It may be possible to have an Arab state and a Jewish state side by side without uprooting the Jewish people from their homeland.
By EARL COXearl cox(photo credit: )
As almost everyone expected, the great Annapolis Middle East Peace Conference ended with no real changes in the positions of either the Israelis or the Palestinian Arabs.
Both Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinan President Mahmoud Abbas had declared before the conference that they were not ready with any "final-status" agreements, and they both stood their ground. So the conference fizzled before it started.
We conservative Christians were not surprised that the so-called Peace Conference didn't result in the launching of the Palestinian State, as President Bush and Secretary of State Rice had declared beforehand. The United States government has been trying for a long time to launch an Arab state in Israel, but it hasn't happened.
We can't say for sure, but many Christian leaders believe that God may have played a role in the failure of the conference. Many Christian leaders believe that a Palestinian state may not be God's will for Israel.
Perhaps I should remind readers that the Annapolis conference centered on the international community's Roadmap for Peace. This plan calls for dividing tiny Israel into two separate states, one for the Jews and one for the Arabs.
Christian leaders who oppose the Roadmap base their reasoning on the Bible. The Bible states in
Genesis that the Jewish people - the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - were chosen to be God's special people. And it tells us that God has given the land of Israel to the Jews as "an everlasting possession."
The prophet Zechariah tells us that after the Jews have been scattered around the world and mistreated in many nations because of their defiance of God, that He would one day regather them in their ancient homeland and re-establish the Jewish nation. This is exactly what we see today.
Then the prophet Amos tells us that the God of Israel will also protect and preserve the re-born nation. Amos also stresses that no one will ever uproot the Jewish people from their homeland
again.
But whether or not this means that there will never be a Palestinian Arab state on Israeli land is not certain. It may be possible to have an Arab state and a Jewish state side by side without uprooting the Jewish people from their homeland. God may allow an Arab state on part of the land, while preserving and prospering the Jewish people on the rest.
The same Christian opinion also held that Gaza was a part of the land promised to the Jewish people, and that the Jews would never be uprooted from there. Obviously God did allow the "disengagement" to happen. But we still have a Jewish state.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposes giving the Palestinian Arabs their own state, in spite of some long-term problems this would undoubtedly bring. His viewpoint is certainly reasonable; the two-state solution would indeed help preserve the Jewish identity of the state of Israel.
A majority of the Israeli people support this view, and have since the Oslo agreements in 1993. But Olmert has wisely stated that he is not ready to take that step until the Arabs stop their violence against the Jewish land and people, and until the Arabs become able to viably operate their own state.
We strongly believe that our God-given Christian position is to bless, support, and pray for Israel. That includes Israel's government and leaders. It is not our duty or prerogative to criticize the Israeli leaders or to try to tell them what to do, even if we might not fully agree with some decisions they make.
We Christians do believe that the Bible is the ultimate and authoritative Roadmap for Peace in the Middle East. We believe that God is in control of Israel and the Middle East, and that He is now and will in the future work out His plans and purpose. However, we certainly do not have the wisdom to fully understand how all the events of today fit into God's plans.
Earl Cox, International Christian Broadcaster, known as 'the voice of Israel to the world.' He is also the founder of Israel AlwaysPrevious entriesAlternate realityRelations between Israel's Jews and Christians improvingDo the Palestinians deserve their own state
if(catID != 151){
var cont = `Take Israel home with the new Jerusalem Post Store
