Middle East

A Two-State Solution

BOA (Bush, Olmert, Abbas) sounds sinister, but it makes a handy, efficient acronym. (I certainly don’t mean it to sound disrespectful, I should append.)

When BOA (and others) talk of a two-state solution, they have in mind Israel and Palestine. Like this:

Palestinian state crucial for Israel, Olmert says

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said after peace talks in Washington that failure to negotiate a two-state solution with the Palestinians could threaten Israel’s long-term survival.

When I think of a two-state reality, I think of Gaza and the West Bank. These are both Palestinian entities, but they are two separate entities. At each other’s throats. Frequently, literally. With Israel sorta surrounding and sorta surrounded by the pinchers.

They already threaten Israel’s long-term viability.

To continue negotiations with them, especially with the weaker pincher, only makes matters worse.

And matters will get worse. Much worse. Modern Israel ain’t seen nothing yet.

That’s how I read my Bible, anyway.

Oh, and speaking of the West Bank and Gaza (and even the Golan Heights) . . . .

Why should they be Israel’s any less than certain American states, seized and annexed from Mexico, are the US’s?

Perhaps pro-two-stater politicians in the US should lead by example and enter into negotiations with Mexico for the return of those certain American states.

Just a thought.

A wild one, I know, especially since (good) example and politics may be oxymoronic concepts. 🙂

Mr. President, Don’t Divide Jerusalem

Joel Rosenberg reports in his blog:

The Bush administration’s much-anticipated and highly-controversial Arab-Israeli peace conference opens tomorrow in Annapolis, Maryland. A great deal is at stake. The most contentious issue on the table: the future of Jerusalem. The government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is talking openly about the possibility of dividing the holy city and giving part of it to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. This would be a mistake of colossal proportions. It will not send a message of goodwill and peace to Israel’s enemies, as Olmert and his advisors hope. Rather, it will invite more attacks by radical Islamic jihadists who want all of Jerusalem, not just part of it. What’s more, even mere talk of dividing Jerusalem fuels the apocalyptic, genocidal ambitions of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his colleagues who believe Israel’s day of judgment is coming and that Shia Muslims are destined to annihilate Judeo-Christian civilization and gain control of Jerusalem for themselves.

Mr. President, don’t divide Jerusalem. Don’t consider it. Don’t talk about it. Don’t encourage others to talk about it. Doing so will bring war — and a horrifying one at that — not the peace that you seek. Rather, open tomorrow’s conference by making it crystal clear that precisely because we want peace in the Middle East, we will not support any division of Jerusalem any more than we would support dividing Washington or London or Paris or Moscow with our enemies or our neighbors.

Then we have this news story from Agence Presse France via Yahoo: Israelis, Palestinians make progress in US talks

Israel and the Palestinians said Monday they had made major progress in reviving frozen peace talks, as US President George W. Bush launched his biggest push yet to end the Middle East conflict.

And WorldNetDaily reports:

Syria agreed to attend this week’s U.S.-sponsored Annapolis summit after Damscus received American and Israeli commitments the Golan Heights would be put on the table at the Israeli-Palestinian conference.

The Golan Heights is strategic mountainous territory that looks down on Israeli population centers, and was twice used by Syria to launch ground invasions into the Jewish state.

WND prefaces its report with this observation: “U.S. invitation has no preconditions for state accused of supporting terror.”

In my view, it requires a willing suspension of disbelief to accept all this as good news.

Don’t Forget Them

Gaza Christians fear ‘those more extreme than Hamas’

The kidnapping and killing of Rami Ayyad, manager of the Gaza Strip’s only Christian bookstore, sent shudders through the Palestinian coastal enclave’s tiny Christian community.

Spared by the summer’s fierce factional clashes in which the Islamist Hamas movement seized power by routing their secular Fatah party rivals, Christians began to worry they too might be driven from the volatile coastal strip.

What scares them is a new generation of shadowy extremist movements that have crept from the rubble of a seven-year uprising, months of internal bloodletting and decades of conflict with Israel.

“We are not afraid of Hamas because as a government they are responsible for protecting people,” Ayyad’s brother Ramzi says. “We are afraid of those who are more extreme than Hamas.”

Palestinian Christians number around 75,000 but there are only 2,500 — most of them Greek Orthodox — living in the Gaza Strip among nearly 1.5 million Muslims, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

Gaza has no history of tensions between the two communities and Christians say they are bound to their Muslim neighbours by shared suffering.

“Balances” in Egypt

Twenty five year old Mohammed Ahmed Higazi (L), and his pregnant wife Zeinab, 23, read from the bible August 2 in their home in a Cairo. Higazi who converted from Islam to Christianity has launched a bid to have the change recognized officially in what is believed to be the first such case, he told AFP today. In Egypt, identity cards say whether the bearer is Christian or Muslim, but those who convert to Christianity complain that administrative hurdles prevent them being able to change their official papers

Nigeria Steps Up Security After Militants Kill Christians

Nigeria’s central government will deploy more police to the nation’s troubled state of Kaduna “to fight crime”, after two Christians were reportedly killed there by suspected Muslim militants, BosNewsLife learned Wednesday, October 24.

Prominent Beijing Pastor Beaten Again By Security Forces

Chinese Christians remained concerned Thursday, October 25, about the health situation of a prominent Beijing pastor amid reports he was beaten again by security forces after being discharged from Tiantan Hospital.

Religious literature censorship in Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan continues to maintain severe religious literature censorship, Forum 18 News Service notes. Current examples include two shipments of Jehovah’s Witness literature – one in transit for Tajikistan and one intended for an Uzbek congregation – which have been held for more than a year. Other religious communities, such as Protestants and Muslims, also experience problems. A Protestant, involved in sending literature requested by Christians in Uzbekistan, told Forum 18 that most shipments never arrived. “This was either through postal inefficiency or because it was rejected at Uzbek customs,” the Protestant stated. “So we have given up trying to send literature.” Many who would like to receive literature are afraid of the consequences of being identified by the authorities as Christians, from their receiving literature by post. Uzbek officials are reluctant to discuss the issue, but insist that religious material can only be received after specific approval by the state Religious Affairs Committee. Uzbekistan frequently burns religious literature, including the Bible, confiscated from Muslims, Protestants, Hare Krishna devotees and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Even legally imported literature is confiscated in police raids.

Another Sacrifice in Gaza

Mourning, condemnation follow murder of prominent Christian in Gaza

Hundreds of Muslims and Christians attended a memorial service Sunday for a prominent Palestinian Christian who was found stabbed and shot on a Gaza City street earlier that day.

At Gaza’s Greek Orthodox church, Palestinian mourners gathered around the body of Rami Khader Ayyad, the 32-year-old director of Gaza’s only Christian bookstore who hospital officials say was shot in the head and stabbed numerous times.

Ayyad’s family and neighbours said Ayyad had regularly received anonymous death threats from people angry about his missionary work and was abducted late Saturday afternoon by unknown assailants near his home.

Gateway Pundit has more here.

Giving Pieces a Chance

Over at WorldMagBlog, Lynn Vincent asks, “Would returning East Jerusalem to the Palestinians — but not the Muslim holy site, the Dome of the Rock — quell this type of violence?”

If there is an historical basis for a positive answer, I would like to know it.

Vincent asks the question because of this:

Parsing Jerusalem

A confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Associated Press today that his government would support a division of Jerusalem in which key eastern neighborhoods would be turned over to the Palestinians.

This plan isn’t about giving peace a chance.

It’s about giving pieces a chance. The rationale seems to be that if we give them a piece now, maybe that’ll satisfy them. And if that piece won’t do it, we’ll give them another piece. And another piece.

How many pieces are there to give?

The hope of giving pieces a chance is based on a hope for reciprocity.

Both hopes already have a history of vanity.

Why continue to gives those hopes further chances?

By the way, the Captain observes:

The question for Israelis is whether the people across the table from them are actual partners in peace, or Yasser Arafat under another guise.

We shall see.

Axis of Cement

First, there’s the dust-up involving Israeli planes and Syrian targets:

“Operation Orchard” came three days after a North Korean ship docked at a Syrian port, officially carrying cement.

Now we have this involving Iran and Venezuela:

Iran and Venezuela cemented an alliance aimed at countering the United States….

Here cement, there cement, everywhere cement.

If Syria got “cement” from North Korea, and got a subsequent visit from the Israelis . . . .

And if Iran got “cement” from Venezuela, will the Israelis pop in for a bit there also?

But maybe I’ve getting my cements all mixed up.

Above all, love God!