Israel Watch: Human effort - Jim Fletcher -
One can be forgiven the impulse to give President Trump (and Netanyahu, for that matter) the benefit of the doubt regarding the "Deal of the Century" for Israel and the Palestinians.
A quarter-century of mind-numbingly stupid diplomacy has only murdered more Jews in Israel and make no mistake: Bill Clinton, Saeb Erekat, Martin Indyk et al do not care. They only nurtured the "Oslo" process because it chipped away at Israel's sovereignty.
Now comes an equally controversial plan from Trump. For us Bible prophecy purists, the plan-extremely generous to Israel in a human context-calls for some of the Land of Israel to be given to the Palestinians for a state.
This is a non-starter for hardcore Christian supporters of Israel.
(As an aside, I fell out of favor in the last five years in certain circles because I do not support the two-state solution.)
Now, it's tempting to endorse this plan because it gives Israel several advantages, including control of the Jordan Valley. And as I said at the outset, one could be forgiven for forgiving Trump, in that no one expects the Palestinians to actually take the deal. Did you know that since 1947, they have rejected peace deals 17 times?
Number 18 is probably right ahead.
The thinking is, this is simply a clever ploy by Trump and Bibi, and after the Palestinians inevitably take a walk, Israel can then swoop in and annex the West Bank.
It's doubtful they would annex the whole territory, but it's a possibility that this is what the Americans and Israelis have had in mind. At worst, Trump's team is comprised of realists who actually understand what's been going on.
The problem is, giving the Palestinians literally an inch will ensure they will continue to take 10,000 miles. It's in their DNA. A little-reported event last week illustrates why peace is impossible with the Palestinians.
During a Holocaust forum in Jerusalem, Israeli troops engaged three terrorists from Gaza, when the latter threw explosives at them. The IDF eliminated all three.
But the terrorists had gotten through the security fence near Kibbutz Kissufim and had gotten several hundred yards inside Israel proper before they were detected.
In one important way, the Palestinian terrorists are identical to leftists and today's Democrat Party leadership in Washington: they never, ever give up.
Some insane numbers are being thrown around to jump-start a Palestinian economy, should they take the deal. Hundreds of billions of dollars!
The leadership will steal every dime, just as they have since 1993. Our tax dollars.
If they are given even a tiny state, they will have realized their goal of finding a sovereign toe-hold, and they will continue trying to eliminate the Jewish state.
Sometimes human effort approaches a noble effort, but in the end, human diplomacy will fall short of Scripture. God doesn't want the land divided, and if it is, there will be cosmic consequences.
President Trump's Peace Plan - By Jonathan Brentner -
Prophetic Significance of President Trump's Peace Plan
On January 28, 2020, President Trump announced his long-anticipated deal of the century, his plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. I believe this initiative, even if it never gets to the place of full implementation, is quite significant in terms of biblical prophecy.
On a human level (not considering biblical promises to Israel), I believe the plan is by far the best one ever offered to Israel and the Palestinians. It meets Israel's security needs while at the same time it offers the other side huge economic incentives to accept the terms of the plan.
The deal includes other nations as contributors to the economic development of the Palestinians, and Jordan will ensure Muslim access to the temple mount. Ambassadors of the gulf countries of Oman, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates were at the White House for the announcement indicating their support of it.
From a prophetic standpoint, it's highly significant because of so many signs pointing to the approach of the tribulation. If not for the abundance of indicators regarding the nearness of the coming New World Order and the appearance of the antichrist, Trump's plan would not be so noteworthy in terms of what lies ahead.
Daniel's description of the antichrist's covenant with Israel adds to the intrigue surrounding the Deal of the Century.
Daniel's Description of the Antichrist's Covenant with Israel
At a time in perhaps the not too distant future, the antichrist will initiate a peace deal with Israel that will appear much better to the nation than the Deal of the Century.
The prophet Daniel tells us that the coming antichrist will "make a strong covenant with many for one week . . ." (Dan. 9:27). We know this treaty includes Israel from the verse's context, but the word "many" suggests it includes other entities, likely additional nations.
The Hebrew for "make a strong covenant" suggests the antichrist will take an existing peace plan and make it better, perhaps more favorable to the nation of Israel. Nothing demands that this previous covenant be successful or fully implemented; the text only indicates that the antichrist improves the terms of a previous covenant.
I believe that one of the favorable aspects of this future deal offered by the antichrist will be the allowing of Israel to build its third temple. President Trump would not have gotten far placing this in his plan, but this would certainly make the antichrist's plan one Israel cannot refuse.
Please know that Trump is not the antichrist nor is his plan the one spoken of in Daniel 9. We are definitely not yet at that place in the timeline of biblical prophecy. The New World Order does not exist yet, and President Trump is wholeheartedly opposed to the globalism it represents.
However, this does not mean that the Deal of the Century is not relevant to biblical prophecy.
First, the antichrist will make his covenant with "the many" as noted earlier. Trump's plan involves the support of several surrounding Arab nations and the United States, as well. Some of them were at the announcement of the deal.
Second, President Trump stressed the detailed nature of his plan for peace in the Middle East in its 81 pages. This makes it all the more inviting for the antichrist to incorporate it into his future plan. Much of the hard work is already done.
Third, both the President and Netanyahu used the words "peace" and "security" frequently in their speeches today. I lost count after I heard the word "peace" 14 times. This also points to the lateness of the hour in which we live. In 1 Thessalonians 5:3, Paul described the beginning of the day of the Lord in this way, "While people are saying, 'There is peace and security,' then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape."
Fourth, given the fact that nations are aligning exactly as Ezekiel 38-39 said they would previous to the Gog-Magog War, it could happen in the not so distant future. If the New World Order springs to life from the ensuing chaos after this battle, the antichrist would be able to offer the temple as part of the deal given the devastating defeat God deals to radical Islam during this short war.
What Does the Plan Mean for Us?
The key for us is that we live in the last days of human history as we know it with the tribulation seemingly just around the corner, which makes Jesus' return for us even closer. Apart from the vast number of indicators pointing to the closeness of what we see in Revelation 6-16, President Trump's plan would likely be much less significant in terms of Bible prophecy than it appears to be at this moment.
It's important to remember that Jesus will come for His church before the antichrist initiates his covenant with Israel. I say this because in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10 the apostle tells us the rapture will happen before the unveiling of the antichrist's identity. We must be in heaven with Jesus before the antichrist initiates his treaty with Israel.
Personally, there are a couple things about President Trump's deal that concern me. I think it forces Israel to give up too much land. On the other hand, Prime Minister Netanyahu seemed ecstatic over the deal and expressed his full support of it, which must mean it fulfilled all his security requirements for Israel.
Secondly, even though the deal gives the Palestinians a remote part of Jerusalem where only Arabs live, that concerns me as well. From what I hear, however, they wanted Old Jerusalem as their capital, not what they received in the deal, which may be adding to the fierceness of their rejection of the plan.
For now, the deal gives Israel control of the entire area in regards to security, and the Palestinians must meet many demanding requirements and jump through many rigorous hoops in the next four years before they achieve statehood and fully possess a piece of the Land God gave to Israel.
Much can and will happen before that time. The rapture or the Gog-Magog War or both could dramatically change the Middle East in the near future and make Trump's plan irrelevant, apart from its incorporation into the covenant that the antichrist will make with Israel. Could not these things happen before the end of the four years? I think it's likely, but the Lord is patient and desires as many to come to Him as possible before His wrath comes upon the world.
We also know that true and lasting peace will never come to the Middle East until Jesus returns to earth and sets up His kingdom based in Jerusalem.
Jonathan Brentner
Website: Our Journey Home
How Trump's Peace Plan Has Moved The Baseline - By Mitchell Bard/Algemeiner.com -
Almost every US administration has come up with a peace plan, and they all have one thing in common -- failure. The Trump plan will suffer the same fate. Still, it may be valuable by setting new baselines for negotiations that are in Israel's favor.
Why will the plan fail?
Besides the historical precedents, we know that the Palestinians have had nothing to do with the US administration and will reject the plan out of hand. We also know from history that no plan will satisfy the current Palestinian leadership and that Hamas is committed to Israel's destruction.
Many people insist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is equally to blame for the current stalemate. First, this ignores the Palestinians' history of rejectionism, which long predated Netanyahu, and second, people forget that the last Israeli leader to negotiate any withdrawal from the West Bank was Netanyahu during his first term.
The original foundation of peace negotiations was UN Security Council Resolution 242, which established the principle that Israel must concede territory it captured in the 1967 war. What many people leave out when they cite 242 is that it says nothing about the Palestinians, does not require a withdrawal from all the territory, does not mention Jerusalem, and makes any Israeli action contingent on peace. This "land for peace formula" was the basis for negotiations up until 2008.
Israel has already withdrawn from approximately 94 percent of the territory it captured (another fact ignored by Israel's detractors), and the argument can be made it has fulfilled its obligations, whereas the Arab states -- except for Egypt and Jordan -- have not.
Netanyahu's agreement to withdraw came during the Oslo process, during which Israel withdrew from more than 40 percent of the West Bank and handed over control of Gaza and Jericho to the Palestinians. Israel was prepared to withdraw from additional territory, but not to accept a Palestinian state (see Rabin's last speech) or divide Jerusalem. Oslo ultimately failed because the Palestinians continued to employ terrorism as their preferred means of trying to force Israeli concessions.
The baseline shifted when Prime Minister Ehud Barak agreed to the Clinton parameters and accepted the ideas of dividing Jerusalem, conceding most of the West Bank, and establishing a Palestinian state. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert picked up on this plan, with minor variations, but in both instances, the Palestinians again rejected the offers.
In between, Ariel Sharon was elected in part because of the dissatisfaction with Barak's plan. Once Israelis saw that Yasser Arafat would not accept a deal that offered nearly everything he said he wanted (ignoring what he told his constituents in Arabic, namely that this was the first stage toward the liberation of Palestine and that Palestinians should engage in a jihad), they moved rightward.
Sharon could also point to the letter he received from President George W. Bush, which explicitly said what Resolution 242 implied, namely that any peace agreement would necessitate modifications from the 1949 armistice line to accommodate Israel's security needs and to reflect the growth of the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria. Bush's Road Map to peace proved another failure, again largely because the Palestinians never fulfilled their obligation to end terrorism.
More of the Israeli population shifted rightward following the Gaza disengagement and the Palestinians' violent response. The shattering of the "land for peace" myth was reinforced by Olmert's failure to convince Mahmoud Abbas to accept his plan in 2008.
Barack Obama dramatically shifted the baseline of negotiations when he pressured Israel to accept a settlement freeze, something the Palestinians had never demanded, and -- like others -- endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state. The Palestinians still refused to negotiate.
Meanwhile, the ongoing attacks from Gaza left fewer and fewer Israelis with a desire to give up more land or support the creation of a Palestinian state. Hence, the near disappearance of the "peace camp" and the left-leaning political parties.
Many apologists refuse to acknowledge that Obama killed the peace process. The Palestinians thought Obama would force Israel to capitulate to their demands. He would not and probably could not have done so. Regardless, Abbas refused to negotiate for both his terms and now has avoided face-to-face negotiations with Israel's prime minister for nearly 12 years.
Trump is re-calibrating expectations again. By recognizing Jerusalem, he has taken one of the most difficult final status issues off the table. By erasing the specious argument that settlements are illegal and refusing to condemn their expansion, he has created the expectation in Israel that there will be no forced removal of tens of thousands of Jews from Judea and Samaria.
This is the relevance of the ultimate deal. Regardless of its reception, Israelis will not expect to be pressured to accept the terms pushed by Clinton and Obama. The Palestinians will complain and demand their maximalist positions be accepted, but outside the UN and Europe, their protests will fall on deaf ears.
Even the Arab states have become fed up with their irredentism and no longer want their own interests to be held hostage by the "Palestinian issue."
Just as the baseline has changed over the last 50-plus years, it could change again in the unlikely possibility that Abbas will be succeeded by someone who does not want to see the Palestinians remain in limbo indefinitely. That leader will first have to vanquish Hamas, however, which he may be unable or unwilling to do.
Even then the possibility of creating a Palestinian state has largely become moot as the Palestinian public has soured on the idea and the number of settlements has made it nearly impossible, if not impossible, to create one.
Similarly, a new administration could alter the calculus. Nearly all the Democratic candidates have expressed a desire to return to a policy similar to Clinton/Obama that favors compromise on Jerusalem, opposes settlements, and favors a Palestinian state. Some have raised Palestinian hopes anew by saying they are prepared to use military aid as a lever to pressure Israel, though Congress is unlikely to go along.
A new president, however, is not going to change the Palestinians' unwillingness to accept a Jewish state coexisting with a Palestinian entity, nor will they alter Israelis' insistence on peace for security.
The Real Reason Arabs in Israel Do Not Want to Live in 'Palestine' - by Khaled Abu Toameh - https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15516/arab-israelis-peace-plan
Arab citizens of Israel, who number nearly two million, are up in arms about US President Donald Trump's plan for Middle East peace, which proposes including some of their communities in a future Palestinian state. Since the unveiling of the plan, thousands of Arabs have been demonstrating to express their rejection of the idea of placing them under the sovereignty of a Palestinian state.
Trump's "Peace to Prosperity" plan proposes land swaps that could include both populated and unpopulated areas. It suggests that the so-called Triangle area in Israel, consisting of several Arab communities "which largely self-identify as Palestinian, become part of the State of Palestine." The plan points out that the Arab communities "were originally designated to fall under Jordanian control during the negotiations of the Armistice Line of 1949, but ultimately were retained by Israel for military reasons that have since been mitigated."
Why are the 250,000 Arab Israelis living in the Triangle area strongly opposed to the idea of becoming part of a Palestinian state?
The main reason Arabs in Israel are afraid of becoming Palestinian citizens is because they know that the Palestinian state will be anything but democratic. Many Arab citizens of Israel see how Palestinians living under the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip are subject to human rights violations on a daily basis.
In Israel, Arab citizens participate in the general elections and have their own representatives in the Knesset. In the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Palestinians have been deprived of free and fair elections since January 2006.
The continued power struggle between the PA and Hamas has denied Palestinians the right to vote for new members of their parliament, the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). In addition, Palestinians have been denied the right to vote for a new president since January 2005, when Mahmoud Abbas was elected for a four-year term of office. Last month, Abbas entered the 16th year of the same term.
In light of the ongoing dispute between the PA and Hamas, the prospects of holding new presidential or parliamentary elections remain zero.
While Palestinians have not had a functioning parliament since 2007, when Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip after overthrowing Abbas's PA regime, Israel's Arab citizens continue to run in elections for the Knesset. The current Knesset has 14 Arab parliamentarians.
Apart from the issue of elections, though, Arab citizens of Israel are mainly worried about having to live in a Palestinian state that suppresses public freedoms, including freedom of speech and the media.
Hardly a day passes without the Arab citizens of Israel hearing about the harsh conditions the Palestinians face under the PA in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian journalists, human rights activists, political activists and university students are targeted by the PA and Hamas on a regular basis.
That is what Israel's Arab citizens are afraid of.
A recent report by the West Bank-based Committee of the Families of Political Prisoners revealed that the PA security forces have arrested dozens of university students in the past few months because of their political activities. The report documented at least 619 violations against university students by the PA security forces in the past two years.
Arab students who are citizens of Israel, meanwhile, are free to hold protests on campuses there without having to worry about being arrested or summoned for interrogation. Last week, for example, Arab students at Tel Aviv University demonstrated against the Trump plan, chanting "Palestine is Arab, from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea."
Palestinian Arab university students, however, who are not citizens of Israel, and who live in the Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, can only envy the Arab Israeli students who are free to hold political activities on campus. Another recently published report revealed that several students arrested by the PA security forces have been brutally tortured. Most of the arrests took place at An-Najah University, the largest university in the West Bank city of Nablus, according to the report.
Palestinian students living in the Gaza Strip under Hamas, where virtually everyone is Arab and not a citizen of Israel, have fared no better. Hamas security forces have been regularly raiding university campuses and arresting students and teachers because of their political activities. One of the campuses that has been frequently targeted by Hamas is Al-Azhar University in Gaza City. In November 2019, Hamas security forces also raided Palestine University in the northern Gaza Strip and arrested several students who were preparing to hold a political rally on campus.
While in Israel, Arab citizens are free to criticize the Israeli government and leaders, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip who speak out against the PA or Hamas often find themselves behind bars.
In the West Bank, for example, a professor who dares to criticize Abbas could find himself in detention for several days. Professor Abdel Sattar Qassem, an outspoken critic of Abbas, was accused in 2016 of "insulting" Abbas and held in detention for several days. Palestinian journalist Majdoleen Hassouneh was also accused of "insulting" Abbas on Facebook.
In the Gaza Strip, Hamas has arrested hundreds of its political opponents in the past few years. Even Palestinian comedians who make sarcastic remarks about Hamas have become regular targets of Hamas's crackdown on freedom of speech. Recently, Hamas security forces arrested comedian Adel Mashoukhi after he posted a video on social media mocking the electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip.
It is no wonder, then, that Israel's Arab citizens are extremely concerned about the prospect of living under a Palestinian state controlled by the PA and Hamas under some potential land transfer. These Arab citizens of Israel know that once they become citizens of a Palestinian state, they will meet the same fate of the Palestinians living under the PA and Hamas. Some of the leaders of the Arab community in Israel are even calling the idea of having to live under a Palestinian state as a "nightmare that cannot be implemented."
The Arab Israelis' protests are seen as a message to the world that they prefer to continue living in Israel and not under another Arab dictatorship. A survey conducted by The Israel Democracy Institute in 2017 showed that 66% of Arab Israelis see Israel's overall situation as "good" or "very good."
Another poll, conducted by Professor Sami Samuha of the University of Haifa, 68.3% of Israel's Arab citizens said they preferred to live in Israel than in other countries. Samuha said that among the Arab citizens, "there is acknowledgment of convenience, freedom and stability in the State of Israel."
"In Israel, there are a lot of benefits and a modern way of life, as well as economic and political stability. You can't compare the lives of Arabs [in Israel] to that of Arabs in Palestine, Lebanon or Egypt. There is also the element that in Israel there is no concern of an Islamist takeover."
What the Arab citizens of Israel need now is to elect new leaders who will promote coexistence between Arabs and Jews in Israel, and not engage in anti-Israel rhetoric and actions.
Some of the leaders of the Arab citizens of Israel, particularly a number of Knesset members, have been acting against the interests of their constituents. It is almost as if these purported leaders represent the PA and Hamas instead of the Arab Israelis who voted for them with the hope that they would work to solve problems confronting their communities, such as unemployment.
The Arab citizens of Israel need real leaders who properly represent them in the Knesset and build -- not destroy -- bridges with Jews. Let the protests on the streets of Arab Israeli communities against becoming part of a Palestinian state serve as a fair warning to Israeli Arab leaders: stand by your people, or get out of the way.
Peace and Safety - By Hal Lindsey - https://www.hallindsey.com/ww-2-5-2020/
Last week, President Trump announced his long-awaited peace plan. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood at the President's side as he made the announcement. But Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, rejected the peace proposal before he had even seen it. "I will not have it recorded in my history," he said, "that I sold Jerusalem,"
But the truth is, you can't "sell" what was never yours.
The announcement left a lot of Jews and Christians confused over how the plan would deal with Jerusalem. Early in the announcement ceremony, President Trump said, "Under this vision, Jerusalem will remain Israel's undivided - very important - undivided capital."
Later he said that his plan would "provide a Palestinian capital in eastern Jerusalem where America will proudly open an embassy."
So, which is it? Does the plan call for Jerusalem to be Israel's "undivided" capital, or will part of Jerusalem be set aside to serve as the Palestinians' capital? As always, it comes down to the meaning of the words. The US plan calls for the Palestinians to have a capital in an area of East Jerusalem now occupied entirely by Palestinians.
The area is inside Jerusalem's city limits, but outside what we might call the new city wall. When I say "wall," I'm not talking about the walls of the ancient city of Jerusalem. Yes, it is well outside those walls. But here I'm talking about the West Bank Barrier built by Israel to stop Palestinian terror attacks during the Second Intifada. A small part of what is technically Jerusalem lies outside the barrier. That's the part that would go to the Palestinians.
A bigger question might be, "Do the specifics of the Trump Administration's peace plan really matter?" And the answer is that they don't seem to. Palestinian leaders rejected the idea before they knew anything about it. They refused to give input during the plan's formation. They have shown repeatedly that they don't really want a two-state solution. They want a one-state solution - the state of Palestine.
Cal Thomas wrote, "The Palestinian leadership doesn't want to make peace with Israel. Their goal is to eliminate it."
We see several examples of this, most notably the peace deal offered to Yasser Arafat in 2000. He was offered a deal that gave Palestinians Eastern Jerusalem and 98% of everything else they asked for. But Arafat rejected it.
Not surprisingly, the Arab League quickly rejected the Trump Administration's new peace plan. They said it "does not satisfy the minimum of the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people." They insist that the Palestinians be given a state based on pre-1967 borders.
But wait a minute. Before the Six-Day War in 1967, Jordon controlled Judea and Samaria (also known as "the West Bank") and Egypt controlled Gaza. Why didn't the Arab League insist that those two members give the Palestinians their own state back in 1967? Instead, they choose to fight a war with Israel that resulted in them losing those lands.
Another reason this peace plan seems dead on arrival is that there is no legitimate Palestinian leadership to deal with. Abbas was elected to a four-year term that ended in 2009. Being more than a decade late in holding promised elections tells us that the government is corrupt, chaotic, and illegitimate.
Israelis long for peace. Most Palestinians also long for peace. But while the people languish in dire poverty, Palestinian leaders are doing very well. They don't want change unless that change means the utter destruction of Israel.
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