Lazimodo
2004-04-19 02:34:22 UTC
Full Article is Here:
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpdye163759664apr16,0,3575695.story
U.S. is on wrong side of the wall by blatantly backing Israel's Ariel Sharon, President
Bush has given Arabs another target
BY GWYNNE DYER
Dr. Gwynne Dyer is a London-based journalist, a former Sandhurst military college
Professor and has served in the US, Canadian and British navies.
April 16, 2004
You never know which straw will finally break the camel's back, but it may have been
Wednesday's summit between President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon.
The public endorsement that Bush gave to Sharon's abandonment of the "peace process" in
favor of "unilateral disengagement" was mostly symbolic, since the Israeli leader was
committed to doing it anyway. But in the Middle East, patience is finally running out.
The people of the Arab countries have been remarkably patient as they watched their
living standards decline under corrupt and oppressive governments backed by the West.
They have been patient as Israel sat on the conquered Palestinian territories for 37
years, pushing Arabs off the land and planting their own settlements on it. They have
been patient about a lot of things - but that dry, snapping sound you heard a moment ago
may have been the camel's back breaking.
Look at the past month from an Arab perspective. At the end of March, Israel
assassinated Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and leader of the Palestinian Islamist
organization Hamas. Sheik Yassin was a staunch supporter of the use of terror against
the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territory - but he was also an elderly
paraplegic who was widely seen as a holy man, and for many years Israel avoided
attacking him.
Many Palestinians saw Sheik Yassin's murder as a deliberate attempt by the Israeli
government to stimulate terrorist attacks that would distract international attention
from Sharon's land grab in the West Bank. The attacks have not yet come. What did come
was a statement by Abdel Aziz Rantisi, Hamas' new leader in the Gaza Strip, that
"America has declared war on Allah. Allah has declared war on America and Bush."
Rantisi was saying that America's complicity in what Israel is doing to the Palestinians
is so great that the United States will also become a target of Palestinian terrorism.
Of course, Hamas hasn't even retaliated against Israel for Sheik Yassin's death yet.
Spin forward a week to Iraq, where the ham-fisted mismanagement of the U.S. occupation
regime turns the killing of four men in Fallujah and the banning of a small circulation
newspaper published by a radical young cleric into two full-scale sieges of major Iraqi
cities. No matter what the American military spokesman says, people watching Arab
television can see that the makeshift hospitals are full of wounded women and children
as well as young men. Perhaps the United States is not the Arabs' enemy, but look at it
through Arab eyes.
Continued
Full Article is Here:
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpdye163759664apr16,0,3575695.story
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http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpdye163759664apr16,0,3575695.story
U.S. is on wrong side of the wall by blatantly backing Israel's Ariel Sharon, President
Bush has given Arabs another target
BY GWYNNE DYER
Dr. Gwynne Dyer is a London-based journalist, a former Sandhurst military college
Professor and has served in the US, Canadian and British navies.
April 16, 2004
You never know which straw will finally break the camel's back, but it may have been
Wednesday's summit between President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon.
The public endorsement that Bush gave to Sharon's abandonment of the "peace process" in
favor of "unilateral disengagement" was mostly symbolic, since the Israeli leader was
committed to doing it anyway. But in the Middle East, patience is finally running out.
The people of the Arab countries have been remarkably patient as they watched their
living standards decline under corrupt and oppressive governments backed by the West.
They have been patient as Israel sat on the conquered Palestinian territories for 37
years, pushing Arabs off the land and planting their own settlements on it. They have
been patient about a lot of things - but that dry, snapping sound you heard a moment ago
may have been the camel's back breaking.
Look at the past month from an Arab perspective. At the end of March, Israel
assassinated Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and leader of the Palestinian Islamist
organization Hamas. Sheik Yassin was a staunch supporter of the use of terror against
the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territory - but he was also an elderly
paraplegic who was widely seen as a holy man, and for many years Israel avoided
attacking him.
Many Palestinians saw Sheik Yassin's murder as a deliberate attempt by the Israeli
government to stimulate terrorist attacks that would distract international attention
from Sharon's land grab in the West Bank. The attacks have not yet come. What did come
was a statement by Abdel Aziz Rantisi, Hamas' new leader in the Gaza Strip, that
"America has declared war on Allah. Allah has declared war on America and Bush."
Rantisi was saying that America's complicity in what Israel is doing to the Palestinians
is so great that the United States will also become a target of Palestinian terrorism.
Of course, Hamas hasn't even retaliated against Israel for Sheik Yassin's death yet.
Spin forward a week to Iraq, where the ham-fisted mismanagement of the U.S. occupation
regime turns the killing of four men in Fallujah and the banning of a small circulation
newspaper published by a radical young cleric into two full-scale sieges of major Iraqi
cities. No matter what the American military spokesman says, people watching Arab
television can see that the makeshift hospitals are full of wounded women and children
as well as young men. Perhaps the United States is not the Arabs' enemy, but look at it
through Arab eyes.
Continued
Full Article is Here:
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpdye163759664apr16,0,3575695.story
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.659 / Virus Database: 423 - Release Date: 15/04/2004