While serving as a senior adviser in the White House, Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will work to help broker a Middle East peace deal. Trump said that Kushner, Ivanka Trump's husband, would take on the task of negotiating peace between Israelis and Palestinians– an appointment Trump has previously floated due to the fact that Kushner "knows the region, knows the people, knows the players." Kushner has no previous diplomatic experience, but steered Trump's foreign policy throughout his presidential campaign and subsequent presidential transition. "What we know, he’s a really tough, smart guy, and we hope he will bring new energy to our region,” Israel's defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said of Kushner. (J.Post) "For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers” Prov 11:14. Intercede earnestly for Donald Trump and his carefully chosen administrative team that they may strengthen and lead the USA with wisdom and clarity, and cultivate among the nations respect and support for Israel. Pray also for the physical protection of Donald Trump from political and religious extremists. [Comment]

President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn into office using two Bibles - one belonging to Abraham Lincoln, and the other a gift from his mom, the inaugural committee announced this week. "In his first inaugural address, President Lincoln appealed to the ‘better angels of our nature,’” said committee chair Tom Barrack "As he takes the same oath of office 156 years later, President-elect Trump is humbled to place his hand on Bibles that hold special meaning both to his family and to our country,” Barrack added. The Lincoln Bible, a burgundy velvet-bound copy, was used by two other presidents for their swearing-in: Lincoln in 1861 and Barack Obama in 2009 and 2013. Trump’s family Bible was given to him in 1955, by his mother when he graduated from Sunday Church Primary School at First Presbyterian Church in Queens. (NY Post) [Comment]

President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, blasted the global body over its treatment of Israel at her Senate confirmation hearing, on Wed. 18 Jan. 2017. "Nowhere has the UN’s failure been more consistent and more outrageous than in its bias against our close ally Israel," Haley said in the opening remarks before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Any honest assessment also finds an institution that is often at odds with American national interests and American taxpayers." Noting that the United States contributes 22 percent of the UN budget, far more than any other country, Haley said, "Are we getting what we pay for?" She also promised to work with USA lawmakers to pursue what she described as "seriously needed change" at the United Nations. The UN’s anti-Israel bias is well-known and was even acknowledged by its former Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, before he stepped down at the beginning of this month. Haley’s hearing came weeks after the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2334 which was critical of Israel’s presence in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. Some Republican lawmakers, led by South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, have threatened to cut USA funding for the UN following the anti-Israel resolution. (Reuters) [Comment]

Honest

Curious

Dependable

Supportive

Understanding 

Be the friend you'd want to have

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Sunday 5 Jan. 2016 that if USA President-elect Donald Trump moves the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem it would have "extremely serious consequences."Speaking as 70 countries gather in Paris to try to revive Israeli-Arab peace efforts, Ayrault told French TV he believed Trump would find it "impossible" to fulfill the pledge he made during his campaign to transfer the embassy. "When you are president of the United States, you cannot take such a stubborn and such a unilateral view on this issue. You have to try to create the conditions for peace," Ayrault said. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas warned hours before the Paris summit that peace could be dealt a mortal blow if Trump, who has vowed unstinting support for Israel, moves the USA Embassy to Jerusalem. Doing so would reverse decades of USA policy that has until now maintained that the final status of Jerusalem. (INN) Equation of terrorism, settlements is morally twisted [Comment]

Dozens of countries sent their senior-most diplomats to the conference on Middle East peace held in Paris on Sunday, but the United Kingdom did not, ostensibly as a trust-building gesture to the incoming Trump administration. Prime Minister Theresa May sent neither her foreign minister, Boris Johnson, nor her envoy to France to the parlay. "We have particular reservations about an international conference intended to advance peace between the parties that does not involve them– indeed, which is taking place against the wishes of the Israelis– and which is taking place just days before the transition to a new American President when the USA will be the ultimate guarantor of any agreement," a Foreign Office statement read. While most countries in attendance signed on to a communique urging the two parties to recommit to a two-state solution, and to cease "unilateral steps" that entrench the conflict, London demurred, ultimately choosing not to back the document. There are risks," the UK government warned, "that this conference hardens positions at a time when we need to be encouraging the conditions for peace." (Jerusalem Post)Intercede that many additional nations will recognize that the "conditions for peace,” is indeed the point in terms of advancing any positive talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Among the many points that need be dealt with are Palestinian terrorism against Israel and the leaders and society that support it; Palestinian glorification of terrorists who have died in attacks against the Jewish state, Palestinian school text books that plant hatred for Israel, in the hearts of children, refusal to recognize the Jewish state and a host of other issues. Presently, there is not a glimmer of evidence or political hope that Palestinians aspire or intend to live side-by-side with Israel in peace. [Comment]

Some 70 countries on Sunday 15 Jan. 2017 reaffirmed that only a two-state solution could resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and warned they would not recognize any unilateral steps by either side that could prejudge negotiations. The final communique of a one-day international Middle East peace conference in Paris shied away from explicitly criticizing plans by president-elect Donald Trump to move the USA Embassy to Jerusalem, although diplomats said the wording sent a "subliminal" message. Trump has pledged to pursue more pro-Israeli policies and to move the USA Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, all but enshrining the city as Israel's capital, despite international objections. Countries including key European and Arab states as well as the permanent members of the UN Security Council were in Paris for the conference, that Israeli PM Netanyahu rejected as "futile." Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians were represented. The final statement said interested parties would meet again before year-end. But Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting on Sunday that "this conference is among the last twitches of the world of yesterday. Tomorrow will look different and that tomorrow is very close." (J.Post) [Comment]

Israeli officials on Sunday, 15 Jan. 2017 credited the efforts of the National Security Council and the Foreign Ministry for a "significant weakening” of the text of the final joint declaration issued by the participants of a peace conference in Paris. The one-day summit came to a close on Sunday evening with a statement, backed by the 70 countries, calling on Israel and the Palestinians to restate their commitment to a peace settlement and to refrain from unilateral actions. The statement urged both sides to "officially restate their commitment to the two-state solution” and disassociate from voices that reject that goal. It also called for them not to take one-sided actions that could preclude fruitful talks. The Israeli officials were jubilant that "problematic passages” in a contentious recent UN Security Council resolution on the settlements were not included in the Paris document. Resolution 2334, passed on 23 December 2017 harshly condemned the settlement enterprise, declaring that it has "no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-state solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.”

Furthermore, the Israeli officials expressed satisfaction over the fact that no further action against Israeli settlements is planned at the Security Council. USA Secretary of State John Kerry had promised as much to P M Netanyahu in a phone call from Paris earlier Sunday. The ostensible success, the officials concluded, was the "result of harsh reactions” voiced by Israel against Resolution 2334. In his call to Netanyahu from the Paris conference, Kerry promised to prevent any followup action to the resolution, either at the confab itself or at the UN Security Council. After a month of chilly ties between Washington and Jerusalem, Kerry updated Netanyahu about the steps he was taking to "soften” the text of the final communique. The prime minister told Kerry that the outgoing administration had already caused Israel damage last month by not vetoing Resolution 2334. No other resolution should be passed, Netanyahu said, either in New York or in Paris. As the multinational conference convened in Paris, Netanyahu again dismissed the French initiative, calling it a "pointless” endeavor that was inherently anti-Israel. (Times Of Israel) God has answered prayer and gratitude for His intervention is deeply felt by so many who have prayed and raised their voices against a further display of anti-Israel bias on the part of the nations at Sunday’s Paris Peace Summit. Please continue to intercede against any unforeseen UN or out-going Obama administration surprises that would harm Israel this month. [Comment]

: Israel on 11 Jan. 2017, announced new charges against the Gaza head of a major USA-based NGO accused of diverting millions of dollars in aid to Hamas. Mohammed al-Halabi, the Gaza director of Christian humanitarian charity World Vision, is alleged to have funneled aid money to the Islamist terrorist movement that runs the Gaza Strip. He was due to appear in court again in the city of Beersheva this week. On 11 Jan. 2017 a charge sheet was published with two additional charges, including "aiding and abetting the enemy in a time of war" and "passing information to the enemy." (Arutz-7) [Comment]

The USA Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced that it would begin its official investigation into the ties between UNRWA and terrorist organizations and incitement in official Palestinian Authority textbooks after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on 20 Jan. 2017. The GAO is the supreme audit institution of the USA government and provides auditing, evaluation, and investigative services for Congress. The investigation was requested by Senator James Risch (R-Idaho), the Chairman of the Senate Near East Subcommittee, following briefings on UNRWA's indiscretions to Congress by the Center for Near East Policy Research over the past few years. The USA provides approximately $400 million in finding to UNRWA each year, which amounts to one third of UNRWA's annual budget. The organization serves the Arab refugees of the 1948 War of Independence and their descendants, proving education, health care, employment, and other services. Repeated investigations by the Center for Near East Policy Research have shown that the textbooks used in UNRWA schools preach hatred of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Investigations have also found that members of the Hamas terrorist organization are employed by UNRWA in various capacities, including as teachers. (Arutz-7) [Comment]