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| Middle East |
| Arab press lashes out at West over Israeli air strike |
| 2002-07-25 |
| Newspapers across the Arab world lashed out at Western governments on Wednesday for not doing more to punish Israel's 'massacre' of civilians in a Gaza Strip air strike, arguing their silence justified Palestinian resistance's threats of revenge. I don't think we had any doubt that was coming... The sense of outrage over Monday night's strike, which killed 15 civilians as well as a top resistance leader and his bodyguard, was even more pronounced in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, whose governments had been heavily involved in US-led efforts to rein in attacks against Israelis. The Riyadh daily Al Bilad, which like the rest of the media here largely reflects the official line, slammed the United States for not reacting until more than 18 hours after the Israeli 'war crime,' and then only describing the reaction as 'heavy-handed.' That's because we don't regard it as a war crime. Neither does the Geneva Convention... Accordingly, it has become necessary to 'call off Arab (peace) initiatives and rethink current attempts to rein in Palestinian fighters,' Al Bilad wrote in a reference to US-led pressures on Palestinian militant groups to halt suicide bombings against Israeli targets. Guess that's as good an excuse as any. If you're making efforts toward introducing some sort of stability you have to make a concession here and there. If you 'rethink' things, all you have to do is watch the meat splatter and kick in a few bucks for the funerals... Monday night's 'massacre is not just an abhorrent terrorist act, ... like the Paleostinians indulge in... but also a continuation of Israel's policy of liquidating' Palestinians, wrote Saudi Arabia's Okaz. Y'see, this act had a military target. Trying to kill large numbers of people at random doesn't — it has a political objective. 'The Zionist entity (Israel) under the rule of butcher (Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon has not abandoned its plot that began since this entity was planted in the body of the Arab world' in 1948, the paper said. Yes, those plots are terrible. And the poor Arabs are just surrounded by them. Plots and conspiracies, and wheels within wheels. It's enough to make you want to explode. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |