The writer delivered this statement to a press conference in Washington, D.C. on July 27, announcing the Aug. 12 National Emergency March to Stop the U.S.-Israeli War. Other speakers at the press conference included former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Dr. Mounzer Sleiman of the National Council of Arab Americans, Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice.
On Aug. 12, 2006, thousands of people will be traveling to Washington, D.C. for a massive “National Emergency March to Stop the U.S.-Israeli War,” a war that is killing the people of Lebanon and Palestine. The ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) has organized most of the huge demonstrations in Washington, D.C. during the past four years, protesting Bush’s war against Iraq.
We also organized the historic demonstration of 100,000 on April 20, 2002, the largest mobilization in support of the
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Now, we are coming back to Washington, D.C. to make it clear that the government, which speaks in the name of the people, does not have the consent of the people as it launches a another murderous war against the Arabs and other peoples of the Middle East.
The ANSWER Coalition, National Council of Arab American and the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation have jointly initiated by the Aug. 12 National Emergency March. Hundreds of other organizations and community leaders will also mobilize and participate on Aug. 12 in Washington, D.C.
We have obtained permits for the Aug. 12 demonstration, and we will be gathering directly in front of the White House starting at 12 noon that day. Buses and car caravans will come to Washington, D.C. from large and small cities throughout this country. There have been scores of local actions protesting the Israeli assault during the past weeks. August 12 will be the largest, and first national, protest against the new U.S.-Israeli war against Lebanon and Palestine.
This is a war of aggression, not retaliation
The whole world knows that Bush and the U.S. government could stop Israel’s assault on the Lebanese and Palestinian people immediately. But, as was made clear on July 26 in Rome by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. government wants the war to continue until “total victory.” This war is a war of choice by Bush, just as it was in Iraq. It is not only that Bush gave the Israeli government the green light to massively bomb Lebanon. The attack on Lebanon and Gaza is a joint project. The Pentagon is rushing 5,000 pound mega-bombs and jet fuel to Israel so that the bombing of Lebanon and Gaza can continue without interruption.
The capture of two Israeli soldiers in Lebanon or one in Gaza is simply a pretext and not the actual cause of this war. Israel has captured nearly 10,000 Palestinians, including hundreds of children, and holds them in Israeli prisons and jails. It also illegally holds many Lebanese prisoners. The capture of a few Israeli soldiers is no more the real cause of war in Lebanon than the Iraqi government’s purported possession of weapons of mass destruction was the real cause of Bush’s illegal invasion of that country.
It is truly a U.S.-Israeli war. The Lebanon operation is an extension of the U.S. war against Iraq. It is part of an integrated plan for the colonial-style domination of the entire oil-rich and strategic region.
U.S. troops are bogged down in Iraq, so the Israeli Air Force and its army provide the human material for the war, whose unstated, but real goal is to “re-organize Lebanon” in keeping with the plans of an American empire in the region. On July 25, Condoleezza Rice called the human carnage being wrought on the families of Lebanon, the “birth pangs of a new Middle East.” This was spoken like a true mouthpiece for those who seek to justify their war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The ANSWER Coalition has made the point since its founding that the issue of Iraq and Palestine are linked closely. Bush and Blair ignited the flame of war in the Iraq as part of a larger effort targeting the Middle East, including Iran, Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian people. This is the region where two-thirds of the world’s oil supplies exist. The U.S. government is intent on incorporating the Middle East into a long-term American sphere of influence. To this end, even nominally independent governments and movements must be destroyed. Anyone or any government that resists the U.S. geo-strategic scheme is dubbed a terrorist. This too becomes the new rationale for U.S. bombing, targeted assassinations, economic sanctions and other aggressive acts by the White House.
Despite inflicting massive destruction and suffering on the civilian populations of Lebanon and Palestine, the U.S.-Israeli war makers appear far from achieving their avowed goal of crushing the popular resistance movements on either front in the conflict.
The damage to Lebanon has been catastrophic, evidence of “crimes against humanity” according to United Nations officials. As of July 26, the official death toll in Lebanon has climbed to more than 420, more than 90 percent of whom are civilians. More than 1,400 have been wounded by bombing and shelling. Much of Lebanon’s infrastructure, including countless high-rise apartment buildings lies in ruins. More that twenty percent of the population, 750,000 people, are refugees due to the relentless Israeli assault. On the Israeli side, 50 are reported killed, 32 of them soldiers (64 percent), and more than 300 wounded.
In the Gaza and the West Bank, at least 140 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more injured by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) since June 24. Much of Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed by Israeli bombing, and food, water, medicine, fuel and other necessities are in critically short supply. Just yesterday, Israeli air strikes and artillery shelling killed 24 Palestinians in Gaza.
We announce here today our intention to continue to mobilize until this criminal war is brought to an end and until the Palestinian, Lebanese, Iraqi and all people of the Middle East have achieved their basic right to self-determination.
ANSWER Coalition national office: 202 -544-3389
answercoalition.org
