I TOLD YOU SO
A plea to Christian Arabs in the Holy Land
By Walid Shoebat

PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS
DID THEY BENEFIT FROM STANDING AGAINST ISRAEL?

Right after the Hamas victory, Hassam El-Masalmeh, who heads the Hamas contingent at the municipal council of Bethlehem, confirmed the Hamas plan to re-institute an ancient Sharia law – the humiliating jizya poll tax in accordance to the Quranic Surah 9, verse 29 “until they pay the poll-tax (Jizya) by an upper hand, may they [Jews and Christians] be humiliated”

So what will they say now? I mean the anti-Israel Christian Arab led groups like EMEU (Evangelicals for Middle East understanding), Naim Atik of Al-Sabil, Abuna Chacour, the nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize, Emil Salayta the co-founder of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation, Michael Sabah the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Mazen Qumsieh head of ISM’s International Solidarity Movement, Palestinian Christian prominent journalist Daud Kuttab, and of course, the liberal left favorite Hanan Ashrawi, the one who said on TV that “Jesus Christ is a Palestinian from my country.”

I have sent letters to all these groups in 1995 urging them not to curse Israel lest they be cursed. That Israel was the best option for the Christian Arabs to lived at once under Israel’s democracy, protection, and religious rights, in a system that has no equal in the Arab-Muslim Middle East. Democracy has never existed in all 55 Muslim states, and is only exercised during election time as we see today.

Yet, the price for cursing Israel sure have paid off with curses against the Christian Arabs. It’s not over yet. These anti-Israel Christian groups must suffer even further – forced conversion of Christian holy places into mosques. Yet the writing on the wall was there the whole time when Muslim terrorists sacked Christ’s birthplace – the Nativity Church, and continually prayed on Manger Square during Fridays, telling the Arab Christians that it too would soon be turned into a mosque.

Yes, Hamas might lure Israel into more land for a night of peace, but they definitely have nothing to gain from dealing with the Arab Christians. Jasser Jasser, a Christian pharmacist in Ramallah, said of the prospect of Hamas rule: “We’re all afraid. We’re worried about the future, that we’ll become a second Iran.” He watches quietly as the parade of green flows by his pharmacy. What he sees is unnerving for him, perhaps enough to make him want to leave his home and move elsewhere.

I recall Emil Salayta’s own words when I confronted him on his public statement “we lived in peace with Islam for years.” So what say these groups now? Not only did they sell out on their Christian Arab followers, but put the ‘little ones’ in harms way by promoting for years the pull-out of Israel from Judean lands. When Emil was once asked “has a Jew ever persecuted Christian Arabs for their faith” he dodged the question and gave politically correct responses.

Now the question I ask – have Muslim Arabs persecuted Christian Arabs for their faith, the answer would be obviously never. Yet Christians now must endure Hamas Islamic Sharia, a system of Islamic laws imposed on Dhimmi peoples (Christians and Jews). I wonder what will Daud Kuttab the prominent Palestinian journalist say, especially after I urged him “you are sitting ducks for tomorrow’s Islamic take over.” He laughed off my concern. Will he laugh now?

Rest assured, that just as Christian Qobts in Egypt suffered the Islamic Brotherhood’s daily persecution with relentless attacks, rapes, and harassments, so will the Christian Arabs of “Palestine” suffer. No one is immune including the prominent Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi who when was asked regarding Israel’s biblical prophetic claims responded “it’s dangerous to use the Bible to interpret the events of our times..”

Yet, the Bible seems to have predicted the rise of Iran and all the countries which Islamist control exist. Either the prophets had a tip from the Almighty or the Jewish prophets have perfectly guessed the scenario we see being played in the Middle East.

So why not bet on the Bible? I did, and I have never been happier. I do not have to sacrifice my two boys for Allah’s death wish against the Jews as my aunt Fatima sent her son to his death on a suicide mission in which the boy was killed and she celebrated his death by passing out sweets on the streets of our village in Bethlehem.

The birthplace of the Messiah has become a place of worship for the god of Jihad – a blood thirsty god in need of daily killings of both my people and our Jewish cousins.

Indeed, cursing Israel has a definite price, but will my Christian Arab friends recognize the warning? Or will they instead support the daily graffiti that covers every inch of walls all over the Arab-Islamic controlled Judea that says ‘We knock on the gates of heaven with the skulls of Jews.’? Will they stand up when forced conversions are enforced to say ‘we support the Jewish Messiah’?

Only time will tell, I would plea with my beloved Christian Arabs to reconsider their road map to self-destruct, I hope it’s not too late, and yes, don’t forget – I told you so.

Walid Shoebat,
an x-terrorist and co-founder of the Walid Shoebat Foundation
www.shoebat.com