PCG Bewails US' Tel Aviv Embassy

PCG's leaders think that watching events concerning the State of Israel allows one to foresee when their prophecies will begin to be fulfilled. Following this line of thinking PCG's Callum Wood has written an article speculating whether or not President elect Trump will move the US Embassy to the State of Israel to Jerusalem and bewailing how Obama, Bush and Clinton did not do so during their administrations. (Callum Wood, Trump's Promise to Jerusalem, November 17, 2016.)

He fails to mention that the 161 nation states which recognize the State of Israel only recognize its right to rule over its 1949-67 borders. All territory acquired after the Six Day War of 1967 is viewed by those 130 nation states as occupied territory and they do not recognize the State of Israel as having any right to rule those territories. This includes East Jerusalem. Consequently those nation states do not place their embassies in Jerusalem because they view East Jerusalem as being occupied by the State of Israel and do not recognize the State of Israel as having any right to rule East Jerusalem because it was acquired using military force during the Six Day War.

With this vital piece of information in mind let us look at Wood's article.

First Wood complains about the US Embassy being located in Tel Aviv and not Jerusalem. He never explains why it is like this. He also never mentions that many other nation states do the same thing. Australia's embassy is in Tel Aviv. So is Canada's and Britain's embassies. This is because they do not recognize East Jerusalem as belonging to the State of Israel because it was acquired by military force in 1967.

In prominent nations around the world, if you need a United States embassy, you start your search in the country’s capital. In Canada, the embassy can be found in Ottawa. In Australia, it is in Canberra. In the United Kingdom, it is in London. In Israel, the country’s capital is Jerusalem. But you won’t find the U.S. Embassy there. Though U.S. law demands otherwise, the embassy is located an hour’s drive northwest in Tel Aviv.

He fails to note that the 161 nation states that recognize the State of Israel view East Jerusalem as occupied territory because they only recognize the State of Israel as having the right to rule its 1949-67 borders and East Jerusalem was acquired using military force during the Six Day War of 1967.

In 1995, Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act to relocate the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem by May 31, 1999. An inbuilt waiver, however, allows the president to suspend the implementation by six-month periods in the interest of national security. Ever since, presidents have promised to move the embassy. And ever since, presidents have repeatedly signed the six-month waiver.

The Senate has the right to finalize international treaties.

However, some doubt Mr. Trump’s commitment. Just consider the other Trump promises already being watered down in his campaign. ... Trump foreign-policy adviser Walid Phares told the BBC, “Ripping up is maybe too strong of a word. He’s going to take that agreement, it’s been done before in international context, and then review it.”

Phares used to be an ideologue for the Lebanese Forces, a Christian based militia that fought in the Lebanese Civil War of 1975-91.

Furthermore the agreement with Iran was not signed with the United States alone. It was signed between Iran with the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany. If the US governments decide to no longer abide with that agreement the other nation states can simply choose to continue honoring that agreement. If PCG's leaders are hoping that Trump will end that agreement odds are they are going to be disappointed.

Wood then complains that Obama, Bush and Clinton alike had promised move the Embassy to Jerusalem but did not do so. First Wood discusses the Obama Administration.

While he did not promise to move the embassy, President Barack Obama did call Jerusalem the capital of Israel. The day after he secured the necessary delegates to win the democratic nomination in 2008, Mr. Obama spoke before an AIPAC audience, stating that any peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians “must preserve Israel’s identity as a Jewish state with secure, recognized, defensible borders. And Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.” 

Recognizing Israel as a state and its capital as Jerusalem would, logically speaking, include plans to relocate the embassy to said capital. But as the last eight years of failed peace talks prove, the Obama administration’s promise to solidify Israel’s existence was a lie.

Wood condemns the Obama Administration as promoting a lie and yet the Obama Administration forged a memorandum of understanding that makes the United States spend 25% of the State of Israel's military spending for the next ten years. The Obama Administration has in fact supported the State of Israel but PCG's leaders are eager to note any sign that US-Israeli relations are collapsing because that is viewed as a sign that their tapestry of false prophecies will soon begin.

Then Wood complains about Bush.

But President Obama is not alone. 

Before him, George W. Bush said in a preelection speech, “[A]s soon as I take office, I will begin the process of moving the U.S. [Embassy] to the city Israel has chosen as its capital.” 

But by February 2001, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said there were no immediate plans to move the embassy.

Then Wood complains about Clinton.

Former President Bill Clinton was the first to enact the six-month waiver. He too promised to move the embassy. Yet despite pressure from Congress telling him the move was “long overdue,” the president delayed the move.

However Wood fails to discuss why Presidents Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon and Johnson all left the Embassy in Tel Aviv. It is because the State of Israel is only internationally recognized as having the right to rule its 1949-67 borders.

And leaving aside Wood's bewailing of Obama, Bush and Clinton this ignores why so many other nation states which recognize the State of Israel, including Canada and Australia, also have their embassies in Tel Aviv. Just like the United States they only recognize the State of Israel as having the right to rule its 1949-67 borders. If a reader did not understand the reason he or she would be left quite confused reading Wood's article.

But instead of explaining why the embassies are in Tel Aviv he mentions that Palestinians like this arrangement which does not explain why the embassies are in Tel Aviv.

The president’s decision was applauded by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). It has been applauding ever since. Each time the move is delayed, Israel’s rightful place in Jerusalem is undermined. While ever-so-slight, the constant delays have enabled the Palestinians time to fortify their legitimacy and popularity in the international community.

The 161 nation states that recognize the State of Israel only recognize its right to rule its 1949-67 borders. They view East Jerusalem as occupied territory because it was acquired by military force in 1967. They never viewed it as belonging to the State of Israel but merely occupied by it.

Wood then bewails how the neighboring Arab states would oppose the US moving its embassy to Jerusalem again ignoring that the 161 nation states that recognize the State of Israel as only having the right to rule its 1949-67 borders.

If Trump were to recognize Jerusalem as the capital, the PLO would be outraged. President Mahmoud Abbas’s staff has confidently asserted that Trump will not change U.S. policy in the region. “We know that Trump was one thing during the election campaign and that he will become something else once he becomes president,” Abbas’s adviser Ahmad Majdalani stated. 

If Trump does move the embassy, it would erase the Palestinians hard-fought gains under the Obama presidency—something Abbas and his cohorts won’t stand for. 

But the Palestinians won’t be the only unhappy ones in the region. The embassy move would also upset Jordan and Saudi Arabia—key Arab allies in the Middle East. 

Iran would also be livid. With threats from Trump to tear up the nuclear deal already issued, seeing Israel’s claims to Jerusalem recognized by the U.S. administration would further provoke the Iranians. 

For a taste of the Arab response, we need only look back to 2000. During an interview on Israeli television, then-President Bill Clinton said he was considering the U.S. Embassy move to Jerusalem. The comment sparked a response from Hezbollah. The terror group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah said Arabs would “turn your embassy to rubble and send your diplomats home in coffins.”

Then Wood ends his article quoting his boss' booklet and insisting that PCG's leaders understand what will happen in the future.

If you haven’t already, be sure to request a copy of our free booklet Jerusalem in Prophecy. In it, you will read about the promises God made to Israel. You won’t find such amazing, hope-filled promises coming from the Oval Office or anywhere else. God alone can follow through on promises of world peace—and He is about to do just that.

There are comments. One commenter disturbingly expresses the hope that if president elect Trump moves the embassy to Jerusalem it would spark off the apocalypse. The commenter insists that "Gods people" [sic] have been hoping for such a thing for years.

If Trump would only back up the promise of moving the embassy to Jerusalem, I think that would start things up that would lead to half of the city being taken by the Muslims. Gods people have been longing for that day to come for years and we know it will be here soon. Godspeed the day.

Imagine that. A person longing to see the day when World War III erupts and plunge the world into catastrophe just before Christ's return.

Although the commenter talk of "half of the city being taken by the Muslims" it should be noted that many Palestinians are Christians.

And so we see that PCG's leaders are still insisting that they can see the future despite the many false prophecies they have made over the years.