By Jan Willem van der Hoeven

January 24, 2002

Dear President Bush,

I am a Christian believer who has lived for many years with my family in the land of our Master and Lord.

We have prayed much for you. First for you to come to power as President of that great nation of yours: a banner to the nations. Secondly, for you to bless your nation by practising a consistently pro-Israel policy, for as God Himself has promised, He will bless and prosper those who bless Israel and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. It is as that godly prophet in your country – David Wilkerson – recently said:

“?Let me say it again: Diligently pray that President Bush will be given the spirit and godly zeal of Josiah, the king of Israel who turned a godless society back to God. If President Bush touches Israel – if he allows the Palestinians to have a portion of Jerusalem as their capital – we are doomed. We will soon be in the worst depression in history. If America gets victory in Afghanistan, our leaders must publicly give God the credit and not our armed might, or great judgments will fall upon us. I fear it will end with a ticker-tape parade down Broadway for our generals, as happened after the Gulf War. The message of the prophecy God gave me is DO NOT FEAR. He will keep us through unemployment. And he will go with us through every kind of calamity. We are to trust Him?”

We pray therefore that you will not be unduly compromised or influenced by those, Haman-like, councillors who will try to move you away from God’s blessing by advising you to exercise a more “even handed” approach towards Israel in its present predicament.

An example of this was evidenced in the recent call by your U.S Ambassador in Israel, Daniel Kurtzer, for Israelis to engage in public demonstrations and other actions aimed at pushing their government towards a more peaceful, compromise-crammed, policy. I only wonder how you would react, if Israel’s Ambassador in Washington DC issued a call over CNN and other public media channels for the American people to demonstrate against the fierceness of your administration’s battle against the Taliban and all forms of terrorism, thus weakening your resolve to deal with this worldwide scourge!

The Jerusalem Post editorial (22/01/2002) put it so well in response to the remarks made by your predecessor during his visit to Israel on January 20 this year, when it wrote:

For all his friendship for Israel, Clinton’s speech this week maintained a familiar pattern of symmetry between the parties. While clearly calling on Arafat to end terrorism and violence, he also beseeched Israelis to “never give up the dream of peace.” In a classic neutral formulation, Clinton proclaimed, “Leaders have to prepare people for peace by saying that compromise is honorable, not shameful, and is a sign of strength, not weakness.” Even now, Clinton has to pretend that obstacles to peace are more or less equally distributed between the parties: Both sides need to be urged to compromise and make peace. This is, frankly, insulting, and Clinton of all people should know better. If anything, the main problem is that Israel’s intense desire for peace has raised expectations to astronomical levels on the Palestinian side, including the hope that Israel will commit suicide for peace.

After many dead on both sides, the Bush administration finally broke with the evenhandedness it inherited from Clinton and last month started explicitly supporting Israel’s right to self-defense. This was a watershed change in US policy and, if combined with a willingness to stop pretending that Arafat is indispensable, it will force Arafat to either end terrorism or relinquish power. There is no real symmetry in what is missing to create true prospects for peace. Defeating radicalism and rejectionism, whether in the form of Arafat or Saddam Hussein, could provide real hope for peace; Israeli willingness to compromise with terrorism would only fuel the flames.

Little wonder that, in a recent poll conducted here with the question: “When he was President, was Bill Clinton a better friend to Israel than George W. Bush is today?, 82% of the more than 22,000 respondents preferred you as President and a true friend of Israel, Mr Bush!

May God keep you on this road of blessing His people, for the sake of your own nation’s future, and Israel’s.

Yours

Jan Willem van der Hoeven (signed)
Director: International Christian Zionist Center

© Israel My Beloved