Letters to the Editor, May 20, 2004

Although I rarely respond to editorials or articles posted on your website. Even though my words may not qualm the anguish that is felt by the father carrying his dead son (photo published on attack in Rafah) after the attack in Rafah. As a father myself, my heart pains for his loss in seeing his sons lifeless body within his arms.

Bush and Sharon bashing is becoming a common theme these days. People have been writing and talking about war crimes and crimes against humanity, crimes against defenceless civilian population, bulldozing of homes on top of its live occupants, state terrorism, illegal occupation, sadistic torture of prisoners and the list goes on. Palestinian and Iraqi young men and women are going crazy by all of this, to a point of blowing themselves up in revenge for lack of equal means matching their oppressors.

How powerful a motive can be for a human being to justify such sadistic acts against another human being.? Could there be a hidden motive greater than oil and land grab that is so evil, involving almost every government in the world to keep silent in the face of such horror.? Is this the way to go about forming a new world order.? Or is it the beginning of the biblical prophesy Armageddon that Mr. Bush and Sharon are appointed to bring about by higher authority.?

There are a lot of heavy weight honest brains in this world that are able to to dissect a microcosm in the middle of the out reaches of the universe. It would be nice to hear from them on this subject.

Senator Fritz Hollings From South Carolina Says "We Invaded Iraq All For Israel" - Note, no other Senator running for re-election will state this but since Hollings has decided not to run again, I guess he has developed some courage now late in his career. Better late than never!!!

When Israelis are killed, it's a disaster, but when Palestinians are killed, it's normal and justified!!!

Since September 11th, 2001, Americans see terrorists everywhere, except those in Israel. With their tanks, their F-16 and an army of soldiers, they destroy the Palestinian’s home, their airports, killing many persons who are just trying to defend themselves.

These facts are much less publicized than the events happening in Israel. When Israelis are killed it’s a disaster, but when Palestinians are killed, it’s normal and justified !!! Last week’s media where concerned about the treatment of the Afghanistan prisoners in Cuba. It is rather disturbing !!! Where is the American justice ?

Demolition of Palestinian Homes.

Picture it a small Palestinian child coming home from school to find his/her house a pile of rubble parents missing. I can picture that child his/her distress and pain. Picture an IDF soldier driving his tank through the remains of that child's home. That soldier probably had granparents killed at Auschwitz yet he can destroy a family's life in minutes because in his view they are not God's chosen people i.e Jewish. He believes the demolished homes can now be rebuilt for Zionist Settlers this reminds me of Hitler and his Lebensraum policy. The world mostly stayed silent when Hitler killed millions and it stays the same now when Palestinians have been killed injured and left with nowhere to live. The Zionazi Sharon is responsible for this. Will GWB condemn this?Probably not. He would say it is Christian belief that this is God's chosen people's land (He would mean Jews) Well if Jesus has any relatives(not direct descendants of course) alive today they are most likely Palestinian and as a Christian I do not ever recall Jesus saying to kill and make people destitute, GWB has no right to call himself a follower of Christ. Zionists have no right to call themselves Jews as Judaism and Zionism are very different.

Janice Keenan

Torture as standard procedure

President Clinton made front-page headlines in 1999 saying, “What we did in Guatemala was wrong.” Are a few words all we owe when we created and maintained an army that slaughtered hundreds of thousands? With that sort of impunity, it has given us permission to do it again. And we most definitely have.

And still, in any bureaucracy of repression, there are personnel schooled in the ideological attitudes necessary to keep such systems in operation. In some cases this schooling takes place literally, for example at the infamous once known as the School of Americans based at Fort Benning in Georgia, otherwise known as the ‘school for dictators’ or ‘La escuela del golpe’ (the coup school). The U. S. gets to train death squads’ leaders from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and other third world countries. One of their lectures is Torture 101, accompanied with a manual. After they graduate, they return to their own country and with the assistance of the CIA and DEA, they get to implement these techniques.

Excerpted from: http://www.guerrillanews.com/human_rights/doc4492.html

Forwarded by Mark Yannone Phoenix, Arizona

Bush, Bliar, and Sharon

What is happening to ordinary people in Palestine and Iraq is so appalling it is beyond words. That this vicious killing and torture is being inflicted by the US and Israel ought to cause their governments and the many citizens who still support them to die of shame.

In these days even extremely tight media control cannot completely hide the prisoner abuses, the random sniper killings, the bombing of wedding parties and now again the Sharpville-like massacre of peaceful demonstrators seeking vainly to protect their meagre possessions.

Truly Goliath is slaughtering David. The moral and intellectual vacuity and utter hypocrisy of the so called-'civilised' US regime is blatantly apparent. I only hope that the authors of this mayhem - Bush, Bliar and Sharon will in the short term be deposed and in the longer term face trial. Their certainty and belief in their own supposed moral superiority has rendered their actions monstrous and their chilling lack of compassion for fellow human beings legendary. Peace and justice are alien concepts to such warmongers.

Phil Hong

What would it take....

This administration has screwed things up so badly that, re-gaining acceptance of the U.S in the Arab world (or the rest of the world for that matter!), will take generations. What has happened is that this group (the Bush administration) has a very myopic view of humanity, which is reflected in its foreign policy. They were ushered in by a segment of this society which, has little to no understanding of anyone outside of their own socio-economic/religious groups and even less desire to learn!

It is much easier for these folks to hold on to negative preconcepts of others, as opposed to understanding and accepting the fact that differences between human beings do not constitute barriers, and should embraced not feared.

Support voiced for the continued torture of Iraqis, as well as those who call for dropping the investigation, are the direct result of our media's role in the "scare Americans together strategy" implemented by the far right. With the demise of Communism, Middle Eastern peoples (with the exception of Israelis) have become the new boogie man that Americans should unite against out of fear.

Steps toward correcting this situation needs to start with our media who, should step up to the plate and begin educating Americans (including an open discussion of U.S historical involvement in the Middle East) about humanity instead of seeking sensationalistic stories or sound bites.

Tim Stinson

On The Birthday Of Malcolm X, May 19

By Yemi Toure

Dear Brother Malcolm,

Though your body was taken away from us years ago, we want you to know that your spirit lives among us still.

Through our dignity and our pride in our history and our culture, you live.

Through our marches and demonstrations and sacrifices for our people's struggles anywhere and everywhere in the world, you live.

Through our dedication to our children, and our commitment to give them the best, you live.

Through those among us who refuse to be beaten down, and who are willing to pay the ultimate price for our manhood and womanhood and peoplehood, you live.

Through our schools and our centers and our holidays and our children named after you, you live.

Through our desire to live life guided by the highest principles, as you did, you live.

And through our commitment to have our freedom and dignity, fully and completely by paying any price, you live.

We declare, brother, to our friends and to our foes, that every shut eye ain't sleep, every good-bye ain't gone.

Brother, you live among us still.

Murder begets worse murder response

Congress let America down by permitting Bush to make an unnecessary,
stupid and illegal war which only aggravates the justifiable terrorist war our
obscene violations and support of Israel brought to us for many years including
two hits on the WTC. There will be more because we have no defense except
the law which says stop doing what causes the hatred, anger and justifiable
murderous response.

What Congress does may mean the difference between success
and failure. Presently we failed and will fail until we and Israel are completely
out of the occupation business.

For at least the third time recently, Putin pledged "permanent partners"
with Iran. Previously, he exposed his new missile system for which there
is no current or believable defense. He next stated in view of Bush, he was
forming new alliances and re-planning his strategic military options.

Are we safer today after 9-11? NOT! Are we safer with Bush? NOT! Will we
be safe with Kerry? NOT as long as he continues to pledge U.S. support of
Israeli illegal occupations.

John W. Willmott, FL, USA

Friday, May 21- 4 PM: Emergency Protest in Chicago for Rafah Horror by IDF!

When: Friday, May 21, 4:00 PM
Where: Israeli Consulate. 111 East Wacker Drive - just east of the corners of Michigan Avenue and Wacker.

Logistics: Please signs, banners, posters, Palestinian flags, props, and most importantly as many people as you can reach. Peace and justice organizations can add their endorsement of this action by posting to this list-serve.

- Initiated by the Coalition for Justice in Palestine

What Happened?

At least 11 ( and possibly as many as 20 people) were killed outright when an Israeli Apache helicopter and tank opened fire on a crowd of Palestinian demonstrators who had gathered to protest Israel's efforts to flatten hundreds of Rafah homes to widen an Israeli army-controlled security corridor along the border with Egypt

Earlier Wednesday,Israeli forces ordered all males over 16 in the Rafah refugee camp to gather in one place or risk demolition of family homes. Israel has threatened to carry out a systematic destruction of homes in the impoverished area since the start of the invasion.

The Palestine News Network estimated that some 1,500 people were particpating in the peaceful march in Rafah when the attack began. BBC News reports later put the estimated crowd size at about 3000. The attack happened as protesters marched down the main street of Rafah towards the Tel Al-Sultan area where Israeli raids have been concentrated in the last two days.

Eyewitnesses report that people fled screaming, some dragging bloodied comrades and others carrying wounded children in their arms. "It was horrifying," said Mahmoud Abu Hashem, 35. "There was one person with his intestines coming out. Another had blood covering his face and you couldn't even make out his features". Fatalities are expected to quickly rise, with at least 50 - the majority school children and women - seriously wounded.

Emergency demonstrations are now being organized world wide to protest this latest outrage.

June 5-11: End US Support for Israel's Occupation!

On June 5-11, join with United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) and UFPJ member coalition US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation in a national week of action to demand that our government end its military, economic, and diplomatic support for Israel’s illegal military occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.

OCCUPATION: WRONG IN IRAQ, WRONG IN PALESTINE

The lesson of Abu Ghraib isn’t that a few bad apples went awry, as Rumsfeld and Bush want us to believe. It’s that occupying other people’s countries inevitably requires brutal and dehumanizing means to try to make the occupied accept foreign control of their land and resources.

It is a fact that more than 3 million Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation have known for 37 years.

June 2004 marks the 37th anniversary of Israel’s illegal military occupation of Palestine’s West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. This occupation denies the Palestinian people the right to self-determination, fuels bloodshed, and prevents the establishment of a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians whereby both peoples can live in freedom, dignity, and security.

If occupation is wrong in Iraq, why would it be right in Palestine?

WHY U.S. SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL’S OCCUPATION MUST END

While it is Israel that directly occupies these Palestinian lands, it is our government that provides Israel the military, economic, and diplomatic support Israel depends on to sustain its military occupation. Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. financial aid in the world, receiving $7.7 million per day in direct U.S. aid. Washington views this support as central to U.S. efforts to dominate the Middle East for U.S. economic and military advantage.

Worse, Bush has given unqualified support to the illegal occupation policies of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He has backed Sharon’s brutal military measures, extra-judicial assassinations, and apartheid-like wall snaking through the West Bank. In April Bush abandoned decades of formal U.S. policy and backed Sharon’s unilateral plans to keep Israel’s colonial settlements built on occupied territory and reject Palestinian refugees’ right to return to the properties from which they were driven out by Israeli militias during the 1948 war.

Sharon’s policies trample on the human rights of Palestinians, violate international law, flaunt U.N. authority, and fuel the tragic cycle of violence between Palestinians and Israelis. But with a blank check from the U.S., Sharon faces few obstacles to pursuing his reckless dream of taking “as much of Palestine as possible with as few Palestinians as possible,” as Israeli scholar Ilan Pappe recently put it. Without that blank check, Sharon would feel pressured to end Israel’s occupation, remove the settlements, and negotiate a just Palestinian/Israeli peace.

TAKE ACTION—JUNE 5-11, 2004

NO MORE U.S. SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL’S OCCUPATION!

It’s time for the U.S. to stop giving Israel a blank check for occupation. UFPJ is calling for June 5-11 to be a national week of action and education to expand public backing for ending US support for Israel's illegal military occupation. UFPJ formally called for these actions last December, but the deepening of the Bush/Sharon alliance makes them even more urgent. Here’s what you can do:

1) EDUCATE YOUR COMMUNITY. If you or your group hasn’t taken a position on or undertaken work for a just Palestinian/Israeli peace before, we encourage you to organize educational events for your group or community during the national week of action. For more information about Israel’s occupation and U.S. support for it, see the resources below.

2) ORGANIZE A PROTEST in your city or town. Let others know by posting your event on UFPJ’s on-line calendar at http://www.unitedforpeace.org/calendar_gxinput.php . Be sure to cross-post at the US Campaign’s on-line calendar:

http://endtheoccupation.org/calendar_input.php

3) SIGN A PETITION TO CONGRESS. The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is seeking individual and organizational endorsements of its petition to end U.S. support for Israel’s occupation. The U.S. Campaign will deliver the petition to Members of Congress and the State Department during the US Campaign's grassroots advocacy day on Capitol Hill on June 7. The Campaign’s goal is to have 500 organizational endorsements and thousands of individual endorsements. To read and sign the petition, please see:

http://endtheoccupation.org/petition.php?pid=2

4) WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR or opinion article for your local newspaper demanding that the United States end its support for Israel’s illegal military occupation of Palestinian lands.

RESOURCES

* For more information on Israel’s illegal occupation, its violations of international law, and the role of the United States in supporting them, please visit:

http://unitedforpeace.org/article.php?sub=43&list=sub

http://www.endtheoccupation.org/

* Download the U.S. Campaign’s “Dual Occupations: If It’s Wrong in Palestine, Why is the U.S. Doing it in Iraq?” at: http://endtheoccupation.org/downloads/dual_occupations.pdf and “Ending the Occupation: It’s the Law” at: http://endtheoccupation.org/downloads/fact_sheet_2.pdf

* For information on UFPJ’s approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict, go to http://unitedforpeace.org/article.php?sub=43&list=sub

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