Pat Robertson had announced that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was 'divine punishment' for withdrawing from Gaza last year.  According to this article, this has cost Robertson his chance to create a "Christian Tourism Center" in Israel.

JERUSALEM - Israel won't do business with Pat Robertson after the evangelical leader suggested Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's massive stroke was divine punishment, a tourism official said Wednesday, putting into doubt plans to develop a large Christian tourism center in northern Israel.

Avi Hartuv, spokesman for Israel's tourism minister, said officials are furious with Robertson's suggestion that the stroke was retribution for Sharon's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last summer. "We can't accept this kind of statement," Hartuv said.

But the project now is in question in light of Robertson's comments, said Hartuv.

"We will not do business with him, only with other evangelicals who don't back these comments," Hartuv said. "We will do business with other evangelical leaders, friends of Israel, but not with him."

A day after Sharon's stroke on Jan. 4, Robertson suggested the prime minister was being punished for "dividing God's land," a reference to the August pullout from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements.

"God considers this land to be his," Robertson said on his TV program "The 700 Club." "You read the Bible and he says 'This is my land,' and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says, 'No, this is mine."'

Robertson's comments also drew condemnation from other Christian leaders and even U.S. President George W. Bush.

Woops. What Robertson and folks who think and believe like him do not seem to understand is that God works through people. And if you say or do something outrageous and offensive enough, God will smite you- via your peers.

Time will tell if this lesson sinks in.