This is 5 and 10 from Skywatch TV for December 19th.
I'm Derek Gilbert.
Topic number five today, the U.S. blocks vetoes the U.N.
United States vetoing a motion by the United Nations Security Council Monday that demanded
the United States rescind the announcement December 6th by President Trump that the U.S.
recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and pledging to move the U.S. embassy to Israel
to Jerusalem.
Ambassador Nikki Haley chastised her fellow members of the Security Council, arguing that
President Trump's decision was simply recognizing the obvious and criticizing the council members
for presuming to tell the United States where it could put its embassy.
This one-page resolution was drafted by Egypt. It basically restated the long-time position
of the Security Council that Jerusalem was an international city and that Israel had
no right of sovereignty over that city.
Palestinians are angry about the whole thing and that anger made even worse when on Friday
the United States announced that it could not envision any situation under which the
Western Wall, presumably part of the temple, would not be part of Israel.
This is part of the announcement that Vice President Pence would visit the Western Wall
during his tour of the Middle East.
This would take place on Wednesday of this week.
What's really making them angry is that the Trump administration's pro-Israel stance relative
to the Palestinian Authority is now being endorsed by Saudi Arabia, which has for a
long time been a supporter of the Palestinian cause.
It appears that President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has reached an agreement with
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for resolving the Israeli-Arab conflict.
A couple of key points that Mohammed bin Salman, as we told you a couple of weeks ago, passed
on to Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority.
The Saudis have dropped their demand that Israel accept a Palestinian state with East
Jerusalem as its capital.
The state of Palestine would then be comprised of the Gaza Strip, plus some new chunks of
land taken out of the northern Sinai.
And apparently Egypt has already agreed to this proposal.
This deal would render null and void the long-time demand by the Palestinian Authority to restore
the pre-1967 borders, Israel's pre-1967 borders, again, the Palestinians very upset that Saudi
Arabia appears to be going along with this plan.
And one other consequence of this whole decision and series of decisions is that Vice President
Pence's planned visit to Bethlehem has been canceled.
Palestinian Christians have been protesting his proposed visit.
So the visit to the Nativity Church in Bethlehem, which had been intended as a highlight of
the Vice President's trip, is now off the schedule.
Topic number four, the U.S. and Russia reach a deal over Syria.
President Donald Trump on Monday delivered a keynote speech on his national security
strategy covering issues such as North Korea, relations with China, the Iranian expansionism,
and the whole Middle Eastern question.
The speech had a very America-first feel to it.
But he also spoke about the easing of tensions with Russia and improvement in relations with
Russia, which is something that the president had been talking about since his days on the
campaign trail.
Sources are reporting that the United States and Russia have reached a deal, an agreement,
over how to proceed against rebels inside Syria.
According to these sources, the U.S. forces in northern Syria and Russian troops in eastern
and western Syria would coordinate movements with one another going forward.
And for the first time, the Russian Air Force would be allowed to strike targets east of
the Euphrates River.
This is something new.
In return, Russia would try to hold back Syrian troops, Iranian troops, and Hezbollah forces
from fighting against U.S.-backed Syrian troops, especially the Kurdish militia groups that
are getting support from the U.S. military.
And Putin promised Trump that he would act to prevent Iran and its proxies, like Hezbollah,
and Turkey from aggressive action in Syria, especially near the Israeli border.
Oh, and President Putin, it was confirmed, did call President Trump over the weekend
to thank him for a tip from the CIA to Moscow, which allowed Russian security forces to stop
a planned Islamic State bombing attack in St. Petersburg.
They rounded up members of an ISIS cell in that city, along with a supply of automatic
weapons and explosives before they were able to do anything about it.
Again, this was confirmed by President Trump during his speech on Monday.
Topic number three, deadly train crash in Washington State.
At least six people died on Monday as an Amtrak train on its inaugural run derailed some
of the cars, as you can see in the picture behind me, falling off the track onto Interstate
5.
This is about 40 miles south of Seattle.
This killed six riders at least on the train, injured another 100 people, 77 taken to the
hospital, authorities say several vehicles on Interstate 5 were struck by the falling
train cars.
13 of the 14 cars on the train jumped the tracks, five vehicles, at least five vehicles, and
two semi-trailers involved in the accident.
This according to Washington State Patrol, the governor in Washington State, Governor
Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency traffic shut down on Southbound Interstate 5 because
of the accident.
Again, the inaugural run of this Amtrak train from Seattle to Portland, Oregon, and 13 of
the 14 cars jumped the tracks, six dead, at least 100 injured in that crash.
Topic number two, Democrats flip-flopping on Franken, at least four Democratic senators
now urging Al Franken to reconsider his announcement, his decision to resign, including two who
had issued statements calling for his resignation just two weeks ago.
They say they now feel remorse over what they term a rush to judgment.
Franken's departure announcement, which was a little bit odd, he said he would resign
in the coming weeks without setting a specific date or timetable for his resignation, has
led to some hoping that perhaps Senator Franken would stay on.
He's been a very effective fundraiser for Democratic political candidates over the past
year, even though Minnesota's Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith, a fellow Democrat, has already
been named appointed as his successor in the Senate.
People familiar with his plans say Franken has not changed his mind and still plans to
formally resign in early January.
Senator Jill Manchin of West Virginia was one of the few Democrats who did not call
for Franken's resignation after allegations of sexual impropriety.
He stressed that he believes that Franken should step down if those allegations prove true,
but is again asking for Franken to reconsider.
Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who did call for Franken to step down, is now privately
saying to friends and colleagues that he regrets having done so.
Isn't it interesting how this is coming out now after the election in Alabama is over?
As I said, it just felt like all of this, you know, the willingness to throw out Franken
and Democratic Congressman John Conyers under the bus had a lot to do with trying to claim
enough moral high ground not only to smear Senator Senatorial candidate Roy Moore, but
also President Trump.
We'll see how this develops.
And topic number one, archaeology is cool.
In this case, it's frozen.
It supports the Bible frozen because it's from Antarctica.
A Christian geologist says the recent discovery of fossilized tree stumps in Antarctica supports
the biblical account of a global flood.
Writing for the Institute for Creation Research's website, Dr. Tim Clary said the discovery
of these stumps is evidence of a global deluge.
Trees found in Antarctica's transarctic mountains includes a mix of evergreens, deciduous trees,
and ginkgos, kind of an odd tree with a fan shaped leaf.
They all fall on the same day, had one of those on my college campus.
Geologists from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee found the fossilized trees.
They collected fragments from 13 different trees.
Now those geologists believe that these fossils are millions of years old.
That's sort of the standard timeline for official science.
But Clary says that the fossils tell a different and far more recent story, one that fits the
account of a global flood just thousands of years ago.
This is something that Josh Peck has said many times and I think is very insightful.
We Christians don't dispute the evidence.
We just disagree over the interpretation of the evidence.
Archaeology is cool.
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This week, a new program featuring my best friend Sharon Kay Gilbert talking about the
second book, the second novel in her Red Wing Saga series explaining the strange and historic
link between Mount Hermon and Jack the Ripper.
This is historically true.
Of course, she fictionalizes what happens once the artifact gets back to London, but
the artifact is real and it's really there at the British Museum.
You'll see that interview this week.
That's the featured interview on Skywatch TV.
Of course, these daily updates also part of our mobile app and we encourage you to visit
the website for more.
Links to all of our social media sites are Facebook page, Twitter feed and etc.
You'll find all of my stuff posted at my website.
That's DerekPGilbert.com.
Interview this week with Noriel Hayakawa, longtime UFO researcher about why he believes
that Earth is being visited but not by extraterrestrials.
You'll find that at DerekPGilbert.com.
Thank you for watching As We Keep Watch.
I'm Derek Gilbert and this is Skywatch TV.
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