“This resolution is linked to Palestinian efforts to obtain U.N. membership as a state and to delegitimize Israel. These efforts will have no legal significance because the General Assembly has no standing to recognize statehood. . . or to grant U.N. membership without the Security Council’s prior recommendation, which the U.S. has indicated it will veto. But they will undermine U.S. [and Israeli] interests” (Brett Schaefer and James Phillips, “How the U.S. Should Respond to the U.N. Vote for Palestinian Statehood,” Heritage.org, July 6, 2011).

However, the Obama administration has implied that a U.S. veto is not guaranteed. It’s using the situation to compel Israel’s compliance on key matters, such as halting Jewish construction in East Jerusalem and giving in to Turkey’s unreasonable demand that Israel apologize for protecting its own security when it intercepted a supposed humanitarian aid flotilla that tried to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip in May 2010—resulting in the deaths of nine Turkish nationals who attacked the Israeli boarding party.

Israeli diplomats in Washington informed Israel’s largest daily newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, that they received a communiqué from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in which “they were told that if Israel does not comply with Clinton’s request [of it] to apologize to Turkey, the White House may suddenly find itself unable to continue building opposition to a unilateral Palestinian declaration of statehood at the UN”—a not-so-veiled threat (“Obama to Israel: Apologize to Turkey, or Else,” Israel Today, Aug. 17, 2011).

Desperate to maintain ties with Turkey and build good will in the Muslim world, the United States is apparently throwing its strongest ally in the Middle East under the bus yet again. The sad irony is that the Muslim states the American administration is trying to appease in this have only contempt for such caving to pressure.

The book of Obadiah shows that the areas of the West Bank and Gaza will be taken back and resettled by Judah and Israel at the time of Christ’s return. In the meantime, it’s important to recognize that God gave these lands to the tribes of Israel—and realize that the United States and other countries would be wise not to oppose what God has decreed. Yet God also said that Jerusalem would be at the center of international controversy—and that people would stumble over it as if in a drunken stupor, making rash and senseless decisions (Zechariah 12:1-3).

Be sure to read our free booklet The Middle East in Bible Prophecy. And may we all “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6). (Sources: Heritage.org, Israel Today.)