Posted on 12/16/2003 10:32:22 AM PST by Chi-townChief
The capture of Saddam Hussein this weekend is bittersweet for thousands of Arab Americans living in the Chicago area.
While most agree that Hussein was a tyrant and ruthless dictator to his people, they also know that the former Iraqi president was a friend to the Palestinian cause. He was also praised by many Palestinians for lobbing a missile at Israel during the 1991 Gulf War.
"It was a shock to see him like that," said Fayez Salah, a Palestinian from Jerusalem who owns the World of Gifts store in Bridgeview. "For his people he was bad, but he talked about helping the Palestinian people."
"At least he was on our side."
And it was more than just talk. Iraq and Hussein were responsible for giving cash to families of Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel.
"He looked like a homeless man," said Salah. "With the way he looked, nobody was going to listen to him."
The capture of Hussein and, for that matter, the entire war in the Middle East has been uppermost in the minds of many Arab Americans in Chicago. On Monday, television sets in many of the Arab-owned businesses in the Middle Eastern communities that dot the south suburbs were tuned to Arab-language news.
Many are reluctant to talk to the media about their feelings about Hussein, knowing they may not match those of their non-Arab neighbors. In all, there are about 250,000 people of Arab descent living in the Chicago area. Most of them are Palestinian, and a vast majority live on the city's South West Side and southwest suburbs.
"We are very concerned about what is going on, because we are a part of it," said Salah.
There is also a sense of embarrassment that comes from the capture of Hussein by U.S troops.
"I was with some friends and they talked about this being embarrassing," said Hanya Mustafa, 23, who has family in the Baytuniya area outside of Ramallah. "How would people here feel if someone came to the United States and hunted down George Bush?"
She said she hopes U.S. policy now turns to more pressing issues, like the question of Palestinian statehood and the tattered Israeli/Palestinian peace process. Others said the United States needs to strike a fair balance when it comes to dealing with the Middle East and Hussein.
"We could care less about Saddam. I think he is a war criminal and a tyrant," said Ned Malley of Orland Park, whose family comes from Baytuniya. "But at the same time that they try Hussein, they should try [Israeli Prime Minister] Ariel Sharon because he is a war criminal, too."
In the West Bank on Monday, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia told reporters, "The arrest of Saddam Hussein is an internal Iraqi affair." We welcome and salute any choice of the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people have their own authority and we hope that they will have an independent and sovereign state."
Qureia's statement in Ramallah came as Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and other senior Palestinian officials remained tight-lipped about the capture of Saddam.
"At least he was on our side."
And it was more than just talk. Iraq and Hussein were responsible for giving cash to families of Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel.'
As they say, go figure.
Look shabby during your cowardly surrender, and suddenly you're an embarrassment.
Do all Palestians have the mental capacity of six-year-olds?
Yes, I imagine it was. Finding out that the Lion of Baghdad, the man who was willing to encourage your youth to blow themselves up for the cause, gave up like the punk he really was. Face it, the Palestinians have a history of losing and picking losers.
"How would people here feel if someone came to the United States and hunted down George Bush?"
Bad example. If Bush had betrayed, oppressed, tortured and murdered Americans the way Saddam oppressed Iraq, we would have done that ourselves, nobody would have had to do it for us. But Bush and Saddam are not moral equivalents.
Bush is good. Saddam is evil. Good has triumphed over evil, again. And if you sand people ever want to get out of the "loser" column, you better stop listening to walking dead men like Saddam, and join the civilized world. It's a cinch your Arab brethren will leave you in chaos and proverty as long as it suits their purposes.
Only the gifted ones.
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