Defying a U.S. request, Egypt declined to condemn a suicide bombing that
killed eight Israelis on Wednesday 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
friends
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 road blocks 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 Condolezza 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 Palestinian Authority and Yasser Arafat anytime
a
suicide bomber strikes but, God forbid, if they would consider
condemning
Ariel Sharon. Just today, 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 Occupied 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 have 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.
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 nearly 3 years of
Army
active duty in and around the
Middle East from 1967-1969.
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