Helsingin Sanomat columnist Pentti Sademies and Robert Fisk bear a strong resemblance to each other. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why their opinions about Israel and the Middle East in general, are so strikingly similar as well?
Pentti Sademies’ (pictured on the far left, no pun intended) column in today’s HS, “What will open the Middle East’s lock” takes on the present situation in ME politics, and the policies that have supposedly lead up to the present stalemate between the two sides.
Predictably, it is both Israel and the US that are to blame for the current situation, not Palestinian intransigence and their goal, the total elimination of the Jewish state of Israel. Staying true to form, PS assumes his traditional role of an anti-Israel naysayer, choosing to place the lion’s share of guilt upon Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli PM who has been laying in a coma for the past few years.
“Yhdysvaltoihin syyskuussa 2001 tehdyt terrori-iskut ja Yhdysvaltojen hyökkäys Irakiin maaliskuussa 2003 antoivat uusia aineksia jatkuvaan väittelyyn. Israelin silloiset johtajat keksivät suhteessaan palestiinalaisiin – aivan samoin kuin Venäjän johtajat suhteessaan kapinallisiin tšetšeeneihin – kultaisen tilaisuuden suojautua kritiikiltä ja kuvata kansalliset sotatoimensa osaksi maailmanlaajuista taistelua terrorismia vastaan.”
Translation: The 2001 September terrorist attack in the United States and the United States invasion of Iraq in march of 2003, gave new grounds for a continued debate. Israeli leaders at the time saw a golden opportunity where the Palestinians are concerned – in the same way Russian leader viewed the rebel Chechnyans – to shield themselves from criticism and frame their national war effort as a part of the greater war on terror.”
This is in part, only a fraction of the truth. It took the September 11 attacks on the US to wake its leaders up to the fact that, the Palestinian terrorism being carried out against Israel stems from the very same thinking that drove civilian planes into the sides of the two WTC buildings, the Pentagon and into a field just outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Unlike the Chechnyans, the Palestinians had been offered a state of their own on a number of different occasions, only to turn it down time and again. As far as I know, the Chechnyans have not called for the total destruction of Russia, though they would most certainly like to see it turn into an Islamic state, no matter how half baked the idea sounds. P.Sademies continues:
Washingtonissa pääministeri Ariel Sharonin yhtenään toistamaa tulkintaa “terrorisminvastaisen sodan” israelilaisesta rintamasta ei aluksi oikein hyväksytty. Palestiinalaisten parissa syntyneellä terrorismilla tiedettiin olevan paikalliset juuret, joilla oli varsin vähän tekemistä al-Qaidan paljon nuorempaa perua olevan vihan ja uskonkiihkon kanssa.
Translation: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s constant repetitious call for understanding of Israel’s own “war on terror” in Washington was not immediately accepted. The terrorism that sprung up in Palestinian circles was known to have local roots, which had little to do with the much younger Al-Qaida’s reasons for hate and religious extremism.”
Again, there is only a kernal of truth in what he states. It is well known that there are numerous Muslim groups around the world that have joined the international Islamic call to jihad, for a number of different reasons. One thing that they do share however, is the same Islamic supremacist way of thinking about Jews and Christians and “other infidels”.
Hamas does not take its religious dictates from local religious authorities, but from abroad. though the Fattah are touted as a “secular Muslim” organization, the multitude within their ranks are as dedicated to Islam as the Hamas, with many of their members involved with suicide homicide bombings and calls for jihad against not only Israel but against the very same West that provides it with funding.
The Al-Qaida loose network of jihadis can be likened to the pirates that sailed the seven seas throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Flying their colors under the pirate jihadist flag, the Islamic terrorists find common cause with the rest, though their aims or goals may vary somewhat. But they are very much aligned with the rest of their fellow jihadists, giving safe harbor to just about anyone that takes up the call for war against the infidel.
The columnist goes on further to say that its both “true and dishonest to say that the Israeli / Palestinian conflict was not central to the thinking behind Al-Qaida’s attack on September 11, No single event is enough to end international terrorism. Peace will take away from the Islamist extremists however, a very important requitment tool and propaganda card.”
Highly doubtful. In the eyes of the Islamists, both Egypt and Jordan are enemy states of Islam not only because they are supposedly secular states, but that they have also signed a peace agreement with the Jewish state of Israel. That is an unforgivable sin in the minds of these religious fanatics, and adding one more peace agreement to the list will not make them any less violent or determined. *L* KGS
