Excerpt States: “We Are At A Hinge Of History,”
Middle East Events Since 1948 Make It No Mystery!
Paul And John’s Prophecies Are Now MOVING In Place,
Toward Armageddon the final generation does now Race!
I Corinthians 15:51 & Revelation 10:7 tell when Time Will End,
All saved on earth
will at last join saved in heaven as old Friends!
God Will Put in Islamic Terrorist Leader’s Hearts a Conspiracy Decree,
Into their Hearts a Message He will Send to Fulfill H is
Will, and to Agree,
Cunning Arab And Persian TRUCE Agreement SHALL SURELY Israel Deceive!
February 5, 2009
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Revelation 17:12,13,17 – And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. [13] These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. [17] For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
I Corinthians 15:51 – Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
Revelation 10:7 – But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
Revelation 11:15,18 -And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. [18] And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
Revelation 16:16-18 – And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. [17] And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. [18] And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Begin Excerpt by Thomas L.
Friedman from World News via a long trail of sources from the original source, which includes Common Ground News Service and the International Herald Tribune
Five minutes to midnight on a two-state solution
By Thomas L. Friedman
Commentary by
Lebanese Daily Star
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. “Guy walks into a bar …” No, not that one – this one: “This is the most critical year ever for Palestinian-Israeli diplomacy.
It is five minutes to midnight.
If we don’t get diplomacy back on track soon, it will be the end of the two-state solution.”
I’ve heard that line almost every year for the last 20, and I’ve never bought it. Well, today, I’m buying it.
We’re getting perilously close to closing the window on a two-state solution, because the two chief window-closers – Hamas in Gaza and the fanatical Jewish settlers in the West Bank – have been in the driver’s seats. Hamas is busy making a two-state solution inconceivable, while the settlers have steadily worked to make it impossible.
If Hamas continues to obtain and use longer- and longer-range rockets, there is no way any Israeli government can or will tolerate independent Palestinian control of the West Bank, because a rocket from there can easily close the Tel Aviv airport and shut down Israel’s economy.
And if the Jewish settlers continue with their “natural growth” to devour the West Bank, it will also be effectively off the table.
No Israeli government has mustered the will to take down even the “illegal,” unauthorized settlements, despite promises to the US to do so, so it’s getting hard to see how the “legal” settlements will ever be removed. What is needed from Israel’s February 10 elections is a centrist, national unity government that can resist the blackmail of the settlers, and the rightist parties that protect them, to still implement a two-state solution.
Because without a stable two-state solution, what you will have is an Israel hiding behind a high wall, defending itself from a Hamas-run failed state in Gaza, a Hizbullah-run failed state in south Lebanon and a Fatah-run failed state in Ramallah. Have a nice day.
So if you believe in the necessity of a Palestinian state or you love Israel, you’d better start paying attention. This is not a test.
We’re at a hinge of history.
What makes it so challenging for the new Obama team is that Mideast diplomacy has been transformed as a result of the regional disintegration since Oslo – in three key ways.
First, in the old days, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger could fly to three capitals, meet three kings, presidents or prime ministers and strike a deal that could hold. No more. Today a peacemaker has to be both a nation-builder and a negotiator.
The Palestinians are so fragmented politically and geographically that half of the United States’ diplomacy is going to be about how to make peace between Palestinians, and build their institutions, so there is a coherent, legitimate decision-making body there – before we can make peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Second, Hamas now has veto power over any Palestinian peace deal. It’s true that Hamas just provoked a reckless war that has devastated the people of Gaza. But Hamas is not going away. It is well armed and, despite its suicidal behavior of late, deeply rooted.
The Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank will not make any compromise deal with Israel as long as it fears that Hamas, from outside the tent, would denounce it as traitorous.
Therefore, Job 2 for the US, Israel and the Arab states is to find a way to bring Hamas into a Palestinian national-unity government.
As the Middle East expert Stephen P. Cohen says, “It is not enough for Israel that the world recognize that Hamas criminally mismanaged its responsibility to its people. Israel’s longer-term interest is to be sure that it has a Palestinian partner for negotiations, which will have sufficient legitimacy among its own people
to be able to sign agreements and fulfill them. Without Hamas as part of a Palestinian decision, any Israeli-Palestinian peace will be meaningless.”
But bringing Hamas into a Palestinian unity government, without undermining the West Bank moderates now leading the Palestinian Authority, will be tricky. Washington will need Saudi Arabia and Egypt to buy, cajole and pressure Hamas into keeping the cease-fire, supporting peace talks and to give up rockets – while Iran and Syria will be tugging Hamas the other way.
And that leads to the third new factor – Iran as a key player in Palestinian-Israeli diplomacy. The Clinton team tried to woo Syria while isolating Iran. President George W. Bush tried to isolate both Iran and Syria. The Obama team, as Martin Indyk argues in “Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East,” “needs to try both to bring in Syria, which would weaken Hamas and Hizbullah, while also engaging Iran”.
So, just to recap: It’s five to midnight, and before the clock strikes 12 all we need to do is rebuild Fatah, merge it with Hamas, elect an Israeli government that can freeze settlements, court Syria and engage Iran – while preventing it from going nuclear – just so we
can get the parties to start talking. Whoever lines up all the pieces of this diplomatic Rubik’s Cube deserves two Nobel Prizes.
Thomas L. Friedman won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, his third
Pulitzer for The New York Times. He became the paper’s foreign-affairs columnist in 1995. THE DAILY STAR publishes this commentary in collaboration with the Common Ground News Service, by permission from the International Herald Tribune.
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