| Palestinian and Israeli dead both look the same
June 17, 2003
BY RAY HANANIA
When I turned on the television news last week, I had a hard time telling the dead Palestinians from the dead Israelis, although the media seemed to focus only on the latter.
And that's what is so sad. Rather than seeing terrorism and violence as a Middle East problem, it has become the fundamentals of political ideology. Those who support Israel point to the suicide bombings as reasons for their own extremist causes, while Palestinians turn to Israeli air strikes and the killing of civilians as justification, too.
But both sides are wrong. None of this is new. It's been going on for generations. Both sides are responsible for the problem, and neither is doing enough to achieve peace.
Hamas is a terrorist organization. I am most disgusted that they have hijacked the Palestinian cause and that they have imposed themselves as the representatives of the Palestinian people. They are not.
They believe in a fundamentalist Islamic state that discriminates against Christians and Jews. Their leadership is driven not by reason and logic but by the same emotion and hatred that drives their extremist movement.
But that doesn't mean they are the only ones out there who use violence to achieve their fanatic dreams.
The Israeli settler movement, which Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is a mentor to, is a terrorist organization that uses violence, provokes conflict and preaches a hatred of Christian and Muslim Palestinians.
Sharon's attacks using his military are no different than Hamas' attacks using suicide bombers.
Both should be equally denounced, and while I applaud President Bush for having the courage to stand up to Sharon and the powerful Israeli lobby in America, his criticism of Israel's military strikes is insufficient, far less than the outrage he displayed when Israelis were killed in the Jerusalem suicide murders.
When Israel's jets and soldiers attacked Palestinian targets in Gaza, they murdered many Palestinian civilians. Women. Children. Hundreds were wounded and many homes were destroyed.
In all the news coverage, I did not hear one reporter talk about who those Palestinians were who were murdered. But I heard about the Israelis who were killed. I heard witness accounts from Israelis. I even heard about the deadliness of the weapons that the suicide bombers used.
But the Israeli military uses weapons that are just as deadly and just as indiscriminate. For example, much was made of the "nails and metal" scraps that were packed into the suicide bombs.
Israel's military uses the same types of weapons. They don't refer to the metal included in their weapons as "nails and metal" scraps, but call them flachettes, a just-as-grisly term intended to make it sound acceptable.
And that is the tragedy of the Palestinians and Israelis.
To many Americans, and especially to those in the media, the murder of one seems acceptable while the murder of another does not.
Those who use the murder of Israelis and Palestinians to justify their political goals are accomplices to these crimes.
Those Jews and Palestinians who refuse to speak out and say what needs to be said are also a part of the problem.
Hamas is a terrorist organization, and Palestinians must stop pretending that the revenge they achieve is somehow justified. They must break from their silence and speak out against this inhuman practice of suicide bombings.
Israel's settler movement and its supporters are terrorists, too, and those Jews and Israelis who fail to speak out against their crimes or the violent actions of Sharon are just as guilty, too.
Source: http://www.hanania.com/aaview/col061703.htm | |
