Writers Articles And
News
19 November 2009By Sami Jamil Jadallah
The issue of continuing and expanding Jewish
settlements came back to haunt the Palestinian
leadership that negotiated Oslo and continued to
negotiate with Israel for the last 16 years while
Israeli continued to build and expand its settlements,
not to mention building the Apartheid Wall.
Now 16 years later finally the Palestinian leadership
discovered there is a problem with the Jewish
settlements. One has to wonder why did Arafat continue
to negotiate with Israel while Israeli continued with
its settlement program? And why did Abbas continue to
negotiate with Netanyahu predecessor Olmert while
Olmert continued with his settlement program not to
mention his on War on Gaza?
There is something fundamentally wrong with this
Palestinian leadership that accepted, and for so long,
Israel’s settlements policy that saw settlements
expand 150% since Oslo, while we hear nothing but lip
service and denunciation from Ramallah, while it
continues to deal with Israel business as usual.
Of course we do understand this leadership that lead
the Palestinian people from one failure to another,
from one disaster to another continues to proceed with
its Oslo policies even though those policies simply
failed to make a difference for the millions under
occupation. Of course Oslo made a big and substantial
difference to the leadership and its army of
do-nothing functionaries.
The statement of Hillary Clinton that Israel made
“unprecedented concessions” on the issue of
settlements should be a red flag for the Palestinian
leadership that America under Barack Obama is no
different from America under George Bush and that
peace in the Middle East is not an international issue
but strictly a domestic issue. The Palestinian
leadership has to come to terms with and has to
understand that the powerful American Jewish
leadership and community will never, ever allow any US
president to proceed and make serious efforts in
making peace possible in the Middle East. Peace is
never in the interest of this leadership and
community.
The shifting sands are not in the Middle East, the
shifting sands are in Washington, with President
Barack Obama under tremendous domestic pressure from
the American Jewish leadership and community to simply
give up on his commitments to make peace possible.
Instead this leadership and community wants and is
demanding President Barack Obama manage the conflict
but not solve it. Hence the backtracking on the issue
of settlements as illegal and obstacle to peace.
Of course Bibi Netanyahu is challenging the
Palestinian leadership to start the negotiations
without pre-conditions and as he stated “the
Palestinians have been negotiating for the last 16
years while Israel was building the settlements why
stop negotiating now?" And yes, perhaps Bibi Netanyahu
is correct; why stop negotiating now? This is the
question the Palestinian leadership must answer and
now.
If the Palestinians and the leadership are counting on
the US and the Obama administration to deliver peace
or deliver Israel to withdraw and ends its occupation
they better think twice. Now and for the foreseeable
future there is no US president who can muster the
courage to stand up to the powerful, vengeful and
harmful American Jewish leadership and community.
Peace for Israel, peace in the Middle East, ending the
longest occupation in modern times will undermine the
power and influence of this leadership and community,
and its is not about to give all that up, even it
means tens of thousands of lives are lost on both
sides.
Now the Palestinian leadership has to understand that
the people are fed with a dialed and inept leadership,
fed up with the same excuses, fed up with everything
that comes out of Ramallah and for that matter out of
Gaza or Damascus. The people are fed up with the Oslo
Team continuing to manage the Jewish Occupation as if
there are no expanding settlements, as if there are no
demolition of homes, as if there is no Apartheid Wall,
as if there is no ethnic cleansing of Palestinians
from Jerusalem, as if there are no 650 security
checkpoints and expanding, as if there are no targeted
assassinations. The people are fed with up the
Ramallah negotiation team, fed up with Hamas stupid
rockets and claims of effective armed resistance, fed
up with Hamas, with Fatah and fed up with the PLO and
the same leadership that failed them for so long. The
Oslo Team that managed the Jewish Occupation since
Oslo must close shop and close today before tomorrow.
We all know this is rather a difficult decision to
make, not because it is the right thing to do, or
because it is in the best interest of the people, no,
because such a decision to close down Oslo Shop has so
much implication for the rights, benefits privileges
and personal financial interest of a leadership and a
team that are direct beneficiaries of the continuing
Jewish Occupation. Oslo was a bonanza.
Senior members will have to give up very expensive
multi-million dollar villas, give up fleet of cars for
them and members of their families, give up all the
personal security guards and armed escorts, give up
their Israeli issued VIP cards, give up on evenings in
posh Tel-Aviv restaurants and night clubs, give up on
business interests with the Palestinian Authority and
the Israeli Occupations. They simply have to give up
salaries and benefits in the 6 digits figures. They
have to give up all of this. Of course, tens of
thousands of Fatah members also have to give up
salaries paid directly by the PA since it is doubtful
if Israel will keep them on its payroll. Members of
Hamas will also have to give up similar privileges if
Oslo closes shop.
There is no other choice but to disband the
Palestinian Authority and to call Oslo null and void
since Israel never had any intention to give up the
Occupation, give up on settlements and was only
interested in a Palestinian partner that can manage
the Occupation but not deliver on ending the
Occupation. The Road Map was a dead end to start with
designed to allow Israel to continue with its
Occupation. The Palestinian Authority and the PLO must
stop being the manager of the Jewish Occupation and
must stop begging for funds to fund the Jewish
Occupation; time to let Israel pay for its own
occupation.
Mahmoud Abbas should take the first flight to New York
and demand to speak before the UN General Assembly and
there and then announce the disbanding of the
Palestinian Authority and asking the United Nations to
take over managing the Jewish Occupation from the
Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation
Organization. That step will make ending the Jewish
Occupation not an American domestic issue but an
international issue as well. The US and especially the
Obama administration must then make up its mind
whether it wants to manage the conflict to appease the
powerful American Jewish leadership and community or
it wants to end this conflict and do what is right,
the only right thing to do, ending the Jewish
Occupation that lasted for some 43 years. The Arabs
also have a right to know where the Obama
administration stands on ending the Jewish Occupation.
©
EsinIslam.Com
Add Comments