Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has betrayed the Jewish people once again. He has allowed US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to dictate Israel's terms of surrender to the "Palestinians" of Gaza, who replaced the Jewish residents forcibly expelled by their own government.



The so called "Palestinians" are a conglomeration of Arab terrorist groups, such as the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (Mahmoud Abbas' own group), Hamas, Hizbullah and Islamic Jihad. Since Israel's "disengagement" from Gaza, another terror group, Al-Qaeda has entered Gaza through the uncontrolled open borders and established its new headquarters there. Al-Qaeda has boastfully taken responsibility for the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001, in the United States, the Madrid train bombing on March 11, 2004, the England bus bombings on July 7, 2005, and most recently, the Jordan hotel bombings on November 9, 2005.



Gaza has now become the terror capital of the world, ever since Israel's "disengagement". Nonetheless, the US seeks further concessions from Israel.



To achieve this goal, Condoleezza Rice delayed her departure from Jerusalem in order to do some arm-twisting of Ariel Sharon. Some journalists called it "knocking the heads together" of Sharon and Abbas. However, Charles Krauthammer, on a FOX News panel discussion said, "There was no knocking heads together - Rice only knocked Sharon's head."



Whether it is called arm-twisting or head-knocking, Ariel Sharon succumbed to US pressure and agreed to the following concessions, which are extremely dangerous to Israel's security:



1. Opening the Rafiach Crossing from Egypt into Gaza, which will facilitate the smuggling of weapons. The only access Israelis will have will be a video link a few kilometers away from the border post, which will allow the Israelis, albeit ineffectively, to monitor the borders. Any disagreement will be decided by monitors from the European Union. (Do they really expect the EU to be fair to Israel?)



2. In addition, work will begin on the Gaza seaport, which will make it possible for the Arabs to bring in even more weapons.



3. The Karni Crossing from Gaza to the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) will be established as a direct link in the form of special bus and truck convoys. This link will be very important for the Arabs, and not only for economic reasons. It reaffirms the Arab Big Lie that Gaza and the West Bank is one single Palestinian territory, and that the Israeli disengagement from Gaza means "Gaza first, but not Gaza last."



These concessions are very harmful for Israel, as they make it much easier to smuggle weapons and terrorists, such as suicide bombers, into Israel.



Silly us, we thought that Sharon wanted us to "disengage" from Gaza to protect us from Arab terror. He promised us that the Arabs would no longer be able to attack the rest of Israel, as we would not allow them to cross the new borders.



However, Mahmoud Abbas saw the situation differently. He said triumphantly, "Now, with the help of G-d, we will get a Palestinian State." It is surely not G-d's intention to give the Muslim terrorists a Palestinian state carved out of the Promised Land. It is Condoleezza Rice who is trying to do that.



It is widely assumed that President George Bush appointed Rice as US Secretary of State because of her longtime association with the oil industry. Condoleezza Rice had served on the board of one of the top ten largest oil companies in the world, Chevron Oil Company, between 1991 and January 2001. She only resigned when Bush named her as his top national security aid.



Her services to the Chevron Oil Company were so valuable that a double-hulled, 129,000 ton tanker, part of the international fleet of Chevron, had years before been named the Condoleezza Rice in honor of her services. But critics complained that the ship served as a giant floating symbol of the Bush administration's cozy ties to the oil industry. The tanker's name also raised more serious questions of possible conflict of interest for Rice, because Chevron does business on six continents and in 25 countries and has been sued for alleged human rights abuses in Nigeria.



Leaving a wave of controversy in its wake, one of the most visible reminders of the Bush administration's ties to big oil - the Condoleezza Rice tanker - was quietly renamed the Altair Voyager.



Of most concern to Israel is Rice's apparent antagonism to the Jewish people, their right to live in their entire homeland, and her continual attempts to whitewash Mahmoud Abbas and his unsavory past. Rice thus seems to be the perfect person to advance President Bush's goal to divide the Holy Land into two entities - a Jewish state and an Arab state. It is sad that President Bush has forgotten that he once said that anyone who supported terror anywhere in the world is an enemy of the United States. Instead, the US is pressuring Israel to make dangerous concessions in order to appease the common Islamic enemy.