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 Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sent a letter to US President Barack Obama insisting that the Palestinian bid to submit an application to the UN General Assembly to vote on a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital is non-negotiable and is not a unilateral move that is in opposition to a two-state solution. During a meeting with Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota and US general consul Michael Ratney, Erekat said the UN draft resolution emphasized the illegality of settlements and noted that an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories should be based on 1967 borders. Nimer Hammad, political adviser to Abbas. said that the UN statehood bid is intended to “solidify the right of the Palestinian people to their land which is under occupation and not ‘disputed territories.’” Hussein al-A’raj, director of Abbas’s bureau, said that the move was mainly designed to “put an end to Israeli claims that the occupied Palestinian territories, including east Jerusalem are disputed territories.”
In response, the US said that a Palestinian bid to upgrade its U.N. status to a sovereign country would jeopardize the peace process with Israel and make it difficult to get the two sides to return to talks on a two-state solution. Britain urged the Palestinian leadership to delay its bid for upgraded status at the United Nations general assembly warning that the move is likely to be detrimental to US re-engagement with the peace process following next month’s presidential election.
Meanwhile, the Arab League, the non-aligned movement and Russia expressed support for the Palestinian efforts at the UN General Assembly. Egypt’s U.N. Ambassador Mootaz Ahmadein Khalil, speaking to the council on behalf of the Arab group of countries, said it fully supported the Palestinians bid. He said, “We expect the General Assembly to adopt a resolution during its current session to upgrade the status of Palestine to become a ‘non-member observer state,’ as a first step towards reaching full membership.” Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said: “We believe that the initiative to gain broad international recognition for Palestinian statehood … complements efforts to achieve a negotiated solution to the conflict with Israel rather than serve as an alternative. In no case should they be used by Israel to tighten the screws in the occupied territories or exert any other pressure on the Palestinian authority.”
Meanwhile, the president of the U.N. General Assembly said that said Abbas is consulting with U.N. member states and is expected to call for a meeting on the Palestinian issue as early as next month after the November 6 U.S. presidential election. He said, “Most people expect that it is going to be the second half of November.” He warned the US against cutting U.N. funding over the issue.
Israel granted final approval to a plan to build 800 homes near Gilo in annexed east Jerusalem. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton opposed the decision saying “Settlements are illegal under international law and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible.” She added that Jerusalem’s continued expansion of Jewish settlements like Gilo and Har Homa “continue the process of separating East Jerusalem from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory.” Ashton reiterated that talks “continue to represent the best way forward in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” and called on both parties to immediately return to the negotiating table.
Israel Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman rebuked the EU by saying that they needed to ‘mind their own business’ and stay clear of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He went on to say that “Jerusalem is not a settlement. Gilo is a Jewish neighborhood. Today there are 32 to 33,000 Jews living there. It’s an integral part of Jerusalem.” Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “Israel are not imposing any restrictions on construction in Jerusalem. It is our capital. Just as other nations build in London, Paris, Washington and Moscow, we will continue to build in Jerusalem.”
Finally, Israel has agreed to hold general elections for January 22, 2013. According to the current polls, Netanyahu is expected to remain as Prime Minister.
An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.
The link to these articles are as follows:
1) Abbas defends UN statehood bid in letter to Obama
2) Abbas letter to Obama stresses statehood bid “final decision”
3) Erekat: UN bid to aid two-state solution
4) Palestinian status bid jeopardizes peace process: U.S.
5) Palestinians urged by Britain to delay ‘non-member state’ bid at UN
6) At United Nations, NAM Demands an End to Israel’s Impunity
7) Palestinian push for U.N. upgrade likely to succeed: Jeremic
8.) Israel OK’s 800 new settlements
9) EU chief slams Gilo neighborhood expansion plan
10) Israel to EU: Jerusalem Not Negotiable
11) Lieberman: EU’s Ashton should mind her own business, not the settlements
12) Israel’s PM: No limits on Jerusalem construction
13) ‘We’ll build J’lem like they build London, DC’
14) Netanyahu chooses date of next Israeli general election
Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese Shiite Islamic party, is helping Syrian government forces of Bashar Assad on the ground in their fight against the rebel Free Syrian Army. Furthermore, Hizbollah has begun depleting line of rockets and fighting units it has facing Israel and moving them to the Syrian front line. On October 17, Russia has announced the deployment of advanced S-400 interceptor missile batteries in Russia’s southern military region opposite Turkey.
A war with Syria where Damascus is destroyed (Isaiah 17) is a tribulation event.
The link to these articles is as follows:
1) Russian S-400s relocated near Turkey. Hizballah shifts units, rockets into Syria
2) Hezbollah Offering Direct Help to Syrian Army, Rebels Say
The EU has agreed to impose further sanctions against Iran’s banking, shipping and industrial sectors hoping that Iran will negotiate more seriously over suspending its nuclear program. Before the approval of these sanctions, Iran managed to install the last four clusters of 174 centrifuges each inside in “Fordo’s B Chamber.” Irans nuclear program’s high-speed uranium enrichment plant has now been entirely sequestered in the fortified underground Fordo site near Qom. The Iranians are preparing to change the “active formation” of the Fordo centrifuges and adapt them for refining uranium up to the 60 percent level, a short step before the weapons grade of 90 percent. The conversion is expected to be ready to go in the second half of December or early January, 2013. DEBKA reports that the latest US intelligence info reveals that Iran will have enough enriched uranium for 4-6 bombs by March 2013. France’s foreign minister said that Iran appears on track to reach the ability to produce a nuclear weapon by the first half of 2013. Iran is not expected to give into international sanctions which desires to cause Iran to end its nuclear program.
The link to these articles is as follows:
1) EU agrees to new, wide-ranging Iran sanctions
2) All of Iran’s advanced enrichment centrifuges now removed to Fordo
3) Obama to Israel: Iran is piling up fissile material for 4-6 bombs – in Natanz too
4) France: Iran appears to be on track to nuclear weapon by mid-2013
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