the negotiations from point zero, he stressed.

Furthermore, Jordan’s King Abdullah II announced in a meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron that Palestinian and Israeli representatives will meet in Jordan in February to promote the peace process. King Abdullah II said that the meeting will be held under the auspices of the European Union and the United States. “2013 will see a new Palestinian political track. There will be new rules in our relationship with Israel and the world,” said Hussam Zumlot, an aide to President Mahmoud Abbas. Palestinian officials say they are hopeful that a formula for restarting peace talks can be found after Israel’s election on Jan. 22, perhaps through a new initiative from President Barack Obama. The Palestinians have begun to speak of a trial, six-month negotiating period. Azzam al-Ahmed, a top aide to Abbas, said Arab diplomats will present the plan in Western capitals, Russia and China next month.

However, Mohamed Ishteya, also a member in the central committee of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Party said that there will be no new peace initiative declared on the Middle East conflict before February 2013. He asserted that the Palestinians would welcome and back any initiative that focuses on the legal rights and merits, adding that “ending the military occupation of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 in accordance to a specific time schedule and establishing a Palestinian state is our demands.” Diplomatic sources are talking about European efforts to hammer out a new initiative to resume the peace talks. “I don’t believe that there will be soon new peace initiatives because the United States is still involved in rearranging the internal situation,” said Ishteya, adding that “and also on Jan. 22 the Israeli parliamentary elections will be held and we will wait for its results.”

In spite of all the talks to renew direct peace talks,  Palestinian officials are already plotting a series of tough steps against Israel to be taken if, as polls predict, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is re-elected and peace efforts remain stalled. Emboldened by their newly upgraded status at the United Nations, the Palestinians are talking of filing war crimes charges against Israel, staging mass demonstrations in the West Bank, encouraging the international community to impose sanctions, and ending the security cooperation that has helped preserve quiet in recent years.

Finally, it seems that US President Barack Obama has approved a process to diplomatically isolate Israel in the international community. In an article written by Peter Beinart that appeared in Newsweek magazine, he writes: The last week of November 2012 was a big one on the Israeli-Palestinian front. On the 65th anniversary of the partition resolution that created a Jewish state, the United Nations recognized a Palestinian one. Israel retaliated with the West Bank equivalent of sequestration: announcing it would move toward building settlements in an area east of Jerusalem called E1, which many observers believe would kill the two-state solution. European governments responded by threatening to withdraw their ambassadors.

And the United States? It mostly watched. In 2011, when the Palestinians first sought a U.N. status upgrade, the Obama diplomatic corps lobbied so hard against it that one State Department official joked that “sometimes I feel like I work for the Israeli government.” This time, by contrast, the U.S. largely went through the motions. It was “half-hearted,” observes a Middle East insider close to the administration. “They didn’t really lobby hard … [The attitude was] if Israel ends up with a big embarrassment, who cares.” Consider the view from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. On the one hand, Benjamin Netanyahu keeps doing things—like expanding settlements and refusing to accept the 1967 lines as the parameters for peace talks—that U.S. officials consider bad for America and catastrophic for Israel. On the other, every time President Obama has tried to make Netanyahu change course—in 2009 when he demanded a settlement freeze and in 2011 when he set parameters for peace talks—the White House has been politically clobbered.

So instead of confronting Netanyahu directly, Team Obama has hit upon a different strategy: stand back and let the rest of the world do the confronting. Once America stops trying to save Israel from the consequences of its actions, the logic goes, and once Israel feels the full brunt of its mounting international isolation, its leaders will be scared into changing course. “The tide of global opinion is moving [against Israel],” notes one senior administration official. And in that environment, America’s “standing back” is actually “doing something.” However, Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and Israel, notes that one problem with outsourcing the job of pressuring Israel to Europe, they note, is that since many Israelis already doubt Europe’s affection for the Jewish state, that pressure may not hurt Netanyahu domestically. It could even strengthen him. Team Obama is trying to make it a strength. It’s hoping that when faced with international isolation, Netanyahu will shift course and embrace the kind of Palestinian state supported by his predecessor, Olmert. But that may be a bad bet. Israeli politics have swung so far right that some of Netanyahu’s strongest rivals are now ultra-hawks who consider him too soft. In that environment, resisting global pressure by pushing forward with settlement growth may actually help him in the Israeli elections scheduled for January 22.

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

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Palestinians place signs delineating new state
2) Israel pushes on with disputed J’lem building plan
3) US, UK attack ‘provocative’ J’lem construction plans
4) State Department Rebukes Israel Over Settlement Activity
5) US will not support UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements: official
6) 14 of 15 UNSC members slam Israeli settlement plans; US mum
7) EU’s Ashton condemns Jerusalem construction plans
8) EU: Treaties with Israel apply only to pre-’67 lines
9) Russia calls on Israel to suspend settlement plans, resume peace talks
10) China urges Israel to remove obstacles to peace talks: UN envoy
11) Netanyahu vows more Israeli construction in east Jerusalem
12) PM: Settlements don’t preclude Palestinian state
13) Netanyahu: This is why true peace remains unachievable
14) Netanyahu Says Israel Will Withstand “International Pressure”
15) Fatah, Hamas in calls for Palestinian unity
16) In new boost to unity, Hamas and Fatah to allow rallies in one another’s territories
17) Hague sees urgent need to restart Mideast peace process
18) Britain, France push to renew Israeli-Palestinian negotiations
19) EU and Russia urge Israel and the Palestinians to engage in direct and substantial negotiations ‘without preconditions’ in 2013
20) Abbas sets out plan to resume talks
21) New status in hand, Palestinians will seek to restart talks next month, top official says
22) Abbas offers 6-month talks with settlement freeze
23) King Abdullah: Israelis, Palestinians to meet in Jordan
24) Interview: Palestinian negotiator rules out declaring new Mideast peace initiative soon
25) Palestinians aim to isolate Israel with new steps
26) Why Obama Will Ignore Israel
27) Is a showdown brewing between Israel and the U.S.?

France has emerged as the most prominent backer of Syria’s armed opposition and is now directly funding rebel groups around Aleppo as part of a new push to oust the embattled Assad regime. Large sums of cash have been delivered by French government proxies across the Turkish border to rebel commanders in the past month, diplomatic sources have confirmed. The money has been used to buy weapons inside Syria and to fund armed operations against loyalist forces.French military advisers have met Syrian rebels inside the war-torn country in recent weeks in effort to identify recipients for possible weapons supplies, a French newspaper reported. “The French experts want to know who is doing what,” the opposition leader told the newspaper. They also wanted to determine the “operational capacity of each group” and their “political colors.”  France has also suggested that Europe should allow the supply of “defensive weapons” to the rebels, once the fighters had been “properly identified.”

In addition, a British newspaper reports that a plan to provide military training to the Syrian rebels fighting the Assad regime and support them with air and naval power is being drawn up by an international coalition including Britain. The head of Britain’s armed forces, General Sir David Richards, hosted a confidential meeting in London a few weeks ago attended by the military chiefs of France, Turkey, Jordan, Qatar and the UAE, and a three-star American general, in which the strategy was discussed at length. Other UK government departments and their counterparts in allied states in the mission have also been holding extensive meetings on the issue.

Furthermore, rebel commanders from across Syria have joined forces under a united command they hope will increase coordination between diverse fighting groups and streamline the pathway for arms essential to their struggle against President Bashar Assad. Some 500 delegates elected the 30-person Supreme Military Council and a Chief of Staff and planned to meet soon with representatives from the opposition’s newly reorganized political leadership, participants said. “The aim of this meeting was to unify the armed opposition to bring down the regime,” said a rebel commander from near Damascus who attended the meeting. “It also aims to get the situation under control once the regime falls.” The opposition’s political leadership reorganized last month, under Western pressure, into a new National Alliance that its backers hope will have broader representation and stronger links to rebel fighters. In addition, just as Obama is pondering arming the Free Syrian Army and training them to secure WMDs, the process of transforming the Free Syrian Army into a purely Islamist entity is all but complete. And it all happened under the careful supervision of Obama’s allies in Turkey and Qatar. Syrian rebel groups have chosen Brigadier Selim Idris, a former officer in President Bashar al-Assad’s army, to head their new Islamist-dominated military command, opposition sources said. The unified command includes many with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and to Salafists, who follow a puritanical interpretation of Islam. It excludes the most senior officers who had defected from Assad’s military. Its composition, estimated to be two-thirds from the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies, reflects the growing strength of Islamist fighters on the ground and resembles that of the civilian opposition leadership coalition created under Western and Arab auspices in Qatar last month. Absent from the group is Colonel Riad al-Asaad, founder of the Syrian Free Army and Brigadier Mustafa al-Sheikh, a senior officer known for his opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The United States has now recognized that the coalition of opposition groups, rather than the government of President Bashar Assad, was now “the legitimate representative” of the Syrian people. “We’ve made a decision that the Syrian Opposition Coalition is now inclusive enough, is reflective and representative enough of the Syrian population, that we consider them the legitimate representative of the Syrian people in opposition to the Assad regime,” Obama said.  U.S. Deputy Secretary of State for the Middle East William Burns announced that the leadership of the new coalition has been invited to see Obama in the United States. In addition, Britain, France, Turkey and several Gulf Arab nations have recognized the National Alliance, effectively considering it a government in exile. In total, 114 countries now recognize the new Syrian coalition.

The head of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government is in its final stages and will be unable to survive as more parts of the country slip from his control.  “Armed rebels are coordinating better, which is making their fight against al-Assad more effective,” he said.  The United States decided to try to aid the effort by deploying 400 US troops, along with Patriot anti-ballistic missile batteries to Turkey. The plan calls for two Patriot missile batteries that can hit planes and missiles emanating from Syria and 400 soldiers to operate them.

Within hours after the first American, Dutch and German Patriot missiles landed in Turkey, three Russian warships arrived at Syria’s Tartus port. Aboard were 300 marines. They also delivered a fearsome weapon for Assad’s army and a game changer in the Syrian conflict: 24 Iskander 9K720 cruise missile systems, designed for theater level conflicts. So, while NATO unpacked the Patriots in Turkey, a dozen mobile batteries, each carrying a pair of Iskander missiles, were fixed into position opposite Turkey, and another dozen, opposite Jordan and Israel. At all their stations, the Russian missiles pointed at US military targets. So while the West was gripped with alarm over Assad’s poison sarin gas shells and bombs and gearing up for missile attacks on Turkey, the Russians were injecting into the Syrian war field the most sophisticated weapon of death thus far. The West and Israel have no answer for the Iskander’s hypersonic speed of more than 1.3 miles per second with a 280 mile-range and a 1,500-pound warhead which destroys targets with pinpoint accuracy. It is also nuclear-capable.

Meanwhile, the Syrian rebels are making significant progress in their war with the Assad government. Radical Islamist rebels seized large swathes of a Syrian military base west of Aleppo. In response, the Syrian government is starting to fire Scud missiles against the rebels to repel their progress. They are trying to stop the  the general offensive Syrian opposition forces from capturing the Syrian army’s military-industrial complex at Al Safira and the big chemical and biological weapons store adjoining the facility. It is there, that Scud D missiles stand ready for launching, loaded with chemical weapons.  The rebels have reached points 1-2 kilometers from the perimeter walls of the Al Safira chemical weapons stores and are being pounded by Syrian warplanes and assault helicopters as well as Scuds, in a desperate effort to halt their advance. Control of Al Safira would place the big chemical weapons stores in the hands of rebel forces in that sector, many of whom belong to Jabhat al-Nusra, the roof organization of the al Qaeda elements fighting in Syria against the Assad regime. Success in seizing control of those stores would re-tilt the balance of the war in their favor and bring President Bashar Assad face to face with a decision on whether to broach the perilous dimension of chemical warfare on the rebels or even against NATO or US targets outside Syria.

Meanwhile, there is growing concern that some of the chemical weapons the Assad regime has been pushing out of the Damascus area in the last few days were sent across the border to Hizballah strongholds in the Lebanese Beqaa Valley to keep them out of rebel hands.

We seem to be witnessing a high-stake game between the United States and Syria over the issue of chemical weapons each waiting to see who blinks first. If the US attacks Syria first, Assad will feel he is justified in releasing his poisonous gas over Turkey, Jordan and Israel. But if Assad loses his nerve and lets loose with chemical weapons inside or outside Syria, the US will come crashing down on him with the full might of the US air, sea and marine forces standing by off the Syrian coast, along with Turkish, Israeli and Jordanian strikes against targets in Syria.

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

The link to these articles is as follows:

1) Syrian rebels unify, create new 30-member council
2) Free Syrian Army Now Under Islamist Military Command
3) Report: French military advisers meet with rebels inside Syria
4) France funding Syrian rebels in new push to oust Assad
5) Exclusive: UK military in talks to help Syria rebels
6) Obama announces US backing for Syrian opposition
7) 114 countries back new Syrian coalition, isolating Assad regime and opening way for more aid
8) End close for Assad: German intel chief
9)  US to send troops, Patriot missiles to Turkey over Syria conflict
10) Russia arms Syria with powerful ballistic missiles
11) Assad’s deadly agenda: First, chemicals, next, Iskander 9K720
12) Syria Islamist Rebels Seize Part of Aleppo Base
13) Scuds blast big Syrian rebel push for al-Safira chemical arms store
14) Concern that Assad may have passed some chemical weapons to Hizballah
15) Assad’s last warning to rebels before using chemical weapons. West, Israel on high preparedness
16) What comes first – a Syrian chemical attack or a US-led military showdown?

A UN atomic watchdog experts arrived in Iran to renew efforts to engage Iran over its disputed nuclear program. However, Iran did not allow any visits to suspected nuclear sites. Iran will not stop higher-grade enrichment of uranium in response to external demands said a top Iranian nuclear official. Western powers want Iran to halt enrichment of uranium to a fissile concentration of 20 percent as it represents a significant step closer to the level that would be required to make nuclear bombs. Israel’s channel 10 TV station reported that the US has decided to still try to negotiate directly with Iran over its nuclear program and will resort to military force in four or five months if diplomacy doesn’t work. In recent weeks, there have been increasing indications from the US that it is willing to hold direct bilateral talks with Iran. The basic contours of any negotiated solution are clear: US, European and other international sanctions would be eased if Iran halts its enrichment of uranium that is getting closer to weapons-grade, sends abroad its existing stockpile of such uranium and suspends operations at its underground Fordo facility.

In response, a senior Iranian negotiator in the nuclear talks, Mostafa Dolatyar, said  that the diplomatic process for solving the nuclear issue with Iran was in effect going nowhere, because the demand that Tehran halt its 20-percent enrichment of uranium “doesn’t make sense.” A Wall Street Journal article suggested that Iran may have mastered the technology to produce  220 pounds of plutonium, enough to produce as many as “24 Nagasaki-type bombs” – a reference to the World War II bombing of the Japanese city on Aug. 9, 1945. DEBKA reports that if this disclosure represents the true state of Iran’s nuclear program, the game really is over. The diplomacy-cum-sanctions policy pursued by the West to force Iran to abandon enrichment and shut down its underground facility in Fordo has become irrelevant. Finally, WND reports that according to a source who served in Iran’s Intelligence Ministry and who recently defected, the Islamic regime has 170 missiles targeted at Tel Aviv from underground silos, some of which are armed with biological warheads. The source, talking to WND, confirmed that Iran has made significant advances on several fronts – chemical, biological, nuclear and electronic warfare – and that the regime is looking at the deterioration in Syria and the possibility of an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities with the intent of setting Israel and the region on fire. There are more than 70 North Korean military advisers and scientists working in Iran on the country’s defense projects, including work on a plutonium bomb, the source said.

The link to these articles is as follows:

1) North Korea rocket launch raises nuclear stakes
2) UN atomic team in Iran for talks, inspections refused
3) Iran defiant on enrichment ahead of possible talks
4) Obama planning direct talks with Iran; US will strike in 4-5 months if they don’t bear fruit, Israeli TV report says
5) Ya’alon: US poised for action on Iranian nukes
6) US-Iranian nuclear talks fail. Iran has plutonium for 24 Nagasaki-type bombs
7) Iran aims biological warheads at Israel

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

There will be no update this week.

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 prospects for war with Syria and Iran

On November 29, the United Nations General Assembly voted to upgrade the status of the Palestinians at the UN from an ‘observer’ to be a ‘non-member state’ based upon 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. 138 nations voted ‘yes’. 41 abstained. 9 voted ‘no’. Within the 27 countries of the EU, 14 nations voted ‘yes’, 12 abstained, 1 ‘no’.

While not officially a full-fledged member state of the United Nations, Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas declared that the UN General Assembly vote was the “birth certificate” of a Palestinian state. As a result, Abbas said that the Palestinian Authority will officially change its name to a Palestinian state. The new name will appear in the letterhead of official forms and documents and on all government websites. Furthermore, a new “State of Palestine” name plate was put up in the UN General Assembly by Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour. Abbas dedicated the UN “victory”as being a gift to the “soul of the late leader Yasser Arafat.” He went on praising Arafat, saying “this is the day you dreamed of and fought for.” Abbas said that the Palestinians would continue to march in the footsteps of Arafat. Yasser Arafat was the leader of the PLO. He died November 11, 2004. The PLO was founded in 1964 by Egyptian President Gamal Nasser. Its stated aim was to work to reclaim the state of Israel from the Jewish people. Arafat become leader of the PLO in 1969. In speaking about the results of the UN General Assembly vote, Abbas said the world said ‘yes’ to Palestine’s freedom and independence and ‘no’ to the occupation and settlements.” As a result, Abbas declared Palestine is “a country under occupation.”

In speaking to supporters in Ramallah during a rally organized by the PA to celebrate the UN General Assembly’s vote, Abbas said he would focus his efforts now on “restoring unity of the Palestinians and their lands and institutions.” The Palestinian faction Hamas who governs the Gaza Strip responded to Abbas’s call for unity by calling for “urgent meetings” between the two sides to solve their differences.

Israel believes that the UN General Assembly vote was intended by the Palestinians to gain recognition of a PLO state with East Jerusalem as its capital by the international community while by-passing direct negotiations. As a result, the Israeli Cabinet voted to reject the UN General Assembly vote because the 1993 Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority mandated that all final status issues were to be solved through direct negotiations. The Israeli cabinet passed a resolution which stated the following: “The Jewish People have a natural, historical and legal right to its homeland with its eternal capital Jerusalem. The State of Israel as the state of the Jewish People has rights and claims to areas that are under dispute in the Land of Israel.” Furthermore, the Israeli Cabinet declared that the UN General Assembly resolution will not become the basis for future negotiations between the State of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Before the cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated that Israel will increase and hasten settlement activity in response to what he labelled “an attack against Zionism.” Netanyahu said: “Israel will not allow Judea and Samaria to become a terror base from which rockets will be launched into Israeli towns.” He also said that there would be no Palestinian State until Israel is recognized as a Jewish State and their would be a signed document wherein the Palestinians would agree to end the conflict.

Netanyahu said that Israel has the right to respond in a way that it chooses when the Palestinians take ‘provocative’ action against Israel. So, as a result of the UN General Assembly vote, Israel Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz announced that tax money that Israel collects for the PLO on a monthly basis will not be transferred to them. Instead, those funds will be used to pay part of the PA’s electricity debt to Israel which has been in arrears for some time. The Palestinians electricity bill debt amount to about 2 months of tax money. The Palestinians responded to the Israeli decision by calling it an “act of piracy and blackmail.”

In further reaction to the UN General Assembly vote, Israel decided to approve the construction of an additional 3,000 housing units in Jerusalem and the West Bank. In addition, the planning procedures of thousands of additional Jewish homes in Jerusalem and the settlement blocs will be advanced including in the segment connecting the Jewish West Bank city of Ma’ale Adumim with Jerusalem known as the E1 project. Building in E-1, which would create contiguity between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim to the northeast beyond the 1967 borders known as the Green Line. Prior to the UN General Assembly vote on November 29, the United States urged Israel to not allow construction in the area known as E-1 between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim as a possible response to the Palestinian UN bid. Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned Israel’s announcement, saying it was “defying the whole international community and insisting on destroying the two-state solution.

In speaking about the decision, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “Israel will continue building in Jerusalem and every place on the State of Israel’s map of strategic interests.”The international response to the Israel decision to announce building plans in the West Bank and Jerusalem including E-1 was swift and harsh. For years, US and European officials have told the Israelis that E1 is a red line. The United States said that they were blindsided by the decision and that it was “counterproductive” to achieving a two-state solution. British foreign secretary,William Hague, said:  “Israeli settlements are illegal under international law and undermine trust between the parties.” Britain, France, Spain, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Brazil and Australia summoned their Israeli ambassador to protest the decision. Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel threatened Benjamin Netanyahu in a meeting between them to renounce their plans to build additional Jewish homes in the West Bank and Jerusalem or face international isolation.

In a press conference with Merkel, Netanyahu defended the Israeli decision to go forward with plans to build Jewish homes in the E-1 area. Netanayu said that E1 is a “small corridor” between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim. “Successive governments from Yitzhak Rabin on down to my predecessor, Mr. [Ehud] Olmert, have also said that this will be incorporated in a final peace treaty between Israel,” Netanyahu said. “The curious thing is that most governments who have looked at these suggestions, these proposals over the years – including the Palestinians themselves as revealed in leaked documents – understand that these blocs, these arrangements are going to be part of Israel in a final political settlement of peace.” “So I have not changed the policy. This is a consistent policy.

Israeli officials believe that the United States approved the summoning of Israeli ambassadors by various European nations. These officials said: “We would not be mistaken to say that Europe was acting with the encouragement of the United States. The United States authorized Europe to put political pressure upon Israel and seek to punish it for their decisions following the UN vote. The European move is essentially a US response as Britain asked the United States how they should handle the situation.”

The US decided that it would not punish the Palestinian Authority for submitting their upgrade bid at the UN General Assembly on Nov 29 although they voted against the measure and strongly condemned it after the vote. The US Senate was considering imposing restrictions on the $600 million in annual U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority but in the end decided to not impose any restrictions.

Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel made comment about the Obama administration attitude toward Israel as reported by the New Yorker magazine. It is reported that Emanuel had spoken angrily and bluntly about the way Netanyahu has repeatedly betrayed the friendship of the United States,” pointing to his “embarrassing the Obama administration by taking punitive actions against the Palestinian Authority”  – after the administration voted against the Palestinians at the UN, supported Israel during the recent Gaza fighting and funded the Iron Dome missile defense system. He also criticized Netanyahu for “lecturing” Obama during a meeting in May, 2011 after Obama said that a PLO state should be established based upon 1967 borders with agreed land swaps. Emanuel said Obama would no longer tolerate this type of behavior.

Israel reacted to the international pressure with grit and greater resolve. An Israeli spokesman said: “There will be no change in the decision that has been made.” In fact, Israel advanced an additional building project in East Jerusalem which is expected to have about 2,600 homes. In truth, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu contended that the conflict with the Palestinians is not about land but our the existence of the state of Israel. Netanyahu explained: “Israel has left various areas captured in the 1967 wars like the Gaza Strip but yet Hamas has fired missiles into Israel towns and cities. The root of the conflict is the very existence of the State of Israel and the refusal by the Palestinians to recognize the State of Israel in any borders whatsoever. He noted that Palestinian maps consistently show “Palestine” as the entire area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean illustrating a lack of acceptance of Israel’s right to exist.

Despite all this, Netanyahu says that he is still committed to a two-state solution which is negotiated and results in a demilitarized PLO state that recognizes Israel as a state of the Jewish people.

However, despite a promise before the Nov 29 vote that if the UN General Assembly upgraded the Palestinians to become a ‘non-member state’ that he would enter into direct peace talks with Israel with no preconditions, after the vote Abbas took the following position: he is willing to restart negotiations with Israel right away but on the condition of what he said were UN resolutions that brand Israel’s West Bank settlements as illegal. Abbas said: “The Fourth Geneva Convention now applies to the State of Palestine within the 1967 borders. The lands of the State of Palestine are occupied and it is forbidden to make any demographic changes in them. It is forbidden to transfer the citizens of another country to our state. The presence of Israeli settlers is in violation of international law.” In the letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Security Council, the Palestinians accused Israel of ‘war crimes’ by expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and that Israel was behaving “in a rogue, hostile and arrogant manner, contravening all principles and rules of international law and reacting with contempt to the will of the international community. What is important now is that the State of Palestine and its capital, east Jerusalem, are under occupation. We will never accept a Palestinian state without Jerusalem.” In the letter, the Palestinians insisted that “a clear message must be sent to Israel that all of its illegal policies must be ceased or that it will be held accountable and will have to bear the consequences if its violations and obstruction of peace efforts.” The Palestinians have called continued Israeli building of Jewish homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem especially plans to build in E-1 is a “red line” which the internationally community cannot allow Israel to cross.

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar on called on Fatah, the faction headed by Mahmood Abbas,  to join his movement in the fight against Israel and to stop wasting time and effort with the peace process. Speaking at a rally for Hamas supporters in Gaza City, Zahar said, “Our hands are extended to Fatah to join the program of [armed] resistance and the liberation of Palestine. Let’s join hands and carry the rifle together.” Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh thanked the 138 countries at the UN General Assembly who voted in favor of the Palestinian bid. He said his movement welcomed the bid and that it was continuing its policies of not recognizing Israel and not conceding “an inch of Palestinian land” to Israel. Meanwhile, Abbas told reporters in Ramallah that his top priority now was to end the rivalry with Hamas, and said he saw no reason why the two sides could not reach an agreement on holding presidential and parliamentary elections. Nabil Sha’ath, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, expressed optimism regarding the prospects of achieving unity with Hamas. He said that the Palestinian Authority had released a number of Hamas members from its prisons in the West Bank. The PA has also decided to reopen Hamas institutions in the West Bank that had been closed for security reasons, Sha’ath said. He said that the PA leadership was prepared for “full partnership” with Hamas in any political move in the future and added that the two sides would meet in Cairo soon to discuss ending their dispute.

Based upon the current situation, British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged the United States to take a more active role in seeking a lasting settlement between Israelis and Palestinians, warning of a “final chance” for a two-state solution. “The United States needs to show the necessary leadership on the peace process over the coming months because they have crucial leverage with Israel and no other country has,” Hague said. In addition, according to a Palestinian official, European countries are discussing a new peace plan led by Britain, France and Russia that envisions a Palestinian state alongside Israel. After the UN vote, Turkey hosted 15 countries, represented at foreign ministers level, who celebrated the upgrade of the PLO status at the UN with a special “Palestinian flag” cake. They also called for the Palestinians to become full members of the United Nations which can only be done through the UN Security Council.

The Catholic church approved of the UN General Assembly vote and called for Jerusalem to be regarded as an international city.

Israel declared Jerusalem its “united and eternal” capital in 1980 after annexing East Jerusalem. The international community has not recognized the annexation. In response to the international siege against Israel’s right to build Jewish homes in Jerusalem, Samaria regional council head Gershon Mesika called on Israel to annex the West Bank. Israel Knesset Member Yariv Levin (Likud), chairman of the Knesset’s House Committee, said that he has a bill ready that calls for Israel to annex the West Bank and it is ready to be submitted for Knesset approval. Furthermore, Environment Minister Gilad Erdan of the Likud also agreed that Israel needs to annex the West Bank. Finally, Moshe Feiglin, a candidate to be in the next Israeli government as member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has been praying and is encouraging other Jews to pray at the Temple Mount. He is also calling for Israel to rebuild the Temple.

Reporter Christiane Amanpour will be giving a special report on the history of the land of Israel on ABC starting on December 21.  Undoubtedly, the report won’t accept the covenant that the God of Israel made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as being the solution to the Israel / Palestinian conflict. International pressure upon Israel over Jerusalem continues to build. Benjamin Netanyahu has a critical decision to make now and in the near future. Will he continue to stand for Jewish rights to live in the West Bank and Jerusalem or will he bow to international pressure which view Jewish homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as being illegal under international law? His decision will help determine the course of world and Biblical history. That decision must be made and continue to be made in the near future. Only time will tell what it will be.

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

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Text of Resolution for Palestinian upgrade to ‘non-member state’ at the UN General Assembly
2) How the Nations Voted at the UN
3) Palestine gets a ‘birth certificate’
4) Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah: Now, we have a state
5) Abbas says Palestine now ‘a country under occupation’
6) Palestinian Authority officially changing its name to Palestine
7) Palestinian envoy gets ‘state’ name plate in UN assembly
8) Abbas: World said no to occupation
9) World embraces Palestine; snubs US, Israel
10) Israel Cabinet ‘rejects’ Palestinian UN statehood vote
11) ‘Israel has the right to respond to ‘provocative’ PA moves’
12) Israel Withholds One Month’s Tax Revenues from PA
13) No More Tax Funds from Israel to PA
14) PA denounces gvn’t decision to withhold tax revenues
15) 3,000 homes beyond Green Line okayed
16) Israel okays building of 3,000 units in J’lem, W. Bank
17) Netanyahu: We’ll continue building in Jerusalem
18) US reportedly blindsided by Israel’s move to approve settlement building
19) Clinton and Hague attack Israel decision to build new settlements
20) For first time, Britain, France may recall ambassadors in protest at Israel’s settlement construction
21) Australia summons Israeli envoy to protest settlement plans
22) UK threatens to revisit EU trade agreements with Israel
23) Europe threatens to withdraw Israel support over East Jerusalem plans
24) Merkel to warn Netanyahu: Promote peace process or face world seclusion
25) Merkel, Netanyahu ‘agree to disagree’ on settlement plans
26) US: Israeli settlement plan ‘counterproductive’
27) US issues 3rd, 4th censures of Jerusalem settlement plan
28) Palestinians call on US to imitate European rebuke of Israeli envoys
29) Britain to Israel: Reverse settlement expansion or Europe will consider further steps
30) Sources: US behind European protest measures
31) Israel accuses US of backing European settlement backlash
32) Obama punts to Congress over repercussions for UN Palestine vote
33) US Senate doesn’t pass penalties for Palestinians
34) Ottawa softens position on Palestinian aid
35) Analysis: Rahm Emanuel and electoral interference
36) Netanyahu, citing Rabin precedent, says Israel will continue to build in settlements
37) Israel to approve new Jewish community in e. J’lem
38) Civil Administration advances E1 construction plan
39) PM’s office says Israel won’t back down as more envoys summoned over settlement building plan
40) ‘U.S. angered by claim that new building at E-1 aimed at Obama, not Palestinians’
41) Netanyahu: Conflict with Arabs is Not About Settlements
42) PM says Israel still committed to 2-state solution
43) ‘Incitement against Israel in the PA is bad, getting worse’
44) Hamas tells Fatah: Let’s fight Israel together
45) Hamas: State needs armed struggle with Israel
46) Abbas willing to restart talks with Israel, but only on basis of UN resolutions that brand settlements illegal
47) No peace talks with Israel without settlement freeze: Palestinian official
48) PA: Israel must be held accountable for settlements
49) Abbas says settlement plans are a ‘red line’
50) PA hints it may turn to ICC over settlement plans
51) PA threatens ICC action over settlement plans
52) U.K. to U.S.: Take more active role on Mideast peace
53) Europe mulls new Mideast peace plan: Palestinian official
54) ‘Turkey wants Palestine to become full member of UN’
55) Vatican Hails UN Palestinian State Vote, Calls For Special Status For Jerusalem
56) Mesika: PA Killed Oslo, Time for Annexation
57) Levin: Bill to Annex Judea and Samaria is Ready
58) Likud hopeful prays on Temple Mount, breaking taboo
59) Feiglin leads minyan on Temple Mount
60) The World against Netanyahu
61) Join Anti-Israel Journalist in Exploring Jewish Roots?
62) Yachimovich cancels meeting with Peretz
63) Analysis: Playing into Netanyahu’s hands

DEBKA reports that unusual activity has been taking place at Syrian chemical weapons sites which suggest that the Assad government may be preparing to use them. In recent days, the Syrian rebels have made major strategic gains against Assad’s forces and begun to turn the tide of war. There are rumors that Assad has left Damascus.  On December 4, DEBKA reported that convoys of the Syrian army’s chemical weapons units headed out of Damascus under cover of dark and turned north up the road to Aleppo. White House spokesman Jay Carney said: “We have an increased concern about the possibility of the regime taking the desperate act of using its chemical weapons.”  Such a move “would cross a red line for the United States.”

High-ranking officers in the Israel Defense Forces’ Northern Command as saying: “The coming hours and days are extremely critical for Syria. The situation on our northern front could blow up any moment.” In response, the USS Eisenhower Strike Group transited the Suez Canal from the Persian Gulf on Dec. 1, sailing up to the Syrian coast with 8 fighter bomber squadrons of Air Wing Seven on its decks and 8,000 sailors, airmen and Marines. The USS Eisenhower group joins the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group which carries 2,500 Marines.  Facing Syria now are 10,000 US fighting men, 70 fighter-bombers and at least 17 warships, including the three Iwo Jima amphibious craft, a guided missile cruiser and 10 destroyers and frigates.

Meanwhile, it is being reported that the Syrian military has loaded the precursor chemicals for sarin, a deadly nerve gas, into aerial bombs that could be dropped onto the Syrian people from dozens of fighter-bombers. The nerve agents have now been locked and loaded inside the bombs. At this point, the sarin bombs haven’t been loaded onto planes and that Assad hasn’t issued a final order to use them. So, the situation is quite critical.

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

The link to these articles is as follows:

1) Unusual activity at Syrian chemical weapons sites amid rumors Assad is dead or fled
2) U.S. “planning to take action” if Syria crosses chemical weapons “red line”
3) Assad’s chemical weapons units head out of Damascus toward Aleppo
4) USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier arrives off Syrian shore
5) Syria loads chemical weapons into bombs; military awaits Assad’s order

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said that Iran will continue enriching uranium “with intensity”, with the number of enrichment centrifuges it has operating to increase substantially through the spring, 2013. Meanwhile, US diplomat Robert Wood said that “If by March Iran has not begun substantive cooperation with the IAEA, the United States … would urge the board to consider reporting this lack of progress to the UN Security Council.”

The link to these articles is as follows:

1) ‘Iran will press on with uranium enrichment’
2) US sets deadline for Iran to cooperate with IAEA

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

The United Nations General Assembly voted in favor of upgrading the status of the PLO at the UN from an ‘observer’ to a ‘non-member state’ at the UN. There were 138 votes in favor. 41 obstain. 9 against. Among the nations voting in favor were Russia, China, France, Spain, Greece, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. Among the nations abstaining were Germany, Great Britain and Australia. Among the nations voting no were the United States, Canada and the Czech Republic and Israel.

Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas said that he would seek reconciliation talks with Hamas and visit the Gaza Strip after the vote. Abbas also promised to renew direct negotiations with Israel if the upgrade request was approved. Israel said that approval of the upgrade request would delay Palestinian statehood. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the United Nations can’t force Israel to compromise on its security. After the vote, Israel announced the building of 3,000 new Jewish homes to be built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The United States, Britain, France and the European Union quickly condemned the announcement.

The worldwide focus on Jerusalem has started. The conflict over the land and Jerusalem is part of the prophesied end-time battle between Jacob and Esau. It will result in the judgment of the nations.

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

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Text of the draft UNGA resolution for Palestinian Arab non-member statehood
2) Palestine wins historic upgrade at the UN
3) 65 years after approving partition plan, UN General Assembly upgrades ‘Palestine’ to nonmember observer state
4) Hamas lends support to Abbas’s UN statehood bid
5) Mahmoud Abbas to visit Gaza after statehood win
6) U.K. to U.S.: Take more active role on Mideast peace
7) PM: UN bid will delay Palestinian statehood
8.)  PM: UN can’t force Israel to compromise on security
9) Ehud Barak announces he is quitting political life

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 results of the Hamas / Israel conflict in the Gaza
2) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process

Israel just concluded Operation Pillar of Defense against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The operation lasted from November 14 – 21. It concluded with a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas brokered by Egypt with the influence of the United States.

The background leading up to the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is as follows. According to a summary by the Israel Security Agency, 92 separate attacks against Israel by Hamas occurred in October, with a total 171 rockets and mortar shells fired against Israel. On 24 October, 80 rockets and mortars were fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel over a 24-hour period. On November 8, a smuggling tunnel exploded in southern Gaza near Israeli soldiers on the Israeli side of the fence as a group of Israeli soldiers were in the middle of an operation to uncover it. On 10 November, militants fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli Jeep on routine patrol near Israel’s side of the border, wounding four soldiers, one of whom is in critical condition. On November 11, Hamas fired over 100 rockets into Israel over a 24-hour period. Hamas rockets fired into southern Israel caused the Color Red siren to sound in Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gan Yavne and surrounding areas causing Israelis within seven kilometers of the Gaza Strip to remain near protected areas. School was canceled in the affected areas. According to the Israeli government, Operation Pillar of Defense began in response to these three events.

Israel’s Ehud Barak said that the operation’s objectives were “strengthening Israel’s deterrence against Hamas, damaging Hamas’s rocket arsenal, damaging and hurting Hamas as an organization and minimizing injury to the Israeli civilians. The operation started on November 14 with the killing of Ahmed Jabari, top leader of the Gaza military wing of Hamas. During the operation,  Israel launched more than 1,450 air, tank, and naval strikes against targets in the Gaza Strip during the operation, including rocket launching pads, weapons depots, individual militants, and buildings of the Hamas regime. Hamas fired over 1,000 rockets against Israel.

The Palestinian militant groups fired over 1,456 Iranian Fajr-5, Russian Grad rockets, Qassams and mortars into Rishon LeZion, Beersheba, Ashdod, Ashkelon and other population centers; Tel Aviv was hit for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War, and rockets were aimed at Jerusalem. By 19 November, over 252 Israelis had been physically injured in rocket attacks and thirty more had been treated for acute stress reaction. Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system had intercepted about 409 rockets, another 142 rockets had fallen on Gaza itself. A bomb attack against a Tel Aviv bus that wounded over 20 civilians received the “blessing” of Hamas.

The United States, United Kingdom, Canada and other Western countries expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself and condemned the Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel. The European Union’s position came in a statement from foreign ministers which represented the 27 European Union countries which stated the following:

“The European Union strongly condemns the rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip, which Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza must cease immediately. There can be no justification for the deliberate targeting of innocent civilians. Israel has the right to protect itself from these kind of attacks.” However, the European Union said that Israel only has the right to proportional self-defense.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said: “Hamas bears principal responsibility for the current crisis. I utterly condemn rocket attacks from Gaza into southern Israel by Hamas and other armed groups. This creates an intolerable situation for Israeli civilians in southern Israel, who have the right to live without fear of attack from Gaza.”

President Barack Obama said: “The precipitating event here…that’s causing the current crisis…was an ever-escalating number of missiles; they were landing not just in Israeli territory, but in areas that are populated. And there’s no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders. So we are fully supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself from missiles landing on people’s homes and workplaces and potentially killing civilians. And we will continue to support Israel’s right to defend itself.”

Iran, Egypt, Turkey and several other Arab and Muslim countries condemned the Israeli operation.

The Israeli army says that out of 177 Palestinians were killed, 120 of them militants. The Israeli air force says that it took all possible measures to avoid harming Palestinian civilians, utilizing precision strikes and issuing preemptive warnings to Palestinian residents. The Israeli army disseminated warning leaflets instructing civilians to avoid areas used by Hamas for firing rockets and also phoned residents in warnings. Targets were deliberately missed on the first strike to allow the non-combatants to vacate the area and missions were aborted because of a civilian presence.

Four Israeli civilians and one soldier have been killed in Palestinian rocket attacks. Furthermore, over 250 Israelis were injured.

On 21 November, Mohamed Kamel Amr, the Egyptian Foreign Minister, and Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, announced a ceasefire. According to the agreement, Israel and all Palestinian militant groups agreed to halt “all hostilities.” For the Palestinians, that means an end to Israeli airstrikes and assassinations of wanted militants. For Israel, it brings a halt to rocket fire and attempts at cross-border incursions from Gaza.

Egypt is the sponsor of the agreement and shall receive assurances of each party’s commitment to the agreed deal. The Gaza cease-fire deal elevated the role and status of Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood to be a major player in the Middle East conflict between the Palestinians and Israel. The Arab Spring of 2011 has produced an alliance of Sunni Islamic states and movements, including Hamas, which Egypt plays a central role.

By elevating Egypt as a key player in the agreement, the Obama administration seems to be revealing their Mideast strategy that attempts to deal with the results of the Arab Spring. The current goal is to build a Sunni axis that will stand against the radical Shiite axis headed by Iran.

US Secretary of Defense, Hillary Clinton praised Morsi’s efforts by saying: “This is a critical moment for the region. Egypt’s new government is assuming the responsibility and leadership that has long made this country a cornerstone of regional stability and peace.”

Morsi is aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s most powerful political group and Hamas’ own parent organization. In ideology, the Brotherhood supports the use of force against Israel to liberate “Muslim lands.” Only two months ago, the Brotherhood’s supreme leader, Mohammed Badie, proclaimed that regaining Jerusalem can “only come through holy jihad.” The group opposes Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

Egypt’s task is to ensuring that militant rocket fire into Israel stops and that Israel allows the opening of the long-blockaded Gaza Strip and stops its own attacks against Hamas. However, during the fighting, Morsi and his aides sided openly with Hamas accusing Israel of starting the assault and condemning its bombardment. During the days of Operation Pillar of Defense, Hamas promised to “continue carrying the rifle…until the liberation of Palestine and the defeat of the occupation.

Morsi has established his position as a regional player and a partner of the US administration. Because of his role, he improves his chances of receiving billions from the West despite the fact that it has become Hamas’ sponsor, does not recognize Israel and refuses to speak with its government,

Can Morsi be trusted? On November 22, Morsi issued a domestic presidential decree on Egyptian state television stating that any challenges to his decrees, laws and decisions were banned. In response, a prominent Egyptian opposition leader called Morsi a “new pharaoh”.

The natural relations between Israel and the Sunni Islamist bloc are of conflict. For now, it is only working because of Israeli military superiority and Egypt is economically dependent on Western aid mostly from the United States and thus the US has influence over Egypt regarding the matter.

After the ceasefire was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Operation Pillar of Defense had been successful and thanked US President Obama for his “unwavering support for Israel’s right to defend itself.” Netanyahu added that Israel and the US will cooperate to stop the smuggling of weapons from Iran into the Gaza strip.

However, Netanyahu also warned that “we are ready to act should the quiet be violated.” He went on to say: “Now we are giving the cease-fire a chance. This is right thing to do for the State of Israel at this time but we are also prepared for the possibility that the cease-fire will not be upheld and we will know how to act if need be. The point is how to prevent Hamas from re-arming. If they re-arm, they will take risks. If they have weapons, they will use them.”

Netanyahu discussed this matter with US President Barack Obama and together they decided that Israel and the USA “would work together to fight the smuggling of weapons to the terror organizations – weapons, virtually all of which come from Iran.”

Netanyahu agreed to a ceasefire on Nov. 21, after President Barack Obama personally pledged to start deploying US troops in the Egyptian Sinai next week. Obama’s pledge addressed Israel’s primary concern of the conflict which is the total stoppage of the flow of Iranian arms and missiles to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Israel Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz said that Operation Pillar of Defense achieved of its objectives explaining that Israel attacked “everything that moves in the Strip,” referring to “terror infrastructure, tunnels… weapons caches, launching sites and strategic facilities.”

Israel Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that despite the government’s decision to agree to a cease-fire, Israel would “eventually need to overthrow the Hamas regime” in Gaza. He said that a ground operation in the Gaza would entail reoccupying the Gaza Strip, and partaking in such an effort only two months before Israeli elections on January 22 was the wrong move and that the occupation of Gaza and the overthrow of Hamas is a process that would take more than four months.”

In the face of this US-Israel-Egyptian understanding, Hamas cannot credibly claim to have won guarantees to force Israel to end the Gaza blockade. Instead, Gaza’s Hamas rulers will be forced to watch as US troops in Sinai, just across its border, break up the smuggling of weapons intended for the Gaza Strip.

Hamas reacted to the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire agreement by declaring “victory” over Israel. Ahmed Bahr, a senior Hamas official, welcomed the cease-fire agreement.

“The resistance groups have achieved a historic victory and paved the way for the battle of liberating Palestine,” he said.

Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said that Israel had “failed in all its goals.” He also said, “I would like to thank Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi… Egypt acted responsibly and understood the demands of the resistance and the Palestinian people.”

Regarding the peace process, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s request to refrain from asking the UN to upgrade the status of a Palestinian state to become a non-member state. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said:

“President Abbas told Clinton that we have made a decision to go to the UN General Assembly. The Palestinians are not interested in a confrontation with the US or any other country. We are practicing our right to establish a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital. This will happen on November 29.”

The fighting between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip is most likely going to cause Mahmood Abbas to have a greater desire to bring the Palestinian request to be recognized at the UN General Assembly as a state based upon 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital wanting to make himself and the PA more relevant after being overshadowed by Hamas during the eight-day crisis with Israel.

In an interview with CNN, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said “I accept a Palestinian state according to the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as the capital, with a Palestinian right of return.” Pushed about his party’s refusal to recognize Israel, Mashaal said such a declaration could only be made once a Palestinian state has been created.

While opposing a Palestinian bid at the UN General Assembly, the US is urging Israel to not allow construction in the area known as E-1 which is located between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim as a possible response to the Palestinian bid for statehood recognition on November 29.

Finally, France indicated that they would support a Palestinian bid for recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN on November 29. If this reports proves accurate, how will this influence other EU states ? How will this influence the position of the United States and Britain after the vote is taken? Will this cause Obama to support a PLO state at the United Nations Security Council after November 29 ?

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

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Wikipedia Encyclopedia: Operation Pillar of Defense
2) Gaza Smuggling Tunnel Explodes During IDF Operation
3) Gaza: Anti-tank missile hits IDF jeep; 4 soldiers injured
4) Gaza groups pound Israel with over 100 rockets
5) Israel hammers Hamas in Gaza offensive
6) Wider offensive and possible ground operation on the table, as cabinet okays reserves call-up
7) EU: Israel has right to proportional self-defense
8) Israel and Hamas Agree to Gaza Peace Deal
9) Gaza deal seals major role for Egypt’s president
10) Gaza confrontation showcases new Sunni bloc
11) The Sunni axis
12) Egypt’s Morsi: statesman abroad, a ‘pharaoh’ at home?
13) PM Netanyahu threatens action if truce fails
14) Obama’s pledge of US troops to Sinai next week won Israel’s nod for ceasefire
15) Gantz says IDF attacked all possible terror targets
16) FM: Israel will eventually need to overthrow Hamas
17) Hamas says ‘Israel failed in its goals’, thanks Iran
18) Hamas declares ‘victory’ after cease-fire
19) Abbas to Clinton: UN statehood bid to move forward
20) Mashaal: I accept a Palestinian state on ’67 borders
21) After Gaza, focus turns to Palestinian bid at UN
22) France indicates support for Palestinian UN vote

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 and Hamas / Israel at war in the Gaza
2) The current situation with Iran

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that he is planning to ask the UN General Assembly to upgrade the status of a Palestinian state at the UN from an observer to non-member on November 29.  Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said that Abbas will attend the UN General Assembly session on November 29 for the vote. The decision was made after consulting with Arab League foreign ministers in Egypt and speaking in Saudi Arabia with King Abdullah. Abbas said that Arab ministers pledged to support the Palestinian statehood bid and Egypt was working to convince other countries to vote in favor of the resolution. The date in question – November 29 – has dual significance: On November 29, 1947, the UN voted to accept the Partition Plan for Palestine; and in 1977, the UN General Assembly named Nov. 29 the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

Abbas said, “The Palestinian appeal to the UN is meant to make us a non-member state thereby upgrading our status from that of ‘disputed territory’ – which is how we are widely perceived by Israel – to that of an occupied state.” He also said that the move was aimed at salvaging the two-state solution and “confronting [Israel’s] settlement onslaught.”

The Palestinians need a majority vote from the current 193-members of the UN.  The Palestinians already have majority support for the resolution as 132 nations diplomatically recognize a PLO state based upon 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. However, they feel their efforts would carry more weight if European and other Western nations support them.

“We are under pressure from several parties to make us backtrack on this right,” Abbas said. “But we will not backtrack. We are going in November 2012.”

US President Barack Obama told Abbas in a telephone conversation that his administration opposes the Palestinian UN initiative. The US did not release any press release about the content of the phone conversation but Palestinian officials said that Obama’s tone was not aggressive but normal.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saab Erakat said: “Obama did not utter any threats but there are threats from the Congress, which has a draft bill, according to which it would demand closing the PLO office in Washington and cutting off aid if the Palestinian leadership pursues any move at the UN and its related agencies.”

Abbas told Obama that the Palestinians were intent on seeking a Palestinian upgrade at the United Nations despite American objections because “The train has left the station”.

European and Arab foreign ministers met but failed to jointly endorse the unilateral Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations during a meeting in Egypt calling instead for a negotiated two-state solution. But when it came to talking about obstacles to the peace process, the European and Arab ministers blamed only the West Bank settlements and Israel’s security barrier. In the Cairo Declaration, the EU and Arab League ministers called for the “removal of all obstacles that prevent an immediate resumption of negotiations between the parties as well as the resolution of all issues related [to] achieving a solution of two states living side-by-side in peace and security.” However, the portion of the declaration addressing the Israeli- Palestinian conflict spoke only of Israeli actions as obstacles to peace stating:

“The ministers stressed their common position that Israeli settlements and the separation barrier built anywhere in the occupied Palestinian territory are illegal under international law and constitute an obstacle to peace.”

The Palestinians believe 12 EU countries could support their UN bid. In private discussion it was learned that five EU nations openly support the Palestinians UN bid. In addition, seven other EU countries expressed intent to vote for the proposal. Although the EU would like to reach a common position among its 27 member states, this is unlikely to happen.

Referring to the US and other countries that are opposed to the unilateral statehood bid, Abbas said: “We want to ask all those who have endorsed the Israeli stance: Aren’t you opposed to settlements? Didn’t you vote in the Security Council and General Assembly against Israel’s decision to annex Jerusalem? Didn’t the UN vote in favor of resolution 194 which guarantees the right of return of refugees to their homes? Didn’t you support the two-state solution and ending occupation, which began in 1967?”

China said it would vote in favor. A Chinese official said:

“China always supports the Palestinian people’s just cause of recovering their national and legitimate rights and interests, and will always hold that independent statehood is the lawful right of Palestinian people, and also the basis for a two-state solution.”

Israel has threatened to take retaliatory measures against the PA should it make good on their pledge to head to the UN. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz has threatened economic sanctions including withholding taxes which Israel collects for the Palestinians on a monthly basis. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman suggested removing Abbas from power if he refuses to drop the Palestinian bid for UN recognition. He is also considering a draft document proposing Israel offer the Palestinians partial statehood in exchange for the Palestinians ending their UN bid. The plan would give the Palestinians sovereignty over about half the West Bank with the final borders to be negotiated. Furthermore, Israel instructed its ambassadors to warn that Israel may revoke all or part of the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO which set up the Palestinian Authority under an interim peace agreement if the Palestinian bid at the UN was successful.

A Palestinian spokesman said: “We disapprove of the talk about sanctions. It is shameful to talk about sanctions. This is the first step toward political independence and the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Abbas said: “Our hearts are open to the Americans and Israelis. We have told them that when we obtain the status of non-member in the UN, we would be willing to resume Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations to talk about the core issues of the conflict.” Abbas also reiterated his commitment to the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees to their former homes inside Israel on the basis of UN resolution 194.

In retaliation for Hamas launching hundreds of into Southern Israel, Israel launched a major offensive against Palestinian militants by killing the military commander of Hamas in an air strike. He was caught driving in a black Mercedes in Gaza City. Within minutes of the death of Ahmed Al-Jaabari, big explosions shook Gaza as the Israeli air force further struck selected military targets. In the attack, Israel eliminated the majority of Hamas’s medium-range Fajr-5 rockets which have the capacity to reach Tel Aviv and dozens of Hamas’s medium range (up to 40km) underground rocket launch and infrastructure sites in the air strikes. Such a strike requires enormous amounts of accurate intelligence, painstakingly assembled and verified, since organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah hide their strategic weapons amid the civilian population. The Hamas internal security headquarters in southern Gaza was also destroyed.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the onset of a broad aerial and naval bombardment of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip that the Israeli military was ready to widen its operations until its objectives were reached. Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak noted that Operation Pillar of Defense would not be completed in “one fell swoop,” but that the objectives would be attained in due time. Barak said that the operation’s objectives were “strengthening deterrence, damaging the rocket arsenal, damaging and hurting Hamas and minimizing injury to the civilians on the homefront of the State of Israel.”

After confirming the death of Ahmed Jabari, commander of Hamas’s military arm, Hamas announced: We are now at war with Israel.  Hamas has announced a general call-up and threatened to respond not just with rockets but suicide attacks within Israel.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi recalled his ambassador from Tel Aviv and decided to call a UN Security Council session to stop “Israeli aggression.”

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

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Abbas rebuffs pressure on UN upgrade plan
2) Abbas tells Obama he’s intent on UN status bid
3) Rejecting Obama’s Request, Abbas Presses Ahead With U.N. ‘Palestine’ Application
4) Palestinian UN bid to proceed despite US plea
5) ‘Abbas confirms statehood bid to Arab League chief’
6) Palestinian UN bid by Nov 29: Palestinian negotiator
7) Abbas Confirms Palestinian U.N. Bid on November 29
8) PA president: Statehood bid to go forward Nov. 29
9) Abbas confirms Palestinian U.N. bid on November 29 despite U.S. disapproval
10) PA to present UN bid on Nov. 29
11) Text of the draft UNGA resolution for Palestinian Arab non-member statehood
12) Israel mulls recognizing Palestinian state
13) FM threatens to overthrow Abbas, cancel Oslo Accords if Palestinians go ahead with UN statehood bid
14) PA misses EU-Arab League endorsement of UN bid
15) Palestinians: 12 EU nations to support our UN bid
16) China reaffirms support for Palestinian UN bid
17) Israel launches Gaza offensive, kills Hamas commander
18) A stunning initial success for the IDF. Now what?
19) Wider offensive and possible ground operation on the table, as cabinet okays reserves call-up
20) Israel air strikes continue after death of Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari. Hamas: It’s war
21) Egypt recalls envoy over IAF air strikes. Iron Dome hits 17 out of 50 missiles

In his first press conference since winning reelection, President Barack Obama said that he would “make a push” in the near future for talks with Iran on its nuclear program. He said:

“I will try to make a push in the coming months to see if we can open up a dialogue with Iran. There is still a window of time for us to resolve this diplomatically,” which he said was his preferred option. But he stressed, “We’re not going to let Iran get a nuclear weapon.”

Obama said tough economic sanctions imposed by Western nations were hurting Iran’s economy and he believed Iranians could find a way to use nuclear energy peacefully while assuring the world that it is not trying to build a weapon.

In another sign diplomacy between Iran and major powers may be poised to resume, diplomats in Washington said officials from five major world powers and Germany planned to meet next week, possibly in Brussels, to chart strategy for a new round of talks with Iran. The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany – a group collectively known as the P5+1 – planned to send their foreign ministry political directors to the talks.

In October, diplomats had said they were considering asking Iran for stricter limits on its nuclear program in exchange for an easing of sanctions in a long-shot approach aimed at yielding a solution that has eluded them for more than a decade. One option could be for each side to put more on the table – both in terms of demands and possible rewards – than in previous meetings in a bid to break the stalemate despite deep skepticism about the chances of a breakthrough any time soon.

The UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to submit its next quarterly Iran report to member states soon. The report is expected to show a defiant Iran pressing ahead with expanding its controversial nuclear program, despite harsh Western sanctions targeting its vital oil sector, and continuing to sanitize a military site the IAEA wants to visit.

A war with Iran (Medes) and the USA (Babylon) (Isaiah 13) is a tribulation event.

The link to this article is as follows:

1) Obama to push for diplomacy with Iran

From a Biblical prophetic perspective, the reason why the God of Israel would allow these events to happen is because it will result in the end of the exile of the house of Jacob and the reunification of the 12 tribes of Israel (Ephraim and Judah).

We will to be “watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem” and we will not rest until the God of Israel makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth (Isaiah 62).

Shalom in Yeshua the Messiah,

Eddie Chumney
Hebraic Heritage Ministries Int’l