Why do they hate us?

Claire Fontaine's title of her art exhibition "They Hate Us for Our Freedom" the sentence of George Bush’s speech after September 11. Claire Fontaine’s art raises the question of the meaning of freedom in liberal societies.

Category: Americas, Life & Society Topics: Islamophobia, Palestine Views: 3963
3963

"Why do they hate us?" So stunned Americans asked, after 9/11, when we learned that across the Arab world, many were saying, "The Americans had it coming."

For a textbook example of why we are hated, consider Gaza and the West Bank. There, a brutal Israeli/U.S.-led cutoff in aid has been imposed on the Palestinians for voting the wrong way in a free election.

Immediately after Hamas's victory, Israel halted the $55 million a month the Palestinian Authority received as its share of tax and customs revenue. Israel demanded Europe and the U.S. also end all aid to the PA until Hamas renounces terror, recognizes Israel, and disarms.

President Bush, though he was conducting a worldwide crusade for democracy and had urged that the Palestinian elections be held and Hamas participate, obediently complied. For months now, U.S. and European aid to the PA, half its budget, has been halted.

The early returns are in. "Surgeons at Gaza's biggest hospital," says the Financial Times, "have suspended non-essential surgery for lack of sutures, laboratory kits and anesthetics." Environmental protection agency workers have no money for petrol to monitor sewage and industrial waste entering the water supply. Some 150,000 civil servants, 60,000 of them armed security personnel, have gone unpaid for months.

Supermarkets have to extend credit to customers who have no money for food. The Washington Post relates an incident that gives a flavor of what is happening.

"In Gaza's gold market Monday, Nahed al-Zayim stared at the wedding ring her husband, a Palestinian police officer, gave her six years ago. She had placed it on a glass counter, offering it for sale, joining several other wives of public employees who had not been paid in two months.

"Her head covered by a black veil, Zayim said she needed the proceeds from her ring to buy diapers and milk supplements for her three children, including Hazem, 4, who tugged at her tunic in the afternoon bustle. `This is the last one, we have no more,' Zayim, 28, said of her ring."

Woodrow Wilson called sanctions "the silent, deadly remedy." Its victims are always the sick, the elderly, the women, and the children.

In March, the World Bank predicted the aid cutoff would lead to a 30 percent fall in average personal incomes among the Palestinians. The bank now considers that prediction "too rosy" and expects "the worst year in the West Bank and Gaza's recent dismal economic history."

Already, violent clashes have broken out between Hamas and Fatah. There is a danger of the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, chaos, and a need for the Israeli army to intervene anew to restore order. Finally, May 9, under European pressure, the U.S. relented and a trickle of aid began to flow.

Query: who, besides al-Qaeda and recruiters of suicide bombers, can conceivably benefit from persecuting the Palestinian people like this? Does President Bush or Condi Rice think the Palestinians will respect an America that did this to their children, after we urged this election, called for Hamas to participate, and preached our devotion to democracy?

"The aid cut-off appears to be increasing anti-U.S. sentiment here," writes the Post's Scott Wilson, quoting 33-year-old pharmacist Mustafa Hasoona: "The problem is the West, not us. If they don't respect democracy, they shouldn't call for it. We are with this government we elected. I voted for it."

According to the Financial Times, Hamas is winning converts for refusing to buckle. Said Khalil Abu Leila, a Hamas leader, "They have misunderstood the Arab mentality. As long as the pressure increases on Hamas, the more popular it will become."

The White House says we don't negotiate with terrorists. But when we had to, we did. FDR and Truman summited with Stalin at Yalta and Potsdam. Nixon met with Mao in Beijing. Kissinger negotiated with the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese at Paris. Bush I allied with Assad in the Gulf War. Clinton had Arafat to the White House too many times to count.

Rabin and Peres shared a Nobel Prize with Arafat. Netanyahu gave him Hebron. Barak offered him 95 percent of the West Bank.

Bush's agents negotiated with the architect of the Lockerbie massacre to persuade Colonel Khaddafi to give up his WMD. In 2004, Bush's men called it a victory for Bush diplomacy. Khaddafi's regime had been at the top of the State Department's list of state sponsors of terror.

The purpose of U.S.-Israeli policy today is to punish the Palestinians for how they voted and to force Hamas to yield or to collapse its government. How does such a policy win hearts and minds for America?

Terrorism has been described as waging war on innocents to break their political leaders. Is that not a fair description of what we are doing to the Palestinians? No wonder they hate us.

Pat Buchanan has been an advisor to three presidents and has thrice sought the office. A founding panelist of four political television shows, he was a host on MSNBC's daily news program, "Buchanan & Press" and appears on "The McLaughlin Group." He writes a nationally syndicated newspaper column and is the author of six books, including the bestseller, The Death of the West, which sold over 200,000 copies. In 2002 Pat Buchanan founded The American Conservative with Scott McConnell and Taki Theodoracopulos.


  Category: Americas, Life & Society
  Topics: Islamophobia, Palestine
Views: 3963

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Older Comments:
D. THOMAS said:
Right on Beth. If the palestinians wanted peace they could of regulated it a long time ago. If they would have done it they would probably be much better off then most others in the Middle East. Look they fight each other in the street, and we are suppose to negociate with them. What an impossiblity, what a sad sad joke. I wish for peace in the middle east, and there is room for both Muslims, and Jews. And please don't forget about all the persecuted minorities under Muslim rule(Copts, Zorostrasians,.... and the list goes on and on).
2006-06-19

MAZINGER FROM UK said:
Beth, why are you obligated to fund Israel and its Jewish terrorism? Infact why are you in Iraq? What do you owe them. Stealing their oil no doubt. It is you Americans who are the terrorists. Palestinians are the bravest people on the earth for staying on their native soil and fighting. ...
2006-06-18

SAYEEDA FROM USA said:
Palestinians are owed aid because they were kicked out of their mother-land. consider it compensation. I mean, if the idea of a jewish homeland as compensation, you can accept, I truly don't understand what is so hard to understand about this.

And Mr. Buchanan hit a bulls eye in this article, though I personally believe that these actions of the US government and its allies leads people to believe it is a war against Islam (look, after all, at who is being attacked in this "war on terror" - islamic countries). Dare I ask, why have we forgotten North Korea?

2006-06-14

AHMED ASGHER FROM BAHRAIN said:
beth: you are the epitomy of US ignorance when it comes to palestinian/jewish problems. your government pays billions annually to israel to carry out its looting and killing of innocent people. pls visit ifamericansonlyknew.com - then you want to withhold the paltry humanitarian amount that your govt. allocates to pick up the pieces of your own doing, under pressure from saudi arabia and european do-gooders. the best aid you can give to palestinians is not your tainted money but to stop interference in their humiliation and uphold justice so that the long-suffering refugees can get back their dignity, homes/lands from whence they were driven away by force. perhaps then we can see some healing taking place. pls educate yourself on the subject and be an honest judge of history instead of reading the distorted truth your zionist media dishes out and influences your decision with hatred towards a people you have no real knowledge of. i dislike writing such stuff and much prefer to direct my energy towards words of love and peace but for that to happen one must seek truth first and that would be my advice to anyone on any subject. sadly even when such an article is written by a respected american you seem to ignore such truth. is there hope for humanity? god bless all.
2006-06-13

BETH FROM USA said:
Why do we owe a living to the palestinians? Maybe they do have problems in their country, but why are we obligated to make sure their percapita income is good? They harbor terrorists, they are terrorists, and if they can't manage their own economy without aid, maybe they need to take a long internal look at themselves as a nation.

I really would like to know why we have to continue aid to these people? We owe them aid, but they owe no one accountability for what THEY do??
2006-06-13

DR EDRISS FROM US said:

if this article is wrote by MR Pat Buchanan , I'm completely shocked...!

there is a shortcut to the definition of good people that says: good people are those who choose to be just in the ENVIRONMENT they are in.

the writer of this article met this definition.

I don't know if it's politics or reality but thank you for trying to be just, we miss people who try to do so.

2006-06-13

AHMED ASGHER FROM BAHRAIN said:
'for every action there is a re-action, equal to its force and opposite in direction' that is law of physics. a true muslim would never entertain the emotion of hatred. it carries a toxic charge. a person who submits to God only understands the power of love. everything man has done in the middle east that has brought us to current events has carried with it the desire to dominate by force. hatred is by-product of such ignorance and devoid of any sympathy or respect for another. Rid yourself from toxic words like hatred as it has toxic energy. truly surrender to God and He will bring us all peace. so long as we pull away from God's energy we continue to struggle in vain. some posting here are indicative of such poison. they stir a toxic charge as they come from such a charge. may peace be upon all mankind since that is what The Creator wants for us. Question is Do WE want peace for ourselves AND for others?
2006-06-13

KHAN FROM USA said:
Why do they hate us? good article...
Who Hates who?
Who hates more?
They hate us or we hate them more!

Do THEY HATE US us because of our actions, our unjust and overdestructive wars, our invasions, our control on their constitutions-laws-leaders, our control of their resources and money, our dependece on them for our economy,our control on them our interference in almost everything, and so on.... OR

Do WE HATE THEM because they have many good things and resources(oil,gas,gold,money),and we need them for our economy, their religion[Jesus and Muhammad-Both are prophets from same God], and so on...

Hate or dislike is man-made thing, has many reasons, propaganda for political purposes, can be personal, can be for gains because any religion does not preach hate or violence or unjust actions on any people of faith.


2006-06-12

DAVID L KOESTER SR. FROM UNITED STATES OF AMERICA said:
Seldom, if ever, do their emotions raise to the level of hatred. Their distain for us is so deeply held, that hatered is no longer part of the picture.
It is as if we were to say we hate the aids virus.

40 million Wahhabi are working day and night to educate the world that to the fact that we are dangerous vermin. and like the aids virus we must be destroyed.

What we do or say will make little difference until we kill or reeducate them all.

Kid your self no more, this war must be fought with eatreem measures NOW or hundreds of millions on either side will die needlessly
It is much like the dicision our President made to drop the a bom on Japan or let untold thousands of Americans die in a protracted war.
Only this time Millions of us will die and our way
of life will be no more.
Till Wahhabism is taught no more there can be no world peace.

2006-06-12

MIKE FROM USA said:
Ofcourse they HATE US. They never wasted a chance to hurt and destroy us. Ofcourse they HATE US, they celebrate our death and smile when we bleed. Ofcourse they HATE US because they envy us. Ofcourse they HATE US because we are Muslims.
2006-06-11

BIG GUY FROM USA said:
Why don't Muslims ever ask why Americans hate them? It seems to be an obvious question...
2006-06-10

CHRIS FROM USA said:
Palestinians being upset about the US cutting off aid after the
election of Hamas only means they do not understand the price
of freedom. They voted for who they wished and must now deal
with the consequences. Why should a country fund another
country that wants to destroy it? Only a country of idiots would
expect that. I appreciate that the Palestinians are between two
bad choices and that Hamas does good for them, but you cannot
expect us to fund a movement that seeks to destroy another
country.
2006-06-10

FIRDEUSE FROM KOSOVA said:
selam alejkum yes they hate us.Because we think diferently as they do,we are not they and in this world must egsist only people that bahve "europeanly".
2006-06-10

SYED HUSAIN FROM BANGLADESH said:
The GW Bush led war was never a war on terrorism. The Iraq invasion would have taken place anyway. That 9/11 came along was a win-win situation for GW Bush - one of the worst war criminal since the coming to earth of Adam & Eve.

It is a war fought on behalf of Israel to eliminate the practicing muslims by cleverly recruting the non-practicing people who claims to be muslims. To begin with creation of Israel was illegal. They want to create a non-functioning Palestanian state. Not only that, US on behalf of Israel wants to redraw the middleast map & thereby grab more muslims lands & hand it over Israel. That was the main aim of invading Iraq. The US-Israeli attrocities on the Palestanians & rest of the muslim world have not yet reached its peak. Backed by the US, Israel has just celebrated its 58 years of occupation, murder, rape & crimes that has no word to describe. Few more years still left before US-Israeli attrocities on the Palestanian & the rest of the muslims accross the globe reaches its peak. Till then US-Israel will be celebrating so-called successes & victories in 'war on terrorism'.

The call for democracy on a muslim land & war on terrorism are just one mega-top baloney.
2006-06-10

AHSAN FROM USA said:
Terrorism has been described as waging war on innocents to break their political leaders. That is what bush is doing, without prejudice, do you think bush is the chief licenced terrorist and can anybody stop him >? before he carry on to terrorising the world............
2006-06-10

KHAN FROM USA said:
Why do they Hate us? Who hates who?

Do Muslims hate us because of our policies, interference,invasions or actions?
OR
Do we hate them because of their religion,they want to become independent or they have oil, gas, money-that we need for our economy and welfare?
OR
Do we need something everytime to keep ouselves busy, make excuses for our actions and stay in power?

We need to think on these and decide who hates who?

2006-06-09

NASIR A FROM US said:
Why do they hate us? I don't beleive they hate
us. They hate the foreign policy that US has set to favor the Jewish people. US needs to change its foreign policy in more agreeable to everyone then just Israeli. US takes the oil and yet they favor the jews.
2006-06-09

FAISAL GHORI FROM USA said:
Sanctions may be more damaging to our interests. I agree with Mr. Buchanan, is what we are doing to Palastinians not Terrorism.
2006-06-09