Why the Camp David negotiations failed: Setting the record straight

Errata:

In Challenge to Zionism and Israel

We fault Ehud Olmert for withdrawing from Lebanon.
Should be:

We fault Ehud Barak for withdrawing from Lebanon.

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Why the Camp David negotiations failed: Setting the record straight

08.05. 2007
http://www.zionism-israel.com/log/archives/00000382.html
Original content copyright by the author
Zionism & Israel Center http://zionism-israel.com

Those who do not learn from history may be condemned to repeat it. Since Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are still in the offing, it is likely that understanding the reasons for the failure of the Israeli-Palestinian parlay at Camp David in July of 2000 is a history lesson with important logical consequences for future talks.

Many of the accounts of the Camp David negotiations fault Ehud Barak for not being forthcoming enough with compromises the Palestinians could accept, or for not creating a congenial atmosphere, and not preparing the ground properly, in line with the critique of Agha and Malley. President Clinton, who hosted the talks, did not blame Israel at the time, but he did not make clear the real nature of the stumbling blocks.

A different commentator did elucidate the problem. He made it clear what concessions the Israelis were expected to make to the Palestinians in return for peace. This commentator was none other than Mahmoud Abbas, Abu Mazen, who is now the President of the Palestinian Authority and represents the moderate party in Palestinian political life. He is charged with leading the negotiations with Israel, should they be renewed.

In November of 2000, prior to the Washington and Taba meetings, Abu Mazen wrote an article that set forth the Palestinian demands, and the reason for the failure of the Camp David summit, with frank clarity.

Mahmoud Abbas's article was published in Beirut Al Hayat of November 23 and November 24, 2000. According to this article, two cardinal issues that brought about the failure of the negotiations were the Jerusalem issue and the question of "right" of return of the Palestinian refugees.

Regarding Jerusalem, Abbas explained all of the compromises which Ehud Barak had apparently offered at Camp David in July of 2000, and not just at Taba in 2001, in response to US pressure. These were, it seems, very far reaching. They included granting Palestinian sovereignty over most of the old city of Jerusalem as well as East Jerusalem outside the city walls. They were rejected.

Abbas explained:

"Our position on the issue of Jerusalem is simple: Jerusalem is part of the territories occupied in 1967 and, hence, Resolution 242 applies to it. Jerusalem must return to our sovereignty and we will establish our capital on it."

This is a rather ambitious stance, going beyond anything the Israeli public has been led to expect regarding Jerusalem.

In the first place, Abbas wrote, "Jerusalem must return to our sovereignty." Jerusalem was never under Palestinian Arab sovereignty in three thousand years of recorded history...

http://www.zionism-israel.com/log/archives/00000382.html

Ami Isseroff

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Original content is Copyright by the author 2007. Posted at ZioNation-Zionism and Israel Web Log, http://www.zionism-israel.com/log/archives/00000382.html where your intelligent and constructive comments are welcome. Disributed by ZNN list. Subscribe by sending a message to ZNN-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Please forward by e-mail with this notice, cite this article and link to it. Other uses by permission only.

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Stephen Flurry and The Philadelphia Church of God

Stephen Flurry and The Philadelphia Church of God

By David Ben-Ariel

Stephen Flurry, son of Gerald Flurry, pastor general of the Philadelphia Church of God (based in Edmond, Oklahoma), has published a book that Amazon sells, Raising the Ruins: The Fight to Revive the Legacy of Herbert W. Armstrong.

It's promoted as "the shocking, gripping untold story of the doctrinal hijacking and spiritual destruction of the Worldwide Church of God after the death of its founder." Yet it basically REPEATS what Malachi's Message taught: "Malachi's Message is the gripping story of God's true Church gone off track in this end time...".

The "untold story"? How dare Stephen Flurry deny his father's work - the "centerpiece" of PCG literature - with his approval. But when a Laodicean leader is blind and one follows the other, they're both bound to fall into the ditch. What can we expect from those who fail to do what Herbert W. Armstrong clearly saw must yet be done and yet none of the groups professing to follow Herbert W. Armstrong have even expressed any interest in doing it? God's apostle said we must REACH THE CITIES OF JUDAH!

Since it appears Gerald Flurry and the Philadelphia Church of God are hard of hearing, the articles offered below, the indictments served, repeat the plain truth of this matter that God led me to share with them earlier, which I continue to stand by and testify is true.

May God grant Gerald Flurry and his son Stephen Flurry, as well as the PCG ministry and laymembers, heartfelt repentance for failing to warn the world in any major way about what is fast coming upon the world. With all the money they've squandered the whole world could know the warning message. If the PCG continues with Flurrys' folly rather than repent and get busy and DO THE WORK OF GOD - not merely the misleading works of men - they will be guilty of the blood of millions, as GOD WARNS THEM:

Ezekiel 3:18

18 When I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.

The Great Mideast Commission: Reaching the Cities of Judah

The Work of God Must Go Forward!

PCG: Carrying on "Business as Usual"

God has given the Philadelphia Church of God sufficient room to repent. If they don't, if they remain proud and stubborn like Sodom and Egypt, they will be removed from their position and God will see to it that HIS Work gets done! You can bet your life on it.

For Zion's Sake,

David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.

Preparing Jerusalem for Its King

Preparing Jerusalem for Its King

by Stephen Flurry May 2007

With hands-on help from Herbert W. Armstrong College students, 3,000 years of buried history is coming to life in Jerusalem. God is, even now, preparing the very spot from which Jesus Christ will rule the world during the Millennium. As part of its ongoing intifada against Israel, radical Islam is fighting fiercely on the intellectual battlefront as well—especially regarding Israel’s historical ties to Jerusalem. According to a new book by Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Yasser Arafat preposterously claimed to President Clinton at the 2000 Camp David summit that Solomon’s temple was not in Jerusalem (The Fight for Jerusalem). Two years later, in a newspaper interview, Arafat further advanced the myth, claiming that Solomon’s temple wasn’t even in Palestine. According to Gold, temple denial “quickly became a new Palestinian dogma that was even repeated, with the firmest conviction, by Western-educated Palestinian officials who are assiduously courted by the international media” (ibid., emphasis mine throughout). In an article titled “Reclaiming Biblical Jerusalem,” Rachel Ginsberg wrote about the territorial gains Palestinian propaganda has also made in the field of academia. “For a growing number of academics and intellectuals, King David and his united kingdom of Judah and Israel, which has served for 3,000 years as an integral symbol of the Jewish nation, is simply a piece of fiction. The biblical account of history has been dismissed as unreliable by a cadre of scholars, some of whom have an overtly political agenda, arguing that the traditional account was resurrected by the Zionists to justify dispossessing Palestinian Arabs” (Aish.com, Nov. 6, 2005). This revisionist history has even been accepted by certain Israeli scholars, Ginsberg noted: “Israel Finkelstein, chairman of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Archaeology, began championing a theory several years ago that the biblical accounts of Jerusalem as the seat of a powerful, unified monarchy under the rule of David and Solomon are essentially false. … He concluded that David and Solomon, if they existed at all, were merely ‘hill-country chieftains’ and Jerusalem a poor, small tribal village. He claims that the myth of King David was the creation of a cult of priests trying to create for themselves a glorious history.” This trend toward historical revisionism is what makes the most recent excavations of Dr. Eilat Mazar so controversial. Since 2005, she and her team of archeologists have been unearthing a massive stone structure from the original Jerusalem, called the City of David in the Bible (visit theTrumpet.com to read “King David’s Palace Found?” in our March 2006 issue). Mazar believes she has found King David’s place of residence—the royal palace. Because of her discovery, Gold wrote in his book, “The ‘minimalists’ had suffered yet another blow. Jerusalem, under the united monarchy of David and Solomon, could no longer be credibly characterized as a minor village” (op. cit.). Since October of last year, Herbert W. Armstrong College has had the honor of jointly participating with Dr. Mazar’s crew on the Jerusalem dig. Three of our volunteer students returned from the site in March. We plan to increase our involvement in Jerusalem over the summer. Here we will look at the City of David—past, present and future—and show you how Armstrong College, in a very practical, hands-on way, is helping to prepare Jerusalem for the return of Jesus Christ to this Earth! The City of David Before King David established Israel’s capital in Jerusalem, the city was a Jebusite stronghold (Joshua 15:8). When David became king in the 10th century b.c., he detested the thought of an enemy fortress retaining its location right in the middle of Israel’s territory. And so, after seven years of ruling from Hebron, David’s army attacked the Jebusite city. The Jebusites were so certain they could defend against David’s attack that they taunted the young king—saying even the blind and lame could defend the city (2 Samuel 5:6). David challenged his military generals, saying whoever captured the stronghold would be given command of the armies in the field. So Joab proceeded to lead a sneak attack by climbing up into the fortified city through a water conduit, resulting in its capture (verses 7-8). “So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward. And David went on, and grew great, and the Lord God of hosts was with him” (verses 9-10). And so the kingdom of Israel under David’s reign became a world-ruling empire, according to the Bible. But revisionist historians claim this account overstates the significance of David’s reign. For some, the biblical version is little more than a fable. The Bible says the king of Tyre built David a palace after he had conquered the Jebusite fortress and turned it into the City of David—or Jerusalem (verse 11). “But when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the [strong]hold”—or, the fortress (verse 17). This verse had a profound impact on Eilat Mazar’s mind while she prepared for the dig. “The Bible says that David heard about it and ‘descended to the fortress,’” Ginsberg wrote in her article, “implying that he went down from his palace, which was higher up on the mountain than the citadel/city.” She then quoted Dr. Mazar: “I always asked myself: Down from where? It must have been from his palace on top of the hill, outside the original Jebusite city.” Many archeologists had assumed that David’s palace must have been located within the walled city. But why would the king of Israel build his royal palace inside the cramped city walls of the old Jebusite fortress, Mazar wondered? The old city was only about 9 square acres in size. Relying on the history recorded in 2 Samuel 5:17, however, it made sense. Once David heard about the Philistines’ approach, he left his palace at the peak of Mount Zion and “went down” to the stronghold—entered the walled city, in other words. So Mazar started digging immediately north of the City of David, right at the top of Mount Zion. And after just one season of digging, she discovered a massive wall, up to 10 feet wide in some places, and running 100 feet in length, east to west. This scenario makes sense even looking at Jerusalem today. Just north of Mount Zion is Mount Moriah, where Solomon, David’s son, built the first temple, located on what is called the Temple Mount today. So when David captured the Jebusite stronghold and made it Israel’s capital, he later expanded the city northward, building his own palace adjacent to the walled city, at the top of Mount Zion. Then, to the mount just north of there, Solomon constructed a magnificent house for God. And that’s about how Jerusalem remained for the next four centuries. During the first phase of the dig in 2005, Dr. Mazar found a bulla, or clay disc used to seal scrolls, with the inscription “Yehuchal” on it. This is the name of the Judean prince mentioned in Jeremiah 37:3 (Jehucal), indicating that Judean royalty ruled from the palace David built for more than four centuries—right up to Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 585 b.c. “For me, finding the bulla was tremendous,” Mazar explained. “Yehuchal was no longer just some name in a biblical account that I might not even have been sure was true. He was a real person. We now have his business card. The account is a real account. It is very rare to find such precise evidence for a narrative in the Bible. … Today the scholarly approach to Tanach [the Bible] is that it’s not true unless you can prove it true. Maybe we should do a little reverse. Why don’t we say it’s true unless we can prove otherwise?” How refreshing—a scholar who operates on the assumption that what the Bible says is actually true. Jerusalem in “Heaps” In ancient Israel, God had placed His name in Jerusalem (2 Kings 21:1-4). But after evil kings introduced all sorts of abominable practices within the temple, God promised to cast off this city and the temple (2 Kings 23:27). And, of course, that is exactly what happened. About 130 years after Israel’s captivity at the hands of the Assyrians, God caused the Jews also to be driven out of their land into captivity and slavery. God prophesied through His servant Jeremiah, “And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant” (Jeremiah 9:11). The Hebrew word for “heaps” in this verse means heap after heap of ruins—or waves of ruins. The Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem was so thorough that very little remained of the ancient city. (See also Jeremiah 26:18 and Micah 3:12.) Seventy years after Jerusalem was destroyed, about 50,000 Jews returned in order to rebuild the ruined city. This history is recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. This time, the city of Jerusalem and the second temple weren’t nearly as impressive as the first ones. Nevertheless, this rebuilt city remained intact for about 300 years—until the second century b.c. during the Maccabean Revolt. During that period, the Syrians had gained control of much of Judah—and the Jews, led by Simon of the Maccabean brothers, set out to remove the Syrians entirely from the region. According to Jewish historian Josephus, the last Syrian stronghold to fall during the Maccabean Wars was the citadel fortress on top of Mount Zion. Simon cut off supply lines into the city in order to starve its inhabitants into submission. “He [Simon] also took the citadel of Jerusalem by siege,” Josephus relates, “and cast it down to the ground, that it might not be any more a place of refuge to their enemies when they took it, to do them a mischief, as it had been till now. And when he had done this, he thought it their best way, and most for their advantage, to level the very mountain itself upon which the citadel happened to stand, that so the temple might be higher than it.” Simon convinced the Jews of the necessity of the project, and the people went to work. “[S]o they all set themselves to the work, and leveled the mountain, and in that work spent both day and night without intermission, which cost them three whole years before it was removed, and brought to an entire level with the plain of the rest of the city. After which the temple was the highest of all the buildings, now the citadel, as well as the mountain whereon it stood, were demolished” (Antiquities of the Jews, xiii, vi, 7). And so, to this day, there appears to be one mountain—where the Temple Mount is located (Mount Moriah)—and the topography slopes downward from there, heading south. This history covered by Josephus is important for a couple reasons. First, after Mount Zion was leveled off, it was essentially left desolate for generations to come as Jerusalem construction and expansion essentially pushed northward and westward. As Herbert W. Armstrong wrote, “It is significant that few buildings now stand on the multiple-acre area of the original Jerusalem, now being excavated”—referring to an excavation of the area his organization was part of in 1969 (Plain Truth, April 1969). Second, by removing the top of Mount Zion, Simon and the Jews essentially spent three whole years getting rid of the heaps that God had prophesied to send upon the ancient city. With that in mind, consider this comment from Ginsberg: “What most amazed Mazar was how close the building is to the surface—just 1 to 2 meters underground. ‘The cynics kept saying, there will be so many layers, so many remnants of other cultures, it’s not worth digging, it’s too far down. I was shocked at how easy it was to uncover it, and how well-preserved it was, as if it were just waiting 3,000 years for us to find it,’ Mazar said.” Dr. Mazar conveyed this same amazement to me when I spoke with her in Jerusalem last year. “We only dug down a couple meters,” she said, “and we went back 3,000 years in time!” Project Delays Ginsberg also wrote about the trouble Dr. Mazar had in getting this project up and running. “More than 10 years ago, Mazar proposed a solid thesis as to the location of the palace, and argued her position in a piece published in Biblical Archaeological Review. … Despite her sound hypothesis and impeccable credentials, she couldn’t find any financial backers, as if no one in the academic world really wanted to find David’s palace. It would just be too politically complicated. It’s no wonder, when even mainstream archaeologists are inclined to play down finds which might be considered too highly charged with biblical or historical accuracy. … “Despite the seeming indifference from the academic world, Mazar’s proposal finally found a sponsor in the Shalem Center, an academic center in Jerusalem that recently established an institute for archaeological studies, and was funded by Roger Hertog, an American Jewish investment banker who told the New York Times that he fronted the dig because he wants to encourage scientific support for the Bible as a reflection of Jewish history.” So Dr. Mazar was all ready to proceed with the project in 1995, but had to wait 10 years until she could find someone to fund the project. The ancient ruins from the Davidic Empire were waiting under just a couple meters of dirt. Perhaps God delayed the project just long enough for Armstrong College to become a partner. When I first met with Dr. Mazar last August to see if she would be interested in using our volunteers, she told us the plan was to begin phase two of the dig in September but said there had already been numerous delays. When I called her two days later, she was extremely excited. Apparently, plans to begin phase two were suddenly progressing rapidly. In January, while visiting our three volunteers on the job in Jerusalem, I met with Dr. Mazar again; this time she said that after phase two ended in March, a third phase would begin soon after, without delay. This summer schedule for the dig worked out perfectly for our expanded involvement, since class will be out of session at Armstrong College. This is an incredible opportunity for Armstrong College—but not merely because of the history that is being uncovered. The most important aspect of this archeological project has to do with the future of that city. God Shall Yet Choose Jerusalem We have already noted certain prophecies where God said He would pile “heaps” upon Jerusalem—which He did. But God has also prophesied to “choose Jerusalem again” (Zechariah 2:12; see also Zechariah 1:17). Notice what Mr. Armstrong wrote to co-workers in 1968, when he sent Ambassador College students to volunteer at the Temple Mount excavations in Jerusalem, under the direction of Benjamin Mazar, Eilat’s grandfather. He said God had commissioned His people to “clean up the filth and rubble in that area that was the original Jerusalem and City of David (actually several acres of ground—this is a major operation of excavation)” (Dec. 10, 1968). And why is this important? Mr. Armstrong asked. “Because Christ has said He will yet choose Jerusalem, and make it the capital city of the whole World Tomorrow! Jesus is coming in all the supernatural power and glory to rule the world. His throne will be there. Do you not suppose it will be in the very spot He chose for David’s throne? Jesus is to sit on David’s throne! Where was David’s throne? It was on this very spot where we are now cleaning up and hauling off the rubble of century after century of accumulation! And even David is to be resurrected! That is the spot we are cleaning up! So there is a physical preparing, as well as spiritual, in preparing the way for Messiah’s coming! Further, God says we are to shout, with amplified power, to the cities of Judah the glad message that the Messiah is soon coming. This is leading to the opportunity to do this (Isaiah 40:1-11).” Mr. Armstrong said they were cleaning up the “very spot” where David’s throne was located, but actually they weren’t—they were just a little ways north of that spot, on Mount Moriah (the Temple Mount). He did indicate a desire for the volunteers to work their way down toward the City of David, but they never made it that far. God left that for us to do. And as Mr. Armstrong indicated in that letter, this all leads into the wonderful World Tomorrow when Christ will rule this Earth (Jeremiah 3:16-17) from the throne of David: “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:32-33). Mr. Armstrong wrote, “How remarkable that this scriptural prediction says plainly that the messianic future world ruler—long, long looked for by many if not most Jews—is to reign on the throne of David!” (Plain Truth, op. cit.). City on a Hill This magazine has often referred to the very next prophesied event to occur in Jerusalem—the division of the city between Jews and Arabs, referred to in Zechariah 14:1-2, and how that event will lead directly to the return of Jesus Christ to this Earth. “Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south” (verses 3-4). The Mount of Olives is across the Valley of Jehoshaphat, directly east of the Temple Mount and Mount Zion. Verse 5 continues, “And ye shall flee to the valley [or through the valley] of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.” TheJamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary says the mountains mentioned here could be referring to the two mounts—Mount Moriah and Mount Zion. Notice verse 10: “All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses.” Here is how Lange’s Commentary explains this verse: “The whole land is to be leveled to a plain in order that Jerusalem may be elevated, and then the holy city is to be restored to its former grandeur. … In consequence of this depression of all the surrounding country, Jerusalem becomes high.” In other words, the Jerusalem excavations will continue right on into the Millennium. “The capital seated on her hills shines conspicuous as the only elevation in a very wide region,” says Lange. Jerusalem, in a very literal sense, will be a city that is set on a hill (Matthew 5:14). “And it shall come to pass in the last days,” the Prophet Isaiah wrote, “that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it” (Isaiah 2:2). How wonderful are the prophecies of God! Yes, there is a great spiritual excavation going on in preparation for Christ’s return (see Amos 9:11-12). But as Mr. Armstrong brought out in his 1968 letter, there is also a physical preparing for the Messiah’s appearance. “If the spot of the original throne of David is, in fact, to be the coming seat of world government, then all that accumulated debris of century after century must be cleared off before that event can occur! Exciting?” Mr. Armstrong asked (Plain Truth, op. cit.). “Beyond words to describe, it is!” ******************* I'm very happy to see God's Church has again been restored to Jerusalem, to a degree, by participating in archaeological digs like we did under the direction of Herbert W. Armstrong. I've called upon the Church of God to do this for years, and taken our leaders to task, reminding them of Herbert W. Armstrong's words concerning this part of the Great Commission too many had forgotten or woefully neglected. It's a start - or rather a resumption of the Work in Israel! The Great Mideast Commission: Reaching the Cities of Judah Jews to Receive Jesus as Israel's King! Israel and Judah Must Get House in Order Before King Messiah Arrives

Herod's Grave Uncovered

Herod's Grave Uncovered

A Hebrew University professor, fulfilling a career-long quest to solve this national-historic mystery, has found King Herod's grave at the Herodion

Jewish Converts to Christianity?

I am opposed to anybody - Jew, Israelite or Gentile - becoming a convert to the counterfeit Christianity of "traditional Churchianity." Such popular error misrepresents true Christianity with its Babylonian mystery religion dressed up in the drag of "Christianity."

True Christianity, as taught by Herbert W. Armstrong, merely announces to the cities of Judah the soon coming Kingdom of God to be established by King Messiah, Yeshua. We don't seek converts or believe it's our responsibility to "save" the world. If God wants to save the world, it will be saved. There's no contest between God and the devil, contrary to traditional myths.

CAPAI: Christians Against Proselytizing Among Israel

From Jerusalem to the USA by Stan Goodenough

From Jerusalem to the USA
By Stan Goodenough

I am writing this from the food court at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, where I have just “enjoyed” a Big Mac - getting ready for what lies ahead of me I guess.

About two hours ago I took leave of my family in Jerusalem, and in just under an hour I will board an El Al Jumbo Jet for my 13-hour flight to the United States.

For the next four weeks I, together with my mentor and good friend Jan Willem van der Hoeven - director of the Benjamin-based International Christian Zionist Center - will be traveling through a number of different states from one side of America to the other, there to speak with church leaders and congregations, and also with political leaders in Washington DC, about developments in the relationship between the US and the State of Israel.

We leave an Israel that is in political turmoil and simultaneously exceedingly grave danger. The Winograd Commission of Inquiry into the prosecution of the Second Lebanon War released its findings earlier this week: a damning indictment of failure and incompetence that goes to the highest levels of the government and military.

As infighting intensifies and demands for the prime minister’s resignation come hard and fast from every side, Israel’s enemies in Damascus and Lebanon are gloating, repeating their claim to have defeated the IDF last summer even as they continue to prepare for their next assault on the Jewish state.

Some fear the explosion could come really soon, as the Arabs take advantage of the turmoil tearing away at Israel’s insides.

Many experts have said they believe there will be another war this year, one that will likely include Syria and even, God forbid, the use of non-conventional weapons.

It is not easy, then, to leave this nation and my family in the midst of all this uncertainty.

I believe very strongly, however, in the need to impress on Christians and leaders in America the fact that the last war was - and the next one will be - in no small way attributable to the US-led land-for-peace process that has seen Israel weakened from within and without.

Madrid, Oslo and the Road Map have left Israel far more vulnerable today than she would have been if the nations had not so leaned on her to go this way of compromise and unilateral surrender to the demands of the Arabs.

Israel is in the center of a grave crisis. Things look like getting a whole lot worse before they will start to get better.

We believe it would be good - for Israel and for the United States - if instead of bewailing, as he has done, the imminent political demise of Ehud Olmert, whose leadership President George W. Bush suggested earlier this week was important to the successful realization of the “two state solution,” if the White House itself will be open to accepting the Winograd findings.

For these findings not only indict the failed Israeli leadership; they also highlight the failure of the land-for-peace process to bring any measure of peace at all to the people of the Jewish state.

Israel, under pressure, pulled unilaterally out of southern Lebanon, which today is a terrorist stronghold positively bristling with surface-to-surface missiles and threatening to bleed Israel again in order to trigger another war.

Israel, under pressure, pulled unilaterally out of Gaza, which today is a terrorist stronghold positively laden with weapons and explosives, and which seeks daily to bleed Israel until it succeeds in pulling the IDF back into the Strip and initiating intense conflict in the south.

America’s decades-old land-for-peace process has pushed Israel into this extremely precarious position, and threatens to exacerbate things even more if it can successfully bring about Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Samaria and Judea.

Within months the newly-vacated biblical heartland of Israel will, too, be turned into a terrorist mecca. Towering over Israel’s densely populated and highly-industrial coastal plain, with an open channel feeding arms, including missiles, in from Iran and any Arab state that wants to be in at “the end” - this “State of Palestine” will threaten Israel’s very existence.

It will threaten, too, the American economy, which is so dependable on the maintenance of stability in the Middle East.

The United States - so blessed by God with power, influence and prosperity - and which has already tasted the fury of heaven as it has sought to divide up the Land of Israel, is playing with, not Israel’s existence, but its own.

This is the grave and, in fact, fearful warning we are bringing to America. It will not be a popular message. We will not be welcomed with it. But it is a warning we have to sound:

9-11, Katrina, and all the other disasters and threatened disasters will pale, we believe, in comparison with what is poised to come upon the United States if, after all the pain, bloodshed and warfare US-promoted Middle East peace policies have wreaked on the people of Israel, the US persists in pushing Israel down this road.

May God give us the words to say and the courage to say them. And may He bring across our paths ears to hear, and hearts to respond, to what we have to share.

***************

May Stan Goodenough (my long lost relative - we're both descendants of John and Priscilla Alden from the Mayflower - who I've met in Jerusalem and given a copy of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall) embrace our identity as Joseph that he may better understand why the United States and Israel's past, present and future are intertwined.

Joseph and Judah must work together or we'll fall together.

This vital biblical truth about the "Lost Ten Tribes" will help Stan to bless Judah and Jerusalem in even greater ways.

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Politics in the Church of God prevents progress

Politics in the Church of God Prevents Progress
By David Ben-Ariel

Many Sabbath-keeping Church of God members (various groups and organizations associated to one degree or another with Herbert W. Armstrong) are sincerely opposed to offering any Church of God literature or religious material for sale, since Herbert Armstrong taught us to "buy the truth and sell it not." However, such Church of God members should remember that Mr. Armstrong later permitted his books to be made available for sale in bookstores, informing the brethren and co-workers in a letter dated September 12, 1985:

"There is a very large audience which would never request this book [Mystery of the Ages] if offered free - who would never send their name and address to us - but would gladly buy a copy in the bookstore. By putting it in the bookstores we will reach a very great audience that we can reach in no other way. We will not sell the book ourselves, but it cannot be made available to this large audience of book buyers unless the bookstores do put a price on it." (Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, Volume 2, page 638).

Some have been upset that Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall is sold. I remind them of Herbert Armstrong's words above and Paul's rhetorical response to some in his day over this principle that we're commanded to not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain and that a worker is worthy of his hire. Besides, Beyond Babylon is available to for FREE or read online for FREE. God knows I am certainly not in this for the money, but gladly share the plain truth of the Bible and history as I am able, knowing it is truly priceless information.

I am also an individual, not a Church organization receiving regular tithes and offerings who therefore have no need to sell anything, as they're equipped to offer it all, ideally, for free. I don't believe any Church of God organization should sell Church of God literature. However, those out in the field, not part of the administration or headquarters, have a God-given right to do as necessary. Yeshua didn't condemn selling sacrificial animals but was righteously indignant that such commercial activities were taking place in the Temple courtyards and at exorbitant prices. Many were making a killing rather than offering a service.

A member of the Philadelphia Church of God recently corresponded with me on this and other Church of God issues.

Didn't you try and impose your book on God's ministers and church?

Not at all. Gerald Flurry refused to go forward with Beyond Babylon and fell backwards, treading old ground and is now going in circles, business as usual, as Europe rises and Judah and Israel have yet to be warned.

Maybe you should have waited until the time came.

Don't you believe God goes first to His Church and then His Nation? It was time to bring Beyond Babylon before Flurry, whom I consider to be the leader of this Laodicean era of God's Church.

Do you think you are one of the 2 witnesses?

God knows, but what I do know is that we ought to at least prepare the way for them with Judah and NONE of the Church of God groups reach the cities of Judah.

That would be a honor to be one. I've often prayed about them and in my silliness wished I could be one of them.

It would be an honor and a grave responsibility and the most hated job in the world since rejection would be by many in the Church, initially, and nearly all in the world, with a bloody ending until the resurrection to physical life just before the return of the King, Yeshua the Messiah. No nice dinners or fancy invitations for the Two Witnesses but plenty of murderous misunderstanding and hateful grief.

But I'm just a lay member.....

No such thing as "just" a lay member. Everybody has their God-given place in the Church of God and are equally important for whatever God has called them to do.

Seems to me you focus too much on the physical Jews.

Not at all. Herbert Armstrong always told us to "WATCH JERUSALEM!" Who's in Jerusalem? JEWS! The gospel began and will return there. God's true church is not there now although "Elijah" went there. This must change.

Mr. Armstrong, near the time of his death, said on one of his sermons or Bible studies that they are not so important as he once thought since they don't even believe in Jesus Christ.

I don't believe that at all and don't believe he ever said it. I quote what we know for sure Herbert Armstrong said about the importance of reaching the cities of Judah. It's documented. Shamefully, it's something that hasn't been done yet but the foundation has been laid, even though the Work in Israel is temporarily suspended by government decree as it was in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Mr. Flurry never read your book right?

I don't know. Wayne Turgeon [Gerald Flurry's son-in-law] handed him a print out of it years ago and he returned it to him saying, "He's always sending us stuff." Mr. Flurry even responded to me several times on various issues including his confusion of Mount Carmel with Mount Hermon which I brought to his attention (having been blessed to live next to both of them), and my disagreement with him when he said the pope was the only religious leader to sit on a throne and I mentioned the Queen of England is also head of the Anglican Church (although agreeing with the point he was making against the Roman Catholic Cult).

I would love to find those letters, however during my many moves overseas to Israel I thought I kept them stored at my sister's home but she can't find them. Such letters also include correspondence from Dr. Herman Hoeh years ago about the Jews and their variations in color and why. I met Dr. Hoeh at the Toronto Singles' Weekend (Church of God singles from all over were in attendance) where he spoke and invited us to write him, which of course I did.

Later I sent an autographed copy of a self-published BB (Beyond Babylon) to Flurry's home for him and his wife who said to me (during the Feast of Tabernacles in Louisville) about my name, "What a strong Judah name!"

Dennis Leap said he read parts of it and that it wasn't necessary for him or Flurry to read it, unlike Mr. Armstrong wanting Sardis (Church of God, Seventh Day) to read his manuscript - The United States and Britain in Prophecy - which they DID.

Well, I hear you loud and clear. I do not agree with some of headquarter's decisions but they are just as human as we are and liable to make mistakes, including Mr. Flurry. Sometimes we just have to suffer the wrong and go on.

I readily accept and acknowledge that fact, but if it's a mistake or a sin we learn from it, acknowledge it and go forward all the wiser. Flurry has done none of those humble things. Regardless, I go on without him as he goes backwards trying to play HWA and God in the Temple, grieved to say.

David, I hope and pray for your return to PCG... Mr. Flurry has engaged in personal appearance campaigns and he plans to go to Joseph and Judah this coming year I think. The Key of David will no longer air on TV and we are now focusing on personal warnings.

Remember we are baptized into the Body of Jesus Christ - not into any sect or denomination of men. I remain a member of the spiritual Church of God that isn't bound by membership lists at the mercy of men. Remember Diotrephes? (3 John vs. 9-11).

What do you mean they've scrapped the TV programs (even though I always constructively criticized them -through Wayne Turgeon who used to write me very frequently - that nobody but a very limited religious audience would watch the programs at the hours they were shown). As Turgeon can testify, I also said they needed a toll free number (which years later they obtained); I said they needed a website with Church literature (which years later they have); they need to publish Beyond Babylon freely (which they still don't) and to take out major newspaper ads like HWA to reach EVERYBODY and get EVERYBODY talking about our God-given controversial message.

We do really need better advertisement.

Yes, because I've conducted my own tests and surveys on many internet forums to see that the general public doesn't have a clue who Flurry is, never heard of the PCG and doesn't know the warning message at all. All that money for what? A private club?

Too bad you only see what you think is bad but God has to get his family ready first to marry his Son before He can deal properly with the world.

And how does God do that? Have us stare at our Church navel - Church headquarters as the center of our attention? - or by the way of give, outflowing concern for the good and welfare of OTHERS - like the cities of Judah. Otherwise folks will never feel ready to reach out and will have proven themselves deceived by Satan who doesn't want the Work to GO FORWARD. As we reach out, so help us God, He will work in and through and for us at the same time.

I know everything that is good about the PCG and continue to direct folks to its literature and The Philadelphia Trumpet magazine despite their refusal to send it to me. They even know I've given them contacts in the Middle East, in Jerusalem, Jewish leaders, and that it was me whom God used to contact the mayor of Jerusalem to get the HWA monument repaired (in the Liberty Bell Park in Jerusalem), and then I forwarded the information to Flurry (who didn't even say thank you and wasn't even aware of its woeful neglect that I knew about from being over there so many times). I'll bet you didn't know that, did you?

I had written an open letter to the mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolianski, that was published in The Jerusalem Post. His office contacted me to inquire about what groups or organizations I was referring to that would be interested in undertaking the financial responsibility for the monument's restoration and the rest is history.

David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.