In my column yesterday lambasting Bill O’Reilly, one reader did not like it since he said it was garbage and that I should be addressing other issues. Those issues I will not name here, but have addressed in previous articles. However, I will state within my column directed towards Bill O’Reilly, I mentioned my advocacy for victims of pedophilia. As mentioned in that article along with others, I have done so for over ten years now. When it comes to the plight of any child, I will be their spokesperson.
A while ago, I wrote two columns concerning an Iraqi boy named Yousiff who was badly burnt by masked madmen in Iraq who has since come to this country for free medical care thanks to the goodness of so many who chose to step up to the plate and help this little boy. In writing of that courageous little boy, I appeared on CNN to discuss his case.
Shortly after Yousiff’s case came to my attention, the plight of a Palestinian girl named Maria Amin came to my attention. In my article concerning, Maria, I wrote, “Maria was paralysed from the neck down by an Israeli rocket attack in May 2006.” The rocket that maimed Maria was aimed and armed and took the life outright of an Islamic Jihad movement. As a result, Maria is now a quadriplegic who is permanently attached to a ventilator.” As reported by the BBC. Like Yousiff, the notoriety of her case did bring action to help this young five-year-old girl in which the director of the hospital where Maria was getting attention resulted in Shirley Meyer stating of Maria, “She won’t be going anywhere” as others conspired against her to move her from an Israeli hospital to a Palestinian one which did not have the resources available to take care of Maria.
In my emails today, a reader brought to my attention several other children who are in need of a voice and I will elevate their plight to those that choose to read this column.
The first case will simply break your heart as you read this article published by the Sunday Herald in which a seven-month-old boy, “Mohammed Abu Amra has been lying in Gaza's main paediatric hospital, suffering from immune deficiency and suspected cystic fibrosis.” I want to scream out in reading that this little baby boy’s body is reacting to this disease in the Gaza especially when he could be helped. The Herald further writes, “For eight days his doctors have been waiting for a reply to their request to transfer the baby to a hospital in Israel. If it is not granted, they say, he will probably die.” In writing any column directed at Israel either for their nuclear weapons or cases such as Maria’s, I have been called an anti-Semite. No, I am just stepping up to the plate to help innocent victims and humanity itself.
As a result of Israel’s siege on the Gaza, victims of these diseases are sealed off in the process and I find that unforgivable and unconscionable. Even Egypt will not intercede because the border is sealed by the Israelis. How I wish I can go into every salient point brought forth in this one article, but I must move on to place the spotlight on other children caught up in the madness that resides in the Middle East. But, before I do, I will cite this passage, “If he dies it will be partly because he was sick, partly because he was weak, partly because he could not escape from Gaza, partly because the things he needed to survive were not provided to him quickly enough or in sufficient quantity; a variety of reasons that the Israeli government, the rival Palestinian factions and international humanitarian bodies all seek to blame on each other.” All I will say is this is one of the primary reasons why I abhor many governments and that is their failure to help those they are charged to lead and/or they will punish the most innocent victims in the process.
Once again, I want to scream out in anger and that anger is directed at the Israeli government in reading where many innocent victims are sealed off in the Gaza in which they are in desperate need of medical help. As reported by this one article, “Medical sources announced the death of the baby girl Rawan Diab, a resident of Gaza city, after the IOA barred her travel abroad for treatment of severe kidney inflammation.” I want to ask this direct question: How on Earth can we see Israel as an ally when they are punishing these innocent victims in the process? To seal off patients from getting the medical help they need, the Israeli government is made up of barbarians.
Once again, it is cited the reason this baby girl died is a result of Israel sealing the border of the Gaza. Yet, I am not supposed to address any grievance I have with their government according to some readers? To those readers all I will say is open your eyes to see the plight of these people. It is not only children who are being punished but other Palestinians as well as one reads, “Hundreds of Palestinian patients are waiting a similar fate in the absence of enough medication and inability to travel for treatment outside the Strip.”
While I abhor any violence, the American corporate owned media will pull us all in when a suicide bomber goes into an Israeli market place and chooses to blow not only themselves up, but innocent people: Could the reason for this action be Israel’s punishment of the Palestinian people? I would say so, and that reaction is known as blow-back. There are few that choose to come forth on behalf of the Palestinians. Former U.S. President, Jimmy Carter has done so in the past, and he was excoriated by many for doing so. He dared to go outside the box. Well, I stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the former President. At least he heard their cries.
Before I get into the next case, I want you who read this piece to listen to the words of Donald Trump who has called Bush “The worst president in history”. Like him or hate him, he brings up the point that Secretary of State Condoleeza rice fails to “seal the deal” in dealing with the problems facing those in the Middle East. Notice where Trump says, “The world is dying to make deals.” and people literally are dying in the Middle East as she continually waves failing on all fronts.
If one story will simultaneously break your heart as well pump blood in anger at how the Palestinians are treated it is this story in which hundreds of Palestinians are sealed off from any form of medical care. In this article you will clearly read where 350 Palestinians are “gravely ill.” As reported by this same article, “Jamal al-Khudary, a member of parliament and former cabinet minister who heads the Palestinian Popular Campaign to Counter the Siege, said about 1,500 patients needed care outside Gaza.”
The reason for embedding that Donald Trump feed into this piece is when I read, “It shuns Hamas, which does not recognise Israel and refuses to renounce violence.” This is what Condoleezza Rice along with the Bush administration should be dealing with and solving this problem especially when so many are in desperate need of medical care refused by Israel. No, we seem to reward them each year with billions of our tax money and have done so in past administrations. I am of the opinion either Israel provides these people with medical care or we cut off the financial spigot.
To close out this piece and I truly hope that each and everyone of you reading it, will read the embedded pieces in their entirety: To counter anyone daring to say of me that I am an anti-Semite, all I will say is nothing can be farther from the truth. I am about fairness for all people to be treated as human beings and that includes the Palestinians.
We consistently speak of sanctioning other countries such as Iran and have done so with Iraq, yet we the United States are failing to hold the State of Israel to the same standards. As I have written in the past, “to date, Israel has violated numerous UN resolutions. I am going to be blunt here, but why are some nations held accountable where others are not? I do think that is a fair question to ask.” The reason I say it is a fair question to ask is that during the nineties, the Clinton administration upheld the U.N. sanctions against Iraq which caused the death of one million innocent Iraqis. We have been at war with Iraq far longer than our invasion of it back in 2003. By the way in listening to the opinions coming from Donald Trump, Saddam Hussein hated terrorists as much as we all do.
When asked whether or not it was worth it, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright had the hubris of stating to Sixty Minutes Leslie Stahl that it was worth it. We need a major change in our foreign policy especially when it comes to the Middle East and how to act as honest brokers bringing all sides together and we cannot go back to the way things were back in the nineties. If we do so, we do so at our own peril and more importantly the peril of those whose voices we have not listened to.
In closing, to the State of Israel, my words are clear when it comes to those living in the Gaza, let those people go and let them get the medical care they so rightly deserve.
Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net
