 |
Ryan Jones is a Gentile believer from the United States who has lived and worked in Israel for the past six years. He is the News Editor of .
|
|
|
|
By Ryan Jones
April 1, 2003
Courtesy of Jerusalem Newswire.
During the first week of Allied military action in Iraq, attempts have abounded to draw parallels between the war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel's assumed stockpile of non-conventional weapons and that of Saddam Hussein, or what is seen as Israel's rejection of UN resolutions and Baghdad's snubbing of the international community.
Several articles have already rebuffed the above linkages, though few thus far have focused on an increasing number of very different emerging parallels between the U.S. war against Saddam Hussein's regime and Israel's battle against the terror-tainted Palestinian Authority.
On Saturday, four U.S. soldiers were killed by an Arab homicide bomber, a tactic often utilized against IDF forces both inside "Israel proper" and in the PLO-controlled territories.
Also alike is the official endorsement of such attacks by the Iraqi and Palestinian regimes as legitimate weapons against a qualitatively superior foe.
Allied forces have also witnessed enemy combatants using human shields during their attacks, hiding themselves and their weapons in civilian areas, dressing in civilian clothing, slaughtering innocent civilians seen to be "collaborating" with the enemy, and murdering POWs.
All of the above have been the norm for Israeli soldiers attempting to eliminate the threat of Palestinian terror to Israel's Jewish population.
But the parallels do not end there.
Arab leaders and Muslim clerics across the Middle East have in recent weeks taken up the call for a jihad (holy war) against not only Allied forces in the region, but also against the nations who sent them - namely the United States and Britain.
This type of belligerent rhetoric has been aimed at Israel since its inception half a century ago.
And still, the parallels persist.
Since the start of U.S.-led military action in Iraq, the international media has been consistently critical of Allied strategies, spending an inordinate amount of time dwelling on civilian casualties, and for the most part refusing to accept explanations for possible military mishaps.
Rather than focusing on the plentiful merits and successes of the Allied military actions, the media has spent a great deal of time commenting on what it sees as the failures of Washington and London to create a certain atmosphere of tranquility and security in Iraq.
Any avid spectator of international news would know that for the past decade, similar criticism of Israeli anti-terror actions could be seen on any given night.
The most telling parallel, perhaps, has been the response of the international community, in the form of the UN, to the Iraq war.
The UN has thus far completely ignored the myriad Iraqi atrocities, while being quick to pounce on any perceived Allied mistake or accident leading to civilian casualties.
The first full public statement made by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to date focused on the possible accidental killing of Iraqi civilians in a U.S. air raid, and the perceived humanitarian crisis in Basra, which Annan apparently blames on the coalition invasion.
This criticism came despite the extreme measures taken by the Allies to minimize the risk to civilians, and to take responsibility for the well being of the Iraqi population.
The UN has likewise provided a podium for Iraqi officials to make outrageous claims of Allied attempts to exterminate the Iraqi people.
The comparisons with Israel's efforts to avoid Palestinian civilian casualties (even at the cost of its soldiers' lives), with Israel's provision of humanitarian assistance to Palestinian Arabs, and with the PLO's use of the UN as a stick with which to bash the Jewish state are numerous.
These parallels provide powerful evidence that more than ever America and Israel are engaged in the same war against the same enemy - the forces of Islamic terror, whether in Kabul, Ramallah or Baghdad.
It will be instructive to see in the coming weeks how U.S. forces and American officials deal with the criminal behavior of the Iraqis, and how they respond to the sure flood of international criticism of the actions they will be forced to take.
Look out too for the verbalized insistence by Israel and its Christian allies that Washington keep these parallels in mind and allow Jerusalem the same type of operational and diplomatic freedom it today seeks for itself.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
