January 30, 2020

A Plan for Shalom in Israel

Tuesday, President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled the long-awaited Middle East peace plan. The 180-page plan, officially titled “Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People,” offers one of the most comprehensive attempts to broker a deal between the Israelis and Palestinians in decades.

Tuesday, President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled the long-awaited Middle East peace plan. The 180-page plan, officially titled "Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People,“ offers one of the most comprehensive attempts to broker a deal between the Israelis and Palestinians in decades.

As the president explained, "This vision for peace is fundamentally different from past proposals. In the past, even the most well-intentioned plans were light on factual details and heavy on conceptual frameworks.”

While previous plans have failed because they did not adequately address Israel’s security needs and/or failed to accommodate Palestinian aspirations for a sovereign state, President Trump’s plan seeks to thread the needle by addressing Israel’s military and security needs from border to border while providing for a future Palestinian state. Significantly, the president’s plan calls for achieving mutual recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people and the future State of Palestine as the nation-state of the Palestinian people. The president’s plan is a realistic way forward for a managed peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

As part of the deal, if the Palestinians meet certain benchmarks such as renouncing terrorism, recognizing Israel’s right to exist, and disarming Hamas (which is recognized by the United States and European Union as a terrorist organization), they will receive historic economic and political opportunities. The economic opportunities come in part through a massive investment of $50 billion (mostly coming from the Gulf states) which will spur the Palestinian economy. When implemented, the plan could create more than one million Palestinian jobs, double the Palestinian GDP, and reduce unemployment below 10 percent and cut the poverty rate in half.

Unfortunately, Palestinian leadership has so far indicated they are not interested in coming to the negotiating table. In one sense this is not surprising, given the ongoing disfunction within the Palestinian Authority. President Mahmoud Abbas, who has led the Palestinian Authority since 2005, has presided over a struggling economy and strained political situation since his election fifteen years ago.

However, as Chris Mitchell, the Middle East Bureau Chief for CBN News, told me Tuesday, there may still be hope for the peace plan if the Palestinian people signal to leadership they are tired of perpetually poor economic prospects and restricted travel rights due to the PLO’s funding of terrorism. As Mitchell explained, many Palestinians are tired of living under a corrupt government and are ready for peace. This is why despite calls from Palestinian leadership for a “day of rage” in response to the peace plan, many Palestinians are evidently not going along. As Mitchell noted, “I have been hearing that some of the Palestinian people are not necessarily going to go along with this resistance against the plan.”

Congressman Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), who joined me on Washington Watch Tuesday as well to discuss the peace plan, pointed to the potential economic boon as a reason Palestinian leadership should consider the plan. “Everybody’s going to win,” Yoho argued.

President Trump himself stressed these economic benefits Tuesday in a direct appeal to President Abbas: “President Abbas, I want you to know that if you choose the path to peace, America and many other countries — we will be there. We will be there to help you in so many different ways, and we will be there every step of the way.” He continued, “Your response to this historic opportunity will show the world to what extent you’re ready to lead the Palestinian people to statehood.”

While there are still aspects to be negotiated, the plan released Tuesday by the White House once again displays the Trump administration’s knack for tackling perplexing political problems. I commend the president and his team for crafting a win/win proposition; it would ensure security for Israel and enable an identity and economic prosperity for the Palestinians. Christians everywhere should pray for a cessation of hostilities between the Israelis and Palestinians and pray that everyone in the Holy Land may at last experience shalom.

Originally published here.


A Stand for the Right to Pray


When students at East Ridge High School in Lick Creek, Kentucky turned a school locker into a prayer locker, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State rushed to stop it. It appears that the idea of students submitting prayer requests other students could pray for was just too much for the anti-religion activists to take. Accused of a supposed “violation of the separation of church and state,” the school was quick to pull the plug on the student prayer effort. Yet, one bold sophomore, Emily Chaney, didn’t give up so easily.

While her school buckled to the anti-faith bullies after they received a threatening letter, Emily and her fellow students joined a local pastor in a community-wide campaign in support of this prayer movement. As Emily explained on Washington Watch Tuesday, the students started to give out “magnets to put on the lockers that said ‘Pray anyway’ or, ‘My locker is a prayer locker.’ It was just amazing. All the students put them on all the lockers. It was great.”

What motivated this teenager to take such a courageous stand in the face of opposition from a national secularist organization? She said, “We all know that life is hard and it’s not something that any of us want to do alone. And I really feel like God called me a head up this prayer locker. And, you know, even if it just helps one person. We’re so thankful that God gave this blessing to us. It was just a great thing for our school.”

Emily stood up for her own religious freedom — the freedom to live out her faith though the simple act of prayer. Her courage landed her in the Oval Office to watch President Trump put his signature to updated federal guidance that would protect every student’s right to pray in schools.

President Trump’s effort to safeguard religious freedom in schools makes it clear that to receive federal funding, schools must protect their students’ rights to pray outside of class times, form prayer groups, and engage in religious expression in their assignments.

Emily stands out as an example to others of what can happen when you stand up for your right to express your faith. She didn’t let the intimidation and bullying of a national organization stop her. Instead, she pressed on, and her effort in part inspired the Trump administration to make clear students have First Amendment rights, including the right to pray.

Originally published here.


Religious Freedom Wins in Closely Watched Texas Race


Tuesday night, Republican Gary Gates surprised pollsters and political observers by beating Democrat Eliz Markowitz by a whopping 16 points in a race for Texas District 28’s state House seat. The race had attracted outsized national attention due to the involvement of several Democratic presidential candidates, including Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren, who endorsed the Democrat candidate, and Michael Bloomberg and Julian Castro, who traveled to Texas to campaign with Markowitz.

However, no one worked harder to elect the Democrat than former presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke, who actively campaigned for Markowitz in District 28 in recent weeks. Although Texas Democrats — who are attempting to flip the Texas state House from Republican to Democratic control — initially thought Beto’s involvement would help their candidate, they are likely rethinking their strategy after this election’s result.

Beto’s involvement in the failed campaign brought to the fore his own unsuccessful campaign for president, in which he famously called for the confiscation of guns and argued that churches and religious organizations should lose their tax-exempt status if they opposed same-sex marriage. In the closing weeks of the Markowitz campaign, voters in District 28 were repeatedly reminded that national Democrats like Beto are advocating for policies that undermine America’s long tradition of cherishing religious freedom. As evidenced by Gates’ victory Tuesday night, voters balked at the idea of sacrificing their religious liberty for the sake of an activist agenda driven by the interests of the LGBT lobby (Markowitz was endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest national LGBT rights organization).

As we look toward November, the most important take-away from Tuesday night’s election is that voters understand the implications of electing candidates who oppose America’s historic commitment to religious freedom. Voters notice whether candidates and elected officials respect the religious beliefs of their constituents or view them with contempt for holding to these deeply-held beliefs.

Religious liberty has long enjoyed strong bipartisan support in this country, but in recent years, this bipartisan support is increasingly becoming less prevalent. Just last year, the Democrat-led U.S. House of Representatives passed the Equality Act, which would codify sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes equal to race and ethnicity in U.S. civil rights law. In addition to forcing this ideological mandate on our entire country, the legislation would also strip religious protections currently in place under the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act. Beto O'Rourke co-sponsored the Equality Act while a member of Congress. If it were to become law (and it could if Democrats retake the Senate majority and White House this November), Christians and members of any faith with objections to same-sex marriage and homosexuality could be compelled to violate their religious beliefs in a variety of ways.

Religious freedom is now under assault in political campaigns, the legislature, the judicial system, and the business sector. Most voters want their elected representatives to defend their constitutionally-protected rights — including religious liberty — not try and take them away.

Earlier this month, President Trump marked Religious Freedom Day by explaining that religious freedom is a “precious and fundamental right.” Last night, by rejecting a candidate and platform that would have undermined America’s first freedom, citizens in Texas’ 28th district signaled that they agree with the president’s expansive view of religious freedom. This is a welcome sign and a trend that will hopefully continue.

Originally published here.


This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.

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