Peace in the Middle East? End the Occupation! (Saul Landau)

[laststeamtrain]

End the Occupation!
Peace in the Middle East?

By SAUL LANDAU

A fog of rhetoric has impeded clear public vision of the latest Middle East war. Israeli spokespeople and White House echoers punctuate "explanatory" sentences with the "t" word, to connote the root of current evil, and the necessary violent remedy as well: more terrorism, directed by the state of Israel. The barrage of words and images syncopates with the barrage of bombs and rockets. The cacophony of babble tends to erase precedents and obscure facts: Palestine, not terrorism, remains the central conflictive issue in the area.

On July 22, as Israel invaded Lebanon to crush the "Hezbollah terrorists"­ momentarily turning attention away from the "Hamas terrorists"--former Irgun warriors unveiled a plaque "commemorating the attack on the King David hotel in Jerusalem on July 22, 1946. On that day the Irgun 'resistance' to British rule in Palestine detonated a bomb inside the hotel." 91 people died, including 28 British subjects. (Harry de Quetteville, Telegraph July 22, 2006)

"The Hebrew Resistance Movement" ops planted explosives in the hotel basement, claiming to have warned the hotel's occupants to leave. For unknown reasons the hotel remained full when the bombs exploded. A mistake; regrettable! Indeed, the Israeli government has continued to regret subsequent civilian killings. These unintentional mistakes have cost thousands of mostly Palestinian lives. By late July, Israeli bombs on Lebanese cities produced more deaths and almost a million refugees--another regrettable but necessary consequence of the war on terrorism.

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http://www.counterpunch.org/landau08022006.html

[stray cat]

1. What has Hamas dones with its own territory

improved schools, worked to end poverty, built up its economy? No, Hamas used its independent to attack Israel. Clearly giving back land is not creating peace.

[BillZBubb]

2. What a bunch of bullshit. Get a clue.

Israel "gave back" Gaza: an overpopulated, resource empty region. It is economically unviable. Israel restricted travel. Hamas has been in power, what for six months. Israel also STOPPED giving the Palestinians tax receipts it had agreed to return to them. As usual, Israel lied. Thus, Hamas was made insolvent. They couldn't improve anything.

It is really frightening that people like you post such uninformed bullshit and even worse actually believe it.

Israel needs to implement UN 242 and help establish a REAL, viable Palestinian state the has a chance economically. Until then, the fighting will go on and on and on and on....

[regnaD kciN]

3. He also misunderstands the nature of Hamas...

...when he asks "what have they done?" FWIW, Hamas is split into two wings, military and political. The military wing gets all the publicity, but the political wing has run social aid and educational programs for over two decades. In some parts of the Occupied Territories, particularly Gaza, they've been the prime providers of social services, hence their popularity.

This is not to suggest that they're anything other than "bad guys" overall (much like Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was while he was performing similar services to Medellin's poor), but characterizing them as solely being occupied with terrorist attacks is a serious misunderstanding of the situation, and of why they gained popularity among Palestinians, even among those who don't endorse the destruction of Israel or violence used against Israeli civilians.