Why Should 2000ppls Life in Gujjuriot be LESSthan 2800Twin Tower

Arts & Culture Culture, Arts, Literature & Linguistics
1

On the occassion of 9-11 anniversary when b/c of the privelege of even so called Democratric free country the agenda is set by one DUBYA ,no matter how imperfect a man may win by hook or by crook

I dont like being sucked into this sorrow 24 /7 for last few days to be continued till 9-11 & to day is only 9-8

Why shouls 2000 ppls life in Gujjuriots be LESS than 2800 in Twin Tower ?

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Other side of attack - humiliation of the U.S.

New Delhi | Kuldip Nayar | 07-09-2002
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The tragic loss of lives on September 11 last year at the World Trade Center had another side to it: the humiliation of the strongest nation in the world by a handful of men. Here was the U.S., which represented the unipolar world after emerging victorious in the Cold War against the Soviet Union and defeating the ideology of communism.

Just one man hiding in a backward country masterminded a plan, which spanned thousands of miles to strike at New York and Washington to avenge the humiliation of helplessness against untrammelled power.

True, almost every nation in the world came to rally behind the U.S. None dared to stand aside. Without America`s asking, countries like India even offered bases for operation against Afghanistan, which held arch terrorist Osama bin Laden, who allegedly orchestrated the strike.

Still, all this could not undo the fact that someone had dared to challenge the world`s most powerful nation. By defeating the Taliban and the Al Qaida, the U.S. has put another government at the helm in Afghanistan. But it has not eliminated the terrorists, much less their ideology of fundamentalism. And the humiliation still stares the U.S. in the face.

When Washington talks in terms of attacking Iraq and eliminating Saddam Hussain, this humiliation is still at the back of its mind. The downfall of Saddam may establish that the U.S. can punish any country in the world. Those who believe that democracy has to be implanted by outsiders where dictatorships have come to stay may also welcome Saddam`s exit.

Still America`s victory will not wash off the blot of humiliation.

That President Bush was justified in declaring a war against terrorism after the September 11 happenings has seldom been questioned.

He should have done it long before when terrorism was at its peak in our part of the world. America was least bothered about terrorism till the fire reached its shores.

But its fight against terrorism, which is far from complete, does not make up for the humiliation. This is so because Washingtons eyes are still fixed at the wrong site. It wants to regain its prestige by acting as the worlds policeman - not as one who cares about the humiliation of others.

When the American president stands by Israel and justifies its acts of brutality against Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians, he apparently thinks that the humiliation of the weak doesn`t matter. This is the crux of the problem.

If the world is to be for the survival of the fittest, both respect and humiliation become relative words. They mean different things to different nations. Imposition by the strong does not mean humiliation of the weak. Every nation has its self-respect. When driven to the wall, it will fight back and do anything to protect it.

The Taliban and Al Qaida were hawking the honour of the Afghans and even the Pakistanis in the name of religion. America allowed such fundamentalists to come up and even fed it through arms and other assistance to serve its own purpose.

It believed - and still does - that the people living in the Third World deserved to wallow in prejudice and bias and that their genius was not suited to democracy.

In any case if Kabul was considered too far and too weak to challenge the West and Washington. Moscow too had played with Afghanistan`s dignity. But none of these powers ever measured the resentment of the Afghans.

The world woke up when the terrorists struck at New York. It was too late in the day. By then Washington had allowed the Frankenstein`s monster of fundamentalism and violence to take over in many countries.

In India, we are likely to recall December 13 every year as the date when a suicidal attack was made on our parliament, the symbol of the country`s democracy. September 11 and December 13 together should have marked the autumn of 2001 as the advent of a new era in international politics.

For, terrorism was posing the gravest threat to democracy and to all civil societies which cherish plurality and permitted dissent. India had long been familiar with the menace of terror but the vulnerability of the U.S. came to it as a shock.

India announced all the assistance within an hour of the September 11 attack. I wonder if the then Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh, embarrassingly pro-American, had consulted even the prime minister before the announcement. But the tilt of Washington towards Islamabad has not been straightened.

India had an alternative. It could have used the opportunity to get the non-aligned nations together to decide how to fight fundamentalists without America prodding particular countries. Washington would have then realised that it could not take every country for granted.

The manner in which America has gone about curbing terrorism - its proclaimed sole purpose after the attack on WTC - makes one wonder whether it is the terrorists who are sought to be punished or the nations whose views do not tally with Washington`s.

If the U.S. had realised that the sovereignty of every country, big or small, has to be respected, the resentment against Washington would not have been so vocal as it is today.

It is a tragedy that the animus of America is now against the Muslims. It is apparent from the way the Islamic countries or the Muslims living in the U.S. are being treated. Sometimes one wonders if, after decimating the ideology of communism, America`s target is now Islam.

Washington should understand that the September 11 action could be repeated.

Next time, the target may not be a building but something else. Such an eventuality can be warded off if people do not feel enslaved in their own country. They cannot be an exploited lot all the time. Many in the world are becoming desperate because they are not having enough avenues to overcome poverty, ignorance or ill health. They are helpless.

Not just America. Even the other western countries do not seem to realise this. Washington cannot overcome its humiliation by humiliating the nations that do not see eye to eye with it on all issues.

The international community is beset with contradictions - political, economic and social. It must resolve them peacefully. Instead, the powerful countries are now throwing their weight about in a brazen manner.

Such countries will do well if they learn a little humility. It is their refusal to acknowledge this truth that was at the back of the terrorist strikes in the U.S. If they had understood this basic point, the September 11 disaster could have been avoided.

This comment is by Kuldip Nayar, a former Indian High Commissioner to the UK and a Rajya Sabha MP.

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· Stumbling into era of instability
· Off The Cuff: A wry look at life
· Other side of attack - humiliation of the U.S.
· Caught in web of a hostile campaign
· U.S. may not have to feel lonely again
· Off The Cuff: A wry look at life
· Hawks seek to control world to benefit U.S.
· Go for a national concord
· The massacres continue
· For and against Iraq - Cheney joins the race

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2

As cruel and simple as it is, there is a simple reason for that. In America, human life carries the largest amount of value when compared to other places in the world. The reason being...it is written in our constitution. No other document in the world proclaims "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".... this is the most important phrase in preserving individuality and assigning the highest amount of value to it.

3

LIfe Liberty & pursuit of happiness is no more than RIGHT TO TAKE LIFE ONLY GIVEN TO GOD …INfact a persmmon cannot take his own life ..HOW about that constitution…Even American constitution was written 1000 years after Islam & Koran.The constitutuiion has many ideas foreign to Christianity & judeaism but INTRINIC TO ISLAM THAT ALL HUMAN AFRICAN EURIOEAN ASIAN BLACK WHITE & ALL SEXES ARE EQUALBEFORE YOU JUMP THAT 2 women equal 1 men business YOU FAIL TO SEE THE GLOBAL CONCEPT IN ISLAM IS THE FIRST RELIGION THAT TREATS WOMAN AS PERSON DISTINCT IDENTITY >>GO BACK 1500 YRS YOU WILL SEE JEWS TRETED WOMEN LIKE DIRT <CHRISTIANS BURDENED HER FOR ALL MANS SIN BECAUSE OF HER !

SO IN MY OPINON AMERICAN CIONSTITUTION IS NOT THE BETTER PIECE OF DOCUMENT THAN KORAN RIGHTS>

IN ISLAMIC JURISPRUDENCE GUJJRAT MUSLIM & AMERICAN JEW IS EQUAL AS FAR AS VALUE IS CONSIDERED BUT JEWS CONSIDER THEMSELVES SPECIAL CHOSEN BLESSED <WHICH WILL BE THERE DOWNFALL B?C OF SNOBBERY

Gujarat riots: was there an Israeli
???
connection?

By Ashraf Abbas

It is for the first time in the history of the country that massacre of Muslims has taken place and their properties have been destroyed under such an organised planning. With the passage of every day, facts relating to these riots are coming to light. The common thinking of Muslims living in riot-affected areas of Gujarat is that the butcher of Palestinian Muslims, Israel, is directly involved in these terrible anti-Muslim riots. It is quite possible that some people may consider it a flight of fancy but those who have observed the conditions prevailing in Gujarat and have a deep understanding of the Indo-Israeli relations, do not consider it a remote possibility.
This country’s government, which believes in Hindutva, is also proud of its new relationship (with Israel) because the net gain of these relations has already been received by the champions of Hindutva in the form of recent riots in Gujarat.

According to informed sources, Narendra Modi was in Israel for some time before being appointed as chief minister. A few months ago hundreds of youngmen of :rocket:Gujarat were sent to Israel ostensibly for agricultural work where they were imparted special training. These youths imbibed with Hindutva played an important role in the burning of Gujarat. A citizen of Ahmadabad badly affected by these riots said that some packets of the dangerous chemicals used by the rioters had been found with ‘Made in Israel’ mark on them. The seriousness of the issue can very well be judged after the discovery of these facts.

Famous defence analyst having a close watch on Israeli defence matters, Hisam Swelm, in one of his new books on Indo-Israeli relations has expressed deep concern over India’s growing relations with Israel which can prove very dangerous, and even fatal, for India itself. Swelm has regretted that for Hindutva rulers of India, four million Jews of Israel are more important than 1.04 billion Muslims and 54 Islamic countries.

It is worth noting that previous Congress governments of the country had been very cautious in maintaining relations with Israel. However, during the past three or four years, the warmth and enthusiasm with which the ruling BJP has given importance to its relations with Israel and increased their mutual cooperation in defence affairs and fields, has created doubts among secular circles of the country .Also, there is substantial dissatisfaction among Arab countries. On the occasion of senior government officials’ tour to Israel, Arab newspapers are engaged in various kinds of guessworks and describe it as the beginning of a dangerous era. An Arab journalist has gone to the extent of saying that Zionism and Hindutva have a common agenda against Islam and Muslims. Whenever the Hindu national government of India has spoken in support of Palestine, it has in reality done so in consideration of oil wealth of the Gulf countries. Otherwise, India was neither concerned with Palestine’s miserable condition in the past nor is it concerned today.

As a matter of fact it is our rulers’ anti-Muslim proclivities which make them interested in treating Israel as their closest ally. If you want to see the moral qualities of a person, you should see his or her friends. When we look at it in this context,a terrible picture emerges because India’s new and close friend is Israel, which is thirsty for innocent Muslim blood. Israel has justified everything for the fulfilment of its Zionist objectives, which can never be fulfilled through righteous means.

This country’s government, which believes in Hindutva, is also proud of its new relationship (with Israel) because the net gain of these relations has already been received by the champions of Hindutva in the form of recent riots in Gujarat.

The fact is that these relations can help the Sangh in achieving their aggressive aims and new avenues can be found for further harassing and troubling Muslims of the country. Probably our government does not want to think as to how much and how great a loss will be suffered by the country as a whole. Who does not know that annoying Arabs would not be in India’ s interest.

In an article published in a contemporary Arabic magazine, thousands of Indians working and living in Gulf countries have been given a veiled warning to impress upon their government in New Delhi to desist from hobnobling with Israel. Otherwise their own future in the Gulf would be jeopardised.

It is necessary for maintaining the country’s international reputation that our government adopts a sane and sensible policy and abstains from taking anti-Muslim measures.It should ensure that the country does not reach the breaking point as the Gujarat experience is repeated everywhere

                                :rocketup:


      .
4

Actually: God himself might have been in the room when the US consitution was written. call him John Adams.

5

John Adams … :rotfl: :hehe: :hula:

Where is he NOW if he is God ??:confused:

I looked for him & his son for so many years in Quincy Boston for past several years every day ..he never showed up nor sighted ..believe me i asked his neighbours & they said HE IS NO GOD TO SHOW UP …so there you go chalta …:rocket:

   :Rocketup:
6

VHP, Bible and the rhetoric of attack

=======================

The tragedy with an outfit like the VHP is that, pathetically devoid of any positive agenda, it is condemned to fondling its invented victim-hood, improvising grievances where none exists. The mindset that underlies this outlook is one of pathological negativity that holds the potential to infect and paralyse our destiny as a nation.

T
victimHERE ARE three sure signs that one does not understand spirituality in general and one’s own religion in particular. The first is the irrational anxiety that if other religions are left free to flourish and fulfil their destiny, one’s own religion will be stamped out of existence. The second is the thick-skinned unconcern with which sweeping and malicious generalisations are made about the faiths of others. The third is the meddlesome eagerness to reform the scriptures, customs, and liturgical life of your neighbour’s religion — to wield reform, in short, as a rhetoric of attack on him.

The irony that these trends betoken the ascendancy of intolerance in a religious group and that this marks the degeneration of the spiritual core of that religion is often lost on most people. We would have been beholden to the VHP mouthpieces, and listened to them reverentially, if they had anything worthwhile to say on the treasures of Hinduism. As of today, there is no evidence to suggest that they are seized of the spiritual profundities of the Vedic faith. We have heard far too much from them, however, on the dangers and demerits of the minorities. Out of the VHP cauldron of communal calculations there continues to emerge an endless array of instructions to minorities. Thus, they have been asked, in quick succession, to amend their names (for example, Christians must call themselves “Christian Hindus”), to indianise their liturgical practices and community life, to hard-earn the good will of the Hindu community (by which is meant, the Parivar), and so on.

Unsolicited advice

The latest in this series of unsolicited advice is that Christians should edit their scripture, and remove all objectionable' materials from the Bible. On the face of it, there should be nothing objectionable’ about excising objectionable texts' from the Bible. The difficulty is in deciding which text is objectionable and which is not. Who is to adjudicate on the merit of these texts? If the VHP is allowed to edit the Bible, the outcome could be similar to the fate of the notice put up in front of a fish-shop, which read: "Fresh fish sold here". Soon thereafter, a local prankster approached the shopkeeper saying, "What is the need to say fresh fish’ sold here? Who does not know that you sell only fresh' fish?" So the shopkeeper erased the word fresh’, retaining only the words: “fish sold here”. The next day the same fellow returned with the argument, "Is there any need to write, sold here'? Isn't it obvious that fish is sold here’ and not there'?" So the word here’ went, and the notice now read, “Fish sold”. The prankster came again to argue that the word sold' was superfluous. "Isn't it obvious that the fish kept here is meant for sale?" That word had to go too, leaving now only one word, "fish". A few days later he returned to insist that the word fish’ also be erased. “From the stink in this place,” he argued convincingly, “it is obvious that there is fish here.”

The question of motive is basic to the merit of a suggestion. Why does the VHP want the Bible edited? Is it that the likes of Giriraj Kishore and Pravin Togadia want the thorns in the Bible removed so that they may enjoy its spiritual flowers and fruits? The only valid reason for resenting any section in the Bible as `objectionable’ is that it interferes with one’s relationship with it. Only a person who wants to embrace a scripture can come to any just or reliable conclusion as to which of its parts are objectionable and which acceptable. Arguably, those who find Christianity as a whole objectionable will not stop short of finding the whole of the Bible objectionable, as the prankster in the story did vis-à-vis the notice. What credibility does an outfit that despises scripture in general and the Bible and the Q’ran in particular have to suggest that it be edited or reformed?

Knowing only too well how the VHP is disposed towards the Bible, we are constrained to be sceptical of its zeal to subject this sacred text to communal censorship. Why have they improvised this fanciful agenda at this time? The answer points to the not-so-hidden intention to demoralise the Christian community. It is well known that the morale of a religious community depends, among other things, on the inviolability of three factors: (a) the scriptures (b) the rituals, including places of worship and (c) the freedom to express the genius of the faith vis-à-vis the world at large.

The attack on rituals, the second in our list, began in a tentative fashion a few years ago when the BJP think-tank in Delhi argued that churches in Delhi must be de-notified as liquor in the form of sacramental wine was served, without licence, at the Lord’s Supper! Of course, this was preceded by a whisper campaign to caricature the Lord’s Supper as cannibalism, as sacramental wine and wafer were believed to trans-substantiate into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The public outcry in the wake of this campaign to stigmatise the sacrament made the mischief-mongers retrace their steps in quick time. The attack on religious practices has concentrated so far on intimidating Christian social workers and criminalising all conversions as coerced or induced. To this category also belongs the call to indianise the Church. Perhaps it is far too much to expect of the VHP storm-troopers to know that spirituality, whether seen from a Christian or Hindu perspective, is at once local and universal and that, Church being a spiritual entity, cannot be defined wholly in territorial terms.

A potent strategy

With its recent demand that all offending texts be excluded from the Bible, the VHP has launched its maiden attack on the scripture. It needs to be seen as part of its penchant for improvising anti-minority scandals. This is a shrewd and calculated campaign constructed on the centrality of the Bible to the Christian faith and community life. Over the last 2000 years, the Bible has been one of the most decisive factors in defining Christian identity and morale. Christians were known, from the early times, as “People of the Book.” The Bible, more than all the churches in the world put together, accounts for the culture and inspiration of the community. Spreading suspicion on the integrity and spiritual authenticity of the Bible is, hence, a potent strategy to demoralise Christians anywhere in the world. In its long-term implications, it rivals the communal atrocities unleashed on the Muslims in Gujarat.

Huncharitable remarks that self-styled Christian preachers have made in the past about other faiths. In most cases, these statements were made by those who did not know the subjects on which they ventured to pontificate. They were also, at the same time, too shallow and superficial in the understanding of their own faith. Showing other faiths in a poor light is neither necessary nor compatible with the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Jesus never said one uncharitable word against any other religion. Instead, he reserved his most vehement condemnation for the corrupters of Judaism — the religious fold to which he belonged. Love is the lifeblood of the Gospel and it can be preached only in the spirit of love and magnanimity. The mark of love is that it endeavours to see others in the best light possible, without disowning the demands of truth.

But there is a fundamental problem in this context that we need to reckon. All through history, no religious community has taken kindly to the idea of reforming itself. Consequently, religious reformers were demonised as heretics and enemies of the faith. They were excluded or eliminated ruthlessly. Religions may preach tolerance, but every religion has been viciously intolerant in respect of religious reform. “No prophet,” says Jesus of Nazareth, “is welcome in the midst of his own people.” By ruthlessly stamping out the spirit of reform from within, religious communities invite lumpen attempts to coerce them into conformity. Ironically, the VHP itself is born out of the lack of spiritual reform and regeneration in the Hindu fold. Christian fundamentalists are their counterparts in the opposite camp.

For the time being, it is imperative that the nation as a whole wake up to the communal pogrom camouflaged under the VHP campaign to censor the Bible. The question needs to be asked as to which particular text in the Bible has created, in practice, what trouble for the country?

Sure enough, there are passages in the Old Testament on Holy War. How many Christian groups today advocate holy wars in the Indian context? But that is hardly the issue. The tragedy with an outfit like the VHP is that, pathetically devoid of any positive agenda,

it is condemned to fondling its invented :devil:

-hood, improvising grievances where none

exists. The mindset that underlies this outlook is one of pathological negativity that holds the potential to infect and paralyse our destiny as a nation. In the judgment of future historians, the condemnation of the current custodians of Hinduism would be that

they stood by and watched communal and:nono:

irreligious outfits like the VHP hijacking

the Vedic faith and degrading it into an ideology of intolerance and inhumanity. May this not continue to happen!

VALSON THAMPU

7

If a heinous riots in Gujjrat is blamed on Newtons Law of Action & reaction then Godhra is THE CAUSE OF IT according to VHP.Nincompoop does not know that reaction in physics cannot be MORE than the action just as Energy nothing comes out of nothing.The equilbrium of Chemiistry & physics is meticulously output equal exactly to the INPUT.

Coming to 9-11 WHAT WAS THE CAUSE OF THER 9-11 & was it equal less or more than that cause ..read on

http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=18530

Liberating America from Israel
By Paul Findley

Nine-eleven would not have occurred if the US government had refused to help Israel humiliate and destroy Palestinian society. Few express this conclusion publicly, but many believe it is the truth. I believe the catastrophe could have been prevented if any US president during the past 35 years had had the courage and wisdom to suspend all US aid until Israel withdrew from the Arab land seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

The US lobby for Israel is powerful and intimidating, but any determined president even President Bush this very day could prevail and win overwhelming public support for the suspension of aid by laying these facts before the American people:

Israel’s present government, like its predecessors, is determined to annex the West Bank biblical Judea and Samaria so Israel will become Greater Israel. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who maintain a powerful role in Israeli politics, believe the Jewish Messiah will not come until Greater Israel is a reality. Although a minority in Israel, they are committed, aggressive, and influential. Because of deep religious conviction, they are determined to prevent Palestinians from gaining statehood on any part of the West Bank.

In its violent assaults on Palestinians, Israel uses the pretext of eradicating terrorism, but its forces are actually engaged in advancing the territorial expansion just cited. Under the guise of anti-terrorism, Israeli forces treat Palestinians worse than cattle. With due process nowhere to be found, hundreds are detained for long periods and most are tortured. Some are assassinated. Homes, orchards, and business places are destroyed. Entire cities are kept under intermittent curfew, some confinements lasting for weeks. Injured or ill Palestinians needing emergency medical care are routinely held at checkpoints for an hour or more. Many children are undernourished. The West Bank and Gaza have become giant concentration camps. None of this could have occurred without US support. Perhaps Israeli officials believe life will become so unbearable that most Palestinians will eventually leave their ancestral homes.

Once beloved worldwide, the US government finds itself reviled in most countries because it provides unconditional support of Israeli violations of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the precepts of all major religious faiths.

How did the American people get into this fix?

Nine-eleven had its principal origin 35 years ago when Israel’s US lobby began its unbroken success in stifling debate about the proper US role in the Arab-Israeli conflict and effectively concealed from public awareness the fact that the US government gives massive uncritical support to Israel.

Thanks to the suffocating influence of Israel’s US lobby, open discussion of the Arab-Israeli conflict has been non-existent in our government all these years. I have firsthand knowledge, because I was a member of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee in June 1967 when Israeli military forces took control of the Golan Heights, a part of Syria, as well as the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza. I continued as a member for 16 years and to this day maintain a close watch on Congress.

For 35 years, not a word has been expressed in that committee or in either chamber of Congress that deserves to be called debate on Middle East policy. No restrictive or limiting amendments on aid to Israel have been offered for 20 years, and none of the few offered in previous years received more than a handful of votes. On Capitol Hill, criticism of Israel, even in private conversation, is all but forbidden, treated as downright unpatriotic, if not anti-Semitic. The continued absence of free speech was assured when those few who spoke out Sens. Adlai Stevenson and Charles Percy, and Reps. Paul Pete McCloskey, Cynthia McKinney, Earl Hilliard, and myself were defeated at the polls by candidates heavily financed by pro-Israel forces.

As a result, legislation dealing with the Middle East has been heavily biased in favor of Israel and against Palestinians and other Arabs year after year. Home constituencies, misled by news coverage equally lop-sided in Israel’s favor, remain largely unaware that Congress behaves as if it were a subcommittee of the Israeli Parliament.

However, the bias is widely noted beyond America, where most news media candidly cover Israel’s conquest and generally excoriate America’s complicity and complacency. When President Bush welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, sometimes called the Butcher of Beirut, as my dear friend and a man of peace after Israeli forces, using US-donated arms, completed their devastation of the West Bank last spring, worldwide anger against American policy reached the boiling point.

The fury should surprise no one who reads foreign newspapers or listens to BBC. In several televised statements long before 9/11, Osama Bin Laden, believed by US authorities to have masterminded 9/11, cited US complicity in Israel’s destruction of Palestinian society as a principal complaint. Prominent foreigners, in and out of government, express their opposition to US policies with unprecedented frequency and severity, especially since Bush announced his determination to make war against Iraq.

The lobby’s intimidation remains pervasive. It seems to reach every government center and even houses of worship and revered institutions of higher learning. It is highly effective in silencing the many US Jews who object to the lobby’s tactics and Israel’s brutality.

Nothing can justify 9/11. Those guilty deserve maximum punishment, but it makes sense for America to examine motivations promptly and as carefully as possible. Terrorism almost always arises from deeply-felt grievances. If they can be eradicated or eased, terrorist passions are certain to subside.

Today, a year after 9/11, President Bush has made no attempt to redress grievances, or even to identify them. In fact, he has made the scene far worse by supporting Israel’s religious war against Palestinians, an alliance that has intensified anti-American anger. He seems oblivious to the fact that nearly two billion people worldwide regard the plight of Palestinians as today’s most important foreign-policy challenge.

No one in authority will admit a calamitous reality that is skillfully shielded from the American people but clearly recognized by most of the world: America suffered 9/11 and its aftermath and may soon be at war with Iraq, mainly because US policy in the Middle East is made in Israel, not in Washington.

Israel is a scofflaw nation and should be treated as such. Instead of helping Sharon intensify Palestinian misery, our president should suspend all aid until Israel ends its occupation of Arab land Israel seized in 1967. The suspension would force Sharon’s compliance or lead to his removal from office, as the Israeli electorate will not tolerate a prime minister who is at odds with the White House.

If Bush needs an additional reason for doing the right thing, he can justify the suspension as a matter of military necessity, an essential step in winning international support for his war on terrorism. He can cite a worthy precedent. When President Abraham Lincoln issued the proclamation that freed only the slaves in states that were then in rebellion, he made the restriction because of military necessity.

If Bush suspends US aid, he will liberate all Americans from long years of bondage to Israel’s misdeeds.

(Paul Findley, a Representative from Illinois 1961-83, is the author of three books related to the Middle East, the latest being Silent No More: Confronting Americas False Images of Islam. He resides in Jacksonville, Illinois.)

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8

Tapes capture rabid speeches made by Modi

gujjuriot gujjuriot gujjuriotsgujjuriots

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2002 10:30:56 PM ]
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AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat government on Sunday went into a damage-control mode even as Narendra Modi?s controversial statements against the Muslims ? first reported by The Times of India ? came into sharp focus, with a television channel playing the audio tapes, containing these references throughout the day.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) representatives alleged that the tapes were doctored. “This is a conspiracy by anti-Gujarat forces and the Congress,” was the general refrain of the BJP men.

A state minister remarked, “There has been a trend in Gujarat of delivering such speeches for the past 40 years.”

Modi, who was in Amreli on Sunday for the second leg of his yatra, neither acknowledged nor denied making anti-minority statements at Bechraji.

State BJP president Rajendrasinh Rana explained that Modi was talking in the larger context of the economic development of the state and the effect that a large population has on it.

The Times of India had reported that Modi, during the gaurav yatra at Bechraji on September 9, had attacked the Muslims for the population boom and asked whether the relief camps needed to be maintained only to “produce babies”. Modi was also quoted as saying “their family planning slogan is ? we five and ours twenty-five”.

He criticised the Congress for opposing the flowing in of the Narmada waters during the month of Shravan and asked whether the party would have liked to bring the waters in the month of Ramzan.

The yatra convener Jayantibhai Barot, however, denied that Modi had ever made these remarks. National BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley had claimed that there were “inaccuracies” in the media?s reporting of the chief minister?s speech.

After the National Commission for Minorities asked the state government for a transcript of the tapes of the speech and some Opposition parties demanded criminal proceedings against Modi, both the BJP president Venkaiah Naidu and the minister of state in PMO Vijay Goel had advised Modi to exercise restraint.

But neither the state government nor the police claimed to have possession of audio or video tapes from which a transcript could be provided to the NCM.

On September 12, the additional chief secretary (home) Ashok Narayan said the government did not have the tapes and that “we will send the transcript when we receive it”.