Israeli And American War Crimes?
By Timothy V. Gatto
24 February, 2009
Countercurrents.org
Amnesty International called for an arms embargo on both Israel and the Palestinians. This call for an embargo was largely the result of Israel’s use of phosphorus weapons and “dumb” non-targeting missiles being used in an urban setting. Both of these actions are against International Law. The question is why does Israel feel that they can use weapons that cause indiscriminate death among a population of 1.5 million people, with almost half of that population under the age of 14 years old?
This is a question that should be put to President Obama and everyone in his administration that oversees what weapons we sell to Israel. Everyone in America is starting to understand that Israel is not the “tiny nation in the midst of enemies” but is a real world power and probably the dominant country in the Middle East. Americans are also beginning to understand that Israel has no real intention to negotiate a two-party state with Palestine. This can be seen by the genocidal attacks on Gaza and the ever increasing West Bank settlements being built by the Israelis. In Jerusalem, once designated as a divided city, with the occupation of Israel, no building permits have been given to any Palestinian while Israelis have no problem building in the Palestinian part of the city.
Since most of Israel’s military supplies come by route of U.S. military aid, does this mean that we should continue to provide a nation that has broken International Law with the more weapons? If so, then the United States is also guilty of war crimes if we continue to provide them with phosphorus weapons, hellfire missiles and other military supplies. Many people in America now see Israel for what it has become; one and the same as the Nazi’s that persecuted them in the last century. MK Lieberman called for Israel to drop a nuclear device on Gaza, yet his counterpart in the United States, Sen. Joe Lieberman, was just seen in the Jewish newspaper Haaratz joking smiling broadly in animated conversation. Is this what allegiance to AIPAC has wrought?
The propaganda that Israel uses against the inhabitants of Gaza is exceedingly course and steeped in hate. They seem to believe that all Palestinians are Hamas militants. Some Knesset members have advocated killing Palestinian young because they will only grow up to be enemies of the Jewish State. It is no small wonder that this sentiment is expressed, because if Israel continues to commit genocide without intervention by the U.N. or the U.S., these children will indeed grow up fighting for their very lives.
The rest of the world sees the problem here and Amnesty International is quite right. Unless the American leadership reigns in Israel, we just may find our leadership on trial for war crimes.
