DARE TO ANSWER

Hichem Karoui

October 26, 2001 Palestine Chronicle ; Middle East News Online.

Some people in the West think that since the majority in Israel had elected General Sharon, as Prime Minister, he should be respected as any democratic leader in the civilized world! Well! Hitler also had been elected by a majority of Germans, with however a little, yet important difference: When he came to power he had never been condemned by any special investigation committee as directly or indirectly responsible for the collective murder of thousands of people. Sharon surely had been. His reputation as a criminal preceded him to the Ministry, and nobody seemed ever to care among the Western governments. They continued to treat him with all the honors due to his status as Israeli Premier, at a time when a lawsuit was being filed against him in Brussels as a war criminal.
How many victims should fall in Palestine before the Western governments decide to stop Sharon as they did with others? Why was it easier for America and its European partners to intervene in the Balkans against the ethnic cleansing? Why the repeated Western condemnations of some Israeli policies remain confined to the bureaucratic diplomatic apparatus without any translation on the field? If the Western governments are sure they are condemning these Israeli policies out of their respect for high moral values, what are they waiting for to make their principles operative? What is refraining the Western States from accomplishing what they deem to be right and fair?
If all of them agree that the Middle East conflict should be tackled according to the United Nations’ decisions (242 and 338…etc) why don’t they compel Israel to fulfilling its international obligations as a member of the UN? Whom are they afraid of? Who would oppose them if they do? Why among all the conflicts of the world only the Israeli-Arab is still continuing? Who is actually invading and occupying a foreign land against all the principles recognized by the United Nations and the International law? And why, knowing who is exactly the invader and the outlaw, the Security Council is not empowered to expelling the invader and stopping such injustice? Why such an endeavor was possible in other cases and did never happen as regards the Arab-Israeli conflict despite it is much older than many others are? Who is responsible for that awful resignation which caused havoc and ruined all the peace efforts? Who else but the five permanent members of the Security Council? And who among those members is posing for international leadership? Is there anyone else but America? So why America is so reluctant to halt the Israeli continued aggression against the Arabs despite it was able to do – successfully- much more in other conflictual cases? What is the American State expecting from the Arabs? Thanks and gratefulness? Satisfaction and happiness? Faithful friendship and sincere cooperation? Is America sure it has respected the Arab mind? Is America sure that those who gave birth to one of the most important civilizations in human history deserve to be thus daily humiliated by a handful of thugs and assassins, without ever being worried by an American or a Western retaliation? And why so? Is it only because the Israelis pretend they are a part of the West? What did Israel give to the West since its foundation as a state? And what did it take from it? What about comparing these interests with the Arab- Western exchanges? What would be Israel without the Western help and support? So, is the West innocent as to the Arab blood? Is the West good and fair for millions of Arabs squeezed and humiliated by the soldiers of the bloodthirsty Sharon?