Betrayal : The Hands that Drip with Blood

Some concerning events took place over the weekend, the first being the approved release of 26 Palestinian terrorists, and the second being the emergency surgery Prime Minister Netanyahu underwent for an umbilical hernia. Netanyahu was originally slated to head the ministerial cabinet-level meeting on Sunday to select the prisoners to be released, but due to the emergency surgery, Moshe Ya'alon convened the meeting instead. The cabinet later approved the release of 26 terrorists as part of the US-sponsored peace negotiations ahead of the second round of talks scheduled to take place in Jerusalem on Wednesday, August 14.

The emergency surgery can't be anything else than a warning to Netanyahu and the other political leaders and supporting cast of the dangers inherent with the steps and concessions that are currently circling around the latest attempt to divide Jerusalem and the land of Israel.

The timing of Netanyahu's emergency surgery in relation to the concession being made to release Palestinian terrorists, all of whom are reported to be serving long term sentences for heinous crimes, is reminiscent of the physical nature of the judgments that both Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon came under after they, too, made very damaging concessions for the US-led peace process.

Yitzhak Rabin was shot and killed due to his signing of the Oslo Accords. Most of the terrorists being released in this latest round of concessions have been in prison since before the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. Ariel Sharon suffered a major stroke months after the Gaza Expulsion in August of 2005, in which around 9,000 Israelis were forcefully uprooted from their homes. Sharon remains in a vegetative state unto this day. I pray that Netanyahu has at least considered the potential connection.

And in that day will I (YHVH) make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. Zechariah 12:3

Let us continue to keep Prime Minister Netanyahu in prayer that he would recover from his recent surgery and seek the wisdom of the LORD.

The last time Israel released terrorists as a "goodwill gesture" for peace was in the Fall of 2008.

On August 17, 2008, the decision to release 198 terrorists was made by the Israeli government. It would be two weeks later, August 25, 2008, that the release would take place. Of the 198 total terrorists released, only two were in prisoner for long-term sentences.

Later that same year, on December 7, 2008, the Israeli government decided to release an additional 230 Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli prisons. The release would take place a week later on December 15. This release was in accordance with criteria practiced by previous governments, which is that none of the prisoners set to be released had any Israeli blood on their hands. Along with not being "violent" offenders, the prisoners also supported the Palestinian Authority and were not associated with Hamas or Palestinian Jihad.

The major difference between the prisoners released in 2008 and those that are currently scheduled for release are vastly different. The current prisoners have all been convicted of murder related crimes against Israelis. All of these terrorist prisoners have blood on their hands and until their release were all serving long-term sentences for their heinous crimes.

Ma'ariv, one of four mass-market, Hebrew-language dailies in Israel, summed up the release this way:

 "This is a Shylock deal. The Americans, the Arabs and the Europeans are asking the senior Jewish representative, the private and collective Israel: Cut some flesh from your body so that we will know that you are serious."

Amnon Lord, the author of the Ma'ariv article, focused on a key remark made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that "'Entering the process serves Israel's strategic interests."

Lord noted that Netanyahu did not say that peace was the strategic interest, nor did he say that an interim agreement was in such an interest; rather the 'strategic interests' is a nuclear Iran.

The paper concludes: "The more painful this prisoner release deal is to Bibi and to the public, the more Netanyahu will be obligated to insist on his security demands. Regarding Iran, this payment to the Americans must allow legitimacy for military action and international coordination. On the 'peace' issue, it allows Israel to give its own views on its security needs. It is hard to believe that Netanyahu is willing to rely on the 'demilitarization' of the West Bank. There can be no such thing without permanent Israeli control of the Jordan Valley."

Amnon Lord's article in Ma'ariv seems to accurately assess the situation and the driving American force behind such a deplorable "goodwill gesture" considering the Obama administration laid out such a relationship between the two issues in the infant stages of his first term. Such a connection was laid out before the world when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came before the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee in April of 2009.

"For Israel to get the kind of strong support it is looking for vis-à-vis Iran, it can't stay on the sidelines with respect to the Palestinians and the peace efforts. They go hand in hand."

I find it interesting that after the prisoner release of August 25, 2008, took place, what was at that time the third most costly hurricane season on record was fast upon its heels. And though the economy exhibited warning signs all throughout 2008, it was at the end of August and throughout the rest of 2008, that the economy really took a turn for the worst. The stock market would continue a violent downward trend until hitting its low in March of 2009. From the August 25, 2008, Dow Jones close of 11386.25, the same day Israel released prisoners, to the March 9, 2009, closing low of 6,547.05, the Dow lost 42.5%.

I don't know for sure what will follow the release of the current round of prisoners, but I don't expect any good to come of it. I fully expect the US to feel the repercussions of the current "goodwill gesture" being, I believe, forced upon the Israelis. Whether it will come in the form of another major market crash or a destructive hurricane season I cannot say, but the signs are there. Yet, I keep in mind a key difference this time: the prisoners Obama has pressured Israel to release for peace all have blood on their hands, strangely symbolic of the blood the US has on her hands as she pushes Israel closer to the edge, though it won't be Israel that falls into the abyss, rather it will be the US.

Let us continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Let us pray that the LORD's Will shall be done in every facet of our lives. Let us prepare now, while there is still a chance.

Repercussions will soon reverberate throughout this land, from sea to shining sea.