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Pax Israeliana: peace Israeli style
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By CHRISTOPHER VASILLOPULOS*


The Romans create a desert and call it peace. -- Tacitus

Palestine is a land without a people. -- David Ben-Gurion



As the Israeli atrocities multiply, as its air strikes (cowardly to the last degree) on civilians, women and children intensify, as its list of war crimes lengthens and as the US continues to collaborate in every way, the world despairs. Cry, beloved Palestine, cry. Worse still, the great powers -- great not in perspicacity, honor or regard for human suffering -- do nothing. Cry, beloved peacemakers, cry.

The West -- I can't say the Christian West -- allows, if it does not condone, their renegade colonial outpost's attempt to eliminate the Palestinians. "Eliminate" was the Nazi euphemism for extermination. I have not heard of an Israeli proposal to transport, another euphemism, Palestinians to Madagascar. Perhaps they want them to exile themselves, a voluntary and final Palestinian diaspora, one which already numbers in the millions, or perhaps, failing that, simply die: slowly, spiritually, in unspeakable concentration camps, more rapidly from malnutrition or disease, or quickly by indiscriminate bombs and rockets.

The Israeli rationale is "terrorism." This rationale always ignores that Hamas, like Hezbullah, is a creature of Israel, not a bastard son like the South Lebanon Army, but offspring nonetheless. All resistance movements are terrorists from the perspective of the oppressors or occupiers. This does not mean that all terrorist movements are equal. It does not mean that all acts of resistance can be taken at face value. Often they are a mask for violence, having no political purpose at all. Often they have little rational basis, even when criminal gain is not their objective. Like every other complex phenomenon, resistance or terrorist movements have to be analyzed and understood in their own terms and in their own contexts.

With regard to the Palestinians, only racist Zionists (and their American collaborators) see their resistance to Israeli oppression as terrorism, defined as violent, unprovoked attacks against peace-loving Israel. The world knows this representation is false. Half of Israel knows it is false. At least since 1967, Israeli policy has been plain: the elimination of Palestinians. Only Israeli tactics have been ambivalent or intentionally obscured: verbal concessions, token actions -- almost always immediately reversed -- while the main project of replacing Palestinians with Israelis proceeds apace.

What is equally clear is that Palestinians have suffered in the millions for decades, have been maimed in the tens of thousands, and killed in the thousands, mostly civilians, women and children. These casualties, the Israelis claim, are accidents of war or collateral damage. This claim is a lie. The blatant purpose of massive air strikes against civilian targets is to maim, kill and terrorize civilians. Collateral damage occurs when a brave Israeli pilot hurts his hand while releasing a bomb. Only the subordinate objective is to deter Palestinians from harboring terrorists. The main objective, demonstrated over and over again, is to convince Palestinians that they have no future in their homeland or as a people.

Peace can be achieved in the Middle East, in the Israeli view, only under a "Pax Israeliana." Moderate Zionists believe that such a peace means Israeli domination over all of Palestine and the intimidation of all its neighbors with nuclear weapons. Radical Zionists believe that Pax Israeliana means the re-establishment of the Kingdom of David, which by some estimates extends to Lake Van. That the world can scarcely credit such ambitions works to Israel's advantage, for it makes their more modest claims seem creditable. But to radical Zionists, which must include all conservative Israeli governments since 1967, only oil prevents the West from allowing Israel to pursue its rightful claims to hegemony in the Middle East, to rule the land of David.

This position has been echoed by neoconservatives in and out of the Bush administration. Unfortunately, the only difference between these fanatics and more moderate members of the foreign policy establishment has been words. To me, this group of spineless bureaucrats is worse than the neoconservatives, who at least stand for something, however horrible, and express their convictions honestly. The establishment believes only in their careers.

Thus, the world despairs, Palestinians bleed and die, while Israelis gloat behind their crocodile tears. And now, Obama. How long will it take Obama to acknowledge the obvious? How long will it take him to realize that Israel only responds to pressure, economic, diplomatic and military? How long will it take for him to realize, as the current Turkish government has finally realized, that Israeli words mean nothing?


todayszaman


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Christopher Vasillopulos, Ph.D., is a professor of international relations at Eastern Connecticut State University.

January 5, 2009 | 9:19 AM Comments  1 comments

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KAKAI PAUL KAKAI CHETAMBE
July 23, 2009 | 6:35 AM
RE:JOIN KENYAN HUMANITARIAN CELEB
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also wish to say,I am an artist and comedian,come and we stage,meanwhile,I
wish to give credit by writing a poem about you like I sold Madonna.Thanks

PAUL KAKAI CHETAMBE
P.O. BOX 403 WEBUYE 50205
KENYA
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