Walid Shoebat used to be a Palestinian "militant." Not anymore. Shoebat has renounced violence and has recognized the right of Jews to live in peace and security in Israel. He blames the Palestinian "education system" for brainwashing its own children into becoming suicide bombers and hating Jews. The sad truth of the matter is that the Palestinian power structure continues to teach anti-Semitism; any Palestinians that seek peaceful coexistence with Israel do so at the risk of their own lives.

Shoebat joined the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Arafat's "mainstream" terrorist front, as a teenager and became an "activist." He distributed political literature (most likely the usual incitements to violence), organized "demonstrations" (throwing bricks at Jews?), blew up an Israeli bank, and participated in violent scuffles with Israeli soldiers.

Shoebat's upbringing and education led him to think and act in ways that most civilized people would -- and should -- consider repulsive and unacceptable. In an interview with BBC reporter Raffi Berg, Shoebat said,

My whole dream was to die as a shaheed [martyr]. At demonstrations I would open my shirt hoping to be shot - but the Israelis would never shoot at the body, so I never succeeded.

His parents later sent him to college in the U.S. He ended up living in California and married a Mexican Catholic woman. He hoped to convert her to Islam, trying to convince her that Jews had distorted and contaminated the Bible. Said Shoebat:

...she asked me to show her some examples of this corruption. At this point I had to go and buy a Bible and I started reading it and I saw the word 'Israel' all over it. I had to be brutally honest - the very word I hated the most was throughout this book!

I thought: 'How do you explain this?' Then I started thinking, really the Jews didn't do us any harm but we hated them and accused them of all this horrible stuff. I began to think more openly.

He has paid a heavy price for his change of heart. He was thrown out of a family reunion when he dared defend the honor of the Torah's matriarch Rachel. When Shoebat converted to Christianity, his brother threatened to kill him and he was disowned by his family. He claims that if he attempted to return to his home town of Beit Sahour, he'd be killed in "five minutes" just for accepting Israel's right to exist. Indeed, death is the fate of Palestinians who are even suspected of helping the Israelis track down terrorists who move freely in areas controlled by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority (PA). Arafat himself has ordered summary executions of his own people. Just imagine living in a land ruled by terrorists.

Despite the risks, Shoebat now speaks out against Palestinian use of violence -- the violence inculcated in Palestinian children from the day of birth.

Tampa, Florida TV station WTVT uncovered horrifying evidence of the PA's official version of Sesame Street:

It’s a show that won't make the Saturday morning lineup on any American network. But it has had a prominent slot on Palestinian TV. The program lacks the same slick production value of an American children's show, but it's just as influential. It's called The Children's Club.

It comes complete with puppet shows, games, songs and a very chilling message about becoming a suicide bomber. A little girl sings in Arabic about her ultimate ambition in life.

(Song Translation) “Oh sing my sister constantly about my life as a suicide warrior.”

Another girl screams about preparing to die.

(Song Translation) “I foresee my death, but I march quickly. Am I afraid? Life has little value because I'm returning to my lord and my people will know I am a hero.”

That message is repeated again and again in song and verse.

(Song Translation) “I will come at the time of drought with my best efforts bring a machine gun, violence anger, anger, anger...”

The children, most of them elementary school age, shout a message of violence.

“I will return with the dawn of tomorrow. It is my conviction of launch a jihad.”

(Song Translation) “When I wander into Jerusalem, I'll turn into a suicide warrior in battle dress, in battle dress, in battle dress.”

A teacher cheers them on, “Bravo, bravo, bravo.”

EUFunding.org, an organization whose purpose is to provide "an independent look at the role of European funding in the Middle East," has found that,

One of the most meaningful gauges of the integrity of a peace process and its likelihood for success is the degree to which the peace partners educate towards peace.

It is for this reason that the entire Palestinian Authority (PA) education apparatus, both formal and informal, has been such a dismal disappointment. Instead of seizing the opportunity to educate the future generations to live with Israel in peace, the PA has done everything in its power to teach hatred to young minds. ...

The first truth about the PA schoolbooks is that both new and old include anti-Semitic messages, de-legitimize Israel's existence and incite to hatred and violence. ...

Continuing this ideology a book is cited dedicated to

"...Palestinians, so that they would remember their stolen homeland and work for its salvation..." and it is referring, not to the disputed territories, but all of Israel [Our Beautiful Language, sixth grade, Part A, p. 112].

Arutz Sheva has found even more samples of the PA's poisoning of its childrens' minds:

A few examples from school textbooks sum up the sentiments.

"Drive out the Jews" - Our Arabic Language for Fifth Grade

"Jews are evil" - Islamic Education for Seventh Grade

"Jews are the Enemies of the Prophets" - Islamic Education for Fourth Grade

Aish.com has done extensive research on Arab/Palestinian textbooks:

Palestinian textbooks never mention Israel by name, nor show a map including the Jewish state. ...

In children's textbooks (most of which are Jordanian or Egyptian in origin), Jews are projected as "cunning", "deceitful," "disloyal" and "treacherous." They are alternatively described as "thieves," "wild animals" and "locusts." The Jewish state is referenced as "Occupied Palestine," "the Zionist entity," and "a Jewish racist administration."

Take this translated quote from "Islamic Education for Fourth Grade, Part 2":

Learn from this lesson: the Jews are the enemies of the prophets and the true believers. ...

Or [take] this incitement to martyrdom in "Our Arabic Language for Fifth Grade":

The Jihad against the Jew is the religious duty of every Muslim man and woman.

Walid Shoebat agrees with this assessment of Palestinian "education." He believes that Palestinian children are the true victims of the hatred peddled by the PA:

I chose to speak out because I was a victim, as a child I was a victim of this horror. Now I see other victims, millions of them, kids.

I was taught songs about killing Jews. You need to get rid of the education system where they are teaching this type of thing and get rid of the terrorist groups. It will take a generation, but until then, there's not going to be peace, it doesn't matter what kind of land settlement you have.

But if you listen to the extreme left-wing, including the perfidious propaganda of groups like the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and Palestinian Solidarity Movement (PSM), the blame for the "Palestinian/Israeli conflict" lays solely with Israel. So what about Israeli children's education? Again, aish.com:

Israel, on the other hand, has done much to promote the concept of peaceful co-existence. Study of Arabic culture and language begins in elementary school, and the works of Arabic authors and poets, even those hostile to Israel such as the Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish, has been included in the curriculum. Workshops, proposed by the Israeli Ministry of Education "to promote tolerance, understanding and peace" are regular events in Israeli high schools, and incitement against Arabs or Palestinians is bitterly proscribed.

How one nation educates its children on the characterization of another will often determine the relations between them. Populations are not culturally prone to hatred -- they are educated toward it. It is significant that studies conducted of former Hitler Youth, now in their 60s and 70s, have revealed that the anti-Semitism inculcated in their earliest years remains embedded in that generation's psyche.

I admire someone like Shoebat who risks his life by speaking out. All Palestinians are not filled with hatred. I've met many decent Palestinian people while traveling in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. But there can be no peace as long as Palestine is ruled by terrorists and hate mongers. How can decent Palestinians prevail if they will be surely killed for speaking their minds? How can so many people treat the current Palestinian leadership and Israel's democracy with moral equivalency? Doing so is just plain foolish. Peace will never be achieved through simple-mindedness, blind acceptance of empty propaganda, and ignorance of the facts. As aish.com so eloquently states:

Peace does not lie in characters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of people.