"This is a problem they don't know how to solve except with military action, killing and inspiring fear. But I don't think Israel will succeed. The Palestinian presence in Palestine is a permanent presence. The Israelis, perhaps, will go (but) the Palestinians will remain. Or the Israelis will accept the fact of coexistence with the Palestinians."
Sabbah took a swipe at the Bush administration and its favoritism toward Israel, arguing that U.S. actions are having the opposite result: "If you want to support someone, you will not surround him with enemies. You will surround him with friends.
Sabbah took a swipe at the Bush administration and its favoritism toward Israel, arguing that U.S. actions are having the opposite result: "If you want to support someone, you will not surround him with enemies. You will surround him with friends.
"The Bush administration, through all its measures, wrong political positions, is surrounding Israel with more and more enemies," he said.
"I told the Americans, if you want to protect the Jewish people, it's okay, no problem. But, first of all, you have to surround the Jewish people with friends and before you can do that, be just to those who live with them, their first neighbors, the Palestinians. And through the Palestinians you will have all the Arabs as friends as well. When the Palestinians say 'we are friendly with the Israelis,' then all the Arabs will say 'we are friends' as well."
"I told the Americans, if you want to protect the Jewish people, it's okay, no problem. But, first of all, you have to surround the Jewish people with friends and before you can do that, be just to those who live with them, their first neighbors, the Palestinians. And through the Palestinians you will have all the Arabs as friends as well. When the Palestinians say 'we are friendly with the Israelis,' then all the Arabs will say 'we are friends' as well."
Asked to explain the tie between the Christian evangelist community and Israel, he said the two sides benefit politically from each other. Otherwise he said, if the Evangelicals "are truly Christian, they have to apply the commandment of love, for the Jews and Palestinians alike."
Sabbah said he was willing to speak to the Evangelical Christians about the issues dividing Arabs and Israelis. He said he was not surprised by the failure of the U.S. to come to the aid of the Christians in Palestine.
Sabbah said he was willing to speak to the Evangelical Christians about the issues dividing Arabs and Israelis. He said he was not surprised by the failure of the U.S. to come to the aid of the Christians in Palestine.