“Send regards to Israel, I miss it. I respect Israel and admire it as a country.”

This is not a Jew speaking. It is a Palestinian, the firstborn son of a top minister from the militant Palestinian organisation Hamas. (“Hamas' Christian convert: I've left a society that sanctifies terror” Haaretz, 31/07/2008)

The speaker was Mosab Hassan Yousef. Last Friday, he gave an exclusive interview to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz (“Israel's man in Hamas just 'wanted to save lives'” Haaretz Friday Magazine, 26/02/2010), hot on the heels of the stunning alleged assassination by the Israelis of the top Hamas man in Dubai the weeks before. 

In the story, Yousef admitted he had been spying for Israel and denounced what he considered the Palestinian culture of suicide attacks.

It wasn't quite what you would expect from a Hamas man, much less someone brought up in the organisation of which his father Sheikh Hassan Yousef is a respected leader.

But Yousef is not just another ordinary Palestinian, trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip, fighting an unceasing war against Israel. He is a former Israeli prisoner who found God in jail, and is now a Christian convert living in the United States.

Expectedly, the story is causing quite a stir, perfectly timed for today's release of Yousef's book “Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices”. Pre-orders have already propelled the book to the number one spot in various nonfiction rankings on the internet bookstore amazon.com.

According to the inside book jacket,

Yousef “saw things no one should ever see: abject poverty, abuse of power, torture, and death.” He was “trusted at the highest levels of Hamas”, though latest reports say his father has now disowned him, following the interview. ( “Senior Hamas leader disowns son who spied for Israel”, Haaretz, 02/03/2010)

He was painted as a witness to “behind-the-scenes dealings of top Middle Eastern leaders who make headlines around the world”, and was “held captive deep inside Israel's most feared prison facility.”

A bit of digging in America's most watched name in news, FOX News - a network accused often of conservative Republican bias - produced this sensationalistically-named “Escape from Hamas”.

In this television interview, Yousef spoke about his conversion from Islam to Christianity.

“I loved Jesus immediately. (Why?) Love your enemy. That was the line that moved me, from like deep (sic), and changed my life forever.”

Compare this to what he says about Islam and its holy book the Koran.

“The Koran is a drug. Islam is a drug.”

Once a follower and future leader of Hamas, a three-month stint in the Israeli prison eventually saw him to leave the organisation and denounce it. In jail with his uncle, Ibrahim Abu Salam, a top Hamas leader, he accused Abu Salam of approving brutal punishment of fellow Hamas prisoners whom they suspected of collaboration with Israel.

Subsequently he met a young foreign tourist who introduced him to Christianity and he started making a comparative study of that and the faith he was born into. He left Islam, embraced Christianity, and moved to the United States, shedding the trademark black and white Palestinian khaffiyeh headscarf and the streets of his hometown Ramallah, for a skintight surfsuit on the beaches of San Diego.

This is the story he told to and on FOX News a year ago. That story has now been bound into a book, with the potential to be a hit.

This is a fable that seems to hold out the promise of peace in the Middle East. After all, if a “son of Hamas” can defect and turn his back on violence, suicide bombings and hatred for Israel, why can't others?

The story seems enticing and copies will be grabbed off the bookshelves today. But eager readers should realise that:

1.Tyndale House Publisher is a Christian publishing house, whose titles include the Bible, Christian fiction and Christian self-help books.
2.Yousef is an evangelical Christian.  
3.Yousef's co-author Ron Brackin is introduced as a former congressional press secretary but his resume also lists extensive work done with numerous Christian organisations, including one of the conservative Christian televangelist Jerry Falwell who himself is staunchly pro-Israel. 

Why do these matter?

The Christian/evangelical angle in all of this.

It is perhaps be necessary to point out that many such evangelicals and their churches/organisations are vehemently pro-Israel. 

To them, the Jews are God's chosen people, as stated in the Bible, and this sometimes lead to an unabashed backing of Israel, the home of God's chosen people, and rejection of the Palestinian side of the conflict.

As for Brackin, while one's religious belief is clearly a personal matter, his resume indicates that it does figure in his choice of work. Thus it should be taken into consideration even if as a journalist, professionalism should to some extent entail on his part, some semblance of objectivity.

It is not being insinuated that “Son of Hamas” is a piece of propaganda. However here is some disclosure with regards to this tell-it-all, that should but does not appear in the book jacket.