Powell
And My Grandmother
By Sam Bahour
30 July, 2004
Countercurrents.org
Where
Israel is concerned, U.S. foreign policy never ceases to amaze. When
Palestinian in-fighting took place in Gaza last week, Secretary of State
Colin Powell had the following to say about the United States
position: "Just have to watch it unfold." Interestingly enough,
my grandmothers position was the same and it is unclear who announced
it first.
The majority of Americans may just brush over such ridiculous comments
from the U.S. Secretary of State, but I, for one, refuse to allow it
to pass without comment. As a tax-paying American citizen, my tax dollars
deserve to be better employed. Hiring senior policy advisors who cant
tell the difference between cause and effect does not serve the American
peoples interests.
Consider the following historic causes of this seemingly never- ending
conflict,
Cause #1: The U.S. closed its borders to Jewish immigration during the
Holocaust fearing an influx of Jews fleeing the tragedy brought upon
them in Europe. In fact, both of these acts -- closing the borders and
carrying out the tragedy are two of the most blatant anti-Semitic
chapters ever registered. Both had nothing to do with Arabs in general
or Palestinians in specific. Instead of opening its own borders, the
U.S. put its entire might behind transforming Palestine, an Arab country
in the Middle East, by force, into a Jewish-only (i.e., in todays
terminology, Apartheid) state.
Cause #2: The U.S. historically, and even more so and more bluntly under
the current Bush Administration, financially, morally and politically
supports Israel in maintaining one of the worlds longest- lasting
withstanding military occupations of another people, the Palestinians.
When added to the newest American occupation in Iraq, many are correctly
acknowledging that U.S. determination to maintain these two military
occupations, albeit under different names and modalities, is part of
a larger U.S. policy in the Middle East that aims to further plant U.S.
hegemony in the region.
Cause #3: U.S. arms manufacturers, in full coordination with both houses
of government and with billions of U.S. tax dollars in funding; continue
to provide Israel with a non-stop supply of deadly weapons that Israel
illegally -- as per U.S. Law, not to mention International Law -- uses
to oppress Palestinians. The U.S.s military-industrial complex
is so intertwined in the corridors of U.S. policy making, it is no wonder
that the continuance of conflict has become an American way of life.
Cause #4: As the world community, in near unanimous consensus, for 50
plus years has condemned Israel for gross violations of Palestinian
human rights and most recently, for building an illegal landgrab Wall,
the U.S. willfully and systematically defends Israels illegal
actions. Instead of taking the moral high ground and measuring the historical
injustice against the Palestinians with the same yardstick that was
used to, albeit late, measure and dismantle Apartheid, the U.S. prefers
to challenge the entire world order for the narrow interests of Israeli
fundamentalism.
Cause #5: Whereas the U.S. has shown the resolve to mobilize an international
peacekeeping force in dozens of hot spots around the world, in Palestine,
U.S. policy amounts to watching Israel -- after arming it to the teeth
-- wield its first-world military might on a helpless Palestinian civilian
community.
Cause #6: While a good number of Israeli illegal settlers (more accurately
called colonists,) who have implanted themselves in the so-called settlements
throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, hold U.S. citizenships
and come from Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Florida to wreak havoc, the
U.S. pretends that they have no responsibility toward these violent
thugs. More recently, the U.S. applauds Israel when it offers compensation
packages for settlers in Gaza, forgetting that it is U.S. tax dollars,
to the tune of $4-5 billion per year, that enable Israel to compensate
these people who have broken international and humanitarian law for
more than three decades.
Effect: To be honest, as a Palestinian American who has lived through
the last ten years in Palestine, the hardest ten years in this just
struggle for national liberation, Im astonished that so little
Palestinian in-fighting has taken place. Clearly, the Palestinian resolve
when confronted with unimaginable odds will only be fully understood
after the world realizes what it is that the Palestinians are really
up against. Im even more astonished that the Palestinians are
still willing to negotiate to resolve the conflict, let alone maintain
a working society without the basic elements of society law,
security, freedom of movement, etc. If Israel proportionately killed
the same number of Americans as it has Palestinians in the last four
years alone, it would amount to over 250,000 people! Any other people,
above all Americans, would have long ago equipped themselves with deadly
weapons to resist such a brutal foreign military occupation.
If after four years in office and after contributing, firsthand, to
the indigenous Palestinian people being battered with U.S. weapons and
because of U.S. political stubbornness, the best Secretary Powell can
do is agree with my grandmother, then its time he moved on, maybe
back to his beloved military career. As Palestinians, we will not allow
someone to pull the trigger that kills us and then come to walk in our
funeral.
If U.S. interests in the Middle East continue to be hijacked and jeopardized
by a rapacious Israeli state, then maybe not only the West Bank, East
Jerusalem and Gaza are occupied territories. Maybe we need a peacekeeping
force immediately sent to Capital Hill. In the meantime, Palestinians
eyes will be fixed on Washington and we will just have to watch
it unfold."
--
Sam Bahour is a
Palestinian-American businessman living in the besieged Palestinian
City of Al-Bireh in the West Bank and can be reached at [email protected]
He runs a mailing list at http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/epalestine.
Additional articles may be found at: http://www.amin.org/eng/sam_bahour/index.html.
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