Arabs Compensating Israel for the Golan Heights: That is Going too Far! [Archives:2000/03/Focus]

Common Sense
By: Hassan Al-Haifi
As complex as the Middle East conflict may sometimes seem to be, there are some fairly obvious presuppositions that may be easily assumed: 1) The conflict has its winners and losers, its villains and underdogs and its truths and fallacies; 2) The conflict entails many religious ethnic and nationalistic implications; and 3) the conflict involves many intertwining interests and paradoxes, as well as many unfortunate political realities that prevailed, as far as its victims are concerned.
It would take considerable space to try to recall the background of the Arab Israeli conflict, which evolved over the span of the last century and began late in the 19th Century. Although the events leading to the present situation are misunderstood by many people, especially in the West, one thing that cannot be overlooked is that for the indigenous population of the Levant (Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan) and the neighboring states, the tragic consequences of the conflict are and will continue to be potential breeding grounds for ethnic and religious strife that will continue for generations to come. The important fact to remember is that for the most part, the events in the area have been pretty much engineered outside the region and by players who are not from the area. The forces and strategists who set out the scenes for the area have on the whole taken little consideration of the actual people directly involved Ð the victims of “national aspirations” based upon misrepresentations of the “Old Testament”, the authenticity of which is highly disputed. Whatever the case, the establishment and continued existence of Israel has exacted and continues to exact a heavy price, both for its sponsors and its indigenous victims. In fact, the very existence of Israel is a product of a series of embezzlements contracted by well placed Zionist lobbyists who have studiously reached sensitive positions of influence in the United States, the United Kingdom and other Western countries, notwithstanding their split national loyalties and the conflicts of interests this might give rise to.
For sure, the indigenous people of Palestine (which Zionists are quick to insist as never having been in existence), Lebanon and Syria have suffered and paid the heaviest price, loosing their homes, farms, churches and mosques, and often their dignity as well, just so a mythical “national” dream can be realized, so that the will of God may be executed, as the proponents of Zionism wish people to believe. God forbid that His sense of justice should be corrupted by merciless opportunists and embezzlers, who have given themselves the liberty of “executing God’s will”, when God Al-Mighty has ordained that transgression on His part is prohibited: “…and Allah forbids oppression emanating from Himself”, the Koran, Surah V-Al-Ana’am. But in the world at the climax of the Age of Imperialism, the White Man’s Burden and Might Makes Right, morality and conscientiousness have been given a back seat. Even religious causes have been highly enmeshed with narrow minded interests and selfish motives, with the integration of mundane approaches, where “the ends justify the means” (which even many misguided present day Moslem activists have regrettably found to be appealing), although any truly faithful believer would regard this as an escape from the conscientiousness and extreme care called upon the faithful in the propagation and dissemination of the Message of the Lord, as delivered and practiced by the many prophets and messengers from Adam to Mohammed (Peace of Allah upon them all).
The oft forgotten fact in the Middle East conflict is that the events in the area have often been conceived and executed without any due consideration to the plight and pride of the people most directly involved Ð their rights, feelings and spiritual inclinations, as well as their dignity. The guilt of this neglect is not solely borne by the Zionist schemers and their sponsors at Whitehall, the US Congress and State Department and other Western centers, where a significant share of the events in the region are orchestrated. In fact, a good part of the guilt for this neglect lies also with the rulers of the Arab States directly or indirectly involved, most of who failed to work towards the development of modern democratic regimes for their people Ð if they did not actually counter such development repressively. It would not be an exaggeration to even state that the neglect of the former is a consequence of the failure of the latter to introduce accountability and responsibility into government for their countries. Thus, the continuous failure of these regimes to deal with the Arab Israeli conflict, in keeping with the feelings and sufferings of their people, are not subject to any questioning and the people of the area remain to this day deprived of the least amount of human rights and empowerment, with respect to deciding their fate and destiny. Quite often, these regimes work to placate outside forces and powers at the expense of the welfare and well being of their own people. As such, these regimes willfully or in the belief that their sustainability dictates accordingly, will succumb to the designs of the major powers for the region, the latter of who themselves are guided by Zionist influence peddlers, who have somehow managed to create an illegitimate marriage between Zionist aspirations and Western interests.
In this context, at present, the factors at work in deciding the fate of the region have not changed much, even as the world overcomes the hangover from the celebrations for the entry to the Third Millennium. With the Cold War over, the omnipotence of the United States and the decreased need for Israel to act as the “policeman of the West” in the area, the peace is now being engineered for the area, in as much the same way as the creation and establishment of the State of Israel and all those wars that were fought in the region over the last Century were engineered. Again this peace is being designed without the involvement of the people most directly involved (except the Israelis Ð who enjoy a far greater degree of democratic rule than their unfortunate victims are enjoying). The “peace efforts” have so far produced “de-facto” recognition of Israel (with the states that have given this recognition not subjecting this to any national popular plebiscite) by its once former enemies Ð some of who vowed to “drive the Israelis to the sea”, while in fact they only succeeded in driving their own people to the misery and despair that is found throughout the Arab States! On the other hand, the efforts have achieved some recognition Ð although meaningless on the ground Ð that the indigenous victims of the Zionist scheme are indeed worthy of some form of autonomous existence, in whatever little territory delicately remains in their hands, this of course being without prejudice to the hundreds of Jewish settlements that have been implanted in their midst Ð potential spearheads for further Zionist expansion under the guise of security and other excuses, that the Zionists find give “legitimacy” to their designs for the achievement of an Eretz Israel that extends from the Euphrates to the Nile.
Throughout the “peace process”, Israel has sought and obtained “concessions” and also exacted a high price for any of its “concessions” both from the states of the region and the sponsors of this peace process.
It is quite understandable that the Israelis should squeeze as much as possible out of their sponsors and defenders. But to also ask the Arab States to chip in the compensation for the withdrawal from the Golan Heights of Syria, one would think would really be adding insult to injury. Any objective observer of events in the region is bound to laugh at the recent call for the West and the “Arab oil-rich states” to scrounge up US $ 17 Billion for the compensation of the “loss” of the Golan Heights that would be a part of any Syrian-Israeli Arab peace agreement. It is not enough that the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine, Syria and Southern Lebanon have lost all the territory under Israeli control today, without even being recognized as worthy of getting compensation for the thousands that were massacred by zealous Zionist gangs and for their homes farms and industrial plants, etc. But to ask the Arabs to compensate Israel for land it took by its own acts of aggression, one would think, is just going a little too far!
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