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Title: “Israel's expansionist behavior shouldn't be defended by U.S.”
Source: Home News Tribune
Author: Hassan Mahmoud
Date: August 1, 2006
The horrific images of death and destruction of properties and
infrastructures inflicted by Israel on Lebanese and Palestinian
civilians and the turning of a million people into refugees should have
awaken the world's conscience to demand an immediate cessation of this
onslaught. How many more burned and torn babies, women and elderly, mass
graves of entire families, and bombed ambulances and cars with fleeing
families are we willing to watch before, at least, a temporary stop of
these massacres be put in place? After that we could rationally assess
whom to blame.
Israel has deliberately killed four United Nations peacekeepers. It
killed 205 of them through the years. Unfortunately, our own government
and media rushed to exonerate Israel, even before it spoke.
In 1996, Israel bombed a U.N. post in Qana, Lebanon, where 110
civilians were massacred while taking refuge during a previous Israeli
invasion. In 1967, the Israeli fighter jets attacked the USS Liberty in
the Mediterranean, killing 34 American servicemen and wounding 173. Our
government then foiled the investigation. President Lyndon Johnson was
quoted that he didn't want to pick a fight with Israel close to an
election campaign.
The Bush administration not only supports Israel's aggression by
refusing to order an immediate cease-fire, but it is rushing delivery of
precision ammunition and bunker buster bombs to inflict more devastation
on helpless Lebanon. This is done while 25,000 Americans are stranded in
the war zones under relentless bombing. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan
ordered Menachem Begin to immediately stop bombing Beirut. Also, when
our medical students were stranded in Grenada during a 1983 coup, Reagan
sent our military to evacuate them.
Would the world be silent if the ongoing horror was inflicted on the
Jewish state by a superior power against which it has no means to defend
itself? Unfortunately, the indifference to Lebanon's plight feeds into
the psyche of Arabs and Muslims, especially when they watch two Arab
capitals, Baghdad and Beirut, being destroyed for Israel's sake. They
see racism in our attitude despite their absolute loyalty to us since
the end of World War I and during the Cold War. They took our side
against the Soviet Union and they prosecuted the communists in their
lands while Israel had a full-fledged communist party (Rakah), which
flaunted its allegiance to the Soviets. They have been our stable
suppliers of oil and often resisted other producers' efforts to raise
prices.
President Roosevelt recognized their loyalty and promised King
Abulaziz Bin Saud in 1943 not to support the creation of a Jewish state
in Palestine, from which the Palestinians were made refugees. Secretary
of State George Marshall advised President Harry Truman in 1948 to
follow Roosevelt policy, telling him that creating a Jewish state in an
Arab land would engender a perpetual conflict in that area, thus
endangering our strategic interests and our energy sources. In his
column in the Washington Post of July 18, Richard Cohen stated: "The
greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that
Israel itself is a mistake. The idea of creating a nation of European
Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a
century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now." To be
clear, nobody should use historical facts to call for the destruction of
Israel. That would be unconscionable since all Israelis have the right
to live in what became their country according to U.N. designation.
However, as Sen. John Warner of Virginia said, our support for Israel
should not be unconditional. Otherwise it would hurt our interests and
endanger our soldiers in Iraq.
Hezbollah's abduction of two Israeli soldiers was a blunder. But the
Israeli expansionist behavior is indefensible. Israel is holding 10,000
Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners — people it abducted from inside
their own territories — and still occupies and mines their lands, kills
their citizens and violates their air space and territorial waters. The
foolish abduction of the Israeli soldiers, which was done for a swap
with Arab prisoners, doesn't justify this blitzkrieg. It brings to
memory Hitler's destruction of Warsaw on a flimsy excuse. Israel's
irresponsible behavior is hurting America by creating more terrorists
among the displaced and the aggrieved Arabs and Muslims. The instability
in the Middle East is affecting our economy due to high oil prices. If
we heed the pro-Israel neo-conservatives' advice and attack Iran, which
has a choke-hold on the passage of 30 percent of the world oil supply, a
$200 price per barrel would not be farfetched.
"Be Counted" columnist Hassan Mahmoud is a resident of Westfield.
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