« ICAHD statement on the Gaza and Lebanon wars »

END THE WAR ! END THE OCCUPATION !
END STATE TERROR ! END AMERICAN EMPIRE !

ICAHD, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, condemns all attacks on civilians, whether by Israel, the Palestinians or Hezbollah. We recognize Israel’s ever-repressive Occupation as the main source of conflict and instability in our region. Had Israel taken the many opportunities it had to secure a just peace, the peoples of the region would never have reached this point of despair and futile violence. Israel believes it can achieve “quiet” and normalcy through military power while retaining its Occupation, encouraged and protected by the US. This is the true convergence : Israel’s Occupation in return for an active Israeli role in expanding American Empire.

Like Russian babushka dolls, Israel’s disproportionate attacks on both Gaza and Lebanon contain an agenda within an agenda, hidden within the pretext of freeing Israeli soldiers.

In its vicious attacks on Gaza in which 3000 houses were demolished in the second Intifada and as a months-long campaign of starving the local population into submission continues, Israel seeks to break the will of the Palestinian people and destroy any resistance to the imposition of an apartheid regime. This is the only plausible explanation for Israel’s delegitimization of the democratically-elected Hamas government which had been moving steadily towards a negotiated two-state settlement with Israel, and for its campaign to physically liquidate Hamas leaders, in contravention of international law. The massive toll in innocent Palestinian civilian lives is to be condemned. ICAHD will work with the international courts to bring the military the political perpetrators to justice.

Although Hezbollah contributes little to the Palestinian cause and only adds to regional violence, it is merely a product of Israeli refusal to negotiate with Syria, despite repeated overtures. By creating straw enemies like Hezbollah, Israel creates the violence and instability that allows it to retain its Occupation. Hezbollah and Israel share equally in the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians in both Lebanon and Israel.

Israel, of course, could not have reached this point without American and European complicity. Indeed, American refusal to countenance a ceasefire only affirms Israel’s role as its military surrogate in the Middle East. Their shared aim is a Pax Americana over the region for which Israel will be allowed to keep its settlements.

The war must end immediately and all UN resolutions be implemented. All attacks on civilians must end immediately and permanently. Israel, which holds some 9000 Palestinian and Arab political prisoners, must negotiate a meaningful exchange in return for its captured soldiers. Above all, Israel must realize that there is no military solution to the conflict in our region. Relinquishing its Occupation in favor of genuine negotiations with the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese is the only guarantee of Israel’s security. It must recognize that America is not its “friend,” and that an Occupation sustained only if Israel does America’s dirty work will not offer it the peace and security it craves. A total end to the Occupation is Israel’s only path to peace and the only way to ensure that the Middle East conflict does not become a global conflagration.