A little digression from the usual theme of money. But world politics and wars definitely have a serious effect over stock market and macro-economic. It is therefore imperative to understand the international world politics in our global village.
I learned most of the things about the Palestine-Israel conflict directly from Jewish themselves. The best summary critical of Israel by Jewish themselves is The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict by Jews For Justice In the Middle East. I highly recommend you to read thru all the details in that link. By the way, if you decide to comment, I ask you to at least read through any 15 pages of the 37 pages document. The document is in agreement with the same key resolutions signed by 3800 American Jewish in their open letter to US government. I’m providing some excerpts from the views of these Jewish here (pg number refering to 8×11 edition). There is no Zionism, no Anti-Semitism here. Only a concerned and compassionate Asian third-party man who wants truth & justice to prevail for all fellow human beings.
- Since 1967, Israel is the most extensive violator of UN Resolutions: 242, 238, 267, 271 and 298.
- Canaanites were the earliest people in the region from 3000 to 1100 BC. Jewish ruled the region until 586 BC, 414 years max. And since 7th century, it is predominantly an Arab/Islamic place. (pg.2)
- “By 1948, the Jew was not only able to ‘defend himself’ but to commit massive atrocities as well. Indeed, according to the former director of the Israeli army archives, ‘in almost every village occupied by us during the War of Independence, acts were committed which are defined as war crimes, such as murders, massacres, and rapes’…Uri Milstein, the authoritative Israeli military historian of the 1948 war, goes one step further, maintaining that ‘every skirmish ended in a massacre of Arabs.’” (pg.8)
- “The First UN General Assembly resolution — Number 194– affirming the right of Palestinians to return to their homes and property, was passed on December 11, 1948. It has been repassed no less than 28 times since that first date.” Till today, Israel still refuses this basic right of returning home for Palestinians. (pg.10)
- “In violation of international law, Israel has confiscated over 52 percent of the land in the West Bank, and 30 percent of the Gaza Strip for military use or for settlement by Jewish civilian….Over this period (1967 to 1982), more than 300,000 Palestinians were detained without trial for various periods by Israeli security forces.” (pg.13)
- “Israel has split the West Bank by means of hundreds of trenches, dirt ramparts and concrete cubes which have been placed at the entrance to most of the towns and villages. No one enters and no one leaves, not those who are pregnant and not those who are dying.” (pg.33)
I can go on and on. It’s pretty much endless, and the injustice since 1948, after almost 60 years, is still happening daily to the poor Palestinians. So why does Palestine-Israel conflict concern US or anyone at all? And what does it have to do with 9/11? As you may know, a major chunk of US foreign aid goes to Israel. In fact, “Israel usually receives roughly one third of the entire foreign aid budget, despite the fact that Israel comprises less than .001 of the world’s population and already has one of the world’s higher per capita incomes. In other words, Israel, a country of approximately 6 million people, is currently receiving more U.S. aid than all of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean combined when you take out Egypt and Colombia.” “According to the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE), from 1949-2001 the U.S. has given Israel a total of $94,966,300,000. The direct and indirect aid from this year should put the total U.S. aid to Israel since 1949 at over one hundred billion dollars. What is not widely known, however, is that most of this aid violates American laws. The Arms Export Control Act stipulates that US-supplied weapons be used only for “legitimate self-defense.” (info taken from washington-report.org) When Arabs look at Israeli military equipment, all the F-16 fighters and the best Apache helicopters, all made in USA, what would they think of USA? When US presidents repeatedly sided with Israel, even after continuous UN violations and abuse of human rights, what would Islamic world think of us? If America stands for the belief of its freedom and democracy, American tax dollar for foreign aids and foreign policy definitely do not reflect the belief.
Do you know any people who is willing to live under foreign occupation forever without revolting? Do you know any people who will not be angry for having his home bull-dozed over without any financial compensation nor any legitimate reasons that are directly related to him? Do you know any non-tyrannical government who would build a wall right through a Palestinian university campus? Do you know anyone who is mentally sound, but will kill and blow himself up for no good reasons, unless battling as a soldier for self-defending their countrymen’s basic rights? I just don’t. Right after 9/11, I saw a TV program asking various people for reaction to 9/11. None but a 5 year old girl had the intelligence of asking why. She said, “what did we do wrong so that they will hate us this much to do such a terrible thing to us?” A fresh mind, a refreshing inquiry indeed from a 5 year old. Why? Without knowing the answers, but simply exercising strong force is futile to resolving the root causes of the problem. Like Bush said, there are people in the world who hate the way we live and enjoy our democracy? I suggest Bush to read the book “Why do People Hate America?” to find out the reasons.
Understanding the Middle East conflict is the very first step to resolving the conflict. Resolving the conflict by imposing injustice upon a people by force, lies, or any other ways will never work. It may work for 10 years, 50 years, or even 100 years, but it just won’t work forever. A government’s power may last a very long time, but the sense of justice and the will to overcome an foreign-controlled impoverished life lasts forever. Palestinians (or any Arabs) don’t want to teach their children to hate Israeli. Palestinians only want to reclaim what was properly belonged to them. Because every man is created in the image of God, every man has the quintessential sense of justice from God. Some of us are watching over Israeli government actions, blogging about it, doing everything that we can in our power.
For as long as US government continue to fund Israeli government and condone its military actions, 9/11 will not be the last horrific terrorist event. We cannot put 9/11 behind us until we have resolved Palestine-Israel conflict in a peaceful and just way.
Right now, Israel is again attacking Lebanon with reasons of self-defense. If the small rockets by Hezbollah can only be launched from the south of Lebanon, why is Israel attacking all over the Lebanon, destroying the entire Lebanonese communication and transportation infrastructures which are the lifeblood of economic development? How can anyone call that self-defense, when civilians in un-related locations are dying? What is USA and Bush doing at this moment (refer to my comment on World War III post)? Do the actions of USA stand for what we all believe in, freedom and democracy for all?
By the way, I just want to add that this article is in no way supporting terrorism. I am a pacifist, and I think any violence is simply WRONG. Please see my comments here and comments in my post of first sign of world war III.
P.S.#1. I am taking a real risk by writing this post. As of now at 1:30am Friday, the national chapter of SUSTAIN (Stop US Tax Aid to Israel NOW) website has been HACKED. Instead, I get re-directed to a search portal. The Memphis chapter of SUSTAIN appears to have being hacked too. I hope you can still access Bay Area chapter when you read this page. And I hope my small site will not get hacked or go down because of this post. If my site goes down, you will know why. If you feel that you agree to my post, and that you have a blog or website, I hope you could propagate this message. Or you can email the 37 pages documents written by Jewish to as many people as you know. Unless more people know about the truth, and eventually take actions to change our foreign policy, USA will be mired in conflict along with Israel forever.
P.S.#2. I reserve the editorial right to any comments posted. I respect any differences in opinions that you may have with me. In a democracy, we are allowed to have differences in opinions, but still mutually respect each other. However, please be factual and compassionate to human lives. Do a little research before you post your comment.
