TO:     heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
FROM: Clarence H. Wagner, Jr., International Director - Jerusalem
SUBJECT: Bridges For Peace: Israel Peace Process Commentary

        Commentary by Clarence H. Wagner, Jr., International Director
of Bridges for Peace, an evangelical Christian organization headquartered
in Jerusalem, published in the "Dispatch from Jerusalem" (Sept.- Oct., 1999
issue).

                          "... AND DELIVER US FROM EVIL" (Matthew 6:13)

        Jesus made it quite clear in the Sermon on the Mount,  "Blessed are
the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God"  (Matt. 5:9).

        As people of the Bible, we are called to be peacemakers.  Paul
tells us,  "Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is
right in the eyes of everybody.  If it is possible, as far as it depends on
you, live at peace with everyone.  Do not take revenge, my friends, but
leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I
will repay,' says the Lord. On the contrary: 'If your enemy is hungry, feed
him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will
heap burning coals on his head.' Do not overcome by evil, but overcome evil
with good'" (Rom. 12: 17-21).

        Therefore, whenever I write an article that shows the true
intention of the Moslem world is not to make peace with the Jewish and
Christian world, I get disturbed when I receive criticism, as though I am
against peace.  If I honestly thought the current Middle East peace
initiatives would lead to true peace and justice in this region so that
Jews and Christians could live in harmony with the Moslem majority, I would
be at the head of the delegations to seek that result.  However, the
reality is that the tenets of Islam do not allow for such a peace with
those they call "the infidels."  Their only course of action is jihad, or
holy war, against non-Moslems who dare to rise up in a leadership position
in lands they consider part of their Islamic empire.  We have seen this for
the past century in both Israel and Lebanon.  We have also seen unabated
attacks against Christian and Jewish communities all across the Moslem
world, from Algeria to Iran, from Sudan to Syria, from Indonesia to Egypt.

PEACE IN OUR DAY

        I must say I applaud the efforts of the many Israeli leaders who
have sought peace with their neighbors:  David Ben Gurion, Golda Meir,
Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Benyamin Netanyahu and now
Ehud Barak.  There were also a few glimmers of light on the Arab side: King
Abdullah and King Hussein of Jordan, and Anwar Sadat of Egypt.  All, from
their own political camps and realities, sought to be peacemakers.  Some
achieved more than others, given the political climate and realities that
existed during their time in power. Yet, for most, the efforts were
rebuffed and violence continues in this part of the world.

        What I have observed over the years, is that each Israeli leader
since the beginning of Oslo, came into office with enthusiastic
expectations to lead Israel into a new era of peace.  Each has negotiated
mutually binding agreements.  And, each saw that Arab reciprocity was not
forthcoming and had to put the brakes on the process, ultimately leaving
office in despair.

        However, the problem is not really with the Israeli people or
leadership.  Rather, the Arab leadership, whose ideology is Islam, cannot
come to terms with a genuine peace that allows the sovereignty of Israel to
remain intact.  Therefore, they have played out the following scenario with
three leaders since the inception of Oslo, and they will do it again to the
newly elected Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak.

            1) The Arabs make great peace overtures that gets Israel and
                 the western world excited.
            2) Israel and the Arabs negotiate an accord that promises
                certain concessions from the Arabs in return for land
                given to them byIsrael.
            3) Israel gives them land, but the Arabs do not reciprocate.
            4) The peace process bogs down.
            5) Israel gets the blame.
            6) Western pressure is put on Israel to get on with the
                 process.
            7) Efforts to "jump start" the process are made by Israel, with
                 input from Western nations.
            8) Nothing happens and the Israeli leader is ousted in
                elections in hopes that a new leader can bring "peace in our time."
            9) Go back to #1 and start the cycle again.

BACK TO SQUARE #1

        With the recent election of Prime Minister Ehud Barak, we are back
at 1.  He is swelled with enthusiasm as Syria says they may now make peace
with Israel, and Egypt is telling the Palestinians to heed Barak's call for
negotiating a Final Settlement on the land issue as early as this February.
 Buoyed with anticipation, Barak has now promised to complete two
additional pullbacks from more Israeli territory negotiated in the Wye
Accords, one this October and another in January.  Here we have numbers 1-3
in the above cycle, already in action.  Watch! All will go seemingly well
until the end of January, and then the Arabs will renege on their part of
the agreement, and the process will bog down again.

             Reciprocity?   Webster's Dictionary says it is the "mutual
exchange of privileges."  That is why it always seems so odd to me that
this principle of the Oslo, Hebron and Wye agreements is only one way.
Israel gives territory and concedes sovereignty, yet the Moslem leaders
continue to call upon Israel's destruction at every opportunity.

 A DISTURBING ANNIVERSARY

        This summer, three reports came across my desk that only confirmed
the belief that true peace for Jews and Christians in the Moslem world is
impossible.

The Jewish community remembered the 1929 Massacre of Jews in Hebron in 1929
with a retelling of the day by those who were there and remember the event.
 Just prior to this memorial, on July 23, 1999, a Moslem cleric's Friday
sermon was aired on PATV (Palestinian Television) calling on the Moslem
people to "destroy the Christians and the Jews."  And, on that same day,
Christians in south Sudan had 22 chemical bombs dropped on them by their
Moslem government.

        Lest we be lulled by the desire for peace that would cause us to
forget the ultimate intentions of Islam against Christians and Jews, let us
hear what Jewish victims said about Hebron in 1929, from the Moslem cleric
today, and from a Christian worker reporting on the situation in south
Sudan.

 THE VOICE OF THE SURVIVORS

          The 70th anniversary of the 1929 riots and massacre in Hebron,
when 67 Jews were slaughtered by their Arab neighbors, were commemorated on
August 1, at the ancient Jewish cemetery in Hebron. Hundreds of people from
around Israel attended, including family members of those murdered and
survivors of the slaughter.

          The main theme focused on ensuring that it doesn't happen again,
and that the people of Israel must learn never to place their lives in the
hands of those who want to kill the Jews.

           Rahamim Ben-Netanel, a survivor, recalled the massacre was on a
Friday afternoon, when the Arabs began stoning Jewish residents.  Rabbi
Slonim sent his son to invite people who feared for their safety to stay in
his home.  On Shabbat morning, Jewish residents gathered at the police
station in Beit Romano and recounted their experiences. Suddenly there was
a loud noise, and looking outside the window he saw masses of Arabs
shouting, "kill the Jews."  Those inside the police station remained there
for three days. He said the surviving Jews were eventually taken to
Jerusalem, and for the first time in 100 years there were no Jews living in
Hebron.

          Shalom Goldshmid,  whose father was murdered and whose mother and
sister were critically injured, was almost 5 years old, remembers the
events of that fateful day:

          "I know, there were children who had to be warned not to cry, so
as not to give away their hiding places. I didn't have to be warned - we
were too afraid to cry out.

          "I lived in a two story house - we lived upstairs and an Arab
family lived downstairs. That morning other neighbors were together with
us, in our house. I remember that the Arabs tried to break down the door.
When they didn't succeed, they started using knives to cut out panels of
the door, to get in. My father tried to prevent them from breaking in and
the knives cut his hands. But that didn't deter him. While he was at the
door, battling against the Arabs, the others in the house jumped downstairs
from the back porch. The Arab neighbor didn't want to let them in, but
there was a pregnant woman in the group and the Arab's wife had mercy on
her, and let them in. She gave birth in that house, and they all survived.

          "When the Arabs finally broke into our house, they grabbed my
father. My mother tried to fight them off but she was not strong enough and
the Arabs stabbed her. She fell to the floor. They took my father into
another room. My older sister, six years old, also tried to fight the Arabs
who were killing my father, and they axed her in the head.

          "My mother yelled at me and my younger sister, then a year and a
half old, to hide, so we hid under a bed in another room.

          "When there was quiet in the house, my mother tried to crawl to
the room where they had taken my father. Just then another Arab came in and
stabbed her again.

          "The Arabs killed my father. I remember seeing him stretched out,
dead. I also remember seeing my mother and sister wounded. They were hurt
badly, but lived. My other sister and I weren't injured.

          "After we were evacuated we moved to Jerusalem. When I was older
I would come to Hebron. I would participate every year in the memorial
service at the cemetery for my father. After the 1967 war, I even went back
to visit the house where we had lived. I remember exactly where it is.
Today it is not accessible because it is in the area controlled by the
Arabs. I would always walk the streets of Hebron, never afraid. We must
never show the Arabs that we are afraid. This is our city. It is good that
Jews again live in Hebron."

        Dvora Waysman  recalls her experience in her book, The Pomegranate
Pendant.  "It happened on Shabbat.  We had just come home from services,
when there were the blood curdling cries.  I looked out the window and saw
a mob being led by Ibrahim - our neighbor.  I couldn't believe it!  When my
children were little, they had played with him. We had invited him to our
home on Passover, because he loved to eat matza.  My son, Ya'acov, was his
friend. And now, Ya'akov's children played with his children.  The mob
broke down our door, Ibrahim had a knife.  He killed Ya'akov, my husband,
and Ya'akov's little girl, my beautiful grandaughter, Batya.  And he
laughed - he enjoyed it!  He looked in my eyes and he laughed!"

"DESTROY JEWS AND CHRISTIANS"

        So, what does it mean, when the Palestinian Authority Television
broadcasts a sermon by a Moslem cleric as part of the their programming on
Friday, July 23, 1999, their day of worship?

          "O Allah! Bless all true believers in their sacred Moslem
struggle against the wicked infidels. Help us to destroy the cursed Jewish
invaders who have stolen Moslem land, raped Moslem women, and murdered
Moslem babies.

          "Help us in our struggle against the Christian infidel
non-believers who place their disgusting idolatrous symbols on their
Satanic churches in defiance of the will of Allah, blessed be his name
"[they seem to overlook the fact that the crescent moon adorning their
Mosques was the symbol of the moon god, Allah]

          "Help us defeat the cursed giant America, that nation of
Christian whores whose women are all prostitutes and whose children are all
pornographers.

          "The non-believers want to destroy your mosques and holy places.
The infidels disrespect your holy Koran.  The Jewish devils and Christian
crusaders have overrun the Moslem City of Al Kuds [Jerusalem].

          "Help us to regain control of all areas that the Jewish soldiers
have trampled upon.  Help us to regain control of the rest of Gaza from the
fascist hordes of Jewish settlers.  Help us to regain control of the Negev,
the Galilee and the Golan Heights.

          "Help us to defeat these Jewish infidel non-believers who are
your enemies.  These Jewish soldiers of Meir Kahane and Ehud Barak who wish
to tear down Mecca and Medina." (Friday sermon, Palestinian Television,
July 23, 1999).

             On this same day, Christians in south Sudan were attacked with
chemical bombs by the Moslem government of that nation.  Here this report
from Wes Bentley for Far Reaching Ministries:

           "On July 23rd, 22 chemical bombs were dropped in three villages
in south Sudan. The results are: people are vomiting blood; cattle, goats,
and fowl are dying; and most of the pregnant women in the area have
miscarried. We do not have a death toll yet.  No bombs have been released
in our area; however, due to the current situation, I have decided to pull
the women out of the country for a time, until we can further assess.

        "In the areas that have been bombed, all non-government
organizations have been instructed to pull out.  This means when our
Christian brothers and sisters need help the most, no one is standing by.
We are staying.  We have had requests from the villagers to bring in gas
masks and suits to protect from chemical and biological weapons.  This is a
critical time. We need the worldwide Church to stand in the gap and pray
for the suffering Church in Sudan."

        In the past decade, it has been estimated that over 1,000,000
Christians in south Sudan have been systematically killed by the Moslem
government.  And, the world has remained silent.

LET US STAND IN THE GAP IN PRAYER

               Has anything really changed in the Moslem Middle East?

               While we need to strive to make peace and seek to live at
peace with our neighbors in the Middle East, we also need to know the
difference between true peace, and a peace that is but a wolf dressed in
sheep's clothing.  Jesus told us that we are often found as  "sheep in the
midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves"  (Matt:
10:16).  When the world  "says peace, peace, when there is no peace"   (Jer.
6:14), then we need to beware and pray the prayer that Jesus taught us,
"... deliver us from evil"  (Matt. 6:13). We need to pray for God's peace,
not the world's peace, for our Jewish and Christians brothers in these
trying times.

          We need to pray for the Jewish residents of Hebron, who still
live with constant threat of terror attacks.  Pray for their safety, and
pray that the tragic events of 1929 will never be repeated.

         We need to intercede for Israel and the Christians of the Middle
East, that they would be delivered from the curses and attacks that are
leveled against us.  Pray that the nations of this world will hear and
understand the meaning of the evil being taught by Islamic religious
leaders, as they spew their hatred against Christians and Jews, and not be
fooled. Pray that the world's desire for real peace will not be confused
with a "false peace," giving into the demands of those Moslem leaders whose
aim is to destroy or conquer non-Moslems.  There are few Moslem leaders who
are like Anwar Sadat and King Hussein of Jordan.  We must find them and
work with them and resist the tactics of the others.

              Finally, we need to pray that the Lord God of Israel, the God
of the Universe, would reveal Himself to the Moslem nations.  Only as they
turn to Him will there be real peace in the Middle East, peace for the
Christians of the Middle East, and peace for the people and land of Israel.

            "The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are
attentive to their cry; the face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry out and the
Lord hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles"  (Psalm
34:15-17).

           "He will call upon Me and I will answer him; I will be with him
in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him and show him My salvation"
(Psalm 91:15).

           "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they will prosper who love
you"   (Psalm 122:6).

                         - by Clarence H. Wagner, Jr.
                  Editor, "Dispatch from Jerusalem"

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WHO ARE WE?

     For those who are new to the list, Bridges for Peace is a Christian
charitable organization, headquartered in Jerusalem, Israel. Since 1977, we
have been working to build Christian-Jewish understanding and support for
the people and land of Israel. We do this through twelve different aid
projects to help the people of Israel, while disseminating information
about Israel and teaching Christians about the Hebraic roots of
Christianity. We have national offices in Israel, the U.S., Canada, the
U.K., S. Africa, Japan, Brazil, Australia, and Puerto Rico (Spanish World
Office).

       We also invite you to look at our WEB SITE at:
                   http://www.bridgesforpeace.com
 
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