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Welcome to USAGOLD's "Gilded
Opinion" pages.
We invite you to browse our index
of outstanding gold-based commentary.
(Back to Holger Jensen Index)
While we find Mr. Jensen's columns particularly informative with respect to foreign affairs, his opinions do not necessarily represent those of Centennial Precious Metals, USAGOLD, its management and clientele.
INSIDE FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Israelis, Palestinians both
have blood on their hands
by Holger Jensen, International Editor
Fifty-seven Islamic nations ended a three-day conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, by condemning terrorism "in all its forms" but failing to define it.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed tried to get them to agree on labeling any killing of civilians as terrorism. That included "the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, the human bomb attacks by Palestinians and Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers and the attacks against civilians by Israeli forces."
But he was forced to backtrack when Arab delegates unanimously rejected "any attempt to link terrorism to the struggle of the Palestinian people in the exercise of their inalienable right to establish an independent state."
It all boils down to that age-old question of who is a terrorist and who is a freedom fighter. Some of today's nations were, in fact, born of terrorism and some terrorists of yore are now respected statesmen and Nobelists.
Terrorism freed the southern Irish Republic from British rule and has forced Britain to relax its hold on Northern Ireland. Much of colonial Africa and parts of Asia were liberated by terrorist wars. Israel had its terrorists and the Palestinians, too.
The African National Congress used terror to fight white minority rule and now runs the government of South Africa. Robert Mugabe fought a terrorist war against the whites of Rhodesia and is using some of the same tactics to terrorize black political opponents in what is now Zimbabwe.
Algerians used terror to drive out the French, and again are using it against the current military regime. Menachem Begin blew up the King David Hotel to drive the British out of Palestine. The Irgun and Stern Gang terrorized Palestinians before the creation of the state of Israel. And Yasser Arafat has employed terror against the Jewish state.
Yet Begin won the Nobel Peace Prize for signing the Camp David accord, as did Arafat and two other Israeli leaders for signing the Oslo accord. And the ANC's Nelson Mandela, who spent most of his life imprisoned as a terrorist, is not only a Nobel laureate but hailed around the world as one of its premier peacemakers.
That's why the United Nations, which has spent years grappling to define terrorism, has never managed to do so. And that's why President Bush has been forced to admit that he cannot brand Arafat a terrorist simply on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's say-so.
While Sharon compares Arafat to Osama bin Laden "that's not a comparison the president accepts," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, noting that Arafat participated in peace talks before they broke down and, for better or worse, remains a symbol of Palestinian aspirations.
However, Bush still sees Sharon's military offensive in the West Bank as a war on terrorism, while the rest of the world sees it as a war on the Palestinian people. The latter view is reinforced by images of dead women and children, journalists being shot, churchmen being denied access to the birthplace of Jesus and Palestinian dead being buried in a hospital parking lot because Israeli troops won't let them be transported to a graveyard.
Even Israelis are troubled by this. Lev Grinberg, a sociology professor at Ben Gurion University who frequently writes for the daily Maariv, says the United States is "evil" for supporting Sharon, whom he considers as bad a terrorist as the suicide bombers he is after.
"In the public debate, state terrorism and suicide bombs are not considered as comparable," he wrote Tuesday. "The state terror and war crimes perpetrated by the Israeli government are legitimized as 'self-defense' while Arafat, even under siege, is demanded to arrest 'terrorists.'
"At the same time, Sharon's responsibility for Israeli war crimes is completely ignored. Who should be arrested for the targeted killing of almost 100 Palestinians? Who should be sent to jail for the killing of more than 120 Palestinian paramedics? Who will be sentenced for killing more than 1,200 Palestinians and the collective punishment of more than 3 million civilians during the last 18 months?
"And who will face the international criminal tribunal for the illegal settlement of occupied Palestinian lands and disobeying U.N. resolutions for more than 35 years?"
Who indeed? Sharon and Arafat both have blood on their hands. Perhaps the European Union's Javier Solana was right in pointing out that "neither is a saint" and both sides would be better off with new leaders.
April 4, 2002
Send your questions to international editor Holger Jensen, who will answer one each day. E-mail: hjens@aol.com
Copyright © 2002 The E.W. Scripps Co. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted by USAGOLD with permission of Mr. Jensen. No further reproduction without permission.
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