By Bill Koenig
I wrote four letters of warning to President G.W. Bush and provided “Israel the Blessing or Curse” (in 2002) and “Eye to Eye” (in 2005). I sent a letter and “Eye to Eye” (in 2009) to the top Jewish members of Obama’s administration — former Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel and Senior Advisor David Axelrod — and have written a letter and provided “Eye to Eye” (in 2017) to President Trump and his top advisors. The lobbying has been active behind the scenes.
Vice President Pence received copies of “Eye to Eye” from three different people. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Jarred Kushner and Jason Greenblatt received copies with personal explanation. They have all been informed and warned of the consequences of dividing God’s covenant land. President Trump’s administration has been more open to the warnings than any other administration, but they have decided to continue dividing the land and creating a Palestinian state.
Over 100 copies of “Eye to Eye” were delivered to U.S. Senators and U.S. House members.
In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu received “Israel the Blessing or Curse” (in 2002) and “Eye to Eye” from me in February 2006 in Aventura, Florida, and the updated “Eye to Eye” in November 2018 from a very close friend of his in Jerusalem.
Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert received copies from my assistant, Max, in Washington, D.C.
I personally gave copies of “Eye to Eye” to Ariel Sharon’s son Gilad, Naftali Bennett, Speaker of the Knesset, Yuli Edelstein, and Moshe Ya’alon in Israel.
I gave “Eye to Eye” to top members of Israel’s media: Caroline Glick, Barak Ravid, Udi Segal, David Horovitz, Steve Linde, Ariel Kahana, Danny Seaman, Jeremy Gimpel, Ari Abramowitz and others.
Has this effort made a difference? Netanyahu has said Israel is tired of managing the Palestinians. A few of my media friends in Israel said, “Bill, we hear you and understand what you are saying, but we don’t want a million Palestinians descending on our streets."
Or they say, we don’t want to have a Jewish minority in our own state. Some Israeli leaders believe the faulty demographics that say this will happen, when in reality the Jewish population is growing faster than the Palestinian population. Yoram Ettinger disproves the idea that Jews will become a minority in his report at https://theettingerreport.com/the-documented-jewish-arab-demographic-abo....
So, Israel and the region continue their move toward the day Jerusalem becomes a burdensome stone (Zechariah 12:3) and the final day conflicts led by Russia, Turkey, Iran and other Ezekiel 38-39 countries.
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No American president has done more for Israel than President Trump; it isn’t even close to previous presidents
I have mentioned this in many news reports;
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U.S. Embassy move to Jerusalem;
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Resolution backing Israel’s claim to the Golan Heights;
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Secretary of State Pompeo’s stating Israeli settlements are not illegal, after a year of legal study;
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National Security Advisor John Bolton warned the International Criminal Court against their isolation of Israel;
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Ambassador Haley’s chastised the U.N. Human Right Council hypocrisy and the U.N. Security Council Resolutions, that continually targeted Israel;
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Stopped U.S. funding of the UNRWA refugee facilities and schools and their incitements against Israel;
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Called for the Palestinians to stop funding terrorists who have killed Israelis;
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Defense cooperation with Israel is at an all-time high;
On Iran:
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Backed out of the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA);
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Approved the elimination of Iran’s top military leader Soleimani, who was the architect of Iran’s Middle East caliphate in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, who had planned a future major attack on Israel, and worked closely with Hezbollah;
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Sanctioned Iran in order to stop their nuclear development program and missile development
Disruptive times when Israel’s land is negotiated
There were major disruptive periods when President G.W. Bush was working on Israeli-Palestinian peace deals. I documented those in the first and second edition of “Eye to Eye – Facing the Consequences of Dividing Israel.”
I provided specific examples of difficult personal, political and/or national matters for President G.W. Bush that occurred when he and his team were working on the two-state plan. Those periods would last anywhere from one week to six weeks.
President Trump has had one disruptive period after another. Most of those are not connected to Israel but some are; those disruptive periods were usually before and after the record hurricanes as previously noted.
No one has held the Palestinian leadership accountable for squandered billions of dollars:
Palestinians have taken in billions of dollars of aid from the U.S. and the EU. What do they have to show for it?
Gaza has turned into a full-fledged terror state.
At the Durban III event that I attended on the sidelines of the U.N. in September 2011, black scholar Dr. Shelby Steele, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, compared the Palestinians to blacks who live by victimization and never take accountability for their failed community.
The failure to build vibrant Palestinian civil, economic, and cultural institutions has always been a significant obstacle to their dream of statehood — as surely as the Israeli people’s success at doing so over the years preceding their declaration of statehood was a major asset.
Full text of Trump speech: This could be the Palestinians’ last opportunity
Full text of Netanyahu’s speech: Today recalls historic day of Israel’s foundings
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Trump – “Peace to Prosperity” Deal points
For Israel:
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Israel to have full control of an undivided Jerusalem
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The Palestinian capital of their state would be in East Jerusalem
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Israel would have security from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea
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Israel allowed to annex 20 percent of the land in Judea and Samaria and swap some of its land in the Negev on the Gaza-Egyptian border
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Existing Israeli settlements would be maintained; no Israeli removed from their homes; but would not be allowed to expand for four years
For the Palestinians:
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A state of Palestine would be created that comprises up to 80% of the land of Judea and Samaria, and the new land in the Negev
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The U.S. would open an embassy for Palestine and provide up to $50 billion in economic aid
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The Palestinians would acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, stop inciting terrorism, stop supporting families of terrorists, and disarm Hamas and Islamic Jihad
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No Palestinian refugees would be resettled