    Letter to Greg Palast
    by Angie Tibbs
    www.dissidentvoice.org
    July 27, 2006

     Hello Greg,

    Generally I am a fan. Today, I'm not.

    Your flippant dismissal of both Hamas and Hezbullah is unwarranted.
    Hamas is the elected government of the Palestinian people. This is
    contrary to your claim that: "Hamas, just days before it kidnapped and
    killed Israeli soldiers, was facing certain political defeat at the
    hands of the Palestinian majority ready to accept the existence of
    Israel as proposed in a manifesto for peace talks penned by influential
    Palestinian prisoners."

    I am unaware that Hamas "kidnapped Israeli soldiers." It was a joint
    venture in which Hamas, and other Palestinian freedom fighters, captured
    an enemy combatant, and it was one soldier not "soldiers." For someone
    who uses words as you do, Greg, surely you know the difference between
    capturing an enemy soldier of war and kidnapping.

    And what proof do you have that Hamas was losing popularity with the
    Palestinian people? Long before the January elections, Hamas municipal
    governments were thriving in Israeli-occupied Palestine, and they were
    doing so without corruption -- something totally unheard of in Israel
    and the US of A, wouldn't you agree?

    And there has been no mention by you at any time to my recollection that
    the Palestinian people have a right to exist, a right to have “rights”
    -- social, economic, human, and civil rights -- something Israel is
    determined they would never have. They also have the right to be
    protected against Israeli terrorism, something no one in the craven
    international community has ever had the courage to do.

    And Hamas wouldn't be "broke" had the international community, again,
    that craven entity, so called, recognized the will of the Palestinian
    people, gave a blessing to its new government, and carried on with aid
    and allowed Hamas to govern. Israel, followed by Canada (to our shame),
    and the rest of the nations of the world, refused to do that.

    Arrogantly dismissing Hezbullah as "a fundamentalist street gang," is,
    again, incorrect and totally misleading. Its members have fought and
    died for the freedom of South Lebanon against Israeli terrorists and
    Israeli expansion plans. Its political wing, contrary to your
    insinuation that it’s a hated entity, ran in 14 seats in South Lebanon
    in last May-June elections, and they won 14. I'd hardly classify that as
    being "overwhelmingly rejected." And, again, like Hamas, they are not
    corrupt, something governments in the US, Israel, and other "allies"
    cannot claim to be.

    And they are certainly not traitors to their own country and to their
    own people as we saw with the current PM, Fouad Siniora, who grinned and
    clasped the hand of the enemy, Condoleezza Rice, war criminal, while the
    terrorist state of Israel dropped its US weaponry on Lebanese civilians
    and Lebanese infrastructure rendering them into a state of vaporization.
    That was not a pretty picture, and God help Lebanon if this is what the
    majority of Lebanese people want.

    You are deliberately (as is the wont of so many supporters of Israeli
    terrorism) forgetting to mention that both Hamas and Hezbullah have
    every right under international law and conventions to fight for the
    liberation of their countries.

    Why don't you write a spiel for us about the illegal and brutal Israeli
    occupation of Palestine, Shebaa Farms in Lebanon, and the Golan Heights
    in Syria? And emphasize the fact, why don't you, that there would be no
    need for Hamas or Hezbullah if the terrorist state of Israel lived by
    the rules of international law and got the hell back to its own piece of
    real estate which is, of course, equally illegal and illegitimate.

    As if that would ever happen!

    You're wrong, dear Greg. This is not in the least about oil. No, no, no,
    no, no!! This is about acquisition of as much land in the region as
    Israel possibly can get away with under its blather about "security";
    this is about land -- and water!

    Angie Tibbs is a writer/activist living on the east coast of Canada. She
    can be reached at: fightingoppression@nl.rogers.com.