September 11th, 2001, has become the tragedy of opportunity for Israel; a perfect turning point in which the "war against terrorism" analogy has been fully exploited by Ariel Sharon's radical right-wing government to sustain, even intensify, the horrors of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. Unfortunately, US blind support to Israel, complimented by an increasing lack of US awareness of the Palestinian reality, has created a new equation in which the victim is helplessly made to suffer at the hands of the oppressor, without accountability. Tragically, such equation only leads to more suffering, more injustice, more conflict, and more bloodshed.

Understandably, the September 11th attack has left the American people in a state of unprecedented shock, dismay, and bitterness towards any nation that does not 'fully and wholeheartedly' support the US, thus vulnerable to nationalism, patriotism, and an alarming sense of hostility towards the "other." Yet, at the end of the day, a pragmatic interpretation of reality is needed in order to fully comprehend the causes of conflict and hostility, let alone to prevent the reoccurrence of another "September 11th."

A word of caution must be said regarding the seemingly blind US identification with the state of Israel; the "common values" rhetoric repeatedly asserted by Israel to gain US support must be questioned.

Essentially, the American people must come to terms with the fact that the state of Israel continues to illegally occupy the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and east Jerusalem, leaving 2.8 million Palestinians under the harsh measures of military rule. The state of Israel continues to defy international legality and morality by sustaining this occupation through the logic of power, militarism, and suppression.

Israel is the only apartheid regime in the 21st Century. Israel's 1 million Arab population (i.e. Palestinians residing within the state of Israel) continues to suffer from a systematic apartheid regime at the social, political, and economic levels.

The emergence of the state of Israel in 1948 has created the world's largest refugee population (currently 4.6 million Palestinians), leaving more than 530 Palestinian villages destroyed, uprooted, and replaced by colonies established at the expense of hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians.

Israel continues to violate the most basic human and civil rights of the Palestinian people. Throughout the Israeli occupation (since 1948), consecutive Israeli governments have carried out unimaginable atrocities against the Palestinian people; illegal confiscation of private land, severe restrictions of Palestinian movement, harsh military measures against civilians, suppression of freedom of speech, political imprisonment of Palestinian activists and political figures, and a continuous strangulation of Palestinian economic, political, and social life.

The ideologically-driven establishment of illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land since 1967 has left the Palestinian areas fragmented into isolated towns and villages (commonly referred to during apartheid South Africa as Bantustans). Israeli settlements are illegal under the provisions of international law, specifically the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and United Nations Resolution 242.

Finally, and tragically, Israel has embarked on a policy of brute military force against the Palestinian people since September 2000. Since Ariel Sharon's incursion into Al-Haram Al Sharif (the Holy Sanctuary) in Jerusalem 14 months ago, thus the outbreak of the current Palestinian Intifada (uprising), Israeli forces have killed 880 Palestinians (35% of whom are children below the age of 18), and wounded almost 17, 000 (including more than 2,500 permanent disabilities). Israel has implemented a severe siege of Palestinian areas, leaving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians strangulated within isolated areas throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. And finally, Israeli death squads have carried out 85 political assassinations of Palestinian activists and political figures, without the slightest regard to the right of the Palestinians to political freedom and expression, let alone the right to life itself.

In 1993 (the signing of the Declaration of Principles), the Palestinian people and leadership took a significant share of the inevitable peace compromise by accepting 22% of historical Palestine. It is now time for Israel to come to terms with its history and realize that the only viable solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is through an unconditional end of its occupation, namely, a complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank (including east Jerusalem), the Gaza Strip, the dismantling of illegal Israeli settlements, the release of Palestinian political prisoners, and the return of the Palestinian refugees (in accordance with United Nations Resolutions 242, 338, 194, and the 'land-for-peace' equation).

The US must also come to terms with the realities created by its unconditional support to the illegality, immorality, and inhumanity of Israel's occupation of Palestine. The US must reassess its supportive political stance (sometimes through willful silence) towards the atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinian people, through brute military force, human rights violations, economic and social strangulation, discrimination, and political assassinations. The US must realize that the measures adopted by Israel only reinforce, and attempt to legitimize, terrorism; state terrorism.

Mid-East Realities

www.middleeast.org

Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/12/496.htm