Much of the world has forgotten that all of Israel was once Palestine, and is still considered occupied. That started in 1948, only 58 years ago. The Palestinians that managed to return or remain there have done so as second-class citizens, regardless of what democracy any Israeli may lay claim to.

Others,
It was 38 years ago today, June 10th, that Israel raised it’s flag over Gaza at the end of the six-day war (forgive me if it’s called something else). For 38 very long years the Palestinians have lived under Israeli occupation. I fully reject my country’s continued support of this occupation and the state terrorism of Israel which we turn a blind eye to and continue to support with arms.
During that six-day war Israel fired on the USS Liberty, killing 34 and wounding 173. This occurance absolutely PALES in the face of the atrocities committed against the Palestinians. But I am offering it as a case of a US ship being a victim, and NO investigation was ever carried out properly. Here is an article dated last August about the survivors of the attack seeking still to uncover the truth http://www.wrmea.com/archives/August_2005/0508017.html
Israel does what it does, and continues to get away with it. We even turn a blind eye to their acts against our own ship.

terrorist (noun)
a person who uses violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.

Plenty of people and governments fitting that description.

and from the American Heritage Dictionary:

ter·ror·ism (tr-rzm)
n.
The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.

Notice that this one is careful to identify a target “intention of intimidating or coercing societies or government”.

I think the Israeli attacks on Gaza in the last 24 hours (let alone over the years) fit both descriptions, as does the US war in Iraq. Plenty of violence, intimidation, and coercion in pursuit of ideological and political aims.

Enough shock and awe to last several lifetimes.

“In recent Western culture, terrorism more specifically refers to a strategy of using political violence, social threats, or coordinated attacks, in order to generate fear, cause disruption, and ultimately, bring about compliance with specified demands. The targets of these terrorist attacks are not the individuals who are killed, injured, or taken hostage, but rather the society to which these individuals belong. This form of terrorism is designed to influence political atmosphere, mass media, curtailment of civilian standards of living and civil liberties associated with greater security demands, economic hardship linked to the costs of war, hopelessness to defend against assaults, fear, depression, and disintegration of morale, all of which are objectives of unconventional warfare.

State terrorism more specifically refers to violence and threats of violence, embargoes and other forms of terrorism against civilians by the government of a state. The civilians, in such case, may be nationals or foreigners.”

This is EXACTLTY the definition of Israel’s tactics. Wearing the IOF uniform does NOT exempt one from fitting the definition of terrorist as some suggest that because they are a “legal army” they cannot be defined as terrorists. Damn them all and our government for their support.

So that all may know, this does NOT mean I believe that attacking innocent Israeli citizens is OK. Violence begets violence. When are all the parties REALLY going to understand this?

Security and terrorism are buzz-word propagandist terms, utilised by administrations to justify their continued dissociation from the observance of human rights in the occupied territories.

Furthermore, considering that an outright termination of these violations of human rights would reduce or terminate the “need” for further state-sponsored acts of aggression executed in the name of security, the Israeli dependence on these terms has become the chaff in the dialogue.

It is glaringly apparent that Israel has no, nor has it ever had, any intention of recognising Palestine, its native population, or their right to exist. The continued displacement of the native Palestinan population has been relegated to being addressed as “the Problem”, rather than being faced and charged that Israel must fulfill its obligations, under the fourth Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law, as the occupier of Palestine, to provide the Palestinian population with the basic rights afforded any occupied population globally.

I believe that all lives are to be morned, especialy of the inocent children, regardless of where they come from, what colour or race is.

As for philips arguments about how great Bush is foor the economy….I wonder is a trilion dollar defecit consedered good for the economy?

I think it’s logical that I can’t see a difference between the Israeli army that occupied the land of Palestine and killed its people, and between the so called “civilians” or the settlers that are living on this land. It’s very simple fact. The Israeli army didn’t occupy the land for themselves, it’s not a government property, they gave it to those civilians to live in it, and those civilians are paying the salaries of their army, they simply pay them to do that. I cant see those civilians as innocent, they are part of this crime against humanity( well, the only innocent here is the Israeli kids, it’s not their fault that their parents decided to kick someone out of his land, to build their own home, but kids are the only innocent in this conflict)

And for those who say that these civilians are innocent, and they have no place to go. I’ll tell them that I am sorry for this fact, but I am even more sorry for Palestinians that have to live in a refugee camp in their own land, because the poor Israelis have no place to go. Palestinians are not the ones to worry about those Israeli occupiers, they have enough things to worry about, BUT if UK, USA and the rest of the “democratic” side of the world feel so sorry for Israelis they can give them a piece of their land, not others.

let’s admit it, YES there is hate, and this hate is justified, please people save your morals and stop preach us about loving your enemy while his guns is still aimed at you and your family. This is a non-stop war, it’s not a Hollywood movie, and we are a normal people, not prophets.

For the record, I don’t hate Jews because of their religious background, neither Islam teaches us to hate them because of that, but who I hate is every Israeli occupier. Yes I hate them, and this hate will not end until we get a fair trail.

Thanks Hitham for the interesting post, I am not a frequent reader for your blog, but I think I will be.

I think it’s logical that I can’t see a difference between the Israeli army that occupied the land of Palestine and killed its people, and between the so called “civilians” or the settlers that are living on this land. It’s very simple fact, the Israeli army didn’t occupy the land for themselves, it’s not a government property, they gave it to those civilians to live in it, and those civilians are paying the salaries of their army, they simply pay them to do that. I cant see those civilians as innocent, they are part of this crime against humanity( well, perhaps their kids are innocent, it’s not their fault that their parents decided to kick someone out of his land, to build their own home, but kids are the only innocent in this conflict)

And for those who say that these civilians are innocent, and they have no place to go. I’ll tell them that I am sorry for this fact, but I am more sorry for Palestinians that have to live in a refugee camp in their own land, because the poor Israelis have no place to go. Palestinians are not the ones to worry about those Israeli occupiers, they have enough things to worry about, BUT if UK, USA and the rest of the “democratic” side of the world feel so sorry for Israelis they can give them a piece of their land, not others.

let’s admit it, YES there is hate, and this hate is justified, please people save your morals and stop preach us about loving your enemy, while his guns is still aimed at your kids at school. This is a non-stop war, it’s not a Hollywood movie, and we are a normal people, not prophets.

For the record, I don’t hate Jews because of their religious background, neither Islam teaches us to hate them because of that, but who I hate is every Israeli occupier. Yes I hate them, and this hate will not end until we get a fair trail.

Thanks Hitham for the interesting post, I am not a frequent reader of your blog, but I think I will be.