The Palestinian ‘terrorist’ turned Zionist
Saturday, September 12th, 2009 | 
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Posted by John under: False Brethren
Walid Shoebat.
Photo: Courtesy
When he was 16, says Walid Shoebat, he was recruited by a PLO operative by the name of Mahmoud al-Mughrabi to carry out an attack on a branch of Bank Leumi in Bethlehem.
However, Shoebat’s claim to have bombed Bank Leumi in Bethlehem is rejected by members of his family who still live in the area, and Bank Leumi says it has no record of such an attack ever taking place.
False Brethren
“And that because of false brethren•Strongs 5569: pseudadelphos, psyoo-dad´-el-fos; from 5571 and 80; a spurious brother, i.e. pretended associate:—false brethren. unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:”
—Galatians 2:4
At six in the evening he was supposed to detonate a bomb in the doorway of the bank. But when he saw a group of Arab children playing nearby, he says, his conscience was pricked and he threw the bomb onto the roof of the bank instead, where it exploded causing no fatalities.
This is the story that Shoebat, who converted from Islam to Christianity in 1993 and has lived in the United States since the late 1970s, has told on tours around the US and Europe since 9/11 opened the West’s public consciousness to the dangers of Islamic extremism.
Shoebat’s Web site says his is an assumed name, used to protect him from reprisal attacks by his former terror chiefs, whom he says have put a $10 million price on his head.
Shoebat is sometimes paid for his appearances, and he also solicits donations to a Walid Shoebat Foundation to help fund this work and to “fight for the Jewish people.”
The BBC, Fox News and CNN have all presented Shoebat as a terrorist turned peacemaker, interviewing him as someone uniquely capable of providing insight into the terrorist mindset.
Now he and two other former extremists are set to appear along with US Senator Joe Lieberman, Ambassador to the US Sallai Meridor and other notables at an annual “Christians United For Israel” conference in Washington in July.
The three “ex-terrorists” have appeared previously at Harvard and Columbia universities and, most recently, at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado, in February, at a conference whose findings, the organizers said, would be circulated at the Pentagon and among members of Congress and other influential figures.
Last year, Shoebat spoke to the BattleCry Christian gathering in San Francisco, which drew a reported 22,000 evangelical teenagers to what the San Francisco Chronicle described as “a mix of pep rally, rock concert and church service.”
The paper described Shoebat as a self-proclaimed “former Islamic terrorist” who said that Islam was a “satanic cult” and who told the crowd how he eventually accepted Jesus into his heart.
However, Shoebat’s claim to have bombed Bank Leumi in Bethlehem is rejected by members of his family who still live in the area, and Bank Leumi says it has no record of such an attack ever taking place.
His relatives, members of the Shoebat family, are mystified by the notion of “Walid Shoebat” being an assumed name. And the Walid Shoebat Foundation’s working process is less than transparent, with Shoebat’s claim that it is registered as a charity in the state of Pennsylvania being denied by the Pennsylvania State Attorney’s Office.
Shoebat’s claim to have been a terrorist rests on his account of the purported bombing of Bank Leumi. But after checking its files, the bank said it had no record of an attack on its Bethlehem branch anywhere in the relevant 1977-79 period.
Shoebat told The Jerusalem Post that this could be because the bank building was robustly protected with steel and that the attack may have caused little damage.
Asked whether word of the bombing made the news at the time, he said, “I don’t know. I didn’t read the papers because I was in hiding for the next three days.” (In 2004, he had told Britain’s Sunday Telegraph: “I was terribly relieved when I heard on the news later that evening that no one had been hurt or killed by my bomb.”)
Shoebat could not immediately recall the year, or even the time of year, of the purported bombing when talking to the Post by phone from the US. After wavering, he finally settled for the summer of 1977.
The Sunday Telegraph described Shoebat as a man who “for much of his life… was eager to commit acts of terrorism for the sake of his soul and the Palestinian cause.”
In that interview he described how he and his peers were indoctrinated as children “to believe that the fires of hell were an ever-present reality. We were all terrified of burning in hell when we died… The teachers told us that the only way we could certainly avoid that fate was to die in a martyrdom operation – to die for Islam.”
But an uncle and a cousin of Shoebat, who still live in Beit Sahur in the Bethlehem area, where Shoebat grew up, said that Shoebat’s education was rather mild ideologically, and that religion did not play a dominant role.
The uncle, interviewed at his home, said he remembered little about his nephew, because Walid left for America at the age of 16, and because his American mother always kept a distance from the rest of the family. The uncle and his wife both said firmly that there was no attack on Bank Leumi.
When questioned on this discrepancy, Shoebat was adamant that he did carry out such a bombing, and that his relatives deny it to cover up for another cousin who was with him during the attack and still lives in Bethlehem.
Shoebat evinced no particular surprise that his family could be tracked down simply by asking Beit Sahur locals where they lived, even though his Internet site claims that his is an assumed name.
Shoebat describes his conversion to Christianity as a transformation “from hate to love.” He told the Post that he believes “in a Greater Israel that includes Judea and Samaria, and by this I mean a Jewish state.”
He argued that Israel should retake the Gaza Strip and rehouse Jews there, regarding Gaza as Jewish by right. “If a Jew has no right to Gaza, then he has no right to Jaffa or Haifa either,” he said.
He advocates that the government of Greater Israel introduce a law providing for the exiling of anybody who denies its right to exist, “even if they were born there.”
He has little sympathy for the PLO or Hamas. “The Palestinians have not met a single demand from Israel,” he said, and added, “Both the PLO and Hamas have not given up the goal of destroying Israel.”
“The Jews are not aware of the true threat,” Shoebat said. “They are still fighting dead Nazis. It is easy to fight dead people. But they don’t have the will to fight the living Nazis, the Islamic radicals.”
He told the Post he had set up his Walid Shoebat Foundation to educate Americans as to why the US should support Israel. Shoebat said the foundation had reached out to over 450 million people. He said it held events where he and others like him – whom he called “ex-terrorists” who have become Zionists – spoke about their views to Jewish, Christian and secular audiences.
A New York Times report last month on the Air Force Academy event, headlined “Speakers at Academy Said to Make False Claims,” noted that “Academic professors and others who have heard the three men speak in the United States and Canada said some of their stories border on the fantastic, like Mr. Saleem’s account of how, as a child, he infiltrated Israel to plant bombs via a network of tunnels underneath the Golan Heights. No such incidents have been reported, the academic experts said. They also question how three middle-aged men who claim they were recruited as teenagers or younger could have been steeped in the violent religious ideology that only became prevalent in the late 1980s.”
The Times quoted Prof. Douglas Howard, who teaches the history of the modern Middle East at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as saying after he heard Saleem speak last November at the college that he thought the three were connected to several major Christian evangelical organizations.
“It was just an old time gospel hour: ‘Jesus can change your life, he changed mine,’” Howard said.
The professor told the Times that his doubts about the authenticity of the three grew after he heard stories like that of the Golan Heights tunnels, “as well as something on Mr. Saleem’s Web site along the lines that he was descended from the grand wazir of Islam. The grand wazir of Islam is a nonsensical term.”
The newspaper said Arab-American civil rights organizations have questioned “why, at a time when the United States government has vigorously moved to jail or at least deport anyone with a known terrorist connection, the three men, if they are telling the truth, are allowed to circulate freely.”
A spokesman for the FBI, the paper reported, said there were no warrants for their arrest.
The Times said the three men were to be paid $13,000 for the Air Force Academy event.
Visitors to Shoebat’s Internet site are encouraged to make a donation to his foundation to enable him to disseminate his message. However, a notice on the page states that for “security reasons,” the money will not be debited to his foundation, but rather to a company called Top Executive Media. The name Top Executive Media is used by a greetings card firm from Pennsylvania called Top Executive Greetings, a company with an annual turnover of $500,000. When one makes a donation through the Shoebat Internet site, the Web address changes to topexecutivegreetings.com/shoebat.
This seems to be the only active page for the company; its homepage is blank.
Asked by the Post whether the Walid Shoebat Foundation is a registered charity, Shoebat replied that it is registered in Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania State Attorney’s office said it had no record of a charity registered under this name.
Questioned further, Shoebat said it was registered under a different name, but that he was not aware of the details, which are handled by his manager.
“I remain separate to the running of the charity so that I am not constrained by church rules,” he explained, adding that the organization’s connection to certain churches meant it would be difficult for him to speak to secular audiences if he became too involved in running it.
Dr. Joel Fishman, of the Allegany County Law Library in Pennsylvania, expressed doubts about this donation process. If the money were being given to a registered charity, the charity would have to make annual reports to the state and federal government on how it was being spent, he noted.
Shoebat insisted donations were not being misused, however. “I survive by being an author,” he said. “I only get paid for being an author. All the money that is donated gets put back into events.”
If the Bank Leumi bombing claim is unfounded, it is unclear why Shoebat would have wanted to manufacture a terrorist past. True or not, however, it has plainly brought him some prominence and provided him with a means to speak in favor of Israel and be paid for doing so.
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Andrea says Comment posted on September 12th, 2009
interesting article. I know of other leaven that doesn’t get reported.
Daniel says Comment posted on September 13th, 2009
Who knows really……I like the guy though. He seems very biblically correct. I do feel he is a little demeaning to American Christians in some of his presentations, though I do not feel it’s intentional.
Dan Lawrence says Comment posted on September 13th, 2009
This comes from the Jeruselem Post. It is an excellant source for news about Israel. However this source is very happy to discredit Christians.
And I assure you that Shoebat’s family in Palistine is also capable of lying to make a Muslim convert to Christianity look like a fake.
Depending on what the motive is for discrediting this man, I would be very careful about joining in on this. It is hard for me to believe that your site ( In the days”) should be attacking someone who claims that he has turned from the hate of Islam to the love of Christ.
Cindy says Comment posted on September 14th, 2009
The guy is a Christian Brother for goodness sakes. Why are you accusing the brethren ?
Julie says Comment posted on September 14th, 2009
Are you truly doubtful of Walid’s intentions? This is an interesting article but it really does not present any verifiable facts, it only raises doubts about Mr. Shoebat. Further, what we do know about Islam clearly shows that its adherents will lie about everything. Therefore, how can you believe what his family says about him? Muslims will engage in “honor killings” of family members who leave Islam. And perhaps the bank doesn’t have a record of it because the bomb did so little damage to the roof as Mr. Shoebat states. If you’ve ever heard him speak about Islam, Israel, and Christianity, you know he sounds legit. I sincerely hope he is not in it for the money. But how can we judge without more evidence??? I hope Seth and Dale, who submitted this, will keep us updated. Thank you!
Randolph WOlfson says Comment posted on September 16th, 2009
First: please notice that this article that has been quoted here is over a year and a half old. Where are all of the follow-up investigations that provide us with hard facts to back up the rantings of supposed family members who have provided the Jerusalem Post with fodder to attack this brother in Christ? There are none. Secondly, but not necessarily in order or priority, after having kicked the tires of Mr. Shoebat’s published works for several years, it needs to be noted that none other than Chuck Missler has repeatedly invited Mr. Shoebat to speak to his groups and has many times on the air declared Waleed to be one of his closest friends who is of the highest order of scholar. I would tend to lend creedence to brother Chuck’s vouching for this guy over the stale unsupported ramblings of the Jesrusalem Post staff.
Joan H says Comment posted on September 16th, 2009
I love this site to read the articles that report much deeper than CNN, USA, Arizona Republic etc, and speak more of things that I think God would want us to ponder. I appreciate the hard work that those involved in this site perform,in the Lords name.
Who knows Mr Shoebats heart except the Lord? In Mark 9:38 the Lords disciples were upset as some others were casting out demons in the Lord’s name, but weren’t “followers” of the Lords perse . The Lord said in verse 40 “For he that is not against us is on our part”.
When I was a new christian I felt pretty self righteousess being delivered out of the bondage of catholicism and thought I knew the only way. I have mellowed out a bit, with the Lords grace, to just try and see things from the Lords perspective and use the Bible as my reference, as all the answers are found there.
Look for the fruit…
Vee says Comment posted on September 16th, 2009
I know that Jacob Prasch considers Walid Shoebat to be a close brother and personal friend. Also Pastor Higgins & Jacob work together a lot & both have had Walid speak with them. I am just waiting for a statement from either Jacob Prasch or John Higgins on this.
I agree with the above comments. Jerusalem Post would be somewhat biased against Christians. In fact, a lot of Jews are told that they have more in common with Islam because it is considered monotheistic while Christianity is promoted as polytheistic. This should surprise us, after all the Jews are blinded by the truth for now.
Also the above make an interesting point when they say that Walid’s family are Islamic and Walid has basically become an infidel in their eyes. Perhaps they would like to discredit him enough in hopes to bring him back to Islam!
One thing I would like is a response from John Higgins and perhaps the opportunity for Walid to be able to address this issue.
If Jacob Prasch of Moriel ministries considers him to a brother in the Lord and his personal good friend, then that speaks more than this perhaps biased article that is over a year old from Jerusalem Post who often writes against Messianic Jews!
Vee
phil says Comment posted on September 17th, 2009
I think that some may be missing the point here. No one is accusing Mr Shoebat of anything illegal or nefarious, the article just raises questions. So where are the rebuttals? Where are the answers to the questions raised?
In 2006 when the Jerusalem Post ran an unfavorable article about John Hagee, my pastor, who happened to be in Jerusalem at the time, contacted the Post and they sent a reporter to our hotel to interview him. After hearing evidence to the contrary of what they had printed, the Jerusalem Post printed a retraction the very next day. So I would have to assume that they would have done the same in this case, had there been such evidence presented. We are not saying that we agree with everything John Hagee says or does, this was just done in the interest in being fair and balanced. The fact that InTheDays.com did not “jump on this” a year ago shows that we did wait to give Mr. Shoebat the opportunity to respond. InTheDays.com is not here to tell you what to think, we just want to present the information in a fair and balanced way and let you make up your own mind.
And let us ask ourselves, “Are we called to be blind followers of anyone who says Jesus is Lord?” Of course not! In fact Jesus warned us against this very action. See Matthew 24:5, Mark 13:6 and Luke 21:8.
The fact is that InTheDays is being very fair by showing that even those whom we may call brethren are not beyond scrutiny. The first thing that people would scream if we did not, is that we are being unfair; that we are willing to post articles about others but not those whom we have associated with. By bringing forth these questions, we are being very fair and balanced.
Let us not forget that “…judgement must begin at the house of the Lord…” 1 Peter 4:17.
Let us all live our lives as lights and let nothing be hidden.
Phil G
Vee says Comment posted on September 17th, 2009
Not sure if any of you have gone to Walid’s site and checked out his page called “Evidence Of My Credentials”
It starts with…
EVIDENCE TO MY STORY
The litany of accusation in the media came in sequence. First I was a Lebanese Falangist. When this was proven false, then came the denial that I ever have lived in Israel. When this was proven false, then I was never in prison in Jerusalem. When this was proven false, then I was a Zionist agent doing this for money. Author Chris Hedges claims without shame that my story is a “fraud†without a single bit of confirming evidence to support his position.
You will find several articles attempting to discredit my story and my claims, none of which can respond to what you will find here.. My story is a litany of personal accounts from imprisonment, an attempted lynching, a failed bombing operation of an Israeli bank, a mother that was not permitted to leave to her country (U.S), an education on anti-Semitism, terror support in the U.S, and a connection to family well linked to terrorism. These are all documented in my book “Why We Want To Kill You,†yet rest assured that nothing can be refuted in an entire book no matter what my critics write. Everything I stated is true. These attempts to discredit my story came through my Muslim family and relatives who are either involved in aiding and abetting terrorism, financial terrorism, or actual bombings in Israel. Here they are case by case:
PROVIDING MORAL AND LEGAL SUPPORT TO
AL-QAEDA HAMAS AND HEZBOLLAH
You can find the link here:
http://www.shoebat.com/evidence_of_my_credentials.php
Vee says Comment posted on September 17th, 2009
Just wondering why “In the Days” books store still carry Islam,Israel & Reality (12 Studies/Q&A on -5- DV which has Walid Shoebat as a key speaker?
http://www.itdstore.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=206
This is getting very confusing… I am hoping that the truth wins out, no matter which way it falls.
Randolph WOlfson says Comment posted on September 18th, 2009
In an article written by Jachob Prasch that I received this morning from his “Alert” vouches for Mr. Shoebat:
“However, the Gospel, although having its spiritual origins in eternity, was in historical and theological terms born not in the West but in the East out of Old Testament Pre-Talmudic Judaism during The Second Temple Period. The strength of . . . of my dear friend Walid Shoebat is that they seek to redress an imbalance, which fails to view eschatology (and biblical dogma generally) from an Eastern as well as Western perspective.”
phil says Comment posted on September 18th, 2009
Again, I want to state that we are NOT accusing Mr Shoebat. Nor are we trying to tell people what to think. We are just presenting an article from the Jerusalem Post that raises questions that we feel have not been answered. It is up to everyone to determine what they believe. As such we have not discontinued the conference in which Mr Shoebat was a speaker. We may determine to do so at some point but we want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt until proven wrong.
I personally hope and pray that Mr. Shoebat’s testimony is genuine. I hope and pray that all Muslims would come to the saving knowledge of their true savior and His grace. But that does not mean that anyone receives a “free pass”. We are all called to live our lives in the open.
As I stated earlier, if we do not hold ourselves to a higher standard, and try to be fair and balanced, then how would we be any different that the world’s news reporting?
I hope this helps.
Phil
Linda says Comment posted on September 27th, 2009
You are not accusing Mr Shoebat or telling anyone what to think? Why does it have the heading “False Brethren”?
Linda
Derek says Comment posted on October 18th, 2009
This is a real hot button issue that you have pushed, eh? I saw Mr. Shoebat on Jewish Voice and that speaks volumes about Mr. Shoebat’s sincerity. Now if we are talking Brian McLaren-I’m in for the false brethren accusation !!!!
Keith Davies says Comment posted on September 12th, 2010
Evidence of Shoebat’s partner in the crime Al-Mughrabi was researched and found. Al-Mughrabi was Shoebat’s prison mate and recruiter Mahmoud Hassan Mahmoud Balghazi Al-Mughrabi (aka Mahmoud Al-Madani) who sent Walid on the bombing mission of Bank Leumi in Bethlehem after his release was considered dangerous enough that he was #19 assassinated on October 1st, 1985 by Israeli F-15B Eagle war planes in Operation Wooden Leg on Arafat’s beachfront headquarters alongside 46 other terrorists in retaliation of Israelis murdered in Larnaca, Cyprus On September 25th, 1985 and Achille Lauro on October 7th, 1985 when an American named Leon Klinghoffer was murdered in cold blood. The assassination mission which included Al-Mughrabi can even be seen on video on Al-Jazeera T.V.
the Middle East Report explained: “in pain and sorrow we learn that our friend Mahmud Al-Mughrabi was killed during the October bombing raid in Tunisia. Mahmud was born in Jerusalem in 1960. By the age of 16 he was under detention 12 times and he was one of the first to speak in public about the methods of interrogation of Palestinian detainees used by the General Security Services in Israel. He then gave his permission to being publicly identified as an informant for the Sunday Times expose of Israeli torture in Jun 1977. In 1984, he managed to escape to Jordan after years of increasingly marginal existence under steadily deteriorating conditions of military occupation.â€
Even Palestinian famed apologist Edwards Said speaks of Al-Mughrabi: “One of the victims of the Tunis bombing was Mahmoud Al-Mughrabi, born in Jerusalem in 1960, under detention twelve times by the age of 16, one of the informants of The Sunday Times to expose of torture in Israel (19 June, 1977) who ‘managed to escape to Jordan after years of increasingly marginal existence under steadily deteriorating existence of the Israeli occupation’, according to a memorial notice by Israeli Jewish friends that was repeatedly denied publication repeatedly in Arab newspapers in East Jerusalem by Israeli military censorship.†1
Al-Jazeera and Said are no Zionist sources but Arab.
1 See Blaming The Victims by Edward W. Said and Christopher Hitchens (Verso 2001) on page 100. Also see The Spectator by F.C Westley, 1987, Volume 258, Issues 8269-8285, page 13. Also see Leila Baroody in The Arabs Under Israeli Occupation, 1977, pages 28-29. Also, see Middle East Report, issue 138, page 47 “in pain and sorrow we learn that our friend Mahmud Al-Mughrabi was killed during the October bombing raid in Tunisia. Mahmud was born in Jerusalem in 1960. By the age of 16 he was under detention 12 times and he was one of the first to speak in public about the methods of interrogation of Palestinian detainees used by the General Security Services in Israel. He then gave his permission to being publicly identified as an informant for the Sunday Times expose of Israeli torture in Jun 1977. In 1984, he managed to escape to Jordan after years of increasingly marginal existence under steadily deteriorating conditions of military occupationâ€