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5 June 2010
Paul J. Balles answers some poignant questions regarding
the United States’
double standards on Israel and its failure to condemn
Israel’s murder of peace activists aboard the Gaza-bound
international aid flotilla.
The Gulf Daily News (2 June 2010) headlined a
front-page article "The silence of America". Questions were
submitted to the American embassy, the White House, US State
Department and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The article concluded: THE RESPONSE WAS SILENCE. The
questions posed in that article deserve a response, but not
the twists provided by Israeli apologists or Zionist
controlled Washington.
Why, after all the years of total
blind US support for Israel, would anyone expect anything
different? Here are the questions and my answers:
1. What will it take before the US
even condemns Israel's behaviour?
Answer: A provable catastrophe committed by Israel resulting
in the deaths of thousands of Americans. Israel's behaviour
has no judge other than Israel. Their behaviour will remain
unchecked until a significant number of Americans suffer
from the reality and become enraged.
2. How many people must die at the hands of Israelis before
the US will take action against their behaviour? Ten people?
1,000? 10,000?
Answer: Consider how many Palestinian (6,348 between 2000
and 2009) and Lebanese (1,401 in two unprovoked raids)
civilians have died unnoticed by America. Remember the
provocation by Israel and the execution by America in Iraq;
add another 1,366,350 innocents. To the Israelis, what's
another 10 murders in a humanitarian flotilla to Gaza?
3. Why is the US so against an independent inquiry into the
flotilla incident?
Answer: The facts of such an inquiry, like the Goldstone
inquiry into the carnage of Operation Cast Lead, would be
ignored and the truth of its conclusions denied. Israel says
“no independent inquiry”. America follows.
4. Any armed attack on any vessel in international waters
would be deemed an act of piracy or war by most countries.
Is the US definition of piracy and war different from the
rest of the world?
Answer: If the pirates are Somalis, no. Pirates are pirates.
If the pirates are Israelis, yes. Pirates become transformed
into defence forces.
5. How would the US expect the crew
or passengers of a civilian US ship to react if it was
boarded by a foreign force in international waters? Would it
expect them to defend themselves?
Answer: Bow, submit and genuflect
if the foreign force is Israeli naval pirates. The victims
of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty – an American
military ship – were silenced even though the combined air
and sea attack killed 34 (naval officers, seamen, two
Marines and a civilian), wounded 171 and severely damaged
the ship. At the time, the ship was in international waters.
6. The US says it does not consider itself to be at war with
Islam, but how can it possibly hope for trust from the
Muslim world and elsewhere when it tacitly backs such acts?
Answer: If the American position was honest, we would say,
"We're not at war with Islam; we're only at war with
Muslims." When is the Muslim world going to waken to the
American double talk that's convenient only for Israel and
America?
7. Does the US condemn the detention of four Bahraini
civilians and others onboard the flotilla in international
waters?
Answer: Fortunately, the Bahraini humanitarians have been
released and returned home. The US has not and never will
condemn Israel for being what ex-Israeli Gilad Atzmon
described as "an inhuman murderous collective fuelled by a
psychosis and driven by paranoia".
The US response? President Obama expressed "deep regret at
the loss of life". Ultimately, Obama will follow Netanyahu's
attempt to justify the actions of the Israeli soldiers,
saying they were "defending themselves" after being
attacked. The same old political scam. |
