Khaled Abu Toameh (who else?) wrote this startling article for today's Jerusalem Post.
Yunis Owaidah is probably the only Palestinian who's not afraid to admit that he is a "collaborator" with Israel. On the contrary, the 63-year-old father of 12 even boasts of the fact that he has been collaborating with Israel since 1967.
"I've saved the lives of many innocent people," Owaidah said in an interview at his home in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras el-Amud. "If saving the lives of innocent civilians means that I'm a traitor, so be it."
I kept waiting for a catch. But there isn't one. I guess the most startling part of the article is that this man is still alive. It hasn't been easy.
Oweidah, who has two wives and 46 grandchildren, has also been the target of several attempts on his life. Since the establishment of the PA in 1994, he has refrained from entering the West Bank.
"I only move around in safe areas and never leave the borders of Jerusalem," he said. "I'm wanted by the Palestinian Authority and I know that they won't waste an opportunity to kill me."
I know that some people are going to read this and immediately try to draw some sort of parallel between self-hating Jewish traitors like Adam Shapiro and collaborators like Yunis Owaidah. But it takes a mighty leap to claim that supporters of terrorist thugs have ever saved innocent lives. To the contrary. Two of Mr. Owaidah's major contributions were to the prevention of an assassination attempt on Henry Kissinger at the King David Hotel and a rocket attack on the Western Wall back in the early 70s.
Owaidah explained that he decided to work with Israel "because of the injustice we saw when we were under Jordanian rule before the 1967 war."
"When the Jews came to Jerusalem, I saw how they were treating the people in a humane way," he said. "By comparison, we had been oppressed by the Jordanians when they were here. Look how the Jews have built a modern and democratic state, and look where the Arabs still are."
Thank you, sir. May you live long and prosper.
