Why We Want to Kill You
Editor’s Note: Walid Shoebat is a former Islamic terrorist who loves Jesus, America, and Israel. We are privileged to run this excerpt from his outstanding, newly released book, Why We Want to Kill You. It is the transcription of a verbal exchange between a Palestinian named Ramzi and Mr. Shoebat.
A terrorist mind-set is concerned with occupation. To them, everything is an imperialist or Zionist conspiracy. The reality is that the terrorist mind is occupied with half truths. Although many times the terrorist knows the truth, he simply ignores it. The reason is simple—he is usually a racist, filled with bias. He views everyone who is non-Muslim as Kafir, an unbeliever. Whereas, the usual problem with many Westerners is that they have a very narrow view of traditional, conservative people.
The following is a response to a typical Palestinian, pro-Jihad objection. It…fits a common pattern that shows the cookie-cutter mentality:
Ramzi: Mr. Shoebat, I am totally opposed to your positions!
Walid: I am glad that we have people who can object—it’s only in a free world that two parties can oppose each other and live in peace. Today, we have Hamas and the P.A. killing each other. How is that a free society?
Ramzi: You are a person who has lost all his roots!
Walid: I disagree for several reasons:
- Jesus was from Bethlehem. However, most Muslims in “Palestine” chose to follow a desert religion far away in Arabia. My roots are connected to the land where Jesus walked. I follow a faith of a Bethlehemite and not an Arabian.
- Why is it that when Jews stand with “Palestine,” you don’t accuse them of losing their roots? What about Germans who died as a result of standing up against Hitler? Do you accuse them of losing their roots? Why is it that if anyone objects to the Palestinian dogma, then they are accused of losing their roots?
- I am from the Holy Land. I was born there. No one can take away my roots. It seems to me that you feel free to uproot people as you wish. You want to expel Jews from Palestine, yet you want to keep only Palestinians in Israel. Why should Arabs have a right to live in Israel, yet Jews are not allowed to live in Palestine?
- What roots are we talking about? Before 1967, we were Jordanians, and before that, we considered ourselves Syrians, and only since 1967 have the people living in historic Judea clinged [sic] to being Palestinians. So, what roots are you talking about?
- The Palestinian Charter never included Judea or Gaza as part of “Palestine.” Only after losing the war in 1967 was the charter changed. Why?
- We all had Jordanian passports all along. Why is it that we wanted to establish a Palestinian state in Jordan?When King Hussein decided to throw out that brat named Yasser Arafat, they lost that hope of creating a state there. Why are Palestinians not trying to create a Palestinian state in Jordan? Why is it only in historic Judea?
How have I lost my roots? What roots are you talking about? My terror roots? My racist roots? My old bigoted opinions?
Ramzi: As a Palestinian born and raised IN PALESTINE, in Bethlehem, I never was told to hate anybody!
Walid: Then why do you hate me so much?
So, do you mean to tell me that what Naim Ayyad, my Islamic teacher in high school taught us, that killing Jewish civilians is o.k., is a lie I made up? Are you telling me that it is a lie that Arafat went to mosques and asked women to give him their children for suicide? Have I fabricated the hate filled cartoons, Holocaust denials, suicide bombings, or the writings on walls calling for the murder of Jews?
Ramzi: I suggest that you come and live one week in Bethlehem! Maybe then you will know what being a Palestinian nowadays means!
Walid: Does being a Palestinian nowadays include killing Arab teenagers and dragging their bodies down the streets of Bethlehem, or are the executions of Palestinians, by Palestinians, fake? I have seen them on video. Are all these videos fake? Did the Zionists make these up?
Ramzi: We are VICTIMS!
Walid: Only racists claim victimhood when they ignore what they do to others.
We chased 850,000 Jews out of Arab lands. Are they not victims, too? Suck it up. Grow up. Quit your bellyaching, and stop that victimhood paranoia. Arabs lost homes. Jews lost homes. Arabs want their homes back. Jews don’t. I have the ultimate solution for your “victimhood” problem: No one has a right of return. Arabs who left in ’48 and ’67 have no right to return to Israel; Jews who left in ’48 have no right of return to Arab lands. This should end all this mess. Yet you would not agree to that. Why?
Ramzi: I live the occupation every day!
Walid: You think Israel was bad? Wait till Hamas takes full control and Islamists would rule over you, then don’t complain to me about victimhood.
We declared a war on Israel in 1967, we lost, and now you are crying about an occupation? What about the Jordanian occupation? Jordan took that land illegally, yet you NEVER ONCE objected and cried for liberty. Why? Why have you never called it a Jordanian occupation? Why is it only an Israeli occupation?
Could it be that the answer is simpler than you think?While the world keeps saying that the problem is complicated, it’s not. The problem is simple—WE WERE RACISTS. WE HATED JEWS. This is the only reason why we never objected to a Jordanian occupation, yet we screamed victim-hood when Israel won the war that WE declared.
Ramzi: I feel it [the occupation] every day! I get yelled at every day by Israeli occupational forces! I see people dying every day because Israel doesn’t allow us to have our basic needs!
Walid: Nonsense. Stop bombing buses, start singing songs of peace, demonstrate all over for peace, then see how Jews will fall backwards for you. Yet what did you do instead:
- You elected Hamas and proved to the world that you are racists.
- You severed your ties with Israel, then later complained about Israel keeping you out.
- You kept carrying olive branches in one hand, while you carried a bomb in the other.
Ramzi: I would love to see you waiting in a line at a checkpoint to go from your home to your work and then being turned back by someone 20 years younger than you!
Walid: I lived there for 18 years. I had to carry my I.D. I had to go through checkpoints all the time, but don’t forget, when the checkpoints relaxed a little, I also carried a bomb to blow up an Israeli infrastructure.
Yet I saw what I did wrong. I saw why Israelis set up checkpoints. I changed my heart and my mind. I stopped playing the victim. I moved on with my life. And when I did, I wasn’t allowed to go back home.
You already expressed your view that we should not be allowed to go home. What about my land? Who stole my land [in Bethlehem], Ramzi? Was it Israel? Or was it Palestinians? Who is the land-thief? I can’t go home to your “Palestine,” why? Why can I go to Israel but not to Palestine? Why when truth hits you directly in the face do you reject it?Why when facts are so obvious do you reject them? The answer is simple, it’s a state of heart. It has nothing to do with education, victimhood, poverty…it’s a racist mind.
(“Reasoning With Jihadists,” from WHY WE WANT TO KILL YOU by Walid Shoebat, Copyright © 2007 by Top Executive Media. Used by permission.)
