(02/11/04)
Someone explain to me how our government can continue to support a racist regime where over half the population within its borders are denied equal civil rights simply because of their ethnicity. Tell me, because I'd like to see the logic behind it. I mean, European and North American countries successfully pressured the South African government to end its racist policies. It's no wonder that people like Nelson Mandela are vocal in their support for the Palestinian people. Let's look at statistics since the latest intifada began in September 2000 (accurate as of 24 January 2004) [source]:
- 2,305 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces in the Occupied Territories, of whom 445 were minors under the age of 18.
- I think this stat speaks for itself. If white cops killed this many black people in America in just over 3 years, including this many minors, there would be rioting and anarchy on the streets of every major city in the nation. "But wait," you say, "the reason why all these Palestinians were killed is because they're terrorists, including the minorities. I read in Newsweek that some of the suicide bombers were around the age of 13." Which leads to the next stat...
- Seventy Nine minors were age 17, Eighty Three were age 16, Sixty Eight were age 15, Fifty Seven were age 14, Forty Four were age 13, Twenty Two age 12, Fifteen were age 11, Nineteen were age 10, Nine were age 9, Ten were age 8, Six were age 7, Seven were age 6, Three were age 5, Five were age 4, Five were age 3, Six were two years old, Five were One year old babies, One was a 6 month old baby girl and One was a four month old baby girl.
- You can't possibly believe that 77 children age 10 and under were found to be terrorists, right? Even if you do believe so, I don't think 4 and 6 month old girls pose a threat to peace.
- At least 128 of the Palestinians killed were extrajudicially executed by Israel, 69 of them in assassinations carried out by the Israel Air Force and 59 of them in assassinations carried out by ground forces. In the course of these assasinations 88 additional Palestinians were killed, 78 of them in assassinations carried out by the Israel Air Force and 10 of them in assassinations carried out by ground forces.
- Call me crazy, but I believe in due process of law. Murderers, rapists, child molesters, wife beaters, jaywalkers, and terrorists deserve their day in court. I'd hate for the death penalty in my country to be administered by soldiers with rifles and helicopters with rockets under the command of a general sitting in a bunker hundreds of miles away. Over the same period of time, the United States executed 228 people [source]. So Israel executed 21 people per million population over this time period, and the U.S. (which European and other developed countries criticize) killed .79 people per million (Israel's population is 6,116,533 and the U.S.'s is 290,342,554) One big difference, though is that when someone dies in Texas by lethal injection, the executor of Texas doesn't manage to kill more innocent bystanders than actual death row inmates like the Israel Air Force does.
I was once listening to a Jewish commentator on the conflict on one of the news channels that the new generation of anti-semitism doesn't target Jewish people anymore but instead targets the nation of Israel. This is a load of crap because Anti-Semites are repugnant bigots, but people who oppose Israel on the grounds of human rights have legitimate views.
Now I'm all for Israel's right to exist. I'm all for most countries' right to exist. But when the United States supplies the Israeli military with weapons and technology, we're sending the Israelis the message that they don't have to grant equal status to Palestinians, they can just kill them. The United States needs to step up the pressure and threaten trade embargoes and what not if Israel continues to treat Palestinians as second class citizens. Can this crisis be averted? Sure it can. The Palestinians have to see that the Israeli civilian population would understand their plight if it weren't for the high profile terrorist attacks. They need to take a page from MLK's book and do peaceful protest. When Israeli soldiers shoot into the mob, they'll be the martyrs that they wanted to be. A suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his chest attracts no sympathy from the international community, but an unarmed college student killed while protesting Israeli policy could.
So why does the United States policy favor Israel? Is it because Jews run Washington? I'm inclined to say no, the conservative right-wing Christians run too much in Washington. Why fundamentalist Christians support Israel is an absolute mystery to me. They must think that the Jews are God's Chosen People, which means that God favors Jews over Gentiles, except that these Christians making the loud noise are Gentiles too. Meanwhile the Jews bitch and moan about how fundamentalist Christians are anti-semites because Mel Gibson makes movies about Jesus. This whole setup reeks of a bad sitcom where one guy secretly likes the girl who doesn't care at all about him and actually thinks he's an asshole.
Talking about Israel just pisses me off.
