Almost a year ago, at the UN General Assembly in New York, the Palestinian authority president, president in waiting, declared the independence of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. 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. After that the UNESCO declared that it accepted “Palestine” as a full member, and the rest of the UN organizations are in line to follow suit.
Couple of weeks ago, during an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 TV, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader who took over the PLO and the Palestinian Authority after the death of Arafat, declared that the refugees who left after the 1948 should not expect and logically cannot go back to the lands that are the State of Israel. It was a historic announcement, but as usual, it was met by the regular skepticism and condemnation from powers within the PLO and of course Hamas. Couple of days ago, Hamas started a war against the State of Israel. By firing rockets, it forced Israel to respond and retaliate and the show is still on. The Palestinians thought that they were on a verge of a breakthrough, but Hamas had other plans for them.
The momentum to build a Palestinian State started in 1948 when at the same time the State of Israel declared independence and accepted the UN resolution 181 but the Palestinians did not.
They- the Palestinians- did not have anyone to represent them except for group of local leaders and Arab leaders that did not have the courage, the resources, the independent thinking and political will to do the same. The State of Israel followed the UN resolution and moved on, the Palestinians did not, the Arabs did not, and since then a blame game started and a tragedy after tragedy took place not because of Israel, but because of a Palestinian leadership that never had a declared project of a state in the West Bank and Gaza, after 1967, and the acceptance of a two state Solution which the Palestinian leadership accepted later on.
In every war between Israel and the Arabs, the world got closer to the final solution, got closer to each other. 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.. Need to 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 never the star leading role, but with the rise of the so called religious/political organizations like Hamas, their role virtually ended.
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 political entity that really did not need Nasser to add to it, but he helped making it worse. 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, that 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.
Up to 1970s- Hamas and the PLO took over after that- traditional families within the West Bank and Gaza failed their societies and were agents and 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 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 keep 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 with real focus that Palestine is nothing but the West Bank and Gaza, and accordingly, creates 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 principal part of the New Middle East, the State of Palestine will be the same. 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’m originally from there, 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 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; 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.
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Couple of weeks ago, during an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 TV, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader who took over the PLO and the Palestinian Authority after the death of Arafat, declared that the refugees who left after the 1948 should not expect and logically cannot go back to the lands that are the State of Israel. It was a historic announcement, but as usual, it was met by the regular skepticism and condemnation from powers within the PLO and of course Hamas. Couple of days ago, Hamas started a war against the State of Israel. By firing rockets, it forced Israel to respond and retaliate and the show is still on. The Palestinians thought that they were on a verge of a breakthrough, but Hamas had other plans for them.
The momentum to build a Palestinian State started in 1948 when at the same time the State of Israel declared independence and accepted the UN resolution 181 but the Palestinians did not.
They- the Palestinians- did not have anyone to represent them except for group of local leaders and Arab leaders that did not have the courage, the resources, the independent thinking and political will to do the same. The State of Israel followed the UN resolution and moved on, the Palestinians did not, the Arabs did not, and since then a blame game started and a tragedy after tragedy took place not because of Israel, but because of a Palestinian leadership that never had a declared project of a state in the West Bank and Gaza, after 1967, and the acceptance of a two state Solution which the Palestinian leadership accepted later on.
In every war between Israel and the Arabs, the world got closer to the final solution, got closer to each other. 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.. Need to 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 never the star leading role, but with the rise of the so called religious/political organizations like Hamas, their role virtually ended.
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 political entity that really did not need Nasser to add to it, but he helped making it worse. 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, that 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.
Up to 1970s- Hamas and the PLO took over after that- traditional families within the West Bank and Gaza failed their societies and were agents and 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 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 keep 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 with real focus that Palestine is nothing but the West Bank and Gaza, and accordingly, creates 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 principal part of the New Middle East, the State of Palestine will be the same. 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’m originally from there, 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 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; 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.
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