Or we could simply give a reminder that we are clearly living in the shadow of the Tribulation.
The closer we see the world's "nations" push Israel into new and indefensible borders, we know that no 'final agreement' will be reached until the biblical figure known as the antichrist arrives on the scene to "confirm the covenant". It is beginning to look like the groundwork will have been already completed:
[As a footnote, this is not meant to imply that Obama will be the AC]
[As a footnote, this is not meant to imply that Obama will be the AC]
Will a UN Security Council resolution formally recognizing the establishment of a Palestinian state be passed by the end of 2015? Now that the Vatican has formally recognized a Palestinian state, there is a tremendous amount of international momentum for precisely such a UN Security Council resolution. In fact, France plans to push really hard for one by the end of this year. At this point, the only thing that could derail those plans is Barack Obama. For years, the threat of a Security Council veto has been the one thing stopping a resolution from moving forward. But now that Benjamin Netanyahu has been re-elected and has put together a cabinet that does not seem inclined to negotiate with the Palestinians, the Obama administration is pledging to “reevaluate our approach” and says that it will not “prejudge” what it will do if a vote comes up at the United Nations. And as you will see below, one news source is now reporting that behind the scenes Barack Obama has already given the “green light” for France to go ahead with a resolution on a Palestinian state at the UN. If this is truly what Obama plans to do, it will absolutely shatter U.S. relations with Israel and plunge the entire Middle East into chaos.
Most Americans don’t realize this, but 136 countries already formally recognize a Palestinian state. Those 136 nations have a combined population of more than 5.5 billion people.
As of this moment, the major holdouts are the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and most of Europe. But most of the European nations have already indicated that they are ready to recognize a Palestinian state if the United States will. In fact, as I mentioned above, France plans to lead the push for a Palestinian state at the UN Security Council.
The “State of Palestine” already has “non-member observer” status at the UN, but obviously they are not satisfied with that. They have been very eager for formal recognition by the UN, and now that the Vatican has given them formal recognition that has really bolstered their cause. The following is from a CNN article about the Vatican announcement that stunned the world on Wednesday…
The Vatican announced Wednesday that it had brokered a treaty with the “state of Palestine,” upsetting Israeli advocates and propelling Pope Francis into the heart of yet another geopolitical fray.
The treaty is expected to be signed “in the near future,” the Vatican said. Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, is scheduled to visit Pope Francis on Saturday, the day before the church canonizes two Palestinian nuns.
The treaty is thought to mark the first time the Holy See has formally recognized Palestinian statehood in a legal document.
Of course this didn’t come out of a vacuum. The truth is that the Vatican has been moving in this direction for quite some time. Just consider what the Washington Post had to say about the matter…
The move should not be too great a surprise. Since the U.N. General Assembly voted to recognize Palestine as a “non-member observer state” in 2012, the Vatican has referred to the “state of Palestine” in its communiques. When Pope Francis visited the Holy Land last year, the official Vatican program referred to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as the leader of the “state of Palestine.” And the pontiff publicly referred to the “state of Palestine” at a speech in the West Bank.
Now that the Vatican has done this, international pressure on Obama to support a UN Security Council resolution on a Palestinian state is increasing.
When the UN Security Council resolution being drafted by France comes up for a vote later this year, what will Obama do?
US President Barack Obama did not wait for Binyamin Netanyahu to finish building his new government coalition by its deadline at midnight Wednesday, May 6, before going into action to pay him back for forming a right-wing cabinet minus any moderate figure for resuming negotiations with the Palestinians.
Banking on Netanyahu’s assertion while campaigning for re-election that there would be no Palestinian state during his term in office, Obama is reported exclusively by our sources to have given the hitherto withheld green light to European governments to file a UN Security Council motion proclaiming an independent Palestinian state.
To show the administration was in earnest, senior US officials sat down with their French counterparts in Paris last week to sketch out the general outline of this motion. According to our sources, they began addressing such questions as the area of the Palestinian state, its borders, security arrangements between Israel and the Palestinians and whether or not to set a hard-and-fast timeline for implementation, or phrase the resolution as a general declaration of intent.
Incorporating a target date in the language would expose Israel to Security Council sanctions for non-compliance.
So what is the truth?
Only time will tell.
But what we do know is that Obama was absolutely furious when Netanyahu promised during his most recent campaign that there would not be a Palestinian state as long as he was in office.
And we do know that the Obama administration has pledged to “reevaluate our approach” and has said that it will not “prejudge what we would do if there was a U.N. action”…
I think that we can get some clues about how obsessed Obama is with the establishment of a Palestinian state from public statements that he has made throughout his presidency. The following quotes from Barack Obama regarding the need for a Palestinian state come from one of my previous articles…
#1 “Negotiations will be necessary, but there’s little secret about where they must lead: two states for two peoples”
#2 “And I think everybody understands the outlines of what a peace deal would look like, involving a territorial compromise on both sides based on ‘67 lines with mutually agreed upon swaps, that would ensure that Israel was secure but would also ensure that the Palestinians have a sovereign state in which they can achieve the aspirations that they’ve held for so long.”
#3 “The only way for Israel to endure and thrive as a Jewish and democratic state is through the realization of an independent and viable Palestine”
#4 “Neither occupation nor expulsion is the answer. Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a free people in their own land.”
#5 “Let me be clear: The United States strongly supports the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security. That is a goal shared by Palestinians, Israelis, and people of goodwill around the world. That is a goal that the parties agreed to in the road map and at Annapolis. That is a goal that I will actively pursue as President of the United States.”
#6 “…we continue to believe that a two-state solution is the only way for the long-term security of Israel, if it wants to stay both a Jewish state and democratic”
#7 “It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own, and lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements of her parents every single day.”
#8 “None of us are under any illusion that this would be easy. As I said in my speech this morning, it has already entailed significant political risk by President Abbas, as well as Prime Minister Netanyahu. But I think the reason that they’ve been willing to take those risks is they realize this is the best way, the only way, for us to achieve what should be our goal: two states living side-by-side in peace and security. It’s right for Palestinian children. It’s right for Israeli children.”
#9 “Just as the Israeli people have the right to live in the historic homeland of the Jewish people, the Palestinian people deserve the right to self-determination. Palestinian children have hopes and dreams for their future and deserve to live with the dignity that can only come with a state of their own.”
#10 “The only solution is a democratic, Jewish state living side-by-side in peace and security with a viable, independent Palestinian state.”
In the end, I believe that Barack Obama is going to choose to betray Israel at the United Nations, and it will have very serious ramifications that will literally be felt all over the planet.
Pope Francis praised Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as an “angel of peace” during a meeting at the Vatican.
Francis made the compliment Saturday during the traditional exchange of gifts at the end of an official audience in the Apostolic Palace. He presented Abbas with a medallion and explained that it represented the angel of peace “destroying the bad spirit of war.”
Francis said he thought the gift was appropriate since “you are an angel of peace.”
Abbas is in town for the canonization Sunday of two new saints from what was then Ottoman-ruled Palestine. It also comes days after the Vatican finalized a bilateral treaty with the “state of Palestine,” making explicit its recognition of Palestinian statehood.
The treaty, which was finalized Wednesday but still has to be signed, makes clear that the Holy See has switched its diplomatic relations from the Palestinian Liberation Organization to the state of Palestine.
A bilateral commission is putting the final touches to the agreement, on the Catholic Church’s life and activities in Palestine, which then “will be submitted to the respective authorities for approval ahead of setting a debate in the near future for the signing,” the Vatican said on Wednesday.
Some observers speculated that the agreement could be signed during Abbas’s visit.
The news of the treaty immediately drew ire from Israel.
“Israel heard with disappointment the decision of the Holy See to agree a final formulation of an agreement with the Palestinians including the use of the term ‘Palestinian State’,” said an Israeli foreign ministry official.
“Such a development does not further the peace process and distances the Palestinian leadership from returning to direct bilateral negotiations. Israel will study the agreement and consider its next step.”
The agreement, 15 years in the making, expresses the Vatican’s “hope for a solution to the Palestinian question and the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians according to the two-state solution,” Antoine Camilleri, the Holy See’s deputy foreign minister, said in an interview earlier this week.
Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of the Rev. Billy Graham, warns the Rapture is coming and will cause "mass chaos."
In a recent blog post on her website titled "Is God’s Judgment Coming?" Graham Lotz wrote God's "judgment is coming on America and on our world, and it's going to be ugly."
"I believe Jesus is soon to return to take all of His followers to Heaven with Him in what is referred to as the Rapture," she wrote. "While this will be deliverance for His people, can you imagine the impact on our nation, let alone the world, when suddenly every single authentic Christian disappears?
In a recent blog post on her website titled "Is God’s Judgment Coming?" Graham Lotz wrote God's "judgment is coming on America and on our world, and it's going to be ugly."
"I believe Jesus is soon to return to take all of His followers to Heaven with Him in what is referred to as the Rapture," she wrote. "While this will be deliverance for His people, can you imagine the impact on our nation, let alone the world, when suddenly every single authentic Christian disappears?
"Institutions will collapse. Banks will close. The Stock Market will plunge. Planes will fall out of the sky. Cars will crash on the road. Government in America at every level will disintegrate. Families will be torn apart. In the unprecedented turmoil, our nation will be vulnerable for our enemies to seize the moment and attack us. There will be mass chaos, confusion, fear, grief, despair, anger, threats, danger … judgment."
Graham Lotz advocates for Christians to pray and "cry out to God" from May 15-23, the nine-day period between the Day of the Ascension of Jesus and the Day of Pentecost.
This week US relations with Saudi Arabia cool down, while heating up with Russia and Iran. Is the US considering a sweeping change to foreign policy?
Saudi King Salman chose not to attend a joint US-Gulf State meeting this week set to deal with the possibility of giving Gulf States a missile defense system to ward off a nuclear-powered Iran. Reading between the lines that means two things: 1) the US would like to sell the Gulf States some more military hardware which is nothing new, and 2) the US is willing to consider the possibility of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, which definitely is. Saudi Arabia and Israel are not pleased with this development, preferring the more straightforward ‘kill ‘em all’ approach vis-à-vis Iran. In fact, it’s fair to say, that both nations are going ballistic (no pun intended) over the US’s warming relations with Iran.
So at first glance the US has little to gain from entertaining the possibility of increased Iranian military power. The allies are ticked off, and Iran’s status as a dangerous rogue state is such an article of faith to most Americans that warming up to them can hardly be said to score the Obama administration any points domestically.
So why is the US going down this path at all?
Why Iran?
Why now?
And that’s what makes three recent developments so interesting: 1) that the US agreed to a tentative deal on Iran’s nuclear program which is supposed to take another step forward at the end of June; 2) that US Secretary of State John Kerry went to Russia to discuss, life, the universe, and Iran this week; and 3) that the US is trying to get the Gulf States used to the idea of missile defense from a potentially nuclear-armed Iran as opposed to their preferred solution which is Iran disappearing from the face of the Earth.
That’s a quick turnabout from the never-proven accusations that have been flying over Iran and nukes for the past decade.
So what’s going on?
It looks very much that the Obama administration really does want to ‘pivot to Asia’ and that they have identified Iran as a potential hinge on which that pivoting could well get done.
That would certainly fit in to the bigger picture.
The US has recently been working hard to redraw global boundary lines that were once thought to be carved in stone. Cuba and Iran are legacy problems from the last Cold War; Iraq and Afghanistan are legacy problems from Bush; and Syria, Libya, and Ukraine are legacy problems from thinking that Russia was willing to go along with whatever the US wanted. That’s a lot of problems to have hanging over your head when you’ve got bigger fish to fry. And the US does have a bigger fish to fry: China. Hence the need to pivot.
Odd as this is going to sound, the US has been trying to resolve its various open problems over the last 18 months. They’ve been trying to resolve them the traditional way, of course, which is to shake everyone else by the scruff of their neck until they let go of whatever it is that the US wants. That’s right, the collective frenzy over Ukraine, Syria, Iran’s alleged nuclear program, etc. has been one big effort to resolve things. Purely in the US’s own interests, it goes without saying, but still, resolved.
Threatening and storming about hasn’t worked out yet, though. All of the abovementioned issues continue to fester, and time’s a-ticking. Not to mention, the US knows perfectly well that it can afford to push Russia, but not to the extent that Russia completely throws its lot in with China.
So it’s time for strategy two. It’s time to start trying to cut some deals.
That’s why the US has its feelers out with both Russia and the Gulf States, why it loosened the embargo on Cuba, and why it is being more cooperative with Iran than it has been in a long, long while.
If the US became friendly with Iran, it might provide it with the corner it needs to roll-up the Middle East, because Iran – if it were so minded – could help in stabilizing Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and even in settling the Israel/Palestine issue. That’s all a potentially enormous victory for the US Democratic Party – Obama looks like a hero, and Hillary gets a push towards being elected. All the other screw-ups of the last six years can be swept under the rug.
It’s too early to say what is going to happen, of course. The US might still decide that the traditional brow-beating of Iran, Russia and anyone else that gets in its way is still the best route for it. Western media has certainly kept news of Kerry’s visit to Russia low-key. And it should also be noted that the entire ‘pivot to Asia’ plan isn’t going so well. It was dealt another blow when the US Senate refused to fast-track TPP on Tuesday.
But be that as it may: sealing a deal with Iran and Russia could be a quick way for the US to mop up a load of headaches. After all, largely thanks to US foreign policy, Iran is one of the few powers left in the Middle East. And thanks to the long antagonistic history, it has a lot of untapped potential. With a young, exploding population, even the Iranian leadership has a certain incentive to play along and let bygones be bygones.
So, trying to grind Russia and/or Iran into submission was, in the world of statecraft, nothing personal. It might have worked. The US might have succeeded in putting so much pressure on Iran that the government fell, or enough other States decided that attacking the country might be a good idea after all. Crashing the ruble and sanctioning Russia may have led Russia to cave on Syria or Ukraine. But that hasn’t happened yet, and the US has a pivot to execute.
So, if you can’t beat them, join them.
It might be tempting to think that that means that the US has been put in its place, but that’s naïve. Pushing hard against Russia, Iran and anyone else has always been about making sure it’s constantly playing to the limits of its power. The US has now gained some valuable information about where those limits in the multipolar world probably are (for now), information that it wouldn’t have had if it hadn’t made such a big push.
But the nation’s become willing to put some cards on the table, and that means the world just got a lot more interesting.
5.7-magnitude earthquake struck about 50 miles east of the Nepali capital of Kathmandu, only several days after another major quake rattled the country and two weeks after a major trembler left more than 8,000 people dead throughout the region.
The US Geological Survey said the quake hit just after 5 p.m. local time, causing light reverberations in the recently flattened capital.
No accounts of damage or casualties were reported as of yet, according to Reuters.
The Red Cross Saturday ramped up its appeal for aid to disaster-hit Nepal, requesting $93 million in assistance after the three earthquakes in less than three weeks killed nearly 8,500 and left thousands homeless.
Relief teams have been working for weeks to provide water, food, shelter and medical assistance after the first, 7.8-magnitude quake hit on April 25, flattening whole villages and leaving thousands without shelter with just weeks to go until the monsoon rains.
Also see:
2 comments:
Scott, what will be the sign that the tribulation has begun?
At the time of Dan 9:27 and the confirming of the covenant for the 7 year period
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