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Zionists Are the Real Terrorists: US Rulers Glorify Israeli Aggression

By VVAW

On July 4th a company of Israeli commandos assaulted the airport of Entebbe, Uganda, freeing the 103 remaining hostages of the 250 Air France passengers hijacked by terrorists on a flight from Tel Aviv to Athens June 28th. Landing machine gun jeeps and light armored cars, the Israelis opened fire on airport installations and Ugandan troops on guard at the airport installations and Ugandan troops on guard at the airport while negotiations with the hijackers were in progress. Twenty Ugandan soldiers, 6 hijackers, 3 hostages and 2 commandos were killed. As the Israelis prepared to take off with the freed hostages, they set off explosive charges on Ugandan planes sitting at the airport.

The hijackers and demanded the release of 59 Palestinians and supporters from Israeli and West European jails. Not only was this effort a miserable failure, it proved to be a propaganda bonanza for the Zionist rulers of Israel and the US government.

The Israel raid received waves of praise from the capitalists, their politicians and media. "Courageous," "heroic," "gratifying," "exemplary" were some of the words used to describe the action. For sent a message of congratulations, Carter hailed it with enthusiasm and Reagan said they showed us what America used to be like. Countless editorials held it up as an example of the kind of fighting spirit the American people should have in lining up to defend the interest of the US capitalists in the Middle East and other areas of the world.

The hijacking confused the real enemy of the Palestinians with random passengers on an airliner. The Us and the Zionists used it for all it was worth as part of their efforts to obscure the real nature of the situation in the Middle East and the struggle people to regain their homeland stolen by terror in 1948 when the state of Israel was set and in later aggressive wars.

For the US monopoly capitalists, Israel play a key role in the Middle East--a key weapon in their efforts to grab and hold strategic areas and huge oil profits. Not only does it serve as a direct outpost of US influence and investment in the area, but the continued existence of the Israeli state on occupied Palestinian and Arab territory keeps the entire area in a constant state of turmoil, conflict and tension. In this situation the US and the Soviet Union as well, maneuver and scheme for dominant influence and control of the Middle East and its rich oil supply.

But the Palestinians have not accepted this robbery. They have refused to condemn their children and their children's children to a life of misery and degradation in crowded, impoverished refugee camps, exiled from their homeland now occupied by the Israeli settler state. Going against great offs, time after time sabotaged and attacked by the reactionary leaders of the Arab countries, the Palestinians have built their own military and political organizations. They have waged continuous and bitter struggle against the Zionists and their imperialist backers. And inside the Israeli itself, the Palestinians, increasingly in recent months, have been mounting struggle against their Zionist oppressors. Large scale demonstrations of Palestinians, and some Israelis opposed to the repressive regulations and conditions the masses of Palestinians living in occupied territory are forced to endure, have been met with the rifle and machine gun fire of Israeli army troops.

All this has increased support for the Palestinians among the people of the world, and eroded much of the support the Zionists and their supporters have been able to whip up over the years. Israel has become increasingly isolated in the world as the Palestinians have continued to fight for their homeland.

The US and their Zionist allies have used the hijacking to try to paint the Palestinians as nothing more than small bands of criminals, reduced to individual acts of terrorism and sabotage. But these terrorist tactics do not reflect the character of the struggle of the millions of Palestinian people have chosen to wage. This can be seen in the massive battles that the Palestinians and their allies are now waging against the Syrian and other imperialist backed forces in Lebanon today. And the mass character of the Palestinian struggle is clear in the recent massive demonstrations in the West Bank.

In reality, it is the Zionists and their US backers who are the real terrorists. Bombings, torture, the murder of women and children have always been a standard part of the Zionist arsenal. Israeli commando terrorist have gone into Lebanon and other Arab countries to assassinate leaders of the Palestinian struggle. They have bombed and strafed the Palestinian refugee camps to try to demoralize and destroy the Palestinian people. All of this had gone on for more than 25 years, supported, encouraged and glorified by the rulers of this country.

But despite the efforts of the capitalists in the US to wrap the Israeli commando in the mantle of anti-terrorist heroes and to portray an act of imperialist aggression as heroic freedom fighting adventure (Universal Studios in Hollywood has already announced it will make a movie on the raid) the struggle of the Palestinians to regain their homeland will not diminish, nor will it tail off into the dead-end tactics of terrorist, would-be supporters.

Since Vietnam, when their dirty stinking war fell into disrepute, the US imperialists have been trying to pretty up their war efforts again under the same old tales about "defending democracy and freedom." And while they've tried to make hay off this hijacking, as the facts behind the Middle East situation get clearer, all their Hollywood glamorizing will win few supporters among the American people for their efforts to defend their capitalist empire.