Don't Forget About Israel's Record Of Brutalization

By LARRY RICKSECKER
Saturday, January 10, 2009 3:12 AM
Courtesy Of The Columbus Dispatch

The area known as Palestine was gobbled up by the British Empire before World War II, the same British government that gave the Balfour Declaration in 1917 assuring Jews they would have a homeland in Palestine. In the 1930s, Zionist terrorist gangs carried out the most brutal of atrocities, many of their acts standing as the most gruesome for more than 30 years.

One instance was in the village of Deir Yassin just before the United Nations declared two states in Palestine. Here the Irgun gang, led by future Prime Minister Menachem Begin (who considered himself the father of modern terrorism) and the Stern gang, led by future Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, brutally massacred 200 men, women and children as they slept. This action drove the Palestinians to run for their lives when the Zionists started chasing them off their homelands.

Since then, Israel has received 65 U.N. sanctions for its handling of the occupation of Palestine. They would have 35 more, but the United States pushed hard to stop those. Israel has threatened to use nuclear weapons not just against surrounding Arab nations but Russia and others, as well.

Gaza is an occupied land. You will hear Israel say it no longer occupies the nation, yet it controls every access to Gaza, has smashed Gaza's government infrastructure, businesses, homes and farms and, since 2006, has cut off most food, medical and humanitarian aid going into Gaza. Gaza, being an occupied land, has the right under international law to resist, to try to protect its people. Being cut off, it has little else but stones and homemade rockets to fire against a nation with the same technical weapons that the United States has.

Hamas is the democratically elected government of Gaza. Many people, including Zionists, say that Hamas is nothing but a terrorist group out to destroy Israel. Think about that for a moment. Gaza has had 60 years of brutal occupation, suffering economic and medical hardships placed on it by Israel. Chased off their lands, their personal property lost, with no offer or mention of compensation. How would Americans feel if the world court declared that Ohio was being given to the American Indians, who swooped down with armored vehicles and chased everyone out, with no compensation for property losses? Wouldn't we fight back?

I'm not trying to declare that Hamas isn't a terrorist organization, just merely lighting the fact that so is Israel. Until both sides can lay down their arms, give up land stealing and destroying of the social integrity of Gaza, there will be no peace, as both sides are like ravenous dogs with the taste for blood.