Prominent American Evangelical leader Pat Robertson on Monday warned US President George W. Bush against supporting any future division of Jerusalem, warning that such a move would cost him the support of tens of millions of Evangelical Christians who traditionally vote Republican.
The Virginia-based pastor, who ran for the Republican Party presidential nomination in 1998, said that Bush has been a great friend of Israel, but cautioned him against changing his policy in support of a united Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
"Gaza is one thing, but if he touches Jerusalem and he really gets serious about taking east Jerusalem and making it the capital of a Palestinian state, he'll lose virtually all Evangelical support, and they will go and form a third party," Robertson said at a Jerusalem press conference, where he was attending the Feast of the Tabernacles celebrations.
Robertson, the founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, said the road map is "dead," Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is out for the destruction of Israel, and the Oslo Accords were "a bad mistake."
While shying away from direct criticism of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip by the end of next year, he said in an earlier Jerusalem sermon that "God says, 'I'm going to judge those who carve up the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It's my land and keep your hands off it.' "
He said that Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia should take in Palestinian refugees, adding that "the Arab nations" are instead interested in preserving the conflict with Israel. He went on to say that while the God of the Hebrews and the God of the Christians is the same, the God of the Koran is a different God.
In the press conference, Robertson also said that the UN agency that deals with Palestinian refugees should be dismantled. "UNRWA should be abolished. It has perpetuated intolerable situation for refugees and kept them in perpetual bondage," he said.
Asked about the agency's acknowledged employment of Hamas members, Robertson said that the UN should not be consorting with terrorists. "This is one more example that this agency is not dealing with an even hand," he said.