HA HA!
Posted on 04/09/2003 6:20:05 PM PDT by Ooh-Ah
'This is a sad day for all the Arabs and Muslims, particularly the Palestinians'
TEL AVIV -- Israel remained on high alert yesterday despite the fall of Baghdad, while in Palestinian areas news of the defeat of Saddam Hussein was met with disappointment and disbelief.
Palestinians, who had been among the Iraqi leader's most strident supporters, watched their television sets in stunned silence as stations showed liberated Iraqis rejoicing alongside U.S. troops in Baghdad's central square.
It was hardly the clash they had expected would send the Americans retreating back home in defeat, thus redeeming long-suffering Arab pride. Instead, they saw the statue of their hero toppled by fellow Arabs.
"This is a sad day for all the Arabs and Muslims, particularly the Palestinians," Nael al-Am, a Ramallah grocer who keeps a poster of Saddam Hussein in his shop, told the Jerusalem Post.
"I invested a lot of money in buying a satellite dish and a new TV set because I wanted to watch the day the battle for Baghdad begins. I was sure this was going to be one of the great battles of the century, where an Arab army would inflict heavy losses on the invading crusaders. I feel as if a dagger has been stuck in my heart when I see American soldiers strolling in the heart of Baghdad."
Since the war started, Palestinians have held almost daily demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza. They burned the U.S. and British flags, waved the Iraqi flag and carried portraits of Saddam, whom they urged to bomb Tel Aviv.
The terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad vowed to conduct suicide bombings against Israel in support of Saddam and claimed to have sent members to Iraq to kill coalition troops. Islamic Jihad carried out one suicide bombing in Netanya on March 30.
The Iraqi leader had nurtured support among Palestinians by joining his cause to theirs and donating about US$30-million to the families of Palestinians killed in attacks against Israelis.
The U.S.-led victory was all the more shocking because Palestinians get their news from Arab media outlets that have repeated far-fetched Iraqi claims that U.S. troops were nowhere near Baghdad and would be slaughtered if they approached the city.
There was no official response to yesterday's news from Israel or the Palestinians. Israel has been on a state of alert since a few hours before the first coalition air strike on Baghdad three weeks ago.
Israeli officials feared Saddam would launch Scud missiles at Israel, as he did during the 1991 Gulf War. But this did not happen, possibly because U.S. Special Forces secured western Iraq early in the campaign.
Civil defence authorities were expected to meet today to discuss whether to lower the alert, which requires Israelis to carry their gas masks at all times and keep a sealed safe room in their homes.
Israeli officials said this week they had not lifted the alert because they felt the Iraqi leader would become more unpredictable as he was cornered and might resort to a chemical or biological weapons attack.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the United States yesterday for what it claimed was a deliberate attack on its offices in Baghdad. The building was struck by an air-launched missiles at 4 p.m. Monday, it said.
"The U.S. aggression on the embassy was premeditated," an official said.
"No other embassies were targeted by bombing, which proves that the targeting of the Palestinian embassy was premeditated and not an accident."
Near Jenin, an explosive device injured 29 students at a Palestinian school. Messages sent to the press claimed a Jewish group called Revenge of the Infants was responsible.
But Israeli police cast doubt on that claim, saying it appeared a student had brought a bomb or grenade to school and accidentally detonated it.
sbell@nationalpost.com
And these people think they are serving God???
I have a feeling that in the coming years, the Palestinian cause is going to have such bitter Saddam connections in the minds of the Iraqis that they'll turn mostly against the Palestinians and court business with the Israelis.
If Baghdad Bob wasn't on our payroll, he might as well have been. He toed the extreme limit of the Arab press' credulity: the things he said were outlandish, but (until the end) often just barely short of completely unverifiable.
x
If the Palestinians would behave themselves as a civilized people and not as hate-blinded, fanatical terrorists, they would gain the sympathy of America and be able to live in independence, peace and prosperity along side their Israeli neighbor.
However, as long as the Palestinians continue to behave like rabid dogs, they will be treated as such.
Meanwhile in America, Democrats were downright horrified!
Those Moslems need to figure out their god, ain't GOD.
Your heart-dagger is my happiness.
He's lucky, now he can watch the finals of American Idol instead.
Gee, where did this Palestinian get the cash to afford the dish? I didn't think anyone worked in Palestine...Nevertheless, this comment makes my day.
HA HA!
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