Temple Mount Tension Mounts - By Terry James -
This commentary is written as the Trump administration's long-awaited peace plan in the Middle East apparently is on its way. As a result, tensions on Mt. Moriah-the Temple Mount-are building.
President Trump said Thursday, January 23, 2020, that he will likely announce the plan before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz's visit to the US on Tuesday, January 28.
He told reporters while on a flight to Florida that the announcement would come "sometime prior to that...probably, we'll release it a little bit prior to [the Israelis' visit]."
He later walked back the statement, tweeting that the timeline was purely speculative at this point.
If those plans are ultimately carried through, however, it will be not only a significant event for what's going on politically in America, but, more importantly in terms of heaven's considerations, something that will rivet the attention of those who watch for prophetic stage-setting.
The Muslim world in particular is already up in arms, emotionally at least. Israel, of course, is at the center of rage and volatility.
Tensions were high on the Temple Mount amid calls for mass attendance at Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque and reports that the Trump Administration's Deal of the Century peace plan would be released within the week.
Israeli security forces arrested multiple Palestinian activists in Jerusalem and dispersed worshipers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, as Palestinians continued to call for mass attendance at Friday dawn prayers at holy sites throughout the West Bank and Gaza. At least two people were injured on the Temple Mount as police used stun grenades and rubber bullets, according to the Palestinian Quds news. One worshiper was arrested. ("Tensions High on Temple Mount Amid Peace Plan Reports," Jerusalem Post, Rapture Ready News, January 24, 2020)
The Deal of the Century, as it has become known, has long been on the Trump administration's agenda. The Israel-hating Muslim world and the overwhelmingly anti-Israel forces prevalent in the UN know that this president follows up on promises. This has doubly ratcheted up tensions surrounding Trump's comment to reporters.
Indications are strong that something is indeed in the making, because actions to prepare for probable troubles began well in advance of the president's remark.
Preparations for possible clashes began even before initial reports about the possible imminent release of the Deal of the Century. Israel Police signed orders to keep Palestinian activists from the site due to fears that clashes could break out similarly to last week, when similar calls were made for mass attendance for Friday prayers at the mosque. Police have been instructed to disperse any disturbances by force. (Ibid.)
Hamas called for the world of Islam to come to alert. In a press release, the organization declared:
The Israeli occupation's attempts to judaize Jerusalem and holy sites are an alarming sign that must prompt our Arab and Islamic Ummah (community), along with the free people of the world to intervene immediately. We call for similar Fajr prayers to be organized in all Arab and Islamic capitals for the sake of Al-Aqsa and holy places in Palestine.
As any Middle East observer knows, when it comes to the Muslim world, the actions taken rarely stay within the boundaries of "prayers." Any action by the president in conjunction with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government will be met with elevated hostility. In the matter of laying out the areas surrounding the Temple Mount, there is a potential for war, bringing the millions of the Muslim world into the fray.
This is the fear of UN diplomats and the geopoliticians. However, it is not the fear of students of Bible prophecy. All-out war will not occur-at least, not in the sense of world-rending calamity.
A peace of sorts will be made, the "false peace" of Daniel 9:26-27. It will indeed bring on all-out war, the war called Armageddon.
And this is what we who are prophecy students and observers of world issues and events must caution: That "false peace" will initiate man's greatest of all wars.
Joel, the prophet, gave the lethal formula that will produce this final war of the age. We've looked at it many times:
I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. (Joel 3:2)
We who observe end-times issues and events in light of God's Word must urge President Trump about the deadly folly of "parting" God's chosen land to try to make peace in the region. We hope the president listens to voices like Dr. Robert Jefress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas. These, we hope, will inform the president in explicit terms. Don't be complicit in setting the stage for producing the deadly "peace" predicted by Daniel the prophet.
'We Will Make History' - Netanyahu Heads To Washington For Trump Peace Plan - By Benjamin Kerstein/Algemeiner.com -
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he and President Donald Trump "will make history" on Tuesday when they meet to discuss the president's long-awaited peace plan for the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Speaking on the tarmac at Ben-Gurion Airport just before he left for Washington, DC, Netanyahu referenced his high profile 2015 speech to Congress against then-president Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, saying, "Five years ago, I went to Congress in Washington because I had to face a plan brought by a US president that I believed would jeopardize the interests of the State of Israel."
"Today I am going to stand alongside a president who brings a plan that I believe promotes our vital interests," he asserted.
"Trump is a huge friend of Israel," Netanyahu added. "I talked to him countless times about our security and justness. Tomorrow I will meet with him, and Tuesday together with him we will make history."
Netanyahu's statement echoed a more elaborate statement he issued on social media on Saturday evening, in which he said of Trump's plan, "An opportunity such as this comes once in history and cannot be missed."
"Today, we have in the White House the greatest friend that Israel has ever had; therefore, we have the greatest opportunity that we have ever had," he said.
"For three years, I have spoken with President Donald Trump and his staff about our most vital national and security needs, which must be included in any diplomatic arrangement," Netanyahu noted. "I have found an attentive ear in the White House to these needs."
"Therefore, I am full of hope that we are on the verge of a historic moment in the annals of our state," he said. "I am leaving for Washington with a sense of great mission, of great responsibility and of great opportunity, which will not recur, to ensure the future of Israel."
Earlier in the day, Netanyahu's leading political rival, former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz, also took off for Washington for a personal meeting with Trump on Monday.
Gantz was originally invited to meet with Trump on Tuesday together with Netanyahu, but fearing a political trap and also unwilling to snub the American president, he requested a one-on-one meeting, which the administration granted.
"The plan will go down in history as a significant milestone," Gantz said on Saturday, according to Israel's Channel 13.
"The proposal is going to cause major and painful internal disputes among us," Gantz warned, however. "I pledge to minimize the disagreement, and work to make the proposal a basis for progress toward an agreed settlement with the Palestinians and the countries of the region while continuing and deepening the strategic partnership with Jordan, Egypt, and other countries in the region."
"We are at a fateful hour to determine Israel's image and security and political borders," he asserted.
As did Netanyahu, Gantz thanked the Trump administration for standing at Israel's side and taking its security needs into consideration "out of friendship and deep commitment."
Reports in the Israeli media have claimed that the deal will be extremely generous toward the Jewish state, recognizing all of its settlements in the West Bank as sovereign Israeli territory and retaining a united Jerusalem under Israeli control, along with the strategic Jordan Valley border region.
Sources who have seen the map set to be presented to Netanyahu and Gantz have said, "There's never been anything like it."
One potential concession from Israel is rumored to be recognition of a Palestinian state. However, it is widely believed the Palestinians will reject the plan sight unseen, giving Israel a "green light" to annex parts of the West Bank without concessions.
Trump's plan the 'best deal' Israel's right will ever get, says US official - By Ariel Kahana - https://www.jns.org/trumps-plan-the-best-deal-israels-right-will-ever-get-us-official-says/
Senior religious Zionist rabbis that penned a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning of the dangers of the Trump peace plan are "squandering the moment."
U.S. President Donald Trump greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, upon his arrival to the South Portico of the White House. Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian.
A senior U.S. official on Monday harshly criticized a letter written by a group of senior rabbis from Israel's religious Zionist camp to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that U.S. President Donald Trump's peace plan carries the risk of "creating a terror state."
The official said the rabbis "are squandering the moment and don't understand the immense advantages this plan entails in terms of their worldview. The [Israeli] right will not get anything better than this," according to Israel Hayom.
The official also addressed claims by some on the Israeli right that the Trump plan will lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
"If you look at the dictionary, you'll understand this isn't the definition of a state. That is not what the plan allows, and so the resistance from the right and the rabbis is a mistake," the official said.
Among the signatories to the letter were Rabbi Haim Drukman, Rabbi Dov Lior, Rabbi Elyakim Levanon and Rabbi Eliyahu Zini, together with 50 other community rabbis.
The rabbis penned the letter after Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan announced he would depart for Washington to attend a series of emergency meetings with senior Republican officials and evangelical leaders, who comprise Trump's voter base, to present the settlement enterprise's red lines and to prevent recognition of a Palestinian state and the isolation of certain settlements within the plan's framework.
The letter was the brainchild of Dagan and Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu, the head of the Association of Communal Rabbis. In the letter, the rabbis wrote that while they "recognize this historic moment for the Jewish people, and sincerely support you [Netanyahu] in applying sovereignty over Judea and Samaria ... we understand that the plan comes with danger-the establishment of a terror state."
The rabbis presented their red lines to Netanyahu: "No to the creation of a 'Palestinian' state, partitioning the main settlement blocs, abandoning the settlements as an enclave inside a terror state, as happened with the community of Netzarim [in Gaza], and no to the transfer of Areas C to B, and no to additional [territorial] withdrawals."
Rabbi Eliyahu said with regard to the letter: "We are happy over the significant progress on the matter of applying sovereignty. In no way can [this development] facilitate the establishment of a Palestinian state in the holy Land of Israel."
"On behalf of all the residents of Samaria, I am thankful to our rabbis, who stand at the head of the camp and lead the people of Israel and the State of Israel," said Dagan. "The rabbis' sentiment is a moral and principled one. There are red lines that the Israeli public will not cross."
According to Dagan, "The settlement enterprise won't sit idly by while its future is being played with. Alongside the joy over the great achievement of applying sovereignty to the communities in Judea and Samaria, we cannot ignore the initiative to surrender 70 percent of the area of Judea and Samaria."
US builds up Mid-East strength against rising tension over "Deal of the Century and Iran -
The USS Bataan strike group and the 2,400-strong 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit are being deployed to the Mid-East ready for unexpected trouble arising from spiraling tension with Iran and potential reactions to the release of Donald Trump's "Deal of the Century" - a plan for an Israel-Palestinian peace - early next week.
On Friday, Jan. 24, the USS Bataan amphibious assault ship, escorted by two other battleships, had reached the Red Sea opposite the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. They had taken part in a naval exercise with Morocco, which was interrupted for their new mission.
US intelligence watchers believe that Iran is getting ready to expand its assaults on US and allied targets, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, in escalating payback for the US assassination of Al Qods chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani on Jan. 3.
On Friday, the Pentagon revealed that 34 US servicemen had suffered "traumatic brain injury" from Iran's missile strikes on the US Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq on Jan. 8. Earlier, only 11 were reported injured, while President Trump had stated initially that no US troops had been hurt in the attack.
Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of the US Central Command in the Middle East, speaking from the deck of the Bataan, said, "Although the Soleimani killing was a deterrent, Iran continues to pose a very real threat."
DEBKAfile's military sources additionally attribute the latest American military movements to a reassessment of the tasks assigned to the US forces stationed in Iraq. Their new focus has moved to the semiautonomous Kurdish Republic (KRG) in northern Iraq. The three US airbases in other parts of the country, Ain al Asad, Balad and Taiji, will remain in place. However, three new American bases are under construction in Kurdistan.
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