A day after the most recent suicide bombing in the Tel Aviv, there was an article in the New York Times about how the heads of the Israel Military are convinced they are “winning the war on terror.” Long time readers of this weblog have heard these claims before – and are aware they are always followed by some horrific terror attack (in fact the Times noted that the interviews took place before the latest attack). Reading Ali Abunimah’s description of “life” in the territories, one wonder’s on what planet the heads of the IDF and Israeli government live on:
“Using the meticulous weekly reports of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), EI counted that Israeli forces killed 117 Palestinians from 2 October to 25 December. The vast majority of the dead were civilians and 23 of them were children. Hundreds of civilians were injured by Israeli fire. During the same period, PCHR documented that Israeli occupation forces destroyed 486 houses and apartments, rendering thousands of Palestinians homeless.”
As a sign of the increasing parallelism between the US and Israel, in today’s NY Times “Week in Review” there was a piece on the success and failures of Bush & Co’s war on terror. The entire focus is on war and defense measures. But Israel and America are making the same mistake: ignoring the violence and instability of their actions which cause entire populations to support militant groups they see as insurgents fighting a just cause.