European Union Foreign Ministers and their counterparts from the Middle East are gathering in Lisbon today for the ninth Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Meeting of Foreign Affairs. Representatives of the nations involved in EuroMed, also known as the Barcelona Process, will be in attendance at the two-day summit. This group includes the 27 nations of the European Union and 10 nations from the Mediterranean area, comprising of Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. Prior to the EuroMed meeting, negotiating teams from Israel and the Palestinian Authority will address EU leaders on progress being made ahead of the upcoming international peace conference. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said he believed the EU would give Palestinians a boost in helping to pave the way for the creation of a Palestinian state.

Quote: "EU officials in Brussels said that while no concrete results were expected to emerge from the Lisbon meeting as far as the peace process is concerned, the fact that the EU was providing traditional enemies a forum in which to discuss issues of common interest was in itself significant. On Tuesday, EU ministers planned to discuss a variety of issues with its colleagues from the Mediterranean. These include enhanced economic cooperation, issues relating to migration and a code of conduit on counter terrorism.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier's plan for strengthening Palestinian businesses, universities, police and other institutions will be discussed at the summit, along with French President Nicolas Sarkozy's proposal for the creation of a Mediterranean Union. And as the EU prepares to strengthen a future Middle East peace agreement, Israeli Rabbis have cautioned President Bush over his support for a process that will result in Israel ceding Judea and Samaria to pave the way for the creation of a Palestinian state. The Ultra Nationalist rabbis warned that the United States risks facing another unprecedented natural disaster if the Annapolis conference is not immediately cancelled. They stated in their letter to President Bush that the Californian fires should be considered the "last warning" if the US presses ahead with the dividision God's land.

Quote: ""We wrote to President Bush, a man who believes in the Bible, to warn him against the terrible danger to which he is exposing his country by hosting such a conference," Rabbi Meir Druckman, one of eight signatories, told army radio. "The land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel. God punishes anyone who wants to force Israel to give up its land," he said, alluding to Biblical Israel, which incorporates the modern-day Gaza Strip and West Bank. "There is no doubt the New Orleans flood from the Katrina hurricane was God's punishment for dismantling the settlements," he said of the August 2005 catastrophe that hit the southern U.S.

Although the Scriptures teach that the time of Jacob's trouble is designed to bring an unbelieving nation of Israel back to their Messiah Yeshua (Zechariah 12:10), the Bible warns us that God will also punish the nations that seek to divide His land (Zechariah 12:9). For God may use the nations to correct Israel for its disobedience, but He also holds the nations to account for their actions, especially when they overstep the line. The Lord also demands more of those nations that have received the greater light. Jesus Christ said that if the mighty miracles which had been performed in Capernaum had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, Sodom would have remained until this day (Matthew 11:23). He said the town had been exalted to heaven, but would be brought down to hell for their unbelief. There are few nations that have received a greater light that the United States of America, and I believe because of this we can expect that they will also receive the greater judgement for dividing God's land.

Jeremiah 25:15-17, 27-29
For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at the LORD'S hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me:
Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink. For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts.

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