President Donald Trump’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago yesterday over the next phase of Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas had serious implications for Israel’s security along its eastern frontier. While the two leaders had many kind words for each other in front of news cameras, one major sticking point, according to Axios, was Israel’s policies in the West Bank.

• Israel has been escalating its counterterrorism operations and skirmishes with Hamas and other terrorist groups in different West Bank communities. President Trump thinks this could jeopardize the work in Gaza.
• A “U.S. source and another source” speaking to Axios, “both with direct knowledge,” said, “The president and his team raised settler violence against Palestinian civilians, the financial instability of the Palestinian Authority, and Israeli settlements expansion.” According to Axios, “The U.S. message was that changing course in the West Bank is critical to repair Israel’s relations with European countries and, hopefully, expand the Abraham Accords.”

The West Bank is by far Israel’s greatest security liability. Whereas Gaza only borders a small corner of southwestern Israel, the much larger West Bank is close to most of Israel’s major population centers, including the capital, Jerusalem.

• Nablus, Jenin and other cities are anarchic safe havens for terrorist groups. Israeli forces regularly go into the West Bank to degrade—but not eliminate—the Palestinian terrorists’ capabilities, for its own citizens’ safety.

President Trump’s use of the comparatively minor issue of settlements and settler violence to pressure Israel to stand down in the West Bank is significant, not only because it pales in comparison to Palestinian terrorism but also because it could lead to the fulfillment of a major Bible prophecy.

Zechariah 14:1-2 state that half of Jerusalem will fall. This could be fulfilled by the Palestinians in the West Bank becoming organized and stronger as Israel is weakened and likely forced to pull back because of international pressure. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry analyzes this prophecy in detail in his free booklet Jerusalem in Prophecy.