6 - 12 December 2001
Issue No.563
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 6 - 12 December 2001 Issue No.563 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
De Gaulle, the terrorist
Israel's response to the Palestinian attacks in West Jerusalem and Haifa far exceeded its previous displays of brutal rage, not only because it targeted Arafat, but also because the silence that reigned across the globe signals entire approval -- the conviction that Israeli terrorism, when turned on the Palestinian people, is legitimate.
A simple fact mitigated the enormous power disparity between Israelis and Palestinians in the past: the Palestinian struggle was legal and legitimate, the Israeli occupation was not. But Israel's efforts, abetted by the Western media, to establish an analogy between the terrorist attack on the United States and the Palestinians' legitimate struggle for their rights have produced a profound shift in the US administration's approach to the "Palestinian problem."
Now, for the first time since the collapse of colonialism, the US has placed criminality explicitly on the same legal and moral level as the legitimate struggle for sovereignty.
Struggles to defeat occupation and oppression have invariably been legitimate endeavours, and have succeeded consistently. Resistance to Nazi occupation was a legitimate cause; in the war against German occupation, many German civilians were killed. De Gaulle's fight to liberate his country was legitimate. The world condoned South Africa's war to throw off the shackles of Apartheid.
The US, however, has made Israel the exception to all laws and principles, even those requiring universal commitment. Having failed this moral test, can it claim world leadership?
*This week's Soapbox speaker is a researcher at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page