Arafat's successor is an al-Qaida sympathizer. Are you surprised?

Folks, Arafat killed Americans in addition to killing Israeli Jews. On March 1, 1973, Palestinian terrorists took over the Saudi embassy in Khartoum. The next day, two Americans –including the United States' ambassador to Sudan, Cleo Noel – and a Belgian were shot and killed. James J. Welsh, an analyst for the National Security Agency from 1969 through 1974, charged Arafat with direct complicity in these murders.

So, it shouldn't come as any surprise that the mass murderer's successor to the Fatah movement is an al-Qaida sympathizer with close ties to such terrorist sponsors as Iran and Syria. Farouq Qaddumi is his foul name and for the last 30 years Qaddumi has headed the Palestinian Liberation Organization Foreign Affairs Department. He has made it clear that he sees terrorism as a strategic option for Palestinians.

"This policy was determined by the PLO when our brother the martyr, our brother the president, Abu Amar [Arafat], stood at the United Nations in 1974 and said: 'I hold a gun in one hand and an olive branch in the other.'"

Qaddumi has already called for a wave of attacks against Israel. He has sought to align himself with Iran and Syria as an alternative to the leadership of new PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei. Under Qaddumi's leadership, the Fatah movement has launched an effort to spearhead the Palestinian war against Israel. Fatah has already acquired rockets, mortars and other weaponry to attack Israeli military and civilian targets in the Gaza Strip.

Qaddumi sees Israel as on the verge of collapse and regards the election of Ariel Sharon as the last choice of the Jewish state, or as he put it, "the last bullet in the Israeli rifle." When that bullet is spent, he said, Israel would disintegrate a la the Soviet Union or Yugoslavia.

Not surprising, Qaddumi has positive words for al-Qaida and its 9/11 suicide strikes on New York and Washington. After saying he condemned the attacks, Qaddumi discussed the benefits of the attacks.

"These events will serve as a lesson to the United States," Qaddumi said. "This was the first time that Arabic names were introduced to American households," he added.

"These incidents caused America to reexamine its foreign policy to find the causes of terrorism."

Folks, no Arabic names were introduced to American households because outside of perhaps Anwar Sadat, Arabs have not made any significant noteworthy contributions to modern day civilization. We know that not a single Muslim country is to be found among the developed nations of the world. When the Industrial Revolution took place in the 19th century, the Muslim World was still relatively undivided. But Muslims as a whole were either unaware of the revolution or rejected it. For a long time, much of the results of the Industrial Revolution was rejected by Muslims as un-Islamic, including electricity and mechanized vehicles. Nor do they want to do any research so necessary to compete with the the non-Muslim world. So, rather than compete and win, Muslim states do nothing beyond crying and appealing for a fake justice, declaring themselves as brothers in Islam and making it their duty to fight and kill other Muslims and non-Muslims who threaten them, and destroying their own culture.

When will they evolve?