Salim Nazzal

The result which the American envoy George Mitchell in the Middle East has come with was not unexpected by most Arab observers. In the view of the Arab thinker Klofis Maksoud the real aim of Netanyahu is to freeze peace and not settlements. The Israeli rejecting of a temporary freezing of settlements means one thing which Netanyahu emphasized it all the time, Israel will resume the policy of stealing Palestinian land in order to build more settlements for Jews on the land of the future Palestinian state. This obviously contradicts with the international community commitment which links between the establishment of a viable Palestinian state and peace.

Nevertheless the question of Palestine is much more complicated than the question of settlements which composes only a portion of the question. But if we use this example as a barometer to measure the intention of Israel to integrate in the region the conclusion is more than obvious. Israel, like all racist and fascist states in history cannot live without oppressing and stealing the natives land and consequently cannot live without war. In the final analysis the essence of the Palestinian question is about displacing native Palestinians by a racist and murderous ideology to bring people from all over the world nothing link them except they are Jews. But, the fact which the world still overlooks is that the absence of a comprehensive approach which considers all elements in the conflict it is difficult to see a sign of hope of a political settlement.

The question today is, what will the Us be doing on light of the Israeli rejection to the American peace plans, will Obama realize at last that backing an apartheid state is absolutely against the interest of America which its image was greatly damaged in the whole world, or will Obama puts more pressures on Israel to comply with the peace plans?

Most Arab political circles fears that the USA which failed to put pressures on Israel to freeze settlement building for a year will press the Arab party to give more concessions to normalize the relation with the Jewish apartheid state. The meeting which took place in New York this week between Obama, Abbas and Netanyahu is considered a success to Netanyahu who could boast that he challenged Obama and rejected to comply with the American proposals.

Arab states say that they have given concrete proposals and the ball now is in the Israeli ground. The Beirut summit of 2002 which Israel ignored proposed a full diplomatic relation with the state of Israel for a full withdrawn from the west bank. For that reason Arab circles in the Middle East are concerned about the Obama demands from some Arab countries in the North Africa and the Gulf region to deliver some “normalization gestures” towards Israel which in return will continue building “only” 3000 units in the occupied Palestine. In the light of this Arab circles began to pose questions about the capability of the new administration to break with the previous American biased position. A Palestinian politician whom I spoke with after the Obama speech at the UN wonders what Obama means by using the term halting the Palestinian agitation against Israel. He asked: “Do Palestinians need somebody to agitate them against Israel when they see with their eyes how Israel makes their life hell on daily basis? Does Obama expect Palestinians to dance when Zionist Jews steal their land and humiliate them daily on 600 check points which most of them has no security significance for Israel but rather to humiliate Palestinians and to break their will of freedom?”

The historical speech of the Libyan leader at the UN has posed serious questions about the role of the UN towards several third world cases, Palestine is one of them. Most Arab observers considers that this speech was the clearest Arab protest towards the UN which failed to prevent more than 65 wars and failed to provide justice to Palestinians. We cannot see that the UN is for the whole world, Al Qaddafi said. Indeed the strong states do what they like and nobody question them while the UN is strong on the small states. The Palestinian question is the sharpest example: Israel occupies, murder, and steals Palestinian land under the shadow of the American veto which consolidates the Qaddafi argument about the biased position of the UN.

However the political view in the occupied Palestine has witnessed no change on the ground.

The apartheid state of Israel changes its propaganda tactics between time and time but the strategy remains the same. To steal as much as they could of Palestine and to reduce as much as they could of Palestinians by various forms of terror which is the preferable methods of the Zionist apartheid state. The reality on the ground is which speaks, and this reality demonstrates clearly that Jewish settlement increases creating facts on the ground which makes the establishment of a small Palestinian state impossible. Major Palestinian cities like Qalqilya is surrounded by a wall from three directions leaving only one entrance to go into town in one of the biggest prisons in the modern history is a small example of the huge destruction which Israel caused and still causing to the Palestinian land and the Palestinian life. If an earth quick or any natural catastrophe strikes the town hundreds of thousands of its population will find no place to escape to since the Zionist walls are surrounding the city from three directions. According to a source in the Palestinian civil defense whom I met recently several fires were not distinguished because the Palestinian fire fighting cars were stopped from half to one hour on the Israeli check points and the result is that the cars reached the place when the fire has already destroyed everything. The Jewish fascism is getting stronger with each day and the hopes of reaching a reasonable solution disappearing too. All this is contributing in creating an atmosphere of hopelessness and pessimism in the region and consolidating the view that the international community is unable or unwilling to make Israel respect the international law.

In the view of many Arab observers the failure of the American plan will push the region sooner or later towards a comprehensive war which would be the logical result of the aggressive Zionist policy. Are we heading towards the eighth Arab Israeli war, it is difficult to tell, but what is sure that the absence of a serious pressure on Israel is creating an atmosphere of despair and militancy which will sooner or later lead to the eighth Arab Israeli war which many observers predict it will be catastrophic.

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Dr. Salim Nazzal is a Palestinian-Norwegian historian in the Middle East, who has written extensively on social and political issues in the region.salim_nazzal@yahoo.com