SHARON RAMPAGES ANEW
Gaza Invasion Now Looms
MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 25 September 2003: Back in 1982, the youngest Israeli tank commander in Israeli history, Eli Geva, said 'No' as the Israeli army with Ariel Sharon as Defense Minister was poised to invade and occupy Beirut. Geva was arrested, but if memory serves, Sharon feared the negative publicity and never brought him to trial.
About the same time, on 2 July 1982, three of the world's most distinguished Jewish leaders met at the Paris Hilton and issued 'The Paris Declaration' directly challenging Sharon, calling for an immediate Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and an immediate Palestinian State led by the PLO (which the Israelis at the time had declared a 'terrorist organization' and arrested any of their citicizens who even met with anyone in the PLO). The historic statement by these three - Nahum Goldman, the founder of both the World Zionist Organization and The World Jewish Congress; Pierre Mendes-France, the former President of France; and Philip Klutznick, former President of both B'nai B'rith International and the World Jewish Congress - appeared in eight columns across the entire front page of Le Monde. Their close friend, Isam Sartawi, European Representative of the PLO at the time, would soo be assassinated because of his courageous work with these Jewish leaders that led to that historic 'Paris Declaration'.
At the time Eli Geva, as well as the three senior Jewish leaders working with Sartawi, no doubt hoped their efforts would spark others to rise up in rebellion against the Sharon-led Israeli policies of those days - policies which in fact have now brought the whole world to this even more dangerous and deadly situation we are all in today.
What followed back in 1982, with Sharon held only partially in check, was the PLO's expulsion from Lebanon, then the horrible refugee camp massacres, the first suicide bombings against the American Embassy and the Marine Corps barracks, the growth of Hezbollah, the spark of the first Intifada, the birth of Hamas...then the first Gulf war and the rise of Osama bin-Laden and al-Qaida.
Also back then - after partial UN, US, and European intervention - an Israeli Commission of Inquiry found that Ariel Sharon was personally 'indirectly responsible' for the horrendous massacres and should never again serve in high office in Israel.
Yet here we are today.
This time, as Sharon prepares to invade Gaza to kill and vanquish the current leadership of the Palestinians, 27 reserve pilots are stepping forward. They too may hope their lonely but certainly by Israeli standards courageous protest may spark a growing revolt against Sharon and his neo-fascist right-wing. But, tragically, Sharon and his entourage are far more in power, even more ideologically driven, and thanks to new military technology and the United States far more powerful today then they were 20 years ago.
And, with the course Sharon and Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld - all working in tandem make no mistake about that - have forced all of us to be on, can one even imagine 20 years from now?
27 ISRAELI RESERVE PILOTS SAY
THEY REFUSE TO BOMB CIVILIANS
JERUSALEM, Sept. 24: Twenty-seven reserve pilots in the Israeli Air Force presented a signed petition tonight saying that they would not take part in "illegal and immoral" strikes in Palestinian areas in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The airstrikes, aimed at Hamas militants, sometimes kill Palestinian civilians.
"We refuse to participate in air force attacks on civilian populations," said the letter, which was sent to the head of the air force, Maj. Gen. Dan Halutz. "We refuse to continue harming innocent civilians."
The petition is similar to a letter signed by hundreds of reserve soldiers who have pledged not to serve in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. Most of the pilots who signed the petition have not been on active duty in recent years, the air force said. It was not clear whether any had been involved in the strikes.
Israel calls the strikes "targeted killings." They have broad support among Israelis, with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government saying they are the most effective way to attack terrorists who hide among civilians.
The Israeli news media said one of the petition's signers was Yiftach Spector, a brigadier general in the reserves, who took part in the bombing of the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981.
In a sharp response to the pilots' letter, General Halutz said members of the military should not take political positions. "We do not choose our wars or missions," he said on Israeli television.
"We refuse to participate in air force attacks on civilian populations... We refuse to continue harming innocent civilians."
.
"We will continue to hunt terrorists," he said, adding, "We have no intention of harming civilians."
One recent Israeli target, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, emerged today for the first time since he was lightly wounded on Sept. 6 in the bombing of a Gaza City apartment where he was meeting with Hamas members.
In a news conference at a Gaza City mosque, the defiant sheik said Hamas was not prepared to call off its bombing campaign, and he accused President Bush of declaring war on Islam.
"Resistance and holy war are the only choices for victory," he said. "We promised God and we promised the people that we won't surrender and we won't raise white flags.
"Bush today is declaring war on Islam. He has to understand that those who have faith are not afraid of threats, and that Islam is stronger than Bush."
The direct criticism of Mr. Bush was somewhat unusual; Hamas usually focuses on the conflict with Israel and avoids otherwise irritating the United States.
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