America supporting war in the Middle East
I suppose it was foolish to expect America to try to stop Israel's excesses in the Middle East.
When you look at the tens of thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese lives Isreal has blighted, and has been blighting for many years, and when you consider the level of provocation offered, the extraordinary violence of the Israeli reaction has to be condemned. I do not defend for one moment rocket attacks on Israel, but I do see them against the background of Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and constant atrocities in these lands, including bombing, shelling, bulldozing homes, destroying government buildings, etc. Israel has every right to exist, but not in this way. If Israel continues with its 'nobody messes with us' approach to terrorism, it will go down in history as one of the most brutal democratic regimes of recent years. It will also inspire so much hatred in the region that the extremists in the arab world will usurp the moderates (in Lebanon, for example), which will be even less congenial for Israel, not to mention the rest of the civilised world.
But are the Israeli people bothered? 95% of them support the violence. Even now Bush's deplorable administration is sending bombs and rockets to help the Israelis slaughter civilians and spread misery through the Middle East (Israel is the biggest recipient of U.S. military aid and the only country in the world that can buy directly from U.S. arms corporations without the oversight of the U.S. government; it is also allowed to use US aid to purchase from non-U.S. firms). If America refused to export weapons and stopped pouring money into Israel, the peace process might stand a better chance. America has incalcuable power to do good, but with Bush it seems that war and arms suppliers matter most (which is great coming from a born-again Christian).
When you look at the tens of thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese lives Isreal has blighted, and has been blighting for many years, and when you consider the level of provocation offered, the extraordinary violence of the Israeli reaction has to be condemned. I do not defend for one moment rocket attacks on Israel, but I do see them against the background of Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and constant atrocities in these lands, including bombing, shelling, bulldozing homes, destroying government buildings, etc. Israel has every right to exist, but not in this way. If Israel continues with its 'nobody messes with us' approach to terrorism, it will go down in history as one of the most brutal democratic regimes of recent years. It will also inspire so much hatred in the region that the extremists in the arab world will usurp the moderates (in Lebanon, for example), which will be even less congenial for Israel, not to mention the rest of the civilised world.
But are the Israeli people bothered? 95% of them support the violence. Even now Bush's deplorable administration is sending bombs and rockets to help the Israelis slaughter civilians and spread misery through the Middle East (Israel is the biggest recipient of U.S. military aid and the only country in the world that can buy directly from U.S. arms corporations without the oversight of the U.S. government; it is also allowed to use US aid to purchase from non-U.S. firms). If America refused to export weapons and stopped pouring money into Israel, the peace process might stand a better chance. America has incalcuable power to do good, but with Bush it seems that war and arms suppliers matter most (which is great coming from a born-again Christian).
posted by Simon Trezise at 5:26 PM
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