By Paul Balles
In August 2004 Richard Hugus, critic of progressive injustice, wrote an article called “Lies of the Israeli peace movement”.
Richard Hugus
What Hugus wrote almost 10 years ago has as much forgotten or neglected relevance today.
In an announcement for a meeting, the public was invited to hear from “bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families supporting peace, reconciliation and tolerance”.Referring to a meeting between Jews and Palestinians, Hugus points to progressives like Noam Chomsky.
These progressives have spoken of “what is ‘realistic’, as if it’s realistic to remove an entire people from their country by massacre and attrition, to jail inside 24-foot high walls any who remain, to shoot children in the street, to destroy farmland and water supplies, to drive people to starvation, to wage war on rock-throwers with F-16s, tanks and attack helicopters…”
If that wasn’t enough, these progressive liberators “never acknowledge” that facts created and gains made by Ariel Sharon and all his predecessors were atrocious crimes.
“To the double-talking liberal, it is not ‘realistic’ to stop any of this, and give Palestinians back what was stolen,” he wrote.
“Genocide is realistic; justice is not. The progressive ‘realist’ is finally no different than the right wing Zionist.”
Almost 10 years of repetition and Hugus’ message has sunk into very few Western minds.
Hugus concludes with the observation that everyone should be making: “It is time to respond to the pacifist progressive in particular who collaborates with the oppressor by equating and condemning all violence.
“The language of resistance must be clearly spoken: It is right for Palestinians to resist the occupation, not just the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, but of all of Palestine, by whatever means possible…”
This is the argument that even the most righteous of commentators has been afraid to make.
He offers a similarly honest view regarding the resistance of other populations fighting invasion.
“It is right for the Iraqi resistance to resist the similar vicious US occupation of Iraq,” he said.
“It was right for the Sioux to resist, it was right for the African slave to resist, it was right for the Vietnamese to resist.
“In no way can the minor losses of the oppressor be equated with or compensate for the original crime of his aggression.”
Hugus appropriately draws the historical parallels that have bedevilled others.
He voices one of the only meaningful and justifiable arguments for violent resistance.
“It is time for progressives in the US to openly and clearly support resistance to the monster that the US has become and the entities it supports, like Israel, and increasingly this means rejecting the false language of the pacifist,” he argues.
So it’s time to stop the labelling of members of legitimate resistance movements as terrorists.
Remember, the real terrorists are the thieves who stole Palestinian land and freedom.
Hugus conclues: “The conflict in Palestine is not morally ambiguous. It is not a battle between two sides who are equally guilty.
“Zionists attacked, Palestinians defended. There is a right and a wrong.”
Hugus is right. The pacifists are wrong. Ten years is longer than enough for a fitting response.
Palestinians must resist the illegal settlements in Palestine until people get their land and their dignity back.
They must resist attempts to equate efforts of occupiers to match their desires for peace with people’s rights.
They must resist the fear instilled by Israeli tanks and jets, armed IDF soldiers, prisons and torture.
They must resist the temptation to expect others to fight or negotiate for them. And they must resist the temptation to give up.
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About the author
Dr. Paul J. Balles, a retired American university professor and freelance writer, has lived and worked in the Middle East for 40 years – first as an English professor (Universities of Kuwait and Bahrain), and for the past ten years as a writer, editor and editorial consultant. He’s a weekly Op-Ed columnist for the GULF DAILY NEWS . Dr. Balles is also Editorial Consultant for Red House Marketing and a regular contributor to Bahrain This Month. He writes a weekly op-ed column for Akbar Al Khaleej (Arabic). He has also edited seven websites, including bahrainthismonth.com, womenthismonth.com
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