Month: April 2010

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly promised that he would not stop Israel’s permits to allow new housing permits in East Jerusalem. Why did he make those strong assurances? Besides the fact that any sovereign nation has the right to decide how its nation’s housing will be permitted and built, Netanyahu was only continuing Israel’s long-standing policy of allowing housing starts in an area of Jerusalem that it never intends to give up in future “peace” negotiations.

But something happened. This week PM Netanyahu caved. He folded. The Associated Press reported that “the procedures for approving new housing have been put on hold”. On March 9, Vice President Biden was embarrassed in his visit to Israel which apparently coincidently coincided with an announcement of new housing permits in east Jerusalem. The Obama Administration reacted (some may legitimately say – over-reacted) to the new housing permits. Secretary of State Clinton and Special Envoy George Mitchell attacked Israel for its sovereign authorization of housing in its own borders. Clinton was reported as giving Netanyahu a 43 minute “tongue lashing”. Imagine our reaction if the nations of the world attacked Mayor Bloomberg for granting new housing permits in Harlem.

But, after Mitchell made a hurried trip to Israel, things changed. Secretary of State Clinton and other Administration officials suddenly “made nice” with Israel, assuring Israel that Washington’s security commitment to the small Middle Eastern nation was “unshakable”. Really? Shouldn’t Israel worry about an ally which vacillates from harsh condemnation to “unshakeable” support? What did Mitchell say to Netanyahu? It hasn’t been reported yet, but we can assume that whatever the former Senator said to Israel’s leader, it was quite effective.

Sovereign Israel has allowed another sovereign nation to tell it what it can do within its own borders. The tip off to what is going on was this line from the Associated Press article on Netanyahu’s reversal/cave-in: “The quiet halting of east Jerusalem housing approvals coincides with signs that talks are now about to start…Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signaled Monday he was ready to start indirect talks with Israel after weeks of hesitation.” One doesn’t have to be particularly politically astute to see that the Obama Administration has exerted maximum pressure on Israel, and on Palestinians, to make them agree to begin “indirect talks” for the purpose of a “Peace Treaty”.

Why is this important? When Israel signs a peace treaty with its enemies, as an American Christian or Jew, you should be making preparations to emigrate out of America. See “THE END OF AMERICA” for more details (Pp. 295-300). Once Israel makes peace, which PM Netanyahu said in January of this year would surely happen within two years, the prophetic stage will be set for the next major end times event. Ezekiel tells us that once Israel is “dwelling peacefully”, that it will only be a matter of time before the Ezekiel 38/39 land invasion by Russia, Iran and their named allies. The Daughter of Babylon/America will default on its military defense agreement (p. 321) with Israel, stabbing Israel in the back, which will directly lead to its destruction in one day, one hour, one moment. This week, with Israel’s caving in on its sovereign rights over its own land, the world, and America/Daughter of Babylon, have moved yet another step closer to the next stage of the end times. Jesus told us to “watch”, thus, watching these events unfold, and understanding their meaning for our lives, is our Lord’s command.

It probably shouldn’t surprise us, but end times events are happening on an increasingly rapid pace. It seems that daily we read about an earthquake, or another assault on Israel, or a slur on religious people and institutions, or economic problems that must inevitably lead to a global crisis. Google “earthquake” and look at how dramatically the number of earthquakes has increased since the early 1980s. We are told in scripture that earthquakes will be like “birth pangs”.

It also seems that the White House, now that the distraction of the “health care law” is over, comes up with new policy surprises almost every day. Examples: a.) dismissively walking out of a meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu violating protocol and good manners (thereby conveying a clear message of anti-Israeli US sentiment); b.) announcing that America’s enemies who kill us with chemicals or biological agents (but who are “in compliance” with Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaties) are assured that the US will not use its nuclear weapons in response; c.) opining as part of signing an essentially meaningless arms control agreement with Russia that the former US nuclear umbrella over Europe wouldn’t apply today because if Russia invaded Europe today (though it was said this would be unlikely) US nukes would today not be used – thus amounting to handing Russia an invitation to invade if it so chooses.

Not content with offending Israel by snubbing its elected leader, an Obama Administration insider on Sunday in the Washington Post sent an unmistakable message of warning. What was the warning? Give up the eastern part of the West Bank and Jerusalem, otherwise the President will fly to Israel and force Israel to do so. The warning was contained in an article co-written by Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, and undoubtedly advising the White House on Middle Eastern affairs. Brzezinski called on President Obama to fly to Israel, along with leaders from Russia, the European Union and the UN, and demand that the Israeli Knesset “share” Jerusalem by giving East Jerusalem up to Muslim rule. He suggested a speech by the President in Jerusalem’s Old City “addressed to all the people in the region and evocative of his Cairo speech to the Muslim world in June, 2009”. What if Israel says no, even under all that pressure? Brzezinski suggests that the President go the United Nations and generate “worldwide pressure”. Nice way to treat an ally nation.

In the midst of all of this, the US is essentially giving Iran a free pass to continue to develop its store of nuclear materials and ultimately nuclear weapons. By January of this year, Iran was to have decided during its one year warning period to eschew nuclear weapons. Didn’t happen. And the US, Russia and China are doing nothing, literally nothing, to curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Joel’s and Ezekiel’s descriptions of a land invasion of Israel (after it “dwells safely” as a result of a signed peace agreement) mean that Iran is not likely to use its (newly acquired) nuclear weapons on the land that it wants to conquer, but Jeremiah 51:28 tells us that part of the destructive force when the Daughter of Babylon/America attacks will come from the Kings of the Medes, which is a description of today’s Iran. We turn our backs on Iran’s manufacture of nukes at our own peril. Senator Lieberman described this as “The turning point in history…I worry more that we’re not going to do enough to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon quickly enough.”

Israel – and the United States – are truly standing at a turning point in history. What they do, through their elected leaders, in the next few months, will determine how the people of the world live in the years ahead. Prayer is still the best way to influence our times, and the timing of those times.