Editor’s
Note:
The Middle East erupted once again this week with Israel
assassinating a quadriplegic spiritual leader of HAMAS.
The problem with issuing proclamations that Israel is a
“democracy” obliges that they act as one. Assassinating
quadriplegics without benefit of a trial is not
democracy in action.
Enough is enough – by Jaffer Ali
It has been a while since I have written anything on the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The reason was not a lack
of interest, but a tremendous lack of time due to a
challenging business environment. But as the clock
passes midnight less than twenty-four hours after Israel
assassinated Sheik Ahmed Yassin, these words keep me
from sleeping and demand comment;
Enough is enough.
How long will the US allow Israel to violate
international law? How long will America prop up the
failed experiment known as Zionism?
How long will Israel be allowed to create its own rules…
murdering and maiming children in the name of self
defense?
Israel has killed over 1000 children since the second
uprising against its illegal occupation began. Israel’s
weapon of choice is not a suicide belt, but an Apache
helicopter powered by missiles; all supplied by Uncle
Sam.
Enough is enough.
Many who are reading this have a rose-colored view of
Israel and therefore a distorted view of Palestinians.
Most of the readers actually believe Israel is a
democracy. It is no more a democracy than South Africa
during apartheid.
How long will the world sit idly by while Israel claims
in the name of “self defense” an unlimited capacity to
inflict unmentionable human suffering?
How long will the Arab people allow their leadership to
represent interests in opposition to their own people?
On Friday (3/19/04), King Abdullah of Jordan visited
Ariel Sharon. The meeting was supposed to be secret. It
was there that the King was told of Sharon’s plan to
assassinate Yassin. King Abdullah never knew that Sharon
planned to leak the “secret” visit. The leak was made to
embarrass this boy king who has not yet learned the game
of power.
Is it the case that Sharon leaked Abdullah’s visit to
destabilize Jordan while laying the groundwork for
Yassin’s assassination? Sharon wants to destabilize the
region to “save” Israel. In a destabilized Middle East,
the fog of war might allow Sharon to expel Palestinians
from their homeland. He full well knows that the
assassination will not go unanswered. Israel is
desperate and this is certain to create chaos.
Enough is enough.
One can smell Israeli desperation. Why else would a
67-year- old, quadriplegic who was nearly blind be such
a threat that Israelis would kill him without benefit of
a trial? Is this democracy in action? Is this the
standard for democracies in the Middle East that the US
wishes to set up?
What made Sheik Ahmed Yassin such a threat? I can tell
you in a sentence. Yassin embodied an idea. That idea
was an end to Zionism as a political ideology. Zionism
is the notion that a state should be defined by religion
or ethnic designations. Yassin made flesh the idea that
Zionism was a moral outrage…and since Israel could not
eradicate the idea, they settled for eradicating his
flesh.
But the idea remains. And let me state it clearly for
all to read and hear. Zionism is an evil ideology that
INHERENTLY corrupts its followers. Yassin did not invent
the idea for which he was assassinated, he merely
personified it. Apache helicopters cannot eradicate this
idea. Missiles, “Made in the USA” cannot destroy this
idea.
Enough is enough.
There are many people that shrink in timidity when
discussing Zionism as the root cause of the Middle East
problems. One Arab-American writer told me it was an
“unwritten rule” that one could never get published in
US papers if Zionism was mentioned. Israel executes
people without benefit of trial, labels themselves a
democracy, and yet writers are not “allowed” to tell the
truth regarding what inevitably is the ultimate cause of
THE problem?
When stating clearly that one-person, one-vote is the
only solution that will survive becomes off limits in
discussion, Orwellian rhetoric triumphs over reality.
Make no mistake about it, the world knows that every US
president has blood on his hands…from Truman to Bush
“43”. Why?
Israel could not survive as a garrison state without the
active and behind-the-scenes support of the US. This
support threatens US interests more than any other
alliance in the world. A rational foreign policy that is
not beholden to oil companies, not beholden to financial
interests, not beholden to a cadre of pro-Zionist
elements inside Washington is needed to move beyond the
morally and culturally bankrupt ideology that designates
preferential treatment of one category of man over
another.
Enough is enough.
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Jaffer has been writing on the Middle East for over 20
years and is a regular contributor to Viewpoint. He is
also the author of the recently published book-
Palestine & The Middle East: A Chronicle of
Passion and Politics To purchase:
Click Here
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