Israel PM calls for conditional Palestinian state
As we alluded to last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally endorsed a sovereign Palestine, albeit with a host of conditions. The Palestinian state would have to agree to be demilitarized, cede control of its airspace, and the Palestinians would have to officially recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Most importantly, Netanyahu said dividing Jerusalem is out of the question. Predictably, the last two conditions were met with disdain by Arab leaders, with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas saying Netanyahu had killed the peace process and ensured “another round of violence and bloodshed.” A Palestinian official asserted that Netanyahu wanted to “kill off any chance of peace,” while the leader of Hamas, Ahmed Yousef, characterized the Israeli PM as a “war criminal” for rejecting President Obama’s policies.
One of the more fascinating aspects of this is the involvement of the Obama Administration.
The United States remains heavily involved in the burgeoning peace process. In addition to the above references to President Obama’s plans, a senior adviser to Abbas had this to say, courtesy of WorldNetDaily:
Nimer Hamad, senior political adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, also said the PA is not concerned about Netanyahu’s policies since Abbas relies on American support for key Palestinian demands.
During Netanyahu’s speech Sunday, the Israeli leader called for a demilitarized Palestinian state and said Jerusalem would always be united under Jewish sovereignty.
Hamad countered: “No matter what is the position of the Israeli government and no matter what are the statements of Netanyahu, what counts is what was promised to us by Obama, which is totally the opposite [of Netanyahu's positions].”
“We received encouraging signs from the Americans that we should not take seriously into consideration Netanyahu’s speech,” Hamad said.
Hamad said the Obama administration holds views that strongly differ from Netanyahu’s.
The new Israeli Ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, made an intriguing assertion as well, saying that he felt any deals concerning Jewish settlements would first come between Israel and the US, not Israel and Palestine. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is in the US right now discussing the whole process.
Tomorrow I will address this topic in detail. I don’t want to be misunderstood so I will be making it into a stand alone post. Be sure to check back tomorrow afternoon, or subscribe to the RSS or e-mail feed in the upper right corner, beneath the search box.
While the Arabs are claiming that this ended any chance of peace between Israel and the rest of the nations of the Middle East, in truth is has laid the groundwork for a coming peace agreement, forged by the Antichrist himself (Daniel 9:27). Israel will think she is finally at peace, but it will be a false peace (Jeremiah 6:14, 8:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:3), because Israel will have entered into a contract with “death and hell” (Isaiah 28:15). This peace deal will include a Palestinian state (Joel 3:2; Zechariah 14:2) but intense strife will remain over Jerusalem, for the Jews and Palestinians both want it all to themselves (Zechariah 12:2-3). War will break out when Russia and an Arab confederation (Psalm 83:4-5; Ezekiel 38:15) attack Israel (Ezekiel 38 & 39; Jeremiah 1:13; 10:22). Israel will use a sophisticated air defense (fighter planes & missiles) to defend herself (Isaiah 31:5; 60:8).
