Shalom from Jerusalem,
 
Below is my latest commentary for the World Net Daily web site.  It concerns today’s horrific terror attacks in London and the fact that Western leaders, including Tony Blair, continue to call for Israel to make potentially suicidal concessions to Islamic enemies here in the Middle East.  I for one see a connection between these two things, as I detail below.
 
I have many friends in the London area and I hope and pray that all are well.  I want to send my condolences to anyone that may have suffered tragic personal loss in today’s hideous attacks on the city’s public transport system, which I have used many times over the years.  We who live in Jerusalem know all too well what that is all about.

Ironically an Israeli friend who was born in London is currently in the British capital city enjoying a short vacation, along with thousands of other Israeli tourists.  I had dropped by her parent’s home last evening here in Jerusalem when she phoned to inform them that she was heading into central London today to meet a friend.  Knowing they would be very worried, I phoned soon after hearing of the attacks and was please to hear they had just heard from her by telephone, and especially that she was OK.  She told them she was actually late setting out for her planned meeting (in one of the very areas that was struck by today’s blasts) and was actually ordered off the train near where she is staying just before it was due to set off for the center of London.  She only realized why the rail network was closed down—and that she had been spared possible involvement in the terror attacks—when she entered a nearby restaurant and saw initial TV reports about the attacks.  All this to say that while it may be unsafe at times here in Jerusalem, the rest of the world is obviously not much better.

On a happier note on this sad day, I have just finished a 33 minute DVD about my life and work in Israel over the past two and a half decades.  Titled FOR ZION’S SAKE: REPORTING FROM THE LAND OF THE BIBLE, it features good portions of several Hebrew songs that I have been priviledged to sing, mostly with others here in Jerusalem, taken from three separate CD recordings.  All are illustrated by beautiful pictures of the Lord’s special land taken by veteran cameraman and reporter Jan Karnis.  It has a short but graphic summary of Israel’s modern history, including historic footage of its various wars and attempts to make peace, and also looks at relevant biblical scriptures concerning this unique little land at the naval of the world.  It will be available from my web site and other avenues in the near future.  A German language edition is also currently being prepared.  I will give more details in future communications.

 

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SOWING AND REAPING

By David Dolan for World Net Daily

I was watching CNN while waiting for a ride to Ben Gurion airport on a Thursday morning in early 2004 when dramatic news broke of numerous explosions on commuter trains during the morning rush hour in Madrid.  Over the remaining few minutes before a friend arrived to pick me up for my El Al flight that day to London, it became clear that a major, coordinated terror attack had just rocked Spain’s largest city.

When my friend arrived, I informed her that Al Qaida terrorists had just attacked Madrid.  As she turned her attention to the horrific pictures on my television screen, she noted that CNN was reporting that Spanish government officials were fingering Basque separatists based in northern Spain for the multiple blasts.  “It will prove in the end to be Al Qaida Muslim terrorists,” I repeated, realizing from the date on my airplane ticket—March 11—that it was exactly two and a half years to the day when the 9/11 atrocities changed life for all time in America.  In the end, it was confirmed that North African Arab terrorists linked to Osama Bin Laden’s heinous group were indeed the perpetrators behind the deadly explosions.

The next evening, I needed to travel into central London for a live television interview.  I took the train from Richmond in southwest London to Waterloo station, not far from England’s famous Parliament building and Big Ben clock tower, where I planned to change trains to arrive at my final destination.  It was rush hour, and the huge station was packed with people moving like lemmings in every direction.  Indeed, in the crush of rushing bodies, I was actually carried for a couple minutes in the opposite direction from where I needed to be.

When I finally got to my underground train ten minutes later, I was barely able to squeeze onto it.  All of the cars were crammed with commuters heading home for the weekend.  After I just managed to squeeze on board, a slightly built woman with two young children attempted to get on.  While her toddlers succeeded, she only got one arm in before the train doors started to close.  As the panicking mother and her offspring screamed in unison, a quick-thinking passenger standing near me hit an emergency stop button next to the entrance, and she was finally able to sardine into the train.

As we sped away from the station, I looked around at the hundreds of weary faces.   I noticed several passengers were carrying large backpacks, and most had briefcases or purses.  Unlike what has become routine in Israel, no security guard had bothered to check any of these items for possible weapons or bombs.  In fact, no such guards or policemen were even vaguely evident at Waterloo that Friday evening, or at the other bustling commuter centers that I passed through.  And this just one day after another European capital city’s public transport system had suffered the deadliest terrorist atrocity in the continent’s modern history.

During my subsequent three weeks of public meetings all around the United Kingdom, I retold this story many times, warning my British audiences that a major Al Qaida attack—probably on the London transport system—was just a matter of time.  After it occurred, security measures would have to be substantially beefed up, slowing up the system and therefore the local economy, as we had already endured in Jerusalem for some years.  But, I added, there would simply be no other choice.

Just hours after the predicted attacks occurred on Thursday morning, I was amazed to hear British Prime Minister Tony Blair declare that he and seven other international leaders gathered in Scotland would carry on with their previous G-8 summit agenda, focusing on debt relief for Africa and global warming.  This instantly reminded me of George W. Bush continuing to read a children’s book at a Florida school after being told that an apparent terror attack was underway at New York’s World Trade Center.

Will life become any easier for poor people in Africa if London and/or New York are obliterated by Islamic nuclear bombs?  Will global warming be the world’s main concern as mushroom clouds arise over the cities of the world’s greatest democracies?  Although these are of course ultimate weapons of mass destruction that are probably not in the hands of Al Qaida terrorists at present, they may well be in the not too distant future.  After all, several countries currently developing such weapons, especially Iran and North Korea, share the same hatred for the West, and in Iran’s case the same Islamic fundamentalist worldview, as Osama Bin Laden.

Ironically, although possibly not coincidently, former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was scheduled to speak to an Israel investment conference very close to the first London blast.  The MIT-educated politician was one of the first Western leaders to sound the alarm over Islamic terrorist intentions, and not only concerning Israel.  Yet most of his international colleagues acted as if he was merely crying wolf, even after Muslim extremist attacks began to occur outside of the perennially troubled Middle East.

In recent years, Western demands for Israel to abandon territory to her mostly-Muslim Arab opponents have grown to a shrill crescendo.  The chorus has been led by none other than George Bush and Tony Blair.  In fact, their repeated calls for a Palestinian state to be established just outside of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv grew even louder after 9/11.  The substantial evidence suggesting that such a state will become an Al Qaida-supported bastion of radical Islamic terror is completely ignored as politicians around the globe demand that Ariel Sharon rush to evacuate “occupied” land, and not only in the relatively isolated Gaza Strip.

If it’s true that nations, like individuals, reap what they sow, then folks all over the Western world better get ready for even more difficult days ahead.
 

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DAVID DOLAN is a Jerusalem-based author and journalist who has lived in Israel since 1980.