See this page for links to articles on OpEdNEws that articulate both sides on the issues in the middle east. It is the goal of OpEdNews to air opinions from both sides to stretch the envelope of discussion and communication. Hate statements are not accepted. Discussions of issues and new ideas for solutions are encouraged. .Currently, there is a movement afoot which claims that Hezbollah staged the massacre at Qana. According to this theory, there was a seven hour lapse between the Israeli air strike and the first report of the collapsed building that killed at least twenty-eight. "I can't say whether the house collapsed at 12 A.M. or at 8 A.M.," said Brigadier General Amir Eshel of the Israeli Defense Force. "According to foreign press reports, and this is one of the reports we are relying on, the house collapsed at 8 A.M. We do not have testimony regarding the time of the collapse. If the house collapsed at 12 A.M., it is difficult for me to believe that they waited eight hours to evacuate it."
This isn't too surprising. The Qana massacre has destroyed Israel's credibility with the world, something they couldn't afford to lose in this new conflagration with Arabs. It's ironic that a nation founded by people who escaped one holocaust is now attempting to deny one they've created.
The reality is occupier nations like Israel and the US have denied several holocausts. Here in America, we pretty up our own 19th Century holocaust against native people in this country with terms like "expansionism" and "manifest destiny". President Roosevelt knew Germany had death camps and that thousands in Europe were being murdered by the Nazi's. Yet, he was very reluctant to be involved in the war in Europe for fear of offending US corporate interests supplying the German regime. And now only sixty-five years later, we're denying the holocaust taking place in the Sudan because it's politically advantageous to do so. We denied the holocaust in Rwanda because there were no economic interests to be gained. And we allowed the situation in Somalia to fester into a giant wound. And while our government acknowledged these terrible crises superficially-they never denied these holocausts were actually taking place-- our denial was found in our utter lack of action in these areas.
Israel isn't far behind. Thousands of Arabs have died over the last sixty years because of the brutal contempt of Israel's hierarchy towards their regional neighbors. And while Israel sides with the US in the so-called war on terror, Israel denies its own history of terrorism against Arab states that only stopped once the UN drew a border on paper in 1948 demarcating the new country from the areas surrounding it. Of course, Israel experienced a great deal of violence after that from Arab terrorists herself. However, that's what happens when the independence of particular peoples is compromised by an unwelcome, adversarial and occupying nation.
One can debate whether or not holocausts actually happened all they want to. But it's a wasteful enterprise. Until every human fully accepts the reality of our own
propensity to commit such heinous acts, and the responsibility we all have to resist that propensity, those acts will occur over and over again.
