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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JUNE 21, 1985
All this has consequences for America far beyond Lebanon•••• The
� of radical Islam is to driv� all Westerners and all traces
or-� 1 Western influence from the region--1nclud1n � pro-Western
.�oslem rulers. In the eyes of true believers, Amer1ca and Israel
·are not causes of the Mideast's problems; they are merely
3ymptoms. The real trouble, as the true believers see it, is
;:ulers who have betrayed Islam and allowed "imperialists" and
"Zionists" to penetrate the Middle East.
For instance, the first words broadcast from the cockpit of TWA
847 last week included a derisive swipe at the leaders of Egypt,
Jordan, Iraq and the Palestine Liberation Organization. "Jeru
salem is calling you, you that claim yourselves Moslems•••• To
the people who surrendered to Israel, to (Egyptian President)
Mubarak and (PLO Chairman) Arafat, (Jordan's King) Hussein and
S1ddam (Iraq's president), to the usurpers of the thrones, Jeru
salem can only be liberated by the hands of the true believ-
ets . . . . "
The true believers, of course, have been joined and used by
t�rrorists with other agenda, including the governments of Iran,
S}ria and Libya, who each have their own reasons for wanting to
terrorize Americans and Israelis. But that merely compounds the
risk to pro-Western rulers, like Jordan's King Hussein, who want
to broaden Mideast peace. For not only do the true believers
want to eliminate them for cooperating with the "imperialist
infidels" an� "Zionists," but so do their political enemies such
as Syria. As a result, the bloodshed and violence in Lebanon al
most certainly imperil peace prospec�s and further feed funda
mentalists' faith that they can eventually eliminate Western
leaning Islamic leaders the same way they eliminated the shah of
Iren ••••
The best guess is that the Middle East will remain a slaughter
house for America and her friends for years to come. For America
is as much a hostage of radical Islam now as five years ago when
52 American diplomats were held hostage by the ayatollah's
IsL1mic zealots.
It should be plain that, more than ever, the United States is in no position
to douse the cauldron of violence in the Middle East. That may have to be
the task of a future European "Third Force."
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau