A Letter to USA Senator Rick Santorum Regarding his Support for Israeli War Crimes in Lebanon and Palestine By Habib Siddiqui

A Letter to USA Senator Rick Santorum Regarding his Support for Israeli War Crimes in Lebanon and Palestine

By Habib Siddiqui

Al-Jazeerah, August 20, 2006

This letter was sent to Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), Chairman of Senate Republican Conference, on August 16, 2006.

Dear Mr. Senator,

While I appreciate receiving your letter of August 2, '06, I am quite dismayed with your selective amnesia regarding Israeli violations of human rights and its crimes against civilians in Lebanon and Gaza. If Israel cared about its captured soldiers, it could have negotiated, something that she has always done earlier (and will do in the future, just mark my words). But through its murderous actions of invading the democratic country of Lebanon (which had its Cedar Revolution not long ago), it has once again shown that its hatred of Arabs - Christians and Muslims - is more than its love for its own kind. It was that clear for everyone to see.

You mentioned that the current crisis arose out of Hizbullah's capture of two Israeli soldiers. With such statements, you are basically behaving like a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy. That is not what is expected from someone who is supposed to be objective, truthful and fair, let alone being my senator.

Do you know how many Lebanese civilians have been kidnapped by Israel since its incursion in 1982? More than 300. I don't see you losing your sleep ever over those kidnapped civilians. Why? Just read Ha'aretz, the Israeli newspaper to enlighten you, Senator.

Did Israel leave all the Lebanese territories when it had left Lebanon in 2000 after the civil war? No, it did not. It held on to Sheeba Farm. Just contact the UN to verify.

Are you aware of the fact that dozens of elected reps of the Palestine Government have been kidnapped in last couple of months?
Who starts kidnapping civilians, even innocent kids from their homes? It is Israel. Thousands of Palestinian women and infants are languishing in the Israeli prison for years. What did you do to get them released? Nothing.
Over the last 12 years, I did not hear you condemning a single act of state terrorism practiced by Israel. How immoral for someone who likes to portray himself as a good Christian! Do you know that in the last 6 weeks alone, nearly 200 Gazans - mostly children and women - have been cowardly slaughtered by IDF, as the world attention was focused around Lebanon.

Mr. Senator, do you know that more than 300 apartment complexes have been destroyed in Israel's latest rendezvous in Lebanon - some in the Christian area? You are a Christ-loving Christian, are you not? Do you know that 95%of all bridges in the south and central Lebanon have been destroyed by the IDF? Do you know that Israel has killed more UN Peace-keeping Forces than any nation on earth? But obviously such crimes of Israel do not bother you.

With friends like you in the Capitol Hill, Israel goes on using our supplied weapons to kill civilians. Do such actions earn admiration among the victims? Or, do they equate Israel's crimes as ours?

Obviously, none of these historical facts would matter to someone who behaves like an Israeli and not an American patriot that cares about the interest of our people now and in the future.

As one who has studied history for decades, let me say it very clearly that your condoning of state terrorism of Israel is pathetic and makes our world a worse place with every passing day. It is action like yours that create resistance fighters (who are conveniently dumped as terrorists, the same way the Apartheid regime in South Africa dumped Nelson Mandela). When their genuine grievances are overlooked, they end up taking measures that may not appear kosher. But who dehumanizes them in the first place? It is the arrogant ones, who think that their crimes will never be contested or protested harshly.

But whom am I preaching to: a man who sees no evil with Israeli aggression, oppression, war crimes? I am probably wasting my time trying to educate you.

I wish you would once in a while evolve into a balanced human being whose naked partisanship with war crimes of Israel would not cloud his judgment on a matter of so much interest to our generation and that of posterity.

Enough said,
Habib Siddiqui

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

Apartheid Wall


The Israeli Land-Grab Apartheid Wall built inside the Palestinian territories, here separating Abu Dis from occupied East Jerusalem. (IPC, 7/4/04).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03).

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