[WCUSP] Tax dollars sent to Israel buy enemies for US

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

TAX DOLLARS SENT TO ISRAEL BUY ENEMIES FOR U.S.
By Ahmed M.  Rehab


[Ahmed M. Rehab is executive director of the Chicago office of  the Council 
on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago), the nation's largest  Muslim 
civil liberties group. He may be contacted at: _director at cairchicago.org_ 
(mailto:director at cairchicago.org)   ]

"It's really sad where people are willing to take innocent life. . .As  a 
matter of fact, it's pathetic," President Bush said in a recent press  conference.

He went on to state, "Israel has a right to defend herself.  Every nation 
must defend herself against terrorist attacks and the killing of  innocent life. 
It's a necessary part of the 21st century."

Here's the  $64,000 question: Do Palestinians have a right to defend 
themselves against the  killing of their innocents? Do the Lebanese?

The Palestinian population  is exceptionally vulnerable. Seventy-nine percent 
of Gaza households live under  the poverty line, 40 percent suffer from 
unemployment and almost half the  population in the Gaza Strip is made up of 
children. Under these onerous  circumstances, Gazans struggle to liberate themselves 
from the clutches of one  of the world's most sophisticated military machines.

In much of the  Western media, the Palestinians are written-off as a gang of 
unruly terrorists.  However, the numbers give a different account. Since 
September of 2000, six out  of every seven children killed in this decades-long 
conflict have been  Palestinian.

Terrorism constitutes acts of violence against civilians in  furtherance of 
political objectives. Terrorism is a Palestinian suicide-bomber  attacking a 
bus or a pizza parlor in Tel Aviv. Terrorism is also an Israeli  warplane 
deliberately targeting the civilian infrastructure in Gaza and Lebanon.  We lose all 
credibility when we rightfully condemn acts of terror carried out by  
individuals or groups, but offer support to a state that also targets the  innocent.

Israel has waged a massive military campaign against Lebanon's  civilian 
population. So far, almost 200 civilians have been killed. In just one  incident, 
15 children were massacred as their parents attempted to flee a  village in a 
convoy.

Images from the scenes of Israeli attacks are  horrific. Agence France Presse 
reported: "A baby was sliced into three and body  parts hung from olive trees 
as the full force of Israeli military might hit  rural southern Lebanon. . . 
Police said the 10-month-old and six other family  members were killed when an 
Israeli missile hit their home in the usually quiet  village of Baflay." 
(AFP, 7/13/06)

Israel's army chief Brig. Gen. Dan  Halutz warned that "nothing is safe" in 
Lebanon. In his own words, the Israeli  spokesman was admitting to his 
country's readiness to break all rules of  engagement. Everything in Lebanon, 
including town centers, schools, hospitals,  and other civil centers would be fair 
game for Israel's warplanes - nothing is  safe.

As if to confirm that statement, an Israeli bomb killed seven  Canadian 
citizens, including a woman and her four children, in Lebanon on July  16.

In a parallel campaign, Israel has launched widespread attacks on the  Gaza 
strip, bombing its main power-generating station and jeopardizing the  lives, 
health and safety of hundreds of thousands of  civilians.

Electricity is out 12-18 hours a day in Gaza and hospitals are  only taking 
emergency cases. A spokeswoman for the UN's World Food Program said  some 85 
percent of Gazans are dependent on food handouts and many families are  eating 
only one meal a day.

World leaders have spoken out against  Israel's sweeping aggression, calling 
it "disproportionate" and  "excessive."

Israel has shown a tendency to abuse its military might,  subjecting 
civilians to collective punishments time and again. Countries that  fail to exercise 
appropriate self-restraint should be restrained by the world  community.

Israel's right to defend itself does not give it the right to  launch terror 
attacks against major civilian centers - not with our tax  money.

Since its formation in 1949, the state of Israel has cost U.S.  taxpayers 
more than $130 billion. What merits this exorbitant spending on a  foreign 
country that has one of the world's highest per capital  incomes?

The often-parroted argument is that that Israel is a crucial  ally in the war 
on terror.

The truth is that for all the billions Israel  has sapped from American 
taxpayers, it has given us nothing back but the  resentment the victims of Israel's 
military transgressions feel toward those who  bankroll their oppressor.

Israel is a strategic liability in the war on  terror. Extremists use our 
uncritical financial and political support for  Israel's brutal policies as an 
excuse to attack us.

Surely, there are  better ways to spend our hard-earned money.

We are losing the domestic  wars on drugs and poverty. Our inner-cities are 
awash with crime and gang  rivalries. Our public schools are embarrassingly 
substandard when compared to  those of other developed nations. Our social 
security system threatens to fail  future generations of retirees as the number of 
senior citizens is expected to  increase by 110 percent in the next 50 years.

We fail to move forward on  these crucial fronts citing lack of sufficient 
funds. Would it not be better if  we invested our tax dollars in our own 
communities instead of funding Israel's  counterproductive military escapades?

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