From Lidice to Abu Hishma

[Ivo Skoric]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/international/middleeast/07TACT.html
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Razing homes that  supposedly harbored terrorists to make their 
families suffer, arresting relatives of elusive suspects to make them 
turn in, encircling whole villages with barbed wire - all the 
hallmark practices of Israeli occupation of Gaza and West Bank, are 
now employed by the US in Iraq. Why? Because, they, apparently work. 
Israel is indeed keeping Palestinians on a very short leash. By the 
standards of the country just until recently ruled by a ruthless 
leader like Saddam who used mustard gas against his Kurdish 
'insurgents', this must look pretty mellow, I guess. But how does 
making innocent people suffer for crimes of someone else agree with 
the international law and the rules of conduct in the war? As if 
anyone cares about those any more. New York Times makes the 
connection - US/Iraq - Israel/Palestine - but it fails to observe 
deeper historic truth: all conquerors always behave like that. 
Ottoman Empire behaved the same way. And when Czech resistance in the 
WW II - funny how we call them resistance, and not insurgents against 
the great and victorious Third Reich - managed to kill Gestapo's boss 
Heidrich, SS troops caught the perpetrators and then levelled their 
village of Lidice, sent off all inhabitants to the camps. History 
repeats.

ivo