one less terrorist, by arlene peck

One Less Terrorist
by Arlene Peck
Jul 29, '04


Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess.

Several months ago, I 'discovered' Walid Shoebat. I was called and asked would I be interested in having a former PLO terrorist on my television show as a guest. When I was told that he was now a big supporter of Israel and Jews, I became intrigued and said, "Sure, why not?"

His story was unusual, to say the least; particularly when I heard about his background, as one who had been raised on hate and revering death for Jews. He had been a fund-raiser for the PLO in college and had gone beyond throwing stones at tanks. He had been 'suited up' for bombings. Walid was a bad guy; a very bad guy.

What caused the change? Well, basically, it was the love of a good Christian woman who came into his life at the right time and said, "Before I become the Muslim wife you want, I want you to read my Bible." The rest is history. And now he is in demand at universities, on the radio and in a multitude of newspapers. All, except the Los Angeles Times - I called them to cover his talk at the Zen Buddhist Center and couldn't drum up any interest.

I wasn't surprised at the LA Times - as I said, Walid was supportive of Israel. But I have yet to understand why the Israeli Consulate had much the same reaction when I tried to impress upon them what a treasure Mr. Shoebat is for the Jewish State. What is wrong with them that they don't support someone who is one in a million - no, in several million - who is helping Israel without any backing from those who should be promoting this man? He flies all over the world to spread his message. He should be giving it out in the Arab schools in Israel.

Anyway, five or six hundred Zen Buddhists didn't seem to have any problem with attending his lecture, and at the end, giving him a standing ovation. Interestingly enough, the group looked more Jewish to me than what I had pictured Buddhists to be. But what do I know?

He said things that I have been writing for years, but coming from a man who grew up under the canopy of terrorism, the audience listened. There can be no negotiation with this culture, he explained. It is the cycle of Nazism repeating itself but called Islamic fundamentalism: "We have to blame somebody.... Kill the men and rape the women." The difference, and the horror that the world is facing, is that "Germany was one country. Islam is in fifty-five countries."

Mr. Shoebat extended the parallel to the Nazis with how they began with the youth. They had the Boy Scouts and the youth in the media creating "facts" from myths. The same "facts" were part of Shoebat's past upbringing; but Walid attended schools that are funded, still today, by the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan, which is supposed to be a secular Moslem country. Yet, they teach and promote hatred against the Jewish State. Walid spoke of how the textbooks in virtually every Arab country are filled and cresting over with quotations along the lines of "Death to the Jews!" Even his recollections of his childhood were of nursery rhymes that he learned as a toddler singing, "Kill the Jews!"

The Buddhist audience soaked up his description of how the Arabs are taught, "We will knock on the gates of Paradise with the skulls of the Jews." It really got their attention when he said, "Of course, that's because we behead them first."

He spoke of how the Muslims don't want to share. "They want the whole pie. I've never read a Muslim publication in relation to the Jews that doesn't say, 'From the River to the sea.'" He continued, "And let there be no mistake. Once they get Gaza, then they want Acre, Ramleh, Haifa, Tel Aviv. [The Land of] Israel was never interesting to the Arabs. The only time they wanted it was when the Jews had it."

He told his audience, "You never hear about the refugee problem of 850,000 Jews who were forced out of Arab lands. All you hear about are the Palestinian refugees. Why won't people accept the fact that the biggest refugee problem in the history of mankind is [that of] the Jewish people? For over 2,000 years, they had a presence in Israel. The American people have no clue. None!"

Lord, he's got that right. I wondered how many of the Arabs had ever been told, as he told the audience that day, "Israel, throughout history, has not been an occupier, as I was taught. Instead, they are the liberators."

Personally, I have always known that the Muslim Arab goal has been to wipe away anything Jewish from the land. The Muslims build mosques over the synagogues and remove all artifacts, holy places, and anything that ties them to the land. Anybody out there remember what they did to Joseph's Tomb?

There are no Palestinian refugees. It is a 'cause' that is passed down from generation to generation, no matter where they live. The Arabs of the entire region can all say that they are Palestinians, as they look upon that mainly as a privilege to get free food. The productive ones will never go back to "Palestine". "The only ones [who do] will be the fanatics," Shoebat explained. And there are enough of them.

Hey, it was no great surprise to me that the Saudis use their barrels of oil to promote Nazism, but coming from this man, the audience listened.

As much as I knew about the Saudis, I found it interesting when Walid set out the "plan": "The majority of the Muslims have an agenda. The Saudis aren't spending billions of oil money to propagate peaceful causes. They are all over the world building mosques, usually over churches, and giving to terrorist charities for dawa [Islamic proselytizing]. That is the first stage. That is the jihad of the pen. That's the stage where they use massive PR and rush to the United Nations for yet more of those resolutions against Israel.

"The second stage is the jihad of finance. That's where the Saudis and their fund raisers and big donations to terrorist organizations and schools come in. The mosque is nothing but the jihad of finance, which includes giving to terrorist charities, which most of them are fronts for.

"And the final nail in our coffin of culture is the jihad of the sword. That, folks, is when all these nice peaceful 1.3 billion Muslims are to unite and oust all secular government and reinstate Islamic laws and rule the world."

And, finally, on the topic of democracy. Walid thinks that despite the billions and billions of our tax dollars that are invested in bringing freedom to Iraq, democracy is unlikely to develop. At least, it won't in our lifetime. The one time that they will use 'democracy' will be the only time. And that will be to hold elections in order to ensure that Islamic fundamentalism will continue to flourish. Chilling.