Children of Sderot Just Want A Little Peace

The case for Israel

The truth of the matter is that many in the Arab world want to see all Jews die. Guess what? After the Jews go, Americans are next.

STOP BY ENOUGH Middle East "peace" rallies these days and you’ll feel like Churchill in the late 1930s, who wondered how much longer his countrymen would be swept up in pathetic attempts to rationalize Hitler’s behavior. I go to these things compulsively, wondering how much further into the absurd these delusional people will go. These gatherings, populated with anti-Western, anti-globalization, anti-capitalist zealots, quickly move from espousing annoyingly earnest rhetoric of the "give peace a chance" sort to damning Israel as the sole villain in the Middle East. It’s bad enough that rally-goers unthinkingly equate Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat, a dictator, with Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, a democratically elected leader. Even worse, with increasing enthusiasm they liken Sharon to Hitler.
At least here in the United States this inane thinking is expressed with words. In Europe, the rhetoric has devolved into vile acts. There, proponents of "peace," aided by unruly mobs of Arab thugs, proclaim their peaceful urges in fine Orwellian style by burning synagogues, beating up Jewish kids playing soccer, and harassing old folks ambling along the streets. Meanwhile, pampered aristos casually malign Israel in the course of conversation: just this past December, at a fancy dinner party hosted by Daily Telegraph owner Lord Black, the French ambassador to the Court of Saint James’s described Israel as "that shitty little country."
Practitioners of anti-Semitism have recourse to all the antique rationales: the Jews killed Christ; the Jews are clannish; the Jews control the fill-in-the-blanks (media? banks? transportation system? universities?). Over the last century, though, many anti-Semites have devised a fanciful, self-serving escape clause: they are not anti-Jewish, they tell themselves and the world, just anti-Israel. These last are oblivious to Martin Luther King Jr.’s acute, unapologetic observation that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism.
For their part, Arabs, less sophisticated in the nuances of anti-Semitism, simply call for the murder of Jews, including ultra-Orthodox residents of parts of Jerusalem — Jews who don’t even recognize the existence of Israel. Such murder is advocated in the tightly censored press of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. Meanwhile, in the last 19 months, Arabs have launched 60 suicide bombings in Israel. Iraq gives $25,000 to the families of each of these mass murderers. Iran was recently caught shipping 50 tons of high-tech weaponry to the Arafat war machine. (It was intercepted in the Red Sea by Israeli naval commandos.) Iraq gives $25,000 to each of the families of these mass murderers. And who knows how much silent money has been funneled in that direction from the Saudi royals. The ruse of mere political opposition, which sustained some Westerners’ delusion that the Arabs simply (simply!) wanted to undermine Israel, has been abandoned. It is now full steam ahead: "Death to the Jews" has joined "All Palestine for the Palestinians alone" in the rhetorical arsenal. And by Palestine, they mean Israel as well as the territories.
I WORK AT NIGHT as a radio talk-show host. Lately, my callers and I have been engaged in two main topics: the collapse of Cardinal Law’s "moral" authority owing to his failure to deal with priests who molest kids, and the war between Israel and the Palestinians. What I hear about the Middle East is a drumbeat of ignorance masquerading as historical fact, coupled with unashamed calls for, as one man put it a few weeks back, "completing the job Hitler began." This man moved gingerly from demanding first that Israel remove its troops immediately from "Palestinian territory" — there is, of course, no such thing — to dissolving the whole country and sending its Jewish inhabitants packing "back" to Europe, to finally advocating, with amazing sang-froid, the total annihilation of the Jewish people.
Of course, this one call isn’t representative of what most Americans are thinking. But I do receive a disproportionate number of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish calls to those who take the other side. What this suggests to me, after 26 years in the business, is that Jews and pro-Semitic gentiles simply don’t care to be heard publicly. Perhaps they are too placid (or maybe too stupid) to recognize that while few listeners ever call, lots of people pay attention to those who do, and the average listener absorbs what seemingly informed callers have to say.
One thing has become clear to me as I have listened to the balance of my show’s callers weigh in against Israel. It is that our government’s mixed-signal preachments on terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian horror have contributed to European disdain for Israel, Arab determination to annihilate Jews, the United Nations’ clear tilt against Israel (most recently by calling for an investigation into what happened at the Jenin refugee camp while doing nothing in response to the lethal string of suicide bombings against Israel), and the American "peace’ movement’s insistence that Israel is the sole offender in this war.
It’s understandable, though hardly commendable, that because Europe has thus far been spared the jolting horror experienced in this country on September 11, 2001, Europeans just don’t "get" the nexus between the US war against terrorism and the Israeli version of the same. But then how could they get it when President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell don’t know how to express it?
After all, Bush and Powell have tangled themselves up in conceptual and strategic knots. In 1991, Powell, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, convinced the first president Bush not to pursue the Gulf War to its logical conclusion: the destruction of Saddam Hussein and his terror regime. Now Powell and others have convinced the second president Bush that the only way to prosecute the war on terrorism is to re-establish a "coalition" with "partners" among Arab dictatorships who would rather live in a world in which Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction than see any Arab regime come under attack by infidels. So what we get from alternate sides of the presidential mouth is "You are either with us or against us" and "We will pursue terrorism wherever it is found," along with "I say it again: Israel must withdraw without delay from Palestinian areas." Translated from Bushonics, that means: the United States will go full-tilt against forces that proclaim their intent to destroy America, but Israel mustn’t do the same against forces that proclaim their intent to destroy Israel.
Foolish consistency may well be the hobgoblin of little minds, but rational consistency is essential to policymaking. The administration’s statements may possibly be intended as a "fool you" gambit to make the Arab extremists believe that Washington regards Israel’s attempt to root out terrorism as illegitimate. But if so, it’s a "fool us" gambit in that Arab dictators and their howling mobs have taken such statements seriously and stepped up their murderous assaults. In Clintonian terms, Bush has empowered the Arab killers and continues to enable them by causing them to think that they are free to share their murderous rage with the world. What most Americans don’t understand, and what my angriest callers don’t "get," is that allowing Israel to be ravaged will inspire similar tactics against us.
Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently estimated that the percentage of the Israeli population killed by suicide bombers — nearly 500 deaths — translates proportionally in American terms into many tens of thousands of people. No thinking person could say with any seriousness that if we suffered such atrocities in our malls, restaurants, buses, and other public places, we would do anything less than what Israel is doing: exact a horrendous price from the perpetrators.
YOU WANT TO SPEND the rest of your life in a futile debate? Get into a discussion of how the Middle East got to this point, beginning with the ancient Jewish kingdoms, through the Roman occupation, to the centuries during which resident Jews had no real authority in the Holy Land. Move on to the era when Muslim caliphs controlled the region through the dominion of the Ottoman Empire and then to the period of post–World War I British control, following the defeat of the Ottomans. From there go to the United Nations–proposed two-state solution in the mid 1940s through the 1948 war following Israel’s establishment of independence, when the Arabs were bent on pushing the Jews from their new state into the sea. Talk about Jordan’s control of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) from 1948 to 1967 and Egyptian control of Gaza during the same period. If you haven’t yet come to blows, go over the Six Day War launched by the Arabs against Israel in 1967, which resulted in Israeli occupation of Judea and Samaria, and then try to talk about our own time, when mass murderers routinely ply their trade to a chorus of praise by Arafat, the Jordanian queen, and the kept intellectuals and sycophants of the Arab world.
The Allied occupation of Germany and Japan was a legitimate action intended to pacify hostile populations and expunge murderous regimes. Also legitimate was the decision not to end occupation until those former enemies had proven they had abandoned their wretched policies of the 1930s and ’40s and erected democratic structures in their place. Today, the Israeli occupation of Judea and Samaria is also fully justified; it is the outcome of a war prosecuted against Israel. The Israelis must and will remain there until its Arab residents agree to abandon their commitment to destroy Israel. Of course, there’s no indication that the Palestinian Authority dictatorship under Arafat has any such intention. On the contrary, its statements in Arabic (visit http://www.memri.org/ for the English translation) reiterate the belief that the whole of what was once the mandate of Palestine, including all of pre–Six Day War Israel, must be a Palestinian-Arab state.
The simple principle that the victor in a war brought on by an attack against it has the full right and a moral obligation to pacify the enemy, including occupying territory from which the aggression was launched (and continues to be launched), makes scarcely a dent in the minds of folks who call talk shows, mine among them, or who trudge off to "peace" rallies. Nor does it influence those who take their cues from the manifestly anti-Israel news reporting on National Public Radio or the opinion pieces in many liberal newspapers and magazines — all of which view Israeli and Palestinian actions in terms of moral equivalence. With press coverage like this, it’s not surprising that Palestinian sympathizers see the Israeli presence in the territories as "occupation" in the most illegitimate sense of the term.
Nor is it surprising that they believe the entirety of the so-called West Bank — which is simply the area controlled by Arabs after the ceasefire of 1948 — is Palestinian territory. How quickly they forgot (or perhaps never knew) that the occupants of this land, formerly governed by the Jordanians, were never given the same rights accorded Jordanians and didn’t start referring to themselves as Palestinians until the mid 1960s. To describe this land as "Palestinian territory" betrays an ignorance of history (if knowledge of events occurring in just the last half-century can rightly be called "history"). This land is nobody’s territory, though it is held by Israel for good reason. Its final status and borders were to be determined by negotiation — as recognized by international agreement and reiterated in the Oslo accords. It has become popular over the past year to forget that fact.
But at this point, negotiation to determine the borders of a state run by Palestinians — before they abandon their irredentist fantasies, before they pledge full acceptance of Israel's legitimacy, before they abjure violence and commit to living in harmony with Israel — would be absurd. The United States would never have left Japan and Germany had there been hordes of Japanese militarist kamikazes and Nazi "suicide bombers" tossing themselves into American military camps, apartment buildings housing servicemen’s families, and restaurants and shops patronized by Americans. The "occupation" of Judea and Samaria must continue until their residents begin to act like civilized adults instead of rabid juvenile delinquents routinely employed in the slaughter of innocents. Indeed, this occupation must continue until Palestinians stop teaching their children how to turn themselves into projectile human explosives.
People unfamiliar with, say, the redrawing of the European map from the late 19th century to the present (owing to population shifts and war) believe with a passion usually reserved for revealed religion that the 1948 ceasefire line is the result of a settled agreement. They think that "pre-1967 Israel" may try to remain a Jewish state, if those pesky Jews really insist, but the part previously occupied by Egypt and Jordan absolutely must be — and in their minds already is — the State of Palestine.
The predominant goal of the Arab dictatorships — and the only one safely expressed — is the total elimination of Israel. The European attitude is one of hostility to Israel and renewed hatred of the Jews. You don’t need a Mensa-level IQ to get these points clear in your mind. But they elude our "intellectuals" and "peace"-mongers. And, as always, such facts don’t register with those bottom-feeding anti-Semites who need little rationale to scrawl swastika graffiti or leaflet Jewish neighborhoods with pamphlets that propound hatred and hint at oncoming violence.
In spite of these realities, Israel rightly intends to root out the masterminds of terror, to remove Arafat from his rancid "leadership" of the Palestinians, and to return, if need be — possibly repeatedly — to areas where Arabs live in Judea and Samaria until the violence ceases.
I BEGAN with Churchill, who nearly alone in late ’30s Britain, warned of what lay ahead. We have no Churchill today, but thanks to the Internet and other means of mass communication, we already know what’s coming: a combined Arab, European, and United Nations drive to delegitimize Israel and submit Jews to a 21st-century Final Solution. If you think I’m exaggerating the threat, listen to the talk-show callers and read the letters to the editor in mainstream newspapers and the essays published by "intellectuals" who embrace the theory of moral equivalence. They have one thing in common: they issue perfunctory statements of "concern" about poor Jews dying as a result of "wicked" Israeli policy, while crying gushers of tears over the sad fate of the Palestinians — who are never viewed as victims of Arab leaders’ half-century of miscalculation and perfidy.
To change course — to mount a Churchillian reversal before it’s too late — would require concentrating on facts, sifting through anti-Semitic propaganda, and insisting on consistency in American policy. But that’s exactly what we’re not seeing from our opinion-makers, such as James Carroll, who recently wrote that Israeli settlements have created "radical insecurity no matter what Palestinians do"; our religious leaders, such as the three Episcopal bishops who several months ago picketed the Israeli consulate in Boston to protest Israeli military action in the West Bank; or our scholars, such as the 80 MIT and Harvard professors who recently signed a petition calling for their schools’ divestment from companies doing business in Israel.
If Americans truly believe the West has a right to survive and that expunging Arab-Islamic-fascist international terrorism is justified, then surely Israel has the same right. And if they don’t, we don’t. And that leaves us — where?

ISRAEL-not just another country in Middle East-cool facts about Israel (video)

The IDF you didn't know...

The Arab World - Comparing to 1 state Israel

Pictures of Israeli victims and Radical Islam in Israel

Another brained washed Palestinian Child
Daily Quassam rockets over Sderot
3 captured Israelis By Hizballa and Palestnians
Suicide Bombers Demostration
Katyusha hiting house at second lebanon war
Using children

Israeli Baby shot to death by Palestinians

Killed in suicide bombing along with her grandmother

Palestinian Children

Hamas Baby

Historical Highlights of Israel

17th-6th C. BCE
BIBLICAL TIMES
(BCE - Before the Common Era)
c.17th century
The Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob - patriarchs of the Jewish people and bearers of a belief in one God - settle in the Land of Israel.Famine forces Israelites to migrate to Egypt.
c.13th century
Exodus from Egypt: Moses leads Israelites from Egypt, followed by 40 years of wandering in the desert.Torah, including the Ten Commandments, received at Mount Sinai.
13th-12th centuries
Israelites settle in the Land of Israel
c.1020
Jewish Monarchy established; Saul, first king.
c.1000
Jerusalem made capital of David's kingdom.
c.960
First Temple, the national and spiritual center of the Jewish people, built in Jerusalem by King Solomon.
c. 930
Divided kingdom: Judah and Israel
722-720
Israel crushed by Assyrians; 10 tribes exiled (Ten Lost Tribes).
586
Judah conquered by Babylonia; Jerusalem and First Temple destroyed; most Jews exiled to Babylonia.
PERSIAN AND HELLENISTIC PERIODS
538-515
Many Jews return from Babylonia; Temple rebuilt.
332
Land conquered by Alexander the Great; Hellenistic rule.
166-160
Maccabean (Hasmonean) revolt against restrictions on practice of Judaism and desecration of the Temple
142-129
Jewish autonomy under Hasmoneans.
129-63
Jewish independence under Hasmonean monarchy.
63
Jerusalem captured by Roman general, Pompey.

Herod, Roman vassal king, rules the Land of Israel;Temple in Jerusalem refurbished
c. 20-33
Ministry of Jesus of Nazareth
66
Jewish revolt against the Romans
70
Destruction of Jerusalem and Second Temple.
73
Last stand of Jews at Masada.
132-135
Bar Kokhba uprising against Rome.
c. 210
Codification of Jewish oral law (Mishnah) completed.
BYZANTINE RULE
Commentary on the Mishnah (Jerusalem Talmud) completed.
Persian invasion
ARAB RULE
691
On site of First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, Dome of the Rock built by Caliph Abd el-Malik.
1099-1291
CRUSADER DOMINATION(Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem)
1291-1516
MAMLUK RULE
1517-1917
OTTOMAN RULE
1564
Code of Jewish law (Shulhan Arukh) published.
1860
First neighborhood, Mishkenot Sha'ananim, built outside Jerusalem's walls.
1882-1903
First Aliyah (large-scale immigration), mainly from Russia.
1897
First Zionist Congress convened by Theodor Herzl in Basel, Switzerland; Zionist Organization founded.
1904-14
Second Aliyah, mainly from Russia and Poland.
1909
First kibbutz, Degania, and first modern all-Jewish city, Tel Aviv, founded.
1917
400 years of Ottoman rule ended by British conquest;British Foreign Minister Balfour pledges support for establishment of a "Jewish national home in Palestine".
1918-48
BRITISH RULE
1919-23
Third Aliyah, mainly from Russia
1920
Histadrut (Jewish labor federation) and Haganah (Jewish defense organization) founded.Vaad Leumi (National Council) set up by Jewish community (yishuv)to conduct its affairs.
1921
First moshav (cooperative village), Nahalal, founded.
1922
Britain granted Mandate for Palestine (Land of Israel) by League of Nations; Transjordan set up on three-fourths of the area, leaving one-fourth for the Jewish national homeJewish Agency representing Jewish community vis-a-vis Mandate authorities set up.
1924
Technion, first institute of technology, founded in Haifa.
1924-32
Fourth Aliyah, mainly from Poland.
1925
Hebrew University of Jerusalem opened on Mt. Scopus.
1929
Hebron Jews massacred by Arab militants.
1931
Etzel, Jewish underground organization, founded.
1933-39
Fifth Aliyah, mainly from Germany.
1936-39
Anti-Jewish riots instigated by Arab militants.
1939
Jewish immigration severely limited by British White Paper.
1939-45
World War II; Holocaust in Europe.
1941
Lehi underground movement formed; Palmach, strike force of Haganah, set up.
1944
Jewish Brigade formed as part of British forces.
1947
UN proposes the establishment of Arab and Jewish states in the Land.
1948
STATE OF ISRAEL
1948
End of British Mandate (14 May)State of Israel proclaimed (14 May).Israel invaded by five Arab states (15 May)War of Independence (May 1948-July 1949)Israel Defense Forces (IDF) established
1949
Armistice agreements signed with Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon.Jerusalem divided under Israeli and Jordanian rule.First Knesset (parliament) elected.Israel admitted to United Nations as 59th member.
1948-52
Mass immigration from Europe and Arab countries.
1956
Sinai Campaign
1962
Adolf Eichmann tried and executed in Israel for his part in the Holocaust.
1964
National Water Carrier completed, bringing water from Lake Kinneret in the north to the semi-arid south.
1967
Six-Day War, Jerusalem reunited.
1968-70
Egypt's War of Attrition against Israel
1973
Yom Kippur War
1975
Israel becomes an associate member of the European Common Market.
1977
Likud forms government after Knesset elections, end of 30 years of Labor rule.Visit of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem.
1978
Camp David Accords include framework for comprehensive peace in the Middle East and proposal for Palestinian self-government.
1979
Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty signed.Prime Minister Menachem Begin and President Anwar Sadat awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
1981
Israel Air Force destroys Iraqi nuclear reactor just before it is to become operative.
1982
Israel's three-stage withdrawal from Sinai completed.Operation Peace for Galilee removes PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) terrorists from Lebanon.
1984
National unity government (Likud and Labor) formed after elections.Operation Moses, immigration of Jews from Ethiopia.
1985
Free Trade Agreement signed with United States.
1987
Widespread violence (intifada) starts in Israeli-administered areas.
1988
Likud government in power following elections.
1989
Four-point peace initiative proposed by Israel.Start of mass immigration of Jews from former Soviet Union.
1991
Israel attacked by Iraqi Scud missiles during Gulf war.Middle East peace conference convened in Madrid;Operation Solomon, airlift of Jews from Ethiopia.
1992
Diplomatic relations established with China and India.New government headed by Yitzhak Rabin of Labor party.
1993
Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements for the Palestinians signed by Israel and PLO, as representative of the Palestinian people.
1994
Implementation of Palestinian self-government in Gaza Strip and Jericho area.Full diplomatic relations with the Holy See.Morocco and Tunisia interest offices set up.Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty signed.Rabin, Peres, Arafat awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
1995
Broadened Palestinian self-government implemented in West Bank and Gaza Strip; Palestinian Council elected.Prime Minister Rabin assassinated at peace rally.Shimon Peres becomes prime minister.
1996
Fundamentalist Arab terrorism against Israel escalates.Operation Grapes of Wrath, retaliation for Hizbullah terrorists' attacks on northern Israel.Trade representation offices set up in Oman and Qatar.Likud forms government after Knesset elections.Benjamin Netanyahu becomes prime minister.Omani trade representation office opened in Tel Aviv.
1997
Hebron Protocol signed by Israel and the PA.
1998
Israel celebrates its 50th anniversary.Israel and the PLO sign the Wye River Memorandum to facilitate implementation of the Interim Agreement.
1999
Ehud Barak (left-wing One Israel party) elected Prime Minister; forms coalition government.Israel and the PLO sign the Sharm-el-Sheikh Memorandum.
2000
Visit of Pope Paul II.Israel withdraws from the Security Zone in southern Lebanon.Israel admitted to UN Western European and Others Group.Al-Aqsa intifada (renewed violence) breaks out.Prime Minister Barak resigns.
2001
Ariel Sharon (Likud) elected Prime Minister and forms broad-based unity government.The Sharm-el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee issues a report (the Mitchell Report).Palestinian-Israeli Security Implementation Work Plan (Tenet ceasefire plan).Rechavam Ze'evy, Minister of Tourism, assassinated by Palestinian terrorists.
2002
Israel launches Operation Defensive Shield in response to massive Palestinian terrorist attacks.Prime Minister Sharon disperses the Knesset, calling for new elections on Jan 28, 2003.
2003
Right-of-center coalition government formed by Prime Minister Ariel SharonIsrael accepts the Roadmap
2005
Israel carries out the Disengagement Plan which was approved by the Government and the Knesset
2006
After Prime Minister Sharon suffers a stroke, Ehud Olmert become Acting Prime MinisterElections held on 28 MarchPrime Minister Ehud Olmert forms new governmentIsrael carries out military operations against Palestinian terrorism from the Gaza Strip and Hizbollah terrorism from southern Lebanon.

Facts about the Israeli-Arab Conflict

Jerusalem

For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital. Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem (1948-1967), they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit.
In the Jewish Bible, Jerusalem is mentioned over 669 times and Zion (which usually means Jerusalem, sometimes the Land of Israel) 154 times, or 823 times. The Christian Bible mentions Jerusalem 154 times and Zion 7 times. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran. Jerusalem is also not mentioned in the Palestinian Covenant.
King David established the city of Jerusalem as the capital of the whole Land of Israel. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem. Jerusalem remained under Turkish Ottoman Empire rule from 1517 to 1917, and under British rule from 1917 to 1948.

Arab and Jewish Refugees

as rejected by all the Arab countries. Arab leadership in Israel and in the countries surrounding Israel, planned a Jihad, holy war, against Israel and encouraged the Arabs to leave Israel promising their return after they purge the land of Jews. The great majority of Arabs left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.
During 1940's through 1950's nearly ALL the Jews had to flee from Arab countries to avoid persecution and pogroms. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab countries is estimated to be a million. This number is greater than the number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948, estimated as 343,000 (see Peters' book cited below).
Most of the Jewish refugees from Arab countries rapidly integrated into the modern society of Israel. This, despite the fact that Israel is a tiny country (about size of New Jersey) without any of the world's richest resources of petroleum in Arab countries. Today, the majority of the people in Israel are the descendants of Jews from Arab countries. (European Jews and their descendants constitute less than half the population of Israel).
The development of the Jewish community under British mandate led to economic growth in the region providing job opportunities for Arab workers. Consequently, the Arab population of Palestine swelled by the influx of Arab immigrants from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and other Arab countries until 1947 (The trend of Arab migration into Israel to find a job continues to the present day). While the British forces limited Jewish immigration, they allowed free entry of Arab migrants. The UN agency UNRWA defined a "Palestinian refugee", as any Arab who stayed in the country for two years prior to 1948. Thus, UNRWA included in their statistics migrant workers greatly swelling the ranks of so called "Palestinian refugees" (for best reference on the subject see: From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine by Joan Peters).
Arab refugee problem was created by the seven Arab countries that attacked Israel in 1948. Arab refugees were intentionally not integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the fact total territory of Arab countries is about 700 times greater than that of Israel. Out of about 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has not been absorbed into their own peoples' lands. Arab nations still maintain generations of the descendants of the refugees in so called "refugee camps" under squalid conditions with the hope that someday they will dislodge the Jews in Israel. The money spent by the Arab countries on armaments would be sufficient to build houses for all so called "refugees". Arab countries should be encouraged to care for their poor population instead of spending their richest resources in the world on armaments and development of terrorist groups such as Osama Bin Laden from Saudi Arabia.
Since 1948, after three generations the descendants of the Arab refugees are still called "refugees" and are supported by UN "refugee" funds! With the highest birth rate in Arab countries this population has now grown to about four million. In negotiations, Arab leadership requests the "right of return" of this mass of millions into the tiny land of Israel. The settlement of millions of Arabs in Israel would immediately eliminate Israel as a Jewish state. This is the real aim of the Arab countries, to achieve by supposedly "peaceful" means what they could not achieve by unceasing violence in whole scale wars and daily terrorism.
The responsibility for keeping the Arab population who are descendants of the Arab refugees, rests only on the shoulders of the Arab countries that created the problem by attacking Israel in 1948.
Quote from Ralph Galloway, a former head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), in Amman, capital of Jordan, in August 1958:
"The Arab states do not want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it as open sore, as an affront to the United Nations and as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don't give a damn whether the refugees live or die."

Holy Places

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is the holiest site for Jews. It was the site of the Beit HaMikdash ("Temple") built by King Solomon (950 BCE), which was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (587 BCE), rebuilt in 541 BCE, and then destroyed again by the Roman army in 70 CE leading to the exile of Jews from Israel. Al Aqsa Mosque and Shrine Of Omar were built at the site of the ancient Jewish temples. The Arabic name for Jerusalem "el-KuDS" is derived from the Arabic name "BeT el-MaKDeS", a translation of the Hebrew "BeiT ha-MiKDaSH", the name of the Jewish Temple (see articles).
Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths. Arabs recently burnt the Tomb of Joseph and the ancient synagogue in Jericho (see pictures). To this days Arab Waqf in control of the Temple Mount does not allow Jews to pray in the Temple Mount. Jews pray facing Jerusalem as the location of the Beit Hamikdash. Muslims pray facing their holy city Mecca with their backs toward Jerusalem. Throughout the ages the Arabs have ignored The Temple Mount and renewed interest only recently because of their political exigencies and not religious history

U.N. Record on Israel and the Arabs

Of the 175 United Nations Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel. The U.N. was silent while 58 Jerusalem synagogues were destroyed by the Jordanians. The U.N. was silent while the Jordanians destroyed 58 Jerusalem Synagogues and systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives. The U.N. was silent while the Jordanians prevented Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.
This anti-Israel stance of the UN is a natural consequence of its membership structure. 21 members of the UN are Arab countries, and 52 members represent Islamic countries. Since the Arab Israeli conflict is represented as a religious conflict. Israel as the only Jewish state has no

chance for a fair hearing in the UN

"Oslo accords and "Peace Process

The Oslo "Peace" accords have not brought peace. The number of terror attacks against Israel and the number of Israelis killed by Arab terror bombings greatly escalated after Oslo to a level that has not been seen since 1948 (see statistics and list of victims killed by Arab terrorists and suicide bombers). The Palestinian Authority has repeatedly violated all aspects of the agreement (see full report of violations).
Recent armed violence by the army of Arafat confirm the predictions that this agreement would escalate the conflict rather than subdue it (see article). In the history there are many examples of international "peace agreements" that were rapidly followed by major wars. A well known relevant case is the Munich agreement signed by Chamberlain from Great Britain and Hitler from Germany in 1938, which was rapidly revoked by Hitler as German armies invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939.
The P.L.O.'s Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Fatah Constitution that is adopted as the unofficial constitution of the Palestinian Authority also calls for the destruction of the Jewish State in most of its clauses.

Education

One of primary means to promote peace between nations is the educational system. In Israeli high schools Arabic is taught as one of required languages. Special educational programs greatly emphasize the need for peaceful coexistence with Israel's Arab neighbors. In contrast, textbooks used in Palestinian Authority schools portray Jews and Israelis in most derogatory and hateful terms.In summer camps and kindergartens, Palestinian Arab children undergo paramilitary training against Israel.Some Arab Institutions and parents train children at an early age as suicide bombers.This educational atmosphere makes peace impossible in this generation, and plants the seeds of hatred among the coming generations of Arab children as well.

Is improving economic conditions for Palestinian Arabs conducive to peace

No, the opposite is true! A landmark study on the subject indicates that the prerequisite for Peace-seeking is not better economic conditions but rather democratic forms of government. Since most Arab countries are far removed from multi-party democracy, the conditions are not ripe for overall peace in the Middle East. The study concludes that "making inherently aggressive dictatorships of the region more prosperous will not make them more pacific only more powerful" and more willing to pursue armed violence.This is true not only for conflict with Israel but for Intra-Arab conflicts as well.
One of the assumptions of the "Oslo Peace Process" was that it would increase stability by improving the economic conditions for the Arabs of the region. Ironically, since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) the per capita GDP among the P.A. Arabs dropped from $3,500 in 1987 to around $1,000 in 1999. There are many factors responsible for this drop, prominent among them is the corruption of the P.A.

The truth about Islam

An Historical Perspective on Islam
Let’s begin our consideration of these questions with some historical background.
Muhammad, the man who dictated the Koran and gave birth to Islam, was born in Mecca in the Saudi Arabian peninsula in 570 A.D. His father died before he was born, and his mother died when he was six years old. He was raised first by a grand­father and later by an uncle.
Muhammad was illiterate throughout his life. Until the age of 25 he worked in caravans. During his extensive travels, he encountered many Christians and Jews. Through his conversations with them, he picked up bits and pieces of both Judaism and Christianity.
His life was radically changed at age 25 when he met a wealthy widow 40 years old who fell in love with him. Their marriage enabled Muhammad to live a life of leisure from that point on.
Muhammad’s Call
Fifteen years after his marriage, at age 40, Muhammad had a visitation from a spirit. Supposedly, this spirit told him that he was called of God to be a “prophet” and an “apostle.” It is in­teresting to note that there was no tradition in Arabian religions of either prophets or apostles. These terms were obviously used by Muhammad to appeal to Jews and Christians.
Muhammad continued to have spirit visitations. They would throw him into a trance, and his utterances during the trances were written down by scribes. These ethereal statements became the Koran, but they were not compiled until after Muhammad’s death. When the compilation was made, the utterances were not organized either chronologically or by subject matter. The result was a jumble of disorganized and often incoherent sayings which are frequently contradictory.
For example, the Koran1 gives four conflicting accounts of Muhammad’s call to be a prophet [the word, Sura, means chapter]:
Suras 53 and 81 — God, or Allah as he is called in Arabic, personally appeared to Muhammad.
Suras 16 and 26 — The call was from the Holy Spirit.
Sura 15 — Angels issued the call.
Sura 2 — Gabriel was the one who appeared to him.
Muhammad’s Revelations
At the time Muhammad received his initial visitation, there were over 300 gods being worshiped in Mecca by pilgrims who came there each year to pray at the Ka’aba, a small cubic building that housed a black meteorite and effigies of the various gods. One of those gods was Allah, the moon god.
Muhammad decided to proclaim that there was only one god — and he selected Allah as that god. That’s the reason the crescent moon became the symbol of Islam. Muhammad also proclaimed that he was the prophet of Allah.
Initially, Muhammad expected both Jews and Christians to receive his new revelation. Thus, early passages in the Koran speak admiringly of “the people of the Book.” These are the passages that Muslims in the West love to quote in their effort to prove that Islam is a tolerant religion. An example is Sura 5:82 which says, “You will find that those who are nearest in love to the believers [Muslims] are those who say, ‘We are Christians.’”
Muhammad’s Rejection
But when Jews and Christians rejected Muhammad, he turned fiercely against them, and later passages in the Koran speak of them disparagingly:
Sura 5:51 commands Muslims not to take Jews and Christians as friends.
Sura 9:29 commands Muslims to fight against Jews and Christians until they either submit to Allah or else agree to pay a special tax.
Sura 2:65-66 and Sura 5:60 contain references to Jews as “apes and swine to be despised and rejected.” (Think of that! You can be sure that such a statement did not come from the true God of this universe who selected the Jews to be His Chosen People.)
Jews and Christians were not the only ones who rejected Muhammad’s new revelations. The people of his own tribe, the Quraysh, also rejected him. In response, Muhammad succumbed to the temptation to appease his tribe by announcing that it would be okay for them to worship the three daughters of Allah — named Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Ma­nat.
This declaration led to the infamous “Satanic verses” of the Koran which were later deleted when Muhammad reverted back to monotheism. Muslims have tried ever since to cover-up this diversion from the faith. You may remember that in 1989 an Indian writer by the name of Salman Rushdie brought up this taboo topic when he wrote a novel entitled, The Satanic Verses. The Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran condemned him and called for his assassination. A three million dollar bounty was placed on his head, and he has been in hiding ever since.
Muhammad’s Trek
The opposition to Muhammad in his home town of Mecca continued to grow until he was forced to flee 250 miles to Medina where his message was received. The Islamic calendar dates from this year when Muhammad fled to Medina and found a receptive audience, resulting in the formal establishment of Islam as a religion. It was the year 622 A.D., and that date represents year one of the Muslim calendar, which is a lunar calendar. The year 2001 is the year 1422 in the Muslim dating system.
After the death of his wife, Muhammad married at least 11 other women (some sources place the total as high as 16). He also took several concubines. He married one girl who was only six years old and had sexual relations with her when she was 9.2 According to the Koran, only the prophet could have unlimited wives. All other Muslim men are limited to four (Sura 4:3).
Muhammad died on June 8, 632 A.D. in Medina at age 63. He left no successor, and Islam soon broke into warring sects such as the Shiites and the Sunnis.
The Spread of Islam
All of those who survived Muhammad took up the sword, as directed by the Koran, and devoted themselves to advancing Islam through military might. The resulting spread of the religion was phenomenal. Within a century, Islamic forces had conquered Saudi Arabia, the entire Middle East, Central Asia, and large parts of India. The armies raged through Egypt and across North Africa, destroying corrupt Byzantine Christianity in their path.
In 710 A.D.3 the Islamic armies crossed the Straits of Gibral­tar and quickly conquered three-fourths of Spain and Portugal. They then invaded France and took one-third of the nation. They were 125 miles from Paris when they were miraculously defeated at the Battle of Poitiers (also known as the Battle of Tours) in 732 A.D. by a French army led by Charles Martel. Their influence in Spain lived on for a few more centuries before they were slowly driven back to North Africa.
A second powerful attempt to subjugate all of Europe was made 900 years later in the 17th Century when the Turks began to expand their Ottoman Empire. They took Greece, Yugosla­via, Bulgaria, and parts of Romania and Hungary. By 1683 they had reached the gates of Vienna where once again the Western forces won a miraculous victory against overwhelming odds.
Following this second attempt to conquer Europe, Islam fell into a state of depression and stagnation until it was awakened in the 20th Century due to several factors:
The Amassing of Great Wealth — due to the discovery of vast reservoirs of oil in Arab lands.
The Re-establishment of the Nation of Israel — interpreted by Islamic clerics like Khomeini as a judgment of Allah due to Islamic stagnation and apostasy.
The Positioning of U.S. Armed Forces — the placement during the 1990's of American troops throughout the Middle East in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
The Encroachment of Western Culture into the Muslim World — due to the penetration of Western movies, television programs, and consumer goods.
The Cultural Nature of Islam
The encroachment of Western culture cannot be stressed too much. It seems trivial to most Westerners, but that is because of the failure to understand that Islam is a cultural religion that deifies 7th Century Arabian culture.4
Westerners tend to view religion as something intensely personal and private, and not as a cultural phenomenon. For example, Christianity is “supra-cultural” in that it allows people to live, dress and eat in accordance with the culture in which they exist. This is not so with Islam. In Islam there is no “secular realm” that is free of religion. Islam regulates every aspect of life to the point that religion, politics, and culture are inseparable. Islam is thus fueled by a subtle form of racism in which 7th Century Arab culture is to be imposed upon all other cultures.
Here are some examples of the cultural nature of Islam:
Political Structure — The tribalism of 7th Century Arabia is the political structure sanctioned by the Koran. The chief has absolute authority. There is no concept of civil rights. This principle is reflected today in the reality that all Islamic countries are ruled by dictators, and civil liberties, like freedom of speech and religion, do not exist.
Prayer — A Muslim is required to pray five times a day toward Mecca. This is a symbol of the underlying cultural imperialism that lies at the heart of Islam. Think of it — what if all Russian Orthodox throughout the world were required to pray toward Moscow? Or, if all Roman Catholics were required to face Rome when they prayed? What if Evangelical Christians were required to pray toward Jerusalem? Such requirements would imply a cultural attachment to the focal point of prayer.
Pilgrimage — A Muslim is required, despite the hardship and cost, to make a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia once in his lifetime. Again, what if all Christians were required to go to Rome once in their lifetimes?
Dietary Laws — The only foods allowable are those that were acceptable in 7th Century Arabia.
Women — What an illiterate, nomadic tribeswoman wore in the desert in 7th Century Arabia is what is mandated for Muslim women today. The plight of women in Islamic countries today is despicable. They can be kept prisoners in their homes. They cannot appear in public without a covering. They are usually denied the right to vote. They are often denied anything more than a rudimentary education. In strict Islamic countries, women are generally treated as sub-human.5 Sura 4:34 says, “Men are the managers of the affairs of women . . . Those women who are rebellious — admonish them, banish them to their couches, and beat them.”
Punishment — Cruel and unusual punishment is practiced throughout the Islamic world. Incarceration without due process is common. Punishments often include torture, the cutting off of body parts (hands, ears and tongues), the gouging out of eyes, beheading, and public flogging — all representative of 7th Century Arabian culture. The Koran specifically commands that those who disobey Allah are to be tortured (Sura 8:12-14).
Time magazine recently presented a chilling summary of the cultural nature of Islam as it is evidenced in the “moderate” Islamic nation of Saudi Arabia:6
Despite the modernization that took place after the discovery of oil reserves in 1938, Saudi Arabia remains a land where rigid religious and traditional values are strictly enforced. Cinemas and discos are outlawed; men and women are separated in banks, schools, and fast-food restaurants; women must wear veils and are forbidden to drive. Public decency police known as muttawa comb shopping malls searching for women whose loose scarves reveal a curl of hair and forcing store owners to shut during prayer times. Unforgiving Saudi jus­tice is on view after the main prayer every Friday, when a swordsman beheads blindfolded murderers, sorcerers, drug smugglers, and other criminals in Riyadh’s “Chop-chop Square.”
The Spiritual Nature of Islam
Islam is a typical works salvation religion centered around a false god. Its fundamental tenets deny the heart of the Christian Gospel, revealing its demonic origin.
The Koran — As I have already pointed out, the holy book of Islam is riddled with contradictions. Consider, for example, what it says about creation. In one place it asserts that Allah created everything in “the twinkling of an eye” (Sura 54:49-50). Elsewhere it says that the time period of the creation was two days (Sura 41:9, 12); four days (Sura 41:10); six days (Suras 7:54, 10:4, and 32:4); in “a day equaling 1,000 years” (Sura 32:5); and also in “50,000 years” (Sura 70:4). That’s a total of six different time periods!
The Koran contains many scientific errors. A crude example is found in Sura 18:8-86 where it says that Alexander the Great followed the setting of the sun and discovered that it went down into the waters of a muddy spring!
Many Arabian fairy tales about genies are contained in the Koran, and the book is also full of historical errors. It presents Mary the mother of Jesus as the sister of Moses and Aaron (obviously confusing her with their sister, Miriam). The Noahic flood is placed in the time of Moses, and the claim is made that one of Noah’s sons refused to enter the Ark and was drowned.
The Koran also pictures Abraham as offering Ishmael as a sacrifice in Mecca, whereas the biblical account has Abraham offering Isaac on Mt. Moriah in the area that would later become the heart of Jerusalem.
God — The Koran asserts that the god of Islam is the God of Christians and Jews (Sura 29:46). Nothing could be farther from the truth.7
The god of Islam, Allah, is most definitely not the God of the Bible. Allah is presented in the Koran as an autocratic ruler who is aloof and arbitrary (Sura 5:40). Allah is unknow­able whereas the God of the Bible is knowable (2 Timothy 1:12). Allah is impersonal, unlike the personal God the Scriptures reveal (1 Peter 5:6-7). Allah is unitarian (Sura 4:48) whereas the God of the Bible is trinitarian (2 Corinthians 13:14). Here is what the Koran says about the God of the Bible (Sura 4:171): “Believe in Allah and say not ‘Trinity.’ Cease! It is better for you! Allah is only One God. Far is it removed from his transcendent majesty that he should have a son.”
Allah is capricious (Sura 2:284), whereas the true God is trustworthy. And Allah is never anywhere presented as a god of love — which is the essence of the nature of the true God (1 John 4:7-16).
Jesus — The Koran denies point blank that Jesus was the Son of God (Sura 112:2-3). It also denies His atoning sacrifice by claiming that he never died (Sura 4:157). A substitute died for Him on the Cross. Jesus was translated to Heaven, like Enoch, where He will remain until He returns to kill all pigs, destroy all crosses, and convert the world to Islam. Jesus will marry, reign for 40 years and then die and be buried next to Muhammad in Medina.8 Jesus is characterized in the Koran as nothing more than “an apostle of Allah” (Sura 4:171).
Sin — There is no concept of sin in Islam and therefore no need for forgiveness. Shame replaces sin. Everything is a matter of honor verses dishonor.9 In the Muslim view, man does not need redemption, he only needs some guidance so that he might develop the inherently pure nature with which the Creator has endowed him. If he will be faithful in his prayers, almsgiving and fasting, God is likely to overlook his failures and usher him into Paradise.10
Ethics — The situation determines the appropriate action, not a standard of right and wrong. As an example, Al Ghazzali (1058 - 1111), one of the greatest Muslim theologians, wrote: “Know that a lie is not wrong in itself. If a lie is the only way of obtaining a good result, it is permissible. We must lie when truth leads to unplea­sant results.”11 The Koran sanctions revenge: “If anyone transgresses . . . against you, transgress likewise against him” (Sura 2:194).
Salvation — Islam is a religion of works. One obtains favor with Allah by performing the five pillars of the faith:
Reciting the creed that there is one god, Allah, and his prophet is Muhammad.
Praying five times a day toward Mecca.
Giving alms to the poor.
Fasting from sunrise to sunset one month a year during the month of Ramadan.
Making a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Another way to reach Paradise is to die fighting for Allah (Sura 3:157).
Islam is so works oriented that it teaches that good deeds cancel bad ones (Sura 11:114). In contrast to all this emphasis on works, the true Word of God teaches that it is impossible to earn salvation because it is a gift of God’s grace that is received through faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior (Ephesians 2:8-10).
Heaven — The Islamic Paradise is a place of sensual pleasure consisting of gluttonous feasts and endless sex orgies (Suras 52:17-24; 55:54-56; and 78:32-34).
The Intolerant and Militant Nature of Islam
One of the most controversial issues regarding Islam concerns whether or not it is a militant religion. Muslims in the West argue it is peace-loving. Westerners who have experienced it in the Muslim world argue it is inherently in­tolerant and militant.
The Koran itself preaches intolerance toward other religions. Sura 5 contains the following command: “Take not Jews and Christians for friends . . . He among you who takes them for friends is one of them . . . Choose not for friends such of those who received the Scripture before you [Jews and Christians] . . But keep your duty to Allah” (verses 51, 55, 57). Extreme intolerance is commanded in Sura 5:33 — “[For those who do not submit to Allah] their punishment is . . . execution or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet, from the opposite sides, or exile from the land.”
The Koran also expresses an intolerant attitude toward any person who decides to reject the Islamic faith or convert to another religion. Such persons are to be executed (Sura 9:12). In the Hadith (the oral tradition of Muhammad’s sayings) it says “Whoever changes his religion, kill him” (Hadith 9:57). These commands are practiced in all Islamic Fundamentalist countries today.
With regard to militancy, the Koran not only condones it, it commands it:
Fighting is prescribed for you, and [some of] you dislike it. But it is possible that you dislike a thing which is good for you, and that you love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knows, and you know not (Sura 2:216).
Fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war (Sura 9:5).
Fight in the way of Allah . . . and slay them [the unbelievers] wherever you find them and drive them out . . . and fight them until . . . religion is for Allah (Sura 2:190-193).
Muhammad is quoted in the Hadith as saying, “The sword is the key of heaven and hell. A drop of blood in the cause of Allah — a night spent in arms [war] — is of more avail than two months of fasting and prayer. Whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven, and at the day of judgment, his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim.”12
Muslim Propaganda
Muslims living in Western democracies try to defend their religion by quoting Sura 2:256 which says, “There is no compulsion in religion.”
In evaluating this very lonely verse in the Koran, you need to keep in mind first that it was written before Muhammad was rejected by Jews, Christians and his fellow Arabs — before he fled to Medina and started responding in hatred to all his detractors. But even more important is the fact that Islamic teachers themselves argue that this verse was later abrogated, either by the words or actions of Muhammad.13
Some argue that the verse was abrogated by Muhammad’s later orders for his troops to fight until unbelievers were compelled to surrender to Islam.
Others argue it was abrogated by Sura 9:73 which says, “O Prophet, struggle with the unbelievers and hypocrites, and be harsh with them.”
A third group argues that the words of the verse do not mean what they seem to say. They argue the words mean that religion cannot be used to force someone to do some­thing evil, but compelling people to accept the truth of Allah is a religious duty.
A fourth group of Islamic clerics accepts the words to mean what they say, but they argue that they were part of Allah’s strategy to advance Islam. While Muslims were weak, Allah spoke through Muhammad and told them to tolerate infidels. But when the Muslims became strong, Allah commanded them to cease being tolerant and attack and subdue the infidels.
The bottom line is that regardless of the explanation, the result is the same — the verse has been abrogated, and infidels must embrace Islam or face death.
Muslims sometimes counter by pointing to the intolerance and violence that have characterized both Jews and Christians at certain times in their histories. They point to the slaughter of the Canaanites when the Jews took the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua. And, of course, they point to the Christian Crusades in the Middle Ages. Using these examples, they accuse Jews and Christians of being hypocritical in attacking the in­tolerance and violence of Islam today.
With regard to the Jews, this argument ignores the fact that God used them as an instrument of His judgment against the tribes living in Canaan — just as He later used the Assyrians and Chal­deans to judge the Jews (Genesis 15:16; Leviticus 18:24-25; Deuteronomy 9:5). He never told the Jews to conquer the world for Him, and He provided them with precise instructions as to how they were to treat aliens who might wish to live among them. They were to be treated with dignity and were to be pro­vided with justice (Leviticus 19:17, 33 and Deuteronomy 27:19). Even more, the Jews were commanded to love their neighbors as they loved themselves (Leviticus 19:18).
Regarding the Christian Crusades, they were an aberration in Christian history based upon perverted Catholic doctrine and not upon any biblical injunction. In contrast, the intolerance and violence that have characterized Islam throughout its history are firmly rooted in the Koran.
What a contrast all the ghastly commands of Muhammad are to the loving words of Jesus who told Christians:
“Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).
“Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:39).
“Do not judge, lest you be judged” (Matthew 7:1).
“However you want people to treat you, so treat them” (Mat­thew 7:12).
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39).
“This is my commandment that you love one another” (John 15:12, 17).
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
And what a contrast it is between the admonition of Muhammad to conquer for Allah with the sword and Jesus’ exhortation to go forth in peace and appeal to people’s hearts through the preaching of the Gospel, relying on the persuasive power of God’s Holy Spirit.
The Imperialistic Nature of Islam
From its inception, Islam has been committed to what it calls jihad — a word mean­ing holy war. The duty of Muslims is to subjugate or destroy “infidels” — the term the Koran uses for all non-believers.
In the Muslim viewpoint, the world is divided into two regions — those areas controlled by Islam, called Dar al-Islam (meaning the House of Islam) and those called Dar al-Harb (the House of War). The Koran commands Mus­lims to fight non-Muslims until they exterminate all other religions, leaving Islam as the one and only religion in the world (Suras 2:193 and 8:39). Muhammad is quoted in the Hadith as saying, “I have been ordered to fight with the people until they say, none has the right to be worshiped but Allah” (Hadith 4:196).
Regarding terror, Allah orders Muslims to terrorize non-Muslims on his behalf: “Strike terror (into the hearts of ) the enemies of Allah and your enemies” (Sura 8:60). Allah then assures his followers that he will assist them: “I will instill terror into the hearts of unbelievers. Smite them above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them. It is not you who slay them, it is Allah” (Sura 8:12, 17).
Concerning jihad,14 the Koran guarantees Paradise to those who fight for Allah (Sura 4:74). It promises instant Paradise for those who die in battle (Suras 9:111 and 47:5-6). Dying for Allah is presented as better than living: “And if you are killed or die in the Way of Allah, forgiveness and mercy from Allah are far better than all that others may amass [of worldly wealth]” (Sura 3:157).
Martyrs are promised a sensual and luxurious life in Paradise (Sura 52:17-22). According to Al-Ghazzali, one of Islam’s greatest teachers, when a martyr reaches Paradise, he “will marry 500 companions, 4,000 virgins, and 8,000 divorced women.”15 Commenting on this statement, Randall Price, biblical teacher and Middle East expert, observed that the Islamic Paradise is “just the kind of place that adolescent, unmarried men, isolated through their lives from the opposite sex by rigid cultural standards, would die for.”16
Islamic Sermons
The murderous imperialistic nature of Islam is clearly revealed in the sermons delivered weekly throughout the Muslim world. Consider the following excerpt from a sermon by Sheikh Ibrahim Madhi that was broadcast live over Palestinian television on June 8, 2001. Referring to a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that had killed 21 Israeli teenagers the week before, he praised the terror­ists:17 “Blessings to whoever waged jihad for the sake of Allah. Blessings to whoever raided for the sake of Allah. Blessings to whoever put a belt of explosives on his body, or on his son’s body, and plunged into the midst of the Jews, crying, ‘Allahu Akbar!’ Praise to Allah!”
Then he expressed the imperialistic aims of Islam by issuing warnings to nations that would be “erased:” “Allah is almighty . . . We must prepare the ground for the army of Allah that is coming ac­cording to [divine] predestination. We must prepare a foothold for them. Allah is willing for this unjust state of Israel to be erased. The unjust state, the United States, will be erased. The unjust state, Britain, will be erased.”
A similar sermon was delivered the previous year on October 13, 2000, by Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabiya.18 It too was carried live on Palestinian television. He proclaimed that the true terrorists are the Jews “who must be butchered and killed, as Allah the Almighty has said.” He called for Muslims to have no mercy on the Jews: “Fight them wherever you are. Wherever you meet them, kill them, . . . and kill those Americans who are like them — who stand by them.” As an incentive to carry out these murderous exhortations, the cleric added: “O brothers in belief, the beautiful bride has a costly price and dowry . . . Our bride is Paradise. O brothers in belief . . . the cost of the dowry of this bride . . . is that we fight in the path of Allah, and kill and be killed.”
Keep in mind that these are quotes from sermons! Can you imagine a Jewish rabbi or a Christian minister urging their congregations to go out and kill a Muslim for God?
Fundamentalist Goals
The Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran was the modern day Islamic spokesman who revived Muhammad’s vision of world con­quest. He taught that the re-establishment of Israel was a Satanic miracle allowed by Allah because of the lukewarmness of the Muslim masses. He called for a renewal of true Islam to accomplish three purposes:19
To overthrow the “secular” rulers of Islamic countries (like Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt), just as he had done in Iran.
To take back the land of Palestine for Allah, exterminating Israel in the process.
To conquer the rest of the world for Allah.
Notice the first priority was the transformation of secular Islamic countries into religious states ruled by the Koran. Then would come Israel and the world.
In a proclamation made by Osama bin Laden in 1998, he listed the same goals and prioritized them in the same order.20 He then identified the United States as the prime obstacle to the achievement of these goals. Accordingly, he called on Muslims everywhere “to comply with Allah’s order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it.”
It is important to note that the eradication of Israel is not the top priority. Nor is Israel viewed as the major obstacle to world conquest. I emphasize this because many Americans are saying that the key to winning the war against terrorism is to dump Israel. More and more, on radio talk shows, I hear people saying, “Let’s cut Israel loose. Let the Arabs have it. Then they will leave us alone.”
That is utter nonsense. Israel is not the cause of Islamic terrorism toward the West. If Israel were to disappear tomorrow, Fundamentalist Islam would still be determined to destroy America as part of its plan to take the world for Allah. And if we were to abandon Israel, the Muslim world would interpret it as an act of cowardice, proving our word is meaningless and that we truly are, as they say, “a depraved society devoid of values.” Our abandonment of Israel would only whet their appetite. Islamic Fundamentalism cannot be appeased. It must be de­

feated.