|
21 July 2006 |
|
http://www.timesrecord.com/website/main.nsf/news.nsf/0/... |
|
Last weekend I was watching Meet the Press on TV. Former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said that we are now in World War III. He said that we must now go after Syria and Iran. He strongly supported Israel's aggressive bombing of Lebanon that has resulted in the deaths of more than 200 innocent civilians. Just days ago a group of Christian fundamentalists conveniently descended on Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress to support Israel. David Brog, former chief of staff for Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has gone to work for the Rev. John C. Hagee, organizer of the "lobby crusade." Brog, who is Jewish, says he works for the Rev. Hagee's evangelical enterprise because "we're bringing into a pro-Israel camp millions of Christians who love Israel and giving them a political voice. Israel's enemies are our enemies, and this group instinctively understands that." Christian fundamentalists want to see the "rapture" happen, the sooner the better. They believe that when the "end times" come, Jesus will return and they will go to heaven. The rest of us "sinners" will be left behind here on Earth to fry in eternal damnation. And so it goes in Washington these days. Our foreign policy is now being directed by the right-wing zealots, and the Bush administration is quite happy to have their active support to expand this madness into a wider war. The weapons corporations and oil corporations are cheering the whole show on. These U.S.-backed Israeli actions — the disproportionate, collective punishment of civilian populations — are illegal under international law. Why do the innocent people of Bei-rut have to have their electrical power stations knocked out, their homes destroyed, their airports attacked and their roads and bridges demolished? I heard a reporter say on Meet the Press that the Israeli people are 100 percent behind the attacks on Lebanon. In fact, Israeli peace activists have been in the forefront of leading opposition to attacks on Gaza and Lebanon. Major protests have already been held in Israel and more are planned by groups like Gush Shalom. Hezbollah's attacks on Israel were wrong. But I also see the vast differences in the scope and scale of these actions and what Israel has done in retaliation. Israel's military offensive in Lebanon comes while Israel continues a separate siege of the Gaza Strip. Three weeks of Israeli air strikes and attacks have killed more than 60 Palestinians, stripped most of Gaza's 1.4 million residents of access to electricity and water and plunged them further into a humanitarian crisis. Where is the justice in Gaza? George W. Bush is giving a green light to Israel's use of force, which is being conducted in large part with U.S.-supplied weapons. Also, the Bush administration's trampling of international law and national sovereignty in its own war on Iraq has emboldened Israel to disregard international condemnation of its behavior. Do we really want World War III in the Middle East? Do we want the U.S. to bomb Iran? Will growing chaos in this region make us safer here at home? How much longer can we afford to spend $8.5 billion on our own occupation of Iraq? Imagine the costs of a full-blown war. Isn't it time for us to speak up before it is too late? Bruce K. Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space in Brunswick.
|
|
|
