If Mexico decided that the southern United States was unfairly taken from them in the Spanish American War and is now “occupied territory”, and if the Mexican people began launching suicide attacks in the United States killing innocent civilians in coffee shops, discos, and markets, would we solve the problem by giving them the southern United States in exchange for their promise to no longer blow up our people?  Somehow I doubt it.  What country on the planet would agree to promises from their enemies in exchange for land?  Would the Muslims, for the sake of peace, surrender Mecca to the Jews?  Would the Catholic Church surrender the Vatican?

So, what about this pre-condition in the road map that Palestinians must end terror attacks before being given their own state?  As the U.S. and the quartet are talking about time-lines and moving the peace plan forward (and threatening sanctions against Israel if they do not comply with the plan), the Palestinian Authority mufti, Sheikh Ikrimah Sabri, during a sermon in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, called upon Muslims to oppose the U.S. coalition against terrorism and encouraged them not to fear the U.S.  We’re dreaming if we think the P.A. is committed to ending terrorist attacks on Israel.  They aren’t committed to ending Islamic terrorism anywhere in the world.  Their scriptures teach otherwise.  The goal of every good Muslim is Islam’s dominance over the world in all governments and all countries, and nowhere more than Israel.  As the Quran says, they must “Slay the infidels”.

While the governments of the world pressure Israel and threaten consequences for any failure to immediately move the peace plan forward, you will hear nothing of consequences for more homicide bombings carried out by the Palestinians.  The roadmap demands an end to terror attacks and a crackdown on Palestinian Militants.  In fact ending terror is the major objective of Phase one of the plan, which is to be completed by the end of May 2003.  The P.A. is required to make a VISIBLE effort to arrest, disrupt, and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning violent attacks on Israelis anywhere.  And, if the Palestinians don’t put an end to terrorist attacks, what are the consequences?  They still get a Palestinian state and Israel gets sanctions for being hesitant to continue down the road map to destruction.  In short, terrorism pays.  Even as Islamists are blowing themselves up every time someone from the administration makes an appearance in Israel, Bush has assured Arab allies that a Palestinian state will emerge by the end of the year.  With those kind of assurances, why would Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Al Aqsa, or any of the other terrorist groups working for the P.A. stop doing what has worked for them.  We don’t have to guess that they won’t.  They have openly proclaimed to the media that they will not give up their “armed struggle”, no matter what concessions are made.

Every time more peace talks are planned and the politicians of the world again start promising “peace and security”, you can count on increased terrorist attacks in Israel.  Just after the road map to peace was unveiled by the quartet, a wave of terror strikes hit Israel and Jerusalem.  This was after 6 months of no attacks on the city.  It is a historical fact that every time Israel withdraws its troops in compliance with yet another peace plan, they become a target.  How much worse will it be if the Palestinians are rewarded for their terror attacks with their own state and the “security apparatus” they will be justified in building to defend their borders?  If it were any other country in the world, no one would expect them to retreat and expose themselves to more attacks.

Since the Oslo Peace Accord, when the Palestinians agreed to end their “armed aggression” in exchange for more land in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, terror attacks against Israelis have actually increased three-fold.  The land handovers have continued despite increasing terror attacks.  As punishment for the P.A.’s violation of every peace agreement they’ve ever made is the creation of their very own state from which to wage more attacks. 

Of course, the Palestinian Authority immediately endorsed the plan with only some reservations on the final status of Jerusalem.  Why would they NOT immediately endorse the peace plan?  They are being rewarded for terrorism, so there is absolutely no reason for them to think that once the deal is done, they cannot continue to terrorize Israel for more gain, eventually reaching their ultimate goal of eliminating the Jewish State from the map.  If terrorism got them their own state, wouldn’t the logical conclusion be that more terrorism would get them what they really want?  Meanwhile Israel must face a world that demands immediate concessions and visible actions, as history repeats itself over and over again, leaving more dead Israelis and terrorist camps covered with posters of martyrs.

God also has something to say about the creation of a Palestinian state in the Promised Land.  In Joel 3:1-2 He says, “In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.  There I will enter into judgment against them concerning my inheritance, my people Israel, for they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.

The scattering of the rightful residents of the Promised Land obviously happened in ancient times, especially after the Assyrian, Babylonian and Roman conquests of the land.  The Lord is now regathering his covenant people from the corners of the earth as prophesied in Isaiah 11:11-12, and with nearly half the Jews on earth back in their home land, prophecy is once again being fulfilled as we divide up their land, and work diligently toward pushing the Jews out of “occupied” Judea, Samaria and at least part of Jerusalem.

We will pay a price for turning our backs on Israel in an effort to placate riled Muslim world opinion in the aftermath of the war on terror and in Iraq.  Scripture warns that “dividing up My land” is one of the main reasons judgment will come on the nations in the end times.  We are also paving the way for the Arab nations who will conspire together to wipe out Israel as a nation:

Psalms 83:1-4  “O God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still.  See how your enemies are astir, how your foes rear their heads.  With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish.  Come, they say, let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.”

In ancient times Israel made many unwise alliances with enemies whose ultimate aims were to destroy her.  Israel’s past is filled with politicians heeding the advice of other governments rather than God.  God has this to say about the kind of peace the governments of the world are trying to sell to us in the road map to destruction:

Jeremiah 6:14-15  “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.  ‘Peace, peace,” they say, when there is no peace.  Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct?  No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush.  So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them.”

Ezekiel 13:10  “Because they lead my people astray, saying “Peace,” when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built they cover it with white-wash, therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall.  Rain will come in torrents, and I will send hailstones hurtling down, and violent winds will burst forth.  When the wall collapses, will people not ask you, “Where is the whitewash you covered it with?”.