May the Almighty Allah have mercy upon Sheikh Ahmed Yassin who, before his assassination by Israel, had repeatedly said he would welcome the opportunity for martyrdom. He wished to die on the soil of the blessed land of Palestine to join the many of his brothers, sons and daughters who fell martyrs fighting the occupation.
The people who are slaughtering the Palestinians on a daily basis are not Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister and his Zionist aides. The actual killers are the government of President George Bush who still insists that the Zionist terror and the war of genocide waged by Sharon is an act of legitimate self-defense while the Palestinian resistance to the occupation is terrorism. It is the American administration that gives the Zionists international protection and supplies them with money and weapons. We are not alone in saying this. Even the American people who uphold the principles of justice, impartiality and fairness say the same.
An example is a recent editorial in the New York Times which said that by building the wall Sharon is doing nothing apart from stealing Palestinian lands and turning some Palestinian communities into real prisons.
The paper said it is wrong to describe such policies as Israeli policies while in fact they are American-Israeli policies resulting from the continuous American economic, diplomatic and military support for Israel.
The terrorist policies President Bush and his ally Sharon, whom he described as a man of peace, pursue have made the world less safe and more dangerous than ever and have resulted in the death of more innocent people in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq than those killed all over the world as a result of Al-Qaeda’s criminal acts.
The assassination of Sheikh Yassin, for all his status, history, personal qualities and the high place he occupies among the people inside and outside Palestine, is no bigger an outrage than the murder of tens of Palestinians who are being knocked down day and night by American bullets and rockets, or the destruction of the sacred land of Palestine where Israeli boulders are demolishing houses, uprooting trees and where lands are confiscated on daily basis. It is not uncommon for those who have chosen the path of martyrdom and resistance, whether Palestinians or other Arabs and Muslims, to meet with such fate.
The assassination of Sheikh Yassin, however, would serve as a clear signal to those who advocate a peaceful solution and who surrendered to the enemy beginning with Oslo and Taba and ending at Camp David and Geneva.
Those who rushed to enter into negotiations with Sharon and his gang pinning hopes on an impartial American mediator should also have their eyes opened.
The Zionists have never honored any agreement they signed. No peace plan proposed by the Americans has ever been implemented, though they were weighted in favor of the Zionist occupiers. All the concessions offered by the Palestinians and all the initiatives coming from the Arabs have been met with more massacres, incursions, demolitions, assassinations, humiliation and usurpation of more Palestinian lands. All this is being done under the very eye of the same Americans and Europeans who day and night keep lecturing us on the need for respecting human rights, fighting terrorism, loving others and protecting minorities or treating them justly.
It is no secret that the Arab peace advocates adopted such an approach not because they trusted the Israelis or because they have been deceived and fooled by the Americans. They are adopting such an approach just to run away from the alternative, which they cannot stand.
It is indeed strange that after more than 30 years of Israeli intransigence, bloodletting and genocidal wars against the Palestinians, of American lies and arrogance and of European impotency and hypocrisy, the advocates of a peaceful settlement are not convinced that weakness will never bring peace, that concessions and feebleness will never win respect and that giving up Arab land will never achieve security or stability. The bitter lessons of the past 30 years have not convinced them of the need to abandon the path of defeatism.
But the Muslim Ummah will never find the burden of steadfastness and jihad unbearable. It is capable of, with the help of the Almighty Allah, facing the challenge and prevailing over the enemy, and it will never give up even one inch of Palestine land, whatever may be the brutality of the occupiers and their supporters.
Those who may dismiss what I say as mere fantasy should read history carefully and take lessons from it. They should realize the true significance of the blood and scattered remains of Sheikh Yassin and other martyrs.
