Posted on 07/31/2008 1:56:30 PM PDT by LibWhacker
“Send regards to Israel, I miss it. I respect Israel and admire it as a country,” - these words are not something you would expect to hear from a Palestinian, let alone someone who grew up in the family that has led the radical and terrorist Islamic ideology of Hamas. But these are the words coming from non other than Masab Yousef - son of one of the leaders of Hamas in the West Bank, Sheikh Hassan Yousef.
Masab Yousef - a Christian convert now living in California - in an interview with Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz talks about the “bottom line” of Hamas and its radical Islamic ideology
A moment before beginning his supper, Masab, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, glances at the friend who has accompanied him to the restaurant where we met. They whisper a few words and then say grace, thanking God and Jesus for putting food on their plates.
It takes a few seconds to digest this sight: The son of a Hamas MP who is also the most popular figure in that extremist Islamic organization, a young man who assisted his father for years in his political activities, has become a rank-and-file Christian. “I’m now called Joseph,” he says at the outset.
Masab knows that he has little hope of returning to visit the Holy Land in this lifetime.
“I know that I’m endangering my life and am even liable to lose my father, but I hope that he’ll understand this and that God will give him and my family patience and willingness to open their eyes to Jesus and to Christianity. Maybe one day I’ll be able to return to Palestine and to Ramallah with Jesus, in the Kingdom of God.”
Nor does he attempt to hide his affection for Israel, or his abhorrence of everything representing the surroundings in which he grew up: the nation, the religion, the organization.
“Send regards to Israel, I miss it. I respect Israel and admire it as a country,” he says.
“You Jews should be aware: You will never, but never have peace with Hamas. Islam, as the ideology that guides them, will not allow them to achieve a peace agreement with the Jews. They believe that tradition says that the Prophet Mohammed fought against the Jews and that therefore they must continue to fight them to the death.”
Is that the justification for the suicide attacks?
“More than that. An entire society sanctifies death and the suicide terrorists. In Palestinian culture a suicide terrorist becomes a hero, a martyr. Sheikhs tell their students about the ‘heroism of the shaheeds.’“
And yet, in spite of the criticism of the place he left, California can’t make the longings disappear.
“I miss Ramallah,” he says. “People with an open mind. … I mainly miss my mother, my brothers and sisters, but I know that it will be very difficult for me to return to Ramallah soon.”
The full interview will appear in “Haaretz” tomorrow, and we will bring you more from it here on worldivided.com
Thanks!
Yes, the Jews deserve a nation in Israel but at the same time it resulted at the loss of Arabs' lands. After all, the Arabs were not guilty for the sins of the holocaust so why should they give up land for the Jews?
Thank you for providing our anti-Semitic talking point for the day and fouling this uplifting thread.
Anyway, I am not on the side of the Arabs and I support Israel. I am only giving you another point of view to consider. While some of the land were bought by the Jews from the Arabs, there is no doubt that with the war in 1948, it forced the removal of many Arabs including Christians from Israel proper. Don't blame me, it is just history here we are talking about.
Wow.
“After all, the Arabs were not guilty for the sins of the holocaust so why should they give up land for the Jews?”
I defer to MWT, but I think your point is based on faulty information.
What is disputed land Israel was NOT arab land -— until 1928 when the arabs (from Jordan) sacked Jewish homes and farms and forced them out in an “ethnic cleansing.”
The Jews got it back mid 20th century.
People somehow forget the Jews never left Jerusalem or the surrounding area.
Surely 30 years or so of wrongful possession by the arabs does not give the arabs a right to the land.
Indeed, MOST of the land was SOLD to Jewish people -— cash money between private parties -— the Jordanian government just voiding the sales to Jews as invalid -— beause they were sales to Jews.
And don’t start the B.S. about the mosque being the “3rd holiest site” in Islam. Jerusalem is not even mentioned in the Koran. The “holy site” is just a B.S. lie cooked up circa 1950s by the RUSSIANS to give P.R. cover. Ask any muslim, and they’ll laugh and then admit that they just don’t want the Jews to have the Temple back.
GREATR FIND!
Yes, I read several accounts in ME news sites and it made me feel very good.
The fact that he was so close to Hamas and see it for what it is; and see God for who He really is is just wonderful.
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