[Peace-discuss] forgot about Outside concert tonite

[Paul Mueth]

I'll arrive late with some leaflets  . .    .

 	how about a Caterillar page as well?



Published on Thursday, July 24, 2008 by Haaretz
Caterpillar Fashion
by Gideon Levy
Israel might be able to go on claiming that it will
not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the
Middle East, but it cannot do the same regarding
another weapon of mass destruction: the bulldozer. The
claim that terror has adopted an original new weapon,
a “new fashion” as the public security minister put
it, once again shows how convenient it is for us to
present a one-sided and distorted picture.

The bulldozer as a destructive and even lethal weapon
was not invented by the Palestinians. They are merely
imitating an Israeli “fashion” that is as old as the
state, or at least as old as the occupation. Let us
forget for a moment the 416 villages Israel wiped off
the face of the earth in 1948 - that was before there
were D9 bulldozers - and focus on a more modern
fashion. In Israel’s hands the bulldozer has become
one of the most terrifying weapons in the territories.
The only difference between the Palestinians’
murderous bulldozer and the Israeli bulldozer is in
color and size. As usual, ours is bigger, much bigger.
There is no similarity between the small backhoe the
Palestinian terrorist was driving and the fearsome D9
driven by Israel Defense Forces soldiers.

>From the dawn of the occupation, Caterpillar has been
a major arms supplier to Israel, no less than those
who provide planes, cannons and tanks. Not for nothing
are peace activists trying to call for a boycott of
the manufacturer. Israel has sown almost unimaginable
destruction using heavy equipment. Go to Rafah,
stopping in Khan Yunis on the way, and see the results
of the destruction scattered there to this day. Whole
neighborhoods razed, the contents of houses -
possessions and memories - crushed under the treads.
Have you ever seen a street after being “stripped” by
a bulldozer? Cars are crushed like tin cans and homes
become piles of rubble, along with their contents. Any
street in Rafah looks much worse than King David
Street in Jerusalem this week.

In 2004, for example, 10,704 Palestinians were made
homeless after the IDF destroyed 1,404 homes, mostly
in Gaza, due to “operational needs.” In the Jenin
refugee camp, Israel destroyed 560 homes; the
legendary bulldozer driver “Kurdi” told how he would
swig whiskey as he “turned Jenin into a soccer field.”
In Operation Rainbow, another bulldozer operation,
Israel destroyed 120 homes in one day in the Brazil
camp in Rafah. Only someone who was in Rafah and Khan
Yunis at the time can understand what our excellent
bulldozers did.

Do not say that our bulldozers only destroy but do not
kill. Who killed peace activist Rachel Corrie if not a
bulldozer whose driver, according to witnesses, saw
her before he crushed her to death? And what about the
Shubi family in the Nablus casbah - a grandfather, two
aunts, a mother and two children - crushed under
bulldozers? And who killed Jamal Faid, a handicapped
man from the Jenin camp, whose wheelchair only was
found under the ruins of his house, with his body
never recovered? Was that not bulldozer terror?

The Palestinians discovered the bulldozer quite late.
What is good for us is good for them. And how do our
security experts propose to fight the new fashion? By
demolishing the houses of the terrorists. With
bulldozers, of course.

–Gideon Levy

© Copyright 2008 Haaretz