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Israel Makes A False Choice
Topic Started: Aug 12 2006, 10:58 PM (55 Views)
abuturab82
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Israel makes a false choice
By AMMAR ASKARI
Posted: Aug. 12, 2006

The recent crisis in Lebanon is portrayed in the American media as yet another war of self-defense by Israel. This tiny country, set in the midst of hostile neighbors whose goal is to destroy it, does not choose to fight but is forced to fight for its very survival.
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What would the United States have done, Israel's defenders ask, if two U.S. soldiers were captured in an unprovoked attack by another country?

There is a problem with this argument. The attack that resulted in the capture of the Israeli soldiers was not "unprovoked." It was provoked by a whole series of earlier Israeli actions.

In an interview Aug. 4, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora advanced the following reasons why the Lebanese are resisting Israel's latest attack on their country:

• Israel occupies Lebanese territory (the Shabaa Farms) and refuses to relinquish it.

• Israel is holding dozens of Lebanese citizens it kidnapped both before and after its 18-year occupation of south Lebanon ended in 2000 and refuses to release them.

• Israel refuses to hand over maps showing the location of the thousands of mines it laid in Lebanon. As a result, Lebanese civilians are killed and maimed by hidden mines every week.

• Israel regularly engages in assassinations, car bombings and other acts of war on Lebanese territory.

This is the background against which the Hezbollah's seizure of the two Israeli soldiers must be viewed.

Israel's supporters fundamentally misrepresent the options that Israel has. The choice is not between "peace" (on Israel's terms, of course) and recurrent wars of "self-defense" waged by Israel on its Arab neighbors.

By presenting the choice facing Israel in this way, they deliberately leave out of account the most important issue: Israel's long-standing occupation of Arab land. Since 1967, Israel has occupied land belonging to Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. This is the longest military occupation in modern history.

Israel has a right to security but it can hardly expect to gain security as long as it refuses to end its occupation of Arab land.

Occupation means oppression. Oppression breeds frustration, hatred and resistance. Continuous occupation maintained by brutal force breeds desperate resistance and terrorism of the sort we often see in the Middle East.

The Arab states are mostly ruled by despots, monarchs and dictators. Yet one thing must be said in favor of these corrupt governments - they respect their treaties.

After fighting several wars with Egypt and Jordan, Israel now lives in peace with them. Why? Because Israel gave back to its rightful owners the land it occupied in 1967. Israel will live in peace if it acts the same way toward its other Arab neighbors.

In 2002, the League of Arab Nations offered a comprehensive peace and complete normalization of relations with Israel if Israel, in return, agreed to comply with United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, which call for the return of all Arab land seized by Israel in 1967.

The offer has since been repeated four times. Each time, Israel has rejected it.

Israel wants to obtain security, not by giving back the Arab lands it occupies, but by subjugating its Arab neighbors with brute force - as we are currently witnessing in Lebanon.

Israel's supporters argue that groups like Hamas and Hezbollah aim to destroy the Jewish state. Yet the policies that Israel is currently pursuing in the West Bank and Gaza are clearly intended to eliminate the possibility that a viable Palestinian state will ever come into being.

The Palestinians want exactly the same thing that Israel wants: a secure, free and independent state. Somewhat inconsistently, the Israeli lobby insists that only Israelis are entitled to this; the Palestinians (and the Lebanese) are not.

This summer, Israel invaded Lebanon for the seventh time in the last 40 years. Each time, Israel's overwhelmingly superior military has wreaked havoc on Lebanon's population and its infrastructure.

The Israeli policy of oppression, subjugation and brute force will not produce long-term peace or security. Only ending the occupation will.

The choice for Israel is clear.

Ammar Askari of Milwaukee is president of the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=482430
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