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Last month, Mr.
Sharon has finally declared his plan for final "peace" and not in vague
terms. He stated unequivocally, that any future peace will not include
the right of return (ROR), or the return to the 1967 borders. Further
more such declarations are totally supported by the US, the superpower,
who conjured the so-called "Road Map".
Yet, with naïve and
persistent obstinacy, our "glorious" leadership is still talking about
peaceful negotiations! Negotiate what! is a question that no one in the
leadership can explain.
Mr. Sharon's
position shows clearly that the minimal national aspirations of the
Palestinian people will never be fulfilled under any peace formula. Yet
Mr. Mahmud Abbas, the head of the PLO, aside from criticizing such
position, has not come up with any other option that might lead to the
fulfillment of the Palestinian legitimate national rights. On Al-Jazeera
interview on 19 December 2004, Mr. Mahmud Abbas re-confirmed that no
positive expectations are awaiting any possible peace negotiations with
the Israeli Likud government, yet he insisted that one should try such
process to test Israeli intentions!
My God! Are we
saying that we do not fathom such declared Israeli intentions?
If the Israeli
unacceptable final position has been declared time after time, then
there is nothing left for any mutual process except the travesty of
negotiating our sub-humanity, our humiliation, our total surrender and
our deprivation of our national and human rights.
I have never read in
annals of history that a certain leadership will negotiate their own
bondage to an aggressive oppressor. Yet our leadership are naively
preparing for such a humiliating process. Why negotiate if the outcome
has been set by Israel that would not depart from the miserable
status-quo? Are we going to ever wake up to the fact that only
resistance, all forms of resistance, will ever achieve our national
rights? Why then are we not exercising such option?
The apparent
difference between the PLO and the Islamic armed resistance groups was
on strategy and not on goals, as they both differed on the route that
should be espoused to achieve total liberation. If the final outcome of
any peace negotiations, which has been already set by Sharon ahead of
time, does not come, not even close, to the minimal demands of the
Palestinian legitimate goals, then any future negotiations with Sharon
will border on sheer theatrics.
The Palestinian
leadership pragmatism in dealing with Israel has been torn to pieces,
when the peaceful route through negotiations has been totally closed.
Keeping this in mind, it would seem very logical that the difference in
strategy among the Palestinian factions should dissolve rendering the
enigma of future strategy into a one clear route namely resistance to
occupation, all forms of resistance.
The Palestinian
election process in this case could not be explained except as a new
Israeli ploy to divert our attention from our national goals. What is
the meaning of a Palestinian authority when such authority is under a
foreign power? How can an authority deliberate its duties toward its
people if another authority dictates the terms, especially when the
foreign authority has declared its intentions ahead of time to continue
its policy of subjugating the oppressed?
Unity of strategy
has not been drawn by the prudence of our different factions, but
unfortunately by Sharon himself. He is telling us indirectly that the
peace process will lead to a dead end, and then it should behoove our
leadership to get this message from our enemies and start unification
for the purpose of resistance, in all its forms, and the continuation of
the Intifada.
It's time for our
leadership to resign from shouldering a responsibility they are not
capable of, and leave the stage to a younger leadership who were not
intoxicated by power, corruption and delusion of peace. Peace will never
arrive on an Israeli or American tank, but by the Palestinian martyrs
who are ready to sacrifice their lives on the alter of freedom. No one
ever said that the road for freedom is embedded with roses but by the
blood of our fighters for liberation and independence.
With all our
weakness notwithstanding, we should not panic under the Israeli military
power, as no peace can arrive to the entire area without the Palestinian
card. We should never throw this card into the garbage can offered by
Israel and the US. We should resist and resist so that we would not be
labeled by history as people who would relinquish their rights under the
heels of a cruel oppressor. If peaceful negotiations will render us
people without honor, freedom or dignity, then we should die while
fighting for our cause, as death for freedom is superior to life without
honor.
