The recent American election brought hope to many Americans who suffered and endured years of bad politics, neglect and reckless investment banking decisions. With the election over there is now some hopefulness among the various US constituencies.
Meanwhile fear, chaos and blood-letting are spreading wings on a massive area almost one third the size of the US in the Middle East: in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. With American M16's, phosphorous bombs , Bradley Tanks, F16 fighter Jets , Apache choppers , and the wall Israel has built in the middle of the West Bank which is ruining people lives. Perhaps people of the middle east are considered weak or "third world" by Western and American standards. And yet they are very well aware, had it not been for the Arab oil , this massive destruction to their lives via the business of war would not have sprouted to begin with.
I remember my father's generation. My father was educated at an American boarding school in Ramallah Palestine during the 1930's, a school which was and still operated by the American Quakers. My father all his life cherished ideals which really portrayed the US and the American culture of the 1930's: spreading peace and love through education amongst the people of the world. Now people in the Middle East know very well where the Bradley Tanks and the F16 fighter jets and M16 machine guns are made. They also know very well how oil revenue is spent on the business of the war rather on the development of this region or other regions where people are suffering from disease and famine, moving from one human apocalypse to another.
Perhaps the American Empire is lucky to exist at the time when knowledge has become a powerful tool to make change not only in America but also elsewhere around the world. Other empires, not only from the distant past but as recent as the British empire, never enjoyed the vast wealth of knowledge that America enjoys today. Yet we see America, rather than using knowledge to make a positive change around the world, choosing instead to use the same blue-prints the British Empire abandoned years ago due to lack of resources combined with the political epiphanies else-where in the world at the time.
In the Middle East however, the stakes here are too high, the oil wealth is too corrupting, and so America keeps turning its back on the real issues and pretends instead to be the "good magicians" of all times. Yet there is very little a good magician can do when the material in his or her hand is bad . How do we expect bad policies over the past 65 years to produce anything other than making good magicians look bad?
The spectators will only laugh at the political circus not because of the impressive abilities of the magician to perform a splendid show, but rather due to the audience's ability to guess what political move the clown will perform next. It's the same boring show that people have been silently watching over the past almost three quarters of a century.
America does not deserve to belittle itself in the eyes of the people of the world , The American people do not deserve that either. Americans have struggled and worked so hard to protect and preserve their democracy and its ideals. Therefore, it's time for America to stop acting like a magician of Middle East politics, and instead act like a real "maestro" who will conduct a real symphony of peace. However, a real maestro needs real players and for real players to perform their best, they need not only training. They need a real hearts as well. This requires America's ideals of freedom, liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness to become the corner stone of the Middle East ideals.
Just like the people of America deserve hope and rightly so, perhaps finding some hope in this recent election, so too do the people of the Middle East deserve hope, and they are tired of having their blood equated with the price of the oil.
For America to lead anywhere in the world, the interest of its own people as well as of the people of the world should be at stake so that the ideals that my father grew up with at the missionary Quakers boys School in Ramallah, a place where hope is now scarce, will endure and sustain it self amongst future generations of Palestine . My father, who passed away January of this year, was lucky enough to live a good and long life. Yet never only once in his lifetime was he able to enjoy the liberty of casting his vote at the ballot box . Having been forced out of Jerusalem in 1948 where he studied and practiced law at Jewish law firm then called Solomon Horvitz and company, my father decided that Gaza was the last Place on earth where he would choose to spend the rest of his life. Even so, he practiced law in Gaza from 1948 until the middle 90's and his law firm still carries on his legacy. I feel sorry for my father's generation. They had witnessed the transforming of Palestine that is inherently theirs into a place which was suddenly not theirs any more. At the same time they refused to budge or leave and instead endured many years of political uncertainty, injustice, and military rule, because they understood the meaning of home. My father was a very well educated man. He read American Magazines almost all his life. Even the most conservative, Reader's Digest, was among the Many magazines to which he subscribed. My father understood very well that, had it not been for the Arab oil , this whole scenario of endless wars and conflict would not have sustained so long. With the Balfour declaration commemoration recently on November 2nd comes the reminder of just how long it has been going on . My father's generation understood that, had it not been for the Arab oil and the Suez canal the British empire would not have been so generous as to give away what was never theirs . In case anyone doubts British generosity, just ask any Palestinian and you will hear about what it means and how it feels.
The Balfour Declaration was named After the British secretary of State Arthur Balfour. In letter form addressed to The Lord Rothschild in 1917, it gave Palestine as a national home for the Jewish people while respecting the rights of non-Jews already living in Palestine. So did the text of the letter read . But today Israel is advocating a pure Jewish state while denying a million and half Palestinian Arabs living within its borders any rights of their own unless they submit to the new definition of the Jewish state which basically further denies their Palestinian Heritage and rights as if they are living on a land that is not really theirs. This while at the same time Israel is still blockading a million and half Gazans from their basic rights to move in and out of Gaza freely as well as their rights to move products and services in and out of Gaza. And while still keeping another larger Palestinian community in the West Bank under occupation with diminishing services as Israeli settlements projects keep encroaching on Palestinian land and resources .All of this is happening , financed with Arab oil money and US Tax dollars while Americans are free in exercising their democracy, and while Palestinians in their own paternal land are still years away from any prospects of real and lasting peace.
So it is relevant to ask, if my father and his generation, despite everything they went through, were still able to associate America with its ideals of peace and love resulting from, in my father's case, the American Quaker education and experience He received,what will the generation of Palestinians today associate America with, since they only know the M16's, F16 fighter jets, the Apache choppers, the tanks and many other war products? The list just keeps growing, and leaves us to think about our responsibilities. The stakes are high for Americans to take a stand for peace while rejecting the political equation that equates oil revenue with Arab blood. How are we as Americans to feel about the US orchestrating peace while one country occupies another people's land and denies them freedom, liberty, and Justice, confiscates their land, destroys their property, burns their olive orchards while keeping an ally like Saudi Arabia, whcih violates every creed of human rights and still rules utilizing medieval doctrine and tribal law? For freedom, justice, and liberty to prevail and for the US to orchestrate the real symphony of peace, a new Middle East needed to emerge out of the chaos and the dust of the old.
Yusef Daher
Executive Secretary
Jerusalem Inter-Church Centre - JIC
P.O.Box 741, Jerusalem 91000
Tel :+972 (0)2 627 4534, 628 9858 ( Ext. 105)
Fax:+972(0)2 627 4499
Mobile 050 5545 179
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