Muslim world, US & Israel
Azad Miah Oldham, UK
I disagree with Shadman's statement, "...every time there is a ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Palestinians have to mess it up. And yes every single time." (Letter, 24 July) Take the latest violence, for example. Everyone believes that the latest violence started after Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. This is not true. Before the current violence started, there was a ceasefire. Hamas agreed to that ceasefire and there was quite a long period of calm and no suicide bombing. And then, guess what happened? Last month, our "victim" Israel, decided to wipe out seven members of a Palestinian family (including three children) on a Gaza beach. Four days later, nine more civilians were killed by Israeli missile strikes in Gaza. Should we now blame the Palestinians for braking the truce? This is not the first time; Israel has done it many times before but media only reports the ugly reactions from the Palestinians, not the provocations.Before we accuse the Palestinians for messing up ceasefires, we need to see who benefits more from the violence. Whenever there is violence, Hamas and the Palestinians incur heavy losses, many die or get arrested and locked away in Israeli prisons for years. But Israel gets another excuse to grab land and to kill more. That is why every time there is a truce, it is Israel that breaks the truce by killing some Palestinians by firing missiles, by raiding houses, by putting up barriers or grabbing more land. And those two Israeli soldiers that Hezbollah kidnapped, they didn't kidnap them for money or land. They simply wanted to exchange them with people Israel kidnapped before and has been keeping in prisons without trial. Who is really responsible for the latest violence? Despite keeping track of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the last six years, it seems Shadman has missed the details of how the latest violence started. ***I beg to differ with Shadman's comment about Hizb'Allah (Hezbollah) being a "terrorist organisation", which is nothing but Zionist and neo-conservative propaganda. Hizb'Allah came to existence as a direct result of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and referring to them as terrorists is the same as referring to the Mukti Bahini as terrorists. F. H. Rana correctly pointed out that in 1971, we stood alone - while the entire Muslim world, which was convinced by the Pakistanis that they were fighting against a Hindu conspiracy, remained silent. In recent years, there have been a number of occasions where Hizb'Allah have kidnapped Israeli soldiers, most noticeably an Israeli reservist Colonel, all of whom where exchanged for prisoners languishing in Israeli jails where thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians still remain with no chance of reprieve. The Muslim world, in particular the Arabs, are in an ideal position to put an immediate stop to supplies of oil and use this natural resource to shape Middle Eastern policy. Of course, much to our frustration, countries such as Saudi Arabia say and do nothing. Why? Essentially, they have their own concerns and 'need' the US to protect them and keep the Royal House of Saud in power. If US support disappears, the Zionist state, the House of Saud, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and a number of others will all cease to exist. Instead of looking at the larger picture, leaders of Arab/Muslim countries are more interested in protecting their own hides. This is probably the most distinguishing factor, which separates Jews from Muslims. Abdul M. Ismail On e-mail
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