Ramadan 2011: A time for peace or war?

For years, as the US and the so called coalition of the willing carried out mass murders of Muslim people and destruction of the Muslim lands, Muslims have waited for our turn to engage and to fight back. Unfortunately the Muslim leadership lacked faith in God and became impressed by the show of might demonstrated in the invasions and killings and the war crimes that have taken place over the past ten years, and so they never called Muslims to the fight and gave no hope of Muslim survival, or the survival of Islam. Instead they attempted to accelerate immigration to the West and assimilation, thinking wrongly that the solution to the war on terrorism crime was to be for it, rather than against it. Rather than to address the issues that plague the lives of Muslims in the Muslim world, they struggled for more accommodating immigration laws in the West, so they could encourage escape, to the glorious west, where they thought we would all be free.

Along with their repeated condemnations of terrorism, which in fact gave the wrong impression that there was something unique about Islam as a religion that engendered terrorism, they almost daily handed down verbal chastisement of Muslims who would not shut up and accept defeat gracefully. Such Muslims were called extremists and radicals and even worse, conspiracy theorists and terrorists. They were isolated, laughed at, and shut out of the inner Muslim circles where our government was lining the pockets of our intellectuals with cash, a reward their help with secularizing the mosques, and demonizing jihad.

Ten years into the illegal war and it has become clear that the war on terrorism has been lost. Not to Muslims, but to time. Ten years of mass murder and destruction in the Muslim world has only led to moral and financial bankruptcy in the West, while its effects on Muslims has been quite different than what was hoped for and imagined. We are not broken and we are not defeated. We are not frightened and we are not angry. In this ten years God has kept His promise to the Believers, and even though He has taken millions of martyr witnesses from among our ranks, he has blessed us with satisfaction and a taste for jihad. We are no longer interested in immigration and assimilation. We have seen the under belly of the so called great democracies of the West and we see that not only are they soft, they are full of corruption, hypocrisy, demonism and immoral disease. As Satan drove the forces of the arrogant West to more and worse crimes against humanity, God opened the eyes of the believers and asked us to choose. We choose the jihad.

We are freeing our own countries through revolutions, and still Satan will not leave us alone. The Arab puppet governments are also killing the Muslim people, while they attempt in every way to stall our revolutions and to criminalize the revolutionaries, and stay in power. God will take martyrs from among us in great numbers, yet we will have the victory. Allah has called us to beautiful patience, and so we must persist in our revolutions against all odds. Ramadan is the time for completion of the revolutions. They will spread, become more violent and then we will be granted the final victory and the black flags will fly over Jerusalem and throughout the Muslim lands. And our people, our tired, weary and battered and humiliated, heart broken and tired but victorious people, will return home, and together, insha Allah, we will build and create the Muslim world of our dreams.

For now, Satan has organized and prepared his forces for the great battle. We must do the same. As strange as it sounds, considering all of the military equipment, advanced military technology and money that we don’t have, we expect the victory because Allah said in the Qur’an, “Indeed we have granted you (Muhammad) a manifest victory.” Ten years of mass murder and death has immunized us against the pain of watching as our children’s bodies are mutilated, as our women are raped, our men tortured and sodomized, and our parents humiliated and killed. We can only win, because you took our fear.

This Ramadan will not be a time for peace. It will be a time for war. Our enemy is desperate for victory. They cannot walk away from the battlefields where they lost their souls and treasure without one last desperate attempt to finally eliminate Islam, and to kill off the remnant of its adherents, and the descendants of prophets. They are under the spells of Kabbalists, false prophecies and delusion that will drive them to their destruction.

Let the Muslims rejoice in the bargain that we have made. God has purchased our lives and properties and in return He has given us two glorious possibilities, victory or martyrdom, and one certainty; eternal life in paradise. If they incline towards peace, we will also incline towards peace, but if they are firm for war, we will destroy them.

Death of a two state solution could give birth to a free Palestine

Anisa Abd el Fattah


Now that a noted and respected academician, Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, has suggested that a two state solution is dead, and that the result of that death will be the birth of Greater Israel as an apartheid state, we are free to stop wasting our time analyzing and hoping to improve upon and return to Oslo, and the idea of a negotiated end to the illegal occupation of Palestine.

It has been clear to most analysts for many years, and even pronounced on numerous occasions by the political leaders of the occupation administration, that there would be no Palestinian state allowed to co-exist side by side with the Jews envisioned Jewish Only state. For some reason, Arabs saw great merit in the Oslo formula for peace, even though it did not guarantee the establishment of a Palestinian state as an end result of a successful peace process. Indeed all along the Oslo path, it was very clear that the occupation was expanding on the ground, as it falsely spoke of peace. Even more importantly, after every failed round of so called negotiations, the Palestinians would be punished with various massacres and other acts of violence intended to cull the number of Palestinians, and also to further intimidate them, in preparation for the end game, which was always to be a single Jewish only state where the Palestinians would be allowed to exist in limited and controlled numbers, for the purpose of providing cheap labor.

For some reason, perhaps wishful thinking, many people confused the idea of peace in respect to Oslo, with the idea of freedom. The occupation has never offered the Palestinian people freedom. It has offered them quiet co-existence, but only according to the type of co-existence that is prescribed by the Talmudic law. That law suggests that Palestinian citizens of a Jewish only state are second, or even third class citizens whose purpose, as was reported by a noted Rabbi, would be to serve the Jews. In other words, not only does the one state solution from the Zionist perspective mean victory for Zionism whether over the long or short term, it also means absolute defeat for the Palestinians. Just as the American pioneers defeated and led the Native Americans off to reservations to die, so too the Palestinians will be allowed to live in their reservations, defeated and humiliated after years of struggle against a brutal and illegal occupation.

The prospect of the establishment of Greater Israel is of course completely unacceptable to most Muslims, and we can expect that there will be Muslims who will be willing to mount resistance against it. Yet, based upon past performance, we might anticipate that for the secular Arab nationalists leaders and monarchs, so long as they can continue to rule over their people in some capacity and to continue to be paid through either foreign aid, trade schemes, etc., the idea might not be so bad. In fact, it would not be much different from the way in which they co-exist with the occupation today. The only difference might be that rather than hiding their secret arrangements for normalized relations, and trade, they can complain to their people that the newly established Jewish state is in fact a done deal that all must accept and accommodate. With some groaning, it will be accepted as an accomplished fact and with very little resistance, to the extent that some of the financial rewards trickle down to pacify the people, as Israel has promised. There does not seem to be any way to attribute, or any reason to expect either integrity or good judgment on the part of the Arab leaders. There is absolutely no reason to expect that they will act on principle and stand with those Palestinians and Muslims who will resist being defeated in this way.


It is also important to note, that there is no reason to accept the idea that the death of a two state solution can only result in greater Israel as an apartheid state. The truth is, that the death of the two state fake peace process scheme, can result in freedom for Palestine, if the Palestinian people are ready psychologically and spiritually for what will perhaps be the most difficult push against the occupation in the history of the occupation.

It will require that they abandon not only the rhetoric of the status quo and its insistence that Israel exists as a legal entity with a supposed special right to exist, and that what is happening is merely a land dispute that is being resolved by the natural selection of a better armed, more powerfully supported Jewish entity. The Palestinians will have to create their own narrative and it cannot in any way yield in even the slightest way to either accommodation, or appeasement of the occupation and its enablers. The people must prepare to fight and to possibly die in pursuit of their freedom. We must admit the likelihood that no amount of disinvestment or boycotts will be allowed to weaken Israel, and the UNSC will never impose sanctions upon Israel. At best, BDS will prevent the business buzzards from profiting from the illegal occupation. The US and EU will subsidize any loss that Israel might experience from divestment, so in reality, the people of the US and EU are the ones who will be punished by BDS and that might be appropriate, but not very helpful to the Palestinians in the short term, which is when Israel will make its push to take control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, annexing them as part of Greater Israel.

The Palestinian narrative, in direct contradiction to the Zionist narrative must deprive the anticipated Jewish only state of all legitimacy, and it must stand boldly upon the law. It cannot capitulate in any way to the idea of co-existence or the supposed right of Israel to exist. It must reject completely the lie that Israel was established as an act of justice to a Jewish people who are reclaiming a lost land based upon a fake promise from God. It must reject the British mandate as a fraud and theft, and demand justice and an end to US and EU unconditional financial and military support for a criminal enterprise and genocide. It must insist that the occupation exists in violation of international laws and treaties, and must also seek to criminalize those who support the illegal occupation, just as the occupation and its enablers have sought to criminalize all support for Palestinian freedom.

The people of the Arab and Muslim world must adopt this narrative and must live by it, refusing normalized relations of any type with the occupation or the Jews anywhere. This is another area where boycott can be effective, if it is a boycott of Jewish products being sold in Muslim countries. The people must accept that we are at war not only with a people, but with an idea and that idea is Greater Israel which is supported by a majority of Jews from throughout the world.

We must never accept the idea of a Jewish only state, or Greater Israel and the subjugation of the Palestinians as slaves living as third class citizens within that state. It will require that the Palestinian refugees dispersed throughout the Arab and Muslim world, become more involved and active as participants in the Palestinian resistance and it will require that Muslims everywhere, just as Jews everywhere, recognize that we are at war, not for land as they are, but for freedom. The war is for freedom of these, and for all other peoples living under occupation. The Zionists are fighting for land, but the Palestinians and the conscientious people of the world who support them will resist in pursuit of justice and freedom, not only for Palestinians but also for those who we know will soon fall prey to this same challenge, as the imperialists, emboldened by success in Palestine, intensify their drive to take over the Muslim and Arab world and also the resources, including the people of the region.

The death of the two state solution could give life to a free Palestine, but only if the people of the world decide that Palestine must be freed. We must decide to end this illegal occupation that is threatening to use brute strength to capture and enslave an indigenous people based upon a false narrative that has been used deceptively to convince the world that an illegal and criminal enterprise has been imposed upon us by a Jewish god that has supposedly enslaved Gentiles to serve these supposed chosen people. A chosen people whose society is overrun with organized crime, prostitution, human trafficking, government corruption, and the guilt of innocent blood, spilled without conscience, or consequence. We, meaning the entire world, is at a crossroads, and we must decide now, that Palestine will either be free, or lost forever to Greater Israel, a criminal apartheid state. If we decide that Palestine should die, be prepared, because there will be no hope for Africa, or Latin America or any of the other small countries with coveted land and resources. The battle for Palestine will be the last battle for freedom in our time. Decide now to win or surrender.

Peacemaking in Palestine

Anisa Abd el Fattah

Palestine seems to be at that place in history where things can go delightfully right or miserably wrong, based upon a single decision to either re-engage with Israel in peace negotiations, or not. Of course the use of the word peace is deceptive in this respect, because negotiations as far as Israel is concerned are not really a quest for peace as one might imagine. Israel is not interested in peace as in withdrawing to its pre war 67 borders, and removing its illegal checkpoints, stopping military raids, kidnappings, and ending apartheid, the siege on Gaza etc. In fact these issues have never been negotiable as far as Israel is concerned. Keep in mind also that Israel has never lived up to a negotiated agreement.

It seems that at least as far as Israel is concerned, the word peace is little more than a way to express a desire for Palestinians to decide whether they will submit to being displaced through a process of negotiated agreements, or if they prefer to be displaced forcefully. In other words, Israel seems to believe that through negotiations it will determine how the cleansing of Palestine will take place. In the past, whenever Israel failed to get what it wanted at the negotiating table, it has punished the Palestinians with violent massacres and brutal military assaults.

For those who think this opinion is too cynical let’s look at the facts. The Knesset could vote to end the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and peace, as understood from the traditional definition, would be immediate. After all, Palestinians are not attacking Israel, or Israelis. They are not shooting them, bombing them, confiscating their land, demolishing their homes, destroying their farms, killing their livestock or literally chasing them from their homes and moving into them. The Palestinians mostly threaten to retaliate in return for Israel’s acts of violence, but seldom do. If we were to look only at the facts and ignore Israel’s incendiary rhetoric, it would become quite cleat that Israel is the reason that there is no peace, and they are the only people making perpetual war. The reality is that negotiations are not required for there to be peace, and no violence is required for peacemaking. Israel could withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza, remove its checkpoints, buy out the illegal settlers, ( and all are illegal) then relocate them to Israel proper. What would be left to be negotiated after that might be water rights and security arrangements that would prevent Israel from breeching its borders again, and attempting to confiscate the natural gas and oil reserves that belong to Palestine.

Unfortunately, neither Mahmoud Abbas nor any of the PLO team has suggested to Israel that if Israel wants to have meaningful negotiations, there should first be peace, at least in the sense that all Israeli violence against Palestinians should end as a gesture of sincerity. That, to most people would be more important and urgent than an end to settlement building which is really almost meaningless when we consider that anyone can live in those buildings, but no one can bring the Palestinians that are being murdered almost daily back to life. The lives and security of the Palestinian people would be the priority in the real world. Only in this conflict are the rights of the illegal occupier and war criminal more important than the rights and protection of its victim.

It is not difficult to understand why the US is pushing for renewed negotiations. The US is bankrupt and simply cannot afford to sustain Israel’s appetite for violence and weaponry much longer. On top of that, the US, which is fighting two other wars for the sake of Israel, cannot take any more risk that blow back from these Zionist inspired misadventures will manifest on America’s shores, or against its interests abroad. The US might be ready for that theoretical Clean Break that is the underlying purpose for all of these wars, occupations and violence. The Clean Break, as far as the US is concerned can’t be realized except through a negotiated process that saves face for Israel who would rather be seen as a top flight negotiator and peacemaker than a violent warmonger, even though in the past Israel has only been successful at war, and these wars were carried out and victories realized with the help of the US and other world powers who are committed to Israel because of religious fervor and fanaticism, and not based upon any logical, strategic or even remotely just idea.

The trouble in Palestine will only be resolved when the Palestinians themselves stop playing Israel’s game and figure out what their own unique interest is. What is their objective?

The Palestinians must realize that they will never be free of Israel without a decisive victory, either military or diplomatic that will force Israel to abandon the idea that it can achieve its desire to take all of Palestine militarily should Israel not get what it wants through negotiations. That means that Palestinians must accept that they cannot be free of Israel without a fight, unless some power that can balance the influence of the US, Israel and the EU gets involved and commits to Palestinian security with the same enthusiasm that the US and EU has committed to Israel’s. Iran, Turkey, Russia and China can do that, but will they?

The Palestinians must also be willing to state what issues are negotiable and, limit those issues to those not already the subject of UN resolutions, or issues that can be resolved by adhering to international laws, conventions and treaties. In other words, Israel should not be allowed to evade the law, or rewrite the law through negotiations. This is in fact prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. Only issues that are not addressed by law should be subject to negotiation and it might be worth it for Palestine to create a commission to review all relevant conventions, laws, treaties and resolutions in an effort to determine what can be legally negotiated and what cannot, and should not be included.

Last but not least, Palestine must decide what it wants as a reasonable gesture of sincerity from Israel before agreeing to renewed talks. I would suggest that it be that all violence against Palestinians, including kidnappings, raids, torture etc. end immediately, without exception, along with land confiscations, home demolitions and settler violence. I would suggest that Israel be put on notice that a single act of settler violence will end all negotiations. I would also demand that Israel end its illegal siege on Gaza. Minus any of these changes, there would be no negotiations.

The trouble in Palestine stems from either an unwillingness or inability of the Palestinians to identify and act in their own interests without feeling obligated to please either the US or the EU.

There is also without doubt, some fear based upon past experience, that just as the US pretends to play peacemaker, it is equally capable and has also played war maker, providing tacit approval and providing weapons and also financing for Israel’s illegal attacks on Palestine, carried out as punishment for refusing Israel’s advances at the negotiating table. The US is not an honest broker in this conflict and the Palestinians know it, but really haven’t been able up to this point to do much about it. The only way to solve this problem is for other players to become involved who are capable of leveraging Israeli, US and European power, taking the side of the Palestinians. These must be countries who have the capacity and are willing to exact punishment on Israel, and also the US and EU if and when they carry out acts of illegal and unjust violence, and aggression against Palestine.

The way to make and sustain peace is to balance power, and the way to negotiate is to limit negotiations to your own, not your opponents interests, to the extent possible. In respect to Israel’s illegal military occupation, those issues related to its withdrawal, its borders, etc., have already been addressed, either by UN resolutions or the law, and Israel should respect and conform to the law. What would be left in that case is for Israel and Palestine to work out the terms for sharing the land in ways that are fair, just and that sustain peace. This is the real purpose of peace negotiations and a legitimate peace process. This would take real Palestinian leadership and cannot be carried out by people who are only interested in pleasing the US and Israel, or who are seeking power and money, and fame, or who fear displeasing the US and Israel.

While waiting for the Palestinians to prepare for such negotiations, Israel should end all violence against the Palestinian people, including settler violence, home demolitions, destruction of agriculture and livestock and confiscation of land, and also its excavation under Al Aqsa mosque. Israel must also end its illegal embargo of Gaza, and remove the illegal settlers from the West Bank and prepare for complete withdrawal.

Those who are really interested in peace between Palestinians and Israel need to encourage and assist Israel in conforming to the numerous UN resolutions that address the illegal occupation, Israel’s persistent violence, the illegal economic siege on Gaza and settler violence, etc. The Geneva Conventions and other international laws provide guidance and limits for both the Palestinians and the Israelis that can clear the pathway to a negotiated agreement explaining how these two people will share the land in real peace once the illegal occupation has ended and the people are clear that they are preparing, or rather being prepared for co-existence, and not the domination of any group of people over the other.

The Last Days

By Anisa Abd el Fattah


While watching TV several nights ago I came across a program that talked about the Christian idea of Armageddon. The narrator went over Biblical scriptures, seeking to create an image or an impression of what the last days before God’s final judgment of humanity will be like. Anyone who has read the Book of Revelations in the Bible, or listened to the apocalyptic preachers of the fundamentalist Church, believes that the last days will be filled with many overwhelming events, such as the rapture, the mass destruction of many people, catastrophes, plagues, famines and the like. In their end time scenario God begins punishing and destroying the wicked, and rapturing the righteous even before the actual Day of Judgment takes place.

As I watched this program, I thought about a verse of the Qur’an that says,”Those who really believe in a Day of Judgment hold it in awe.” To me, that means that if people really believe that what they read in the Biblical Book of Revelations is true, there would not be the wars, oppression, genocides, tyranny and other crimes against humanity taking place so boldly in our societies, and against so little opposition. Surely, those who feel that they are eligible for rapture would be busy opposing the forces of darkness, confident of victory, while the forces of darkness would be trying to get as much evil done as possible in the supposedly short amount of time they have left, hoping somehow to defeat the righteous, and God, with the supposed power of satan. Looking out at the world, it appears that only the wicked are believers in the last days. Their quite obvious confidence and sense of urgency in their quest for primacy might be the proof of that.

Perhaps the point of the documentary wasn’t really to convince us that the last days are upon us, or that we should prepare to be judged. It seems more likely that the point of the documentary was to feed the fire of self righteousness that is fueled by the supremacist thinking of the so called self declared “saved” and “righteous” who have obviously already judged themselves and declared themselves ready for rapture, and the rest of us bound for hell. This is true Christian charity according to the fundamentalists; that they have saved themselves and left others, in fact a majority, behind.


The Qur’an on the other hand gives us another view of the last days, and makes it clear to us that it is not the literal last days of all existence, but it is the last days of the system that God put in place to serve us in our journey from Him and, and our return to Him. For the sake of mental imagery we refer to it as a cycle of life much like a circle that has a point of departure, sojourn and return to its origin. In this scenario, the last days are not days of destruction and chaos. They are the final tests of those who say they have chosen God’s path, and an opportunity for us to join the heavenly forces as they usher in the transition of this system from one of test of trial in hardship, to a period of test and trial in ease and prosperity. The period of ease and prosperity is known by some as the 1000 year millennium.

In Islam we believe that there are many days of judgment. We are judged each night according to actions during the day, and we are judged each minute by the actions performed a minute ago. We are judged at the time of death, and then again at the time of resurrection. So in Islam there is no single last day for humanity in which we are to give up hope for salvation, but rather there are last days, pregnant with hope and opportunities for good and righteous acts, up and until we stand before God and our Imams and prophets seek to intercede for us, so that we might be spared complete separation from God, which is an unbearable thought for those who understand how intimately our happiness, well being and connection to God are associated.

There are many Muslims who believe that we are at the beginning of this period of transition or transformation from the system of test and trial through adversity and suffering, to the period of test and trial in peace and prosperity. Such belief also includes belief that these last days will perhaps present the most difficult trials for the true believers who will be challenged to stand with heavenly forces in the final battles against the wicked that will end their period of supposed supremacism and usher in the days of the righteous, who will begin working to establish the kingdom of God on earth, as it is in heaven.

For some, that means that the last days are the final tests of faith in times of cruelty and human suffering, wars, famines, plagues and horrendous crimes against humanity. Unlike those in some other religions who believe this is the time for gloating at the eagerly anticipated fall of the wicked and rapture of the righteous, Muslims believe that the last days are a final opportunity to choose to stand with the forces of God, or those of satan in a series of final trials aimed at sorting out those who have attained knowledge and understood the meaning of the cycle and the importance of intimacy with our Creator, as opposed to those who have not, and so will be idle, and cowed with fear, and serving wickedness in their silence and apathy.

So this judgment is by the standards of clear and common criteria for all of humanity. The last days represent a final choice in this era of trial through sacrifice, hardship and struggle, to either stand in opposition to the wickedness of these times, or to stand still, and be judged as one who failed to believe that the promises of God are true. God said,”The righteous will inherit this earth.” These last days before us are perhaps a period of sorting out, and a time to determine who are the true believers in God, those sitting back arrogantly waiting to be saved, while the entire world is suffering from the mischief of satan and his forces, or those who will spare nothing to save humanity from the temporary hell of this life, hoping for an eternity of happiness in the next? The last days are the times to choose, and to act.

May Allah grant us the knowledge and wisdom required for these difficult times. May God purify our hearts and remove all idols, and false worship from us. May He give us the courage to remain steadfast in the face of hardships, trials and death, and grant us the manifest (already promised) victory. Amen.

Who do we talk to?

The ongoing debate over whether or not the US should negotiate with Iran, Syria and Hamas is not really a debate about US security. It is rather a debate about who is right, those who feel that the US should ride shot gun through the Middle East for Israel, staring down and blowing up everyone that Israel doesn’t like, or feels threatened by, or who disagrees with AIPAC or the other Jewish American organizations that are dictating US foreign and also our domestic policies, or those who feel that Israel as an ally has no greater meaning than any other country as a US ally, and that US interests, and not Israeli interests should be our first and only policy priorities.

Considering that most of us realize, probably during adolescence, that we must talk to one another, even when we dislike one another, it seems strange that the leaders of one of the world’s most powerful, and technologically advanced countries would be arguing about whether or not we should use diplomacy or be limited only to war as a means to settle disputes. God spoke to Satan, even after Satan had sinned, and misled Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. Jesus spoke to Satan even as his faith was being tested by God in the desert. Perhaps these metaphors symbolize the truth that words are a form of power when spoken as truth, which could be why God used words, such as revealed books, more often than lightening strikes, tornadoes and earthquakes to get his points across. For those who don’t believe in God, the metaphor might symbolize the idea that people, and not weapons are the true powers on earth, since God has subjected all things in the earth to His stewards, except other human beings. Human beings belong exclusively to God.

It’s too bad that we have not been allowed to understand what the human being really is, and our potential inherent power, which is the spirit of God manifest within each of us. If we did understand such things, there would be no arguments about talking to enemies rather than merely killing them. We would understand that the consequence of talking is far more powerful and empowering than the consequences of killing which is absolutely debilitating and destructive for all involved. Israel is learning this the hard way. No matter how many Palestinians they kill, they have not been able to successfully cleanse Palestine of Arabs and Muslims. What they have managed to become is one of the most hated and distrusted countries on earth, and even with the trillions of dollars and military weapons and aide they receive they have no equivalent achievements to boast of.

Of course it would be foolish to expect mere human beings to act like God. I only mention God and Jesus since they represent absolute Godly perfection, and the lesser human perfection. It seems strange that the neo-cons, who give the appearance that they are a God loving people, closely aligned with the religious right, who supposedly know, understand and live the Bible to a greater degree than any of us so-called infidels, goyim living in husks and sinners, have ignored these very basic but meaningful truths about God and Jesus, and their dialogues with their enemies Perhaps this is due the fact that there were no billions of dollars at stake for either Jesus or God, and no government appointments, political power, or an Israeli lobby to fear.



In my humble opinion, neither Barak Obama, nor Hillary Clinton have demonstrated that they understand the real meaning and power of diplomacy as a standard methodology, used those who desire righteousness in the ongoing battle of good versus evil. Neither will admit, even though US intelligence stated emphatically that Iran's nuclear program was destroyed, while Iran says that no program ever existed, that there is no Iranian nuclear weapons program. Neither have been able to say that Israel must abide by the laws, same as we expect of any country. neither can say that Israel must end its ethic cleansing and genocide in Palestine, and its illegal occupation. Why wont the presidential candidates or even our President and Secretray of State demand a mutual cease-fire between Israel and Palestine? Could it be because they believe that with time, Israel will simply kill off the Palestinians and no cease fire is needed?

Moses, who led the slaves to freedom from captivity in Egypt, spoke to Pharaoh and continued to call him to repentance, and God. He never spoke of killing Pharaoh, even though Pharaoh often spoke of killing of Moses. Knowledgeable and wise men and women understand that when we have reached a point where taking life is our only option that we have failed in some way and that we will be held accountable for the price of that spilled blood. We must remember that every human being belongs to God, and He is taking a toll, and also taking an account.

Hamas, Syria, Palestine, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Iran are all organizations and groups of people. They are not ideas. They have a different view of life than some other people, but they also have a view of life that is shared by billions of other people, people who have a right to exist and to hold a view different than the neo-con, and Israeli worldview. Ther lives, like all other life is sacred to God, and should also be sacred to us. Israeli and Jewish is not superior. The idea of superiority was introduced to the world by Satan, and it caused God not only to cast him out the Garden, but also to doom Satan to eternal damnation and destruction. Should we imitate him?

If change is to come, it will require more than mere political changes. We must open our hearts and ears to new and different ideas. Like God and Jesus, we must listen, and to ask questions, even when we feel we know the answer. Imagine the arrogance of one imperfect human, saying to another imperfect human that he or she cannot speak to them until they make certain adjustments in their thinking, or behavior. Let’s pray that on the Day of Judgment that God will not have adopted the neo-con non-engagement policy, because if He does, we will all be lost. In fact, we need not imagine that the day of Judgment fits John Hagge’s tormented description of Armageddon, where only he and Israeli Jews (only those who reject Judaism and accept Hagee’s Jesus) will be raptured. Every day is a Day of Judgment because the die is cast with each day’s passing, and God is judging us and punishing and rewarding us each day.

We cannot change the world without changing ourselves. Having humility and learning to hear and speak again to the rest of humanity might be a perfect place to start the process of chaging ourselves, since once we really hear what they have to say we might realize that when it comes to the bottom line, we are all saying the same thing, but perhaps in different ways.

Deja Vu in Palestine

In the mid-nineties after Hamas was established and was working as pretty much the sole provider of social and other services in Palestine, the US and Israel decided that to accomplish their final takeover of what remained of Palestine, they must stage a negotiations process. They did not want to culminate years of brutal occupation by adding an even more brutal genocide to the occupation saga. For their taste, the occupation should end through a negotiated land for peace process that would give Israel most of what it wanted, and the Palestinians just enough of what they could get, that no one would complain anymore that Israel had been less than fair with the people whose land they had illegally occupied for so many years. After all, if the Palestinians were willing to compromise, and it could be made to appear that Israel had also compromised, who could argue that anything unjust, or unfair had taken place.

It’s much like the land deals made between the US settlers and the Native Americans. How often were the Native Americans reminded that their leaders had sold much of the land for beads, guns and firewater, and entered into various agreements that ultimately led to the Native American fate, which was genocide and reservations? Who cared if it was absolutely absurd that negotiations between the white settlers and the Native American would even take place? Most Native Americans probably didn’t even understand English well enough to actually negotiate anything of substance, and there is no proof anywhere that a majority of Native Americans ever agreed to turn nearly all of their land and natural resources over to the settlers, and to voluntarily be placed on reservations. Why would they ever agree to such things? We could argue that they had no idea about the gold, the oil, and the value and importance of the natural resources they owned. We might also argue that rights to fish and hunt and to live undisturbed may have been more meaningful to them at the time, than undeveloped land. What we can’t argue, with any amount of logic or legal and moral thinking to support our argument, is that what ever took place was fair, or just.

The suffering of the Native Americans at the hands of their foreign occupiers is legendary. Billion dollars per year gambling casinos cannot compensate for the massacres, the lies, and the dirty tricks. How much would we have to pay or give back to compensate for the extermination of millions of Native Americans the fake negotiated agreements, and coerced and dishonest peace treaties, shady land exchanges and sales of priceless real estate for beads and booze that stain our US story.

The United States has recognized the evils of the European settlers of this land, their special Indian laws, and deals. We have attempted to wash the Native American blood from our hands with money and apologies that have gone a long way towards relieving our national conscience of the horrors, both real and imagined. Unfortunately there is nothing that we can do to heal the hearts and minds of the Native Americans, who are still struggling to regain their since of humanness and value in spite of our overbearing history, and nationalist pride.

The Oslo peace process was nothing more than an attempt to buy Palestinian land with beads and booze. The only differences between what took place in the US, and what was supposed to take place in Palestine are the geographic location and the race of the victims. Yasser Arafat and his Fatah and PLO were nothing more than drunken Indians, who were willing to give away Palestine in exchange for personal power and prestige, and wealth. Shortly after the US and Israel brought the PLO out of exile from Tunisia, it established a security force that was supposed to bring order to the West bank and Gaza. The first job of the security force was to round up and to arrest all Hamas members, since Israel and the US were planning an election for Yasser Arafat, and he was to have no competitors. Welcome to Palestinian democracy!

Following Arafat’s suspect victory at the Palestinian polls, the news media East and West declared him the legitimate representative for the Palestinian people. This charade took us all the way to Camp David where the big lie failed, resulting in a Palestinian uprising that left thousands of Palestinians dead and prospects for peace shattered by the stark realization that the US and Israel could not be trusted. The Palestinian people realized at that moment that it was not the Israelis that had lacked a peace partner, it was the Palestinians. It was also the Palestinians, and not the Israel’s who simultaneously realized that the PA was created to lend democracy to Israel, to be used as part of its political charade that was intended to lend legitimacy to a failed Camp David peace initiative that was intended to wrestle Jerusalem from Arafat, and to pen the Palestinians on refugee camps, dispersed strategically throughout what was historically Palestine. The reservations would have been called Palestine; its capital would have been Abu Dis. There would be no right of return for the Palestinians living in exile throughout the world, and there was no real solution offered for the millions of Palestinian refugees.

Today, God, history, or fate, whichever one we believe is a superior power, has returned us to the past. Again, the Palestinian leadership is separated between Hamas and Fatah, each on different territory. The US and Israel are making the same choices because they are the only choices available to the types of people who are scripting US and Israeli policies in respect to the Middle East. It doesn’t seem to matter that their very limited vision and dishonest and self-serving objectives are hurting an entire world of people in and outside of the Middle East. Biblical myths, the shameless exploitation of human tragedies, murder and mayhem can only get you so far. Israel, the US and now the EU, who has newly joined this gang of thieves in earnest with its publicly declared support of Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah, will one day get the message that reached Arafat at Camp David. That message is that Palestine is not merely a Palestinian issue. The Al-Aqsa mosque, Jerusalem, and the very nature of the gross injustices of this brutal and illegal occupation cause it to be much more than just another episode of European conquest and colonization.

It is the international and universal nature of this dispute, along with the moral questions it gives rise to, and the potential loss of any respect for law that lessen tremendously the likelihood of Israel’s and the Quartet’s success. As for the Arab governments who have played along, knowing what actually awaits the Palestinians should Israel and its supporters succeed, they should understand that their futures are tied to Palestine’s. If Palestine fails, they also fail, since as one tribe falls, so do they all, eventually. Déjà vu only lasts until we realize that we have seen this all before, and then it ends with a choice to change courses, or to continue down the familiar path.


The New York Times writer, Thomas Friedman wrote some days ago that oil had been discovered in Israel, and that this oil is ingenuity and professional; expertise and entrepreneurial zeal. Oil has also been found in Palestine, and it is symbolized as resistance to occupation, a will to live and survive, and a determination and resolve to be free, and to realize long sought after dreams of sovereignty and prosperity. Palestinian oil is fueling a paradigmatic change that can literally change the world, by ending a certain history, while beginning a new future for us all. Part of Palestine’s guiding vision appears to be an end to the era of European conquest and colonization that has drenched the world in innocent blood, and bad karma. It is symbolized as an end to Déjà vu in Palestine, a new path for the Palestinian people, and also the world.