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FinalCall.com News
Perspectives
Annapolis: Attempt to revive failing system of oppression
By Mazin Qumsiyeh, Ph.D.
-Guest Columnist-
Updated Dec 16, 2007 - 11:45:00 AM
It is not clear what name will be given to the document emanating from Annapolis. It is becoming harder and harder to get innovative names so as not to be associated with previous failed documents. Names already taken include: “Plans” (Baker, Zinni, Tenet), “Declaration of Principles” (Madrid), Accords (Oslo, Hebron, Geneva), “Road map” (the U.S. initiated then called Quartet), “Parameters” (Clinton), “Vision” (Bush). Amnesty International simply stated that these things (whatever they are called) could not succeed because they ignore human rights. I would add they also ignored International law. For example, the “Road Map” does not mention either in its 2218 words.
Palestinians are asked to recognize Israel, not as a state of its citizens, but as a “Jewish state” and thus to abrogate the basic human right to return to their homes and lands from which they were driven out (see palestineremembered.com). The Palestinians must recognize that Israel can remain the only country in the world that gives members of a particular religion—including converts—automatic rights (citizenship, land, homes, subsidies), while denying citizenship to native Christians and Muslims who were ethnically cleansed simply for being of the wrong religion. World leaders who are freed from the pressures of the Israel lobby have recognized this system for what it is: Apartheid (Israelis actually use this word to describe their program: Hafrada in Hebrew, which like Apartheid means segregation). President Carter wrote a book titled “Palestine: Peace not apartheid.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote: “In our struggle for justice and peace in South Africa we had to learn to speak and listen to hard truths. Our experience should encourage all who strive for justice and peace in the Holy Land. My visits to the Holy Land remind me so much of South Africa: apartheid is back, complete with the “Separation Wall” and Bantustans. History, it seems, repeats itself.”
Republican and Democratic leaders chatter about a fictional “two-state solution,” while pledging more money and support for Israel and discarding International law and human rights. On the positive side, the world is simply not buying it. People can get news even from Israeli papers like Haaretz, which reported that: “according to the Israeli government sources, the Americans asked Israel whether it preferred to announce a settlement freeze or outpost evacuations. ‘Of the two, a settlement freeze is easier than evacuating the outposts, because this only involves a declaration, not a confrontation with settlers in the field,’ explained one government official.” Thus, while Olmert, like Sharon, will be labeled by the pandering U.S. politicians “a man of peace,” he is discredited even by his own public. While invited “moderate leaders” (read those puppets of U.S./Israel) will be expected to tow the party line, revolution is brewing in their own countries (e.g. Pakistan and Egypt). While Israeli Foreign Minister Livni, daughter of the terrorist who oversaw the bombing of the King David hotel, speaks of combating “Arab” and “Muslim” terrorism, human rights organizations issue more reports about war crimes and crimes against humanity carried on by the two “ethical armies.” While a great photo opportunity for all attending, the images of starving Gazans and the knowledge of four million Iraqis and seven million Palestinian refugees and displaced people will not go away.
What are the parallels with Camp David of 2000? Both had a pandering U.S. president whose key officials were hand-picked from lobbyists and pundits who support Israel (e.g. Ross for Clinton and Welch for Bush). Both were trying to leave a legacy of peace without paying any price by pressuring our client apartheid state. Will there be, like in 2000, a few months between this new failed initiative for pacification and a new Palestinian uprising? Will two years pass before major new wars? When will the new “new Pearl Harbor” (1997 Neocon Zionists projection of what is needed to rally U.S. public support for preemptive wars) happen to help shape the U.S. public opinion?
The world and the U.S. public is thus, not buying the fake words of Annapolis. Evidence of this is everywhere: from the decline in U.S. ability to influence events around the world, to the decline in the U.S. dollar, to the popularity of Mearsheimer and Walt’s book on the damaging influence of the Israeli lobby, and to the incredible support for Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich and the Green Party despite being censored in elitist and Zionist dominated media outlets. There is an obvious and more honest route to peace, security, and economic prosperity for all (Palestinians, Israelis, Americans, Iraqis etc). It involves rejecting the corroding and self-defeating effect of the Israel-first lobby and this will cause the U.S. government to cut off U.S. massive taxpayer military aid to Israeli apartheid and not engage in future wars on behalf of Israel.
A growing International movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions, (BDS) coupled with truth telling is building, that will succeed like we did with cutting U.S. support for Apartheid South Africa. Israel will then evolve into a democracy with equality for all (Jews, Christians, Muslims etc.) and implement international law including, allowing the refugees to return to their homes and lands. This is the only way to allow a functioning Hebrew and Israeli culture to remain while remedying the injustice committed against the native people. The alternative to this basic justice based on human rights and International law is not the fictional “two-state solution” (i.e. apartheid), but is too horrible to contemplate (a disaster for both Israelis and Palestinians). Would we want the outcome of Algerian French settlers (one million who had to pack up and leave after native Algerians lost one million people in the struggle) or would we want the more hopeful (though not by all means perfect) South African model? I think the choice is clear.
Annapolis comes seven years after the failed Camp David Middle East Summit, 16 years after Oslo, 40 years after the occupation of 1967, 60 years after the ethnic cleansing of 1947-1949. Rescuing U.S. foreign policy from the Zionist straightjacket of the past 60 years is difficult, but it is doable and urgent. After spending over $1 trillion on the occupations of Palestine and Iraq and losing all credibility around the world (see latest votes at the UN general assembly where the U.S. and Israel are isolated), the U.S. economy is heading for disaster: see the decline in housing prices, the financial meltdown, the precipitous decline in the value of the U.S. currency, and the abandonment of the U.S. dollar in international trade and reserve.
Political Zionism is failing like many other ideologies based on injustice. The question is will we let it drag more humans into more wars before the inevitable happens?
(Mazin Qumsiyeh, Ph.D. has served on the faculty of both Duke and Yale Universities. His third and latest book is titled “Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle.”His web site is located at http://qumsiyeh.org.)
