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Viewed as a modest success by some and as a failure by others, the Annapolis summit ended Tuesday with a decision by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert to work toward a peace agreement by the end of 2008.

The summit, convened by the Bush administration to move forward a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, was initially expected to elicit concessions on both sides. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had expressed optimism that Palestinian president Abbas would agree to subdue militant groups and that Olmert would promise to stop further Israeli settlements from being built in the West Bank.

Expectations were tempered as the summit approached, however, and in the end, no immediate concessions were made. The summit did produce a document intended to guide peace talks through 2008.

Gary Burge, a Wheaton professor and author of Whose Land? Whose Promise?: What Christians Are Not Being Told About Israel and the Palestinians, said he was skeptical that any progress for peace would be made in the forthcoming talks.

"Palestinian displacement from land is a key to Middle East peace just like the Israeli need for security is a key for Middle East peace," Burge said, citing a key concession wanted by Palestinians. The "right of return" of nearly four million Palestinian refugees, mostly descendants of Arab residents displaced during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, has never been agreed to by Israel.

On the other side of the political spectrum, the president of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), David Brog, said his organization was "comfortable with the outcome" at Annapolis. CUFI, founded by megachurch pastor and vocal Israel supporter John Hagee, had been "most concerned about the summit turning into a forum to coerce Israel to accept certain conditions," Brog said.

Christian disagreement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict goes back decades and is spurred partly by differing biblical interpretation.

In the weeks leading up to the Middle East peace conference, CUFI issued a "rapid action alert" urging the administration not to pressure Israel into giving up parts of the "biblical heartland." Some Christian Zionists, who see the modern state of Israel as a fulfillment of the Bible's end-times prophecies, believe Israel's borders should expand, not shrink, to incorporate the full territory God promised Israel in the Old Testament.

In a message on his church's website, Hagee wrote, "At this point in America's history, we are plainly rejecting the Word of God because, according to Joel 3, we are helping to divide the land of Israel. We, through billions in foreign aid, are pressuring Israel to abandon the covenant land that God has given to the Jewish people forever. America is in the valley of decision, and we are making the wrong decision."

Yet even though theology spurs CUFI's support of Israel, Brog said, CUFI opposes land-for-peace trades not primarily for theological reasons, but for political ones. Brog said territorial concessions make Israel less secure, pointing to Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, which has since become a launching pad for increased terrorist attacks.

Burge, on the other hand, criticizes Zionists for overlooking the plight of Palestinians, a large minority of whom have long been Christians. "Hagee has put eschatology before Christian compassion for the suffering Christian church in Palestine," he said.

Burge contends that concessions are the best way for Israel to achieve peace, pointing to rapid growth of the Palestinian population that will soon outstrip Israel's ability to oversee it. "The Palestinian population will be enormous in 50 years," Burge said, "and Israel will not be able to sustain Palestinian settlements of that population."

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November (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51