Special Reports |
At this time the American government and media seem united in urging the Israelis to use counter-terror against the Palestinians in the aftermath of the Jerusalem bombings.
The Israelis have since July 30 "sealed" all Palestinian cities; They are conducting mass arrests of the wives, children and parents of Palestinians with possible links to suspected Hamas memebers. The N.Y. Times in a July 31 editorial declared that "violent protests" by Palestinians (wherein Palestinians march in the streets and throw stones at Israeli soldiers) is a form of "terrorism" which is "condoned" or instigated" by Yasir Arafat. If that's the case, that street marches constitute terrorism, then a sizeable portion of any human rights' protests in the world were also a form of terrorism.
Over and again, the media fail to provide the context for Palestinian rage. The racist inference is that Arabs are simply bloodthirsty maniacs. But beyond Susskin's pig flyer and the Mary "cow-head" Israeli magazine photo is a far deeper grievance--the ongoing, gradual theft of Palestinian land by the Israelis--by deporting Palestinians from Palestinian East Jerusalem for example and then building huge Jewish housing blocks on their ancestral soil.
There is much talk in the media today of President Yasser Arafat failing to observe the Oslo accords, but it was Mr. Netanyahu who permitted the start of the East Jerusalem housing project on Palestinian land and is delaying further redeployment from Palestinian Territories (Zones B and C as per Oslo accords). Also overlooked is the rancid hatred and racism of the Jewish rightists in the Israeli state, who openly embrace the Talmudic concept that non-Jews are not human, who seek the extermination of the Palestinians and who take a step forward in that genocidal process whenever an IDF soldier grabs an M-16 and shoots stone-throwing Palestinian children in the head. When that atrocity is perpetrated the headlines are small; seldom is the victim even named in the Western media and it's "business as usual."
This past April was the first anniversary of the Israeli massacre at Qana, Lebanon where the Israeli military slaughtered more than 100 civilians at a U.N. sanctuary. The Israelis were asked to pay reparations and apologize for this horror. They adamantly and arrogantly refused.
Bombings against civilians are always heinous and wicked in any context and those responsible should be brought to justice. But if we are to prevent future Middle East terrorism, we must address the cause of terrorism and this entails acknowledging the role of Israeli terrorism in fomenting the Palestinian version.
To pretend, as the American media are doing now,
that the evil is all on one side, is no service to Jews, Muslims
or Christians, but only gives license to further Israeli attacks
on the Palestinian people collectively and their soil, generating
more vengeance acts from the Palestinians. For the hideous
cycle to be broken, culpability must be assigned to the Israeli
occupiers as well as to those desperate and deranged Palestinians
driven mad with grief at the loss of their ancient nation.
Courtesy: M. H. II
01/08/1997