Who Decides the Way Out?

At the time when concerns about Obama’s future policies in the Middle East and Palestine rise, most Arabs are, as usual, waiting for the repercussions. He is facing dozens of problems and priorities, first among which are the deteriorating economy, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a heavy burden that alone needs more than one time. However, there is not a single sign that Obama’s America will abandon the old policies of Bush. In fact, the appointments of the new administration say something else.

The Israelis, on their part, wasted no time and Tsibi Livni hastened to deliver a clear message to Obama:”There is no worry about the Palestinians. Their weakness and disputes will help us punish their people severely and go on building more settlements and the Separating Wall, conspicuously, to have the upper hand with them.”

And the official Palestinian situation is no less unknown. It calls upon adhering to the present negotiations and futile Annapolis peace process, instead of groping for another opportunity, or putting Israel under pressure to stop the unruly settling and barriers, as well as condemning Israeli apartheid.

A glance at the current happenings in Washington can reveal three tendencies, each of which attempts to influence the new American policies in the Middle East.

The first is purely Zionist and propagates giving Israel a free hand, with the help of experts from Clinton’s administration, to adopt the “Divide and Crush”, “Procrastination” and the “Status Quo” policies by increasing the settling activities and judaizing Jerusalem. Besides, Israel has the chance to make the Palestinian authority a security watchdog on the Palestinians.

The second turns the attentions away from Palestine to Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and the economic impasse, assuming that the new American head of state is too full of his country’s troubles to try the “firebrand that scorched the fingers of more than one president before him”. Needless to sat, the two aforesaid trends please Israel and are backed by the dynamic and still most dangerous organization of the Israeli lobby: AIPAC.

Whereas the third tendency links the “change,” Obama expressed so strongly, to bringing stability in the region by putting an end to an impotent and shameful war in Iraq and solving the Israeli-Palestinian/Arab conflicts, as well as the issues of Afghanistan and Iran. It would rely on the Arab initiative for a comprehensive solution to the complicated Palestinian issue, differentiating American interests and Israeli policies. Certainly recognizing Israel’s interests and security, but deeming that Obama has the opportunity to recognize two states: one is Palestinian and the other is Israeli — or one, and only one, country with two nationals. This camp is joined by Lee Hamilton, the ex-national security advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft, the ex-American president Jimmy Carter, who wrote a controversial book about Israeli apartheid, all agreeing that Israel has gone beyond extreme with its policies.

That is what they see. What shall we say then?

– It is no secret that the Arabs’ passivity and almost absent lobby led no single decision maker in America to support the Palestinian matter, even for the sake of freedom, equality and democracy.

– Rights are easily lost if the concerned parties stood silent. In this way, Obama’s attitudes will be impacted by the strong common pressure the Arabs and the Palestinians exert on him. And the first winning card can be the direct relationship between what takes place in Palestine and the world’s stability.

– Given that politics are the art of making things possible, we should know that the Arabs managed, after the Summit of Beirut, to forward the Arab initiative. However, Ariel Sharon, then Israeli premier, responded by trespassing the Palestinian territories and assassinating the Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, under the auspices of Bush and neo conservatives. And when they gathered back around the initiative, Israel and the “Hawks” administration suggested the Annapolis initiative that is nothing but a cover to the Palestinian, Arab and international languor before Israel.

Now, we are on the threshold of the Israeli elections in which either Benjamin Netanyahu or Tsibi Livni, the two racist Likudians, will win, wile the Israeli continue unceasing attempts to judaize Jerusalem, expand settling activities and ignore the refugees’ rights — now there is another chance on the horizon to keep to the Arab initiative instead of continuing the fruitless Annapolis peace process and carrying on negotiations with the corrupted Olmert. This requires four steps:

1) Bridging the split in the Palestinian ranks with a national leadership that faces the new American administration and the whole world with one aim and one will, adhering to the nation’s rights.

2) Calling all the Palestinians and Arabs to follow the Arab initiative. And here, we have to put in mind that there is a fine line between approving the initiative and the malevolent attempts of Shimon Perez to include it among the other negotiating leads, construe it as normalization, occupation and judaizing Jerusalem and claim that the Palestinian cause is restricted to the bilateral discussions.

3) The Palestinians and the Arabs shall arrange for an international conference, based on UN resolutions to execute the Arab initiative which comprises terminating the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and Jerusalem as well and establishing a comprehensive international mechanism for peace to end the American appropriation of the process and its partiality with Israel.

4) Launching a media campaign all over the four corners of the globe to uncover the Israeli hateful apartheid through the world’s media that are still favoring Israel.

All these factors can be attainable, with a strong will. In truth they do not over burden the Arab regimes. It is humane because they cement the values of right and justice, in addition to their being a true reflection of the Palestinians suffering under the Israeli occupation.

Moreover, an Arab initiative can impel the rational attitudes on the American political scene, strongly and effectively stand in the face of the Israeli lobby, and raise the values of change, freedom, equality and integration — the flags Obama’s campaign raised, without bringing them about yet in the part of the world most suffering from apartheid and deprivation of freedom and equality: Palestine.

The world of today has become known for conflicting interests, where there is no place for those who cannot manage their own business and fail to fight for their rights, those who are just “empty vessels and make the most sound”.