January 15, 2009
Dear Mrs. Clinton,
First of all, congratulations! We look forward to your leadership in international affairs, which brings me to my point:
As you may be aware by now, according to the UN, after 20 days the Israeli assault on Gaza has killed more than a thousand Palestinians and injured more than 4000. Half of all Palestinians killed and injured are civilian, one third of all killed and injured children. Try to imagine the misery of all those families with children ridden in bullets, their homes destroyed. What do they have left to live for?
Thirteen Israelis were killed in this attack, ten of which are soldiers and a few of those by friendly fire. While the intent is there, obviously Hamas is not closely capable of causing significant damage on Israelis, but Israel must defend itself by killing over a thousand and remains excused. If Hamas is guilty of intent to kill and terrorize, Israel is actually doing the killing at a massive genocidal scale. The difference between the two sides is even more vast than an intent to murder and a first degree murder. A truly independent observer that is genuinely interested in doing the greater good would look to stop the party doing the greater harm – and by a great disproportionate measure, the party doing most of the killing, especially of innocent people and children.
We are appalled at such statements by Hamas questioning the right of Israel to exist but do not seem to care if Israel ever truly recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to exist.
Terrorism is defined as using violence against a civilian population for political gains, yet the term is so comfortably given to Palestinians and never to Israel even as these heart-wrenching numbers show the disproportionate aggression and wholesale terrorism by one side.
While the world ignored Gaza over the last couple of years, imposing sanctions and leaving Israel discretion to do as it may wish in targeted killings (violating the truce), acting with complete impunity in cutting water, electricity and vital supplies and imposing extreme travel restrictions on 1.5 million people, rendering the Gaza strip nothing more than a prison, we seem to be surprised when such an oppressed people reach a boiling point as to enter what everyone knows to be a losing battle for the Palestinians. The rockets have proved to be nothing more than symbolic. I am vehemently opposed to Hamas and its ideology but can understand when a defenseless people are humiliated to a point where life is so unbearable that in desperation will battle F-16 missiles with shoes as a last expression of resistence.
We tend to say the problem is complicated but we don’t need to look at history to understand that oppression always leads to unrest and ultimately revolution and war, regardless of time and place and party. Oppression never has and never will lead to peace. It is this realization, at the very root of the problem, the occupation, the oppression, that the agonizing Palestinians have been screaming all along for years albeit to deaf ears, especially that no one cares to listen to the weak, to the loser…
Mary Robinson, UN High Commisioner for Human Rights told the BBC it was “almost unbelievable” the world did not care about what she called “a shocking violation of so many human rights”.
Moderates are being radicalized. Even the confessions of those involved in the 9-11 terrorist attack cite the Palestinian injustice as inspiration to their terrorist acts. This last assault on Gaza has caused a huge uproar and anger around the world because people see and feel the injustice that the Palestinians endure, and radicals are already taking advantage of that.
Not having a just solution will lead to nothing but more unrest and violence, more radicalization fueling more acts of terrorism, leaving the world a less secure place. I look to your courage and leadership to help put an end to the occupation, to the opening of the Gaza borders and to end the oppression, the root cause of this problem, so that the Palestinian people are given a chance to lead a life of dignity. This is how both sides will have peace and security.
Sincerely,
Ziad Rizk
Tags: Assault on Gaza, Gaza, Hillary Clinton, Israel, Jew, Palestine, Palestinian