Translation of the op-ed of Dr. ‘Atallah Abu Al-Subh, a columnist for the Hamas
weekly Al-Risala (Gaza). It was published in the edition of November 1, 2001.
Translation by MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, an independent,
non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East.
The truth is that I wondered how to begin! Should I greet you , or
should I curse you? Should I hold my tongue?…
I will begin by saying: Oh Anthrax, despite your wretchedness, you have
sown horror in the heart of the lady of arrogance, of tyranny, of boastfulness!
Your gentle touch has made the U.S.’s life rough and pointless. You have filled
the lady who horrifies and terrorizes the world with fear, and her feet almost fail
to bear in horror and fear of you. Because of you, she has lost
confidence in the moment in which she lives, or in which she will live.
You have entered the most fortified of places; the White
House and they left it like horrified mice. Up until a short time ago, this place
was the address of the power of brutality, or of the brutality of power!
Verily, the owner of that house said, ‘Woe to any who dare even to
glance at it with a hint of rage – but you have turned all this into vanity,
weakness, and wretchedness.’
By Allah, are you really so deadly?! Do you not fear America’s intercontinental
missiles? Do you not fear the torpedo missiles with nuclear warheads, and
cluster bombs? Do you not fear the Swift Sword that
Britain drew forth from its scabbard to stab into the heart of our honor in
Muscat , with the agreement of the great sultan, who had no
shame in carrying out such a deed? Do you not fear the lady of terror’s
destroyers, that cross the Suez canal…?
The Pentagon was a monster before you entered its corridors…
And behold, it now transpires that its men are of paper and its
commanders are of cardboard, and they hasten to flee as soon as they see –
only see – chalk dust!
There are those who think that I exaggerate, but I do not think so. This
horror that you have sown – you, the delicate, the uncomplicated, the miserable
– in the heart of the bloodsucker … makes me think as I do. You do
not come like a storm, but they see you as one; a terrible storm that destroys
everything. They run from you in all directions and their tongues mumble, ‘My
life, my life.’
Our hearts, repressed, exiled, and oppressed, were filled with belief that
Allah is capable of defeating America by means of the weakest of his earthly
soldiers, after he used you to sow horror in their hearts…
I swear that your story is peculiar. The Americans see you as an imminent
attack that is about to shake the lady with the proboscises that suck the blood
of the peoples…
All tell – every time
she farts, – “Allah bless you” – Nevertheless, you have found your way to only
eight American breasts so far…
You make the U.S. appease us, and hint to us at a rosy future and a life of
ease… through a Marshall Plan. Why? Because of our beautiful eyes? Or
out of fear that we will turn into anthrax, and harm the apple of eye
and heart, Tel Aviv…?
Without permission, you enter the halls of their courthouses, as if you
intended to push the symbols of their sovereignty into the mud of worry and
fear…
In sound mind, I thank you and confess that I like you, I like you very much.
May you continue to advance, to permeate, and to spread.
If I may give you a word of advice, enter the air of those ‘symbols,’ the
water faucets from which they drink, and the pens with which they draft their
traps and conspiracies against the wretched peoples…
Turn the bodies of the tyrants into matches burning slowly and
gradually, so that they understand that the truth belongs to Allah and that they
should give those entitled to rights their rights.
Then, and only then, will you return to your place…
I hope that we only hear about you when you enter the body of every
base man among the arrogant and their agents. Do not enter the bodies of the
wretched, like that aging nurse. Peace be upon the oppressed.
