Betrayed: The Conspiracy to Divide Jerusalem reveals the secret plan to divide Jerusalem, to relinquish the Temple Mount, Christian Holy sites, and part of the Old City. Powerful nations...the U.S., Russia, China, the Arab League, the EU and the UN...are trying to wrest East Jerusalem from the Jews to appease Arab rage.
Tens of thousands of Bible holy sites are in the Holy Land: Abraham walked with Isaac in Judea and Samaria; Jacob pitched his tents there; Joshua drove out the Canaanites from the land. When God visited Jacob as he slept with his head on a stone at Beit el Bethel (House of God), he gave Jacob a vision of angels ascending and descending a stairway to heaven.
Now, the vultures gather yet again, sensing that more of the City of David will be laid on the altar of sacrifice. President Bush has agreed to what is being called “The Final Status Plan” to divide Jerusalem before the end of his term in January 2009.
Betrayed: The Conspiracy to Divide Jerusalem will transport you back in time to the purchase of the property by King David from Araunah the Jebusite and forward to the rebirth of the nation of Jerusalem according to God’s prophetic plan.
- » How can the United States, a nation founded on biblical principles, lead the charge to divide the City of David and in so doing, touch the apple of God’s eye?
- » How can President Bush, who said following the events of 9/11, “From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime,” consider negotiating with Mahmoud Abbas and the HAMAS terrorists that control Gaza?
- » America’s moral fabric is moth-eaten, filled with holes and rotten. How can America regain her moral clarity?
- » Jesus’ disciples questioned him in Matthew 24:3 about His promised return: “What is the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?” Will America awaken before it is too late for redemption?
Betrayed: The Conspiracy to Divide Jerusalem is the true story of what is happening today in Israel and the Middle East. It is the tragic story of Israel’s future, brokered in backrooms and in terrorist lairs, in cabinet rooms and across conference tables, with no regard to Israel’s security or historic claims to the land. Dictators who practice the most barbaric customs are crying for a “negotiated peace” when, in truth, the desire is to see Israel “wiped from the map.”
PROLOGUE
Betrayed: The Conspiracy to Divide Jerusalem
The Annapolis Peace Summit
Annapolis, Maryland
In the pre-dawn hours the morning of the Annapolis Summit, my car wound its way down the streets of that historic city toward the Naval Academy and the Annapolis Summit. Precious fathers, mothers and grandmothers shivered in the darkness of the cold morning. Some of the men blew shofars and prayed openly. Most held signs printed with their pleas: “Don’t touch Jerusalem,” “Don’t touch the Bible land,” “Don’t touch prophecy.”
Unbidden tears slid down my cheeks for I sensed how desperate and hopeless they must have felt. These who love Jerusalem were overshadowed by the high and mighty of the world: President George W. Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, Saud al-Faisal, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad Secretary General of the Council of the European Union Javier Solana, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and foreign ministers from many Arab states. Altogether, there were world leaders from 47 countries present... Israel, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Syria, South Africa, Turkey, and the Palestinian Authority. Among those are known terrorists who were being treated as honored diplomats, all gathered to present Jerusalem with a belated Hanukkah gift.
Not far from where the delegates gathered stands a stately thirty-foot high monument to the birth of the U.S. Navy. As I stood in silence before America’s oldest war monument, I recalled the crisis that birthed our defender of the seas. It was America’s first war in the Middle East against the Pirates of Tripoli, The Barbary Wars.
This was the first international peace conference since the U.S. organized-Madrid Peace Summit at the end of Operation Desert Storm in 1991. It was during that debacle that I openly challenged former Secretary of State James Baker over Jerusalem. The names have changed, but the desire to offer up Jerusalem as the sacrifice to appease terrorists is as passionate as ever.
As I sat in the midst of those dickering over the fate of Jerusalem, I could not help but remember an incident that occurred at the Madrid Summit. As I stood talking to the Egyptian ambassador, the Syrian Foreign Minister interrupted to show the ambassador a picture of Yitzhak Shamir. With a gloating smile, the foreign minister said, “Tomorrow at 3:00 PM, I am going to accuse Shamir of being a terrorist.” (The picture was one of Mr. Shamir fighting the British in Palestine.
Benjamin Netanyahu observed the exchange and had one of his aides call me and ask what the Syrian Foreign Minister had shown me. I told him about the picture of Shamir and the threat to accuse him of terrorism. Much to the chagrin of the Syrian delegation when 3:00 PM rolled around the following day, Mr. Shamir was nowhere to be found. At 2:00 PM, he had informed the Summit participants that he was leaving with his delegation. Mr. Shamir told the amassed group the he was an Orthodox Jew and had to leave for Eretz Israel before the beginning of the Shabbat. When the Syrian Foreign Minister arose to make his accusation, there was no one present to accuse.
The U. S. pressure applied at the Madrid Summit destroyed the economy of Israel. It caused the overthrow of the government as literally tens of thousands of Russian Jewish immigrants were forced to sleep in tents. Why? The U.S. froze $10 billion in loan guarantees that would have provided housing for these destitute men, women and children. Israel was ultimately forced to give up more than 80 villages and towns, i.e., Jericho, Hebron, and Bethlehem.
Abraham walked with Isaac in Judea and Samaria; Jacob pitched his tents there; Joshua drove out the Canaanites from the land. Tens of thousands of Bible holy sites are here. When God visited Jacob as he slept with his head on a stone at Beit el Bethel (House of God), he gave Jacob a vision of angels ascending and descending a stairway to heaven. Today, powerful nations are trying to wrest Jerusalem from the hands of the Jews as appeasement for Arab rage.
America and Israel are touching prophecy, and therefore placing their nations in great peril. The Bible warns us that he who touches Israel touches the apple of God’s eye! You and I must not let that happen. The Bible says in Isaiah 62, “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, [which] shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”
The vultures have gathered again and again, each time sensing that more of the City of David and the State of Israel would be laid on the altar of sacrifice. President Bush has agreed to what is being called “The Final Status Plan” to divide Jerusalem before the end of his term in 2008. He has also demanded that Israel halt construction in the settlements for refugees. The plan is to turn those settlements over to the PLO.
The very spots where the stones for the Holy Tabernacle were laid, the Wailing Wall, and the site where the Temple will be rebuilt are all sites that President George W. Bush, Russia, the UN and the Arab League want to force Israel to give up before the end of 2008. This plan, revealed to the world during the Annapolis Summit, was revealed to me by high-level Israeli diplomats prior to the summit. I am heartbroken that President Bush has so readily endorsed this plan.
The Saudis, of course, want the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to be able to move into Israel, not into the Palestinian Authority land holdings. The plan calls for Palestine to be a state within one year, with East Jerusalem as the capital. This “Final Status Plan” calls for vigorous, unceasing, aggressive negotiations that would end in the creation of a two-state region by the end of 2008.
It seems that the participants of the summit were trying to breathe life back into the Road Map plan introduced in 2003. I wrote about this at length in my book, Beyond Iraq: The Next Move. When Mahmoud Abbas refused to implement the very first clause of the plan – to disarm the terrorist organizations – the plan died in utero.
The room in which I sat at the Annapolis Summit was so filled with hatred for the Jews that was it almost unbearable. I watched oil-rich nations such as Saudi Arabia, who stoutly refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist, react joyfully at each mention of the division of Jerusalem. One Arab delegate after another had smilingly told me that Israel had no right to exist. This mantra is repeated over and over in their schools and mosques. One Arab diplomat told me with great glee that the Dark Ages were over; the world would not allow a Jewish state to exist any longer. With each succeeding speech came applause and endorsements for this new plan to divest Israel of even more land.
The Saudis, of course, were overjoyed to hear President Bush’s comments during the Summit. The Road Map, an invention of Saudi Arabia and the Arab League was designed to force Israel to the bargaining table. Then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon related to me that he had asked for 14 amendments. Secretary of State Colin Powell flatly refused to include any of Sharon’s amendments. Phase Two of the plan as outlined was the dismantling of all terror organizations and their infrastructure. HAMAS, Islamic Jihad, al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade to name a few would have been forced to turn over all illegal weapons and stop terror incitement.
Needless to say, Phase Two was not implemented by Abbas. Quite the opposite occurred: HAMAS took over Gaza; Abbas’ own terror organization, Fatah and al-Aksa martyrs Brigade continue to kill Jews. (Just days before the Annapolis Summit, a 29-year old father of two from the village of Shavei Shomron was murdered.)
The acceptance of this vile “Final Status Plan” would turn Israel into a living hell. (I find it interesting that the moniker for this latest plan is so closely akin to “The Final Solution” that gripped Europe during World War II.) The Jewish people would be forced to live next door to a state controlled by Islamic fanatics such as Hamas. I am reminded over and over of the scripture in Psalm 83:2-5: For behold, Your enemies make a tumult; and those who hate You have lifted up their head. They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, and consulted together against Your sheltered ones. They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.” For they have consulted together with one consent; they form a confederacy against You...” (NKJV)
I stood with another of the Summit documents in my hand – this “Agreement of Joint Understanding” to which both parties have pledged acceptance. This document, if followed, will result in the division of Jerusalem. I’ve asked myself how the U.S. government could partner with a terror organization responsible for thousands of terror attacks worldwide. How could President Bush cavalierly shake hands with the man responsible for the Munich massacre in 1972? In 1988, I challenged the PLO Executive Committee and called for it to renounce the PLO covenant which calls for the destruction of Israel; that covenant still stands today.
Are George W. Bush and Ehud Olmert so consumed by their legacies that they would sacrifice Jerusalem and hundreds of thousands of innocent Jews to attain their goal? Israel would have to give up the Temple Mount and the Western Wall in East Jerusalem; evacuate most of the strategic West Bank which would leave it vulnerable to rocket attacks in Tel Aviv and at Ben Gurion International Airport.
What does the future hold for Israel? I can tell you that Israel seemed very alone during the Annapolis Summit. President Bush indicated that Israel had “painful compromises” to make during the negotiations that were to begin immediately following the Summit. It still greatly concerns me. Why? President Clinton attempted to divide Jerusalem in January 2001, before the end of his second term of office. He almost succeeded. I believe those negotiations and Yasser Arafat’s subsequent rejection of Clinton’s offer led directly to the events of 9/11.
Now, President Bush and Ehud Olmert are attempting to follow in the footsteps of Bill Clinton and Shimon Peres. I, for one, am appalled to have to admit that President Bush believes the Palestinian cause is the root of Islamic hatred for America. His advisors are likely telling him that the agreement reached between Israel and the Palestinian Authority will affect his legacy in a most positive way. How wrong can they possibly be? Only time will tell.
One Jewish diplomat thanked me because I have always stood with them in time of need and in times of crisis. Another Jewish diplomat placed a gold ribbon in my hand...the color associated with Jerusalem of Gold. He told me that 15,000 Jews holding a golden ribbon in their hands were praying at the Wailing Wall during the Summit. He implored me, “Ask God to save Jerusalem; they want to divide it and make East Jerusalem, including the Old City, the capital of an Islamic Palestinian state before your President leaves office.”
The question begs to be asked: Can the Palestinian crisis be resolved? YES!
I believe that the first action that must be taken is a rehabilitation package calling for the dismantling of the 59 U.N.-maintained refugee camps. The Arab world needs to provide resettlement, employment and housing for the refugees. This would be similar to what happened to the Jewish refugees throughout Europe and the Arab world in 1948. Secondly, I would do everything to help Jordan grant citizenship to Arabs in the West bank. I believe that the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan should serve as their representative body. Jordan granted citizenship status to West Bank Palestinians until the late 1980s. The Palestinians do not need more land; they need a life free of fanatical Islamic kindergarten camps that continue to instill hatred for the Jews into children at an early age.
A Look Back
Over the years, the U.S. intervened to save the hide of Yasser Arafat, the godfather of terrorism. I vividly recall one incident and how it affected a close friend of mine, Menachem Begin.
During the first Lebanese war the Israeli army had virtually defeated the most powerful terrorist organization in the Middle East, the PLO. At the moment of its certain victory, Israel’s advance was halted by the U.S. in order to save Arafat and his PLO band. That intervention caused the death of a multitude of young Israelis and, ultimately, its defeat in Lebanon. While this was happening in Lebanon, I was hosting a delegation meeting with Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Mr. Begin was so depressed and exhausted that he was weeping during the meeting. As I tried to comfort him by reading Psalms to him, Alexander Haig notified him that President Reagan was not happy with the Israeli Prime Minister.
Reuven Hecht, Mr. Begin’s senior advisor and a good friend, told me that if the meeting between Mr. Begin and the President happened, it would be a difficult meeting at best. The President had received a picture from Lebanon purportedly of a young girl injured during the fighting. She had supposedly had both arms blown off, and Israel was being blamed.
A rumor was being circulated that Mr. Reagan would not meet publicly with Mr. Begin. I asked Reuven if the President would meet privately with Mr. Begin. He said, “Yes.” “Tell Menachem,” I said, “that when he meets with President Reagan he is to put these questions to him. They are: “Would you conclude, Mr. President, that I am a stubborn Jew whose brain might have been baked during the Holocaust in Poland and Russia? Mr. President, you and I both escaped death; you and I both believe in God; you and I both believe God has a great plan for our lives; you and I both believe God has a great plan for our countries. Mr. President, would you pray that God’s will be done in our meeting today?”
Reuven later told me that he did advise Mr. Begin to say that to President Reagan. He called me after the meeting to relate to me that Mr. Begin did, indeed, say exactly that to the President and the President did pray with him. Mr. Reagan was moved to tears by the humility of the Prime Minister of Israel; his heart was softened, and the meeting went well.
TERRORISM, A WAY OF LIFE
It was on a December day when children gathered from all over Jerusalem - all innocent victims of terrorism. A lovely Israeli woman in her late thirties wore a heart-shaped locket around her neck; the locket contained a picture of her beloved brother who had been killed by terrorists just months earlier
Nearby, a small girl clutched her ragged doll; both her mother and father had been killed by terrorists. It was the last night of Hanukkah and I was there laden with gifts in hopes of bringing a little joy to these children whose lives had been scarred by a terrorist attack. As they approached me to receive a gift, their eyes sparkled with happiness.
As I looked into the eyes of these beautiful, innocent little lambs, I thought about the politicians sitting in their plush offices around the world, making bureaucratic decisions that would ultimately cause the loss of thousands more innocent lives, and leaving thousands more children orphaned and alone.
I could not speak of it then, but just hours earlier, in the biblical town of Bethel, I stood in the midst of several thousand Jewish mourners, including my longtime friend Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel. We were there to mourn the brutal murder of a beloved Jewish mother who had been ambushed by Palestinians on her way home to celebrate Hanukkah with her family. Her twelve-year-old son was also killed, and her husband and four other children were horribly wounded.
A mother of nine, brutally gunned down... her children will never again know the joy of sharing the special moments of their lives with her. As I stood on the frigid, rocky hillside and watched the mourners pass by, I noticed a soldier weeping. He wore the long side curls of an orthodox Jew. Something about his tears and his torn jacket broke my heart, and I couldn’t bear to see him standing there all alone. I put my arm around his shoulder to comfort him.
This young, heartbroken soldier told me his father had come from Russia to build a life for his family. His father and brother had been killed by terrorists only a week earlier. I had no idea that the crew for our television special, “Jerusalem: City of Tears,” had filmed that funeral just days before I met him on that desolate hillside.
For what crimes were this young soldier’s father and brother killed? Only this: they were Jewish.
As I was finishing the final pages of this work, an Israeli friend asked me, “Why did you title your special “Jerusalem: City of Tears?”
Immediately a flood of images filled my mind as I thought about his question. So many years, so many tears, so many painful memories; but my answer had to be direct, “Because Jerusalem is a city of tears.” America and the economic powerbrokers of the world have cut deals with the Arab sheiks that live in opulence beyond comprehension; leaders that run their governments by the power of the bullet, not the ballot box, have set out to humiliate and destroy God’s chosen people.
“Somebody has to tell the true story,” I said. “That is the mission of this book.”
Sooner or later the world will have to acknowledge what is being done to the City of God in the name of “foreign relations” and “peace in the Middle East.” The warfare the nations are waging against Israel takes many forms. These patterns of duplicity among so many powers raise a multitude of questions about recent disasters, bombings and terrorist attacks, including the unsolved, mysterious circumstances surrounding the crash of TWA Flight 800 in which 230 people lost their lives. I deal with numerous questions and situations like these throughout the book.
As you read this book, you may feel anger and resentment at times. In places, I hope you feel tenderness and compassion, or perhaps hurt and disappointment. I do apologize for these things or for the incidents detailed here that will provoke your emotions; I only hope that what you discover about the land Israel, and the plot to undermine this ancient culture, will compel you to some kind of action.
Being both a Christian journalist and a friend of Israel gives me a certain perspective on events transpiring in the Middle East, and that perspective shapes my analysis of those events. As you will discover in this book, I believe that Jerusalem has been betrayed. And, ultimately, it will all come down to Jerusalem. Why? Because the City of God is at the heart of the Middle East conflict. Though they may not share my opinions, and certainly not my theology, I hope many of my Jewish friends in America and Israel will read this book. Please keep in mind that this book is written from a Christian perspective to a Christian audience.
What Price Peace?
Just forty-eight hours after an historic document was signed, Israeli troops redeployed from the biblical city of Hebron, leaving eighty percent of the city, including the Jewish holy sites, in the control of the Palestinian Authority. The man at Israel’s helm was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whom I’ve known for seventeen years. He is a man of principle and courage; a man who faced one of the most gut-wrenching issues the leader of a nation will ever face. I know that he could never have given up eighty percent of the City of the Patriarchs unless such tremendous pressure were brought to bear that he sincerely felt it was his only option. Indeed, press reporters say that the long stalemate over the Hebron agreement was finally broken as a result of “American hardball diplomacy.” Dennis Ross, the president’s special envoy, was said to have told the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators that the United States had finally lost its patience.
A few days later, overjoyed Clinton campaigners in Washington, D.C. threw a big party for the Clinton inauguration. Lavish balls complete with celebrities and politicians that rubbed shoulders with dedicated campaign workers and corporate donors. Well-wishers across the world showered President Clinton with congratulations and expensive gifts. However, I can’t help but believe that Israel gave the newly-elected president the most expensive gift of all. I also believe that the timing was not coincidental. Was it just a quirk that the administration lost patience and pushed through a bitterly disruptive Israeli-Palestinian agreement only five days before the beginning of President Clinton’s second term? Or was this an intentionally coerced and orchestrated event to serve as a costly inaugural gift to a controversial president who needed a foreign policy victory?
This book has been written as a critical warning, a declaration with all the passion I can summon, to warn that the United States once again took a wrong turn in Annapolis, Maryland on a chilly day in November 2007. My purpose is to warn those who will listen that events unfolding in the Middle East could push Israel into a catastrophe of immense proportions and bring the judgment of God on America yet again for our role in manipulating this explosive international situation. Can we sit idly by and watch the destruction of Israel without lifting a hand or crying out?
It is my prayer that as a result of reading this book you will be challenged to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and to get involved in compassionate humanitarian causes for the reconciliation of both Arab and Jews. I trust that the story of Jerusalem, the revelation of ancient mysteries, and the personal narrative that will unfold for you in these pages may help to point you in that direction.
“Adonai Oz Leamo Yitein, Adonai Yevarech et Amo Bashalom.”
“The Almighty will give Hs people strength,
the Almighty will bless His people with peace.”
Psalm 29:11
Mike Evans
Jerusalem, Israel