Abu Mazen is fully and irrevocably convinced that peace negotiations with Israel are futile and will never produce results. However, he is restricted by his official rank. I, on the other hand, have the freedom to say that peace is impossible with the government of war criminals and fascists, whose sole goal behind the negotiations is to buy time and accelerate settlement building, particularly in Jerusalem. There is only one Jerusalem, the Arab Jerusalem, where history converges. West Jerusalem, on the other hand, is just a suburb with modern construction, and has nothing to do with the history or geography of the region; Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel refuses to share Jerusalem with the Palestinians. Here, I say to the readers (since I would never address the likes of Netanyahu even after peace is reached) that I reject any Israeli presence in East or Arab Jerusalem, the only city which merits bearing the name of Jerusalem. I called on Abu Mazen several weeks ago to stop the negotiations with Israel completely, and I reiterate this today. I also call on him to issue a statement, or declare a stance, in which he specifies what the Palestinians want, and leave it to the other side to accept it or reject it without negotiations; Abu Mazen must only seek to secure the world's recognition of a Palestinian state within the borders of 1967. Is there anything left that has not been negotiated by both sides ad nauseam? Is there any international or American mediator who has not yet visited us, negotiated with us, and then travelled to Israel only to return empty handed? This week, George Mitchell held talks with the Israelis regarding the core issues of the peace process, before returning to Washington to brief the administration regarding Israel's demands. However, is it possible that this administration does not yet know what Israel wants? Dennis Ross had also negotiated with the commanders of the Israeli army and security services regarding Israel's security requirements in the final status arrangements; but Ross is Israeli as much as he is American, and was probably negotiating with himself, and I do not believe that he is not aware of Israel's requirements or needs. And thus one goes, and another comes, and I hum in disgust [from an Arab song] “My boat goes and My boat comes. My boat carries sugar and tea…” Sugar and tea are staples of futile negotiation meetings. As for the peace train, it is but a “casserole of stones”, or according to the Arab proverb, is kneading but no dough. Forget it, people. While American mediators came and went, and on the eve of the meeting of the Arab Follow-up Committee, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously declared, in a consensus unseen even in the Knesset, its opposition to the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, calling on the administration to use its veto power to oppose such a move at the UN Security Council, and also to liaise with other countries to urge them not to recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. Who was it that introduced the bill in the House of Representatives? It was none other than Rep. Howard Berman, who once said that he is a Zionist before he is a Democrat, which spares me the need to elaborate any further. I dare accuse the U.S. Congress of betraying American interests. I accuse it of robbing U.S. taxpayers, by starving unemployed Americans and diverting aid to Israel, an occupation state that murders women and children and steals the homes of the Palestinians. Yet, the Congress rejects the unilateral declaration of the Palestinian state, bearing in mind that the Palestinian state will be established on Palestinian territory, while the state of Israel, which was declared unilaterally in 1948, was established on the lands of the Palestinians after the Khazari Jews invented a religion to justify the theft of another people's lands. God bless Sheikh Zayed's soul. I had interviewed him in a manor near Ascot, in England, in 1997, after Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah, the Crown Prince of Kuwait at the time, Rest in Peace, came to reciprocate the visit by the President of the United Arab Emirates on the previous day, to the Crown Prince who was being treated in London. At the meeting, Sheikh Zayed, in the presence of Sheikh Saad and some of his sons, such as Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and Sultan bin Zayed and others, complained about American policy and its bias in favor of Israel, all in the course of the interview published by Al-Hayat. He said that the United States mediates between us and Israel, but that we need someone to mediate between us and the United States first, because it is on the same side as Israel, against us. I know that we have broken up with serious work in this nation, but it seems that we have broken up with discourse itself as well: no one speaks; no one criticizes; and no one even says half-truths anymore. As I am another Arab, I do not call for action or words, but rather for the simple inaction of not negotiating. [email protected]
