Below are two informative articles regarding the nature of Islam and the land in the Middle East.  One writer states he is in favor of abandoning Gaza and the West Bank, which is not widely accepted in the Christian community.  

Blessings, 

Dana on behalf of Martha  

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The following are quotes from a "Bridges for Peace" recent prayer letter, containing some helpful information re the nature of Islam and the reality on the ground in the Middle East.  Now that the USA is also in the thick of the fight with Allah, the desert god, and his dark forces, the church needs to better understand these matters for the purpose of prayer.

Salvation history in this age is taking very significant, irreversible, and rapids steps with many lives on the line, yet not many of our civil or military leaders fully understand (or are able to understand) neither the nature or the ramifications of the conflict.

Feel free to pass it along if you so choose.

Reuven Doron

DOES OPPRESSION CAUSE HOMICIDE BOMBINGS?

As suicide bombings increase in Iraq, in Saudi Arabia, and in Israel, more and more people have come to believe that this tactic is a result of desperation. They see a direct link between oppression, occupation, poverty, and humiliation on the one hand, and a willingness to blow oneself up for the cause on the other hand. It follows from this premise that the obvious remedy for suicide bombing is to address its root cause - namely, our oppression of the terrorists.

But the underlying premise is demonstrably false: There is no such link as a matter of fact or history. Suicide bombing is a tactic that is selected by privileged, educated, and wealthy elitists because it has proven successful.

Moreover, even some of the suicide bombers themselves defy the stereotype of impoverished victims of occupation driven to desperate measures by American or Israeli oppression. Remember the 9/11 bombers, several of whom were university students and none of whom were oppressed by the United States. They were dispatched by Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden has now become the hero of many other upper-class Saudis, who are volunteering to become shahids (martyrs) in Iraq, Israel, and other parts of the globe.

Majid al-Enezi, a Saudi student training to become a computer technician, recently changed career plans and decided to become a martyr; he crossed over into Iraq, where he died. His brother Abdullah celebrated that decision. "People are calling all the time to congratulate us, crying from happiness and envy. There are many young men who wish they could cross over into Iraq, but they can't. Thank God, he was able to."

These rich kids glorify the culture of suicide, even in distant places. As Tufful al-Oqbi, a student at the elite King Saud University, described this situation, young people are wearing T-shirts with bin Laden's picture on them just the way people used to wear pictures of Che Guevara, the Cuban revolutionary. According to a recent news account, wealthy women students sport Osama bin Laden T-shirts under their enveloping abayas (Islamic garb women wear that covers them completely) to show their approval for his calls to resist the U.S.

Why do these over-privileged and well-educated young men and women support this culture of death, while impoverished and oppressed Tibetans continue to celebrate life despite their occupation by China for half a century?

Why have other oppressed people throughout history not resorted to suicide bombings and terrorism? The answer lies in differences among the elite leadership of various groups and causes. The leaders of Islamic radical causes, especially the Wahhabis, advocate and incite suicide terrorism, while the leaders of other causes advocate different means.

Recall Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., whose people were oppressed but who advocated nonviolent means of resistance. It is the leaders who send suicide bombers to blow themselves up. No suicide bomber ever sent himself to be blown up.

The bombers accept death because they have been incited into a frenzy of hatred by imams preaching, "Kill the infidels." Sheikh Muhammad Sayed Tantawi, the leading Islamic scholar at the elite Al-Azhar University in Cairo (which is not occupied), has declared that martyrdom operations - which means suicide bombings - are the highest form of jihad and an Islamic commandment.

Even more mainstream role models, such as Yasser Arafat's wife, who lives in a multimillion-dollar residence in Paris, has said that if she had a son, she would want him to become a suicide bomber because there is no greater honor than to become a martyr.

Young children, some as young as 12 and 13, are incited and seduced into strapping bombs around themselves by these older and better-educated elitist leaders. The children are promised virgins in heaven, praise and money for their families here on earth, and posters portraying them as rock stars. It is an irresistible combination for some, and the blame lies squarely at the feet of the elitists who exploit them, use them, and eventually kill them.

There is absolutely no evidence to support the claim of a direct relationship between occupation and suicide bombing. If anything, occupation makes it more difficult to launch successful terrorist attacks. This is not to argue for occupation; it is to separate the arguments regarding occupation from the claim that it is the fact of occupation, and the oppression it brings, that causes suicide bombing.

Indeed, were Israel to end its occupation of Gaza and most of the West Bank (as I have long believed it should), it is likely that terrorism would actually increase as terrorist commanders secure more freedom to plan and implement terrorist actions. The same might well be true in Iraq, were the United States to pick up and run.

The time has come to address the real root cause of suicide bombing: elitist incitement by certain religious and political leaders who are creating a culture of death and exploiting the ambiguous teachings of an important religion.

Abu Hamza - the cleric who tutored Richard Reid, the convicted shoe bomber - recently urged a large crowd to embrace death. Islamic young people are in love with death, claim some influential imams; but it is these leaders who are arranging the marriages between the children and the bomb belts.

Perhaps, now that suicide bombers have attacked Saudi Arabia, responsible Islamic leaders will better understand that it is their people who will be the ultimate victims of this tactically imposed culture of death.

(By Alan Dershowitz, Jewish World Review, May 25, 2004)

PRAYER FOCUS
Pray that there will be a shift in the global perception of the causes and motivations of suicide bombers. Pray that the Islamic aim of world domination will be clearly understood.

SCRIPTURE
"So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known" (Matthew 10:26).

ISRAEL'S BARRIER FENCE - WHAT ARE THE FACTS?

Israel's security fence is a fence and NOT an impenetrable wall, despite all the media hype and Palestinian propaganda to the contrary. It is a chain-link fence, which has been built to prevent terrorists from reaching their targets in Israel. The concrete wall portion is minimal (see below). If the Palestinian Authority (PA) had cracked down on terrorism and disarmed the terrorists instead of supporting and financing terror, which they agreed to do, there would be no fence, and peace and two states living side by side would be here today.

Israel has been in control of this region since 1967 (nearly 37 years), and there was no reason to build such a barrier. However, the PA under Yasser Arafat financed their own terror cells (the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades) and supported other fanatical Islamic groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad to perpetrate terror, which they have done with impunity.

The fence has already proven to decrease terror, which will ultimately increase dialogue between Israel and the PA. Already between Gaza and Israel, the fence is complete and there has been only one terrorist attack inside Israel proper. Prior to this, the only suicide bombers have been within the Gaza Strip or at the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel, when bombers were discovered by the metal detectors. They blew themselves up, killing both Israelis and Palestinians and setting the peace process back, which is their intention.

Why the fence? How has Israel suffered?

Since September 2001, there have been 21,657 attacks in Israel, 963 people killed, and 6,369 people wounded, maimed, blinded and crippled (as of May 2004). Not only the deaths, but also the injuries, adversely affect whole families, sometimes forever, when the injuries are debilitating.

If you compare this to the United States, which suffered the World Trade Center and Pentagon 9/11 disaster, which killed 3,000 people and affected America forever, the proportional impact of the number of attacks in Israel upon the U.S. would be 1,191,135 terror attacks, 52,965 killed, and 350,295 wounded and crippled. The U.S. had one terror attack that killed 3,000 people. Yet consider how this has affected that nation and increased security. Yet Israel is the size of the State of New Jersey, so the impact is magnified to impact the society, as the numbers clearly show. The Israeli government had to take steps to protect her citizens as well.

• In Australia, Israel is one-third the size of Tasmania, and the proportional effect of her deaths, injuries, and attacks would be 75,800 attacks, 3,371 deaths, and 22,292 injured.

• In the United Kingdom and South Africa, where Israel is the size of Wales or Kruger Park, the proportional effect of her deaths, injuries, and attacks would be 173,258 attacks, 7,704 deaths, and 50,952 injuries.

• In Japan, where Israel is the size of Shokuku Island, the proportional effect of her deaths, injuries, and attacks would be 454,797 attacks, 20,223 deaths, and 50,952 injuries.

What is the makeup of the fence?

I must emphasize that it is a fence, NOT a wall. It has been compared with the Berlin Wall by critics; however, the Berlin Wall was built to keep people from escaping to freedom. This fence in Israel is to prevent terror and improve relations with the Palestinians once terror is decreased.

Ultimately, less than 3 percent - or a mere 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) of the eventual 720 kilometers (450 miles) - of the fence is concrete wall. Currently, there are only 8 kilometers (5 miles) of concrete wall along the entire route. The rest of the barrier is wire fence with a dirt road on both sides to check for footprints and electronic sensors to detect infiltration. The concrete sections are near Palestinian towns where taller buildings allow snipers to shoot at civilian drivers on nearby Israeli roads. The walls are there to block the sniper fire. Yet the media constantly films and shows the same sections of concrete wall and describes the fence as a wall, as though it were all concrete.

The fence has 41 gates for farmers to tend their fields where the fence goes through their land. They have been entrusted with keys.

There are 11 crossing points where people can move freely, as long as they are not carrying weapons or explosives. Now that the Palestinians are using women and even small children, everyone is a potential bomb and must walk through metal detectors.

There are five terminals for the transfer of goods between the PA and Israel.

The fence was located according to terrain and land use on both sides. Where Israel has crossed Palestinian farmland, the farmer has been compensated for the land, and given the value of five years of crop loss. In addition, Israel has transplanted over 63,000 olive trees to the Palestinian side of the fence so farmers will not lose access to their trees or income from oil production. Olive trees transplant easily without harm to the trees.

Is the fence a de facto border?

No, the fence is not a border. It is only a deterrent to terror and its route takes into consideration land use and population concentrations. Critics complain that the route of the fence runs through "Palestinian territory" east of the 1967 Green Line, taking 13 percent of West Bank land. However, the route was based on topographical and land-use considerations and landowners were compensated when deeded land was lost, or they were given access to "the other side" through 41 gates for farmers to have access. The 1967 armistice line was never considered a formal border, even according to United Nations Resolution 242.

The fence is a temporary fence that can be moved if peace comes. Critics say the fence is an obstacle that cannot be moved. However, there were fences between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, which were moved. In fact, the security fence between Israel and Lebanon was moved 11 times. When terror ends, so will the need for the fence.

The fence line can be changed. However, those who lose their lives to terror can't get another chance and families are ruined for life. The Palestinians say it makes some of their children late for school. Israeli kids who are killed by the suicide bombers never get to school.

(Compiled by Clarence H. Wagner, International Chairman of Bridges for Peace, Jerusalem, Israel.)

PRAYER FOCUS
Pray that the truth about the barrier fence will be told to the world. As difficult as it is, it is the most benign way for Israel to protect both Israelis and Palestinians. Pray that the need for such a fence will be removed soon.

SCRIPTURE
"Send forth Your light and Your truth, let them guide me; let them being me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You dwell" (Psalm 43:3).