Detroit News Columnist and Hezbollah Apologist
Imam Mohammad Elahi Continues to Defame Israel
by Lee Green
Only a hardcore apologist for the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah could manage to blame the recent war in Lebanon on an Israeli and American conspiracy. Yet that is what Mohammad Ali Elahi, Detroit News columnist and Imam of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, did on the pages of the Detroit News on September 21, 2006 in his op-ed, "Israel's disregard for life stirs unrest in Middle East; Israel's disregard for life destabilizes the Middle East."
* Elahi repeats the baseless charge of conspiracy monger Seymour Hersh that Israel and the Bush administration planned the whole war "earlier in the summer". He accuses Israel of "looking for any excuse to kill whoever refuses to submit to its hegemony."
He offers no substantiation of this charge and tries to let Hezbollah's reckless leader, Hassan Nasrallah, off the hook by minimizing the unprovoked attack in which Hezbollah killed 3 Israeli soldiers and abducted 2 others. If Israel were bent on hegemony, then why did it withdraw fully from Lebanon 6 years ago?
Israel fought Hezbollah for the simple reason that it is a country's duty to protect its citizens. Imam Elahi (Sept 21, 2006 column) seems to have forgotten that Hezbollah began the war by lobbing Katyusha rockets into northern Israeli communities, endangering thousands of civilians, and causing hundreds of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes.
If terrorists in Mexico began sending rockets into Texas and thousands of Texans had to live in bomb shelters or flee north, don't you think the U.S. would have taken action against the terrorists, as Israel did?
* Elahi asks us to "look at the facts: Who was and still is on whose land?" suggesting that Israel still occupies Lebanese land.
In fact, the UN certified after Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in May of 2000 that it did not occupy any Lebanese territory. Maybe Mr. Elahi needs to start looking at the facts.
*He quotes the misguided assertions of alleged eyewitness Kathy Kelly that there was "no sign of military targets" in the villages of southern Lebanon.
This is contradicted by the intense fighting that Israeli soldiers encountered when they attempted to drive Hezbollah out of these villages. Of the estimated 800-1300 Lebanese killed in the conflict, the Israelis and many independent estimates put Hezbollah dead at more than 500 and possibly over 700.
Israel made great efforts not to harm civilians, but in a war where Hezbollah hid among the civilian population, civilians were inevitably killed. Israel should not be held to a standard of perfection while Hezbollah is held to no standard at all.
Hezbollah launched thousands of rockets into Israel, seeking to harm and terrorize Israeli civilians. Israel, in contrast, sought to prevent harm to Lebanese civilians. Before Israel began its large scale military attacks, Israeli planes dropped leaflets warning Lebanese civilians to leave any area in which Hezbollah was operating or living. Hezbollah locations were well known to Lebanese residents/neighbors, and if the neighbors remained nearby despite Israel's warnings, their subsequent injuries or deaths are unfortunate, but hardly Israel's fault. Hezbollah is ultimately responsible for all the deaths precipitated by its unprovoked aggression against Israel.
* Elahi expresses pride at the current popularity of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah.
In Lebanon, there are actually mixed feelings about Nasrallah. Even many within the Shiite community of South Lebanon are unhappy with Nasrallah's decision to attack Israel. The Grand Imam of the city of Tyre recently criticized Nasrallah asking what right he had to drag Lebanon into a war it did not want.
* Elahi writes: " U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on Israel to refrain from violating Lebanon's sovereignty, but Israel, as usual, rebuffed Annan's demands."
Elahi seems to have forgotten that it was Hezbollah who violated Lebanon's sovereignty and humiliated the government of Lebanon by taking Lebanon's foreign policy into its own hands and getting Lebanon involved in a war that most of its citizens did not want. While Hezbollah is part of the government, it did not have the right to act on its own. Kofi Annan called upon Hezbollah to release the Israeli soldiers and UN resolution 1559 required that Hezbollah be disarmed. Hezbollah has not complied, "as usual", but this doesn't seem to bother Elahi.
* In an apparent attack of amnesia, Elahi writes "After six decades of failing to engage in civil discourse with its neighbors, it's time for Israelis to think of a new strategy for survival."
From the day of its inception, Israel has extended its hand in peace to its Arab neighbors. In return, Israel was repeatedly attacked and terrorized by radical supremacist Muslims for having a non-Muslim government. Israel engaged in "civil discourse" for many years during the Oslo peace process and offered the Palestinians a state of their own on very generous terms. The Palestinians' response was to walk out of the talks and launch a wave of terrorist attacks. Israel offered a generous peace treaty to Syria, but was also rejected.
Israel is not the obstacle to peace in the region; radical Muslim supremacist ideas are. When the radical Muslim mind is occupied not with anti-Jewish bigotry and plans for the destruction of Israel but with thoughts about building just, democratic, pluralistic societies in the Arab/Muslim world, then peace will be much more likely to come to the region.
Israel was willing to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority because they had said at the time that they had renounced violence and accepted Israel's right to exist. While their actions contradicted these statements, the statements nonetheless opened the door to negotiations.
Hezbollah, in contrast, continues to deny Jews' historical ties to the land of Israel, refuses to recognize Israel's legitimacy, and actively strives for Israel's destruction. Calls for Israel to negotiate with a terror group actively pursuing Israel's annihilation will certainly not lead to longterm peace or security. Would anyone who wanted to be taken seriously have called for the U.S. to negotiate with Al Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks?
Elahi's September 21, 2006 Column in the Detroit News:
Israel's disregard for life stirs unrest in Middle East
Israel's disregard for life destabilizes the Middle East
After 33 days of blowing up all major roads, bridges and airports in southern Lebanon, Israeli soldier Gil Ovadia's commander told his troops to be prepared to come back soon and fight again.
The Israeli public still criticizes Olmert's government for not doing enough damage. Uri Avnery, a Jewish writer stated, "If one wants to become prime minister of Israel, one has to walk over dead bodies."
Last month, Rabbi Dov Lior of the Yesha Council of Rabbis announced, "There are no innocent parties in a time of war. Rather, one must battle a bellicose city until it is captured." It gives us a clear picture of who is the warmonger here. Certainly this mind set of disregarding the lives and property of one's neighbors is Israel's real problem and not that of the people of Lebanon and Palestine.
"We did not think that there was a 1 percent chance that the capturing would lead to a war of this scale and magnitude," admitted Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah.
Yet the war was not about responding to the capture of two Israeli soldiers because it was planned by Israel and approved by the Bush administration earlier this summer, according to a report by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker. The U.S. administration dispelled any lingering doubt by rushing arms to Israel despite the world's efforts toward a cease-fire. The United Nations was shocked to find that 90 percent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred after a cease-fire had already been planned. Jan Egeland described Israel's use of those bombs as "shocking" and "immoral."
Israeli attacks immoral
Last month's war was not just against Hezbollah. Raining thousands of bombs on Lebanese villages was not an act of self-defense.
Just look at the facts: Who was and still is on whose land? After massacring many women and children in Qana, it still continued its murderous attacks.
"Did the proponents of war, in Israel, understand that there is no sign of a military target in the villages of southern Lebanon where homes, schools, clinics, grocery stores and children's playgrounds have been destroyed?" asked Kathy Kelly, an American eyewitness. If what Israel did in Lebanon and keeps doing in Palestine is not terrorism, then what is terrorism?
It appears that Israel is looking for any excuse to kill whoever refuses to submit to its hegemony. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on Israel to refrain from violating Lebanon's sovereignty, but Israel, as usual, rebuffed Annan's demands.
Israel's cowardly blitz bombing made Hezbollah -- as the king of Jordan said -- the heroes of the Arab world. An Al-Jazeera poll called Nasrallah the most popular leader in the Arab world. In this war, the blood of martyrdom was victorious over military might. Despite thousands of unexploded bombs Israel left behind, the Lebanese people streamed home, refusing to be ethnically cleansed from their land.
What makes a nation successful is not its power to kill and bring misery to the world, but its ability to bring comfort to our fellow human beings. Israel should realize its aggression and arrogance only fuel more hate, isolation and resistance. People won't forget that they are living under military occupation or that they have been living in refugee camps for six decades.
After six decades of failing to engage in civil discourse with its neighbors, it's time for Israelis to think of a new strategy for survival.
If the Israelis want to live in that neighborhood in peace and security, they better humble themselves and make some courageous changes in the Zionist political culture.
Originally Published on 9/27/2006 for CAMERA