<a href="http://americancongressfortruth.com/">http://americancongressfortruth.com/</a><br><br><br>> *Brigitte Gabriel Speech at Duke University**<br>> *<br>> *Remarks of Brigitte Gabriel, delivered at the Duke University Counter
<br>> Terrorism Speak-Out**<br>> *<br>> I'm proud and honored to stand here today, as a Lebanese speaking for<br>> Israel<br>> , the only democracy in the Middle East . As someone who was raised in an<br>> Arabic country, I want to give you a glimpse into the heart of the Arabic
<br>> world.<br>><br>> I was raised in Lebanon , where I was taught that the Jews were evil,<br>> Israel<br>> was the devil, and the only time we will have peace in the Middle East is<br>> when we kill all the Jews and drive them into the sea.
<br>><br>> When the Moslems and Palestinians declared Jihad on the Christians in<br>> 1975,<br>> they started massacring the Christians, city after city. I ended up<br>> living<br>> in a bomb shelter underground from age 10 to 17, without electricity,
<br>> eating<br>> grass to live, and crawling under sniper bullets to a spring to get<br>> water.<br>><br>> It was Israel who came to help the Christians in Lebanon . My mother was<br>> wounded by a Moslem's shell, and was taken into an Israeli hospital for
<br>> treatment. When we entered the emergency room, I was shocked at what I<br>> saw.<br>> There were hundreds of people wounded, Moslems, Palestinians, Christians,<br>> Lebanese, and Israeli soldiers lying on the floor. The doctors treated
<br>> everyone according to their injury. They treated my mother before they<br>> treated the Israeli soldier lying next to her. They didn't see religion,<br>> they didn't see political affiliation, they saw people in need and they
<br>> helped.<br>><br>> >For the first time in my life I experienced a human quality that I know<br>> my<br>> culture would not have shown to their enemy. I experienced the values of<br>> the<br>> Israelis, who were able to love their enemy in their most trying moments.
<br>> I<br>> spent 22 days at that hospital. Those days changed my life and the way I<br>> believe information, the way I listen to the radio or to television. I<br>> realized I was sold a fabricated lie by my government, about the Jews and
<br>> Israel , that was so far from reality. I knew for fact that, if I was a<br>> Jew<br>> standing in an Arab hospital, I would be lynched and thrown over to the<br>> grounds, as shouts of joy of Allah Akbar, God is great, would echo
<br>> through<br>> the hospital and the surrounding streets.<br>><br>> I became friends with the families of the Israeli wounded soldiers: one<br>> in<br>> particular Rina, her only child was wounded in his eyes.
<br>><br>> One day I was visiting with her, and the Israeli army band came to play<br>> national songs to lift the spirits of the wounded soldiers. As they<br>> surrounded his bed playing a song about Jerusalem , Rina and I started
<br>> crying. I felt out of place and started waking out of the room, and this<br>> mother holds my hand and pulls me back in without even looking at me.<br>> She holds me crying and says: "it is not your fault". We just stood there
<br>> crying, holding each other's hands.<br>><br>> What a contrast between her, a mother looking at her deformed 19 year old<br>> only child, and still able to love me the enemy, and between a Moslem<br>> mother
<br>> who sends her son to blow himself up to smithereens just to kill a few<br>> Jews<br>> or Christians.<br>><br>> The difference between the Arabic world and Israel is a difference in<br>> values<br>> and character. It's barbarism verses civilization. It's democracy verses
<br>> dictatorship. It's goodness verses evil.<br>><br>> Once upon a time, there was a special place in the lowest depths of hell<br>> for<br>> anyone who would intentionally murder a child. Now, the intentional
<br>> murder<br>> of Israeli children is legitimized as Palestinian "armed struggle".<br>><br>> However, once such behaviour is legitimized against Israel, it is<br>> legitimized every where in the world, constrained by nothing more than
<br>> the<br>> subjective belief of people who would wrap themselves in dynamite and<br>> nails<br>> for the purpose of killing children in the name of god.<br>><br>> *Because the Palestinians have been encouraged to believe that murdering
<br>> innocent Israeli civilians is a legitimate tactic for advancing their<br>> cause,<br>> the whole world now suffers from a plague of terrorism, from Nairobi to<br>> New<br>> York , from Moscow to Madrid , from Bali to Beslan.
<br>> *<br>> They blame suicide bombing on "desperation of occupation". Let me tell<br>> you<br>> the truth. The first major terror bombing committed by Arabs against the<br>> Jewish state occurred ten weeks before Israel even became independent.
<br>><br>> On Sunday morning, February 22, 1948 , in anticipation of Israel 's<br>> independence, a triple truck bomb was detonated by Arab terrorists on Ben<br>> Yehuda Street , in what was then the Jewish section of Jerusalem .
<br>> Fifty-four people were killed, and hundreds were wounded. Thus, it is<br>> obvious that Arab terrorism is caused not by the "desperation" of<br>> "occupation", but by the VERY THOUGHT of a Jewish state.
<br>><br>> So many times in history in the last 100 years, citizens have stood by<br>> and<br>> done nothing, allowing evil to prevail. As America stood up against and<br>> defeated communism, now it is time to stand up against the terror of
<br>> religious bigotry and intolerance. It's time to all stand up, and support<br>> and defend the state of Israel , which is the front line of the war<br>> against<br>> terrorism.<br>><br>><br>> --<br>
> Wael<br>><br>> "Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which<br>> differ<br>> from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even<br>> incapable of forming such opinions. "
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