Rice Dish Confuses
Ron Ross
BFP News
Email: ronrossbfp@hotmail.com
14th October 2006
Politically-correct speech has a tendency to weave a spell of confusion. Take for example the message delivered by US Secretary of State Dr Condoleezza Rice when she addressed an American-Palestinian crowd recently. This was the first time she had been welcomed before the group and while she may have considerably encouraged them, her words caused Israel to wonder about the future of relations with this US administration.
“I believe that there could be no greater legacy for America than to help to bring into being a Palestinian state for a people who have suffered too long, who have been humiliated too long, who have not reached their potential for too long, and who have much to give to the international community and to all of us,” Rice told the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), a US group working to promote the idea of an independent Palestinian state.
“I promise you my personal commitment to that goal,” Rice said.
Dr Rice waxed eloquent. She compared the vision of Palestinian statehood to that of American independence and the civil rights struggles. Her comments provided the Palestinian state plan with the strongest endorsement yet by the Bush administration. Her comments and an apparent change in the Bush focus is creating serious questions for Israel.
Who does Rice blame for restricting Palestinian potential? Who caused the suffering and humiliation she mentioned? Was this a less than veiled dig at Israel by the US Secretary of State?
Who invented the word `Palestinian’ anyway? I believe it was the English army first of all and then Yasser Arafat. .
Rice has visited Jerusalem many times. She has spoken words of encouragement to the Jewish state and declared the Bush administration as friends of the Jewish people. But with friends like this who needs enemies?
How does anyone expect Israel to embrace a Palestinian state until the problems of terrorism and terrorist groups are addressed? Who would accept a neighbour whose stated goal is `to wipe Israel off the map?’
Was this Rice in a US election campaign speech? Has she just said what she felt potential voters needed to hear?
Recently Yehuda Avner wrote a column in the Jerusalem Post ‘The Case for `Dwelling Alone.” (13th October, 2006) He recalled words of Golda Meir (former Israeli Prime Minister) who addressed 15 diplomatic prospects for the Israel Foreign Ministry. Those words ring out with appropriateness even for today’s circumstances for Israel.
Golda Meir said: ‘Representing the Jewish state can be a very lonely experience. I’ll tell you why: When I’m at the United Nations I look around me and think to myself, we have no family here. Israel is entirely by itself in the international community, less than popular, and certainly misunderstood. All we have to fall back on is our own Jewish, Zionist faith.” Eerie isn’t it?
“Why should this be? Why such solitude? Why is it that we are the one country in the world that is Jewish? Why are we the one country in the world whose language is Hebrew? Why is it that we have no independent kith or kin, or any historic relationship with any other state, or group of states, or cultures, or religions, or languages, as do say the Anglo-Saxon nations, or the Slav peoples, or the Francophonic nations, or the Spanish-speaking, or the Arabic-speaking, or the Chinese-speaking peoples.”
‘Everybody in the world has sovereign and cultural family except us. Everybody in the United Nations is grouped into blocs bound by a common geography, or religion, or history, or culture, except us. They vote in solidarity, like family. We belong to no family. Our most natural regional allies – our Arab neighbours – don’t want anything to do with us. So we really belong nowhere and to no one except to ourselves, impelled by our own Jewish, Zionist faith.”
Little has changed since those words of Golda Meir. Israel is constantly reminded by leaders in the world that they are isolated and alone in a region bent on its destruction.
However, bible-believers should be aware of a family which embraces Israel with passion, jealousy and promise.
It is the family created by their Heavenly Father. He embraces them and told His Christian believers to show His love and encouragement to them. God has declared His allegiance to His chosen people and He has warned of severe repercussions for those who touch His anointed, `the apple of His eye.”
The US appears to be struggling as a super power. It has been lost in a sea of confusion, uncertainty and political double-speak. Iran and North Korea are quickly becoming nuclear powered. The nuclear proliferation plan is falling apart and the UN Security Council is impotent in the face of determined nations bent on their own plans.
The Bush administration is under great danger in the coming mid-term elections and the struggle for political power has made strange bedfellows for many.
While attempting to win a domestic vote, America may be seen as giving in to the very goals it has declared in the past. It is one thing to use passionate rhetoric to denounce evil, it is another thing altogether to deliver on the promises made.
I believe the turn out in the coming mid-term elections will be down. The vote is voluntary in the USA. I believe people will just not bother. After all politics and politicians do not seem to have the answers anymore. The world is spiralling into a dangerous season and we need wisdom and the divine hand of the Lord to cope with the mounting nuclear chaos. .
Such weaponry in the hands of madmen, promises catastrophe. We would be better off going to the Lord in prayer and to give the glory to the One who is the `same yesterday, today and forever.”
“I will never leave you nor forsake you,” He said. These are words to inspire and equip us for whatever the future brings.
In the meantime, I believe God would be pleased, if more Christians reached out in love and comfort to His chosen people. The enemy loves to discourage them constantly and that should inspire the church to move in the opposite spirit.
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Three years ago he joined Bridges for Peace in Jerusalem to establish international radio news and an audio service webcast at www.bridgesforpeace.com Ron was Sports Editor of WINTV for 20 years before joining the full-time missions. You can contact Ron at : ronrossbfp@hotmail.com |
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