CUP OF TREMBLING: Mideast unraveling as Jerusalem prepares for embassy dedication on 70th Anniversary

As the World is watching history being made in Israel it is apparent that we are now seeing what the Prophet Zechariah spoke of when he foretold that Jerusalem would become a “Cup of trembling” to all the Nations around the World. It appears that the powder keg may have been lit in the Mideast:

Many See Nightmare Taking Shape…  When Israel declared its independence in 1948, President Harry Truman rushed to recognize it. He took just 11 minutes, and Israelis, about to go to war to defend their infant state, were euphoric.  Seventy years to the day — and nearly as long since Israel declared the holy city of Jerusalem its “eternal capital” — the United States will formally open its embassy on a hilltop here two miles south of the Western Wall. The embassy’s move from Tel Aviv and President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — reversing decades of American foreign policy — comes at a moment so fraught with both pride and peril that Israelis seem not to know what to feel. MORE

Arab league to meet over ‘illegal’ move…  The Arab League will hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the United State’s “illegal” move of embassy to Jerusalem, state news agency MENA reported on Monday, citing an Arab diplomat.  MENA said the meeting will be held on Wednesday at the level of permanent representatives to the Arab League “to counter the illegal decision taken by the United States of America to transfer its embassy to Jerusalem”. Washington is due to officially move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on Monday in a move that has delighted Israel but infuriated Palestinians. MORE

Iran urges global resistance…  Iran denounced President Donald Trump as “feeble-minded” over Monday’s controversial move of the US embassy to Jerusalem, and called for resistance from the Palestinians and the international community. “America has entered a crisis of strategic decision-making that looks at the international arena immaturely and adventurously,” said parliament speaker Ali Larijani, a key establishment figure, at a conference on the Palestinian situation in Tehran. MORE

Yemen Fires Missile at Saudi Oil Facility…  Yemen’s armed Houthi movement launched a missile at a distribution centre belonging to oil giant Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern Jizan province on Monday, the group’s al-Masirah TV reported. The Houthis, an Iran-allied group that holds much of Yemen including the capital Sanaa, have fired a series of missiles into the kingdom in recent months, part of a three-year-old conflict in Yemen widely seen as a proxy battle between Saudi Arabia and Iran. MORE

Al-Qaeda leader calls for jihad…  Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri on Sunday urged Muslims carry out jihad against the United States.  Ayman al-Zawahiri said America’s decision to shift its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem was evidence that negotiations and “appeasement” have failed Palestinians. In a five-minute video entitled “Tel Aviv is Also a Land of Muslims,” the Egyptian doctor who took charge of the global terror group after its founder Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011 referred to the Palestinian Authority as the “sellers of Palestine” while urging followers to take up arms. US President Donald Trump “was clear and explicit, and he revealed the true face of the modern Crusade, where standing down and appeasement does not work with them. MORE

Violence erupts along Gaza-Israel border ahead of US embassy inauguration …  Clashes erupted along the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel on Monday between Palestinians and Israeli forces ahead of the controversial inauguration of the US embassy in Jerusalem, AFP journalists reported. Gaza’s health ministry said 12 Palestinians were wounded. Several thousand had gathered near the border, while smaller numbers of stone-throwing Palestinians were approaching the fence and seeking to damage it, with Israeli snipers positioned on the other side. MORE