Back in Jerusalem doing the news show I soon realized there was a form of repetition developing with every broadcast I did. It was the same story but with different actors: hijackings, car bombs, and Muslims fighting non-Muslims was the news. The only differences were the locations, the vehicles used, and the names of the perpetrators and their victims. The names of the terrorists became all too familiar and similar. Muhammad, Ahmed, Hussein, Ali, were nothing but a repeat of Islamic names of Muslim youth who had been brainwashed with hatred and bigotry toward the infidels. They were always shouting “Allahu Akbar,” the Muslim call to prayer, as their trademark celebratory cry for murder and glory as they slaughtered, killed, blew up, maimed, or beheaded non-Muslims. There were always new names for different groups springing up, which in the Middle East means nothing more than few Islamic militants with a cause. My friend the American journalist, ever aware of the fine line between his covering the news in Lebanon and the possibility of his being the news, would say, “Five guys with beards, AK-47s, and an American hostage make a movement around here."
The names of the targets or the kidnapped people were usually Western: Terry Anderson, Terry Waite, Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins, Pan Am or TWA flights, the Achille Lauro. The aggressors were always Muslims. The victims were always Christians or Jews. I began to see how the Middle East was dragging the world down into a war of ideologies based on religious hatred and bigotry. I began to understand that what I and the Christians were going through in Lebanon, which I had thought was just a regional conflict, was becoming a worldwide conflict with international implications. Time and time again, story after story, I was reporting the murderous, barbaric behavior of killers in different countries with Islam the reoccurring theme and “Allahu Akbar” always a part of the language used as they killed. America and the West found an excuse for every incident and boxed and labeled it under the context of the country in which it took place. They attributed Iran’s conflict and the victory of Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini to an inner conflict within Iran. They considered the Lebanese war a civil war among factions. They considered the overall Arab-Israeli conflict a Palestinian-versus-Israeli conflict over land. Yet in all these conflicts radical Islam was the driving force or lingered just under the surface. Here is a list of Islamic and Arabic aggression compiled by Abdullah al-Araby of the Islam Review reported in world media leading up to 9/11 while the West neglected to connect the dots.
1985
June 14: TWA Flight 847 hijacking.
October 7: October 10: Achille Lauro cruise ship hijacking by Palestinian Liberation Front, during which passenger Leon Klinghoffer is shot dead.
November 23: EgyptAir flight 648 hijacked by Abu Nidal group, flown to Malta, where Egyptian commandos storm plane; sixty are killed by gunfire and explosions.
December 27: Rome and Vienna airport attacks.
1986
April 2: TWA flight 840 bombed on approach to Athens airport; four passengers (all of them American), including an infant, are killed.
April 6: The La Belle discotheque in Berlin, a known hangout for U.S. soldiers, is bombed, killing three and injuring 230 people; Libya is held responsible. In retaliation, the U.S. bombs Libya in Operation El Dorado Canyon and tries to kill Colonel Muammar al-Gadhafi.
September 5: Pan Am flight 73, an American civilian airliner, is hijacked; twenty-two people die when plane is stormed in Karachi, Pakistan.
1988
December 21: Pan Am flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. The worst act of terrorism against the United States prior to September 11, 2001.
1989
September 19: Suitcase bomb destroys UTA (Union des Transport, Aèriens) flight UT-772 en route to Paris, killing all 171 passengers and crew. Libyan intelligence involved.
1993
January 25: Mir Aimal Kansi, a Pakistani, fires an AK-47 assault rifle into cars waiting at a stoplight in front of the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters. Two die.
February 26: World Trade Center bombing kills six and injures more than one thousand people.
June: Failed New York City landmark bomb plot.
1994
July 18: Bombing of Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills eighty-six and wounds three hundred. Generally attributed to Hezbollah acting on behalf of Iran.
July 19: Alas Chiricanas flight 00901 is bombed, killing twenty-one. Generally attributed to Hezbollah.
July 26: Israeli embassy is attacked in London, and a Jewish charity is car-bombed, wounding twenty. Attributed by Britain, Argentina, and Israel to Hezbollah.
December 11: A small bomb explodes on board Philippine Airlines flight 434, killing a Japanese businessman. Authorities found out that Ramzi Yousef planted the bomb to test it for his planned terrorist attack.
December 24: Air France flight 8969 is hijacked by Groupe Islamique Armè members who planned to crash the plane on.
1995
January 6: Operation Bojinka is discovered on a laptop computer in a Manila, Philippines, apartment by authorities after a fire occurred in the apartment.
July-October: Bombings in France by a GIA unit led by Khaled Kelkal kill seven and injure more than one hundred.
November 13: Bombing of military compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, kills seven.
1996
June 25: Khobar Towers bombing. Dharan, Saudi Arabia. Nineteen servicemen lost their lives, hundreds of others wounded.
1997
February 24: An armed man opens fire on tourists at an observation deck atop the Empire State Building in New York City, killing a Danish national and wounding visitors from the United States, Argentina, Switzerland, and France before turning the gun on himself. A handwritten note carried by the gunman claims this was a punishment attack against the “enemies of Palestine."
November 17: Luxor massacre. Islamist gunmen attack tourists in Luxor, Egypt, killing sixty-two people, most of them European and Japanese vacationers.
1998
August 7: U.S. embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, killing 225 people and injuring more than 4,000.
1999
December: Jordanian authorities foil a plot to bomb U.S. and Israeli tourists in Jordan and pick up twenty-eight suspects as part of the 2000 millennium attack plots.
December 14: Ahmed Ressam is arrested on the United States-Canada border in Port Angeles, Washington; he confesses to planning to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport as part of the 2000 millennium attack plots.
2000
The attacks against Israel in 2000 are too numerous to detail. Over thirty attacks of terrorism were committed, resulting in death. Forty-four civilians were killed and hundreds injured.
The last of the 2000 millennium attack plots fails, as the boat meant to bomb the USS The Sullivans sinks.
October 12: USS Cole bombing kills seventeen U.S. sailors.
August 9: A suicide bomber in Jerusalem kills seven and wounds 130 in the Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing; Hamas and Islamic Jihad claim responsibility.
2001
The attacks against Israel in 2001 are too numerous to detail. The death toll was 203 and hundreds of people were injured.
9/11: The attacks on September 11 kill almost three thousand in a series of hijacked airliner crashes into two U.S. landmarks: the World Trade Center in New York City, and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. A fourth plane crashes in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
Paris embassy attack plot foiled.
Richard Reid, attempting to destroy American Airlines flight 63, is subdued by passengers and flight attendants before he can detonate his shoe bomb.
The reason the West was unable to connect the dots had a lot to do with viewpoint.
As a native Lebanese journalist I observed the operations of the foreign press in Israel. They would fly in, all expenses paid; live the first-class lifestyle, with a nice hotel and expense account; report what was happening for a week or couple of months; and then leave. They bl
ew in, blew around, and blew out. They came with their preconceived ideas, toed the network editorial policy line, and perpetuated what they unwittingly had been programmed with through subtle Arab and PLO propaganda, which had reached them wherever they came from. Scenes of wailing Palestinians they saw on the air in the States became the shot to look for. Usually their stories reflected badly on the Israeli occupation. They clamored for shots of kids throwing stones against border patrol soldiers firing tear gas and rubber bullets. Because I could speak the language and read the Arabic press and knew the nuances behind events, I sensed that reporters were being manipulated. You couldn’t help but feel sorry for the Palestinians while watching the way they were living, and seeing young teenagers throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers, trying to expel them from the West Bank and Gaza. I wonder if many of the foreign press knew that the PLO was founded three years before the Israelis ever occupied Gaza and the West Bank, and that the PLO wanted Israel wiped off the map. But in a ninety-second story, who has time to remind viewers that when the PLO was founded, Gaza was illegally occupied by Egypt, and the West Bank by Jordan, but Yasser Arafat did not mind those occupations? Where were the voices of the Palestinians then for their independent state?
I wanted to think that the journalists stationed there, some of whom I knew, had better sense, but in order to protect their relationship and not offend Muslim or PLO sources they had to be careful about what they reported. It was from this perspective that I watched the West fall further under the spell of anti-West, anti-Israeli propaganda, just as it did during its coverage of Lebanon, which portrayed the Palestinians and Islamo-fascists as the victims instead of the aggressors. As Islamic aggression increased, the press slid more deeply into a submissive, easily manipulated relationship.
When I would visit my Christian Arab friends' houses in the West Bank and talk with the locals, they joked that the Muslims were playing the West like a violin. The Christians, whether in Lebanon or in Bethlehem in the West Bank, knew that the Islamic agenda was violently against anything non-Muslim. The West was ignorant and refused to learn and listen to what the Arabs and radical Muslims were openly saying to their people about what was in store: "We will be victorious against the Jews. We will destroy Israel. We will conquer the Christians and claim the world for Islam. Islam will once again dominate the world.” The radical Muslims knew the West was completely ignorant as to what was coming their way. The West’s biggest fault was continuing to judge the Middle East and trying to negotiate with it according to Western practices. The West didn’t have a clue about their culture and what was important in understanding Arab Muslims. Because of fear, intimidation, or a special agenda, Arabs can say one thing but believe something entirely different. When being questioned in an interview, their response can vary depending on a range of influences: religion, gender, money, fear, society, and uncertainty. If they are Muslim they can lie and deceive if it is good for Islam. If the interviewed subject is a woman she may answer in the broadest of terms for fear of retribution from the males in the family. People’s answers will be greatly influenced if they feel their financial or social position may be jeopardized. Usually they exercise herd mentality and voice the majority opinion. Uncertainty and fear concerning who is in power may leave them without an opinion or reiterating the talking points of the powers that be. Taking a position may bring retribution if power changes hands. Fear is the biggest enemy in getting the truth about something in the Middle East.
Because Middle East Television’s World News was based in Israel, we were free to report the facts without corrupt Arab leaders dictating what we were allowed or not allowed to say. I read the news, reporting the facts without adding the lies and the propaganda required by Arab media to vilify Israel. The terrorists resented that. For that crime I had to fear for my life and alter my lifestyle to ensure my survival.
When I became an anchor, I knew that the freedom and security I had experienced for a few months living in Israel as an unknown production assistant would change. As my situation required me to travel back and forth between Lebanon and Israel to check on my parents, I knew every time I crossed into Lebanon or even traveled in the West Bank and parts of Israel that danger was always lurking in the air, threatening my life and security. As a survivor of the Lebanese war I now had to fear for my life again for being a Lebanese journalist working and living in Israel. This was a crime of betrayal to the Arab people and the Arab cause against Israel. They looked at me as a traitor because I was seen on a TV station backed by the Israelis, located in the Israeli security zone. A Lebanese living and working in Israel must be in bed with the Israeli enemy.
I went back to becoming a target. I learned to disguise my appearance. I had a collection of wigs. I also used the fictitious on-air name of Nour Saman. I was chased once for two hours on the highway between Tel Aviv and Haifa by two Palestinians driving a car with West Bank license plates. They recognized me at a traffic light and followed me to Haifa. I shook them by changing cars with people from our office who were traveling together with me. I was also chased between Tiberias and Metulla one Friday evening at ten o’clock as I was making my way up the mountains to Lebanon to see my parents. My car nearly flipped on a curve. My pursuers stopped after they saw me pull into the military base at the border and disappear inside.
During my years of broadcasting, Hezbollah became stronger and infiltrated the Israeli security zone, where my parents lived. Hezbollah activists took a photo of me on TV doing a broadcast and published it in their magazine, along with a picture of the Israeli news anchor for the Israeli evening news, linking me to Israel as a journalist collaborator. In early 1987 I was shot at in Lebanon from a car speeding by as I walked home from a store after shopping for my parents. I fell into a nearby ditch and lay there for a few minutes playing dead before crawling back home. It was like the snipers from my childhood all over again. That was the last time I walked in my hometown.
After two years of courtship, my relationship with my journalist friend became serious, and we decided to get married. I was twenty-two. Because my father was ill and unable to travel, we planned to have the wedding in Lebanon. Those plans were canceled because of death threats and security issues. The Israel commander at the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) headquarters in Marjayoun suggested that a wedding of an American journalist and the news anchor for a Christian-militia-protected, Israeli-backed, Jerusalem-based, U.S.-owned TV station might attract uninvited guests and anonymous wedding gifts. It was also 1987, and two weeks before our wedding day, the State Department issued an order for all Americans to leave Lebanon after the Muslims hanged American lieutenant colonel William Higgins after kidnapping him from his UN post. My future husband had no problem moving about in Lebanon as long as he stayed in the Israeli security zone. At the same time, he had recognized that the bad guys were playing by new rules. Being a hostage had moved beyond just being chained to a radiator. With the colonel’s hanging, they were playing for keeps, so he began, as he puts it, “traveling with protection."
We had to quickly move the wedding to Jerusalem. My father’s health prevented him from making the long trip, and my mother couldn’t leave him alone, so neither could be there. I’ll never forget the look of desolation on my mother’s face as they stood in the driveway, slowly waving to us as we left for Jerusalem. She would not be there for her daughter, whose marriage she had waited twenty-two years to see. I stood in my white wedding dress in the church without my beloved parents as a few friends and co-workers attended our small ceremony.
My mother died a few weeks later. My father followed her nine months after. Their loss has been the biggest tragedy and pain I have faced in my life to date. I adored them with all my soul, and I live to honor them and their legacy. They are the drive behind everything I do.
After we got married, my husband was transferred back to America. The change opened a new chapter in our lives. Before we left Israel, I decided to make my final statement about how I felt about the M
iddle East and where my loyalty lay.
My father had been living with us after my mother passed away, and he died in Israel. I buried him in a Christian cemetery on Mount Zion on the southern slope of Jerusalem. Within a few days of my final departure from the Middle East, I went back to Marjayoun and took my mother out of her grave, and out of the coffin that had held her for a year and half. She was put in a coffin custom designed to fit the trunk of our car and made by the local cabinetmaker, who made the caskets for all the funerals in our town. I put my mother in my car and cried all the way to Jerusalem to reunite her with my father. It was a very sad and surreal experience.
We arrived in Jerusalem on Good Friday, April 1989. The bells of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other Christian churches were ringing as I reunited her with my father for eternity. There was no ceremony. The only people present were me, my husband, the gravediggers, and the wonderful Christian Palestinian lady who made the interment arrangements. My parents are buried in the same Mount Zion cemetery where the grave of a ger tzaddiK, or righteous gentile, Oscar Shindler, would one day be. If you have ever visited Oskar Schindler’s grave, you have walked right by theirs. They are the only couple buried with the word “LEBANON” on their gravestone. All during our seven years in the bomb shelter they never let me forget that they loved me higher than the sky, deeper than the ocean, and bigger than the whole wide world.
Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America Page 17