This peace plan has gained global attention partially because U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell apparently agreed to meet with these two principal parties. Three million copies were printed with the goal of delivering one to every Israeli home. Israel's government and the Palestinian Authority had no direct part in these proceedings.

One particular aspect of this unofficial accord has inflamed many Israelis, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Mr. Sharon called the whole accord "the Swiss golden calf." The key sore point involved the ceding of the sacred Temple Mount to the Palestinians.

Noted columnist Charles Krauthammer summarized the offending part: "Beilin gives up the ultimate symbol of the Jewish connection and claim to the land, the center of the Jewish state for 1,000 years before the Roman destruction [A.D. 70], the subject of Jewish longing in poetry and prayer for 2,000 years since—the Temple Mount. And Beilin doesn't just give it up to, say, some neutral international authority. He gives it up to sovereign Palestine ... This is not a treaty; this is a suicide note ... That it should get any encouragement from the United States or its secretary of state is a disgrace" (Nov. 28, emphasis added).

Also, according to an article in The Times (Nov. 30), this new unofficial peace bid even has the tacit support of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Columnist Jeff Jacoby of The Boston Globe (Dec. 4) further commented: "The international applause greeting the so-called Geneva Accord—the unofficial Israeli-Palestinian 'peace' agreement formally presented in Switzerland this week is a vivid illustration of the world's contempt for the Jewish state." This astute journalist compared the unofficial agreement to the Munich Accord of 1938 when British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain proclaimed "Peace in our time" after appeasing Germany's Adolf Hitler by ceding Czechoslovakia to the Nazis.

The Middle East is sstill the earth's principal source of petroleum and, since 1948, home to the state of Israel—a primary target for world terrorism. This area is central to the fulfillment of many major biblical prophecies. You cannot afford to be in historical or prophetic ignorance of this part of the world. For further understanding, please request our free booklet The Middle East in Bible Prophecy. (Sources: The Times [London], The Boston Globe.)