November 2001 Personal Letter

Dear Friends,

At press time, October 15, it looks like we may very well lose this war. Our priorities seem to be wrong.

We are being less effective than we could be because:

1. The nation and the president above all must seem to be secure, mistake-proof, all-powerful, compassionate, and forgiving. (The president’s PR is working so well that Jay Leno said, “Well, we can’t do Bush jokes anymore — he’s smart now.”)
2. We are not engaging our true enemies. In particular, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian Authority, etc. — virtually all of the Arab nations that harbor terrorists — are either bystanders or even “allies.” Syria has just been voted in as a member of the United Nations Security Council without any opposition from the United States! Their foreign minister immediately stated, “Whoever kills defenseless people is a terrorist, and who ever fights against the Israeli occupier is an opponent of occupation.” The Syrians thus have reserved their right to support those who blow up pizzerias, etc.
3. We aren’t letting Israel — the country with the most experience dealing with terrorists — get into this conflict one way or another. We are pretending, even at the expense of offending our finest ally, that we want a Palestinian state and that Arafat is some sort of statesman.

The truth is almost exactly the opposite of everything above. Our country was complacent, unprepared, and led by politicians interested basically in cash and themselves. The security at airports was deplorable. The president is a decent, competent man, but at such moments in our past we were able to call on Roosevelt, Lincoln, and Washington. The Arab nations enumerated above are our mortal enemies (Afghanistan practically doesn’t matter). Israel is our best friend, and we have deeply offended that nation. Ariel Sharon was completely accurate when he declared that they would not be treated like Czechoslovakia and that they would fight terrorism. Bush’s spokesman said Sharon’s statements were “unacceptable,” but didn’t say they were untrue.

Through 70 tours to Israel spanning nearly 30 years, this ministry has come to understand that Israelis speak in simple words and precisely to the point. When Sharon says, “We will fight terrorism,” he is indicating that America is not fighting terrorism, and the fact is we’re not. What we’re doing is trying to be everybody’s friend and accuse one unconscionably evil man of being responsible for this horrific terrorist action in New York and Washington. I shudder to think that we may somehow capture bin Laden alive and then have a mockery of a trial and a psychiatrist’s bill for the rest of his life.

I am writing this in the week following our initial assault on Afghanistan, which is pretty much what many hoped it would not be. We are indeed throwing expensive munitions at nearly empty mountains and blowing up primitive resistance as if it were some sort of threat to us. We are pretending to use the forces of many nations, and we are trying to establish that there is worldwide sentiment on our side when almost none of our “coalition partners” are involved.

If the Israeli experience with terrorists is any example, things are going to get far worse, far more quickly, and a biological, chemical, or nuclear attack is on its way. At that time there will be more excuses and more PR, but ultimately America will have to do what it did at the end of World War II. At some trouble and expense, we actually occupied the capitals of Japan and Germany and ran those governments until the fanatics gave up, and then set those nations on a democratic course from which they have never varied. And they have continued to prosper. We interned the Japanese in this country, and that is considered a shameful chapter of our history because they’re a valued ally now. However, at the time we interned them, we might have, along with throngs of innocents, interned a hundred dangerous terrorists. Japan is our ally now precisely because we overwhelmed their fanatic government and turned it into a democratic one.

If we don’t do that now throughout the Middle East, we are beginning our last century as a nation and we won’t finish it.

Emile Zola, the French author for whom I was named, wrote in his short story “Death by Advertising,” “By keeping abreast of the times and choosing the products most enthusiastically praised and recommended in rhapsodic terms by the publicity men, he could claim with legitimate pride, that he was using the most advanced products of the most highly developed civilization in the world…. However, this was only the theory and, unfortunately, the reality became more unpleasant everyday. Although everything should have been for the best, in fact, it all went from bad to worse.” Let’s hope we don’t have death by the advertising we’re receiving about the war we’re pretending to fight.

All of the above commentary, of course, is subject to the statement, “if the Lord tarries,” which is everything to believers.

For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. (1 Thess. 5:9–11)

This letter is not intended as a warning for believers, but simply a plea for common sense. I think we should protest what is being done and what is not being done.

Newsweek magazine came out with a recent issue showing a screaming Islamic zealot with the caption “Why they hate us.” This question came up as well in my recent speaking engagements. My answer to it is Tommy Lee Jones’s answer to Harrison Ford in The Fugitive: “I don’t care.” What I care about is that they’ve killed 7,000 innocent neighbors of mine and I’m angry about it. There is no religion on the face of the earth that condones the killing of even one innocent person, let alone thousands. There’s no envy, rage, or sanctity this side of mental illness that excuses the taking of a blameless life.

We are doing so very little about the situation, even as the TV and the rest of the media blare on about the actions we seem to be taking. On a recent trip, I found that security at both Dallas-Forth Worth and Milwaukee airports was minimal — the same as it always has been. I dutifully reported two hours in advance even though security took about 60 seconds at each location. I cannot see that it has changed one iota from the past. The same folks are on the job, chatty, friendly, and utterly unaware of security or what it’s about. They’ll be in different work next month, I suppose. Our airport security is not effective, of course, and needs to be fixed, but nobody’s really fixing it. There are a lot of National Guardsmen standing around with formidable weapons in the airports I saw and that reminded me of the Tel Aviv airport, except for the fact that their soldiers are trained specifically for that mission.

I have to repeat again what I said on the Mount of Olives shortly after the terrorist attacks in America: “If we fake this, we’ll lose the war.” We are for the moment faking it, and while the real terrorists are busy preparing the next attack, we are, in effect, losing this war.

Perhaps our country doesn’t appreciate Moslem history since the 7th century. In that time they have taken over 22 Middle Eastern nations, converted the people at sword point, and turned them all into Islamic dictatorships similar to Iran, Iraq, or Afghanistan. And that’s not to mention the 200 million people of Indonesia as well as those of the other Eastern Hemisphere nations that have fallen under their yoke. They are presently at the task of taking over Israel (and we’re helping them). They have on their agenda taking over the United States, and they’ve already started that process. If you think that they can’t beat us, just add up the population of those they’ve already beaten. It totals more than four times the size of our nation. In most cases, the defeated nations were much more advanced than the attackers.

The Arabs often work from within a nation, first infiltrating it and finally overwhelming it. That seems to be the process going on in the United States. The terrorists who hit us were not really from Afghanistan and no one has said that. Most of those terrorists were Arab Americans, mainly Saudi Arabians, or people who traveled here on visas and were welcomed. They leave behind many thousands of terrorists awaiting their own missions, living in your community and mine. We may as well add the United States to the list of the nations harboring terrorists.

What can we do about that? I suppose we’ll be good neighbors and keep our heads down and hope they kill someone else and not us. We have no national program to assess the potentially problematic minorities among us to find out which of them plans our destruction. I personally have taken more than 70 tours to Israel and gotten something like 6,000 people through those inspiring tours without a moment of political problems or threats by terrorists. I think I understand where the terrorists are and how they operate. And, frankly, I’m beginning to be afraid to stay in this country. If one percent of the Moslems in America are terrorists, that would be 100,000 terrorists, or more than 2,000 per state!

This is obviously the best time to support Israel (“I will bless them that bless thee…”). Understanding that we only take tours when we are assured of passenger safety, our next tour to the Holy Land is in March, complemented by a 10-day tour of Biblical Greece. Meanwhile we will be holding our new “Little Israel” tours in Dallas and in Orlando, and I think we express some solidarity with the Holy Land, our only friends in that region of conflict, when we do this.

November 9–11 is our premiere tour to “Little Israel” at the Biblical Arts Center in Dallas, where we’ll take you through an awesome display of Holy Land exhibits such as the Garden Tomb, the Sea of Galilee, Bethlehem, and much more. The tour is complemented by teaching times, Q & A sessions with Zola and Tom McCall, music and worship, and great Christian fellowship!

Just after Thanksgiving, we’re taking pilgrims down to Orlando’s Holy Land Experience for another of our domestic Israel tours. Choose from November 23–25 or November 30 – December 2 to experience this nationally acclaimed replica of Biblical Israel.

During the month of December, I’ll be available in the Orlando area to visit congregations that are concerned about Israel, current events, and how it all ties into Biblical prophecy. Contact Lawrence at 214-696-8844 for scheduling information.

In March 2002, make room on your calendar for our “big” Israel tour to the Holy Land. This journey transports you back to the site of our Christian roots and is an experience never forgotten by the thousands of pilgrims who visit each year. Join us in Israel or Biblical Greece or for both! Call Tony at 214-696-3760 for all tour information and reservations, or 1-800-WONDERS anytime.

And finally, we want to let you know about an exciting teaching tour to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, home of the famous Passion Play performance, to be held in late spring or early summer 2002. Watch for details!

And, as always, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Your Messenger,

As We Were Going to Press…

President Bush held a press conference in which he further explained our war efforts. I really don’t mean to be critical, but some things the president said were strange to me. He continually used the term “evildoers” instead of rightly calling them terrorists. He said he wants to “bring Al-Qaida to justice.” But in war, one does not bring his opponent to court; he liquidates him. He says we’re keeping a careful eye on Saddam Hussein (are we going to find out he’s really very nasty after all?). He claimed that his schedule was a little crowded right now to be working on Israel’s problems, and I have a suggestion for that: leave it alone. Once and for all, let’s stop “helping” and leave the Israelis, who have survived such terrorism for fifty years, to their own devices. They will take care of Arafat because they know who he is and what he is better than we ever could. And the president actually said that he trusts the Syrians to help us with terrorism. I don’t have to go into paragraphs to protest this relationship with a bloodthirsty, primitive regime that is the headquarters of any number of terrorist groups and is even listed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist-supporting country.

Evidently coached by business-minded people in his administration, the president urged Americans to continue their normal ways of life, especially to shop, fly on airplanes, and stay in hotels. These things, he said, are important. I humbly suggest that what’s important is to get the terrorists before they get us again and conclude this war as rapidly as possibly. And he claims some sort of moral victory since the “evil ones” have sparked us to compassion.

During the president’s campaign last year, he said that Jesus Christ was the most influential person in his life, but in this speech he stated that the Jewish and Christian faiths should stand alongside Islam in our country, calling Islam “a great religion.” He said he so appreciates the help we’re getting in the Middle East, actually we’re getting no help whatsoever from anyone in the Middle East, other than lip service. He especially commended Saudi Arabia as a friend, when in reality we have been kowtowing to its “royal family” for decades to beg for good oil prices. Let’s not forget that most of these hijackers were Saudi nationals. With help like this from the Middle East, we’ll soon be history.

In a commentary after the speech, Newt Gingrich said that the attacks involved more than bin Laden and Al-Qaida, but that that was all the president mentioned. Indeed, there seems to be a penchant for reducing this tremendous attack involving more than twice the casualties of Pearl Harbor, to the actions of either one man or him and a bunch of his friends. That just doesn’t make sense. We should take into consideration that one in four Palestinians — to mention real terrorists — believe that the attacks were “consistent with Islamic law.” In other words, 25 percent of them believe their religion teaches that mass-murder of innocent civilians is okay.

I feel sorry to have to say these things about President Bush, who was my choice for that office last year. I spoke with knowledgeable friends about Bush’s speech, and the best they could say is that he’s not at liberty to disclose everything he’s thinking, and that perhaps some of what he’s saying is designed to lull the enemy into a false sense of security. But after having seeing a month of stalling and speech-making and finally pounding a primitive enemy, I remain suspicious. The rest of my letter above expresses why I feel that not enough is being done and too much is being said for an effective response to this terrorism. Forgive me if I sound too critical, but his comments disturbed me deeply. I am open to your letters. Thank you.