israel's kidnappings

*israel systematically destroys civilian infrastructure kills civilians and systematically ravages the economy of lebanon while expressing outrage over its 3 'kidnapped soldiers' is like the salt calling the sugar white --excerpts from "game over " an article by sam bahour and an editorial from genevieve cora fraser , "israeli and Us barbarians on the march"

arabic media internet network


http://www.amin.org/eng/uncat/2006/july/july17-3.html




Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American businessman living in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian city of El-Bireh, currently visiting his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. He is co-author of HOMELAND: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians (1994) and can be reached at sbahour@palnet.com



The official Israeli and US government lines are that the destruction of Lebanon and Gaza are happening because Israeli combat soldiers were taken prisoners, 3 in total. The international community’s state of amnesia seems to forget the 9,000 Palestinians that are currently lingering in Israeli prisons, of which over 1,000 had no charges brought against them. If so many civilians were not being killed in Lebanon, Palestine and Israel, the Israeli and US positions would be laughable. Even small town USA newspaper editorials are becoming aware of the US being on the wrong side of history in this conflict. The editorial of the Youngstown Vindicator of July 14 noted, “…the United States should have thought longer and harder before giving Israel unqualified support.”

The words of Arik Diamant, an Israeli military reservist and the head of the Courage to Refuse organization, sheds light on a growing sentiment within Israeli ranks that mainstream media is refusing to cover. Mr. Diamant recently wrote of his experience in arresting one of the thousands of Palestinians that the Israelis have illegally imprisoned over the years, he said, “No one wrote about it in the paper. European diplomats were not called to help him. After all, there was nothing out of the ordinary about the kidnapping of this Palestinian kid. Over the 40 years of occupation we have kidnapped thousands of people, exactly like Gilad Shalit was captured: Threatened by a gun, beaten mercilessly, with no judge or jury, or witnesses, and without providing the family with any information about the captive.”

Provocation clearly comes in many sizes and shapes. Israel’s mere refusal to end its military occupation of Palestinians is a level of provocation that most of the world could never even imagine. Taking prisoners of war, if this can even be called a war, is yet another provocation. There was no international outcry in 1989 when Israeli commandos crossed the Lebanese border and snatched Sheikh Abd al-Karim Obeid, a Hizballah leader of south Lebanon, and imprisoned him in Israel. The Israeli government even introduced legislation to maintain his imprisonment and called him a pawn to be used later. Israel repeated this again in 1994 when Mustafa Dirani was kidnapped from his home in Lebanon by Israeli commandos during the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha. Although provocations vary and are made by all sides in this conflict, no action, whatsoever, justifies the destruction of a civilian population’s infrastructure and wonton killing of civilians. Such acts only breed more violence and more hatred.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0607/S00299.htm

Israeli & US Barbarians on the March


By Genevieve Cora Fraser


Along with hundreds of civilians killed, thousands wounded, and over 500,000 fleeing for their lives, Israel has launched a series of debilitating air strikes against privately owned factories throughout Lebanon and is "dealing a devastating blow to an economy already paralyzed by a week of hits on residential areas and crucial infrastructure," according to the Daily Star of Beirut.

The production facilities of the largest dairy farm have been destroyed as well as a pharmaceutical plant. It will take decades to restore the country. Israel is also bombing apartment buildings, churches and gas stations - anything and everything in its gun sights.

Israel is bombing Lebanon and Gaza to kingdom come because of three Israeli soldiers (who kill Arabs) that Hamas and Hizbullah abducted in an attempt to secure the release of 400 Palestinian children and over 100 women who were abducted by Israeli Occupation Forces and are kept in Israel jails, without charge, where they are tortured and abused.

There are 10,000 political prisoners in Israeli jails vs. 3 Israeli political prisoners. The USA has given the green light for the barbaric attacks to continue - because Hizbullah dares to fight back.

Past president of the Lebanese Association of Industrialists, Jacques Sarraf remarked, "Israel is the enemy and they are doing everything they can to destroy the country, economically, socially, politically." Israel, the USA are pursuing a scorched earth policy towards Arabs and Islam just as Hitler once pursued the Jews.

Resistance fighters are not terrorists, countries using overwhelming force are.