As we watch the continued efforts at a peace settlement between Israel and the PLO develop, we as a nation would be wise to take a backwards glance at history. Regardless of one's religious beliefs, the facts prove out that the Bible was in fact accurate in its assertion in Gen. 12:2-3 where God said to Abram, "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

If there were a single "psychic" out there who could make such accurate predictions, the President would surely want them on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Psychic Network would be beating down their door! How true has this statement proven to be all these thousands of years of it's existence? Let's see:

Mark Twain said in Harper's magazine Sept. 1898, "If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but 1 percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers... The Egyptian, the Babylonian and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dreamstuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a fast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakness to his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?"

Twain wrote this before Jonas Salk discovered the vaccine for polio, or Einstein gave us the theory of relativity, or before anyone ever watched the creative genius and talent of the likes of Stephen Speilberg, Cary Grant, Dustin Hoffman, Paul Newman, Barbara Streisand, Jerry Lewis, George Burns, Ann Landers or Larry King, all prominent Jewish talents, only to mention a few.

When the superpower, and ruler of the sea, Spain issued the Edict of Expulsion in 1492 to the Jews within her borders, she immediately began to fall from being a main player on the world scene, and blessing began to be bestowed on our own nation which served as a refuge to exiled Jewish people.

The very same Egyptians who tried to drown the baby Hebrew boys at the order of Pharaoh, soon found themselves floating in the Red Sea.

Great Britain, which once was a great help to the Jewish people under Winston Churchill through the Balfour Declaration, later forgot the blessings described in the Bible to those who would bless Israel, and is now a relatively small kingdom indeed compared to their previous prominence around the world.

Iran and Iraq, which never cease to try to be a thorn in the side of Israel, are homes to some of the most oppressive, human rights violating governments around. If women think they are not afforded enough equality in America, they should try being a woman over there. They are also looked upon by the rest of the industrialized nations as backwards, and lacking in the qualities to ever make them nations of international prestige.

Not long ago I heard our own President make a most absurd statement. He said in effect that if Jesus himself were here, he doubted He would be able to tell us whose land is whose between Jews and Arabs. All I could think of was, "How can he carry that little black book in and out of church week after week on CNN and not bother to read the answer to that question?" The Bible makes it so unquestionably clear that we would have to make an effort to confuse ourselves on the issue to not know that Jerusalem belongs to the Jews.

As America tries to help negotiate peace, I pray we will have the wisdom to remember that America has enjoyed unprecedented liberty and prosperity, hand in hand with unprecedented favor toward Israel. Should we desire those things to remain and continue, we cannot afford to now turn our backs on those through whom we have been so blessed. The day we start siding with the enemies of Israel in matters of policy, we best remember Who Israel has always had on her side. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And pray for the wisdom of those in leadership here at home who stand to bring upon our country either blessings or curses.