US support for Israel condemned
A Kuwaiti company has taken out a full page advertisement in an American newspaper criticising US support for Israel in the war with Hezbollah.
Photographs of wounded and crying children – identified as Lebanese casualties “from the Israeli bombing August 2006” – covered most of Wednesday’s advertisement by the Al Kharafi Group.
“We think there is a misunderstanding in determining who deserves to be accused of being a Fascist,” said the text addressing George Bush, the US president.
Bush recently used the word “fascists” to describe Muslim terror suspects.
“We are telling President Bush, with all due respect …, look what is happening to the poor children in Lebanon,” said Nasser al-Kharafi, president of the group that is one of the largest contractors in the Arab world.
The group directed the message to Bush because “he is the representative of Israel,” and its backer, said al-Kharafi, whose group has announced plans to establish a non-profit organisation to help reconstruct Lebanon.
Oil-rich Kuwait has been a major ally of Washington since the US-led international coalition liberated it in the 1991 Gulf War after a seven-month Iraqi occupation.
The widespread destruction in Lebanon caused by Israeli bombing during the 34-day war has deepened the feeling among Arabs and Muslims that Washington sides with Israel.