Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Not the way!

Editorials / Opinion
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Not the way

After killing more than 320 Palestinians and injuring close to 1,000 this past Saturday by dropping 100 tons of bombs on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Southern Command GOC announced that the Israeli army will "send Gaza decades into the past" in terms of weapons capabilities while achieving "the maximum number of enemy casualties."

Despite these echoes from failed uses of force in the past, the current Jewish-Israeli consensus nevertheless favors Israeli military attacks on Gaza. "The goal of our military actions is to force peace on them," stated member of Knesset Yakov Margi (Shas) in a parliamentary discussion of Gaza.

This attitude demonstrates that neither historical examples nor Israel's own failure to achieve "peace" through destruction have a visible impact on Israeli public opinion or government policies.

The Jewish violation of the cease-fire has complicated the whole picture more than ever. The Arabs can no longer negotiate a fair political settlement from a position of strength and military advantage.

The Palestinians-Israeli war is an American war with American-Jewish soldiers fighting with weapons for the American territory of an American colony—Israel. The Americans have to win to save their [Israelis'] territory.

-- Ted Rudow III,MA, Menlo Park, Calif.

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