It’s difficult to imagine the outcome of America’s presidential election depending on whether or not the U.S. should relinquish control over half of Washington, D.C. Yet, that is exactly the position Israel finds itself in now that Tzipi Livni has failed in her attempt to form a new coalition government.

Livni’s Kadima party was able to secure an agreement with Labor, but its alliance with the religious-nationalist Shas party collapsed because of Livni’s plan to share control of Jerusalem with the Palestinians.

“Shas will not sell out on Jerusalem,” its chairman insisted last week after announcing that his party would not join Livni’s coalition.

Livni, who had hoped to begin the Knesset’s winter session this week as the new prime minister, was instead forced to call for early elections. She angrily lashed out at Shas for, as she sees it, attempting to derail the peace process.

“What kind of demand is this, to announce that we won’t talk about Jerusalem?” Livni asked. “Is there any leader here who can announce anything like that? After all, this means the end of negotiations, political paralysis and violence that will flood the entire region. Does [Shas Chairman Eli Yishai] want to be responsible for all that? Let him go right ahead.”

With the high-stakes general elections set for February 10, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu wasted little time in setting the tone for his campaign. In a speech before the Knesset earlier this week, former Prime Minister Netanyahu pledged, “We will not conduct negotiations on Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish people for the past 3,000 years. I didn’t do it in the past and I won’t do it in the future.”

On the other side of the political fight, by rejecting Shas’s demand, as Caroline Glick wrote for the Jerusalem Post (emphasis mine),

Livni made clear that partitioning the city—that is, giving the Palestinians sovereignty over the Temple Mount and the Arab neighborhoods—is so central to her preferred foreign policy that she could not budge on the issue despite her obvious desire to take up residence in the prime minister’s office. …Due to the centrality of Jerusalem in Livni’s failed negotiations with Shas, it is apparent that maintaining or ending sovereignty over united Jerusalem will be the central issue of the coming elections.

Now think on the significance of this prophetically significant moment! Who could have ever imagined, even five years ago, that Jerusalem’s status as the undivided capital of Israel would be the central issue in a campaign for becoming prime minister?

Yes, consider the profound significance—and remember what we have been proclaiming at theTrumpet.com for well over a decade. “Christ prophesied that He would ‘gather all nations’ to battle Him in Jerusalem,” my father wrote in November 1996, commenting on a prophecy in Zechariah 14:1-2. He continued,

Then He makes what might appear to be a strange statement.One half of Jerusalem is to be taken captive. That crisis triggers a series of events that leads to the return of Jesus Christ! One half of Jerusalem being taken captive is like the first domino to fall, leading to Christ’s return and battle against all nations in Jerusalem! It all begins and ends in Jerusalem.

He wrote that 12 years ago! And today, the central issue in the contest between Livni and Netanyahu is whether or not to divide Jerusalem. That’s how close we are getting to the trigger that sets off a rapid-fire sequence of events that will culminate in the return of the Messiah! In other words, as my father also wrote in 2001, “The current dispute over East Jerusalem is a strong sign that the Day of the Lord is almost here!”

There’s more. On his weekly Key of David television program, my father said nearly three years ago that Benjamin Netanyahu might return to power in Israel. He made that comment based on the same prophecy in Zechariah. He said half of Jerusalem is “going to be taken by force, and you need to realize that. Now, that might also indicate that the Likud, or the conservative party, will get in power.”

He also mentioned that a Hamas-dominated Palestinian insurgence, backed by Iran, would take half of Jerusalem byforce. “Now it appears that the Hamas terrorists, who are really supported by Iran,” he said, “are about to get control of the Palestinians.”

Within days of making those comments, Hamas grabbed 74 of the 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council through free elections.

Two months later, however, Netanyahu’s Likud party got trounced in Israel’s parliamentary elections, losing 26 of its 38 seats.

Yet, look at where we are today!

However the details play out, prophecy is sure. The violent division of Jerusalem as prophesied by Zechariah doesn’t depend on a conservative government being elected in Israel. But if Benjamin Netanyahu does return to power, as my father suggested in early 2006, we could see the Zechariah 14 crisis come to a head much more quickly.