“Iraq
and Palestine Are Two Sides of the Same Coin”
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
CA
Former Congressman Paul Findley
says one fundamental question remains unanswered:
why did we invade Iraq which had nothing to do
with 9/11 and posed no threat whatever to the
United States? Paul Findley, 83, was speaking
at a symposium - “War or Peace” -
in Newark CA, sponsored by the American Institute
of International Studies (AIIS).
In a keynote speech entitled “The Middle
East and US Foreign Policy,” the former
Republican congressman pointed out that discarding
one premise after another, the president now trumpets
the Iraqi war as urgently needed to bring democracy
and freedom to Iraq. “Ponder this question:
Could President Bush have rushed Congress and
the American people into a bloody, $200 billion
war in order to bring freedom and democracy to
the Iraqis? Of course not. That justification
would be rejected as preposterous.”
Invading Iraq was the worst folly in American
history, claimed Findley. “As a grim testament,
more than sixteen hundred caskets containing youthful
remains have been shipped from Iraq to their grieving
families in America. Wounded fill military hospitals.
Thousands of families in America and many more
in Iraq are blighted forever.”
Paul Findley who served from 1981-1983 as a US
Representative from Illinois, said that there
can be no doubt that Israel is the real reason
for the US invasion of Iraq. He pointed out that
General Anthony Zinni, for a time the president’s
special emissary to the Middle East, spoke the
truth recently when he said Israel and oil are
widely accepted in Washington, D.C., as the real
reasons President Bush ordered the invasion of
Iraq. “And any close observer would know
that Israel was by far the stronger of the two
reasons. If our government commits acts of war,
God forbid, against Iran and/or Syria, neither
of which pose a threat to US security, these wars
will be executed mainly to benefit Israel.”
He believes that Iraq and Palestine are two sides
of the same coin and if the US truly seeks justice
for the Palestinian people, the Iraqi insurgency
would subside.
The former congressman argued that US Middle East
policy is not designed by US officials but is
the creation of two religious communities here
in America (Jewish and Christian Right) that have
attained great political power.
For over 35 years, successive US administrations
have engaged by proxy in what must be described
as a war of territorial conquest undertaken by
the State of Israel, he said, and added, “We
continue this proxy war, and beginning three years
ago we started our own non-proxy wars, using our
own military in direct invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Both invasions can be traced to our government’s
passionate attachment to Israel.”
Elaborating on the two groups, Findley said that
the older pro-Israel religious group is headed
by Israel’s formal US lobby, the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). It consists
almost exclusively of US citizens of the Jewish
faith. “My book, They Dare to Speak Out:
People and Institutions Confront Israel’s
Lobby, explains in detail the origin, history,
and techniques of this lobby,” he added.
The other group is of more recent origin and consists
of Christians who accept a dangerous interpretation
of the Bible’s Book of Revelations, he said.
“It consists of more than seventy million
citizens. Without this group’s support,
Bush would not have been reelected in 2004.”
Paul Findley said that the pro-Israel lobbies
defeat legislators who criticize Israel. “Senators
Adlai Stevenson and Charles Percy, and Reps. Paul
‘Pete’ McCloskey, Cynthia McKinney,
Earl Hilliard, and myself were defeated at the
polls by candidates heavily financed by pro-Israel
forces. Of the victims, only McKinney regained
her seat in Congress.”
In his view, if the US government had refused
to finance Israel’s subjugation of Palestine,
9/11 would not have occurred and there would be
no war in Iraq or Afghanistan. “Any US president
in the last 35 years could have forced Israel
to end its occupation of Arab land seized in 1967
simply by suspending all US aid. But none did.”
He went on to say that terrorism almost always
arises from deeply-felt grievances, but in the
wake of 9/11, our government has made no effort
to recognize legitimate grievances that may have
provoked the suicide bombers. “The grievances
exist, but our government makes no effort to recognize
them, much less redress them. Nothing can justify
9/11. Those guilty deserve severe punishment,
but it makes no sense for our government to ignore
motivations.”
On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict his remarks
were very frank: “Our president rarely says
a sympathetic word about the Palestinians. He
often says Israel has a right to defend itself
but never mentions the same right for Palestine.
Nor does he mention the fact that some Palestinians
become suicide bombers because this reprehensible
tactic seems to them the only way to fight back.
Our president must be persuaded to suspend all
aid until Israel behaves. America must cut all
ties to Israel’s criminal behavior. If President
Bush suspends aid, he will liberate all Americans
from further complicity in Israel’s misdeeds.”
Findley pointed out that foreigners now see US
as an imperial nation bent on the military domination
of the Middle East and beyond. “In the name
of national security, our government scuttles
the doctrine of national sovereignty, the bedrock
of the legal rights of nations for more than three
centuries. Our government no longer reserves war
as an instrument of last resort. We plan more
wars. Will Iran be next? Then Syria? Pray to God
the answer will be no.”
At home, he said, precious civil liberties are
suspended while hundreds of Muslims are rounded
up for questioning and for detention on flimsy
charges or no charges at all. “These arrests
stir unwarranted public fear of Islam. According
to recent polls, 25 percent of the American people
believe Muslims are anti-American. Forty-four
percent believe they encourage violence - nearly
double the percentage of a year ago. Forty-six
percent want the civil liberties of US Muslims
restricted. A Protestant clergyman wrote to me
the other day, declaring that all Muslims should
be evicted from America. Muslims actually make
great contributions to the betterment of America.
A California Muslim recently received the Nobel
Prize in physics.”
Speaking about the stereotyping of Muslims in
the mainstream media, the former congressman pointed
out that most Americans mistakenly believe that
Muslims condone suicide bombings and other violence,
that they worship a strange, vengeful God, that
they abuse women, and want to make radical changes
in the American system of government. “These
stereotypes are false, but they are so prevalent
they constitute a road block to the reform of
US policy. Until the stereotypes are dismissed,
they will evoke sympathy for Israel, surrounded
as it is by millions of Muslims, people mislabeled
as terrorists,” said Findley who is also
the author of another best selling book “Silent
No More: Confronting America’s False Images
of Islam.”
(Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Executive Editor
of the online magazine American Muslim Perspective
www.amperspective.com)
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