Remember The Palestinians
By Charlie Reese [King-online]
Knowing how much Americans are worried about the loss of innocent life in
Palestine, I thought I'd summarize the number of Palestinians killed in the
past 17 months.
This number does not include all those killed in Israel's most recent
military invasion of the West Bank. They are still finding bodies in the
rubble. This number represents only those killed through March 9, 2002.
The toll of Palestinian children 15 and younger is 151. That's a lot of
Little League teams. Many of these children were shot through the head by
Israeli snipers who, 200 yards away in armored vests and helmets,
apparently feared a rock thrown by a 12-year-old that landed many yards
short. I can easily imagine killing people. After all, I was in the Army. I
cannot imagine lining up a child's head in the scope of my rifle and
squeezing the trigger.
Another 138 Palestinians ages 16 to 18 also have been killed by the
Israelis. The total number of Palestinians killed during this period is
1,286, of whom 83.8 percent were civilians. The rest, 208, were members of
the Palestinian police and security forces, which might be one reason
Yasser Arafat has had some trouble controlling terrorists.
The bulk of these innocent men, women and children were killed by the
Israeli Defense Force, some by Jewish settlers in the occupied territories
and the rest by ordinary Israelis. Apparently, it is open season on
Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said 419 Israelis have been killed
during the same time period, although he is counting the soldiers killed in
the recent invasion, and I am not counting those Palestinians, since a
definitive number is not known. Sharon is known inside Israel as a man
whose word is not to be trusted (I read a column in an Israeli newspaper
about Sharon's lying).
Nevertheless, let us take his figure, 419, and you can plainly see that the
Israelis have killed three times as many Palestinians.
The Palestinians, I'm sure, would appreciate it if a few Americans would
acknowledge that their lives are just as precious as those of the Israelis.
The Palestinians have given up on the U.S. government. It has shown itself
to be about as sympathetic to their loss of life as Sharon.
But I have a question: If Israel has killed three times as many
Palestinians, the bulk of them unarmed civilians and the rest police
officers with pistols and rifles, how can it be that Israel is fighting
"for its survival"?
The prime minister says it is. A lot of cheap American politicians are
saying it is. What I want to know is how a few despairing teen-agers with
homemade bombs can threaten the survival of a nation that has the
strongest military force in the Middle East.
According to the British Broadcasting Corporation in a recent story, Israel
has the following assets: 134,000 army troops, 32,000 air force, 7,000 navy
and 8,000 border police. The reserves are 400,000 for the army, 20,000 for
the air force and 5,000 for the navy. In addition, Israel has 440 combat
aircraft, 3,900 main battle tanks, 130 helicopters, 9,600 artillery tubes
and 100 or more nuclear bombs.
Since the Palestinians have no army, no air force, no navy, no aircraft, no
tanks, no helicopters and no nukes, one has to wonder indeed how these
defenseless civilians can threaten Israel's existence. Gosh, you don't
suppose Israeli and American politicians are lying, do you? Perish the
thought.
I guess the Israeli army snipers must have been ordered to shoot all those
children, for Palestinian children must be the toughest kids in the
universe. I never heard of any other group of children able to frighten a
whole nation like that.
That's funny, too, because all of the pictures I've seen of Palestinian
children--dead, dying, bleeding or paralyzed--show kids who look like
American children their age.
Check out www.palestinemonitor.org for a different view of the world.
Charley Reese can be contacted at: briarl@earthlink.net.
© 2002 by King Features Syndicate, Inc. |
