JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
3rd AND 4th TEMPLES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2008/01/israeli-temples.html
REBUILT 3RD TEMPLE
REVELATION 11:1-2
1 And there was given me a(MEASURING) reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
2 But the court which is without the temple leave out,(TO THE WORLD NATIONS) and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.(JERUSALEM DIVIDED BUT THE 3RD TEMPLE ALLOWED TO BE REBUILT)
DANIEL 9:27
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Germany’s top diplomat to meet Israel, Palestinian leaders-Foreign minister set to meet Abbas on Saturday, Netanyahu on Sunday-By AFP November 14, 2014, 6:25 pm-the times of israel
Berlin, Germany — Germany’s foreign minister will travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories at the weekend for talks with leaders on both sides amid surging tensions, a spokesman said Friday.Frank-Walter Steinmeier aims to get a first-hand picture after recent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces, a situation in which the “peace process isn’t really advancing”, the spokesman told reporters.He is due to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and other officials in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Saturday.He is then scheduled to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several other ministers, including Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the following day, the spokesman added. Months-long unrest in east Jerusalem has spread to theWest Bank and Arab communities across Israel in recent days, raising fears of a new Palestinian uprising.Much of the unrest in Jerusalem has been fuelled by Israeli moves to step up settlement activity in the city’s eastern sector and by religious tensions at the Temple Mount, a site holy to both Muslims and Jews.
Thousands protest in Israel, West Bank after Friday prayers-1,500 demonstrate in Umm al-Fahm, dozens breach security fence north of Jerusalem; no incidents reported at Temple Mount-By Itamar Sharon and Times of Israel staff November 14, 2014, 2:05 pm 6
Around 1,500 Israeli Arabs were demonstrating Friday afternoon in the town of Umm al-Fahm, east of Hadera, protesting the police’s killing of an Arab man in Kafr Kanna last week and the ongoing turmoil in Jerusalem. Among the participants were MKs Hanin Zoabi (Balad) and Afu Agbaria (Hadash) as well as Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the radical wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel.Several hundred people were also demonstrating in nearby Kafr Qara, Ynet reported.Also Friday, around 300 Palestinians hurled rocks and burned tires at a protest in Hebron, in the West Bank. Security forces said they used rubber bullets and other non-lethal means to disperse the crowds.Hundreds of Palestinian protesters also briefly blocked a road near Hizme, north of Jerusalem on Friday and threw rocks at security forces. The latter dispersed the protesters using stun grenades after they failed to leave voluntarily, police said.In yet another incident, several dozen people breached the security barrier near Kalandiya, north of Jerusalem, in an act of protest, using tools to cut the fence or climb over it, Ynet reported. However, the protesters later returned over the line.Meanwhile Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch visited Kafr Kanna for the first time since the death late last Friday night of resident Kheir Hamdan, met with local leaders and demanded they calm resident’s spirits and prevent clashes with police.Hamdan, 22, was shot and killed after police said he tried to stab an officer, while residents claim he was killed in cold blood. A video of the incident showed Hamdan as he appeared to attack a police vehicle, brandishing a knife, but it also showed him retreating before being shot.Despite a joint Israeli, Jordanian and American effort coordinated with the Palestinian Authority to restore calm through confidence-building steps, Walla News reported that the official Palestinian television channel called on its Facebook page for a day of “revolution, fire and rage” in Jerusalem.In the Temple Mount itself, the heart of much of the conflict in recent weeks, there were no reports of violence. Police had prepared for possible flare-ups there following their announcement Thursday that there would be no age restrictions on Muslim worshipers for weekly prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque Friday, for the first time in weeks.The decision followed a trilateral meeting in Amman on Thursday between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and US Secretary of State John Kerry, after which the top American diplomat said steps had been agreed upon to lower tensions between Israel and the Palestinians over Jerusalem’s contested holy site.It was not immediately clear if the eased restrictions on Temple Mount prayers was one such step.“Firm commitments” were made to maintain the status quo at the compound, Kerry said at a press conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was not in attendance, but met with Kerry beforehand. Kerry said it was “not the right moment” for Abbas and Netanyahu to meet.Israel and Jordan, which has custodial rights at the compound, also agreed to take steps to “deescalate the situation” in Jerusalem and to “restore confidence,” Kerry added. “We are not going to lay out each practical step; it is more important they be done in a quiet and effective way.”Judeh said Amman would review its decision to recall its envoy to Israel, based on Jerusalem’s implementation of its commitments to restore calm.Restrictions on male worshipers have been imposed on recent Fridays. The police have, on occasion, barred access to the site to Palestinian men under 35 years of age, fearing unrest and riots. There have been times the restrictions have included all men under 50. Females of all ages have been allowed access to the site.Aharonovitch said Thursday that unrest in Israel and the West Bank was likely to continue, albeit at a lower simmer.Aharonovitch noted that recent days had seen a drop in rioting, attributing the improvement to decisive action by police against violent protesters. But he warned that fresh attacks by so-called lone-wolf terrorists, acting impulsively without instruction from terror organizations, remained possible.Israel has deployed hundreds of police reinforcements to the capital in recent weeks in response to the unrest in East Jerusalem, which has also spread to the West Bank and Arab communities across Israel, raising fears of a new Palestinian uprising.The Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the al-Aqsa compound, is the holiest site in Judaism, and the third-holiest in Islam. It has been a source of increased tensions between Israelis and Palestinians: A number of violent clashes between security forces and Palestinian demonstrators, four terror attacks that killed six Israelis, and an attempted assassination of a Temple Mount activist have taken place in just under a month.AFP and AP contributed to this report.
Israel’s fate at Security Council may hinge on increasingly critical Europe-If Abbas takes his West Bank withdrawal demand to the UN this year, as promised, his chances aren’t bad. But if he waits till January, when Malaysia and Venezuela join the Council, they’re even better-By Raphael Ahren November 13, 2014, 3:45 pm 58-the times of israel
The Palestinian Authority is threatening to go to the United Nations Security Council with a resolution calling for an Israeli withdrawal within two years to the pre-1967 lines. PA President Mahmoud Abbas declared this week that he intends to do so within the month — perhaps on the symbolic date of November 29, on which the UN in 1947 voted on its Partition Plan and in 2012 granted Palestine nonmember state status at the General Assembly.In the council’s present constellation, it will be difficult — though certainly not impossible — to get the number of yes votes required to pass a resolution or force the US to veto it. However, if Abbas decided to hold off until next year, when five of the non-permanent Security Council members will be replaced, the chances of the Palestinian demarche will increase significantly.With Malaysia and Venezuela replacing South Korea and Argentina in the new year, two countries openly hostile to Israel will enter the Security Council. Joined by Chad, three countries, or 20 percent of the world’s most important decision-making forum, will not have diplomatic relations with Israel.For a resolution to pass it needs nine votes from the council’s 15 members. If that were to occur, one of its five permanent members — the US, the UK, China, France and Russia — could veto the resolution.Of those five, only Washington can be reasonably expected to make use of its right to block the Palestinians’ move, but a US veto is by no means guaranteed.Relations between the White House and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are famously strained, and Barack Obama, now entering the last stretch of his presidency and no longer tied to electoral considerations, could decide to turn his back on Jerusalem.The US might be reluctant to isolate itself internationally by stymieing a move supported by a large majority of states in the United Nations, including the entire Arab world, especially as Washington seeks allies in its fight against the Islamic State terrorist group.
What about the other Security Council members?
In the current Security Council, Abbas could rely on five yes votes — from Chad, Chile, China, Jordan and Russia. (While generally friendly to Israel, Chile is home to the largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East. Under President Michelle Bachelet, Santiago summoned Israel’s ambassador during this summer’s Operation Protective Edge in protest of what it termed the “collective punishment” of Gazans.) The maybes are Argentina, France, Great Britain, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Nigeria, Rwanda, and South Korea. Australia and the US are very likely no voters. Lots of imponderables in that mix.Just a few weeks from now, though, the Palestinians would look at a clearer, brighter picture.In 2015, Chad, Chile, China, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia and Venezuela would be virtually certain to support the Palestinian resolution, almost regardless of its wording. With seven yes votes in their pocket, the Palestinians would need to find only two other countries to pass the resolution or force a veto.New Zealand (which replaces Australia in January) has generally friendly ties with Jerusalem. But unlike Canberra — which is one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in the world, if not the staunchest — Wellington is not considered particularly close, especially since a minor diplomatic row in September, when Jerusalem refused to accredit Jonathan Curr as New Zealand’s new ambassador to Israel because he was also slated to be the ambassador to the PA; the post has not been filled.Wellington also voted in favor of Palestinian nonmember state status at the UN General Assembly in 2012, while Canberra abstained.In the end, it might come down to the four European Union member states. France, Britain, Lithuania and Spain (which will replace Luxembourg) will try to formulate a common position ahead of a vote, and it is hard to predict which way they will lean. The EU, in principle, is opposed to unilateral moves, but has repeatedly threatened to take steps to pressure Israel vis-a-vis Palestinian statehood.Vilnius has excellent relations with Jerusalem and, in isolation, could be expected on to vote in its favor, but the small Baltic state is a lightweight within the EU context and will likely follow the lead of Paris and London.How would France and Britain vote? The British are heading toward an election, on May 7, and its parliament last month overwhelmingly voted in favor of a nonbinding resolution calling on the government to recognize a Palestinian state.Lawmakers in Madrid and Paris are slated to vote on similar resolutions in the coming weeks. Both governments have deep sympathies for the Palestinian cause.France will “obviously at a certain moment recognize the Palestinian state,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Saturday. “The question is when and how? Because this recognition must be useful for efforts to break the deadlock and contribute to a final resolution of the conflict,” added Fabius.All of which diplomatic accounting suggests that the chances that the Palestinians could reach the nine required votes in the 2015 Security Council are reasonably high, a fact that is not lost on Jerusalem.“The Foreign Ministry is working day and night on this matter,” said Emmanuel Nahshon, the ministry’s spokesman. “We remain in constant contact with current and future members of the UN Security Council to convey the message that a unilateral strategy does not contribute to a peaceful solution of the conflict, and that the UN Security should therefore not approve such an initiative.”But does the US, Israel’s potential diplomatic savior, buy this argument? After the midterm elections and the Republican takeover of the Senate earlier this month, Obama is unlikely to get much work done domestically and may want to focus on foreign policy issues that could shape his legacy. Besides a nuclear agreement with Iran, the White House might also want to promote Middle East peace and pressure Israel through a pro-Palestinian resolution at the UN.Some in Jerusalem worry that the Palestinians might use rather soft language in their draft resolution — perhaps even adopt segments from US Secretary of State John Kerry’s so-called framework agreement, which he devised during the last round of peace talks — which could render Washington more amenable to accepting it.If the Palestinian application to the Security Council merely condemns Israeli settlement construction and calls for the creation of a Palestinian state in general terms, without delineating borders, Washington just might acquiesce to the initiative, or at least withhold its veto, some fear.Perhaps ironically, it is therefore in Israel’s interest that the Palestinians adopt maximalist positions and use language that will be unacceptable to the US, the EU and the other countries still weighing how to vote on the matter. The more benign the PA’s formulations, the higher the chances that their draft resolution will be accepted.Likewise, the sooner the Palestinians go to the UN, the better for Israel. As the arithmetic makes clear, if they do so within the next month — as promised by Abbas — or indeed anytime before December 31, the likelihood of the Security Council accepting their resolution is lower than if they wait for 2015. Notwithstanding Abbas’s promise this week, it’s a fair bet that he and his advisers have done their Security Council sums.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
3rd AND 4th TEMPLES
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2008/01/israeli-temples.html
REBUILT 3RD TEMPLE
REVELATION 11:1-2
1 And there was given me a(MEASURING) reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
2 But the court which is without the temple leave out,(TO THE WORLD NATIONS) and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.(JERUSALEM DIVIDED BUT THE 3RD TEMPLE ALLOWED TO BE REBUILT)
DANIEL 9:27
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Germany’s top diplomat to meet Israel, Palestinian leaders-Foreign minister set to meet Abbas on Saturday, Netanyahu on Sunday-By AFP November 14, 2014, 6:25 pm-the times of israel
Berlin, Germany — Germany’s foreign minister will travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories at the weekend for talks with leaders on both sides amid surging tensions, a spokesman said Friday.Frank-Walter Steinmeier aims to get a first-hand picture after recent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces, a situation in which the “peace process isn’t really advancing”, the spokesman told reporters.He is due to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and other officials in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Saturday.He is then scheduled to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several other ministers, including Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the following day, the spokesman added. Months-long unrest in east Jerusalem has spread to theWest Bank and Arab communities across Israel in recent days, raising fears of a new Palestinian uprising.Much of the unrest in Jerusalem has been fuelled by Israeli moves to step up settlement activity in the city’s eastern sector and by religious tensions at the Temple Mount, a site holy to both Muslims and Jews.
Thousands protest in Israel, West Bank after Friday prayers-1,500 demonstrate in Umm al-Fahm, dozens breach security fence north of Jerusalem; no incidents reported at Temple Mount-By Itamar Sharon and Times of Israel staff November 14, 2014, 2:05 pm 6
Around 1,500 Israeli Arabs were demonstrating Friday afternoon in the town of Umm al-Fahm, east of Hadera, protesting the police’s killing of an Arab man in Kafr Kanna last week and the ongoing turmoil in Jerusalem. Among the participants were MKs Hanin Zoabi (Balad) and Afu Agbaria (Hadash) as well as Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the radical wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel.Several hundred people were also demonstrating in nearby Kafr Qara, Ynet reported.Also Friday, around 300 Palestinians hurled rocks and burned tires at a protest in Hebron, in the West Bank. Security forces said they used rubber bullets and other non-lethal means to disperse the crowds.Hundreds of Palestinian protesters also briefly blocked a road near Hizme, north of Jerusalem on Friday and threw rocks at security forces. The latter dispersed the protesters using stun grenades after they failed to leave voluntarily, police said.In yet another incident, several dozen people breached the security barrier near Kalandiya, north of Jerusalem, in an act of protest, using tools to cut the fence or climb over it, Ynet reported. However, the protesters later returned over the line.Meanwhile Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch visited Kafr Kanna for the first time since the death late last Friday night of resident Kheir Hamdan, met with local leaders and demanded they calm resident’s spirits and prevent clashes with police.Hamdan, 22, was shot and killed after police said he tried to stab an officer, while residents claim he was killed in cold blood. A video of the incident showed Hamdan as he appeared to attack a police vehicle, brandishing a knife, but it also showed him retreating before being shot.Despite a joint Israeli, Jordanian and American effort coordinated with the Palestinian Authority to restore calm through confidence-building steps, Walla News reported that the official Palestinian television channel called on its Facebook page for a day of “revolution, fire and rage” in Jerusalem.In the Temple Mount itself, the heart of much of the conflict in recent weeks, there were no reports of violence. Police had prepared for possible flare-ups there following their announcement Thursday that there would be no age restrictions on Muslim worshipers for weekly prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque Friday, for the first time in weeks.The decision followed a trilateral meeting in Amman on Thursday between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and US Secretary of State John Kerry, after which the top American diplomat said steps had been agreed upon to lower tensions between Israel and the Palestinians over Jerusalem’s contested holy site.It was not immediately clear if the eased restrictions on Temple Mount prayers was one such step.“Firm commitments” were made to maintain the status quo at the compound, Kerry said at a press conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was not in attendance, but met with Kerry beforehand. Kerry said it was “not the right moment” for Abbas and Netanyahu to meet.Israel and Jordan, which has custodial rights at the compound, also agreed to take steps to “deescalate the situation” in Jerusalem and to “restore confidence,” Kerry added. “We are not going to lay out each practical step; it is more important they be done in a quiet and effective way.”Judeh said Amman would review its decision to recall its envoy to Israel, based on Jerusalem’s implementation of its commitments to restore calm.Restrictions on male worshipers have been imposed on recent Fridays. The police have, on occasion, barred access to the site to Palestinian men under 35 years of age, fearing unrest and riots. There have been times the restrictions have included all men under 50. Females of all ages have been allowed access to the site.Aharonovitch said Thursday that unrest in Israel and the West Bank was likely to continue, albeit at a lower simmer.Aharonovitch noted that recent days had seen a drop in rioting, attributing the improvement to decisive action by police against violent protesters. But he warned that fresh attacks by so-called lone-wolf terrorists, acting impulsively without instruction from terror organizations, remained possible.Israel has deployed hundreds of police reinforcements to the capital in recent weeks in response to the unrest in East Jerusalem, which has also spread to the West Bank and Arab communities across Israel, raising fears of a new Palestinian uprising.The Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the al-Aqsa compound, is the holiest site in Judaism, and the third-holiest in Islam. It has been a source of increased tensions between Israelis and Palestinians: A number of violent clashes between security forces and Palestinian demonstrators, four terror attacks that killed six Israelis, and an attempted assassination of a Temple Mount activist have taken place in just under a month.AFP and AP contributed to this report.
Israel’s fate at Security Council may hinge on increasingly critical Europe-If Abbas takes his West Bank withdrawal demand to the UN this year, as promised, his chances aren’t bad. But if he waits till January, when Malaysia and Venezuela join the Council, they’re even better-By Raphael Ahren November 13, 2014, 3:45 pm 58-the times of israel
The Palestinian Authority is threatening to go to the United Nations Security Council with a resolution calling for an Israeli withdrawal within two years to the pre-1967 lines. PA President Mahmoud Abbas declared this week that he intends to do so within the month — perhaps on the symbolic date of November 29, on which the UN in 1947 voted on its Partition Plan and in 2012 granted Palestine nonmember state status at the General Assembly.In the council’s present constellation, it will be difficult — though certainly not impossible — to get the number of yes votes required to pass a resolution or force the US to veto it. However, if Abbas decided to hold off until next year, when five of the non-permanent Security Council members will be replaced, the chances of the Palestinian demarche will increase significantly.With Malaysia and Venezuela replacing South Korea and Argentina in the new year, two countries openly hostile to Israel will enter the Security Council. Joined by Chad, three countries, or 20 percent of the world’s most important decision-making forum, will not have diplomatic relations with Israel.For a resolution to pass it needs nine votes from the council’s 15 members. If that were to occur, one of its five permanent members — the US, the UK, China, France and Russia — could veto the resolution.Of those five, only Washington can be reasonably expected to make use of its right to block the Palestinians’ move, but a US veto is by no means guaranteed.Relations between the White House and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are famously strained, and Barack Obama, now entering the last stretch of his presidency and no longer tied to electoral considerations, could decide to turn his back on Jerusalem.The US might be reluctant to isolate itself internationally by stymieing a move supported by a large majority of states in the United Nations, including the entire Arab world, especially as Washington seeks allies in its fight against the Islamic State terrorist group.
What about the other Security Council members?
In the current Security Council, Abbas could rely on five yes votes — from Chad, Chile, China, Jordan and Russia. (While generally friendly to Israel, Chile is home to the largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East. Under President Michelle Bachelet, Santiago summoned Israel’s ambassador during this summer’s Operation Protective Edge in protest of what it termed the “collective punishment” of Gazans.) The maybes are Argentina, France, Great Britain, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Nigeria, Rwanda, and South Korea. Australia and the US are very likely no voters. Lots of imponderables in that mix.Just a few weeks from now, though, the Palestinians would look at a clearer, brighter picture.In 2015, Chad, Chile, China, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia and Venezuela would be virtually certain to support the Palestinian resolution, almost regardless of its wording. With seven yes votes in their pocket, the Palestinians would need to find only two other countries to pass the resolution or force a veto.New Zealand (which replaces Australia in January) has generally friendly ties with Jerusalem. But unlike Canberra — which is one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in the world, if not the staunchest — Wellington is not considered particularly close, especially since a minor diplomatic row in September, when Jerusalem refused to accredit Jonathan Curr as New Zealand’s new ambassador to Israel because he was also slated to be the ambassador to the PA; the post has not been filled.Wellington also voted in favor of Palestinian nonmember state status at the UN General Assembly in 2012, while Canberra abstained.In the end, it might come down to the four European Union member states. France, Britain, Lithuania and Spain (which will replace Luxembourg) will try to formulate a common position ahead of a vote, and it is hard to predict which way they will lean. The EU, in principle, is opposed to unilateral moves, but has repeatedly threatened to take steps to pressure Israel vis-a-vis Palestinian statehood.Vilnius has excellent relations with Jerusalem and, in isolation, could be expected on to vote in its favor, but the small Baltic state is a lightweight within the EU context and will likely follow the lead of Paris and London.How would France and Britain vote? The British are heading toward an election, on May 7, and its parliament last month overwhelmingly voted in favor of a nonbinding resolution calling on the government to recognize a Palestinian state.Lawmakers in Madrid and Paris are slated to vote on similar resolutions in the coming weeks. Both governments have deep sympathies for the Palestinian cause.France will “obviously at a certain moment recognize the Palestinian state,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Saturday. “The question is when and how? Because this recognition must be useful for efforts to break the deadlock and contribute to a final resolution of the conflict,” added Fabius.All of which diplomatic accounting suggests that the chances that the Palestinians could reach the nine required votes in the 2015 Security Council are reasonably high, a fact that is not lost on Jerusalem.“The Foreign Ministry is working day and night on this matter,” said Emmanuel Nahshon, the ministry’s spokesman. “We remain in constant contact with current and future members of the UN Security Council to convey the message that a unilateral strategy does not contribute to a peaceful solution of the conflict, and that the UN Security should therefore not approve such an initiative.”But does the US, Israel’s potential diplomatic savior, buy this argument? After the midterm elections and the Republican takeover of the Senate earlier this month, Obama is unlikely to get much work done domestically and may want to focus on foreign policy issues that could shape his legacy. Besides a nuclear agreement with Iran, the White House might also want to promote Middle East peace and pressure Israel through a pro-Palestinian resolution at the UN.Some in Jerusalem worry that the Palestinians might use rather soft language in their draft resolution — perhaps even adopt segments from US Secretary of State John Kerry’s so-called framework agreement, which he devised during the last round of peace talks — which could render Washington more amenable to accepting it.If the Palestinian application to the Security Council merely condemns Israeli settlement construction and calls for the creation of a Palestinian state in general terms, without delineating borders, Washington just might acquiesce to the initiative, or at least withhold its veto, some fear.Perhaps ironically, it is therefore in Israel’s interest that the Palestinians adopt maximalist positions and use language that will be unacceptable to the US, the EU and the other countries still weighing how to vote on the matter. The more benign the PA’s formulations, the higher the chances that their draft resolution will be accepted.Likewise, the sooner the Palestinians go to the UN, the better for Israel. As the arithmetic makes clear, if they do so within the next month — as promised by Abbas — or indeed anytime before December 31, the likelihood of the Security Council accepting their resolution is lower than if they wait for 2015. Notwithstanding Abbas’s promise this week, it’s a fair bet that he and his advisers have done their Security Council sums.
