Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Covenant with Many

Trump: 'I can live with either' 1-state or 2-state solution with Israel, Palestinians - UPI.com
UPI reports: "During a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump said he 'can live with either' a one-state or two-state solution as long as Israel and the Palestinians are 'happy.' 'The United States will encourage ... a great peace deal. We'll be working on it very, very diligently,' Trump said, adding that both sides 'will have to make compromises.' Trump was not expected to push for a two-state solution during Netanyahu's visit, something the Obama administration prioritized. Trump said his administration will work to broker a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians but said such negotiations must be held directly between the two parties, something Israel has supported in the past."

Comment: The big meeting at the White House between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu was today and it's clear that the embassy will not be moved for some time, if at all.
Some other things I noticed about the meeting: unlike Obama, Trump will not pressure Israel into a "two-state solution" to Mideast peace and will let Israel and the Palestinians decide how they want to resolve the issues; and the most important take-away, Trump said he is personally interested in a Mideast peace deal and he will work diligently for that.
So, although the campaign promise to move the embassy will not be acted on quickly, we can't discount a push for a new Mideast peace agreement (maybe Covenant with Many?) during Trump's term of office. This is not good news because there is no way a Mideast peace agreement under current conditions can favor Israel. Why? Because it would necessarily imply Israel giving up more land to the Palestinians in exchange for peace. This has not worked out in the past (look what the Palestinians did when Israel gave them Gaza) and there is little reason to hope it would work out in the future.
That said, I'm not too worried about this because I'm more and more convinced that the Psalm 83 war will happen before a peace agreement. The war will see Israel victorious over neighboring countries (while stoking hatred in Iran and Russia, who probably have a few losses in the war but decide not to directly intervene) and Israel's victory and expansion in territory will be recognized in the peace treaty that ends that war, and THAT will be the Covenant with Many of Daniel 9:27. Then, finally, Israel will live in peace and tear down the walls they built and be that land of unwalled villages, setting the scene for the Ezekiel 39 invasion by Gog's military alliance.
So, for the time being, I honestly don't expect much at all to happen with Mideast peace except for the Trump administration to go through the motions and for Israel to keep doing what they are doing. If I'm right, we are in a pre-war period that is both a holding pattern and a slow-moving escalation of anti-Israel sentiment in her proximate neighbors.

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