It was a typical truck stop diner.  Four or five truckers were nursing

their bowls of chili and country-fried steaks, talking about

everything under the sun. I’ve experienced the scene thousands of

times at truck stops all over the country. I am, after all, a trucker.

What I had not experienced before, was what I heard coming out of the

mouth of the man seated at the apex of the U-shaped counter. The man

sitting there was saying, “If you study it, you will find that most of

the world’s problems are caused by the Jews.” That whipped my head

around faster than the time I was flashed by a woman on I-81. I

started listening carefully to what the man was saying to the other

drivers at that end of the counter. I heard a lot, probably more than

I wanted to. I found out that he – I will call him Su’ud (those of you

familiar with Arabic will see the humor here) – was born in Jordan and

moved to the United States as a child in the 1960s. He now lives in

Chicago, and got his CDL (Commercial Driver’s License) just over a

year ago. Here is a sampling of the things he said:

Israel (he called it Palestine) rightfully belongs to the Arabs; the

Jews began stealing it over 100 years ago, legitimized their theft in

1948, and stole more in 1967. He conveniently left out the part about

Egypt, Jordan and Syria attacking Israel. He also completely forgets

that (Egyptian president) Nasser said, in the lead-up to the Six Day

War, “Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel.”

Jewish bankers manipulate international relations from behind the

scenes, buying their influence with money they have stolen from the

poor people of the world. They secretly control the United States

government, making sure that the flow of foreign aid to Israel is

unhindered, so as to support the subjugation of the peaceful

Palestinian people.

The Holocaust probably never happened; it was most likely the

fabrication of a Jewish propaganda machine. If it did happen, it was

rich Jews robbing and murdering poor Jews, not Hitler and the Nazis

carrying out their “Final Solution.”

At this point I was pretty angry, so I left rather than chance losing

my temper and getting physical. I wrote a brief description of this

encounter in an email to some friends, crawled into my sleeper berth,

and went to bed.

When I woke up, I had several replies to my email. Some of the replies

said that I should have spoken up. The problem was, while I had a

general sense that the man was wrong, I did not have specifics to back

up my beliefs. Names, dates, events – I remembered reading about much

of this, but not the details. And I’d had my ire up, so a

confrontation would have probably ended in fisticuffs. So I did some

reading online before going inside for breakfast.

Wouldn’t you know it, right after I ordered breakfast, Su’ud came in

and sat two spaces down from me at the counter. This time, I engaged.

I had the facts, and I wasn’t afraid to use them.

I countered his claims that Israel sits on stolen land with the facts

of how the PJCA and JNF among others not only bought land fair and

square, but often paid over ten times the fair value of the land. They

were forced to do this – and to bribe bureaucrats for the paperwork

required – because Jews were prohibited from buying land in Ottoman

Palestine, even if they were Ottoman citizens.

I countered his claims that the Holocaust was a Jewish fabrication

with the fact that my grandfather saw the concentration camp at Dachau

with his own eyes in 1945. He would not discuss the matter any further

than to confirm that he was there and saw it. He had nightmares for

the rest of his life.

I countered his claims that Jordanians are the victims of cowardly

Jewish oppression by asking if it is a brave thing to fire rockets

from the roofs of hospitals and then cry to the nearest television

camera when your firing position is targeted in retaliation. I asked

if it is oppression to defend oneself when attacked.

I worked at this for about an hour, getting nowhere. It was like

talking to a brick wall. About this time, an older driver and his wife

came in, sat down, and ordered breakfast. For purposes of discussion,

I will call this driver Bill. This provided a lull in the conversation

I was having with Su’ud, and we all began talking shop. Freight rates,

truck maintenance, engine specs, fuel economy, and so forth.

Thirty minutes later, I was getting ready to pay my ticket and go do

my job. Su’ud mentioned something in passing, revealing he is a

Muslim. This got Bill’s attention. You see, Bill’s daughter married a

Turkish man, moved to Turkey, and converted to Islam. Bill read the

Koran from cover to cover, trying to understand his daughter’s new

belief system. Meanwhile, his daughter grew more and more distant,

until she quit returning his calls and letters. Bill hasn’t

communicated with his daughter in over 2 years. This, coupled with his

reading of the Koran, has led Bill to the conclusion that Islam is the

functional and moral equivalent of Satanism.

Bill had no qualms about voicing this opinion – loudly.

I wish I had stuck around to see how it all ended, but I was already

running late and had to hit the road. I paid my ticket and left. As I

walked out, voices were being raised. It’s probably best that I got

out of there before things turned violent.

Did I mention that Su’ud is a citizen of the United States and has all

the licensing necessary to legally haul over 20 tons of high

explosives all over the country?