Last Chapter of the Biblical Book of Zecharia as translated by
http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16218/jewish/Chapter-14.htm1 Behold! A day of the Lord is coming, and your plunder shall be shared within you.
2 And I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to wage war; and the city shall be captured, and the houses shall be plundered, and the women shall be ravished, and half the city shall go forth into exile-and the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 And the Lord shall go forth and wage war with those nations, like the day he waged war on the day of the battle.
4 4 And on that day His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem from the east. And the Mount of Olives shall split in the midst thereof-toward the east and toward the west-a very great valley. And half the mountain shall move to the north, and half of it to the south.
5 And you shall flee to the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach Azal. And you shall flee as you fled because of the earthquake, in the days of Uzziah the King of Judah. And the Lord,my God, shall come; all holy ones with you.
6 And it shall come to pass on that day that there shall be no light, only disappearing light and thick darkness.
7 And it shall be one day that shall be known to the Lord, neither day nor night; and it shall come to pass that at eventide it shall be light.
8 And it shall come to pass on that day that spring water shall come forth from Jerusalem; half of it to the eastern sea, and half of it to the western sea; in summer and in winter it shall be.
9 And the Lord shall become King over all the earth; on that day shall the Lord be one, and His name one.
Question. Why is it so bad for the nation of Israel in the chapter before the ultimate victory?
My theory is based on the last verse of the chapter.
21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord of Hosts, and all who sacrifice will come and take of them and cook in them; and there will no longer be a trafficker in the House of the Lord of Hosts on that day.
The Chabad translation translates the Hebrew word כנעני in the verse as trafficker and perhaps on rare occasions in the Bible it has that connotation. But the main translation and usage of that word is Canaanite and basing myself on Ramban and Rashbam and others, I hold our enemies in the land of Israel have the status of the ancient Canaanites and this is the conclusion of Rabbi Kahane based on Abarbanel.
Measure for Measure people like Deri bring the Canaanites on their own accord to G-d's house and therefore this lack of sensitivity towards the holiest place on Earth, in my opinion is a key factor in the disasters that are recorded in the chapter before the final victory.
Should we place all the blame on Deri alone? Of course not! This problem of making all sorts of "deals" at the expense of the Temple has been going on for a while. Deri is just upping the sin to a larger degree.
I hope that G-d will have mercy on us and give us more time and opportunities to repent.
As a first step towards repentance it is our duty to protest the deals that bring the Canaanites.