An MOU To Kill More Palestinians
By Dr. Akram Habeeb
20 January,
2009
Countercurrents.org
As an Americanist and a Palestinian
intellectual who is not
affiliated to any political party in Palestine, I feel that I have
to
stand up and speak out. I have to speak about the faulty policy which
feeds the spirit of hatred and resentment. Almost every man, woman
and child in the world knows that the American policy in the Middle
East during the two terms of Bush's Administration is distinguished
by being biased and double standard. Very few, however, are easily
deceived by the glittering rhetoric made by some American politicians,
particularly, the most articulate outgoing Secretary of States Dr.
Condaliza Rice! Dr. Condi was very smart when she declared at the
outset of the most brutal Israeli war on Gaza that it was the Palestinian
side which is held responsible for violating the six -month truce.
She was even smarter when she concluded her career by signing an MOU,
which is completely in favor of the Israelis. It is an MOU which further
tightens the siege on Gaza and allows Israel to posses more American
WMD to kill more Palestinians.
The most disturbing statement about the situation in Gaza was made by Dr. Rice when she declared that it was the Palestinian side who violated the truce and subsequently is responsible for what is happening in Gaza. Such a statement is easy to be made by Ms. Condi whose accomplishments in America's foreign policy were spectacular! She promised that by 2008 the presidents vision of two states would be concretized. It seems though that she succeeded in having two Palestinian cantons, one in Gaza, and the other in the West Bank ! So we can easily say that Ms. Rice succeeded in fulfilling her President's vicious vision of having two viable Palestinian states.
Perhaps Dr. Rice was the most frequent visitor to the Middle East when compared with her predecessors. The normal expectation has been that Ms. Rice would have a deeper understanding of the Middle East crisis in general, and the Palestinian side in particular. As Palestinians living in Gaza, we expected Ms. Rice to have done some research about the demography of Gaza. We also expected here to have done some investigations about the psyche of the true victims living in Gaza. We are not sure if Dr. Rice knows that more than seventy percent of the Palestinians living in Gaza are Palestinian refugees who had been kicked out of their towns and villages in Palestine . We are not certain if Dr. Rice knows that most of the Israelis who replaced the displaced Palestinians had come from far off land, from diverse countries to establish a state on the land of other people. It seems that Ms. Rice is very happy to see the Palestinians suffer under siege ; she wants them to sing for peace in a big cage called Gaza, and if they protest by sending home made or ineffective Chinese rockets, she will hold them responsible for the mess!
The most
recent MOU signed by Dr. Condi and Ms. Livne, one of the most notorious
Israeli war criminals, stipulates that the American government helps
in preventing weapons smuggling into Gaza. According to Ms. Condi,
the signing of this MOU is only a step in the process towards a permanent
cease fire. Of course she speaks about a process which gives the Israeli
more time for human cleansing in Gaza; she wants to give the Israeli
army more time to kill more Palestinian children and women. However,
unfortunately this MOU does not stipulate that the American government
stops sending weapons of mass destruction to Israel. The MOU does
not speak about the most
sophisticated weapons, the American government is giving for free
to Israel to kill Palestinian children and women in Gaza. The MOU
does not talk about any practical procedure to ban Israel from using
DIM and White Phosphorus bombs that kill Palestinian children by burning
their little and tender bodies.
The MOU
has ignored the fact that the Palestinian living in Gaza are occupied
; they are not terrorist as promulgated by the colonial rhetoric;
they are freedom fighters who want their legitimate rights, they are
people who want to live in dignity like all the peoples of the world.
The MOU has never included anything related to lifting the siege imposed
in Gaza by opening crossings for humanitarian purposes.
The Palestinians in Gaza do not bank much on the American government but rather on the good American people, the good people who do not want to see the tax they pay used in building the Israeli arsenal of mass destruction which is used to threaten the Arab people, in general, and the Palestinian people in particular.
Indeed
Bush's administration has left the soon coming Obama's
administration with a heavy legacy; a legacy of anger and resentment
against the biased American government which does not represent the
American voice which calls for freedom, independence and dignity.
It is a heavy burden Obama's administration should waive. We hope,
though that Obama's administration follows a different policy , a
policy which is based on objectivity and transparency . We hope that
Ms. Clinton, Condi's successor would be the one who would improve
the image of America in the Middle East and the Islamic world. We
are sure that Ms. Clinton would be more objective and realistic when
she deals with the Palestinian Issue. We hope that the Administration
would follow policy which balances between the nationalistic aspirations
of the Palestinians and the divine dream of the Jews, those who totally
disagree with the massacres committed by the Israeli army against
the innocent Palestinian in Gaza.
Dr. Akram Habeeb is Assistant Professor in American
Lit based in Gaza