Arafat's Former Driver Trusts Jesus | 18th Dec 09

Palestinian Tass Saada ran away from home and joined Fatah when he was just 17. He was soon drawn to the militant views of Fatah founder Yasser Arafat. “I used to sit right across from him and just stare at him, mesmerized,” said Saada. “He was such a charismatic character.” Saada believed the Jews had stolen Palestinian land. He was determined to help Arafat push Israel into the sea. “Our training was specialized in intense, marine-type fighting skills,” he recalled. “We used to call ourselves guerrilla fighters, commando fighters.”
Saada became a Fatah sniper, picking off and killing Israeli soldiers. His nickname was “Butcher.” “My job was to knock off whoever was the commander of the unit,” he said. Saada took part in bloody battles against the Israeli army. He even attempted to assassinate the Crown Prince of Jordan, who he saw as unfriendly to Palestinians. But his most prestigious job was as a personal driver for his hero: Arafat. “Everybody knows I was a fierce driver,” said Saada. “And so when it came a time and need for Arafat to be transported from one area of Jordan to the other, they called me to do that.”
Saada eventually made his way to the United States to attend school. By that point, he had given up on waging violent jihad, but he still hated Jews. He became a successful restaurant manager, married an American woman and had two children. But he was miserable – living a fast lifestyle of mistresses and booze – until a long-time friend told him about Jesus Christ.
“He put the Bible in the middle, between the two of us. And I just got scared and I jumped away from the Bible,” Saada recounted. “I said, ‘I cannot touch that! It’s got the name of God, the word of God in it!’ He said, ‘So you believe this is the word of God?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ “Why did I say ‘yes,’ when we as Muslims don’t really believe that the Bible is valid as the word of God?” Saada says he momentarily lost consciousness at that point. “The next thing I know, I’m on my knees with my hands lifted up, inviting Jesus. And the rest is history.”
His Christian friend challenged him again. He said “Tass, to have the peace that I have, you must love the Jew.” Saada said, “Charlie knew how much I hated Jews.” But he soon got past that lifelong hatred. He developed close friendships with Jews and began to look at Israel in a brand new light. His book, Once an Arafat Man recounts his transformation. “I don’t believe in the two-state solution, because I believe that land belongs to the Jews. It doesn’t belong to us. But, on the other hand I believe that we have the right to live in that land, as is recorded in the Book of Ezekiel, where the Lord re-divided the land among the Israelites and told them to give the foreigners living among them an equal share of the land,” Saada said.

Source: Seeds of Hope; CBN News

BIBLE STUDY: 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

PRAY: For more Saada’s who can be peacemakers through the power of Jesus.