Tass Saada - Once an Arafat Man: The True Story of How a PLO Sniper Found a New Life

ONCE AN ARAFAT MAN

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Once an Arafat Man: The True Story of How a PLO Sniper Found a New Life Copyright 2008 by Taysir Abu Saada. All rights reserved.

Adapted from the book Ich kmpfte fr Arafat, published by Brunnen Verlag Basel under

Cover photo of face copyright by Oleksandr Gumerov/iStockphoto. All rights reserved.

Cover photo of Jerusalem copyright by Boris Katsman/iStockphoto. All rights reserved.

Cover photo of stone wall copyright by Duncan Walker/iStockphoto. All rights reserved.

Cover photo of armed man copyright by Arne Thaysen/iStockphoto. All rights reserved.

Cover photo of Yasser Arafat copyright by sxc.hu. All rights reserved.

Author photo of Taysir Saada copyright 2008 by Jaymes Schrock, Scribbles and Scribes Ink.

All rights reserved.

Author photo of Dean Merrill copyright 2002 by Joel Metzler. All rights reserved. Designed by Erik M. Peterson

Edited by Cara Peterson

Published in association with the literary agency of Riggins International Rights Services, Inc., 1960-J Madison Street, Suite 343, Clarksville, TN 37043.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV.

Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan.

All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Saada, Tass.
Once an Arafat man : the true story of how a PLO sniper found a new life / Tass Saada ; with Dean Merrill.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
eBook ISBN 978-1-4143-2752-5.
1. Saada, Tass. 2. Christian converts from IslamBiography I. Merrill, Dean. II. Title.
BV2626.4.S23A3 2008
248.2'46092dc22
[B]

2008027390

14 13 12 11 10 09 08
7 6 5 4 3 2 1

DEDICATION

To my parents, six brothers, and four
sisters in the Middle East, who will
always be my beloved family.

To my wife, Karen, who showed me
what true love means.

To my son, Ben, his wife, Addie, and my
daughter, FarahI am so proud of you.

CONTENTS

LET ME BE BRUTALLY HONEST.

Tass Saada was a killer. Thats why the first section of this book was incredibly difficult for me to read. This is not Anne of GreenGables. This is not The Sound of Music. If youre looking for a light, romantic story about growing up in the gorgeous splendor of Prince Edward Island, Canada, or about climbing every mountain in Austriasinging as you gothen move on, dear reader. This book is not for you.

Tass and his closest friends murdered Jews in Israel. They murdered civilians and soldiers alike. They attacked Christians in Jordan. Sometimes they tossed hand grenades at their homes. Sometimes they strafed God-fearing homes with machine-gun fire. They once tried to assassinate the crown prince of an Arab country. They nearly succeeded. And they did all this willingly. They did so eagerly. Tass certainly did. His nickname was once Jazzarbutcher. It was a moniker he relished.

Born in Gaza and raised in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf in a world of radical Islam and violent Palestinian nationalism, by his teenage years Tass was a cauldron of seething, roiling hatred. His family was close to the Saudi royal family. He once met Osama bin Laden. He became personal friends with Yasser Arafat, a man he long regarded as a hero, and happily killed in his name. In part one of the book you hold in your hands, Tass takes you inside the world he once loved. It is not pretty. Indeed, for me it was painful in a way that is almost impossible to convey adequately in the vocabulary of the English language.

If Tasss story ended there, there would be no way I could endorse it, much less write its foreword. But it doesnt end there. In his amazing grace, God gave Tass Saada a second act. And a third.

What follows, then, is the unforgettable story of a jihadist who found Jesus, of a violent revolutionary who was radically transformed one day by the power of the Holy Spirit and became a man of peace and compassion. At its core, this is a story of the greatness of our great God. It is the story of a man who fell in love with a Savior who loves Arabs as well as Jews. The God of the Bible is crystal clear to all who will listen: he loves us all with an unfathomable love, with an everlasting love, with an unquenchable love. His love is so amazing, so divine that he actually offers all of usJew and Gentile alikethe free gift of salvation through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. He wants to adopt each one of us into his own family. He wants to bless us. He wants to take care of us. He wants to heal us and change us and make us like him. And then he wants to empower us to be a blessing to others.

Tass said yes to that love, and he was changed forever. I wont spoil it for you by giving all the good stuff away. Suffice it to say: Read this book quickly! Get through the first section as fast as you can and get to the turning point. See how God not only changed Tasss life but his familys as well. Be at his side as he is called into the ministry, as he shares the gospel with Yasser Arafat, and even as he shares the message of Christs love and forgiveness with his parents and brothers, who all want to kill him. As the story progresses, see Tass and his lovely wife, Karen, as they reach out to the poor and needy in Gaza and the West Bank in the name of Jesus. And watch how Tasss heart changes towards the Jews. This part I can personally vouch for.

Tass and I met on a Saturday night in January 2008. I had been invited to preach at a Messianic Jewish congregation in Jerusalem that night. My sermon title was What God Is Doing among the Muslims. This is not a typical message for a Jewish audience. But after much prayer, I felt the Lord wanted me to share with my Israeli friends what he had told me to share with my Jordanian friends when I had preached in Amman not long before: We need to get serious about obeying Jesus command to love our neighbors and our enemies. We can only do this when we have the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through our lives. But when we dowhen we truly obey the words and model of Jesusheads will turn. People will be shocked when they see us love those who hate us. Then they will ask questions. Their hearts will be softened. They will be curious to know more about the God we serve. And then, hopefully, they will want to know this God personally for themselves.

We are already seeing it happen, all over the Middle East. More Muslims are coming to faith in Jesus Christ over the last ten to fifteen yearsand particularly since 9/11than at any other time in human history. The question for Israeli believers and for all of us who claim to be followers of Jesus is this: What role does the Lord have for us in strengthening our brothers and sisters who come to Christ from a Muslim background, and how can we actively love our neighbors and our enemies when humanly speaking this is impossible?

That was the message I came to share in Jerusalem, and who was the first couple I was introduced to that night as I came in the front door of the congregation? Tass and Karen Saada. When I was told who they were, I could hardly believe it. When they gave me an executive summary of their story, I was deeply moved. Here we were, a former aide to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and a former aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hugging each othernot trying to kill each otherin the heart of Jerusalem. All because of the work Jesus had done to give us hearts of love rather than hatred.