This week’s update (Sept 8) is now posted. It is (1 hr 8 minutes).
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) The prospects for war with Syria and Iran
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has announced that the Palestinians with the support of Arab countries, Islamic states and the 120-member Non-Aligned Movement will back a Palestinian request to seek a non-member status at the United Nations at the end of September. This will happen, said Abbas, despite United States pressure opposing the move. Abbas said that there are 133 states that recognize Palestine with its capital in Jerusalem and additional states with which we share diplomatic relations. Arab League Secretary Nabil al-Arabi said that Arab nations will support a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly. He told reporters: “It has been decided to back the request of Palestine for non-member status at the United Nations because of the difficulty to obtain a full membership which requires Security Council approval.” Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi said, “Egypt continues to support any move decided by the Palestinian leadership to obtain full membership in the United Nations.” A simple majority vote in the 193-member General Assembly would be enough to bestow non-member observer status to the Palestinians.
The democratic party originally removed reference to God in their platform as well as Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Israel Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said “The fact that the Democrats removed a united Jerusalem as Israel’s capital from their platform is more worrying than the argument over Iran. The change may have far-reaching consequences. Anyone who thinks that dividing Jerusalem will bring peace is mistaken and does not understand the Middle East. A united Jerusalem will help bring peace and stability.” Because of political criticism, the democratic party through a voice vote amended the platform to reinstate the reference to God and Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. In response to this, Rivlin said “I have no doubt that [US President Barack] Obama put Jerusalem back in his party’s platform out of political and electoral considerations and because of the sharp criticism from Israel and the US.” The Palestinians criticized the U.S. Democratic Party’s decision to declare Jerusalem as the Israeli capital saying failure to recognize the Palestinian claim to East Jerusalem will “destroy the peace process” and lead to “endless war.” The democratic platform language on Jerusalem is at odds with official U.S. policy calling for the status of Jerusalem to be resolved through negotiations. Both Israel and the Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as their capital.
Finally, in a 82-page paper entitled “Preparing For A Post Israel Middle East”, said that American national interest in fundamentally at odds with that of Israel. The authors conclude that Israel is currently the greatest threat to US national interests because its nature and actions prevent normal US relations with Arab and Muslim countries and, to a growing degree, the wider international community. The study was commissioned by the US Intelligence Community comprising 16 American intelligence agencies including the departments of Navy, Army, Air Force, Homeland Security, the US state department, FBI and CIA who commissioned the study.
An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.
The link to these articles are as follows:
1) Arabs to back Palestinian bid for UN non-member status
2) Abbas says he has backing for new UN bid
3) Abbas: Palestinians will seek UN recognition, despite U.S. pressure
4) U.S. Democratic Party removes reference to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital from official platform
5) Rivlin: Obama doesn’t understand the Mideast
6) US envoy in Israel to Rivlin: Obama will visit Israel
7) Democrats Change Platform to Add God, Jerusalem
8.) ‘Obama only put J’lem back in platform for votes’
9) Palestinians: Democrats’ failure to recognize our claim to Jerusalem will destroy the peace process
10) US Preparing for a Post-Israel Middle East?
Foreign intervention in the Syrian conflict has started. Turkey is considered to have stepped directly into the Syrian conflict marking the onset of foreign intervention. Turkish army officers have assumed direct command of the first two Syrian rebel brigades fighting Bashar Assad’s government forces in Northern Syria. After this, Britain and France reported that they were sending aid directly to the Syrian opposition. This was followed by U.S. Senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham urging the US to help arm Syria’s rebels with weapons and create a safe zone inside the country for a transition government. Lieberman said: “The opposition has effectively seized control of a piece of land in northern Syria. If we help them protect themselves from Assad’s helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft they can establish a transitional government … I am confident that if we set it up and told (the regime) that if they attacked it there would be a vigorous response, they would not attack it.” It will now be up to the Syrian rebels, backed and steered by a US-led Arab-Western-European-Turkish coalition, to fight for the safe haven, purge it of forces and militias loyal to Assad and expand it for control of large tracts of territory in eastern and western Syria.
DEBKA analysis of the situation is that the first US-Turkish backed steps for creating safe havens in Syria and possible strategic bombardment of the Syrian army have brought the Middle East close to two dangerous things. First, the increased probability that Assad will use chemical weapons to try to preserve his power and secondly, war between Hizballah in Lebanon and Israel. Hizballah supports the Assad government and if Hizballah feels that Assad is losing his grip on power, they may decide to start a war with Israel.
While Russia announced recently that it will cut back its military aid to Syria, the thinking in some circles in the USA is that Russia’s disengagement from its military support of Assad is making it possible for increased foreign intervention in Syria. In any event, Russia is still strongly supporting Syria in a non-military way as Russia rejected U.S. calls for increased pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad to relinquish power. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after meeting with US Secretary of State Hilliary Clinton said that Russia is opposed to U.S.-backed penalties against the Assad government because it hurts Russia’s commercial interests. Lavrov said: “Unilateral U.S. sanctions against Syria and Iran increasingly take on an extraterritorial character, directly affecting the interests of Russian business, in particular banks. We clearly stated that this was unacceptable.”
A war with Syria where Damascus is destroyed (Isaiah 17) is a tribulation event.
The link to these articles is as follows:
1) Turkish officers take command of Syrian rebel brigades. N. Israel on alert
2) U.S. Senators McCain, Lieberman, Graham urge tougher stand on Syria, Iran
3) Chemical threat is back. Hizballah, Israel close to clash
4) Russia rejects US’ calls for pressure on Syria, Iran
Republican Congressman Mike Rogers from Michigan indicated that he witnessed a sharp exchange between Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Ambassador Dan Shapiro. Rogers said that it was “very, very clear” from the meeting that the Israelis “had lost their patience with the Obama administration. There was no doubt. Right now, the Israelis don’t believe that the US administration is serious when they say that all options are on the table, and more importantly neither do the Iranians. That’s why the [nuclear] program is progressing,” he said. Rogers said that he walked out of the meeting feeling that Israel was at their “wits’ end,” and feeling that the window for impacting the Iranian program was starting to close. Meanwhile, Netanyahu met with the told Italian foreign Minister and lobbied for the European Union to strengthen sanctions against Iran while pleading with the international community to “set a clear red line for Iran that it knows it cannot go beyond in pursuit of nuclear weapons.”
Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that regarding the timetable for military action against Iran in order to stop their nuclear program that “Israel and the US’s clocks are ticking at different times” and that the US respects that “Israel reserves the right to make sovereign decisions on Iran.” Evangelical Christian leader Mike Evans has spoken with leadership within the Israeli government and he believes that there is a 75% chance that Israel will attack Iran between September 15 and October 15. When they do, Evans says that Israel would begin military action with an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack which would cripple Iran’s power grid.
Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with US President Obama at the UN General Assembly meetings the end of September. If Israel would agree to delay attacking Iran until after the US elections in November, the US is discussing supplying Israel with some advanced Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bunker-buster bombs that can penetrate through up to 60 feet (almost 20 meters) of reinforced concrete. This equipment will make it easier for Israel to damage Iran’s nuclear weapon program should it decide to attack Iran.
The link to these articles is as follows:
1) US congressman confirms sharp exchange between PM, US envoy
2) PM calls on Europe to step up Iran sanctions
3) ‘US, Israel clocks tick at different times on Iran’
4) Israel readies ‘secret weapon’ for Iran attack
5) Report: Obama, Netanyahu to Meet After Yom Kippur
6) Israel May Delay Attack in Return for MOP Bunker Buster Bombs
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