A chief Palestinian negotiator speaking on the condition of anonymity has claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is willing to give up sovereignty over the Temple Mount if it would help bring peace to the Middle East. Olmert stated last night that sovereignty over the Temple Mount was not up for negotiation. According to the Palestinian official, the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams may have many sticking points but the issue of the Temple Mount is not one of them. In fact, this Palestinian official said they were surprised at Olmert's willingness to hand over the sacred site.

Quote: ""What Olmert said (regarding the Mount) is absolutely false. I think he's not yet ready to tell the Israeli public and is waiting for the right time and he fears his coalition with religious extremists will fall apart if he announces it now," said a senior Palestinian negotiator Thursady on condition his name be withheld. The chief Palestinian negotiator said in months leading up to Annapolis the Palestinian team was "surprised" by Olmert's willingness to give up the Mount. "We had intense debates on many topics, which remain open and unsettled, but the Harem Al-Sharif (Temple Mount) is not a sticking point. The Israelis didn't argue with us. We were pleasantly surprised Olmert didn't debate about giving the lower section of the Mount either, which was a sticking point in the past." 

The Palestinian official pointed out that previous Israeli Prime Ministers, such as Ariel Sharon, were elected on the promise they would not hand over territory to the Palestinians, but they later reneged on those promises. Olmert claims the Temple Mount is not up for negotiation, but he is willing to hand over sovereignty of the site to an international body comprising of representatives from Israel, Jordan, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations. The Chief Rabbinate was invited to the United States ahead of the Annapolis peace conference just to gauge Israeli opinion on this issue... Following on from last night's comments on the demographic threat to Israel, the Israeli Prime Minister himself stated today that the existence of Israel is dependant on a two-state solution being implemented. On the closing day of the Annapolis conference, Olmert warned that if a two-state solution is not forth-coming, and if Israel is forced to annex Judea and Samaria, Israel could find itself in a South African-style struggle for its Jewish existence, which it would surely lose. 

Quote: "WASHINGTON - "If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights (also for the Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Haaretz Wednesday, the day the Annapolis conference ended in an agreement to try to reach a Mideast peace settlement by the end of 2008. "The Jewish organizations, which were our power base in America, will be the first to come out against us," Olmert said, "because they will say they cannot support a state that does not support democracy and equal voting rights for all its residents." 

It's a grim situation for Israel. Especially with a man like Olmert at the helm. Praise God that Israel's existence is not dependant on demographics. If it were Israel would have been wiped out in 1948. Israel exists because God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). The Lord promised in the Old Testament that He would regather His chosen people from the four corners of earth, and bring them back to their own land in the mountains of Israel (Ezekiel 34:13). Many of you may have seen these Scriptures being fulfilled before your very eyes. I can only read about it. But I do know that Israel's existence today is a modern miracle, and Israel will not cease to exist, because the Lord has said so.

Jeremiah 31:35-37
Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.

Despite man's ingenious inventions, we have still not managed to number the stars nor measure the expanse of the heavens. And we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the ocean depths and the foundations of the earth. God's promise to Israel remains. He has made many more precious promises, not only for Israel, but for us too. He has promised to come again to take all those who have trusted in Him for salvation, to be with Him in Heaven (John 14:3). He has also promised that all those who come to Him for salvation, He will in no wise turn away (John 6:37). Trust in Him for salvation today.

Source YNet News, Haaretz