Al Jazeera Plays the Race Card in the Israeli Conflict
This is how Al Jazeera is spinning the current Israeli conflict in the Middle East:
Racism is "the belief that one ‘racial group’ is inferior to another and the practices of the dominant group to maintain the inferior position of the dominated group. Often defined as a combination of power, prejudice and discrimination."
This is how the British Library defines racism on its Web site. The above definition hardly deviates from the essence of almost all definitions of the ominous concept. And, indeed, the concept is being fully utilized with Israel’s onslaught against the Palestinians, and the international community and media’s mild, if not accommodating response to the onslaught.
The capture of Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit is an act of self-defense. According to international law and the Geneva Conventions, he can be considered a prisoner of war, but not according to CNN, Fox News and the BBC, who present the soldier as a victim "kidnapped" by Palestinian "militants" who are "affiliated" with the Hamas government.
If you are an avid viewer of Fox News or a reader of the New York Times, then Israel is yet to exceed its legitimate legal boundaries: that of a democracy opting to defend its citizens. But only racism can lead to such rationale. Only a racist media portrays the capture of a soldier whose army units have besieged Gazans for years, denying them food and medicine, as a violation of all that is holy. Only a racist media presents the kidnapping of 9,000 Palestinians, now in Israeli jails, as a just outcome of Israel’s routine arrests of Palestinian terrorists or potential terrorists. Only racism can play down the Israeli destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, which is justified without question, for such actions are necessary to impede the militants’ efforts.
And yet, Israel is praised for its "generous" act of allowing some food to be transferred to Gazans, who ironically have gone hungry because of the Israeli-spearheaded international campaign to punish Palestinians for electing Hamas.
Is it racist to jail terrorists caught trying to annihilate Jews? Is it racist to not trust the Palestinians who cannot keep a peace pact or cease fire if their lives depended upon it? Is it racist that the Palestinians have done virtually nothing with Israel in 1500 years while the Jews in 60 have made it a 1st world superpower? Perhaps if Palestinians could have refrained crossed over the Israeli border to blow up Jews the wall on Gaza strip’s West Bank would not have been necessary. There are plenty of jobs and wealth in Israel, yet the Palestinians, continually seeking to kill the Jews, have made their own poverty by virtue of their own racist agenda. Palestinian refugee situation exists because of their own effort to eradicate Israel since it attained statehood 60 years ago.
It is debatable whether the Palestinians et al consider themselves superior to the Jews, but it is certainly racist to seek the annihilation of a country based on its race as is being done to Israel. When Hamas recently kidnapped an Israeli soldier and Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed at least eight last week, they did so trying to portray the abductions as "acts of self-defense". Israeli soldiers are being held as bargaining chips to release the Palestinian prisoners who are incarcerated because of the crimes they’ve committed against Israel.
Let’s examine Hamas and Hezbullah.
Hamas, largely funded by Iran, was founded in 1987 and is the Gaza Strip branch of the Sunni Pan-Arab Islamic Muslim Brotherhood movement. Hamas is opposed to the "existence of Israel" but perhaps disingenuously offered a 10 years truce last year in exchange for several conditions including a complete withdrawal from the occupied territories. Hamas’ tactics include using women suicide bombers and even children under the age of 10. They have also been known to coax women under the threat of "honor killings" to carry out suicide bombings against Israel.
Hamas is now the governing party of Palestine. Hamas leaders have openly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map". Palestinian Foreign Ministry Mahmoud al-Zahar said earlier this year:
"I have dreams of hanging a huge map of the world on the wall at my Gaza home which does not show Israel on it…I hope that our dream to have our independent state on all historic Palestine (including Israel). This dream will become real one day. I’m certain of this because there is no place for the state of Israel on this land".
Hezbollah is a Lebanese Islamist group founded in 1982 to fight the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. It has been responsible for the murders of Jews since its inception. It has been accused of kidnapping and/or murdering over 30 westerners between 1982 and 1992. Hezbollah is believed responsible for the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beruit killing 63, the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks killing 241 Marines in 1983, bombing the replacement U.S. Embassy in East Beirut in 1984 killing 22, and hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985. This is only a partial Hezbollah resume’.
BACKGROUND
Israel has belonged to the Jews since approximately 1500 B.C. After the Jews were dispersed into exile and Jerusalem destroyed in 586 B.C., they came back to Israel and lived under Persian, Greek and Roman occupation for hundreds of years. In 70 A.D. came the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and the scattering of most Jews. In 135 A.D., the Romans finally drove most of the remaining Jews out of Jerusalem, creating a second diaspora. The Romans named the area Palaestina, or in English, Palestine.
With the signing of The Balfour Declaration of 1917, Britain stated its support for the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine without violating the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities. In 1920, based on the Balfour Declaration, Britain received a provisional mandate over Palestine. The British were to help the Jews build a national home and “promote the creation of self-governing institutions”.
After World War II, the United States and other countries pressured Britain to allow immigration of the Jews back to Palestine. The Jews were displaced after surviving the Holocaust in Europe. Arabs in Palestine resisted the immigration of 100,000 Jews. Britain found Palestine to be ungovernable and so it returned the issue to the United Nations. On November 29, 1947, U.N. Resolution GA 181 was passed and Israel was recognized to be a sovereign nation. The geography had to be reworked, but Israel was now it’s own nation again, despite the vocal rejection of the Palestinians. Virtually from that moment on, the Arabs of Palestine have been fighting the new Israel.
During the 6 Day War of 1967, Israel defended itself against Egypt, Syria and Jordan and in the process took back the West Bank of the Gaza strip, hence, the "occupation". If Israel had not been attacked, this "occupation" would not have been necessary.
CALLS FOR ISRAEL TO USE RESTRAINT
Now, the leaders of the G-8 Summit are calling for Israel to stop its military attacks on Lebanon/Hezbollah as well as for the return of the abducted Israeli soldiers. HERE IS THE FULL G-8 DOCUMENT. Part of the document reads:
The immediate crisis results from efforts by extremist forces to destabilize the region and to frustrate the aspirations of the Palestinian, Israeli and Lebanese people for democracy and peace. In Gaza, elements of Hamas launched rocket attacks against Israeli territory and abducted an Israeli soldier. In Lebanon, Hizbollah, in violation of the Blue Line, attacked Israel from Lebanese territory and killed and captured Israeli soldiers, reversing the positive trends that began with the Syrian withdrawal in 2005, and undermining the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.
These extremist elements and those that support them cannot be allowed to plunge the Middle East into chaos and provoke a wider conflict. The extremists must immediately halt their attacks.
It is also critical that Israel, while exercising the right to defend itself, be mindful of the strategic and humanitarian consequences of its actions. We call upon Israel to exercise utmost restraint, seeking to avoid casualties among innocent civilians and damage to civilian infrastructure and to refrain from acts that would destabilize the Lebanese government.
In 1993, just after Bill Clinton was elected President, George H.W. Bush, Sr., visited Kuwait, which the U.S. had liberated from Iraq. Saddam Hussein ordered an assassination of Bush, which was thwarted. Pres. Clinton responded by ordering the Air Force to bomb Baghdad. On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden carried out its terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, DC., and a failed attempt to fly a plane into the White House. The response is Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Sovereign countries have the right of self-defense and to answer attacks. In Israel’s case, there is a duty to fight for the abducted Israeli soldiers.
In contrast, when Al-Qaeda bombed the USS Cole on October 12, 2000 killing 12 U.S. seamen at a port in Yemen, Bill Clinton’s response was to do nothing, as G-8 leaders and the Vatican are urging Israel to do. When the U.S. Marine barracks were bombed in Beirut killing 241 Marines, the U.S. pulled troops out of Lebanon. In October 1993, U.S. Army Rangers fought the warlords of Mogadishu, Somalia and lost 18 soldiers. The Clinton administration cut our losses and ran. As a result of this Osama Bin Laden became emboldened and planned new attacks against the US: “Our people realized more than before that the American soldier is a paper tiger that run[s] in defeat after a few blows.”
There is no need for Israel to repeat the mistakes of the United States. Both Hezbollah and Hamas have said that they are sure their course is correct because in the past, Israel has negotiated the release of Palestinian terrorists and presume Israel will, in time, do so again. For Israel’s part in this war on terror, their conduct has been admirable.
There is nothing racist about protecting one’s country and defeating one’s enemies when attacked. Racism is Arab countries trying to wipe Israel off the map in the same way Adolf Hitler persecuted the Jews because of a belief in his Arian race. For these reasons, I SUPPORT ISRAEL.
PREVIOUS ENTRIES:
A Victory for Islamic Terrorism
Cross-posted at Amy’s Blog
July 16th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
Eight deaths as katyusha rockets hit Haifa
More results of Ehud Olmert and Amir Peretz’s incompetance:
July 16th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
Bush To Israel: Be “Mindful Of The Consequences” (of actions). What About Consequences Of Inaction?
While there Bush’s comments on the recent outbreak of war in the middle east have been pretty well received by most, I think many people are overlooking one small thing that he said, that isn’t quite sending the right message….