The following is the text of an address I delivered yesterday to a conference in London organized by the Palestine Return Centre on the subject of Britain’s Legacy in Palestine, which included a session on how to reverse the catastrophic consequences of the legacy. I was aware that what I was going to say would be uncomfortable listening for some in the audience, but almost all thanked me for saying what has to be said.
I wasn’t here for the morning session so I’d like to start with my own very brief comment on the Balfour Declaration.
Without it I think there would have been no Israel. What I mean is that without the spurious legitimacy the declaration gave Zionism to get organized, it would not have been well enough established on the ground in Palestine to take advantage of the Nazi holocaust and use it to justify everything it would do, including establishing a state by terrorism and ethnic cleansing.
So I think it can be said without fear of contradiction that Britain was the godfather of the monster Zionism is. But there’s more to Britain’s Palestine legacy than that. The “Palestine problem” created by Britain is the cancer at the heart of international affairs which could consume us all if it is not cured,
As some of you know, for telling the truth about the making and sustaining of the conflict in and over Palestine that became Israel, I have the honour of being red-flagged by both Zionism and therefore the mainstream media which is terrified of offending it, and the authoritarian Arab regimes. They are at one with Zionism in wanting and needing the truth of history to be suppressed. They don’t want the world to know, for example, that despite much stupid rhetoric to the contrary, they never had any intention of fighting Israel to liberate Palestine. It was, in fact, the security services of Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon that made the first attempt to strangle at birth the authentic Palestine liberation movement led by Yasser Arafat, Abu Jihad and a handful of others.
To signpost the way to the essence of what I want to say today, I’ll tell you a short, true, chilling story.
Three years ago one of the major figures of an Arab Gulf state, a royal, was here in London and it was suggested that I should meet with him. He was aware that I knew his father, who was assassinated. We met and talked for nearly an hour in private.
In the course of the conversation I made two very frank statements. The first was this:
“Nothing is going to change in the Arab world until your regimes are more frightened of their own masses than they are of Zionism and America.”
He replied, “You’re right.”
My second statement was this:
“If tomorrow Israel exterminated the occupied and oppressed Palestinians in the hope of closing the Palestine file for ever, most if not all of your leaders would clap their hands in approval behind closed doors.”
He replied, “You’re right.”
And how about this…,, When in 1982 Sharon was making his final plans for invading Lebanon all the way to Beirut for the purpose of exterminating the entire PLO leadership and destroying the organization’s infrastructure, the Gulf Arab leaders, who knew what Sharon was about to do, met in secret, without any advisers present, to agree a message to President Reagan. The message they sent was to the effect that when Sharon put his plans into action, they would not intervene or make any problems for U.S. How do we know that? One of the Gulf leaders who was present at the secret meeting, Oman’s Sultan Qaboos, told Arafat; and he told me. The Sultan said to Arafat: “YOU WILL ASK FOR OUR HELP AND IT WILL NOT COME. BE CAREFUL.”
A truth illustrated is that apart from the time when Saudi Arabia’s great King Feisal fought and won a political battle with Henry Kissinger to get Arafat to the UN to make his Gun & Olive Branch speech, the Palestinians have always been on their own – I mean without effective support for their struggle from the major powers and other governments.
And that’s why I say nothing in this world is more worthy of respect and admiration than the incredible, almost superhuman steadfastness of the Palestinians who are occupied and oppressed by the Zionist monster.
It’s because the occupied and oppressed Palestinians are on their own, without effective leadership and facing the real danger of a final Zionist ethnic cleansing, that I am here today, to say in the most explicit way possible, that it’s time for the Palestinian diaspora to put its act together and become politically engaged. If it does not, there is a very real prospect that it will be charged with complicity by default in a final Zionist ethnic cleansing.
So here’s THE question: How could the Palestinian diaspora put its act together and for what purpose?
First let us put some flesh on the bone of the term Palestinian diaspora – what actually is it or, more to the point, where are the Palestinians of it? The list country by country, listed in terms of the numbers of Palestinians in them, beginning with the country with the biggest number of Palestinians and ending with the country with the smallest number, is the following:
Jordan; Israel; Syria; Chile; Lebanon; Saudi Arabia; Egypt; the United States of America; Honduras; Venezuela; the United Arab Emirates; Germany; Mexico; Qatar; Kuwait; El Salvador; Brazil; Iraq; Yemen; Canada; Australia; Libya; Denmark; the United Kingdom; Sweden; Peru; Columbia; Spain; Pakistan; the Netherlands; Greece; Norway; France; Guatemala; Austria; Switzerland; Turkey; and India.
Once upon a time the highest decision-making body on the Palestinian side was the PNC, the Palestine National Council. It was effectively a Palestinian parliament-in-exile. Its members were elected or nominated by Palestinian communities in many countries of the diaspora. Highest decision-making meant that even Chairman Arafat was answerable to it. Policy had to be approved by it. In other words the PNC was a manifestation of Palestinian democracy in action.
And that, I’ll add in passing, is why the Arab regimes loathed it. The message they got from the composition of the PNC and the way it worked was that a Palestinian state would be democratic; and that, they feared, would subvert their own authoritarian order. They knew that what the Palestinians would have in a state of their own, something approaching real democracy, was what their own citizens would want and demand when they saw it working in Palestine. And that, in turn, was why most if not all Arab regimes would have celebrated behind closed doors if Sharon had succeeded in closing the Palestine file for ever.
Under the in-Palestine leadership of “President” Abbas, a man I regard as more of a collaborator with Zionism than not, the PNC has been sidelined almost out of existence.
It follows, or so it seems to me, that the way for the Palestinian diaspora to start to become seriously engaged politically is by organizing and mobilizing to demand that the PNC be brought back to life, re-structured and re-invigorated by fresh elections to it in every country where Palestinians are.
That would enable the Palestinians to speak to power with one credible voice.
Next question… Given that the prime role of a re-structured and re-invigorated PNC would be to determine Palestinian policy as well as representing it, what should that one voice say? In other words, what should Palestinian policy be?
In my view that’s a question which does not require much discussion and debate. Though not yet formally buried so far as Western governments and the mainstream media are concerned, the two-state solution has long been dead… killed by Israel’s on-going colonization – the continuing theft of more and more Palestinian land and water and what amounts, all up, to on-going ethnic cleansing by stealth and slowly.
That being so, there are in my view only two possible end-game scenarios. There will either be a final Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine or One State – one state with complete justice for the Palestinians and equal rights and security for all. (In verbal parenthesis I’ll add that “complete justice for the Palestinians” means that all who wanted to return, would return, preferably in a phased and managed or controlled way).
So One State for all would be the policy determined and represented by a re-structured and re-invigorated PNC.
Next question… Could it, One State for all, ever become a reality?
As things are there’s a case for saying “NO”. But in my view much could depend on how successful the Palestinian advocates of it were in convincing the Western world, Americans in particular and Jewish Americans especially, that the wellbeing and security of all Jews currently in Israel-Palestine and who wanted to stay in the de-Zionized One State would be guaranteed.
If I was advising a re-structured and re-invigorated PNC on how best to present its One State policy message, I would say, “Be visionary and inspirational.” And I would illustrate what I meant by quoting a few lines from what I say in my book – these lines:
The Jews, generally speaking, are the intellectual elite of the Western civilization. The Palestinians, generally speaking, are the intellectual elite of the Arab world. What they could do together IN PEACE AND PARTNERSHIP is the stuff that real dreams are made of. They could change the region for the better and, by so doing, give new hope and inspiration to the whole world.
To sum up so far… What I am suggesting is that the prospects for the One State solution becoming a reality would be improved if the presentation and selling of the case for it emphasized that the wellbeing and security of its Jewish citizens would be absolutely guaranteed, assuming only that they accepted with good grace their new status as EQUALS and not MASTERS.
If the case for the One State solution was made in the positive way I have indicated by the Palestinians speaking with one voice through a re-structured and re-invigorated PNC, parliament-in-exile, there is some evidence for believing – perhaps I should saying for hoping – that a significant number of the Jews of the world, possibly even a majority of them, could and would embrace it, the One State concept. If they did it would be easier – perhaps I should say less difficult – for an American president and European leaders to embrace it.
Before I summarize what the evidence is, I must say in passing that I do NOT use the term “Jewish diaspora” to describe the Jews of the world.
As I explained in a recent post on my web site www.alanhart.net, I stopped using that terminology after my very dear friend Ilan Pappe explained to me why it was inappropriate and wrong.
Diaspora means, is the consequence of, the movement, migration or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral home. The term “Jewish diaspora” implies that all the Jews of it are from the same established or ancestral home, and that is nonsense.
The Jews of the world are from MANY established or ancestral homelands, and almost all if not all of those who went to Palestine to give life to Zionism’s colonial enterprise had no biological connection whatsoever to the ancient Hebrews. The notion, still popular with the mainstream Western media, that at the root of the conflict there are two peoples each with a valid claim to the same land does not bear serious and honest examination. It’s more Zionist propaganda nonsense.
So what’s the evidence for believing, or at least hoping, that many Jews of the world, European and American Jews in particular, could come around to embracing the One State solution if it was presented in the positive way I have indicated?
It, the evidence, is in the fact that a still smallish but growing number of eminent Jews, in America especially, are speaking out – condemning Israeli actions and policies which, they say, are not only THE obstacle to peace, but are taking Israel down the road to “self-destruction”. (Even some of Netanyahu’s political opponents in Israel are saying that). If the image of Israel as a pariah state hell bent on suicide enters the minds of more and more Jews, and if reason prevails, there must be at least the possibility that many of them will come to something like this conclusion…
If One State is the ONLY way to guarantee the wellbeing of those Jews now living in Israel-Palestine and who want to stay in One State, that has to be the solution.
As I said a moment ago, it bears repeating, if a significant number of American and European Jews did come to such a conclusion. that would make it easier (or less difficult) for an American president and European leaders to put the One State solution on their agendas.
Now back to the real diaspora – the Palestinian one.
I am aware of some of the reasons why the vast majority of diaspora Palestinians are not seriously and significantly engaged politically to build on the incredible, almost superhuman steadfastness of their occupied and oppressed brothers and sisters.
One reason is that they are simply pre-occupied with the challenge of managing their own lives in the countries of which they are citizens. And related to that is the fact that the monster of Islamophobia is on the prowl throughout Europe and across North America. That makes many diaspora Palestinians (and other Arabs) fear that if they did become engaged politically, Zionism would see to it that they were smeared and demonized. They don’t want that kind of hassle, not least because they fear that smearing and demonization could result in them losing their jobs.
Wealthy diaspora Palestinians do contribute to Palestinian charities to help relieve the suffering of the occupied and oppressed, but they do not fund political engagement. Why not? They fear that if they did they would provoke Zionism’s wrath. Those who live in Europe and America fear that if that happened, their businesses would be damaged, possibly even destroyed. And those who live in the Arab Gulf States fear that provoking Zionism’s wrath would put at risk their relationships with the Arab regimes in the countries of which they are citizens.
Another part of the explanation of why the Palestinian diaspora isn’t seriously and significantly engaged politically is this. Many diaspora Palestinians under 30 or thereabouts don’t have enough understanding of their own history. (There’s a case for saying how could they be well informed when they live in countries in which the mainstream media peddles Zionism’s version of history? But that doesn’t change the fact that many are not as well informed as they need to be). I’ll give you just one example to make the point.
One of my good Palestinian friends here in London is a lady in her early 30′s. She’s very bright and she was in banking. She had a quite senior position and led a team that warned her masters that the bank was heading for disaster. (She was not surprised when her masters didn’t listen). A couple of years ago I had a conversation with this lady in my home. During it I made the case for diaspora engagement to bring a re-structured and re-invigorated PNC into being. She interrupted me to say – “What’s the PNC?”
I think that makes my point… She did go on to say that her ignorance of her own peoples’ history was truly shocking.
What that illustrates for me is that not nearly enough Palestinians (and other Arabs) understand WHY they must be much better informed if they are to play their necessary part in unmasking and defeating the Zionist monster. The reason (why they must be better informed) can be simply stated.
Zionism makes its case mainly by ASSERTION. It rarely produces evidence to back its version of events. In other words, things were what they were, and are what they are, because Zionism says so.
The problem is that you can’t take Zionism on and expose its propaganda for the nonsense it is by simple COUNTER-ASSERTION. It’s not enough to say “Zionism is wrong.” You have to be able to say, “Zionism is wrong because, because, because.”
Two quick examples:
A documented truth of history is that Israel’s existence has never, ever, been in danger from any combination of Arab military force. There has never, ever, been the prospect of Israel’s Jews being “driven into the sea.” But to make the case and win it, you have to know all the relevant supporting facts.
Another documented truth of history, the consequence of Arafat’s pragmatic leadership and PNC endorsement of it, is that most Palestinians were ready 33 years ago, repeat 33 years ago, for unthinkable compromise and peace with Israel on terms which any rational government and people in the Zionist (not Jewish) state would have accepted with relief. That’s the proof that Zionism is not remotely interested in peace on any terms most Palestinians could just about accept. But to make that case and win it, you have to know all the relevant supporting facts.
It follows, surely, that if the Palestinian diaspora is to become seriously and significantly engaged politically, many Palestinians must be better informed about the details of their own history than they currently are. (In passing I’ll mention that there is something that could assist them to be better informed without too much effort. It’s a book written by a chap called Alan Hart with the title ZIONISM: THE REAL ENEMY OF THE JEWS, an easily readable, three-volume epic in its updated American edition. It’s about much more than its title suggests. It’s a complete re-write of the whole history of the making and sustaining of the conflict, exposing Zionist propaganda for the nonsense it is, and replacing it with the documented truth of history… Commercial break over!)
In my view the reasons why the Palestinian diaspora is not seriously and significantly engaged politically are understandable, even worthy of some sympathy; but they are only one side of the balance sheet. On the other is the very real prospect of a final Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine. So on this platform today, at an event organized by the institution committed to the Palestinian right of return, I have a question for the Palestinian diaspora.
If there is a final Zionist ethnic cleansing, and if when it happened you had not become engaged politically, working for a solution that might have averted it, you will be accused of complicity by default in Zionism’s Final Solution. IS THAT SOMETHING YOU WANT ON YOUR CONSCIENCE?
I also want to say I believe that it’s not only the Palestinian diaspora that must put its act together. I think all pro-Palestinian activist groups everywhere need to do the same.
At the risk of being red-flagged by them as well as by Zionism and the authoritarian Arab regimes, I say that with few exceptions pro-Palestinian activist groups of all faiths and none everywhere are each and all doing their own little things in splendid isolation and, as a consequence, are like flies to be swatted away by Zionism.
Some will say that’s an unfair characterization because pro-Palestinian activist groups are assisting the process of isolating Israel. That’s true but only to a point. The main reason why Israel is becoming increasingly isolated, and why what we are witnessing today is a rising, global tide of anti-Israelism, is the actions and policies of its own leaders.
If that was not so, I think the pro-Palestinian activist movement would have very little to show for its efforts. That has to be true in my view because the situation of the occupied and oppressed Palestinians is worse today than it’s ever been.
In that context, the question to be asked and answered is this:
How could the activist groups of all faiths and none who campaign for justice for the Palestinians be more effective in their efforts? Put another way, what could THEY do to improve the prospects of the Palestinians actually getting some justice?
My suggestion is that they should take time out to consider why, really, Zionism has triumphed to date.
In my analysis Zionism’s success is due only about 30 percent to its own efforts – its awesome ability to sell lies as truth. The other 70 percent of Zionism’s success is due to the Arab including Palestinian failure to expose those lies and have them replaced in the Western understanding with truth.
I am perhaps exaggerating to make a point, but the proof that what I have just said is more or less true is the fact that very many if not most citizens of the Western nations, Americans especially, still believe Zionism’s version of history.
In this version, upon which the first and still existing draft of Western or Judeo-Christian history was constructed, Israel is the victim, in danger of annihilation and without a credible Palestinian partner for peace.
It’s fair and right to ask if the prospects for peace with justice for the Palestinians would really be improved if the citizens of the Western nations, Americans especially, were aware that everything they have been conditioned by Zionism to believe is propaganda nonsense.
I think the answer to that question is an unqualified “Yes”.
If the peoples of the Western nations were aware of the truth of history as it relates to the initial ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the many initiatives for peace Israel has rejected over the years, there would exist constituencies of understanding that would give leaders and governments the freedom they have never had to take on the Zionist monster.
As I put it in my book and for example, no American president is ever going to be free to confront the Zionist monster unless and until the Zionist lobby’s many stooges in Congress are more frightened of offending their voters than they are of offending the Zionist lobby. And that day won’t come unless and until enough Americans are informed enough to be able to say to those seeking their votes something like, “We won’t vote for you if you continue to peddle Zionism’s propaganda lies.”
So, to the question how could and should pro-Palestinian activist groups everywhere put their act together, my answer is this.
They should agree to make common cause for the specific purpose of educating the citizens of nations about the truth of history. By definition that means they would have to reach beyond their own constituencies of the already converted. They could make common, cause by creating one international oversight and co-ordinating committee with strategic vision. What I am saying in other words is that what has always been needed, and is needed more than ever today, is a truly effective pro-Palestinian lobby – a lobby for peace based on justice for the Palestinians with equal rights and security for all – to compete with AIPAC in America and its clones in Europe.
That would require a serious extra commitment of time and effort and resources. And that’s something I urge pro-Palestinian activist groups everywhere and, if I may say so, wealthy Palestinians, to think about.
I’ll close with a confession.
I sometimes find myself wondering if it’s not already too late and that Palestine is a LOST CAUSE. On reflection I think it isn’t, but I fear it could be unless the Palestinian diaspora becomes seriously engaged politically, and all the activist groups committed to justice for the Palestinians put their act together, too.
Finally, as a verbal footnote I want to add this. Coming up from the country by train today I read an article by Ramzy Baroud, the editor of the Palestine Chronicle. It was headlined Prisoners’ Intifada Shames Palestine’s Leaders. That’s a cue for me to express my opinion that there’s a major initiative the occupied and oppressed Palestinians themselves should take.
They should demand the dissolution of the PA and hand full responsibility for the occupation back to Israel. That would impose significant financial and security burdens on Greater Israel but, more important, it would improve the prospects for calling and holding Zionism to account for its crimes.
Some might say “President” Abbas has pre-empted the need to dissolve the PA by his success in getting the UN General Assembly to recognize the State of Palestine. My response to that would be – let’s be serious. The state recognized does not exist and the recognition has not changed anything on the ground. There’s even a case for saying that Israel’s response punishment has made things even worse for the occupied and oppressed Palestinians.
Thank you.
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Jewish lobby groups in the West and Zionist-controlled mainstream media have destroyed any hope of 5 million Palestinian diaspora having a united voice. Same goes for the remaining 4 million Palestinians living in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
Unfortunately, Palestinian people have become a political pawn in the Arab world which is almost entirely ruled by western puppet regimes. The financial and moral support Palestinian resistance groups receive comes from non-Arab Muslim nations and Palestinian diaspora.
In order to deprive Hamas and Islamic Jrhad of this minor support, the US-Turkey-Saudi Arabia-Qatar is playing the Sunni-Shia sectarian card. The Palestinians got to grasp this evil agenda and maintain closer links with the "Axis of Resistance" (Iran, Syria, Iraq and Hizballah).
As for Iran being planning a new Holocaust of Jews in Israel - the best response came from an Israeli journalist Tom Segev who said: “There never was a Jewish people, just a Jewish religion. There was no exile, therefore no return, and much of the Jewish diaspora was voluntary. The story was a Zionist invention, a conspiracy to justify a future Jewish state, and now vilify Palestinian self-determination as a plot to destroy it”.
http://rehmat1.com/2011/06/14/us-israel-saudi-war-against-democracy-in-muslim-world/
Thank you very much for this important speech, Alan. I fully agree with you. I am glad that you have brought this issue to the forefront at the Palestine Return Centre's conference. For years now, I've been of the view that educating Palestinians about their own history and the role that they need to play is as urgent as the need to educate the citizens of the world about the truth of Palestine's tragedy.
While I believe that many Westerners would embrace the Palestinian cause should they come to learn the truth about it, I have - in light of the growing hatred and hostility towards everything Arab or Muslim - found myself sometimes wondering whether or not some, if not many, Westerners might still choose to support Israel even after they've learnt the truth about it, because they identify with its seemingly Western character and would prefer it (with all its faults and crimes) over the "Arab" (or seemingly, "Muslim") nature of the Palestinian cause. I also cannot help but think of the fact that for many Christians (those who belong to various denominations that fall under the Protestant umbrella) there is a "need" to believe in Israel's account of history and to willfully remain blind to Palestine's tragedy in order to be able to match the "reality" on the ground with their interpretation of the Bible. I, therefore, find myself unsure of how willing the citizens of the Western nations will be in changing course even if the truth became accessible to them. I am, in other words, afraid that they might be willing to make "a moral exception" when it comes to Palestine whether because of their religious beliefs or because of their complete mistrust and hatred of Arabs. Would you agree with these concerns?
Am I right to also think that given the reasons that hold back the Palestinian Diaspora from organizing and taking action (which you have mentioned above), there's a need for a legal body to emerge alongside a re-structured PNC, a legal body independent of other Palestinian bodies - in order to protect its credibility and focus its efforts - that would fight for Palestinian activists' rights and counter the Zionist Palestine-bashing machine? (A legal tool to defend and sustain the emerging Palestinian lobby, so to speak?)
As to the dissolution of the PA, I fully agree that the Palestinians should call for this to happen - but the question is how? The PA is clearly undemocratic and not concerned with public support - is an intifada the only way of pressuring the PA to dismantle itself? What legal means do the Palestinians of the Diaspora have access to when it comes to pressuring the PA?
Yes -- the PA is the Judenrat of our time and Abbas is the head. He is conflicted: This is what Zionism does -- it creates ambiguity, tension, contradictions (Jews? Israelis?), doubletalk, doublethink and American Jews are just waking up to the stupidity of Zionism, the assholes in Israel conning the world.
I am not surprised that you report that Palestinians are, and have been, alone throughout. That is definitely my understanding. And you sympathy with them reflects my own awe and wonder.
I think the right wing twist in Israel will destroy the state. It is just the latest form of hypocrisy. Now, according to Bennett, there will be one state and some people will not have political rights. This he says. What he means is that the Zionist cleansing of mandate Palestine will continue until the last Palestinian is driven out. The hypocrisy of the two state solution and now the hypocrisy of the one state solution. This Bennett is a man who cannot trace his roots to this land further than one generation and he suggests that he will direct the destiny of the people who lived there for generations, hundreds of years. It is so utterly galling. I feel the same way about that awful spokesman stooge Regev, the Aussie. He comes on the tube with his Aussie accent talking about the "terrorist" Palestinians who dare to attack his colony.
How can these men face themselves in honesty, in the mirror? What do they think? Do they think we don't see the fraud" The inexcusable scheming? How do people live with themselves? Then again -- I know the answer. It is the answer that you hear from every criminal locked up in a jail: Others forced him to do his illegal and often heinous acts. Regev, Bennett, Abbas, they will all say that others MADE THEM be traitors and frauds. You will see.
As a member of an activist group I am all too conscious of how difficult it is to educate people about the history. If I were rich I would buy hundreds of copies of Doreen Ingrams' "Palestine Papers" and scatter it about. (I would love to do the same with your book also, Alan, but with it being in three volumes scattering would be more difficult!) It is not even that people don't listen: many do. But few are stirred into action by it. I think there is probably a little more value in trying to educate our MPs and Peers, whose job it is, after all, to GET stirred up by the injustices they either know about first-hand or learn about through their constituents. The difficulty there is that not enough even of them, even those who WANT to speak out for justice for the Palestinians, have the stamina (I will not say courage) to withstand the intimadation and smears by the Zionist lobby. And while on the topic of lobbies.... why on earth is there no Conservative Friends of Palestine in Parliament? The Lib-Dems have one. Labour has its Friends of Palestine and the Middle East. The Tories have the Conservative Middle East Council. Please
google them. Read their Mission Statement. Over the past few years, apart from Trish Morris, its Chairman, and Nicholas Soames, its President, its Committee members have barely said boo to the Government goose about Palestine! At the same time, Conservative Friends of Israel seems to work around the clock pushing the Israeli narrative. Of course, an MP does not have to be a member of a lobby group to promote justice for Palestine - and many Tory MPs do just that, no doubt at some personal cost. My contention is that they would be much more effective if there were an umbrella organisation to give them more clout and credibility, for example when making representations to the backbench business committee for a debate about Palestine.
Elna, I think you are right to wonder if enough citizens of the Western nations would actually demand that their governmentss call and hold Zionism to account if they were fully aware of the truth of history. I am inclined to the view that they would. (Wishful thinking on my part???)
As I have written and said previously, the real danger with the truth of history is that it could transform anti-Israelism into anti-Semitism if the Jews of the world did not distance themselves from the Zionist monster. It is clearly in their own self-interest to do so, in order to avoid a charge of comlicity in Zionism's crimes.
As to how to bring about the dissolution of the PA.... I think it would have to happen if enough of the occupied and oppressed Palestinians demanded it in peaceful demonstrations.
I fully agree with much of what you have said. I believe we should always try to copy the winning tactics and strategies of our opponents. Why was/has the Zionist lobby been so successful? Answer: because - as you have pointed out - they have been united and co-ordinated internationally. Right back to 1897 (if not before), the formation of a World Zionist Congress helped to direct and motivate the cause of Zionism. Where is the equivalent body for the Palestinians? This is the most important aspect needing addressing today if the Palestinian cause is to be successful. It cannot be the case that the Palestinians themselves do not realise this - can it? So why have they not come together and set up such a body? One final point: as I understand it, historically Zionism was very much a fringe movement on the edge of Judaism but grew to take over the main body of Judaic politics. Essentially, this happened because they were focused enough and determined enough to achieve this objective. A world-wide co-ordinating Palestine body will need similar qualities and cadres to achieve the same outcome. Do we know where these cadres are today?
Mr Hart, you hit the nail on the head when you say “The Palestine problem, ..... is the cancer at the heart of international affairs which could consume us all if it is not cured”. Unfortunately, as nature has it, no one from both ‘the accused world’, and apparently unconcerned countries, seems to wait and think about the impending danger, with Obama being a suitable nominee for the best pretender. The gullibility of the world over the Palestinian issue is best sign posted (to borrow Hart’s term) by the following folktale, which I could have emailed to BaraK Obama if I had his address. I urge Hart to do so.
A farmer set a mouse trap in order to get rid of the mouse, which he thought was unsuitable to stay in his beautiful house. The mouse saw the trap, and requested the hen to disable the trap. The hen refused, arguing that it was unconcerned about a mouse trap. The distraught mouse then approached a goat that was busy grazing and requested the goat to disable the trap. The goat laughed and said its body is a god-given missile battery as far as a mouse trap is concerned. ’Mouse traps are only for those for who the (chosen) people did not allocate places to settle and graze’ retorted the goat. The goat advised the mouse to mind its own business, or move out of the kitchen if it too hot, and resettle in the sea or mountains. The mouse’s last hope was with the ox. Upon hearing the request to disable the mouse trap, the ox gazed at the trap, and immediately thought that the mouse was a nuisance to (chosen) people. “Your problem is that you and your children are not content with the leftovers in the farm, and want to eat the farmers’ milk and honey in the cupboard. Mouse traps cannot catch oxen. The trap is for you, and I also believe you must pay for your sins”, argued the ox. A general assembly for all domestic animals was later convened to discuss the mouse’s plight. When it was time to take a vote, most animals abstained. The ox, one of the animals with veto powers, shot down any possible assistance for the mouse. They then dispersed in deafening silence.
During the night a snake came and saw the trap as a nice place to rest. As it coiled itself, it triggered the trap and its body got caught, but the head was not. When the farmer heard the sound of the trap, he naturally thought that the mouse had been caught. When the farmer got close, the snake bit the farmer viciously and he died. As people gathered to bury the farmer, one by one, all the animals were slaughtered to feed the mourners. Those that remained were hunted by wild animals as there was no longer a farmer to look after them. Hence, the Palestine problem is the cancer at the heart of international affairs which could consume us all if it is not cured.
I belive It's positive: Being recognized in the U. N. as a Palestinian Civilization's, Asking for rights under recognized law's of international justice. With be debated and enforcement. And is a long past first step, that should have been taken in 1948 by the U. N. in creating a Israel State with U. N. recognition. From the ancestral home of Palestine's two son's of this Shemite land.
Ronald Douglas Kennedy
Given the Israeli elections are about to re-elect an even further right wing nationalist coalition government how on earth is anything possible that you suggest? I agree with all you say, so eloquently put. Pragmatically it is not gonna fly until the right conditions are in place and by then our worst nightmares will be realised all Palestinian land will be owned occupied and destroyed by those who THINK they are entitled to the promised land, that they have spent so many years destroying!
As an activist and a visitor with friends in Palestine....I am however hopeful that PEACE will come and in a form that WE have as yet to know abput! All Palestinians need to put their shoulder to the wheel and not expect your sisters and brothers living under occupation to do all the work for yours and their liberty freedom, right of return, and human rights!
VIVA Palestina
@Ronald Douglas Kennedy
Sorry to inform you that a recent study titled ‘The Missing Link of Jewish European Ancestry: Contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian Hypotheses’, conducted by Dr. Eran Elhaik, a geneticist at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland - has proved that more than 90% of Jews occupying Palestine and outside Palestine - are not "Smite". Only Smite people found are among the Arab Muslims and Christians.
http://rehmat1.com/2013/01/18/study-european-jews-are-not-semite/
First off, thank you, Alan, for this exquisite presentation of the facts of the case and the dilemma facing all of us, not just the Palestinians (because Israel’s continued existence threatens all of humanity). Secondly, the crux of the dilemma, as you put it so well, is indeed the lack of a viable Palestinian leadership. But, unlike you, I trace this problem to Arafat, who basically sold out the Palestinians for a virtual mess of pottage. Without him the idea of two states would never have gained legitimacy among the majority of Palestinians or their supporters.
He also compromised on the basic and fundamental right of return. Ever since he gave away the store – Abbas & Co. have just followed suit - the Israelis have considered the Palestinians a mere inconvenience with whom they had no need to compromise. And, last but not least, he solidified, if not created, the dubious concept of Palestinian identity. This particular point will be met by most who sympathize with the Palestinian cause with some incredulity, so it will bear some explaining.
One of the most beautiful and least mentioned virtues of Palestine prior to the alien invasion was its very lack of identity based on religious, historical or national identity. That it happened to be majority Arab, Islamic or Middle Eastern did not give it a tribal character. By default, and particularly as the nexus of the Abrahamic traditions, it was international, indeed universally human. And its status as Southern Syria, part of the Ottoman Empire, was merely an historical and geographical coincidence, to be noted but hardly celebrated. It was at peace with itself and its neighbors, pluralistic and tolerant of all who came to its shores. It was as good a representative of Middle Earth as there could be.
As Gilad Atzmon has repeatedly pointed out, and as the central theme of his book The Wandering Who?, the root of the Zionist problem is one of an aggressive tribal identity. I make the point in my essay Us vs. Them: On the Meaning of Fascism
https://sites.google.com/site/onedemocraticstatesite/Home/today-s-headlines/us-vs-them-on-the-meaning-of-fascism-by-roger-tucker
that an ‘aggressive tribal identity’ is the root and hallmark of fascism, properly defined. Zionism is the foremost exemplar of a fascist ideology, even more than Nazism, because it includes all the major varieties of that particularly egregious political phenomenon – a bellicose religious, ethnic as well as national identity all wrapped into one. By creating and legitimizing a consciousness of Palestinian identity, Arafat fell right into that trap. By turning it into a national struggle, Arafat deprived it of the most fundamental argument for opposing the genocide.
If one considers all of the great opposition movements against domination by others – the American revolution, Gandhi’s struggle against the British Empire, Mandela’s resistance to apartheid, ML King’s civil rights movement, etc. – it will be noted that each of these successful movements appealed to universal rather than tribal imperatives. By turning the Palestinian resistance into a national struggle, Arafat greatly diminished the power that would have been available to his cause – it became just a local struggle between two opposing pseudo-nationalities and their natural allies rather than a universal movement against injustice and evil.
A sense of Palestinian identity was a natural reaction to an invasion by an alien identity group that defined itself primarily in ethno-centric, fascistic terms. It is not surprising, then, that it has had difficulty organizing itself around the principle of nationality, something heretofore foreign and fundamentally unpalatable to the culture. If there is going to be a successful defense it must be predicated on universal values with which even Zionized, brainwashed Americans and their imperial allies can identify.
In looking for a leader, someone who simultaneously represents both the Palestinians specifically as well as humanity at large, anyone from Fatah is disqualified as it is a merely nationalistic and thoroughly discredited organization, and Hamas, whatever its virtues, represents merely an Islamist ideology.
That the leader of the resistance must be Palestinian seems obvious enough, but given the universal character of the struggle, that Palestinian could be from the diaspora, and might just as well be an American. It is America that is crucial, because without its support the malignant tumor would lose its blood supply and quickly dissolve. So it is there that we must look if the monster is to be defeated.
Ramzy Baroud would do, and Azmi Bishara, the former head of the Palestinian Israeli Balad Party in Israel and currently exiled in Egypt, are other possibilities that come to mind. My own choice is someone who has already stated that he has no interest in playing that role. That is sufficient reason in itself to consider him. Genuine humility and lack of desire to put himself forward are strong recommendations in my book, but there is also the fact that he is Edward Said’s nephew, and therefore has a mantle ready to wear. I am speaking of Saree Makdisi, whom I hereby nominate from my position in cyberspace-at-large. Bottom line, though, is that it must be someone who would inspire the great majority of Palestinians and decent people everywhere. An organization such as Alan proposes would naturally arise in the wake of such leadership.
Before signing off I must also take issue with Alan’s proposition that “the prospects for the one-state solution becoming a reality would be improved if the presentation and selling of the case for it emphasized that the wellbeing and security of its Jewish citizens would be absolutely guaranteed, assuming only that they accepted with good grace their new status as equals and not masters.” It’s not that I disagree with that statement per se, but it implies that Israelis would be able to keep all of their stolen property and that all of them would perforce become Palestinian citizens. If that were the case, the Palestinians would become a subservient underclass even with a numerical majority within a nominal democracy.
To avoid such an outcome, the liberation movement must look to the Algerian revolution as a precedent, rather than So. Africa. The French left en masse, although many of the colons had been in Algeria for several generations. The Palestinians, if they are wise, would insist on just such an outcome, at least as an initial demand. Jewish immigrants not born in Israel would have to leave, with a couple of suitcases, period. With the others certain matters could be negotiated, particularly reparations, property rights and so forth. Otherwise, they would once again be giving away the store prematurely and would find themselves essentially powerless in their own country.
As for the tiresome argument that "the Israelis would never agree," we are discussing an outcome in which their desires and demands would be largely irrelevant. I am more optimistic than Alan - in fact, I believe that the seemingly impossible dream is not only possible but inevitable. I think that history and nature will confirm my confidence. But in the meantime there's a very tough fight to be fought - may humanity triumph over criminal insanity. I think it will.
@ Elna Najar. I agree with Elna. Many people raised in the various Christian denominations even have difficulty accepting that the Israelites are not the same as the Israelis! Or that their sentimental attachment to Old Testament characters must be set aside when looking at the question of justice and human rights in the modern world. Even if we leave aside the demented reasoning of the Christian Zionists, our entire Western Christian culture is so permeated with the Bible stories that some people must feel they are betraying their own religion if they do not accept Israel's claims to Palestinian land. The poor Palestinians have been doomed to suffer because of our un-intelligence and bigotry. I wish the leaders of the Christian Churches would encourage those who every Sunday preach to congregations all around the globe to concentrate less on Old Testament kings and prophets and more, much more, on Christ's teachings.
Worth reading though there is a feeling that the victims are being blamed. Bit like 'woman wears short skirt therefore deserves to be assaulted'. The Palestinians did not bring this upon themselves and all of the rest of us allowed the injustice to happen and continue to happen. Each one of us has a moral duty to speak out for humanity for Palestinians in every situation especially when it would be more comfortable to keep quiet.
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I am only able to read your excellent site by using Google's cache option, since Comodo firewall blocked access. Even after uninstalling comodo it's still blocking access to your site,any ideas ???
Sorry, The previous comment was meant for Rehmat's site. (Not sure if it went through to you or not) I mistook your comment box for his.
M. Mowbray
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Tucker's observations are compelling. The success of push back must not be national but based on universal principles entirely. Algeria is a good example of such a revolution against oppression. It is Israeli fascism that must go.
And much activism in the WB and elsewhere is rooted in universalism. The Zionist thugs spit on such universalism as un-Jewish, a product of Christianity. Hitler spit on Christianity's values as well and favored the animal and the tribe. The democratic plutocracies that Hitler despised must be organized to oppose Israel's aggression.
Yes, Davey Wavey, that’s the crux of it. I wouldn’t be so involved in the Israel/Palestine issues if it weren’t. The Palestinian cause transcends peoples and boundaries. It is the ultimate struggle between those who identify themselves as human beings first and any secondary, lesser ways of defining ourselves. This is the moral imperative spoken of by all the spiritual people in history, be they religious or secular. One could call it the permanent revolution, one that will be fought for a very long time, no doubt, but will in the end be decided when human beings finally grow up.