Free Republic

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice believes that a framework for an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians could be reached by the planned May 14 visit to Israel of US President George W. Bush, Channel 1 diplomatic correspondent Ayala Hasson reported Sunday. Rice expressed this hope to a top Israeli leader Sunday when she met with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayed. Rice's high expectations will put further pressure on the two sides, who were already meeting frequently in an effort to meet the November 4 deadline that Prime Minister...

MELBOURNE, Florida (CNN) -- Sondra Oster Baras is an Orthodox Jew doing an unorthodox job. "If you had asked me 10 years ago what I would be doing with my life, I don't think I would have told you I'd be in church," she said. Baras stumps for money from evangelical Christians to support Jewish settlements in the occupied territories -- land she calls biblical Israel. A recent stop finds her in Melbourne, Florida, visiting Pastor Gary Christofaro at his First Assembly Church of God. Christofaro and his flock take their Jewish roots so seriously that on Friday nights they...

Roman Catholic leader stokes already heated debate on religion AMSTERDAM - A Roman Catholic Bishop in the Netherlands has proposed people of all faiths refer to God as Allah to foster understanding, stoking an already heated debate on religious tolerance in a country with one million Muslims. Bishop Tiny Muskens, from the southern diocese of Breda, told Dutch television on Monday that God did not mind what he was named and that in Indonesia, where Muskens spent eight years, priests used the word "Allah" while celebrating Mass. "Allah is a very beautiful word for God. Shouldn't we all say that...

Many evangelical Christians throughout the United States support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and seek "justice" for both sides, reads an open letter to US President George W. Bush published in Sunday's New York Times. The letter, signed by several dozen evangelical clergy and activists, urged the Bush administration not to "grow weary" in its attempt to negotiate a "lasting peace" in the region. The letter's authors sought to correct what they called a "serious misperception" that all American evangelicals objected to the establishment of a Palestinian state, and said they hoped that the awareness of a large...

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that Mideast peace talks should resume despite an outbreak of violence among Palestinian factions. “It doesn’t help to talk about a timetable, but it does help to talk about a commitment,” Rice said after meeting with world powers for a strategy session on the Middle East. The gathering of would-be peacemakers comes amid renewed fighting between Hamas militants and security forces loyal to the former ruling Fatah Party that has raised new alarm about a possible Palestinian civil war. More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in internal violence since Hamas...

(IsraelNN.com) According to a poll commissioned by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan research organization, 42% of Americans believe that the modern state of Israel is a gift to the Jewish people by God. 35% of Americans see Israel as the fulfillment of New Testament prophecy about Jesus and the End Times. The Pew organization reports that these numbers, collected in July 2006, are largely unchanged since 2003. In the southern United States, 56% believe that Israel was given to the Jewish people by God. 69% of White evangelical Protestants hold that belief, along with majorities of Black Protestants, as...

The Arab League and a Vatican official separately, but simultaneously, are campaigning for Israel to divide Jerusalem. The PA recently asked to the Pope to help make the capital part of a new state. The Arab League has joined Palestinian Authority (PA) officials in exploiting Israel's policy of not allowing Arabs in Jerusalem, who are Israeli citizens, to vote in the PA legislative elections scheduled for January 25. It told the French news agency AFP that the ban would solidify Israel's claim that the entire capital is part of the country. AFP termed the predominantly Arab neighborhoods of the city...

Israel is the major topic of the Bible. The word “Israel” occurs 2,565 times in 2,293 verses. More than enough prophecies have already been fulfilled in Israel’s unique history to prove that “the God of Israel” (203 times) is the true God. In Zechariah 12:2-3, He declares: Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces,...

We look to God to bless us, and hope and pray that He will, especially when we have some urgent need. But who ever thinks of blessing God? Yet the repeated usage of this expression in Scripture makes it clear that we are to do so; and that something more than words of praise must be involved—God is to be genuinely blessed with a gift from man that is of great value. Yet David’s description of blessing God seems to put it beyond human capacity: “O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together” (Ps 34:1-3)....

Far from freezing the defunct “Oslo” peace process as originally hoped by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria appears to have accelerated the birth of the State of Palestine. Sharon has long been a proponent of a protracted process, affording Israel the opportunity to amply evaluate the Palestinian Arabs’ compliance with their peace commitments. When he first introduced his “disengagement” plan, the prime minister asserted it would grant Israel the ability to play the game by its own rules and stave off what had been a wild rush to establish the region’s 22nd Arab state....

TROUBLE IN THE HOLY LAND PLO: Charter denies Israel's right to exist Never changed, declares official who notes Arafat means 'armed' when he says 'struggle' Posted: April 22, 2004 5:00 p.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Despite claims to the contrary, the Palestinian Liberation Organization has never changed its charter declaring Israel has no right to exist, the PLO's "foreign minister" Farouk Kaddoumi said in an interview today. Speaking to the Jordanian newspaper Al-Arab, the PLO official also said when Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat talks about the need to pursue the "struggle" against Israel, he is referring to the "armed...