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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (8459)	12/28/2004 6:34:06 AM
From: redfish	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 32591

I haven't said anything about Jews.

To: Brumar89 who wrote (8459)	12/28/2004 10:03:53 AM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

Gazan launches ArabsforIsrael.com Web site By MICHAEL FREUND As a child growing up in Egyptian-controlled Gaza in the 1950s, Nonie Darwish remembers how she was taught to hate Jews from a very young age. "I was told not to take any candy from strangers since it could be a Jew trying to poison me," she recalls. "We were told Jews were devils and evil and the enemies of God." Now, nearly five decades later, Darwish has discarded the views with which she was raised, and become a vocal activist on Israel's behalf. She recently launched a Web site, ArabsforIsrael.com, and has begun lecturing across the US about the need to stand behind Israel and support its existence. "It took me many years to realize that Israel is not a threat to the Arab world and is actually an asset in the area," Darwish told The Jerusalem Post. "When I moved to America in 1978 my first job was given to me by a Jewish man. Both he and his parents were very kind to me." Additional contacts with Jews in the US, who Darwish says taught her "to be a humanitarian," led her to begin to rethink all that she had been taught as a child. This feeling was later reinforced after her brother's life was saved by the Hadassah-University Hospital in Jerusalem. The turning point, though, came with the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which was when Darwish says she at last developed a fuller grasp of the realities of the region. "The most crucial reason for me to support Israel was 9/11. That was when I realized that Israel was the victim of Arab terrorism for all its history," she says. "My culture of origin was responsible for this unspeakable terror in New York and the Pentagon." In the wake of the attacks, Darwish began to speak out, saying that she could no longer be silent while "terrorism is destroying the moral fabric of Muslim society." Her message is twofold: stop pressuring Israel, and push for reform of the Arab world as a means of developing a freer and more diverse Middle East. "Some say that America needs to pressure Israel to achieve peace, but I say the world needs to pressure all the Arab countries to pressure the Palestinians to achieve peace," Darwish says, adding that the Palestinians "have to end terrorism." Israel, she asserts, is a convenient pretext that Arab leaders use to deflect domestic criticism directed at their corruption and misrule. "The game of using Israel as an excuse for their internal problems has to end and be exposed for what it is." The Arab world desperately needs democratic reform, she says, because if change does not come soon, "the alternative will be devastating to all." Driven by a sense of urgency, Darwish has traveled across the US, addressing a wide variety of audiences, including on college campuses. She also recently paid a visit to Israel to take part in the annual Jerusalem Summit. As she reaches out to a growing number of people, her Web site, which contains articles and other material in both English and Arabic, has rapidly started to serve as a platform for pro-Israel Christian and Muslim Arabs to communicate their views. "There are many Jews and Israelis who freely express compassion and support for the Palestinians," the Web site says. "It is time that we Arabs express reciprocal compassion and support." While Darwish has been the target of some hostile mail as a result of her activities, she says that after launching the site she received numerous supportive e-mails from like-minded Arabs and Muslims. "We are still few, but growing in numbers," she says, adding, "If some Muslims and Arabs do not like it, then so be it." She is careful to emphasize that her criticism is not aimed at Islam, nor does she think that anti-Semitism is intrinsic to its worldview. jpost.com