Israel Matzav

Tourism Minister Avraham Hirchson has shunned US evangelical leader Pat Robertson shortly before the two were to sign a major funding deal for the Galilee Christian Heritage Center after Robertson suggested that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was a punishment from God for the Gaza Strip withdrawal, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

"The minister has very strong views on this and cannot accept what was said," Tourism Ministry spokesman Ido Hartuv said. "We reconsidered the deal and realized that we cannot sign with Robertson or anyone who supports his views."

Hartuv stressed that this was an attack on Robertson and his comments rather than a rejection of the evangelical community as a whole, which has become a target group for Israeli tourism in 2006.

Robertson lost favor with the ministry when he said on his popular 700 Club TV show that "God considers the land to be his… For any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away he says, 'No, this is mine.'"

I think what Robertson said was out of place. No one in this day and age can pretend that he knows what G-d is thinking and why G-d does things. Over the weekend, my wife brought home the Mishpacha Magazine (unfortunately, the web site does not contain text of articles), which had a story that outlined Sharon's domestic plans if he had been re-elected. The plan was essentially the same 'secular revolution' we have heard discussed in the names of Yitzchak Rabin and Ehud Barak. Could that be why Sharon is now unable to run for Prime Minister? Maybe. The explanation is at least as valid, and I am sure there are many other people who could come up with many other explanations for why God chose to give Ariel Sharon a stroke at this time. The point is that we do not know why G-d does what He does, and making the kind of statement that Robertson made is pretentious, does not advance anyone's cause and just angers people unnecessarily.