On Sept. 21, President Bush addressed the United Nations as the self-appointed guardian of “democracy” and “human rights.” Bush said, “For decades, the circle of liberty, and security and development has been expanding in our world. … Now we have the historic chance to widen the circle even further … and to achieve a true peace, founded on human freedom.
For the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, this must have sounded like a grotesque version of “Alice in
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Bush, speaking specifically about the plight of the Palestinian people, referred to them as “long suffering.” Bush’s allusion to suffering was not, however, a reference to actions of the racist apartheid occupation by the Zionist state of Israeli.
Typical of racist and imperialist “thinkers,” Bush was talking about Hamas and other resistance forces that continue to refuse to go along with Israeli-U.S. plans to set up a Bantustan-like Palestinian “state.”
Bush demanded that a Palestinian state “should adopt peaceful means to achieve the rights of their people, and create the reformed institutions of a stable democracy.”
The day before, the Israeli Occupation Forces killed four Palestinians in Gaza and destroyed 14 homes.
Imperialist aims
U.S. imperialism’s geo-political aims in the Middle East have always included regional domination, either directly or through neo-colonial representatives, like the colonial, settler-state of Israel. Part of this strategy requires paying lip service to the desire for self-determination by the Palestinian and Arab people.
In order to maintain a semblance of “even-handedness” in the eyes of people in the Middle East and the United States, Bush called on Israel to freeze settlements and “end the daily humiliation of the Palestinian people.” But this was no real rebuke at all. No action is ever demanded of Israel unless it benefits U.S. imperialist aims in the region.
This hollow criticism was exposed when, over the course of the next five days, the IOF conducted 33 incursions into communities in the West Bank and four in the Gaza Strip. The IOF killed another nine Palestinian, including one child, injured 47 and arrested 89 people. In addition to the human casualties, the occupiers destroyed over 80 acres of agricultural land and 23 houses in Gaza.
None of these genocidal Israeli actions could take place without the backing of Washington.
U.S. funding for Israel in 2006 was over $2.5 billion, making it the largest recipient of U.S. military aid. This aid is not based on concerns for Jewish people, fighting anti-Semitism or the even lives of any of the peoples of the Middle East.
For the corporate owners who determine U.S. foreign and domestic policy, the aid and backing of Israel facilitates U.S. regional domination and exploitation of the oil resources that lie below.
If Bush and the U.S. government truly wanted to end the suffering of Palestinians, simply threatening to cut off aid to Israel would have a material impact on Israel’s genocidal actions. Instead, Washington always reaffirms Israeli policies. Bush told the U.N., that “world leaders should withdraw all favor and support from any Palestinian ruler who fails his people and betrays their cause.”
Struggle a fact of life
In 2000, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made a confrontational visit to the Al Aqsa mosque during the month of Ramadan. Palestinians responded with mass resistance both to this affront and to the failed policies of the Oslo Accords in what came to be known as the Al Asqa Intifada.
Sept. 28 marked the seventh anniversary of this uprising. Israel rulers, aware of what happened in 2000, unleashed another round of terror and murder on the eve of anniversary, killing 11 in the West Bank and 26 in Gaza. Tel Aviv hopes to make the conditions of daily life for Palestinians so unbearable that they either will surrender or leave.
A Palestinian man spoke to a reporter from Palestinemonitor.org about life under occupation in Hebron. Hani Abu Haikel stated, “My father was from Hebron, and he built his first house here in 1947—the year before Israel declared itself.”
The conditions in Hebron are such that Abu Haikel’s family never leaves their house unattended in order to prevent Zionist settlers from moving in and occupying it. Abu Haikel explained, “You know my wife and I have not been able to leave our house empty since 1984. … Even when we are invited to a wedding or a party, one of my brothers stays in the house until I come home, then he goes to the party and I stay here.”
In spite of the state-sponsored assassinations and terror conducted by Israel, Abu Haikel and his family remain steadfast. “The settlers want to drive my family out,” he said. “But with our international friends we have witnesses, and that gives us the strength we need to resist them. I am staying here. This is my jihad.”
This is what life is like for tens of thousands of Palestinians in historic Palestine. Struggle is a fact of life and resistance is a matter of survival.
