We are witnessing a great tragedy as it unfolds in Palestine. The Israelis are attacking our brothers there with unspeakable brutality and cruelty. And we seem powerless to do anything but look on with feelings of sorrow, hopelessness and desperation.
The single most dangerous thing that can befall the Muslim nation is hopelessness — the feeling that we are unable to do anything to save these wronged and oppressed people.
The main goal of the Zionist American plan is to instill into us a feeling of desperation so that we remain submissive and servile beneath their feet. We must not give in to desperation because those who believe in God’s mercy and blessings can never be hopeless.
The easiest thing we can do now is to pray for our Palestinian brothers after each of the five daily prayers. Imams of mosques should also lead special prayers, asking the Almighty’s assistance for the Palestinians. They need support to help them stand firm in their resistance and to inflict a humiliating blow upon Israel and its American backers.
I also call upon our government to exempt all Palestinians from the Saudization law. At this moment of such great difficulty, it would be grossly unjust to keep them from work or to deny their children an education.
How can we any longer love and admire the United States? It is Israel’s most trustworthy ally; it accepts uncritically and absolutely whatever Israel does and has always been Israel’s greatest supporter.
There are rumors that Arab governments have prevented their people from actively resisting the Zionists and waging a jihad against the repulsive entity. I would like to remind these rumormongers of the welcoming slogans and songs for former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat when he returned from Camp David after signing the peace treaty with Israel. Only a small group of Egyptians — mostly Islamists — expressed their opposition to the accord and that opposition ended in President Sadat’s assassination. The fact is that the majority of Egyptians supported the Camp David Accord. In those days we argued with our Egyptian brothers, trying to convince them of the dangers to the Palestinians in the agreement but those arguments fell on deaf ears. I also remember that when President Arafat, with overwhelming Palestinian support, signed the Oslo Accord we argued again about the dangers lying in wait for them — dangers designed shrewdly by the United States and Israel along with a false plan for peace. Once again, our arguments fell on deaf ears.
The sad truth is that too often the Arab public blames the government for its own weaknesses and submissiveness. We often hear our people making loud noises about boycotting American products. To those advocating a boycott, I ask a few simple question: Has any government forced you to buy a Caprice instead of a Camry? Have you been forced at gunpoint into McDonald’s or Pizza Hut? Is there an American fast food outlet that is not full of our citizens? Our markets are full of American products. Are they immune to a boycott?
Another irony is that our young people who call for jihad do so while dressed in American clothes and wearing American hair styles. We talk too much and talk is cheap. If we had practiced a quarter of what we preach, our situation today would be totally different from what it is. I would like to tell my brothers: Please stop blaming your governments and blame yourselves. I challenge you all. Are you really capable of boycotting American products as you claim to be?
