By Stan Goodenough
Dec 30, 2006
In 1990 many of them cheered and sang the praises of the man who had vowed to burn “half of Israel” with chemical weapons.
As 39 of his SCUDs rained down on Israeli cities, they danced in elation and cried out their wish: “Beloved Saddam, strike Tel Aviv.”
Nothing would have given them greater pleasure then, than to see thousands – or better yet, tens of thousands – of Jewish men, women and children gassed to death on the streets of Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv.
Though Saddam failed to live up to his word, on Saturday - the second-last day of the year - the Palestinian Arabs mourned the man seen as one of the greatest patrons of their statehood.
For Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had bankrolled “Palestine’s” “suicide” bombers to the tune of tens of millions of dollars and, shotgun in fist, made a holy mantra out of the chant: “Palestine is Arab.”
Of course, there is no such country as Palestine, nor has there ever been one. The land so misnamed by Saddam, the world’s nearly two billion Muslims, and the majority of other people on this planet, is historically and biblically the Land of Israel.
Still, Saddam faithfully supported the "Palestinian" cause when most other Arab leaders had pulled back and been content to watch from afar.
When "Palestinian" bombers struck, their people handed out candy, smiling and cheering at the demonstration of Allah’s power; reveling in the television images of the mayhem and pain their “martyrs” had inflicted on the Jews, and wishing blessings on Saddam..
Today there were no candies and no cheers.
As they stared at their TVs, Arabs in Gaza, Samaria and Judea, and many Israeli Arabs too, had tears in their eyes.
Watching in disbelief, they saw the Iraqi hangmen lead their shuffling and dazed former champion to the gallows, and drop him to his death.
By the time dawn broke across "Palestine," Saddam Hussein was no more.