Last week, Ashkenazi was quoted as saying that Israel was likely to wage another quasi holocaust on Gaza, adding that the Israeli occupation army would enter the innermost corners and streets of the coastal territory.

As a nefarious mass murderer, Ashkenazi, like the rest of Israeli war criminals, ought to be in the Hague preparing his defense against charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. After all the crimes he perpetrated put him  on equal footing with Nazi war criminals who had stood trial  for their  own crimes against humanity during the Second World War.

However, because of the serious moral imbalance afflicting our world today, which finds a brazen expression in western complicity with Zio-Nazism,  Ashkenazi and ilk are not only free but are even  threatening their victims with a fresh holocaust.

In a certain sense, Ashkenazi’s arrogant behavior falls within the normal order of things. The totally inappropriate reaction by the international community to the Nazi-like blitz against the unprotected Gazans must have further emboldened Israeli leaders, convincing  them that Israel can always have a free season on the 1.5 million helpless, blockaded and thoroughly starved inhabitants of the coastal enclave without having to worry about any serious ramifications and repercussions.

Hence his repulsive statements.

It is true that many free-minded political and moral leaders, such as the Turkish Prime Minister Recep  Tayyip Erdogan, have strongly condemned Israeli barbarianism in Gaza.

It is also true that the Goldstone report, prepared by South African Judge Richard Goldstone, denounced Israel for perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza blitz, which is a positive development.

However, it is also true  that war criminals pay little attention to verbal condemnations even if coming from prominent international bodies and figures.

This is why Askenazi’s remarks ought to be taken with utmost seriousness for two main reasons:  First because the Israeli army, or Zionist Wehrmacht, is capable of committing the unthinkable, including the carpet bombing of civilian areas, using cluster bombs, as happened over Lebanon in the summer of 2006,  or white phosphorus as happened in Gaza last winter. And  second, because Israel is essentially a  rebellious state which  has never taken international law seriously. What is even more scandalous is that western countries, especially the United States, have always treated the Judeo-Nazi entity as above international law.

Hence, it is imperative that the Palestinian people play their cards very carefully and smartly. After all, when wrestling with a huge bull, one has to rely on his brain, not his muscles, otherwise one may end up getting crushed by the mighty beast.

Palestinians ought to be always mindful of this fact because their very survival as a people depends to a large extent on the good will of the international community, not their own military or political strength. After all, most Palestinians are effectively prisoners of the enduring Israeli military occupation.

Hence, the Palestinian must seek to recruit the best minds and most gifted spokespersons to raise the awareness of the peoples of the world about the creeping holocaust Israel is trying to wreak on our helpless people.

We must not flinch from invoking the holocaust lest we be accused of making hyperboles. Indeed, if even one tenth of what happened in Gaza earlier this year had happened to Israeli Jews, Israel would have invoked the holocaust  nonstop, and urgent calls from around the world would have been made for saving the Jews and preventing  the Arabs from completing what Adolph had started nearly seventy years ago.

More to the point, the idea of Israel carrying out a sort of a holocaust is not unthinkable at all.

Last year, the Israeli deputy defense minister Mattan Vilna’ai warned that Israel would launch a holocaust against the Palestinians if that was what the Palestinians wanted.  And during the blitzkrieg on Gaza, the psychotic Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman was quoted by the Israeli media as saying that a nuclear bomb ought to be dropped on Gaza.

Hence, Palestinian fears are not and shouldn’t be viewed as phobic and irrational. After all, we are dealing with an irrational state and a morbid society that are overwhelmed with a unique type of collective psychosis.

Never the less, raising our voices is not sufficient. We must also seek to enlist the attention and support of international human rights organizations as much as possible. These are credible witnesses whose testimonies might be proven crucial for safeguarding the rights of our people, the dead as well as the living.

We must also gather and  meticulously document every conceivable  piece of information pertaining to Zionist crimes and criminals, from the ordinary soldier in the field to the highest-ranking commander. This shouldn’t be a difficult job as there is already a huge amount of information pertaining to Israeli war criminals available, even through the internet.

Furthermore, Palestinians and their supporters should always confront states all over the world with information indicting Israeli military and political leaders. We should seek to narrow their horizons, make the capitals of the world off-limit to them, we should pursue them wherever they go. These people are war criminals and child killers must not be allowed to have any shred of  peace of mind . Their murderous crimes must condemn them to a life of existential anxiety, stress and depression.

Of course, the Zio-Nazis will not surrender and allow themselves to be easily defeated by our efforts. Moreover, manifestly immoral governments such as those of the US and Germany, to name just a few, will hasten to support Israel and shield it from any proactive measures that would make the Zionist regime feel  the heat and understand that the occupation has a cost that must be paid in full.

But we and our allies could counter this true axis of evil by building a worldwide front comprising millions of free and honest  men and women  who would chase the war criminals wherever they go and  expose their evil deeds.

Luckily, we already have such a movement in place. But we need to get more organized, and be more effective. These goals are not difficult to realize as the world is already fed up with Israel, a state that we must never stop comparing with Nazi Germany because in the final analysis when Zionist Jews think, behave and act like the Nazis of the past century, they become Nazis.

We must never be apologetic about this.

Futility Much Anticipated With Israel's Occupation

In a measure that has already vexed the internal Palestinian political arena, Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmud Abbas has called for "presidential and legislative elections" to be held in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank, East Al-Quds and the Gaza Strip on January 24, 2010.

The decision is expected to widen and deepen the  state of contention between Fatah and Hamas, the two largest political groups in occupied Palestine.

Fatah, which have been in control of the PA security agencies connived with Western powers and also Israel against Hamas after the Muslim liberation group won the 2006 elections.

This prompted Hamas to oust Fatah militias from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007.

The cold-bloodedness between the two sides has evolved into a kind of unprecedented enmity as all Arab, especially since Egyptian efforts to reconcile the two groups, have so far failed.

It is not exactly clear what prompted Abbas to embark on this feat now, especially with reconciliation efforts going nowhere and with the current Israeli government of Benyamin Netanyahu refusing to freeze Jewish settlement expansion despite constant American demands.

Hamas which controls the Gaza Strip, has castigated the decision to hold elections without consultation or coordination with Hamas, as a "grave blunder that would have serious repercussions on the Palestinian national cause."

For his part, Abbas sought to defend his decision, arguing that the elections were a "legal, national and constitutional imperative."

To this, Hamas retorted that it is futile to speak  of constitutional imperatives when Israel controls every street and corner in the West Bank, and when Abbas himself, as the head of the Palestinian Authority, cannot even move from his office in Ramallah to the next street without getting Israel's consent beforehand.

Palestinians, Hamas argued, must not get themselves accustomed to the "normality" of living under the Israeli military occupation.

Objective Facts

In a certain sense, Hamas is correct. The West Bank, which will be the main theatre of the scheduled elections, is still tightly controlled by the Israeli occupation army. 

Indeed, every Palestinian town where the PA enjoys nominal and symbolic "authority" is actually controlled and by the Israeli army, either directly or in collaboration with American-trained Palestinian security forces.

This means that Israel, not the PA, has the final say in all matters pertaining to elections. If Israel says "No", Abbas obviously cannot do much. He will probably succumb to the Israeli decision, and perhaps complain to Israel's guardian-ally, the United States.

Hence, it is probably safe to say that Israel will not allow the organization of real, fair and transparent elections in the West Bank and East Al-Quds if the Jewish state does not receive an "appropriate price" from the weak and vulnerable PA government.

In 2006, when Israel felt that Hamas was poised to win Palestinian legislative elections, it unceremoniously rounded up hundreds of pro-Hamas candidates for PA parliament and local (municipal) councils.

In the West Bank, nearly all elected Muslim MPs were arrested and sentenced to lengthy periods of imprisonment ranging from 32 months to 48 months. Their only "crime" was their participation in elections under the umbrella of a "terrorist organization".

On October 26, 24 MPs, including formers ministers, such Sheikh Nayef Rajoub, are still languishing in Israeli dungeons on no ground other than the fact that they earned the trust of their people in a fair election that was okayed by Israel and the United States and meticulously observed by observers from around the world.

This means that there is no guarantee whatsoever that Israel will not resort to the same draconian measures again. If so, one would really wonder if it is wise to hold elections under such conditions.

Police State Without a State 

To be sure, Israel is not the only obstacle impeding the organization of fair and truly democratic elections. The PA itself is very much a police state without a state. A police state because there is a nearly total absence of the rule of law in the West Bank as human rights and civil liberties are routinely and constantly violated.

 And "without a state" because the PA has no sovereignty of its own and is thoroughly subservient to Israel's whims.

Needless to say, an atmosphere of fear now prevailing throughout the West Bank inhibits organizing truly democratic elections.

People suspected of holding "non-conformist" views, such as sympathizing with Hamas, will be dragged to jails and interrogation dungeons where they are often beaten, humiliated and even tortured. 

At least 10 pro-Hamas sympathizers have been tortured to death at the hands of PA interrogators since 2007.

In addition, thousands of people have been detained and hundreds are still languishing in PA jails without charge or trial.

The police state atmosphere is so rampant in the West Bank today that a petty act like hoisting a green Islamic flag bearing Islam's article of faith (I bear witness that there is no God but Allah, and that Muhammed is His messenger) is enough to make one land in a PA interrogation center.

Hence, it is only logical to question the plausibility, let alone wisdom of holding elections under such circumstances.

This is not to say that "elections" cannot be organized at all. They can, but it is highly likely that they would be seriously rigged in daylight, although this would not prevent the PA's Western donors and bankrollers , such the United States and the United Kingdom, from hailing the elections as "democratic and honest".

Hard Questions

The PA leadership claims that it will respect the outcome of the elections, regardless of which party wins the polls. However, any serious observer of the Palestinian arena can hardly take this claim for granted.

Let us suppose for the sake of argument that Hamas would win the elections, even by a narrow margin. Would Fatah then cede power to the victorious party?  Would the United States and Britain and Israel's Western allies come to terms with the results? Would Israel recognize Hamas as the true representative of the Palestinian people? Would the American-trained PA security forces agree to be answerable to the new government?

Obviously, the answer for all these crucial questions is absolutely "No".
It is amply clear that Abbas is not intending to hold elections for the elections' sake.

His ultimate goal is to avenge Fatah's defeat in Gaza more than two years ago, as well as to outmaneuver Hamas into a serious  political predicament.

Ultimately, Abbas wants to get rid of Hamas as a key political player at the Palestinian arena in order to be able to give Israel all or most of the concessions it is now demanding without  facing any serious Palestinian opposition.

Abbas and his aides did try to achieve this ominous goal, namely to decapitate Hamas in 2007, in concert with US intelligence through such people as Elliot Abrams and Keith Dayton.

However, Hamas managed to outsmart them when its "Executive Force" defeated and ousted Fatah's militias from the entire Gaza Strip.

Moreover, Fatah and Hamas differ sharply on the entire rationale behind the elections. Hamas views the elections as part of an overall program for resistance that would eventually enable the Palestinian people to wrest freedom from the Israeli occupation.

On the other hand, Fatah views the election as an opportunity to "settle scores with Hamas" and to willy-nilly re-impose the group's erstwhile hegemony over Palestinian lives, using a variety of stick-and-carrot tactics.

Fatah is bent on remaining in "power", a term which in the Palestinian context is devoid of any real meaning since the PA has no real power and only functions as a submissive sub-contractor for the Israeli occupation.

In light, there is no doubt that holding elections in the West Bank  under the present circumstances would seriously complicate and exacerbate the internal Palestinian crisis and might lead to an irreversible divorce between Gaza and the West Bank.

Certainly, this is not what most Palestinians want.

http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1256034022358&pagename=Zone-English-Muslim_Affairs%2FMAELayout

The recent Turkish decision to exclude Israel from an aerial military exercise over Turkish territory is another indication that Turkey will not allow itself to be blackmailed by criminal international Zionism.

Following the decision, Zionist officials and media sought to mitigate its impact on the increasingly troubled relations with Turkey by claiming that it had little to do with the genocidal blitz which the Israeli army carried out in winter against the Gaza Strip.
However, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister of Turkey, and other Turkish officials  have made  it amply clear that the cancellation of the military drill is consistent with the feelings of the vast bulk of  the Turkish masses vis-à-vis the Nazi-like atrocities in the Gaza Strip.

This week, Erdogan once again invoked the mass killings by the Israeli army of hundreds of Palestinian children, using white phosphorus shells and other weapons of death.
The Turkish premier argued convincingly that Turkey has an influential public opinion and that it was the government’s duty to take it into consideration.

His remarks have effectively silenced Zionist pretensions and attempts at self-assurance that Turkey would budge to Zionist pressure.

To be sure, Israel is unlikely to succumb to the new reality of Turkish-Israeli relations, namely that the quasi-Islamic leadership of  Turkish republic will not just play deaf and dumb and look the other way if the Zionist regime keeps up its genocidal crimes against the helpless and innocent civilians in occupied Palestine.

Zionist circles, incensed by their inability to intimidate or bully the Turkish leadership, are likely to be devising ways and means of retributions against Turkey.

These might include instigating the Jewish-controlled American congress to declare the anti-Armenian campaign of 1915 a “genocide” or even a “holocaust.” More importantly, Israel and its Zionist circles are likely to step up efforts to incite the traditionally secular Turkish military establishment to topple the democratically-elected government.

Israel has had a reputation of inciting the Turkish military against civilian governments that dared deviate from the Zionist line.

A classical example was the Zionist-envisaged coup against the first Islamic Prime Minister of modern Turkey, Necmittin Erbakan in 1997.

Moreover, Israel could still manipulate a vast network of Freemason agents to destabilize the Turkish government.

Zionism played a pivotal role in effecting the downfall of the Ottoman state after Sultan Abdul Hamid II adamantly refused repeated Jewish solicitations for a national Jewish home in Palestine.

Nevertheless, Israel would have to be extremely cautious about any provocative interference in internal Turkish affairs since this could boomerang badly on Israel and cause irreparable damage to Israeli-Turkish relations.

Also, the increasingly stable relations between the Turkish government and the military establishment are likely to make any Zionist-inspired conspiracies against the stability of Turkey more difficult than ever before.

The exclusion of Israel from the Anatolian Eagle exercise seems to be a popular measure for most Turks who are disquieted by recurrent efforts by government-backed Jewish extremists to arrogate a foothold at the Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem, one of Islam’s holiest sanctuaries.

In addition, the decision is manifestly morally right. After all, which country, let alone an Islamic country, would host warplanes that only a few months ago were raining death on helpless and unprotected children throughout the Gaza Strip, killing, maiming and incinerating thousands of innocent people, and utterly destroying thousands of homes, mosques and other civilian buildings?

The Zionists will always try to defend or cover up their evil crimes, now exposed by the Goldstone report, with obscene lies.

They would claim, as the former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni did this week, that the virtual genocide in Gaza was not an anti-Palestinian act but rather an “anti-terrorist act.”
But such claims are nothing short of a fornication with language.

After all, it is well-established that the vast majority of the victims of the Gaza blitz were innocent civilians. This fact is readily recognized by human rights groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and even Israel’s own B’tselem group which monitors Israeli army crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.

So could it be that the entire world is wrong about what happened in Gaza while the Judeo-Nazi thugs in Tel Aviv are right?

The Turkish leadership should therefore be applauded for its moral commitment toward  the helpless Palestinians, many of whom have Turkish ancestry, who are languishing under an unmitigated Nazi-like military occupation.

This Turkish approach to Israel, an entity whose very existence constitutes a gigantic war crime, or a crime against humanity, is the least any Muslim country can do to prevent a possible genocide against the Palestinians.

This is why, other Muslim (and non-Muslim) countries with diplomatic ties with the Israeli regime ought to learn a moral lesson from Turkey and stop having “business as usual” with the Nazis of our time.

I am saying this  because it is a Nazi act par excellence to employ the most advanced technology of death  to exterminate innocent civilians who are even denied access to food and fuel as well as  some of the basic amenities of life, on the ground that a few Israeli settlers were killed and injured by primitive projectiles fired by desperate Palestinian resistance fighters who found themselves very much in a situation resembling  that which faced the anti-Nazi resistance fighters in Europe during the Second World War.

I am sure that conscientious people around the world, including many Jews, know in the depth of their hearts that what Israel did in Gaza ten months ago, and what it has been doing to the Palestinians for decades, belongs to the same moral category under which Nazi atrocities are listed.

This is why it is a moral obligation of the highest order upon all people of conscience and honesty, irrespective of religion and race, to condemn, expose and isolate this nefarious regime that is trying to consolidate the law of the jungle in place of international law.

Failing to do so, God forbid, means that the law of the jungle will prevail.

The report, compiled by South African judge Richard Goldstone, accused Israel of committing, knowingly and deliberately, war crimes and crimes against humanity during its winter onslaught on the Gaza Strip in which more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed, most of whom were innocent civilians, including more than 300 children, with thousands others injured or badly incinerated by phosphoric bombs. Thousands of homes, mosques and public buildings were destroyed in the 22-day blitz.

The adoption of the report by the UNHRC would likely have led to calls for its referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague and could eventually have led to the prosecution of suspected Israeli war criminals. However, the inexplicable PA decision to support freezing discussion of the report until March has effectively enabled Israel to evade culpability by burying and neutralising the report, at least for the time being.

In occupied Palestine, and much of the Arab world, the scandalous PA misstep has drawn universal condemnation from the political right to the left, with PA officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas, finding themselves at loss as to how to shield themselves from an avalanche of vitriolic condemnations and accusations ranging from commission of treason to weakness, incompetence and powerlessness in the face of Israel and the United States.

In fact, no other act by the PA/PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) since the signing of the Oslo Accords more than 16 years ago has met such a unanimous revulsion, which explains the perplexed and confused reactions of PA officials and spokespersons. Moreover, most of the criticism came from secular groups, including organisations associated with the PLO itself, which would refute the claim that the widespread indignation was part of the public relations showdown between Fatah and the Islamist camp.

Even Fatah, Abbas's own party, which is the political backbone of both the PLO and PA, had to "go with the flow," at least publicly, by criticising the "irresponsible feat" in Geneva. Fatah is worried that the Geneva fiasco may cause it to lose popularity ahead of Palestinian elections that could take place in the second half of 2010.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas, eager to limit the damage, has ordered a probe into what happened. However, very few Palestinians take the measure seriously since it is widely believed that it was Abbas himself who asked the Palestinian ambassador to the UN to recommend freezing the Goldstone Report until March.

Hamas used strong epithets to denounce the PA decision to defer discussion of the Goldstone Report. Hamas leaders in Gaza and Damascus slammed the decision as representing "total subservience and submission" to the Zionist will. Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of the Hamas government in Gaza, blamed Abbas for the debacle, asserting that it was Abbas who took the decision. "The decision to abandon the Goldstone Report came from the top of the authority in Ramallah," he said.

Harsher words came from Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza. "The Palestinian people would like to know if the Ramallah leadership is a defender of the Palestinian people and their just cause or a lawyer for Israel. We wouldn't be exaggerating if we said that this irresponsible behaviour borders on treason," he said.

Hamas had lately toned down its propaganda war against Fatah, apparently in order to help create the atmosphere conducive to prospective reconciliation between the two groups. However, it seems that Hamas has found the latest public relations disaster incurred by Abbas too precious to be let pass quietly — especially since the PA misstep is widely viewed as a huge betrayal for war victims and the entire people of the Gaza Strip.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a PLO faction, also strongly denounced the deferral of the Goldstone Report as "irresponsible, defeatist" and representing a "huge affront to our people's struggle for justice". "This suspicious behaviour," the group continued, "is a prescription for corroding a major tool of our struggle against the Israeli occupation." A statement by the PFLP dismissed as "mendacious and silly" PA justifications for "this irresponsible act" which only serves the goals and interests of Israel.

Even stronger words came from the Islamic Jihad, which strongly condemned PA "connivance with our enemy". "The PA behaviour in Geneva brings shame and dishonour to the Ramallah leadership and underscores the extent to which that leadership is conspiring with the Zionist regime against the interests of our people." According to Mohamed Al-Hindi, a prominent Islamic Jihad leader in the Gaza Strip, "it is disgraceful that while the Palestinian people are celebrating the release of its honourable female prisoners from Israeli dungeons, the PA is conspiring with Israel to cover up its crimes against our people in Gaza."

The NGO sector also strongly denounced the Palestinian "retreat" in Geneva. In a widely circulated appeal entitled, "Justice delayed is justice denied," 16 Palestinian civic and human rights organisations argued that PA consent to defer the ratification of the Goldstone Report to March effectively "denied the Palestinian people the right to an effective judicial remedy and equal protection of the law. It also represents the triumph of politics over human rights. It is an insult to all victims and a rejection of their rights."

The same statement argued that the right to justice for victims of the Israeli war on Gaza shouldn't be subject to political manoeuvring. "These rights are universal, they are not subject to political considerations. In the nine months since Operation Cast Lead, no effective judicial investigation has been conducted into the conflict."

It is still somewhat unclear why the PA embraced such an unpopular decision. Some unnamed PA officials have disclosed that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bullied Abbas to defer discussion of the Goldstone Report, arguing that ratification of the report at the UNHRC would embarrass Israel and seriously undermine American efforts to restart the stalled peace process. The same sources intimated that the Obama administration had threatened to suspend its role as broker of Middle East peace efforts and freeze financial aid to the PA government if the latter didn't heed the American "advice".

Israel, also reportedly threatened the PA that it would refuse to license a new Palestinian mobile phone company, partially owned by one of Abbas's sons, if the PA pushed for the adoption of the Goldstone Report in Geneva. However, the most likely reason for the PA decision may have to do with an Israeli threat to release records of conversations between Israeli and PA officials showing the latter pleading with the former to pursue the war on Gaza to the end in order to crush Hamas.

The PA has remained reticent over these specific accusations, which only enforces speculation about the public rumours.

What is clear is that the latest scandal, or "Goldstone-gate" as some Palestinian journalists are beginning to refer to events in Geneva, is likely to seriously undermine PA standing with the Palestinian public. Weakened popularity, coupled with obvious US failure to force Israel to freeze Jewish-only settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, along with mounting tension around Al-Aqsa Mosque, could form an incendiary trigger that might eventually explode in a new wave of violence — a third Intifada.
Source: Ahram Weekly
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/967/re72.htm

Abbas Must Go
by Khalid Amayreh

Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to defer the adoption of the Goldstone report by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last week was more than an innocent diplomatic error or classical example of political misjudgment.

It was rather a brazen act of national irresponsibility bordering on breach of trust or outright treason.

I realize that one shouldn’t use words such “treason” very lightly. However, it is also true that undermining national interests, even unknowingly, in order to appease Israel and please the Obama administration goes beyond the pale of what is politically allowable and morally acceptable.

We are a people languishing under a cruel military occupation that is trying to obliterate us as a people using nefarious tactics, including murderous ethnic cleansing. This is why we can’t allow ourselves to have the luxury of having third-class leaders playing with our cause.

Abbas might cite a lot of excuses to save face and extenuate the gravity of this blunder, to put extremely mildly, such as claiming that he came under tremendous American pressure, or that he didn’t foresee the harmful effects of his decision on the Palestinian people and their just cause.

But such excuses makes no sense and only dishonest peoples or imbeciles would give Abbas the benefit of the doubt.

The reason is very simple. If indeed incompetence, or misjudgment or even senility is to blame for this appalling act of national irresponsibility, then it is clear that Abbas is unfit to be the leader of the Palestinian people. In the final analysis, incompetent leaders can be as harmful to their nations as treacherous leaders are.

But the scandalous blunder would be considered a brazen act of treason if Abbas did know what he was doing and if he decided to sheepishly heed the American “advice” despite his foreknowledge that this would cause a huge harm to the Palestinian cause.

So, in both cases, Abbas has no excuses to remain in his job as “President” of the Palestinian Authority, an entity of ill-repute that has wreaked havoc on the Palestinian people and their just cause.

The just Palestinian cause simply can’t bear having another “mistake” or “judgment error” of this magnitude.

Today, the issue is shielding Israeli war criminals from international condemnation and possible prosecution and punishment. God knows what could happen next if the Palestinian people allowed this awful absurdity to persist.

It is really difficult to relate to this issue without getting angry. After all, we are dealing with the murder of more than 1,400 innocent Palestinians, including hundreds of children, brutally massacred in order to grant the Judeo-Nazi entity a feeling of safety, confidence and deterrence.

In fact, what happened in Gaza more than nine months ago was a quasi-holocaust.  How else could one honestly relate to the ganging up by a regional superpower on a helpless and blockaded people who could hardly find sufficient food to feed their children, a people who had to die everyday to prove that they were alive?

And when a glimmer of hope for taking the murderers and child-killers to task appeared on the distant horizons, the leader of the victimized people, Mr. Abbas, readily and single-handedly volunteered to help Israel bury its crimes by saying  “not this time!”

Well, if not this time, then when, Mr. President? When the disciples of Hitler will turn Gaza, Nablus and al-Khalil into another Auschwitz, another Bergen Belsen, and another Mauthausen?

When the world loses whatever semblance of human conscience it still has and comes to view the murder of Palestinians by the Nazi-minded Israelis as just one of these unpleasant aspects of daily life?

Besides, it is perfectly legitimate to wonder if a president who doesn’t fully realize the consequences and repercussions of his actions can really be entrusted with the paramount task of tackling the national burden, the task of regaining our freedom and extricating our usurped rights from the claws of Zionism.

Indeed, would it be farfetched to think that Abbas and his ilk could repeat the same disastrous stupidity (in case he didn’t mean it) or brazen treachery (in case he did) with more paramount issues such as Jerusalem and the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees unjustly uprooted from their ancestral homeland at the hands of the criminal Zionists?

In fact, there is already strong evidence that Abbas is planning to compromise on both issues (Jerusalem and the refugees), which require that we, the people of Palestine,  remain vigilant in order to thwart all conspiracies against our survival and future.

I strongly believe that Abbas must take the right decision and retire for good. That would be a dignified step that would spare him further indignity and dishonor.

The Palestinian people are too tired and too exhausted to fight on two battles, the main battle with the Zionist beast which is trying to arrogate our land and ruin our present and future, and a secondary battle of preserving our just cause from the betrayal of narcissistic and self-absorbed “leaders” who think that complacency and capitulation are the best policy.

Finally, Fatah should draw the right conclusion from this sorry episode. After all, one doesn’t have to be a great public relations expert to realize that the continued existence of this man at the helm of Fatah will prove to be disastrous. But the issue is more than just public relations. The issue is Palestine itself.

The people just won’t forgive you, and Abbas is no Yasser Arafat.

Likewise, the stupid and disgraceful feat immensely serves the Israeli goal of covering up the Nazi-like crimes the Israeli occupation army committed during its manifestly criminal war on the Gaza Strip nine months ago. 

Endorsement of the report by UNHRC would probably have paved the way for the prosecution of Israeli war criminals before  the International Criminal Court (ICC) as well as International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. 

The PA has given a plethora of  mostly mendacious pretexts to justify the scandalous act which numerous Palestinians, ordinary people as well as intellectuals, have described as an expression of national treason. 

To be sure, the Palestinians had on their side a solid majority of  33-35 member-states out of the 47-member council, which means the Goldstone commission report could have been easily endorsed by the UNHRC and referred to ICC or ICJ. 

Hence, the only real interpretation of the PA decision to delay a vote on the report is that the Ramallah regime wanted only to appease Israel and the Obama administration irrespective of the disastrous effects and ramifications on the Palestinian cause, especially on the unwept victims of Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip. 

Well, if Israel can get away with murdering 1300 Palestinians and utterly destroying half of Gaza, the next holocaust would probably assume European proportions. After all, the world can’t be more Palestinian than the Palestinians themselves. 

Prior to the decision, there were reports that President Obama personally intervened behind the scenes, asking the PA leadership to stop pushing for the endorsement of the report since according to him doing so would undermine “diplomatic efforts.” 

Similarly, another report suggested  that the PA had reached  a deal with Israel whereby the apartheid  Zionist regime agreed to license a business venture partially owned by wealthy businessmen linked to the PA  in return for the latter agreeing to defer discussion of the Goldstone report at the UNHRC. 

The PA ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ibrahim Khreishi, was quoted as saying that the Palestinian leadership was interested in a “compromise text.” 

“It will help us explain to the Israelis that the international community is with the Palestinians to achieve their hopes and dreams.” 

What a stupidity! After more than 42 years of a criminal military occupation, do we still have to explain our suffering to the Israelis? 

Does Mr. Khreishi really think that all the Israelis needed to desist from their Nazi-like crimes against our people was just a “convincing explanation”? 

Does the PLO ambassador think a “compromise text” would make the despicable thugs and war criminals in Tel Aviv reconsider their criminal approach vis-à-vis the Palestinians? 

And what does a “compromise text” mean anyway? Did Israel not commit war crimes and crimes against humanity knowingly, willfully and deliberately against innocent people in Gaza? 

Didn’t Israel rain death, using state-of-the-art of the American technology of death, on unprotected civilian neighborhoods, killing and maiming thousands of innocent men, women and children?  

Didn’t Israel rain white phosphorous on large parts of Gaza, incinerating innocent life all over the coastal territory? 

Didn’t Israel knowingly and deliberately rain bombs from high altitudes on homes, mosques, colleges, hospitals and schools all over Gaza? 

So, how could any human being with any semblance of honesty and morality try to make these crimes look less nefarious and less satanic by agreeing to adopting a  “compromise text”?

Of all people in the world, we Palestinians must call the spade a spade especially when we see that proverbial spade in the hands of our grave diggers,  tormentors and child killers. 

The Judeo-Nazi army, navy and air force  murdered our people en masse in Gaza and the West Bank. They committed their horrendous crimes in broad daylight and  in full view of the entire world. 

There were no extenuating circumstances or controversial accounts of what really happened. The so-called “Qassam rockets” are largely a red-herring and shouldn’t be used in the same phrase with the horrendous Israeli machine of death since the enormity and deadliness in both cases are totally incomparable.  

And above all, the person who prepared the report, Richard Goldstone, is a Jew, actually a Zionist Jew, who would never overplay and exaggerate these war crimes against a virtually completely unprotected people whose very physical survival has always depended and continues to depend on the good will of the international community.

Hence, the Palestinian people, the longest-lasting victims of genocidal racism,  and the entire free world around us would like to know what is it that makes the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah and its disoriented ambassador in Geneva cringe so submissively in the face of Zionist pressure? 

Don’t you people have any modicum of honor and national dignity? After all, we are talking about real crimes and hundreds of children mercilessly murdered by the army of  these thuggish Zionist spokespersons who are now shamelessly bragging about swaying the PA ambassador into helping  the Israeli propaganda cause. 

Nevertheless, it is probably unfair to pin all the blame on Khreishi, a mere functionary who had to heed the stupid instructions from Ramallah. 

True, Khreishi should have resigned rather than be part to an ignominious act of national betrayal. But the ultimate villain is, of course, the Palestinian Judenrat in Ramallah which has become inured to sacrificing  Palestinian national interests for the sake of appeasing Israel and pleasing the Obama administration in the hope of getting a “payoff” of some kind.

Interestingly, however,  the “payoff” given to the PA  that we have seen so far is in the form of more Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank, more Jewish provocations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque esplanade, and more Jewish violence and terror against unprotected Palestinian citizens in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

As to the Obama administration, it, too, has been “rewarding” the PA for its perfidy and betrayal of its own people by turning a blind eye to Israeli settlement expansion and by insisting that the PA resume talks with the arrogant government of Benyamin Netanyahu without any preconditions.

Well, people who don’t respect themselves don’t deserve respect from others. Moreover, an authority that torments, tortures and kills its own citizens in order to please the Israeli occupier and obtain from it a certificate of good conduct is utterly unqualified to be a true representative of the Palestinian people. 

Finally,  it is probably safe to assume that the PA dreads a thorough discussion of the Goldstone report as much as Israel does. 

According to certain sources, the PA had consistently urged Israel to pursue the criminal war on the Gaza Strip to the end. 

Israel is also believed to possess damning evidence showing some PA officials pleading with Israel to keep up the war on Gaza in order to crush Hamas. 

Hence, it is highly likely that the PA has found itself in an exceedingly embarrassing situation, which explains why it doesn’t want to see a public discussion of the Goldstone report take place anytime soon as this would reveal many shocking  and embarrassing secrets about  PA connivance with Israel in carrying out the Nazi-like onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

Mary Rizzo: Could you briefly tell us about the work you do? 

Khalid Amayreh: I am a journalist who since time immemorial has found himself, first as a human being, and second as a journalist, right in the middle of the fray of the enduring Palestinian plight. For example, I remember I knew all the details of Israeli commando operations and massacres when I was merely 7 years old. 

When I went to the US in 1976, I wanted to study Computer Science, then Business Administration. However, as I saw Zionist circles on campus at the University of Oklahoma try somewhat successfully to change the black into white and the big lie into a virtual truth, I decided to study journalism. 

Which I did.  Now, I am fully-engaged in my work, writing nearly daily columns for a host of media outlets on three continents. Eventually, the internet became my ultimate domain because what I do say, and I always have much to say, is not particularly liked by the politically-correct media. Hence, I can say that in a certain sense, the internet has substantially freed us from the traditional media colonialism. 

I am quite satisfied with what I have been doing. My articles are published and posted around the world in several languages, including Arabic, English, French, Spanish and other European languages. Many of my articles are posted on my website. It is www.xpis.ps.   

MR: You have in the past several years faced some difficult situations. Two of these that we are aware of are your denial of a visa to leave the West Bank for conferences in Europe and the other was your arrest and brief detention. Both of these were the doing of the Palestinian Authority. Why do you believe they have put these restrictions on you? 

KA: Yes, my success as a journalist, especially my ability to communicate the Palestinian narrative to Western audiences drew negative reactions from the Israeli security authorities. You know the Shin Beth, Israel’s chief domestic security agency, controls nearly every aspect of our life despite the existence of the Palestinian Authority. Hence, the Shin Beth constantly sought to persecute and harass me in the hope that I would tone down my outspoken criticism of the Israeli occupation and its often barbaric treatment of our people. In this context, they refused to grant me a press card, they refused to allow me access to Jerusalem. And finally, they imposed a harsh travel ban on me. In fact, I am still barred from leaving the West Bank. This is the behaviour of a country that claims to be a democracy.

As to the PA, it is very much slave of Israel. This is why I am also constantly harassed by the PA security apparatus. The PA doesn’t like my writings, and seeing that neither carrot nor stick would stop me, they often incarcerate me for a short period until a media outcry ensued in which case they would release me, hoping that next time I would exercise self-restraint, or more correctly self-censorship.  

MR: You live in one of the areas where settlers have made any kind of co-existence in the same territory as the indigenous population impossible. In your view is the Hebron experience a typical one that would be reproduced whenever there would be closer contact between Jews and Palestinians, or is it in some way different? 

KA: The settlers are mostly genocidal fanatics who would go to any extent, including cold-blooded murder, to reach their goals. And their goals can be summarized in one phrase, and that is the annihilation of the Palestinian people. 

I’ve met numerous settlers, and from my conversations with them, I can say that most of these people represent the Nazis of our time. What else can one say of a people who tell you that you either agree to be enslaved by them or you will be deported and expelled from your own country? And if you said ‘NO’, then you would have to be physically exterminated.  These people are really depraved and sick. They would quote strange quotations from a host of religious books to justify their genocidal ideology. The brutal ugliness of their mentality has no limits.

What is more dangerous is that they don’t stop at the theoretical and ideological levels. They often translate their venomous and virulent views into cold-blooded murder of innocent Palestinians.  And in most cases, the pro-settler Israeli justice system turns a blind eye to their murderous behaviour and lets them get away with impunity.

MR: You often refer to the actions of today’s Israelis as being similar to those of the Nazis, and you present in detail many of these crimes and abuses against especially unarmed civilians that indeed are strikingly similar. Do you believe there is a danger or risk in the use of this analogy?

KA: Well, this is a very good question. First of all, we have to remember that the holocaust didn’t start with Auschwitz or Bergen Belsen and other concentration camps. It started much earlier with comparatively innocuous things like the enactment of anti-Jewish laws in the early 1930s. Earlier, there was Hitler’s infamous book, Mein Kampf. Eventually there was the Kristalnacht, and we know the rest of the story.

Today, any serious observer scrutinizing the collective psychology and behaviour of the Israeli Jewish society would most certainly find many serious similarities between the Jewish state and the Third Reich. In Germany, they had the master race mantra, here in Israel they have the chosen people mantra.

In Germany they had the expansionistic concept known as Lebensraum; and here in Israel they have the settlement scheme. In Germany, they had the racist classification of people into Übermenschen and Untermenschen, while here in Israel almost everything is defined through the prism of being  either Jewish or Goy. The list goes on and on.  Do you know that there are rabbis in Israel who openly teach that non-Jews are animals and whom the Almighty created in a human shape only in deference to Jews. I am not speaking about marginal or obscure figures. I am speaking about rabbis with thousands of followers who are backed by powerful political parties represented in the government and the Knesset.

Ask any average settler how he or she views Palestinians or non-Jews in general, and they will tell you that they are animals and that their lives have absolutely no sanctity.

In short, the Zionist-Nazi analogy is more than legitimate. It is an objective reality.

MR:  Is it possible that there is the danger of a new Palestinian genocide comparable to that of ’48 with the discussions of “population transfer” of the Palestinians who live in Israel that are heard by several political movements that are in power in Israel, or is this population somehow protected and facing more danger are those in the Occupied Palestinian Territories?

KA: The answer is definitely yes. I am saying so because Palestinians have always relied for their very survival on the good will of the international community and world public opinion. Hence, should the world community go into a brief slumber, I have no doubt that Israel would seize the opportunity and embark on the unthinkable.

More to the point, we must view the criminal Israeli onslaught on the people of Gaza nine months ago as a precedent that could be repeated again and again.

Finally, it is crystal clear that the Israeli Jewish society is drifting menacingly toward fascism. For example, today the very survival of the Benyamin Netanyahu’s government depends to a very large extent on the support of three manifestly racist political parties representing the extreme religious right. These are “Habayt ha’Yahudi,” “Echud Leumi,” and Shas, a formerly moderate Charidi party which has been moving steadily toward religious jingoism.

I am speaking about religious parties that see nothing wrong with the mass murder of innocent people. They always can quote from ancient books to justify their morbid ideology. Also, imagine how the world will look like when these racist groups reach power in Israel and seize control of Israel’s huge nuclear arsenal.

And this is not a matter of “if” but rather a matter of “when” it will happen, because it is only a matter of time before the fanatics of Gush Emunim and other Judeo-Nazi elements reach power in Israel. 

MR: Palestinians in Israel comprise twenty percent of the official population. Why is it that, after Azmi Bishara, whose fate is now in exile, and a very few others, this large sector of population is under-represented in their parliament? Would it not be helpful to have more representation? 

KA: The Arab community in Israel is under-represented because of a host of factors. But the main factor is that the Israeli system is designed to keep the Arab community marginalized. Today, Israeli leaders from “right” and “left” are increasingly brazenly advocating ultimate ethnic cleansing of Israel’s Arab citizen. Tzipi Livni, the leader of Kadima, said on numerous occasions that Israeli Arabs would have to seek national fulfilment in the future Palestinian state. Her remarks are nothing short of a euphemism for expulsion and ethnic cleansing.

If this is the view of a respected  “liberal,” and “centrist” politician, imagine the kind of attitudes the right with its religious and secular camps would have toward Israel’s Arab citizens.

MR: You have documented many of the acts against the Palestinian people. If you could put things in an order of those that should be resolved before the others, out of this selection, what would your suggestion be and why: the ending of the siege of Gaza, the dismantlement of the checkpoints, the dismantlement of the Wall, international recognition of Hamas as the legitimately elected representatives of the Palestinians and in the 2006 Legislative elections, release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, release of Palestinian prisoners from Palestinian jails, a freeze on settler expansion in the West Bank and Jerusalem?

KA: I think all aspects of the Palestinian plight are inextricably entwined. For example, the internal Palestinian problems stem mainly from the Israeli occupation. It was Israel after all which took draconian measures against our people following the 2006 elections when Hamas won the polls. This eventually led to the contention between Fatah and Hamas which culminated in the ousting by Hamas of Fatah militias from Gaza following a failed coup attempt against the elected government by Fatah forces backed and armed by the United States.

But, it is true, we just can’t solve and resolve all the problems facing our people in one fell swoop.  The situation in Gaza remains very harsh and the survival of our people there is imputed first and foremost to their tenacity, resilience and steadfastness, not Israeli magnanimity.

The Palestinian prisoner issue is also a nagging nightmare that is constantly haunting our people. We are talking about nearly 10,000 prisoners many of whom are held without charge or trial because of their non-violent opposition to the Israeli occupation. Their continued detention is undoubtedly a repulsive reflection of the brutal ugliness of the Zionist mentality.

MR: Do you believe that the Palestinians should aim at establishing a new popular uprising, or should they wait and see if the Palestinian Authority can find a unity government or bring an end to Israeli occupation by themselves.

KA: Normally, uprisings, especially in the Palestinian context, are not planned. They just happen when the powder keg reaches the boiling point. But I tend to accept the hypothesis that another Intifada is only a matter of time, given the unmitigated occupation and repression as well as the scandalous failure of the peace process.

As to forming a new unity government, it is really difficult to accord this subject a lot of importance. After all, what is the point of forming a government that has no sovereignty and is subject to the draconian restrictions of the Israeli occupation?

MR: Do you hold out hope that the Obama Administration can bring about at least a bit of improvement for Palestinians, or is it equally subject to the Israel Lobby? 

KA: No, not any longer. Until recently, I thought, probably naively, that Obama might prove himself to be a man of his word. However, his utter failure to stand up to the arrogant Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has exposed the American president as just another functionary of the establishment.

Moreover, what many in the West doesn’t realize is that for Israel to give up the spoils of the 1967 war, the Jewish state would have to be forced, even physically, to do so.

However, in light of Obama’s obsequious discourse vis-à-vis Netanyahu, especially with regard to the settlement issue, it is increasingly obvious that the US leader is not mentally or politically capable of doing what it takes to force Israel to end the 42-year-old occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

The task of forcing Israel to end the hateful occupation would require a radical transformation, even a revolution, in American political thinking. And I just don’t see this happening in the foreseeable future.

MR: Why, in your view, have the Palestinian Islamist parties, especially Hamas, not had the strong support of the Ikhwan in other Arab nations, especially following the rejectionist stance of the so-called International Community following the democratic elections? Is it because the project of Hamas has a stronger nationalist nature to it, or might there be other reasons that you have reflected upon?

KA: I think they do as evidenced in the huge demonstrations organized by Islamic organizations throughout the Muslim world during the Israeli blitz against the Gaza Strip. However, we have to keep in mind that most Islamic parties and organizations are based in despotic and authoritarian states. Hence, the often tight restrictions imposed on Islamist activism do have a detrimental impact on the extent to which Islamists can render tangible material support to Hamas.

But the Islamists are giving extremely viable financial support to Palestinian Islamists without which Hamas would have had a much harder time facing international sanctions.

We also have to remember that Hamas is mainly an asset, not a liability, for Islamic activism around the world, which means that support for Hamas by Islamic groups in the Arab-Muslim world is not exactly altruistic in nature but is also motivated by a certain degree of expediency. 

MR: The division of the Palestinian people along many lines, while an internal problem, does prevent more firm opposition to the military occupation of Palestine. Do you think there is a way to overcome the divisions, or are they destined to increase with the introduction of measures such as Dayton’s “Security” forces in the West Bank, for example?

KA: Well, in the final analysis, Palestinian divisions are a symptom of the Israeli occupation. They are not a home-grown malady but rather a foreign-induced phenomenon sustained through political and economic manipulation of certain objective Palestinian needs. After all, we are very much a prisoner population who have been relentlessly used by the Israelis as a field of experiment for over 40 years.

I believe that the ultimate raison d’être of the “Dayton forces” is to crush public opposition to any prospective “peace” deal that would be imposed on the Palestinian people.  Needless to say, such a deal would be tantamount to a real liquidation of the Palestinian cause. However, I really doubt whether these forces would succeed in their mission in the long run.

The Palestinian cause is simply so deeply rooted in the collective conscience and psyche of our people, so much that it is inconceivable that these kids would succeed in morphing our people into submission. That would be anti-historical antithetical to the nature of things in Palestine.

MR: Recently, the first group of Palestinian refugees from the Al-Tanaf, Al-Waleed and Al-Hol refugee camps in Iraq have been “settled” in the USA. What do you think of this kind of programme?

KA: Naturally, we are very suspicious about any resettlement of Palestinian refugees anywhere in the world. But I am certain about one thing, namely that the refugee plight and the right of return will continue to define the Palestinian question.

I am saying so because the refugee problem is the Palestinian problem.

MR: What kind of personal experiences does the average Palestinian living in the West Bank have with the Israelis?

KA: Well, it is safe to say that the mental landscape of every Palestinian man, woman and child is overwhelmed with the Israeli nightmare. Ours is a landscape shaped by home demolitions, land seizure, evil roadblocks and checkpoints manned by trigger-happy soldiers, humiliating inhuman treatment, cruelty, terror and unrelenting criminality. Ours is a real holocaust minus the gas chambers.  We are after all the longest suffering people on earth, and we continue to suffer on a daily basis.

Today in every junior high school in America, students read Anne Frank, while in every high school Elie Wiesel’s ‘Night’ is requisite reading. This is the man who says rather brazenly that he readily identifies with Israeli crimes and that he couldn’t bring himself to say bad things about Israel. 

The victims of the first Kristalnacht enjoy the world’s approbation and sympathy, while at the same time having succeeded in demonizing an entire people for whom Kristalnacht still remains a night without end.  

MR:  It seems that access to information about the reality of Palestine, especially of the hardships brought on by the war, the checkpoints and the blockade of Gaza, should enlighten the public that there is a humanitarian emergency. What, in your view, is preventing the international community and the Arab nations from expressing moral outrage and demanding their leaders to hold Israel accountable for these situations? 

KA: I think the Arab masses would want to help the Palestinians, and they are actually helping. However, for most Arabs helping the Palestinians, especially Hamas, involves a certain risk as most regimes view identification with Hamas as connoting opposition to the regimes itself. This is true in American-allied states such as Egypt and Jordan.

As to people around the world, I think the overall outlook is positive. I think a growing number of people are now willing to take to the streets to voice their solidarity with our people. But what we need to do is to keep up the good work and try as hard as possible to isolate the evil entity.

MR: Do you believe that there is a great deal of fear in the Palestinian people which prevents them from voicing denouncements of the corruptions of the PA and the PLO before it? Or could some of this be because the allocation of funds is filtered through these organs and people need to make a living?

KA: Of course there is. The Palestinian Authority is effectively a police state without a state, and the corrupt people and their supporters, friends and cronies occupy powerful positions in the PA hierarchy. Take for example the millions of dollars arrogated by Yasser Arafat’s widow, Suha. It is widely believed that the former “First Lady”! received millions of dollars from the PLO as part of a financial settlement which very few Palestinians know about. As to the justice system, it is very much subservient to the political level and the security apparatus. This is how the donor countries, e.g. the US, are shaping Palestinian “democracy.” 

MR: What can the exiled or Diaspora Palestinian community do for their brothers and sisters in Palestine?

KA: Palestinians in the Diaspora have a grave responsibility to carry out. They should constantly communicate our plight to the world, they should always be eloquent spokespersons for their people and their cause. But in order to be successful and effective they have to organize themselves and try to enlist local support for Palestinian grievances in their respective places of residence. My ultimate advice to Palestinian expatriates is: make as many friends as possible for our just cause. And don’t allow yourselves to be diverted from the central goal, and that is to create and effect pressure on the Zionist regime.

And don’t get yourselves involved in any activities that might be misconstrued as “anti-Semitic.”  Judaism is not our enemy.  

MR: What can “internationals” do to help?

KA: “Internationals” and other solidarity activists have a hugely important job to do. They are witnesses to what Satanic Zionism has been doing to the Palestinians. Israel would want to gang up on us while the eyes of the world are shut. It is very much like the way a murderer or a thief behaves. They don’t want to be seen committing their crimes.

In fact, I can safely claim that had it not been for these courageous men and women, the level of Israeli terror against the Palestinians could have been much worse.

Therefore, I would like to salute each and every one of these heroes who have been sacrificing their time, energy and careers in protecting an unprotected people. You are the good Samaritans of our time.  So come here, bring your friends, and don’t forget your cameras. May God bless you all.

MR: You are often considered to be especially sensitive to and close to the positions of the Islamist parties, and very often, there are more than a few false representations of them, including for example that Hamas had help from Israel in its foundation, with some even saying Mossad was involved, that they won the elections only because they represented a “protest” vote, and more crucially, that their operations are not resistance, but are rather terrorist acts. Evidence points away from all of these positions, yet they are part of an interpretation trend as much in “the left” as for “moderates” and “neo-cons”. Why do you think that despite evidence, for instance, Hamas always maintained their unilateral truces, while Israel engaged in targeted assassinations of high-ranking leaders of Hamas, people across the board are so quick to accept these false representations as legitimate?

KA: I am not affiliated with any political group. This is because I had long realized that affiliation with an ideological or political party would interfere with and be detrimental to my work as a journalist. Besides, the little philosopher inside me always tells me to be constantly free-minded.

I remember that poet who described fanatical adherence to a political party. He said: I always voted at my party’s call, and never thought for myself at all.

Having said that, I also realize that it is imperative that people must support just causes and speak up the truth even in the presence of power. This is why it is paramount for my mental and psychological health that I must stand against such vices as oppression, arrogance, immorality, mendacity, selfishness, hypocrisy, rapacity and racism. I know it is not easy to swim against the current. However, it is also true that silence or indifference or inaction in the face of evil is morally disastrous in the long run. We mortals live a few decades in this life. It is essential therefore that we lead a dignified life shaped by our concerns for freedom and justice and sublime human spirit.

As to Hamas being helped by Israel, I think this is a form of disinformation by the anti-Islamist camp aimed first and foremost at besmirching Hamas.

The way Hamas has been behaving and acting since its foundation more than 20 years ago should be a clarion refutation of all these lies and insinuations.

This is not to say though that Israel has not tried and is not trying to pit Palestinians against each other. But this is not the same as saying that Hamas was created by Israel or that its growth was facilitated by the Israelis.

After all, Islamic fundamentalist groups are a global phenomenon and by no means confined to occupied Palestine.

MR: What do you think the final status might be in terms of statehood and what do you foresee as a timetable for this?

KA: It is very difficult to figure out how and when this conflict will end. What is clear though is that it won’t come to an end in the foreseeable future. I am convinced that the increasingly-religious conflict will continue for several more decades. However, in order for the conflict to reach an exhaustive conclusion, Zionism would have to disappear.

A final point, I strongly believe that time is not working in Israel’s favour as Israel is going to find it increasingly difficult to live normally in a hostile environment. Fifty years from now, Israel will be surrounded by more than 700 million Arabs and Muslims. And Jews themselves would be a small and dwindling minority in mandatory Palestine.

And like Albert Camus said “in world where everything can be denied, there are forces undeniable, and on earth where nothing is sure, we have our certainty.” And I think the dismantlement of Zionism is a historical certainty.

This article was written a few hours before the New York meeting  

One doesn’t have to be a prophet to predict the outcome, or more correctly failure, of the three-way meeting between President Obama, the Israeli premier Benyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, which is to take place later today in New York. 

The meeting comes on the heels of two important events: First the nearly total failure of Obama’s personal Envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, to convince the extremist Israeli leadership to freeze Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. 

Mitchell met numerous times with Israeli officials in the hope of convincing them to walk in the path of peace. However, instead of listening to Mitchell, who represents the President of Israel’s guardian-ally, Israeli leaders chose to announce fresh settlement expansion plans every time the American diplomat arrived in Jerusalem. 

Moreover, the numerous promises made to Mitchell with regard to a settlement freeze, even including the pledged dismantling of so-called illegal outposts, have all failed to materialize. 

Hence, one can assume that the New York meeting is actually a timely recognition by the Obama administration of the utter failure of  Mitchell’s shuttle diplomacy. 

Second, the three-way encounter comes a week after the publication of the Goldstone’s Commission report which asserted that Israel knowingly and deliberately committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the December-January blitz against the Gaza Strip. 

Needless to say, during the Nazi-like onslaught, the Israeli army, or Jewish Wehrmacht, murdered, maimed and incinerated thousands of innocent Palestinians. In addition, thousands of buildings, mostly civilian infrastructure such as homes, mosques and schools were utterly bombed and destroyed. 

This is not Arab propaganda. Any human being can travel to Gaza and see for himself or herself the huge magnitude of the shocking holocaust. 

For those who can’t travel to the  besieged coastal territory, they can have access to “Google Earth” and see for themselves. The important thing is not to succumb to the Zionist hasbara machine. These people lie as often as they breathe, to put it mildly. 

It is therefore shameful and immoral for the  American President, who had promised ad nauseam that decency and dignity would loom large in his administration,  to invite and welcome the leader of a criminal entity whose modus operandi continues to consist of murder, lies and land theft. 

This really forces many to pose the following question: What would it take to get the Obama administration to adopt an meaningful  stand against Israeli expansionism, racism and bellicosity? 

Obama is not a stupid man. He must be fully aware of the twisted modes of Israeli thinking. Even a brief argument with an Israeli leader or diplomat would reveal the striking morbidity of the Zionist mentality. 

This is why it is hard  to fathom how an intelligent man continues to believe that the fudge-and-compromise approach would still be working with such racist-minded Zionists who think that the entire universe was created for the sake of the Jew. 

My prediction of the New York encounter’s failure is not a matter of  soothsaying.  It is rather a careful reading into consistent Israeli political behavior since time immemorial. To put it simply, Israel will not give up the spoils of the 1967 war, unless it is forced to. Israel will not give up the bulk of Occupied East Jerusalem unless it is forced to. Israel will not allow the thoroughly-savaged refugees to be repatriated to their former homes and villages unless it is forced to. Finally, Israel will not remove these children of rape, otherwise known as “settlements” unless it is forced to. 

In light, it is perfectly legitimate to wonder if the US which has been utterly unable to get Israel to stop the construction  of even a few settler buildings in East Jerusalem, or even in the rest of the West Bank, would ever be able to compel the Zionist regime to undo the entire Zionist project. 

This is why one must always be cautious and realistic when appraising the inherently oblique American-Israeli-Palestinian axel. In particular, one must resist the temptation of thinking that the US is the dominant player in this scandalous  tripartite game of conspiracy, bullying,  betrayal, domination and compulsion. 

President Obama might be tempted to view with favor misleading Zionist arguments that the Palestinians would have to compromise and give concessions just as Israel is demanded to give concessions. 

But this argument is inherently mendacious and unfair. After all, Israel has been devouring rather gluttonously the contested piece of cheese for many decades, so much so that very little of it has been left anyway. 

Hence, the question that imposes itself on the conscience of conscientious men and women around the world, people who value honesty and justice, is whether it is fair and just to divide the remaining little of the proverbial cheese between Israel and the savaged Palestinians. 

In 1948, Zionist Jews usurped our country, committed hideous massacres, destroyed our homes and villages before deporting the majority of  native Palestinians  to the four corners of the globe. 

The Nakba was our national catastrophe and in a certain sense was our holocaust as well. The harsh impact of this cardinal  disaster remained relevant today as it was more than 60 years ago. 

However, instead of seeking genuine reconciliation with the Palestinians, if only by recognizing their basic human rights, successive Israeli leaderships constantly sought to consummate Zionism by trying to effect our national annihilation. 

Didn’t the infamous Gold Meir claim that the Palestinians didn’t exist? Don’t the shipyard dogs of Zionism continue to this day  to argue that a Palestinian state never existed  as if people not confined into a  nation-state structure didn’t have the right live on their respective homelands? 

As to the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, it is crystal clear he is not the best person to lead his people and represent their enduring aspirations for freedom of Justice. He is not an eloquent tongue that would fearlessly defend  our people’s cause nor is he a tough and principled leader who wouldn’t budge under pressure. 

Moreover, Abbas stands  at the helm of an entity whose very survival depends to a large extent on the “good will” and politically-motivated charity provided by western countries and their Arab puppet regimes. 

This is why it is extremely important that the Palestinian people must closely monitor Abbas’s behavior in the coming weeks and months. I am saying this because in the absence of a clarion, determined   and collective “NO” to any prospective concessions by the PLO leadership, especially with regard to our national constants,  Netanyahu and his criminal comrades could have their way of imposing de facto capitulation on an un-sovereign  leadership that is more concerned about defeating  Hamas than ending the Nazi-like Israeli occupation of our country. 

In the final analysis, people whose aspirations don’t go beyond owning a smart car and having a hefty salary at the end of the month can’t be entrusted to be honest representatives of the Palestinian people. 

And a final word to the new Fatah leadership. You repeatedly described yourselves as the new patriotic leadership of the Palestinian people. We listened to you with indifferent silence because we didn’t believe  a word of what you were saying. 

Now it is your turn to prove us wrong.

Israeli officials and hasbara doctors have been railing against Goldstone, who is both Jewish and Zionist, to the extent of accusing him of “anti-Semitism,” an increasingly stale and ineffective weapon which Israel resorts to when all other propaganda tools don’t work. 

Benyamin Netanyahu, the extremist Prime Minister of the Zionist regime has even asked US Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell to assist Israel, especially at the American arena, in order to curb the fallout from the report. 

Meanwhile, Israel is embarking on a frantic propaganda campaign to discredit the report. In the past, Israel succeeded in endearing itself to western public opinion by enlisting the often Jewish-controlled media which effectively helped disseminate the Zionist narrative. In so doing, that media often turned the black into white, and the big lie into a “virtual truth” glorified by millions of gullible westerners who wouldn’t overburden themselves with the task of finding out the “real truth.”

Now, Israel is facing an uphill task doing the same job successfully. 

First of all, Goldstone has, by and large, done a professional job. His report is nearly completely devoid of rhetorical overindulgence and presents facts and as facts without any overly tendentious interpretation. 

Hence, the anti-Semitic insinuations made by Israeli hasbara officials should be treated as no more than cheap diversionary tactics aimed at evading the facts. In fact, Goldstone’s own daughter has been quoted by the Israeli press as saying that had her father not been at the helm of the investigating commission, Israel would have been condemned much more harshly. 

Second, nearly all credible human rights commissions, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and even Israel’s own B’tselem had more or less reached the same conclusions about the December-January blitz, namely that Israel knowingly and deliberately targeted innocent civilians. 

More to the point, numerous Israeli soldiers who participated in the virtually genocidal onslaught on the nearly completely unprotected enclave have testified that they had been instructed to shoot and kill innocent civilians, including people carrying white flags. 

As an observer of Israeli behavior for many years, I have no doubt that Israeli leaders realize that they did commit war crimes and crimes against humanity. After all, many Israeli military and political officials are bona fide war criminals who would be thrown immediately behind bars in any country with even minimal adherence to the rules of justice and norms of civility and human decency. 

However, these war criminals think, at least privately, that Jews shouldn’t be subject to the same rules of war that apply to other nations. Hence, they don’t view the deliberate collective murder of innocent civilians as “wrong.”

Indeed, a few days ago, an Israeli cabinet minister urged the international community to grant Israel special treatment concerning the conduct of war, presumably one that would allow the Israeli occupation army and paramilitary Jewish terrorists to murder with impunity. 

I strongly believe that the international community must adopt a stringent and morally uncompromising stand against Israel.  In the final analysis, war crimes and crimes against humanity can’t be treated as diabolic in places like Nazi Germany and the former Yugoslavia while ignored or dismissed as “controversial” when Israel is involved. 

This is why, the Goldstone Commission report’s recommendations ought to be presented to the International Court of Justice in The Hague as soon as possible. 

Moreover, civilized nations around the world ought to act on this serious issue of Israeli criminality by treating Israel as a pariah state at least until justice is done and measures are taken to prevent the recurrence of the Nazi-like onslaught. 

It is true that Israel is not the former South Africa apartheid regime which was successfully forced to end the apartheid system. However, there is much that can be done to prevent the criminal entity from mocking international law and the basic human rights, including the right to life, of the Palestinian people. 

One way of doing this is to compile a comprehensive list of all Israeli war criminals, from private soldiers up to the Minister of Defense, who were involved in the Gaza atrocities. 

These suspected war criminals must be arrested upon their arrival in any country. And if there is compelling evidence indicting them, they should be shipped like drugged wild animals to The Hague to face their crimes before an international tribunal. We simply owe it to the unwept victims to pursue their killers and narrow their horizons as much as possible until they are caught and made to pay for their crimes. 

The Goldstone report recommended that Israel immediately start a serious investigation into the Gaza war crime. However, it is amply clear that this recommendation carries with it a great deal of naivety, if not hypocrisy.  Indeed, one doesn’t have to be an expert on Israel to realize that the Israeli justice system is a virtual rubber stamp in the hands of the military-political establishment. 

Besides, it would be foolhardy to expect Israel, a state that has been murdering Palestinians, destroying their homes and stealing their land from time immemorial, to suddenly grant them justice and morph into a decent state where justice is pursued regardless of the identity of the victim and victimizer. 

To be honest, Israel is an irremediable case of oppression and criminality, a state  so sick and criminal-minded that it is pointless to appeal to any sense of justice that its military and political leaders might be thought to have. 

Two more points I would like to make in this regard. First, it is extremely imperative to hold Israel accountable for these crimes. Because otherwise, if the world allows Israel to get away with impunity, the December-January blitz would look very much like an innocuous child play compared with the next genocidal war. 

Hence, the world must never ever allow this despicable entity to desensitize whatever semblance of morality the international community still has. More to the point, this issue acquires a special significance because it is no secret that the Palestinians rely for their very physical survival on the goodwill and moral power of the peoples of the world. Hence, the world’s moral conscience must not be allowed to go into even a brief slumber lest the unthinkable happens.

The second point is the totally inadequate manner in which the Palestinian Authority has treated this issue. Indeed, as an entity that claims to represent the Palestinian people, the PA should have spearheaded efforts to expose, incriminate and criminalize Israel. 

However, the fact that the PA has only contented itself with a few laconic statements about Israeli responsibility for the war crimes in Gaza underscores the moral and political bankruptcy of the PA regime. 

Well, how can the Palestinian people really expect these flamboyant “leaders” who dread calling Israel by its real name to be able to liberate Jerusalem and enable the repatriation of the refugees to their ancestral homeland?

بقلم خالد العمايرة

التقريرالمؤلف من 575 صفحة الذي أصدره المحقق الخاص بالعدوان الإسرائيل الإجرامي على قطاع غزة, ريتشارد غولدستون,هذا الأسبوع كان وما يزال فرصة إعلامية جيدة لفضح إسرائيل, هذا الكيان الإجرامي الذي يقتل الأطفال النساء ويهلك الحرث والنسل ويسعى في الأرض فسادا ومن ثم يملأ الدنيا صراخا مدعيا أنه هو الضحية وأنه إنما يفعل ما يفعل دفاع عن النفس.

القاضي جولدستون من جنوب أفريقيا هو يهودي صهيوني, لكنه وبالرغم من بعض الملاحظات على التقرير, وخاصة اتهام الضحية بارتكاب جرائم حرب, إلا أنه تحلى بالحد الأدنى من الموضوعية, حيث ذكر بصراحة أن إسرائيل ارتكبت جرائم حرب وجرائم ضد الإنسانية وأنها استهدفت المدنيين الأبرياء بمعرفة مسبقة ومع سبق الإصرار والترصد.

هذا التقرير أربك الكيان الصهيوني على المستويين الدبلوماسي والإعلامي حتى وصل بآلة الكذب الصهيونية أن تتهم غولدستون بمعاداة السامية.

فلسطينيا, تصرف المسؤولون الفلسطينيون كما يتصرفون دائما, وكأن التقرير نشر في كوكب آخر وكأن موضوعه لا يمت بصلة للقضية الفلسطينية وكأن الضحايا الأبرياء الذين استشهدوا في غزة هم ليسوا من أبناء جلدتنا وليس لهم علينا أدنى حق في متابعة وملاحقة المجرمين القتلة والإقتصاص منهم.

دبلوماسيا, لم نلاحظ العشرات من سفراء منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية يحركون ساكنا وكأن نشر التقرير كان خبرا روتينيا عابرا لا يعنيهم لا من قريب ولا من بعيد.

لا أعلم السبب لهذا التقصير المريب على وجه اليقين, لكني أخمن أن السبب ربما يكون مزيجا من الجهل وغياب المؤهلات العملية وعدم معرفة اللغات الأجنبية فأنا أعرف "سفراء" عينوا وهم لا يعرفون الحد الأدنى من اللغة الإنجليزية.

والأهم من ذلك هو أن بعض السفراء والمبعوثين الدبلوماسيين الفلسطينيين يخشون التصرف بما يغضب رام الله, فنراهم يتلمسون خطاهم وكأنهم يسيرون على البيض خشية من إغضاب أرباب نعمتهم في رام الله, بل إن بعضهم يعمد إلى إقامة علاقة صداقة تثير الخجل مع الدبلوماسيين الإسرائيليين لكي يرضوا عنهم.

أما إعلاميا, فالحال أكثر سوءا, فالماكينة الإعلامية الفسطينية منشغلة في المهاترات والمناكفات العقيمة بين رام الله وغزة, حيث أصبح الشأن الوطني والتصدي لإسرائيل وكشف عوراتها أمام العالم أمرا ثانويا.

السلطة الفلسطينية لديها جيش جرار من "الإعلاميين" الذين يحصلون على رواتب ضخمة تقدر بملايين الدنانير سنويا, لكن الجهد الإعلامي الذي يقومون به متواضع إلى درجة تبعث على الإكتئاب.

إنه لمن دعاوي الاسف أن نرى أنه بدلا من أن يجتذب الإعلام الرسمي أفضل العقول الإعلامية نراه قد اجتذب إعلاميين من الدرجة الثالثة والعاشرة لا يستطيعون حولا ولا قوة ففاقد الشيء لا يعطيه.

أما الإعلاميون الذين هم على درجة من المعرفة فقد اجتذبتهم وسائل الإعلام الأجنبية أو أن السلطة غير معنية بهم لسبب أو لآخر بسبب إصرارهم على الحفاظ على درجة من الإستقلالية أو لأنهم متعاطفون مع حزب أو فصيل غير الحزب الحاكم.

على أية حال, الدبلوماسيون والإعلاميون لا يمكن أن يصلحوا ما أفسده السياسيون, والسياسيون عندنا هم بلا شك عنوان الفشل.

لقد كان حريا بالقادة الفلسطينيين أن يبذلوا جهودا حثيثة لتعرية وتجريم الكيان الصهيوني في أعقاب تقرير غولدستون.

فلماذا لم تدع القيادة الفلسطينية في رام الله العالم لقطع أو على الأقل تجميد العلاقات السياسية والإقتصادية والثقافية مع الكيان الصهيوني؟ لماذا لم تطالب السلطة الحكومات في أنحاء العالم باعتقال مجرمي الحرب الصهاينة لحظة وصولهم إلى مطارات تلك البلدان؟

لماذا لم تصدر السلطة الفلسطينية أمرا بوقف كافة الأنشطة التطبيعية مع الكيان الصهيوني مثل عقد المباريات الرياضية المشتركة ونحو ذلك؟

ولماذا لم يعقد وزير الإعلام أو وزير الخارجية مؤتمرا صحفيا طارئا للتعليق على نشر التقرير المذكور؟

إن السلطة التي تخشى إنتقاد إسرائيل لا يمكن أن يؤمل منها أن تنتزع حقوق الفلسطينيين المغتصبة من الكيان الغاصب.

نحن بالتأكيد لا نطالب السلطة بما هو ليس في طاقتها فعله, فهي في نهاية الأمر سلطة واقعة تحت الإحتلال. ومع ذلك فإن السلطة تستطيع فعل الكثير إذا أرادت, مثل الدعوة إلى عقد جلسة طارئة للجميعة العامة للأمم المتحدة أو حتى مجلس الأمن الدولي, أو تقديم طلب عاجل لمحكمة العدل الدولية في لاهاي لمحاكمة مجرمي الحرب الصهاينة الذين يحملون على أياديهم دماء الآلاف من أطفال فلسطين ونسائها ورجالها.

العالم ورغم كل مظاهر التعاطف مع قضيتنا العادلة لا يمكن أن يكون فلسطينيا أكثر من الفلسطينيين, فنحن الذين نقرر إلى حد بعيد كيف سيتصرف العالم حيال الإجرام الإسرائيلي. إن هذا أمر مهم للغاية, فكم من مرة جادل الدبلوماسيون الصهاينة المعتمدون في العواصم الأوروبية بأن على الأوروبيين أن لا يكون فلسطينيين أكثر من الفلسطينيين أنفسهم, علما أن بعض الفلسطينيين ممن أعمى الله قلوبهم انبروا في مناسبات عديدة لمعارضة مقاطعة الجامعات الإسرائيلية.

على أية حال, الوقت ليس متأخرا لتبني سياسة إعلامية جديدة تكون رديفا فاعلا للجهود السياسية الفلسطينية لتحرير البلاد والعباد من هذ الكيان السرطاني الإجرامي الذي يهدف إلى طمس قضيتنا وإزالة شعبنا عن الخريطة.

فلنبدأ بتأسيس جسم إعلامي مهني متخصص وغير خاضع للمماحكات الفصائلية يضطلع بمهمة التصدي للدعاية الصهيونية ويفضح أفعال إسرائيل الإجرامية أمام العالم.

أقول ذلك لأننا نعتمد بعد الله عز وجل على الرأي العام الدولي في حمايتنا من الوحش الصهيونازي, هذا العدو اللئيم الذي يحاول دائما اقتناص الفرص للإنقضاض علينا وطمس قضيتنا وتحويل شعبنا إلى أثر بعد عين.

لهذا كله يجب علينا أن لا نمر مرور الكرام على تقرير غولدستون حتى لا يكون العدوان الإسرائيلي قبل تسعة أشهر أشبه بلعبة أطفال قياسا بالهولوكوست المقبل لا سمح الله (انتهى)

As the month of Ramadan draws to a close, many Palestinians are devoting the last ten days of the holy month to gaining more  spiritual enrichment through I’tikaf or uninterrupted spiritual engagement. 

Many people are going for I’tikaf this year, motivated by a desire to gain Allah’s blessing and also encouraged by a relative relaxation of the normally harsh Israeli restrictions on the entry of Palestinians to al-Quds. 

The Israeli occupation authorities this year allowed men over 50 and women over 45 to enter Jerusalem on Fridays. However, worshippers are still subjected to meticulous and often humiliating searches.  

Palestinian worshippers on their way to Jerusalem at a checkpoint near Bethlehem 

This, however, seems to have little bearing on the number of Muslims wanting to access the Haram al Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, of Jerusalem. 

Wakf officials estimate that an average of 200,000-250-000 Muslims prayed at the al-Aqsa esplanade every Friday. The number is expected to rise significantly on the last Friday of Ramadan, known in local folklore as “al Juma’a al Yatima” (the lone Friday)

According to Muslim traditions, reward for a single raka’a (a ritual posturing) at the Aqsa Mosque is multiplied 500 times. In Ramadan, the heavenly reward is multiplied 70 times. 

Worshippers, withdrawing from worldly preoccupations, spend many hours reading the Quran, the literal words of God,  making ritual prayers, and beseeching the Almighty for spiritual grace and blessing.  

Islamic charities catering for the Mosque and the worshipers provide thousands of meals for the sunset meals marking the end of the day’s fast. 

The charities also bring in worshippers who can’t afford the expenses of the trip. 

Prior to sunset, the faithful sit down awaiting the Athan or call for prayer, marking the end of another fast’s day.  

Allah is the most great,  

I bear witness that there is no god but Allah.  

I bear witness that Muhammed is the Messenger of God.  

Come to prayer  

Come to Prosperity  

Allah is the Most Great.  

There is only one God   

  Preparing for the evening meal at the Aqsa Mosque 

As the timeless words, which include Islam’s articles of faith, are chanted through loudspeakers, the fasters take a few dates and a glass of water before performing the Maghrib (sunset) prayer in congregation. The prayers lasts for only 5-7 minutes, and each part begins with the recitation of Suratul Fatiha, or Opening chapter of the Quran:

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.  

Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the universe;  

 Most Gracious, Most Merciful;  

 Master of the Day of Judgment;  

Thee do we worship, and Thy aid we seek;  

 Show us the straight way;  

 The way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace;  

Not those targeted by thy wrath, nor those who go astray.  

Following the usually delicious meal, many people rest for an hour or so, awaiting the Tarawih prayers, which last for an hour during which a portion of the Quran’s 30 portions  is recited. The entire Quran is recited in Tarawih prayer during the holy month.  

Laylatul Qadr  

The Ramadan spiritual season reaches its climax with Laylatul Qadr, translated as “the Night of Power,” or “Night of Destiny.” 

This is the night during which the Almighty sent down the Quran  to the lower heaven, before revealing it to the Prophet Muhammed verse-by-verse through the archangel Gabriel. 

In the Quran,  Laylatul Qadr is accentuated as an occasion of unmatched spiritual importance.  

We have indeed revealed this (the Quran) in the Night of Power:  

And what will explain to thee what the night of power is?  

The Night of Power is better than a thousand months.  

Therein come down the angels and the Spirit, by Allah’s permission, on every errand:  

Peace!…This until the rise of dawn!  

It is generally assumed it occurs on the 27th night of the holy month and Muslims are strongly recommended to spend the night in prayer, contemplation and supplication. 

This is exactly what tens of thousands of Palestinians do. And as always, it is expected that many more thousands of people will be heading for al-Masjidul Aqsa to spend the night there in prayer and reflection. 

Catering for the hundreds of thousands of worshippers are several organizations, including al-Aqsa Association for Waqf and Islamic Heritage, headed by Sheikh Ra’ed Salah, the prominent Palestinian Islamic leader and founder of the Islamic movement in Israel. 

According to the organization’s spokesperson, Mahmoud Abu Atta, more than 100,000 meals have been donated through the charitable group by donors, mostly from the 1.5 million-strong Arab community across the Green Line ( Israel ). 

Other donors, including the government of the United Arab Emirates, have also donated money covering hundreds of thousands of meals at al Masjidul Aqsa. 

In addition, thousands of people are bussed to Jerusalem from all over occupied Palestine nearly free of charge in order to keep the place occupied. 

Sheikh Ikrema Sabri, one of the chief khatibs (preachers) at the Aqsa Mosque lauded the “impressive influx” of Muslims to Islam’s third holiest place. 

“Al hamdulillah (praise be to Allah), this is an important message to the Zionist occupiers of our country, that Muslims will never ever abandon this place of paramount sanctity,  and that they will never allow those coveting  this place and conspiring  to destroy it to attain their sick goals.” 

Sabri’s words are not only received well by the huge multitude but are also internalized as is evidenced by the obviously unmitigated attachment of Palestinians to the place. 

One young man from a village near al-Khalil (Hebron) remarked that without al-Masjidul Aqsa and al-Quds, the entire Palestinian issue loses relevance. 

“Al-Quds is the heart of Palestine, and the Aqsa Mosque is the heart of Jerusalem. Which means that the Mosque is the heart of the heart of Palestine.  Hence, I can’t even imagine that Muslims would even contemplate letting it down. 

“I am not speaking about stones and ancient buildings, I am speaking about the essence of the Islamic Umma’s religious and spiritual existence. Hence, I can’t even imagine how the Muslim Umma can live without al-Quds and al-Masjidul Aqsa.  

“Can a person live without his heart?”

source: www.xpis.ps; Palestinian Information Center

In recent weeks, there have been consistent reports indicating that a number of Arab regimes are voicing a willingness to normalize relations with the extremist Israeli government of Benyamin Netanyahu.  

According to these reports, some unspecified Arab regimes signaled to the Obama administration that they would be willing to take a number of “gestures” and “overtures” toward Israel, including allowing Israeli planes to fly over their territories, land and refuel at their airports as well as issue entry visas for Israeli officials, business people and ordinary citizens. 

The “gestures” and “overtures” are supposedly meant to encourage the apartheid state to walk in the path of peace and give American-led efforts a chance to succeed.

The latest development  in this unethical morass has been a secret visit by Netanyahu  to an unspecified Arab state, probably in the Gulf region. Some of these former British protectorates, now American satellite princedoms, have informed the Obama administration of their readiness to take daring steps toward normalizing with the Jewish state. 

However, it has been amply clear that all Arab “goodwill efforts” are having the opposite effect on Israeli government behaviors, especially with regard to Jewish settlement expansion and land theft in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. 

Indeed, in the past few days, the Israeli government has issued tenders for building hundreds of settler units all over the occupied territories, further corroding any chances for the creation of a viable Palestinian state. 

The decision is viewed not only as a flagrant defiance of the Obama administration but also as a naked contempt for Arab normalization “gestures and overtures.”

Well, the normalizing Arabs seem to deserve all the scorn they are getting from Israel. After all, people who don’t respect themselves and their peoples don’t deserve to be respected. 

Nonetheless, it seems that the slave-minded Arab regimes wouldn’t alter their scandalously disgraceful behavior vis-à-vis Zionist insolence no matter how much scorn and indignity is smacked onto their shameless faces. 

This is because these decadent self-worshipers relate to the US government, irrespective of the political color of the incumbent administration, as the ultimate pimp whose instructions and directions must be heeded without the slightest deviation. 

What else can be said of Arab leaders who claim to be followers of the Prophet Muhammed but rewards  Israel generously every time the Nazi-like entity steps up its oppression and persecution of the Palestinian people. 

Even whores are mindful of their interests, which shows that those  Arab despots harrowing to normalize with the Judeo-Nazi state don’t even have the morality of a whore. 

I don’t have the slightest doubt that these Kings, princes and presidents-for-life realize well that whatever they do to appease and please Israel will not make the criminal entity opt for peace and therefore put an end to decades of its Nazi-like occupation of Palestine.  

But, if so, why do they still blindly heed American orders to cheapen themselves and their respective countries and peoples when they know quite well that Israel will ignore them with utter contempt.

The answer is clear. These ignorant Arab tyrants are unelected by their people, don’t  feel answerable or even responsible  to the masses and, therefore, feel they can  behave according to their wild whims without having to worry about the consequences of their misrule and  abuse of power, even including treason. 

Besides,  we all know that “normalization with Israel,” which itself is skewed term lacking logical consistency, had been thoroughly tried during the Clinton administration’s reign  when Arab states from the Maghreb to Sheikdoms of the Gulf were herded like meek sheep to normalize with Israel. And what was the outcome of this silly game? 

Did Israel stop killing the Palestinians? Did Israel stop building colonies on stolen Arab land? Did Israel stop demolishing Arab homes? Did Israel stop narrowing Palestinian horizons? 

We know too well  the answers to these questions. Israel actually stepped up its oppression and repression of the Palestinian people, which culminated in the genocidal blitz in Gaza earlier this year, destroying the coastal enclave and mercilessly slaughtering, incinerating and maiming thousands of innocent people whose only crime was their “helplessness” and the non-existence of a powerful state that would shield them from the savagery of the Nazis of our time. 

Another point. We all know that Israel views the entire issue of normalization  with the Arab world as a diversionary tactic to divert attention from and have ample time for effecting more settlement expansion. 

Hence, it is just pointless that Arabs must always harrow aimlessly after Zionist illusions. 

Indeed, one wouldn’t exaggerate much by stating that even if the 300 million Arabs were to become willing weavers of skullcaps for religious Jews, Israel would continue to reject peace and look down on them as scum, vermin and dirty animals that ought to be exterminated.  

We, who have been living under the Israeli occupation rule for decades, know Israel like no other people do. Hence it would be a futile exercise in stupidity and vacuity for these late-day descendants of Omar Ibn al Khattab and Salahuddin to try that which has been tried ad nauseam, but to no avail. 

Israel is a combination of Nazi brutality and Zionist racism and, as such, respects only power and force. Hence, it is imperative that these so-called leaders realize that their stupid “gestures” and “overtures” won’t take them anywhere and that they will continue to be viewed by Israel as stupid imbeciles who have no will of their own and who are bereft of human dignity.  

Well, I don’t blame Israel for viewing you this way. 

When we went to elementary school, we learned that a  wolf shouldn’t be blamed for attacking the sheep if the shepherd is the flock’s enemy.

Will Obama succeed in achieving what every other American administration failed to achieve? (Reuters file photo)

President Obama’s speech to the Muslim world in Cairo on June 4th and his declared commitment to achieve a "balanced" solution to the enduring Palestinian plight revived hopes for ending decades of cruel Israeli occupation of occupied Palestinian territories. 

Moreover, Obama’s consistent demands that Israel freezes its constantly rabid settlement expansion in the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem) made many Arabs and Muslims, as well as people of good will around the globe, think that the United States may finally have decided to introduce some evenhandedness and fairness to its erstwhile brazenly pro-Israeli policy.

However, there are those who are not willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt, not only because they keep hearing nearly daily statements from Washington asserting America’s "iron-clad" commitment to Israeli security, but also because Israel is effectively flying in the face of Obama and telling him "do what you may, we are not going to heed your calls."

Indeed, the systematic savaging by Israel of the Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip, as well as the unmitigated theft of Arab land in the West Bank, should be a clarion proof, if a proof was needed, that peace and Israel are an eternal oxymoron.

This perception is corroborated by a torrent of personal attacks on Obama by Zionist pundits who have called the American president all sorts of names, including "anti-Semite," "Jew-hater," and "Hamas lover."

But the question remains, is Obama capable of doing the job? Namely, getting Israel to terminate its decades-old occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and al-Quds and to repatriate Palestinian refugees who were brutally uprooted from their ancestral homeland when the Zionist state was created more than sixty years ago.

Will he succeed in achieving what every other American administration failed to achieve?

And what would be the repercussions and ramifications in case Obama’s entire strategy in the Middle East failed to materialize, mainly as a result of Israeli intransigence and arrogance of power, and also because of America’s perceived unwillingness to exert pressure on Israel to give up the spoils of the 1967 war?

These and other questions were put to three Palestinian intellectuals who have extensive knowledge of the American foreign policy in the Middle East.

"I don’t see any genuine difference between Obama and former US President  Bush…" Qassem believes.

"Carbon-copy of Bush"

Abdul Sattar Qassem is a professor of political science at al-Najah National University in Nablus in the Northern West Bank. He is also a prolific writer and political activist who has been imprisoned by Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) a number of times due to his outspoken criticisms of the “peace process” with Israel.

He told Islamonline that he had no doubt that the entire Obama strategy would fail.

Professor Abdul Sattar Qassim in the West Bank.

“I don’t see any genuine difference between Obama and (former US President George) Bush. I wouldn’t exaggerate if I said that Obama’s policies are essentially a mere carbon-copy of Bush’s policy. I think his promises and proclamations will eventually turn to be a mere illusion."

Asked what he thought would be the ramifications of the failure of the "Obama vision," Qassem said the Palestinian and other official Arab regimes were “too powerless, too corrupt and too bankrupt to make any difference.”

"They (Arab regimes) will do nothing because they lack the will to act and are not capable of doing anything that would upset Israel.  They will just wait for the next American administration, just as they have been doing for decades. This is the reason Israel and the West in general do not take the Arab world seriously."

Nonetheless, Qassem does argue that despair accompanying the failure of the Obama strategy will generate "a lot of indignation and exasperation" in the Arab world, especially in occupied Palestine and countries such as Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan.

Qassem's views are generally shared by Haider Eid, an English Lecturer at al-Aqsa University in Gaza.

He argues that it is naïve to pin any hope for achieving a just and durable peace on Obama.

"I believe that Obama’s efforts will meet a clarion failure, not only because of the Israeli refusal to end the occupation, and the mounting Nazi-like trends in the Israeli Jewish society, but also because of the conspicuous absence of the political will on the part of  official Arab regime."

However, unlike Qassem, Eid believes the failure of the Obama strategy in the Middle East will have "profound polarizing effects" on the Palestinians as well as through the region.

"There will be a sharp polarization between two camps: The camp of resistance,  defiance, and steadfastness on the one hand, and the camp of subservience to American hegemony, on the other." 

Dr. Haider Eid, al-Aqsa University in Gaza.

Eid ridiculed those Arabs and Muslims who have looked to Obama as a paragon of justice and true peace.

"We have to remember that Obama has not asked Israel to dismantle the colonies, or bring down the Wall, or allow the refugees to return home. So, what sort of peace are we talking about?"

Eid said he saw no tangible Arab strategy which would serve as an alternative in case Obama’s efforts reached a dead end.

"I think we need a genuine alternative in the form of demanding the creation of a unitary democratic state in the whole of mandatory Palestine from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River whereby Jews and Arabs, irrespective of religion and race, would live equally as citizens."

We have nothing to lose by cooperating with the Obama administration.

Let’s Give Him a Chance

Abdullah Abdullah is a veteran Palestinian politician affiliated with the Fatah organization. He dismisses "the perpetual nay-sayers" as "political novices."

"I sharply disagree with those who think that the survival of the Palestinian cause depends on the success of the Obama’s efforts. We were once allied with the Soviet Union. The Soviet had disappeared but the Palestinian cause remained as relevant as ever," argues Abdullah, who is also prominent member of the Palestinian Legislative Cuncil.                                                                                 

However, unlike Eid and Qassem, Abdullah acknowledges that Obama is  sincere in his efforts to resolve the enduring conflict in Palestine "for altruistic reasons." 

"Strategic planners in the United States have reached the conclusion that leaving the Arab-Israeli conflict unresolved would have harmful consequences on American national interests."

Abdullah says Obama is not just another Bush.

"This president is very different from Bush. He has carefully studied the problems facing the United States and reached the conclusion resolving the Palestinian problem is an important prerequisite for checking the ongoing deterioration in the global US standing."

Nonetheless, Abdullah recognizes that the possibility of failure cannot be ruled out.

"We have nothing to lose by cooperating with the Obama administration. If we start saying 'No,' we will be sending a golden propaganda present to Israel which will then claim that it is the Palestinians, not Israel, who don’t want peace."

Qassem argues that while people might differ on the expediency of certain tactics, intellectuals ought to pay more attention to strategic goals.

"I don’t think that we ought to keep exhausting our national efforts playing public relations games with Israel. Instead, we ought to find a real salvation strategy that would eventually lead to the liberation of Palestine, land and people. And, as I see things on the ground, I just cannot pretend that Obama’s efforts will allow us to achieve our goals.

"I am saying so because our tasks are more than just freezing the construction of a building here or there, our task is to effect Arab-Islamic renaissance. This is what would make Israel reconsider its insolence and arrogance of power." 

——————————————————————————–

 Source-Islamonline http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1248187573012&pagename=Zone-English-Muslim_Affairs%2FMAELayout

Accusations of conspiracy to murder continue to reverberate across the Palestinian arena, threatening to break the Fatah movement in two, writes Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank

Farouk Kaddumi's recent bombshell accusations that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and his aide, former Gaza strongman Mohamed Dahlan, had connived with Israel to murder late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat continue to reverberate throughout the Palestinian arena.
The allegations made by the second highest-ranking leader of the Fatah organisation during an impromptu press conference in Amman last week, have overshadowed the Hamas-Fatah rift and even the standoff over Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank. The increasingly ugly showdown between Fatah's two divergent camps is already polarising the group at all levels, including the grassroots level, with activists pointing fingers of accusation at either Kaddumi or Abbas.

Last week, the PA government decided to close down the West Bank offices of Al-Jazeera TV after the Qatari-based satellite channel carried live Kaddumi's press conference from Amman. The Western-backed Ramallah-based government accused Al-Jazeera of "broadcasting false news, bias, incitement and fostering division and disunity in the Palestinian arena". The decision drew mostly negative reactions from several quarters, especially Palestinian civil society and the journalistic community, prompting Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to rescind the decision a few days later.

Clearly disquieted by the accusations, Palestinian leader Abbas lashed out at Kaddumi, accusing him of spreading cheap lies in order to abort the convening of Fatah's long overdue Sixth Conference, slated to take place in Bethlehem in the first week of August. Similarly, Abbas allies have been attacking and fulminating against Kaddumi, calling him names such as "senile", "liar", and "saboteur". The West Bank Fatah leadership has asked the movement's Central Council to discuss Kaddumi's "canards" and "eject him from our ranks".

Unfazed by the sabre rattling from Ramallah, Kaddumi reasserted the "veracity and authenticity" of the minutes of the March 2004 meeting in West Jerusalem during which the alleged plot to poison Arafat was discussed. Kaddumi has also reportedly hinted that he possesses further incriminating evidence against Abbas and Dahlan that further corroborates and consolidates his earlier charges. The secretary-general of Fatah also challenged Abbas and his allies to prove their loyalty to the group.

"You don't own Fatah, you have hijacked Fatah for the purpose of amassing wealth and stealing money. You have swerved off the true path of Fatah, the path of resistance and liberation, and chosen to be a pawn in the hands of our enemies," Kaddumi said.

As the two contentious camps within Fatah continue to trade recriminations, former political advisor to Arafat Bassam Abu Sharif reasserted charges he made shortly after Arafat's death in November 2004. Abu Sharif claimed that Arafat was killed as a result of a chemical substance provided by Israeli intelligence.

Abu Sharif argued that Israeli soldiers manning a roadblock outside Ramallah stopped the Palestinian ambulance that had regularly brought food and medicine to the besieged Palestinian leader. "When the soldiers were searching the ambulance, while its Palestinian staff was kept away, they substituted a medicine which Arafat had been taking with an identical substitute containing a chemical poison. This is how Arafat got sick and eventually succumbed to his illness."

Hamas's politburo chief Khaled Meshaal almost died in Amman in 1997 when Mossad agents disguised as Canadian tourists smacked a chemical substance into his ear. The two agents were captured and then-King Hussein of Jordan threatened to sever ties with Israel, forcing the Israeli government, headed at the time by Binyamin Netanyahu, to provide the antidote that saved Meshaal's life.

On Arafat, while Abu Sharif's hypothesis is mostly speculative in nature and may prove impossible to verify, the fact that the life of the leader of the Palestinian people is entrusted to Israeli soldiers manning roadblocks and checkpoints speaks volumes about the nature of the PA and its near total subservience to Israel.

Meanwhile, Arafat's widow, Suha, has been quoted as saying that "Israel was the only suspect in the death of my husband." Suha cleared Abbas and Dahlan of any wrongdoing, saying that they were Arafat's comrades. Most observers in occupied Palestine find it hard to rely on Suha's remarks, on the grounds that she often appeared detached from political realities in Palestine, living a lavish lifestyle in Paris while her husband was languishing under Israeli siege in Ramallah.

This is not to say that Kaddumi's accusations ought to be given the benefit of the doubt. But there is little doubt that the Kaddumi bombshell will cast a dark shadow on deliberations at Fatah's Sixth Congress when — and if — convened. It is expected that Abbas will try to take advantage of the charged atmosphere and the fact that anti-Abbas delegates are largely based outside occupied Palestine or in the Gaza Strip and are unlikely to attend the conference in Bethlehem.

However, a conference at which Abbas and his allies enjoy absolute hegemony will only deepen and widen the existing chasm between various camps within Fatah. More to the point, Kaddumi might resort to holding a rival Fatah conference of his own, possibly in Damascus or Beirut. If this were to happen, Fatah would disintegrate into two camps, one based abroad and enjoying "revolutionary legitimacy" and backed by Syria and Iran, and probably Qatar, and the other coalesced into the PA and enjoying "international legitimacy" and backed by the US, EU and the so-called moderate Arab regimes.

Finally, the success of the Bethlehem conference will also depend to a large extent on the cooperation of the Hamas movement. Hamas, which has so far opted to remain outside the Kaddumi-Abbas confrontation, has hinted that it may not allow Fatah delegates from the Gaza Strip to leave for the West Bank if PA security agencies continue to round up and persecute Hamas leaders and activists and if hundreds of Hamas detainees are not released. Since the PA is unlikely to release these detainees, mainly because there is a strong lobby within Fatah against rapprochement with Hamas, it is probable that very few Fatah delegates from Gaza, if any, will make it to the West Bank

The "Israeli factor" is also relevant. Israel has an established policy of barring Gaza residents from entering the West Bank as a matter of principle. Undoubtedly this, too, will be an important factor militating for or against the convening of the conference, as well as its success.

Source: Al Ahram

This ominous orientation is being constantly promoted by a number of manifestly racist cabinet ministers and Knesset members who declare openly that their aim is to make everyone in Israel “submit to the Jewish nature of the state.”

The brash racism is now permeating through the entire apparatus of the Jewish state, from the police, to the justice system, to the army, to the educational system and, of course, the media.

Last week, Israeli courts showed off their racist credentials when two Israeli settlers, a murderer and a would-be murderer were acquitted of murdering a Palestinian and seriously wounding two others.

In the first case, a West Jerusalem judge acquitted a Jewish settler named Ze’ev Braude who had shot and seriously injured two unarmed Palestinians in al-Khalil (Hebron) several months ago.

The settler was caught on video shooting at the two Palestinians who were pleading to Israeli troops to stop rampaging settlers from attacking their homes and families. The settlers were vandalizing Arab property and trying to set homes on fire in protest against the evacuation by the army of Jewish squatters who had seized an Arab building a few years earlier.

Braude’s lawyer reportedly asked for “classified information” which he said  would help clear his client of any wrongdoing.  However, instead of meeting the lawyer’s request, the attorney-general decided to drop all charges against Braude.  Thus the would-be killer, who had shot and seriously injured two innocent Palestinians,  was effectively declared innocent.

In the second case, a Jewish farmer by the name of Shai Dromi was acquitted of manslaughter by a Bir al Saba’a (Beer Shiva) court despite damning evidence indicting him.

In 2007, Dromi shot and killed a Bedouin “infiltrator,” claiming that he was trying to steal his livestock.

Racist system

One doesn’t have to be a great expert on Israel to be able to describe the Israeli justice system as inherently racist, being based on religious-ethno centricism.

Indeed, had the victims been Jewish, there is not the slightest doubt that the perpetrators would have been given harsh prison sentences, without a chance for parole for decades.

However, in a state that murders innocent children at will “for self-defense” and lies as often as it breathes, this type of justice ought to be viewed as being within the normal order of things.

Indeed, Israel itself, one might argue perfectly rightly, is a crime against humanity, having been created on the ruins of another people, the Palestinians.

Hence, it is only “natural” and “normal” that Israeli courts would deal with utmost flaccidity and utter leniency with Jewish perpetrators of crimes as long as the victim is not a member of the “holy tribe.”

This tradition goes back to the establishment of Israel more than 62 years when a given Jewish murderer of a Palestinian was fined a dime on the ground that the life of a non-Jew wasn’t worth more than a dime.

A few years ago, an Israeli soldier who was serving in southern Gaza murdered a Palestinian school child, Iman al Hums, as she was going to school.

The soldier, dubbed Captain R.  shot and seriously wounded the young girl,  and as he saw her agonize and wallow in pain, he walked toward her, empting an entire magazine of bullets into her tender body to make sure that she was dead and didn’t pose a threat to his life.

The practice is still widely practiced in the Israeli army and is known as “verifying the kill.”

The reaction of the Israeli justice system to this event was very telling, indeed.

For instead of prosecuting and punishing the murderer, the Israeli army actually awarded him thousands of dollars in damages he claimed he deserved because his reputation was tarnished by the media.

Westerners, especially North Americans, who have been consuming Zionist lies for decades may be prompted to think that the above-mentioned cases are an aberration and in no way represent Israel’s general behaviors.

However, the truth, which Israel and her supporters strive to hide from the eyes of the world, is that the Israeli justice system is inherently and profoundly racist, to put it mildly, especially when non-Jews, particularly Palestinians, are involved.

In recent years, hundreds of settler judges and others affiliated with extremist terrorist Jewish groups, such as the Kahana group, Gush Emunim and Chabad infiltrated the Israeli justice system.

These people are indoctrinated in the Nazi-like ideology that Jews are genetically and humanly superior than non-Jews and that Jewish lives are worth more than non-Jewish lives.

Hence, when a Jew and a non-Jew appear in court, the Jewish judge feels obliged to take all these considerations into account and refrain, as much as possible, from  passing stiff punishments against Jewish defendants.

This is often done by meticulously searching for or even concocting  extenuating circumstances, or by finding a procedural loophole, that would make the judge seriously reduce the proscribed punishment for the Jewish defendant or acquit him of any wrongdoing.

Israel claims to be a western country, a democracy and a state where the rule of law is upheld.

Well, this trinity of lies should be obvious for anyone who has had the opportunity to know Israel first-hand.

But, there is always a certain level of “veracity” in these claims. In Israel, the rule of law is indeed upheld just as the rule of law was also upheld in Nazi Germany.

But the question remains, what laws are exactly being upheld?

This week, Peres participated in an interfaith conference in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, where he had the audacity to lecture delegates representing the world’s major religions on peace, human dignity, moral ethics and religious tolerance.

During his speech, Peres, whose country carried out a virtual genocide in Gaza only six months ago, urged believers to show respect toward those who differ with them.

He also called on the King of Saudi Arabia to meet with him in occupied Jerusalem, in Riyadh or in any other place “in order to fulfill his prayer for peace among all people, without differences of religion.”

Peres was making his sanctimonious statements about peace with Arabs only a few hours after the Israeli government decided to build additional hundreds of Jewish settler units outside the Adam colony in the West Bank, in utter defiance of calls by the international community, including Israel’s guardian-ally, the United States, for a freeze on Jewish settlement expansion activities.

So, Peres wants to make peace with the Saudis, the Kazakhs, the Indonesians, the Mauritanians, even Muslims in the innermost parts of Black Africa. It is only the Palestinians he insists on stealing their land, arrogating their rights and narrowing their horizons.

Peresrepresents and embodies a country that lives and thrives on murder, theft and mendacity. Hence, it is sufficiently obvious that he can’t be honest about Israel’s criminal behavior. It is a country that is almost totally ugly from head to toe.

It is nearly impossible to gauge the level of Israeli-Zionist hypocrisy. Indeed, one wouldn’t go too far by saying that Israel is the world’s most hypocritical nation-state.

The evidence is as conspicuous as overwhelming.

First of all, Israel itself is built right on top of another people, the Palestinian people, without whose destruction and obliteration, this evil entity wouldn’t have seen the light of the day. This is the fact that some Israelis are beginning to recognize.

In his book, the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Illan Pappe, Professor of Political Science at Haifa University wrote that “The ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Israel was not an unintended consequence, or fortuitous occurrence, or even a ‘miracle’, as Israel’s first president Chaim Weizmann later proclaimed; it was the result of long and meticulous planning.”

In fact, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine was not a one-time operation that ended with the initial hostilities, e.g. in 1948, as happened in Europe during the Second World War.

It has been going on ever since the establishment of the hateful colonial entity and is now continuing unabated in the form of seizing Palestinian land and property in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and building Jewish colonies on the very land Palestinians are being told will be the home of their future state.

Peres is utterly unqualified to invoke human values since he and his colleagues in racism and terror, people like Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak and other war criminals, have been among history’s worst offenders.
In 1996, during his brief premiership following Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, Peres ordered his army to commit the genocidal massacre of Qana in Southern Lebanon where Zio-Nazi troops mercilessly massacred more than 100 Lebanese children and women.

The horrific scenes of decapitated and mutilated children could only be compared with some of the worst Nazi atrocities in eastern Europe more than six decades ago.

Interestingly, until this moment, this false man of peace, this virulent hypocrite, has not had the moral courage to say “sorry” for the heinous carnage he committed in cold blood.

Peres has tons of innocent blood on his hands, hence the sins he should apologize for are numerous and nearly countless. In fact, I am not sure that his apologies, even if sincere, which is utterly unlikely, would make much of a difference anyway.

After all, we are talking about an irredeemable liar, hypocrite and war criminal.

This is a man who remained silent while the bulldozers of the Nazis of our time were crushing the bones and sculls of dead Muslims at the Mamillah cemetery in Jerusalem a few years ago in order to build a Museum of Tolerance!!! to celebrate “Zionist tolerance toward non-Jews”
I really wonder why none of the delegates at the Astana conference confronted this despicable thug with this issue?

More to the point, Peres is the President of the country that adamantly refuses to allow millions of Christians and Muslims in occupied Palestine to access their respective religious places in al-Quds.

For example, this writer, who lives not far from Jerusalem, has been utterly unable to enter the city for the past 15 years, even for a brief prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This is while people from around the world can easily and freely visit the holy city.

So, one is really at loss trying to reconcile this hateful racist policy of religious discrimination against Palestinian Christians and Muslims with Peres’ call for religious tolerance.

In his visit to Astana, Peres was accompanied with another hypocrite, Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metger.

Metzger, a firm believer in Jewish supremacy, urged delegates at the conference to help free an Israeli occupation soldier taken prisoner by Palestinian freedom fighters in Gaza a few years ago.

And in characteristic Zionist self-absorbedness, Metzger utterly ignored that fact that his country was holding as many as 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners, including democratically elected officials, in inhuman conditions in slimy dungeons and concentration camps all over occupied Palestine.
So, delegates should at least have asked this pseudo religious leader if he had thought that the safety and freedom of a single Israeli soldier were more important than the safety and freedom of more than eleven thousand Palestinian prisoners languishing in Zionist jails, most of them didn’t commit any real violation, apart from demanding freedom for their own captive people.

Hypocrisy spells moral depravity. It is one of the worst human vices. However, when readily practiced by “religious leaders” who claim to adhere to a higher standard of morality, it becomes a disastrous trait of immensely sinful proportions.

It is indeed lamentable that certified war criminals, like Shimon Peres, and racist rabies representing an evil state, like Yona Metzger, are invited to address religious conferences whose goal is to build a better world based on justice and equality, two characters that are completely incompatible with the Zionist mindset.

It was also sad that only one delegation, the Iranian delegation, walked out of the conference hall when the terrorist President of Israel began giving his speech.

Unfortunately, many of these official delegates represented tyrannical and despotic regimes which are only Muslim by name and don’t really represent the real spirit of Islam which upholds the dignity of human beings and rejects racism, tyranny and oppression.

This was his speech:

The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan,
His Excellency Nursultan Nazarbayev,
Religious leaders,

I thank you for the opportunity to participate in this important gathering which aims at building a better world: A world of justice, a world of fraternity, a world of peace.

Your decision to initiate an interfaith dialogue in your country can serve as an example for the rest of the world, a world that parts of it seem to have forgotten that we all share the same God, who created man in His image and called him to sanctify life, uphold the covenant of peace, to follow in a good and straight path.

While the monotheistic and humanistic believers, Christians, Muslims and Jews, used to believe that there was just one God for all, compassionate, merciful and righteous, there are nowadays others, luckily a minority, that sanctify a different God, a God that permits massacres, forgives cruelty, and calls upon his believers to destroy, kill, lie and ruin.

This distorted stream constitutes a defamation of the Lord. It is not a religion, it is a crime, a crime against God and man. We must separate religion from terror.  This should be a common effort by all believers, regardless of faith, creed or gender.

I recently spoke to His Holiness the Pope when he visited the Holy Land, and he too joins this endeavor. It so happened that his visit took place when our scientists concluded a development of new wheat, that has four heads instead of one. We call it enriching wheat. People should enrich wheat rather than enrich uranium.

Many Muslim religious leaders also expressed their concern at the terrible correlation between religion and terror. And my friends, the Chief Rabbis of Israel, have strongly condemned those that call the name of God in vain, and in His name kill innocent people. Thousands, if not millions of Muslims, have lost their lives at the hands of extremists that call the name of Allah. In the Twin Towers of New-York, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and atheists, all lost their lives as one.

Cultivating interfaith ties of understanding and friendship is vital, not only in interfaith relations, but in the religions' perception of God.

The first question is always whether God created man in His image, or whether man is trying to create God in his compromised image. Whether we should adopt God's moral code, or whether we should refer our personal desires to God.

The real concept of monotheism is that God created all human beings in His image, that we were all born equal, and that none of us has the right to appoint himself as a superior force. Only God who created man has the right to determine life. The one that can not give life should not end life. God had no partners in the creation of the world, so there is nobody that can declare war against.

Bolshevism advocated Baz Buzinkiut – an ideology without God. They believed it would be possible to attain social justice without the moral values of God. Bolshevism failed to achieve justice, it failed to discard God. For humanity, it would be difficult to live without a God of justice and without a God of peace.

Our sixth commandment expresses the major point of humanities struggle in the 21st century: "Do not kill." And it is said in the Holy book Leviticus: "Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the Lord. This leitmotiv of our religion is that "All human beings were created in the image of God."

We must stand up and reject fanatics, and to oppose promoters of hatred and conflicts. Their so-called god is not our God. Their faith is not our faith. Our answer to them is to hold and encourage peace initiatives.

We are aware of the big change which has occurred in the positions of a majority of Arab countries towards peace with israel: a transition from the three Khartoum "no's":  no to negotiations, no to recognition, no to peace – to the three "yes's" of the Saudi Initiative.The King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, King Abdullah II, defined this a readiness for peace between the State of Israel and 57 Arab and Muslim states. 

Here, from this platform, with your permission, Mr. President, I call upon the King of Saudi Arabia, King Abdallah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud, the initiator of the Arab peace plan, to meet in Jerusalem or in Riyadh or to travel to Kazakhstan, and together with other Arab leaders we will all be able to realize your vision, our vision and the vision of all believers in our shared God of peace and justice.  

Together with the participants of this prestigious conference, we must stretch our hands one to the other, in a spirit of mutual commitment and a prayer for peace and prosperity in the world; for the brotherhood of man, for his freedom, health and well-being; for social justice, and progress, while respecting our separate and unique heritage and differences.

We have the right to be equal, and we equally have the right to be different. And swords will be beaten into ploughshares, and wars will be forever a thing of the past.

Let it be. Amen.

First, it was a brazenly direct affront to President Obama who thought rather naively that nice words about peace would make the Israeli leadership change its fascistic mindset and reconsider it colonialist approach toward the Palestinian people.

Just last week, Obama reasserted America’s commitment to the safety and security of Israel as if the Zionist entity, which possesses hundreds of nuclear warheads, was facing any real threats from its neighbors.

However, in light of Netanyahu’s speech last night, it is amply clear that American support of Israel serves only to embolden the apartheid’s state and make it adopt even more extremist postures toward the Palestinian issue.

President Obama must really deeply ponder this specific point and reconsider America’s entire policy toward Israel.

Second, the hateful tirade was a slap in the face for the so-called “moderate” Arab regimes, like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, who have degraded themselves and their people for the purpose of encouraging and endearing Israel to come to terms with minimal Palestinian rights.

For example, some of the Arab regimes have been playing an active role in starving and tormenting the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip in the hope of obtaining a certificate of good conduct from the Zionist leadership.

Now, these tyrants should have the courage and dignity to reconsider their erstwhile disgraceful discourse toward Israel by realizing that no matter how much Arabs and Muslims seek to appease and accommodate Israel’s racist whims, the Zionist entity will remain faithful to its diabolical principles of domination and colonialism.

Nonetheless, it is obvious that the biggest slap in the face went to the American-backed Palestinian regime in Ramallah, especially PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his de facto prime minister Salam Fayyadh, the reputed darling of the former Bush administration.

We all know too well how this collaborationist regime did everything in its power to demonstrate its total subservience to Israel, the Nazi-like occupier of our homeland.

The Ramallah Judenrat has been persecuting the Palestinian people  to please Israel. It has rounded up thousands of Palestinian Islamic activists to demonstrate its “commitment” to the security understandings forged with the Israeli army. And more recently, it mercilessly and callously murdered resistance fighters in the northern West Bank, a feat that drew a lot of praise from the very people who had murdered Abu Jihad, Ahmed Yasin and may well have poisoned Yasser Arafat.

In fact, what Netanyahu was telling these petty collaborators last night is that no matter how much they cheapen themselves before Israel, even by killing their own people to safeguard the security of Israeli settlements, they will continue to be treated with the utter contempt they deserve.

Undoubtedly, Netanyahu’s speech amounted to a complete negation of all the “understandings and agreements” reached since the conclusion of the infamous Oslo Accords more than 16 years ago.

Netanyahu did say that he would be willing to accept a castrated Palestinian state somewhere in “the Land of Israel”. However, he insisted that such an entity would have to be tightly controlled by Israel and bereft of any semblance of sovereignty or dignity.

Indeed, the state the Nazi-minded Zionist leader has in mind has conspicuous  Kafkaesque characteristics since its airspace, territorial water, borders, border crossings, water resources and foreign relations will be  controlled by the Ubermenschen, the “chosen people,” the “master race.”

Interestingly, the Israeli premier repeatedly demanded that the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a state of the Jewish people.

Well, for those who don’t understand Zionist phraseology, it is important to clarify that terms such as “Jewish state” or “state of the Jewish people” are actually euphemistic expressions connoting the half-revealed but well-known Israeli intentions to deport the 1.5 million strong Palestinians living as Israeli citizens in the Zionist state.

Hence, Netanyahu and his cohorts are effectively demanding that the Palestinian people and their leadership solemnly acknowledge that Israel will have the right to ethnically cleanse its Palestinian citizens at a time of its choosing…. because Israel is “the state of the Jewish people” and anyone wishing  to be treated as an equal citizen, he or she would have to be a Jew or convert to Judaism.

Moreover, the arrogant Zionist premier reiterated his extremist views on al-Quds al Sharif, vowing that the holy city of Jerusalem will remain Israel’s undivided capital. He also vowed to keep up settlement expansion in the West Bank, irrespective of the wishes of the Obama administration.

A pathological liar and notorious prevaricator,  Netanyahu said the conceivable Palestinian entity would have to be totally demilitarized in order to rule out the emergence of a Hamas regime.

He utterly ignored the fact that his own government comprises Nazi-like parties, some of which even don’t recognize the very humanity of non-Jews.

Hence, one is really prompted to ask Netanyahu and those who are still beguiled by his mendacious rhetoric how he would explain to the world that Jews in Israel have the right to elect manifestly Nazi-minded parties such as ha’Bayt ha’Yahudi and ha’Ichud ha’Leumi while the Palestinians are barred from electing a party like Hamas, which really looks like a band of boy scouts when compared to the virulently racist Jewish groups such Chabad and the Kookites whose rabbis are still arguing why the Almighty created non-Jews with two legs, not four, as He did other animals.

Undoubtedly, Netanyahu’s speech caricatured a thoroughly arrogant and megalomaniac leader, not unlike Adolf Hitler, a Fuehrer who thinks non-Jews living the “Land of Israel” are children of a lesser God, or wretched  Untermenschen, who should serve as “wood hewers” and “water carriers” for the Jewish master race. And if they refuse servitude and enslavement, they would have to be banished into the Arabian desert or simply slaughtered en masse following the Biblical style.

Now the ball is squarely in the court of the  White House.  Either Obama proves that he is the man of his word, by  acting immediately to restrain this Nazi-like monster that is evidently hell-bent on savaging 5 million Palestinians who are demanding emancipation from decades of Zionist-Jewish cruelty.

Should Obama prove unable or unwilling to act on his proclamations which he made in Cairo last week, Arabs and Muslims as well as all other peace-loving people around the world would have to draw the right conclusion and come to terms with the ugly reality in this part of the world, namely that Israel is a malignant  Nazi-like entity that is hell-bent on spreading wars and chaos in the Middle East and beyond.

Eventually, the immense turbulence and violence resulting from the Zionist menace would sooner or later get the U.S. bogged down in bloodier wars in many parts of the Muslim world, wars that would further destroy the American economy and cause untold thousands of America’s finest sons and daughters to lose their lives for Israel’s sake.

Needless to say, the calumnies and canards concocted by Bush against the world's 1.5 billion Muslims; using the term "Islamofascists" and claiming that Muslims "hate our freedoms" effectively put the United States and Islam on a virtual collision course.

Eventually, this sullen hostility to Islam and Muslims found expression in the genocidal wars of aggression the United States and its allies waged against Muslims, resulting in the invasion, occupation, and the destruction of two sovereign Muslim states.

Hence, it is laudable to see the Obama Administration making a real effort to mend relations with Muslims, and trying to refurbish America's tarnished image throughout the Muslim world.

Nonetheless, Muslims, especially Arabs and Palestinians, should not be carried away by the false euphoria accompanying the speech although arguably balanced — by the American standard — and ostensibly friendly it may be.

Rhetoric Cloaked in the Same Policy

If we put symbolism and matters of style apart, one is left with the inescapable conclusion that Obama did not really come up with any real  surprises in terms of actual policies, especially with regard to the Palestinian issue; the main and enduring point of contention between the United States and the Muslim world.

His assertion of the two-state solution is hardly a surprise. George Bush had spoken ad nauseam of his vision of seeing a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace.

Bill Clinton had done the same thing while allowing Israel to keep up building Jewish-only colonies on Palestinian stolen lands.

In his remarks about the Palestinian issue, Obama actually left many questions unanswered as to the nature of the Palestinian state for which he has declared his support and backing.

For example, will the creation of that contemplated state involve full and total Israeli evacuation from the West Bank, including East Jerusalem?

And what would be the fate of the huge Jewish colonies in and around Al-Quds, such as Pisgat Zeev, French Hell, Har Homa, and Maali Adomim — to mention just a few colonies?  Would these colonies be dismantled or annexed to Israel?

Indeed, even Israel itself does not really object to the creation of a Palestinian state as long as the Zionist regime has the final say in determining all the characteristics of such a state.

Next week, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu will deliver a speech in which he is expected to declare his "acceptance" of the two-state solution.

However, Netanyahu is likely to insist that Israel must be in control of that state's "borders", border-crossings, air space, territorial water, underground water, telecommunications channels, and international relations.

Netanyahu will also insist that the prospective state would have to be totally demilitarized and deprived of any right to make treaties with foreign states.

In other words, Netanyahu will propose a state with a form and a name, but without any substance. In fact, it would be an insult to language to call such a deformed brat a state.

More to the point, Netanyahu is likely to invoke the mantra of "two states for two peoples".

It suggests that the Zionist state would have the right — at a certain point in the future — to expel its 1.6 million strong Palestinian citizens to the future Palestinian entity on the ground that Israel is an exclusively Jewish state where only Jews could enjoy equal rights as citizens.

Ignoring International Law

Interestingly, Obama made no mention whatsoever of the rule of international law and its relevance to the Palestinian plight.

This fact alone generates a lot of suspicions and misgivings about the credibility of the president's commitment to pursuing a just and durable resolution of the conflict in Palestine.

According to international law, every centimeter of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem is an occupied territory.

This principle was reasserted in 2004 by the International Court of Justice in the Hague in its famous ruling on the Apartheid Wall which Israel erected in the West Bank, as well as by numerous UN resolutions.

Moreover, Obama spoke laconically of Jerusalem becoming a home for the three monotheistic religions. However, he did not say if he was alluding to East Jerusalem or West Jerusalem or both.

If indeed he meant East Jerusalem, then this would be utterly unacceptable to the Palestinian people and their Arab and Muslim brethren all over the world, because Al-Quds Al-Sharif is an occupied territory.

In fact, even the United States itself does not recognize the Israeli annexation of Al-Quds, and has repeatedly refused to transfer its embassy to the Holy City due to its status.

Besides, what about West Jerusalem? Does not Obama realize that Palestinian refugees own more than 90 percent of land in West Jerusalem? 

So, one is prompted to ask if Mr. Obama believes that a theft becomes legal and lawful after the passage of 60 years?

Moreover, does Obama really think it is fair to allow Jews to possess property and real estate in East Jerusalem while Palestinians are denied the same right to reclaim their own property, including homes and lands in such West Jerusalem neighborhoods as Al-Malha, Ein Karem, Lifta, Dir Yasin, Beit Mahsir, Deir Aban, and the like?

One of the subjects conspicuously absent from Obama's Cairo speech was the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees who were brutally uprooted from their ancestral homeland when Israel was created in Palestine in 1948.

Needless to say, the right of return is the soul and heart of the Palestinian issue, and without addressing it justly and sincerely, no possible peace deal can last long and withstand the tests of time.

Condoning Israeli Atrocities

This is why Obama's failure to even mention this fundamental element of the Israeli-Palestinian strife does not augur well for the future and for peace.

Furthermore, Obama called on the Palestinians to abandon violence, saying that "resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed." Well, should not Mr. Obama have also called on Israel to abandon violence against the Palestinians?

Does not he realize that Palestinian "violence" is in the final analysis a mere "effect" or inevitable reaction to an overwhelming "cause" which is the enduring Israeli occupation?

After all, the occupation itself is the ultimate form of violence and oppression since it deprives its victims of their human rights, freedoms, and dignity. Indeed, the occupation is an act of usurpation.

So, I would most candidly want to ask Mr. Obama the following question: Does or does not the usurped victim have the right, even the duty, to resist her/his attacker?

Finally, in his speech, Obama spoke elaborately of Jewish suffering at the hands of the Europeans.

Well, as human beings and as Muslims, we do sympathize with Jewish and non-Jewish suffering.

However, showing sympathy and understanding is one thing, but being demanded that we pay the price for this undeniably legitimate suffering is quite another.

It is unfair, unjust, and immoral to demand that the longest-suffering people in modern history, the Palestinians, who have inhabited and toiled the land of Palestine since time immemorial, to be coerced to pay the price for the Nazi atrocities of European Jewry seven decades ago. 

Khalid Amayreh is a journalist living in Palestine. He obtained his MA in journalism from the University of Southern Illinois in 1983. Since the 1990s, Mr. Amayreh has been working and writing for several news outlets among which is Aljazeera.net, Al-Ahram Weekly, Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), and Middle East International. He can be reached through politics.indepth@iolteam.com.

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