Obama says what he's supposed to say

Finally!

President Barack Obama told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday:

• One year ago, I stood at this podium and I called for an independent Palestine. I believed then, and I believe now, that the Palestinian people deserve a state of their own. But what I also said is that a genuine peace can only be realized between the Israelis and the Palestinians themselves....Israelis must know that any agreement provides assurances for their security. Palestinians deserve to know the territorial basis of their state.

• Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the United Nations....Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians - not us - who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them.

• America's commitment to Israel's security is unshakeable. Our friendship with Israel is deep and enduring. And so we believe that any lasting peace must acknowledge the very real security concerns that Israel faces every single day.

• Let us be honest with ourselves: Israel is surrounded by neighbors that have waged repeated wars against it. Israel's citizens have been killed by rockets fired at their houses and suicide bombs on their buses. Israel's children come of age knowing that throughout the region, other children are taught to hate them.

• Israel, a small country of less than eight million people, looks out at a world where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off of the map. The Jewish people carry the burden of centuries of exile and persecution, and fresh memories of knowing that six million people were killed simply because of who they are. Those are facts. They cannot be denied.

• The Jewish people have forged a successful state in their historic homeland. Israel deserves recognition. It deserves normal relations with its neighbors. And friends of the Palestinians do them no favors by ignoring this truth.

The Palestinians

Countdown to Rebirth's release: 6 weeks!


Rebirth will show readers how the Palestinians of 1948 arrived in the predicament they're in today.


Most of you know the Palestinian leadership will ask the UN Security Council for recognition of a Palestinian state on the basis of 1967 borders which are entirely indefensible for the State of Israel.


Britain supports a Palestinian state. So does the U.S. So does the EU. In fact, so does Israel. But there is one party that most emphatically does not support a Palestinian state, if that means long-term acceptance of the State of Israel: the Palestinians themselves. Opinion polls have consistently shown that the Palestinians only support the idea of a Palestinian state sitting side-by-side with Israel as a stepping stone to a future one-state solution in which they rule over the Jews.


In other words, the Israelis have always been in the near impossible situation of being asked to negotiate with people who plainly don't want any long-term peace involving the acceptance of Israel as a legitimate state with a secure future, whatever their leaders say about recognizing Israel to gullible Western media.





The writer is Director of International Affairs at the Henry Jackson Society. 
(Robin Shepherd - Commentator-UK)


Originally posted by Israel Alert.

Mounting pressure - please continue prayers

As my novel Rebirth faces it's six week countdown for release, tensions continue to in Israel:

Israel is in a time of extraordinary crisis - as pressure mounts from every side. 

• Key relationships with Turkey and Egypt have broken down…
• The support of the Obama administration has cooled toward Israel.
• The international community is increasingly hostile to Israel and its commitment to defend its borders.
• And within Israel the economic impact of the massive national defense programs leaves little or no money to care for the poor and disadvantaged – and there have been massive protests across Israel.

Now, Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned that the planned unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state would have "dire consequences." 

When we unite in prayer with understanding, then we’ll see things change.  Don’t be misled, though. These planned political moves by the Palestinian Authority are not based on a genuine desire for peace. 

• The Palestinians do not recognize Israel’s right to exist, nor have they amended their charter that calls for the destruction of Israel.
• Arab leaders freely admit that Palestinian statehood is the first step to the final destruction of Israel.
• The Palestinian state calls for dividing Jerusalem—cutting off the biblical holy places from Jews and Christians.
• The Palestinian state proposes borders that further diminish Israel, leaving half a million Jews homeless.
• The Palestinian state cuts Israel in half and leaves God’s Promised Land virtually defenseless.
• The Palestinian state is “Judenrein,” racist—free of Jews, no Jews are allowed, and very limited to Christians.

PLEASE PRAY that God will intervene and the enemy’s plans will be brought down…

(Originally posted by Jewish Voice Ministries.) 

Also pray for Rebirth's release date of 11/1/11. That it will do what is has been designed to do: change the hearts of the undecided to support Israel!