|
CounterPunch
February
26, 2003
Gaza's Olives are
Sweeter Than Sharon's Agenda
Israeli
Empire: From the Nile to the Euphrates
by LINDA HEARD
"Let me tell you about those Gaza
olives. First of all, they are the bitterest ones in the entire
world. Gaza people say that the olives get their bitterness from
life in the Gaza Strip, from the pressure of the Occupation.
And not only are these olives bitter,
they can also drive you crazy with their saltiness. And that
is because of the tears of the Gaza women. Tears they shed in
the olive groves seep through into the olives".
These are words written by Tal Belo,
a Staff Sergeant in the Armoured Corps of Israel's occupying
forces.
Tal Belo is one of more than 500 Israeli
"Refuseniks" conscientious objectors currently
refusing to serve in the West Bank and Gaza. Part of a letter
they have signed and delivered to their government reads: "We
shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order
to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people."
Another signatory, Sergeant Noam Livne,
makes an emotional appeal to the Israeli people: "People
wake up! This is now! Now it is happening! Just a few kilometres
from where you are sitting now there is a war which is taking
place, a brutal, awful, idiotic, unjust, voluntary war."
These words were written before the recent
Israeli elections and as history shows the Israeli public ignored
the passionate appeals of those who have taken part in the heinous
occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Instead, they once again chose an alleged
war criminal, said to have links with the Russian mafia, to be
their guiding light. Israelis have chosen and will have to accept
the consequences resulting from that choice.
Now it is our turn. We are faced with
the dilemma of whether or not to attack Iraq. Now it is up to
the peoples of the American, British, Australian, Spanish and
Italian so-called democracies whose leaders are all supporters
of the Bush doctrine to make up their minds whether or
not to follow the Israeli lead and choose conflict over peace.
Are we (I say "we" as a British
national)... are we prepared to condone the state-sanctioned
murder of thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands
of Iraqi people, including women, children and babies?
A leaked United Nations report read:
"Up to 500,000 people could suffer serious injuries during
the first phase of an attack on Iraq". The report also suggests
that up to 10 million Iraqis could require assistance during
the aftermath and warns of an enormous refugee problem.
Shouldn't this alone give us food for
thought as to whether we can accept such an outrageous toll?
An indication of our true feelings concerning
Bush's pre-emptive war are the polls which show that most of
us want a peaceful solution to the disarmament of Iraq. Almost
10 million concerned individuals voted with their feet through
the streets of more than 600 cities worldwide on February 15.
Yet, in our "democracies" our
leaders brush aside our expression of solidarity with humanity.
George W. Bush dismissed millions of protestors as a mere interest
group. If he is right then I am honoured to be a member. This
is a group, which believes in life over death and altruism over
greed, epitomising all that is fine about mankind.
Tony Blair admits that he has failed
to convince us as to the justification of this war but arrogantly
clings on to his own self-righteousness. Blair pits his own moral
rectitude against that of most religious leaders, including the
Pope, who in a fraught face-to-face meeting on Saturday urged
him to "avoid the tragedy of war".
Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi, the Grand
Imam of Al Azhar, is another opponent of American aggression.
He said: "We reject any harm to befall the Iraqi people
who are an integral part of the Arab and Muslim worlds".
Rowan Williams, the Arch-bishop of Canterbury
issued a rare joint statement with his Catholic counterpart Cardinal
Cormac Murphy-O'Connor refuting any moral basis for war, and
condemning the quasi-religious rhetoric being used by certain
leaders to elicit support. It is obvious by Blair's words and
deeds that he feels he knows better.
Britain's Daily Mirror depicted the British
Prime Minister with blood dripping from his upturned palms on
its front cover but what it didn't explain was that we will all
have the blood of Iraqi and Palestinian children on our hands
if this war is allowed to proceed.
Those of us who live in democracies must
make our feelings known by peaceful protest, letters, phone calls
and emails. If our leaders refuse to listen then our ostensible
democracies are nothing but a sham. We will at least have tried.
We try to salve our own consciences by
telling ourselves that if Security Council member nations approve
Iraq's forcible disarmament then that's fine. But is it? As I
write, in the United Nations Headquarters, behind closed doors,
nations are being intimidated, threatened and bribed by emissaries
of the powerful warmongers.
Turkey has been offered six billion dollars
to allow American soldiers to use its soil as a launching pad
for the invasion and demands 30 billion, Germany has been threatened
with economic isolation and France subjected to insulting rhetoric.
Mexico has been bullied with the spectre of economic retribution.
The Arabs have been scrutinising the signs which read "Watch
out! You could be next".
Some 141 foreign ministers, representing
more than 50 per cent of the world's entire population, recently
expressed their opposition to a U.S.-led war on Baghdad, and
urged the lifting of the debilitating sanctions. So, are we truly
able to call any United Nations resolution sanctioning war with
Iraq "the will of the international community?"
Russia has complained about pressure
(from the U.S.) being put upon the chief weapons inspectors,
Hans Blix and Mohamed El Baradei, to declare Iraq's non-cooperation.
Perhaps like many of us, the Russian
government finds it suspect that the inspectors are invariably
hosted by Washington and London prior to their visits to Baghdad.
Blix and El Baradei still maintain that
they want more proactive cooperation, whatever that entails,
and have now presented the Iraqi regime with a difficult choice.
With the enemy literally at the door
and self-defence a prime concern of the Iraqis, Baghdad is being
told that hundreds of its Al Samoud missiles will have to be
destroyed before March 1 because they exceed the permitted range
of 150 kilometres by what most people would term an insignificant
20 kilometres.
If Iraq agrees, the country will be left
vulnerable. If it doesn't, it will be accused of being in material
breach of Resolution 1441, a probable trigger for war. The Iraqis
seek negotiation, Blix is intransigent.
Even if we are willing to put our hands
over our ears and eyes when it comes to Iraq and convince ourselves
that everything is the fault of Saddam Hussain à la Tony
Blair, what about the Palestinians?
How will a war with Iraq affect them?
Does anybody care? America has loaned Israel missile defence
capabilities to protect Israelis. Sharon has issued gas masks
to Israeli citizens in the unlikely event that Iraq launches
missiles carrying biological or chemical warheads, destination
Israel. Israelis have the opportunity and the cash with which
to purchase protective kits.
The Palestinians, however, have been
left defenceless in case of such an attack even though, as an
occupied people, their safety is the responsibility of the occupying
state. A petition filed with Israel's High Court by various human
rights organisations, asking that the Israeli government be forced
to hand out gas masks to West Bank and Gaza Palestinians, was
rejected.
Many Middle East pundits, including 100
Israeli intellectuals and academics, say that Sharon is waiting
anxiously for the bombs to begin raining on Iraq, so as to implement
his dream of a Greater Israel "from the Nile to the Euphrates".
They believe that the Israeli Occupying
Forces will carry out enforced transfer of the Palestinian people
across the River Jordan, and perhaps, through the Rafah Crossing
into Egypt. Others foresee an Israeli attack on Lebanon and Syria.
Such prophesies have yet to be put to
the test, but one thing is certain, the olives of Gaza will never
be as bitter as this year's harvest and the next, and the next.
And the tears of millions of women and children in Iraq, the
Gaza Strip and the West Bank will never be able to wash clean
our collective conscience if this terrible so-called pre-emptive
war is allowed to proceed.
Yesterday's
Features
Gary Leupp
The
Weekend the World Said No to War:
Notes on the Numbers
Jason Leopold
Powell Warned Bush About
Bloody Price of Unilateral War
Ross Vachon
Joe
Lieberman: Yankee Tartuffe
Ahmad Faruqui
Killing
with Sanctions, Then Bombs
Estimating Civilian Casualties in Iraq War
Reza Ghorashi
Why
War with Iraq?
What Should Iranians Do?
Craig Axford
Environmentalism as Homeland Security
Harvey Wasserman
There's
Nothing Patriotic About It
Ramzi Kysia
Dispatch from Baghdad:
Living Against Disaster
Charles Sullivan
The
Failure of Mass Education
Gilad Atzmon
The Birth of the Tragedy:
On Reason, Justice and the Victim Mentality
Website of the Day
Lysistrata
Project
Keep CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- CounterPunch Special:
The Persecution of Gershon Legman by Susan Davis: Smut, the Post Office, Commies
and the FBI;
- Reeling Democrats: Is Pelosi the Answer?
- Gandhi v. Hitler: the Secret Race for the Nobel
Prize;
- Sullying Mario Savio's
Memory;
- Lynching Then and Now;
- Earn While You Learn: Chris Whittle and Child Labor;
The Case of the Pompous
Professor;
- The Class Struggle in
Boston: All that
Effort, But What Did They Get?
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
February 22
/ 23, 2003
Laura Flanders
Security Threat?
Bernadette Devlin McAliskey Barred Entry to US
Alexander Cockburn
The Trouble with E-Bombs
Kathy Kelly
Letter from Baghdad
Tight Squeeze
Subcomandate
Marcos
A Universal
No to the War of Fear
William Cook
Armageddon Anxiety
Jo Freeman
Conservative Women
Michael Colby
Howard Dean is No Green
Ben Tripp
Fact-Checking the Constitution
Joanne Mariner
Pets Unite!
Richard Falk and David Krieger
Iraq and the Failures of Democracy
Uri Avnery
War Crimes and Sharon
Ian Williams
John Bolton in Jerusalem
Michael Wolff
How Sanctions Destroyed Iraqi Education
William Hughes
The Zev and Ari Show
Susanna Sonnenberg
Boxing Missoula
Michael Ortiz Hill
Peace and Humility
Anis Shivani
When Kafka Aligns with Orwell
John Mihelich
The Hidden History of Butte's
Working Class
Rich Procter
Bush and His Fabled Gut
Adam Engel
Voice of the Nation
Becky Johnson
The Hopscotch Rebellion
Krieger, Tripp, Ashley
Poets' Basement
Website of
the Weekend
The
Pedro Martinez of Palestine
February 15
/ 16, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Colin
Powell and the Great "Intelligence Fraud"
Rep. Dennis
Kucinich
The Whole World is Watching
Edward Said
A Monumental Hypocrisy
Wouter Hijink
Report from Amsterdam
"War: Do Not Feed!"
Linda Heard
At Last! Proud to be British
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Taking a Stand on Iraq
Robert Fisk
The Case Against War
Lev Grinberg
Lessons from Israel
A War Without Legitimacy
Chris Floyd
Cold Fronts:
Bush War Profits
Ahmad Faruqui
Stepping Back from the Brink of War
Norman Madarasz
French Kisses from the Citizens of France
Adam Lebowitz
Scott Ritter in Tokyo
Kurt Nimmo
Bring Us the Head of Osama bin Laden
Forrest Hylton
The Revolt in Bolivia
Col. Dan Smith
Irrelevance and Credibility:
Bush, NATO and the UN
Wayne Madsen
The Lies of Tom Lantos
Ranjit Hoskote
The Invisible Modernities of the Islamic World
Emily Zitter-Smith
Who's Safe Now?
An American in Cairo
Rich Procter
Anybody Remember the Powell Doctrine?
Poets Basement:
Eliot
Katz, Scott Handleman, and Bruce Tomczak
Website of the Weekend
Anti-War
Posters
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|