The Deal That Never Was - Jack Kinsella - www.omegaletter.com
The Israeli Prime Minister's office denied this weekend that it took part in what is now being dubbed the "Geneva Understandings" -- a draft memorandum for yet another 'permanent' Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. The deal was negotiated by former MK Yossi Beilin, who has been involved in the negotiation and development of pretty much every peace agreement that has collapsed so far. Beilin is a member of the Israeli opposition party, as were the other members of the unofficial Israeli negotiating team. Negotiating for the Palestinian side was Yasser Abed Rabbo and Marwan Barghouti, who negotiated while simultaneously standing trial in Israel for murder. Can it get any stranger? Sure it can. The Prime Minister wasn't involved. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Israel's Channel Two on Sunday that the initiative is 'hampering the ability to move forward in negotiations towards a practical peace agreement'. Duh! According to a Channel Two report, Sharon learned from intelligence sources that Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and his government intend to adopt the Geneva Understandings. The problem for Sharon is that Beilin is about as representative of Sharon's government as Jesse Jackson is of the Bush administration. Jordan has already announced that the initiative will be released and signed during an international conference to be held in Geneva next month, as if Sharon's objections are irrelevant. The 'Geneva Understandings' don't even have the support of ultra-dove and former Prime Minister Sharon Peres, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Yasser Arafat in 1995. Despite the denials from the Prime Minister's Office, Beilin says Sharon was 'continually kept updated' on the developing negotiations, creating an air of back-channel legitimacy that Sharon is going to have difficulty overcoming. Assessment: The 'Geneva Understandings' have a number of built-in flaws that guarantee its failure, but each tried and failed effort brings us closer to the agreement that one day MUST come. Like Oslo, and like the Geneva Understandings, the prophet Daniel says it will be a European-backed and brokered plan. But this one doesn't appear to be Daniel's deal. At least, not completely. In the first part, it MUST fail because Yasser Arafat's fingerprints are all over it. Any plan in which Yasser Arafat plays a part in developing does not have peace, or anything resembling peace, as its final goal. Arafat is dedicated to a Palestinian state instead of Israel, not beside it. Secondly, it is dishonest on its face. The plan calls for the Palestinians to concede the 'Right of Return' in exchange for allowing an unspecified 'limited' number to settle in Israel. To Arafat, an 'unspecified number' is a blank check. The Geneva Understandings specifically say this is not a 'realization of the right of return' as if that makes a difference. In compromising on the 'Right of Return,' Beilin negotiated a political victory for Israel, while Arafat negotiated a tactical one for his side. Arafat's goal is an Arab state in Israel's place. Arafat's 'unspecified number' need only be just enough for the Palestinians to outnumber the Israelis at the next election and his goal is realized. Third, Beilin negotiated away the Temple Mount. The Understandings envisage a Temple Mount under Palestinian sovereignty. It does allow for an international force to 'ensure freedom of access for visitors of all faiths'; bringing the UN into the business of defining what constitutes a 'faith'. Beilin also negotiated away Israel's religious roots and its strongest case for its existence. The Understandings specifically prohibit Jewish prayer and archaeological digs on the Mount. The Western Wall is to remain under Jewish sovereignty and the "Holy Basin" will be under international supervision. Jerusalem will be re-divided, with East Jerusalem reverting to its pre-1967 status. Israel will be permitted to keep the few Jewish neighborhoods on the Arab sides that border with the Israeli west. Fourth, the Palestinians are only required, under the terms of the Understandings, to PLEDGE to prevent terror and incitement and disarm all militias. They've 'pledged' to do that in every single agreement they've signed with Israel. Since all they have to do is promise, this one is a no-brainer for everybody -- except, it seems, for Yossi Beilin. Fifth, Beilin negotiated away Israel's sovereignty over its own borders. The Understandings demand that an international, but not Israeli, force man border crossings between Israel and the Palestinian state. For all these reasons, and more, it would be national suicide for the Sharon government to accept the Geneva Understandings, especially since his government had no part in negotiating it. But things aren't done in Israel like they are anywhere else. Beilin and his Arab counterparts, in announcing the draft agreement, also announced its upcoming signing ceremony as if it were a done deal. The Arab side is already treating it as such. Other Arab states have begun bragging it up in their local press, just to make sure the groundwork is laid for them to blame Israel if the Deal That Never Was needs to be recast in the Court of Public Opinion as the Deal That Israel Broke. "The document provides solutions to final settlement issues such as the status of Arab East Jerusalem, frontiers, the establishment of a Palestinian state and the right of returning home of Palestinian refugees who were forced to leave Palestine when Israel was founded in 1948," said the deputy Palestinian ambassador to Jordan, Atallah Khairi. An Israeli-Arab member of the Knesset, Yossi Sarid, told Israel Radio, "I don't understand why the prime minister was angered by the meeting near the Dead Sea... Perhaps Sharon is scared that a terrible secret would come out: that there is someone to talk and something to talk about, and a significant degree of goodwill on the part of the second party, and that this is a time in which calm, even relative calm can be achieved... We, unlike him, are not afraid." Of course, he isn't afraid! The deal effectively destroys a Jewish State of Israel within a generation demographically, regardless of what the Understandings purport to 'recognize' now. 'Recognizing a Jewish state in Israel' will only be necessary until a majority of voters pass a referendum declaring it an Arab State. But the Deal that Never Was is now being talked about in the European and American press as a new 'hope' for peace in the Middle East. We've already seen over the course of the past ten years that, once a deal is announced, it no longer matters whether Israel agrees to it. The 'deal,' as far as the global court of public opinion is concerned, is whatever Arafat SAYS it is, and what Israel actually agreed to is irrelevant. In this case, Israel not only hasn't agreed to it, the Sharon government says it wasn't even part of it. And, there is a signing ceremony to finalize it scheduled in Geneva sometime in the next couple of weeks. The Geneva Understandings have all the necessary elements to qualify as Daniel's 'false peace' except one. There is no European involvement. Let's return to Daniel 9:27 and look closely at what Daniel says, again. "And he shall CONFIRM the covenant with many for one week:" The war against Iraq has pretty much exhausted American political currency in the Arab world, and particularly among the Palestinians. The Europeans have been trying to insinuate itself into the peace process since the collapse of Oslo. Israel may well be forced by world opinion to honor the terms of a deal it never sanctioned, and, if it does acquiesce under pressure, this agreement is certain to collapse as completely as have the previous deals. With all that, I don't want to be quoted as saying this is THE deal. I don't KNOW; I am not a prophet - I have only the words of the real prophets to guide me. But the timing is interesting, and the options are dwindling. Soon, there won't be anyone left for Israel to make a false peace WITH. Unless someone of sufficient stature among both Israelis and the Arabs steps up to the plate to offer his personal security guarantees and 'confirms' the deal. The current global situation says the only entity with credentials suitable to both the Arab and Israeli side is the European Union. So does Daniel. While Daniel only saw images of the future, it is given to us to see them in context. "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand." (Daniel 12:3-4) It has been given to us - all of us -- to sound the warning that the countdown is approaching zero. It is our mission, and it is our duty. We have all this information at our disposal. Now that we know what we know, what would God have us to do with it? "Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul." (Ezekiel 33:4-5) "Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me." (Ezekiel 3:17) ________________________________ Changes to your subscription (unsubs, nomail, digest) can be made by going to http://sandboxmail.net/mailman/listinfo/sndbox_sandboxmail.net
