President Obama’s Disturbing New Assertion at AIPAC

On May 22, 2011, President Obama followed up his controversial May 19 speech on the Middle East and Palestinian/Israel conflict with an address to the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC).  Some political pundits assert that he backed down from previous assertions concerning Israel’s boundaries made in his May 19 speech on the Middle East. Though charming and  conciliatory in tone when speaking to the 10,000 pro-Israel AIPAC delegates, as I read his speech I cannot agree with those pundits. As far as I can see, he did not back down or change his central assertions that Israel must fully withdraw its military from Judea and Samaria and that Israel must agree to establishing its new borders along pre-1967 borders.

He states:

…no matter how hard it may be to start meaningful negotiations under the current circumstances, we must acknowledge that a failure to try is not an option. The status quo is unsustainable. That is why on Thursday, I stated publicly the principles that the United States believes can provide a foundation for negotiations toward an agreement to end the conflict …

That doesn’t sound like backing down to me. That sounds like a defense or justification for those assertions.

Obama’s Justifications Restated

He also restated three reasons/justifications (and added a fourth and very disturbing new justification) for his controversial  initiative and push for indefensible pre-1967 borders as a pre-condition for peace. He continues:

First, the number of Palestinians living west of the Jordan River is growing rapidly and fundamentally reshaping the demographic realities of both Israel and the Palestinian territories. This will make it harder and harder-without peace-to maintain Israel as both a Jewish state and a democratic state. Second, technology will make it harder for Israel to defend itself in the absence of a genuine peace. And third, a new generation of Arabs is reshaping the region. A just and lasting peace can no longer be forged with one or two Arab leaders. Going forward, millions of Arab citizens have to see that peace is possible for that peace to be sustained. 

However, it is his fourth and disturbing new  justification that really caught my attention.

In his words:

Just as the context has changed in the Middle East, so too has it been changing in the international community over the last several years. There is a reason why the Palestinians are pursuing their interests at the United Nations. They recognize that there is impatience with the peace process — or the absence of one. Not just in the Arab World, but in Latin America, in Europe, and in Asia. That impatience is growing, and is already manifesting itself in capitols around the world. …But the march to isolate Israel internationally — and the impulse of the Palestinians to abandon negotiations — will continue to gain momentum in the absence of a credible peace process and alternative. For us to have leverage with the Palestinians, with the Arab states, and with the international community, the basis for negotiations has to hold out the prospect of success. 

Translation: In other words, though the US is trying hard to stand with you, Israel, you now have to satisfy and negotiate with not only the Palestinians and bordering Arab states but also an alienated and pro-Palestinian “international community”. Israel — can’t you see? The whole world is against you. The Palestinians are unilaterally angling to obtain official statehood status at the UN. They will get it. That would be a disaster for you. I’m just trying to head off that catastrophe. Your only chance is to follow my strategy whether you like it or not.  Help me help you!

I believe the President is also inferring that he can’t hold off Arab and international aspirations forever. Though he professes his support of Israel his support was very uncertain in the Gaza Flotilla incident last May. Only at the last second did he veto an extremely anti-Israel resolution by the UN Security Council.

All of this to say that President Obama’s intentions towards Israel , at the very least,  remain very uncertain and unclear.

Remember!

Watch very closely what a leader does–not what he says–to know his true intentions.  

God’s promise to Israel in the latter days:

If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me; whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you. (Isaiah 54: 14)

Joel Chernoff

Obama Continues Dramatic Shift Towards Palestinian Aspirations

In a continuation of the trajectory supporting Palestinian/Moslem aspirations for statehood at the expense of Israel’s security and some might argue survival, President Obama proclaimed to the world that he expects Israel to return to pre-1967 boundaries. Robert Satloff, writing for the International Jerusalem Post explains,

He is the first  sitting US President to say that the boundaries should be “based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps”. The Obama formulation concretizes a move away from four decades of US policy based on UN Security Council Resolution 242 which has always interpreted calls for an Israeli withdrawal to a secure and recognized border as not synonymous with the pre-1967 borders.

Likud MK, Danny Danon, further explains,

Barack Hussein Obama adopted Yasser Arafat’s staged plan for Israel’s destruction, and he is trying to force it on our Prime Minister…All that was new in the speech was that he called for Israel to return to pre-1967 borders without resolving the crisis. Netanyahu has only one option: “Tell Obama to forget about it.”

Israeli Prime Minister…

…Benyamin Netanyahu, quickly responded to Obama’s new position on Israel’s boundaries by saying that  signing such an agreement would leave Israel in an indefensible military position and threaten the survival of the Jewish state.

Netanyahu further asserts,

The Palestinians, and not only the US, must recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people…and expects to hear from President Obama a reconfirmation of commitments to Israel from 2004 that received wide support in both houses of Congress.

The Jerusalem Post also reports that….

… the President Bush letter to PM Ariel Sharon (in 2004) “did not call for a return to the 1967 lines, and that it recognized that any agreement would take into account the changed realities on the ground–a line interpreted by Israel to mean a recognition that it would hold on to the large settlement blocs.

Netanyahu goes on to say,

The Bush commitments deal with Israel not being asked to withdraw to pre-1967 lines, which are not defensible, and which place large population centers in Judea and Samaria outside of these borders.

Netanyahu also asserted that the Bush letter made clear that Palestinian refugees would be absorbed in a future Palestinian State. (Jerusalem Post)

So where is this headed?

As PM Netanyahu flies to the US to meet with President Obama and speak to both houses of Congress, there is no question in my mind that the current US administration is continuing to set a course that will further alienate the US from its close alliance with Israel. Israel has no choice but to reject the President’s  new formulations for peace which can only further strain and isolate Israel from its primary ally, the USA.

I would remind this government of the God’s words from Isaiah 54:14 in which He delivers a clear promise to Israel in the prophetic period called “latter days”. God promises:

If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me. Whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you…and you shall refute every tongue that rises up in judgment against you. Isaiah 54: 14-15

Continue to pray for both the US and Israel. Specifically that our leaders will forsake the path of antagonism with Israel and continue to be the support we have been for the past 50 years. A word to the wise…

Joel Chernoff

Osama Bin Laden’s Assassination and Middle East Peace

 

 

Will Osama Bin Laden’s (OBL) much celebrated death at the hands of American military special forces move the world closer to peace in the Middle East?

The answer is no.

While it is particularly gratifying to see OBL meet his just reward on this planet and to know that an American face was the last face he saw before leaving this earth, it was a temporary distraction and sideshow from the center stage of Arab political upheaval.

In particular, continue to keep your eyes on Egypt… 

Besides being the largest of the Arab Moslem countries, Egypt has maintained the longest peace with Israel of any Arab state. Since the recent overthrow of Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak and his government, we are seeing a gradual but clear tilt towards a radical Moslem takeover. The forces for democracy in Egypt, that were so prominent during the revolution, are much less organized than the radical Moslem  constituencies. Specifically, the Muslim Brotherhood is now the most powerful and organized political party in Egypt and will be a force to be reckoned with in the soon coming elections in Egypt.

My Prediction…

The radical Moslem cleric run political parties, the largest of which is the Muslim Brotherhood, will first takeover the democratic process that is desperately trying to maintain and nurture a foothold in the current  Egyptian political landscape. After rising to power, those radical elements will undermine the democracy (as Hitler did in Germany) and declare Egypt to be a theocracy (like Iran) and operate under “sharia law” i.e. the law of the Koran.

More Bad News for Israel

 In addition to the radicalizing of the political process in Egypt, I have noted from various  news sources over the last several weeks, other clear  indicators that the Egyptian populace and political process  is increasingly anti-Israel.

Here are some of them:

• Many voices in Egypt are calling for Egypt to end selling natural gas to Israel. This call has manifested in two bomb attacks on the pipeline between Israel and Egypt which succeeded in temporarily halting the flow of gas to Israel.
• Egypt recently opened the border between itself and Gaza infuriating Israel. This opening permits weaponry to be much more easily  moved into the hostile hands of the Hamas terrorist government.
  

  Hamas

  These weapons will be used against Israel and Israel knows this.

• Many Egyptian citizens and politicos are calling for an end to the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Those voices are gaining a larger and larger following amongst the general population.
• And lastly, Egypt has been central in helping Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to negotiate a political truce thus unifying the Palestinian Arabs against Israel. This despite the fact that Israel has stated very clearly that it will not accept this “unity” government and will not negotiate any peace with a government that includes the radical Hamas party unless it accepts the right of Israel to exist. Hamas has no interest in recognizing Israel.

So Where is This Leading?

 

Egypt is a boiling pot that is threatening to explode. Israel sees the anti-Israel direction the Egyptian revolution is taking and is feeling increasingly threatened and vulnerable on its southern border. It is just a matter of time until war breaks out as Israel feels it must move pre-emptively to protect itself from a crippling and potentially lethal first strike from its enemies.

 

All of this is prophesied in the book of Isaiah and elsewhere. We could be watching the precipitating events that cause and lead up to the Final Arab Israeli War.

 

More on this later.

 

For the restoration of Israel,

 

Joel Chernoff