Kidnappings by Israel
FOR the western media it is arrest; by objective standards it is kidnapping. On Thursday, the Israeli army kidnapped 33 Hamas leaders, including the Palestinian education minister, three MPs and at least seven mayors, because those abducted had âsupported the firing of rocketsâ into Israel. The kidnappings came in the wake of several weeks of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza strip, killing 37 people, including 12 civilians. Last June, Israel kidnapped 60 Palestinian leaders, including eight cabinet ministers and 21 lawmakers, many of whom are still in Israeli prisons. The Israeli action was in response to a shoot-out in which Palestinian militants took an Israeli soldier prisoner. The exchange of fire between the two followed the Israeli murder of seven Palestinian picnickers at a Gaza beach. In the following July there was a clash between Lebanon-based Hezbollah resistance fighters and the Israeli army, in which two Israeli soldiers were taken prisoner. Tel Aviv overreacted, attacked Lebanon and unleashed its fury on civilian targets, leaving over 900 dead and rendering nearly a million homeless. The retaliatory Hezbollah firing killed 157 Israelis, including 39 civilians.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert seems not to have learnt any lessons from the disaster that the 39-day war turned out to be for his country and for himself. He succeeded in none of his aims. He thought Hezbollah would be a walkover, but the resistance group, led by Hassan Nasrallah, astounded the world by its tenacity of spirit. Until the last day, there was no let-up in its rocket attacks, and Israel finally agreed to a ceasefire after suffering its second defeat at Hezbollahâs hands, the first being its retreat from the âsecurity zoneâ it had created for itself in southern Lebanon after its 1982 invasion.
Since the end of the 39-day war, there has been no dearth of peace formulas from the Israeli, Arab and American sides, but there has been no progress because Tel Aviv and its patrons in Washington are determined not to tackle the root cause of violence in the Middle East â the continued occupation of the West Bank and (for all practical purpose) Gaza. For recordâs sake, Israel withdrew from Gaza in August 2005, but it continues to control all land, sea and air exits. More important, Ariel Sharon decided to withdraw from Gaza not as a first step towards a complete pull-out from all occupied territories but to strengthen its stranglehold over the West Bank by expanding the existing settlements there and settling Jewish people removed from Gaza. Even though Sharon has been in a coma since January last year, the Olmert government has continued to follow his policy, building more housing units and expanding the existing settlements, including those in the occupied part of Al Quds. This is in addition to the land grabbed by Israel by building what Yasser Arafat called âthe Middle Eastâs Berlin Wallâ. The wall â declared illegal by the International Court of Justice at The Hague â has been so built that more Palestinian territory has been swallowed by Israel.
The rocket firing by Palestinian fighters and Israeli raids into Gaza will continue so long as there is no final settlement of the Palestinian issue. Kidnappings and rocket firings are a symptom of the disease the Middle East is suffering from. Only Israelâs withdrawal from the occupied territories and the emergence of a sovereign Palestinian state will rid the region of this chronic affliction.
http://www.dawn.com/2007/05/26/ed.htm#1
FOR the western media it is arrest; by objective standards it is kidnapping. On Thursday, the Israeli army kidnapped 33 Hamas leaders, including the Palestinian education minister, three MPs and at least seven mayors, because those abducted had âsupported the firing of rocketsâ into Israel. The kidnappings came in the wake of several weeks of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza strip, killing 37 people, including 12 civilians. Last June, Israel kidnapped 60 Palestinian leaders, including eight cabinet ministers and 21 lawmakers, many of whom are still in Israeli prisons. The Israeli action was in response to a shoot-out in which Palestinian militants took an Israeli soldier prisoner. The exchange of fire between the two followed the Israeli murder of seven Palestinian picnickers at a Gaza beach. In the following July there was a clash between Lebanon-based Hezbollah resistance fighters and the Israeli army, in which two Israeli soldiers were taken prisoner. Tel Aviv overreacted, attacked Lebanon and unleashed its fury on civilian targets, leaving over 900 dead and rendering nearly a million homeless. The retaliatory Hezbollah firing killed 157 Israelis, including 39 civilians.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert seems not to have learnt any lessons from the disaster that the 39-day war turned out to be for his country and for himself. He succeeded in none of his aims. He thought Hezbollah would be a walkover, but the resistance group, led by Hassan Nasrallah, astounded the world by its tenacity of spirit. Until the last day, there was no let-up in its rocket attacks, and Israel finally agreed to a ceasefire after suffering its second defeat at Hezbollahâs hands, the first being its retreat from the âsecurity zoneâ it had created for itself in southern Lebanon after its 1982 invasion.
Since the end of the 39-day war, there has been no dearth of peace formulas from the Israeli, Arab and American sides, but there has been no progress because Tel Aviv and its patrons in Washington are determined not to tackle the root cause of violence in the Middle East â the continued occupation of the West Bank and (for all practical purpose) Gaza. For recordâs sake, Israel withdrew from Gaza in August 2005, but it continues to control all land, sea and air exits. More important, Ariel Sharon decided to withdraw from Gaza not as a first step towards a complete pull-out from all occupied territories but to strengthen its stranglehold over the West Bank by expanding the existing settlements there and settling Jewish people removed from Gaza. Even though Sharon has been in a coma since January last year, the Olmert government has continued to follow his policy, building more housing units and expanding the existing settlements, including those in the occupied part of Al Quds. This is in addition to the land grabbed by Israel by building what Yasser Arafat called âthe Middle Eastâs Berlin Wallâ. The wall â declared illegal by the International Court of Justice at The Hague â has been so built that more Palestinian territory has been swallowed by Israel.
The rocket firing by Palestinian fighters and Israeli raids into Gaza will continue so long as there is no final settlement of the Palestinian issue. Kidnappings and rocket firings are a symptom of the disease the Middle East is suffering from. Only Israelâs withdrawal from the occupied territories and the emergence of a sovereign Palestinian state will rid the region of this chronic affliction.
http://www.dawn.com/2007/05/26/ed.htm#1
