How many more innocent children must die for Israel to quench its blood thirst? How long will the world choose to watch helplessly the images of children’s corpses split in half, mothers screaming in anguish for rescue, or ambulances not allowed to reach the wounded and the dead, and humanitarian agencies forbidden to extend basic relief to the living in Lebanon?
What is Israel really targeting?
I have watched with despair the terror that children have had to endure in Lebanon. What brutality and what barbarity is this? Nothing can justify this criminal policy. Human rights groups attacked Israel’s indiscriminate bombing campaign against innocent civilians. Researchers found that numerous cases in which Israeli forces launched artillery and air attacks on dubious military targets were at excessive civilian costs.
For example, a July 13 Israeli airstrike targeted the home of a scholar known for Hezbollah sympathies but not for any active role in the hostilities. The strike killed him, his wife, their 10 children and the family’s Sri Lankan maid.
“Hezbollah fighters must not hide behind civilians,” Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said in a statement. “That’s an absolute — but in many cases of civilian deaths examined by Human Rights Watch, the location of Hezbollah troops had nothing to do with the deaths because there was no Hezbollah around. Issuing warnings of imminent attacks do not turn civilians into military targets. The Israeli military seems to consider anyone left in the area a combatant who is fair game.”
Roth’s statements demonstrate his unbiased resolve to speak the truth. He exposes Israeli atrocities without buckling to the pressure of the Israeli lobby unlike many others in America. Many have suffered dearly because they dared to speak out.
Congressman Paul Findley lost his seat because of his critical views of US-Israeli policy. Others have paid a price as well, including the late Marlon Brando, Dan Rather and recently Mel Gibson.
I met Roth at the Fortune Aspen Institute Brainstorm event in June, and he was just as bold and righteous then. In a session about finding solutions to remedy global misunderstanding and distrust, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke about America’s commitment to establish democracies in the Middle East in order to help the region gain prosperity for its people.
However, Roth differed with her and asserted that the US should be promoting human rights in the Middle East and not democracy to bring prosperity to the region. He also said that the US must first regain its credibility that has been damaged if it hopes to have any kind of influence or impact in the region.
What is happening in Palestine and Lebanon today proves his point. Last week, I wrote an article calling upon world leaders to put a stop to Israeli brutality. To my dismay, I received hate mail from the US for expressing my outrage and condemnation. The letters were so arrogant and cold with no compassion for those suffering and dying. The repeated phrase that I keep hearing is that Israel has a right to defend itself with total disregard for the rights of the Lebanese and Palestinians to defend themselves.
I am sincerely shocked by the inhumanity of some American Jews. I thought that Jews more than any other people should be sensitive to pain and torture for what they have had to endure. I suppose that some of these people living in the comfort of their homes do not want to think of bad things that happened in the past. They have a dream that they want to pursue at any cost — even if it means the destruction of the whole world.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was alarmed by the lack of Israeli respect for international humanitarian law. Why should Israel be above the law? American citizens need to review their blind support that allows Israeli aggression and state terrorism. Arab resistance to occupation is legitimate.
The Lebanese and Palestinians have a right to fight for what is legitimately their land. Killing their resistance leaders will not end the bloodshed. The inaction by the UN to protect Palestinians and its inability to stop the brutal attack against Lebanon is a dangerous development.
The UN has become a tool for the big powers to enforce their policies of sanctions and attacks on countries with no military might. The failure of the UN to enforce international law to protect states against aggression and occupation has deprived it of its legitimacy and respect.
As a result the world is falling into a state of lawlessness. Without a change in policy, the only alternative left for the oppressed will be to form underground organizations to recruit freedom fighters to resist occupation and defend their people against injustices and brutality. Under such circumstances they will be justified and supported by the people of conscience who value their freedom.
President George W. Bush claims that Americans value the principle of freedom; however, his policies of aggression and occupation in Iraq and Palestine — and lately Lebanon — indicate that he reserves that privilege for Americans only. Israel and the US want the Arab world to abandon the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance or else terror will reign on all. Today, Lebanon; tomorrow Syria, and who knows, perhaps Saudi Arabia will be targeted next.
American money that supports Israeli terror methods of assassinations and brutal aggression makes the US a partner in the war crimes conducted by Israel against the innocent children of Lebanon and Palestine. It is now obvious that the “New Middle East” the Bush administration has in mind is one that is subservient to Israeli hegemony over the whole region.
Disrespecting international law and taking the military path will never end the conflict in the Middle East. World leaders must recognize the UN as the only legal international body to implement world order and global security.
Antagonistic policies and double standards have pushed the Middle East into an arms race and has created an urge in some for the acquisition of nuclear weapons to safeguard the territorial integrity of threatened Middle Eastern states.
As long as Israel continues to pose a threat to Arab countries with its expansionist policies to create a greater Israel there will be no peace in the Middle East, and the threat of terrorism will continue to haunt us all.
— Samar Fatany is a radio journalist. She is based in Jeddah.
