MIDDLE EAST CRISIS: AM I BEING "UNILATERAL" OR EVEN, "FANATIZED"? HERE ARE SOME FACTS.

Children in Lebanon dressed up as soldiers of the Hezbollah
and carrying fake Katyusha missiles
(from my friend's Oldskipper blog)

Israeli girls decorating bombs bound for Lebanon

Some people, here and in other conversations, have been accusing me of being "unilateral" in my opinions, in the favor of the Arabs, or even "fanatised" against Israel. I deny that completely.

The truth is that I am very angry with Israel. I am angry with their leadership, who commits crimes against humanity. I am angry with the 90% (or is it 95%?) of the population who totally justifies the invasion in Lebanon, according to the polls, and with those who raise their children in HATE against the Arabs. I am angry with the jewish overseas organisations that fully support Israel in this war and may have been the ones who encouraged the total "operation". I AM ANGRY WITH THIS COUNTRY, ISRAEL, THAT HAS BECOME THE "BULLY" OF THE MIDDLE EAST. Am I righteously angry?

I am the last person in this world who would defend the fanatic Mullahs and the warlords of the Hezbollah, or the Hamas, or the theocratic non-secular regime of Iran, all these people who deny to Israel the right to exist. But let's face the facts.

After WWII, the "Powers" decided to give the Jews a homeland, mostly as an indemnity for the Holocaust and the sufferings of the European Jews. At this time, there were practically no Jews left in Palestine, a British colony up to then . So the West partitioned Palestine into Israel and Jordan, calling Jews from all over the world to re-populate the new state, after centuries (or millenia?) of worldwide "exile". The creation of Israel, in 1948, was a mythical dream come true for the Jews, albeit payed with the blood of the millions of the Holocaust victims.

I am neither an Arab nor a Jew, so it's easier for me to see things from a distance. I do not support or justify those who are opposed to the existence of Israel. I ACCEPT THE CREATION OF ISRAEL. The Jews have the right to have a homeland. A HOMELAND IN WHICH TO LIVE IN PEACEFULLY AND IN HARMONY WITH THEIR NEIGHBORS.

But the Arab world wouldn't accept that, not so easily. From the beginning they have been extremely hostile to the newly created state, refusing to acknowledge its legitimacy, and crying out for its extermination. And war was present from the very beginning. In 1948-49, war between Israel and Jordan. In 1956 Israel overran Egypt in the Suez-Sinai War. And before the six day war of 1967, the Arabs, led by the Egyptian president Nasser, were preparing to end up with Israel. Even today, I have the sensation that the majority of the Arabs would like Isrel to be wiped out of the map. And there are those extremists who have set as their live's aim to destruct Israel.



When the Arab world decided to wipe out Israel from the map, they launched a full scale attack against it. And they ate dust. David crushed Goliath with the big mouth. In six days, the Arabs, had not only been defeated, but also lost the Sina Peninsula and the Gaza stripe (Egypt), the Western Bank of the river Jordan ( Jordan), and the Golan Heights (Syria).

On November 22 1967, the UN passed Resolution 242, which called for Israel to withdraw from the Occupied Territories; in return the Arab states would recognize Israel’s independence and guarantee secure borders for Israel. Events, however, did not follow Resolution 242. The Arabs and Palestinians declared their intention to continue fighting Israel, and Israel refused to return the Occupied Territories. A new Arab-Israeli war followed in 1973. And the peace process throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s has failed so long to put an end to the conflict.

Up to this I could not possibly blame Israel for anything. But ever since the end of the wars, Israel has behaved in the most arrogant and agressive way possible. Israel has been constantly refusing to return the lands of the Western Bank, where, remember, before the Six Days War only Palestinians lived. Instead, under the pressure of the Israeli ultranationalists, the Israelis have been trying all these years to wipe the Arabs out of the West Bank (those who had not fleed into Jordan or Lebanon or elsewhere), and they have planted in the occupied territories multiple new waves of newcomer Jewish settlers from all over the world, against any ethic, violating International Laws and United Nations' resolutions. THEY HAVE BEEN PRACTISING THE "LAW OF POWER" ALL THESE YEARS. Keeping generations of the Palestinians into constant uprest. Killing and emprisoning at will, naming a "terrorist" anyone who would not obey their iron rule. Supressing any voice of protest, from any side it might originate from, and especially from the Jewish opposition.

All this has apparently led to an escalation of the Palestinian hatred against Israel, and has gradually brought us to the present situation. In my opinion after the six day war (in 1967) a Palestinian state had been created in West Bank, the region would now be calm and prosperous. Instead, what we see now is a region where children live in fear, bombs explode attached to desperate teens kiling unsuspecting people in the name of Allah, Arab dictators exploit the people's hatred against Israel to strengthen their own unlegitimate rule, war is omnipresent, AND CHILDREN OF BOTH SIDES ARE RAISED INTO HATRED AND INSECURITY.

Who is responsible for all this? Is it the Powers that created Israel out of nothing? No, I already said that I agree with the creation of the state of Israel in its original borders. Is it the Arab "leadership" who NEVER ACCEPTED THE CREATION OF ISRAEL? VERY PROBABLY. Is it the consequent Israeli governments, who have tried to usurpate the Occupied territories*** and attach them to Israel, populating them with newcomers, Jewish settlers from all over the world? OF COURSE...

(***NOTE: except Sina, which was eventually returned to Egypt, and Gaza, which has lately been returned to the Palestinians - nevertheless, the most important part is the Western Bank of Jordan including East Jerusalem, which Israel stubbornly refuses to return to the Arabs)

But it is NOT the Palestinian people, who lives in a state of OCCUPATION under Israeli administration in the Occupied territories, or in exile, in Jordan, in Lebanon, in Egypt, in Syria, all over the world, needless to say (I've testimonied that myself), THAT IN THESE COUNTRIES, THEY ARE ALSO CONSIDERED AS SECOND CLASS CITIZENS AND AS AN ANNOYING BURDEN, EVEN IN JORDAN, WHERE THE "LOCAL" PEOPLE ARE ALSO... EAST PALESTINIANS!!!!!!!

The puzzle is very hard to solve. It also includes international interests in the region, religious phanatism from both sides, ie the muslim fundamentalists who never accepted the creation of Israel and the Jewish fundamentalists who demand the reestablishment of the ancient Judaic state, to its original borders (incluyding of course the Western Bank). It includes foreign intervention, religious fanatism, tererorism, yes, the Israeli youth living from their childhood in a military atmosphere and serving at 18 in the cruelest army of the world, the Palestinian youth growing up as refugees or as second-class citizens in their own land, growing up in despair.

I cannot solve the puzzle for you, please make your own deductions. All I can say, all I have been trying to say all these days, is that what is happening RIGHT NOW in Lebanon is a totally unjustified agression ie AN AGRESSIVE WAR and A TERRIBLE HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHE. I've posted the photos of the burnt Lebanese children trying to wake up some consiences. Somebody accused me of being "Irresponsibly Inflammatory". I think it is people who try to take distances who are irresponsibly pathetic. WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO STAY IDLE AND WATCH LEBANON BURNING TO ASHES. What can WE do?

*I* CAN write this article, and this is exactly what I'm doing right now. Can YOU spread the word? Don't think it's a drop in the ocean. OCEANS ARE MADE OUT OF DROPS. SO ARE THE WAVES. SO ARE EVEN THE TSUNAMIS.

Let's create a Tsunami of Peace, Reason, and Justice. Will you join?