At 90 years old, pop music legend, Pat Boone, re-emerges from the 1950’s with a voice that hasn’t aged much and a crucial message for fellow Americans to bring our nation back to its roots. Watch a sample video clip of his just-released song, Where Did America Go?, here, and download it from Spotify or other source. Listen to it in its entirety here. Read further about this entertainment icon’s amazing life below.
Patirck Charles Eugene Boone was born on June 1, 1934, in Jacksonville, Florida. In the early and mid-50’s, he rose in the charts as a teen idol and an alternative to the Elvis Presley-type rock and roll. In 1957, at age 23, he began hosting an ABC variety TV show, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, which ran for 115 episodes. Heading the charts among his 38 Top-40 hits were, “Love Letters in the Sand,” ” April Love,” “Moody River,” and “Speedy Gonzales.” He sold 50 million records. During this time of peak popularity, he wrote a Christian-oriented book for teens titled, Twixt Twelve and Twenty. Although listening to Elvis a lot as a preteen, I was smitten by Pat Boone. I read every word of his book. In the 60’s, he devoted more studio and stage time to gospel music and later became a member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
At 19 years old, Boone married Shirley Foley, daughter of country music great, Red Foley, and they had four daughters: Cherry, Linda, Debby, and Laurey. The girls are now 70, 69, 68, and 66 respectively. Although all four daughters sang together publicly as children, only Debby had a successful singing career. Her biggest hit was “You Light Up My Life,” which was at the top of the Billboard for ten weeks. Below is the young Boone family in a casual setting followed by the couple shortly before Shirley passed away in 2019 at the age of 84.
Pat Boone now resides in Beverly Hills, California. While not being very active in the music world since the 1960’s, has been a popular motivational speaker and conservative political commentator throughout his life. He is very concerned about the direction of America at present. Please download “Where Did America Go” from your favorite music source and share it with your friends and family. Let’s make this an election year theme song by a real patriot.
Much has been reported about how close former President Trump came to being assassinated Saturday, July 13. However, a further look shows jaw-dropping calculations indicating his survival was nothing short of miraculous. Let’s look at some astronomical scientific odds that should convince the most dubious skeptic of God’s hand in the preservation of this man’s life.
That bullet fired at 6:11 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday pierced Trump’s upper ear called the helix, actually excising a small piece of flesh. Had the bullet been just an inch to the right at impact, it would have penetrated his brain virtually assuring death. It is mind-boggling how little rifle barrel movement would have been required for the shot to have been fatal. There is a mathmatical calculation to bring this into even better perspective.
In the realm of firearms, there is a term called Minute of Angle, or MOA. Simplified, it is a formula for determining the adjustment a shooter must make to ensure the desired point of impact. I did a quick study and some number crunching to determine how much the rifle used by the wannabe assassin would have had to moved to have accomplished his objective.
The most exact distance I was able to find from the shooter’s rooftop position to Trump’s stage position was 127 yards. At that range, the shooter would have needed to move the muzzle of his AR-15-like rifle a microscopic 0.01 inch to the right to have vectored the bullet into the former president’s brain. That is the width of three average human hairs. All other factors being the same, if the end of the rifle barrel had been three hair-widths to the right when the trigger was squeezed, the result would have been an assassination rather than a flesh wound. The non-lethal shot was not a coincidence. it was a supernatural act of God and His angels!
And, there was another miracle. One second before the bullet was photographed in a still shot splitting the air, Trump’s head was turned toward the audience behind him. As the weapon was fired, he turned toward the jumbotron screen just in time to align his head with the bullet’s trajectory. If he had looked at the backdrop crowd one second longer or had turned back to face the main audience instead of the screen, the bullet would have entered the left or right side of his skull respectively. Instead, he faced the parallel path of the bullet which missed his head by a half-inch and his brain by an inch. That, too, was not a coincidence but rather God’s merciful protection.
Both the shooter’s three-hair-widths-off marksmanship AND the former president’s “random” head movements were essential to preventing an assassination. It is not often that the whole nation gets to witness miracles like these. Now, God’s purpose in the miracles may be unfolding before our eyes. It is refreshing to be experiencing God’s positive intervention in the life of America. Can we keep it from being just a temporary experience?
The most vulnerable and high-stakes presidential campaign and election in the history of our nation is upon us. Today’s tinderbox of international strife and domestic conflict craves heroic leadership. But we are left to choose between two highly flawed men, neither of whom is likely to stem our nation’s decline.
There can be no doubt that America’s recent years have been plagued with abysmal economy, morality, security, international influence, family priority, law and order, and education. Citizens are grasping for leadership at the presidential level to solve these problems. A president cannot be the savior of a nation. Only One Man can do that. But God can raise up national leaders of His choosing who can lead according to His direction. Apparently, due in part to our rejection of effective, godly leaders, He is not doing that for America at present.
Our choice in November is between an incompetent president with cognitive deficiences and an egocentric with tons of legal baggage. In a November 16, 2023 post, I predicted we would not see either of these candidates on the November 2024 ballot. Now, five months away from the presidential election, I still stand by that prediction, although I’m a little less convinced that Trump won’t be the Republican candidate. But I can’t wrap my mind around a second term bid for Biden.
Even though Trump is leading in the polls, he has yet to receive the full impact of what the unscrupulous Democratic Party is throwing at him. He has more court proceedings to face and a sentencing for the sham financial fraud conviction. He could actually end up in prison by November. Also, there is so much hate raging against him, I am concerned for his safety.
Biden, on the other hand, is beyond my comprehension. Simply said, he cannot be a second term president. He is absolutely incapable, and the Democrat Party leaders absolutely know that. If Democrats truly cared for their country, they would take him out of the race today. I would not be at all surprised to see a “brokered” Democratic, and possible Republican, Convention. This would involve the convention delegates nominating someone other than the winner of the national primary. Another scenario could be the Democrats somehow pulling off a win for Biden and a majority in the House in November, then pressuring both Biden and Harris to resign paving the way for the Speaker of the House to become president.
I know all this is long-stretch speculation. But I can’t see this election year avoiding a major anomaly in an attempt to rescue the nation from this presidential crisis. I have never felt more embarrassed and less confident about America. Our leadership, especially the presidential branch, is failing us, and the whole world knows it, both our allies and our enemies. This may be God’s judgement on our nation.
We Christians need to pray for godly leadership like never before and for a miraculous resolution to the presidential crisis between now and November 5. We also need to ready ourselves for God’s judgment if that is what He chooses.
(Updated from a previous post) For over two centuries, America has been the staunchest ally of Israel and supporter of Jews around the world. For over seven decades, we have supported the fledgling, relatively new nation, often in the face of global opposition. It was largely the influence of the Untied States that secured the UN vote to recognize the nation of Israel in 1949 after their declaration of independence the year prior. Soon afterward, most Palestinians, who were scattered throughout the nation, congregated in what became the West Bank of the Jordan River and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians eventually claimed those territories as their sovereign land within the new boundaries of Israel. However, the war of 1967, initiated by Arab nations, resulted in Israel’s rightful annexation of those areas for self defense while allowing the Palestinians to remain there. A 1993 agreement brokered by Washington after multiple skirmishes between Israel and the Palestinians established a separate “state” for the Palestinians on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian Authority acting as a pseudo-governing body.
The Palestinians, still not satisfied with Israel’s existence, continued terrorist attacks, mostly by the militant groups, Hamas and Hezbollah, against the Israelis. In response, Israel rejected the separate state status and began settlements of Jewish families and businesses within the West Bank in the late 1990s. The Biden administration supports the reestablishment of the “two-state solution.” This is a wrongful position for America to pursue. Without control of the West Bank, Israel is indefensible. So far, the Palestinians, particularly Hamas and Hezbollah, have rejected anything short of total expulsion of the Jews from Israel.
First, the world needs to understand that the right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel goes back about 4,000 years according to a divine mandate that overrides any ethnic or political consideration. Around 1800 BC, God began the process of establishing His chosen people through Abraham, promising him a specifically defined region of land (now Israel) in the Middle East. The original boundaries of this “promised land” described in the Bible covered an area even larger than what is now recognized as Israel. Upon bestowing the land on Abraham and his future descendants forever, God included this statement, “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you, I will curse.”
Jews do not occupy Palestinian land; Palestinians live in the land that has belonged to the Jews for almost four millennia. The Palestinians are not a nation. The history of many of them traces back to the Philistines of the Old Testament who were constant enemies of the Israelites. Other Palestinians are a hodgepodge of people from various Arab nations who have migrated over time to the land forcefully vacated by the Jews. Palestinians have never been recognized officially as a nation and have never had a legitimate government. There is no doubt that Israel has rightful claim to the territory within its borders and even more according to God’s promise. Therefore, since the Palestinians refuse to coexist peacefully within Israel, but rather repeatedly attack their host nation, Israel has every right to defend itself against their militant arm, Hamas. Israel’s defensive action is especially justified after the October savage attack by Hamas. They are right in pursuing final expulsion of Hamas from their land.
Iran’s horrendous and unprecedented attack on Israel with over 300 weapons cannot be considered reasonable retaliation for Israel’s precision strike on Iran’s three commanders in Syria. The attack by Iran was essentially a declaration of war on Israel by that nation. Yet, we now have an official warning from the White House that America will not condone any military response from Israel on Iran. Closely coordinated pro-Iranian “protests” by leftists across our nation are closing major bridges and highways endangering the lives of thousands of citizens and degrading our economy. The protesters are shouting, “death to Israel and death to America,” with many burning American flags. These illegal activities are not only placing our country in grave jeopardy, but are also inciting more worldwide anti-Semitic attacks. Our nation’s greatest threat from the Middle East crisis is not from Iran but from the misinformed and misdirected actions of our fellow Americans.
America has been blessed in wonderful and innumerable ways. I believe that one of the main reasons for our blessings is that we have always supported (blessed) Israel according to God’s Word. If we follow certain other nations, and even our internal antagonists, in criticizing this crucial ally, we place ourselves in grave danger. This geopolitical movement goes beyond politics, but it is almost completely led by the Socialist Left. And, it is virtually all under the umbrella of the Democratic Party. A recent Gallop poll indicated that American Democrats favored Palestinians over Israelis, 49% to 38%. The same poll showed Republicans favored Israelis over Palestinians, 78% to 11%.
President Biden and his administration are not the Democrats of the Kennedy and Clinton years. The Party has become radically Socialist, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and, in large measure, anti-American. America has been in decline for several years morally, spiritually, economically, militarily, and about every other way of measuring a nation’s status. Now, we are seemingly determined to weaken our bond with Israel and become even less influential on the world stage. As you watch the current crisis play out in the news media, stay centered on the truth. Pray that, through God’s mercy and grace, He will protect and sustain us despite ourselves.
It would be wrong for me to say President Joe Biden is not a Christian. The only one who makes that judgment is God. However, from what has been easy to observe, our current president’s actions and words are more in opposition to the Bible and Christian moral values than any other president in history. Let’s look at some of those ungodly actions and words including what happened this past Holy Week.
Only the triune God judges a person’s faith and where they will spend eternity. But Jesus taught us through His Word to avoid people proclaiming false ideas and principles. He said, “By their fruit you will recognize them” (Matthew 7:20). In other words, we should recognize others and react to them according to what they do and say. Other scriptures indicate He expects us to discern who is behaving and speaking in ungodly ways, avoid them, and warn others about them.
A White House tradition for over a half-century has been to invite children of National Guard members to design Easter eggs to be used in the annual Easter egg roll. On March 28, instructions from the Administration stated the designs, “must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, or overly religious themes.” Wait. Isn’t Easter inherently celebrated with religious symbols and themes? So, Biden removes Jesus from Easter.
The next day, March 29, the president signed a proclamation making March 31 the “Transgender Day of Visibility.” It seems that 15 years ago, a transgender activist self-declared that date as a time to raise awareness of transgender discrimination. President Biden’s official proclamation just happened to coinside with this year’s Easter Resurrection Day. So, Biden took the Christian symbols out of Easter at the White House and made Easter a celebration of something that is clearly and profoundly against the Bible’s teaching.
These are just the latest in ungodly actions and words of whom almost all people consider the most powerful man in the world. He has often claimed to be the champion of all former presidents for LGBTQ people. He desecrated the White House by lighting it up in rainbow colors after signing the “Respect for Marriage Act” (gay marriage act) ending the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act which legitimized marriage as only between one man and one woman. He is a consumate advocate for abortion and is presently pursuing every opportunity to circumvent the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade. His administration is adamantly pushing to force females to compete against males who are trying to pass themselves off as females. His administration, against a Supreme Court ruling, has also tried to force Christian foster and adoption homes and agencies to place children with families that violate their religious beliefs. Just this past week, he chose to ignore the funeral of a New York police officer slain in the line of duty in favor of hosting a New York fund raiser for his campaign, putting on display his lack of compassion for the police. He has also ignored the raging crime wave engulfing America. Our open borders are inviting terrorists, murderers, rapists, and thieves into our country by the thousands courtesy of the president. And the examples go on and on.
As a whole, supporters of President Biden identify themselves as not being people of faith. The 2020 Post-election Survey conducted by Dr. George Barna found that most of the 81 million Americans who voted for Biden did not hold a biblical world view. Few (30%) of those surveyed believed the Bible is true. The great majority (75%) considers that moral truth is up to the individual and rejects the idea of absolute truth. This voter bloc is characteristic of the Democratic Party platform and reflective of the president, himself.
We should always pray for our president and all political leaders. But we cannot expect America to thrive economically and advance socially by God’s favor when we elect a president who does not honor the Lord and the Bible in policies and governance. Such a president will select a cabinet and staff who have similar beliefs and character as his own. It will take a revival of repenting and turning back to God to save America, but removing Joe Biden from the White House is a start.
If church membership or even attendance is not required for salvation and eternity in Heaven, is it really necessary? More and more people are opting out of church connection according to recent statistics. Let’s look at the generational trends in church participation and whether it makes any difference.
Almost every church denomination has experienced a significant decline in church attendance as a result of COVID-19. Apparently, when most churches were closed for months in 2020, many worshippers became comfortable with online services and church connections. When services resumed at church facilities, some chose to continue watching from home. Others simply got out of the habit and never returned to regular attendance. However, long before COVID, church membership and attendance were steadily declining.
Waning interest in the church seems to be a generational thing. Among baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964, 58% are members of a local church. Just 50% of Generation X people born from 1965 to 1980 belong to a church. Millennials from the 1981 to 1996 years have only 36% declaring church membership. Finally, fewer than 35% of Generation Z people rising out of 1997 to 2012 are identifying with churches as they reach adulthood.
In 2014, 3700 protestant churches in America closed, but 4000 new churches were established for a net gain of 300. But in 2019, 4500 churches closed, while only 3,000 opened with a net loss of 1500 churches. Our country has seen a steady loss in numbers of churches, church members, and church attendance since 2019.
There is a direct correlation between the decline of the church and the corruption and savagery of our nation and world. Many are decrying our condition while contributing to it by making church a minimal priority. Our society will not improve unless we turn back to honoring God and His church.
Although church is decreasing in importance to Americans, it is just as important as it ever was to God. His establishment, expectation, and empowerment of the church is crystal clear in His Word. In the Old Testament, He chose to relate to His people through gatherings at the tabernacle and the temple. Jesus’s very first recorded encounter with others as a teacher was in the temple (Luke 2). Later, he often taught in the synagogues. Hebrews 10:25 says, “…not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another–and all the more as you see the Day (time of His coming again) approaching.” God’s plan for living out the Christian life through worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and mission is meant to be done together as a church. To reject the church is to reject God’s process for His work on this earth and association among His people.
Most of the New Testament is about starting, operating, and growing churches for the fulfillment of Jesus’s teachings. Those first-century churches had problems like churches today, because all their members were flawed as members are today. Yet, the church was and still is the Lord’s only concept for following Him. Christianity is not a private or individual faith. According to the Bible, it is a community of faith shared and lived with others. If you have become slack in your attendance and support of your local church, I encourage you to accept God’s invitation to join Him and His guests at His house this week.
This new year, ditch those superficial recycled goals that contain words like “diet,” fitness,” “budget,” “travel,” and “project.” Instead, commit to something in 2024 that will be of great personal benefit to you forever. Determine to develop a closer relationship with the Lord that will go with you into eternity. Establish a daily devotional time to meet with Him one-on-one that includes Bible reading, scripture memory, and making a few notes in a personal journal. For specific suggestions involving a free easy-to-use guide, continue reading.
The Bible is clear that God wants to have an intimate relationship with us. He created you and desires to draw close to you. James 4:8 says, “Come near to God, and He will come near to you.” Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call on Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” It is futile to try to live our lives under our own power without investing at least a few minutes each day with Him.
Yet, you may find it difficult to reserve that crucial time with the Lord every day consistently. It will never happen by just catching those moments whenever you can. The only way to satisfy that need to be in His presence is to have a system that is a habitual part of your routine. My church, Crossgate Church, has developed a Bible Engagement Guide which is a two-year plan for reading just one chapter of the Bible a day, making a few notes in a personal journal, and praying. You will read and meditate on the Bible’s chapters that are most applicable to your life. The Guide encourages you to memorize one Bible verse each week. This guide is not just for Crossgate Church. It is for everyone who wants to establish a consistent pattern of coming near to God and gaining access to His endless power and wisdom. It is the best daily devotional plan I have ever used.
If you don’t have a structured method of daily personal quiet time with God, I urge you to download and save or print the Crossgate Bible Engagement Guide by clicking this link: www.crossgate.org/resources. Then scroll to the Crossgate Bible Engagement Guide. It is free, there is nothing to join, you will not be contacted, and your information will not be shared with anyone or any organization. It is just a simple way to start your new year off in a way that has changed many lives for the better. It can do the same for you.
Over 19 million children in America live without a father in the home–about one in four children. This explosive phenomenon of single mother homes has quadrupled since 1950. This dramatic demographic trend has had a destructive impact on our society in general and has been particularly devastating on our nation’s children. Let’s look at a few disturbing facts about fatherless homes that are unraveling the fabric of our culture.
Even before birth, children whose fathers abandon their mothers are four times more likely to die in the womb due to stresses on the mother. Once born, these children are four times more likely to grow up in poverty. Forty-seven percent of children without involved fathers live in households below the poverty level. That is four times the number of father-and-mother households in poverty.
Children of single mothers are nine times more likely to drop out of school, and they account for 71% of all dropouts. These children represent 90% of all homeless and runaway minors. They have four times the risk of obesity.
Children without fathers present have an alarming propensity to become delinquents. Of all children exhibiting behavioral problems, 85% have no paternal influence. They are twice as likely to commit suicide. They are three times more likely to carry guns and deal drugs. Eighty-five percent of all youth in prison are from fatherless homes.
Teens without dads have a significantly greater likehood of being sexually active and are seven times more likely to become pregnant during their teen years. Children raised solely by their mothers are more prone to gender dysphoria.
The old adage, “Correlation does not imply causation” does not apply to father absence. The troubling statistics presented above are directly attributable to the lack of father involvement in children’s lives. Fathers committed to their children and their children’s mothers virtually free their family from those statistics. The most egregious cases of father abandonment begin at pregnancy. However, abandonment caused by divorce or separation after children are born causes other problems like those children’s depression, social dysfunction, anxiety, anger, and lack of discipline.
Mothers are extremely important to the raising of children, but they can never fully fill the void of fathers. Parenting is divinely designed to be a team effort of both a feminine and masculine influence on the lives of children for their optimal development. America will not return to the great nation it once was unless all its fathers honor their God-given, sacred role and responsibility to be present, to provide, to protect, to prepare, to promote, and to praise their children in this increasingly hostile world.
It is past time for the critical need of committed fathers to be emphasized in churches, schools, politics, media, and health care. If we can fix fatherhood in America, we will fix a multitude of other social ills.
Way out on a limb here, and against broad consensus, I believe the two leading candidates for America’s next-term president will be absent from the November 5, 2024, ballot. My opinion of how that would happen is the topic of this post with which few will agree.
I have recently heard many people express something like, “With over 340 million people in America, is this really the best we can find?” Of course, only about 160 million would be qualified to be president, but still. I have to admit, this time last year, I never thought President Biden or former President Trump would be the front runners by huge margins two months prior to the first primary elections. I also have to concede that apparently both will win their respective primaries.
However, I don’t believe that Biden actually plans to serve a second term. Despite his cognitive deficiences, he has to recognize that his other incompentencies and unpopularity would be devastating for our nation. But he also realizes an announcement to not seek a second term would make him a lame duck with little influence for the rest of his term. Trump, on the other hand, will not likely bow out without extremely heavy pressure from his party leaders. I believe there will come a time, probably after the primaries, when his legal encumbrances and his increasingly narcissistic behavior will force his withdrawal from the race. I predict this scenario would set up an unprecedented situation resulting in the most chaotic presidential election in our nation’s history. Thankfully, there are policies and procedures for such a predicament.
First, a little background. Although voters at the primary polls choose their general election presidential candidates, it is technically the Republican and Democratic national conventions that have the final say regarding their parties’ nominees. Convention delegates from all states selected through state processes, and coordinated with the respective party’s national committee, vote on each party’s candidate. Most of these candidates are “pledged” or “bound” to vote according to their states’ majority votes, at least in the first rounds of voting. A few are “unpledged” or “superdelegates” who are allowed to vote their conscience regardless of their state vote. The 2024 Republican Convention at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 15-18, 2024, will have 2,469 delegates with 104 unpledged. The Democratic Convention at Chicago, Illinois, August 19-22, 2024, will have 4,532 delegates with 744 superdelegates. If the votes are close, the voting may go several rounds until there is a majority winner. At some point in multiple rounds, the pledged or bound delegates are released to vote their conscience rather than with their state majority.
I envision a case where both Biden and Trump win their respective primary elections, after which both will withdraw from the general election within days before their national conventions. That will allow each of them to claim they would have won a second term while releasing their parties to run other candidates in America’s best interests. Of course, it would throw the conventions into unprecedented disarray. The delegates would coordinate with their respective state committees with the vast majority voting for their states’ second choices. There would likely be several rounds of votes in each convention. Eventually, a Republican and a Democrat candidate would rise to the top and enter the general election.
The next three or four months would see the wildest presidential campaigns of our lifetimes. The two (or three) unanticipated candidates would be doing whatever it takes to sway the massive voting public in a very short period of time. Ultimately, the 2024 making of the election sausage would be from a rare recipe that might produce the best outcome for America in a long while.
Map of the “Two-state Solution” for Israel and Palestine
Since the inception of the State of Israel in 1948, the U.S. has advocated a separate state for Palestinians within the borders of the Jewish nation. I firmly believe our government is wrong on this issue. Creating a nation of Palestine within the nation of Israel shouldn’t happen, and it won’t happen. Let’s consider the reasons for this position.
Much, if not most, of the world today is screaming, “Free Palestinians,” as their response to the Israel-Hamas war. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are protesting what they perceive as Israel’s aggression against the people our own State Department officially labels as terrorists. Some try to decouple Hamas from the rest of the Palestinians. The truth is there is no such separation. Hamas is the controlling government of the Palestinians, and Palestinians have supported Hamas’s constant attacks on Israel for decades, and they applaud the October 7 massacre and hostage taking. Those legions of Americans who have surprisingly demonstrated their antisemitic bias either don’t understand history or are being overly influenced by pockets of ultra-liberal, anti-Israel hate groups.
Meanwhile, Presiden Biden continues to tout the Two-state Solution that has been our nation’s wrongful position for years. This position proposes that the Palestinians be given the sovereign right to their own land and government within the borders of Israel. The land would be roughly that which currently defines Palestinian settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (see map above). While Israel has allowed the Palestinians to reside in those areas and more-or-less govern themselves there, the land remains under the soverign jurisdiction of the nation of Israel.
The 1948 war between Israel and the Arab nations resulted in Israel’s firm claim to all the land within its borders. Most palestinians settled in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. During the Arab – Israeli War of 1967, Israel captured and occupied those two Palestinian settlements. Later, in exchange for peace with the Palestinians, Israel agreed again to allow them to live peacefully within the two territories. Then, the Palestinian territories were loosely organized under the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). They have never had a legimate government, and have never been recognized as a nation by the rest of the world.
With the Palestinians relegated to their two settlement territories, Israel maintained a tolerance for the arrangement. But the Palestinians were not satisfied and would not be until they controlled all of Israel. In the mid-1990’s the Palestinian Authority superceded the PLO as a quasi government of the Palestinians. This new leadership structure maintained the stated goal of gaining control of all of Israel’s land and expelling all Jews. The terrorist group, Hamas, had been conducting periodic strikes against Israel during the establishment of both the PLO and the Palestinian Authority and challenging both organizations. Hamas eventually gained control of the Palestinians and are currently calling the shots. Their stated objective is the complete anihilation of Israel.
So, does it appear in the slightest that Israel and the Palestinians could ever agree on being separate nations within Israel’s borders? Obviously not. Under such an arrangement, Palestinians would continue firing rockets into Israel but from a closer range. Israel would lose control of miles of its international borders. Palestinians have not and will not denounce theri objective of destroying Israel. Palestinians would build up a much greater military capability with no oversight from Israel. Israel’s enemy Arab nations could deploy their military forces into a nation of Palestine. Plus, the Palestinians are on record as being adamantly opposed to the Two-state Solution.
The bottom line is that it is ludicrous to think Israel or the Palestinians would ever accept the establishment of separate soverign states within Israel’s present borders. While President Biden keeps repeating the call for a Two-state Solution, and Secretary Blinken continues running around the Middle East trying to convince the Arabs and Jews to support the Palestinians having their own state and government, just understand it is all a political game that will never be won. The only valid solution is for Israel to have sovereignty over all of its rightful land with oversight and ultimate authority over all Palestinian occupants. That is Israel’s stated expectation after Hamas is defeated, and the U.S. should support them in that strategy.
