US pressure on Jerusalem

"Awake, Awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city.Shake yourself from the dust, Arise!...Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion!" (Isaiah 52:1-2).

"'For it shall come to pass in that day,' says the LORD of hosts, 'That I will break his yoke from your neck, and will burst your bonds; Foreigners shall no more enslave them. But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, Whom I will raise up for them." (Jeremiah 30:8-9).

A July 16^th HaAretz headline read, "Obama to set binding timetable for Israel-PA talks". The following weekend Israel's Ambassador to Washington was summoned to the U.S. State Department and told that the Obama administration desired Israel put a stop to construction work at the site of a historic hotel in east Jerusalem. The area in question was annexed along with other Jerusalem neighborhoods following the Six Day War, and part of the property on which homes are to be built has been owned by a Jewish Doctor for more than 20 years. But the U.S. does not officially recognize the part of Jerusalem taken from Jordan in '67 as being part of Israel. In fact, U.S. passports for American citizens born in Jerusalem do not list a "country of birth"-to name "Israel" would be thought prejudicial to a final-status agreement sought in the U.S. sponsored Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

It is not a normal thing for Israel's Ambassador to be 'summoned' for such a directive. This signaled a new and worrying progression in the U.S. Administration's application of pressure on Israel to come into line with its view of what makes for peace in the region. And now there are four high-level American officials being sent to Israel in the space of one week: U.S. Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, U.S. National Security Advisor James Jones, and White House Iranian affairs expert Dennis Ross-presumably to bring influence on Israel to agree to freeze construction in Judea and Samaria, and also to promise to avoid any unilateral action against Iran's nuclear threat.

Following the State Department's action, Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu responded sharply by stating that Israel's sovereignty in Jerusalem is "not up for debate"-nor would she halt building in any part of Jerusalem she desired: "We cannot accept the notion that Jews will not have the right to buy apartments specifically in Jerusalem. I can only imagine what would happen if they were forbidden from purchasing apartments in New York or London, there would be an international outcry." The Jerusalem Post (July 19, 2009, Online Edition) reported that "sources close to the prime minister said that Obama 'had crossed a red line' when his administration began demanding that Israel cease building projects in its sovereign capital."

PLEASE PRAY:
*For Prime Minister Netanyahu to receive Divine guidance and counsel in overseeing the nation and its capital Jerusalem. Pray that any bonds lashing him and his cabinet to directions for the city apposed to those of God, become "non-binding"-and that he be given grace to govern all of Jerusalem wisely and in the fear of the LORD.

*For President Barak Obama-that he heed godly counsel and move in that authority with which he has been divinely entrusted, and only within that authority. That he remember and seek counsel from the God he has testified to be his Lord. That he not presume to lift up his authority to attempt to "bind" Israel. It is and has always been to her God that she stands or falls.

Source: Israel Prayer List