Israeli savagery in Rafah, which has so far only managed to “trouble” President Bush, is nonetheless causing revulsion elsewhere in the world. The deceiving mask of a law-abiding, democratic state, richly deserving of outside support, has slipped right off the ugly face of Israel. What the international community is seeing now with the gunning down of dozens of unarmed demonstrators and the destruction of hundreds of Palestinians homes is the grim reality of Zionist hatred and repression in the Occupied Territories. Yesterday tanks and helicopters opened fire on a crowd of people demonstrating in protest at the bulldozing of their homes. The streets were left littered with bodies. Among the dead were young children. Amnesty International has called the collective punishment being meted out to the Palestinians by the obliteration of their homes as contrary to the Fourth Geneva Convention and hence a war crime.
The Zionists of all people ought to understand the illegality of collective punishment. After all, that is what was inflicted by the Nazis upon the helpless Jews trapped in their ghettos. Equally, the Israeli demand yesterday that all Palestinian males over the age of 16 gather at a school or the building in which they remained would be destroyed, carries a strong echo of Nazi actions in the ghettos. Of course, Amnesty’s report has been dismissed out of hand. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said that its actions in Gaza were designed to protect the lives and security of its citizens and were in full compliance with international law. He seemed to suggest therefore that Israelis should be sleeping safer in their beds tonight because of the murders of these children and other protesters.
This day of bloody infamy had demonstrated more clearly than ever that the Israelis are like a rabid dog running madly and biting everyone. The Zionists really do not care what anyone says or thinks. They have the guns and tanks and helicopters and high grade satellite intelligence — all supplied cheaply by the United States and paid for with US money. It is Israel’s boot that is on the neck of the Palestinian people who have little but their own explosive-laden bodies to hurl back at the enemy. The Israel calculation is that as long as Washington continues to support Zionist hatred and expansion, no one can touch them.
The American people might still be suckered by the myth of “brave little Israel” but in Europe, there is greater understanding. Europeans know all about oppressing minorities because 60 years ago they themselves did it to the Jews. Now they are seeing Jews do it to Arabs. These are simply not the actions of a civilized, law-abiding state and any man who thinks otherwise, including President Bush, is either a fool or an accomplice or maybe both.
