Peace after Arafat is just a pipedream
BY the time you read this, it may have been decided by those closest (political and family) that the suffering of President Yasser Arafat of Palestine be shortened .
BY the time you read this, it may have been decided by those closest (political and family) that the suffering of President Yasser Arafat of Palestine be shortened .That the machines letting him breath be switched off and his death confirmed.
Arafat has been clinically dead for a few days while all efforts, medically possible, were being made to revive him from the coma he has slipped into.
This time, the man, who is certainly one of the most recognisable faces of our times, a man who has dodged death, close shaves, assassination attempts and survived more than the proverbial nine lives of a cat, may not survive.
Death is a winner in the end. It will take the patient and overwhelm even the doctors.
Of course, the usual suspects in Israel and US could not wait for the final hour before dancing on his grave.
Israeli media has been announcing his death since the man arrived in Paris after ‘allowing him’ to leave his beleaguered ramshackled office, in which he had been held illegally under house arrest in full glare of global media by the mass killer Ariel Sharon.
When newly triumphant George Bush was ambushed by reporters last week asking for his reaction to Arafat’s death, you could see the uncomfortable surprise on his face. Like he had just been told that his worst enemy had given up the ghost.
If it had been in private he would probably have rejoiced since he had deliberately created road blocks to peace that excluded Arafat in his so called Road map for peace in the Middle East.
But the televisions were there so Dubya could only, after prolonged seconds say: MAY GOD BLESS HIS SOUL!
We must not forget that this is a very Christian president. Therefore he was only extending Christian charity for the repose of Arafat’s soul. If he had his way with God he would be wishing for something else.
Sharon and his goons do not even have to go through the kind of public hypocrisy that Bush will go through when Arafat’s death is confirmed. The humiliation they made him suffer throughout his life and more directly in the last two years of besieging his office did not stop with his failing health. And it will not stop even with his death. They have already made it known that his wish to be buried in Jerusalem will not be ‘allowed’. Trust these usurpers for originality. They are claiming that the city is a holy sight to bury worthy Kings of Jews.
A letter in the London Guardian pointed out yesterday that those privileged kings include the conman, disgraced former British Newspaper baron, Robert Maxwell, who died a few years ago in suspicious circumstances.
He is buried among the worthy Kings for his services to Zionism. Maxwell was a Jew of East European origin yet Arafat, a Palestinian cannot decide where he should be buried in the land of his birth inhabited by his people from time immemorial.
Washington, the Tel Aviv hawks and their fellow travellers, apologists and the many people they confuse, are again suggesting that the death of Arafat will see a renewal of efforts at resolving the Israeli-conflict, settle for a permanent peace in a two state solution. Why the death of Arafat should bring peace when Sharon and his likes are still very much alive, I do not know.
In their thinking, the conflict is down to one man and once he is out of the way everything should be looking good. One does not need rocket science to see the ruse in this type of argument.
Arafat (with all his foibles and human contradictions) among Palestinians and all lovers of human freedom is more than just a man. He is the symbol of a struggle and the idea that human beings will always resist oppression no matter how difficult the situation is. His physical demise will not mean the end of the dream and hope for freedom that he devoted all his life to.
In the pantheons of revolutionary icons, Arafat is in the same class as Nelson Mandela, although with different methods and outcome. They, however, have one abiding connection: triumph of hope over despair in search of human liberation.
The Palestinian struggle became twinned to the African struggle against apartheid and colonialism in South Africa and the rest of Africa. While the Zionists may have succeeded in penetrating many African countries (through Security and Intelligence mainly and also financial / commercial inducements) and re-establishing diplomatic representation for the state of Israel mostly broken up for most of the 1970s and early 1980s, the solidarity with Palestine continues among Africans.
As a people who have known racism, discrimination, extermination, occupation and humiliation on our own lands, the solidarity is instinctive and independent of whatever any Arab country is or not doing. The death of Arafat will not diminish this even if PLO offices have become almost extinct across the continent as Israeli embassies (like those of their international sponsors, USA) open up behind gilded barriers. The PLO retains special status within OAU (now AU) expressing the collective diplomatic and political position of Africans to stand firmly in support of the Palestinians.
And for Chairman Arafat, when the final hour comes, we say; Go well, brave soldier, you tried your best and even if your best did not bring freedom to your people in your life time, be rest assured that the struggle continues and the victory will be yours posthumously.
Tajudeen28@Yahoo.com
Arafat has been clinically dead for a few days while all efforts, medically possible, were being made to revive him from the coma he has slipped into.
This time, the man, who is certainly one of the most recognisable faces of our times, a man who has dodged death, close shaves, assassination attempts and survived more than the proverbial nine lives of a cat, may not survive.
Death is a winner in the end. It will take the patient and overwhelm even the doctors.
Of course, the usual suspects in Israel and US could not wait for the final hour before dancing on his grave.
Israeli media has been announcing his death since the man arrived in Paris after ‘allowing him’ to leave his beleaguered ramshackled office, in which he had been held illegally under house arrest in full glare of global media by the mass killer Ariel Sharon.
When newly triumphant George Bush was ambushed by reporters last week asking for his reaction to Arafat’s death, you could see the uncomfortable surprise on his face. Like he had just been told that his worst enemy had given up the ghost.
If it had been in private he would probably have rejoiced since he had deliberately created road blocks to peace that excluded Arafat in his so called Road map for peace in the Middle East.
But the televisions were there so Dubya could only, after prolonged seconds say: MAY GOD BLESS HIS SOUL!
We must not forget that this is a very Christian president. Therefore he was only extending Christian charity for the repose of Arafat’s soul. If he had his way with God he would be wishing for something else.
Sharon and his goons do not even have to go through the kind of public hypocrisy that Bush will go through when Arafat’s death is confirmed. The humiliation they made him suffer throughout his life and more directly in the last two years of besieging his office did not stop with his failing health. And it will not stop even with his death. They have already made it known that his wish to be buried in Jerusalem will not be ‘allowed’. Trust these usurpers for originality. They are claiming that the city is a holy sight to bury worthy Kings of Jews.
A letter in the London Guardian pointed out yesterday that those privileged kings include the conman, disgraced former British Newspaper baron, Robert Maxwell, who died a few years ago in suspicious circumstances.
He is buried among the worthy Kings for his services to Zionism. Maxwell was a Jew of East European origin yet Arafat, a Palestinian cannot decide where he should be buried in the land of his birth inhabited by his people from time immemorial.
Washington, the Tel Aviv hawks and their fellow travellers, apologists and the many people they confuse, are again suggesting that the death of Arafat will see a renewal of efforts at resolving the Israeli-conflict, settle for a permanent peace in a two state solution. Why the death of Arafat should bring peace when Sharon and his likes are still very much alive, I do not know.
In their thinking, the conflict is down to one man and once he is out of the way everything should be looking good. One does not need rocket science to see the ruse in this type of argument.
Arafat (with all his foibles and human contradictions) among Palestinians and all lovers of human freedom is more than just a man. He is the symbol of a struggle and the idea that human beings will always resist oppression no matter how difficult the situation is. His physical demise will not mean the end of the dream and hope for freedom that he devoted all his life to.
In the pantheons of revolutionary icons, Arafat is in the same class as Nelson Mandela, although with different methods and outcome. They, however, have one abiding connection: triumph of hope over despair in search of human liberation.
The Palestinian struggle became twinned to the African struggle against apartheid and colonialism in South Africa and the rest of Africa. While the Zionists may have succeeded in penetrating many African countries (through Security and Intelligence mainly and also financial / commercial inducements) and re-establishing diplomatic representation for the state of Israel mostly broken up for most of the 1970s and early 1980s, the solidarity with Palestine continues among Africans.
As a people who have known racism, discrimination, extermination, occupation and humiliation on our own lands, the solidarity is instinctive and independent of whatever any Arab country is or not doing. The death of Arafat will not diminish this even if PLO offices have become almost extinct across the continent as Israeli embassies (like those of their international sponsors, USA) open up behind gilded barriers. The PLO retains special status within OAU (now AU) expressing the collective diplomatic and political position of Africans to stand firmly in support of the Palestinians.
And for Chairman Arafat, when the final hour comes, we say; Go well, brave soldier, you tried your best and even if your best did not bring freedom to your people in your life time, be rest assured that the struggle continues and the victory will be yours posthumously.
Tajudeen28@Yahoo.com