I think you are misunderstanding my statement, Bob. I see evil coming, particularly from the militia movement, the white separatists, and the Zionists. I think the militia and the other hate mongers are going to make America a very violent place. I think their acts of terrorism and hate crimes will continue to escalate. I also see America becoming two totally separate cultures--the Christian right on one side, and everyone else on the other.
The Christians are moving further to the right, out of even the right end of the mainstream. Charlton Heston's comments to the NRA and the Southern Baptist pronouncements at their convention this week are two good examples of the political agenda of the radical right. However, my concerns have nothing at all to do with my wanting a comfortable existence. They have to do with people being tortured and murdered, and with an increase in domestic violence that I predict will come as the result of the Baptist Church pronouncements. If a woman should submit to her husband, then the next step is that she will be punished if she refuses. After fighting so long to get serious domestic abuse legislation passed, it is regrettable that a powerful group is signalling that women deserve less, not more, autonomy.
All I want is a peaceful society where everyone has equal human and civil rights. Is that too scary or selfish for you? Like all New World Order people I believe in freedom of religion, so I certainly would not support doing away with the Christians. I do believe that all this end times prophecy stuff is very dangerous, however. Because a lot of people believe in it, they are supporting Zionism to the extent that the Israeli leaders do not feel they have to make peace with the Arabs. But they are surrounded by Arabs, who will not hesitate to start another war if the Israelis treat the Palestinians badly.
You might think Yasser Arafat is bad, but he is a moderate!! Hamas is gradually gaining more power because more and more Palestinians who wanted peace and were willing to share the land have become disillusioned and have moved more towards violence. This is very typical of squirmishes like this where one group conquers another one unfairly, and leaves them with no power. It is very similar to Northern Ireland, where the Catholics finally turned to violence because all other avenues were closed to them. The end result of all this Zionism will probably be a huge war, even a world war, and of course everyone over there is getting nuclear weapons now.
So I am not saying that I just want to be comfortable, at all. I am saying that what the Zionists and the Christian right do affect my child's right to grow up and have a life, and the future of everyone. These are very serious matters, and isn't it curious that they are all based not even on reality, but on a belief system. When your belief system threatens the very survival of others, you essentially threaten all of my rights, way beyond freedom of religion. My sense of Jesus is that he would be totally repulsed by any of this being done in his name. Isn't he also known as the Prince of Peace? Peace is all I want, and all anyone in the New World Order wants, either. They just want to swim with the dolphins and hug trees!!!
Here is the article about Hamas. They are just as determined as the Zionists, and their strategic location makes Israel seem small and surrounded, and they have a lot of friends. It seems impossible that Israel will be able to survive peacefully unless they make peace now, before the situation is even more polarized. Can you explain logically why the future of the entire planet should be threatened because two thousand years ago, one group or another may have had a temple on a particular site, or maybe it was twenty feet in another direction? This is nothing short of insanity!!!
Israel, Arafat Have Enemy In Common
Militant Leader Gains Stature With Palestinians, Arab World
By Lee Hockstader
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, June 11, 1998; Page A25
GAZA CITY-Sheik Ahmad Yassin is aged, sickly, blind, paralyzed and
confined to a wheelchair. A doctor who has treated him says "everything"
is wrong with his health. Yet for the last couple of months, Yassin, founder
and spiritual leader of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, has staged a
remarkable show of strength.
Yassin, 61, who left his base in Gaza Feb. 19 citing the need for medical
treatment in Egypt, promptly embarked on a comprehensive tour of the
Arab world and Iran, where he met with the mighty, dispensed incendiary
pronouncements to the media and was received with the pomp and fanfare
ordinarily reserved for heads of state.
Along the way, he reportedly raised -- probably in inflated figures -- tens
of millions of dollars for Hamas, whose avowed goal is to eliminate Israel
through armed attacks and whose preferred means in the recent past has
been suicide bombing attacks against civilians.
Now, Yassin is set to return home to Gaza this weekend a rising star -- a
man regarded in Israel and Washington as a leading terrorist who is riding
a wave of enhanced prestige in the Arab world.
"It's not about money; he can collect money sitting in Gaza," said Ghazi
Hamad, editor of a Gaza newspaper, the Message, with close ties to
Hamas. "But the official reception of Yassin from these countries signals
growing support for Hamas." If that assessment is correct -- and analysts
here believe it is -- it is bad news for Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestinian
Authority. It is also bad news for Israel.
Both Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials fear that Hamas may use
funds raised by Yassin not only for the group's extensive social network of
charitable societies, mosques, medical clinics and orphanages, but also to
carry out attacks on Israel.
There has been no major such attack since last September, when a triple
suicide bombing on one of Jerusalem's main downtown shopping streets
killed seven people and injured 190 others. Analysts say another would
likely deal a death blow to an Israeli-Palestinian peace process already in
dire condition.
"Why did he raise so much, and what strings were attached to that
money?" asked Muhamed Dahalan, who, as the Palestinian Authority's
chief of preventive security, is primarily responsible for reining in Hamas
inside Palestinian territory. "Do you think it's just to help the poor or to
open a casino? I have information that the money raised is to support
extraordinary projects" -- by which, Dahalan made clear, he meant acts of
violence. He added, "I don't care if it's armed or unarmed, any activity of
Hamas will be an obstacle to the peace process."
Yassin was freed last fall from an Israeli prison, after eight years, at the
demand of Jordan's King Hussein in return for the release of Israeli agents
who tried to kill Hamas political chief Khaled Meshal in Amman. The
assassination attempt went wrong, the Israeli agents ended up in Jordanian
custody, and Israel faced the choice of forfeiting its cooperative relations
with Jordan or complying with Hussein's demand that Yassin be freed.
Greeted in Gaza as a hero after his Oct. 6 release, Yassin made Arafat
uncomfortable from the start. At first, he sounded vaguely conciliatory,
offering a "truce" with Israel "for a while." But he also reiterated Hamas's
fundamental goal -- to see Israel obliterated. Soon he was threatening new
attacks on the Jewish state.
As a sworn enemy of the Oslo peace accords and the Middle East peace
process, which he regards as a sellout of Palestinian national aspirations,
Yassin posed a creeping challenge to Arafat's rule. His popularity, though
still just a fraction of Arafat's, has edged up as peace talks have faltered
and Palestinian frustrations have mounted. More than 8 percent of
Palestinians now tell pollsters that Yassin is the political figure they trust
most, up from 5 percent at the time of his release.
At the same time, Arafat's public standing, which is tied closely to the
peace process, is tumbling. While he remains firmly in command of
Palestinian politics, just 38 percent of Palestinians now call him their most
trusted politician, down from 46 percent last fall. That shifting equation,
and the fading fortunes of the peace process, evidently persuaded Yassin
the time was right to launch his tour.
He was warmly greeted in Arab countries seeking to appease their own
growing Islamic movements, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates. In other countries, he received gushing expressions of support
and admiration from Arab potentates who deeply resent Arafat. Those
included leaders from Kuwait, who well remember Arafat's backing of
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during the 1991 Gulf War, and Syria,
who have not forgiven Arafat for having pursued a separate peace with
Israel that excludes Damascus.
Presented with a larger media pulpit than any he enjoyed in Palestinian
territory, Yassin pulled no punches on the subject of Hamas's long-term
aspirations. "The first quarter of the next century will witness the elimination
of the Zionist entity [Israel] and the establishment of the Palestinian state
over the whole of Palestine," he said in Damascus. "The strong will not
remain strong forever, and the weak will not remain weak. Things change."
In Yemen, a university awarded Yassin an honorary doctorate. In Iran, he
was greeted by what were described as massive crowds. Al Watan al
Arabi, an Arabic-language paper published in Paris, said that Iranian
spiritual leader Ali Khamenei pledged to support Hamas with $15 million a
month. The Sunday Times of London said Hamas received $25 million
from a senior member of the Saudi royal family.
Western observers tend to dismiss such reports. "The pledges don't always
match the reality," said one diplomat. "It's a lot of promises, but sometimes
there's delivery of the first million and never anything else." Nonetheless,
the perception of legitimacy conferred on Hamas by such reports -- which
are widely believed by Palestinians -- could undermine the position of
Arafat and others involved in the peace process.
"It's not part of Hamas's strategy to challenge Arafat or the position of the
Palestinian Authority," said Ghassan Khatib, director of the Jerusalem
Media and Communications Center, a Palestinian news agency. "Their
concern is to prevent any progress in the peace process and keep their
distance" from the authority. "They want to harvest the failure of the peace
process in terms of popular support. And they're active in grass-roots
activity, which may be more dangerous in the long term." |
