It’s Official: Obama’s New Middle East Plan is a Poison Pill For Israel

President Obama and PM Netanyahu Meet

The much anticipated meeting in Washington D.C. between President Obama and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has come and gone.

So what do we know now?

Their meeting seemed cordial and both tried to be publicly conciliatory towards each other but it was clear that a consensus was not reached. PM Netanyahu was nice but made it clear that, though Israel will work towards peace with their Arab neighbors, he was not ready to embrace the two-state solution.

President Obama made it clear that he wants Israel to embrace the two-state solution and strongly pressured Israel to discontinue all settlement expansion in Judea and Samaria (West Bank).

The Plot Gets Thicker: New Middle East Plan Revealed

On May 21 the popular London-based Al-Quds Al Arabi newspaper ran an extensive analysis of Obama’s new peace initiative. According to this report the main points of Obama’s peace initiative are as follows:

• It is based on the Saudi/Arab League plan from March 2002.
• It envisions a demilitarized Palestinian state.
• It mandates a Palestinian state with territorial contiguity between Gaza and the West Bank that would split Israel into two parts.
• Jerusalem would be split into Arab controlled east Jerusalem and Jewish controlled west Jerusalem.
• Jerusalem would also serve as the capital of the new Palestinian state.
• Israel would forfeit sovereignty over the Old City of Jerusalem and the Old City of Jerusalem would be internationalized, that is belonging to no one.

Obama Initiates Another First (unfortunately)

In addition, it was noted that President Obama and King Abdullah of Jordan conceived this plan while Obama was recently visiting Jordan.

This is the first time a US President has created a peace plan without first coordinating with Israel.

This is not a good sign for Israel…and for the US in general!

So what does Netanyahu really think?

 May 22, the day after the Al Quds Al Arabi article is published in London, PM Netanyahu addresses the nation of Israel on Jerusalem Day which is the celebration of the unification of the city of Jerusalem under Jewish control after the Six Day War in 1967. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

He states in his speech,

United Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. Jerusalem was always ours and will always be ours. It will never again be partitioned or divided.

It sounds to me as if there is little to no give in Israel’s position concerning Jerusalem and is the polar opposite to President Obama’s desire for Jerusalem in his new peace initiative.

What About Obama’s Call for halting Settlement Expansion?

While Netanyahu has tipped his hat at this request and dismantled one or two outposts, the Israeli PM insists that authorized settlements should be allowed to continue natural growth i.e. natural population expansion.

What Does This All Mean?

It means that there is little common ground between Obama’s new agenda for peace and Israel’s new government. There are so many non-starters for Israel that I believe there is absolutely no chance Netanyahu and his conservative government would or even could agree to it without a total collapse of the coalition Netanyahu leads.

In other words Obama’s initiative is, for all intents and purposes, dead on arrival.

What Will Obama’s Response Be?

Obama has put himself in a very fragile position politically. If Obama, after all of his public posturing,  does not try to force Israel to comply he risks looking weak and impotent before the Arab/Moslem world and for that matter the world in general. He is investing a lot of the political capital he gained with his election in trying to resolve the Middle east conflict…his way. I don’t believe he will crawl away with his tail between his legs.

President Barack Obama

This is where we must pray for the President and this country.

Unfortunately, it appears…and I say appears…that he is moving in the direction of being willing to sacrifice, if necessary, the US’s long standing relationship with Israel to accomplish what he believes will bring peace to the Middle East.

Look for the US to put unprecedented pressure on Israel to bend to its will.

I hope I am wrong. Keep praying for Israel and the US.

The God of Israel is in control.

Joel Chernoff

~The views contained in The Joel Chernoff Report are not necessarily views held by the MJAA~

Do I Hear the Voice of Truth in Zion?

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman

What a breath of fresh air! Finally…a clear voice for truth on behalf of Israel. My respect for the new government of Israel is growing every day. While the people of Israel know the newly appointed Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, most of us outside of Israel don’t know much about him.

What I do know is that the world community sees him more as an ultra-nationalist and extreme anti-Arab right winger. However, I was quite amazed at today’s news report on his recent interview with the Jerusalem Post.

I think I am becoming a new fan of FM Lieberman

While  SS Hilary Clinton from the Obama administration is busy warning Israel about this and that and telling Israel what they need to do to be successful in Obama’s new world, Lieberman is sending a marvelously clear and sensible counter message to President Obama and the international community…one I don’t believe they will like.

Here is a simple digest of a few of the truthful, clear and politically incorrect statements he has recently made.

Driving the International Secular/Liberal Elite Crazy

• “The international community has to stop speaking in slogans if it really wants to help the new Israeli government work towards a solution to the Palestinian conflict and help bring stability to the Middle East. Slogans like land for peace and two-state solution are both over-simplistic and ignore the root causes of the ongoing conflict.”
• This one I really love. It shows me he understands the true nature of the Middle East conflict: “The real reason for the deadlock with the Palestinians is not occupation, not settlements and not settlers. This conflict is really a very deep conflict…Today it’s more a religious conflict.”
• The path forward lays in insuring security for Israel, an improved economy for the Palestinians and stability for both.
• Concerning the right of return of Palestinian refugees from earlier wars…”It cannot be on the table. I’m not ready to even discuss the right of return of even one refugee.”
• Though he made clear that a precondition for progress in the peace process is not based on Palestinian recognition of Israel he does state, “But somebody who really wants a solution, somebody who really desires a real peace and a real agreement, must realize that this would be impossible to achieve without recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.”

That’s right Mr. Lieberman…

 …the bottom line is that this conflict is religious or spiritual at its root. It’s a confrontation between the God of Israel and the God of Islam. That’s why the conflict has zero chance of being resolved by political means.

Lieberman is nicely but clearly suggesting to the world that they have it all wrong because they do not know or care what the true basis of the conflict is.

Though Lieberman seems to understand the religious nature of the conflict…

… I wonder whether he, himself, understands that the resolution is rooted in a fundamental spiritual change within Israel’s Moslem Arab neighbors.

In any case Lieberman indicates that the new Israeli government will complete its own foreign policy review over the next two weeks and then make it public when President Obama and PM Netanyahu meets in Washington May 18.

Netanyahu & Obama

Let us pray that our President does not pressure Israel to do things that can only hurt her security and that PM Netanyahu along with FM Lieberman have the fortitude to stand up to the most powerful man and country on planet earth.

Joel Chernoff

~The views contained in The Joel Chernoff Report are not necessarily views held by the MJAA~

Here We Go Again!

Hillary Clinton

The news media reported today that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “warned” Israel that if they don’t support peace negotiations with the Palestinians they risk losing Arab support for combating Iranian threats against Israel.

First of all, I was not aware that the Arab nations were supporting Israel in any way. In any case this is another warning to Israel from the Obama administration. Apparently the Obama administration believes that there is a good possibility that the Netanyahu government will NOT support the peace process in its current form. This is not what Secretary of State Clinton nor President Obama want to hear.

SS Clinton says that she is reserving judgment until her meeting with PM Netanyahu in Washington in May. Though she is reserving judgment she and the Obama administration are letting PM Netanyahu know well in advance what they expect Israel to do.

This is becoming very interesting…

I feel like saying to SS Clinton that I (General Secretary of the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America) am reserving judgment on her until I see how she handles herself with the Israeli PM. That’ll teach her!

The Party Line

Obama & Hillary

There is no doubt that whatever she has to say to PM Netanyahu will be exactly what President Obama wants her to convey. She will not sway from the party line.

What is clear is that they are heavily invested in the futile and dangerous two state solution and don’t really want to hear or entertain any other scenarios. They simply have a different agenda than Israel (whose main agenda is to survive and not put themselves at senseless risk) and want Israel to play along at whatever the cost.

We’ll watch together. The future of our country rests on how we treat Israel. (Gen. 12:3)

Joel Chernoff

~The views contained in The Joel Chernoff Report are not necessarily views held by the MJAA~

Becoming Clearer – Obama on Collision Course with Israel

George Mitchell

George Mitchell, President Obama’s specially appointed Middle East envoy, yesterday confirmed what I have previously alluded to… i.e. that the Obama administration is going to go well beyond President Bush in trying to set up a Palestinian state…regardless of what it may cost Israel in security.

It is slowly becoming evident that this US administration is on a collision course with the new Israeli government.

Listen to the chilling words of Obama’s representative George Mitchell…

“[the] two-state solution is the only solution [to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.] This conflict has gone on for far too long, and the people of this region should no longer have to wait for the just peace that guarantees security for all.”

As reported by the Jerusalem Post, PM Netanyahu’s office expressed concern that if a Palestinian state is set up, Hamas could take over the West Bank, as it overran Gaza in 2007. The experience of Israel withdrawing from territory, only to have it controlled by Palestinian extremists “is not going to be repeated”.

After the Gaza fiasco…I am amazed that Mitchell or President Obama can promote the two-state solution with a straight face.

Although President Bush was the first ever President to openly advocate a two-state solution, he set up several caveats that were critical to Israel’s preservation and consequently made the deal impossible given the current

Hamas

mind set of the Arab nations around Israel.

Caveats like: All terror attacks must cease, the Arab nations must recognize Israel’s right to exist etc. These were and are today conditions that our Arab cousins will not give to Israel…so they ended up being deal killers.

The truth…

…they simply don’t want peace. They want complete and utter victory. They want the total destruction of the Jewish state.

Mitchell, so far has excluded mentioning any of these critical conditions for peace with Israel. Without them the two-state solution is a non-starter for Israel.

You know what? I believe that if the Arab states would grant these caveats Israel would probably give them almost all of what they ask for.

However, everyone in Israel knows the ugly truth — it takes two to make peace and Israel has no peace partner.

Doomed to Failure

As I have previously asserted, any two state solution will find its way to the “scrap heap” of good or bad ideas because it moves against God’s prophetic agenda to re-gather Israel from the four corners of the globe, and restore her spiritually in preparation for the Messiah’s return.

 

Lastly and Prophetically…

God's Promised Borders

If God’s word is true, the boundaries of Israel will have to expand to hold the millions more of our Jewish people that are destined and called to return to their God given homeland.

 “He that has ears to hear…”

Joel Chernoff

 

 

~The views contained in The Joel Chernoff Report are not necessarily views held by the MJAA~