Rome looks to Middle East

Foreign ministers from 72 European and Organization of Islamic Conference nations met Tuesday to discuss global terrorism and the Middle East conflict. Among the nations invited to express their views on terrorism were recognized experts Iran and Iraq.

Turkey’s foreign minister, Ismail Cem, offered the opening remarks. “One of the first temptations that developed after Sept. 11 was to identify terrorism on cultural and religious lines, pitting one part of humanity against the other.”

Thus, the latest Arab-European conference began the way most do – opening on the working premise that the problem before them belongs to someone else. Cem’s comments suggested the problem was with the Western nations associating terrorism with Arabs and Islam. But it was the terrorists themselves who chose to identify themselves along “cultural and religious” lines. The terrorists at war with the West identified themselves with Islam. It is the Arab states that give these groups aid and succor. And it was the terrorists who chose to pit themselves against non-Islamic humanity, and not the other way around.

The Islamic nations appealed to the Europeans to take a more active involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Taking the lead was Iran, who said Europe “can and must play a greater role” in solving the region’s problems and in putting a stop to the “savage and unprovoked” attacks by the Israelis against the Palestinians. Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi urged the EU to bring “a semblance of fairness, justice and pragmatism to the dynamics of the Middle East.” In other words, a Jew-free Middle East.

Europe was only too ready to oblige, having a plan already hammered out to solve the 4,000 year-old war between the sons of Abraham.

The European plan is simple, concluded the European foreign ministers. The creation of a Palestinian state must be the “starting point of a negotiating process,” according to the French initiative outlined by French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine. The Palestinians would have an election – a state would be declared, recognized by Israel and admitted to the United Nations. Negotiations for a Middle East settlement would follow.

Settlement? If that’s the starting point, what’s left to settle? Spain’s foreign minister, Josep Pique, said the details, like the borders of a Palestinian state, would be developed further at the next foreign ministers’ meeting.

European security chief Javier Solana said there would be no peace in the Middle East without putting “politics back at the center of gravity,” rather than cracking down on terror.

The European outline for peace would require: 1) Israel to withdraw to the positions they held in Sept. 2000, before the beginning of the intifada. 2) Israel and the PA state would sign a peace treaty. 3) Lift travel restrictions imposed on Palestinians to Israeli territory.

In other words, all that is required for peace in the Middle East is Israel’s unconditional surrender, placing all its faith in Europe to guarantee its continued security. Simple.

The options extended Israel by the Europeans would seem unacceptable, but – as an alternative to all out war, or from the rubble, if the unthinkable does happen – the idea of Israel agreeing to similar terms is not beyond the scope of possibility.

Consider the following: The prophet Daniel predicted, 2,500 years ago, a political dynamic that would develop in the last days. It was an impossible projection. Writing from the 6th century B.C., Daniel said that in the last days, there would exist a state of Israel.

No such state existed from Daniel’s day until May 15, 1948. Daniel said that Israel would be at war with the surrounding states. Daniel also foretold the rise, fall and revival of the old Roman Empire. Daniel said a prince of that revived Roman Empire would confirm a 7-year treaty between Israel and the “many.”

It just so happens there’s a 7-year Oslo Agreement in dire need of confirmation right about now. It may or may not be Daniel’s 7-year agreement, but, at the very least, it sets the precedent for it.

The Middle East is about to explode into all-out war. The European Union is floating a plan that, if accepted, would put revived Rome at the heart of the Middle East peace quagmire.

All this – predicted thousands of years in advance. And all due to come together in the same generation. Coincidence? I think not.