Desecration: An Open Letter to President Bush

Mr. President, after the September 11th tragedy we were proud of the moral clarity that you demonstrated, as you embarked on the war against terror. You identified the enemy and delivered a mighty blow of vengeance. However, the fog coming from Foggy Bottom imperiled your vision. The clarity of your statements gave way to doublespeak. This became especially obvious when on Thursday, April 4, you delivered you statement regarding the situation in the Middle East.

Honest pundits were stunned. People of conscience were embarrassed. You, the person that delivered a crushing blow to an enemy situated many thousands of miles away from America, demanded that Israel, America's staunchest ally, "begin the withdrawal from those cities it has recently occupied." Two days later, on April 6, during a joint press-conference with the British Prime minister, you reiterated you demand in much harsher terms, saying, "my words to Israel are the same today as they were a couple of days ago: withdraw without delay." On Monday, April 8, you almost threatened the tiny Jewish state, ominously saying that your "without delay" really meant "without delay" and nothing else.

Sure, you mentioned in your statement that Israel's incursion into Arafatland was triggered by the Passover massacre when the 28 innocent Jews were brutally murdered in Netanya by an Arab suicide bomber. However, somehow you did not notice that the Arab terrorist murdered not only Jews, but that he also desecrated God. The heinous crime happened on the day on which God commanded the Jews to remember their exodus from slavery. The terrorists intentionally picked this day, trying to enslave mankind again.

They want to enslave it in fear. To make the daily routine unbearable. The murder of the elderly, women and children is celebrated in the Palestinian street by dances and fireworks. Did you know prior to delivering your statement that Yasser Arafat glorified Fares Odeh, the terrorist who committed the Passover massacre? In his interview with Al-Jazeera on March 29 Arafat declared, "I seek martyrdom. Allah, grant it to me. Am I better than that heroic youth Fares Odeh? We are seekers of martyrdom. We are all seekers of martyrdom. The entire Palestinian people is a seeker of martyrdom."

Mr. President, these are the words of a criminal whose life you want Sharon to spare. Arafat is much worse than Fares Odeh. Odeh murdered 27 people and Arafat is guilty of giving the orders to murder tens of thousands of people during his career as a professional murderer in Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and all over the world.

He defies God all the time Mr. President. Nothing is sacred to him. Two weeks ago his henchmen invaded one of Christianity's holiest sites: the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Perhaps you are not aware how Arafat's gangs treat holy places? History knows of this. In January 1976 Arafat's gangs destroyed Damour, a Christian town of 25,000 people in Lebanon. There were five churches and three chapels in Damour. Some 500 people gathered in the Church of St. Elias. They did not know how to escape the murderous assault. An old man suggested that they raise a white flag. "Perhaps if we surrender they may spare us." Pretty soon two men who fled the town earlier knocked at the door of the Church. They saw the white flag from the shore and rushed to the church to tell the people that it would not help to raise a flag. "We raised a flag in front of Our Lady, and they shot at us."

The people decided to flee the town, except of one old man who said that he could not walk and would prefer to die in front of his own house. He was not killed. Several weeks later Father Mansour Labaky, the priest of Damour, found him in a PLO prison, and learned what happened after the people left the Church of St. Elias. Soon after they were gone "the PLO came and bombed the church without entering it. They kicked open the door and threw in the grenades. The people that left would all have been killed had they stayed" (1).

In all 582 people were killed in the storming of Damour. "The town became one of the main PLO centers for the promotion of international terrorism. The Church of St. Elias was used as a repair garage for PLO vehicles and a range for shooting-practice with targets painted on the eastern wall of the nave" (1). The targets were still visible after the Israelis took the ruined town from the PLO in 1982.

Arafat and his people have a long history of desecrating holy places. So it is not surprising that escaping from Israeli soldiers, a group of more than 150 Arab gunmen rushed into the Church of the Nativity. They "blasted their way through a steel door into the church, a clergyman inside the complex said using its only still-working telephone. ... The priest... repeatedly said in fluent English: 'We have absolutely no choice. They have guns, we do not'" (2).

Arafat's "brave" soldiers, who prefer to fight against Israeli civilians, trying to kill as many as possible, by committing their barbaric acts in pizzerias, public markets, buses and restaurants, knew that they would be safe inside the church. Using the clergymen as hostages they rejected all appeals to leave. As the priest said, "We tried to get the Palestinian gunmen to leave by a back door, but they refused, saying they could be shot by the Israelis. They have taken up security positions inside our living quarters, and they are refusing to meet our repeated requests to leave at least some part of our premises" (2).

Mr. President, how in this situation can you demand that Israel withdraw, when the majority of the people barricaded inside this Church are criminals who have been placed on the list of terror organizations by your own State Department? The priest interviewed from inside the church complex said that around half the 150 armed men were from the militant Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. Among them is one of the leaders of the Al Aqsa brigade, Jihad Jearah who planned a suicide bombing in front of a synagogue that killed 10 people and another bombing at a Jerusalem supermarket. He "said on Saturday by cell phone: 'We are prepared to fight to the last man. Everyone here is prepared to become a shaheed [martyr]' " (2).

Perhaps you remember, Mr. President, that this "hero," Mr. Jearah, was featured just recently on a British television documentary, showing how his group prepares bombs and how it goes about recruiting suicide bombers? Only few days before Israeli soldiers entered the town, "the Al Aqsa group killed two suspected collaborators, dragging their bodies through Manger Square, and then killed six more" (2).

If the Bethlehem Arabs knew that Arafat and his gangs would be disposed of by the Israeli soldiers, they would have met them bearing flowers. But they know that you, Mr. President, sent Secretary Powell to force the Israelis to withdraw, thus allowing the corrupt forces of terror to take control of the city again. If you want to know what is going to happen if the Israelis "heed your words" as you requested, just listen to the poor Arabs that have to endure Arafat's regime. Speaking to a correspondent of The Washington Times they described how the Al Aqsa group terrorists "conducted a long-running extortion racket forcing Christian shopkeepers and manufacturers of holy items and souvenirs to pay protection money" (2). They told him about "a 70-year-old cafe owner in Manger Square who was recently shot in the face by an Al Aqsa gang member" (2). They recalled how "after an Al Aqsa leader was arrested for the suspected rape of a Christian girl last year, his fighters stormed the jail and freed him" (2).

Mr. President, the murderers from Arafat's own Fatah group are also hiding in the sanctuary. It is Fatah in Bethlehem that took credit for several suicide bombings this year, including "the killing by 18-year-old Mohamed Daraghmeh of five children and four women in Jerusalem as they completed their Sabbath meal" (2).

On April 14 in a briefing on the siege of the Church of the Nativity area in Bethlehem, IDF Spokesperson Colonel Marcel Aviv said, "the terrorists are behaving in the area as they were in their own home, and we know that they're desecrating the place." The Israelis have surveillance drones above the Church. This allowed Colonel Aviv to state during the briefing, "You can see the picture of the terrorists in the compound. The guy is walking around carrying a weapon, and they are even urinating on the church's wall and you can see how many people are in the compound."

Mr. President, it is hard to comprehend that these murderers, rapists and criminals are desecrating a holy Christian site and you, a person who constantly invokes the name of God, are not only silent, but even ready to allow these desecraters to escape from a just Israeli punishment. Have no doubt, it is Yasser Arafat who orders the terrorists hiding inside the Church not to surrender. As reported in the April 14 Daily News, when the Israelis lifted Arafat's communications block, one of his first calls was to the church.

Mr. President, nothing is new under the sun. The terrorist activity of the Palestinian Arabs has always been, and continues to be controlled by Arafat. When his gangs were destroying Damour, and Father Labaky telephoned Kamal Jumblatt, in whose parliamentary constituency the city lay, Jumblatt said, "Father, I can do nothing for you because it depends on Yasser Arafat "(1). When finally Labaky reached Arafat's aide, he told him, "Father, do not worry. We don't want to harm you. If we are destroying you it is for strategic reasons" (1).

It is for the same "strategic reasons" that Arafat and his gangs are murdering innocent Israelis. As a result of the so-called "peace process" the Jewish state has already lost more people than it lost during the Six Day War. It is for these "strategic reasons" that, during the nine years of Oslo, Arafat was hurriedly building his terrorist infrastructure on every single inch of the land given to him by the Israelis.

Mr. President, you have correctly identified the axis of terrorist evil. However, somehow, Arafat's regime escaped your list. It is time to call a spade a spade. Do not tie Israel's hands anymore. Allow good to defeat evil. If not for the sake of Israel, then for the sake of God.

1. Jillian Becker. The PLO. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1984

2. Paul Martin. Arafat tells gunmen to refuse deal. The Washington Times 04.08.02.
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020408-8724550.htm

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