Middle Eastern Insight to Our American Problem
I first met Taysir (Tass) Abu Saada in February 2019, and only because of a series of divine circumstances somewhat associated with my full-time job of connecting Christians to one another. The story he shared with the 50 or so of us in the room was so riveting that I boldly requested some additional time with him over lunch. We remain connected due to our common life calling, though our life circumstances couldn’t possibly be any different.
Tass was born in a refugee camp in Gaza City in 1951. He was a Palestinian raised to hate Jews, and his amazing story is told in his book Once an Arafat Man: The True Story of how a PLO Sniper Found a New Life . (*1) Displaced from their family home by the establishment of Israel as a nation, the Saada family suffered the ultimate indignity for an Arab: they owned no land. Tass shared when he was with us in Tucson that the mantra of his friends growing up was “A good Jew is a dead Jew.” By age 17, Tass joined Fatah, a branch of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and became a trained assassin. He eventually became a chauffeur for Yassir Arafat. Part One of his book is entitled, “How I Learned to Hate.”
At age 23, Tass moved to the United States but brought along with him all of his antisemitic baggage. The story of how he came to experience the good news of Jesus is one of the most unusual and most compelling I’ve ever read. So rather than retell it, I simply encourage you to read it for yourself in Once an Arafat Man. He met and came to love Jesus through a dream/vision he had on March 14, 1993, a common experience in recent years for Muslims around the world. It was only after professing allegiance to Jesus that he learned that Jesus was Jewish! He was equally surprised to discover how positively Ishmael (*2) and his family were portrayed in what he had always seen as Jewish propaganda, the Old Testament.
Now Abu Saada, a former PLO hit man, is working for reconciliation between Jews and Arabs. Reconciliation is at the heart of his ministry, Hope for Ishmael (*3) , and Tass, like Rev. Dr. Célestin Musekura, has had to practice what he preaches at great personal cost. Ishmaelites refers to all Arabs, most of whom are Muslim. But the Jew/Arab conflict dates back 4,000 years, where Mohammed only dates back 1,400 years. Hope for Ishmael leads with love, meeting practical needs both in Israel and the West Bank as well as in the United States, and his book ends with a Road Map for Reconciliation in the Middle East that goes beyond personal reconciliation to also include reconciliation between warring nations.
When Tass spoke in Tucson, he said, “We aren’t saved just to be Christian. We’re saved for a ministry of reconciliation. Those in the Church are called to be peacemakers, yet our own division negates our call. Some Christians love Israel and hate Ishmaelites, while others love the Ishmaelites (Palestinians) and hate the Israelites (Jews).”
Once an Arafat Man: The True Story of how a PLO Sniper Found a New Life, by Tass Saada with Dean Merrill, 2008, Tyndale House Publishers.
Muslims trace their spiritual and physical lineage back to Abraham through his son Ishmael. Christians and Jews trace their spiritual and physical lineage back to Abraham through his son Isaac.
Visit hopeforishmael.org to learn more and consider supporting this amazing ministry.