United Snakes and Israel face similar lessons of 
war

by MC12 & MC44

Since September 11, Israel has intensified its 
brutal repression of the Palestinian uprising. The 
oppression now being inflicted on the people of 
Afghanistan under the guise of fighting terrorism 
is mirrored in Palestine; Israel's bombings and 
curfews lead to critical shortages of food and 
medicine. As Israel fails to prevent suicide 
bombings, and the United $tates fails to prevent 
anthrax, both regimes are facing the same bitter 
lesson: This is not about security. It's about 
social, political and economic justice. Until the 
roots of oppression are dug up, there can be no 
peace. Taking advantage of September 11 as a 
diversion, Israel ratcheted up its occupation of 
the Palestinian pseudo-state's land and the 
destruction its infrastructure. As of November 7, 
Israel had occupied and then withdrawn its heavy 
equipment from the center of Ramallah, and was 
maintaining a heavy presence in the Palestinian 
towns of Jenin and Tulkarm.(1) 

Israel and Amerika 
also perpetrate parallel mythologies regarding the 
death toll from "terrorism." The several thousand 
Amerikans killed on September 11, are dwarfed by 
the death toll caused to civilians by Amerikan 
state terror, including that perpetrated in Iraq 
and now in Afghanistan as well. Similarly, while 
Palestinian suicide attacks receive intensive 
Amerikan media attention, 80% of the 900 people 
killed in Palestine these last 13 months of the 
recent uprising were Palestinian.(2) 

Further, the 
devastating economic toll on the Palestinian 
pseudo-state receives no mention in mainstream 
Amerikan discussion. The mayor of the city of 
Tulkarem, for example, says his city lost $8 
million in the last year from the heightened 
Israeli occupation and violence. He also reports 
that the Israeli forces intentionally destroyed 
the electricity grid that supplies power to the 
industrial area of Tulkarem, inflicting permanent 
economic damage.(3) And in the villages of Beit 
Furik (pop. 8,000) and Beit Dajan (pop. 3,500), 
east of Nablus, for eight days of the past two 
weeks the Israeli army blocked trucks carrying 
water tanks and food, leading to a severe shortage 
of food and water.(4) In Amerika, the imperialists 
are learning that "security" operations cannot 
bring stability when the empire is built upon a 
mountain of international oppression. Similarly, 
in Israel, an internal Israeli military study has 
found that checkpoints are an ineffective means of 
blocking Palestinian attacks on Israeli 
targets.(5) 

The effects of the blockades on the 
Palestinians themselves, however -- including a 
three month old baby who died in her mother's arms 
while being stopped on their way to the hospital -
- are quite real.(6) The parallel between the 
master imperial power and its junior partner is 
not surprising, but it is instructive. And the 
failure of both regimes to bring peace to the 
people is glaringly apparent to all.

Notes: 
1. New York Times, 7 Nov. 2001. 
2. Washington Post, 8 Nov 2001, p. A26. 
3. WAFA 
Palestinian News Agency, November 8, Alternative 
Information Center 
(http://www.alternativenews.org/). 
4. Alternative 
Information Center, Nov. 2 
5. Baltimore Sun, 6 
Nov. 2001. 
6. Noam Chomsky, The Fateful Triangle, 
Cambridge: South End Press, 1999, p. xix.