The Handshake that Never Brought Peace

Israel Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin, U.S. President Bill Clinton & PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat

Tensions continue to rise in the Middle East surrounding the so-called ‘Two-State Solution’ in the land of Israel that has floundered for decades.  Every attempt to resolve the ‘Land for Peace’ efforts have failed miserably thus far.  Leaders of Israel have made concessions that offend the heart of GOD (YHVH), because the Jewish people exist in the Holy Land due to the grace of GOD in fulfillment of End-Time prophecy (see Ezekiel Chapters 37 through 40 for the future WWIII, years after the Psalm 83 War that is on the near horizon!).  This post is a full citation of an important article by Steve Herzig in the Nov/Dec 2013 issue of the outstanding bimonthly periodical Israel My Glory  published by The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.   Also at the bottom of this essay are links to additional critical posts concerning the Covenant people of Israel.  May all who read and study these in light of Scripture fervently enter into prayer with fasting according to a Song of David:

Psalm 122:1-9… I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the House of the LORD.”  Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!  Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, Where the tribes go up, The tribes of the LORD, To the Testimony of Israel, To give thanks to the Name of the LORD.  For thrones are set there in judgment, The thrones of the house of David.

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:  May they prosper who love you.  Peace be within your walls, Prosperity within your palaces.”  For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, “Peace be within you.”  Because of the House of the LORD our GOD I will seek your good. 

Never to be displaced again!

Eye on the Middle East- “The Handshake that Never Brought Peace”

“It was merely a handshake. But it was no ordinary handshake.  It was one of a kind, seen my millions around the world.  It was proclaimed as the event that sealed the deal that would alter the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East.  Many though it would finally bring peace.

Twenty years ago on the White House lawn in Washington, DC, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Accords.  Since then, nothing has been the same.

The goal of the Oslo Accords was to “put an end to decades of confrontation and conflict… and achieve a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace.”  The formula was simple:  Israel gave up land for the promise of peace and recognition as a legitimate state.  So sure was the world it would work that both men received the Novel Peace prize.

Did it work?  The question is a sad joke.  In the 20 years since Oslo, three American presidents, seven American secretaries of state, five Israeli prime ministers, and two Fatah (PLO) leaders have come and gone.  Yet the two parties can’t even agree on a place to hold talks.

Over and over… false hopes and no peace!

The fact is the peace initiative began to crumble almost before the ink had dried.  On May 10, 1994, a mere eight months after the historic handshake, Arafat told worshipers in Arabic at a mosque in Johannesburg, South Africa, that the agreement was a ruse.

For Arafat, Oslo was a means to acquire land without war.  It bought him time to grow stronger and bilk billions of dollars from the United States and Europe.  His plan was to stall and wait, all the while screaming to his people in Arabic his actual goal:  “And no, the permanent state of Israel- NO!  It is the permanent state of Palestine.” [emphasis mine throughout- sg]

Another expensive and foolish effort!

In 2000, Arafat turned down Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s offer of an Arab state consisting of 97 percent of the West Bank and 100 percent of the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.  He then instituted the Second Intifada, killing more than 1,000 Israelis.  He churned out material of hate toward Israel, indoctrinating his people through radio, television, school curricula, and preschool songs and poems.  This tactic insured a full supply of suicide bombers for generations to come.

A son of the ‘father of lies’- who now pays eternally for his crimes against humanity!

The Jewish leader of Israel- ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu exercises the gift of ‘discernment’. 

Upon his death in 2004, his successor Mahmoud Abbas, continued the ruse.  In 2008, Abbas rejected Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s unprecedented offer to forego sovereignty over the Temple Mount and withdraw from 93 percent of the West Bank.  In 2009 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly accepted a two-state solution to establish a Palestinian-Arab state if the Palestinian leadership recognized Israel as a Jewish state.

Yet Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said Israel would “have to wait 1,000 years before he [Netanyahu] finds one Palestinian who will go along with him.”  The Arabs “would never recognize Israel’s right to exist.”

True History confirms the ancient boundaries given to all the children of Abraham

Conditions facing Israel today are so difficult that even if the Palestinians were a legitimate partner for peace, there still would be no peace.

To the north is Lebanon’s terrorist group, Hezbollah, possessing 70,000 rockets capable of striking the entire state of Israel.  To the west is Gaza, where Hamas holds 10,000 rockets.  Since 2005 terrorists have launched 8,000 rockets into Israel.

To the south, global-jihad terrorists are building a cache of rockets, some of which have already been launched into southern Israel. To the north and east, the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria has killed more than 100,000 people, countless others have been killed with chemical weapons.

And there is Iran, which is funding Syria and Hezbollah while building nuclear capability.

Oslo was dead on arrival.  The two-state solution advocated by Israel and the United States seems like no solution.  Israeli leadership needs the wisdom of Solomon, along with the support of those of us who love the GOD [YHVH] who loves the Jewish people.”  [end of citation]

“The Kiss of Death” to the current Peace Plan?

From the same issue of Israel My Glory– “Insights Editorial”  It Is About Religion

A ‘Hopeful’ Agreement

“The day held a unique significance for Egyptian President Anwar Sadat as he sat in the reviewing stand accompanied by a host of political, military, and visiting international dignitaries.  It was October 6, 1981, and the parade he was watching was celebrating Egypt’s successful crossing of the Suez Canal exactly eight years earlier, starting the 1973 Yom Kippur War against Israel.

As military vehicles passed before Sadat, a truck stopped.  Armed men dressed in army uniforms leaped from the vehicle and opened fire.  In a matter of minutes, the 62-year-old president of Egypt was dead.

The Brutal Assassination

His assassins were disgruntled members of the Muslim Brotherhood, operating under the name “Islamic Jihad.”  The driving force behind the murder was twofold:  (1) Sadat had followed a secular agenda that suppressed the radical religious elements craving an Islamist-dominated regime; and (2) Sadat had dared to shake hands with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.  Sadat had visited Jerusalem, negotiated a peace agreement, and in 1979 signed the Egypt-Israel peace treaty that ended Egypt’s perpetual state of war with the Jewish nation.

The seeds of hate of the Muslim Brotherhood- ‘Islamic Jihad’!

The Brotherhood’s fanatical motivation was anti-Israel (anti-Semitic) extremism and a religion-driven, imperialist passion either to dominate or die.  In fact, the Muslim Brotherhood’s credo proclaims, “Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”  [emphasis mine throughout-sg]

Western political apologists and journalists can say what they will and remain in a bewildering state of denial, but all of their attempts to deny the Brotherhood’s declared intentions will not alter the facts.  The catastrophic events following the “Arab Spring” that brought the Brotherhood to power in Egypt revealed the organization’s underbelly and should dispel any illusions that the Muslim Brotherhood is a lover of freedom and democracy.

Its ultimate goal is to establish a global Islamic caliphate that will install a Sharia-based autocracy.  One stage is to destabilize any movement toward secular democracy in the Middle East.  In such a scenario, everyone but the imperialist Jihadists lose- which includes any truly moderate Muslims who have no desire to involve themselves in the overthrow of nations that offer freedom and a stable future for them and their children.

‘Muslim Brotherhood’ fingerprints are all over this Obama travesty

We are under a constant barrage of protests these days that we are not at war with radical Islam.  But that does not alter the reality that radical Islamists are at war with us.  The conflict is not an insurgency of disagreement that can be settled by conventional negotiations between parties sharing a sense of goodwill.  It is about religious radicalism that tolerates no basis for agreement with those considered infidels:  Its bottom line is subjugation or annihilation.

Israel is a capital case in point.  While the West wages a campaign for a frustratingly illusive two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, the unwavering position of the Muslim-Palestinian leadership is for one state only.  At the root of that commitment is the Muslim belief that the land belongs exclusively to Allah and his devotees.

The 1967 conference of Arab leaders in Khartoum, Sudan, laid down a marker for future dealings with Israel:  “No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiations with Israel.”  That platform of denial has endured for 46 years, buttressed today by radical Islam’s oft-stated potential option of using nuclear weapons to annihilate the Jewish state.

In their own words…

Coupled with Islam’s program to purge the Middle East of Israel and Jewish people is the genocidal campaign to rid the region of Christians, Christianity, and Christian institutions.  Violent atrocities in Egypt and elsewhere across segments of the Muslim world confirm Islam’s stated intentions.

These are not eruptions of isolated, secular, nationalistic fervor or misguided, petty, tyrannical ambition.  They represent an obsession bent on a triumphalist mission in the name of religion.

They STILL call America “The Great Satan”… while satan laughs at them- to the death!

It is imperative that people wake up.  For the most part, the West, including a large segment of the evangelical Christian community, is either ill-informed or unconcerned.  This is not a one-front battle.  Foreign soil is not the only battleground.  A campaign is being waged in America to eliminate the Christian presence.  At the moment the tactics are ridicule, hate speech, and legally imposed bigotry.  But tomorrow the tactics may be more like those used against Anwar Sadat. [end of citation]

A Holy War in the name of Allah

There is a lit fuse to the powder keg of turmoil in the Middle East.   Please prayerfully consider these additional timely posts; may our LORD Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit- guide you into all Wisdom… to the Glory of GOD- ABBA Father:

• An Incentive To Pray Fervently For Israel
• Israel:  YHVH GOD’s Covenant Land And People
• America On A Collision Course With GOD (YHVH)
• The Divine Purpose Of The Temple
• A Swiss Prophet’s Solemn Warning!

“Rushing Waters” by Dustin Smith