Peace on Earth?

Ayman al-Zawahri has surfaced just in time to deliver a Christmas greeting.

He said he wants the children of the wartorn Middle East to grow up without hate in their hearts. He hopes that by teaching them to show respect and tolerance, peace can finally be achieved.


Not really. He didn't say that.

Al-Zawahri doesn't want peace. He doesn't want democracy. He doesn't want to talk. He doesn't want Islamic children to live in peace, side by side with people of different faiths.

He wants jihad. And like many in the U.S. House and Senate, and like former President Jimmy Carter, al-Zawahri wants the West to be defeated.

DUBAI (Reuters) -- Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri said in a video tape aired on Wednesday that Palestinian elections would not free Palestinian land and would deal a blow to holy war against Israeli occupation.

"Those who are trying to free Islamic land through elections that are based on secular constitutions ... will not free a grain of Palestinian sand, but will choke jihad," he said in the tape broadcast by Al Jazeera television.

It was not clear when the recording, only excerpts of which were aired, was made.

...Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Saturday for early elections to break a deadlock between his Fatah faction and Hamas, which has accused him of a "coup" against its elected government.

"Retreating in the face of the West will not satisfy it, no matter how adept we are at maneuvering and negotiations," Egyptian militant leader Zawahri said.

"Any path other than jihad will only lead us to loss and defeat," he added.

...Al Qaeda regards the United States as its chief enemy and argues that Washington's Middle East policies further the interests of Israel at the expense of Muslims.

The tape is the first by Zawahri since September 29 when he appeared in a video posted on the Internet in which he called President Bush a lying failure for talking of progress in the war on terrorism.

Oh, Reuters.

Even when the news outlet reports on a message from al Qaeda's number two man, it has to tack on a slam at President Bush.

In other words, be upset with al-Zawahri; but be upset with the "lying failure" George W. Bush, too.

Reuters' anti-Bush, pro-terrorist propaganda is a joke. It's so unfair and so unbalanced.

The news here is the content of al-Zawahri's most recent message, not what the TERRORIST said two and a half months ago about the American President.

Bush and al-Zawahri are not on the same moral plane.