Meeting at Mar-a-Lago

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at Mar-a-Lago Monday and addressed the media in a joint press conference. Much of the discussion centered on President Trump’s insistence that Hamas and Israel begin implementing Phase Two of the recently agreed-to peace plan. Phase One centered on a ceasefire and hostage releases but Phase Two is slated to include the disarmament of Hamas alongside Israel’s withdraw from Gaza. As has long been the case for the Middle East, these deliberations raise additional considerations, including the posture of both Iran and Syria.

Analysis and eternal perspective: First, praise God the peace is largely holding. You should have clear eyes about the fragile and temporary nature of the current peace, but for now, it holds and those on all sides of the conflict have at least some reprieve.

That said, the larger millennia-old strife wages on. As we have regularly revisited here at The Equipped, the Jewish people are God’s first chosen people and have faced hatred and efforts of extermination throughout the course of history. The resulting conflicts have ranged widely in scope and have certainly included a number of additional geopolitical factors overlayed onto them. But the bottom line is that we should not expect the current “peace” to be permanent. Yes, we should always persistently pursue peace (Ps. 34:14), but a true, full, and lasting realization of it will not be ours until heaven.

In the meantime, you should continue to pray for those on all sides who are subjected to suffering and violence.