From Gaza to Taba
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=10/10/2004&Cat=14&Num=001
By Hassan Hanizadeh
The bombings that occurred on Thursday night at the Egyptian resorts in
Taba, Ras al-Sultan, and Nuweiba hold a message that both the United States
and Israel should carefully analyze.

The three blasts happened at short intervals, killing 30 Israeli tourists
and wounding over one hundred people, including some other foreign
tourists.

Taba, which is located on the coast of the Red Sea, is a popular resort for
Israelis and every year thousands of Zionists spend their holidays there.

The fact that the blasts occurred in an area which is under tight security
by Egyptian police forces shows that the perpetrators made use of extremely
detailed planning and were in complete coordination.

Although all world religions prohibit the killing of non-combatants and
innocent civilians, the Zionist regime has played a major role in the
expansion of this evil phenomenon.

Over the past ten days Israel has stepped up its attacks against the
innocent Palestinian people living in northern Gaza. Almost a hundred
Palestinian civilians were martyred and hundreds of others wounded during
the onslaught.

Members of the Arab League tried to stop Israel's attacks on non-combatant
Palestinians by calling for a UN Security Council resolution censuring
Israel, but it was unjustifiably vetoed by the United States.

The U.S. veto of the draft resolution which was proposed by Arab countries
is a sign of the duplicity of White House officials toward the phenomenon
of international terrorism. How can the U.S. allow Israel to massacre
Palestinians with impunity despite its so-called campaign against terrorism
and at the same time expect others to remain silent about these crimes? Why
is it that as soon as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon orders the
massacre of Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip, the U.S. calls on
Palestinian resistance groups to exercise restraint, but never adopts
similar measures toward Sharon's crimes? Yet, regional nations and Muslims
throughout the world, who are closely following developments in occupied
Palestine, cannot continue to remain silent observers of the illogical
double-standard policies of the U.S.

The bomb blast in Taba that killed a group of Israeli tourists was one of
the most dangerous events that took place after the Zionist army's recent
massacres of Palestinians in Gaza.

The explosion showed that the campaign against the evil phenomenon of
state-sponsored terrorism, which is practiced by Israel, has extended
beyond the borders of Palestine and this will lead to dangerous
consequences for the Zionist regime.

If Israel fails to revise its policies toward the Palestinians it will
certainly have to pay a heavy price outside the Palestinian territories.

This is because the issue of the occupied territories is not just
restricted to the Palestinian nation but is a matter for 1.5 billion
Muslims throughout the world who, in spite of certain differences in their
viewpoints, can never remain silent about the fate of their Palestinian
co-religionists and will respond by any means necessary.