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Subject:RIGHT POINT: U.S. Bias an Obstacle to Peace
http://www.whtt.org/rpr/020422.htm
Editor's comment:
Retired Brigadier General James J. David has made a factual
comparison between what the Palestinian "suicide bombers" have done
and what is being done to all Palestinians in the name of disarming
them. In so doing he opens the lid a crack to the question of
whether these human bombs are acts of terrorism, or is they are
resistance to illegal occupation as several international leaders
suggested. This question needs to be examined. -Editor
U.S. BIAS AN OBSTACLE TO PEACE
By Brigadier General (retired) James J. David
Defying a U.S. request, Egypt declined to condemn a suicide bombing
that killed eight Israelis and instead said Palestinian resistance to
Israeli occupation was justified.
I'll bet the Bush Administration nearly fell over backwards when they
heard this reply. As a matter of fact, I almost did myself,
considering Egypt is the second largest recipient of U.S. aid. But
you know what? I was delighted with Egypt's response. Don't get me
wrong. In no way do I condone suicide bombings. I don't condone
them anymore than I condone missile strikes in Palestinian villages
and refugee camps that kill innocent men, women, and children. I
don't condone them anymore than I condone Israel's demolition of
Palestinian homes that leave thousands of innocent children
homeless. I don't condone them anymore than I condone the hundreds
of human rights violations committed by the Israeli government in
their brutal occupation of the Palestinian people.
When Palestinian suicide bombers strike, it seems that the United
States is the first to condemn these acts and demands all other
countries to do the same. Yet when the Israeli government commits
over 100 political suicides killing numerous women and children in
the process, the United States makes no response. When Israeli
troops kill 3 teenage boys with a tank shell only because
they "looked suspicious," the United States says nothing. But just
let one suicide bomber kill innocent Israelis and George Bush, Colin
Powell, and Condoleezza Rice, are in a foot race to be the first one
at the microphone on the White House lawn to condemn
these "inexcusable acts."
What about the 3 Palestinian teenage boys killed while walking to a
friend's house only because they looked suspicious? Or what about
the pregnant mother and her unborn child who never survived the trip
to the hospital because of unending roadblocks and checkpoints? Do
you call these "excusable" acts? Just last week in this latest
Israeli incursion into Palestinian villages and refugee camps a group
of Palestinian policemen were captured by Israeli soldiers, disarmed,
made to kneel in a hallway, and then shot to death. These men were
not terrorists; they were Palestinian policemen who were rounded up
by Ariel Sharon's soldiers and murdered in cold blood. Why haven't
we heard President Bush demand an explanation from the Israelis? Why
haven't we heard Colin Powell or Condoleezza Rice condemn these
bloody acts. Do they not consider them "inexcusable?" Why is it
that only
Israelis who are killed by Palestinian suicide bombers get responses
from the White House?
And what about our Congressmen and women? Seems that they can't wait
to condemn the Palestinan Authority and Yasser Arafat anytime a
suicide bomber strikes but, God forbid, if they would consider
condemning Ariel Sharon. Representative Tom Lantos of California,
ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, was
pushing for a vote on a resolution expressing support for Israel, and
Senators Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, and Mitch
McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, had a bill to designate the
Palestine Liberation Organization a terrorist group. These are the
same senators who have accused the Palestinian Authority and Yasser
Arafat for initiating and encouraging Palestinians in this 19 month
old intifada. Maybe someone should send them a copy of Amnesty
International's 1999 Report on Israel and the Occuppied
Territories. This report was written months before the intifada and
months before the suicide attacks.
It wasn't Yasser Arafat or the Palestinian Authority that sparked the
intifada; it was the oppressive humiliation and brutal occupation of
the Israeli government. According to Amnesty International, "the
Israeli authorities have demolished at least 2,650 Palestinian homes
in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. As a result 16,700
Palestinians (including 7,300 children) have lost their homes." Did
we ever hear Tom Lantos or Dianne Feinstein ever condemn these brutal
acts. Can you imagine what they would have done if Yasser Arafat and
the Palestinian Authority demolished just one Jewish home, let alone
2650? Maybe someone should remind these Israeli parrots that Yasser
Arafat is a former recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and Ariel
Sharon is about to go on trial in the Belgium Courts for "war crimes."
Even before this latest military incursion by the Israeli military
that has left more than 500 Palestinians dead, some 400 Israeli army
reservists had begun to question the relentlessness of the military
tactics against a largely impoverished civilian population. It's
time for the United States to do the same. History has proven that a
continued blind eye to Israeli violence has led to nothing more than
cloaking the continuing oppression and dispossession of the
Palestinian people in new robes. The ongoing bloodshed on both sides
is more than a far away tragedy. Our tax dollars have financed
Israel's continued violation of human rights and the violence will
continue until Washington's stranglehold by Jewish interest groups is
finally lifted.
A just solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict can only be achieved if
U.S. policy is based upon American moral principles and a strict
adherence to international law, which run counter to the continued
Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and the denial of basic rights
of freedom to Palestinians under Israeli military rule. -end
Address comments to General Davis to [EMAIL PROTECTED] , we will forward.
James J. David is a retired Brigadier General and a graduate of the
U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College, and the National
Security Course, National Defense University, Washington DC. He
served as a Company Commander with the 101st Airborne Division in the
Republic of Vietnam in 1969 and 1970 and also served nearly 3 years
of Army active duty in and around the Middle East from 1967-1969.
THE PEOPLE AND THE LAND by award winning photographer Tom Hayes -
Public Broadcasting Corporation paid for this film, then refused to
air it. Filmed at great risk to film crew and civilian population. An
unforgettable documentation of bravery, brutality and repression was
filmed in Gaza, West Bank and Haifa for all to see (as never before
filmed). A film for those who are seeking the truth about the war of
rocks against rifles. 1 hour, professional quality.
(http://www.whtt.org/bookstor.htm )
We Hold These Truths (www.whtt.org)
P.O. Box 14491
Scottsdale, AZ 85267
480 947 3329
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