Global Jihad (Arab holy war) is intensifying.
In Nigeria last week, Muslim mobs brandishing machetes butchered some thirty Christians in the streets of the city of Kano. They butchered them and then set them aflame.
American contractors are murdered in Iraq, their abused corpses triumphantly dragged through the streets and displayed hanging from a bridge. An American, Nick Berg, is beheaded on camera.
Six Israeli soldiers are blown up by a roadside bomb and masked terrorists parade their body parts, including a head, for the press. The Arabs, shockingly, are allowed to use UN and UNRWA ambulances to bring body parts to PA controlled territory, to be used for extortion purposes in dealing with Israel.
The hooded men who displayed the head of an Israeli soldier and those who decapitated Nick Berg are part of the same global Jihad. One wants an Islamic dictatorship in Iraq, the other wants the same thing in place of Israel.
We must finally come to grips with the fact that our enemies are engaged in a world war against the entire non-Muslim world. We must understand the depth of their hatred. We, Israelis, Americans, Jews and Christians worldwide, constitute the front line in the war, wherever we are.
It was not the US military deployment in Saudi Arabia that precipitated the September 11 attacks (15 of the 19 suicide bombers were Saudis) any more than it was the Israeli presence in Gaza or Judea and Samaria or Jerusalem that precipitated the Palestinian-led Jihad against Israel. It is our free, democratic way of life, our very existence, that provokes our enemy.
Our enemies, the forces of global Jihad, be they Palestinian or Jordanian, Saudi, Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese, Iranian or Iraqi, use all the means at their disposal to wage their war against us. They do not wage this war because of anything we have done, they do so because they are ruthless barbarians.
Nonetheless, the rest of the world, including, unfortunately, the United States, are behaving as though the Palestinian branch of the global Jihad is engaging in a war over a few kilometers in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, rather than playing a central role in the global Jihad against non-Muslims.
Proof positive that the Palestinian Jihad against Israel is not about territory: In 1964, the year the PLO was founded, article 24 of its Charter stated, "This organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Gaza Strip..." The 1964 version of the PLO charter can be read on the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.
Most people are only aware of the 1968 version, which was changed following the Six Day War to reflect the Palestinians' sudden eternal attachment to these areas.
The "Road Map" is essentially a Saudi Arabian plan to drive the Jews out of Israel. Before 1967, when Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria and Egypt occupied Gaza, the PLO was not interested in sovereignty over these areas. Their present passionate attachment to this land is so that the infidel Jews should not live thereon. This attitude, of course, is encouraged and financed by all the Arab states as part of the general Jihad against the Judeo-Christian world.
Why is the United States so anxious to carry out the "Road Map", slicing away from Israel the Biblical heartland of Judea, Samaria and also Gaza?
Yes, dear friends, not only Judea and Samaria, but Gaza, as well, is a Biblical inheritance of the Jewish People!
Gaza has been part of the Land of Israel since Biblical times. The borders of Israel specified in Genesis 15 clearly include Gaza, and it is described in Joshua 15:47 and Judges 1:18 as part of the inheritance of the tribe of Judah. In Kings, it is included in the areas ruled by King Solomon.
Israel, unfortunately, has powerful enemies in the US government. Chief amongst them is the US State Department and its current head, Secretary of State Colin Powell.
As an example, State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher said at his daily press briefing on September 27, 2001: "Essentially, there are, on some planes, two different things. One is that there are violent people trying to destroy societies - ours, many others in the world. The world recognizes that and we're going to stop those people. On the other hand, there are issues and violence and political issues that need to be resolved in the Middle East - Israeli and Palestinians."
It seems that State Department spokesman Richard Boucher feels that the Arabs are murdering us daily, merely to resolve political issues.
And the U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell seems to agree. He said in the fall of 2001 that Palestinian terrorists might just be "freedom fighters." Although Bin Laden's Al-Qaida is clearly a terrorist group, said Powell before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Palestinian groups allegedly lie in "gray areas", areas "that might need to be treated politically." Speaking of Palestinian organizations that regularly target and murder Israeli schoolchildren, Powell instructed the Committee that this is a domain where "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."
Is Colin Powell an enemy of the Jewish State? He certainly is not a friend.
Last Saturday, Powell met with the Palestinian leadership in Jordan. He told reporters that he was pleased to have a "constructive talk" with Palestinian premier Ahmed Queri, along with "my colleague Nabil Shaath and so many other of my good friends from the Palestinian Authority."
This is the same Palestinian Authority that has been waging a terrorist war against Israel since September 2000, and which is directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent men, women and children. It is the same entity that Powell's own State Department, in its recently released report on patterns of global terrorism, has linked to acts of terror against the Jewish State.
And these are whom Powell considers to be his "good friends"?
Not only that, but in his remarks to the press, with a smiling Qurei standing at his side, Powell did not even bother to mention the horrific events of the preceding week. He did not see fit to condemn the Palestinians' vile desecration of Israel's dead, nor did he denounce their ongoing efforts to carry out attacks against the Jewish State. However, he did slam Israel for demolishing Palestinian structures in Gaza, structures that have been used to stage attacks on Israeli soldiers.
Interesting. Fifteen years ago, in December of 1989, then-General Colin Powell, oversaw the U.S. invasion of Panama. U.S. forces bombarded the El Chorillo neighborhood of Panama City, where the headquarters of the Panamanian Defense Forces were located, alongside the homes of thousands of innocent civilians. By the UN's estimate, the homes of at least 2,723 Panamanian families, totaling approximately 13,500 people, were affected.
If that is not the height of hypocrisy and double standard, I cannot imagine what is.
I do hope and pray that Colin Powell's opinions and those of his State Department, are not those of President George W. Bush. I believe that it is of utmost importance, in this closely fought election year, for President Bush to disassociate himself from those of Colin Powell's pronouncements at variance with his own viewpoints. In addition, President Bush would be wise to pay attention to his large constituency of Bible-believing Jews and Christians, who firmly hold the opinion that a Palestinian state carved out of covenant land is directly against the Word of G-d.
The butchers in Gaza who kicked the remains of Israeli soldiers like footballs, like the butchers in Baghdad, Karachi, Riyadh and beyond, who kill with barbaric ecstasy and hatred, do not do so because of anything we have done. They do so because they are fanatic subhuman barbarians. And if we do not wish to be destroyed, we must do everything to destroy them and not give them hope that their terrorism will be rewarded.
In Nigeria last week, Muslim mobs brandishing machetes butchered some thirty Christians in the streets of the city of Kano. They butchered them and then set them aflame.
American contractors are murdered in Iraq, their abused corpses triumphantly dragged through the streets and displayed hanging from a bridge. An American, Nick Berg, is beheaded on camera.
Six Israeli soldiers are blown up by a roadside bomb and masked terrorists parade their body parts, including a head, for the press. The Arabs, shockingly, are allowed to use UN and UNRWA ambulances to bring body parts to PA controlled territory, to be used for extortion purposes in dealing with Israel.
The hooded men who displayed the head of an Israeli soldier and those who decapitated Nick Berg are part of the same global Jihad. One wants an Islamic dictatorship in Iraq, the other wants the same thing in place of Israel.
We must finally come to grips with the fact that our enemies are engaged in a world war against the entire non-Muslim world. We must understand the depth of their hatred. We, Israelis, Americans, Jews and Christians worldwide, constitute the front line in the war, wherever we are.
It was not the US military deployment in Saudi Arabia that precipitated the September 11 attacks (15 of the 19 suicide bombers were Saudis) any more than it was the Israeli presence in Gaza or Judea and Samaria or Jerusalem that precipitated the Palestinian-led Jihad against Israel. It is our free, democratic way of life, our very existence, that provokes our enemy.
Our enemies, the forces of global Jihad, be they Palestinian or Jordanian, Saudi, Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese, Iranian or Iraqi, use all the means at their disposal to wage their war against us. They do not wage this war because of anything we have done, they do so because they are ruthless barbarians.
Nonetheless, the rest of the world, including, unfortunately, the United States, are behaving as though the Palestinian branch of the global Jihad is engaging in a war over a few kilometers in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, rather than playing a central role in the global Jihad against non-Muslims.
Proof positive that the Palestinian Jihad against Israel is not about territory: In 1964, the year the PLO was founded, article 24 of its Charter stated, "This organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Gaza Strip..." The 1964 version of the PLO charter can be read on the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.
Most people are only aware of the 1968 version, which was changed following the Six Day War to reflect the Palestinians' sudden eternal attachment to these areas.
The "Road Map" is essentially a Saudi Arabian plan to drive the Jews out of Israel. Before 1967, when Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria and Egypt occupied Gaza, the PLO was not interested in sovereignty over these areas. Their present passionate attachment to this land is so that the infidel Jews should not live thereon. This attitude, of course, is encouraged and financed by all the Arab states as part of the general Jihad against the Judeo-Christian world.
Why is the United States so anxious to carry out the "Road Map", slicing away from Israel the Biblical heartland of Judea, Samaria and also Gaza?
Yes, dear friends, not only Judea and Samaria, but Gaza, as well, is a Biblical inheritance of the Jewish People!
Gaza has been part of the Land of Israel since Biblical times. The borders of Israel specified in Genesis 15 clearly include Gaza, and it is described in Joshua 15:47 and Judges 1:18 as part of the inheritance of the tribe of Judah. In Kings, it is included in the areas ruled by King Solomon.
Israel, unfortunately, has powerful enemies in the US government. Chief amongst them is the US State Department and its current head, Secretary of State Colin Powell.
As an example, State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher said at his daily press briefing on September 27, 2001: "Essentially, there are, on some planes, two different things. One is that there are violent people trying to destroy societies - ours, many others in the world. The world recognizes that and we're going to stop those people. On the other hand, there are issues and violence and political issues that need to be resolved in the Middle East - Israeli and Palestinians."
It seems that State Department spokesman Richard Boucher feels that the Arabs are murdering us daily, merely to resolve political issues.
And the U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell seems to agree. He said in the fall of 2001 that Palestinian terrorists might just be "freedom fighters." Although Bin Laden's Al-Qaida is clearly a terrorist group, said Powell before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Palestinian groups allegedly lie in "gray areas", areas "that might need to be treated politically." Speaking of Palestinian organizations that regularly target and murder Israeli schoolchildren, Powell instructed the Committee that this is a domain where "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."
Is Colin Powell an enemy of the Jewish State? He certainly is not a friend.
Last Saturday, Powell met with the Palestinian leadership in Jordan. He told reporters that he was pleased to have a "constructive talk" with Palestinian premier Ahmed Queri, along with "my colleague Nabil Shaath and so many other of my good friends from the Palestinian Authority."
This is the same Palestinian Authority that has been waging a terrorist war against Israel since September 2000, and which is directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent men, women and children. It is the same entity that Powell's own State Department, in its recently released report on patterns of global terrorism, has linked to acts of terror against the Jewish State.
And these are whom Powell considers to be his "good friends"?
Not only that, but in his remarks to the press, with a smiling Qurei standing at his side, Powell did not even bother to mention the horrific events of the preceding week. He did not see fit to condemn the Palestinians' vile desecration of Israel's dead, nor did he denounce their ongoing efforts to carry out attacks against the Jewish State. However, he did slam Israel for demolishing Palestinian structures in Gaza, structures that have been used to stage attacks on Israeli soldiers.
Interesting. Fifteen years ago, in December of 1989, then-General Colin Powell, oversaw the U.S. invasion of Panama. U.S. forces bombarded the El Chorillo neighborhood of Panama City, where the headquarters of the Panamanian Defense Forces were located, alongside the homes of thousands of innocent civilians. By the UN's estimate, the homes of at least 2,723 Panamanian families, totaling approximately 13,500 people, were affected.
If that is not the height of hypocrisy and double standard, I cannot imagine what is.
I do hope and pray that Colin Powell's opinions and those of his State Department, are not those of President George W. Bush. I believe that it is of utmost importance, in this closely fought election year, for President Bush to disassociate himself from those of Colin Powell's pronouncements at variance with his own viewpoints. In addition, President Bush would be wise to pay attention to his large constituency of Bible-believing Jews and Christians, who firmly hold the opinion that a Palestinian state carved out of covenant land is directly against the Word of G-d.
The butchers in Gaza who kicked the remains of Israeli soldiers like footballs, like the butchers in Baghdad, Karachi, Riyadh and beyond, who kill with barbaric ecstasy and hatred, do not do so because of anything we have done. They do so because they are fanatic subhuman barbarians. And if we do not wish to be destroyed, we must do everything to destroy them and not give them hope that their terrorism will be rewarded.