By Stan Goodenough
Oct 21, 2007
Christians concerned that a planned November land-for-"peace" conference can only be detrimental to the long-term security of the Jewish people and their country were again encouraged Sunday by reports Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is playing down expectations for the parley.
According to the website of the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, Olmert told his cabinet at their weekly meeting the conference would not result in a major breakthrough in peacemaking.
The leftist newspaper, which spearheads the internal crusade for the division of Israel's historic homeland, correctly identified the planned event as, not a peace conference, but a "conference on Palestinian statehood."
US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have repeatedly committed themselves to doing everything in their power to bring some form of Palestinian state into de facto existence before a new American leader is elected next year.
The administration has been set on its course since Rice stated emphatically in 2002 that Bush was "the first President of the United States to unequivocally say that the only resolution of the Middle East is going to be a two-state solution; to declare that there needs to a Palestinian state; and who, as a matter of fact, went so far as to call it Palestine..."
Since Bush began his second term in 2004 he has been pushing Rice relentlessly (or, it has been argued, Rice has been pushing Bush relentlessly) to make effective and irreversible "progress" towards the creation of this state.
Christian Zionists, who are convinced that a "peace" process that demands concessions from an always acquiescent Israel instead of from the belligerent and aggressive Arab side is dangerous for Israel, continue to pray for the frustration and ultimate failure of Washington's efforts.