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Israeli
State Terror & the Palestinian Liberation Struggle
The Murderous Subterfuge of American/Israeli Right
By Rudolph Lewis
I must confess I know little or nothing about
politics or international affairs. Yet I am appalled and deeply
concerned about the rhetoric of terror that has gained
credibility in the American and Israeli media since September
11, 2001 with the aerial attacks on the twin towers in New York
and the Pentagon.
In our American history, we have had acts of
terror in the name of freedom and manifest destiny that we have
applauded. With respect to freedom -- Nathaniel Turner of
Southampton and John Brown of Kansas. With respect to Manifest
Destiny, the slaughter of southeastern Native Americans and
their removal to Oklahoma Territory.
Turner was especially inspirational for the
American slave and so was Brown for the Union cause, which led
to a half million dead and millions displaced (both black and
white). Both Turner and Brown have been redeemed by American
history. For the oppression they attempted to relieve was a
thousand times worse than their acts of violence.
At heart I am a pacifist. I do not believe in
violence as a means to solve differences. I much prefer that
parties in conflict sit around a table and work out such
problems in a spirit of brotherhood and justice. That is indeed
what did occur with Rabin and Arafat. The Palestinians under the
leadership of Chairman Arafat, with threats against his life
from among his people, agreed to recognize Israel and its right
to exist and allow the Israelis to control 75% of the land that
the Palestinians once inhabited. That was no small concession,
especially when there are millions of Palestinians who have no right
of return.
And for his gracious stance for peace between
the two peoples, Chairman Arafat was awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize, along with Prime Minister Rabin. For his sincere efforts
at peace with the Palestinians, Rabin was assassinated by one of
his own, as Sadat was murdered for his peace efforts between
Egypt and Israel.
Several years ago, we believed we were very
near peace in the Middle East. There were three issues that
remained to be resolved: the right of return for millions of
Palestinians displaced by Israeli terror and confiscation; the
seizure of land by Israeli settlers in the Territories; and
control of Muslim East Jerusalem, which contains Islamic holy
sites. East Jerusalem, as capitol of a Palestine state, is
desperately needed if the Palestinians are to sustain themselves
economically.
But the Israeli right, with its control of
the military, did not want to resolve those issues. Sharon made
sure of that by severe provocation of words and acts. He and
others like him wanted to keep the military's iron boot on the
necks of the oppressed Palestinians. Sharon thus initiated a second Intifada,
an uprising of Palestinian Muslims. These acts made him the
leader of the Israeli government.
With the new American War on Terror, Sharon
and the Israeli right now use the American rhetoric of
President George Bush as a cover for the imperial intent
of Sharon and his government. The real goal of this government
is to have absolute power from the Jordan River to the
Mediterranean Sea. Many of these Israelis believe sincerely that
this seizure of land and lives is a God-given right, the
fulfillment of a divine promise.
We thus have two outwardly warring parties,
unevenly matched. Sharon and his Army are a Goliath with the
best of American warring technology, a
three-billion-dollar-a-year grant, and the sympathetic backing
of the American right, while the Palestinians are young Davids
with only stones and their bodies, which they hurl against tanks
and helicopter gunships. Palestinians are heavily outgunned -- a
few rifles, homemade bombs, which they can only deliver by
concealing them on their bodies. Though sympathetic, the Arab
governments are weak-kneed and duplicitous.
In effect, we have the Palestinians, a
severely oppressed people, basically standing alone, attempting
against all odds to maintain some integrity and dignity after
they have agreed to grant their oppressors, mostly European
refugees and their descendants, their ancestral lands and homes.
They have nothing more to give if they are going to have any
future whatsoever for their children in that last quarter of
their homeland, the so-called Occupied Territories, that they
legally retained but which has been besieged and overrun by
Israeli tanks and jets. We Americans usually for the underdog,
stand by silently as if what the Israelis are doing was a
spectator sport.
Under Sharon, called "the Butcher of
Lebanon (because as the head of the Israeli Army he allowed the
slaughter of hundreds of Palestinian civilians--old men, women,
and children). Palestinian towns and cities (including
Bethlehem) are now occupied by the Israeli Army. From reports
there seems to have been another massacre in this military
adventure to wipe out the "terrorists." Clearly, the
Israeli War on Terror has been a war on the Palestinians, despite the
deceptive defense of Sharon and his military machine by Bush and
Secretary of State Colin Powell.
No one condones the murder of Israeli
civilians by the so-called "suicide bombers." We indeed
sympathize with Israeli civilians and the fear that has
overtaken them. But no one honestly believes that Chairman
Arafat is directing these acts of violence, except Sharon, his
Israeli backers, and his American allies. Such acts of violence
by the suicide bombers, at least two of which have been women,
clearly are acts of desperation by a people hard-pressed by the
Israeli death machines -- tanks, gunships, and bulldozers. These
Israeli acts of military devastation of property and infrastructure, the
siege and murder of leaders, are geared to set the Palestinians
back fifty years.
The present arrogance and brutality of the
Sharon government are unacceptable by anyone with a sense of
fairness and equanimity. I for one cannot stand silently and
watch this horror and condone the acts of Israel and the
duplicity of the American government. American support of Sharon
and his military occupation and its lack of sympathy for the
plight of Palestinians are despicable and tasteless. There is no
justice in it despite the regrettable loss of Israeli lives.
We sincerely hope that America will come to
its senses, understand that the Israeli and Palestinian conflict
has little or nothing to do with what happened in New York and
Washington, D.C. on September 11. The Palestinians are an
oppressed people seeking to liberate themselves from
overwhelming firepower and domination by a fierce, domineering,
aggressive, and imperial nation, which has, at least from the
perspective of the Palestinians, the largest and the
most repressive military in the region.
If America does not move quickly to curb the
fascist acts of Sharon, we are in for another half century of
war in the Middle East. We will again have American boys
spilling their blood and American taxpayers wasting tons of
money, overseas but needed domestically, to satisfy Israeli greed and madness,
which it sustains by religious and political myth-making.
The same response is a for a third nation,
namely, the United States, or the United Nations, backed
by the US, to separate the warring parties as we have done in
the former Yugoslavia. Our domestic politics, however, geared
toward the winning of elections and the desire for personal
power and opportunity have undermined the usual good sense and
sympathy for the underdog, clearly here, the Palestinian people.
The present cowardice and pandering of our politicians
exceed decency.
Regrettably, America will have a devastating
price to pay, much more tragic than the September 11 attack, for
our sycophancy, muddled thinking, and lack of sympathy for the
suffering of the Palestinian people. Though it is not too late
to act honorably and justly in securing a just peace and freedom
for the Palestinians, I fear our President has fumbled the ball.
On the home front, we Americans, especially the poor and the
working classes, will be the real losers in this Republican
gambit. The spiritual as well as the economic health of our
country will be undermined for decades.
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posted Fall 2002 /
updated 11 June 2008 |
