Steve Malzberg
Monday, April 29, 2002

In a day or so, Yasser Arafat, the mother of all terrorists, the man Israel holds directly responsible for most of the terrorist attacks that have slaughtered hundreds of innocent Israeli women and children, the man they have had surrounded in his terrorist headquarters in Ramallah for a month, the man who has been harboring wanted terrorists in his offices during that time, the man who has now been linked directly to homicide bombers through documents recovered from his headquarters, the man Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon calls an enemy of Israel, will be free to come and go as he pleases once again.

And President George Bush says the deal that makes this all possible marked "a hopeful day for the region."

Besides setting Arafat free, the deal, which was proposed by Bush and agreed to by a 17-9 vote in the Israeli Cabinet, will allow six wanted terrorists who have been holed up with their leader to be moved to a Palestinian prison, where they will be guarded by British and American "guards."

The men include the assassins of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi; Fuad Shubaki, the mastermind of the attempt to smuggle 50 tons of weapons to Arafat and his murderers aboard an Iranian ship, which was foiled by the Israelis; and another of Israel's most wanted, believed to be the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Originally, Israel had demanded that before Arafat could go free, the six terrorists would have to surrender, to be tried for their crimes in Israel or agree to be deported out of the country. Originally, President Bush agreed with those conditions.

It was just two weeks ago, in between one of his "Israel has the right to defend itself" speeches and one of his "Israel must stop now" speeches. Bush said that if the men holed up inside the compound with Arafat killed an Israeli Cabinet minister in cold blood, they needed to be brought to justice.

But you see, that was two weeks ago, a period in time I like to refer to as B.S.P. That's before the Saudi prince came to call on our president at his Texas ranch. You know, the get-together where the two men found that they have so much in common. They took a ride in Bush's pickup truck and even saw a wild turkey! Oh boy!

I guess such shared experiences are enough to make our president overlook the small misdeeds of the Saudis. You know, like that two-day telethon broadcast on official government-run Saudi TV and radio (everything there is government run). The one that raised millions of dollars to support the families of Palestinian homicide bombers.

I guess Bush can forget about the fact that the host of that very telethon, a close friend to the Saudi royal family, gave a speech in which he called for the enslaving of Jewish women. Those remarks were made on a tape called "A Monkey Desecrates Mosque." The tape captured his speech, which was made at a Riyadh government mosque. The monkey refers to – who else – Jews.

"Muslim Brothers in Palestine, do not have any mercy neither compassion on the Jews, their blood, their money, their flesh. Their women are yours to take, legitimately. G-d made them yours. Why don't you enslave their women? Why don't you wage jihad? Why don't you pillage them?"

Nice stuff, eh? I guess President Bush is unaware of this.

Yes, we should have all known that in Bush's A.P.(after prince) world he would look at things differently.

When the meeting had ended, Bush came out alone and once again told the press that Israel has to end its military operations. A day later Bush assured the world that the United States will not let Israel "be crushed." How comforting if you are a supporter of the Jewish state.

What exactly does that mean? Instead of saying "The U.S. will always stand behind Israel. They are a democracy. If anyone thinks that they can push Israel into the sea, they have another think coming," he comes out with "They won't be crushed"!

Bush might have said those things B.S.P., but not A.P.

That brings us up to date, more or less.

Oh yes, there was a terrorist attack on Saturday in the Israeli settlement of Adora. It must have been pretty insignificant, though. I mean, I didn't hear President Bush condemn it or even reference it in his remarks on Sunday.

After all, when compared to the usual carnage suffered by Israeli civilians, it just didn't measure up, I guess. Just four people were killed and seven people were wounded in the attack on the settlement near the West Bank town of Hebron. (As I write this, reports have started coming in of Israeli tanks rolling into Hebron from two directions. Retaliation, I hope.)

One of those killed by the Hamas monsters, dressed as Israeli soldiers, was a 5-year-old girl. Danielle Shefi was hiding under her bed, hoping that the shooters would leave. Animal-like, the cowards hunted her down and shot her dead. They also wounded her 4-year-old brother.

No, my friends, not big numbers out of this attack. I mean, this attack isn't going to crush Israel, is it? So let's ignore it. Or better yet, let's celebrate it on the very day it occurred, with a proposal that sets Yasser Arafat free and prevents his trained animals from facing justice in an Israeli court. What a great idea, Mr. President.

Yes, we are now living in George Bush's A.P. world. And Arafat wins again.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
George W. Bush
Israel
Middle East
War on Terrorism

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