An Open Letter to President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon
By Pastor Jim Vineyard January 26, 2005
Christian greetings to you, Sirs, from the heartland of America, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. We are writing about the proposed "deportation of Jews" from their homeland in the Gaza Strip and the Shomron. We wish to give you twelve reasons we are against such "deportation of Jews by Jews":
I. The challenge to humanity is the order of the day. The ex-Muslim movement tells me that "there is an evil force at work aiming to destroy us. The agents of this evil respect nothing, not even the lives of children. Every day, there are bombings, and every day innocent people are targeted and murdered. It seems as if we are helpless." Chinese Sun Zi said: "Know your enemy, and you won't be defeated."
Do we know our enemy? If we do not, then we are doomed. Terrorism is not an ideology. It is a weapon, but the Islamic terrorists kill for an "ideology." They call the ideology - Islam. The entire world claims that the terrorists have hijacked "the religion of peace, and Islam does not condone violence." Who is right? Do the terrorists understand Islam better, or do those who decry them? The answer to this question is the key to our victory. Failure to find that key will result in our loss, and death will be upon us. The key is in the Qur'an and the history of Islam.
If truth has ever mattered, it matters most now! This is the time we have to find the root of the problem and eradicate it. The root of Islamic terrorism is the terrorists' interpretations of Islam.
II. The only true God, Jehovah (Psalm 83:18), gave the entire land of Israel to the sons of Isaac and Jacob (Genesis 13:14-18; 15:6-8, 18; 17:6-8, 15-21; 26:1-5; 28:12-15 KJV).
III. We will bring a curse from God upon America if we proceed with this deportation plan (Genesis 12:3; 27:29; Numbers 24:9 KJV).
IV. We need to avoid the creation of an Islamic terror state. This will be deadly "both" for the Jews and the entire West. This so-called "Palestinian" state will be used as an operating base for terror planning, much like Damascus and Tehran. Not only will the Israeli troops and US troops in the Middle East be placed in more danger but also the innocent Israeli citizens - men, women, and children.
V. We will be rewarding homicide bombers. The Islamic jihadists have maximalist desires in creating their "anti-Israel" state. This goes totally against the Bush mantra to fight terror and goes 180 degrees against our war against Islamic terrorism, making it a mockery.
VI. We will be making the USA a "collaborator to Jewish genocide." The PA/PLO charter calls openly for the total destruction of the little nation of Israel. We will be creating a bonafide state, which will result in the extermination of another nation. That makes the US a collaborator to Jewish genocide. ALL WEAKENING OF ISRAEL by the US, be it through territorial dictate, weakens the US's chances of winning a war whose aims were so clearly stated by the US President on June 24, 2002, and will make the conclusion a Vietnam-style withdrawal.
VII. This deportation of Jews from their homes will open the floodgates for other nations to follow suit. The deportation of Jews by a Jewish state, with the seal and prodding of the United States' President, will open the floodgates for other nations to follow suit when their "anti-Semitism" reaches its boiling point. If the Jewish state can now (2005) do this, why cannot Germany where so much anti-Semitism still abounds? The US should entrust the Pentagon, WITH NO STATE DEPARTMENT OVERRULING, to review and to produce a plan for Israel's defense as the only beachhead of the West in the Middle East and work toward the solution, on a low profile as long as US oil interests require it but with full knowledge of Pan-Arabia.
VIII. For Israel, this means an increase in terror level. Many of the military-security leaders in Israel know that this is the result. Their fear of the Prime Minister keeps them from speaking out. Avi Dichter has said something along these lines. The increase of terror after Jewish deportation will provide no security benefit whatsoever.
IX. It is moral bankruptcy! To give homes, businesses, and farms of Jews to their tormentors, to have them dig up the graves of the dead to appease the jihadists, and to destroy synagogues and yeshivas - these are not only morally bankrupt but also are against the basic civil human rights of these people. The terrorists will indeed be correct in assuming that terror is the only way to proceed. Islamic mosques, spreading anti-American and anti-Semitic hatred, will replace Jewish houses of worship where the Torah was the example. (The Torah is the Christian-Zionists' Old Testament.)
X. Sirs, it is reminiscent of Neville Chamberlain thinking he could bring peace in his day by giving Czechoslovakia to Adolph. To believe that we will have peace with Mahmoud Abbas (and his AK-47 wielding cohorts) is to believe that elephants will start flying. To invite "Arafat's co-Islamic terrorist" (Abbas) to the White House reminds me of Bill and his significant other co-hosting Yasser there. What resulted? The continued maiming and murdering of innocent Jews, the slaughter of the apple of God's eye, resulted.
In Holland, as reported in the Weekly Standard (12-27-04), "the Dutch are 'rethinking' their experiment with multi-culturalism (Islamic immigrants) as being 'under threat.' Maybe that was true a year ago. Now, it would be more accurate to say there is a society-wide consensus that it (Islamic integration) has failed. When Dutch film maker Van Gogh was murdered by an Islamist, the Dutch immigration crisis - which, as elsewhere in Europe, is a polite way of saying its Islam crisis - moved to a higher pitch than in any other country in the West." The Weekly Standard states, "The Dutch public is being presented with an interpretation of their crisis that other publics in Europe are not. Namely, the view that the problem is not 'radicalism' or 'marginalization' or 'fundamentalism' but Islam - that Islam and democracy do not coexist well."
Mahmoud Abbas was responsible for bankrolling the murder of Israeli athletes in Munich in '72, for the murder of about three dozen schoolchildren and teachers in Ma'alot later in the 70's, along with the murder of two of our ambassadors in Sudan. As Arafat's confidant, his hands are soaked with the blood of innocents. Abbas is an Islamic terrorist, plain and simple.
Sirs, as we did not listen in 1993 to Arafat, we are not listening to what "the great Palestinian hope" Abbas is now saying.
From September 13, 1993, (signing of the Declaration of Principles between Israel and the PLO) to September 2000, 256 civilians and soldiers were killed in terrorist attacks in Israel. Between September 29, 2000, and December 1, 2004, 933 civilians and soldiers were killed, 578 severely injured, 850 moderately injured, and 4,680 lightly injured in terrorist attacks directed specifically against Israeli targets.
Arafat has now died, but Abbas, "He who makes peace has now come" -happiness has now arrived for Israel and the Palestinians. On 12-30-04, in Jenin, on the shoulders of Zakaria Zubeidi (one of Israel's most wanted terrorists), Abbas declared, "I will protect all terrorists from Israel." On 12-31-04, Abbas restates Arafat's maxim "completed Israel withdrawal to '49 Armistice lines," "Jerusalem as Palestinian capital," and the "right of return" of millions of so-called "Palestinians" who did not exist as a people until the end of the '67 Six Day War. On 1-1-05, Abbas says, "I will never crack down on Palestinian terrorism." On 1-2-05, Abbas tells Islamic terrorists, "It is not the time to fire qasams" (which kill and injure innocent Israelis). On 1-4-05, Abbas calls Israel "the Zionist enemy," a term so odious only Hizbullah and Iran use it. US government responded: "We don't think it is useful to focus on every statement by every official; what is important is the process."
XI. We have the example of David Hatuel! What an example! David Hatuel was the father of five. His pregnant wife and entire family were gunned down by these Islamic so-called "Palestinian" monsters in front of a TV camera crew. They made sure to shoot David's pregnant wife and to even kill her unborn child. (We Christian-Zionists cannot biblically be guilty of calling that baby a fetus - it is a baby.) The world, with the US in the forefront, is asking David to dig up his dead family and to turn over his once love-filled home to his tormentors.
XII. We have the example of Noga Cohen! Mr. President, the Israeli Jews against this "deportation plan" have made a film we are planning to show in Oklahoma City on television. We are asking 1,000 other independent Baptist churches to show this film all across America.
In the film, one lady speaks. What she says really touched my heart. I think it will touch yours if you will just read this: "My name is Noga Cohen. My husband, Rabbi Ofir Cohen and I have lived in Kfar Darom in Gush Katif for 15 years. We have 8 children. The oldest is Orit, then Avraham, Tehilla, Israhel, Ariel, Revital, Atara, and Tiferet. On November 20, 2000, at 7:32 AM, we heard a large BOOM on the road. Just two minutes earlier, we had sent our children on the school bus.
"Half an hour later, we understood that the BOOM we had heard hit their school bus. When I arrived at the hospital, I was eventually told that three of my children were in surgery and had, in fact, already lost four feet.
"Three children lost four feet. Two each lost parts of their feet, and Tehilla lost both of her feet.
"Our lives have since changed. We lived for two months at the hospital, the whole family. And afterwards there was rehabilitation and then physical therapy. For two years, we did not live here. We lived in the Tel Aviv area in order for the children to get their treatments; and after two years, the entire family decided to return here to our home. That is the story.
"I say that if before the Oslo Accords there was still room to think that maybe there was a chance for some kind of peace, for some effort from the Arab side, it was possible to be wrong to think that way.but after the proof.we gave them rifles; and those rifles are murdering us and cutting off [our] children's legs.
"Today there is nobody to whom to give this place because it will turn into a terror factory which will grow larger without the IDF, with no supervision.
"I cannot think of that day - not even - because I cannot imagine giving them my home. I, as part of the nation of Israel and part of this place which belongs to us (and there is no argument on that), should give my home to someone who is going to kill me?
"I cannot even begin to know how to explain this to [our] children. I do not know what to say to them. For what did they sacrifice their limbs? For nothing?
"We do not understand what has happened to Arik Sharon. He is the same Arik Sharon, our big father, who built us and who encouraged us to come here.
"We were in the room with him after our tragedy and after a soldier was killed - killed right here by a (Palestinian Islamic) missile. We were with him (Arik) in the same room with the children. We told him that we are being killed every day and that we are afraid to be here.
"[Arik said], 'You have to be there.' In that room, he [Arik] said it straight to our faces. We were not allowed to film or to record. 'You have to go back there,' [Arik said].
"We returned. Today, aside from the "disengagement" [which we Christian-Zionists see as "deportation"], what is with all the missiles that land here every single day? Why? What have we done? Do we deserve to have them murder us?
"Should we leave here and move to Ofakim? Then the missiles will not reach us. So, they will reach us in Ofakim.I cannot explain or understand Ariel Sharon and what he is doing now. I would send him to a psychiatrist.
"They throw bombs on us; they impose on us terrible decrees full of uncertainty. Will we be here tomorrow, or will we not be here? Yes, start work; no, do not work? Yes, start school; no, do not start school? Hang a shelf in the house, or do not hang the shelf?
"We have been put in an awful situation, and I do not even know if anyone notices this. [Our USA President surely has not noticed this. Hopefully, he will when this film starts being viewed all over America in churches and in TV markets.]
"But, I do not know - people here are made of different stuff, something that is super-human; and that is what brought us back here.
"It gave me strength when, after our tragedy, our yishuv doubled in size. People saw what happened to our children, [and now they] are exposing their own children to the same situation by coming to live here.
"Another 21 families have come here...I said, 'What? I will not go back! This is my home!'"
Yes, Mr. President, it is her home, but will it be if you and Arik push this "deportation plan for peace" which will be taken over by Islamic so-called "Palestinian" terrorists and used to kill and to maim more innocent Jewish children?
Dear Sirs, what a tragedy is about to unfold before our very eyes; you, Sirs, will be a part of it!
Sirs, believe it or not, I am on your side, first as a Christian and second, Mr. President, as someone who voted for your father twice and for you twice.