umkahlil

Photo: Rafah Refugee Camp Savaged By Israel

Israeli apologists are already claiming that the confrontation between a nuclear-armed Israel and Islamic resistance groups, such as Hezbullah and Hamas, is an epitome of the war between Islam and the West.

Well, this is another piece of mendacious propaganda intended to cloud and blur and deceive, since the real problem lies first and foremost in this enduring Nazi-like military occupation of Palestine.

Occupied Jerusalem: 14 August

From Khalid Amayreh

As the UN sponsored ceasefire between Israel and Hezbullah went into effect at 8:00 a.m. Monday, 14 August, Israeli politicians and generals were already pointing accusing fingers at each other as to who was responsible for the unprecedented beating the Israeli army took at the hands of Hezbullah resistance fighters.
And while Israeli government officials are trying desperately to display a feeling of “victory,” mainly to boost the moral of their citizenry, it is amply clear that the Israeli society has awakened to a new reality in the Middle East, one that shows that the Israeli army can be beaten and that steel-hearted guerillas, motivated by faith and a desire for martyrdom in the battle field against brutal foreign occupiers, can’t be taken for granted.

True, Israel succeeded in destroying much of the Lebanese civilian infrastructure, including bridges, homes and entire neighborhoods, such as the Dahiya of Beirut. It also succeeded in murdering hundreds of innocent civilians, including many entire families annihilated by the Israeli air force while sleeping in their homes.

However, Israel has nearly completely failed to realize any of its goals, declared by Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, at the beginning of the 32-day campaign of terror and murder against Lebanon.

To begin with, Israel has obviously failed to get her two soldiers abducted by Hezbullah fighters, the pretext for the war, released unconditionally. Indeed, the fact that Olmert has voiced his willingness to negotiate with Hezbullah a possible prisoner swap underscores the impotent arrogance of the Israeli political leadership, prompting many to wonder why Olmert didn’t negotiate from the beginning, which would have saved Israel and Lebanon all this wanton destruction and bloodshed.

In fact, many Israelis are already asking what kind of a leader is that who would sacrifice hundreds of Israeli soldiers and civilians, as well as incur losses estimated at $6 billion for the purpose of releasing two soldiers, especially when Hezbullah itself said from the very inception that it was willing to swap them for Lebanese prisoners languishing in Israeli jails?

Moreover, the Israeli army, with all its American-supplied state-of-the-art weaponry of death and destruction, has utterly failed to destroy Hezbullah’s arsenal of rockets. Indeed, in the closing hours of the war, the Islamic guerillas fired over 250 rockets onto northern Palestine. This is a clarion failure of an army that vowed to wipe Hezbullah off earth and bring the head of its leader, Hassan Nasrullah, the Israeli public on a silver platter.

More to the point, the war, probably for the first time, badly bruised the Israeli interior as nearly a million Israelis were forced to live in shelters for 32 days, without the Israeli army being able to stop rockets from falling on Jewish settlements.

One could cite may other failures the Israeli army incurred in this war, including the following:

The Israeli army proved beyond doubt that it is cowardly in eye-to-eye battles with Islamic guerillas and that it always resorts to bombing civilians and committing massacres to compensate for its cowardice.

The massacres of Kana, Mirwaheen, Bika’a, Tyre and the murderous bombing of the Dahiya testifies to the utter immorality of Israel in wartime.

This Nazi-like savagery caricatures Israel as a Gestapo like state that seeks always to murder innocent civilians in order to satiate the thirst for revenge among Israelis. This nefarious image which Israel acquired is starkly contrasted by the more-or-less glorious image that Hezbullah has earned as the resistance group’s popularity has skyrocketed throughout the Muslim world.

Furthermore, Israel’s Nazi behavior in Lebanon, which can be compared to the imperial Nazi air force’s bombing of Britain during WWII, has already generated a lot of hatred toward Israelis, with many writers establishing analogies between the Israeli army on the one hand and the Wehrmacht, SS and Gestapo on the other. After all, when Jews behave like Nazis, they become Nazis.

To justify the debacle, Israeli leaders are indulging in a plethora of lies, like claiming that Israel went to war against Lebanon because its very survival was at stake. This is of course a gigantic lie as many Israelis know for sure, as it is obvious that the survival of a nuclear power, who also has the United States at her beck and call, can’t really be threatened by guerillas who are defending the survival, dignity and honor of their people and their country.

Besides, Israeli apologists are already claiming that the confrontation between a nuclear-armed Israel and Islamic resistance groups, such as Hezbullah and Hamas, is an epitome of the war between Islam and the West.

Well, this is another piece of mendacious propaganda intended to cloud and blur and deceive, since the real problem lies first and foremost in this enduring Nazi-like military occupation of Palestine. It is this evil occupation that is the root cause of all instability in the Middle East and beyond. Even the Iraq war wouldn’t have taken place had it not been for the incessant urging of pro-Israeli neocons who wanted to destroy Iraq to maximize Israeli hegemony and territorial aggrandizement .

The scandal of the Israeli occupation of Palestine is also the root cause that generates mistrust and tension between Muslim peoples and some Western governments, such as the US and UK, that enthusiastically support Israeli aggression and criminality, either due to misperceptions and misunderstandings, mainly generated by the Jewish-controlled or Jewish-influenced media in these countries, or because of the prevalence of pseudo- messianic and evangelical convictions that view Israeli barbarianism as sanctioned by God. Otherwise, there are no inherent contentions between Muslims and Christians as any honest academic would testify.

Finally, it is vital that we understand that this war in Lebanon is not going to be the last and that another round of even more destructive and bloodier war is coming up unless this vandal state comes to term with Palestinian rights and agrees to end its decades-old occupation of Palestinian land.

In short, Muslims and Arabs, and with them all peace-loving men and women around the world, will never rest as long as al-Qods al Sharif continues to languish under the evil Zionist occupation and as long as millions of Christians and Muslims in Palestine continue to be tormented and denied basic human rights, such as the right to access food, water and work, at the hands of a people who claim to be a light upon mankind.