An American diplomat stationed in Israel's ancient and modern capital city created a firestorm during September when he claimed that Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed to negotiate the explosive issue of Jerusalem as part of the White House-backed peace process. Jacob Walles, the US counsel general for the eastern half of Jerusalem and adjacent Arab areas, told the Palestinian Al-Ayyam newspaper that Israel's leaders understood that the talks would probably eventually result in a re-division of Judaism's holiest city on earth.

Walles averred that the purported talks would commence with the long standing Palestinian demand for a full Israeli withdrawal to the temporary pre-1967 borders, meaning the entire historic walled Old City and the Temple Mount could come under full Palestinian Muslim control. However he added that "some border adjustments" would probably be agreed upon by the two sides, without clarifying if these would be mainly inside Jerusalem's current municipal boundaries or elsewhere. The American diplomat said any preliminary or "shelf" agreement arrived at before the end of this year would devolve to the next American administration, whether led by Senator McCain or Barak Obama.

Right wing political parties, including Shas, angrily charged that Olmert and Livni were apparently ready to abandon the Jewish people's historic heartland to the weak and unstable Palestinian Authority. However the retiring Prime Minister's office responded by reiterating Olmert's pledge to postpone the highly emotive issue of Jerusalem to future negotiations after a preliminary shelf accord is arrived at. However analysts noted that the same promise has not been made by the new Kadima leader, leading to speculation that Livni may be more willing to open up the Jerusalem can of worms now, whatever the political consequences.

PM Olmert met with his PA counterpart on the eve of the Kadima party leadership vote, reassuring Mahmoud Abbas that he intends to keep up the negotiating pace as long as he remains in office, even in a caretaker role. This came amid unverified media reports that Olmert has offered to hand over around 98% of the territory captured from Jordanian forces in 1967 to full PA control in a final peace pact, which would reportedly include the bustling Jerusalem Jewish suburbs of Ma'ale Adumim and Givat Ze'ev along with most Arab neighborhoods in the capital city.

While Olmert's office would neither confirm nor deny the reports, the departing PM did tell his cabinet in mid September that Israelis who believe their government can maintain total control over Judea and Samaria "are deluding themselves." Olmert's purported willingness to abandon most of Judaism's biblical heartland to Arab Muslim control angered many Israeli politicians, including several members of his own Kadima party.

Blood On The Horizon

The radical Iranian and Syrian-backed Palestinian Hamas movement announced that it will launch a violent coup attempt against PA forces inside Jordan's former West Bank if Abbas does not step down as PA leader next January. That is when his two term presidential rule is set to expire. A third term is prohibited under Palestinian law. However some top Abbas aides said he will stay in office for one more year in order to complete peace talks with Israel, claiming this is allowed under emergency legislation passed by the Palestinian parliament several years ago. Israeli army commanders say they are gearing up for a possible showdown with Hamas forces in the area early next year. Hamas replied that this was further proof that Abbas is nothing more than "a stooge for Zionist occupation forces."

Meanwhile Israeli military and political leaders were unhappy to learn that the White House has refused to grant them permission to fly over Iraq if any Israeli air force action is launched against Iran's threatening nuclear program. This came soon after the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency stated that Iran is preparing its long range missiles to accommodate nuclear warheads. The North Korean designed missiles, with a range of around 1,250 miles, can potentially strike targets in Israel and southeast Europe.

However, the Pentagon did inform Congress it will allow Boeing to sell 1,000 precision guided missiles to Israel which can strike targets from a distance of 60 miles and slice thought up to eight feet of reinforced concrete. The US earlier turned down an Israeli request to purchase the more powerful "bunker buster" bombs currently deployed in America's arsenal. This came as an increasingly anti-American Kremlin announced it is renovating the Syrian port of Tartus so that Russian naval vessels can be based there for operations in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

Meanwhile Iran's radical Shiite leaders continued their annihilationist verbal assaults upon the world's only Jewish majority state. Extremist president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said once again that Israel must disappear from the regional map, adding with a straight face that Hitler's mass slaughter of millions of European and North Africa Jews during WWII did not take place. He also threatened a preemptive strike against "the occupation Zionist regime."

Two days later, overall Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei said his country is "on a collision course" with Israel, which he claimed "acts as a stooge in the service of all the arch foes of the Muslim world." He went on to say that Iran's beef was not just with the government of Israel, but with its citizens as well, augmenting Ahmadinejad's earlier vows to wipe both out in a coming second holocaust.

In increasingly tumultuous times like these, it is essential to recall that the God of Israel is still in overall control of the swirling events all around us-the same Sovereign Lord who promised that His people Israel will one day "live securely on their own land with no one to make them afraid" (Ezekiel 39:26).