Chantal - Have Laptop Will Travel

So, having not done the research I had wanted to do, I still want to say what I can. My primary thought all along has been: if only Edward Said was still alive. When Bush was reelected, when Arafat fell ill, and now when he has died: Said was the most intelligent, objective voice in publication. I never read more than the first few chapters of ‘The End Of The Peace Process’ (a library copy), but now I want to go to Waterstones at lunchtime tomorrow to buy copies of every one of his books that I can find.

The little I did read elaborated on how the Oslo agreements were doomed to fail, and how none of the peace discussions to that date would adequately meet the Palestinian needs and demands. A lot of what I have read today has consisted of criticisms of Arafat’s refusal to accept the Camp David agreements, even the Oslo agreements, but surely, when an alien nation is occupying your land and failing to acknowledge the rights of its inhabitants, then compromises are not acceptable. Israel may have superior firepower, financial and political support, but even if the Zionists ever held a moral high ground a century or more ago when they first set their sights on Palestine, every deliberate militant attack in the last few years, every settlement demolished, every homestead annihilated has surely significantly diminished that, if not in the international perspective, thanks to the everlasting support of Bush and his blinkered administration.

There is no doubt that Arafat has been the Israeli Public Enemy; how else could any nation support, much less justify the excessive military operations of the last few years in retaliation to the odd suicide bomber, or the odd stone-thrower. But we have an interesting parallel – the combined UK and US forces decimating Falluja in its need to drive out militants, while at the same time, Sharon is fully supported in doing the same to the the people his people has displaced, without repercussions. Even the wall, separating Palestinians from their fields, work, basic economy, education has managed to pass without too much criticism.

I am basing this only on what I have read from time to time over the last few years, and on my historical knowledge from a hundred years ago, when Herzl and Weizmann sought to purchase the land of Palestine from the Ottoman Sultan. It wasn’t until the Second World War that the Jews had sufficient moral ground to manipulate the necessary foreign powers into supporting them, but having an overview of their history, which seems to have been solely based on military dominance and emotional manipulation, and a collection of a Red Cross former colleague’s recollection of the savagery of the Israelis, I cannot but feel that without the political lobbying of their American cousins, they would be as vilified as Arafat or Saddam Hussein for the viciousness of their actions over the years.

Still, the basic fact remains, that the Israelis continue to treat the inhabitants of the land they are technically illegally occupying as trespassers, having supreme control over aspects of their life which they should have no right to have access to. Israel is a parasite of a nation – surely anyone with eyes and a brain would agree – and despite it being their ancestral homeland of several millennia ago, you don’t see the Welsh asking to reoccupy England, or the Scots to reoccupy Ireland, their homelands of 1500 years ago. The Americans have successfully reduced the Native American populations over the last 100 years, and enforced strict restrictions on the lives of those who remain; of all countries, how can the States even start to comprehend the issues at stake here, rather than settle for the easy option of one parasitical state bonding with another.

I have no doubt that Bush and Sharon are overjoyed by Arafat’s death, though several questions have been raised as to whether or not Sharon will support his claims that Arafat was always the obstacle to peace discussions (as in, not supporting the Israeli demands), or resort to creating further imaginary obstacles in the road ahead. My greatest fear at this point in time is that the two will conspire to install a puppet president, someone who will gamely agree to the American and Israeli demands without sufficient considerations for the Palestinian struggle. As with Osama Bin Laden, I’m aware of Yasir Arafat’s background and motivations, and I have no doubt that the issues he fought for at all costs were worth the sacrifices, having witnessed the loss of so much, and the growth of so much hope in his lifetime. But it seems unlikely – Sharon, for all that he is surrounded by Arab nations, is as Arabphobic as Bush, and out of the current PLO administration, it’s hard to imagine that there’s any potential clear successor to Arafat who could stand to achieve all that he did, and more – especially the peace that he fought so hard for.

American democracy and meddling is not what the Arab world needs. America’s war on the Arab world seems specifically based on its refusal to acknowledge or understand alien cultures. The war in Afghanistan is far from over, and those behind the forces in Iraq seem incapable of assessing the reasons for the resistance to their presence. It’s personal, too – the last I heard of my cousin Jacob, he had signed up to the Army around the outbreak of the Iraqi war, and his brother shares two names with a Mexican killed during the attack on the Twin Towers – but it can’t but seem a drive towards world dominance by a superpower led by an idiot who doesn’t know what he’s confronting.

One of the last times I remember hearing from my brother was 2 years ago; I’d asked various friends if it would be considered a security violation for me to be ‘caught’ listening to Arabic pop while in American airports. My brother replied, only if I appeared to enjoy it, in which case they’d deport me to the country I’d least wish to be in.

At the time, it was Ireland; now it’s America. I know that certain friends, such as Paula, don’t have that much choice, but for me, I want nothing to do with a country which would sanction the murder of such a historic freedom fighter, blatantly ignore the issues he had dedicated his life to, and at the end, continue to embrace his enemy – who, if anything, is the murdering terrorist Arafat has been accused of being in his death.