I previously wrote about the sacking of colleague Octavia Nasr from her post as senior Middle East correspondent in CNN, because she expressed her grief for the death of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. But I did not write about the Ayatollah himself, because I know Octavia and respect her objectivity, aptitude and intelligence, while I did not know Sayyed Fadlallah personally. The readers have expressed great interest in that topic, and Al-Hayat published a great deal many of their letters; I replied to some of these directly. In truth, this issue deserves some follow-up. Octavia Nasr was not alone in appreciating Fadlallah. The British ambassador to Lebanon, Frances Guy, also expressed her regret for the departure of a virtuous man, and said that the world needed many like him, as he dealt positively with other religions and dared to challenge old taboos. The Economist repeated the ambassador's words in an obituary of Fadlallah, and said that his office always had Sunni and Christian visitors discussing matters with him. Also, it noted along with many other media outlets that he condemned the terrorist attacks of 11/9/2001 immediately, and that he asked the Iraqis to be patient with the Americans who have saved them from Saddam Hussein. Furthermore, the British journalist Robert Fisk described Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah as ‘a giant'. Fadlallah's fame came from the fact that he was independent in his opinion. While he supported the Iranian revolution, he did not support vilayat-e-faqih [clerical rule], and stood against honor killings. Although he is known as the spiritual godfather of Hezbollah, the better informed experts deny this, once again because of the independence of his views and beliefs. Both Italy and France sent their ambassadors in Lebanon to attend his funeral, which means that they deny the charge that he is a terrorist, as alleged by the Americans. In contrast with all the above appreciation of Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah's qualities, there is Israel, the fascistic state that first practiced terrorism in the Middle East, spawning all the terrorism in response, and then accuses others of the terrorism it itself perpetrates. The Israeli Foreign Ministry protested against Ambassador Guy's statement, and asked whether supporting terrorism and giving it a religious cover is a legacy worth celebrating. However, this question should be directed to Israel, not to a departed religious leader or a national liberation movement. Israel has practiced, and continues to practice terrorism against the Palestinians, based on religious myths, while its cabinet consists of criminal gangs that I do not consider to be political parties. The Israeli Foreign Ministry which protested against the British ambassador is led by a minister who is a past and future brothel bouncer from Moldova called Avigdor Lieberman. He arrogantly and blatantly calls for the ‘transfer' or expulsion of the native and sole rightful inhabitants of the land. I strongly protest against those who support Israeli terrorism, especially among the Jews who experienced racism firsthand over centuries culminating with the Nazi Holocaust. Nonetheless, some Jews practiced terrorism against the Palestinians, and others denied Israeli terrorism and tried to find excuses for it, effectively becoming partners in this terrorism. However, we know that against all those Israeli terrorists and apologists, there are thousands of Jews in Israel and the whole world who seek peace proactively, to the extent that some are calling for a boycott of Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians. Frankly, even among Arabs, there are no such peace seekers. I wrote the above after I read on the sidelines of the Octavia Nasr affair that the Simon Wiesenthal Center in the United States demanded that Octavia apologize to the victims of Hezbollah's terror. I demand that the center of Holocaust merchants apologize to the victims of Israeli terrorism, starting with thousands of Palestinian women and children, and not ending with the martyrs of the Freedom Flotilla, and all the victims murdered by the occupation in the past two months, as the crime against the people of this country has almost become a daily ritual. Israeli would not have been able to commit its crimes against humanity and get away with it, were it not for those who are aiding and abetting it, to use Western legal parlance. Perhaps there are some among those who are Jews that do not want to believe that the country of the descendants of Holocaust survivors is committing crimes of a Nazi nature. But then this is exactly what Israel is doing. I continue with a point on the ‘Israelism' of Israel. Only a few days ago, I wrote about how an Israeli policeman was sentenced to 30 months in prison after he killed a fleeing unarmed Palestinian thief by shooting him in the head. This caused an uproar that is yet to subside in protest against the sentencing, which involved a few months in return for the life of a human being, while the sentencing was criticized by ministers, clerics and police officials. On the same day, there were major protests in Britain revolving around a British policeman who beat a demonstrator with a baton – causing him to die – during the G20 summit in Britain two years ago. However, the protests in Britain did not take place in support of the policeman, but in protest of the fact that he will not face prosecution. In Israel, they support a murderous policeman, because killing Palestinians there is a sport not a crime, while in Britain, they protest when a policeman who used his baton is not prosecuted. This is the difference between Israel and the rest of the world. [email protected]
