As the conflict between Israel and Palestine rages in the Middle East, the people of the United States, including President George W Bush and all members of Congress, must ask themselves two questions:
*How would you feel if an invader came into your neighborhood and told you to leave your home immediately because it was going to be demolished so the land could be used to build many new homes for the murderous invaders of Israel?
*Would you sit back and offer no resistance as your entire life was reduced to rubble?
Answer those questions honestly and you will understand the plight of all Palestinians who been forced to live in subhuman conditions under Israeli execution, occupation and control. If we would not tolerate the abusive aggression of an invader in our own communities, how can we allow Congress and the President George W Bush to–not only condone such murderous aggression from Israel, but–pay for it, and all with our taxpayer money, covered not only with the blood of Palestinians, but with Americans as well, and in particular the sons of the USS Liberty, attacked by Israel 41 years ago.
ISRAELI APARTHEID AGAINST PALESTINIANS
Sue Heher, a South African Representative stationed in the West Bank, had the following to say–”Other South African colleagues who have visited Palestine have typically said they felt the situation here {Palestine} to be worse than that of apartheid South Africa…’
For those who need a little more info regarding Mz. Heher’s comments here, let the following be considered–
*Palestinians are forced to carry identification cards at all times when traveling from city to city
*Palestinians must apply for a very difficult-to-obtain permit to travel from city to city.
*Palestinians are forced to stand in separate lines than Jews, so that the Jews are not ‘tainted’ through what they consider ‘contact’ with ‘inferior’ beings
*Palestinians are not allowed to live in Jewish-only housing, even when Palestinians have deeds proving their ownership of this property…
*Palestinians–Muslim and Christian–are not allowed to buy, rent or lease land in 92% of the State of Israel, simply because they are not Jewish
*Israel gives 85% of water resources in Palestine to Israelis and the remaining 15% is divided among all Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, even though the Palestinian population is much larger…
*Israeli sieges have stopped most Palestinians from going to work, going to school (if they dare to for fear of beatings or sniper fire on innocent children) going to hospitals with little or no medications, or going shopping for basic necessities like food (if any is to be found) thereby reducing the Palestinian population to starvation and disease…
*Israel refuses to abide by over 65 United Nations Security resolutions…
*Palestinians have recognized the right of Israel to exist in 78% of the country and Israel still has not reciprocated. Instead the masters of the Palestinians cage them in Gaza as sub-human animals with no fresh water, no food, NOTHING. If this were done to even a handful of Jews anywhere else in the world it would be considered a holocaust and the military might of the United States would be brought to bear in ‘fixing’ it…
THE HUMAN TOLL
In a special interview aired on Israeli television, a former Israeli soldier said that Israeli soldiers committed “unimaginable” practices against Palestinians. Being a survivor of the murderous attack on our ship USS Liberty June 8, 1967 I can vouch for that as well, since I personally witnessed “unimaginable” inhuman slaughter, in particular that of Americans on the high seas by the Government of Israel, resulting in 34 murdered and 174 wounded. According to the testimony of this former Israeli soldier, a common practice among them is competing among themselves to see who could kill more Palestinians, bragging afterward about how many they killed, deliberately targeting and killing children walking home from school or playing outside, and slamming the heads of handcuffed Palestinians onto concrete walls. I bet the Israelis had a great big laugh over the murders they committed against their American friends aboard AMERICA’S ship USS LIBERTY!!
There is no telling in the many many months of Israeli occupation how many Palestinians have been murdered, tortured to death, starved to death, and the untold who have been maimed and injured for life by Israeli troops and Jewish extremists. Many of the victims are average citizens on their way to work or to school, while others are involved in protests against occupation. Only a handful were armed–do you blame for trying to protect their families?
The ugly truth though is that Israel is not putting America in an impossible situation in the Middle East. Rather it is the President and the congress who are putting America in an impossible situation by allowing Israel to get by with these crimes. To call it despicable and Un-American is the understatement of the millenium.
Palestinians watch as Israel brings to bear against them and their loved ones American-made weapons and over 15 million dollars a day in taxpayer money and all of this while America is in the worst financial crises ever. And yet, AND YET, Israel STILL demands that money, money we Americans must borrow, and for what? TO GIVE TO A TERRORIST STATE, money our kids and grandkids will have to pay back and which our elected officials on bended knees are so very happy to turn over. Its worse than disgusting, although I don’t really know what the right word would be.
With out the billions of dollars of American tax payers money pour into Israel every year, not counting the jet aircraft, tanks, and on and on, Israel would find it difficult IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE to sustain its illegal and murderous occupation of Palestine that has gone on for over 41 years and continues that jeopardize American interests in such an area as vital as the Middle East. Look at us now–in Iraq with well over 4,000 American sons and daughters dead, and for what? One word–ISRAEL–and now as if this weren’t enough to satisfy her, now she wants us to fight another war for her in Iran and our gutless leaders in Washington DC will more than oblige their masters in Israel and sacrifice more American blood and treasure. Unbelievable but true.
Why isn’t our congress and our administration calling on Israel to stop the racism and discrimination against Palestinians and end the occupation? In truth the answer does not need to even be stated, but I will state it nevertheless–FEAR. They are all bought-and-paid-for whores of Israel and could care less about the Palestinians or even their own American countrymen for that matter.
Israel uses tanks, helicopters, death squads, state-of-the-art smart bombs against the Palestinians (women and children alike) but our Congressmen and Congresswomen and our President have not dared to call it what it is– ISRAELI TERRORISM. They will talk us till they’re blue in the face about ‘Islamic terrorism’, but hear them get anywhere near that ‘J’ word and they will run from it like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. When a Palestinian living under Israeli occupation strikes at Israel, he is labeled in no uncertain terms a terrorist. Why the double standards? Why is Israel permitted everything in its effort to keep the last colonial adventure of the world?
AIPAC and over 15 other Jewish lobbies for Israel operate on combined budgets exceeding 50 million a year or more. AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby with the closet links to the government of Israel, is recognized by Fortune magazine to be one of the most powerful lobbies on the hill and our elected stooges gravel at their feet.
ANYONE WHO TAKES BLOOD-MONEY FROM ISRAEL’S LOBBY IS ACCOUNTABLE FOR ISRAEL’S ACTIONS, PLAIN AND SIMPLE.
WHAT MUST THE UNITED STATES DO?
We cannot sit back and permit the lobby of a foreign government to determine U.S. Middle East policy that is not in the best interests of the United States of America. We want our tax dollars spent at home, not sent to Israel, A RACIST, NAZI STATE which refuses to return illegally-seized lands to Palestinians that would be condemned were it any other group of people. Our bought-and-paid-for congress must not continue to allow their masters–the Israel lobby–to harm America’s own interests.
Not wanting to over-use an already overused line, but America…WAKE UP. We are in real deep trouble here and it is going to take you–my fellow Americans–raising your voices and saying NO MORE!!! No more of the same shame we have been living with for far to long.
Write, phone, email your representatives in congress. Tell your friends, family and neighbors. Do not be afraid of being called all the predictable names. They mean nothing. Get hold of McCain and Obama and tell them NO MORE. Stop this madness before its too late. For your own sake for that of your children, at least try. Your children and grandchildren are counting on you, because it’s their future you hold in yours hands, so don’t waste it for them, and definitely, don’t waste it for Israel.
God Bless America
Phillip F Tourney Survivor USS Liberty
Three Time President of the Liberty Veterans Association
Co-Host–‘The Liberty Hour’ radio program heard every Saturday morning 1100 EST on the Republic Broadcasting Network found at www.republicbroadcasting.org
tonktime5@yahoo.com
* excerpts of this piece are reprinted here from an earlier piece collaboratively written with some of the other survivors of the USS Liberty
September 19, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Phil, on behalf of the Palestinian people I just want to say thank you for your article. Once more and more people in the US begin to see and understand the problem in Palestine as you do, we will have peace in the Land of Peace, but until then, the Palestinians have to suffer because America is being setup to take the fall. With ideologies, such as Sarah Palin’s, coming this close at “securing the realm” in the US it can only tell me that our struggle in liberating America is going to be long and hard. We must learn the listen from the Palestinians, once you open your doors to these people, it becomes theirs, and you are out. The struggle against these people must not only be in Palestine, but also here in the US. Keep up the good work.
Hesham Tillawi, http://www.currentisues.tv
September 19, 2008 at 9:13 pm
The voice of sanity. I hope other Americans will get to know the truth about the theft of Palestine.
September 19, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Mark,
I find that “ISRAELI APARTHEID AGAINST PALESTINIANS”
is very,very powerful. I think that everyone should hammer on those points. That struck a chord with me and I am sure it will strike a chord with others.
Are there any good YouTube videos on these issues?
I would like to link them on my web site http://truthtribune.com if there are.
Thanks for the great article,
Joe Tittiger
Fort Myers FL
September 19, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Hesham,
It is our duty as fellow Americans the human race to show the world that we are one and care very much about the suffering that goses on far to much in this world to to many.
Phil
September 20, 2008 at 1:15 am
Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid, which it uses in violation of U.S. laws to prosecute an illegal military occupation and siege of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip.
President Bush requested $2.55 billion in aid for Israel in FY2009, the first proposed increase under a ten-year Memorandum of Understanding signed by the United States and Israel in 2007 to increase military aid to $30 billion over the next decade.
What the nations of the world so desperately need is a kitchen table meeting with the Prince of Peace [AKA:Jesus] who commanded his followers that in order to be forgiven, they must forgive, they must love all people, they are not to judge any other and that it is the peacemakers who are God’s children: not those that bomb, torture or occupy any other.
Until that happens-Challenge USA policy in solidarity with Americans of conscience @
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?list=type&type=30
And Oppose $30 Billion Military Aid Package to Israel:
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?list=type&type=208
September 20, 2008 at 2:45 am
The more I learn about the history of Third International, its fake “dissolution” at the Yalta conference, and Trotsky’s advocacy of state-sponsored terrorism, and the creation of the Pentagon and CIA as the official headquarters for the Trotskyite (“It is not unlawful for the state to sponsor terrorism, as long as the goals of the state are in accord with ‘the Program.’”) faction of International Marxism, the more I become convinced that Israel was created from thin air, at the same time that the CIA and Pentagon were created, solely to advance the agenda of International Communism.
Much as CIA was conceptualized concurrent with the Yalta conference, and populated by Truman with supra-national communists, to infect the idea of lawful representative (and accoutable) government with the cancerour ideas of government by secrecies, and much as the Pentagon and its ultra-secret E-ring was also conceptualized at the same time, the Yalta conference, and also populated by Truman, with supra-national Trotskyites, to implement the military goals of the Communist International, by covert acts of escalating violence executed through so-called “special forces” operations (now generally recognized as Pentagon-sponsored terrorism), so also was the idea of Isreal conceptualized, as a faked-up “nation state,” concurrent with the Yalta conference, and later given official recognition by Truman, as an utterly faked-up nation state. It is apparent that Israel was intended to be, and has effectively become, a hand-granade pressed into the belly of western civilization, which has flourished on the principle of the general welfare, which can be protected only by a lawful nation state, and which belly of civilization the Israeli-CIA-Pentagon Marxists have mutually pledged each other to destroy.
As Truman was terror-bombing the only two cities in a defeated and prostrate Japan that had been allowed to have Christian churches in their cities (during war, western churches are famous for running intelligence operations), and thus signaling to Stalin and Mao that they shoud begin their equivalent unified pogroms against Christianity, by exterminations of the families of hundreds of millions of Christian intelligencia, what sweet irony it must be, to this enemy of mankind, and to the sweet belly of Liberty, that Israel, as a communist hand granade shoved into the belly of humanity, should call for mass extermination, a virtual pushing out to sea, of the last remnant of the original Christians … who we now generally know as … the Palestianians.
What sweet irony, against God, these unrepentant Trotskyite terrorists must imagine they savor. It is pointless to remind them that God’s love, however patient it might seem, is however never unjust.
September 20, 2008 at 3:54 am
Superb writing.
September 20, 2008 at 9:05 am
I don’t know if Hitler was the founder of the illegal criminal state of Israhell, but the methods of Hitler’s Nazis and IsraNazis are absilutely the same, Israel is the replica of the Third Reich !
September 20, 2008 at 2:53 pm
The Yiddish speaking ashekenazi-Khazars need to go back to their real homeland of Khazaria. Khazaria is found in the Georgia, Azerbajian, Armenia part of the world.
Last week/month the capitol of the old khazarian nation was found by a team made up of russian and israeli jews.
It is time for them to return home so the middle east can be in peace for the first time in a hundred years.
mk
September 20, 2008 at 3:40 pm
The Israelis are taking my tax money to build new homes on stolen land and an apartheid wall on Palestinian land.
We should build homes for Katrina survivors instead.
STOP TAKING MY TAX MONEY, you thieves.
September 21, 2008 at 1:58 am
The consummation of the age Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob;
and hearken unto Israel your father. I now stand to give
first Notice” at the end of days as was given to me. ‘Notice to America and Israel of your impending; ‘judgment! that
with violence shall You be thrown down; and shall be no more at all. America and the world! needs to put away the false gods and many idols they
worship, and stop this madness and return to God the Father! with all their
heart, mind and soul “this Day, for His long suffering is fast coming to a end! http://www.captainjohncs.us/
September 21, 2008 at 5:19 pm
O and people need to quit calling the vile state of Israel: Israel, And call the state of those self proclaimed Israeli’s what they really; “the of synagogue of Satan”
September 22, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, that has ascend out of the bottomless pit, and is going into perdition!
A Texas cowboy lay down on a barroom floor, having drunk so much he could drink no more
So he fell asleep with a troubled brain, to dream that he rode on a hell-bound train.
“The engine with murderous blood was damp, and was brilliantly lit with a brimstone lamp;”
“An imp, for fuel, was shoveling bones, while the furnace rang with a thousand groans.”
The boiler was filled with lager beer, and the devil himself was the engineer;
The passengers were a most motley crew — Church member, atheist, Gentile and Jew,
Rich men in broadcloth, beggars in rags, handsome young ladies, and withered old bags,
Yellow and black men, red, brown and white, all chained together — Oh God, what a sight!
While the train rushed on at an awful pace — the sulfurous fumes scorched their hands and face;
Wider and wider the country grew, as faster and faster the engine flew.
Louder and louder the thunder crashed and brighter and brighter the lightning flashed;
Hotter and hotter the air became, till the clothes were burned from each quivering frame.
And out of the distance there arose a yell, “Ha, ha,” said the devil, “we’re nearing hell!”
Then oh, how the passengers all shrieked with pain, and begged the devil to stop the train.
But he capered about and danced for glee, and laughed and joked at their misery.
“My faithful friends, you have done the work, and the devil never can a payday shirk.
“You’ve bullied the weak, you’ve robbed the poor, the starving brother you’ve turned from the
door; You’ve laid up gold where canker rust, and have given free vent to your beastly lust.
“You’ve justice scorned, and corruption sown, and trampled the laws of nature down.
You have drunk, rioted, cheated, plundered, and lied, and mocked at God in your hell-born pride.
“You’ve paid full fare, so I’ll carry you through, for it’s only right you should have your due.
Why, the laborer always expects his hire, so I’ll land you save in the lake of fire,
“Where your flesh will waste in the flames that roar, and my imps torment you forevermore.”
Then the cowboy awoke with an anguished cry, his clothes wet with sweat and his hair standing high.
Then he prayed as he never had prayed till hour to be saved from his sin and the demon’s
power; and his prayers and his vows were not in vain, for he never rode the hell-bound train.
September 23, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Very Nice
Thank you
September 27, 2008 at 9:39 am
Phil, I’m sure you are aware that you have had the rare fortune or misfortune of being personally involved in military and political events which forced you to see realities, cleverly hidden from most Americans, at the very core of our escalating global crisis. The passing of 41 years only makes your personal knowledge more valuable to our nation. Thank you for doing what an honorable person must do in your circumstances.
I have approached this problem from an entirely different angle – as a philosopher who takes action to gather understanding and who soon encountered more contradictions, lies, and intimidation regarding Israel and Zionism than any other issue. I was 19 when the LIBERTY was attacked; I have paid close attention to this issue ever since, doing everything necessary to understand how the American people can be bamboozled into financing something so plainly unconstitutional: an officially ‘Jewish’ state forced into a multi-ethnic region and constantly expanding through new ‘Jewish-only’ settlements is violent state racism as plain as it can ever be; it is also an ‘establishment of religion,’ which Americans cannot be constitutionally required to support.
Please consider the following: Our politicians do not support Israel due to fear of its power. The problem is very simple. Those Americans who stand to gain personally, even if just ‘emotionally,’ from Jewish supremacy in Israel or Palestine have been naturally energetic and organized in pursuing their interests, while no one else has been paying particular attention. Zionist (Jewish-supremacist) interest in the Israel-Palestine conflict has not been properly counter-balanced in our democratic system by equivalent Palestinian representation, while ordinary Americans have had no way of knowing how their interests in a sound American foreign-policy have been sacrificed to the special interests of highly-organized Zionists.
This is all perfectly natural. The net balance of energy coming from US voters has been pro-Israel because those who gain from Jewish advantage have been over-represented. We are therefore BOUND to get politicians who abandon our Constitution and give Israel everything it wants, because they will not be elected if the side with our Constitution instead.
I have found that ordinary Americans are quite open to realizing this simple logic. They are increasingly concerned about the exploding Middle East crisis, which makes no sense until we give due emphasis to the open ethnic-cleansing of Palestine – which requires the US Zionists to make the entire Middle East safe for Jewish supremacy. The solution is to arouse ordinary US citizens to ‘wake up,’ as you say – but wake up to the fact that an active grass-roots segment of the US population, with AIPAC as its domestic political organ, have placed Jewish supremacy in Palestine above the constitutional principles of the US. While we have been going about our daily business, they have been energetically wangling virtually limitless financing for their – Israel’s – foreign-policy interests. That is why we are in this mess.
The solution is absolutely simple: Americans must merely require our representatives to stop allowing US money to contribute in any way to ANY POLICY OF OFFICIAL ETHNIC PREJUDICE in Israel-Palestine – the same as anywhere else. Who can object to so even-handed a solution? Only the Zionists, because they, by definition, WANT Jewish dominion in Palestine: but they do not want to ADMIT that they have been requiring our politicians to unconstitutionally support Jewish supremacy. Americans need only be asked to object to wasting our money – and creating the kinds of problems for ourselves which our Constitution was designed to prevent – as we send many millions of dollars to Israel every day, at the behest of highly organized US voters more loyal to Israel than to our Constitution, so we may finance the military existence Israel requires in order to perpetuate and increase its ethnic-cleansing of non-Jewish Palestinians.
The Zionists may scream ‘anti-Semitism’ when we use the term ‘Jewish,’ but it is they who demand that Israel be an officially supremacist ‘Jewish’ state; it is we who prefer not to support any such discriminations. And nothing should ever deter us from speaking truthfully when we know that our ideas and motives express a belief in justice – not the prejudice of forcing any ethnic advantage over anyone, here or abroad.
All Americans who do not want to see our country continue to slide into chaos should be awakened to the fact that this chaos is the guaranteed result of being bamboozled into paying massively to violate our own Constitution. All we need is to tell our representatives to stop doing that; GIVE THEM A LITTLE PRESSURE FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS ISSUE FOR ONCE – not just the Zionist side, but also the Constitutional side. Many of them would love to be freed from the yoke of Zionist voting-power.
We don’t want to side with or against the Palestinians or Muslims or Israelis or Jews; we want to take the advice of our Constitution and stop funding any and all policies of official religious or ethnic prejudice. Every such policy must be denied any US money. We do not have to consider the consequences of this course. Every act of prejudice is an act of injustice and each one must be denied our direct or indirect support. This is the way to peace; it will just happen to end ‘Jewish supremacy’ and the ongoing horrors of Zionist ethnic-cleansing. And it will extinguish the pilot-light of the entire Middle East debacle.
Thanks for considering these ideas.
Your compatriot in honoring our brilliant Constitution,
Dave Kersting
October 11, 2008 at 12:13 am
Phil writes:
Would you sit back and offer no resistance as your entire life was reduced to rubble?
These same trouble makers got us into two wars by pulling off 9/11. See Bollyn below:
The 9/11 lie also contolled by those involved in 9/11 got us involved in Iraq where we routinely kill women and children. It is the same policies that they practice towards the Palestinians. They routinely kill them. They kill the young children for sport.
McCain has a campaign add attacking Obama because he says that ” They kill women and children.” A few days ago the news reported how a family of eleven was slaughtered so this backs up Obama’s claims.
Killing their women and children will only force these people to fight us and to hate us forever.
And of course the answer to Phil is YES who wouldn’t fight to the death when they harm your loved ones and reduce your life to rubble.
The horror’s that are taking place in Iraq are only known to certain people. See latest revelation below:
Secrets of Iraq’s death chamber.
http://www.infowars.com/?p=5191
And if you believe that your sons and daughter’s are fighting for Israel, they also believe that this is what they are doing for us.
Xanadu Says:
October 7, 2008 at 11:38 pm
From Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post, in a recent article, this priceless gem:
“If Israel is destroyed, the West won’t be able to depend on us Jews to fight and die for them anymore. They will be all alone.”
Chris Bollyn wrote:
The current financial crisis in the United States involves some of the very same Zionist criminals and entities that I pointed out in my recent chapter, “The Architecture of Terror: Mapping the Israeli Network Behind 9-11.”
The collapse of their criminal scams on Wall Street could very well reveal more about the Zionist gangsters behind 9-11, if it were allowed to happen. Such outrageous criminal scams cannot be kept hidden for long. The criminals behind this latest financial scam need to be brought down – not propped up. If anyone should be in Guantanamo facing harsh interrogation for answers about 9-11, it is people like Maurice Greenberg and Michael Chertoff.
The government loan of $85 thousand millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars ($85 billion) to keep afloat Maurice Greenberg’s criminal operation, American International Group (A.I.G.), brings into the spotlight one of the key individuals in the Zionist criminal network behind 9-11.
Bollyn also wrote:
The key players of the bail-out, people like Rahm Emanuel, Maurice Greenberg, and Dick Fuld are typical examples of the Zionist parasite that afflicts the American body politic. Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species, in which the parasite benefits from a prolonged, close association with the host, which is harmed. The degree of Zionist parasitism in the United States has become critical and now puts the American republic in mortal danger.
A close examination of 9-11 saga reveals that all the key players are active and devoted Zionist Jews; it is exactly the same with the bail-out plan – all the key players are Zionist Jews. Although the mainstream media won’t tell you this, you need to know this essential fact.
After taking a two-day break to celebrate the Jewish New Year, the U.S. Senate (i.e. the more corrupt house of the Congress) voted on a modified version of the $700 billion bail-out Wednesday evening, October 1. The Senate passed the bill, 74-25.
Of course, this quick re-entry through the back door was to be expected. The Zionist and corporate controlled media have been aggressively and shamelessly pushing the bail-out, using fear to stifle opposition from the U.S. public, which is being prepared to be fleeced – like a sacrificial lamb.
The very people who attacked us on 9/11, stole our money in the trillions, got the Congress to pay them 700 trillion, than added an add on to the bill for Jewish programs. See below:
Jewish Lobbyists Successful in Adding Programs To Bailout Bill.
http://www.forward.com/articles/14363/
October 11, 2008 at 12:17 am
Correction above 700 billion not trillion.
October 12, 2008 at 4:51 am
How any Sane person in the Pentagon, or in the U.S. Military can continue to support these Criminals is beyond comprehension. If this article doesn’t support the truth about what Phil wrote, than I don’t know what does. These Criminals need to be hunted down like wild dogs and killed. The sad thing is that today these wild dogs are everywhere. Many of them are in the U.S. Military like those who recently killed that family of eleven in Iraq. What happened to real men? My family has an entire history of real men. My grandfather Christian fought at Vicksburg in the Civil war. There’s a plaque with his name inscribed on it with Grant bragging about him. My grandfather was a real man. My father was a real man who fought in world war 2 with 5 brother’s and 6 uncles. My mother’s two brother’s fought in world war 2. My brother and I fought in Vietnam. None of these men would have ever put up with thugs shooting women and children, or blowing up civilians and calling them military bases. ( see below )
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/07/israelandthepalestinians.lebanon
Israel: wedded to war?Far from learning the lessons of past conflict, the country’s military seem ever more willing to resort to brute force
Unfortunately, it seems that entirely the wrong kinds of conclusions are being reached, at least in the military hierarchy and among the policy shaping thinktanks. On Friday, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper published comments made by Israeli general Gadi Eisenkot, head of the army’s northern command. Eisenkot took the opportunity to share the principles shaping plans for a future war.
The general promised “disproportionate” force to destroy entire villages identified as sources of Hizbullah rocket fire, the reasoning being that they are “not civilian villages” but rather “military bases” – the kind of reasoning that can land you in a war crimes tribunal.
Eisenkot pointed to how Israel levelled the Dahiya neighbourhood of Beirut in 2006 and confirmed that this would be the fate of “every village from which Israel is fired on”. In case there was any doubt, he added: “This is not a recommendation. This is a plan. And it has been approved.”
September 13, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Very good article. The United States can’t continue its support of racist colonial policies of Israel if it wants to have any shred of credibility when it speaks about democracy.