Navigating The Road Map To Peace

RELIGION IN THE NEWS

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.This week’s item is from The Jewish World Review, January 15, 2008, with a headline:“Hamas and Islamic Millenarianism, What the West Doesn’t Recognize.”The following are excerpts.During his recent trip to Israel, President Bush visited several places that reaffirmed his faith, including Bethlehem and the Sea of Galilee.Then, exhibiting far greater faith and believing Jesus could walk on water, he asserted that peace could be had between Israel, the Palestinians and her Arab neighbors.Since 1937, there have been 18 formal attempts by commissions, conferences, resolutions, summits and other gatherings to persuade the Jewish lamb to lie down with the Arab lion.All have failed.As the President’s visit neared, one might have expected the Palestinians, were they interested in peace, to at least tone down anti-Israel rants.According to Palestinian media watch, the government controlled television station instead intensified its rhetoric calling for the destruction of Israel by advocating the liberation of Haifa, Tiberius, Ochra and Tel Aviv, cities that do not figure in the debate over Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.Amidst all of this, President Bush suggested more Israeli concessions to the Palestinians might have to be part of a peace agreement, such as dismantling homes on land claimed by Palestinians.The Palestinian government has failed to comply with a single agreement.There is not a credible statement, action, sermon or policy utterance by anyone in the Arab, Muslim, Palestinian world that gives any hope for a repeal of their expressed goal to destroy Israel, and liberate Arab land.Instead of a credible plan for countering global jihadists and Palestinian liberationist committed to Israel’s and America’s destruction, the Bush Administration continues to practice a faith rooted in self deception.Even if a deal is concluded, the best that can be expected from the Palestinian side is a temporary lull in the violence, followed by the creation of a pretext for more violence and demands for new concessions.

Tom:

Dave, this isn’t some liberal taking on Bush and the Bush Administration, this is Cal Thomas—a very conservative—this is the Jewish World Review.So, those of us who would consider conservatives, we are outraged by what Bush is doing.I think—he said it, this is for his legacy, what is he doing for his own ego here?

Dave:

Yeah, Tom, unfortunately the United States State Department is anti-Israel, they have been from the very beginning and they are today!Now, what are the facts?Well, they were laid out pretty well here.It talks about “a temporary—the best you could expect is a temporary lull in violence.” In 628, Muhammad and the Meccans entered into a ten-year hudna is what it’s called, a temporary cease fire, it’s called the Treaty of Hudaibiyah. and of course it didn’t last very long, it lasted a year.And Muhammad has made it very clear, and you can’t change what Muhammad has done, he set the pattern.The pattern was set at Hudaibiyah, and you cannot make peace!That is the rule in Islam, you may not make a peace treaty, but you can make a temporary cease fire, a Hudaibiyah.

Tom:

What was the point of it from Muhammad, Dave, explain that.

Dave:

Well, the point of it was, this is unbelievable but Muhammad, he’s coming from the city of, in those days it was Yathrup, a Jewish town, and he killed every Jew there, took it over and it is now called Madina.So, he’s coming with his new Muslim followers and they want to go back to Mecca because they want to join in the Hajj with the pagans.They’re going to circle around this pagan temple with 300 and some idols in it, and so forth, and the Meccans at that time were too strong for Muhammad, so they stopped him.So he entered into this treaty with them, in which he even acknowledged he was not the prophet of Allah, and it gave him the right to come with his Muslim followers the next year, 629 AD and to join in this Hajj.Well, 630 AD—which he did, by the way, he was strong enough, he took it over.Now it is common knowledge among all Muslims that the hudna has one purpose that is to regroup, gather strength, to deceive the enemy, and when you are stronger than they are you break that truce on some pretext and you take over.Now, that is all the Muslims, the Palestinians so-called, have been interested in.Arafat said it very bluntly:Peace for us is the destruction of Israel.The Islamic doctrine is:Israel—No, they don’t call it Israel—Palestine, Israel does not appear on one Arab map anywhere in the world!It doesn’t exist as far—it’s called Palestine, and they possess it.So the only purpose of any agreement which they have ever made, and all of them they have broken, is to get more concessions and more concessions, ultimately the destruction of Israel, because if you don’t destroy Israel, that says Islam is a false religion, Allah is a false god, Muhammad was a false prophet, because Islam says, that land is ours and we will take it back.Now, if you don’t do that, I’ll tell you there is a battle between the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the true God, and the god of Islam, who is a pagan deity, they had an idol for him, Allah.That is the battle between God and Satan to see who has the Middle East.It’s all foretold in the Scriptures, and we know who is going to win.

Tom:

Dave, so what’s Bush doing?You know, he knows enough, I mean, is this a case of what I mentioned earlier, is this his ego, is this his legacy, does he want to be thought of in history as somebody who solved the problem. I mean, Clinton tried to do it, you go back and back and back to presidents—

Dave:

Tom, it will not be solved until Jesus comes, and I hate to judge Bush’s heart, but it almost looks like he’s trying to get—if he could work out a temporary deal and seem to be on the road to peace, then he could leave, he’s leaving and then his successors will be blamed for the failure of this peace treaty.