2008-03-10
The killing of 15 and 16-year-old Jewish seminary students in West Jerusalem last Thursday is firsthand evidence that the leaders of Hamas are the lowest animal form in existence. I just wonder when the world will understand that. And as with any rabid animal, negotiation is not an option.
To watch the response on the Arab street to this senseless killing is chilling. Thousands of people screaming "Allah Akbar" – God is great. Gunfire and cheers for the bloodshed of innocent Israeli children. An open celebration of dead Jews.
Can you imagine if such a barbaric display occurred after the Columbine massacre or the Virginia Tech killings? While innocent children lay dead in their classroom, thousands of radical Islamists take to the street to celebrate. What else can capture such a scene as this other than the word "sick"?
Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri extolled, "This heroic attack in Jerusalem is a normal response to the crimes of the occupier and its murder of civilians."
Heroic? Normal response? This guy is not only deranged, he is evil. He went on to say Hamas "blesses the heroic operation in Jerusalem," calling it a "natural reaction" to Israeli attacks.
The specific attack of which he speaks was launched by the Israelis into the northern Gaza to suppress rocket attacks launched from civilian areas into southern Israel reaching populated Jewish cities like Ashkelon. There were 120 Palestinians killed in the retaliation attacks, many of whom were civilians. Yet I witnessed no celebration in the streets of Jerusalem over the death of innocent Arabs.
What many of the biased reporting agencies neglect to tell the public is that the rockets fired from Gaza come from civilian neighborhoods. Hamas loves to hide behind civilians. I guess these animals have no problem hiding behind their women and children to fulfill their thirst for Israeli blood. It generates negative articles against Israelis forces that appear to be attacking civilians, when in reality no civilians are ever targeted by IDF. Civilians die because their brave fathers and husbands use them like human shields.
I have personally witnessed Palestinians staging rock-throwing events for Western media cameras at ground level while masked Palestinian gunmen fire at Israeli troops from second story windows above. The Israeli forces are actually firing at the gunmen in the windows while the cameras make it appear they are firing on the rock throwing youths.
I know there is no easy answer in the Arab/Israeli conflict. When you talk about it, emotions run high on both sides. But when will the world stand up and say no to terrorists groups like Hamas who not only target innocent children but are proud of it? The 15-member U.N. Security Council could not even agree to condemn the attack because its temporary member Libya expressed "reservations." What?
One of the witnesses of the attack said, "When we got in ... we saw young, 15, 16-year-old guys lying on the floor with their Bibles in their hands – all dead on the floor." Dead Jews everywhere with their sacred books covered in blood. Can you see it? Children who are studying scriptures that tell them about a God of love are gunned down by a worshipper of a god of hate. Can you see it? Think if it had been a madrasah and Qurans were covered in blood. It would have been World War III.
The leaders of Islam need to stand up, take responsibility and condemn this type of attack if they represent a religion of peace. Where are the imams and disciples of Muhammad who always welcome each other with a greeting of "peace be upon you"? Is such greeting reserved only for other Muslims who celebrate when a Jew's blood is spilled?
If you think I am too involved to be objective on this issue, you are right. I have walked the streets of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. I have spoken and broken bread with both sides in Israel. I have been in Jewish towns where Jews and Arabs live side by side in peace and harmony, yet I have never been in an Arab town that can say the same. I have many friends on both sides of this debate. It breaks my heart to watch this happening.
I know how it feels to hear the Katyusha rockets flying overhead and landing nearby only to hear the F-14 retaliation runs moments later. During my last visit to Israel, we met with the president moments after his best friend's daughter died at the hands of an Arab suicide bomber.
I know the feeling of being in an open-air restaurant and hearing gunfire go off, and no one seeming to even notice. What is happening in Israel is real, and it is not going to stop until someone stops it. It will soon happen in America if not stopped abroad. You mark my words.
Therefore, I hope the Olmert government, along with all Israelis, decides to take a stand. If the world is upset by it, so be it. Israel has been given no choice. Golda Meir once said, "The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight."
The time to talk has long past. The time to compromise and give more land and foreign aid has expired. The time to commiserate about the "poor, innocent" Palestinian is over. It is now time to fight and take back the land Israel fought and died for and to tell the world to get over it.
If the Arab world is so caught up with the plight of the Palestinian, let them belly up to the bar, give them a piece of land, provide them the money necessary to establish a government and let them dictate their own future. Wealthy Arab nations can afford it. If they care so much about their fellow Arab brother and sister, they will foot the bill. And, yes, I am serious! Israel has done more than enough to appease the Palestinians, and enough is enough.
Many believed when the grandfather of the modern-day suicide bomber, Yasser Arafat, died, it would usher in an era which would bring a peaceful solution to the crisis in the Middle East. It has not. Fact is the Palestinians will never be satisfied short of Israel being driven into the sea, and that my friends isn't going to happen.
So let's get it on! Have a war, and history will repeat itself. Israel will be attacked, Israel will respond, Israel will win and have another victory to commemorate in the future. The only difference is Israel will mourn on that day, not celebrate. It will honor those who lost their lives and ask God for His mercy. They won't shoot guns in the air, cheer at the loss of innocent life and tell Allah how great he is for allowing people to die.
And that is the difference between humans and animals.
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