U.S. Should Stop Israeli Atrocities in Gaza

By Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi, Courtesy Detroit News

Some Jews have said, “We don’t forget or forgive the Holocaust.” Then last week, Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai threatened Gaza with a “bigger shoah” or holocaust.

Much of the same mainstream media that attacked Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over a mistranslation about Israel supposedly being wiped off the map ignored Israeli Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit’s statement, reported by the Associated Press, that “We must take a neighborhood in Gaza and wipe it off the map.” Sheetrit is justifying mass murder.

Based on BBC reports, basic human dignity is denied in Gaza. John Holmes, the United Nations’ top official, said he was shocked by a “grim and miserable” situation in Gaza.

The Palestinian militants’ rockets have left 13 dead in the last seven years, while Israel has killed 120 people and wounded more than 350 since attacks began Wednesday. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called this barbaric bombardment of civilians and killing of children “a disproportionate and excessive use of force.”

As we honor Jewish peace activists who call for the end of the siege and for peace and coexistence, we remind the friends of Israel that to imprison the 1.5 million people of Gaza in a walled ghetto without allowing in food, water, electricity or even fuel for the ambulances to carry the dead bodies is genocide.

If the reason for all these atrocities is to stop the militants’ rocket attacks, why did Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert repeatedly reject the Hamas ceasefire offers, saying no negotiation? He wants the Palestinians to accept total submission to Israeli occupation.

The Annapolis conference was called a “window of opportunity,” and the Arab rulers did all they were told, but more Palestinians have been killed since then. Israel even ignored President Bush’s demand for “a halt to all Jewish settlement expansion” and is threatening the integrity of the Old City and the Aqsa Mosque.

Israel does whatever it desires regardless of condemnations. If killing Palestinian children were the solution, Israel should be the safest country in the world after 60 years of slaughter.

We know from our Scriptures that Pharaoh killed thousands of the children of Israel to prevent the emergence of Moses, not knowing that he was raising Moses in his own palace. Moses didn’t need a nuclear weapon to free his people; all it took was his staff.

Israel is beginning to lose some sympathy. An editorial in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz argues: “We have become accustomed to treating the Palestinians as inferior people.” It even discussed Israel’s Abu Ghraib-like prisons.

Israel should be very worried of God’s justice.

Jimmy Carter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu already have warned Israel of its apartheid policies. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is the best Arab friend Israel ever sponsored, yet he has accused Israel of committing international terrorism. It’s time for the world community to force Israel to wake up and start respecting human life and integrity.

Will we as Americans ever regain our moral direction and stand for the universal principles of truth and justice prescribed by the Bible, the Quran and the Declaration of Independence?

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