Jewish State

Don't blame Israel or worldwide Jewry if the ''land for peace''slogan evokes only sardonic laughter. The Zionist movement has been surrendering land since early in the century, and peace has never been the result.Palestine, the land upon which Israel was settled, is now regarded as being located west of the Jordan River. In fact, until the end of World War I, historic Palestine was not only the West Bank but all or most of what is now the Kingdom of Jordan.Hence, when Lord Balfour's famous declaration was issued in 1917 -- ''His Majesty's government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish People . . .'' -- he meant the Palestine as defined at that time.

An important debate over U.S. arms sales to Mideast alliesshaped up last week when Richard Cheney, secretary of defense, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee he expected sales to such countries as Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia to increase.''I don't think there's any question but that there are legitimate security threats to Saudi Arabia,'' Mr. Cheney said. ''They've been through a pretty severe scare.''Saudi interest in acquiring American arms was increased when they experienced first-hand during the Gulf War the effectiveness of Patriot missiles and top-quality U.S. planes, tanks and artillery.

PLO and IsraelEditor: Kudos to President Bush on his direction of Operation Desert Storm. I'm proud that our great country took the initiative in combating world terrorism.Now that the allies are victorious, our number one priority with foreign policy seems to be settling the Arab-Israeli conflict, specifically the Palestinian rights issue.I strongly disagree with the land-for-peace theory for settling this issue. The Palestinians have refused to recognize the existence of Israel as a Jewish state since its U.N.-approved formation in 1948, and do not deserve to govern their own land.

BEIT ME'IR, Israel -- Scott Werthamer and Harvis Kramer kayaked the Jordan River. They visited the grave of slain Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin and prayed at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest shrine.But the place these Pikesville boys may remember most from their summer in Israel is a forest about an hour's drive from Jerusalem.There, beside a boulder, stand the two fir trees they planted."We both made a pact, that in 20 years we'd come back and find our trees," said Harvis, a 16-year-old wrestler from Pikesville Senior High School.

WASHINGTON -- The United States, strapped for foreign-aid money, is turning to European allies to help Israel defray what it claims are billions of dollars in added costs as a result of the Persian Gulf war, a group of Jewish leaders was told this week in a meeting with Secretary of State James A. Baker III.Israel, which gets $3 billion a year in aid from the United States, has been left out of most of the financial compensation to states economically damaged...

An excess of emotion appears to dominate recent discussion of the Israeli blockade of Hamas. Actually, Israel lives in peace with both Jordan and Egypt. There is no active belligerence with any of its other sovereign neighbors. Both portions of the future state of Palestine were parts of other sovereign countries. The West Bank was Jordanian; Gaza was part of Egypt. The recognized administration of Palestine is the Palestinian Authority (PA). This is basically a descendant of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Paris.--THE CONFIDENCE Israel's Yitzhak Shamir expressed after meeting George Bush last week was a whistle in the dark. Things could scarcely be worse for Israel. They are worse, perhaps, than even Mr. Shamir understands.First is the threat from Saddam Hussein, which the Mr. Shamir understands very well. Americans debate whether Iraq's threat to them is such as to justify war. For Israel no doubt exists. If Mr. Hussein survives his confrontation with the U.N. and the United States, he provides the biggest external threat to Israel's existence the Jewish state has yet confronted.

In the end, it was Yitzhak Rabin, the dour and often dull speaker, whose words pierced our hearts. "It's not so easy," he said simply, and with great humanity.And we understood. It is not easy to enter a White House ceremony together with the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, an organization founded on destroying the Jewish state. Flanked by President Clinton, Mr. Rabin had kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, as did the other two men, evoking the awkwardness and undercurrents of enmity of a divorced couple walking their son or daughter down the aisle at a wedding.

Sharing hope at heart of monthly services at St. John Baptist St. John Baptist Church, 8910 Old Annapolis Road, Columbia, is planning Sharing Hope services on the 11th of each month. The gatherings will offer an opportunity for prayer related to the tragedy of Sept. 11. Each gathering will include inspirational and patriotic music and testimony, and will focus on one group of "servant heroes" to be honored. A gathering focused on servant heroes of the military will be held from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.