arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Whenever there is a bombing that kills a number of Israelis, this is sure to be covered on the front page of almost every US newspaper. This will be replete with details about the victims' personal lives all selectively provided courtesy of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. The recent killings of Israelis is no exception. Today (Friday) 10 Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli forces (five of them Children) and over 20 injured. Will we see this on the front page of any newspaper tomorrow? Ofcourse not. On average, 6-10 Palestinians have been killed daily in the past several months (over 2000 so far) so it is no longer "newsworthy" but then again it was never newsorthy for many in the US media when Palestinians are killed. Perhaps the US media considers Palestinian victims undeserving of any attention and to have no personal lives worth mentioning. Is violence abhorrent only when committed
by Palestinians with the only weapons they have (themselves)? Why ignore the terror and killing by an Apache helicopter or F-16 or M-16 or D-9 (armored
bulldozers that knocked 7000 homes so far)? Palestinians ofcourse have these strange non-Western names (e.g. three of
the Children killed today: Ahmed Rizawi, 9, his brother, Jamil Rizawi, 12, Sujod Adawi, 7 a girl). Palestinians, while yearning for freedom, have no multimillion dollar spin machines like the alphabet soup of Zionist organizations competing to vilify "the other". So ofcourse the US media will print as fact the Israeli government lie that Israel does not target civilians.
The US media will ofcourse dismiss all the damaging reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B'Tselem, Red Cross and Red Crescent, International Observers, and even their own reporters in the field (who always complain of editors axing their reports unless they fit the dogma). All
these reports clearly document willful targeting of civilians by the fourth strongest army in the world which is funded, aided, and abetted by the US government. And
ofcourse, the US media will let Israel march unchallenged in its 54th year of consecutive land confiscation and ethnic cleansing of the native Palestinians.

As more colonization proceeds, the illegal Israeli colonies like Gilo and Efrat and Maale Adumim built on confiscated Palestinian land become just "neighborhoods being targeted by terrorists." Putting millions of Palestinians under curfew and starving them becomes "security for Jewish
neighborhoods." As60% of Palestinians live with no income or an income of less than $2 per day
(extreme poverty), we worry that the billions of dollars of our taxes subsidizing Israeli immigrants is not enough and they are "feeling insecure" or are targeted as they go about "their daily business." Meanwhile, the colonial
venture continues unabated to transform the whole country sans-Palestinians (with no annoying Palestinians).

Now the Israelis are confiscating more land to build fences around Palustans(Palestinian bantustans ala apartheid South Africa). The Palestinians who owned 94% of Palestine in 1947 now are left with 7% which will be fenced in.
Even the South African regime did not dare to do this to its "black problem." Building large prisons and making every Israeli complicit in such war crimes will not
bring security nor peace to anyone. Israel has been trying to "manage" these restless natives (they call them "savages") for 54 years. But lessons of colonial rule have been very clear. Certainly in the 21st century we
cannot allow this to continue. Israeli colonialism, like our own venture into Vietnam, will end. Also like in Vietnam, the US media and some of our congressmen
will stop selling themselves to special interest only after the public has already seen the deception. It is as always, the public awakening before the "leaders." We send billions in aid to Israel ($10 million per day) and
yet Israel continues to thumb its nose at International law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Recent polls do show that a majority of Americans think we should cut off aid to Israel unless it withdraws from the occupied areas (themselves a mere 22% of Palestine). You will not even hear this rather modest view in the US
media or congress; they prefer to keep funding Israel which continues to drag the world economy into depression and eventually drag us into WWIII while milking us for more money and support. And what for? Is it so that Israel can maintain racist laws that allow any Jew to become an automatic citizen and live on confiscated Palestinian land while denying Palestinains born and raised there the
right to go back to tehir homes and lands simply because they are not Jews. Is it so that we can keep laws that prefer Jews over gentiles in all spheres of
Israeli public life. Is it so that we can continue to uphold Israeli laws that ban parties from running in elections if they advocate a pluralistic (or secular)
societies rather than a "Jewish state"? Is this something the International community can continue not only to tolerate but in the case of the US government to fund it?

Is it time to shed this charade or should we wait till many more Palestinians and Israelis get killed (at the current ratio of 4:1 civilian victims)?
When will we simply just cut off the aid (milirtary at least, economic if need be) to this rebelious child who refuses to accept any rules? If not now, when?
Should we wait til a new wave of ethnic cleansing occurs or should we wait until Israel's nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons are put to use?