Jerusalem Shall Be A Stumbling Block For All Nations

Israel Today reported on January 7, 2014 that Israeli citizens are adamant about Jerusalem. Israeli officials who met with Kerry during his most recent visit insisted there is a consensus among the Israeli public for reaching a final status peace agreement that leads to the creation of a Palestinian state. And they are right. But what is also true is that the vast majority of Israelis have consistently said they are unwilling to re-divide Jerusalem and surrender the city’s eastern half to become the capital of that new Palestinian state. Can you blame Jewish citizens for being so fundamentally opposed to dividing their beloved capital city so they can give a part of it to the Palestinians as a capital for their new Palestinian State? After all, since the early 1970's, Palestinians have been carrying out acts of terrorism against innocent Jewish citizens. Striking as suicide bombers, Palestinians murdered men, women and children in buses, in restaurants, in all manner of public places, and even in home invasions. After the IDF created a monstrous dividing wall, thus preventing a suicide bomber easy access to ordinary citizens, the Arabs began to launch missiles over the fence. And, now, Arab terrorists have over 100,000 missiles aimed at innocent Jews from all parts of the Middle East surrounding tiny Israel. These Israeli citizens remember the sorry string of terror inflicted upon them by the very Palestinians who now are demanding their own state, pilfered from the Jews, of course. Can you blame them for not wanting to surrender East Jerusalem to these implacable enemies of Israel, a people filled with genocidal hatred against all Jews? But, now let us examine how Jerusalem is a major stumbling block for the Palestinians. On the other side, Palestinian leaders have repeatedly committed themselves to never signing any deal that does not include Palestinian control of eastern Jerusalem, including the Old City and its Temple Mount. Washington has long recognized the impossible hurdle that Jerusalem represents. That is why the issue of Jerusalem has always been pushed aside and designated a final status topic to be discussed at a later date. But that date is soon approaching, and Jerusalem itself is likely to prove precisely why a genuine man-made peace under the current circumstances is simply unattainable. The Palestinians do not really want their own state if that means leaving the Jews in Israel in any way, shape or form. They want to eradicate all Jews and then establish their own state. What does God say prophetically to these hate-filled Palestinians who are obsessed with Jerusalem and the absolute, final genocide of all Jews? In that day, says the Lord, I will smite every horse of the armies that contend against Jerusalem with terror and panic and his rider with madness ... In that day will the Lord guard and defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem ... I will make it My aim to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. (Zechariah 12:4, 8-9) We Christians should thank God for the privilege of living at this End of the Age so we can watch God bring glory to Himself by daily setting the stage for all His prophecies coming to pass, in daily current events.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is planning to conjduct the first popular referendum in Israel’s history to ratify the amended peace framework proposal which US Secretary of State John Kerry is drafting for presentation in the coming weeks, debkafile reveals.

The prime minister has been 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 the framework accord gaining an overwhelming popular majority in referendum. Although it is not yet a final-status agreement, the document will lay out principles for solutions of the core issues at dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.
After Netanyahu and Abu Mazen affirm this paper, it will be possible to extend the negotiating time frame for a final accord by at least another year and so get past the original nine-month deadline which expires at the end of April.

Our sources add that the prime minister regards the Obama administration’s acceptance of Israel as the Jewish national state to be an historic achievement of unparalleled importance. He believes he can find common ground with Secretary Kerry on Jerusalem as well. 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.

US Ambassador Dan Shapiro precisely defined the current state of the negotiating process when he said in an interview to Kol Israel Radio Tuesday, Jan. 7, that the proposed US framework in which new elements have been introduced is not designed to generate an interim accord but “a final agreement on all the issues at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.”

Netanyahu does not expect the right-of-center Jewish Home to actually quit the government coalition over the US initiative, even though its leader, the Economy Minister Naftali Bennet, declared Tuesday that his party would not stay in a government that withdraws to the pre-1967 borders or repartitions Jerusalem.

Circles close to the prime minister said that he hopes Kerry won’t have a sudden change of heart and go back on his plans and their points of agreement, because then the huge effort invested in the current peace process will turn to dust.