Latest Prophecy Commentary
Olmert Puts Damper On What To Except From The Upcoming ME Peace Summit
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has put a monkey wrench in the upcoming US lead Middle East peace conference by lowering expectations and changing the status of talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Many thought the talks were considerably more intense than what Mr. Olmert is now leading us to believe. "There are reports that we have reached an agreement on principles that just has to be fine-tuned," a participant in the meeting cited Olmert as saying. "But we are talking about a joint statement that I hope will be the headline of the international peace conference in Washington in November. But there is a difference between an agreement on principles and a declaration of intent." http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2006/09/19/1861970-ap.html
Certainly, I don't pretend to know the status of their talks but I'm guessing they're farther along than Prime Minister Olmert states. I am confident that Israel understands the importance of the upcoming conference and that they come to the table with some type of binding agreement.
But at the same time, Palestinian leaders are now contemplating asking the US to postpone the summit because they are not ready to strike a deal on "fundamental issues".
This is typical of both sides and is not unexpected. I do believe the summit will go on as planned with possibly a few surprises. Right now, the US has left the summit in a cloud of ambiguity naming no specific location, date or format. Even some of the Arab nations have suggested that they might pull out due to the lack of structure and direction. They fear this will turn out to be like so many other proposed peace summits of the past...lots of talk with no action plan.
The action plan they speak of is still far from where they want it to be come November. The "declaration of intent" is well-meaning but at this time has no timeline to be carried out to completion. Many in the Arab world want to see a timeline for Israel to complete the core issues such as evacuating the West Bank along with all settlements, declaring Palestine an official state, turning over holy sites (within Jerusalem) to be overseen by an international committee and a return to pre-1967 borders.
The timeline for getting this done has become as big of an issue as the actual issues themselves.
It has always been strange to me that the Bible would make a point of stating that Israel will make a peace treaty with the antichrist for a seven-year period of time. It's strange in the sense that usually when peace is made it's a given that it will last as long as both party's keep it. Just as with friendships, I know of no one who makes friends with a predetermined amount of time in mind.
This type of agreement with a timeline to implement the principles of the agreement seems to be more in line with what Daniel 9:27 may be referring to.
Of course, it's also possible that the Bible mentions the seven-year peace agreement-tribulation period timeline for the sake of Bible prophecy watchers only. In reality, when the peace agreement is made, it may have no (seven-year) timeline attached to it, and as far as the world is concerned, is intended to be indefinite. It could be that only God will know (and those who read His Word) that the tribulation period will last seven years and at the half way point the antichrist will break the peace treaty. This seven-year timeline may not be as direct as many have been led to believe.
This is certainly a possibility, but truthfully, I do see the day coming when a peace treaty with the antichrist will be established for a documented timeframe of seven years.
Over the next several months it will be interesting to see how long a timeline the international community assigns to the implementation of the core principles of this agreement.
Will it be seven years?
Are you ready to meet the Lord? If not, your time is running out!
Terry Malone
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