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SHOEBAT from page 1
Shoebat remembers attending schools in Bethlehem and Jericho, where Jew-hatred was the most common subject.
"It starts with education, anti-Semitic education," he said. "Anti-Semitic slogans in the schools, anti-Semitic graffiti, anti-Semitic education, anti-Semitic art and songs. The hatred builds up and then the first excuse we get to riot well riot.... It is in the arts, it is in the newspapers, it's in storytelling, it's in the history textbooks. It's worse than what you had in Nazi Germany."
In Arab and Islamic societies, Shoebat said, hating Jews and America is part of the social life. Clubs and movements exist whose sole purpose is to prepare adherents for jihad. Sho^t said he became entangled in the terror movement when he was just out of hi^ school It began with riots and rock-throwing, but within a short time he was carrying bombs. In one case, he re-zdizes now, he was an intended suicide bomber- though his colleagues didn't tell him. He was five minutes ahead of schedule in placing a bomb on the roof of a bank. TTie bomb detonated at a moment when, had he stuck to his instructions, he would have been walking down the street with it.
That experience didn't tmn him off the movement though, and he continued preparing for jihad while a student in Chicago. Living in a dingy suite siu--rounded by other jihadists, he said, he and his colleagues were preparing themselves for an im-known future attack.
"It's spiritual prep work to get you ready spiritually," he said. "You don't become an Islamic terrorist just by joining and going on a database. You go on a lot of spiritual training to get ready. You've got to be ready for jihad.... We were being trained not with weapons, but in prep work and getting ready for jihad on the ground.... Getting up at three o'clock in the morning, doing vigorous exercise, chanting, brainwashing, repetitious things, getting ready for your mission of jihad."
It wasn't a political epiphany that led to his break with the movement, but the jihadists' insistence on remaining apart firon society.
"I basically started getting tired of it, tired of the brainwashing," Shoebat said. "I started seeing some things in different ways. Why can't I listen to music anymore? You're literally in a dungeon. You can't listen to music, you can't listen to songs, you can't watch TV, you're away firom the world. I couldn't stand that anymore. I wanted out."
Luclaly, Shoebat had a way out. His mother is an American and Shoebat was able to contact
his American grandfather, who set him up in a new school and a new life. But Shoebaf s attitudes turned when his new wife, a Christian, challenged some of his inbred ideas.
"My wife had me question. She said, you know, you say that the Jews corrupted the Bible, show me. That Jews are the greatest corrupters in the woild, show me: what did they corrupt? So I started doing research, biblical research, historic research."
Shoebat came to view his past associations with anti-American and anti-Zionist movements as a form of brainwashing, and he sees the same sort of brainwashing in acts like the grisly lynching of Israeli military reservists in Ramallah in 2000.
"What will drive a whole dty to participate in ecstatic glorification of Jew-hating in Ramallah?" he asked. "Because the whole city was there. What would cause a whole city to do this? It has to be something, what isitr
Since becoming a Christian and a Zionist, Shoebat has lost all connection to the Arab side of his family.
"My Arab family is all history," he said. "There is no connection whatsoever.... My land is lost and my imcles and cousins, a huge family, all gone, there's no communication whatsoever."
Nevertheless, Shoebat has devoted his life to condemning the growth of radical Islam.
"There are 55 states where many factions are attempting to bring Islam, the sharia" he said. "So it's a clash between the modem world and the Middle Ages and eventually the old stufi'has to go out."
How?
"By war. There is no other choice," he said.
Shoebaf s ideas have got him in hot water. Everywhere he goes - and he expects this to be the case in Vancouver — he is con-fix)nted by Muslims who criticize him.
"I get it every single place I go speak. Ill get it when I go speak at your [community]. How dare you say this and how dare you say that? Not all Muslims are bad," he said. "Well, that's true, but what have you done, sir, about the bad Muslims? The answer is nothing. They just want to criticize you. They're very critical of what Tm saying, yet when you ask them what are you doing about the terrorists, they say nothing."
Shoebat forcefully rejects the idea that just a small proportion of Arab or Islamic society is anti-American or anti-Zionist. "This is the biggest bunch of baloney that ever can be said, that it's just a few who are the rotten apples," said Shoebat. "It's such a few I find that are good apples."
The only conclusion to this situation, Shoebat argued, is to rebuild Arab and Islamic society in a new, peace-loving form. He acknowledged that his message is not a hopeful one.
"I'm such a pessimist. But if I was [living] before the Holocaust and said, look it's coming, you would say I was painting a bad picture of the world, but nevertheless I would be right."
Another historical case Shoebat claims could have been foretold was the failure of the Oslo peace process.
"In 1993,1 said, excuse me, the Oslo peace accord is not going to give you peace. Everybody said you're painting a bad picture of the world. You're a pesmmist," he said. "I know the natiure of the problem. It is not an issue of land. It is not an issue of occupation.
"It is not an issue of jobs, like [New York Times colimanist] Thomas Friedman says. It has nothing to do with jobs. It is an issue of the destruction of the Jewish people," he said. "They want to destroy Israel by any means.... They will not be happy until there is no Jew left."
In Shoebat's view, Israel shoidd armex Graza and the West Bank, then pass a law that requires all citizens to accept the existence of Israel and denoimce violence against it. He does not view this as a radical proposition.
"No state in the world doesn't have this kind of law in their government," he said. "Anybody who wants to destroy the state of Israel should not live in it.... And if you have the right law in place ... where temporary residents who call for the destruction of Israel carmot live in Israel, then guess what? They either have to move to the Sinai or they have to move to Jordan or they have to move to Lebanon but they cannot stay there.
"That will solve this whole demographic problem that everyone's been telling me about," said Shoebat.
Shoebat acknowledged that the enormity of upheaval from such an extradition would almost certainly bring war in the region. But if the Arab states react with war to Israel's expulsion of terrorists, Shoebat said, it will prove the Arab states are terrorists too.
Though he may seem condemnatory of Muslims, Shoebat also has strong words for Jews.
"I am upset when Jewish people tell me we should give the Palestinians the land," he said. "Excuse me, God gave you that land; it belongs to you. End of story."
Townhall X takes place May 31,7:30 p.m., at the Italian Cultural Centre, 3075 Slocan St. Tickets are $10. □
Pat Johnson is a native Vancouverite, a journalist and commentator.
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Book explores Chabad
Author visits JCC to read from award-winning worl<.
The Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver (JCC) and Lubavitch BC are joining to present a literary reading and lecture by joimnalist and author Sue Fishkoff. Her book. The Rebbe's Army: Inside the World ofChabad-Lubavitch, printed by Schocken in April of last year, was named one of the best religion books of2003 hy Publisher's Weekly, and received great reviews in the Jewish Western Bulletin, New York Times, Washington Post and other publications. At the Vancouver reading, she will share her insights into the world of Chabad.
An award-wirming journalist and associate editor of a weekly newspaper in Monterey, Calif., Fishkoff is also the former New York bureau chief for the Jerusalem Post. To write The Rebbe's Army, she spent a year visiting Chabad emissaries throughout North America, to discover the lengSis to which they go to spread their message. She explores the world of Chabad-Lubavitch, the Brooklyn-based group of Chassidic Jews who encourage ordinary Jews to live more observant lives - by such measures as standing on street comers asking pedestrians whether they are Jewish, setting up Chabad Houses on college campuses and private schools, lighting chanukiyot in every capi^ city, running non-sectarian drug treatment centres and holding Passover seders in Nepal and Thailand.
Though they reject modem culture in their own Uves, they have managed to draw presidents, kings and celebrities into their circle, fi-om Russian President Vladimir Putin, who lit the Chabad meno-rah in Moscow last year, to Bob Dylan, who donated $100,000 for a Chabad building in Minnesota, to former vice-president Al Gore, Nobel Prize-wiimer Elie Wiesel and actor Jon Voight, all of whom have appeared on the group's flmd-raising telethon.
The JCC readmg wll take place June 10 at 7:30 p.m. in the Wosk Auditorium The bookstore 32 Books will be selling books and Fishkoff will be signing them following the talk. Advance tickets arc $10, or $12 at the door. To purchase tickets, call the JCC, 604-257-5111, or Chabad at 604-266-1313. The event is presented by the cultimil arts department of the JCC and Lubavitch BC, in honor of the Rebbe's 10th yahrzeit, June 22,2004. □
- Courtesy of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver
Hiking club heads out
Kollel plans first hil<e of the season to Rice Lake.
Now that it's rerun season on TV, it might be time to dig out the old hiking boots and head for the great outdoors. And to get you started, the Kollel's hiking club is meeting Sunday, May 30, for their first hike of the season. The hike will be a gentle two-hom- walk aroimd Rice Lake in the Seymour Demonstration Forest on the North Shore. It will be a great way to meet people in a relaxed, informal way, and be out in nature surroimded by cool forests and fresh air.
It is suggested to bring a snack and bottle of water - and wear hiking boots or rurming shoes. Hikers will meet at the Kollel, #206-2112 West Broadway, at 10:30 a.m., for prayers and breakfast before an 11:30 a.rn. departure. Everyone is welcome. Please call 604-267-7060 for more information or check out www.communitykollel.org. □
OJC exhibit is a success
The Okanagan Jewish Commimity (OJC) extends its appreciation to those involved with the Out of the Shadows, Into the Light breast cancer exhibition held at the Okanagan Jewish Conunimity Centre recently. The exhibit was organized by Patrice Dunbar and the B.C. Cancer Foimdation, and Lil Goodman of the OJC Sisterhood. ITie event was made possible through a grant firom the Women's Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation in Vancouver. There were ci^t showings of the display, which featured a sculptural stoiy of 13 women with accompanying photography by Karin Harma.
The response from the community was positive and the OJC thanks all those who shared their stories. □
- Courtesy of Okanagan Jewish Community