Farrakhan On Israel-Palestine
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AuthorTopic: Farrakhan On Israel-Palestine
topic by
watcher
4/9/2002 (11:10)
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The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan Addresses
The Palestinian/Israeli Conflict
Via a Press Conference at Mosque Maryam
Tuesday, April 2, 2002

'The Honest Broker'

First, let me thank all of the members of the media who are present, the
community leaders who are present, religious leaders who are present and, of
course, the believing community. After viewing the carnage of the last few days
going on in Israel and on the West Bank among the Palestinians, I felt that it was
my duty, indeed, a command from Allah (God), to raise my voice to try to answer
the question, what and who will stop the carnage that is presently going on in the
Middle East.

Of course, the simple answer is justice. Though the word is easily said, it
involves the will, the mind, and spirit of well-meaning people whose desire is
peace to sit down at a common table to work out a solution for peace based on
the principle of justice. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that justice
is a principle of fair dealing. He said that justice is the law that distinguishes
right from wrong. He also warned that justice is that weapon that Allah (God)
will use in the Day of Judgment, which we believe is now.

Jesus said that, as a man soweth the same shall he also reap. He also said, if you
sow the wind you will reap the whirlwind, and, those who live by the sword will
ultimately perish by the sword. The two sides, Palestinians and Israelis, are at a
point mentally and spiritually where they of themselves cannot find a solution to
this problem in their present state of mind. Thus, without dispassionate and
strong intervention by the United States and the United Nations, the cycle of
violence will continue to escalate until the whole region has gone to a point of no
return. Thus, the war of Armageddon – which will involve all nations and cause,
as the Bible prophesies, blood to rise up to the horse's bridle--will not be able to
be avoided. The time for strong, dispassionate intervention is now. If this
moment is missed, the results will catastrophic.

One writer said of America, we can avoid reality but we cannot avoid the
consequences of avoiding reality. So, I say again, this is the time for strong,
dispassionate intervention by the United States and the United Nations.

There are two diverse and prevailing views held by the Israelis, the Palestinians,
and the Arab and Muslim world that appear to be irreconcilable. On the one
hand, we have the Jewish people. Having suffered for 2,000 years and being
persecuted in various countries of the world as they have been scattered
throughout our planet, their desire has always been a Jewish homeland, which
was promised to them by Allah (God). So in the hearts and minds of the Jewish
people who have immigrated to the state of Israel, there is a feeling of
justification of their presence in Israel by their belief that the state of Israel is
promised to them by Allah (God) and written of in the Torah and is the
fulfillment of Allah's promise to them. Therefore, by Divine right they feel
justified that their presence in the state of Israel is divinely ordained.

On the other hand, the Palestinians view the Israeli presence as the result of the
organization of western powers in the United Nations heavily influenced by the
Jewish people and various governments that mandated the taking of land from
the Palestinians to form the state of Israel. This action, taken by the United
Nations in 1948, was never accepted by the Arab states and many in the Muslim
world. Therefore, the Arab states made war against the Israeli state; and after
each war more and more land was taken from them. So, in their anger and their
perception of stolen land and the Arab world's sharing the perception, the
Palestinians, both Arab and Christian Palestinians, have fought the presence of
Israelis, only to loose more and more land to a growing Israeli population. This
has caused the displacement of over five million Palestinians who now are in the
same state or condition that Jews have been in for 2,000 years-wandering the
earth, living in strange lands, living in refugee camps under conditions of
overcrowding, squalor, disease, violence, and the constant frustration of their
natural desire to be free in a land of their own. Therefore, the Palestinians and
many in the Arab and the Muslim world see no Zionist as innocent-- no soldiers
who occupy their land, no settlers who carry machine guns, no Israelis who live
on stolen land as innocent. Therefore, they feel that their intafada, or uprising, is
a natural reaction to Zionist occupation, oppression, racism and genocide
conducted against the Palestinian people.

It is, unfortunately, their belief that the state of Israel was created through
violence, exists and is maintained by violence, and, therefore, cannot be stopped
except by violence. These two views are the prevailing views. There is another
view among a small but growing number of members of the Orthodox
community that the state of Israel is not Biblically justified. They believe that it is
the Messiah and His appearance in the world and their returning to obedience to
the laws, statutes and commandments of Allah (God) that would justify the
Messiah's leading them back to a land of their own. These members of the
Orthodox Jewish community feel that the Zionists have usurped the promise and,
therefore, have circumvented the work that is written of the Messiah. And they
believe that modern Jewry has failed to fulfill that aspect of the condition of their
return, which is obedience to the laws, statutes and commandments of God.
These apparently irreconcilable views present us with a huge theological problem
that will take great theologians among the Christians, the Jews and the Muslims
who are capable of rising above their emotions into the thinking of God to come
up with that which can reconcile these apparently irreconcilable views. This will
take time, but time now is of the essence.

As Muslims, we believe that nothing happens except by the active or permissive
Will of Allah (God). Therefore, we have to ask the question: Why did Allah
permit the state of Israel to come into existence? Was it to be a trial for the Arabs
and a trial for the Muslims? Was it permitted that Muslims could learn from
what they might learn from that state? What really was Allah's purpose? Until we
can rise above emotion into the thinking of God, we will never be able to
reconcile these apparently irreconcilable views.

For 54 years the Arab and Muslim world has not accepted the existence of the
state of Israel. It appears, from the Gadhafi and Saudi Peace Plan, that there now
could be a recognition of the state of Israel's right to exist and the possibility of
normalizing relations between the Arab states and Israel should certain
conditions be met. These peace proposals are at least a basis for serious dialogue
and negotiations. However, these negotiations become very difficult if the cycle
of violence is not ended. So, what must be done?

America, with all of her power and leverage, is not using her power responsibly
to reign in the military might of the Israeli defense force while constantly
reiterating what Chairman Yasser Arafat must do. This shows that the American
administration is not now a dispassionate broker for peace. The American
administration is leaning so heavily on the side of Israel that this is now
engendering more hatred among the Arabs and Muslims for Israel and also for
America because the Arabs and the Muslims believe that America can and must
do more. However, because of Jewish influence on and in the present
administration, the administration does not appear willing to take the appropriate
steps that are necessary to bring about a ceasefire in order to begin serious
negotiations for a peaceful resolution to this conflict.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, President Bush and the American mass media have
branded Yasser Arafat as the principle source of this so-called terror. Doing this
minimizes him (Arafat) as a serious partner in the peace process. To demand of
Yasser Arafat what he cannot produce is unjust and hypocritical. To join the
(UN) Security Counsel in demanding that the Israeli military forces leave the
West Bank while at the same time winking its eye at what the Israeli military is
doing is showing the world the incoherence and the hypocrisy of America's
Mid-East policy. If Yasser Arafat is to be a partner in the peace process, look at
what has been done to him. Since President Bush has been in office he has never
met with Yasser Arafat. Since Ariel Sharon has become the Prime Minister of
Israel, he has never met with Yasser Arafat. The President has invited Prime
Minister Sharon to the White House and talks with him but refuses to talk to
Yasser Arafat. This is diminishing him in the eyes of his own people,
intensifying the anger and despair among the Palestinians. Let's look even more
carefully.

If America wants to get Mr. Arafat to stop the so-called suicide bombings,
America must encourage Israel to give him something to use as leverage to reign
in the more extreme elements of his own people. You give him nothing but
demand of him everything. What can you give him? You could say to him,
Chairman Arafat, we will stop all building of settlements on the West Bank. We
will stop bulldozing Palestinian homes and assassinating Palestinian leaders and
confiscating Palestinian land. If you gave him something, he could then appeal to
the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah: Will you give me a chance and stop the
suicide bombings so that a serious peace negotiation can begin? But instead of
giving him anything, it is demanded of him in a very arrogant way by the present
administration that he knows what he has to do. But for the last three months,
[Arafat] has been locked down in his own compound, unable to move. What
does that say to the Palestinian people? What does that say to the leaders of
Hamas and Hezbollah? It says that Yasser Arafat is completely impotent and,
therefore, he cannot be a spokesperson for our hurt when he cannot even leave
his compound without Israeli permission.

In the recent Arab League Summit, which he should have been able to attend, he
could not attend without Israeli permission. You've humbled him. You've reduced
him. Not only in the eyes of the American people and other administrations of
governments, you have done the worst thing of all you have reduced him in the
eyes of his own people.

So everyday that this continues Chairman Arafat is seen as more and more
impotent by his own people thus enraging them and increasing the desire of the
more militant Palestinians to continue that which is called the suicide bombings.

Now, these young people that are strapping themselves with bombs to wreak
havoc in Israeli society these young people whose lives are precious to them have
nothing to fight with so they used their bodies strapped with bombs as weapons
against Israeli occupation. Anytime you see children doing this, don't call them
insane. Anytime you see women now doing this, young girls doing this, that
should tell us that the level of despair and hopelessness is so great among the
Palestinian people that death is preferable to continue life under these conditions.
And then what is the Israeli response to this? It is tanks. It is rockets. It is
helicopter gun ships. It is F16 and 15 jetfighters. And how can the Palestinians
respond to this? The Israelis talk about secure borders but the Palestinians
cannot secure their own borders. They are absolutely helpless against the
military might of the Israeli defense force.

Those that throw stones at tanks, those that use AK47s are not even called
Palestinian defenders. They are called gunmen by the American media. Those
men and women and children that are strapping themselves with bombs are
called terrorists. Yet, the 70,000 people that live in Ramallah, are they terrified to
see tanks, to see helicopter gun ships, to see F16s? Of course, they are. But this
is called (Israeli) self-defense while a whole people (Palestinians) are being
terrorized. And Mr. Sharon appears to be using the legitimate cry of the
American people and the Bush administration to uproot terror that caused the
destruction of the World Trade Center and the bombing of the Pentagon as an
umbrella to go in and kill indiscriminately men, women and children.

When I see the bodies of Israelis carried to the cemetery and grieving mothers
and fathers, I'm touched by that, as the world is. But, I'm also touched by the
grieving Palestinian mothers and fathers who are burying their children. To see
Palestinian boys and men pulled out of their homes blindfolded, their hands
behind their backs strapped, it reminds us of what was done by the Nazis in
Poland. I would appeal to those of us who suffer, we should never adopt the way
of the oppressor. We must always adopt a better way than to become what we
have detested.

Asking the world to condemn the suicide bombings, which is the effect of
something, but not condemning the cause that produced this effect is adding
more injustice to an already intolerable situation. I would like to see these young
people live. I would like to see them stop strapping bombs to their bodies. But
how will that stop with what Ariel Sharon and the Israeli military are doing? And
how will it stop if the leverage that America has, she is unwilling to use. This is
why I've come before you and the media, because I think you need another voice,
a voice that is not Palestinian or Jewish or Arab, a voice that is not tied to the
American political situation, a man who is spiritual and religious, to maybe help
to lift our sight above the carnage to a better reality.

Is it any wonder that an Osama bin Laden is formed and fashioned? And is it
any wonder that people's minds are so filled with hatred that they will kill people
who are innocent? This is the situation made in America and only a dispassionate
strong America can help to resolve. It is my hope and my prayer that the
American administration will act with wisdom and strength. If not, what we see
afar off we may well see at our own door. It is my desire to go into the Arab and
Muslim world. I have met the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah. I have met with
Chairman Arafat. I have met practically all of the leaders of the Muslim world; I
believe I can be of help.

It is my desire to visit Israel and the Palestinians. I am not fearful of losing
support of the Arab and Muslim people by speaking to Prime Minister Sharon
any more than Moses lost the support of his people by speaking to Pharaoh. I
do not believe that we should not speak. I do not believe that we should not act to
try to stop the carnage. If we fail, at least we have tried. I personally believe that
these views can be reconciled, but it will take spiritual people as well as highly
learned political people to implement a solution that can bring peace to this
troubled area of the world. That area of the world is the heart of our planet. It is
that area from which all of the divine guidance has come. If the heart is troubled
and not fixed, the whole body will show the effect of it.

Prime Minister Sharon, in my conclusion, has vowed to destroy or crush the
Palestinian militants. I humbly say to him and to President Bush, there was a
similar vow made by President Lyndon Baines Johnson and by some of the
United States senators, that they would bomb the Vietnamese back into the stone
age; and this war led to the ultimate conclusion that Lyndon Baines Johnson
would not seek a second term and the Vietnamese became the victors. Superior
weapons can never destroy the thirst and the hunger in a people to be free from
tyranny and oppression. The desire for freedom has always outweighed the
power of military might. History is full of examples of people in power failing to
do what is just and losing ultimately in the end.

Please be warned of history that it not repeat itself today; God has never taken
the side of the oppressor against the oppressed. I plead for us to consider the
level of despair that exists in the Palestinian society and put that in the equation
of justice with a heavy emphasis. This is not to diminish the suffering of the
Israelis under these attacks. But, if there is no heavy emphasis on the despair of
the Palestinians, then the equation for peace will never bring about the best
results.

I thank you all for listening to what I have to say. I pray that Allah will cause the
words that I speak to find a resting place in the hearts of those responsible. I
pray that if it is the Will of Allah (God), that we can do what we must do to stop
the carnage and bring justice and, thus, peace to that area of the world, which will
mean peace for all of us. Thank you for listening. I greet you in peace.
As-Salaam Alaikum.
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reply by
No comment
4/9/2002 (22:15)
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? No one wants to respond to this post ?? JC????
reply by
barb
4/10/2002 (2:08)
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How quaint. A posting of a speech by the hypocrit RACIST white-hating Louis Farrakhan. This guy had ZERO credibility with anyone who has a brain and conscience. He is as sleazy as they come.
reply by
NO COMMENT
4/10/2002 (11:48)
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? No one wants to respond to this post ?? JC????
I mean repsond to the CONTENT BARB NOT THE PERSON. PAY ATTENTION.
reply by
ozzie
4/10/2002 (24:20)
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Barb has prejudged Farrakhan as he speaks the truth while she and her zionist friends urge us to give 'Sharon a chance a piece'. The man who stated 'the Jews own America'.
Talking about credibility and hypocrisy?