President Obama has reiterated the UN 242 resolution for a 2 state solution to the 63 yr. old problem of the diaspora of the Palestinians from their homeland. To see this problem with some clarity is to go back to the Balfour Declaration to create a homeland for the Jews after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WWI and the re division of the world was accomplished by the European powers for colonial markets and new investments for the financiers of London and Paris and perhaps New York, to mention a few.. The middle east was divided and called mandates, Palestine was a British Mandate.
Without any input from the people who had lived in Palestine for more than 2000 yrs, the British declared that Palestine is the Jewish homeland with " respect to the non-Jewish population" . How was that respect played in real life? Please note that the plight of the Jews from Europe was not instigated by the Palestinians. The pogroms and the injustice and the holocaust were inflected on the Jews by the Europeans, white people like the European Jews themselves. The Jews that grew up in Palestine[Jews that were allowed by the Ottoman Empire to move there after they were kicked out by the Catholic Philip and Isabella of Spain after 1492] lived with the Palestinians and were treated the same way by the Ottoman Empire rulers.
WWI re division of the spoils of war changed all that. The European Jews who were treated unjustly by the Europeans wished to go back to a place they can call their own but without any consideration for the people who had lived there all their lives. It is reminiscent of how the Europeans who came to America and were helped by the natives to survive the harsh climate and when they found how backward the local natives were, they eventually disenfranchised them with their modern arms and methods of government that were blessed by the renaissance and the industrial revolution, ideas that never inter the equation when the Palestinian-Jewish question is discussed.
It is wise to remember that the Palestinians did not inflict the Holocaust on the Jews and if the Europeans wished to salved their conscience at the expense of the Palestinians, what then is the meaning of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the UN? Is this not hypocrisy?There were numerous UN resolutions against the intransigence of the European Jewish settlers in Palestine but the UN had been soundly ignored. Why? The Jews declared their independence in 1948, but from whom? The Palestinians were not dominating them, nor the British who held Palestine as its mandate.
In current terms of military strength, the assault rifles and rockets are no match to modern jets, warning systems, tanks, armoured vehicles, nuclear warheads held by the Jews.against the Palestinians whose lands had been dismembered and walled like concentration camps without the ovens.If this intransigence to UN resolution 242 is based on the design for the greater Israel as some people think, then there will be no peace in the middle east. The dire situation of the Palestinians may not be a Warsaw ghetto, but how far does it have to go to attain comparison?
The Islamic population is an explosive one, eventually it will overtake the Jewish enclave. They proliferate in Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, The Balkans, Central Asia, Indonesia, Middle East as most poor people do. Their unceasing deprivation and frustration and spiritual suffering will eventually explode and the world at large cannot do anything about it. Nuclear weapons might be used by those who have them, so we destroy ourselves because we are vindictive and we pay lip service to Christianity.. Now that popular revolt against dictators are sprouting like mushrooms after the storm, perhaps we can consider to start a peaceful if imperfect resolution to the Palestinian question. When we push desperate people to the edge of the sword, we can never predict their reaction no matter how strong we are. Palestinians have nothing to lose, be aware of that fact. but if we act wisely, there is a chance to keep the peace in the middle east. Only people of genuine courage can make the necessary compromise to strike for peace in good faith no matter how tenuous the possibility. If we venture nothing, we gain nothing and even lose everything.
No comments:
Post a Comment