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Topic: Will you listen ?

topic by nora 4/19/2002 (11:05)

reply top George W. Bush’s presidency will go down in history as the worst period not only for Americans but for Muslims and Arabs as well. It will also be recorded as the most trying period in the history of Arab-American and Muslim-American relations. It was only a few months after his inauguration that the planes wreaked havoc in New York and Washington. The psychological reaction to the terror attacks was the unleashing of a wave of deep-seated anti-Arab and anti- Muslim feelings. The terrorism was also a blow to the world economy. Moreover, the attack was a challenge to the United States’ status as the world’s sole superpower. Though the US authorities were initially uncertain of the identity of those guilty of the attack, Bush declared a war on terror. When he said in a speech that the war was a “crusade” Bush was unconsciously revealing an undisclosed hatred of Muslims in his heart. His aides explained that his use of the word “crusade,” the implication of which were ominously clear to Muslims, was a slip of the tongue. However, it soon became evident that Bush’s reference to the crusades was not a slip of the tongue but an indication of his plan to wage a merciless war against Arabs and Muslims. The most destructive weapons were employed in the war with scant regard for the lives of innocent Afghan civilians and their country’s already weak infrastructure. All international conventions governing the treatment of prisoners of war were cast aside in the case of Arabs and Muslims while European and American prisoners were treated differently. I don’t think the war has ended. Nor do I believe that the United States has uprooted the terrorists (the name given by the US to Al-Qaeda and the Taleban). The most advanced American intelligence apparatus has failed to determine if Osama Bin Laden is alive or dead. No sooner had Bush wound up his war in Afghanistan than he revealed his plan to continue the war on a number of Muslim or Arab countries. It is the crusader mindset that makes him take up arms against Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and Iran. Syria is also a likely target. Bush’s intimidating posture has frightened most Arab and Muslim countries, making them work hard to stay in his good books and to agree with him. The mask concealing the blind support of the Bush administration for Israel has finally slipped. It is no secret that the Jewish lobby did not support Bush in the presidential elections. The Arab and Muslim communities in the US, on the other hand, played an undeniable role in his election victory expecting him to be less harmful to their interests than his rival might have been. Subsequent developments proved the Arab and Muslim voters wrong. Bush has not hidden his bias toward Israel; he has given total support to Israeli brutalities against civilians and freedom fighters in Occupied Palestine. He has justified Israeli atrocities as its right of self-defense. However, under the pressure of mounting anger among the Arab and Muslim public and all peace-loving people in the world, Bush made an appeal to Israel to stop its aggression and withdraw its army. But he did not warn of any punitive measures against Israel if it did not comply with his appeal. The president’s appeal was apparently a ploy to cool down the public who came out on the streets to protest America’s unjustifiable pro-Israeli policies. Angry protesters in the Arab and Muslim countries had set fire to the American flag and demanded the severing of diplomatic and economic relations with the United States. As much of the Arab and Muslim public saw no supportive steps from their governments — many of which depended upon the US for their security — the people began to make very generous donations to their Palestinian brothers and sisters. Donations of money and blood have been recorded and there are even reports of some people giving every penny they possess. The anti-American feelings of Arabs and Muslims have reached new heights. People have voluntarily begun to boycott American products. Even those Arabs settled in Canada participate in the boycott. It is not difficult to find substitutes for American products. Bush’s latest surprise: Ariel Sharon is a man of peace! Even America’s staunchest allies had to stare in shock at so obvious a lie. One wonders if Bush is totally blind to what is going on. All non-American TV channels have focused on the large-scale butchery and massive devastation of civilian buildings and government infrastructure, including public health and education. The reports also indicated the cruelty and humiliation inflicted by the Israelis on the entire West Bank population. The Human Rights Commission, a UN body, has stated that the Israeli Army’s atrocities against both civilians and the security forces in Palestine deserve maximum punishment. Countries such as Belgium, Britain and Germany have banned arms sales to Israel while other countries say they will follow suit. People in these countries have been staging protest marches against Israeli policies. They also demand the suspension of trade relations with Israel. Even peace-loving Jews in Israel have protested against the brutal war. They have described the army’s atrocities in Palestinian cities as genocide which does Israel’s already badly-tarnished image no good. It has also been reported that the Swedish Nobel Prize committee is considering withdrawing Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres’ peace prize as he failed to oppose Sharon’s terrorist acts in Palestine. In an apparent bid to save his image, Peres has admitted that what happened in Jenin was a massacre. European peace activists and Western reporters have strongly protested Israel’s refusal to admit them to what remains of the Jenin camps to witness the sites of Israeli massacres. Mr. Bush, if you truly believe that Sharon, the indiscriminate murderer and oppressor of Palestinian youths, children and elderly men, is a man of peace then it is the end to peace. If you believe that Sharon, who masterminded the murders of Sabra and Shatila, is a man of peace, it is goodbye to peace. Palestinian women have been murdered by Sharon because they have destroyed their own bodies, the only weapon remaining with them, amidst the enemy in response to the call for martyrdom which you call terror. You may turn every stone upside down, uproot every tree, demolish every house and blow up every grain of sand in the land of Palestine but the Palestinians will fight until every usurper and occupier is driven from their territories. I also warn you that Muslims and Arabs look forward to the hour when Allah removes from their rulers’ hearts their fear of you. Then they will open the road to Palestine for a jihad which will ultimately lead them to the Paradise they yearn for even as you fear death.

reply by listener 4/19/2002 (11:19)

reply top On Jew-hatred in Europe By Oriana Fallaci April 17, 2002 Originally published in Corriere della Sera. Translation by Chris and Paola Newman I find it shameful that in Italy there should be a procession of individuals dressed as suicide bombers who spew vile abuse at Israel, hold up photographs of Israeli leaders on whose foreheads they have drawn the swasitka, incite people to hate the Jews. And who, in order to see Jews once again in the extermination camps, in the gas chambers, in the ovens of Dachau and Mauthausen and Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen et cetera, would sell their own mother to a harem. I find it shameful that the Catholic Church should permit a bishop, one with lodgings in the Vatican no less, a saintly man who was found in Jerusalem with an arsenal of arms and explosives hidden in the secret compartments of his sacred Mercedes, to participate in that procession and plant himself in front of a microphone to thank in the name of God the suicide bombers who massacre the Jews in pizzerias and supermarkets. To call them “martyrs who go to their deaths as to a party.” I find it shameful that in France, the France of Liberty-Equality-Fraternity, they burn synagogues, terrorize Jews, profane their cemeteries. I find it shameful that the youth of Holland and Germany and Denmark flaunt the kaffiah just as Mussolini’s avant garde used to flaunt the club and the fascist badge. I find it shameful that in nearly all the universities of Europe Palestinian students sponsor and nurture anti-semitism. That in Sweden they asked that the Nobel Peace Prize given to Shimon Peres in 1994 be taken back and conferred on the dove with the olive branch in his mouth, that is on Arafat. I find it shameful that the distinguished members of the Committee, a Committee that (it would appear) rewards political color rather than merit, should take this request into consideration and even respond to it. In hell the Nobel Prize honors he who does not receive it. I find it shameful (we’re back in Italy) that state-run television stations contribute to the resurgent antisemitism, crying only over Palestinian deaths while playing down Israeli deaths, glossing over them in unwilling tones. I find it shameful that in their debates they host with much deference the scoundrels with turban or kaffiah who yesterday sang hymns to the slaughter at New York and today sing hymns to the slaughters at Jerusalem, at Haifa, at Netanya, at Tel Aviv. I find it shameful that the press does the same, that it is indignant because Israeli tanks surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, that it is not indignant because inside that same church two hundred Palestinian terrorists well armed with machine guns and munitions and explosives (among them are various leaders of Hamas and Al-Aqsa) are not unwelcome guests of the monks (who then accept bottles of mineral water and jars of honey from the soldiers of those tanks). I find it shameful that, in giving the number of Israelis killed since the beginning of the Second Intifada (four hundred twelve), a noted daily newspaper found it appropriate to underline in capital letters that more people are killed in their traffic accidents. (Six hundred a year). I find it shameful that the Roman Observer, the newspaper of the Pope--a Pope who not long ago left in the Wailing Wall a letter of apology for the Jews--accuses of extermination a people who were exterminated in the millions by Christians. By Europeans. I find it shameful that this newspaper denies to the survivors of that people (survivors who still have numbers tattooed on their arms) the right to react, to defend themselves, to not be exterminated again. I find it shameful that in the name of Jesus Christ (a Jew without whom they would all be unemployed), the priests of our parishes or Social Centers or whatever they are flirt with the assassins of those in Jerusalem who cannot go to eat a pizza or buy some eggs without being blown up. I find it shameful that they are on the side of the very ones who inaugurated terrorism, killing us on airplanes, in airports, at the Olympics, and who today entertain themselves by killing western journalists. By shooting them, abducting them, cutting their throats, decapitating them. (There’s someone in Italy who, since the appearance of Anger and Pride, would like to do the same to me. Citing verses of the Koran he exorts his “brothers” in the mosques and the Islamic Community to chastise me in the name of Allah. To kill me. Or rather to die with me. Since he’s someone who speaks English well, I’ll respond to him in English: “Fuck you.”) I find it shameful that almost all of the left, the left that twenty years ago permitted one of its union processionals to deposit a coffin (as a mafioso warning) in front of the synagogue of Rome, forgets the contribution made by the Jews to the fight against fascism. Made by Carlo and Nello Rossini, for example, by Leone Ginzburg, by Umberto Terracini, by Leo Valiani, by Emilio Sereni, by women like my friend Anna Maria Enriques Agnoletti who was shot at Florence on June 12, 1944, by seventy-five of the three-hundred-thirty-five people killed at the Fosse Ardeatine, by the infinite others killed under torture or in combat or before firing squads. (The companions, the teachers, of my infancy and my youth.) I find it shameful that in part through the fault of the left--or rather, primarily through the fault of the left (think of the left that inaugurates its congresses applauding the representative of the PLO, leader in Italy of the Palestinians who want the destruction of Israel)--Jews in Italian cities are once again afraid. And in French cities and Dutch cities and Danish cities and German cities, it is the same. I find it shameful that Jews tremble at the passage of the scoundrels dressed like suicide bombers just as they trembled during Krystallnacht, the night in which Hitler gave free rein to the Hunt of the Jews. I find it shameful that in obedience to the stupid, vile, dishonest, and for them extremely advantageous fashion of Political Correctness the usual opportunists--or better the usual parasites--exploit the word Peace. That in the name of the word Peace, by now more debauched than the words Love and Humanity, they absolve one side alone of its hate and bestiality. That in the name of a pacifism (read conformism) delegated to the singing crickets and buffoons who used to lick Pol Pot’s feet they incite people who are confused or ingenuous or intimidated. Trick them, corrupt them, carry them back a half century to the time of the yellow star on the coat. These charlatans who care about the Palestinans as much as I care about the charlatans. That is not at all. I find it shameful that many Italians and many Europeans have chosen as their standard-bearer the gentleman (or so it is polite to say) Arafat. This nonentity who thanks to the money of the Saudi Royal Family plays the Mussolini ad perpetuum and in his megalomania believes he will pass into History as the George Washington of Palestine. This ungrammatical wretch who when I interviewed him was unable even to put together a complete sentence, to make articulate conversation. So that to put it all together, write it, publish it, cost me a tremendous effort and I concluded that compared to him even Ghaddafi sounds like Leonardo da Vinci. This false warrior who always goes around in uniform like Pinochet, never putting on civilian garb, and yet despite this has never participated in a battle. War is something he sends, has always sent, others to do for him. That is, the poor souls who believe in him. This pompous incompetent who playing the part of Head of State caused the failure of the Camp David negotiations, Clinton’s mediation. No-no-I-want-Jerusalem-all-to-myself. This eternal liar who has a flash of sincerity only when (in private) he denies Israel’s right to exist, and who as I say in my book contradicts himself every five minutes. He always plays the double-cross, lies even if you ask him what time it is, so that you can never trust him. Never! With him you will always wind up systematically betrayed. This eternal terrorist who knows only how to be a terrorist (while keeping himself safe) and who during the Seventies, that is when I interviewed him, even trained the terrorists of Baader-Meinhof. With them, children ten years of age. Poor children. (Now he trains them to become suicide bombers. A hundred baby suicide bombers are in the works: a hundred!). This weathercock who keeps his wife at Paris, served and revered like a queen, and keeps his people down in the shit. He takes them out of the shit only to send them to die, to kill and to die, like the eighteen year old girls who in order to earn equality with men have to strap on explosives and disintegrate with their victims. And yet many Italians love him, yes. Just like they loved Mussolini. And many other Europeans do the same. I find it shameful and see in all this the rise of a new fascism, a new nazism. A fascism, a nazism, that much more grim and revolting because it is conducted and nourished by those who hypocritically pose as do-gooders, progressives, communists, pacifists, Catholics or rather Christians, and who have the gall to label a warmonger anyone like me who screams the truth. I see it, yes, and I say the following. I have never been tender with the tragic and Shakespearean figure Sharon. (“I know you’ve come to add another scalp to your necklace,” he murmured almost with sadness when I went to interview him in 1982.) I have often had disagreements with the Israelis, ugly ones, and in the past I have defended the Palestinians a great deal. Maybe more than they deserved. But I stand with Israel, I stand with the Jews. I stand just as I stood as a young girl during the time when I fought with them, and when the Anna Marias were shot. I defend their right to exist, to defend themselves, to not let themselves be exterminated a second time. And disgusted by the antisemitism of many Italians, of many Europeans, I am ashamed of this shame that dishonors my Country and Europe. At best, it is not a community of States, but a pit of Pontius Pilates. And even if all the inhabitants of this planet were to think otherwise, I would continue to think so.

reply by Oh Barb 4/19/2002 (12:27)

reply top SOmeone said, all foreign policy is ultimately driven by domestic constraints. Poor Bush is in a dire predicament. The jewsih media and the jewsih lobby on one side, and his newo conservatives, led by jews Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and others, one the other side, have got each of his nuts in the ringer. The poor guy can not see beyond the next election, in this case, the congressional elections. The economy is slumping, and his war on terrorism has run into a quagmire becuase Bush discovered sooner rather than later that the world is not quite so black and white as heis speech writer told him. The guy leads with his guts, and right now his guts need pepto bismol.

reply by randa 4/19/2002 (13:20)

reply top Yes, Nora, truth will prevail sooner or later. This is the justice of the Mighty Creator....He'll bring the (the direct and the indirect) oppressors and hipocrites in this world to an ever-burning fire for their committed atrocities to humanity. This is what all Holy Books fortell. This is a war that proves that humans cannot bring true justice especially when a so-called 'BEARER OF FREEDOM' becomes the meddler of innocent human lives all over the globe. We only can wait until the ultimate truth prevails and humanity is saved only by the ALMIGHTY GOD of all.