Gaza - Israel kills children of Gaza

Break the siege, not the legs

The Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmad abu al-Ghait, recently threatened to break the legs of any Palestinian if they tried to cross the Egyptian border again. His comments came days after Palestinians from Gaza broke through the Egyptian Rafah border seeking temporary relief from the siege that the occupying forces have been imposing on the Gazans.

The brutality of Abu al-Ghait's comments amazes me. Instead of advocating breaking the siege, he threatens to break the legs of those under siege.

This same government is one that recently had to apply to Israel to seek permission to increase the number of border patrol on the Egyptian border. The application was refused!! Ironically, this initiative by the Egyptian government was in response to Israel's request to better control the borders to prevent the siege on Gaza being breached.

So in the midst of this humiliation and lack of control over his country’s border, Ahmad abu al-Ghait decides to attack an easy target. He announces the gruesome threat to cut the legs of anyone who violates the Egyptian border. It takes no genius to work out that he is referring to the Palestinians and not Israelis. Israelis, under the Camp David peace accord, are free to enter Sinai with no visas.

Mr Ahmad abu al-Ghait, it is time to make a stance of courage, a stance of humanity a stance of justice. Break the siege ….. don’t break the legs of those under siege.

Hezbollah's Adventure

There is no question in my mind that the Israeli response to the capture of the Israeli soldiers was not only disproportionate but viscous and is typical of the Zionist entity. However, has Hezbollah's action been irresponsible?

Hezbollah's leader claimed on an Aljazeera interview that he has indicated earlier this year to some members of the Lebanese government that he would have to capture Israeli soldiers in order to be able to get back the captured Lebanese and that these members did not argue with him. However, Hezbollah has essentially acted without the approval of the Lebanese government and has engaged the whole country in a war without their choice. Would Hezbollah have had any other options though to get it's captured members back? I suspect not. However, it remains responsible for engaging Lebanon in this war and for this it must be answerable to the people of Lebanon after the war is over. For now, the Lebanese people are trying to act in unity in response to the Israeli aggression and to the human crisis at hand.

Dr Rice has been negotiating for a NATO peace keeping force to be deployed in south Lebanon for a period of two to three months. After which, the Lebanese forces be trained by the NATO forces to take control of south Lebanon. To me, this spells civil war in Lebanon. May be this is something that the Israeli and USA governments want anyway.

I believe that the Occupation of Palestine and issues with Palestinians can't be disengaged from the Lebanese issues. The US and Israeli governments are trying to split the issues in order to present Hezbollah's action as unprovoked, whereas in actual fact, it is seen by many as a response to the events in Gaza. Contrary to their argument, the root of the problem is not Hezbollah or Hamas. The root problem is the occupation that the Israeli government is exercising on Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian Land. A problem which started in 1948.

The occupation has been the trigger for the formation of many resistance movements in the middle east. This single issue has acted as the glue that strengthened these organizations on a single goal and that is to stop oppression and occupation. Hezbollah has made a gamble. If Israel wins the war and destroys or disarms Hezbollah, and that is unlikely, then that could be fatal for Hezbollah. On the other hand, if Israel fails to accomplish its mission, then there may be a significant power shift in the middle east where Hezbollah, Iran and Syria become key players in the region.