posted on August 6, 2002 06:23:05 AM new
By Ghazal Shafiei
YellowTimes.org Guest Columnist (United States)
(YellowTimes.org) – The Holy Land is in trouble. The Middle East has been embroiled in a devastating, hate-filled, and dangerous war for the past 18 months. The Israelis and the Palestinians have been engaged in a vicious cycle of death and destruction, and the situation on the ground has reached crisis proportions. It is a crisis that could boil over into neighboring Arab countries and by extension affect U.S. interests in the region and its war on terrorism.
What has President Bush done in response to all of this bloodletting? So far, close to nothing. As the saying goes, Bush has played the fiddle while the Middle East burns. From the beginning of his presidency, President Bush and his administration have shown no interest in resolving the conflict in the Middle East, and have tried to wash their hands of everything Clinton and the Oslo Peace Accords tried to achieve.
After the leadership shown in the aftermath of September 11, it is disappointing to see such a performance from President Bush and his administration. Since coming to office, this administration's policy has been: as long as the conflict stays within the West Bank and Israel and does not spill over into other areas, let them kill each other. Vice President Cheney's trip to the Middle East a couple months ago was an eye opener for the administration. The vice president did not receive cooperation for plans to attack Iraq, from any Arab or non-Arab country, until the Palestinian issue is resolved. The United States is fast losing support in the region.
After widespread criticism and the realization that this conflict could well become an all out war in the Middle East, the president made some rhetorical overtures about some sort of future provisional Palestinian state after they find themselves some new leaders. In the past year, both Arab and European countries have continuously reminded the Bush administration that it should step in and prevent the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from spreading to neighboring countries. The illusion that Israel's military superiority will solve the problem has proven false, and now it is time that the U.S. realizes the gravity of this conflict.
Why is it the responsibility of the U.S. to broker a deal? The United States is the only country with enough power and influence to get both sides to sit down and talk with each other. Many in the world, especially the Arab world, see this conflict as painfully unbalanced and unfair. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is the only remaining military occupation in the world. This military occupation is maintained because of U.S. military and financial support for Israel. The world already sees the U.S. as a part of this occupation and the inhumane treatment of a whole population; therefore, to attain the moral high ground, it becomes the duty of the U.S. to resolve this conflict fairly and permanently.
Because of media influence, many Americans see the situation in the Middle East as the democratic nation of Israel fighting Palestinian terrorism in self-defense. This is a misconception and a failure to see the struggle in its true context. After September 11, polls showed that a majority of Americans did not know that there was any occupation involved in the Middle East conflict. We see images of suicide bombers blowing themselves up along with innocent Israeli civilians and think they are terrorists, period. As abhorrent and unjustifiable as an act of terror is, it can be explained. We must look deeper into this conflict and think to ourselves, why would an 18-year old girl embark on such a devastating act? What motivates such action? Why would anyone destroy his or her own life along with other people's lives? The answer is that a life of occupation, humiliation, poverty, despair, and hopelessness is worse than death. Ever hear that expression, give me liberty or give me death?
The reason that this bloody conflict has not been resolved is because the media in this country has been portraying this conflict as one nation defending itself against terrorism, instead of a poor and desperate nation struggling for freedom and human dignity. And the biggest irony is that Israeli Jews know what it means to be second-class citizens, humiliated and persecuted!
The current violence in the Middle East goes back to the struggle for land that has gripped the holy land of Israel and what is now known as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In the past 35 years the Israeli government occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (only 22 percent of original Palestine), and has transferred thousands of Jewish settlers creating hundreds of settlements in the West Bank and Gaza changing the demography of the area. Today there are over 200 militarily protected settlements scattered throughout the occupied territories. These settlements are the crux of Palestinian anger.
The Oslo Peace Process in 1992 was the result of the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, and in which the Palestinian authority was created with Yasser Arafat as the elected leader. At that time there were no suicide bombers and the Palestinians' weapons were stones. It was agreed that settlement building would be stopped, and Palestinian lands returned to them in stages with a viable Palestinian state by 1999. It has been ten years and none of that has happened. The number of Jewish settlers and settlements in the West Bank and Gaza has almost doubled, and all hopes of a Palestinian state diminish with every passing year.
Palestinian anger erupted in the year 2000 after peace talks failed and the second uprising began. Suicide bombers became the new Palestinian weapon against the fourth largest army in the world.
That is where we are today. Palestinians are among the poorest people in the world, and their desperation is simply unimaginable to someone living in the United States. In some parts of the squalid West Bank and Gaza refugee camps, unemployment is as high as 80 percent - they are the ghettos of the oppressed and a hotbed for anger and extremism. Roads are cut off by army checkpoints that protect the illegal settlers.
Homes are demolished, water pipes serving communities are destroyed, and civil administration buildings are bulldozed all in the name of self-defense for Israel. Children are periodically shot at during Israeli incursions into West Bank cities (400 of the 1400 Palestinians killed in the fighting the past 18 months have been children). People cannot get to jobs and are imprisoned in their homes for days under harsh military curfew and shot if they try to escape.
Again and again they are reminded of their position as second-class citizens living under occupation. The desperation and lack of hope have evolved into horrible acts of violence towards innocent Israelis, the settlers, and soldiers of the occupation. Israelis have tanks and fighter jets from the U.S., and Palestinians have people strapped with bombs and explosives. The tragic irony of this whole scenario is that Israel wants security, but government suppresses the symptoms instead of treating the disease. On the moral side, this occupation and the suppression that comes with it has transformed Israel from a nation built for persecuted Jews with the sympathy of the world into a nation of oppressors of another population. They have lost the moral high ground they enjoyed as a persecuted people.
Suicide bombing and terrorism is repugnant and morally unjustifiable, yet equally repugnant is state terrorism expressed in occupation and military aggression. In the past 18 months the Sharon government has engaged in a major military aggression against ordinary Palestinian citizens, which has included the bulldozing of random homes, the shooting of children, destruction of security buildings, cutting off water and electricity to cities, and going house to house looting and destroying under the guise of looking for "militants." The humiliation and anger this creates simply cannot be imagined and it has manifested itself into horrible violence.
There is no military solution to the problem of Palestinian terrorism. Yet President Bush in his war on terror seems to have given the green light to Israeli leader Ariel Sharon to reoccupy the entire West Bank, imprison and humiliate Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, murder his security forces, and destroy police buildings with the same force that is supposed to stop the terrorists. Many in the Arab world and elsewhere wonder how Palestinian violence is condemned as terrorism, while the murder of 13-year old girls and the enslavement and humiliation of an entire population by Israeli soldiers is called self-defense.
The reason many of these so-called talks and ceasefires have not been successful is because Israel is trying to separate the ceasefire from an immediate political solution to the problem. Palestinians, on the other hand, are tired of sitting and waiting for something to come out of these talks. They must see the light of a political solution at the end of this tunnel, and not just a ceasefire that allows Israelis to go back to their comfortable lives while Palestinians suffer in their desperate condition. The most misleading interpretation in the U.S. media has been to compare Israelis fighting Palestinian terrorists to the U.S. fighting Al-Qaeda terrorists. The U.S. is not occupying another country and terrorizing its population! Yet President Bush cannot or does not want to see this distinction in his simple minded and one-track foreign policy.
If Palestinians do not see that light at the end of the tunnel they will continue to strap bombs to themselves and attack Israeli civilians. As long as the bombings continue and Israel's security is threatened military aggression will continue unabated. Yet what Israel does not understand is that their military aggression will create more loathing for their methods and will lengthen the line of suicide bombers that are in waiting. What the Palestinians have to understand is that suicide bombers will only harden the hearts of ordinary Israelis and will not bring them any closer to a Palestinian state.
It is a cycle that must be stopped right now by President Bush. As the symbol of freedom and human rights, the United States should be the first nation to condemn any occupation of another land along with the condemnation of terrorism. They should condemn violence and atrocity on both sides and not simply take the side of Israel in every argument. America is the only country that repeatedly blames the Palestinians for everything. This is creating more and more hatred in the hearts of Palestinians and Arabs everywhere, not bringing Israel any closer to security, undermining Bush's support for the war on terror, and pushing the region into greater and greater chaos.
The Palestinians want an independent state, and Israelis want security for Israel. It seems simple enough, yet their leaders have proven their lack of vision and statesmanship in achieving these things for their people. Military superiority has proven futile when a whole nation is determined to achieve justice. Now is the time for a just, constructive U.S. policy that can resolve this crisis. Why waste more and more innocent lives when we know this occupation must end?
[Ghazal Shafiei is 19 years old and was born in Teheran, Iran. She and her family fled Iran during the devastating Iran-Iraq war and came to America in 1986 when she was 4 years old. They live in Chicago, and Ghazal attends Benedictine University majoring in political science with an emphasis on international relations. She has many views on the role that Israel and the United States play in perpetuating undemocratic values in the Middle East and Asia. This article was previously published in The Candor at Benedictine University.]
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posted on August 6, 2002 07:57:05 AM newThe Palestinians want an independent state
But they say they want Israel destroyed and intentionally murder Israeli civilians.
What has President Bush done in response to all of this bloodletting? So far, close to nothing
That's because Bush, or anybody else for that matter, can not deal with a lying terrorist like Arafat. A Palestinian Nation was laid in Arafat's lap, he refused it because Arafat, like the Arab world at large wants Israel destroyed.
After widespread criticism and the realization that this conflict could well become an all out war in the Middle East
It will not be the first "all out" war in Israel. Israel has been attacked by all the surrounding Arab nations, and it won. But instead of completely anihilating its enemies, ir abated the destruction out of its humanity, and is repaid by those same enemies by the deliberate murdering of civilians. There is not one textbook in Israel that instructs its pupils to hate and murder Arabs, but you will find these textbooks in Arab schools and recited in the mosques.
Why is it the responsibility of the U.S. to broker a deal? The United States is the only country with enough power and influence to get both sides to sit down and talk with each other
No one can negotiate with a lying murdering terrorist like Arafat, nor broker a lasting deal with despots.
The illusion that Israel's military superiority will solve the problem has proven false, and now it is time that the U.S. realizes the gravity of this conflict
Don't mistake Israel's humanity for weakness or the inability to utterly destroy its enemies. The problem can be resolved militarily, just as it was with Germany and Japan. But whether this happens depends on the actions of the Arab nations, not becuase Isarel is unable to do it.
Because of media influence, many Americans see the situation in the Middle East as the democratic nation of Israel fighting Palestinian terrorism in self-defense. This is a misconception and a failure to see the struggle in its true context. After September 11, polls showed that a majority of Americans did not know that there was any occupation involved in the Middle East conflict
Yes there is an occupation in the Middle East conflict, and that occupation is by Palestinians terrorists occupying a the democratic nation of Israel and trying to destroy that democracy.
The current violence in the Middle East goes back to the struggle for land that has gripped the holy land of Israel and what is now known as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
The current violence "goes back" to the Arab world demanding the destruction of Israel through many attempts- the current terrorism is just the latest attempt. Arafat was offered land and turned it down. The Arab world has made it clear what their goal is. Don't come crying to the West when you get hammered by those you wish to murder and the nation you wish to destroy.
Palestinian anger erupted in the year 2000 after peace talks failed and the second uprising began. Suicide bombers became the new Palestinian weapon against the fourth largest army in the world
Palestinian anger erupted in the year 2000 after peace talks broke down because the palestinian dictator Arafat and his handlers in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Syria et al don't want peace, they want Israel as vulnerable as possible, and destroyed as soon aspossible.
If Palestinians do not see that light at the end of the tunnel they will continue to strap bombs to themselves and attack Israeli civilians
Palestinians will never see the light at the end of the tunnel as long as they have a lying murdering despot as their "leader", and the greater Arab world continues to provide support for the destruction of Israel.the Palestinians continue to strap bombs to themselves because that is what they are taught from a toddler and their families are paid for it. The Palestinians are desperate at the hands of their leaders, not the Israelis.
Homes are demolished, water pipes serving communities are destroyed, and civil administration buildings are bulldozed all in the name of self-defense for Israel. Children are periodically shot at during Israeli incursions into West Bank cities (400 of the 1400 Palestinians killed in the fighting the past 18 months have been children). People cannot get to jobs and are imprisoned in their homes for days under harsh military curfew and shot if they try to escape
And this is Israel's fault ? Don't think so. What the Palestinians have received is a measured response from Israel. The reason Palestinian children are killed is because the Palestinian leadership deliberately places children as combatants for propaganda. Don't complain about children being harmed or services being destroyed when you have a Palestinian ambulance filled with exposives carrying a "sick" child and his mother into Israel. The Palestinians and their Arab allies aren't actually getting what they deserve when addressing the conflict.
The Palestinians want an independent state, and Israelis want security for Israel. It seems simple enough, yet their leaders have proven their lack of vision and statesmanship in achieving these things for their people. Military superiority has proven futile when a whole nation is determined to achieve justice. Now is the time for a just, constructive U.S. policy that can resolve this crisis. Why waste more and more innocent lives when we know this occupation must end
I agree it is time to end the occupation. It is time to remove the occupying terrorists from the democracy of Israel. Send the Palestinians to Jordan, Syria, and Egypt. There the Palestinians will se what being treated like second class citizens is really like.
posted on August 6, 2002 08:28:49 AM new
REAMOND- Very well said! The bottom line is you can't negotiate with people who don't want to negotiate. The U.S. looks more and more foolish every time it urges talks and another homicide bombing takes place. Bush said the other day that he was furious over the fact that Americans were killed but has yet to take decisive action to aid Israel in its efforts. Israel should pull out all the stops, overrun the Palestinian occupied land and drive them all into the adjoining countries just as Reamond suggested.
posted on August 6, 2002 09:00:19 AM new
Helenjw...
The israel cheerleader just don't get it do they? Their hate runs soooo deep, so irrational, they just ignore everything that may chip away at that belief. They focus on the actions, not the reasons for the actions. They are ugly inside with hate. Just keep on cheering people...HATE, KILL, HATE, KILL!
Nobody in Israel and Palestine area wants peace, just genocidal annihilation of the other.
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Reality is a serious condition brought on by a lack of alcohol in the system
posted on August 6, 2002 09:24:21 AM new
Israel has never attempted nor held any notion of genocide or anihilation of the Palestinians.
The Palestinians, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon all attacked Israel with the intent of destroying the Israeli state and its people. Hamas announced that their goal is for all jews in Israel to go back where they came from or be murdered.
What is being ignored is the hatred of Israel by the Arab world.
Show me mlecher the Israeli school textbooks that proclaim this genocide or anihilation of the Arab peoples? I CAN show you this in Arab school textbooks. Which Jewish temple preaches the genocide of the Arab peoples ? I CAN show you mosques around the world that preach genocide against the Jews and destruction of Israel, as well as the destruction of the US. This preaching of hate is strictly a pathogen done by the Arab world. It was done once before in Nazi Germany.
Israel has showed nothing but great restraint, greater than we would under the same circumstances. We would never consider granting a state to the mafia here in the US, nor grant a portion of our country to create a state of murderers or rapists.
If you're going to assign genocide and hatred to a nation, assign it where it is, not where it isn't.
Shooting or otherwise removing a rabid dog is not an act of hatred or genocide, it is an act of self defence for which no amount of negotiation or appeasement will prevail. The result of appeasement and negotiation is a state like Nazi Germany.
posted on August 6, 2002 12:24:28 PM new
I'm not a cheerleader for either side but I also can read a history book. The Palestinians sided repeatedly with the wrong LOSING side in all the Arab / Israeli wars and yet were abandoned by all the Arb states to their present position where they are USED by those Arab nations to keep a thorn in Israels side.
None of them - Jordan/Syria/Eygpt will accept their "brothers" into their countries where there is lots of room for them.
As far as "The world already sees
the U.S. as a part of this occupation and the inhumane treatment of a whole population; therefore, to
attain the moral high ground, it becomes the duty of the U.S. to resolve this conflict fairly and
permanently."
Well if you want to try to fulfill other peoples imaige and expectations for you without regard to the validity of their view you end up busting your chops for no reward.
Works rthat way among nations as well as it does in a disfunctional family.
As to mediating these two the Bible has some good advice. It says that he who is involving himself in an arguement that is not his own is as someone grabbing hold of a dog by its ears. - Gonna get bit.
posted on August 6, 2002 04:45:58 PM new
I see them as two little kids in a sandbox. Their mommas need to take them out of the sandbox and give them a serious paddling on the behind. The Arab States are the momma for the palestinian arabs and the USA for some silly reason has adopted Israel.
Other wise, just build a giant wall around the area and let them kill each other to their hearts content. They all would be in their glory, just killing each other as they have done for a thousand years...
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Reality is a serious condition brought on by a lack of alcohol in the system
posted on August 6, 2002 07:30:42 PM new
Another one of those "Bush has undone 8 YEARS of Clinton's work" threads.
Ho-hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
It also the typical stupid Arab "Israel is the 51st state" "controlled" by the US.
I personally think we should make a big announcement "Yes, you've been right all along. Israel IS the 51st state" and do some serious things to interdict the money to these animals from our "friends".
posted on August 6, 2002 09:11:30 PM new
Just as he did here in the US slick Willy could talk people into just about anything he wanted. A real dominator. If he sent the Israelis and Palestinians home needing their blue dresses dry cleaned it would not surprise me - BUT the fact is after they are home and don't have him sitting there to hold the agreement together it all unravels.
If Bush wants peace in the MiddleEast he could get it by sending Clinton to tell them why they should be doing it and MAKE HIM STAY THERE. Maybe by the time he died of old age it would be a habit and they'd stay peaceful.
posted on August 7, 2002 06:00:02 AM new
The Palestinians were welcome citizens of the state of Israel until they sided with the Arab nations to destroy Israel.
There has never been a jewish mayor in any of the Arab nations, yet Israel has had many Arab mayors.
As gravid said, the Palestinians have chose the wrong side to be on and suffer the consequences.
History shows time and again that peace can not survive an unfinished war. It happened in WWI and Korea.
If a war is not finished with a clear victor and a truely vanquished, we only postpone an inevitable second war which history has shown to be far worse and costly than its antecedent.
