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Ayoon wa Azan (The Wall's Failure)
Jihad Al Khazen Al-Hayat 2004/02/24
Eight Israelis were killed and 40 others were injured in a suicide attack in Jerusalem. The butcher, Ariel Sharon, said that this is evidence that the wall is needed.
This is proof of the wall's failure, but I no longer understand what is going on in the world; Israel's Prime Minister killed eight Israelis and injured 40 others by his persistence on the policy of killing and destruction. I expected him to switch the truth while defending a policy that promised to accomplish security. However, this policy completely destroyed it, along with Israel's economy, and perhaps, its claimed democracy. What I did not expect is for Israeli newspapers to agree with him or let it pass without holding Sharon somewhat responsible.
Israeli newspapers are highly professional. Nevertheless, Ma'ariv chose "Be the Judge" as a headline that filled its front page, indicating the issue of the wall before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Lahaye. Yedioth Ahronoth assigned two thirds of its front page for a letter from a mother of one of those who were killed in the operation, addressing judges in Lahaye. She should have addressed Sharon who failed to accomplish security, and committed a crime after the other; until he weakened all those calling to stop the suicide attacks.
Honestly, I no longer understand, why Israelis do not question Sharon for crimes committed against them, if they do not want to question him on corruption, and the American administration's cover up for him by condemning suicide attacks and refuses to find the reasons for them.
We all reject suicide attacks. However, I reject them from London. As for those who are burnt with the fire of occupation every day, death is an exit from a life that is more difficult than death. Nevertheless, smart Israelis do not see this, which confirms Amro Moussa's opinion; they are smart but not wise.
The American administration is neither smart nor wise. It does not see that through its blind support for Israel it became a partner in Sharon's killing of Israelis and Palestinians, because his policy leads to disaster.
What the American administration lacks in smartness and wisdom, it compensates for with malice. This is what I understood from the sudden focus on hunting Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri, between Pakistan, Afghanistan, and talking about capturing them soon.
Certainly capturing one of them would benefit George W. Bush in the elections, as the timing of Saddam Hussein's arrest helped him with the increased criticism of his war on Iraq and the drop in his popularity. Capturing Al Qaeda's leaders would probably be in summer, if George W. Bush were capable of slowing down the hunt's pace. Actually, it was evoked to divert attention away from Abdulkadir Khan's case and his nuclear secrets. Since President Pervez Musharraf cannot punish Khan, who is considered a national hero, and cannot arrest Al Qaeda's leaders without a popular revolution against him, he is helping Bush by facilitating the military operations for him. Hence, both parties take advantage of an effort, which lateness is not understood, although monitoring phone calls is enough to specify the wanted's location.
Arresting bin Laden or Zawahiri would benefit Bush for a while, as it happened after Saddam Hussein's capture. However, the problem will persist. There will be no peace in the Middle East without a settlement of the Palestinian cause, and there will be no stability without ending the war in Iraq.
I write this on Monday, and there are news about the death of ten Iraqis and 45 injuries in another suicide bomb which platform, this time, was in Kirkuk in the north.
Why is the uproar limited regarding the Israelis that were killed a day earlier, and there is no similar uproar with respect to the Iraqi victims, although there are ten of them everyday, not every month or two as it is in Israel?
Perhaps President Bush needs someone to console him, his dog Spot left to the dogs' afterlife during the weekend. An official statement was issued saying: "the first family was deeply saddened by Spot's death." I have a dog, which my family and myself would be very upset if it went to meet Spot. However, while I was reading the news of the Bushes' personal disaster, I read a sad report in the Washington Post about the funeral of the 19 year-old soldier Nick Spray who was killed in Iraq. He was a famous basketball player in Chester town. He went to Iraq a young man full of life and came back in a casket wrapped with the American flag.
There is a web page on the Internet that opposes war. Lately, I saw a picture of an American loading plane carrying four caskets covered with the flag. What good does the flag do?
I speak for myself only. I condemn all killing; Palestinians, Israelis, Americans or Iraqis. However, I also condemn any policy that encourages killing by not asking for peace.
Personally, I do not want any Israeli to be killed. I hope that the Israelis and Palestinians would one day live in peace in two states, side-by-side. I read lately about a computer game for Hezbollah in which the player kills the "Zionist enemy;" the player shoots Ariel Sharon, then moves on to Shaul Mofaz, and so on.
Had I had enough knowledge in technology to produce a similar game, I would be content with making the player spit on the enemies of peace, leaving the game of death to them, with American encouragement.
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