Living and Dying by the Sword

Edna Yaghi’s Column

The political assassination on January 14 of the Palestinian freedom fighter Raed Karmi only demonstrates the belligerent intentions of the Israeli government. It is more obvious than ever that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon does not want peace. On the contrary, all he wants is to massacre more and more Palestinians, to push them into fighting back his brutality, to dispossess them of what is left of their country and to drive them once and for all out of Palestine.

The continuous demands of Sharon that there be calm on the Palestinian side is only a pretext because all the time Sharon insists there be no violence, he does his best to enact it everywhere in Occupied Palestine. Evidence of this can be seen in the military siege of Palestinian towns and villages, the bombardment of civilian centers, the shooting of small children, the demolition of hundreds of homes, the destruction of Palestinian farmland, the uprooting of trees, the constant extra judicial murders of freedom fighters, the arrest of Palestinian civilians including women and children, the torture of detainees which also includes women and children, and the desecration of the entire infrastructure of Palestinian life. Palestinians suffer the most brutal and savage occupation and because of this, they urgently need international protection and to be given the rights that all human beings are entitled to.

Children on their way to school should not be blown up into bits and pieces just because Sharon is a bloodthirsty psychopathic killer. Children and the elderly should not be run over by Israeli armored vehicles and tanks simply because they are Palestinians living on their own land. Civilians seeking medical treatment are stopped at Israeli roadblocks and on several occasions, people died because they were not allowed to pass through these barriers that would take them from one Palestinian area to another.

American makes it possible for the Israelis to have a gargantuan arsenal and nuclear weapons in order to exterminate Palestinians and threaten its Arab neighbors, but Palestinians are not even allowed to defend themselves in their own homes and towns with light weapons. It is the right of any people under occupation to defend themselves and to fight for the freedom of their fellow countrymen. Since the beginning of time, the oppressed have died in the name of liberty to fight off the yoke of bondage.

The Scots fought for their freedom from the British and won under the leadership and sacrifice of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce.

The Americans forefathers fought for their freedom against British tyranny and are revered until now as heroes. The French bravely fought against the occupation of their country by the Nazis during World War ll but somehow tried to take over Algeria. The Algerians lost more than a million people resisting the occupation of the French.

No people on earth like to be in chains. It is the dream and hope of all men to be free. And one people’s happiness should never be built at the expense of another people’s safety and well being.

This constant inhuman treatment of the Palestinian people will only backfire. While the Israelis exterminate Palestinians and abuse all that is human within them, at the same time, they are killing their own souls, murdering their hearts and destroying their consciences. Israel will rot from within and one day crumble unless Israelis begin to treat the Palestinians with justice and dignity and set them free.

The ancient prophecy re-quoted from the mouth of none other than Israeli Minister of Transport, Ephraim Sneh, goes like this, “He who lives by the sword will die by the sword.”

But little does Sneh realize that he is talking about himself and his fellow Israelis. Israel has based its protocol on living by the sword. The entire country is built over the graves, blood and tears of the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine. But one day the Karma of the Israeli people will strike them and perhaps then they will experience their second Sodom and Gomorrah. For every adverse action, there is an adverse reaction. It is the law of Cause and Effect and no matter how hard Sharon tries to rid himself of the Palestinians, they rise proud out of their own ashes like the Phoenix.