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29 December 2012
Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD All
wars are fought for profits and plunder and constitute
crimes against humanity. History tells the truth that
herd like passion perpetuates warmongering - killing
of the same mankind. The ongoing conflicts between
Israel and Palestinian people are no exception but
camouflaged record of absurd lies, deceptions and
failed leadership. If intelligent leaders were to come
in the future, coming generations might term it absurd
and utterly foolish that while Jews and Muslims had so
much in common; they lived in distrust and wasted time
and energies during decades-old fear of the unknown.
They breathe the same oxygen so close but find
themselves operative in conflicting time zones. The
mankind is paying with pains to systematic
conflict-making and conflict-keeping policies
maintained and applauded by the leading military
powers of the globe. Man and humanity are striving to
survive against manipulative and highly dangerous
military odds, not seen in the living history. Nobody
can predict with certainty how the future will unfold
for peace and co-existence, not just in the
predominantly Arab Middle East but its uncontrollable
consequences to the whole of the mankind. When
people live in constant fear and conflicts, they lose
sense of normal thinking to arrive at rational
perceptions, behaviors and decision making. Israelis
and Palestinians both share this dysfunctional value
for over half of a century. Late Professor Edward W.
Said was a unique proactive intellectual and scholars
to look beyond the immediate box and to offer new
visions and peaceful means to reapproach the
Israel-Palestine conflicts. Despite his forcible
eviction from his family home in Jerusalem, he was a
keen proponent of peaceful co-existence. No wonder,
few on both sides of the conflicting time zones ever
listened to the voices of reason. Israelis appear to
be diverse in their ethnic, social and cultural
composition as they originate from Western Europe,
Eastern Europe, Russia, Africa, Baltic regions and
other locations whereas, Palestinians being from
Palestine enjoin cultural homogeneity but lack of
systematic political unity until now how to address
the multiple issues in dealing with their freedom and
future. Despite diversity, Israelis enjoin unity of
purpose, political system and governance and are
hardworking and productive people to protect their
nationhood and identity by overwhelmingly military
means. Both face the challenge of future-making - how
to be rational in thinking and behaviors to cope with
unusual animosity and achieve normalcy. At issues are
the end of Israeli occupation of certain parts of
Palestine and establishment of an independent State of
Palestine and demarcation of the borders as of the
1967 to facilitate co-existence between the Two States
in the Arab Middle East. During the 1967 war, Israel
as usual a military powerful state occupied large
chunk of the land which Palestinians claim for their
statehood. This
week at the UN General Assembly meeting, the feverish
tensions grew out of context and blame game generated
utmost intellectual absurdity. The American
politicians and Western news media poured-in bundle of
lies and systematic falsification of the history.
Warning Mahmoud Abbas not to go for statehood at the
UN. Nobody ever mentioned a word that this is how the
State of Israel came into existence in 1948. The State
of Israel owes its legitimacy to a UN General Assembly
resolution. So what is alarming or unusual for the
Palestine State to be - a symbolic entity, if nothing
else in real world? Now, for over 21 years, both
parties have held direct-indirect peace talks but
always ending up in failure as Israel is unwilling to
end the occupation. Israel has powerful political
lobbyists working in Washington and Western Europe to
show indifference to global concerns. Since their
peace talks and the Oslo agreement, Israelis and
Palestinians have come to realize that military
absolutism will not pave the way for peaceful
resolution of their standings. They do need face to
face dialogue to bridge the differences. America holds
a decisive role in making this peace deal come true as
did President Carter and President Clinton in the
past. Perhaps President Obama if serious in
peacemaking should assign former President Clinton,
President Carter and George Mitchell to have
resourceful team people in a time frame to finalize
the peace agreement between the PLO and Israel. The
other part of the problems rest with the Arab
geopolitics. To enhance peacemaking, America and
Israel need a formidable challenge, be it a moral,
political or intellectual. Oil exporting enriched Arab
leaders do not offer any substantial political
presence either to America or to Israel to straighten
out the much old-fashioned militarized politics. Arab
rulers are viewed as paper dummies, camel jockeys, not
worthy of any political significance. Professor Fouad
Ajami spelled it out rationally: "Arab leaders are
worst than being useless creatures." Arab rulers lack
moral and intellectual leadership, they operate in
closed circuit, never open to listening and learning
and have no public institutions to think or to analyze
the prevalent facts of human affairs what is rational
or practical in dealing with the State of Israel.
Religiously Arabs have strong bonds to Judaism and the
teachings of Moses; most often these unknown factors
remain unknown in articulating the national policies
and workable alternatives to complex problems. Global
politics is not one-way street but combination of
known and unknown ideas and ideals to tackle
situations of adversities and conflicting interests.
Not so, to the Arab leadership, they lack proactive
and educated people to come up with new and innovative
strategies. Often Arab people in streets are more
knowledgeable and have active passion for change and
new leadership to harmonize the affairs in global
politics and making of a different kind of future. But
the leaders live in palaces, not with people to know
the realities of life. The Arab masses have prominent
role to change the absurd politics and carve-up a more
favorable and sustainable political future. To do so,
the tribal cult Arab leaders would need a jolt as it
happened recently to replace Hosni Mubarak in Egypt,
Abdullah of Yemen, Ali of Tunisia, Qaddafi and very
soon to Bashar al–Assad in Syria.
Phenomenon of Change is ahead of us. To make it happen
through planned ideas and ideals for peace and
co-existence, Israelis and Palestinians would need to
assess their strengths and weaknesses for workable
political change. Both should analyze a concrete
framework of future - the facts not fictions of life
that warrant change by peaceful means not by military
adventures, certainly not by grabbing Palestinian
lands to built more settlements. There are historical
gaps in thinking and understanding of each others
viewpoint, cultural norms, common human values to know
and understand one another without agreeing or
disagreeing, just being open to listening and learning
- the way to built a sustainable culture of THINKING
to co-exist. Both need enhanced public communications
across the cultural norms and businesses. Israelis are
not going anywhere; Palestinians cannot be buried
alive by Israeli bombardments on Gaza or elsewhere.
Increasing Israeli military check posts across
Palestine and self-determined barbed wire marked
frontiers remind the mankind of the Nazi's political
culture - the Jewish holocaust experience, is it a
replica of the history that Israelis want to show to
the 21st century informed mankind. Surely,
their kind of liberal democracy is in desperate need
of redefining. Palestinians need new proactive and
intelligent leadership to organize the unity of
purpose and be able to conduct rational negotiations,
be it with the Israelis or the global communities
asserting political influence. In an
Open Letter to President Obama (Washington Report on
the Middle East, 11/2012), a Jewish Sister offered the
following staunch reminder: "Dear Mr. President, My younger brother was
an early believer in you. He worked for your Senate
campaign. he was working on your campaign again when
he died suddenly, a brilliant, energetic 29 year old,
dead in his tracks. You know this. You called my
parents. You may not know that
after his sudden passing, many of his friends quit
their jobs, moved, changed their lives to continue
working on your campaign in his memory. …Until
yesterday. Mr. President, when the bombs began
raining on Gaza again and you reiterated Israel's
"right to defend itself", I took that sticker off my
jacket. Later, you called Prime Minister Netanyahu
and asked him to "use restraint," as though he were a
glutton at a feast, rather than an elected official of
a powerful military nation, using your own country's
weaponry to engage in a one-sided assault. Mr.
President, you are the most powerful man in the
world. You do not need to politely request anything
of Mr. Netanyahu; you can stop him by ending U.S.
military aid to Israel until Israel complies with
international and U.S. law…… We voted for you. We
fund-raised for you. We do not want to watch you
pretend like it is for us that you allow these
massacres to continue with our money. My brother would
be disappointed to see your impotence in the face of
continuing Israeli aggression shortly after such a
sweeping re-election victory. I am still proud of
him. I am still proud of all of the Americans that
worked so hard to deliver you this re-election. But I
am so hurt and ashamed to watch you use restraint when
you are the only person with the power to stop this
massacre. Mr. President, I am barely over 5 feet tall
and I am not afraid of AIPAC; why are you?" Out
of desperation and purely for short-terms political
gains, Israeli PM Netanyahu and other politicians are
using aggressive means and provocative practices to
plan more illegal settlements on the occupied areas.
Strange as is that new Jewish settlers can come from
all over the world to build homes on the stolen land
but Palestinians refugees cannot return to their own
homes and land occupied by other people. The global
humanity is neither dumb nor blind to know the facts
on the ground. These moves simply cause more conflicts
and disasters, not helpful to make peace between
divergent parties in the conflict. Recently, former
President Carter made it known that Israelis are not
interested in peace or establishment of independent
Sate of Palestine. Israelis and Palestinians are
overwhelmingly emotionally charged people, often
lacking rational mode of thinking compatible to the
global political affairs. Israel is a strong military
power, have nuclear weapons and backing of the US
bought politicians, yet, they cannot impose their will
on others nor foresee promising future. Palestinians
have natural bonds to their ancestral homes and lands
and an unconquerable will power to encounter all
adversities. Both parties must THINK ANEW for a
promising Future to co-exist. This is what late
Professor Edward Said dreamed of throughout his life.
He wanted to go back to Jerusalem, his ancestral home
taken by force by the Zionist occupation. After the
cruelty of the 2WW, mankind is acutely aware that wars
and killings do not determine the future of nations;
they destroy all possibilities of rethinking and
re-living together as dignified human beings, the most
intelligent creatures of God to live on Earth. History
cannot be ignored for its role to teach us the
consequences of sadistic warmongering - often
perpetrated by the few but victimizing the whole of
the mankind. Time and opportunities do exist for
serious thoughts and consideration on both sides to
reach a peaceful conclusion for sustainable future.
Global community is not haphazard but mindful of all
the developments taking shapes and forms. What happens
between Israel and Palestinians will have direct
ramifications to the whole world. Would reason and
truth prevail over wrong thinking and wrong actions?
Would the two proponent of Abrahmic monotheistic faith
be able to co-exist in the Middle East? Would
rationality replace animosity for the good of all
mankind? Would the new generations of educated and
intelligent leaders on both sides view the future as
promising to make peace rather than wars? Would the
Israeli occupation end soon and Palestinian be able to
establish an independent State of Palestine? If they
continue to follow the past dead-ended polices and
practices, what narrations would the story tellers
compile for the future children: As a young poet, Wilfred Owen ("Dulce
et decorum est"), once observed: My friend, you would not
tell with such high zest (Dr. Mahboob A.
Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and
conflict resolution with keen interests in
Islamic-Western comparative cultures and
civilizations, and author of several publications
including the latest: Global Peace and Conflict
Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New
Thinking. Lambert Publishing Germany, May 2012) |
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