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Newsletter : 2fax0625.txt
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Mother Of Missing-In-Action Dies
By IsraelNationalNews.com
Batya Arad, mother of missing Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad, died Sunday night after a long illness at the age of 68. She was 52 when her son was downed and captured in Lebanon, and she never gave up her struggle for his safe return to Israel. She asked her family before her death to continue these efforts. I
Bush Calls For New Palestinian Leadership, Massive Reforms
By Paula Wolfson (VOA-White House)
President Bush is insisting on massive reforms and new Palestinian leadership as a condition for the creation of a Palestinian state. Bush spelled out his plan to move the peace process forward in a much-anticipated address delayed by violence in the region.
He said the people of the Middle East have lived in the midst of death and fear for far too long. He says terrorists want to kill the prospects for peace. "For the sake of all humanity, things must change in the Middle East."
Bush said it is possible to provide Israel with security and the Palestinians with a state in three years, adding that before there can be even a provisional state, there must be new Palestinian leaders. "Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leadership so that a Palestinian state can be born. I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror."
The president said he is not interested in half-efforts, but insists on "true" reform political, legal, constitutional and economic. "With a dedicated effort this state can rise rapidly as it comes to terms with Israel, Egypt and Jordan on practical issues such as security."
Israeli leaders have scoffed in recent days at the notion of a Palestinian state, provisional or otherwise. Angered by a series of suicide bombings, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recently dismissed the idea.
Bush said he understands Israel's security concerns. But he said a stable, peaceful Palestinian state is essential to provide the security all Israelis desire.
He said while the Palestinians implement reforms, Israel must take concrete steps to support the emergence of a viable Palestinian state. "As we make progress towards security, Israeli forces need to withdraw fully to positions they held prior to September 28th, 2000. And consistent with the recommendations of the Mitchell Committee, Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories must stop.
Palestinians Reject Bush Call For Change in Leadership
By Larry James (VOA-Jerusalem)
In the Middle East, there has been mixed reaction to President Bush's major policy speech on the way forward in the peace process. Israel welcomed the remarks and Palestinians expressed reservations about some aspects while rejecting outright Bush's call for a change in Palestinian leadership.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office issued a statement endorsing the president's call for a new Palestinian leadership. It said "when the Palestinian Authority enacts genuine reforms, including new leadership at the top, such that a different Authority is created, then it will be possible to discus how to make progress on the political tracks."
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasir Arafat also welcomed some of Bush's ideas as "a serious effort to push the peace process forward." His official statement did not, however, address Bush's call for a new Palestinian leadership.
Bush's policy speech came only hours after Sharon said Israel is about to launch a major campaign against the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Speaking to lawmakers from his Likud party, Sharon said he is preparing massive military action to take care of what he called terrorists, their strongholds and their commanders.
Bush also held out the offer of a sort of provisional statehood for the Palestinians. Some Palestinian leaders have questioned how such a thing is possible. They said either you have statehood or you don't and say they would like further clarification of just what the president means by the term.
Evangelical Christians Band with Jews in Support of Israel
By Ed Warner (VOA-Washington)
American Christians and Jews have just formed a new organization, "Stand for Israel," that will coordinate fund-raising and lobbying efforts by some 100,000 evangelical churches. This support of the fastest growing branch of Christianity in America is crucial for Israel and highly dismaying for Palestinians since it envisions Israeli control of the entire Holy Land.
It is not Arafat. It is not Sharon. It is the Bible. That is the reason American evangelicals, as many as 20 million, strongly support Israel, says Ed McAteer, perhaps the leading organizer of Christian-Jewish cooperation on Israel.
More specifically, Christian Zionists, as they are sometimes
called, back the expansionist policies of Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon and his Likud Party. They find justification for this in
their interpretation of the Bible, one not shared by the larger
body of mainstream Protestants.
Despite some differences, these evangelicals believe a second
coming of Jesus is prophesied, to be preceded by Jewish return to
the Holy Land and a final cataclysmic struggle known as Armageddon.
The Rev. John Wheeler is director of the Christian American Ministry and author of Earth's Two Minute Warning. He explained that God gave the land of Palestine to the Jews, but they were driven away and persecuted because they rejected the Christian Messiah. Yet as the end time approaches, the Jews must return, "And today," he said, "for the first time in 2000 years, we see Jews restored to their land. To Christians who interpret the Bible as I do, from a literal perspective, this is a very telling fulfilling of prophecy that has occurred before our eyes, in our lifetime."
Once Jews recover the Holy Land, said Wheeler, Armageddon will follow. What form this will take is a matter of conjecture, but Wheeler noted the weapons for earthly destruction are available. "If you believe Bible prophecy that at some point there will be an eruption of a major conflict in the Middle East and the descriptions in the ancient prophecies match what a nuclear holocaust would look like," Wheeler continued, "I think that is a very real probability. The time frame of that I cannot predict, and I do not think anyone can."
Wheeler hastened to add that he disassociates himself from the notion that in the end time, genuine Christians will escape the travail of other humans and reach heaven without having to die. That kind of selfishness, he says, is hardly Christian.
But a certain self-centeredness is true of this apocalyptic outlook, says Donald Wagner, director of Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding. Its proponents insist their grim interpretation of Scripture is the only one. Thus, at the recent annual meeting of Southern Baptists, a prominent minister denounced Mohammed as a "demon-possessed pedophile," while his audience seemed to offer no objection.
Wagner said such evangelicals foresee a final showdown between their simplistic notions of good and evil. "I find it rather heretical just selectively splicing various prophecies out of the Bible and applying them to our time," he said, "That is not what the Bible is intended to be. Plus, it ignores justice questions, lasting peace, and in the end it is anti-Semitic. Jews will either be swallowed up in the final battle of Armageddon or they must convert to Christianity."
That outcome cannot be comforting to Jews, but then it may be a long way off. In the meantime, Jewish groups are encouraging their evangelical supporters and taking them on trips to Israel. Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, told The Forward newspaper, "I want their support now, and I do not care what their theology says down the line."
