Western Ignorance of Arab Ideology

Page 10

One major agitator in this uprising was Mubarak Awad, a Palestinian-American, whom I personally heard and met. In a meeting of November 1987 convened at the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem to facilitate Israeli/Palestinian dialogue, he introduced himself as a Palestinian, an American, a Christian and foremost a PLO, all in the same breath. He advocated non-violent civil disobedience on a grassroot-level, which was to touch every area of civilian life between Israelis and Palestinians, and to bring all contact to a complete stop. Non-violent resistance (the absence of “weapons” duly impressed and lulled the audience) in every area of civil life was his proposed strategy, to utterly paralyze all efforts to establish any form of Israeli rule, order or authority over any Arab, whether in Israel or the territories. He also strongly advocated heavy participation of women and children in order to display the involvement of the entire Palestinian people, with lesser visibility of the leading personalities. The pre-dominantly non-Jewish, non-Israeli audience was subtly manipulated by a man who glazed over his implacable hatred of Israel with palatable tunes of “Christian love and forgiveness.” I felt deep apprehension about his potential danger and tried to confront him and unmask his deliberations in open questioning. But I was rudely interrupted by the meeting's facilitator - a fellow-Jew and Israeli. This incident vividly illustrates the deep and painful chasm that divides Jew from Jew and Israeli from Israeli these days.

“We did not know that this was going on ...!”⁶² has been the standard excuse of countless Germans when confronted with the activities of the concentration camps. Did they really not know? One is almost inclined to believe this, when faced with the West’s unsurpassed ignorance of true Arab ideology so utterly foreign to Western thinking. Mubarak Awad knew how to use this ignorance to his advantage, thanks to his intimate aquaintance with Western thinking after having lived many years in the U.S. Most Western Christians are totally unaware that some of the most vicious Fatah terrorist leaders (like George Habash) are not Muslim but “Christian” Palestinians. Mubarak was/is? joined in his efforts by his brother, Bashara Awad, also a “Christian” and director of the Bethlehem Bible-College in Israel.

Friends, let me warn you of these men! Bashara Awad spoke in many major churches, denominational and non-denominational, throughout the United States, and was one of the main speakers at a major Christian rally in Washington. He and his brother Mubarak use the words “Christian love and forgiveness” liberally especially in reference to the death of their father, for which they blame the Israelis, in order to sway support and compassion away from Israel toward the Palestinians - with incredible success, I may add. Their quiet hatred for Israel is their most powerful motivating force, aided by their in-depth knowledge of what sways the West. (A third Awad brother has already been deported by Israeli authorities for his anti-Israel activities.) Their “Christian love and forgiveness” stance has so blinded the Western “brethren” that they no longer discern between right and wrong, good or evil in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Thus, although Awad preaches non- violence, the Israeli soldiers were faced with children eight, nine or ten years old, hurling petrol bombs, katyusha rockets and hails of stones, accompanied by women shouting curses and insults, embarking in the same kind of aggression.

⁶² Thursday, April 18, 2002, I listened on TV to a Mr. Terje Larson, UN Middle East envoy, who reported about Jenin: he saw terrible destruction, poverty, and lack, and smelled the stench of decomposing bodies. He clearly viewed Israel as the perpetrator of this evil and as the violator of the most basic humanitarian principles, a view based on the outward appearance of things, not on the knowledge of facts. Had he made a more in-depth inquiry he would have learned that the enormous devastation of buildings was done by Palestinians themselves, who had booby trapped the houses along the main arteries of Jenin in order to blow up Israeli soldiers. Their first detonation succeeded as the soldiers (reservists) were taken by surprise and 12 of them paid with their life for it.
        It was NOT the Israeli army who blasted all these houses, with people getting buried beneath the rubble. It were Palestinian terrorists doing this to their own people just so they could also kill some Israeli soldiers. Since such barbaric acts do not befit the image the Media has created of the Palestinians, Israelis are getting blamed for it as usual. Thanks to centuries of malicious libels people still believe the worst of the Jews, even though Jews have an exceptionally high regard for the sanctity of life. Israel’s care in warfare to keep human casualties at a minimum have been interpreted by the Arabs – who act savage and without mercy toward enemies - as weakness. Banking on this “weakness” the Arab/Islamic terrorists deliberately entrench themselves amid civilian population centers, calculating that if Israel refrained from striking their hideouts to prevent civilian casualties, they could continue with acts of terror uninterrupted. Conversely, should Israel strike unexpectedly, they could shift the blame for the casualties on the Jews. Either way, the scheme works like a charm!
        The IDF offered to assist in retrieving the dead in Jenin but the Palestinians refused, not wanting Israel to bury their dead in a mass grave in the Jordan Valley near Jericho. They want to bury their dead themselves, in individual graves. Seen, however, that they lack the means to retrieve the corpses quickly from beneath the rubble, the stench of decomposing flesh fills the air.
         Mr. Larson only described what he saw and smelled, but failed to tell the reason for it, based on facts. So the world can say, “we did not know…!” Furthermore, where was Mr. Larson these last 18 months of ceaseless, almost daily terror against Israel’s civilian population? Did he help pick up the pieces of flesh, of bones, brains and guts sticking on house walls, covering sidewalks and streets? Did he help wash away the huge puddles of blood and climb up trees and windows to fetch body parts? Where was Mr. Larson then to declare that these acts were barbarous crimes against the most basic humanitarian principles? Where was he to comfort the maimed and traumatized for life, the orphans, widows, parents robbed of their children? Where were the photographers and journalists to photograph the faces contorted from shock, trauma, fear, anguish, sorrow, grief, mourning, and from unbearably intense pain? Where? Will they too answer one day the Holy One of Israel with, “we did not know?”

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