|
Back to
Opinions Page
One cannot analyze
the miserable status-quo in Palestine without attributing the present
devastating failures on the 1993 infamous Oslo accords.
The agreement then
was engineered by the present PA president; Mr. Mahmud Abbas, the
greatest philanthropist in history, when he relinquished 78% of
Palestine to the Zionist enemy. In return the PLO would be allowed to
get a foot in Palestine while all the remaining major issues that
pertain to the partial national aspirations of the Palestinian people
would be left for future final status negotiations. Of course, as we all
witnessed, these final negotiations never took place, which rendered the
Oslo accords as nothing but a travesty that ended up with the entrapment
of the PA on its own soil.
Thus the late
Arafat was fooled and was punished for insisting on the implementation
of the Oslo agreement and finally was disposed off when he could not
engage in any further concessions on behalf of the Palestinian people.
Taking advantage
of the pre-planned vague terminology of the Oslo accords, Israel
continued its onslaught on Palestine where new settlements were built,
more protestors were jailed and more new checkpoints were established to
further devastate any future hopes of an independent Palestinian state.
Oslo was a trap to
control the PLO under Israeli direct hegemony and when it succeeded Mr.
Sharon declared time after time that the
Oslo
accords have died, and the Palestinian dreams should be confined to the
dictates of Israeli cruel occupation.
The time and space
do not allow us to elaborate on the causes that ended up with the death
of Oslo, but suffice it to say that the main ingredients for a possible
peace were totally compromised as issues of borders,
Jerusalem,
the right of return (ROR) and the settlements.
Instead of
admitting such lethal mistakes, the PA is still engaging in a new peace
plan conjured by
Israel
and the US
called the “Road Map”. In theory, this new plan was supposed to lead the
Palestinians to a state of their own, if implemented in good faith.
Since withdrawal from occupied Palestine was not on the Israeli agenda,
despite their declarations to the contrary, the Zionist entity needed a
new excuse to justify its rejection of any further withdrawal in the
West Bank and it conjured a pre-requisite for further withdrawal; namely
the obliteration of all armed struggle factions in occupied Palestine.
Israel
and the US
both know very well that such a step would lead to a civil war which
would render even the victor so weak, which would become an easy prey to
Israel’s future control.
Concurring with
Israel’s
demands, Mr. Abbas has done his homework when he stressed the need for
what he called a “cooling period”, where resisting occupation became
prohibited, even under self-defense. What appeared to be strange, such a
step was not reciprocated by Israel, and on the contrary Israel response
to such step was more raids and assassinations. Mr. Sharon declared time
after time that none of the Palestinian demands for sovereignty such as
the 1967 border, Jerusalem, the ROR and the Palestinian refugees, would
be accepted and therefore he closed the door permanently against any
possibility of future peace. The expected normal response by the
Palestinian leadership is to unify all factions under one strategy of
continued armed struggle. Instead the PA solicited an illusory strategy
to achieve independence through “peaceful” means that would lead nowhere
under Israeli obstinate positions.
The PA is hoping
that the US
would exert pressure on
Israel to actuate
the spirit of the “Road Map”. Such a move might be credible if the long
history of the US blind and total support of Israel right or wrong,
could ever change in the light of the long history of the US total bias
against the interests of the Palestinian people.
On 20 October 2005
no one was surprised when Mr. Bush in a joint news conference with the
visiting Mr. Abbas reiterated the US position of demanding from the
Palestinian leader to do his best to dismantle the armed factions again.
Even if Mr. Abbas would implement such an outrageous step, the US was
very careful not to give any promises for a future Palestinian state. In
the light of the above developments it would be very naďve if the
Palestinians would not start another Intifada and prepare themselves for
a long armed struggle. |