I wonder how long it will take the world to realize just how significant this speech (given via press conference and subsequent Q/A) was. It was an instant game-changer in the Middle East, and it may be the single most important prophetic development in many many years.
One speech? Absolutely.
The gloves are off, and it is now clear that Netanyahu is now operating without any constraint in terms of worrying about what 'the nations' have to say, or what the MSM has to say. Additionally, he has effectively ended any remote possibility of a "two-state" solution and a so-called "peace deal" in the Middle East.
So - where does this leave us?
The next most critical step in these matters is to begin watching what "the nations" now do with this information and what the usual surrounding (Psalm 83) terrorist groups and states do (Hamas, ISIS, Iran, Syria, Hamas, Fatah, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan etc.). Their response will not be favorable to Israel, that much we know.
I believe we have just taken an enormous step towards prophetic fulfillment, as we watch for the beginnings of Isaiah 17 and Ezekiel 38-39. I try to avoid hyperbole as mush as possible, but I simply cannot emphasize how significant and important this is.
This speech, and now, subsequent actions are extremely important in our prophecy watch, and in future developments prophetically.
The hope for a peace deal is the sole factor that has kept the region from exploding. Now that option is off the table - so what happens next?
In my opinion, this marks a significant turning point. The only thing that was keeping a lid on the powder-keg was the possibility of a peace deal, and 'the nations' suppressing outright war on both sides by applying pressure to those who wish to destroy Israel and to Israel. Not now. Things are about to get massively escalated and it does now appear that we could be moving rapidly into the predicted biblical wars. Stay tuned.
As a footnote - today's updates will continue on this post so I will be back frequently to update after this first post (unless something even more dramatic happens) - with any breaking headlines appearing just below in red.
Updates:
After Six Days: No End In Sight
Syrian Mortar Lands In Golan; Ashdod Area Bombarded By Massive Salvo
Abbas Asks UN To Put Palestine Under International Protection
Violent Berlin Protest Against Israel Broken Up By Police
Anti-Israel Protesters Trap Hundreds In Paris Synagogue
IDF Hits Syria Over Mortar Fire
Updates:
After Six Days: No End In Sight
Syrian Mortar Lands In Golan; Ashdod Area Bombarded By Massive Salvo
Abbas Asks UN To Put Palestine Under International Protection
Violent Berlin Protest Against Israel Broken Up By Police
Anti-Israel Protesters Trap Hundreds In Paris Synagogue
IDF Hits Syria Over Mortar Fire
These are fundamental questions — questions you’d think Israelis and the watching world would long since have been able to answer, especially given that Netanyahu is Israel’s second-longest serving prime minister ever. In fact, though, while many pundits claim to have definitive answers, most Israelis would acknowledge that they’ve never been entirely sure how Netanyahu sees a potential resolution of the Palestinian conflict, which concessions he’s truly ready to make, what his long-term vision looks like
But now we know.
The uncertainties were swept aside on Friday afternoon, when the prime minister, for the first time in ages, gave a press conference on Day Four of Operation Protective Edge.
He spoke only in Hebrew, and we are in the middle of a mini-war, so his non-directly war-related remarks didn’t get widely reported. But those remarks should not be overlooked even in the midst of a bitter conflict with Gaza’s Islamist rulers; especially in the midst of a bitter conflict with Gaza’s Islamist rulers. The prime minister spoke his mind as rarely, if ever, before. He set out his worldview with the confidence of a leader who sees vindication in the chaos all around. He answered those fundamental questions.
Netanyahu began his appearance, typically, by reading some prepared remarks. But then, most atypically, he took a series of questions. And while he initially stuck to responses tied to the war against Hamas, its goals, and the terms under which it might be halted, he then moved — unasked — into territory he does not usually chart in public, and certainly not with such candor.
For some, his overall outlook will seem bleak and depressing; for others, savvy and pragmatic. One thing’s for sure: Nobody will ever be able to claim in the future that he didn’t tell us what he really thinks.
He made explicitly clear that he could never, ever, countenance a fully sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank.
He indicated that he sees Israel standing almost alone on the frontlines against vicious Islamic radicalism, while the rest of the as-yet free world does its best not to notice the march of extremism. And he more than intimated that he considers the current American, John Kerry-led diplomatic team to be, let’s be polite, naive.
He indicated that he sees Israel standing almost alone on the frontlines against vicious Islamic radicalism, while the rest of the as-yet free world does its best not to notice the march of extremism. And he more than intimated that he considers the current American, John Kerry-led diplomatic team to be, let’s be polite, naive.
Perhaps most reporters switched off after he’d delivered his headlines, making plain that “no international pressure will prevent us from acting with all force against a terrorist organization (Hamas) that seeks to destroy us,” and that Operation Protective Edge would go on until guaranteed calm was restored to Israel. If they did, they shouldn’t have.
Netanyahu has stressed often in the past that he doesn’t want Israel to become a binational state — implying that he favors some kind of accommodation with and separation from the Palestinians. But on Friday he made explicit that this could not extend to full Palestinian sovereignty. Why? Because, given the march of Islamic extremism across the Middle East, he said, Israel simply cannot afford to give up control over the territory immediately to its east, including the eastern border — that is, the border between Israel and Jordan, and the West Bank and Jordan.
The priority right now, Netanyahu stressed, was to “take care of Hamas.” But the wider lesson of the current escalation was that Israel had to ensure that “we don’t get another Gaza in Judea and Samaria.” Amid the current conflict, he elaborated, “I think the Israeli people understand now what I always say: that there cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan.”
Not relinquishing security control west of the Jordan, it should be emphasized, means not giving a Palestinian entity full sovereignty there. It means not acceding to Mahmoud Abbas’s demands, to Barack Obama’s demands, to the international community’s demands. This is not merely demanding a demilitarized Palestine; it is insisting upon ongoing Israeli security oversight inside and at the borders of the West Bank. That sentence, quite simply, spells the end to the notion of Netanyahu consenting to the establishment of a Palestinian state. A less-than-sovereign entity? Maybe, though this will never satisfy the Palestinians or the international community. A fully sovereign Palestine? Out of the question.
Naming both US Secretary of State John Kerry and his security adviser Gen. John Allen — who was charged by the secretary to draw up security proposals that the US argued could enable Israel to withdraw from most of the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley — Netanyahu hammered home the point: Never mind what the naive outsiders recommend, “I told John Kerry and General Allen, the Americans’ expert, ‘We live here, I live here, I know what we need to ensure the security of Israel’s people.’”
Earlier this spring, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon sparked a storm in Israel-US ties when he told a private gathering that the US-Kerry-Allen security proposals weren’t worth the paper they were written on. Netanyahu on Friday said the same, and more, in public.
It had been a mistake for Israel to withdraw from Gaza, he added — reminding us that he’d opposed the 2005 disengagement — because Hamas had since established a terrorist bunker in the Strip. And what Hamas had been doing in Gaza — tunneling into and rocketing at the enemy — would be replicated in the West Bank were Israel so foolish as to give the Islamists the opportunity.
“If we were to pull out of Judea and Samaria, like they tell us to,” he said bitterly — leaving it to us to fill in who the many and various foolish “theys” are — “there’d be a possibility of thousands of tunnels” being dug by terrorists to attack Israel, he said.
Beyond Israel’s direct current confrontation with Hamas, and the eternal Palestinian conflict, Netanyahu also addressed the rise of Islamic extremism across the Middle East — covering the incapacity of affected states to resist it, and Israel’s unique determination and capacity to stand firm. He said Israel finds itself in a region “that is being seized by Islamic extremism. It is bringing down countries, many countries. It is knocking on our door, in the north and south.”
But while other states were collapsing, said Netanyahu, Israel was not — because of the strength of its leadership, its army and its people. “We will defend ourselves on every front, defensively and offensively,” he vowed.
[This link will give ongoing updates - below is just the intro to the updates]
Operation Protective Edge entered into its sixth day Sunday, with no end in sight. Hamas fired rockets throughout Saturday and Sunday, hitting southern and central Israel. Palestinian reports say over 160 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, including some 20 in a strike late Saturday aimed at Hamas’s Gaza police chief. The Times of Israel is liveblogging events as they unfold.(Saturday’s liveblog is here.)
Four IDF soldiers were lightly wounded and three Hamas fighters reportedly killed early Sunday in the first ground battle since the start of Operation Protective Edge on July 8.
According to the IDF, a force of IDF naval commandos set out to destroy a long-range rocket cache and launch site near Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip.
The force encountered Hamas fighters belonging to the group’s armed wing on Sudaniya Beach. Hamas claimed early Sunday that the encounter was not accidental; the fighters had ambushed the IDF soldiers.
According to unconfirmed reports from Hamas sources, three Hamas fighters died in the ensuing firefight.
International media focused heavily on the rising Palestinian death toll and the prospect of further Israeli air raids on Gaza over the weekend, with reporters demoting coverage of indiscriminate rocket fire on Israeli civilians to the end of their stories — when it was mentioned at all.
But the general tone has steadily grown more critical of Israel, as stories on Palestinian casualties get more play than items about Israelis running to shelters, Israeli officials said Sunday
British media is particularly critical of Israel. “Israel ‘bombs civilian targets with links to Hamas,’”screamed a headlineon the website of the British itv news television channel on Sunday morning. “Israel has ignored international appeals for a ceasefire and widened its range of Gaza bomb targets to include civilian institutions with suspected Hamas ties,” opened the short article, which makes no mention of rockets fired on Israel. “It announced it would hit Gaza with ‘great force’ after already carrying out more than 1,200 airstrikes this week. So far neither Israel nor Gaza’s Hamas rulers have signaled any willingness to stop.”
The Guardian, a London-based paper traditionally critical of Israel, had three items on Operation Protective Edge on its homepage: “Israeli troops in Gaza clash as residents told to evacuate,” “Disabled Gazans unable to escape” and a video on “Israel vows to continue bombarding Gaza.”
Saturday night, Spiegel Online, the country’s largest news site, ran a prominently placed piece that reported extensively on international criticism of Protective Edge. Rockets launched in Israel’s direction were briefly mentioned in the fifth paragraph.
In France, Le Figaro’s website ran only one story on the operation on its homepage, focusing on the United Nations’ call for a ceasefire in Gaza. “Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed 45 Palestinians Saturday,” the article started. The piece then continues for several paragraphs to describe the Palestinian casualties, which included the Gaza police chief and “two severely handicapped women.”
Only later on did the article mention that rockets were fired at Israel. “There were no injuries,” the paper reports. Stationed in Modiin, the paper’s correspondent also mentions that a siren was heard there for the “first time ever.”
[Doesn't this tell you what you need to know about Hamas?]
Hamas called on Palestinian residents of the northern Gaza Strip to "immediately return" to their homes, after the IDF warned locals to evacuate the area at noon to avoid being harmed in any military operation.
The Hamas Interior Ministry released a statement titled "Urgent call to the residents of the Gaza Strip" in which locals were told to ignore the calls and warnings made by Israel and the IDF. "To all of our people who have evacuated their homes – return to them immediately and do not leave the house."
"You must follow the directives of the Interior Ministry. This is psychological warfare, random messages to instill panic in people."
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