Israel Palestinian conflict
By Bishnu Dey
Let me start with the statement that I do believe
that the people of Palestine have a right to live in peace and dignity
and enjoy full freedom in their own land.
The people of Palestine have paid a heavy price over the last 50+
years, and they do deserve our support in achieving their goals.
I am saddened that the Palestinians were known to be the most
tolerant among the Arab tribes, but the acts of violence against the
innocent civilians of Israel has tarnished their credibility beyond
repair.
Having said that, I would like to point out that no
matter how many outsiders voice their opinion in favor of the
Palestinians, it is ultimately the people of Palestine and their
leadership who have to solve their own problem.
Instead of adopting a constructive path, they have adopted a
self-destructive course to ensure that their long-term objective will be
better served by keeping the Intifada alive, which some day might gather
enough momentum to completely eradicate Israel from the face of the
earth. Islamists are master
land-grabbers, and it has been proven over centuries of bloodshed and
occupation of territories from Morrocco to Indonesia. Some of our ancestors were the victims of this tactics, which
they so well perfected in what we know as “ethnic cleansing” today.
PLO, Fatah, Hamas, and Hezbollah (Lebanon based)
etc. and scores of other bloody terrorist groups are now an integral
part of the Palestinian political landscape.
Through the use of Islam as a tool, they have been able to
convert the relatively secular people of Palestine into a vicious
bloodthirsty society. It is
sad when these people can not even see how morally repugnant act it is
to blow apart children in discos, or ordinary people in the streets,
just to “voice” their claim in favor of a somewhat noble and worthy
cause, seeking independence.
Imagine the lack of human dignity and the extent to
which these people have degenerated to the point that they even rejoice
at the deaths of their own children!
The proud parents of the young suicide bombers proclaim publicly
how happy they are that their own flesh and blood have martyred
themselves, in quest of holy Jihad!
We know that terrorists do not care for the
sanctity of human lives and to them the end justifies all means! In the past these terrorists comprised of smaller groups of
individuals belonging to the extreme fringes of the society, and were
easily identifiable and dealt with.
What is happening today is a completely different phenomenon. The terrorists have infiltrated into the mainstream society
and have been able to set the agenda for the people of Palestine.
The voice of sanity and reasoning are lost in the shrill cry of
“Allah Hu Akbar”, and “kill the Jews and the Infidels”.
Equally repugnant is the attitude of the Muslim world, where not
one single country has come out denouncing the violence perpetrated by
the misled youth of Palestine, blowing them up just to kill some
innocent people. What is it
that makes the Muslims of the world to look the other way, and justify
the barbarism as a legitimate act of freedom fight?
Is it the teachings of Islam that desensitizes the entire mass of
a billion plus people?
Now, it is quite a noble gesture to sign petitions
to voice the solidarity with the people of Palestine.
But do the signatories of this one sided proposal know that far
more Palestinians have been illed by their own Arab brothers?
Do they recall that tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed
by the king Hussain of Jordan in 1968?
How about the reprisals against the Palestinians by the Kuwaitis
following the liberation of Kuwait by the US led coalition force?
Did the Kuwaitis not drive out every single Palestinians from
that land? Where were the voice of these pious Arabs, and the rest of
the Muslim world? The point
I am trying to make is simple. The
Muslim Arabs killed thousands of more Palestinians than the so-called
atrocities that are being charged against Israel.
How many petitions were signed against the atrocities by king
Hussain, or the emir of Kuwait??
I am aware of the fact that Israel has displayed
arrogance in dealing with the Palestinians, and has also ruthlessly
suppressed some of the legitimate demands of the people there.
Freedom loving people of the world have from time to time voiced
their disapproval against Israeli brutality.
Unfortunately, a sustained move against so-called “Israeli
atrocities” never materialized because of the equal or more acts of
violence and brutality against the Jews, by the Palestinians and other
Arabs. We all remember the
Black September day when a gang of Arab terrorists invaded the Munich
Olympic complex and mercilessly slaughtered the members of Israeli
contingent in 1972. During
most of the 70s and 80s, the Arab terrorists wrecked havoc in Europe and
other parts of the world. We all recall vividly the Rome Airport incident, when several
dozens of innocent people were gunned down by these Jihadis, just to
make a point that finally Arab terrorism has come to age, and is here to
stay! The number of such
acts of Pan Arabic terrorism is innumerable and is not the focus of this
writing, but just to remind the readers that this scourge that was
unleashed by the followers of Mohammed has not only survived the past
millennium, but is here kicking and alive, and far more potent in its
destructive capability, displayed through the acts of September 11,
2001.
Israel’s acts of defiance and hostility against
its neighboring countries can perhaps be understood in the light of the
vicious anti Semitism displayed by the Arabs, who joined forces in the
famous battle of Yom Kippur in 1973.
Through heroic resistance, the people of Israel were not only
able to thwart the barbaric invasion, but were also able to wrestle away
Golan Heights from Syria, the Gaza strip from Egypt, and other
Palestinian land we know as the West Bank.
Today, the Muslims who were vanquished in that battle are
clamoring to get back the ownership of their land.
May I ask the readers when was the last time invading Islamic
forces relinquished their hold over occupied land?
Never! The fact is
Israel has already returned the Gaza Strip to Egypt following Mr. Anwar
Sadat’s peace agreement with Menachim Begin.
They have also agreed to come to terms with the Palestinians
following Oslo Summit in 1993. If the Israelis were that land-hungry, why would they
negotiate away the land that they occupied through their victory?
Finally, towards the end of 2000, when pieces were
falling in place, and both Israel and Palestine were getting close to an
agreement, whereby Israel agreed to return almost all of the occupied
Palestinian land, and even agreed to share Jerusalem.
It was the Jihadi elements within the Arab nationalists who were
able to drive a stake through the heart of this prospective peace
agreement, through a massive display of brute force unleashed by what
they call, “the Intifada”.
The terrorist that Yassar Arafat is, he spurned
that offer and renewed his jihad with intensified vigor through the use
of suicide bombers, indiscriminately killing innocent Israeli citizens
and forcing them to resort to harsh tactics to protect its own citizens. The killing of innocent Israelis is just as reprehensive as
any retaliatory action that might be taken by Israel. Time and again, Israel and its people were instigated to
react to countless acts of suicide bombing.
Finally, Israel decided that enough was enough and sent in their
army to uproot the source of this barbaric uprising, which they term as
“freedom fight”.
Israel could have perhaps reacted in a different
manner. Instead of using
force to quell this violence they could have adopted subtler measures to
selectively target the leaders who entice the young to become
"suicide bombers". Serious consideration should be given to
selectively targeting some of the clergy and leaders of the political
establishments of Arab countries who openly condone acts of suicide
bombing, as a “halal” act sanctioned by the Koran.
Brutal as it might sound, the parents of the suicide bombers must
also be brought to justice for gloating at the apparently heroic acts of
their “martyred” children. Once
a “prospective” suicide bomber realizes that even as they might
enjoy the company of the 72 houris in heaven, their parents will be
paying a heavy price in the prisons of Tel Aviv for their bad karma.
Perhaps, this will induce some fear and some sense in their
jihadi souls that violence and terrorism in the name of Allah is just
another cowardly crime against humanity and there is a price to be paid.
The Palestinians are not innocent victims as they
are loudly proclaiming. We
all know how they operate. The
only way for them to get their freedom is through the path of peace and
negotiation. They will have
to denounce violence and will have to learn to be civil and
accommodating. The sooner they learn that they will never succeed in
ethnically cleansing Israel of the Jews, the better off they will be.
The display of ugly burqua clad Palestinian women singing and
clapping in glee following the Sept 11 carnage is too fresh in our
collective minds.
Whatever sympathy the average Americans had for the
Palestinians, got washed away that day!! Finally, terrorism must not be
rewarded. Let it be known
that no matter how pious and self-serving the ultimate goal might be,
injecting the call of Islamic brotherhood is not sufficient to bring the
emancipation of the Palestinians or for that matter any other
politically inspired group, like the Kashmiris.
This petition is one sided, and does not reflect
the reality of the socio-political environment in that region. This is a statement from a group of individuals who are
selective in expressing their outrage favoring their own narrow agenda
of promoting freethinking with an “Eslamic” slant.
Regards,
Bishnu Dey
Please send the following
appeal to your friends, as many places as possible. Also please keep on
visiting www.mukto-mona.com
specially Human
Rights Violation section.
An Appeal from
Mukto-mona:
Stop
Brutal Extermination of Palestinians
The recent actions of the government of Ariel
Sharon have gone far, far beyond the boundaries of acceptable conduct
from any government. The
Israeli government has supposedly lurched into action because of the
suicide bombings carried out by the Palestinians.
However, the distinction that must be made here is that an
elected government that allegedly operates following democratic norms
and conditions, should not respond by indiscriminate attacks upon a
civilian population to “capture” militants.
The Israeli government has proclaimed that their all out
offensive on the Palestinians is a success as they have already
captured “terrorist” leaders and active militants.
However, the question that needs to be asked is whether the
price that innocent have to pay for this “success” of Israel is
either worth it or acceptable.
The rights or wrongs of Palestinian actions
and/or demands are no longer an issue.
Whether one supports the cause of the Palestinians or not is no
longer an issue. These
aspects of the situation have been neutralized by the Israeli
government. What is
today’s issue is the all out offensive being carried out by the
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Israel
against ALL Palestinians. What
is at stake today is not a few settlements, not strips of occupied
lands, nor is it quibbles about whether it was the Palestinians or the
Israelis that are more to blame.
What is at stake today is clearly and simply the very survival
of a whole people.
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Palestinian
suffering : Forwarded
by Lopa Tasneem
A recent essay by Edward Said on
the Palestine issue here. A short biography of
Edward Said from The Nation: Edward W. Said, the
University Professor of English and Comparative
Literature at Columbia University, is the
magazine's classical music critic as well as ...(Read
more)
Eyewitness
report from Ramallah :
Forwarded by Saptarshi
Ray
Ramallah, Occupied Palestine: My
name is Tzaporah Ryter. I am an American student
from the University of Minnesota. I currently am
in Ramallah. We are under a terrible siege and
people are being massacred by both the Israeli
army and armed militia groups of Israeli settlers.
...(Read
more)
The
Complaint Against Ariel Sharon :
Forwarded by Avijit
Roy
On 6 June 1982, the Israeli army
invaded Lebanon, in reaction to the attempted
assassination of the Israeli ambassador Argov in
London on June 4. On the same day, the Israeli
secret services attributed the attempted
assassination to a dissident Palestinian
organisation commandeered by the Iraqi government,
which was then concerned with deflecting attention
from its recent setback in the Iran-Iraq war. .
...(Read
more)
Visit Human Rights section of www.mukto-mona.com
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What the Israeli government is doing can be termed no less than an act
of ethnic cleansing. The
government of
Israel
’s actions are accomplishing the aim of creating a truly Jewish
state, where religious pluralism will not, cannot and must not exist.
Notwithstanding the moral ambiguities present in the Palestinian
suicide bombings, the dubious and immoral quality of Ariel Sharon’s
actions remains open to question. A dubiousness that is strongly
reflected in the small but significant dissension that has arisen in
recent times even among the Israeli Jewish community as to this
attempt at systematic extermination of the Palestinian population.
With all due respect to the
sufferings that the Jewish community have endured, Ariel Sharon’s
“Final Solution” seems to be a bigger problem than the problem it
attempts to mitigate.
Therefore, we, people of diverse
cultures, countries and creeds, have come together for the common good
to demand that the rights of human beings be upheld against the rights
of any particular state, race or religion, and that the wholesale
slaughter of Palestinians be stopped immediately. We demand that Ariel
Sharon be made to account for his war crimes – both present and
past.
We convey
our sincere thanks to Ms. Shabnam Nadiya for writing the above plea on
behalf of Mukto-mona.
Petition
:
We also thank two of our members Mr. Mahbubul Karim and and Mr.
Nalinaksha Bhattacharyya who have sent in two separate petitions.
Please read the petitions and sign if you agree with them.
Stop
Torture Campaign: Fear for Safety & Torture of Palestinians [Read
and sign]
WUML
statement and a petition for International Investigation Committee on
Ariel Sharon’s crimes against humanity [Read
and Sign]
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