*Given the pro-Israel bias of the American government and the compliant news media, the average American would never know that the truly aggrieved party in the ongoing Middle East crisis is the Palestinians.
Instead of objectively informing the public as to the history and issues which keep Israel and the Palestinians in constant states of war or near-war, the American media intentionally delight in portraying the Palestinians as crazed terrorists while portraying Israel as just a peace-loving nation which only resorts to violence in response to some Arab outrage.
This portrayal is false. Except for the innocent children who are killed, there are no angels in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In addition, Israeli policy is far from just and peace-loving.
Nevertheless, when Israel recently launched a vicious assault on the Gaza killing over 400 Palestinian men, women and children and wounding another 1,200, major U.S. media managed to portray the Israelis doing the killing as victims saying they were merely responding to rockets launched into Israel by the militant Palestinian group Hamas. But none of the media bothered to explain why Hamas was launching rockets into Israel.
Here is the reason.
In a bid to force (or terrorize) the Palestinian people into ending their support for Hamas, Israel, with U.S. support, has placed the Palestinians of Gaza under siege. Israel controls access to Gaza and denies food, medicine and fuel to the area. The Gazans live near destitution having their homes destroyed and searching garbage piles for food.
Whenever Israel finds a Palestinian leader it does not like, they kill him without charge or trial. Last week a Hamas leader was killed by a one-ton bomb. But in the process of killing him, the Israelis killed his four wives and 11 of his children. This approach is near standard procedure.
The Palestinians are forced to live in horrible, sub-human conditions because they defied Israel and the U.S. by electing Hamas to rule the Gaza in free, democratic elections.
The pain and suffering which Israel inflicts among the Palestinians is virtually never reported. It is only when the Palestinians respond by hurling missiles into Israel that we get any reporting from the U.S. media.
The Palestinians are an oppressed people with no nation of their own because of Israeli aggression. African Americans - a people of justice - should support the Palestinian right for nationhood and to be free from Israeli aggression. There will never be peace in the Middle East if Palestinian rights are not recognized.
The central problem is not Palestinian terrorism but Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and oppression of Palestinian people.
[Robert Taylor welcomes comments to his commentaries. Send your views to TaylorMediaPrime@yahoo.com or leave a brief message at 202-657-8872. Please include your name and city.]