January 2009

Here’s Amru’s comment about the current unfortunate “fireworks display” in Gaza, and here’s my reply.

Enjoy!

An interesting video (to say the least) that I found spreading on Facebook. Whether you agree with the people in it or not, I was glad I found it. It’s the type of stuff that makes it much easier for me to convince my vehemently anti-Israeli (and in some cases outright anti-Semitic) friends that they’re wrong to assume “all Jews are blood-sucking demons.”

The work of organizations like B’Tselem has helped me dispel that ugly myth from the minds of some so far. This video will now come in handy too for a good start.

Watch it.

My previous post, (which was meant to be taken with a grain of salt, if I may add) got some nice attention that gave me chuckles. So, here I am hammering out this one quickly as a serious humble alternative.

Instead of tearing it, I challenge you all either to build upon it or provide a workable alternative. Otherwise, the discussions won’t serve a “progressive” purpose that moves us forward.

And if you’re still not done venting, do so on the previous post, not this one.

Now, let me make this as straight forward as possible. I’m not interested in the “you started it, no you started it” conversations. Moreover, this shouldn’t be taken as a comprehensive solution. I can’t do that in a single short blog post.

What I would like to see is an end to the killing as soon as possible, and something constructive.

Israel can invade Gaza all it wants but it’s not going to destroy Hamas, not without incurring a significant death toll on its own army and on many innocent Palestinians. It’s going to fail just like it did in the recent war with Lebanon when it stated the destruction of Hezbollah as it’s goal.

Never happened then, and ain’t gonna happen now with Hamas. Another failure is inevitable. But I’ll tell you what succeeded in the last Israel-Lebanon war…

… the buffer zone. It worked rather nicely.

Old time readers of this blog know I don’t look up to the UN as the big benevolent daddy capable of solving all the world’s problems, the least of them being ones involving lots of bombs and blood. It’s broken, nearly outmoded and at times outright terrible.

For example, in Congo UN peacekeepers did nothing as the genocide unfolded. They did a pretty shitty job and had an even shittier mandate. Need I also mention Darfur?

Here’s the deal. Just because airplanes crash once in a while doesn’t mean we should stop using them for air travel. The buffer zone is so far working well in preventing another outbreak of violence between Israel and Lebanon.

Furthermore, you also have the DMZ in the Korean peninsula. It’s done miracles especially for South Korea and its economy.

What I’d like to see is those loud, bitchy, whinny nations complaining about the current violence, contributing their troops to an international peacekeeping force to be deployed to the Israel-Gaza border. Create a buffer zone there. Hamas will think twice about committing violence against international peacekeepers because it will risk invoking significant wrath if some peacekeepers die. It will face big difficulty firing its pathetic rockets into Israel too. On the other hand, Israel will stop raining big fat bombs and killing many innocent souls (aka “collateral damage”) in the process.

Next, once there is peace on the ground, formulate a plan involving certain countries with influence over Israel and Hamas (possibly oil-rich Arab countries and Western ones) to invest serious money into Gaza, while still making sure international peacekeepers are there to maintain stability for years to come.

The investors stand to reap a handsome ROI, while the Palestinians can begin to have more economic prosperity, hope and stability, three things which will make it hard for Hamas to flourish and recruit. Radical theology alone will become increasingly inadequate with more and more young Palestinians who’d rather live life, contribute to society and enjoy economic well-being.

As all the aforementioned happens, so can discussions between both sides over the big matters like Jerusalem. But at least with this kind of approach, the killing can be contained, and the perpetuation of violence can nosedive.

That’s pretty much the gist of my proposal in a nutshell.

1. Buffer zone.
2. Minimize violence.
3. Economic prosperity.

Remember, if you’re going to tear it, I challenge you to provide your workable alternative. If you see holes, patch them. That way, we can have a progressive, constructive, solution-based conversation. And sorry there’s no “Michael Jackson, Heal the World” video this time.

Discuss.

Okay, I don’t know about you, but first of all… happy new year and Sudanese independence day, regardless of the typical expected craziness raging in the Middle East.

I haven’t blogged anything about the unfortunate fighting, because well… many have already said what needs to be said. If anything, I’m simply going to recycle this old relevant post and link to Mona Eltahawy’s article.

Plus, quite frankly I’m getting tired of the same repetitive statements from both sides.

Here’s a radical idea that hasn’t been discussed on this blog before. Yeah, it’s the one in the title. Come on guys, if we’re going to talk, we might as well try a new proposition right?

Oslo? Two states solution? Let’s pretend it doesn’t exist for a while.

West Bank for Jordan doesn’t seem like a bad idea. Naseem, what do you think man? But, Gaza for Egypt? Now that would be, ehm, complicated. At the very least, it’s going to be a burden for Egypt. I’m also sure it’s going to make our Monkey friend very happy. But hey, maybe, just maybe, it could be manageable.

Those Palestinian figures who are neither members of Fatah nor Hamas tend to see the challenge most clearly. Qais Abdul Karim, a long-standing leftist MP, said he believed Israel’s bombing was intended to force on the Palestinians a provisional state, rather than true independence and sovereignty. “The idea is to isolate Gaza from the West Bank completely and to throw Gaza into the arms of Egypt and to subject the West Bank to perpetual domination by Israel,” he said. “Our priority must be to find a way to end our division.”

Yes Qais, believe me ya habibi, I’d love to see an end to those divisions too, but how? By blaming others?

His concerns are not without foundation. Israelis speak openly of alternatives to a viable, independent, contiguous Palestinian state. In recent weeks Giora Eiland, a former head of Israel’s national security council, proposed Jordanian control over the West Bank or a multilateral land swap between Israel, the Palestinians and Egypt which would let Israel keep a large slice of the West Bank for itself and see Gaza slide closer to the reluctant embrace of the Egyptians.

Hmmm…

Mustafa Barghouti, an independent MP who ran for the presidency at the last election, said Hamas and Fatah had been seduced into fighting over leadership of a largely powerless institution, the Palestinian National Authority - created under the Oslo accords a decade and a half ago and which gave the Palestinians the trappings of power without a state itself.

True Barghouti, but hey boys and girls, let’s get real. Forget Oslo, the two states solutions, and the quoted text. Let’s go into the heart of the inevitable issue nobody wants to discuss greatly when violence like this erupts and even if the proposition of Oslo more or less gets worked out - Jerusalem.

Which of course brings me, to the religious dogmatic dimension of this conflict.

For the secular types on both sides, it’s not a major issue. Jerusalem can just get split two ways. Simple. But the religious folks, especially our crazy Zionist settler friends and Hamas loonies will never accept that. Heck, even many religious moderates won’t accept that. Instead of becoming more humanist and compromising, separation theology reigns supreme. Faith is no longer personal and spiritual but instead thrusts itself mightily into the public sphere.

Sigh.

Apparently, God is a real-estate broker who does not compromise - ever. And it gets better when you throw in all the prophecies and beliefs about the Messiah sort of flying out of the sky in a super hero costume to bring an end to this bloody, never-ending conflict… and then of course, the world. Seriously, what’s going to convince people like this to change their minds?

WAIT, I know EXACTLY what will work. This:

Phew, okay, I feel better already. Come on guys, it’s the least I could do to try and spread some love.

Bleh. Thoughts?