I received this article from a friend through an e-mail...The US media and Israel like to portray terrorists as if they just popped out of the ground. They are simply "brainwashed" with "radical religious ideas" to commit evil. But is the reality so simple? First of all, are Hezbollah and Hamas terrorists or freedom fighters? What conditions are needed to create someone who is willing to sacrifice their own life to defeat an enemy? There is a difference between someone willing to kill for a cause, and someone willing to die for a cause.
The fact is that no matter how much military force is used against Hezbollah or Hamas, these organizations will never disappear because what creates them is the cruelty of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians and formerly the Lebanese. Do Americans really know how Palestinians live their lives?
The US media likes to portray the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as if there are two equally powerful states which are fighting a fair fight. No. That's not reality. The reality is more like South Africa, where the White Afrikaners had the monopoly on the military, economy and politics and used modern weapons to kill and oppress the Black Africans into submission.
Do Americans know that in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, that there are separate roads for Jews and for Arabs? Palestinians cannot even RIDE IN A VEHICLE on a Jewish road. Even if they did, these roads are used to connect the vast Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, where the Palestinians would be beaten or killed if they tried to step in these areas anyways. I remember when I was in the West Bank, we had to constantly drop off Palestinian guides before check points, and they had to sneak across a mile of fields where we would pick them up down the road again, this simply because Palestinians cannot even be in our vehicles when we travel on Jewish roads. They are not even treated as human beings, understand?
Also, do Americans know that Palestinians cannot even leave their cities and towns without permission from Israel? Imagine if a foreign country, let’s say Iran, takes over California. You live in San Mateo, and you can never leave San Mateo to visit relatives or work unless you have permission from Iran. You will have to first petition, and it takes many weeks to get that permission. When you finally get it, you have to wait by the roadblocks and checkpoints, and that will take you the whole day, maybe 8 hours.
Even when you get up to the checkpoint and have permission, the Iranian soldier will only let you go if he feels like it. Sometimes they are having a bad day and will force you to go back and tell you that you can't go today. So you will have to try again tomorrow. What kind of life is that? The checkpoints and roadblocks do not only block Palestinian areas from Israel but from OTHER PALESTINIAN AREAS. Their purpose is not for security, but to dehumanize and collectively punish an entire people. Palestinians who live in Hebron cannot even go visit their relatives who live in Bethlehem. In fact, it is easier for an American who lives in New York to visit their relatives in Hawaii, than a Palestinian who lives in Hebron to visit their relatives in Ramallah, barely 40 miles away. Many Palestinians have NOT been able to leave their own city or village for the past 5 years. I have seen children with horrible skin rashes and are suffering because they are not allowed to leave their village to go to a hospital. Is this democracy? Is this the democracy we are defending?
Also, the Palestinians are constantly receiving the indiscriminate bombing of Israel's air force and army. For every Israeli civilian killed in a suicide bombing, 30 Palestinians civilians are killed by the Israel forces. Israeli soldiers can indiscriminately barge into Palestinian homes with guns pointed and wreck the entire house. But when a Palestinian picks up a gun to defend his own children, his own wife, his own elderly parents from Israeli brutality and humiliation, he is a TERRORIST. WHY? Why the Palestinians are not allowed any form of self-defense, but Israel is allowed to murder hundreds of civilians (over one third children) as part of a "measured response"???
Also, do AMERICANS KNOW about the Jewish settlements that strangle each Palestinian city? This is why Palestine will never be a free country, because each Palestinian city is choked with a ring of Jewish settlements. While the Palestinians are literally WALLED INTO their cities by the Israeli apartheid (separation fence) wall, and Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks. The outskirts of their cities are all occupied by Jewish settlements, populated by some of the most hateful and religiously fanatic Jews in the entire world. They are basically like a Jewish KKK, Jewish White supremacist Neo-Nazis who raise their communities based on religious fanaticism and racial hatred, and they are armed to the teeth with Uzis and protected by the Israeli army. They live in nice, modern spacious homes in suburban styles that look like they come out of Los Angeles. Their communities are high on a hill overlooking the doomed Palestinians below, with their lawns green and nice shiny cars parked in front of their driveways behind barbed wire fences and sniper towers. Below, the Palestinians live in poverty and oppression. The Israelis also take most of the water supply; they need it to water their lawns, while the Palestinians suffer in drought. While the Jewish settlers water their lawns with copious amounts of water to keep them "looking nice", the Palestinians are given "rations" of water for personal use and have to pay THREE TIMES the amount that the Jewish settlers pay FOR THEIR OWN WATER, FOR PALESTINIAN WATER!
Would Americans be willing to tolerate this situation if they were in the shoes of the Palestinians? NO. In fact, the Palestinians have been remarkably patient after so many decades of oppression. Americans would not be able to tolerate ONE DAY as a Palestinian. Also, there is no group MORE STUPID AND MORE IDIOTIC than the American Christian Zionists who support Israel. This has got to be the most worthless and stupid group on the entire Earth. DO AMERICANS KNOW that roughly 15% of Palestinians are CHRISTIAN, and that they suffer just as much in the hands of the Israelis as the Moslems do? So American Christians are SUPPORTING THE OPPRESSION OF THEIR CHRISTIAN BRETHREN in the Holy Land! These Palestinian Christians have been the historic caretakers of the most Holy Christian sites in the Holy Land, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher the site of Jesus' crucifixion, the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, the site of Jesus' birth. Today, these Palestinian Christians are suffering from the iron hand of Israel's oppression and even these CHRISTIAN historic sites are wrecked by Israel. The Palestinian Christians have a long history in being involved with the Palestinian resistance. It is ironic that their suffering is directly tied to the rabid support of Israel that American Christian Zionists give, with their mouths watering for more Palestinian blood. If you are an American who supports Israel because the media tells you that Israel is good, you need to question your media. I was once in the same shoes, until I saw the reality with my own eyes. Israel is NOT the victim, it is the victimizer. It is quite sad that European Jews, who suffered so much in Europe and in the Holocaust, would use the state of Israel to perpetrate the same kind of injustices and cruelty against the Palestinians, an innocent people that had nothing to do with European anti-Semitism. Americans do not understand the conditions that create terrorism. It is out of a dark hole of immense suffering and humiliation, that the anger to commit terrorism is created. If America never addresses the true causes of terrorism in the region which is the barbaric treatment of the Palestinians by Israel, there will NEVER be peace in the region.
