We live at a time when Jerusalem has truly become the “burdensome stone” of the last days prophesied in the Scriptures.  The Palestinians consider East Jerusalem to be their capital and they appear to be unwilling to accept a Palestinian state that does not include it.  The European Union has made it very clear that their position is that East Jerusalem is going to be the capital of a future Palestinian state.  Even the United States has made it the official policy of the U.S. government that East Jerusalem is part of “the West Bank” and the Obama administration has been pressuring Israel very hard to stop all construction in East Jerusalem.  But now Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that Israel will never give up control over any part of Jerusalem.   

That is certainly not going to sit well with the Palestinians.

According to Haaretz, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Tuesday that Israel would never give up control of united Jerusalem and it would never fully retreat to the pre-1967 borders.

But those are exactly the things that the Palestinians and the rest of the world are demanding that Israel must do.

In fact, many leaders around the world were expressing a belief that Israel was now willing to negotiate the surrender of East Jerusalem.  Egypt’s foreign minister said just last week that Netanyahu was ready to discuss making “Arab Jerusalem” the capital of a Palestinian state.

Thankfully, Netanyahu has cleared that up.

But the pressure will only become more intense.  Israel’s greatest ally, the United States, has made it official government policy that East Jerusalem and the West Bank are one and the same.  The U.S. spent all of 2009 demanding that Israel immediately stop construction in East Jerusalem, as the U.S. State Department and the Obama administration consider East Jerusalem to be “occupied” territory.

So Israel says that they will never give up East Jerusalem and the rest of the world says that they must.

It look like Israel is between a rock and a “burdensome stone”. 

In Zechariah 12:3, the Scriptures tell us that Jerusalem would become a burdensome stone in the last days….

And in that day will I 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.

At this point East Jerusalem appears to be the number one stumbling block standing in the way of a Palestinian state. 

So how will all of this be resolved?

We will have to wait and see.

But one thing is for sure – if Jerusalem does end up getting divided, anyone involved in that division will be setting themselves against the God of the universe. 

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