Israel after the assassination of Hamas leader Rantissi - Stripped naked down to the bone Israel & Palestine Share Tweet We received this comment from Israel on the recent assassination of Hamas leader, Rantissi, written by an Israeli Jew. There must be many more like him. The task is to bring these atomized individuals together and transform them into a genuine socialist opposition within Israel. While Sharon announces to the world his supposed "withdrawal" from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, he continues to behave in a way which can only provoke greater conflict. In any case his so-called withdrawal is nothing of the kind. In exchange for withdrawing from certain parts of Palestinian territory Sharon is preparing to annex more of their land to Israel. That can only serve to enrage the Palestinian masses even further. Already Hamas has promised to hit back at Israel. Thus more innocent people will die on both sides.However, although the effect of the bomb attacks inside Israel for now has been that of making many ordinary Israelis think that Sharon's method is the only answer, as time goes by the more conscious elements within the Israeli working class are beginning to see that Sharon's road in reality is a blind alley. It offers no real solution to the problem. We received this comment from Israel on the recent assassination of Hamas leader, Rantissi, written by an Israeli Jew. There must be many more like him. The task is to bring these atomized individuals together and transform them into a genuine socialist opposition within Israel. (Editor's note). So Israel has killed another Hamas leader. "We are doing it to protect our people," said a member of the ruling Likud party. He went on to say (not a direct quote), "The situation is impossible now. Every time you go to a restaurant you have to be searched". This shows exactly where the whole problem lies in this struggle between the Zionist state of Israel, and the Palestinians.Yes it is true every time I go to the bank or the supermarket a scanner is passed over my body. But my wife and I receive our pensions regularly every month, and the supermarket is full just like TESCO's in the UK. What that stupid politician did not mention and most Israelis don't know or don't care to know is that in Gaza, the people are starving!How can one compare the plight of the residents of Gaza to the security situation in Israel? The United Nations have now been told that the boats that they use to bring in food to Gaza will no longer be allowed in at Gaza port, because Hamas tried to carry out an attack on Israel by frogmen from Gaza. This further adds to the people of Gaza's misery.Sharon calls Mr. Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi a terrorist. "He had to die, he had Jewish blood on his hands," Sharon says. What gives Ariel Sharon the right to call anyone a terrorist because that person has blood on his hands? Sharon has so much Palestinian blood on his hands that if he were to wash his hands in the Jordan River it would turn red. This is the arrogance of the imperialist, the arrogance of one nation feeling superior to another, because they are stronger.As for hands being awash with blood, we all have blood on our hands, even I who have never killed anything other than the mosquitoes that drive me mad here in the summer. My being able to sit here and punch out this article is the result of Arabs being killed, Arabs who never asked or were asked for the Jews to come here.Yes Jews are being killed by Arabs, this is a fact, and soon, as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow morning, more Jews will die because of the murder of Rantissi. And with shock and horror no doubt Mr. Sharon's new pal Mr. George W Bush will condemn the act with some new fancy words that he has learned from his best buddy Tony Blair. They say one judges a person by their friends. Need I say more?What Sharon wants is not a just solution to this never-ending conflict. What he wants is to starve, beat, humiliate and subjugate the Palestinians into such a state that they will end up agreeing to everything Israel wants.Some time ago Sharon's adviser said, "If the Palestinians think that in the state that they will have, they will develop their own high tech industry they are wrong. No they will work for us". During the infamous siege of Jenin, Israeli soldiers smashed up a High Tech building that an American Palestinian had built there. It was the pride and joy of the Palestinian Authority. What possible danger could that development be to Israel that has all the big names in the computer world, from IBM to Microsoft, plus several of its own high tech industries? The answer is of course none! It just shows the direction of the real Israeli "Road Map". Those soldiers would not have destroyed that building without orders.This evening is the eve of Holocaust Day, when we remember the Jews murdered by Hitler. Next week will be Remembrance Day for all those killed in Israel's wars with its neighbours past and present, soldiers and civilians. At the end of Remembrance Day, there will be a ceremony and bugles will sound, fireworks will fill the sky and the jubilation of Israel's 56th Independence Day will begin.Everybody will be "happy", but not I. For I cannot understand how a people who suffered so much for so long can behave the way we do to another group of human beings.The Jews and the Arabs have a lot in common. After all according to the Old Testament we are cousins. And the two languages have many words that are similar, and in some case the same. One of these words is the word for Pity, Sympathy or Mercy. It seems to me that at a time when we Jews ask the world to remember how we were shown no mercy, we should show some ourselves.April 18, 2004
