We bought and paid
for carnage of Palestinians
Robert Jensen
School of Journalism
University of Texas
Austin, TX 78712
work: (512) 471-1990
fax: (512) 471-7979
rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu
copyright Robert Jensen 2002
Houston Chronicle, April 9, 2002, p. A-23
also posted as on Counterpunch
and
Palestine Chronicle
.
by Robert Jensen
I helped kill a Palestinian today.
If you pay taxes to the U.S. government, so did you.
And unless the policies of the U.S. government change, tomorrow will be no
different.
It is easy for Americans to decry the “cycle of violence” in Palestine, but
until we acknowledge our own part in that violence, there is little hope
for a just peace in Palestine or the Middle East.
The first step is to abandon the mythology that the United States is a “neutral
broker for peace” in the conflict. A new report by the Institute for Southern
Studies shows that in the one-year period after the Sharm el-Sheikh peace
agreement in September 1999, the U.S. government pumped $3.6 billion worth
of arms into Israel -- an odd policy for a country playing a supposedly neutral
role.
So, when we hear on the news that Israeli tanks are rolling through the cities
and refugee camps of the West Bank, we should remember those tanks were made
in the United States and purchased by Israel with U.S. aid. The Israeli jets
and helicopters used in the assault are American F-16s, Blackhawks and Apaches.
Machine guns, grenade launchers, missiles and bombs -- made in the USA, paid
for with our tax dollars -- are being used to crush the Palestinian people.
That means we must face two realties:
First, the current Israeli attack on West Bank towns is not a war on terrorism,
but part of a long and brutal war against the Palestinian people for land
and resources. If Israel is serious about ending terrorism, it would end
its 35-year illegal military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Until
it demonstrates a willingness to do that, Israeli calls for peace ring hollow
and its attempts to achieve security through force will only make it less
secure.
Second, Israel’s war against the Palestinians would not be possible without
U.S. military and economic support -- $3 billion a year in direct aid. While
the whole world stands against Israel’s occupation, our government provides
the political and diplomatic cover that allows Israel to flout international
law. Specific Israeli policies sometimes draw mild criticisms from U.S. leaders,
and those criticisms have grown stronger in recent days as Israel has ignored
calls for a pullback of forces. But Israel can continue to ignore the international
consensus -- and the U.N. Security Council resolutions calling on it to end
the occupation -- because of U.S. support.
U.S. officials recently have distanced themselves from the extreme violence
of the Sharon government and the Likud Party, but it is folly to think all
would be fine if only a Labor Party government were in power. The differences
between the two major parties in Israel are more of style than substance.
Take the question of settlements in the occupied territories.
We are told repeatedly that Israel desperately wants peace. If that is true,
why has the number of Israeli settlers living in the West Bank and Gaza almost
doubled since the Oslo peace process began nearly a decade ago? Given that
those settlements are one of the most serious obstacles to a peaceful solution,
why would the Israeli governments -- Labor and Likud alike -- expand settlements
in territory it illegally occupies during a so-called peace process?
The ultimate solution to the conflict in the Middle East is a regional peace
conference under an international banner that takes seriously international
law. There must be regional arms control, which should be part of a movement
to reduce the insane levels of armaments globally (of which the United States
is the leading salesperson). The most important contribution the United States
could make is to stop blocking that process.
But right now, the United States can help defuse the immediate crisis by
using the leverage its aid to Israel provides. We the American people should
pressure our government to make a clear statement: Israel must not only end
its current brutal offensive but also must take meaningful steps to end the
occupation, and the United States must withdraw support from Israel until
it agrees to do so.
If we fail to do that, then we cannot escape the knowledge that Americans
are partly responsible for the next missile fired into a Palestinian town,
the next shell lobbed into a Palestinian home, the next Israeli bullet that
cuts down an innocent Palestinian.
--------
Robert Jensen is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas at
Austin, a member of the Nowar Collective, and author of the book Writing
Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream. His pamphlet,
“Citizens of the Empire,” is available at http://www.nowarcollective.com/citizensoftheempire.pdf.
Other writings are available online at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/freelance.htm.
He can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
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