Cash, oil bottom line

Along with the U.S. government's attempt to downplay the latest tragedy in the Middle East -- one that has so far claimed 93 Palestinian lives -- the U.S. media is doing its best to paint the Palestinians as terrorists, thugs and the instigators of the violence.

These so-called terrorists -- Palestinian men, women and children armed with sticks and rocks-- were spurned into demonstrations only after Israeli Ariel Sharon visited the Haram al-Sharif complex, a holy Islamic site, in Jerusalem.

Sharon oversaw the grisly massacre of some 2,700 Palestinian men, women and children at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps near Beirut in 1982. Understandably, Palestinians were upset when this criminal desecrated one of their holy sites by entering it.

Instead of an Israeli apology, Palestinian civilians were shot at from Israeli helicopters.

Palestinians have to contend with an oppression that ironically resembles what the Jews suffered in Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, the non-Arab American population remains disinterested. Spray painted slogans, such as "Kill all Arabs," adorn walls in Jerusalem and other cities, while armed Israeli soldiers brutalize Arabs on site, from the elderly to the very young.

If this were happening to a white, Christian people, there would be national outrage and military intervention immediately.

The bottom line is, of course, money and oil. Israel, which could be viewed as a strategic launching point for U.S. imperialism in the Middle East, is very profitable to the United States.

This morally disgusting stance has cost thousands of Palestinian lives, including 12-year-old Rami al-Durra, who was murdered Oct. 1 by Israeli machine gun fire and died in his father's arms as they crouched against a concrete wall.

The images of al-Durra's death failed to stir American sentiment. However, when Hezbollah rebels captured and killed three Israeli soldiers, the images were played over and over in the media, while commentators labeled the rebels  as "terrorists."

Few seem to know that the Hezbollah are peasants in the tradition of American minutemen. They are organized to resist an oppressive force that has invaded their own land.

The U.S. government's hand in the destruction of Palestine and the slaughter of Muslims and the U.S. population's indifference to the plight of Palestinians is morally repugnant.