Have you noticed how the news media seem to follow every act and every signal
given by the Israeli government without even attempting to question or
challenge their numerous lies? Anyone who hasn't kept up with the Middle
East during the last 35 or so years would automatically come to the
conclusion that the Palestinian suicide bomber, for no reason whatsoever, is
responsible for creating all the violence and Israels brutal retaliation.
It's like the Palestinians were living in complete freedom without an ounce
of oppression, and for no reason at all the suicide bombers began to strike.
In actuality, the suicide bombers are a relatively new thing, they started
only about 10 years ago. The news media highlights the suicide bombings but
there is little mention made about the brutal occupation that perpetrates
these terrible acts. For 53 years the Palestinians have been dispossessed of
their land, displaced from their homes, yet the media chooses to highlight
the suicide bombings and ignore their plight for 53 years. When the White
House condemns terror, they only condemn the suicide bombings and ignore
State Terrorism of the Israeli government. Does that sound like a ballanced
Middle East Policy? Why don't they condemn the 2650 Palestinan homes
demolished by the Israeli government that was going on months before the
suicide bombings?
When Ariel Sharon went to Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem, in September 2000,
surrounded by a thousand Israeli soldiers, he was delivering a message of
contempt for the peace process. Flaunting Israeli control of this key site in
East Jerusalem which is viewed as the historic capital of Palestine by the
Palestinians, he meant to humiliate the Palestinians and assert Israeli
power. Sharon brought with him a bloody record-from the Qibya massacre in
1953 where forces under his command blew up 45 houses and killed 69 people to
the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 where thousands of Palestinians were murdered
at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. After seven years of bitterly
disappointed hopes in the Oslo peace process and an increasing recognition
that their national survival altogether was on the line, the Palestinians
expressed outrage and rose up in resistance to this provocation by Sharon. In
response, the Israeli army gunned down 90 youth who were throwing stones and
sent tanks, combat helicopters and missiles into Palestinian areas.
Now the Israeli government declares itself to be on a mission of self-defense
provoked by suicide bombings. But the reality of the situation-for those
willing to see-is that the Israeli armed forces are on a mission to wreck
Palestinian society and to deliver a message that Israel and the U.S. hold
the fate of the Palestinians in their hands.
Rampaging through the West Bank towns, the Israeli army has imposed a brutal
occupation on the Palestinian people. This occupying army-with its Apache
helicopters, F-16s, tanks, and bulldozers-has destroyed Palestinian cities,
dismantled the Palestinian Authority, killed untold numbers of people, driven
people from their homes, prevented ambulances from picking up the wounded,
and imposed a reign of terror.
Occupation. What does it mean? It means living under the gun. It means land
stolen, homes destroyed, culture denied. It means that the Israeli government
and army dictate the lives of the Palestinian people. Resistance, any
resistance, is met by punishment.
A whole generation of Palestinian youth have seen occupying troops gun down
kids throwing rocks, bulldoze people's homes and uproot orchards in
retaliation for acts of resistance. And living under occupation has kindled a
desperate determination to fight against the occupiers. Without a real
revolutionary strategy for taking on and defeating the occupiers, many youth
have turned to suicide missions as a way of hitting back. Yet the news media
often forgets to mention the brutal oppression and occupation that has led to
the suicide bomber and surely you will never hear it mentioned by any Israeli
apoligist. They prefer to portray the suicide bomber as the victimizer and
the people of Israel at the victim. But then that's nothing new. For 35
years the media have maintained their blanket of silence, and the politicians
have maintained their sickening pretense about our "gallant, little ally" in
the Middle East. This is the "little ally" which continues to moan to the
world about how it is "persecuted" by the Arabs, while at the same time
violates numerous international laws while committing human rights violations
against innocent Palestinian people.
Amidst the brutal occupation, there have been some positive signs of Jewish
opposition to the occupation. Earlier this year, the Israeli reservists who
refused to take part in the military occupation of West Bank and Gaza
confirmed the terrible injustice and the war crimes of their own army. And as
Israeli forces savaged Ramallah, the world was surprised by a young Jewish
man from Brooklyn, who brought medical assistance to the beseiged Palestinian
President Arafat and told the press, "This is not about politics between Jew
and Arab, between Muslim and Jew. This is a case of human dignity, human
freedom and justice that the Palestinians are struggling for against an
occupier, an oppressor. The violence did not start with Yasser Arafat. The
violence started with the occupation." Suicide bombers are bred from this
oppression.
The survival of the Palestinian people is on the line. A people who will not
be vanquished are up against a brutal state that is compelled to vanquish
them.
Confronting the most severe onslaught by the Israeli armed forces since Ariel
Sharon led the Israeli army to attack the Palestinian camps in Lebanon in
1982, the Palestinian people-who have resisted and resisted in the hopes of
regaining a homeland-face an historic turning point.
Their cause is the cause of the oppressed everywhere.
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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