By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Banner of Liberty (www.bannerofliberty.com)
December 4, 2001
In a speech to the people of Israel yesterday Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that YassirArafat had "selected a strategy of terrorism, chose to try and win political gains through murder, and to make possible the slaughter of innocent civilians. Arafat chose the path of terror."
He also noted that "For a long time the world has not seen Arafat for what he is. But recently there has been a significant shift. There are signs of greater understanding for our position - everyone is discovering the real Arafat."
Why, do you suppose, the world does not know the "real" Arafat, if that is true, considering the 24 hours a day, 7 days a week news shows and instant communications? Well, part of the reason is the shallow reporting that has occurred over the years.
In 1993 we were told by Bill Clinton that the Israel-Palestine Liberation Agreement which he brokered "represents an historic and honorable compromise between two peoples who have been locked in a bloody struggle for almost a century. Too many have suffered for too long. The agreement is a bold breakthrough. The Palestinian Liberation Organization openly and unequivocally has renounced the use of violence and has pledged to live in peace with Israel. Israel, in turn, has announced its recognition of the PLO."
Did the Palestinian Liberation actually renounce the use of violence and pledge to live in peace with Israel? No. Did Israel recognize the PLO? Yes. Arafat says one thing in English and something very different to the Palestinians in their own language. Eight years of Clinton glossing over Yassir Arafat's lies and his failure to DO what he promised to do has finally caught up with us. Arafat has been encouraged to continue to promise, and fail to honor his promises, by the media's and the Clinton Administration's studied refusal to call Arafat to task. It was easier to just keep telling the Jews to restrain themselves.
The PLO website as recently as November 29th, reports: "In their escalation of crimes against the Palestinian People, Israeli occupation forces committed another murder last night 28 November, whereby a Palestinian civilian was shot and left to die bleeding near the illegal settlement of "Netzarim".
This is standard language for the PLO. It complains about Palestinians being "murdered" by the Israeli police merely because "children are throwing rocks" at them. The "children" are often man-size teenagers who are trying to smash the heads of Israeli police. However, for the first time in recent memory the Prime Minister Ariel Sharon characterized the terrorist attacks that killed 28 Jews over the week-end as "war." He said:
"If you ask what the aim of this war is - I will tell you. The aim of this war of terror, the aim of the terrorists, their aids and dispatchers, the aim of those who enable them to perpetrate their acts quietly without disturbance, is to expel us from here. Their aim is to bring us to total despair, a loss of hope, and a loss of the national vision [to be] 'a free people in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem.' "
President Bush used equally blunt language: He said:
"I was horrified and saddened to learn of the bombings that took place tonight in Jerusalem. I strongly condemn them as acts of murder that no person of conscience can tolerate and no cause can ever justify. On behalf of the American people, I extend my deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims, to my friend Prime Minister Sharon, and to all the people of Israel. Chairman Arafat and the Palestinian Authority must immediately find and arrest those responsible for these hideous murders. They must also act swiftly and decisively against the organizations that support them. Now more than ever, Chairman Arafat and the Palestinian Authority must demonstrate through their actions, and not merely their words, their commitment to fight terror."
It isn't difficult to determine who is responsible. In this 21st century information age, the Hamas has a website called the Palestinian Information Center where they announce: "With the grace of Allah the Qassam Brigades declare responsibility for the armed attack against a convoy of Zionist occupation vehicles grouping settlers and soldiers along the road between the so-called settlements of Ely Sinai and Nesanit to the north of Gaza Strip on Sunday 17th Ramadan 1422H"
That's how they describe the suicide bomber who got on a bus with civilians, a bomb packed with nails strapped around his waist, detonated it and killed 13 of them, their body parts falling all over the street and the bus careened out of control.
The Hamas message to us is:
"It is not ye who slew them; it was Allah: when thou threwest, it was not thy act, but Allah's" Our operation today affirms the following:
1- It was a natural retaliation by a people slaughtered day and night and whose dignity is being humiliated by the Zionist enemy's war machine.
2- This is not the revenge for martyr Mahmoud Abu Hannoud and the other martyrs and our Brigades will soon launch that revenge Insha'allah.
3- The American administration's General did not come to the region to ask the Zionists to evacuate our lands but rather came believing that our people will be satisfied with less than liberation of their usurped lands … he is only dreaming.
And it is a Jihad until either victory or martyrdom
The fact that Yassir Arafat has not taken any decisive action against Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, which also is taking "credit" for the terrorist attacks, which shows that he is in fundamental agreement with Hamas' goal that the Jews "evacuate" the homeland that was created as a refuge for the Jewish people after the Holocaust that killed 6 million of them in Europe before and during World War II.
The fact is, Arafat, Hamas, and the Islamic Jihad will not be satisfied until the Jews are simply eliminated. That, after all, is where we were back in the 1930s when Adolf Hitler was determined to eliminate the Jews.
To comment: mmostert@bannerofliberty.com
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