Shalom from Zion,

When God called us as watchmen, He gave us specific directions about what to watch. As in Jeremiah 1:12, we are to watch Him as He watches over His word to fulfill it here in Israel and to declare what we see wherever He sends us. We do that in this newsletter and by other means in which we teach the Word.

Today, there are worldwide economic shakings, shiftings of international alliances, wars and threats of wars, nuclear weapons in the hands of rogue nations, weird weather, massive floods, major earthquakes, eruptions, etc. Yet what brings global unity is condemnation of Jews building homes in Jerusalem.

God is fulfilling His prophetic Word now!

Here are some prophecies we see coming to pass today.

Psalm 147:2 The LORD is building Jerusalem. He is gathering together the outcasts of Israel. This is strikingly true since 1967, when God saw fit to return all of Jerusalem to Israeli rule in a defensive war. Since then, over 300,000 Jews have settled in a Jerusalem liberated from nineteen years of Islamic occupation. Many of these Jews made aliyah - immigrated from exile - a fulfillment of the second part of this verse. Israel's total Jewish population, around 600,000 in 1948, is more than 6,000,000 today.

Jeremiah 31:3-5 [God says, Israel], I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you. Again I will build you…upon the mountains of Samaria…  This is also part of God's/Israel's land that the world calls "occupied". Yet as this verse declares, God is planting His people "again" in Samaria. Shiloh is here, where the Ark of the Covenant remained for four hundred years - even longer than in Jerusalem.

Zechariah 12:2 Behold, I [God] will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people around it, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. Judah, or Judea, is another part of God's land the world wants Israel to leave. Yet this verse says Jews will be in both Judea and Jerusalem as God makes Israel's capital a trap for the nations. Picture it like this: God as Matador; the world as the bull; Jerusalem, as God's red cape! This bull will end up dead once it charges the red cape. It shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. (Zech. 12:9)

Matthew 24:14 This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. This is being fulfilled daily as multitudes all over the world are hearing the good news of God's kingdom. Massive numbers of Chinese, Indians, Vietnamese, Iranians, Nigerians, and many other people groups are trusting Yeshua. And there are more Jewish believers today, and increasing daily, than at any other time since the book of Acts.

What is the world's reaction to this?

Psalms 2:1-3 says it succinctly. Why do the nations rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth…and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and His anointed [both Yeshua and Israel (Psa. 105:12-15)], saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.  God's response includes derision and judgment (v. 4-5).

Jeremiah 33:7-9 predicts that the nations will be agitated over Israel's restoration. I will cause Israel's captivity…to return, and will build them, as at the first. In verse 8, God says He will save all Israel once they are back home. Then verse 9: It shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise and an honor before all the nations of the earth which shall hear all the good that I do unto them. And they [the nations] shall fear and tremble [Heb: be agitated, be angry] for all the goodness and…prosperity that I procure unto them. We see it now!

Joel 3:1-2 …when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations…into the valley of Jehoshaphat [YHWH judges], and will plead with them there for My people and for My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and divided My land. We see nations pressuring Israel to divide her/God's land. We also see God's judgments coming on nations that pursue this anti-biblical path with increased intensity. For example, America, the leader on this path, has gone from being feared and respected to being a nation under attack inside and out. And who respects President Obama? North Korea? Venezuela? Iran? China? The EU? No one fears a US stretched in wars that it has no will to win. Her economy is crumbling. Her land suffers from storm and drought. Violence is rampant in her streets and her sins are exposed for all to see. Still, driving her deeper into God's valley of judgment, her leaders try to divide Israel.

Many, even in her churches, stand against God's will for Israel, and that is the final nail in the coffin. After all, if God's people will not stand in the gap for their nation, who will? And though there is a global remnant who do stand with Israel, yet most national and Christian leaders continue to poke God in the eye (Zech. 2:8).

What should our reaction be?

But the end of all things is at hand. Be therefore sober minded, and watch unto prayer.

1 Peter 4:7; cp Luke 21:36

Prayer must be our first response. If there is anything else God wants from us, we need to hear it in the place of prayer. Here are three timely examples of praying the Word.

1. Our Father in heaven, may Your name be sanctified, through Your kingdom coming and Your will being done on earth, in my life, and in Israel, as it is in heaven.

   Matthew 6:9-10

2. Lord, you have set us as watchmen on Jerusalem's walls, therefore we will not hold our peace 24/7. We remind You of Your promises. We will not keep silence, nor give You rest, until You establish, and make Jerusalem a praise to Your glory in all the earth.

   Isaiah 62:6-7

3. God, save Your people, the remnant of Israel.

   Jeremiah 31:7b

The paradigm shifts away from Israel

Yoram Hazony explains why whatever Israel does, she is openly pilloried in the international media and on university campuses …for some alleged violation of human rights, real or imagined. Israel is often seen not as a democracy doing its duty to defend its people and its freedom, but as some kind of a scourge… Along with this is a rising anti-Semitic tide, which has returned after its post-World War II hiatus.

The Left says that to prevent this anti-Israel crusade, Israel must withdraw from the "occupied territories" and enable the creation of "Palestine". The Right says Israel needs better public relations to explain her geopolitical position. Yet, when Israel does either of these, she is still perceived as the bad guy.

For example, withdrawals from both South Lebanon and Gaza, did nothing to stem the tide of hatred and vilification being poured on Israel's head internationally. Whatever it is that is driving the trend toward the progressive delegitimization of Israel, it is a trend operating more or less without reference to any particular Israeli policy on any given issue.

He says the underlying cause is that the West's paradigm, its framework of interrelated concepts, has shifted since the late 1940s. In 1947, the UN voted…for establishment of a 'Jewish State' in Palestine, after which dozens of other national states in the Third World were formed. Yet since then, with the creation of the EU, European nations have a new paradigm in which the sovereign nation-state is no longer seen as holding the key to the well-being of humanity. In fact, independent nations are viewed by many of Europe's intellectuals and political figures as a source of incalculable evil, while the multinational empire is viewed as a model for a post-national humanity… This is an ideal situation for the prophesied Anti-Christ to use globalism to rule over much of the world.

In the West, this shift has impacted a generation of young people that, for the first time in 350 years, [do] not recognize the nation-state as the foundation of our freedoms.

Of course, this affects how many see Israel, which is thankful to be a nation-state for the Jewish people. Hazony sees Auschwitz as key, as most Jews believe that the only thing that has really changed since millions of our people perished - the only thing that stands as a bulwark against the repetition of this…is Israel.

Auschwitz is also an important political symbol for others. Europeans see the death camp as the heart of the lesson of WW II. But the conclusions they draw are precisely the opposite of those drawn by Jews, viewing it as the ultimate expression of that barbarism, that brutal debasement of humanity, which is national particularism. To prevent such evil from reoccurring, Europe's nations must be dismantled, their peoples tied together under a single government. Thus this viewpoint says, it is not Israel that is the answer to Auschwitz, but the EU…

There are two competing paradigms. Israel: Auschwitz represents the unspeakable horror of Jewish women and men standing empty-handed and naked, watching their children die for want of a rifle with which to protect them.

EU: Auschwitz represents the unspeakable horror of German soldiers using force against others, backed by nothing but their own government's views as to their national rights and interests.

Hazony sees these two as almost perfectly irreconcilable. In one, the agency of the murderers is seen as the source of evil; in the other, the powerlessness of the victims - a seemingly subtle difference in perspective that opens up into a chasm when we, view Israel through these rival paradigms.

Israel: Israel represents Jewish women and men standing rifle in hand, watching over their own children and all other Jewish children and protecting them. Israel is the opposite of Auschwitz.

EU: Israel represents the unspeakable horror of Jewish soldiers using force against others, backed by nothing but their own government's views as to their national rights and interests. Israel is Auschwitz… Thus there is an increased acceptance in the West of comparing Israel and its soldiers to the Nazis.

So the global disgust or hatred for Israel is…driven by the rapid advance of a new paradigm that understands Israel, and especially the independent Israeli use of force to defend itself, as illegitimate down to its foundations…

On the battlefield of ideas, the state of Israel is today in danger as never before…You can only fight a paradigm with a competing paradigm. And the paradigm that gave birth to Israel and which held it firm, both domestically and internationally, is today in tatters… (Israel Through European Eyes," Y. Haznoy, Jerusalem Letters, 14 July, 2009)

Delegitimizing Israel

Coupled with that paradigm shift, the delegitimization of Israel is Satan's most successful tool against her today. Her very existence is questioned, her right to self-defense is condemned. Even many global organizations stand against her. For example, UNESCO recently labeled Rachel's Tomb a mosque and criticized Israel's listing of Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs as a national heritage site. The Prime Minister's Office said, If the nearly 4,000-year-old burial sites of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the Jewish Nation…are not part of its culture and tradition, then what is…? ("UNESCO Erases Israeli Protests from…Protocol,"" Arutz 7, 1 Nov. 2010)

Danny Seaman, the recently retired Israeli Government Press Office director, views delegitimization this way. Ever since the enemies of Israel understood it could not be defeated militarily because of its strength, their goal has been denying us the right to use that strength… ("Danny Seaman's farewell voyage," David Horovitz, JP Interview, 5 Nov. 2010)

The Jerusalem Post's Khaled Abu Toameh,

an Israeli Arab Moslem journalist, sees things much clearer than many Western politicians or clergy. When asked about the real nature of the Middle East [ME] struggle, he said, This conflict is about Israel's very existence in this part of the world…I'm not pro-Israel, I'm not pro-Palestinian, I'm not pro-American. But as a journalist, I'm pro the facts and pro the truth.

He says it's ironic that as an Arab Muslim in the ME, the only place he can express himself freely is in a 'Jewish newspaper', adding that there is no media freedom in any Palestinian areas, either under Hamas or the Palestinian Authority [PA].

Toameh sees the West's main problem as not believing what people say. If Hamas say they want to destroy you…believe them. If Ahmadinejad says he wants to destroy you, there's no need to start analyzing what he means by that. Yet PA President Abbas and his PLO are different, because they will tell you one thing in English, then another in Arabic.

Abbas is corrupt, discredited, weak, and relies on Israel's presence in the West Bank to keep him in power. If Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders as the PA demands, Abbas will collapse and Hamas will take over…If I were Israel, I would not give Abbas one inch of land…not for ideological reasons, but to avoid a situation where Hamas and others take over the area.

When asked why there is still no peace, he said it is because there is no reliable and credible partner on the Palestinian side. Yet he sees a credible Israeli partner. My partner is the Jewish people, because a majority of Jews have already accepted a two-state solution…I don't know of one Jew who wants to control the lives of Palestinians and run their education and health system. Sadly though, while the Jewish public has been marching towards pragmatism, realism and moderation, on the Arab side the message remains no, no and no.

Does he want to continue living as a member of a minority in Israel or move to another Arab country? Toameh: Israel is a free and open democratic country. I enjoy living here and would rather live as a 2^nd class citizen in Israel, even though I'm not, than a 1^st class citizen in any Arab country. ("Abu Toameh: What the Western Media Misses," Arsen Ostrovsky, frumforum.com, 12 Nov. 2010)

A unilateral declaration of a Palestinian State,

is the latest PA threat. Herb Keinon says their goal is for the international community…to recognize Palestinian sovereignty over east Jerusalem, the West Bank [Judea-Samaria] and Gaza. That which they have failed to gain through negotiations (the Oslo Accords), and through violence (the 2^nd intifada), they now hope to achieve through international dictate. Because momentum on this issue is gathering, it is hard to predict where it will all lead. ("Would the US work against unilateral 'Palestine?'," H. Keinon, JP Analysis, 22 Oct. 2010)

As 2011 begins, several Latin American nations have recognized a Palestinian state, yet of more concern is that, months ago, British Foreign Secretary Wm. Hague signed a 'treaty between nations' with PA leaders… [The] UK Consulate site also referred to Hague's trip to… Ramallah as his first visit to Palestine, apparently recognizing a new country of 'Palestine' before even PA leaders have declared one to exist. ("Britain Signs 'Treaty Between Nations' with PA," Arutz 7, 5 Nov. 2010)

In December, the UK's "pro-Israel" conservative government considered upgrading the status of the PA delegation in London to that of an official diplomatic mission, putting it basically on par with the delegations of sovereign states. France, Spain and Portugal have already done the same with their PA delegations.

Israel fears the EU might soon officially recognize 'Palestine' as an independent state outside the framework of a…final status peace agreement. Then the PA will have all the backing they need in the UN, putting intense pressure on both Israel, and the US, which for now still opposes any unilateral declarations.

The situation has reached this point because the Palestinians have managed to successfully reverse reality and paint Israel as a non-compliant peace partner. Since the world is so anxious to conclude a final status peace deal (even if it doesn't lead to genuine peace), it is ready to give the Palestinians what they want, with or without Israel. ("World inches closer to recognizing 'Palestine'," Israel Today, 27 Dec. 2010)

Danny Dayan, Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria chairman, sees the creation of a Palestinian State as dangerously premature. The core issues talked about include, borders, security, settlements, refugees…Jerusalem and even water. Yet… the key issue is routinely overlooked, specifically who or what would be the ruling entity of this supposed state.

He doubts whether such a state could ever be a viable and trusted member of the community of nations and a peaceful neighbor for Israel. Why? Because a Hamas victory in free democratic elections in a Palestinian state is almost a certainty, as in the last free parliamentary elections, in 2006, Hamas won in both Gaza and in Judea and Samaria. Also, once "Palestine" is created, a mass influx of 'refugees' from Lebanon, Syria and other countries would only further strengthen Hamas…

For there to be a stable peace, the Palestinian state would not be able to conduct free democratic elections. Moreover, a foreign force, committed to peace, would have to replace Israel to ensure that Hamas does not take power in acoup d'état, as it did in Gaza. This force would need to prevent the democratic free will of the Palestinian people from prevailing! ("The nonviable notion of a Palestinian state," D. Dayan, JP Op-ed, 15 Nov. 2010)

Does Israel have any real allies today?

Late last year, 26 EU elders…who have up until very recently held extremely prominent positions in the EU and influenced its polices on the ME, sent a seven page letter to C. Ashton, EU's current foreign policy chief, just before an EU foreign ministers meeting. It urged, among other steps, sanctions against Israel on settlements, and setting a deadline for diplomatic progress that, if not met, would mean the entire problem would be sent to the international community for it to come up with a solution. They also predetermined the result of any negotiations, insisting that the EU back a "Palestine" on territory equivalent to 100% of the territory occupied in '67, including its capital in east Jerusalem.

"Hamas," "Hizbullah," or "Iran," do not appear in this letter, nor was there any mention of terrorism or Israel's security needs. Basically they said, The Palestinians are right, the Israelis are wrong, let's all admit that, impose a solution, and move on.

In a speech that same week, US Secretary of State H. Clinton, praised Abbas and the PA's Prime Minister [PM] S. Fayyad for their efforts, but had not one favorable word for Netanyahu.

Yet she did express, an appreciation of Israel's rather difficult security situation, and mentioned the need for secure borders. ("Clinton speech, EU letter…" H. Keinon, JP Analysis, 12 Dec. 2010)

Still Moshe Dann said that her speech should raise a red flag, because she expresses the Obama administration's position. Not once did she mention official PA support…for incitement and terrorism, and she ignored the recent statement by Fatah, PA's ruling party in the West Bank: No to Israel as a Jewish state, no to interim borders, no to land swaps.

What makes this so dangerous is the idea of what the core issues are. If the dispute is purely territorial, it would have been resolved long ago. But Israel's 1967 regaining of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria is not the real issue. It is Israel's rebirth in 1948, what Arabs call the Nakba (the Catastrophe), that underlies all. Enshrined in the charters of the PLO and Hamas, the Palestinians don't want a state alongside Israel, but one that replaces Israel. Not understanding this is delusional; not including this as a core issue is evil. ("Clinton a danger to Israel," Moshe Dann, Ynetnews Op-ed, 18 Dec. 2010)

Peace? With whom?

Speaking to the Knesset, PM Netanyahu said Israelis are cynical about the prospects of peace, because of the Palestinians' goal of the peace process, and urged fellow lawmakers to wake up to the fact that Israel simply does not have a viable peace partner.

An example he gave was the ongoing incitement against Israel in the official PA media even as [peace] talks were taking place. The consistent presentation is not about borders or settlements, but rather the negation of…Israel's right to exist at all. He stated that without reciprocity there is no chance for peace.

The Palestinians use a strategy whereby they paint Israel as the obstacle to peace, then sit back and wait for the international community to squeeze concessions out of the Jewish state. Meanwhile, [they] give nothing in return. Eventually, playing along with this will bleed Israel dry… ("Netanyahu: Palestinians have made us cynical about peace process," Israel Today, 4 Nov. 2010)

To begin 2011, Netanyahu called on Abbas to sit down with him in direct talks until 'white smoke emerges', an allusion to how popes are selected. Yet the minimal conditions Bibi has placed on a future "Palestine" in order to secure the existence of Israel, will never be accepted by PA leaders, thank God. …If the Palestinians recognize [Israel as] a Jewish state, if they shelve the idea of the Palestinian refugees' right of return, if they have a demilitarized Palestinian state, and if they agree that this ends the conflict totally, then Israel would sign a peace deal.

Netanyahu is also against any division of Jerusalem… Yet Abbas insists, that east Jerusalem [is] occupied land where Palestinians wanted to establish their capital, and this [is] not up for discussion. ("PM to Abbas: Ready to talk until 'white smoke comes out'," JP, 2 Jan. 2011)

Anti-aliyah - the Palestinian "right of return"

Benny Morris, a history professor at Ben-Gurion University and Israeli author, notes that the key to understanding the PA's goal lies in their unanimous and resolute, insistence on the 'Right of Return': Israel, and the world, must accept the principle of… and eventually facilitate repatriation. The idea that the refugees must return to their homes has been the ethos, the be-all and end-all of Palestinian politics and policy, since 1948. No Palestinian leader can or will ever abandon this principle, on pain of assassination, and none has. ("Bleak House," B. Morris, www.tabletmag.com, 2 Dec. 2010)

The UN counts 4.7 million refugees, while the PLO/PA claims 7.5 million, which include descendants of actual refugees. Of those refugees who fled at Arab command (so the Jews could more easily be wiped out), very few are still living. Most of their descendants have never lived in Israel. In meeting the demand to also bring in these descendants, Israel, presently with 6 million Jewish and 1.5 million mostly Moslem Arab citizens, soon would become - through democratic means - another Arab/Islamic state.

WikiLeaks & Iran

The word on the Arab street is that WikiLeaks is controlled by the Zionists, since Israel came out looking good in the diplomatic expose. But what interested Israelis most was the fact that concerning Iran, both Israeli and Arab leaders were on the same page, while the US administration was not.

Keinon writes that with Obama as president, there is a major difference between how Israel and the US view dealing with the Iranian threat. Obama maintains that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conundrum is the key to both unlocking ME peace and getting other countries in the region to help stop the Iranian threat. Israel's position is to first deal with Iran …which will then make it easier to reach an accord with the Palestinians.

The WikiLeaks documents reveal that, Obama's linkage…is nothing short of fiction, as moderate Arab nations in the region - Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf states, Egypt, and Jordan, want action against Iran now. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah even exhorted the US to attack Iran and end its nuclear weapons program, saying it is necessary to cut the head of the snake.

Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince, urged the US not to appease Iran, declaring, Ahmadinejad is Hitler, and Maj.-Gen. al-Assar, aid to Egypt's defense minister, said, Egypt views Iran as a threat to the region. Peace between Israel and the PA would not lead these nations to be supportive of aggressive steps toward Iran, because they were already practically dreaming of those steps. ("Burying linkage between peace process, Iran," H. Keinon, JP Analysis, 30 Nov. 2010)

So why did Obama, who knew what these ME leaders were saying, still insist on pressing Israel to come up with more dangerous concessions? JP editor David Horovitz wrote, To my mind, the president's thinking defied common sense. Now we know, however, it also defied the concrete information he was receiving from his own diplomats.

How do we explain Obama's stance? When he says Israel's security is a high priority to him, how much of it is truth and how much manipulative lies? And what is the result of Obama's policies? The peace process is deadlocked and Iran is indeed a good deal closer to the bomb. ("Exposed by WikiLeaks," D. Horovitz, JP Op-ed, 1 Dec. 2010)

Ari Shavit says the WikiLeaks' editor, Julian Assange, shattered the accepted dogma, about the ME which said, The main problem…is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

WikiLeaks proved that settlements, the occupation, even the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were not the main problem…that the world they were talking about in Washington, Paris, London was an imaginary world. Assange…revealed that the entire Arab world is currently busy with one problem only - Iran, Iran, Iran. Assange revealed the Western intelligentsia's lack of intellectual integrity…he proved the West is contaminated by political correctness that cuts it off from the diplomatic reality…A false dogma has prevented us from looking logically at the historic challenge facing us. ("WikiLeaks exposed the true ME conflict," A. Shavit, Ha'aretz Op-ed, 3 Dec. 2010)

Prophetic insight

David Horovitz interviewed Benjamin Begin, son of former PM Menachem Begin, and current member of Israel's government. When asked what he saw as the problem with reaching real peace with the Palestinians, Begin said, It has a lot do with the …so-called study [endorsed by the PA which denied any Jewish connection to]…the Western Wall. The crux of the issue is the adamant refusal of the current PLO leadership to accept the historical fact that the State of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, which means they do not accept the legitimacy of Jewish sovereignty in any part of Palestine.

So what is Israel to do? Hold on and hang tough, he says. … Sometimes in life we have to accept that there is…no plausible solution. A solution would be something both sides can live with. It's not in the cards. [Their] aim is to eliminate us… ("The bleak logic of Bennie Begin," D. Horovitz, JP Interviews, 3 Dec. 2010)

Israel's UN ambassador said, Not long after helping found the UN, Winston Churchill cautioned an American audience to be vigilant in ensuring the new world body served as a true temple of peace…and not merely a cockpit in a Tower of Babel. ("Fulfilling the UN's founding vision," Meron Reuben, JP Op-ed, 18 Dec. 2010)

Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Yeshua.

Rev. 22:20b

Chuck & Karen Cohen