QUESTION #2: President Trump announced last week that he’ll be taking his first trip to the Middle East indicating he hopes to initiate peace talks as he meets with the Pope and leaders from Israel, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries. What’s the political climate in the Middle East and will his trip be successful?
Answer:
Dr. Jimmy DeYoung:
“…Just a couple of years ago, the Saudi Arabian King at that time, who’s now passed off the scene, that king Abdullah was responsible for putting together a peace plan through resolution to the Israel Palestinian conflict. It had a lot of details we don’t need to go into now except with this fact in point. The situation would have to be that Israel would agree to abide by the peace plan that was put together by Saudi Arabia which would bring all the Muslims to the table so they could have a resolution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
Right off the bat, the Israeli’s rejected it because it was calling for going back to the ’67 borders. Even some said how about back to the 1948 borders. Of course, there’s no question, they would not go back to ’48 and I would almost guarantee that they will not go back to the ’67 borders even to bring resolution to this peace process. But when you go into Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia has been a main player in the Arab world…That’s the headquarters for the Islamic world, Mecca and Medina, the two most important locations, the most sacred spots for the Islamic faith itself and religion is also a part of what’s going to happen when they go to Jerusalem because that’s the third most important part in the Islamic world.
So, he goes to Saudi Arabia first. All of these leaders from the Arab countries are going to come in and there has been developing a relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia because Saudi Arabia’s concerned about a nuclear-powered Iran. Saudi Arabia has been sending all kinds of signals. The Israeli government has been sending their messengers over to meet secretly with the Saudi leaders and there’s almost a very timely relationship between the two and of course Egypt, you bring them into the mix. They rely upon Saudi Arabia for so much funding that they themselves cannot produce.
This whole thing is looking like that not only is it going to be a tolerance tour which brings up some red flags as far as I’m concerned, but in addition to that, to try to pull this peace process together because after he leaves Saudi Arabia, after he meets with all of these Islamic, Arab leaders, he’s flying into Jerusalem. He’ll meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu. He then is going to go to Ramallah and meet with Mahmoud Abbas again and he’s making a statement. He’s going to make this deal happen.
I don’t think he understands the Islamic world enough to be able to pull it off. I don’t think he understands the Palestinian Israeli conflict enough. I was talking to the man who watches the Palestinian media, Itamar Marcus, who will be on my broadcast this weekend. He says, you know if you don’t understand all the players and what their main goals are, you’re not going to be able to pull off any kind of deal. I don’t care what kind of a deal maker you are. I think he is just assured enough of his ability to make a deal. He’s going to try to pull it off and he thinks this is the way to do it.”
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