XPost: uk.politics.misc, soc.culture.palestine, soc.culture.egyptian   
   XPost: soc.culture.israel, soc.culture.lebanon   
   From: o@o.org   
      
   Israel's Criminal Accomplice   
   By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS   
      
   There never was any doubt of the Bush Regime's complicity in Israel's naked   
   aggression against the Lebanese civilian population.  Bush has protected   
   Israel from world condemnation. Bush has blocked those who attempted to   
   bring a stop to Israel's bombing of residential neighborhoods and civilian   
   infrastructure, and now Bush rushes more bombs for Israel to drop on   
   Lebanon.   
      
   On July 22, the New York Times revealed the full extent of the Bush Regime's   
   participation in the heinous war crimes being inflicted on the Lebanese   
   people: "The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided   
   bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after   
   beginning its air campaign. . . . The decision to quickly ship the weapons   
   to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush   
   administration, the officials said."   
      
   Obviously, Bush and his government do not think Israel has yet murdered   
   enough Lebanese.  Bush denounces Syria and Iran for allegedly arming   
   Hezbollah, while he rushes more deadly weapons to Israel.   
      
   The entire world is appalled at the Bush Regime's support for Israel's   
   policy of expanding its borders through naked aggression.   
      
   Every Arab and Muslim now knows that the US is Israel's enabler. Arab hopes   
   are dead that the US will pressure Israel to behave more humanely toward   
   people not armed with American fighter planes, tanks, and high explosives.   
      
   America's complicity in Israel's war crimes is more than America's UK lapdog   
   can stand. According to the French news service, AFP, "The United States is   
   starting to look isolated in its refusal to rein in Israel's attacks on   
   Lebanon with key ally Britain criticizing the wholesale killing of Lebanese   
   civilians and widespread destruction."   
      
   AFP reports that Britain's deputy foreign minister Kim Howells "questioned   
   Israel's military tactics and slammed Israel's killing of 'so many children   
   and so many people. If Israel is chasing Hezbollah, then go for Hezbollah.   
   You don't go for the entire Lebanese nation.'"   
      
   But is Israel after Hezbollah or is Israel after the real estate that   
   comprises southern Lebanon?   
      
   Rightwing Israelis say Israel needs southern Lebanon as a buffer against   
   Hezbollah. If Israel were to succeed in driving Hezbollah out of southern   
   Lebanon, Israel would then want a buffer for southern Lebanon, where Israeli   
   settlements would quickly spring up, And after that buffer, another, just as   
   Israel has gobbled up Palestine.   
      
   The American people need to understand what everyone else in the world   
   understands: The Bush Regime is empowering the Israeli state to push out its   
   borders by stealing land from other people.   
      
   This Israeli policy is the source of the Middle East conflict.   
      
   It is ignorant and immoral to blame the conflict on Hamas and Hezbollah.   
   These organizations were created by Israeli aggression.  Lacking American   
   jet fighters, tanks, ordinance, and resupply, these organizations resort to   
   terror, which is the only weapon that they have.  Otherwise, the world would   
   pay no attention as Arabs are ground under by Israeli expansion.   
      
   The fault is America's more than Israel's.  The American government and the   
   brainwashed American public are the source of the conflict.  If America did   
   not enable Israeli aggression, Israel would have to behave responsibly and   
   endeavor to co-exist with its neighbors.   
      
   Israel is an artificial state created in Arab lands by European colonial   
   powers after World War II. Instead of working to win acceptance and   
   overcoming Arab hostility to Europe shipping off "the Jewish problem" to the   
   Middle East, Israel has antagonized its Middle East neighbors. Israel can   
   play the bully-boy role, because the US acts as Israel's big brother. With   
   its policy of fang and claw, Israel endangers its own right to exist.   
      
   Many distinguished Israelis came to this conclusion long before I did.  I am   
   only repeating what can be read in more eloquent writings of distinguished   
   Israelis.   
      
   Israel's greatest friends are its own peace movement and those few in   
   America who dare to criticize Israel's self-destructive policies.  It is not   
   anti-semitic to hold Israel to the same standards as other civilized   
   countries or to report facts instead of Israeli propaganda.   
      
   Israel's greatest enemies are the American neoconservatives, who hold the   
   power in the Bush Regime.  What we are witnessing in the Middle East is the   
   unfolding of the neocon plan to destroy all vestiges of Arab/Muslim   
   independence and to remove all opposition to Israel's agenda. Can five   
   million Israelis, even when backed by the United States, forever suppress   
   hundreds of millions of humiliated Muslims stewing in their humiliation?   
      
   This is a recipe for perpetual conflict and the eventual destruction of   
   Israel.   
      
   Neocons believe that deception of the American public is a legitimate way   
   for them to achieve their plan.  Bush's so-called "war on terror" is the   
   cloak for neocon deception.   
      
   Bush's war is not on terror.  Bush's war is on Muslim states not ruled by   
   American puppets.   
      
   Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan   
   administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be   
   reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)