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Israeli forces made them both orphans
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By
Khaled Mamdouh, IOL Staff
CAIRO, September 24 (IslamOnline) – An Israeli official was quoted
Tuesday, September 24, 2002, as saying “The United Nations can do what
it wants, but Israel will continue the operation until its aims are
achieved”. That was Israel’s reply to a UN resolution calling on it
to lift the siege it imposed on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
On
the other hand, Iraq declared its readiness to readmit UN weapons’
inspectors into Baghdad without conditions. However, the U.S. and
Britain still insist Iraq was in violation of UN resolutions, and poses
a threat to its neighbors.
"Iraq
is not threatening anyone, the dangers for the Middle East come from
Israel, which has so far killed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians,
not including the mutilated and millions of refugees," Damascus
Radio said Tuesday.
Since
coming to power last year, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has
"committed dozens of massacres leaving thousands of innocent
Palestinian victims, including children, and destroyed thousands of
homes. All these killings have not moved the conscience of the U.S.
administration, which continues to mobilize forces to attack Iraq and
threatens peace," Damascus Radio said.
Meanwhile,
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's much awaited detailed dossier on
Iraq's weapons program, claiming it poses an immediate world threat
failed Tuesday to convince wavering allies and analysts - and stirred
sharp opposition from China and in Muslim states.
Many
experts immediately reacted to the 55-page report, culled from British
intelligence data and presented to Britain's parliament, by saying that,
although the charges were grave, none of them were new and the case had
not been made for the sort of imminent military action being sought by
the United States, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Chinese
Prime Minister Zhu Rongji warned that any attack on Iraq without a UN
mandate would lead to unspecified "severe consequences".
Malaysia
and several other Muslim nations reiterated their warning against
Washington and London going it alone against Baghdad without UN
authorization.
Powerful
Arab nations such as Egypt are keen to see Iraq's offer to accept UN
weapons inspectors taken up instead of relying on the unverifiable
information put out by U.S. and British authorities.
Iraqi
Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, in Cairo Tuesday, challenged Britain to
substantiate its report, telling Egypt's official MENA news agency his
country would even "facilitate a visit by British experts so that
they can tell the world where these weapons are".
Observers
believe that “when all these facts are known to every one, yet the
Bush administration and Blair still insist that Iraq, not Israel was in
violation of UN resolutions, there has to be something wrong”.
Speaking
to IslamOnline Tuesday, Egyptian human rights activist, Ashraf
el-Bayyomi, said that “Israel has not respected a single UN resolution
ever since its unfortunate creation, however, the U.S. has always
defended it and stood by its side. It is high time we (Arabs and
Muslims) came to terms with that fact and acted accordingly”.
El-Bayyomi
maintained that “it was not disrespect for the UN, or even the alleged
threat Iraq poses that pushes the U.S. administration to mobilize its
forces for an eventual attacks.
“The
real reasons are well-known. Iraqi oil, covering up for domestic
problems, surrounding Iran, demonstrating military muscles…etc. As for
Israel, the UN does not exist, we have to come to terms with that, or
just kill ourselves,” he added.
When
the Israeli forces committed massacres or war crimes in the Palestinian
refugee camp of Jenin in April, the United Nations decided to dispatch a
fact finding mission. Israel refused, the mission was never dispatched.
“We
did not hear the U.S. mobilizing forces to force Israel to respect the
will of the international community then. Also, when Israel used a
U.S.-made F-16 fighter jet, launched missiles on a densely populated
Gaza neighborhood, killing dozens of civilians in their sleep, Mr. Bush
called that heavy-handed,” el-Bayymi said.
