A Disfigured Land

Imagine this scenario:

Haifa, Israel’s third largest city. This city is now besieged by Palestinian fighters whom routinely undertake fly-overs of this piece of land of 1.4 million Israeli civilians. Settlements are being forces all over this city and declared Muslim-only settlements, with Muslim-only roads and highways to connect the to other settlement on the same piece of land and to the mainland – called Palestine.

This city of Haifa held it’s first democratic elections in many years. They elected an extremist Haredim group who called for Liberation from the Palestinians, and ultimately the destruction of the Palestinian state – replacing it with an Israeli one. The Palestinians do not take keenly on this group and therefore arrest half of their ministers in government and MP’s in Parliament. From there, they destroy everything belonging to this group systematically and regardless of what and who is in those structures. When Iran – the Palestinian country sponsor and ally – is asked why this is taking place, their reply is simply because the Israelis had voted the wrong way and need to vote for someone else.

I don’t get it

Why do attacks against occupying, aggressing or invading military soldiers end up being called terrorist attacks?

In 1983, when the US marines were present on Lebanese territory, they were bombed with a suicide-truck killing 241 marines and injuring practically every single other survivor present on the barracks.

These Marines were ordered to come into Lebanon, alongside the French and Italian militaries, to serve as peacekeeping force at a time of full-out civil war and an Israeli invasion.

What happened was the opposite of peacekeeping. The French started helping their fellow Maronite Christians in battling the muslims and druze, while the US helped its bretherin (who other than) Israelis in battling the Muslims, Druze and Palestinians.

What used to be a peace-keeping force, had effectively become an occupying and agressing one because of its participation in fuelling rather than stopping the war. It has also served them right. When the Second Lebanon War ended in August, Rice was asked if the US will participate in the peacekeeping force in South Lebanon. She obviously said no, when asked why, she said because of the ‘history’ of the US military in Lebanon.

A US federal court on September 7, 2007 ordered Iran to pay 2.65 billion dollars to the families of 241 soldiers killed in the 1983 bombing. Judge Royce C.Lamberth said “it was beyond question that the truck bombing was carried out by the terrorist group Hezbollah with the help of senior Iranian officials.” This was said even though there were no delegations or lawyers representing the defendants in court – and ofcourse without investigating the attacks in which the US ‘Peacekeeping’ force participated in.