Retired Brigadier General James J. David has made a
factual comparison between what the Palestinian
"suicide bombers" have done and what is being
done to all Palestinians in the name of disarming them.
In so doing he opens the lid a crack to the question of
whether these human bombs are acts of terrorism, or is
they are resistance to illegal occupation as several
international leaders suggested. This question needs to be
examined. -Editor
U.S. Bias an Obstacle to Peace
By Brigadier General (retired)
James J. David
Defying a U.S. request, Egypt declined to condemn a
suicide bombing that killed eight Israelis and instead
said Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation was
justified..
I'll bet the Bush Administration nearly fell over
backwards when they heard this reply. As a matter of
fact, I almost did myself, considering Egypt is the second
largest recipient of U.S. aid. But you know what?
I was delighted with Egypt's response. Don't get me
wrong. In no way do I condone suicide bombings.
I don't condone them anymore than I condone missile
strikes in Palestinian villages and refugee camps that
kill innocent men, women, and children. I don't
condone them anymore than I condone Israel's demolition of
Palestinian homes that leave thousands of innocent
children homeless. I don't condone them anymore than
I condone the hundreds of human rights violations
committed by the Israeli government in their brutal
occupation of the Palestinian people.
When Palestinian suicide bombers strike, it seems that
the United States is the first to condemn these acts and
demands all other countries to do the same. Yet when
the Israeli government commits over 100 political suicides
killing numerous women and children in the process, the
United States makes no response. When Israeli troops
kill 3 teenage boys with a tank shell only because they
"looked suspicious," the United States says
nothing. But just let one suicide bomber kill
innocent Israelis and George Bush, Colin Powell, and
Condoleezza Rice, are in a foot race to be the first one
at the microphone on the White House lawn to condemn these
"inexcusable acts."
What about the 3 Palestinian teenage boys killed while
walking to a friend's house only because they looked
suspicious? Or what about the pregnant mother
and her unborn child who never survived the trip to the
hospital because of unending roadblocks and checkpoints?
Do you call these "excusable" acts? Just
last week in this latest Israeli incursion into
Palestinian villages and refugee camps a group of
Palestinian policemen were captured by Israeli soldiers,
disarmed, made to kneel in a hallway, and then shot to
death. These men were not terrorists; they were
Palestinian policemen who were rounded up by Ariel
Sharon's soldiers and murdered in cold blood. Why
haven't we heard President Bush demand an explanation from
the Israelis? Why haven't we heard Colin Powell or
Condoleezza Rice condemn these bloody acts. Do they
not consider them "inexcusable?" Why is it
that only Israelis who are killed by Palestinian suicide
bombers get responses from the White House?
And what about our Congressmen and women? Seems
that they can't wait to condemn the Palestinian Authority
and Yasser Arafat anytime a suicide bomber strikes but,
God forbid, if they would consider condemning Ariel
Sharon. Representative Tom Lantos of California,
ranking Democrat on the House International Relations
Committee, was pushing for a vote on a resolution
expressing support for Israel, and Senators Dianne
Feinstein, a California Democrat, and Mitch McConnell, a
Kentucky Republican, had a bill to designate the Palestine
Liberation Organization a terrorist group. These are the
same senators who have accused the Palestinian Authority
and Yasser Arafat for initiating and encouraging
Palestinians in this 19 month old intifada. Maybe someone
should send them a copy of Amnesty International's 1999
Report on Israel and the Occuppied Territories. This
report was written months before the intifada and months
before the suicide attacks..
It wasn't Yasser Arafat or the Palestinian Authority
that sparked the intifada; it was the oppressive
humiliation and brutal occupation of the Israeli
government. According to Amnesty International,
"the Israeli authorities have demolished at least
2,650 Palestinian homes in the West Bank, including East
Jerusalem. As a result 16,700 Palestinians
(including 7,300 children) have lost their homes."
Did we ever hear Tom Lantos or Dianne Feinstein ever
condemn these brutal acts. Can you imagine what they
would have done if Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian
Authority demolished just one Jewish home, let alone 2650?
Maybe someone should remind these Israeli parrots that
Yasser Arafat is a former recipient of the Nobel Peace
Prize and Ariel Sharon is about to go on trial in the
Belgium Courts for "war crimes.""
Even before this latest military incursion by the
Israeli military that has left more than 500 Palestinians
dead, some 400 Israeli army reservists had begun to
question the relentlessness of the military tactics
against a largely impoverished civilian population.
It's time for the United States to do the same.
History has proven that a continued blind eye to Israeli
violence has led to nothing more than cloaking the
continuing oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian
people in new robes. The ongoing bloodshed on both
sides is more than a far away tragedy. Our tax
dollars have financed Israel's continued violation of
human rights and the violence will continue until
Washington's stranglehold by Jewish interest groups is
finally lifted.
A just solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict can only
be achieved if U.S. policy is based upon American moral
principles and a strict adherence to international law,
which run counter to the continued Israeli occupation of
Palestinian land and the denial of basic rights of freedom
to Palestinians under Israeli military rule. -end
Address comments to General Davis to info@whtt.org , we
will forward...
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 as a Company
Commander with the 101st Airborne Division in the Republic
of Vietnam in 1969 and 1970 and also served nearly 3 years
of Army active duty in and around the Middle East from
1967-1969.
