Opinion Editorials, November 2010

A Few Observations About the Current Political Situation in Occupied Palestine

By Khalid Amayreh

Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, November 8, 2010

1- The overall situation in occupied Palestine has already reached (or is about to reach) the point of "no return." This means that we have already passed the chances of peace by. This is mainly attributed to the unrelenting Israeli settlement-expansion policy all over the occupied territories, especially Occupied East Jerusalem.  This manifestly  illegal policy,  which flies in the face of international law,   has rendered the creation of a viable and territorially-contiguous Palestinian State on the territories occupied in 1967,  a virtually impossible  and  unrealistic goal.  In other words, Israel has effectively killed the chances for a viable Palestinian state. Therefore, one can safely claim that the current American-sponsored process has already been rendered more or less irrelevant.

The current Israeli government, which is indisputably the most hawkish and jingoistic in Israel 's history, is trying successfully to decapitate, once and for all,   any remaining chances for peace, mainly by building more settlements and further narrowing Palestinian horizons. This is also done through irreversibly altering the panoramic face of East of Jerusalem and obliterating the occupied town's Arab-Islamic identity.

2- The present political process is doomed to failure, for it is none but a mere reproduction and repetition of the same past failed efforts, especially since the Oslo Accords. Hence, pining any real hope on the success of the current process is tantamount to indulging in self-deception.

3- The United States government, regardless of which administration is in office, is unable or unwilling (or both) to force Israel to end its enduring occupation of Palestinian land. This is mainly imputed to the disproportionate influence Israel's supporters including the so-called Jewish Lobby exert on the American policy in this part of the world. Needless to say, this particular dimension has become well-known to many academics, politicians as well as ordinary people.

4- Israel is not really interested in any   genuine and durable peace with her Palestinian neighbors. Indeed, a country that keeps building settlements on occupied land and keeps transferring its own citizens to live on a land that belongs to another people, is obviously not interested in peace. And in order to divert the attention of the world from the hard reality in Occupied Palestine, Israel and her supporters constantly resort to campaigns of lie, otherwise  called hasbara, all for the purpose of laying the blame on  Palestinians for the political deadlock or dead-end which the situation in our region has reached.

5- The Israeli Jewish society is constantly drifting toward fascism and racism. For example, at least half of the cabinet ministers in the current Israeli government, openly and shamelessly call for the expulsion of Palestinians from Israel and the Occupied Territories. A few days ago, a major rabbi in Israel was quoted as telling his followers that "Non-Jews are very much like donkeys and other beasts of burden, created by God so that they will serve Jews, the master race." Moreover, a growing number of Israeli officials keep referring to settlers as "real human beings" and non-Jews as inferior human beings.  Unfortunately, this ugly racism doesn't raise many eyebrows in Israel, neither among intellectuals, nor among ordinary people.

6- A growing number of Israeli Jewish intellectuals are using the controversial issue of "the chosen people" to justify tormenting, savaging, dehumanizing and even murdering Palestinians. Just read the Israeli press and you will get a pretty good idea on what I am talking about. Unfortunately, fascism in Israel has reached such a level that even government ministers are sounding the alarm bells that fascism is already haunting the Israeli society, pure and simple.

7- As mentioned above, the ultimate collapse of the already feeble peace process is a foregone conclusion. Needless to say, this could or probably would generate waves of extremism and violence throughout the region. And extremist organizations, such al-Qaeda, would be able to double or triple their strength and influence at the expense of more moderate groups. The resulting radicalization would most certainly undermine, inter alia, the peace and stability of many countries as well a general radicalizing effect all over the Muslim world.
 
9- Israel uses Hamas's relations with Iran as a red herring.  A few years ago, Israel justified its criminal blockade of the Gaza Strip, which is still in effect, by claiming that it was in response to projectiles fired from Gaza toward Israel. And after these projectiles came to a near total halt, Israel began looking for another red herring, claiming that Israel can't live with Iran on its southern borders!!! God knows what other distractions and diversionary tactics Israel would invoke in order to justify its intransigence and aggression.

10- Finally, Israel is insisting that the Palestinians recognize her as a Jewish state. Do you know what Israel really means by "Jewish state"? Well it means that Israel is insisting that the Palestinians acknowledge, formally and solemnly, that Israel must obtain the right at some point in the future to expel most or all its non-Jewish citizens on the ground that Israel is Jewish and non-Jews, e.g.  Israel's 1.8 million Palestinian citizens, have no permanent right to citizenship by virtue of being non-Jews.
 
Otherwise, what would make the Israeli government of approving a manifestly racist bill obliging non-Jews aspiring to obtain the Israeli citizenship to pledge an oath of loyalty to Israel as a Jewish state?

11- Israel is trying to blur or divert attention from the scandalous nature of this issue by constantly invoking the mendacious mantra of Israel being a Jewish and democratic state.  However, one doesn't have to have a particularly high IQ to realize that whenever there is the slightest incompatibility or irreconcilability between Israel's Jewish and democratic dimensions, which one will come first.

Finally, there is a widespread feeling that Europe is succumbing to American hegemony over the peace process, which prevents the Europeans from assuming a more pro-active role in the peace-making process.

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