The timing of the operation is very malicious and coincided with Netanyahu beginning his field operations in Hebron. Here, we recall that Hebron has always been the twin of Karak. The operation comes nearly a month after His Majesty King Abdullah II’s speech at the United Nations, in which he successfully steered the compass toward the clear truth that the conflict in the West Bank is not a Jewish-Islamic one, but rather a Zionist conflict against Christians and Muslims in the East, and that the Christians of the East have been under the protection of the people of this land for more than 1,400 years.
This operation is certainly an inevitable result of the marriage between sick, imported extremist ideology and external agendas that want to spread corruption in our country. We thank God that the vigilance of our people and our security services thwarted the opportunity for those lurking to harm national unity on Friday; the situation only increased our cohesion and strength, and the tribes of Karak wrote their unity in letters of gold in the history books.
History will remember the youth of Karak from all tribes as they rushed to the hospitals to donate blood and provide support. History will write that the people of Hamoud and Samakieh and their tribes welcomed them with kindness and open arms, and wept for their victims on the shoulders of their brothers from all the tribes of Karak while the blood was still hot. History will remember them just as it remembered Ibrahim and Alia Al-Damour, who witnessed their sons being burned before their eyes to protect their guest, the Nabulsi, whom they refused to hand over to the Pasha. History will remember them alongside their brothers, the Majali clan, in the late nineteenth century, when they threw down their rifles and surrendered to execution after the Turkish campaign, which was searching for them, besieged the encampments of the Zureiqat tribe. An elderly woman from the Zureiqat called out to the fugitives, saying: "We, our women, our children, and our infants are a trust in your necks." The Majali chose to surrender themselves rather than see Karak blood violated.
How awe-inspiring are the scenes of national unity that should be taught in curricula, as we saw the day before yesterday the people of other cities and their tribes in Madaba, Salt, and Mafraq canceling their joys, youth processions, weddings, and celebrations in solidarity with Karak and its martyrs. And how beautiful and magnificent was that Karak lady who was wounded in the operation and told television, commenting on the cowardly terrorist incident: "I am a Jordanian from Karak first... then a Christian." All these images are a rooting of the unity of this homeland and this people, no matter how difficult the test of terrorism, panic, and affliction may be.
Our Master said it and made a firm and decisive pledge, "We will show them," and he is the one with the definitive word on the necessity of fighting extremist ideology from its roots. Even if this strike was painful for us all, we pledge to God, then to the King, and then to the pure blood of the martyrs that the people of Jordan will never be divided, no matter how much the malicious try, and that the holy Jordan River, which united its two banks, is the same holy river in which Christ was baptized, and that the Christians of this land are of us and among us; we protect them with our eyelashes because they are family, support, and brothers.
The time has come for a real war by strengthening the internal front and cleansing the country of those with sick, extremist ideas that no Jordanian can accept, and by standing as one row behind our wise leadership and supporting our security services, which have been waging a war for many years against the proponents of this extremist terrorist ideology. It is time for society to review itself to reject, first and foremost, any possibility of the existence of this ideology within the family and society.
We gather our wounds quickly, as is the habit of the Jordanian in all tribulations, and we bear the deep wound quickly as well, confident in the ability of our security services to pursue the perpetrators, arrest them, and refer them to the judiciary, which will take our rights from them. Every Jordanian today is a victim in this grave event and great tragedy.
Perhaps the most eloquent response came on Friday night when Jordanians stood as one row with great spontaneity in front of an Amman church, united with their brothers in blood, hand in hand, reciting the Fatiha of the Quran for the souls of the martyrs at the top of their voices in an awe-inspiring scene that reflects the strength, chivalry, and courage of the Jordanian citizen. It is a scene that angers those who wished this country ill; you have failed in your endeavor, for this homeland knows no division or sectarianism, and God has saved it from strife, both apparent and hidden!
