CONGRESS ACCUSES STATE DEPARTMENT OF BLATANT HYPOCRISY IN "GLOBAL" FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM Jerusalem----October
26.....Many Israeli families are tiring of the United States State Department's
use of the word "restraint". Restraint
for Israel, Israelis may bleed, cannot defend their citizens - but the
United States may seek "justice" with hundreds of bombs falling
on Afghanistan! The US says that Israel's "situation" is "different"
- that they want to see the "level of violence going down."
Give Arafat another chance to control Hamas, Islamic Jihad and
Hezbollah. The
US says: "restraint". The US says: "no targeted
killings - but defend yourselves!" Defend yourselves in a
manner where you don't embarrass us with Syria, Iran and Iraq. Now members of Congress are openly challenging Secretary of State Colin Powell on the Bush administration's policy toward Israel and the role Israel and its adversaries will play in the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism. Testifying before the House International Relations Committee on Wednesday, Powell said the US administration believes Israel "has a right to defend itself in the way that it sees fit and appropriate." But that does not include targeted killings nor tracking down the terrorists in areas where Arafat harbors them and will not arrest them for more than one night. Powell said he understood Israel's rationale for sending troops into the West Bank to crack down on Palestinian terror -- though he considered the move "counter-productive". Powell stood by State Department criticism of Israel's policy of targeted killing of Palestinian terror leaders, saying it was detrimental to the goal of finding a political solution in order to end Israeli-Palestinian violence. We ask - where is the political solution between the US and those that attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Where are the political solutions for those killing Americans using Anthrax? "We
have felt that targeted assassinations -- however much the State of Israel
believes they are appropriate and uses their forces to conduct such activities
-- we believe that those kinds of activities are hurtful to the overall
process," Powell said. "We are trying to reach a point where
such terrorism is stopped, such violence is stopped, and the need for
such kind of response is no longer present." Appearing during a week in which the U.S. was again telling the Israeli government to use "restraint" following the assassination of Israel's Tourism Minister and strong, defensive Israeli reprisals, Washington's lawmakers sought to clarify U.S. policy toward Israel. There was deep concern about the call by a State Department spokesman Monday for the Israel Defense Force to withdraw immediately from areas of the West Bank it entered after the assassination of Minister Rehavam Ze'evi by the US listed terrorist organization - Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Israel said the operation, during which it entered six West Bank cities, was necessary to head off terror attacks. Over 40 suspected terrorists -- most from Hamas and the PFLP -- were captured by the IDF. Israel also announced that it had captured two members of the seven-man terrorist cell that killed Ze'evi, though the actual assassin still remains at large and Arafat refuses to touch him. "The moment we know there is serious intent on the part of the Palestinian Authority to maintain order and bring about a cessation of the violence, the Israeli army will withdraw immediately," Defense Minister Binyamin Ben- Eliezer said in a statement. Use of the word "intent" was taken to be a softening of Israel's terms for withdrawal, as the government previously had demanded that P.A. security forces arrest those responsible for killing Ze'evi and crack down on the PFLP.
Back in Washington, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) asked rhetorically how America would react if Israel urged the United States to seek a political solution with Osama bin Laden, the terror leader behind the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. "I think the answer to that would truly be laughable," Ackerman said. "And yet that's what we're suggesting to the Israelis after they've been going through this for some 50 years." Ackerman said it is "telling" that the State Department is having trouble explaining to Israel why it should not carry out targeted assassinations while the United States pursues a similar policy against bin Laden and his followers. "I could suggest that the reason that the State Department is struggling with this is because the policy is very inconsistent. We're telling the Israelis to do as we say, and not do as we do," he said. Taking the opposing view, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) said if "you have indiscriminate shelling of Palestinian villages where women and children are killed in retaliation for some sort of an attack, that has to be labeled terrorism," just like aggressive actions against Israelis. "We can't have a double standard and expect that we're going to be taken seriously in most of the world," Rohrabacher said. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) said he was encouraged by a letter from Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage pledging that organizations like the PFLP and others of Israel's antagonists would be targeted by the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism. "Rest assured that our vision of the coalition's purpose is to end all terrorism, regardless of the target or claimed motivation," Armitage wrote in the Oct. 23 letter to Lantos. "We have been attacking these groups for years, are going after these groups now, and will continue to do so until they no longer represent a threat to the United States, our citizens, our interests, and our friends and allies." Armitage also said that "rhetoric will not suffice" and that states that sponsor terrorism, including Iran, Syria and the Palestinian Authority will have to take concrete action to win U.S. favor. "We will not allow them to cherry-pick some terrorist organizations while ignoring, or worse, aiding others," Armitage wrote. "In short, state sponsors must definitively act to satisfy our counterterrorism concerns before we will consider removing our unilateral sanctions." American Jewish leaders said they were encouraged by the congressional support for Israel's plight. "These members are raising some serious questions about U.S. policy toward Israel. And it is clear that concern for Israel and its war on terrorism runs far and deep among the members of this committee and the rest of the Congress," said Howard Kohr, executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In
the IDF and in every army, soldiers are trained to overcome their "restraint"
with the simple and basic sentence: "It's either you or them".
In a war (and both Israel and the USA are at war with the same terrorists)
one only exercises restraint if they care to lose. Now
the IDF, under intense pressure from Washington, will be removing it's
defensive forces from Beit Jala and Bethlehem. Does anyone seriously think
that Arafat will keep his "new" promises to the CIA to assure
that Hamas and Islamic Jihad do not fire on Jerusalem's Gilo? That Islamic
extremists who have occupied the Christian Arab village of Beit Jala will
now leave for Jamaica on vacation? We,
living here in Israel have no choice today but to chose to fight and defend
ourselves using every possible means - we will no longer board trains
quietly that will take us to our extermination. Six million will not let
us forget. The INA again asks: "What is the market share price of Israeli blood compared to American blood on NASDAQ today?"
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