Last month, the Palestinian authority president, president in waiting, declared the independence of a Palestinian state, in the UN, couple of weeks after, Hamas and the State of Israel declared an agreement to free thousands of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for an Israeli soldier that Hamas held in captivity as a hostage/prisoner since 2006. Couple of days ago, the UNESCO declared that it accepted "Palestine" as a full member, and the rest of the UN organizations are in line to follow suit. The momentum to build a Palestinians state started in 1948 when the same time the State of Israel declared independence accepted the UN resolution 181 and the Palestinians did not. They- the Palestinians- did not have anyone to represent them except for group of local leaders who did not have the courage, the resources, the independent thinking, the class, the self-respect and shrewd politics to do the same. The Palestinian leadership was as corrupt and useless as the Arab leaders surrounding the historic Palestine prior to 1948. The traditional Palestinian families of Gaza, Jerusalem, Nablus, and El-Khalil- Hebron- were fighting, were nothing, just representing certain powers, certain merchants, and just setting around hating, competing and dividing themselves into different camps and travelling to Cairo, and finally screaming from Beirut. The tragedy of the Palestinian people has nothing to do with the State of Israel. Israel followed the UN resolution and moved on, the Palestinians did not, the Arabs did not, and since then a cry game started, a blame game started and tragedy after tragedy took place not because of Israel, but because of the worst leadership any people could have, the Palestinian leadership. In politics, leading countries will reach out to leaders in other countries regardless if they agree with or not, if those leaders have the local acceptance and can work deals; working deals are the key here, ideology has no place, pragmatism is the name, if you want to participate. In every war between Israel and the Arabs, we the world got closer to the final solution, got closer to each other, it sounds crazy, I know, but true, keep reading and you might agree, if you say nonsense I think you are too polite and you can move on to another subject. After every war episode- it is a like a book- there were peace, negotiations, and then war again, 1948,1956,1967,1970 with the Rogers’s project which Nasser of Egypt accepted and Sadat built on. Then came the 1973 war, when the Arabs did a moral advancement for the first time, Israel turned things around later on, and the US and the USSR- the former Soviet Union- ordered the game to stop and back to the ceasefire and the negotiations and small wars here and there to keep things exciting and keep the Palestinians people aware that they have a state waiting for them; basically the world has been telling the Palestinians, you..(Censored) wake up, build a state, focus on Gaza and the West Bank, it is there. In the 1982 war, the PLO got the message loud and clear, back to the table and with the 1987 Intifada and the rise of Hamas, we started to see new players in the arena, that basically marked the end of the traditional families in the West Bank and Gaza, although their role has always been a supporting role and not the star role, but with the rise of the so called religious/political organizations like Hamas, their role virtually ended, of course there are exceptions here and there but nothing more.
In the 1950s, and the 1960s, Nasser of Egypt fooled the Arabs but in the process created the seeds for long term negotiations, not sure if he meant it or not, by losing war after war, by destroying his country Egypt and other countries like Syria- well, Syria was a corrupt society and politicians that really it did not need Nasser to add to it, but he helped making it worse; the Syrian politicians are pure merchants, some used to say that they would sell their own (censored) for the best price and the highest bidders, but this is another story for another day- Nasser regardless would not have won anything anyway. The only final solution is the negotiations solution, in these wars, Nasser cemented the State of Israel’s bargaining powers for the final solution, and granted Israel the best chips to ensure that the Palestinians realize that you cannot say yes or no whenever you want, the world will not accommodate, will not accept you and give you a state just by saying, I recognize Israel and then all will go back to the UN resolution and just implement; it does not work this way. You must work for it, negotiate and play the game. Up to 1970s- Hamas and the PLO took over after that- traditional families that within the West Bank and Gaza have failed their societies miserably, they were nothing, but mouthpieces to Nasser, king Hussein of Jordan, and the PLO which after Arafat took over, created a Palestinian momentum that no other leader ever created for them before and until now. He was only matched on the Arab side by the Egyptian leader, Anwar El-Sadat. But Arafat was the ultimate, some say, political animal, he read it right and he had the courage and the shrewdness and the pragmatism that even Anwar El-Sadat did not have, Sadat wanted to be above politics, he could not, the game of politics in the Middle East was so strong, that Sadat could not match up; Mubarak after him did match the game, but by then, the game got softer, the glass ceiling has already been shattered by Anwar El-Sadat .There has never been in Gaza or the West Bank real political movement, real focus that Palestine is nothing but the West Bank and Gaza, and accordingly, create an initiative that would speak for that. Not until the Sadat visit to the State of Israel in 1977, that the whole politics shifted towards the inevitable which made it clear that Palestine is only and once and forever the West Bank and Gaza. Of course there are those that are pursuing political agendas or believe that their religious beliefs- on both sides the Israeli and the Palestinians- that talk about the whole stuff, the historic Palestine before 1948; which does not exist and will never exist. The State of Israel is here as any other country in the world, vibrant, smart, and original and a principle part of the New Middle East, the State of Palestine will be the same. The Palestinians are smart by the way, very hypocrites and pretentious and sometimes SOBs, but who is not in politics, same all over the world, but the problem in the West Bank and Gaza is that hypocrisy and pretentious and the fake pride of something that is so does not exist, is preventing the Palestinians from enjoying a world wide support including the essential support of the State of Israel to establish a civilized state in Gaza and the West Bank. It is coming, it has to, history will not allow it not to happen, the Arabs rising in their respective Arab countries is helping the Palestinians to overcome one important thing; the class of leaders that they thought that they can never live without, the families, the PLO, Hamas, and it could very well encourage free spirited, motivated, educated, pragmatic, Professional leaders to rise. We might witness a change in the Palestinians society which is moving away from struggle to work and build and live normal life. The people in Gaza and I was one of them, used to visit Tel-Aviv, Haifa, even the little town of Ashkelon, few miles away from Gaza, and we used to compare them with Gaza and ask why cannot we live like humans like the Israelis, and the answers have always been the same, from certain circles, blame the Israelis, blame the Americans, blame this or that, always someone else, always not us, not the people that in fact created the tragedy of the Palestinian people. Again, The State of Israel has nothing to do with the plight and tragedy of the Palestinians, it is the Palestine’s who created the tragedy, lived it and loved it, and wanted to always be victims to someone else, always looking for sympathy, and the empty slogans. The Palestinians and the Arabs, always looking for a Nasser, to keep fooling them and lead them from defeat to defeat, and this way they would never confront their failures and they would never confront their shattered baseless, unrealistic, dreams. The time is now, but the Palestinians this time are lucky, because if they choose to continue to weep, cry , scream, accuse and listen to songs moaning their illusive losses and read and listen to Nizar Qabani- the Syrian poet talking about the lost palace of the Arabs- the world will not anymore allows it. The world, including the State of Israel, wants to create a Palestinian state in the West bank and Gaza, whether the Palestinians like it or not; lucky bastards- the Palestinians- someone else again is speaking for them, but this time not to lead to defeat but to a state in the West Bank and Gaza.
In the 1950s, and the 1960s, Nasser of Egypt fooled the Arabs but in the process created the seeds for long term negotiations, not sure if he meant it or not, by losing war after war, by destroying his country Egypt and other countries like Syria- well, Syria was a corrupt society and politicians that really it did not need Nasser to add to it, but he helped making it worse; the Syrian politicians are pure merchants, some used to say that they would sell their own (censored) for the best price and the highest bidders, but this is another story for another day- Nasser regardless would not have won anything anyway. The only final solution is the negotiations solution, in these wars, Nasser cemented the State of Israel’s bargaining powers for the final solution, and granted Israel the best chips to ensure that the Palestinians realize that you cannot say yes or no whenever you want, the world will not accommodate, will not accept you and give you a state just by saying, I recognize Israel and then all will go back to the UN resolution and just implement; it does not work this way. You must work for it, negotiate and play the game. Up to 1970s- Hamas and the PLO took over after that- traditional families that within the West Bank and Gaza have failed their societies miserably, they were nothing, but mouthpieces to Nasser, king Hussein of Jordan, and the PLO which after Arafat took over, created a Palestinian momentum that no other leader ever created for them before and until now. He was only matched on the Arab side by the Egyptian leader, Anwar El-Sadat. But Arafat was the ultimate, some say, political animal, he read it right and he had the courage and the shrewdness and the pragmatism that even Anwar El-Sadat did not have, Sadat wanted to be above politics, he could not, the game of politics in the Middle East was so strong, that Sadat could not match up; Mubarak after him did match the game, but by then, the game got softer, the glass ceiling has already been shattered by Anwar El-Sadat .There has never been in Gaza or the West Bank real political movement, real focus that Palestine is nothing but the West Bank and Gaza, and accordingly, create an initiative that would speak for that. Not until the Sadat visit to the State of Israel in 1977, that the whole politics shifted towards the inevitable which made it clear that Palestine is only and once and forever the West Bank and Gaza. Of course there are those that are pursuing political agendas or believe that their religious beliefs- on both sides the Israeli and the Palestinians- that talk about the whole stuff, the historic Palestine before 1948; which does not exist and will never exist. The State of Israel is here as any other country in the world, vibrant, smart, and original and a principle part of the New Middle East, the State of Palestine will be the same. The Palestinians are smart by the way, very hypocrites and pretentious and sometimes SOBs, but who is not in politics, same all over the world, but the problem in the West Bank and Gaza is that hypocrisy and pretentious and the fake pride of something that is so does not exist, is preventing the Palestinians from enjoying a world wide support including the essential support of the State of Israel to establish a civilized state in Gaza and the West Bank. It is coming, it has to, history will not allow it not to happen, the Arabs rising in their respective Arab countries is helping the Palestinians to overcome one important thing; the class of leaders that they thought that they can never live without, the families, the PLO, Hamas, and it could very well encourage free spirited, motivated, educated, pragmatic, Professional leaders to rise. We might witness a change in the Palestinians society which is moving away from struggle to work and build and live normal life. The people in Gaza and I was one of them, used to visit Tel-Aviv, Haifa, even the little town of Ashkelon, few miles away from Gaza, and we used to compare them with Gaza and ask why cannot we live like humans like the Israelis, and the answers have always been the same, from certain circles, blame the Israelis, blame the Americans, blame this or that, always someone else, always not us, not the people that in fact created the tragedy of the Palestinian people. Again, The State of Israel has nothing to do with the plight and tragedy of the Palestinians, it is the Palestine’s who created the tragedy, lived it and loved it, and wanted to always be victims to someone else, always looking for sympathy, and the empty slogans. The Palestinians and the Arabs, always looking for a Nasser, to keep fooling them and lead them from defeat to defeat, and this way they would never confront their failures and they would never confront their shattered baseless, unrealistic, dreams. The time is now, but the Palestinians this time are lucky, because if they choose to continue to weep, cry , scream, accuse and listen to songs moaning their illusive losses and read and listen to Nizar Qabani- the Syrian poet talking about the lost palace of the Arabs- the world will not anymore allows it. The world, including the State of Israel, wants to create a Palestinian state in the West bank and Gaza, whether the Palestinians like it or not; lucky bastards- the Palestinians- someone else again is speaking for them, but this time not to lead to defeat but to a state in the West Bank and Gaza.
