-Cont-

For Fair Use Discussion and Educational Purposes

Part 1
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Enoch describes how he is passing several mountains, which quite well fits in with the mountains in east and south Africa 1. He passes over where the "waters collect", which obviously is where the oceans gather south of Africa 2. Then when they come to the place further south, he sees a deep rift, or abyss 3, which would suggest that Antarctica at that time was free from ice. And we know that there are ancient maps that seem to depict Antarctica as an ice-free landmass 4.
Now, over this abyss, where the heavenly fire goes up and down like immense pillars, there are seven stars5. This is of course not stars here on earth, but stars hovering over the South Pole horizon. A well known formation of seven stars is the Pleiades. Were the stars Enoch saw the Pleiades? Several things seems to confirm this. Firstly, the angels tells him that certain fallen angels were to be bound to those stars, because of their mingling with women on earth 6.



"The Pleiades", by Elihu Wedder (1885).
This story is very similar to myths in Greece and Mesopotamia. In the Greek myth, seven women were put in the starry heaven because of their mingling with the Titans, by which they were made pregnant 7. This is also a clear parallel to Genesis 6. And in Enoch, which describes this story in detail, we read, in the chapter after chapter 18, that the women who were seduced by the fallen angels, were to be imprisoned together with those angels, among those seven stars 8. These Greek women were called the Pleiades, and therebye we know that those seven stars in Enoch must be the Pleiades.


Sumerian Cylinder Seal. The Pleiades in the right upper corner.
Then there is also a myth from Mesopo­tamia, where seven demons were bound as seven stars in the sky. Also here those stars are identified as the Pleiades 9. This star formation was very well-known to all the ancients, because of its beautiful appearance and for its role for agricultural dates.
Thus we can be quite sure that the stars Enoch saw on the horizon above Antarctica, were the Pleiades.
...
NOW, THIS OF COURSE can be put to test with a modern astronomy program. At first I wondered if those stars really can be viewed at the southern hemisphere of the Earth. It's a totally different sky there. So was my interpretation of the Enoch text true, or would an astronomy program debunk the whole idea?
I opened the Stellarium, which is a free download program, and entered the South Pole as the viewing position. Then I changed the date to a thousand years back in time. And then I looked through the night sky, around the celestial globe - and found nothing. The Pleiades were not viewable from the South Pole a thousand years ago. And they are certainly not viewable from there today.
Then I put the date back to the time of Christ, and found nothing. The Pleiades were under the horizon all the year and all day and night, at that time.
Then I set the date to the time of Noah's Flood, about 2300 BC. Nothing. By that moment I thought my idea was destroyed. Clearly, I thought, one cannot see these stars on the other side of the earth. I should have understood that from the beginning.
But then I remembered, that Enoch lived a couple of hundred years before the flood. In fact more than 700 years before the flood, between 622 and 977 after the creation of Adam - which is about 3000 BC.



The Pleiades at the South Pole, ocean level, in July, 3000 BC.
So, with my last hope, and with a great feeling of exitement, I put the date to 3000 BC, and started to rotate the scene.And there they were! The Pleiades could be seen at that time, just above the horizon, at the South Pole! Wow! and Hallelujah!
Because of the Precession of the Equinoxes, they had a time-window in that age, when they were just visible above the South Pole horizon, a certain time of the year. Since then they have never been seen from such southerly positions on earth 10.
...
HOW IS THIS TO BE EXPLAINED? Was it just a very good guess of who ever that wrote the supposed "pseud-epigraphical" book, supposedly around the 3rd century BC (as they say about the book)? Note that it is never stated that the stars are the Pleiades in Enoch, or that the route goes over Africa. Why would a writer in that period not mention such well-known names, if he was just putting together a fantasy story?
Or was this journey real, and written down by someone who really lived five thousand years ago? And who obviously must have known, or seen, Africa and the Southern Ocean from above, and then the South Pole, with its pillars of light? How could anyone just guess all that, or put it together in a story, when all of it is perfectly accurate - geographically, astronomically, and in exactly the right timeframe?



I think this is a stunning evidence that the Book of Enoch really is written before the Great Flood, and that he really did travel with the angels of God in some sort of a flying vehicle, around the world.
- and also into outer space, which is depicted in other parts of the book.
"And I, Enoch, alone saw this vision, the ends of all; and no man has seen them as I have seen them." (Enoch 19:3

Note 1

Mount Kilimanjaro in north-eastern Tanzania.
"And I proceeded towards the south; and it burns day and night there where seven hills of precious stones are, three towards the east, three towards the south. But of those towards the east, one of colored stone, one of pearls, and one of antimony; and those towards the south of red stone. But the middle one reached up to heaven, like the throne of God, of alabaster, and the summit of the throne of sapphire. And I saw a burning fire which was in all the hills." (Enoch 18:5b-8, Schodde's 1882 translation)



This is a description of pre-flood Africa, with active vulcanoes. The highest mountains in Africa are in the east, among them Kilimanjaro, which could be the middle mountain described as reaching up to heaven (that is, its top was covered with clouds), and with alabaster (snow) on its sides. As for the red mountains in the south: there actually are red mountains in South Africa, and even a nature reserve called Red Mountain Nature Reserve.

2.
"And there I saw a place, beyond the great earth; there the waters collected." (Enoch 18:9)


South of Africa is where the great oceans float together, so this is an accurate description. The oceans are forming a circular current around Antarctica.
"The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), sometimes called the 'great ocean conveyor', connects the three great ocean basins, Atlantic, Indian and Pacific, allowing water, heat, salt and other properties to flow from one to the other."

3.
"And I saw a great abyss in the earth, with columns of heavenly fire; and I saw among them columns of heavenly fire, which fall and are without number, either towards the height or towards the depth." (Enoch 18:10)
There are very deep lakes under the ice of Antarctica, for example Lake Vostok, which is 800 meters deep, so it is fully possible there was a deep rift or abyss at that time.
Antarctic Rifts | Antarctic Lakes
And even if it sounds fantastic, one cannot role out the theories of the earth having holes at its poles.
The "columns of heavenly fire" are of course the Southern Lights. You couldn't get a better description than that:


Here's a Youtube clip.
(A completely other possiblity is that there was a thinner layer of ice at that time, and that a vulcano had melted a hole and was extruding burning lava and fire though the opening.)

4.

Map of the world by admiral Piri Reis, drawn in 1513. (Click to see larger image)
The well-known Map of Piri Reis depicts the north of Antarctica without ice, but it is not the only one. There are maps showing the whole continent as ice-free, and theories of Antarctica being ice-free about 4000 years ago:

The Orontius Fineus Map of 1531.

Mysterious Mapmakers: "Exploring the Impossibly Accurate 16th Century Maps of Antarctica and Greenland"

The Orontius Fineus Map of 1531
These maps go back to the time of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) - which is interesting because it is the same time as when the Book (or rather books) of Enoch, began to do their second round in the world.

5.

"And over that abyss I saw a place which had no firmament of heaven above it, and no foundation of earth beneath it, and no water above it, and no birds upon it; it was a void place. And there I saw a terrible thing: seven stars, like great burning mountains and like spirits, that petitioned me." (Enoch 18:11-12)


Here we have to consider that Enoch saw this from inside an angelic vehicle, perhaps with a zooming function on a screen, or in a window. So when he has seen those stars over the horizon, the view is then magnified, so that he can watch them at a close up, out there in the "void" space.
(If you don't believe that angels are using tools and devices, see for example Revelation 21:15-21.)


"M45, a portion of the Pleiades open star cluster in the constellation Taurus, at a distance of some 410 light-years. The glow around the stars is interstellar dust which shines by reflected starlight." Credit: NOAO/AURA/NSF. Click for larger view.
IF WE BY MODERN TECHNIQUE take an even closer look at the Pleiades, the accuracy of Enoch's description becomes even more striking.
In this close up, there are traces in the matter around the stars, that look just like what you would expect from some unhappy spirits floating around endlessly, bound by an invisible force. This is astonishing!

"Ghostly Reflections in the Pleiades". "NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught the eerie, wispy tendrils of a dark interstellar cloud being destroyed by the passage of one of the brightest stars in the Pleiades star cluster. Like a flashlight beam shining off the wall of a cave, the star is reflecting light off the surface of pitch black clouds of cold gas laced with dust."
Or, you could describe it like Enoch: "And there I saw a terrible thing: seven stars, like great burning mountains and like spirits.."
And look here: They are even called"Ghostly Reflections in the Pleiades", in this Hubble Telescope presentation. Those scientists didn't know that Enoch wrote about spirits being bound to that place, and yet they are using a similar language to describe them!
Here is another astonishing image. Look at those traces! The scientists have a hard time explaining them.

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6.
"The angel said: 'This is the place of the consummation of heaven and earth; it is a prison for the stars of heaven, and for the host of heaven. And the stars that roll over the fire are they who have transgressed the command of God before their rising, because they did not come forth in their time. And he was enraged at them, and bound them till the time of the consummation of their sins in the year of the mystery." (Enoch 18:13-15) See also note 8.

"The Pleiades in X-rays. The green squares mark the positions of the seven optically brightest stars."
The Pleiades are seen as only seven stars with the naked eye (or as six since ancient times). Yet Enoch says this place is a prison for the stars of heaven and for the host of heaven. This tells us there are more than just those seven stars bound together in that place. And the Pleiades actually is a star cluster, consisting of more than 1000 stars! And it is one of the closest clusters to Earth. So, again a surprisingly accurate description, no doubt not given by human knowledge.
To further strengthen the Enoch/Pleiades relation, compare Enoch 18:15, where he is speaking of the seven stars: "And he was enraged at them, and bound them..."with Job 38:31: "Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades...?"


7.

Theoi Greek Mythology
"The Pleiades were seven mountain nymph daughters of the Titan Atlas. Their leader was Maia, the mother of Hermes by Zeus. Five of the others were also loved by gods, becoming ancestresses of various royal families including those of Troy and Sparta. When they were pursued by the lustful giant Orion, Zeus set them amongst the stars as the seven-starred constellation Pleiades."

8.

"And Uriel said to me: 'Here will stand the souls of those angels who have united themselves with women, and having assumed many different forms, have contaminated mankind, and have led them astray so that they brought offerings to the demons as to gods, namely on the day when the great judgment, on which they will be judged, shall be consummated.
And their women having led astray the angels of heaven, will be like their friends." (Enoch 19:1-2)
Same story, just a different perspective.

9.

Clay cylinder depicting Marduk fighting a kerub-like being under the Pleiades.
"In the ancient Near East, the Pleiades were associated with the binding of the Sibettu demons of which there are seven. The Sibettu-Pleiades were designated sons of the underworld god Enmesarra, who, when defeated by Marduk, were bound and placed in jail. Enmesarra and his sons remain under permanent guard, and at night the demon sons are the Pleiades in the eastern sky, seven stars bound."
A Study of the Geography of 1 Enoch 17-19, by Kelley Coblentz Bautch, p 148

10.
AROUND 3000 BC was the last time it was possible to see the whole constellation of the Pleiades from the South Pole position. This is the exact time when Enoch lived on earth, and the only time in history when the Pleiades were hovering just above the horizon at the South Pole, just as he describes them.* (622 - 977 after the creation of Adam, which is 3382 - 3017 BC if we assume that the flood happened 2348 BC - the year set by most Bible scholars).
* And the only place in the world where this could have taken place, besides the North Pole area.
This is so accurate that you must wonder if God left this mark in the Book of Enoch, for us in our computer age, that we should know that this book is a work of the Almighty.


Since this time others have been getting this information out there as well, maybe not the link with Enoch none the less the other parts are there. This video covers some of the key areas.



http://www.thehiddenrecords.com/gods.htm (for more on this take a look at this site)


So is this the reason the ancient races built temples and pyramids all over the planet,which were aligned to these constellations? Oh I would have to say so and all considering in the last chapter we looked at the word “Rephaim”…or as I would prefer to call this,to raise the gods of old…there indeed was a reason for this.We can see these two constellations were held in quite high esteem and the reasons behind this,are much more sinister than we have commonly believed.


Messianic and prophetic types have been noted in the Great Pyramid of Giza, leading many pyramidologists to conclude its divine authorship, or at least the intention of the builders to reflect the Divine Author of the universe. Great pioneers in the field of pyramidology such as John Greaves, Robert Menzies, Pro. Piazzi Smith, James Rutherford, W.M. Flinders Petri, were obsessed with the unique geometrical symbolism of the pyramid that seemed to transcend human ingenuity(E. Raymond Capt, The Great Pyramid Decoded p. 95).
To put the acheivment of the Egyptian Great Pyramid into perspective, keep in mind that modern man does not possess the structural genius required to build the Great Pyramid even today. Volumes of research have been compiled debating how the structure may have been built, yet the answers to this puzzle remain elusive as does the identity of it's builders (Ibid.,p. . Even if man today could arrange limestone blocks weighing the equivalent of modern locomotives, polish them to an exactnessof 1/100th of an inch, (equaling contemporary optical standards) and place them within 1/50th of an inch together without damaging them, as the casing stones were placed, the symbolic significance of the pyramid could never be duplicated. The Great pyramid is set on the geographical center of all the land mass of the whole world (Ibid., pp. 11, 49-51).
According to a theory by Robert Bauval, the positions of the Giza pyramids on the ground are a reflection of the positions of the stars in the constellation Orion circa 10,500 B.C.(Graham Hancock, Keeper Of Genesis pp.354-355 ) Five of the 7 brightest stars have pyramid equivalents:The 3 great pyramids of Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura for the belt of Orion,the pyramid of Nebka at Abu Rawash corresponds to the star Saiph and the pyramid at Zawat al Aryan corresponds to the star Bellatrix. The Nile river corresponds to the Milky Way. The principal Giza monuments formed an accurate terrestrial map of the stars of Orion and Sirius as these constellations appeared in 10,500 BC.
Who could have been observing the skies over Giza in 10,500 BC and who, at that date,would have had the technical capacity to realize such monumental works as the Sphinx and the pyramids? Egyptologists assert there was no civilization on Earth at that time, let alone one capable of planning and building such immense, well engineered structures. If they are right, why do the alignments of Giza so plainly and repetitively mirror the skies of the 11th millennium BC? There is an answer in Scripture:
Jer.32:20:
God has set signs and wonders
in the landof Egypt, even to this day.
Josephus writes in The Antiquities of the Jews 1.2.3:
They also were the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies, and their order. And that their inventions might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam's prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars; the one of brick, the other of stone: they inscribed their discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad to this day.
http://www.mt.net/~watcher/pyramid.html
I had planned on spending more time with this,yet in light of some things I discovered today I decided to come back to this at a later time.


Important Signs in 2011
At the beginning of the year reports started to surface that we have a 13th constellation. There have been at least three pole shifts since January in which claims have been made that this brought this back into the zodiac. One of the important links with the number 13, can be found with the 13 stars over the great seal of the United States. Which is also related to they Mayan Prophecy of 12/21/2012. Which I am not going to cover here. Tom Horn covers this in his book on Apollyon Rising 2012.
The symbolic nature and the Mythology is what is important here.The resurrection of the gods of old...Ophiuchus…



The earliest mention of the constellation is in Aratus, informed by the lost catalogue of Eudoxus of Cnidus (4th century BC):

To the Phantom's back the Crown is near, but by his head mark near at hand the head of Ophiuchus, and then from it you can trace the starlit Ophiuchus himself: so brightly set beneath his head appear his gleaming shoulders. They would be clear to mark even at the midmonth moon, but his hands are not at all so bright; for faint runs the gleam of stars along on this side and on that. Yet they too can be seen, for they are not feeble. Both firmly clutch the Serpent, which encircles the waist of Ophiuchus, but he, steadfast with both his feet well set, tramples a huge monster, even the Scorpion, standing upright on his eye and breast. Now the Serpent is wreathed about his two hands – a little above his right hand, but in many folds high above his left.
According to Roman era mythography,[10] the figure represents the healer Asclepius, who learned the secrets of keeping death at bay after observing one serpent bringing another healing herbs. To prevent the entire human race from becoming immortal under Asclepius' care, Zeus killed him with a bolt oflightning, but later placed his image in the heavens to honor his good works.
There is no evidence of the constellation preceding the classical era. In Babylonian astronomy, a "Sitting Gods" constellation seems to have been located in the general area of Ophiuchus. Gavin White proposes that Ophiuchus may in fact be remotely descended from the Babylonian constellation, representingNirah, a Babylonian serpent-god who was sometimes depicted with his upper half human but serpents for legs, perhaps identical with the constellation of Babylonian astronomy.[11]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiuchus

On June 15th of 2011 During Pentecost there will be a lunar eclipse in this constellation.
Could this be the Fulfillment of Joel?

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
(Joe 2:28-31)

To understand Pentecost from the Hebrew Feasts



For believers in Jesus the Messiah, the dating of Pentecost is one of the most exquisite examples of type and fulfillment in the Scriptures. Pentecost means fifty, and is actually fifty days from another feast, First Fruits. These calculations are explained in Leviticus 23:10–11, 15–17. The feast of First Fruits was to occur on the day after the Sabbath (verse 11), which was always the Sunday of Passover week. Pentecost, then, was the day after the seventh following Sabbath (verses 15–16), which would be the fiftieth day after First Fruits and also on a Sunday.
The fulfillment of these feasts is striking. Jesus died the Friday of Passover week and had to be buried hastily before sunset, which was when the Sabbath began. His body remained in the borrowed sepulchre throughout the Sabbath day, but on that Sunday morning, when the priest was to offer the First Fruits offering in the Temple, Christ arose from the dead, the first fruits of them that slept (I Cor. 15:20).

Part 2

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Part 3

For forty ensuing days, the Lord appeared to His disciples in His resurrection body, and then ascended into Heaven. Ten days later, the Sunday of the Feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the believers in Jerusalem and created the ekklesia, the called out body of Christ, the church. These fulfillments were obviously no coincidence, but were part of the overall plan and purpose of God in verifying the powerful meaning of the death and resurrection of Christ, and the establishment of the new body of believers.
From then on, the Jewish believers in Christ must have repeatedly informed the people of Israel about the nature of the fulfillment of Passover, First Fruits and Pentecost. It must have made a great impact on the Jewish people who lived between the resurrection of Christ and the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, a span of about forty years.

http://www.levitt.com/essays/pentecost.html



Total Lunar Eclipse of June 15
The first lunar eclipse of 2011 occurs at the Moon's ascending node in southern Ophiuchus about 7° west of the Lagoon Nebula (M8). The Moon passes deeply through Earth's umbral shadow during this rather long event. The total phase itself lasts 100 minutes. The last eclipse to exceed this duration was in July 2000. The Moon's contact times with Earth's umbral and penumbral shadows are listed below.

Penumbral Eclipse Begins: 17:24:34 UT
Partial Eclipse Begins: 18:22:56 UT
Total Eclipse Begins: 19:22:30 UT
Greatest Eclipse: 20:12:37 UT
Total Eclipse Ends: 21:02:42 UT
Partial Eclipse Ends: 22:02:15 UT
Penumbral Eclipse Ends: 23:00:45 UT



At the instant of greatest eclipse the umbral eclipse magnitude will reach 1.6998 as the Moon's centre passes within 5.3 arc-minutes of the shadow axis. The Moon's southern limb will lay 54.2 arc-minutes from the edge of the umbra while the northern limb will lay 22.3 arc-minutes from the umbra's edge. Thus, the northern regions of the Moon will probably appear brighter than the southern regions that lie deeper in the shadow. Since the Moon samples a large range of umbral depths during totality, its appearance will change dramatically with time. It is difficult to predict the exact brightness distribution in the umbra so observers are encouraged to estimate the Danjon value at different times during totality (see Danjon Scale of Lunar Eclipse Brightness). Note that it may also be necessary to assign different Danjon values to different portions of the Moon (i.e. - north vs. south).

Nearly 30 years ago (1982 Jul 06), the author watched another total lunar eclipse with the Moon in the same part of the sky. I was amazed at how brilliantly the summer Milky Way glowed since it was all but invisible during the partial phases. Observers will have a similar opportunity during June's eclipse. In this case, the totally eclipsed Moon will lie in southern Ophiuchus just 8° northwest of the brightest Sagittarian star clouds. The summer constellations are well placed for viewing so a number of bright stars can be used for magnitude comparisons with the totally eclipsed Moon.

Antares (mv = +0.92v) is 15° to the west, Shaula (mv = +1.63) is 14° south, Epsilon Sgr (mv = +1.85) is 15° southeast, Arcturus (mv = -0.05) stands 55° to the northwest, and Altair (mv = +0.77) is 46° northeast of the Moon.

Figure 3 shows the path of the Moon through the penumbra and umbra as well as a map of Earth showing the regions of eclipse visibility. The entire event will be seen from the eastern half of Africa, the Middle East, central Asia and western Australia. Observers throughout Europe will miss the early stages of the eclipse because they occur before moonrise. Fortunately, totality will be seen throughout the continent except for northern Scotland and northern Scandinavia. Eastern Asia, eastern Australia, and New Zealand will miss the last stages of eclipse because they occur after moonset. Again, the total phase will be seen from most of these regions. Even observers in eastern Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina will witness totality. However, none of the eclipse will be visible from North America. At mid-eclipse, the Moon is near the zenith for observers from Reunion and Mauritius.

Table 3 lists predicted umbral immersion and emersion times for 20 well-defined lunar craters. The timing of craters is useful in determining the atmospheric enlargement of Earth's shadow (see Crater Timings During Lunar Eclipses).

The June 15 total lunar eclipse is the 34th member of Saros 130, a series of 71 eclipses occurring in the following order: 8 penumbral, 20 partial, 14 total, 22 partial, and 7 penumbral lunar eclipses (Espenak and Meeus, 2009a) spanning 1262 years. Complete details for Saros 130 can be found at:

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEsaros/LEsaros130.html



Then Moving forward To Sept 29th during the feast of Trumpets, something very peculiar takes place in the Heavens. Which bares striking resemblance to,
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Rev 12:1-9)










To stress the possible importance of this date.Starting in Spetember Treaty talks resume with Israel. Anyone that has been following this story knows that the possibility of this split of Israel may take place. If this does indeed happen a large portion of end time Prophecies will begin

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0926/As-Israel-settlement-freeze-ends-one-year-peace-plan-begins

As Israel settlement freeze ends, one-year peace plan begins
Israel's 10-month settlement freeze ends today, and the clock starts ticking on a Sept. 2011 deadline for a comprehensive peace agreement.



Palestinian laborers work on a construction site in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Yakir, south of Nablus, Sunday. Israel's 10-month settlement freeze ended Sunday.

Nir Elias/Reuters
By Joshua Mitnick, Correspondent / September 26, 2010

Tel Aviv


If negotiators can overcome today’s deadline to resolve a dispute on Israeli settlement expansion and keep peace talks alive, the date of September 2011 will begin to loom as the target for reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.


The one-year goal to reach a comprehensive peace agreement was set before the start of direct talks earlier this month in order to calm Palestinian worries that the negotiations would continue ad infinitum. But given the past failure of Israeli and Palesitnian negotiators to meet joint deadlines, is there any reason to believe that this time will be different? Might another missed negotiating target do more harm than good?

"Given the fact that the Middle East is a grave yard for timelines and deadlines, the latest ones are understandably being dismissed,’’ said Scott Lasensky, a senior research associate at the U.S. Institute for Peace, a non-profit government think tank.

The target is for a broad "framework" agreement dealing with the core issues of the conflict: control over Jerusalem, borders, the status of Palestinian refugees and water.

But skeptics say that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are too far apart on these issues to close the gaps, and that a deadline inflates expectations and could spur unrest if not met.

A year could be enough time
Others point out that a year is plenty of time to reach an agreement on disputes which have already been worked through (albeit unsuccessfully so far) by negotiators and academics. The outlines of an agreement have already come into focus.


"Since the parties have been through these issues before,’’ added Mr. Lasensky, "these are eminently attainable goals within the timelines that have been set, assuming there is the political will.’’

The demand for a deadline has recently come from the Palestinians. In contrast, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said that a year isn't enough time to close the gaps, and that disappointment is liable to spark a new Palestinian uprising.

The Palestinians however, see a lack of a clear time frame as a sign that Israel doesn't actually plan to finish the talks.

"The Palestinians have a bad experience in the negotiations. The Israelis favor negotiations for a long time, and raise minor topics that aren't the main points,'' said Nashat Aqtash, communications professor at Bir Zeit University outside of Ramallah. "The Israelis are negotiating for the sake of negotiating and not for the sake of reach of an agreement. They just want to gain more time to establish settlements, to confront the international community with facts on the ground.''

Past missed deadlines
This conflict is no stranger to missed deadlines.

The original target to finish negotiations on a Palestinian statehood during the Oslo process was 1999. The multi-phased roadmap peace blueprint issued by the administration of former President George W. Bush in 2003 was supposed to have created a Palestinian state by 2008. The direct peace talks initiated in 2007 by the Bush administration in Annapolis, Md. were also supposed to be wrapped up in a year.

Despite the missed goals, however, using the deadlines helps the US inject the talks with a sense of urgency.

The most often-mentioned blueprint for a deal revolves around the peace parameters published in 2001 before the departure of former President Bill Clinton, who unsuccessfully mediated a final deal between Israelis and Palestinians in the final months of his second term. The Geneva Accord, a model peace deal reached by out-of-office Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, could be another touchstone.

"It’s not like the leaders have to open up the books and start studying proposals," said Gershon Baskin, the co-director of the Israel Palestinian Center for Research and Information. "What is required is decision making.’’

A piecemeal approach
Baskin and others believe that the sides should use the time to reach a piecemeal agreement in order to build confidence in the negotiations, rather that an all-or-nothing package deal that was the goal of previous rounds.

One suggestion raised involves setting a three-month deadline for an agreement on a mutual border – a modification of the 1967 Green Line to annex Jewish settlement blocs in exchange for the same area of territory.


It is widely assumed that the sides will have an easier time reaching an agreement on land compared to resolving issues that lie at the heart of their competing narratives like claims on holy sites in Jerusalem or Palestnian refugees.


"We should concentrate on a partial agreement that creates a Palestinain state within defined borders,'' said Yossi Alpher, the co-editor of Bitterlemons.org, an Israeli Palestinian web-based opinion journal."

"I don’t believe that given who the leaders are, given their ideologies, that they are capable of reaching an agreement. On the refugee issue and the Jerusalem basin issue, we cannot agree. These are core issues that are best left aside.''

One more date of Note that I decided to check was the 44th anniversary of the 6 day war. Islamc nations have been calling for all Muslims to march on Israel. If this takes place it could be the start of the Psalm 83 war.

I did find something notable in the Heavens on the 14th and the 15th










All conisidering this all kicked off with the Lunar Eclipse on 12/21/10 now followed by multiple large signs in the Heavens. This could be a big year on the Prophetic Time clock.

I plan to come back to this at a later time and add in more. For the time being I wanted to get this information out there.

For more take a look at these links.

http://jonah2011junebiblewormcodevine.blogspot.com/2010/12/june-15-2008-feast-of-pentecost-2008.html

http://ronaldcsmith.blogspot.com/2008/09/blood-moons-rising.html

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message846137/pg1

http://www.holidaysmart.com/z_jewishholydays.htm

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Zechariah 12:3,9:
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
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