By Solly Ganor
FrontPageMagazine.com | March 15, 2007
Five years ago, I had a conversation with a young Palestinian student who in short precise terms explained how Islam will defeat the West. The conversation opened my eyes to a much larger picture in which Israel plays only a minor role in the Islamic game of conquest. Since then I tried to speak to some Arabs who come to pray at the Mosque, but they were not as outspoken as the student. Last week, I had another conversation with an Israeli Arab construction boss by the unlikely name of Francis who was in charge of building a villa near our house in Herzelia. He told me that his family was Christian, and his name was given to him in honor of the Franciscan monks. Our conversation was as interesting as the first conversation I had with the Arab student five years ago and I would like to share it with you. Francis frequently parked his car near our house and we would exchange polite greetings. About a week ago, the water was shut off for repairs in the house he was building, and Francis asked me if I could give him some hot water for his coffee. He was a tall man of about forty, with reddish hair and blue eyes. He spoke a perfect Hebrew, and I naturally became curious about him. I felt that he may the right person to exchange some views with. By his looks, I assumed that he was either a Druze or from the Syrian region. He looked more like a teacher than a construction worker and, as I later found out, he was actually a teacher by profession. Since my conversation with the student five years ago, I was always curious to hear their side of the story; therefore, I decided to invite him for a cup of coffee to our house. I saw him hesitate for a moment; then he smiled and thanked me for my hospitality. While we drank our coffee, he told me that he was from a small village in the Galilee called Jish, near the present Kibbutz Sassa. I remembered the village very well as I was one of the soldiers who captured the village while serving in the 7th Armored brigade during the War of Independence in 1948. I decided not to tell him about it because at the time we encountered some stiff resistance at that village and quite a few of the inhabitants were killed. He went on to tell me a little about himself. “For a while I was a teacher and I loved teaching, but I couldn’t make a living at it and I decided to join my father in law who is in the construction business.” Judging by the large Honda he was driving, I figured that he didn’t do too badly changing his profession. Our conversation soon turned to the present situation in the Middle East, about Hamas winning the elections, the situation of the Israeli Arabs, and the last Lebanese war against Hezbollah. “As Christians we are in a difficult situation here in Israel. Unfortunately, the Moslems and especially the extreme Islamist section, are giving the tone here. My family who lived in Bethlehem probably since the Crusaders, had to flee for their life. The Moslems have been forcing us out, by threats and even murder. Bethlehem that was once predominantly Christian is now predominantly Moslem. Very little is written about it even in the Israeli press.” He sipped his coffee and gave me a long look. He seemed like someone who wasn’t quite sure whether to say what he was about to say. I gave him an encouraging nod. “I have to tell you something which
very few of you seem to comprehend.” He continued, “Your
bungling war against a few thousand Hezbollah fighters which you
should have crushed no matter what, considering the importance
of the outcome, has created a completely new situation, not only
for this area, but globally. Your inept leadership totally
misunderstood the importance of winning this war." “The Americans, instead of realizing that this is as bad as World War Two, or even worse, are going to pull out of Iraq, handing it over to Iran on a silver platter. Next may come the Saudis and the rest of the Gulf states. When dirty bombs go off all over Western towns, who is going to stop the Iranians?" “Now is the time to stop them, not only because they are developing nuclear bombs, but because Iran has become the base for all Islamic terrorist. They supply, money, men, and weapons to Islamic terrorist around the world, quite often through their diplomatic mail. Billions of petro-dollars that are pouring into Iran are being funneled into terrorist organizations world-wide. They believe, and perhaps rightly so, that the West will do nothing to stop them in achieving their goals. Is history repeating itself? Are the Iranians making the same mistake that Hitler made when he attacked Poland? Is the situation similar?" “As a history teacher who studied the subject thoroughly I
can tell you that Western victory in World War Two was not
all certain. Hitler could have won the war if he would have
gone ahead with the atomic bomb development before the
Americans. The Germans began working on it in the thirties,
and it was Hitler’s decision to prefer building more
conventional arms, as he considered atomic weapons sheer
fantasy. Hitler made the wrong decision, but had he made the
right decision the world would have been a different type of
world today, wouldn’t it? The West won the war against
Hitler by sheer chance. Very few people seem to realize
that.” We looked at each other. His answer made it clear where the
Israeli Arabs stood, whether they were Moslems or
Christians. And why should I be surprised? After all the
Israeli Arabs call the establishment of the State of Israel
their nakbah (disaster). For a while, we sat in silence. He finished his second cup
of coffee and got up. “I know what I am going to do. I am
going to Canada to join my brother. This country is becoming
much too dangerous for Christians as well,” he said. He
thanked me for the coffee and we shook hands. “Sure, all the West has to do is
follow Putin’s ways. He assassinates his enemies without
blinking an eye. Assassinate the four or five Mullahs who
run the show, Ahmadinejad, and a few more Iranian fanatics,
and the War can be avoided. It may be difficult to do, but
not impossible. With today’s hi- tech technology I am sure
that new weapons against individuals are being prepared
right now. I think it would be a better way of handling the
matter than an all out war against Islam.” Solly Ganor is a survivor of Dachau and the author of Light One Candle. Send this page to a friend |

