Israel Update for April 2011

Toward the end of the month, the American government headed by President Barack Obama launched a diplomatic initiative aimed at attempting to prevent the Palestinian Authority from taking its case for a self-declared state to the United Nations. The Obama administration has already received backing from the German government for the initiative, which came after PM Netanyahu flew to Berlin to request German assistance in preventing such a one-sided PA declaration in the face of the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. Netanyahu plans to publicly spell out his country's opposition to any unilateral action during a visit to Washington in May, where he is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress among other things. PA leader Mahmoud Abbas is also planning a US visit to put forward his arguments for a statehood declaration.

Both the PA and the rival Hamas movement quickly condemned the US diplomatic initiative. This came as PLO Secretary General Yasser Abed Rabbo repeated the PA determination to proceed with its unilateral action. Speaking to the London-based Al Hayat Arabic newspaper, the veteran PLO chief said, "the Palestinian leadership will not back down unless real and serious peace negotiations are launched on the basis of the 1967 borders," which were actually only ceasefire lines from the massive pan-Arab attempt to wipe out the nascent state of Israel in 1948. He added that the PLO was prepared to sanction some sort of land swap with Israel that would leave some Jewish settlement clusters in Israeli hands. However he insisted that the city of Jerusalem-the main traditional stumbling block to any final peace accord-must be re-divided, with the eastern half falling under full PA sovereignty.

The PLO leader revealed for the first time just exactly what the PA's diplomatic strategy will be if such negotiations do not get underway, as few expect will occur, especially in light of the massive political turmoil currently engulfing much of the turbulent neighborhood. He said the PA will, "go to the UN, and after winning recognition, we will demand that Israel's military and settler presence on our land be considered an act of aggression upon the sovereignty of a full member of the UN." Many analysts believe that this will be followed by a call for UN troops to be sent into the area to force the IDF out-an act certain to face stiff resistance in Washington and elsewhere.

Meanwhile President Obama is said to be weighing the possibility of enacting economic sanctions on Syria, where spreading street protests were met by a brutal army crackdown in April, leaving hundreds of Syrians dead and injured. The sanctions would probably come in the form of a freeze on Syrian assets in the United States and a ban on any further business dealings with the Assad regime, Iran's closest Arab ally. At the same time, IDF forces remained extra vigilant lest the repressive police state try to divert attention from its internal crisis by lashing out at Israel. This came after the IDF released a map showing that heavily armed Hizbullah forces in Lebanon have spread their bases of operation to every part of the small country, including in south Lebanon where their presence was supposedly outlawed by the UN ceasefire resolution that ended the 2006 Hizbullah rocket blitz on the northern third of the Jewish State.

With many parts of the region currently engulfed in intensifying tumult, there is only one solid rock that its residents can firmly rest upon-the Word of God, which reveals that the final outcome of all "wars and rumors of wars" will be nothing less than the feet of Israel's anointed Messiah standing on the Mount of Olives, brining lasting peace to the holy city and to the entire world. "And the Lord will be King over all the earth. In that day, the Lord will be the only one; and His name the only one (Zechariah 14:9).