Leaders Lie, Civilians Die, and Lessons of History are Ignored
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 by RLRFrom Information Clearing House
By Robert Fisk
We’ve got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don’t care any more – providing we don’t offend the Israelis. It’s not clear how many of the Gaza dead are civilians, but the response of the Bush administration, not to mention the pusillanimous reaction of Gordon Brown, reaffirm for Arabs what they have known for decades: however they struggle against their antagonists, the West will take Israel’s side. As usual, the bloodbath was the fault of the Arabs – who, as we all know, only understand force.
Ever since 1948, we’ve been hearing this balderdash from the Israelis – just as Arab nationalists and then Arab Islamists have been peddling their own lies: that the Zionist “death wagon” will be overthrown, that all Jerusalem will be “liberated”. And always Mr Bush Snr or Mr Clinton or Mr Bush Jnr or Mr Blair or Mr Brown have called upon both sides to exercise “restraint” – as if the Palestinians and the Israelis both have F-18s and Merkava tanks and field artillery. Hamas’s home-made rockets have killed just 20 Israelis in eight years, but a day-long blitz by Israeli aircraft that kills almost 300 Palestinians is just par for the course.
The blood-splattering has its own routine. Yes, Hamas provoked Israel’s anger, just as Israel provoked Hamas’s anger, which was provoked by Israel, which was provoked by Hamas, which … See what I mean? Hamas fires rockets at Israel, Israel bombs Hamas, Hamas fires more rockets and Israel bombs again and … Got it? And we demand security for Israel – rightly – but overlook this massive and utterly disproportionate slaughter by Israel. It was Madeleine Albright who once said that Israel was “under siege” – as if Palestinian tanks were in the streets of Tel Aviv.
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Perhaps you should dig a little deeper before you publish your thoughts; how easily you fail to mention that the entire creation of Hamas is to end Israel – I don’t believe that the creation of Israel was to end the Arab nations.
You claim a disproportionate use of force, perhaps Israel should construct crude rockets and fire them blindly into Gaza and whatever happens, happens – perhaps the rockets fired by Gaza didn’t kill, but that doesn’t take away from the fact their intention was to kill.
The Gazians play their sympathy card, as always, and claim that the evil Israelis are slaughtering their citizens and commiting genocide; perhaps if they disclosed that they hid weapons in homes and universities and among the civil population, people wouldn’t be so quick to form an unwaranted opinion.
so Mr. Fisk, perhaps you should report the FACTS rather than just your opinion.
When will this God awful slaughter end? It goes on and on with sickening regularity. Israel has a right to exist but the Arabs have a right to exist in something better than a bifurcated reservation or bantustan. Both sides will have to make concessions. Is that likely to happen any time soon? Of course not, just more killing and slaughter until the day comes when an Arab suicide bomber straps a mini nuclear bomb to his waist in 2050. Or the day comes when some crazed right wing Israeli general pushes THAT button and unleashes nuclear Armageddon on the Arab world.