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Stan Goodenough is an experienced journalist who has written about politics in South Africa and the Middle East for such organizations as The Daily Dispatch of East London, South Africa, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, The Jerusalem Post, and the Virtual HolyLand website. He has been a South African gentile resident in Israel for 12 years. Stan is editor of and .
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By Stan Goodenough
June 24, 2007
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Dear Prime Minister Olmert:
Today you and your government agreed to help establish the newly appointed Palestinian Authority in power in Judea and Samaria -- the cradle of your nation and the area where tens of thousands of your people have built their homes in obedience to the biblical injunction to settle the land.
You have recognized the spontaneously appointed "government" of veteran PLO terrorist Mahmoud Abbas and are about to start funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into their coffers, without demanding that they first acknowledge their murderous past and the fact that they have no national history in this land; renounce all forms of violence; end incitement against Israel; and recognize the existence of the Jewish State of Israel.
From what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reportedly tried to get you to do last week, it is clear that the United States remains determined to see the creation in these very lands of an independent state for the Arabs universally called "the Palestinians."
That is to say, you are cooperating fully with the gentile effort to divide up the tiny scrap of land millions of your people have for millennia believed to be their own, and wept and prayed to return to.
Sir, you are going right along with, and in fact actively helping to realize, the PLO plan to obtain as much of Eretz Yisrael as possible through negotiations before returning to full-scale warfare (with the aid of their brethren in the Arab states) in order to get the rest.
You came to power promising to repeat the hitnatkut (unilateral disengagement) from the Gaza Strip.
Last summer's war with the Lebanese Hizb'allah, fought in the land unilaterally disengaged from by then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak; the incessant Kassam rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, the land unilaterally disengaged from by your predecessor and benefactor Ariel Sharon, and two weeks ago turned into Hamastan -- all this has given you pause.
But not enough pause.
Instead of calling a halt to the misnamed "land-for-peace process," you have only (and perhaps not finally) dropped the idea of unilaterally pulling out of Judea and Samaria.
You still intend to pull out.
Mr Prime Minister. What this means is that you still intend to forcefully uproot hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens from their homes and businesses, flattening their communities and turning them into homeless and unemployed refugees as Sharon did to the 9,000 Jews from Gush Katif and the other settlements in Gaza.
In the light of this further deterioration in the situation, I thought it might be a good time to let you know you that I, too, work in the land you are willing to surrender to the terrorist "Palestinians."
In fact, I and a handful of fellow Christian Zionists, in the name of thousands of our supporters around the world, and reflecting the beliefs of tens of millions of others, last year purposefully moved our offices out to Samaria in solidarity with those of your citizens you have threatened to evict.
I want to make this clear. We are standing out behind the wall, on the territory you are willing to surrender -- the biblical heartland of your people, where a terrible number of Jews have bled and died at the hands of those who are determined to destroy you all.
From our offices we are pro-actively working to reach and train Christian Zionists everywhere, and to encourage an increasing number to come and take a stand with us here in the mountains of Samaria.
We cannot, and we will not, sit quietly or idly by as the gentiles continue to gamble with your security -- your very existence.
For too long Christians have watched from the sidelines (if not actively participated) as your
people bore the brunt of the hatred of those who also hate your God, the God of Israel.
Those days may not be over yet, but they are coming to an end. We believe we are in the vanguard of countless Christians who are awakening to the fact that Israel's enemies are their enemies. We have learned, and we are teaching others to understand, that our future and your future are intertwined.
We have chosen to stand with your people against the world; to go with the people of Israel because we have heard that God is with you, and we choose to be on His side too.
Mr. Prime Minister. Our desire is not to attack or vilify you, even though we oppose your appeasement policies with everything that is in us because we know -- not with presumption or arrogance, but from the vantage point of your nation's very own history -- that they will exact yet another painful price from the Jews.
Our yearning is to be able, somehow, to remind you of the beliefs we know you once held, convictions you had that have grown shaky in the face of the overwhelming international opposition to what you know is best for your people, and what is their God-given right.
Although many will believe that it's too late -- and the hour truly is late -- we urge you to turn away from this path that poses so great a danger to your people.
May we once again remind you of the words that so long ago put steel into the spine of one of your greatest warriors as he heard the angel tell him:
"Only be strong, and of good courage."
Mr. Olmert -- no matter what others say, the road you are on is not the only road there is. You do not have to continue down it. You and your nation are not alone. As He has always done, your G-d stands ready to fight for you.
We also want to stand with you -- with everything we have.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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