Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski surprised many Americans when he criticized the military policy of the Israeli government and compared it with that of the former apartheid government of South Africa.
It is not an easy task to counter the massive pro-Israeli wave in the US media which have condensed the current Middle East crisis into a war against terror linking it with the Sept.11 events in New York and Washington.
Unfortunately, Ariel Sharon has succeeded in making the American public believe that Israel is currently waging a war against terrorism. Sharon has influenced not only the ill-informed among the people, but also those who should know better.
Brzezinski, who appeared in a debate with Henry Kissinger, also a former security advisor, on the CNN, was candid in his arguments and fair in rejecting the present crisis as a war against terror.
Unfortunately, the United States, with its full weight thrown behind Israel — until the latest speech by President Bush indicated slight shift — has accepted the Israeli claim that it is waging a war against terrorism. Israel also holds Yasser Arafat responsible for “terrorism”.
Anyone who is conversant with the political climate in Palestine knows well that though President Arafat is the legitimate head of the Palestinian Authority and the popular symbol of Palestinian aspirations, he does not have control over all the events there. Consequently, besieging him and threatening him with exile can serve no purpose other than that of finding a scapegoat for Sharon’s failure to bring security for the Israelis as he had promised at the time of election. Sharon needs only a symbolic victory; and he will find it easy to accomplish it, as would any head of a state commanding a mighty army fighting an enemy who has no army at all.
As Brzezinski pointed out, Israelis cannot have both peace and land at the same time. Thirty-five years of futile occupation have proved beyond doubt that peace can never be achieved by repression. Even if Arafat is removed from the political scene and isolated or put to death, peace and security will still elude Israel — and for a much more longer time. The Israeli public knows this fact. Precisely for this reason, the Americans, who have to pay the cost of this war with their earnings and with their safety, should not be tricked into accepting such ideas.
I noted with great sadness that on the three days I spent in the city of Houston, I found American TV distorting the developments in the Middle East with selective reports and pictures. All the stations repeated the chorus that this is a war against terror. They never explained that there are other crimes as heinous as terror. Occupation is an internationally condemned crime committed against populations and their land. In a prejudiced and selective manner, the Americans link their destiny with the Israelis by mistakenly drawing a parallel between their country’s response to the attacks on New York and Washington and Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians land, thus entering a dark tunnel riddled with dangers.
After comparing the activities of the Sharon government with the racist South African government, Brzezinski warned Israel that the plight of its government would not be different from that of South Africa if it insisted on occupying and humiliating a whole people in the name of security, history or religion or in the name of its special relations with a superpower.
