Why No Outrage at Israel’s Terrorism?

by Khaled Al-Maeena

The Palestinian Authority headed by Yasser Arafat has called for an emergency meeting of the Security Council to discuss the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territories.

I don’t think much will come of it. The U.S.-dominated Security Council may offer some words but will do nothing to displease its client state Israel. What is more surprising is that most of the Arab states who were quick to go to Sharm el-Sheikh and denounce terrorism have yet to speak against Israeli oppression. I wonder if there is a clause in the agreement that prevented them from doing so.

The blockade has caused immense hardship to the Palestinians. Added to their economic woes were the terrorist acts by the Zionist forces who stormed their way into Bir Zeit University and arrested the students. They have all been dragged to Israeli jails. As you read this, they are being tortured by the sadistic Israeli guards.

Such things as the handshake at the White House or the signing of treaties, or even world leaders lining up at Sharm el-Sheikh, raising their hands in victory signs, do not constitute any progress toward lasting peace. Rather, it gives Israel more time to plan and further its campaign of terror and oppression against Arab women and children in the occupied territories.

The most disgusting aspect of the whole thing is that none of those who were quick to respond to the attacks in Tel Aviv uttered even a whisper. It seems Israel has been given a carte blanche to do whatever it wants.

When Israeli blood is spilled, there is condemnation from all over the United States and the West. Even the Arabs join in the chorus. High-powered propaganda campaigns have bamboozled them into condemning the reaction of the victims. But there is thunderous silence when terror is unleashed by the aggressor, turning a whole nation into a veritable pen, denying a whole people the right to earn their livelihood, to buy their provisions, to market their products, to visit their neighbors.

The question is simple. Why doesn’t Israel vacate all occupied Arab lands including Jerusalem which it occupied in 1967? Why does it openly flout U.N. resolutions? Why does it behave as if it only has the right to express fears about terrorism when it is, itself, a terrorist state?

It does this because it has the total support of the United States and also because of the impotence of Arabs. The Arabs have been complaining, condemning and expecting too much from the United Nations.

However, the people of the occupied territories had too much. They had no one to help them and their own hands were tied. Finally they decided to give their own medicine. The Israelis screamed, the Americans heralded in an ensemble and the orchestra played an Israeli tune.

America acted because it was outraged. But America sat unmoved when pictures of young Arab boys, some only 8 and 9 years old, their eyes frozen in horror, being brutally dragged into Israeli military custody came on their TV screens. There was no outrage. Bulldozed houses, blown-up hospitals, ransacked universities—all fail to arouse pity. Twenty-nine worshippers mowed down by an American Zionist did not get even one percent of the media attention the bomb blasts in Israel got.

This selective outrage on the part of the sole superpower is appalling. Determined to see, for their own strategic reasons or on account of personal bias, terrorism only on the Arab side, they repeatedly hold forth on “Islamic terror.”

They forget American terror in the form of Goldstein and Zionist terror in the form of Shin Bet.

In the light of all these actions, the Arabs, if they are awake, should take care and be wary. No matter how much ink and paper Israel has used up to record the clauses of the “peace treaty” with the Arabs, the Zionist state is a deadly foe. This enemy will not rest until it subjugates the Arabs—militarily and economically.

Of the many strategies it uses to achieve this, one is to create suspicion among the Arab people by classifying them as good and bad. The Arabs should beware.

Enough mistakes have been made in the past. Any future one will prove to be fatal to the Arabs.