Archive for January, 2014

January 25, 2014: Weekly 5 minute update (Audio Only)

Saturday, January 25th, 2014

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

1) Listen to the audio

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

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

Israeli’s top two negotiators with the Palestinians will travel to the United States to have talks with US Secretary of State, John Kerry, about the parameters for a framework agreement between Israel and the Palestinians to continue peace negotiations. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s envoy Yitzhak Molcho are to meet with Kerry and his staff members, including the US special envoy Martin Indyk. Furthermore, chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said that he would meet with Kerry in the US in the coming week. The Palestinians are expecting Kerry to present them with a written document outlining the US position on the peace process, Erekat said. Kerry has been working for months to reach a framework agreement between Israel and the Palestinians whose goal would be an establishment of a Palestinian state. A senior Palestinian officical, Abed Rabbo said “the plan proposes Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, the establishment of the Palestinian capital in a part of East Jerusalem and solving the refugees problem in accordance with former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s vision. However, Abed Rabbo said there are considerable gaps between the positions of the Israeli government and the Palestinian leadership. Netanyahu ”is refusing to open the file on Jerusalem,” he said, while the Palestinian side is adamant in rejecting Israel’s demand that it be formally recognized as the Jewish state. US Secretary of State, John Kerry, said that the goal of a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians would be the “mutual recognition of the nation-state of the Palestinian people and the nation-state of the Jewish people.”

According to Kerry’s plan, settlement blocs would remain under Israeli control as would border crossings and air space, though American and Jordanian troops would be present as well, Abed Rabbo said. Israel, he added, would retain the right to enter Palestinian territory in hot pursuit. In addition, Israeli negotiators are discussing a series of limited withdrawals linked to progress by the Palestinian Authority in maintaining security, a senior Palestinian official said. “There are talks on long-term security arrangements and standards [that would be] subject to so-called improved performance on security by the Palestinians, overseen by Israel,” said Abed Rabbo, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Israel would determine “in the end, whether the desired level had been reached or not, although the Americans say they will be present and involved in evaluating this performance so that Israel will evacuate some areas, especially from the Jordan Valley.” US Secretary of State, John Kerry affirmed this view by stating that the end of the Israeli-Arab conflict would involve “a phased but complete withdrawal of Israeli forces” from the West Bank. “The Palestinians need to know that at the end of the day, their territory is going to be free of Israeli troops; that occupation ends,” Kerry said. “But the Israelis, rightfully, will not withdraw unless they know that the West Bank will not become a new Gaza. Nobody can blame any leader of Israel for being concerned about that reality,” he added. In his meeting with Kerry, Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he has no intention of evacuating any Israeli settlements from the Jordan Valley or uprooting any Israelis who live there.

Netanyahu said the principles of a future potential agreement with the Palestinians would become clear in the next few days. Once those principles were made clear, Netanyahu said, it would be possible to assess whether the Palestinian leadership is truly seeking a breakthrough.

According to DEBKA, which is an Israeli intelligence and news gathering website, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas launched his “diplomatic intifada” against Israel on January 23 from Moscow. His meetings with President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Abbas distanced himself from the efforts of US Secretary of State, John Kerry’s efforts to reach a framework agreement between the Palestinians and Israel and instead asked Russia to take a more active role in supporting a Palestinian state. DEBKA said that the efforts of Abbas to dump the US and solicit the support of Russia caught the US and Israel unprepared – and surprised their intelligence agencies. Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official bluntly stated that it was time to “end the American monopoly on peacemaking, after the US has proven incapable of imposing a peace agreement upon Israel.” Meanwhile, a former member of the Palestinian negotiating team, Muhammad Shtayyeh, called on the Palestinian Authority to endorse “resistance” against Israel. He said that the Palestinian leadership was planning to seek membership in the UN after the failure of the talks so as to prosecute Israel for “war crimes.” He called for an international conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict similar to the Geneva conference on Syria. The Palestinian goal, Shtayyeh said, was to internationalize the Palestinian issue.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said that despite efforts by Secretary of State John Kerry, the PA has so far gotten nothing out of the ongoing peace negotiations with Israel. As he usually does, Abbas blamed Israel for the lack of progress in the peace talks. “The problem is with the Israeli side and not with us,” Abbas said. He referred to Israeli residents in the West Bank as “invaders” with “no right to Palestinian land”. Abbas also stressed that Palestinian Arabs living inside what is now Israel “were on the land 1,500 years before Israel was established.” “This is why Palestine can never recognize Israel as a Jewish state,” Abbas said. “We demand what was given to us by the international community” in 1967, while acknowledging that limited land swaps would be acceptable. Also, he said that “There can be no peace without stability, nor agreement without occupied east Jerusalem being recognized as the capital of the Palestinian state.” Finally, Abbas rejected the idea of extending the peace talks with Israel beyond the nine-month timeline set to expire at the end of April. Abbas said, “It was agreed that the negotiations would continue for nine months. We have had a large number of negotiation sessions, during which we discussed major issues. There is not talk about an extension. We need to focus on the remaining time and not think about pro-longing the talks.”

Israel’s chief negotiator, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, lashed out at Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, saying in an uncharacteristic critique that if he stuck to his “unacceptable positions” the Palestinians would suffer the consequences. Livni said Abbas’s positions were “not only unacceptable to us but to the whole world, and if he continues to stick to them, then the Palestinians will be the ones to pay the price. Abbas has recently stated that no peace agreement would be possible without all of East Jerusalem [including the Old City] as the Palestinian capital, has staunchly refused to recognize Israel’s self-definition as the state of the Jewish people, and has demanded the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to Israel proper, saying nobody but the refugees themselves could negotiate away that right. US Secretary of State, John Kerry, also warned the Palestinians saying that they need to take advantage of the present opportunity to reach a framework agreement with Israel. The Palestinians, he said, must understand that the current round of talks could be their last chance at a negotiated resolution for the foreseeable future. “If (the Palestinians) fail to achieve statehood now, there is no guarantee they will any time soon.” He added: “If talks fail, Palestinians will be no closer to being masters of their own fate, and no closer to resolving their refugee crisis.” After delivering those stern warnings, Kerry pivoted to positive arguments for peace: “Imagine this time next year if Palestinian businessman and government leaders from the state of Palestine are able to pitch the world’s largest investors (at Davos).”

The European Union warned both Israel and the Palestinians of the high price of losing European Union trade and aid if negotiations collapse, the EU ambassador to Israel said. “We have made it clear to the parties that there will be a price to pay if these negotiations falter,” ambassador Lars Faaborg-Andersen said. “If Israel were to go down the road of continued settlement expansion and were there not to be any result in the current talks, I am afraid that what will transpire is a situation where Israel finds itself increasingly isolated,” he said. In addition, Germany announced that continued grants to Israeli high-tech companies, as well as the renewal of a scientific cooperation agreement, will not be allowed for Israeli companies that are located in West Bank settlements or East Jerusalem will not be eligible for funding. A senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official expressed his fear that the German move will lead other European Union member states to follow suit, adding that this decision represents a significant escalation in European measures against the settlements. As a result, the boycott against the settlements has now spread from EU institutions in Brussels to individual EU members. In response, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he isn’t ignoring the spreading boycott against Israel but economic pressure will not advance the peace process but will only harden Palestinian rejection of it.

If Netanyahu does agree to a framework agreement with the Palestinians, the leader of the Jewish Home political party, Naftali Bennett intends to get the support of enough MKs to block Netanyahu from adopting any of its proposals. In doing so, Bennett is trying to get support against a Palestinian state from members of Netanyahu’s Likud Beytanu political party.  “An alliance with the Right in Likud is an important mutual interest,” Bennett said. “The goal is to torpedo any agreement and prevent deterioration to pre-1967 lines.” While no MKs have signed any written commitment, Bennett is confident he will receive enough support from Likud Beytenu MKs to reject any possible agreement with the Palestinians by making it clear to Netanyahu that he would be left without a government. In doing so, “Netanyahu will realize he has no choice,” a source close to Bennett said. More than 200 right-wing activists met with the Likud Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely and other MKs to strategize how to prevent concessions to the Palestinians. The activists vowed to pressure MKs not to support any steps that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state. “All indications are that the Americans intend to force an agreement on Israel that would endanger its security and its values,” Hotovely warned at the event. “Talk of keeping only settlement blocs is adopting the path of [former Meretz leader] Yossi Beilin and is a sin against the Right. The way to stop such destructive plans is via the Likud and the coalition. The prime minister must understand that he will have no coalition and he will have no party if he accedes to a diplomatic agreement.”

So, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry set to present his “framework” for a deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the coming days, Land of Israel activists will hold a special emergency convention. The event will discuss alternatives to the Kerry plan, which the government of Israel seems ready to accept, even though details are still sketchy. What is known about the plan, say activists, is that it entails significant Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank, and/or relinquishing of territory inside the 1948 armistice lines in exchange for the so-called “settlement blocs” in the West Bank. However, they said that there are other options – specifically, the extension of Israeli sovereignty to the entire Land of Israel. The theme of the convention will be “A single state between the Jordan and the Mediterranean – the State of Israel.” Participating in the event will be leaders and activists of various parties, including Jewish Home and the Likud. In addition, the event will be attended by numerous activist groups, including Women in Green, Kommemiyut, Regavim, the Judea and Samaria Council, and others.

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

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) ‘Kerry plan envisages phased Israeli withdrawals, depending on security’
2) Kerry promises Palestinians an IDF-free state
3) Kerry: Israel’s Security Must be Ensured in Peace Deal
4) Livni lambastes Abbas’s ‘unacceptable positions’
5) Livni, Molcho head for Washington to confer with Kerry on peace talks
6) Netanyahu meets Kerry, says no Jordan Valley settlements will go
7) Netanyahu: Iran has spent $160 billion on nuclear weapons drive
8.) Palestinian leader turns to Putin for Palestinian state, dumps US and Israel as peace partners
9) Former PLO negotiator calls on PA to endorse ‘resistance’ against Israel
10) Abbas: There’s No Progress, and It’s All Israel’s Fault
11) Haaretz: Germany Conditions High-Tech, Science Grants on Settlement Funding Ban
12) EU warns Israel, Palestinians of the cost of peace failure
13) Abbas rejects extending peace talks beyond nine-month timeline
14) Bennett says his goal is to ‘torpedo’ any agreement with the Palestinians
15) Emergency Conference to Discuss ‘Imminent’ Kerry Plan

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

January 18, 2014: Weekly 5 minute update (Audio Only)

Saturday, January 18th, 2014

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 death of former Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon

The Israel housing ministry announced approval for 1,400 new housing units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The US, the EU and the Palestinians warned Israel that its announcement was harmful to the peace process. US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, said: “It is never helpful to have steps taken that are not conducive to our efforts in moving forward on peace. We’ve called on both sides, as you know, many, many times to create a positive atmosphere for negotiations. So anything that doesn’t do that is unhelpful. We consider now and have always considered the settlements to be illegitimate, and we express that, of course, on a regular basis, as needed,” Psaki said. “But the reality is both sides remain committed to discussing the framework, committed to moving forward, and we’ll keep working with them,” she said. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton responded to the announcement, saying that “the settlements are illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make the two-state solution impossible.”Furthermore, Britain, France, Spain and Italy summoned the Israeli ambassadors from these countries to protect plans for the new settlement construction.

Meanwhile, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that claiming settlements were an obstacle to peace was “bogus.” “The real issue is not the settlements, is not the Palestinian state. The real issue was and always has been the Jewish state. The persistent refusal to accept a nation-state for the Jewish people by our adversaries, whom we want to turn to peace partners,” he said. In his comments, Netanyahu took specific aim at the European Union, which has been outspoken in its criticism of settlement construction. Netanyahu questioned why the EU protested the construction of “a few houses,” but did not summon Palestinian diplomats over Palestinian misdeeds. “When did the EU call in the Palestinian ambassadors to complain about the incitement that calls for Israel’s destruction?” he said. “I think it is time to stop this hypocrisy. I think it is time to inject some balance and fairness to this discussion. Because I think this imbalance and this bias against Israel doesn’t advance peace,” he added. “I think it pushed peace further away because it tells the Palestinians, ‘Basically you can do anything you want, say anything you want and you won’t be held accountable.'”

After Netanyahu accused the EU of “hypocrisy” in condemning settlement construction, Israel Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman summoned the ambassadors of Britain, France, Spain and Italy and rebuked them for their “one-sided position they constantly take against Israel and in favor of the Palestinians.” This position is “unacceptable and creates a feeling that they are only looking to place blame on Israel,” Liberman said. In addition, Liberman insisted that the constant criticisms that the Israeli representatives in Europe receive “may have the opposite effect.” “Israel is making great effort to allow the dialogue with the Palestinians to continue and the position these states are taking, beyond it being biased and unbalanced, is significantly harming the chances of reaching an accord.” the foreign minister said.

In any event, US Secretary of State John Kerry plans to present a framework deal between Israel and the Palestinians at the end of January at a conference in the Jordanian city of Aqaba hosted by Jordan’s King Abdullah II. Jordan will have a hand in finalizing the terms of an agreement but also that “control over the border and natural resources will effectively remain in Israel’s hands.”Palestinian sources said that it will only include a general outline with vague and flexible demands which will allow both Palestinians and Israelis to interpret the outline as they see fit. It will include a statement supporting Palestinian aspirations for Jerusalem as their capital. Israel Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon said that Kerry would return to the Middle East in the coming week to promote a meeting between Netanyahu and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas under Jordanian sponsorship. Danon said that if Netanyahu agrees to withdraw to the 1967 lines or make any concessions regarding Jerusalem that it would be opposed by members of Netanyahu’s Likud political party.

Israel Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon expressed great skepticism of a possible peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians especially the US security plan for the Jordan Valley. He expressed these thoughts both in private conversations in Israel and in the US. In particular, Ya’alon has harsh words to say about Secretary of State John Kerry. “The American security plan presented to us is not worth the paper it’s written on,” Ya’alon said. “It contains no peace and no security. Only our continued presence in the West Bank Judea and the Jordan River will endure our protection against rockets from every direction. . Ya’alon said that Kerry is acting out of misplaced obsession and messianic fervor. Kerry cannot teach me anything about the conflict with the Palestinians. Ya’alon, who sits beside Netanyahu during the talks with Kerry, has during the months of negotiations become a bitter and tough enemy of the American team. “I’m a tough nut to crack,” he claims. “There are no actual negotiations with the Palestinians. The Americans are holding negotiations with us and in parallel with the Palestinians. So far, we are the only side to have given anything – the release of murderers – and the Palestinians have given nothing.”

Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian official accused US Secretary of State John Kerry of succumbing to Israeli demands to advance two central issues in the peace talks — the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and a continued Israeli security presence in the Jordan Valley. “Israel has succeeded in really persuading Mr. Kerry to change the agenda of the discussions,” Fatah Central Committee Member Nabil Shaath said. “Today, you will see Mr. Kerry going back and forth, discussing nothing but two issues. The two issues have never been in our agenda: the Jewishness of the state [of Israel] and the Jordan [Valley].” These two sticking points, Shaath maintained, will never be agreed upon by the Palestinians and are likely to result in the dissolution of talks. “You think any Palestinian leader in his right mind can ever accept this?” Shaath remarked regarding the Jewish status of Israel. “Or is this simply instated to make it impossible for any Palestinian leader to sign a peace agreement with Israel?” Instead, the Palestinians have decided to launch a global diplomatic and legal assault on Israel. The Palestinian Authority is currently setting up teams to wage diplomatic war against Israel in “every conceivable” forum, including pushing for boycotts of Israel and seeking legal rulings against Israel via international courts in The Hague according to Israel’s Channel 2 TV station. Unless Kerry significantly changes the current formulation of his framework proposals, the Palestinians will reject his overtures, confident that much of the international community will consider them to be the injured party and hold Israel responsible for the failure of peace efforts. The Palestinians are furious that Kerry is offering them a state “with no borders, no capital, no [control over] border crossings… and without Jerusalem.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that “there will be no peace” without a Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem and that he would not recognize Israel as a Jewish state. “Without east Jerusalem as a capital of the state of Palestine, there will be no peace between us and Israel,” Abbas said. Abbas also reiterated that he will not recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. “We will not recognize it,” Abbas said. “We will not accept and it’s our right not to recognize the Jewish state.” “Let them say whatever they say. Unless it is mentioned clearly and marked in big fonts that it is the capital of the state of Palestine, there will be no peace with them and I want them to hear this,” declared Abbas. In addition, Arab foreign ministers have notified US Secretary of State John Kerry that they will not accept Israel as a Jewish state nor compromise on Palestinian sovereignty in Jerusalem. Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Malki said that nine Arab foreign ministers, comprising the followup committee for the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, had agreed during a meeting in Paris to present to Kerry a unified Arab position on core Palestinian demands. “A clear and unified Arab and Palestinian position was presented [to Kerry] rejecting the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state,” Malki said. “The American secretary heard this position from me and from other Arab foreign ministers, who also consider East Jerusalem to be the capital of the Palestinian state.” Al-Malki also said that Kerry still had “hard work” with the Israeli side, in order to reach agreements that will “satisfy the needs of the Palestinians.” He further noted that there is still no progress in the ongoing peace talks and that large gaps remain between the parties. According to Malki, Kerry told the Arab ministers that if negotiations failed he would not hesitate to publicly name the side “which provided concessions and cooperated with his efforts and the side which refused to cooperate.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sent a defiant message to Israel’s leadership and US mediators recently telling cheering supporters that the Palestinians “won’t kneel” and won’t drop demands for a capital in east Jerusalem.

Regarding the issue of Palestinian refugees, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that he could not negotiate away the absolute right of Palestinian refugees and their descendents to return to sovereign Israel. Finally, Abbas suggested he would not continue negotiations beyond a US-set target date of the end of April and instead will resume his quest for broader international recognition of a state of Palestine by the United Nations and its various agencies.

Next, Israel Finance Minister Yair Lapid said his Yesh Atid party would leave the coalition government if negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) did not progress.”I remain part of the government so that we can advance the peace process,” Lapid said. “I have no reason to remain part of a government that will not advance negotiations.”

In other news, Israel’s 11th Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, died on January 11 at the age of 85. He suffered a stroke in 2006. Since that time, he has been in a coma. Sharon was one of Israel’s most celebrated, victorious and innovative generals – and a maverick. Sharon was considered the greatest field commander in Israel’s history and one of the country’s greatest military strategists. He served the Israeli army from its inception in 1948, founding some of its elite units and leading key operations in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. He emerged from the assault on Sinai in the Six-Day war of 1967 as a brilliant military strategist. In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, he led a force that encircled the Egyptian Third Army and crossed the Suez, cutting short its massive advance through Sinai to the Israeli frontier. Sharon saved the country by acting in defiance of orders.

He first joined the Likud political paryy and was assigned various ministerial portfolios under Prime Minister Menahem Begin in 1977-92 and in Binyamin Netanyahu’s first administration in 1996-99. As defense minister, he led the IDF to victory against the Palestinians in the 1982 Lebanon War, forcing Yasser Arafat and PLO leaders to abandon their South Lebanese strongholds on the Israeli border and go into exile in Tunisia. He became the leader of the Likud in 2000 and served as Israel’s prime minister from 2001 to 2006. In 2001, Israel was desperate to find a solution to the non-stop Palestinian suicide bombing and bus burnings. As a result, Sharon was elected prime minister of Israel. As Prime Minister, Sharon launched a four-month operation that soundly defeated the Palestinian front against Israel. Later, Sharon constructed a defense wall along the Green Line as a barrier between the West Bank. He isolated Palestinian intifada leader, Yasser Arafat, and caused him to flee to Paris where he died in 2005.

From the 1970s through to the 1990s, Sharon championed construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However, as Prime Minister, in 2004–05 Sharon orchestrated Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip kicking nearly 9,000 Jews out of their homes in August, 2005, along with every Israeli soldier. Facing stiff opposition to this policy within his own Likud political party, in November 2005 he left Likud to form a new party called, Kadima. He had been expected to win the next election and was widely interpreted as planning on “clearing Israel out of most of the West Bank”, in a new series of unilateral withdrawals. However, Sharon suffered a stroke on January 4, 2006 and was left in a permanent vegetative state until his death eight years later on January 11, 2014.

Could Sharon’s death be a sign of the coming of the Messiah ? A few months before he died at the age of 108, one of Israel’s nation’s most prominent rabbis, Yitzhak Kaduri, said that he wrote the name of the Messiah on a small note which he requested would remain sealed until one year after his death. When the note was unsealed, it revealed what many have known for centuries: Yehoshua, or Yeshua (Jesus), is the Messiah. The note described the Messiah using six words and hinting that the initial letters form the name of the Messiah.

The secret note said:

Concerning the letter abbreviation of the Messiah’s name, He will lift the people and prove that his word and law are valid.

This I have signed in the month of mercy,

Yitzhak Kaduri

The Hebrew sentence (translated above in bold) with the hidden name of the Messiah reads:

Yarim Ha’Am Veyokhiakh Shedvaro Vetorato Omdim

The initials spell the Hebrew name of Jesus which is Yehoshua or Yeshua which are effectively the same name, derived from the same Hebrew root of the word “salvation”. A few months before Kaduri died at the age of 108, he surprised his followers when he told them that he met the Messiah. Kaduri gave a message in his synagogue on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, teaching how to recognize the Messiah. He also mentioned that the Messiah would appear to Israel after Ariel Sharon’s death. Sharon is now dead. How long will it be until we see the return of the Messiah ?

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

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Israel approves 1,400 new housing units over Green Line
2) US, EU, Palestinians: Tenders for homes harmful to peace
3) Netanyahu slams EU settlement critics as hypocrites
4) Liberman summons European envoys to reprimand them over anti-Israel ‘bias’
5) John Kerry to Present Framework Deal at End of January
6) Report: Kerry to present interim peace agreement at end of January
7) Ya’alon: Kerry should win his Nobel and leave us alone
8.) Palestinian official says Kerry bowed to Israel’s agenda
9) ‘Palestinians to reject Kerry peace plan, launch diplomatic war on Israel’
10) Arab ministers back Abbas in rejecting ‘Jewish’ Israel
11) Hard-line speech from Abbas marks turn from position in talks
12) Abbas says he won’t make concessions on Jerusalem
13) ‘Arab States Will Never Recognize a Jewish State’
14) Yesh Atid ‘Will Leave Government if Peace Talks Don’t Progress’
15) Ariel Sharon, brilliant general, divisive politician
16) Ariel Sharon: Wikipedia Encyclopedia
17) The Rabbi, the Note and the Messiah

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

January 11, 2014: Weekly 5 minute update (Audio Only)

Friday, January 10th, 2014

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

Recently, US Secretary of State, John Kerry, made his 10th trip to the Middle East in an effort to try to achieve a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Following meetings with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas, Kerry said: “the two sides are not there yet but we are making progress and we are beginning to have dialogue on the toughest hurdles yet to be overcome. This is hard work. There have been many years of mistrust that have been built up, all of which has to be worked through and undone, and a pathway has to be laid down on which the parties can have confidence that they know what is happening, and the road ahead is real, and not illusory. However, the path is becoming clearer. The puzzle is becoming more defined, and it is becoming much more apparent to everybody what the remaining tough choices are,” he said.  Kerry said all of the major issues in the conflict – borders, security, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem – were under discussion and that any US Middle East peace plan would be “fair and balanced”.

A US official said that one of the main obstacles holding up the framework deal is each side’s demand that their reservations over the framework appear as a separate appendix in the final text, rather than as part of the main text which details the areas of common ground in the talks. “It is essential that if there are reservations, they will be part of the framework, not a separate part. Otherwise, it would damage the agreement. For example, if the framework includes a clause stating that the negotiations will be based on the 1967 borders, we cannot agree to a reservation stating that one of the sides opposes this,” the official said. Any agreed framework would not be a signed document, but would address all core issues, including the borders between Israel and a future Palestine, security, Palestinian refugees, and conflicting claims to Jerusalem, the official said. The official also said if the parties agreed on a framework for negotiating a final peace deal, it might not be made public to avoid exposing the leaders to political pressures at home. The US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, said that a US framework proposal will be presented to both sides soon within the next several weeks.

Israel Knesset member, Amir Peretz said that the two sides were attempting not get to a “framework agreement,” but rather to a “framework” for future negotiations. He explained that a framework agreement would be a document that both sides would have to sign, something that does not seem possible at present. Instead, he said, Kerry would present a framework that would form the basis for further negotiations and to which each side could append its reservations. This type of framework would enable the negotiations to continue past their late-April deadline.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told members of his Likud political party that “there is no American framework document yet,” and that even if it could be agreed, it would not be binding on the sides. Netanyahu said there would be elements in the non-binding paper that he and his party colleagues wouldn’t like and elements that the Palestinians wouldn’t like. US Secretary of State John Kerry is working on a document spelling out America’s basic principles for a peace agreement that both sides – with reservations – are to agree to follow as a framework for continuing Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Israel officials said that if this particular track toward extending the negotiations beyond the late April deadline bears fruit, then both Israel and the Palestinians are expected to say that the positions reflected in the document are American positions – not necessarily ones they accept – but that they will continue to negotiate based on the American document. Among the issues expected to be difficult for Israel to swallow is a declaration that the endgame is a Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines, with minor land swaps. And among the bitter pills for the Palestinians is expected to be a formula recognizing Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people and making clear that the Palestinian refugees are to be absorbed in the future Palestinian state. He also assured the Likud MKs that he had not given in to American pressure for more flexible positions regarding the fate of Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, and said he was only too aware of the consequences of dismantling West Bank settlements in the absence of a viable peace accord. Furthermore, Netanyahu said that the root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the Palestinian Authorities’ encouragement of incitement against Israel and the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. “This incitement, unfortunately, continues,” Netanyahu said, adding that “We have seen aspects of this recently.  We are not foreigners in Jerusalem, we are not foreigners in Beit El, we are not foreigners in Hebron. I repeat that this is the root of the conflict as well as the root of incitement that does not recognize this basic fact” to have a Jewish state.

Israel Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said: “I want to clarify that we are now engaged in an attempt to reach the framework of the continued negotiations for a period beyond the nine months [given for a deal]. We are not engaged in negotiating a framework for a [permanent] agreement, but the framework for further negotiations,” Yaalon continued. “It is clear to us that there are large gaps [between us] – and this is not new – but it is certainly in our interest to continue negotiations and to continue to work to stabilize the situation in the relationship between us and the Palestinians. We stand to defend the security interests of Israel and I have made my opinion heard several times. The heart of the conflict is the PA’s refusal to recognize Israel as a sovereign state; and regarding security issues relevant for the State of Israel, I will be a tough nut to crack.” In addition, Ya’along said that peace cannot be achieved until the PA stops its incitement against Israel and starts educating for peace instead. “A basic element in Israeli education is the aspiration for peace. In the Palestinian Authority, that doesn’t exist. The first stage of the road map, that obligates the PA to stop the incitement and to educate for peace, did not happen. [Former prime minister] Yitzhak Rabin demanded in Oslo that the Palestinian treaty is also changed, and it hasn’t been changed to this very day either,” Ya’alon said. “The Palestinians receive money from states that donate to educational institutes in the PA and still teach incitement and racism based on Adolf Hitler quotes. They claim there is no Jewish people,” he added. According to other senior Israel officials, there is no guarantee that either side would agree to a deal lengthening talks. The PA has stated that they would prefer to give an oral agreement to continue talks rather than sign a document – to evade responsibility, perhaps, in the event that talks fail.

If Israel accepts the US framework proposal, Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is planning to have a national referendum on the issue. Netanyahu was quoted as saying that he needs the referendum to push back “domestic pressures from the right”, but in any case he believes it will be politically advantageous. He has confided to his closest circle that for the first time that he is in favor of the Kerry proposals and, although they don’t see eye to eye on many of the issues, he thinks the gaps between them can be bridged. Netanyahu is counting on the framework accord gaining an overwhelming popular majority in referendum. Netanyahu regards the Obama administration’s acceptance of Israel as the Jewish national state to be an historic achievement of unparalleled importance. He  was encouraged to learn that Kerry is working on a formula that avoids citing E. Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, only as a goal for their national aspirations. Intense exchanges are gong back and forth on the security arrangements for the Jordan Valley which runs along Israel’s eastern border, and the number and area of the Jewish settlements remaining under Israeli sovereignty. A number of settlements outside the main blocs are due for removal, despite reports to the contrary but the argument among the Americans, Israelis and Palestinians is over a timetable for their staged evacuation which is counted in years.

In order to pressure Israel into accepting a US framework agreement, Israel government sources are saying that US Secretary of State, John Kerry, is behind calling for a European boycott against Israeli products and companies operating in Judea, Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. The EU published its guidelines last July, boycotting Israeli companies operating over the 1949 Armistice lines. At the moment, Kerry is making sure the threats stay in check, but as soon as the peace talks fail he intends to open the floodgates and spur on full-blown international boycotts on Israel, reports Israel radio.

Meanwhile,  Kerry has threatened to discontinue all US aid to the Palestinian Authority if the current round of negotiations does not result in a peace agreement according to a senior Palestinian official. Taysir Khaled, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, said that the US had implied it would stop giving financial aid to the Palestinian Authority and would not be able to prevent Israeli expansion of West Bank settlements, if a framework for a long-lasting accord was not agreed upon. “So far, the negotiations have not lead to a significant breakthrough on core issues,” Khaled said. ”The Palestinian side cannot sign a framework agreement because it does not comply with our minimum requirements and with rights of the Palestinians. We will not give up on the Palestinian cause for money.” Another Palestinian official said that Kerry and the Palestinian leadership, “talked about everything but without agreement on anything” The Palestinians say that they have presented their positions on all the issues to Kerry.

Palestinian spokesman Yasser Abed Rabbo said that Kerry’s conversations with Abbas “was very tough indeed”, in particular when it came to the US wish for the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. “The Americans have made it very clear that [recognition of Israel as a Jewish state] is their position. They talk about it in meetings with our side and make an issue out of it. We have made it very clear that we are not going to sign any agreement that recognizes Israel as a Jewish state.” Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Palestinians’ refusal to formally acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state has become the key topic in his discussions with Kerry.

After meeting with Netanyahu and Abbas, Kerry went to Saudi Arabia to try to convince Saudi Arabia to change the language in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative to include recognition of Israel as a Jewish State should the country reach a peace deal with the Palestinians. The changed language would also include the stipulation that Israel’s Arab citizens not be affected by recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. The current language in the Arab Peace initiative calls for the Arab world to offer comprehensive peace with Israel in exchange for a full pullout from all territories it captured in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians have not given permission for any changes to the Arab League initiative. Kerry is expected to meet in Paris soon with Arab League foreign ministers who sit on the monitoring committee of the Arab Peace Initiative and may present the idea to them.  After that meeting, he is expected to return to the Middle East for another round of shuttle diplomacy between Israel and the Palestinians.

Regarding the issue of Jerusalem, US Secretary of State John Kerry has proposed designating “greater Jerusalem” as the capital of both Israel and the Palestinian state. Azzam Al-Ahmad, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee said that Kerry was “elusive” when speaking of the exclusion of East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. “An ambiguous term such as ‘greater Jerusalem’ in [Kerry’s] proposal could reach the Dead Sea, and could [equally] not include [the Palestinian village of] Abu Dis,” Al-Ahmad said. ”This [ambiguity] destroys all American efforts to reach a peace agreement.” A senior Palestinian source said that Abbas had demanded a clear and unequivocal reference to the Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem, out of concern that a more general reference would be interpreted as Palestinian willingness to establish their capital in one of the city’s outlying suburbs.

Meanwhile, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told cabinet ministers that he would not accept any reference to Jerusalem in the framework agreement being drafted by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. One senior official said Netanyahu stressed that he would not agree to a document that mentions, even in a general way, the establishment of a Palestinian capital anywhere in Jerusalem. Netanyahu made it clear he would insist on this, even at the cost of the failure of the talks on the framework agreement.

With regards to the Jordan Valley, Al-Ahmad said the Palestinians rejected any Israeli presence under a final status agreement but agreed to international forces patrolling the border. He added that former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert had already agreed to forgo the Israeli military presence in the Jordan Valley during talks with Abbas. However, Israel rejects any US-proposed security concessions for the Jordan Valley. “Security must remain in our hands. Anyone who proposes a solution in the Jordan Valley by deploying an international force, Palestinian police or technological means … does not understand the Middle East,” said Israel Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz.

Regarding Palestinian refugees, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has proposed to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas the “return” of 80, 000 Palestinian “refugees” to Israel according to a senior Palestinian official. He added: “Kerry’s proposal on the return of refugees is the same proposal offered by former U.S. President Bill Clinton during Camp David peace talks held in the United States in 2000.” He added that during their meetings with Kerry, Abbas wanted to increase the number of Arabs “returning” to Israel to 200,000.

However, Israel officials said that accepting the principle of a Palestinian “right of return” is a complete non-starter for Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. “In the framework of two states for two peoples, those Palestinians who want to return to the Palestinian state will be able to do so, but the idea that Israel will take in any of the grandchildren of people who fled the fighting in 1948 is simply a non-starter,” the official said. Netanyahu would not agree to even “a symbolic acceptance of the so-call right of return.”

If Benjamin Netanyahu decides to support the US framework agreement and it calls for a Palestinian state based upon 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital then the Jewish Home political party said that it will not be part of a government that negotiates the 1967 borders. Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett said: “No more word games: the 1967 lines mean dividing Jerusalem and giving up the Western Wall, the Temple Mount and the Old City. In what way will our history remember a leader that agrees to give up Jerusalem? We won’t sit in such a government.” In addition, the Sephardic Orthodox Jewish party, Shas, and its leader Aryeh Deri said that his party would not give Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government a “safety net,” refusing to form a new coalition to enable a peace deal loaded with Israeli withdrawals and stressed that he would oppose any agreement that harms the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria or the West Bank. Deri said that it was his impression that the talks are seriously advancing towards an agreement.

However, the opposition party, Labor, and its leader Yitzchak Herzog said that despite his party’s strong antipathy to the current government, Labor will do everything necessary to ensure that any peace proposals or frameworks offered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will be adopted by the Knesset. Labor, he said, would step in to bolster coalition partners supporting the proposals, casting their votes in favor to make up for the ones that would be cast against it by rightwing parties. “We will provide a safety net for the government” in the event of a vote on a peace proposal, said Herzog. “We must ensure that Israel remain a Jewish and democratic state, living peacefully alongside a Palestinian state, with recognized borders that ensure our security.” However, Herzog said that in any agreement with the Palestinians that they must give up the “right of return” which is the demand that the descendants of Arabs who fled the newly-established state in 1948 return to their family’s property. Labor would not support a deal that included that demand. “That is outside the consensus,” Herzog said.

Finally, a new academic research institute will be founded to explore the issue of declaring Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria or the West Bank. The decision to start the institute was made at the Forum for Application of Sovereignty which met under the initiative of the Women in Green organization. Among various topics, the institute intends to investigate economic implications of sovereignty in terms of real estate and industry. Similarly, the international legal framework of sovereignty will be researched, along with the media outreach efforts necessary. The central goal of the institute will be to present the Israeli public and government with the conclusions of solid research by leading academics within a few months. The decision to found the institute comes as an outgrowth of previous large conferences calling for sovereignty, as well as the journal Sovereignty published by Women in Green. The second issue of the publication was released last week.

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

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Kerry: Israel, Palestinians progressing toward framework peace deal
2) Kerry praises ‘intensive’ talks, to return Sunday night
3) Abbas aide: Palestinian President had ‘tough talk’ with Kerry
4) US ambassador: Draft on Israel-Palestinian deal ready soon
5) Netanyahu: Palestinian incitement spurs Mideast conflict
6) Report: Kerry is Behind European Boycotts
7) ‘Kerry threatens to cut PA aid if no peace deal signed’
8.) US said to seek adding ‘Jewish state’ language to Arab Peace Initiative
9) Kerry asks Saudis, Jordan to support Palestinian recognition of Israel as Jewish state
10) John Kerry frustrated by Palestinians’ refusal to recognise ‘Jewish’ Israel
11) Fatah official: We demand clarity on Jerusalem
12) Netanyahu rejects inclusion of Jerusalem in Kerry’s framework deal
13) Israel rejects US proposals on Jordan Valley
14) Kerry Proposes: 80,000 Arabs to Flood Israel
15) Officials: PM won’t agree to even symbolic acceptance of Palestinian ‘right of return’
16) US framework for peace talks will have elements ‘both sides will dislike,’ says Netanyahu
17) ‘Interim Deal? It Just Means We’ll Keep Talking’
18) Ya’alon says Israel, PA working to extend talks beyond 9-month period
19) Netanyahu wants to say ‘yes’ to Kerry, but without anyone noticing
20) Netanyahu plans a national referendum on US peace framework to extend negotiations for another year
21) Bennett on peace talks: ’67 lines not up for negotiation
22) Shaked: We Won’t be in a Government that Accepts ’67 Borders’
23) Deri: Shas Not a ‘Safety Net’ For Kerry Deal
24) Deri: No to An Agreement that Hurts Judea and Samaria
25) Herzog: Opposition Will Vote With Govt. On PA Deal
26) Watch: Conference on Israeli Annexation of Judea, Samaria
27) New Institute To Research Sovereignty over Biblical Heartland

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

January 4, 2014: Weekly 5 minute update (Audio Only)

Friday, January 3rd, 2014

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

1) Listen to the audio

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

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

Israel released the 3rd round of Palestinian terrorists who killed Israelis that Israel pledged to release as a “goodwill gesture” in July to restart direct peace talks. A total of 104 terrorists are scheduled to be released by the end of April. They were driven to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ headquarters for an official welcome ceremony attended by hundreds of relatives singing, dancing and waving Palestinian flags. “It is a happy day for all of us and for our heroic prisoners who have come out today to live as free people,” said Abbas, surrounded by the prisoners and making a victory sign. Abbas told the crowd that he would not sign a peace agreement with Israel without the release of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, who currently number almost 5000. The United States saw the prisoner release as a “positive step forward” in ongoing peace negotiations, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu rebuked the Palestinian Authority ‘s celebrations over Israel’s release of convicted terrorists. “The essential difference between us and our neighbors can be seen in a single picture,” Netanyahu said. “While we are willing to take extremely painful steps with the goal of reaching an agreement that will put an end to the conflict, they, along with their most senior leaders, are celebrating.” The PA’s celebration sends a terrible message, he continued. “Murderers are not heroes. This is not how you educate people to peace. This is not how you make peace,” he warned. “Peace can exist only when the education to incitement and to destruction of Israel is stopped,” he declared. “Peace will come only when our interests are protected, regarding defense at settlements,” he continued. “Peace will only happen if we can defend ourselves, by ourselves, against any threat.”

US Secretary of State, John Kerry, arrived in Israel on New Year’s Day to further peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The US State Department said: “In these meetings, he will discuss the ongoing final status negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, among other issues.” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Kerry will discuss with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a proposed framework to serve as a guideline for addressing all core issues in the decades-long dispute. The core issues include the borders between Israel and a future Palestine, security arrangements, the fate of Palestinian refugees and conflicting claims to the holy city of Jerusalem.

In response to Kerry’s visit, Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said: “An accord is feasibly only if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish national home, give up their dream of restoring all the refugees and their other demands on Israeli territory, and above all only if Israeli can defend itself by its own means against any threat,” he said. Any accord, he promised, will be brought to national referendum for ratification. In a joint press conference with John Kerry, Netanyahu said that doubts about the Palestinians’s commitment to peace are mounting in Israel. “There is growing doubt in Israel that the Palestinians are committed to peace.” The Palestinians “need to be prepared to truly end the conflict.” Netanyahu criticized Abbas’s actions, saying the Palestinian president embraced terrorists as heroes when he welcomed Palestinian prisoners’ release from Israeli detention. “To glorify the murderers of innocent women and men as heroes is an outrage,” Netanyahu said. “How can he say he stands against terrorism when he embraces the perpetrators of terrorism and glorifies them as heroes?” Netanyahu continued, “I’m wondering what a young Palestinian would think when he sees the leader of the Palestinian people embrace people who axed innocent men and women, axed their heads or blew them up or riddled them with bullets. What’s a young Palestinian supposed to think about the future?”

Addressing the peace process, Kerry said: “This is not mission impossible.” Kerry insisted the peace process is still on track and said he plans to work intensely with both sides over the next couple of days to narrow differences on a framework that will outline a final peace accord. Kerry said he knows there is a lot of skepticism about whether the two parties can achieve peace, but he said “the time is soon arriving when leaders are going to have to make difficult decisions. We’re close to that point, or at it,” Kerry said. “In the weeks and months ahead, both sides are going to need to make tough choices to ensure that peace is not just a possibility but is a reality. It is hard work, but with a determined effort, I’m convinced that we can get there,” Kerry said.

Meanwhile, PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo said that the Palestinians wouldn’t pay attention to a “worthless” framework agreement presented by the US. He said that the Palestinians have already spent the past few months negotiating with Israel, and there’s no need to start new talks about the implementation of a new framework agreement. Abed Rabbo said that Kerry was now asking the Palestinians to agree to negotiations with Israel over a new accord, which, he claimed, gives the Israelis control over the Jordan Valley and restricts Palestinian sovereignty over Palestinian territories. Abed Rabbo said that the only way to achieve a breakthrough is by drawing full borders between a Palestinian state and Israel, on the basis of the pre-1967 lines – including east Jerusalem. He also called for a timetable for a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines. The PLO official dismissed the idea of a land swap that would place Israeli Arabs in the Triangle area under the jurisdiction of a Palestinian state in return for annexing settlements to Israel. “The settlers are the ones who should get out of the Palestinian territories because they are violating international law,” he said. “No Palestinian state will be created without Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley.”

Palestinian sources revealed that Kerry would present the Israelis and Palestinians with a “blueprint” for a declaration of principles. The sources said that the “blueprint” calls for an extension of the peace talks beyond the nine-month deadline set by Kerry and that expires in April 2014. The sources told the Palestinian daily Al-Quds that the “most dangerous” part of the “blueprint” is Israel’s demand that the Palestinians recognize it as a Jewish state. According to reports, US Secretary of State John Kerry will offer Israeli and Palestinian negotiators a political trade-off: Israeli recognition of the 1967 lines as a basis for the future Palestinian state, in return for Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, Palestinian sources said.  “The coming weeks will be difficult for the Palestinian and Israeli sides since they will need to make tough decisions regarding these issues,” a Palestinian source told a Saudi Arabian newspaper. The goal of the United States is for mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestinians which will constitute the core of a framework agreement to be signed by the end of January and negotiated in greater detail during the following months,

According to DEBKA, the details of Kerry’s proposed framework agreement consists of the 9 key points:

1. Israel hands over 92.8 pc of West Bank to Palestinians. Nearly all its content draws on the proposal Ehud Olmert, then Prime Minister, submitted to Abbas on Aug. 31, 2008, which he never accepted; nor was it approved by any Israeli authority.

2. Territory:  Israel will annex 6.8% of the West Bank including the four main settlement blocs of Gush Etzion with Efrata; Maale Adummim; Givat Zeev; and Ariel, as well as all of the “settlements” of East Jerusalem and Har Homa – in exchange for the equivalent of 5.5% of Israeli territory.

3. The Safe Passage:  The territorial link between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank would cut through southern Israel and remain under Israeli sovereignty and Palestinian control. Out of all other options, the American sponsors of the accord prefer to build an express railway line from Gaza to Hebron, without stops, which would be paid for by the United States. Abbas has already informed John Kerry that he wants the train to go all the way to Ramallah. There will be a special road connecting Bethlehem with Ramallah that bypasses East Jerusalem. This is mostly likely the same route currently planned to go around Maaleh Adummim. Since the safe passage will cross through Israeli land, accounting for 1% of its territory, this area will be deducted from the land Israel concedes, leaving 4.54% for the land swap with the Palestinians.

4. Jerusalem:  East Jerusalem will be divided territorially along the lines of the Clinton Parameters with the exception of the “Holy Basin,” which comprises 0.04% of the West Bank. Sovereignty over this ancient heart of Jerusalem, with its unique and historic concentration of Jewish, Christian and Muslim shrines, will pass to an international commission comprised of the US, Israel, the Palestinians, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

5. Refugees:  This issue will be addressed according to guidelines proposed by President Bill Clinton at Camp David in the year 2000 – and rejected by Yasser Arafat. An International Foundation will be established to resettle the bulk of the Palestinian refugees in Canada and Australia, except for a small portion to be accepted in Israel in the framework of family reunification.

6. Security:  The Olmert package made no mention of security. However the Kerry draft deals extensively with this issue and Israel’s concerns. It calls for the evacuation of all 10,000 Jewish settlers from the Jordan Valley leaving behind a chain of posts along the Jordan River. Security corridors cutting through the West Bank will maintain their land and operational links with Israel. Border crossings will be set up between Palestine and Jordan with an Israeli security presence. The security section of the draft assigns the use of West Bank and Gaza airspace by Israel and the Palestinians. There will be no Israeli military presence inside the Palestinian state.

7. Taxes: The present arrangement for Israel to collect customs levies and distribute the revenues to the Palestinians will continue. (debkafile: That is about the only clause which the Palestinians accept.) Israel will carry out security checks on goods bound for Palestinian that are unloaded at Haifa and Ashdod ports, and levy customs at rates fixed by the Palestinians to be disbursed in the Palestinian state.

8. Settlements:  Eighty percent of all Jewish settlers on the West Bank will be confined to the major settlement blocs. The remaining 20% amounting, according to American calculations to 80,000 people, will have to decide on their own whether they prefer to stay where they are under Palestinian rule or move to Israel. US Secretary Kerry advised the Israeli Prime Minister bluntly that he need not promise to force settlers to leave their homes – as the Ariel Sharon government did when he executed the unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Netanyahu replied that it was unacceptable for Israel to abandon the settlers to their fate. He therefore proposed that instead of forcing them to cross back into Israel, they would be absorbed in the larger settlement blocs remaining under Israeli sovereignty.

9. Timelines:  Different timetables are proposed in the US framework for implementing different sections: The Palestinian leader says he is willing to give Israel three years as a transition period for relocating settlers.

When Kerry submitted the US Framework ideas to the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in December, he told them that he saw no point in the two negotiating teams holding meetings consumed by interminable debates on one point or another. He therefore asked both parties to henceforth send him their comments in writing.

In Kerry’s visit to Israel, he told reporters that the sides would have to make some difficult choices over the next few weeks. “We know what the issues are and the parameters,” he added. “The time is soon arriving when leaders will have to make tough decisions. In the weeks ahead both sides will have to make tough choices.” During his meetings with Netanyahu and Abbas, Kerry said, he planned “to work with both sides to narrow differences on a framework that will set guidelines for negotiations.” The framework agreement would cover all of the core issues, he said, including borders, security, Jerusalem, refugee, mutual recognition, an end to the conflict and to legal claims. The secretary of state emphasized that the framework agreement would be drafted in coordination with the ideas and positions both sides have raised in the 20 rounds of talks held over the last five months. “The framework will address all core issues. My role is not to impose U.S. ideas but to facilitate the ideas of both parties,” Kerry said. “We are 5 months into the peace talks. It’s a long process but it is not mission impossible.” The secretary of state said that “the framework will provide agreed guidelines for final status negotiations. It will take compromise from both sides,” he added “but an agreed framework will be a significant breakthrough. It will create the fixed defined parameters by which the parties will then know where they are going and what the end result could be,” Kerry said. “An agreed framework will clarify and bridge the gaps between the parties so they can move forward towards a final peace treaty.”

A senior US State Department official said that Kerry did not expect a breakthrough during his visit but is pushing for the sides to agree on a framework of core principles, such as security, the future of Jerusalem and fate of refugees, as soon as possible. “The framework is a basis upon which one could negotiate a final peace treaty because the outlines or the guidelines for what the final deal would look like would be agreed up, and then you would work intensively to fill out the details,” the official said. The official said the framework would act as a guideline for reaching a full peace treaty between the Israelis and Palestinians in April, in which Israel would exist peacefully alongside a new Palestinian state. “We want to have a detailed consultation with them about these ideas that have been generated as a result of the negotiations between the parties themselves, and see whether they can serve as gap bridges which could lead to this agreement on the framework for permanent status negotiations,” the official added. “It is a two-stage process in our minds, agreement on a framework for negotiations and then a permanent status agreement or a peace treaty” by April, the official said.

In order to further encouragement a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are to visit Israel in February as an expression of solidarity and encouragement for Israel and the Palestinians during the ongoing US-brokered peace process. Cameron will arrive in the middle of February on his first official visit since taking office in 2010. Merkel will land a week later, accompanied by German government ministers, for a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet.

The Israel Defense Ministry has rejected the expected US Framework proposal for the Jordan Valley. Israel has told US officials that the Jordan Valley security arrangement is unacceptable for Israel’s security needs. In an effort to prevent Israel from agreeing to give the Palestinians the Jordan Valley, senior members of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party showed their opposition to Israel giving up the Jordan Valley with a tour to the area. “The place in which we stand highlights the dilemma of where the eastern border of Israel will run,” declared Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar at the start of the tour. “Will it be the Jordan River, or, God forbid, next to Netanya or Kfar Saba?” If Israel did not stand firm on the issue of the Jordan Valley, he added, it would be left without “strategic depth”. Sa’ar also touched on the security provisions proposed by the US for Israel and the Palestinians as part of efforts to drive forward the peace process, saying that no organization but the Israeli army could guard the border. “Where there is no settlement, there will be no Israeli army. Where there is no Israeli army, there will be terrorism. Our stance is clear: The Jordan Valley is Israeli and will remain Israeli. When we placed our trust in others we saw that this was an illusion. It’s wrong to differentiate between security and settlement.” Sa’ar was accompanied on the tour by other members of Netanyahu’s Likud party as well as member of the nationalistic party, Jewish Home.

The leader of the Jewish Home political party, Naftali Bennett, said that Jewish Home will not remain in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government if it officially adopts peace proposals presented by US Secretary of State John Kerry which would include Israel giving up the Jordan Valley. Bennett insisted on receiving as much information as possible about America’s framework proposal immediately after Kerry meets with Netanyahu. “Bennett is up to speed on the current developments of the peace process and has done his homework,” a source close to him said. “He will not present the red lines of Jewish Home publicly but those who need to know know.” One of Bennett’s main goals has been to coordinate strategy regarding the opposition of a peace agreement with the Palestinians with members of Netanyahu’s Likud political party. Jewish Home political party, MK Orit Struck, received commitments from most of the Likud faction to help prevent diplomatic proposals from being advanced. Bennett and Struck intend to make sure that Netanyahu will not be able to replace Jewish Home in the coalition with Labor due to opposition from Likud ministers and MKs who would join in partnership with Jewish Home.

The future of the Jordan Valley has always been a major issue in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. In 2007, the Israeli army’s Planning Directorate drew up Israel’s security overview ahead of a possible peace treaty with the Palestinians. This overview specified the need for an ongoing Israeli army presence in the Jordan Valley for a lengthy but undefined period. On the basis of that overview, Israel defense minister Ehud Barak drew up a document, which became known as the “Eight Points,” which he had translated into English and which he detailed to George Bush when the president visited in January 2008. Barak stressed to Bush the imperative for Israeli troops to remain in the Jordan Valley for the long term — a generation, according to some Israeli sources — to ensure no influx of terrorists, weaponry, and other unwanted imports. In taking this position, Barak was merely reiterating the stance that had prevailed since the Yitzhak Rabin era in the early 1990s. And it holds today: A senior Israeli official told this reporter, this week, that if there is no Israeli presence in the Jordan Valley, “there will be rivers of blood.”

Where there has been something of a change is, first, in Israel’s apparent readiness to relinquish the idea of Israeli sovereignty in the Jordan Valley. And second, in a certain readiness for a smaller security contingent than the major deployments previously demanded. But Israel has given no indication of when it might be prepared to reduce its deployment, and no hint of a timetable for withdrawing altogether. What other points were in Barak’s Eight Point paper? Well, it dealt with the specifics of a demilitarized Palestinian state, including monitoring and enforcement — via security arrangements not only at the borders, but also inside the state-to-be (including oversight by international forces); the positioning of early-warning stations in the West Bank; details of the IDF’s permissible movements in emergency situations; operational control of air space, and more. Israel did not seek — in the Eight Point document, or in other discussions with the Americans — the right to carry out arrests inside Palestinian sovereign territory, as Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon is demanding now. It was clear to all sides at the time, this reporter was told this week, that such a demand would not be accepted. As a result, US General Jones was dispatched by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to try to bridge the gaps between Israel and the Palestinians on the issue of the Jordan Valley. Then, as now, the Palestinians said, ‘no’ to an ongoing Israeli presence.

Jones’s attempt at a compromise was that, after three to five years, the Israeli army would be replaced by a NATO-based international force, led by the US. Jones added a host of high-tech security measures — just like the security “envelope” General Allen is proposing now — aimed at somewhat calming Israeli concerns. Jones presented his ideas to Abbas, who understood that Israel had accepted them, even though the Israeli security establishment had not given its assent. Olmert, however, did subsequently support the plan and asked the Americans to present it to the security establishment. This did not happen. And the peace offer that Olmert made to Abbas in September 2008 provided for an Israeli withdrawal from the Jordan Valley after three years. That dramatic Olmert offer was never formally presented to Abbas, so it can be argued that the idea of a full Israeli withdrawal from the Jordan Valley was not officially agreed by Israel. Yet Abbas, apparently with some justification, regards Olmert’s offer as having shown Israeli readiness to leave the Jordan Valley. But Olmert is long gone, of course. Netanyahu holds to very different positions. And given that there was no official Israeli offer, Netanyahu has justification in saying Israel never agreed to leave the Jordan Valley. So, now as in the past, Israel and the Palestinians are deadlocked over security arrangements among other issues which Kerry is trying to resolve with his framework proposal.

Finally, nationalistic Jewish activists are preparing to take action based upon the outcome of the talks. The Women in Green movement is taking the initiative with its “Sovereignty” program, which would see Israel officially become a sovereign entity in Judea and Samaria or the West Bank. Activists with the group say a political journal published for the first time in October was so popular that they plan to issue another 150,000 copies – 100,000 in Hebrew, and 50,000 in English. “We need to be ready for the day of the expected unilateral UN declaration accepting a Palestinian state” they continued. “We need to declare already now that there is a realistic alternative to the mind games of the ‘two state solution.’” Currently, there are an estimated 650,000 Israeli Jews living in Judea, Samaria, the Golan, and eastern Jerusalem, they noted. However, those hundreds of thousands of Israelis all remain under military rule due to the government’s decision not to declare sovereignty. As a result, we need to prepare for declaring sovereignty in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in opposition to the “two state” solution.

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

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) Palestinians celebrate as Israel completes third stage of release prisoners
2) Netanyahu Slams PA Celebration: ‘Murderers Are Not Heroes’
3) Kerry set for New Year bid to push forward Mideast peace talks
4) Kerry’s ‘framework’ to address all core issues
5) Netanyahu: Palestinians must recognize Israel for an accord
6) PM tells Kerry PA not devoted to negotiations
7) We’ll ignore a ‘worthless’ framework deal, says PLO
8.) US deal will trade off ‘Jewish’ Israel for 1967 lines — report
9) Exclusive: US “framework” calls for 80,000 Israeli West Bank evacuations to the big settlement blocs
10) Kerry: Netanyahu and Abbas will have to make difficult choices in coming weeks
11) US official: Kerry to push for permanent peace agreement by April
12) Cameron, Merkel to visit Israel in February
13) Report: Defense Ministry Rejects US Plan for Jordan Valley
14) Rightist MKs take firm stance with trip to Jordan Valley
15) Just like his predecessors, Kerry finds trouble crossing the Jordan
16) Bennett threatens to bolt if Kerry proposals are accepted
17) Israeli Right ‘Preparing for Talks to Explode’

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