U.$., Israel Turn Screws as Rebellion Spirals

by MC12

The imperialists of the United $tates have taught 
the Israelis well -- as now both countries are 
pursuing strategies to secure "security" that 
promote destruction with no hope of resolving the 
issues that lead to war in the first place. In 
late November Israel assassinated Mahmoud Abu 
Hanoud, the military commander of the Islamic 
rebel group Hamas, in an attack using helicopter 
gunships in the supposedly Palestinian-controlled 
West Bank.(1) 

In response, Hamas launched a series 
of suicide bomber attacks within Israel's borders, 
killing 25 people and wounding hundreds.(2) Those 
killed by the suicide bombers are victims of 
Israeli aggression and arrogance, fueled by U.$. 
imperialism's military and economic support. They 
are victims of imperialism no less than the five 
Palestinian children between ages 6 and 14 who 
were killed when they stumbled on an unexploded 
Israeli tank shell in Gaza (3) -- and no less than 
the victims of the World Trade Center bombings. 

The more Israel and the United $tates pursue their 
failed "security" strategy -- which relies on 
militarily and economically crushing those who 
stand in the way of their plans for exploitation 
and domination -- the more they and their victims 
suffer and die from violence and war.

Palestine Under the Gun

The Israeli attacks that followed -- supposedly in 
retaliation for the suicide bombings -- centered 
on the destruction of crucial Palestinian 
"Authority" (PA) infrastructure, such as Yassir 
Arafat's personal helicopters, the Gaza airport 
(once considered a symbol of nascent Palestinian 
independence), and various PA police posts, 
including one 50 yards from an office where Arafat 
was working. These terrorist attacks killed 
civilians and children, including a 15-year-old 
boy killed when Israel's Amerikan-supplied F-16's 
bombed a police post. That particular act of 
terrorism also drove hundreds of school children 
screaming from their school, many of them ending 
up among the 100 people wounded in the attack.(4) 

To show their support for Israel's terrorist 
attacks, and to further undermine the 
infrastructure of the Palestinian nation, the U.$. 
Bush administration shut down the Holy Land 
Foundation for Relief and Development, a Texas-
based organization that the Bush administration 
accuses of being a front for Hamas. The 
organization is said to have sent about $8 million 
to the Israeli occupied territories last year, 
where Hamas is the leading provider of social 
services.(5) The seized Holy Land assets include 
millions of dollars donated by Muslims trying to 
support their people in the Middle East.(6) 

According to Holy Land, a few of the thousands of 
people they have helped are family members of 
Hamas suicide bombers.(7) If helping those 
families is supporting terrorism, than we expect 
the U.$. military to bomb itself for giving so 
many of its own murderers and thugs pension plans. 

The sham Palestinian would-be neocolonial regime 
led by Arafat is increasingly seen as unviable by 
both supporters and opponents. Israel is walking a 
fine line between keeping the PA powerless and 
destroying it completely, leading to a situation 
that even many in the Israeli government know 
would be uncontrollable. In the wake of the 
suicide bombings -- and while the PA police were 
on the run from Israeli attacks -- Israel and 
Amerika ratcheted up their demands that Arafat 
crack down on the Islamic-led resistance. 

MIM condemns the terrorist practices of the United 
$tates and Israel, which spread war, violence and 
exploitation around the world. In the process, and 
to protect their tattered image in the eyes of the 
world, they offer up a sham neocolonialism for the 
Palestinian nation. The Palestinian people are not 
fooled by this charade. Thousands turned out to 
protest the Israeli decision to place under house 
arrest the figurehead leader of Hamas, and the 
arrest of more than 150 people in response to 
Israel's demands. In the violence that ensued, it 
was the PA police's turn to gun down a Palestinian 
protester.(9) As of 7 December, 1,055 people have 
been killed in Palestine and Israel in the last 15 
months, about 80 percent of them Palestinian.(10) 

Millions more Palestinians already live in virtual 
house arrest and desperate poverty, under a brutal 
occupation and tight blockade, oppressed by a 
foreign power and criminally misled by the PA 
pseudo-state administration. None of these powers 
can bring real peace to the Middle East. For all 
the violence and bloodshed, MIM is at least glad 
that this awful truth is increasingly visible to 
all.

Notes: 
1. The Guardian (London), 26 Nov 2001. 
2. Financial Times (London), 4 Dec 2001. 
3. Agence France Presse, 22 Nov 2001. 
4. Daily Mail (London), 5 Dec 2001. 
5. Washington Post, 6 December 2001, p. A34. 
6. Los Angeles Times, 7 
Dec. 2001, p. 1. 
7. Fort Worth Star Telegram, 5 
Dec. 2001, p. 1. 
9. The Independent (London), 7 
Dec 2001, p. 15. 
10. Agence France Presse, 7 Dec. 
2001.