-Caveat Lector- http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/today/aug15/Leaders/justleave.shtml Belfast Telegraph 15 Aug 01 Justice - just leave it to Big Brother By Eamonn McCann ANY time we are tempted to believe that the Bush or Clinton administrations have been genuine in their declarations of concern about peace and justice in Northern Ireland, we need only think of Israel. The hallmarks of Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people are blithe disregard for international agreements, open contempt for United Nations resolutions, the deliberate murder of unarmed civilians and the persecution of whole communities for the supposed misdeeds of individuals. The key reason the Israelis get away with this atrocious behaviour is that successive US administrations have given them unconditional support. We are not dealing here with mere generalised support for a regime which happens to carry out assassinations but with explicit support for the policy of assassination. On July 31, Israeli forces killed eight people in a missile attack in the Palestinian town of Nablus. Six were members of Hamas, two were children under 10. Asked to comment, US vice-president Richard Cheney declared: "In Israel, what they've done over the years, occasionally, in an effort to preempt terrorist activities, is to go after the terrorists, and in some cases I suppose it is justified". Cheney clearly regarded it as irrelevant that, under international law, UN resolution and the 'Oslo Accords' negotiated under close US supervision, Nablus is in Palestinian territory, where the Israeli defence forces have no right to be, much less ambush local people in a missile assault. But then, Israel's criminality has never concerned the US. Israel long ago hired itself out to the US as its enforcer in the Middle East and in return was given carte blanche for butchery. Resolution 446 of the UN Security Council declares that the 'policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace'. Yet, day in and day out, in broad daylight and under the gaze of television cameras, the Israelis not only build and add to existing Jewish settlements but send in bulldozers, guarded by tanks, to destroy Palestinian settlements whose moral and legal validity is unquestionable. And there isn't a cheep of protest from governments which, when it suits them - which is to say, when it suits the US - palpitate with passion about the inviolability of UN resolutions. Could double standards go any deeper? Well, yes. On a single day in June, Bush's most faithful follower, Tony Blair, welcomed one, the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic by the UN War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague, and two, Ariel Sharon to 10 Downing Street. Sharon is a serial mass murderer, his crimes dating back at least to 1953 when he personally took part in the killing of 60 Palestinians in the village of Qibya. As Defence Minister in 1982, he sanctioned the chopping to death of up to 2,000 Palestinian civilians, men, women and children, in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps on the outskirts of Beirut. His thirst for blood whetted, as Prime Minister he now sends in the cut-throats and helicopter gun-ships to keep up the kill rate. There are UN tribunals to deal with war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, but none to reflect even a transient interest in the war crimes of Israel. Everybody knows why: any move at the UN to bring Israel within the remit of international law would instantly, automatically, be vetoed by the US. Every time our own peace process lurches into crisis, there's speculation that the White House might intervene and put pressure on this side or that in an effort to secure a fair outcome. All the pro-Agreement parties accept Bush as an honest broker. They say a lot about themselves in so doing. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/today/aug15/Leaders/justleave.shtml <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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