Agony of the two occupations [Archives:2004/750/Opinion]
By Abdul Karim Al-Hubaishi
For the Yemen Times
The Arab world will always remains the Arab world, and make no illusion that the 22 Arab states with their ineffective Arab League that represents them will maintain this name, regardless of the fervent attempts to rename it as the bigger or smaller Middle East.
In the past decades, since the forceful occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights, this divided nation has worked hard to end the Israeli occupation and genocide against the defenseless Palestinians, by resorting to the authority of the UN and the multilateral consent of the international community, who gave its verdict in the famous resolution 242, ordering Israel to end its occupation. Unfortunately, resolution 242 constituted for Israel and America nothing more than a joke. In the following decades the Arabs were drawn to prolonged deceptive negotiations sponsored by the US known as the Mid-East peace process, the aim of which was to gain time to change the facts on the ground by pushing out more Palestinians from their homes and farms and replacing them with imported settlers who now occupy the thousands of settlements which cover all of the part of Palestine occupied in1967. All built simultaneously with ongoing deceptive US-sponsored mid-east peace process. After changing the facts on the ground, changing Palestinians homes and farmlands into alien settlements, President Bush's ugly statement came up in the face of the anguished Palestinians “Palestinians have to accept the reality on the ground''.
The most appalling and outrageously heart-sickening issue in the Arab world, irrespective of their national affiliations and border divisions from the Atlantic coast to the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is the striking symmetry of the two occupations and effect of mixed sadness and anger that overcomes them when they watch the gruesome atrocities on the TV happening in both occupied Palestine and Iraq. The intimidated Arab regimes watch these abuses of power and war crimes are ruthlessly committed against their brethren without daring to say a word. On the other hand, the astounded international community who expected an Arab reaction also opted to watch quietly. Some European politicians openly stated that they cannot be expected to be more Arab than the Arabs who are silent.
This political vacuum of the Arabs further encouraged what is now the merged administration of Bush and Sharon to escalate their human rights abuses and genocide beyond imagined limits, which in turn has driven a deep wedge of hatred between the Arabs and the American people.
I was appalled and greaty shocked when I heard the news of the brutal execution of the American hostage in Riyadh, having in mind the shock of his family and friends when they received the news, which has also shocked the Arab world who are not used to see such savage acts. However, I was even more shocked when I watched on the evening news of that same day an American F-16 missile strike on residential housing in Falluja, in which more than 22 Iraqi civilians were killed. Their bodies were being dragged out from the rubble and among them women and children. One should ponder, whether an American or Arab, which of the incidents has a greater magnitude of savagery.
America has been a friend to the Arab region and the Arabs were proud of that positive peaceful relationship. The fact is that the good America we have known is hijacked. Many prominent American figures have spelled out this before me. It is hijacked by an invincible virus called the Zionist lobby, which holds a tight grip on the giant's economic, media, and decision-making arteries. The lobby is always working in the dark shadows with no known leadership. Nowadays it is manifest when we see President Bush, Colin Powell and Dick Cheney giving their allegiances to Israel in front of crowds of Aipac members. The rank and file of the Zionist lobby who are the key players in the Bush administriation are mainly Jews who have shed their Jewish names to adopt new Christian names like George and Johnson. Their goal is to direct the superpower's global military reach to the Arab world to which they have an historical hatred. May God bless America and may God save America from the evil of the Zionist lobby.
——
[archive-e:750-v:13-y:2004-d:2004-06-28-p:opinion]
