Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has agreed, on behalf of Israel, to surrender Atarot Airport to Palestinian control according to a report recently published by local Jerusalem newspaper Kol HaZman.

This concession was made during a series of secret talks the Israeli government is conducting with Palestinian Authority negotiators. Staffers in Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office and Livni’s press secretary have confirmed that the foreign minister has indeed been conducting negotiations with the Palestinians, but refused to comment further on the issue.

Atarot Airport, which is located in northern Jerusalem, was a domestic airport up until it was transferred to Israel Defense Forces control in 2001—after Palestinian terrorists fired shots at the control tower. Since the transfer, Atarot has been used as a springboard to combat Palestinian terrorism. The transfer of this airport to Palestinian Authority control would surrender one of Israel’s strategic assets.

Jerusalem municipality officials are saying that this concession would represent a de facto recognition of the division of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem Major Uri Lupolianski was astonished upon hearing about Livni’s secret agreement. He has stated that if this agreement is carried out, it will be a grave security failure for Israel and a significant concession of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem. “It is inconceivable that while Israeli flights from Atarot have been stopped because of security fears, the threat will now become even more severe, with control of the entire area being given over to the PA,” he said. Knowing that the Fatah terrorist group Al Aqsa has been carrying out numerous attacks against Israeli citizens in recent weeks, Lupolianski is warning that “hostile airplanes” in the skies of Jerusalem will be the likely result of ceding the Atarot Airport to the Palestinian Authority.

The Olmert administration is trying to weaken its enemies in Gaza and make peace with the Palestinian Authority by making concession after concession to Fatah. At the end of the day, however, both Hamas and Fatah have the same goal—the transformation of all Israel into a Palestinian state. Israel’s policy of appeasement will end with it losing everything it once held dear. In the words of Sir Winston Churchill, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”

For more information on the future status of Jerusalem, read Jerusalem in Prophecy by Gerald Flurry.