Ayoon Wa Azan (Towards a third intifada)

They say in English: If you can’t beat them, join them. The U.S. President, Barack Hussein Obama, who gave a speech in Cairo in June 2009, visited Israel in March 2013, and gave a speech there, this time as Barack (Uncle Sam) Obama. The Palestinians have no other option left except a third intifada. While I do not want one, I find no practical or theoretical alternative to it. All doors have been closed in the face of the Palestinians, and the Obama administration supports the occupation and the killing, and settlement-building on the land that is supposed to be home to the independent state of Palestine – though it is only less than a quarter of historic Palestine! The first result of Obama’s visit to Israel came when extremists there inaugurated “the Temple Institute” opposite the Moroccan district on the western side of Al-Aqsa Mosque. But what temple is that? I am a student of history who studied in U.S. universities, and what I studied was that the entire Jewish religion, and all its prophets, consists of myths of the Torah with no archaeological finds to corroborate them. Two days after the end of the U.S. president’s visit, Israel celebrated the Jewish holiday of Passover, which marks the alleged Exodus of the Jews from Egypt. Once again, I challenge them to show us any archaeology corroborating their presence in Egypt or Sinai. I accept religion as it is, but religions do not make homelands. Instead, homelands are made by people living on their lands, and the Jewish kingdoms in our countries are a matter of religion – not history. Obama overlooked history completely, both ancient and modern. He decided to turn a blind eye to the racist neo-Nazis in the occupation government of Israel, and treated Benjamin Netanyahu, after their five-year feud, as though he were an upstanding, reasonable person. Obama no longer demanded a stop to the settlements either; in short, he could not beat them so he joined them. Lest the Arabs and Muslims forget, I want to note some of what Obama had said in Israel, and some of it was in Hebrew: - The alliance between the U.S and Israel is “eternal” and is “forever.” - You are not alone. - Today, the sons of Abraham and the daughters of Sarah are fulfilling the dream of the ages—to be masters of their own fate in their own sovereign state. - I speak as a friend who is deeply concerned and committed to your future. Yet to be objective, I have to add that he had also said: - Put yourself in their shoes (the Palestinians) – look at the world through their eyes. - Israel could only survive as a Jewish and democratic state by creating an “independent and viable Palestine.” I can refute every single word uttered by Barack Obama, but I shall content myself with the last proclamation he made and is noted above: What it means is that the Palestinian state should be established not because Palestine is for the Palestinians in their own country, but to guarantee the survival of Israel…in Palestine. I found the best comment on Obama’s visit to lie in the shouts of Palestinian student Rabih Eid, who heckled the U.S. president as he addressed Israeli youths, trying to push them to seek peace. Rabih interrupted Obama and asked him: Did you come to make peace or to support Israel and the Israeli occupation? Who killed Rachel Corrie? Did you see the apartheid wall when you came from Ramallah? I hope that the Arab reader will remember when the third Intifada starts that I had predicted it today. To be sure, all paths to peace have been blocked, and the Palestinians have no choice but to rise up against the occupation. Since the second intifada lasted ten years, the third intifada will probably be open-ended, or “eternal,” to use Obama’s own words. The U.S. president did not see the coming intifada, or does not want to. He just said: There is no question that Israel has faced Palestinian factions who turned to terror, and leaders who missed historic opportunities (for the Palestinian people). But the stark and only truth is that Israel is an artificial religious state based on terrorism, inviting terrorism from the other side, which it gave justifications with its terror. But Obama is accusing the victims of terrorism for defending themselves. All that is left for him to do is to allege that the Palestinians, and not Israeli terrorism that the Netanyahu government inherited, had killed Yitzhak Rabin when peace was close at hand. Wait for a third, a fourth and even a fifth intifada. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.