(image courtesy of Ashour)Twenty years of negotiations with Israel have yielded no concrete steps to peace and freedom for both sides of the aisle. The region is still the volatile mix it has been since the 1967 war. It has come a time now where the status quo can`t remain the way it is and that 'change', is needed not in the foreseeable future but now. The current 'Arab Spring' throughout the Middle East has re-invigorated the people into understanding their basic rights and not bowing down to the 'hegemony' shoved down upon them from the global powers at be.
It is especially the younger youth of the population who are the instruments of change and people now are starting to realize that. The younger youth now are ever more smart and have so much at their disposal uncovering the truth of how the world is functioning and how their rights are being trampled and slowly siphoned away.
The world powers advocate direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians which we all say is the correct way to go but has to be fair on both sides of the table, whether it have pre conditions or not. The world powers surely advocate peace, an independent state living side by side but yet take no direct concrete steps to further the peace process. Its always just words and have been just words. And off course, our glorious U.S. government which advocates peace and a two state solution is just merely words. It was only during President Clinton`s time did a chance of real peace come but at a great price to the Palestinians. President Obama, in which we all thought a real chance for peace would occur is all a farce, he and his administration has no definite drive to push Israel or further the peace process. They have no clear path as to what the peace process should be I think, I mean after all President Obama`s Middle East envoy and middleman George Mitchell recently quit. He has achieved nothing, but was that a surprise? How does Israel come to the bargaining table with no end in building settlements, which is basically stealing legitimate Palestinian land like a all you want buffet with a time limit. They are grabbing land whatever they can as fast and soon as they can and in the end envisions these areas to be 'annexed' and negotiated in land swaps - like that will ever take place.
So what do the Palestinian Authority and PLO do now, go to the international community for unilateral recognition where the international community also recognizes that the status quo has to change on the ground. With America`s former henchmen in Egypt and Tunisia gone, it should give a good boost to the Palestinian government and people. I mean don`t get me wrong, Israel has every right to peace and security like any other sovereign country but must respect basic human rights and international will that the occupied Palestinian people deserve their own sovereign country and basic rights like any other people in the world.
The time is now, not to be shoved in the backburner where the world powers can just waste and keep buying time to delay any further steps towards an independent Palestinian state.
Read Mahmud Abbas`s NYT op-ed piece: The Long Overdue Palestinian State
(Mahmoud Abbas is the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the President of the Palestinian National Authority)
No comments:
Post a Comment