Schmoozing With Terrorists: From Hollywood to the Holy Land, Jihadists Reveal Their Global Plans-To a Jew!

by Aaron Klein

  Zohbi said Muslims have no intention of taking over Nazareth. He attributed the city's dying Christian population to "economics."

  "Christians want to be where the good life is. They're moving to other cities," he said.

  I agreed with Zohbi that Christians likely do want to be where the good life is. But to them a good life means freedom from intimidation.

  Nazareth, an ancient town, is entirely controlled by Israel, but the Jewish state largely stays away from the city's affairs and internal Christian-Muslim disputes. The beautiful city is nestled in a hollow plateau some twelve hundred feet above sea level, located between large, forested high hills that form the most southerly points of the Lebanon mountain range. It's about ten miles from the Sea of Galilee and about four miles west of Mount Tabor.

  Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics reported in 2004 Nazareth's Christian population was about twenty thousand people out of a total population of around seventy thousand, making Christians slightly less than 30 percent of Nazareth's total population.

  That number represents a complete reversal in demography. The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906 states there were ten thousand people in Nazareth; thirty-five hundred Muslim "and the rest Christians."

  What caused all the Christians to vacate Nazareth?

  "They want bigger houses. They want more culture. Nazareth isn't so luxurious anymore," Zohbi told me with a straight face just prior to the parade, as militant Muslims hung a big sign a few feet from where we were speaking that read, "Islam is the only truth."

  The situation for Christians took a turn for the worst in perhaps one of the most threatening anti-Christian moves in Nazareth and one that should concern every Christian worldwide. In December 1997, a gang of Muslims gathered at the foot of the Church of the Annunciation, one of the holiest Christian sites, and unilaterally declared the area part of the waqf, or Muslim trust.

  As they always do with major sacred sites of other religions, the Muslims claimed the site outside the church is really a Muslim holy area. They found some guy who is supposedly buried there and who they say is Shabeldin, a warrior and the nephew of Saladin, the Muslim commander who led the army that defeated the Crusaders in 1187. The site previously housed a public school.

  The Muslims erected a tent outside the church as a temporary mosque and announced plans to build a huge mosque with an eighty-six-foot minaret in honor of Shabeldin. Islamic Movement leaders demanded Nazareth officials deed the property over to local Muslim authorities.

  Dave Parsons, a spokesman for the International Christian Embassy, said the proposed mosque might contain multiple spires that would tower over the Annunciation Church's large, black-coned dome.

  There are plenty of dead Muslims who are nephews of other dead Muslims at whose gravesites a mosque can be built, but no, the Muslims of Nazareth only want to build this imposing mosque right in front of the Church of the Annunciation.

  Two years later, in April 1999, the Muslims rioted outside the church because they know violence works when it comes to intimidating the Israeli government. According to reports, Muslim gangs targeted property displaying Christian symbols and Christian holy sites.

  BBC News reported:

  Some [Muslims] hurled insults and curses at worshippers as they left the church, where Roman Catholics believe the angel Gabriel appeared before Mary and told her she was pregnant. Other youths, wielding clubs, smashed windshields of cars with crosses dangling from the mirrors. Police said thirty cars were damaged.

  Protesters spray-painted his name [Shabeldin, the Muslim believed to be buried near the Church] across an ancient well where Orthodox Christians believe Mary drew her water and the annunciation took place.

  Of course the Muslims claimed Christian teenagers started the riots.

  Two weeks after the riots, the Israeli government caved into the Muslim demands and approved the plan to construct the intimidation mosque in front of the church.

  But in 2002, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rescinded permission to construct the mosque following worldwide outcry and protests from the Vatican and White House.

  In our interview, Zohbi credited "American conservatives," particularly "big U.S. radio hosts," with helping stop the construction of the mosque.

  But the Muslims continue to demand the mosque be built. Since the Christian population is dwindling, it is very likely an umbrella Muslim political party will take control of the city's municipality in near future elections, deed the site outside the church over to Muslim groups, and grant permission for the mosque's construction, which would require the Israeli government to intercede, and who knows whether that will happen again.

  Zohbi told me he is "optimistic" the mosque will eventually be built.

  "It's just a matter of time before we [the Islamic parties] dominate the city council and then the situation will be different," he said.

  The day I met him, hundreds of Muslims held prayer services outside the church at the site they demand for the new mosque. They hold the services every day. In a clear statement, Muslim men congregate outside the holy Christian site to pray facing away from the church. Their backsides are flashed to the church as they bow to Allah.

  On the day I attended services, a sermon was delivered by a prominent local sheik, who shouted into a microphone attached to several large speakers, "Islam will dominate the world." My translator Ali, who was present, told me the speech was Islamist and demanded the world recognize the "giant, Islam."

  The speech could be heard from inside the Annunciation church. I watched a few nuns pass the sermon very quickly, looking the other way, seemingly deliberately trying not to attract attention to themselves. I am told these kinds of sermons are delivered on loudspeakers in front of the church every Friday.

  The conflict against the church and against Nazareth's Christians didn't start in the 1990s or even this century. Islam's trying to destroy the Annunciation Church dates back thousands of years.

  As early as 725 CE, Willibald, the eighth-century bishop of Eichstatt, noted on his visit to Nazareth that only the Church of the Annunciation stood at the center of the city. He said of the church, "Christians often redeemed from the Saracens [a term for the Arab Empire under the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates], when they threatened to destroy it."

  Archeologists say the first shrine at the church site was constructed in the middle of the fourth century, comprising an altar in the cave in which Mary is said to had lived. Several previous churches there date back to the fifth century, about the same time the Church of the Nativity was constructed in Bethlehem.

  The original Annunciation church was destroyed by Caliph Hakim who began a decade-long persecution of Christians.

  1263 CE saw the destruction of all church and non-Muslim sacred structures of Nazareth at the hands of Sultan Baybars, a thirteenth-century Mamluk sultan of Egypt and Syria.

  Reconstructed versions of the Annunciation church were burned during Crusader losses in the region. The church was rebuilt again in 1730, then later enlarged in 1877.

  The church structure was completely rebuilt in 1955. And this rebuilding is used by modern Nazareth Muslim leaders to claim the church has no historic ties to Jesus.

  Zohbi claimed the Muslim stake to the Nazareth church site predates Christianity's. He said the Church of the Annunciation "was built in the 1950s."

  Siham el-Fahum, a Muslim Nazareth municipality member and a local historian, actually admits Christians are fleeing her city because Christian-Muslim tension.

  I met her at a local Nazareth eatery.

  "There is no doubt the situation for Christians in Nazareth is bad," El-Fahum said. "Muslims in the city want more dominance and the only way to achieve that, logically, is at the expense of Christians. It's a delicate balancing act that is having negative consequences for Christians."

  Like many Muslims here, El-Fahum claimed Christians several times "instigated" Muslim riots. But she said in the struggle for power, "Muslims are definitely on the rise."


  Zohbi earlier said he would only lead "peaceful" protests to build the mosque. Muslims in Nazareth have "no interest" in tensions or further violence with local Christians, he claimed.

  But El-Fahum said it was only a matter of time before another round of anti-Christian riots was sparked.

  "The tension is very palatable. The Christians know it. The situation is a powder keg that can explode again at any time."

  The trend of the persecution and intimidation of Christians in Bethlehem and Nazareth is part of a larger story of jihad against non-Muslims being waged by Islam throughout the Middle East and around the world.

  Ever since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in August 2005, Islamic groups there have been targeting Christian institutions, firebombing churches and Christian bookstores, even shooting up a United Nations school, absurdly accusing the evil world body of spreading Christianity! Israel had to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its Jews before handing the territory to the Pales tinians, knowing full well any Jew that remained would have undoubtedly been savaged.

  After Syria was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in 2005, the Lebanese were rocked by a series of bombings widely blamed on Damascus and viewed as an attempt to destabilize Lebanon. But what no one pointed out is the vast majority of bombings-and there have been many-have targeted Christian neighborhoods.

  Christians previously made up the majority of Lebanon's population. A 1932 census stated Lebanon was 55 percent Christian. But recent surveys cited by the CIA Factbook state Muslims now constitute a solid majority with 60 percent..

  After a bombing ripped through his Christian town, Samy Gemayel, brother of assassinated Lebanese politician Pierre Ge- mayel and son of Lebanon's former president Amin Gemayel, told me Christians are being driven from Lebanon.

  "These bombings are intimidating Christians and also Lebanese in general," said Gemayel. "Ninety percent of all the assassinations the past two years and most of the bombings have occurred in Christian population centers."

  "You don't hear this on the news too often, but I'm telling you, Christians are fleeing Lebanon. It's a major problem," Ge- mayel said.

  In Syria, all religious groups must register with the government and obtain government permits to hold any meeting other than pre-approved worship services. The Syrian government reportedly has attempted to control places of worship, monitoring sermons and services.

  There have been reports of Christians being intimidated, abducted, and held for ransom by Muslims in Iraq, even under U.S. occupation. Churches have been bombed, Christian businesses shut down. In 2005 alone, thirty thousand Christians fled Iraq, according to survey information. The U.S.-backed Iraqi government's constitution establishes Islam as the official state religion and allows for the appointment to Iraq's highest court judges whose only expertise are in Islamic sharia law.

  In Iran, where Islamic law is imposed, the government is accused of regularly harassing Christian institutions; its "Ministry of Islamic Guidance" is charged with monitoring all non-Muslim religions' organizations. The printing of Christian literature, including church newsletters, is strictly forbidden. Muslims who convert to Christianity are subject to the death penalty.

  The Christian Copts of Egypt are regularly singled out and targeted. Restrictions are imposed on rebuilding or repairing churches. Egypt has effectively banned Christians from senior government, military or educational positions; its state-run media spews vicious anti-Christian and anti-Semitic propaganda.

  And we tend to forget about one of the most massive recent targeting of non-Muslims in the Middle East-the Arab world's expulsion of nearly 99 percent of its Jews after Israel was founded in 1948. So much is said about Israel supposedly displacing Palestinians; what about the Arab displacement of Jews?

  The theme goes on and on. Still, our senior politicians regularly meet and take photo cps with Arab leaders but rarely bring up their regime's ill treatment of non-Muslims. Still, the U.S. considers Egypt an ally and provides it with billions in aid. Still, many are calling for engagement with Iran and Syria, emboldening those countries to believe they are above the norms of civilized society. Still, the American government pressures Israel to withdraw from more lands knowing full well the fate of all the non-Muslims who are left behind.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  "ANOTHER 9/11 ON ITS

  WAY"

  WAR LESSONS FROM TERRORISTS

  'HEY PUT ME IN A SMALL BOX and poured in masses of roaches and all kind of insects to freak me out, but that didn't much bother me," said G. Gordon Liddy, the popular U.S. radio talk host, actor and notorious mastermind of the first break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building in 1972.

  "I don't have any problem with insects because I used to sleep with them in prison. Once while incarcerated I woke up at night feeling there was a blanket on me. I determined the blanket was made of live cockroaches. I brushed them off and went to bed," related Liddy, who was the former chief operative for President Richard Nixon 's White House Plumbers unit. He served four and a half years of a twenty-year sentence for his role in Watergate, later being commuted by President Jimmy Carter.

  "Next they heated the little box and I was fine with that," Liddy said in his trademark calm, quiet demeanor. "Afterwards they threw in some electric shocks and piped in all sorts of fowl smelling odors, but it didn't faze me. You've never smelled a terrible odor until you've spent time in our federal prison system."

  Liddy, myself, Liddy's feisty, trigger-happy Canadian producer, Franklin Raff, and my translator Ali were cruising in my Land Rover on a slightly chilly Friday morning in December up the coast of Israel toward the border with Syria and Lebanon. It had been five months since Israel essentially failed to win the 2006 war in Lebanon against the Lebanese Hezbollah militia; Liddy and I were slated to meet with a leader of a new purported copycat Syrian guerilla organization modeling itself after Hezbollah and threatening eminent "resistance" against the Jewish state.

  Liddy is kind enough to feature me on his radio show regularly. When he visits Israel, we spend time together and he accompanies me on some of my adventures.

  On the long drive to the northern tip of Israel, Liddy regaled us with his experience competing a few months earlier in NBC's Celebrity Fear Factor. Liddy, who was seventy-five during the show's taping, beat out contestants one-third his age, winning all challenges except the final competition, which required good night vision.

  "You must have the mindset that you will win," said Liddy. "Not that you'll survive but that you will prevail. If you think you will win, you probably will. This is the problem with the Israeli government. They lost their victory mentality of the past and now it's all about staying in power and surviving the next crisis."

  Soon after Liddy's appropriate anecdote was offered, we arrived at our destination, the Golan Heights home of a representative of Syrian President Bashar Assad's Baath party and a leader of a new purported guerilla group.

  The Heights is strategic mountainous territory looking down on Israeli and Syrian population centers twice used by Damascus to launch ground invasions into the Jewish state. Israel captured the Golan Heights in 1967, after Syria attacked, and again in 1973 following a war in which Syria used the territory to attack a second time. Since then, Syria, which is in an official state of war with Israel and supports the Jewish state's enemies, has been demanding Israel relinquish the strategic land. Israel officially annexed the Golan in 1981 and controls the territory. The United Nations considers the area disputed territory that should be given to Syria under a peace treaty.

  Approximately eighteen thousand Jews live in beautiful, developed communities in the Golan, which has an Arab popula tion of about seventeen thousand. The Arab residents retain their Syrian citizenship but under Israeli law can also sue for Israeli citizenship.

  The Baath representative who doubles as a leader of the new purported Syrian guerilla group greeted us as we parked our car. He agreed to the meeting u
nder the condition his full name be withheld, even though he is one of the only Baath officials living in the Golan and all are well known to the Israeli security apparatus.

  "Welcome to Syria," said the official, laughing, shaking our hands.

  "Soon, very soon, this entire territory will be returned to its rightful owners," he said.

  A lot of people wrongly think the Golan Heights was in Syrian hands forever. Actually, the plateau, rising three thousand feet above the plains of Galilee, was governed by Israel longer than Damascus, and at least part was stolen from the Jews.

  Syria only held the Golan for nineteen years until Israel first captured it. Tens of thousands of acres of Golan farmland was legally purchased by Jews as far back as the late nineteenth century. The Turks of the Ottoman Empire kicked out some of them around the turn of the century. But much of this land was still farmed until 1947 when Syria first became an independent state and quickly seized the land that was being worked by the Jewish Palestine Colonization Association and the Jewish Colonization Association.

  Still, the international community considers the Golan to be Syrian.

  The Baath official directed us to a modest sized workroom above his house. The place was scantily furnished in Druze decor, a computer was buzzing in the background. The walls were plastered with Syrian propaganda posters and pictures of Bashar Assad and Bashar's late father, Hafez.

  "If in the coming months an agreement is not forged between Israel and Syria [for an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan], we will begin attacks," said the official, as he poured each of us tea.

  The official told us Syria watched as Israel "lost" a war against the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in the summer of 2006 and noted that Syria learned that "fighting" is more effective than peace negotiations with regard to gaining territory.

  Hezbollah, which seeks the destruction of Israel, claims its goal is to liberate the Shebaa Farms, a small, twelve-square-mile bloc situated between Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. A cease-fire resolution accepted by Israel to end its military campaign in Lebanon calls for negotiations leading to Israel's relinquishing of the Shebaa Farms.