The recent avalanche of studies, analysis,
opinions, historic exploration, clarification missions and social media frenzy
about the ever-so-popular and polemical topic of the Middle East all come
against the backdrop of a brutal and senseless act of vengeance in the Gaza
strip that is draped with a military façade of Israeli self-defence. The Arab world
enunciated a Facebook war on the Israeli aggression and countless videos have
been posted, shared and commented on by sympathizers. Newspapers, columnists,
professors, journalists, scholars, bloggers and activists all had their share
in the action. They all buttressed the same cause, that of saving innocent
lives, but employed different angles to approach the issue. Some craftily
penned their analysis of the situation only to reconfirm the status quo and the
reasons behind this stalemate; others had better intentions at heart and tried
to come up with explications to why things are the way they are. Interesting
articles have been posted in prestigious publications, citing the example of The
Economist, where a three-page-article explained why the Arab Spring failed
and what has gone wrong in this region. This topic of course touched on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general, going back in time to colonial days and
moving on to modern days of patriarchal rule, the political-Islam wave and socio-economic factors
that hampered democracy building. The historic aspect is almost always present
in any article of the same nature. Other interesting articles explained how
Muslims should not be blamed for Jewish suffering, one even referring to Albanian charitable acts when protecting and hiding Jews in their
household in the thirties and forties of the past century. Other op-eds and
analytical articles tried to shed light on Israeli expansionist plans and every
intention to Swiss-cheese the Palestinian territories and annihilate the entire
Palestinian population slowly, and then defend/justify what is happening in Gaza. Islam, Al Qaeda, ISIS, terrorism, Arab
nationalism, Fateh, Zionism, holy war, Nazis, Hamas, Egypt’s Al Sisi, Arab
reactionary states and of course international oblivious attitude were amongst
the most popular themes covered when addressing the Israeli attack. Young,
indignant and heated Arabs’ calls for death to all Jews and fully fledge jihad
against the Israeli state have been employed as a let -off-some-steam consoling
and solidarity activity, which, as expected, was completely void and reaped
zero results (and thank God for that).
So now what? After all the posted videos, all the
historical aspects of the conflict explained and all the injustices done to
Palestinians portrayed, what is the end result? As useful as these studies and angles
of explaining the conflict are, and as equally important the sporadic acts
of support (via charities, NGOs, government initiatives, international
intervention) are, I think it is about
time to admit what many (especially Arabs) hate to admit:
1: Israel won. Game-over. No re-matches. The state
of Israel exists, it is democratic, it is blooming economically, its population
is growing, it has been accepted by the international community as a partner,
it hosts industrial plants for international mega brands, international player
in the financial market, and it is flourishing in arts, music, sports and
technology. It is also willing and working on expanding and annexing more
lands, just like many countries across the universe, albeit indirectly and under
other pretexts.
2: The myth of Arab nationalism and collective
action must die. Let us all announce jihad on that please. Arab states never
acted collectively for any cause, and will never do. Needless it is to mention
that this is also applicable to Islamic states. Palestinians must act alone.
Completely alone. PLO was recognized in 1974 as the sole legal representative
of the Palestinians for a reason, the reason is crystal clear: Palestinians
must assume the responsibility of their lands. Arab states did their share in
creating this mess, so perhaps asking them to stay out of it would reverse some
of the bad done.
3: Point two applicable to the international
community as well. Leave Russians and Americans alone. If they want to get involved,
fine, but do not cry out for their help or interference.
4: History is history. No need to go back to
Salahil Deen’s wars and restoration of an all-encompassing Palestine. Nor is it
necessary to demonize Germans and their European accomplices in the Jewish
issue, and fret over how everyone was conspiring against Arabs in WWII. The
damage is done. Deal with it.
5: Hamas, whether a militant organization, a
militarized party, an off-shoot of Muslim Brotherhood or a puppet organization controlled
by regional regimes is a failure. It failed on all levels. It has not brought
any solutions on the ground. Gazans still suffer, no economic alleviation, no
political advances, no democratic practices and not one fulfilled promise has
been achieved. From a purely political perspective, no one should vote for
Hamas in any election, and the organization must die-off slowly.
So now that we established that Palestinians must
act alone, no need for historic grievances, absolutely no need for Arab aid, Israel’s
evil plans and plots can be ignored for a while and Hamas must go, something
must happen. That thing is the secret to the solution of the problem once and
for all. Political awareness and democratization. New parties with educated
leaderships must start leading Gazans and Palestinians in general. Educated,
informed, pragmatic and calculated visionary political actors are needed. Those
will carry the much much needed task of raising public awareness, of telling
people the truth, of galvanizing support to a political and arms-free solution
and to make people believe that change is only possible when change is in fact
initiated. Gazans cannot expect to employ the same failing techniques over and
over again and expect change. Justice and injustice are not the issue here.
Whether Hamas' cause is moral and its acts stem from all the wrong that has
been done to the Palestinians is also irrelevant at the moment. Whether Israel if the devil itself is also irrelevant (noting that many Israelis oppose thier government's actions). What is relevant
is a solution. A solution that is sustainable, that is achievable and that can
save what can be saved.
It pains me to defend surrender, but maybe
surrendering a little bit is needed. Should we be living in a just world, Palestine
would be free, and Jews and Arabs should be sharing the land and jointly and fairly
administering it. They would be no apartheid states. There would be no injustices,
there would be no more hundreds of thousands of orphans nor just as many grieving mothers. There
would be no separation walls, no check points, no suicidal training camps, no
human rights violations and no war seasons. But these do exist, and are
tolerated by the entire world. The proof to that is that nothing and no one is
stopping them. That is the reality of the issue. Should the popular belief that
Israel would not stop before it chases away all Arabs from West Bank, Israel
and Gaza, then maybe now is the time to change the strategy long followed and
try a new approach. Just because Israelis successfully won their land in the 1940s
by employing guerrillas attacks against Great Britain to gain independence does not mean that this strategy
will work today. Change is needed, and it has to come from within.
So back to political parties. Some hope can be
pinned on a system that nurtures democracy. Israelis will not suddenly lift all
embargos from the Strip, allow free movement, free political prisoners and ease
procedures to access Gaza and create businesses in it, but it will have to
admit that Gazans are following demcoractic and peaceful means to solve the historic crisis. The rhetoric of killing all Jews and vengeance to every dead Palestinian
would stop, and a more mature and reasonable political discourse would follow.
Slowly, the population will catch on, and with correct management of funds and resources,
education and awareness building will make Gazans more innovative and tenacious
in their quest for independence and dignified lives. This can never be achieved without collective
action, and that action needs to be addressed via activists with a political identity:
parties.
It is not too late. Change is possible. But it is
not miraculous. That is why the first step is to get rid of the dominating
political force that has failed to achieve any real goal, and create new leaderships
that can create change. From there on, the tradition must carry on, just as a Portuguese
proverb says: Politicians and diapers should be changed frequently and all for
the same reason.
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