“I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.” Dan 9:3-21
REPORT: OBAMA MULLS USE OF UN TO DIVIDE JERUSALEM: In waning days of his presidency, US President Obama is reportedly looking to the UN Security Council to force Israel to divide Jerusalem. With about 10 months left in office, Obama is considering unprecedented moves to implement a two-state solution, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Senior US officials revealed that the President is looking to initiate a final negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority using UN Security Council resolutions, a step that would obligate not only Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but effectively determine the direction of US policy for the president’s successor as well. According to the plan described by senior US officials, Obama is considering reviving the dormant Middle East Quartet, a diplomatic body including the US, UN, EU, and Russia, to apply pressure to Israel and the Palestinian Authority to resume active negotiations.
The President is also considering use of a UN Security Council resolution to forcibly extract concessions from Israel and the PA. The US has until now vetoed any such resolutions, though Obama has in the past threatened to allow them to pass. A Security Council resolution would be binding upon all parties, unlike General Assembly measures which are non-obligatory. Such a resolution would remain in force even after the president leaves office next January, effectively shaping the future of US policy in the region for Obama’s successors. The resolution would require Israel cease construction over the Green Line and would force Israel to recognize eastern Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. At the same time, the Palestinian Authority would be obliged to officially recognize Israel as a Jewish state and would be pressured to give up the long-standing demand for a right of return. (Arutz-7)
CALL TO INTERCESSION: In these present days the need is great for focused, fervent, passionate, intercession and fasting for the coming US elections and for any intended strategies of the US Obama administration to have another go at dividing Jerusalem and forcing a false peace between Israel and its avowed enemies. It must be remembered that God vows to bring into judgment those nations that seek to divide Israel. Intercede that your nation will not be among those who attempt to carve up Jerusalem! “I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.” Joel 3:2
NETANYAHU DECIDES AGAINST WASHINGTON TRIP: Israel’s PM Netanyahu has decided to nix his US visit marking the latest episode in a relationship with US President Obama that has yet to recover from their deep differences over last year’s US-led international nuclear deal with Iran, Israel’s arch foe. The White House said the Israeli government had requested a Netanyahu meeting with Obama and that two weeks ago he was offered a March encounter. Netanyahu said that he had declined the offer –in part – because of the heated US election campaign. The prime minister made a speech to the US Congress last March criticizing the then-emerging Iran nuclear deal and was denied a meeting with Obama during that visit in what was widely regarded as a diplomatic snub. The two leaders met at the White House in November and sought to mend ties, but the relationship between the two continues to be chilly. (Ynet)
PUTIN FREEZES S-300 MISSILE TRANSFER TO IRAN: Russia has decided to freeze its shipment of S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Iran, Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida reported on Saturday, 5 March 2016. The paper quotes a highly reliable source as saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to suspend delivery of the advanced aerial defense system because Iran failed to lived up to its promise not deliver advanced weaponry to the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah. The source, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Kuwaiti paper that Putin based his decision on information he received from Israel, proving that the Iranians had transferred the advanced Russian-made SA-22 surface-to-air missile system to Hezbollah more than once. (Ynet)
DANON: UN USES INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY TO ATTACK ISRAEL: While many organizations were using International Women’s Day 2016, to examine women’s status in society, the UN is being accused of merely seeing it as another opportunity to attack and lie about Israel. The UN’s Commission on the Status of Women released only one report focusing on a single country and how it treats women. Out of all the problems in the world, the group chose to look into Israel’s treatment of Palestinian women. The paper blames Israel for all problems facing Palestinian women and downplays any Palestinian wrongdoing against Israelis. One section, for example, blames Israel for domestic violence against Palestinian women in refugee camps. Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, has demanded that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon edit the paper to remove its bias.
The paper also describes the November 2014 terror attack against the Har Nof synagogue in which five Jewish worshipers and one Druze police officer were murdered. It dismisses the massacre as an “incident” in which five Israelis and two Palestinians were killed. Not only did the authors equate the innocent victims who were killed in cold blood with their murderers, it also seems to ignore Master Sergeant Zidan Seif, the Druze police officer who was shot while trying to stop the terrorists. “This horrific episode was not an ‘incident.’ It was a carefully planned terror attack on a synagogue during morning prayers,” explained Danon. “By equating the ‘two Palestinian men’ who carried out the massacre and the ‘five Israeli men’ whom they slaughtered, those with axes in their hands are treated in the same way as those holding prayer books.” (Arutz-7)
FRENCH PRIME MINISTER UNDERSTANDS JEWS’ FEAR: French PM Manuel Valls said he understands French Jews’ fear amid heightened religious tension in the country after last year’s terrorists attacks in Paris by ISIS jihadists. Valls’ comments came in a speech at the annual dinner of the French Jewish council CRIF. Valls expressed his “solidarity” toward French Jews and strongly condemned antisemitism wherever it comes from. “Yes, Jews of France are afraid to wear the kippa , to go to the synagogue, to do shopping in a kosher market, to send their children to public school. That’s a reality, and a reality we do not accept,” he said. (INN)
IRAN’S SECRET CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT GROWS, WITH HELP FROM ABROAD: The number of Muslim converts who are risking prison or death by secretly worshipping as Christians in Iran’s house church movement has grown to as many as 1 million people, according to watchdog groups. The London-based Pars Theological Center is training at least 200 Iranian Christians to become the next generation of Iran’s church leaders. The persecution of Christians has persisted in Iran since the 1979 rise of the country’s theocratic Shiite Muslim government – with Christians facing the threat of death, lashing and torture. About 100 Christians currently remain imprisoned under Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s rule. Despite the crackdown, there is now a growing movement of Christians in the Islamic Republic. Groups like Open Doors USA estimate around 450,000 practicing Christians in the country, while other estimates record more than 1 million Christians in Iran. “Pars sees this as a real chance to train agents of change who would transform the Iranian society from the bottom up by fostering a grassroots development of the values of Jesus in an Iranian style,” a source close to the center said. “It is not anti-Iranian, It’s an Iranian movement. It’s a great, great number of Muslims turning to Christ.” (Fox)
SINCE 1998, ISRAELI DEATH RATE FROM HEART DISEASE HAS DROPPED BY 50%: The Israeli death rate from heart disease has plunged by an impressive 50 percent since 1998, according to a study just published in the European Heart Journal. Emeritus, Prof. Mervyn Gotsman, who was for many years head of Hadassah-University Medical Center’s cardiology department wrote. The major drop in annual cardiac mortality from 160 per 100,000 Israelis to just 80 is “one of the most dynamic phenomena in Israeli medicine.” Among the reasons given for the decrease was the decline in smoking, vigorous primary prevention of atherosclerosis, national campaigns against obesity, diabetes and hypertension and for modification of lifestyles. He credited the Israel Heart Society and the Health Ministry for much of these preventive measures. (J.Post)
The suggestions, opinions and scripture references made by JNN writers and editors are based on the best information received.
Blessings from Jerusalem,
Barry Segal with the Editorial Staff
