The Jerusalem Post reported last week that Azzam al-Ahmed, head of the parliamentary list for Abbas’ Fatah party, warned that if the summit scheduled to take place in Annapolis, Maryland USA this month does not “result in something positive, the repercussions will be more dangerous than what happened after the failure of Camp David.”  In 2000, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat approximately 98 percent of the lands he was demanding in return for a peace agreement. Arafat rejected the offer, and less than two months later the Al Aqsa Intifada, also known as the “Oslo War,” was launched against Israel. That uprising is now known to have been planned in advance by Arafat and his regime.  The Palestinians regularly use the threat of violence to blackmail Israel into making concessions with its security and biblical birthright. There are mounting fears that HAMAS and Hizbullah will increase violent action against Israel leading up to and after the summit, but I have just picked up a report which sees the Islamic fundamentalists HAMAS threatening their own people as well. Haaretz.com have reported that a leading HAMAS official Mahmoud Zahar, a former foreign minister in the Palestinian unity government in Gaza, says that HAMAS will take over the West Bank if Israel pulls out. Speaking at a rally in northern Gaza, Zahar said “Israel thinks Fatah in the West Bank is there to serve it, but we will take over the West Bank the way we took over Gaza. This all means that instead of the giving up of Israeli land to the Arabs bringing peace it will result in a “No Change” situation as it was in Gush Katif, and HAMAS and their militant partners will continue to attack Israel. Of course whatever happens, Israel will be blamed. If they give away land or just stand firm they will be accused of occupying Palestinian Arab land and being oppressors. Whilst speaking with an Israeli diplomat in Sderot last year he made a comment to me that spoke right into the situation today. He said “ if we stood down the army today and gave in to the Palestinians demands and then told them we were just going to sell flowers from now on, there would be no Israel within 24 hours. In this instance however it is not just Israelis who are under a terrible threat, it is ordinary Palestinian people and of course Christians who remain as residents in the areas governed by HAMAS. As we have seen in Gaza, these would become victims of religious persecution. So as believers in Yeshua, a Jew who wept over Jerusalem and who will return there one day, what should we do? We must not, as did the majority of Christians in Europe during the Holocaust, follow a political and nationalistic view thereby standing by, watching as six million Jews were murdered in their midst. We must stand with the Jews and of course the ordinary Palestinian people who are now calling for Israel once again to govern them. We must turn to the word of God which makes it clear that the people and the land in question are in the centre of Gods plans and are close to His heart. Having really understood their importance to Him we must pray with all we have that our Nation will not negotiate for a division of Israel as they have stated they would do. Jeremiah 30 v 16 says “ All who make spoil of you I will despoil.” If a two state solution is agreed it will simply release more evil. I can’t recall who it was who said that evil reigns when good men do nothing. Please do all you can in prayer to ask God to change the minds of the leaders of our nation for the sake of the Jews, the ordinary Palestinians, our Christian brothers in Israel and of course for ourselves here in the UK.

Jeremiah 30 v 24– “In days to come you will understand this”