“On the morrow of a persecution in Europe in which they had been the
victims of the worst atrocities ever known… the Jews’ immediate
reaction to their own experience was to become persecutors in their
turn… In 1948, the Jews knew, from personal experience, what they were
doing; and it was their supreme tragedy that the lessons learnt by them
from their encounter with the Nazi German Gentiles should have been not
to eschew but to initiate some of the evil deeds that the Nazis had
committed against the Jews”
— Famed British Historian Professor Arnold Toynbee
*~*~*~*~*
I wholeheartedly agree with Professor Vasillopulos’s
assessment
[1] on the hypocrisy, double standard, and marked subjugation of U.S.
foreign policy vis a vis Palestine to Israel’s interests and its
powerful American lobbies who have unprecedented influence on Congress.
Israel’s very creation arose out of western colonialism, first the
British who had the audacity to gift a land they did not own, a land
under Ottoman rule, to European Jews out of domestic political
expediency, followed by America, a government ruled by corporations and
special interests, in this case the powerful Jewish lobby. Israel’s
ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians from their land in 1948 –
1949, its total destruction of 450 Palestinian villages, including
mosques and churches, was simply accepted by western colonial powers as
a necessary consequence of an Arab military onslaught on the small
Jewish state, a blatant proven lie as documented by Israel’s own
documents. Tragically Israel’s brilliant propaganda, media campaigns
and effective political public relations to indoctrinate western
population were successful. The Arabs were too incompetent to even
understand the use and power of such instruments. Israel’s prowess to
influence and determine western public opinion has allowed it to defy
all international agreements, laws, U.N. Resolutions, world opinion,
even U.S. policy as evidenced by Obama’s forced backtracking on his
initial call for Israel’s freezing illegal settlements. Obama’s silence
on the Goldstone Report once again shows who runs U.S. foreign policy
in the Middle East.
While Israel can tell the world “No”, the Arabs sadly don’t even know the word exists.
In 1949, President Truman was so outraged (the man responsible for
Israel’s creation) by the mass expulsion of Palestinian refugees he
convened the Lausanne Conference in Switzerland to pressure Israel to
stop its ethnic cleansing and accept UN Resolutions 181 (Partition of
Palestine) and 194 (right of return of Palestinian refugees).
Israel rejected Truman’s proposal while the Arabs accepted it prompting
his envoy Ambassador Mark Etheridge to write Truman: ” Since we gave
Israel birth we are blamed for her belligerence and her arrogance and
for the cold-bloodedness of her attitude toward refugees…Israel must
accept responsibility….her attitude toward refugees is morally
reprehensible….Her position as conqueror demanding more does not make
for peace.”
Since then many U.S. politicians have quietly expressed their anger and
frustration at Israel’s continued Zionist expansionism in the Holy
Land, but none have ever had the courage to stand up to this little
nation while in office that manipulates the most powerful nation on
earth to pay and die for Israel’s wars from Lebanon, to Iraq, Saudi
Arabia, Yemen, the Gulf, Afghanistan, and now the deja vu campaign to
“bomb, bomb, bomb” Iran.
Yet, while we as Arabs and Muslims can reiterate the historical
facts regarding the rogue nation of Israel and its chosen method of
existence that wholly depends on wars, assassinations, terrorism, mass
imprisonment and the wholesale starving siege of Gaza, we should be
honest with ourselves and proclaim that Arab political and economic
incompetence, paralysis, hypocrisy, backbiting, and self sabotage
regarding Palestine is the other side of the coin to decades of
Palestinian suffering. Fifty seven Muslim nations, 1.6 Billion Muslims,
50% of the world’s oil wealth, 60% of its gas wealth, trillions of
dollars of investment in western governments and institutions, are
shamefully paralyzed to face one small nation of 6 million Jews.
Western politics revolves around money, media manipulation, myths,
lies, and propaganda, something Arabs are well accustomed to in their
own nations.
There is no true political, economic, social or media presence for
Arabs and Muslims in America. They are silent, fearful, uneducated and
inexperienced in living and dealing with America’s culture, tend to
herd themselves by ethnic group and fight whether there should be a
barrier between men and women in the mosques, or whether Muslim men and
women can gather for a lecture, yet allow such women to mingle, work,
and go to school with Non-Muslims.
I, strongly, believe that we as Muslims must blame ourselves for our
state of affairs and avoid the usual scapegoating that “powerful
forces” such as Israel, the E.U., and America hinder our progress or
our justified right to reclaim our lands and resources. Our
“intellectuals” have adopted and imitated the Western mantra that
progress can only come if one abandons religion. Rather than Islam
being the problem, Muslims are the problem and Islam is the solution.
That is why as a Muslim I am deeply proud of the Turkish government
and the Turkish people for being the sole Muslim nation to publicly
repudiate Israel on its slaughter in Gaza. While Arab leaders convene
“summits” on Palestine their private agenda is to attack Hamas and
Hezbollah, the only two resistance parties in the entire MidEast
against Israel. The shame and betrayal of Mahmoud Abbas to withdraw
consideration of the Goldstone Report is another hallmark that even
Arabs don’t value Arab blood as long as their chairs are protected.
Muslim wealth is bailing out western economies and not benefiting the
current confused Muslim generation lost between little faith and
overwhelming American cultural influence. Why is our wealth not
building schools, hospitals, roads, better roads, working on finding
precious water, creating manufacturing jobs, building sewage plants,
collecting garbage and using the media to improve our knowledge of
Islam, its morals, and goodly behavior. We build towers, buy luxurious
toys such as planes, cars, and camels, while neglecting the betterment
of human lives. Arab Satellite channels open their programs with
readings from the Quran only to follow up with a music video of barely
dressed women gyrating their bodies to the most obnoxious simplistic
drum beat.
Each of us as Muslims is responsible for learning, implementing, and
protecting our faith. Each of us is responsible for ourselves, our
families, our neighbors, community, nation, and Ummah. Our silent
acceptance of our corrupt till death do we part rulers has led to our
failed societies.
We need a renaissance of intellect, of education, scientific and
analytical and skills, in fact, a rebirth of a highly motivated Ummah
that rejects the status quo and begins the journey to a faith based
enlightenment that can only result in our victory against our own
demoralizing failures and the ultimate victory of salvation in the
hereafter.
I share the pessimism of Muslims around the world that we’re not ripe
for a personal and nationalistic revolution, but what’s the
alternative? Should Muslim blood saturate the earth to replace our
stolen oil before we awaken to our demise?
Either we change, die, or die trying.
Note:
[1]. Obama and Palestine: Predictable disappointment
by Christopher Vasillopulos, October 12, 2009, Today’s Zaman
http://tinyurl.com/ygy8zvt
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