My Thoughts After the Palestinians Submitted their U.N. Bid.

Update: I wrote that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is likely going to take some time before he forwards the Palestinians' application to the U.N. Security Council. Apparently, Ban Ki-moon is not taking a lot of time before he forwards the application. The U.N. Security Council reportedly will look at the Palestinians' application on Monday, but a vote is still not expected for several weeks or months.

Earlier today Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) submitted a completed application to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asking the United Nations to accept the Palestinians as a full member of the U.N. The application was submitted despite efforts by the U.S., the European Union, Russia, Tony Blair, the United Nations, and others to craft a deal that would persuade the Palestinians to halt their U.N. bid and to return to negotiations with Israel.

Today I want to share some of my thoughts after the Palestinians submitted a completed application to the U.N.

First, it is important to note that a U.N. Security Council vote (where the U.S. will use its veto power) is unlikely going to come immediately. Ban Ki-moon is likely going to take some time before he forwards the Palestinians’ application to the U.N. Security Council. After the application arrives at the U.N. Security Council there will probably be some time for the members of the U.N. Security Council to “review” the Palestinians’ application. Estimates on when a vote may take place range from several weeks to several months.

• This delay on a vote will provide more time for diplomats to come up with a deal to get Israel and the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table. However, it is going to be difficult for diplomats to get each side to agree to return to negotiations since Israel wants the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state before returning to negotiations (something that Abbas today said that the Palestinians won’t do) and the Palestinians want Israel to use the pre-1967 borders as the basis for negotiations (something Israel is reluctant to do) and a settlement construction freeze.

I am struck by how difficult it is to make a Middle East peace deal. The top diplomats in the world have exerted maximum effort these past several weeks and months, but they cannot even get the Israelis and the Palestinians to agree to negotiate with one another.

• I heard on television this morning that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas are staying at hotels less than a mile from each other. Nevertheless, the close geographic proximity between the two is irrelevant considering the vast difference between each side’s respective positions.

The task to reach a Middle East peace deal becomes even more challenging once negotiations actually resume. Here are some of the complicated issues that the Israelis and the Palestinians probably will have difficulty reaching an agreement on:

• The recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
• The borders of a potential Palestinian state
• The future of Jewish settlements in the West Bank
• The future of Jews living in the West Bank (some Palestinian officials prefer that no Jews live in a Palestinian-controlled state)
• The issue of land-swaps
• The issue of the Palestinian right of return
• The issue of East Jerusalem

I think a deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians may be possible someday, but it may not come until the arrival of the Antichrist. Daniel 9:27 suggests that the Antichrist will be able to confirm a seven year “covenant with many” that will at least enable Israelis to have a Third Temple and to have temple sacrifice:

• Dan 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

The issue of the Third Temple/the Temple Mount is not something I’ve heard about during the past several weeks and months of following Israel’s and the Palestinians’ diplomatic maneuvers. The probable reason for this is that the issue of the Third Temple/the Temple Mount is not considered a high-priority one by each side involved at this point (they have other things to worry about before they worry about this issue). Consequently, the issue of the Third Temple/Temple Mount is unlikely going to be negotiated until other issues are resolved first.

• I think the fact that the Antichrist will be able to confirm a covenant that enables the Israelis to have a Third Temple and to have temple sacrifice is an indication of the kind of wide-ranging deal that he may be able to broker between Israel, the Palestinians, and others.
• Again, I think the high degree of difficulty associated with reaching a Middle East peace deal makes it likely that the Antichrist will be initially hailed as a “hero” by most people for accomplishing what seemed to be impossible when an all-encompassing Middle East peace deal is finally reached.

I am not sure how this situation is going to play out over the next several weeks and months. The potential for an escalation of violence is there, but the potential for things to be relatively quiet is also there as people wait to see what happens. However, I think the Palestinians’ move to submit an application to the U.N. will result in something very important happening later on. I am not exactly sure what that “very important” thing is at the moment, but I would not be surprised if this event eventually becomes a catalyst for a major escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and/or a major Middle East war later on.

• This situation somewhat reminds me of last year’s flotilla incident. The flotilla incident was an event that a lot of people closely followed right after it happened. However, many people began to lose interest/no longer followed the situation as time went on. The importance of the flotilla incident seems like it took more than a year to be fully realized. It’s become clear recently that the flotilla incident was a catalyst that has led to a rapid and dramatic deterioration in Turkish-Israeli relations. Similarly, it may require the passage of a lot of time before we fully realize the significance of what the Palestinians did today by submitting their U.N bid.

There was a lot of news this entire week about the diplomatic maneuvering by those hoping to stop the Palestinians’ U.N. bid. However, after today’s events it seems that we have not reached an endpoint, but instead the beginning of something more important later on…