Posted on 09/27/2001 9:04:30 AM PDT by Illbay
Sept. 26, 2001, 8:47PM
DAMASCUS, Syria -- A morgue assistant pulls out drawers holding the mutilated corpses of Palestinians killed in clashes with Israelis. Doctors pummel the chest of a dead Palestinian in a desperate attempt to revive him. The body of an infant, swathed in bloodied blankets, is held by a grieving parent.
These raw images -- aired almost daily on Arab television since the Palestinian-Israeli clashes erupted a year ago -- haven't lost the power to touch the hearts of Arab viewers.
Indeed, they have fed a buildup of Arab anger -- not only against Israel but also against the United States, its chief ally, already resented for imposing 11 years of sanctions and carrying out repeated airstrikes on Iraq.
That anger provides a potential base of support for the militants, who can use it to keep governments from cracking down on them. The outrage has also left many Arabs grappling with conflicting emotions over the Sept. 11 suicide attacks in the United States.
Some governments -- while decrying the deaths at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania -- have echoed murmurs in the streets that the United States brought violence on itself by angering Arabs. Others have made it clear they want to be sure U.S. retaliation doesn't target nations like Iraq or groups like Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, who are heroes to some Arabs because of their anti-Israel stance.
"We feel outraged by what happened in the United States, but we want the world to feel the same about the daily Israeli killings of Palestinians, the demolishing of houses and the humiliation of the people," said Wafa Mohammed, a shop owner in Jordan.
"If the United States had sympathized with the Arabs, the destruction that took place in the United States wouldn't have happened," said Mohammed Tohami, 22, an Egyptian frame maker.
"There's a feeling among Arabs that the United States is totally responsible for what's happening in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," said Imad Shueibi, a Syrian political analyst.
The Palestinian-Israeli clashes began one year ago Friday. The spark, the Palestinians say -- or the pretext, according to Israel -- was a visit by then-opposition Israeli leader Ariel Sharon to the holiest and most disputed site in Jerusalem, which Jews call the Temple Mount and Palestinians Haram as-Sharif.
Since then, 642 Palestinians and 177 Israelis have been killed. Many of the Israeli casualties were civilians who died in Palestinian suicide attacks against discos, restaurants, markets and train stations or shootings with machine guns and mortars.
The resulting resentment cannot be ignored as President Bush -- who has threatened to punish Afghanistan's Islamic rulers harboring suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden -- assembles U.S. forces for a retaliatory strike. Bin Laden has portrayed himself as the champion of Muslims and Palestinians.
Adding to the pressure on the mostly secular Arab governments are fatwas, or religious edicts issued by Muslim clergymen warning the governments against joining the anti-terrorism coalition.
No. Quite the opposite, in fact. The Arab world would be poorer and far worse educated than they are, were it not for the U.S. Here is where many Arabs and other Middle Eastern people come to be educated, and many to stay and live and participate in the American dream.
And I think that in general our friendship with Israel is NOT the most important factor in this whole picture (though it is in the minds of Palestinian Arabs, Syrians, Jordanians and Egyptians, by and large).
I repeat: I don't think Osama's group has made war on us because of Israel. In fact, our friendship and support of the regimes in Egypt and Saudi Arabia are FAR more important in that antipathy than Israel.
But there is SOME bleed-over (mostly among those uninformed in Arab countries). I simply question whether it is in our interest to be so tightly identified with Israel. I certainly don't appreciate our tax dollars going to prop up their sorry socialist system of government.
No, not necessarily. But I think foreign aid OUGHT to be tied to U.S. interests. It is easy to say "no foreign aid, period," but that's silly. In comparison, it is a tiny budget item.
But what I DON'T like is paying money to regimes that then turn around, internally at least, and bash us, and even work against us.
Israel's a good example because they get such an awful lot of our money, then turn around and hire Jonathan Pollard to seriously compromise our intelligence apparatus.
They take the money and prop up their Leftist system. It's just unconscionable to me.
There are many other countries that we could discuss along those lines (including others in the Middle East).
Why is it so hard to understand that I DON'T CARE!?!?
I do not see your reality. I suspect few Americans are able to harbor sympathy for those whose greatest aspiration in life is to die in an attempt to destroy American ideals and the culture of Western Civilization. This conflict is inevitable because some idiots bible tells him that it is. Reasoning with such dogma is useless. And if any more Americans in this country die at the hands of Islamic terrorists then any voice of restraint still left in this country will be silenced.
In shame I would hope.
Except yours?
The baby is dead. It is pretty certain it was not involved in guerrilla action against Israelis. So how did it die?
I suggest that Israel has become so calloused to "collateral damage" they don't even bother to worry about it anymore.
Now, a couple of days ago an Israeli family was attacked indiscriminately, and the mother was killed. I think for those who'd do such a thing, killing is too good for them.
Would you not agree?
Okay, so what about soldiers who fire indiscriminately into homes and neighborhoods, and children and infants (not to mention women--but you'd say they're all terrorists so I'll concede the point) are dead as a result?
These soldiers are heroes? Or what?
Do you see where I believe that people like you have a double standard, a mote in your "lasereye" that blinds you to the fact that there is enough innocent blood being shed on both sides that a reasonable person might say "a pox on both your houses"?
Already posted, twice. Go read my other replies, I'm getting tired.
Also, who was the enemy that Israel gave U.S. secrets to?
Red China.
I suspect that most Americans can conceive that not ALL Arabs, not ALL Muslims, are of this opinion.
We suffer THOUSANDS of innocent dead & THEY are angry!
Decades of Arafat/Terrorist propaganda have poisoned their minds.
We suffer THOUSANDS of innocent dead & THEY are angry!
Decades of Arafat/Terrorist propaganda have poisoned their minds.
And that sir exposes you as someone who should not be taken seriously on this issue. You offer no presciption in which you have worked out the endgame which attends your proposed policy, that you are prepared to defend, both for the US and the world (and of course Israel, but it is clear you don't give a damn about them) . I could posit some, but I will await some poster with your POV with a more serious mein of mind, assuming any such personages exist.
Our argument has now become circular. That means we will not agree and further discussion is useless.
A state of war that exists between two philosophies.
William Safire 2010
This is what I mean. You can't conceive of the fact that the U.S. really has no dog in that fight, at all.
You're entitled to you agenda, but your inability to understand that it isn't front and center for everyone else in America is a grand failure on your part.
From the evasive and disingenuous nature of your posts, I think it's likely you're an Arab. You are not impartial between Israel and the Palestinians as you claim. That's another lie.
AS FOR THE ISOLATIONISTS, they are doomed to repeat history if they ever come to power but fortunately that will not happen any time soon.
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