September 22, 2012: Weekly 5 minute update (Audio Only)

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

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is reportedly looking into canceling the Oslo Accords and the economic and security agreements related to them. This marks the first time the Palestinian leadership has debated canceling the Oslo Accords since they were signed in 1993. Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said that canceling the Oslo Agreement is “on the negotiating table” in light of “the Israeli denial of the peace process.” Rabbo said that the process of rejecting the Oslo Accords would involve canceling the peace agreement and finding an alternative to push Palestinian causes forward.

The first Oslo accord, the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, established the PA in 1993. It tasked the Palestinian body with governing and overseeing administration in the West Bank. The agreement was meant to last for a five-year period, at which point a final-status negotiation was to be concluded. Oslo II, The Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, was signed in 1995. The permanent or core issues of dispute between Israel and the Palestinians — Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security, and borders — were not resolved in the interim accords, and were to have been resolved in a final-status agreement.

Meanwhile,PA President Mahmoud said that he was determined to lead the “battle for recognition” of a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly later this month. Abbas said he would deliver a speech before the General Assembly on September 27 before the opening session of the 67th session of the UN General Assembly in which he would ask for recognition of a Palestinian state. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the terms of reference for Palestinian negotiations with Israel will be set in a proposed UN General Assembly resolution. He said that he did not know if a resolution would be introduced to the General Assembly before or after the upcoming US presidential elections. He went on to say that in any event, it will happen well before the end of the year. The goals of such a move would be to obtain a draft resolution signed by 150 nations in support of a two-state solution based on 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital.

In order to pass, a majority of nations within the UN General Assembly must support it. Right now, about 120 countries have already granted the Palestinians the rank of a sovereign state. It is expected that as many as 130 to 150 countries would support the proposal at the UN.  Upon approval by the 193 member nations of the UN, the PLO would become get an upgrade of their status from an observer to a non-member state of the UN. As an observer state, Palestine could not only participate in assembly debates but also join various U.N. agencies such as the Law of the Sea Treaty and the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is based in the Hague. Passage of such a General Assembly resolution would be considered a de-facto recognition of statehood. It request cannot be vetoed by any single nation. However, only the Security Council can grant membership rights and full nation status at the UN where Britain, France, the USA, Russia or China could choose to veto the request.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said, “The occupied territories are not disputed territories. There is wide consensus among the nations of the world that the border of both states is at the pre-1967 line. When the Palestinians gain recognition, Israel can not argue that these are disputed territories. After the UN vote … Palestine will become a country under occupation. Israel will not be able to say that this is a disputed area. The terms of reference for any negotiations will be about withdrawal, not over what the Israelis say is legal or not legal. Once Abbas delivers his address on September 27, the Palestinians begin geo-political discussions with UN nations to solicit support for their resolution for non-member state status.”

Erekat rejected any attempts to characterize their efforts at the UN as unilateral steps. “We never said our right to self determination is subject to negotiation. When it comes to a two state solution, the PA is focusing its efforts on the UN, as the first and best step. Once Palestine is recognized as a non-member state, he said, the rest of the process will fall into place. Once there is an accepted resolution defining the two state solution along the pre-1967 line, negotiations with Israel can center on staged steps for withdrawal.”

A senior Israeli official said that if the Palestinians went through with their UN bid it would be a “confidence destroying measure” that would “raise extremely serious questions about their real commitment to a negotiated agreement.” If the Palestinians asked for non-member statehood status in the UN, he said, it would break the most fundamental commitment of the Oslo accords: that all outstanding issues would be negotiated between the two sides.

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

The link to these articles are as follows:

1) PLO considers canceling Oslo Accords
2) PA’s Abbas ‘determined’ to lead battle for statehood
3) Erekat: UN resolution will set terms for talks with Israel
4) PMO: PA statehood bid at UN violates Oslo peace process
5) Palestinians seek UN upgrade opposed by Israel, U.S.
6) Palestinians want 150 votes for UN non-member status

Iran continues to fly military personnel and quantities of weapons into Syria to support the government of Bashar Assad.  Iran is increasing its military involvement in the constantly escalating Syrian civil war, broadening it into a multinational conflict which threatens to drag Lebanon in, by means of the Iranian-Syrian ally, Hizballah. Iran is not hiding its actions. On Sept. 16, Iranian Revolutionary Guards Commander Gen. Ali Jafari said openly that Al Qods Brigades units were present and operational in both Syria and Lebanon. The increased Iranian involvement in Syria caused a surprise two-division strength drill by Israel on its Golan border with Syria. These war games are the biggest that Israel has conducted in the six years since the second Lebanon war on Hizballah in 2006, with tens of thousands of soldiers and senior officers, including the artillery and the air force taking part. Last weekend,  heavy traffic of convoys of tank and APC carriers and military vehicles with emergency store markings were seen heading toward Israel’s northern border with Syria.

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

The link to these articles is as follows:

1) Iran pours more troops into Syria, ready to target Israel from Syria and Lebanon
2) Tens of thousands of Israeli troops in surprise Golan drill. Khamenei: No bending to the West

Head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran “occasionally” gave the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “false information” to protect Iran’s nuclear facilities. He also said “There is no choice but to mislead other intelligence bodies. Sometimes we show weaknesses we don’t have. Sometimes we show strengths we don’t have. Later this is evident in talks with the IAEA.” Meanwhile, the head of the IAEA said that power lines to Iran’s most controversial nuclear enrichment plant  from the city of Qom to the underground Fordo plant had been blown up on August 17.

Tensions between US President Barack Obama and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continue to rise. Last week, Barack Obama decided to snub Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the coming United Nations General Assembly meetings to be held at the end of September. Now, Obama has also decided to not meet with Israel’s No. 2, Deputy Prime Minister/Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Barak will be in New York next week to attend the 2012 Clinton Global Initiative. Any decision by Israel to attack Iran’s controversial nuclear research program would be a collective decision by both Netanyahu and Barak yet Obama has decided to avoid them both. However, Obama will find time to meet with Egypt’s new president, Mohamed Morsi, to discuss the implications of the recent riots by street gangs near the U.S. embassy in Cairo. Furthermore,  Obama told 1,200 American rabbis that he was not willing to impose a “set of conditions” or red-lines on how to deal with Iran’s nuclear program. US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is attempting to put Obama into a corner by demanding the US president delineate “little red lines” which if passed would prompt US military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities. In response, Binyamin Netanyahu warned that Iran was just six to seven months away from being able to build a nuclear bomb stressing the urgent need to set clear “red lines” over Iran’s nuclear program. Netanyahu further said that by mid-2013, Iran would be 90 percent of the way toward enough enriched uranium for a bomb. You have to place that red line before them now, before it’s too late.

In any event, the United States, Britain and France warned Iran that time is running out for negotiations to find an agreement with the West to stop its nuclear program. Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting discussing sanctions on the Iran, US Ambassador Susan Rice said “time is wasting,” and warned that the West “will not engage in an endless process of negotiations that fail to produce any results.” However, she said, “We believe there is still time and space for diplomacy.” Britain’s UN envoy Mark Lyall Grant said that Iran is “at a crossroads,” and that it must decide “soon” whether or not it wants to be a responsible member of the international community. French ambassador to the UN Gerard Araud also attacked Iran for failing to negotiate over its nuclear program. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded by saying that his country does not “accept the demands of any superpower and makes its decisions solely based on the interests of its people and the country, even if all of the world’s powers get angry at its decisions.”

The link to these articles is as follows:

1) Iran atomic chief admits Tehran misled IAEA
2) Iran atomic chief says ‘explosives’ cut power at Fordo
3) Obama snubs another Israeli leader
4) Obama to rabbis: No ‘set of conditions’ on Iran
5) Panetta: ‘Little red lines’ on Iran a political ploy
6) Netanyahu warns: Iran on brink of nuke bomb in 6-7 months
7) US, Britain, France warn Iran: Time for talks running out
8.) U.S. warns Iran: Time is running out on diplomacy over nuclear program
9) West warns Iran time running out for nuclear accord
10) Khamenei: Iran will never cave to Western ‘anger’

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

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