This post is to inform readers of this blog about what may prove to be a very important meeting. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu recently held a “behind closed doors” meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican. This link reports that topics included the Iranian nuclear program, the Palestinians and the fate of Christians in the Holy Land and the entire Middle East. It seems logical that Netanyahu would want Pope Francis to be an ally in blocking an Iranian nuclear bomb and that Pope Francis would like to enlist Israeli help in improving the lot of Christians throughout the Middle East where they are being persecuted.
The link reports that Pope Francis “has increasingly waded into political matters,” and also stressed the need for governments to “combat ‘unfettered’ capitalism.” That last statement is cryptic, but it may indicate that Pope Francis may see that a collapse of the global financial system (what Revelation 17-18 calls “Babylon the Great”) is nearing and that the Vatican is taking steps to make sure it survives that collapse.
Now for some speculation about what was discussed behind closed doors but which was not reported to the press. One item may have been the jurisdiction over Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and the possible inclusion of the Vatican in a three-way deal involving the Israelis, the Sunni Arab nations and the Vatican to parcel out a new jurisdictional agreement over the Temple Mount as part of a burgeoning alliance between the Israelis, Egyptians, Saudis, Jordanians and other Sunni Moslem nations who are all increasingly-threatened by Iran’s growing nuclear program and the apparent growing weakness of the Obama administration and the western governments to confront it. The growing anti-Iranian military alliance between the Israelis, Saudis, Egyptians, Jordanians and other Sunni governments has been noticed by world media sources (see my previous posts on this topic) so that development is not speculation. What is speculation on my part is that a wider agreement may be in the talking stages behind closed doors as part of a growing Mideast anti-Iranian alliance.
One thing seems self-evident. The Palestinians have no intention of ever bargaining in good faith for a two-state solution in the Holy Land. Yassir Arafat was offered almost everything he could have dreamed of years ago in a proposed agreement and he declined it. The Palestinians always overplay their hand given that they are a very weak party in the negotiations with the Israelis. The Palestinians have always assumed that international pressure will eventually force the Israelis to make huge concessions to them. However, recent developments have worked very badly against the Palestinians. The Palestinian Hamas entity that rules Gaza now finds itself virtually at war with the Sunni Egyptian military government in battles in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Also, as Saudi fears of Iran grow and as the Saudis increasingly realize that Obama can not be trusted as an ally, the Saudis need the Israelis as an ally vs. Iran a whole lot more than anything the Palestinians can ever offer the Saudis. This allows for the possibility of a surprising new alliance forming in the Mideast which imposes a settlement of the Palestinian matter on the ever-squabbling Palestinians.
If the Israelis, Saudis, Egyptians, Jordanians and other Sunni nations openly form an anti-Iranian alliance, it would greatly benefit all of them to impose a settlement of the Palestinian issue to simultaneously resolve that thorny matter. The Saudis now control the key Moslem religious sites in Mecca and Medina. What if a new political agreement removes Palestinian control of the Temple Mount and (A) gives the Saudis control of the Islamic mosques on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, (B) gives the Jews the right to build a Third Temple on the Temple Mount, and (C) gives the Vatican jurisdiction over Christian holy sites in at least the Old City of Jerusalem? Such an agreement could be very popular to the masses in Saudi Arabia, Israel and the EU (especially European nations with a Catholic heritage). Keep in mind this is only speculation on my part, but many Christians and Jews have long been expecting the construction of a new Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. For decades, it seemed only a major war could have made this possible. However, Iran’s new military threat to all Sunni Arab nations and the latter’s pressing need for a new, reliably anti-Iranian ally to replace the USA have created the possibility for a political deal to make this happen.
There is one oddity in this link. Israeli PM Netanyahu gave Pope Francis a book authored by Netanyahu’s late father. The book is about the Spanish Inquisition, a very dark period in the history of the Catholic Church. One does wonder about what message was being sent by the presentation of such a book by Prime Minister Netanyahu to Pope Francis in an important state visit. On that subject, I will not even speculate.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/12/02/pope-francis-netanyahu/3802667/
