You may view the 5 minute update this week via audio:
In this week’s 5 minute update, we focused on:
1) The current status of the Israel / PLO peace process
2) Video: United to Restore: Ephraim and Judah’s desire for restoration and mutual respect
This week, the major issue debated in the Israel / Palestinian peace process is whether Israel should be recognized as a “Jewish state”. Because of this and other issues, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the level of mistrust between Israelis and Palestinians was the highest he had ever seen. Kerry acknowledged there were “gaps …. some of them very significant,” but stressed they should be seen within the context of the negotiations, saying “I still believe it’s possible, but difficult. Certain narrative issues are so powerful and so difficult that neither leader is going to definitively cede on them at an early stage of the negotiation,” Kerry said. He called them “big-ticket items” which required some trading by both sides. “Neither believes the other is really serious. Neither believes that the other is prepared to make some of the big choices that have to be made.”
Furthermore, US Secretary of State John Kerry criticized Israel’s insistence on Palestinian recognition of the “Jewish state,” saying it’s a “mistake” to condition talks on that issue. “I think it’s a mistake for some people to be, you know, raising it again and again as the critical decider of their attitude towards the possibility of a state and peace, and we’ve obviously made that clear,” Kerry told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs when asked to clarify the official US administration position on the matter. ‘Jewish state’ was resolved in 1947 in Resolution 181 where there are more than 40-30 mentions of ‘Jewish state,'” the secretary of state said.
Meanwhile, The Revolutionary Council of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party unanimously endorsed his rejection of demands to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. “President Abbas has reaffirmed his refusal to recognize the Jewishness of the State of Israel and council members stood up to hail this decision,” a senior Fatah official said. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel would not sign any deal with the Palestinians, as part of ongoing peace talks, until the Palestinians recognizes Israel as the Jewish state. “They (Palestinians) say they will never recognize a Jewish state and that they will never give up on the right of return. I want to make clear that I will not accept an agreement that does not cancel the (refugees’) right of return and which does not include Palestinian recognition of the Jewish state,” Netanyahu said. “These are basic conditions, which are justified and vital to the security of Israel,” he added. Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state is making the prospects for peace more distant, Netanyahu said. The Palestinians aren’t showing any sign of willingness to reach a practical and fair deal.”
US President Barack Obama and Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas will meet at the White House on March 17.
Finally, I would like to share with you a discussion between Ken Rank (an Ephraimite) and Hanoch Young (an Orthodox Jew) regarding the ministry, “United 2 Restore” whose vision is to see the restoration and reunification of Ephraim and Judah based upon the guiding principal of mutual respect.
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-Palestinian ‘mistrust’ at highest levels
2) Kerry: Mistake to make Jewish state demand a peace deal decider
3) Fatah Backs Abbas’s Refusal to Recognize Israel
4) Netanyahu to Palestinians: No deal until you recognize Jewish state
5) Netanyahu: Palestinian intransigence reduces prospects for peace
6) United To Restore: Ephraim and Judah’s desire for restoration and mutual respect
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