Peres and Abbas sat on either side of the Pope while a chamber orchestra played music. An unidentified woman was called to act as the Master of Ceremonies. She started things off by saying; “We have gathered here, Israelis, Palestinians, Jews, Christians and Muslims, so that each of us can express his or her desire for peace for the Holy Land and for all who dwell there, and the desire of their respective peoples to invoke to God the common longing for peace.”

July 25 2014 – The curious and disconcerting thing about this garden tea party is that the Pope circumvented Israel’s prime minister by getting a subordinate authority of the Jews to go to this love-in with the Palestinians. The meeting opened as if it were a marriage ceremony, which it was hoped by the Pope that it will eventually become. This was a kind of pre-op vow that the two parties would try to love one another with the Christian leader, Pope Francis being the certified minister of the nuptials being proposed.

The fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu was not invited is like the father of the bride not even being informed of the proposed marriage. Should not the elected leader of the Israeli nation be suspicious and more than a little miffed about this naked aversion of his will and the vested authority he holds in representing the whole nation?

In the eyes of many Israelis it seemed arrogant that Pope Francis I, while visiting the Holy Land in May, engineered a meeting between a high Israeli leader and the leader of the Palestinians with whom Netanyahu has met and can not agree, without first getting the approval of Netanyahu.

In this historic meeting for which there was no precedent, there would be no negotiations for peace, or any effort towards diplomacy in the region, it would strictly be for prayer. So the Pope claimed. Never mind that just the two sitting together in a tea garden with a minister saying let’s get married is a diplomatic setting if ever there was one. Never mind that the Pope had called numerous times for Peace in the region.

The call to the warring sides to prayer at a neutral religious sight under a supposedly neutral mediator is not a new tack for peace, but Francis laid the course for this by apologizing to the Jews for their many indiscretions and their persecutions of the Jews over the centuries. It was a political move to disarm criticism of the sins of its clergy, its various scandals and the strong-arm, deceptive tactics of the office of the Papacy both past and in the current living generation of the Catholic Church. Some of this move is damage control and public relations – but not all.

The Pope did say going into the meeting that he had no illusions that peace would be realized out of this one meeting but it would be a start. He can try to take credit for starting the peace process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Francis made the invitation on May 25th, in Bethlehem of course, where he had conducted a Mass earlier in the day. From this lofty religious perch the call went out and both President Abbas of the PLO and President Peres of Israel accepted the invitation to come to Rome and pray together. In diplomacy so much depends on the time and the setting of the words being spoken.

The prayer meeting took place at the Vatican in Rome on June 8th. The Pope, Abbas, and Peres, were accompanied by Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual head of Orthodox Catholics. The meeting was conducted at what the Vatican called a “neutral site” in the Vatican Gardens that was devoid of any religious icons or symbols. Peres and Abbas sat on either side of the Pope while a chamber orchestra played music. An unidentified woman was called to act as the Master of Ceremonies. She started things off by saying; “We have gathered here, Israelis, Palestinians, Jews, Christians and Muslims, so that each of us can express his or her desire for peace for the Holy Land and for all who dwell there, and the desire of their respective peoples to invoke to God the common longing for peace.”

In fact, the weeks before the meeting, Netanyahu refused to have any more dialog with President Abbas, because he accepted the terrorist group Hamas as a part of his government and ruling party. Netanyahu has insisted that as long as Hamas is part of the governing body of Palestine he will not enter into any further negotiations with the PLO. This brought peace negotiations to a halt in May and provoked the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, to walk away from the negotiating table in total frustration. The United States has once again proven to be ineffective and impotent in efforts to negotiate settlement between the two parties. Though Kerry chided Israel for their refusal to negotiate the cessation of building additional settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as other continuing items of long contention between the Palestinians and Israel, Netanyahu has remained steadfast, mostly because he does not believe the PLO is sincere in anything they propose. The Pope is hoping a tea party will schmooze the wily old veteran Netanyahu. Better chance is, it will only pi– him off. President Abbas is the head of the Palestinian state while Shimon Peres is the current President of Israel and is merely a diplomatic figurehead, as opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who actually holds the political power in Israel. Any authority to negotiate some sort of agreement between the two parties would have to be authorized by Netanyahu’s government. But diplomats, which is one of the things Pope Francis fashions himself as, know that often pressure has to be exerted from the underbelly to get the animal to roll over.

One reading or hearing this might have thought they were at the start of a wedding. With that said, representatives of the three religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam prayed for peace in Italian, Hebrew, Arabic, and English. The Vatican has billed this “a pause from politics” and does not expect any immediate breakthroughs for peace. (There is no information available or reports of who the woman was that acted as the Master of Ceremonies at the meeting. And In researching papal meetings, there was no reported history of a woman acting in such a role in the annals of Popedom history.)

In a quote by the official, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, in charge of Catholic sites at the holy land; “No one is presumptuous enough to think peace will break out on Monday. The intention of this initiative is to reopen a road that has been closed for some time, to re-create a desire, a possibility, to make people dream.”

The Pope and the two presidents planted an olive tree together in a symbolic move to mark the meeting in the Vatican garden. The ceremony was called “an enduring symbol of the mutual desire for peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples”. A more appropriate statement, if they were honest about being sorry might have been this scripture from the Bible. “O Lord, to us belong confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.” Dan 9:8-10  

But the world should not be naive, and Netanyahu to this point has not been taken in by the histrionics of the audacious Pope.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has not made any direct comment on the meeting. However, on the same day while visiting a paramilitary police base in Jerusalem he did mark this clear and concise statement. “Prayer is no substitute for security”, he said to the troops. “For thousands of years, the people of Israel have been praying for peace daily. But until peace comes, we will continue to strengthen you, so that you can continue to defend the state of Israel. Ultimately, that is what will guarantee our future and will also bring peace.”

While Francis downplayed the expected results of the meeting, it is not very likely that he called this meeting to be merely a religious gathering to discuss spiritual niceties or even as a marriage encounter. The ambitions of this event is with a venal eye on returning the Roman Catholic Church to its former glory, of increasing its worldwide influence over souls and governments.

All those souls who have broken away from Church control because they have suffered from abuse by the RC Church are being targeted by the office of the Papacy. The Papal powers are out to win back to the fold, with promises of acceptance and mercy, both to those who have left and those who sit on the fence waiting to see if modern reforms are forthcoming. Further, the regime of Francis hopes to capture the trust and adoration of the people of all the dozen or so major faiths of the world, so that he can welcome them into the boundless society of a new world religion that he hopes to forge; making one big tea garden out of the world where every man, woman and child on the planet can lay under the olive tree of peace of his bogus Christian love.

In this garden of the new and improved Vatican he will be the magnanimous head of man’s 21st Century spirit of ecumenism. The spirit of matrimony of souls will be the sacrament of the new universal church, marrying all faiths into love’s understanding and trust. He needs some kind of spiritual power however, if he is to pull off his impossible deception. None of his recent predecessors have been in the position to even attempt to pull off such a daring plot. But as time moves along and the necessity for Mankind that we must stop the fighting or commit unintentional suicide becomes clear the Papacy can become bolder as a peacemaker on the world scene both in religion and international political affairs.

Popedom, since World War II, has worked hard to expunge its crimes of persecution of the Jews. Post war Pontiffs have made awkward attempts to engage Israel by making left-handed apologies about the centuries of persecution. They piously deny allegations of being tacitly or actively complicit with the atrocities of Nazi genocide. But they have been unable to convince a skeptical nation. In Vatican II Pope John the XXIII began the move in earnest by stating that the church no longer blames the Jews for the death of Jesus. One can see why the Jews may be less than enthusiastic about this line of historical rhetoric. How does that make up for the centuries of persecution they suffered at the hands of the leaders of the Roman Church?

Another example is Benedict’s waffling in his original statement, declaring Nazism to be evil. Later he embraced the groups promoting Pope Pius XII canonization, and began to work actively to achieve that. Pius was Pope during WWII and turned a blind eye to the Holocaust. Benedict further alienated Israel by this public prayer for Judaism which vacillated between accusation and forgiveness for their ignorance:

“Let us pray also for the Jews: that almighty God may remove the veil from their hearts; so that they too may acknowledge Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us pray. Let us kneel. Arise. Almighty and eternal God, who dost also not exclude from thy mercy the Jews: hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of that people; that acknowledging the light of thy Truth, which is Christ, they may be delivered from their darkness. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

To state the political and socio/religious stand of Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Jewish nation in regard to this prayer: The Jews do not want the Pope or any Christian, for that matter, to come over to their homeland, won by the blood of Jewish patriots, and pray for them that they should be healed of being blind these thousand years, or that they should come out of the darkness and stop being Jews, or that they need to have a veil that has been over their heart for millennia lifted. To suggest to any people, native Americans, Polish, African blacks, the Slavs of Europe or the races of Asia that they have been blind, living in darkness and had no heart for these long centuries would be considered not a blunder but a statement of criminal international proportion. For good reason, Israel has historically considered Rome’s overtures and Papal calls for peace in the region to be unwelcome interference just on these grounds alone.

Francis’ strategy is to give Papal peace negotiations a face-lift that will effectively promote the spirit of ecumenism inside his own world-wide church and then, outside its ‘walls’. He appears to be making headway with getting the Greek and some of the other Orthodox Churches on board with his aggressive and bold diplomatic moves for peace. He has alienated Netanyahu, but Netanyahu has already removed himself from sharing tea with the Pope.

Participation in the garden tea party was a statement of the parties involved that they approved of the Pope’s plan to shake hands and makeup and go back home and start trying to get their respective people to sign a prenup marriage contract. It would appear that Abbas is very interested in any help Rome is offering. Their interest is in getting a foothold in the lands they are disputing with Israel and gaining any and all sympathetic leaders to back his and the Palestinian agenda. Israel is quite another matter.

Francis may be able to lay the groundwork for unity in Israel, but it will take the Antichrist himself to get Israel to the peace accord. This was proven by the fact that Peres was sent to the meeting, and Netanyahu was absent. Mr. Peres has no real authority that can affect political action. He’s a figurehead with his hands tied behind his back, considered by some Jews to be sympathetic to the Catholic Church, having been educated in Catholic institutions. The man who could make a meaningful accord was noticeably disinterested, even opposed.

In the end, the prophetic word must be acknowledged. Only the man of perdition, the beast, the vile person will craft the covenant that Israel will confirm with the world. In the interim there maybe some prenup kind of peace, so we wait, keeping our eyes on Israel, for any hint of an agreement that may lead to the real international deal that will begin the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and herald the beginning of the Tribulation of the end time, when it is crafted. Yes, the only one who will succeed in bringing about a seemingly meaningful peace action, is Mr. Antichrist, whomever that ends up being.

“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” Dan. 9:27

After the tea party had convened violence erupted between Israel and the PLO. Bombs were lobbed at each other over an incident that began with Jewish teenagers being kidnapped and murdered by Hamas terrorists.  A Palestinian teen was murdered in a revenge killing in East Jerusalem by Jewish teens. Since the meeting, events and tensions have escalated to the brink of full scale war breaking out.

We shall not be surprised if he suddenly forges an alliance with some obscure leader or diplomat, or does not somehow become ‘employed’ by some block of nations as an emissary. We are informed in the Bible that the entity called by the name “The Great Whore, Mystery Babylon, has power to deceive and manipulate, even own the souls of men and women. People and nations around the world will drink the koolaid and become intoxicated by her seductive lure to peace and a harmony of subterfuge and lies.

It is not far-fetched that this Pope or his immediate successor will be the salesman, the go-between, the emissary for the West and the spirit called Antichrist to get the Jews and the ‘deceiver’ to the table for a peace deal that will include a new temple in Jerusalem and a false world peace. This does not diminish the impact or importance of the Pope’s agenda for peace and his cozy little tea party in the garden. He has been in his first year, and continues to be, very busy making changes in the Vatican and in the rest of the world which makes him a very believable candidate to be the one to promote the Antichrist’s agenda in the world. He has the most powerful religious vehicle in the world to do it.

The Roman Catholic Church with all its current scandals and problems still wields significant power around the world, in particular, in Europe and in the West which includes all of the Americas. Francis is surely fitting himself to be the one who can serve the Antichrist as the man that the scriptures call the False Prophet. Time will tell if he is the one who has the stature to fill the suit of this world leader of all religions. He will even do miracles to confirm his power and to persuade that the Antichrist is God. People who have no understanding in these matters will be convinced because they will be deceived by all their lies.

“And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” Rev. 19:20