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Bible prophecy observers of the Middle East and Israel view the move of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem with great interest and, in some cases, much trepidation. The American government has for some time officially approved the transfer. However, nations have not recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, thus US presidents have routinely postponed the relocation.

America’s involvement in dealing with Israel has displayed a degree of schizophrenia of sorts—a split personality. The US is responsible more than any other nation for bringing the Jewish state back into existence. At the same time, America has seemed to oppose the progress of Israel fulfilling its potential.

The world at large has certainly been opposed to modern Israel for the most part —first, to Israel again becoming a nation, and then at every turn while it has negotiated its way amongst the sea of nations. The following is a brief overview of Israel’s help from the United States and its opposition from antagonists which include, sadly, a seemingly schizophrenic America.

America was against Israel’s 1949 declaration of Jerusalem as its capital. The US also opposed Jordan’s plan, as announced in 1950, to make Jerusalem its second capital. This country, following the 1967 War, opposed Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem. It proposed that a negotiated settlement be at the heart of the future of Jerusalem.

American presidential administrations have insisted that Jerusalem’s future not be the subject of unilateral actions that could adversely affect negotiations, for example, by moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. President George H. W. Bush held that the US does not believe that new settlements should be built in East Jerusalem. He also believed America does not want to see Jerusalem “divided.”

Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995, which declared the American policy that “Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel.” Democratic candidate Barack Obama in 2008 called Jerusalem the “capital of Israel.” On June 4, 2008, he told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), in his first foreign policy speech after capturing the Democratic nomination on the previous day, that “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.” However, the then-senator and presidential hopeful reversed his opinion almost immediately.

In 2010, the Obama administration condemned evictions and house demolitions affecting Palestinians living in East Jerusalem. The Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 2002 stipulated:

For purposes of the registration of birth, certification of nationality, or issuance of a passport of a United States citizen born in the city of Jerusalem, the Secretary shall, upon the request of the citizen or the citizen’s legal guardian, record the place of birth as Israel.

Neither President George W. Bush nor Barack Obama, however, complied with that act. A federal appeal court declared the 2002 law invalid on July 23, 2013. On June 8, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down Section 214(d) of the Foreign Relations Act 2003, citing the law as an overreach of congressional power into foreign policy.

The US operates through a consulate in Jerusalem that primarily handles matters dealing with the Palestinian Authority. The US Embassy in Tel Aviv handles relations with the government of Israel. The US consulate is not accredited to the Israeli cabinet.

On December 6, 2017, President Donald Trump’s administration officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Trump added that the State Department would initiate the process of building a new US Embassy in Jerusalem.

In one of many actions that seemed to run counter to what the president directed, the State Department issued, apparently, its own declaration of dealing with the Jewish state in regard to moving the embassy. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson later clarified that the president’s statement “did not indicate any final status for Jerusalem” and “was very clear that the final status, including the borders, would be left to the two parties to negotiate and decide.” State Department officials said on December 8 that there will not be any immediate practical changes in how the U.S. deals with Jerusalem. This includes the United States policy of not listing a country on the passports of citizens born in Jerusalem. On December 8, Assistant Secretary of State David M. Satterfield said, “There has been no change in our policy with respect to consular practice or passport issuance at this time.” When asked what country the Western Wall is in, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, “We’re not taking any position on the overall boundaries. We are recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”

Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was opposed vigorously by the majority of world leaders. The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting on December 7, and fourteen out of fifteen members condemned Trump’s decision. The Security Council said the decision to recognize Jerusalem was in violation of UN resolutions and international law, but was unable to issue a statement to that effect without the endorsement of the United States.

U.S. envoy Nikki Haley called the United Nations “one of the world’s foremost centres of hostility towards Israel.” Britain, France, Sweden, Italy, and Japan were among the countries that criticized Trump’s decision at the emergency meeting. Shortly before Trump’s announcement, in November 2017, 151 nations of the United Nations General Assembly voted to reject Israeli ties to Jerusalem. Six nations voted against the resolution, and nine abstained.

Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, declared that all governments of European Union member states were united on the issue of Jerusalem, and reaffirmed their commitment to a Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital. On December 9, Turkey announced that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would be working with French president Emmanuel Macron in a joint effort to persuade the United States to reconsider its decision.

Palestinian officials have adamantly declared that the announcement disqualifies the United States from being part of peace talks, and Hamas demanded the start of a new intifada following Trump’s declarations. Hard on the heels of the announcement, there were demonstrations in Iran, Jordan, Tunisia, Somalia, Yemen, Malaysia and Indonesia, and outside the US Embassy in Berlin.

Four people were killed in clashes following the announcement, including two Hamas members killed in an Israeli airstrike on December 9, on a Hamas military facility in response to a rocket attack from Gaza. Two protesters were shot near Gaza’s border fence on December 8, while the Israel Defense Forces claimed it had shot towards dozens of instigators of riots, where participants were involved in burning tires and stone-pelting.

Following Trump’s announcement, American embassies in Turkey, Jordan, Germany, and Britain issued security alerts for Americans traveling or living abroad in those countries. The United States also issued a general warning for Americans abroad about the possibility of violent protests. The American consulate in Jerusalem restricted travel of government employees to Jerusalem’s Old City. The US Embassy in Jordan banned employees from leaving the capital and children of embassy employees were told to stay home from school.

The Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 is a public law of the United States passed by the 104th Congress on October 23, 1995. The proposed law was adopted by the Senate (93–5), and the House (374–37). The Act became law without a presidential signature on November 8, 1995.

The Act recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel and called for Jerusalem to remain an undivided city. Its purpose was to set aside funds for the relocation of the Embassy of the United States in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, by May 31, 1999. For this purpose, it withheld 50% of the funds appropriated to the State Department specifically for “Acquisition and Maintenance of Buildings Abroad” as allocated in fiscal year 1999 until the United States Embassy in Jerusalem had officially opened. Israel’s declared capital is Jerusalem, but this is not internationally recognized, pending final status talks in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Despite passage, the law allowed the President to invoke a six-month waiver of the application of the law and reissue the waiver every six months on “national security” grounds. The waiver was repeatedly invoked by Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama. President Donald Trump signed a waiver in June 2017. On June 5, 2017, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution commemorating the 50th anniversary of reunification of Jerusalem by 90-0. The resolution reaffirmed the Jerusalem Embassy Act and called upon the President and all United States officials to abide by its provisions. On December 6, 2017, Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and ordered the planning of the relocation of the embassy. However, following the announcement, Trump signed an embassy waiver again, delaying the move, as mandated by the Act, by at least six months. Legally, however, the U.S. embassy can be moved at any time without reliance on the Act.

On February 23, 2018, President Trump announced that the US Embassy in Israel would reopen at the Arnona Counsular services site of the current U.S. Counslate-General in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018, to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. [112]

America’s position has been that its recognition of Israel doesn’t imply a particular view on the status of Jerusalem.

The United States did not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital when it became a nation again in 1948. The US voted for the UN Partition Plan in November 1947, which provided for the establishment of an international regime for the city. The US position since then has been that final status of Jerusalem be resolved through negotiations. The American government didn’t recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital until President Donald Trump’s announcement on December 6, 2017.

A Jerusalem Post report explains.

SEOUL—President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the US recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and would move its embassy there, upending decades of a diplomatic consensus over the status of the city pioneered by his predecessors.

Citing a 1995 law, the Jerusalem Embassy Act, compelling the president to make the move absent national security risks, Trump said the time had come to recognize what everyone already knows to be true. “Jerusalem is the capital the Jewish people established in ancient times,” he said. “Today Jerusalem is the seat of Israel’s government.” [113]

Trump, taking into account that the international community insists that any resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian matter must be determined in direct negotiations between those two parties, endorsed a two-state solution. He said, “The agreement is a great deal for the Israelis and a great deal for the Palestinians.” He said the US will support a two-state solution, if agreed to by both sides.

The president stated that his actions to not determine the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty would be “subject to final status negotiations between the parties.”

The Israeli government insists that Jerusalem is its eternal, undivided capital. The Palestinian Authority demands that any peace agreement must guarantee a sovereign state and a capital in the eastern districts of Jerusalem.

“We are not taking a position on any final status issues,” the president said. UN Ambassador Nikki Haley insisted that the US would not be “taking sides” on any issue involving the eastern districts of Jerusalem.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres indicated that the international community didn’t interpret the US actions in this way. He spoke to the press following the president’s declaration and said in effect that the decision by Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the American Embassy there would likely cause rioting and other troubles for the region. He urged calm and indicated the decision should be reconsidered.

“Jerusalem is a final status issue that must be resolved in final status negotiations between the two parties,” Guterres stated. “In this moment of great tension, I want to make it clear there is no alternative to the two-state solution. There is no Plan B.”

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, also called the decision “regrettable” and said the status of Jerusalem was not for one country to decide, but a matter of international security, of consensus, and of law. And Britain’s prime minister, Theresa May, characterized the move as “unhelpful” to the prospects for peace in the region.

“We disagree with the US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem and recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital before a final status agreement,” May said. “The British Embassy to Israel is based in Tel Aviv and we have no plans to move it.”

“We encourage the US administration to now bring forward detailed proposals for an Israel-Palestinian settlement,” she added. “To have the best chances of success, the peace process must be conducted in an atmosphere free from violence. We call on all parties to work together to maintain calm.” [114]

America’s allies in the Mideast region registered strong condemnation for Trump’s decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem. Turkey threatened to sever ties to Israel, and Egypt refused to recognize the decision by the president, warning of severe consequences that would develop as a result. Turkey implied there would be protests in all its major cities and that relationship with the American Embassy would be cut off.

Even with the blanket condemnation of the international community and the major players of the region threatening protests, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that after consultation with its partners, the United States administration believed that his team “firmly believes there is an opportunity for a lasting peace.”

The White House “peace team,” which includes Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special representative for international negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, had the president’s full approval of the decision. The team was fully in the loop on all matters involved, according to the Jerusalem Post report, which attributed the information to a White House source.

The source said, “The peace team was fully aware of this and in the loop. Certain parties are going to react the way they need to react. We expect bumps along the way—but we believe there is an historic opportunity.”

Greenblatt wrote on Twitter that Trump’s speech was a “courageous” effort to recognize the current and historic reality of the city’s status. His team is committed to pressing on, he continued, no matter how angrily parties react in the short term.

President Trump heavily criticized previous presidents as being cowardly because they failed to make the move earlier, “under the belief that delaying recognition of Jerusalem would advance the cause of peace.”

“The record is in,” he added. “After two decades of waivers, we are no closer to a lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.”

Trump announced from the White House diplomatic reception room, “Old challenges demand new approaches. My announcement today marks the beginning of a new approach.” He made the announcement with Vice President Mike Pence, a long-time champion for the move.

Members of Israel’s cabinet praised the decisions by the president as “destined” and “overdue.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the president in a video statement.

“We’re profoundly grateful to the president for the courageous and just decision,” He said. The prime minister called the decision one taken in furtherance of peace. He added, “because there is no peace that does not include Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” and concluded, “This decision reflects the president’s commitment to an ancient and enduring truth.”

But the Palestinians have warned in the tone of an angry promise that the move by Trump will be a potentially lethal stroke to the president’s growing peace initiative. Hamas, the terrorist organization, called for a new intifada (a violent uprising) in response to the move.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in a speech full of threats, denied Trump’s claim that his move was in fact a step towards peace and said that, with the actions, the US had relinquished its historic role as broker.

Abbas said in a televised address: “The US administration with this statement has chosen to go against all the international and bilateral agreements, and to ignore the international consensus.” He stated further, “The United States is withdrawing from the role it has played in the peace process.”

Abbas gave a brief history on Christian and Muslim interaction in the contested city, known in the Arab world as al-Quds. He did so without acknowledging any Jewish history whatsoever as part of the city.

The militants of Islam in the area carried out days of rage as part of violent protests against the American president giving Israel the strong recognition that no other state within the world’s nations would give.

The move of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv is indeed something to rivet the attention of the Bible prophecy student at this moment. There can be no doubt that Trump’s decision to move the embassy on Israel’s seventieth anniversary of rebirth into modernity has profound significance.

However, even such a powerful dynamic within the end-times stage-setting process pales by comparison to other elements within that activity. We have gone over some of these things before in this book and will later touch on them again. These matters of prophetic state-setting are so important as to possess almost infinite significance, because they portend eternal consequence for billions.

Several specific prophecies in Jesus’ Olivet Discourse can be examined as “Tribulation light” events in our headlines today.

Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. (Luke 21:20–21)

Jesus was foretelling that these troubles will be unprecedented in their ferocity during the Tribulation era. He exhorted that when these things begin to happen, we should know that His return is drawing near. Note that the Lord said when these things “begin” to come to pass, we are to “look up…for your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28).

Jesus said, as recorded in other places and as we touched on earlier, that these issues and events will be like birth pangs, in that they will begin in a milder manner than they will become closer to the moment of birth.

Earthquakes, Jesus said, will mark the beginning of “sorrows” (birth pangs). Staying within the birthing analogy, these earthquakes will be lighter in severity than they will become during the full-blown Tribulation when Christ’s return is about to happen. We are told in Revelation an ultimate quake will occur as Christ is breaking through the black clouds of that terrible time. Every mountain will fall: a mighty event indeed!

Almost every geographical region of the planet is experiencing seismic activity on an increasing scale, it seems. All these tremors are mild when compared to the Revelation description of the final quake that will bring every tall structure on earth crashing down. However, the cumulative effects have prophetic significance. Just within a very short time-frame not long ago, as example, we had the following earthquake reports:

Such reports continue in never-ending headline crawls. The tremors are coming with increasing frequency and intensity.

Remember the Ebola scare of a few years ago. Think of the HIV natter that was on the front pages and growing, seemingly, uncontrollably. And recall the Zika virus that is apparently spread by mosquitoes and that has no medical defense. There is growing concern among the medical research community that many of the pestilences are in the process of developing resistance to antibiotics and other forms of combating disease.

The Tribulation era will see these diseases become full-blown. The toll in human life will be beyond comprehension.

The above-mentioned developments are but sidebars to the real story regarding signals that show how near this generation is to the Tribulation era.

This is the real scriptural crux of proof of where we stand on God’s prophetic timeline. As stated earlier, “nation” in the Greek language, as used here, is ethnos or “ethnic” in English. Jesus was predicting that the very end of the age would produce great ethnic upheaval. People will be raging against each other for reasons of race. Likewise, the Lord said that “kingdom against kingdom” will mark the era leading up to His Second Advent.

Is there any doubt whatsoever that these indicators have been in our headlines recently? In the very streets of America, the ethnic rage sometimes boils to the uncontrollable level. The rioting in places like Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Maryland, leap instantly to mind. Such rage is at the heart of problems around the world. Religious fervor, inciting ethnic hatreds, mark this generation as the one Jesus must have had in His omniscient mind when giving this prophecy.

We are experiencing “Tribulation light” prophetic birth pangs on a moment-by-moment basis. It will be fascinating, as watchers on the wall, to see what the coming months will bring. We, as born-again believers, hope it brings the shout of the Lord Jesus: “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1).

Israel being at the heart of much of what is going on generates many inquiries by interested prophecy watchers. Things transpiring during recent times is like seeing the flashing, red lights at train tracks: Imminent danger exists! Time to pay close attention!

A key prophetic reality to consider is the world’s treatment of God’s chosen nation within recent times. Seventy-two nations (an interesting number tied to the fallen Watchers/angels)—most overtly antagonistic to Israel—gathered during the inaugural week of 2017, ostensibly to determine the Jewish nation’s fate. Their intent, in the opinion of many, was to force Israel into giving up all claims to the land upon which the nation resides.

Intervention by the incoming Trump administration preempted full implementation of the anti-Israel agenda. Great Britain also added its conference-dampening input.

Israel, with its constant vigilance against ever-present attempts to destroy the nation, managed to thwart much of its UN enemy efforts in the Paris conference matter.

United Nations globalists’ agenda, under the Resolution 2334 rubric they want to establish, is to declare Israel an occupier—the oppressor of the Palestinians who, the Israel antagonists say, have legitimate claim to the land.

While even now angry losers in America’s presidential election continue to sniffle and sob, and in some cases rage, that Donald J. Trump is illegitimate occupier of Obama’s White House, the UN Israel-haters go through their own sort of whining and moaning. We have witnessed a constant diatribe of antics orchestrated by Satan himself, no doubt, in order to try to rearrange the geopolitical and socioeconomic landscape. Pope Francis, in meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, intruding into the Israeli-Palestinian land-for-peace thrust by the UN, also demonstrated Satan’s hand being inserted into the religious arena in his attempt to set the international stage for Antichrist’s eventual rule (a point many conservative Catholics agree with).

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Paris peace conference, devised by the Palestinian Authority and hosted by France, a “fraud.” He said the conference was “anti-Israel.” He warned that the phony summit “will further lead to the adoption of anti-Israel positions.” Critics of the so-called Paris summit for peace between Israel and the Palestinians say that the conference and UN R2334 constituted an effort to lock Israel into the borders as they were in 1949. A document produced as a result of the meetings might, it was feared, have meant that Israel would have no claim to the Temple Mount, Mount Olivet, and all other of the sites revered as holy by Jews and Christians. Such a document would, it was thought, be designed to give the territory to the new Palestinian state if the so-called two-state solution were to come to fruition. Representatives of Israel weren’t part of the conference. Netanyahu has vowed to ignore anything coming out of the “summit.” The ramifications of this attempted globalist grab in Middle East politics remain to be seen.

Immediately upon release of information about R2334, then US Secretary of State John Kerry made his now infamous, obviously anti-Israel statement as part of his speech. Kerry said that Israel could be either Jewish or Democratic; it cannot be both.

The Trump administration continues to have much to say in changing America’s course as stated by Kerry. However, the former secretary of state’s audacious declaration thus laid out for the world the fact that the Obama administration viewed Israel as an oppressive regime intent upon treating Palestinians cruelly if the Jewish state doesn’t go along with allowing the Palestinians all they want.

Ignoring all the atrocities and terrorism spawned daily by enemies who are vowed to destroy Israel, Kerry, at the time, went on to imply America would recommend punitive repercussions for Israel’s refusal to make peace under terms of the Paris meetings.

Even though the conference in France seems to have been neutralized in large part, such statements by America’s (now former) top representative on the world diplomatic stage raises red flags—and sets the red lights flashing, to be sure. Thoughts immediately go to Genesis 12 about those who bless Israel and those who curse it.

Zechariah 12 and 14, Joel 3:2, and many other prophetic passages involving God’s pronouncements about Israel at the end of the age leap at us. The red lights flash brightly. There are no more powerful signals in Scripture on the nearness of Christ’s return at Armageddon following the Tribulation period.

Israel, the false peace process, all nations being turned against God’s chosen nation…these are flashing red lights to be sure. However, like the Lord’s obvious intervention into so much of the globalist agenda, for the moment, His mighty hand has again interceded in this matter of the deck being stacked in favor of the Palestinians against God’s chosen people.

The Trump administration’s move of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem has added to tensions surrounding Moriah. But, this is likely the destiny of the process that will produce the Third Temple—the Tribulation Temple.

The new president seems overwhelmingly in Israel’s corner, despite still considering a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The fact that Trump has deemed to locate the embassy in God’s touchstone city seems to predestine a stronger tie than ever to influencing matters in Jerusalem, Israel, and the region.