From tormented to tormentor
Today we watch the Middle-East fall back into a state of war as Israel opens up the conflict on a second front by bombing Beirut International Airport in Lebanon. Israel are using the capture of two of their soldiers as justification for this action. Currently all the global community is doing is sitting back and watching. Although, today the UN finally decided to hold an emergency meeting.
Israel enjoys relative freedom to do what ever it likes in that part of the Middle-East. This is mainly due to the financial and military backing of the United States government. Israel is the only country in the region that has Nuclear weapons, currently estimated at about 400 weapons.
Israel’s nuclear weapons program has never been confirmed, but the existence of such a programme is widely believed to be active. In the 1960’s, US inspectors searched the Dimona Nuclear Facility in Israel and found no evidence of plutonium enrichment, but this is not surprising as the Israeli authorities had placed false ‘dummy’ panels in the control rooms and bricked up doorways and elevator shafts. All the evidence is circumstancial, but it is widely believed that Israel is a Nuclear power.
It becomes increasingly clear why Iran and other Middle-Eastern states would want to develop their own atomic weapons when the most aggressive state in the region already is nuclear capable.
Israel is an illegal country, there is little argument against this fact. It is a state setup by the Britist after the Second World-War as compensation for the atrocities acted upon the Jewish population by the Nazi’s. At the end of the war, Palestine and most of the Middle-East including Iraq, were part of the British Empire. The UK had to give up most of these countries, however as it technically owned Palestine (illegally), the UK and US decided that they would create the state of Israel as compensation for their suffering, plus creating a safe-haven for all Jews. Unfortunately since its inception, Isreal has been far from a safe-haven.
Understandably the Palestinians and the rest of the Muslim community couldn’t understand why the West had the right to sell their land to another creed without any financial or political gain in their favour. It was their country and we, the West, divided it up and sold it to another people without any of the benefits going to the Palestinians. So you can see why they are unhappy.
But as it became increasingly obvious that the new Israel was not welcome, Israel needed to defend itself and in steps America, France and the UK. In recent years the US has provided Israel weaponary from F-16 tacticle fighter-jets and bombs, as well as ground support vehicles and technology.
The UK has provided a number of weapons systems, what exact systems I have been unable to specify, but I certainly know the orders existed and have found information on one of the UK arms companies. BAE Systems have provided new HUD’s for aircraft as well as other systems. In total, the UK sold £11.5m worth of weapons to Israel in 2004.
France is also a large weapons producer in the world market. However Israel benefited mainly from their nuclear knowlege, as it was France who commissioned and built the Dimona nuclear facility in the 60’s.
Israel over the years has aggressively invaded Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria. Israel has continually bombed Palestine killing millions of innocent civilians across 30 years of conflict. Most of the people Israel targets have nothing to do with the conflict and just wish to go about their daily lives.
The global community is quiet to condem the Jewish community for the behaviour by the Israeli state. This is mainly due to a sense of guilt with regard to the holocaust and the fact that the UK and the US secretly knew what the Nazi’s were up to long before the concentration camps were discovered. In recent years any criticism of Israel has been met with claims of anti-semitism by the Jewish community. Well let me set the record straight here that I believe we all have a right to life, and every nation, creed and religion should have the right to exist, as long as it doesn’t negatively effect another.
But now history is certainly being repeated. This time the Nazi’s are gone, along with their swastika’s. Instead the flag is white and blue with the Star of David in the centre. Now I’m not for a second suggesting that Israel is systematically killing innocent muslims in concentration camps, but they are systematically killing innocent muslims. The cause does not justify their actions and if they want to exist peacefully in the region, they are going to have to stop killing people in response to a terrorist bomb going off. Engaging in discussions with the Palistinians is the only way. The road to peace is a long and rocky one and it isn’t achieved by blowing people and places up. Look at the process in Northern Ireland, it has taken a long time to get to where we are today, but it finally is starting to look like real progress is being made.
Sometimes it takes one nation to stand up and be responsible. This goes to Syria, Lebenon and Palestine as well, but Israel should really know better. The Jewish community know first hand what it is like to suffer under an oppressor and sadly Israel is the oppressor now. The tormented have become the tormentors.
The generations of Jews who suffered under the holocaust, plus the children of that generation are now passing on and the new generations are not so sympathetic. Being a child of the early 80’s I certainly find myself having very little sympathy for the plight of Israel and a lot of sympathy for the Palestinians. I don’t think that acts of terrorism are any way for Palistine to fight their cause, however when you’re fighting an enemy that is armed to the teeth and funded by the largest arms dealers in the world, it becomes increasing obvious why the Palistinians turn to the desperate acts of terrorism - they simply have no other way of defending themselves.
Shame on you Israel! You of all countries should know better!
(The history outlined here is a simple version of a very complex set of events, ranging back to 600BC and beyond. The Zionist state that is now Israel was an idea first lauded by Theodor Herzl in 1896 and first acted on by the British in 1917)
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