Both Israel and the U.S., with the help of Western media owned and controlled by pro-Israel US and Jewish interests, have persisted in obscuring the fact that the all-out military response of Israel over the earlier capture of a few of its soldiers is grossly disproportionate, unwarranted and unjustified. It is instead a mere pretext for massive air, naval and ground attacks against the civilian populations of Lebanon and Palestine,
considered as “necessary collateral damage” in the overall scheme of driving out, if not annihilating, both Hezbollah and Hamas.
As the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) stated, “In accordance with international law, the three captured Israeli soldiers are prisoners of war (POWs). They are not victims of kidnapping or hostaging. The Israeli government is using them as pawns in its attempt to crush all popular resistance in Lebanon and Palestine. The Olmert government in Israel refuses to conduct any negotiations for the release of the captured soldiers or for the exchanges of POWs. (Israel is holding more than 9,000 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners.) Instead, the Zionists are engaging in collective punishment by ordering attacks on Lebanese and Palestinian civilian populations. At the beginning of the war, Israeli’s Army Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said, ‘Nothing is safe in [Lebanon], it’s as simple as that.’”
Thus the ILPS minced no words in condemning “(t)hese unbridled acts of international terrorism emboldened and supported by U.S. imperialism.”
Filipinos must strive to understand the real reasons behind the crises engulfing the Middle East region, a favorite destination of OFWs desperately trying to escape the poverty and economic dead-end back home, if we are to break free from always being victimized by forces seemingly beyond our control. Business World/Posted by Bulatlat
*According to the Wikipedia, the Hezbollah, meaning “party of God,” is a broadly popular Shi’a Islamist organization and political party in Lebanon comprising a military and a civilian arm. Formed in 1982, its primary goals have been to defend Southern Lebanon against Israel and to secure the release of Lebanese from Israeli prisons.
Although Hezbollah has been blamed for a number of “terrorist” acts, there is disagreement in the international political community even between Israel and its istorical Western allies about whether it merits designation as a terrorist organization in full, in part, or not at all. Within Lebanon and the Muslim world, Hezbollah’s armed operations are widely regarded as legitimate resistance against Israel.
