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The Careers of Generals: Grieving for All

I grieve the deaths and injuries of Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Arabs equally. And I believe everyone on this discussion group does the same.

To imply that I, or anyone else, is only concerned about Palestinian casualties and is indifferent to Jewish ones is a slander. It is generally a racist cover up and means " they are not Jews like we are and thus their sufferings don't count or are of little importance." Do you remember the Dana artillery attack on that UN refuge in southern Lebanon several years ago when about 100 Lebanese civilians were killed by the Israeli army, supposedly by mistake? When questioned the Israeli regional commander replied: " I don't understand what the fuss is all about, they were only a bunch of Arabs". Source: MER.

The Palestinian casualties are many times more numerous, as the occupying Israeli army is very well equipped with the latest American weapons and it even has helicopters, gunships and tanks to try to erase the rebellion of the occupied and surrounded Palestinians. I mourn for their sufferings, which are not limited to deaths and injuries, as we all know.

I mourn equally for the Jewish/Israeli casualties there. And not only for the 70 dead and the hundreds of soldiers and civilians injured in the last 4 months. I grieve for the Israeli conscripts who are obliged to waste three years of their life in the army. I grieve for the compulsory reservists who, after completing 3 years in the army, are required to serve one month in the army every year.

And I mourn for the civilians and soldiers killed yesterday near Tel Aviv when a semi-suicide driver rammed into them at a bus stop.

And I will mourn some more, for both Jews and Palestinians, as Generals Barak, Sharon and the chief general of the Israeli armed forces have just imposed a new closure of Palestinian cities, a naval siege, and the closing of the Egyptian and Jordanian borders.

And all these deaths, injuries and sufferings are all unnecessary. All that is needed to end them is for Israel to end the 33 year-old occupation of Palestine.

When will they ever learn?

PS. Wars, small or big, present or future ones, provide career opportunities, profits for arms manufacturers, employment for workers, etc. Did any of you notice that small item in yesterday's paper about the large demonstrations in Germany against the closing of military bases there? At one base, 7,000 concerned workers and their sympathizers formed a human chain around the base.

Robert.


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