In the Wake
of Qana
By Paul Findley
Jacksonville, IL
The ghastly human carnage at
Qana, Lebanon, should awaken everyone to the grim
reality that our nation’s attachment to
Israel is bad news. It entangles America in one
awful mess after another: first 9/11, then Afghanistan,
then Iraq, and now Lebanon. None would have occurred
if our government had refused to support Israel’s
long subjugation of the Palestinians.
Instead of continuing to ignore this entanglement
with near-total silence, our citizens should now
seek a way out through civilized open debate and
discussion. If so, Qana will be a silver lining
-- although a bloody one -- in this otherwise
engulfing cloud.
Striving as usual to live by the sword, Israelis
seem unwilling to face the stark fact that they
will never be truly secure until Palestinians
feel secure in an independent state of their own.
Hezbollah’s recent border skirmish was motivated
partly by leader Hassan Nasrallah’s desire
to show solidarity with the Palestinians in their
lonely, desperate struggle for survival in Gaza.
Using the skirmish as a pretext for war, Israel
is now trying to wipe out northern resistance
to their colonialism. The initial goal is the
destruction of the Hezbollah, a popular Lebanese
Shi’ite organization that has long provided
social services for local citizens along with
armed resistance to Israeli occupation policies.
Six years ago, Hezbollah handed Israel its only
battlefield defeat in history by forcing it to
withdraw its forces from South Lebanon. Perhaps
Israelis believe that bombing Hezbollah and much
of Lebanon back to the Stone Ages will ease the
memory of defeat. Israel’s major objective
in its latest war-making is the installation of
a compliant new regime in Beirut.
The US government is not a bystander in this gruesome
enterprise. President Bush strongly supports Israel’s
invasion and publicly opposes an immediate ceasefire
until Israel finishes its long-planned schedule
of killings and destruction. US Secretary of State
Condoleessa Rice smilingly calls these horrors
the “birth pangs of a new Middle East.”
If past is prologue, with the help of Congress,
Bush will provide further evidence of US complicity
by sending Israel a US Treasury check big enough
to cover Israel’s expenses in this latest
of seven invasions of Lebanon. Our government
has already expedited a new supply of laser-guided
missiles to Israel and donated $150 million worth
of aviation fuel, a gift that will help finance,
among other ugly missions, the deliberate recurrent
terrifying sonic booms that deny sleep for hapless
Palestinians in Gaza.
The Bush team may seriously view Hezbollah as
a bunch of evil terrorists, but the organization
rides high as heroes in the Arab/Muslim world
and far beyond. Polls show close to 90 percent
support throughout Lebanon, even in government
circles and among Christians, and strong majority
“street” support in other Arab/Muslim
countries. Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas, a similar
group recently elected to leadership in Palestine,
are broadly admired for standing tall against
Israel, the United States and other Western powers.
In the wake of the ghastly tide of blood at Qana,
the people of the Middle East--except in Israel--view
Israel and Washington as the real terrorists.
In recent years, anti-American passions have focused
mainly against President Bush and his team, but
the recent near-unanimous approval of congressional
resolutions endorsing Israel’s war in Lebanon
now put Americans generally on the hate list.
Only eight of the 435 members in the US House
of Representatives — self-styled as “the
people’s” branch of government —
had the courage and decency to vote no. No wonder
Americans are hated as never before.
Surely, the American people are wise and resolute
enough to elect a government that will suspend
all government aid until Israel sheathes its sword,
lives by the rule of law, and vacates all Arab
territory it has illegally held since the June
1967 Israeli-Arab war.
America’s dangerous attachment to Israel
must end. We should have made a clean break from
this warrior state years ago, but better late
than never.
(Paul Findley, Member of Congress 1961-93, lectures
widely and is author of three books on Middle
East Affairs. One, “They Dare to Speak Out,”
is a bestseller. He resides in Jacksonville, Illinois.
E-mail: Findley1@Verizon.net)
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