Blessing and Curses

July 30, 2007

From Those Who Curse
“Israel is a rotten, dried tree that will be annihilated in one storm.”

“The arrogant superpowers and the Zionist regime invested all their efforts during the 33-day war, but after 60 years, their pride has been trampled and the countdown to the destruction of this regime has been started by Hizbullah fighters…With the help of all the Lebanese and Palestinian fighters, we will witness the destruction of this regime in the near future…Anyone who works for god [Allah] and believes in the power of the people will prevail…The final victory, the power of the people, and the destruction of tyrants is near.”
—Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

“In the name of Allah, we will destroy you, blow you up, take revenge against you, purify the land of you, pigs that have defiled our country…This operation is revenge against the sons of monkeys and pigs.”
—Hamas Web site

“There is no nation on earth, and in the history of humanity, that is more deceitful, and false and fraudulent…than the Jewish nation.”
—Hamid al-Ali, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic sheikh based in Kuwait

“They [Israel] will become a state with no ability, helpless. They established a state to protect the Jews from death and murder. If death and murder chase them in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Netanya, and everywhere among them, then they will say: ‘What am I doing here? I founded a state to protect me from death, and if death chases me, I want to flee and go back to Europe and America.”
—Ahmad Yassin, founder and former head of Hamas (assassinated by Israel), rebroadcast on Al-Aqsa TV, March 2007

“The representative of the Legislative Council, Dr. Yussuf Al-Sharafi, of the ‘Change and Reform’ faction [Hamas], emphasized the option of Jihad and resistance to banish the thieves of the occupation, who longed to drink the blood of our massacred people…because the Jewish faith does not wish for peace nor stability, since it is a faith that is based on murder: ‘I kill, therefore I am’…Israel is based only on blood and murder in order to exist, and it will disappear, with Allah’s will, through blood and shahids [martyrs].”
—Al-Risalah, Hamas newspaper, April 12, 2007

From Those Who Bless
“I have something to say to Iran’s President…Do not threaten Israel by saying they will pass away in a sudden storm. In the Bible when Pharaoh threatened the Jewish people of Egypt, he became fish food in the Red Sea. When Haman threatened the Jews in Persia [modern-day Iran], he and his sons hung from the gallows that he built for the Jews. Mr. Ahmadinejad, threats against Israel have a way of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy; you may be well speaking about your own demise when you talk about passing away with a sudden storm, but you are not talking about Israel’s future…The Christians of America are not going to sit by in silence this time and watch you plot and plan a nuclear holocaust. There will never be another holocaust—not on our watch and never again.”
—Pastor John Hagee, addressing the 2007 AIPAC Policy Conference                (America’s pro-Israel lobby)

Speaking against the academic boycott imposed on Israeli academics by the University and College Union, the UK’s largest trade union: “Add Columbia to the boycott list. This is so troublesome. I think it is so unrepresentative of what universities do and believe, Columbia in particular, that it really calls for a very strong denunciation.”
—President Lee Bollinger, Columbia University (USA).

While laying in an Israeli hospital bed in Ashkelon, an Arab man’s wounds were tended daily by Israeli nurses after his body was riddled with Palestinian bullets: “Palestinians shoot me, and Jews treat me. It was supposed to be different…The Jews are like honey, like flowers…They wash me, clean me, and change my gown every day. Even in my home, my own family wouldn’t change me every day.”
—Aref Suleiman, Palestinian from Gaza

“I’m afraid to say this out loud; they may execute me for it; but there are a lot of people, including myself, who think it would be better if Israel came back here. Things would be much better than they are now.”
—A graduate of the Islamic University living in Gaza

“Evangelicals have today become the most fervent supporters of Israel in the Western world. Paradoxically, in recent years, when many of our traditional allies have been forsaking us, evangelicals are intensifying and upgrading their political support for Israel. Today, this has in fact escalated to one of their highest priorities. As genuine Christian Zionists whose faith is based on the Bible, they believe that God gave Eretz Israel to the Jewish people. They pray for our welfare, and most of them unconditionally love Jews as God’s chosen people. I often wish that some of our more aloof Diaspora kinsmen could display similar passion and commitment for our cause.”
—Isi Leibler, chair of the Diaspora-Israel Relations Committee of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
 

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