The Lynching Date is Set<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
By Jan Markell
www.olivetreeviews.org 
 
So it is settled and the date is November 27.  The date of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Israel's lynching while all the world cheers.  The much-heralded Middle East summit at Annapolis which has stalled a dozen times is now going to happen it would appear.
So, name one concession Israel has made in recent years that has been reciprocated by its sworn enemies. This is not a trick question. There are none.
That's why this month's announced "Middle East Summit" in Annapolis, Md., should be viewed as one more installment payment in the sellout of Israel and of American interests in the Middle East. While the United States continues to struggle to shore up democracy in Iraq, the Bush administration - like administrations before it - proceeds in undermining the likelihood that the region's first democracy will endure.
At every negotiating session, Israel is pressured into making concessions for "peace" and receives more war in response. Mostly this is because of the wishful thinking in the West that has replaced sound policy. Why should the Palestinians make concessions when they are drawing closer to their objective of eradicating Israel by throwing stones and bombs and stonewalling negotiations? Little wonder that one writer calls the event "hopeful insanity."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has no problems with the agenda. In fact, he set much of the agenda.  He proposes that Israel put everything on the table including sovereignty over the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. "All of the historical questions that overshadow the argument between us and the Palestinians are on the agenda. We will not evade any one of them," Olmert recently explained.  Even parts of Jerusalem are up for sale. Judea and Samaria will be shredded.
Does anyone remember all the previous efforts, just a few listed here: Madrid, Oslo I and II, Wye, Tennet, Mitchell, and Saudi "agreements?"  As Joseph Farah says, "That's essentially what the 'peace process' is all about: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
 
What a strange time for Israel to roll over in front of her enemies. Iran is threatening to wipe her out. Hezbollah and Syria are arming for her destruction as well.  Fatah and Hamas are warring, causing instability, and both continue to rail at the existence of Israel even as Fatah's Abbas plans for Annapolis.
I echo the words of Jim Hutchins who heads the ministry "The Jerusalem Connection." He states, "There is a special judgment of God reserved for those nations who 'divided up my land.' Regardless of the good intentions of the Bush administration in convening the Annapolis summit, our nation stands in peril if we impose any 'land for peace' solutions on Israel, including a division of Jerusalem. Let it not be said that we did nothing. Now is the time for all who love Israel and the covenant promises God has made, to let there voice be heard. 'For Zion's sake we will not keep silent.' " (Isaiah 62)
Take the words of Joel 3:2 seriously, please. There God says, "I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgment against them concerning my inheritance, my people Israel, for they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land." 
Yet, He who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps (Ps. 121:4).