Osama Bin Laden’s latest audio tape praised the attempted bombing of an airliner over Detroit on Christmas day. He said that another attack would be “highly likely.” He also directed a warning to President Obama himself that the US must stop supporting Israel. He said, “America will never dream of living in peace unless we live it in Palestine… It is unfair that you enjoy a safe life while our brothers in Gaza suffer greatly.”
Virtually every nation in the world is hoping for some sort of solution to this festering problem that has brought terrorism to their own doorsteps.
Year after year, and plan after plan, the hopes of a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians has risen and fallen, always coming short of complete satisfaction to both sides.
There are many tangled issues that make it difficult for the two sides to agree. Palestinian leaders demand that all the land lost to Israel in the ’67 war be returned in any peace settlement.
The Israelis have established settlements of Jewish people in these disputed areas over the years. Approximately 300,000 Jewish people live in these outposts. However, Israel has said they would be willing to give up some of these areas in the process and trade Israeli land to the Palestinians in exchange for the others.
Recently, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s peace negotiator said it is impossible to achieve peace unless the parties change their basic assumptions. He explained that the previous method of negotiations established a premise that “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.” He said he hoped the process would be changed so that whatever is agreed upon is implemented step-by-step.
The most explosive of all these discussions is the proposal to divide Jerusalem and even the Temple Mount in order to give Palestinians the ability to establish their capital there. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu objected to the idea. At a Jerusalem Day ceremony in May he said, “Unified Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Jerusalem always has been and always will be ours and it will never be divided again.”
The US, Russia, The UN, the European Union, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and others have all tried their best to restart the peace process. Meanwhile, the whole world is threatened with terrorism until that elusive peace is established.
It is no wonder that God foretold this great struggle that we are witnessing today:
2 “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. – Zechariah 12:2-3 (NIV)
- Osama Bin Laden – US must stop supporting Israel – Chicago Libertarian Examiner
- Netanyahu: Settlement blocs are indisputable – Jerusalem Post
- Netanyahu: Israel to Keep Parts of West Bank Forever – NewsMax
I recently read the book, “Son of Hamas†by Mosab Hassan Yousef. It was the exciting autobiography of the son of one of Hamas’ founders. As a young man he admired his father and was involved in leadership of the youth of the movement. When he was imprisoned he witnessed the brutality of Hamas members against their own people. He became disillusioned with the movement. After he was released from prison he was drawn to a Bible study in Jerusalem where he became a born-again Christian. 
