The War is Over! The New Awakening!
January 20th, 2009It is 1 am now in the Middle East. The cease fire will be effective in 1 hour. Just as predicted, Israel decided to cease fire just when Barack Obama is boarding the train and is on his way to the White House.
Israel has been attacking Gaza nonstop for 22 days, after having carte blanche from the current Bush Administration to go ahead with its plan, and after using all kinds of conventional and non conventional banned military weapons against Hamas militias and Palestinian civilians.
22 days of diplomacy, protests and a UN resolution failed to pressure Israel to cease fire and end the bloodshed. So what made Israel announce a unilateral ceasefire, knowing that Gaza is still under Hamas rule, rockets are still falling in Israel? (Hamas agreed to the ceasefire, when this post was published, and Israel said it listened to Husni Mubarak appeal to cease fire and later said that it is doing the pullout because of Obama!)
So far, Gaza is still under siege, and Israel is still controlling its skies, land, sea and power supplies. So far the dead are more than 1,300 civilians and the number is rising and there are more than 5,300 injured where half are children.
So did Israel achieve anything?
Did Hamas win the war?
The answer is simply NO.
Israel has lost its credibility as the third most advanced military power in the World, which failed to crush Hamas which is not an army. Israel did not succeed in entering highly populated cities in Gaza and kept a safe distance by targeting Hamas and civilians from the sky above using banned White Phosphorous bombs. This war has changed the equation of power in the Middle East. Hamas has proved to the World that it is a power that should be dealt with care.
Israel’s image was deeply hurt around the world, as the images of dead and burned children in the name of defending Israel’s security cannot be easily ignored or justified. This country was acting like a bully and not paying any attention to the peace initiatives of Turkey, France and Egypt and finally the UN Resolution. Voices calling for Peace from inside Israel and the Arab World were ignored, and the everyday protests across the World (From Brazil to New York, LA, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Muslim World) were totally ineffectual in stopping this bloodshed. And finally cutting diplomatic ties and relations did not do Israel any good.
Hamas has not only lost some of its leaders but has caused Gaza 1.5 Trillion Dollars of damage and a catastrophic situation within the population that was caused by the Israeli assault. While many people in the Arab World will consider Hamas a resistance group that was able to stop Israeli aggression the past 3 weeks, it should be held accountable for foolish acts against its people as they made many mistakes during the past few years. Hamas has failed diplomatically and politically but gained popularity as a resistance group. Last what we need today is an Islamic Political Influence in the Middle East.
But Hamas and Israel were not the only losers. The big losers were the ailing regimes of the Arab World like Husni Mubarak of Egypt, King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia and unfortunately Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority. They have let their people down, ignored their calls for opening the borders with Gaza for humanitarian aid and refused to meet in an Arab Summit in Qatar after 18 days of the war. Mahmoud Abbas failed to represent the Palestinians as their president and failed to express even one condemnation of the war. He has let his people down. Most of Arab leaderships were quiet during the war. It is suggested that Mahmoud Abbas who is known as a corrupted thug submit his resignation along with Fatah leadership and call for new elections. Palestine needs a new leadership and it should be neither Hamas nor Fatah.
In the last day of the war, Israel has signed an agreement with the US to prevent weapons from entering Gaza, and Europe and the UK showed their readiness to co-operate. But even if Israel signed tens of agreements with any country, this will not make it any safer knowing that Palestinians are living in a situation of injustice for the past 60 years. How can you be safe when you know that your neighbors are dying from poverty, have an ailing economy and you are imposing a land, sea and air embargo on them?
I believe that only with negotiations and the withdrawal of troops and giving Palestinians the right of movement, self determination and democracy will Israel have peace of mind. The solution is simple: End the Occupation.
Economically, it is less expensive to end the occupation instead of building an apartheid wall, electric fences, and battle ships monitoring the ocean and spying satellites. What we need to do is build bridges between nations and plant seeds of co-existence between people who are fed up from 60 years of Diaspora and wars.
Here is a list of things that we need to push for:
•Israel, Arab countries and the International community should send money and help in re building Gaza.
•Israel, Arab countries and the International community should help Palestinians who are not only in Gaza but the occupied West Bank, to improve their economy, education system, and healthcare.
•Financial aid should NOT be sent thru the Palestinian Authority who has been known over the years of not delivering money.
•Enforce an investigation of War Crimes in Gaza
•Branding Gaza. For people and especially Arabs not to forget this unjust war, Gaza should be branded and stop using the term “Gaza Holocaust” is it has already been used.
•End the occupation in Gaza and the West Bank and end the restriction of movement on Palestinians and let them control their sea port, airport and border crossings.
•Put International monitors inside Israel to protect the Palestinians from Israeli aggression and targeted assassinations
•Give Muslim and Christian Palestinians the freedom of practicing their religion in Jerusalem and Bethlehem and anywhere in Israel / Palestine
•Give Palestinians a chance for self determination and let them chose who they want by having fair elections monitored by the UN and EU.
•Work on achieving a One State solution. You can’t have two states when an apartheid wall is cutting into Arab towns and villages and illegal settlements are scattered all over the West Bank. Other issues like the refugees, Jerusalem status and the Arab Israelis will be solved by having One State for all, but naming that country will remain a question!
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza however, live under a brutal military occupation, and it’s all up to Israel. The Palestinians are more than ready.
This war had a great impact on Arab youth and the future generations of this region. Israel was successful in awakening the Nationalism and Patriotism in every Arab, just when everyone thought Nationalism has been long dead. Those generations have never witnessed Jamal Abdel Nasser, the Nakbah of Palestine in 1948 & 1967, or the Suez Canal crossing in 1973.
Those millions of Arabs were able to take their anger to the streets in their countries, and the hallways of their parliaments. I have never seen such protests across the Arab World for any cause. We had a few during the US invasion in Iraq, the war on Lebanon in 2006 but nothing was like this. I have never seen teenagers, children, men, women; Christian & Muslim who went to the streets to protest the silence and the negativity of their leadership and to denounce the unjust war against Palestinian civilians. People started boycotting Israeli products, cancelling New Year’s Eve parties, donating their clothes, blankets, mattresses, jackets and money. One teenager told me “I can’t help with money but I can help with my sweat” in reference to his participation in organizing the donations given, “This is the least I can give to Palestine” he added. Donation centers were put everywhere in Jordan and the Arab World, sending money, canned food and blood donations to the UNRWA in Gaza. People were carpooling to go to warehouses to organize the donations. Companies and employees were donating money, ambulances and even sending doctors to Gaza. Those are not Pro Hamas or Pro Fatah they are simply awakened Arabs who feel the pain and sorrow of their brothers and sisters in Gaza!
During my 35 years in this part of the world, I have never seen such union and bond between different ethnic backgrounds, religions within the Arab community. Of course I have to give credit to many Americans and Europeans and other NGOs who have donated and helped so much during this crisis and showed sympathy to Palestinian civilians.
I have seen Arab youth, from Morocco in the West, to Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait in the East, who were moved and angered by the Israeli brutality. And it is not religion that is uniting them but the language, the Arabic culture and history of this region that was invaded by Romans and Greeks thousands of years ago. Arab Christians and Muslims worked hand in hand to help Palestinians thru this tough time and I would really like to congratulate Israel in bringing awareness to our Youth on the danger of occupation and oppression. And just like two months ago, when many Arabs were hopeful about Obama’s election inspite of the United States’ blind support of this unjust war, I also see more and more Arabs becoming increasingly conscious about their one and only cause, the end of occupation in Palestine.
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Are the Gaza people dancing in the streets now as they did when the world trade towers came down? Let them get help from their brothers in crime such as Iran.
Ali,
I think you have some good ideas in this post and I agree with most of what you say. However, I vehemently disagree with your support of the one state solution. The one state solution basically calls for the destruction of Israel. Calling for such a solution only empowers right wing forces in both Israel and the Jewish diaspora.
Greg, I think you misintepretted the One State Solution. It is all about coexisting between Arabs and Israelis. The whole idea is to end the fighting and bloodshed that has been going on for 60 years. We should learn from the US and South Africa how people from every color, faith and ethnic background live together in harmony respect under one law. If you have ever visited the West Bank you will know that you can’t devide it into two countries, it is already a Ghetto for Palestinians in their divided villages and towns and Israelis living in Ghetto like settelments, that is not a life or a country. All this should end, by illiminating the occupation.
Shmoo, it is funny that you return the ugly images of a few hundreds of people who were dancing in the street. We as Arabs and Palestinians hate violence and denounced many times the 9/11 tragedy. Because those hundreds of people do not present the 1 billion Muslims in this world. And by the way, did you ever think what happened to the 4,000 Christian Palestinians who were bombed by Israel? What ever Hamas mistake was, it just doesn’t justify the killing of Children and women, if it does then we aee not considered humans anymore!
Dahmash, there are many reasons why Israelis won’t accept a one-state solution.
1.) When the Palestinians elected Hamas in 2006, they elected an antisemitic organization.
2.) Lebanon, a country of great diversity, is bitterly divided between the factions, had a civil war, and their quasi-democracy is ineffective. Can you imagine a political party that gets its weapons from abroad? Think in the perspective of a westerner, I am talking about Hezbollah.
3.) Cyprus has in effect divided the country into two between the Greeks and Turks. It’s peaceful there. Actually the UN built an “Apartheid” wall there.
A one state solution is all nice and fuzzy, but this is the Middle East we are talking about. Semites are a tribal people. At least Israelis don’t vote the way their “clan” does. But the Palestinians are still divided into clans just like in Iraq. Israelis have their own form of tribalism but it doesn’t spill into the political and commercial arena. The only way forward for the Palestinians is the two state-solution.
I also agree that the occupation should be ended, but only within the framework of a two-state solution.
Israel will have no reason to cooperate unless its security and identity could be guaranteed. A one-state solution will inevitably result in the destruction of the Jewish state because Jews will be outnumbered, and therefore, voted out of power. And Jews around the world are convinced that in light of a 2000 years, they must have a state of their own to survive.
However, even within the framework of a two-state solution, it is possible, Ali, to achieve almost all of your suggestions. Most of the settlements will have to be dismantled, in order to create a viable state for the Palestinians, but that can be done, as was suggested in the proposal made by Ehud Barack in the year 2000.
What your plan doesn’t seem to address is; What do you do with the extremists in the region who have no intention of allowing a peace treaty to take place?
Michael, not all Palestinians elcted Hamas. Hamas is a liberation movement as much as the Irish Republican army that killed English civilians until they forced Britain to sit with them. Do not get me wrong here, I am totally against Hamas and killing civilians, but i am pro humanity and Israel has killed innocent Palestinians. Palestinians are not divided ethnicaly like Iraq, Palestinians are all Cannates and relegion doesn’t divide us, we have Palestinian Christians and Muslims under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. We are politicaly divided because Hamas wants to destroy anything, Fatah are a bunch of corrupted thugs, and that’s why many Christians didn’t elect Fatah and choose Hamas, to see change. Now our hope for good leadership is with people like Barghoti.
Nissim, extremists and Arab Nations like to play the Palestinian card. They play it for their own interest. As for a 2 state solution, what will the map of Palestine and Israel look like, when I have to drive from Jerusalem to Bethlehem I have to go in a zig zag to avoid illegal jewish settelments on the way. That was a simple example. so imagine the rest. Do you think Israel will let Palestinians have their own border police, control their border crossings, have tanks, weapons, who are we kidding here? then why have a Jewish state? Shouldn’t Christians claim that land as thiers since Jesuse Christ was from there. The solution is only one state for all.