Trump Is Messianic Figure, UN Is Gog: Prominent Israeli Rabbi - By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz -
"Let my lord go on ahead of his servant, while I travel slowly, at the pace of the cattle before me and at the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir." Genesis 33:14 (The Israel Bible™)
A highly respected rabbi recently spoke in Jerusalem, labeling US President Donald Trump a "Messianic figure" who will fulfill his campaign promise of making America great by purifying the country in preparation for the Messiah while fighting the United Nations, which the rabbi identified as Gog.
Rabbi Mendel Kessin, a rabbi who interprets modern events from a Torah perspective, gave a lecture two weeks ago in Jerusalem, in which he emphatically stated that US President Donald Trump is bringing the world closer to the Messiah.
"The Messianic process is unfolding literally in front of our eyes," Rabbi Kessin said, giving the last US presidential election as proof. "Trump's election was a revealed miracle. He shouldn't have won since all the politicians and many Americans hated him more than any president before in American history. They hate him because he will cause a Satan to die in America. They don't want this to happen and this is why they don't want him to help Israel. But Trump is greater than that."
The rabbi explained that Trump's declaration that Jerusalem was Israel's capital and the ensuing international furor over it was the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, specifically what he called the 'Tikkun (fixing) of Esau'.
"When Esau is seen helping Israel, it is a sign Moshiach is right around the corner," Rabbi Kessin said.
In explanation, Rabbi Kessin quoted the Bible concerning the prophesied fate of Jacob and Esau told to their mother, Rivka.
And Hashem answered her, "Two nations are in your womb, Two separate peoples shall issue from your body; One people shall be mightier than the other, And the older shall serve the younger." Genesis 25:23
The rabbi noted an ambiguity in the Hebrew text that had vastly different import.
"Due to the absence of pronunciation markings, the wording of the Torah text can be read either as 'va'ya'avod', meaning he shall serve, or 'va'ya'aved', he shall enslave," the rabbi explained. "Esau will help Jacob by either serving him or by causing him to suffer since suffering is a way to bring God back into the world."
Rabbi Kessin stated that this prophecy did not materialize in the Bible but it is destined to come about in the era preceding Messiah.
"In the end, Esau will do a Tikkun by defending Jacob, fighting the nations that come against him," Rabbi Kessin said. The rabbi stated that Israel and the Jewish people are the descendants of Jacob but Esau's identity in modern times is more complex.
"Esau is also a patriarch. He became the nation of Edom, which eventually became Rome," Rabbi Kessin said. "And then it transformed into a religion, Christianity, so that it could spread out into the world."
Rabbi Kessin noted that historically, Christianity has fulfilled Esau's prophetic role of causing distress to Israel.
"Christianity has spent an inordinate amount of energy persecuting Jews, though not all of Esau did this," Rabbi Kessin said. He stated that in its Christian incarnation, three different aspects of Esau developed into three separate national entities.
"The arrogance of Esau became Russia under the communists," Rabbi Kessin said, citing the decidedly anti-religious aspect of communism. "The ultimate arrogance is when a man becomes an atheist and says there is no God; there is only me."
"The fraudulent aspect of Esau is Europe," Rabbi Kessin stated. "On one hand they preach love, while on the other hand, they have had more wars than any other part of the world."
He noted that much of this fake love resulted in suffering for Israel.
"The holocaust, the Inquisition, this is all fraudulent piety," the rabbi said. "To this day [European nations] are incredibly anti-Semitic. They can't hide it or hold back. They just keep coming out against Israel."
The rabbi then explained America's role in this prophetic process.
"The third part of Esau is America, the part that seeks pleasure," Rabbi Kessin said. "But this is the good part of Esau. In the end of days, this is the part of Esau that will be restored by helping Yaakov. Therefore there has to come a time before Moshiach when this good part of Esau does tshuva (repentance) by helping Israel."
"Donald Trump is that man, that part of Esau," Rabbi Kessin said. "He doesn't know it and he wouldn't believe it, but he is a messianic figure."
The rabbi clarified this astounding statement.
"He is not the messiah but he will create a paradigm shift," Rabbi Kessin stated. "His mission is transformative. He is going to change America, purify it. God wants to clean up America of all its sins before Moshiach. The liberals Especially have caused an incredible moral decay. This what Trump really means when he says he wants to make America great again."
Rabbi Kessin noted that by announcing to the world that Jerusalem is Israel's eternal capital, President Trump fulfilled Esau's Biblical vow.
Esau said, "I have enough, my brother; let what you have remain yours." Genesis 33:9
"When he made his declaration, Trump recognized that all of Israel was given to the Jews. He is defending the Jews in front of the world to the point where he is willing to punish them."
The rabbi emphasized that when the US stood up for its Jerusalem declaration in the United Nations General Assembly, that was the prophesied pre-Messianic battle of Gog and Magog. He explained that in gematria (Hebrew numerology), 'Gog and Magog' equals 70. 70 is understood to signify all the nations of the world since the Bible lists 70 descendants of Noah.
"Trump defended Israel against the entire world, and that is the prophesied battle of Gog and Magog," explained Rabbi Kessin, citing Ezekiel.
After a long time you shall be summoned; in the distant future you shall march against the land [of a people] restored from the sword, gathered from the midst of many peoples-against the mountains of Yisrael, which have long lain desolate-[a people] liberated from the nations, and now all dwelling secure. Ezekiel 38:8
"[The prophet] stated that all the nations will gang up against Jerusalem, and isn't that what they just did in the UN?" Rabbi Kessin asked rhetorically. "The UN is Gog and Magog."
"This is all part of Esau doing tshuva, becoming great, so he can help Israel. And America will become great," Rabbi Kessin stated. "God wants America to be prosperous so that they can assist Israel in the next step."
Our World: Trump kicks America's Palestinian habit - By Caroline B. Glick -
The US is UNRWA's largest funder. In 2016, it transferred more than $368m. to UNRWA.
It was probably a coincidence that US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley hailed the Iranian anti-regime protesters and threatened to end US financial support for UNRWA - the UN Palestinian refugee agency - and the Palestinian Authority more generally in the same briefing. But they are integrally linked.
It is no coincidence that Hamas is escalating its rocket attacks on Israel as the Iranian regime confronts the most significant domestic challenge it has ever faced.
As IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot said this week, Iranian assistance to Hamas is steadily rising. Last August, Hamas acknowledged that Iran is its greatest military and financial backer. In 2017, Iran transferred $70 million to the terrorist group.
Eisenkot said that in 2018, Iran intends to transfer $100m. to Hamas.
If Iran is Hamas's greatest state sponsor, UNRWA is its partner. UNRWA is headquartered in Gaza. It is the UN's single largest agency. It has more than 11,500 employees in Gaza alone. UNRWA's annual budget is in excess of $1.2 billion. Several hundred million each year is spent in Gaza.
The US is UNRWA's largest funder. In 2016, it transferred more than $368m. to UNRWA.
For the past decade, the Center for Near East Policy Research has copiously documented how UNRWA in Gaza is not an independent actor. Rather it is an integral part of Hamas's regime in Gaza.
UNRWA underwrites the jihadist regime by paying for its school system and its healthcare system, among other things. Since 1999, UNRWA employees have repeatedly and overwhelmingly elected Hamas members to lead their unions.
In every major missile campaign Hamas has carried out against Israel since the group seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, UNRWA facilities have played key roles in its terrorist offensives. Missiles, rockets and mortars have been stored in and fired from UNRWA schools and clinics.
UNRWA teachers and students have served as human shields for Hamas missile launches against Israel.
UNRWA ambulances have been used to ferry weapons, including mortars, and terrorists.
UNRWA officials have served as Hamas mouthpieces in their propaganda war against Israel.
In the UNRWA school curriculum, the overwhelming message in nearly every class, and nearly every textbook, is that students should seek martyrdom in jihad against Israel. They should strive to destroy the Jewish state.
Hamas's youth group, which provides children's military training and jihadist indoctrination, gathers at UNRWA schools.
Despite repeated demands by the US Congress, and the passage of US laws requiring UNRWA to bar Hamas members from working for the agency, UNRWA administrators have insisted for more than a decade that they have no way to conduct such screening. Yet rather than cut off US funding for the agency, successive US administrations have increased funding for UNRWA every year.
Given all of this, Hamas is comfortable using Iran's $100m. to build attack tunnels and missile launchers, because it trusts that the US and other UNRWA donor countries will continue to underwrite its regime through UNRWA.
If the US cuts off its assistance, then at least some of Iran's money will have to be diverted to teachers' salaries.
Hamas's recently escalating rocket attacks on Israel may be happening because Iran wishes to deflect international attention away from its plan to brutally suppress the anti-regime protesters at home.
So the more Hamas is financially squeezed by the US and other UNRWA funders, the more likely any Hamas-Iran war plans being advanced now will be placed on the back burner.
So whether or not Haley realized it, her statement on cutting off US funding to Hamas strengthened the anti-regime protesters against the regime.
Those protesters, of course are demanding that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his henchmen stop raiding Iran's treasury to finance Hezbollah, Hamas and Bashar Assad's regime in Syria.
Haley's comments, as well as President Donald Trump's follow-on threat to end US funding of the PA, were more than a blow to Hamas. They marked end of the past 25 years of US-Palestinian relations.
For the past generation, the bipartisan position of all US administrations has been that the US must support the Palestinians unconditionally. The Obama administration did not differ from George W. Bush's administration on that score. The main difference between the Obama and Bush administrations was Obama's hostility toward Israel, not his knee-jerk support for the Palestinians.
The Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations provided the Palestinians unstinting and unconditional support, despite the fact that the Palestinians never abided by any of their expectations. They never embraced the cause of peace. Indeed, the supposedly moderate ruling Fatah faction that controls the PLO and the Palestinian Authority, and has accepted billions of dollars in US aid since 1994, doesn't even recognize Israel's right to exist. Fatah remains deeply involved in committing terrorism.
And the Fatah-controlled PA has sponsored, incited, financed and rewarded terrorists and terrorism since it was established under US sponsorship in 1994.
When the Palestinians last voted for their governmental representatives in 2006, they flummoxed Bush and his secretary of state Condoleezza Rice by electing Hamas to run their affairs. Rather than accept that the Palestinians were uninterested in peace and cut them off, Rice and Bush chose to pretend their vote just meant they didn't like Fatah corruption.
A year later, after US-trained and -armed Fatah security forces cut and ran when Hamas gunmen opened fire on them in Gaza, the US didn't cut off its support for Fatah's security forces. The US massively expanded that support.
As for Hamas-controlled Gaza, Rice responded to Gaza's transformation into the Palestinian equivalent of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan by immediately raising US financial support for UNRWA by $40m. and pretending that the money would not benefit Hamas.
After that, both the Bush and Obama administrations touted UNRWA as an independent counterforce to Hamas, despite the fact that their protestations were demonstrably false and indeed, entirely absurd.
In this context, Abbas and his deputies had every reason to believe they could initiate anti-American resolutions at the UN in response to Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and face no consequences. It made sense as well for them to boycott administration officials in retaliation for Trump's Jerusalem policy and assume that the US would continue to finance them.
The Trump administration's threat to cut off funding to UNRWA and the PA does not point to a new US policy toward the Palestinians. It simply makes clear that unlike all of its predecessors, Trump's support for the Palestinians is not unconditional.
As Trump, Haley and other senior officials have made clear, they are still trying to put together their policy for the Palestinians. And this is where Israel needs to come into the picture.
IT IS important to recall that the US's unconditional support for the Palestinians across three administrations was the result not of a US decision, but an Israeli one. It was Israel under the Rabin-Peres government, not the US under then-president Bill Clinton, that decided to recognize the PA in 1993 and give Yasser Arafat and his deputies control of Gaza and the Palestinian towns and cities in Judea and Samaria. If Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres hadn't decided to abandon the then-ongoing US peace talks that excluded the PLO in favor of Norwegian talks with the PLO, the US would probably not have embraced the PLO.
Now that the Trump administration is abandoning its predecessors' policy, the time has come for Israel to offer it an alternative. This week, the government and the governing Likud party took two steps toward doing just that.
On Sunday, the Likud central committee passed a resolution unanimously that called for Israel to apply its law to the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. Although the resolution was declarative, and does not obligate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it points toward the policy that either this government or its successor will likely adopt.
In both the 2013 and 2015 elections, facing the hostile Obama administration, Netanyahu refused to run on any platform other than his personal credibility. With the Likud resolution, and with a Trump administration interested in considering alternatives to the failed policies of its predecessors, Netanyahu can be expected (and should be urged) to pledge to implement his party's policy if reelected.
On Monday, the Knesset passed an amendment to the Basic Law: Jerusalem. The amended law protects Israel's sovereignty over the territory now within Jerusalem's municipal boundaries while permitting the government to take some of that territory out of the municipal boundaries. The idea is that some Arab villages now within the city limits will be given their own local councils.
Today, for political reasons, Arab residents of Jerusalem refuse to vote in municipal elections. Consequently, they have effectively disenfranchised themselves. By providing them with separate local councils while ensuring that they will remain governed by Israel's liberal legal code, the Knesset provided a model for future governance of the Palestinian population centers in Judea and Samaria.
In response to Haley's and Trump's threats to cut off funding to the PA and UNRWA, Rice's Israeli counterpart, former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, wrote on Twitter that the government should lobby Trump to maintain funding. In her words, "A responsible and serious government would sit quietly and discretely with the US president and explain the Israeli interest."
Livni maintained that interest remains what it was when she backed Rice's decision to expand US funding to Hamas-controlled UNRWA and the feckless US-trained Fatah security forces.
Luckily, like the Trump administration, Israel's government today recognizes that repeating the failures of its predecessors makes no sense.
The Likud's resolution on Judea and Samaria and the Knesset's amendment to the Basic Law: Jerusalem represent the beginning of a new Israeli policy toward the Palestinians.
If the Trump administration follows Israel's lead, as the Clinton administration followed its lead in 1993, then the new era in US policy toward the Palestinians won't be limited to ending US unconditional support for the PLO and through UNRWA, Hamas.
A new US policy will involve providing the Palestinians the means to govern themselves while enjoying the protections of Israeli law. It will involve ending US support for Palestinian sponsorship and finance of terrorism. It will involve securing Israel's borders, security and national rights. And of course it will involve kicking Iran out of Gaza and out of the Levant more generally.
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