OBAMA WATCH: 12.9.16

Obama's Zero Hour Israel Burn at UN Foretold in Stunning Jerusalem Prophecy - By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz - https://www.breakingisraelnews.com

 

"Behold I will make Yerushalayim a cup of staggering unto all the peoples round about and upon Yehudah also shall it fall to be in the siege against Yerushalayim." Zechariah 12:2 (The Israel Bible�)

 

The prophet Ezekiel prophesied that in the end of days, Jerusalem would be an international point of contention, and as President Barack Obama mulls a possibly devastating blow to Israel during his last weeks in the White House, that prophecy seems closer to fruition than ever.

 

An international anti-Jerusalem scenario which sees President Obama using his final days in office to damage Israel via the UN, perhaps by allowing a resolution creating a Palestinian state to pass the Security Council without a US veto, is familiar to those who have read the prophet Zechariah.

 

And it shall come to pass in that day that I will make Yerushalayim a stone of burden for all the peoples; all that burden themselves with it shall be sore wounded; and all the nations of the earth shall be gathered together against it. Zechariah 12:3

 

The connection was made by David Mark, chief editor of Israel Rising and political activist for Jewish indigenous rights in Israel, in a political commentary on his website Sunday.

 

"There is a clear trajectory to create a situation where just by an American abstention, a de-facto Palestinian State will be created," he warned.

 

Should that happen, "This state will forcibly divide Jerusalem, ripping out the Jewish Nation's capital from within it and handing most of the holy sites to a made-up people that never existed."

 

"I read prophecy as a filter for political commentary," Mark explained in an interview with Breaking Israel News. "This prophecy describes Jerusalem as being a trigger for the war that comes later. The international element of the prophecy doesn't mean the world leaders will come to Jerusalem [but that they will 'gather' against it]. The UN clearly seems to be indicated here, and the stage is being set for this to happen."

 

Rabbi Pinchas Winston, a noted Torah expert on the end of days, told Breaking Israel News that the international conflict surrounding Jerusalem as described in Zechariah is a necessary element of the Messianic process. Rabbi Winston cited Leviticus Rabbah, a homiletic commentary on the Book of Leviticus, which states, "Three times in the future Gog and Magog will war with Israel and go up against Jerusalem. They will assemble and anger the nations to go up to Jerusalem."

 

"This focus on Jerusalem is uncanny," said Rabbi Winston. "The Arabs shouldn't care about Jerusalem since they have Mecca. America's policy is also strange. They could put the embassy in uncontested West Jerusalem, and that would please Israel without threatening the Palestinians."

 

But one of the Palestinian preconditions to peace negotiations has always been the creation of a Palestinian state based on pre-Six Day War borders, which would include East Jerusalem, though Palestinians claim "every centimeter of Jerusalem" as a solely Arab and Muslim domain.

 

For Rabbi Winston, this bizarre activity surrounding Jerusalem reinforces his belief that this is a prelude to the Messiah.

 

"This is clearly Divine intervention," the rabbi stated. "This is all for the believers. People are not acting logically. God is pushing things to make a person go to either the right or the left because the end is coming."

 

While reports emerged last week that Obama had "nearly ruled out" any last-minute efforts to hurt Israel at the UN, US Secretary of State John Kerry refused to confirm that no such plans were in place. On Sunday at the Saban Forum in Washington, Kerry said that the US would only veto a UN resolution intended to establish a Palestinian state if it was "a biased, unfair resolution calculated to delegitimize Israel", leaving the threat open.

 

Though Jerusalem is becoming a flash-point for international conflict, fulfilling its prophetic status as "a cup of staggering for all nations," pointed out Rabbi Hillel Weiss, spokesman for the nascent Sanhedrin, "The main aspect of the prophecy is the peace that ensues, and not the conflict, which is merely a prelude."

 

He concluded that the fulfillment of the prophecy will end in the ultimate peace.

 

"The prophecies describe a spirit of purity that will wash over the world, which will enable the return of the Kingdom of the House of David to Israel, may it live forever."

 

Kerry, in stinging rebuke of settlements, doesn't rule out UN action - By Rebecca Shimoni Stoil - http://www.timesofisrael.com/kerry-in-stinging-rebuke-of-settlements-doesnt-rule-out-un-action/

 

Outgoing US secretary of state excoriates Netanyahu government, slams Naftali Bennett for 'disturbing' remarks on two-state solution

 

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State John Kerry excoriated the Israeli right, claiming that support for settlement construction stems from a desire to subvert Israeli-Palestinian peace, during a speech before the Brookings Institution's Saban Forum on Sunday afternoon.

 

A subdued Kerry, wearing reading glasses and referring to extensive notes, notably refrained from committing to veto any UN resolution intended to establish a Palestinian state, only promising a veto "if it is a biased, unfair resolution calculated to delegitimize Israel."

 

US officials last week indicated that US President Barack Obama had nearly ruled out any major last-ditch effort to put pressure on Israel over stalled peace negotiations with the Palestinians, including at the United Nations.

 

Kerry, who will end his tenure as secretary of state in January, warned the audience that "you can fight about where we are in this process, but I'll tell you this: There is no status quo. It is getting worse. It is moving in the wrong direction."

 

In his lengthy appearance, Kerry accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government of suffering from a lack of leadership, and explicitly cited Education Minister Naftali Bennett's recent comments lauding the demise of the two-state solution as "profoundly disturbing."

 

Hours after Netanyahu emphasized in his video address before the forum that settlements are not the cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Kerry challenged Netanyahu's broader claim that failure to recognize Israel as a Jewish state is at the heart of the failure to reach an agreement.

 

Settlements, Kerry said, "are not the cause of this conflict. But...if you have a whole bunch of people who are strategically locating outposts and settlements in an area so that there will not be a contiguous Palestinian state, they are doing it to be an obstacle to peace."

 

Kerry said that he was certain that settlement construction was intended to serve as just such an obstacle.

 

"I cannot accept the notion that [settlements] don't affect the peace process, that they aren't a barrier to the ability to create peace," Kerry argued. "The left in Israel is telling everyone that it is a barrier to peace and the right, which supports it, is openly telling people that they support it because they don't want peace. They believe in Greater Israel."

 

Kerry singled out Bennett as one such voice. "Out of the mouths of ministers in the current government have come profoundly disturbing sentiments," he admonished, citing the minister's claim that Israel has reached "the end of the two-state solution."

 

"We have not passed (the tipping point) but we're getting there," Kerry warned.

 

During his video address earlier, Netanyahu was asked whether Donald Trump's incoming administration will allow Israel to do whatever it wants regarding settlement building in the West Bank.

 

"Well, I think we have been doing what we want," Netanyahu told host Haim Saban.

 

Right-wing politicians have contended that settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has nearly ground to a halt under the Obama administration, which forcefully condemns any building over the Green Line. Kerry, by contrast, said settler numbers had grown by 20,000 since President Barack Obama first took office.

 

The secretary of state also strongly disavowed proposals voiced by a series of Israeli legislators to first negotiate an agreement with neighboring Arab states, and only then to sit at the table with the Palestinians.

 

"There will be no separate peace between Israel and the Arab world. Let me make that clear to you," Kerry insisted, saying that his conclusion had been reaffirmed in recent weeks through talks with Arab leaders. "There will be no advance or separate peace in the Arab world without advancing the Palestinian issue. Everybody needs to understand that. That is a hard reality."

 

Kerry acknowledged that while every American administration in the past four decades has opposed settlement construction, the United States had not managed to effectively use its leverage to get Israel to cease construction.

 

Alongside his critique of what Kerry described as a "continued settlement process that narrows the capacity for peace," the secretary of state also noted that "there has simultaneously been a process of demolition of Palestinian homes." Kerry cited 11,000 standing demolition orders against Palestinian-constructed buildings in the West Bank, while noting that only one Palestinian building was granted official construction approval in Area C between 2014-2015.

 

Kerry repeated warnings commonly heard over the past four years that if a two-state solution is not achieved, Israel will be untenable as a Jewish and democratic state.

 

"So how does this work?" Kerry probed. "How do you have a one state that is Jewish and democratic and also has provisions in place for Israel's security?"

 

"What's your vision of a unitary state?" he continued. "If Palestinians are majority, will there be a Palestinian prime minister of Israel?