Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem

It is worth repeating a few times. As mentioned so many times previously - it is simply amazing that 2,500 years ago, it was foretold by God's prophets that Jerusalem would be the center of the world's attention at the end of the age:

Headlines in a single day of prophecy watching (note a trend in these headlines?):

"Israel to make Jerusalem Jewish only"

"Israel mum on freezing in Jerusalem"

"Woe will be a divided Jerusalem"

"Congress Pressures Obama to Retreat on Jerusalem"

"Inner Cabinet Chilly to Obama's Demand for Freeze in Jerusalem"

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Notice a trend in these articles? (hint: its the bolded words above). And we know from biblical prophecy, everything concerning the Middle East - confirmed by almost everything we see in the news today - the last stumbling block (aka "burdensome stone") to the so-called peace agreements in the region is indeed Jerusalem. Just as detailed repeatedly in biblical prophecy, from Zechariah to Ezekiel to Jesus.



This relatively small, seemingly insignificant city embedded in the region. Yet it makes the news daily and serves as the "Epicenter of the Epicenter".

Perhaps the most interesting information from the articles above is from "Woe will be a divided Jerusalem". It adds a strong dose of reality to the situation:

Quotes:

The upshot of last week’s Obama-Netanyahu confrontation is that the White House wants to move Israel rapidly towards a division of Jerusalem.

However, the widely held presumption that splitting Jerusalem will lead to prosperity for the city and to peace for Jews and Arabs is an egregious error. Partitioning Jerusalem will destroy the city. It will die, in every way – culturally, religiously, economically and more. And politically, the shearing of Jerusalem into Arab and Jewish sovereignties will turn it into the bull’s eye of Mideast battle – a city that will make Belfast at its worst look like paradise.

The main reason for this is that any section of the city handed over to Arab rule will immediately become ground zero for the fierce war being waged within the Arab world over Islamic lifestyle, ideology and legitimacy.

Just who is going to rule in Arab eastern Jerusalem? Will it be the declining secular Palestinian national movement (whose sway in the West Bank is tentative at best), or the radical Islamist Hamas (which openly seeks Israel’s destruction), or the annihilationist al-Qaida affiliated forces (who are growing in strength in the territories), or the increasingly radical and violent Israeli Arab Islamic movement (which has been the main force behind recent unrest on the Temple Mount), or the Jordanians (who have a superior claim to Arab leadership in Jerusalem under the 1994 peace treaty with Israel), or the Moroccans (who head the Arab League’s Supreme Jerusalem Committee), or the Saudis (who see themselves as the true custodians of Islamic holy sites)?

EACH OF these forces will seek to prove its supremacy and bolster its legitimacy in the Islamic world through control of Arab Jerusalem and aggression against what remains of Jewish Jerusalem. What better way to prove one’s loyalty to the Islamic cause than to attack the rump Israeli presence in the city? And with bases of operations to work from in the eastern half of the city (whose neighborhoods will no longer be under Israeli security control) – locations that are bare meters away from Israeli homes and government and commercial centers – such terrorism will be oh, so very easy, so irresistibly tantalizing.

The world needs to be reminded directly: It is only complete Israeli security control over united, greater Jerusalem that prevents the city from becoming a boiling cauldron of conflict within the volatile Arab and Islamic world and from becoming the hottest-ever-imaginable flashpoint of Israeli-Arab war. There is no “neutral” peacekeeping force in the world that will do a serious or better job than the IDF and Israel Police of keeping Jerusalem a terrorist-free zone.

And while we’re at it, here is another non-politically correct truth that needs to be articulated: Israel needs, desires and has developed Jerusalem as a workable, attractive city; it is the centerpiece of the ancient Jewish people and the modern State of Israel.

The Arabs and Palestinians, however, don’t really care about Jerusalem; they never did. In fact, they would consider it a triumph if Jerusalem were so wracked by conflict and poverty that it was ruined for 1,000 years – just as long as it would be lost to the Jews. That is one more reason why Jerusalem cannot be parceled out to the Palestinians

In fact, to bolster the last comment above, one can search for years in the Koran for any mention of Jerusalem and it will not be found. Jerusalem doesn't even warrant a passing glance in the Koran. Not one.

However, in the Bible, one will find over 800 references to Jerusalem.

But these facts don't really matter now. Jerusalem is the focus of the entire "peace process" in the region regardless of history or the facts around the city.

Jerusalem: The Epicenter of the world in 2010. Who would have guessed?