Freedom Socialist Party -- International Executive Committee
* Solidarity Salon: 580 Sydney Road, Brunswick Vic 3056 AUSTRALIA
* Phone/fax: 61-3-9388-0062
* Coordinator, Alison Thorne: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
12 October, 2003
Dear friends around the global
Below is a statement issued by the U.S. section of the Freedom Socialist
Party condemning Israel's bombing of Syria.
Please feel free to publish this or pass it on to others your think may
be interested. We would welcome your opinions.
For world peace through socialism
Alison Thorne,
coordinator Freedom Socialist Party International Executive Committee
Israel's bombing of Syria: U.S.- approved state terrorism
Israel's startling air strike into Syria on October 5, 2003, was a
dangerous act of terrorism, threatening to inflame and expand the
unequal war between Israel and Palestine. It was also in perfect harmony
with U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
The bombing raid, Israel's first air assault inside Syria in 30 years,
was timed to gain popular support in Israel, or at least coerce
frightened civilians into silence. It was carried out on the anniversary
of the start of the Arab-Israeli war in 1973, and on the day after a
suicide bombing in a Haifa restaurant killed 19 people, both Jews and
Arabs. The target was Ain Saheb, an alleged "terrorist training camp"
just a ten-minute bus ride outside Damascus. Actually, say people on the
spot, the site was an abandoned Palestinian camp consisting of six
houses and an orchard. It had no connection to the Haifa suicide bombing.
In other words, the Israeli pretext for attacking Syria was as
fraudulent as U.S. excuses for invading Afghanistan and Iraq.
Creators of terror, directly and indirectly
The U.S. didn't even pretend to be critical of Israel's arrogant
brinkmanship. In fact, it publicly set the stage for it through the
Syria Accountability Act, pending legislation that would impose
sanctions on Syria for supposedly supporting terrorism. Throughout the
week preceding Israel's attack, Syria was accused in Congress of having
weapons of mass destruction and biological warheads. Lebanon, which is
under strong Syrian influence, was falsely said to be harboring
"thousands" of Iranian militants. And for months, Washington has been
charging Syria with allowing Arab volunteers through its borders to help
Iraqis resist the U.S. occupation.
How very tidy. Syria, Lebanon and Iran all neatly lined up to get hit,
whenever the U.S. decides to strike. According to White House
propaganda, these nations are on the "wrong side of the war on
terrorism" -- just like every other country that disagrees with the U.S.
But who are the chief terrorists?
Israel's 34-year occupation of Palestine, bought and paid for by the
U.S., is grounded in a strategy that has inflicted unrelenting misery in
Palestine. Its tactics include helicopter missile assassinations of
political leaders; collective punishment; a towering apartheid wall and
barbed-wire fences; endless curfews and dehumanizing checkpoints; home
destructions, land theft, and deprivation of food, water, education and
jobs. This state terror will not stop individual terror through suicide
bombings. On the contrary, it ignites them, just as U.S. savagery
internationally incites attacks on U.S. civilians at home and abroad.
All over the world, the U.S. is inflicting pain and suffering unmatched
in human history. Most recently, its occupation of Iraq has left
countless Iraqis dead or injured, along with an unrevealed number of
U.S. soldiers. As the world superpower swaggering across the globe at
the service of corporate America, its "war on terror" is either directly
or indirectly responsible for most of the political violence on planet
Earth.
The U.S. is no stranger to real terrorist training camps. Since the
1940s, its infamous School of the Americas (now the Western Hemisphere
Institute for Security Cooperation) has educated counter-insurgents in
the most advanced methods of torture and killing. Today, it is host to
training operations run by Venezuelan military officers preparing to
overthrow the left-leaning government of Hugo Chavez.
Their aims and ours
Israel's ruling rightwing Zionists want to be rid of the Palestinians,
one way or another, no matter the cost in human lives.
This dovetails, for now, with the interests of the U.S., which has in
Israel a convenient base for launching imperialist assaults in the
Middle East. What the U.S. wants is nothing less than political control
over the whole region, which contains more than 64 percent of the
world's known crude oil reserves. It does not matter how many Americans,
Palestinians, and Israelis die in the process, although the U.S. is
happy to have Israeli soldiers serve as proxy cannon fodder whenever
possible.
In both Israel and the U.S., workers are growing more and more angry
about lost jobs, disappearing social services, and a diminishing quality
of life. For Tel Aviv and Washington, war serves as both a distraction
and a prop for faltering economies.
But unjustifiable war, too, provokes anger and resistance. Israeli
refusenik soldiers and many civilians are declining to participate in
their country's atrocities. Recently, 27 air force pilots announced they
would not fly missions in the Occupied Territories that endanger
civilians. U.S. soldiers, meanwhile, are increasingly questioning and
speaking out against the war on Iraq, and their loved ones are
increasingly organizing to bring them home.
Those of us who want peace and justice in the Middle East have our work
cut out for us. Israel's bombing in Syria, a deadly stride toward war
throughout the Middle East, would not have been possible without the
full political and financial support of the U.S. Only a massive, radical
antiwar movement, representative of all of those who are hardest hit by
the culture and carnage of war, can put a stop to barbaric U.S. foreign
policy. When united in mutual sympathy and solidarity, we will find that
we possess unimagined strength.
Cut off U.S. aid to Israel! Hands off Syria! End the occupation of
Palestine! U.S. out of the Middle East!
October 10, 2003
Issued by: Freedom Socialist Party (U.S. section) National Office
* 4710 University Way NE #100, Seattle, WA 98105 U.S.A
* Phone 1-206-985-4621 * Fax 1-206-985-8965
* E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
* www.socialism.com
.
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