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Feeding the hand that bites
NEW YORK- The United States -long described as the patron saint of Israel- has fed, nurtured and armed the Jewish state since its creation in May 1948.

But last week President George W. Bush was apparently furious that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has refused to halt the military offensive despite the US call for a withdrawal of Israeli forces- "without delay"- from the West Bank and Gaza.

At a press conference in Texas, Bush was testy when a reporter asked him what he would do if both Sharon and Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat defied him. "I don't expect them to ignore. I expect them to heed the call," he said rather brusquely.

One week later, Sharon still remains defiant and refuses to cave into American demands even while using American weapons to subjugate the Palestinians.
Biting the hand that feeds you may be the norm with Israel, but if one is to mix one's metaphor, will the US continue to feed the hand that bites it?

The Jewish lobby in the United States is one of the most powerful political lobbies - and no US administration or politician has had the the courage to stand up to Israel. Last week there was also a joint demand by a powerful "quartet"- the United States, Russia, the 15-member European Union and the United Nations- calling for Israeli withdrawal.
Germany, one of Israel's closest allies in Europe, has already suspended arms sales to the Jewish state.

The European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, has voted 269 to 208 for a non-binding resolution calling for suspension of all preferential treatment to Israeli exports to Europe.
The UN Security Council has adopted two resolutions, also backed by the United States, demanding Israel's withdrawal from occupied territories.

In the Norwegian capital of Oslo, two members of the Nobel Peace Prize committee have lashed out at the 1994 winner Shimon Peres for condoning Israeli military attacks on Palestinians.

Peres shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat for the Oslo peace agreement which is now in ruins.

Hanna Kvanmo, a member of the Nobel Peace Prize committee, said last week that if the committee had the power, it would revoke Peres' prize. But unfortunately there is no such provision in the ground rules for the prize. However, she still supports awarding the prize to Arafat, she added.

The continued onslaughts on Palestinian refugee camps has been best described by the United Nations as "pure horror".

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the only UN humanitarian agency on the ground in occupied West Bank and Gaza, has accused Israeli military forces of violating every known UN convention safeguarding combatants, civilians and refugees in war.

The scenes in Palestinian refugee camps are "pure horror", UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen told reporters, as he recounted the merciless attacks by combat helicopters and battle tanks on civilians caught in the cross fire.

Israel is a signatory to international conventions that protect non-combatants in times of conflict. "But those conventions are worthless if they are not adhered to precisely at times of the greatest bloodletting. The world is watching - and Israel needs to end this pitiless assault on civilian refugee camps," he warned.

Virtually every single humanitarian agency, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Red Crescent and Doctors Without Borders, have criticised the Israeli military attacks on ambulances, civilian infrastructure and on refugee camps.

The ICRC has described Israeli military behaviour as "totally unacceptable. "It not only jeopardises the life-saving work of emergency medical services but also the ICRC's humanitarian mission," an ICRC official said.

Perhaps for the first time in the history of armed conflict, medical care is being systematically and deliberately used as a weapon of war. Even the dead were being denied their burial rites.

Hansen said it was "particularly appalling that religious observances in connection with death and burial have been grossly violated." No less than 185 ambulances belonging to UNRWA, the Red Crescent and ICRC have been hit by Israeli fire.

"These are not the result of stray bullets by mistake, they can only be by targeting ambulances," Hansen charged. "We also have more than 350 cases of ambulances denied access to rescue, and the stories of children being born in ambulances."

So far, Hansen said, four ambulance drivers have been killed, along with three doctors. At the same time, there have been 122 doctors and drivers injured. And the carnage continues.

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