Paris Conference Only Smoke and Mirrors

PARIS, FRANCE - The so-called Paris Peace Summit, attended by officials from 70 countries on Sunday, was thankfully only smoke and mirrors as it failed to denounce Israel and recognize Palestine as a state. "The prayers of many people around the world were answered. The leaders of 70 nations intended to hurt Israel and instead ended up wasting their time and accomplishing nothing," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, President of Christians in Defense of Israel, and Founder and Chairman of Covenant Journey.

Former French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius had envisioned the conference in Paris as a way of forcing Israel to accept the two-state solution. Fabius' original proposal called for France and the other nations at the conference to recognize a Palestinian state inside Israel's borders if an agreement was not signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. But the conference concluded instead with a plea for direct negotiations. Though the final declaration made reference to the UN resolution 2334, it amended the language of the resolution which declared Israeli settlements to be "illegal." The Paris conference merely referred to the UN resolution "which clearly condemned settlement activity" and warned against any acts that would "prejudge the outcome of negotiations on final status issues, including, inter alia, on Jerusalem." Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also cancelled his meeting with French President Francois Hollande scheduled for Sunday. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not attend and Great Britain refused to attend the useless conference. Secretary of State John Kerry promised Netanyahu that there would not be any follow-up action to the Paris conference and that Washington would oppose any further political action at the Security Council. Netanyahu said he looks forward to a new era under President-elect Trump.

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Neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority want to recognize Israel's right to exist

Neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority want to recognize Israel's right to exist. Abbas is in his tenth year of a four-year term. He fled Gaza and lives in Ramallah. Gaza is controlled by the terrorist organization Hamas. After last week's terror attack, where a 28-year-old Palestinian ran over IDF soldiers, Hamas celebrated the murderous act by giving candy to children. "Israel has no peace partner. Anyone who tries to force Israel to commit suicide under a Hamas regime is either ignorant of the political realities or is anti-Semitic," said Staver. "Every nation that has tried to eliminate the Jewish people is no more. The survival of Israel and the Jewish people is a miracle that neither the UN nor anyone else can deny," said Staver. "I just returned from Israel with incredible young people from 23 colleges and universities as part of Covenant Journey, which provides a life-changing experience for Christian college-age students who have leadership potential. Two of our Covenant Journey alumni were in Paris yesterday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where they prayed for the protection of Israel. Their prayers and the prayers of many others were answered," concluded Staver.