Can Obama make the Mideast Wonder happen?

Time has Run-out for Fascist Israel in Mideast (Part -77)

Dr. Abdul Ruff

It is but natural that repercussions of Egyptian revolution for justice would be resonated in Palestine as well. At a rally marking the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad (SAS), Libyan strongman Mu’amar Al-Qaddafi used an address on state television to urge Palestinians to follow the example of Egypt and use mass demonstrations against Israel. Al-Qaddafi issued a call to “create a problem for the world.  He called for Palestinian refugees to mass on Israel’s borders and in ships off the coast until the “problem is resolved.”.” He said, “This is not a declaration of war. This is a call for peace.” The Libyan chided Egypt and Jordan for their treaties with Israel, saying, “All Arab states which have relations with Israel are cowardly regimes,” but widened his criticism to include dealings with the west. Al-Qaddafi called for Arab nations to “be united against the fascism trends like unilateralism and unipolarity represented by the USA, Europe and their allies. Al-Qaddafi rightly call all of these countries are the enemies of Islam.

Some 110 countries from Bolivia to Bangladesh now recognize Palestine as a sovereign nation, even though its borders have yet to be defined and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, has not yet issued a unilateral declaration of independence — possibly he has no permission of Israel to do so. On Jan. 18, the black, white, green and red flag of Palestine was hoisted for the first time atop the PLO mission in Washington — a symbolic milestone on the long road to full diplomatic relations.

Russia and China are yet to recognize the Republic of Kosovo — born out of the collapse of Josip Broz Tito’s Yugoslavia and later Slobodan Milosevic’s ethnic cleansing campaign and formally declared independence in 2008. But it still struggles for international acceptance, with 74 out of 192 UN member states recognizing Kosovo as a nation, including the USA and much of the EU. Georgia’s two breakaway republics, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, recognized by only four countries worldwide — most notably Russia.

Kosovo struggles with deep-seated problems that reveal the limits of what nationhood can solve, from endemic poverty and unemployment to crime and lingering ethnic hostilities — a fate that surely awaits the southern Sudanese as well. the idea of an independent Kosovo was once unthinkable as well — especially to Serbs, who since medieval times have considered Kosovo the cradle of their civilization. Yet on Feb. 17, 2008, after years of bloodshed and ethnic hatred, the predominantly Muslim, Albanian-speaking Kosovars declared their independence from mostly Christian Orthodox Serbia.

Perhaps this pulls back the PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas not to rush for independence? 

Mahmoud Abbas does not seem to leave the top seat in PLO and reunite the Palestinian factions. As a show seemingly intended to fool the world that he is fulfilling the election pledge that the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas said he seeks to hold presidential and legislative elections by September. Incumbent Palestinian cabinet ministers, appointed by Abbas without validity, submitted their resignations on Feb 14 for a shuffling. Abbas appointed Fatah PM Salam Fayyad, 58, will be asked to stay on in the post he has occupied since 2007. Abbas has asked Fayyad to appoint a new cabinet. The cabinet shake-up is viewed as a pre-emptive move to prevent the unrest that has shaken Arab nations from Tunisia to Egypt from reaching the Palestinian territories.

However, Hamas, who are in control of the Gaza Strip, immediately rejected the plan, saying Abbas had no legitimacy. Hamas said it will not take part in this election. They will not give it legitimacy, will not recognize the results. Abbas pretends the pro-US Fatah Palestinian leaders are responding to events in Egypt and Tunisia. The mandate of Abbas as Palestinian Authority President expired last year and the elections planned for January 2010 were postponed because of disagreements between Hamas and Fatah, Abbas, the pro-West faction. The last time the Palestinians voted, in 2006, Hamas emerged as the biggest winner in a parliamentary ballot. Their success led to bitter splits within Palestinian politics that eventually saw Hamas take control of the Gaza Strip, while Abbas' Fatah faction runs the West Bank.

Recently, thousands of Gazans protested against the Palestinian Authority and its head, Mahmoud ‘Abbas, in a demonstration that took place in two cities. The Gaza Strip is ruled by the elected Hamas, the rival faction of Fatah, the faction headed by ‘Abbas and in control of the West Bank. The opportunity to publicly flay ‘Abbas before the Palestinian public stems from the Al-Jazeera network’s leaking of documents relating to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process that show a discrepancy between Palestinian leaders’ public positions and negotiating positions revealed in the documents.

The Arabic TV station Al-Jazeera released some of what it said were 1,600 classified documents on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The documents showed the Palestinians were prepared to compromise on two of the core issues dividing the sides, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem. The report embarrassed the Palestinian Authority, the Western-backed Palestinian government in the West Bank, and Palestinian officials have claimed that at least some of the documents were fabricated. It means decades of endless diplomatic negotiations and all peace talks are a farce and a massive deception to fool the Palestinians and the rest of the world.

There have been accusations of corruption leveled at some government ministers and the government was shaken by recent leaks said to be from documents chronicling negotiations with Israel. Abbas is being condemned and called “traitor” for making sweeping concessions to Israel on the future of Jerusalem and on the issue of Palestinian refugees that are diametrically opposite to the positions leadership has been espousing publicly. As a consequence, a longtime chief negotiator Sa’ib ‘Ariqat resigned when the leaks were traced to Palestinian Negotiations Support Unit which ‘Ariqat heads. Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, who led several rounds of peace talks with Israel, has handed in his resignation. Erekat had previously promised to quit if it emerged that secret files recently leaked on the Middle East peace process had come from his office. The election pledge seems intended to show that Palestinian leaders are responding to events in Egypt and Tunisia.

Hamas officials are also urging Palestinians living around the world to become vocal protestors. While many Israelis are impressed by revelations which indicate a far less stagnant and more productive negotiating process than has been made public before, the Palestinians are learning that their negotiators made concessions that run contrary to their public pronouncements. The dichotomy presents Hamas with an opportunity to discredit its Fatah foes that it apparently cannot refuse. Abbas has called the leaked documents “fabrications” and has claimed that some of the positions attributed to his negotiators were actually those of the Israeli negotiators. Maybe, Abbas speaks about Israeli cunnilingus; It has always been the Israeli position on Jerusalem and if Abbas had offered this vital concession, Israel would long ago have come forward to settle the deal. 

The Palestinians want the entire West Bank and Jerusalem as part of their independent state. They reject the idea of interim borders, fearing they would become permanent. In an effort to neutralize pro-Palestine campaigns and anti-Israeli outcries in the West and, more importantly, blunting international pressure on Israel, Zionist foreign terror minister and a leading illegal settler Avigdor Lieberman is confirming that he has drawn up a plan that seeks to create an interim Palestinian state with temporary borders in the absence of a full peace agreement. He says a full peace deal remains impossible, adding that there is no other way” because the Palestinians have turned down previous Israeli offers. A Zionist government official said the plan would turn over up to 50 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been finalized. Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev said the Israeli leader remains committed to a final accord. In a recent interview, however, Netanyahu also said he might seek a short-term deal if the deadlock in negotiations continues.

Meanwhile, Israeli military continues to harass, rather terrorize Palestinians at checkpoints. A human rights organization said that the Israeli soldiers manning a checkpoint in the Jordan Valley detain Palestinians for hours without reason. Apparently there have been orders from “above” to make the checks more severe, for an unknown reason. At the end of the day the lines here are huge. Not a day passes without someone calling me to say they waited for hours. The Israeli police arrived at the checkpoint and arrested three Machsom Watch activists for questioning. In recent weeks they have closed the checkpoint a number of times when we arrived. Closing it without security reasons is entirely illegal. But Israel itself is an illegal entity imposed by the US-UK in Mideast to trouble the Arabs and kill the Palestinians.

The notorious UNSC, also responsible for modern imperialist and colonialist trends,  is scheduled to vote resolution against Israeli illegal settlement proliferation. Palestinian leaders appeal to President Obama to withhold America’s veto of a pending U.N.S.C. resolution condemning Israel’s policy of building on land it acquired in the 1967 war or lose credibility as primary broker of the peace process. The challenge came is: “If USA use the veto against the resolution, Washington will forever lose what's left of your credibility as a sponsor of the peace process.” But the pro-Israeli terror state the USA has said the resolution is “unhelpful” because only a negotiated settlement alone can bring peace. But according to a tally by the Palestinians, the Security Council’s other 14 votes are already pledged to support the resolution.

The west and Israel have found a convenient arm in Iran’s legitimate efforts for nuclear power. The abject fear the US-Israeli combine is spreading against Iranian Islamic Republic throughout the Middle East has done its ugly job of terrorizing the Arabs for no factual reason. US blatant courting of Zionist regime for decades now does not show it could get an arrogantly fanatic Israel for a peace deal. However, President Obama still has time to make the wonder happen.