Wednesday, February 5, 2020

The Announcement of the Deal of the Century


I hesitated a lot  before even attempting to reflect on the latest deal of the century, especially that renowned journalists, Israelis  like Gideon Levy and foreigners like Robert Fisk as well as Palestinians,  had written excellent articles on the issue.  I had also written something on the subject in May but it was before the plan along with  those distorted maps were  officially announced.  Yet it was clear what kind of a deal it was going to be due to the actions that were already taking place on the ground with the full support and blessing of the President of the USA.  But honestly I did not envisage that it could be that bad and that demonic, especially when Mr. Trump was promoting it as a “win win deal,” and good for the Palestinians as well.  If that is good for us, I dread to think how would a bad deal look like? 

That is why  I could not resist making the following analogy  since it was no deal at all.  It was simply an Israeli plan for further dispossession of the Palestinians and endorsed by the USA president.  I thought of it as a still birth to a love affair between Trump and Netanyahu with a novice of a midwife called Jared Kushner.  The way Trump was gloating over his presentation while admiring his partner in this affair clapping at every other sentence was disgusting.   

If by now the United Nations has not been able to set the records straight, and implement its own resolutions on the Palestinian issue, then I am afraid the law of the jungle will continue to  prevail.  The way Israel has been acting during those long years of its control of all the Palestinian land is but an example of such a law.  Over and above,  the US has been  shielding Israel as well as sanctioning anybody who dares challenge or criticize Israel.  The Palestinians have moved from armed struggle to civil disobedience to peaceful resistance , as well as to peaceful negotiations, but to no avail.  So nobody  should be surprised or dare  criticize them if  after 72 years should they resort to a new and innovative way of resistance.  Without Justice there can never be any peace in the whole region, neither for the Israelis nor for the Palestinians.