Man in Search of Humanity
| by Mahboob A. Khawaja
( December 5, 2012, London, Sri
Lanka Guardian) All wars are waged for profits and plunder and constitute
crimes against humanity. History tells the truth that herd like passion
perpetuates warmongering - killing of the same mankind. The ongoing conflicts
between Israel and Palestinian people are no exception but camouflaged record of
absurd lies, deceptions and failed leadership. If intelligent leaders were to come
in the future, coming generations might term it absurd and utterly foolish that
while Jews and Muslims had so much in common; they lived in distrust and wasted
time and energies during decades-old fear of the unknown. They breathe the same oxygen so close but
find themselves operative in conflicting time zones. The mankind is paying with
pains to systematic conflict-making and conflict-keeping policies maintained
and applauded by the leading military powers of the globe. Man and humanity are
striving to survive against manipulative and highly dangerous military odds, not
seen in the living history. Nobody can predict with certainty how the future
will unfold for peace and co-existence, not just in the predominantly Arab
Middle East but its uncontrollable consequences for the whole of the mankind.
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Phenomenon of Change is ahead of us. To make it happen through planned ideas and ideals for peace and co-existence, Israelis and Palestinians would need to assess their strengths and weaknesses for workable political change. Both should analyze a concrete framework of future - the facts not fictions of life that warrant change by peaceful means not by military adventures, certainly not by grabbing Palestinian lands to built more settlements.
When people live in constant fear
and conflicts, they lose sense of normal thinking to arrive at rational
perceptions, behaviors and decision making. Israelis and Palestinians both
share this dysfunctional value for over half of a century. Late Professor
Edward Said was a unique proactive intellectual and scholars to look beyond the
immediate box and offer new visions and peaceful means to reapproach the
Israel-Palestine conflicts. Despite his forcible eviction from his family home
in Jerusalem, he was a keen proponent of peaceful co-existence. No wonder, few on both sides of the
conflicting time zones ever listened to the voices of reason. Israelis appear
to be diverse in their ethnic, social and cultural composition whereas,
Palestinians enjoin cultural homogeneity but lack of systematic political unity
until now how to address the multiple issues in dealing with their freedom and
future. Despite diversity, Israelis enjoin unity of purpose, political system
and governance to protect their nationhood and identity by overwhelmingly
military means. At issues are the end of occupation of certain parts of
Palestine and establishment of an independent State of Palestine and
demarcation of the borders as of the 1967 to facilitate co-existence between
the Two States in the Arab Middle East. During the 1967 war, Israel as usual a
military powerful state occupied large chunk of the land which Palestinians
claim for their statehood.
This week at the UN General
Assembly meeting, the feverish tensions grew out of context and blame game generated
utmost intellectual absurdity. The American politicians and Western news media
poured-in bundle of lies and systematic falsification of the history. Warning
Mahmoud Abbas not to go for statehood at the UN. Nobody ever mentioned a word
that this is how the State of Israel came into existence in 1948. So what is alarming
or unusual for the Palestine State to be - a symbolic entity, if nothing else
in real world? For over 21 years, both
parties have held direct-indirect peace talks but ending up in failure as
Israel is unwilling to end the occupation. Most often Israel has powerful
political lobbyists in Washington and Western Europe to show indifference to
global concerns. Since their peace talks and the Oslo agreement, Israelis and
Palestinians have come to realize that military absolutism will not pave the
way for peaceful resolution of their standings. They do need face to face
dialogue to bridge the differences. America holds a decisive role in making
this peace deal come true as did President Carter and President Clinton in the
past. The other part of the problems rest with the Arab geopolitics. Oil exporting enriched Arab leaders do not
offer any substantial political presence either to America or to Israel to
straighten out the much old-fashioned militarized politics. The neighboring
Arab states lack moral and intellectual leadership, they have no public
institutions to think or to analyze the prevalent facts of human affairs what
is rational or practical in dealing with the State of Israel. Religiously Arabs
have strong bonds to Judaism and the teachings of Moses; most often these
unknown factors remain unknown in articulating the national policies and
workable alternatives to complex problems. Global politics is not one-way
street but combination of known and unknown ideas and ideals to tackle
situations of adversities and conflicting interests. Not so, to the Arab
leadership, they lack proactive and educated people to come up with new and
innovative strategies. Often Arab people in streets are more knowledgeable and
have active passion for change and new leadership to harmonize the affairs in
global politics and making of a different kind of future. But the leaders live
in palaces, not with people to know the realities of life. The Arab masses have
prominent role to change the absurd politics and carve-up a more favorable and
sustainable political future. To do so, the tribal cult Arab leaders would need
a jolt as it happened recently to replace Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, Abdullah of
Yemen, Ali of Tunisia, Qaddafi and very soon to Bashar al–Assad in Syria.
Phenomenon of Change is ahead of
us. To make it happen through planned ideas and ideals for peace and
co-existence, Israelis and Palestinians would need to assess their strengths
and weaknesses for workable political change. Both should analyze a concrete
framework of future - the facts not fictions of life that warrant change by
peaceful means not by military adventures, certainly not by grabbing
Palestinian lands to built more settlements. There are historical gaps in
thinking and understanding each others viewpoint, cultural norms, common human
values to know and understand one another without agreeing or disagreeing, just being open to listening and
learning - the way to built a sustainable culture of THINKING to co-exist. Israelis are not going anywhere; Palestinians
cannot be buried alive by Israeli bombardments on Gaza or elsewhere. Increasing
Israeli military check posts across Palestine and self-determined barbed wire marked
frontiers remind the mankind of the Nazi’s political culture - the Jewish
holocaust experience, is it a replica of the history that Israelis want to show
to the 21st century informed mankind. Surely, their kind of liberal
democracy is in desperate need of redefining. Palestinians need new proactive
and intelligent leadership to organize the unity of purpose and be able to
conduct rational negotiations, be it with the Israelis or the global
communities asserting political influence.
Dr. Ludwig Watzal (“Israel: Perpetrator or Self-proclaimed Victim?” Dissident Voice: 1121/2012) a prominent journalist attempts to explain how Israeli propaganda has put the blame on Hamas for the recent bombing of Gaza. He refers to a statement made by the Israeli Minister of Interior Eli Yishai: “The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the middle Ages. Only then will Israel be calm for forty years.” If that holds true we could see a fight between the Israeli version of “enlightenment” and the Palestinian “forces of darkness”. That the “sophisticated” West doesn’t reject this rhetoric nonsense outright should make the audience wonder. The future of the Near and the Middle East will be brighter than ever.”
Internationally acclaimed journalist Roberts Fisk (“Benjamin
Netanyahu Is Leading Israel Into Isolation”
The Iron Dome kept missiles at
bay, but another 'dome' shields the people from reality. The
Independent: 11/25/2012) asks “do they want peace?”
"Things went wrong when we allowed the settlers to go into the territories
in 1968, ……and of course, those massive
colonies built on Arab land – for Jews and Jews only – now lie at the heart of
the Israeli dilemma. Does the country want peace? Or does it want
Greater Israel?
In an Open Letter to President
Obama (Washington Report on the Middle East, 11/2012), a Jewish Sister offered
the following staunch reminder:
“Dear Mr. President,
My younger brother was an early believer in
you. He worked for your Senate campaign. he was working on your
campaign again when he died suddenly, a brilliant, energetic 29 year old, dead
in his tracks. You know this. You called my parents.
You may not know that after his sudden passing,
many of his friends quit their jobs, moved, changed their lives to continue
working on your campaign in his memory. …Until yesterday. Mr.
President, when the bombs began raining on Gaza again and you reiterated
Israel’s “right to defend itself”, I took that sticker off my jacket.
Later, you called Prime Minister Netanyahu and asked him to “use restraint,” as
though he were a glutton at a feast, rather than an elected official of a
powerful military nation, using your own country’s weaponry to engage in a
one-sided assault. Mr. President, you are the most powerful man in the
world. You do not need to politely request anything of Mr. Netanyahu; you
can stop him by ending U.S. military aid to Israel until Israel complies with
international and U.S. law…… We voted for you. We fund-raised for
you. We do not want to watch you pretend like it is for us that you allow
these massacres to continue with our money. My brother would be disappointed to
see your impotence in the face of continuing Israeli aggression shortly after
such a sweeping re-election victory. I am still proud of him. I am
still proud of all of the Americans that worked so hard to deliver you this
re-election. But I am so hurt and ashamed to watch you use restraint when
you are the only person with the power to stop this massacre. Mr.
President, I am barely over 5 feet tall and I am not afraid of AIPAC; why are
you?”
Out of desperation and purely for
short-terms political gains, Israeli PM Netanyahu and other politicians are
using aggressive means and provocative practices to plan more illegal
settlements on the occupied areas. Strange as is that new Jewish settlers can
come from all over the world to build homes on the stolen land but Palestinians
refugees cannot return to their own homes and land occupied by other people. The
global humanity is neither dumb nor blind to know the facts on the ground. These
moves simply cause more conflicts and disasters, not helpful to make peace
between divergent parties in the conflict. Israelis and Palestinians are
overwhelmingly emotionally charged people, often lacking rational mode of
thinking compatible to the global political affairs. Israelis is strong
military power, have atomic weapons and backing of the US bought politicians,
yet, they cannot impose their will on others nor foresee promising future.
Palestinians have natural bonds to their ancestral homes and lands and an unconquerable
will power to encounter all adversities. Both parties must THINK ANEW for a
promising Future to co-exist. This is what late Professor Edward Said dreamed
of throughout his life. He wanted to go back to Jerusalem, his ancestral home
taken by force by the Zionist settlers. After the cruelty of the 2WW, mankind
is acutely aware that wars and killings do not determine the future of nations;
they destroy all possibilities of rethinking and re-living together as dignified
human beings, the most intelligent creatures of God to live on Earth. History
cannot be ignored for its role to teach us the consequences of sadistic
warmongering - often perpetrated by the few but victimizing the whole of the
mankind. Time and opportunities do exist for serious thoughts and consideration
on both sides to reach a peaceful conclusion for sustainable future. Global
community is not haphazard but mindful of all the developments take shape and
form. What happens between Israel and Palestinians will have direct ramifications
for the whole world. Would reason and truth prevail over wrong thinking and
wrong actions? Would the two proponent of Abrahmic monotheistic faith be able
to co-exist in the Middle East? Would rationality replace animosity for the
good of all mankind? Would the new generations of educated and intelligent
leaders on both sides view the future as promising to make peace rather than
wars? Would the Israeli occupation end soon and Palestinian be able to
establish an independent State of Palestine? If they continue to follow the past dead-ended
polices and practices, what narrations would the story tellers compile for the
future children:
As a young poet, Wilfred Owen (“Dulce et decorum est”), once
observed:
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
(Dr.
Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict
resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and
civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: Global
Peace and Conflict Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking.
Lambert Publishing Germany, May 2012)
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