Did January 16 Mark the End of the U.S.-Israel Relationship?
Did January 16 Mark the End of the U.S.-Israel Relationship?
Good morning!
Did January 16 mark the end of the U.S.-Israel relationship?
The diplomatic rift between the two countries began to widen last Wednesday, when U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff overrode Israeli objections and officially declared the start of phase two of the Gaza peace plan, a shift from ceasefire to demilitarization, technocratic governance and reconstruction.
The next day, President Trump announced the Board of Peace, an overarching body to oversee the plan’s implementation. Among the world leaders he invited to join as founding members were Turkey’s outspoken anti-Israel president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi; the prime minister of Pakistan; and even Russia’s Vladimir Putin. As Richard Palmer writes this morning, this board seems aimed at rivaling the UN Security Council but with Trump as chairman with unlimited power. It is difficult to see any foreign country being excited about this.
Then on January 16, the White House named an “executive board” for Gaza, a 15-member committee to oversee transitional governance and reconstruction. The board included Turkey’s foreign minister (a close confidant of Erdoğan) and a senior Qatari official. These are two nations that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted should play no role in governing Gaza. Meanwhile, the board included an Israeli businessman but no Israeli government officials.
It was a sharp slap in Israel’s face.
This arrangement could well mean replacing Hamas gunmen in Gaza with soldiers from a state-level enemy like Turkey. And Israel has no say.
On January 17, Netanyahu’s office issued a terse statement, in Hebrew, two sentences that eloquently conveyed Israel’s vexation, nay fury:
The announcement regarding the composition of the Gaza Executive Board, which is subordinate to the Board of Peace, was not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy. The prime minister has instructed the foreign affairs minister to contact the U.S. secretary of state on this matter.
This public acknowledgement of the snub from Washington was a first. Even through the rocky Obama-Biden years, Netanyahu worked tirelessly never to show even a hint of daylight between the U.S. and Israel, even during dangerous disagreements. But this is a bridge too far. And to send the foreign affairs minister, rather than a trusted adviser from his inner circle, to talk to Marco Rubio also signals disdain. But what is Netanyahu to do?
There are members of Trump’s inner circle who have no patience for Netanyahu and who want to end this relationship. They are determined to “fix” Gaza on their own.
“This is our show, not his show,” one senior official told Axios. “We managed to do things in Gaza in recent months nobody thought was possible. And we are going to continue moving.” This official said Netanyahu wasn’t consulted because he has no say: “If he wants us to deal with Gaza, it will have to be our way.”
This is staggering arrogance.
This may well be a major breaking point in Israel-U.S. relations. It is stunning that it is happening not with the Antiochus figure who ran the White House for three terms—but with the man who at one time was considered Israel’s closest-ever ally in the White House.
Donald Trump betrayed Israel. January 16 may have marked the end of that relationship. And prophecy shows that Israel will be looking for another ally.
Trump appoints himself secretary general of the world: Donald Trump sent out invitations to his new Board of Peace over the weekend. It’s about a lot more than Gaza. It creates an alternative to the United Nations Security Council, with President Trump in a position somewhere between secretary general and world king.
- Donald Trump personally, not the office of U.S. president, is chairman of the board. With no term limits, Trump could hold that office indefinitely. He can hire and fire other members of the board, decide what other countries can be invited, and veto any proposal he does not like.
Invitations to join have gone out to 60 world leaders from Canada, most European nations, the United Kingdom and the European Commission. They also include Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarussian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. Representatives for nations that accept will serve a three-year term, though they can pay $1 billion for a permanent seat.
President Trump is right that the UN has failed and a fundamentally new approach is needed. As Herbert W. Armstrong wrote April 29, 1945, at the UN’s founding:
I do not see peace being germinated here, but the seeds of the next WAR! …
“Except the Eternal build the house, they labor in vain who build it.” … The United Nations organization will fail. It is doomed before it starts!
President Trump’s new board of peace doesn’t look to God any more than the UN did. Instead it looks to Trump personally. It too is doomed to fail.
Mr. Armstrong’s comments on what he saw while attending the 1945 founding of the United Nations contain a further warning:
“There can be no real peace until we have justice for all. To achieve that, Uncle Sam must stand up as the stern and determined champion of the rights of these helpless smaller peoples.” Yet under the UN, that is impossible. As Mr. Armstrong wrote, success “requires complete harmony between the Big Three. But if America and Britain are to achieve harmony with Russia, it is already apparent it will have to be at the cost of justice in the smaller Baltic and Balkan nations, and Poland.”
A new system could allow America to be that champion for justice, unencumbered by the need to sacrifice justice to compromise with Russia. But is President Trump’s bid for Greenland, to take one recent example, the act of a “stern and determined champion of the rights of … helpless smaller peoples”?
The truth is that President Trump does not know the way to peace. A board built around him, or any other man, is certain to fail. This peace board will prove to be another milestone in mankind finally learning that lesson and ultimately looking to the only sure Prince of Peace.
Trump vs. EU feud escalates: In a lengthy Truth Social post on Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to increase tariffs on eight European nations for trying to block his efforts to acquire Greenland.
- Affected nations: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom
- Tariff schedule: 10 percent starting February 1; 25 percent starting June 1; higher percentages until a deal is reached for the U.S. acquiring Greenland
The eight affected European countries issued a joint statement on Sunday saying that President Trump’s threats “undermine trans-Atlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral.” Foreign-policy analyst Guntram Wolff says the Greenland feud could mean “the end of nato as we know it.”
- Trump has refused to rule out leaving nato altogether if European leaders refuse to recognize U.S. claims over Greenland.
One can see why Greenland is needed to project power into an increasingly militarized Arctic. One can also see why European leaders are angered by yet another threat of tariffs.
- Many of these leaders humiliated themselves before Donald Trump over the summer to avoid the worst of U.S. tariffs. Now they’re faced with new tariffs, over Greenland of all places. If they placate Donald Trump over this, what will be the next geopolitical issue to result in a U.S. win and a European loss?
The Europeans have made strong statements and deployed small numbers of troops to Greenland, but the reaction would likely be much stronger if they weren’t hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court would strike down Trump’s ability to impose such tariffs, which could happen as early as tomorrow.
President Trump is exploiting divisions within the EU. Spain, Italy, Poland and other significant EU nations are not included in his tariff list. They don’t seem willing to jeopardize their own trade with the U.S. by joining a Europe-wide response.
Once again, EU elites see the need for unity and strong leadership, while their populations see additional reasons to turn against the United States.
Bible prophecy says that German-led Europe will turn to Russia and China to actively bring down the United States. Trumpet publisher Gerald Flurry wrote:
The Bible contains many prophecies of that European power attacking America—and many other prophecies of America being besieged. That is where China and the giants of Asia enter the picture. When the Holy Roman Empire attacks North America, there will be no help or sympathy from Asia. In fact, considering that China has come to possess most of the world’s strategic sea gates (which, ironically, at one time were held by Britain and America), we believe there may be a brief alliance between the German-led Holy Roman Empire and certain Asian powers (Russia, China, Japan—the kings of the east). Should Europe, the resurrected Holy Roman Empire, find a way to take advantage—even for a moment—of key resources and strategic holdings of China, Russia and Japan, it would have more than enough power to besiege the Anglo-Saxon nations and enslave them.
Some of the most important leaders in Germany are already working to create this alliance. But the breakdown in relations with the United States is making it much easier for them to unite the divided nations of Europe—against the U.S.
IN OTHER NEWS
Russian roots remain in Venezuela: Radio Free Europe headlined Wednesday that “Maduro Is Gone From Venezuela, but Russia May Not Be.” The publication details how Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime spent two decades cultivating personal relationships with a whole cast of Venezuela’s military, political and energy leaders and establishing commercial ties with a range of business moguls. Even with Nicolás Maduro removed, “these links are unlikely to disappear overnight,” the article states. The conclusion is reinforced by the fact that the United States’ capture of Maduro on January 3 did not bring about regime change but left Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, in power. She has long maintained warm relations with the Kremlin and, in 2024, was awarded Russia’s prestigious “Order of Friendship” by Putin himself. Though the U.S. operation was a blow to Russian power in Venezuela, deep Russian roots remain. The Kremlin will seize any opportunity to deepen those and to continue projecting power into the Western Hemisphere, about 1,700 miles from the U.S. mainland. To understand how foreign influence in Latin America will be weaponized against the U.S., read “Preparing to Storm America’s Castle.”
Italy aims for the Arctic: On Friday, Italy’s government introduced its “Italian Arctic Policy” document, highlighting the region’s economic and strategic importance. “Italy is convinced that the Arctic must always be a priority of the EU and NATO, and that the Atlantic alliance must seize the opportunity to develop a coordinated presence in the region,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated Friday, going on to say that her Mediterranean nation considers the polar territory “a central and strategic region for Italy ….” The new document contains 50 pages labeling the U.S. push to acquire Greenland a threat. Europe’s increasingly assertive interest in the Arctic is a direct geopolitical push against the United States, and Bible prophecy warns that it will not be the only one.
Ceasefire between Syria and Kurds? Syria and the nation’s main Kurdish militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces, announced a ceasefire yesterday. The previous day, Syrian forces announced that they had captured communities in Syrian Kurdistan and Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo. These conquests came in spite of pressure from the United States on Syrian forces to stand down. The ceasefire’s provisions allow the Syrian government to take control of Syrian Kurdistan. This is the same Syrian government that is still being empowered by U.S. President Donald Trump. As Trumpet executive editor Stephen Flurry wrote in November, sponsoring Syria is leading to a “prophesied betrayal.”
U.S. to offer asylum to Jewish refugees from Britain? Amid growing anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom, a personal attorney to President Trump revealed on Sunday that the U.S. State Department is considering offering asylum to British Jews. In an interview with the Telegraph, Robert Garson pointed to a terrorist attack on a Manchester synagogue in October and to widespread Jew-hatred emerging in Britain after Hamas massacred 1,200 men, women and children on Oct. 7, 2023. “When I look at what is going on with Jews in Britain, and when I look at the changing demographics, I don’t believe—and I have discussed this with people in the Trump administration—that there is a future for Jews in the United Kingdom,” Garson said. “For me, that is particularly sad.”
